Elizabeth Edmunds has long dreamed of opening a little shop of her own where she could step out her front door, close the gate behind her, and be inside another world.  

A house on the main road at Bullarto had potential – with room for a shop which  has become the wonderful world of Rustic Habitat.  

The shop began as an old garage of sorts – with two resident possums, who now  live in the Taj Mahal of possum boxes under the house’s verandah. Elizabeth then set  about construction of her dream, with many wheelbarrows of cement, walls, glazing,  lighting and insulation, and then got dramatic and painted the inside black.

“My overall desire for the shop was to create a place where everyone felt relaxed  and happy. Somewhere for local families and passers-by to come, and just enjoy.  

“I did spend many nights lying in bed wondering if I had chosen the right colour,  but as it was, it worked out perfectly.”  

Being a creative person, Elizabeth then filled the shop with colourful, fun and  interesting things, all with a wow factor.

“When I finally finished filling it I knew it  had all of those things in spades.”  Elizabeth has long been a collector, storing all her precious finds up until she  could finally let them shine in their cabinets and on the benches under the lights.  

“Now my beloved salt and peppers line the windows and china collectibles fill the  cabinets, all safe behind glass ready for their new owners.  

“My love of vintage toys fills the high shelf above the counter. Huge glass jars sit  on the counter top, full of lollies and chocolates, which I must admit tucking into  after long days of price tagging.  

“Down the side of the shop I made a rustic metal outdoor area which is now  chock full of interesting odds and ends, both big and small.

“The sort of things that  look great screwed onto old paint-peeling gates or picket fences, or the blank side  of a wall near a cottage garden, and bigger things that add a bit of rustic charm to a  garden.”  

And finally, rather than use the courtyard for selling, Elizabeth has turned the  space into somewhere for children to play.

She scoured Melbourne for little rides  and fun things. “I couldn’t believe it when I found my all time favourite The Magic  Roundabout carousel from the 70s complete with Dougal and Zebedee.

“A few trips later and we acquired a Mr Blobby see saw ride and a funny looking  donkey ride, and it was coming together as I had hoped.

“A Playschool rocket clock,  teepee and oversized connect four game finished off the area, and I topped it off with  a colourful parachute above and a whole tonne of coloured balls. Free rides and fun.  

“My dream was coming together. The gnomes moved in and stood to attention, ready to greet the little ones and their parents.”  

_{Rustic Habitat is open Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 3pm.}  

Words & Image: Supplied

New inductee onto the Heather Mutimer Honour Roll,  Bullarto’s Mary Harvey says her recent IWD accolade comes as an unexpected surprise.

The recent International Women’s Day gong pays homage to Mary’s impressive role in contributing to multiple community organisations and committees as a volunteer.

Both Mary and her husband Don Harvey are particularly well known for their volunteer roles with the Daylesford and District Agricultural Society and their vital contributions to helping bring the local Daylesford show back to life and making it happen in style each year.

A retired librarian and French teacher,  Mary’s volunteer contributions to the wider local community span U3A, the French Circle, the Bullarto Hall Committee, the Spa Quilters and the Trentham branch of the ALP.

Mary was keen to encourage others to get involved in volunteering and also very keen to encourage girls and women to stand up and be counted.

“Don’t underestimate yourself,” she said. “Don’t be afraid to put yourself forward.

“I’d like to encourage people to volunteer. You meet some great people out there. You meet some great people and work with some great people.

“The people I work with are fabulous. They’re selfless in a way, and somebody’s got to do it.

“These organisations and volunteers are the backbone of our communities. It can be very rewarding.”

Mary said it’s a bit concerning to see that many communities are struggling to attract a new generation of volunteers.

“There are so many organisations in our community alone, some 80 in and around Daylesford. But our volunteers are ageing. Don is 80 and I’m 78,” she said.

As to her recent IWD honour, Mary said: “It is a bit of a surprise being nominated. I hadn’t expected it. I was pleased … and proud.”

Words and Image: Eve Lamb

The Festival of Small Halls Autumn Tour 2025 starts at the Ballan Neighbourhood Centre on March 5 before heading to 16 other communities across Victoria including the Bullarto Hall on March 26.

Ahead of the tour, Festival of Small Halls has announced that this, the 44th edition of its touring project will feature Lucy  Farrell and Hat Fitz and Cara on the Autumn Tour 2025: Port Fairy Folk Festival to Regional Victoria.

Presented by veteran festival producers Woodfordia, the tour  will return to halls and visit new communities across Victoria, and will also include a quick dip over into New South Wales.  

Halls of all shapes and sizes will throw open their doors, from the Victorian Alps to the natural mineral springs of the Central Highlands, down to coastal Gippsland, taking in the greatness of the state as it goes.  

Famous for their larger-than-life folk festivals over the last two decades,  Woodfordia is planning to present a program for their core base and new fans alike with longtime audience favourites Hat Fitz and Cara, pictured above, and UK-come-Canada songwriter Lucy Farrell.  

“I am so excited to return to Small Halls Australia, to explore more of the country  through these beautiful halls and the communities behind them,” Lucy said.  

Hat Fitz and Cara are also gearing up for a great month, saying: “we are rapt,  chuffed and tickled to be welcomed back into your communities and to share our new songs and stories beneath the roofs of your beautiful Small Halls”.  

Tickets: www.festivalofsmallhalls.com  

Forever famed for his role as Dale Kerrigan in 1997 Aussie Move classic The Castle, actor Stephen Curry has quite a special connection to Bullarto it seems.

That connection has been highlighted in recent weeks by popular SBS program, Who Do You Think You Are?

The well-known actor who will always be remembered for his line “dug another hole” recently featured on episode 7, season 15 of the SBS lineage discovery show during which he unearths a paternal connection to British Bronze Age treasures and a “whistle blowing” gold rush banker in his mother’s family history.

Stephen learns that his own great-great-grandfather Thomas Hodgens, who emigrated from Ireland to the Castlemaine goldfields in 1852, went on to become a store owner, gold buyer, mayor of Chewton and branch manager of the Oriental Bank at Chewton up to 1862, during the heady days of the gold rush.

The actor’s intrepid forebear also had a pretty interesting life in the Daylesford area, particularly at Bullarto as members of the Daylesford and District Historical Society were able to help discover.

During the making of the episode, Stephen catches up with Smeaton-based Keir Reeves who is a professor of history at Federation University’s Future Regions Research Centre.

Through Professor Reeves, Stephen learns that some dubious activity involving a gold bar led to his great-great-grandfather Hodgens becoming a whistleblower and subsequently parting ways with the bank.

As Stephen and Professor Reeves catch up in the Red Hill Hotel in Chewton, Professor Reeves informs the actor that tragedy struck when his great-great grandfather, then lost his wife and, leaving Chewton, made his way, with his three young children in tow, to Daylesford.

“His story is an exemplar of many people on the goldfields,” Professor Reeves later told The Local. “I found it quite moving to follow the story and like so many families, there’s ghosts in the cupboard.”

During the making of the intriguing Who Do You Think You Are? episode, Stephen also meets with the Daylesford and District Historical Society’s Jan Smith on site at the Bullarto Hall where he learns about his own strong family connection to the site itself.

“It was a terrific time for many in Daylesford and Thomas obviously saw an opportunity to improve his life,” says Jan who, as part of the team of enthusiastic volunteer researchers with the historical society, played a vital role in providing background research for the episode.

Like Professor Reeves, Jan also appears in th episode, helping Stephen peel back the layers of his past and providing the research that shows his great-great-grandfather Hodgens had remarried, going on to have 10 more children with his new wife, Mary Jane, including Curry’s great-grandfather.

Jan is able to inform the actor that, while contending with a very large debt burden and 13 children, his great-great-grandfather Hodgens had in 1865 been granted 38 acres of land at the site where the historic Bullarto Hall itself now stands, building a house and also a hotel there.

After moving to the area he had also run a store, worked as a slaughterman, and also grew crops at Bullarto after he was granted the land.

“The thing that’s always amazing about delving into the past is that once you start learning their stories it becomes quite emotional,” Jan told The Local.

“I felt happy that we were able to provide a positive part of his great-great- grandfather’s story. Stephen was so happy that there was a good outcome for his great great-grandfather.”

Jan said that the Daylesford and District Historical Society’s volunteer research team frequently receives requests for assistance with interesting research projects, effectively drawing on 60 years of volunteer work and dedication in the process.

“The one thing he never lost sight of was the importance of optimism and I think that’s come down through the generations,” muses Stephen after Jan shares with him key details of his ancestral connection to the area.

Don’t worry if you missed the initial SBS free-to-air TV screening back on June 18, as the episode is easy to find online at SBS On Demand.

The episode also lifts the lid on some of Stephen’s darker family closet secrets going all the way back to Ireland in the 1800s.

These include the discovery that, while one of his early maternal ancestors was an extremely wealthy Irish merchant, another had been jailed for abducting a very rich young heiress in 1820, while another was jailed in 1884 for bigamy, having been married to at least five different women.

Words: Eve Lamb  

Don Harvey sharply remembers the jargon of a local council officer when he was getting involved with the Daylesford Show.

“What,” he was asked, “is your Mission Statement?” Don, pictured centre, did not miss a beat: “More dollars than last year.”

Last year, for the first time in six years, the show made a profit. Now, as the 150th show approaches in November, he looks back on his 12 years on the show committee and, as president at 79, he reckons it’s time for someone new.

His start was not great. “I thought I’d do something to help them and volunteered to paint the chook pavilion but had a heart attack which set me back three and a half years.”

Don’s background is that he went to Bendigo Junior Tech, first as a student and then to teach history until having a blow-up over the method used and moved to English.

Later he became a newsagent in Boort. His cosy Bullarto home, which he doubled in size from a holiday place built in 1978, is chokkers with books and family photos.

There he is keen to discuss the show, not himself, but when pressed tells of his time as a players’ advocate at country footy tribunals.

“Now, listen to me, I would say. I’ll do the talking. If they ask you something, don’t say there was a fight. But every time, the bloke would say, ‘He snotted me as I ran onto the ground’.”

Don moved into the gentler world of iris growing, exhibiting at the Melbourne Iris Show, so he’s naturally passionate about the Hall of Flowers in Daylesford, held in the Table Tennis Centre, with vegetables, farm and home produce joining the blooms.

Add to this 250 horses, about 100 sheep and birds and more than 400 dogs on show, plus homecrafts, music, wine, needlework, photography, food, showbags and sideshows and the picture for November 23 grows.

About 3500 people attend. There is only one event after Daylesford at which people can qualify for the Royal Melbourne Show.

Winners of an event can go to the next level at the Midlands Group, which is the doorway to Melbourne.It’s by no means a one-man show.

Don’s wife Mary compiles the detailed 20- page program, down to the cookery section, including Blokes’ Chocolate Cake and Sponge, “not iced, no filling”.

This is all part of a tradition stretching back to the first show in Hobart in 1822 and the first ploughing trials at Glenlyon in 1864.

Farmer-to-farmer innovation and education rolled out, as well as tremendous technological advances on display, from the first automated shearing machines to the start of GPS-controlled tractors.

In all of this, however, there is a heartbeat to the show, such as the one revealed by Don, who tells of being aged six or seven when he went with his father from near the rear of Cliffy’s, his sister on his father’s shoulders, up to Victoria Park.

“I walked,” he says, “and there were others walking, too, in 1952”. Don is also keen to share his view on people’s unhappiness.

“I’ve met people who make others miserable, and my approach is not to be bloody miserable in return. It is possible to talk to people and make them feel a bit better. I’ve had a few years’ practise at that.”

Besides the Show, Don is involved with the local historical society and the Friends of Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens, where he is known for his wry humour.

Which is just as well, says Patrice O’Shea, secretary of the Friends, because Don and Mary have faced health problems.

“Living and gardening in Bullarto is not for the faint-hearted. Putting aside the characteristically bleak weather, the terrible damage wrought by storms made a pretty grim prospect of trying to restore your place in what was beautiful bush,” Patrice says.

She says that as a keen seed collector Don is an inveterate optimist by nature.

“He shares his joy in plants, many of them rare, in the community and even in politics.” And we all benefit from this.”

Journalist: Kevin Childs | Image: Kyle Barnes

Bullarto-based Oberon Suffolk Sheep Stud collected numerous category wins at last month’s Victorian Sheep Show.

Wins included Supreme Champion Suffolk, Champion and Reserve Champion Suffolk Ewes, 1st and 2nd in the Shorn Ewe Under One and a Half Years, while also winning the Interbreed ASSBA Ewe Champion.

The black-faced, floppy-eared Suffolk sheep breed are instantly recognisable from episodes of the kids’ claymation series Shaun the Sheep.

But for stud principals Bruce Rolfe and Douglas Scott, Suffolks are their livelihood in which they have invested many years of hard work.

And to have their efforts pay off so well in the judging ring was a significant achievement. Bruce and Doug fronted nine entries for the event and the star of the show was Oberon 3039, a delightfully shapely and feminine maiden ewe known in the barnyard as Gloria.

“I’m very proud of her and she’s my little star,” says Bruce.

Bruce and Doug have been operating Oberon Suffolk Stud for over 20 years and their animals are an important asset.

The stud’s bloodlines have been carefully cultivated and they are cared for and monitored to bring out their best qualities.

Today these prize livestock are sold to buyers across Australia and overseas, and appearances at judging competitions are a vital part of the promotion of their stud, as it is for many other breeding operations around the country.

For anyone visiting the area, a glimpse of their sheep may look like little more than barnyard props to complement a Sunday drive. But the work that goes into growing and presenting a champion ewe at industry competitions is extraordinary.

“I began showing Suffolks in 2014 and started off with a small team of two rams and two ewes because it is expensive and you have to start preparing them early. Also while a full team is 12 you need to feed up at least 24 to give you replacements if necessary,” Bruce said.

“They change as they grow and a lamb that looked fantastic four months previously may be dropped from the team by show time.”

Bullarto stud win at Bullarto stud win at Victorian Sheep ShowVictorian Sheep Show Bruce begins his show preparations in February, introducing a special diet full of protein and carbohydrates to his animals.

Suffolks are classed as a meat sheep and a good show animal has lots of muscle and he has to feed them every day to give them a chance to grow and to be up with the size of the other livestock in the show. Then two weeks before the event they are shorn closely and evenly.

“The day before judging they are scanned with ultrasound and weighed. This information is then available to the judge during their appraisal. We then clean them up and make sure they look good. You also have to train them to lead in the halter and to present well. You have to give them little treats all the time and every time they do the right thing.”

As it turned out on the big day, judge Ellie McDonald was very impressed with the ewe’s neatness and excellent structure. She remarked that Gloria was born for the show ring and stood well.

“I loved how she showed her deference to the judge,” says Bruce. “Look at me! Look at me!”

Despite all the work that goes into producing and showing champion Suffolks, Bruce and Doug are keen to continue showing their animals. The next big outing is the Australian Sheep and Wool Show in Bendigo, July 19-21.

It’s a huge event where the country’s growers and food, fashion and fibre lovers gather to celebrate the mighty Australian sheep, including of course, the dainty maiden ewe Gloria from Oberon Stud, Bullarto.

Words: Tony Sawrey | Image: Supplied | Inset: Tony Sawrey

After many years of paying her dues in the competitive world of professional video production, Bullarto’s Nadine Jade has reached the stage where she can finally choose which projects to accept.

It’s a position many in this hard-to-crack field would envy – but it’s been hard-earnt.

Nadine’s chosen path emerged early, while still at high school in Ballarat when she started studying photography and then video production.

“When I was in year 10 I discovered the dark room. It was the mid-90s so it was still film and analogue VHS editing,” she says.

“I found I loved capturing people. Then I discovered video and the Mount Clear High School at Ballarat was very well equipped with a TV studio and editing suite so I learnt how to properly produce videos from about the age of 16.

“Then I started to do pro shoots in crews and make music videos. When it went to digital I was in my early 20s and I taught myself digital editing… I love editing. Turning beautiful shots into a coherent story.

“When I was 22 I started working in the industry as a video editor in Prahran.”

Creating video is a passion as well as a profession for Nadine who has just produced a video telling the story of artist and musician Monty Osewald, a colourful Daylesford character with an eventful  life story.

Nadine’s new Monty Osewald, Artist video began to take shape after Monty himself checked out her work and, duly impressed, commissioned her.

The resultant production has been enjoying a public audience at The Convent gallery in Daylesford, complementing Monty’s own most recent art exhibition that’s been staged there.

“It covers his whole life and Monty gave me a lot of background photos and artwork and the soundtrack also features his own music and also music by other local musicians,” Nadine says.

“Monty is just one of those people who is always evolving, producing new art and music. He is more modern than I am in a lot of ways even though he’s been on the earth for longer.”

Nadine says being asked to make Monty’s biographical video-doco was an honour, and after some 300 hours of work on it, she says it’s still not quite done.

“It’s about 98 percent finished.”

Nadine says  she just wants to add a little more historic detail before declaring the video 100 percent done and ready for online release.

It’s just one in a suite of current projects for Nadine Jade Productions, Nadine’s business that specialises in video production including  biographical documentary, music video and corporate work.

But Nadine has also worked on feature and short films including a notable film short that’s soon to screen as part of the St Kilda Film Festival.

This is The Job by award-winning director Tatiana Doroshenko. Nadine worked as assistant director for The Job that will feature as part of the opening of the St Kilda Film Festival on June 6.

Nadine also worked on a feature film, a thriller, shot at Glenlyon in 2021 and expected to be released later this year.

But next on the immediate horizon is a music video being made with a local band in Daylesford. This project is a little hush-hush just now but sounds pretty exciting while Nadine’s prior music videos can be checked out on YouTube.

As the mother of two teenagers, the local videographer says she generally complements her creative professional income by also working in hospitality , currently at popular local watering hole, the Radio Springs Hotel.

But despite the imperatives of parenthood, as a mature-age student Nadine made the time to also complete studies in screen and media study though RMIT.

“At the moment I’m the busiest I’ve ever been with video work,” she says.

“People want me to do the work and I’m finally at the stage where I am able to choose which projects I take on … and which I don’t .  I want my video work to feel enjoyable.”

 A fan of Danish film director and screenwriter, Lars von Trier, with a particular liking for psychological drama, Nadine says one personal goal remains to write and direct a short to target the St Kilda Film Festival.

“I have a couple of screen plays that I’ve written and I’d love to have something I’ve directed to enter into the St Kilda Film Festival. I feel like that’s the next step,” she says.

“Everything I create I write, shoot, direct, do the sound, edit. That’s what I love to do. You never know what job comes next … and I kind of like that.”

Words: Eve Lamb

The Bullarto Hall recently became the temporary home of what may just be one of the world’s biggest jigsaw puzzles.

Measuring 5.5 x 2 metres and weighing 19.05kg, the puzzle was too large for Bullarto residents Eddy and June Pleban to set up under their roof so they brought it to the hall to assemble across trestle tables.

“Eddy bought the puzzle for me 10 years ago as a joke. It came with a hand truck,” June said.

“I started and finished one panel, which was 4000 pieces but then put it aside. The whole thing has 32,256 precision-cut pieces and consists of just six colours plus black and white which adds to the already incredible challenge.”

It wasn’t until the pandemic lockdowns that June pulled out the puzzle and had another go. Seven panels and one year later, the retrospective work featuring 32 individual, brightly-coloured images by famed (deceased) American artist Keith Haring was finished.

With only half able to fit on a wall at home, the couple thought of ‘Make it Monday’ – a local end-of-the-month gathering where locals chat while creating something – and decided this offered the perfect opportunity to bring the big puzzle out of storage and set it up at the Bullarto Hall.

The Bullarto Hall will host the Festival of Small Halls on Saturday, March 16.

The festival is an opportunity to catch performances by Icelandic act Svavar Knútur, a gruff and gentle local of the eastern fjords.

The festival that celebrates the signifcant place that halls occupy in the life of regional and rural communities, will also feature some great live music by Aussie musos, The Maes (above).

Right now the festival committee is also calling for expressions of interest from potential support acts with those interested in performing as part of the festival invited to contact the committee via email bullartohall@gmail.com.

The reproduction of the beautiful 1920s Bullarto Station building is now complete.

Daylesford Spa Country Railway (DSCR) will use the space to display original railway memorabilia and host events in conjunction with their popular weekend heritage train service.

The DSCR currently operates a 9 kilometre rail excursion using restored vintage carriages and engines through the picturesque Wombat State Forest.

The Hepburn Shire Council had contributed $184,000 to the project, the DSCR provided $63,000 and the Victorian Government’s Regional Infrastructure Fund contributed $500,000.

Words and Image: Eve Lamb

Things were way different back in the 1940s when Graeme Orr attended the local Bullarto Primary School. The former pupil at the tiny bush school is a well known local farmer and today he’s aged 86. He’s also among past students being invited back to attend the little school’s big 150th anniversary celebration this Sunday November 26.

Current day Bullarto Primary School Principal, Jo Pegg says past and current students, staff and the wider community are all invited to the big celebration that gets started from 10am and goes through to 3pm.

It will feature the opening of a time capsule that was buried on site at the school almost exactly 50 years ago to the day when the school, in 1973, celebrated its 100th anniversary.

“The school will be open for tours which some of our students are preparing to do, and we will have a display of historic photos, a band playing in the afternoon and a massive cake,” principal Jo says.

“We are also going to lay a time capsule as well and we are fundraising so people can buy a named brick which will be put on the news time capsule along with a plaque so that in another 50 years time it can be found.

“We will also have a sausage sizzle, scones with jam and cream and cakes and slices and the kids will have a stall selling items based around their sustainability and nature studies.”

The little school beside the Wombat Forest has a particularly strong focus on nature-based learning and for many, like school council president and parent Robin Hallett-Martinez it’s a big reason why his kids attend.

“It offers a unique space for kids to learn and focus on nature-based and outdoor learning,” says Robin whose eight year old son Dante and daughter Maya both attend.

Jo has been principal at the leafy little school for the past seven years now. She says one of the sweetest aspects of the big birthday celebration will be the fact that not long ago the student enrolment had shrunk to just four and permanent closure was a distinct possibility.

“For me the key celebration is that in 2017 it was potentially closing but instead it’s gone from just four students back then to 22 students today and we’re still here,” Jo says.

It’s a positive trend that now looks set to to continue.

“Next year we’re looking at 23 students so far, and we’re still doing enrolments.”

Jo says the school’s oldest former student who is still living today is Daylesford resident Rita Lynch now aged 92 and planning to play a special part in Sunday’s anniversary celebration.

“We will have the oldest living past student, Rita, and the youngest current student cutting our big birthday cake,” Jo says.

Graeme Orr says he also expects to get along for the big occasion, and to reminisce on his former days at the little bush school that was also attended by his father and his grandfather before him.

Going back even further than that, Graeme’s great grandfather had attended the local night school – “which was just up the road,” Graeme says.

And, yes, the 1800s children attended “night school” because back then they had to work during the day, he confirms.

“I started in1942 in grade one when there was just the one building and just one teacher,” the former Bullarto Primary School student recounts.

“There were about ten kids when I was here but when my grandfather attended there use to be about 100 students.

“When I was here it was war time and we were very patriotic. We used to salute the flag and we had tuck shops to raise funds for the war effort. “We used to salute the union jack. It was scary when the war was on.”

Graeme says many children back then would leave school at age 12, but he went on after six years of primary schooling at the little Bullarto school to do further studies at the Daylesford technical school of the time.

Another big difference back in the day was the use of corporal punishment that was quite frequently deployed to maintain classroom control.

Graeme himself says he was no stranger to its deployment. Obviously, times have changed.

“A lot of students left at age 12 back then but by the time they left they were all very good at mental arithmetic and they all had beautiful handwriting,” Graeme says.

These days, along with all the usual education essentials for 21st century survival, another big extra focus at the little school is music.

Students like eight-year-old twins Will and Aly Dear who are completing year two at Bullarto are quick to tell you what they love most about their school.

“I like that we spend a lot of time outdoors and there’s a lot of space and heaps of animals and music,” says Will.

“And I like how it’s beautiful,” adds Aly.

Words: Darren Lowe

Following its sell-out success last year, Winter Sounds is returning to Daylesford in August with a great line-up of Australian artists performing in a range of local venues.
From August 17-20 the line-up including Mo’Ju, Gareth Liddiard, Jen Cloher, Tex Perkins & Matt Walker,
Adalita, Watty Thompson, Jess Ribeiro, Martin Frawley, Leah Senior, Coda Chroma, Skyscraper Stan and Jarrah Olive will play gigs around the region – Daylesford, Glenlyon, Bullarto and Clunes.
Winter Sounds is produced by the team behind the successful Riverboats Music Festival and supported by Visit Victoria and the event’s director Dave Frazer says: “Winter Sounds is about providing audiences with the opportunity to experience extraordinary performances in extraordinary spaces, and we are so excited to be rugging up and returning to the Daylesford region this winter.”
For one of the unique shows in the series, take the train to the Bullarto Hall for sets by Gareth Liddiard, Adalita, Martin Frawley and Jess Ribeiro. After a half hour journey through the Wombat State Forest on the Spa Country Railway, wander up the bush track to Bullarto Hall, where the fire drums will be roaring and the Mountain Goat tinnies will be on ice.
Alternatively, audiences can take a leisurely drive to Clunes, where Watty Thompson and Leah Senior will perform in the Clunes Town Hall.
In Daylesford, the phenomenal vocals of Mo’Ju, supported by Ballarat’s Coda Chroma, will play the Daylesford Town Hall on Saturday night, while Jen Cloher and Tex Perkins & Matt Walker will take over St Peter’s Catholic Church for two evening concerts.
Both buildings will be spectacularly lit by the team from RTR Productions to showcase the buildings’ architecture. Tickets on sale at www.wintersounds.com.au