waifswaifsthe

VIKKI Thorn of The Waifs always wanted to be a rock chick. Unfor-tunately, electric guitar and tight leather pants doesn’t always lend itself to heartstrung folk.

“I had fantasies of being a rock and roller one time, but that’s not going to happen anymore,” she admitted from her home town of Albany, Western Australia.

Thorn never aspired to be a Joan Jett, just “anybody who played an electric guitar”.

Which is why she has so much time for the grunge stylings of Magic Dirt’s frontwoman Adalita.

“I haven’t met her but I re-member when we moved to Mel-bourne she was in the paper a lot...she had these great sounding loud electric guitars, it just looked like fun,” she said.

Even though today she’s the proud mother of Noah and Eli, it hasn’t domesticated her perform-ing alter ego.

“Sometimes becoming a mother makes me want to do that more, get up on stage and leave the house life part of me at home,” she said.

Thorn and sister Donna Simp-son began their musical career as

a duo called Colours (“Colours was a really bad name”), before meet-ing Josh Cunningham a year later. They became The Waifs, inspired by her grandmother’s wicked tongue.

“Our grandmother used to call us waifs,” she said.

“Although we don’t feel like waifs anymore, that was appropri-ate way back when we lived in a campervan.”

The ascendency of the band was a gradual build, and Bendigo audiences witnessed some of it.

“The � rst time we moved east of WA we used to play in Bendigo just about every Thursday at The Golden Vine,” she said.

Thorn credits seminal Austra-

lian pub band Weddings, Parties, Anything for their climb into cred-ibility – Weddo’s lead singer Mick Thomas also recorded on their � rst album.

“They were at the tail end of their thing when we came along,” she said. “They took us under their wing and put us on tour with them. I’ve got a lot to be grateful for from Mick.”

The Weddos also introduced them to a concept they had long enjoyed: a loyal fan base.

“A lot of those people who used to see us back then still fol-low the band now, they’ve grown up with us,” she said. “They’re all our age, and they’re indoctrinating their kids with our music!”

ben cameron

rockin brief

dance

food

radio

megan spencer

� lmsbook club

dvdsmegan spencerdvdsmegan spencer

� lms

hiphop

dance

comps

live

arts

megan spencer

gig guide

dvds

seven days

hiphop

dance

comps cds

games

live

comedygames

comedygames

arts

rockfood

radio

gig guide

comedygig guide

comedy

comps cds

arts

rock

arts

rock

gig guide

dvdstelevision rockin brief

hiphop

dance

comps

food

cds

radio

live

arts

rockfoodgig guide

dvdstelevision

hiphop

comps cds

live

arts

rock

arts

rockgig guide

� lmsseven days

dance

comps

gamescomedygames

comedygames

arts

rockfood

radiogig guide

comedygig guidecomedy

megan spencerbook club

gig guide

cds

gig guide

cds

rockdance

food

megan spencer

� lmsarts� lmsartsbook club

seven days

dvdsmegan spencerdvdsmegan spencer

� lms

hiphop

dance

comps

radio

live

megan spencerbook club + illy + food fossickers + megan spencer + more

inside this weekissue 28|Friday March 18,2011|FREE

entertained

continued page 3

Eleven years of � ne musicCelebrating 11 years, the Promenade of Sacred Music continues to bring � rst class musicians from around Australia to Victoria’s Southern Grampians region. Historic churches and heritage venues will be transformed into concert halls from 7-10 April 2011.To WIN a weekend escape including two night’s accommodation, two gold passes and a food and wine hamper � lled with local produce from the region, simply send your details to:

For more information visit: www.promenadeofsacredmusic.com.au

SACRED MUSIC FESTIVAL PACKAGESEach package includes:• Two night’s accommodation for two people

at Lonsdale Motor Inn, April 8 & 9, 2011• Two Festival Gold Passes providing

access to ALL events at the Promenade of Sacred Music Festival; plus

• Gourmet food & wine hamper � lled with local produce from the region (in room on arrival)

Promenade of Sacred Music FestivalC/- Bendigo WeeklyPO Box 324, Bendigo 3552

Name ______________________________Phone______________________________Entries close 1/4/2011

Win a weekend escapeWin a weekend escape

b.entertained 02|Friday, March 18, 2011

Saturday, March 19

Fireman’s Ball To raise money for a � re truck and shed. 6.30pm until late. Tickets $35 from Lyonville’s Radio Springs Hotel or call: 0488 427 886. No door ticket sales on the night.

Mini Market Our Shed, 14 Sailors Gully Road, Eaglehawk from noon to 5pm. Entrance is free. In conjunction with the Dahlia and Arts Festival. Details : 0401 510 470.

Run With Your Eyes Open Osteopathic Health Care is holding a four kilometre run/walk and 8km run to raise funds for CBM’s work. 8.30am Crusoe Reservoir, Park No 7, enter via Granter Street. $32 for single entry (cost for an adult’s cataract operation) or $48 for a family. $230 for team up to eight (cost for a child’s cataract operation) www.bendigoosteopath.com.au/runwithyoureyesopen

Morning Co� ee Bethlehem Ladies Auxiliary 10am, The Rising Sun Hotel $4, ra� es and lucky door prizes. Details: 5447 3058.

Garage Sale Uniting Church of Mia Mia Kyneton, St Andrew’s, Kyneton, Ebden Street, 8am to 2pm. Details: 5422 1874.

Try Orienteering Near Kangaroo Flat. For newcomers. Can start from 10am to 11.30am. Details: 5443 1975.Book Sale The Friends of the Bendigo Library are holding a sale in the Library foyer, Hargreaves Street, between 10am and 12.30pm. Details: 5444 5801.

Sunday, March 20

Rockin 50s Rock n Roll Club Dance Sweetrock plus Phantom DJ, Strathdale Community Centre, Crook Street, Bendigo. Details: 0438 895 380.

School Fete St Francis of the Fields Primary School Blucher Street, Strath� eldsaye. 11am to 3pm.

Genealogy Expo Kangaroo Flat Leisure Centre, from 10am to 4pm, 60 stall holders. $8 admission. 5446 3931.

The Count Luke Launer’s latest movie Bendigo Cinemas, 6:30pm start, $10 entry fee includes a small soft drink and popcorn. Details 5442 1666.

Monday, March 21

Bendigo Writers Council Best Community Development, St Andrews Avenue. 7pm. $5 with supper provided. Details: 5434 4417.

Tuesday, March 22

Prayer, Permaculture and the Poor Marcus Curnow will be exploring the links between spirituality, care for the earth. 7.30pm to 9pm. St Matthews Church, 153 Eaglehawk Rd, Long Gully. Details: 0421 764 699.

Mature Age Meet and Greet 2pm at the Newmarket Hotel – no cost. Details: 5446 2189.

seven daysin association with KLFM radio

96.5 FM

Friday, March 18Newmarket HotelSalvadore9pm FREEBridge HotelDuane and Kirby9pm FREEHorvat’s Wine BarAdrian Deakin6pm FREEMorph8.30pm FREECosmopolitan HotelLive MusicSee venue for detailsDaylesford InnOpen mic/folk night featuring Greg Jenkins and Geo¢ Forbes7pm FREEShamrock Hotel KynetonTaylor Sheridan9pm FREEPugg MahonesSonic11pm FREE

Saturday, March 19Newmarket HotelArtilah with Abreact & Manic9pmGolden Vine HotelBendigo Blues Club- Acoustic Beer Garden Jam2pm FREEOld World Sparrow, T.J and Judy Judy8pm FREEBasement BarThe Adventure Spirit9pm FREEBrian Boru HotelGuacamole Brothers9pm FREE

Drover’s ArmsBel and Jon8pm FREE

Old Hepburn HotelVinyl Tapp9pm FREEDaylesford InnSuzette Herft7pm $20Horvat’s Wine BarPete Kenyon 6pm FREEHoneycatz Trio8.30pm FREETheatre RoyalWatussi8pm $20Pugg MahonesTop Jimmy11pmSunday, March 20Golden Vine HotelSunday Session with Old Buzzard Medicine Show4pm FREEBasement BarOpen Mic with host Deano5pm FREEMarong Family HotelAlyce Platt12.30pm FREEBridge HotelThe Mockbells2pm FREEGoldmines HotelDavid Turpie3pm FREEHorvat’s Wine BarSugarcane Collins6.30pm FREEOne Tree Hill HotelChris Meek and Marlow Mosier2pm FREEOld Hepburn HotelLive MusicSee venue for details4pm FREE

gig guide

IT was a boot camp without the blood, sweat and tears, just good time tunes aplenty.

On Monday arvo, the newly formed Bendigo Entertainment Sup-port Network held its second major event, The Musician’s Boot Camp. And chief architect Mick Gri� n said the day was a knee–slappin’ success.

“It was the perfect day, lots of ex-cellent local music and I reckon about 150 or so people came through over the day,” he said.

All the bands pitched in with entertaining sets, but Gri� n said The Bride Stripped Back and BESN president Heath Kelly’s spoon play-

ing during a riotously fun set from The Old Buzzard Medicine Show were the picks of the litter.

He predicted a bright future for the group.

“On a whole we are exactly what we say we are, a total support net-work,” he said. “We aim to create as many opportunities for musicians of all ages, abilities and genres to play as often as possible.

“This is a non-pro� t organisation set up by fellow musicians and music fans who wish to play an active role within the promotion of our excellent local music scene.”

More info at http://besn.com.au/

AUSTRALIA’S leading jazz vocalist, Vince Jones, will be the major draw-card at the Bendigo Olive Fiesta at Bendigo Pottery this Sunday.

Born in Glasgow, Jones has be-come renowned not only for his emo-tive voice, but clever interpretation and composition of contemporary jazz. Jones will be supported on the day by the latin sounds of the Los Locos band, who provide authentic Mediterranean music.

The Fiesta, running from 10am to 4pm, will be a day of fun for the entire

family with workshops, a bocce com-petition, olive product samples and cooking demonstrations from special guest chef Carlo Havelberg, head chef at Journal Canteen in Melbourne’s Flinders Lane, and formerly of Da Noi.

There will also be a bouncing cas-tle and face painting for the kids.

Run by the Rotary Club of Ben-digo South, the Fiesta celebrates Vic-toria’s emerging olive industry and can be found at 146 Midland Highway Epsom. Info at www.bendigoolive� -esta.com.au

boot camp

vince jones

in brief

BendigoWeekly

BOOKCLUB

this week’s top 10

1. Jamie’s 30-Minute MealsJamie Oliver

2. BataviaPeter Fitzsimons

3. Letters and Numbers 2 SBS

4. Letters and NumbersSBS

5. Saturday Big Tent Wedding PartyAlexander McCall-Smith

6. Wise Man’s Fear Bk2 Kingkiller ChroniclePatrick Rothfuss

7. Kingdom Besieged Bk1 Chaoswar SagaRaymond Feist

8. Afterlife Bk 4 Evernight Claudia Gray9. Only Time Will Tell

Je� rey Archer10. Jungle

Clive Cussler

Supplied by Dymocks Bendigo

THIS � ctional story accounts for the reasons things happen the way they do in your life . The

twist is they are explained to you after you die and go to heaven.The story begins with 80-year-old Eddie, an amusement ride mechanic, starting work on a normal day. What Eddie doesn’t know is that he is going to die that day. The story accounts in a narrative style Eddie’s life, his love for his wife and things that have happened to him since childhood. When Eddie realises he has died, he � nds himself in � ve di¢ erent places in heaven; each place has someone who has been waiting for Eddie to tell them why things happened the way they did in his life. Some of these people he knew, some he didn’t.I defy anyone not to shed a tear when one of the people he meets is his wife. I � rst read this book some time ago and it made me cry, in a good way. Since then I have had cause to read it again, and it made me cry again, this time in an even better way. Love you mum.

Reviewed by Harry Hart

The Five People You Meet in HeavenMitch AlbomSphere

pick of the week

Vince Jones.

Keith White and Roy Webb on washboard.

LIVE MUSIC

49 BRIDGE STREET, BENDIGOPHONE 5443 7811

1803

Friday March 18thDuane & KirbyFriday March 25th Soul ChildSunday March 20thThe MockbellsSunday March 27thTaylor Sheridan

like us on facebook

facebook.com/bwbentertained

follow us on twitter

twitter.com/b_entertained

Their career exploded after the release of their fourth album, Up All Night in January 2003, which won four ARIA Awards.

But it was one song in particular that drove the album’s massive success, the Simpson penned London Still.

It was a song (“Our one and only big hit”) that would become a backpacker an-them for the home-pining Aussie traveller.

And while the lyrics appear to belong to a stir crazy tourist stuck in Great Britain’s oldest city, the reality was slightly di� erent.

“Donna was only in London for four days when she wrote it,” Thorn said.

“It’s the beauty of the artist I guess, she hit a cultural nerve, lots of people related to that song.”

It was only when the band landed in London that they fully understood the spell the tune held over homesick audiences.

“We had sell-out shows in London, basi-cally full of Australians wanting to hear that song,” she said.

“You’d have 3000 people crying, the whole auditorium was lit up with cell phones of people calling home while we were playing it.”

The song changed the course of the band practically overnight.

“It was actually when we started to make enough money out of music that we didn’t have to play 360 gigs a week,” she said.

“It took things to another level. We didn’t have to be on tour all the time to gain an audience.

“We could work less, and get space from each other, and the result was we started enjoying our work a little bit more.”

Also enjoying their work was Bob Dylan, who invited the band to tour North America with him later that year. Thorn looks back with a touch of regret however.

“I was a little bit star struck. And when I feel like that I just walk away,” she said.

“I couldn’t tell you what he (Dylan) was like, he was sort of strange, a bit awkward, I was too star struck to make any judgement.

“Donna isn’t like that, she was quite

chummy with him actually.“That (tour) was incredible. It was very

surreal, I knew he’d been in� uential on pretty much everything, in western culture at least.

“It really kick-started our career in the States, suddenly everybody was interested in us.”

Today, Thorn, Simpson and Josh Cun-ningham all reside in America and they recorded their latest album Temptation, holed up in a basement in Minneapolis.

“For the � rst year or two I really enjoyed being out of my comfort zone, but what I re-ally love is the landscape,” Thorn said, who lives in a remote part of the Utah desert.

“The change of the seasons is incred-ible. It is great to spend a whole year in one place and see those changes, unlike Austra-lia where it’s either green or brown.

“But I still have the heart connection with Australia, it feels like home. I’m not into cities at all, I love the bush.”

From the heady days from early last decade, the onset of marriage and a degree of domesticity has shaped the band’s evolu-tion.

“There were quite a few years where we weren’t (feeling inspired) but we are again now,” she said.

“I’d like to think we’ve grown up a little bit. I don’t think it’s (domestic life) changed our sound as much as it’s changed our ap-preciation for what we do.”

She’s also pretty stoked The Waifs are about to hit the big 2–0.

“It’s pretty rare for a band to have longevity,” she said.

“The industry has completely changed. I feel we’re very fortunate to still be around for a start, to tour, have people come to the gigs and to sell albums.

“I’ve got to credit the fans for that.”

The Waifs’ new album Temptation is out now.

SIMON: You’re just about to jump on the tour bus and head around the country, are you pretty pumped?

ILLY: Yeah dude, it hasn’t been that long since I was last touring, I think a couple of months, but because last year was so heavy for touring, it seemed like a lifetime so I’m really keen to get back out there.

SIMON: I see you’ve got your super pro-ducer and DJ along for the ride, M Phazes.

ILLY: Yeah it’s a fair title but hopefully it doesn’t go to his head, it’s big enough as it is (laughs). No, it’s totally deserved, he’s the best in the country bar none in my opinion.

SIMON: How does the colloborating work with M Phazes?

ILLY? He’s a pretty busy dude, working with a lot bigger names than myself. Basically I � ick through a catalogue of his stu� , or we can make stu� up on the spot. It’s changed a bit over the years as he’s such a busy dude, obviously I can’t just go up to him and say ‘hey dude, give me a beat’ and the next day it’s done.

SIMON: You’ve managed to get some bangers out of him though.

ILLY: Oh, yeah I can’t complain, it’s all good.

SIMON: On the track It Can’t Wait you’ve got the singer Owl Eyes. Who’s idea was it for her to be on the tune?

ILLY: That was J Skub’s (The Chase co–pro-ducer), he produced her EP. We had it done and we thought it would work well with a female vocal. Owl Eyes came in the next day and I was there. We asked her if she wanted to be on it and the rest is history, she nailed it.

SIMON: That track scored pretty high on Triple J’s Hottest 100 (Number 29). How did it feel?

ILLY: Massive dude, I love that radio sta-tion, I’ve grown up listening to it. I was stoked. I knew the song was good when we made it but I wasn’t sure how big the response would be. The response it got was just crazy. It got to about 40( in the countdown), I was just having a barbecue with my mates and then I started freaking out that I wasn’t going to get on the countdown. I thought ‘It better bloody chart soon’. And then it did come in and it was happy days, all good. If it hadn’t come in it would have got pretty nasty (laughs).

SIMON: On this album, compared to the � rst one, there are no more emcees that you’ve colloborated with. What was the rea-son behind that?

ILLY: Not much thought went into that. It got to about nine tracks into the album and I realised we had no features, but I felt like I was carrying the tracks well enough myself and I thought it would be cool to put out an album without any features as you don’t get that much in hip hop. And I reckon I pulled it o� . Whether I do it again I’m not sure. For the next album I’ve got two or three features that I’m locking in now and excited about working with. It’s nothing to rest my hat on but I think it’s cool. I don’t know how many dudes can carry an entire album, 14 tracks on their own, so it’s cool.

SIMON: And in such a short time frame. It was only in 2009 that Long Story Short came out.

ILLY: Yeah 16 months between Long Story Short and The Chase.

SIMON: Have you got anymore singles coming out o� The Chase?

ILLY: The title track will hopefully be getting played soon. But maybe one other one if every-thing goes well. I’m not too fussed about singles at this point, I think people have heard the al-bum, I can’t really complain.

SIMON: Just focus on your live shows?ILLY: For sure dude, absolutely, I got bigger

� sh to fry than singles, I gotta get a live show crackin’.

Illy plays The Corner Hotel in Melbourne tonight and Sunday, and the Karova Lounge in Ballarat Saturay night.

londonlondonlondonbeyond

b.entertained 03|Friday, March , 2011

londonlondonfrom page 1 ILLY: Massive dude, I love that radio sta-

illyAUSSIE hip hop artist Illy (aka Al Murray) has made a serious name for himself of late, with recent hits It Can Wait and The Chase, and a successful album (Long Story Short) getting plenty of ur-ban love.Illy caught up with Simon Blake, recently host of Phoe-nix FM hip hop show This Or That, on how it’s all come together.

illyillyillyillyilly hip hop artist Illy (aka Al Murray) has made a serious name for himself of

BendigoWeekly

1803

BendigoWeekly

Welcome to our book club book of the month

Only$11.49

50%off rrp

The clan of cave bearJean M. Auel

RRP 22.99

BendigoWeekly

1803

BendigoWeekly

Welcome to our book club book of the month

Only$11.49

50%off rrp

The clan of cave bearJean M. Auel

RRP 22.99

1803

Join booklover’s Rewards & Get 1,000 points

THE VINELIVEMUSIC@

1803

OLD WORLDE SPARROW,TJ AND JUDY JUDY$2 DOOR CHARGE

9PM TILL MIDNIGHT

LIVE MUSIC FROM 4-7PMFREE ENTRY

FRIDAY MARCH 18

SUNDAY MARCH 20

HAPPY HOUR5.30-7.30PM

b.entertained 04|Friday, March 18, 2011

Hugh organised the char-ity art exhibition Floodline, where $1500 was raised for the Salvos Flood Appeal.

It’s rare to � nd full-time artists. But that’s Hugh Waller, after spending much of his life in art retail.

Born and bred in Bendigo, Hugh also spent a good chunk of his life living in Melbourne establishing his art practice. “I think it’s important to arrive at a point rather than grab something and just run with

it,” he says of � nding his artis-tic voice. “I found a lot of con-temporary art in Melbourne confusing on that level.”

With the city “reaching its use-by-date” for Hugh, 11 years ago he returned to Cen-tral Victoria to reconnect with the space and landscape he loved.

In it he found inspiration for a number of series, includ-ing Tree, on show in Bendigo for the � rst time in Common Ground.

“I was walking through Rosalind Park one overcast day and looked up and no-ticed the top of the elm trees,” he explains.

“The entanglement of branches against the sky re-minded me of a Jackson Pol-lock painting.

“I liked looking at how abstract they were. I’m always interested in form which is why a lot of my work is de-rived from nature, because of the sculptural form you get in a lot of natural elements. It looks chaotic but there’s a lot of order involved as well.”

It might sound contradic-

tory, but while he studies na-ture Hugh is proud to work in the digital realm, managing to � nd his way there via painting and print-making. He relishes the ambiguity in his work, with people often never quite sure exactly how his pictures are made.

“There is a certain amount of mystery about my work,” he says with a smile.

“People often think they are paintings. There is a cer-tain perception about digital images – that they’re hard. I like to go for something a bit more � uid.”

Emotion and atmosphere are also very important to

Hugh. While his images in Common Ground all started as photos, Hugh says he would never call himself a photographer.

Interestingly, he likens working with Photoshop and Painter computer programs – used to help create his images – to painting in real life.

“A lot of people see digital manipulation as simply press-ing a button and that’s it. But as you learn more about the programs, you build things up,” he says.

“The cognitive processes are exactly the same in mak-ing digital images as they are for prints or paintings, involv-

ing all the formal elements of making an image.”

Hugh has been slowly building up his CV: his work is in collections in Singapore, England, USA and Australia, and he has entered art com-petitions and shown in city galleries. Ideally he would like to � nd gallery representation.

He’s also keen to facilitate the local artist community. “There are lots of people here painting in their living rooms. I’d love to start a weekly artist get-together at a local pub.”

And with him, Mark and Kain having received a Dud-ley House Community Arts Hire Subsidy Grant 2011 to

support the Common Ground show, he is encouraging other artists to apply for grants.

“It’s not hard! It only took 15 minutes to � ll out the form,” he laughs.

A big fan of the ornate Dudley House gallery space, he says it’s on par with the intimate “back alley” galleries you � nd in Melbourne.

“It’s a beautiful spot.”

Common Ground, opens tonight 6pm at Dudley House, 60 View Street, Bendigo. On until March 31, Monday-Sunday, 10am-5pm. www. hughwallerart.com

common

“Many people really have no idea even if their trees have black or green ol-ives, or when they can pick them,” she says.

“So I start from scratch.”Marlies will be talking

olives, and demonstrating how to pickle them, at Sun-day’s Bendigo Olive Fiesta.

She and Peter run Salute Oliva at Boort where they produce table olives and oils organically. The fertile soil, coupled with the non-polluted air, put their olives

ahead of the pack, they say.This is the second year

Marlies is on the program at the Fiesta, held at Bendigo Pottery.

“We had no idea if there’d be an interest in pickling but it was incred-ible how many people came along, so we thought we should do it again,” she says.

“It really is simple enough, and not expensive.”

This year’s olive crop is di� cult to gauge, because there’s been so much rain but it’s also been quite warm during the season.

Marlies is keeping a watchful eye on Salute’s crops and says they really won’t know for a couple of weeks yet what kind of crop this one will be.

“We’ll start harvesting in early April,” she says, “prob-ably just a little earlier than around Bendigo.

“Right now, the crop looks fantastic on the trees, and it could well be that all

the rain does change the � a-vour – it can go either way.

“So much rain could also make the olive a milder taste, we won’t know until we pick them.”

Growing olives in the backyard is becoming very popular, as the idea of ed-ible gardens starts to grow.

Marlies is keen to reas-sure people that pickling is almost foolproof, just re-quiring brine (to start the fermenting process) and vinegar (to keep the pH bal-ance right, so you don’t get bacteria growth).

She says it will take about three months, de-pending on how ripe your olives are, and that the bigger green olives will, of course, take a little longer.

Once pickled, your ol-ives will be good for up to two years.

It’s also becoming popu-lar to make your own olive oil from your crop, but this is for more serious growers.

The Eichers’ machine will centrifugally remove the oil from about one tonne of ol-ives.

While Marlies says there are small machines that will operate on less weights, you still need about 100 kilos to make it worthwhile. That amount of olives will yield up to 15 litres of oil.

“I’ve heard of people doing it in a food processor and waiting for the oil to rise, but I’m not sure that’s feasible,” she says.

MY local, The Goldmines Hotel, has opened its doors once more.

You may have noticed my hiatus from writing, but this great news has forced me out of retirement.

It’s been with great enthusiasm that I have

watched the renos on face-book – feeling a little like a stalker (we’ve recently tagged facebook stalker with the term “falker”).

The Walduck’s appear to be doing a great job of bringing this Old Lady of Bendigo, built in the 1850s goldrush days, back to life.

Debra, Rick, Natalie and Larni Walduck originate from the Mornington Penin-sula but have had a holiday house in Bendigo for the

past 20 years.Their grandfather and

great grandfather once owned a butcher shop in Golden Square.

Natalie, who has now moved to Bendigo full time to run the pub, has had pre-vious experience working in kitchens and front of house hospitality.

She has also worked as an events manager for three years, so I’m fairly con� dent she knows what she’s doing!

 Goldmines will be prid-ing itself on regional Victo-rian produce, and also has a beautiful big veggie garden out the back of the property now, so they will be grow-ing as much of their own produce as possible.

The great thing about this is that the menu will be seasonal, as all menus should be.

When you eat locally and seasonally, everything tastes better.

They will have an all– day breakfast menu and tapas and the night time pub menu is full of all your favourites as well as a few extras.

Their beer garden is eas-ily the most beautiful one in Bendigo – we had a friend’s wedding there once and it’s just divine.

The thing that excites me most is that they’ve launched Sunday Recovery Sessions in the beer garden

between 3 and 6pm. They will have live music

every Sunday.  I feel like I’ve become too old to go out to bands in pubs at night but really miss the live music scene.

I want my kids to be able to grow up with live music as part of their life, so I think you’ll � nd us hanging out in the gorgeous beer garden at the Goldmines most Sun-days.

See you there!

NO question is too basic when it comes to olives, says Marlies Eicher from Salute Olives.

megan spencer

COMMON Ground opens at Dudley House tonight, featuring the work of three lo-cals: painters Kain White and Mark Stone, and digi-tal image-maker Hugh Waller.

rosemary sorensen

DETAILS: Marlies Eicher will be demon-strating how to pickle olives at 11.30am and 1.45 pm, Sunday March 20, at the Bendigo Olive Fiesta, Bendigo Pottery.Chef Carlo Havelberg from the Journal Canteen in Melborune will be demonstrating olive recipes at 11am, 1pm and 3pm.

a salute to

olives

goldmine returns

nicole murphy

food fossickers

groundABSTRACT: Hugh Waller’s Tree.

GOOD OIL: Marlies and Peter Eicher.