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CHEWTON CHATCHEWTON DOMAIN SOCIETY (INCORPORATED)

Reg. No. A0034364LP.O. Box 85, Chewton, 3451.

Published on the 1st of each month Issue 179 January, 2014.

www.chewton.net

Lion-hearted supportfor the

Chewton Domain Society

When Castlemaine Lions Club advertised for projects to support, the Chewton Domain Society responded quickly. As often happens during any renovations, the grant money provided for the Chewton Town Hall restoration ran down quicker than expected as flaws (and not just the massive concrete floor!) in the 1858 building were discovered and rectified. The Lions’ advertisement offered a partial solu-tion so a proposal was formulated and submitted.

Unfortunately something went awry with an invita-tion to the Domain Society to attend the presentation cer-emony. Once this problem was discovered it was quickly redressed with Lions’ Treasurer Harry South meeting Chewton Domain Society Secretary Bettie Exon in the Chewton General Store. The substantial cheque was handed over in a private, but very impressive, ceremony.

The magnificent support from the Lions, along with generous support from community donors, will allow the stalled work on the town hall to proceed. The building is empty and after the extensive internal works needs a professional clean from top to toe, and an internal paint finish is a priority. Once these are achieved the plan is to make the smaller kitchen space a meeting venue to get the town hall in use again. Then the priority will be the full restoration of that room in a manner that reflects its new role within the building - kitchen, meeting venue, work-space and storage.

The full list of recipient organisations who shared in

the $18,200 the Lions distributed in this round of grants included the Chewton Pool assisting with ground im-provements in front of the kiosk, and the Golden Hope Foundation to support its No Meanness Campaign.

You don’t need to look very far to see where the Lions are assisting someone or something! So it was no great surprise to see two Lions Club representatives receiving an award recognising their volunteerism from Bendigo M.P. Lisa Chesters at the recent Volunteer Day ceremony in Castlemaine.

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Well it was a chilly start to the season - but when temperatures started soaring Chewton pool is certainly the place to be. It is great seeing all the old crowd and lots of new faces poolside. On very hot evenings it is lovely to keep the pool open later but this does depend on the availability of life guards and kiosk staff. If in doubt call the pool on 5472 3272.

Don’t forget our aqua aerobics classes, led by our quali-fied aqua instructor Kate. Classes run on Tuesdays at 1pm and Saturdays at 10am, $5 per session.

The Golden Girls and Nuggets are still going strong, so if you fancy a quiet swim, ladies and gents, pop on down to check it out. The Golden Girls (ladies only) swim 11-12 Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the Nuggets (for the gents) swim 10-12 Tuesday and Thursday.

We will be hosting the Vicswim program again this year, it was a great success last year. Classes will be running for two weeks beginning January 6th. For more information or to enrol your child visit www.vicswim.com.au.

Keep an eye out for the Chewton Pool Blue Light Disco in early February. All the kids had a great time last year, dancing and splashing the night away.

We have some great new volunteers on board this season but we still need more. It is a great way to meet new people, get involved with the community and have that warm, fuzzy feeling that only volunteering can bring. For information on volunteer-ing or all things Chewton Pool contact Sarah on 0498 637 534 or at chewtonpool@hotmail.com, and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Sarah Myles.

The pool opens - and it’s clearly a winner again!

Have you ever seen clearer or bluer water? The recently painted pool was at its best for the season opening - opened by Cr. Christine Henderson assisted by MC Peter Bodin and Pool President Fritz Hammersley. Bendigo West M.P. Maree Edwards dropped by too.

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Thanks from the Cathouse Players

Cathouse Players would like to thank the people of Chew-ton for their ongoing support of our theatre company at the Senior Citizens’ Community Centre in November. We are happy to say that we had full houses for every perfor-mance of Noel Coward’s wonderful play, “Blithe Spirit”, our second season in Chewton.

The feedback again has been tremendous, from not only the very supportive locals, but also from theatregoers as far away as The Basin and Geelong.

We’d like to thank all of you for making us a part of your wonderful community, with special thanks to Dot Pollard and Rob McNabb from the Senior Citizens, Diane and her staff at the Red Hill Hotel, Doug Owen from lo-cal radio station WMA fm, and Chewton Chat for your fantastic support.

Cathouse Players’ Season One in May 2014 will be “Deathtrap” by Ira Levin. A fabulous Comedy/Thriller, it’s the longest-running play of its genre on Broadway and for good reason. I think audiences will love it.

Warm regards, Bette Sartore & Maggie Browne Cathouse Players @ Chewton.

Fire Restrictions Are HereFire restrictions are now in force and local brigades will be enforcing a ZERO Tolerance Position for anyone lighting any kind of fire over the summer.

Members of the community are reminded that they can no longer burn off on their properties until it is de-clared that fire restrictions have ended (not till mid-next year).

Chewton CFA will be turned out to all fires and will be required to contact the police if there is evi-dence that a fire was lit intentionally. Please ensure that this is not the case.

During this period, and on Total Fire Ban Days, there are also further restrictions so please make sure you are familiar with these and follow them carefully.

Stay safe over the summer!

New CDS banner

New signage to complement a “new” town hall is under-way. Whilst some is to be placed in outside settings, a new direction has been set by this pull up banner, something the Domain Society has long aspired to.

Thanks to Philip Duus Signs the banner is now a re-ality, and had its first public airing at the recent Monster Meeting celebration.

Brad and Phil were happy to stand with their work when it was collected, and of course, talk of their Chewton connections. Fifth generation family, captain of the last premiership winning Chewton footy team, mascot of that same team at age 5, photos in the Red Hill and so on. The factory may be in Castlemaine but Chewton is in there in a big way.

We can now say this project is well and truly signed off - thanks Brad and Phil.

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CFA Update – January 2014Chewton CFA has had a busy month helping not only the community, but Santa as well.

It all kicked off with some last minute burn offs in the area before fire restrictions came into action on De-cember 2. Volunteers conducted burns at Mo’s Antiques, a property along the old Calder Highway as well as on land opposite the Hot Rod Shop in Park Road. Training also continued throughout the month to ensure our members are ready to take on the summer season.

The community were, furthermore, invited to attend a Fire Ready Meeting at the Chewton Fire Station on Sun-day December 8. This meeting provided useful advice for the upcoming fire season, however attendance numbers were low.

Members of the brigade gathered on Saturday De-cember 14, to celebrate Christmas with one another and their families. The brigade held a Christmas dinner at the Red Hill Hotel in Chewton where a great night was had by all.

Santa’s arrival in the community later in the month saw members of the brigade change their helmets for San-ta hats as they escorted Santa around the town. Chewton CFA helped Santa on his way to the Chewton Swimming Pool on Friday December 20 and to the Wesley Hill Mar-ket on Saturday December 21. At each location volun-teers helped Santa bring Christmas cheer to the young, and young at heart. Our members helped Santa travel in style on the back of the fire truck and helped him distribute small surprises in the lead up to Christmas.

All of us at Chewton CFA hope that you enjoyed a safe and merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Paige Mounsey, Communications Officer.

New emergency website... New Fire Ready App...

A new VicEmergency website is in operation and a new and improved version of the FireReady app is now avail-able for download. VicEmergency includes emergency in-formation on fire, flood, storm, earthquake, tsunami, power outages, hazardous material incidents and traffic incidents that provide alerts, warning and recovery information.

The new version of the FireReady app is more reli-able, faster and easier to use than the previous version. Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said the FireReady app will provide real-time warnings and information on incidents attended by CFA, the MFB and the Department of Environment and Primary Industries while withstand-ing heavy demand during peak periods of fire activity.

“The FireReady app retains the great features of the old app such as being able to set watch zones and provide real-time warnings and information on Total Fire Bans and Fire Danger Ratings,” Mr Lapsley said. “The new version will also be faster and easier to use and has been exten-sively tested with community members rating the app very highly.”

Victorians are reminded that it is important not to rely on only one source of information during an emergen-cy. People should stay aware of conditions through other sources including radio and television emergency broad-casters, emergency services social media channels and the Victorian Bushfire Information Line on 1800 240 667.

Visit the VicEmergency websitewww.emergency.vic.gov.au

and the FireReady app is now available for download at the Apple app store or Google Play.

Taken from a Press Release.

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Central Victorians will see fire fighting aircraft in the sky during summer with the recent arrival of two helicopters and an aeroplane in Bendigo. The aircraft will be used by the Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI) and CFA to attack fires in Central Victoria.

Acting DEPI Loddon Mallee Land and Fire Manager, Carsten Nannestad, said the helicopters will be deployed using a pre-determined dispatch system following the suc-cess of a trial last summer in Bendigo. “Basically on high fire danger days, as soon as the call goes out for DEPI or CFA to respond to a fire, the waterbombing helicopter will be deployed so we can hit the fire hard and fast in the initial stages and stop it spreading,” Mr Nannestad said.

CFA Loddon Mallee Operations Manager, Mark Gilmore, said during last year’s trial, ground crews report-ed that the early arrival of the aircraft and subsequent fire bombing was a significant contributor to stopping bush-fires. “The overall opinion from fire crews was that the size and duration of fires in the District was significantly reduced as a result of last year’s pre-determined dispatch arrangements,” Mr Gilmore said. “The flow on effect of this was that less property was lost or damaged by bush-fires plus having rapid response aircraft reduced the length of time fire fighters were required on scene. Last year we also had a lot of feedback from the community that seeing and hearing the helicopter in the sky on a bad fire day gave them a lot of confidence and reassurance.”

The fire fighting aircraft will be based at the Bendigo airport and include:

Helitack 335: Bell 214B water bombing helicopter. Carries 2650 litres of water in its belly tank. This can fill the tank in 40 seconds by dropping its 3 metre snorkel into a water source while hovering 2.5 metres above the water source.

Firebird 305: Bell 206L-3 Longranger III helicopter. This carries the air attack supervisor who oversees and co-ordinates the aerial tactical operation of the fire. It acts as a liaison between the on-the-ground fire fighting and the aerial water bombing.

Bomber: Air Tractor fixed wing airplane. This air-craft carries 3500 litres of water. It is not part of the pre-determined dispatch arrangements but will quickly be de-ployed to fires when required.

The aircraft based in Bendigo are part of Victoria’s fleet of 42 fire fighting aircraft that will be positioned across the state this summer. Taken from a Press Release.

Fighting fires from the sky

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Max Lesser is a known face around town, mainly due to his volunteer work as a photographer for the Castlemaine Mail, the Midland Express, and for the Chewton Chat. ‘I’ve been doing this for the past 8 years and still enjoy it.’ He is also known as, and proud to admit, that he’s one of the town’s eccentrics.

Growing up in Melbourne, after finishing school Max studied interior and furniture design at RMIT. He then worked in building, planning and health for 20 years in local government around Central Victoria.

What brought him to Chewton? ‘The Methodist Primitive church. Built in 1861, it was falling apart.’ Max discovered the church when it was derelict and ready for restoration and decided to rescue it. This was 20 years ago. ‘At the time the whole town got behind the rescue of the building, because of its historical heritage. It’s the most historic building in this town and would be one of the most historic in Australia, possibly one of only two such buildings in the world. It’s a hidden piece of history in this town and is absolutely unique in the world’. Smiling, he adds, ‘being a very unusual building, it needed a very unusual person to rescue it.’ And Max is unusual.

According to Max, the building nowadays gets oc-casional use and serves many purposes. For a few years it was used as an art and craft venue. Recently he opened its doors to 45 bushwalkers who came for morning tea. Local churches have used it from time to time. It’s also the main headquarters of his pet project, the Golden Hope Foundation. ‘This is a community charity working in the community for young people. I started it and it has been going for some 15 years. It’s an unusual concept. We work in the area of wellbeing. Our basic aim is to make an impression on children experiencing depression. We work on prevention not cure. For the past three years we’ve also been working on what we call the ‘no meanness’ proj-ect, a sort of no-bullying project. When I say ‘we’ I mean our Board. We’re an Australia-wide charity and we’ve got government approval.’

Also owner of the adjoining property, Max uses the back area to house his five brightly painted double-decker buses. He admits five are too many ‘but they’ve all been used at one stage or another. They all have a different function and a different purpose. We’ve been told it’s the biggest private collection of Leyland Atlantean buses in the world’.

At the side of his house he has installed steel girders with traffic-lights. ‘The girders are a historical artefact which I rescued from going to the scrap heap. They were part of an overhead crane from the Thompson’s Foundry. They were once very important in the whole area of manu-facturing. I believe the stop-lights are Castlemaine’s orig-inal traffic-lights. I rescued them a few months ago when they were being dismantled. So I’ve been able to rescue a few things around town. All this might look a bit bizarre but they are all linked historically. It’s a bit of a sculpture piece as well. And kids like it.’

‘Chewton’, says Max, ‘is the most unusual place in Australia. In the 1850s it had one of the largest mass mi-grations of the century. It had the richest shallow alluvial deposits in the goldfields. This was a unique place in the world’. Interestingly, he believes that not only was Chew-ton once the centre of the universe, that it can be again but in a modern context that builds on its roots of the previous era. ‘I’ve maintained that for 20 years and I still maintain it. That’s why I’m eccentric and that’s why I live here. It is an eccentric place,’ tongue in cheek and with a wide grin he likes to tell everyone, ‘I’m the only sane person in Chewton. My approach is different. It’s not mainstream. I wouldn’t live anywhere else.’ Gloria Meltzer.

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The Fire Season started for us with a wake up call like no other! On the Saturday afternoon before the Fire Season started we finally got around to burning out a termite’s nest/mound near our back fence by driving a large hole in it, pouring in some diesel, and setting fire to it. When we went to bed it was just smoking gently. The next morning, predicted to be hot day, I got up, and looked out the window and saw quite a bit of smoke and some flames. We rushed out and realised the wind was quite strong and the fire had flared up and got into some second hand building materials, fence posts etc on the ground and was spreading quite rapidly. I tried to tackle it with the garden hose, while Tim called for the Fire Brigade. I heard the siren go and within a few minutes I could hear Fryerstown 1, closely followed by Fryerstown 2, coming up the hill towards us. Help had arrived and our wonderful fire brigade quickly got things under control. We learnt several lessons. We had always intended to stay and defend. We now realise that is a decision we made when we were much younger and fitter, and is not now realistic. So we will go, if we can. We were literally in the process of assembling the kit recommended at the Fire Ready Meeting, torches, woollen clothing, no synthetics, etc etc, because each year we do this. Then when we need an old woollen sweater or torch, or mask or some other part of the kit during the year,

we grab it out of the kit and forget to put it back. As I now realise once there is a threat, you have too much on your mind to make good decisions or find things that have been

misplaced. So as soon as I finish this, the next thing on the agenda is to make up our survival kits so we are prepared if we get caught with no time to get out safely.

On Sunday 3rd November this year we had with a world premiere public performance in Fryerstown of Jaara Jaara seasons. Internationally renowned sound artist, Ros Bandt has been recording the sounds of the

box iron bark forest over a 12 month period, with the permission of Uncle Brien Nelson, Jaara Jaara Elder. Her work aims to encourage deep listening to country and to honour those who have gone before. At the premiere performance, Ros’s radiophonic work was spread around

the bush and included sound recording from underwater, in the air, and the sounds of multi cultural musicians, and live performers. The performance was very well attended and listeners could follow their own paths around listening, pausing for a while or walking on. I found it fascinating and thought provoking.

I have been looking again at Ruth Rowe’s little book on

FRYERSTOWN as told to Constance Browning. In the preface, Constance writes,

“Ruth lived in Fryerstown all her life for except three years in Melbourne where she completed her midwifery training and worked for a time. She married Arthur John Rowe, a widower with two children, Frank and Eileen. Arthur’s father, Edward Rowe, was a partner in the Rowe Brothers Syndicate which had purchased the Duke of Cornwall Mine in 1880.” After Arthur’s death in 1936, Ruth worked for six months at the Fryerstown State School as sewing mistress.” Ruth was born in Fryerstown on the 22nd of July 1888 and the book was written when Ruth

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was in her late 80s. Her great grandmother was Elizabeth Escott, who as a widow sailed from Liverpool with her eight children, and set up home near Fryers Creek. Elizabeth’s grave is marked on the side of the road from Fryerstown to Chewton. Many of her surviving family themselves had large families and many stayed in or near Fryerstown. Ruth was the daughter of Ellen who was one of ten children of Elizabeth, who was one of Elizabeth Escott’s daughters. Her father was Thomas Henry Knowles (known as Harry). Ruth was raised as part of a large family group with plenty of uncles, aunts and cousins. She comes across in her writing as a person who took a gentle approach to things and her reminiscences are full of first hand accounts of concerts and other entertainments, school outings, processions and the like, as she was much involved in the social events run by the church and the community in the town. She is an invaluable source of information on the day-to-day life of the town and I wish she had written more of the town around the turn of the century, when gold was no longer the reason for people to be here and the population was in decline. Her accounts of the celebrations demonstrate a certain bravery in the people who were staying on in the town with a rich and flamboyant past, but a decaying future. Her accounts of outings and events have a childlike enthusiasm about the food, and the sense of fun is infectious down the years: Here are two excerpts: “One of our great pleasures was a fishing trip in summer. We packed worms, fishing lines, hooks and tackle together with our food, billy can and frying pan. Sometimes two buggy loads of us would go and we would stay out all night. The younger children would gather broom and gum leaves and this made a bed for them if they became tired. By the river there was a one-roomed hut where we put our food. Camp fires

burnt all night We would put our lines in and hope the fish would bite in the early morning. If we caught enough we

would have fish for breakfast. We would fish all day then make for home, singing on our way.”

About Christmas she writes, “At Christmas time father and the uncles built a big mia-mia shelter of branches and foliage. We decorated it and set up tables and chairs. Then Mother, Aunt Lucy and the older girls served our Christmas dinner out there. We had goose, duck, ham, lamb and

lovely vegetables followed of course by a big Christmas pudding with money in it. We had great fun together”.

I have some extra information about the Bamber family to add to what was in the last Chat. Deb Worland

has confirmed from cemetery records that William Bamber died in Fryerstown in 1874 aged 59 and is buried in the Fryerstown Cemetery. No headstone remains. His common law wife, Elizabeth Ann Hill outlived him. Deb has traced her origins and family and there will be more on this in a coming Chat.

Don’t forget the Fryerstown Antique Fair in January and that

there will also be good lunches at the old school during the Fair and you can catch up with the latest things going on in Fryerstown. I believe there will also be an exhibition in the gallery at the school during Fair. Well worth a look!

I wish you all a very fulfilling and healthy 2014.

Kay Thorne.

Photos courtesy Tim Todhunter: Fryerstown Fire Brigade

attending the fire Kay mentioned, Jaara Jaara seasons musicians,

Jaara Jaara Seasons Rick Nelson and Ron Murray and the three in the front row of the group

photo are Ruth Rowe (born in Fryerstown in 1888), her sister

Selina Williams and mother Ellen Knowles-Col.

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Volunteers are all

around us!

International Volunteer Day has been celebrated in Castlemaine’s Mar-ket Building. Hosted by Lisa Chesters, the newly elected federal mem-ber for Bendigo, there was a celebratory air to the event as more than 200 filled the available space. As Lisa pointed out, the number of groups receiving Certificates of Recognition and the number attending the cel-ebration demonstrated the dependence of Central Victoria on volunteers and voluntary organisations. Some recipients in uniform, some with pets and some with remarkable histories of commitment to voluntary organ-isations – but the looks of appreciation on all of their faces as they turned for photographs were scenes not to be forgotten. Volunteers obviously appreciate a little recognition!

Planning for next year’s celebration of volunteers is already un-derway, and as the suc-cess of this one filters out it is to be expected many other groups will also be nominated – and publicly acknowledged. Watch for invitations to nominate volunteer or-ganisations in 2014!

And no mention of volunteers would be complete without pointing out the Chewton Chat, from the writing of articles to delivering the printed copies, is an all volunteer operation that happens each and every month!

Landcare, pool, Run the Maine, senior cits, Old School,

Extremeinc, soccer, CFA, CDS......just some groups with a Chewton

or Fryerstown connection

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Don’t eat too much, don’t drink too much, and don’t play too hard this festive season. More importantly, don’t pay any attention to me. Have fun!Properties for sale around Chewton are:Cantwell Property Group:• 4 Prior St, “Amber House”, Large family home in

quiet rural setting of just over 2 acres (9091sqm). A charming blend of old and new, with beautifully reno-vated stone cottage with two storey extension creating magnificent family living. Featuring four bedrooms, plus study, two living areas, well-appointed kitchen dining room plus powder room, European style laun-dry heating and cooling. Also fully renovated self-contained cottage, generous bed/living, gas cooking, bathroom & European style laundry. Good shedding park-like gardens, for sale for $859,000.00;

• 57 Archers Rd, original 1960s 3 bedroom home on 5.9Ha, surrounded by park like gardens and magnifi-cent panoramic views. Sold at auction in December;

• 72 Steele Street, 1541sqm, views and all services available, for sale at $185,000.00;

• 70 Fryers Road, Blackwall Arms Hotel, circa 1860, 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom historic converted house. Passed in at auction, now advertised at $389,000;

• 65 Adelaide Street, an elegant fully renovated Edward-ian with 3 bedroom and a full complement of period features and all many conveniences, on 2,500 sqm for $539,000.00;

• 225 Sparks Road, 58Ha undulating parcel with his-toric remains, $679,000.00;

• 616 Pyrenees Highway, .81Ha parcel with planning permit, vaild until January 2014 to build two bedroom home. With rambling creek within the boundary, es-tablished eucalypts and gentle elevation. Mains pow-er available. For sale at $145,000.00.

Cassidy Real Estate:• 204 Main Road, 2 bedroom house set in established

gardens in the heart of town, $259,000.00; • 20 Commissioners Gully Road, 3 bedroom home set

on 2.8 Ha, perched high on the hill overlooking Gold-en Point Road. Surrounded by an immaculate garden with town water plus 2-5000 gal water tanks. A 40 x 25 shed with power and concrete flooring, and stone ruins from the gold rush era, for sale at $495,000.00.

Castlemaine Property Group:• 3 McCay Reservoir Rd, tucked away amongst small

rural lifestyle properties, this charming timber home is set atop approx 4.8Ha of predominately creek flats along a seasonal creek, elevated home with 3 bed-

rooms and spacious living areas, $439,000.00; • Pyrenees Highway, rare offering of 10 residential ti-

tles, with all main services available, being sold as a group in the one package. Situated in the midst of the historic gold mining village of Chewton, the al-lotments are only a short stroll to hotel, general store, school and sports amenities. Allotments vary in size from 244m2 to 427m2 approx, for sale at $289,000.00;

• 53 Adelaide Street, 2 bedroom well maintained cot-tage style with open plan living area, spacious outdoor entertaining areas and large shed, on a 1000sqm par-cel, $260,000.00;

• 11 Monks Hill Road, renovated 1800s cottage set on nearly 6000sqm of park like gardens and seasonal creek, $535,000.00.

Keogh Real Estate:Nil for saleStuart Real Estate:• 39 Adelaide Street, 4 roomed cottage with separate

bungalow on 1000sqm raised block, $195,000.00;• 29 Lookout Ridge Road, stunning location with 3 bed-

rooms and 2 bathrooms, set on 2.6Ha in the Chewton Bushlands, $730,000.00;

• 142 Main Road, Solid 3 bedroom clad home with art deco influence on a large allotment in Town Centre. Polished floors, air-conditioning and gas heating. This property has a 3 bay Colorbond garage with work-shop, outdoor areas and north facing yard with de-lightful views over the Diggings to the north, for sale at $345,000.00.

Waller Realty: • 107 Whitehorse Gully Rd, 2 or 3 bedroom home on

nearly 1 hectare, surrounded by established European gardens and historic remains, for sale at $495,000.00;

• 3 Archbald Street, elegant country Edwardian home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, surrounded by spectacular gardens filled with sculpture and art-work, on 2000sqm, $599,000.00;

• Lot 4 Eureka Street, level allotment of 886sqm, with services available, $110,000.00;

• 9 Church Street, 1371sqm lot, dotted with gums, in the heart of town and adjacent to historic church, $155,000.00;

• 732 Pyrenees Highway, ultimate family lifestyle with indoor pool and generous family room, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, set on an 3 elevated acres with expan-sive views, the exterior is well set for entertaining, $525,000.00.

Lynne Williamson.

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The school year has finally come to an end with the last week of school being an opportunity to have some fun with swimming, yabbying, discos and, of course, the annual sleep over. I am not sure all staff get excit-ed about sleeping at school and with thunderstorms forcast for Thurday night, it could be an interesting for all.

In the last Chat I wrote about preparing for our school review. It was certainly a very intense day which felt like a four hour long job in-terview. At the end of the process our reviewer prepared a report on the performance of our school and the goals she felt we should set for the next 4 years. I am pleased to announce our school received extemely postive feedback about student performance, programs and policy documenta-tion. The next stage in this process will be writing a four year Strategic Plan then an Annual Plan for 2014. I guess that will go on my holiday list!

On Monday we hosted a thank you morning tea. It is not only school families that we need to thank at this time of year but also the many com-munity members that come along for gardening, singing, sewing and a

Minka and Uma are pictured with Nicole, Kerry and Tarni from The Meeting Place. They were invited to the book launch of The Two Mountains, a local indigenous

teaching about Tarrengower and Lalgam-book (Mt Franklin). The study of indig-

enous culture is a vital part of the learning at Chewton Primary School and we take

every opportunity to immerse our students in the local culture.

...and more volunteers! Volunteers who supported the school during 2013 were invited to a thank-you morning tea at the school - which ended with an inspection of some of the children’s artwork in the innovative rain garden. Show and Tell replaced by Shower and Tell! Later it was carolling the Post Office...

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range of other tasks. It is this community input that contributes so much to the feel of our school. A retired teacher called in the other day to give us some teaching resources. He had never been to Chewton Primary be-fore but made the comment that as soon as he walked in the door he felt it was a place that people care about.

This year may be at an end but planning continues for 2014. We will start the year with a sustainablity focus. The 3-6 class are off to Mel-bourne to the Federation Square Sustainablity Show. The P-2 class will focus more on water usage. We have 2 weeks swimming during Feburary and a filming project with Nepal. Scott, our 3-6 teacher, will be studying to be a fully qualified language teacher so will have some study days as he attends his university course. Our music and class teacher Nicole will have just returned from a 4 week African drumming workshop and hopes to be able to use these new skills during music classes.

I am excited about our school holiday break but have much to look forward to on our return in 2014.

Julie Holden.

Hillary Blackshaw has been our violin teacher this year. Parents were treated to an excellent performance of skills during

our end of year celebrations. The students range from prep to grade 5. It has been amazing to see how far they have come

in such a short time. Pictured are Lucia, Martika, Uma, Minka and Hillary.

Chewton school - a real Chewton treasure!

Goslings for sale

The little ones in the October Chat have grown up and it’s time...

5472 2892

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Monster Meeting 2013Due to a hectic year for everyone, our first planning meet-ing of the MM Sub Committee of the Chewton Domain Society happened just six weeks out from the event! Ini-tially there was some hope of getting funding to support the 2013 event but no guarantee, either way we wouldn’t know the score until just before the event.

There were some changes within the Sub Commit-tee and I was appointed as Convenor. We got straight to work on this year’s event and Pat Healy put her hand up - offering to be Project Manager. What a fantastic job she did, keeping us all on track with our tasks, and commu-nicating actions and developments between meetings. It was our intention to create plenty of colour and theatre for this year’s event which was to fall on a Sunday. This we thought was a very family friendly day for this time of year.

Noel Muller from Parks Victoria, who is always a keen and active member of our MM project team, said that he was able to get some period costumes on loan from Werribee Park Mansion. Jan Wositzky said that he could get some of the MM Band members to perform on the day and his friend Mark to provide the sound system. Davide Michelin, who has been working with Jan as a filmmaker on our ongoing MM projects, was also able to do some filming of the event to add to our stock of documentary footage; this meant we were off and running.

Even though the hoped for funding didn’t eventuate, our enthusiasm and creative determination meant that the show would go on as planned anyway! Lots of people vol-unteered for various roles so that on the day, all we needed was the crowd. What a wonderful sight greeted me as I walked down from the Red Hill Hotel after lubricating my voice box, a large crowd was already at the Soldiers’ Me-morial Park waiting expectantly for the march to begin and my role as MC to be activated.

This year we marched along Forest Creek to the MM site, after crossing the road at the Red Hill Hotel (an icon of all MM marches!). Langley, our piper, and two drum-mers from Maldon provided the rousing marching tunes, and Rod Hadfield led the way with his period wheelbar-row and distinctive beard. At one point he was heard to say, “I wonder when they’ll invent a wheel with rubber on it”. Not long after that my friend Mark from Collingwood,

15

who had (not unusually) been acting suspiciously, sudden-ly took flight and was dramatically tackled to the ground, arrested for failing to produce a licence and dragged away by our policeman for the day. Park Ranger Brendan Smith played that role well.

The march halted for a short time at the creek cross-ing for some photo and film opportunities, and these have already appeared in the Midland Express, Bendigo Adver-tiser, on Win News and on-line. What a great spectacle it must have been for all those already waiting at the MM site. At the MM site the show began and the performers, speech makers and musicians did a terrific job. An unex-pectedly comedic highlight were the “Ladies” Bettie Exon and Kate Daly presenting cue cards for the audience to fol-low and respond to.

Lisa Chesters was with us for the day. This refreshing MP for Bendigo came up to say a few words, following her maiden speech to Parliament where she made the formal claim that Chewton, because of the Monster Meeting in 1851, was the “Real Birthplace of Democracy in Austra-lia”. She will be presenting a bound copy of “Hansard” containing the speech to the Chewton Domain Society on another occasion sometime soon.

Following the show, the guys from Parks Victoria stepped up yet again to produce a much welcome BBQ - along with some vintage children’s games. A terrific day and even packing up was a joyous occasion! Enormous thanks to everyone involved for their wonderful efforts and generosity of spirit, which puts real life into our history and community culture. Next year we are starting the planning much earlier in order to produce something bigger and bet-ter for 2014.

Thanks to Pat’s excellent Project Management, pro-motion for the event was strong and the media coverage has been excellent and very rewarding and encouraging to us all.

The current MM Sub Committee (which is auspiced and continually supported by the Chewton Domain Soci-ety) consists of Doug Ralph, Pat Healy, Bettie Exon, Noel Muller, Jan Wositzky, Glen Harrison, Kate Daly, John El-lis, Gloria Meltzer and Phil Hall (Convenor).

The Monster Meeting Sub Committee is completely open to new members and volunteers who might wish to help out in 2014. All Are Welcome!!! Phil Hall.

16

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Phone Colin on 5470 5975 or 0417 509 699

17

What a ripper the Monster Meeting celebration was. People, colour, noise, music, local history and a great re-minder of the fragility of democracy. Congratulations to the organisers, and to all the people who came and par-ticipated. MC Phil Hall was supported by an array of tal-ent conveying the messages of the time. The impact of the songs presented by Jan Wositzky, Danny Spooner, Doug Owen, Loz Lawrey and Larry (The Ells) and Tony Ryan was profound. This momentous 1851 event took place on what is now an iconic part of the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park and Parks Victoria staff pulled out all stops to ensure the success of the day - from the arrival of the dray to the closing barbecue.

As someone has already emailed, “What a great day it was, and a good turn out too. Am already looking for-ward to next year’s.” John Ellis.

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Celebrating Chewton

Do the Chewton chat, yeah do the Chewton chat700 opinions, it’s hard to beat that

The giants had an opinion on Monster Meeting day Told Gov’ner Latrobe, “You don’t know your place”We won’t pay his dirt lisence, won’t pamper your nose So let’s hear three groans for Gov’ner Latrobe…..ER ER ERYeah, let’s hear three groans for Gov’ner Latrobe……ER ER ER

Do the Chewton chat, yeah do the Chewton chatGet out your opinion, you can celebrate that (La Trobe had an opinion but his opinion was just crap)

When the Town Hall gets to fly it’s very own flag, The school’s got one too, and lots of chookie chookie dagsThe ones in the pub said the ones in the storeSaid the fires have gone out, so we can all drink some more

Do the Chewton chat, yeah do the Chewton chat700 opinions, it’s hard to beat that(When the fires got a front, the CFA’s got your back)

Screwed from the sinews of gold diggers bloodForest Creek had to go into floodThe bad lands got gold the good lands tooThe lucky get lucky but everyone gets food

Do the Chewton chat, yeah do the Chewton chat(Maybe swap some recipes and stuff like that)

Do the Chewton chat, yeah do the Chewton chat700 opinions, it’s hard to beat thatDo the Chewton chat, yeah do the Chewton chatGet out your opinion, you can celebrate that

Peter Bodin.

The recent Celebrate Chewton day was very, very successful in bringing forth ideas. It was also very successful in bring-ing to light some great talent! One of the highlights was the performance of the Master of Ceremonies Peter Bodin - with the assistance of his guitar he aired a song he had written for the occasion. There have been many requests for the words - and Peter has obliged...

Woe is MeBlack spot on roses

And Myrtle with mildew,Blisters on fingers

And thorns in my elbow,Tidying mulch after blackbirds have been,

These are some things from my everyday scene.Where is the rhubarbI nurtured so kindly?

Who stepped on the parsleyAs they walked behind me?

All my tomatoes were eaten by slugsHaving a terrible battle with bugs.

When the frost bites,When the rains fail,

When the lawn has died,I take a quick look at what once was my garden

Then take myself back inside.Rae Hawkins © December 2013

ChristmasChristmas is a-coming, The goose is getting fat Don’t forget the sun-block And a wide-brimmed hat.Stubbies and a singlet, A pair of plastic thongs Esky, beach umbrella And a book of Christmas songs,Prawns and scallops for the Barbie Six dozen cans of beer Men need tons of lager To face the coming year. * * * *Quintessential Ocker Christmas Ain’t the sort for which we pineGive us fresh-shucked oysters And a glass of chilled white wine,Grilled steak of ocean salmon - A sip of Blackjack red, Plum pud? Not essential; Let’s just totter off to bed.

David Watson.

Pizza de Wheels will be doing their delicious pizzas at the

Chewton General Store on Jan 26th & 27th 2014.

Time 5-8pm.

www.pizzadewheels.com.auwww.facebook.com/Pizza-de-Wheels

19

Said and DoneHe walks along the river’s edge, he’s kicking pebbles through the sand, Wondering if the time has come to return to his land. Knows not where he’s going to and the past is close behind, Can’t say what he’s been looking for or what he’s meant to find. Now the nighttime sky is sparkling, There’s a new day ‘bout to come, But he just prays he’ll be okay When it’s all said and done.

There’s mountains in the distance dressed in a morning haze, Each step takes him closer and further from yesterdays. He’s got mem’ries in his pockets, kept from his treasure chest, He’ll go through them one by one when he gets a chance to rest. An’ the morning sky is shining Underneath the rising sun, But he just prays he’ll be okay When it’s all said and done.

He came out from the Midwest, from a long rolling plain, Where he once hunted buffalo in both the snow and falling rain. He saw the country crumbling right before his very eyes, With changes upon changes underneath the big blue sky. An’ the noontime air’s now burning Under the big yellow sun, But he still prays he’ll be okay When it’s all said and done.

He left all of his family buried in an unmarked grave, Has wondered for many years why it was that he been saved. They came out from the east coast in great numbers and in haste, Took whatever they wanted to and laid it all to waste. There’s echoes on the afternoon Of the mighty gattling gun, Again he prays he’ll be okay When it’s all said and done.

He looks up at a million stars, his pillow is a slab of stone, Swears he hears his mother say “You never have walked alone”. Through the ev’ning’s darkness he can feel the outstretched hands, Lifting him upon the steed that’ll carry him to his land. And it seems the final battle Has at last been fought and won, He’s glad he prayed he’d be okay For it’s all said and done.

Poe try

Corner

Daniel Larson.

Australia DayJanuary 26th

20

NBN is here!Most of Golden Point, Chewton Bushlands, Faraday and even a few parts of Chewton are now within an NBN fixed wireless reception area. NBN installers have been making visits to the area as interested households sign up for the higher speed internet access.

On the NBNCO website is a facility to enter your address and see your status – possible or not possible. At present there are 4 Internet Ser-vice Providers (ISPs) servicing the area within range of the Faraday tower. Aussie Broadband, DSCI, iPrimus and Telstra are the current choices.

Having just been connected, the material for this Chat has all landed incredibly quickly and safely!

From tower to home receiver, through a modem and into the

computer and into the household telephone receivers.

21

Good health and abundance to all for 2014

from Your host Onn Ho and all the staff at Bold Café.

Bold Café reopens on Friday 10th January at 10am

The Bold Café serves a variety of delicious, handmade food. Our specialties include

A curry every day. Laksa on Sundays. Monk Dish on Friday & Saturday. Gluten free selections REGULAR TRADING HOURS

Thursday to Sunday 10am – 4.30 pm 146 Duke Street, Castlemaine

Telephone: 54 706 038 Your Host: Onn Ho

Coffee, Teas, Milk, Newspapers, Magazines, Fresh Bread, Soft Drinks, Groceries, DVDs and more...

You name it we’ve probably got it. At your convenience...

Sprout bread now availableWednesdays, Fridays and weekends!

Hours 7:30 - 5:30 Mon-Fri 8:00 - 4:00 Sat-Sun

...it’s your store Chewton!

End of the school yearThere was excitement in the air as children, parents and friends gathered at the school for the formal end of year celebrations. An enthu-siastic drumming group entertained us before everyone moved out of the heat into the art room where the air conditioner had been pre-paring a welcoming temperature. The number of people moving in meant the air conditioner began fighting a losing battle though.

Speaking deliberately slowly, Principal Julie welcomed everyone and began handing out the 2013 awards. One particularly popu-lar one was the Frank Carpenter Trust Schol-arship, and former student (and dux) Bet-tie Exon was invited to present the award to Kincade Rigg. In presenting the award Bettie spoke of Frank Carpenter and the incredible legacy he left for the youth of Chewton.

Kincade’s mother was then presented with a bunch of flowers by school council president Sera Jane Peters. With Kincade graduating from Chewton, Amy is ending 17 years of involvement with Chewton!

A video reviewing 2013 was then screened. Rob Noll had captured the high-lights of the year - and shrieks of delight greeted many of the recalled memories.

A BBQ and a children’s sleepover at the school rounded off the evening. The teachers certainly will deserve their holidays. They’ll need them - Chewton school will be opening in 2014 with at least 35 children!

2014 35!

22

This extract is taken from the unconfirmed minutes of the 10th December MAS Council meeting...Background

The Chewton Community Centre is the former Wes-leyan Church building. The building was built in 1861 to a design by Crouch and Wilson architects. It is constructed in gothic style, consisting of soft red bricks in colonial bond with dressings and mouldings in render work over the brick.

The building is a Council owned asset on Council land. It is managed by a Section 86 Special Committee of Council, and recent changes to the Instrument of Del-egations means the maintenance responsibilities are solely Council’s.

Minimal works have been undertaken at the Chew-ton Community Centre through Council’s building main-tenance programs.

Events have not been permitted in the building due to its poor condition and subsequent safety.

Council’s Building Inspector provided a report to the management in 2010, recommending the building be made inaccessible to the public and building occupiers, until such time it is made safe.

The Asset Register records a note on file indicating that the facility is closed. Council officers recently ar-ranged new locks for the facility, which secures the hall from public use for safety reasons.

A petition signed by 149 people, with signatories comprising of residents and others attending the recent ‘Celebrate Chewton’ day, requesting the repair of the floor in the building was tabled at the Ordinary Meeting of Council on 12 November 2013.

The petition describes the work previously under-taken on the building by members of the Chewton Senior Citizens and the Community Centre Committee, including painting, flooring improvements, and the addition of win-dow furnishings.Issues

The Chewton Community Centre building is in poor condition. A report commissioned in 2010 and completed by a building and heritage consultant confirmed that ex-tensive repair works are required on the building. These repair works include:

• Repair pinnacles, which are cracking;• Propping of the floor, which is sagging badly, suggest-

ing significant rot and/or termite activity;

• Removal of dado panelling to ascertain extent of brick and mortar deterioration, due to rising salt damp;

• Documentation of all aspects of building; and• Further detailed assessment of paint work, brick work,

mortar, concrete, drainage, the need for replastering, installation of a damp proof course, washing to reduce salts, and repointing.

The condition rating is scored on a scale of zero to ten and with scores of seven and eight indicating that 82 -93% of the design life of the building has gone. A condi-tion rating of seven is described as being poor with severe deterioration and limited serviceability with high mainte-nance costs. At condition eight, the building needs to be rehabilitated.

The component area internal and external condition ratings are in the seven to eight range. For example; the condition rating attached to the structure itself is eight, ex-ternal features are rated at eight, the roof, seven; fit out, seven and the fixtures also seven.

Council’s Buildings Officer has estimated the cost of minimum repair works to be approximately $500,000. Given the low priority of the building in the Building As-set Management Plan, and in comparison to the range of buildings owned and managed by Council, works at this cost are not justified.

Detailed investigations and planning will need to be undertaken to understand the full extent of the work re-quired in the building, the cost to benefit ratio given the hierarchy of the building compared to other Council build-ings, the heritage aspects of the building, and the commu-nity needs for this type of facility.

Chewton Community Centre goes before council...

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It appears that the buildings’ condition has further deteriorated since the report was commissioned in 2010.Financial and Resource Implications

An estimate of works required to bring the building up to an acceptable standard is $500,000. This amount exceeds Council’s Building works budget for 2013/2014 and amounts identified in the Long Term Financial Plan.Conclusion

The Chewton Community Centre requires significant repair works to make the condition and structural integrity of the building acceptable for public use. The associated significant expense means strategic decision making is re-quired around the hierarchy and level of service for this building.

Further investigations are required to understand the full extent of building repair works, heritage issues, and community need. No repair works should be undertaken before these tasks are completed.RECOMMENDATIONThat Council:1. Undertake further investigations to assess the works re-quired to bring the Chewton Community Centre up to an acceptable, safe standard; and2. Write to the Chewton Senior Citizens informing them of Council’s proposed action in response to the petition.MOVED COUNCILLOR HENDERSONThat Council:1. Undertake further investigations to assess the works required to bring the Chewton Community Centre up to an acceptable, safe standard;2. Write to the Chewton Senior Citizens informing them of council’s proposed action in response to the petition; and3. Receive a report in early 2014, outlining the works identified from these investigations.SECONDED COUNCILLOR BELL. CARRIED.

Taking ISSUU with the Chathttp://issuu.com/home is a website promoting print publi-cations that now carries the colour Chat each month. The Winchelsea Star and The Foothills are two other Victorian community newspapers regularly posted. The Chat is in good company there - among thousands of publications like the Bendigo Weekly, CFA’s Brigade, Dubbo Week-ender, Georgie, Business News and Sports International. December’s front page Golden Girls are in great company!

Posting on ISSUU exposes the Chat to a wider re-dership, and the site gives feedback on numbers of read-ers, downloaders, where they are from and how long they spend reading our publication each visit. Last week’s read-ers averaged more than 7 minutes each reading the Chat.

And don’t forget the Chat is available in full colour each month on www.chewton.net where archived copies from previous months are also available.Five Flags

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24

End of year MoBQThe MoBQ had its last gathering for 2013 on the first Sat-urday of December. The attendance was one of the big ones, if not the biggest of the year. It is always amazing to meet new Chewtonites – often just moved into town and using the MoBQ (a fancy name for a Chewton’s community BBQ) to meet the locals. Perhaps this is why the MoBQ’s have been so successful right through the year.

Shared nibbles and snacks (and conversation) soon gave way to serious cooking (and even more conversation). Mo himself is always keen to display his wares and demon-strate his cooking techniques. And then give tips on what to buy and where to buy it. A MoBQ is a real learning experi-ence – and possibly why there’s no such thing as half a mo!

December provided an excuse for a Kris Kringle – the collection of wrapped goodies soon distributed and waved around. The exquisite wood turning of Ed was the centre of attention for some time. A shared cake was a temporary conversation stopper as wedges of cream and sponge were negotiated delicately.

Watch for advertising of next year’s events and come along to at least a few. The first Saturday of each month – 6 p.m. in Ellery Park and BYO food, refreshments, chair, conversation and the mandatory smile. You’ll be amazed at who you meet… next MoBQ January 4th.

The History of Eight Central Victorian Mechanics’ InstitutionsSigned copies of this book by Ken James and Noel Davis are available

Allan Dry has copies for sale @ $30 each 5472 3385

25

Oops, oops and oops again!The gremlins were at work last month. Firstly, the amount raised for Chewton Pool at the Tranquillo Open Garden day was $1,600 not the Chat’s vastly inflated $16,000. A re-markable sum nonetheless.

Secondly, a filing issue saw David Watson’s Christ-mas poem drop from the desktop. It is in Poetry Corner this month, unfortunately post-Christmas.

And thirdly (will these apologies never end?) another filing issue saw a Halloween article from Elaine Appleton disappear from view (and mind) until this month.

What a dreadful way to finish 2013. Let’s hope for no Chat oopses in 2014!

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0419836423Please support our advertisers......and let them know you’ve seen their advertisement in the Chat!

26

In sharing this article with Chat readers, Marjorie Theobald points out that a longer version

of this first appeared in Victorian Historical Journal, vol.84, no.2, 2013.

On 8 January 1852 the Honduras reached England with of-ficial confirmation of the wealth of Victoria’s gold mines and the first cargo of gold. The Times of London declared that the Empire did indeed have its own Eldorado. From that time on, the British public could not get enough of the gold fields of central Victoria. Newspapers, periodi-cals and book publishers were quick to capitalise on the demand by intending migrants for information about the new Eldorado. One such publication was Ellen Clacy’s, A Lady’s Visit to the Gold Diggings of Australia in 1852-3: written on the spot by Mrs Charles Clacy. It was first published to considerable acclaim by Hurst and Blackett of London in 1853 and republished by Landsdowne Press in Melbourne in 1963. Clacy’s introductory remarks re-flect the excitement generated in England by the Victorian gold rushes. She claims that in April 1852 her brother was caught up in the general madness and three weeks later she found herself on board ship headed for ‘those auriferous regions’. She does not tell us her maiden name (it was Sturmer) or anything of her family circumstances (she was the daughter of a clergyman). While in Melbourne she claims to have married Charles Clacy, and this is how she refers to herself in the authorship of the book.

The 1963 Australian edition attracted the attention of gold fields historians. Some queried the shortness of her stay (August to November 1852); others queried the marriage to Charles Clacy in Melbourne (it actually took place in England in 1854). However, none of them que-ried the authenticity of her account of the gold fields as seen through the eyes of a woman.

In A Lady’s Visit to the Gold Fields Clacy employs several genres of travel writing. Her final chapter is titled, ‘Who Should Emigrate?’ Chapters 6, 8, 9 and 10 are her general descriptions of life at the diggings, including chap-ters on Ballarat and Adelaide which she makes no claim to have visited. As with many other gold fields compendi-ums, it would have been possible to bring this information together from other sources.

In the remaining chapters, however, Clacy employs the personal or diary mode, even dating her travels, so that the reader has the right to expect that this is a first-hand

account of what she experienced. The title claims that the account is written ‘on the spot’ and Clacy assures her read-ers that nothing would induce her to ‘turn uninteresting truth into agreeable fiction’. Despite this assurance there is ample evidence that Clacy plagiarised material from contemporary newspapers and authentic accounts avail-able in England by1853. The Argus, for example, had a reporter stationed at Mount Alexander (Castlemaine) from its discovery in October1851. When Ellen Clacy claims to have arrived, the reporter at Mount Alexander was Daniel Bunce, a botanist and the first curator of the Geelong Bo-tanical Gardens. Bunce reported in minute detail on every aspect of life on the goldfields. If you will pardon the pun, he is a gold mine of information for historians today and for any unscrupulous writer hoping to rush a publication onto the market in the 1850s.

Clacy begins her personal account with the set pieces of emigrant literature at the time: the journey out; land-ing; Melbourne and the near impossibility of finding lodg-ings. She takes us through the gruelling three-day journey along what is now the Calder Freeway. The party was not attacked by bushrangers in the Black Forest; this hardy perennial occurs on the return journey. They went first to Bendigo. In Clacy’s account they came onto the For-est Creek diggings on 16 October 1852. Having sold up their belongings in Bendigo, the party hitched a lift with a carrier, passed the Porcupine Inn at Ravenswood and two hours later reached the gold commissioner’s camp. Com-ing via this route in November 1852, this has to be the Golden Point outstation on Forest Creek. Clacy describes the Camp:

An air of quiet prevailed, and made the scene un-like any other we had as yet viewed at the diggings. It was in the middle of the month; here and there a stray applicant for a licence might make his appearance, but the body of the diggers had done so long before, and were disseminated over the creek digging … To the right of the Licensing Commissioners tent was a large one appropriated to receiving the gold to be forwarded to Melbourne by the government escort. There were a number of police and pensioners about.

In 1852 Thomas Ham published his Five Views of the Gold Fields of Mount Alexander and Ballarat, in the Col-ony of Victoria. They were ‘drawn on the spot’ by David Tulloch who was at Mount Alexander in December 1851

Mrs Clacy visits the Forest Creek Diggings – or did she?

27

in time to sketch the protest meeting against the license fee. Another of his sketches is entitled, ‘Commissioner’s Tent and Officers’ Quarters, Forest Creek December 1851’. This is the first camp established by Commissioner F.A. Powlett in October 1851. Here are Tulloch’s comments which accompany the Commissioner’s camp sketch:

There is an air of quiet in this engraving, not per-ceived in any other scene we have portrayed; this is the general feature of the Chief Commissioners Quarters, with the exception of the earlier days of the month, when licenses are issued, and those days appointed for receiving gold to be forwarded to Melbourne by the Government Escort. The large tent, near the centre, was appointed for this purpose … and that to the left to the use of the Licensing Commissioner.

Unfortunately for Clacy, Powlett’s camp, which she claims to have visited in October 1852, was long gone. By the time she arrived, a new outstation of substantial wood-en buildings had replaced the tent encampment at Golden Point. A detailed description appeared in the Melbourne Morning Herald for 22 September 1852.

Clacy’s subsequent discussion of the improvement of law and order on the diggings closely follows Tulloch’s text in Five Views of Mount Alexander. Here is Tulloch’s version:

Since that period many desirable changes have been affected – large bodies of police have been placed on duty, and the government is now erecting wooden buildings in various parts of the Diggings, for the ac-commodation of its officers; and more energetic mea-sures have been taken in the appointment of additional Assistant Commissioners (who are also magistrates), with large bodies of Pensioners as Police under their direction, - thus the diggers are enabled to carry on their operations, and feel that their lives and property are as secure as in a well-ordered town. Roads traversing the different Diggings are also in progress, which, it is ob-vious, will greatly facilitate inter-communication.

Here is Clacy’s version:Not many months ago, the scarcity of [police] at

the diggings had prevented the better class of diggers from carrying on their operations with any degree of comfort … But this is now altered; large bodies of po-lice were placed on duty, and wooden buildings erected in various parts of the diggings for their accommoda-tion. Assistant Commissioners (who are also magis-

trates) had been appointed, and large bodies of pension-ers enrolled as police, and acting under their orders. Roads were also being made in all directions, thereby greatly facilitating intercommunication.

In stark contrast to Clacy’s rosy view of law and or-der, October 1852 was a particularly violent and troubled time on the diggings. In mid-October 4,000 diggers met to form the Gold Diggers Mutual Protection Association to petition Governor La Trobe for a more efficient police force. Clacy makes no comment on this trial of strength between the miners and the authorities. Despite Clacy’s assurance that all was peaceful, she tells her readers that she personally witnessed just such an incident of lawless-ness and vigilante action on her brief visit. Clacy claims that her party were almost knocked down by a mob pursu-ing a miscreant who had apparently shot and killed another man in a sly grog tent. This incident is reported in the Ar-gus as part of its campaign in support of the miners. Here is the passage from the Argus:

As an instance of the consequence to the diggers of the present absence of an efficient system of police, a man was yesterday afternoon shot in the course of a drunken brawl which took place at one of those dens of infamy – a grog establishment. Fortunately, however, for the man, the ball glanced over the forehead … without doing any serious injury. After firing the pistol, the fellow took to his heels, and was soon chased by an immense mob of diggers in pursuit, shouting ‘stop him!’ and after his capture this cry was changed to ‘string him up’; ‘it is useless taking him to the police office’. It is but justice to add, however, that the party who were desirous of urging this summary mode of proceeding were labouring under the impression that the man shot at was dead. On conveying him to his adversary, so far from acting the part of a dead man, he ‘showed fight’, roaring out ‘come on’ and such like pugi-listic demonstrations.

Here is Ellen Clacy’s version:

We had not gone far before a digger with a pistol in his hand shot by us; he was followed by a mob, hooting, yelling, and screaming, as only a mob of diggers can. It was in full pursuit, and we turned aside only in time to prevent ourselves from being knocked down in the confusion. ‘Stop him – stop him’ was the cry. He was captured, and the cry changed to ‘String him up – string him up – it’s useless taking him to the police-office’. … At this moment the firmly-secured and well-guarded

28

culprit passed by, to be confronted with the dead body of his adversary. No sooner did he come into his pres-ence that the ci-devant corpse found his feet, ‘showed fight’ and roared out, ‘Come on’, with a most unghost-like vehemence.

Unfortunately for Clacy, the incident took place on the 8 October, eight days before she reached Forest Creek, though it was published by the Argus on the very day that she claimed to have arrived. There are several other pas-sages lifted almost verbatim from the Argus.

On 19 October 1852 Clacy’s party left the Mount Al-exander diggings for Melbourne. Their route takes them through Golden Point to the foot of Mount Alexander where they camped for the night. This is not the usual route but it enables Clacy to describe the beauty of the scene around her:

It was a lovely evening and our eyes were feasted by a most glorious sight. ll the trees of the forest gradu-ally faded away in the darkness, but beyond them, and through them were glimpses of the granite-like walls of the mount, brilliantly shining in and reflecting the last glowing rays of the setting sun… we could have imagined that we were approaching by night some il-luminated, some enchanted castle.

In October 1852, James Bonwick published his ac-count of his travels on the diggings, entitled Notes of a Gold Digger and Gold Diggers’ Guide, and generally ac-cepted as the first authentic account of the Victorian gold fields. Here is Bonwick’s description of the same scene, encountered as he travelled from Mount Alexander to Bendigo in 1852:

On your right you have the long range of Mount Alexander. Upon a lovely evening my senses were feasted by a delicious scene. All the forest trees be-fore me were in darkness, but beyond them and through them were caught glimpses of the granitic walls of Al-exander, brilliantly shining in the last red rays of the set-ting sun. It was as though I was approaching by night some illuminated enchanted castle.

Once the reader is alerted to Clacy’s unacknowl-edged use of Bonwick’s work it is not hard to find other examples. Both remark that the eucalypts at Iron Bark are like majestic Doric columns; both encounter the Van-demonian apple seller who tells his customers that if they dislike Van Diemen’s Land they need not buy his apples; Clacy’s initial tour of Forest Creek is taken almost word

for word from Bonwick. Without naming him Clacy ac-knowledges that she has read Bonwick when she remarks: ‘Well might an Australian writer, in speaking of Bendigo, term it “The Carthage of the Tyre of Forest Creek”’. How-ever, the other passages from Bonwick are woven into her diary account as her own experiences.

So, was Ellen Clacy ever on the gold fields of central Victoria? It is clear that whole passages of A Lady’s Visit are taken from the Argus, Bonwick’s Notes of a Gold Dig-ger and Ham’s Five Views of Mount Alexander, all avail-able in England by 1853. When I began my research I had Clacy’s A Lady’s Visit on my shelves and intended using it to give a woman’s point of view of the gold fields. It is possible that she visited Australia, and even visited the gold fields, but I am no longer prepared to accept her work as a first-hand account of the Mount Alexander gold fields.

Marjorie Theobald.

Chewton Domain SocietyThe question everyone is ask-ing is when can we use the town hall again? It looks ready to go from the outside but, without wanting to sound like a politi-cian, there’s more to be done!

The timber ceilings need to be cleaned first before the walls can be painted and the rest of the timber work either painted or stained. We have had many offers from the community to help but the work requires the use of some type of scaffolding and the knowl-edge of an experienced painter. We are going through the process of getting quotes so that the work can start as soon as possible.

The generous donations that the CDS has received over the last couple of months will be allocated to this important stage of the town hall renovations and we are grateful to those donors as well as the “donated” advice on colours and ideas from an interior decorator who special-ises in heritage buildings.

The back room is being re-designed to make better use of the space – once all the cupboards and furniture were removed last March people were amazed at the size of the room and immediately came up with ideas on how to use it for meetings, catering, storage and work space. We are getting advice on design and health and safety compliance requirements to set the hall up for a variety of uses. Again we have had offers of assistance to reinstate the cupboards and install the necessary items but will need to buy some of these first – a stove and vented range hood, sink and hand washing facility, bench tops etc.

And then it will be the furniture and fittings in the hall itself and the cleaning of the toilets that have been used for storage – and the footpath that leads to the back door – again there’s more to be done!

So it’s all one step at a time and the CDS Manage-ment Committee is working towards getting the works done to the highest standard possible so that everyone in the community can feel proud of and appreciate this his-toric facility now and into the future.

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Mount Alexander Mail, Friday 23 January, 1914.It will be pleasant news to the residents that the Water Sup-ply Commission will enter on the work of ensuring a pure supply within the next two days. The officials have ex-plained to Mr Lawson, M.L.A., that the delay has occurred in getting the permission of the Defence Department to cut across the area reserved as a rifle range at Chewton. That permission has now been obtained, and the supply of pipes is coming to hand from the contractor, and in a few days active work will start on the ground. The object in view is to tap the race higher up from the Expedition Pass reser-voir so that when freshets discolor the water in the reser-voir the supply will be drawn direct from the race higher up. This, it is claimed, will ensure a permanent supply of clear and pure water.The Ballarat Courier, Monday 26 January 1914.MISSING RAILWAY TICKETS.At Chewton on Friday two young men named W. Perkins and A. Carter were charged with stealing railway tickets from the Chewton station. The assistant station-master suspected them, and left them sitting on the railway sta-tion. On his return he found the office door open and the young fellows gone. Const. Gilmore proceeded by train to Elphinstone, and walking back towards Chewton met the accused with the stolen tickets in their possession. They were each sentenced to a month’s imprisonment.

Glen Harrison.

Chewton - 100 years ago...

Chewton’s old buildings…Ever noticed the interest in Chewton’s history? It seems that every other day someone is taking it in. Just walking around, drawing, painting, photographing. This group of painters was settled beside the town hall recording their impressions of the streetscape when this photo was taken.

Castlemaine Camera Club is planning an evening/night shoot in Chewton in January. Anyone with subject suggestions is welcome to pass them on to the Chat via the Chat box in the shop or by emailing goldenpoint2@bigpond.com (note the change of email address).

Specialist police to target bushfire arson

More than 100 Victoria Police officers specialising in arson prevention and detection met recently to discuss emerging trends, issues, legislation, policy and best practice to ad-dress bushfire arson.

Minister for Police and Emergency Services Kim Wells said the Bushfire, Arson and Explosives Liaison Of-ficers (BAELOs) forum at the Victoria Police Academy was an example of the coordinated stance Victoria Police takes against arson.

“These specially trained officers conduct arson pre-vention and detection work across the state and liaise closely with local police on prevention, intelligence and enforcement operations,” Mr Wells said. “These highly trained officers will work to stamp out arson attacks this summer.”

BAELOs play a key role in Operation Firesetter, a highly visible annual statewide police operation that is fo-cused on preventing and detecting bushfire arsonists and will run until 31 March 2014. Operation Firesetter is acti-vated on those days where a Severe, Extreme or Code Red Fire Danger Rating is forecast in a designated CFA district or Police Service Area.

“Operation Firesetter aims to reduce deliberately lit fires across Victoria by targeting suspicious, intentional or reckless bushfire activity,” Mr Wells said. “Deliberately or recklessly lighting bushfires and grassfires will not be tolerated. Victoria Police will increase monitoring of known arsonists who may pose a risk to the community and will pursue anyone, who deliberately or carelessly starts a fire.”

Mr Wells said the Coalition Government recently strengthened laws to combat careless behaviour and in-creased Victoria Police’s ability to deal with the risks posed by certain high fire risk activities.

“Amendments to the CFA Regulations 2004 are now in effect and restrict additional ‘high fire risk activi-ties’ prescribed under the CFA Act 1958,” Mr Wells said. “Anyone who plans on undertaking high fire risk activities including welding, grinding or soldering within the Fire Danger period can only do so if they observe safety condi-tions set out in the new regulations. If they fail to comply, Victoria Police now has the power to charge them, even if their behaviour does not cause a fire.”

Victoria Police statistics for the 2012-13 bushfire sea-son report a 37 per cent rise in the number of fires caused by arson from the previous year.

If you see something suspicious, report the behav-iour by calling Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or Triple Zero (000).

Visit the CFA website for information about what you can and can’t do during declared fire danger periods and on days of total fire ban. www.cfa.vic.gov.au

Taken from a Press Release.

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St.John’s is having a holiday in January

No services until February

At approximately 5pm on October 31st I answered a knock at our front door. I was confronted with two young folk dressed up carrying a basket. One had on a mask, the other I could see was a beautifully dressed pretty girl.

They both spoke simultaneously. Trick or Treat! The were offering me a basket that contained chocolates. I had no idea what they meant. They explained it was Halloween. I could not think of a trick off hand. I had no lollies - all I could offer were biscuits.

When unmasked, the other young person was a boy. They were a delight to speak to. I asked if I could take a photo of them to put in our Chewton Chat and they were very happy to do so. Elaine Appleton.

Trick or Treat?Forest Creek on the Map

Solenotichus circuliferus One of the colourful bugs that students from Chewton PS and Castlemaine PS found at Chinamans Point (Forest Creek) late last year has contributed to the body of sci-ence knowledge. Bug Blitz Trust coordinated a day of en-vironmental inquiry based activities in November 2013. Groups of students rotated through a series of 5 activities guided by local artists and environmental organisations. Taking one of the activities, John Caldow of Bug Blitz and students conducted a series of rapid terrestrial biodiversity assessments of invertebrates, netting, photographing and releasing bugs.

Until now there have been no recorded distributions of the species Solenotichus circuliferus, first recorded in 1867 by Walker. John Caldow of Bugblitz noted on the day that he thought the students had found an unusual bug. As with all specimens collected by the students, after be-ing photographed, this specimen was then released. With the image captured John contacted his colleague Dr Ken Walker, curator of invertebrates at Museum of Victoria. Ken identified the beautiful bug as Solenotichus circu-liferus,

John has uploaded it to the Bug Blitz page on bow-erbird.org.au . Bowerbird cross references to the Atlas of Living Australia. It is the first record of its distribution on maps in Bowerbird and Atlas of Living Australia. Atlas of Living Australia is the digital record for Australian species that scientists refer to.

John says “What we have contributed is that first confirmed dot on a distribution map recording the species Solenotichus circuliferus on Forest Creek at Chinamans Point, Chewton. Good searching by the students.”

Jennifer Pryce, Golden Point Landcare.

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Ring 5472 3469Main Road, Chewton

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I recently wrote a satirical piece about Santa upgrading his image by using every cosmetic procedure available. From Botox to Lapbanding, Dermal Implants to Laser sand blasting. The funny thing was, some people in the audience thought I must have tried some of these proce-dures myself. Me! I was rather shocked. Shocked be-cause although I understand why people want to improve their looks and fend off the ageing process - but me do that? No, hopefully never!

As a student of Chinese Medicine, my training is all geared to diagnosis through features presenting on the body. When I look at my face now, I know those deepen-ing wrinkles around my mouth have nothing much to do with smoking because although I blamed that for years, I now know it is being caused by disharmony in my lower digestive system. The nasal folds from the nose heading downward to the mouth are disruption through the colon. Redness of the nose is trouble with the heart. Puffiness under the eyes is due to spleen, darkness in the same area is the kidneys being out of whack. A horizontal wrinke at the bridge of the nose is the adrenals under attack. Hori-zontal lines on the forehead are from overconsumption of dairy products. Jowls forming around the lower jaw and sagging upper eyelids are definitely from sugar con-sumption. Red capillaries around the cheeks are from too many hot and spicy foods in the diet. So my point is, why on earth would I want to try and mask the body’s way of telling me what’s actually going on in my insides. I look at those signals now and think, right, I know what organ needs fixing.

The list goes on and on, from ageing spots, dark skin patches, mole placement, ridges on the earlobe - those clever Chinese have a body map for just about every ail-ment. The ageing process is intimately entwined with what is going on in the organs themselves. The body being as it is, will do all in its power to protect the vital organs, and in order to do this it will take its nutrients and energy from the less important places, skin, nails, hair, whatever it can find to keep the lungs breathing and the heart and liver working, you get my point.

Inflammation plays a big role in the ageing process and many a doctoral thesis has been written on the subject. And have you ever wondered why you may have been a good vegetarian for years and somehow look older than the next person? Well, sorry to tell you but collagen produc-

tion needs plenty of protein. I have seen many photos of people who had suffered from inflammation all their lives, and when having finally received the right treatments have literally looked twenty years younger.

My point here is that by understanding the body processes and dealing with underlying health imbalances, one can not only reverse a lot of the ageing damage but I think it is vital to teach our young women that beauty does come from within and temporary measures of masking the symptoms with ‘fillers’ is just crazy.

I want to know what the face of my life will end up as. Those tracks of my tears as some might call them. Every wrinkle tells a story and if we embraced education instead of quick fixes, we’d all be healthy and better look-ing. Yes it’s hard work, but just because you’ve had a nip and tuck doesn’t mean you’re aching joints feel any better.Let’s hope the cosmetic industry becomes wholistic rather than opportunistic.

Have a beaut New Year. Thea O’Brien.

Sustainable beauty - Health hints for January

31 January 2014 Chinese New YearThe Chinese New Year falls on the first

day of the Chinese calendar, and continues for 15 days. During

celebrations people clean their houses to drive away the bad luck of the previous year. 2014 will be the year of the horse.

LATE NEWS...Thanks Rotary!

Just as this Chat was finished and about to go to the printers. news was received that Castlemaine Rotary Club had donated $500 to the Chewton Domain Society to support the town hall restoration work.CDS vice-president Judy Cobb was on hand to re-cive the cheque. More on this in the February Chat.

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At the 10th of December Council meeting, grant funding of $167,874.00 was approved for 87 community initiatives across the Shire through the annual Strengthen-ing Our Community Grants Scheme. The grants scheme is open to not-for-profit incorporated associations or aus-piced by such organisations for projects delivered in the Shire that demonstrate community benefit.

A total of 116 grant applications were submitted to Council in October 2013, consisting of 77 applications un-der the Community Wellbeing and Culture category, 17 applications under the Events category, and 22 applica-tions under the Sustainability and Natural Environment category, seeking a total of $388,768 in funding from Council. Demand for the funding under the grants scheme far exceeded the amount of funding available. Council determined funding approvals by addressing the eligibility criteria and achievement of funding objectives under each category, including community benefit.

Following the assessment process, Council ap-proved a total of $111,090.00 to 54 grant applicants un-der the Community Wellbeing and Culture category, $16,616.00 for 16 applicants under the Events category and $40,168.00 to 17 applicants under the Sustainability and Natural Environment category.

“It is pleasing that this round of grant funding has re-sulted in a significantly increased take-up by a wide range of local community groups,” said Cr Michael Redden, Mayor of Mount Alexander Shire. “The funds will see a broad range of projects and initiatives come to fruition, in the areas of health and wellbeing, sport and recreation, arts and events, sustainability and environmental manage-ment.”

While not all groups whose applications were ap-proved were able to receive the full amount of funding sought, the grants provide leverage to enable the delivery

Community groups benefit from Council’s Grants Scheme of projects that would otherwise not be able to get off the ground. All applicants will be notified by Council of the outcome in writing and an event will be held in February 2014 to formally acknowledge those groups that were suc-cessful.

For more information please contact Glenn Menner, Manager Community Development, on 5471 1818.

Our Community PlanningWork is continuing on this important process. At present, the working group is working through a refinement of the many, many suggestions that came through on Celebrate Chewton day. What is to be kept in and what is not is the current consideration - some suggestions are ones that either have already been addressed or are beyond the juris-diction of an individual community.

At this stage it is just for all members of the working-group to comment on. By the13th January all responses should be in and they will be collated for general discus-sion at the next working group meeting.

A draft community survey will be prepared and will be published as an insert in the February Chewton Chat. Watch out for that and do respond!!!

In the meantime other community plans are proceed-ing at different stages. Harcourt has just launched theirs (along with the first edition of The Core - their brand new community newspaper). Elphinstone has its draft survey out...

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Babies, toddlers and preschool aged children who go to playgroup can make new friends, have new experiences, gain self-confidence and de-velop physically, socially, emotionally and intellectually.

And that’s just some of the benefits for the kids! But what’s in it for you?

Adults stay with their children at playgroup. This gives them the chance to meet other people going through similar experiences and ease the isolation that can come with caring for young children. Playgroup is a regular time away from home, and gives routine to a child’s week. You get to have adult conversations, develop new social networks and friendships, share experiences, interests and ideas. It’s time to spend playing with your child, without the guilt of needing to do something else.

2013 was a fun year at playgroup, with lots of new people joining in on our Monday morning session at the Chewton Primary School. We drew, cut, coloured, pasted, painted, built, rode and played our way through the year. We provided our children with opportunities to play and learn and we did activities that we may not have done at home (painting anyone??).

2014 provides us with a new carpet in the multi-purpose room (perhaps no painting for the first couple of weeks!!) and ongoing op-portunities for learning, growing and developing.

Come join us in the multi-purpose room at Chewton Primary School. 9am to 11am, Monday mornings during term. We look forward to seeing you.

Chewton Playgroup – not just for the kids!

Sleeping it off......at the Res

You could hardly find a less suitable spot for a nap on a hot summer’s afternoon. This koala chose a red gum above the water for a nap at Expedition Pass Reservoir. Cars, people and (unfortunately) even dogs filled the space below, but the koala adopted a very un-gainly pose and zedded away.

Dogs? Not a great place when you look at the wildlife liv-ing there - or at the crap swimmers and kids have to negotiate!And of course there’s the signs...

34

Parks Victoria is urging the community to help stop illegal rubbish dumping across the Goldfields after rangers dis-covered several piles of asbestos discarded in local parks and reserves recently.

Western Goldfields Ranger in Charge Martin Wood-ward said the recent discovery of the hazardous material down a mineshaft at Wychitella Nature Conservation Re-serve near Wedderburn follows a series of occurrences near Maryborough, Newbridge, Donald and Bendigo.

“The asbestos building materials found in local parks and reserves can pose a threat to wildlife and public safety if they are disturbed,” said Martin. “Any waste dumped in parks can lead to long-term contamination of land and wa-terways, contribute to an unsightly environment and can stop people from feeling safe. Removing rubbish, hazard-ous waste and investigating offenders is also a costly and time-consuming exercise that diverts resources away from other park maintenance programs and visitor services.”

Parks Victoria is encouraging the community to re-port illegal rubbish dumping to assist with ongoing inves-tigations and help reduce the significant cost to the public purse.

“We encourage the public to be vigilant in reporting any suspicious activity. An accurate location of the rub-bish and car registration details can help with our investi-gations and assist us with arranging prompt removal. All information supplied will be treated anonymously.”

People found to be dumping rubbish in parks or re-serves will be prosecuted. Offenders face on-the-spot fines of up to $289, or may face court with heavy fines and clean up costs for more serious offences such as dumping asbes-tos or other hazardous waste.

“Household rubbish can be taken to local tips for dis-posal or recycling. Check with the local council’s envi-ronmental health officer or the EPA for the best advice on asbestos removal,” he said.

The Eaglehawk Eco Centre in Bendigo is licenced to accept asbestos from both domestic and commercial sources as long as it is packaged and transported correctly.

People with information about rubbish dumping in parks can call Parks Victoria on 13 1963.

For more information on asbestos management go to: http://www.asbestos.vic.gov.au

Taken from a Press Release.

Help stop illegal rubbish dumping in parks

New interpretive signs A successful grant from the State Government’s Local History Grants Program has meant that the Chewton Do-main Society has been able to replace the two faded signs that intrigued everyone because they were so difficult to read! These signs gave locals and visitors some informa-tion about the history of the town hall, post office and park properties as well as the old police lock up building next to the town hall.

C o m m i t t e e members had to do some research to locate the original content of the signs and then work with local signwriters, Phil and Brad Duus, to get the finished product ready for in-stallation.

These signs will help people un-derstand the signifi-cance of the history of Chewton and en-courage those inter-

ested in finding out more by using the records, maps and photos in the People and Places Display. Another reason to get the interior of the Chewton Town Hall ready for community use.

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With the summer vacation fast approaching and many visitors and family members needing to be entertained, Buda Historic Home & Garden is offering a special deal for local residents.

When accompanied by a paying guest, a resident of the Mount Alexander Shire will be admitted to Buda free of charge during the months of December and January. All that is required is a license or other identification confirming local residence.

Committee of Management President, Pat Grumont, says that this offer recognises that local residents are often looking for ideas to entertain their family and guests but may be reluctant to pay admission if they’ve already visited Buda.

“Buda is meant to be enjoyed over and over,” says Pat. “It is perfect wandering around the garden and relaxing under the canopy of trees on a lovely summer day. There are bench seats or visitors are welcome to bring their own chairs and a picnic to make a day of it. Gardeners may also like to spend some time in our well stocked plant nursery that has free admission for retail sales at any time.”

Guests can wander the home of the talented Leviny family at their leisure. A special exhibition in the house over summer, Drawn to Nature, will explore the Leviny family’s love of the Australian Bush through the photographs, anecdotes, art and ephemera. Their leisure-time outings of picnics, bushwalks and expeditions to local beauty spots, are recorded in their photographs and diaries, which are beautifully displayed in the house.

Group tours can also be organised by prior appointment at any time.

Open 12 midday to 5pm Wednesday to Saturday and 10am to 5pm on Sundays, Buda is a property of national significance. “Whether you are interested in the gold rush, heritage gardens, the art & craft movement, silver work, or women’s history, there is something to interest everyone,” Pat explains.

With a smiling portrait of the late Miss Hilda Leviny greeting visitors on arrival, one is reminded that she wanted her family home to be enjoyed by future generations.

Dec 1st 2013 - Feb 9th 2014 Drawn to Nature is the title of Buda’s Summer exhibition

in the house. Featured are photographs from the early 1900s of the Leviny girls’ picnics and outings

with friends to local beauty spots - Harcourt, Cairn Curran, Muckleford, Glenluce,

the Dry Diggings and Expedition Pass.Other associated items on display from the

collection are picnic baskets, flasks and billiesused on the families’ day trips.

The Leviny women were also fond of taking excursions into the local bushland to collect

wildflowers. Painting in watercolours, or pressing them to mount into albums, was a favourite pastime of many young women of that era. We still have Dorothy’s hand-

bound Wildflower Album at Buda, made in 1899. It has been brought out for this display.

Free entry to for Mount Alexander Shire residents with a paying guest during December and January

For further information about Buda Historic Home & Garden 5472-1032 during office hours

or go to www.budacastlemaine.org

Free admission to Buda

The Chewton Chat is published by the Chewton Domain Society. A subcommittee of John Ellis (Ed.),Bettie Exon, Gloria Meltzer, Debbie Hall, Phil Hall and Glen Harrison is responsible for the publication. Many volunteers help with production and circulation. It is circulated on the first of each month, necessitating a deadline of about the 22nd of the month before. Material can be left at the Chewton General Store, with any of the sub-committee members, sent by e-mail to goldenpoint@aanet.com.au or by calling 5472 2892.

Contributions of ideas, news items, articles, and letters are always welcome; as are advertisements that help meet monthly production costs. Circulation is via the Chewton General Store, Chewton Pet Supplies, Chewton Post Office, East End Servo, Red Hill Hotel, Castle Automotive Enterprises and Tourist Information Board, as well as the Bold Cafe, Castlemaine Library, Market Building, CHIRP, CIC, Castlemaine Copy Centre, Castlemaine Camera Shop and Castlemaine Office Supplies. Mt. Alexander Hospital Residential receives monthly copies too. Whilst copies are free, there are donation tins at many collection points and donations can be mailed to the CDS address below. Subscriptions for mailed copies can be arranged. Circulation is now 700. A full colour Chewton Chat can also be downloaded each month from www.chewton.net - as can the previous 11 issues. The CDS can be contacted through PO Box 85, Chewton, 3451; or the Chewton Town Hall 5470 6131 (when open). The Chewton Chat wishes to advise that the views or remarks expressed in this publication are not necessarily the views of the editor, the manage-ment team or the Chewton Domain Society and no endorsement of service is implied by the listing of advertisers, sponsors or contributors.

Buda Historic Home and GardenA property of national significance.

Home of the noted Gold and Silversmith ERNEST LEVINY and his family from 1863 to 1981, featuring authentic furnishings, arts and crafts collection, significant heritage garden and grounds.

Nursery selling drought-hardy plants, many propagated from the garden. Open hours Wed - Sat 12noon to 5pm, Sunday 10am to 5pm. Groups by appointment.

42 Hunter Street, Castlemaine 3450, T/F: (03) 5472 1032 E: admin@budacastlemaine.org

36

Our summer still seems to be a little uncertain. December started off with temperatures in the mid-thirties for three days, then suddenly we were back in the upper teens again. Overcast skies giving way to dark brown cumulonimbus clouds full of rain. Back to a couple of days in the upper-twenties when we struck another day of thirties. Within a day we were looking at overcast skies and low-twenties and even some rain. As I write, we are enjoying a few days of mid-twenties temperatures with just enough wind to keep us cool whilst we race round slashing the last of the wild oats and tall grasses that are the bane of our summer existence. Oh yes, and some first-minute Christmas shopping.

If there is one advantage to life in 2013, it’s the new range of mowers. They are all four-stroke monsters (to reduce the level of pollution from the faithful two-strokes); but they do seem to start so very much more easily. Will this last I wonder, and just as I had mastered the tricks of starting the old 2-strokes. And what do I do with the oil-infused two-stroke fuel I still have left in my old cans? Don’t want to gum up the 4-stroke carby with scruffy old style fuel.

To the temperatures for late November/early December. Our month high has been 35 degrees C., with some six days of 30 degrees or more. The average however has been diminished by the group of cool days, to a mere

Christmas is certain - Summer less certain25 degrees Celsius. Two mid-teen temperatures and a gaggle of low twenties. The lowest daytime temperature was 15.5 degrees C. Just two days of 32 degrees C made it the most frequent temperature for the month.

If daytime temperatures have been mixed, what about the night-time? Our average overnight low was 12.5 degrees Celsius. The irony is that the highest overnight low recorded was 18 degrees, two and a half degrees higher than the coolest daytime temperature. December 2nd saw this 15.5 degree overnight, just two days before our highest daytime temperature of 35 degrees. Confused yes, but just enjoy the warm. The overnight mode was a more usual 10 degrees.

Rain for the month has been a useful 27 millimetres, over a total of five days. We also had an NSR (not sufficient to register) day, which are also good garden moisture days. The highest fall was 8 millimetres, but spread across the first two weeks of December, they were a handy addition to the garden and a top-up for the tanks. The latest rain has given us a total of 104 rain days for the year, and a total to date of some 479 millimetres. Interestingly we experienced almost exactly 10% of this 479mms. in one day in May. The 479 millimetres is bang-on our annual average over the last 13 years, and very similar to falls in 2004, 05, 07, 08 and 09.

John Leavesley.

Calendar of events – hopefully a quiet month!Jan 1st New Year’s Day.Jan 4th MoBQ, 6 p.m., Ellery Park (BYO food, drink, chair and a smile).Jan 24th Deadline for the February Chewton Chat.Jan 25th Fryerstown Antique Fair, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Fryerstown.Jan 26th Australia Day.Jan 26th Fryerstown Antique Fair, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Fryerstown.Jan 27th Fryerstown Antique Fair, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Fryerstown.Jan 28th School year starts.Jan 31st Folding the February Chewton Chat (Friday), 2.30 p.m., Chewton General Store.

Congratulations to all the volunteers who keep the Chewton Domain Society and Chewton Chat rolling along!

2013 has been an enormously successful year – just browse through the last 12 months of Chats on www.chewton.net to appreciate just how enormous.

What’s in store during 2014? Keep reading… or become part of it by contributing some of your time, talent and thinking.

There is huge volunteer base behind every organisation in Chewton yet more volunteers are always needed.

Anyone up to volunteering to start a monthly Chat column focussing on our town’s invaluable volunteers?