Cath Jamison and Aurora Kurth will present Sass & Secrets – a magical cabaret promising a touch of Broadway and a splash of Vegas – at Radius Art in Hepburn on Saturday, July 19. Cath is a multi-award-winning illusionist and mentalist while Aurora is a comedy chanteuse. Both are Hepburn locals.
Cath, above left, says Sass & Secrets is a wickedly funny, theatrical cabaret featuring awe-inspiring magic, mind-bending mentalism, powerhouse singing, and physical comedy mayhem.
“This is a show made specifically to lift spirits and to take the crowd out of the everyday and into a world of wonderment and imagination. Highly interactive, this work engages directly with its audience – there are moments of call and response, group sing-alongs and acts where members of the audience become stars of the show.”
Cath said the show started in 2019 and was performed for the Melbourne Magic Festival. “We’re two quirky girls, talented women so we thought let’s try and put something together that’s a little different. Magic, music and comedy.
“That’s why our shows are very hard to explain. There’s a lot of interaction and improvisation and interaction between Aurora and me. And then Covid hit.”
With a few years of Zoom performances under her belt, and then rejoining Aurora for corporate gigs, the pair received some funding for Regional Arts Victoria’s Connecting Places tour.
“It was perfect for us because we love performing in small towns and small venues and you can really connect with people. We’ve both done places like Her Majesty’s but we love these small shows. They are so much fun. And so we went on tour and did 10 shows from St Arnaud to Corryong to Archie’s Creek, all around Victoria, and we had great reaction.
“And now we’re doing Sass & Secrets in our hometown. And people will really have to be prepared for the unexpected. I do the mind reading and Aurora goes into the crowd and improvises. But don’t worry, we know who to approach and who to leave alone.”
Cath said she started dabbling in magic after being given a magic kit as a child. “I was always trying to make the dog disappear but it didn’t work, it always barked.
“But then I went to magic school and while I was there I was also doing an apprenticeship in horticulture, working at places like the Royal Botanic Gardens and the Exhibition Building gardens.
“And for many years I was a professional gardener but I was also a professional clown. I won Australia’s best busker juggling chickens. Finally, I thought, I love being a magician. It is so much fun. And with all that experience with busking and clowning and mask work, I was able to learn how to really interact with people close up. And even on stage, I can still send out the interactive vibes, even reach someone right at the back of the room.”
Aurora said she was one of those kids who lived for drama class and school musicals. “I went to St Martin’s Youth Arts Centre as a teenager and basically never looked back. I’ve always known I wanted to perform, I never had a backup plan, which in hindsight was either very brave or very foolish.
“The beauty of this job is that no two weeks are ever the same. Last weekend I was singing showtunes at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival with Clare Bowditch. The month before that I was singing opera while dodging acrobats in Rouge at QPAC and the Adelaide Fringe Festival. Now I’m belting out Bowie in rehearsals for a show at the Arts Centre next week, and in a couple of months I’ll be back on stage in a straight play. I love switching hats – it keeps things spicy.
“My first memory of Hepburn Springs is from the ’80s – Mum and Dad brought me here and I remember splashing around at the old bathhouse and wandering through the forest like a pint-sized wood nymph.
“Fast forward a few decades, Mum moved here permanently, and I’d visit from Castlemaine, then from Melbourne. I fell hard for the place all over again, the forest, the lakes, the characters, and the sense of peace you just can’t get in the city. Now I’m a full-time local when I’m not on tour.
“Now, Sass & Secrets is taking a final bow. I’m off to Europe soon, and Cath’s booked out with solo shows. So this one-night-only in Hepburn Springs is a kind of homecoming and a fond farewell.”
Words: Donna Kelly | Image: James Penlidis & Nicole Cleary

Cosmopolitan Hotel, Trentham
Jess Parker – Saturday, July 5, 3pm-5pm
Emmy Ryan – Saturday, July 12, 3pm-5pm
Jesse Lawrence and Pete Fidler – Saturday, July 19, 3pm-5pm
Deborah Conway & Willy Zygier – Saturday, July 19
Pete Daly – Saturday, July 26

Odessa at Leaver’s Hotel, Creswick
Mande Spirit – Saturday, July 5
Stiff Gins – Sunday, July 20
Zoj – Friday, July 25
Dave Favours and the Road Side Ashes – Saturday, July 26
Meg Washington – Sunday, July 27

Daylesford Hotel, Daylesford
Muso Corner – Thursday, July 3, 7pm-10pm
Swing time – Saturday, July 5, 8.30pm-10.15pm
Oscar LaDell – Saturday, July 12, 8.30-10.15pm
Blow-ins comedy night – Friday, July 18, 9pm-11pm

Winter Sounds 2025
Regional Victoria’s Winter Sounds is back again transforming Daylesford and surrounding villages into a ‘haven of music, community, and midwinter magic’.
Taking place across four days from August 14 – 17, Winter Sounds celebrates live music in intimate, unusual and atmospheric spaces, from familiar country halls and bush schools to historic churches and aboard vintage trains across the region.
Now in its third year, Winter Sounds 2025 will feature acclaimed Australian artists alongside emerging talent, offering a diverse mix of rock, folk, alt-country, soul, and contemporary sounds.

World-renowned pianist and musicologist Dr Leslie Howard will perform and illustrate the works of Beethoven, Liszt and the Russian Romantics at an afternoon at The Brewery at Buninyong on Sunday, August 10.
“If there is a pianist alive who knows Liszt’s piano music more thoroughly, intimately and directly than Leslie Howard I would like to meet him – or her – but I doubt that there is anyone on the planet who does,” wrote Guy Rickards for Musical Opinion, reviewing Leslie Howard’s 2021 piano recital at London’s Wigmore Hall.
London-based Aussie pianist Dr Howard is the first and only person in the world to have recorded the complete solo piano works of legendary Hungarian composer, Franz Liszt, who is regarded as one of the greatest pianists and most popular piano composers of all time. This mammoth project, which took Howard decades to complete, now comprises a 100-CD set and includes more than 300 premiere recordings.
Howard has received enormous praise and numerous awards for his Liszt recordings, including the Guinness World Record for the Largest Recording Series by a Solo Artist, six Grands Prix du Disque and the Medal of St Stephen, presented to him by the President of Hungary. He has also held the title of president of the British Liszt Society since 1987.
In addition to his impressive recording career, Howard maintains a busy international concert schedule, which has seen him perform regularly around the world for more than 50 years.
The performance is being held as a fundraiser for local communities through Goldfields Recreation and Dance, an incorporated, not-for-profit group formed initially for the love of music and dance.
Bookings: www.events.humanitix.com/leslie-howard-piano

Trentham’s Little Gallery is set to host its annual Winter Show fundraising exhibition, a mid-year showcase of regional fine art, opening on Friday, July 11 at 5.30pm.
This year’s artists are Dale Cox, Nadia Kliendanze, Julie McKenzie, Mark Dober, Jill Nobel, Antoinette Braybrook, Neil Matterson, Brian Falkenberg, Rowena Hannan, Diane Thompson, Maxine McKee, Jonathon Lane, Fiona Orr, Jennifer Leggett, Jody Galvin, and Emma McAdam-Marmont in collaboration with Struan Hopwood along with the Little Gallery resident artists Rose Wilson, Helen Cottle, Kim Haughie, Maria Coyle and Jimmy Rix.
Founding director Rose Wilson says each year the gallery sources 16 artists from the region, including emerging as well as established and award-winning painters, print makers, sculptors and ceramicists.
As well as the fundraising, the show gives the opportunity for local artists to exhibit collectively and celebrate artistic diversity while placing Central Victoria as a premier destination for art.
The gallery relies on the Trentham community for its ongoing support which has been critical to its success as a small regional artist-run gallery spanning 14 years. And the show is a way the gallery can give back. As a not-for-profit gallery the proceeds on all sold artworks are donated to a local charitable organisation which can benefit the community in some way.
This year’s benefactor is Trentham Health and funds will go towards its Treehouse Program which supports people living at home with dementia. The program promotes independence and engagement by maintaining social and community connections in a positive, safe environment, to live well and to remain part of their local community. In addition, it provides families and carers an opportunity for some respite.
Little Gallery’s collective of artists also donate a piece of high-quality fine art in the annual raffle for the benefactor.
This year’s Winter Show falls within NAIDOC Week and guest speaker is exhibiting Indigenous artist Antoinette Braybrook, the founding CEO of Djirra which supports First Nations women and children experiencing family violence.
The show will run July 12 to 28 with the gallery open Thursday to Monday from 10am to 4pm.

Pictured, Little Gallery resident artists, from left, Rose Wilson, Maria Coyle, Helen Cottle and Kim Haughie

Well here I am penning another article for you, the reader, to enjoy…
This time I’ll be giving tips and advice on garden design and construction that can be initiated during winter.
I’ll briefly start with some facts about myself. I began my horticultural life back in the late 1970s working at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne as a surveying assistant to plot all the living plants growing in the gardens and it was this introduction to thousands of plants that gave me the confidence I carry today.
So when it comes to setting up garden designs and subsequent construction I draw back on my acquired knowledge over nearly 50 years. The following tips and advice will not include specific details such as lengths and widths of sleepers for example, but will give some ideas about landscape materials, irrigation, soil preparation, garden-bed orientation and plant selections.

1. Drawing up a plan of your garden, whether it’s a new one or the rejuvenation of an older one, can seem daunting with many options available but important elements such as the property location and orientation, climate and soil profile(s) will certainly narrow down the choices. So the first thing is to locate north, east, west and south directions, check your local climatic conditions (i.e. minimum and maximum temperatures, prone to wind, etc) and find out what soil type(s) are on your property.
2. Now you can begin by setting out garden and vegetable beds, irrigation, lawns, paths, paving, retaining walls, steps and any other elements such as water features, pergolas and water tanks to mention a few. Here’s a tip – write down what you want in the garden, things like style, favourite plants, veggie garden and landscape features – and then fit them into the landscape.
3. As part of your garden design it is worth noting that to retrofit an irrigation system can be a nightmare so be smart and think of the positioning of drippers, microsprays and pop-ups – if you’re considering having lawn. If you have a machine such as a mini-excavator on site it could be used to dig trenches to lay irrigation piping, otherwise it’s by hand.
4. Your choice of landscape materials could make or break a good garden design so here’s a few tips. If you’re using rocks as garden edges, retaining walls, rockeries or features, be sure to choose appropriate sizes that will blend into the landscape giving a natural appearance. Giant rocks in a small courtyard for example would be overpowering and cumbersome. Mixing timber (sleepers) with rocks is a good marriage as are serpentine paths filled with a gravel that matches surrounding elements. The choice of new soil to plant in is very important so I recommend a good all-round loam loaded up with organic compost – using rich volcanic soil is OK if that’s what you’ve got already.
5. So to plant selections. Now that you’ve worked out orientation, soil type, local climate and landscape elements, it’s simply a matter of putting the jigsaw together. Sounds easy, not really, there are many other factors to consider including root invasion, pet friendliness and everything happening at once, so the tip here is to have a seasonal approach to what plants go in, creating interest all year round. Of course I could go on about impending climate change but that’ll be another article in itself.
6. Here’s some plants for you to peruse: daphne odora (winter daphne); malus trilobata (Lebanese crabapple) – flowering in late spring, fruiting and showing coloured foliage in mid-to-late autumn; ginkgo biloba (maidenhair tree) – interesting leaves that start going bright golden yellow in late autumn; dichroa x versicolor (evergreen blue hydrangea) – starts flowering in late summer continuing through to very early winter; callistemon citrinus white Anzac (white-flowering bottlebrush) – flowering late spring; and Elaeocarpus reticulatus prima donna (blueberry ash) – flowering early summer followed by small blue berries.

Cheers John Beetham (Trees in Australia)
Next time: The implications of Climate Change on plants
Scan the QR code to go to JB’s Instagram

Hello there, I am Blossom, a seven-month-old ball of joy.
People say my sweetness is infectious and while I am a little shy I think that just makes each moment of trust earned a precious reward.
I love to cuddle, check out all the toys and want a calm home to let my personality shine through.
Microchip no. 956000018507167.
Come and meet Blossom at MAAWs in Castlemaine.
Ph: 5472 5277.

Twinkle twinkle little bat.
Why were you designed like that?

Face of fox but wings of bird
seems impossibly absurd.

Yet you do such wondrous things,
oh flying fox with magic wings.

I hear you long ago evolved
from walking mammal – problem solved.

And birds ate so much food all day
you had to hunt a different way.

You grew fine wings, now fly by night.
Nectar, fruits, are your delight.

You spit out fibre, seeds and pips
and plants are sown. New Eucalypts!

Your sight at night is extra good,
enabling you to locate food.

And with your super, sniffy nose,
you’re never hungry I suppose.

Your fur holds pollen, perfectly
and carries it from tree to tree

which helps new life to germinate
on hunting missions. Silent – late!

Nocturnal, flitting. Batmobile.
Incredible! Yet you’re for real.

• Alison Pithers

Alison’s love of rhyme began with Rupert Bear annuals in England. More recently she has found inspiration in walking around Clunes and Creswick, where her ‘rhyming motor’ switches on automatically.

Local Lines features poetry by locals about local and any other matters.
Please submit poems to Bill Wootton at cottlesbreedge@gmail.com

I think it’s time to address the elephants in the room. No, not my drinking, or Kyle’s obsession with potholes. It’s two white elephants. Or what could become white elephants.
(From our friends at Wikipedia: A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of without extreme difficulty, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, construction project, scheme, business venture, facility, etc. considered expensive but without equivalent utility or value relative to its capital (acquisition) and/or operational (maintenance) costs.)
The first is the “hub” at the site of the Daylesford Town Hall – with a projected cost of $15-$20 million
Now I personally love the word hub because it was on one of my favourite ABC TV shows, Utopia. It is an Australian comedy series that follows the working lives of a team in the fictional Nation Building Authority, a newly created government organisation. The series explores the collision between bureaucracy and grand ambitions. Hello The Rex – which was going to be called the Hepburn Hub.
The council’s latest incarnation of the hub will cost, as I said, about $15 to $20 million. But as we all know the shire is broke. Like looking under the couch cushions for loose change broke. So why the pretence of being able to afford this new hub?
And even if it is all smoke and mirrors, maybe to look like we are still going strong, why would you spend $375,000 on even more feasibility/consultancy studies – as provided for in this most recent budget. Good grief. Just stop.
And then there is the timeline offered for our enjoyment on the now titled Daylesford Community Facilities – a project investigating the potential of a community hub at Daylesford Town Hall.
Apparently in 2013, 53 per cent of respondents nominated the Daylesford Town Hall as their preferred site for future community facilities. Hmmm. Then the council bought The Rex instead.
As we know, The Rex turned into a disaster, but after selling it at a loss in 2022 the council then resolved to conduct a planning project that would review possible solutions for staffing accommodation and community facilities.
And in 2023/24 attention returned to the town hall and the council resolved to endorse the feasibility of locating a library and multi-purpose spaces on the site of the town hall and for officers to proceed with the schematic design.
Now the design is in progress, see one of the artist images below, and delivers on the scope to provide a library and multi-purpose spaces. Backstage and customer service facilities have also been incorporated into the design.
It all looks great and very modern – Jetsons and all that – but personally I think we just keep to what we have and let the whole idea go for now. But that’s just me.
The other white elephant is the ongoing push for an acquatic centre for the shire. Anything to do with creating pools costs a lot of money and even more to keep going. (And do you build it at Daylesford or Creswick? Glenlyon please.)
So while I, like many people, would love a local heated pool all year round, once again, the shire is broke. And we have a tiny rate base, even with those higher rates, compared to other shires and cities so maybe we just keep heading to Ballarat or Kyneton. Not ideal but you have to live in the world you have.
As council CEO Bradley Thomas says on page three regarding finalising issues around Daylesford’s former landfill site, which closed 20 years ago, you can’t do everything at once. Just sayin’…

The world’s gone and got itself into a bit of a pickle again, and if you think it doesn’t affect us down here floating around in the Pothole Shire, you are wrong.
Let’s start at your bottom line. The effect carries over to your super, fuel prices and, when things get real grubby, freight prices, if the Houthi see fit to upset the trade route known as the Red Sea shipping lane with attacks on vessels.
This has historically forced many shipping companies to reroute their ships around the Cape of Good Hope, a much longer route, causing delays and disruptions to global trade. Also, the Strait of Hormuz, another crucial shipping lane, is another point of concern due to regional tensions.
So yes, we are all in it but don’t worry, because if you have been around long enough or simply read the Bible, the Middle East has been battling it out for centuries. And I’m not being flippant about the Middle East or its people, these are documented tussles that have gone on well before the birth of old mate JC.
A quick Google reveals the following:

• Abraham’s 318 against the Armies of Shinar (Babylon) – Genesis 14 • Pharaoh Pursues the Israelites in Exodus – Exodus 14 • The Israelites Fight Back against the Amalekites – Exodus 17:8–16 • Israel Opposes the Midianites and Moabites – Numbers 31:1–11 • Israel’s Rules of War – Deuteronomy 20 (Exod 23:24; Lev 18:21–24; 19:24; 20:2–3; Deut 18:9–14) • Israel Marches on the City of Jericho – Joshua 6 • Israel’s Struggle with the City of AI – Joshua 7–8 • Joshua Leads Israel against the Five Amorite Kings – Joshua 10 (Deut 9:5) • King Jabin of Hazor with a Great Army Opposes Joshua and Israel – Joshua 11 • Israel’s Continuing Conquests – Judges 1:1–11 • Ehud Leads Israel against the Moabites – Judges 3:12–30 • Barak Leads Naphtali and Zebulun against Sisera, the Commander of Canaan – Judges 4 • Gideon’s 300 Rise Up against the Midianites – Judges 7–8:21 • Israel Wars with Its Own Tribe of Benjamin – Judges 19–20…

And if you Google a list of wars in the Middle East, you will see there is almost one every few years with a lot of blood spilled and innocent lives lost.
More recently there was the Gulf War, better known as Operation Desert Storm, an armed conflict between Iraq and a 42-country coalition led by the United States.
And then there was the 2003 Iraq War, also known as the Second Gulf War, which began with a US-led invasion on March 20, 2003, with the stated goals of disarming Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and ending the rule of Saddam Hussein.
And there seem to be similarities with the 2003 hunt for “weapons of mass destruction” and the current Iran situation, with large discrepancies in intelligence, not actually being able to reconcile the weapons, and did the bunker busters go down deep enough or were there actually any weapons getting readied.
This exact same thing happened in 2003, when no actual weapons or chemicals were discovered and large patchy “porkies” flooded the news’ headlines.
The whole shebang seems to be about religion and more recently oil, and there are some big players, profiteers and politics at work here.
So, let’s relax, turn off the TV and stroll around the garden, as there is not much we can do about it. And if you’re a believer in whatever religion, maybe a quick prayer for the innocents, as you can’t choose where you where born.
War – what is it good for – absolutely nothing, rant over…

Hepburn’s Swiss Italian Festa is happening on October 24, 25 and 26 and promises to be a vibrant celebration of heritage, culture and lifestyle – with a feast of music, food, wine, art and sport. Kyle Barnes chatted to co-secretary Michele Green, pictured.

Kyle: Are you new to the committee?
Michele: I’ve been on the committee for the past three years but only just become an office bearer. I’m not Swiss or Italian, but I’ve learnt about the heritage, and it’s really interesting. So I feel like I’m kind of richer for it. There was a hiatus for a couple of years with Covid and I think, at that stage, they probably weren’t sure about where it was headed. But there was certainly a view that they wanted to make sure that this continued. And that’s mostly been driven by Jenny and Eddie Beacham. They’re really quite amazing drivers of community projects.
So this year we’ve kind of recalibrated and rethought about how to best deliver the Swiss Italian Festa in keeping with its purpose and origins. That is obviously to celebrate the Swiss Italian culture and heritage and what they brought to the community.
And I think what’s exciting this year is that we’ve got a very new, much younger committee and very enthusiastic committee members. And we now have our first project manager, Cathy Cole. It is about celebrating community. And we need to get young people, schools, families very much involved.

Kyle: Do you need more volunteers?
Michele: We would love more people to volunteer at the Festa or if they want to have involvement in some of the school projects. One of the things that we’re very keen on is to get the schools on board and the school children participating. And this is from primary school through to secondary school. Then you have the parents’ participation. So yes, we are really keen to have new volunteers, also because we’re a community-based organisation. We don’t have ongoing funding and are really keen to get sponsors who can contribute or donate to our raffles and other initiatives.

Kyle: Can you give a bit of a run-down of what’s on offer?
Michele: Sure, on the Saturday, October 24 we have the Hepburn parade starting early afternoon and that is followed by lots of fun activities down at the Hepburn Pavilion with food vans, art activities, a treasure hunt, music, acts, fireworks and the lantern parade. A big day celebrating our Swiss Italian cultural heritage.
Then on Sunday, October 26, we have a choir performance at St Peter’s Church, Yandoit heritage tours, Hepburn tours with Daisy’s Walking Tours and activities at Lavandula. We have also some exciting competitions like the children’s art competition, home-made passata competition and the school poster competition.
I also need to do a shout-out to our festa partners – Yandoit Cultural Society, the Daylesford & District Historical Society, The Phoenix Cinema@The Rex, Radius Art and Belle Real Estate.

Kyle: Are you looking for fresh ideas?
Michele: Absolutely. The thing we’ve done is reflect on the previous years and thought, how can we do this better? We’re going to try and really tap into that, use the pavilion at that beautiful old bottling plant building down in Hepburn for activities. And we’re also looking at the types of activities we might have within that pavilion over the Swiss Italian Festa period.
The Hepburn Bathhouse is very happy to work with us and facilitate workshops and activities within the old bottling plant. So we’re going to take advantage of our our natural heritage as the space for activities. It’s a beautiful old space. There’s a lot happening!

This program provides an opportunity to bring communities together to support farmers and their families under stress.  

Managed by the National Centre for Farmer Health on behalf of the Victorian Government, the program offers grants of up to $5,000 for community-led events that promote social connection and mental health awareness.  

Find out more at: https://farmerhealth.org.au/ 

To view the full range of financial, technical and wellbeing support available visit agriculture.vic.gov.au/drought or call 136 186. 

The state government is funding community groups across the state to capture, preserve and share the unique stories and histories of Victoria.

Minister for Acting Minister for Government Services Danny Pearson has announced that 17 historical groups, museums, libraries and not-for-profits are the new recipients of the 2025 Local History Grants Program.

The Local History Grants Program is administered by Public Record Office Victoria, and supports community activities that preserve, record and share the local, social and community history of Victoria and Victorians.

Recipients this year include the Bonegilla Memory Project, awarded $11,490 for their work in collecting memories of ex-residents of the Bonegilla Migrant Camp via a digital platform. Memories will be shared with the wider community, highlighting the stories of this significant heritage site.

First Nations history will be highlighted in the new project William Barak’s Visual and Material Legacy: A Catologue for Community delivered through $15,000 to the Wurrindjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation.

The Down Syndrome Association of Victoria has been awarded $12,623 for the archiving of their heritage collection, dating back to the Association’s establishment in 1978, establishing a legacy to educate, inspire and inform all Victorians.  

Victoria’s important post-war migration story will also be further explored, with $14,850 granted to the Australian Jewish Historical Society Victoria for the project Community of Fate: Tales of German Jewish Migration to Melbourne (1938 – 1949).

The National Theatre, Melbourne’s Digital History Project will come to life thanks to $6,520 in funding. The project aims to capture and share historical documents that tell the story of this seminal Victorian arts organisation.

Other funded projects include newspaper digitisations, oral histories, historical signage, and preservation equipment. 

The state government is improving connectivity for Victorians, with more than 850 mobile and broadband projects now completed across the state.

Minister for Government Services Natalie Hutchins announced more than two thirds of projects delivered through the Connecting Victoria program have been completed.

The program is delivering deliver 1,300 mobile and broadband projects, with more than 900 of these in regional Victoria.

Over the last three months, more than 50 projects have been completed in regional Victoria, including 14 in Greater Bendigo, 13 in Greater Geelong, and 9 in Ballarat.

This includes an upgrade of a communications tower to 5G capability on the summit of the extinct volcano Mount Blackwood, located east of Ballarat in Moorabool Shire.

The upgraded tower, operated by carrier TPG, is one of many Connecting Victoria projects completed in the shire, including 15 upgrades to existing mobile infrastructure, 3 new mobile infrastructure builds, and 2 new mobile resilience projects. And up to 12 more Connecting Victoria mobile projects are planned for the shire.

The state government is helping Victorians facing rental and mortgage stress by expanding access to free financial counselling services.

Minister for Consumer Affairs Nick Staikos, and Member for Wendouree Juliana Addison, have visited Child and Family Services Ballarat, which received $900,000 over three years in the recent Financial Counselling Funding Round to expand support to residents in the Central Highlands region.

It’s one of 16 providers across Victoria to receive funding under latest round of the $15 million initiative, which supports Victorians facing housing-related financial challenges due to cost-of-living and other financial pressures.

Child and Family Services Ballarat will use its grant to establish a ‘Financial Wellness Hub’ to increase access to support services and help Victorians in need to build financial independence.

The hub uses an integrated service approach, with community engagement, a financial counsellor, and financial capability workers on hand to provide guidance and support.

Child and Family Services Ballarat received a further $372,982 from 2023–24 through the Rental Stress Support Package to deliver intensive case management to vulnerable renters.

The government has invested more than $45 million over the past three years to support community agencies across Victoria to deliver general and specialist family violence financial counselling to those in need.

The Financial Counselling Program is delivered through Consumer Affairs Victoria and supported more than 23,000 Victorians in 2023 –24, including more than 4,100 people affected by family violence.

Victorians can find their closest financial counselling provider by contacting the National Debt Helpline at ndh.org.au or calling 1800 007 007.

As the winter school holidays arrive and the cooler weather arrives in the southern states, the comforting hum of electric blankets and heaters return. 

While these electrical items are necessary to stave off the cold, especially with the kids more likely to be playing inside, insurer AAMI is urging homeowners to be vigilant, warning of the hidden dangers for house fires this winter. 

So far in 2025 the insurer has received over 250 fire-related claims* in Victoria and Tasmania. The leading cause of house fires for the insurer includes lithium-ion batteries in e-scooters and e-bikes, heating appliances, and faulty power outlets. 

AAMI’s Head of Assessing and Supply Chain Steven Hussey warned of the link between school holidays and house fires.  

“Throughout the year, we’ve seen school holidays spark a higher-than-normal number of claims for house fires, but winter will bring its own unique challenges,” Mr Hussey said. 

“We usually see a concerning rise in house fires caused by electrical appliances being placed in dangerous locations – think about a heater too close to curtains, or worn-out electric blankets being used. Even something as simple as leaving your heater on when you’ve just ducked out to the shops can cause a spark. 

“With winter keeping people inside, we don’t want to see this danger continue, especially as people depend more on their electricals appliances to keep warm.” 

Queensland Fire Department (QFD) Executive Manager Fire Safety Mark Halverson said the school holiday period was a prime opportunity for Queenslanders to practice their fire escape plan. 

“It is vital to have a rehearsed fire escape plan, so everyone in the household is aware of what they should do if a fire starts,” Superintendent Halverson said. 

“QFD often see an increase in house fires during the cooler months, with more than 460 recorded last winter. 

“People also need to carefully inspect their heaters, electric blankets and smoke alarms, to ensure they are in working order.” 

Mr Hussey encouraged homeowners to follow a few easy steps to make their homes safer this winter. 

“Homeowners can do simple safety checks such as inspecting their heating appliances, keeping them away from flammable materials and not overloading power outlets,” he said. 

“These simple precautions can help protect your home, your belongings, and most importantly, your family.” 

AAMI recommends a range of ways people can protect their home from fires: 

• Inspect heating appliances for damaged plugs, frayed cords, or signs of overheating. It is recommended to have appliances tested and tagged by a qualified electrician to ensure they are in working order. 
• Keep appliances one metre away from anything flammable, such as curtains, furniture, bedding, or drying laundry.  
• Avoid overloading power outlets by only plugging one heat-producing appliance into a single power outlet at a time. Overloading can cause circuits to overheat and spark fires. 
• Test smoke alarms monthly to ensure they are working correctly, have fresh batteries, and are located on every level of your home, including bedrooms and hallways.  
• Check electric blankets for scorch marks, frayed cords, or damaged elements before use.  
• Only use manufacturer or recommended charging cables for all electrical appliances including phones, especially e-scooters and e-bikes.