WHEN Susie O’Neill was writing When Bad Things Happen…Good Things Can Grow, to be launched in Daylesford next month, she couldn’t believe how her title turned into reality.

Thieves ransacked her children’s foundation, even stripping it of 28 years of history, but up stepped donors with $50,000 in cash.
Dr O’Neill, who holds a doctorate in education, is a former kindergarten head and primary teacher who founded KIDS Foundation to work with and support children at risk.
She came up with the idea of selling the foundation’s big building in Ballarat and using the money. Then she got council permission to renovate an old Department of Defence building, a rabbit- and rat-ridden structure at the local airport. Over the past 18 months, she says, it has been turned into a beautiful place.
Covid meant the building was empty for two and a half months. Excitement was high when Dr O’Neill and her team returned, champagne in hand for an end-of-day celebration, only to find there was no power.
And no computers, no screens, laptops or coffee machine. Even the lawnmower had been stolen. All up, $20,000 worth of equipment was gone, as well as the foundation’s history backed up on computer drives.
The next blow came the following night when a $50,000 trailer was stolen, later to be found dumped, damaged and spray-painted.
A foundation board member got Dr O’Neill on Neil Mitchell’s show on 3AW in Melbourne. Among those listening was Mark Ward, who runs the Mill Markets in Daylesford, Geelong and Ballarat (and soon in Bendigo).
He could scarcely wait to find a place to pull over on the Western Highway and ring Dr O’Neill to ask: “How much do you need?” His $10,000 went in that afternoon.
The owner to the Australian rights to the Pokemon trading card game then offered $10,000. His wife overheard him on the phone and said: “Double it”, he did. A racing stables tipped in another $10,000. Someone even gave a coffee machine.
For Mark Ward, helping a foundation for children means a lot. Leaving school at 12, he built a highly successful business and then at 54 became a father for the first time. He believed that he could give his son Archer the life he needs and fought and won a Family Court case for custody of the now eight-year-old.
So has he donated before? “All the time,” he says. “It means you can go to bed with a warm heart.”
In her book, Dr O’Neill tells of her car crash, bike accident in Bali, an agonising broken finger, shoulder reconstruction and knee surgery, all before she was 60. In 2008 she had a rare heart tumour that required open heart surgery. Six months later she competed in the World Ironman Championships in Las Vegas, swimming 3.8km, riding 180km and running 42.2km.
Over 10 years her foundation raised more than $1.5 million through events created with Ironman Australia. She even raised $150,000 from a young ironman contestant after talking to him during an event.
And while many not-for-profits are criticised for the amount of money spent on administration, she gives her salary to the foundation, thanks to the success of her husband Brett’s plumbing business. Their home is a converted church, with a dining-room that seats 20 (her family of 18 is about to hit that number).
What this money means is a safety program in 10,000 kindergartens, including 465,000 books on safety, some in four languages. Then there are the five camps around the country, connecting like-minded children who have been abused or experienced violence.
When Covid hit, Dr O’Neill was determined to find something positive, so she wrote Let Kids Be Kids, a soon-to-be-published book on raising happy, healthy and safe children.
Another book, SeeMore Bug Safety – the tiny germs we can’t see, explains Covid to small children.
Along the way she helped set up a scheme, suspended during Covid, by which small children visit people in aged homes.
Much of this began when she and Brett renovated a place for a child who was unwell but had to share his care with two elderly people.
Her When Bad Things Happen…Good Things Can Grow book will be launched at the Çonvent Gallery on December 21 by Dr Richard “Harry” Harris, hero of the rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018. And he’s a KIDS Foundation patron. The book’s subtitle reads: “Survivors’ stories of hope from the aftermath of unimaginable trauma, abuse and burns.”
As Mark Ward said of Dr O’Neill’s her foundation during our interview: “If it’s going to save one kid’s life, it’s worth it, and you are saving thousands.”

Words: Kevin Childs | Image: Kyle Barnes

THE shopfronts of Daylesford and surrounds will come alive later this month with 120 beautiful floral installations designed to celebrate spring and move towards a better future.

Sprout is a collaboration of many local groups and individuals, spearheaded by the Daylesford and District Horticultural Society in association with the Friends of Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens, designed to lift the spirits of traders and shoppers alike after long Covid restrictions.
Spokesperson Jill Teschendorff said the group’s members would be commandeering the Daylesford Town Hall on Friday, November 19, making “beautiful foliage installations for every shop keen to be involved”. They would be delivered to shopfronts by noon that day and remain on display for the weekend.
“It has been a hard time for everyone but particularly for the traders who have done it really tough, so we are going to use spring produce to bring people into the towns and also just spread happiness and joy.”
Jill said the response of traders had been phenomenal.
“They love that it is something they don’t have to do, we are doing it for them, and we have also been able to listen to their stories and how much they have suffered. That has been important as well.
“We then appealed to individuals and more than 40 local groups to see if they would like to be involved. We applied for and received grants from both the Hepburn Shire Council and the Community Bank Daylesford District. We are working with a tight budget but we will get there because of the support of the community. It really is the community helping the community.”
Jill said floral artist Denise Robinson would head up the team making the floral installations with many other florists also involved.
“There are just so many positives. The ‘Horties’ working with the Friends, meeting people, finding gardens we didn’t know about, and so many people donating produce. By the end of our event there will be new friendships made, new skills learnt and everyone will have a good time. We are going to come back to life and look forward to the future again.”

AS A youngster Dave Osborn would spend time with his grandfather who was in the logging trade. He learnt how to use a chainsaw and a passion for power garden tools, and particularly the STIHL brand, started to grow.

Fast forward to 2016 and Dave was working at STIHL Shop Dandenong but he and partner Emma Hall were wondering what it would be like to run their own business. They looked around the state; as former Gippsland residents they wanted a small community where they could raise their family, and found the STIHL Shop Daylesford up for sale.
It ticked all the right boxes and Dave made the move, six months before Emma who had a toddler Aidan and was pregnant with their second son Seth, who was born in Ballarat just a few weeks after the family arrived.
“It was probably the sixth or seventh dealership we looked at but we felt that Daylesford would give us the opportunity to raise our kids in a rural setting with a small community feel,” Emma said.
“But it was chaotic. It was peak season and Dave just had to hit the ground running. The business had been run with just one person but Dave quickly employed another mechanic and then Rob Yoxall joined us and then Bryce and Rob T. We also have two spring casuals and a junior who comes in after school and on Saturdays.”
Coming up to their fifth anniversary with the business, Emma said it had grown from a one-man band to eight people, including herself most days.
And the couple are far from resting on their laurels. They have added the factory next door, which will become the workshop, and in early 2022 their showroom will double in size – a great asset for the community. So there are significant changes happening, and Dave remains as passionate as ever about his work and the products he sells and services. This is a culture the couple has instilled in their employees.
“We will only sell products that are fit for purpose and that will last the test of time in this region. We go to great lengths to have quality conversations with our customers, often asking them to bring in a video of the terrain they are mowing or their garden landscape, just to make sure we sell them the right product for the job,” Emma said.
“We are just so happy to be celebrating five years in business and also five years in Daylesford. We are so thankful to the community for being so welcoming and supporting us on this journey.
“It has also been very rewarding to contribute back to the community. This is all the perfect fit for our family.”

DAYLESFORD Bowling Club held its open day for the 2021/2022 season on Saturday, November 6.

The current ladies’ champion Anne Bremner sent down the first jack/kitty and the current men’s champion Pat Torpey put down the first bowl.
The newly-named Ballarat Highlands Bowls Region Saturday pennant commences on November 13 with a slightly shortened season due to Covid-19 restrictions. Daylesford Bowling Club has entered three Saturday teams.
Tuesday pennant starts on November 16 with Daylesford having two teams. Play will continue with a break for Christmas/New Year with the finals scheduled during March. Full details regarding participating clubs can be found at www.ballarathighlands.bowls.com.au
New bowlers are always welcome at Daylesford and any enquiries should be directed to the president Ken Marshall on 5348 3313 or secretary Joan Field on 5348 3030.

Pictured, Pat Torpey, Ken Marshall and Anne Bremner on the green for the new season

Image: Kyle Barnes

Over the past few months, Bushfire Recovery Victoria has been capturing video footage from June 2021 storm-affected properties which have registered with BRV’s  clean-up program.

They include Diana and Shane who took over the Jubilee Lake Caravan Park just two months earlier.

Over the past few months, Bushfire Recovery Victoria has been capturing video footage from June 2021 storm-affected properties which have registered with BRV’s  clean-up program.

They include Central Highland local Paul Ulrik.

LAST week I hired a post hole digger from the blokes at Kyneton Hire. The reason for the post hole digger procurement was as an easy way to plant a few plants that have grown too big for their pots. The cost was $90 for a 24-hour hire and when you are looking down the barrel of a dozen or so big tree holes, a bargain by anyone’s calculation.
I picked the hole-maker up around 4.30pm the night before the post hole preparations and had planned to crack on to the job at “sparrow’s fart” – that’s old-man speak for early. The next morning, as is common in this lockdown enthusiasm- void world, I found myself dragging my feet. But I did have my lawnmower man Dave giving me a socially-distanced hand on this drab Central Highlands spring morning and the whole thing was only to take a few hours.
So, Dave cranked up this machine around 11am after patiently burning off time on his ride-on mower. Suddenly there was petrol everywhere. The fuel primer had burst and was spewing out fuel faster than a Middle Eastern pipeline.
So off I went back to Kyneton where they had me fixed and back in the ute within 10 minutes and back to the job 25 minutes later. We stopped for lunch on my return as it had been a bit of a stressful day thus far. Then Dave cranked up the driller once again. It ran for five minutes and bang, fuel started leaking from the same spot.
By this time we had given up on the job. Dave had got back on his mower and I was off to find a shovel and return this pile of junk.

Now, I realise that a rental place that rents out a lot of gear can’t be across the condition of every pick, shovel and post hole driller. But I was a little perplexed with the refund calculations after a day of disappointment. And not a single plant, planted.
Kyneton Hire Bloke: “So, how do you want to do this?”
Me: “Just on card.” (As in my refund.)
KHB: “No, how much of a refund?”
Me: “Huh?”
KHB: “What do you reckon – we split it down the guts?”
Perplexed me: “Sure, no problems. Hiring Dave for three hours ($120), two return trips to Kyneton fuel, wear and tear, mileage of 75 cents a kilometre ($102), my own time driving back and forth ($150) and then of course, the actual hire ($90). So the total cost is $462. Down the guts, great, just $231 thanks.” (Sadly, this is all in my head.)
Me: “I don’t think so mate. I got two half-holes drilled, a bloke at home on the clock and my running backward and forward.”
KHB: “Ahh, OK, I’ll process a full refund for you.”
Refund rant over…

YOU will find it hard to believe but I get annoyed at times. Yep, kind, placid me. If you really want proof, just ask Kyle. Maybe don’t.
But I am annoyed at the moment. I received a media release from Victoria’s Mental Health Minister James Merlino on September 14. It read: “As the serious Delta outbreak continues across the state, the Victorian Government is making sure more Victorians struggling during this difficult period have access to the mental health and wellbeing support they need. An investment of $13.3 million will deliver 20 pop-up community mental health services – with around 90 dedicated clinicians providing 93,000 additional hours of wellbeing checks and counselling to many thousands of Victorians needing support. The pop-up centres…will open progressively from the end of September across Melbourne and regional Victoria, with a dedicated triage and referral hotline and website to be established in coming days so people can start booking appointments.”
Now, like many, I have been struggling a little lately. With mental health. And I don’t mind putting that out there. I view mental health like physical health. Fractured ankle, get it sorted asap. Fractured mind, same thing. Simples.
So a couple of weeks back I visited a doctor and mentioned things like depression and anxiety. They asked, as they wrote a script for something else, “suicidal thoughts?”. “Nah,” I replied. One time a doctor asked that and I replied with “no more than the next person” and they looked at me a bit funny so I don’t say that anymore. Who knew?
Anyway, the doctor gave me a referral for the Daylesford Community Health Centre. I forgot about it, sort of, and then saw the media release and jumped on the phone. Hmmm. A very nice person answered and said I would need to drop the forms in and they could put it on the “agenda for the following Thursday meeting”. WTF? How many people are going to be looking at my referral? No shame but some privacy thanks.
Anyway, I was about to say to leave it when the nice person mentioned there would be a wait. “About two to three months.” WTF? Sorry for swearing again, but if I had a fractured ankle and someone said leave it for three months things are not going to end well. I said it was a little more urgent than that and asked if there were any other options. “Ballarat, if you can get there,” was the answer. Nothing about the wonderful pop-up centres being opened “progressively from the end of September”.
Look, I will be OK. I have a good hubby, good friends, have the Headspace mindfulness app, and did you know Cellarbrations (Foxxy’s at Daylesford) delivers. So I will get through.
Who I do really worry about are the people out there, hit by the pandemic, home schooling, stressed kids, stressed partners, people who have lost their jobs and incomes, who were already on the edge, or perhaps the June storm threw them over. But they don’t know how to get help, or push through bureaucracy or maybe contact the government department sending out bullshit media releases about all the help available. (I did send a personal email to Minister Merlino. Crickets…)
But the average person would find it really hard to get mental health help at the moment. And if we ever needed it, it is right now, not two or three months down the track. It’s a hard time right now and we need help right now. So if someone wants to let me know when those pop-up clinics are happening I would be very happy to publish their locations and contact details.
And I really will be fine. So don’t feel you need to get in touch. In fact, if one more person says “it is what it is”, that might just be the trigger. Just sayin’…
Oh, totally apropos of nothing, but how much does the below, from the Victorian Equal Opportunity & Human Rights Commission, strike fear into every business around the region? I have shortened it a little.
“Case study: Business refuses entry to a customer with a medical exception
“Peter visited his local garden centre and was not wearing a mask as he had a medical exception. He was approached by the business owner. Peter told the business owner he had a medical exception. The business owner asked him for a copy of a medical report, but Peter responded that he did not have to provide a copy as it was confidential. The business owner told him to leave the premises.
“Peter contacted the Commission to make a complaint of disability discrimination.The Commission’s conciliator explained to the owner that there appeared to be no requirement for businesses to require proof of a person’s medical exception or reasonably refuse entry to a premises. They also explained that the business may be in breach of discrimination law.
“Once the business owner understood more about her obligations under Victorian discrimination law, she agreed to provide an apology to Peter. The business owner also implemented new store policies for staff to follow and welcomed Peter back to the business.” One final WTF?

THIS is the second in The Local’s series of primary students tackling the topic My Dream and secondary students on The Stranger for the Words in Winter festival.
Competition coordinator Maureen Cooper praised the high standard of entries and said she looks forward to next year’s competition place-getters being celebrated in person at the Daylesford Town Hall.

My Dream
by Jaya, 9, Yandoit Primary School, Grade 4

The wind howled and the historical fine trees swayed. The forest was silent at night except for the wind. The ghost horse’s mane billowed out behind her like an endless magical wave of sorrow.
Her hooves clipped along the see-through frosted ice in the town. She waited by the old fountain. Meanwhile I stepped down the stairs as quiet as a mouse and opened the front door.
I could feel Fern, the mysterious ghost horse. I walked outside. I could sense Fern now as I stiffly walked towards the old fountain. Just then I heard the old mare speak, it sent shivers down my spine. “Hi Fern,” I said tracing my fingers down Fern’s star. I mounted and Fern cantered off.
“Fern, where are you taking me?” I screamed above the wind. Wait and see, she said in her head, as we reached a destruction site.
“Hey!” I said. “My dad works there.” “That’s the problem,” said Fern. “They’re cutting down our homes and building cities, we will be extinct if we stay out here forever.”
“That’s so sad,” I said. “I know,” said Fern. “I will try to persuade my dad to shut down the site, but it won’t be easy. He is making a lot of money out of this.” “I will try to scare them off,” said Fern. Fern cantered back.
I was horrified when I got home for breakfast. Dad was in the kitchen buttering toast. “Excuse me,” I said. “Yes,” said dad.
“Do you need to keep going with the destruction site?” “Are you kidding me?” he said. “Hey, get up for school.”

THIS is the second in The Local’s series of primary students tackling the topic My Dream and secondary students on The Stranger for the Words in Winter festival.
Competition coordinator Maureen Cooper praised the high standard of entries and said she looks forward to next year’s competition place-getters being celebrated in person at the Daylesford Town Hall.

Dreamy
by Myla, 8, St Michael’s Daylesford, Grade 2

Once I saw a rainbow high up in the sky.
But then I went to sleep again and I saw a dinosaur and a pterodactyl up and away high in the sky.
And then next day I dreamt of seeing a cave person in a tree up high and they could feel a cloud in the sky.
And then I climbed the tree and picked a flower for youoooooo!

THIS is the second in The Local’s series of primary students tackling the topic My Dream and secondary students on The Stranger for the Words in Winter festival.
Competition coordinator Maureen Cooper praised the high standard of entries and said she looks forward to next year’s competition place-getters being celebrated in person at the Daylesford Town Hall.

My Dream
by Rosie, 11, Daylesford Dharma School, Grade 5

The old tree on the side of the road dreaming in her abode. She dreamt of a place where the streets don’t have rubbish filling their lanes and blocking the waterways. A place where her roots won’t reach cement and her family who was never meant to be turned into paper.
She dreamt this every day for many days. She started worrying what if this never happens and rubbish has its way. Tree was in a daydream soaking up the land, when a little girl crossed the road with a rubbish bag in hand. She looked at the tree and started to smile, then she picked up the plastic, she did this for a while. She continued this, day after day.
The people who drive past see this and smile. The news spreads and soon more and more people pick up the rubbish just like the girl and clean up their streets.
Tree watched all this happen with a gentle gleaming smile. Tree decided that whenever she could do something good she would. On this oath she swore and forever on, she would.

THE Trentham Sportsground Reserve Pavilion has been given a $2M funding boost from the second round of the state government’s Community Sports Infrastructure Stimulus Program.
Once complete the sportsground will include universal access, family-friendly external public amenities, players’ changeroom, umpires’ changerooms, internal amenities and umpire rooms, a large multi-purpose dividable community meeting space, meeting and first aid rooms, provision of adequate sports club and furniture storage space, a combined functional commercial kitchen, canteen and bar and a sizeable covered outdoor spectator area overlooking the playing field and will benefit the Trentham football, netball and cricket clubs.
A media release said the facility would provide “a perfect base for football, netball and cricket clubs to develop programs, train, host matches and events”.
The construction tender is expected to be awarded at the October 19 Hepburn Shire Council meeting with work on the project starting in November and finishing in June 2023.

HE IS one of Australia’s favourite rockers, an ARIA Hall of Famer and together with The Black Sorrows he’s sold more than two million albums.

And just last month he released yet another album.
But 73-year-old, Joe Camilleri, who now calls the Macedon Ranges home, has no plans to slow down.
Joe’s publicist arranged a half-hour chat. But 75 minutes later we had covered topics ranging across a leaking makeshift home recording studio, gardening, endless housework, more than 400 shows cancelled, lockdown stresses, friendships with his neighbours and random acts of kindness that he has never experienced.
Joe, despite the fame and all that’s associated with it, is a dad with young kids just trying to get through constant lockdowns and navigate his Australian tour, constantly in threat of cancellations.
Joe’s called the area home for around three years and it was a spontaneous drive to Macedon Ranges with his former partner that changed his life and his postcode. “We decided to drive to the area as that’s where my dad used to take me as a kid and when we stopped to get a coffee in Kyneton the café owner recognised me. We got chatting and she mentioned a house that was for sale,” he said.
“We went around and it’s a Japanese style box house. I’m not really into that style. I’m more into art deco and art nouveau but it was the tree in the front yard that was amazing. The owner of the house was a well-known local artist and had the house set out beautifully. After kicking the tyres so to speak and turning taps on and off, we ended up buying it. A drive ended in a coffee and a house,” he said.
Joe has settled into country life thanks to neighbours (including an inspirational 80-year-called Tom) who have all become friends, along with the peace he has found in his garden.
“Having lived in the inner city for years means there’s a lot to learn when you move to the country. Like shovels. There are so many for different uses. And wheelbarrows. My neighbours have helped me from the start gently advising me on what I needed and helping. There is something quite magic living in the country,” he said.
“I have been practicing the saxophone every morning. One day a neighbour came by and said he gets so much pleasure from listening every morning that he recorded it to play back. Another time I opened the front door and found a bag of lemons. No note but a neighbour providing joy through dropping off lemons. It’s a beautiful life here.”
Joe has two school-aged children so still frequents Melbourne for visits and his little girl is always at his country home.
But asked if he has any regrets moving out of the city, it’s ‘none at all’.
Celebrities from the music, sport and entertainment industry live or regularly holiday in the Macedon Ranges and Hepburn shires. For Joe, the ability just to be one of the locals and to be seen as a person first has been ‘wonderful.’
Joe is a true gentleman – a self-taught musician who has made 51 albums, has travelled the world with Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons in his early career and later with the Black Sorrows, who admits he drank his way through many tours, was frivolous with money but realised one day that wasn’t the way he wanted to live his life.
He’s pretty chuffed with his new album and teamed up with friend and long-time writing partner Nick Smith who co-wrote 11 tracks on the album, Saint Georges Road. At the final listening session, as the title track was played, Joe recalls a profound moment, “We were two like-minded souls coming together for what could be the last time…we knew we had something special…a record that was a culmination of everything I’d done before and probably the best record I’ve made.
“The following day our producer Peter Solley headed back to his home in the US. The day after that Australia’s borders were shut.”
Joe Camilleri, with The Black Sorrows, will perform on Friday, October 15 at the Palais Hepburn in Hepburn Springs as part of their Livin’ Like Kings National Tour and for Joe it’s a chance to meet some more ‘neighbours’ now that he’s a local.
Pictured, Joe Camilleri, second from right, and The Black Sorrows
Words: Narelle Groenhout | Im

A FEW Fridays ago I went out for lunch with a vaccinated friend. Isn’t that a sign of the times – I don’t describe him as an old friend, a good mate, someone I’ve known since high school, who I’ve shared many adventures with over the years. No, he’s a vaccinated friend.

adventures with over the years. No, he’s a vaccinated friend.
So anyway, it’s a nice little restaurant with a menu that features Caribbean flavours and styles from the US south: Cajun jambalaya, Cuban pulled pork, fried catfish po’ boy sandwiches, fried corn dogs, hush-puppies, fried green tomatoes and fried chicken sandwiches – you know, health food. It also has several beers on tap. You can tell my vaccinated friend and I are a couple of keen sportsmen.
It wasn’t busy in the restaurant, a few tables occupied, the cooks in the kitchen, and two staff to look after the customers. We sat at the bar and ate our lunch. We finished eating and, when I suggested we have a second beer, my vaccinated friend declined and suggested we adjourn to the tap house where they pour only the brand of beer he likes. I’m not the argumentative type so I said yes and off we went.
The tap house is small: just a dozen seats at the bar and a few small tables. But the beer is good and the place was busy on this Friday afternoon. We had a few beers and then I headed home in time to listen to the Coodabeen Champions on ABC Radio.
On Monday afternoon my vaccinated friend texted me. He’d been back to the restaurant but found it closed with a homemade sign taped to the front door, informing would-be customers that a restaurant employee had Covid-19 and so they’d decided to close for a few days while everyone was tested.
It was all informal – no mandated shutdown, no mention of contact tracing. If a government inspector had found mouse droppings in the Cowboy Nachos (flour tortilla chips topped with pimiento queso, corn salsa, jalapenos, Peruvian cream, cotija, scallions – extra if you add chicken or pork) there would have been an official health-department notification posted on the door, but this was only another Covid-19 scare, so no big deal, right?
Anyway, my vaccinated friend on Tuesday decided to have a Covid test so he went to a local facility that had free testing. The next day he received his result by email: negative. Despite being vaccinated too, and taking into account his negative status, I decided to take the test too.
The lab was in a small, nondescript building in a big office park. I joined the eight people standing in a ragged queue outside along the footpath, some wearing masks, others not. Some were holding plastic clipboards and filling out forms.
After a while, a masked woman wearing a nurse uniform came out through the office door and handed us new arrivals clipboards, biros and forms to be completed. She then began admitting people into the office, two at a time. Two by two, they entered and then left.
Something I noticed about these forms we were filling out: we were asked if we thought we had Covid symptoms, and if we knew or suspected that we’d been exposed to Covid. But we were not asked where this alleged contact had taken place, or who we’d been with.
When my turn came, I entered the room and was told by the nurse to sit in one of the two available chairs. She took my form off the clipboard, checked that my email address was legible, and then used a cotton swab to wipe around the inside of both my nostrils. Nothing too intrusive – it wasn’t the kind of swab that tickles the backs of your eyeballs. When it was done, she told me my result would be delivered by email within 24 to 48 hours and I left through the same door I’d entered by.
As I was leaving, the nurse tossed my clipboard and pen onto a shelf by the door, and I wondered if they were going to be cleaned before she handed them out to the next group. I wasn’t filled with confidence as I drenched myself in sanitiser up to my elbows as soon as I got back to my car.
For me the story has a happy ending – test: negative.
But it’s not so great for the seven people who died from Covid-19, the 310 people who tested positive, the 89 in hospital, in the week ending September 9 in Shasta County, California, population 180,000, vaccination rate less than 50 per cent despite plentiful supplies of free vaccines being readily available.
In November 2020 the Shasta County Sheriff issued this statement: “The Shasta County Sheriff’s Office will not be enforcing the compliance of any health or emergency orders related to curfews, stay-at-home orders, Thanksgiving or other social gatherings, inside or outside the home, maximum occupancy, or mask mandates within the private or business communities.”
What the heck, that just about covers it, right there.

After many happy years living in Victoria and working at The Age, Jeff Glorfeld went back to California, the land of his birth, where in the past three years he has survived bushfires, snowstorms, Covid-19 and drought. And Trump. The cicadas and locusts didn’t arrive. Well, not ye

KYNETON resident, and founder and CEO of Sweet Justice, Claire Moore, has received the inaugural Rotary Melbourne Environmental Sustainability Award in recognition of her work to support and protect the honey bee population.
“Our bees and the people who look after them play such an important role in our environment. I am really thankful to Rotary Melbourne for supporting my work to train a new generation of beekeepers working to support agriculture and biodiversity,” she said.
The Environmental Sustainability Award comes with a cash prize which Ms Moore is planning to invest into her newly-established Bendigo-based social enterprise, Sweet Justice. Sweet Justice teaches commercial beekeeping skills within the Victorian justice system and provides post-release employment opportunities to trainees.
Sweet Justice currently operates programs in the Malmsbury, Parkville and Beechworth facilities.
Ms Moore is a farmer and qualified beekeeper and was the AgriFutures 2019 Victorian Rural Woman of the Year.