The much loved Footscray Gypsy Orchestra is once again headed to Clunes to play at this month’s Clunes Book Town Festival.

Renown for its lively crowd-pleasing sound, this city-based multicultural outfit makes music that breaks through boundaries and brings people together.

It weaves various languages and ethnic influences into its up-beat tunes and won plenty of local hearts when it performed at the annual Book Town festival last year.

This time round they’ll be playing as part of the fesitval’s featured Tin Shed Show from 7pm -10pm on Saturday evening March 23, and then again at the Clunes rotunda on Sunday afternoon, March 24, from 1pm-1.45pm.

Ballarat-based duo One Part Gin like to play dark folk music that’s splattered with grit and gloom.

They do not apologise for that, nor for the fact that melodies and pain collide as you follow in the forlorn footsteps of fools and freaks.

This duo consists of Sam Bell on guitar and vocals and Holly Sewell on vocals and ukulele, and they’re headed to Clunes to bring their sound to this month’s Book Town festival where they invite their audience to “sink yourself into narratives that interweave throughout a family tree that roots itself in dirt filled with blood, tears, grief and hope”.

They also suggest that you may want to “grab a whiskey shot, shed a tear and surround yourself with stories of cursed convicts and deceitful drunks”.

If you haven’t caught them live to date, this talented duo has a sound that may well remind you of Graveyard Train, Tom Waits, Dead South, Toot Toot Toots, Crooked Fingers and Eric Bachmann.

They’ll be performing at this month’s Book Town festival in Clunes at the town’s central rotunda venue on Saturday March 23 from 11.45am-12.30pm and then again on Sunday March 24 from 10.30am to 11.15am.

Funky world renowned singer-songwriter, Geoffrey Williams is headed to Clunes to perform at this month’s Book Town Festival.

One man, a loop pedal and a whole lot of soul, Williams has won plenty of fans throughout the region which he now calls home.

He is famed for his apparent ability to conjure a beautiful melody and a killer groove out of thin air.

Williams will be performing on Saturday March 23 at the Clunes rotunda from 3.15 to 4pm as part of this year’s Book Town Festival that happens of March 23-24, and will also be performing prior to that together with his daughter Milla Williams, as the Milla Williams Duo.

The duo, that also performs at the rotunda venue from 2.15pm to 3pm on the festival Saturday, features daughter on vocals and father accompanying on acoustic guitar to create plenty of soulful chilled-out vibes.

The performance will be free to catch as this year the festival committee has opted to drop the entry fee, while ticketing still applies to get into featured special guest, panel and writer discussions.

“This year we’ve dropped the entry fee and extended the Booktown footprint so that visitors will be free to roam across the entire township without the hassle of wristbands and fences,” festival chair Kadir Hussein says.

The diverse array of headliner guests appearing as part of this year’s ticketed program of conversational sessions include Helen Garner, Jane Clifton, Wayne Macauley, Jacinta Parsons, Alice Pung and radio favourite Nicole Chvastek.

Another feature this time around is the Saturday evening Tin Shed Show which will feature Sally Ford and the Idiomatics with Helen Garner, Jane Clifton and Wayne Macauley, presenting Underscore, a genre-bending musical and literary salon.

And don’t miss Daylesford artist, Brian Nash, who will join Ian Roberts, Geoff McArthur and Rebecca Russell in the chair to talk about their fictional, visual and historical explorations of the region in Goldfield Stories on Saturday, March 23 from 1.30pm.

Words: Eve Lamb.

People living in parts of Victoria’s north-west and south-west are being warned to prepare for catastrophic fire conditions tomorrow, with temperatures forecast to reach the mid 40s in some areas.

A bushfire that started at Bayindeen, north-west of Ballarat, last week has not yet been brought under control. Authorities have issued warnings for residents of surrounding towns to leave their homes tonight or by midday on Wednesday, and prepare to take their pets and essentials for three days.

The bushfire could threaten the towns of Amphitheatre, Beaufort, Clunes, Elmhurst, Learmonth and Lexton.

The State Control Centre has released an impact map of the potential impact zone.

Premier Jacinta Allan said tomorrow would be “incredibly difficult” with predicted wind gusts of up to 80 kilometres per hour and dry lightning.

“Tomorrow is likely to be one of the most dangerous fire days Victoria has experienced in recent years,” she said.

“People who live in these high-fire-risk areas need to think about having their plan in place, activating their fire plan and particularly if the emergency services tell you to leave or give you a particular message, please follow that message and heed those warnings.”

About 600 firefighters have been working to suppress the fire in Bayindeen, which has burnt more than 20,000 hectares and destroyed at least six homes since it started on Thursday.

Crime Squad detectives have arrested and charged four people following an aggravated burglary in Clunes, among a series of violent aggravated home invasions in the region.

Western Region Crime Squad detectives have arrested and charged the four following a series of violent aggravated home invasions in western Victoria this month.

As part of the investigation a man, teenager and a woman, were arrested by the Special Operations Group at a property in Sutton Street in Maryborough yesterday, Tuesday February 20 about 2.50pm.

A second woman handed herself into a local police station later in the day.

When the woman was arrested, she handed over the keys to the car she arrived in – an allegedly stolen 2015 Mercedes SK35, believed to have been stolen in an aggravated burglary in Kennington earlier this month.

The arrests follow an extensive investigation following four aggravated home invasions at properties in:

• Green Street Carisbrook on 7 February

• Poplar Street Golden Square on 9 February

• Vale Street, Sebastopol on 10 February, and

• Smeaton Road in Clunes on 19 February.

A subsequent search of the Maryborough property, under firearm prohibition order provisions, uncovered a .223 bold action rifle with scope, alleged imitation Glock style handgun, a quantity of ammunition, stolen registration plates and an axe.

An allegedly stolen Kia Optima was also seized believed stolen from an aggravated burglary in Tootgarook this month.

A 34-year-old woman and 26-year-old man, both of no fixed address, have each been charged with four counts of aggravated home invasion, kidnapping and firearm offences.

A 26-year-old woman from Maryborough has been charged with three counts of aggravated burglary and the 17-year-old boy has been charged with one count of aggravated burglary.

The man and two women had all been remanded to appear before the Bendigo Magistrates’ Court today Wednesday, February 21. The teenager was to appear before a children’s court.

When the Historic Vehicle Show happens at Clunes showground next month look out for the
retired truckies as they catch up with tales tall and true.

Starting the day before, the town’s attractive little showground gradually transforms as it fills to the
hilt with retro vehicles, many of them historic commercial trucks as this annual fixture is staged by the Historic Commercial Vehicle Club of Australia, Ballarat branch.

For Strathlea retired career truck driver, Barry Dodson, for example, it’s a time to show off a historic vehicle or two from his own collection, and also for some serious chin-wagging as he catches up with
others in the scene that has its own staunch following.

“This show is on the circuit,” says Barry who clocked up seven million kilometres (but who’s counting!) during his 52-year pro trucking career that started when he was a mere youngster of 20. Imagine the stories to come out of clocking up that many ks.

Yes, Barry says, there are a few. But some of them involve witnessing some things on the road that
you’d probably rather not recount.

“I’m a worn out, retired truck driver,” he laughs.

“I drove for seven years interstate, Adelaide and Brisbane, and then local, bulk grain and fertiliser.”

By “local” he means the state of Victoria and pushing a bit over the NSW border as well.

“I drove Internationals and Western Stars. The first semi I ever drove was an International. It was a C
Line Butterbox. I’ve always had Internationals and loved ‘em.”

These days Barry loves few things better than to spot some old neglected vintage vehicle and then
lovingly restore it to full gleaming glory.

He currently has a collection that features three vintage International trucks including a 1970 International C Line with V8 engine, Tasmanian oak tray and chrome features, that he loves to take
along to shows like Clunes’ as a conversation starter.

Suffice to say he’ll be heading along to the upcoming show here on Sunday March 10 to add the
beautifully restored 1970s workhorse (named Greenie) to the impressive number on display.

“This is the 13th show here and I came to the first and then joined the club,” Barry says.

Many who get along to the Clunes show also link in with other similar vehicle shows on the state’s
calendar.

“Besides this show at Clunes there’s another one at Lancefield before it and one at Kyabram after it
and people will go from one to the other over the three weeks,” Barry says.

“You do get a lot of retired truck drivers.”

Camping is encouraged at Clunes and many make a weekend of it, says the club’s Jon Paine, a Clunes
local who helps make it all happen.

“It’s a get-together for people to chat about old times and who used to work with who,” he says.

And it’s not just trucks. There’s also all sorts of collectible cars, small engines, caravans and tractors
that roll up as well, Jon says.

Vehicles that go on show must be at least 25 years old and Jon says they never quite know what’s
going to roll through the showground gates until the day arrives.

In the past, the surprise packets that have shown up have ranged from a vintage agricultural crop
header to the musician “Chooka” Parker.

“Last year there were roughly 80 trucks here on the Saturday night before the show and over the
Sunday of the show we had 180 trucks and 200 plus cars,” Barry says.

The admission fee is $10 for adults with kids under 16 free and the HVCA Ballarat branch donates
proceeds raised to good local causes and organisations, having given away $200,000 over the past
decade, Jon says.

The event is also a significant fundraiser for other local entities as well, including the Clunes and
District Agricultural Society and the local primary school which provides on-site food, alongside various food stalls that get along as well.

“It’s a time for everybody to come and enjoy themselves and relax,” Jon says.

The Historic Vehicle Show, presented by HCVCA, Ballarat branch, takes place Sunday March 10 at
Clunes Showgrounds with gates open 9am-4pm

Showcasing the athleticism of one of the toughest jobs in modern agriculture,  Clunes Quick Shear has become a favourite competitive fixture on the calender of pro shearers both local and from across the ditch.

It may not  be included as a competitive Olympic sport just yet, but the Clunes & District Young Farmers are once again staging the niche competitive event at the town’s showgrounds with the date set for Saturday February 24.

“This is our our eighth annual Quick Shear, after a couple of prior test runs,’ Clunes & District Young Farmers’ treasurer Jenny Redpath says.

The main showcase spectacle of the day is the Quick Shear competition  featuring three different categories – novice, intermediate and open.

The competition has a reputation for being pretty robust, attracting gun shearers and plenty of top athletic talent from among the Aussie shearing and Kiwi shearing pro circuits.

There are some good cash prizes up for grabs and with various Quick Shear comps out there besides Clunes’, Jenny says top shearers have a tendency to follow the Quick Shear competitive circuit, supplementing their income when they make off with the spoils.

A main highlight of the day at Clunes is the Aussie versus Kiwi relay event, a crowd-pleaser, with the Aussies  likely to be out to settle the score this year and to avoid coming away feeling sheepish this time round.

There’s also a lively dash for cash competition, creating a second chance for those who missed out in the earlier main event to take another tilt at securing some prize-winnings.

It’s a family-friendly day and apart from anything else, offers an entertaining spectacle. Jenny says a barbecue will be among the on-site food options with drinks at bar prices and camping available at the showgrounds.

“The shearers are just amazing to watch, the way they move and position the sheep to make sure they’re safe and comfortable,” Jenny says.

“It is a skill we need to continue. We want to encourage the younger generations to get into shearing and build their skills.” 

Every year that it’s been held, Clunes Quick Shear has raised money to support a worthy cause or charity, carefully selected by the Young Farmers, and this year’s cause is the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Jenny says the event has built up a strong following attracting 54 shearers last year including a notable contingent of New Zealanders and even a couple of  visiting English shearers as well.

“Yes, we definitely get a lot. Last year we were ten shearers up on the year before and we even had a couple from England – a boyfriend and girlfriend who were both shearers. There is usually a good amount of women who enter as well.

“We also have an auction and raffles with lots of good prizes.”

There’ll also be a commentated blade shearing demo, children’s activities and live music featuring pub rock outfit, Cut Lunch.

Entry is by gold coin donation with the day set to get started at the showgrounds from 2pm.

Words & Image: Eve Lamb

The field full of sunflowers on the outskirts of Clunes has been attracting its fair share of attention.

Growing these golden glories is a bit different here but all going well with the crop, that’s been planted by Miners Rest’s Andrew Fraser in a shares arrangement with Clunes’ Malcolm Hull, they may just become a more common sight into the future.

Long time Clunes local Malcolm Hull, who owns the paddock, says they’re growing the 12 hectare crop after Andrew approached him back in September with the slightly different farming proposal.

“We own the land and he’s got the skills and machines,” says Malcolm.

Andrew Fraser runs Frakel Farming Produce, a stock-feed business selling hay and a wide range of livestock-feed grains that he also grows.

The anticipated sunflower seeds are destined for use as quality animal feed ranging from birdseed to a component in horse feed mixes, Andrew says.

It’s the first time he has diversified into growing sunflowers and it’s all a bit experimental, but so far – fingers crossed – the weather has actually been on side.

“It’s been quite a damp summer which has been a bit of a Godsend for this crop,” Malcolm says.

It’s not believed to be the very first sunflower crop ever planted in Clunes as a commercial venture but, that said, it’s been a very long time since the immediate area saw its last field full of sunflowers grown on such a scale.

“I’d say it’s the first crop grown here for a very long time. I’d say we’d probably have to go back to the early ‘90s when one was grown in the Mount Beckworth area,” says Malcolm whose family goes way back at Clunes.

“My father always used to call this paddock (that the sunflowers are growing in) Kelly’s paddock after the family that once owned it.”

There are currently just a handful of other commercial sunflower crops in across the wider district including one at Ascot further down the road toward Ballarat.

Andrew Fraser is also growing that crop in a partnership arrangement with another local there.

“It’s a summer crop and it’s my first crop of sunflowers, says Andrew. “I put the Clunes crop in about a week before the one at Ascot.

“The reason I decided to grow it is just because it’s so hard to find sunflower seed. Normally it’s  grown in the top part of New South Wales or in Queensland, and around Shepparton too, a lot further north.

“I‘ve seen a crop in Smeaton a few years ago.”

They’re also known to be grown at Dunnstown near Ballarat.

Andrew and Malcolm say the 12 hectare crop at Clunes was sown back in October and it’s been pretty straightforward since then, with a late application of fertiliser administered a little while back, and harvest now anticipated toward the end of March.

It may possibly be necessary to rig up some gas scare guns to operate during daylight hours just to keep the potential interest from cockies and corellas at bay as the seeds ripen, Andrew anticipates.

“It’s something a bit different here but in Europe there’s tens of thousands of acres grown for oil production,” Malcolm says.

“We were in France back in 2019 and there was just paddock upon paddock of them.

“They’re certainly eye-catching and there’s been plenty of inquiries  and people interested in it,”

“We’ll just see how it goes this year and if it’s a good-yielding crop maybe we could look at growing them for oil.”

Words: Eve Lamb

Creswick’s Neville Cartledge OAM and Pat Tacey have shared the top honour and jointly been named Hepburn Shire Citizen of the Year.

Alice Newitt was named Young Person of the Year, with a special commendation to the youth band, Elysium, while ChillOut Festival took out Event of the Year.

Mr Cartledge has long been a contributor to the Creswick community. He began raising funds for the Creswick Hospital in 1953, and joined the Creswick Hospital Board in 1970. In 1983 he became a foundation board member of the John Curtin Memorial Hostel Committee.

He has made an enormous contribution to scouting in the district over his 70 years of service, during which time he trained 33 Queen Scouts, an extraordinary number from one scout group, and is also a Scout Life Member for Victoria.

He has also been a member of the CFA since he was 17, last year marking 68 years of service.

Mr Tacey has also made an incredible contribution to the Creswick community. His experience as an educator and leader has come to the fore in his work leading community resilience and disaster recovery efforts in Creswick, as well as fundraising for Creswick residents in need, distributing essential resources and supporting mental health programs in Hepburn Shire.

Mr Tacey works collaboratively with groups and organisations and is described as always having the community at heart.

Ms Newitt is an active volunteer with the Clunes Football Netball Club, Clunes Booktown Festival, Hepburn Shire Youth Forum and as a dance leader for young people through Clunes Neighbourhood House.

ChillOut Festival took out the Event of the Year award, an event that brought more than 30,000 people to the shire last year. ChillOut is an incredibly successful, fun and colourful event which has grown to become Australia’s largest queer country pride festival since its inception in 1997.

Others nominated for Citizen of the Year were Michelle Clifford, Wendy McKillop, Trish McMahon, Jenni Sewell and Margaret Orr.

Other Event of the Year nominees were Calembeen Parkrun Launch, CresFest 2023, Spud Hut Tours during Spudfest and Creswick NAIDOC Week Celebrations.

The council will create a new category for the 2025 awards. This will be the Hepburn Together Award, which will recognise and celebrate the contribution of community groups and organisations. Nominations for the 2025 Community Awards will open later this year.

Words & image: Contributed

A significant number of secret lives have been uncovered in Clunes.

There was once a man, let’s call him Toddy, and he stumbled quite unawares into one of them.

It all happened one Saturday when Toddy, visiting Clunes from inner Melbourne sauntered into Boom Clunes, the main street community retail hub representing local makers and selling books new and pre-loved.

Inside the handsome double-storey 1800s building, Toddy had wandered past a diverse array of  handmade products created by local artisans, craftspeople and cooks, and took himself straight to the pre-loved books room. He wanted some good holiday reading.

Toddy selected a biography penned by a reputable writer and took it to the counter, delighted with his find and pleased to see that all of the pre-loved books cost only $5 each.

“A bargain,” he thought, as the biography he’d found on the life of a former notorious sporting personality was in top-shelf condition and, he knew, that if acquired brand new would have cost him that asking price many times over.

The friendly woman at the desk flipped the book over and told Toddy “Ah! That book has a secret life”.

“Sorry?” replied Toddy, unclear as to what she meant.

“Yes,” said the woman. “It has a secret  life which means it comes with this…”

She reached  beneath the counter, pulled out a cardboard box and from it extracted a neatly filed white envelope which she handed to Toddy. “That’s yours to keep,” she told him.

And that’s how Toddy ended up immensely enjoying a secret life.

He’d just discovered the Secret Lives of Books project happening at Clunes. It’s a unique project, where anyone who may be feeling writerly (and there are reputed to be quite a few in Clunes who regularly do) can volunteer to pen anywhere up to a page-long “secret life” for any of Boom’s pre-loved books that they choose.

When a customer then purchases a book that has had a secret life written for it (and is especially demarcated with an ‘S’ on its back cover as such), they receive not only the book but also it’s written secret life in an envelope to take away and delve into as well.

It’s a bit like getting a surprise gift, or participating in an exclusive book club where you get to receive a personal original response to the book in hand.

A creative initiative between Boom Clunes, the Clunes Neighbourhood House (that manages Boom) and the Western Victorian Primary Health Network, it all  started during Covid in 2021 and since then has produced all kinds of “secret lives” to go with numerous selected books.

“It’s taking the interaction with the book to another level,” says Lois Nichols, project manager at Boom Clunes. Lois is a keen amateur short story writer with a background in magazine publishing who has so far penned 15 secret lives for selected books through the project, and counting…

Locals feeling inclined to pen a secret life for one of Boom’s pre-loved books get to read the book themselves for free first, before handing it back along with the secret life they’ve written for it.

These secret lives range from imagined fantastical globe-trotting pasts people by characters whose hands and lives the book previously graced, to interesting factual aspects of its narrative teased-out for special focus, to genuine heartfelt personal responses to the book’s content.

“Everyone’s got a different take on it,” says Lois. “Some write about how they related to the book as they were reading it or, if they were struggling with something, how the book helped them.

“It’s a bit of fun. It gets people writing and encourages people to read and it’s a way of connecting people.”

 “We sell pre-loved books donated to us by local people and we have two book rescuers here, Rhonda and Patsy, one is a book lover and one is a professional librarian, and they clean, sort and beautifully file the books on the shelves so we have a fabulous range and just about every known genre.

“The idea was inspired by a book called The Secret Life of Dresses which is about a pre-loved dress shop owner who made up stories for her dresses.

“At the moment we have about 60 books in stock that have secret lives. The books with secret lives are marked with an ‘S’ on the back and each secret life is very different.

“The customers who pick up a secret life book are fascinated, thrilled, and want to know more. What started as a retail promotion has become a community activity.”

 The Secret Lives of Books project fits snugly with Clunes’ reputation as a Book Town.

“We get a lot of visitors here on weekends,” says Lois.

Clunes Neighbourhood House manager Lana de Kort says the Secret Lives project is reaching and appealing to a wider range of people than the usual suspects who put their hands up to get involved in community activities.

“It’s a project that really appeals to people who are perhaps a little more introspective and who wouldn’t necessarily connect or volunteer in other ways,” she says.

“A good book really captures your imagination and this project takes that further. It’s brought a lot of people together and it’s drawn people in from Clunes and surrounding areas as well.”

Many have heard that Clunes has an annual Book Town event and they expect to be able find and purchase books in the town. Open on weekends, Thursdays to Mondays, Boom Clunes is helping to meet that expectation, Lois says.

“We also have a really strong writers’ group in town and two book clubs which isn’t bad for a little town of this size,” says Lois, herself a member of the Clunes Book Club that meets at Attitude Clunes on the third Monday of the month at 7.30pm. Meanwhile, the Book Lovers book group meets at Boom once each month as well, she says.

With the project now set to continue throughout 2024 anyone interested in writing a secret life for any of the Boom books can simply roll up at the Boom Clunes counter in person to learn more, or can call the Neighbourhood House.

Words: Eve Lamb

Moorabool Highway Patrol are investigating a fatal crash near Clunes, at Dunach, on Sunday.

It is understood a vehicle was travelling along Ballarat-Maryborough Road, before it lost control and crashed into a tree about 4.15pm on Sunday, January 14.

The driver and sole occupant of the vehicle, a 70-year-old Maryborough woman, was airlifted to hospital but died overnight.

The exact circumstances surrounding the crash are yet to be determined and investigations remain ongoing.

Anyone who witnessed the collision, with dashcam footage or information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or via the Crime Stoppers website online.

The township of Clunes looks as though it may be poised to expand with a planning application lodged seeking to subdivide a 29.31 hectare parcel of land to create 106 new housing lots.

Daylesford Land Development Pty Ltd have lodged the application seeking a staged multi-lot subdivision of 106 lots and removal of native vegetation at 35 Paddock Street, Clunes.

Documents recently lodged with the Hepburn Shire Council indicate the 106 proposed new residential allotments would range from 2000 square metres to 2856 square metres in size.

The proposed site for the subdivision is situated at 35 Paddock Street, neighbouring the town’s primary school, and the staged proposal includes internal roads, street trees and green space within the mooted housing estate.

The proposal is currently being advertised until January 24, enabling opportunity for public response.

Planning documents that have now been lodged with the council state: “The site is located within a lightly populated rural-residential area of Clunes, with the nearby area zoned for Low Density Residential, Farming, Rural Living and Neighbourhood Residential.

“Extensive land surrounding the property is located within the Farming Zone, with some land also identified as being environmentally significant.

“The site abuts Esmond Park, with Clunes Common Nature Conservation Reserve further to the north.”

Last year, the Hepburn Shire had forecast that 300 new dwellings would need to be built in Creswick and Clunes by 2041.

Compiled by the state government in 2014, the central highlands regional growth plan had identified Creswick as a town experiencing medium growth while Clunes had been identified as destined for limited growth and sustainable change.

The Victorian State Government expects to open a new government-owned early childhood learning centre in Clunes by 2026.

Aimed at delivering local children the best start the early learning and childcare centre has been slated to be built at the Clunes Primary Schoool site.

The Victorian Government-owned centre will provide long day care and three-and-four-year-old kindergarten programs and may also include other spaces for community use.

From 2028 in Victoria, four-year-old kindergarten will transition to pre-prep while free kindergarten hours will double from 15 to 30 hours a week for four-year-olds and triple from five to 15 hours for three-year-olds.

Building the centre at the school is expected to help some parents avoid the “double drop-off”. It makes childcare and early learning accessible and convenient for working parents and carers. It can also make the transition to school easier for some children.

The new Clunes centre is one of 50 early learning centres set to share in approximately $14 billion as part of the Victorian Government’s Best Start, Best Life reform.

The recently installed reverse vending machine in Creswick received a record 9500-plus containers in just one-week courtesy of 112 customers, the Hepburn Shire Council has reported.

It’s further indication of the Container Deposit Scheme (CDS) success in reducing litter and supporting community fundraising, the council says.

CDS is a Victorian government initiative that provides 10-cent refund for every eligible drink container returned. Many sites are now open to accept containers and locations in the Hepburn Shire are:

• Creswick Hub, 68 Albert Street, Creswick
• Daylesford Industrial Estate, 37-39 East Street, Daylesford
• Pig and Whistle Hotel, 705 James Lane, Trentham East.

And a site for a machine in Clunes is being investigated, the council has recently reported.

The machines are operated by TOMRA Cleanaway with those intending to make a deposit also able to download the CDS Vic West app from the Apple App Store or Google Play.

The lovely little hand-made nativity scene in Central Highlands Rural Health’s Clunes campus has been winning fans and influencing busy and preoccupied people to take a moment and reflect on the meaning of Christmas.

The textile piece was created by Clunes resident Betty Ingram, who has since passed away, and is now on display in the clinic waiting room, providing something festive for patients to think about as they wait to see a doctor.

“We just think it’s beautiful. It’s gorgeous. It’s different,” said Clunes resident Marlene Pitman who was in the clinic recently.

The little handmade textile scene is part of the Clunes health campus’s overall effort at celebrating the season with no shortage of tinsel, glossy baubles and the obligatory tree also on display in the clinic’s waiting room.

But as administration staffer Janet Hineman explained it’s also part of friendly Central Highlands Rural Health inter-campus rivalry to see which health campus takes out the annual Christmas Decoration Competition.

Clunes has form on this front having won the competition in both 2019 and 2020 and Janet said they’ll find out if they’ve won again this year at about the same time that The Local hits news stands and online reading.

Meantime, Janet said the little nativity scene has been receiving plenty of admiration and positive comments from those consigned to spend some minutes in the waiting room. “One lady said it made her day.”