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Personal journeys

Personal journeys

In our history A dream realised – Chewton bushlands stories Chapter 7 Personal journeys (a 2.8 MB PDF) is devoted to the personal stories of 15 bushlanders.


2017/18 Fire season CFA briefing

2017/18 Fire season CFA briefing

Fire preparedness, Summer 2017/18


Handyman, carpentry, grass slashing, chainsawing: Jeremy Ryan

Handyman, carpentry, grass slashing, chainsawing: Jeremy Ryan

Handyman, carpentry, building of small structures such as wood sheds, grass slashing and chainsawing. Jeremy can lift small heavy loads like motors and pumps onto his ute for servicing with a hoist. He has happy customers in Jo and Paul, Ray, Antoinette and Ian and Robin. m: 0407 855 507


Drive grading: John Post

Kim and Mark recommend John Post m: 0409 510 466


Plumber: Malcolm Nancarrow

Kim and Mark recommend Malcolm Nancarrow m: 0417 526 966 e: mnplumb@netcon.net.au


Proposed burn update: Now for fuel reduction not asset protection

Proposed burn update: Now for fuel reduction not asset protection

The bushlands reserve on Commissioners Gully Road is now subject to a proposed planned burn sometime between 1 March and 31 May 2017. The signs recently put up at the reserve read: “Planned Burning Operations in accordance with the Published Fire Operations Plan for the Murray Goldfields District are scheduled in this area between Wednesday […]


Zombie alert!

Zombie alert!

Series 2 of the zombie tv ‘Glitch’ largely shot around the shire is coming to get us. Take care around the intersection of Miners Hut, Goldspeck Gully and Wattle Roads this week.


CFA Bushlands fire briefing December 2016

CFA Bushlands fire briefing December 2016

Antoinette Birkenbeil reports on the CFA Chewton Community Fire Meeting at Chewton Cemetery on Saturday December 10,  2016, attended by Kylie, Jim, Hannah, Tim, Ann Quinton, Glen, Chris, Fran, Jill, John Ellis, Karen, and four dogs, with CFA presenters Alan (from the CFA Community Education Group in Bendigo), David Button (CFA Chewton Captain), Barry Mousey (Second Lieutenant) and his daughter […]


Understanding Fire in our Landscape

Understanding Fire in our Landscape

A Community Conversation was a community event held on the weekend of the 12-13 November 2016, in Newstead, a town in Central Victoria.


Bushlanders tell their story

Bushlanders tell their story

… to the ABC.  


Our 2016/17 AGM

Our 2016/17 AGM

The 2016/17 AGM for the Association was held in the Chewton Town Hall at 7pm on Friday 6 October 2017.  Chewton Bushlands Association 2016/17 AGM Your committee for 2017/18 is: Ken Savage (President), Kate Elliot (Vice president), Mark Carter (Secretary), Karen Baker (Treasurer), along with Charles Affleck, Antoinette Birkenbeil, Mandy Huppert. Contact the secretary of […]


Lot 17: Robyn and Ian Robinson

We had been looking for a property in the country for some time and had become increasingly despondent. After viewing some houses near Castlemaine, on a wet and windy Friday, we visited Glenys Johnson at Waller Realty. Glenys said that she had one place that we might be interested in but that she couldn’t show […]


Curry nights are back on the table

Curry nights are back on the table

Set your alarm clock now for a mid-hibernation awakening to the imminent lengthening of days. The mid-winter curry night is back. Saturday 18 June at Ian and Robyn Robinson’s, 43 Miners Hut Road. To help them out with their preparations please RSVP asap to igar@bigpond.com.  Rice and roti are taken care of but please rock up […]


Water tank cleaner

Does anyone know of a good contractor we can contact to clean out water tank for the the first time in 15 years? Cheers, Mark and Kim


Asset protection burn: Update

Asset protection burn: Update

The proposed asset protection burn (triggered at the request of a neighbour) on the public reserve in Commissioners Gully Road didn’t take place, as listed, between 1 March and 31 May 2016.   The Department of Environment and Primary Industry included the 12 hectare parcel of public land “Chewton Bushmans Road MGF CAS028”, otherwise known as […]


A dream realised now online

A dream realised now online

A dream realised – Chewton bushlands stories was published in October 2015. Since then we have sold all copies. However you can now read or download PDFs of the book as follows: • Chapters 1 to 6 (the history of the subdivision) plus chapter 8 (Living off grid) and chapter 10 (Bushlands organisation) … a 6.3MB PDF, […]


Bush cinema by Bushlanders

Bush cinema by Bushlanders

Our second screening was on last Saturday February 20 at Mark and Kim’s. We watched two good docos… Wild Will / Doco / 7 mins Directed by Kieran Watson-Bonnice About an Australian boxer Harold: A portrait of Harold Blair / Doco  Produced by John Moore This documentary reveals how Harold emerged from the Queensland Reserve system in […]


Controlled asset protection burn

Controlled asset protection burn

The proposed burn did not happen in Spring 2015 as planned and outlined below. We await notification of a date in Autumn 2016.  In the meantime this piece by Phil Ingamells in The Age (10 January 2016) on the limits of fuel reduction burns is really very informative: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/appreciating-limits-of-fuel-reduction-burns-vital-to-effective-fire-management-in-victoria-20160110-gm2o3t.html ——————— Antoinette, Karen, Steve and I walked […]


Great Bluebell Creeper Cull update

Great Bluebell Creeper Cull update

Congratulations to all involved in the Great Bluebell Creeper Cull of February 2014 at the reserve on Bush Sanctuary Road. Karen and myself today (21 December 2015) did some follow-up work there and found remarkably few​ living specimens (which are of course no longer living) most of which were quite small and easy to manage. […]


Bush xmas 2015

Bush xmas 2015

Welcome…

Welcome…

A dream has been realised!

A dream has been realised!

Like our roads, the journey of A dream realised: Chewton Bushlands stories has been long, steep and rocky. But the book has now arrived. As the back cover blurb says: “In 1967 Brian and Merle Parsons purchased a parcel of land near Chewton in Victoria. A dream realised tells how Brian’s dream of creating a […]


Kundry’s seduction of Parsifal

Kundry’s seduction of Parsifal

Kundry’s seduction of Parsifal, the extraordinary love scene at the heart of Wagner’s final opera Parsifal, will be performed at Castlemaine Art Gallery on Saturday February 14 at 7.30 pm, Valentine’s Day. In a concert staging, US-born mezzo soprano Kristen Leich sings Kundry, the beautiful woman conjured up by dark forces to seduce and corrupt the unknowing Parsifal. Kristen made […]


Native mice

Native mice

Who else is hosting new winter residents? And what terms have you set on their tenancy? A non-lethal response suggested by Michael GS, one that he has found effective, is electronic rodent control… not that they are rodents… at http://www.pestrol.com.au/pestrol-rodent.html Mark Carter