A MISCARRIAGE in the waiting room toilet at Casey Hospital in Berwick devastated would-be parents Rachel Murray and Shane Simons.

The young couple visited the emergency department twice on the same day, and waited patiently for medical care before Rachel, who was six weeks pregnant, endured a miscarriage in a toilet cubicle.

Shane said the incident had left his partner an emotional wreck.

A 20-YEAR-OLD Hampton Park man died after the car he was driving slammed into a power pole in Springvale South.

Police believed that the Mazda 626 was being driven by the 20-year-old Hampton Park man along Westall Road.

They said it appeared the driver was unaware of the approaching intersection with Springvale Road and had driven through hitting the pole.

THERE would only have been modest expectations for Berwick Springs Sports Club in its debut season in the Dandenong District Cricket Association.

But fast-forward to season finals and the club’s Under-13, division-four side was celebrating premiership success in one of the most unlikely sporting triumphs for some time.

Only one player - captain Scott Brown – had played cricket previously and Berwick Springs won just once in the first four rounds of competition before a six-match winning streak vaulted them into title favouritism.





POLICE numbers in Cranbourne were at dangerously low levels after a roster change robbed the station of one in four officers, according to the Police Association.

TYLER Dellaca was back on his bike just weeks after a horrific accident.

The inspirational six-year-old bounced back into classrooms at Cranbourne West Primary School less than two months after he was struck by a car outside his grandmother’s house.

A DEMANDING training schedule reaped rich rewards for Endeavour Hills cyclist Jack Cummings at the Australian Junior Track Championships in Sydney.

Cummings, 14, picked up three medals at the national showcase.

The Carnegie-Caulfield Cycling Club rider’s medal haul began with a bronze in the 500-metre time trial on the first day of the championships before scoring a pair of silvers in the 2000-metre individual pursuit and five-kilometre scratch race.





SHOCKED managers of local poker machine venues were assessing whether the axing of the multi-billion dollar duopoly between Tatts and Tabcorp will be good or bad for business.

Venue operators were stunned when Premier John Brumby announced that individual pubs and clubs would be free to bid for the right to own and operate pokies in 2012.

THREE Hampton Park Secondary College students were hospitalised after an incident at the VCE and Careers Expo at Caulfield Racecourse.

Two Oakleigh youths, aged 15 and 17, were arrested soon after the incident and were charged with three counts each of intentionally causing injury, unlawful assault, recklessly causing injury and assault in company.

IN FOOTBALL, Devon Meadows’ first victory in almost two years sparked an outpouring of raw emotion that engulfed the Glover Reserve.

There were cheers and tears from men, women and children as they swarmed onto the ground to congratulate the equally thrilled Panther players who came from behind to down traditional rivals Cranbourne by 14 points.





PEARCEDALE Football Club celebrated the life of Scott Walton with an emphatic 80-point win.

At the club’s first home game of the season against Red Hill, the closely knit football community gathered to pay tribute to Scott, a player who died suddenly while out for a jog.

ILLEGAL motorbike riders were fast becoming the number one public nuisance in the City of Casey.

A News reader captured several riders on camera as they sped up and down parkland near Waratah Reserve in Doveton.

Witnesses said the riders were travelling as fast as 65km/h with little respect towards fellow park users or themselves.

A BERWICK pelican hooked by a stray fishing lure was set on the path to recovery by renowned animal rescuer Nigel Williamson.

The bird was found at the Berwick Springs lake with a 10cm fishing lure hooked to the side of its body.

The pelican was rehabilitated at Mr Williamson’s Devon Meadows property and released back into the wild a month later.





LYNDHURST was labelled as one of the worst places in Australia to buy a home.

Author of the inaugural ‘No Go Zones’ report, Terry Ryder, listed Lyndhurst as one of 13 locations across the nation for property buyers to avoid.

But a local property expert slammed the report, saying it was out of touch with community views.

PLANS to build a multi-storey egg farm in Tooradin were scrambled by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).

Local residents were overjoyed when VCAT backed the City of Casey’s decision not to grant Tamarix Poultry Farm a permit to construct the 301,000 bird facility along the South Gippsland Highway.

NARRE Warren South MP Judith Graley detailed her battle with breast cancer while reassuring local residents that they were still being represented.

EUMEMMERRING College’s girls’ football team became the latest success story of the Hallam school’s sports academy program.

Competing at the regional competition at Casey Fields, the side won all four of its matches, including the decider against traditional powerhouse Kooweerup.

The grand final victory qualified the squad for the zone final.





A LYNBROOK man was charged with trafficking a commercial quantity of amphetamines after police busted a major and sophisticated drug ring. The man, in his late 30s, was remanded in police custody.

CRANBOURNE Secondary College was celebrating after receiving $75,796 to upgrade the school’s technical equipment in the State Budget. The grants were set to enable the schools involved to provide state-of-the-art technical and vocational training.

A FAILED attempt to get Casey’s illegal motorbike riders off the streets and into a supervised motor sports facility was set to be revived. Wayne Maslen was preparing a strong case to go before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) as to why his proposed motorcycle track should be allowed to go ahead.

CRANBOURNE Turf Club reaffirmed its status as country racing’s premier venue after securing $77,000 in State Government funding to purchase new state-of-the-art starting stalls.





CASEY councillor Paul Richardson was embroiled in yet another controversy after inviting Cr Colin Butler’s estranged wife to the Mayoral Civic Dinner.

The invitation of Cynthia Butler, who had been separated from her husband for 12 months, came days after Cr Richardson accused Cr Butler of assault during an incident at last week’s Casey Council meeting.

MORE than 200 women packed into the Cranbourne Golf Club for the first-ever MPNFL Celebrating Women in Sport luncheon.

The National Breast Cancer Foundation was the official partner of the event, which was designed to coincide with the Women in Sport round of local football and netball.

THE opening of four new schools in Casey was a step closer after the Brumby Government short listed three consortia to construct the facilities.

Cranbourne North East Primary School and Casey Central Secondary College are scheduled to be opened for the 2010 school year as part of the project.

Lyndhurst Primary School and Cranbourne East P-12 School were slated to open their doors in early 2011.

The successful private sector consortium will build a total of 11 new schools across Melbourne.





BREENS Road residents were breathing a sigh of relief after Casey Council passed a motion to investigate reports of hooning and drag racing along the two kilometre speeding hot spot in Cranbourne.

Casey councillor Kevin Bradford successfully put the motion to the council after residents complained that living on Breens Road was like living next to an airstrip.

CASEY Council quashed a one-year self-imposed ban on overseas and interstate travel after just five weeks.

The travel backflip came after the council agreed to ban travel spending to show local residents it was not journeying around the country during tough financial times.

A MOTORCYCLIST was airlifted to The Alfred hospital after slamming into the back of a four-wheel drive on the Dandenong-Hastings Road in Pearcedale.

The 58-year-old motorcyclist hit the station wagon with enough force to shatter the rear windscreen.

The driver of the car, which had stopped to make a right hand turn, escaped unhurt.

DESPERATION drove Endeavour Hills to a 22-11 victory over Eltham in Victorian Rugby Union Premier One action.

The win was just the Hills’ second of the season through eight rounds and followed a promising – yet fruitless – month of play.





HOT-HEADED hoons driving four-wheel vehicles and motorbikes destroyed hectares of scrubland behind Grant Street in Cranbourne.

The committee of management responsible for the land vowed to crack down on the unruly behaviour.

Local resident Brian Lackman said the once peaceful walking tracks and grassed reserve had been churned up into a makeshift four-wheel drive training centre.

APACHE Cat joined an illustrious list of Cranbourne’s greatest racehorses after claiming a fifth Group One victory.

The baldy-faced speed machine, trained by Greg Eurell, became the first galloper since Tulloch, in 1957, to win five consecutive Group One races when he saluted in the $650,000 Doomben 10,000.

POLICE were on the hunt for a group of 15 youths who attacked a train passenger and broke three of his ribs. Police said the 50-year-old man boarded a city bound train about 9pm.

The man was seated in the second last carriage when he was approached by about 15 male and female youths who kicked and punched him.

The man got off the train at Merinda Park station and contacted police. He was taken to Dandenong Hospital where he was treated for broken ribs.





THE sudden death of local Aboriginal youth worker, musician and sportsman Tjaegan Wilson rocked the Casey and Dandenong communities.

The 21-year-old Hampton Park resident died in his sleep just 24 hours after wowing audiences with his didgeridoo at a Drum Theatre concert in Dandenong. Tjaegan suffered from a heart condition.

COMMUTERS could breathe a sigh of relief after Casey Police smashed a crime ring targeting the Cranbourne and Pakenham train lines. Three men, all from Cranbourne, were each charged with 140 offences, including burglary, theft of motor cars, theft from motor cars and criminal damage.

A FOURTH-round knockout at Vodafone Arena silenced those who doubted Cranbourne boxer Daniel ‘Porky’ Lovett’s credentials. Lovett’s dominant victory over Kane McKay on the Anthony Mundine-Sam Soliman undercard took his record to 16 wins from 19 bouts – including 10 knockouts.

The 24-year-old became the Pan Asian Boxing Association light heavyweight champion, earning himself a World Boxing Association top-15 ranking in the process.





HUNDREDS of Casey residents were putting pen to petition as the fight to save Cranbourne’s skate boarding venue The Shed intensified.

More than 1200 people signed the ‘Save Our Shed’ petition, circulated to local schools and community groups by Casey councillors Steve Beardon, Lorraine Wreford and Cranbourne Blue Light Disco committee president Debbie Nobbs.

A PEARCEDALE resident was honoured with the Medal of the Order of Australia. Richard Stubbs was forced into early retirement with severe spinal injuries after a car accident in 1991.

Mr Stubbs spent a year in bed, seemingly without a future, before deciding to use his disability as motivation and catalyst to found Beyond Disability, a non-profit volunteer organization devoted to helping people with physical disabilities.

AN ENDEAVOUR Hills woman publicly admitted to drinking up to 36 litres of Coca-Cola each day.

Charmaine Willoughby, a 29-year-old mother of three, spoke about her six-year addiction on radio during Triple M’s Pete and Myf breakfast show.

Ms Willoughby said she had not drunk the soft drink since July 2007 after doctors told her if she didn’t stop she would die.





POLICE were inundated with thefts from motor vehicles in Casey.

Detective Senior Sergeant Steve Gaskin said Narre Warren police were bombarded after 16 cars were broken into in Berwick, Narre Warren and Cranbourne.

TWO teenagers put their fire training to the test when they were on hand to help extinguish a blaze in Narre Warren.

Luke Hurd and Drue Davis saw the small fire, which had started from a cigarette bucket, outside the Windermere Child and Family Services office and rushed over to lend a hand.

They quickly put the fire out with extinguishers. The teenagers had completed CFA training as part of their involvement in the Operation Newstart Casey program.

THE announcement of the 2008-09 Victorian Bushrangers’ squad was an exciting event for Cranbourne East fast bowling star James Pattinson.

The 18-year-old had long been regarded as one of the state’s top prospects, but that status was confirmed when he was given a full Bushrangers’ contract.





HORSE trainer Rick Hore-Lacy called for a $50 million investment in expanding the Cranbourne Training Complex and the installation of an all-weather ThoroughTrack at the Cranbourne Turf Club.

A BUSINESS development in Cranbourne West was set to create 10,000 jobs in its first phase and sprawl across 792 hectares of land.

A COCKATOO became an instant celebrity after he survived a smash with a car on King Road in Harkaway.

He was whacked at 80km/h, and the driver of the Hyundai Excel, assuming the worst, continued her journey home.

She later checked the front of the car for damage and was shocked to discover the bird wedged between the plastic grille and the radiator.

Shock struck again when the male gang gang cockatoo began to squawk, signalling its status as stuck, but still alive.

The quick-thinking driver called renowned animal rescuer Nigel Williamson, who soon discovered the bird had suffered no major injuries.

The cockatoo’s miraculous escape was plastered all over TV news.