The rich stories and genuine characters of the region’s goldfields past are being brought to life afresh in a unique new series of audio tours.
The Storyteller’s Guide to the Goldfields tours lead locals and visitors alike to significant goldfields and Dja Dja Wurrung sites in and around Castlemaine and Bendigo while sharing the stories of their vibrant and tumultuous pasts.
Launching on Monday, The Storyteller’s Guide to the Goldfields series can be downloaded for free on an iPhone.
Written, produced and presented by multi award-winning storyteller and musician, Castlemaine’s Jan Wositzky, the series is a treasure trove of local and national history.
It’s also chockfull of rollicking yarns, featuring some of the rogues and goddesses who once inhabited the area’s goldfields, the lucky and unlucky, the murderous, the colonial government and their brutal military police and the diggers who stood up to them and kick-started Australian democracy.
“I’m really happy about it seeing the light of day,” says Jan who spent countless hours working on the series that coincidentally comes as the Goldfields of Central Victoria – including Castlemaine – is pitched for World Heritage listing.
“It was a really big project,” Jan says.
A special feature in the tour series are several stories from the late Dja Dja Wurrung elder, Brien Nelson, taking tourers to the Jaara water wells, with Dreaming stories also from Brien’s son, Castlemaine’s Uncle Ricky Nelson. Read more in today’s Mail…