A council decision has paved the way for a new permaculture farm and associated new house to be established at Harcourt North.
But it was not at all certain that the proposal by Sydney based couple Lana Dermody and David Foley would get the green light they hoped for with the council’s planning department recommending refusal of planning approval for the couple to build a dwelling and outbuildings as part of their vision for the Eagles Road site in Harcourt North.
The matter came before Mount Alexander Shire Council last week with councillors tasked with voting on the recommendation of refusal on grounds that the 10.4 hectare site is in the farming zone and, because the property is less than 40 hectares in size, construction of a dwelling did “not achieve the outcomes and objectives of the farming zone and the provisions of the planning scheme aimed at protecting agricultural land from non-agriculutral uses”.
The application had attracted one formal objection and a Harcourt landholder personally addressed last Tuesday evening’s council meeting stating that he believed allowing it would “place further pressure on other land to be developed as smaller lots”.
“It would be the thin edge of the wedge,” the objector told the meeting.
But the couple behind the plan, Sydney based David Foley – a software developer who was raised on a farm in Ireland – and Sydney schoolteacher Lana Dermody also both addressed the meeting, arguing their case to establish the permaculture farm at the site with a passive energy efficient dwelling an integral part of their proposal.
They told councillors their vision for a permaculture farm included vegetable and herb gardens, revegetating and restoring the property’s natural ecosystem, and rehabilitating the land to turn it into a productive permaculture farm. Full story in today’s Castlemaine Mail (Friday, October 25, 2019)
Council vote paves way for permaculture farm
Access and inclusion
Castlemaine Community House (CCH) will soon benefit from improved universal access thanks to the state government.
Bendigo West MP Maree Edwards MP announced on Monday last week that disability access upgrades will be undertaken at CCH to make sure all members of the community enjoy safe and easy access to the valuable services provided by CCH. See last Friday’s Mail for the full story.
KiT Van Unveiled
An innovative new mental health wellbeing initiative – the Keep in Touch (KiT) Van, co-designed with young people, is being rolling out across the Loddon Campaspe region during Mental Health Month.
The Mount Alexander Shire launch of the new resource took place at Castlemaine Secondary College (CSC) last week. See last Friday’s Mail for the full story.
A love of land and life
Over the past 50 years well known Castlemaine artist Brian Nunan has travelled the Australian outback on and off for months at a time.
The humour and the pathos, the bland and the grand that he sees along the way – all are rich material beneath the brush of this local artist whose love of his country and its people resonates through in his work.
This evening Nunan launches his new retrospective exhibition at his imposing Campbell Street gallery.
“All up there’s probably a couple of 100 works,” says the artist who together with his wife Pat bought the former St Gabriel’s Convent School in Castlemaine converting a significant portion of it into a studio and gallery that would be the envy of many a practising artist. Full story in today’s Castlemaine Mail (Friday, October 18, 2019)
Climate call loud at council meeting
Calls for greater action to address climate change were front and centre at this week’s Mount Alexander Shire Council meeting.
There was a packed public gallery and most were there either with, or in support of, the Mount Alexander Climate Emergency Team that was there to lobby the council to join the growing number of municipalities to declare a climate emergency.
First up was a special mayoral presentation to local teenage climate activist Harriet O’Shea Carre for her participation in the United Nation’s recent Youth Climate summit in New York.
An independent film crew was there to capture the moment that was followed by public question time during which members of the Climate Emergency Team – and others – made impassioned presentations to council calling on it to declare a state of climate emergency and take urgent action to address the global issue.
Members of the team then presented the council with a document that summarised their petition as carrying 1644 signatures, informing councillors also that this was further supported by a further pledge of personal action signed by 754 people with an online version of the petition also available. Full story in today’s Castlemaine Mail (Friday, October 18, 2019)
Spring into sculpture …
The annual Spring Sculpture Prize exhibition launches at Castlemaine’s Lot 19 tomorrow with the prize recipients announced.
Now in its 14th year, the annual prize is noted for showcasing a great diversity of sculptural work from artists across different stages of their creative careers.
At least 50 artists from throughout the Mount Alexander Shire region and wider Greater Bendigo area are represented this time, Lot 19 Gallery coordinator Zoe Hamble says. Full story in today’s Castlemaine Mail (Friday, October 11, 2019)
Downsizers forced out
Castlemaine residents hoping to retire and downsize are being forced to leave the community they love due to a lack of retirement living options in the town, local retirees say. Among them well-known local couple Ian Braybrook and Marilyn Bennet say they don’t want to leave but are being forced to look at selling up and leaving just to secure affordable retirement living accommodation.
“After 46 years living in and around Castlemaine, my wife and I are looking at moving away,” Mr Braybrook told the Mail this week.
“We feel part of this town and this community. It has been our life.
“So why are we going to leave? Principally it is because we cannot afford to stay.” Full story in today’s Castlemaine Mail (Friday, October 11, 2019)
Muckin’ about at Mucklefest
Historic Muckleford Railway Station sets the scene for this weekend’s Mucklefest Vintage Machinery Rally.
The annual festival has been running for over a decade now and is a firm favourite on the calendars of those who appreciate vintage machines.
Among them is Walmer’s Eddie Harvey, a member of the organising committee who loves few things better than collecting vintage machines – both stationary and running.
He’ll be bringing a few of his favs along to this weekend’s two-day fest, including his very collectable vintage Chevrolet sedan and his treasured 1949 Fordson tractor.
They’ll be among the large lineup of vintage and rare tractors, trucks and cars with a wide assortment of yesteryear farm machinery and stationary engines also on display at the event, which sprawls itself out over the Dave Bennett Reserve alongside the photogenic little Muckleford Railway Station. Full story in today’s Castlemaine Mail (Friday, October 4, 2019)
Tackling the … Shitbox Rally
How far can you go in a car worth under $1000?
Quite a distance if seems – as one local family seems about to prove.
Elphinstone couple Brian and Julie Colley were in for a little surprise when their Sydney-based daughter Erin called to inform them she’d just signed up for the famed Shitbox Rally – driving 3614km from Melbourne to Townsville via Birdsville in a “shitbox that cost under $1000” – all to to raise money for the Cancer Council.
The twist? She’d also registered them as her support crew for Team Wiggum Unpossibles, named after Simpsons tv series character, Ralph Wiggum – for the rally held over October 19-25. Full story in today’s Castlemaine Mail (Friday, September 27, 2019)
Don’t seal our street: locals petition council
While railing against unsealed rural roads is a common complaint in many regional areas, plenty of residents in Castlemaine’s unsealed Butterworth Street ‘hood have a very different view.
They don’t want their road sealed and they’re prepared to fight to stop it happening.
Thirty-five people have signed a petition opposing the Mount Alexander Shire Council proposal to seal Butterworth Street between Reckleben and Brown Streets, Brown Street between Butterworth and Farnsworth Streets, and Farnsworth Street between Brown and Ray Streets.
“I walk along this road daily, value the natural feel and vegetation. Sealing it is a waste of money,” one signatory to the petition said.
“It will increase traffic, loss of indigenous plants and loss of character,” wrote another. Full story in today’s Castlemaine Mail (Friday, September 27, 2019)
On song
Regular customers at Harcourt’s Goldfields Track Cafe often get more than a caffeine fix when they drop in for a coffee.
Behind the coffee machine is James Park, singing barista and first tenor with Melbourne Opera.
The local barista loves nothing better than singing opera and he’s on song this week as he shoulders the role of a soldier in Bellini’s Norma that opened on Tuesday at Melbourne’s Athenaeum Theatre and runs through to Tuesday September 24.
James says he remembers the day he fell in love with opera. Full story in today’s Castlemaine Mail (Friday, September 20, 2019)
Decision a ‘cop out’?
Mount Alexander Shire Council has narrowly voted in favour of issuing planning approval for a controversial telecommunications tower to be installed at Wesley Hill, with angry objectors labelling the result a “cop out” at this week’s council meeting.
Optus says the proposed telco tower is part of its nationwide rollout to improve mobile black spots but local objectors view it as the telco seeking to profit at the expense of local residents and, particularly, visual amenity.
The proposal, which will see a telco facility atop a floodlight tower in the southwest part of Wesley Hill Recreation Reserve, has attracted fierce opposition from many local residents with the council receiving 64 objections.
The proposal is for a 35-metre monopole with three 2.5-metre-long antennas giving a total height of just over 38 metres, and a parabolic dish structure of 29 metres. Full story in today’s Mail (Friday, September 20, 2019)