Win a double pass to the Clunes Booktown Festival!

For a chance to win a double pass, tell us what you are MOST looking forward to at this year's Clunes Booktown Festival by completing the form below. But hurry - entries close Friday 26th April 2019 at 5.00pm.

Reader CompetitionSarah Lang15 April 2019clunes booktown, clunesComment

Liam, the Boy Scout.

featureSarah Lang3 April 2019poetry, clunes booktown, clunes, booktown, nathan curnowComment

Back to Booktown

Back in 2007 the millennial drought was well under way. The country was dry and farming communities were hurting. Clunes, the historic town 40km west of Daylesford, was suffering. Shops were closing and there was an uneasy sense of decline in the community. A group of locals put their minds together and decided to gather some book traders and turn Clunes into a mini book fair for a day. They expected a few hundred people. Six thousand showed up. Not only that but out of a population of 900 people 100 volunteered to help. They called it Booktown and next month sees the 12th annual Booktown at which 18,000 are expected to attend.

featureSarah Lang2 April 2019clunes, booktownComment

5 Reasons to Get Lost - April 2019

TOP 5Sarah Lang2 April 2019lyonville, lakehouse, cellar series, daylesford macedon ranges open studioComment

Spicy G&T

Who said G&T's were purely a summer drink? This spicy cocktail will warm you up as the weather gets cooler.

2 orange slices (for more flavour, use dehydrated or brûléed orange slices)
1 teaspoon cane sugar
1 cinnamon stick
3 star anise pods
60ml Animus Arboretum Gin
150ml Strange Love No. 8 Tonic (or any other great quality tonic)

Add ice, orange, cinnamon stick and star anise to the glass. Pour gin over the ingredients to help infuse the flavours. Add tonic and stir before drinking. Voila!

COCKTAILSSarah Lang1 April 2019animus distillery, gin, cocktails, spicy gin and tonic, star anise, cinnamon, orange, drink recipesComment

Healing Herbs

Drive to the eastern edge of Daylesford, where the elms begin to give way to farmland. Turn at the Farmers Arms and just before you get to the old railway bridge, take a left and follow the road for a few hundred metres to the old butter factory on your left. What you’re confronted with is a building that is distinctly Ye Olde Worldly, even King Arthur.

drinkSarah Lang1 April 2019Herbal lore, daylesford, liqueur, healing, herbs, drinkComment

Seasonal Fare

Daylesford’s Farmers Arms Hotel is the type of character-filled, friendly pub that every country town wishes it had - and which dozens of metro pubs have tried try to emulate. The beautiful red brick building, complete with red geraniums in window boxes, gilt sign-writing on windows and clipped hedge houses the quintessential character filled bar.

eatSarah Lang1 April 2019eat, farmers arms hotelComment

A Quiet Focus.

Danny Wootton is a quiet man. Softly spoken with a calming energy about him. You get the distinct impression that he sees the world differently. And not just because he spends most of his time looking at it through a lens.

feature, artist, makeSarah Lang1 April 2019danny wootton, artist, featureComment