Please join us as we see out 2019 and welcome in a new decade.
HRN will be joining the Daylesford Community Food Gardeners and Daylesford Repair Café in the Daylesford NYE parade.
In Hepburn Shire Council's proposed new Local Law No. 2, 2019 it is written:
4.7 Scavenging A person must not, without a permit search through or remove any articles of rubbish, recyclables or items from a Transfer Station or left for collection in a public place.
Council has also stated that no permits will be given, effectively enclosing a local tradition of salvaging that extends well beyond the environmental sector of the shire.
HRN explicitly rejects this proposal, and many of the other proposed paternalistic laws, and with all the other local sustainability groups is calling for Council to review this draft law and update it to be in line with local culture and the times we are living in: climate chaos, ecological breakdown, excess mass consumption, unprecedented waste and normalised pollution ideology.
The theme for our float was going to be Repair Café but in response to council's short-sightedness has been broadened to include the themes of upcycling, recycling, creative frugality, repairing, repurposing and SAVE THE DAYLESFORD TIP FROM BUREAUCRACY AND OH&S MADNESS.
As well as our Culture Club Jar Swap in December (see info re time change below), we are over the moon to announce that we will also be hosting a miso making workshop. Apologies for the late notice!
Monday December 9
6pm - 9pm
Senior Citizen's (read Daylesford Town Hall) $10 entry
We have special guest Rick Tanaka who's only in the country for one month coming to teach it. Some of you may have attended our 2018 miso making workshop that Rick also taught. Here are some of Mara Ripani's fabulous photos from that workshop:
Rick will be showing us the traditional method of Japanese miso making.
This is a watch and learn demonstration not a hands on workshop. If you are keen to go home and make your own miso, we have 15 take-home packs (biodynamic soy beans, koji (starter culture made in Melbourne) and pink lake salt). The take-home packs are $50 and include the event entry fee.
If you would like one of the 15 take-home packs, please email us to secure your spot and so we can send you the payment details. Payment must be received prior to the workshop.
Workshop entry is $10 cash at the door and includes a bowl of miso soup. No need to book, just come along.
What a wonderful year of microbial mingling it's been. Thank you everyone!! Monday's miso-making will be the final Culture Club event for the yea. We are taking a break in January and will be back on Saturday February 1 with more gut-filling goodness.
URGENT REQUEST: We are desperately looking for someone to collect $15 kilos of koji from Prahran in Melbourne on Friday. Please let us know if you are able to do this for us. Many thanks!
UPDATE: Thank you Yael for offering to collect our koji!!
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Jar swap, time swap
Due to the Daylesford Highland Gathering street parade at 9.30am this Saturday, Culture Club's Jar Swap will now run from 10.30am - 12.30 instead.
How lovely: kilts, bagpipes, long socks and thriving gut bacteria.
See you then!
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December Wild Fennel
St Johns Wort is now up and flowering. So for our next Wild Fennel gathering we will be making St Johns Wort oil and balm and looking into the medicine of this sunloving plant.
Please bring a small jar (baby food size or smaller) to take some balm home. There will be box for offerings/small donations.
We'll use olive oil and beeswax in the balm.
Saturday 21st of December
9.30am -12.30pm
Senior Citizens Kitchen, Daylesford Town Hall
You might like to bring...
- some solstice celebration snacks or herb tea
- a notebook
- herbs, seedlings, seeds or homemade remedies, etc you would like to share or trade
- stories to share
This is a free gathering and everyone is welcome to attend.
Thanks to the 150 residents from across the shire, the Mayor and councillors who joined the community-led meeting regarding proposed revisions to Local Laws #2 on Tuesday night. It was an inspiring demonstration of local democracy. Here is a video highlighting the key points. Submissions are still open until Friday 13 December, and we encourage people to attend the meeting on Monday 16 December at 6pm at the Daylesford Town Hall.
There is a website being built that will host submissions and other
relevant information to help people stay up-to-date with the Local Laws
No. 2 info. You can join the mailing list by heading here: www.hepburncommunity.org
Can you imagine a world where you can't forage for blackberries or pine mushrooms on public land? Where you are not allowed to scrounge at the tip for materials to repurpose? Can you imagine having to ask council for permission when you want to throw a birthday party at the pub? Or plant a tree on your nature strip?
After ten years, Hepburn Shire Council is making changes to some of its local laws about what can and can't be done on public land and in public places. While the laws are not too dissimilar to the ones made ten years ago, the new laws are more controlling and more suburban in flavour, and are completely at odds with the recent Climate Emergency declaration and the acceptance of the award winning Z-Net Plan, a 10-year masterplan for the Hepburn Shire to reach 100% renewable electricity supply, zero-net energy and zero-net emissions by 2029.
Representatives from the shire's sustainability groups: SHARE, Hepburn Relocalisation Network, Hepburn Z-NET, Daylesford Community Food Gardeners, Daylesford Repair Café, Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance, Localising Leanganook, Yandoit, Clydesdale and Franklinford Community Planning Group, Goathand Cooperative, and Hepburn Wind are hereby calling a community meeting.
The intention of this meeting is to make sure community members are informed about the proposed changes and how they will impact our lives. The purpose of this meeting is to talk constructively about a way forward in collaboration with council. The aim of the meeting is not to abuse or insult council as an institution of any of its employees.
Please have a read of the new proposed laws. If, like so many of us, you are feeling outraged by the proposed laws, you have until 5pm on Friday December 13 to send a submission to Hepburn Shire Council to let them know.
Submissions clearly marked ‘Local Law Submission’ should be addressed to: Evan King CEO, PO Box 21, Daylesford 3460 or by email to shire@hepburn.vic.gov.au.
147 years and the Daylesford Agricultural Show is still going strong. This year, Show Society President Don Harvey is trying to bring a different perspective to the Show and is encouraging permies and new back to the landers to participate.
Daylesford Culture Club's Meg Ulman will have a table set up of various bubbly ferments with demonstrations happening throughout the day: 10am sauerkraut making, 11am summer vegetable pickling and 1pm wild-fermented sodas.
Edible and Medicinal Weeds foragerand community gardener Patrick Jones will have a table displaying all the useful weeds he finds as he walks from his home in South West Daylesford to the showgrounds.
Daylesford XR will be performing their Sing for the Climate FLASH MOB song that they performed over the #nuptothecup weekend. They are meeting at 12.15pm at the Pavilion, at Victoria Park. Please wear bright colours and bring Climate Action signs eg Our House is on Fire or Watch and ACT. This is a non-disruptive, non-violent event. You can find the song is here and the lyrics here. Bring your friends!
Wild Fermented Sodas - November Culture Club Wrap Up
Thank you Jan and Helen for coming along to teach us how to make Water Kefir. For those of you who'd like to make it, here are Jan and Helen's instructions.
Thank you Mara Ripani for sharing your booch vinegar with us and for taking these photos that so beautifully capture the sharing of the day:
Just a reminder that the final Culture Club for the year is on Saturday December 7. Bring a jar of something fermented or preserved, take home a jar of something fermented or preserved. No need to RSVP just come along on the day in your Highland Gathering kilt.
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Wild Fennel
Thank you Rosie Cooper for gifting your experience and gentle wisdom to us each month. We love your Wild Fennel sessions so much and look fwd to each one with much excitement.
And thank you dear Brenna Quinlan for gifting us your illustrations of each session:
At the December Wild Fennel we will be celebrating the summer solstice, and making St Johns Wort balm. Please join us for this free workshop:
Saturday December 21
9.30am - 12.30pm
Senior Citizen's Hall (rear Daylesford Town Hall)
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HRN on NYE
Please come and join us as we see out this year and welcome the next. HRN will be joining the Daylesford Community Food Gardeners and Daylesford Repair Café in the Daylesford NYE parade. The theme for the float is Repair Café. Think work overalls, hammers, screwdrivers, frankenbikes, sewing machines, LED lights and tool boxes.
We are meeting on Tuesday December 31 at 6pm outside the MS op shop on Duke Street.
Can we fix it? YES WE CAN!
To end with, here is a photo by Peter Tyndall from the1982/83 Daylesford New Years Eve Parade - Save The Franklin campaign:
LET THE RIVERS FLOW
Daylesford Embroidered Banners (Margaret Leunig and our broad community)
November Wild Fennel
Hello! The details for the next Wild Fennel gathering are:
Saturday 16th of November
9.30am - 12.30pm
Senior Citizens Kitchen, Daylesford Town Hall
Delight your senses with the beauty of roses and other astringent plants of the Rosacea family (think hawthorn, peach, blackberry, etc.)
You might like to bring...
- all of your roses!
- a notebook
- herbs, seedlings, seeds or homemade remedies, etc you would like to share or trade
- stories to share
This is a free gathering and everyone is welcome to attend
Hi everyone! I am looking for someone to help with sending out Wild Fennel emails and creating event details in a more timely manner than I can. It's a small job, but will help a whole lot. Please be in touch with me if this is something you're interested in.
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Final Culture Club for the year
You are formally invited to join the Daylesford Culture Clubbers for their end of wonderful year gathering. Bring a jar of something fermented or preserved, take home a jar of something fermented or preserved.
Brenna Quinlan, you've done it again! Thank you so much for taking notes at the October Culture Club and allowing us to broadcast them so this knowledge can be shared far and wide:
Australia has lots of wild pollinator insects that are often overlooked. European honey bees get a lot of attention because they are a social species, they are easy to identify and spot and their hives are easy to domesticate and manage.
However, many native insects also contribute to pollination in crops and gardens all around the country. We still need to do a lot of research to identify all our pollinator insect species, understand their ecology and how they are affected by human activities. So far, we know that Australia has around 2,000 native bee species, all of which are important pollinators. We also know there are a couple of thousand butterfly, wasp, fly, moth, beetle, thrips and ant species, some of which are documented pollinators. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of information on the ecology of many of these insects, what flowers they pollinate, or where they are found.
The Wild Pollinator Count gives you an opportunity to contribute to wild pollinator insect conservation in Australia. We invite you to count wild pollinators in your local environment and help us build a database on wild pollinator activity.
Hepburn Seed Savers: out in the world, down in the soil
Have you visited our local seed library at the Daylesford Library yet?
Enthusiastic library staff member Sarah Hines took these photos:
Seed library co-ordinator Brenna Fletcher has done such a beautiful job!! If you are keen to get involved in this exciting vital project, please get in touch with Brenna.
* * *
A very different kind of world
Can you imagine a world where you can't forage for mushrooms or wild fruit on public land? Where you are not allowed to scrounge at the tip for materials? Can you imagine having to ask council for permission when you want to throw a birthday party at the pub? Or plant a tree on your nature strip?
After ten years, Hepburn Shire Council is making changes to some of its local laws about what can and can't be done on public land and in public places. While the laws are not too dissimilar to the ones made ten years ago, the new laws are more controlling and more suburban in flavour, and are completely at odds with the recent Climate Emergency declaration and the acceptance of the award winning Z-Net Plan, a 10-year masterplan for the Hepburn Shire to reach 100% renewable
electricity supply, zero-net energy and zero-net emissions by 2029.
Please have a read of the new proposed laws. If, like so many of us, you are outraged by the proposed laws, you have until 5pm on Friday December 13 to send a submission to Hepburn Shire Council to let them know.
Co-operation - a way of living for ourselves & the planet
Following on from the hearty community conversation in May on Co-operatives as alternative economic structures, Localising Leanganook is hosting a workshop to continue the discussions and drill more deeply into new and emerging cooperatives in central Victoria, cooperatives that are responding to both community and ecological needs.
What: An experiential workshop on Co-operatives: principles, benefits and challenges. Contribute towards three fledgling ventures.
When: Saturday November 30th 2019, 10am to 4pm
Where: Daylesford, Yandoit and Castlemaine
The November 30th workshop will visit three emerging co-operative ventures in central Victoria:
First, Goathand Co-operative – a community owned and managed shepherding co-operative that combines goat browsing and grazing with manual handtool work as a powerful method to reduce dominant weed species and fuel loads in the steep gullies and common land around Daylesford and Hepburn.
Second, a common land/farm co-operative on 50 acres of fertile land in Yandoit, where workloads, risks, learnings and experiences are shared, and where regenerative food growing practices are coupled with wildlife corridors. In the developmental stage, this co-op enables access to land for those locked out due to prohibitive costs.
Third, a manufacturing cooperative in/around Castlemaine. In the initial exploration phase, this co-op will support local people, respond to current and future bio-regional needs, provide meaningful and local livelihoods, and produce goods in an ecologically regenerative way. Potential manufacturing initiatives include: soy milk, re-creating animal milk processing (a variation on the old butter factories), materials required for ecological living, and biochar.
Practicalities: The workshop will start in Daylesford (the forest at the end of Tierneys Lane- the way will be sign posted) with the Goathand Cooperative. Then we will move to Yandoit Farming Co-op (Steeles Rd, Yandoit) and finally to the Ray Bradfield room in Castlemaine to brain storm manufacturing possibilities. Please wear comfortable shoes as there’ll be some walking involved.
Who: Dave Kerin from Earth Worker will share his extensive knowledge and experience with co-operatives, both theory and practice. Vasko Drogriski, along with the other members of the Goathand Cooperative, will share their story including benefits and challenges. Michael and Lisa Jackson, from Yandoit Farm, along with Nikki Marshall will share beginning work and imaginings for the Yandoit farm commons/co-op. Localising Leanganook and interested central Victorians will share their thoughts about potential manufacturing co-ops for the area/bioregion.
Transport: Two 12 seater community buses are available to transport workshop attendees between Castlemaine, Daylesford and Yandoit, and car sharing is encouraged. Contributions to bus costs are requested.
Lunch and refreshments: BYO lunch and keep cup/water bottle. We will be eating lunch at Yandoit farm. A simple morning and afternoon tea will be provided.
This is a free workshop and everybody is welcome to attend.
Registrations are essential! For catering and transport. Please register via email to to assist with transport (bus and car pooling) and catering. For further information contact Nikki Marshall on 0432 232 073.
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A community newspaper for Daylesford
A public meeting on Thursday 14 November at 7pm at the Daylesford Neighbourhood Centre.
The proposed Community News does not aim to compete with existing publications – the Advocate, Lost or the Local, or the Daylesford Grapevine – but rather, aims to share information about community happenings, regular gatherings, one off events, sporting results, information about local organisations and activities, and local services available in Daylesford and Hepburn Springs – information that contributes to the fabric of the community, and which is currently not always readily available.
The public meeting will consider the responses from the community to the Proposal, and if supported, will establish a community association to establish and run the Community News.
Cr Kate Redwood would like to hear your views and suggestions. Please email Kate with your comments and ideas. All written correspondence sent to Kate will be reported to the public meeting on 14 November. You are most welcome to attend the meeting and have your say.
* * *
Sing for the climate
Thank you Jen Bray and the Daylesford XR crew for encouraging us to raise our voices collectively as we sing for life.
(If you are reading this in your inbox, the vid won't show up, but you can see it here.)
The Hepburn Seed Savers' Brenna Fletcher says, "This is what my nights have been looking like. I feel so lucky to be doing this work of sharing and loving seeds. Seed savers bank will be in the library on Tuesday (October 29) this week!! So much excitement."
Soooo wonderful, Brenna! We can't wait to start borrowing seeds to grow and return.
Rumi writes 'Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.' And look at the beauty local artist Kristeena Saville created!
And here it is flying proudly over Canberra:
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Happy birthday Daylesford Repair Café!!
This coming Sunday October 20th our local Repair Café is turning one!
Repairs will take place from 1pm - 3pm, followed by a birthday celebration from 3pm - 4pm, and then an evaluation and planning session will be held to reflect on what the repair café has achieved and what could be improved, and to make plans for the coming year. So if you've been along and had something repaired over the last 12 months, come and help celebrate, and bring your feedback in lieu of a gift.
Come plantfolks, herbellies, curious cats and wanderers. We are gathering again for another morning of herbal tidbits and community connections.
We will revisit the foundational actions and plants as teachers before honing in on bitters, with the help of plants in the community garden, to help us get our creative spring juices flowing.
Saturday October 19
9.30am - 12.30pm
Skate Park Community Garden
Corner of Duke St and Stanbridge st, Daylesford
We'll be outside, so you might like to bring:
something to sit on (rug or chair) in case the ground is still wet.
Sun hat
Notebook
Any herbs, plants, seeds or homemade remedies you would like to share or trade at the end of the talk
Something to nibble on; bitters stimulate digestion and you might need something to tide you over until lunch
a cup
a thermos of tea or hot water to share
This is a free gathering and everyone is welcome to attend.
Each month we will look at different aspects of herbal medicine and focus on a particular plant, with the intention of reclaiming herbal medicine as an accessible mode of healthcare for ourselves and our community and bringing us into closer connection with the land and plants where we live.
Spring Rebellion in Melbourne was energetic and disruptive. Some folk from Daylesford went down to take part in bringing the issue of climate crisis to the front page and nightly news.
Daylesford's next action will be to raise awareness in our local community through a FLASH MOB. There will be singing, dancing and music.
Wanna join our CLIMATE FLASH MOB? Simply learn this song at home.
We need everyone! There are roles for singers, dancers and musos too.
You can watch the clip here:
(If you are reading this in your inbox you'll need to click through to the blog to see the clip.)
Stay tuned for the next rehearsal. FLASHMOB date to be announced soon. It will be a weekend in the next few weeks.
* * *
Hepburn Seed Savers
Here we go! The seed donation box and a few reference books have been officially installed at the Daylesford book library! The seed library is not far away now, but in the meantime please bring your seeds - they will be gratefully received, admired and then dispersed.
An article on the Hepburn Seed Savers was featured in The Courier on September 28. Congrats to Brenna Fletcher and all involved!
Photo: Adam Trafford
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Castlemaine Weekly Farmers Market
Castlemaine is about to launch a weekly farmers market on Wednesday afternoons. Focussing on fresh produce, the aim is to move people's weekly shopping habits away from supermarkets while offering an avenue for small local producers to sell their wares.
You are invited to a fundraiser at Castlemaine's historic Theatre Royal on Sunday November 3 at 2.30pm - 5pm to celebrate the launch of the new weekly market. The fundraiser is a screening of In Our Hands - a film about food, agricultural systems and food sovereignty.
