The 2025 Active Living Census results have revealed Loddon Campaspe residents are moving more and smoking less than Victorian benchmarks, but many are reporting food insecurity, poorer health, lower life satisfaction and risky drinking.
More than 8000 residents took part in the Census which collected data on six local government areas: the City of Greater Bendigo, Campaspe, Central Goldfields, Loddon, Macedon Ranges and Mount Alexander shires. Link: www.healthyloddoncampaspe.au/alc

A new alliance of foster carers, community service organisations and the Foster Care Association of Victoria is warning that without urgent action, more vulnerable Victorian children will miss out on the safety, stability and belonging that only family-based care can provide.
With more than 40 foster carers actively involved, the Alliance is co-chaired by a foster carer and an agency representative, ensuring lived experience sits alongside sector expertise to drive practical reforms that improve outcomes for children. Link: www.fostercarealliance.com.au

A new Youth Prevention and Recovery Care centre is now open in Newington.
The free service offers specialist, around-the-clock care for young people aged 16 to 25 years. The voluntary, referral-based service is designed to feel like a home away from home – enabling young people to access the mental health care they need, while maintaining connection to their community. The Ballarat YPARC includes: 10 private bedrooms; shared kitchen and dining facilities; outdoor gardens; and dedicated spaces for visits from loved ones.

Comedy For A Cause will be held at the Lyonville Hall on Saturday, August 1 with doors open from 6.30pm and the show starting at 7pm.
The hall fundraiser features world-class comedians from across Australia in an adults-only event. Tickets are $30. Link: www.comedyforacause.net

Throughout August, the streets of Daylesford and Hepburn Springs will come alive with spontaneous art, literary intervention and interactive moments in the lead up to Words in Winter from August 26 to 30.

Through the festival’s Around the Town program, art is stepping out of traditional venues and directly into public spaces, turning everyday streets into places of unexpected creative discovery.
Leading the charge throughout the month is Radical Curiosity, a public art initiative by local art collective, Radical Fields. The project kicked off by transforming the shopfront windows of That Bargain Place into marker-scribed community canvases. These thoughts, questions and visual marks will then be converted into street-art paste-ups scattered across local business windows, town walls and alleyways.
“We love creating situations where art isn’t just something you stand back and look at, but something you stumble into and help build,” says Ryan F Kennedy, founder and director of Radical Fields. “Taking those community marks onto the street turns the whole town into an evolving conversation.” The original window installation at That Bargain Place will remain on display through to the end of the festival on August 30. Keep an eye out for the paste-ups throughout August.
Beyond the paste-ups, locals and visitors exploring the region throughout August will find interactive surprises waiting around almost every corner. At vintage typewriter stations set up at the Daylesford Library, Paradise Bookshop, the Visitor Information Centre, and the Festival Hub, passersby can contribute to The Unstable Draft. Created by local artist Leonie Leivenzon, this installation invites the public to type, alter or overwrite lines to build a layered, collective manuscript.
Local cafes are also joining the movement, ahead of the inaugural The Society of Silent Readers meeting at Paradise Bookshop during the festival. Curated book stacks have been placed across town, inviting patrons to order their morning brew, slow down and sink into a story.
Elsewhere, artist Paul Mason is bringing current events to life with Agent of News, featuring mock street-side newsstands that display thought-provoking A2 ink drawings addressing contemporary social and political issues.
The program will culminate over the festival weekend at the Town Hall and Senior Citizens Centre, where the Festival Hub will host a massive Community Book Swap featuring dedicated tables for both adults’ and children’s titles. Bring a book to leave or find your new favourite read.
Link: www.wordsinwinter.com

The Local is a proud media sponsor of Words in Winter.

Daylesford Dialysis – delivering more than treatment

For Daylesford resident Peter Smith, the dialysis team at Daylesford Health is more than a group of healthcare professionals. They are family.
For the past six years, Peter, a resident at Lumeah Lodge, has attended dialysis treatment at Daylesford Hospital three days a week, spending four hours at a time in the unit. Over the years, the time spent with staff and fellow patients has fostered friendships and a strong sense of belonging.
“We are so lucky to have dialysis treatment available at Daylesford Hospital,” Peter said. “We don’t have to travel long distances, and the staff and fellow recipients become like close friends and family. The hospital is such a vital community asset. I don’t know where we would be without it.”
Peter’s experience reflects the growing importance of Daylesford’s dialysis service, which delivered more than 1100 life-sustaining treatments over the past 12 months, making it the busiest year in the unit’s history.
Operating as a satellite dialysis service of Royal Melbourne Hospital, the Daylesford unit has significantly expanded in recent years, increasing from three treatment days each week to six. The growth has enabled more patients across the region to access vital care closer to home.
Local stalwart and long-time hospital volunteer Max Primmer understands this better than most. Before receiving a kidney transplant in 2012, Max underwent dialysis treatment at Daylesford Hospital. Today, he continues to give back through regular volunteer work, visiting patients in the acute ward, aged care residents and those receiving dialysis treatment.
“I was fortunate to receive treatment at Daylesford before receiving my new kidney in 2012,” Max said. “Over the years, we have all been incredibly lucky with the staff who spend hours alongside us during treatment, and of course with our fellow recipients. I remember one resident who used to bake amazing cakes and desserts, and everyone looked forward to their treatment days.
“Then there was the time I introduced another recipient to English comedy videos. Let’s just say they had never experienced that kind of humour before.”
Although his treatment days are behind him, Max remains closely connected to the dialysis unit. “I still spend time in dialysis as a volunteer, and I couldn’t imagine my life without Daylesford dialysis,” he said.
“Being able to receive treatment close to home, surrounded by people I cared about, made an enormous difference. It’s a service that means so much to so many people in our community.”
As demand continues to grow, Daylesford Hospital’s dialysis service remains more than a place of treatment. For many patients, it is a source of connection, companionship and support, delivering a sense of community alongside essential healthcare.

Pictured above, from left, Yvonne Clohesy, Jascent MacDonald, Peter Smith, Max Primmer and Kelly Dart

Lise Heymer is an experience designer who spent more than two decades creating digital experiences before turning her focus to physical places, with a single mission – helping people gain clarity before making significant decisions about place. Based in Coomoora, she recently founded Heymer Design Studio, a place-based design practice.

“One service that I’m creating is offering vendors and property owners the chance to see the potential of their properties, and how it could be applied into different areas,” she said.
“For example if someone wants to renovate or uplift their property, I can help them with discussion and understanding about what they are intending to do and helping them with a visual representation of what the future for that property could be.”
“And that could be either if they want to actually stay with the property and renovate or it could be to prepare the property for sale, to increase their chances for sale, or even a visualisation that they can use in incorporating it into the property marketing.”
“The way I work is first to visit the property and understand what people are trying to achieve. If there are no plans, I create simple architectural drawings to define the space. From there, I develop design concepts that explore how the place could evolve, and three-dimensional models where those ideas come to life. Once the project is finalised, AI becomes the final step, giving those concepts a realistic photographic finish.”
Lise, who moved to Australia from Brazil in 2016, now lives in Victoria with her husband, a software engineer. Said she had been looking for a place with a beautiful lifestyle and connection to nature, but also a place that was alive.
“I wanted to live with wellness as a priority in my life and beautiful cafes and restaurants and places to visit, wineries and everything this region offers. I love it.”

The schoolhouse

Lise talks about her experience rendering the historic Glenlyon Schoolhouse – which brought her in touch with The Local and Donna and Kyle.
“A home is never just a house. It is an extension of how we live, and the places we inhabit directly shape the lives we lead.
Six years ago, when I left my apartment in Sydney to buy a home in Queensland, I realised I wasn’t just moving house – I was chasing a new life. I wanted to be closer to nature, embrace a slower pace, have a room for my artwork, a backyard to gather with family and friends, and space for my pets to roam. It was a journey of transformation through place that has continued ever since.
Moving has been a constant throughout my life. Since leaving my parents’ home, every place I’ve lived and every place I’ve visited has taught me something. Last year, that journey brought me to beautiful regional Victoria and inspired another transformation. After more than two decades in experience design, I found myself transitioning my work from the digital world to the real one.
I am fascinated by historic and old houses, lifestyle properties and businesses, the potential of places, and the memories we build within them. Whether that’s a quiet afternoon with family, a gathering of friends, or a business welcoming guests, I’m interested in how places quietly shape the experiences we take away from them.
It was this fascination that led me to the historic Glenlyon Primary School after a kind introduction from the wonderful Will Walton and Connie Conlon who immediately thought it was a property I’d fall in love with.
More than a heritage-listed building, the Glenlyon Primary School is a place where generations have gathered, connected and created memories for more than a century.
Today, it continues to thrive through care as a much-loved home inviting family and friends to experience a place that still holds so much of its original character.
Long before I arrived, the schoolhouse already had a story, a story of meaning and memory. The historic building claims its presence quietly. Standing along the main street, it doesn’t demand attention, yet it’s almost impossible to drive past without noticing it.
There is a solid, grounded poetry to a building that has outlasted generations. It carries the textures of the past while quietly inviting us to imagine what might come next.
My role was to observe, listen and understand what this place was quietly asking to become. When I first visited the Glenlyon Schoolhouse, I wasn’t searching for ideas; I was searching for clues.
Like many historic properties, some of its greatest qualities had become so familiar over time that they were almost invisible – the generous deck overlooking the landscape, the treehouse tucked among the trees, the fire pit inviting conversation long after sunset, the creative studios, and the wide windows framing the changing seasons.
None of these elements needed to be invented. They were already there.
What fascinated me wasn’t what the property lacked, but everything it already offered. As I walked through the grounds, I found myself asking a different question: How could these experiences become more visible? The answer wasn’t to redesign the property, but to gently reveal what already existed.
The design concepts that followed were deliberately restrained. Rather than introducing dramatic new features, they focused simply on strengthening the relationship between people and place.
Simple pathways clarified movement through the garden, while thoughtful lighting extended the experience into the evening. Defined outdoor rooms made everyday moments easier to imagine, and the introduction of productive gardens suggested a slower, more intentional rhythm of living. Small refinements helped each part of the property express its purpose more clearly.
Individually, none of these changes were transformative. Collectively, however, they changed the way the place could be seen.
The visualisations were never intended to predict the future. They were an invitation to notice the possibilities that were already waiting within the Schoolhouse.
When Donna later told me that the work had made them ‘fall in love with the schoolhouse again’, I realised that was the real outcome of the project. Not because the property had become something different. But because it had become easier to see what had always made it special.”
Words: Kyle Barnes & Lise Heymer | Image: Lise Heymer

After she turned 90 last year, Eileen Quinlan decided it was time to move on her own terms – and chose Hepburn House. And she loves it.

Formerly Eileen Egan, it’s not far from her first home of Eganstown, named after John Egan her great-grandfather.
Eileen grew up on a farm there – where two of her five children still live on the 180-year-old family property, and then moved around after marrying.
If not busy enough with her large family, she also worked on her husband’s farming business, their trucking company and in businesses with her daughters. Mind you, despite the hours, she jokes she has never received a pay slip.
Her homes were around Victoria and New South Wales and then about 50 years in Ballarat before the move to Hepburn House in February.
“After my 90th birthday last year, I decided I probably should look at a place to spend the rest of my life. I didn’t want to wait until I was pushed in here by my family. “And I have found it a wonderful place. I really like it – it’s just so interesting. The staff are lovely and I have made many friends.
“I’m fortunate because I’m still able to get around and do things. I was also asked to be the advocate for the Village part of the facility so that has been a nice way of getting to know everyone.” Eileen said she had also met a lot of people from her school days and that she had known around the region growing up.
With good health on her side, Eileen still also gets out and about, making a point of heading to the Eganstown Anzac Day morning service. She usually takes along home-made Anzac Biscuits – although this year she gave it a miss. “It’s a great service and when the weather is good they have a fire and get billy tea happening.”
Eileen said she felt like she had completed the full circle.
“I was born and educated in Daylesford, lived on a farm at Eganstown for my first 20 years, then worked with my husband and then with my daughters in businesses in different locations. I have travelled a lot and now I am back to close the cycle – where I feel at home in Hepburn House.”

Hepburn House: ​​Fostering independence. Enriching lives. Offering personalised care in a progressive, highly advanced and compassionate country setting – it’s the next best thing to home. New resident enquiries on 5348 8100.

Sports Central and FedUni WestVic Academy of Sport have launched the Central Highlands Coaches Collective.

The launch was held at Federation University’s Mount Helen Campus on July 22 with the collective bringing together 95 current and aspiring coaches and leaders from the Central Highlands region.
Keynote speakers at the event included Hannah Every-Hall OLY, GM High Performance at the Victorian Institute of Sport, former Australian rower, world champion and Olympian, pictured, Brad Dubberley, former Australian Wheelchair Rugby head coach and Paralympic athlete and Mick Malthouse, an Australian Rules player and premiership coach as well as a Ballarat native.
Sports Central is the Regional Sports Assembly for the Central Highlands and delivers a range of programs and services for the community sport and active recreation sector.
It services the Central Highlands region which includes six local government areas – Ararat Rural City, City of Ballarat, Golden Plains, Hepburn, Moorabool and Pyrenees shires.
FedUni WestVic Academy of Sport CEO Scott Allison, a national cycling coach, said it had been a night of education, sharing and networking.
“We really wanted to create opportunities for coaches to network and learn in the regions. A lot of coaching seminars are held in Melbourne but many coaches are volunteers so we want to bring that education to the regions.
“We’ve got 153 athletes in our programs that we help mentor, coach and support. Without good coaches, you can’t have good athletes. If we can upskill the coaches, we can upskill the athletes as well. I think that’s why we got such great support for the event, people are crying out for it in the regions.”
Sports Central executive manager Michael Flynn said the event captured “the very essence of what Sports Central is all about: supporting all clubs and associations across the Central Highlands to be the best they can be”.
“Encouraging participation and leadership through sport by promoting welcoming and inclusive opportunities for all to socially connect, grow, play and compete.”
Link: www.sportscentral.org.au

From left, Michael Flynn, Hannah Every-Hall, Brad Dubberley, Michael Malthouse and Scott Allison

When Komatsu’s Nigel Howard found out that his friend and mentor, forest industry icon Col McCulloch had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease, it didn’t take him long to realise that being frustrated couldn’t help. The best thing he could do was to get on his bike and do something useful.

Next month, Nigel will set off on his BMW GS 1300 Adventure to undertake a 20,000 km, 38-day motorbike trip around Australia aiming to raise $150,000 for the fight against MND. As well as raising vital funds, Nigel is looking to start conversations and bring the timber and forestry community together.
“Col told me about his diagnosis over a coffee. Like a lot of people I’d heard of MND but the reality didn’t really set in until we talked,” he said. “When I started having conversations with other people in the industry, I discovered Col’s story isn’t unique – far too many people have a mate, a parent, a colleague or a spouse afflicted by the beast.”
Nigel said it was an easy decision to bring together his passions of motorbike riding and the forest and timber community to plan the MND Beast Challenge.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned working in forestry, it’s that people show up when they’re needed. Every kilometre I ride is for people like Col, for families living with MND and for the hope that one day research can provide the answers we’re looking for.”
Nigel knows that one bloke on a motorbike isn’t going to cure the disease. But if the MND Beast Challenge can raise awareness, raise funds and get more people talking about the disease, then it will be worth every kilometre. He sets off from Daylesford on Thursday, August 20.
To learn more about the MND Beast Challenge and to make a donation, head to www.mndbeastchallenge.com.au/

The heritage-listed Media Arts Studio (Old Courthouse) at Federation University’s Arts Academy Ballarat is the setting for a Month of Sundays Season 2.

In 2026, the program highlights the beauty and diversity of the human voice, from the sublime solo soprano of Kate MacFarlane to the emotive, soaring singing of Gelareh Pour (ZÖJ) and The Resonant Heart, led by Dr Nela Trifković. The Flinders Quartet, pictured, will open the series on Sunday, August 23 from 2.30pm.
Celebrating 26 years on the world stage, this internationally acclaimed ensemble brings electrifying artistry to three masterworks of the string quartet repertoire.
From the dark drama of Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue to the fiery drive of Beethoven’s Op.18 No.4 and the sweeping brilliance of Op.127, this is chamber music at its most compelling.
Image: Pia Johnston

One of Australia’s most respected and internationally acclaimed writers, Richard Flanagan will talk about his latest collection, Heresies, and his writing career with Astrid Edwards in Castlemaine next month.

From Manus to MONA to birds and the Black Summer, from the destruction of our natural world to the hope offered by Indigenous Australia to the growing corrosion of democracy, from Salman Rushdie to the Segal Report, family and love, Flanagan’s non-fiction writings carry the author’s trademark elegance, subversive wit, and humanity.
This showcase of Richard Flanagan’s heretical brilliance over 20 years speaks to the heart of our troubled times now.
The event will be held on Thursday, August 6 from 7pm to 8.30pm.
Bookings essential at www.northernbooks.com.au/richardflanagan

After-Light, a dramatic prog-rock opera by composer/director Zac Vanstone and musical director Tom Foster is the Mount Players’ third show for 2026.

Players president Karen Hunt said it was a production to “excite, provoke and entertain”.
“A seven-piece rock band will perform live on stage, in full view of the audience, as singers tell the story of Boy as he struggles through his past mistakes, exorcising his demons in a journey of self discovery and ultimately redemption.”
Zac said After-Light was penned during Covid and explored some darker themes.
“This is a show about learning how to let go. Following the break-up between Boy and Girl, Boy falls into a life-threatening coma. In order for Boy to wake, he must forgive the past, reconcile with the future and learn to let go of Girl. If Boy fails, his intrusive thoughts: addiction, paranoia and depression will consume his soul.”
Zac grew up in Castlemaine and went to Castlemaine Secondary College. He has completed a Diploma of Theatre Arts and a Bachelor of Drama and is currently pursuing a Diploma in Live Production.
He works for the award-winning Macedon Ranges-based children’s entertainment company, Pass-the-Parcel, is a balloon artist, roaming musician and party host.
This show is his ultimate passion project, having spent the last five-plus years crafting it along with Tom Foster (his college guitar teacher) who joined the project as musical director in 2024.
Together, they hope to take the audience on a musical odyssey, as in the tradition of Pink Floyd’s The Wall and Tom Waits’ The Black Rider.
The Mount Players is proud to present this totally original and contemporary piece for the first time on stage in its complete form.
Players’ president Craig Lenaine-Smith and other committee members saw the scaled-down version presented at the Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2024 and after speaking to the creators decided the Mountview Theatre should be the place for them to launch their full production.
The season runs from Friday, August 14 to Sunday, August 30 at the Mountview Theatre, Macedon.
Tickets: www.themountplayers.com or 0419 329 052.

Cast members of After-Light, with musical director Tom Foster (red cap) and composer/director Zac Vanstone (white cap)
Image: Karlana Santamaria

Warnings: Suitable 18+, contains sexual and drug references and staged violence.

No sooner has Hugh Jackman entertained us by reading a book to his sheep, than he pops up as Robin Hood. This is, however, no jolly romp for Robin, Friar Tuck and the Band of Merry Men versus the Sheriff of Nottingham Forest.
In The Death of Robin Hood (Monday, July 27, 2pm), at Daylesford’s community-owned and run Phoenix Cinema, Robin is grappling with his past after a life of crime and murder. Now he is gravely injured after a battle he thought would be his last. Thankfully, a mysterious woman offers him a chance of salvation.
Francis Ford Coppola’s eerie 1974 classic, The Conversation (Monday, July 27, 4.30pm) captures Watergate-era paranoia and disillusion. As the Catholic eavesdropper, Caul, Gene Hackman: at the nadir of his despair ends up smashing a figure of the Blessed Virgin in his apartment because he suspects it contains a listening device.
In his glasses and moustache, drab suit, white shirt and tie with clear plastic Macintosh worn indoors, Caul is unforgettable. A classic and poignant American everyman comparable to Ernest Borgnine’s Marty from 1955 or Paul Walter Hauser in Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell from 2019.
Some critics even believe he probably inspired the East German Stasi agent in Florian von Donnersmarck’s 2006 film The Lives of Others, listening in on lives happier and more fulfilling than his. The global phenomenon, The Odyssey, screens at Monday.July 27, 7pm.
Thursday sees the first showing of the groundbreaking Serpico (Thursday, July 30, 4.30pm). Fresh from The Godfather, Al Pacino is superb as the New York cop fighting corruption. Corruption at a greater, government-shaking level is seen in All the President’s Men (Thursday, July 30, 7pm). At this distance Nixon and his attempt to bug the Democratic Party HQ seems childlike when compared with today’s White House antics, to use a mild term.
We have seen in our time the desperate scramble for ratings by commercial TV (and radio). In Network (Friday, July 31, 2pm) Peter Finch is messianic with his paranoid rant: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” A damning portrayal of those who churn out TV stuff and those who devour it.
Words: Kevin Childs | Link: www.daylesfordcinema.org.au

The inaugural Golden Wellness Festival is an immersive day, exploring ancient and modern wellbeing practices woven with today’s understanding of mind, body and spirit.

The community gathering will take place at The Sunken Oval in Castlemaine on Saturday, October 31, a green space on Djaara Country next to Victoria’s oldest regional botanic gardens, and flora and fauna reserve.
The day will bring together community, creatives and wellness professionals to take part in workshops, rituals, movement, creativity, conversations and community spaces. There will be free entry, with a small number of ticketed events going on sale in September.
Festival founder and director Ciel Lindley, pictured, is a Castlemaine resident with more than 20 years’ experience working across festival direction, community development and health promotion. Ciel designs events and place‑based initiatives that bring people together in meaningful ways.
“I’m thrilled to kick off Golden Wellness Festival in 2026. It’s been a long-time passion of mine to host a community event where ancient wisdom meets modern wellbeing. This is a region where people live rurally, work independently, and seek support to stay grounded, connected and resourced.
“We’re looking for pavilion exhibitors, presenters and facilitators, marketplace stall holders, and food vendors from across our region.
“This is a rare opportunity to join an event at the ground level – one destined to grow into a major regional wellbeing gathering. Each expression of interest helps shape the core of our guests’ experience, influencing the workshops offered, the rituals we craft and the community we foster.”

Link: www.goldenwellnessfestival.com