The first instalment of Jeanette’s two-part interview was published in last week’s Mail on June 26.
One of the founding members of the Castlemaine Community Investment Co-operative (the folks who recently bought The Hub), Jeanette was one of five recipients to receive the 2026 Paul Ramsey Foundation Fellowship. She will spend the next 18 months utilising the $250,000, 18-month fellowship to help write a manual to help other groups understand the process for cooperative investments, to help address disadvantage and to look at system barriers.
Initially, when the co-op first started, Jeanette was only planning to volunteer an hour of her time to help with an investment lodging…
“I’ve really enjoyed it – finding my tribe to do something you all believe in is a really great thing,” she said.
“We ran this successful campaign – a bunch of volunteers, and suddenly we got our feet under the desks of a big building, and everything goes crazy! Be careful of your success – it’s a really big, complicated baby!”
After being contacted by 45 different groups wanting “serious” support to help get projects off the ground, Jeanette realised they needed to put something solid in place to share their findings and take the pressure off the volunteers who were starting to feel overwhelmed by the requests coming in, so she applied to the fellowship.
Three months in, and Jeanette is working hard to create additional partnerships for The Hub. They’ve teamed up with the Child Care Co-operative, which will use the garden for classes with children and an intergenerational gardening program with Dhelkaya Health.
They have also partnered with Connecting Country, who, in return for storing the tools in the shed at the back of The Hub, will set up a revegetation library allowing people to borrow tools.
And the all-important questions:
Who are your dream dinner guests? When I moved here, my father told me that one of our ancestors was a woman, Mary Cleaver, who had a little shrine in the Welshmans Reef Cemetery as the first pioneer. She was 55 years old and travelled across from Perth. Her husband had died, and she had two adult sons. She came across her by herself with menopause, across the continent! So, I’d like to have dinner with her. The other one is John Deeble, the guy who wrote Medicare. He mentored me for a while, and he was the smartest, funniest, happiest person I’d ever met. I’d probably like to have a conversation with him at some point again.
What are your philosophies? Be kind and fight back. Social justice has always been a thing for me; I’ve always been the guy who cares about stuff. I find it ridiculously rewarding. I like people. I love hearing people’s stories. I love trying to wrestle with something like the projections. I feel really lucky.
What are you reading at the moment? Voluminous, boring annual reports. Nothing interesting. I have been reading some Substacks. There’s an American airline that has gone down, and someone put up a crowdsource to buy it back, and they’ve raised $371 million or something to buy this airline, and I’m loving that!
What hobbies do you enjoy? I really like gardening. I love Australian natives and I’m re-vegetating around our house. I love flowers, and I take photos of them and draw them. I get a lot of joy from being in nature and the crazy, beautiful, symmetrical world that is native flowers.
Finally, what do you love most about home? The Hub. I love being here, I love Joe, who owns the cafe, I love the community here. I love that whenever you come down here, there’s always someone to talk to and there’s always something going on. There are 19 tenants, but there are 562 members – so there’s always someone for me to talk to!
Head along to the Salvation Army Castlemaine Hall on Wednesday nights from 5.30pm to 7pm for some delicious warming soup.
Made with local vegetables from the Castlemaine Farmers Market enjoy a nourishing homemade soup and friendly conversation .
A collaboration between Mount Alexander Food Futures, Salvation Army Castlemaine and Castlemaine Farmers Market, this initiative links growers, shoppers, volunteers and community.
Winter soup nights are free or by donation at 47 Kennedy Street, Castlemaine.
The Harcourt Progress Association has successfully secured $49,910 in funding from the Tiny Towns Fund to create a new Community Garden at the Harcourt Valley Community House.
The funding comes at an important time for the Harcourt community, who are working through recovery and starting to rebuild six months on from the devastating January bushfire.
Visiting the community house last Thursday, MP Maree Edwards said it is a really great announcement for the community.
“While this investment cannot undo the impacts of the fires, it will contribute to the community’s ongoing recovery by creating a welcoming space where residents can come together, reconnect, and support one another – and benefit from a community garden,” she said.
The Bendigo West MP said she is hopeful that the Coolstore, which was completely destroyed, will be up and running in the not too distant future.
“There were so many local businesses impacted by the loss of the Coolstore, and there is a lot of work to be done to rebuild,” she said.
“There is obviously a lot of trauma associated with a very horrible fire like we had here in Harcourt, and recovery takes a very long time, but this community is incredibly resilient.
Harcourt Valley Community House Voluntary Manager Jeanette Teague said the community garden will be a great way to bring the community together.
“And it’s a great way to grow fruit and vegetables – good wholesome food we can provide to our community in the recovery and going forward,” she said.
“We also host community lunches every Friday. Many of the people who come have been directly impacted by the fires, and it gives them that contentedness and an opportunity to get together – there’s been lots of new friends made.”
With the first show sold out, Misty Green Vale will be returning for an encore performance as part of a very special fundraiser for Castlemaine Art Museum on July 26.
Misty Green Vale is the newest project of Felicity Cripps, emerging from Dja Dja Wurrung Country.
Working under a pseudonym inspired by childhood memories, Misty Green Vale makes minimal, atmospheric music shaped by intuition, nature, and streams of consciousness.
Immersive soundscapes bypass rational thought, revealing a deep devotion to the natural world and the unseen spaces in-between. Ethereal, resonant vocals, hypnotic textures and repetition, combine to form a sound that reaches through the listener toward the cosmos and beyond, awakening memory, intuition, and a sense of looking inward.
Having recently stepped back from her nine year tenure at the helm of Castlemaine’s iconic Theatre Royal, Cripps is delving full time into her music, allowing the new emergence of Misty.
Felicity told the Mail the music was written throughout her final year at the Theatre Royal and in the months since.
“It became a way of grounding myself through a tumultuous time, and the process was both challenging and joyful. Those songs have since become the foundation of a new musical project called Misty Green Vale. The name marks a gentle transition into creating work that is, first and foremost, for myself.
“While the songs are deeply personal, they aren’t really about me; they’re more like a stream of consciousness—a meditation on memory, place and the quiet, shared experiences that shape our lives. It felt like the right moment to step away from my own name and allow this music to exist under a new one.”
The artist hopes to release the resulting album later this year.
“Because this work feels so personal, I wanted its first performance to take place somewhere that carried a sense of occasion—almost a sacred quality. While I was thinking about possible venues, CAM CEO Leslie Gurusinghe, called to ask if I’d consider performing a fundraising concert for the museum. It felt like one of those rare moments where everything aligned. I was equal parts terrified and thrilled,” she said.
“We announced the first performance and it sold out within days, so we’ve added a second show—a Sunday matinee on July 26 at 5pm —to meet demand. All proceeds will support the museum, and tickets are available through the CAM website at castlemaineartmuseum.org.au/events
“The music I make is no longer about me, but I make it for me, first and foremost. Having a name to work under, separate to myself, makes it easier for me to talk about… It’s no longer personal, it’s just a way of sharing something that I feel is universally meaningful,” Cripps said.
Something special is happening for those who have a Mount Alexander Photographic Society’s (MAPS) membership!
The local camera club recently launched a brand new website at castlemainecameraclub.com.au
As part of this exciting new offering the MAPS team have created a page just for members’ images, along with a cover page that lists everyone’s names—each one linking to their own dedicated gallery.
MAPS president Harley Parker said this is a wonderful opportunity for every member to proudly share their art with a wider audience.
“Each participating member will have a web address that can easily be shared with friends, family, potential clients, exhibition organisers, or anyone interested in seeing their work. It provides a simple way you can send a webpage link to someone and say, ‘Here, this is my photography,'” Harley said.
“These are carefully prepared, static gallery pages (not a self-updating portfolio system) – but truly exceptional new images can be added. Your photography deserves to be seen, and our new Members’ Gallery is the perfect place to showcase it,” he said.
“Join us and become part of a vibrant local photography community,” Harley said.
MAPS gather on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at the Chewton Town Hall. Check out their website for more details.
Michael Annear, Director Infrastructure and Development, Mount Alexander Shire Council
Mount Alexander Shire Council is considering important changes to our waste services. I want to outline why these changes are being explored, what the proposal looks like and what it could mean for our community.
The starting point is clear: our current system is not keeping up with where we need to be. Too much organic waste is going to landfill, including valuable materials that could be reused. At the same time, community expectations are changing. Many residents have told us they want better ways to manage food and garden waste more responsibly.
There is also a clear statewide push in this direction. Victorian Government policy requires councils to move to a four-stream system – separating general waste, mixed recycling, glass and food and garden organics. The question for council is how to implement this in a way that reflects the needs and expectations of our community.
We are considering introducing two new services in 2027: a weekly Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) collection and a network of local drop-off points for glass. At the same time, general waste would move to a fortnightly collection, with mixed recycling also collected fortnightly.
FOGO is a key part of this. It allows households to put food scraps, garden clippings and other compostable materials into a dedicated bin. Instead of going to landfill, this material would be processed locally into compost that can be used in parks, gardens and potentially in local agriculture. We estimate this could divert around 900 tonnes of waste from landfill each year and reduce emissions by over 1,000 tonnes.
We know changes like this can feel like a big shift. Moving to fortnightly red bin collection, in particular, will be an adjustment for some households. But experience from other councils shows that once food waste is removed from general rubbish, the amount going into the red bin drops significantly.
We’re also thinking carefully about cost. If these changes go ahead, introducing FOGO and glass together is expected to save around $400,000 annually, compared to delaying. That’s largely because landfill costs are rising, along with fuel, labour and equipment expenses.
It’s also important to say that this proposal won’t replace home or community composting. If you’re already managing your food and garden waste successfully, you’ll be able to apply to opt out of the FOGO service. We’ll also continue to support community-led initiatives like YIMBY.
No final decision has been made. This is about sharing information early, being transparent about the challenges and giving people the chance to ask questions.
I encourage anyone interested to learn more, submit questions and attend our upcoming information session.
You can find more information at mountalexander.vic.gov.au/proposed-waste-changes.
