Today is the day! Runners from across the state and beyond will converge on Castlemaine for the 18th edition of Run The Maine.
From the half marathon against the Victorian Goldfields Railway steam train from Maldon to the challenging 10km bush run through the beautiful woodlands of the Walmer State Forest, or the relaxed 5km Run / Walk winding through Castlemaine’s stunning Botanical Gardens there is something to suit you.
This year runners will be striving to raise further funds towards the establishment of a Therapeutic Garden Development at Dhelkaya Health.
Registrations and bib collection open at Camp Reserve at 7am.
The event will be officially opened at 9.40am at Camp Reserve with a Welcome to Country Dja Dja Wurrung Elder Uncle Rick Nelson and opening by Bendigo West MP Maree Edwards.
The train to the 21km at Maldon steams out at 8.15am for the 9.15am race start at Maldon. The 10km event starts at 10am and the 5km walk/run at 10.15am.
At the start/finish line at Camp Reserve there will be a food village with Rotary Castlemaine, Pizza de Wheels, Deja-Brew, MDA Twister Potato, Golden Wellness Juice and Smoothies, free massage tables, free spot prizes and a post race recovery activity with the crew from Movement Zone.
The event will wrap up at 12 noon with presentations with Dhelkaya Health CEO Sue Race and Bendigo West MP Maree Edwards.
Castlemaine Fire Brigade is holding its annual Open Day next Sunday October 4, and invites everyone to come along to this free community event.
The Open Day will be attended by representatives from local emergency services include the CFA, Forest Fire Management, Victoria Police, Ambulance Victoria, Castlemaine SES and Mount Alexander Shire Council and will feature live demonstrations, fire truck displays, family activities, and practical fire safety information ahead of the fire season.
The Open Day also presents a wonderful opportunity to explore the brigade’s historic museum which contains a rich archive of memorabilia, artefacts, photographs and books documenting the 172 year history of the brigade.
In the wake of the January 9 fire that devastated parts of Ravenswood South, Walmer, Harcourt, Sutton Grange and surrounding communities and deeply affected our community, the role of local CFA volunteers and the knowledge built over generations feels more important than ever.
Castlemaine’s historic fire records go digital
More than a century of Castlemaine’s firefighting history is currently being preserved and will be made publicly searchable through a new digitisation project.
University of Melbourne cultural historian and former Castlemaine local, Dr Fiannuala Morgan is coordinating the project with Castlemaine Fire Brigade and Trove at the National Library of Australia.
The brigade’s handwritten Fire Logbooks, covering approximately 1875 to 1930, record fires, suspected causes, locations and everyday brigade activities. Currently held at the Castlemaine Fire Station, the books will be professionally transported and scanned. Automated transcription will make their contents searchable through Trove, with the public able to help correct the text.
The project will protect the fragile records, preserve Castlemaine’s community history and help fill major gaps in Victoria’s early fire records.
Castlemaine Fire Brigade Captain Trent Dempster says the digitisation of the brigade’s historic Fire Logbooks will ensure one of regional Victoria’s most important community records is preserved for future generations.
“These books are far more than old records. They tell the story of the fires that shaped our town, the volunteers who protected it, and the community that grew alongside the brigade,” Trent said.
“By making them searchable and publicly available, we’re opening up 150 years of local history to researchers, families, historians and anyone interested in Castlemaine’s past.”
Dr Morgan researches bushfire cultural history and reconstructs nineteenth-century fire records largely from newspapers. Unlike newspaper reports used to reconstruct much of Victoria’s early fire history, the Castlemaine Fire Books are surviving records created by the fire brigade itself, providing a rare direct source of information about fires and firefighting in the region. She says reliable records from before 1950 are exceptionally scarce, making Castlemaine’s surviving books an unusually valuable source.
“Anything authoritative, comprehensive and standardised is massively valuable for filling gaps in the historical record,” Dr Morgan said.
“For Castlemaine to have preserved books going back to the 1870s in this condition is incredible.”
Once searchable, the records may help researchers separate the forces influencing fire severity and changing fire regimes, including climate change, colonisation, agriculture and broader changes in land use.
“They could help us authoritatively identify and distinguish the different factors driving worsening fire severity,” she said.
Dr Morgan has sought funding for a broader project in which brigades could identify surviving collections for on-site digitisation, avoiding the expense and concern associated with transporting fragile originals.
“If other brigades have kept records, that would be a game changer for filling in vital missing bushfire information.”
The Open Day at the Castlemaine Fire Station at 383 Barker Street on Sunday October 4 runs from 10am-2pm.
Harcourt Produce & General Store operator Annette Larsen has sold her business and officially had her last day on trade on Thursday.
Annette said the time has come for her to hang up her apron and begin a new chapter and she thanked the Harcourt community for their support over the last seven years.
“After many wonderful years working with and serving the Harcourt community I can confirm the business has been sold. The store will be closed from today (Friday) until next Wednesday when the new owners take over. I’ll be around for a couple of weeks to assist during the transition,” she said.
“From day one, it has been my passion to make good, honest food and do it properly. From getting up at 5am to make freshly baked Danish pastries to cooking to order during our busiest periods, it has been a privilege to share food with so many people over the years,” she said.
“The store has always been more than just a business. It has been a place where people came together, shared stories, celebrated milestones and supported one another. It has also been a place where local growers, producers, suppliers and artists have come together, and where many young people have had their first opportunities in hospitality and small business.
“There have certainly been plenty of challenges. Over the years we have had to continually adapt and find new ways to keep things going, from COVID through to the more recent Harcourt fires. We’ve kept turning up, changing things when we needed to and never losing sight of that combination of food and connection. None of that would have been possible without the wonderful support of our incredible team of staff, customers, suppliers, friends and the wider community,” Annette said.
“I would like to sincerely thank every person who has walked through our doors over the years. You have supported the store, supported local food and producers, and allowed me to keep doing something I have truly loved.
“I leave with a heart full of gratitude, wonderful memories and lifelong friendships and am excited to see the next chapter for the store and wish its new custodians, and the Harcourt community, every success for the future.
“Thank you, Harcourt, for your support, friendship and trust over the years. I look forward to seeing you before I go!”
The winners of the 2026 Maldon Landscape Prize will be announced at Cascade Art Gallery at Maldon tomorrow September 26.
The annual competition is proudly presented by the Maldon Artists Network (MANet) and Cascade Art Gallery and the community is warmly invited to attend the exhibition opening at 2pm tomorrow.
This year’s theme is ‘Essence of Place’ invited contemporary artists to explore our enduring relationship with landscape and environment.
Cascade Art Gallery director Kareen Anchen said since the earliest human markings on cave walls, clay, stone and bark, artists have sought to capture the places that shape our lives.
“Today, this impulse remains as relevant as ever. In a rapidly changing world marked by urbanisation, environmental challenges and evolving cultural identities, artists continue to examine what place means and how it influences our sense of belonging, memory and connection,” she said.
“Landscape is more than scenery. It is where we live, gather, reflect and interact with the natural world. For contemporary artists, ‘place’ can be physical, emotional, cultural or imagined. It can be expressed through figurative, abstract, conceptual, spiritual or experimental approaches, reflecting the many ways we experience and interpret our surroundings.
“Throughout history, artists have reimagined landscape to reflect the ideas of their time, from the Romantic notions of the Pastoral and the Sublime to the innovations of Impressionism, Modernism and beyond. Today’s artists continue this tradition, bringing fresh perspectives to the shifting relationship between people and the environment.”
The 2026 Maldon Landscape Prize celebrates these diverse responses, inviting audiences to consider not only what a place looks like, but what it means and how it feels to be there.
“We welcome everyone to visit, engage with the artworks and support the artists by voting for the ‘People’s Choice Award,'” Kareen said.
This year there were 326 entrants and 46 finalists. Get along to tomorrow’s opening to learn who will win the $10,000 major prize as well as the Emerging Artist Award of $2000 for artists aged 18 – 30 years of age, plus two highly commended awards of $1000 each.
Two $500 prizes will be allocated for People’s Choice. Voting in person for the finalists throughout the duration of the exhibition ($500) and online, once opened, for all the entrants ($500).
All entrants will be able to be viewed online at maldonartistnetwork.org.au following tomorrow’s official opening.
The prizes are generously sponsored by the Hillary Merkus Ricordati Foundation.
Essence of Place will feature at Cascade Art Gallery at 1aFountain Street, Maldon until October 25 and is open Saturdays and Sundays, 10am to 5pm.
Tonight, Castlemaine audiences are invited to experience The Return, an intimate and deeply human theatre work exploring love, grief, memory and the enduring bonds between parents and children. Melbourne freelance journalist Andra Jackson had the opportunity to chat with author and actor Ala’a Al Qaisi and writes…
The agonising loss for a Palestinian father of two daughters due to an Israeli air strike was the catalyst for a play that looks at what might be the next step beyond such grief. The play titled, The Return, was written by Sydney based Jordanian born Palestinian Ala’a Al Qaisi, an award winning filmmaker. The play has previously been performed in Sydney including in the recent Sydney fringe festival but had it’s Victorian premiere last Tuesday in Brunswick and is touring regional theatres.
It comes to Castlemaine tonight, Tuesday September 22.
Speaking from Sydney by phone, Al Qaisi who wrote, directs and produced the play as well as performing in it, warns it is not a straight documentary but draws on surrealism as a theatrical device to allow the audience to imagine different outcomes.
The play is followed by a Q and A session.
“We don’t want people to just come and watch the play. We open a discussion for their reflections and questions,” she says.
Al Qaisi came across the plight of the father, engineer Marwan Abu Samra on social media in December 2023 when he sent out desperate video messages from a Gaza hospital.
He pleaded to anyone listening to help get his badly injured daughter to Egypt for life-saving medical treatment. His daughter Nagham, had lost a leg and suffer extensive injuries in an Israeli the air strike that killed her sister Rozan.
Nagham was a karate champion and Olympic hopeful, winning the Palestinian national karate championship in 2019 but was largely prevented by Israel from competing overseas. She opened a sports training club for girls in Gaza.
By the time, Israel granted permission for her medical evacuation a month later, it was too late and she died a few days after reaching Egypt. She was 24.
Initially Al Qaisi started telling the father’s story as a documentary, travelling to Egypt to interview him about how he was dealing with the pain and ‘starting life all over again from zero’ after being in his late 60’s. On returning to Australia, she says, “I felt the documentary is not enough. I
felt the need to write.’’
In the play, Abu Samra is depicted sitting in Gaza next to a cloud and asking the cloud to return his daughters.
“He believes that God has issued a decree that all martyrs are returning and he sits there waiting for them.’’
When he keeps asking for them, people think he is a madman, Al Qaisi says. “He goes on a spiritual journey where he loses track of the difference between reality and dreams, and heals his pain.’’
The play poses the question of how can we reconcile ourselves with knowing such pain keeps happening, with “a live streamed genocide on our phones and we just watch for so long,’’ she says.
“The play is my attempt to heal, it is my attempt to create a space for everyone who cares to come together to think and reflect and do something about it.’’
The Return was first performed in Sydney last year with a return run recently and has been hailed by audiences as powerful and deep.
Al Qaisi also plays a role in the play and admits that is challenging: “How do I direct myself from the outside? I try and watch myself on videos and correct myself. ’’
She is supported by a cast that includes members from countries such as Syria and Lebanon with acting backgrounds-Mohammed El Kesm, Rachid Taki, Ahlam Hijazi.
Al Qaisi moved to Australia in 2010 and completed a course at the Sydney Film School. Her first film was called Pink Swings about a children’s playground in the West Bank that was destroyed to make way for Israeli’s apartheid wall.
The play is very close to Al Qaisi’s heart. Its title, The Return also has wider context, one that Al Qaisi carried within her when she moved to Australia.
Her family was originally from Hebron in the Occupied West Bank.
“Due to the establishment of Israel, we were expelled’’. Her mother was five at the time and her Grandparents in their thirties. “I grew up with stories of our Nakba (the catastrophe, of 1948 when thousands of Palestinians became refugees.), the expulsion of Palestinians from our land. I grew up with my grandmother’s stories of her upbringing in Palestine, and with the yearning and longing to go back to our roots.’’
Watching the genocide unfold in Gaza, “opens old wounds’’.
The Return is at the Phee Broadway Theatre in Castlemaine tonight. The performance runs from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.
For tickets visit https://events.humanitix.com/the-return-play-melbourne/tickets
New Labor candidates for Bendigo East and West were announced today, replacing long-serving members Maree Edwards and Jacinta Allan.
Bendigo-born Brenton Baldwin, a health policy professional, will run for Bendigo West, while Tim Rickwood, a Bendigo Senior Secondary College teacher, will run in Bendigo East.
Mount Alexander Shire Council Mayor Toby Heydon, who was also considered as a candidate, withdrew his nomination.
“Following Maree’s shock announcement, I was encouraged to nominate as a Labor candidate for Bendigo West,” Heydon said.
“After lengthy consultations and meetings, I decided to withdraw my nomination.
“While I appreciate the support, I am fully committed to serving the Shire of Mount Alexander and its wonderful people,” he said.
About the candidates
Brenton Baldwin’s values were shaped growing up in a working-class Bendigo family – hard work, strong public services and looking after one another and the local community.
A proud product of public education, he attended local schools before graduating from La Trobe University Bendigo. Growing up in Bendigo showed him how government decisions shape opportunity in regional communities.
“I’ve seen what Labor governments can do for regional healthcare – building the new Bendigo Hospital and hiring thousands of nurses and midwives so people here can get timely, high-quality care close to home. I want to keep delivering that for Bendigo West,” he said.
In Bendigo East, Tim Rickwood is a proud local teacher who lives in Spring Gully with his wife and young daughter. Growing up in a single-parent household where money was tight, Tim saw firsthand the difference that access to education and a government that believes in opportunity can make – values he says are deeply connected to why he’s running as a Labor candidate.
The Bendigo Senior Secondary College teacher understands firsthand how education changes lives.
“I want to represent Bendigo East because I want young people growing up here to have every opportunity to build a good life and a good future right here in Bendigo,” Mr Rickwood said.
“Good schools and a strong TAFE system are vital to Bendigo’s future. As a teacher at BSSC, I see every day how education can change a young person’s life. It gives them skills, confidence and a pathway into work, while helping local businesses find the next generation of workers they need.
“We want Bendigo and Central Victoria to continue to be a place where people can receive a great education, access quality health care, find secure work and build a good life close to home,” Mr Rickwood said.
It’s spring time and with wattle and blossoms starting to bloom, cases of hay fever are on the rise.
At the same time, schools, workplaces and health services, including Dhelkaya Health, are managing a range of viruses, including influenza.
Across the state, and specifically the Loddon Mallee region, laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza are already substantially higher than they were at this stage last year.
Other viruses such as rhinovirus (the common cold) and COVID-19 are also on the rise.
Dhelkaya Health’s Infection Prevention Control Consultant Catina Eyres said her best advice is to clean your hands and your environment frequently.
“Stay away from others and avoid visiting health services if you are unwell,” she said.
“At Dhelkaya Health, we use national, state and local guidelines to prevent and manage infections and outbreaks.
“We also display external and internal signage to limit movement around affected areas. Essentially, your actions prevent infections.”
Everyone needs to remain vigilant. Influenza, COVID-19 and rhinovirus can be mistaken for hay fever. So if you have ANY symptoms, even if you think it might be hay fever, postpone your visit to Dhelkaya Health’s aged care, hospital and community wellbeing services.
Tests are available at local pharmacies that cover four viruses, so consider having these on hand to use before visiting any health service. Keep in mind there are many viruses that can cause symptoms such as runny nose, sore throat, cough, fever, headache or other respiratory symptoms.
It is also important to note that Dhelkaya Health’s Urgent Care Centre at the Castlemaine campus continues to be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for treating non-life-threatening emergencies.
