Environment
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Councils sign on to renewables
Macedon Ranges, Mount Alexander and Hepburn are three of 46 state councils to sign on to the largest ever emissions reduction project by local government in Australia. The Victorian Energy Collaboration, led by Darebin City Council, will provide 45 per cent of all Victorian Councils’ electricity requirements with 100 per cent renewables, reducing greenhouse emissions…
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Gas on the nose at climate rally
Gas was on the nose as hundreds of locals gathered in Castlemaine’s Victory Park on Friday as part of nationwide protests demanding genuine climate action from the federal government.Many more Castlemaine students and more mature residents caught public transport to Melbourne to join the estimated 5000 people who gathered at Treasury Gardens for a rally…
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Podcast goes global
Saltgrass, a Castlemaine sustainability podcast proudly supported by Mount Alexander Sustainability Group and MAINfm 94.9, has gone global! The podcast was recently picked up and highlighted by the New York Times when it ran a list of five environment podcasts to listen to on Earth Day. Saltgrass is the brainchild of MASG team member and long-time MAINfm presenter…
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Sweet smell of success
When the Whiteman family moved from inner city Melbourne to rural Chintin in the Macedon Ranges in 2018, they had no plans to become leaders in the lavender oil industry. With a desire to create a sustainable, mixed farming enterprise, Stuart and Sonia set about planting 12,000 plus lavender plants at Chin Chin Farm with…
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Call for sanctuary – Petition to ban shooting at Cairn Curran
A petition calling for a ban on recreational duck shooting on Cairn Curran Reservoir at Baringhup has attracted hundreds of signatures, the majority of them local, in less than a week.The petition calls for the reservoir and surrounding wetlands to be made a sanctuary and supports a vote made by Mount Alexander Shire Council two…
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POWER PARK STALLED
Plans have stalled for a major community renewable energy park to help power Macedon Ranges. The Macedon Ranges Sustainability Group project, south of Woodend, proposes a facility to combine wind energy, a solar plant and battery storage, but now awaits legislative change for progression. Earlier this month MRSG president David Gormley-O’Brien estimated a four-year delay…
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Clear the verges – Firefighter speaks out on fuel loads
Andrew Avent knows a thing or two about wildfire and has a controversial idea for rural roadside management across the Macedon Ranges. The Newham resident, firefighter and air attack supervisor fought both the 2003 and 2015 ‘planned burns’ that escaped control in the Cobaws; the first from the ground and the second from the air.…
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Forest frustration
More than 40 state, national and international groups are calling on the state government to accept recommendations for new national parks in the state’s central west including Wombat State Forest. Following the two-year expert investigation by the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council, recommendations have been made for large areas of public forests of the Wombat, Wellsford,…
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Way of the future… new charge station at Harcourt
Harcourt’s newly installed electric vehicle charge station is up and running with a new public EV fast charge station for Castlemaine soon to follow. The newly installed Harcourt station has been drawing interest from locals and electric vehicle owners and in recent days its listing has appeared on the online PlugShare EV charge station map…
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Deserving attention – A guide to our beautiful and hardy native peas
Friends of the Box Ironbark Forests members Bernard Slattery and Bronwyn Silver have teamed up to produce a comprehensive guide to native peas of the Mount Alexander region. Their new book, Native Peas of the Mount Alexander Region, identifies and details numerous common native pea species. It’s the fourth in the Friends’ well-received series of local…
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Kyneton farmer joins Farm2Plate
Kyneton farmer Alex Sims says he had no money, no experience and no land when he decided to plunge head-long into regenerative farming with his wife Emily. It was also a huge change from their media production careers in France, but the one thing they did have was unwavering enthusiasm, which has seen them succeed.…
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Farm build right threat
A strategy aimed at protecting productive agricultural land in the Macedon Ranges is being challenged by farmland owners. The local council’s draft Rural Land Use Strategy will scrap existing rights of landowners to build a dwelling in the Farm Zone on land of 40ha or more, which farmers fear will create barriers and uncertainty about…