Grassroots sports and active recreation clubs and organisations across Macedon are being urged to apply for funding to boost their equipment, skills and administration expertise.
Member for Macedon Mary-Anne Thomas has announced applications had opened for the latest round of the Sporting Club Grants Program.
The program provides payments of up to $1,000 for new uniforms and equipment (including defibrillators), up to $5,000 for training coaches, officials and volunteers and up to $5,000 to improve club operational effectiveness.
Grassroots clubs and organisations in Macedon are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.
Minister for Community Sport Ros Spence said sport was the lifeblood of Victorian communities.

“That’s why we’re backing more clubs to help with uniforms and equipment, plus grants to investment in the future through training for coaches and volunteers. This is about helping clubs get back in the game so more Victorians can join in the fun and tap into all the sport and career pathways that grassroots community sport offers.”

A vision for the care of the North Central catchment over the next six years has been released, ensuring the land, water, and biodiversity of the area is managed sustainably.
The North Central Catchment Management Authority’s Regional Catchment Strategy will highlight actions needed to protect and improve the region’s rivers, wetlands, grasslands, forests, and soil.
It also partners with Traditional Owners and enables self-determined participation and leadership to care for Country, which has been identified as one of the highest priorities for the region.
The strategy will focus on combating climate change in the catchment and will ensure climate impacts will be considered in decision making from now and into the future. The North Central Region is home to 250,000 people, with bustling regional centres and a wide range of agricultural land, including irrigation, large-scale cropping and mixed farming. This catchment strategy will ensure collaboration with user groups and the community to improve environmental, social, and economic outcomes.
The North Central Catchment Management Authority prepared the Regional Catchment Strategy on behalf of the region. It was developed with Traditional Owners and regional agencies, organisations, groups, and local communities.
The Andrews Labor Government is investing in Victoria’s waterways, including a record $222 million investment in priority waterways across the state, including the Campaspe River – where revegetation and monitoring projects are restoring river health.
To learn more about Victoria’s regional Catchment Strategies visit: rcs.vic.gov.au

Grampians Ballarat Health said over the weekend of 25 and 25 June, it had again experienced a significant increased need for emergency care and an increased demand to manage and isolate COVID-19 affected patients, and those suspected to have COVID-19 or respiratory illnesses like the flu.

“We urge members of our community to carefully consider your health care needs. 

“Grampians Health has now triggered a Code Yellow (internal emergency) alert.”

The Code Yellow means we will focus staffing on the most urgent areas of care and service delivery.

“We will still be able to maintain care for those who need it and for our existing patients. 

“If you are unwell, we advise discussion with your GP as soon as possible in order to avoid the need to attend the hospital emergency department. This will help us care for those who most need emergency support and potentially a hospital bed. 

“We will continue with current visitor guidelines, but may need to revise those as circumstances change. We thank the community for its continued patience and support at this time.” 

Teacher Vicki Hughes from Creswick Primary School, has been recognised for 40 years in education.

The Recognition of Service program is a chance to acknowledge the dedication and hard work of teachers and other education staff who have given many decades of service to generations of Victorian families, with recipients receiving a personalised Certificate of Recognition and commemorative booklet.

A total of 219 Victorian teachers and staff are being recognised for 40 years of service, 104 staff for 45 years of service, 50 staff for 50 years of service, six staff for 55 years of service and five staff for 60 years of service.

The Doxa Youth Foundation in Malmsbury and PGL Adventure Camps in Tylden will be delivering free camps during 2022 targeting students who wouldn’t normally have the chance to attend a camp.
Positive Start in 2022 will help get students back out and about around the state, and support their physical and emotional health and wellbeing.

The $84.3 million program will focus on students from government and low-fee non-government schools who have been most affected by Covid-19 school closures – as well as students and schools that might otherwise be unable to participate in an outdoor education or camp program.

Central Highlands Water has announced the appointment of new managing director Jeff Haydon, who starts on July 11.
Mr Haydon has been a member of the local community over the past 15 years and is presently CHW’s Infrastructure Planning & Operations general manager.
Prior to moving to Ballarat with his family, Mr Haydon, a qualified civil engineer who also holds a Master of Business Administration, worked for an international engineering consulting firm, as well as a Melbourne retail water business.

Bee Friendly Farming’s popular tree grants are now open with farmers being supported to join the pledge to plant 100,000 trees for bees.

Grants of up to $10,000 are available to farmers and land managers to plant pollinator-friendly trees that are indigenous to their farms, with Bee Friendly Farming providing farmers and land managers with $1 for every tree planted, thanks to grant partners One Tree Planted and Flow Hive.
The program is administered by Wheen Bee Foundation, and CEO Fiona Chambers said the tree grants supported pollinators while also benefitting farmers.
To receive a tree grant, farms must be certified with Bee Friendly Farming. The tree grants, which start at $1,000, more than cover certification costs, making it both good for the environment and a sound business investment.

State Minister for Local Government Shaun Leane has introduced legislation to support property owners by ensuring councils implement fairer financial hardship policies.
Councils will no longer be able to use debt collectors or pursue legal action – which can result in homes being sold to pay back debts to council – unless ratepayers refuse to engage and all other options have been exhausted.
An Ombudsman’s report found that people who were struggling to pay their rates were often met with debt collectors, high penalty interest and in some cases costly litigation, creating stress and fear.

Macedon Ranges Shire has been crowned a ‘Champion Community’ for its work and commitment to improving mental health.
Mental Health First Aid has recognised the shire for its commitment to improving the mental health of young people and the adults who support them.
The status is an acknowledgment of their sustained effort to successfully embed Mental Health First Aid training, via the Live4Life model, into local education providers, secondary schools, and the wider Macedon Ranges Shire community.

New weather stations are being rolled out across Victoria to help fire agencies better respond to bushfires and support safer, more effective planned burns.
The CFA has received 10 new portable and remote automated weather stations to improve Victoria’s weather observations to allow firefighters to generate more accurate predictions of where a fire might spread, and use more precise local data for community warnings.
There are seven portable automated weather stations and three static remote automated weather stations permanently situated at Ballan, East Trentham and Glenburn.

REGIONAL Community Vet Clinic, a Mt Alexander Shire based non-profit organisation, was generously gifted an anonymous donation from cat lovers in the community to host the clinic’s first de-sexing day at the end of May.
Throughout the day RCVC neutered 31 cats from independent rescuers and farmsteads across the Loddon Mallee region.
The goal of the clinic is to support people who are experiencing dire financial situations to care for their companion animals, to run neutering programs and to support and promote the value of companion animals in the community.
RCVC recently secured state government funding to turn their goal into a reality.
“We are just in the very early stages. One of the first stages of our plan is to raise funds to set up a non-profit veterinary clinic on land associated with Campbells Creek Community Centre,” said founding member James Mark from Castlemaine.
“A clinic at this site will be an opportunity to assist people experiencing financial hardship to access preventative veterinary care.
“This care could be a game changer for many people who have a tight bond with their animals but just cannot afford the veterinary care required by their animals. For some people, their animals are their lifeline and not to be able to afford care for their loved one can be devastating.”
As well as providing non-profit community vet care, RCVC will also be a place for the community to come together to support neutering programs. Neutering programs are proactive interventions that work to curb cat colonies while maintaining healthy environments for both the cats and the community, in an attempt to reduce disease and unwanted kittens.
Every female cat has the potential to birth 6-10 kittens a year and by six months each of these kittens can start reproducing their own litters of kittens. The population growth is exponential and cat colonies can get out of control.
Founding member Dr. Yvette Berkeley from McKenzie Hill said the clinic’s goals include providing access to preventative health veterinary services, running neutering programs and also supporting companion pet care in people’s homes.
“We believe in the power of pets to help people maintain their independence, wellbeing, and general health. Promoting the well-being of pets directly affects the health and well-being of people”.
RCVC have three key activities planned for the next 12 months: fundraising activity to raise the additional $200,000 needed to complete the build; seeking expressions of interest from practicing veterinarians who are interested in contributing their time to procedures at the clinic when open; and hosting community events and information sessions both to support the clinic, but also to educate about responsible pet ownership across the region.
In the meantime RCVC invites anyone who is interested in contributing, or would like to know more about the organisation and its mission to write to them at info@rcvc.org.au, call 0493 447 394 or visit www.rcvc.org.au and sign up for the newsletter or visit https://rcvc.org.au/donate/ to donate to the cause.

Contributed

I GUESS, being the travel edition and all, I should talk about the joys of hitting the road, but it’s not all beer and skittles. Whatever that means.
We have seen a lot of Australia but I never tire of being on the road, looking at huge vistas whether that’s swathes of cane fields or red dirt and scraggly gums, or massive waterways but it’s the nights that can see you undone.
Not with loneliness – as you can imagine, Kyle always has a story to tell or a theory to share…no, it’s the accommodation. You’d think by our ages we would do it well by now. But it’s still hit and miss.
When we were younger, poorer and had Rosie and Curly we stayed in some shocking places. Apparently dogs ruin nice hotel/motel rooms so they are best kept away and only allowed to stay in run-down camp grounds with freezing cabins.
I remember one place out the back of Queensland which was so cold Curly, who you can tell by his name was pretty furry, was on his mat on the floor shivering. We had used up all the wood provided for the fire and I started to have a good think about the wooden furniture. But Curly warmed up in bed with us and Rosie and the two chairs I had my eye on survived. Just.
Another joint had two rottweilers living next door, as in less than a metre away, separated by a very dodgy open wire fence, from the door. We carried the dogs inside that cabin and when Rosie took a leak on the carpet we assured her she had value added to the place.
This latest trip to Cairns was going to be better, we thought. Sadly still no dogs, just can’t go there even after six years, but, you know, enough money to get somewhere somewhat decent.
Hmmm. Among our stops have been a place with a couch so dirty with built-in grease that we used the top sheet off the bed to sit on – that was $275 a night. We did mention it to the people at the front desk and they said we were welcome to leave a review. We didn’t bother.
At another, the young woman checking us in told us that our keycards were “our best friends” and that under no circumstances could we lose them. She then said she was leaving “right on six” so if we wanted anything we better get to our rooms quickly otherwise there would be “no-one to help you”. That’s someone who needs to get out of the hospitality industry.
At another place, the spiral staircase to the second level had a big sign hung across the lower rails saying “no entry” and then some wooden boards kind of stretched across and blocking the top couple of stairs, I guess in case you can’t read. We looked up and saw open shutters and what looked like black mould on the walls. I asked the bloke at the desk if there could be mould and he looked at me like I was speaking another language. Then he almost exploded that it couldn’t be mould because it was “pretty airy” up there. Yes, because of the open shutters – which can also allow any spider, ant or cockroach to enter. FFS.
Anyway, the road is great, just don’t stop anywhere. Head up to Queensland, veer left, and left and left, and you’ll be back home. Not that we are doing anything that ambitious. There is a still a pandemic on, so baby steps for us. Just sayin’…

ON THE road again. This is the first long road trip in years, weighing in at a whopping 4000 kilometre drive with an average 400km under the tyres per day, and things have changed in the 27 years since we last made the trip.
In December of 1995, the good wife got the call from the editor of The Cairns Post asking her to join the crew of hard smoking, drinking and cynical journalists that walked the hallowed halls of The Post. And within a few days we had packed up and hit the road in our Mazda 626. It was a car with relatively low miles on the clock, think one little old lady owner, and, of great importance, no air conditioning.
We were fresh faced 20-something-year-olds and fairly new together so still had a lot to talk about – aspirations, dreams, the sort of things you chat about before life gives you a kick in the guts, your face becomes weathered, teeth tarnished and your belly becomes another limb rather than a place to put food. (Ed’s note – speak for yourself Kyle!)
I do remember during the trip having to pour water over our heads, and because of the hot wind we had to keep the windows up and jam towels in the windows to keep the sun off our fresh, white skin. What a time to move to Cairns, December. What bright spark thought up that idea? We put in 10-hour days on the pothole- ridden roads and ate large breakfasts, lunch and dinners washed down with cask wine and beer to keep our strength up.
Fast forward to the present as we climb into our climate-controlled 4WD and decide that an average of 400 kilometres a day is a comfortable pace. I also have been skipping breakfast trying to reduce the size of my overhang, which in all honesty, keeps me sharp. Not eating that is, not the belly. The road to the Gold Coast is pretty much freeway all the way once you get across to the Hume via Three Chain Road in Carlsruhe except for the bottle neck around Newcastle and a couple of roadwork patches. It is pretty much 110km all the way. Even the trip through Sydney is a breeze but a quick stop is advised around 100km south of the city because there is no place to stop until you’re well on the other side.
The trip north of the Gold Coast is freeway until just before Gympie and then you’re on the A1 where the potholes are well marked. Quite honestly, the Queenslanders wouldn’t know a rough surface if it jumped out at them. Being a Central Highlands resident prepares you for any potholes that you come across, which are babies by comparison to the ones that you have to change down gears to get out of around here. However I must admit, one nearly got the better of me. I thought I could dodge around the left of it, but it turns out it was larger than I anticipated and nearly threw us down a sharp embankment at a speed which had me rattled for the rest of the day.
There is a vast difference in the roadworks in Queensland from here. Number one is they are actually doing them not just a bloke spreading bitumen from a shovel so the next truck coming along can spit it all out onto the following car.
The biggest difference, particularly as you head north of Rockhampton, is the large swathes of road they are upgrading. At home you will go through a roadwork section for five kilometres at the most, up there you can be on a single roadwork site for 30km and there are lots of them.
My final road trip tips are to make sure that you have topped the Esky up with ice, wine and beer at least two hours before you end the drive and if you feel the irresistible yearn to drive to Cairns, do it one way. It is actually a lot cheaper to go back on a jet and get your vehicle freighted back when you take into account accommodation and fuel. Road trip rant over…

The ChillOut Festival will receive $25,000 to build its capacity and strengthen sustainability.
Chillout is just one of the 22 organisations that will benefit from $3.2 million in funding in the Victorian Budget 2022-23 to support the design and delivery of LGBTIQ+ safe space services.
The funding responds to a community-led proposal that identified the need for further targeted LGBTIQ+ wellbeing support services in the region. Community stakeholders, including local councils, mental health service providers and LGBTIQ+ organisations, contributed to the project proposal.
The safe spaces will have intergenerational and peer support programs to support LGBTIQ+ young people and physical safe space hubs – connecting them with specialised mental health and wellbeing supports close to home.
The funding will also support the establishment of at least two sites across Western Victoria over a three-year trial period. Community consultations will kick off this year to shape the design and delivery of the project.
Recipients include 10 new or emerging organisations who will use grants of up to $25,000 to build skills or organisational governance, including Different Journeys, a peer support group who will use funding of $25,000 to help them engage with, support, and celebrate neurodivergent LGBTIQ+ people.
There are also 12 established organisations who will use funding of up to $50,000 to build sustainability and expand their work with diverse LGBTIQ+ communities across Victoria, including LaNCE TV, a regionally based LGBTIQ+ TV show that will use funding of $50,000 to support expansion and develop operational roadmaps.
Member for Macedon Mary-Anne Thomas: “Congratulations to the ChillOut Festival. This funding will aid in creating a safe place for our local LGTBIQ+ community. We are delivering on wellbeing and mental health services, where they are needed, close to home.”

I’m Mara Ripani and I love being with community, talking and discussing all that is important to us. Problem solving and diving deep into conversations about everything and anything, no matter how difficult, no matter how light.

I started a cooking and permaculture school called Village Dreaming because I love kitchens and people in kitchens! Kitchens are hubs of incredible comfort to me. A kitchen full of fragrant cooking, pots and steam, women and men at chopping boards, slicing, grating, tasting, talking, always talking. Sometimes silence. In the kitchen music from all over the world is playing, compelling us to break out into dance. We place knives down and use the bench tops to lift our legs in the air in splendid kitchen dancing. Swirling around chairs and tables pretending for a moment to be performing cabaret…until the saucepan lid falls off with a clang and our kitchen dancing spell is broken.
At Village Dreaming we run classes on food preserving using the hot water bath method, we teach fermenting skills and make krauts, kimchis, yogurt and berry ferments. Home-made pasta classes using edible flowers such as rose petals and calendula. Naturally leavened bread baking, cheese making, sausage and salami making gatherings, wild fungi foraging walks. We invite artists to share their skills in weaving, natural plant dyeing and felting.
I am eager to learn and eager to share life’s incredible platter of rich experiences. I am hungry for seasonal patterns and for sharing the seasons with others. It is feijoa season now, it was chestnut season just a few months ago and on my table a bowl of persimmons from Maggie!
In July we are making sausages and walking through paddocks to see pigs on pasture, to talk about regenerative farming and to feast in the warmth of a freshly made sausage. Join me if you can. Arrivederci cari amici.
Learn to Make Sausages with Beautiful Free Range Pork on Sunday, July 17 from 9.30am-2pm at Village Dreaming, Blampied. For tickets and details please visit villagedreaming.com.au (Advertorial)

Travel

You can never get there too soon.
Unless you are confined to bed
life is being in one place
and then another
constantly.

Stay on the speed limit
or even creep a little over
but aim to be
in place. Transit
is nowhere at all.

Travelling requires remaining
still. And the further you go
the longer you will be required
to sit bunched up
in a car a bus a plane.

Only when you get there
when you are far from home
do you get to move
as normal –
walk run skippedy-do.

• Bill Wootton

Bill lives in Hepburn Springs and like everyone else, has travelled less than he would have liked in the last couple of years.

Local Lines comes mainly from a group of local poets but other submissions are always welcome. To have a poem considered for publication contact Bill Wootton at cottlesbreedge@gmail.com

Reach for the sky
In keeping with this edition’s theme of travel, here’s my take on Singapore’s breathtakingly spectacular Gardens by the Bay, a 101-hectare botanical, national icon.
Of all the magnificent public and botanical gardens I’ve ever visited and admired, and these include London’s famed Kew Gardens, Rome’s semi-forgotten Orto Botanico historic garden and, of course, Holland’s famed and massive springtime tulip garden extravaganza – Keukenhof, Singapore looms largest in my fond memories and takes the most spectacular prize.

It was conceived as a national monument and a celebration of the nations that contributed to all that is Singapore – a theme that is carried through both, within its structures and outdoor gardens.
Situated in the vicinity of the Marina Reservoir in the central region of Singapore, the immense nature park consists of three waterfront gardens and two enormous structures.

The 1.2-hectare Flower Dome – displaying exotic plants and flowers from the five continents and listed in 2015 by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest greenhouse in the world – and the breathtaking Cloud Forest. This is smaller. 0.8-hectares, but much taller, to accommodate a small mountain, complete with its very own waterfall, and of course, also decorated with tropical plants.
But the most striking and impossible not to see first is the enormous Supertree Grove of 18 gigantic, 25-50-metre high man-made “trees”. In truth, you can’t really miss them.
The Supertree Grove gives you aerial views of the gardens and surrounds via the Skyway which connects two of the highest trees, providing a 128-metre walk from the height of about 22 metres above the ground.
In the true manner of all botanical gardens, Gardens by the Bay conducts an education program through two types of themed gardens – Heritage which highlight the four cultural groups in Singapore – Indian, Chinese, Malay and colonial, and World Gardens – showcasing the biodiversity of plant life on the planet.
Gardens by the Bay has become one of the most visited gardens in the world. While the New York Botanical Gardens and Kew Gardens receive an estimated 1-2 million annual visitors, Gardens by the Bay received over 6.4 million visitors in 2014 – just three years since officially opening.

To hell with rising food prices…lettuce grow our own
The current high cost of living we are seemingly going to be experiencing for some time, has turned the weekly shopping into a daunting nightmare, trying to balance nutrition against cost. It seems that all the highly favoured are now also the ridiculously high-priced. So it’s time for Operation Green Thumb.
With all of the main northern states’ fruit and veg providers devastated and unlikely to even return to their properties – let alone produce crops for quite some time, it’s painfully obvious that we will have make do for ourselves…and grow our own. I‘ll show you just how easily…next issue.

Got a gardening question: Email glenzgarden@gmail.com

Images: Glen Heyne & Gardens by the Bay

Goldfields Bonsai Society will celebrate its 20th anniversary with an exhibition at the Daylesford Town Hall on Saturday, June 25 and Sunday, June 26 from 10am to 4pm.
Secreatary Kristy Dodder said the society was established in 2001 by a small group of enthusiasts who wanted to enjoy and share the experience of this extraordinary living art form with others.
“What is bonsai? The word bon-sai is a Japanese term. Bon is a dish or thin bowl. Sai is a tree or other growing plant which is planted – planted as would be a halberd or spear or pike stuck into the ground.
“Bonsai thus means or denotes ‘a tree which is planted in a shallow container’.”

Kristy said the art form of bonsai was originally developed as an ancient Chinese horticultural practice. Under the influence of Japanese Zen Buddhism, it was redeveloped. Bonsai has been around for well over a thousand years.
“The underlying art of Bonsai is the creation of a miniaturised but realistic representation of nature in the form of a tree. One of the challenges is to complete this process without displaying the human intervention too clearly.
“Myth buster – bonsai are not genetically dwarfed plants, in fact, any tree species can be used to grow one. Bonsai can challenge gardening skills, artistic aesthetics and design capabilities.”
The society, some members pictured below, meets on the third Sunday of the month in Castlemaine. Contact Trevor on 5476 2286 for information.

On Sunday morning, June 5, (Pentecost Sunday), Father Jeff O’Hare, left, and Terry Langevin were married by the Anglican Bishop of Ontario, the Right Reverend Michael Oulton, in front of Father Jeff’s congregation of Christ Church Belleville.

Fr Jeff, who was formerly with Christ Church, Daylesford, said there were 140 parishioners, members of the wider community, friends, family and the Mayor of Belleville “at this wonderful celebration and historic event”.

“Same sex marriage in the Anglican diocese of Ontario has been approved of since 2019, and this is the first taken by the bishop of one of his own clergy.” Terry’s two sons, Shae and Sammy, and Fr Jeff’s brother, Shane, all played ‘best men’ at the ceremony. Also in attendance was 14-year-old pooch Atticus, who made the move from Daylesford to Canada with Fr Jeff.
“It was a wonderful day,” Fr Jeff said.

DAYLESFORD hosted its inaugural Kettlebell Sport competition, attracting competitors from four states, along with dozens of spectators, on June 4.
Under the auspices of the Girevoy Sport Australia Association, the event was the first of its kind held in the region.
Event facilitator and participant Beth Whiting, owner of local business Integrate Fitness, said kettlebell sport was the ultimate full body workout – targeting strength, aerobic capacity and mobility.
“Events can be either 5, 10, 30 or 60 minutes in duration, with the most common event being 10 minutes. It draws on Olympic-style strength lifts as well as challenging the body’s aerobic systems.”
Competitors ranged in age from 15 through to 54 and included several Australian record holders and state champions. (Pictured is Daylesford’s Melissa Ryan.)
“The kettlebell community is very friendly and supportive of each other. There are a variety of different lifts and time durations so there is an event for everyone, regardless of age, ability or where you are in your fitness journey,” Beth said.
“At Integrate Fitness we start out on lighter kettlebells for shorter durations and focus on technique. As confidence and skills build, we safely increase weight and time under load. The other great thing about kettlebells is our community spirit and friendship. We are there supporting each other in training and competition.”