Past students of the former Castlemaine Technical College are invited to attend the school’s 2022 reunion event on Sunday March 6.
The 84th annual reunion will feature a ‘Family Get-Together’ function at the Mount Alexander Golf Club in Wimble Street, Castlemaine.
The event will kick off at 11.30am with lunch around 12.30pm.
The event will also include a memorabilia display featuring a collection of Old Tech school badges and uniforms from 1887-1994, and a chance to win one of many great prizes in the raffle. All proceeds from the raffle goes towards supporting the CTCPSA Awards at the annual Castlemaine Secondary College Awards evening.
For more information and to register your interest contact the CTCPSA Secretary on 0412 378 957.
Tech Reunion Sunday
Shed in demand
Eve Lamb
The changing face of some of the smaller towns in Mount Alexander Shire may be seen reflected in changes being trialled at one local men’s shed.
An influx of newcomers to town in recent times has motivated the men’s shed at Newstead to trial adding some new Saturday opening hours.
To date the local shed had opened its workshop doors for business on Mondays and Tuesdays from 9am-3pm and on Friday and Sunday mornings.
But now Newstead’s changing face has prompting it to add the new hours of 9am to 3pm on Saturdays as well.
“I guess you could call it the new Newstead demographic,” shed secretary Graeme Lees says.
“We had four join us last year who … read more in today’s Mail…
Council knocks back big ad billboard
Eve Lamb
A large advertising billboard mooted for the main road through Chewton has been resoundingly knocked back by Mount Alexander Shire Council.
The council at its February meeting last week unanimously voted to refuse an application seeking to erect the large advertising sign, measuring 8.25 metres in length and a maximum 5.1 metres in height with a display face of 8.3 metres wide by 2.1 metres high, at 188 Duke Street, Castlemaine, a key gateway entry to the town.
The applicant behind the proposal is … read more in today’ Mail…
Sizzling aths action: Camp hosts the Gift
Eve Lamb
Castlemaine’s Camp Reserve is looking fast ahead of hosting some sizzling athletics action this Sunday with the running of the annual Castlemaine Gift.
This year’s Gift has drawn a particularly strong field of entries from across Victoria and interstate with the Victorian Athletic League meet an increasingly important one ahead of the famed Stawell Easter Gift.
“The entries are really really good,” pleased race director Darryl Nettleton says.
This year’s running has additional significance also as it marks the 100th anniversary since Castlemaine’s Gift was first run on the Camp Reserve.
It’s also the first time that the meeting will be live-streamed, with boosted prize money up for grabs in some of the key features and the introduction of a new event – the Castlemaine Invitational over 120 metres – a handicapped contest for both women and men.
“This is for quality runners who … Read more in today’s Mail
Amalgamation approved
The state government has approved the amalgamation of the Maldon Hospital and Castlemaine Health.
The boards of Maldon Hospital and Castlemaine Health have welcomed the government’s approval of their integration proposal.
The new look health service will be united under the new title of ‘Dhelkaya Health’ and will officially merge to one service next Tuesday March 1, 2022.
The integration follows more than 42 years of strong collaboration and partnership between the two health services.
Castlemaine Health and Maldon Hospital CEO Sue Race will continue in her role as Chief Executive Officer for the newly integrated organisation.
Ms Race said that staff, residents and the community can expect the same excellent care they always have, with local teams focusing on the needs of patients and residents at each health service. See the Mail for the full story. Out Now.
Catch the Gift live stream
The debut live stream of this Sunday’s Castlemaine Gift athletics meeting will be shown via Athletics Exclusive’s YouTube, Facebook and Twitter pages with individual race footage uploaded to Athletics Exclusive’s YouTube channel.
This weekend’s running of the longstanding Victorian Athletic League meeting marks the 100th anniversary of the Gift taking place on Castlemaine’s Camp Reserve with a packed program of racing set to start from 10am with the junior program. Hotly contested main features on the day’s program include the $5000 men’s 120 metre Gift, women’s $4000 120 metre Gift, and women’s $4000 400 metre final. The official opening happens 12.10pm with the first of the 120 metre masters’ heats scheduled to start at 12.20pm. The program concludes around 6.40pm with the open 400m final. Read more in the Mail.
Celebrating a life rich with colour
After 20 years respected Vaughan artist Jenny Morton is saying farewell to her family home and studio ‘Art at Morton’s Fork’ and will have a retrospective exhibition of her artwork this weekend.
Her large and colourful paintings, mostly in oil, cover subjects from Morocco, the Australian desert and other places she has visited on her travels.
The exhibition which will run from today February 25 4pm to 7pm, Saturday February 26 and Sunday February 27 from 10am until 5pm (or by appointment).
‘Art on Morton’s Fork’ can be found at 54 Greville St Vaughan, just up the top of the hill from Vaughan Springs
entrance. An official opening will be held on Saturday February 25 from 3pm.
For more information visit jennymorton.net.au
Photography winner announced
The winner of the I Be Human Maldon Portrait Prize 2022 Photography Section is Cailin Jansen. Cailin Jansen is proudly pictured here with her self portrait Mirror Me at last Saturday’s awards presentation. Be sure to drop in this weekend can catch the final weekend of the photographic exhibition at Edge Galleries February 25-27.
The gallery is located at 35-37 Main Street, Maldon in the Calder’s Ironmongery building and is open from 10am to 4pm daily.
An ‘I Be Human’ online exhibition and People’s Choice Award audience voting will take place from March 1 – June 15, 2022. Keep an eye out for details at www.maldonartistnetwork.org.au
Council votes ‘no’ on supermarket stance
Eve Lamb
Mount Alexander Shire Council will not be supporting the latest amended plan for a proposed new supermarket for Castlemaine when the matter goes before VCAT next month.
Following a closely contested vote at this week’s council meeting the council resolved to go against an officer recommendation that would have seen it supportive of the latest amended proposal for the supermarket that’s controversially mooted for Duke Street.
The matter is listed to go before VCAT in March with the civil affairs arbiter set to determine whether the controversial proposal by Lascorp Investment Group, will be able to go ahead amid some strong opposition to the latest plan for what is now an unbranded supermarket at the old gas works site on one of Castlemaine’s signature gateways.
When the controversial matter was dealt with during Tuesday evening’s council meeting, mayor Cr Bill Maltby declared a conflict and left the council chamber.
Councillors Stephen Gardner, Tony Cordy and Christine Henderson all voted in favour of the council officer’s recommendation that would have seen the council take a supportive stance of the latest amended plans when the matter goes before VCAT.
“This is a position to VCAT. It’s not a decision of this council,” Cr Henderson pointed out.
Cr Henderson also indicated that she believed it unlikely that VCAT would knock back the amended application, and that supporting it represented the best chance for the council to now help lock in changes thrashed out in an effort to address multiple concerns including those relating to traffic flow, visual amenity and liquor sales.
But councillors … read more in today’s Castlemaine Mail
Acheron unveiled!
The Victorian Goldfields Railway’s (VGR) latest beautifully restored first class carriage – the Acheron – was officially unveiled with much fanfare on Wednesday this week. VGR vice president and train driver John Hoy, guard Iain Atkin, Bendigo West MP Maree Edwards and fireman Graeme Campbell are pictured with the newly completed carriage before it’s first trip to Maldon.
Named after the Acheron River in Central Victoria, the carriage was originally purpose-built as a sleeping carriage and celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2023.
The newest addition to the VGR fleet was officially launched by Bendigo West MP Maree Edwards and Peter Stubbs of 3AW – whose promotion of VGR’s work to restore its K160 locomotive helped secure a generous $160,000 donation towards the locomotive restoration. See the Mail for the full story.
A new leash on life
Tarrengower Prison is celebrating the rehabilitation of its 500th foster greyhound, ‘Boston’ – trained through a program giving four-legged companions and prisoners a new lease on life.
Minister for Corrections Natalie Hutchins visited the minimum-security women’s prison on Monday to mark the Greyhound Adoption Program’s (GAP) major milestone.
For more than a decade, prisoners at Tarrengower have worked closely with retired racing dogs, taking them through a training regime to prepare them for adoption into new homes.
The four-week program is part of the Prison Pet Partnership between Corrections Victoria and Greyhound Racing Victoria (GRV) and teaches selected prisoners valuable new skills to assist with their transition back into the community upon release.
Champions to compete
The Bendigo Bowls Champion of Champions event will be played this Sunday February 20 at Bendigo East. Castlemaine Bowling Club will be represented by James Oliver playing at 9.30am and Pam Hunter playing at 11.30am.
James defeated fellow Castlemaine bowler Lee Bastin in a thrilling club final on January 30. Both players were chasing their first singles title. In a match where the momentum changed many times James played an absolute bomb on the last end to draw three shots and win by the narrowest margin possible 24/25. Lee bowled well to almost add to his breakout Championship Pairs win with Steve McCoombe.
James was absolutely thrilled to emulate his grandfather Brian Medbury’s achievement of winning the Club Championship at Castlemaine. James wore his grandfather’s shirt, perhaps that helped with the final end. James said the challenge is now for his father Steven to win and make it a trifecta.
On January 25 in sweltering heat conditions members watched a fantastic contest for the Ladies Championship between Pam Hunter and Nina Hufer. It was an exciting game with numerous lead changes. It was perhaps the vast experience of Pam that counted in the end with the scores ending 25/15 in her favour. Good bowling to James and Pam this Sunday.