The Daylesford Girl Guides are among those to benefit from some state funding through the Living Local Fund.

The Minister for Regional Development Harriet Shing and the Member for Macedon, Mary-Anne Thomas
have announced $275,706 funding for nine local projects through the Labor Government’s Living Local
Fund.
The local Girl Guides group has received $47,000 for the removal of potentially harmful asbestos in its Daylesford hall.

The funding is also going towards new weatherboards and plastering both externally and internally to include plumbing, upgraded electrical work, painting, flooring and sustainable heating and cooling to deliver a safer environment for those who use the Hall.

In a coup for the region, Creswick Trails will host mountain biking competition in the 2026
Commonwealth Games.
Tenders for the construction of the trails have closed and Hepburn Shire Council
is working through the formal tender evaluation process.

A report regarding the appointment of a successful tenderer will go to the November 15 council meeting and it is believed construction on the Creswick Trails will end in mid-2024.

The Victorian government in recent days announced that the Creswick Trails will host mountain biking competition in the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

Hepburn mayor, Cr Tim Drylie, said that the Creswick Trails network will be one of Australia’s leading mountain biking destinations. 

“The Creswick Trails project will deliver 60 kilometres of world-class mountain bike trails built in and around the Regional Park, State Forest and plantation lands of Creswick,” Cr Drylie said.

Electronic Spring is a free concert at Hepburn Springs soundshell on November 12 from 3pm and staged by local music collective SMAM.

It is aimed at showcasing some of the area’s amazing world-class electronic musical talent.
This will be the third event of 2022 for SMAM and promises to be the best yet.
Organiser Ben Andrew encourages all to “come along and get into the music in a
beautiful setting”.
Here are some of the artists to enjoy.
Music producer, drummer and percussionist, Maarten Stenakur is a lover of music
and film from around the world.

Drawing inspiration from traditional music and movie soundtracks, he creates music which seeks to evoke memories, feelings and imagery of one’s imagination.
Contrast combine the two disciplines of jazz and electronics. Justin Butler, Bodhi
Taylor and Arlo Deakin create unique original music.
Unruhe featuring Greg, under several different names, has been involved in producing
and performing electronic music for decades.

After a long love affair with drums and bass, he got involved in music production for independent films and live performances, working in Europe and China for around ten years.

The Identity Project (aka Michael Groth) create a range of electronic musical
styles depending on setting and mood. For this show, IDP will likely serve up a dance
friendly set “to keep the Shell groovin'”.

Square Wave Bounce are a local duo exploring electropop and synthwave genres.
Justine Walsh combines live looping with vocals, electric cello and electric guitar
to create a unique and atmospheric soundscape.

Words: Darren Lowe

Hepburn Shire Council has appointed Melbourne-based Fitzroys commercial real
estate agency to sell The Rex.
The expression of interest process was due to open last week. A council media release said any
future use and works at the building will be subject to all heritage and land use planning controls.

The council decided to sell the historic Vincent Street, Daylesford building in July after a
series of issues and escalating costs.

Hepburn Matters has launched a petition calling upon Hepburn Shire
councillors to favourably consider bids to purchase The Rex that include
provision for community use and heritage protections.

The survey, available at the group’s Facebook page, asks councillors to weight
bids for the sale of the building that take into account provision for community use,
especially a cinema, along with any proposed development in Duke and Vincent
streets does not exceed the height of current buildings in central Vincent Street.

As the state election closes in, Macedon state Labor MP Mary-Anne Thomas
continues to deflect questions on whether she will support the $75 million
redevelopment of the Daylesford Hospital.
The Local emailed that query last week and in return received a quote
“attributable to a Victorian Government spokesperson”.
“We are upgrading hospitals right across regional Victoria, training and hiring
thousands of nurses and paramedics and making it free to study nursing. Our $790
million Regional Health Infrastructure Fund is investing in upgrades and new
facilities right across regional Victoria including at Daylesford where we are delivering
new operating theatres so more locals can get the care they need close to home.”

In a world where too many people are lonely and isolated, the motto of the
Trentham and Districts Life Activities Club stands like a golden beacon of
possibility.
“Our motto is life’s best together,” club president Di Clausen said.
For those not already familiar, the Life Activities Club is aimed at people aged
over 50 and its main aim is encouraging socialising and exercising in a way that boosts
quality of life for all concerned.
Right now the local club boats a robust membership, averaging about 100 people
from across the wider area, on its books.
But Di says they’re keen to welcome more, particularly newcomers to their patch.
“We are auspiced by Life Activities Victoria and we started 12 years ago but there
are so many new people of our age coming into the area now,” she says.
Becoming a member of the club is a great way to meet new people, make new
friends and get into a whole range of beneficial and enjoyable doings. Di reels off a few
examples of these.
“We have garden lovers, bushwalking, petanque, Wednesday walkers which is
different to bushwalkers, craft, mahjong, Chinese exercise like tai chi, a jigsaw puzzle
library, a foodies’ group…
“Our foodies group has a meeting once a month. In summer we go out for dinner
and in winter we go out for lunch. We also do barbeques and picnics.”
Di says that while the Trentham Mechanics Hall is being overhauled to become a
new community hub, the club meets at various locations in and around the town. But
ultimately it’s hoped some space will be designated for the club in the new hub.
“We do have a representative on the project advisory committee for the Mechanics
Hall,” Di said. “Positive ageing is very much at the forefront of what we do and we’ve
had input into the shire’s positive ageing strategy.
“There are over 20 clubs in Victoria but only three in country Victoria including
us, Ballarat and Wangaratta.
“Our aim is to enhance the mind and to energise the body.”
Di says those interested are more than welcome to contact her to find out more by
phoning 0429 008 763.

Music to suit all tastes will be happening at this year’s 148th Daylesford Agricultural Show, held on Saturday, November 26.
“Daylesford prides itself on being an artistic and talented community and the Hepburn Shire youth workers have a done a lot to encourage the development of young people’s bands and dancing groups,
so we will try offering them another venue,” show society president Don Harvey said.
“We will still have the great Daylesford Community Brass Band doing a set
outdoors at about lunchtime, just as they have since the 1800s, but this year there will
also be music ‘by locals for locals’ in two pavilions as well.”
Mr Harvey said in the Hall of Flowers (the Table Tennis Pavilion), the Daylesford
Horticultural Society and the Friends of Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens would have
their displays alongside the flower and farm produce competitions but they will also
have Vanessa Craven and her band Lunar Mist providing a melodic background.
However, in the Tom Ford Pavilion the music will be loud and passionate. Four
bands will provide 45-minute sets by young musicians from Daylesford and Trentham.
There will also be a set from a solo performer and hopefully the hip hop dancers.
Two bands are already locked in. Will Barclay’s Seventh Circle from Trentham will
kick off proceedings followed by Arlo Autumnus, Campbell Kay and Bodhi Taylor
from Trentham, two duelling guitars and a great drummer, pictured, who make up
Daylesford band, Contrast. The concert starts at 11.30am and will finish about 3pm.
The bands are performing for free and students are admitted free to the show
thanks to the state government’s Covid Recovery Program.

A four-year plan for domestic animals was adopted at a Hepburn Shire Council meeting last week.
The Domestic Animal Management Plan 2021-2025 provides a strategic framework for the council to guide policy direction, service programs, initiatives and action plans related to animal management.
Almost 500 residents, both pet owners and non-pet owners, contributed to the plan by completing an online survey or by making a written submission.
Some of the most common concerns were about cat curfews and cat containment
programs, greater action on feral cats and prohibiting dogs on sporting grounds and
an increase in enforcement.
Some of the new actions contained in the plan include developing a cat curfew
program (2022/2023), implementing that policy (July 2023), working towards the
development of a 24-hour cat containment policy (2025) and continuing to work
with community and external organisations on actions relating to reduction of feral
cat population throughout the shire.
An off-lead dog park master plan will be developed next year.

A group of Daylesford College students recently celebrated the launch of a
cutting-edge gardening program.
Mow2Grow is a Central Highlands Rural Health Population Health initiative in
partnership with the college that aims to promote student self-esteem, confidence,
and emotional intelligence and improve their overall mental well-being through
hands-on learning outside the classroom.
The Year 9 and 10 students will also contribute to community recovery efforts
following severe weather events across the region last year, assisting residents in
cleaning up private property and public and community spaces.
Over the next eight weeks, the Mow2Grow students will be engaged in a range
of immersive activities, including mowing, the safe use of power tools and general
gardening skills.

DOROTHEA Mackellar wrote: “I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains, Of ragged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea, Her beauty and her terror – the wide brown land for me!”
But for the love of God, enough already.
A bit of stability about the place wouldn’t go amiss. The long-forgotten bushfires from 2020 were the start of a long run of bad luck for the world.
The strain of the pandemic is still on the faces of the people, with a new wave predicted in November and they won’t release any of the new sharpened vaccine to those of us who want it.
And the rain keeps on falling and the flood waters keep building. Meanwhile I spoke to one of our journalists in California,
Jeff Glorfeld, and it is dry as a chip and hot as damnation over there with no ease-up
or precipitation in sight.
But of course climate change isn’t a real thing, it’s just something the greenies
made up, right? Well, for those of us who pay attention through to the hardest of
climate change denialists, we all should be taking notice of what the world is trying to
tell us.
Mother Nature will always win out and at the moment she seems to be clearing
her throat after years of us ripping up the earth in search of minerals, gems and fossil
fuels to burn into the atmosphere. But what’s next?
I do pessimistically wonder if it is all too late, has the scale tipped too far now and
what will be the correction needed in order for things to rebalance? The point being
that there are too many humans and we have wiped out a fair portion of the animals’
habitat and are drilling countless holes in the ozone with pollution.
I have a lot of questions for Mother Nature or whoever is control of this shitshow.
Like, is my shopping bag recycling effort really going to work? What will it take to
rebalance the order of things? And what is the actual cost to the environment to mill-up and produce an electric car, and will it make enough of a difference?
I know it is not all my generation’s fault. In the many years since the invention
of the steam engine we have been giving Mother Nature the bird. But all we have is
right now and those poor buggers up the road in Rochester won’t have running water
or sewerage for another eight weeks.
According to Jane Bunn, our wonderful weather woman (you know what I am
talking about), we are to expect these huge dumps of rain at the rate of almost one a
week until February. WTH?
Where will all the water go? And where will all the displaced people go in a non-existing rental market? And if I have saved all my money for a rainy day, on which of the many rainy days can I spend it?
Rainy day rant over…
Image: Sarah Dalby

BLOODY hell, that was a busy week.
It started off with a strange weekend. Last Monday was Kyle’s birthday
and we decided to have a few people around on the Sunday. But we didn’t
think about the weather.
Yes, the rain had come and sort of gone but it was coming back on Sunday, or
so we believed. So we decided to change to the Saturday. And that meant trying to
remember who we had invited. We had gone a bit all out – hit the phones after a few
drinks – thinking an outdoor gathering would be a wonderful start to spring.
Anyway, we did what we could, and Friday rolled around and we realised our
backyard was pretty much still under water and our little gravel “party” area was an
island. And if anyone tried to walk out to it, they would pretty much be sucked into
the sodden grass. Let’s not even talk about parking cars.
Sooo, we decided to cancel Saturday. And once again, we tried very hard to
remember who we had invited and sent out lots of texts saying “sorry, too wet” and
most people wrote back “fair enough, good call” and we decided to take Kyle’s dad to
the pub for lunch instead.
Cliff was over from NZ for the big party. Well, to catch up with Kyle and myself
and have a bit of a look around the wonderful Central Highlands. And I don’t think I
have ever heard him turn down the chance for a beer.
Anyway, off we go to the pub, have some food and a couple of beers/wines and
arrive home all ready for a bit of a nanna nap. Not sure if you are allowed to say
nanna nap now. I think things like that are banned, like landlord. It implies nannas
get tired and need naps. Let’s call it a Donna nap from now on. I get tired and need
naps. And I am OK with that.
So we literally (sorry Jeff Glorfeld) were about to head to bed when we saw two
people walk past the window. We were like deer in headlights. Do we go childish and
hide, or go honest and say “go home”? In the end we went adult and said “welcome”.
Kyle hadn’t told them it was off because he didn’t think they would come. And then
another two people arrived and we said “welcome”. They had been texted but Kyle
accidentally sent their text to a random mechanic in Moe. Telling him not to come.
He had never been invited, so not so much of a letdown.
Anyway, we had a nice evening. I thought it was going to be a quiet drink – it
was about 4pm – but Kyle had other ideas and put on a slow-cook Greek lamb. And
refused to let people leave until it was served about four hours later. And had the
audacity to ask me if I had a Greek salad to accompany it. I told him I did not and it
was very un-PC to assume the woman will have salad components handy at all times.
(I actually could have made one but I was tired after missing my Donna nap.)
The following day, Sunday, was quiet and then Monday arrived and it was like the
old days. Stories, advertising, festivals, photos, more stories, more advertising…oh and
our bumper real estate feature.
This edition of The Local is 68 pages all up. A whopper and a great read, if I do
say so myself. And I do. Most of all it is just fantastic to see the world opening up
again and our amazing region coming to life. I know Covid is not over and if you see
me in the supermarket I will be the one with the mask but it is the best it has been for
a few years. And that’s great. But now I am a bit tired and I really am going to have a
nap. Don’t come to the door. Just sayin’…
(Jeff, who left us for a new life in America with his lovely wife Carol, subbed for us once and
pulled me up on using literally…as he should of, jokes, have.)

FOR more than a decade the Maldon Artist Network has provided a supportive environment and network for creatives in the regional area.
It was formed in 2011 as an initiative of Tricia Migdoll, who had moved to the area from New South Wales.
Tricia was a member of the Byron Bay artists’ network and had enquired at the art shop of her new hometown if there was a similar group in Maldon. The conversation was overhead by another local artist and from there, the Maldon Artist Network, or MANet as it is known, began.
The group started meeting on a monthly basis at Penny School, a cafe and art gallery in an historical building. However Tricia said that as not all artists could attend monthly gatherings an email list of more than 100 artists was compiled to share information.
“A desire to collaborate, along with the combination of creative and organisational skills in the network led to ideas about arts events that could be staged in Maldon,” she said.

“The purpose of these was to offer artists of the Maldon district opportunities to exhibit their work and to attract visitors and tourists to Maldon.”
Over the years members and visitors have come and gone but the main stayers of
MANet – Tricia, Jennifer Merkus and Catherine Tait, pictured, – each have brought
their organisational, display and curatorial skills to assist MANet in staging excellent
exhibitions.
Catherine said the first event, an Artwalk exhibiting works in most shop windows
in Maldon was held in 2013. “Thanks to sponsorship from the Maldon and District
Community Bank, a branch of the Bendigo Bank, the Artwalk was successful,” she
said. The event saw exhibitions of works from 70 artists.
The second event was the Maldon Portrait Prize 2014, presented and curated by
MANet. “The Portrait Prize showed the work of 50 finalists, who painted portraits
of people living in Mount Alexander,” Catherine said. “Dubbed the ‘Marchies’, the
artists’ works received much acclaim.”
Jennifer Kalionis, the director of the Castlemaine Gallery and Museum awarded
the first Maldon Portrait Prize 2014 to Tricia for her portrait of her husband Jim.
Since 2014 a further three Artwalks and portrait prizes have been organised by
MANet. As well as this the organisation also facilitated studio openings, pop-up
exhibitions, workshops and curated several Maldon art shows, sponsored by Maldon
Inc, an organisation for businesses in the area.
MANet is again busy after the lull caused by Covid with studio openings from
October 28 to November 6, held concurrently with the Maldon Folk Festival cup
weekend. And in partnership with Edge Galleries, a landscape prize will be offered in
2023 and another portrait prize is also in the offing. MANet will continue to meet
with pleasure to generate other ideas and to share artistic practice.
Link: www.maldonartistnetwork.org.au
Image: Leon Schoots

ARTIST Kaye Dixon grew up in Brisbane, moved to Melbourne in 1980 and then to Yandoit in 2000. Her love of photography started when she won a camera at a school fete.

In her 40s, when she moved to Yandoit, Kaye founded a holistic healing school and studied Visual Arts of
Photography at Bendigo University.
She then discovered her love of alternative printmaking techniques doing
workshops at Gold Street Studios in Trentham East. Kaye specialises in 19th century
photographic printing techniques, particularly gum bichromate, platinum, ziatype
and cyanotype processes. She chatted with Donna Kelly.

Donna: What do you love about what you do?

Kaye: I love the magic of making hand prints and not knowing how the image
will turn out till it’s washed in the water after exposure to UV light. I make digital
negatives and coat French paper with a photo sensitive emulsion of ferric ammonium
citrate in combination with potassium ferricyanide to produce the blue print or
cyanotype.

Donna: What drew you to your particular artforms?

Kaye: In my current work I combine sculpture, (built from found artifacts)
painting, and digital photography to produce hand-made prints.
I first started building the boats and my theme was memory. It’s believed bones
hold our memories. Living on a horse farm I was able to collect horse, sheep, bird,
and kangaroo bones. Some of the bones sadly came from roadkill.
I also collected seedpods from along the Brisbane River on my visits to my
parents, I grew up on that river so it holds memories of my wild young self.
As I was making the boats, I imagined them sailing over the ocean under
starry skies. In this body of work, this desire has been achieved through painting,
photography, and the alchemy of cyanotype. Bone women remind us to remember to
journey home to the magic and medicine deep inside the soul of the feminine.

Donna: What does your art say about you?

Kaye: The journey of the bone women is based on the way of the feminine. Using
intuitive wisdom and navigating by the stars over the seas to find new land; where
the sacredness of Mother Earth, the mysteries of the universe and the wild feminine
is revered. The bones hold lost and half-forgotten memories of Wild Woman. It is
her connection to wildish nature that carries stories, dreams, words, and song. Wild
Woman listens to what is seen and unseen; she whispers from our night dreams.
I acknowledge the ongoing repression of women and devastation of the
environment and the strong link between the two. I like to re-imagine woman’s place
in the world.

Donna: What do you hope your work says to others?

Kaye: The central themes in my work – a love of nature, mythology and concern
for the environment – are underpinned by my belief in the sacredness of all things.
I researched the mythology of each star constellation the bone women are sailing
under and all images are part of a narrative. For example, the scallop shell with bone
women reminds me of Aphrodite born from sea foam.
All over the world there is myth and narrative knowledge to do with the seven
sisters. Also they have always been navigational beacons.
Our First Nations people believe what happens on country is reflected in the sky.
For example, the emu within the Milky Way is in two of the images, one pointing
up and one pointing down, and for indigenous people this tells them when to collect
emu eggs and when to let them hatch.
We need to remember the sacredness of all things, that every living thing has a
spirit – animals, plants, stones…bone women remember when they lived in harmony
with the land; when humans, animals and plants were temples of living spirits.
Australia has the fastest species extinction rate on the planet and we are facing a
climate crisis. We need to remember.

Donna: Where can people view your art?

Kaye: I have an exhibition, Bone Women – an exhibition of mixed media
prints, at Gold Street Studios in Trentham East until November 20. Viewing by
appointment through Ellie on 5424 1835 or ellie@goldstreetstudios.com.au.
Link: www.kayedixonart.com.au

Image: Margund Sallowsky

Hepburn Shire U3A’s AGM guest speaker is Elaine Pearson, the director of Human Rights
Watch’s Asia Division, overseeing the work of the division in more than 20 countries, based
in Sydney.
Ms Pearson joined Human Rights Watch in 2007 and was formerly the deputy director of
the Asia Division and then established Human Rights Watch’s Australia office, working as the
organisation’s inaugural Australia director from 2013-2022.
She has conducted numerous human rights investigations in the Asia-Pacific region and
around the world. Prior to joining Human Rights Watch, Ms Pearson worked for the United Nations
and various non-governmental organisations in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kathmandu and
London.
She is an adjunct lecturer in law at the University of New South Wales, on the
advisory committee of UNSW’s Australian Human Rights Institute and on the board
of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women.
Ms Pearson holds degrees in law and arts from Murdoch University and obtained
her Master’s degree in public policy at Princeton University’s School of Public and
International Affairs.
She is the author of Chasing Wrongs and Rights, a human rights travelogue,
influenced in part by how her Chinese maternal grandmother had been sold to an
opera troupe to save the family from starvation, published by Simon and Schuster in
September this year.
In Chasing Wrongs and Rights Ms Pearson shares her experiences defending human
rights – from human trafficking in Nepal to the ‘drug war’ in the Philippines to
treatment of detainees in Papua New Guinea and in Australia – offering an extremely
involving personal account of how far the world has come, and how far there is to go.
Growing up in Perth, Ms Pearson always dreamed of the wider world. As soon as
she could, Ms Pearson followed her interest in women’s rights and people-trafficking,
interviewing sex workers and victims of trafficking on the streets of Bangkok and
Amsterdam’s red light district. Her experiences in Nepal and Nigeria profoundly
shaped her understanding of how governments and NGOs need to protect the rights of
victims, as well as how poverty, corruption and war drive trafficking in the first place.
Hepburn Shire U3A’s AGM is on Tuesday, November 8 at the Daylesford Town
Hall. The meeting starts at 10am with Ms Pearson speaking at 10.30am followed by
morning tea. RSVPs to info@u3ahepburnshir