Welcome to The Local visitors guide

Welcome to the Winter 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: Contributed

This Visitors Guide is produced by The Local Publishing Group Pty Ltd.

Editor: Donna Kelly | General Manager: Kyle Barnes

Advertising: Kyle Barnes on 0416 104 283 or kyle@tlnews.com.au

Writers: Eve Lamb, Kevin Childs, Tony Sawrey & Donna Kelly

Photographers: Eve Lamb & Kyle Barnes

Accounts: Julie Hanson Delivery: Tony Sawrey

The Big Rainbow has been erected at Victoria Park in Daylesford. Sponsored by Tinder, the rainbow is made of marine grade plywood and is in the colours of the Philadelphia Pride Flag.

Daylesford won the Rainbow in a competition last year when it was up against three other regional towns - Broome in WA, Katherine in the NT and Hay in NSW. The Big Rainbow is 12 metres wide and six metres tall. It was placed in Victoria Park after the Hepburn Shire Council asked for community input on a number of sites including the Lost Children’s Reserve, the Community Skate Park and Lake Daylesford. It was officially launched in March and had ChillOut committee members Debbie Greig and Tom Shaw jumping for joy. The Big Rainbow is now ready and waiting for people to come and have their photo taken under the new icon for the Central Highlands. Snap!

Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 275

The Calembeen Polar Bears swimming group has quickly caught on as Creswick’s inland answer to the coastal Icebergers.

The Bears roll up for early morning dips in Creswick’s Lake Calembeen at 9am Wednesdays and 7am Sundays – regardless of weather – and all, going to plan, will continue doing so right through the year. As with the Iceberger groups well established in coastal parts, the Polar Bears note the accepted science that a brisk encounter with chilled water – aka cold water immersion therapy – is really good for one’s general wellbeing. You can look it up, but effectively it means that being exposed to a chilly dip in nowhere-near-warm H2O really makes you know you’re alive, slows the heart rate and improves mood. Those who regularly practice it like the Bears and the ‘bergers swear by the glowing mood boost and enduring positivity that follows such brisk encounters. The group now has its own Facebook page and all are welcome. Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 275

Working in her Springmount studio, just out of Creswick, ceramicist Kim Haughie draws much of her inspiration from the region and its diversity of beautiful natural shapes and textures.

This talented ceramicist creates functional pieces that are as much purposeful, practical items to be used and appreciated every day as they are unique works of art. Kim says she has always been creative. “My parents are creative too so it’s always been fostered. I spent endless dreamy hours mucking around in the sandpit as a kid and making mud pies. Clay is my medium. I find its earthy smell and cool, pliable feel is dreamy and calming. When I find my centre at the pottery wheel everything else drops away. I love the elemental nature of making pottery. I like the idea of art in motion, making things that have a use is for me rewarding; platters, bowls and vases.”

Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 275

Daylesford artist and musician Vanessa Craven recently published a children’s colour picture song book, Birds in My Tree: The Magic of Birds and the Joy of Singing.

“The Covid-19 lockdowns created a ‘stay-at home’ world in which I began to interact with the birds in my garden and in the bush around me. Several photographs of these wonderful feathered friends and a new song that I was moved to write, combined together to provide material for my children’s book, Birds in my Tree: The Magic of Birds and the Joy of Singing. It is a colourful picture songbook on birds. Their antics and their individual characteristics play an important part in the lyrics of the song. Each birdcall is a live recording at the end of each verse pertaining to the bird. This book is an interactive tool for teaching kids about the different bird varieties and their birdcalls, and inviting kids to recognise and have fun with mimicking. A QR code and a YouTube link give free access to the live performance of the song, Birds in My Tree.”

Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 276

Photography in the 21st Century is a remarkably easy medium to engage with. Every phone has a camera and digital technology which can generate results that satisfy most people.

With such conveniences available, it is easy to ignore the fact there is actually much, much more than meets the eye if you truly want to understand the craft. Margund Sallowsky is a master of the medium including the use of equipment and chemicals that defined the practice of photography before digital cameras took over around 25 years ago. Her passion started when she took her first shots with her father’s Agfa camera at the age of 11. That was in Germany and today, the Hepburn resident continues to develop her knowledge. “I strive to take my skills to the next level. My professional development as a photographer commenced as an apprentice. After receiving my trade degrees, I enrolled in a diploma in visual communication course at university in Dortmund.”

Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 276

Dianne Longley’s considerable artist oeuvre depicts dreams and fantasies, weaving real and imagined figures and landscapes to create works that intrigue and beguile the viewer.

At her Agave Print Studio in Trentham, Dianne uses both traditional and digital methods in her prolific creative practice. “I think I have an idiosyncratic approach. I explore diverse techniques for making art and representing my ideas visually. I have always made things. Like fairy floss from cotton wool, cochineal and sugar. Cork platforms for my shoes when they came into fashion and my sisters had them - I made them out of wine bottle corks placed in my mother’s electric mincer to grind them up. The mincer smoked with the strain and then blew up! I now work across a range of media including printmaking, pokerwork on wooden panels, artist books, mixed media encaustic works and small-scale bronzes. It’s about the theatre of life, chance and random interactions.”

Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 276

From supporting Pink Floyd and featuring on Countdown to doing guitar for The Wiggles, the combined experience of local musos Gillian Eastoe and Terry Murray is the stuff of legend.

Now, after 14 good years living at Strangways near Daylesford, these consummate muso entertainers are about to bid this region farewell to begin living a new melody in coastal NSW. Woolgoolga, about 25 minutes from Coffs Harbour. Anyone who’s ever enjoyed some ripping live music at a local pub in recent years has likely caught this talented duo doing what they do best. Since moving to the region they’ve become firm favourites on the local live music scene. As hinted at above, the background tales that these two have to tell are impressive. To give you just a little taster, Terry’s include playing and organising gigs for the Royal Family at Windsor Castle in England and performing with stars like Tom Jones, Randy Crawford, Tommy Emmanuel and Jimmy Barnes. Read the full story at www.tlnews.com.au - Edition 277