Former local principal Kevin Brown says his daughters, like many parents of young children, have been struggling with home schooling.
His advice was that they shouldn’t try to replicate school but utilise the amazing local resources that can be found all around us, such as the environment and local knowledge.
“I suggested they should seize the opportunity to utilise the home and outside environment to follow and foster the kids’ curiosity,” he said.
“I believe my best teaching was when I ran a ‘Wheels of Discovery’ program. One day a week the class and I accompanied by the art teacher Judy Laycock would jump on our bikes and explore a part of Castlemaine: the Botanical Gardens, the sewage farm, the diggings etc. The children’s discoveries would be the learning
focus for that week in the classroom.
“I suggested my daughters utilise the Castlemaine Field Naturalists Club guide and explore and study the indigenous flora and its been a real hit!” he said.
Two of Kevin’s granddaughters are pictured here in their ‘classroom’ in the back paddock of farm Gowan Brae. ‘Gowan Brae’ means hill of daises. Allegra and Sophia discovered numerous Yam Daisy plants so they think that is why the farm was named Gowan Brae over 100 years ago.
Covid Classroom
Peddling Pastry despite Covid
Castlemaine business Peddling Pastry – Wholesale Patisserie headed up by classically trained pastry chef Chris Edwards has been treating the local community to pastries, cakes, nougat, biscuits and chocolates made with the finest ingredients for the past decade.
Whilst COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdowns have dealt a blow to their kitchen shop at Workspace Australia at the old hospital site in Halford Street and their wholesale business, Chris said there have been positives to find at the local markets. See the Mail for the full story. Out Now.
You can find Peddling Pastry and many other local producers at this Sunday’s monthly Castlemaine Farmers Market at the Western Reserve.
Colossal creations
A team of Castlemaine museum specialists, artists and technicians bid farewell to their latest creations this week – a full scale model of a 100 million-year-old Titanosaurus and a menacing predator of the deep – a Great White Shark.
The models were handcrafted right here in Castlemaine and will take pride of place in the main gallery of the brand new Western Australian Museum.
The 16 metre-long dinosaur, which would have weighed in at approximately 30 tonne, walked the earth in the Cretaceous Period. It has been reconstructed in collaboration with the Western Australian Museum, using a variety of methods including computer-generated imagery, engineering, and thousands of hours of hand-sculpting. See the Mail for the full story. Out Now.
Health services to become ‘one team’
The Boards of CHIRP Community Health and Castlemaine Health announced on Monday that they are developing a plan for the integration of community services and will undertake staff and community consultation.
The possibility of integration and co-location was first flagged in February following a public meeting at the Castlemaine Town Hall. The meeting was called by community group Friends of CHIRP over continued concerns about service funding shortfalls and the future of the independent community health service which has been serving the local community for 36 years.
CHIRP Community Health chair Lexi Randall-L’Estrange and Castlemaine Health chair Peggy Ronnau told the Mail on Tuesday that both boards are fully committed to making this work and are feeling positive moving ahead. See the Mail for the full story. Out Now.
Something sweet…
The coronavirus shutdowns may have put Millie Ousley’s work
cleaning local B&Bs on hold for now.
But the enterprising Maldon local has turned that to advantage, switching her
talents to making speciality jams to complement the custom cupcake-making
business she’d already established as a handy sideline.
And the jams Millie has started making in her home-based commercial kitchen in
Maldon are far from your common garden variety of jam.
For a start – they feature edible flowers. Read
more in the Castlemaine Mail, Friday September 4, 2020
We are here: grants announced
The Castlemaine State Festival will go ahead next March celebrating the arts and culture of central Victoria in a specially curated program encouraging community connections with local artists and artforms.
The Festival this week announced the recipients of its COVID-19 artist relief commissions program, We Are Here, focused on offering financial support to local regional performing and projection or visual arts projects.
Central Victorian artists Jessie Boylan, Andrée Cozens & Mark Penzak, Furze Brothers and commonplace productions, Hermione Merry & Helen Mathwin, Brodie Murray, Cameron Robbins and Wide Open Road artist collective will each receive a share of the $15,000 grant pool to develop and create their performing, projection or visual arts productions. Read more about this in the Castlemaine Mail, Friday September 4, 2020
Egg-cellent pasta innovation
There’s an upbeat saying – ‘when life gives you lemons make lemonade.’
Now some local open range egg farmers have taken a different twist on that maxim – ‘when life gives you odd-shaped eggs make egg pasta!’ – to create a valuable new sideline.
After 12 months of trialling, the Honest Eggs Co has just launched its fresh egg pasta on the market with excellent results.
Honest Eggs Co runs its open range hens – less than 30 hens per hectare – at Muckleford just out of Castlemaine and, from its grading and packing base in Daylesford, distributes its eggs widely in regional and metro Victoria.
“We’d been looking for another way to use the eggs that were too big or too small, to value-add,” says local fourth generation farmer and Honest Eggs co-founder Paul Righetti who co-founded Honest Eggs Co together with his wife Jacqui and fellow local farmers Ian and Kim Garsed back in 2014. Full story in Castlemaine Mail, Friday, August 28, 2020.
Fire pits to be banned?
Bill Maltby, Castlemaine
Recently the metro newspapers carried a story of Melbourne councils moving to ban the backyard fire pit and pizza oven, citing complaints of offensive emissions “of smoke and odour”. Really?
As we live more on our properties due to Covid many people will be looking at ways of enjoying life by being adventurous in outdoor entertaining, like cooking the family a homemade pizza or a charcoaled cooked spit roast, or just the simple barbecue, yet we are seeing a bureaucratic attitude being espoused to a simple way of being creative and socialising with our families (and hopefully soon with our friends) because, just maybe there will be a waft of smoke and an aroma that some of us mightn’t like. The sensational smells of cooking, especially from some of our immigrant families, is a part of our cultural learning. I sincerely hope our current and future Mount Alexander Shire councillors don’t follow this thought process, they should have more important issues on their agendas, like assisting businesses and sporting clubs to get back on their feet when the current pandemic subsides.
News from the Nest
Castlemaine Football Netball Club (CFNC) are pleased to announce that their football coaches for season 2021 have been appointed.
Don Moran will return as the Seniors Coach.
CFNC president Caleb Kuhle said Moran had an explosive start to his time as head coach of the club, with many new and old faces getting behind him ready for season 2020.
“Unfortunately with the season cancellation the Magpie faithful have missed seeing what could have been, but with Don continuing on they can rest assured that big things are happening,” Kuhle said.
Club stalwart Dave Stephens has also been reappointed as Reserve’s coach. See the Mail for the full story.
Harley returns home
The owners of Blue English Staffy ‘Harley’ are thrilled to have their boy home after he went missing 10 days ago.
Harley escaped his yard on the outskirts of Castlemaine on the evening of Thursday August 13. His owners, suspicious he had subsequently been taken, set up a Facebook page ‘Help Bring Harley Home’.
“We never expected the response we received from the public, it was nothing short of amazing,” they said. See the Mail for more.
Happy, safe and connected kids
Mount Alexander Shire Council has adopted its inaugural strategy to guide the provision of Middle Years programs, services and partnership activities in the shire.
Moving the motion to adopt the plan at last week’s council meeting Cr Max Lesser said the plan demonstrates council’s commitment to improving the health and wellbeing of children and families in our shire and follows on from the great work put into council’s Early Years Plan.
“The middle years is a tough gig as anyone who has kids would know. As the preamble to the report outlines the the middle years of childhood form a significant period of growth in a child’s life,” Cr Lesser said.
He said the majority of the plan was created before COVID-19 and will need to be modified to adapt to the current situation.
“I know I’ve found it tough. I like to get out and engage with the community and I can only imagine what it has been like for kids in this cohort 8-12 years,” he said. See the Mail for more. Out Now.
Local creative to feature
A theatre piece by Yapeen local and Wamba Wamba creative Brodie Murray has been commissioned for Australia’s premiere First Nations celebration YIRRAMBOI in Melbourne in 2021.
The talented 19-year-old actor and writer said he is thrilled that YIRRAMBOI have selected his work Soul of Possum for the renowned event.
Meaning ‘Tomorrow’, in the shared local languages of the Boonwurrung and Woiwurrung peoples, YIRRAMBOI is a breath-taking celebration of the diversity and continuous evolution of the longest living cultures in the World. It features a unique and exciting program of free and low-cost events spanning genres and art forms including music, dance, theatre, film, exhibitions, markets, fashion parades, family-friendly events, talks and symposiums.
YIRRAMBOI’s creative director, Caroline Martin said YIRRAMBOI is more than a festival.
“It’s a First Peoples-led opportunity to create a vision for the future and brilliantly creative commissions are an integral part of this,” she said. See the Mail for the full story.