Bendigo Magazine - Issue 68 - Spring 2022

ISSUE 68 | SPRING 2022 bendigomagazine.com.au

creative

CONVERSATIONS TALENTED TRIO BEHIND NEW PODCAST

passion

LITERARY

EXPANDING THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF BOOKS

ISSN 1833-1289 AUD $5.95 (Inc. GST)

Sedgwick Sanctuary ANIMALS FIND A HOME ON THE RANGE

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GOLDEN DRAGON MUSEUM...

A LIVING HISTORY!

Ph: 03 5441 5044 www.goldendragonmuseum.org

Image: Yar Loong 1939 Collection: State Library of Victoria.

MANAGING EDITOR Dustin Schilling

dear reader,

PHOTOGRAPHERS Leon Schoots, AJ Taylor and Daniel Soncin WRITERS Dianne Dempsey, Geoff Hocking, Lauren Mitchell, Raelee Tuckerman and Sue Turpie

Spring is a magical month in Bendigo and the surrounding region. It’s when the city’s gardens become awash with colour, the dreary grey of winter makes way for brighter blue skies, and there are even more amazing things to see and do on the event calendar.

CONTRIBUTORS Beau Cook, Stephanie Dunne, Anna Knight and Lisa Chesters

The Bendigo Blues and Roots Festival is back on for 2022, while the Bendigo Jockey Club is preparing for its largest race in the Spring Racing Carnival.

PRINT MANAGER Nigel Quirk

Away from the festivals and public gatherings, many people are achieving wonderful things in their chosen fields of interest.

This issue we look at Guide Dogs Victoria, particularly the training of one special pup who could change the life of a visually impaired resident.

Hobby fossickers show that there’s still plenty of gold in them hills surrounding Bendigo. And the younger generation of one family, who spent their youth at the pool tables in Eaglehawk, are taking their skills to the world stage.

A young scientist is using the knowledge gathered studying at La Trobe University to make her name in biological science, while the printed word is still alive and well here thanks to two literary-based businesses with a passion for books.

So this season, enjoy the sunshine, fine foods, wineries, cafes, theatres and galleries, and so much more that Bendigo and the region offer.

Take care and happy reading.

FROM THE TEAM

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ADVERTISING advertising@bendigomagazine.com.au PO Box 5003 Bendigo, VIC 3550 Phone: 0438 393 198

Bendigo Magazine takes all care but accepts no responsibility for unsolicited materials. Bendigo Magazine holds copyright to all content unless otherwise stated.

ISSN 1833-1289.

While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this publication, the publisher accepts no responsibility or liability for any errors, omissions or resultant consequences including any loss or damage arising from reliance on information in this publication.

The views expressed are not necessarily endorsed by the editor or the publisher.

Visit the Living Arts Space

Showcasing works created by local artists from Bendigo and the central Victorian region, the Living Arts Space presents exhibitions, workshops and artist talks throughout the year for a unique visitor experience celebrating the region’s contemporary arts, culture and heritage.

Find us on

Image credit: Daikota Nelson

Edible gifts Unearth locally grown and produced delights from the City and region of Gastronomy. Indulge with delicious treats to take home and savour your Bendigo experience.

Can’t decide on a gift for that special person in your life? Come in and let us help you create a one-of-a-kind, City of Gastronomy hamper.

Shop in-store or online.

Gift wrapping and click and collect available. www.uniquelybendigo.com.au

Make your own hamper • Local produce • Hand crafted items • Something for every budget • Complimentary gift wrapping

BENDIGO VISITOR CENTRE Open 9am to 5pm daily (except Christmas Day) 51-67 Pall Mall, Bendigo • 03 5434 6060 • tourism@bendigo.vic.gov.au www.bendigoregion.com.au • #Explore Bendigo • Find us on

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contents ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

PEOPLE & LIFE 20

Rescue ranger - Matty’s Sanctuary

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Behind the mic - Cogho

47

Big things grow - Bendigo trees

56

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Listen up - Country Creatives podcast

Born to lead - Lynda and Banjo

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The humanising world of books - Northern Books and Bookish

Glistening prospects - Bendigo gold prospectors

68

80

For artists’ sake - Maldon Artist Network

Much to smile about - Amanda Leske

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Bushmaster in Ukraine - Lisa Chesters

76

The wonders of science - Abbey Milligan

FOOD & WINE & HOME 84

Meat in the sandwich - Recipe with Beau Cook

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Keen for dijon - Bendigo memories

86

Dates to celebrate - Wine tasting

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Right on cue - Joseph, Scarlet and Amelia Evans

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BENDIGO CUP FESTIVITIES BACK IN ACTION Gather your mates and dress in your race-day best for this year’s Apiam Bendigo Cup, the first in two years where spectators have been allowed. World-class horses, trainers and riders will converge on Central Victoria to compete in the 2400m race, with a record prize pool of $500,000 on offer for the 2022 winners.

Since its inauguration, attending the Apiam Bendigo Cup has become a must for anyone who loves country racing. Punters will once again anxiously await the results of the thoroughbred race, won last year by Warrnambool-based gelding Wentwood.

There’ll be just as much action off the field as on. The Bendigo Jockey Club boasts a spectacular landscape and facilities, with the new trackside beer garden sure to please fun-loving racegoers. Fashion is always considered one of the highlights of the event, and the most stylish will have the chance to strut their stuff on the catwalk.

The not-to-be-missed Apiam Bendigo Cup will be held at the Apiam Bendigo Racecourse on Wednesday, October 26, with gates opening at 10.30am. To purchase tickets or hospitality packages, head to country.racing.com/bendigo

fun and festivities From the sport of kings to the best in blues music, the region puts its best foot forward with things to see and do.

CIRCUS SET TO STUN AT ULUMBARRA Adelaide-based acrobatics and physical theatre ensemble Gravity & Other Myths prides itself on pushing the boundaries of what a circus can be, and its show Backbone is no exception.

Backbone has been designed to test the limits of physical, emotional, individual and collective strength. Audiences will be left in awe of the performers as they display strength and discipline, putting their bodies on the line for the sake of the circus.

The gravity and logic-defying show premiered to critical acclaim in 2017 at the Adelaide Festival and is touring Europe throughout August and September, before heading back to Australia for a string of shows across Victoria, New South Wales, and the ACT in October and November.

Gravity & Other Myths artists have been performing together since 2009, achieving international success by creating shows unlike any other. Their first piece of work, A Simple Space, has toured in 34 countries and received countless awards.

Backbone by Gravity & Other Myths will be performed at Ulumbarra Theatre on November 9 and 10. For tickets, visit bendigoregion.com.au

Photograph by Darcy Grant

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Storytelling

BE INSPIRED

BY THE ART OF

Bangarra Dance Theatre SandSong: Stories from the Great Sandy Desert 9 & 10 September • Ulumbarra Theatre “Heart-stopping” – The Sunday Telegraph “A profound experience” – The Australian SandSong, inspired by the Kimberley and Great Sandy Desert regions of Western Australia, tells a unique story of Place and the survival of its People.

Image credit: Daniel Boud

Sunshine Super Girl

by Andrea James Produced by Performing Lines

1 October • Ulumbarra Theatre

An Australian story about a Blak girl from the bush who, with the help of her loving family and the unlikely support of an outback farming town, rises to become a world tennis champion at the tender age of 19–making Evonne Goolagong a household name.

Image credit: Jamie James

Visit gotix.com.au for more information and to book tickets!

BLUES AND ROOTS FINALLY BACK IN BENDIGO This year’s Bendigo Blues and Roots Music Festival is sure to be a big one. After three postponements due to COVID-19 impacts, the festival returns to its usual November timeslot to celebrate its 10th anniversary.

Venues such as the Old Church on the Hill, MacKenzie Quarters, and The Capital theatre will be filled with live music and good vibes as part of the long-awaited festival. Fans of the blues and roots genres will rejoice at the stellar line-up of more than 100 Australian and international artists, including many who are local to the Bendigo region.

A full-day concert in Rosalind Park serves as the main feature of the event, with families encouraged to relax on the lawn and take in the tunes of over a dozen artists. The Blues Tram will also run throughout the four days, offering a unique way to enjoy live music.

A dedicated volunteer committee and crew will ensure the festival runs smoothly, as invigorating the local music scene and nurturing a sustainable event remain at the forefront of its objectives.

Photograph by Miguel Rios

The Bendigo Blues and Roots Music Festival takes place from November 3 to 6 at various venues in town. Head to bendigoblues.com to purchase tickets.

JAZZ FANS TREATED TO SPECIAL SHOW Acclaimed Australian jazz musician James Morrison will join forces with the City of Greater Bendigo Brass Band for a fundraising concert at Ulumbarra Theatre in October. It’s an afternoon that jazz and brass aficionados won’t want to miss.

James Morrison has had a long and impressive career, starting when he was a teenager. Since then, he has performed all over the world and released numerous celebrated albums, cementing himself as one of Australia’s top jazz musicians.

The City of Greater Bendigo Brass Band has been bringing music to the region since its first iteration, the Sandhurst Volunteer Band, was formed in 1862. A beloved fixture at many community activities, they are excited to perform with James Morrison at this special event.

Proceeds from the concert will benefit Central Victoria’s vibrant performing arts sector through the Ulumbarra Foundation, the Rotary Club of Bendigo South’s scholarship program for high school students, and the City of Greater Bendigo Brass Band.

The Rotary Club of Bendigo South and the Ulumbarra Foundation present James Morrison with the Bendigo Brass Band for one show at Ulumbarra Theatre on October 9. Visit bendigoregion. com.au to purchase tickets.

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HEATHCOTE WINE TO SHINE AT FESTIVAL Over two days in October, the Heathcote Agricultural Showground will be transformed into a wine lover’s paradise. Forty local winemakers are set to showcase their signature wines to about 4000 people from Victoria and interstate at the annual Heathcote Wine and Food Festival.

The Heathcote region has a reputation for producing exceptional wine, especially its internationally renowned Shiraz. The festival, organised by the Heathcote Winegrowers Association, attracts many enthusiastic regulars eager to sample the new releases from their favourite wineries.

PREPARE FOR PRINTMAKING FUN Older community members are invited to attend a fun and relaxed printmaking workshop, hosted by Bendigo Art Gallery, during the annual Victorian Seniors Festival.

Printmaking Without a Press has limited vacancies, so anyone interested should book their places quickly.

If you’re new to art, that’s not a problem. Local arts educator Margot Feast will be on hand to help you discover your inner creativity. You’ll be guided through a variety of printmaking techniques, with a focus on monoprints and collagraphs. More experienced artists are also welcome to participate.

The Victorian Seniors Festival celebrates the wonderful community contributions made by older Australians. Now in its 40th year, events are held across the state throughout October.

Bendigo Art Gallery’s free Printmaking Without a Press workshop will take place at 10.30am on Tuesday, October 4, as part of the Victorian Seniors Festival. To book your place, email m.feast@bendigo.vic.gov.au

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But the festival isn’t just for those who enjoy drinking wine and the association has crafted a weekend of fun for the whole family. Alongside the tasting seminars, attendees can indulge in delicious gourmet food and listen to talented live musicians. There will even be activities to keep the little ones entertained all day long.

For 16 years, the festival has celebrated the artisan winemakers of Heathcote, growing from a small event in a restaurant courtyard to what it is today: an iconic event on the Australian wine calendar.

The Heathcote Wine and Food Festival takes place on October 1 and 2. Tickets can be purchased through the Heathcote Winegrowers Association website, heathcotewinegrowers.com.au/festival

2022

I’ll be there!

Celebrate this year’s Apiam Bendigo Cup Day oncourse BOOK YOUR PACKAGE TODAY! Fashions on the Field, Corporate Marquees, Trackside Umbrellas, and live entertainment plus lots more country.racing.com/bendigo It’s a Great Day Out

®

MOVE TOWARDS YOUR GOALS THIS SPRING Coinciding with Mental Health Awareness Month and World Mental Health Day, the 2022 Move for Mental Health is a local fitness and fundraising challenge for all abilities.

You can choose to walk, run, wheelchair, cycle or even CrossFit your way through the month of October, as you share your progress to encourage donations of support. There are also several prizes to give away and reward those who raise the most funds or log the most exercise.

SCHOOL HOLIDAY MONSTER MANIA Young fans of Channel 10’s Making It Australia should head to the Bendigo Art Gallery these school holidays. Star and mixed media artist Sai-Wai Foo will be leading an exciting hands-on workshop called Hungry Monsters, asking participants what sort of monster they become when they’re hungry.

Kids aged 4 to 7 years will have a blast creating a special creature and mask inspired by their favourite food. But the fun isn’t just for the kids, with accompanying adults encouraged to join in as well.

Sai-Wai Foo is an emerging artist based in Melbourne. She has a background in fashion design and specialises in mixed media sculptures that explore themes of identity and belonging. In 2021, Sai-Wai competed against 12 other makers and artists in the first season of Making It Australia.

Hungry Monsters with Sai-Wai Foo runs from 11.30am to 12.30pm on Tuesday, September 20, at Bendigo Art Gallery.

Tickets are $15 and can be purchased through bendigoregion.com.au

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Proceeds raised from the challenge in 2022 will go to a multi-purpose patient transport bus, enabling more mental health patients throughout the Loddon Mallee region access to specialised exercise programs to improve their wellbeing and recovery outcomes.

You can register as an individual, a family or as part of a team.

For more information and to join in the fun this October, visit bendigohealthfoundation.org.au/m4mh

Hungry Monsters by Sai-Wai Foo

Emporium Creative Hub, home to the Country Creatives Podcast.

Featuring special guests Troy Firebrace

Aimee Chapman

Emporium Creative Hub are proud to support the Country Creatives Podcast, a podcast for and about the incredible creative people living throughout our regional area.

Tune in to hear Reece Hendy, Caleb Maxwell and a host of special guests, exploring how to build a thriving creative career.

Lauren Starr

Ben Watts

Got an idea for your own podcast?

Check out the Emporium Creative Hub podcasting studio.

Emporium Creative Hub is a place for all creatives to connect and grow their careers.

25 Mitchell Street, Bendigo / emporiumcreativehub.com.au / 03 5406 0516

all about quality Regional businesses constantly work to improve, ensuring clients receive the best care, while milestones are celebrated and history honoured.

VSTONE ON CUTTING EDGE

opportunity to see a full range of quality products.”

For VSTONE, the client comes first. And the company’s latest achievement – the opening of its new showroom – is testament to that belief.

VSTONE supplies and manufactures engineered stone, natural stone and porcelain products for benchtops, splash-backs, wall cladding, fireplace hearths, furniture and outdoor BBQs/kitchens.

Kane Vereker is founding entrepreneur of VSTONE and joint director with Jess Vereker, Steve Haw and Kelly Haw. He explains that the new showroom provides a more accessible selection process for clients, including builders, architects, interior designers, residential and commercial interiors, kitchen and bathroom joinery companies, retail and health industry fit outs and furniture designers.

“It showcases current and future market trends for our customers,” Kane says. “We want our clients to have every

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“We are able to provide larger-format slab viewing within the showroom and this can extend into our factory storage racks, where clients can view the entire slab,” Kane says. “Our new showroom goal is for clients to be excited and proud of their design choices through our guidance at each stage of the process. It will ensure that we help create spaces that are unique to them.”

Over the past 15 years, this business has grown through innovation, market development focused on current and future trends, and investment in the latest technology available to the stone industry.

For further information, visit www.vstone.com.au

STRATEGEM SERVICES BENDIGO FOR 90 YEARS Back in 1932, Bendigo was a very different place to what it is now. One thing that has remained the same over the past 90 years is Strategem’s commitment to enriching the lives of locals by helping them make better financial decisions.

With 60 staff located in Bendigo and another 10 in Melbourne, there’s no shortage of expert advice in accounting, taxation and wealth management at Strategem. Clients are at the forefront of everything they do, and the passionate team prides itself on providing trust-based, personalised services.

COOLABAH TURF GROWS TO NEW MILESTONE As more and more housing estates are developed, homeowners are left with the often overwhelming task of landscaping. Getting a perfectly green and lush lawn to grow can seem impossible, especially in our varied climate.

Giving back to the community they’ve been a part of for almost a century is also important, and the Strategem Community Foundation was set up to do just that. Each year, it provides a $5000 grant to a local community group or organisation to support new and existing activities.

Strategem has played a vital role in Bendigo’s financial framework since its inception, and aims to remain a leader in the field over the next 90 years, dedicated to both clients and the community.

For further information on how Strategem can help you or your business, visit www.strategem.com.au or call 03 5445 4777.

Enter Echuca’s Coolabah Turf. It’s an award-winning grower and supplier of instant turf and lawns that is passionate about making a positive impact on people’s lives through their yards. This year, the company has hit an impressive 20 years of changing people’s lives, one back yard at a time.

When they started from the ground up in 2002, owners and directors Brad and Suzie Shearer couldn’t have imagined what the business would grow to. They now have a team of 45, who provide expert service to customers across Victoria. To ensure they fulfil their Lawn for Life promise, Coolabah Turf specialise in the exclusive supply of drought-tolerant, environmentally sustainable, self-repairing, water smart turfgrass varieties. This includes Australia’s number one seller and best-performing grass for Aussie back yards, Sir Walter DNA Certified Buffalo.

Coolabah Turf knows that having a quality green space to play, socialise and connect with nature can significantly improve health and wellbeing, and its staff can’t wait to help you have the lawn of your dreams.

To learn more about Coolabah Turf and its sustainable instant turf and lawn landscape solutions, visit coolturf.com.au or give the team a call on 1800 055 515.

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SANDHURST’S STORIES TOLD IN NEW BOOK Bendigo has had a long and rich history, but up until 1891, it was called Sandhurst. In his newest book, local author and artist Geoff Hocking sets out to tell the story of Sandhurst before and after the discovery of gold.

‘SANDHURST. From Genesis to Federation’ is filled with over 300 photographs, graphics, engravings and original artworks that piece together events, people and stories from 1835 to 1910, many of which have helped form the City of Greater Bendigo as we know it today.

Born and raised in Bendigo, Geoff is an artist and writer whose work reflects his keen interest in the goldfields. He regularly exhibits in Central Victoria and has published multiple books through New Chum Press.

Informative and engaging, ‘SANDHURST. From Genesis to Federation’ is a must-read for anyone interested in learning more about the history of Victoria and Bendigo’s goldfields.

SANDHURST. From Genesis to Federation by Geoff Hocking, published by New Chum Press. For further information, email: casbooks@bigpond.com

THE CINDERELLA FREEDOM Cinderella Eco Group, providers of water-free incineration toilets, has launched the Cinderella Freedom to the Australian market – just in time for the Tiny House Festival in Bendigo, where Australian distributor Scandinavian Eco Solutions will be showcasing the innovative products.

The Norwegian-based group has been producing incineration toilets since 1997. They are renowned for their comfortable, sustainable, eco-friendly design and performance, with no polluting emissions. There are no costly sewage hook-ups and no use of water, demonstrating care for the environment.

The incineration process ensures 100% sterile ash, which is easily disposed of in household bins, without the challenge of waste leaking to drinking water sources, natural resources or agricultural areas.

Two energy sources power the Cinderella models: electric energy or, new to Australia, the Freedom model, which is powered by LPG and ideal for tiny homes, areas with limited or no access to mains power, granny flats, sheds or other off-grid needs.

Cinderella incineration toilets are easy to use. The Cinderella bowl liners safely transport waste to the incineration chamber. This keeps the toilet hygienic and clean, as opposed to composting or other options available on the market.

Users simply lift the lid and seat, place a Cinderella bowl liner in the bowl and put the seat back down. They can then use the toilet, close the lid when done, and press the flush button to have the bowl liner, together with its contents, released into the incineration chamber below. The toilet is then ready for use again.

For further information, consult www.cinderellaeco.com

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rescue

ranger

Sedgwick is home to a special place that is almost akin to Noah’s Ark, with one major difference – the animals don’t come two by two to Matty’s Sanctuary, they often arrive in their hundreds.

By Raelee Tuckerman - Photography by Leon Schoots Matthew Glascott isn’t kidding when he estimates he’s saved thousands of animals in the five years since starting his unusual venture. When we visited his 30-acre property on Sedgwick Road, he was readying to receive about 400 unwanted baby goats that he’ll tend while finding them loving new homes.

He’s already rehomed 120 camels this year alone. Then there’s the buffalo, emus, pigs, ostriches, deer, donkeys, horses, cows and more that pass through his paddocks – most moving on to live out fulfilling lives on hobby farms. Recent arrivals include nine little emu chicks.

“I have loved animals since I was young and I can never say no to an animal in need,” says the 29-year-old, whose first ‘rescue’ was an orphaned lamb named Barry that he took in 10 years ago while living at home. He soon branched out to caring for abandoned pigs and goats, before buying a big block two doors down from his parents and establishing Matty’s Sanctuary.

“When I was at home, mum said be mindful of how many animals you get, you can’t save the world. There were issues of the cost and space and they already had horses. But when I bought this place, we went pretty full-on, had 700 animals through in the first year, and it’s just snowballed.”

Where do all these animals come from, you may ask.

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Matthew explains that 80% of his arrivals are from dairies and slaughterhouses, to spare them from being culled simply because they are sick, injured or born male and therefore of little value within the livestock industry. “A lot of people are a bit confused about where hundreds of animals come from overnight,” he says. “We don’t push our beliefs on anyone, but if people want to know the back story, we tell them. Before we came along and contacted some Victorian dairies, thousands more animals were being culled.”

Matthew and partner Tiffany Bull often keep their favourites from each intake and open their gates by appointment to organised groups who tour the sanctuary and learn about the animals.

“We can take people on guided tours, show them the different species, take photos and let them have pats and cuddles. We keep a bit of a Noah’s Ark theme, with at least two of every species.”

All the permanent residents have names and individual personalities.

“Izzy has no concept of personal space,” Matthew says of the emu he hand-raised that is following us around at such close quarters her beak is literally resting on my shoulder. There’s Bambi the friendly deer, whose parents were shot by hunters that couldn’t bring themselves to kill the helpless fawn.

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Bobby the bull has such pointed horns that Matthew puts pool noodles on their ends when visitors come, because he loves a pat but doesn’t realise they get in the way. Ostriches Penny and Ivy came from a leather farm as young chicks; camels Humphrey, Lawrence and Sedgwick have just been joined by Alice and her newborn calf; while buffalos Brian, Ferdinand and Rocky are missing the company of Bullwinkle, who sadly died from a snakebite.

There’s a joey called Dunkaroo that lives with Tiffany and occasionally accompanies her to the yoga classes she runs.

Cashew, the miniature Highland cow is another attraction, as is Ginny the pig.

“Ginny was blind and cost us more than $6000 for surgery to get her vision back to about 30%. She now waddles around the whole farm very happy and content.

“We had a sheep once with a broken neck and back and got a wheelchair made up to help with its rehab and it came good in the end. We’re not intimidated to take on hard cases and we’ve got the shed set up with a medical section and heat lamps to nurse sick animals back to life when needed.”

Matthew keeps around 70 roosters and until recently had 24 pigs that had been with him for three years. Both species are notoriously hard to rehome, but a focused pig adoption drive has left him with just three, including Ginny (who isn’t going anywhere).

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“It’s a much more manageable number now, which has allowed room for other animals.”

Volunteers are vital to the sanctuary, and about 30 dedicated animal lovers help feed and attend to the animals’ daily needs.

Three are regulars, others assist when they can, and inquiries from newcomers are always welcome.

“We sometimes don’t get a lot done because the animals want to cuddle all the time and are always all over you,” Matthew laughs.

“My favourites are buffalo and camel. They’re very graceful animals – if you sit in the paddock they will come and lie next to you. When we first get them from a dairy, they’re a bit scared and skittish because they’ve lacked human interaction. But they’re very intelligent and once you start showing them love and compassion, it doesn’t take long for them to settle down.”

Ironically, Matthew’s only major animal-related injury came in July when he was kicked in the head by a camel as it was being loaded into a trailer for transport. He was taken to hospital but has recovered well and harbours no ill-feelings. “It wasn’t her fault. It was just an accident – we’ve made up and she’s gone to a lovely home.”

He works part-time in the kitchen at Braidies Tavern to help fund his operation. It costs between $600 and $1000 a week just to feed the crowd, depending on the season and number of animals awaiting adoption.

“A lot of sanctuaries and shelters rely mainly on donations, but I hate not knowing week to week what I can afford, so that’s why I work as well. We get a lot of support and donations from the community but it’s not consistent, so this way I know what base wage I am getting.”

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Some animals come to Matty’s Sanctuary on a predictable basis, others randomly year-round.

December to January is deer fawning time; March to April is camel season; June through August sees hundreds of goats and lambs arrive; and it’s buffalo from August to September.

“We normally know ahead of time what we are getting so people can inquire about adoption any time and get approved to go on a waiting list for when we have them available. When those 120 camels arrived this year, we already had 60 people approved from last year.

“Most went to hobby farms. Some people with a lot of unused land got them as pets to have in the paddock to look at, to pat and eat the weeds, because they are very good weed eaters.”

Work is under way to replace all the fencing on the property and redesign the paddock and shelter layout like a petting zoo, with animals kept alongside species they can happily co-exist with.

Matthew hopes to hold more regular public open days in future, time permitting, as occurred prior to COVID. The sanctuary is subject to regulations from agriculture, wildlife and biosecurity authorities and Matthew is careful to ensure his animals go to suitable homes, so would-be owners are vetted first.

“We never skimp on a good home,” he says. “We have the space between here and my parents and my sister’s place to keep them, so if a good home isn’t available, we don’t settle for anything less.”

Visit www.facebook.com/mattysfarmsanctuary for information about adopting an animal, making a donation or volunteering at the sanctuary.

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Better Furniture Better Life

VALENTINES FURNITURE HAS BEEN SERVICING BENDIGO FOR MORE THAN 70 YEARS VALENTINES FURNITURE - LEATHER, CLASSIC & CITY LIVING Ph: 03 5441 6983 56 Beischer St, Bendigo

www.valentinesfurniture.com.au |

India and Chris

Kathie and Sam

Matthew and Kate

Paul and Karen

Pip and James

Sally and Rod

ELVIS BACK ON SILVER SCREEN

Ahead of the national premiere, the lucky ticket-holders enjoyed a redcarpet welcome to Bendigo Cinemas, before excitedly settling in to watch Austin Butler portray the King of Rock and Roll.

REAL SKILLS NETWORKS EXPERIENCE KNOWLEDGE OPPORTUNITY IMPACT

Studying at La Trobe is more than just getting a degree.

It’s joining a community that makes a real impact in the world, every day.

At La Trobe you’ll learn from the best in the industry, gain on-the-job experience and explore a mix of subjects that interest you.

What kind of impact could you make knowing you’re backed by La Trobe? latrobe.edu.au

La Trobe University — CRICOS Provider Code Number 00115M

One hundred of Bendigo’s biggest Elvis fans were invited to an exclusive screening of Baz Luhrmann’s film Elvis.

Ash, Jared, Zephyre and River

Maree, Leah and Lynley

Josh, Jamison, Ivy and Kayla

Marnie, Matt, Sebastian, Brigitte, Nic and Aimee

EVENT A GLOWING SUCCESS While wandering through Rosalind Park in winter, locals were left in awe of the vibrant GLOW: Bendigo After Dark event.

Mia, Mario, Nataly and Ivy

Olivia, Pauline, Wayne and Lachlan

Eleven immersive light installations in and among the trees delighted crowds and allowed them to explore Bendigo’s past. The 600 colourful lanterns celebrating our Chinese heritage proved to be a popular photo spot.

TAKING ENROLMENTS NOW FOR 2023 - PLACES AVAILABLE FOR MOST YEAR LEVELS, INCLUDING PREP AND YEAR 7

MAXIMISE YOUR VCE POTENTIAL

The students in this photograph are working in one of the Year 12 Study Spaces that are located around the Girton campus. These dedicated spaces provide students with a base to focus on their work during private study periods and are just one of the aspects of a Girton VCE experience that optimise their chances of academic success at school and beyond.

Other initiatives include our Motivate program that explicitly teaches study and wellbeing skills, a VCE Conference to commence the Year 12 academic year, and holiday tutorials that assist in students developing a deep understanding of their subject content. These are some of the factors that contribute to Girton’s VCE results consistently being in the top 15% of the State.

To find out more about the Girton VCE difference, including scholarship opportunities, call our Registrar on 5441 3114 or see our website: girton.vic.edu.au

THE GIRTON VCE DIFFERENCE

A S P I R E TO S TA R

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listen up

A meeting of like minds resulted in Country Creatives, a podcast that highlights work regional artists are doing building businesses around their creative interests.

By Sue Turpie

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Whether it was fate, serendipity or pure luck, Aimee Chapman, Reece Hendy and Caleb Maxwell seemed destined to come together.

Each boasts their own unique skill set, perspective and personality that work harmoniously as a productive trio, which is fortunate for the rest of us because they are the team responsible for an exciting new podcast, Country Creatives.

and people started noticing how it transformed the space,” Reece says. “Caleb had just started Hebron films and they asked us to do a mural at their office space. We were both just starting out, so we struck up a deal; we would paint a mural and the Hebron team would document the process with a cool video.”

Produced by Aimee with Reece and Caleb hosting, the podcast features creative people from regional areas who are building a business around what they love.

While the pair were forging ahead with their own projects, Aimee was making a name for herself as a composer and musician, as well as producing concerts, organising international tours and putting together festivals.

It’s a subject the three have much experience with. Caleb established a video production company, Hebron Films, in 2013.

Reece studied graphic design at university and now runs Nacho Station, which helps communities access public artworks.

Aimee is predominantly an electronic musician, producer and concert producer. While these statements alone don’t completely encapsulate the breadth of the trio’s experience and knowledge, they demonstrate that each member is equally impressive.

“We all have such different creative backgrounds and bring different skills to the table,” Reece says.

He and Caleb were the first members of the trio to come together around 2014, meeting at the Get Naked Espresso Bar. “Before Nacho Station had been developed, myself and some friends were doing customised chalkboards every month at the cafe

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As Caleb describes it, they were “two likeable gents who got along”.

All they needed was a common factor to bring them together, and that turned out to be the Emporium Creative Hub, a collaborative space in the city’s CBD where Aimee was working as a programer.

Manager David Hughes had already been talking to Caleb and Reece about a podcast and brought Aimee into the conversation, as she had suggested it would be a welcome addition to their programing.

“I’ve done so much recording over the years and, when podcasts started, I was interested in delving into that world – it was very much an extension of what I was already doing,” Aimee says. The subject matter was also close to her heart.

“Their concept for showcasing creatives who are doing amazing things, but also leveraging their personal experience in growing thriving businesses in regional Victoria, was enticing to me.”

Reece and Caleb already knew they would work well together after taking part in an Emporium vox pop interview during a networking event.

“Reece and I went in there and answered questions together and we just had heaps of fun,” Caleb explains.

“We naturally bounced off one another during the interview while the camera was rolling,” Reece adds. “From there, we discussed the idea of a podcast and took some time to dial in the idea.”

As Caleb says, turning the idea into a reality took longer than expected because they wanted to get it right from the start.

“It has actually been easier than expected overall, but that is due to having three of us with a mixed bag of skills,” he says. “We wouldn’t be able to do it without Aimee, who has made the process super easy for us to focus on developing the content and recording episodes without having to worry about editing and publishing.”

The comradery is echoed by Aimee, who is happy to let the duo take the lead in hosting.

“There is a lot of laughing, like-minded humour and playfulness,” she says. “That’s where Reece and Caleb really shine. They have boundaries and structure around the way they work, but in and around that they allow so much room for joy and play which is needed to make anything work.”

It’s this joy and ability to allow interviewees to open up and tell their stories that make the podcasts a hit with their audience. Some names already featured include Louise Terra, David Gagliardi, Ben Watts and Lauren Starr. Not only do listeners gain insight to the creative process, they’re also given the opportunity to learn from those already forging ahead.

“We get to hear the professional stories of some great creative people and our hope is that it’s changing the narrative around creative industries and creative people being able to thrive in a commercial sense in a regional area,” Caleb says.

“What they’re doing in their careers, what they’ve achieved, and what they’re going to achieve,” Aimee adds, “the depth of their inspiration and ideas has been staggering and these are people who live in my neighbourhood. I had no idea they were there.”

As for where Country Creatives goes from here?

“We want to keep having fun with it, meeting new people and learning from our guests along the way,” Reece says. “It would be awesome to monetise it in some way. Even though we love making the podcast… it would be good to take it to the next level.”

Given the quality and reception of Country Creatives so far, it’s easy to imagine this coming to fruition, too.

For more information about Country Creatives, visit www.emporiumcreativehub.com.au/podcast

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Celine and Heidi

Chloe, Sunni and Bella

Ella and Jemmy

Erin and Sienna

Kiani and Shaeli

Lia and Caitlin

YOUNGSTERS DAZZLE AT EISTEDDFOD Young dancers gleefully performed, dressed in sparkles and glitter, at the 96th Annual Eisteddfod.

The Bendigo South East College auditorium hosted seven days of spectacular routines, with aggregate winners announced for multiple dance styles including, classical, theatrical, and tapping. The event was the last on the Bendigo Competitions Society’s Eisteddfod schedule for the year.

CORTILLE IS NOW A LICENSED VENUE SERVING A RANGE OF LOCAL BEER AND WINE Our seasonal main menu includes delicious favourites such as mushroom crumpets, cauliflower and gorgonzola fritters, fried chicken and waffles, 5 grain porridge and lamb salad served daily from 8am - 3pm.

Showcasing a love for specialty coffee, all day breakfast and lunch, complemented by our friendly staff.

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Open 7 days | 322 Lyttleton terrace, Bendigo | Ph: 5444 3082 |

Chris and Valma

Jon, Yasmin and Mike

WINERIES WIN OVER CROWDS Joseph and Cathy

Leeola, Alexandra and Stace

Katherine and Luke

Mariana, Thiala and Nathalie

Bendigo’s best wineries welcomed keen wine lovers for the annual Barrel Wine Tasting Weekend.

Guests were given tours of the barrel halls and had the opportunity to taste wine straight from the barrel, two activities that are normally very exclusive. Winemakers proudly showed off their skills as part of the event, held by the Bendigo Winegrowers Association.

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behind the mic LAUREN MITCHELL catches up with a Triple M radio personality to discover someone who’s using a lived experience of mental illness to truly find their purpose.

Photography by AJ Taylor It’s hard to choose what to focus on first when we asks Bryan ‘Cogho’ Coghlan to turn off the mic and sit in a quiet station to talk about life. This is just one of the places Bryan feels at home, having worked the switches for almost 30 years.

“The radio thing wasn’t meant to be this long,” he admits. “I would have said, aged 40, and I’d be done, surely that would be time to get a real job.”

Bryan was 29 when he began talking sport on a Saturday afternoon on KLFM. The bite-sized experience on air was enough to confirm he was onto something when, at 18, he attempted to break into radio.

“I got into radio school with David Talbot, as one of 10 people selected out of a big line-up,” he says. “I know you’ll find this hard to believe, but I was a bit of a smart arse. They took me in there and said, ‘we think you’ve got a good voice, but you’ve got a lazy tongue’, and what they meant by that was that I had poor pronunciation and I was dropping g’s off words. They thought I had potential, but I never turned up to the sessions. I was at that age where I thought it was too hard, and I had other things to do in my life.

It came back to bite me years later, when I was at Empire Rubber.”

Bendigo born-and-bred, in his early 20s Bryan moved to Melbourne to run a sports centre in Coburg with a mate. He didn’t like city life, so after a year moved back home to eventually find work at Empire Rubber, on an assembly line making car window and door seals, for four years.

“That was probably the best thing that happened,” he says. “It teaches you a lot. You either love it, you either stick at it and want to do it, or you say, ‘while I’m here, I’ve really got to decide what I want to do’.”

Meanwhile, the sports enthusiast had started Bendigo Bat and Ball with a business partner. Fellow cricket-lovers from KLFM and 3CV were regular players, and soon invited Bryan to talk sport on air. A Saturday afternoon KLFM guest spot led to a pre-taped five-minute sports report on 3CV. By the mid-90s, Bryan was on a 3CV football panel and by the late-90s was extending his craft thanks to mentors and local radio legends Fergs, Liz, Jock and Justin Smith. “It was a good base,” Bryan says. “I really had to lift my standard, because if I didn’t, I’d stand out.”

A midday music show was a precursor to the 3BO breakfast slot, after long-time announcer Fergie left. “I was a bit cocky. I said I’d like to do his job,” Bryan says. “They wanted to advertise the role, but didn’t really get the right person.” So the station gave him a go.

“Straight away I thought, this is the vibe, people want to know what the news is every hour, people want to know the weather. I was able to talk about things that were starting to become important.”

One of the big stories to break in those early days on the Breakfast Show was the Kangaroo Flat siege, which Bryan covered alongside journalist Graeme Turpie. “That was one experience that showed me, when you’re involved with something like that, you’re actually able to help from a radio 34

point of view, and that was the bug to keep going.

“It gave me a sense of purpose. We had some people in the early ‘00s who turned up and did what they had to do, but they didn’t care. Even the bosses who weren’t from here were more self-absorbed, whereas I could see that we were the local station. I grew up listening to it, like most did in the ’70s and ’80s, and it came with a sense of purpose and responsibility.”

Bryan took on management roles, alongside running several local businesses. The pressures mounted, which had a bearing on his mental health. As the years unfolded, his unwavering, confident and consistent voice, broadcast across Bendigo and beyond six mornings a week, began to hide a serious and mounting depression.

“It’s probably been the last 10 years where I’ve realised there are issues,” he says. “People could look at my life and go, ‘wow, you’ve got so many great things happening – you’ve got a grandchild on the way, a great life, a great house, great job’, and I didn’t feel any of that. I didn’t want to be here.

“I could put on a show, but I was just sad. I couldn’t get happy and couldn’t work it out. That was the start of mental health challenges for me.

“I went to the edge. It became really bad, and I felt like I just didn’t want to be here and that happened quite a bit. I was having those thoughts all the time, to the extent that I tried to leave, twice. Then I spent a bit of time with the professionals.”

Bryan says his experience of depression showed him that despite appearances, many others are also living with mental illness. And so, he decided to really use his voice. The result is the mental health awareness network Let’s Chat, launched in 2019. Via the network’s Facebook page, Bryan hosts a live mental health forum each Monday. Last year, Let’s Chat instigated a social cricket competition, and this year, a soup van.

“I’m not qualified,” he says. “I don’t want to be a counsellor, but what I have got is real life experience. I can help people, but if I don’t think I can, I say, ‘hey, you need to see someone’.”

He says the cricket competition in particular was a great way to reach middle-aged men. “We found people would go there for the game and stick around and have a chat afterwards. It was the best thing for men.

Not to brag, but I think we saved a few lives with that comp.” It’s about to start again this November, with a women’s competition, too.

For Bryan, it’s about reaching that one person who may need help, plus further breaking down the stigma of mental illness. “If I hurt my thumb right now, I’d put a Band-Aid on it. If I had a headache, I’d have a Panadol, but still people don’t do that with mental health. They ignore it and let it linger… The reason I do this is because I don’t want anyone to think like that anymore.”

Another big wake-up call for Bryan came last year, when his second grandson Charlie was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma. Charlie underwent a year of cancer treatment through the Royal Children’s Hospital, and is now well again.

“It was a pretty ordinary time,” Bryan says. “He was only five and had just started school. I now understand how resilient kids are. He’s probably the reason I don’t care about things as much anymore. I don’t get caught up in any gossip or little stuff that doesn’t matter. I can be a very painful person because I dismiss things. He was and still is an inspiration. The mental health truck we’ve got now is called Mr Charlie’s.”

The converted 1974 Bedford food truck will give Let’s Chat an income stream to continue advocating for mental health awareness.

We asked Bryan, apart from family, radio and his mental health advocacy, is there still time for sport? Turns out he’s “like a kid in a lolly shop” about his side hustle, SupaYou. Having witnessed the demise of media coverage for local sport, both on radio and TV, Bryan has started his own YouTube and Facebook channel.

After hours, he’ll be found heading back to his roots, sitting by a country footy ground, a darts game in a pub, a bowling green or netball court, with a camera operator and a microphone, live-calling all manner of local competitions.

“What makes me feel good is driving to Colbo last Sunday and getting to the gate and asking to buy a Yabba (program) and they say, ‘no mate, you do enough for us,’ and they give me one. That just spurs me on. I know we’re on the right track here – these people get it and we’re all going in the same direction.”

Bryan acknowledges the remarkable local support he’s received to achieve his goals. From sponsorship for SupaYou, to fundraising for Mr Charlie’s, to the Tyson’s Reef kitchen supplying soup that Let’s Chat delivers to Mad Cow, to feed those most in need.

“Everything I’m doing is about seeing a gap that needs filling,” he says. “I like the fact that no one thinks you can do things, so I take them on.”

If you or someone you know requires assistance for mental health, call Lifeline on 131 114 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636.

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Noah and Anthony

Luke, Jacob, Marana, and Paula

Penelope and Tasman

Ron, Lewis, Brodie and Sarah

Narlinga and Kody

Shyleeka and Steven

BENDIGO MARKS NAIDOC WEEK Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! was the theme for NAIDOC Week 2022, and Bendigo’s calendar was jam-packed with community events.

The celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s history, culture and achievements commenced with a flag raising and smoking ceremony at Bendigo & District Aboriginal CoOperative, followed by art exhibitions, a soccer match, and much more.

Open 7 Days 8 am to 4 pm Public Holidays 9am - 4pm We look forward to welcoming you seven days a week with our traditional opening hours.

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Abi, Carlie, Sam and Pat

Jordan, Logan and Keely

A WOOLLY GOOD WEEKEND Liv and Digby

Oliver and Bodhi

Liv, Max, Nat and Brendan

Lily and Ellie

A fantastic time was had as the Australian Sheep and Wool Show returned to Bendigo after two years.

Farmers proudly exhibited their animals and vendors showcased their goods to the thousands who attended the three-day mecca of fashion, food and technology. Sheep breeders also competed to be the best of the best, with Border Leicester deemed the feature breed for 2022.

WE’RE WITH YOU ALL THE WAY!

Enquire now about Years 10 – 12 for 2023 Students select from a wide range of subjects, with pathways to further study, apprenticeships and employment.

FIND OUT MORE: www.cmc.vic.edu.au

We welcome enrolment applications from all families in our region.

ENROLMENT ENQUIRIES: Audra Petri College Registrar | 5445 9100 | enrolment@cmc.vic.edu.au Catherine McAuley College | A Ministry of Mercy Education Ltd | ABN 69 154 531 870

the humanising

world of books

How two local businesses are bringing the world of books, writers and literary events to our doorstep.

By Dianne Dempsey - Photography by Leon Schoots Northern Books and Bookish are two literary-based businesses that are bringing Central Victorians a constant supply of words, stories and nourishment for the mind and soul.

In the case of Northern Books, Kristin and Graham Gill have established a unique regional business based around literary events, which are in turn used as the springboard for authors’ book sales.

Now living in Castlemaine, Kristin and Graham are refugees from the big smoke, where Kristin had a busy and exciting career as the manager of children’s publishing at Penguin Random House.

Graham worked for many years in IT at a highly stressful, corporate level. It was when they were heading into their 60s and looking at possible retirement plans, that the couple decided to pull the pin on the stress and combine their publishing and business acumen to set up their now-thriving literary events business.

Wendy Sattler and Wendy Bridges first met when they worked together as enthusiastic book sellers in Castlemaine. Over the years, as they talked about their love of books, they fantasised about opening a bookshop of their own. Where would it be? And what sort of books would they stock?

While all parties were passionate about starting up their respective businesses, they were well aware that the world of books and publishing is not for the fainthearted.

Kristin Gill remembers when e-books were first introduced to the market and the book industry was pretty nervous. “Everyone was predicting a dramatic downturn in book sales, but we were surprised,” she says. “The reading public have consistently demonstrated the need to have a book in their hands, rather than an electronic download.”

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From 2012 to 2020, the Gills continued to work in Melbourne while making the transition to living in Castlemaine. Gradually, to selling children’s books online, they added the innovative events arm of Northern Books. Every few weeks in the warm hub of The Taproom, part of the Castlemaine Mill complex, Kristin interviewed writers, giving them an opportunity to promote their latest books and sign and sell them in person. The Taproom talks and interviews, accompanied by craft beer brewed on-site, local ciders, wine and house-made pizza, are now a traditional part of Castlemaine’s culture.

The venues Northern Books offers nowadays vary. In many ways, Kristin and Graham have taken on the role of producers, matching authors with their readership and the appropriate setting. The venue, the food and the time of day can vary along with the interlocutors; several events, for example, include former ABC broadcaster Derek Guille.

Recent highlights included a high tea with the loquacious Jane Caro at the Daylesford Convent and an opportunity to taste Stephanie Alexander’s finger food recipes at the RACV Club in Melbourne.

Upcoming events will see them support comedian and author Kitty Flanagan, who will be appearing at Bendigo’s Ulumbarra Theatre, and the popular speaker and historian Peter Fitzsimons. They’re also looking forward to welcoming one of Australia’s pre-eminent authors, Alex Miller, who will be discussing his latest novel, A Brief Affair, at The Taproom.

The other arm to Northern Books is their consultancy business.

Kristin effectively works as a writer’s agent, giving advice on manuscripts and publishing. She also consults with literary festivals such as the Castlemaine State Festival Dialogues Program and with various publishing houses.

Alex Miller and Kristin and Graham Gill

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Wendy Sattler and Wendy Bridges

While literary events are the catalyst for the book sales at Northern Books, Bookish relies on its bricks-and-mortar shopfront in Hargreaves Street, Bendigo. Flying in the face of Goliathan megastores and online booksellers, the two Wendys are a couple of veritable Davids, standing up for their bookshop dream. And so far, these two Davids are winning.

“Since opening in April this year, we’ve been overwhelmed by the number of enthusiastic people who have come into the shop and told us how happy we have made them,” the women say.

Many of these happy customers are bemused to discover that the two booksellers are both called Wendy. A handy phenomenon when it comes to trying to remember names, but for future reference, Wendy of the grey hair is Wendy Bridges and Wendy of the long, brown hair is Wendy Sattler.

While the Wendys spent many happy hours fantasising about what their very own bookshop would be like, they were aware they had to get two important factors right – the location and the stock. They’re both delighted with their choice of Hargreaves Street and the general ambiance that is attracting droves of customers. “There’s great coffee shops near us, like Out of Order, the Brewhouse and the Anxious Goat. And we were thrilled when the people from the independent record shop Bendigo Vinyl came over to say hello,” Wendy Sattler says. “All we want now is a jazz bar to open up upstairs when Fernwood vacates the premises,” they laugh.

As an independent bookshop, they have control over the stock and this is when the second important factor comes into play. Rather than make big blanket orders with a handful of publishers, they have taken the time to select books based on their own extensive knowledge, from a wide range of publishers, including smaller presses. “We’re looking after people who read across a fairly broad range of fiction and non-fiction,” Wendy Bridges says.

“And we’re responding to their needs and interests; for example, our Manga fantasy section, which neither of us are strong on, is being built on customers’ recommendations. We’re also committed to championing local authors and illustrators. We want to be part of the Bendigo community and support various interest groups like the Bendigo Field Naturalists as much as we can.”

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Bookish has a great atmosphere. Tables and displays are laden with books, journals, magazines, pens and pencils and gorgeous notebooks. There’s also a seductive, comfortable couch for browsing but so far, no sign of the bookshop cat.

The women feel that they are not retailers but rather matchmakers.

“We love the opportunity to recommend books and convert people who might be reluctant readers into avid readers. And we just love inviting children into our children’s section and finding the right book to ignite their enthusiasm,” they say.

The planning and preparation for their business has taken hundreds of hours of hard work but they say the bookshop is very much a passion project. They were both brought up in homes where reading was a given and books lined the walls and piled up on furniture surfaces. They want to share the joy and solace of reading with as many Bendigo people as possible.

In our surreal world, where cyber interactions rule, it’s a comfort to know that two local businesses are fighting back – armed with real people, they are taking great pleasure in sharing the humanising world of books and stories with us.

Alex Miller will be speaking about his new book A Brief Affair at The Taproom on November 1.

Northern Books: www.northernbooks.com.au/events Bookish: 358 Hargreaves St, Bendigo. Phone: 03 5406 0596. Open Monday to Saturday, 9.30am to 6pm and Sunday 10am to 4pm.

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PERCY AND PERCY BECKONS IN THE CAFE CROWDS WITH COFFEE AND MODERN BREAKFAST FARE IN A TRENDY DECKED OUT HUB. Watch the world go by from the courtyard or settle inside amongst a cosy setting of wooden tables and low pan lighting. Combining Coffee Basics beans and Inglenook Milk, Percy and Percy's coffee is reason alone to make a visit - but after a peek at the menu, you won't be able to resist staying a little longer.

PERCY

AND

PERCY

Monday - Friday 7.00am-3.00pm Saturday 8.00am-3.00pm Closed Sundays and public holidays 110 Hargreaves St, Bendigo Victoria 3550 Phone(03)54422997 percyandpercy.com.au fi@) /percyandpercy

Alana, Brodie, Amy, Shannon and Lauraine

Claire, Marie, Sarah and Gen

Glenys, Rhonda and Nikola

Hannah and Kyrra

Jan and Jacqueline

Jenny, Angela and Maree

FULL HOUSE FOR WOMEN OF WOOL The sold-out Women of Wool Luncheon was one of the most highly anticipated parts of the Australian Sheep and Wool Show this year.

Themed ‘From Survival to Revival’, the afternoon of fashion, conversation and comedy was hosted by Catriona Rowntree. Iris and Wool owner Emily Riggs and media personality Bill Brownless also spoke at the event.

ALBY WINNEKEBOYLE “Being trusted to take responsibility for my own learning has worked really well for me.”

BRIANNA O’BRYAN “BSSC has made me more determined to choose the path I know is best for me.”

RUBY A’VARD

ED HARRISON

“The support for students is so great here… I’m encouraged to learn in ways that work best for me.”

“The ethos of the college is selfmotivation and I will take those skills away with me into the rest of my life.”

EXPLORE THE POSSIBILITIES BSSC offers the greatest choice of subjects for senior secondary students in Victoria, a wide range of specialist programs and flexible learning options, all designed to create an environment that supports learners at every level.

Like to find out more?

Phone: 5443 1222 Email: admin@bssc.edu.au

Bendigo Senior Secondary College Empowering learners for individual, community and global leadership

www.bssc.edu.au

Grim, Carmen and Jo

Jacqui, Kelly and Nick

FUNDRAISER HITS THE RIGHT NOTE Larissa and Nick

Mariah, Cassie and Amy

Madi, Nicole and Ethan

Pat, Cara and Marty

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An impressive line-up of musicians took to the stage at the Golden Vine Hotel to raise funds for a beloved local festival.

Ahead of its 10th anniversary, the Bendigo Blues & Roots Music Festival staged its first Winter Showcase/ Fundraiser since early 2020. The event gave guests a sneak peek of the talented artists who will perform at the November festival.

big things grow LAUREN MITCHELL explores the past, present and future of Bendigo’s beloved urban forest.

Photography by Leon Schoots It’s perhaps ironic to talk about the greening of Bendigo while sitting under bare grey branches. Then again, this is largely a story about what’s to come – not just the pending spring glory, but the decades of growth ahead.

We meet Phil Shaw in the Civic Gardens beside the Bendigo Town Hall.

Across the road, the new GovHub building, Galkangu, is rising. Modern monolith aside, the loveliest thing is how it curves around the lemonscented gum along Lyttleton Terrace. Above us, rainbow lorikeets flash and flit between the boughs of Bendigo’s most valuable tree.

A few years back, this iconic elm was valued at $330,000. “There’s a calculation which takes a lot of factors into it, like age, size, species, the amenity it provides, the size of its canopy and also its location, so this one obviously being in a very high-profile location in the city centre, is a very, very valuable tree,” Phil says.

Phil is the city’s urban forest planner, responsible for the initial roll-out of the 50-year Greening Greater Bendigo strategy. So far, he’s two years into a 10-year action plan that is putting 3000 mature

trees into the ground each year. It’s our first official plan for future plantings, and will take the municipality’s tree coverage from its current 20.4% to 35% by 2050 and 45% by 2070. Just imagine.

“It’s all about trying to mitigate the urban heat island effect,” Phil says. “We have a lot of areas of hot bitumen and more and more houses being built. Of course, that can come at the cost of tree removal, so we have to balance that with further tree plantings to make sure we’ve got an urban forest for people to enjoy in the future, like we are when talking about these trees today.”

We’ve taken Phil away from his work for an hour to also talk about some of the city’s iconic trees, its leafy parks and boulevards, which we have our forebears to thank for. Sort of.

When the gold rush began in 1851, it came at the cost of native forests. “The landscape was basically demolished and completely stripped clear of every tree,” Phil says. “Then, from the mid-to-late 1850s, people realised if this place was going to be liveable, they needed to do a lot of tree planting.”

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Here’s a potted history: Firstly, the White Hills Botanic Gardens was established in 1857. Being located on the Bendigo Creek, it does retain at least one remnant river red gum, and echoes of what the landscape would have been like prior.

Street tree planting began throughout the 1860s, which is when many of Bendigo’s great boulevards were established. Down at the Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens, director Ferdinand Von Mueller was undertaking climatisation studies on exotic species. He gifted Bendigo many of what are now our heritage-listed specimens, in exchange for a quantity of quartz.

In the 1870s, Rosalind Park was established, quickly eclipsing White Hills in popularity. Shortly after, William Guilfoyle, director of Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens, designed Lake Weeroona to feature 1600 trees.

Twenty years later, 100 miles of streets and roads in the goldfields were planted with elms, blue gums, sugar gums, ironbarks and the plane trees much maligned by hay fever sufferers.

“We’re pretty fortunate that they had a bit of foresight to have nice, wide road reserves and plenty of space to put in those boulevards of trees we get to enjoy today,” Phil says. Foresight is something that’s built into the Greening Greater Bendigo strategy.

“It’s a case of choosing the right tree for the right place, and for the right reason as well,” Phil says. “Species diversity is a critical thing in the urban forest… It’s similar to an investment portfolio and not putting all your eggs in the one basket. So we plant a diversity of different trees, European and native trees from different families, genera and life spans, so we don’t have a loss of canopy all at once.

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“We’re really fortunate in Australia to have one of the best collections of elms in the world, because of the Dutch elm disease overseas that wiped out all of their elms. We’re fortunate that the disease doesn’t exist here. It’s a really critical reason why we need that species diversification.

“We generally will try and go for the biggest possible tree for the space without causing any issues, because that’s going to give us the biggest canopy.” In turn, this will contribute to more than doubling the leaf canopy over the next half century.

As it stands today, our urban forest has 120,000 to 130,000 trees, including many much-loved individuals. The National Trust has classified seven in the CBD: the holly-leaved cherry in View Street; Australian teak, weeping lilly pilly and Californian bay in Rosalind Park; the petticoat palm in the Conservatory Gardens; red horse chestnut in Sydney Myer Place; and Chilean wine palm by the George Lansell monument. Phil says the latter is one of the world’s most southern plantings of this endangered species.

Out of town, we have National Trust remnant natives well worth a visit. The King Billy tree in the sandy floodplain of the Bullock Creek at Lockwood is many centuries old, as is the Burke and Wills tree on Sedgwick Road. Phil says this river red gum is believed to have both First Nations and European heritage value, as a birthing site for Indigenous people, and a camping place for the Burke and Wills rescue party.

Back at the White Hills Botanic Garden, listed as significant, the southern African kei apple has value far beyond its rarity. Pruned for play, it’s much-loved by local kids as a wonder to climb and hide within.

In fact, watch a child enter this glowing green cavern and remember Phil’s final words: “At the end of the day, think of all the mental health benefits that trees bring… they harbour very positive feelings.

And I think over the last couple of years, with COVID and lockdowns, the appreciation of our urban forest has really come to the forefront.

I think it’s definitely worth celebrating our trees, because they bring us so much.”

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Cleitus Johnson (aka Colin Thompson) at Live’n’Local 2021 - Photograph by Sean Clohesy

raising the bar

It’s been a long way to the top for Blues and Roots Festival founder Colin Thompson, as he reflects on a decade-long mission to reinvigorate the music scene and inspire fellow musicians.

By Colin Thompson - Founder/Director, Bendigo Blues & Roots Music Festival It’s been a long, challenging and rewarding decade-plus since myself and a few friends decided to stage a home-grown music festival as a way to try and reinvigorate the local music scene.

It’s a never-ending mission, of course. The struggles faced by the live music industry at the grass-roots level live on and there are always new challenges to overcome.

I can only hope we’ve inspired more artists, venue operators and gogetters of all ages to have a crack at starting up music festivals and events, big and small, for many years to come.

But we’re not done yet! One more four-day festival looms, featuring over 100 acts in around 50 venues across Bendigo and surrounding towns, this November 3-6.

What should music lovers expect this time around? Our biggest and best festival yet, it would be fair to say.

We’ve got ticketed shows to be enjoyed at Ulumbarra Theatre, The Capital, MacKenzie Quarters, Bull Street Live, The Old Church on the Hill and aboard The Blues Tram.

There are some venues with a small door charge, but many more again with no charge on the door and no need for tickets. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to get in touch with the venues you want to go to, to see if it’s advantageous to book a table.

This year, we’ll feature over 130 acts in total, including local artists and acts from all over Australia, as well as a small number of internationals.

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Some names you’ll recognise and others you won’t, but don’t forget, we’re a festival of discovery – you never know where you’ll see and hear your next favourite independent artist doing their thing live and in person.

From well-known headliners like Goanna, Colin Hay, Tex Perkins & Matt Walker, to Aussie blues legends like Geoff Achison, Dave Hole, Shane Pacey, Fiona Boyes, Pete Cornelius, Shannon Bourne and Minnie Marks and all the up-and-comers we love sharing with you each festival weekend, we’ve got all your feel-good music needs covered. There’s blues, soul, jazz, funk, folk, bluegrass, country and singer/songwriters of all flavours (maybe even a DJ or two lurking around the traps).

As always, our program kicks off on the Thursday morning (November 3) in Hargreaves Mall, and flows through to Sunday night, finishing up with our official wrap-up party at the All Seasons Resort Hotel on McIvor Road.

In between, you’ll be able to hear quality live music coming from every direction, thanks to all the generous and community-minded venues taking part in our 10th four-day festival.

From our biggest theatres to some of our best eateries and pubs, to our lush park spaces and street parties, there is a space for everyone and musical styles to match.

To secure tickets to the events you’d like to participate in, please visit the Tickets page of our website: bendigoblues.com

Charlie Bedford is an outstanding young singing/songwriting guitar slinger who has a global reputation, having regularly performed at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis. His second studio album Good to Go reached top 10 in the USA and No.1 album on the Australian Roots Music Report Charts.

He started playing guitar at age six and, under the tuition of Phil Smith, he quickly showed the talent that was to flourish early. With a passion for the blues, Charlie took the Melbourne music scene by storm.

Ramble Town is among the most exciting acts on the Bendigo music scene and is set to light the fuse at the Bendigo Blues and Roots Festival in November.

Co-founders multi-instrumentalist Pete Fidler and local singer/ songwriter Chris Jacobs were inspired to form a rockabilly band with bass player Mike St Clair and drummer Matty Reade and thus Ramble Town was born.

Pete, the king of collaborative musicians, is often seen with bluegrass favorites Bluestone Junction, in a duo with the awesome Liz Frencham, or in concert with Dan Duggan and friends.

“I love being a freelancer and it means I get to play with lots of different musicians with a diverse range of styles,” he says.

A central figure in the Bendigo Blues and Roots Music Festival, Charlie has performed in the Lazenby Youth Guitarist Award, been a regular at the November Festival, a Showcase fundraiser stalwart, a great MC and one of Bendigo’s fabulous Youth Ambassadors, as well as being on the committee for Blues Music Victoria.

Starting with a guitar at age five, Pete was always drawn to playing in bands, starting with pop and rock and then drifting into bluegrass when he discovered the dobro.

He has played alongside and been mentored by some of Australia’s best blues artists, including Geoff Achison, Lloyd Spiegel and Phil Manning, and has performed on stage with band members from acts such as BB King, Ray Charles and Wilson Pickett, as well as Kent Burnside and Robben Ford.

Like most quality musicians Pete is always reviewing, reworking what he does and refining his performance.

Charlie is a serious audiophile who is constantly looking to push his music into new sonic arrangements, while staying true to his live show and working hard across the city and country.

Charlie Bedford will appear at the 10th and final Bendigo Blues and Roots Music Festival in November.

Photograph by Sean Clohesy

Photograph by Sean Clohesy

CHARLIE BEDFORD STRIKES A CHORD

RAMBLE TOWN BECOMES RENOWNED

“When I picked up the mandolin, I split my time between guitar and dobro and although I found it was handy to have a few strings to my bow, I firmly resisted the urge to become a Fidler fiddler!”

“I’m still learning my lessons. The main thing is that nothing beats working at it. Do something musical every day, after all, you’re a musician! Write, practise, perform, record, collaborate, administrate, listen and just don’t stop.”

His enthusiasm for live music is infectious and he is always considering the next collaborative project. But for the time being Ramble Town is taking Pete Fidler to the Bendigo Blues and Roots Festival in November.

THE ESSENTIAL GEORGIA RODGERS Georgia Rodgers is a young singer who plays guitar with a passion that usually only comes with years of experience, but she has been honing her craft since she was six years old.

She is one of a new generation of postmodern Victorian blues artists who are taking the genre on exciting tangents.

Georgia came to music early with a Christmas present from her parents of an acoustic guitar that helped her understand music was not a choice but her obsession. “I played every day and when I wasn’t playing, I was always thinking about music,” she says.

“I was introduced to great music early. My pop gave me records by Johnny Cash, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton and I always wanted to learn more.”

While at school, “I played with an all-girl group called The Sweethearts that toured Europe and played soul and I was off and running in the music industry”.

Georgia’s songwriting comes mostly from her personal experiences and, after starting with something soulful and atmospheric sonically, the lyrics are real and relatable.

When asked about what she has learned on her musical journey so far, she says: “Always ask yourself what the reason is behind why you are playing. Have a strong reason that will make you feel good about yourself. I can think of 50 reasons to play, and I know it is what I am supposed to be doing.”

Georgia Rodgers is playing the 10th and final Bendigo Blues and Roots Music Festival in November.

Photograph by Liam Semini

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Amy and Danniel

Fiona, Olga and Guinevere

Jennifer and Meg

Lily-Sophia and Angie

Myles and Josie

Nathan and Fiona

DANCERS DELIGHT AT ULUMBARRA A love of dance united Bendigo audiences and Australian Ballet performers during the Regional Tour: Ballet Gala.

Over three shows, some of Australia’s finest dancers showcased beautiful and intricate works on the Ulumbarra Theatre stage. The company also led masterclasses for young, aspiring ballerinas while in town.

Bendigo born, I’ve published music and fairytales here and abroad, with eclectic instruments in an alchemy of ambient classical-folk and medieval dreampop. Leaving my French label, which closed during the pandemic, I resettled here, moving my songs to Bandcamp:

https://louisajohn-krol.bandcamp.com/ Heartfelt respect to the Dja Dja Warrung, the Faery and all who hold a sense of wonder.

Long live mythos! - Louisa John-Krol Graphic Design by Rachael Hammond and Kimberley Brown

Cass, Mickayla and Tawna

Sarah and John

DOGS ON SHOW Georgia, April, Lizzy and Luna

Jenny and Tinkerbelle

Jen and Hunter

Lilith and Emmeline

Proud owners and dog lovers gathered to watch talented (and adorable) pure-bred pooches compete at the Bendigo Showgrounds.

Across four days, the Bendigo, Eaglehawk and Castlemaine and District kennel clubs celebrated 90 years of dog showing in Bendigo. The show received more than 4000 entries from people keen to show off their skilled canines.

TURNER S CROS S I N G From the banks of the Loddon River, Turners Crossing has been producing wines of outstanding quality that speak of a sense of place and provenance.

Visit our website below to purchase our full range of premium wines turnerscrossing.com.au

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born to lead Meet a young canine in training to be the guiding light for a vision-impaired Victorian, as the charity supporting him seeks more puppy raisers in Bendigo and beyond.

By Raelee Tuckerman - Photography by Leon Schoots Like most six-month-old labradors, Banjo loves a tummy tickle, a squeaky toy and a game of tug-of-war. But this pup is no average pet – he is being cared for in Spring Gully by foster mum Lynda Davis and her family, who are helping groom him to become a guide dog.

Every day, they teach Banjo the basic obedience and more specific skills he will need if he is to meet the requirements of a Guide Dogs Victoria assistance animal. It can be a steep learning curve, especially when the household’s resident groodle Ernie loves to curl up on the couch but a guide-dog-in-training is forbidden from climbing on furniture. Nor should he be patted while out wearing his training coat, despite those adorable eyes making him nearimpossible to resist.

Banjo doesn’t seem to mind, though, with Lynda saying she has been surprised how quickly he adapts to each situation.

“He gets up early and my husband Richard takes him for a walk around Spring Gully,” explains Lynda. “Some mornings I take him to the gym with me and he sits quietly on the floor. Then I think about where I can take him to expose him to all the different things he will have to become accustomed to.

“We’ve been to Lake Weeroona, which has many challenges for a young man – there’s ducks and dogs, kids and bikes, trains and kayaks. We went to Epsom station recently, as the train sits there in the mornings, so we jumped on and off and up and down a ramp with the engine idling.

“He’s been through Strath Village and Kennington Woolies, a quick

transaction at the self-serve. Next, we’ll aim to walk with a trolley and work up to a full shop and go through the checkout.

“He is really independent, confident and I’m amazed how mature he is.”

Lynda says she is extremely well supported by Guide Dogs Victoria and has a dedicated puppy development adviser who comes to Bendigo regularly to monitor their progress.

“It’s a very structured process – we have a manual to follow and lots of videos, too.”

Lynda was moved to become a puppy raiser after noticing a visionimpaired gentleman with a working dog in her local area.

“I’d see him getting on the bus at the end of our street, and in town and around Kennington, and I realised that dog had changed that man’s life and given him independence. That was my inspiration.

“It was a relatively quick process – I got in touch with GDV and asked what was involved. They have an office in Wills Street and I went to an information session there and met one of their ambassador dogs.

They came and inspected our house to ensure it’s safe, we did police checks, working with children checks and before we knew it, here was Banjo. He was born on February 19 and I got him on May 9.”

It costs $50,000 and takes two years to breed, raise and train each guide dog, which is provided free to a person who is blind or living with low vision. Guide Dogs Victoria puppy development team leader Naomi Wallace says volunteers like Lynda play a crucial role – and the organisation is looking for more across the Bendigo region, as well as around Ballarat and Geelong.

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“The work we do wouldn’t be sustainable without the assistance of our puppy raisers,” she says. “We are looking for people that are home most of the time, who are interested in putting effort into training and socialising the dog. What you will get in return is a fantastic experience.”

Puppy raisers need to have a fully fenced yard, access to a car, be away from home no more than four hours at a time and be prepared to attend training days to learn basic skills. Food, a crate, lead, medication and veterinary care are provided, and support and advice are readily available.

Lynda currently travels to Ballarat for occasional puppy enrichment classes with other trainees, including Banjo’s sister, but hopes sessions could be held in Bendigo if more local raisers are found.

She expects the hardest part of the program for her, Richard and 18-year-old son Sam will be saying goodbye.

“We give him back to Guide Dogs Victoria when he is 12 months old and they assess him to decide whether to take him through the process of harness training to become a guide dog. If they think that’s not the best line for him, there’s also the option of a role as a therapy or assistance dog.

“In my head, I know he is not my dog. I am raising him for someone else and I want him to succeed. I will be heartbroken, but you’ve got to think about the end goal and that is helping him succeed.”

Lynda says she will probably get another pup-in-training to fill the void when the time comes.

“Apparently there are people who hand one dog back and take another home straight away – it’s a bit addictive,” she says. “It’s been a really positive experience so far, so there’s no reason we wouldn’t want to do it again.

“It’s nice having a ‘baby’ in the house. It’s fantastic when you go out for a walk with him and you can see that he’s clicked on and he’s focused and he knows. And you can see that he will hopefully be successful and be doing this one day as a job to help someone else.

“For a six-month-old puppy, he is doing amazingly well.”

For more information on becoming a puppy raiser, visit www.guidedogs.com.au 58

6 Lewis Drive, Castlemaine | Ph: 0435 500 112 | Open: Fri 8 - 5 & Sat 9 - 2 |

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Eaglehawk Y Service Club

Eaglehawk Y Service Club

Michael McKern, Mary Preston and Brian Davey

Mary Preston and family

Michael McKern and family

THE BEST OF THE BOROUGH There’s a lot to celebrate in Eaglehawk: just ask any proud resident.

Empowering Eaglehawk got the community together in August for the annual This is Eaglehawk event, where locals were awarded for their achievements. Founding members Brian Davey, Mary Preston and Michael McKern were also inducted as life members.

SOMETHING FOR

DESIGNED IN BENDIGO 16 Mitchell St, Bendigo | P: 5443 5755 | MrWolfe.com.au |

everyone

glistening prospects Bendigo was once the richest city in the world, built on the back of a mining boom. And according to locals who continue to pick over the diggings, there’s still plenty of gold to be found in them thar hills.

By Raelee Tuckerman - Photography by Leon Schoots Margaret Kennedy and Julia Farrell would likely be astounded. The gold rush sparked by their famous find while washing clothes in the Bendigo Creek at Golden Square in 1851 might have died off, but prospecting for the precious metal is still alive and well in 2022.

Gold worth around $8 billion in today’s value was found here, but local experts say more is just waiting to be discovered – and many have the spoils to prove it.

As a result, the bushland around Bendigo hosts hundreds of hobby fossickers every week armed with metal detectors, shovels and picks; who use trommels and sluices, dolly pots and pans to crush and separate riches from rubble among the samples of earth they hope will bear them golden rewards.

The Australian Gold Prospectors Expo was held in the city across the Anzac Day long weekend, allowing enthusiasts to gather and inspect the latest technology and techniques, and Fosterville Gold sponsored the Australian Gold Panning Championships in

Blackwood, near Trentham, in February.

Prospectors like to keep their most lucrative locations close to their chest but one told Bendigo Magazine there is “fine gold” to be found across the Whipstick Forest, Kamarooka, Lockwood and Mandurang, and even closer to the CBD in Golden Square and Spring Gully.

“There’s still much gold around Bendigo but it’s not easy to find and you need patience and persistence,” he says. “There’s a lot of junk here and the gold is lying under it. If you’re not prepared to dig the rubbish and junk you won’t get the gold, but if you’re patient, you’ll find it.”

Prospectors require a “miner’s right” to fossick anywhere in Victoria, including on their own land, and some areas are declared off-limits.

Parks Victoria has guides showing where you can/can’t go.

The activity has grown in popularity in recent years thanks partly to rising gold prices, with around 55,000 valid permits currently issued across the state.

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TONY AND MANDY DOWNING Mandy Downing never imagined that an anniversary present for partner Tony four years ago would lead the couple into a life of adventure.

Competitions are also available. Tony won the token hunt at the recent Wedderburn Detector Jamboree, taking home a coveted Minelab GPX6000 machine worth $7999. Entrants spent two days searching for numbered metal keys hidden around the event site and the only one Tony found was drawn from a barrel at the end of the weekend as the major prize winner.

“He’d been hinting he was interested in prospecting, so I thought I’d buy him a gold detector,” she says. “I didn’t realise then how it would change our lives – now just about every weekend involves prospecting. We’ve found lots of gold, but it’s all little pieces. It’s our get rich really slow program!

Mandy has fun entering gold panning championships, racing against rivals to pan off buckets of dirt seeded with gold. Competitors incur a three-minute penalty for each piece they fail to find and the quickest time wins. In February, she made the novice final at the Australian titles.

“But as we like to say, there are worse things you could be doing than walking around the Australian bush, looking for gold.”

“I really enjoy it. There are some young girls around who’ve been panning their whole lives and are just guns. One year, an eight-yearold beat all the men!”

Bendigo Prospectors Club vice-president and treasurer

The couple joined the Bendigo Prospectors Club to learn more about their new hobby in a safe environment – where to go, what to look for, why one site is more likely to yield results than another. Now they’re on the committee and enjoy sharing their experiences with others.

Members meet on the second weekend of each month, camping and prospecting at sites across the so-called Golden Triangle, including Moliagul, Maldon, Dunolly, Wedderburn, Waanyarra and the Whipstick. Newcomers can hire a quality detector for just $20/day.

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Tony offers this advice for those just starting the gold hunt: follow the footsteps of the old-timers and visit historic diggings sites, where permitted, because that’s where some gold is to be found.

“Also, buy the dearest detector you can afford (starting price $1000) and get some training in how to use it. That’s the best money you can spend and there are locals who offer that. Or join the club!”

Bendigo Prospectors Club can be contacted via Facebook or bendigoprospectingclub@gmail.com

LYNNIE HINDLE Prospectors and Miners Association of Victoria Bendigo branch president Lynnie Hindle caught the fossicking bug when she was just a child: now, she also campaigns for the rights of others to explore public land in search of hidden treasures.

“My love of prospecting started when I was around eight,” says Lynnie. “I went on a family holiday to Lightning Ridge, where we went noodling for opals and brought back some nice specimens.”

The thrill of finding what lay undiscovered has progressed from gemstones to gold and she heads out several times a week, often with husband Mark around the Heathcote diggings near their home.

“In the early days, we didn’t even have a metal detector and we’d go out with one of Mark’s mates around Blackwood and use a sluice and highbanker (motorised sluice) to get our gold. He’d lend us a detector until we saved up and got our own… we’ve been doing it ever since.

“We’ve had some good finds – our biggest was close to two feet down, a beautiful quartz specimen with a dry weight of 285 grams that had gold all the way through it. We didn’t have scales big enough and had to go to our local IGA and use their supermarket scales to weigh it. We held onto it for a couple of years, then crushed it and got about 47 grams of gold.”

Lynnie helped establish a Bendigo branch of the Prospectors and Miners Association of Victoria, which – like the Eureka diggers did in 1854 – advocates for small-scale miners and recreational prospectors. She is president of the local branch.

The PMAV has eight branches across the state and fights to keep public forests and crown land open to fossickers. It was also instrumental in changing the “miner’s right” permits from $84 for two years, to a more affordable $25.55 for a 10-year licence.

“In 2014, I approached the late Rita Bentley (then state PMAV president) for assistance. She was passionate about keeping prospecting alive and maintaining our access to bush areas including the Whipstick National Park, and we have a lot to thank her for,” Lynnie says. “Our inaugural gathering at the Notley campground had a large turnout and we now have around 150 members in the Bendigo region.”

The PMAV holds regular prospecting camp-outs and provides goldfields maps for members via its website, www.pmav.org.au 63

DARBY LEE Gold Finger Historic Tours operator Darby Lee has gold in his genes – his paternal five-times-greatgrandfather Charles Lee Chew was a Chinese miner who came to the Bendigo diggings in 1857 in search of a glittering fortune and a long line of descendants continued in his wake.

“My grandfather George Lee worked at the Central Deborah Mine and was the last miner to clock off at the North Deborah Mine,” says Darby, a rock guitarist, genealogist and amateur historian who started own gold-inspired business four years ago.

“There’s also mining influences on my mum’s side – I’ve got so much in my blood, it’s undeniable. There’s no doubt in my mind I am meant to be doing this.”

Based in Eaglehawk, Gold Finger Historic Tours doesn’t just provide two-hour metal detecting workshops and practical prospecting expeditions. Darby also gives informal geology and local history lessons, offering insight he says can be the difference between success and failure.

“I teach people about the ground, the rocks, what to look for, the indicators for gold. Iron is gold’s hat – you can’t have one without the other. Plants can be important, like the ironbark tree or the cherry ballart, which only grows in mineralised or iron-rich earth and is found throughout the Whipstick.

“Iron inclusions and fault lines also point to where the gold is. You have to understand the ground, do your research and know a little bit of history. That’s how you find gold.”

The father of nine, who still performs in the band Leeway with sons Jackson and Liam, spent his childhood fossicking in Spring Gully, digging up old bottles to sell to a local expert.

“I made a whole lot of pocket money and I was only a kid,” he laughs. “Then I got interested in gold. Dad’s best friend was the Tarnagulla mine manager and he bought me my first pan and showed me how to use it and where to look.

“I had a sluice at home and I’d ask Mum to take me out to Diamond Hill to get dirt. She soon started panning too, found a bit of gold and she was hooked forever. She passed away in 2003 but that was something very special we shared together, mother and son.”

Darby goes out prospecting for work or pleasure “every day, pretty much” and has several display cases containing his favourite finds.

His yard is full of samples waiting to be processed in his rock crusher and home-made trommel and panned to separate out the sought-after fine gold specks.

It all starts, however, with a detector and knowing how to use it is half the battle. Darby has five. “Models specifically for finding gold start at $1000 and can go up over $10,000. But even the $1000 Minelab Gold Monster I’ve got has paid for itself 50 times over.”

Striking paydirt, says Darby “gives you such an adrenaline rush and a jolt to the heart”. “Sometimes you have to tell yourself to calm down or you feel like you’ll have a heart attack. Gold fever is real!”

Contact Darby via the Gold Finger Historical Tours Facebook page.

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Carol & Jaime

Jacob & Connor

Imé & Chanelle

Megan, Lyn and Elaine

RELAY RAISES FUND AND SPIRITS Dedication and comfortable shoes were two of the most important things for the 21 Bendigo Relay for Life teams.

Paul and Sally

Steve & Wendy

As they walked laps of the Flora Hill athletics track to raise money for the Cancer Council, participants celebrated survivors and remembered those lost to the disease.

Join Us for Napier Park’s

ANNUAL OPEN DAY SATURDAY October 22nd 10:00 am - 2:00 pm Dignity And Respect When It Matters Most Mingle and chat with our friendly staff and partners while gaining some valuable information with open doors to our newly renovated facilities.

Conducting funerals locally, across Victoria and interstate.

Amelia and Mick

Angela, Lachlan and Tallulah

Brenda, Donna and Jon

Dean and Maureen

Karen and Chelsea

Leo and Mary-Ann

MELBOURNE MOVIES HIT THE STAR Movie buffs were spoilt for choice in August as the Melbourne International Film Festival came back to town.

Over two weekends, the Star Cinema screened 13 Australian and international feature films and documentaries for the festival’s 70th anniversary. A selection of Australian short films were also shown.

Maddy and Sam

Alex, Heather and Acal

AN ENLIGHTENING EVENING Celia, Verna, Chris, Jade and Amber

Nicole, jake, Frankie and Alex

Jacob, Liam, Nathaniel and Nicole

Zac, River, Molly and Patrick

Attendees of Enlighten at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion were treated to a spectacular light experience to commemorate the ‘Hungry Ghost’.

Festivities for the Buddhist Chinese tradition paid respects to ancestors and soothed passing spirits, as the Peace Park was transformed into a beautiful and immersive lightscape for the night.

OCTOBER 2022

Register now for our local Move for Mental Health challenge

bendigohealthfoundation.org.au/m4mh Major Sponsor

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Bendigo Health Fundraising & Foundation Platinum Sponsors

much to smile about Hard work and dedication have paid off for this health professional, who is thriving in her position as a senior dentist at Bendigo Health.

Photography by Kate Monotti Born, raised and educated in the city, Amanda Leske’s career has followed a different path.

It was thanks to recommendations from other health professionals she decided to begin her dentistry career in regional Victoria – and she has remained here since.

“Bendigo seemed like the perfect regional town – not that far from the big city, excellent food, wine and events and wonderful mentorship from the Bendigo Health senior dentist at the time, who guided me to develop as a confident practitioner in those early years,” she says.

“In my first year living in Bendigo, I met my husband-to-be and never looked back. Our two sons were born in Bendigo and I think it’s a fantastic place to raise children.”

For Amanda, a senior dentist and dental paediatric specialist at Bendigo Health, dentistry combines all of the elements that make an ideal career choice.

“There is a lot of support and mentoring available, particularly in large community dental services such as Bendigo Health. It is a financially rewarding career, with lots of extra perks available through the organisation, including salary packaging, CPD (continuing professional development) allowance and relocation funding,” she says.

“It offers fantastic variety – every day and every case is different and there are so many areas of speciality to delve in, so you can really focus on what you enjoy.”

Amanda’s role is challenging and rewarding.

“It requires a high level of commitment and energy from our whole team, who work together to provide excellent care to our large

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number of patients.

“My work is usually limited to the more complex dental cases. This might include restorative, surgical or endodontic procedures and procedures under sedation, inpatient consults and management of medically compromised or special needs patients.”

Amanda is currently providing care to a child with multiple dental anomalies through a combination of surgery and orthodontics.

“I can’t wait to see the improvement. This can be life-changing for a child and it is a privilege to be involved as the primary co-ordinator and provider of their care.”

One of the challenges Amanda has found is the popularity of the service.

“We have many patients needing our care, meaning we rely on our triage processes to determine which patients need to be seen urgently,” she says.

While her role takes up much time, Amanda is still able to find a balance between work and family life, as well as her other professional commitments.

“I currently hold a position as honorary senior lecturer at La Trobe University and am responsible for the clinical governance of the student clinic in my role as senior dentist at Bendigo Health,” she says.

But the dedication is worth the rewards.

“Getting positive feedback from parents and carers or patients, or from our referrers, about the excellent job we are doing makes it all worthwhile.”

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Ash, Simon and Rose

Ruth, Gill and Robyn

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Cat, Peter, Paul and Nikki

Celeste and Leon

Noah, Bevan and Alex

BENDIGO BUSINESSES A CUT ABOVE Bendigo’s best in business gathered at the All Seasons to celebrate their achievements.

The annual Bendigo Business Excellence Awards gala night saw representatives from local businesses walk the red carpet, with Bendigo Pottery taking the top prize of Business of the Year.

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Bushmaster in Ukraine

Bendigo answers the call of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and is proud of how this manufacturing success story is saving lives.

By Lisa Chesters, Federal Member for Bendigo - Photography by AJ Taylor Like many, I’ve watched the Russian invasion of Ukraine with horror and sadness. Civilians are having their homes, communities and livelihoods ripped away from them. Many have been fleeing in fear for their safety and the safety of their families.

It’s in service with the Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Force, Royal Netherlands Army, British Army, Japan Ground Self Defence Force, Indonesian Army, Fiji Infantry Regiment, Jamaica Defence Force, New Zealand Army and, most recently, the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

There have also been incredible scenes of courage and bravery. The world has looked on as Ukraine has stood up to its much larger neighbour and, where possible, other nations have helped. It gives me great pride to say Australia is one of those countries offering assistance and Bendigo is at the forefront.

In what is a huge tick of approval for local defence manufacturing capability, many of these nations have made return orders for the vehicle after seeing its capabilities work first-hand.

During an address to Federal Parliament recently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked specifically for Australia to supply Bushmasters to assist in their war with Russia. So far, 40 Australian Bushmasters have been supplied to Ukraine.

There has been a string of media coverage detailing Ukraine’s praise for Bendigo’s Bushmasters and how they are making a real difference on the ground. Soldiers feel safe inside them. There is no doubt the Bushmaster has saved lives.

The Bushmaster is a combat-proven vehicle built at Thales in North Bendigo. It’s currently in service with the Australian Defence Force and seven other nations, and has been successfully deployed on operations in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and the Pacific. It has been used in a range of variants, including troop carrier, command, patrol, support, weapon deployment and ambulance.

The vehicle has been designed and built to protect up to 10 occupants, combining high levels of blast and ballistic protection with excellent off-road mobility.

The Bushmaster has saved lives during operations across the world and is credited for saving the lives of 300 Australian Defence personnel, described as indispensable in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Thales Bushmaster is one of Bendigo’s great manufacturing success stories, dating back to 1999 when Thales was awarded the Bushranger contract to produce Bushmasters to be manufactured at its Bendigo facility. Bushmaster deliveries to the ADF began in 2005.

The export success of the vehicle is testimony to the hard work of the engineering and design team in Bendigo, which works with the Australian Defence Force and more than 120 Australian companies in the Bushmaster supply chain.

It also shows that Australian manufacturing can compete in the global arena, even in specialist markets where competition is tough.

Right now, it’s humbling to know a vehicle designed, developed and built right here in Bendigo is making such a difference in Ukraine.

Ukrainian ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko recently visited Bendigo to tour the facility and spoke highly of their capability, stating they’d happily welcome more Bushmasters to their fleet. He said it’s the most recognisable brand name of Australia in Ukraine right now, because if you mention Australia, the next thing you hear is ‘Bushmasters’.

Whilst the success of the Bushmaster is something Bendigonians can be proud of, there’s also hope that the vehicles’ time at war in Ukraine is short and that the conflict will soon come to an end, restoring peace, so the people of Ukraine can start to rebuild their lives.

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ALL ABOARD THE BLUES TRAM A historic tram ride through the Bendigo CBD is always fun, but the addition of live music makes it even better.

In August, musicians Kerryn Fields and Grim Fawkner boarded the Blues Tram to perform for fans while rolling past iconic Bendigo locations. Guests couldn’t contain their smiles as they enjoyed the unique experience.

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EXHIBITION OPENING A REAL TREASURE Jane, Diane and Carol

Russell and Judith

Jenny and Kirstie

Val and Sherley

Members flocked to the Bendigo Art Gallery to check out the newest exhibition before it officially opened to the public.

At the Treasures of Dai Gum San opening event, guests were astonished by the exquisite Chinese artistry on display as part of the special collaboration with the Golden Dragon Museum.

Discover a place brimming with creativity Explore an eclectic mix of artforms from glass bead making, sculpting, collage art, printmaking, jewellery design, quilting, handmade homewares, painting, wine making and artisan foods.

Drop in for a chat. Soak up the passion. Take home a piece that inspires you.

Etcetera Gallery | Yvonne George Sculptor | Habitat Gallery | Linking Energy | Studio B Goldfields Providore | Glenwillow Wines | Joybells One Of A Kind | Studio 2inspire Located at Bendigo Pottery - 146 Midland Hwy, Epsom www.bendigopottery.com.au/pages/village-of-artisans |

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the wonders of science

After years of online learning and lockdowns to avoid a virus, this La Trobe University Honours student now spends all day getting up close and personal with them.

By Anna Knight - Photography by Leon Schoots At just 22 years old, Abbey Milligan is working on some pretty amazing science. Completing her Honours year at the world-class Holsworth Biomedical Research Initiative in Bendigo, she is part of a multidisciplinary team exploring how we can better understand, prevent and treat diseases.

“Growing up, I’d always wanted to be a vet and that’s what my undergrad was,” she says. “But then finding out about Biomedical Science Honours and PhD opportunities in Bendigo, I just got really excited about it.

“You’d never normally expect to do this kind of science somewhere other than a big city – and after fan-girling out about Donna Whelan’s work at La Trobe, I was lucky enough that she said ‘yes, join the team!’”

The job was a welcome relief after a challenging time away from home for the Bendigo local.

“Moving to Melbourne in 2019 to study veterinary science at Melbourne University was a big change.

“It was hectic and stressful… I am definitely a country person for sure.

Then COVID happened and COVID Melbourne was very different – my only normal undergrad year was 2019. By the time I got used to city life, we all went into lockdown.

“It was a weird experience being in lockdown in university halls of residence, and being online for half of my degree was hard. I was less than 100 metres away from the lecture halls but not allowed to attend classes.

“But then I found out about the work Donna was doing here in Bendigo and thought ‘yes please!’ and decided to move back here permanently.”

What really appealed to Abbey was the interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of the work.

“Everyone is collaborating with each other, but also with others outside the team.

“When I was thinking ‘what would I be?’ after my studies, my mind was blown by how many things Donna’s team can incorporate into their research – biology, chemistry, physics, and even some engineering with Donna building bespoke microscopes for specific purposes.”

When Abbey first joined Dr Donna Whelan’s lab, she decided to focus on viruses and immunology.

Not only does she have the opportunity to be part of Dr Whelan’s multidisciplinary lab in Bendigo, but the team also collaborates with Associate Professor Karla Helbig’s molecular virology lab at La Trobe’s Melbourne campus.

Now Abbey finds herself spending all day using lasers and a hi-tech microscope to look at the tiny little specks of fat – or organelles – that 76

live in our cells, and has become the lipid droplet’s biggest fan.

“I’m obsessed with them; we know they have an important role to play, we just don’t quite know what yet.

“I’m now using a super-resolution microscope to look at different interactions within the cells, and we’ve been looking at how lipid droplets behave when a virus is introduced.

“The next step is figuring out why they behave that way, and if they have some kind of beneficial effect on the body, then working out how we can harness that.

“It’s such a growing, novel field. Previously, no one really thought about lipid droplets as anything more than little fat blobs, but now we’re starting to look at how they might help us understand more about the body’s defences – it’s really cool.”

As part of the Holsworth Biomedical Research Initiative, Abbey can work with scientists from many different disciplines, and says this has been one of the most exciting aspects of the work.

“I have a much more biology-leaning brain, so I’m trying to absorb as much as I can on the chemistry side. It’s amazing being able to work with chemists and virologists and see how the same thing can be studied from multiple angles.

“One of the things that is so appealing about this career pipeline is that it’s so flexible and versatile – you end up doing research into things you’d never heard of before – and by the time I’ve added everything I can to the story, there might be something new to investigate that we don’t even know about yet.

“That’s what I love about this work. When you answer one question, it just raises a hundred more.”

As for the future, Abbey describes the research as “very dynamic”.

“You have a plan, but the further ahead you look the less you know.”

For now, she is happy spending her days in the basement room of Dr Whelan’s lab at the Bendigo campus, with the lasers and the lipid droplets, exploring her specific chapter of the bigger story. Abbey has found her passion and, even better, she can pursue it in the place she calls home.

“I’ve even started seeing the lights from the super-resolution microscope when I’m looking at other things.

“The other day, I saw the Bendigo city lights shining and thought ‘that’s not a great resolution image’… then I realised I was thinking about the blinking lights of the super-res microscope. I guess I’m seeing the world differently now!”

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keen for dijon Our tastes have ebbed and flowed in line with historic events, developments in technology, and crossing cultural boundaries.

Words and illustration by Geoff Hocking I read in the newspaper the other morning that we were about to experience a shortage of olive oil and Dijon mustard. Oh no! How will we ever be able to survive this latest crisis in the global supply chain?

I ruminated on what my mother would have used when greasing the pan for her cooking in days gone by.

I remember she always kept the outer wrapper from the knobs of butter for greasing her baking trays and a ceramic bowl full of dripping, which never, ever emptied, for frying, roasting and basting.

For the younger readers: Dripping was the fat that dripped off the Sunday roast and, when collected before the gravy was made and cooled, became solid. We used to smear this pale yellow paste over slices of toast, add a sprinkle of salt and a smear of tomato sauce – and it was bloody delicious.

I once embarrassed my mother when I was only four years old, when we were visiting someone she obviously wanted to impress. I was asked by the nice lady if I would like something to eat. After inspecting the various cakes on offer, with some degree of suspicion, I replied that I would quite like some bread and dripping. My mother turned crimson, her attempt at appearing somewhat proper by pretending that we would only have bread and BUTTER at home was shattered by her guileless second son, who had no understanding of social niceties. I just loved bread and dripping.

We had never used olive oil for cooking. It was only ever given to us as a purgative. For cooking, it was dripping. Fried eggs in dripping. Sausages in dripping. Even fish started off sizzling in a bit of dripping, although this method did infuse the product of the open waters with a slightly rural, meaty, farmhouse flavour.

In the immediate post-war years (and I mean WWII, not any of the later debacles that our nation has been so foolishly engaged in, but the big one that really upset the apple cart and from which the restrictions on foodstuffs was felt for many years to follow), what was often on the menu would turn the stomach of today’s gourmet generation.

As 1950s kids, we occasionally sat at the dinner table and were served a plate of tripe – a flaccid, white piece of meat (I say ‘meat’ with reservations) embellished with a smear of tomato sauce. For the unwary, tripe is the lining of a cow’s stomach, bleached in chlorine to remove any ghastly bits, leaving just one ghastly bit, called tripe. Apart from jellied tongue, or lamb’s brains, there were few more appalling meals that our mother tried to serve us while trying to eke out her weekly budget.

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Lucky for us the Sunday roast was still an affordable deal, and we sat down to this after church. Roast lamb served with all the veggies, and the dripping was kept in the bowl. On Monday, leftover lamb was put through the mincer and became shepherd’s pie; Tuesday it was mixed with onion and egg and coated with herbed bread-crumbs and became delicious lamb rissoles; and by Wednesday, only cold cuts remained on the bone. We hardly ever had chicken.

The arrival of Kentucky Fried heralded a blossoming for the poultry industry, yet for a long time chicken remained a very expensive meal. We only had a roast chook on special occasions.

Bland processed meats were the main alternative to the butcher’s fare: the cold germans, strasbourg, heidelberg sausage and frankfurts. The Mediterranean snags remained a mystery. No chorizo, no salami, no cabana, no bologna, no pepperoni, no calabrese, nothing too spicy, just pale, pink British-style snags.

We had full-cream milk delivered to our door by the milko – at first scooped into a billy-can but later arriving in a pint glass bottle with a little cardboard stopper. The rich cream sat on the top. One member of every family always got to the milk first and poured cream over their cereal, while the rest got virtual skim milk. If you wanted homogenised milk, you had to get to it quickly and shake the bottle. No almond milk, or low-fat, calcium-enriched, ‘Physical’, ultra-soy or paraben-free, just milk from local cows, via a local dairy.

Lamb chops and three veg were the order of almost every day – a fried chop served with mashed potato, beans and usually pumpkin, or carrots. Just the colours: something green, something orange – a balanced diet.

If we were hungry after any meal, mum would just say, “You can fill up on bread and jam”. If we were still hungry because we refused to eat tripe, we just went to bed hungry. The worst threat my mother ever made was, “If you don’t eat it now, it will still be here for you tomorrow”.

It never was.

My grandmother would place a Salada cracker in a dessert bowl and scoop stewed apples on top. She added a little milk and claimed it was as good as apple pie. Maybe a little salty, but it saved her the tedium of pastry making.

I have been attempting to replicate some of my mother’s classic dishes.

So far, I have done a reasonable job of making Cornish pasties. I have baked her apple sponge, but am yet to attempt her rice pudding. I will forgo any attempt to try and cook her sago pudding. Maybe my father had eaten sago while serving in New Guinea during the war, but I could see no reason to try and digest such a hideous dish of something that resembled frog’s eggs in peacetime.

I must cook her ky-si-min one day – her one attempt at “Asian” cuisine.

Beans, mince, carrot and rice all mixed up with chicken noodle soup and curry powder. She always knocked this up in her electric frypan, as woks don’t seem to have reached Golden Square as early as the 1960s.

When I consider what is available today, compared with what we had when I was a little chap, it is quite staggering. We have bottles of BBQ sauce from Texas and even Carolina in our fridge. There is a small tray filled with various mustards: whole-grain, Dijon, hot English, mild English; bottles of tahini, fish-sauce, some bloody-hot chilli sauce that makes me sweat and more exotic things that younger members of my family like to splash over everything.

Once salt came in a cardboard box labelled Mermaid (with added iodine).

Today, we use pink salt from the pink salt lakes in the Mallee. At least that is local, unlike some gourmet salt offerings from Himalaya. Do they really import salt from Mt Everest?

Once we ate bread – white or brown – delivered to our door by a bloke in a horse and cart and a wicker basket over his arm. Today we can choose from a vast array of breads, some of which come from far and away – from young Helga or Mr Abbott, stone-ground, mixed grain, seeded and nutted, sour-dough, low GI, high-protein, gluten-free and some full of gluten, crusty, Italianate, French-sticked, hot-bunned and bagelled.

Considering the food miles travelled by some items in our pantry, I can do without French Dijon or the Spanish olive oil, but there will always be room for the little gold and red box from Mr Keen – and a bowl full of dripping.

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for artists' sake

Drawing on past experience, a new resident and random conversation saw the birth of a local network for Maldon creatives that is still thriving over 10 years later.

Photography by Leon Schoots For more than a decade, the Maldon Artist Network has provided a supportive environment and network for creatives in the regional area.

It was formed in 2011 as an initiative of Tricia Migdoll, who had moved to the area from New South Wales. Tricia was a member of the Byron Bay artists network and had enquired at the local art shop of her new hometown as to whether there was a similar group in Maldon. The conversation was overhead by another local artist and from there, the Maldon Artist Network, or MANet as it is known, began.

The group started meeting on a monthly basis at Penny School, a cafe and art gallery in an iconic historical building. However, Tricia says that as not all artists could attend monthly gatherings an email list of more than 100 artists was compiled to share information. “A desire to collaborate, along with the combination of creative and organisational skills in the network, led to ideas about arts events that could be staged in Maldon,” she says. “The purpose of these was to offer artists of the Maldon district opportunities to exhibit their work and to attract visitors and tourists to Maldon.”

Over the years, members and visitors have come and gone but the mainstays of MANet – Tricia, Jennifer Merkus and Catherine Tait – each have brought their organisational, display and curatorial skills to help stage excellent exhibitions.

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Catherine explains that the first event, an Artwalk exhibiting works in most shop windows in Maldon, was held in 2013.

“Thanks to sponsorship from the Maldon and District Community Bank, a branch of the Bendigo Bank, the Artwalk was successful,” she says. The event saw exhibitions of works from 70 artists delighting residents, tourists and visitors alike.

The second event was the 2014 Maldon Portrait Prize, presented and curated by MANet. “The Portrait Prize showed the work of 50 finalists, who painted portraits of people living in Mount Alexander,” Catherine says.

“Dubbed the ‘Marchies’, the artists’ works received much acclaim.

There were three independent finalist selectors and a judge, all of whom had extensive arts experience and knowledge.”

Jennifer Kalionis, the director of the Castlemaine Gallery and Museum, awarded the first Maldon Portrait Prize to Tricia for her moving portrait of her husband Jim. Since 2014, a further three Artwalks and Portrait Prizes have been organised by MANet. This organisation has also facilitated studio openings, pop up exhibitions, workshops and curated several Maldon Art Shows, sponsored by Maldon Inc, which is an organisation for businesses in the area.

Meetings of MANet and events were put on hold due to the pandemic but once restrictions allowed, group members were keen to return to what they did best. “After the hiatus, the latest MANet Portrait Prize was held in February this year at Edge Galleries,” Jennifer says. “It was due to the generosity of directors Simon Dow and Brad Hooper, who not only offered their gallery but also assisted us with their curatorial skills.”

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Mirror Me - Cailin Jansen

The Ecologist - Gabrielle Martin

Independent panellists selected artists for the painting and photography sections of the prize.

“It was different from previous years when eligibility was restricted to portraits of those living in the Central Goldfields,” Jennifer says.

“This MANet Portrait Prize was open to portraits of anyone living in Australia. Consequently, there were more entrants. However as testament to the quality of arts in the region, many local artists were selected as finalists. Of the entries, 177 were exhibited online in our new website.”

Judge Yvette Copperfield, a renowned artist and Archibald Prize winner, selected Gabriel Martin‘s portrait of her ecologist friend Cassia Read as the painting prize winner. Cailin Jansen was awarded the MANet Photography Portrait Prize, judged by Castlemaine Art Gallery and Museum director Naomi Cass, for her work Mirror Me. MANet is fortunate and grateful for the continuing sponsorship of I Be Human, an international philanthropic organisation that supports arts and culture, environmental and social programs.

It also appreciates the Maldon Neighbourhood Centre, which provides organisational, insurance, risk management and governance support.

MANet is again busy after the lull caused by COVID. There are plans for studio openings to be held concurrently with the Maldon Folk Festival and a Landscape Prize in 2023, in partnership with Edge Galleries. Another Portrait Prize is also in the offing.

MANet will continue to meet to generate other ideas and share artistic practice.

For further information, visit www.maldonartistnetwork.org.au

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meat in the sandwich

By Beau Cook - Photography by Leon Schoots

After a hearty lunch or a lighter dinner on these warmer nights? A traditional Aussie meat makes the ideal filling for the humble sandwich.

LAMB MEATBALL SANDWICH

Method:

Serves 4

1. Place all meatball ingredients into a large bowl and mix with your hand until well combined. Form mix into 16 small balls and set aside.

Meatballs ingredients: • 500g lamb mince • 1 free-range egg • 20g (1/3 cup) finely grated parmesan cheese • 1/3 cup flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped • 1/3 cup coarse breadcrumbs • ½ tsp. sea salt flakes • ½ tsp. cracked pepper Sauce ingredients: • 2 tbl. olive oil • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped • ½ tsp. chilli flakes • 500ml passata • 1 tsp. raw sugar To serve: • 1 long baguette, cut into four • Fresh rocket and parmesan cheese

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2. In a large non-stick frying pan, heat olive oil over a medium heat then fry meatballs for 8 minutes, turning occasionally until brown on all sides.

3. Remove balls from pan and set aside.

4. Add garlic and chilli to pan and sauté for 2 minutes, then add passata, sugar and meatballs. Simmer for 20 minutes or until sauce has thickened slightly. Stir occasionally.

5. To serve, butterfly each portion of baguette and toast the open side in a griddle pan. Fill each with rocket, meatballs and top with parmesan.

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dates to celebrate

Toast to vintages past and present, at home and at one of this spring’s premier wine events.

Photography by Leon Schoots Bendigo winegrowers will unveil the 2022 vintage on October 15, at the inaugural Spring Wine Fiesta. The Garden of the Future in White Hills will host a big day of latest tastings, local food, plus laid-back tunes thanks to the Bendigo Blues and Roots team.

The event will be a highlight of the Bendigo Uncorked Wine

Festival, from October 1 to 16, where a range of dinners, cellar door experiences, weekend tours and wine and film events will celebrate the local drop. Go to www.bendigowine.org.au for details.

In the meantime, pay homage at home with these top choices from four of the region’s best labels.

MUNARI 2021 ‘NEXT CHAPTER’ SANGIOVESE

SANDHURST RIDGE 2016 RESERVE SHIRAZ

Over at Lady’s Pass in the Mount Ida foothills, the Munari family are basking in the fruits of four years of hard work. Their ‘Next Chapter’ Sangiovese is the first vintage after the grafting of the vineyard’s Merlot and Malbec blocks to Sangiovese.

Raise a toast to a true pedigree of the Greblo brothers’ Sandhurst Ridge winery in Marong. The grapes for this beautiful wine were sourced from the property’s oldest and lowest-yielding vines, producing a drink of balance and complexity.

The result is a bright, aromatic and fruit-driven wine with aromas of apple, blackcurrant and juicy strawberries. It’s medium bodied with a fine and elegant tannin structure. A lighter-style red to rejoice at the end of winter.

It’s deep purple in colour and shows spicy oak and cherries on the nose. The lengthy, velvety palate follows through with dark berries and a light hint of pepper. 2016 was a beautiful vintage, and the time is right to celebrate it now.

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TURNERS CROSSING 2019 VIOGNIER

MANDURANG VALLEY 2020 GSM

Behold the product of an intriguing vintage from the Turners Crossing vineyard, on the Loddon River at Serpentine, where the dry weather through to harvest made for good ripening conditions.

This lovely wine from the Vine family is a delight to see poured into the glass. Its bright, ruby-red tone will bring a cheer to any table. A handcrafted blend of Grenache, Shiraz and Monastrell, it shows spicy fruit on the nose and palate, and has overtones of raspberries and black cherries.

This lively, light straw-green wine has lifted aromatics of stone fruits, honeysuckle and violet; ideal for the warmer days ahead.

A dry, acidic, medium-bodied wine, it’s perfect paired with spicy Asian food now, or a shellfish platter as the days lengthen and entertaining moves outdoors.

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A year spent in French and American oak in the winery at Mandurang has given it plenty of complex character, and a supple palate with excellent balance. The trio of grape varieties is a memorable combination to suit all red wine lovers.

Christine and Tim

Ella, Tara and Milly

BEER FESTIVAL WELL CRAFTED Harrison & Sarah

Heidi & Celeste

Laura, Tom, Emilee, Nelson, Maddy and Damon

Mandy and Mellisa

Independent breweries from around the country had their turn in the spotlight as part of Bendigo on the Hop. Guests had a great time strolling between venues to sample a wide variety of craft beers and chat to the brewers. The unique winter festival has been an integral part of Bendigo’s beer scene since 2014.

AUTUMN AT MUNARI WINES Enjoy an afternoon tasting elegant wines from inside the rustic Cellar Door or on the terrace overlooking the vines W INE TASTIN G | PIZZA | C O FFE E

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Experience spacious, clean, modern and comfortable accommodation with pool, spa and free wifi available.

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BENDIGO ERNEST HOTEL

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Situated in the heart of the CBD, our new boutique offering provides holiday and business travellers a luxurious, modern and ambient getaway set against a grand heritage backdrop.

Complimentary off-street parking. 100m from the Art Gallery.

Plush couches, a licensed bar and an amazing programme of current and classic films for the discerning film enthusiast.

Operating in the grand old Eaglehawk Town Hall, we screen 7 nights a week plus matinees Friday to Sunday.

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Our seasonal main menu includes delicious favourites such as mushroom crumpets, cauliflower and gorgonzola fritters, fried chicken and waffles, 5 grain porridge and lamb. Offering a light tapas style menu on Friday and Saturday evenings.

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GLUTEN-FREE | ORGANIC | HEALTHY CHOICE CAFÉ

COFFEE | CAKE | LUNCH | FUNCTIONS | CATERING

We are Bendigo’s only completely gluten-free take-away café with a wide range of options no matter your dietary needs. We have a passion for rustic, café style food with organic, local produce delivered with friendly service.

Whether it be a beautiful breakfast, lazy lunch or special occasion we are sure to have it covered. Come in today and enjoy a local wine on our balcony and soak up the Bull Street food precinct. Open Tues - Fri 7am - 3pm and Sat 8am - 2pm.

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MS BATTERHAMS

MICK’S FRESH FISH & TAKEAWAY

WINE | COCKTAILS | EUROPEAN INSPIRED MENU

FISH & CHIPS | HAMBURGERS | SALADS | DINE-IN

Ms Batterhams is the new girl with a past. Set in the basement of the old school hall at Mackenzie Quarters and converted into a sophisticated yet unpretentious lounge bar. Open Thursday Sunday for lunch and dinner and all day dining on the weekend.

The seafood used in our takeaway, dine-in dishes and sold to public, is purchased fresh and direct from the Melbourne fish markets. Come and try our delicious food, just across from Lake Weeroona. Gluten-free options available.

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CAFE ISTANBUL

BUNJA THAI

TURKISH KEBABS | SALAD | GF & VEGETARIAN OPTIONS

AUTHENTIC THAI FOOD | DINE IN | TAKEAWAY

Offering delicious freshly homemade breads, dips, salads, baklava and turkish delights. Our local favourite kebabs are made from real lamb shoulder in 3 sizes including; jumbo, regular and mini. HSPs, burgers and falafel also available.

Bringing fresh and delicious Thai food to Bendigo’s CBD with Thai chefs and table service in an amazing Gold Rush Architectural masterpiece. Fully licensed and open for lunch Mon-Fri and dinner from 5pm Mon-Sat.

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WINE. FOOD. FUNCTIONS, WEDDINGS & CONFERENCES Visit our Cellar Door and Gallery. You can relax and enjoy wine tasting in air conditioned comfort or relax outdoors in the gardens.

“AN EXCELLENT WINERY, PRODUCING WINES OF HIGH TO VERY HIGH QUALITY” JAMES HALLIDAY Open at weekends, at other times by appointment - 0417 357 688 - 77 Faderson’s Lane, Mandurang - (9km South - East of Bendigo, Off Tannery Lane)

Cellar Door Open Daily 11am-5pm (except Good Friday & Christmas Day) Taste and Purchase Current and OlderVintages | Boutique Accommodation Now Available 156 Forest Drive Marong,Victoria Australia | Phone: (03) 5435 2534 | Fax: (03) 5435 2548 | wine@sandhurstridge.com.au

right on cue

Don’t be deceived by the innocence of youth – this family of baby-faced pool sharks has a real bite to their game that can turn the tables on unsuspecting opponents.

By Raelee Tuckerman - Photography by Leon Schoots Teenager Joseph Evans has gone from potting balls for fun in a country pub, to preparing to take on the world’s best junior exponents on the blackball tables of France.

The 17-year-old and his sisters caught a lucky break when their parents bought the Courthouse Hotel in Eaglehawk in mid-2014 – they might never have discovered their talent with a pool cue otherwise.

The family had their own pool table at home in Neilborough, but it was of little interest to the young trio before they started hanging out in the back room of the cream brick pub on Sailors Gully Road.

“While mum and dad ran the pub, we kids were just chilling

and playing pool,” recalls Joseph, now one of the nation’s most promising juniors in the games of blackball and eightball. “I was about eight when I started, and I was beating a lot of the adults by the time I was 12.”

Sisters Scarlett, 14, and Amelia, 12, watched their older brother hone his skills and several years ago they, too, grabbed a cue and joined in.

“Amelia literally couldn’t reach the top of the table at first,” laughs mum Kathy Howard. “But she somehow tiptoed up and leaned over and used her own special method to hit the balls. Most kids that age would have torn holes in the cloth, but she managed to play and avoid that.”

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In April, all three Evans children represented Victoria at the Australian Blackball Junior National Championships in Queensland.

Joseph placed fifth overall in the under-18 division, which earned him a spot in the Australian squad for the World Championships in Albi, France, in October. He will contest the singles and team events.

The girls also performed admirably, with Amelia knocking on the door of the under-15 national team and Scarlett accepting the challenge of stepping up an age group to even out the numbers.

“It was difficult, but I came away a better player for the experience,” she says.

It’s a tough journey for juniors in what is traditionally a very adult sport.

There are no underage competitions for youngsters anywhere in Victoria, except the annual state team try-outs. Events in Geelong, Melbourne and Albury allow juniors to enter, but they must play in open divisions against opponents who could be decades older and more experienced.

Locally, Joseph has been part of a Courthouse team playing in the Bendigo Eight Ball Association’s Monday night competition since he was 10 years old, and has won three grand finals with them.

“Though we had the table at home, the kids hadn’t really picked up a cue stick very often until we got to the pub,” says Kathy. “Joseph would watch everyone else there playing and when he got into it, he seemed to be a natural. Everyone encouraged him and eventually, they allowed him into the pub circuit team.

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“He’s always been the youngest player and his stats were as good as some of the top men right from the beginning. They probably thought they’d have to take it easy on him, but they soon learned not to. It’s not much fun being beaten by a child!”

For the uninitiated, blackball and eightball are both pool variations where players aim to pocket the seven balls from their chosen group (reds or yellows), before sinking the black. Rules differ slightly between the games.

Joseph aims to become a professional pool player and recently took a giant step towards that goal when he was invited to the Pockets Junior Pro Series – run alongside Australia’s first major professional pool series.

It features eight of the best senior and junior players in the country and he earned his call-up to fill in during one of the rounds. He hopes to secure a permanent place in the series next year.

The Evans kids say the secret to success on the pool table is good vision, strong arms, deft hand-eye coordination, concentration and practice, practice, practice.

The family sold their pub at the end of 2019, so now the table at home gets a regular workout.

“Shots I miss in games, I’ll try to replicate at home until I get them in,” says Joseph, “and there’s lots of drills you can practise as well.”

“We practise almost every day,” adds Scarlett. “Before school, after school, even before coming for this interview. Whenever Joseph is not on the table, we girls are usually playing.”

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Amelia chimes in: “It’s quite a fascinating game – it’s fun figuring out which pockets to pot the ball in, and the hardest thing for me is getting my angles on the balls correct.”

The whole family will travel to France to watch Joseph take on the world, including dad Ross who has played a huge role in his son’s development.

“I have three inspirations,” Joseph says. “My dad, because he got me into pool originally and taught me so much. He’s always played Monday night pub rules. Then Nick Howie from Bendigo, who was top 16 in Victoria and has had a big influence on me. And thirdly, my favourite pro player Justin Sajich from Western Australia, who plays in the Pockets Pro Series. He’s just so good.”

Joseph is seeking sponsors ahead of the World Blackball Championships, because juniors have to self-fund their trip. Any contributions would be gratefully received, with an opportunity to have their corporate logo featured on his Australian uniform for those donating $500-plus.

The family is also keen to recruit other young pool players to join in formal competitions.

“They’re always trying to recruit more juniors,” says Kathy. “There could be some real superstars out there, but they just may not realise the opportunity is there for them.”

To support Joseph in his quest to play at the world titles, or for more information on how juniors can become involved, contact Kathy Howard on 0401 567 944.

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