Community News
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Salvos seek support
The Salvation Army Castlemaine is urging locals to donate what they can to help them in their vital work supporting the most vulnerable in our community. This year Australia’s most trusted charity is celebrating 60 years of the Red Shield Appeal and aims to raise $38 million as part of the country’s largest and longest-running…
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A recipe for success
When Adam Bourke realised he had built up his bakehouse to become a defining feature of Woodend, he knew he’d done something right. After 34 years, Bourkies Bakehouse is now an institution in the town and Adam is preparing to hand the legacy over to new owners. What people may not know is that its…
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Tattoo Flash Day raises $12,200
The team at Forest Creek Tattoo in Castlemaine has once held a flash day to raise vital funds for charity. In 2023 they raised funds for Mount Alexander Animal Welfare and this year’s charity flash day on March 24 was held as part of the international Still Not Asking For It event. The first SNAFI…
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Hand crafted with love
Every Wednesday for the past 16 years, Tom Taft has bought his weekly fish and chips and made his way to his wife’s grave at the Castlemaine Cemetery with Molly, his little cavalier jack russell. Most weeks he brings a fresh bunch of flowers, carefully arranging them in wooden vases he specially crafted from red…
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Anzac radio programming
Castlemaine’s Radio88FM has a long association with Anzac Day events and programs and this Thursday’s Anzac Day feature promises to be bigger than ever. Radio 88FM manager Ian Braybrook has plans for the day that include the station’s usual commemorative material, but with much more. “We have gathered together a huge collection of recordings of…
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Thinking globally, acting locally
Late last year, a group of 15 local residents banded together to form Mount Alexander Refugee Support to lend a hand to refugees during the early stages of setting up a life in a new country. Participating in an Australian government pilot program called CRISP (Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot), the local group will…
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Compost in our autumn garden
Autumn in central Victoria is pretty spectacular. As the rains bring a flush of green and the nights cool, our summer plantings, still productive, start to slow and our minds turn to the first big frost. For many gardeners, autumn brings the peak of garden prunings; springy tomato, eggplant and capsicum stems, rambling pumpkin and…
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Stories of service
Each Anzac Day, the Mount Macedon Memorial Cross provides a spectacular, evocative setting for one of the largest dawn services in Victoria. This year it will host a service with the theme ‘Honouring Every Role, Every Sacrifice’ to acknowledge the many different ways that Australians have, and continue to, serve and protect their country. As…
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New community lunch partnership
Kyneton Community House is joining forces with Little Swallow cafe to bring a new dimension to the weekly Community Lunch program. Little Swallow recently opened their café for dinners on Friday and Saturday nights and a branch of the business is now supporting the KCH Wednesday lunches. Daniel Richards and Austin Stevens from Little Swallow…
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Housemates appear on SBS
Castlemaine’s Cate Mercer will appear in an episode of SBS’s Insight program next week to talk about ‘convenient relationships’. Cate shares a house with Hansraj Shah and the housemates appear on the show to talk about their living arrangements. Cate has been living with housemates for most of her life and loves it. “I do…
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Neurodiversity picnic and sensory disco
Neurodivergent community members and their allies are invited to get along to the Winters Flat Neurodiversity Picnic and Sensory Bubble Dance on Tuesday April 9. This special school holiday event will be held on the Winters Flat Primary School oval from 2pm-3pm and will feature stigma-smashing hits from the world’s most popular neurodivergent musicians. The…
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One million containers and counting
In the past six months, the staff at the Chewton Service Station have sorted more than one million containers as part of the state government’s Container Deposit Scheme, which equates to more than $100,000 back to the community and a huge reduction in waste going to landfill. To celebrate, the owners of the local service…