By Andrew St John
Secretary – The Toodyay Herald
THE TOODYAY Herald would like to expand its membership.
This is an invitation for more of you in the community to be part of one of the most
successful regional newspapers in WA.
The Toodyay Herald operates in a similar way to many special interest associations.
Any member of the community can apply to be a member of The Toodyay Herald (Inc).
VETERAN local Toodyay real estate agent Tony Maddox reckons it’s the hardest rental market in his 34 years in the industry.
“It’s real tough in Toodyay and even tough in Merredin with no chance of improvement”.
Even when you can find local rental accommodation some places “are not fit for human habitation” according to Roz Davidson from Toodyay Locals Care.
She knows of a number of substandard rental properties where “people feel threatened to speak out” for fear of being evicted.
Online real estate sites showed that on 25 July 2024 there were three rental properties
listed in the Toodyay area with rents from $360 to $850 per week.
Mr Maddox confirmed that one of those rentals had in fact “gone”, indicating that rentals are quickly snapped up and the situation in Northam is no different.
The lack of rental properties is hurting local employers with many facing higher staff turnover.
Many newly recruited staff find the commute from Perth expensive with the high cost of fuel and also time consuming.
Toodyay Football Club
Patrick Thompson
THE TOODYAY Football Club enjoyed its biggest day of the season on June 22 when it hosted Gingin and celebrated a combined premiership reunion marking the 50, 20 and
10 year anniversaries of the 1974, 2004 and 2014 premierships.
A feature of the day was the ‘Classic Clashes’ country footy scoreboard truck
stationed on the wing, which filmed, commentated, conducted interviews and
live-streamed the league match.
The reserves kicked off the day in a tightly contested match with a four goal lead to
Toodyay in the third term vanishing as Gingin took the lead in the final quarter.
A late final quarter five minute surge by Toodyay to kick the final three goals saw
them run out winners 12.6.78 to 9.9.63 and move to equal top of the ladder.
Toodyay Race Club
Stephen Ferguson, Chairman
WE ATTRACTED 6500 people to the Club’s 150th anniversary meet in 2015, and will
perhaps exceed 7000 this year.
All 20 bays in the long marquee sold early and demand for smaller 3 x 3 and 6 x 3
marquees is very strong.
The track looks amazing after a little rain, and I would personally like to thank Racing
WA for aerating the track in preparation for us to seed it with ryegrass.
We have recently seeded the track and I request locals who exercise their dogs at the
course to please use the area in the middle so the track lawn can grow.
Sean Hefferon
NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia each July 7 – 14 to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
NAIDOC is celebrated not only in Indigenous communities, but by Australians
from all walks of life.
This year’s theme chosen by the National NAIDOC Committee, is “Keep the Fire
Burning! Blak, Loud & Proud”.
Toodyay Agricultural Society
By Alison Wroth – Chief Steward
HALFWAY through the year and our new committee members are either both overwhelmed and inspired with understanding what it takes to pull a historical Agricultural Show of this standard together; or hopefully just enjoying being involved in the “Show” at last.
At present, we have many activities on the boil including the maintenance of the show bar building and organisation of the 170th Toodyay Show “Dance Through the Decades” at the Memorial Hall, being the main ones.
Regarding the latter, held every ten years, we owe it to the show dance to celebrate in style people and dress up to dance the night away while we acknowledge the history of the coming Toodyay Agricultural Show in October.
A connection to the show will be such links as food vans outside in Federation Square and lovely festoon lighting.
There will be many more surprises so make sure you purchase those tickets.
At least consider SAVE THE DATE 31st August 2024 for a night to remember with friends, drinks, and good music; something that we do not get the chance to see in the Memorial Hall often enough. Single $100 and $170 for a couple. Cocktail dress is the code and gourmet canapes are the menu of the night.
By Jean Melhuish-Hill
WE ARE not sure we could have asked for a better day to celebrate the 40th anniversary
of Toodyay’s highly popular Moondyne Festival.
It’s estimated that over 12,000 people attended on the day.
It was a very big crowd, and apart from many locals enjoying the day, we had people come from the surrounding Wheatbelt as well as many travelling from Perth, Rockingham, Mandurah and other towns.
The large crowd arrived by train, car and bus to enjoy the festival and what Toodyay has to offer.
By Sean Hefferon
LAST month the Shire of Toodyay Council was to consider the approval of the reconstruction of bridge 4085, otherwise known as Slaughterhouse Bridge which is located on Toodyay West Road.
The timber bridge which was built in 1937 and spans Toodyay Brook is a single lane only 4.2 metres in width.
Unlike the Clackline Bridge also timber and built in 1935, the local bridge is not listed on the Heritage Council of Western Australia’s Register of Heritage Places.
The prospect of Bridge 4085 being rebuilt has been live since a 2021 report by Main Roads WA found “significant deterioration in the timber elements of the support structure of the bridge”.
In 2023 Main Roads advised the Shire of possible options to limit bridge loading and that design work had commenced to replace the bridge.
TALENTED football player Taylor Ferguson hit another milestone in her promising WAFL Women’s career when she was selected to play for Western Australia last month.
Now in its sixth season, Western Australia met South Australia at the Optus Stadium on Saturday May 4 when our Women’s State Team took on the SANFL Women in a landmark Women’s State Game.
In what was a historic first State Game, the SANFL took out the honours by 16 points in
a tightly contested game that will become an annual event.
OVER 400 people faced a cold morning to attend this year’s Dawn Service at Toodyay’s Anzac Memorial Park.
Local violinist Rupert Guenther played the Last Post as cadets lowered flags to half-mast.
The Anzac Dedication was read by Toodyay RSL President Max Howard.
