Welcome to the first edition of YOUR INDIGO for 2025. I hope you all had an enjoyable start to the year and if you have children or grandchildren attending school for the first time, I hope it went smoothly and there weren’t too many tears.

As covered by the CEO in his message, this week signals the start of a new school year which means increased activity and traffic around our schools. Please take particular care when driving in and around schools and let’s all make the effort to keep our children safe.

On Wednesday, I performed one of my most favourite duties as Mayor which was to welcome our newest Australian citizens to the Shire. It’s always such a wonderful ceremony and I congratulate all who’ve taken the oath and now call Australia home.

It was also a huge honour to recognise our Australia Day Award winners. Paul Schirmer from Barnawartha has been named Indigo Shire Citizen of the Year and Hugh Bergin from Wahgunyah is our Young Citizen of the Year. Congratulations to you both and to all award winners, we are very proud of you all.

Yesterday, together with the CEO and Deputy Mayor Jane Dowsley, we attended another forum represented by a number of our neighbouring councils to discuss our growing concerns at the proposed refurbishment of the Albury Wodonga Hospital in Albury.

As stated many times before, a new single site hospital, on a new site, is the only solution to provide for the long term health needs of our growing communities that are serviced by Albury Wodonga Health. Every day the health service faces a critical bed shortage, and the proposal on the table does nothing to address this shortage.

In our case, ongoing concerns about Ambulance response times are greatly impacted by “ambulance ramping” at Albury Hospital. This will not be alleviated under the current proposal, and to make matters worse, there’s no plans for a helipad, which is critical when responding to emergency situations in small rural towns. We need and deserve nothing less than a new hospital on a new site and we will not back away from this position.

Further in YOUR INDIGO we share news that the Australian Government has officially given the green light for the Victorian Goldfields to seek World Heritage Listing. Indigo is one of 15 councils working with Traditional Owners, State and Federal Governments and leading experts on the bid. Very exciting times ahead for us.

Finally, you may notice that this edition of YOUR INDIGO looks slightly different and the email address it is coming from is also different. That’s because we have shifted to a new delivery platform, which better protects your data and will give us improved reporting and functionality.

We’re in for a run of very hot weather, so please take care.

Cr Sophie Price.

I’d also like to welcome you all to this first edition of YOUR INDIGO for 2025.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been reviewing all of the feedback received from our Council Plan engagement, and among the consistent themes is your desire for more open and transparent communication and engagement.

This weekly newsletter, along with our website and social media platforms are the primary channels that we will use to bring you important information, project updates, council decisions and community engagement opportunities.

We do recognise that not everyone is online and this does create its challenges. Where appropriate, we will continue to use traditional forms of media and face-to-face engagement to help disseminate important information and to seek your views.

This week also marks the start of the new school year, which is a timely reminder for everyone travelling on our roads that school crossings are now active and that means 40kph limits are in place during school drop-off and pick-up times.

Every year, we participate in a state-wide community satisfaction survey. Why? Because it gives us a yearly benchmark on how we’re performing across eight key service areas.

You may be one of the 400 people that market research company, National Field Services will call between now and mid-March.

The feedback provides important data on how we’re performing and where we may need to make improvements in our service delivery.

Our Customer Experience Team held its second pop-up at the Kiewa-Tangambalanga Lions Club on Tuesday as part of our six-month trial of face-to-face services at this location.

The team was thrilled to assist several locals with a number of enquiries, and we hope this service will be a valuable resource for the residents of Kiewa-Tangambalanga and surrounds.

Pop-ups will be held on the last Tuesday of each month from 9am - 4pm, click the button below to see the full schedule of dates.

Japanese encephalitis virus can cause a rare but potentially serious infection of the brain and is spread to humans through bites from infected mosquitoes.

A free vaccine is available for eligible people within Indigo Shire from the Ovens and Murray Public Health Unit. Residents are also strongly advised to take steps to prevent mosquito bites, including covering up, using repellent (ones that contain DEET or Picaridin are best) and limiting your time outdoors when mosquitoes are about.

The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH) has a variety of concessions and benefits available to assist eligible low-income Victorians facing financial hardship.

If you have a relevant concession card, you may be eligible for the Utility relief grant scheme (non-mains) or Utility relief grant scheme.

The new footpath and kerb installation on High Street, Rutherglen is now finished, with just some minor road sealing works remaining.

These works have provided some much-needed safety and accessibility improvements, and we'd like to say thank you for your patience while they were underway.

Works to improve several footpaths across Wahgunyah commenced this week.