2024 in review: Local stories that made our year
The Murraylands has faced its share of challenges in 2024, but it has been a landmark year, too, in preparation for a bright future.
Through it all, Murray Bridge News has been there, publishing more than 750 stories about what’s happening in our region – and about a third of them were exclusive to this publication.
Thanks once again to the subscribers, advertisers and funding partners who make it all possible – without you, none of these stories would have been told.
Here are the top 100 storylines we’ll remember from this year.
January
10 – The Murray Bridge council publishes a plan that will guide it through the next 15 years of population growth.
11 – Blaze Aid volunteers start repairing fences for farmers affected by the 2022-23 River Murray floods.
13 – The Festival State Nationals bring a crowd of more than 20,000 people to the Dragway at the Bend.
18 – Wellington East residents express their cautious approval of a Coorong council plan to supply mains water to their community, even though it will mean their water bills will more than double; the scheme would attract $2.4 million worth of federal funding in December.
19 – Hundreds of people line the streets of Murray Bridge for the start of stage four of the men’s Tour Down Under.
26 – On Australia Day, volunteer Sandra Walding is named Murray Bridge’s citizen of the year; Sandy Przibilla wins the equivalent honour at Tailem Bend, earning recognition alongside two community organisations; and Mobilong Prison officer Jennifer Colley earns the Australian Corrections Medal.
29 – Councillor Clem Schubert launches a push for a new hospital in Murray Bridge, though health authorities say new dialysis and maternity wards are more urgently needed.
February
1 – The state and federal governments pledge $31.3 million to fix the Lower Murray’s levees after the 2022-23 floods; work would start in July.
4 – A memorial to Dr Andrew Mills, who helped establish the Rockleigh CFS Support Group, is unveiled at the community’s fire station.
5 – Murray Bridge High School students are some of the first in the state to get hold of new, SA-made Google Chromebooks. Murray Bridge’s Royal Society for the Blind auxiliary shuts down after 60 years.
6 – A community fundraising effort secures a $16,500 Sozo machine for the Murray Bridge hospital.
9 – An Elders fundraising auction at the Bridgeport Hotel nets $27,000 for Beyond Blue.
19 – Walking netball proves a highly popular and fast-growing sport on its introduction to the Murraylands.
21 – Habitat for Humanity, AC Care and their partners open four more units for young people at risk of homelessness in Murray Bridge: stage two of the Studio Purpose project.
23 – Teenager Sean Williams saves a woman from a house fire at Tailem Bend, an act which would later earn him a bravery award. Murray Bridge’s flood recovery centre closes after almost 14 months.
24 – Mypolonga’s sporting clubs celebrate winning a $500,000 grant for a new changeroom and canteen; they would get another $500,000 in May.
27 The Coorong council votes to build housing on the former Tailem Bend Tennis Club site.
March
1 – The Murray Cods, Murray Bridge’s 1924 Olympic rowing team, are inducted into the South Australian Sport Hall of Fame.
3 – A boat called Titanic wins the first Wellington Barrel Tub Regatta for 10 years.
9 – Mypolonga win their second Murray Towns cricket premiership in a row. Dancing Storm wins the Magic Millions.
12 – Greyhounds as Pets SA reveals plans for a veterinary clinic and rehoming facility on Murray Bridge’s east side.
14 – A state government flood inquiry holds a hearing in Murray Bridge. The SA Housing Authority puts the finishing touches on 12 new public housing properties.
16 – Eunice Aston and four other Ngarrindjeri representatives are elected to South Australia’s First Nations Voice.
22 – Students let their hair down at Murray Bridge High School’s formal.
23 – Karoonda win their first ever Lower Murray bowls premiership.
April
1 – A drive-in cinema is planned at Sturt Reserve, but only for electric car owners … no, wait, that was an April Fool’s Day joke.
5 – Unity College’s year 12 formal is held at Murray Bridge Performing Arts and Function Centre.
7 – Local Regan Gotch hauls in the biggest catch at the inaugural Mypolonga Carp Mania.
14 – Five new murals spring up around Murray Bridge as part of the first Wall to Wall Festival.
17 – Journalist Liana Webster joins the Murray Bridge News team in the week leading up to this publication’s fourth birthday.
25 – Volunteers at Tailem Bend Cemetery finish an upgrade to its Diggers’ Retreat in time for Anzac Day.
30 – A leaf-shaped sculpture, Until the Cows Come Home, is installed at Sturt Reserve.
May
5 – A final service is held at Mypolonga Uniting Church, the last church in the town. The winners are crowned at the 2024 Murray Bridge Rotary Art Show.
13 – A forum on food insecurity finds many locals cannot afford to eat healthily. Murray Bridge East resident Bob Neindorf campaigns for an upgrade to make Thiele Reserve safer.
14 – Volunteers paint a blue tree at Sturt Reserve to start conversations about mental health as a report suggests locals’ wellbeing levels are among the bottom 20% in Australia; Tailem Bend Primary School would paint their own in August.
20 – Murray Bridge’s David Heard becomes the world’s longest-serving St John Ambulance volunteer, with an astonishing 80 years’ service under his belt.
26 – The owners of the Cameo Cinema announce it will close in July; they would decide to reopen it seven months later.
June
11 – The Murray Bridge council votes to bring back its New Year’s Eve fireworks after a petition from more than 1000 people, and gives a vote of support to Robert Thiele’s campaign to light up the city’s 1925 rail bridge ahead of its centenary.
17 – Work begins on a multi-million dollar clinic to be run by the Moorundi Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service after a lifetime of planning. Two Murray Bridge greyhound trainers are banned for life and fined $240,000 for animal cruelty.
19 – A riverfront housing development in Murray Bridge, Narooma Estate, is announced and sells out within days.
21 – The We Care Cally Camp Out raises an incredible $185,000 for homelessness charities.
26 – Backyard Murray Bridge op shop the Shared Table closes down as its owners move house.
28 – A three-year, $700,000 upgrade of the Murray Bridge Club is completed; it would later win an award for the redevelopment.
July
1 – The Murray Bridge branch of Meals on Wheels serves its one millionth meal.
4 – A luxury hotel at Monarto Safari Park is completed, but immediately put up for sale; a new operator would eventually be announced in December.
8 – Ngarrindjeri elders Laurie Rankine and Eunice Aston are named among nine NAIDOC Week award winners in Murray Bridge.
12 – Peake teenager Elsie Johnson, representing the Murray Bridge Show, is named SA Country Shows young rural ambassador for 2024.
17 – Murray Bridge News celebrates the centenary of the Murray Cods’ trip to the 1924 Paris Olympics by publishing the diary of cox Bob Cummings, day by day.
21 – The murder of Murray Bridge woman Anthea Bradshaw-Hall, unsolved for 30 years, becomes the subject of a true crime podcast.
22 – A screening of the film Just a Farmer kicks off a series of events intended to offer mental health support to farmers struggling through drought, including visits by former cricketer Brad Hogg, the Unbreakable Farmer and two Mates on a Mission.
31 – At Gifford Hill, Costa Property Group and Grange Development announce the biggest land development in South Australia since the 1950s: a $7.6 billion, 17,000-home plan that could triple Murray Bridge’s population over the next 40 years. Basketballer Ally Wilson stars at the Paris Olympics, only months after being named MVP at basketball’s 3x3 Asia Cup; she would give the Gangurrus their first Olympic win with a buzzer-beater against Germany, but they would go on to finish fifth in the tournament.
August
4 – Tyndale student Seth Puddy wins gold at the Karate Australia National Championships.
12 – The Murray Bridge council reveals a controversial $18.2 million plan to build a sewer system on the east side, one which would be met with massive public opposition.
15 – Murray Bridge bookshop Fiction and Friction finds success in a unique niche within the publishing industry: independent romance novels.
22 – The new managers of the long-dormant Callington Hotel promise it will reopen by October … but it was still closed at the time of publication.
23 – Callington builder Bruce Millican wins a sustainable construction award from the Housing Industry Association.
24 – Two triumphant performances by Bridge Burlesque raise $16,000 for breast cancer research. Hundreds of people cram into Diamond Park for the Murray Bridge Glows festival.
28 – State MP Adrian Pederick reopens a debate about the fees paid by emergency patients at the Murray Bridge hospital, but both the government and his own party’s leaders immediately reject the idea of introducing a fee to fix South Australia’s ramping crisis.
September
2 – AFL star Chad Wingard announces his retirement, a year after suffering an achilles injury in his final senior game.
3 – Murray Bridge High School teacher Kayla Starkey is named SA’s Rural Ambassador of the Year.
4 – Advocates call for a greater investment in preventative health at the 10th National Men’s Shed Gathering in Murray Bridge.
5 – Taxi drivers arc up after the state government recommends allowing ridesharing services such as Uber to operate in the Murraylands.
6 – A town hall trainee and two apprentice mechanics are named among the winners at the 2024 MTE SA awards.
14 – The Mallee Storm win their first River Murray Netball Association grand final, days after Mypolonga’s Stacey Smith is named association best and fairest.
18 – A uniquely local culinary delight, the savoury slice, turns 50. Retired nurse Helen Smith returns from the Paris Paralympics, where she played a supporting role in Australia’s table tennis team.
21 – The Coorong Cats complete an undefeated season by winning the River Murray Football League grand final, days after Ramblers’ Malakai Kartinyeri wins the Mail Medal.
22 – Thousands attend the Murray Bridge pedal prix, weeks after a big crowd had attended another round of the Australian HPV Super Series at Tailem Bend.
23 – The Beston Global Food Company goes into administration, after the failure of a proposed sale to a Japanese firm, in the face of huge debts and cash flow problems.
27 – Police arrest a motorcyclist who was alleged to have been travelling at more than 100 kilometres per hour over the speed limit through Tailem Bend while wearing a pirate hat.
October
3 – Coorong Mayor Paul Simmons calls on the state government to do more to help farmers experiencing drought conditions; it would announce $18 million worth of support in November.
12 – Wellington trainer Michael Hickmott wins his first Gold Cup.
14 – More than 800 people petition the Murray Bridge council to do more about stray cats.
25 – Building women’s confidence is key to empowering them in sport and life, says rower Amber Halliday at an event called Power of Her.
26 – Lee Kernaghan and other country music stars perform at Tailem Bend for the Bend Classic.
31 – Hundreds of people take to the streets around the Murraylands, dressed up spookily, for Halloween.
November
2 – Eighty-eight trucks loaded with hay roll into the Murraylands to provide drought relief to local farmers. Punters have a ripper of a night at a bogan cabaret at Tailem Bend.
3 – Krystyna Roylance and Jade Pomery are named among the top winners at Murray Bridge’s annual Youth Art Prize.
5 – Locally trained mare The Map becomes the first South Australian runner in the Melbourne Cup for 15 years.
7 – As many as 1500 homes are sitting empty in the Murraylands, even amid a housing shortage which has left hundreds of locals without anywhere permanent to live, Murray Bridge News finds. TAFE SA celebrates the centenary of vocational education in Murray Bridge. Tailem Bend Community Centre announces it will take over the town’s long-abandoned station master’s house, six months after revealing a plan to start a community garden on its grounds.
14 – The arrival of Burma the elephant makes her the first of her kind to live at Monarto Safari Park in 30 years.
20 – Tailem Bend Football Club announces retired AFL star Tyson Edwards will be its next A-grade coach.
26 – Former Murray Bridge mayor and business leader Brenton Lewis dies after a five-year cancer battle.
December
5 – Four women’s sporting organisations find out they will share $2.8 million worth of federal funding through the Play Our Way program: the Imperial, Jervois and Mannum netball clubs and the Murraylands Gymnastics Academy, which had been struggling to find a long-term home.
6 – Beston Foods shuts down, costing more than 150 workers their jobs and leaving unpaid debts to dairy farmers of more than $10 million; employers would rally to offer jobs to those affected within a fortnight.
9 – The Murray Bridge and Districts Italian Association proposes to build a monument to the community’s Italian migrants.
13 – Murray Bridge High School principal Ruth Mussger and several other long-serving staff members announce their retirement.
19 – Alec Thomson is named among the winners in Murray Bridge’s annual Christmas lights competition.
Thanks for your support in 2024. Murray Bridge News will return in 2025.
