Featured
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C-DOC in the clouds
Castlemaine Documentary Film Festival will return to screens big and small in 2020 despite the recent COVID-19 shutdown. The C-Doc team team has been fermenting and bubbling along in hibernation during lockdown, unable to resist the urge to bring audiences the sixth annual event and a ‘break in the clouds’ in the middle of winter.…
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Now that’s a shed! Rail precinct steams ahead
Measuring a whopping 160 metres long by 15.5 metres wide, the freshly completed carriage stabling shed at Castlemaine Heritage Rail Precinct is one of the town’s largest buildings. “It’s a bl…. big shed,” VGR’s Castlemaine Heritage Rail Precinct caretaker Andrew Reynolds said on site on Friday. “It’s the biggest open shed in Castlemaine and it’s…
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OVER BUDGET AND POORLY PLANNED
The state government’s controversial roadside wire rope barrier project faces a major cost blowout and has been less effective than promised. Victoria’s auditor general has found the project is eight months late, poorly planned and maintained, and already nearly $100 million over budget. Wire rope barriers were installed along 20 of the most dangerous highways…
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Challenges ahead for RM Begg
RM Begg Kyneton Aged Care is calling for financial support to help it survive. The community owned not-for-profit organisation has provided quality aged care to the district for more than 60 years but the challenges it now faces are increasing. Government funding of the sector is supplemented by interest earned on invested Refundable Accommodation Deposits,…
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CHASING CARS Leo Pruneau’s designs come to life in iconic Australian wheels
Not many people can lay claim to having flown first class on every business trip, and on the Concorde five times, but Leo Pruneau has the ‘souvenir’ glasses to prove it. Such was the jet setting lifestyle of a top General Motors designer, “in another life” as the now 88-year-old Woodend resident describes it. Responsible…
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Club joins positive role model move
As the footy season hopes to make a welcome return, members of the Woodend Hesket Football Netball Club are a part of a new online portrait exhibition called ‘Role Modelling Respect’. The portraits were taken early this year as part of a joint project between the club and Cobaw Community Health. At the WHFNC registration…
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Castlemaine Art Museum to reopen
Castlemaine Art Museum has announced that it will reopen its doors to the public this Saturday June 20 at noon. CAM will be open Thursday-Sunday only initially from 12pm-4pm, closing a little earlier to enable staff to clean the gallery at the end of each day. CAM renewal director Naomi Cass said CAM’s magnificent galleries…
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Kyneton’s cinema pioneer
With the Australian film industry on coronavirus pause and even Hollywood hanging up the slate, Kyneton set designer Leslie Binns is finding work as an illustrator until his film work returns. The talented art director has more than 40 feature film credits to his name including Healing and Moby Dick, and three of his film…
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FUTURE FOR FACTORY? Objections and support for Woodend retail plan
Parking and traffic flow need a re-think in a $4.7 million Woodend retail redevelopment plan to breathe new life into ‘The Old Factory’, objectors say. The proposal for 30 Brooke Street includes a 40-stall market, 75-seat licensed restaurant and tavern, but neighbouring residents have slammed a waiver for car parking as unacceptable. It has been…
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The Tough Guys are back in town
After two months of COVID-enforced hibernation the Tough Guys are back – and this time they’re reading Steinbeck. The return of the Castlemaine chapter of Tough Guy Book Club to the town’s Taproom venue has been none too soon for the local members of this international book club for blokes. “To see everyone come out…
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Loss, pain and dementia
Woodend Lifestyle Carers is a group of people who have travelled the dementia path with a loved one. They have published their stories in the hope that other carers may reach out for assistance. Here, Irene Jones shares her story of losing her partner, the acclaimed English Australian actor Alan Cassell, to the disease. I’m…
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Farm Zone win for Lancefield family
A Lancefield couple has fought to build their dream home and business in a Rochford-area Farm Zone and won unanimous support from Macedon Ranges councillors, against planning department advice for refusal. The Sankey family purchased their 10.12-hectare property at Rochford Road seven years ago hoping to build a home, relocate their established earthmoving business and…