On Saturday November 21 Castlemaine Croquet Club returned to the green. The allowed number of players (10) gathered to compete in the Doug McConville Doubles Tournament.
This trophy, which was presented by the family of the late Doug McConville a former president and hard worker for the club, is usually contested in August but had to be postponed. The committee decided this special event would be a great incentive to restart the club activities again after covid.
Play started at 9.30am and a full day of closely fought matches ensued. The eventual winners being Barb Thorne and Peter Ward, with a narrow margin of two hoops from Nigel Harland and Ian Foote.
Ian is a very new club member and was rather reluctant to enter the competition, but soon showed he was able to hold his own.
Castlemaine Croquet Club welcomes anyone who is interested in wanting to play croquet. Equipment and coaching is available for learners. For more information phone Barb on 5470 5208.
Croquet players return
Petition success
Donna Thomas, Campbells Creek
I am delighted that the petition I created, and which was subsequently supported by 81 fellow petitioners, requesting that Mount Alexander Shire Council seal the unsealed section of Eleanor Drive in Campbells Creek has been successful.
I urged the local community and the council to act on this issue when I was alerted to a project to replace two bridges on Fryers Road Campbells Creek, which would see Eleanor drive used as a detour route.
The council’s capital works section on its website stated that traffic count data showed in excess of 800 vehicles per day use the bridges, and those vehicles would be diverted during construction of these new bridges, using the existing detour for heavy vehicles through a residential
area via Eleanor Drive, which is part unsealed.
I started the petition as I felt it would be unsafe to have this huge amount of traffic and potentially heavy vehicles use the road in its current condition.
Moving the motion Cr Bill Maltby said the project was timely as the road should have been sealed 20 years ago when the development took place.
I’m really pleased with this result and I am sure my fellow petitioners and local residents are too. I thank the councillors and council staff for making this happen.
Ready for relaunch!
The Newstead Arts Hub is re-emerging from lockdown with a new look and a relaunch celebration event this Sunday November 29.
The Hub, which has been closed during lockdown but still supporting the work of talented local artists online, is a community creative space in a converted railway station, which hosts exhibitions, events and workshops.
The Hub has just launched their new branding and website, designed by Newstead-based graphic designer Vincent Casey, who also designed the branding for The Bridge Hotel, Newstead Live and This Little Piggy.
To celebrate their relaunch, the Hub will be having an outdoor community event this Sunday November 29 from 2pm-5pm. See the Mail for more…
Terrific trucks
In a tribute to the trucking industry Castlemaine Rotary Club is conducting a ‘reverse’ convoy from Campbells Creek this Sunday November 29.
From 9am the convoy will start at Campbells Creek and wind its way to Barker Street Castlemaine.
A special guest will be passionate Richmond Football Club supporter Andrew Burdett whose Tiger themed truck (pictured) featured on national media the eve of the AFL Grand Final with its decal replicating Dustin Martin’s tattoos.
A series of online speakers is also being planned and can be found at http://castlemainetruckshow.com
As this is normally the Rotary Club’s major fundraising event for the year, an online donation platform has also been set up – https://www.trybooking.com/au/donate/castlemainerotary – so that the community can still contribute to the projects that Rotary supports each year.
Full steam ahead
With restrictions continuing to ease the Victorian Goldfields Railway’s historic steam locomotives will return to the track from this Sunday November 29. Bookings are essential due to covid restrictions.
It will be a bumper weekend with the Castlemaine Rotary Truck Show truck convoy and online events also taking place on Sunday and the Newstead Arts Hub reopening Sunday. See the Mail for full details.
Scraping back: the underexposed talent of JST
Newstead’s Old Railway Station Arts Hub is preparing to host a retrospective exhibition featuring works by the talented botanist and artist John S. Turner.
The arguably under-appreciated works of the late JST – as he signed off – will be on public exhibition every weekend in December from 10am to 4pm.
Castlemaine’s Sue and Peter Turner grew up knowing their father liked to relax by creating art.
But John Stewart Turner never called himself an artist – and only really exhibited once in his life.
Instead he was professor of the School Botany at the University of Melbourne and there he led the life of a successful academic until retiring at 65, later moving to Castlemaine with his wife, Kaye.
Throughout his life, the fact that JST had a significant creative talent was really only shared with others by virtue of the personal cards he bestowed at Christmas time, and the menu card artwork that graced annual dinners of his beloved walking group – Melbourne’s Wallaby Club.
“My brother and I grew up with this man who was a total academic but for relaxation he would do these amazing black and white images,” said Sue.
The significant ability JST had for depicting light, shade and reflection with rhythmic elegance was used to celebrate places he had been and loved, from Yandoit and Port Fairy to Paris. Read more in today’s Mail…
Naidoc Week kicks off
Castlemaine Goldfields Football Club members donned red, black and yellow for their training session last Thursday evening celebration of NAIDOC Week (November 8-15). See the Mail for more…
New study looks at impact of COVID-19 on healthcare workforce
Castlemaine Health will be part of a unique research project exploring the impacts of COVID-19 on the health and wellbeing of the rural and regional healthcare workforce.
The three-year study, which hopes to recruit 4000 healthcare workers from health services throughout the Loddon Mallee region, aims to develop practical interventions that can improve workers responses to disasters in the future.
Bendigo Health and La Trobe University will lead the study on behalf of the health services in the Loddon Mallee Health Network, St John of God Hospital Bendigo, the five Loddon Mallee Community Health Centres, the Murray Primary Health Network and the University of Copenhagen.
This consortium will jointly conduct the $1m million research project which is funded through state government’s Victorian COVID-19 research fund.
Castlemaine Health Chief Executive Officer Ian Fisher said the project was an important means of understanding how the pandemic has impacted health care workers embedded in close-knit communities.
“Health services in regional and rural communities are generally the largest employer, meaning the impact of COVID-19 on health care workers has a more direct impact on the community at large,” he said.
“The study presents a unique opportunity to examine rural and regional populations, which have historically been underrepresented in this type of research.”
Epidemiologist Associate Professor, Mark McEvoy from La Trobe Rural Health School is the Principal Investigator.
Professor McEvoy said many overseas studies had assessed the impact of COVID-19 on health care workers’ mental health, but little research had been done to understand the “resilience factors” of workers and communities.
“We don’t know the protective and resilience factors. We don’t know why some do really well in a pandemic and some don’t,” he said.
“The study aims to establish this and develop resilience-based interventions for health care workers so they can improve their response to disasters in the future.”
Professor McEvoy said the study will begin recruiting health care workers in November.
Teddies turn 30!
A small group of members of the Friends of Red Cross Castlemaine gathered at Run Rabbit Run recently to celebrate the iconic Red Cross ‘Trauma Teddies’ – the bears who care – which are turning 30 on November 23!
Friends of Red Cross Castlemaine spokesperson Sue Tribe said Trauma Teddies are a special non-funded program that relies on the generosity of volunteers.
The local gathering aimed to celebrate the efforts of two of the group’s dedicated local knitters Lorna Anstey and Beryl Mein and Trauma Teddies coordinator Margaret Boyle.
Golden gift
During months of lockdown and isolation the Goldfields Quilters have kept busy toiling away on their beautiful patchwork quilt creations.
Last week the quilters were delighted to finally be able to gift their colourful handmade quilts to two deserving local organisations, including Castlemaine Health’s Ellery House. See the Mail for the full story.
Circus cabaret
Castlemaine Circus Festival presented their Spring Cabaret for one very special online show only on November 21.
The show was beamed live from the home of Castlemaine Circus Inc at The Goods Shed.
The online cabaret featured talented local circus performer Mason West (pictured) and a host of other Victorian talent. The festival thank everyone who tuned in and look forward to hosting their inaugural festival event at the Western Reserve in 2021.
Proudly local leaves sweet taste
Castlemaine fifth generation beekeepers Peter and Michelle McDonald could be forgiven for feeling just a little famous whenever they go shopping.
That’s because their faces are now featured statewide on literally hundreds of jars of Capilano honey as part of the new Proudly Local campaign celebrating Aussie beekeepers.
The Capilano Proudly Local range introduces a state-by-state product that features a local beekeeping family, shares a little of their beekeeping story, and promises the honey in each pack is produced solely from beekeepers in that region.
The McDonalds are the first of the Victorian beekeepers to feature with similar labels produced for each of Queensland, NSW-ACT, South Australia and Western Australia.
The campaign aims to help keep the nation’s beekeeping industry strong while calling on consumers to buy local and educate themselves about how their food reaches the table.
Aussie beekeepers are fighting back after a challenging year marked by bushfires, honey shortages and Covid-related border closures.
“We need a new generation of beekeepers to take up this profession to see it thrive into the future,” Peter McDonald said.
“Beekeeping is not just about producing honey. There is a much broader agricultural role as well.
“We pollinate out at Harcourt and do three separate orchards.
“Australia really needs its bees and its beekeepers and the main thing is to support them.”
Peter and Michelle admit they’re finding the experience of featuring on the first of the Victorian Proudly Local labels to be quite a sweet experience.
“It’s exciting especially for Victoria,” Michelle told the Mail this week. Read more in today’s Mail…