Local Profiles

"I'm forever grateful that my parents put that focus on my education because it meant that I had remedial teaching all the way through school. I didn't learn to read or write until I was eight or nine years old."

"One of the first things I did when I moved here was join the brigade and I've been with them ever since. I used to drive the truck a lot."

"I use 10km around Castlemaine for my memory palaces. A memory palace is basically a simplified songline. Our brains are set up to associate information with place. As I go to each location, I have every country in the world mapped, and then I add layer after layer of information, using that location and creating a story with it."

"I’d always loved looking at peoples faces. When I was young I would head down to the local newsagency and buy National Geographic and pop magazines and I’d go home and draw the faces. My mum took me to a Van Gogh show when I was really young and I remember standing in front of the straw chair thinking, ‘someone does this for a job’. "

Hi Daikota, you've recently painted a mural as part of a local playground (see Djaara mural welcomes community to Norwood Hill on page 8).

Hi Sergio, you moved to Australia from Colombia 13 years ago with your wife and two small daughters.

"At the age of 18, I borrowed an airfare, went to a single men's 'Donga' as they were called, in Port Moresby, got a job as a base-grade clerk. God I was terrible at it!"

Hi Francis, most people will have seen you busking with your harmonica in Castlemaine.

Hi Dallas, you've been involved with Nalderun for the past 13 years.

Hi Stacey, you opened Zala Floristry in Castlemaine two months ago.

Our interview with Castlemaine-based Paralympic cyclist Phillipa Gray-Finning.

"Egalitarianism, trying to break down divisions. Kindness. Being non-judgemental. Trying to bring people together."