Police have this week arrested a man in relation to a string of car thefts at locations including Castlemaine, Bendigo and Melbourne.
The Bendigo man aged in his 20s was arrested in Castlemaine on Monday morning, Castlemaine’s Senior Sergeant Darren McQueen said.
“He was arrested in relation to the theft of cars in Castlemaine, Bendigo, Melbourne, all the way up the highway basically – about nine vehicles in this area. The cars were quite often found burnt out.”
Following his arrest the man has appeared in the Bendigo Magistrates Court charged with multiple counts of motor vehicle theft and other offences including related traffic offences and arson offences.
He has been remanded in custody and investigations by the Central Goldfields Crime Investigation Unit are ongoing.
Castlemaine's Teeshia Fitzgerald and flamenco dancing instructor Kirsty MacCallum ahead of a special Save The Children fundraising concert being staged in Castlemaine later this month.
What began as a spark of a thought in the middle of the night has turned into a fully fledged concert raising funds for one of the most pressing causes currently on the planet.
And everyone in Castlemaine and beyond will have the chance to attend this month’s concert raising much needed dollars for Save The Children’s emergency fund … because it’s free of charge.
Instead of paying for a ticket to catch the line up of live talent in store, organisers are instead merely suggesting a donation to the cause.
The concert that’s being staged at Castlemaine’s Uniting Church, neighbouring Castlemaine Art Museum, on Saturday July 30 is the brainchild of church congregation member Teeshia Fitzgerald.
“It’s the result of waking up in the middle of the night with the thought in my head that we need to have a concert to raise money for Save The Children,” Teeshia says.
She then got in touch with the Save The Children Fund organisation and it was agreed the best way to ensure money raised would go to children most in need of help was to direct it to the emergency fund – “where it can then go to wherever the need is greatest,” Teeshia says.
She contacted a wide range of talented local artists including musicians – “and as a result we’ve got a real mix,” Teeshia says.
“We’ve got jazz, we have a duo, we have soloists, we have instrumentalists, we have a flamenco dancer, and all are professional artists who have been willing to donate their time and talents for this cause.
Flamenco dancer Kirsty MacCallum, at Castlemaine’s Uniting Church, is among local performers donating their time for this month’s Save The Children fundraising concert. Photo: Eve Lamb
“Elly Varrenti who is well known to many as a writer, ABC Broadcaster and actor, and Babs McMillan the actor and theatre director, have both volunteered to assist with presenting the programme.
“And the church has been so generous in enabling use the church for the venue which is just wonderful because the acoustics are fantastic.”
“The theme is going to be ‘community’,” Teeshia says.
“I thought – ‘why don’t’ we go for it?'”
The all ages concert happens Saturday July 30 at 1.30pm at Castlemaine Uniting Church.
Joan Sartori has called Strangways home for 59 years.
Well Joan you’re just out of Newstead, at Strangways I know. How long have you lived there? I’ve lived there for 59 years, ever since I got married. I grew up in Clydesdale which is the next little village up the road. So you must know the area pretty well? Yes I do. Well, I thought I did until I helped write the book -The history of Strangways – and then I realised that there was a lot more to learn. Ah. Well history is something you’re pretty passionate about. In fact you’re very involved with the local historical society. Can you tell me a bit about that? It’s the Newstead and District Historical Society and that covers the whole area that the old Newstead Shire covered before we amalgamated with Castlemaine. What’s your role there? I’m the secretary. So that keeps you pretty busy? Yes, it does. What does that role involve? Well as secretary I get most of the enquiries for research and I’m the research officer as well. You obviously love your research. I do… All the knowledge that there is there and if we don’t do something about it, when my generation goes it will be gone. Lost. I bet there are some fascinating personal stories tucked away in the area’s past. Yes. There are. Beyond that, Joan, do you have any other particular involvements in the community? I’m the secretary of the fire brigade auxiliary as well. I’m one of the founding members. I’ve been there 41 years (laughs). It’s good because we can help the community. It’s giving back to the community. We raise money. We now cater. The main thing we probably do is cater for funerals. But you could also cater for parties as a fundraiser? Yes. We do. And we used to run bi-monthly dances for about twenty years. We raised a lot of money. We’re just about to hand over $50,000 to the CFA for the new tanker. Next month. There’s a lot of other money that we’ve raised that we’ve handed on for equipment… and just all the things That’s pretty impressive, Joan. Any other aspects of the community keeping you busy? I’m on the Clydesdale Hall Committee of Management. I have been compiling a history of Clydesdale as well. COVID interrupted but it’s almost finished. Well Joan, can you tell me a bit about your working life? I was a nurse. I left school when I was 16 and then started work at Maldon hospital in 1957. To start off with it was as a nurse aid but then I eventually qualified as a state enrolled nurse. I was there until 1965 and I was married by then and I left to have my children. I had three kids and when the kids were old enough to go to school I went back part time and I use to work night duty. All up I was there for 35 years. I got breast cancer and I had to leave then because I had to have chemo. But you’ve obviously smashed that? Yeh. But it was really sad because I did really love the patients. It was a good time. Made lots of friends. Good friends. OK, change of direction now Joan. What are you reading at the moment? I’m just about finished reading Nurse Blake’s War. It’s a story about an Australian girl who went to the First World War. Her story is written from her diaries. Apparently she was the only Australian nurse killed in that first war. And music, Joan. What is your preferred musical genre of choice? I like most music. But I don’t like heavy metal. Do you have any philosophies by which you like to lead life? Yes. My grandmother always told me that if something was worth doing at all it’s worth doing well. And – you’re never too old to learn. Good one. OK, Any pet peeves? Yes. People that are cruel to animals. Three dream dinner guests? My old school friend of over 60 years, Marlene Bird, and also the old school friend who shared my cancer journey with me, Judy Wheelan, and one of my best friends who I’ve just lost recently – Wilma Allan. So finally then Joan, what do you enjoy most about where you live? Well I like the lifestyle. It’s quiet. I like to go on holidays but it’s lovely to come back to Strangways. The people are nice. It’s a supportive community. It’s a good community to live in. I don’t want to live anywhere else.
Ethereal electro-medieval band Dandelion Wine are headed to Maldon this weekend. Image: Colin Page
Ethereal electro-medieval band Dandelion Wine are heading to Maldon for an exclusive acoustic performance in the town’s Progress Hall as part of this weekend’s inaugural Goldfields Gothic Festival Of Dark Ideas. In their first live performance in a year, this Melbourne-based outfit are making their first-ever trip to Maldon for a special all-acoustic performance. Dandelion Wine have spent the better part of the last two decades touring Europe, Australia, Japan and Hong Kong, as well as repeat appearances at some of Europe’s top festivals, including Germany’s Festival Medieval, which is acknowledged as the worlds’ largest festival of medieval-inspired music. They’ve also won plenty of fans at Germany’s Wave Gotik Treffen, which is noted as the world’s largest goth and darkwave festival, and at Lithuania’s Menuo Juodaragis, which is a Baltic pagan festival. After three albums on the renowned German label Ars Musica Diffundére/Black Rain, they recently released their latest album LeCœur independently. This weekend’s inaugural Goldfields Gothic is a weekend of events themed around celebrating the dark side of the goldfields,” the new event’s Michelle Dorian has told the Mail. “As well as brave and determined miners, from the 1850s onwards the Victorian goldfields were home to spiritualists, secret societies, bushrangers, ghost-hoaxers and murderers,” she said. “Inspired by these intriguing stories of the past, we are showcasing the dark side of the goldfields in all its gruesome glory.” The festival takes place from today through to Sunday, transforming various venues around Maldon. For those who do seize this unique local chance to sample a sip of Dandelion Wine’s music, it combines the ancient sounds of lute, hammered dulcimer and bell cittern, with Naomi Henderson’s ethereal vocals, haunting cello and the exotic sounds of percussion such as udu, tombak and the Persian tar. While they normally feature swirling clouds of textured guitars and electronic beats, for this performance they will be performing in acoustic mode without the trappings of the 21st century in the beautiful surrounds of the Maldon Progress Hall.
Some of those getting set to enjoy this weekend's inaugural Goldfields Gothic Festival of Dark Ideas at Maldon. Photo: Eve Lamb
Expect to see goths galore as Maldon gets in touch with its darker side this weekend to stage its very first Goldfields Gothic Festival of Dark Ideas. Part of the annual Maldon in Winter series, the new Goldfields Gothic Festival of Dark Ideas celebrates the darker side of the area’s goldfields history. Organisers Valentina Tansley and Maldon resident Paul Kooperman say the new event taps into the locality’s Gothic, tragic and more mysterious past with performances, tours, themed food experiences, live music and conversations on topics noir. “It’s the first of its kind and we hope it will be huge,” Paul told the Mail. “We are expecting more than 1500 people to come to Maldon and enjoy the activities. “In late 2021 we felt there was a real thirst in the community to revitalise the events program so we came up with the idea to do something a little different this year.” Highlights include live performances by Dandelion Wine and legendary Australian dark alternative band Ikon. A family friendly Gothic and Victorian Picnic in the little tourist town’s shire gardens, a special meeting of internationally renowned Death Café at Café Maldon, a uniquely crafted dark high tea, ghost tours by award winning spook sleuths Twisted History, and a street display of collectible hearses are all on the niche program. The first time event aims to makes the most also of ongoing rumours that more than one local building – notably including the town’s Kangaroo Hotel – are haunted. Organisers hope to bring new audiences to the town and the festival’s Michelle Dorian says it’s expected that Goldfields Gothic will become an annual fixture on the region’s calendar. “Definitely. This is one of those dreams,” she says.
Castlemaine District Netball Association Net Set Go participants are proudly pictured with their certificates last Wednesday night.
Castlemaine District Netball Association Net Set Go participants are proudly pictured with their certificates last Wednesday night.
The final round of Net Set Go for Castlemaine District Netball Association was held on Wednesday June 22.
The CDNA celebrated the night with a game for the ‘Net’ and ‘Set’ netballers followed by the presentation of their certificates.
After that the ‘Go’ group, which is now officially ready to hit the court for competition, took part in a round robin event with netballers from the Newstead 11/U, Harcourt 11/U and Campbells Creek 11/U.
It was great to see some netball being played at CDNA courts again. All players did an amazing job and the CDNA hopes to see them all return for their summer Twilight Netball season.
Net Set Go coordinator Wendy Jarvis said it was good to see so many kids having fun and enjoying playing netball at CDNA.
“A massive thanks to the umpires on the night, Elouise Jones, Sandra Grant, Jessica Rhone, and Tegan Maddern,” she said.
“Thanks also to Jo Rhone for doing the barbecue, Ken Maddern for time keeping and all the parents and scorers for making it a great night.”
The success of the Net Set Go program could not have been possible without the coaches, Wendy Jarvis, Debbie Ginnivan, Tegan Maddern, Elouise Jones, Rosie Jarvis, Madeleine Springate and their weekly helper Sianne Rhone. Congrats to the region’s newest netballers on completing the program. The future of local netball is looking bright!
The long-awaited battle of the 2021 unbeaten senior MCDFNL football teams took place in the cold and muddy conditions of Trentham.
The Lions put together a solid first half but left the door open with missing a few set shots that could have added to scoreboard pressure.
The second half saw Trentham come out determined to maintain their unbeaten win streak as they hit the front while playing better to their conditions. But then the Frost brothers started to get on top, seeming to not be affected by the cold.
It was a muddy affair when the Lions travelled to Trentham on Saturday. Photo: Steve Hammond
The Orchardists gained the momentum in the last by kicking four goals, holding on for a famous five-point victory.
The ressies had a tough time of it, struggling to handle the muddy pill. After leading at quarter-time, Trentham handled the conditions better to run out comfortable winners. Gurdy put in a solid four-quarter effort to put his hand up for a game in the ones.
HFNC was super proud of the efforts of the junior footballers put in under such cold, wet and muddy conditions.
The U11.5s gallantly fought in a narrow loss. The BuildPro players of the week were Jack Dorian and Harry George.
The U14.5s got off to a great start and were able to maintain throughout to secure the win. The BuildPro players of the week were Fraser McAinch and Edward Teed.
In the netball, The U13s continued their strong form, as did an equally as versatile 15s side, to start the day off with some big wins.
The U17s went down once again by one goal, unable to keep their third-term lead to hold on to a win.
C grade had a slow start in miserable conditions but they proved once again to be the most consistent side. Suzie Rinaldi led the way with the support of Bec Waddington.
B grade’s defensive pressure down the court was rewarded by both Georgia Brown and Kirrily McKay. Hopefully this is the start of a winning streak for B grade to work their way back into the top four.
In the A grade match up, the Lions overcame Trentham’s physicality to lead by 25 points at the final whistle. The pressure emitting from Carly Chaplin and
Castlemaine's historic Froomes Road Bridge over Barkers Creek.
Pamela Dale, Castlemaine
The Save The Froomes Road Bridge fight by the community is on again less than a year after it was voted down in council and after considerable objection to its replacement by the community.
The council at the expense of the ratepayers has engaged a consultant to box tick the ‘Community engagement’.
This consultant is with only five days notice, to hold a ‘workshop’ to discuss what the community wants, a very cynical exercise on their behalf revealing a lack of esteem for what the community has already stated long and loudly what it wants.
This council will not release to the interested parties the engineers report, again paid for by the ratepayers, in order for there to be full and complete knowledge of the situation with the bridge and indeed their ongoing intentions to destroy the historic and local amenity of this precinct.
This move by the council is like a script from ‘Yes Minister’ the one where box ticking, cynical engagement and withholding factual information to wrong foot interested stakeholders.
San Marino and owners after winning the Megelec Electrical Contractors 0 - 58 Handicap at Donald Racecourse on June 18, 2022 in Donald, Australia. (Brendan McCarthy/Racing Photos)
Bill West The long time Maldon father and son training combination of Brian and Ashley McKnight created history with a winning treble at Donald races on Saturday. The enormity of the feat took a while to settle in, and Brian – who began his training career 53 years ago – reflected that there are many other stables which have spent a long time in the industry without a treble on their record. McKnight Racing and Oakford Thoroughbred Farm on 800 acres are an institution at Maldon, and congratulations to all involved have flowed in since news spread about the treble in successive races – the first three legs of the quadrella. The McKnights generally have around 15 gallopers in work at a time, and they took eight to run at Donald. Their three winners were Oak Bridge – home bred and raced by Brian and wife Judy – San Marino and Logo Logic. See today’s Mail for the full story…
Hi Carmel. How long have you been part of the local community here in Castlemaine now? I’ve been here for 15 years. Where are you from originally? I’m originally from Tasmania where I grew up, and I left there when I was 22 and since then I’ve basically lived in Melbourne. I’ve been overseas, done writers in residence at various places overseas and travelled overseas, but I was located in Melbourne for many years, and then you might wonder what brought me here? Indeed that was going to be my next question. Well my daughter and her husband and their baby moved here about 16 years ago and a bit after that I decided to follow them. And as a writer, of course, this community is one that I’m guessing you would find very welcoming? Oh, It’s jumping with writers and painters and potters and musicians and film-makers. Everybody knows Castlemaine is a very big artistic community. You’re a prolific writer and now you’ve released you’re latest book Telltale, what number book is that for you? It’s 40-something. And Telltale is memoir but your writing to date encompasses multiple genre doesn’t it? I do a lot of fiction, collections, short stories, anthologies of other people’s short stories, other people’s essays and I’m very proud of the anthology I did called The Stolen Children, their stories. Well you’re in the process of officially launching Telltale now but I’m guessing that as a prolific writer you already have another project on the go? I do and I’m very excited about it. It’s a…Read more in today’s Mail…
Some of the local talent that will be performing at the Women in Music season series starting this July in Castlemaine.
Castlemaine’s Northern Arts Hotel is preparing to turn up the warmth to full blast throughout the rest of winter by celebrating Women in Music.
Starting Saturday July 2 jazz, folk, contemporary, pop, bluegrass, Celtic and even a dash of prohibition era soul-blues are all on the program.
Co-manager at the local venue Alan Joyce says a main aim is to offer a feast of sound to chase away the winter blues while celebrating the area’s wealth of female musical talent.
“It’s a celebration of women and how important they are to music in general,” Alan says ahead of the series that includes four shows in July, two in August and the final one on September 3.
“It is an exciting concept,” says well known Castlemaine jazz muso Maggie Jackson who is…
Castlemaine's historic Froomes Road Bridge over Barkers Creek.
Eve Lamb
Battlelines are again being drawn up over the future of Castlemaine’s historic Froomes Road Bridge with the matter drawing some impassioned discussion during public question time at this week’s Mount Alexander Shire Council meeting.
In the face of considerable public outcry at the time, the council had last April voted down an officer recommendation to replace the historic single lane structure over Barkers Creek with a two lane new bridge using federal grant money.
While locals who had strongly opposed the replacement of the old heritage structure with a new double lane bridge celebrated that decision at the time, the opening up of a new public consultation to explore possible options for the bridge and associated traffic management options on that section of Froomes Road has immediately reignited tensions.
These were clearly on display at Tuesday evening’s council meeting where Froomes Road Action Group members including unimpressed local resident Ian Edwards noted that options now on the table include “replacing the bridge with an even bigger two lane structure or closing the bridge completely”.
He and several other local residents used public question time to make it clear they do not want the existing single lane structure replaced with a double lane structure something they believe would destroy…
