South West Local News
Fitzmedia’s South West Local News is an independently produced regional news bulletin delivering trusted, timely, and community-focused coverage to South West Victoria. Broadcasting three nights a week—Monday, Wednesday, and Friday—the program is filmed at Fitzmedia’s Warrnambool studios and presented by Sharna Rogers, with Liam Fitzgerald often providing key updates and headlines.
Covering everything from local politics and agriculture to grassroots sports, events, and human-interest stories, South West Local News prides itself on being deeply connected to the people and places
South West Local News
FRIDAY MARCH 12TH 2026 - SOUTH WEST LOCAL NEWS
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tonight on south west local news
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a fatality on the mortlake ararat road after a truck rollover
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a report relesed on local womens health shows a lack of access to key services
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a rally for victorias roads this saturday, with organisers meeting at the civic green
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and in sport
the Moyne cricket grand final on this weekend strong competition ahead
For everything making and breaking news in South West Victoria.
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This morning on Southwest Local News, a fatality on the Malt Lake Ararat Road after a truck roll over. A rally for Victorian Roads this Saturday with organisers meeting at Pacific Green. A report released on local women's health shows a lack of access to key services. And in sport the Moyne cricket grand final on this weekend, strong competition ahead.
SPEAKER_06Live from Silverball Studios in Warnerball, this is Southwest Local News with Shana Rogers.
SPEAKER_01Good morning and welcome to Southwest Local News. A tragedy on Southwest Roads, with police investigating the circumstances surrounding a fatal truck crash in Maruna, north of Mortlake. Emergency services were called to Mortlake Ararat Road about 7.50 p.m. on Thursday after reports a truck had left the road and crashed. Crews attempted to treat the yet-to-be-identified male driver at the scene, but he could not be revived. Investigations are ongoing into the circumstances of the crash. Anyone who witnessed the incident with footage or information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1-800-333-0000. Police will prepare a report for the coroner following the death of a woman near Levy's Point in Warner around 12.30 pm on Thursday. Emergency services perform CPR on the woman, however, she died at the scene. Michael White and Paul Pove, the team behind the popular Facebook page and podcast, Hoggs, Cogs, and two Aussie Flogs, have organized the event. They picked Warner for the rally because of the region's reputation for poor roads. This is the second rally they've organized, with the first one in Melbourne in January attracting 1,500 people. Member for Western Victoria, Jacinta Omakura, said she had a prior commitment and would not be attending the rally. When it came to accessing abortion services, 39% said that they were unable to tap into them. Contraception services were unable to be accessed by 29% of those who contributed to the report.
SPEAKER_02Over 450 women and gender diverse people participated in the consultation. They shared openly and vulnerably, and we are so grateful for their participation. So there were two parts to the consultation. We started with a survey so community members could share their experience accessing care and service providers could also share their experience delivering care. The second part was following up with interviews and focus groups where we could delve deeper into the challenges and the barriers identified.
SPEAKER_01Competition will be keen for the election of the Southwest's representatives on the Victorian First People's Assembly. The election will begin on Saturday, March the 21st, with three Southwest representatives to be chosen. There are 14 candidates for this position. To vote, Southwest First Nations people need to register online at www.firstpeoplevic.org. The Southwest is one of five regional areas to have three representatives on the Assembly, while there is 10 representatives from Melbourne. A further 10 seats will be reserved for traditional owner groups with Eastern Ma part of that grouping. Its course will take in the Surf Club and the Pavilion and will start at 10am. All money raised will be donated directly to the Murdoch Children's Research Institution for Duchann Research.
SPEAKER_03So it's been a really wonderful turnout for the last few years since we've been doing this. We'll gather down the Lady Bay Resort and do a loop up to the Surf Club, to the pavilion and back around again. And we encourage people to wear a tinge of green so we can hopefully see a mass of people wearing green to continue to spread that great awareness about the foundation. Here in Warnerville in the southwest of Victoria, but it has spread all over the world, which is uh which is an amazing way to spread awareness and for people to ask questions. Let's try continue to um to bring that trajectory forward, and uh it's been going north over the last few years with this walk. So the more people, I guess the more funds naturally we can raise. Uh, and all sorts of funds at the moment are being distributed directly to the Murdoch Children's Institute, Research Institute. Uh, they're doing groundbreaking work and slowly but surely getting a lot closer to finding a cure for this disease.
SPEAKER_01Collectors and car lovers will be on the road to Kroit on Saturday for a popular annual event. The Kroit Swap and Show and Shine will be held at Victoria Park. The event is a collaboration between the Kroit Lions Club and the Wanneville District Drag Car Association. The venue will open to the public from 7.30am with early birds getting the first chance to land a bargain. Wanneville Community Radio Station 3WM has tonight announced its highest achievers for 2025. The annual Mona Awards have been presented, with the prestigious Gold Mona being awarded to Lisa and Megan, Peter Struth, and Peter Rook. Daniel Goldfrey won the Best New Presenter Award. The awards are named after the station's founder, Mona Swinton.
SPEAKER_05It's a chance for them to actually see the station, but it's also a chance to meet some of the presenters that they listen to on air and to just really to participate in what we think is a really great event for our presenters and uh for members of the public to see that I think is really good. Giving recognition to that incredible commitment week after week after week is is really quite something that's amazing. So Mona Swinton was a fan was one of our founding members. Uh she died um a couple of years ago now. She was 102, I think, when she did die. And she was a founding member, and she actually came up with the idea of her own volition that she wanted to give a prize to trigger and stimulate, you know, excellence in broadcasting, to give people something to aim for, to give the presenters some recognition for the effort that they put in. A marvellous idea, and so we've called it the Moners in honour of her. We're very proud of our diversity. We've got 68 presenters across the whole program grid from eight in the morning till midnight most days. So I think that there is this misconception that we don't have reach, if you like, into the community. Uh, but we do, of course, and we've been going for 40 years now, 41 in our 41st year this year. And that's a great achievement for a hundred percent volunteer-run organization that really relies so heavily on that commitment, and people are doing it year after year after year. I think people don't realise the presenters themselves never really appreciate it because they don't get witness to the votes, but uh the votes are member votes, and uh we this year we had nearly 50% of the membership actually participate in the vote, which is it's is great. It means that they really want to give recognition to the people that they like to listen to on air, and I think that's lovely.
SPEAKER_01A long-standing Warnable Sunday tradition has been revived. The Warnable Undercover Sunday market is back up and running after a six-month break. After 36 years of operation, the market shut down in September last year. But due to demand, its founder Ken Knowles has brought it back. The rebirth began in February, with the market returning on the second Sunday of each month. Mr. Knowles said interest had been encouraging and he was hoping to rise the number of stallholders to over 20. The next market will be held on Sunday, April the 12th at the Warner Showgrounds. The circus is in town and it's staying around for some time. Silver Circus had its first show in Warner on March the 13th and is being held at the carnival site at the Foreshaw. It was the first of 14 shows the circus will be staging while in the city, and these will include matinees on the weekends and the final date of the Warnable stint on March the 29th.
SPEAKER_00Warnable! Hello, my name is Wallaceamu, and I'm here with Silver Circus celebrating his 50 years anniversary. So why don't you come and check us out?
SPEAKER_04It's so beautiful here. I feel so lucky. I when we arrived, the first thing I did was send a video to my family to show off that, like look where I am, I'm on holiday. You know, how can we possibly be calling this work when we are this close to the ocean? And it's so beautiful here. To me, it's my my favorite to come to regional towns because there's just such a strong appreciation for what we do, and you see such honest feedback from the audience, you know, and I think that's so special, especially from from kids. They're just you can you can't make that, you know, they you they like it or they don't, and you know, to I think it's so special to get such honest feedback and you know, to feel that appreciation from the crowd is there has been another cost of living blow for Southwest residents via the Reserve Bank of Australia.
SPEAKER_01On Tuesday, interest rates were raised by a quarter of a percentage point, up to 4.1%. All four of the big banks, Commonwealth, NAB, ANZ, and WestPac, will pass on this rise to customers. The effect of this rise for an average size home loan could mean paying an extra$25 per week. First making news in sport, Allensford Pamua will bring white hot form into the Wanaboyne Premier Cricket Grand Final this weekend. The Gators will take on Dennington in the season decider at Readover on Saturday and Sunday. The teams met once this season in round three with the Gators winning by 28 runs. Allensford Pamua has lost just one game, going down to Merivale way back in November. Dannington also goes into this weekend in great form, having won its last seven games. It was also some high achievers who won the Women's Award. Hawkesdale's Scarlett O'Donnell and Dennington's Rachel Sabo shared the Cricketer of the Year title, both polling 18 votes. Both players have won this award before. The volunteer committee behind the Glenmore Pony Express has announced the event has been cancelled. The committee said it had reached the point where it was no longer visible to deliver an event of this scale in a safe and sustainable manner. It cited a range of factors, including rising of operation costs, increased regulatory requirements, and the growing complexity of event management. Marshall was knocked out in the Saints' opening round loss to Collingwood and missed the round one loss to Melbourne due to concussion protocols. Marshall will add some much-needed venom to a St Kilda team that is struggling early after high preseason expectations. Port Ferry topping at 22 tomorrow with light winds and a chance of morning fog, mostly sunny on Sunday, topping at 25 degrees with light winds for most of the day. Overnight temperatures will be falling to 11 with thunderstorms on the way for Monday, a mostly sunny day, and overnight temperatures falling to 12. In Mort Lake tomorrow, 27 degrees, and there is a chance of fog in the morning for a sunny afternoon. Even warmer on Sunday with a mostly sunny day and northwesterly winds. Monday, 28 degrees, mostly sunny, and a chance of thunderstorm about the ranges. In the Kolak and Camperdown region, mostly sunny tomorrow with a foggy start. 30 on Sunday with cloud coverage and light winds. Dropping temperatures to 27 on Monday and a mostly sunny day. Along that Great Ocean Road in Port Campbell, a partly cloudy day tomorrow with a top of 20, 22 on Sunday with a chance of fog in the southeast, partly cloudy on Monday with a top of 21. In Warnable tomorrow, 23 degrees with a mostly sunny day, topping at 26 and southwesterly winds for Sunday, 24, Monday, and partly cloudy, light winds becoming even lighter into the evening. That's it from your Southwest Local News team this morning, and thank you for tuning in. Remember, you can also watch this bulletin online at southwestlocalnews.com.au. Until Tuesday morning with peace. Have a great weekend.