Sharon Greenaway

Well Being Survey

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I have just completed the BENDIGO WELLBEING SURVEY.

It took about 15 minutes but it is fairly comprehensive and gives you a chance to send your views on how you are coping/enjoying/living in Bendigo and what you think should be the priorities of your council should be.

As outgoing Mayor CrFyffe said the City of Greater Bendigois undertaking the Bendigo Wellbeing survey to find out the community’sattitude to a range of wellbeing issues.

“Wellbeingis one of those things where we all know what we mean, but can’t quite put intowords. It is hard to pin down exactlymakes us feel contented with our life but we are trying to understand whataffects our resident’s wellbeing, so if there are things we can change toimprove wellbeing we can prioritise them. This might be through strategies,programs or services,” said Cr Fyffe.

“Thesurvey results will provide a broad reaching wellbeing scorecard to understandwhat our community is most positive about, and what there should be moreof. It also asks about people’sconcerns, areas of risk they identify and needs. The information will not onlyinform our own decision making, but will also give us powerful data to lobbyother levels of Govt about issues that are important to our community, but notnecessarily in Council’s control.

Thesurvey is open until November 30 and can be easily completed online at www.bendigo.vic.gov.au Or printed copies are also availablefrom City of Greater Bendigooffices or by phoning 5434 6148.

“Adetailed report of the results of the survey and other information includingthe census results will be prepared and made available to the community inearly 2012,” said Cr Fyffe.

So if you want the council to know how you are living here, then fill in the survey, it is great that we live in a society where we can give our opinion freely.

NBN for Bendigo, the wheels (aah wires) are rolling, metaphorically speaking……

NBN4Bendigo Chair Bruce Winzar with NBN4Bendigo Ambassador, City of Greater Bendigo Mayor Cr Rod Fyffe discussing how the NBN fibre is constructed (pic supplied)

After just signing onto a new system for Internet connections that is sooooo much faster than our 256 kbps, I wonder where the NBN will take us.

If you are, like me, not sure about what the NBN is, read on and you may gain some enlightenment about just how fast our Internet may go as this latest release from council goes into some detail.

…

” MAYORFIRST OFFICIAL AMBASSADOR FOR NBN4BENDIGO CAMPAIGN

The NBN4Bendigo Working Group todayannounced City of Greater Bendigo Mayor Cr Rod Fyffe as their first officialAmbassador.

Cr Fyffe lent his support to thepush for early rollout of the National Broadband Network in Bendigo,recognising the huge advantage it will bring to the City.

“The City of Greater Bendigo is pleased toshow our support for the NBN4Bendigo Campaign – and I am personally delightedto be its first Ambassador. I’m a firm believer in the advantages thistechnology will bring to every aspect of our city and its services – includingour tourism industry,” explained Cr Fyffe.

Many of the City of GreaterBendigo’s services and tourism attractions stand to benefit from fastbroadband. Tom Seddon, CEO of The Bendigo Trust, which includes the Discovery Science& Technology Centre in its stable of attractions, said tourism will be abig winner from the NBN.

“We run four of Bendigo’s major attractions– including the Central Deborah Gold Mine, Joss House and tramways – and beingable to connect them all together with fibre-based broadband would be amazing,”said Mr Seddon.

“Once we have that reliable,always-on connection to superfast internet, it has the potential to change thewhole way visitor experiences are delivered. We could streamline our ticketingprocesses and even run virtual tours at all the sites,” said Mr Seddon.

Bendigo is one of many regionalcities seeking to be on the list for early rollout of the NBN. Currently 49locations have been accepted for rollout, are underway or completed. Of these,only seven are in Victoria. 28 new locations were announced in October forrollout in 2012, including Ballarat Central.

The NBN for Bendigo WorkingGroup is developing a business case to convince NBNCo and the Federal Governmentthat the Bendigo region is ready for the NBN and needs to be included in the nextrollout list, to be announced next February.

Cr Fyffe said the City of Greater Bendigowas ready and able to assist in the rollout of the new service.

“This is an enormous infrastructureproject, putting many kilometres of fibre in the ground. So we are placing thetotal support of Council behind it, which will make a difference in getting thework done quickly and efficiently.

“Our Council is ready to work withNBNCo to develop and implement planning controls designed to make the rolloutof the NBN in this local government area a very streamlined process,” explainedCr Fyffe.

Cr Fyffe encouraged all Bendigoresidents to join the Campaign.

“This NBN campaign has alreadygarnered support from Bendigo’s leading organisations and I hope more will joinin. As the first official ambassador, I urge everyone to get behind thecampaign and register their support on the group’s website,” said Cr Fyffe.

Residents, businesses and organisations can register theirsupport by visiting www.nbn4bendigo.com.au or visiting the group’s site on facebook.

The NBN for Bendigo Working Groupincludes representatives of Regional Development Australia, City of GreaterBendigo, Bendigo Community Telco, Community Telco Australia, Bendigo BusinessCouncil, La Trobe University, Bendigo TAFE and the Loddon Mallee Rural HealthAlliance.

NBN Fast Fact:

NBN is set to revolutionisehousehold entertaining. Currently, downloading an average movie (1 gigabyte ofdata) can take between 8 and 24 hours. With a fibre connection via the NBN thiswill be reduced to as little as 1 minute and 20 seconds!”