Welcome to the Autumn 2023 edition of The Local visitors guide to the Central Highlands.
We really hope you enjoy this edition. It’s packed with features on locals, places to head, markets to wander around and live music to enjoy. You can read the full stories, and this Visitors Guide, at www.tlnews.com.au
Front cover image: Beck Walker Autumn at The Convent Gallery in Daylesford!
This Visitors Guide is produced by The Local Publishing Group Pty Ltd.
Editor: Donna Kelly | General Manager: Kyle Barnes
Writers | Eve Lamb, Kevin Childs, Tony Sawrey & Donna Kelly
Photographer | Kyle Barnes
Accounts | Julie Hanson Delivery | Tony Sawrey
Christmas came a few days early for two of Daylesford’s best known families who discovered they’d just become the proud new owners of The Rex.
Following an unanimous councillor decision at Hepburn Shire Council’s December 20 meeting, Eddy and Malinka Comelli, left, and David and Yuge Bromley were delighted to discover their $3.75 million bid to purchase The Rex had been successful. David said a clinching factor in their decision to submit their joint EOI together with the Comellis was a mutual love of the town and a wish to see The Rex become a vibrant contributor to showcasing its main street. Both the Comelli and Bromley families live in Daylesford, have strong connections in the community and say they’re now keen to make the most of The Rex’s considerable potential. They would not be drawn on whether the community cinema would stay. “We want to make it a really culturally rich hub, whether it’s retail, hospitality, art, entertainment,” Yuge said. Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 271
After a Covid-enforced break, the Textile Palette Exhibition is back, being staged in Clunes over April 1-29, in the Clunes Warehouse for the first time.
The exhibition’s regional coordinator, Christine Lethlean, a talented textile artist who moved to Victoria from WA a decade ago, has called Clunes home for the past eight years, and runs regular workshops from her Clunes studio. She also teaches textile art Australia-wide. “I’ve always loved stitching,” says Christine, who is also a former health professional with a background that includes nursing, mental health nursing and art therapy. “We’re really talking about textile art as a visual art-form.” And the theme for this year’s exhibition is Time for Stitch. “After the past few years navigating the changes to our lifestyle and restrictions, what’s spoken of now is how the quiet time for creativity helped many of us cope. Sitting and stitching was a lifeline to maintaining a sense of normality, and keeping a focus and our creative motivation alive.”
Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 272
It’s not your average job description but being Australia’s “leading female magician and mentalist” is a profession Daylesford’s Cath Jamison simply loves.
“When I was a kid, five years old, I got a magic kit and I loved it. I was a quirky kid and I’m a quirky person.” Today, Cath’s mind-blowing and frequently uproarious shows have earned her a reputation as a leader in her field and she’s known as one of Australia’s most unusual women entertainers wielding her trademark sass, style, and mind illusion to captivate audiences. She’s been described in high profile places as ‘Ellen DeGeneres meets Derren Brown’, and this hilarious entertainer has won more awards and done more big gigs than you can wave a wand at. Think Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Adelaide Fringe, Melbourne Fringe, Adelaide FEAST and Midsumma Festival. Cath and her partner Nicole Peters moved from Mt Martha to Daylesford in 2021, and Cath says the town and wider locality ticked all their boxes.
Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 268
Carol White is calling time on Lavandula Swiss Italian Farm, putting the historic Shepherds Flat property up for sale.
Carol said it was time to move on from working seven days a week and return to travelling around the world. “Covid has been a bit of a nightmare, reopening every time after lockdowns just took every bit of my energy. It was like a juggler getting their six plates back in the air and then realising the stick was bent. It really crushed our momentum.” Carol, who bought the property 35 years ago and started out with just 1000 lavender bushes “from some guy in the Dandenongs”, said she hoped a new buyer would bring new energy and continue to conserve the history of the property. Carol said when she bought the 38-hectare property it was pretty much bare farming land with a couple of derelict buildings still standing. “My marriage was on the rocks and I thought I would start a business with a little patch of lavender, a romantic notion from my trips to Provence. I thought ‘I can manage that’.”
Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 271
Daylesford’s Victoria Park has been chosen as the site of Tinder’s Big Rainbow with the aim to have installation completed by the ChillOut Festival in March.
Daylesford was selected from a shortlist of four locations around Australia, including Broome in WA, Hay in NSW and Katherine in the NT, and announced as the winner in October last year. Hepburn Shire Council then invited feedback from the community on where the Big Rainbow should be located with four potential options in Daylesford –Victoria Park, the Lost Children’s Reserve, the Community Skate Park and Lake Daylesford. The landmark is six metres high by 12 metres wide and painted in the colours of the 2018 Progress Pride Flag. It is made from marine-grade plywood. Mayor Cr Brian Hood said Victoria Park was the standout position from both a community and council view. Cr Hood said each of the other three sites had concerns which played against them. Victoria Park also had the connection with ChillOut and the LGBTIQA+ community. “It just seemed like the logical choice.”
Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 273
Daylesford’s Alexis Saville and Odin Jonsson, who has just moved from Trentham to Ballarat, have been dating for just one month but have known each other for 10 years and been best friends for seven.
“So it feels like it’s been forever,” Odin says. The 21-year-olds were working on Valentine’s Day, Alexis at Kadota and Odin at Bells’ Watergardens, but Odin had a surprise weekend planned. In the spirit of love the couple agreed to meet for a photo on the ‘Love Locks’ bridge at Lake Daylesford - adding their own lock to the 453 already there. Happy Valentine’s Day. (A love lock or love padlock is a padlock that significant other pairs lock to a bridge, fence, gate, monument, or similar public fixture to symbolise their love. Typically the sweethearts’ names or initials, and perhaps the date, are inscribed on the padlock, and its key is thrown away - often into a nearby waterway to symbolise unbreakable love.)
Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 273
Humbled and “a bit surprised” is the way farmer John Drife describes discovering he’s this year’s Hepburn Shire Citizen of the Year.
At a civic event in Daylesford on January 25, the Hepburn Shire Council named John Citizen of The Year, also announcing Daylesford’s Atticus Punt-Trethewey as its Young Citizen of the Year. The Great Dividing Trail Association’s Reconciliation Walks took out Event of the Year as part of the shire’s 2023 Community Awards. “I was a little bit surprised. It’s very humbling just to be nominated and I’d like to congratulate all the others who were nominated,” John said. John and Billie Henderson-Drife farm sheep, cattle and crops in the GlendaruelMount Beckworth area just out of Clunes. Both of their families settled in the area in the mid-1800s. John paid special homage to his wife Billie, stating that he believed she deserved the award as well.
From left, Tim Bach, John Drife and Atticus Punt-Trethewey
Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 272
Creswick’s Craig Barrett is one of the region’s accomplished artists whose love of landscape and the natural world and the way human endeavour has interacted with it, resonates through his creative output.
He has works held in the National Gallery of Victoria, the State Library of Victoria and the Shrine of Remembrance in addition to private and corporate collections. “Over the past 45 years I have ventured through impressionism, abstraction, symbolism - wherever seems to be my sweet spot at the time. For the past 20 years, since living in the south of France with my then wife Kendry, I have been heavily influenced by Romanesque art of the 10th-12th centuries. I like its pared back simplicity. Things are implied rather than spelt out. A stripping back of detail. Art came to me - by magic. A friend of my mother’s gave me a small box of oil pastels (and) my eldest brother gave me a small set of oil paints when I was about 13 or 14. Hooked from thereon.”
Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 271
10 Stony Creek Road, Daylesford VIC 3460
P: (03) 5348 1884
E: info@stonycreekgallery.com.au
Trading Hours:
Open Thursday to Monday, 11am-4pm
Michael Parker welcomes his Galleries and Sculpture Daylesford. Featuring original paintings
sculptures, including mediums by regional .Paintings .Sculptures
.Jewellery .Ceramics
Free places!
Creswick’s parkrun (above)
Jubilee Lake
Mt Franklin Reserve
Thomas’ Lookout/Cornish Hill
Glenlyon Reserve
Daylesford Mill Market
Lake Daylesford
Wombat Hill Botanic Garden
Trentham Rail Trail
Trentham Falls
Myriad mineral springs
Bush walks
Lerderderg Gorge
Glenlyon Falls
Sailors Falls waterfall/lookout
Markets...
Daylesford Railway Market
Castlemaine Artists Market
Kyneton Farmers Market
Ballan Farmers Market
Maldon Market
Clunes Farmers Market
Trentham Farmers & Makers Markets
Glenlyon Farmers Market
Creswick Market
Leonards Hill Market
Talbot Farmers Market
Woodend Lions Market
Malmsbury Farmers Market
Daylesford Market
Trentham Station Market
Just Google for more info!
A decade ago, cinema complexes across Australia were going digital, dumping their old analog equipment and almost overnight, projectionists found themselves out of a job.
Gone were the old large film reels as movie releases moved to what were known as Digital Cinema Packages. One of those projectionists was Ken Parfrey, pictured, of the Radio Springs Hotel in Lyonville. He began his career at the Carlton Movie House and subsequently worked at numerous theatres around Melbourne and the Melbourne Film Festival before taking over the hotel in 1997. Later Ken heard that Cinema Nova, where he worked for many years, was getting rid of their projectors. “The owners told me to come and get them or they were going to the tip. We brought them here and decided to do a backyard blitz as it were and do up the garage as a form of cinema/performance space.” And now, Ken is one of those featured in a movie about the demise of film in most commercial venues, Splice Here: A Projected Odyssey, a documentary by filmmaker and former projectionist Rob ‘Bert’ Murphy.
Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 272
Work has begun to create a significant new attraction that’s projected to bring tens of thousands more visitors to Daylesford each year.
The man behind development of the new museum specialising in Australian history and Australiana is Mark Ward, already known to many through his multiple Amazing Mill Markets ventures including at Daylesford. The entrepreneurial Mark, pictured with a 1933 Ford coupe, is in no doubt that the new Amazing Mill Markets Museum, now being developed on the same site as Daylesford’s Amazing Mill Market, will be the “biggest and best of its kind in Australia”, and that the flow-on economic benefits to the locality will be considerable. “It’ll be without a doubt the best museum of its kind in Australia with beautiful cars, massive steam engines, and all aspects of Australian history including automotive, rural, industrial and commercial Australiana.” His personal passion for carnival, circus and sideshow memorabilia will ensure these aspects of the nation’s history and culture are also well represented. Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 269
Since 1887, the Pig & Whistle Hotel has nestled on a quiet corner in Trentham East, a living remain of the town’s early history.
Truly a hidden gem, you’ll be transported back in time, with our newly-opened beer garden boasting uninterrupted views of Mount Macedon.
The Pig serves up a modern-Australian menu with honest hearty pub classics (we do a bloody good parma), along with seasonal global dishes. We take great care in delivering food of the highest quality, sourced from sustainable local produce, coupled with our praised friendly service.
The hotel is truly a local pub but a destination for all.
@pigandwhistlehotel
pigandwhistlehotel.com.au
705 James Lane, Trentham East, Victoria
Celebrity gardener Jamie Durie has bought Paul Bangay’s famed Stonefields home and gardens in Denver for more than $11 million.
The TV personality, pictured above left, and his business partners are now reported to be planning to convert the private home into a luxury accommodation venture. “I am very happy and relieved that the garden, which I believe is my greatest life’s work, will be in good hands,” Paul Bangay, pictured right, said. “Jamie Durie will be a worthy and able custodian of the garden.” The property was originally listed with a price guide of $8 million to $8.8 million before an adjoining land parcel was included. Forbes Global Properties’ Michael Gibson had the listing and has confirmed the sale. He declined to comment on the price, however a source with knowledge of the recent deal has put it at more than $11 million. “It is going to be a world-class eco-resort,” Mr Gibson said. In listing Stonefields, Forbes Global Properties Australia had described the Bangay property as “one of the world’s most celebrated private gardens”. Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 273
Our Urgent Care Centres in Daylesford and Kyneton are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
It's your first stop for unplanned medical attention.
Professional care is provided by our highly skilled nurses, many of whom are Rural and Isolated Practice Registered Nurses (RIPRNs)
RIPRNs are specially trained to provide a wider range of primary care and emergency services for rural communities.
The UCC teams work with local GPs who are available on-call for phone consultations or visits.
• You will be assessed for treatment based on the urgency of your condition.
• You may not be seen in order of arrival.
• Please tell us if your condition changes or if you are experiencing increased pain
• We may contact the oncall doctor.
• Do not eat or drink without first speaking to a nurse as it may delay treatment, x-rays or anesthetic.
• Allergic reactions
• Asthma
• Burns (minor)
• Chest infections
• Dehydration
• Dental or mouth pain/infection
• Diarrhoea
• Dressings
• Eye conditions, such as foreign body or abrasion
• Falls
• General injuries
• Laceration
• Mental health/anxiety
• Nose bleed (epistaxis)
• Pain and pain management (analgesia)
• Sprains and strains
• Traumatic injuries (minor)
• Urinary problems
Fees may apply Urgent Care
Centres are not like Emergency Departments in large hospitals. Fees may apply for some services.
Tests
Radiology and pathology test are normally bulk billed. Fees may apply after-hours.
GPs
If you are seen by a doctor you may be charged a fee. If a fee is charged, this will be discussed with you prior to treatment.
Serious medical conditions may require transfer by ambulance to a larger hospital. We strongly recommend you have an Ambulance Victoria membership.
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 – 5321 6123
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
If you are a regular visitor to Daylesford you would have passed this gate many times. But have you ever stopped to have a good look at the design? Intricate and intriguing. A former brothel entrance perhaps? No, it’s not, and it’s not even very old. But where is it? We would love to tell you but we can’t...it’s a secret. Shhh.
Glenlyon artist Pam Gleeson brings her background discipline as a professional photographer to her creation of imposing landscapes that reflect her deep love of the land and its stories. She’s also previously worked as a medical scientist.
“I would describe my style as a combination of realism and impressionism, though at this stage I am still in the process of exploring other styles including more stylistic representations of nature and abstraction. I had an interest in art from a very young age and have pursued some form of artistic expression over the years. I studied art at matriculation level and completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts. My focus at that stage was photography which I chose to follow professionally for the next two decades. It is only recently that I have returned to painting as an art form and my photography has informed my painting on many levels, from the importance of light and how it can totally change the mood of a painting, choice of subject matter, colour, composition and perspective.”
Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 272
to
A300 to Mt Franklin 4km to Castlemaine 30km to Bendigo 68km C138 to Shepherds
C316 to Glenlyon 9km
to Malmsbury 27km
to Malmsbury 27km
to Kyneton 31km
to Kyneton 31km C138 to Flat km
Rosella Ln
C317 to Trentham 25km to Woodend 45km to Melbourne 113km via Calder Fwy
Barkas
Parker
Trewhella
Victoria
Frazer
Grenville
Stanhope
Stanley
Queensberry
Orford Daly
Camp
Duke
Vincent
Bridport
Grenville
Jubilee Lake Road
Duke Duke Duke
C141 C317 A300
Harts Ln
Langdon Crt
Millar
West
Perrins
Fulcher
Tierneys Ln
C141 to Sailors Falls 3km to Ballan 30km to Melbourne 109km via Western Fwy
