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  • A way of life under threat

    A way of life under threat

    A multi-pronged approach is needed to help combat the serious threat posed by fruit fly, advocates say. An action plan to combat the destructive insect pest will be launched at Harcourt’s new twilight market this Saturday. Harcourt Valley Landcare earlier received $5000 from the state government to develop a fruit fly action plan and deliver…

  • Raising the roof

    Raising the roof

    Founder of the highly successful Vocal Ranges Festival and director of the Pollyphonics Choir, Polly Christie is bringing her latest choral project to the bar stools of Kyneton. The KC Pub Singers are inspired by the rising movement of pub choirs – kicked off by the Choir! Choir! Choir! project in Canada – bringing together…

  • Student project a hit

    Student project a hit

    Cafe visits to Kyneton’s Social Foundry have been made more fun for children since the unveiling of new purpose-built play equipment last week. The play space was a focus project of Sacred Heart College students undertaking the school’s Learning, Initiating, Networking and Connecting for Success program. After meeting with the Social Foundry’s Paul Dettman, the…

  • Change the culture

    Change the culture

    Businesses in Mount Alexander Shire are encouraged to go orange for 16 days to show their support for gender equality. The #respect campaign led by the Mount Alexander Family Violence Prevention Network is part of Victoria Against Violence, which aims to change the culture that drives family violence. It coincides with the global 16 Days…

  • History-making Kyneton show

    History-making Kyneton show

    The 2018 Kyneton Show made history when the pavilion opened for the first time on the Friday night. Kyneton Agricultural Society president Michael O’Sullivan said it was a real hit. “It did mean bringing forward everything with entries closing a day earlier but people really embraced it and there was no resistance to it,” he…

  • Home grown champ

    Home grown champ

    Chloe Stewart has added to her very impressive list of local, district, state and national lawns bowls achievements by capturing the 2019 American singles and pairs titles. While Bowls Australia was unable to confirm that the 22 year-old who spent so much time honing her skills on the Kyneton green is the first Aussie to…

  • Push for defib

    Push for defib

    Momentum is building to get a defibrillator installed for after-hours public access in central Castlemaine. Bronwyn Grieve, community health nurse at Castlemaine District Community Health, is among those busy gathering signatures for a petition for a chance to win a defibrillator for after-hours public access. Bronwyn says Australian Hearts has a competition running and those…

  • Sheeran rumours mount

    Sheeran rumours mount

    Has Ed Sheeran made a $9 million offer on local real estate or is this rumour part of a great marketing strategy? Melbourne radio station KIIS FM last week claimed to have local information that the British singer had made an offer on a Mount Macedon estate. “He’s been quoted countless times saying how much…

  • Free-range fun

    Free-range fun

    Let the kids roam free on Kyneton Show Day this Saturday to explore their imaginations with hours of free activities in the kids’ zone around the netball courts. There’ll be a new ‘free play’ addition in the kids’ tent where youngsters can choose from a craft smorgasbord, reusing materials like cardboard tubes, boxes, fabric, yarn…

  • Castlemaine writer wins literary award

    Castlemaine writer wins literary award

    A Castlemaine writer has drawn partly on her own past experiences as an aerial circus performer to take out a prestigious $50,000 national literary award. But Libby Angel also drew on threads of early Australian history to pen her first novel, The Trapeze Act, which has just been named winner of the coveted $50,000 Barbara…

  • Rock and Roll stars

    Rock and Roll stars

    Forty-five enthusiastic students at Trentham District Primary school helped plant, fence, tag and monitor 32 nationally endangered basalt peppercress (Lepidium hyssopifolium) plants in a new native garden at the school. Known as the Rock and Roll stars of the plant kingdom, because they are short lived and party hard, the plants can be difficult to…

  • Our Diggers remembered

    Our Diggers remembered

    Good crowds turned out at the Castlemaine Remembrance Day service and events across the region on Sunday November 11 to mark the centenary of the Armistice that ended World War I. Community members were moved to tears as local singer Maggie Jackson shared a song she had written especially for the occasion, We Remember, which…