Stories

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.

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.

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.

The Stranger for the Words in Winter festival.

HE 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.

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.

VISUAL artists Akiko Nagino and Takahiko Sugawara met in 2006 and they are still together, travelling and making works. Growing up in Tōhoku the remote and scenic north east region of Honshu, Japan's largest island, they both completed studies at Tōhoku University of Art and Design in the city of Yamagata.

MOST people heading out into the bush for a walk or a mountain bike ride don’t have all day, so the Great Dividing Trail Association has produced a new guidebook, consisting of walks and bike rides within the Daylesford region, all short enough to complete in four hours.

The Victorian Government is providing a significant funding boost for youth programs, offering more opportunities for young people to reconnect with their community as pandemic restrictions ease.

The Victorian Government will make sure that not one school student is left behind in the wake of the pandemic, with the state’s extraordinarily successful tutor program to continue until the end of 2022.

The Hepburn Burras Football and Netball Club and Hepburn Cricket Club now have more room to grow, with the completion of their new, female-friendly pavilion at Laurie Sullivan Reserve.

Macedon Ranges Shire Council is calling on residents with and without pets to help shape its new Domestic Animal Management Plan.

The Victorian Government is fast-tracking the road to recovery for agriculture and food supply chain businesses in rural and regional Victoria.

The planning work is continuing on the Creswick Trails Network, a project which will see delivery of 60km of mountain bike paths and a trailhead at Creswick, with council expecting to begin works next year.

Hepburn Shire Council is working with project partners, Mount Alexander Shire Council, North Central Catchment Management Authority and Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation trading as DJAARA, on the proposed renaming of Jim Crow Creek to Larni Barramal Yaluk. 

The Victorian Seniors Festival Reimagined is back in 2021 and to celebrate, Macedon Ranges Shire Council will deliver 'celebration boxes' to 30 older residents who have made significant contributions to the Macedon Ranges community. Council’s Corporate and Community acting director Gina Lyons said this year’s festival theme of ‘keep’n on’ recognised the resilience of older people and the many different ways they contribute to our community.

SANDY Scheltema's Stories of the Storm series is supported by Hepburn Shire Council, Trentham & Districts Community Bank and the Trentham Lions Club. The series aims to showcase stories of courage, tenacity, bravery and resilience within the community from people who experienced the terrifying storm of June 10, 2021.

WHEN the Black Saturday Fires ripped through Kevin and Rhonda Butler’s farm at East Kilmore in 2009, their immediate concern was the safety of their sheep.

The waving line between shore and sea dissolves footprints like friendship and time The way ahead is dark and uncertain A lighthouse on the cliff illumines the black sea where white birds hover as heralds.

A TRADITIONAL smoking ceremony, community elders, a didgeridoo performance and a captivated audience of school children, set the scene for the unveiling of an amazing indigenous mural depicting the six main seasons of Djandak.

ALL tiers of government need to think and act faster with Covid leading more and more people to regional lives, says REIV president Leah Calnan.

WIFE and husband farming team Catherine Taumoefolau-Evans and Bohdan Evans with their three children Angus, Hepi and Leon, have returned to a simpler life.

ANGELA Flowers says, with a laugh, that when you buy in Clunes you don't just get a house, you get a community.

THE much-anticipated after-COVID boom in country living is being seen as both an economic boon and a potential spoiling of the rural joys of places such as Daylesford.

MELBOURNE residents, tired of lockdown and now realising they can work from home, are beating a path to the Central Highlands, real estate agents have told The Local.

A GROUP of residents are concerned that a Hepburn Shire planning scheme amendment will remove their rights in terms of land use and development.

CHRIS Kendall has been painting houses for 19 years now and still enjoys his work – just don’t ask him for a really early start, like 3am. The Bullarto resident tried his hand as an apprentice baker for about six months after high school but didn’t like the early hours. Bricklaying was also not his thing.

RESIDENTS protesting the proposed Western Victorian Transmission Network have been urged to voice their concerns directly to the State Planning Minister and put pressure on the Victorian Government to insist on an Environmental Effects Statement.

THE REIV requests an urgent change to the process that is currently in place for a commercial landlord to receive the coronavirus land tax relief.

THE Federal Government is supporting jobs in the residential construction sector with the introduction of the new HomeBuilder program.

THE Australian housing market is a hot topic of conversation at the best of times, let alone in the midst of a pandemic.

REAL Estate Institute of Victoria president Leah Calnan has said Victoria’s property market seems to be holding its ground.

THE Victorian Government is extending the $20,000 First Home Owner Grant for people buying or building a new home.

MOST burglaries are committed by amateur burglars looking for an easy target.

RENTING in Victoria remains tough, following another month of low vacancy rates, says the REIV.

A LANDMARK new plan sets out a practical pathway for transforming Australian homes.

Negative gearing – “the practice of investing borrowed money in such a way as to result in a loss that can be claimed as a tax deduction”

VICTORIA'S property market is humming along with multiple quarters of sustained growth.

REIV president Leah Calnan said the Victorian property market continued its strong run.