SOUTH WEST LOCAL NEWS- WEDNESDAY JUNE 17TH-2026

tonight on south west local news

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3 charges layed after events following animal curlty in koroit

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calls for safer bike trails between allansford and warrnambool

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A new personalised tribute page available to support lifelines work

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and in sport 

the timboon demons line up for their first match after their upset win against merrivale

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

This morning on Southwest Local News. Three charges laid after events following animal cruelty in Karoi. Calls for safer bike trails between Brookfield and Warnerball. A new personalized tribute page available to support Lifeline's work. And in sport the Timber and Demons line up for their first match after their upset win against Mirabal.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Live from Silverbowl Studios in Warnerball. This is Southwest Local News with Donna Rogers.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

Good morning and welcome to Southwest Local News. A man has been charged following an investigation into an incident involving a koala at Koroit. The conservation regulator has charged a man with three offences under the Wildlife Act 1975 and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1986. The charges follow an investigation by the Conservation Regulator into allegations a vehicle was used to drag a koala along a roadway in Koroit on Wednesday, March the 25th. Due to the severity of its injuries, the koala was euthanized. All wildlife in Victoria is protected under the Wildlife Act of 1975. It is illegal to hunt, take, destroy, injure or interfere with wildlife without authorization. Potholes continue to make driving on Southwest Roads a dangerous venture. Greg Wynne felt the brunt of a giant pothole as he made the journey from Glenormiston to Warnable on Tuesday evening for his game of indoor bowls. Mr. Wynne's Ford XR6 Ute proved no match for the pothole, with the impact between the two causing major damage. The driver's side rims and tires of the Ute were both wrecked, forcing Mr. Wynne to pull over and leave the car on the side of the road. The incident happened on the Pamua Overpass, Warner bound. A grassroots campaign backed by hundreds of residents is pressing Warnable City Council to build a dedicated walking and cycling path between Bushfield and Warnable, arguing that a string of crashes on the route has left children and families with no safe way to reach town without a car. Speaking to local advocacy group, they say it's about time for some change.

SPEAKER_05 2:23

I heard from a lot of residents that they felt disconnected, that they didn't feel safe getting into Warnerville. And so we put together this survey just to find out what people thought, what people wanted, what their opinions were, and it was a huge response. So we've already had over 350 people now who've filled it in. And the biggie was that 99% of them from right across Warnerville said it is important for them to have a pathway, a safe connecting pathway to Warnable for their kids, for their families, and for the community. And 98% said they don't feel safe riding or connecting to Warnerville.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

This day and age with connecting myself down to town through exercise, that's important to me. So I do use the road as a cyclist as well as a road user. And it's just really important to me to see my kids who are growing up out in this village to be able to get to Warnerville without having to rely on me to drive them into town. The connection here is not that great distance. We're 10 kilometres off the coast. The footpath to the footpath connection is about four kilometres following this alignment. Probably about eight to nine kilometres following a different alignment closer down into the waterways. But look, this is um it's it's not a big thing. The road needs upgrading, the corridor exists, it just needs the the right political will and you know agency will to actually get it get on board and do this.

SPEAKER_06 3:50

12 months ago I was hit on a uh corner when I was biking, just a couple K's up the road. Yeah. I think a lot of it was to do about the you know the bad visibility on a blind corner, but also there was really no safe place for a bike to be, you know, other than on the white line, which denotes the uh nature strip from the from the beachman. Yeah. Traffic can be a bit of a problem if you're a runner, particularly a cyclist. There's uh not really a lot of uh not really a lot of latitude given to uh people that are not driving a Ute. Hugely beneficial for anyone that's got kids that are you know looking to bike a small distance between two nice towns because it is a dangerous road, there's not really any room for um safety of passage if you're on a bike or if you're running. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Have you seen any close calls or experience any close calls? The effort and the interest from the community that that is this issue has sparked has been overwhelming, and it made presenting to council today easy, really, because all the facts and figures were there, the stats were there on why this is needed, why why the council should go into bat with this community. Um look, I believe the feedback was positive.

SPEAKER_05 4:58

So there was a car in that fence there that just missed that structure, there's another car that just missed a pole just down the road there. So this is we're talking about this four kilometres of road, this is a major state arterial, and it's not safe. So there's sort of two parts to this there's the safety of the road, we really need the state government to recognise this, and then of course, there's that connection for our families here because every child and the community member deserves that safe connection. Some of the things that came up a lot of families said their children feel isolated, um, they they lack independence, they can't give them that independence, they can't see their mates, they can't get to sport by themselves, they can't get to school, all sorts of things that these kids are missing out on. And the community here has no services really, so it relies on getting to Warner to get the services. So we're talking such a short distance, but yet it's so far away in the fact that people just can't get there. I want to see my kids be able to access Warner, but I also want this road fixed because there's going to be a fatality if it's not fixed soon, given the amount of accidents there have been on this road. We met with the council, they said they would pass a motion to say this is a priority for Warnable and a priority for our community members. From there, we're hoping that we'll get to Center Ermakora, our local member, to back this. We need a petition. If we get this petition started, the more signatures we can get, the more likely it is that this could happen for us. We're also advocating for getting the speed down to 80 kilometres. So at least when you're coming around these bends, uh it is a little bit safer. So we're mitigating some risk there. What we really want to do is get the road fixed and get a pathway happening and look at the other look at the opportunities for a pathway for our kids because they need to be safe and they need to be connected.

SPEAKER_03 6:47

The opportunity to honour a lost loved one and raise money to help others is now on offer through Lifeline. A new personalised tribute page can now be created through Lifeline Australia's Facebook page or website. It can be created to honour those past with a mechanism to donate to the work done by Lifeline to help others. A message of support for the family or tribute to the person can be left on the page. If you have been triggered by this story, please reach out to Lifeline on 1311, available for 24-7 Crisis Support. New questions have been added to the upcoming 2026 Australian Census. These new questions will be regarding gender and sexual orientation for those aged over 16. Census General Manager Jenny Telford said these questions would provide updates to existing topics to meet emerging data needs. Southwest residents will have to keep August 11 clear in their diary with that the declared census date. Forms will begin to arrive at households in late July. This year's extended program promises everything from hands-on art labs and interactive music sessions to live character appearances. Tickets for the July School Holidays event are set to go on sale soon via the official Kids Fest website.

SPEAKER_04 8:27

We've got a giant sand pit, there'll be face painting, um, yeah, basically enough to tie the kids out so that that covers one day of your school holidays, and then the parents can hopefully have a nice quiet night at home. I think Warnerville is such an amazing community, and the more that we can support local and have our own events and really just get behind the local facilitators and suppliers, like we've got some amazing people who are from our local community who are delivering some of these workshops. They are incredible, and let's just get behind them all and support them, and then the more people that come, then that means that we can keep this event alive each year and we can grow it. So that's the aim. It's fantastic to have a wide variety of people all just come together because you just don't know who you're going to meet on the day. Your kid might meet somebody who they haven't seen for years because you went to different schools, or um you might catch you might yourself might catch up with somebody from your mum's group that you haven't seen for years, and it's just about connection. It's about just building that connection in the community, getting people together, getting your kids off screens, getting your family out of the house. Like, you know, let's have some fun these July school holidays.

SPEAKER_03 9:41

Opportunities for young Southwest people to become electricians will increase from the start of 2027. The Victorian government has announced plans to launch the State Electricity Commission Apprenticeship Academy. The Academy will offer 2,000 electrical trade apprenticeships over the next four years with the first intake in January 2027. Academy training facilities will be set up in Melbourne and one in regional Victoria. The move comes after the government released data that the state would need 50% more electricians in the trade by 2040, with the private sector falling well short of that growth. Like the stars that perform on its stage, the future of the Lighthouse Theatre in Warnerville is under the spotlight. The Warnable City Council has put out a strategic plan for the venue to guide its future direction. It includes the five key pillars of welcoming, vibrant, inspiring, First Nations participation, and regional leadership. Ratepayers can have their say by filling in a survey on Council's website. Warnable Mayor Ben Blaine is encouraging community feedback.

SPEAKER_02 10:50

So Lighthouse Theatre are going out for consultation on a strategic plan to really look at what we want to see in the Lighthouse Theatre. There are five strategic pillars. Have a look at it because the Lighthouse Theatre is such a special thing for Warnable and the Southwest, where we don't have a lot of these offerings for a full theatre the size of what the Lighthouse Theatre is. And if you really want to, you know, get involved in the arts and you know be able to experience so many of the amazing shows and you want to have some guidance around what it's going to look like out until 2027, go to your say Warner, have your say because it really is important, you know, for the vibrancy of our city to be able to enjoy some of the amazing things that our Lighthouse Theatre actually does.

SPEAKER_03 11:30

Warnable's most iconic business brand name is Up for Grabs. Owner Matthew Gowdy has put the Fletcher Jones brand name up for sale with a price tag of $100,000. The Warnable Fletcher Jones factory site still stands with businesses such as FitzMedia Productions, One Day Studios, and the Mill Markets operating in the historic precinct. The Silverball still stands as a Warnable icon. Fletcher Jones opened his first menswear store in Warnable in 1924, with the factory beginning operation in 1948. The factory closed in 2005 with the Warnable retail store closing in 2012. The Fletcher Jones brand name closed for business in January this year. The fundraising team at Southwest Healthcare has a new target in its sight after ticking off an important box. A task was set and successfully achieved to raise $120,000 for a breast tumour locator system. The team is now turning its attention to raising $115,000 needed for a new prostate cancer detector system. One in five local men will be affected by prostate cancer by the time they turn 85. Progress has already been made with almost $10,000 raised. Donations of $2 and above are tax deductible, with Community Partnerships Manager Susan Morey, the contact for those who wish to donate. After an underdog win over the Tigers, the Demons will be firm favourites when they play Pamure this week. But while the Bulldogs have only one win for the season, that victory came against the Demons in round two. Some of the best Indigenous footballers and netballers in the country will converge on Warnable later this year. The Victorian Aboriginal Community Services Association's statewide senior football netball carnival will be held in Warnerville in October. It is expected the carnival will bring 4,000 people to the city, including players, officials, and supporters. Teams are expected to come from throughout Victoria and interstate. Albert Park will be the epicentre of the carnival, with games to be played on the Reed Oval, Mack Oval, and the Walter Oval. The competition will be held on the weekend of October 1011. Mortlake Export Georgia Wareham has starred for Australia in its first game at the 2020 World Cup. The Aussies defeated South Africa with Wareham winning player of the match honours. She made 32 of just 22 bowls as the Aussies stacked up 172. In pursuit, South Africa was bowled out for 107, with Wareham taking 3 for 13 and completing a run-out. The Aussies' next game is tonight against Bangladesh. Local swimmers have taken to the pool at Sydney Olympic Park this week, testing themselves against the nation's best as they set their sights on the path to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Sophie Ryan lined up against some of Australia's finest in the 50-metre backstroke and touched the wall in second place. Eli Kerr packed his program across the week. He opened on Monday with a 50-metre butterfly advancing to the final before backing up in the 200m freestyle. Tuesday brought the men's 100 metre butterfly and a finals berth in the 50-metre backstroke. He returned Wednesday for the 200-metre and the men's 50-metre freestyle. Thursday for the 400m freestyle. Coach Jason Lamb credited the results to hard work, ambition, and good country people. Around the region, the Southwest is experiencing partly cloudy skies with temperatures ranging between 7 and 18 degrees, along with a 60% chance of passing showers. The region is stuck in a mild but unsettled pattern with persistent cloud cover and passing showers. Now to the forecast. Saturday, a partly cloudy day with a top of 14 degrees and southwesterly winds. Shifting inland, showers expected in Mort Lake with a top of 17 degrees, 13 degrees on Friday and 7mm to fall. Light winds for Saturday, a partly cloudy day and 4mm to fall. In the Kolak and Camperdown region, more rain than most of the region with up to 15 millimetres to fall and a partly cloudy day. 6mm on Friday with a top of 13 degrees and northwesterly winds, and Saturday topping at 14 degrees with 4mm to fall and a partly cloudy day with light winds. Along the coast in Port Campbell tomorrow, 15 millimetres to fall and northwesterly winds. As for Friday, northerly winds, 6mm and a cloudy day. Saturday, 14 degrees, partly cloudy, and light winds. Home to Warnerball tomorrow, expecting 10 millimetres to fall. On Friday, 10 millimetres as well, with a top of 15 and northwesterly winds. As for Saturday, a partly cloudy day, light winds from the southwest. That's it from your Southwest Local News team this morning, and thank you for tuning in. Remember that you can also watch this bulletin online at southwestlocalnews.com.au. Until Saturday morning with peace. Have a great day.