Daylesford’s Good Grub Club has a new home — the former adult daycare centre and former VEC Electoral office, near the corner of Raglan and Vincent Streets.

The club reopened on Thursday, May 1 with a late morning tea and a special ribbon-cutting ceremony with Councillor Lesley Hewitt (Deputy Mayor) from 11am.

The club announced that its regular services would resume from:

• Tuesday, 6 May for limited hamper deliveries, and

• Thursday, 8 May for its popular community lunch and groceries

The club also launched a brand new system for recipients who can visit each Thursday, bring their own shopping bags and select their own produce and groceries using a points system. (Limits apply.)

The club thanked Councillor Lesley Hewitt and the entire Hepburn Shire Council Facilities Team for “saving the day and helping us secure such a fantastic, accessible new space”.

The club is inviting all members of the community to “come along, see what we’re up to, volunteer, donate, or sign up for our food assistance program!”.

You can now find The Good Grub Club at 79a Raglan Street, Daylesford.

Footballers and netballers at Victoria Park in Daylesford can now take their game to the next level after the venue’s new oval and court lighting was switched on in recent days.

Member for Macedon, Mary-Anne Thomas joined Hepburn Shire Council representatives and the Daylesford Bulldogs Football Netball Club to officially switch on the new lighting made possible by a $250,000 investment from the state’s Country Football and Netball Program.

Mary Anne Thomas MP also acknowledged the Hepburn Shire Council for its more than $90,000 contribution to the project, and the club for its contribution of $20,000.

Up until recently, members of the Daylesford Bulldogs teams were limited in their ability to train and compete due to poor lighting.

Works at the sports ground have installed four new towers with 100 lux LED lighting around the oval and 200 lux LED lights around the netball court giving the Bulldogs players more time to perfect their game.

The new lights will also help the club host night games as well as expand on the Bulldogs teams and development programs.

Developed in partnership with AFL Victoria and Netball Victoria, the Country Football and Netball Program has invested more than $41.5 million in over 580 projects since 2005.

The Victorian Budget 2024/25 is also providing more than $23 million to continue delivery of community sport and active recreation infrastructure, and programs to increase participation opportunities and improve accessibility.

This includes continuing the Country Football and Netball Program, so more Victorians can participate.

Member for Macedon Mary Anne Thomas: “Clubs like the Bulldogs are the heart and soul of the community. The new lights provide even more reason for locals to come down and join in the fun at Victoria Park.”

Coles Daylesford is being renovated and will add a fifth bakery to the town.

A spokesperson said the move would see a bigger and better offering for the community – with no job losses or redundancies as part of the redevelopment.

“As part of the renovation, customers can get excited about an expanded fresh offering – including an in-store bakery and a refreshed deli.”

The store will remain open throughout the renovation.

An Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea will once again be hosted by Carol Collins and friends at the Daylesford Bowling Club on Monday, May 12  from 10.30am.  

The cost to join in is $20 with plenty of raffle and door prizes and lots of great  morning tea temptations – created by Carol and her friends.

Every dollar raised  through Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea helps fund Cancer Council’s life-saving  research, prevention, support programs and information.  

Every cuppa makes a difference.

Just $150 provides two people recently diagnosed  with cancer with one on-one support, connecting them to a trained Cancer Connect volunteer, $500 helps provide training to leaders of cancer support groups where people can meet and share their experiences in an emotionally supportive environment and $1000 pays for an analysis of two gene samples for a research project.

RSVPs not needed, just pop along to the Bowlo.  

with Eve Lamb

The intricate beauty of the landscape that surrounds her is a major source of inspiration for established Daylesford artist Loïque Allain. Working predominantly with linocut printmaking and weaving, her work has seen Loique awarded both national and state art prizes while her work is held in private collections around the world.

Eve: Loique your works are very beautiful and intricate. They look as though they’d be rather time consuming to create. Are they?

Loique: Yes they are. People ask me that a lot. When I’m working I can carve a large 1.5 metre by 1 metre piece in about seven working days. That is if I work constantly.

Eve: Do you particularly enjoy working large format?

Loique: Yes. I feel it gives a sense of freedom, an expansiveness. It correlates to being in the land as well because it is all encompassing and I guess working in large format gives you the opportunity to express that.

Eve: Well I’ve done a bit of research and discovered that you graduated with Honours in Printmaking from the Uni of Tasmania and completed a Bachelor of Visual Art and Design at Adelaide College of the Arts and also that you have had artist residencies in Italy at the Venice Printmaking Studio in Venice, and at Atelier Contrepoint in Paris. They sound like wonderful experiences and I’d like to know what initially drew you to art?

Loique: I guess my parents have been pretty inspirational. They work in the arts and always encouraged me. My dad managed some Indigenous arts centres at Aurukun and in the Tiwi Islands north of Darwin.

And my mum would run a lot of workshops with the women, painting and weaving. I spent some time with my mum and dad in those communities and I guess I was really inspired by the work coming out of those communities, particularly the large format work.

I thought going to art school was a really good opportunity. Also, when I was younger my parents worked in the scenic art department of film and theatre. I’ve always been around art and art from different cultures.

Eve: Have you ever worked in any other sectors?

Loique: Yes. My husband, Chris Dilworth, and I have our own wine business as well. My husband is a winemaker. We moved here because we’ve always loved the wine from this region. Chris was a winemaker with Owen Latta at Eastern Peake.

We started making wine there in 2017 and ‘21 was our last vintage. Now we’re running our own wine business. We’ve made a winery at Leonards Hill at the old Dwyers Mill. We moved there in November last year.

Eve: Well wine and art go together very nicely. What inspires you most in creating your art works Loique?

Loique: For the last couple of years I’ve been focusing on Cornish Hill in Daylesford, also Jubliee Lake, Lake Daylesford and Wombat Hill. I’ve been inspired by the local landscape that I visit on a daily basis.

Eve: Do you have any special events or exhibitions on the horizon?

Loique: Yes. My friend, Clare O’Flynn and I share a studio space at 5 Howe Street in Daylesford. It’s the Wombat Hill Print Studio.

We’ve been here for just over a year and we’ve wanted to have an exhibition here for a while.  I’ve made a body of work over the last couple of years and the exhibition will open from 5.30pm-8pm on Friday, May 16. David Frazer from Castlemaine  will open it and then it will run for that weekend through to Sunday.

Eve: And you also run monthly workshops don’t you?

Loique: Yes it’s an introduction to hand printing linocuts. We start with an A5 size lino and we handprint onto Japanese paper. It’s beautiful. It’s made of mulberry wood. It’s quite strong. But it’s fine enough to handprint onto. Quite ethereal looking.

Photo & Video: Kyle Barnes

The Local’s editor Donna Kelly chatted with The Block judges – from left, Darren Palmer, Shaynna Blaze and Marty Fox on a recent Sunday – about all things building, judging, contestants and Daylesford. 

Donna: Do you ever come across contestants who have no design idea at all? 

Shaynna: Constantly. We give them advice, but it just depends whether they listen to it. Because it is quite incredible, you do get people who have no idea but think they do. And that’s quite dangerous.

Some people come on for the wrong reasons of not wanting to renovate, not wanting to learn. Some people come on because they want the exposure. But that’s not many. I feel at the moment everyone has come for all the right reasons and the fact is that they’re really doing incredible work so far. 

Donna: The five houses are all the same. Does that make it more difficult to judge? 

Marty: It makes it more difficult for the contestants because they’ve got to figure out what they’re doing with the space. But because they’ve got all the same parameters, it’s great for us judges. We’ve enjoyed this so much because you get to see people really testing their thinking on where things should go. I think it’s easier to judge and harder for them.

They’ve got direct comparisons between who makes better decisions based on the location of a wall or a doorway or things that they can control. And when we’re not comparing apples to apples, it makes our job harder.

But they get to have more personality in their spaces and have exactly the same opportunities as everybody else. So if someone does it better, it’s because they’ve made better design decisions. It’s a real level playing field. 

Donna: Do you have a Daylesford aesthetic that you’re trying to help them understand? The housing here is very mixed. 

Darren: I would say Daylesford has personality. There’s an art-centric element to it. There is dark and colour. There’s a farmhouse element. There is a reclaimed element. There’s an amalgamation of all these different influences. Then there’s also a more modern Daylesford aesthetic as well.

But if they don’t have personality, if they don’t have something that feels like it belongs in a country environment…if they go for a homogenised approach to design here, I think they’re going to miss the market. Personality is the key. 

Donna: When you start judging rooms, do you have an idea of who is going to win and who is not going to really make it? 

Shaynna: Whether they’ve come in here as never renovating a home or if they’ve come in and they’ve renovated seven, it kind of means really nothing at the end of the day because the pressure of the week and how much work’s done within that week and all the different things that are within their control and out of their control; people crack under pressure.

And that’s why it’s so interesting. It’s the pressure, it’s the time limits, and in this case, this season, how much they can change the room depending on what they’re given. You just can’t pick it. I think it’s also you do get couples that come in and you can tell they have an incredible eye and they’re doing incredible things.

But then you have the people that have no idea, but who are listening. And then they start rising because if you come out really strong in those first two weeks, you’ve got nowhere to go. You’ve got to maintain that stunning sort of execution and personality. 

Marty: And then the behind people come up and then all of a sudden it becomes a level playing field. It’s not until you hit about middle you know where they’re going to go. Because if someone’s a sponge and they’re learning, they’re learning from us and the other contestants.

And we’ve seen that more often than not, that they just rise. But next week, we’re halfway. And by halfway, as judges, I do feel that we tend to have our opinions of who’s in that sort of two-horse race. There are a couple of favourites in the mix. 

Donna: And finally, how are you finding the town? 

Shaynna: I have a place at Kyneton so I know Daylesford really well, and also I’ve had friends that have got married here, friends that have had houses. I feel the energy coming back because Daylesford got really quiet and a lot of things closed, and it was hard during Covid.

But I am just feeling the Daylesford energy, and I feel like what The Block’s giving back is the fact that everyone’s eating here, they’re buying from here. So there is this co-connection between The Block and Daylesford at the moment, I think it’s beautiful energy. 

On Friday April 4^th Agricultural Show Prize winners from across the region met at Clunes for the annual Midland Group of Victorian Agricultural Societies Inc. dinner with inter show presentations and judging. Some of the committee and exhibitors enjoyed the night out.

Nine Daylesford Winners presented their winning entries from last year’s Show in 11 of the 28 possible categories being judged at Clunes. Of the 28 classes being judged on the night 13 offered winners entry to display and show at this years Melbourne Royal in September.

For the first time since 2017 Daylesford had an entrant, Charlotte Cain, in the Rural Ambassador competition and it was great to see she finished runner up to the Group winner Darcy Gervasoni representing Clunes. Charlotte’s speech on “The Importance of Biosecurity in Agriculture” was well received.

Gracie Hetherington and Rebeka Walker won first places in the junior and open section Photography and later in the year will represent the Midland Group at the Melbourne Show. Trish Barron was runner up with her fine Embroidery.

In the Midland Group awards Daylesford had 2 winners, Suzie Wyatt of Trentham who took out the handmade Christmas Greeting Card and Christopher Hargreaves who took out the hotly contested “Blokes Chocolate Cake”.

While Daylesford might seem to have fewer winners going on to Melbourne this year the standard at Group level seems to be getting higher in this our third year of recovery after the Covid break.

Daylesford Show Society President John Nicholls was really pleased that so many of our winners were prepared to go on and take up the challenge at a higher level and says that everybody who went on should be very proud of their efforts and can now say proudly that they have represented Daylesford.

The Daylesford and District Agricultural Society Committee and their Schedule sub committee are already meeting and reviewing our competition sections and classes for the 151^st Annual Daylesford Show on Saturday November 22^nd this year. Pavilion entries increased by over 35% last year and John Nicholls would like to see another big increase in 2025.

The Hepburn Shire Council has confirmed that a new speed zone of 40 km/hr will be introduced in the central business district of Daylesford to enhance safety for road users and pedestrians.

In a statement issued in recent days, the council said it had listened to the numerous calls for reduced speeds in Daylesford and had been collaborating with the Department of Transport and Planning to establish a safer speed zone.

The new speed zone in Daylesford covers the central business district and areas with high pedestrian activity, including both local and state-controlled roads.

The statement confirmed: “Our works crew will begin the sign installation this week and expect to complete the project before Easter. The existing speed limit signs will be removed first, followed by the placement of the new 40 km/hr signs. We will continue to look at speed limits across the Shire.”

A range of community Anzac Day commemorative services are planned to take place throughout the Hepburn Shire later this month.

Organisers are inviting everyone to attend any of the community events that include the following:

Creswick-Smeaton RSL Sub-Branch

Anzac Day – Saturday, April 25

Wreaths can be ordered up to April 19 via creswicksmeatonrslsec@gmail.com for $40.

Creswick 5.40am – Dawn Service – assemble at the Cenotaph (cnr Albert and Raglan streets) for a 5.50am start followed by the Gunfire Breakfast in the Senior Citizens Centre. (Water Street next to the Town Hall).

9.30am – Service at the Soldiers Graves at the Creswick Cemetery, 141 Clunes Road.

10am – Service at the Memorial Stones, RSL Hall, 60 Albert Street.

10.15am – Anyone wishing to take part in the March to assemble at the Splash Park (Bottom of Albert Street).

10.30am – March commences. Following the March – Anzac Day Service – Creswick Cenotaph. Incorporating “60th Anniversary of the Creswick-Smeaton RSL Field of Crosses”.

12.30pm – Two-up at the front of the RSL Hall.

Kingston

Kingston Friends of the Avenue Anzac Day service and wreath laying at Cenotaph. Time: 9am at the corner of Victoria and Kingston roads, Kingston.

Daylesford

Dawn service at 6.30am

March to the Cenotaph, Burke Square, at 10.30am for a service at 10.45am.

Hepburn

Service at 10th Street at 8am.

Eganstown

Service at 9am.

Overwhelming support for the return of the Phoenix Cinema at The Rex in Daylesford has been shown by a dinner that raised almost $24,000.

Jules McDonald, president of the Daylesford Cinema Group, said the generosity and goodwill shown at the event was a big boost to the team working hard to restore the cinema.

About 110 people enjoyed a fine demonstration of Indian cuisine courtesy of Raman Richards and his award-winning mother, restaurateur Puja Kumari.

There was keen bidding for items, including a distinctive David Bromley painting entitled Roll Camera, Action.

A rapt audience in the Victoria Park Pavilion heard one of Australia’s outstanding filmmakers, Daylesford’s Richard Keddie, talk of his experiences in making box office successes, internationally acclaimed documentaries and popular works for television.

One of the many valuable raffle prizes was two tickets to the world premiere of his newest documentary, on the late acclaimed satirist John Clarke, coming soon.

The next cinema fundraiser is a media trivia quiz on Wednesday, May 7 at the Daylesford Bowling Club, with doors opening at 6pm.

Words & image: Contributed

The Daylesford/Hepburn community is so generous, the Good Friday Appeal has created a video about the region – and local appeal coordinator Natalie Kirby.

Last year the appeal raised a massive $31,000 – $10,000 more than any other year, equating to $11 per person in the towns.

Natalie said the appeal got in touch and did the video along with her connection “and I just cried all the way through it”.

Natalie said with the Daylesford Town Hall currently tucked away, she was hoping for a marquee somewhere in Vincent Street but there would also be plenty of collectors roving around.

Cash is great but EFTPOS machines are now also on hand to take donations and to pay for raffle tickets. The raffle is still being finalised but Natalie says the business community has once again rallied for the cause – “they are so incredibly generous and supportive”.

“We have $2280 from Natasha Morgan for a workshop for eight people, accommodation from Kudos Villas and Penny Farthing, accommodation, and meals from Daylesford Hotel, vouchers from Cliffy’s.

“I think we have about 30 local businesses who have donated and people are still getting in touch.”

People can also donate online or via a huge QR code on a board outside Cliffy’s. Raffle tickets are being sold in the Coles breezeway and at this Saturday’s Hepburn Football/Netball game, and next Saturday’s Daylesford Football/Netball game.

Natalie says some of the funds raised now go to regional hospitals such as Ballarat Base.

“I think that is a really great change because they have recognised the importance of keeping kids and families close to home and how much that can help their journey.”

Head to their Facebook or Instagram pages for details – and that video.

Above, Natalie’s children and collectors, Xavier and Paddy

Students at Daylesford Dharma School, St Michael’s and Trentham, Hepburn, Bullarto, Newlyn, Daylesford and Yandoit primary schools are  learning cyber safety – even those in prep.  

Inform and Empower’s director and educator Marty McGauran said 380 were taking part in the Australia-wide initiative with a parent seminar happening at the  Daylesford Primary School on May 29 at 6.30pm – with all welcome.  

The program was made possible by funding from the Daylesford Foundation and  the Community Bank Daylesford District. Inform and Empower has also partnered this year with the Community Bank Creswick & District for work with Creswick,  Creswick North, Mt Blowhard and St Mary’s Clarkes Hill primary schools.  

Marty said he came from a primary school teaching background and now  specialised in supporting primary schools “in all things online safety and digital wellbeing”.  

“I always had a real interest in technology and how kids use the online space from a school perspective, so I was often the teacher driving the use of technology and saw the imbalance between skilling these kids up and they had even more access than they  ever had and then I was starting to see the challenges.

“Reports were coming to the principal and myself that kids were getting into  issues at home without that equivalent skill set to navigate the challenges. So it’s  all great throwing them on devices and there’s awesome stuff, but I really saw that  difference and then the hole in the market that we were really just educating kids with  a lecture every year.  

“We’d get a police officer in just to lecture kids and go, ‘don’t do this, don’t do that, great, off you go’. And I knew that I could apply what I know about teaching, and how kids learn, to this particular space as well.”  

Marty said the work was twofold.  “It’s in the classrooms every term where we live stream a learning session with  a teacher and it unpacks topics around being online, how to navigate the tricky  challenges, how to make the most of the opportunities and that will be happening  from prep to grade six.

“Alongside that is the parent education element. All the parents of those  schools are invited to come along where we will speak to them on a very adult level, unpacking the real challenges and what is best to understand as a parent in this 2025  digital space.”  

Marty said the sessions the Hepburn Shire students were tuning into were run around Australia at the same time, giving them the feeling they are part of a unique  delivery method and feeling like they’re almost part of the one community learning  about the online world.  

“We really begin at that young age to get the conversation started, particularly with teachers, just that the online world is not something to just leave to an older  millennial or a Gen Z or a boomer.  

“We really encourage the fact that the teachers are in there in the classrooms and  even from prep, just start to talk about the online world and some of the common  language about the games they play.

“The messaging for preps is really simple around talking about trusted adults to  go to when you’re online and it’s not until the upper grades where we get into the  really nitty-gritty of critical thinking and dis- and misinformation in the upper years.  

“It’s exactly the digital equivalent of letting kids know that when you’re online some people you’re playing with might say this is how old they are or might look like this in their online profile, but actually who could it be on the internet with you?  

“Just starting those early conversations with kids so that they’re aware that the  online space is not full of always safe people, just like we do in the offline world as  well.”  

Marty said after the parent sessions many came away with a new appreciation  of the world their children were in.

“Particularly parents of younger kids, if they’ve  only got six and seven-year-olds, they’re really ‘wow, okay, I know what’s ahead of me now – I sort of feel more prepared for what’s coming’. And with the parents of maybe  older primary it’s ‘oh, my kids are already in this world’.  

Marty said the most constant feedback was just the amount of information being  fed to children and even adults.  

“We have access to so much more that we’re just not designed to compute so much. So a lot of the time that overwhelming feeling that both kids and adults  experience at times because it is like a fire hose of information, whether it’s  entertainment or news or whatever it might be, the quantity is just unheard of and  there’s a lot of argument that we’re just not developmentally evolutionary ready for so much onslaught and it’s why we’re all battling a little bit, to be honest.”  

Words: Donna Kelly. Image: Supplied  

Daylesford’s Lynda Poke says that while many great strides have been made in improving gender equity there is still much ground yet to cover.

“We are still seeing women here in Australia retiring with, on average, about thirty percent less super than their male countreparts,” the founder and operator of successful local walking tour business, Alice’s Journeys, says.

“And while the full-time gender pay gap is at a record low, women are still earning an annual taxable income that is on average of 29.2 percent less than men.”

Such issues are close to Lynda’s heart and her contributions to addressing them have very recently seen her receive International Women’s Day recognition with her inclusion on the Hepburn Shire’s Heather Mutimer Honour Roll.

“I was really honoured and felt really privileged to be recognised,” says Lynda, who is also known as Daizy in her capacity as a walking tour guide leading specialised local tours in Daylesford and Hepburn.

The walking tour business, founded just before the COVID pandemic struck in early 2020, nevertheless has proven to be a survivor and it’s name, ‘Alice’s Journey’s Walking Tours, pays homage to another woman of note, Alice Hepburn.

Lynda explains that Alice was the first child of Captain John Hepburn who is well recognised as a regional pioneer.

The name of Lynda’s walking tour business – she also runs a business consultancy – is in itself an effort to redress a comparative lack of historical recognition for the nation’s female pioneers and fore-founders.

“To be in the company of the women on the Roll is a real honour,” Lynda says when asked about her recent IWD gong.

“ There are really significant women on the Roll going back over the years, and to have women’s work, both paid and voluntary, recognised is really important.

“We have achieved so much  but we know there’s still so much work to be done in terms of gender equity, which benefits everyone including men.”

Lynda has dedicated her career and countless unpaid volunteer hours to gender equity and improving access to essential healthcare services, and her place among the shire’s latest IWD honours acknowledges this.

With extensive experience in financial and strategic planning, she has provided vital support to local community organisations.  As a former general manager of Springs Medical Centre, she spearheaded innovative health programs, including ‘Spring in Your Step’ which won national recognition.

As a member of the Hepburn Shire Council’s Gender Equity Advisory Committee and also as a life member of YWCA, Lynda’s many years of advocacy included striving to see safe, affordable housing become a reality for all.

It’s also included addressing social challenges around preventing alcohol and drug related harm and family violence.

The busy Daylesford local’s advocacy extends to grassroots initiatives including a pivotal role in successfully challenging the Victorian Liquor Licencing Commission’s prior decision to grant a license to a proposed Dan Murphy’s outlet in Daylesford.

The Heather Mutimer Honour Roll celebrated five inductees this year: Mary-Faeth Chenery, Mary Harvey, Lynda Poke, Donna Kelly and Jessie Leggatt (posthumous).

Words: Eve Lamb

Hepburn Shire Mayor Cr Don Henderson, councillors and CEO have issued an apology for the failed Hepburn Hub at The Rex project.

“On behalf of the council the current elected councillor group would like to express our regret to our community of Hepburn Shire for the negative  impact that the Hepburn Hub at The Rex project has had on us all.  

“We recognise that some actions during the project have led to feelings  of mistrust, and we regret the distress this caused. We acknowledge that certain actions taken in the past did not align with the values of our council and needs of our community.

“The Hepburn Hub at The Rex project did not deliver the outcomes promised, and we are sorry for the harm this caused.  

“We acknowledge the impact of past decisions, including the on going impact this has had on the organisation and community. Council has taken active steps to address past shortcomings and has implemented numerous measures that prevent poor project management and improved our  governance and transparency.  

“We recognise that restoring the trust that has been damaged with our  community will take time, but we are dedicated to listening to the concerns  of our community and working to create positive partnerships.”  

The apology, issued on the council’s Facebook page on March 25 after the monthly  council meeting, did not take long to blow up on social media.  

“Congratulations to Hepburn for having the guts to say this. It has only happened because  Council Watch went public with the report the State tried to hide. We accept many were  bound by confidentiality unfairly for far too long.”  

“Unfortunately for council, it’s too little too late! The damage is done, trust cannot be repaired so  easily!”  

“It’s a polished PR statement that gestures at apology without fully embracing it. A real  apology would be more specific, more direct, and include a genuine plan for restitution and  reconnection with the community, and accountability taken by those involved by stepping  down.”  

“Interesting how the comments are turned off on their post. Too scared to hear what the residents  have to say.”  

“You don’t restore trust by applying to raise rates by 10%.”

“It wasn’t hopeless project management, it was hopeless valuation practice, most projects first  start by knowing what they wanted to achieve and then valuing what that would be worth on the  market. The removal of in-house valuers at councils by the state revenue office changes (that put all  GOVT valuers in SRO) destroyed that ability of councils to get excellent opinions.”  

“I will be following council watch with great fervour – keep up the great work.”

“My goodness, a council pretty much apologising for something and saying they’ll do better. It  shouldn’t be as hard or as rare as this. Because it certainly is refreshing.”  

Meanwhile, the council last Thursday issued a media release saying it was aware of harmful  commentary and misinformation being circulated on social media.

“Recently, both commentary on social media along with emails directed to council have  escalated in volume and offensive and threatening language,” the release said.  “These attacks on council as a whole, and attacks on staff personally are nothing short of  intimidating, abusive and unacceptable.”  

Mayor Cr Don Henderson said he and the councillor group “are incredibly disheartened by the baseless rumours circulating in our communities, both online and offline”.  

“We welcome frank, fearless and respectful conversations. We do not expect everyone to  agree all the time. However, we do expect a healthy level of debate and respectful conversations to ensure that everyone is and feels safe.  

“Threats made to staff will not be taken lightly.”  

Words and file image: Donna Kelly  

Powerful new lights have been installed at Daylesford’s Victoria Park sports oval in recent days and will soon be ready for action.

The pre-existing poles are being removed with the new 100-lux oval lighting and 200-lux netball lighting to take over the task of shedding adequate lighting on after dark sporting fixtures and sessions.

Announcing the installation of the new lights in a recent media statement, the Hepburn Shire Council says the new lights “lift the standard of play and safety and will increase participation for the clubs”.

The council was supported in delivering the project by $250,000 from Sport and Recreation Victoria and $20,000 from the Ballarat Football Netball Club.

Story based on a Hepburn shire Council statement