Words & image: Eve Lamb

ELECTRIC vehicle owners are keenly watching to see when the newly installed charge station at Creswick will come online.
It’s one of three being installed under a collaboration involving Hepburn Shire Council, the state government, Chargefox and Hepburn Energy.
New charge stations are also set to be installed at Hepburn Springs and at Trentham over coming months, while the new Creswick station is next to the town’s visitor information centre.
This follows Chargefox securing $89,500 through the Victorian Government’s Destination Charging Across Victoria Program to enable installation of the new 50kW DC fast-chargers at the three locations.
The program is the first launched under the Acceleration of Zero Emissions Vehicle Adoption Program – part of the Zero Emissions Vehicle Roadmap. The Roadmap is a $100 million package of policies and programs to encourage the adoption of zero emissions vehicles.
The program aims to install about 141 EV fast-charging stations at 116 key tourist destinations and high-use locations across Victoria by July this year with the charging stations to be deployed on the Chargefox network, the largest EV charging network in Australia.
“We are excited to expand our network in the Hepburn Shire, which is a beacon of sustainability initiatives,” Evan Beaver, head of Charging at Chargefox, said.
Hepburn Shire mayor Cr Brian Hood said the Creswick station would open soon.
“Connection to the network is under way and it just needs to be tested and then there’ll be an opening.”
Each of the new 50kW DC fast-chargers are to be powered by 100 per cent renewable energy, and availability of underground electricity supply has been a key factor in determining the locations for the new charge stations.
A little further down the track, the installation of a new EV charge station is also slated for Clunes. “We’ve got a further one planned for Clunes. It’s a ‘this-year’ project. That will take the number to five,” Cr Hood said.
Into the longer term, a second EV charge station is also mooted for Daylesford, complementing the town’s existing charge station located outside the town hall. And an EV charge station is also planned for Glenlyon as part of “the longer term plan”.
Installation of the new charge stations is just one of multiple efforts being made
by Hepburn Shire to drive down carbon emissions, Cr Hood says.
Under the council’s Sustainable Hepburn strategy it’s also aiming to make inroads
in areas including regenerative farming, transitioning its own light vehicle fleet to
electric, and establishing a circular economy. It’s currently employing its first circular
economy officer.
“Together with the Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance and Hepburn Energy
we’re also looking into neighbourhood battery storage. We’re doing feasibility and
technical studies into how it would work and what role local government would
play.”
As to the new charge station at Creswick, Clunes EV owner Patrick Hockey, pictured above, is among the many closely watching – and discussing – the movements in this space.
“The convenience and economy of using an EV is profound,” Mr Hockey said.
“Making charging infrastructure available is a no-brainer. The location (of the
Creswick charger) will be very convenient, near the supermarket.
“I’d like to see a rank of 12 as the next step.”

Words: Eve Lamb | Image: Supplied

HUMBLED and “a bit surprised” is the way farmer John Drife describes discovering he’s this year’s
Hepburn Shire Citizen of the Year.
At a civic event in Daylesford last Wednesday, the Hepburn
Shire Council named John its Citizen of The Year, also announcing Daylesford’s Atticus Punt-Trethewey as its Young Citizen of the Year.
The Great Dividing Trail Association’s Reconciliation Walks took out Event of the Year as part of the shire’s 2023 Community Awards.

“I was a little bit surprised. It’s very humbling just to be nominated and I’d like to congratulate all the others who were nominated,” said Clunes farmer John Drife.
John and Billie Henderson-Drife farm sheep, cattle and crops in the Glendaruel-Mount Beckworth area just out of Clunes. Both of their families settled in the area back in the mid-1800s.
John paid special homage to his wife Billie, stating that he believed she deserved the award as well.
The farmer is a pivotal part of the community in and around Clunes. He’s on many committees and community groups including the CFA (a member for more than half a century),
Waubra Wind Farm Community Fund Committee, Mt Bolton/Beckworth Landcare Group, Clunes & District Agricultural Society Committee and many more.
John coordinated multiple fundraisers for individuals and groups, in particular playing a central role in Bushy’s Cutout fundraiser in 2018, which raised more than $85,000 to support local shearer Tony
‘Bushy’ Hill in his battle with Motor Neurone Disease.
Other Citizen of the Year nominees were Terry Bolton, Gayle Chappell, Michelle
Clifford, Margaret Giles, Natasha Hall and Jennifer Hind.
The shire’s Young Citizen of The Year, Daylesford’s Atticus Punt-Trethewey, was
similarly humble.
“It’s not something I ever would have expected,” he said.
The 21-year-old Australian College of the Arts music production student initiated and organised the free youth music event AltWave, held for the first time last year in the Daylesford Town Hall.
Atticus engaged a team of young musicians and entertainers and coordinated support of community groups and businesses to run the event that raised awareness and money for youth mental health.
“I guess more than anything I’m just grateful that the message we’re trying to spread with AltWave has cut through,” said Atticus, who is already busily planning the next AltWave event for later this year.
“The issues that young people face in the region are very important,” he said.
The other nominees for the shire’s Young Citizen award were Flossy Haughie,
Lucinda Lowe and Sasha Taylor.

Meanwhile, president of The Great Dividing Trail Association, Daylesford’s Tim
Bach, was keen to pay homage to others when the association’s Reconciliation Walks
scooped the shire’s Event of the Year award.
“The driving force for this particular event was Barry Golding who did a lot of the
research and got permission from landholders, because some of the walks cross onto
private land, and he liaised with the Djarra people,” Tim said.
As part of its ongoing, wider guided walks and rides program, the Great Dividing
Trail Association held educational guided walks to local sites where Aboriginal
Protectorates had been established in the mid-1800s.

The walks highlighted the early post-contact history of First Nations peoples and
emphasised the need to acknowledge their mistreatment as a step in the reconciliation
process.
The Reconciliation Walks had strong support from Djarra people and have
become a regular feature of the GDTA’s wider guided walk program.
“This year we are doing two more walks in significant Aboriginal areas – one to Mount Beckworth on Sunday, August 27 and one to Mount Tarrengower on Sunday, June 25,” Tim said.
“I’m honoured that we received this award. I’m surprised too because there were some really high quality nominations and I feel that we are only a little organisation.”
The other nominees for the shire’s Event of The Year award were AltWave Youth Music Event, CresFest and Wombat Trees Festive Project.

Words: Eve Lamb | Image: Inkd Fotogrfa

A CUSTOM-built house set on grounds of just under an acre has set a new residential sales record for Trentham, selling for $2.2 million in recent weeks.

The “uniqueness” of The French House, as it’s known, was a key factor in its record result, sales representative with selling agent Belle Property, Natalie Fagan, believes.
“We had an outstanding marketing campaign. It was huge and very broad
spectrum,” Natalie says.
“It was also a very, very unique property.”
The French House located at 7 Gleeson Street sold by private sale for $2.2 million
in November.
“It’s pretty amazing,” owner-vendor Narelle Glynn said.
She and her husband Andrew Glynn purchased the property for $265,000 in 2014 and had the house custom-built on site to recreate an authentic French farmhouse, completing the build in 2015.
“When we bought the property, it was a vacant block with a shed,” Narelle said.
The French House went on to grace the pages of Country Style Magazine while its distinctive French-provincial style won it a global following.
Features include meticulously hand-selected European components and generous
romantic gardens.
Narelle, who works in consulting and professional services, and Andrew, an engineer who works for a private start-up in the defence sector, both share a love of France, speak the language and appreciate the French-provincial aesthetic.
“We lived in France in Toulouse together in 2007 and we fell deeply in love with
the aesthetic,” Narelle says.
“But after we had children we realised that we wouldn’t be travelling or getting to France so much so we decided to recreate a little slice of France here.
“We wanted to be really true to French farmhouse design and we pushed pretty
hard to achieve that. We had drafting support from an architect friend of mine.”
In setting the new record sales price for Trentham, The French House has sold to a Melbourne couple who are understood to be ultimately planning a transition to retirement at The French House.
“Initially it is going onto the holiday rental market through Daylesford Country Retreats,” Natalie Fagan says.
“But their (the purchasers’) goal is absolutely to retire to the property.”
Narelle Glynn says the decision to sell The French House was due to Andrew’s work commitments and their relocation to Sydney.
Following the sale of The French House the Glynns have since purchased a new property in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

Like the selling agents, Narelle also believes a main reason The French House
was able to achieve the strong result it has, despite mixed movements on the nation’s
wider real estate sector, is largely due to its unique nature.
“I think that it represents the unique nature of the property and recognises the painstaking effort that went into recreating a little slice of France,” she says.
“I also think that buying in a little hamlet that has charm and several cornerstone businesses like Annie Smither’s Du Fermier, Redbeard Bakery, and the Cosmopolitan has also been a real factor.”

Creswick’s Craig Barrett is one of the region’s accomplished artists whose love of landscape and the natural world and the way human endeavour has interacted with it, resonates through his creative output. He has works held in the National Gallery of Victoria, the State Library of Victoria and the Shrine of Remembrance in addition to private and corporate collections. He chatted with journalist Eve Lamb about his love of art and his personal arts practice.

Eve: Does your arts practice conform to any particular genre and if so which?
Craig: None at all. All over the place, it depends on what interests me at the time. Over the past 45 years I have ventured through impressionism, abstraction, symbolism – wherever seems to be my sweet spot at the time.
Eve: How do you prefer to describe your artistic style?
Craig: For the past 20 years, since living in the south of France with my then wife Kendry, I have been heavily influenced by Romanesque art of the 10th-12th centuries. I like its pared back simplicity. Things are implied rather than spelt out. A stripping back of detail. Detail is a distraction from the essential, the important.
Eve: How did you come to art?
Craig: Art came to me – by magic. Nobody in my family had any interest in art. As a child, there were no original artworks on the walls, only those classic flying ducks – and ceramics. A friend of my mother’s gave me a small box of oil pastels. The glory of that rainbow of colours and the smell of those pastels remain with me. My eldest brother gave me a small set of oil paints when I was about 13 or 14. New smells of paint and turps. Hooked from thereon.
Eve: Which artists, current or historic, have influenced your own work?
Craig: Wow! As teenagers, I think we all fell in love with the French Impressionists. As I grew older, learnt more and travelled the world, I became more influenced by artists that looked inward rather than outward. Someone like Pierre Bonnard, the way he could paint a bowl of fruit as a spiritual journey, as with a Chardin still life study. Perhaps the master of all, Giorgio Morandi who found endless possibilities in a few bottles, vases and tins. When in Spain, I discovered Arshile Gorky. I was moved to tears by his intensely personal abstract paintings and drawings. Gorky himself used to say he was “with” Cezanne, or Picasso or whoever was his influence at the time. I feel like that also. Since my time in France, my main influence has been that of the great unknown and nameless artists of antiquity. Extraordinary sculptures, paintings, stained glass windows and architecture. Not the current “celebrity artists” of our time.

Eve: What is your medium/media of choice?
Craig: I pick up whatever seems to suit the idea. Painting, drawing, etching, sculpture. They all have a particular response.
Eve: What is/are your subject matter of choice? Why so?
Craig: Crikey. What takes my interest at the time. I do seem to come back again and again to some subjects. I have great empathy for people working the land. The hardships and the rewards of that. So, there are a lot of rural themes returning. Also, I am a sucker for heavy industry as well.
Eve: What are you working on at the moment in your current arts practice?
Craig: In September 2022 I had a small retrospective exhibition at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery in Melbourne to celebrate the 25 years that I have been showing with him. The Berry Consols works that were on loan to the Eureka Centre in Ballarat in 2021 will be touring to the Central Goldfields Gallery (Maryborough) in 2023. Currently, I am about to start a new series – still secret.
Eve: When you work do you like to play music?
Craig: Always have music when I am working. Always Baroque. Cello, viola. Sublime. Music never got any better in my book.
Eve: To date, what have been your career highlights as an artist?
Craig: Buggered if I know. It is always one foot in front of the other and don’t look back. I have works in the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria, the State Library of Victoria, the Shrine of Remembrance in addition to private and corporate collections. I did get a thrill though when I saw a drawing of mine at the NGV hanging between two heroes – Max Ernst and Paul Signac.
Eve: Do you have any unrealised artistic goals towards which you are striving?
Craig: In 2001 I had three exhibitions in Melbourne – at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, at the Shrine of Remembrance, and at McClelland Gallery. At the time, I thought this was the launch of a great career. By the time my wife Kendry and I returned from France, all I could think about were the truly great anonymous archaic and medieval art works that I had encountered. There was no ego in those works. They were simply great. Now, I am just happy to make what I make. If someone else enjoys that, that is enough for me. However, it would be nice to see in print the children’s book Bonne Chasse! that Kendry wrote and I illustrated while we lived in France. There’s a dream still to come.
Eve: What do you think are the main challenges for practicing artists today?
Craig: The absolute terror of online ‘art’ markets. Picture framing, I see so much digital crap that is just wallpaper. Why would any person of sound mind buy something they have never seen in the flesh? Also, the generations that used to actually collect real art are now disappearing. They are downsizing their homes and their collections. The young ones have no art literacy and are buying digital garbage – very sad.
Eve: And the main rewards?
Craig: For the true believers, art-making is its own reward. What else would we do?

Words: Eve Lamb | Image: Charl Parris

MEMORIES of the June winter storm that cut a swathe through much of Hepburn Shire last year remain strongly etched in the mind’s eye of Trentham’s Charl Parris.
“It was incredible. We were pretty isolated – for up to seven to 10 days,” Charl recounts. “We had no power, no running water and there were trees down on the Kyneton, Blackwood and Daylesford exits.”
Fortunately Charl, a keen phone photographer, also recalls the subsequent process of recovery from the upsetting incident. In fact a photo she snapped using her phone as part of that process won her the grand overall prize in Hepburn Shire’s Amateur Storm Recovery photography competition.
Charl’s winning image captured her two boys enjoying a winter solstice bonfire not long after the big June storm of 2021 wreaked its devastation.
Funded through Bushfire Recovery Victoria, the competition was part of the wider Hepburn Shire’s Storm Recovery process that has now also led to the publication of a book entitled The Big Storm.
Hepburn’s Storm Recovery communications officer Kathy Mexted says the BRV funding enabled 200 copies of the book to be produced and these have been sent to all of the book’s contributors including many community groups that were involved.
“It was a way of people being able to process the storm impacts,” says Kathy, who wrote multiple stories herself about the ways in which the storm event affected the community, and also edited The Big Storm book which was published last month by Hepburn Shire Council.
Kathy says the book captures experiences from many perspectives, ranging from emergency service first responders to those involved later with regenerative and restorative projects. “Charl’s photo is included as are each of the photography category winners,” Kathy says.
Those who entered photographs were also encouraged to write something about the experience associated with capturing their submitted image.
In recounting the winning winter solstice photo moment, Charl wrote:
“There’s something magical, freeing and mysterious about a bonfire. After the big storm, we didn’t know if it was safe to venture close enough and be one with nature.
“The trees dimly lit by the fire of the night, it was bitterly cold but the warmth of the fire brought us closer, huddled together as we reflected. The young, the old, all of us older but were we any wiser?
“In this space I felt connected, free spirited, like I was part of a dream. I reflected and knew tomorrow the days would get longer. I laughed and was thankful for my boys, my friends and being here together, near the warmth of the fire, under the stars on the edge of the forest in the depth of the night.”
Other winners were: Junior winner – Ada Walsh, runner up and special commendation – Bug Melville, Open winner – Tony Sawrey, runner up – Robbie Connell.
Trentham & Districts Community Bank is taking book orders at $35 per copy. If there are 100 orders, the money will be collected and another print run will be done in March. Copies are available to view at the shire’s libraries, Trentham cafes and the Cosmopolitan Hotel.

Words and Image: Eve Lamb

THEIR parents may have been okay with becoming senior citizens, but as they move beyond a certain age, today’s baby boomers and the first of Gen X behind them – not so much.

It’s an observation evidenced in the fact that the building that two years back used to house Clunes’ Senior Citizens is now HQ for Attitude: Ageing Well.

Attitude by name – as solidly stated on their wooden signage – and Attitude by nature. It’s clear there’s no shortage of the stuff going down here.

Attitude is “a grass roots model of ageing well in community”, explains a flier. It’s a home-grown model that sits under the Clunes Neighbourhood House umbrella, and is starting to grab attention from further afield.

As I pull up a seat inside Attitude HQ, I’m here to hear first-hand from the regulars whether they believe there’s a need for more retirement living options in Hepburn Shire.

There is general agreement there is but it doesn’t take long to discover the Attitude focus is far more wide-ranging.

Gareth Sharp, a retired engineer who used to project manage for government, and Lois Nichols, a former city-based magazine sales professional, are quick to point out that social connectivity underscores much of what Attitude is all about.

“We run along the same lines as the Mens’ Shed movement,” Lois says.

Those who get along are invited to introduce any particular interest area and then oversee it becoming part of the program. Since Attitude started in November 2020 it’s conducted more than 600 activities involving more than 2500 participants.

Regular free film nights, weekly pétanque sessions, bi-weekly boot camp, easy indoor exercise class, ukulele, philosophy, art, and outdoors walking are all just a bit of what’s on their seasonally renewed program – as are social outings.

“When you look at the population of Clunes there are so many people who are retirees or wanting to retire here, but we’re very inclusive and we welcome anyone coming along including those who would not previously have been considered senior citizens.

“It (adequate retirement living) will be an issue. There will be people from our baby boomer cohort with health issues.”

Access to transport, particularly for those who may not have a licence or a private vehicle is also an issue that comes up. Ready access to a community bus would help Attitude run its ongoing outings to locations that include wineries. Funding is also needed to enable programs to be subsidised.

The issue of ensuring provisions are in place to age well surrounded by friends is a perennial one, and it’s quite a pressing one for Hepburn Shire, the director of Belle Property Regional Victoria, Will Walton, observes.

Being in real estate gives Will a unique vantage point from which to regard the wider issue. “I think the council needs to take a proactive approach to planning for growth that includes attracting operators of retirement villages,” he says.

“We’re one of the older local government areas in Victoria as far as population goes and hopefully both the state and local governments will look at options to enable people to stay in their community and remain connected.

“In the Daylesford area there’s a big problem, absolutely. The two issues are the availability of land to house an independent retirement village. The problem we have here is the land is very expensive.”

The other problem that Will mentions is the dearth of smaller private accommodation options – units and the like, built to house just one or two people and enable older locals to downsize yet remain happily living in their own community.

The lack of independent retirement living opportunities only entrenches the shortage of rental accommodation for younger, larger households with older singles or couples forced to remain in abodes that have become too big for them to maintain, Will says. “I think it’s a problem the entire width of the shire.”

“But I also think that independent living retirement options that come with all the bells and whistles, like cinemas and indoor pools, usually have a minimum requirement of 50 units – so I’m not sure if the smaller towns could sustain that.”

Hepburn Shire Mayor Cr Brian Hood also rates the availability of retirement living options for the Hepburn Shire as an issue demanding attention.

“My immediate reaction is that it does need attention. We do have an ageing population. We know that the median age for people living in Hepburn is 52 and that’s older than the state average, and it’s a significant proportion of our community.

“And we’re painfully aware that housing availability is a general issue for our community including appropriate housing for older residents.”

Cr Hood was among those who, a few months ago, attended the launch in Creswick of Hepburn Shire’s No Barrier Positive Ageing Strategy 2022-30.

He says provision of housing to meet the specific needs of more mature locals into the future is one of the main focus areas prioritised within that strategy. Others include transport, health and social connectivity and participation.

Words: Eve Lamb | Image: Kyle Barnes

PREPARING to cycle 650 kilometres through the heat of a Cambodian January may not be everyone’s cup of tea.
But three intrepid Trentham residents are relishing the chance to do just that to help raise funds for a particularly good cause.
Right now, Mia Gartley, Steven Peirce and Paul Williamson are preparing – and training up – to join 22 others from around the world to cover the distance over eight days in January.
They’ll be raising money for REACH Siem Reap, a not-for-profit which helps Cambodian families struggling to survive in serious poverty.
The last such similar fundraising cycle event – run by another charity organisation – happened pre-Covid, back in 2019 and both Paul and Steven were part of it, but for Mia it’s going to be a whole new experience.
And Mia does not even describe herself as a cyclist.
“No. This is my first go at long distance cycling,” the office administrator said.
“I decided to do it because of the cause. It’s just such a good cause and I know exactly where the money is going – directly to the people who need it. It goes to cover things like education and food.”
Mia says getting some respectable training kilometres under her tyre tread has seen her out tackling a lot of trails and unmade roads around East Trentham over the past month.
She says the challenge motivated her to dust off her old bicycle – “that I’d kept since my 20s”.
“The biggest challenge has been the cold days – down to two degrees here in Trentham East, and when it’s been really cold I’ve done my cycling on an indoors bike instead.
“When we’re in Cambodia we’ll be tackling everything from unmade roads to busy main roads and keeping a look out for everything from tuk tuks to bullocks and buses.”
Ahead of the ride, Trentham’s Williamson family is hosting a special private fundraising afternoon, but anyone else who wants to help the three participating Trentham riders reach their fundraising goals can do so online.
“I’ve done about seven of these rides and I’m not even a bike rider,” says Paul Williamson, whose daughter Emily Williamson founded REACH Siem Reap and opened a school in the northwestern Cambodian location.
“I put myself through the pain for the end result,” Paul says.
“We will start at the southern end of Cambodia and go right up through Phnom Penh, to end at Siem Reap and be clapped in by the students at the school.
“I’m expecting it will be bloody hot and we will be riding through a lot of jungle and crossing the Mekong (River) two or three times.”
For those who would like to help them reach their fundraising aims, Mia said that each of the Trentham Riders had their own REACH fundraising page – “and we have to raise $5000 each,” she says.
“I’m pretty close. I’ve got about $4000 already.”
REACH Siem Reap communications officer Tadiwa Sibanda said the participation of the Trentham Riders in the upcoming Ride to REACH fundraising cycle was extremely valuable.
“We actually will be running two charity cycling events in January 2023 – our international event, Ride to REACH, where our international supporters join in Cambodia and cycle the length of the country, 650kms in eight days,” she said.
“And our second event is Side by Side – our local, youth-led event. To empower our students, and give them a life-changing experience, they will cycle 200kms in two days.
“Our two January bike rides are raising funds to support more than 200 Cambodian kids and their families in their fight against poverty.
“Our programs are dedicated to helping local families and youths combat the cycle of generational poverty and are focused around the basic needs of education, nutrition and health.
“As a non-government organisation all of our funding is reliant on generous individuals who donate to our cause. Our bike rides are our biggest campaigns, and to a large extent the most exciting.”

Words: Eve Lamb | Image: Kyle Barnes

DAYLESFORD teenager Sebastian Streat has come a long way since the day a paediatrician once identified him as unlikely to ever attend school, or to read or write.
In fact the 18-year-old who lives life with mild autism has not just successfully completed year 12 through Daylesford College, he’s also just taken out the state’s title of Trainee of the Year (landscape gardening) attaining both the glory and CV enhancement, along with a beautiful trophy.
Announced at a special dinner in Melbourne recently, Sebastian’s award is a state-wide accolade, sponsored by the Kangan Institute, and administered through the Apprenticeship Employment Network.
Sebastian won the award after two years of school-based training to achieve his Certificate II in Landscaping, firstly completing a year of study through Ballarat’s Federation University and then, this year, completing a second year with Ballarat Group Training.
“He was nominated for the award through Ballarat Group Training and there were quite a number nominated from around the state,” Sebastian’s proud mum Krystal Phypers says.
“Being named as Trainee of the Year in landscape gardening is a real achievement for Sebastian. When he was first diagnosed with autism, a paediatrician said he would probably never go to school or read or write.
“I remember that day. I was 21 when I had Sebastian and I came out of that paediatrician’s office crying my eyes out. I walked out saying, ‘No. We’re going to prove this paediatrician wrong’.
“Now he’s just finished year 12. He has got such a passion for gardening. He is quite particular and he is a very hard worker. He has really enjoyed his training and met some wonderful friends. I think he loves gardening because it’s his outlet.”
Now Sebastian says he is keen to secure an apprenticeship in the field that he loves. “He would really like to get an apprenticeship now with the Hepburn Shire. That’s his dream,” Krystal says.

Words: Eve Lamb | Images: Kyle Barnes

WORK has begun to create a significant new attraction that’s projected to bring tens of thousands more visitors to Daylesford each year.
The man behind development of the new museum specialising in Australian history and Australiana is Mark Ward, already known to many through his multiple Amazing Mill Markets ventures including at Daylesford.
The entrepreneurial Mark, is in no doubt that the new Amazing Mill Markets Museum, now being developed on the same site as Daylesford’s Amazing Mill Market, will be the “biggest and best of its kind in Australia”, and that the flow-on economic benefits to the locality will be considerable.
“It’ll be without a doubt the best museum of its kind in Australia with beautiful cars, massive steam engines, and all aspects of Australian history including automotive, rural, industrial and commercial Australiana,” Mark says.
His personal passion for carnival, circus and sideshow memorabilia will ensure these aspects of the nation’s history and culture are also well represented in the new museum.
“The undercover area is just under a quarter acre in size and it will have a glass atrium down the centre,” Mark says.
“Building has already started. The total cost of the build and fit-out will be just over $2 million.
“The museum will have themed areas with high-tech lighting and 12 interactive screens to tell people about the items. The collection is valued in excess of $10 million and includes 23 magnificently restored cars.”
Work is scheduled for completion at the end of May 2023 with the interior fit-out then anticipated to take three months before the new attraction opens to the public later in the year.
“We anticipate opening in September-October,” Mark says.
“We’re creating a worthwhile destination for people to come to from all over Australia and overseas to spend several hours.
“Rest assured it will be the best of its type in Australia. This museum will bring millions of dollars to Daylesford every year. We are going to attract another 10,000 to 15,000 people into Daylesford per month.”
It’s not the only one of his projects that Mark is currently keenly watching take shape, with another exciting development set for Bendigo’s historic Flour Mill precinct, following the sale of the Amazing Mill Market at Ballarat.
“We have sold the Mill Market at Ballarat but we will be opening another one at the Flour Mill site in Bendigo,” Mark says.
“It will also include specialty shops and five-storey accommodation at the Bendigo Flour Mill precinct. The Bendigo Flour Mill is an historic building and we will be retaining as much of the infrastructure as possible.”
The $24 million Bendigo Flour Mill precinct development will be staged over five years and will also include a small museum, bar and bistro on site, Mark says.

Words & images: Eve Lamb

When driving through Creswick on the main drag headed to Ballarat, it’s hard not to notice the abode of Dot and Laurie Porter.
You know it. It’s the one on the left with all the Christmassy extravagance.
Over the past decade Laurie and Dot, their children, and now their grandchildren have continued to add to the front yard spectacle celebrating the season.
It’s hard to image now that it all started with some comparatively modest Christmas lights, because as Dot and Laurie explain, after Laurie’s Christmas-loving brother, Mickey, passed away their residential yuletide decorations became somewhat more elaborate.
“Mickey loved Christmas,” Dot says.
When Mickey left some money behind, they decided to use it to honour his memory with something they knew he would have loved. And so, what has today become locally known as “Christmas House” began to take on a life of its own.
Christmas trees, reindeer, sleighs, bud lights, candy canes, elves, baubles, Santa sacks and angels abound.
“We haven’t added much this year – only that train there, and the reindeer over there, and the nativity scene over there, and the new snow machine,” says Laurie who has fine-tuned his bubble recipe to create ‘snow’ for the snow machine.
“It was so cold last night when we turned the machine on that the ‘snow’ was still on the ground this morning. The kids just love the snow machine.”
Besides their now grown-up 17 grandchildren, Dot and Laurie also have 23 great-grandchildren to enjoy the Christmas spectacle in honour of their Great-Uncle Mickey.
“It’s for the kids. To see the smiles on their faces,” Dot says.
“Some of our grandchildren dress up as elves on Christmas Eve and everything lights up. We’ve got solar-powered lights and also standard electric lights. The nativity scene is powered by solar. At night when it lights up, it’s really nice.”
Suffice to say the overall effect attracts plenty of fans in the countdown to Christmas, particularly after dark on Christmas Eve…and it’s even rumoured that Santa sometimes makes a guest appearance.
But he wouldn’t be the only one. Over the past couple of years the Creswick Brass Band has also rolled up to pay a special pre-Christmas visit to the Porter residence at 166 Ballarat Road, and dispensed some musical yuletide cheer there as well.
In fact, Creswick Brass Band members say they are now getting set to play carols at the Creswick IGA from 6.30pm to 7.30pm this Friday, December 23, and after that will also be playing carols at the Porters’ place for an hour or more from 8.30pm this Friday and then again on Saturday, Christmas Eve from 8.30pm.
No doubt Uncle Mickey will be smiling down from somewhere – and loving it.

Words and Images: Eve Lamb

IF YOU’VE ever encountered the term wabi-sabi while exploring Japanese spiritual or aesthetic philosophy you will have a bit of an insight into the style of Clunes ceramicist Chandra Paul.
Originally a city girl, Chandra escaped the clutches of the state’s main metropolis six years ago to set up a home and ceramics studio in Clunes – complete with kiln.
She has not looked back since.
“I do hand building. My work is slab and coil built,” Chandra says.
Her own website describes her work as: “Hand built, small batch stoneware pottery. Minimal, rustic, contemporary, earthy and tactile”.
“Hand building is slow and laborious so in effect each piece you make is a one-off piece. I like to see the maker’s marks embedded in the clay,” she says.
Chandra’s focus is on creating original functional pieces with a beautiful earthy aesthetic to sell at artists’ markets as well as online.
Exquisite little tableware pieces, unique display vases and indoor plant display pots are all part of what she does. Very recently she has also made a suite of bespoke pieces for higher end local restaurateurs looking for something very special to set off
attractions on their menu.
“I want to work closely with other small businesses and their vision and help make it come alive through my craft. The design process is where a lot of the work is.”
Wabi-sabi is all about the beauty inherent in the perfectly imperfect, and the pieces Chandra creates beautifully showcase the raw aesthetic of the materials from which they are made.
To hold one of these organic little creations in the palm of your hand is to instantly conjure something precious and essential, a homage to the landscapes from which they’re derived.
But before making her move to Clunes, Chandra had never enjoyed the creative convenience of possessing her own kiln.
“This kiln and I are friends,” she says of the kiln that she ordered from Germany and waited for six months for it to arrive. “This is a good kiln.”
“I built here in Clunes in 2016. When I was in Melbourne I was a tenant and couldn’t have my own studio. I chose Clunes partly for financial reasons. It was affordable.
“But I was also thinking that 10 years down the track Clunes is going to be a bit like Daylesford and Hepburn were in the day. I thought this might be a bit of a hub for creative people.
“I grew up in inner Melbourne and before I moved here I was living in Seaford and not feeling particularly safe. Every time I came up here I felt I could breathe again. I like space.
“I had been renting some space in a ceramics co-op out in the suburbs and someone teaching art in the adjoining room had a holiday house here in Clunes and told me about it. It just sparked my interest.”
Right now Chandra has various artists’ markets lined up to attend in the metro area as she loves being present to chat to those who are drawn to her work.
“It’s a niche, ceramics, but the people who love it come back because they have a yen for the things of the earth,” she says.
“The idea at the moment is online shopping with activations – that is going out into the world and engaging with people whether it’s at markets or exhibitions, or pop-up shops,” she says.
“I have also recently started a blog – I’ve never done one before – for anyone who wants to hear about some pottery minutia.
“It’s about my journey and processes with pottery.”

Words: Eve Lamb | Image: James Penlidis

IT’S not your average job description but being Australia’s “leading female magician and mentalist” is a profession Daylesford’s Cath Jamison simply loves.
“When I was a kid, five years old, I got a magic kit and I loved it,” the award- winning entertainer says.
“I was a quirky kid and I’m a quirky person.”
Today, Cath’s mind-blowing and frequently uproarious shows have earned her a reputation as a leader in her field and she’s known as one of Australia’s most unusual women entertainers wielding her trademark sass, style, and mind illusion to captivate audiences.
She’s been described in high profile places as ‘Ellen DeGeneres meets Derren Brown’, and this wickedly hilarious entertainer has won more awards and done more big gigs than you can wave a wand at. Think Melbourne International Comedy
Festival, Adelaide Fringe, Melbourne Fringe, Adelaide FEAST and Midsumma Festival.
Her inexplicable shows have held even seasoned entertainers, like Tim Burton, Dawn French and Melissa Etheridge, spellbound.
Cath and her partner Nicole Peters moved from Mount Martha on the Mornington Peninsula to Daylesford in March last year, as Cath says the town and wider locality ticked all their boxes.
“We’ve always wanted to live and buy in Daylesford. We absolutely love it here,” says Cath who didn’t gain the title of ‘Australia’s leading female magician and mentalist’ overnight.
As a youngster doing magic tricks was “a hobby” and Cath trained and became a professional gardener and horticulturist working at the Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens and Royal Exhibition Building gardens to make a living.
But the love of entertaining, magic and mystery, and of working a crowd was always there.
“I went to magic school in Brunswick Street and I went ‘Oh my God, that’s what I want to do’,” Cath says.
Busking and playing bagpipes in a pipe band, and even dispensing one particularly crowd-enthralling act that involved juggling rubber chickens, all fed into her development as an entertainer. But it was her passion for acute observation of the
human psyche that led to her evolution as a mentalist as well.
Fascinated by the psychology of human behaviour, Cath began to observe the body language and behaviours of those around her and embarked on studies in mentalism and the esoteric fields of telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance, pre-cognition and mind control.
Together with her onstage collaborator, Daylesford’s Aurora Kurth, Cath became part of the immensely popular Sass & Secrets show, a cabaret-style magic and mayhem act that blends comedy, music, mentalism and mirth.
It proved a sellout at Daylesford’s last ChillOut Festival when they performed it at Peppers Mineral Springs where they so impressed that they’re already booked in to bring it back for next year’s ChillOut.
Cath says Sass & Secrets has also just been accepted by Regional Arts Victoria to participate in the state’s Connecting Places program which enables regional venues across Victoria to host shows that might otherwise be out of reach. Maldon’s new
Festival of Dark Ideas 2023 will be just one of their many dates.
But besides Sass & Secrets, Cath is also busy doing her own magician and mentalist gigs and teaching others the craft of magic.
These days she’s able to make a living from her unique talents fulltime as a magician and mentalist for hire for private gigs, from large corporate functions to intimate cocktail party affairs.
“I’m up to Cairns in a couple of weeks to do a big corporate women in business gig,” she says.
“I also have the Australian School of Magic running since 2006,” she says. Through the magic school Cath is able to share her love of magic and teach youngsters, aged from five to teens, some of the tricks of the trade.
“A lot of magicians are getting work now because people are hanging to be connected,” she says.
“There is more to this world than can be explained and when you talk about magic, there’s a collective consciousness and it’s all about everyone connecting and being happy.
“Magic for me is really about entertaining and transporting people back to their childhood, taking them on a roller coaster of emotions.”

Words and Image: Eve Lamb

CLUNES has achieved a state first, getting public signposts installed to highlight the location of every public defibrillator in the town.
The woman behind the heart-warming, and potentially
life-saving, achievement is Deb Bright, coordinator of the
town’s neighbourhood house and also a GoodSAM.
Ambulance Victoria’s GoodSAM (Smartphone Activated
Medic) program connects local volunteer responders to
patients in the first critical minutes of cardiac arrest while
paramedics are on the way.
Deb says GoodSAM is a free global smartphone app that
alerts several volunteer GoodSAM responders to someone
nearby in cardiac arrest.
It can – and in Clunes it has already – make the critical
difference as it’s known that for every minute a patient
doesn’t get CPR/defibrillation, their chances of survival fall
by 10 per cent.
Deb is one of several GoodSAMs in Clunes and after
recently learning of a South Australian initiative where
physical signposts have been installed to point out AED
locations, she approached Hepburn Shire Council to see if
something similar could be done in her own town.
To her delight, the shire came through, and as a result in
recent weeks multiple signposts have been installed helpfully
pointing the way to each of the town’s five public AEDs
(Automated External Defibrillators).
“We’re lucky in Clunes that we have five AEDs that are
available for members of the public to access 24/7,” Deb says.
“They are at the town’s supermarket, here at the
neighbourhood house, at the bowling club, the golf club and the medical centre.
“The signs have now gone in outside all of the locations of the publicly available AEDs and they point in the direction of the nearest defibrillator. They just went in in recent weeks and I can tell you that they’re already being noticed.”
Deb said the town would love to have some more GoodSAMs.
“The only thing you need to become a GoodSAM is a willingness to respond when you are alerted to a cardiac incident, and knowledge of basic CPR.”
Deb says there had been multiple cardiac arrest incidents in Clunes over the past few years, some of which she has personally attended in her capacity as a GoodSAM.
“Statistically we know that use of a defibrillator in those first critical moments can increase your chance of surviving by 72 percent,” she says.
Deb says seeing the new signposts go in has been very rewarding and she is now keen to see them extended to other towns throughout the shire – and beyond.
“I’d really like to see the program extended and I’ll be contacting Hepburn Shire to suggest that it is extended throughout the shire,” she says.
Local residents who think they may be able to help out and become a GoodSAM responder are encouraged to check out Ambulance Victoria’s GoodSAM website, with some local training in defibrillator use also coming up fairly soon.
“I run regular defibrillator training sessions here at the Neighbourhood House and we advertise them on our socials,” Deb says.
“We will probably start running them again in January.”

Words: Eve Lamb; Image: Kyle Barnes

DOG owners and their woofers out Trentham way are on the front paw for the new year ahead, releasing a doggedly handsome 2023 calendar in pursuit of a pooch-pleasing project.
The Dogs of Trentham are a group of local dog owners who want to see a council- endorsed public space provided in which to safely exercise dogs – off leash – in their patch.
Towards realising their goal they’ve just produced the Dogs of Trentham 2023 calendar featuring 12 local pooches posing in front of the town’s landmarks.
“The Dogs of Trentham is a small committee that we set up about this time last year,” says local dog owner and Dogs of Trentham president, psychologist Dr Kerry Proctor.
She says that in particular they hope to progress a vision, with Hepburn Shire Council’s support, to trial a block of land in Trentham’s Victoria Street for use as a safe and fenced off-leash dog park.
In the meantime, an agreement has been reached to trial two small temporary spaces at the Market Street Reserve after the group met with Mayor Cr Brian Hood and Infrastructure director Bruce Lucas last Friday.
Dr Proctor, said while it was not ideal “but a step in the right direction while a decision being made on a permanent site in the 2023-2024 Master Plan”.
She says that having somewhere off leash for local dogs to exercise safely is not just essential for the dogs’ health but also for their owners’ health and social
connectivity as well.
Over previous months, a large number of dog owners had been using the Market Street Reserve to exercise their dogs off-lead with many friendships formed in the process.
But the little central reserve also accommodates public toilets, tennis courts and a children’s playground as well, and its ongoing use as an off-lead dog exercise space has become vexed, with some conflict arising between its multiple public uses.
“The council received a complaint from a member of the public, and last December put up a sign saying ‘No Dogs Off Leash’ at the Market Street Reserve,” Dr Proctor says.
“In April the council unanimously voted in recognition of the need for an off-leash dog park and it’s now in their strategic master plan.”
The Dogs of Trentham group then identified the Victoria Street land as an ideal site to trial as an off-lead park – big enough to accommodate dogs of all sizes.
“The block of land at 14 Victoria Street has been bequeathed to the council for community use. It’s a perfect size. It just needs to be fenced,” Dr Proctor says.
“We want to get formal approval from the council to initially trial it as a temporary park. We’ve costed it and we believe it can be fenced for under $20,000.
We’ve got a lot of support for it. We ran a petition and we got 450 signatures in two weeks.”
Negotiations between the council and the group have been taking place, and the Community Bank Trentham & Districts has provided $3500 to print the calendar that’s now being sold to raise dollars which dog owners hope can eventually go towards fencing the Victoria Street site.
Trentham photographer, and dog owner, James Walshe donated his time and considerable expertise to take the shots which feature in the calendar – all of them local dogs including Dr Proctor’s boxer dog, Crumpet (aka Miss March), and James’ border collie Paddy (aka Mr May).
“It was a bit of fun,” said James whose professional background as a photographer includes photographing animals for Guide Dogs Victoria and for the RSPCA as well.
“The cover shot has four dogs in one shot and I thought it might prove a bit difficult to get them all looking in the right direction at once. But they behaved beautifully,” James said.

Admittedly some tasty payola helped James out while on location, and now the $20 calendars are being rapidly snapped up.
“We had 450 calendars printed and I think about 250 of them have already sold within a week,” Dr Proctor says.
Copies of the calendar are available at the Trentham Post Office, the Community Bank Trentham & Districts and via the Dogs of Trentham Facebook page. They’ll also be for sale at the town’s December 17 market – “and also some street stalls that we’ll also be having between now and the market,” Dr Proctor says.