British India emerged from the underbelly of the Melbourne indie rock scene with a love for music and a driving determination that transformed four high school friends into a fierce garage band.

They quickly gained a reputation for explosive live shows and the ability to write great pop songs.

Over a 10-year period, British India notched up eight entries into the Hottest 100, released six albums, achieved ARIA Gold & Platinum Record status, and played at every major festival in the country.

They have headlined over 800 shows and, pleasing local fans and out-of-towners alike they will finally make their debut performance at the Palais-Hepburn on Friday evening November 24th.

Locals and visitors celebrated the Hepburn region’s strong Swiss Italian heritage over the weekend with a bumper turn-out recorded for the Swiss Italian Festa.

The street parade particularly proved to be a crowd-pleaser complete with traditional effigies and live pipe band music. The Local went along to soak in the festival vibe and capture a bit of the colour and verve of the cultural feast.

The weekend-long celebration attracted many visitors and locals who boast personal Swiss Italian heritage, and featured traditional and artisanal food and wine, live performances, art shows, heritage tours and a bit of bocce to boot.

The Festa celebrates the enduring contribution of Swiss Italian migrants who came to the Hepburn Springs/ Daylesford region during the 1850s gold rushes. These Italian speakers came from the villages and towns on either side of the Swiss Italian border. Into a world of mutton, potatoes and beer, they brought salami, pasta and wine.

The early Swiss Italians recognised the quality of the local mineral springs and lobbied to protect them from the destructive practices of the prospectors. They started building stone houses with cellars and wells. They planted grape vines, olive trees and orchards. Australia’s first pasta factory was built in 1859, and still stands in Hepburn.

Words & file image: Donna Kelly

Hepburn’s Swiss Italian Festa is back after a three-year hiatus. From Friday, October 27 to Sunday, October 29, the region will come alive with a vibrant celebration of heritage, culture and lifestyle – with the theme Viva La Festa 23!
Coordinator Emma Ireland said she had been involved with the community festival in 2019 but with Covid, it had ground to a halt.
“I was all ready to go and then Covid happened. I was really looking forward to bringing it back to its heyday, it used to have a crowd of 20,000, and then all these years later I had time to help with community events, and that was Words in Winter and then the Swiss Italian Festa.
“I pulled in all the people I spoke to way back then and said ‘do you want this festival?’ and they all did, it is such an important cultural event. And I have two kids, one who doesn’t know anything about the festa and the other who has done the parade and was part of the performace at the amphitheatre and remembers the fireworks.
“And I thought about all the newcomers to the town and the kids who have grown up with such a significant festival. It used to be the biggest we had. I saw it in its shadow form and thought it might disappear and I wanted to get involved and have those stories told again.”
Emma said she had a lot of support from schools, teachers and the community with significant funding from Hepburn Shire Council and plenty of help from the Daylesford Community Opportunity Shop, Carol White at Lavandula, Liam Thornycroft at Beppe Restaurant and Daylesford Rotary, to mention a few.
“For those who haven’t experienced the festa, please come down and be part of the parade on Saturday and the family day at the amphitheatre, and then Sunday which is our lantern parade and fireworks. It is nice to gather again, it’s been a long time.”
Daylesford Primary School vice-principal Trudi Blick said she had been involved in the festa for at least 20 years, as the Italian teacher at the school. “It’s a really important festival and provides a valuable forum for students to showcase their Italian
learning, offer a real purpose for that learning, and to be involved in the community.
“All the community and schools get together for the parade in particular, and they
can perform and showcase their learning. It is a really valuable festival for our town and for us to celebrate our Swiss Italian history.” Link: www.swissitalianfesta.com

For 29 years, BABBA have been thrilling audiences with their superb re-creation of 70’s super group ABBA and the legacy of hits they gave us. Now they’re headed to Hepburn to play The Palais this Saturday, October 14.

With glitz and glamour served up with Swedish accents and enough musical memories to fill you to overflowing, BABBA will take you on a journey through time to when satin was King and Dancing Queens ruled. Benny, Bjorn, Agnetha and Frida can be yours once again and all you have to do is believe.

BABBA is the ultimate fun time; no matter how old or how young you may be, the show, just like the music, is timeless. Audiences know when they have seen the best and been a part of something very special and they just want more; that is why BABBA audiences keep coming back, time after time after time.

With Eve Lamb

Renown for his photographic landscape studies and creation of gaze-grabbing images in the commercial realm, acclaimed Hepburn based photographer David Rosendale enjoys an ongoing love-affair with light and its transformative role in image-making. He currently has an exhibition taking place at Eastern Peake Winery Cellar Door, Coghills Creek as part of the wider Ballarat Foto Biennale happening now through to October 22.
Eve: Hi Dave. I’ll start by asking you how you initially found your way to becoming a pro photographer?
Dave: The first connection was in primary school in Melbourne. My parents had a bookshelf completely devoted to National Geographic magazines. I would sift through the photo essays and current affairs. I remember being amazed by the photography of the Volcano eruption of Mt St Helens and the Challenger Space shuttle in the early ‘80s. Capturing these epic moments in time. There were always incredible photographs and there were always these brilliant advertising campaigns by Canon, Nikon and Minolta in Nat Geo. I became fascinated by the potential of the camera and the medium itself. To be able to capture a moment. Fortuitously, opposite my primary school was a second-hand camera store, and in grade six I purchased my first camera, I think to take photos of all my mates as we were graduating and moving on. That summer holidays I photographed everything, and I think the first connection to the landscape was made there, spending time taking photos in Rye back beach on a family holiday. I chose art, studio art, and focused on photography in VCE at high school among the other core studies. I went straight to RMIT out of high school and did a BA in Commercial Photography and trained in film photography. It was three years for the BA. By the third I was already working as a photographer’s assistant. I worked for many great Australian photographers. This was film days… A different era. I was an assistant for five years, and it kind of simply occurred, when clients started asking if you can shoot certain jobs. You had the confidence to say yes.
Eve: Have you ever worked in any other areas besides photography?
Dave: No, I have worked in photography all my professional life, since my final years at RMIT as an assistant, then a professional. But before that I did the usual eclectic round of jobs to get by as a teen. I lied about my age and started working at about 12, first in a chemist, then a supermarket, then washed cars. Then a colour photo printer in a 60min photo lab, eventually dropping everything to be a photographic assistant. Then photographer.
Eve: How have you gone about developing your photographic abilities?
Dave: Learning doesn’t end. It is continuous. Every job I have, there is something random and unique I have to become proficient with, to adequately deliver a result. I constantly study lighting, how images in popular culture are made, and absorb visual media around me. I undertake workshops, on line webinars and the like. Attend talks.
Eve: What is your current camera, and other photographic go-to gear, of choice? The equipment you always have with you and wouldn’t be without?
Dave: I have had many camera systems over the years, Canon, Mamiya, Hasselblad, small, medium and large format film cameras. There is no one perfect tool. With the onset of digital I am currently using a Fujifilm camera… “Waiting for the light”, the one thing I can’t do without is my Gitzo Tripod. That, coffee and some kind of ski jacket and gloves cause its generally freezing where I shoot!
Eve: You are very well known for your superb landscape work. What is it about landscape that feeds your photographic soul so to speak?
Dave: Being in nature, hiking pre-sunrise in the dark and the freezing cold, and experiencing how the sun eventually rises and gives warmth, gives shape and dimension and life to everything. This is what I am connected to. I was always drawn to the light. The light is the mystery. It is responsible for all life in a literal sense, but gives meaning and purpose and context to all things. Trying to capture random events of light, the sun rising over a snow covered moonscape of Kosciuszko national park in winter (for example) are the fragments of time I seek to capture…
Eve: Are there any other focal subjects that particularly inspire you?
Dave: I love all aspects of photography, every situation requires something new. Though there are many sub contexts of photography, what I particularly love is light. Capturing light. Light in the landscape. Lighting an interior of a room, lighting a product for advertising. Lighting a face. Portraiture has always been a particular love as well… I also have a great love of still life and product photography. I specialised in beverage photography for years…
Eve: Where do you work? Travel? Although you live in Hepburn I understand you also have a Melbourne studio as well?
Dave: I still keep a studio in North Melbourne. This is perfect for all my commercial work, portraiture, products etc. Being on the west of the city, it is perfect to travel to from Hepburn. As most commercial work is now digital, I can work anywhere otherwise, on a lap top or at home. I constantly look for new locations locally in the goldfields, and travel to the alpine regions of Vic and NSW every year. I also have an on going project in Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Rd.
Eve: What are the greatest rewards you derive through your work Dave?
Dave: Variety. Always learning something new. Opportunities to introduce you to interesting people and places. My career has connected me with notable Australians, athletes, actors, prime ministers,has taken me across Australia and the globe. Whilst all these opportunities have been incredibly rewarding, seeing your final artwork on a wall, or your work published, is an incredible reward. Having your work connected to a worthy cause is also most rewarding.

Much-loved Melbourne singer-songwriter Liz Stringer caps off a busy year with her First Time…For The Last Time solo tour – and it’s headed to The Palais, Hepburn.

The acclaimed blues-roots artist plays the Palais, Friday evening, October 6.

Having achieved her first entry into the ARIA Top 20 and an AIR Award for Best Blues & Roots album in 2021, Liz spent most of 2022 with Midnight Oil, working as their backing vocalist and support act in Australia and around the world on their Resist tour.

Then, in February 2023, she and fellow Oils guest William Crighton released a cover of the Oils’ “Golden Age”, featuring Jim Moginie on bass and Rob Hirst on drums, following which they toured as a duo. In March, Liz was Port Fairy Folk Festival’s 2023 Artist of the Year and she performed two triumphant sets at the iconic festival with her band.

In May, after four From Brunswick to Brixton solo shows in Melbourne, she headed to London to record her new album and play a handful of shows.

Liz’s First Time…For The Last Time tour will see the artist bring an end to the long cycle of work that began in with the release of the album in the midst of COVID lockdowns. It’s a case of unfinished business, as the tour will finally reach the places that she couldn’t get to in 2021, thanks to state border closures and the like.

All the shows will follow the intimate format of her From Brunswick to Brixton shows; Liz will perform her songs completely solo, giving audiences a real insight into how they were written and how they sounded before she presented them to her band.

This is a rare chance to see one of Australia’s greatest contemporary singer-songwriters in an intimate solo setting and the last chance to revisit her most successful and acclaimed album to date before she introduces her new material.

It’s a job you have to do well. Jim Lycett was an hydraulics engineer with Ansett Airlines – working on the important things like landing gear and brakes – and he loved it.

Now and again Jim would get the call that he had an hour to get on a plane to Brisbane to work on a jet up there, and would call his wife Linda to say he would be home the following day.
“We never got much notice but I loved it. We would often sit up with the pilots and I just thought it was a terrific job.”
Jim retired in 1986 after Linda suffered from a few health issues but the couple continued with life in Ballarat, living pretty independently.
When Linda’s health worsened, from having a few falls at home to being kept in hospital for a week about eight years ago, the doctors made the call and said she had to move into full-time care. Hepburn House was the choice.
Jim, then 88, lived alone and thought he was coping pretty well. “I learned to cook a bit, nothing like Linda, she was a real hot cook. I remember her serving up meals to 300 people in a church one time, no problem. But I did a bit of slow cooking and I would freeze some meals, and our daughter and daughter-in-law arranged for fortnightly supermarket delivery.”
But eventually, after chats with his doctor, Jim also moved into Hepburn House and is loving life there, although Linda has sadly since passed away.
At 96 Jim has taken on another career as a sort of part-time counsellor and residents’ advocate.
“If the residents have a grizzle and don’t want to take it to the top they can refer it to me and I listen to them and ask if they want to take it further. Mostly they don’t but they can pour out their troubles and I listen. If they do want me to take it higher up I talk to the staff or even the manager Dianne.
“Mind you, I very rarely get any grizzles. It’s great here, we are very well treated, and it’s just like being with a big family. The staff cook great meals, they do the cleaning and then we have the carers looking after us. And I still get out and about – I visit my sister at Clarkfield for a week or so now and again. It’s a good life.”
Hepburn House is a progressive aged care centre offering a highly advanced, fully personalised range of aged care services for residents in a home-like setting.

US-born blues and soul singer Oscar LaDell brings his band The Earth Tones for their first appearance at Palais-Hepburn later this month.

Drawing influence from the greats of 20th Century American Roots Music, LaDell and The Earth Tones play The Palais on Friday September 29 in what promises a night to remember, filled to the brim with grooves and ballads.

LaDell (pictured above) is a singer, songwriter and guitarist who brings a timeless vulnerability and passionate approach to his original blend of Soul, Blues & Roots. Hailing originally from Denver Colorado, LaDell grew up in Purakaunui in the South of Aotearoa.

Drawing from the moody and poignant scenes of his home, LaDell writes, plays and sings with incisiveness and depth. With his band The Earth Tones, Oscar’s live shows are incendiary sermons of soul, blending swaying grooves with dynamic storms of guitar and organ, all tied together by Oscar’s magnetic voice.

This month’s September 29 Palais gig gets going from 6.30pm.

An awesome line up of live music is in store as The Palais, Hepburn hosts a free all-ages gig later this month.

Coming up Thursday, September 28, the music gets started from 6pm with a line-up featuring The Lydains, Elo and the Shin Kicks, Elysium, and The Hobyahs.

The crew at the Palais-Hepburn say they have crafted a delicious menu to keep attendees’ well-fed and happy while they rock out to some top local music.

The free Freeza event is all-ages and family friendly and is a strictly vape, smoke, drug and alcohol free event.

Aggressive behaviour towards Hepburn Shire Council staff is on the increase and reaching unprecedented levels.
CEO Bradley Thomas said that several recent incidents had highlighted the lack of respect shown towards council staff.
“While the vast majority of our community are respectful and behave appropriately, we are seeing a significant increase in the number of incidents of occupational violence occurring towards our staff.
“Staff are regularly feeling intimidated after being approached in the street or in other public places, like the supermarket, and verbally abused, sometimes shouted or sworn at.
“We acknowledge that we don’t always get things right and sometimes mistakes are made, but that does not excuse poor behaviour towards staff. If we get things wrong, let us know in a respectful way through the many mechanisms available and we’ll do what we can to put things right.”
Mayor Cr Brian Hood said council staff, and councillors, were entitled to have a safe workplace.
“Verbal abuse and threatening behaviour is simply not acceptable, and that includes cowardly online abuse. Council has well-established complaint handling procedures, so if community members have a complaint, they must raise it through the appropriate channels.
“Council will do everything within its powers to protect its staff and councillors. We will not tolerate aggressive, abusive or threatening behaviour.”

Words: Eve Lamb | Image: Contributed

Hepburn’s Amanda Care is heading off to Scotland to compete in the International Deaf Bowls Championships.
It’s a major achievement for the local businesswoman who was diagnosed with severe to profound hearing loss as a very small child.
Amanda only took up bowls five years ago, but took to it instantly, after getting tired of merely watching from the sidelines as her husband Kevin enjoyed his bowling on the greens.

Amanda has flown out bound for Edinburgh and, once there, will travel about 20 minutes each day of the international champs, held over September 1-14, to compete on the Colinton Bowling Club greens.
There will be 85 bowlers in total competing, including bowlers from Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, England and Australia, Amanda says.
It’s the first time the local bowler has ever competed in the world championships. It’s also the first time she has ever been to Scotland, despite recently discovering that she is genetically 45 per cent Scottish, and even boasts a family clan, the McLeods.
Amanda is one of 14 Australians – 12 of them competitors – who are making their way over to Scotland for the championships and once there she will find out which events she will compete in. These may include singles, doubles, triples or fours with men’s and women’s divisions.
Amanda says that despite being rated severe to profoundly deaf she is able to get by just fine with the help of technology including hearing aids, specialised apps and Bluetooth which enables her to use telephones for conversation.
Both she and Kevin are keen members of the Deer Park Bowling Club, although Amanda has also enjoyed playing pennants and socialising at the Daylesford Bowling Club as well.
“These world championships are held every four years but with Covid they got delayed. The last championships were held in New Zealand,” Amanda says.
Amanda also says Scottish greens are notorious for being “heavy” while Australian greens, conversely, generally tend to be “fast”.
So to prepare for the championships she has been playing bowls every day on the heaviest greens onto which she can readily find her way.
“I’ve been practising at Invermay because they’re heavier greens,” she says. She’s also been working hard on boosting general strength and fitness.
“I’ve been working out with Beth at Integrated Fitness in Daylesford, and bowling five days a week,” she says.
“Bowling is such a skilful game too. It requires a lot of headspace. You have your good days and your bad days. It’s quite a humbling game. Some days you just can’t get it together while other days you’re on fire.”
Amanda is in her early 50s, runs her own professional organising and decluttering business, which she loves, and also enjoys taking on the older bowlers who, just quietly, are known to be ferociously competitive at times.
“I love competing against the older bowlers, showing them what I can do. A lot of them have been bowling for 20 to 30 years,” Amanda says.
She loves the social aspect of the sport and is also looking to compete in the annual Australian Deaf Games set for Newcastle at the end of January.
“I have competed in them once before and got a bronze medal, but at the time I was a fill-in for a Sydney team because one of their girls broke a leg,” she says.
“I used to play golf. I’m much better as a bowler.”
Amanda has promised to let The Local know how she goes in Scotland.

A new collection of large scale photographic works, captured in the stunning local Hepburn Regional Park and the Wombat State Forest, will be exhibited and on display at the Eastern Peake Cellar Door from August 26 to October 22.
The exhibition is part of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale, a festival that has grown in popularity since its inception in 2005 – the event first held in Daylesford, before it relocated to Ballarat as the festival expanded.
The 60-day event transforms the regional city, attracts international and Australian artists, and numerous exhibitions can be found in art galleries, restaurants, wineries, bars, laneways and cultural spaces.
This is Rosendale’s third exhibition in the regional festival, having a previous offering of his Alpine photography at Craigs Royal Hotel, Ballarat, in the 2017 Biennale.
This year’s edition at Eastern Peake marks an enforced shift in genre, and a sense of optimism, emerging out of the tail end of the pandemic.
“Covid restrictions were an extended period of loss no doubt, but also an opportunity to immerse oneself in the local landscape,” says Rosendale.
“Photography – being one of a host of greatly affected industries in that dark time of restrictions, unable to work or travel to my muse of recent years, the Alpine region of Falls Creek, there was indeed a lot of time to research art, painting, photography and common tropes of struggle, that have been depicted through art for centuries.
“I wanted to bring a traditional painterly style to my photography and imbue that traditional form of expression.”
Having a footprint in the goldfields for more than 20 years, when able to do so, a full-time move saw out the remainder of the pandemic, and inspired an immersion in the local forest.
The exhibition delivers a sense of mystery and freedom, of exploring a new landscape and the liberation of finally being en plein air.
Photographs by David Rosendale can be viewed at Eastern Peake Cellar Door, 67 Pickfords Road, Coghills Creek from Tuesday to Saturday from 11am to 3pm.
Link: www.ballaratfoto.org/program/photographs-by-david-rosendale/

Words and Images: Eve Lamb

A diagnosis of dementia can be incredibly upsetting, and unfortunately the incidence of this lethal disease is rising across Macedon Ranges and Hepburn Shires.

However, some good news is that last week saw the local launch of a new federally-funded, free, three-day retreat offering people with dementia and their carers a valuable new source of respite and support.

Last Monday’s launch of the new three day (two night) Treehouse4Two retreat program follows Central Highlands Rural Health’s successfully securing $1.3 million in federal funding to make it happen.

They will now begin offering the new retreats in both the Hepburn and Macedon Ranges shires.

Launched at the Macedon Ranges Hotel and Spa, the retreats are designed to provide essential support, education and resources to navigate the difficult journey through dementia.

The specialised retreats are funded as an ongoing series through to mid 2026, and will take place in quality scenic local accommodation venues – with plenty of good food on the menu and an enjoyable “holiday vibe” as key aspects.

The first of the retreats are happening from this week with an initial intake of five couples attending.

Beyond this week’s, the retreats are then expected to accommodate six couples per retreat with all costs covered for participants.

“Sadly, there is quite an increase in dementia in both Hepburn and Macedon Ranges shires,” CHRH executive director Phil Catterson said.

According to a 2022 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report, 517 people were living with dementia in the Macedon Ranges Shire, of which 204 were males, and 314 were female. In Hepburn Shire, there were 389 people living with dementia, with 240 females and 149 males diagnosed.

The Treehouse4Two retreat program builds on CHRH’s existing Treehouse program which, for the past five years, has been supporting people living at home with dementia.

“We have had Treehouse for over five years now and it has been a great thing for us to understand how important respite is for people who have dementia,” Mr Catterson said.

“If you are given a diagnosis and it’s happening to you, it scares the heebie jeebies out of you and you don’t know how to react.”

CHRH Treehouse and Social Support manager Dora Mansbridge has an extensive nursing background, including in palliative care, and will be a leader for the new retreats that are based on a similar successful program run by Sydney’s Hammond Care.

“There’s a stigma that comes with having a dementia diagnosis,” Dora says.

“But dementia is not the end of the conversation. It’s the start.”

Knowing where to turn and how to begin managing and coping following a new diagnosis can be challenging and the new retreat program will especially aim to help those contending with a recent diagnosis.

Dora says couples who attend the retreats will enjoy time out to relax in a beautiful safe location.

But while it will feel like “a holiday” a skilled team of health and support care professionals will use the time to meaningfully engage with those who have the diagnosis and to provide their carers with skills and knowledge needed.

“Our aim is to provide essential support, education and resources to help people navigate this journey. It’s a tough gig – 24/7,” Dora said.

Sharing the load is a main aim and friendships and other valuable support contacts are expected to result.

“It’s going to feel a little like an extended family,” said Treehouse4Two Retreat Coordinator Paula Weekley.

Paula says the retreats’ outcomes will be closely watched with the hope of seeing them gain funding to continue beyond the initial four years.

Following this week’s very first Treehouse4Two retreat, three more will be held this year – in September, October and November, with ten then scheduled for each of 2024 and 2025, and six scheduled for 2026.

Among those keenly looking forward to attending one coming up soon is Hepburn Shire same-sex couple Chris Ling and Lewis Short, and Chris attended Monday’s launch.

“Lewis was diagnosed in 2016 and we have already been using the Treehouse program in Trentham,” Chris said.

The (pre-existing) Treehouse program is also offered at Kyneton and is now being launched at Daylesford with plans to make it available at Clunes into the future.

“With the retreat, I am looking forward to being with other carers and I’d like Lewis to be comfortable in a different place other than at home,” Chris says.

“For him it’s a chance to be with other people besides me and that will hopefully be a break for us from our normal routine.”

Dora says that additional suitable safe and scenic accommodation venues across Hepburn and Macedon Ranges shires are being sought as potential sites to hold the retreats.

More information about the Treehouse4Two retreat program is available through Central Highlands Rural Health.

US-born blues and soul singer Oscar LaDell brings his band The Earth Tones for their first appearance at Palais-Hepburn next month.

Drawing influence from the greats of 20th Century American Roots Music, this will be a night to remember, filled to the brim with grooves and ballads.

The Palais gig happens Friday, September 29th and those who plan to be there are being prepare to dance, listen and be moved by Oscar LaDell and The Earth Tones!

Oscar LaDell is a singer, songwriter and guitarist who brings a timeless vulnerability and passionate approach to his original blend of Soul, Blues & Roots.

Hailing originally from Denver Colorado, LaDell grew up in Purakaunui in the South of Aotearoa. Drawing from the moody and poignant scenes of his home, LaDell writes, plays and sings with incisiveness and depth.

With his band The Earth Tones, Oscar’s live shows are incendiary sermons of soul, blending swaying grooves with dynamic storms of guitar and organ, all tied together by Oscar’s magnetic voice.

Introducing The Well Strung Trio, showcasing a blend of Gypsy Jazz, Latin and yes even some classical music. Comprising virtuosic guitarists, Lyndon Kyrss and Adam Seery and Double Bass player extraordinaire Andrew Vincent this Trio has enchanted audiences far and wide with their exciting interpretations of instrumental music from a bygone era.

They’ll be playing The Palais, Hepburn (pictured above) on Friday, September 22 from 6.30pm.

Intricate guitar work, characterized by lightning-fast arpeggios and scintillating bass solos, will transport listeners to the vibrant streets of Paris in the 1930s…then a short musical walk to a New Orleans Jazz bar in the 1950s.

Over the years the Trio have performed extensively from concert halls and cafes, tents and pergolas, gardens and festival stages. Their music is a celebration of the freedom, joy, and timeless spirit of Gypsy and Latin Jazz. Swing is back and The Well Strung Trio are here to prove it through their harmonious blend of styles and captivating artistry.