International rock supergroup, the Foo Fighters, will take to the stage in Geelong next month as part of a major statewide live music program being delivered by the state government.
Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events Martin Pakula has confirmed the iconic band will perform at GMHBA Stadium on Friday 4 March as part of the government’s ALWAYS LIVE program.
Supporting acts at the concert will feature local talent including Amyl and the Sniffers and The Meanies.
ALWAYS LIVE is a new statewide music celebration which will be held across regional Victoria, the CBD and surrounding suburbs in 2022 – showcasing everything Victoria has to offer and attracting music fans from across the country
The March concert will be followed by a program of dozens of events held at venues across Victoria later in the year.
Showcasing a diverse mix of local and international talent, the events are expected to drive music fans into the regions, suburbs and CBD – helping to support local jobs and tourism businesses.
The program delivers on the Government’s election commitment to deliver a new music festival held at venues across the state.
ALWAYS LIVE will also bring to life a long-held dream of late Australian music icon Michael Gudinski AM – one of the country’s most unwavering and influential live music champions.
The initiative adds to the range of Government support provided to the live music sector, including the Live Music Restart package, the Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund, the Sustaining Creative Workers fund and the Live Performance Support Programs.
Tickets for the Foo Fighters went on sale at midday on Friday 25 February.
The full program for ALWAYS LIVE will be released in the middle of the year, after the expressions of interest process is complete.
Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events Martin Pakula: “The Foo Fighters always put on an epic performance and this concert will further cement our position as Australia’s home of live music. The ALWAYS LIVE program will deliver live music right across Victoria with both local and international artists – showcasing the state on the global stage.”

The state government is helping the hospitality industry recover from the economic impacts of COVID-19, with new alcohol-related safety measures and liquor reforms coming into effect next month.
Under the reforms, licensed restaurants and cafes will be able to supply a limited volume of alcohol with takeaway or delivery meals without having to apply and pay for a second licence.
These changes mean that businesses with an existing licence can continue to include limited packaged liquor in their takeaway and delivery offerings – which many shifted to selling under a second licence during the pandemic – without imposing additional fees or red tape.
As part of the reforms, bars, hotels, restaurants and cafes wanting to extend their trading hours from 11pm to 1am will now be able to do so automatically, without having to apply for a change to their licence, subject to any relevant council approvals.
Businesses with Temporary Limited Licenses (TLLs) expiring in March will also benefit from a new streamlined process to apply for a new TLL, allowing them to continue serving liquor outdoors.
Licensees will be able to apply for a fast-tracked temporary outdoor area licence that will be determined within three business days, expiring in mid-December, and their fees will be fully refunded.
The reforms also include significant harm minimisation measures, with all online sales of alcohol now subject to the same conditions. This includes more protections for minors, with those supplying alcohol online having to deliver in-person to first time customers and verify their ID and age.
Other measures include greater clarity around alcohol advertising and promotions that are not in the public interest and can be banned, including advertising that is likely to appeal to minors, promotes violence or is of a sexual, degrading or sexist nature.
Further harm minimisation measures will come into effect throughout 2022, including making it an offence to deliver alcohol to an intoxicated person and making it compulsory for large, packaged liquor stores to undertake a community impact assessment as part of their licencing application.
Minister for Consumer Affairs, Gaming and Liquor Regulation Melissa Horne: “These important reforms balance supporting Victoria’s hospitality and entertainment industries post-pandemic while ensuring harm minimisation remains a key focus. All changes have been assessed to reduce both harm to the community and unnecessary hurdles for small businesses, which we know did it really tough during the pandemic.”

More than 20 Victorian communities are set to receive funding for local road safety projects to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety.
The state government will award 22 Victorian councils a share of $1.4 million through the TAC’s Annual Local Government Grant (LGG) Program – improving road safety outcomes for vulnerable road users.
The program, launched in 2012, encourages councils to work closely with their local communities to develop solutions to address safety issues for cyclists and pedestrians, in projects aligned with the Victorian Road Safety Strategy (2021-2030).
Local governments were invited in April 2021 to apply for grants of up to $100,000 for projects that focus on delivering benefits to at-risk road users such as pedestrians and cyclists across Victoria. TAC data shows that these groups accounted for almost 20% of fatalities in the past 5 years, with 28 pedestrians and 11 cyclists killed in 2021 alone.
The TAC received an overwhelming response to the program, demonstrating a grassroots commitment to improving road safety throughout Victoria. Thirty projects were selected, across an even spread of rural and regional, outer and inner metro local government areas.
Projects are split between two categories: 15 analysis projects, and 15 small-scale infrastructure projects. For a full list of 2021 funded projects to go the www.tac.vic.gov.au/about-the-tac/community/grants/local-government-grants
Minister for Roads and Road Safety Ben Carroll: “Walking and cycling are great way to stay healthy and get around, and these grants will not only improve the safety of vulnerable road users but foster liveable cities that encourage active transport. We are building a safer transport network through investment in infrastructure and education and investigating new policies and technology – but we need every single Victorian to make safe choices on our roads.”
Transport Accident Commission CEO Joe Calafiore: “It’s encouraging to see so many local governments and communities focused on driving down road trauma in their area. We all use the roads differently, and it is important that unprotected and vulnerable road users are supported by the road system, not impacted by it.”

Fantasyland is a carousel that sits out the back of Tom Henderson’s place. It seats four, with two people propelling it by cranking an arm up and down.
For 20 years the idea of the carousel sat in Tom’s head. He made it a reality for the Daylesford New Year’s Eve Parade.

And so, with its 300 mirrors, it joined his award-winning floats for Melbourne’s Moomba Parade and a mechanical wonderland of trucks and bizarre machinery.

Tom Henderson’s story is at once humble and exciting. Born 74 years ago in the Daylesford Hospital, he grew up as the second of six children on a dairy farm at Shepherds Flat.
After two years compulsory National Service in the Army, he went logging for Ogden’s Sawmills, then in East Street.

It was the early 70s and his work was, he says, tough but fun, working with machinery in the open air. “No one was watching you.” As well, he had to be a bush mechanic.
This was around the time that he saw a chance to improve the standard of floats in Daylesford’s New Year’s Eve Parade. “I wasn’t frightened to step outside the square,” he says.
Enter his Professor Know-All’s Water Pumping Machine. Then a Crutching Crew, all about shearing.
Six months’ work, “on and off”, went into these floats. “It was fun, and the people building them would operate them.” This joy and imagination was recognised in 1976 by the Melbourne Moomba Parade Lord Mayor’s Prize for best country float, pictured right. It hangs framed on a wall of his home.
This was for the Jim Crow Creekers, an astonishing float, initially for Daylesford, which carried 10 people who sluiced for gold and ran a blacksmith’s shop, with forge bellows. Blokes worked a water wheel powered by a hidden pump, while a baker produced bread along the Moomba procession (“The smell was just fabulous”).

Behind a sledge was a delivery cart, connected to the wagon.
The twist here was that the local Apex Club entered the Moomba Parade. Trouble was, the club didn’t have a float and so latched on to Tom’s New Year’s Eve model.
Suffice to say, Tom won the Moomba prize again the following year.
He and his team made a Santa Claus Workshop for Daylesford about 20 years ago. Elves and fairies fill a log cabin as they make toys. Santa’s sleigh is on another set-up, all pulled by a vintage tractor, a single cyclinder 1937 Lanz Bulldog.
But before the workshop, he built Sideways Suzuki, with two “drivers”, one steering the front axle, the other the rear axle. If both turned left, it went sideways.
He sums up: “I don’t have trouble building them: they just come together luckily enough. I could ‘see’ the carousel before I started”
He returns to the carousel, built for the cancelled 2020 parade. Last year it won the People’s Choice award, a $100 prize. The 13 people involved with the float got $7 each. Tom put a $5 note and change in each envelope. His team that built it were Nessa Fritchley, Adam Tori and ‘Maka’ Thomas, plus artist and neighbour Marina Pribaz, whose artwork adds enchantment.
“That’s my last big float,” says Tom. “There’s space in the procession for someone younger to fill.”

Words: Kevin Childs | Images: Contributed

It will be the first regional court in Victoria to provide specialist courts for the Koori community, drug and mental health matters, family violence matters, as well as a specialist Children’s Court response.
The development is estimated to create 390 jobs in the region and have a construction value of $130 million. The building structure was finished in December last year and the purpose-built facility remains on track for completion by the end of 2022. It will open its doors in early 2023.
Built over five levels, Bendigo’s future court will have 11 courtrooms, two hearing rooms, two full mediation suites, full custody capability, remote witness facilities, and meeting and interview rooms for support agencies and client services.
The design helps everyone who is attending court, with secure entrances and separate sections for judicial staff, vulnerable people, people in custody and operational staff, as well as safe waiting areas.
It will service the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria, Children’s Court of Victoria, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. It will also service the Supreme Court of Victoria, County Court of Victoria, and the Federal Circuit Court on a circuit basis.
The specialist family violence court will deliver on the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Family Violence.
The building will feature spaces connected to Bendigo’s unique heritage and culture, including the culture of the Dja Dja Wurrung, Bendigo’s Traditional Owners with a four-storey high representation of wedge-tailed eagle Bunjil, the creator being featuring on the façade, while a paved courtyard symbolising a smoking ceremony will greet court users.
Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes: “Victorians should have the best possible access to justice no matter where they live – this new precinct will be safer & more inclusive while creating hundreds of local jobs.”
Member for Bendigo East Jacinta Allan: “The Law Courts have been built with the Bendigo community in mind – from Bunjil taking flight on the façade to the use of local suppliers, creating hundreds of local jobs.”

Organisations and groups who serve Victoria’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse, intersex and queer communities will be able to apply for further funding to help them grow, as part of a new round of grants for LGBTIQ+ groups.
Minister for Equality Martin Foley has announced applications are open for the LGBTIQ+ Organisational Development Grants. The program will allocate $700,000 to various LGBTIQ+ organisations and groups to strengthen the services they provide to Victoria’s diverse rainbow communities.
The grants will support the growth of established and emerging organisations, allowing them to continue their important role in driving equality for LGBTIQ+ Victorians, including LGBTIQ+ people with disabilities, LGBTIQ+ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and those based in regional and rural areas.
Established organisations with demonstrated experience in supporting LGBTIQ+ communities can apply for grants of up to $50,000, and emerging organisations can apply for grants of up to $25,000.
Funding supports a range of activities including training to build the capacity of staff and volunteers, expanding operations into regional and rural areas and developing strategic plans to better engage diverse LGBTIQ+ communities. Organisations and groups can also use the funding to ensure their financial sustainability and strengthen their governance structures.
Previous recipients include The Three for All Foundation, which last year received a grant to provide training and mentoring opportunities to members of the Queer Refugee and Asylum Seeker Peer Group, empowering them to take on leadership roles and provide peer support to others.
Since its inception in 2016-17, 58 projects have been funded through LGBTIQ+ Organisational Development Grants, growing our crucial LGBTIQ+ sector to ensure its viability/sustainability for many years to come.
The opening of this grant round comes after this month’s launch of Pride in our future: Victoria’s LGBTIQ+ strategy 2022-2023, Victoria’s first long-term plan to drive equality across the state, which includes strengthening the LGBTIQ+ sector through our government grant programs.
Applications are open until 25 March 2022, to apply or for more information visit: www.vic.gov.au/lgbtiq-organisational-development-grants.
Minister for Equality Martin Foley: “LGBTIQ+ community organisations and groups play a vital role in creating a safer and more inclusive Victoria for our diverse rainbow communities.”
“This funding will help ensure the long-term viability of these organisations and support the incredible work they do for LGBTIQ+ communities across the state.”
Victorian Commissioner for LGBTIQ+ Communities Todd Fernando: “It’s great to see continued support for LGBTIQ+ organisations and groups to help them strengthen and expand the vital services they provide to the Victorian community. I encourage all eligible organisations to apply for a grant.”

The federal government will invest more than $86 million over five years to support the establishment of new plantations to lock-in future wood supply.

The Government will look to partner with the Victorian Government to deliver this through a grants program, backing in a key component of the National Forest Industries Plan.

Senator for Victoria Sarah Henderson said that the forestry sector was a huge employer in the region and growing the plantation estate would ensure that continues into the future.

“This program is about getting more trees in the ground and ensuring forest industries have a long-term future,” Senator Henderson said. 

“This is the largest direct investment of any Australian Government in plantation establishment for more than 30 years.

“We want to partner with Victoria to grow this renewable, sustainable industry so that it can continue to create jobs and deliver quality, Australian-made products to markets.

“This investment, made in partnership with states and territories and industry, will create jobs  not just in the planting phase, but in 25 or 30 years’ time when that wood is harvested and processed into a truss or a timber frame. 

“We have worked hand-in-hand with industry to address the immediate and long-term challenges facing this sector, and will continue to back them in every step of the way.

“I would urge the Victorian Government to support our forestry sector and partner with our Government to deliver this program.”

For more information on the program visit: www.awe.gov.au/agriculture-land/forestry

The Australian Government has announced more successful grant recipients under the $20 million Murray–Darling Healthy Rivers Program, which is helping Basin communities to get out on the ground and restore their rivers and wetlands.
Minister for Resources and Water, Keith Pitt said the program was benefitting rivers, wetlands and communities throughout Mallee and the wider Basin.
“These grants provide a significant boost to the Mallee economy, providing almost $580,000 in funding and supporting local businesses and jobs in the process. This funding also builds on $116,000 in grants Mallee communities received in the previous round of the Healthy Rivers Program,” Minister Pitt said.
“With over 2.6 million Australians calling the Basin home, community-led grants like these empower our local communities to practical actions that protect their own stretch of river and help to improve lives and livelihoods now and into the future.”
Mmmember for Mallee, Dr Anne Webster, said the grants would benefit a number of communities across Mallee.
“It’s fantastic to see the Australian Government supporting Mallee by funding eight new Healthy Rivers grants for community-led projects to improve the health of our waterways,” Dr Webster said.
“Working with catchment managers, a landholder will work to restore a wetland near Wallpolla Island, building infrastructure needed to deliver environmental water to the wetland, and undertake weed control and revegetation.
“We’re seeing also strong community collaboration for a project on the Loddon River, where local farmers , catchment managers, and Boort schoolkids will get involved to plant 12,000 acquatic plants. This will allow them to release 200 critically endangered Silver Perch fingerlings and support other threatened fish species, such as the Murray Cod.”
“The Nationals in Government are ensuring that vital funding such as the Healthy Rivers Program is hitting the regions where it matters most. In Mallee, I have advocated in government for these grants for our region and am delighted to see them delivered locally.
Minister Pitt said today’s announcement was about putting communities back at the heart of the Basin Plan, with the Healthy Rivers Program forming a key part of the Australian Government’s Murray–Darling Communities Investment Package.
“My announcement of 72 projects in the latest rounds of the program total $11.5 million for communities ranging from Charleville to Murray Bridge to date, with more grants to come,” Minister Pitt said.
“Importantly, these projects will contribute to regional and rural economies across the Basin through supporting local jobs and purchasing of goods and supplies from local businesses, providing critical economic support in their recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, drought and bushfires.”
For more information on the successful projects, visit the department’s website.
Fast Facts
• 72 Healthy Rivers grants are being funded under the second small grants and large grant round of the Murray–Darling Healthy Rivers Program, including at Gunbower Creek, Birchip and the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park.
• Across Mallee, these projects will undertake over 800 hectares of weed control and 900 hectares of pest species management, plant 16,000 seedlings and involve over 400 volunteers.
• $695,000, in total announced funding in Mallee across all rounds of the program.

Up to $2 million in funding will be made available for boat ramp managers to undertake significant structural maintenance, making getting out on the water easier for all Victorians.
Set to be delivered as part of the state government’s $31 million Better Boating Fund, the program will be run as a competitive grants program overseen by Better Boating Victoria (BBV).
The Recreational Structural Maintenance Program will be open to ramp managers required to undertake structural maintenance and asset replacement works at publicly accessible boating facilities.
A review led by BBV into boating infrastructure management found facilities across Port Phillip, and Western Port vary in consistency, and replacing and maintaining boating facilities can be costly for asset managers who do not have direct funding support.

From installing more user-friendly pontoons or to laying down a new boat ramp surface, the grants, worth up to $300,000 each, will help make boating better.
The program is open to committees of management and local waterway authorities able to along with state and local government departments and agencies.
An unprecedented increase from the previous $5 million per year investment, the Better Boating Fund delivers on a promise the state government made to Victorians at the 2018 election to ensure all money from the licence fees and recreational vessel registration of Victorian boaters goes to improving boating infrastructure and programs.
The Department of Transport and Better Boating Victoria manage the fund’s distribution – having already made it free to park and launch at Victorian boat ramps – and has embarked on the most significant boat ramp construction program in the state’s history.
The Recreational Boating Structural Maintenance Program grants applications are now open and close on Wednesday, 23 March. For more information, head to the Better Boating Victoria website.
Minister for Fishing and Boating Melissa Horne: “It is critical boaters have safe and user-friendly facilities when launching or retrieving their vessels, and this grants program will help ramp managers carry out important structural maintenance. This is just another way we are ensuring boating registration and licencing fees are reinvested into projects that will make recreational boating in Victoria even better.”

AROUND 18 months ago Dolly Adamson and her family moved into a century-old house in Kyneton. Not long after that the weirdness commenced, the shadows flickering in the corners, the creaks, the groans. All those little things that suggest that your new home harbours something more than you may expect or even wish for.
“When we moved in I had doors slamming on me and some strange things happen,” says Dolly. “I didn’t feel like we were welcome in the house and I never felt like that before. But I do think the house started me on my spooky little path.”

That spooky little path was the development of Kyneton Paranormal and her new career as a paranormal investigator. She connected up with Psychic Bec, a medium from the area and began with three gatherings at the Kyneton Museum last May. Psychic Bec led a group seance and Dolly occupied another room with equipment designed to detect the presence of any disembodied entities that may arise.
As any person intrigued by Fortean phenomena (the strange and mysterious) would know, ghost and spirit experiences are shaped and formed by their cultural context. For example, in many parts of Asia, spirits are often dismembered soul-sucking beings dragging their entrails about. In European cultures they can manifest as pale shapes, descending stairs, occupying hallways and walking through the walls where they once lived and died. Modern Australia tends to follow that tradition, but when our weak anglo-descended phantom entities try to engage with the living, often they can only manage a tap on the shoulder, a chilly breeze or some scratching in the walls (think Patrick Swayze in the movie Ghost). They need all the help they can get to remind us mortals they are still there.

To assist their efforts in talking with us and documenting them if they appear, Dolly uses some indispensable equipment. These include cameras, several EMF (electro-magnetic field) meters, a Flux 2 response device (for detecting clear answers from visiting spirits) and a radiating EM antenna (for detecting temperature variations and other features). Other items are: one BooBuddy (a trigger object, such as a cuddly toy, which may be familiar and attractive to an entity thus enticing them to interact), and a EVP (electronic voice phenomena) recorder for documenting various unexplained speech and/or noises. Equipped with this array of electronics, the results and interactions have been intriguing.
“We captured the spirit of a little boy peek-a-booing on camera at one site (inset image) but didn’t realise until we looked at the photos later. At Odessa’s in Creswick we obtained voice recordings including the words ‘pushed’ and ‘justice’. And at Blackwood a spatula was thrown in the kitchen when we were talking about spirits.”
Since creating her ghost-hunting business, Kyneton Paranormal has been drawing in interest from around the state including the Rochester Hotel, the Victoria Hotel in Woodend, the Blackwood Hotel and Odessa at Leavers Hotel in Creswick.
“Our tours always bring out the sceptics and the firm believers, but they are a lot of fun and are all about seeing what we can discover. In England or America paranormal tours or investigations are hugely popular and help draw attention to sites and ultimately preserve them. And while there is a lot of history in our region it can often get neglected. By doing these events we can help generate more interest in the buildings – in other words, it keeps the lights on.”
Regardless of what people think about spectres, phantoms, apparitions, shades and other such vapours that may or may not inhabit your local bar, there is no doubt it helps maintain a community’s interest in their past. The National Trust certainly thinks so. They have approached Dolly to do a paranormal investigation at Barwon Park Mansion at Barwon Heads.
“We also have an event coming up at Clunes RSL in a couple of weeks’ time,” says Dolly. “I have been in contact with fellow paranormal investigator Leslie Scott and it seems that just about every place in Clunes is haunted and full of ghosts.”
Words: Tony Sawrey | Image: Contributed

QUESTION: What do poet Banjo Paterson, singer Simon McDonald of Springmount, photographer Daisy Harriett Llewelyn and the people of Creswick have in common?
Answer: They are all the subject of shows being presented at the inaugural CresFest, running across the first weekend of April, and bringing a new theatrical element to the music and dance festival that has been in the planning for over a year.
These shows are presented by actor Marg Dobson, poet Megan J Riedl, Creswick local Neil Adam and Celtic music legend Felix Meagher.

Poet Riedl will present her show I Know What Creswick Did Last Lockdown – a participatory pandemic poetry project created especially for CresFest 2022. Riedl said that the project “invites people who have experienced lockdowns due to Covid-19 in Creswick, Victoria to share their experiences – positive, negative and neutral – by way of an anonymous confession – a kind of creative therapy, if you will”.
Showing their confidence in the town of Creswick to pull off a great event, the Commonwealth Government (through Festivals Australia) has not only funded Stories of Us but two other projects as well. Creswick Sings will bring choir director Stella Savy to town to run both the Creswick Kids Choir and the Creswick Chorus.
And to close out the festival, Sapphire Bollywood Ensemble will join with Creswick Brass Band in a mash- up of historic proportions, to present the Brass and Bollywood Extravaganza.
“Unbelievably, we have over 350 musicians coming to the festival, each with their own unique talent and passion for performance,” festival convenor Judy Turner said.
As well as music, dance styles – ranging from flamenco to Bulgarian, from honky tonk to classical ballet – will be showcased and taught.
“We wanted to make as many opportunities for local artists to be involved as we could, so we put out a call. Over 100 expressions of interest came back, and we have proudly programmed them across the festival.”
The Shire Showcase will feature bands and soloists from Newlyn, Newbury, Creswick, Hepburn, Daylesford, Trentham, Lyonville, Kingston, Wheatsheaf and Smeaton. The YouThrive stage will feature young players from across the region strutting their stuff at the Old Post Office Stage.
The organisers hope for a massive turnout over the weekend of April 1 to 3 and are still keen to hear from people who would like to volunteer either as helpers over the weekend or as hosts for their out-of-town artists. All volunteers receive a weekend pass to the festival.
Link: www.cresfest.com.au/get-involved

Jade Moran and Lulu Gersbeck outside the Havilah Masonic Lodge in Creswick. As Primo Primates they will perform on the YouThrive Stage and in the IGA Busking competition

Image: Terry Hope | Words: Contributed

BEST vanilla slice award? How many hundreds of bakeries lay claim to that prize. But there is a new prize in town for the cafés and pubs of the Macedon Ranges, The Edgy Veg award.
Veg Action, an initiative of the Macedon Ranges Sustainability Group is running the award and Edgy Veg coordinator Lucy Campbell said one venue would be wearing the crown for the best plant-based dish, as voted by the customers. “This is an Australian first, happening in your local neighbourhood,” Lucy said.
“Around 20 of the most innovative and creative cafes and pubs in the Macedon Ranges will take part, and customers will get to comment and vote on the featured dishes over the Autumn Festival from March 25 to April 26.

“Kyneton’s Homegrown on Piper was the first café to submit a dish, Greens Galore. Two golden potato rostis with pea smash, sautéed broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale and chard, accompanied with sautéed garlic and thyme mushrooms, avocado, all drizzled with salsa verde and topped with sprinkled soy pepitas.”
Lucy said all the dishes would feature on The Edgy Veg Trail, a map showing where to sample great plant-based food in the Macedon Ranges during the Autumn Festival.
“It is aimed to attract locals and tourists alike. Armed with this map of all the venues in the ranges with plant-based dishes, why not impress your friends from the city by taking them to some of our fantastic eateries. It’s a perfect way to get out and show your support for local businesses too.”
The map is available at any Macedon Ranges tourist information centre or online at www.veg.mrsg.org.au/edgy-veg-awards Voting can also be done online.
Lucy said plant-based dishes were not only great for health but also for the planet. “According to a MedAlertHelp statistic if everyone went vegan, the world’s emissions related to food would drop 70 per cent by 2050. So why not utilise the expertise of our local chefs and try a plant-based dish today.”

Life On The Land – Series Two

IT CAN be hard taking down a Christmas tree at the end of December… but imagine taking down over 100 pine trees at the end of an era.
The year is 1957, in Australia, Menzies is Prime Minister, A Pub With No Beer is playing on the radio, In Melbourne Tonight has just started on the telly – albeit in black and white – and Melbourne won the footy grand final.
It’s also the year, once proudly announced on a now dilapidated sign, that the Miners Rest Primary School Endowment Plantation was established. It is iconic of its era but now it looks more like a haunted forest than an initiative that raised much-needed funds for small schools across regional Victoria.
I spoke to Bill Loader, he’s kind of the unofficial Mayor of Miners Rest. He’s lived here so long and so many people know him, he knows the history of every corner of the area. I’m pretty sure one day, a committee’s going to vote to put a blue plaque directly on him. Not on his house. On Bill himself.
He says that the plantation has just sort of always been there, that everybody knew about it but that knowledge has faded over time. Endowment plantations were once scattered across the state and Bill wanted to know what is happening with the Miners Rest one now, too.
“Not every school had them, but it was a means of raising funds for the school. They must have been looking right into the future,” he said.

Back in the day, the government bought land, donated it to a school that would organise to have pine trees planted on it, harvested them, and the money made went to the school. Usually smaller, regional schools. The principal at Miners Rest, Dale Power? His dad was the principal at Stawell Primary School, and he managed their endowment plantation. It was a bit of a boom-time for forward planning back then, it turns out.
But after its first harvest, in 1989, the Miners Rest replanting wasn’t a great success. It needed to be tended within those first two growing years, with the lower limbs lopped off to grow lovely straight trees for lumber. They weren’t tended as closely as they should have been, according to an assessor decades later, and so the whole plantation was only good for pulp. Which wasn’t getting very good prices on the market.
The plantation was also proving problematic. Regulations and requirements have become far more strict during the intervening years, and maintenance to comply with fire hazard reductions, emergency management plans…it’s a lot to keep up with for a return on investment that was about $40,000 for the first harvest. It’s good money, for a great school. But compared to the $20m value of the epic new school that’s just opened? It’s hard to see how it could really be worth keeping.
The school council voted to off-load the asset. Or…the liability. But that didn’t go to plan, either. It turned out that the school had to pay for the trees to be removed, all the stumps pulled out and the land restored to its pre-plantation state before it could be sold. And that wasn’t going to be cheap.
A more recent assessment came back as cost-neutral – the company would harvest the trees for pulp, remove all of the old tree stumps, rehabilitating the land. The school wouldn’t get any money; but it also wouldn’t cost it any, either.
The felling of the Miners Rest Endowment Plantation may be the end of an era that has been slowly fading since 1957. But with this year, 2022, set to be remembered as a global pandemic year and locally, for the opening of a brand new $20 million primary school…could it instead, perhaps, be the beginning of a new era? The principal, Dale Power, seems to know the answer.
“This is an amazing site that will stand our community and future learners in good stead for many, many generations of students to come.”

Australia, 1957
It was a long time ago – and in the year that the Miners Rest Primary School Endowment Plantation, a symbol of its time, was established, there was a lot happening across the country:
• Australia’s first Woolworths food store opened, in Sydney
• Australia’s first shopping centre opened, in Brisbane
• The ‘Nibble Nobby’s Nuts’ campaign was first launched

• Gary Sweet was born, as were Penny Cook, Kevin Rudd, Nick Cave, Tony Abbott and Peter Costello

Words: Kate Taylor

Donna, your “Just Sayin’…” in The Local p18, Issue 246 was so on point.
As the new wife of a CFA volunteer of more than two decades, it has taken quite an adjustment to living life with a pager that might, at any moment, take my husband off to potentially step into the face of a raging bushfire or to face being on scene at a traffic or other accident.
To watch the Fire Rescue Victoria ad, suggesting that the only “professional” firefighters are paid ones, is an insult to my husband and all his volunteer colleagues in our local brigades.
Before I moved to the country, I had no real idea about how country towns managed fires and other incidents. Now I know that it takes the efforts of a bunch of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, without a pay packet in sight.
Thank you to every one of you.

• Helen van der Werff, Trentham

Great article! (Just Sayin’… Issue 246). When John and I first saw this ad we were both incensed, to use a polite term.
We are both members of the Trentham Fire Brigade, John as a fire-fighter and secretary, I am non-operational. The initial argy-bargy, as you politely described it, caused a lot of angst within the brigade and some of the community, with a real concern that some volunteer fighters would walk away.
The nuances then seemed that volunteers were lesser than the career firefighters, even suggestions of different doors to enter the fire station and the fire trucks, incident controllers, uniforms and other petty things.
And now this insulting ad. I guess some/all local brigade members are annoyed. This ad does not address rural areas – “ready for anything, guaranteed rapid response” – in Trentham and surrounds? Not likely?
I think the ad is misleading. And yes we all need to be ready for any emergency, it’s part of living in a rural and fire-prone area. Anyone see them during the storm rescue and clean-up? Sorry if it’s a bit of a rant and I did yell at the TV ad too.

• Bette McLaren, Trentham

BEAUTIFUL Sadie is now looking for her forever home after a life saving, crowd-funded operation.
Sadie is a purpose-bred golden retriever born with a hereditary genetic condition issue known as ectopic ureter(s).
Sadly, her breeder took Sadie to be euthanised at just three weeks old when she started to leak urine, a sign of the condition.

But the veterinarian had her relinquished and Canuck Rescue was contacted to help give this little girl the best chance at getting the help she deserves.
She is now nine months old, on the mend, desexed and looking for a forever home where she can live and thrive after a dodgy start to life.
If you can help get in touch with Beth at houghtonbe@gmail.com