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One in a million

By
Lisa Dennis
-

Darren Chester, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs


Around one million Australians served during the Second World War, and many Australians today have a connection to at least one of them.
As we approach the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War on August 15 this year, there is no better time for us to uncover and capture the stories of these one million people and ensure they live on. 
For families, it is a chance to learn more about someone who served, and for the nation, it is a time to gain a greater understanding of our involvement in this major conflict. 
All we need to do is ‘Just Ask’ the question – what did my family do during the war? How do I learn more about Australia’s involvement in the Second World War? 
It is easier than ever before to research a family member’s military history. The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) has brought together all of its nominal rolls, including the Second World War nominal roll, into one website to make it easier to search and find information on those Australians who served in this war. The National Archives of Australia is working to digitise all of its Second World War records and the Australian War Memorial also has a wide range of useful information just a click away.
If you need a little help, start with the Researching Australians at War page on the Anzac Portal – www.anzacportal.dva.gov.au. 
Ancestry.com.au is also helping Australians pay tribute to those who served and sacrificed in the Second World War by providing free online access to all Australian and New Zealand military records on the site from August 13-16. 
I encourage all Australians to look into their family’s Second World War history and capture these stories, and to visit anzacportal.dva.gov.au/vp75 to learn more about a war that changed our nation’s history forever.

Competition ceases

By
Lisa Dennis
-

Castlemaine Golf Club has put in place the latest restrictions to help keep COVID-19 away from our region and keep our residents safe. 
Notices are displayed on the noticeboard near the front door for members and visitors, and the club ask that these be read carefully, and observed. 
Key points are: social golf only, wear a mask, play in twos, use sanitiser, and social distance.  See the Mail for more. Out Now.

Victorians encouraged to ‘Go Well’

By
Lisa Dennis
-

‘Go Well’ – a new weekly health and wellness radio program hosted by Australian publisher and Castlemaine resident Cate Mercer ‘went live’ on community radio station MAINfm 94.9 recently, as Victoria continues to see significant and concerning daily numbers of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases and deaths.
Providing a balance of evidence-based and alternative health news and views, particularly when it comes to mental health, is important to Mercer who is also the founder and editor of The Art of Healing magazine and has been actively involved in the health industry for almost 20 years.
“With so much misinformation around on social media, and people battling with the mental health effects of this pandemic, I think it’s more important than ever to make credible, well researched information more accessible,” Mercer said.
“I’ve always wanted to host a radio program and with people spending more time at home or commuting in their car and thinking about their health at the moment – it feels like the perfect time to finally do it!” she explained.
The program airs Thursday mornings from 9am to 10am and will feature various special guests. 
One of Mercer’s first guests was Dean Mighell – director of Path of the Horse, a non-profit equine therapy centre that assists people of all ages and walks of life to become more self-aware, build resilience and seek better mental health and well-being. 
Dean and his team help people with Autism, veterans, emergency services personnel and their families manage PTSD, anxiety, depression, addiction, grief and lots more.
“My hope is for this new show to inspire and teach Victorians of all ages and circumstances to ask more questions about their health and wellbeing and to seek out tools and support that suit their individual needs, beliefs and lifestyle,” Mercer said.
Cate has worked across a range of industries including IT, accounting, cinema and film, newspapers and magazines and job roles throughout her career, from design to management, marketing to sales. 
She started The Art of Healing magazine in 2002 while living in Byron Bay, after identifying an opportunity to provide reliable information for people seeking alternative options for good healthcare. 
After being introduced to the local area by a friend in 2013, Cate relocated to Castlemaine and has never looked back. 
“I am constantly in awe of the beauty in this area, and love feeling the changes in season which you just don’t have in warmer more temperate climates.” 
Cate continues to edit and publish the quarterly magazine, and has recently begun hosting the radio program to take the concepts she writes about to a broader audience who are interested in health and wellness. 
“I just feel it’s so important to walk the talk, so I do want to share how I take care of myself and how I have incorporated what I have learnt over the years into my own life. At the essence of it all, the body is really good at looking after you, if you just give it what it needs – and time,” she said.
“It’s interesting to look back from 2020, and see just how much people have changed. There really has been a huge shift in consciousness,” Mercer said.

Spitfire – a daughter’s dedication done in lockdown

By
Eve Lamb
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Castlemaine's Anne Rittman with her new book, and a photo of her father, WWII reconnaissance pilot Harold Murray Rittman. Photo: Eve Lamb

A Castlemaine woman has used her time in pandemic isolation to write and publish a book documenting the incredible life of her father, a Spitfire reconnaissance pilot in WWII.
Anne Rittman says ferreting out the story of Harold Murray Rittman’s daring and dangerous deeds as a photographic reconnaissance pilot resulted in her discovering things about her dad that she never knew.
“Once I started digging through all of this material I really discovered who my father was,” says Anne who has published Spitfire: The plane that crushed Hitler’s dreams! through her own recently-established publishing business – Fab Entertainment.
“Luckily my mother kept all the letters, documents and photographs relating to my father’s experience as a photo reconnaissance pilot in WWII,” she says.
Anne has trained as a professional writer through RMIT and has also previously worked as an arts ceramicist, writer and publisher.
She says writing Spitfire has enabled her to better know her parents, and grandparents, though the war time letters they wrote each other.
“The sheer courage of my father was heart-stopping,” she says.
“But despite his fear he flew 90 missions over heavily guarded enemy territory and brought back invaluable information for the Allies.
“He won the DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross) for bravery and exceptional determination.”
Anne says writing Spitfire in recent months was such an engaging process she could hardly wait to start work each morning.
Yet despite this she says she would never have written the book were it not for the time spent in pandemic-induced lockdown and isolation.
“It’s definitely a project done in Covid times. If I was not in isolation I’d never have done this.”
Instead, goaded by the strict entry deadline, she has even managed to enter her new 195 page book in the prestigious Australian War Memorial’s Les Carlyon Literary Prize to be announced later this year.
Anne is no stranger to the literary scene, having previously written and published several books including co-authoring a highly collectable tome – Brunswick Street, Art & Revolution capturing the cultural and arts scene of this iconic Melbourne street in its heyday.
But she says that finally getting the story of her father down in print has been especially personally satisfying.
“It feels as if I’ve done what was meant to be done,” she says.
Copies of Spitfire are available for purchase via Anne’s Facebook page, with its first limited print run already quickly snapped up.

Campbells Creek’s history celebrated

By
Lisa Dennis
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Jaara elder Aunty Kerri Douglas and Campbells Creek Inc History and Heritage Group member Kerin Zable-Brown are pictured with the newly installed history board.
Jaara elder Aunty Kerri Douglas and Campbells Creek Inc History and Heritage Group member Kerin Zable-Brown are pictured with the newly installed history board.

How much do you know about the history of Campbells Creek?
Local residents and visitors alike will be surprised and delighted by the new history board recently installed in the Campbells Creek Park. 
The beautifully illustrated and designed board is full of information that tells the story of the development of Campbells Creek from pre-colonial days to the mid-20th century.
The board was the brainchild of members of the Campbells Creek Inc History and Heritage group who have brought this project to fruition over several years, working with local Aboriginal elder Aunty Kerri Douglas on Aboriginal history, and gathering information, photographs and illustrations from Campbells Creek residents and historical sources for the period since European settlement. See the Mail for the full story. Out Now.

CAM welcomes First Nations board member

By
Lisa Dennis
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Tiriki Onus with possum skin cloak. Image supplied.
Tiriki Onus with possum skin cloak. Image supplied.

In an historic first Castlemaine Art Museum (CAM) has appointed First Nations man Tiriki Onus to the CAM Board.Tiriki Onus (Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung) is Associate Dean Indigenous Development and Head of the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development at University of Melbourne. 
Traditional Owner and Jaara Elder, Uncle Rick Nelson has welcomed Onus on his appointment. 
“We had a great yarn and I’m looking forward to catching up with him,” Uncle Rick said. 
Director CAM Renewal Naomi Cass said Onus’ skills from the visual arts through to cultural management are greatly respected. 
“We look forward to his broad engagement with CAM and the local community,” she said.  See the Mail for the full story. Out Now.

Dawn dip with the Aquanuts

By
Eve Lamb
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Aquanuts Frog Peck, Jessie Boylan and Ellen Doyle prepare to take a bracing dawn dip in Expedition Pass Reservoir just out of Chewton last Tuesday morning. Photo: Eve Lamb

As the temperature hovered around two degrees on Tuesday, 7am, and many were still beneath the doona, some hardy souls were instead getting set to swim in Chewton’s Expedition Pass Reservoir.
Enter – the Aquanuts.
This small group of locals – about six in all – have been meeting around dawn a couple of days each week to cut brisk laps in the glistening, beautiful and b….. freezing waters of the local res.
“Our full title is the Chewton and Affiliated Suburbs Aquanauts,” explains one of them, local swimming instructor, Frog Peck.
The Aquanuts began taking their bracing early morning swims months ago with a couple of friends just getting together to enjoy a swim.
But as things got cooler – and even after Covid-19 hit – the Aquanuts knew they didn’t want to stop – while always taking care to adhere to the changing pandemic restrictions.
“We love swimming here and once Covid started we needed to keep some connection to each other and the res,” Frog says.
Tuesday this week was forecast to be cold and come 7am at Expedition Pass Reservoir, it was.
But that didn’t stop the ‘nuts donning wetsuits and splashing forth to greet the day with a degree of chilled excitement many could not embrace – whether “warmer in than out” or not.
“It’s two degrees out and about 9.5 in,” Frog said.
“We do between two to four laps, so between one and two kilometres.”

CCH ready to help

By
Lisa Dennis
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CCH Centrelink Coordinator Julie Holden and NILS coordinator Peter Cole invite community members to make an appointment for free assistance.
CCH Centrelink Coordinator Julie Holden and NILS coordinator Peter Cole invite community members to make an appointment for free assistance.

Castlemaine Community House (CCH) has a range of Financial Services available to help low income earners and the unemployed impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic.
While the dedicated CCH team and their volunteers are now working behind closed doors at 30 Templeton Street, they encourage community members to give them a call and arrange an appointment if they are in need of assistance.
The Financial Services include Centrelink/Medicare, the No Interest Loans Scheme (NILS), the annual Free Tax Service for low income earners which commenced this week, and free Financial Counselling – which launches next week. See the Mail for the full story. Out Now.

Maternity milestone

By
Lisa Dennis
-
Newborn baby boy sleeping in his crib, his mother's hand holding his little hand.

Progress on the recommendations arising from the Castlemaine Health Maternity Services review are well underway.
The hospital has made three key appointments to lead the recommendations of the review: a Clinical Lead – Midwifery role; a Project Consultant to support planning, decision-making and project management; and a Medical Lead – GP obstetrician. 
CEO Ian Fisher said they’ve now filled three roles that are key to progressing the recommendations across six key areas. See the Mail for the full story. Out Now.

State of Disaster declared

By
Lisa Dennis
-

BREAKING: Premier Daniel Andrews has announced that a ‘State of Disaster’ will be declared in Victoria from 6pm tonight. Melbourne will move to Stage 4 lockdown tonight. Melburnians will be also subject to a curfew from 8pm to 5pm daily – starting tonight at 8pm. One person may leave home to shop daily within a five kilometres radius of their home.
Regional Victoria returns to Stage 3 lockdown from midnight Wednesday. Regional students will attend their final school day tomorrow. Tuesday will be a Pupil Free Day and regional students will return to remote learning from Wednesday. Vulnerable students will be able to attend school. Childcare remains open.
The lockdown will be in place for six weeks at this stage.
Premier Andrews said more needs to be done. At current trends we would not see lower numbers for four to six months. It is hoped the tougher restrictions will have a positive impact in a shorter timeframe.

Covid responsibilities, not hysteria

By
Lisa Dennis
-


Michael Johnston, Castlemaine

It may be easy to point the finger at strangers, such as requesting they do not enter our municipality, when looking for ways to remain Covid-Safe, but we also have a responsibility to ensure we are doing all we can.
Thankfully, there are now more people in Mount Alexander Shire wearing masks, but still a number of businesses that aren’t enforcing “maximum numbers” in their premises based on 1 person/4 square metres or minimum distances of 1.5 metres between customers.
Well done to those businesses that are now requiring their staff to wear masks if they cannot socially isolate!
Recent information about new cases in Victoria suggests that 80 per cent are work-place based and the majority of regional cases are the result of people travelling into Melbourne for work and then returning to their regional home. So, the cases are not being brought into regional municipalities by Melbournians but by people who need to travel to Melbourne for work.
Finger pointing and blaming will not help in our fight to minimise the spread of Corona Virus. Following recommended health guidelines and helping others to do so in our community will keep us healthier.
If you know a shopkeeper who could do with some help to prepare their premises to be “best practice” Covid Safe, they would probably appreciate your help. Providing masks for neighbours who might be struggling to find masks would be a great way to strengthen community ties.
Our street is linked by a social media app that helps us to go shopping for immuno-suppressed neighbours or to share home grown produce. It is easy and immensely satisfying.
Let’s see how we can use our energies positively to help our community rather than looking for scapegoats. Mount Alexander is a great place to live.

Successful start

By
Lisa Dennis
-

The Castlemaine Football Netball Club’s Under 17 netball team had a great win in their first game for 2020 against a competitive Maryborough side last weekend. 

Castlemaine Football Netball Club juniors also returned to participate in the Bendigo Junior Football League’s 2020 season. Round Two saw all our local teams play away and all acquitted themselves exceptionally well. 

Unfortunately all football, netball and soccer matches have now been postponed due to the growing concerns around the spike in local Covid-19 cases. See the Mail for the full results and postponement update. Out Now.

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