As R. McCallum has suggested (27 March 'Just Be Nice: A Challenge'), I want to give thanks for my own brush with a member of the Gooden family - a man who, despite my moving to his region, I haven't seen since.

In 1984, after being medically discharged from the Royal Australian Navy, I left HMAS Cerberus and moved into a modest bedsit in St Kilda. With a small weekly stipend and far less in the way of common sense, I was swiftly swept up by the current of sensualism flowing through Melbourne at the time. After half a decade in the Navy, I felt as though I had some catching up to do.

One Sunday afternoon, in an effort to shake off a big night of dessert wine at the Prince of Wales Hotel, I ventured to St. Kilda Beach for a dip. Despite my time as a seaman, I have never been a strong swimmer and as I drifted out this quickly became an issue. Unable to stay afloat, I began swallowing water, and in my panicked state my basic training escaped me.

Just as tunnel vision set in, I felt a firm grip on my shoulder. In a flurry, I was hoisted over a man's back. He marched me up the beach and dumped me on the sand. I recall that it was with some hesitation that the man began performing mouth-to-mouth. However, this was quickly halted when it became clear I was breathing on my own.

As the lifeguards arrived, I managed to ask the man his name, to which he responded, 'Sag Gooden.' A strange name, I thought, as I lay there on my back watching him march off towards the promenade. There wasn't a hint of sag to him. In fact, as I eyed his shirtless figure in the honeyed afternoon air, he looked as tight and wiry as an outback goanna.

The Daily Advertiser reports on the rivers and storage dams on a daily basis. The trend of the river, whether it is rising, falling or remaining steady is recorded.

Yet in the last two months the levels have moved between 1.26m and 2.9m, sometimes rising sometimes falling.

However, the trend recording, with, perhaps two exceptions, stays constant at steady.

Maybe the river reader, looks at the blue buoy in the rocks vicinity and it does certainly remain steady.

The region's wine industry is very important in many ways and it should be valued and featured more by the media. The great family history of winemaking in Rutherglen has much to be proud of and celebrated with wine related stories.

The political hype around the China tariffs being lifted needs to be tempered and noted that it is never going to be the way it once was. Our wine regions need tourists year round and ways to entice need to be part of regional tourism from the Murray to the mountains.

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