The visitors guide to The Central Highlands Spring 2025
Image: Campbell Addy, I Love Campbell, 2023
“The
Losing the function of her hind legs last year wasn’t about to stop pooch Sheba getting out and having a ball.
The beautiful 11-year-old long-haired German-Belgian shepherd and her Clunes owner Dave Liddle can often be seen out enjoying walks, ably assisted by a pair of sturdy dog wheels. Attached to Sheba’s hindquarters with a specially-designed frame, the wheels allow her to walk after she lost the function of her hind legs last year due to cruciate ligament and spinal problems, and unsuccessful surgery. But Dave, a retired UK police dog handler, was not about to see Sheba miss out on enjoying life to the full. So when a vet told him about the option of dog wheels, he wasted no time in jumping online and ordering a pair for Sheba. To start with, Sheba was not all that fond of her new set of wheels but eventually she settled into using them and now it’s clear that Sheba enjoys putting rubber to the road.
Coliban Water Channel Walk, 9km section
There’s some beautiful country up around Sutton Grange and Mount Alexander (Leanganook) and today we’re going to sample a handsome piece of it. After driving to the designated meeting spot, my sturdy walking accomplice, Paddy H, and I join the Great Dividing Trail Association walkers for a 9km hike along a section of the Coliban Water Channel. This is a concrete structural feat that would almost certainly verbally activate even the most reticent of civil construction engineers. First up we leave some of our cars at our meeting spot on the HarcourtSutton Grange Road - which will ultimately become our finishing point for today’s walk. We now car pool, and ferry some of the cars a few km to the actual start point of today’s walk at Earl’s Grate, located off the Faraday-Sutton Grange Road, just a tad east of the Mica Grange Garden and Sculpture Park.
Price guides for The Block homes have been revealed - $3 million to $3.3 million - for the luxury Raglan Street properties.
Belle Property Daylesford director Will Walton said The Block homes were within the Middleton Fields masterplan that included a mix of price points from one-bedroom social housing residences to premium architectural residences. “The Block properties are substantially larger and on more land than average Daylesford residences. There are very few contemporary architectural homes of the same land size and amenities, such as a heated pool and outdoor entertainment zone, within the township to compare. While our region does achieve a wide price range of properties from $400,000 to upwards of $6M, the average home or medium price for Daylesford is $820,000.” Mr Walton said homes in neighbouring rural areas commanded multi-million-dollar prices – thanks to land size and quality. Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au
Let’s support our community and shop local!
“Locals supporting Locals” Restaurants, Bakers, Butchers, Cafe’s, Local vineyards, Distillers, Brewers and of course each other.
Remember we offer free delivery, T&Cs apply.
Delivery times are Monday to Saturday between 10am and 4pm. We accept credit cards over the phone or we have an on-board eftpos machine. You will need to be at home for the delivery with proof of age if asked by the driver. Give the Foxxy team a call on 5348 3577. Keep safe, everyone.
Albert Julius ‘Carl’ Schulz migrated to Australia from Germany in 1884. Carl, as he preferred to be known, went to Milawa, Victoria and pursued the occupation of bricklaying.
He was hard working and money conscious and within a short time, in the early 1890s, was able to purchase the Moyhu Hotel. The thrifty purchase gave him leftover funds which allowed him to rebuild the hotel. While the publican of the hotel, he also built a bakery, a doctor’s residence, Moyhu’s first public hall and the local saleyards. The reserve at Moyhu is named in his honour. When his wife Marion Wolstenholme died in 1915, Carl decided to retire and seek a quieter lifestyle. This did not last. In 1922, he went on to to purchase the Lagoon Hotel, Kiewa. He built the business up over three years and sold the hotel at a great profit. Carl’s next venture was in the town of Trentham. He took over the victualler’s licence Victorine Fitzgerald on the Bank Hotel on May 12, 1925. In March 1927, the building was renamed Hotel Trentham. Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 335
Image: David White
The story of Hepburn Wildlife Shelter started in 2005 when founders Jon Rowdon and Gayle Chappell purchased an 11-hectare bushland property adjoining the Hepburn Regional Park specifically for the running of the wildlife shelter and planned to establish a permanent and lasting treatment and care facility for wildlife in the region.
From there they put everything they had into wildlife care: income, time, personal space, scientific training and significant emotional investment. As the shelter continued to grow it became apparent that caring for myriad injured and orphaned native wildlife that found themselves at the shelter would become a 24/7 commitment for Jon and Gayle. With no available government funding, the shelter grew with support from generous donors and volunteers from throughout the region.
Markets...
Clunes Farmers Market
Castlemaine Artists Market
Kyneton Farmers Market
Ballan Farmers Market
Maldon Market
Trentham Farmers & Makers Markets
Glenlyon Farmers Market
Creswick Market
Leonards Hill Market
Talbot Farmers Market
Woodend Lions Market
Malmsbury Farmers Market
Daylesford Rotary Market
Trentham Station Market
Daylesford Railway Market
Whimsical, powerful and fantastical are just a few of the words that spring to mind on viewing the work of Glenlyon sculptural ceramicist Rowena Hannan.
The ceramics artist draws on classic mythology, folklore, legend, spirituality and the natural world as she creates highly engaging and original pieces that capture the imaginations of all fortunate enough to see them. “I’m interested in responding to the environment which I’m in and also personal history. A lot of my earlier work has a bit of a religious context to it and I’m interested in story-telling. Mythologies, stories of Greek mythology, stories of the Christian saints, Pagan stories...when we moved up here I began responding more to the environment. My work started evolving, looking at the spirituality in the natural environment. Some pieces, like these Kangaroo Girls, are also a bit about play too.”
Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 334
Wander between two inspiring Daylesford galleries and a tra paintings sit alongside striking works from Australian artists. Di and sculptures, each piece thoughtfully curated to spark cur
s in the heart of Daylesford.
anquil sculpture garden, where Michael Parker’s captivating scover handcrafted
Kattemingga film set, Newbury. “There was movement at the station, for the word had passed around...” is a famous line from the Banjo Paterson poem.
Kattemingga, meaning ‘hill of trees haunted by spirits’, is notable for being the filming location of The Man from Snowy River television series, changed to Snowy River: The McGregor Saga for overseas audiences, along with productions such as The Ponderosa, Gundown, The Mole and Gunslinger. Small budget films, commercials and documentaries were also produced on the site. Built in the 1990s, Kattemingga was a modern-day ranch constructed on a 60-hectare property in Newbury which blended accommodation with rustic charm and a small touch of Hollywood magic. This setting attracted visitors and cinematographers from all over Australia and even the Americas. The location and grounds were totally isolated, and film crews could shoot footage in a 360-degree rotation. Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au
Trentham is the 2025 Victorian Top Tourism Town in the Tiny Tourism Town category - for its “charm, community spirit, and visitor appeal”.
As the Victorian winner, Trentham will now be considered for a national award. Hepburn Shire Cr Brian Hood, long-time councillor for the previous Coliban Ward and resident, said winning the award was fantastic recognition for the town and its people. “Trentham really is a hidden gem, perhaps not so hidden any more. Visitors enjoy Trentham’s walking trails and forest, the iconic Trentham Falls and a very warm welcome from locals and traders – from boutiques, eateries and our fabulous pubs to accommodation providers. This award is a great result for a great community.” Warrnambool was named Victorian Top Tourism Town (population 5000+) and Mount Beauty won the Top Small Tourism Town Award (population 1500-5000) The silver award for Top Tiny Tourism town went to Halls Gap and the bronze to Whitfield. Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 337
• Extensive
• Rustic
• Accessible
• Coffee,
• Parking
• Activities
• All
Red was the colour de jour as 100+ people headed to the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens on July 19 for The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever.
The event is held at locations around the world where participants recreate the music video for musician Kate Bush’s 1978 song Wuthering Heights. The inspiration was Shambush!’s The Ultimate Kate Bush Experience, which took place in 2013 in Brighton, England, as part of Brighton Fringe, created by performance collective Shambush! who attempted to set an unofficial world record for the most people dressed as Kate Bush in one place, with hundreds attending. Wuthering Heights is the only novel by the English author Emily Brontë, initially published in 1847 under her pen name Ellis Bell. The main themes of the novel are love, passion and vengeance. It is the love between Heathcliff and Catherine that runs through the novel, though it assumes dangerous proportions with Catherine rejecting Heathcliff for Edgar Linton. Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 337
Numbers you might need
Emergency – Fire, Police, Ambulance - 000
Daylesford Taxis – 5348 1111
Springs Medical Centre, Daylesford – 5348 2227
Daylesford Hospital – 5321 6500
Daylesford Police – 5348 2342
SES – 132 500
Daylesford Regional Visitor Information Centre – 1800 454 891
Places you might need
Daylesford Post Office – 86 Vincent Street
ATMs in Daylesford:
Bendigo – 97 Vincent Street
Westpac – 45 Vincent Street
Commonwealth – 36-40 Vincent Street
ANZ - 52 Vincent Street
A secret you might like!
It’s not really a secret but did you know the Daylesford
Sunday Market is run by the not-for-profit Daylesford Spa Country Railway. So you can hit the market and then take a vintage train trip to Musk or Bullarto, or viceversa, and you are keeping two Daylesford institutions running. The market is also dog-friendly for friendly dogs on leads.
Poet and secret fiction writer Tim Loveday grew up on the south coast of NSW on acreage, where the closest he had to a poetry collection in his house was the TV guide.
“Mum, though, was an avid reader of romance and mystery novels. From as early as I can remember, I was taping pages together, trying to scribble out the next best seller. I was desperately obsessed with the YA fantasy writer Emily Rodda. I earnestly believed that Rodda was a multimillionaire. I thought Australian writers were living it up on Manhattan skylines, drinking cosmopolitans. I read quite a lot of Capote in my teens, and watched too much late-night Sex in the City, which solidified this false perception. That’s where the initial spark of writing came from: otherworldly wealth. Jokes on me, really. I’m mostly known for poetry, but I’m secretly a fiction writer. I was trying to write a novel and poetry happened. Nowadays, I spend time between forms. Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 338
Playwright Rebecca Lister was born and raised in the mining town of Mount Isa in northwest Queensland.
It was the boom years for mining and the town flourished both financially and culturally. Rebecca was involved in both the performing arts and sport. Her mum loved going to see plays and took her to see local and touring productions. This has had a lifelong influence on Rebecca who goes to see theatre as often as she can. She was and still is an avid reader - encouraged by her parents. Rebecca studied social work at university but was heavily involved in student theatre and began writing then. She wrote her first full length work in 1989 with her company Feral Arts. They made large scale works with community members –young offenders, school truants, young parents and the mothers of the young people. Now a well-known playwright Rebecca’s work is often naturalistic, and narrative and dialogue driven. Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 338
A300 to Mt Franklin 4km to Castlemaine 30km to Bendigo 68km
Jacksons Lookout Tower
SPRINGS
C316 to Glenlyon 9km to Malmsbury 27km to Kyneton 31km
to Malmsbury 27km to Kyneton 31km
View Hill Rd
Rosella
Smith Barkas
Parker
Jamieson Trewhella
Little
Vincent Nth
Langdon
HEPBURN
Daylesford Malmsbury
Barkas
Vincent Nth
Rosella Ln
C317 to Trentham 25km to Woodend 45km to Melbourne 113km via Calder Fwy
The Little Local - thelittlelocal.com.au
Barkas
Parker Trewhella
Frazer
Grenville
Stanhope
Stanley
Queensberry
Orford Daly
Camp
Duke
Vincent
Bridport
Harts Ln
Langdon Crt
Millar
West
Perrins
Fulcher
Tierneys Ln
Grenville
Lake Road
A300 to Blampied 8km to Newlyn 15km to Creswick 24km to Clunes 41km to Ballarat 39km
C141 to Sailors Falls 3km to Ballan 30km to Melbourne 109km via Western Fwy
Jubilee
LAKE DAYLESFORD
Hoaths
C141
