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Macedon Ranges Magazine is a high quality lifestyle magazine specifically representing the Macedon Ranges. It’s produced by locals, about locals – and aims to discover and celebrate all the exciting things that our region has to offer. And share these discoveries with locals and tourists alike. All with stunning photography, entertaining editorial and beautiful design.
Citation preview
C E L E B R AT E • A P P R E C I AT E • D I S CO V E Rmacedonrangesmagazine
SABRINA PARRINIQueen of the Little Kitchen
FIONA CHAMBERSThis Little Piggy
Issue No: 4$6.50 (inc. GST)
Win
ter 2
012
+ STEPHEN RYAN, LENNY MUIR, BOTANICAL ART AND MORE
WIN An intimate Daylesford
weekend getaway for two
Dromkeendu FermierTrentham Weekender
C O u N T R y L I F E I N D Ay L E S F O R D & T h E M A C E D O N R A N G E S
Breakfast & Beer
Nestled at the foothills of the Macedon Ranges in the quaint tree-lined village of New Gisborne, the Mews Cottages o� er private luxurious accommodation with a glimpse of traditional country lifestyle.
Located only 45 minutes from Melbourne, these fully self-contained cottages have all the modern conveniences and are just a short stroll to the local country tavern and railway station. ey provide easy access to Mount Macedon and the many other local attractions.
262 Station Rd, New Gisborne, VIC 3438
Bookings: 0412 902 928www.mewscottages.com.au
� e Mews Cottages
Editor’s Letter
81 High St, Woodend Phone 5427 3399 www.thevillagelarder.com.au
Retro-Comfort Food prepared with love...Licenced cafe
Phone 03 5426 4044
www.thevillagelarder.com.au
Shop 3B, 81 High StWoodend VIC 3442
New OptOmetrist
SASI 202179 : 3
Ed Kosmac would like to welcome Sarah Wassnig to our Woodend practice.Together, they look forward to providing high quality eye care with a smile to the Woodend community.
Woodend: Shop 14 / 130 High Street Phone: 5427 4577Castlemaine: 63 Mostyn Street Phone: 5472 1020 Kyneton: 99 Mollison Street Phone: 5422 3822 www.kosmacandclemens.com.au
Preston CopyWrite
Need a writer?
Sarah Preston
m: 0407 208 186
www.prestoncopywrite.com
Winter in the Macedon Ranges.
Wood fires, gumboots, larger-than-life red wine and good, hearty food with friends and family.
The romance of it all wears a bit thin eventually—by August I’m usually hanging out
for 25º summery days. But for now those first few frosts, the first snow on the mountain, lighting the fire—they all promise a few long months to slow down and snuggle in. Good books, long dinners, slow food and big, big reds.
Well, that’s just me.
Others are out in the finger burning cold of the Wombat State Forest (see page 69); pottering around crisp wintry gardens (see page 19); or getting down and dirty in the mud with pigs (see page 61).
As you settle down to enjoy their stories, I’d like to send out a big hats off to all the talented, inspiring people who have put them together.
Ellie Parker of Breakfast Out (who wants to waste their morning on a dud egg?!); Kim Selby of Kim Selby Photography (so good at telling a story with pictures that sometimes I think I don’t need writers at all); Step Forbes and Frida Schoo from Greengraphics (who manage to turn vague requests such as “Can you do something interesting with this egg?” into something spectacular, always); Allen Moore from Big Dog Bites (that bike shot on page 68 is so good it makes me light headed!); and everyone else who has contributed. What a lovely bunch you are—thanks for all your fabulous work and enthusiasm in putting each issue together.
So. Go find that fire! Open that red! And nestle in to read and enjoy all the good things that winter has to offer in Daylesford and the Macedon Ranges.
Sarah Preston
Publishing Editor
45
61
7
3
FEATURES
7 Macedon Ranges Profile Sabrina Parrini—Romsey
45 On the Land Click Go the Years—Kyneton
52 Bellus Botanicus Career Spot—Woodend
61 Macedon Ranges Produce This Little Piggy—Bullarto
REGULAR
1 Editor’s Letter
14 Book Review Kitchen Gardens of Australia
19 Gardens of the Macedon Ranges Durrol
24 What’s on
27 In the Community Dromkeen—Riddells Creek
37 Style Spot Karori—Mount Macedon
58 Weekender Trentham
69 Merry Spirit It’s Not About the Bike
74 Restaurant Review Breakfast & Beer—Daylesford
76 Macedon Ranges Food & Wine Spot du Fermier—Trentham
81 Macedon Ranges Area Map
CONTENTS
27
37
4
Publishing Editor
Sarah Preston
Copyeditor
Gary Bird
Editorial
Ellie Parker, Sue Peacock, Sarah Preston, Claire Reid, Stephen Ryan, Danielle White
Photography & Styling
Big Dog Bites, Kathy Mexted, Kim Selby Photography, Danielle White
Designers
greengraphics.com.au
Printing
Print Manager Glenn Graham. This magazine is printed in Australia by GEON Printing under ISO 14001 Environmental Certifications.
It is printed on FSC accredited and environmentally friendly stock.
Contact Details
www.macedonrangesmagazine.com.au
www.facebook.com/MacedonRangesMagazine
PO Box 682 Woodend Vic 3442
0407 208 186
Cover image by Kathy Mexted: Amelia Mexted pre-storm at their farm at Newham.
Our apologies to Fran & Richard of Made In Malmsbury (On Ya Bike page 59 Issue #3) - Natalia and Nikola stopped for coffee and cake at Made In Malmsbury. Merchants of Malmsbury is no longer operating.
Reproduction in whole or part of this magazine is strictly prohibited. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this publication, the publisher accepts no responsibility or liability for any errors, omissions or resultant consequences including any loss or damage arising from reliance on information in this publication. Views expressed by the writers are not necessarily endorsed by the publisher.
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Bendigo Sales OfficeOpen weekdays 8.30–5pm219 High St, Kangaroo FlatPh: 5447 0288
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Images are for illustrative purposes and may include upgrade items above standard specification. Images may also include features not supplied by Metricon including without limitation furniture, landscaping, water features, and swimming pools. *Price is for Denver 31 Vogue in Macedon building regions only.
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Bendigo Sales OfficeOpen weekdays 8.30–5pm219 High St, Kangaroo FlatPh: 5447 0288
Gisborne Sales OfficeOpen Monday 10–4pm or by appointment 9A Hamilton St, Gisborne Ph: 5428 2577
Images are for illustrative purposes and may include upgrade items above standard specification. Images may also include features not supplied by Metricon including without limitation furniture, landscaping, water features, and swimming pools. *Price is for Denver 31 Vogue in Macedon building regions only.
Speak to a Consultant todaySteve Tonkin Ph: 0421 155 889Travis Penbrook Ph: 0449 267 627
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7
Queen of the Little Kitchen
WORDS ElliE ParkEr PHOTOGRAPHY kim SElby
Sabrina Parrini—Romsey
MACedoN RANges PRofile
sabrina Parrini.
8
It’s an Irish dish made from mashed together boiled
potato, cooked sliced cabbage and crispy bacon.
Kitchen “helpers” Katie and James are midway through
sifting flour and slicing banana when they overhear
Sabrina Parrini relay the delights of this wholesome
winter dish. All of a sudden they down tools, captivated.
In unison they ask Sabrina for the recipe and then
turn to their mothers with an expectant gaze. It would
appear colcannon is on tonight’s menu, whether Mum
likes it or not.
This is the magic of Sabrina Parrini. She floats around
her sunlit kitchen with all the grace and calm of Glinda
the Good Witch of the North. Operating like a benevolent
queen of munchkin land, Sabrina has a clear talent
for igniting a child’s culinary imagination and passion.
She is for children what Nigella Lawson is for adults.
A domestic goddess, on a slightly smaller scale.
Beautiful, softly spoken and alluring, Sabrina taps
into children’s natural curiosity when it comes to food,
beguiling them into the kitchen with the promise of
good things to cook and eat. Over the years she has
calmly inspired and instructed children to don aprons,
melt chocolate, beat eggs and surprise themselves with
their culinary instincts and talents.
It’s not often you witness a pair of five-
year-olds piping up about colcannon.
9
Today Sabrina modestly sits at the helm of her Little Kitchen cooking empire, which began as an organic children’s cookery school in North Fitzroy and now encompasses Australia’s first “child-inspired” cookware range along with four best-seller cookbooks and another on the way. Long before the Junior MasterChef hysteria had entered our homes, Sabrina dared to dream with her pint-sized foodie enterprises.
The 33-year-old is certainly living the dream. She stands in her gleaming white kitchen, surrounded by pretty pastel KitchenAid appliances. Her hectic schedule, which has just seen her conduct 12 master classes at the 2012 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, reinforces the importance of having a country retreat nestled among the Macedon Ranges. Born in Gippsland, on the Cann River, Sabrina has always been a country girl at heart. “When I was younger I thought I wanted the inner city lifestyle but now I couldn’t think of anything worse. My home feels like a holiday house, I feel very privileged to live in the area,” she says. Together with her husband, an industrial designer and joiner, Sabrina has slowly built the dream family home, complete with kitchen garden and most importantly, a custom-built kitchen. “Even though the kitchen is huge we’ve still managed to embarrassingly run out of room for all our
Katie Koster and James selby, both 5, whip up
some banana muffins in Sabrina’s light-filled kitchen
10
food-related appliances. My husband says we need to build a shed!”
Sabrina recalls her own childhood and the tradition of spending every weekend with her paternal and maternal grandparents. “I remember the sensation of walking into a house that smelt so good. The heart of the home was the kitchen.” At the age of seven she was already making gnocchi with her Mum and Nonna, overlooking the veggie garden. “We had a pretty serious herb garden at home and both grandparents’ homes had large fruit and vegetable gardens. Their backyards were never ornamental; they were purely for growing fresh produce. My maternal grandpa had also built a cellar for his homemade wine, a woodfire oven where he baked his own bread and a salumerie for storing homemade small goods. Food was everywhere you looked!”
The older Sabrina got, the more she realised her upbringing was in stark contrast to the majority of other Australian children. Sabrina observed a general disconnect between children and their food. Having trained and taught in Early Childhood, she
began to notice a worrying trend. “When I worked at kindergartens I was amazed that the Department of Health and Education was against cooking with kids because of the risk of germs and OH&S issues. It was banned at schools.”
Sabrina’s decision to open a children’s cookery school was initially met with incredulity. “I attended a small business seminar and the man taking the seminar mocked me in front of the whole class. Nobody thought cooking with kids would fly,” she recalls. Despite this, she went on to establish Little Kitchen branded cookware in 2004, and began testing prototypes
for her products, such as biscuit cutters, at Lancefield Farmers’ Market.
“Nobody knew what to make of it at that time. People would come up to me and say, ‘isn’t it dangerous having kids cooking?’ ”
Despite this, Sabrina went on to open her Little Kitchen Cooking School in 2007. It rapidly became a hit. The school was soon employing 10 staff and offering cooking lessons and cooking birthday parties for
“I attended a small business seminar and the man
taking the seminar mocked me in front of the whole class. Nobody thought
cooking with kids would fly.”
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children and teenagers at weekends. “From what I’ve observed both girls and boys love being in the kitchen, especially in their formative years. It’s something we should really be encouraging in the kindergarten and home setting. Capitalising on this early interest will hopefully see children adopt healthier eating habits in the future,” Sabrina says.
Having a dedicated kitchen space for children, which included a custom built, kid-friendly commercial kitchen, dining room, herb garden and concept store, afforded Sabrina’s cooking pupils the chance to really throw themselves into the cooking experience. Being able to experiment without the constraints of time and the fear of mess was key to Little Kitchen. “Children love creating dishes from scratch—the pride they feel and exhibit when they’ve made something themselves is a lovely thing to see.”
At the height of Little Kitchen’s success, Sabrina received a call from Random House, offering her a book deal. “I had met the publisher four years earlier, when I had a market stall at Daylesford’s Lake House Producers’ Day. She liked my concept but I never heard back from her. I lost hope. Four years later, out of the blue, she called and said, ‘Sabrina, we’re ready for you.’ It was like a dream come true.”
While the demands of the book deal eventually forced Sabrina to close the cooking school and focus her attention on her newfound publishing career, she hasn’t looked back. Her first book, Little Kitchen, was published in 2009 and has sold about 30,000 copies globally. Since then she has released three other
cookbooks and is now gearing up for a fourth, due for release in 2013.
Times have certainly changed. Australian kitchens are rampant with Junior MasterChef enthusiasts and disciples of Stephanie Alexander Kitchen
Garden Foundation. Kids not only know what silverbeet looks like, they now know how to make jus and plate up. The climate for kids in the kitchen is well and truly upon us and this bodes very well for Sabrina, whose foresight has put her well ahead of the game. Since Sabrina first started her Little Kitchen endeavours she’s noticed a boom in the kids’ cookbook market and a general awareness. Rather than seeing this as competition, she sees it as an encouraging sign. For Sabrina, there’s no such thing as too many chefs in the kitchen. Little Kitchen has a big future and Sabrina, with her pretty pastel slippers, matching cardigan and her bright red lippy, is cooking with gas.
www.littlekitchen.com.au
Being able to experiment without the constraints of time and the fear of mess was key to Little Kitchen.
little kitchen, around the world giveawayWIN one of three copies of Sabrina’s Little Kitchen, around the world—featuring 36 delicious recipes from places as far-flung as Morocco, Thailand, Italy and Mexico.
With easy to follow recipes written especially for 8-12 year-olds, interesting facts about the countries the recipes originated in and a world map showing the location of each country featured, you can take a delectable trip around the world with Sabrina and Little Kitchen.
Please send in a recipe and photo before August 1 and include name, age and postal address (plus email address if applicable). Entries can be sent to [email protected] or PO Box 682 Woodend 3442. The winners will be selected on August 9 2012. Recipe and/or photo may be published in print or online.
For your chance to win,
you must be under 12 years old.
Simply send in a recipe you love to cook and
a photo of you enjoying the kitchen.
Hardie Grant Books RRP $29.95
www.littlekitchen.com.au
macedon events
www.macedonevents.com.auwww.facebook.com/macedonevents
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The Alava continues to impress with four spacious bedrooms, two bathrooms, a media room, modern kitchen and living area.
Don’t wait any longer to make this home your own. Our consultants Rodney Crick or Norm Glenn will be able to tell you more about the Alava or work with you to make the design even more suited to your individual needs. Call them today.
Need a writer?
- websites- brochures- media releases- articles- newsletters - project management
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Preston CopyWrite
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14
BOOk REviEW
BY katE HErd WORDS ClairE rEid
With a subtitle of “Eighteen productive gardens for inspiration and practical advice” Kate Herd’s Kitchen Gardens of Australia is an indulgent tour through some of the most enviable kitchen gardens in our wide brown land.
As promised, 18 of the country’s most productive and well-designed kitchen gardens are laid out for the reader to explore and enjoy. Beautifully photographed with close-ups of many a bountiful harvest, and accompanied by detailed plans of the layout, soil and climate specifics for each garden, the reader experiences all but the taste of the resulting organic, home-grown meal.
It would be easy for a book like this—of coffee table size and style—to skim lightly over the deeper, more fundamental concerns of kitchen gardeners and their
Kitchen Gardens of Australia
gardens. I half expected a frivolous showpiece of pretty pictures of kitchen gardens needing several full-time gardeners and a significant financial outlay far from the reach of most home veggie growers. I thought it possible that the “inspiration and practical advice”
promised were but a marketing tool—a glossy catchcry for a fairly useless if attractive book. How wrong I was.
Kitchen Gardens of Australia is a wonderful resource providing a wide-ranging and detailed insight into the Australian kitchen gardens both of today and throughout history. While some of the gardens featured do employ staff and some are
in the service of some fairly famous gardeners—or are long-established on well-known or historic properties—others are home to everyday Australians. Single people, couples and families whose primary incentive is the wish
Kitchen Gardens of Australia is a wonderful resource
providing a wide-ranging and detailed insight into
the Australian kitchen gardens both of today and
throughout history.
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Congratulations to Stacey O’Neil from Ballarat, winner of the Braeside weekend getaway. We hope you have a wonderful stay in the Macedon Ranges Stacey—and thank you to everyone who filled out our reader survey.
to know the origin of their food, the season it belongs to and to provide themselves and their families with delicious organic produce at a low cost to their pockets and their planet.
Some gardens are on rental properties, some in tiny backyards, some are planted entirely on sand or in a region where the annual rainfall is as low as 250mm a year. Each gardener lists his or her own specific challenges, and the ways in which they address them—sometimes turning a particular obstacle into an asset. All take an organic approach to growing their food and employ environmentally conscious water-saving methods. However, far from being hi-tech and expensive, they are often as simple as Markos Dymiotis’ backyard sink for washing the veggies, which sends the water directly back on to the garden.
Herd is careful not to lay on the environmental issues relating to mainstream food production and transport too thickly. This book is not a sermon. Her information is concise and well footnoted. This applies to fascinating insights into the colourful history of kitchen gardens and the background of and methods by which many of the food plants are grown. However it also includes a well-researched outlook on the concerns of modern centralised food production and issues of climate change. All the gardeners have noticed
and been affected by declining rainfall and changing weather patterns and have become concerned with not only food sustainability and cleaner production for the planet, but fuel and water usage in transport. Their thoughts on kitchen gardening offer inspiring insights into alternatives that are within our reach.
In each garden profile, challenges are met and solutions and plant choices are listed. There are ideas for
maximising production in minimal space; planting to reap crops all year; planting in temporary spaces where overcapitalising is undesirable; and planting to achieve the best monetary value from your crop. Seed saving,
water management, side-stepping an industrialised food chain and harvesting fresher, cleaner produce are tackled and an extensive resource list is included that aids further investigation. There is also a generous “plant list for the kitchen garden” to get you underway.
This book provokes not only further reading but also action. Its message is clear. Anyone can garden. Anyone can grow their own food—and the owner of Kate Herd’s passionate, inspiring and practical book will surely finish reading and want to do just that.
This book provokes not only further reading but
also action. Its message is clear. Anyone can garden.
Kitchen Gardens of Australia (RRP $49.95)
is available at New Leaves.
big dog bites
Winter in the Macedon Ranges is a time for
snuggling up by the open fire, sumptuous meals,
fine wines and retail therapy.
You may even stumble upon a dusting of snow
on some of our highest peaks or in our villages.
Treat yourself this winter and visit the
Macedon Ranges, only an hour from Melbourne.
MACEDON RANGES NATURALLY COOL
To find out more call 1800 244 711 or visit www.visitmacedonranges.com
18
The moss covered trunk of a European Beech Fagus sylvatica
Durrol
GARDENS OF THE MACEDON RANGES
THiS EDiTiON’S FEATURE GARDEN
WORDS StEPHEN ryaN PHOTOGRAPHY kim SElby
19
stephen Ryan.
20
It is a garden of immense tranquility and one of the few large Victorian-style weatherboard hill station homes that escaped the Ash Wednesday bushfires of 1983. Not that this four-acre garden (in a 10-acre property) was unscathed, but time and hard work have all but hidden the effects.
As you enter under the dark canopy of towering conifers and European deciduous trees, with the house still well hidden from view, it is a feeling of incredible age that assails you. You think that these giants can’t possibly only date to the 1870s, but some of them do—and most are probably much younger. Comparable trees in the stately gardens of England would be 300 years old, but we know that this is impossible for non-natives in Australia.
This property is one of Mount Macedon’s
many treasures.
The 1903 Durrol homestead
Like many of the gardens in this usually cool climate,
Durrol changes dramatically with the seasons from the
brilliance of the autumn colour to the splash of spring
splendour. However, few see it in winter, which is when
I love it the most. The sombre conifers and the tracery
of bare branches are enchanting. If you happen to be
there on one of the rare snowy days you could easily
have stepped out of a classic Christmas card.
The splashy seasons are a distraction from the true
beauty of Durrol, which is its overriding greenness.
To walk across the spongy moss lawns under the
canopy of these giants from around the world—
that have no right to be as big as they are!—is to be
transported to a fairyland like one of Gulliver’s.
Clockwise from top left: views across to Mount Macedon Memorial Cross; huge algerian oak Quercus canariensis under planted with native tree ferns; the amazing moss covered steps installed by Edna Walling; rain dripping from the needles of a Norway spruce Picea abies
22
The large and gracious white-painted house dates to 1903—so that it isn’t quite Victorian—and sits on a platform of grass banks surveying its surrounds contentedly. On almost three sides moss lawns sweep out under the trees—predominantly oaks and lindens—and around banks of dark evergreen shrubs dominated by the old-fashioned large-growing rhododendron hybrids. These are almost a signature of the ‘Mount’.
Behind the house and across the drive you walk past a huge weeping holly to a set of moss-covered steps. These lead to the stone paved shrub-enclosed circles that were designed and installed by the famous Edna Walling—probably the only example of her work on Mount Macedon. It is a mellow area seamlessly linked to the older framework and leading in turn to a charming small gate in a hedge that looks out to the giant eucalypts in the paddock beyond.
Looking at her original plans you can see that the garden was to include a formal Italianate area in what is now the paddock behind the mandatory grass tennis court. This feature wasn’t followed through with. The tennis court doesn’t see too much action these days but must
have once been a focus for the young, well before television and PlayStation.
On the north side of the house hidden by hedges is one of the few remaining examples of a large and original productive vegetable garden. The current owner is part
of the family that bought the property in 1919. All through summer crops of berries and vegetables are harvested in much the same way they were more than 80 years ago—and by the same owner!
Behind the house and across the drive you walk
past a huge weeping holly to a set of moss-
covered steps.
Majestic native Manna Gums Eucalyptus viminalis in the paddock below the garden
Stephen’s nursery Dicksonia Rare Plants is located at
686 Mount Macedon Rd Mt Macedon. You can also catch
him every second Sunday on 3CR Community Radio.
23
Clockwise from top left: The bright red berries on a weeping variegated holly; alpaca; the green flower heads of Euphorbia characias; the paddle like leaves of a Bergenia cordifolia reflecting in the fish pond
WHAT’S ON
A musical Edwardian comedy in two acts by James T. Tanner, with lyrics by Adrian Ross and music by Lionel Monckton. A Country Girl opened in 1902 at Daly’s Theatre in London and ran for 729 performances.
This is likely to be the only performance in country Victoria.
Come along and be part of the upsurge of interest in this delightful genre of musical theatre in the charming Paramoor Barn. Delicious wines and cheese plates will be available to enjoy.
Paramoor Barn 1pm-4pm
July 22‘A COuNTRY GIRL’
GILBERT & SuLLIvAN OPERA SOCIETY, vICTORIA
The One Act Play Festival promises a diverse mix of plays performed by some of the top community theatre companies from Melbourne and regional Victoria.
The weekend has become a major social event in the theatre community. Each year we attract numerous theatre companies from throughout Victoria to compete for our awards.
This year we have well-known local actor Maggie Millar as our adjudicator.
Drinks, hot food and soup will be available to ward off the winter chill.
July 21–22THE MOuNT PLAYERS ONE ACT
PLAY FESTIvAL
www.themountplayers.com
www.paramoor.com.au
Auth
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ed b
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Dunc
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14/9
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Because Macedon Matters
Shop 14/9 Goode St (PO Box 39), Gisborne VIC 3437P: 5428 2138 F: 5428 2919 E: [email protected] www.joanneduncan.com.au
adVertIseMent
Please don’t hesitate to contact me for assistance on any state Government matter, that is of interest to you or your family.
Joanne Duncan MPMeMBer fOr MaCedOn
www.themountplayers.com
Pictured: Eve Old’s play Court House
An Ode To Daylesford features a collection of works by Daylesford artist Jodie Fergusson-Batte.
This celebration of life in a small country town will feature for August at MADE Gallery (within the historic Raglan Building). Open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10am-5pm, we invite you to come along and say hello, enjoy a glass of wine, and soak up the warmth of this great little town.
MADE Gallery, The Raglan Building, 1 Camp Street Daylesford
Opening night: Friday 3rd August 6-8pm
AugustAN ODE TO DAYLESFORD
Call Jodie on 0409 039 263
or email [email protected]
www.artbyjodie.com
Macedon Ranges bursts into Spring with 40 Bloomin’ Years of Daffodils and Arts
The Festival will celebrate its 40th year with an exciting array of arts, crafts, gardens, flower shows, food, wine and hospitality.
Featuring masses of beautiful daffodils, open gardens, an antique fair, alpaca fiesta, ferret racing, fun run, performance and literary events, art and photography exhibitions and a glittering Old Time Ball. There’s also a solo performance by Maggie Millar and gourmet food demonstrations by local providores.
A Retro Costume Party starts the celebrations on 10th August.
August 30–Sept 9KYNETON DAFFODIL AND ARTS
FESTIvAL
www.kynetondaffodilarts.org.au
The Dromkeen Homestead
2727
Dromkeen
WORDS SaraH PrEStoN PHOTOGRAPHY big dog bitES
National Centre for Picture Book Art—Riddells Creek
iN THE COMMUNiTY
Joyce and Court Oldmeadow Memorial Sculpture.
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I think it’s the Bunyip.
He’s strolling across the garden in front of me—gentle, knowing—with his swag and his billy can flung across his shoulders, going somewhere. He’s wise and slow and kind. And there’s an immediate sense of child-like wonder as I drive past him among the beautiful gardens and past the historic homestead where the most extensive and valuable collection of original illustrations, artworks and manuscripts from Australian children’s picture books is housed.
There’s an urge to scamper around the gardens, jump and pirouette, click my heels together. It’s a little wisp of magic weaving through the trees, a sprinkling of fairy dust. And an immediate and powerful testament to the realisation of the intentions of a couple of booksellers who based their business and their life’s work at Dromkeen in Riddells Creek.
* * *
Dromkeen was bought in 1973 by Court and Joyce Oldmeadow.
Educational booksellers, they had two bookstores in Melbourne and initially used the property as a private
It starts pretty much as soon as I enter
the grounds.
The Bunyip of Berkeley’s Creek (sculptor Ron Brooks)
29
residence and base for their business—selling books particularly into primary schools. Through their work, however, they realised that a lot of the artwork from Australian children’s books was either being sold overseas, lost or not really valued, so they started to collect it for themselves.
It began decorating the walls of Dromkeen. However in the 1970s Australian picture books began to enjoy a higher profile. Overseas authors touring in Australia began to visit Dromkeen and spend some time there, often giving some of their artwork to the collection as a result. It thus grew steadily, quickly became a destination for school excursions and established an international reputation. This was cemented in 1976 with Court and Joyce being awarded the Eleanor Farjeon Award for distinguished service to children’s literature, which had never been won outside of the UK before.
Today, the Dromkeen National Centre for Picture Book Art consists of some 7500 original illustrations,
artworks and manuscripts from Australian children’s
picture books. It includes sketches, preliminary artwork,
diagrams and dummies and is the most valuable and
significant collection of its kind in Australia.
Thousands of school children pass through the property
every year, gleaning insight into
the complex creative journey
involved in producing picture
books and the broad range
of pre-publication material used.
“It has pedagogic value in that
the kids replicate what authors
and illustrators do—so kids
don’t just write. They write,
they rework, they write for an
audience—they’re increasingly
attuned to the notion that creative output isn’t ‘push the
button, and it just happens,’ ” says John Oldmeadow,
son of Court and Joyce and currently director of the
collection.
“It grounds them in the reality of the creative process,
the huge amount of work involved. Kids are fascinated
by seeing what happens behind the books that they
Today, the Dromkeen National Centre for Picture Book Art consists of some 7500 original illustrations, artworks and manuscripts from Australian children’s
picture books.
The Man from Iron Bark (sculptor Tessa Wallis)
know and love, they really do like to talk to illustrators about what methods they use.”
That the excursions have been going on for 30 years is testament to this.
Children from primary school through to secondary school frequent the centre. Then there are tertiary students, teachers, and authors and illustrators researching methods used by others before them.
During a primary school session John Nicholson, Riddells Creek author/illustrator and artist, explains to the class that his passion in writing and illustrating is the drama of real life. With more than 25 books to his name—focusing particularly on engineering, architecture, transport and “animal architects”—he has a wealth of knowledge to share with the students and beautiful, detailed illustrations and their preliminary drawings to discuss.
The students are attentive and interested. Their questions stem from a genuine interest in subjects that they have, somewhere along the line, applied some thought to. Their school—Waverley Christian College from Knox, Melbourne—has been coming to Dromkeen with their Grade Five classes for about ten years. John has taken this session for the past five.
Though it strikes me as almost two different careers––the solitary nature of artistic endeavour as compared to the classroom––he advises that he loves these sessions. Particularly seeing the spark of interest that can be ignited even in otherwise quiet or disruptive students.
* * *
The value of Dromkeen extends beyond its value to children, however.
John Oldmeadow asserts that Dromkeen has had a significant role in changing the profile of this genre of artwork for authors and illustrators.
“In 1975 very few people took it seriously and very few illustrators could survive on children’s book illustrations,” he says. “Now many illustrators earn a significant income from their talks to school groups.”
Top left: Possum Magic sculpture by Sylvio Apponyl from the book by Mem Fox. Bottom left: Joyce and Court Oldmeadow Memorial Sculpture (sculptor Tessa Wallis) Opposite: The glass-encased collage construction by Jeannie Baker from Where the Forest Meets the Sea
31
Dromkeen was one of the decisive factors in establishing this profile for illustrators.
John goes on to say that artwork sales have become a significant component of income for illustrators and have leapt from hundreds of dollars an illustration to thousands.
Who tends to buy the work, I wonder—it has never occurred to me before that I might have a Possum Magic piece on my wall, nor have I seen anyone in possession of one. But “the artwork has a real value in its own right, real value associated with the book and the personal reading of the book” John points out.
“The artists often illustrate for children’s books as well as other things, so it is part of their overall creative output.”
Bought by librarians, teachers, young parents and so forth, the notion ties in closely with my response to the Bunyip. I can’t even remember the book (The Bunyip of Berkeley’s Creek by Jenny Wagner, illustrated
by Ron Brooks) and can’t even be sure that I’ve read it. But the Bunyip nevertheless elicits some sort of response in me. It’s nostalgia, sure, but there’s something else in there too—enough of it to make me understand how the personal reading of a book could
educe enough desire to have it adorn one’s walls.
* * *
Looking through the archives, I try (and fail) to put my finger on that feeling.
Stored in a surprisingly small space, the room is like a giant Christmas stocking—one really doesn’t know what to look at first
or where the greatest treasure might be pulled from.
Jane Stanley, Dromkeen’s education officer, shows me various pieces and reels off names and facts about who created them.
There’s a glass-encased collage made from natural rain forest materials, clay, paper and paint from Jeannie Baker’s 1988 book Where The Forest Meets The Sea;
There’s a glass-encased collage made from natural rain forest materials, clay,
paper and paint from Jeannie Baker’s 1988 book
Where The Forest Meets The Sea.
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a pen and ink illustration by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite—credited with being the first Australian picture book illustrator—from the 1916 book Elves and Fairies. There’s all the working out puzzles that Graeme Base did for The Eleventh Hour and a bound dummy from Robert Ingpen.
There’s Quentin Hole’s initial dummy of the 1974 publication of Banjo Paterson’s The Man From Ironbark, and a clay sculpture of a frog among its greenery from Green Air by Jill Morris, illustrated by Lindsay Muir—the illustrations in the book being photographs of delicate clay sculptures.
“A lot of people don’t realise the different materials that picture books are made with,” Jane says. “Until you’ve seen the originals, you don’t understand the artwork that’s behind the illustrations.”
She pulls out a piece done in an education class at Dromkeen by Patrica Mullins, who uses tissue paper for her work (I had no idea). “She doesn’t use scissors, she just hand tears,” Jane says.
As I struggle to express my wonder, Jane helpfully saves me the trouble—possibly, she’s heard a similar wide-eyed wonder among these archives many times before.
While agreeing that the final images are attached to memories—hopefully, in the main, happy memories from our childhoods (the ‘old friend’ phenomenon of characters known and loved, or memories of parents or grandparents reading to us)—she suggests that the effect of seeing these original images and sketches is related more to the insight it gives into the creative process of the illustrators.
“It’s like peeking into someone’s diary,” she says— “how they thought, how they created something.”
* * *
Court Oldmeadow passed away in 1977 and the bookselling side of the business was bought by Scholastic, an educational publisher with a unique standing within schools. Scholastic continued to run Dromkeen as a bookshop as well as maintaining the collection, formerly taking over the trusteeship in 1982 and buying the homestead in 1985 to guarantee a permanent home for the collection. Joyce continued to contribute to the vision for Dromkeen, establishing the Dromkeen Medal in 1982, which is awarded annually to an Australian citizen whose work has significantly contributed to the appreciation and development of children’s literature.
The Man from Iron Bark miniature dummy book
34
In the 1990s Scholastic decided to close the book business, and the Dromkeen story becomes more interesting again.
It’s a story not just about one couple, passionate about both inspiring children with the creative process of making books and preserving for public enjoyment the original artwork behind them. It’s also about an international company’s commitment to preserving and growing this collection for Australians to enjoy and benefit from, for no financial gain for itself whatsoever.
Under the terms of the trust, the collection and the income received from the collection were to be used solely for the educational advancement of Australian children. As such, Scholastic has funded the homestead, the staff, the education program, exhibitions, storage and the preservation of the collection for more than thirty years.
“It’s a reflection of the American notion that if you work in a community then you put something back in to that community,” John says.
It’s a commitment that far exceeds my usual understanding of “something”. Not only has it provided funding to the tune of millions of dollars, but it has also set itself the goal of developing Book Bunkers—unique libraries for sick children—in every major children’s hospital in Australia. They already exist in the
Westmead Children’s Hospital in Sydney and the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane. A third is planned to open this year at The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.
After thirty odd years of supporting the collection, however, Scholastic is gifting
the entire collection to the State Library of Victoria later this year.
With a strong commitment to children’s books and a huge collection of Australian children’s books (more than 100,000 titles) the State Library has, according to John, worked extraordinarily hard to engage the community and move from being “just” a library to being a community resource. With the potential for a specialised children’s area within the library,
After thirty odd years of supporting the collection,
however, Scholastic is gifting the entire collection
to the State Library of victoria later this year.
a courtyard already converted into Experimedia for children, and as the location of the annual Children’s Book Festival—where more than 10,000 children and their parents gather—there are many positives to the move for the collection.
Importantly, it has the storage, preservation and display resources to give the collection excellent exposure.
It does however spell of vast changes for the Dromkeen that has resided in the Macedon Ranges for several decades.
* * *
Court and Joyce Oldmeadow essentially sought to bring books and children together—as an educational and inspirational experience.
Beyond this, they created the chance for parents to be with their children around books; to remember the books they loved as children.
People come from around the local area, from Melbourne, from interstate and overseas. Part of Dromkeen’s value has been its broad appeal—with sculptures, a heritage trail, gardens, peacocks, the artwork, the child-friendly gallery, the kid’s activities, the educational aspects and the space to just sit and read with children.
Scholastic will likely sell the property. The staff—some of whom have been there for 15 years—will move on. And while it will be vastly different visiting the collection in the middle of the CBD, the collection, and the availability of it to educate and inspire children and adults alike—exactly as Court and Joyce intended it—will carry on. The magic is in the stories. And it remains.
Dromkeen is open to the public Tuesday to Friday
9am-5pm and Sunday noon-4pm until the end
of Term 3, 2012. After that it will be housed in the
State Library of Victoria in Melbourne’s CBD.
If you wish to see a particular item please call
ahead and discuss with staff.
John Nicholson’s work includes such titles as Cedar,
Seals and Whaling Ships; Wool, Wagons and Clipper
Ships; Steam, Steel and Speed; and 100 Years of
Petrol Power. He recently exhibited ‘Drawings from
the Silk Road’ at the City Library in Melbourne.
Opposite: Tissue paper collage by Patricia Mullens from Shoes from Grandpa by Mem fox
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37
WORDS SuE PEaCoCk PHOTOGRAPHY big dog bitES
KaroriStyle Spot—Mount Macedon
STYLE SPOT
Marie and Dominic Romeo.
38
Dominic Romeo lopes down the driveway to meet
me accompanied by two dogs cavorting excitedly
around him.
He looks like just another tradesman with his paint
spattered jeans, dark T-shirt and dirty sneakers.
“Get down,” he orders one dog as we stroll back up
the muddy track towards his house. “Sorry,” he adds,
smiling apologetically as we move past bales of pea
straw, around a tradie’s ute and over a few puddles
to the wooden stairs that lead to the front door.
Here, large paint tins, boxes and carpet off-cuts are
lined up—the detritus of renovators everywhere.
“Welcome to Karori,” says Dominic, pushing open
the front door. “Sorry about the mess. We are about
to move in and we’re just trying to get the front of the
house painted.”
It’s a paint job that would make most home renovators
crumble, given the tower that dominates the impressive
front facade.
Yet Dominic and his wife Marie aren’t at all fazed by their
latest project—to return this two-storey, six-bedroom
hill station property high on the southern slopes
The last authentic hill station on Mount
Macedon has been brought back to life
by heritage lovers and serial restorers Dominic and Marie
Romeo. Sue Peacock reports on their
progress.
The front of karori pre-restoration
39
of Mt Macedon to its former glory. In fact, they appear perfectly happy amid the mess.
For this local couple has had plenty of practice rescuing country estates from neglect and ruin.
Over the past 15 years they have restored and operated many of the region’s historic buildings including the 50-room Italianate mansion Rupertswood at Sunbury, and Burnewang, a 34-room Jacobean and Elizabethan style house on the banks of the Campaspe River at Elmore. Compared to them Karori, with just six bedrooms, should be a doddle.
The Swiss Italian style chalet is their third Mount Macedon project and follows the renovation of two previous homes, Timsbury and Benue Lodge. So they already know about the cold, including the likelihood of it snowing.
“We prefer country homes, and we have done up quite a few in Victoria and Tasmania,” Dominic says. “There is a whole infrastructure that goes with them—
gardens and stables and cottages and that is what
I love about them.”
So where does this fascination come from, for the son
of Italian migrants who grew up in a brick veneer in
St Albans and now serves on the board of the National
Trust’s conservation committee?
Dominic believes the passion
was sparked during his years
boarding at Geelong Grammar.
A career in hospitality also
brought him into greater contact
with fine old buildings.
Built as a summer chalet for New
Zealander Charles Chapman
in 1888, Karori (named after
a suburb in Wellington) is listed on Victoria’s heritage
register. When the Romeos bought it at auction last June
it hadn’t been lived in for a year and was damp, cold
and full of mould. The sprawling garden, with its notable
collection of North American and New Zealand conifers
and cool climate deciduous plants, was choking under
the weight of blackberries and other weeds.
The Swiss Italian style chalet is their third Mount
Macedon project and follows the renovation of two previous homes,
Timsbury and Benue Lodge.
The house is transformed with fresh paint only days before the Romeo’s move in
40
Clockwise from top: The kauri and Baltic pine-lined walls and ceilings; gutting the kitchen brought much-needed light into the house; the predominantly woodland garden is historically significant
41
While other prospective buyers shuddered when they arrived at the end of the narrow winding road that leads up to the 2.47ha property, Dominic knew he had found his next home as soon as he opened his car door.
“I could tell from the front gate,” he says. “I just knew that down that drive there was something amazing.” The pair already knew of the house, having been approached to buy it a couple of years prior.
“We weren’t in a position to take it on at that time but that had changed when it came on to the market last year,” Dominic says.
Designed by Italian born architect Louis Boldini, who also designed Braemar House (now part of Braemar College), Karori was virtually unchanged from its original form when the Romeos discovered it—a major bonus.
“The house hadn’t really been tampered with, apart from a tiny bit in the kitchen and downstairs,” Dominic says. “So it hasn’t been a difficult project in that sense, it has mainly been cosmetic changes.”
Gutting the old kitchen provided a chance to bring much needed light into the house via a white colour palette. In keeping with their philosophy of restore and re-use, the old Aga stove was retained in addition to a new stove.
Some smaller rooms in the hallway leading into the main bedroom were realigned to accommodate an ensuite in the master bedroom. Other bathrooms, which were spartan to say the least, have also been sensitively upgraded.
Being on the heritage register meant approval was needed for the smallest of changes. Not that Dominic— a board member of the National Trust—and Marie, an interior decorator and co-owner of Creative House in Kyneton’s Piper Street, mind such restrictions.
“They are not unreasonable demands,” Marie says. “They are there for a reason but there is also an understanding that homes like this need to be able to meet today’s living requirements.”
A request to paint the exterior in shades of green rather than the original mission brown was agreed to after Dominic explained the house didn’t get a lot of direct sunlight and was already dark inside due to the kauri and Baltic pine-lined walls and ceilings.
The pair didn’t start work on the house until last November when the necessary permits arrived from Heritage Victoria. In the meantime, Dominic was kept busy clearing the garden paths and researching the home’s history.
42
A member of the Dewez family, who owned Karori until 1972, provided more than 600 photos, a great reference guide. They show a family enjoying their country home, playing tennis, riding horses and relaxing in the garden.
While clearing the garden paths, Dominic uncovered two chairs in the undergrowth.
“I went and had a look at the photos and there they were,” he says.
For Dominic, the social history of his new home is very important. As is the broader infrastructure, which once included stables, tennis court, an orchard and flower picking garden, a greenhouse and a gardener’s cottage.
“Unfortunately much of it was lost during the Ash Wednesday bushfires in 1983,” he says.
He has plans to bring the lawn tennis court back into operation but in the meantime, its flat surface will be perfect for his son’s upcoming 21st birthday party.
Karori’s predominantly woodland garden is also historically significant with an arborist identifying one of its Douglas firs as among the largest in Victoria.
For Marie, the challenge has been how to decorate what she describes as a “very masculine” house.
There was no question of painting over the timber walls which meant being creative with the soft furnishings.
“I’ve gone with quite bold carpets and curtains and used chandeliers to brighten it up and create a bit of drama, while ensuring there is some warmth in what
are large rooms,” she says. She still has to complete the “put and look” with furniture pieces and artwork before the home is ready for the big reveal.
The pair is looking forward to inviting their large extended families back to have a second look after a Boxing Day barbecue last year, when first impressions saw opinion divided.
“Some of them got out of the car and said ‘this is your best
one yet’, and others were shaking their heads and screeching in disbelief,” laughs Marie. Even their two sons hated it to begin with.
“But every time we move the boys say ‘but this one has been the best house we’ve lived in’ so I expect they will come around.”
For Marie, the challenge has been how to decorate
what she describes as a “very masculine” house.
There was no question of painting over the timber walls which meant being
creative with the soft furnishings.
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45
On the Land
WORDS daNiEllE WHitE PHOTOGRAPHY kim SElby
Click Go the Years—Kyneton
ON THE LAND
lenny Muir.
46
But, beyond his reputation for being a likable larrikin and renowned raconteur, those who know Lenny well will tell you that he also has a serious side; an extraordinarily hardworking, devoted family man with a knack for fostering life-long mateships.
Sitting at Lenny’s kitchen table, the hum of contented family life fills the room. Two of Lenny’s three adult daughters and two of his five grandchildren mill around the kitchen where Carol, Lenny’s wife, has begun preparing the evening’s meal.
Lenny tells me he’s just finished three days’ work shearing lambs on a farm over near the Cobaws. At 62, Lenny is a third-generation shearer; he learnt his craft from his father who learnt it from his father before him. “I remember when I got my first job roustabouting in the sheds for Dad. I had to pick up for five shearers and that was back in the days when Dad was shearing 200 sheep a day and others were shearing an average of 160 to 180—so I had to run to keep up, literally!” he laughs, leaning back in his chair.
After leaving school at the age of 16 in 1966—the year decimal currency was introduced in Australia—Lenny got his first job at the John Brown Knitting Mill on Market Street in Kyneton. “I started out earning five, sixteen
Anyone who’s met Leonard Muir will tell you that if he hadn’t
been a shearer he would’ve been an
entertainer.
47
and six (£5 16s 6d). The next thing I knew I was earning eleven fifty-seven ($11.57) —I thought I’d struck it lucky and was earning nearly twice as much for doing the same job!” Lenny quips. It’s typical of the light-hearted banter the larger-than-life shearer is known for.
“The next year Dad gave me a hungry stand and from there I had to earn my right to move off it and on to a good stand.” A hungry stand, Lenny explains, is a rookie shearer’s stand that’s poked around a corner out of the way of the gun shearers’ stands on the board; the area where the sheep are shorn and let out of the shed. And earning his place on a good stand meant shearing 100-plus sheep a day. “Dad taught me that a gun shearer doesn’t just shear big numbers; as well as speed, skill, endurance and technique he’s gotta shear ’em clean and he’s gotta treat the animals right. Reputation is everything if you want to make a life out of shearing. You won’t get asked back if you don’t prove yourself.”
If you happen to stay at Bringalbit, an early pastoral settlement in Sidonia that is now run as a country B&B, you will discover the words “1967 Leonard Muir” stencilled in black wool bale ink on the back of the old shearing shed door alongside the names of other shearers. “I guess it’s kinda like a ‘hall of fame’ thing amongst the fellas that were shearing in those days. Part of the mateship and camaraderie of the shed I suppose. It was my first year shearing and I’ve been shearing ever since.” June marks Lenny’s forty-fifth consecutive year shearing.
Towering well above six foot, it’s a long way down to the lanolin-soaked boards of a shearing shed floor—but it doesn’t seem to have ever bothered Lenny. “When it comes to injuries I’ve been pretty lucky I suppose,” Lenny says. “Sure, these days I’ve got a constant niggle in my back and my hamstrings give me a bit of trouble now and then, but nothing that could stop me winning last year’s tennis grand final alongside my 16 year-old grandson Bryce!” he says with his characteristic inclination to focus on the positives.
48
On any given day, Lenny is likely to be spotted traversing the region—anywhere from Sidonia to Newham, Melton to Taradale or Malmsbury to Metcalfe—in his trademark white Holden Kingswood ute. If he’s not making his way to or from a day’s shearing, he’ll be dropping in on someone to say hello. “I think that’s nearly gotta be the best part of the job,” Lenny says. “Because I shear at the same properties year after year through tough times and good seasons you get to know people pretty well. I don’t need to be shearing to stop by for a cuppa and a yarn.”
As well as the social side of things, anyone familiar with the goings on of a shearing shed knows that there’s a competitive, sporting side to it. Records are set and broken by “gun” shearers (a gun shearer is someone who can shear a large number of sheep cleanly in one day). There are some in the district who reminisce about a “Dream Team”—a group of young gun shearers that was in high demand in
the ’80s. The story goes that Lenny was part of this crack shearing team along with Michael Halloran, Frank Turner and Tony Barrow. “Oh, I don’t know about Dream Team,” Lenny says modestly, “but we sure had some
laughs, I’ll give you that much.”
While wide combs and the hydraulic wool press have made manual shearing more efficient, shearing robots and Bioclip are yet to replace people such as Lenny. That said, the life of a shearer has changed because the life of farmers has changed: “It’s not like it was in the ’50s when Australia ran on the sheep’s back and wool was pound for pound. You could make a decent living as a shearer back then.”
With investors buying big parcels of land for investment or lifestyle farming and it becoming increasingly difficult to obtain approval to build a house on land zoned farming under 40ha, Lenny laments: “We’re a dying breed in these parts. Big sheds are going by the wayside”.
On any given day, Lenny is likely to be
spotted traversing the region—anywhere from
Sidonia to Newham, Melton to Taradale or
Malmsbury to Metcalfe—in his trademark white
Holden Kingswood ute.
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50
He recalls the good old days when farms supported families and the farmer’s wife cooked morning tea, a hot roast lunch and afternoon tea for the whole shearing team.
“Nowadays, the first thing I do in the morning is pack my own smoko.”
In the off-season, when the sheds are still and the sheep are busy growing wool, Lenny has become a jack-of-all-trades; turning his sizable hands to patching holes in roads for the Shire, working at a local sawmill, a hardware factory and doing rural fencing. “I suppose I could have stopped shearing anytime and turned my hands to something else, but I didn’t. I always returned each season.”
When asked what has driven him to devote 45 years of his working life to such a physically demanding job—sweltering under corrugated iron roofs through the boom and bust of the wool industry and the uncertainty of the shifting landscape of Australian farming—
Lenny answers: “Simple. Shearing is in my blood.”
To use wool industry parlance you might say Lenny’s
bloodline is “superfine”. In 2007, his father, Joseph
Ronald Muir, was awarded a Medal of the Order
of Australia for his 61-year career
as a shearer and inducted into the
Australian Shearers’ Hall of Fame
in Hay, NSW. Joe sadly passed
away in 2010 and a picture
of a shearer is fittingly etched
on to his gravestone. “Dad was
a professional and a gentleman,”
Lenny says proudly.
If hard work is good for you little wonder Leonard Muir
still has a youthful, mischievous sparkle in his eyes and
a spring in his step; he exudes a love for life that stands
him in good stead to reach his Golden Fleece (50 years
shearing) and beyond.
As I leave Lenny’s home, we joke that the extraordinary
tally recorded in his Shearer’s Tally Book might one day
make its way into a book of a different kind; one that
tells the tale of an extraordinary shearer.
“I suppose I could have stopped shearing anytime and turned my hands to
something else, but I didn’t. I always returned each
season.”
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“The Macedon Ranges - Our home.”Hello, I’m John Bradbury from Kyneton Toyota.
The beauty of the Macedon Ranges never ceases to amaze me.
We’ve just experienced the glory of autumn, the parade of nature changing colour before our eyes.
And now winter is here - a time to rug up, stoke the fire and don the woolies.
Our seasonal parade provides variety throughout the year and soon we will be welcoming spring; when nature again will present a display of different colour, growth and the celebration of new life across our beautiful region.
Celebrate the Macedon Ranges and call in and see us at Kyneton Toyota, just off the freeway!
Kyneton Toyota is one of Australia’s newest Toyota dealerships, located in the beautiful Macedon Ranges.
167 Mollison Street Kyneton, Victoria www.kynetontoyota.com.au
54 210 200
Tis the Season to be JollyChristmas In JulySaturday 21st July, 7pm
Campaspe House is embracing the cold and brewing mulled wine to
celebrate Christmas.Enjoy a complimentary glass of
mulled wine followed by a 3 course Christmas Extravaganza including tea and coffee
$90 per personPlease book early to avoid
disappointment! Bookings essential,
large groups welcome.
CAMPASPE COUNTRY HOUSEGOLDIES LANE WOODEND 03 5427 2273
www.campaspehouse.com.au
52
CAREER SPOT
WORDS daNiEllE WHitE PHOTOGRAPHY daNiEllE WHitE & SuPPliEd
Bellus Botanicus n. [L.] botanic beauty
A glorious jumble of rare and curious specimens jostle for position in the natural light-filled conservatory. Dried seed pods, birds’ nests, speckled eggs and exotic feathers sit atop dark-wooded antique cabinets. Elsewhere paint brushes in rough-hewn clay pots keep company with delicate hand-carved collectibles. It’s clear that even the tiniest of Nature’s creatures and creations are appreciated by this artist’s curious and caring eye.
Anita is one of Australia’s foremost botanic artists. Her finely-observed and painstakingly detailed works adorn the pages of highly-regarded tomes such as Flora of Victoria and Flora of Australia while numerous of her illustrations feature in other significant taxonomic and botanic publications.
“In its purest form, botanic art is highly-detailed, diagrammatic illustrations from which a plant can be identified as a species in the service of science,” Anita says. “Works are clean, honest, clear and entire and demonstrate a fineness of technique. Most notably, unlike other art forms, there is an absence of the artist’s interpretation, creativity or impression; almost an absence of the artist altogether,” she says. “You have to be true to the plant and portray it with precision to complement its taxonomic description.”
Entering Anita Barley’s studio feels a bit like
entering a small Wunderkammer
museum.
Career Spot—Woodend
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy.
Anita’s work: Clematis ‘vyvyan Pennel’
54
Plates are typically line drawings or watercolours and show the face and reverse of the plants’ leaves, flowers, buds, seeds and root system. They may also include microscopic details such as the plant’s reproductive structures and other features relevant to its identification.
Among the exuberant profusion of natural curios and collectibles hang some of Anita’s own artworks. A framed illustration of a blood-red peony rests on an easel beside a splendid leadlight window awash with Nature’s hues. “This one took me several weeks of non-stop painting to complete,” Anita says. “Peonies don’t last very long so I only had a short amount of time to capture the detail.”
“About a week or so into the project I was mortified when I opened the door and the wind whipped around the room and blew some of the petals off.” When asked (albeit naively) if she ever illustrates from photos Anita answers with an emphatic “no”. “Absolutely not! I need to move around my subject in 3D; to build a relationship with it, if you like, in its entirety. The process, for me anyway, involves more than just sight; it involves smell, texture, depth and intangibles like carriage and aura. With delicate subjects, I sometimes put bits and pieces in the fridge so they last a bit longer or alternatively I work from dried specimens—but I never paint from photos, no.”
Botanic illustration needs great artistic skill, attention to fine detail, technical botanical knowledge and a quality some people find hard to acquire: patience. Some subjects, such as New South Wales Waratahs (Telopea speciosissima), take Anita months to complete. “I love Waratahs,” she says smiling broadly. “They may take me five or six months to illustrate but being fettered to your subject is very much a part of the experience.”
Other subjects, such as Wisteria (Wisteria floribunda), which Anita is currently working on, compel her to wait until they bloom again the following year before she completes them. “When I paint Wisteria I prefer the plant to be freshly in bloom and hanging on its vine; it has the most divine smell and I can’t help but feel happy—it’s worth every moment I have to wait.”
Anita at work in her studio in Woodend. Far right: Anita’s work: Waratahs (Telopea ‘Wirrimbirra White’ and ‘Shady Lady’)
55
Because each work takes considerable time to complete Anita often associates a certain smell, music score, or event with her artworks. Anita was painting a study of daffodils when her brother died. “It was a very difficult time for me,” she reflects pausing to rest her magnifying glass. “My art became a kind of meditative restorative therapy; I guess because when I paint I have to concentrate so much that it forces me to shed any thoughts I might otherwise have about myself. Being this close to Nature is humbling and soul-restoring.”
The crisp white window panes above Anita’s desk frame a verdant, rambling garden and invite beams of dappled sunlight to rest softly on her work-in-progress. She executes each stroke so delicately, so intricately, yet so swiftly and with such confidence. She explains that the brushes she uses are the same as those designed for Queen Elizabeth I. “The tools of the trade haven’t altered much at all; we still primarily use the same pigments, papers,
pencils, brushes, microscopes and magnifying glasses as they did hundreds of years ago. It’s an olde-worlde art form that has really come into its own in modern times.”
After completing a graphic design course at RMIT in 1977, Anita was appointed as botanic artist of the National Herbarium of Victoria at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. It was her job to illustrate Flora of
Victoria. “I was lucky to get the job at the gardens. They hadn’t had a resident artist for ninety years or so,” she says. For the next 16 years Anita produced hundreds of illustrations. “I completed 16 years of a 25-year project. I guess I wore out because I was
more or less locked away in isolation; botanic art wasn’t as popular then as it is now. It was much more aligned with science than aesthetics.”
Originally born of the scientifically-accurate recordings of botanists and taxonomists, botanic illustration was once primarily a male activity. Anita mentions the
She executes each stroke so delicately, so intricately,
yet so swiftly and with such confidence. She
explains that the brushes she uses are the same as those designed for
Queen Elizabeth I.
56
likes of Pierre-Joseph Redouté, a Belgian painter and botanist appointed the official court artist of Queen Marie Antoinette and known for his watercolours of roses, lilies and other flowers at Château de Malmaison.
But times have changed. “Australia has several exceptionally talented pioneering female botanic artists,” Anita says. “Ellis Rowan, Margaret Stones, Celia Rosser, and former Kyneton resident Jenny Phillips who established the Botanical Art School of Melbourne in South Yarra in 1992 have been great influences on the recognition of the art form.”
Anita neglects to mention she has been twice awarded the prestige Celia Rosser Medal (2002, 2006) in recognition of the exceptional quality of her artwork and contributions to the field of botanical illustrations.
In the past twenty years or so, there has been “an explosion of interest in botanic art” and a boom in courses that provide chances to learn the art form for “everyone from beginners and hobbyists
to professionals.” Since moving to live in Woodend about twenty years ago with husband Richard Barley, CEO of Open Gardens Australia, Anita has taught and
inspired many people in the local Macedon Ranges region.
“I think botanic illustration has grown in popularity precisely because it’s worlds apart from the frantic pace of modern life. One of the trickiest things to teach people is how to slow down. Unlike many other pursuits these days you take up botanic illustration for the journey and the process not for the outcome.”
Anita’s work is held in the State Botanical Collection as
well as in private collections around Australia and internationally. Most recently Anita’s work has been exhibited in Sydney and locally at Woodbine Gallery in Malmsbury.
Anita neglects to mention she has been twice
awarded the prestige Celia Rosser Medal (2002,
2006) in recognition of the exceptional quality of her artwork and contributions
to the field of botanical illustrations.
To find out about open studio times,
contact Anita at [email protected]
Clematis florida ‘Sieboldii’
macedon ranges magazine.Distributed and enjoyed in cafes, wineries, B&Bs, spa centres, hairdressers, waiting rooms,
major metropolitan hospitals and tourist information centres all around Victoria—from
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“The magazine is delivered to my place of work, a doctors rooms in East Melbourne...Many of the patients have been very interested in the magazine and I have often been asked to copy an advertisement or one of the articles. A couple [of patients] have even come back to say they have been to visit the area or have stayed in one of the places advertised in your magazine. I live in Kilmore and thoroughly enjoy the magazine each time it comes, we too have been over to your area and had a lovely meal or just a wander along the beautiful streets of Woodend, Kyneton and Daylesford.” – Margaret, Kilmore
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All mornings should begin in a bakery, and fortunately Trentham’s Red Beard Bakery is an absolute cracker.
The 140-year-old Scotch oven is responsible for some superb sourdoughs. Hot out of the oven and smeared with butter, the sourdough sings with bubbling baked beans and crispy Istra bacon. Fairtrade organic coffee seals the deal. Grab a hot bun to warm your pocket on the way out—Trentham is cold, people!
TrenthamIt’s a miracle towns like Trentham still exist. Flanked by luscious farmland and densely wooded forest, the town has managed to escape the gentrification and country-meets-urban-cool of nearby destinations such as Daylesford and Kyneton, retaining a sense of old world, country charm. With a sleepy high street, a handful of dilapidated shops and the lingering scent of wood smoke, Trentham is the country hideaway of your dreams. Pack your jumper and head into the woods.
EatYou won’t know which way to look at Colliban Foodstore. Part cafe, part larder, part wine bar and part fine wine merchant this place is all things for all foodies. Enjoy breakfast, lunch, or afternoon tea among the bounty of olive oils, pastas, cheeses, charcuterie and wines. Friday nights are open for wine tastings.
The Cosmo, an 1866 pub, has been ravaged by fire and neglect but is slowly being brought back to its heyday splendour. The restored stables are where all the action happens—log fires, slate floors, original wood paneling and a spectacular focus on local wines (think Epis and Curly Flat pinot noirs) will warm the cockles. The casual bar meals (the Thai chicken burger is a beauty) and finer
dining options (scotch fillet with red wine jus and fetta crushed potatoes) make for a near perfect evening.
For an alternative pub option, try the Pig & Whistle—a local favourite featuring honest pub grub—or the Trentham Hotel, which holds monthly Irish folk nights (last Friday of the month).
WEEkENDER
WORDS ElliE ParkEr
With much hurrah Annie Smithers’ latest project, du Fermier, recently opened its French farmhouse doors on Trentham’s high street. Sup on a slow braise made from Annie’s seasonal backyard produce (right now it’s spuds, garlic, shallots). Tempting Frenchy homewares and rural-chic collectables are also for sale.
StayTwigs on High is a sweetheart little B&B cottage exquisitely fitted out with French-country-boho decor, along with an impressive home entertainment set up. Once you’ve d u m p e d your bags and settled in you’ll be snug as a bug in a rug.
Play
Fancy sleeping in a church in the middle of a paddock? The Sacred Heart church has been renovated (think New York loft apartment meets rural Australian place of worship…weird, yes, but wonderful). Accommodating up to 10 guests, with a giant fireplace, billiard table, swish kitchen and mod bathrooms this is a masterstroke of elegant hospitality.
Ahhh nurseries. Love ’em or hate ’em, meander through The Garden of St Erth beautiful (mostly edible)
gardens and nursery before rewarding yourself at St Erth Cafe with some serious scone action. Fluffy as a nimbus cloud they become other-worldly with insane lashings of cream and local raspberry jam. Lunches are also lovely, with local ingredients (Tuki trout, Fernleigh pork, Istra charcuterie) and spuds from St Erth’s own earth. Stock up on heirloom seedlings as you exit—they’re the best in the business.
Old-fashioned millinery can be found at Jargon, where Helen McRae recycles vintage tweed coats into
beautiful hats. She also makes a mean cushion.
Trentham Falls is the longest single drop waterfall in Victoria. It’s no Niagara Falls, sure, but the 32 metre-long sheets of water spilling over the basalt columns are nonetheless impressive (and if you’ve had too many pinots from the night before, a little waterfall spray in your face will do you wonders).
From here you can head back towards Trentham and stop at the Trentham Golf Club for a couple of civilised holes. Alternatively, if bikes are your business, head towards the Wombat State Forest, hit the fire trails and be prepared to wear some mud.
Finally, the Trentham Farmers Markets are on the fourth Saturday of every month.
61
Macedon Ranges Produce
WORDS ElliE ParkEr PHOTOGRAPHY big dog bitES
This Little Piggy—Bullarto
MACEDON RANGES PRODUCE
A Wessex Saddleback piglet.
62
The pigs in question are rare breed Wessex Saddlebacks, currently roaming their way across 10-odd hectares of Fernleigh Farm’s clovered paddocks.
The reason the phone is ringing is because these Saddlebacks are about to leap from obscurity and near-extinction into a brand new world of commercially viable, rare-breed farming. Fernleigh Farm is on the frontier of big pig business and after years of hard work Fiona is relishing the moment. In the mud. Surrounded by snuffling piglets.
* * *
Fiona and husband Nicholas bought Fernleigh Farm in 1990.
The exceptional quality of the soil in the area was the principal attraction for Nicholas, who came from a vegetable farming family near Toolangi. Situated on the outskirts of Daylesford, in the small township of Bullarto,
“The pigs are what make the phone ring,” says a beaming Fiona
Chambers, standing in a puddle of mud.
63
Fernleigh’s 48-odd hectares soon proved themselves
to be perfect carrot country. Fernleigh Farm’s organic
carrots rapidly became the pin-up girls for large-scale
organic farming, with the Chambers securing a 10-
year supply contract with Coles,
along with eight years’ worth
of significant export contracts
to Japan.
For a time there, organic carrots
were Fernleigh’s buried treasure.
In more recent years, however,
new competitors and a changing
organic marketplace forced the
Chambers to reassess their
business model. Two seasons
ago Nicholas and Fiona
harvested their last carrot and instead turned their
attention to the Wessex Saddlebacks grunting their way
around the top paddocks.
How dinner saved a breed“I started breeding pork for my own plate,” Fiona says.
Frustrated by the lack of free-range pork available in the
marketplace (today only five per
cent of Australia’s pork is free
range), Fiona bought three little
Wessex Saddleback crossbreds in
1995. Unaware the breed was on
the verge of extinction, Fiona went
about trying to find a non-related,
pure breed boar for breeding
purposes. She ended having to
travel to remote Queensland to
find one of the few remaining
registered breeding boars in
Australia and realised the breed
was on the cusp. “We’d lost touch with where our food
comes from and the importance of biodiversity. Wessex
Saddlebacks weren’t part of the Australian pork industry.”
Today Fiona’s black and white beauties graze on
350kg of certified organic popcorn waste a day, roam freely across lush rotational
pasture, wallow in mud baths and forage among
clover.
Fiona Chambers not only saved the Wessex Saddleback from near extinction but also turned her mind to bringing rare breed, free-range pork to the people
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK..........................................................................................................................................................
Big Shed Wines 1289 Malmsbury Rd, Glenlyon 5348 7825..........................................................................................................................................................
Gisborne Peak Winery 69 Short Rd, Gisborne South 5428 2228..........................................................................................................................................................
Granite Hills Winery 1481 Burke and Wills Track, Baynton 5423 7273..........................................................................................................................................................
Hanging Rock Winery 88 Jim Rd, Newham 5427 0542..........................................................................................................................................................
Paramoor Winery 439 Three Chain Rd, Carlsruhe 5427 1057..........................................................................................................................................................
OPEN 5 DAYS A WEEK..........................................................................................................................................................
Cobaw Ridge 31 Perc Boyers Lane, East Pastoria 5423 5227..........................................................................................................................................................
Mount Gisborne Wines 83 Waterson Rd, Gisborne South 5428 2834..........................................................................................................................................................
Rowanston on the Track 2710 Burke and Wills Track, Glenhope 5425 5492..........................................................................................................................................................
Zig Zag Wines 201 Zig Zag Rd, Malmsbury 5423 9390..........................................................................................................................................................
OPEN WEEKENDS & PUBLIC HOLIDAYS ..........................................................................................................................................................
Birthday Villa 101 Mollison St, Malmsbury 5423 2789..........................................................................................................................................................
Ellender Estate 260 Green Gully Rd, Glenlyon 5348 7785..........................................................................................................................................................
Glen Erin at Lancefield 200 Rochford Rd, Lancefield 5429 1041..........................................................................................................................................................
Guildford Vineyard 6720 Midland Hwy, Guildford 5476 4457..........................................................................................................................................................
Kyneton Ridge Estate 517 Blackhill Rd, Kyneton 5422 7377..........................................................................................................................................................
Mt Franklin Estate 2 Whybrow Rd, Franklinford 5476 4475..........................................................................................................................................................
Mt Macedon Winery 433 Bawden Rd, Woodend 5427 2735..........................................................................................................................................................
Mt William Winery 890 Mt William Rd, Tantaraboo 5429 1595..........................................................................................................................................................
Sailors Falls Estate 1073 Telegraph Rd, Sailors Falls 5348 6626..........................................................................................................................................................
OPEN BY APPOINTMENT..........................................................................................................................................................
Braewattie 351 Rochford Rd, Rochford 5429 1266..........................................................................................................................................................
Chanters Ridge 440 Chanters Ln, Tylden 0427 511 341..........................................................................................................................................................
Curly Flat 263 Collivers Rd, Lancefield 5429 1956..........................................................................................................................................................
Farrawell Wines 60 Whalans Trk, Lancefield 5429 2020..........................................................................................................................................................
Hesket Estate 856 Romsey Rd, Hesket 5427 0707..........................................................................................................................................................
Lane’s End Vineyard 885 Mt William Rd, Lancefield 5429 1760..........................................................................................................................................................
Midhill Vineyard 1727 Romsey Rd, Romsey 5429 5565..........................................................................................................................................................
Mt Charlie Winery 228 Mt Charlie Rd, Riddells Creek 5428 6946..........................................................................................................................................................
Morganfield 104 Ashworths Rd, Lancefield 5429 1157..........................................................................................................................................................
Passing Clouds 30 Roddas Ln, Musk 5348 5550
The vignerons of the Macedon Ranges welcome visitors to our cellar doors.
Our unique wines are as diverse as the region we harvest. Come and discover the wines at your
back door.....
macedonrangeswine.com.au
Seventy sows later, Fernleigh Farm has single-handedly been responsible for saving the breed from extinction. Today Fiona’s black and white beauties graze on 350kg of certified organic popcorn waste a day, roam freely across lush rotational pasture, wallow in mud baths and forage among clover. When it comes to rest time, they even have their own unconventional huts—Toyota packing crates known as “complete knock downs” (CKDs). “They’re perfect for pigs!” Fiona says. “The marine ply ensures they’re cool in summer, warm in winter.”
Fernleigh Farm’s sought-after pork smallgoods, all made from the Saddlebacks, include old fashioned-style bacon—awarded “Best Bacon” by The 2012 Foodies Guide to Melbourne—and a traditional chorizo sausage, finalist in both the 2010 and 2011 Delicious Magazine Produce Awards. Christmas hams, prosciutto and capocollo round off the production line nicely. The smallgoods are nitrate-free and contain local, artisan ingredients such as Mt Zero hand-harvested Pink Lake Salt and organic red wine from Kangaroo Hills in Blampied. Through experience, Fiona has learnt that charcuterie is preferable to fresh pork products. “Smallgoods are easier to market on a large scale. We can plan and schedule our smallgoods production six months in advance, whereas fresh pork isn’t as easy due to a limited shelf life.”
Getting this little piggy to marketWhile Fernleigh Farm paints a pretty piggy picture, there is much more to this enterprise than satisfied sows.
In the process of salvaging a rare breed of pig, Fiona not only became a champion of the farm animal biodiversity movement but also, and perhaps more importantly, turned her mind to the commercial practicalities of bringing rare breed, free-range pork to the people. Most Australian dinner tables haven’t ever clapped eyes on a piece of rare breed pork. When it comes to Fiona’s free rangers, the paddock-to-plate enterprise remains somewhat of a boutique operation.
This is where the story gets good.
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK..........................................................................................................................................................
Big Shed Wines 1289 Malmsbury Rd, Glenlyon 5348 7825..........................................................................................................................................................
Gisborne Peak Winery 69 Short Rd, Gisborne South 5428 2228..........................................................................................................................................................
Granite Hills Winery 1481 Burke and Wills Track, Baynton 5423 7273..........................................................................................................................................................
Hanging Rock Winery 88 Jim Rd, Newham 5427 0542..........................................................................................................................................................
Paramoor Winery 439 Three Chain Rd, Carlsruhe 5427 1057..........................................................................................................................................................
OPEN 5 DAYS A WEEK..........................................................................................................................................................
Cobaw Ridge 31 Perc Boyers Lane, East Pastoria 5423 5227..........................................................................................................................................................
Mount Gisborne Wines 83 Waterson Rd, Gisborne South 5428 2834..........................................................................................................................................................
Rowanston on the Track 2710 Burke and Wills Track, Glenhope 5425 5492..........................................................................................................................................................
Zig Zag Wines 201 Zig Zag Rd, Malmsbury 5423 9390..........................................................................................................................................................
OPEN WEEKENDS & PUBLIC HOLIDAYS ..........................................................................................................................................................
Birthday Villa 101 Mollison St, Malmsbury 5423 2789..........................................................................................................................................................
Ellender Estate 260 Green Gully Rd, Glenlyon 5348 7785..........................................................................................................................................................
Glen Erin at Lancefield 200 Rochford Rd, Lancefield 5429 1041..........................................................................................................................................................
Guildford Vineyard 6720 Midland Hwy, Guildford 5476 4457..........................................................................................................................................................
Kyneton Ridge Estate 517 Blackhill Rd, Kyneton 5422 7377..........................................................................................................................................................
Mt Franklin Estate 2 Whybrow Rd, Franklinford 5476 4475..........................................................................................................................................................
Mt Macedon Winery 433 Bawden Rd, Woodend 5427 2735..........................................................................................................................................................
Mt William Winery 890 Mt William Rd, Tantaraboo 5429 1595..........................................................................................................................................................
Sailors Falls Estate 1073 Telegraph Rd, Sailors Falls 5348 6626..........................................................................................................................................................
OPEN BY APPOINTMENT..........................................................................................................................................................
Braewattie 351 Rochford Rd, Rochford 5429 1266..........................................................................................................................................................
Chanters Ridge 440 Chanters Ln, Tylden 0427 511 341..........................................................................................................................................................
Curly Flat 263 Collivers Rd, Lancefield 5429 1956..........................................................................................................................................................
Farrawell Wines 60 Whalans Trk, Lancefield 5429 2020..........................................................................................................................................................
Hesket Estate 856 Romsey Rd, Hesket 5427 0707..........................................................................................................................................................
Lane’s End Vineyard 885 Mt William Rd, Lancefield 5429 1760..........................................................................................................................................................
Midhill Vineyard 1727 Romsey Rd, Romsey 5429 5565..........................................................................................................................................................
Mt Charlie Winery 228 Mt Charlie Rd, Riddells Creek 5428 6946..........................................................................................................................................................
Morganfield 104 Ashworths Rd, Lancefield 5429 1157..........................................................................................................................................................
Passing Clouds 30 Roddas Ln, Musk 5348 5550
The vignerons of the Macedon Ranges welcome visitors to our cellar doors.
Our unique wines are as diverse as the region we harvest. Come and discover the wines at your
back door.....
macedonrangeswine.com.au
Teeing off at Woodend Golf Course
67
Up until now, one of the biggest hurdles facing rare breed farming was the difficulty in guaranteeing supply and therefore commercial viability. Fiona, as managing director of Rare Breeds Trust of Australia, in conjunction with the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), established a conservation breeding centre at Nehill Brothers Farm in South Purrumbete. The vision is for this site to become a centralised hub that brings small-scale producers together to share information about keeping rare and heritage livestock breeds—especially pigs. Rare breeds such as the Wessex Saddleback will be bred by a collection of small scale farmers who will “take responsibility as a breeding unit” before the animals are moved to the National Trust’s farms to mature. These farms include Nehill Brothers Farm and Gulf Station in the Yarra Valley. The benefit of this model is that it supports small-scale producers, keeps small landholdings in peri-urban areas in food production and provides consumers with access to a diversity of rare breed meat.
The first batch of Wessex Saddleback piglets bought using this model and grown at Nehill Farm were processed in April this year. At the time of writing the final product was expected to be available by winter 2012 as co-branded rare breed meat through boutique supermarkets across Victoria and hopefully further afield. Thomas Dux, Leo’s and Toscano’s have all
shown interest in stocking the product. Fiona hopes this business-meets-conservation model will take flight and consumers will not only have access to the product, but also understand their role in protecting rare breeds, supporting free range farming—and ultimately creating great bacon.
“I’ve always wanted to tell the story that our everyday buying decisions determine an animal’s life,” Fiona says. “They drive the production system of how an animal is raised.”
Fortunately Fiona’s story is being heard—and importantly, valued.
Last year she was honoured by Delicious Magazine, receiving the 2011 Delicious Food Magazine Heritage Award. She has been inducted into The Age’s (Melbourne Magazine) Melbourne Food Hall of Fame for her promotion of food biodiversity.
It seems Fiona’s efforts are well on the way to bringing these real little piggies to market.
Whilst Fernleigh Farm paints a pretty piggy
picture, there is much more to this enterprise than
satisfied sows.
www.fernleighfreerange.com.au
For a tasty pork recipe from one of our renowned
local chefs see page 78
PiG qUiCk FACTS
• There were more pigs on board the First Fleet than any other breed of animal.
• Pigs are great breeders—a sow can produce two litters a year, resulting in an average of 20 piglets.
• Wessex Saddlebacks pigs are known as ‘baconers’, meaning they are an excellent eating pig.
• Wessex Saddlebacks are listed as an endangered breed by the Rare Breeds Trust of Australia. In 2011 they were included on the International Slow Food Ark of Taste.
• There are fewer than 300 purebred Wessex Saddlebacks in Australia, representing 90% of the global population. The Fernleigh herd accounts for about 25% of the world’s Wessex Saddleback population.
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WORDS daNiEllE WHitE PHOTOGRAPHY big dog bitES
MERRY SPiRiT
It’s Not About the Bike
Russell Eckersley.
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It’s an enviable and energetic joie de vivre that comes from loving what they do and doing what they love.
It mattered not which cycling discipline people preferred—road, track, touring, mountain biking, cross country, downhill or recreation—their spirited enthusiasm was unmistakable and confirmed Lance Armstrong’s declaration “it’s not about the bike”. Well beyond carbon-fibre, loud Lycra and copious coffee, riding a bike is about connecting with nature, others and oneself.
And what better place to toddle off on your treadlie than the Macedon Ranges. “Cyclists are blessed with dream topography in these parts,” says Kyneton local David Bibby whose proclivity is road cycling. “From endless undulating terrain, flats and downhill mountainsides to a multitude of meandering paved country lanes and, hopefully, a soon-to-be rail trail. We really are spoilt for choice!”
When it comes to mountain biking in Central Victoria it seems there are few who haven’t heard of Russell Eckersley.
Russell has a reputation for being what you might call a “cyclepedia”—a go-to man for all things cycling, whether you’re just starting out or want to hold a cycling event. Initially a skateboarder, injuries he acquired 15 years ago “encouraged” Russell to turn his skills to cycling and he’s been riding ever since.
When not out riding, Russell is busy designing and
If one thing stood out more than
anything else when chatting with the
cycling enthusiasts who feature in this
story, it is the passion they each hold for
their pastime.MOUNTAiN BikiNG
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building tracks and trails, some of which he says he will never ride. “The new Mount Tarrangower track in Maldon is a cutting-edge, downhill mountain bike trail. It is beyond my own ability and it’s attracting a lot of attention from some of our best riders. It’s a downhillers’ playground,” he says. “It played host to the final round of the 2011/2012 Victorian Downhill Mountain Bike Championship Series, so that says something about its standard.”
But Russell’s success doesn’t end there. “After a decade or more of negotiating with the Department of Sustainability and Environment they have finally approved, permitted and officially sign-posted our iconic ‘Wombat Track’,” he says. Russell explains that even when the track was “unofficial” it attracted about 300 visitors a week, most of who journeyed from Melbourne. “It’s a massive benefit to the region’s tourism and local businesses, not to mention to the health and wellbeing of the people who participate. On top of that, it’s a responsible and sustainable cross-country mountain bike track.”
Russell is adamant that mountain biking not be tarnished with the same brush as motorised trail bike riding, which has a reputation for damaging and disregarding the environment. “When we build tracks we work in-sync with nature as much as possible. I design and build single tracks that are not much wider than a bike’s handlebars and I work with nature’s own natural paths, which means I build over and around fallen trees, debris etcetera to disturb it as little as possible. Together with Parks Victoria, we consider things like drainage, soil erosion management, landscaping.”
Fresh back from touring unassisted through deserts and across crocodile-infested rivers in the Northern Territory, Russell has also competed in 24-hour non-stop solo events and ridden 6000km from Sydney to Darwin. “It’s not uncommon for me to go out the front door, get on my bike and ride 1000 or 2000 kilometres,” he says. Little wonder the Wombat Track project was completed eventually.
“I see tracks and trails as an art form—creating something for others to experience that will be challenging, intuitive, smooth, flowing. You need to be in touch with the intangible and unexplainable elements of the experience of cycling. At the end of the day, if what I do means I contribute to the best part of other people’s weekends then I’m happy.”
The Department of Sustainability and Environment have now officially sign-posted the ‘Wombat Track’ in the Wombat State Forest
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The Macedon Ranges Cycling Club (MRCC) is an all-encompassing all-inclusive club for female and male racing and recreational cyclists across all age groups.
“We pride ourselves on being a community-minded and community-spirited club,” says club secretary Greg Bland. “We love to encourage more people to cycle more often and equally encourage people who might not want to cycle to participate through other club activities such as being an event marshal. We’re all about being part of a team.”
“Our track is open to all always,” adds club president Ross Ogilvie. “We hold competition scratch, handicap, time trial and pursuit events as well as teaching beginners how to ride and providing kids’ distances too. We are also developing a weekly session for children who are intellectually challenged. We want everyone from all walks of life to feel welcome and find a place to belong in our club,” Ross says. And if you don’t own a bike it’s no excuse to this club; they have a couple of spare road bikes and the local RSL recently sponsored two track bikes for general use—you just need to bring along a helmet.
The MRCC has plenty of enthusiasm and some great club-building ideas in the pipeline. Among them is a proposal to hold an interclub time trial in Trentham. Known as “the race of truth” a time trial, Greg explains, is a simple race against the clock unlike the nuanced strategies employed in other forms of cycle racing. “This makes it a great spectator sport; everyone loves to watch a race against the clock. And it’s equally thrilling for the riders because they get to test themselves and see just how fast they can go,” he says.
“The reason I have cycled for so long,” says MRCC member and long-time Kyneton resident Peter Sporle “is because I can cycle with a group, with my wife or son or on my own; there are few physical pursuits that are so flexible and so accessible to all age groups and abilities.”
If you are a male and looking for a regular but informal group to ride with then the unofficially-dubbed “Men’s Shed On Wheels” might get your wheels spinning. Local resident Barry Gross started the group about four years ago and it’s grown from six to 28 or so riders. The group meets each Monday and Friday morning at the Kyneton velodrome and cycles anywhere from 35 to 55km depending on the direction and intensity of the wind.
“We get to catch up while we ride along. We talk about anything and everything,” say its members. Their ride ends with a coffee and well-earned muffin at the Roadtrip Cafe on Piper Street in Kyneton.
Perhaps all this healthy enthusiasm and camaraderie is what led historian Elizabeth Howard West to say she thought humans had reached the peak of their attainments with the invention of the bicycle: “Here, for once, was a product of man’s brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle.” We wouldn’t quite go that far, but riding a bike certainly makes for a merry spirit, it would seem.
Photo: Christine Bland, Arena Graphics
TRACk RoAd
Dropping down a cog or two, the Daylesford Macedon Ranges region has many outlets for people of all ages to enjoy recreational cycling.
The Woodend Annual Vintage Bike Ride is a great day out for all the family. Held each October, riders dust off their old bikes or bring along a new one, dress in vintage gear and roll their way through 23km of picturesque countryside from Woodend’s clock tower to the historic Cosmopolitan Hotel in Trentham.
The MAD Ride (Melbourne Autumn Daytour) is held around March/April each year and is a popular event organised by the Melbourne Bicycle Touring Club. Up to 1000 people ride one of four routes ranging from 40 to 120km.
Rail Trails are much-loved by recreational cyclists and families and local groups have been working tirelessly to make the Daylesford-Woodend Rail Trail a reality. The “Crossing Borders Tracks and Trails” project, which includes this Rail Trail, was recently granted $50,000 for strategic planning. It is considered a project of state-wide significance and has been called anything from a “sheer delight” to a possible “international icon” by locals—what with the breathtaking scenery, historic cafes, bakeries and restaurants to be enjoyed along the way.
H.G. Wells once wrote that seeing an adult on a bicycle never failed to fill him with “hope for the human race”. It would seem that between all these spectacular options for the cycling enthusiast, hope abounds up our way.
www.woodendcycles.com.au
www.fullcycleevents.com.au
www.bicyclenetwork.com.au
www.madride.org.au
RECREATiONAL
Photo: Christine Bland, Arena Graphics
Photography exhibition by
Dominic Romeo
1st – 19th August 2012Opening: Sat 4th August 3:30pm - 6:30pm
No.1 12-14 Piper St, Kyneton, Victoria 3444email: [email protected]: exhibitas.com
c100 m100 y100 k100
c40 m20 y100 k50
c40 m15 y100 k20
‘Where Thistles Grow’We are not shaped by what we have nor who we are,
but where and what we have come from.
Breakfast Out is a web magazine that features insightful, lively reviews of the best places to eat breakfast in Melbourne.
Don’t waste your morning on a dud egg!Check out
www.melbourne.breakfastout.com.au
That’s right – only the best places. We realise that time is precious, and that breakfast lovers don’t want to spend their days reading reviews of no-good eateries. All cafes featured on Breakfast Out have been carefully checked out by our team to ensure that the food, service and ambience all live up to our exacting standards.
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RESTAURANT REviEW
WORDS ElliE ParkEr PHOTOGRAPHY tim burdEr
Sure, Breakfast & Beer’s key asset is their eighty-odd list of local and international brews. Yes, they also do a magnificent breakfast spread using seasonal and local ingredients—and yes, each breakfast dish can be complemented with one of the many brews on offer. But chef and manager Benjamin O’Brien ensures this Daylesford favourite is so much more than a mere brewski and crumpet.
Firstly, Breakfast & Beer boasts an exceptional kitchen. The food is comforting yet imaginative and executed with an assured finesse. Then there is the atmosphere, which revels in its own peculiar version of rustic charm—an open fireplace cackles in the corner while laid back Steve Miller tunes hum underneath the babble of happy, candle-lit punters. Then there is the staff, refreshingly well-versed in matters of lagers, stouts, ales and manners. You get my drift. The place is good.
Breakfast & Beer is many things to many people: it wears the cafe-bistro hat, the bar hat and sometimes even the community drop-in centre hat. You can slowly brunch on roasted Lancashire sausage, bread and butter pickles, fried egg and toast at 9am but you’d be equally at home having a quiet solo stout at the bar at 3pm. Supper time tends to come alive with jocular diners enjoying the merriment of the beer menu and the hearty plates of food emerging from the kitchen. All things for all people.
Together with chef Heidi Muller, O’Brien’s kitchen sources much of the produce locally (Holy Goat cheese,
Breakfast & Beer
Don’t let these two simple words deceive you.
Spa Venison, Kyneton Olive Oil, Des O’Toole’s honey,
Jonesy’s milk, Istra ham, Mt Zero olives). With that
good, honest base of goodies, Muller and O’Brien might
occasionally take a walk on the wild side—the steamed
oats, caramelised buckwheat, strawberries, rhubarb
and Jonesy’s milk is a sublime interpretation of stodgy
porridge. It sings with a sneaky sense of humour, all the
while being delicious. Pair that with a Bloody Reverend
Al, made with Zubrowka bison grass vodka, apple juice,
lemon, chopped apple and cinnamon and you have
a serious breakfast to contend with.
Dinner plays it a little safe, with stalwart favourites
such as the gnocchi with wild shot rabbit ragu, lemon
oil, chives and pecorino (great with a bitter hops ale)
or perhaps some Vadouvan spiced free-range chook
with eggplant, spinach and pomegranate.
Desserts make most giddy with delight but you’ll
inevitably choose the gingerbread eskimo pie.
Everybody does. After which you might want to finish
with a Frangelico with lime over ice before stumbling out
into the misty night.
Breakfast & Beer is a very civilised excuse to drink beer
and eat well. It doesn’t get much better than that.
117 Vincent Street Daylesford 5348 1778
www.breakfastandbeer.com.au
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Q&A with Annie Smithers
WORDS ElliE ParkEr PHOTOGRAPHY kim SElby
du Fermier—Trentham
MACEDON RANGES FOOD & WiNE SPOT
Q: What inspired you to branch out and open
a French farmhouse style cafe in Trentham?
A: As the restaurant in Kyneton became more
complex, I felt the need to open a more relaxed eatery.
The building in Trentham became available and it all
fell into place. Trentham is the perfect town to have
a relaxed, regional, casual eatery.
Q: Would you say Trentham is on the cusp of
a Daylesford-type boom?
A: Trentham is a very different town to Daylesford. While
Daylesford has a history of tourism with its spa resorts,
Trentham has always been a village that supports its
townsfolk and farmers above all else. The sense of
community is what needs to be supported at all costs.
Q: What’s the story with your shop? Did you have
your eye on it for a while?
A: The shop was mentioned to me a couple of years
ago, and when it became available it didn’t take much
to twist my arm.daniel Melbourne and Annie smithers.
77
Q: Who’s the chef?
A: Daniel Melbourne. A long-term customer of the restaurant and a talented chef, he has taken on the kitchen at du Fermier like it is his own. Daniel’s natural style of cooking is as close to mine as I could imagine and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the food he is producing.
Q: What types of dishes can we expect from du Fermier? What dish are you most excited about?
A: Classic French farmhouse cuisine including omelettes, charcuterie, braises and roasts.
I’m most excited about being able to offer some classic French dishes that can be shared, such as cassoulet or chateaubriand.
Q: Will there be produce available for takeaway? If so, will much of it be derived from your kitchen garden—for example terrines, or your raspberry
jam which ran amok at Paul Bangay’s open garden?
Are you baking your own bread?
A: We will be baking some of our own bread and, when
there is excess from the garden, we will be selling our
own produce. At the moment (March) that is garlic and
shallots. We are also stocking
some of my produce including
the raspberry jam.
Q: Kitchen garden aside, are
there any other local products
that you will be relying upon
in the kitchen?
A: We use Hanging Rock eggs to supplement our own
eggs, Istra, Western Plains pork and McIvor pork.
Q: What is going to be your biggest challenge for
du Fermier?
A: Keeping an old building toasty warm through a long
Trentham winter!
We will be baking some of our own bread and, when
there is excess from the garden, we will be selling
our own produce.
78
- perfect with the 2008 Craiglee Chardonnay
Brining pork is one of my favourite things in the kitchen. I was not a great lover of pork until we started to treat the meat like this. It works for meat both on and off the bone. As always, choose free-range pork, which tends to be smaller than standard commercial pork cuts.
Brine
• 4 litres water• 1 cup flaked salt• 1/2 cup honey• bay leaf• peppercorns• 2 sprigs thyme• 1.2kg piece of pork eye of loin
Method
1. Make brine 48 hours before you wish to have dinner2. Bring all ingredients to the boil3. Simmer until salt is dissolved 4. Cool and refrigerate overnight
The following day:
5. Add your loin in a whole piece and leave in brine for 24 hours
6. Remove; pat dry and cut into six portions7. Preheat oven to 180º8. The pork can be seared in a pan both sides or on
a chargrill9. Place in oven and cook for seven minutes10. Remove from oven and serve with apple puree and
potatoes
Puree
• 2 large cooking apples, peeled, de-cored and diced• Juice of 1/4 lemon• 2 tbsp caster sugar• 4 tbsp water
Method
1. Place all ingredients in a saucepan and place pan over a moderate heat
2. Stir mixture with a wooden spoon until sugar dissolves3. Leave apple to cook for 10-15 minutes stirring
it occasionally until it has collapsed4. Place in a food processor and turn into a smooth puree
Grilled Pickled Pork Loin with Apple Puree
du Fermier is fully licensed and at
42 High Street Trentham 5424 1634
www.dufermier.com.au
2 Jennings St, Kyneton 3444 Phone: 5422 2877 Fax: 5422 2788 Email: [email protected]
Seven GPs committed to providing comprehensive and professional medical advice with special interests including: skin cancer; gynecology; ophthalmology; sexual health; paediatrics; geriatrics; mental health and chronic disease management.
• Late surgeries Tuesday and Wednesday evenings for commuters.
• Bulk billing available for all children under 16 and concession card holders (depending on doctor).
www.campaspefp.com.au
Shop 2, 130 High Street, Woodend 3442Telephone 03 5427 4500
Open 7 days
Nestled on the gentle slopes of Mt Gisborne, taking in the breathtaking views of the Macedon Ranges, Mt Gisborne B&B offers a stunning one bedroom cottage
where you can enjoy the seclusion and tranquility of a traditional country lifestyle, with the modern
conveniences you expect for that special get away.
83 Mt Gisborne Road, Gisborne VIC 3437Phone 03 5428 8383
www.mtgisbornebb.com.au
Seclusion Tranquility Relaxation
1300 66 17 66 or 03 5427 1895www.bodywise.com.au
Shop 19, 130 High Street, Woodend (next to new Post Office)
comfort for women
Open 10-5pm daily closed Tuesdays
38 Piper St. Kyneton ph. 54221907
Creative House specialises in an extraordinary range of gifts and homewares.
• Beautiful homewares and gifts• Bags• Jacqui Henshaw limited edition scarfs• Jewellery and accessories• Bath products• Men’s gifts and accessories• Furniture, lamps and artwork• Stunning imported decorator fabrics• In-house interior design service• Wide range of quirky children’s gifts
The perfect place for the perfect gift
Wide variety of Pies, cakes and tarts baked from scratch daily
Specialising in Birthday, Wedding and Occasion cakes
65A High Street Kyneton VIC 3444 03 5422 6331 www.sweetcravings.com.au
Hepburn Springs
Daylesford
Kyneton
LancefieldHanging Rock
Mount Macedon
WoodendTrentham
Ballarat
Melbourne Airport
Melbourne
Seymour
Bendigo
Dromkeen-National Centre for Picture Book Art, 1012 KilmoreRoad, Riddells Creek
Breakfast and Beer, 117 Vincent Street, Daylesford
du Fermier, 42 High Street, Trentham
The Mews, 262 Station Road, New Gisborne
Paramoor, 439 Three Chain Road, Carlsruhe
Gisborne Peak Winery, 69 Short Road Gisborne South
Trentham Falls
Turpin Falls
Mt Macedon Memorial Cross
Hanging Rock Reserve
Malmsbury Viaduct, Urquhart St (behind botanic gardens)
Lauriston Reservoir
Botanic Gardens
Lake Daylesford
Jubilee Lake
Wombat State Forest
BroadfordMalmsbury
Castlemaine
Romsey
Bacchus Marsh
Wallan
Heathcote
Creswick
Gisborne
Sunbury
Macedon Ranges Area Map
Regional attractionsFeatured businesses
N
0 20 km 40
Tylden
Riddells Creek
Daylesford Macedon Ranges Area Map
A wine experience to rememberAn Estate visit will reward you with friendship, knowledge and an understanding of our special place.
Regional platters, wood-fired pizzas, picnic hampers, small conferences, celebration parties and weddings.
Hours: 11.00am to 5.00pm Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays
Other times by appointment
L’Osteria – Lunch 12.30pm to 3.30pm
www.ellenderwines.com.au
Ellender Estate and L’Osteria
Directions to Ellender Estate at Glenlyon.
At the Old Glenlyon Store follow the sign and turn into Ford Street to the Back Glenlyon Road for 1.2 km and turn right into Green Gully Road. Follow bitumen to the creek crossing. Ellender Estate is the second entrance on the right 200 metres after the crossing.Glenlyon is 32 km from Woodend, 24 km from Kyneton and 10 km from Daylesford.
Ellender Estate “Leura Glen”260 Green Gully Road, Glenlyon 3461
T: 03 5348 7785E: [email protected] Follow us on facebook
