with Eve Lamb

Creativity has always been central in the life of Musk Vale ceramicist Minna Graham. This exceptionally skilled ceramicist creates hand-made, functional tableware with a sculptural twist. Right now Minna is preparing to participate in a national open studio event and to exhibit her work at one of Australia’s foremost contemporary ceramics galleries, the Skepsi Gallery in Malvern.

Eve: What do you draw on for inspiration in creating your work Minna?

Minna: (gestures beyond her studio door) Out there! The bush. Landscape. I think I’ve come to terms recently with the fact that I’m a landscape artist. I’m really interested in mountains and volcanoes. Big inspiring landscapes. And we do travel a lot. I do chase different landscapes. Patagonia is a big one that’s stuck in my memory. Since 2016, when we travelled there, I’ve been having a love affair with the mountains and glaciers of Patagonia The Himalayas. The volcanoes of Indonesia. The Australian desert… And also the small things.

We live very close to the earth here. After a while you notice things in detail, The seasonal changes. There’s so many amazing micro-details that fascinate me like the gum leaves changing colour, tiny little micro orchids. These influence my glazing and colour and texture as well. I like to have a sculptural element to my work … The landscape kind of finds its way into every aspect of my work both physically and metaphorically.

Eve: What are some of your main ceramics career highlights?

Minna: Probably one of the best was that there was an Amazon Prime series that was filmed at Byron Bay called Nine Perfect Strangers, shot in 2020 and starring Nicole Kidman. Anyway when that was happening people who follow me on Instagram started sending me all these photos of Nicole going ‘Cheers’ with a drink in hand, in the series. I was wondering why are all these people sending me photos of Nicole Kidman going ‘Cheers’ and it took me a while to work out that she was going ‘Cheers’ with a piece that I had made. And there is also a breakfast scene in the series which has a lot of my work in it as well. It was especially satisfying because I’ve heard that Nicole Kidman is a bit of a stickler for being in control of the aesthetic.

Eve: That’s an excellent highlight.

Minna. Yes. There was also some artwork in that series by another Daylesford artist as well, Gav Barbey. Some other highlights for me over the past 10 years … I’ve enjoyed being selected for some major ceramics awards in Australia including the North Queensland Ceramic Awards. I’ve been shortlisted as a finalist this year. It’s opening in late November. And at the moment I’ve got three teapots in the Sydney Teapot Show.

Eve: Do you have any special events or exhibitions coming up?

Minna: Yes I will be participating in The Australian Ceramics Association’s national open studios event over November 23-24. My studio here in Musk Vale will be open and I will be doing demos though the day. I will also invite another local artist to be part of the open studio here as well. I will have the upstairs gallery open and work for sale there. I also set up sales items downstairs here in the studio and we have coffee and cake as well… I will also be part of a group exhibition in November at the Skepsi Gallery in Malvern which I’m very excited about. It’s a very well established gallery and attracts a lot of collectors. That opens on November 16 and runs for about a month.

Eve: Have you ever worked in any other sectors Minna?

Minna: I’ve done a lot of other things but I have always been in the creative arts. I have a background in music. I trained as a classical musician and I also used to make costumes for festivals and that sort of thing. Costume making and performing. But then in my late 20s I came back to ceramics and never looked back really. Both my parents were artists so I was never going to escape really.

Eve: Are there any changes that you’ve noticed in the wider realm of professional ceramics practice?

Minna: My God yes. The ceramics scene has enjoyed a real renaissance, probably since COVID. I think ‘ The Great Pottery Throw Down’ may have had something to do with it. Now people are becoming more educated. They have a bit more of an appreciation for handmade things. Ceramics is one of the toughest art forms to learn. There are so many elements to it.

Eve: What are some of the main professional challenges that you have to contend with?

Minna: It can take a good four plus months for me to get a piece from start to finish. It’s very time consuming. There’s zero instant gratification in ceramics (laughs). A friend once said to me when I was unloading the kiln: ‘it’s like some kind of horrible-wonderful anxiety Christmas’. And that’s true!

The upcoming opening of the old school house garden at Kingston to raise funds for the local CFA fire brigade represents an opportunity not to be missed. 

Without a doubt one of the best private gardens in the region, it is owned by Graham Fisher and Anthony Straker and rarely opens to the public. 

When it does it’s certainly a treat for garden lovers, but the opening that’s set for Saturday, November 2 promises to be a great day out with live music, onsite refreshments and tours by owner-gardener Graham Fisher. 

It’s a great chance to make a day of exploring the many fantastic creative ideas this remarkable oasis has to offer including impressive visual lines-of-sight, over a kilometre of formal hedging, glorious vistas and clever plant combinations. 

Featuring established native and exotic trees and a wide array of floriferous plants including traditional cottage favourites and de rigueur dry-climate perennials, the garden graces two hectares of the overall three-hectare site and embraces the 1871-founded former Kingston Primary School building which Anthony and Graham have lovingly restored. 

“We’ve spent a lot of blood, sweat and tears on restoring it,” says Graham, an architect by profession. “The garden is designed around a lot of the original trees that were already here including the aleppo pine (pinus halepensis) that is related to the Lone Pine.” 

Eagerly anticipating the event, secretary of Kingston CFA Fire Brigade Wendy Dunton says the goal is to raise funds toward replacing one of the brigade’s two tankers. 

Kingston garden openKingston garden open for CFA fundraiserfor CFA fundraiser Wendy, brigade captain Robert Haughey, and their team of volunteer members say they’re delighted that Graham and Anthony have generously offered to make their garden available. 

“It’s our community-based tanker which is very old and needs to be replaced,” Wendy says. 

“We have applied for a grant and we have to match it. Our other tanker – Tanker One – can go off on strike teams. But this community-based tanker that we need to replace is based here at all times to protect the local community. We’re also trying to get a new station as well.” 

As part of the upcoming Open Garden Day, Graham will lead tours of the garden at both 11am and 1pm on the day, with the $15 (adults) gate entry fee going entirely to the CFA cause. 

Words & images: Eve Lamb 

With Eve Lamb

Macedon Ranges Walking Track: Sanatorium Lake to Camels Hump and Return, 9.5km

While researching possible walks in the Macedon Ranges, it’s the name that catches my eye; the Sanatorium Lake Walking Trail.

Sanatorium? … More on that later.

It forms part of the Macedon Ranges Walking Track (MRWT) and at a very leisurely 2.6 km, joins nicely with a lengthier hike up to the Camels Hump, the highest point in the Macedon Range, making a more respectable 9.5km return walk all up.

So lunch, thermos, waterproof coats, camera and backpacks sorted we head off on an almost sunny Sunday.

Traveling to the Macedon Regional Park via Woodend we start to gain elevation and encounter a phalanx of motorcyclists out to grind their pegs on the sharper Mount Macedon bends.

Turning left off the main road that continues through to leafy Macedon, we instead take the Lions Head Road and continue on past Days Picnic Ground, navigating gravel and a serious pothole or two to arrive finally at the Sanatorium Lake car park.

Nearby a group of folk are on bent knees, all turned to Mecca, for afternoon prayer.  

But for us, first up is the lake. From the car park it’s a quick little saunter to the tiny lake’s edge, beside which, towering exotic conifers are impressive while the native forest too presses in around the water’s edge.

Signage provides a potted history of this little artificial water body in the bush. The lake was built around 1899 to supply water to a tuberculosis sanatorium that was located several kilometers to the south.

Perhaps it’s the predominance of shade and shadow, or perhaps some lingering ghosts of history, but I find this little aquatic feature just a tad eerie, pretty rippling forest reflections notwithstanding.

We complete a lap of the little lake and then follow the Sanatorium Eco-Tourism Trail, part of the Macedon Ranges Walking Track, on to the Days Picnic Ground that we drove past on the way here.

“Keep an eye out for horses… and stags,” advises my sturdy walking accomplice, Paddy H.

“What?”

 “We’re on a shared horse path on this section, and ‘stags’ is a name given to the big old dead trees that have become hollowed. Invaluable for wildlife, micro bats and the like,” my walking companion informs.

Turns out his assertion is spot on, confirmed by information signage a bit further along the trail.

We soon part ways with the horsey section and arrive at the Days Picnic Ground for our packed lunch and coffee with free entertainment courtesy of a large Aussie-Indian group locked in fierce cricketing combat.

Fortified, we again shoulder our packs and pick up the signposted MRWT just beyond the picnic ground’s composting loo block.

From here the trail quickly leaves the picnicking day trippers behind and wends through bushland including some imposing stags.

Carefully, we cross the main road that leads to Macedon, and we continue on the other side following the trail. From here the forest increasingly comes into its own.

Splendid tall eucalyptus tower while on our left glimpses of ancient rock formations impart a sense of drama in keeping with the fact that the Camels Hump is actually the weathered remains of a mamelon – a mass of sticky lava that oozed from the earth’s crust about six million years ago.

The walk now becomes a gradual gaining of elevation and by the time we emerge from the tall forest at the Camels Hump car park my walking companion and I have both worked up a respectable sweat.

From the carpark we tackle the last 1km push up to the summit. Short but sharp. The Camels Hump is 1011 meters above sea level and we’re rewarded with sweeping views across the northern plains.

We count our lucky stars that the rain which has vaguely threatened all afternoon has receded to be replaced by cool sunlight that now adds dazzle to the far-flung vista stretching before us.

But the wind is bloody cold and boisterous and we can only stay here so long to pay our due respects.

Just before hypothermia sets in we head on back down and retrace our steps all the way back to the start point at the Sanatorium Lake carpark to find the previously prayerful have departed, and ours is the only vehicle that remains, aside from a lone motorcycle.

“What stays with you the most about this walk?” I quiz my co-walker as we drive on to Macedon, reflecting on our expedition.

“The tall forest. The poignancy of the Sanatorium and the suffering of the people who had TB.  And the resonance of past Melbourne glories when this area was a summer retreat for the wealthy, when the beach wasn’t so hallowed,” he muses thoughtfully.

And I have to agree. I also think this walk provides just the right degree of exertion and variety for a decent day hike. A gnarly little slice of elevation without leaving you too smashed to enjoy a trip to the Macedon Hotel for afters.

Words & Image: Eve Lamb

The story of a lavish 1880s wedding dress and its painstaking restoration is about to be shared as the historic Trewhella gown goes on display later this month at Daylesford & District Museum.

The 1885 wedding gown of  Sarah Trewhella will go on display  from Saturday, October 26.  And in the lead-up to its public  exhibition, professional textile conservator, Hepburn’s Larry Edwards will be giving a  guest talk on the specialised processes used to bring this salvaged item of social history ‘back to life’.  

Larry’s guest talk, at 11am on Thursday, October 24, will be open to the general public (following a similar booked-out presentation for D&DHS members).  

The linen, cotton and silk tulle lace number was worn by Sarah Trewhella (nee Hosking) upon her marriage to Ben Trewhella on January 7, 1885 at her parents’  home at Simmons Reef, Blackwood.

For many decades after that special day it had languished in a box, its considerable beauty fading with each passing year.

But in recent times, assisted by some funding through the Rosalind Pyers Memorial conservation support fund, the museum has been able to draw on Larry’s  expertise to bring the glorious garment back to be publicly admired afresh.  

The museum’s Gary Lawrence says the treasured retro wedding dress will be on display through to the end of the year, while Larry’s talk promises to be a must  for anyone interested in textile and fabric conservation, vintage fashions – or social  history.

 Words: Eve Lamb  

Top sheepdogs and their trainers are headed to Dean this Sunday, October  13, for the eleventh running of the Old Sniff Classic Sheepdog Trials.  

Among them, veteran sheepdog trainer Jim Dodge and his dog, Connor’s Cash,  will be back to defend Cash’s title after the four-year-old border collie took out the  open competition last year.

The duo from Snake Valley will be the ones to beat and the competition is likely to be intense with Jim also competing with Viewfield Sam, a three-year-old border collie that he bred as well as trained.  

Jim has never missed an Old Sniff Sheepdog Trial in all the years it’s been  running. He and his wife Kerry love to get along to the annual Dean Recreation  Reserve fixture that raises money for local causes.  

“Brian and the committee do a really good job,” says Jim, referring to the  president of the Dean Recreation Reserve Committee, Brian Maher.  

“We won the Old Sniff Classic open with Cash last year and Sam finished  fourth.”  

Jim and Kerry are well known on the sheep dog trial circuit and have recently  been made life members of the Victorian Working Sheepdog Association.  

The accolade recognises their major contributions with Kerry providing untold  hours behind the scenes toward the smooth running of events and admin, and Jim  breeding and training champion working sheepdogs for the last five decades.  

Jim and his dogs have won at state supreme championship level and notched up  an impressive number of Australian and Commonwealth championship level wins,  while Jim’s knowledge has also seen him judge Australian Supreme Sheepdog Trials as  well.  

“We’ll be trying anyway,” he says ahead of this Sunday’s competition.  

Kerry says that over the many years they’ve been attending sheepdog trials, she’s  noticed some interesting changes take place.  

“It’s very much changed over the years. It used to be just farmers competing but  now you get city folk who will train a dog to compete as well,” she says.

“There’s always a good crowd (at the Old Sniff Classic). We get a lot of people  come along and they’ll just sit there for hours and watch it.”  

Busy preparing for this Sunday’s running, Brian Maher is particularly hoping  the sun smiles down on the Old Sniff after foul weather cancelled the committee’s  other main fundraiser for the year, the Dean Kite Festival which was meant to have  happened last month.  

Brian says this Sunday’s trials will see about 40 well-trained and work-honed dogs  competing, offering spectators a pretty pleasant way to spend the day.  

“The stars of the show manoeuvre three sheep around a course on the command  of their handlers, while being judged on time and ability,” he says.  

“National, state and local champions are among the field and spectators can chat  to the handlers and learn the finer points of the sport.”  

Food sales, raffles and a vintage machinery display are part of it as well with entry to the grounds by gold coin donation.  

Words: Eve Lamb    

Just the right amount of rainfall is the vital ingredient for which the region’s canola growers are hoping.    

Farmers Jodie and Tim Barry of Ullina said rain would make all the difference between prices for the eye-catching crop which has transformed a notable slice of the region’s landscape with bright swathes of gold.    

The farmers are among an increasing number of producers who have been turning to the crop in recent times.

They currently have 260 acres planted out to canola and their crop was in the process of podding up when they talked to The Local last week.

“We are in desperate need of rain and if we could manage an inch it would be good. The critical time is now,” Tim said.

“Without it a lot of crops could end up not finishing and might even have to be cut for hay.    

“We’d expect 3.2 tonnes to the hectare but without rain we might be looking at two tonnes to the hectare, and at $700 a tonne it’s a big difference.”    

Jodie and Tim are among growers who are feeling for the plight of those located further to the west and north where farmers have been contending with alarmingly dry conditions and also highly destructive frosts.    

“We’re in a really good spot here and I feel sorry for the people up north,” Jodie said.

“The (seed) pods are already forming now and we’ll be looking at harvesting in November or December. Depending on the quality it will end up either for human consumption, being used for things like cooking oils, or for animal feed.”    

The Barrys have been growing canola for the past four years and so far have done well enough to keep investing in it.

“There definitely does seem to be a lot more farmers around here getting into it. But with canola it’s hit and miss,” Jodie says.    

“I do love the colour, how beautiful it is and how it changes the landscape.”    

Tim and Jodie’s neighbour, Jock Leishman, has 400 acres planted out to canola and agrees that timely rain now will make all the difference.    

“We potentially have the best canola crop in now that we’ve had for 10 years,” Jock said.

“But we need to keep getting some reasonable rain and given that we now don’t have much sub-soil moisture we ideally need to be getting about 20 mm every fortnight for the next month.”

Words: Eve Lamb    

with Eve Lamb

Clunes-based Prue Simmons is a zoologist turned SAORI weaver who revels in colour and in this meditative form of creativity. Having discovered this beautiful form of Japanese weaving whilst exploring the mountains of Japan in 2007, Prue was instantly hooked. She has gone on to establish her Dyeing To Weave business and, as one of only three accredited SAORI teachers in Australia, is very busy sharing her love of the unique art-form through workshops, immersive retreats and special events throughout the district and way beyond.

Eve: Prue your journey to becoming a SAORI weaving textile artist and teacher is pretty interesting, and I get the impression it’s pretty much taken over your life.

Prue: Yes it has completely taken over my life in a wonderful way. I had worked as a zoologist for 10 years and if you’d said to me 20 years ago that I’d be teaching a meditative form of weaving I wouldn’t have believed you. It was not on my radar at all. I was very much a straight-laced scientist. And I didn’t come from a textile background. My poor mother tried to teach me to knit and I was terrible at it.

Eve: But you discovered  SAORI in Japan.

Prue: Yes, in my 20s. I was in Japan, volunteering and immersing myself in the culture and language. I turned up at this beautiful old school that had become an arts and crafts village in a tiny little hamlet in the middle of nowhere. I turned up to build a pizza oven. As a thank-you my first mentor, Toyomi, taught me SAORI and it opened up this incredible ability for me to see that I could be creative. It’s completely taken over my life in a beautiful way…

Eve: And you have gone on from learning the art of SAORI weaving to becoming a teacher of it as well, one of only a very few accredited in Australia?

Prue: Yes there are only three of us here in Australia  accredited to teach. I went back and did training to teach over a decade ago now. I trained with  Sensai Misao Jo who has since passed away just shy of her 105^th birthday.

Eve: What is it that about SAORI  weaving that so captivated you, Prue?

Prue: The SAORI loom is actually designed to be a moving mediation where you get a chance to get into that flow state and drop down into that creative space in your heart and it’s lovely to see that unlock for other people too. I am on a one-woman mission to share it with as many people as possible.

I don’t like having to concentrate when I create.  I want to create from the heart not the head.I want to just relax and enjoy my creativity, not feel pressured to recreate a particular pattern, to copy someone else’s work, to be worried if I’m doing it ‘right’. I never considered weaving in the past, as it seemed too complicated, too mathematical and too structured for me.

SAORI is not about repeating patterns. It comes from a person’s own inner source of creativity. The Japanese call it Kansei which translates to your inner creative spirit. No two pieces of SAORI weaving are ever going to be the same. It’s about self expression. And then you get to wear a part of your personality. You get to wear this tangible moment in time.

It’s been such a such an honour and privilege to teach hundreds of people. For me it’s not just a form of textiles I’m teaching, it actually offers people an amazing awareness of their own creative potential.

Eve: And I believe that you also happen to run llamas on your property at Clunes. Do you use the llama fibre in your work?

Prue: Yes. The llama fibre is a specialty fibre for me and I am getting my llama fibre commercially processed. But you can do SAORI weaving with any fibre. You can weave with wool, cotton, cashmere, silk, paper, even things like dried material from your garden… And it’s a very sustainable form of weaving which is something else that I love about it.

Eve: So now that SAORI weaving has pretty much taken over your life, through your own creative practice and teaching others, and also as one of only two people in Australia accredited to import SAORI looms, is it what you do full time now?

Prue: Yes. I had another part-time job at the library for 11 years, singing to young babies, and I loved it. But I had to give it up this year.

Eve: I know that you have plenty of workshops and teaching retreats on your calendar ahead, both in this area and interstate. Do you also have any exhibitions coming up?

Prue: Well the exhibition we held in June this year (at the Clunes Warehouse) was so successful that we’re going to make it an annual event now. We had people visiting from all over Australia. It was the largest exhibition of SAORI weaving ever in Australia.

With its cute retro body, classic details and gleaming indigo duco, Paul  Dwyer’s very collectible 1956 FJ Holden ute turns heads and start conversations wherever it rolls up.

But Paul’s treasured and restored little FJ ute will be just one of in a throng of character-packed cars headed to the upcoming Cars and Coffee event that’s making a comeback for Daylesford on October 6.

Set to happen from 8am to 10am at Daylesford’s Amazing Mill Markets site, the upcoming Cars and Coffee event marks a return for this  previously popular fixture on local car-lovers’ calendars.

The brainchild of local car collector and motoring enthusiast Peter Olver, the  first Cars & Coffee happened in March 2016, and was replaced in 2017 by MotorFest which was last held in 2023 but is currently in recession.

While the event has previously raised some serious dollars for good local causes including the Daylesford hospital, the returning version is firmly focused simply on fun and providing a social outlet for car owners and their prized sets of wheels, Peter says.

“It will be happening each month on the first Sunday of the month from 8am to 10pm at the Mill Markets,” he says.

“There’s a need for it. People have been wanting it back again. We’d like to invite anyone who has got a classic or vintage car, or any auto of interest.”

“Something that people want to stop and look at,” adds Paul who a fair way back was able to purchase and restore his beloved FJ ute from another local resident on the proviso that he love and cherish it appropriately.

“This local person had purchased it in 1956 and then left it parked in a shed in 1978. I came to know about it and made an offer.”

The classic little ute’s conversation-starting features extend to what’s carried beneath the rear tarp – a retro Victa lawn mower and gladstone bag containing yesteryear “gentlemen’s reading matter”.

“The public are invited to come along and view the vehicles and chat to the owners. It’s a social gathering,” Peter says.

“And a really good reason to get the vehicles out of the garage,” Paul adds.

As the name suggests, this returning local event is all about cars and … coffee.

“So we’d really like to say a special thankyou to Mark Ward of The Mill. The Mill cafe is even opening early for us,” Peter says.

He says anyone who’d like to know more about the returning event can get in contact on 0400482427.

Words: Eve Lamb

with Eve Lamb

Mount Beckworth summit via the old Feldspar Mine, Clunes, 5km loop    

We’ve walked to the famed lollipop tree on the summit of Mount Beckworth near Clunes many a time, but never before from the western flank of the little mount, via its old Feldspar Mine.     

So today’s the day. Our starting point is the Cork Oaks camping ground which means we’ll be setting out through the remarkable old plantation that’s part of Mt Beckworth Scenic Reserve and which we visited in a previous edition of this series.

This historic and rare plantation is always a treat, especially when it’s sunny and today, after the howling gales of late, it’s (poor pun alert) a corker.     

The Feldspar Track to the summit is signposted from the Cork Oaks camping ground, and it’s pretty easy to follow on and up toward the Beckworth zenith with its 1918-planted lollipop tree, a Monterey pine.     

As most longer-term locals around here will tell you, back in the 1940s during  WWII, the lollipop tree was used as a beacon for trainees from the RAAF No. 1 Wireless Air Gunners School based at Ballarat Airport.

These days the lollipop tree serves as a welcome home landmark for residents of these parts, its unique silhouette discernible from many miles across the rolling plains.

Today I notice with striking clarity that the upper ridges of Beckworth’s rocky, granitic skyline are really quite tremendous.

And it’s not long either, about 200 metres, before a striking little reminder of this area’s dramatic volcanic past appears  to our right as we follow the track, climbing gently upward.

“Baby Seal Rock,” muses my walking companion, Paddy H, spontaneously christening the feature as we pause to admire this large boulder sitting rather dramatically in the midst of a sea of sturdy bracken fern.     

“Ye–es. I guess it could be,” I marvel at my walking companion’s creative genius. And the rock in question does get the imagination ticking over the millennia that have given rise to these geological features.  

We climb on and it’s such a pleasure to be out here with a fantastic view opening up behind us to the west. After the rugged weather of late, today is very,  very still and when we stop and look back it’s a surprise to see that a fine little fog has settled across the landscape below us, despite the fair skies above.     

The elevation ahead becomes increasingly steep, demanding a bit more walking effort that’s quickly rewarded after a few hundred metres with the discovery of the old feldspar mine site.

There’s a small but distinct mullock heap, with rock strewn like scree, while other aspects of this mine site are obscured by herbaceous growth.     

“So what the hell is feldspar?” I hear you ask…

A Resources Victoria government website states: “Feldspars are aluminosilicate minerals containing varying amounts of potassium, sodium and calcium. They are the most abundant mineral group, constituting about 60 per cent of the Earth’s crust.

“The most common economic deposits of feldspars are in pegmatites (coarsely crystalline granites or other igneous rocks with crystals several centimetres in length).

“Feldspar is an important source of alumina in the glassmaking and the ceramics industries. It is used in glazes and enamels and is an important mineral filler in paints, plastics, sealants, and adhesives.”

Beyond the site of the old feldspar mine, which I later find referred to also as “the Mount Beckworth Mineral Occurrence”, we enter a sweet little patch of native forest with some superb old yellow box trees and interesting large rock formations, that loom up particularly to our left.     

After about an hour of leisurely walking, and occasional stopping, we emerge at the summit that sits at 634 metres elevation and are greeted not only by the grand old heritage-listed lollipop tree itself, but also by wedge-tailed eagles – three of them – surfing gentle thermals in a benign sky to the east.     

We plonk down to make short work of the picnic lunch in our backpacks and there’s a repeated trilling bird-call that I recognise to be that of a bird of prey – though I’m not sure which type.     

Kookaburras also contribute energetically to the soundscape as does Paddy H with a few personal ponderings on the nature of this walk.     

Anyway, after we’ve lazed about soaking up the sunshine on the summit, we re-trace our steps, noting that the walk, done well, takes about three hours, allowing time to stop at points of interest and to ease back on the summit and appreciate the vista.

Back around the base of Beckworth, wattles are in bloom and small grey fantails flit and gossip and as we bid a fond farewell, those enviable eagles are still up there having a ball.    

Words & Images: Eve Lamb    

with Eve Lamb

Taradale potter Ian (Ox) McColl unearthed a passion for pottery while still in his teens. It was a discovery that has shaped his life’s path ever since. Now Ian and his wife, Leanne Manniche who is also a talented and accomplished ceramicist, run Oxart at Taradale offering a unique gallery attraction full of functional and aesthetic creations as well as the opportunity for others to learn their time-honoured functional craft and multi-dimensional art.

Eve: G’day Ian. How did you get into pottery?

Ian: I was in year 10 at school and chose ceramics because I thought it would  be easy and wouldn’t require exams. I loved it from the first moment I got on the pottery wheel.

Eve: What has been your path since then?

Ian: I went to uni in Bendigo and studied ceramics and then went into the industry, working on a large commercial scale. Then I became a school teacher, woodwork and ceramics, but I’ve been working as a potter full-time now for about the last four years.

Eve: Now I know that your wife, Leanne, is also a ceramicist. How do the two of you go working together? How does your work differ?

Ian: Yes, Leanne got into making pottery, hand building and also working on the wheel, after meeting me. She also does a lot of the firing and also a lot of the marketing and selling through the gallery. Leanne is much more into painted decoration. There’s no competition at all (laughs).

Eve: I know that a lot of your own work is functional, but how do you incorporate art and artistry into your practice?

Ian: The eternal question that arises with ceramics is function versus artistry. My main thing is form. Every time you create a new form that’s where the artistry is. I love working with form, using the wheel at the same time, creating objects and from there I use glaze to enhance the form so it’s also about the glazes and the colours. I use a lot of the Japanese style glaze called shino.

Eve: Well that leads me to ask you whether your practice has taken you to some interesting places?

Ian: Yes. It has. I did a short stint in Japan. Everywhere I travel I try to reach out to potters in the area to try and learn from them. At the moment I am in Narooma (NSW) learning from a friend, Cameron Williams,who specialises in making enormous pots. I’m learning a lot.

Eve: Are they for outdoors? Garden urns?

Ian: They’re suited to either outdoors or indoors.

Eve: Do you have any special events or exhibitions coming up?

Ian: Yes I will have work in the Ross Creek Gallery group show at Smythes Creek over October 5-20. I will have some of the big pots that I am learning to make now in that exhibition. I will also be part of the Australian Ceramics Open Studios weekend event over November 23 and 24. And we also have our annual Friends of Oxart Christmas market on December 1 at our gallery in Taradale with a lot of other makers and artists.

Eve: How are your classes that you offer at Oxart going? Who do you get participating?

Ian: We’re doing loads of classes, and also workshops, and we’re getting everyone from kids to people aged over 90. We have one student in his 90s. We haven’t had anyone aged 100 yet. We’ve had a class with mums and their toddlers. We also get kids and teenagers. We have regular classes and people can learn what they want to learn whether it’s wheel work or hand building.

Eve: How do you find teaching?

Ian: I think the act of teaching refines your own practice all the time. It really, really hones your own skills.

There’s little doubt that the blokes at the Daylesford Men’s Shed could whip up a nifty set of gates, a neat kitchen table or some handy signage.   

However, what goes on in this enthusiastic local shed is way, way more than that, as anyone strolling by the Shed in Victoria Park on a Monday mid-morning could tell you.   

It’s then that the shed’s music group gets together and the result is sufficiently impressive that it’s been known to lure in complete strangers eager to hear more.   

More than one of these ‘strangers’ has then gone on to become a regular participant in the Shed’s Monday music group where guitars and ukes feature quite a bit.

Regular sessions also take place on Thursdays at the Shed that’s been going since 2008. But it’s a far cry today from the early days when they used to occupy a disused chook shed that was kindly made available by the Agricultural Society.

These days the Shed is actually a set of three well-equipped and interconnected sheds. It’s also an independently run member of the Australian Men’s Shed Association and adheres to the organisation’s guiding principles.   

Inside, the Shed hums with chit-chat, enterprise and the sort of useful machinery that sees members turn out everything from fountain pens to street furniture. They’ve even turned out a set of xylophones for school kids.   

“Yes our members can make things, but it’s really more about the talking and the bonding that takes place in the process,” Shed secretary and one of the shed’s founding members Andrew Azzopardi, says.   

Andrew says that while many of the Shed members have the sort of practical backgrounds that mean they’ve got valuable trade skills, it’s important that they don’t get too bogged down by orders for this, that or the other.

Instead, he says, it’s the friendships that are made here and the unofficial networking and gasbagging that takes place that makes the shed so valuable for the 33 or so members that are currently on the books – plus the occasional ring-ins.

He says some of the Shed members are contending with things like social isolation, health challenges and personal trauma in their backgrounds and that’s where the Shed can really come into its own.

“Some guys have got real loneliness, loss or trauma issues,” says Andrew, a teacher by profession.   

Another of the shed’s founding members, Colin Dunlop says that with his not-so-nice background of negative workplace issues, the Shed has made a great positive difference in getting on with life today.   

“I was an airport firefighter and I got bullied out of the job. I had a bit of a breakdown,” says Colin who, besides regular Thursday sessions, brings a background  as a folk singer and guitar player to the Monday morning music group.   

The music group, which has become increasingly popular since it formed with just a couple of shed members about 18 months ago, has gone on to entertain in public at Christmas party gigs and Hepburn House.

“The blokes love it. Oh, and we need a keyboardist and a drummer,” Colin says.

Keen member of the music group and accomplished woodworker at the general Thursday gatherings, Georgio Buscema, sums it up  succinctly. “It’s the camaraderie basically,” he says.

“It’s great to be part of a group of men who have a common interest. It helps us get on with our lives with purpose.”

The shed has even started providing women’s woodworking classes on a Tuesday, working in conjunction with the local U3A.

Georgio is one of the Shed’s several tutors for these popular classes that are proving so in-demand that there’s a waiting list.

Generally, by the time Shed members have chin-wagged away a massive portion of their regular Thursday gatherings, maybe made a bit of progress on a constructive project or two, they’ll have worked up a fairly healthy appetite.

And that’s where the Shed’s self-appointed volunteer cooks come in.   

“We’ve got a range of guys, including our president, who are really, really good cooks,” Andrew says.   

Members can pay $5 extra to enjoy their talents in the kitchen of a Thursday Shed session lunch time. “No-one goes hungry.”   

Andrew says the Shed is keen to welcome new members and will be well represented at the upcoming Positive Ageing Expo, featuring a range of different community groups, at the Creswick RACV Forest Resort on October 10.

He says they’ll have a stand at the event, complete with musical performance featuring in-shed guitar talent, and be warned, they’ll likely also be bringing their ukes.

Further information about joining the Shed can be obtained by checking out the Shed’s website at www.daylesfordmensshed.com   

Words & images: Eve Lamb   

Just in time to catch the first stirrings of spring, a very special tree planting  took place in the famed Avenue of Honour at Kingston on Saturday, August  10.

The newly grafted elm that was planted on Saturday replaces a mature elm that  had reached the end of its life and, on arborist’s advice, had been removed with a new  hole dug for its successor.

The original elm tree – and now its new replacement – honour and remember  one Clarence Albert Norman, a former young Newlyn blacksmith who served in both  World War I and World War II.

Descendant members of Mr Norman’s family travelled from far and wide for  Saturday’s special replacement planting organised by the Friends of Kingston Avenue  in partnership with the Hepburn Shire Council.  

“Clarence Albert Norman was born in 1893 and he was a blacksmith in Newlyn,  married, who at 21 years of age enlisted on the fifteenth of July in 1915,” says Claire  Rowlands, vice president of the Friends.  

“Clarence Norman’s name is on the Newlyn Primary School Honour Roll.  Clarence was discharged from the army on the fifth of April in 1919. He later served  in the Second World War, and he died at the age of 68 in 1961.”  

The former Shire of Creswick Avenue in Kingston was heritage listed in 2015 and  has become a much-admired feature of the local landscape.  

“It’s one of the most significant Avenues in Victoria,” Claire says.  

If Clarence was looking down on Saturday’s tree planting he would have seen  his family represented by his three grandsons, three of his four granddaughters, and  other family members all proudly thinking of him.  

The day was also significant as, being August 10, it was the very same day that  way back in 1918 the local community came together to plant the original 225  Avenue trees to commemorate WWI men and women associated with the former  Shire of Creswick.  

And then in 1919, an additional 61 trees were planted on August 9, making a  total of 286 trees in the historic Avenue.  

Kingston Friends of the Avenue president Julie Baulch says the new young elm  was planted with the assistance of a state government Restoring Community War  Memorials and Avenues of Honour grant.

It was also planted with an application of  beneficial microbial inoculants.

 “Eight other trees have also been removed, having reached their usual life  expectancy, and will also be replaced in the near future as part of our Tree  Management Plan,” Claire says.  

A tree to honour Clarence at Kingston Ave  With these additional replacement plantings planned ahead, the Friends are now  seeking family connected to the other eight trees.

They are family of: L.E. Coulson,  F.F. Crisp, S. McGard, C.J. Finlayson, W. McPherson, E.E. Owens, C.R. Toll and  R.W. Waddington.  

Families of the above listed soldiers honoured in the Avenue are being invited to  contact kfoa gmail.com  

Words: Eve Lamb  

Daylesford hospital’s new operating theater has officially opened and has already started being used to provide locals with much-needed procedures, with the hospital also putting on new staff.

The new theatre, funded with a $6.14 million grant through the state’s Regional Health Infrastructure Fund, has started being used gradually from last month with 21 patients from across the local region undergoing scope procedures there.

Last Tuesday it was officially opened with a visit from the state’s Minister for Health Infrastructure, Member for Macedon Mary-Anne Thomas and delighted staff, board members and management from the local hospital and wider Central Highlands Rural Health Service of which it is part.

Central Highlands Rural Health acting CEO Phil Catterson says that initially the long-anticipated new theatre will be used to provide scope procedures, such as endoscopy and laparoscopy.

He says it will also be used to  deliver eye procedures, a strategic niche area for the local health service to pursue.

Mr Catterson says the range of procedures able to be provided at the new theatre is ultimately planned to increase.

Director of Nursing Meagan Harding says that currently the new theatre is providing an average of seven procedures a week, on Fridays, with this number also expected to increase into the future.

A total eight new permanent staff and 12 additional casual roles have been created at the health service as well, with expectations that more staffing hours will become available into the future.

The new theatre represents the first major upgrade to the hospital’s operating theatre space since the late 1980s and is being very much welcomed by staff and management – as well as locals keen to have procedures done closer to home.

“It has taken over 12 months to build,” Mr Catterson said.

“SJ Weir did the work and they’ve been wonderful.”

He said work to secure the state funding some 16 months ago, had began about two years prior with the community raising $100,000 for a master plan.

“It’s great for the community. Safer, and we’ve also got new equipment and new staff,” Mr Catterson said.

The works have also included upgrades to the patient waiting area, recovery and admission areas, as well as the sterile stock storage area and the Central Sterile Supply Department (CSSD) processing area – replacing ageing patient monitoring and CSSD medical equipment.

The upgrade is now supporting the hospital’s dedicated doctors and nurses to deliver more surgery and get more locals off waiting lists and into surgery and treatment, sooner – and closer to home.

Words: Eve Lamb

with Eve Lamb

Hanging Rock summit and base walks

It’s curious how long you can live with an iconic slab of national mythology sitting on your doorstop and never actually go check it out.

In a way Hanging Rock, just the other side of Woodend, has long occupied a mythical place in the Australian psyche. Now, as my trusty walking companion Paddy H and I set off for our debut sample of the famed rock’s summit and base walks we puzzle at why it’s taken us so long.

Thinking on this, I’m pitched back to my early childhood. As a small child, just traveling past Hanging Rock elicited so much trepidation, due to the stories I’d been fed about it, that I refused to even peer in its direction.

My mother had me well versed in the mysterious and opaquely sinister disappearance of the pubescent picnicking schoolgirls. Somehow I’d got it firmly locked into my young head that these girls had been abducted by aliens and then placed into a sort of extra-terrestrial harem where they would likely be utilised for an inter-species breeding program.

As mentioned, I was consequently so petrified by the place that as my father drove us past it, cheerily informing: “That’s Hanging Rock over there kids,” I’d determinedly swivel my head in the opposite direction. I may even have ducked down into the passenger foot well until we were safely beyond view of any potential lurking alien abductors.

“Of course the whole Picnic at Hanging Rock thing, the movie and the book by Joan Lindsay on which it’s based, is pure fiction,” observes Paddy H as we arrive at the site and successfully navigate the boom gate entry into the Hanging Rock Reserve.

On the way here we’ve stopped at the Woodend Visitor Info Centre where two helpful women on the desk explain that it costs “$10 per vehicle, not per person” to obtain a token to operate the exit boom gate and get back out of the park once you’re in. Potentially a sort of abduction in its own way!

There’s a prominently displayed ranger mobile number in the reserve, should you find yourself in a predicament. We park beside the picturesque Hanging Rock Race Course and it’s clear that this place has enduring visitor pull as evidenced by the number of people that are here even on such a brrrisk Sunday in the middle of winter.

The Bureau is spot on in its forecast of occasional sunshine – and showers – and as we prepare to get cracking on the 1.8 km (circuit) summit walk I’m super glad I’ve packed that extra coat.

We easily find the start of the walk, just behind the cafe and immediately I’m impressed by the sheer array of rock formations. I mean we all know there’s a Hanging Rock, but what I hadn’t expected was the number and variety of visually interesting rocky outcrops, monoliths and formations.

It’s a nice little climb up ahead to the top. At about the half-way mark we reach a point where walkers can either veer left and take a ramp to the summit, or veer right and take steps to reach Hanging Rock.

Since our goal is to reach the summit we veer left. Later on it becomes clear that both options together form the loop walk and both ultimately get you to the top where the profusion of volcanic rocky features make for plenty of visual interest while the silvery vista that stretches out below rewards those in need of a thermos stop.

While Paddy H gets stuck into the coffee, I strike up a conversation with three dudes, one of whom is sporting a sweatshirt with the word SCIENCE printed across the back. I catch a glimpse of a University of Melbourne insignia.

Having found themselves a panoramic vista, the three have settled atop a kind of rock island outcrop and are preparing to enjoy a game of cards there – despite the uncertain weather.

“G’day where are you guys from?” I venture.

“Melbourne.”

“Have you visited here before?”

“Yes.”

Perhaps Paddy H and I are the only people in Victoria who haven’t?

“What brings you back?” I ask.

“Well I like rocks and trees,” one of the card-playing trio replies.

“Looks like you’ve come to the right place then,” I observe, unnecessarily. But they all happily agree and settle down to their card game.

Not a bad idea, on reflection. Could catch on. You could call it something like ‘Cards in Volcanic Places’.

“Miranda… Miranda,” someone calls from somewhere beyond view, their voice drifting up to us.

“You can see how this place inspired the story,” Paddy H muses as I rejoin him and the thermos.

“How so?”

“The way people sort of appear and disappear into the landscape.”

And I do see. The plethora of rocky formations makes this place a kind of striking obstacle assemblage, and a treat for the photographically inclined.

And just for a tiny moment, while we’re working out which way to head on back down, I do actually lose Paddy H.

When we each take a different turn, he is momentarily swallowed from view behind the riot of geomorphological formations.

Finding each other again, we laugh.

Fortunately there are really only two options down, the stairs or the ramp that I mentioned earlier. So this time we go for the stairs which take us to the actual formation known as the Hanging Rock itself. It’s a bit Middle Earth.

Official literature advises that the overall Hanging Rock formation is a volcanic eruption point that produced lava. Dating of Hanging Rock lava indicates a late Miocene age, about 6 million years ago. Possibly 6.5 million.

Cooling of the rock produced numerous vertical features which shape the cliff faces and have been enlarged by weathering to produce a complex of pinnacles, craggy overhangs, small caverns and boulders on the slopes.

Also known by its traditional Aboriginal name, Ngannelong, this ancient former volcano lies 718m above sea level (105m above plain level). Arriving back at its base, we pause to enjoy our own picnic at the foot of Hanging Rock, before setting out to sample the 1.8km circuit base walk.

We pick up the well-signposted base walk start from just behind the cafe area and head off in a clockwise direction, admiring this different perspective and the natural bushland that surrounds The Rock.

While there were plenty of fellow walkers doing the summit, we encounter just one other solitary walker doing the base hike, a middle-aged woman with a serious camera.

The base walk concludes with a wander beside, or if you prefer through, the racecourse grounds. And what a pretty little racecourse it is with its heritage features and small lake centerpiece catching the late afternoon light.

“It hosts two annual race meetings. One on Australia Day and one on New Year’s Day,” says Paddy H who has been known to enjoy a day at the races.

Finally, arriving back at the car park we pay our $10 into the vending machine to receive the coupon that will enable us to leave Hanging Rock Reserve, through the boom gate.

We leave duly impressed by our debut expedition to Hanging Rock, vowing to return for a race meeting next time.

Images: Eve Lamb

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Words: Eve Lamb