It shows respect to the Indigenous community, it's easy to spell and to remember.

Leeane Morel - Sebastopol

I note in Matthew Dixon's piece (October 23), he responds with ''who knows?'' to a question on whether Ballarat council's rate rises will be capped. There is no question. They will be capped. The Andrews Labor Government took a commitment to capping council rates and ensuring a fair and sustainable local government sector - and we will deliver it.

Legislation for the Labor Government's Fair Go Rates system is before the Parliament and will come into effect in the 2016/17 financial year. No council will be exempt from the system. If a council has projects that they believe require it to go above the cap, then the council will need to demonstrate to the Essential Services Commission that an increase is warranted. In doing so, the council will need to demonstrate it has the support of its community and that it fits within the efficient use of the council resources.

On average, over the past decade we've seen council rates rise by 6 per cent every year. It's unsustainable and its unfair. The only question left about our Fair Go Rates system is whether or not the Liberal Opposition will support it. Because they should. Our Fair Go Rates System will ensure that there is greater transparency for councils and that uncontrolled rate rises are a thing of the past. All of this is adds up to good news for Ballarat ratepayers.

 Natalie Hutchins; Minister for Local Government.

Thank you Yvonne Smith (Courier Oct. 24, p.31), your heartfelt words of the ugliness and degradation of the Western highway duplication ring true. Once we looked forward to the drive to Gariwerd, it was drop dead gorgeous. Now it's just drop dead with 500 large and very large trees torn down. Some centuries-old.

The Environmental Effects Statement wording was for 221 trees to go in the first stages but now 664 more than that are dead - three times the initial figure stated. While Mr. Matthew Guy signed off on this duplication, the Andrews government is refusing to question the anomaly - once again it seems VicRoads can be a law unto itself. Would we have allowed this literally shocking destruction if we'd been told ahead of time? Should it continue without inquiry now we know 1121 more are to die in even more valuable countryside as the duplication proceeds on to Stawell?

Some years ago in Buninyong a large eucalypt was felled from the streetscape. Subsequently local people filled the Town Hall in protest, many visible angry - for one tree. Do we actually want 1800 large and very large trees, many of them iconic red gums, to die so "the crash rate may reduce from 5.5 to 3.4 per 100 million km," (VicRoads, p.7 EES)?

Once we were the Garden state - what's happening to Victoria? This is world heritage landscape, no less than the Twelve Apostles. It should be highly valued.

I agree Yvonne, talk about ugly.

Linda Zibell - Mount Helen

The site would need to be shared equally with the City Council. A joint committee formed to assess future use of the Civic Hall. Timescale for the assessment period will be 15 years. Meanwhile, the Civic Hall site degrades into dust.

David Chadderton