Featured
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Wellness retreat for Romsey?
A wellness retreat and organic farm have been proposed for Highfields at Romsey. “The retreat aims to celebrate the power of silence and rejuvenation through healing foods, meditation and yoga based on the 5000-year-old tradition of Ayurveda,” plans state. The application includes construction of a yoga room, pool studio, olive production warehouse and conference room.…
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Call to save heritage
Macedon Ranges residents are petitioning Regional Roads Victoria to honour plans to save some of Gisborne’s oldest heritage in the Kilmore and Melbourne Roads intersection upgrade. The $12.5 million state government upgrade to improve traffic flow and pedestrian crossings puts at risk a historic bluestone bridge and channel and significant trees. Macedon Ranges Shire Council…
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Wanted: ex-prisoners for theatre project
Local men who are ex-prisoners or have personally experienced the criminal justice system are wanted to participate in an innovative new paid theatre project that’s ultimately hoped to help improve the state’s criminal justice and rehabilitation system. Local producer with the Out Alive arts and justice project in Castlemaine is community arts facilitator Lisa D’Onofrio.She says the…
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Indigenous talent to feature at fringe
A new play written by Yapeen local Brodie Murray will premiere at this month’s Melbourne Fringe Festival. The Wamba Wamba man and Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts graduate penned Billy’s Choice with dramaturgy by acclaimed playwright Geoff Kelso. The new offering by the 20-year-old actor and writer follows the the success of his debut play Soul of…
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Farming for a better future
Farmers in Mount Alexander Shire are learning how to increase productivity and profitability through the practice of regenerative farming. They’re benefiting from workshops run by the Mount Alexander Regenerative Agriculture Group, which provide practical demonstrations and on-ground implementation. Regenerative agriculture has been identified as a critical means by which we can mitigate climate change and…
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River woes continue
Ongoing troubles at the Kyneton Water Reclamation Plant have forced Coliban Water to increase releases of wastewater from the plant to the Campaspe River from last Friday. Despite the construction of new storage lagoons at the plant, lagoon volume last week reached 92 per cent, and the Environment Protection Agency was informed of the current…
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Mysterious marsupials
La Trobe University researchers have caught on camera one of Victoria’s most elusive and threatened marsupials – revealing there’s more brush-tailed phascogales living in central Victoria than previously thought. The study, recently published in Austral Ecology, used nesting boxes combined with heat-sensing cameras to determine how prevalent the extremely shy, fast-moving creature is in the box-ironbark…
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‘What the hell!’
A Romsey man is struggling to come to terms with the fact he’s now a millionaire after today discovering he won $1.2 million in TattsLotto more than a week ago. The Victorian held one of the five division one winning entries in TattsLotto draw 4185, drawn Saturday August 28. Each division one winning entry took home…
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Rock paddock still in talks
No agreement has yet been reached on the sale or transfer of Hanging Rock’s East Paddock to the state government. Valuation talks around the council-owned site have not been abandoned despite differing views, Macedon Ranges Council CEO Bernie O’Sullivan indicated last week. “The council continues to work collaboratively with the state government on its desire…
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Council raises voice on nuclear weapons
Macedon Ranges has joined the call for the federal government to sign and ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The council last week joined 36 local councils to pass a motion in support of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Cities for Peace Appeal. Spearheading the move, Cr Annette Death…
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Storytelling outside the box
A Kyneton resident is the creative mind behind a popular children’s storytelling subscription service that has gained a whole new audience during the pandemic. Former teacher and teacher-librarian, Nicole Brownlee, developed Story Box Library about 10 years ago and now has about 80 per cent of the nation’s public libraries subscribed. More recently new schools…
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Riddell planning in council hands
Riddells Creek’s controversial Amess Road Precinct Structure Plan will remain in the hands of Macedon Ranges Shire Council. Last week councillors voted for the council to remain the responsible authority on the PSP against council officer recommendation to pass powers to the Victorian Planning Authority. East Ward councillor Annette Death said it was important to…