What’s On

‘The equal right of all people to the use of land is as clear as their equal right to breathe the air: it is a right proclaimed by the fact of their existence.
For we cannot suppose that some people have a right to be in this world, and others no right.’

Henry George, Progress and Poverty.

Welcome to the August edition of Localising Leanganook’s e-newsletter.  In this month’s newsletter, our feature article by local economist Karl Fitzpatrick describes one of the hidden factors contributing to the chronic shortage of rental housing in Australia, and an innovative scheme for fixing the problem. The newsletter also includes regular updates on upcoming local events for the month of August plus activities that contribute towards localisation.  We hope you enjoy it.

Cheers, Nikki, Keppel, and Laurel

Note to Contributors and Readers

As you can see, Localising Leanganook’s e-news continues to grow from strength to strength reaching more than 700 subscribers. The monthly newsletter  includes an ever expanding range of localising events, programs and creative initiatives  in  our central Victorian region.  If you’ve got items for inclusion in future editions, let our editing team know – (nikki.marshall@mmnet.com.au). To help our editing team please email through information you’d like included in the following format:

• program/project/event name plus date, time and location if relevant
• summary of event/issue/program, in word format,
• accompanying photo as a jpeg or png

July’s edition includes:

1. Special Feature: Airbnb’s hidden threat requires a sensible response
   
2. Arts and Culture
3. Food Growing, Farming and Food Security
4. Ecology and Environment
5. First Nations
6. Sustainable Living Resources
7. Building Community
8. The Spirit and the Sacred
9. Local Government News
10. Workshops and Courses
11. Letters
12. Food for Thought

Special Feature: Airbnb’s hidden rental threat requires a sensible response

By Karl Fitzpatrick

Should Airbnb’s be allowed to run unhindered or should we cap the numbers and channel some of the profits towards affordable housing? That’s the question we’ve asked in Grounded’s recent report “Airbnb: from a housing problem to solution”. Thirteen of Australia’s leading tourism towns were analysed, revealing that Airbnb investors enjoyed a stunning 81% higher return than a traditional landlord. Such a premium provides an incredible incentive for investors to switch towards short-term rentals (STRs). The housing supply is going backwards in the towns studied, with more of it going towards Airbnb than it is to either the rental or ownership markets. Over the last decade, the equivalent of 74% of new supply has migrated towards these short-term profits. Airbnb sponsored reports typically water down their impact by comparing their stock to total dwellings. “Nothing to see here, we account for just 5.7% of total dwellings”.

When investors prioritise short-term returns over a long-term community, the rental market is where the pain is first felt. People on the margin are forced to make ends meet, by paying 50% of incomes on escalating rents or worse, sleeping precariously. Analysis should focus on where this change has been enforced – the rental market. Such a comparison shows that Airbnb’s account for 35% of rental supply. No wonder there’s a housing crisis, as this ABC segment describes. Apollo Bay and Noosa Heads both have more than twice as much short-term rental supply as is available for traditional renters. Investors in these towns receive a return on investment of more than 100% above the typical rental property.

Meanwhile, Castlemaine only has 121 total STR listings (96 active listings), out of 5,059 total dwellings. However, despite the low STR concentration, the number of active STR listings is up 4%. This is despite annual revenues being down 12% to $40,800. If we compare STR incomes to median rents at $19,022 p.a (Census 2021 indexed to 2024), we can see a clear signal to the market: invest in STRs.  Averaged over a decade, Castlemaine produced 76 news homes per year. Despite this, only 64 new rental homes were produced over this same time frame to 2021 (Census, ABS). Meanwhile, 96 active STRs appeared.

Whilst shocking at first glance, our numbers are unsurprising to analysts of the short-term rental market. They’re actually quite conservative because we looked at active listings rather than total listings. That provides a 25%+ discount to the numbers analysed. So it’s likely that Airbnb is actually equivalent to 50%+ of rental supply.

Our report details how and why we must cap the number of Airbnbs, reducing the number every two years. By auctioning off STR licences that increase in value alongside their scarcity, Airbnbs become less profitable. Importantly, rising licence fees discourage marginal Airbnbs, incentivising them to rejoin the traditional housing market.  Not only does the Airbnb cap-and-trade system reallocate investments, but it raises revenue for the funding of affordable housing.

As this ABC article describes:

‘Mr Fitzgerald estimates that in the Hepburn Shire where he lives, there are around 1,400 short-term rentals but only 1,100 of them are active. “So the beauty of the ‘cap and trade’ system is that it works most effectively on marginal sites,” he said. “Those excess 300 sites that aren’t so active would probably head back onto the market.” ‘

A significant advantage for government is that it doesn’t have to spend much to drive meaningful change. Housing policies are costing billions of dollars these days because you barely get two affordable homes for a million dollars. We need to help the market help itself.

In my discussions with Airbnb operators, they prefer the cap-and-trade system over the 90 day cap rate because the latter would wipe out much of the industry – even for those providing innovative tourism experiences. The cap-and-trade system gives entrepreneurs time to adjust. Those that aren’t operating effectively will likely return to the traditional housing market quite quickly.  Over time, as the cap-and-trade licensing fee increases, the funding should be given to local councils to fund affordable housing. Community Land Trusts (CLTs) can then partner with councils, working together to lock in perpetual affordability, maintaining and recycling any public subsidy. By rolling the cap-and-trade policy in over time, we would expect the licensing to start at around $3,000 in year one. By year 8, it would account for some $8,500 on a median $42,000 in net profits. That’s a small price to pay to ease the housing crisis.

If you need further convincing of why this change is needed, just plug your suburb into one of the many rental listings websites to see how few homes are available for renters. Then pop over to Airbnb to see how many short term rentals are on the market. Do we really need 1000 plus Airbnbs in Sydney’s Canterbury, when it only has 196 rental properties? In West End, Brisbane, there’s 542 long-term rentals to 1000 plus Airbnb’s. Merri-bek in Melbourne’s inner north has only 664 long term rentals to 1000 plus Airbnbs. These numbers are replicable across the nation, which is why it is time for change. The STR incomes earned will see this as a juggernaut that is only just beginning. Ask your Treasurer whether we need housing resources allocated this way – particularly during a never-ending housing crisis?

Watch out for the international figures being released very soon, covering global cities such as Berlin, Barcelona, Zurich and others.

Check out the Youtube recording of the recent public event discussing the report – Channelling Airbnb Profits Toward Community Land Trusts. It features Professor Peter Phibbs (AHURI) and a number of councillors discussing the impact of STRs on their community.

Arts and Culture

Words in Winter Festival- Daylesford and Surrounds

When: Friday 23rd – Sunday 25th  AUGUST

Where: Assorted venues in Daylesford, Hepburn Springs, Yandoit, Clunes, Trentham

This year’s Words in winter theme is ‘Connection of the Heart’- A sensory feast of community and beyond. Featured events include in conversations with writers and thinkers Arnold Zable and Bruce Pascoe. There are also Author talks, poetry readings, comedy, travel writing , open mic’s and much more.

Band without Borders play at Yandoit Cultural

When and Where:  Saturday August 10^th at 3pm, at Yandoit Cultural, (the old church in the bush), Uniting Church rd, off High st, Yandoit

Dance and clap your way through Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Scandinavia and beyond with this mighty 10 musical ensemble. Klezmer, Gypsy, Balkan and Greek tunes to raise your spirits and get your feet moving. Band without Borders, formally known as The KGB, hail from various towns and villages from Victoria’s central highlands. They are drawn together by a love and passion for music from the Middle East, Balkans and Scandinavia. With relentless passion and enthusiasm they fill a room with beautiful music that makes  the audience happy and want to dance & they appeal to all ages.

Entry by donation- Please be generous to support musicians. 

For more information and Bookings: https://yandoitcultural.org/

Acceptance is the Door to Freedom

When and Where:  Saturday August 17^th, 5.00pm, Yandoit Cultural– the old church in the bush, Uniting Church Rd, off High St, Yandoit

“Imagine just being diagnosed with cancer and because the letter C is close to the letter D on the keyboard, I made the word ‘cancer’ into the word ‘dancer’, so my diagnosis became somewhat different” .

In this special performance by renowned French clarinet player, Benoît Oury, and local artist Petrus Spronk, Petrus will share the story of his experience with cancer and how he overcame it until Mr Parkinson’s tripped him up.

Entry by donation.   For more information and Bookings: https://yandoitcultural.org/

Radius Gallery

Love’s Brother 20th Anniversary Celebration

Celebrate 20 years since Love’s Brother was filmed at the Macaroni Factory in Hepburn Springs. Join us for a glass of wine and some nibbles. Entry by donation. Seating is limited to 40 people, so please reserve via link below. Movie starts 7:30pm.

Sunday 28th July 7-8pm  

BOOK NOW

Local Elections Future Forum

As council elections approach in October, we are reigniting our collective spirit and inviting you to be a vital part of enhanced democratic participation in Hepburn Shire.- see more in  the Local Governement section below. 

Sunday 4th August 10.30 am – 12.30 pm at Radius Gallery 

READ MORE

Also, there’s lots of events being held at Radius Gallery for the Words in Winter Festival: https://www.radiusart.com.au/

Northern Arts Hotel

The wonderful documentary concerning the last 100 days of Maggie Fooke’s iconic Brooklyn Arts Hotel, To Thank The Room will have an encore screening on Wednesday 31 July at 6.30pm at Cinema Nova, Carlton. All welcome.
Don’t forget there is a new 16 week Permaculture Design Course starting NOW ON 29 JULY. It conducts much of the course at the Northern Arts Hotel as well as including a tours of  a range of other local permaculture projects. For details and registration, see the Courses and Workshops section of this newsletter.

THE COOLROOM DIARY [Click on links for event details] MUSIC GIGS  [Usually at 7.30pm]
Saturday 27 July 7.30pm | Maggie Jackson NY Jazz Trio | Lush Jazz…always
Saturday 3 August 7.30pm | Kavisha Mazzella Trio | Italian Songs
Friday 9 August | Derrin Nauendorf launches The Desert Machine.
Saturday 10 August 7.30pm | Deep in a Dream: Tribute to Chet Baker
Friday 16 August 7.30pm | Rose Turtle Ertler & The Cherry Reds
Saturday 17 August 7.30pm | The Anticlinal Fold with Jo Huf
Friday 23 August 7.30pm | Geoff Achison – Acoustic
Saturday 24 August 7.30pm | Langue de Chat – French Musette Quartet
Sunday 8 September 7pm | She: Beccy Cole, Felicity Urquhart & Lyn Bowtell
FILM
Sunday 28 July at 2.30pm  | Free Secret Sunday Matinee
Wednesday 31 July at 6.30pm | Cinema Nova Carlton | To Thank The Room
Monday 5 August | CFU presents Tale of Two Peoples
SPOKEN WORD & REGULAR GROUPS
Saturday 27 July 2.30pm | PoetiCas with Lina Shilton (4th Saturday of every month)
Monday 29 July | 16 weeks | Permaculture Design Course Starts
Thursday 1 August 4pm | Maine-ly Ukes (every Thursday except school holidays)
Monday 5 August | CFU presents Tale of Two Peoples
Thursday 15 August 7.30pm | Guildford Folk Club (3rd Thursday of every month)
Saturday 17 August 2.30pm | Celtic Song Circle (3rd Saturday of every month)
NORTHERN ARTS HOTEL
Ongoing | Ethiopia, Hudad Plateau: A Self Portrait Series
Every Tuesday | Potluck Dinner from 7pm

Open Mic for Words in Winter at Yandoit Cultural

When: Sunday August 25th, 11.00am

Where: Yandoit Cultural, the old church in the bush, Uniting Church Rd, off High St, Yandoit

Yandoit Cultural will host another Open Mic as part of this years Words in Winter festival, around the theme-  ‘Connection of the Heart’. A chance for anyone and everyone to have their 5-10 minutes and share a  story, song , poem, musical piece, local history and more.

Always an eclectic range of offerings, listenings and connection with others in our community. And there’s time at the end for a cuppa and the best of Yandoit’s country hospitality.

Contact Katy to express your interest: katylbauer@hotmail.co.uk or 0430 530 868

Newstead Arts Hub

Newstead Spinners: Fibre to Fabric ’24 

Exhibition: Starting NEXT Sat 3-18 Aug, Weekends 10am-4pm.  

The Newstead Spinning and Weaving Group have been busy spinning, weaving, felting and hand knitting creations. There will be lovely things to look at and purchase.

Come along to see all their beautiful creations and demonstrations. The whole Hub will be buzzing.

Food Growing, Farming and Food Security

Hepburn Wholefoods change to opening hours

From July we will be changing our regular shop opening times. We will no longer be open on Wednesdays, but will be extending our opening hours on Saturdays from 11am until 2.30pm (starting on Saturday 6th July)

Ecology and Environment

Natural Newstead- Silvereyes

The gentle calls of Silvereyes are with us year round, but they are not the same birds.

If you have a close look at our local Silvereyes at present they’re likely to have rich chestnut flanks, indicating that they are ssp. lateralis, winter migrants from Tasmania. Click here for a more detailed discussion on the movements of our local Silvereyes.

Silvereyes will opportunistically take nectar, often piercing the corolla to get at the sweet liquid inside. Irish Strawberry is a popular garden tree with a propensity to go rampant on areas of disturbed and depleted soils. It has become an environmental weed in some areas in nearby places such as Creswick, where large specimens have established in mature conifer plantations. The species is found naturally across the Mediterranean basin and also in south-west Ireland, hence its common name.

The Creek Kids Podcast

This local podcast is produced by climate champion Rob Law from the banks of Campbells Creek. Give it a try on the next road trip with the kids. Join the Creek Kids on their adventures along their local creek. You may be surprised what mysteries lay in store, and what creatures they will encounter along the way. A podcast audio book series created by Ralph and Otto Maguire-Law and Rob Law. All music and sound production by Rob Law. Created in Central Victoria on the lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung in January 2023. Cover art by Anna Read (Copyright 2023).

Winter in the Gardens-Wombat Hill Botanical Gardens and Daylesford Convent

All day Saturday & Sunday 3/4 August
Wander the heritgage listed Wombat Hill Gardens and use the gate to enter the garden of the neighbouring Convent.

10am-4pm Sat/Sun Winter Flower Competition- Alf Headland Conservatory, Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens. Host: Agricultural Society
11am-3pm Daylesford Museum, 100 Vincent St, Daylesford. Special display of historical material related to Wombat Hill. Host: Historical Society
Saturday 3 August- 1.30pm Guided walking tour of Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens & Convent Garden significant trees with Arborist & Horticulturist John Beetham, Host: Horticultural Society
3pm Afternoon Tea (by donation) Stanbridge Hall, 54 Central Springs Rd, Daylesford, Host: Horticultural Society
3.30pm “Victoria’s Botanic Garden Legacy.”- Talk by Janet O’Hehir, Camperdown Botanic Gardens & Arboretum. Stanbridge Hall
6.30pm Winter in the Gardens Celebration Dinner, Daylesford Town Hall 76/78 Vincent St ., Daylesford, Guest speaker Peter Leigh, Post Office
Farm Nursery, Hellebore specialist. Eureka string Trio, complimentary champagne on arrival. $75 BYO.
Bookings: https://www.trybooking.com/

Sunday 4 August, 10am “La Trobe the Plantsman” Senior Citizens’ Rooms, rear Daylesford Town Hall, Talk by Helen Botham, La Trobe specialist with
National Trust & Australian Garden History Society
11.00am Morning Tea (by donation) Senior Citizens’ Rooms. Host: Friends of Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens
11.30am “Unearthing our public garden history – The Ken Duxbury postcard collection.” Senior Citizens’ Rooms, Talk by Helen Page, horticulturist, foundation member Australian Garden History Society

“Winter in the Gardens” is a joint project in partnership between The Friends of Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens, Daylesford & District Horticultural Society, Daylesford & District Historical Society, Daylesford & District Agricultural Society, Hepburn U3A, The Convent Daylesford, supported by Hepburn Shire Council and the Daylesford and District Community Bank.

Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests AGM

When and Where: Monday 12 August 2024 at 7.30pm,  Castlemaine Senior Citizens Centre, Mechanics Lane, Castlemaine  

Local ecologist Geoff Park will talk about Woodland birds in central Victoria – historical observations, current status and future prospects.

Woodland birds are an iconic and special element of the box-ironbark forests and woodlands of central Victoria. The impacts of European settlement, from gold-mining to agricultural intensification, have contributed to a steady decline in species diversity and populations. This decline is now being exacerbated by the clear and present effects of climate change.

Geoff’s talk will span some historical perspectives on what are now locally extinct or rare woodland bird species, discuss what we think we know about the current situation and consider options and possibilities for future conservation efforts.

For more information: Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests (FOBIF)

Central Vic Climate Action Film Night

Repair Cafes

Castlemaine:  Sunday July 28th, and Sunday August 25th, 10am -1.00pm at Castlemaine Community House.

For updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/castlemainerepaircafe/

Daylesford: Sunday August  18th, 1-4pm at Victoria park Pavillion.

For updates: https://www.facebook.com/daylesfordrepaircafe/

Creswick: Sunday August 18th, 1-4pm at Creswick Neighbourhood House

Landcare

Joan Kirner Landcare Award-  Winner: Marie Jones

The Joan Kirner Landcare Award honours a long-term Landcarer in Victoria who has forged partnerships and inspired, encouraged, and mentored others to undertake on-ground action. Marie Jones is an exceptional grassroots environmental leader, who has been involved in Landcare for 30 years with Golden Point Landcare Group, Post Office Hill Action Group, Friends of the Box Ironbark Forest and Connecting Country.

Marie has an impressive history of making things happen in Landcare through partnerships, advocacy, and delivery of on-ground projects, including at landscape scale. She has provided inspiration to others by finding innovative ways to involve the community in landcare, and mentoring and supporting many volunteers and staff.

Winter 2024 edition of the Victorian Landcare & Catchment Management magazine is here! You can read Issue 87 online or download it in PDF forma

First Nations

Harcourt Organic Farming Coop- Listening to Djaara

Here at Harcourt Organic Farming Co-op we have been working to listen and build a new relationship with Djaara, and new understanding of the history of this place. Here, Katie Finlay reflects on the process over the past couple of years that has led to “Supporting Djaara leadership and management at Leanganook” being included as a key component of our new Whole Farm Plan. We share it here not to pat ourselves on the back, but because we know it has already generated questions and interest from other farmers keen to take similar steps, and we’re committed to openly sharing the resources and process that we have worked on.

Discovering the farm’s true history: When I was a little girl, I grew up riding my pony and walking all over Mount Alexander. I never heard it called Leanganook, and didn’t know that was its original name…. read more at : https://hofcoop.com.au/2024/07/11/listening-to-djaara/

Sustainable Living Resources

Community Electricity Offer- Hepburn Energy

We’re piloting our community electricity offer with a small group of co-operative members.Our community electricity provides a closer link between our energy and what customers use at home. Our offer comes with 100% GreenPower, Melbourne-based support staff and tools to lower your energy use.

Register here

https://www.hepburnenergy.coop/energy-community-offer/

Castlemaine Seed Library- Mini Seed Swap

The next working bee is Thursday 1st August, 11am, at the library, when we can all start thinking about what we want to plant in our Spring and Summer gardens.

Bring your little ones along and grab some seeds. Bring seeds to swap, or just take some seeds away.

Building Community

Castlemaine Free University – A Tale of Two Peoples

Mount Alexander Affordable Housing Trust

We’re progressing plans to make affordable housing possible for more people in our shire by establishing an affordable housing trust. The trust is an independent charitable organisation, which will hold land and funds for the development of affordable housing locally.

We’re excited by the trust and its possibilities, but understand it’s complex, so we’ve created a space online where you can ask questions and get them answered by Council’s Housing Solutions Broker.

Visit www.shape.mountalexander.vic.gov.au to find out more about the trust and ask us questions. We’ll also be holding face-to-face information sessions in the coming weeks.

Learn more about the trust

For the shire news: https://mountalexandershirecouncil.cmail20.com/

Castlemaine Community Cooperative

We are now 167 members STRONG.  Local lawyers have reviewed our Debenture Disclosure Statement.  Our final due diligence steps are mapped out ahead of launching on offer on the Hub.

If you have skills and a bit of time, we could use some help with: conveyancing, accounting, migration of our documents to Microsoft 365 SharePoint, and planning a big launch and fundraising drive!

Everyone is also welcome to our next Board meeting 9am Saturday 17th August at the Castlemaine Community House (Castlemaine Institute is moving!)

Castlemaine Community Coop have been included in the CoPower 2024 democratically elected budget. CoPower is Australia’s cooperative energy not-for-profit electricity retailer. The revenue they generate is used to fight poverty, tackle the climate crisis and support communities. Customer members decide how revenue is spent. We are included in this year’s vote for $1,500 to help us leaflet households across our town about our upcoming campaign to buy the Hub. If you are a CoPower customer member, vote for us! If not, you can switch your energy to CoPower here and help disrupt the energy market for good.

https://www.cooperativepower.org.au/

Degrowth Central Victoria

Clever Town Crossword Challenge

Clever Town Challenge
Are you a crossword enthusiast, or want to improve your skills? Come along to our crossword challenges across the Shire on Saturday 3 August, from 10.30 – 1130am.

• Creswick Library, Daylesford Library and Clunes Attitude

Remember, no Googling or texting a friend, but reference books are allowed.

The Spirit and the Sacred

Yandoit Sacred

Yandoit Sacred is gathering every 6 weeks at Yandoit’s historic Uniting church in the bush.  We gather again around things that matter, wisdom sharing and with time to connect to the earth and to each other. We’ll be exploring the sacred in our lives. All welcome.

Our next gathering will be on Saturday afternoon, August 3^rd at 2pm.at the Yandoit’s Uniting Church.

For more information: nikki.marshall@mmnet.com.au or mob.  0432 232 073

The Grail Chapel

The Grail Chapel in Green Gully is home to the Castlemaine Johannine Community, a spiritual community that practises ‘pagan Christianity’: a spirituality based in the mystical tradition of St John, Mary Magdalene and the Rosicrucians, and grounded in deep reverence for the sacredness of the Earth and the wisdom of the ancient Celtic, Aboriginal and Native American spiritual traditions. Through both inner and outer work, we seek to collaborate with the impulse of Christ and Sophia to bring healing and renewal to our communities and the Earth. We meet monthly for Eucharist services and other special events shaped by the sacred calendar of the seasonal Christian and Celtic festivals.

This month’s events include an Imbolc Eucharist on Sunday 5th August from 11am followed by a shared lunch. Imbolc is a seasonal Celtic festival that marks the midpoint between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. At this time, the light of the Sun is beginning to return as the days start to grow longer, and with it comes the first stirrings of new life.

Where: the Grail Chapel, 75 McMillans Rd, Green Gully

Cost: all events are free, donations are welcome. Enquiries: contact Ken Killeen on 0423 194 878 or email: johannine@hotmail.com

Castlemaine Zen Winter Sesshin

Local Government News

Hepburn Shire

Community Voice- Hepburn Shire Future Forum

As the council elections approach in October, Community Voice is reigniting our collective spirit and inviting you to be a vital part of a movement for enhanced democratic participation and decision-making in Hepburn Shire. Join us for an invigorating strategy session and potluck lunch at Radius Gallery, 76 Main Rd Hepburn on Sunday, August 4th, 10:30 am–12:30 pm.

Why Should You Attend?-

 Meet Your Candidate: Get to know some of the candidates running and learn how you can step forward to represent our community or encourage others to do so.

 Shape Our Future: Voice your opinions on the values, policies, and causes that matter most to you.

 Forge a Vision Together: Help decide the future direction of our community group and whether we should adopt a new name and platform for ‘Community Voice’.

 Contribute Your Talents: Discover ways to contribute your skills and time to the 2024 campaign and beyond.

Hepburn Matters and Local Government Elections

When and Where: Sunday 11 August, 11am -3pm; Paddock Room, Daylesford Neighbourhood Centre, 13 Camp St.

An information day for those who: have decided to stand for Council;  are thinking about standing for Council; are thinking of encouraging others to stand; and are interested in obtaining more information.

Running for Council and being elected needs to be considered carefully and this seminar has been designed to help assist you with your decision or with helping others. We have brought together a team of people to discuss their experiences on how to be elected, the challenges of being a candidate and how the one ward election works. Each has a unique insight into the process.

Speakers are : Clair Ferres Miles, Independent candidate for Casey, past CEO of Sustainability Victoria, current CEO of Jobsbank. Clair will share her experience of running a campaign; Kate Redwood, Ex Councillor of Hepburn on being a candidate; Dr. Danny McDiarmid, Government expertise across all levels on getting elected, including how to put a support team together.

Cost includes a light lunch: $40.00 for non-Hepburn Matters members. ( includes membership of Hepburn Matters if requested)
$25.00 for Hepburn Matters members.

RSVP : David Reilly 0419 985 245 or Jenny Beacham 0427 512 159 jennifer.beacham@gmail.com

Pastures not Pavements

Hepburn Arts and Culture Strategy

Council is pleased to present the first Arts and Culture Strategy for Hepburn Shire. It was endorsed at the June Council meeting and informed by many community feedback sessions and industry cultural standards. The strategy objectives are based on community needs and achievable positive outcomes for creative industries and the Museum sector.

Valuable insight was sought from our Traditional Owners, DJAARA, who contributed significantly. Art and Culture has long been important in Hepburn Shire, with many artists and creative industry businesses residing in the Shire. We also have several Museums that hold Council collections that are run by dedicated volunteers.

Mount Alexander Shire

Really Local

Want to make your voice heard? Local conversation about how Council works, what matters in Wesley Hill and how we can work together to influence.

Date: Aug 4, 2024 2:00 PM- 4:00 pm  Location: Wesley Hill Hall

Join us for a cup of tea and a casual and respectful conversation on:

1. How council works and the role of Councillors
2. Our priorities to take to Councillor candidates (sharing concerns and ideas)
3. What we can do to make sure our voices are heard in Council

In the October elections, Wesley Hill and surrounds will have two Councilors representing our end of Castlemaine (one from either side of Duke St). It’s an important opportunity to find someone local who can represent us and to have our voices heard about what is most important for Council to do over the next four years.

For more information: https://www.reallylocal.au/

Join the Affordable Housing Trust Advisory Committee

Mount Alexander Shire Council is inviting community members to express their interest in joining the Advisory Committee to the Mount Alexander Affordable Housing Trust. The trust is an independent charitable organisation that will hold land and funds for the development of affordable housing locally. Council is looking for six representatives to advise the trust on housing needs in the shire, bring a range of professional expertise, and represent the community.

Members of the advisory committee will:

• Advise on affordable housing needs and opportunities in the shire.
• Represent the community in an inclusive way that accounts for all affordable housing needs.
• Present informed, balanced and fair advice based on objective evidence and broad engagement with the community.
• Provide advice free from personal or representational bias.
• Provide advice on potential projects, donation and funding opportunities in and for the community.

To register your interest:

• Complete an online EOI form or download a hardcopy from www.shape.mountalexander.vic.gov.au/mount-alexander-affordable-housing-trust.
• Pick up a hard copy from Council’s Customer Service Centre, located at the Civic Centre, corner Lyttleton and Lloyd streets, Castlemaine. Then return it in one of the following ways:
  • Email it to affordablehousing@mountalexander.vic.gov.au.
  • Hand it in at the Civic Centre.
  • Mail it to PO Box 185, Castlemaine VIC 3450

Expressions of interest close Sunday 4th August at 11.59pm

Let’s Work Together to Support Young People in our Shire

Mount Alexander Shire Council is inviting the community to have their say on the services, programs, opportunities and challenges that affect young people aged 12-25. The feedback will be used to inform a new Youth Plan, which will outline Council’s commitment to supporting young people through its youth programs, initiatives, and events over the next four years. Council is inviting input from three different cohorts within the community – young people, parents and carers, and youth service providers.

Through community consultation, Council is aiming to better understand:

• The needs, issues and challenges facing young people and their families.
• The gaps in local services.
• How our shire could be a better place for young people and their families.

To have your say, visit shape.mountalexander.vic.gov.au/youth-plan

Workshops and Courses

Castlemaine Permaculture Hub: Permaculture Design Course (PDC)

When and where: from Monday 29th July, 9.15am – 3.15pm for 16 weeks at the Northern Arts Hotel, Castlemaine.

Cost: single payment of $1400/$990 concession or 2 monthly payments of $720/$500 concession

Further information and registration: castlemainepermaculturehub.com.au/pdc/permaculture-design-course-mondays-july-to-november-2024/

Healthy Landscapes Regenerative Agriculture Program

Holistic Grazing Management Short Course

Mount Alexander Shire Council is inviting local landowners to sign up for a Holistic Grazing Management short course. The course will assist landowners in improving their skills and knowledge about grazing livestock. It will also include discussions and six visits to various farms, a visit to each participant’s property to develop a plan, and online tutorials. The course is structured for large and small landholders with grazing livestock. Landholders in the Macedon Ranges Shire, Hepburn Shire, Mount Alexander Shire or the City of Greater Bendigo are eligible to attend.

When and where: August 2024 – May 2025

Cost: $150 per property.

To apply: visit www.mountalexander.vic.gov.au/HealthyLandscapes.  Applications close Sunday 28th July.

Healthy Landscapes free events

Planting the right plant
Date and time: Monday 29 July, 10.00am to 12.00pm
Location: Lancefield Mechanics Institute
Register: https://events.humanitix.com/planting-the-right-plant-understanding-evc-s-info-session

Multi-species cropping
Date and time: Friday 30 August, 3.30pm to 5.30pm
Location: Woodstock West
Register: https://events.humanitix.com/farm-walk-multi-species

Letters

No letters this month…we welcome your ideas.

Food for Thought

Renewable energy: Are optimistic scenarios feasible? by Peter Yates- https://degrowthcentralvictoria.substack.com/

What binds you? by Peter Yates  https://degrowthcentralvictoria.substack.com/

SBS Audio’s Everything we need: a series of podcasts about communities leading the way on adapting to climate impacts and making change in their lives for the better. Read more here

An  interview with Isabel Cavelier Adarve, winner of the 2022 Climate Breakthrough Award,

Isabel explains how she unexpectedly became a climate negotiator for the Colombian government in 2011 and how she approaches self-care in order to “stay with the trouble.” She also shares her path to realizing that “solving” the climate crisis requires a transformation in how we relate with one another and the more-than-human world.

WATCH THE INTERVIEW WITH ISABEL CAVELIER ADARVE

The Nightingale’s Song– An Interview with Sam Lee- In this interview, which weaves conversation, song, and the music of nightingales, folk singer Sam Lee speaks about the transformative experience of collaborating with nightingales, the stories of ancestors passed through folk music, and the space for communion that is opened with silence:  https://emergencemagazine.org/interview/the-nightingales-song

Milkwood– Skills for Living like it Matters: https://www.milkwood.net

North Central Catchment Management Authority:  https://www.nccma.vic.gov.au/media/documents/North_Central_Chat-_July_2024.pdf

Beyond the Horizon of Possibility workshop practice will help you to make sustainability transitions feel possible and to create a local context in which interest can turn into action, together with others. https://practise.transitionmovement.org/

Joan Scheckel, a master storyteller with a preternatural gift for story structure, emotional rhythm and throughline. A deep dive into storytelling as a means to heal and connect rather than generate conflict.  https://www.smallgiants.com.au/wisdom-and-action-podcast–

Shades of Green: Finding a Middle Path Through the Forest by Chrissy Sharp – A book review by David Holmgren

Feminine Futures – a program by Local Futures in collaboration with Schumacher College, UK – as well as other upcoming events.

Dive deep into the global-to-local worldview with Charles Eisenstein and Diego Isabel la Moneda in our newest Planet Local Voices episodes.

Sharpen your big-picture perspective with two new blogposts from Local Futures that get under the skin of mainstream (mis)representations of global trade and climate change.

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Degrowth aims to reframe economies away from socially and ecologically destructive growth. Sustainability means that everyone’s needs and Earth’s ecological needs must be met, neither more nor less. This means transforming everyday practices and cultures to restore and preserve the regenerative capacities of Earth and of our collective selves.

(from Degrowth Central Victoria  –  a collective supporting degrowth aims and practices in our local area) 

Welcome to the July edition of Localising Leanganook’s e-newsletter.  In this month’s newsletter our feature article is Anitra Nelson’s opening remarks at the  Degrowth Central Victoria launch held in May this year.  The newsletter also includes regular updates on upcoming local events for the month of July plus activities that contribute towards localisation.  We hope you enjoy it.

Cheers, Nikki, Keppel, and Laurel

Note to Contributors and Readers

As you can see, Localisising Leanganook’s e-news continues to grow from strength to strength reaching more than 700 subscribers. The monthly newsletter  includes an ever expanding range of localising events, programs and creative initiatives  in  our central Victorian region.  If you’ve got items for inclusion in future editions, let our editing team know – (nikki.marshall@mmnet.com.au). To help our editing team please email through information you’d like included in the following format:

• program/project/event name plus date, time and location if relevant
• summary of event/issue/program, in word format,
• accompanying photo as a jpeg or png

July’s edition includes:

1. Special Feature: Degrowth Central Victoria Launch
2. Arts and Culture
3. Food Growing, Farming and Food Security
4. Ecology and Environment
5. First Nations
6. Sustainable Living Resources
7. Building Community
8. Local Government News
9. Workshops and Courses
10. Letters
11. Food for Thought

1. Special Feature: Degrowth Central Victoria Launch- Opening Remarks by Anitra Nelson 

Degrowth Central Victoria was launched as a Castlemaine Free University Event on May 13th this year. Here’s an edited extract of Anitra Nelson’s opening remarks:

“Welcome everyone to this Degrowth Central Victoria launch session of Castlemaine Free University (CFU). Tonight we have four speakers on degrowth and degrowth activities here in Central Victoria. I am wearing two hats tonight, one as the CFU convenor and the other as an active participant in Degrowth Central Victoria. We’ll each speak for 5–10 minutes. Then we’d love to hear your thoughts, suggestions and questions about degrowth.

Free universities foster free and open access to knowledge and skill sharing. Free universities are based on social and ecological values and creativity, principles guiding our Castlemaine program. We can make these sessions free because speakers donate their time free and Northern Arts Hotel offers this venue and their support staff free. Even though CFU has been operating for a few years, it has been accepted as an activity of Degrowth Central Victoria because CFU has strong social and ecological values and encourages open discussion, creative responses and is guided by degrowth participatory approaches.

First, we acknowledge that Australia is founded on the genocide and dispossession of First Nations people. We pay our respects to Elders past and present of the Dja Dja Wurrung peoples of Djaara Country. Sovereignty has never been ceded. It always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land. This acknowledgement of Country, its custodians and caretakers is very relevant to degrowth. When this continent now known as Australia was invaded by peoples from the other side of the world, the very localised, interconnected, culturally rich and sophisticated ecologically sustainable practices of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were disrupted and largely destroyed. There were around 500 distinctive nations, 250 languages and 600 dialects in the late 18th century, when the singular English language and standardised capitalist practices of private property and production for trade, money and profits was inflicted on peoples whose descendants now only make up around three per cent of Australia’s population. Today they identify with around 250 ‘mobs’ with distinctive connections with Country and cultures.

Meanwhile, life in mainstream Australia and much of the planet, is typified by late capitalism with the flagship of economic growth – growing gross domestic product (GDP), growing productivity, growing profits. In contrast, degrowth is a movement which addresses the two great challenges of capitalism today – growing economic and socio-political inequities, and growing ecological unsustainabilities. One example is inequities and unsustainabilities in housing, the scarcity of affordable, secure and ecologically sustainable housing.

Degrowth aims to reframe and recreate economies that respect Earth’s regenerative limits so as to achieve socio-political equity and ecological sustainability. This means improving disadvantaged people’s access to basic needs while reducing excess production and consumption by privileged others. Degrowth is about everyone getting enough. And, ‘enough is enough’. Degrowth encourages what we call ‘frugal abundance’ instead of over-consumption. While growth imaginaries focus on quantity, degrowth is about quality and conviviality. Degrowth is about living one-planet footprints in more attractive ways than we do today, with the average Australian living a four-planet footprint. The degrowth movement actively works for much greater political participation, diversity in ecological systems and landscapes, and a flourishing of creativity, care and commoning – all using renewable energy and materials.

The international degrowth movement has risen to prominence over the last two decades. I’ve been active in it since May 2012 when I participated in the first international degrowth conference of the America in Montreal. I’ve collaborated on writing a degrowth book – Exploring Degrowth: A Critical Guide – and co-edited two collections, Housing for Degrowth and Food for Degrowth.

Although Australian academics have integrated degrowth thinking into their approaches to more sustainable and equitable futures, the activist Degrowth Network Australia was not launched until early last year at the 2023 National Sustainability Festival. Now it’s quite active. Indeed ten campers from Degrowth Network Melbourne spent several days at Butts Reserve at the base of Mt Tarrengower recently, engaging with Degrowth Central Victoria folk, doing practical work such as planting, discussing and doing exercises around some ‘essentials’ research.

We’re exploring ‘essentials’ for everyday life here in our local community, identifying what are essentials; how we can concentrate on essential work; and assessing how many essential goods and services are produced locally. We’re starting to run a series of workshops and to ask people to keep diaries for a short period of time on identifying all our household’s different essentials. Our first workshop is at Northern Arts Hotel in Castlemaine on Monday 3 June at 6pm as a CFU session of 90 mins. Anyone interested in being involved can request more details by emailing degrowthcentralvic@proton.me

I just want to finish this introductory talk by pointing out the obvious – that there have been many degrowth activities here in Central Victoria that predate our recent formation as an active degrowth group. There are activities such as the Castlemaine Repair café, YIMBY composting and Friends of Box Ironbark Forests (FoBIF). We could go on pointing to programs and practices that exist and express degrowth values and aims. Still we felt that a dedicated Degrowth Central Victoria group would help impress the importance of minimising our use of nature and treasuring our social relationships. This is especially the case as green appliances and technologies, such as electric cars, are seeing us continue to exploit nature when we should, instead, be minimising our impacts. Degrowth encourages using our legs and bikes. And, given that many of us in this rural region rely on cars, we would love to see efforts put into sharing electric cars and electric public transport.

On Friday 28 June again at 6pm here at Northern Arts Hotel we have Marisa Holmes, the Brooklyn NY based filmmaker, activist and author of Organizing Occupy Wall Street: This is Just Practice in conversation with the Friends of the Earth campaigns Coordinator Cam Walker. Hope to see you there then.”

2. Arts and Culture

Newstead Arts Hub

Winter Festival @ the Hub  

• Workshop: Charcoal Painting, Stories from the Fire, Sat 29 June 10am-3.30pm Book now!
• Concert: Jo Huf – Electro pop to Bossa Nova, Fri 5 July 7pm Book now!
• Exhibition: Pleinair… Belinda Prest…Saul Roche, 6-21 July Sat & Sun 10am-4pm
• 150th Celebration of the Newstead Railway! Sun 7 July, 2.30pm
• Movie Night – Spears from All Sides: Sat 13 July, 7pm
• Movie Night + Directors Q&A, Stephen Amis – Defend Conserve Protect: Sat 20 July, 7pm
• Concert: Medieval to Modern, Buninyong Players: Sun 21 July, 2.30pm
• Writers Talk: ‘Never bore an audience’: Fri 26 July, 6.30pm
• De-Stash Market: Sat 27 July 10am-3pm. Book a stall!

For more details and how to book or head to our website to read more! To become a member of the Hub and receive discounts on ALL these fabulous events go HERE 

Bliss Bombs Burlesque

Venie Holmgren Environmental Poetry Prize Open

Entries for the Venie Holmgren Environmental Poetry Prize are open until Sunday August 4th. The winner will be announced at Daylesford’s Words in Winter Festival.  The judges for the 2024 Prize are Tim Loveday and Jodi Vial. You can read the details and enter your poem here:  https://holmgren.com.au/news/launched-the-2024-venie-holmgren-environmental-poetry-prize/ 

Club CDoc

Club CDoc membership is for our vibrant network of makers and lovers of every shape of documentary.
It’s a way of supporting the Festival that comes with lots of perks, including:

• Access: a free six-month subscription to documentary streaming service DocPlay. Only applies to the first 100 to sign up.
• Discounts: Enjoy reduced prices on tickets and events.
• Early Bird Access: Get your tickets before they’re available to the general public.
• Special Events: Gain exclusive entry to member-only screenings, networking events and discussions.
• Members-Only Newsletter: Stay informed with updates and stories curated just for you.

Annual subscription $45/ $35  Membership is free for First Nations people. To apply, email hello@cdocff.com.au

Club CDoc continues our deep dives into documentaries and connects you to an uplifting community that guides creators, shapes ideas and inspires conversations.

Ceramics Collection at Daylesford Museum

A new collection prepared by local ceramicists is now on show at the Daylesford Museum. Launched in May, the exhibition is staged as a mock dinner party, the table replete with ceramics and the guest of honour is local ceramicist, Petrus Spronk, who helped bring this collection together with museum curator Gary Lawrence.

Open on SATURDAY’s 11.00 AM – 3.00 PM,  OR BY APPOINTMENT

100 Vincent St, Daylesford VIC 3460- (3 doors down from the Post Office)
ENTRY FEE Adults $5, Children free

Radius Gallery- Hepburn Springs- Exhibitions, Pop up Cinema, Local makers Art Store

Thur / Fri / Sat 10am – 4pm- 76 Main Rd,  Hepburn Springs

We showcase and promote local artists through curated exhibitions, events and an online store. We foster creative learning with workshops, classes and the exchange of skills and expertise. We encourage the curious mind within us all.

We understand that art is subjective and not all art is beautiful. Art may challenge us, confound us and make us think. We are inspired by the artists, ideas and creative possibilities that flourish in our amazing community.

SWISS ITALIAN FESTA EVENT- FUNDRAISER
SUNDAY 28TH JULY

This years fundraiser is for the beloved Swiss Italian Festa is a screening of the touching film Loves Brother.  Filmed on location in Daylesford & Hepburn, join us for a cosy night in the gallery. Tickets will be for sale online soon.  Limited seats.  Register your interest below.

28th July – Doors Open 6pm

SAVE MY SEAT

For more information: https://www.radiusart.com.au/

Northern Arts Hotel

THE COOLROOM DIARY [Click on links for event details]
MUSIC GIGS  [Usually at 7.30pm, Sunday 5.30pm]
Saturday 29 June | Peter & the Wolves: Hibernation Hootenanny
Friday 19 July 7.30pm | Aether + Vassallo Album Launch – Unbroken
Saturday 20 July 7.30pm | Blue Tango Live at The Coolroom
Saturday 27 July 7.30pm | Maggie Jackson NY Jazz Trio | Lush Jazz…always
Saturday 3 August 7.30pm | Kavisha Mazzella Trio | Italian Songs
FILM
Sunday 30 June 2.30pm | Sunday Secret Movie Matinee
Saturday 6 July 7.30pm | Film Freedom is Beautiful | RAR Castlemaine
Sunday 21 July 3.25pm | Cinema Nova Carlton | To Thank The Room
SPOKEN WORD & REGULAR GROUPS
Friday 28 June 6pm | CFU: Organising Occupy Wall Street
Thursday 18 July 4pm | Maine-ly Ukes
Thursday 18 July 7.30pm | Guildford Folk Club at The Coolroom
Monday 22 July | 16 weeks | Permaculture Design Course Starts
NORTHERN ARTS HOTEL
Ongoing | Ethiopia, Hudad Plateau: A Self Portrait Series
Every Tuesday | Potluck Dinner from 7pm

3. Food Growing, Farming and Food Security

Harcourt Organic Farming Co-op – Sharing the Research on Small Farm Viability

The Orchard keepers team, Hugh, Katie, Fruit Crew & Friday Crew vollies at Harcourt Organic Farming Co-op have been really industrious with recent webinars and short films celebrating the relaunch of the Co-op early June including the screening of a new short film about their journey and achievements.  They’d been working with Mitch at MDP Photography & Video and were excited to share the results!   As well they shared their new collaborative farming resources with tools and guides to support sustainable farming practices. You can also download thr Small-Farm Viability Casestudy Report.  Read more here.

They gained some valuable insights into what they have been working on, opportunities and ‘what’s next’ for the Co-op.  ‘They shared one of their final grant puzzle pieces this week, developed through our Innovate to Regenerate grant from WWF Australia.  You can also read about Sellar Dairy hitting their target of ten milkers here  and the Orchard Keepers Season Update: A Year of Fruit and Community (and cake) here

Two Fold Bakehouse- Local Bread for the Local Community

Why join our bread family?

By ordering Thursday bread you are joining our bread family of farmers, millers and bakers who work to regenerate the land and value small scale, local food systems. Your support means we can bake to order, with no bread going to waste.

Where can you buy our bread?

THURSDAY BREAD, WEEKLY; ordered online weekly as a one off, or monthly as a subscription with pick up each Thursday from Daylesford, Yandoit or Kyneton hubs.

DAYLESFORD SUNDAY RAILWAY MARKET,
DATES 2024
June 30th, July 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th

HEPBURN WHOLEFOODS COLLECTIVE,
Fresh bread every Thursday from 3:30pm

4. Ecology and Environment

Rose Robins in Winter

In Natural Newstead’s blog Geoff Park writes : ‘What a delight to spend some time today with some Rose Robins.  One of our most spectacular winter migrants it has been a couple of years since I’ve had the pleasure of recording one. The Australian Bird Guide the definitive field guide to Australian birds, notes the following about the Rose Robin … Breeds in tall wet sclerophyll forest and rainforest with a dense mid-storey, especially gullies with large acacias such as Silver Wattle …

Read on

Biolinks Re-wilding Seminar

Join us for our Rewilding Central Victoria Webinar with special guest presenter, Annette Rypalski, Biodiversity Director at Odonata Foundation. Annette will provide insights into what it takes to ‘rewild’ Central Victoria and move towards a nature-positive future for our region.  Don’t miss this webinar exploring what ‘rewilding’ means in Central Victoria.
Date: Thursday 27 June 2024
Time: 6-6.45pm (AEST)
Location: Online via Zoom Register here (spaces are limited)

Photo credit: © Dave Watts 

Read more 

EV day at Newstead Enviroshop – July 6

Seeing EVs in the showroom is one thing, but talking to the owners of the vehicles is better. EV Insights sessions will feature a particular EV at Newstead Enviroshop and a discussion with their owner about all aspects of their EV experience. Sessions will be held once a month on Saturday mornings throughout 2024. To provide an opportunity for a close encounter with the vehicle and the owner (minus any showroom sales pitch) a maximum of 25 guests per session can be accommodated. Please click here to register for the July 6 session with Martin Hurley and his BYD Atto 3.

Wombat Forest Care

June Newsletter: https://www.wombatforestcare.org.au/newsletters/WombatForestcareNewsletter68_Jun_24.pdf

Bird of the Month

A partnership between Connecting Country and BirdLife Castlemaine District

Australasian Grebe (Tachybaptus novaehollandiae)

Australasian Grebes hold a special place in my heart, simply because they have such cute fluffy bums and can often be seen on dams. They are seemingly half fish, spending their lives on or under water. They nest on rafts and can spend long periods under the water foraging. On land they are quite ungainly and walk very awkwardly. And then there’s the chicks, the cutest striped balls of fluff riding on a parent’s back, tucked safely away in a bed of living feathers.

Appearance can vary quite a bit. In the breeding season, both males and females have a glossy-black head with a chestnut stripe on the face extending from behind the eye through to the base of the neck and a distinctive yellow patch below the eye. In contrast, the non-breeding plumage of both sexes is dark grey-brown above with silver-grey below and lacks the distinctive yellow patch. Juveniles are quite different again, with camouflage-type black stripes on grey plumage.

They are adaptable and can be found in varying habitats from small farm dams to larger bodies of water. Food includes fish, snails and aquatic arthropods usually collected by diving. Grebes are also known to eat their downy feathers and feed feathers to their young. Various reasons have been suggested for this behaviour ranging from aiding digestion to assisting the formation of pellets to help eject fish bones, but definitive reasons are yet to be determined.

Grebes are known to be quite mobile and will fly to new areas as water levels change. Flight is generally undertaken at night. They have also colonized New Zealand in recent times.

Nests are a floating mound of vegetation that is usually attached to a submerged branch or other fixed object. Over a season, two or three clutches of 3-5 eggs are laid. At times two females may lay in the same nest.  Young can swim from birth and are fed by both parents. However, if a second clutch is laid the young of the previous brood are driven away. To hear the call of the Australasian Grebe, please click here

5. First Nations

Supporting First Nations solidarity -Liyanganyuk Banyul

A local network has recently formed connecting Mount Alexander community members with a shared commitment to First Nations justice, self-determination, anti-racism, and ongoing learning and action in solidarity with First Nations people.

The network aspires to keep up to date and to connect with struggles for self-determination and justice across the continent. The network has the support of Senior Djaara Elder Uncle Rick Nelson (who also approved the name) and other local First Nations people.

There are three ways people can engage with the network:

• Join the WhatsApp Community – a space to share resources and ideas and to make announcements across the network
• Quarterly in-person gatherings – will be organised using an ‘open space’ model where you can bring issues or themes for discussion or action planning
• Occasional newsletter – you can sign up to a mailing list here

The group has developed proposed principles to guide the network, including meetings and online interactions. The network will grow and develop responsively to strengthen accountability to First Peoples and the needs and possibilities that arise.

For more information contact: solidarity.liyanganyuk@gmail.com

6. Sustainable Living Resources

Repair Cafes

Daylesford: Sunday July 21st, 1-4pm at Victoria park Pavillion. The July cafe includes a chain-saw sharpening workshop.

Castlemaine:  Sunday July 28th, 10am -1.00pm at Castlemaine community House

Creswick: Sunday July 21st, 1-4pm at Creswick Neighbourhood House

International Repair Cafe Webinar

Date: Mon, Jun 24, 2024 at 8:05 PM
Subject: Repair Cafe webinar on Friday, July 12 (4-6 PM CET)

This two-hour online event will cover various topics. For example, we will hear more about the Repair Cafe movement in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. We will also focus on data collection at Repair Cafes: why is this important, and how are the data being used? Speakers from several countries will share their views.  Read more and register: The webinar is in English. More information about the programme can be found on our website. There you can also register for the webinar.

https://www.ncgrl.vic.gov.au/newsletter

Grounded- AirBnB- From a Housing Problem to a Solution

Grounded’s first report has been released, Airbnb: From a housing problem to solution. It highlights the concerns raised by rampant Airbnb growth. No wonder there’s nowhere to rent, the equivalent of 74% of new housing supply has gone towards short term rentals over the last decade. Why has this happened? The net profits in Airbnb properties are 81% higher than traditional rentals.

This is world first research, with a cap ‘n trade system proposed to cap Airbnbs, reduce their number, auction off operational licences and channel the funding towards CLTs – of course. A lot of thinking has gone into it, as you can see in the Cap ‘n Trade Explainer. Alan Kohler references it here. Thankfully he has retweeted it. We need lots of that so please read the report and share with your networks.

See where your favourite holiday destination ranked

For more information: https://grounded.org.au/

Renewable Newstead and Flow Home Electricity

Renewable energy at competitive prices. You can help speed up Australia’s adoption of cleaner, cheaper energy by joining the Flow Home electricity plan, you’ll join a 100% GreenPower certified plan that’s linked to the Newstead Energy Project.

That means the Newstead Energy Project will send a kilowatt of green energy back into the grid for every kilowatt of energy you use, effectively offsetting your electricity’s carbon footprint. We’ll link your energy use to the Newstead Energy Project – the local, renewable generator championed by your community. Our solar farm with back-up battery will be connected to the grid for supply security and will offer electricity at competitive rates from our partner, Flow Power. Generating as much clean electricity as is consumed each year, the first stage of the two-stage solar farm will reduce Newstead’s annual CO2-equivalent emissions by about 5750 tonnes/year.

Want to learn more? If you’d like to learn more about the offer or its terms and conditions, https://flowpower.com.au/our-service/

7. Building Community

Castlemaine Free University

Maldon Heritage Network – Why does it Matter?

When: Saturday 6 July 2024 at 1.30 pm

Where: Maldon Community Centre, 6 Francis Street, Maldon

Degrowth Central Victoria- Essential workshop

Castlemaine Community Cooperative

Castlemaine Community Coop is now 150 MEMBERS strong and has raised $10,000 for Hub due diligence checks, meaning we reached our fundraising goal!!  Our focus remains on increasing our member base, so please keep helping us spread the word (only 2 more weeks to become a founding member!).

It’s full steam ahead now with the due diligence activities for the Hub.

• We have a new donations page on the website https://castlemaine.coop/donations/
• We have a new bookkeeper (local Stu!)
• We will hold another Working Bee on launch activities for the Hub offer – details in the next update
• We are exploring an institutional membership, so we can attract investment from other funders.

Future Ready Libraries

https://mailchi.mp/ncgrl/june_24_enews

8. Local Government News

Really Local

Really Local is mobilising community in Mt Alexander shire ahead of the October local government elections. We are a small group of Mount Alexander locals, interested in connecting community and government in our Shire. We’re calling ourselves Really Local, at least for now (we have grown out of a similar group, Democracy for Dinner, which formed in Castlemaine in 2010 to build grassroots democracy).

Our focus for 2024 is to increase understanding of council, amplify community voices and to encourage people to run for council in the October elections. We have no funding, no political alignment or policies we want to push.  (We are exploring with the Mount Alexander Shire Council on whether they can partner with us on some of this, so if they can, we will let you know!)

We think Mount Alexander is a pretty awesome community, with some of the most diversity in any regional area. We believe that diversity makes us stronger and old and new together makes us better. We believe we need to meet everyone’s needs, not just the loudest. (More about us here)

Really local is holding a series of events focused around: What matters locally? Who is responsible for what? What does your council do anyway? What is it like inside a Council meeting? These events will be fun, interactive and include current and past councillors, and people who just want to find out more, and kick off future conversations. The first event was held on June 25th at the Taproom in Castlemaine.

Starting in July, they’ll cover topics like:

• What do people love about Mount Alexander Shire?
• What (if anything) they want to change?
• What people want in their local Council representatives?

We’re starting in Maldon in July, and are also planning conversations in Wesley Hill and elsewhere in Castlemaine. Get in touch  if you’d like to help host local conversations

View our website

Subscribe

Shire News-  Mt Alexander Shire:

https://www.mountalexander.vic.gov.au/Council/News-and-updates

Hepburn Matters

9. Workshops and Courses

Personal Growth Workshop: Explore Family Dynamics

SUN JULY 7TH – 9.30 – 4.30pm

This workshop explores the dynamics within yourself and your family system. Counsellor and Art Therapist Amy Jones lives locally and has been a part of the constellations community since 2019.

Cost by suggested donation $35 full, $25 concession

Radius Art. 76 Main Rd. Hepburn Springs

To join please contact Amy Jones Roberts amyjonesroberts@yahoo.com.au 0418 801 714

More information

10. Letters

No letters for this month. Your letters are always welcomed.

11. Food for Thought

https://towardseudaemonia.substack.com/

Cost of Living Map: https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/democracy/cost-of-living-map

Landcare: https://www.landcarevic.org.au/landcare-magazine/summer-2023-24

First edition of the Global State of Direct Democracy Report! This report spotlights the events and trends of direct democracy in 2023, exploring legal provisions, recent referendums, reforms, and key academic publications in English related to the topic Read report here

World Localisation day films:

Closer to Home features leading localization voices from across the world, including Bayo Akomolafe, Rupert Read, Rutendo Ngara, Iain McGilchrist, Vandana Shiva and many more- Watch now

Showcasing 30+ community groups and businesses, organizations and networks on five continents working towards healthy and fair local economies, communities and food systems, The Power of Local is eclectic, hands-on, and super inspiring- Watch now

https://charleseisenstein.substack.com/p/how-to-heal-the-wound-of-gaza

https://practise.transitionmovement.org/social-currencies-prosumer-communities

https://degrowthcentralvictoria.substack.com/p/renewable-energy-are-optimistic-scenarios

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What is clear is that the Earth is mandating that the human community assume a responsibility never assigned to any previous generation… Our task at this critical moment is to awaken the energies needed to create the new world and to evoke the universal communion of all parts of life.
(Thomas Berry, priest and cultural historian)

Earth Democracy connects people in circles of care, co-operation and compassion instead of dividing them through competition and conflict, fear and hatred.
(Vandana Shiva, scientist, environmental activist and food sovereignty advocate)

Welcome to the June edition of Localising Leanganook’s e-newsletter.  We recently decided that we would include interviews in this newsletter to spotlight some of the many local people who are doing exciting, inspiring things in our community and beyond. These will alternate with the articles from local writers that we have been featuring at the head of each edition. In this month’s newsletter, we are kicking this off with an interview with Dan and Nicola from Open Fields Co-Living Homestead in Muckleford, along with our regular update on upcoming local events and a selection of interesting articles we have come across over the past month. We hope you enjoy it.

Cheers, Nikki, Keppel, and Laurel

Note to Contributors and Readers

As you can see, Localisising Leanganook’s e-news grows from strength to strength reaching more than 700 subscribers. The monthly newsletter  includes an ever expanding range of localising events, programs and creative initiatives  in  our central Victorian region.  If you’ve got items for inclusion in the July or future editions, let our editing team know – (nikki.marshall@mmnet.com.au). To help our editing team please email through information you’d like included in the following format:

• program/project/event name plus date, time and location if relevant
• summary of event/issue/program, in word format,
• accompanying photo as a jpeg or png

June’s edition includes:

1. Special Feature: Open Fields Co-Living Interview
2. Arts and Culture
3. Food Growing, Farming and Food Security
4. Ecology and Environment
5. First Nations
6. Sustainable Living Resources
7. Building Community
8. Local Government News
9. Workshops and Courses
10. Letters
11. Food for Thought

Special Feature: Open Fields Co-Living Interview

Nicola and Dan are founding members of Open Fields Co-Living Homestead, an innovative new intentional community in Mount Alexander Shire. Situated on 10 acres in Muckleford, Open Fields is based on the model of a single, shared dwelling with communal kitchen, living room and garden. I spoke with them as they were putting the final finishing touches on the building in preparation for moving in with fellow residents in the coming weeks.

Keppel: could you both tell me a bit about yourselves and what brought you to the point where you are now with creating this co-living homestead?

Nicola: It’s been a dream that’s been percolating for a long time, but I think a good way to summarise it is that we both identify as activists, or we used to be activists, and we got pretty tired of fighting against things that we don’t want to see, and wanted to create what we do want to see, and this was a big part of that. It seemed to tick a whole lot of boxes. We just want to live in a way that is better for the planet, but we think that this way of living is better for people as well.  We wanted to create that and see if it was possible, and show other people that it’s possible.

Dan: I was in a number of organisations, most recently Extinction Rebellion but also Earthworker and Food Sovereignty Alliance in the past, and I think often those organisations need support days and integration days if they’re planning a year, planning actions or coming together to rejuvenate, and so thinking about our property as not just housing or farming, but being there to support activists to come and camp and use the facilities, and be integrated into that broader network of people fighting for important causes.

Keppel: Thinking about the housing model that you’ve created, what was it about that model (co-living under one roof) that appealed to you? Because there are more or less interconnected ways of doing community living. So I’m curious about what it was that made you decide that this was the right way for you?

Dan: It’s a good question. I think it’s just from a pragmatic point of view as a starting point. If everybody is living under the same roof together it’s far more resource efficient, both initially and ongoing. The resources it takes to create a slightly larger kitchen and slightly larger bathroom space and things like that. It’s not that much harder to create a home for 10 people than it is for four people, but you can save a lot of money and a lot of embodied energy being under the one compact envelope. If everyone is in their own tiny house you have a greater area of building shell exposed to the elements, especially in somewhere like Castlemaine, so it’s about trying to moderate that energy use. My background is as a building designer. I studied architecture, but also have had a particular focus on passive solar design, high performance building, Passivhaus and that sort of thing. Having everyone nested together, it’s the same reason why you have everyone in those apartments in Europe, because it’s a very warm, tight typology.

I lived in an eco-community called Wurrukan in Gippsland for 2 or 3 years in my 20’s. People had really little tiny houses, cob cabins and earth sheds, but they were all less than 10 square metres, and we all congregated in a retro-fitted shed for our living space, and that was very formative as an experience. All the meals were communally cooked and we lived quite close with each other. Sometimes it was hard, the conditions were pretty trying, but it was also really satisfying, nestling together as a team, all the shared meals, it was very beautiful. That was a homestead as well, where we grew a large amount of our own produce. It was a bit dank, but here we’re trying to do a lot of the things we did there, but in a nicer and more robust way I guess.

Keppel: So how long have you been living there for now?

Dan: We’ve been living onsite since February last year, and the house will be finished in about a week, so we’ll be moving into it very soon. The majority of the other occupants have been living offsite, so it’s mostly just been us here while we built the house. We’ve tried to do everything legally through the council, and you can get a permit to live legally on your property while you’re building.

Keppel: So you’re at that stage where you’re about to enter into living together. Are you feeling excited?

Nicola: We’re excited but in the same way like a marathon runner is excited when they’re getting near the finish line: exhausted and about to collapse and covered in sweat, but you’re sure that once it’s all over you’ll actually feel great (laughs).

Keppel: And do you have all the people you need, or are you still recruiting, as it were?

Nicola: Yeah, we’ve got all the rooms filled actually. Just last week we filled the last two, and it’s a full house now – just in the nick of time actually!

Keppel: So how many people will be living there?

Dan: There will be 11 adults and 4 kids, and one kid in utero.

Keppel: So the general approach of your community is that you’ll be eating together and then doing other things on the property together: is that right?

Nicola: Yeah that’s definitely the plan. We are thinking of food as the central theme: growing it and eating it as a point of connection. Having visited a lot of different communities and lived in various types of shared living for so very long, I’ve realised it needs to have a community glue; and without having a religious overtone – and we don’t, it’s kind of egalitarian and agnostic – you need to create a connecting theme. It’s about why are we living together, apart from having a roof over our heads?  If you look at cultures across the world, that’s when people come together, that’s what brings people together: food and sharing meals.

Even the way the house is designed, with the garden out the front and the orchard out the back, the food comes into the house. It’s very zoned in a Permaculture way of food coming in and being literally at the heart of the house in the kitchen, like the kitchen is literally in the middle of the house.

Keppel: So Permaculture has been another significant influence on the way you’ve developed this project?

Nicola: Yeah for sure. I guess we see Permaculture as a type of systems thinking, and I think we’re really into systems thinking.  So we’re working with Permaculture principles in the stereotypical sense that people usually think of it, like gardens and orchards and land management, but also social Permaculture, how those systems function as well, and how different people use spaces. That’s probably been influenced by Dan’s architecture experience: how does place, structure and buildings shape people’s lives. And also with me as an allied health professional looking at more of a public health perspective: what influences people’s wellbeing psychologically, physically? What do people need to thrive? And we’ve kind of merged that together to create this project. This goes back to that idea that it’s better for planet and for people.

Keppel: So the two things that often come up for people as concerns around community living are around personal space and around conflict resolution. How do you meet your own needs for balancing shared space and personal space? And then what strategies do you have for building collective cohesion and resolving conflicts?

Dan: I probably trend introvert actually, I get most of my recharge from solo times. But as well as the (private) bedroom, trying to offer a whole buffet of spaces that you can head to. So if you’re feeling like you want something spicy, you can head for the main shared living space, where people are cooking and the kids are tearing everyone’s hair out; or there are a few other spaces in the main house, like the secondary lounge, which is more of a chill space for adults who are doing yoga, having a cup of tea or catching up with friends. Then there’s another space, a work from home study space during the day and more of a quiet space during the evening. Then we’re lucky enough to be on 10 acres, with a really lovely dam and the bush next door, so we’re creating lots of really nice outdoor nooks as well, several verandahs, some people will set up yurts, and long term maybe creating a tea house near the dam overlooking the forest.

Nicola: I think it’s a fascinating question, anthropologically, to look back at other cultures in the past, and also other cultures across the world, and the idea of privacy and personal space is such a cultural one, a modern concept, and very British and European. My family are all from South Africa, and my grandmother was born and raised in Lesotho in a small tribal village, and you’d have 8 people living in a 15 square metre hut.  I think the concept of personal space is so different, and I think in contrast to have a whole 16 square metres all to yourself, and then also a kitchen and lounge and living and study space and deck… From that perspective, it seems really sufficient, but I know that for most people it’s not. It’s a bit of an unpopular opinion, but I think to adapt to climate change and use less resources, we actually need to start challenging some of those ideas a little bit.

Dan:  I think this segues nicely into the question about conflict.  I think there are skill sets that you would have if you grew up living in community, like the way you use the space, how you interact with others, and norms that are created around that.

Nicola: We’ve lost those skills as a culture, but we believe we can learn them again.

Dan: We’re several generations deep in the nuclear family mode. I’d love to say I have a formula around conflict management, but to be honest I think it’s probably going to be a bit crap (laughter), as a lot of the residents have probably had some, but not super extensive years of share housing or whatever, and different levels of learning how to resolve tensions with others. There are lots of cool tools out there, like non-violent communication, we’re really supportive of that, the basic recipe of talking to what you’re feeling and what your needs are rather than making assertions about the wrongs of another. I think that’s a great starting point, and also having people who act as facilitators who keep people on track in the way we communicate with each other and bringing different voices into equality and things like that. I’ve shadowed some people who did the Commonground Glen Ochre approach to facilitation and group work, and I think that’s massive, and will be a key to holding people to account in the way they communicate and bringing out the best in each other.

Keppel: And I think you mentioned on your Facebook the idea of a regular weekly meeting and sharing space to support community cohesion. Is that right?

Nicola: Yeah, that’s a system we proposed, and a lot of the early residents who’ve been onboard for a while, they’ve also suggested. I lived in an 8 person share house before I moved to Castlemaine, and we did that. So the structure was a meeting every week, and one was more logistical and practical and making decisions, and the other one was what they called a ‘heart share’, talking about how you’re feeling and really getting to know each other, or doing some exercises that were about the emotional, relational side of being together. Some people might find that hard or offputting, but I actually found it so, so rich and rewarding and connecting, and from that process I felt like I knew these people so deeply in a way that I wouldn’t have otherwise.  When that emotional and personal stuff can be aired and cleared and heard – we have such a deep need to be heard and to belong! – once that need is met it seems like the challenges and little differences just melt away, they seem to be able to be resolved a lot more easily, because that foundation of trust and connection is there.

Dan: I think that’s a big part of having dinners together most nights as well – it serves a similar function. Catching everyone’s stories at the end of the day and connecting. I think just having that time where you feel exposed and empathetic. A lot of eco-villages are designed where people are in their own houses, and maybe have some common facilities, but the vast majority of the time they’re just doing their own thing in their house of an evening, and I think in that situation you’d be missing a lot of the natural glue that would come from being together and around each other on a daily basis.  If you build that strong foundation of goodwill it should grease the wheels a bit.

Keppel: What’s your vision for what Open Fields would be like in 10 years’ time? How would you like it to be?

Dan: We’ll have a crop of kids who will be in that age range, and ideally we’ll have a crop of kids who are really practically minded and can milk the goats, etc. but also just running around in the forest and having that. Then having people who’ve been there for ages and feeling like really good friends, and having all the gardens and orchard really producing.

Nicola: Trees growing, having the whole land filled with trees and shrubs.

Dan: Maybe there are a few different rituals and rhythms, like having the passata day and the walnut harvest day.

Nicola: And the smell of bread baking from the oven, mint tea from the garden, potato mash for dinner from your home grown potatoes, followed with an apple pie from your own apples… And of course in this world, everyone is completely harmonious and everyone is getting along wonderfully (laughs).

Dan: No, no, I think that would boring.

Nicola: It’d be too boring (laughs).

Dan: I think healthy debate is a positive sign, it’s just that hopefully it’s done well, and we’re all arguing in a productive and connecting way, rather than a narky, destructive way (laughs).  That’s the dream, that we build those skills and those cultures.

Arts and Culture

Central Victorian Indigenous Film Festival- Yandoit, Castlemaine, Glenlyon, Bendigo

When: 27th May – 3rd June; Where: Various locations across Bendigo and Central Victoria

Cost: some events are free, others are ticketed

More information and bookings: https://www.bendigo.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2024-05/CVIFF-2024-flyer.pdf

Yandoit Cultural will be screening  a series of bush food short films set on Djaara Country, plus feature film:  ‘The Last Daughter’ –  Brenda’s first memories are of growing up in a loving white foster family, before she was suddenly taken away and returned to her Aboriginal family. A documentary about Brenda’s journey to unearth the truth about her past, and to reconcile the two sides of her family.

The series of bush food short films, created by Auntie Julie McHale, feature local indigenous youth and teachers on Djaara country sharing knowledge and secrets of Australian bush foods. Created to accompany Auntie Julie’s tucker boxes and filmed in her private garden, these short films, produced by local film makers People Pictures, are warm intimate descriptions that reveal the quality and uses of these unique plants.

When: Sunday June 2^nd, 2024, 4.45pm for a 5.00pm start

Where: Yandoit Cultural , Uniting Church Rd , off High St, Yandoit

Castlemaine Documentary Film Festival

The 2024 Castlemaine Documentary Festival Program is now live: https://cdocff.com.au/

This year’s Festival will be held on the weekend of 14-16 June in the heart of regional Victoria on Dja Dja Wurrung Country. Explore the programme and come together with fellow film-lovers to immerse yourself in this 2024 edition. We promise a stellar selection of films, each more fascinating than fiction.

OPENING NIGHT starts at 5pm at Theatre Royal. Castlemaine-based ensemble Brazuzul will usher the Festival in with the joyous rhythms and sounds of forró – a vibrant music and dance form from north-eastern Brazil. Then our screenings begin with two short films celebrating regional culture and ingenuity: a beautiful moment, featuring Castlemaine’s own Corker Orchestra, Mainsong and Brazazul; and Ag Fab: From Paddock to Catwalk.

Afterwards, stay on at Theatre Royal and step into the courtyard for warming, delicious sustenance at the Soup Bar, or head to Love Shack for a drink. Then find your seat for WINHANGANAHA, a brilliant new film – “a poem in five acts” examining archival records’ impact on First Nations people – by award-winning Wiradjuri poet and artist Jazz Money, whom we’re thrilled to welcome as a festival guest.

LOCALS 2024: Fun for all, 5pm Saturday 15 June: LOCALS is our annual family-fun showcase, premiering fresh films by gifted creatives from Castlemaine and surrounds – from Bendigo to Ballarat and Gisborne to Maryborough. After the screening, show your support by voting for your favourite.This is a celebration of local stories told by the local voices who took a leap of faith with us. We commend them all!  Submissions have now closed; we’ll add details on the selected films to our programme page soon.

Newstead Arts Hub- What’s On

Tripartite: Exhibition: Weekends, Sat 1 – Sun 23 June, 10am-4pm – Gallery 2&3 

In ancient Egypt the word sculptor means  “…he who keeps alive.”

Lawrence Winder’s Figurative Sculptures range from 1/3 life size to full size. Influenced by French 19th century artists Jules Dalou and Edgar Degas, by “Constructivist” sculptors of the “Dada” period and by Asian culture, particularly Kabuki dance and Japanese architectural space. Lawrence’s sculptures are from clay models and cast in resin then given a bronze or rusted iron patina. Lawrence has created a beautiful exhibition of sculpture in three parts.

 Fire Stories: Sat 22 June, 5pm-8pm. All welcome – Free

Come along and warm yourself by the fire! Fire Stories marks the official opening of our wonderful Winter Program!!
With a special reading by author Leni Shelton PLUS you can come along and tell a story of your own, or a favourite found elsewhere, around the fire. There will be mulled wine and soups with homemade bread rolls to buy.  All WELCOME – no tickets needed just come and enjoy the community spirit.

Keep your eye out for our special edition Winter Program for more details.

Charcoal Painting, Stories from the Fire

Workshop: Sat 29 June, 10am-3.30pm – with Melissa O’Rourke
Cost: $125 Hub members, $140 (full price) All materials included.

Charcoal Painting, Stories from the Fire- A painting and drawing workshop. Facilitated by Melissa O’Rourke.

Using charcoal we collect from the embers of our fire stories, work with artist Melissa O’Rourke to weave your own stories into free flowing charcoal drawings. Learn some of the process used to make her latest body of work The Company of Women. Suits all levels of experience from absolute beginner onwards. All materials are provided for you.

Events at Radius Art Gallery- Hepburn Springs

Evening of Soulful Sounds – A Night of Kirtan with Sarah and Nina

Join us for sacred mantras and divine sounds in ‘call and response’ style. Raise your vibration and bring healing frequencies to your body and mind.
Sarah and Nina will guide you on a magical journey of connection and free expression.

Sat 15th June 6pm for chai | 6.15 Start

MORE INFO

Community Fundraiser – Sweet Sounds of Honey Tone

Let the dulcet tones of our very own local town choir dance upon your ear drums.

This annual fundraiser is bound to warm your heart and soul.  For more info contact Suzanne Hobson: 0448 564 362

Monday 24th June @Radius
7.00 pm – 8.30 pm

Northern Arts Hotel

THE COOLROOM DIARY [Click on links for event details]
MUSIC GIGS  [Usually at 7.30pm, Sunday 5.30pm]
Friday 24 May | Sally Ford and the Idiomatics
Saturday 25 May | Kris Mizzi and Mandy Connell
Fri 31 May | Enda Kenny: ‘After the Interval’ Album Launch Tour 
Sat 8 & Sun 9 June | Castlemaine Jazz Festival
Friday 14 June | Áine Tyrrell: People Like Me & You Tour
Saturday 22 June | Ade Ishs Trio live at The Coolroom
Sunday 23 June 5.30pm | Duos Concert Fundraiser for Castlemaine Graffiti Busters
Saturday 29 June | Peter & the Wolves: Hibernation Hootenanny
FILM
Sunday 26 May 2.30pm | Free Secret Movie Matinee
Sunday 2 June 2.30pm | Film of the Concert in Support of Yes
Monday 3 June 6pm | Workshop: Towards Collective Self Sufficiency
SPOKEN WORD & REGULAR GROUPS
Thursday 23 May 4pm | Maine-Ly Ukes
Saturday 25 May 2.30pm | PoetiCas with Shari Kocher 
NORTHERN ARTS HOTEL
Tuesday 28 May | Open Potluck Dinner at 7pm

Food Growing, Farming and Food Security

Community Apple Juicing Day

When: Sunday 2nd June, 10am – 3pm

Where: Harcourt Organic Food Cooperative, 69 Danns Rd, Harcourt

We’re so thrilled to be hosting our annual and much-loved Apple Juicing Day this year at Harcourt Organic Farming Coop amongst the foothills of Leanganook. Bring along bottles for juice, a knife, chopping board, tea towels, and a cup for tea! Learn how to crush and press apples for juice to take home and drink fresh, or turn into cider vinegar.

This will be a family-friendly event in partnership with Food Links Mount Alexander, and will be facilitated by Joel Meadows.

NOTE:

• We will be using non-organic apples for this juicing day, and it is important that we respect the requirements of the Coop’s Organic certification. No pulp or juice is to be left on the property, and this will all be taken away on the day in food-grade tubs. If you’d like to take some home for your compost or animals, please bring a clean vessel.
• Please carpool whereverpossible as parking is limited at the site. Send us a message if you have a spare car space or need some help finding a ride.

Apple Harvest

When: Thursday 30th May from 9.30am

Where: Meet at Hub Plot Garden on Templeton St, Castlemaine

Join us for the last apple harvest of the season TOMORROW in Harcourt. These apples will go towards our Community Apple Juicing day, but there will be plenty to take home, of course. Please bring a bag or box for your share.

Meet at the Hub Plot Garden on Templeton Street at 9.30am and we’ll convoy from there. Send us a message on Facebook or via email for directions if you’re arriving a little later. We’ll be out picking until around 1pm on both days

Tea and light snacks provided, please bring something to share if you’re able!

Harcourt Organic Farming Coop

Discover the Unique Charm of Hard-to-Find Multigraft Apple Trees

If you’ve been following Carr’s Organic Fruit Tree Nursery for a while you’ll know we’re passionate about preserving and promoting heritage varieties. You’ve probably twigged to the fact that new things are happening around the farm, and the nursery is no exception.

This year, we’re excited to introduce you to a truly innovative and versatile addition to your garden: multigraft apple trees.

As members of the Harcourt Organic Farming Co-op (and the only certified organic nursery in Victoria), we focus on building healthy soil for our trees to give them the best possible start in life.We also specialise in hard-to-find varieties and multigrafts. However, it can be hard to persuade people to take a risk on a variety they’ve never heard of.

In a light-bulb moment last spring, we came up with a solution! 

Our brand-new range of multigrafts combines modern varieties like Gala, Fuji, and Pink Lady with the heritage varieties that desperately need to be preserved for the future.We’re hoping the security of planting a known variety will help people overcome the perceived risk of planting a variety they’ve never heard of. Plus, we had SO much fun creating this beautiful range of delicious multigrafts.

Join Us for Two Special Events: Co-op Relaunch & Small Farm Enterprise Planning

We are excited to invite you to two upcoming events designed to celebrate the relaunch of the Harcourt Organic Farming Co-op and to support aspiring and current small farmers. Whether you’re interested in joining our co-operative community, developing your own farm enterprise, or a keen eater who cares about your local food system, we hope these events will provide some valuable insight into what we’ve been working on, opportunities and ‘what’s next’ for the Co-op.

All of these events are made possible thanks to our Innovate to Regenerate Grant from WWF-Australia.

Event 1: Co-op Relaunch & Recruitment Webinar

Date: Thursday, June 6th, Time: 7-8pm

Join us for a celebration of the HOFC Co-op relaunch! This webinar will include:

Screening of Our New Short Film: Get an inside look at our cooperative’s journey and achievements. We’ve been working with Mitch at MDP Photography & Video and are excited to share the results!

Sharing of New Collaborative Farming Resources: Discover tools and guides to support sustainable farming practices. Interactive Q&A Session: Engage with our team and get your questions answered.

This event is perfect for anyone interested in learning more about our cooperative and how you can get involved. Register here.

Event 2: Small Farm Enterprise Planning Webinar & Ideas Jam

Date: Tuesday 11th June, Time: 7-8pm

For those seriously considering joining our Co-op or refining their farm enterprise plans, we are hosting a more focused session. This event will feature:

Interactive Q&A: Ask detailed questions about the Co-op and membership benefits.

Enterprise Proposal Shaping: Receive guidance on developing and refining your small-farm enterprise idea, and support with submitting an EOI to join the Co-op.

Personalized Feedback: Get constructive critiques and suggestions from our crew.

This session is ideal for those who want a deeper understanding of the Co-op and personalized support in shaping their farming ideas. Register your interest here. You can also read more about the opportunities to join the Co-op currently available here.

Ecology and Environment

Natural Newstead and Thornbills

Find out more about the varieties of Thornbills in our area:  https://geoffpark.wordpress.com/2024/05/25/three-thornbills-2/

Predictably the Brown Thornbills were foraging in the mid layer of shrubs, Buff-rumped Thornbills on the ground, with occasional forays into low shrubs, while the Striated Thornbills chased insects amongst the foliage of a sapling Red Box.

When viewed close-up however the distinguishing features of the species in this group are evident. This blog post from 2021 provides a guide for sorting out our local thornbills.

North Central Catchment Management

June edition of the North Central Chat: https://www.nccma.vic.gov.au/resources/publications/north-central-chat-june-2024

First Nations

Reconciliation Week

The aim is to read books with a sustainability or First Nations knowledge focus. There are about 11 possible titles that have a set of 10 in the library’s current book club collection and we aim to alternate between those and other books that members recommend and share. Meetings will be Tuesday nights, monthly, at a venue (probably a pub) in Castlemaine and time to be agreed by the group.

Contact if interested: Helen: Helenmathwin@yahoo.co.uk  or Kath: Kathw@ncgrl.vic.gov.au at Goldfields Library.

Sustainable Living Resources

YIMBY composter wins award!

Grow It Local award-winner Mikaela Beckley (pictured) is one of 19 YIMBY composters in Mt Alexander shire.

She collects and composts kitchen scraps from 20 of her neighbours each week, and has processed nearly 5,000 kilos of organics in her backyard using the unique YIMBY hot-composting method.YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard) is a unique composting project based in Castlemaine, building community, diverting organics from landfill and improving our soil.

Right now, there are 19 composters like Mikaela, collecting from over 250 households in the shire, and more are coming! To find out more, visit www.yimbycompost.com.

Castlemaine Free University and Degrowth Central Victoria- Essentials Workshop

Castlemaine Free University- Occupy Wall Street

When: Monday 3rd June at 6pm

Where: Northern Arts Hotel, 359 Barker St, Castlemaine

Come along to hear and chat with Marisa Holmes, occupier from day one of Occupy Wall Street, director of OWS film All day, All Week in conversation with Friends of the Earth Campaigns Co-ordinator Cam Walker. What lessons can we apply to climate action and social justice protests, blockades and social change today?

Free event. Drinks can be purchased at the bar.

Repair Cafes

Daylesford

When and Where: Sunday June 16th, 1-4pm at Victoria Park Pavillion, Ballan Rd, Daylesford

Castlemaine

When and Where: Last  Sunday of each month, June 30th, 10am to 1.00pm  at Castlemaine Community House, 30 Templeton St.  For further information join our Facebook group, visit our website or call Chris on 5470 5508.

Creswick Repair and Share

When and Where: Third Sunday of each month at Creswick Community House and hall.

Photo: Mara Ripani

Renewable Newstead

Are you interested in buying 100% green power from the Newstead Solar Farm? The retail offer from the company retailing the 100% green power from the Newstead Solar Farm, Flow Power, is now available.

To sign up as a customer, download the Flow Power app from either Google Play or the App Store. For information about the offer, go to the Flow Power website https://flowpower.com.au/residential/ or read the attached information sheet.

Here are three top reasons to sign up.

• You’ll be buying 100% green power which is better for the planet
• You’ll be supporting the Newstead Community Energy Project (solar farm and battery)
• You’ll be eligible for a $100 bonus which you can choose to contribute to a Newstead club or organisation or you can keep it for yourself. More details about this Local Community Benefit offer are coming soon.

While the Newstead Solar Farm is not yet generating electricity for commercial sale – construction is due for completion in June and commercial generation is expected to begin in July – here’s what happens in the meantime for households who sign up now as Flow Power customers. If you sign up now as a Flow Power customer and your electricity supply address is in or near Newstead, you will receive electricity via the grid that’s billed from one of Flow Power’s other renewable energy generation sites, at Karadoc near Ouyen, until such time as the Newstead Solar Farm comes online and begins to generate electricity. (Flow Power sources power from renewable energy sources – solar and wind – exclusively.)

For Newstead Solar Farm news and project updates, subscribe to RN’s e-newsletter at https://renewablenewstead.com.au/news-resources/

For further information: Email at info@renewablenewstead.com.au or call m: 0403 801 147

Mt Alexander Sustainability Group

7 Star Energy Rating Requirements for Builders

When building a new home you must comply with the energy efficiency requirements of the National Construction Code Volume Two. These requirements aim to reduce the environmental impacts of buildings by reducing the amount of energy consumed. There are several options forcomplying with the energy efficiency requirements with the most common option being anassessment under the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS).

From 1 May 2024, new homes will be required to achieve 7-stars and a whole-of-home rating not less than 60 under the NatHERS option. A higher star and whole-of-home rating means the building is more energy efficient. MASG’s Mick Lewin recently ran a workshop for members of the building industry in Mount Alexander Shire to explain what this means for home builders.

To learn more, head to the Victorian Building Authority website and watch the Nathers explanation video

Building Community

Castlemaine Community Co-op

At our FIRST EVER fundraising Working Bee members set a goal of raising $10,000 for due diligence on the Hub (for building inspections, valuation, legal checks, etc). We have since raised $5,240, but need your help to find the final $4,760.

There are two things you can do to help!

1. Ask a friend to join and become a founding member before June 30 (so we double our membership): If every current member recruits one more member, we will raise the money we need! Word of mouth has been proven to be the best way for the Co-op to grow. Membership is only $40/$20.To help you explain what we are about we have provided:
   – A 2-page information leaflet about the Co-op (PDF Link);
   – A script you can use when talking to people;
   – An example of a caption you can share on Facebook (give our page a ‘like’ while you’re there!). You can also share our last post or other content that you think your network might be interested in.
2. Donate: If you have some spare money sitting somewhere that was waiting to be put to a good use, please contact us at info@castlemaine.coop.

We are very close to being able to launch an offer to buy the Hub. Please help us get over the line – together we can put Castlemaine’s assets in the community’s hands.

Castlemaine Johannine Community aka the Grail Community

The Castlemaine Johannine Community practises ‘pagan Christianity’, a spirituality based in the mystical tradition of St John, Mary Magdalene and the Rosicrucians, and grounded in deep reverence for the sacredness of the Earth and the wisdom of the ancient Celtic, Aboriginal and Native American spiritual traditions. Through both inner and outer work, we seek to collaborate with the impulse of Christ and Sophia to create bring healing and renewal to our communities and the Earth. We meet monthly for Eucharist services and other special events shaped by the sacred calendar of the seasonal Christian and Celtic festivals.

This month’s events include a St John’s Tide Eucharist on Sunday 23rd June from 11am followed by a shared lunch. St John’s Tide (or St John’s Day) celebrates the life of John the Apostle who, along with Mary Magdalene, was considered the disciple who most understood the esoteric wisdom of Christ Jesus’ teachings

Where: the Grail Chapel, 75 McMillans Rd, Green Gully

Cost: all events are free, donations are welcome. Enquiries: contact Ken Killeen on 0423 194 878 or email: johannine@hotmail.com

Yandoit Faith Community

A faith community is evolving at the old Uniting Church in Yandoit. A community where we can explore the sacred and the spirit in our lives. At our next gathering we will be reflecting on the inspiring life of  Theresa of Avila, a 16th century mystic in Spain , who created the silent order of Carmelites.

Supported by Castlemaine Uniting Church Minister, Rev Sarah Tomilson, and Church Council, and Yandoit Cultural.  

Our next gathering is Saturday June 22nd, 2pm at Yandoit Cultural- the old church in the bush, Uniting Church Rd, off High St Yandoit. All welcome.

For more information: nikki.marshall@mmnet.com.au or mobile – 0432 232 073

Goldfields Libraries

https://mailchi.mp/ncgrl/may_24_enews-780738?e=900e58157a

World Localisation Day

World Localization Day is an annual celebration convened by the international NGO Local Futures. On June 21 and throughout the month of June, Local Futures and an array of amazing Global Partners host in-person and online events to highlight localization as a strategy for change. And not least, to celebrate the many efforts and initiatives that foster ecological economies, thriving communities and healthy local food systems.

Take part in World Localization Day as a group or individual and join the growing movement of people building a better world, from the ground up.

Register your WLD event

Watch the introductory video:

Local Government News

Future Hepburn- Rural Hepburn strategy- Community Feedback Required

Hepburn Shire Council has released its Draft Rural Strategy for community feedback. There are some significant changes proposed to Farm Zones in this draft plan. Download the Rural Hepburn Strategy at the website link below.

Hepburn Life Newsletter

https://mailchi.mp/hepburn/april-2024?e=2accd18fe3

Upcoming Council Elections – One-on-one information sessions for Councillor candidates

Are you thinking about running for Council this year? Mt Alexander Shire is offering one-on-one information sessions with our CEO, Mayor and Deputy Mayor to learn what it means to be a Councillor.

Sign up for a session

Have your say with Shape Mount Alexander

We’re lucky to have a knowledgeable and passionate community. We use your valuable feedback to inform our projects and general decision-making.

Let’s keep talking
Find out how to talk to us, or leave your ideas and feedback on any topic, and at any time!

Customer First Strategy
We want to make it easier for you to connect with and use our services, so we need your stories, feedback and suggestions to help us understand which areas to focus on.

Visit Shape Mount Alexander for details

Workshops and Courses

Work That Reconnects Workshop

Growing our connection with all that lives, From The Work That Reconnects

Date Saturday June 8 Time 1pm-5pm
Venue: Green Gully Victoria
A Community Event
The workshops provide a safe space for a deep connection with all life and the opportunity to share that with fellow travellers.
Processes include Loving Kindness Meditation, a Mandala activity and The Milling- an experience of shifting from overload to simply being present.
It is led by experienced WTR facilitators to serve a cultural shift towards reconnection with all beings and the planet.
Inquiries Shana 0457 496 864 or Diane 0421 510 017

Booking essential via Email: dianethompson61@gmail.com
Cost: By Donation

Systemic Family Constellations – EXPLORE YOUR INNER DYNAMICS

This workshop explores the dynamics within yourself and your family system. Counsellor and Art Therapist Amy Jones lives locally and has been a part of the constellations community since 2019.  For more information: amyjonesroberts@yahoo.com.au

SUN JUNE 2nd – 9.30 – 4.30pm @RADIUS Gallery, 76 Main Rd Hepburn Springs 

For more information about Radius Gallery : www.radiusart.com.au

Make a Change online workshops

Chi Gong and Tai Chi on Wednesdays at Radius Gallery

Letters

Earlier this month the local group, Central Vic Climate Action held a “Funeral for Fossil Fuels” in Bendigo to get the message across to our MP, Lisa Chesters that all extraction of coal oil and gas must end if we are to avoid catastrophic global heating greater than 1.5 degrees C.  A coffin full of “smouldering coal” was delivered to her door by veiled pall bearers dressed in black, and there were some songs, chants and speeches. This is an extract from a speech given on the day by Trevor Scott during a short funeral procession through the city.

“All the storms, floods and fires that we see all-to-often on national television – they’re getting more serious and more frequent every day, not only here in Australia but also around the world. A lot of the people who lived in the path of the cyclone, or were downwind of the bushfire, have already lost their loved ones, their homes, their pets and all the things they held dear. Some unlucky ones have even lost their lives, not to mention the forests and the millions of wild creatures that have already perished. We can’t “fix” the climate by ourselves but because it’s Humans who have caused the Earth to overheat, I believe and so do many others, that Humans can fix it, but only if we act straightaway. We should have started decades ago so we are running out of time. The way I see it, stopping the juggernaut of climate change is firstly in the hands of the giant fossil fuel companies, secondly in the banks who lend them the money, and thirdly in the hands of our federal government members. All of them have shown that they have no will to do so, and, unfortunately for us, there are new fossil fuel projects on the table today in Canberra.

Yes, it’s true that they have the lion’s share of the power and we have very little; but the big question for us is, how do we shift that power? You’ve all heard of Greta Thunberg. She alone recognised that there was a climate crisis and started striking every day outside the Swedish parliament until others joined her. In a relatively short time she had set up a global movement that is ongoing and is still growing. Another famous woman called Margaret Read once said “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world. In fact it’s the only thing that ever has”.  After the procession the mourners gathered once more in front of Lisa Chesters’ office in Myers Street. Trevor Scott spoke again and said:

“Lisa Chesters, you recently said that the federal government was transitioning out of coal into renewable energy. “But we can’t put the cart before the horse” you said. “We have to make sure that we’re building the renewable energy grid, that we’re building those transmission lines to get more renewable energy into our system. It’s got to be a just transition and that’s what our government is working towards” you said. This is admirable, Lisa and I’m very happy to hear this news. But decades have gone by without any action at all. My question to you is how long will these transmission lines be carrying fossil fuel- generated electricity while this government continues to allow new coal mines to open, and fracking and gas pipeline projects to continue, and worst of all, continues to pay out huge sums of taxpayers money to fossil fuel corporations in the form of rebates? I would appreciate an answer to this question Lisa, even if its only an estimate.”The question was delivered to her office in the form of a letter.

Trevor Scott, 23 May 2024

Food for Thought

The Pollinators of Slovenia – an interactive documentary

https://emergencemagazine.org/feature/pollinators-of-slovenia/?utm_source=Emergence+Magazine&utm

Milkwood – Skills for Living like it Matters

https://mailchi.mp/c929c2592f16/all-the-mushrooms-ive-ever-loved

Practising Transition- Being Yourself in Action

https://practise.transitionmovement.org/be-yourself-in-action/?ref=doing-transition-newsletter&lng=en

Rasmus Nørgaard on building a sustainable future The Wisdom & Action Podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/rasmus-n%C3%B8rgaard-on-building-a-sustainable-future/id1108741194?i=1000654349863

Simon Michaux: Industrial transformation away from fossil fuels will not go as planned

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqjsPa8bUaA

Earthworker practice, vision and strategy-  “Weathering the Coming Storm”.

A series of four in-person talks in June.  The Earthworker ecosystem –  Sunday June 2nd 3pm: A discussion with members of the various worker-owned cooperatives in the Earthworker network, including Earthworker Smart Energy Cooperative, Hope Cooperative, Earthworker Construction Cooperative and Earthworker Energy Manufacturing Cooperative

Rocking the Foundations – Saturday June 8th 3pm: Discussion and film screening on the history of the BLF and green bans and how it informs Earthworker vision and strategy

Reflections on Redgum – Sunday June 16th 3pm: A presentation by Redgum Cooperative co-founders about the successes and failures and lessons of Redgum Cleaning Cooperative (followed by a bushdance with the Earthworker Bushband)

History and politics of Earthworker – Saturday June 22nd 3pm: An exploration of the economic and political analysis out of which Earthworker emerged

All talks will be held in Naarm at Black Spark Cultural Centre on Gladstone Avenue in Northcote. If possible please RSVP using the Facebook links above.

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When: Sunday 5 May, 10am-4pm

Where: Riddells Creek Neighbourhood House

A great way to recycle old clothes and fabric. This braiding technique weaves in as we go so there is no stitching up required afterward. Bring your own material to recycle and find out what riches can come from rags…

Info and Bookings:https://www.ilkawhite.com.au/allclasses/braided-rag-rugs-riddells

Yandoit Cultural Open Mic

Yandoit Cultural’s Open  Mic events are an excellent way for those living around central Victoria to share, and listen to locals as they share,  a story, a poem, a song or a tune.  Our May Open Mic has a theme of Autumn. Everyone can have their 5-10 minutes and the afternoon promises to be a joyful potluck, followed by country hospitality and a cuppa at the end.

When: Saturday May 11^th, 3-5pm

Where: Uniting Church Rd, off High st, Yandoit

Entry by donation. Contact Nikki or Katy if you’re interested-  0432 232 073/0430 530 868 or email:  ycfcpg@gmail.com

Radius Arts Space Hepburn Springs

Radius Gallery showcases and promotes local artists through curated exhibitions, events and an online store.

We foster creative learning with workshops, classes and the exchange of skills and expertise. We encourage the curious mind within us all. We understand that art is subjective and not all art is beautiful. Art may challenge us, confound us and make us think.

We are inspired by the artists, ideas and creative possibilities that flourish in our amazing community.

HOURS: Thursday – Saturday 10 – 4pm

Website: https://www.radiusart.com.au/

The Bedridden Band Play at Yandoit

When: Saturday May 25^th, 7.30pm 

Where: Yandoit Cultural -Uniting Church Rd, off High St, Yandoit

The Bedridden were formed in Canberra in 1989. Five albums and several line-up changes later, they are now based in Central Victoria and are the undisputed kings and queens of acoustic psycho muppet punk.

Listen via youtube  and spotify:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuRldykgWi8

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0zLUdu0JTDHiXFCjT3hIB0?si=TppzCI3XQX66vFOEYX78yA

Newstead Arts Hub- Writing and Clay Hand Building

Hub Writers Group

Come along to the Hub Writers Group and be part of our informal monthly ‘shut up and write’ sessions on the 4th Friday of every month at the Newstead Arts Hub. From March 2024 onwards, the group will hold an afternoon writing session from 1-5pm, and then an evening session from 6.30-8.30pm. Between the two sessions, there will be a chance to talk about writing (including sharing some of your own writing if you wish). Please bring along whatever food you’d like to eat: the Hub has a well-equipped kitchen. Next session is 24 May.

No need to book: just turn up (at 1pm or whenever you can get there) with your writing gear – notebook, tablet, laptop – and get going. There are tables and chairs ready to go at the Hub plus coffee, tea and herbals available.

Quirky Clay: Hand-building for beginners

Create three quirky pots that will be glazed and fired, guided by ceramicist and teacher Gerry McDonald.

In this workshop for beginners, Gerry will teach you the basics of pottery in a fun and inspiring way. He will expertly guide you, step by step, to make 3 quirky pieces over two weekends,  a pinch bowl with curly legs, a coil pot and a gorgeous little cylindrical birdhouse! As well as learning great new skills, you will get to take home three wonderful works of art made by you!

Day 1 – Sat 18 May 10am-3pm -Working with clay, learning techniques and building your pieces.

Day 2 – Sat 25 May 10am-12.30pm – Glaze your pots, learn & play with glazes and explore the wild and wonderful colours Gerry uses in his work.

Join us for this wonderful clay workshop. No previous experience necessary!! All welcome

Booking link here

Northern Arts Hotel

THE COOLROOM DIARY [Click on links for event details]
MUSIC GIGS  [Usually at 7.30pm, Sunday 2.30pm]
Friday 26 April | Kaiyah Mercedes + Candice Alisha
Saturday 27 April | The Anticlinal Fold 
Friday 10 May | Double Shot of Roots: Ben Jansz + Simon Phillips
Saturday 18 May | Dave Graney & Clare Moore
Friday 24 May | Sally Ford and the Idiomatics
Saturday 25 May | Kris Mizzi and Mandy Connell
Sat 8 & Sun 9 June | Castlemaine Jazz Festival
Friday 14 June | Áine Tyrrell: People Like Me & You Tour
SPECIAL
Sunday 28 April 2.30pm | Free Secret Movie Matinee
Tuesday 30 April 12.30pm | International Jazz Day: Virtual Tour of National Portrait Gallery
Sunday 2 June 2.30pm | Film of the Concert in Support of Yes

Castlemaine Johannine Community aka the Grail Community

The Castlemaine Johannine Community practises ‘pagan Christianity’, a spirituality based in the mystical tradition of St John, Mary Magdalene and the Rosicrucians, and grounded in deep reverence for the sacredness of the Earth and the wisdom of the ancient Celtic, Aboriginal and Native American spiritual traditions. Through both inner and outer work, we seek to collaborate with the impulse of Christ and Sophia to create bring healing and renewal to our communities and the Earth. We meet monthly for Eucharist services and other special events shaped by the sacred calendar of the seasonal Christian and Celtic festivals.

This month’s events include a Samhain bonfire and healing service on Saturday 4th May from 6pm, a Mother’s Day Eucharist on 12th May at 11am followed by a shared lunch, and a Pentacost Eucharist on 19th May from 11am followed by a shared lunch.

Where: the Grail Chapel, 75 McMillans Rd, Green Gully

Cost: all events are free, donations are welcome.  Enquiries: contact Ken Killeen on 0423 194 878 or email: johannine@hotmail.com

Food Growing, Farming and Food Security

Photo by Damian Kelly

Central Vic Climate Action- Rise Up Event

When: Wednesday 8th May,12.30pm
Where: Lisa Chester’s office, Bendigo

To illustrate the need for an immediate end to fossil fuels, pall bearers dressed in black, along with our red rebels, will carry a coffin full of smouldering coal to Lisa Chesters door. Please join us for a seriously fun time.

For more information and to express your interest, contact Trevor Scott- 0412 250 392

Castlemaine Field Naturalists

Castlemaine Field Naturalists Club (CFNC) hold a meeting with a guest speaker on the second Friday of the month, followed by a group excursion or field trip the following day.

All are welcome to attend.

For more information on CFNC, visit their website – click here

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Love doesn’t just sit there like a stone. It has to be made like bread. Remade all the time. Made new. 

(Ursula LeGuin, cited in Milkwood Newsletter,  March 2024)

Welcome to the April edition of Localising Leanganook’s e-newsletter. There’s lots of local news and events as well as a thought-provoking feature article, in podcast format, on Cycles of Renewal – an interview with permaculture co-originator and Hepburn Springs resident David Holmgren.

Cheers, Nikki, Keppel, Laurel, and Samantha

Note to Contributors and Readers

As you can see, Localisising Leanganook’s e-news grows from strength to strength reaching more than 700 subscribers. The monthly newsletter  includes an ever expanding range of localising events, programs and creative initiatives  in  our central Victorian region.  If you’ve got items for inclusion in the May or future editions, let our editing team know – (nikki.marshall@mmnet.com.au). To help our editing team please email through information you’d like included in the following format:

• program/project/event name plus date, time and location if relevant
• summary of event/issue/program, in word format,
• accompanying photo as a jpeg or png

April’s edition includes:

Feature Article: Reskillience Podcast

1. Arts and Culture
2. Food Growing, Farming and Food Security
3. Ecology and Environment
4. First Nations
5. History, Books and Libraries
6. Sustainable Living Resources
7. Building Community
8. Local Government News
9. Workshops and Courses

Letters – 

Food for Thought

Feature Article- Reskillience Podcast

Looking for fresh ear food? Reskillience is a podcast born and raised in Hepburn featuring lots of familiar voices. It explores the intersection between permaculture, rewilding and non-irksome self help, highlighting the hard and soft skills that’ll help us stay resilient into the future. Hosted by Catie Payne and released every Monday, Reskillience brings you provocative and peace-loving convos with people like David Holmgren, Meg Ulman, Suzy Muir, Su Dennett, Patrick Jones, Devon Harris and many, many more. David’s episode “Cycles of Renewal” is a great place to start. 🎧 Have a listen on iTunes, Spotify or wherever podcasts bloom.

Arts and Culture

CresFest- Creswick’s Folk  and Roots Festival

When: Friday April 5th to Sunday April 7th

Where: Assorted venues in Creswick

This CresFest World Podcast created by Neil Adam. What other festival goes to this much trouble to tell you the stories behind the music – ten episodes and more coming weekly, with in depth interviews with artists past and present.

For more information and to book: https://cresfest.com.au/

Home

Northern Arts Hotel

THE COOLROOM DIARY [Click on links for event details] MUSIC GIGS  [Usually at 7.30pm, Sunday 2.30pm]

Friday 29 March | The Cartwheels
Saturday 30 March | The Great Unknown
Friday 5 April | The Duck Downpickers
Saturday 6 April | Jack Pantazis Group
Friday 19 April | Michael Plater + Friends
Saturday 27 April | The Anticlinal Fold 
Saturday 18 May | Dave Graney & Clare Moore
FILM
Sunday 31 March | Secret Movie Matinee
SPOKEN WORD & REGULAR GROUPS
Thursday 28 March, 4pm | Maine-ly Ukes
CASTLEMAINE PRIDE
Sunday 21 April 2.30pm | Pride Secret Movie
Monday 22 April 7pm | Pride CFU: LBGTiQA + Asylum Seekers
Thursday 25 April 7pm | Best of BQFF Short Films
Friday 26 April 7.30pm | Kaiyah Mercedes + Candice Alisha

Newstead Arts Hub

Through My Eyes: Exhibition – Dawn Robinson 
Weekends Sat 6 – Sun 28 April, 10am-4pm
In this exhibition, sculptor and artist Dawn Robinson, explores the interplay of natural and urban environments. Her new series of limestone sculptures and abstract expressionist paintings are full of contrasts; movement & stillness, solidity & emptiness, negative & positive, light & dark. Dawns’ captivating works explore and test these dualities. Sat 6 April, 2.30pm: To celebrate the opening of Through My Eyes, Dawn has arranged some special treats for us.
There will be tastings of award winning Macedon Ranges gin from Travelling While Standing Still and gorgeous sounds by Smith & Appleby Duo Jazz

Slow Stitching: Workshop
Sat 14 April, 10am-3.30pm – $110 Full $100 Members 

Scrap Piecing in the ‘boro’ style with Liz Sardone. Boro stitching is an art form that grew out of necessity in medieval Japan. Using slow, meditative stitches, scraps are transformed into something beautiful and practical. In this workshop you will use  pre-loved fabric scraps to construct your own piece of cloth, then turn it into a small bag.  BOOK HERE After a brief outline of the history of Boro, you will select your fabric scraps and decide how they go together. Liz will teach you different stitching techniques and you’ll be on your way to creating a beautiful piece of fabric. This workshop will suit people who have done some stitching and who have access to a some old and used fabrics (or you could visit your local op shop!).The ultimate in upcycling and repurposing.

Finding your Creative Self Through Experimentation
Workshop:  Sat 27 April, 10am-3pm – $135 Full $120 Members

A fun, mixed media workshop for beginners, facilitated by the fabulous Julie Patey. Julie will guide you in exploring colour, texture & materials. Using wet and dry media to create abstract imagery which could lead to paintings, fabric design, cards or artworks. Come for the joy of playing with materials in a friendly environment. No pressure to create a finished piece. It’s all about enjoying the process. Ages 12-100! No experience necessary. BOOK HERE  Julie is a Central Victorian artist who exhibits regularly across the country.The love of paper and its potential to take stains, textures and colours is endlessly fascinating to her. She concentrates on mood and texture and the memory of the landscape. Natural pigments are combined with both collagraph and etching to create textual nuance.

Radius Art Gallery- Hepburn Springs

• Peter Sparkman’s Photographs delve into the lives, loves and interactions of our local queer community.  The images span the past 15 years of ChillOut Festival. MORE INFO UNTIL SAT 13TH APRIL
• Julian Assange Film – “The Trust Fall” at Radius.  27^th & 28^th April from 7pm  Tix will be $15 with some $ to Julien (also to Radius and the film company).  P.  Trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcYOv2SorgY
• Spoontastic – again some details below.  A quirky culinary exhibition as Radius is transformed by giant spoons hanging from walls & ceilings.  A long table will be laid out for a meal in the middle: set with hand crafted bowls, cups and plates. During the exhibition a number of dining-performances allow audience members to sit at the table and partake in a shared meal and story together. REGISTER YOUR INTEREST

76, Main Rd, Hepburn Springs

Food Growing, Farming and Food Security

The Orchard Keepers

Harcourt’s fruit is still available at market and online sales for a couple more months! The Farm Shop will still be open for collection of pre-ordered fruit. Please note, it will only be staffed until about 1pm Wed-Fri, but if you’ve ordered a box it will be in the black fridges (inside the door to the left) with your name on it. Thanks so much to everyone who has visited the farm this season.

Hepburn Wholefoods

Opening hours: Mondays 9.30-11.30am
Wednesdays 2-4pm
Thursdays 3-5pm
Saturdays 11am-1pm

Location:   11 Perrins Street · Daylesford.  Find us here,

Mt Franklin Organics

Give your garden beds a boost with green manure seeds – fava beans and oats&peas $8/500g. Also broad bean seeds.

A range of organically gown fruit and vegetables,  as well as trees and organic seeds.

Available at Daylesford’s Sunday Market or  PICKUP from farm on Saturday, (180 church Rd, Mt Franklin, come down the driveway and park at shed, your order will be there).   Please pre-order produce by FRIDAY EVENING.

Ecology and Environment

Support Local Climate Activists

Dean Bridgfoot, Laura Levetan and Bernie Tonkin, – 3 Castlemaine Climate Activists, who occupied the Bendigo NAB, were tried for trespass at the NAB bank in Bendigo during the first week of  March. They have  each been fined and welcome contributions from other concerned climate activists to help pay their fines

Please contact Bernard- bernard.tonkin@gmail.com if you can help out.

Wildlife Nest Boxes- Newstead Landcare

Newstead Landcare and Wildlife Nest Boxes are installing twenty new nest boxes. Meet us at Rotunda(less) Park from 9:30am on Sunday 7 April 2024 for a short on-site talk from Miles Geldard of Wildlife Nest Boxes. Miles will talk about the importance of nest boxes and hollows for our local wildlife, share some of his learnings from years of experience building and installing nest boxes, and answer questions from the audience. Hollow dependent fauna can be found throughout Australia, however, some of them are on the threatened species list. It’s generally understood that species decline is primarily driven by habitat loss. Installing a nest box helps restores this habitat – it is a form of emergency housing for wildlife.

Food and organics collection starting in Hepburn Shire  

A weekly food and garden organics bin collection is coming for township households in Creswick, Trentham, Daylesford, Hepburn and Hepburn Springs, following on from the successful trial held in Clunes since 2021.  The new lime green-lidded bins and kitchen caddies will be delivered in mid-to-late-March, with the collection starting just after Easter on 8 April. Here’s a short video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01fO0jXNEP4

2024 Nest Box checks

Connecting Country is seeking volunteers to monitor the Brush-tailed Phascogale during April and May  2024. This nest box volunteer role involves: Travel within the Mount Alexander region, Following safety procedures, Carrying ladders and equipment to sites, Helping to navigate to sites, Writing observations and recording data, and Taking photos. For more information on our nest box monitoring – click here

If you are interested send a brief email to anna@connectingcountry.org.au

 Photo by Geoff Park

Safeguard Harcourt’s wildlife corridors: Petition

Harcourt Valley Landcare Group have been busy working on a campaign to protect Harcourt’s wildlife corridors and biodiversity assets from inappropriate development, for future generations. Harcourt is a special part of our region, and has significant vegetation that is critical habitat for threatened species such as the Brush-Tailed Phascogale, Brown Toadlet and Sun Moth Orchid, as well as many majestic large old trees and habitat corridors. The Harcourt Valley Landcare Group have started a petition on Change.org, to request the Mount Alexander Shire Council protect such natural assets from inappropriate development and ensure our wildlife and biodiversity thrive into the future.

Posted by Connecting Country:  https://connectingcountry.org.au/

Join Harcourt Valley Landcare Group’s call for Mt Alexander Shire Council to protect wildlife corridors that allow safe passage for our precious native species from Leanganook (Mt Alexander) to the Walmer Forest. These wildlife corridors include roadside vegetation corridors like Elys Lane, Douglas Lane, Shady Lane and Eagles Rd; and waterways such as Barkers Creek and Picnic Gully Creek. We call for strong protections for Large Old Trees, habitat for the Brush-tailed Phascogale, Brown Toadlet and Golden Sun Moth Orchid. Click hereto sign the petition and for more information.

Bird of the Month

Bird of the month is a partnership between Connecting Country and BirdLife Castlemaine District.

Varied Sitella (Daphoenositta chrysoptera): The Varied Sitella is a small grey bird that is often hard to see, although it is widespread in our region. One distinguishable behaviour is that it often runs down a tree trunk or branch or hangs upside down as it searches for food. A gregarious species, it can usually can be seen in groups of 2 up to 20 when foraging in its preferred woodland haunts.

As the name implies, plumage can be quite variable within the species and there is extensive and complex variation in different geographical areas. DNA evidence supports a few distinct subspecies, and there is widespread hybridisation between these different subspecies – all in all a bit confusing!

It can be found across Australia (but not Tasmania) in a variety of habitats from southern Victoria all the way up to Cape York, in Western Australia and is also lightly spread throughout the inland.

At times it can be found foraging in mixed species flocks which include Buff-rumped and Striated Thornbills and occasionally Scarlet Robins. It is rarely seen on the ground, preferring to move along tree trunks and in the foliage. It tends to favour higher spots on trees compared to other bark-feeding species such as Treecreepers and Crested Shriketits and can be seen 8-14m above ground level, which of course makes observation that much more tricky.

The Varied Sittella is a small songbird native to Australia. Photo: Damian Kelly

Sustainable Living Resources

Repair Cafes

Castlemaine: Last  Sunday of each month, 10am to 1.00pm  at Castlemaine Community House, 30 Templeton St.  For further information join our Facebook group, visit our website or call Chris on 5470 5508.

Repair Cafés are about keeping things out of landfill, saving you money, and giving members of the community the opportunity to volunteer. Bring along broken household appliances, sewing repairs, toys, etc. Learn bicycle maintenance. Join the Mending Circle and swap tips on crochet, darning, knitting, hand sewing, etc. or learn to do these so your clothes continue to be usable. There’s also help with mobile phones, wiping information before recycling, settings etc.

Daylesford: Third Sunday of each month, 1pm-4pm _ Tner April Cafe will again be  at Radius Gallery,  76 Main Road, Hepburn Springs, For further information: Nikki 0432 232 073 or  https://www.facebook.com/daylesfordrepaircafe/

Gold Coin donation.

Creswick Repair and Share : Third Sunday of each month at Creswick Community House and hall

Degrowth Central Victoria

Degrowth Central Victoria has been meeting regularly over the past few months. Degrowth aims to achieve socio-political equity and ecological sustainability in our everyday practices. Degrowth addresses questions such as — How can we be more ecologically efficient? How can we care for one another and Earth more?

Castlemaine Community Investment Cooperative

The Castlemaine Community Investment Co-operative was launched on the 6 of March with about 60 founding members joining in singing and playing Big Yellow Taxi with Lena Mitchell and Meg Corson. There were community guardian sculptures by Eliza Jane Gilchrist. Directors – Warwick Smith and Angus Gratton – provided updates on the preparations for the the co-ops proposed first investment in the Hub, and the board answered questions from the audience.

Solar offer for Hepburn Shire locals

Have you heard about our Hepburn Solar and Battery Bulk Buy? We are working with long-term solar partners Solar Savers to offer a bulk buy on solar PV, and also batteries.

Get in touch on 1300 548 598 to discuss with one of the Solar Savers team or visit www.solarsavers.org.au

Free Mulch

Are you looking to give your garden some extra TLC? Hepburn Shire  transfer stations have mulch ready and waiting in Daylesford, Trentham and Creswick. And guess what? It’s absolutely FREE if you roll up your sleeves and load it by hand.

If you need assistance loading, our trusty front loader machine at the Daylesford site is on standby for just a small charge of $12 per load.  The mulch comes from the green waste you all shared during our free disposal period in November. Your contributions are coming back to help your gardens grow.

Building Community

Castlemaine Free University

For Palestine Fundraiser

Jumpleads- Programs to grow your community impact

FREE programs: For creatives, local leaders & regional communities.
A feast on offer! With lots of practical & supportive initiatives for you to: progress ideas, take care of yourself & others, grow your community impact.

All delivered by Jumpleads, Make a Change & Pop Up Art

Programs include local leadership, big weather, supercharging community energy, and climate conversations.

Local Government News

Community Grants

There are three grant opportunities currently open via Hepburn Shire for community groups.

Council’s Quick Response Grants – support community groups who may have experienced an unforeseen disruption, urgent issue or to facilitate small projects. Grants of up to $1,000 are available until the allocated budget is exhausted.

Biodiversity grants – for  community-based projects that enhance and protect the biodiversity of our Shire.

Sustainable Hepburn grants – for community-based projects and initiatives that aim to reduce future impacts of climate change.

Biodiversity and Sustainable Hepburn grants close on 8 April. More information on grants here. 

Workshops and Courses

Alexander Technique Workshops in Daylesford

Foot Workshop | Walk with Ease     + Smart Yoga Workshop

When: Sunday, 14th April, 2024

Where: Daylesford Neighbourhood Centre

Cost: $80 per workshop or $140 for both

Bookings:  https://www.alexanderschool.edu.au/daylesford

Highly engaging & interactive workshops.  David Moore is an Alexander Technique of 35 years experience,  Director of the School of FM Alexander Studies in Melbourne, and  an internationally renowned yoga teacher and author.  His book, Smart Yoga brings fresh and practical insights into how the Alexander Technique can contribute to yoga practice: https://www.alexanderschool.edu.au/smart-yoga-by-david-moore

Smart Yoga book will be available for sale ($45).  David is available for Introductory One Hour Lessons, $110 (GST Included). Lessons will be held in Hepburn Springs, on Saturday 13th April.

For all lesson bookings, contact Peter O’Mara 0439 761 150  Any enquiry/chat is welcomed.

Letters

NAB Climate Protesters on wrong side of law and right side of history.

 Three climate protesters fined in court in March maintain they are on the ‘right side of history’, even though found to be on the wrong side of the law. The magistrate said they had a moral not a legal case. Bernard Tonkin, a carpenter and domestic violence men’s counsellor; Laura Levetan, retired lecturer in carbon economics and senior corporate strategy advisor; and Dean Bridgfoot, a veterinarian, appeared in the Bendigo Magistrate Court this week charged with trespass.

Following a vigorously contested three-day trial – in which the 3 protesters represented themselves in court, without a lawyer – Magistrate Joanna Metcalfe today found the trio Guilty of trespass. Unusually for a charge like trespass, the Castlemaine residents all pleaded Not Guilty and employed a rarely used defence. In at-times emotional testimonies in court the protesters said they had had no choice but to escalate their campaign of non-violent direct action as all previous efforts – such as writing letters, to stop NAB bank’s financing of coal, accelerating climate change – had failed.

The trespass charges and trial stem from a protest at the Bendigo NAB branch on 31 March, 2023 – part of a wave of protest action at more than 60 NAB branches nationwide to ‘Move Beyond Coal’.  A group of Central Victorian citizens, including the three defendants, entered the Bendigo NAB branch asking to talk to a bank manager about their climate concerns. They also intended to show a film highlighting NAB’s ‘greenwashing’ while funding coal projects with billions of dollars. The group handed out popcorn to customers, and asked to speak to the bank’s senior management, a request which was refused. The Bendigo 3 defendants were arrested when they refused to leave the bank and were charged with trespass. Four months later NAB withdrew its planned financing of Whitehaven Coal.

The accused 3 sought to establish that their refusal to leave the NAB Bendigo bank branch during the March 2023 protest was reasonable and necessary conduct when faced with the threat of harm caused by climate change, and by NAB’s $1b financing of new coal projects in particular.

Magistrate Joanna Metcalfe permitted the 3 to use the defence of Duress never before used in an Australian environmental court case.

Contact Defendants: Laura Levetan, 0412 887 835; Dean Bridgfoot, 0403 160 091; Bernard Tonkin, 0459 472 558; bernard.tonkin@gmail.com

Food for Thought

Deep Time Diligence: Tyson Yunkaporta in conversation with Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee in Emergence Magazine-  https://emergencemagazine.org/interview/deep-time-diligence

North Central Chat- Information from North Central Catchment Management Authority:

North Central Chat March 2024 | North Central Catchment Management Authority (nccma.vic.gov.au)

Milkwood’s Recipe for growing green manures for our gardens: 

https://www.milkwood.net/2021/03/12/how-to-grow-green-manures/

Local Futures- lots to read and listen to about promoting localisation globally including Planet Local Voices- podcasts and video clips 

https://www.localfutures.org/

Transition Network Australia-Inspiring and supporting local communities as they build a sustainable future- You can subscribe to their newsletter.

Home

Ballarat Gold Mine put on notice after tunnel collapse

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-10/ballarat-gold-mine-put-on-notice-after-tunnel-collapse/100450092

Stories of Transition- Transition Australia

Online Stories of Transition for 2024, on the theme of exploring community land use. Monday 8 April 2024 8.00pm- 9.15pm AEST (6.00pm WA, 7.30pm SA) 

Read more and register here for zoom link

Agrariansim and the Relocalisation of farming – Chris Smaje

Chris Smaje is an author, small-scale farmer, social scientist, and food system analyst. In this episode, Chris explains how the organization of food systems is ultimately an energetic question; one that, in the modern era, has been answered by an over-reliance on cheap fossil fuels. He argues that, in a future of lesser energy abundance and mounting crises, localized food systems will be vital for survival. Listen to the podcast or  Watch the video

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I think the task before us is to re-learn what it means to walk as if everywhere is a temple. To approach how we are in relationship to the Living Earth as if it were a temple.
Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee- Emergence Magazine

Welcome to the February/March edition of Localising Leanganook’s e-newsletter. There’s lots of local news and events as well as a thought-provoking feature article on de-growth and supermarkets.  Let our editing team know (Keppel, Laurel, Samantha and Nikki) if you’ve got items for inclusion in the March/April edition – (nikki.marshall@mmnet.com.au).

1. Arts and Culture
2. Food Growing, Farming and Food Security
3. Ecology and Environment
4. First Nations
5. History, Books and Libraries
6. Sustainable Living Resources
7. Building Community
8. Local Government News
9. Workshops and Courses

Letters 

Food for Thought

Feature Article- Angst in the Aisle by Peter Yates

I went to the supermarket. I do that sometimes. More than I want to. More than I intend to. I have principles. It’s just hard to stick to them all the time.

I just stood there, stunned. Partly it was the plenitude. Row after row of stuff. Partly it was the bright lighting, the bright packaging, the cacophony of attention-seeking plastic. Partly it was the fact that most of this stuff was stuff that nobody needs, that is nutritionally dubious at best. Partly it was because so much of this stuff is produced and packaged and delivered and put on a shelf because it might draw you or I into a ‘comfort purchase’, a momentary hit of sugar, fat, salt and dopamine.

In that supermarket, with its exhortations to buy, buy, buy; with its lies about freshness; its lies about affordability; its lies about caring for the consumer, the farmer, the environment, I felt like I was entrapped in a great snarl of evil – a fabric of falsity, woven of threads that are designed to conceal, though I fear that the deception is barely necessary, so normal is the violence embodied in all that stuff.

Hannah Arendt wrote about the “banality of evil”. She was writing about the (almost) unspeakable violence of the Holocaust. I don’t want to diminish the trauma of that event with a glib comparison – but I don’t think that I am. The banality on display on the supermarket shelves is as crushingly banal as a 1930’s German functionary accepting morally repugnant instructions because he needs a job. And the end result – the destruction of living ecosystems, the destruction of a planet – is not less than the extermination of a people. It just happens more slowly and seems to happen a long way away. What I think I felt, what paralyzed me in the supermarket that day, was that part of the destruction of the planet was very present and very immediate, because I felt a part of myself starting to die in that place.

All that stuff.

I could go along and put some of it in my trolley. In the end, when I had recovered a little, when I had pushed down the moment of lucidity, I did go along and put some things in. Everything in plastic. Nice clean plastic. Durable, hygienic plastic. The yogurt I picked up comes in plastic. The yogurt will be gone in a day or two. The plastic container will be around for a few hundred years. Perhaps it will be buried out of sight in a landfill? Perhaps it will slowly decompose in the sun, breaking into ever smaller pieces until the particles are so small they can enter the blood and brains of children and small birds. The cows that gave the milk probably didn’t have terrible lives (in Australia at least). But it is true that their milk production is dependent on their producing calves every year, and that the calves were removed soon after birth, causing genuine grief and trauma. My yogurt is infused with a mother’s sorrow. It doesn’t make it taste better, but it does make it much cheaper.

I didn’t buy the bacon. It too was in plastic, but it is the lives, and deaths of the pigs that trouble me here. Pigs are social and intelligent, I’ve kept them on the farm at times, humorous, cheeky and boisterous, I had to give them up because I hated killing them. But the lives of the pigs that go for supermarket bacon? These are lives confined, on concrete floors where a pigs’s strongest urge – to dig – is thwarted. Their pig-ness is irrelevant to their lives. These are not so much pigs as economic units. They are future bacon. Living their short, miserable, un-realised lives before they are forced onto a crowded truck, delivered to an abattoir where they are gassed en-mass, dismembered and soaked in vats of saline. In that saline is a solution of nitrates that will give you and I colon cancer.

One of the things that gets me into the supermarket is peanut butter. True, I can get it from other sources, many of them allowing me to grind my own. But the nuts always seem to be undercooked. I have a favourite brand at the supermarket. The nuts are grown in Queensland. The soil rich red soil of Kingaroy is ploughed and enriched with synthetic fertilisers. It is sprayed with herbicides. The peanuts are sown and grow under the protection of repeated applications of insecticide and fungicide. The only life allowed in that field is peanuts. After harvest they are shipped to New Zealand, where someone knows how much to roast a peanut. Given the strictness of New Zealand’s quarantine, one wonders what the raw nuts are treated with? They are then shipped back to Australia, where I buy them, somewhat shame-facedly. In a plastic tub. The tubs are good. I use them for lots of things. But there are limits. There is poetry under the label (Aren’t they cute, these Kiwi’s?)

It’s Christmas, so the supermarket is full of chocolate. Is there a product in the world (other than some of the minor ingredients of your smart phone), that is more ethically dubious than chocolate? There is the deforestation making way for the cacao plantations, and the deforestation making way for the oil palm that is used in many (most?) cheaper brands. There is the child labour, there is the below-living-wage labour and there is the slave labour. There is the sugar, a vast industrial crop sustained by synthetic inputs that wash into and pollute waterways, a further stress on the already devastated Great Barrier Reef.

The canned veggies and beans seem innocuous enough. But these days, every can is lined with plastic. The cheap Italian tomatoes seem a good buy. But understand that the canned tomato industry is Mafia controlled, and the cheapness come from the exploitation and forced labour of undocumented migrants. Have you ever grown your own tomatoes and bottled your own passata? Then you know how crap those commercial versions really are.

Don’t go down the water aisle! Do you even realise there is an aisle dedicated just to bottled water? Water, pumped from aquifers that are owned by the people, owned by the ecosystem, and put in plastic bottles, with or without sugar, bubbles or colouring. Water brought to you from the other side of the world. Water that costs more than petrol. Drink the water, throw the bottle away. Somebody is prepared to lie to you that the bottle will be recycled.

I could go on. You know I could. But I’ll spare you, and myself. I consider my point made. That supermarket is the focal point and enabler of countless industrial processes that extract value from the world and from people. The value that shapes every facet of every contributing activity is economic optimisation. The environment, the animals, the soil, the workers: there is no room for care of these things.

And we go to the supermarket because? Is it the cornucopia of stuff? Is it the convenience of having everything in one trolly? The easy parking? Is it the cheaper prices and the ‘specials’ that make our budgets a little easier to manage? Whatever the reason, we go, and in going we participate in a thousand acts of banal evil.

(https://degrowthcentralvictoria.substack.com/p/angst-in-the-aisle)

Arts and Culture

Michael Leunig’s Cartoons in Music and Song Come to Yandoit

When and Where: Saturday, March 9^th, 7.30pm at  Yandoit Cultural, Uniting Church Road, (off High St) Yandoit

After a sell-out performance in Castlemaine in late January, Fay White and musical friends are bringing this fabulous concert to Yandoit Cultural on Saturday March 9^th at 7.30pm. Castlemaine resident Fay White, composer and choir leader, was commissioned to write songs drawing on Leunig’s poems and images that are short, can be learnt by ear and are easy to learn for novices and experienced singers.  Leunig’s images will be projected and the concert will include songs, stories and audience participation in song.

The concert will be in two halves, followed by refreshments at the end.

“Fay White is a poet of our times. For the past five decades she has written songs that reflect and inform contemporary living.  Fay’s singing compels and inspires. She can turn a crowd into a choir in three minutes.” 

Entry by donation– Suggested donation: $15/10. Monies raised will contribute towards the Dharrak Djanga Bush Tucker Project run by Nalderun Education Aboriginal Corporation, based in central Victoria.  Bookings Essential: ycfcpg@gmail.com or Nikki  (0432 232 073) or Alison (0415 555 081)

Waking Up a Fiery Love For The Earth- Book Launch

Join us for the launch of Susan Murphy’s new book, A Fire Runs through All Things: Zen Koans For Facing The Climate Crisis (Shambhala, 2023).

Susan will be in conversation about the ecological heart of the Dharma, its potent resonance with indigenous sense of Country, and how to wake up a fierce love for the earth.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to engage in the most fiery questions of our time.

What: Book Launch and Conversation with Susan Murphy
When: Monday March 18, 2024, 5.45pm for a 6pm start — 7.30pm

Where: Northern Arts Hotel, 359 Barker St, Castlemaine
Cost: FREE- (Nibbles provided, drinks will be available for purchase at the bar)

Copies of the book will be for sale and Susan will be available to sign them after the conversation.

Co-hosted by Castlemaine Zen and Localising Leanganook

About Susan Murphy: Susan is a familiar presence in Castlemaine. In 2015 she gave a keynote address at Local Lives, Global Matters. This conference gave birth to Localising Leanganook, a thriving network of members committed to viable economies, social and ecological justice, reclaiming democracy and revitalising spirit.Susan has also written numerous books on Zen and the climate crisis we face, including Upside-Down Zen, Minding the Earth, Mending the World, and Red Thread Zen. Since 1999 she has been teaching and leading Zen retreats in Victoria (Melbourne Zen Group), Tasmania (Mountains and Rivers Zen, Hobart) and New South Wales (Zen Open Circle). She is widely recognised nationally and internationally for unearthing the ecological heart of the Dharma, and the potent resonance of Zen mind with indigenous sense of Country.

Singalong Book Launch-New Book- A Basket of Songs

Castlemaine’s Trace Balla and Andrew McSweeney invite you to come along to a singalong book launch for a new book A Basket of Songs.

When and Where: 11 am Sat 16 March 2024 – the Good Op Shop, 4 Lewis Drive, Castlemaine

The Castlemaine Launch will be in the courtyard cafe (yes you can buy cuppas and cake!) of the Good Op Shop (yes you can go op shopping before and after!).

Trace has written the lyrics and stories behind the songs, and illustrated the book. Andrew McSweeney has made them into songs- the book comes with music sheets as well as a link to online recordings.

Cost $20- cash or card- (correct cash is faster!)

Northern Arts Hotel

THE COOLROOM DIARY [Click on links to see event details]  MUSIC GIGS  [Usually at 7.30pm, Sunday 2.30pm]

Saturday 17 February | Langue de Chat | French Musette and Chansons
Saturday 24 February  | Peter and the Wolves 
Friday 1 March | Andy Baylor’s Cajun Combo
Saturday 2 March | Smith & Holiday
Friday 8 March |  Mic Conway & Friends
Saturday 9 March |  Emma Gilmartin and Gianni Marinucci
Thursday 14 March | Curtis Eller and Gleny Rae
Sat 16 & Sun 17 March | The Sentimental Bloke
Friday 22 March | Keppel Cassidy and The Constant Gardeners
Saturday 23 March | Maggie Jackson NY Jazz Trio
FILM
Sunday 18 February 2.30pm | Secret Movie Matinee
SPOKEN WORD & REGULAR GROUPS
Thursday 15 February, 4pm | Maine-Ly Ukes
Thursday 15 February 7.30pm | Guildford Folk Club
Saturday 17 February, 2.30pm | Celtic Singing Circle
Saturday 24 February, 2.30pm | PoetiCas
Monday 4 March, 7pm | Castlemaine free Uni | Wage Peace

Forest Film Society

Season 5 – March to September 2024
Venue: Glenlyon Hall
When: First Friday of the month – March 1st, 2024
Time: From 6.30pm for a bowl of home-made soup and bread or BYO snacks/drinks/plate/glass etc.
Film commences at 7.15pm
Cost: See membership options below
Scheduled films
March 1 – EMPIRE OF LIGHT – drama (UK 2022)  A drama about the power of human connection during turbulent times, set in an English coastal town in the early 1980s. Writer/Director: Sam Mendes. Stars: Olivia Colman, Micheal Ward, Collin Firth.

Here’s the trailer link: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi193119513/?playlistId=tt14402146&ref_=tt_pr_

https://www.facebook.com/p/Forest-Film-Society-3461-100057428709294/

Newstead Arts Hub- Events in March

Mysterious Landscapes – Weekends Sat 2 – Sun 24 March, 10am-4pm
Opening celebration Sun 3 March 2.30pm – all welcome

Mysterious Landscapes explores shared artistic connections to nature, myths and the imaginary realms. Join the three artists – Kaye Dixon, Jane Wells and Margund Sallowsky – to discover the mystic, the uncanny and the dark corners of the world we inhabit through a powerful combination of photography, printmaking, and sculpture. Kaye Dixon combines painting, photography, and the alchemy of cyanotype to present prints and sculptures on the theme of Bone Women: Re-membering the Journey Home. Jane Wells presents sculptural figures constructed from found items and other materials on the theme Internal worlds. Margund Sallowsky’s work, Iceland from the Air is a series of landscape and aerial images shot from a helicopter, offers abstracted landscapes accompanied by audio stories and sagas from Icelandic mythology.

Barry Lacey Bonsai- Weekends Sat 2 – Sun 24 March, 10am-4pm
Barry is a local legend and much loved member of the community. Come along to see his spectacular exhibition of beautiful bonsai, which he has masterfully shaped and tended to over decades.Barry hopes that this exhibition will encourage people to try the art of bonsai. He says, ‘With the right help anyone can learn to make a bonsai, the art is to make your bonsai look old’.

Newstead Open Studios Art Trail-  9, 10 & 11, 16-17 March, 11am-5pm

Newstead Open Studios Art Trail will offer visitors the chance to look behind the scenes in local artists’ studios over two weekends 9,10 & 11 March (the long weekend) and 16-17 March, 11am to 5pm.  There will be lots of beautiful and diverse art for sale at each of the studios, you might even make a purchase or two. Look out for the Art Trail guide, available NOW, or join the Newstead Open Studios mailing list.

For more info re whats on: www.newsteadartshub.org

Cresfest’s Folk and Roots Festival

Enjoy three days of dance and music in the beautiful heritage town of Creswick. A huge range of performers, from international stars to local newcomers, will entertain you over the weekend of Friday 5 April – Sunday 7 April.

More than concerts, you’ll have the chance to participate through a dense packed program of workshops including singing, dancing and playing. Learn new skills and take part in the mayhem when KlezFest comes to CresFest and the streets are filled with klezmer dancing.

Budding performers can enter our IGA Busking Competition for great prizes or sign up for open mic spots. It all happens on the streets of Creswick, the weekend after Easter in 2024, and during the school holidays.

Kids 12 and under are free and we cater for them across the weekend with our (new) KidsOwn KidZone in 2024.

Castlemaine Documentary Film Workshops

WORKSHOP
Editing workshops for film makers of all levels
Saturday 2 March at  Senior Citizens Centre, Castlemaine > Workshop

SCREENING
The Disappearance of Shere Hite
Thursday 7 March & Saturday 9 March Theatre Royal, Castlemaine > The Disappearance of Shere Hite

CLUB CDOC Club CDoc is an informal get together for makers and lovers of film … people interested in story, creative non-fiction and media more broadly. It will be a regular event, happening the first Thursday of every month. No booking required, just roll up.

Thursday 7 March — 6:00pm Casual drop-in on the 1st Thursday of the month
The Love Shack > March Club CDoc

LOCALS DEADLINE
Submit your film by 1 May- if you are toying with the idea of making and entering a short documentary film into LOCALS 2024 – (seeing it on the big screen at Theatre Royal on Opening Night of the Festival) – then this would be the perfect opportunity to sound out your film idea with others who might help you, and get inspired to make it.  Locals 2024

Event on Facebook

Food Growing, Farming and Food Security

Mt Franklin Organics

Daylesford Sunday market again this week. However for those of you who can’t make it to the market, you can come to the farm after 2 pm pm on Saturday   180 church Rd, Mt Franklin, come down the driveway and park at shed, your order will be there. FOR PICKUP from farm on Saturday,  please preorder produce by FRIDAY EVENING. Please call or text me on 0412 517 013 to let me know beforehand.

 Produce list- Rhubarb  $4.50, Strawberries  $4.50 punnet, Carrots  $5/bunch. Green beans  $6.50/500g, Zucchini  $5/kilo,  Zucchiniflowers  $1.20, Spring onions $3/bunch, X-large new season garlic $3/each or 4 for $10, Garlic 250 punnet  $7.50, Blackberries   $6/punnet, Chioggia beets ( italian heirlooms) $5/bunch, Chives, garlic chives,  thyme, tarragon, sage, Vietnamese mint  $2.50/bunch, Dutch cream potatoes from wombat organics $4/kg, Sebago potatoes  (good roasting)  $4/kg, Cherry and heirloom tomates  $7.50/500g, Sweet  basil $3.50/bunch, Thai basil  $3.50, Green gage Plums $7.00/kg, Apples “Gravenstein ” $5/kilo, Fig trees $12 -$30 depending on size, Red or black currants  $8

Huge selection of organic seeds $4.00 each/packet. Happy to rycycle small punnets and pots to reuse. To find out whats fresh and available, subscribe to Florian’s newsletter: newsletter@mtfranklinorganics.com.au

Two Fold Bakehouse

 

We bake naturally leavened, organic loaves, using organic stoneground flours, and work with the seasons; changing our loaves to suit what’s growing around us. We support regenerative agriculture and small family farms, who together form a part of a movement towards a local grain economy.

Buy bread weekly on Thursday, ordered online weekly as a one off, or monthly as a subscription with pick up each Thursday from Daylesford, Yandoit or Kyneton hubs. Daylesfore Sunday Railway market Fortnightly. Hepburn Wholefood Collective – Fresh every Thursday from 3pm

Castlemaine Seed Library

Next working bee 7th March 11am, at Castlemaine library. All welcome!

On the board this month you will find: Amaranth, Carrot, Coriander, Dill, Garlic Chives, Globe Artichoke, Leek (cross), Mixed Lettuce, Royal Oak Leaf Lettuce, Mustard, Wasabi Mustard, Radish, Flat Leaf Parsley, Rocket, Spring Onion, Landcress, Swiss Chard (silverbeet) and Watercress.

Orchard Keepers- Castlemaine Weekly Market

Specials on 10kg boxes of ripe plum seconds this week – perfect for a bottling session so you have delicious organic plums all winter

CLICK HERE TO ORDER SPECIALS at our online shop

Getting here

• Come to 69 Danns Road, Harcourt. There is a Harcourt Organic Farming Co-op property sign at our entrance, then a long driveway to the farm carpark. The speed limit on the driveway is 25 km/hr. Please drive slowly and enjoy the view of the cows and kangaroos.
• Park in the carpark at the big green shed. Please don’t park on the concrete apron (as we need access to the shed to bring fruit in and out) or in front of the blue shed (this is Sellar Dairy and Tess needs to be able to access her shed). Come to the Farm Shop and we’ll show you where to pick

Growing Abundance and Fruit Harvests

• Join us for our Summer Gathering with the Food Links Project on Wednesday March 6th to launch our ‘Year of Abundance’.
• Keep an eye out on socials and your email inboxes for updates about upcoming blackberry, apple and pear harvests.
• Please get in touch if you know of a tree that would love to be harvested by us

Over the past few weeks, our new Harvest Coordinator Thea has been harvesting plums, pears and blackberries which are making their way to Castlemaine and Maldon Community Lunches. With a hotter summer than we’ve has a for a few years, fruit is ripening noticably sooner than we’ve become a little accustomed to. We’ve been in a bit pof a transition period over summer with a change in Harvest Coordinators, so it’s exciting to be getting into the swing of things now, feeling ready to go with apple and pear season upon us already!  Keep an eye on your emails for details about harvest in the coming weeks.

https://www.facebook.com/thegrowingabundanceproject/

Ecology and Environment

Natural  Newstead

Geoff Park’s regular blogs are a good way to learn more about native grasslands, plant and bird species. One of the signature plants is Tufted Burr-daisy Calotis scapigera, considered rare in the district, and a magnet for insect pollinators including butterflies, wasps and native bees.  To learn about volcanic grasslands and Geoff’s latest post go to or subscribe to Geoff’s blog: https://geoffpark.wordpress.com/

Bird of the Month

Welcome to Bird of the month, a partnership between Connecting Country and BirdLife Castlemaine District. 

Brown Goshawk: Solid looking Brown Goshawk in Campbells Creek, showing the heavy brow, long rounded tail and middle toe is similar length to other toes. Photo by Jane Rusden

Observed one morning when walking through the bush on my block, a Brown Goshawk pursued an Australian Owlet-nightjar in a fierce dog fight, flying at full speed down the gully, dodging trees by millimetres. The Brown Goshawk managed to catch the desperate Owlet-nightjar just before they saw the two humans, then they tumbled to the ground still locked together. the poor little Owlet Nightjar looked stunned and worse for wear, while the Brown Goshawk flew up into a tree, reluctant to loose it’s prey. The Owlet-nightjar at least got a bit of a breather, before both birds went their separate ways. I have no idea if the Owlet-nightjar survived the lethal body-puncturing talons of the Brown Goshawk, but the Goshawk certainly went hungry that morning. Read more: https://connectingcountry.org.au/bird-of-the-month-brown-goshawk/

Connecting Country

The Misunderstood Magical Mistletoes: ABC Online Article

Connecting Country has a long history of raising awareness about the often misunderstood native mistletoe in our region and the benefits it provides to a large array of birds, insects and marsupials. Our bird walk for beginners along Forest Creek, Castlemaine VIC, highlights various patches of healthy eucalypt and acacia species that host the semi-parasitic mistletoe plant and provide a healthy ecosystem function for many of our woodland birds. Read the full article on this link.

Photo competition

Connecting Country – To celebrate our Instagram debut and celebrate our latest project – Habitat Trees for Phascogales – we’re hosting an exciting giveaway for one of our Instagram followers via a photo competition. We will be giving away a phascogale nestbox* for the best large old tree photograph taken in the Mount Alexander region during February 2024. To enter, simply upload your favorite photo to Instagram and tag @connectingcountrycastlemaine. Link to competition details:

We would love to hear from you, so please share your thoughts in the comments, and join the conversation using our official hashtag, [#connectingcountrycastlemaine]. Your feedback will help shape the content you want to see!

Brush-Tailed Phascogale!

The brochure is aimed at educating our community and raising awareness of the Brush-tailed Phascogale and their habitat needs. It is available for download immediately – Click Here, or you can pick it up from the Connecting Country office in Castlemaine VIC.  The brochure is part of our ‘Habitat trees for Phascogales’ project that aims to protect and enhance habitat stepping stones for the Brush-tailed Phascogale and other native fauna, by protecting existing large old trees on grazing land.

Lerderderk Track Project (from Wombat Post- 2/2))

The Great Dividing Trail Association last week launched a project which involved the installation of interpretive signage along the 87km Lerderderg Track from Daylesford to Bacchus Marsh.

The signage is installed on large trailhead signs at entry points to the Track and on trail marker posts along the Track. Signage tells the history and the stories of the people who lived and worked in the area and the unique flora, fauna and geology of the Wombat and Lerderderg State Forests. The stories on the signage are brief but each sign includes a QR code which links to more extensive information and images on the GDTA website (gdt.org.au)

About 40 members of the GDTA  watched last Sunday as Mayor, Cr Brian Hood and Mark Rak, Chair of the Community Bank Daylesford and District, unveiled a trailhead sign at the Lake Daylesford Lookout in Bridport Street. The ceremony started with a smoking ceremony Welcome to Country by local Dja Dja Wurrung elder, Uncle Ricky Nelson. After the ceremony, GDTA President, Tim Bach, led a pleasant walk along the Lerderderg Track from the Lookout to Jubilee Lake and back.

“Our goal was to make the Track more interesting and attractive for walkers and cyclists,” said Tim Bach. “It’s easier and more compelling to engage with your environment if you know the stories that are embedded in it.”

Hepburn Shire Mayor, Cr Brian Hood, congratulated the GDTA on the completion of their project. “We’re very fortunate to have a beautiful, natural environment surrounding us,” he said. “This project will enhance the experience of visitors to the area and make their visit more meaningful.”

The interpretive signage project is the second stage of the GDTA’s work to refurbish the Lerderderg Track. The Track was built by the GDTA as the final stage in the 310km Great Dividing Trail Network which includes the Goldfields Track from Ballarat to Bendigo. In recent years, the Lerderderg Track had fallen into disrepair. The GDTA obtained a substantial grant from Victorian Department of the Environment (currently DEECA) in 2018 to renew posts, signage and other infrastructure along the Track. This first stage of the refurbishment was completed in 2020.

In 2022, additional funds were obtained from Moorabool and Hepburn Shire Councils and from the Bendigo Community Banks in Daylesford, Trentham and Bacchus Marsh to design and install interpretive signage and develop web-based resources to enhance the visitor experience for users of the Lerderderg Track.

“We’re proud to support this project by the GDTA,” said Mark Rak. “We have a good relationship with the GDTA and also supported their publication of the Central Victorian Highlands Walk and Ride Circuits Booklet which has been very popular. Since the Bank was established, we have reinvested more than $1.25 million in community projects like this for the benefit of our local community.”

Local historical societies in Daylesford, Blackwood and Bacchus Marsh provided information, images and inspiration for the project.

For more information see www.gdt.org.au/tracks/lerderderg-track/lerderderg-track-interpretive-signage

North Central Catchment Management

Keeping you up to date with all the Landcare and WaterWatch news – dates, new appointments, new projects in link below.

North Central Chat February 2024 | North Central Catchment Management Authority (nccma.vic.gov.au)

First Nations

Nalderun Annual Report

Nalderun is a not-for-profit Aboriginal run and led organisation, on Djaara Country in Castlemaine, under the guidance of Elder Uncle Rick Nelson.

Nalderun is a Dja Dja Wurrung word which means ‘all together’ , because we believe by moving forward together we can make the change needed for our children, local mob and the wider community in the region to thrive. We know what our Community needs, as we are a part of it. Over 12 years we have seen our children become stronger, proud and deadly.  Nalderun came about through the work and legacy of Uncle Brien Nelson who believed that sharing is the way forward for everyone. Aunty Julie McHale has also worked tirelessly for over 40 years and has carried on this legacy which we continue today.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZTpKbuc-lN-tY3PYrzZpsYvo9JrrxWdl/view

Newstead Post-Referenum Ally Group

A new group has formed in Newstead.  Arising from a post-referendum gathering, local people from Newstead are meeting monthly to connect and learn as allies in practical and visible ways.   It is early days for this self organising group and already themes and possible activities about how to be good allies to first Nation people are beginning to emerge.  Themes so far are – connection, learning, field trips and events, practical and visible allyship.  Possible activities – field trips like Franklinford, making signs about caring for country and more, book sharing sessions,  supporting local indigenous events, history of local region.  For more information about next group meeting contact Andrew Shirres on andrewshirres@gmail.com  or Laurel Freeland laurelfreeland@bigpond.com

History, Books and Libraries

2023: Dr Deborah Wardle  Subterranean Imaginaries and Groundwater Narratives. Published by Routledge, Environmental Humanities series.

https://www.routledge.com/Subterranean-Imaginaries-and-Groundwater-Narratives/Wardle/p/book/9781032218816

2024: Susan Murphy’s new book, A Fire Runs through All Things: Zen Koans For Facing The Climate Crisis (Shambhala, 2023).

“The koans point firstly at ourselves-at the very nature of “self.” Until we hold “self” as a live question rather than its own unquestioned answer, we’re stuck looking on from the “outside,” hoping to engineer change upon a problem called “climate crisis,” all the time oblivious to the fact that we’re swimming in a reality with no outside to it, an ocean of transformative energy. Do we dare relinquish our wish for absolute control and fearlessly surf the intensity of our feelings about the suffering earth?” See details of book launch March 18 in Arts and Culture section of this newsletter.

Sustainable Living Resources

Sustainable Hepburn Day

Saturday, 16 March 2024

10:00 AM to 03:00 PM

Volunteer shifts available

More info

 

 

Castlemaine Community Co-operative Official Launch

When and Where: Wednesday 6 March, 5:30pm- 6.30pm, Castlemaine Town Hall.

Come along and hear about our vision, where we are up to, and what help we need to set up our first offer (to buy the Hub).

Members and friends  are welcome. You can also join beforehand  at: https://castlemaine.coop/join/   $40 annual full/ $20 Concession/Strapped/Under 18

You can also buy a founding member t-shirt for $20/$15.

 

Focus on Trees – Tree Photography Workshop with Alison Pouliot

 

Fri, 15 Mar 2024 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM AEDT

2905 Lancefield-Tooborac Rd2905 Lancefield-Tooborac Road Tooborac, VIC 3522

More info  about the event

More info about the  large old trees project here

 

 

International Women’s Day 2024

♦  Hepburn Shire

♥ Silver Apron Award- Hepburn Wholefoods Collective

Friday 8 March 5.30 – 7.30pm
Hepburn Wholefoods Collective, 66A West St, Hepburn

Mt Alexander Shire

My Home Network- Castlemaine and Surrounds

Tiny Homes On Wheels (THOW), vacant dwellings, collective housing models, tenants working group

For more info or to join a MHN working group-, contact Kaz cneilson@castlemainehealth.org.au

For more information 

Mt Alexander sustainability group- (MASG)

Online Permaculture series: Do with Su: Season Two is on pre-sale now!

Learn seven more essential homesteading skills,
including cheesemaking
and Su’s guide to bulk foods
– from permaculture’s radical grandma.

Building Community

Castlemaine Free University Wage Peace Event

Monday 4th March, 7pm Northern Arts Hotel, 359 Barker St, Castlemaine

WAGE Peace is part of a global campaign for Earthcare not warfare.

Local Government News

♦  Mount Alexander Shire

Reflecting on Australia Australia Day – Survival Day 🖤💛❤️

Watch the event, which was filmed live, on our YouTube channel.

Mayor, Matt Driscoll, shares the latest Council news

Repairs to the Market Building: Read more about these works

Flood recovery works continue Learn more about these works

Have your say by signing up to Shape Mount Alexander

Find out what’s on in the shire

♦  Hepburn Shire

♣ Kerbside bin collection is set to change in townships in Hepburn Shire, with a weekly food and garden organics service starting on Monday 8 April. Read more about this service.

♣ The annual Community Satisfaction Survey for Councils is underway and you may receive a call from National Field Services. We want to hear how you think we’re performing. From roads to parks and open spaces, community support and more, this is an important opportunity to give us your feedback.

♣ Update on structure plans: One of the major components of our strategic planning project, Future Hepburn, is the development of structure plans for Trentham, Clunes, Creswick, Daylesford/Hepburn and Glenlyon. These structure plans will guide the future development in each township to 2050. Find out more

♣ Central Springs Reserve refresh : The rejuvenation of Central Springs Reserve is underway, with a major project starting to install new mineral spring pumps, a shelter with an electric BBQ, new park furniture, landscaping and connecting path network.
Find out more.

♣ Solar savers for pensioners: Get in quick to secure one of the last few places in this year’s Solar for Pensioners program. More info

♣ Reconciliation advisory opportunity
We are inviting expressions of interest to join our Reconciliation Advisory Committee (RAC).  Complete an expression of interest by Thursday 15 February. Want to have a chat about the RAC to see if it’s for you? Call our Reconciliation Officer on (03) 5348 2306.

‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Workshops and Courses

Nature course for Hepburn, Mitchell and Macedon residents: Are you passionate about the environment and keen to learn more about nature? If so, consider becoming a nature steward. The ten-week program kicks off in March.
Find out more.

Build Your Organisation’s Capacity to Support Autistic People:

online 90 min webinar run by Castlemaine resident, Samantha Wittenberg. For teachers healthcare professional, first responders or parents, this event is designed to equip you with practical tools and resources to enhance your capacity to support Autistic individuals.
To book and find out more

Letters

Castlemaine based Trevor Scott’s statement  to the Magistrate at his court hearing in January 2024:

“Your Honour, I’m 76, a retired architect, a father & stepfather of  five children and grandfather to 5 more. I live in central Victoria.  Millions of human lives have already been lost to Climate Change caused by Global Heating, not to mention the lives of  billions of wildlife creatures. Many species have already become extinct, all of the above due to storms, fires, floods and other disasters around the world. This is something that our state and federal governments continue to ignore; in fact they make matters much worse by opening new coal mines and continuing to export coal while not counting the cost of its emissions. I’m no longer prepared to expose myself, my children and grandchildren to this threat, so blocking the shipping channel in the Port of Newcastle on 26^th November last year without permission was an opportunity I took to shine a light on this predicament. I regret that I had to break the law to do this and I regret that the Court’s time has to be spent on my defence, when I have always been hopeful that in the light of scientific evidence, common sense would prevail”.

This was my statement to the court when my case came up before the magistrate in Newcastle on Thursday, 25^th January.  Earlier I had pleaded guilty to the charge of occupying a waterway with a vessel, with more than a hundred others, at the entrance to the Port of Newcastle without permission. It was actually an only-just seaworthy raft made from 44 gallon drums tied together with bamboo poles and wire and there were five of us on board with 4 paddles.

Pertinent to this is the statement issued in April last year by Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the UN:- “Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals. But the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels”.

We know from recent announcements by Environment Minister Plibersek that during this climate emergency which we are currently experiencing, not only has the export of coal increased, but also new coal mines have been opened and existing mines have been expanded. So, in my eyes the need to protest has not gone away. My journey to Newcastle in November last year was the 4^th time I had travelled there to protest against the largest coal port in the world.

In 2016 I was part of a group of locals who drove up to Newcastle in a van powered with recycled oil from a fish and chip shop. We had our canoes stowed neatly on a trailer following close behind. This action was called “Breakfree from fossil fuels”. At the time Tony Abott was PM and he infamously declared that he would “turn back the boats” referrring to the boats that arrived on Australian shores carrying “illegal immigrants”. I recall that the “Breakfree” action was one of the first of its kind in Newcastle where a solution was negotiated. What I mean by this is that with more than 2,500 people taking part in this action and their safety being of paramount importance, Nicola Paris and the other organisers were able to negotiate with the Police and the Harbourmaster for our safe occupation of the entrance to the port for a whole day. So the very next morning, actually the Sunday of that weekend, more than 100 of us got into our kayaks and canoes and whatever else would stay afloat, and paddled out into the water. I remember how much we laughed at the sign that someone was holding up that said “Look Tony, we stopped the boats!”

My second visit was in 2019 and the huge stockpiles of coal were our target. The coal was enclosed in a large fenced-in area where there were huge machines that loaded it into the ships. Early in the morning someone cut the wire and about 50 of us broke into the enclosure. Many of us locked on to one of the coal loaders, once again effectively shutting down the port for a whole day. I recall being held in police custody for an hour or so, and then being released without being charged. As we walked back to the buses that we had come on, we noticed much to our amusement, that there were 3 police officers on horseback, carefully guarding the hole that we had made, earlier that morning in the fence.

My third visit to Newcastle was in 2020 during the Covid pandemic. I planned to do an arrestable action – lock on to the railway line and stop a coal train that would have been carrying hundreds of tons of coal to the port. I was all set to do it the next day, but unfortunately the group that was called Blockade Australia, held an emergency meeting that evening and the action was sensibly called off. It was agreed that rather than being arrested and charged for a Covid offence, which was very likely, we would abort until that emergency was over.

So this, my fourth visit to Newcastle in November of last year, was the first time that I actually took part in an arrestable action, and actually got arrested. Although initially there were 109 of us who were arrested, eventually only 99 of us were given notices, and ordered to attend court on 11^th January of this year.  As it turned out, my case was adjourned to Thursday 25^th January but, following legal advice from the EDO (Environment Defenders Office) in Sydney, I decided to plead “guilty” and not return to Newcastle for the hearing.  I heard later that those who appeared before Magistrate John Chicken on Thursday came from Queensland, Victoria, and Canberra – as well as locally. Apparently many represented themselves, though the Environmental Defenders Office took up the case for a few. In the end, probably due to the large number of us offenders, the EDO was not able to defend us all, and I ended up putting my case to the court in a written plea.  As in the previous hearing, this one on 25^th January included people from a broad range of professional backgrounds such as teaching, nursing, psychology, environmental engineering. It even included a 97 year-old minister of the Uniting Church and a former Navy serviceman. Of the 36 people who entered a plea on Thursday, 30 had their charge dismissed. The largest fine was $400. The ruling for each individual’s case was based largely on their prior record, the court heard. I was one of the lucky ones in that category and did not receive a conviction, a fine or even a good behaviour bond.

Magistrate Chicken said the protesters had “noble intentions, albeit they ended up in an infraction of the law”. He said they were motivated by “selflessness” and “out of genuine concerns for the climate and the future of the earth”, which was a mitigating factor in sentencing. And he praised police for their handling of events as they unfolded. “In all of the material before me, there has not been one suggestion of inappropriateness of police on the day,” he said. While Magistrate Chicken said peaceful protests were important in democratic societies, they should take place legally. “There is no suggestion the protest was anything other than peaceful,” he said. “There’s no doubt that the people involved in this protest were all doing so out of a genuine desire to better the world. There is not one person here who has been charged with this offence who did so out of an act of selfishness.”

So maybe the tide is turning. If magistrates and judges are at last realizing the need for real action on the climate, maybe there’s still hope that our leaders will wake up too. But we’re not there yet. Join us this year in November when Rising Tide plans to have 10,000 people join in a protest lasting 10 days. You can contact Rising Tide at  www.risingtide.org.au, or for details on local action call myself (Trevor Scott) on 0412 250 392 or Serena on 0408 550 110.

Food for Thought

Watch this short video (2 minutes) about our recently completed 138-hectare Spring Plains Watershed Repair Pilot Project.

This pilot project offers a beacon of hope and demonstrates what can be achieved through simple but strategic ecological interventions.

New episodes from Planet Local Voices, new video and podcast series featuring cutting-edge thinkers, writers, movement-builders and activists from across the world.

https://www.australianunity.com.au/wellbeing/community-and-relationships/why-kids-need-older-people-in-their-lives

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/soul-search/tim-winton-ningaloo-reef-and-religion-spirituality/102287044

https://charleseisenstein.substack.com/p/horror-and-the-process-of-compassion

Sustain food network – https://sustain.org.au/

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I will train myself to look deeply to see your true nature: you are my loving mother, a living being, a great being—an immense, beautiful, and precious wonder.

(From Ten Love Letters to the Earth, Vietnamese Buddhist monk and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh- cited in Emergence Magazine 24/12/23)

Welcome to the January/ February edition of Localising Leanganook’s e-newsletter. There’s lots of local news and events as well as a thought-provoking feature article on Housing and Community Land Trusts. Let our editing team know (Keppel, Laurel, Samantha and Nikki) if you’ve got items for inclusion in the February/March edition – (nikki.marshall@mmnet.com.au).

1. Arts and Culture
2. Food Growing, Farming and Food Security
3. Ecology and Environment
4. First Nations
5. History, Books and Libraries
6. Sustainable Living Resources
7. Building Community
8. Local Government News
9. Workshops and Courses

Letters 

Food for Thought

Feature Article: It’s Time for a Housing Disruption- Karl Fitzgerald

What’s on in Central Victoria

Arts and Culture

Newstead Live 2024

Where: multiple venues around Newstead (see website for details)

When: Thursday 25th January – Sunday 28th January

Cost:weekend pass $160, youth/student weekend pass: $90, day and evening passes $50-90 – see website for details

Australian folk-roots music festival in the historic country town of Newstead. Newstead Live Music Festival takes place over the last weekend in January, when a range of diverse and highly regarded international and national artists perform in live music venues, concert spaces, workshops, impromptu sessions, spoken word performances and open-mic sessions. Music for all ages and a variety of genres.

For more information and to book tickets: https://www.newsteadlive.com/

Mechanics Lane Spring/Summer Program- Castlemaine

When: Thursday 25 to Sunday 28 January 2024

What: Street Latin Dance: Summer Salsa

Where: Mechanics Lane, Castlemaine

This is an outdoor space that runs live music, performances and community events. To view our upcoming events, visit Mt Alexander shire’s Events Page.

For more information contact Sam Thomas, Creative Programs Officer on 5471 1700 or s.thomas@mountalexander.vic.gov.au.

Learn easy, sizzling salsa steps in a group class, then put them into action with some of the hottest Latin tunes. It’s all about fun and encouragement with top-notch dance instruction.

Yandoit Cultural and Yandoit Faith Community

We’ve recently received the good news that the lease at Yandoit Uniting church has been extended for a further 12 months. This has been supported by the Castlemaine Uniting Church minister and church council as well as regional Presbytery.  So, for 2024 Yandoit Cultural is planning a varied program of  music,  spoken word, Open Mics, with an emphasis on local, acoustic and quality. Our historic church is an intimate community space, seating 100/110 people, with excellent acoustics. Let us know if you’d like to perform and/or give it a go with at of our seasonal Open Mic’s . (Nikki on 0432 232 073)

We will also be establishing a ‘faith community’ at the old church in the bush- something we, as a community, can develop in a way meaningful to us in these times. The faith community will be supported by Minister Sarah Tomilson. We will be holding a faith community dreaming/visioning session towards the end of January/early February. Contact Nikki if you are interested in participating- nikki.marshall@mmnet.com.au or 0432 232 073.

Guitar Concert- Music of Spain and South America

When: 6.00pm, Friday 23rd February, 2024

Where: Yandoit Cultural– the historic church in the bush, Uniting Church Rd (off High St), Yandoit.

Classical Guitarist, Darcy King returns to Yandoit Cultural in collaboration with Ross Morris (UK), a partnership formed during their studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. With a programme of solo and duo music for guitar, this concert is a celebration of the vibrant and expressive music of Spain and South America.

Entry by donation.  Bookings: ycfcpg@gmail.com or Nikki on 0432 232 073

Open Mic- Locals sharing stories, songs, poems, history and more

When: Sunday February 11^th, 2pm

Where: Yandoit Cultural– the historic church in the bush, Uniting Church Rd (off High St), Yandoit

Join us at Yandoit Cultural for an afternoon of stories, song, music, poetry and history shared by locals. Anyone and everyone can have their 5-10 minutes. You’ll enjoy a variety of performances and you’ll discover and experience the many talents within our neighbourhood and surrounds. And stay for a country-hospitality afternoon tea at the end, where you’ll meet other locals and Open Mic contributors.

Entry by donation.  Bookings: ycfcpg@gmail.com or Nikki on 0432 232 073

Castlemaine Johannine Community aka the Grail Community

The Castlemaine Johannine Community practises ‘pagan Christianity’, a spirituality based in the mystical tradition of St John and the Rosicrucians, and grounded in deep reverence for the sacredness of the Earth and the wisdom of the ancient Celtic, Aboriginal and Native American spiritual traditions. Through both inner and outer work, we seek to collaborate with the Christ impulse to create bring healing and renewal to our communities and the Earth. We meet monthly for eucharist services and other special events shaped by the sacred calendar of the seasonal Christian and Celtic festivals.

February’s events include the Lammas/Lughnasadh service on 4^th February from 11am followed by a shared lunch, the Ash Wednesday/Valentine’s Day service on 14^th February at 7.30pm, and a Full Moon service on 24^th February at 8pm.

Where: the Grail Chapel, 75 McMillans Rd, Green Gully

Cost: all events are free, donations are welcome

Enquiries: contact Ken Killeen on 0423 194 878 or email johannine@hotmail.com

The Coolroom at the Northern Arts Hotel

Upcoming events:

27th Jan: The Anteclinal Fold with Jo Huf $18-22 + booking fee

3rd Feb: Daniel Champagne $30 + booking fee

10th Feb: The Amazing Magic Lantern Music Show $15-20 + booking fee

17th Feb: Langue de Chat French Musette Quartet $18-22 + booking fee

24th Feb: Peter and the Wolves $18-22 + booking fee

All events start at 7.30pm.

For more information and bookings visit: https://events.humanitix.com/host/the-coolroom-at-the-northern-arts-hotel

Inkwareny Artists of Yuelamu come to Castlemaine

When: Throughout February 2024- Opening Friday 9^th February at 5-7pm.  Katherine Coff from Nalderun will open the exhibition. The gallery will be open over three weekends in February: 9,10,11, then 16,17,18 and 23,24,25.  11am -4pm.

Newstead Arts Hub- Musical Instrument makers…  plus much more

The Hub will host a brilliant array of musical instrument makers during Newstead Live 2024. A chance to see and hear some of the most skillfully crafted instruments around, and to talk to the makers about their craft.

Radius Art Gallery

An art space for the inspirational creative people living in a radius around us.

https://www.radiusart.com.au/

The Tap Room- Mill Markets

A variety of music, locally brewed beer and pizzas made on site,  at the Mill Markets complex . For details go to: https://www.facebook.com/castlemainetaproom/

Theatre Royal- Castlemaine

Cinema, music, pizza and more .

https://www.theatreroyalcastlemaine.com.au/

Castlemaine Art Gallery- Ancestor Treasures: First Nations Tools and Adornment on Jaara Country

Many of these items are being exhibited for the first time in Ancestor Treasures, under the direction of Uncle Rick Nelson (Jaara), Dja Dja Wurrung Traditional Elder; Alvin Darcy Briggs (ADB) (Yorta Yorta, Taungurung, Ngarigo Walbunga), Artist; Tiriki Onus (Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung), Associate Dean of Indigenous Development and Head of the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development, University of Melbourne; and Sharnie Hamilton (Djaara), Cultural Values Manager, Djandak.

This exhibition follows a private viewing for First Nations people of the region. Ancestor Treasures also includes traditional tools made by contemporary artist ADB (Yorta Yorta, Taungurung, Ngarigo Walbunga), in response to the Collection, and a video by First Nations photographer James Henry in collaboration with Henry Harmony Nelson’s Descendants – the Saunders family from Mooroopna, documenting their Meeting at Marna bulatj dharak (Meeting of arms), Lake Eppalock.

Registered as significant on the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Register (VAHR) [2015], the majority of these works were obtained by settler Australians through largely unknown means and primarily donated during the early years of the Museum’s operation. These works hold significance for First Nations communities across Australia. In 2019, three items were repatriated, while the rest of the Collection has since been safely rehoused in handcrafted museum storage.

For more information: https://castlemaineartmuseum.org.au/

Castlemaine Documentary Festival Call-for-Entries for LOCALS Opening Night Showcase

Real stories, Real Issues, Real Characters, Real Conversations.

Be part of the Castlemaine Documentary Festival’s tenth anniversary and realise your big screen dream. We are calling for filmmakers (from all walks and experience levels) to submit a 6-minute documentary film for screening at our LOCAL’S Opening Night showcase. Works can be about anything in any style and entry open to all who live, work, play (or have some meaningful connection) with Regional Victoria.

Deadline is May 1, 2024. Entry is free. For support and advice with editing for screen, attend our full day Workshop for filmmakers, led by Bergen O’Brien and Rob Buttery. Happening March 2, 2024 in Castlemaine.

For more information, visit: https://cdocff.com.au/locals-2024/

Food Growing, Farming and Food Security

Mt Franklin Organics

A variety of fresh organic veggies, fruit and seedlings. Available at Daylesford’s Sunday market or order and pick up from Florian on Saturday afternoon.

To get updates via the newsletter, subscribe : newsletter@mtfranklinorganics.com.au

Orchard Keepers- Harcourt Organic Farming Coop

A variety of fresh organic fruit including: boxes of plums and apricots, you-pick and by the kilo available at

Castlemaine Farmers Market weekly on Wednesday afternoon, Farm Shop in Harcourt and Wesley Hill Market, weekly on Saturday morning.

The Farm Shop will be open on Friday 26 January- 10 am to 4 pm; and Sunday, 28 January-  10 am to 1 pm.

You can pick-your-own (PYO) fruit or buy it pre-picked.

There’s also the beginning of Gravenstein  apples-  a very old heritage variety from Europe. They’re not like modern apples – the flavour is more complex, with both sweet and tart flavours.

For more information: https://hofcoop.com.au/

Trewhella Biodynamic Berry Farm

It’s blueberry harvest time. After a couple of challenging years from which much has been learnt to improve the flavour of our Blueberries,we’re now back on track & just commenced harvest.

To access our berries contact via email or txt to 0408 548 359 or leave a message on (03)53485593.

Hepburn Wholefoods

At Wholefoods, we are continually trying to keep packaging waste to a minimum by talking to our farmers and suppliers about packaging, ordering bulk whenever possible, and re-using buckets and bags.  This is by no means a perfect system, but it helps. There’s a few ways you can help us as well. We welcome donations of large clean un-labelled jars; Sometimes packaging can be returned for re-use. This includes medicinal cream brown jars, clean egg cartons, clean berry plastic containers. We have a compost system behind the shop that takes small food scraps, and we also sometimes need donations of straw to add to the compost. You can also help by tending to the wicking beds – watering, weeding and harvesting are all welcome.

Where: 11 Perrins Street · Daylesford

Opening Hours: Mondays 9.30-11.30am; Wednesdays 2-4pm;Thursdays 3-5pm; Saturdays 11am-1pm

Two fold Bakehouse

LOCAL BREAD FOR THE LOCAL COMMUNITY. By ordering Thursday bread you are joining our bread family of farmers, millers and bakers who work to regenerate the land and value small scale, local food systems. Your support means we can bake to order, with no bread going to waste.

Where can you buy our bread?  THURSDAY BREAD, WEEKLY; ordered online weekly as a one off, or monthly as a subscription with pick up each Thursday from Daylesford, Yandoit or Kyneton hubs. DAYLESFORD SUNDAY RAILWAY MARKET- FORTNIGHTLY . HEPBURN WHOLEFOODS COLLECTIVE-Fresh bread every Thursday from 3pm

Ecology and Environment

Natural Newstead

Geoff Park’s regular blogs are a wonderful way to learn more about local bird species. Here’s a Diamond Firetail which recently arrived at the Rise and Shine Bushland Reserve (between Clydesdale and Strangways). An adult arrived first, announcing its presence from a distance with a couple of mournful whistles, followed by a wary juvenile. Both birds drank and bathed briefly before departing. It’s always good to see evidence of successful local breeding by this declining woodland bird.

To see more or to subscribe to Geoff’s blog: https://geoffpark.wordpress.com/

Mapping Precious Large Old Trees

Connecting Country is asking the local community to map our precious large old trees, through their online mapping portal. The mapping portal aims to engage with the community about the importance of the old, and often large trees of central Victoria, as part of Connecting Country’s larger project, ‘Regenerate before it’s too late’. Anyone can access the mapping portal. To date, we have mapped over 30 old trees on the database and are keen for the community to continue mapping trees that are important to them and our local wildlife.

Coppiced long-leaved box of Chewton- Joel B: Its story is literally etched on it – first lopped, it has regrown with multiple branches, having survived a wildfire, multiple axe wounds and sawn-off branches, this is a living example of bush resilience!

The mapping portal is now open for any community member to record the old trees in your area. You will need to register with the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) (its quick, easy and free), then upload a photo and enter the field details needed for the survey. The portal will ask you simple questions about the tree location, size, species, age (if known), health status and habitat value. By recording these trees, you will help build our understanding of the large old trees in our region, and contribute to the largest biodiversity database in our country. As the database grows, you can also access the portal to learn about other wonderful large old trees in our area and view the photos.

For more information:  https://connectingcountry.org.au/

Wombat Forest Care

Wombat Forest Care’s December 2023 newsletter includes stories on mountain skinks, salvage logging, Blue Mount’s woodland herb-land, and a variety of birds that live in and visit the forest including the white-bellied cuckoo shrike, blue winged parrot, and rufous whistler and the barking owl. There’s also information about the Victorian State of Environment Report 2023.

Visit the website –https://www.wombatforestcare.org.au/ 

Don’t Undermine Daylesford

First Nations

Australia Day – Survival Day Event 

Join us for a free, family-friendly event on Friday 26 January from 10.00am at Castlemaine’s Victory Park. The day will include a Welcome to Country, citizenship and awards ceremony, and Survival Day concert programmed and hosted by Dja Dja Wurrung Elder Uncle Rick Nelson.

The line-up will offer some incredible performances. Last year’s Survival Day concert saw world-class musicians such as Bart Willoughby, Yung Warriors, Tjimba Possum Burns, Darcy Spiller, The Rattlers, and more.

Where: Victory Park/Djaara Park, Castlemaine

When: Friday 26th January from 10am – 2pm

Self-reflection Conversations- Djaara Country

When: 4 x Tuesdays: Feb 20th, 27th and March 5th and 12th, 5.30-7.30pm

A series of facilitated conversations for and by local non-Indigenous people to reflect on privilege, allyship and structural racism. Created in conversation with Nalderun Education Aboriginal Corporation.

To work in effective allyship, non-Indigenous people need to reflect on our understanding and attitude surrounding significant events impacting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and our own beliefs and values – privilege, structural racism and cultural bias. It is only when we have some knowledge and critique of the dominant culture and its systemic racism, and our own ingrained and often unacknowledged privileges and biases that we can go with open hearts and minds to find ways to work with and support First Nations people.

To book in or find out more email reflectionconversations@gmail.com

Overview of Nalderun Education Aboriginal Corporation

by Floria Maschek

Nalderun (Nalderun Education Aboriginal Corporation), meaning ‘all together’, is a local Aboriginal run and led organisation and registered charity that predominantly focuses on providing opportunities for young, local First Nations People, whilst also supporting their families. The organisation also provides historical and cultural learning opportunities to the extended community, instilling the values of Country, truth telling and Indigenous world views, having many partnerships in government, community, education and health. Connection to Country, Community and Culture is at the core of Nalderun’s work – walking together for a thriving future for all. 

For more click here:     Walking Together- Nalderun overview (final).doc

History, Books and Libraries

History of Werona

Local historian Ken James has produced a book about the history of Werona, a village on the outskirts of Mt Alexander and Hepburn shires. Ken has previously written books on Guildford, Sandon, Strangways and Joyces Creek to mention a few. The book is 265 pages in length and made up of 11 chapters, 16 appendices, a list of references as well as a surname index.

It is to be launched at Strangways at Don & Floss Hepburn’s residence on Sunday March 3 at 2pm.  To determine the number of copies to be printed Ken is taking pre-orders. If you are interested in ordering a copy, contact Ken on 0457 600 668 or knjames47@gmail.com  If you wish to attend the launch, contact Carmel Longmire for details on 0427 766 256 or longmire3@bigpond.com

Free IT help for seniors at Castlemaine Library

Need help navigating the ever-changing digital world?  Access free one-on-one training and support at your local library.

Drop in or give us a call, tell us what you would like to know about or learn, and we’ll make an appointment for you.

Where: Castlemaine Library and other Goldfields Libraries

When: during library hours

Cost: free

Happy Birthday, Dickens

Andrew Barrie shares his exuberance over the life, time and works of Charles Dickens in celebration of Dickens’ birthday (7th Feb, 1812).

When: Thursday 8 February, 5.30-6.30pm

Where: Castlemaine Library 

Sustainable Living Resources

Do with Su: Online Permaculture Series

Join renowned permaculture elder Su Dennett as she shares her passion for food and nourishment, and her wisdom on the household non-monetary economy with a generous dash of frugal hedonism.

Where and When: online and  access any time

Cost: $45 for 7 sessions plus resources, $75 including access to a live Q and A with Su, $295 including a private online Q and A with Su

Bookings and more information: https://hub.holmgren.com.au/lp/do-with-su/season-one/online-permaculture-series/

Castlemaine Free University: Creative Community Participation for Social and Environmental Change

Participatory designer and Castlemaine resident Dr Michael Chew explores a range of creative grassroots experiments reflecting community participants’ engagement with environmental sustainability and social justice, Michael offers space for discussions around using creative participatory methods in community engagement projects.

Where: Northern Arts Hotel, 359 Barker St, Castlemaine

When: Monday 5th February at 6.30pm for 7pm start

Cost: free, drinks are available  for purchase from the bar.

Newstead Solar Farm

Construction of the Newstead Solar Farm is underway and will be completed in the first quarter of 2024.Households in Newstead will be able to formally sign up to source their electricity from the farm next year.* We expect this will be in May and will update you when that offer becomes available. Solar tracking systems are going in. Solar panels will be installed next. Next will installation and connection of Battery, Power line to be extended from the Pyrenees Highway to the site, and Panels to be connected. (Underground wiring will mean sheep can graze beneath the panels.)

Watch out for two key next steps in the first half of this year. They are: a community open day on site; and an offer from our farm builder and electricity retail partner Flow Power to sign up as customers. You have previously signed an expression of interest (EOI) via the RN website so don’t need to do so again. When the retail offer becomes available, Flow Power will email you inviting you to formally sign up.

For more information: www.renewablenewstead.com.au   e: info@renewablenewstead.com.au 

Sustainable Hepburn Newsletter

Find out what’s happening around sustainability and the circular economy  in Hepburn Shire.  The newsletter includes:

• Sustainable Hepburn Day on Saturday 16 March 2024 at Victoria Park in Daylesford;
• Nature Stewards- short educational course which aims to foster a connection with nature and provide ways to get active for the environment. The ten-week program will allow people to discover more about their local environment, connect them with others in their community, and help them learn how to volunteer for nature as a citizen scientist, advocate for nature or a nature guide.  Find out more here. 
• the soon-to-be-released Circular Hepburn Toolkit for Businesses;
• Purchase low-cost e-waste items at Creswick and Trentham Transfer Stations.  Electronic items that pass safety inspections are available through the Resource Recovery Shops (aka tip shops). The function of second-hand items cannot be guaranteed, and they are sold as-is.
• Food and garden organics collection coming soon- a weekly kerbside collection of food and garden organics for township residents in 2024, which will help to divert thousands of tonnes of organic material from landfill.
• Solar Savers program- For more information, including eligibility and the special rates charge, visit Hepburn Shire Solar Savers;
• Establishment of Sustainable Hepburn Community Advisory Committee- a diverse group who represent business and community leadership across the Shire and who share a passion for making our Shire more sustainable.
• Noxious weed guide-  explains which weeds are noxious and ways to manage them, as well as providing images to help residents identify common weeds. The guide is available at transfer stations, customer service hubs and online. 
• Biodiversity assessments inform township planning as part of the ‘Future Hepburn’ program.  For more information check out Future Hepburn

To subscribe to the Sustainable Hepburn newsletter go to: https://vic.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ed7363da7342d76568c38d847&id=ac5ba36264

Repair Cafes

Castlemaine: The Cafe resumes for 2024  on Sunday January 28th, 10am to 1.00pm  at Castlemaine Community House, 30 Templeton St.  For further information join our Facebook group, visit our website or call Chris on 5470 5508.

Repair Cafés are about keeping things out of landfill, saving you money, and giving members of the community the opportunity to volunteer. Bring along broken household appliances, sewing repairs, toys, etc. Learn bicycle maintenance. Join the Mending Circle and swap tips on crochet, darning, knitting, hand sewing, etc. or learn to do these so your clothes continue to be usable. There’s also help with mobile phones, wiping information before recycling, settings etc.

Daylesford: The Cafe resumes for 2024 on Sunday February 18th, 1pm-4pm , this time at Radius Gallery,  76 Main Road, Hepburn Springs, as part of the Sustainable Living Festival. In addition to repairs there’ll be a clothes swap, an exhibition of repurposed and environmental themes; a chance to fix, learn, up-cycle, swap and share knowledge; and a series of talks and speakers to inform and inspire us with sustainable journeys & information.  For further information: Nikki 0432 232 073 or  https://www.facebook.com/daylesfordrepaircafe/

Gold Coin donation.

Castlemaine Seed Library

The First working bee for the year is Thursday 1st Feb 2024. 11am at Castlemaine library, as usual. All welcome! Come along and pack seeds with us.

We are having a quick AGM on Friday 26th January 2024, at 3pm, in the Hub Plot garden.  There will be tea and cake, and we’d love to see you there.

Hands on Seed Saving Workshop – Start the year with some solid, useful training in seed-saving by coming along to our Hands-On Seed-Saving Workshop at Newstead Community Garden.  Gregg Muller will be facilitating the workshop. The garden is ready so the workshop will be  17th February.  

Building Community

Tiny Towns Funding Available

Funding is available through the Tiny Towns Fund for local government and community organisations to deliver infrastructure projects to build stronger local connections. The fund offers grants between $5,000 and $50,000 to deliver infrastructure projects, such as hiking trails, splash parks, playgrounds, barbeques, community hall and library upgrades, public art and more. Applications open until February 25, 2024. Further rounds will be available from 2024. Eligible applicants include community and non-profit groups and councils in towns with under 5,000 people across regional Victoria and outer metro-Melbourne.

To find out more about the fund, visit rdv.vic.gov.au/tiny-towns-fund.

Fixed wireless broadband for Sailors Falls

A fixed wireless broadband project at Sailors Falls will replace existing satellite service providing improved mobile and broadband connectivity to Sailors Falls and surrounding areas in the Hepburn Shire.

The rollout schedule will be published on the carriers’ websites once contracts are executed.

Resident-led Housing

Wombat Post

A community run newsletter for Daylesford, Hepburn Springs and surrounds published every Friday afternoon.

The most recent edition includes an update on Dan Murphy and the VCAT decision: In VCAT case P493/2023 – Banco Properties v Hepburn Shire Council, VCAT has denied the appeal which would have allowed the sign ( to be installed on the corner of Central Springs Road and Bridport Street, Daylesford. VCAT agreed with Council and the objectors that the sign was not in keeping with the aesthetics of the area. The original design of the sign had a height of 6.4 metres, width of 1.6 metres, and a panel area of 10.2 square metres. The sign was to be double sided, and internally illuminated with a lux level of 1500 and have Dan Murphy’s face on it. However, the applicant changed the sign prior to the hearing, to the design below and to reduce the height to 5.0 metres, change the width to a maximum of 3.2 metres, increase the overall area of the sign, and reduce the internal illumination to 1000 Lux.

Local Government News

Have your say with Shape Mount Alexander

Help us prioritise our budget spend for 2024-2025
We have a nifty new online budget tool where you can tell us how you’d allocate our budget. Tell us how much you’d spend on roads, arts, venues, waste management and more. Sign up to Shape Mount Alexander

2024 Community Grants

Do you have an idea for a community project or event? Apply for the next round of Community Grants to get it up and running. Applications open on Monday 22 January and close on Monday 12 February. Apply for a Community Grant

Free pool entry on 26 January

Our outdoor pools in Castlemaine, Harcourt, Maldon and Newstead are open for summer fun. Each pool offers lap-lane swimming, aqua aerobics, swim classes and free entry on Australia Day!

Find out what’s on in the shire

Upcoming Council meeting

Our next Council meeting will be held at 6.30pm on Tuesday 20 February. To raise a question at the Council meeting email the Governance team at governance@mountalexander.vic.gov.au or write to them at PO Box 185, Castlemaine VIC 3450. Messages must be received by 12.00pm on the day of the meeting. You can also Livestream the Council meeting via YouTube

Hepburn Shire Community Grants Program

The Grants program has reopened for Round 2.   Submit a project idea for funding of up to $5,000. Applications close on 12 February 2024.

The Community Grants Guidelines are available at www.hepburn.vic.gov.au/grants.

Workshops and Courses

Systemic family Constellations

When: Sunday February 18th, 10am – 4pm

Where: Wesley Hill Hall

Explore dynamics within yourself and within your family system.

For more information:  amyjonesroberts@yahoo.com.au 

Letters

THE PEOPLE’S BLOCKADE OF THE PORT OF NEWCASTLE, Trevor Scott, Castlemaine

The People’s Blockade of Newcastle Harbour, and the largest coal port in the world, was always going to be big. It was well organised from start to finish by the climate action group, Rising Tide.  Around 500 visitors from all around Australia zeroed in on Newcastle between November 24-27, 2023 and camped at the reserve adjacent to Horseshoe Beach. Up to 2,500 more arrived over the next 4 days to support and take part in the blockade. Camping on the reserve was authorised by the city council and it all went smoothly except for a few motorists who received parking fines.

Horseshoe Beach, at the mouth of the harbour was a colorful and spectacular scene over the weekend of 24th-27^th November. The tiny beach was awash with canoes and kayaks and seaworthy vessels of every shape, size and colour. There were inflatables, yachts, pedal driven vessels and even a few rafts made of bamboo. By agreement with the police and the harbour master, we occupied the shipping lanes and kept the coal ships at bay for 30 hours from 10am on the Saturday morning to 4pm on the Sunday afternoon. The vigil was maintained throughout Saturday night and into the wee small hours of Sunday morning by canoeists and kayakers working in shifts.

What was not so widely known was a secret plan for as many of us as possible to continue to block the shipping lanes after the cutoff time of 4pm Sunday. During the protest, there were many, many people on the beach. Most of the better-known climate action groups were represented: Extinction Rebellion, the Pacific Climate Warriors, Knitting Nanas, Doctors without Borders, Bob Brown Foundation and SS4C (school strikers). The Greens were also represented. Most of these groups had little marquees higher up on the beach. Although the main action was to stop the coal ships, the blockade also included many activities for children such as face painting, sand sculpture, and kite making to name a few. There was even a pirate school taking place in the Kids’ Tent. One of the highlights on Saturday was an inspiring speech by former Greens leader and champion of the Franklin River Blockade, Bob Brown.

On Sunday, the second day of action, at around 3.30pm, we slipped into our canoes and kayaks and headed out. I looked around for a boat but almost all had left the shore. So we were directed to the remaining vessels, a couple of rafts made from 44 gallon drums tied together with bamboo poles and wire ties. They looked seaworthy enough so 5 of us with our life-jackets and paddles, clambered aboard. As the police boats lurked about in the background, we paddled out and joined the flotilla. I felt really empowered to be part of this mass protest. I felt that I was in exactly the right place at the right time. After staying out on the water for at least an hour longer than the 30 hour deadline one of the police boats came alongside and told us that by remaining in the shipping lane we were breaching a maritime law, and that if we didn’t desist, we would be under arrest. At this stage, every one of us was aware that this was our opportunity to make a powerful statement. So we remained in the channel until the police boat pulled alongside and we were informed that we were under arrest. Most of us arrestees were charged and given CAN’s (Court Attendance Notices) for January 2024. 

Food for Thought

Degrowth Central Victoria (and the World) -A collection of writings concerned with the need, philosophies and practicalities of degrowth, with particular emphasis on Central Victoria, Australia, but with relevance to, and sometimes contributions from, the World. Click to read Degrowth Central Victoria (and the World), by Peter Yates- https://degrowthcentralvictoria.substack.com/

Return of the Fourth Bark Petition to Yirrkala – https://thewombatpost.com.au/2023/12/22/return-of-the-fourth-bark-petition-to-yirrkala/

Friends Don’t Let Friends Destroy Themselves – Charles Eisenstein Essay, 29/12/23 – https://charleseisenstein.substack.com/p/friends-dont-let-friends-destroy

Transcript of conversation with my son Philip – Charles Eisenstein– https://charleseisenstein.substack.com/p/transcript-of-conversation-with-my?utm_source=substack&publication_id=427455&post_id=139831485&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&utm_campaign=email-share&isFreemail=true&r=1r08bh 

Post Carbon Institute- Indigenous voices on the great unravelling – with Dilafruz Khonikboyeva, In our conversation, she discusses how people can live through collapse while maintaining their core identities and values, by grieving, but then drying their tears and carrying on.  https://holdingthefire.buzzsprout.com/

Final Snapshots of Planet Local Conference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLcItcv-Djo

Milkwood Permaculture skills and blog : https://www.milkwood.net/

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Swiss Italian Festival – Landscape Art Prizes at Radius Gallery

Congrats to the winning entries from the 2023 Swiss Italian Lanscape Prize:
PETRUS SPRONK AWARD (FIRST PRIZE) JULIE KLUWER; RADIUS EXHIBITION AWARD (SECOND PRIZE)DAVID ROSENDALE; PEOPLES CHOICE AWARD (THIRD PRIZE)PAMELA GLEESON

Radius committee will meet soon to plan our exhibitions for next year.  If you have a body of work ready or a group show you would like to curate reach out now via our online application- radius@designscope.com.au

Art works are available for sale.

Lease extended for Yandoit Cultural 

Yandoit Cultural‘s lease with the Uniting Church has been extended for a further 12 months. This enables the old church in the bush to continue hosting musical concerts, story-telling, Open Mic events, local oral history, film screenings,  and much more.

Musicians who play at Yandoit Cultural express their delight at the excellent acoustics, the intimate feel of the place and also the warm welcome they receive by audiences.  With an emphasis on local, acoustic and quality Yandoit Cultural is keen to support and show-case the breadth of talent across our region.

The community of Yandoit and surrounds greatly appreciates the support provided by the Castlemaine Uniting Church Minister, Church Council, Regional Presbytery in seeking this extension to the lease, enabling our much loved local church building to continue in community hands as a local cultural centre.

Castlemaine and Surrounds Summer Market Art Exhibition

The Market Art exhibition features work from over 100 local artists (ages ranging from 23 to 101!), and is on at the historic Market Building until March.

When: 9.00am-5.00pm, daily (except Chirstmas Day)
Where: Market Building, 44 Mostyn Street, Castlemaine
Cost: Free

Resident-led Housing Workshop

Daylesford Tragedy- Support Available

The tragedy in Daylesford that led to the death of five people and significant injuries to others in Daylesford- This event impacted many within the community. Clinical Psychologist Ingrid Morgan at Springs Medical provided advice for people impacted. Ingrid wrote that it’s OK to feel awful, on edge or jumpy, or want to avoid certain places. This is very typical after experiencing something traumatic and to try to give yourself space to experience these things. Read the rest of Ingrid’s advice on Hepburn shire’s website.

If you need to talk to someone there is help available. Central Highlands Rural Health can be contacted on (03) 5321 6551 to arrange an appointment. Head to Health can also help and are available on 1800 595 212

What’s On at Goldfields Libraries

Lots happening over the pre-Christmas/New Year/holiday period including:

• Free IT help for seniors: Need help navigating the ever-changing digital world?  Access free one-on-one training and support at your local library.

Drop in or give us a call, tell us what you would like to know about or learn, and we’ll make an appointment for you.

• Big Summer Read– JOIN. BORROW. PLAY. WIN- The BIG Summer Read is back! Read 10 books over summer and be in the running to win great prizes, including book vouchers and gift vouchers from EB Games and Smiggle. To get started, visit the library or register online here.  Return your reading record by 31 January for your chance to win a prize (Beanstack App participants will have automatic entry). Prize winners announced Friday 9 February. For children and young people up to 18 years.
• StoryWalks

StoryWalks are a fun and educational activity that places a children’s story (literally a book taken apart!) along a popular walking route in the community. They are a physical activity and a literary experience in one. Goldfields Libraries regularly host StoryWalks across the region. We currently have StoryWalks in:

• Castlemaine – Castlemaine Train Station. West side along Barkers Creek Trail (Gingell St). Download map.
• Heathcote – Heathcote Playspace, 126 HIgh Street. Download map.
• Kyneton – Shared path next to Kyneton Primary School and Kindergarten. Between Victoria and Edgecombe Streets. Download map.

What’s on at Goldfields Libraries

Quick Response Grants 

These Hepburn Shire grants are now open for community groups to apply for a grant up to $1,000. The funds may be used to help facilitate small projects, or provide support towards an unforeseen disruption or urgent issue. Applications are assessed monthly. Learn more

Twilight Artists Market- Castlemaine

The Castlemaine Artists Market lights up the centre of Castlemaine with a wide diversity of artist stalls, demonstrations and workshops in the creative and performing arts each month. There are children’s activities, live music and food and drink available for purchase.

The Twilight Market will be held Saturday 16 December at Western Reserve, 3-7pm.

Bring your kids, bring a friend; come gather on the grass and enjoy the atmosphere of this fantastic local market. It’s the perfect place to pick up a unique and beautiful Christmas present. The Twilight Market will host young singer songwriters involved in the Mt Alexander Shire FREEZA program as well as an exciting participatory workshop in African drumming facilitated by Gianni Boragine.

Newstead Arts Hub- Create a woven boat form

A new workshop with Jodie Goldring  on Sunday 21 January 2024,  10am-4pm at 8A Tivey Street NEWSTEAD

Learn how to use natural materials to weave a decorative boat by adapting the traditional basketry technique of ribbed construction. Weave around a forked branch and cane ribs learning a technique called randing.

All materials included and no experience is needed. Jodie will explain how to collect, dry and prepare your own materials to use at home. Bookings open now

3. Ecology and Environment

On the lookout for Drought Refuge Pools

The North Central Catchment Management Authority (CMA) is on the lookout for drought refuge pools – natural bodies of water that stay full, even during dry times. These refuge pools are often fed by groundwater and provide a valuable home for our native species, particularly small-bodied fish, water bugs, and platypus. Such refuges were worth protecting.

“Landholders are under no obligation to tell us what’s on their land, but if they’re interested in restoring one of these refuges and adding to the lifestyle benefits of their property, we’re willing to help,” Mr Hogan said. “If you think you may have a drought refuge on your property, or know of one, we’d love to hear from you. We have an online survey available where you can tell us all you know about the pool, including where it is.”  The survey is closed but community members can also nominate drought refuges by calling North Central CMA on (03) 5448 7124 or by emailing asha.bannon@nccma.vic.gov.au.

Castlemaine Seed Library

Our last working bee of the year is Thursday 7th Dec 2023 11 am at Castlemaine Library
There is no working bee in January, so we will resume in 2024 in February.

Save the date: Thursday 1st Feb 2024

For more info: https://www.castlemaineseedlibrary.org.au/

The Buzz project: promoting pollinators of central Victoria, is a Connecting Country project that aims to celebrate and expand community knowledge on the smaller heroes of our local ecosystems, the insect pollinators. The project has been running throughout 2023 and has included a presentation with local entomologist Dr Mark Hall covering ‘Native pollinators on your property: who, where and what they do?’ followed by a field trip that took a further look into ‘promoting native pollinators from property to landscape.’

And while that particular type of mistletoe is not native to Australia (and in fact is an environmental weed), there are a number of plants we call mistletoe in Australia that are native and have another species “kissing” underneath them at this time of year. The mistletoes in question are a group of semi-parasitic shrubs, often associated with Eucalypts – Amyema, Muellerina and Dendrophthoe species. The faunal species in question is the Imperial Jezebel butterfly (among others). Read more about this his spectacular butterfly species here

Photo: Imperial Jezebel (Delias harpalyce)

Biolinks Alliance

Biolinks Alliance was formed in 2010 by community conservation groups in Central Victoria who recognised that in order to halt environmental and species decline in Victoria, large-scale landscape restoration was necessary. This scale of work would require coordination of effort and knowledge as well as new and innovative approaches. Here are links to just two of their projects:

Latest news from our Spring Plains Watershed Repair project

Heathcote Local to Landscape pilot project

You too can get your hands earthy and be part of the nature movement here in Central Victoria. We are continually looking for more people to get involved in our work. There are many ways to help. Contact us to find out more about how you can support our organisation. We’d love to hear from you!

North Central Catchment Management

The North Central Chat is a newsletter with info about birds, trees, regenerative agricultural, water catchment levels, river detectives, landcare, nature stewards, soil moisture and much more…

North Central Chat December 2023 | North Central Catchment Management Authority (nccma.vic.gov.au)

Subscribe to the North Central Chat here.

Connecting Country

Mt Franklin Organics

Local Food can Save the World- a short film

Fire Season and Fire Plan

Interview with World Renowned author and trauma expert Dr. Gabor Maté 

Gabor speaks about his own history, including his grandparents who died in the Holocaust, and his current thoughts on Palestine / Israel. In this in-depth interview, he offers a vision for healing personal and global conflict. Dr. Gabor Maté shares his own journey raised Jewish, and also his experiences visit to Gaza multiple times.

Understanding De-growth – a few articles, podcasts and video clips

The Andes-Amazon Ecocultural Corridor

Conversation between Charles Eisenstein and Andes-Amazon Conservency AAC’s Executive Director Rebecca Allen to talk about this conservation work, which is coming from a different paradigm than a lot of environmental philanthropy. The work of the AAC is not about “protecting” land from human beings. Rather, human beings — namely, the four indigenous nations of the region — are understood to be essential parts of the ecosystems that need protection. Secondly, the vision and planning for the protected corridors comes from the local people themselves, not the foreign NGO. Just as no organ of the human body can function if it is cut off from the other organs, so also does the vital organ of earth we call the Amazon depend on surrounding ecosystems.  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Small & Slow Solutions- David Holmgren interviewed by Nate Hagens for the The Great Simplification podcast.

In the episode, David discusses his experience within the permaculture movement and what it might look like for more systems to be designed using permaculture in the future. While often thought to be an agricultural tool, permaculture thinking is meant for designing human systems to be embedded in nature – an important principle for a future where societies will need to re-synchronise with natural flows. What does it mean for permaculture design to ‘scale up’, and how is it different from how we usually think about growing a system? How will permaculture design change as we move through different phases of resource availability? More importantly, how can the ‘small and slow’ foundation of permaculture help human societies adapt to a lower throughput future as we navigate The Great Simplification?

You can watch/listen to the podcast in its entirety here.

Biolinks- Big Restoration – the new movement of hope for nature.

Sharing our expertise in large landscape restoration, Dr Sophie Bickford, Biolinks Alliance Executive Director, was invited to speak at Trust for Nature’s John Paul Memorial Lecture, 
In September, speaking alongside two other esteemed conservation leaders, Keith Bradby, CEO of Gondwana Link and Eamon Nathan, General Manager of Reconnecting Northland – Sophie shared insights into Biolinks Alliance’s work and how we restore and reconnect large landscapes across Central Victoria, amplifying community driven conservation efforts. Make sure to watch it now

When Only Love Remains

A conversation between Charles Eisenstein and Michal Halek: “Her words shine with the kind of wisdom that is available to those for whom death has dispelled all illusions about what is important and what is not. It is my wish that the information that her words, her voice, and her presence carry may reach the darkest corners of our personal and collective consciousness. It is the medicine the world needs right now.”

Here is the audio version on Soundcloud. Here is the video version on YouTube

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The horizon is one of the perceptual fault-lines that runs between white and Aboriginal ways of understanding country. There’s an assumption amongst white observers of traditional Aboriginal painting that the horizon is absent. But it is omnipresent, hovering in the space around the paintings. If you sit beside the painters while they work, you feel the horizon all around you. The strangeness is in our habit of hanging the paintings on walls, which must provoke a sense of vertigo, seeing the ground so precariously tilted. Desert paintings are not closed. Laid on the ground, they become part of the earth, open-sided, leading off to connected journeys. 

(Mahood, Kim: Position Doubtful- Mapping Landscapes and Memories, Scribe, 2016,  p.35)

Welcome to the September/October 2023 edition of Localising Leanganook e-news. With the spring equinox just past, the Dja Dja Wurrung six seasons calendar reminds us that we are in Lawan and Murnong time ( September-October) –  the time for collecting seeds including Murnong (yam daisy) and the time when Lawan (the Mallee fowl) make their nests and lay their eggs.  This edition includes another feature article-  about the Castlemaine Rites of Passage-  as well as a diverse array of events and activities within central Victoria to enlighten, inspire and uplift. We hope you enjoy it.

We welcome  suggestions and information for future editions- email- nikki.marshall@mmnet.com.au

Nikki, Samantha, Keppel and  Laurel

Contents

Feature article – Castlemaine Rites of Passage- John Terry

What’s happening in Central Victoria?

1. Arts and Culture
2. Building Community
3. Ecology and Environment
4. First Nations
5. Food Sovereignty, Security and Farming
6. Sustainable Economies
7. Sustainable Living
8. Democracy and Local Government

Letters- (none this edition but we welcome your letters)

Food For Thought

Feature Article: Castlemaine Rites of Passage

Castlemaine Rites of Passage is a group of local people, all volunteers, who have seen the lack of rites of passage in our community and chosen to do something about this. In 2010 and 2011 men from a community group in South Australia were invited to Castlemaine to run rites of passage events for boys and men with the intention of seeding a local group. Since that time the local process has continued and evolved, focusing on acknowledgement, support and celebration of participants as guiding principles.

Rites of passage are intrinsic to many cultures around the world. In these traditional communities boys on reaching puberty are taken into rites of passage both to acknowledge significant transition they are moving through and to acknowledge each young person’s uniqueness. There is ample evidence that young men could well find their own ways, often involving risk taking behaviour, if adults in their community don’t provide rites of passage experiences for them. Arne Rubinstein an Australian GP who has developed rites for young men, notes that many boys do not relate to images of being a man commonly portrayed in media and on the internet, which can leave them feeling unseen and trying to play out roles that are not authentic to themselves.

The Castlemaine program centres around a long weekend shared together out in bush in the local area, with other activities leading into and following this. Participants are challenged in different ways whilst spending time connecting with men, the natural environment and themselves. Participants are supported to be present to the challenges as well as joys of transitioning into manhood in our society. The program involves families and the broader community in support of the boys and men participating.

As well as events for teenage young men and adult men, Castlemaine Rites of Passage has recently begun holding events for teenage girls and women. For more information visit the website: https://castlemainerop.org/  

(John Terry- Chewton)

1. Arts and culture

Climate Concert- Castlemaine

This concert will bring the community together with music for climate justice. Being involved in the fight against the climate crisis can be overwhelming and depressing, so this concert will uplift the community with music, encouraging people to take action.

When: 11 November, starting at 6:30

Where: Goods Shed on Kennedy Street in Castlemaine

Donation: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-organise-a-climate-concert

If you are interested in supporting us to organise this, please get in touch by emailing:  arlofoynhill@gmail.com

School Strike for Climate Film Fundraiser 

What: Movie-  How to Blow up a Pipeline, hosted by Central Vic Climate Action, Castlemaine SS4C, and the Theatre Royal.

When: this coming Thursday the 28th, at 7:30pm.

Where: Theatre Royal, Castlemaine

We are heading out of the hottest ever recorded summer in the northern hemisphere, and bracing for the impacts of an extreme El Niño summer on this continent. This film explores the validity of extreme actions in addressing the climate crisis, the question of terrorism, and the use of property damage and sabotage of fossil fuel infrastructure as activist tactics. It challenges the narrative of individual responsibility for the climate emergency.

You can buy tickets for the screening on this link. Funds raised from this screening will go to our School Strike 4 Climate group in Castlemaine, to help us organise our Climate Concert on November 11th, 6:30pm at the Goods Shed. Attending the movie screening will really support us to make the concert a success! I’ll send out another email about the concert soon, and the link to buy tickets for the climate concert is here.

Newstead Arts Hub- Artists’s Talks

Finding a voice: Spring Series of artists’ talks 

• Melinda Harper – Thurs 7 September, 5.30 pm – BOOK HERE
• David Frazer, Thurs 12 October 5.30pm – BOOK HERE
• Kynan Sutherland, Thurs 9 November 5.30pm – BOOK HERE

These talks are free, but please book to help with catering.

Django Fretts Gypsy Jazz Quartet returns to Yandoit Cultural

When: Saturday October 21^st,  5.00pm

Where: Yandoit Cultural, Uniting Church Road (off High Street), Yandoit

Entry by donation

The Django Fretts are a gypsy jazz quartet from Castlemaine. They are returning to Yandoit after their much-loved concert in August last year. Formed in 2015, the Fretts have an extensive repertoire of tunes taken from the Django Reinhardt songbook as well as a few American jazz favourites. They have played extensively around the goldfields region, honing their up-tempo sound at markets, gigs, and festivals. A set from the Django Fretts will evoke the mood of 30’s Paris with authentic gypsy jazz melodies and acoustic improvisations.

For more information or to book: nikki.marshall@mmnet.com.au or  mobile- 0432 232 073, or https://www.facebook.com/yandoitcultural

Swiss Italian Festa returns to Hepburn

When: 26-29 October 2023

Where: assorted venues around Hepburn Springs and Yandoit

The early Swiss Italian settlers came in significant numbers to the towns of Hepburn Springs, Hepburn and Daylesford, and surrounding townships such as Shepherd’s Flat, Yandoit, Guildford and Blampied. These early Swiss Italian settlers came for the gold, but also to escape the poverty and political upheaval in their home regions. Many of the early Swiss Italians stayed on because this region reminded them so much of home. They played a key part in the preservation of the mineral springs and spas which are the region’s trademark, not to mention, the early vineyards, wineries, olive groves, bakeries and dairies, and brought many cultural and culinary traditions. Most notably, they established Australia’s first macaroni factory at Hepburn Springs, and created the bullboar sausage, using local ingredients but based on their homeland traditions.

Learn about, experience and celebrate this heritage : https://www.facebook.com/swissitalianfesta/

 Our Swiss Italian History, Music and Stories at Yandoit Cultural

When:  Sunday October 29^th, 1.00pm

Where: Yandoit Cultural, Uniting Church Road (off High Street), Yandoit

Entry by donation

As part of  the Swiss Italian Festa,  2023. Yandoit and surrounding hamlets, was home to many Swiss-Italian migrants who settled during the 1850’s. Some mined for gold,  some created farms, some set up bakeries, some built houses from local stone, while others grew grapes for wine.  A number of the original families have remained in the neighbourhood for generations. This special event, as part of the Swiss Italian Festa, will bring together decendants from some of the original Swiss Italian settlers, to share memories, tell stories and play music they brought to Australia. There might even be a bus tour to some of the stone houses in the area.

For more information or to book: nikki.marshall@mmnet.com.au or  mobile- 0432 232 073, or https://www.facebook.com/yandoitcultural

Early Music Saltbush Ensemble to play Daylesford’s Christchurch

When: Saturday September 30th, 2.30pm

Where: 54 Central Springs Road, Daylesford

The Saltbush Ensemble collaborate with various Early Music artists developing unique and varied programs for an Australian audience and responding to an increasing insatiable thirst for historical or Early Music The name of the ensemble was inspired by the native Australian Saltbush plant which grows in many varied environments and is particularly renowned for its rejuvenating properties in salt ravaged landscapes. Like a Saltbush, the rekindling of Early Music in Australia is rejuvenating the traditional classical music scene bringing new perspectives and repertoire into the fold.

The  concert will commence at 2.30pm at Christ Church on Saturday 30 September . Visit the Christ Church Concerts Facebook
page to book https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1040691

On the couch with Beck Lister

Where: Sunday October 29th, 4pm

When: Radius Art Gallery, Main St  Hepburn Springs

For more information: Anvil Productions-  https://www.anvilproductions.com.au/

Rebecca: 0409 201262 or Joanne: 0422 380700

Northern Arts Hotel

PROGRAM AT THE COOLROOM SUMMARY
MUSIC GIGS [Usually at 7.30pm]
JEFF LANG & LUKE WATT | Fri 22 Sept [sold out]
THE CARTWHEELS | Sat 23 Sept
ANDY BAYLOR & The Central Victorian Serenaders | Fri 29 Sept
NICK ELLERBY | Single Launch ‘This Love’ with BRECKIN | Fri 6 Oct
LET’S GET LOST | Tribute to Chet Baker | Sat 7 Oct
MIDNIGHT MANTRA | with Melinda Traves | Sat 14 Oct
CASTLEMAINE CHAMBER PLAYERS | Heaven & Earth II | Sat 28 Oct
FILM
NO SUNDAY MOVIE MATINEE FOR NOW
CDOC | Senses of Cinema: Screening + Q&A with John Hughes  | Sat 7 Oct 2pm
SPOKEN WORD & REGULAR GROUPS
Guildford Folk Club | Thurs 21 Sept at 7.30pm
PoetiCas with Ross Donlon | Sat 23 Sept at 2.30pm
CFU presents The Tao of Civilisation | Mon 2 October at 7pm
OTHER
Vale Lok Thornton
Another Roadside Attraction | Wimble St Wall | Nightly

Newstead Arts Hub – Poetry @ the Hub with Melbourne poet Peter Bakowski and inspire your inner poet. 

When: Friday 27 October, 7.00 – 8.30pm  
Where: Newstead Arts Hub
Booking:BOOK NOW: $20 or $15 concession.

His pep poetry talk will follow the regular Shut Up and Write Session from 4-6pm on Friday 27 October – so please stay on – bring your own dinner or food to share and we will order in pizza before the Newstead Arts Hub Poetry Pep Talk Event begins at 7pm.

Newstead Arts Hub- Random Weaving

Create a contemporary basket using the modern basketry technique of random weaving, guided by expert basket maker Jodie Goldring.
When: Sat. 21 October, 10am-3.30pm
Where: Newstead Arts Hub
$130, includes all materials pre-prepared by Jodie Golding 
BOOK NOW: for more details and to book go to our website

 

Daylesford Ceramic Collection and  Exhibition – 2023

Opening : Sat 16th September 3-5pm

Exhibition Dates : 16th of til the 30th September

Where: Radius Gallery, Main Street Hepburn Springs

The Daylesford Ceramic Collection is a celebration of the amazing array of local artistic practitioners who use clay as their medium to express, explore and create.

Meet Author-  Chris Hammer

An opportunity to meet leading Australian crime novelist Chris Hammer in person in Castlemaine. A journalist for more than 30 years, Chris’ books have atmospheric Australian settings, a range of colourful characters, intricate plots, descriptive language and emotional depth.

When: Monday October 9th, 5.30 -6.30 including book sales and signings.

Where: Castlemaine Library

Lake of Scars film screening

Explores the beautiful, mysterious, scarred trees, middens and stone scatters of Lake Boort. Presented by the late, great Uncle Jack Charles.

When: Thursday 5 October, 5-6:30pm

Where: On the big screen in the Phee Broadway Theatre, Castlemaine.

2. Building community

Local Futures Summit

When: 29 Sep – 1 Oct
Where: Bristol, UK and online
Program & booking link: https://planet-local-summit.localfutures.org/programme/

Local Futures is dedicated to renewing ecological and social well-being by strengthening communities and local economies worldwide.

Drawing on Local Futures networking and movement building over four decades, the three-day Summit will be our biggest, boldest and most international event yet. It will bring together leading minds and activists grappling with our planet’s most pressing challenges.

You can buy tickets for a single day, for two days, or for all three. And, for those unable to join us in Bristol, our affordable livestream ticket offers the chance to tune into approximately 16 hours of content, including all plenary sessions. (Free livestream tickets are available for those who need them.) Book tickets

Full Planet Local Summit program available here. Program highlights  include:

● Pat McCabe (Woman Stands Shining) explores the links between community and the sacred.
● Charles Eisenstein joins Bayo Akomolafe and Manish Jain in conversation.
● Mika Tsutsumi, a leading investigative journalist from Japan, examines tech dictatorship in the plenary session: ‘The Matrix of the Global Economy’.
● Activists from five continents present their projects in a rapid-fire format.
● Actress Nathalie Kelley performs ‘Visions of the Future: A Short Play in Two Acts’.

And here’s a snapshot of summit break-out sessions (day one):

1) In Search of Wisdom for a Broken World- — with Iain McGilchrist and Bayo Akomolafe

2) From Deadlihoods to Alivelihoods- — with Manish Jain and Salim Dara

3) What Can I Do? Taking Meaningful Action-— open space facilitated by Fiona McInnes-Craig

4) Leading the Way to Local Food Prosperity- — with Jon Jandai, Saad Dagher, Nelson Mudzingwa, Ruby van der Wekken and Morag Gamble

5) Living Lightly Locally- — with Keri Hopeward

6) Right Here, Right Now! Strengthening Local Economies — with Jay Tompt and Diego Isabel La Moneda

Offers and Needs Market

The Offers and Needs Market is one of the most effective methods for revealing local wealth, rapidly deepening connections, and regenerating economies. In the two-hour guided process, folks meet to identify and exchange their passions, knowledge, skills, resources, and opportunities. A powerful yet simple process which shifts the narrative around community resources, creating a culture of trust, empathy, and connection. 

Where: Castlemaine Community House
When: 12 November, 10 – 12am
More details: contact Samantha at samantha.wittenberg@gmail.com or 0490501671

Hepburn Seniors Festival

FREE ‘tickets’ for yourself and one friend (over the age of 55): https://www.hepburn.vic.gov.au/events

On 3 and 4 October 2023 (during Seniors Festival), at the Town Hall, the Embolden 2023 National Symposium on Ageism and Respect for Older People is coming to Daylesford!

This symposium, by Celebrate Ageing Celebrate Ageing – Building Respect for Older People is Australia’s only national event that aims to combat ageism and build respect for older people, by emboldening and building the capacity and confidence of service providers, policy makers, community leaders and the older people within our community.

To Register for this event and to obtain tickets go to: Embolden2023 National Symposium | Humanitix

Ticket prices as follows: Waged – $650.00   Unwaged – $70.00

Eddie Wyman, Positive Ageing Officer
Mobile: 0438406538 • Phone: 0353216494 • Email: ewyman@hepburn.vic.gov.au

Housing for the aged information session

One in six people experiencing homelessness in Australia are aged over 55, with older women adversely affected. Learn about risk factors for homelessness and where you can go to access support.

When: Monday 16 October, 1-3pm

Where: Castlemaine Library 

The Wombat Post

Daylesford and Hepburn’s independent community on-line weekly newsletter connecting the community. You can subscribe and receive a link each Friday afternoon in your inbox.

https://thewombatpost.com.au/

The Old is Beautiful Workshop – Hepburn U3A

When: Thursday October 5th

Where: Daylesford Neighbourhood Centre

A free workshop.

For more information: https://www.dncentre.org.au/

North Central Chat

Here’s links to both the September and the October 2023 edition of the North Central Chat, featuring Biodiversity Month,  Aussie Bird Count, National Water Week and our very own Chicks in the Sticks.  There’s also online courses for Environmental Volunteers, including some webinars next week on targeted recruitment and engaging young people; engaging diverse groups in environmental volunteering; and an introduction to Indigenous cultural awareness.

North Central Chat (nccma.vic.gov.au)

North Central Chat September 2023 | North Central Catchment Management Authority (nccma.vic.gov.au)

Save the date for Chicks in the Sticks –Saturday October 28th.

Jumpleads Team- supporting local initiatives

Jumpleads is a social enterprise that ‘jump starts’ arts and community initiatives to change cultures and invigorate communities for a better future.

Find out more: www.jumpleJumpleads NFP . It includes Make a Change & Pop Up Art programs  ads.net

Jumpleads is responding to calls from people making a positive impact in their community, such as Bendigo Sustainability Group, pictured here.

3. Ecology and Environment

Castlemaine Free University- the Dao of Civilisation- Freya Matthews

 

What: A rare opportunity to hear from Freya Matthews, one of Australia’s most important eco-philosophers. Freya imagines our transformation to an ecological civilisation supporting the biosphere.

When: Monday October 2nd, 2023, 6.30 for 7pm start

Where: Northern Arts Hotel, 359 Barker St, Castlemaine

A free event

 

 

Seeking landholder for mammal surveys: MSGV

The Mammal Survey Group of Victoria has recently contacted us, as they are seeking sites on private land for wildlife surveys, including phascogales and sugar gliders!

Please see the information below provided by the Mammal Survey Group of Victoria and contact Kathy directly if you are interested in being involved.

If you are curious about the mammals in your area and own a property with a significant amount of native vegetation or have undertaken revegetation activities, we would love to hear from you. Property owners and families are welcome to participate.

Email Kathy Zonnevylle kathyz@optusnet.com.au for a chat. For more information about the Mammal Survey Group of Victoria, please click here

Recording the large old trees of central Victoria

Connecting Country has a mapping portal, aimed at helping community citizen scientists map the old, and often large, trees of Central Victoria. Database entries have been fed in over the past 12 months and we have now reached 25 large old trees entered into the portal. The majority of the entries have been around the Maldon, Welshmans Reef, Chewton, Castlemaine and Guildford areas, with a variety of citizen scientists taking some excellent photos and providing data about the tree species, age, height and habitat values.

The interactive mapping portal is part of Connecting Country’s larger project, ‘Regenerate before it’s too late‘ , engaging the community in the importance of old trees and how to protect them.  Over the next two years (2024-2025), we will continue to host community workshops and develop engagement resources. We will also help local landholders with practical on-ground actions to protect their large old trees and ensure the next generation of large old trees across the landscape.

We are asking the community, including landholders, Landcarers and land managers, to map their favourite old trees across our region. Anyone can access Connecting Country’s new online mapping portal. The portal uses BioCollect, an advanced but simple-to-use data collection tool developed by the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) and its collaborators. BioCollect helps users collect field biodiversity data for their own projects, while allowing the data to be easily copied into the ALA, where it can be publicly available for others to use in research, policy and management. This allows individual projects to collectively contribute to science across Australia.

For more information and to join the mapping team : https://connectingcountry.org.au/large-old-trees-growing-in-the-cloud-or-mapping-large-old-trees-progress-but-more-needed

iNaturalist Workshop

When: Friday October 6th, 2023

Where: Castlemaine Community House

Local naturalist and Castlemaine Field Naturalist Club member Euan Moore will hold the workshop and will cover a range of skills including: How to set up an iNaturlist account and profile, How to upload photos to iNaturlist; How to reach out to naturalists and scientists on iNaturlist to confirm, verify or identify your sightings.

iNaturalist is an online platform that allows all curious citizen scientists to record sightings and identify all kinds of species including, insects, birds, mammals, reptiles, plants, sea life, coral, and fungi.

Natural Newstead Blog

Geoff Parks regular blog on local birdlife is well worth subscribing to. Here’s a taste of the September 26th blog:

On the subject of migrants

In some recent posts I’ve remarked about the arrival of spring migrants, a number of which have now appeared – White-browed Woodswallow and Rufous Songlark, to name two.

A less obvious species, but a migrant nonetheless, is the Australian Reed-Warbler. This plain-looking songster can be found in wetlands areas wherever there is tall cover, such as that provided by reeds and cumbungi.

They generally arrive in mid-September each year and announce their presence with rich, scolding calls as they dart between patches of vegetation. While somewhat furtive they will often appear at the top of a plant stem to investigate their surroundings. In my experience they disappear from local breeding sites in early autumn and apparently move north for the winter, although small numbers do remain in some years.

To subscribe: https://geoffpark.wordpress.com/

Alliance for Responsible Mining Regulation (ARMR)

This group includes individuals and groups from central Victoria concerned about the expansion of mining. The group has prepared a 10 point plan. Lock the gate signs are also available. If you wish to be kept informed or to contribute, email armrvic@gmail.com

 

 

4. First Nations

Large old tree walk: with Uncle Rick Nelson – sold out

 

Although sold out, please register your interest for future events through the booking link.

This cultural walk is part of Connecting Country’s larger project, ‘Regenerate before it’s too late‘
This is a free event for limited numbers, with lunch provided.

For catering and logistical purposes, please register your attendance – click here

When: Saturday 14 October 2023 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Where: Dry Diggings Heritage Park, Golden Point 3451 (exact location will be revealed once you book)

 

Voice to Parliament Information session

What’s On program  All events are free, but many require bookings.

Voice to Parliament Referendum: Information Session 

What: Join Public Law Lecturer Dr Balawyn Jones as she discusses what the Voice is, what a Referendum is, and how they will impact our Australian Constitution from a legal perspective. Ask all the questions you need to to feel informed to vote on October 14

When: Wednesday 4 October, 5.30-6.30pm
Where: Castlemaine library
Booking: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/voice-referendum-information-session-tickets-709235260757\

Democracy for Dinner

Democracy for Dinner supports a Yes outcome in the upcoming referendum to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. We came to this position by listening to local First Nations voices, individually and organisations, by reading the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the Dja Dja Wurrung DJAARA Statement, and meeting to discuss how this aligns with our goals as an organisation. Ultimately, we came to the view that a Yes outcome from the referendum is the best for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, for all Australians and for democracy in Australia.

A ‘Yes’ outcome is good for democracy – https://mailchi.mp/…/a-yes-outcome-is-good-for-democracy

First Nations Artist Commission – Call for applications!

Castlemaine Library has an exciting opportunity for First Nations artists living or working on Djaara Country.

Click here to request a full copy of the Expression Of Interest, with Artist Brief, budget, and details of how to apply.
Applications close 14 October 2023.

Walking Together Article

Prepared by Floria for Friends of Nalderun

This edition is entitled Place and Context

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aLy6TL5LHIQ7oNzPbfSrTWIOp7AH9GLFNSZ1hh2F4Os/edit

5. Food Sovereignty and Food Security

Hepburn Wholefoods Collective

Opening hours: 
Mondays 9.30-11.30am
Wednesdays 2-4pm
Thursdays 3-5pm
Saturdays 11am-1pm

Location: Hepburn Wholefoods Collective, 11 Perrins Street, Daylesford
Website: https://www.hepburnwholefoods.org.au/
Membership: $40 per year, $20 per year concession, FREE for volunteers.
If you are able to volunteer time as a shop attendant, fresh food wrangler and shop beautifier, digital content creator & storyteller or cleaner, please contact members@hepburnwholefoods.org.au

Earlier this year HWC was invited to participate in a project with the Open Food Network, along with 6 other Community Food Enterprises (CFEs), to assess the needs and gather evidence of the public value of the Victorian CFE sector. You can read the full report here, and also view an infographic of HWC’s impact here.

TwoFold Bakehouse

Delicious sourdough bread baked in a wood-fired oven in Daylesford. You can order and have your bread delivered every Thursday to Kyneton, Yandoit  as well as pick up from Daylesford.  Every fortnight TwoFold bakers are at the Sunday Daylesford market. Monthly subscriptions are available.

By ordering Thursday bread you are joining our bread family of farmers, millers and bakers who work to regenerate the land and value small scale, local food systems. Your support means we can bake to order, with no bread going to waste. https://twofoldbakehouse.com/

Mt Franklin Organics

Fresh produce, seedlings and seeds available.  Florian is now back at the Daylesford Sunday market.

For more information or to subscribe to Florian’s newsletter: https://www.facebook.com/mtfranklinorganics/

Natural Beekeeping Course

Where: Castlemaine

6. Sustainable Economies

New Economy Network Australia NENA 2023 CONFERENCE “LIFE AFTER CAPITALISM?”

When: 17-19 November
Where: Canberra
See program and register: https://www.neweconomy.org.au/nena-events/conferences/2023-conference/registration/

Anyone wanting to join a group to share accommodation in Canberra and transport from the local areas can email samantha.wittenberg@gmail.com

WEBINAR RECORDINGS NOW AVAILABLE! Visit our website to watch and listen to our amazing events held so far this year!
CLICK HERE TO READ THE JULY JOURNAL!  As always, we hope these articles provoke discussion and debate, and provide hope and insight into how we can build a new, just and sustainable economy. Please get in touch with the Journal team if you are interested in contributing to these discussions.
If you are a NENA member, join the directory to promote your work!

The Degrowth Network Australia (DNA)

Castlemaine has started up a Degrowth group. Contact Anitra Nelson for more information: anitra.nelson@unimelb.edu.au

The DNA brings together people interested in degrowth from all around the country, to discuss degrowth issues, to share what we are up to and to plan! Meetings are on the second Wednesday of every month, from 12-2pm (East Coast/AEST), 10am-12pm (WA), 11.30am-1.30pm (SA)

Email degrowthnetwork@proton.me if you have questions and wish to be added to the email list. Next meeting : 12pm AEST Wednesday 11 October.

For more information: www.facebook.com/degrowthnetworkaustralia

Also, for folks outside of Melbourne, we are hosting a degrowth spring festival on October 8th and you are all welcome to join. You can find more info on the Facebook event here – www.facebook.com/events/s/degrowth-spring-festival/683265497197775/

7. Sustainable Living Resources

Glass recycling available at Castlemaine and Maldon

Did you know that glass bottles and jars are accepted at the Castlemaine and Maldon transfer stations?

Drop them off in the purple bins so they can be recycled separately and turned into new products.

How to recycle your glass

Democracy and Local Government

‌Mt Alexander Shire Open Day and Meet councillors and staff ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Subscribe here to receive regular emails with the latest news and information from Hepburn Shire Council.

Milkwood Permaculture Living Handbook

This handbook is a small offering to help you cultivate big change by creating more connection and purpose in your daily life, with you as a valued resident of your ecosystem, at its centre. ‘This book is all about igniting the can-do, cultivating the possible, calming the chaos, delivering the doable. And, above all else, connecting and caring for the community. It’s a home, a safe place to come and grow hope in what is a challenging world.’ Costa Georgiadis

https://www.milkwood.net/2023/08/15/a-peek-inside-the-milkwood-permaculture-living-handbook/

Fact Checking the Yes/No Pamphlet

Revegetation in a changing climate

The event was recorded by  Ally from Saltgrass Podcasts.

Artists and the Practice of Agriculture: Politics and Aesthetics of Food Sovereignty in Art Since 1960

Deep Listening to Nature- a new book- Andrew Skeoch

https://listeningearth.com/andrewskeoch/book_about.html

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