December 1st, 2022Wombats add unique festive touch

Vincent Street in Daylesford is awash with locally handcrafted decorated trees thanks to
a community partnership led by Daylesford Men’s Shed.
The Men’s Shed has built 23 2.4 metre-high wooden trees, which have been painted in
varying designs, each adorned with 40 wombats. Every tree and wombat (almost 1,000
of them!) have been lovingly decorated by students of local childcare centres and
schools, community groups and residents of aged care facilities.
Chair of Daylesford District Community Bank and member of Daylesford Men’s Shed,
Mark Rak, led the project which he said aims to bring some local Christmas spirit to the
town.
“We thought a community-led collection of Christmas decorations would help to make
the town more festive,” said Mr Rak.
“Since Daylesford was once called Wombat, these furry creatures were an obvious
choice to decorate the handmade trees,” he said.
“We just wanted to get people of all ages together to bring some Christmas cheer to
Daylesford. Everyone’s got on board and we’re pretty proud of what we’ve achieved.”
The Men’s Shed is grateful for the support of Daylesford District Community Bank,
Rotary Club of Daylesford, Hepburn Shire Council and all the community groups, centres
and schools involved.
“Our members provided the design, skills and labour for the project.”