Brilliantly coloured images of rock and pop stars fill a book by Yandoit’s Dave Lewis, and led to one of the memorable stories that The Local enjoyed covering in 2024, the year that was.

The images Dave created arose out of extreme trauma.

He says if his wife had not heard a bump as their daughter Kate fell out of bed, she would be dead.

It seemed that Kate, then 16, was having a fit. She was unable to speak.

An ambulance took her to Ballarat, then to the Royal Melbourne Hospital. She was there for six months recovering from an aneurysm.

During Kate’s time there Dave lined her white walls with drawings of music legends from Bob Dylan to Patti Smith.

Read the story at www.tlnews.com.au – Edition 307

All students in years 3-6 from Hepburn, St Michael’s, Trentham, Yandoit and Daylesford primary schools participated in the Daylesford Region Interschool Olympic Games at Daylesford Primary on August 1.

Daylesford Primary principal Ali McHalliwell said the games were designed to foster essential values such as teamwork, belonging, and personal accomplishment.

“Through engaging in friendly competition, students experienced the joy of working together towards common goals and building a strong sense of community and inclusion,” she said.

“Additionally, this event offered a unique opportunity for students to learn about the rich history and significance of the Olympic Games, gaining a deeper appreciation for the spirit of global unity and athletic excellence.”

Brilliantly coloured images of rock and pop stars fill a book by Yandoit’s Dave Lewis. They arose out of extreme trauma.

He says if his wife had not heard a bump as their daughter Kate fell out of bed, she would be dead. It seemed that Kate, then 16, was having a fit. She was unable to speak.

An ambulance took her first to Ballarat, then to the Royal Melbourne Hospital. She was there for six months recovering from an aneurysm.

Dave and his wife, Sharon Treloar, moved to Melbourne to be with Kate in March last year.

“They operated on her for nine hours,” he says. She was in intensive care for weeks. “It was insane,” says Dave, a 55-year-old teacher’s aide and part-time rock muso.

Recuperation was slow. Physiotherapists helped, as did speech pathologists and helpers to take her shopping. There were setbacks. Kate had a stroke and a second, much milder, aneurysm. An aneurysm is a bulge in a blood vessel in or around the brain.

“We just took it one week at a time,” Dave says. “We were lucky that she lived.”

Now Kate can walk, but with a limp and has little movement in her right hand.

During Kate’s time in the Royal Melbourne Dave lined her white walls with Texta drawings of music legends, from Bob Dylan to Patti Smith.

Here, too, in his 136-page book are Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Blue Lines, Massive Attack, Kurt Vile, and Yo La Tengo, a famously noisy American alternative rock band formed in 1984, with their 1997 album I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One. “I tried to liven it up.” Dave says.

His book will be launched at Words in Winter in August. Dave has nursed an ambition to produce an art book for 32 years and now aims for another.

Another American band in the book is one that Kate introduced him to, the Neutral Milk Hotel, formed in 1989. They split up for what seems an eccentric reason in rock: they could not cope with the attention they were getting.

Which is unlike Dave’s band The Bedridden, which also split up, got together only to split again, only to recently emerge at Yandoit.

The spirit and survival of these bands and musicians, caught on Kate’s hospital walls, may have meant a lot.

Words: Kevin Childs | Image: Kyle Barnes

Hymn and Her Ensemble will perform at Yandoit Cultural, the old church in the bush at Uniting Church Road, on Saturday, May 20 from 4pm.
Consisting of new Yandoit residents Harmony Byrne and David Elias, pictured above, in collaboration with Serene Byrne and Gabriel Kenner, Hymn and Her Ensemble will present an acoustic performance consisting of vocals, acoustic guitar, flute and cello. Together they offer honest folk, bluesy songs of contemplation and country campfire vibes.
Entry is by donation with bookings via Alison King on 0415 555 081 or email ycfcpg@gmail.co

Ceridwen McCooey and Darcy King, above, will return to Yandoit Cultural, the old church in the bush – for a concert on Saturday, May 6 from 6pm.
After a packed house and standing ovation at their concert last year Ceridwen,
on cello, and Darcy, on classical guitar, are returning for another fabulous concert.
Ceridiwen McCooey is both cellist and composer and together with Darcy
King’s classical guitar they are a formidable duo. Both Ceridwen and Darcy are
graduates of Melbourne’s Conservatorium of Music and will soon leave Australia to
pursue postgraduate studies.
They will present a new varied repertoire of contemporary classical music
from around the globe as well as a series of Ceridwen’s own compositions for solo
cello and electronics from her upcoming album. Entry by donation and bookings
essential. Contact Alison King on 0415 555 081 or email ycfcpg@gmail.com

Words: Kevin Childs | Images: Kyle Barnes

FOR some time now there’s been a belief that print is dead. Many say
the world is all online.
A chink of proof that this may not be ironclad is in the story of Chris
Olver of Yandoit.
Just over five years ago this paper told of his Wild West/Aussie outback model
village. Chris featured with his battered hat, rifle and Bowie knife.

The article was spotted by a representative of the Wolf Creek films, TV series and
touring show, who asked Chris if he’d like to go to a 40th anniversary celebration of
the film Mad Max in Maryborough. The Wolf Creek crew and those with Mad Max
are mates.
Chris, for 30 years a gravel truck driver, agreed but changed his mind. His wife
Shirley thought he was wrong. “Go,” she said, “you have nothing to lose.”
Putting on an old cowboy hat and red chequered shirt and strapping on a Bowie
knife he headed off. “When I turned up in Maryborough a bloke named Fletch, who
runs a car TV show in Sydney, came up to me. He thought I was John Jarratt, who
he’d interviewed recently.
“I was off to a pretty good start.”
Chris met the Wolf Creek representative, who made a short video that was sent to
Jarratt. Back came the word that Chris had the job of playing Mick Taylor as a stand-
in for Jarratt at shows around the country.
Then he was in the world of Wolf Creek, which features a sadistic outback pig
hunter called Mick Taylor who grabs his chance when he comes across a busload of
tourists from around the world. Their outback encounter is unimaginable.
Actor John Jarratt made Mick Taylor his own in two films and two TV seasons.
Chris has now been doing it for about four years, touring country Victoria,
including Melbourne, Adelaide and New South Wales, sometimes with Jarratt but
mostly with the Wolf Creek truck and crew.
The spin-offs include a fan club, Wolf Creek car badge, a Mick Taylor statue
($750), a pig-sticker hunting knife, a game and a pink cameo stretch gun sling.
Along the way there’s been some fun, such as when Chris was asked if the Wolf
Creek show would appear at a cancer fundraiser in tiny Lexton in Western Victoria.
“There were about three dozen people out front. A woman of about 24 looked a
bit worried as I did old Mick, so I picked up one of our movie props, half a human
leg with bone sticking out the top and blood running out of it.
“I went over to her and said in a raspy Mick Taylor voice, ‘Meet Sally or what’s
bloody left of her’. As the crowd laughed she looked at me and said in a stuttering
voice, ‘My-my-my name is Sally.’
“I had to do some quick thinking because she was a bit shaky, but she had a
little boy of about five, so I coaxed him up and we chatted and they both had photos
taken, so it turned out okay.”
Chris is full of praise for John Jarratt, “a great bloke. If I need to know anything I
ring or text him. He answers me straight away. He has a huge following.”
Jarratt appeared with Chris and others at the recent Australia Day Musicland
Theatre show in Melbourne. “The place was packed. It can make you a bit nervous
but I got through it okay.”

Back home in Yandoit Chris shows his Wolf Creek museum, its props including
a charred body, severed limbs and a skull, posters, signed photos and, dominating
the space, a sky blue 1977 Ford F250, a replica of one in the film, signed within by
Jarratt, and a massive 1978 HX Holden Statesman Caprice, used in the TV series.

At age 77 Chris is not sure how long he’ll keep playing Mick. “It’s a fair build-
up before each show. I don’t shave for well over a week and I’m down in the bush to
practise the Mick Taylor laugh a lot. It’s not easy to do. And I practise Mick’s voice.”
(“What are you buggers doin’ ‘ere?” he rasped when we arrived.)
“Shirl has to put up with me as Mick, which can be a bit trying.
“At the end of it all,” he says, “it’s good to get home, have a shave, get cleaned up
and get back to being me.”