Art lovers are in for a treat this long weekend as the Rotary Club of Castlemaine hosts its 32nd annual art show, transforming the local town hall with wall-to-wall quality original artworks.
Enthusiastic organisers began setting up days ago, installing hundreds of attention grabbing original pieces spanning multiple genre and media including watercolour, oil, pastel, photography and 3D works with jewelry a new inclusion.
Among the many talented artists represented is 97-years-young Castlemaine resident Peggy Shaw, still an enthusiastically practicing artist who has donated some of her ever-popular work as a raffle prize for this year’s show.
The long-running and much anticipated annual art event raises funds for a wide range of community projects that the local Rotary club supports, last year raising more than $10,000.
The club’s chairman Vin Cappy says all of the proceeds raised this year will again be channeled into club projects. Full story in today’s Castlemaine Mail.
Feast of Art
LET’S GET ACTIVE!
Eight weeks after open heart surgery Newstead resident and local councillor John ‘Nemo’ Nieman has a new lease of life and is encouraging others to be more active in their own healthcare.
With the Healthy Heart of Victoria 2019 Active Living Census now open, John is encouraging people to have their say. See more in the Castlemaine Mail.
That big jazz sound
The Goldfields Jazz Orchestra is getting set to dispense some big sound at next weekend’s Castlemaine Jazz Festival.
More than a year on from when Castlemaine Secondary College music teachers Kirsten Boerema and Michael Timcke had a brainwave to form the region’s own jazz orchestra, the big 18-piece outfit has become an invaluable creative outlet for jazz musos who live and work everywhere from Bendigo to Ballarat.
Right now they’re in full swing rehearsing to perform at Castlemaine’s Theatre Royal as part of next weekend’s festival line up. Full story in today’s Castlemaine Mail …
Get cracking for the Colossal Cake-Off
The cake loving coordinators of Castlemaine Artists Market are challenging everyone who thinks they can turn out a pretty impressive cake to get cracking and enter this Sunday’s Colossal Cake-Off.
This Sunday marks the popular market’s 13th birthday and the return of the Colossal Cake-Off is a very apt way to celebrate, says the market’s manager Rachel Valentyne who is co-coordinating the cake-based event.
The Colossal Cake-Off proved an instant hit with market goers when it ran over the last two years, going down with well with cake bakers and eaters alike and raising funds to help run Castlemaine’s award-winning Main FM 94.9 community radio station in the process.
Punctum goes potty
The creative folk at Punctum Live Arts have decided to clean out the negative energy and make some more space to be creative, starting with the leftover pots from their Cooling House project.
They’ll be holding a silent auction, open now until Monday June 10. Find out more about this event and other local events by reading the What’s On page in the Castlemaine Mail.
Kooky ukey love story
Guildford’s historic music hall is bracing itself for a kooky ukey love story like no other.
Uked! the play-along ukulele musical premieres at the little historic venue over June 20-30, bringing comic theatre and uke players together from across Victoria.
While that may sound like a potentially dangerous combination, the Castlemaine based writer and producer, Jane Caferalla, describes this unique stage production as a story with something for everyone – notably including those who play ukulele.
The script follows the fortunes of Karla – played by Castlemaine’s Rebecca Morton – who is dumped on her 50th birthday by her violin-playing boyfriend, Brian.
Desperate to belong and prove her musical worth, Karla buys a ukulele and joins a dating site to discover that love and the ukulele have much in common.
“I just love this show,” Rebecca says. Full story in today’s Castlemaine Mail …
Story of survival
Local Indigenous elder Aunty Julie McHale will share significant aspects of her life story when she presents the keynote address at this Sunday’s Sorry Day commemoration event at Harcourt.
Chatting to the Mail ahead of Sunday’s event, Aunty Julie said her discussion will trace her family stories back to her own ancestry with the Trawlwoolway people of Tasmania – and also to her own strong connections to Harcourt where she was born and lives today at the foot of Leanganook (the Indigenous name for Mount Alexander).
All are invited to attend this Sunday’s special Sorry Day commemoration at Harcourt’s Stanley Park where a historically significant scar tree still bears the mark of where the Indigenous people of the area once cut timber for a canoe. Full story in today’s Castlemaine Mail …
Lashings of gallows humour
Castlemaine Theatre Company is getting in touch with its darker side as it gets set to stage black comedy Frankenstein’s Children.
With a cast of 10 the latest production by the well loved local theatre group opens tonight, Friday May 17 and will run through to June 2 at the Phee Broadway Theatre.
Director, Stephen Mitchell relates how impressed he was when he first saw Frankenstein’s Children staged during the Adelaide Festival.
“The writing is an actor’s dream,” Stephen says.
“It’s rooted in a historic reality and it has a political edge to it that is I think still absolutely relevant today.
“It’s 1832 in London. It’s the height of the industrial revolution, the birth of Capitalism, and the great irony of this story is that the great boom product is actually human bodies and I think there is something beautifully telling about that, about the rapaciousness of consumerism. Full story in today’s Castlemaine Mail …
$5M pledge
Federal Labor has pledged $5 million to build a dedicated purpose-built home for Castlemaine District Community Health (CHIRP) if elected to government this Saturday.
Bendigo Labor incumbent Lisa Chesters visited the health facility this morning to make the announcement.
Ms Chesters said Labor’s $5 million investment will help construct a new, purpose-built facility for community services as part of the Mount Alexander Health and Wellbeing Hub.
New council facilities will also be included in the planned shared space.
“This would enable Castlemaine District Community Health (CDCH) to implement a more holistic approach to health across the area, and develop a collaborative approach to ongoing community engagement,” Ms Chesters said.
“Castlemaine District Community Health will play a vital role in leadership around integrated chronic disease management and preventive health in the Mount Alexander Health and Wellbeing Partnership.”
Castlemaine District Community Health CEO Di Couch welcomed the pledge.
“It’s going to be a great asset for the Castlemaine and District community moving forward and this is a great first step towards our bold vision to develop the Mount Alexander Health and Wellbeing Hub – in partnership with Castlemaine Health and Mount Alexander Shire Council.”
Bold plan to improve station thoroughfare
A Castlemaine architect has put forward a public proposal he hopes will lead to improved pedestrian and traffic flow around the entrance to Castlemaine’s railway station.
At very least architect Andrew McLeod hopes to generate conversation around ways the station’s front entrance and parking areas can be made more user friendly.
“The existing situation with the junction of Kennedy and Templeton streets is a chaotic blend of buses, taxis, pedestrians and cars,” the local architect says.
His proposal would offset the entry and exits to carparks away from pedestrians and intersections while adding 35 extra car parking spaces. Full story in today’s Mail…
All aboard the Colonial Express
You could pick the die-hard railway buffs by their cameras, positioning in the landscape and expectant gazes as they stared down the track alongside Castlemaine railway station last Saturday morning.
They were there for the Victorian Colonial Express, a very vintage K class steam loco hauling Victoria’s oldest railway carriages.
Victorian Goldfields Railway is running the vintage steam train between Castlemaine and Maldon for the next few Saturday’s this month to coincide with the National Trust Heritage Festival, the VGR’s Jonathan Newton says. Get the full story in today’s Castlemaine Mail.
A trip through time
Don’t know what a Bullnose Morris Cowley is?
Nevermind – this weekend offers a prime chance to find out as one of these very rare English made vehicles goes on public display complete with its own three-quarter scale replica World War One mine. It’s just one of an extremely diverse range of rare collectibles that make up a special exhibition being staged by Castlemaine Pioneers and Old Residents Association at Castlemaine Town Hall this Saturday and Sunday.
“To celebrate our 139th birthday we’re putting on this display featuring aspects of the shire from 1900 through to 1925,” the Association’s secretary Wilson Bunton says. Full story in today’s Mail …
