The Hepburn Shire Council has made a strong submission on the latest consultation report into the Victoria New South Wales Interconnector West (VNI West) project, a high capacity 500 kilovolt (kV) double-circuit overhead transmission line between Victoria and New South Wales.

While the council says it’s highly supportive of renewable energy, the submission outlines several concerns.

These included “the lack of transparency of the planning processes and assessments; the lack of consideration for undergrounding powerlines; the proposed transmission line route; an increase in bushfire risk; poor consultation throughout the project; minimal consideration for competing land uses and insufficient compensation for affected communities”.

Those interested can Read Council’s submission.

The Fire Danger Period has now ended across Hepburn Shire.

The CFA advised the end of the 2022-23 Fire Danger Period for Hepburn terminated as of this Monday April 17.

CFA declares the Fire Danger Period for each municipality (shire or council) at different times in the lead up to the fire season. It depends on the amount of rain, grassland curing rate and other local conditions.

The Fire Danger Period may be declared as early as October in some municipalities, and typically remains in place until the fire danger lessens, which could be as late as May.

However the Hepburn Shire Council has advised the community to Contact your local council to find out what municipal local laws may be in place, warning that “local laws may be in place all year”.

They Hepburn Shire Council says it is releasing a survey and background report, and would like community feedback on planning issues impacting local farming areas. 

The strategy will consider future agricultural needs and requirements in the shire and seek to ensure agricultural land is adequately protected.

It will include a review of relevant provisions relating to farming in the Hepburn Planning Scheme, such as permissible uses and developments and subdivision.

The strategy will also seek to provide a better understanding of the risks and challenges posed in the Shire’s small rural settlements to guide development consistent with the municipality’s inherent rural character and other attributes.

The survey will be available on the Participate Hepburn website.

The newly upgraded Quarry Street Reserve public amenities at Trentham are now open to the public. 

There are some minor updates to be carried out in coming weeks but it’s all ready for people to visit and use. 

The upgrade includes installation of two new electric barbecues, all-abilities toilet facilities, a drinking fountain, accessible carpark and paths. 
 
The Hepburn Shire Council has acknowledged the committee of management for its role in managing the park and its work supporting the facility upgrade.

An official opening will be held soon.

Applications for the 2023 Upskill and Invest Young Farmers Scholarships are now open, providing an
opportunity for local young farmers in Hepburn Shire and across the state to gain valuable new skills and invest in their future.
Member for Macedon, Mary-Anne Thomas has welcomed the launch of this year’s Upskill and Invest
Young Farmers Scholarship, encouraging the next generation of farmers to apply and contribute to
the future of Victoria’s vibrant agriculture sector.
The program offers scholarships of up to $10,000 with each recipient initially receiving up to $5,000
to support their training and study, and up to $5,000 to invest in putting their new skills into practice.
Successful applicants can receive training in areas such as business and risk management, genetics
and pasture management, digital agriculture or adapting to climate change. When they complete their
studies, they can invest in professional development and business planning, on-farm practices or
equipment and technology.
Since 2015, the Upskill and Invest Young Farmers Scholarship program has successfully supported 99
young farmers from a range of agriculture sectors.
One of the 2022 recipients is Harry Dawson from Glengarry, who is using his scholarship to help
transition from shearer to full-time sheep farmer.
Harry will upskill by studying best practice grazing techniques for efficiency and sustainability and will
invest in internal fencing and water troughs to divide his paddocks into smaller areas, enabling
rotational grazing and increased stock numbers.
Applications are open to farmers aged 35 and under who have been working in farm businesses for at
least three days a week for the past three months, with at least two years total experience on-farm.
Applications will close on 8 May and those learn more about the program and apply for a scholarship, can visit the Agriculture Victoria website.
For young farmers ready to expand their leadership skills and work with government, expressions of
interest are now open for the next Young Farmers Advisory Council.
Member for Macedon, Mary-Anne Thomas: “Victoria’s young farmers will be responsible for leading the agriculture sector into the future and that’s why it is vital we support their pursuit of a profitable, rewarding career.”
“The Upskill and Invest Young Farmers Scholarship program provides the next generation of farmers
with an opportunity to learn and invest in their career as part of the Victorian Government’s
commitment to the sustainability of the state’s agriculture industry.”

Crews have been busy in Ullina reconstructing 1.6 kilometres of Ullina Kooroocheang Road between Daylesford Clunes Road and Kellys Lane.

This $700,000 project is funded by Hepburn Shire Council and the Federal Government through the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program.

Works include widening the road, drainage upgrades and the construction of two new bus stops addressing safety concerns raised by local residents and Public Transport Victoria.

The final seal of the road is slated to be carried out next year.

The Macedon Ranges Shire Council has confirmed that work has paused on the Macedon Ranges Regional Sports Precinct (MRRSP) as a result of the Lloyd Group going into voluntary administration.

The administrators have written to the council indicating they will be in contact to discuss the project and next steps.

Macedon Ranges Shire Council chief executive officer Bernie O’Sullivan: “There continues to be a security presence on site during this time and the council is committed to finding a resolution as soon as possible, so construction on this priority project can continue.

“Fortunately, no other Macedon Ranges Shire Council projects are affected.

“We thank the Victorian Government and partnersfor their support of this important project for the Macedon Ranges to date, and our thoughts go out to Lloyd Group staff and contractors, many of whom working on theproject live locally or in neighbouring areas.”

Work had been progressing on the new sports precinct that’s being developed in New Gisborne to give regional athletes the ultimate home advantage.

Backed by a $14.8 million investment from the Victorian Government, the new precinct is intended to feature an indoor multi-sports stadium with three competition courts, the show courts will be line marked for netball and basketball, while the stadium will also be able to host badminton and volleyball.

Tasmania’s Isabel Rumble weaves stories together with nuanced vocals to create a space of open hearted intimacy and connection.

Drawing upon a strong folk roots influence, Rumble offers a contemporary sound likened to Laura Marling and Mazzy Star, inviting listeners into a cocoon of reflection on the subtleties of love, nature and human relationships. Isabel’s intuitively crafted songs define an observant and soul-stirring emerging young artist.

The he talented Hobart-based singer-songwriter is headed to Daylesford to play the Daylesford Hotel this Saturday evening April 22.

Growing up on Yuin country on the far south coast of NSW gifted Isabel with a strong connection to the land, a theme returned to often in her songwriting. After a period of study in Naarm/Melbourne, Isabel has since lived beside Austrian alps, amongst Finnish forests and in the German countryside.

After time overseas in 2019/20 Isabel returned to Australia to record and release her debut EP Warm Wind. The title track of the home recorded, self produced and self funded project received the Folk Federation of Tasmania’s annual Songwriting award and was shortlisted for the Australian Songwriters Association awards.

Isabel has since toured alongside guitar virtuoso Daniel Champagne and New Zealand’s Holly Arrowsmith and performed on stages with Australian folk icons Ruth Hazleton and Lucy Wise. She has played at Cygnet Folk Festival, MONA, Tasmania’s renowned Dark Mofo, Junction Arts Festival, and sold out her 2022 Precious Burden single launch in Naarm/Melbourne. Her music has been played on various radio stations including Double J. Isabel was selected from amongst 444 applicants to partake in the 2023 Women in Music Mentor program through AIR (Australian Independent Record Labels Association).

2022 saw Isabel release two singles from her debut album, which has been recorded with Tasmanian producer Luke Plumb (The Mae Trio, Ruth Hazleton), and will be released in early 2023. The full length record is set to be a powerful debut from one of Australia’s newest contemporary-folk voices.

The federal government is set to fall well short of its goal of building one
million homes over five years according a report from the National Housing
Finance and Investment Corporation, says Tim Reardon, Housing Industry
Association’s chief economist.
“Every state and territory needs to take action to attract more investment in the
housing sector to improve the supply of new homes,” Mr Reardon said. “Over the
decade, this will see an expected 79,300 shortfall in the supply of new homes. This
will see the acute rental shortage worsening and unnecessarily high increases in home
prices.

With urban sprawl and the ongoing destruction of remnant bushland habitat and valuable agricultural land becoming an increasing problem, one solution may be to instead focus more on redeveloping disused buildings in the centres of towns and cities, some trends analysts say.

“Done well, this could not only bring life and social connectivity to the centre of towns once again, creating affordable housing for today’s smaller households, but could also go far to help slow the alarming degradation of our remaining wild spaces and assist with preventing species loss.”

The Fred Hollows Foundation is searching for a new Junior Ambassador among year six students in Victoria as part of the 2023 Humanity Award.

The award celebrates children who show compassion, integrity and kindness
in their everyday lives.

Whether it’s helping others, supporting good causes or volunteering, no act of kindness is too small to acknowledge.

In 2022, Matilda Goodbourn, of Emmaus Catholic Primary School in Ballarat, was nominated by
her little sister for shining a light on social justice issues.

Inspired by The Big Issue magazine, Matilda created her own social justice publication for kids, The Little Issue.

Matilda, is a remarkably community-focused young woman.

Matilda created the ‘Little Issue’ magazine for kids to understand the ‘big issues’ of the world and she donates all proceeds to her local soup bus in Ballarat.

A few years ago Matilda asked her parents to buy a copy of the ‘Big Issue’. She had many questions after reading it, but first on her mind was why there wasn’t a version for kids.

Matilda then set herself to work creating her own. She finished the first issue when she was just 8 years old.
This year’s nominations close on July 21. Link: www.hollows.org/au/humanityaward

Anzac Day commemorates the anniversary of the landing of Australian and
New Zealand troops at Gallipoli, Turkiye on April 25, 1915. The date was
the start of the major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand
troops during World War I.
This Anzac Day services, marches, guest speeches and gunfire breakfasts are being
held to commemorate the day at locations throughout the region with many local
RSL sub-branches involved. They include:
Bullarto
1pm for 1.30pm start – Anzac Day Service at the Bullarto Hall
Clunes
6am – Dawn Service at the cenotaph, corner of Service and Fraser Streets, Clunes
8.30am – Cemetery Service at the Soldiers Graves, Clunes Cemetery
10.45 – March and Anzac Day Service. March starts at the RSL Building and
concludes at the cenotaph with service and wreath laying ceremony.
1pm – Two up at the National Hotel, Clunes
Creswick
5.40am – Dawn Service – assemble at the cenotaph for a 5:50am start followed by
the Gunfire Breakfast in the Senior Citizens Centre.
9.30am – Service at the Soldiers Graves at the Creswick Cemetery
10am – Service at the Memorial Stones, RSL Hall.
10.15am – Anyone wishing to take part in the March to assemble at the Splash
Park (bottom of Albert Street).
10.30am – March commences.
11am – Anzac Day service – Creswick Cenotaph.
2pm – Two up at the front of the RSL Hall.
Daylesford
Please arrive 15 minutes prior for each of the following:
6.30am – Dawn Service at Daylesford cenotaph to be followed by gunfire
breakfast at Daylesford RSL
10.30am – March from Daylesford Town Hall to the cenotaph for main Anzac
Day Service followed by lunch at RSL building.
Eganstown
9am – Anzac Day Service at the memorial
Hepburn Springs
8.30am – Anzac Day Service at the Hepburn Springs Memorial
Kingston (Avenue of Honour, Kingston)
9am – (arrive 8.30am) for Anzac Day Service at the cenotaph, corner of Victoria
and Kingston Roads at the start of the Avenue of Honour. Service to feature guest
speaker Lucas Duffy, great-grandson of WWI serviceman J.T. O’Connor.
Kyneton
6am – Dawn Service at the cenotaph to be followed by a gunfire breakfast by gold
coin donation at the Kyneton RSL Club Rooms, Mollison Street.
9.30am – Parade to the cenotaph
10am – Anzac Day Service at the cenotaph to be followed by light refreshments at
the RSL Club Rooms, Mollison Street.
Trentham
6am – Dawn Service, Trentham CFA Shed
11.30am – March starts at the Town Square and proceeds along High Street
11.30 – Refreshments at the Trentham Neighbourhood Centre
Woodend
11.30 – March up High Street to the Woodend RSL Building. Starts High St slip
Rd (opposite supermarket)
11.45am – Anzac Day Service at the Woodend RSL Club Rooms to be followed
by refreshments.

Get to know your garden’s friends
From the time Peta and I took over the drought-ridden property that became
our home, we were determined to “practise what I preached” in all my writings and
broadcasts – throw away those chemicals and let nature take its course.
The resultant health issues through growing up and working amid a chemical
saturated, family nursery taught me that simple message.
Rachel Carson’s terrifying treatise on the destruction of wildlife through the use of
pesticides, Silent Spring, was the final decider.
In the 15 years since we moved in, we’ve been delighted with the steadily
increasing number and varieties of the avian and predator insect life. Thankfully it has
also coincided with a dramatic decline in sap suckers and leaf chewers.
The bug hotels and other residential attractions and spider-web tolerance are
beginning to pay dividends, it’s now our second year of aphid-free roses and our
birdbaths are in constant demand.
The parrot nesting box has, for the third year, become a weekend retreat for a
ringtail possum, and our slug and snail population is taken care of by Lennie the
neighbourhood shingleback lizard.
So let’s all learn to identify, protect and encourage our resident predator insects to
administer their own form of biological pest control. In some countries people have
to buy them commercially to help keep their gardens and crops pest-free.
Believe it or not, one of the most effective of all predacious insects is that dainty,
little, red-spotted ladybird beetle with a main diet of soft-bodied insects like aphis,
mealybugs, scale and spider mites. Best of all, they begin their feasting while in the
larvae stage and, if times are tough and food supplies are scarce, they’ll turn their
attention onto the larvae of many beetles and weevils.
Next on the list is the praying mantis – that ferocious-looking grasshopper-like
fellow with enormous eyes and two arm-like forelegs which are always ready to grab
anything moving. It is an insectivore and won’t harm any vegetation. But is always
ready to grab anything that flies or moves close by.
They don’t stray very far and stay localised in the same area so if you can gather a
few they will serve you faithfully for a long time. They lay frothy egg cases with 50 or
more eggs in each, several times a year, so can build up numbers quite quickly.
Lacewings, those fragile greenish, large mosquito-like creatures, just love aphis
and similar soft-bodied insects. Their larvae, which some call ant lions, live in the
sand in funnel-like holes and eat any unsuspecting ant or bug that might stumble in.
The hoverfly, pictured, is so named because of their striped abdomen and
formation hovering habits and are quite harmless, mainly thriving on nectar. Their
larvae feed on various larvae.

I am also compelled to mention spiders, because they play a major role as pest
destroyers in the garden. I say ‘compelled’ because I confess to being a practising
arachnophobe due to a somewhat embarrassing and terribly painful encounter (you
guessed it) in my early teens. God bless modern internal plumbing.
I am more than comfortable in having our garden draped with spider webs as
long as they continue to help keep the garden pest-free. I’m also quite comfortable
with Peta naming the occasional huntsman that takes up residence in the house, as
long as they stay away from our bedroom – and the toilet.
Huntsman spiders belong to the international tarantula tribe and are, on the
whole, quite harmless as long they are left alone including, the golden huntsman,
pictured, which prefers the outdoors, finding their food among the bark of large tree.

G’day. I am one purr-sonality-packed little calico cat. The humans
have named me Iced – and I have a sister called Vovo.

I am a sweet girl, just six months old. I’m partial to a pat and very playful. I can be a little shy when
meeting new people, but it doesn’t take me long to get to know you. You
will then discover that I am actually very smoochy.

I would love to find a home where I can have lots of love and attention. So, if you are keen for a new best friend, just contact the shelter in Castlemaine on 5472 5277 and we can
meet up.

Microchip no. 956000016310915.
Link: www.maaw.org.au

with Clive Hartley

Gambling on gamay
Some of the first gamay vines were planted in Australia by Len Evans in 1976 at his aptly named home,
Loggerheads. I remember driving past the vines on the way to see him and questioning his sanity.
“You obviously don’t have vision,” was his tart reply.
However, I reckon the Hunter Valley is a tad warm for gamay and it is better suited to our cool climate region.
Lyons Will Estate definitely think so as they have just increased their plantings, and now boast of having the most comprehensive array of gamay clones in Australia. Owners Ollie Rapson and Renata Morello have joined forces with KC Vines and Rootstocks of Mildura and are trialling seven new clones.
They planted their first gamay vines in 2014 and started production in 2017
of this early ripening variety. In my books it is not much of a gamble. The grape is
renowned for producing beaujolais in France and it has been a sweet-heart varietal
in Australian sommelier circles for a while.
Styles vary from light and fruity to more serious pinot-like wines given oak
treatment. Grapes often undergo what is called a semi-carbonic maceration
whereby the bunches of grapes are placed in a vat and the weight crushes the grapes
at the bottom which then starts to ferment.
This triggers all sorts of reactions including an intracellular fermentation in the
unbroken grapes which makes a softer wine with cherry, kirsch and confectionery
aromas.
Lyons Will 2022 Gamay has just been released and it’s delicious. Fifty per cent
went through a semi-carbonic maceration with another four weeks on skins and
then it was matured in old French oak.
The resulting wine is full of aromas of cherries with some cinnamon and spice
notes. The light bodied palate has more sweet red fruits with soft tannins, the finish
is pleasantly persistent and long.
* Clive Hartley has just published the 7th edition of his book The Australian Wine Guide
and is running a two-hour master class on the Macedon Ranges featuring 8 local wines on
April 29 and June 3. To purchase a book or tickets go to www.australianwineguide.com.au
Wine notes with Clive Hartley will run regularly in the The Local

WHEN you live in the district for a while, as with my experience living here since 2005, you see life change, particularly as people age.
When I arrived, some of the folks were kids and now they have their own. Dudes with hair back in
the day now have none and some of the people have thickened up a bit with a middle-aged spread.
Not being a breeder I don’t have many reference points to getting older apart from the mirror. Breeders
can look at their offspring growing up and automatically feel their age. I get presented
with my niece’s teenage son and scratch my head as to how that happened, when I
reflect on her own birth and where I was and what I was doing.
Recently, my good wife has noticed some lines that go from the corner of my lip
and proceed down my face to where my jawline ought to be – I now officially have a
resting bitchface. Much like Ben Affleck, who said, “I have a very unhappy looking,
resting face”, after being snapped at the Grammys with wife Jennifer Lopez.

Is this my future? A look of grimace when I actually have no emotion going on.
These lines have just started so maybe some filler or whatever it takes to undo the
ageing.
When I first started writing this column 10 years ago, I had to project an old
grumpy man onto the page. These days the old boy is a little easier to channel.
Speaking of grumpy, I went down to the Glenlyon Dam the other evening to find
a large reflective sculpture on the shores of the dam. I hadn’t seen it before.

At first glance I thought it was something like the terminator, the one where
the free-forming blob of mercury turns into a policeman. I pondered if it had been
dropped there by aliens – it also looks like that blob at the Millennium Park in
Chicago, but on its end. Or maybe it was part of the reason why Red Rock Mining
had been sniffing around the district – maybe another rare earth metal? The only
thing that stopped me popping it in my ute to take down to the metals exchange was
the rather large “no vehicle” chain gates.
I suppose it’s just another artwork thing like our giant rainbow that the council
has decided will look good scattered around the place, but honestly, the Glenlyon
Dam?
Before I park this rant up for another couple of weeks I wanted to relate an
observation that a local shared with me recently.
He witnessed blackberry poisoning down at Lake Daylesford. All the poisoners
were well kitted up with PPE gear, breathing apparatus and the like, while people
walking their dogs were oblivious to the fact they were walking straight through the
contamination cloud.
Not a sign to be seen apart from a very small one, out of the way, that could be
seen from just one direction to warn the tourist blackberry pickers the job had been
done.
Good luck with the lawsuit. Rant over…