NORTH East student holiday hubs are rapt the Victorian government has allowed school camps to resume in the last term of the year.
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Education Minister James Merlino announced on Monday that regional Victorian schools would be able to stage camps when they return from holidays which began this week.
The YMCA Howmans Gap Alpine Centre at Falls Creek and Snowy River Camp in the Tallangatta Valley have both suffered since March when COVID erupted and school trips were halted.
Howmans Gap camp manager Michael Jowett said school stays worth more than a $1 million and involving students from Victoria, NSW, South Australia and Queensland had been cancelled or postponed.
"Between July and September we lost over 71 bookings with individual schools and groups," Mr Jowett said.
He said the change was "brilliant news" and would permit schools from Porepunkah and Myrtleford to hold their regular term four camps at the resort.
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Snowy River Camp owner Tanya McErlain echoed Mr Jowett.
"It's good news for kids, they need to get out into the open space and connect with each other," she said.
"We've had inquiries from schools looking for somewhere locally to be able to take their kids out for school camp, so fingers crossed it's looking up for us.
"The other side of that is I've spoken to schools and there's a concern now about whether families can afford camps."
NSW authorities still have a ban on school camps, but it is being reviewed with an announcement to be made this week.
Mrs McErlain said she had been told not having camps in term one for year sevens had created problems with the bonding of new high school students not occurring.
Meanwhile, learner and licence testing for motorists in Victoria has resumed after a coronavirus shutdown.
Regional drivers with a postponed appointment will be contacted by VicRoads directly to reschedule their test in the order of cancellation.
New appointments will be available once the backlog of postponed tests is cleared.