Next Yandoit history in story event

If you are interested in coming to the second Yandoit history in story event on the theme of Yandoit Hills stone houses and vineyards please keep late afternoon /early evening of Saturday November 23rd free.

This will be a local community event and another edition of the Chronicle, coming soon, will provide details.

Yandoit ‘words in winter’ café- History in story- August 3rd

Yandoit ‘words in winter’ café

Yandoit history in story

Saturday August 3rd, 2013

4.00pm to 6.00pm at Yandoit Community Hall

Saturday August 3rd marks the first in a series of oral history events presented by Yandoit keepers of memories and stories. This first session will focus on Yandoit’s main street, High street and will bring together Don Morrison, Maurie Gervasoni  and Fleur Smith, nee Staley. Don and Maurie are both descendants of original Yandoit settlers, and Fleur grew up in Yandoit Hills and attended the local school.

Don, Fleur and Maurie will share stories associated with the main street including the school, the hall, the store, the guest house and the dairy farm. We will have the opportunity to ask questions and be part of the discussion.

The first of many

This first Yandoit oral history and story-telling event coincides with Daylesford’s Words in Winter festival, and reflects the festival’s theme: ‘hidden treasures’.  We envisage more oral history events being held over the next 18 months, stories told by local people including: Yandoit Hills’ stone houses and vineyards, Yandoit and the creeks, the churches, and the mines of Yandoit.

The beginnings of a Yandoit  Archives

Stories, old letters, photographs and slides will be shared, passed on by our story tellers to the community. The event will be filmed and contribute towards an oral history archive for Yandoit.

Café Yandoit

Yandoit Hall will become a café for the afternoon as we sit around tables with locally made scones, jam and cream.

If you have questions, suggestions or are able to help in any way please contact Nikki Marshall on 0432 232073. A gold coin donation will contribute to the cost of the hall.

Prescription medications – it’s worth shopping around

The information herein is irrelevant to you if you have a health care card and get your prescriptions for $5.80 anyway.

It had never occurred to me that it might be worth comparing prices for prescription medications, until a friend alerted me to it. And it is not just a matter of specific brand versus generic medication. I am a typical middle-aged male with a tendency to high blood pressure and cholesterol – hence I am prescribed several drugs on an ongoing basis. I do not have a health care card, so I pay the normal PBS price. Naively I assumed that PBS medications would be the same price everywhere. I would go along to the Chemmart pharmacy in Castlemaine and have my prescriptions filled as necessary. Then I discovered that the Chemist Warehouse chain offer the same medications at much reduced prices. Without disclosing the particular medications I am prescribed (but they are very commonly prescribed), here are some comparisons…

Chemmart Castlemaine Prices:

Item 1: $32.95 (specified brand)
Item 2: $20.45 (specified brand)
Item 3: $35.40 (generic, Pfizer)

Total: $88.80

Chemist Warehouse (Ballarat, Bendigo, Maryborough and other locations):

Item 1: $23.99 (same specified brand)
Item 2: $11.99 (same specified brand)
Item 3: $14.99 (generic, Sandoz)

Total: $50.97

This post is not an advertisement for Chemist Warehouse, so I won’t include a link to their website. There may be other chains, unknown to me, that offer a discount. The retail experience is quite different: Chemist Warehouse is to pharmacy what Bunnings is to hardware. I just want people to know that if they have a need to save some money on their regular medication costs, there is an opportunity to do so. Chemist Warehouse also offer a service whereby you can lodge your prescriptions with them and they will mail your medications to you for $8.95, or free if your order is over $99.00. They also publish their prices online.

Changes to DVD rights agreements

This information is from ACOFS (Australian Council of Film Societies) Bulletin, July 2012.

“Discussions with some DVD distributors are under way to deliver a DVD rights process that is easier to use and fairer to the film societies and distributors. Feedback from film societies has illustrated that the charges for DVD rights are too high for the smaller society but the larger film societies may not find it difficult or
unreasonable to pay more for the DVD rights.

While distributors would like to see a price increase across the board, they may be willing to balance this by retaining the current prices for the mid range societies or even offering a bargain price for the smaller ones. Recognising that some societies use many more DVDs than others, we are also discussing the possibility of agreeing on a “blanket licence” along the lines of a bulk discount arrangement.

There will be more details to follow in later Bulletins, but for the moment I wish to thank all societies that have submitted DVD usage stats with their annual affiliation applications as these have allowed us to focus on the real needs of the societies and put real figures to the estimates under discussion.”

Tennis Court Opening

The Tennis Court opening and barbecue was well attended with the mandatory cutting of a ribbon and many locals, including our Mayor, displaying their prowess upon the pristine tarmac.

The refurbishment of the tennis court was a project of the Jim Crow Planning Group with funding and support from Hepburn Shire Council and the State Government.

The court is always open and available for use. It is marked for Tennis, basketball and netball.