Mayor's Message – 4 June 2025
Published on 04 June 2025
Hi everyone,
I hope you’re staying warm and well as the winter weather begins. I’m glad we’re still getting some beautifully, sunny days but the nights and mornings can be very chilly!
It’s been another busy month, so let’s jump straight in!
Edgy Veg Awards
It’s been a pleasure to be involved with two fantastic Healthy Loddon Campaspe projects this month.
I was thrilled to be able to meet and congratulate the winners of our shire’s first Edgy Veg Awards, a competition celebrating “vegelicious” dishes at local cafes, restaurants, pubs and bakeries.
Congratulations, again, to our winners:
Shedshaker Brewing
Gnocchi alla Romana (restaurant, pub and bar category)
Five Flags Merchants
Toby’s Chocolate Cake with Seasonal Fruit Compote (café category)
Maldon Bakery
Curried Lentil and Vegetable Pie (bakery category)
You can read more here.
Active Living Census
The 2025 Active Living Census is underway – have you completed it yet?
It’s a vital regional survey that collects important data on residents’ health, wellbeing, and lifestyle habits to help councils make well-informed decisions about future community planning and investment.
We want to hear from as many residents as possible to get a clearer understanding of how people in our region live, and what barriers they may face to staying healthy and active.
Please take the time to complete the Active Living Census over the next couple of weeks and please share it with others.
You can complete the survey here and find out more here.
Citizenship ceremony
It was a joy to preside over our citizenship ceremony on 9 May – helping nine people complete their journey to becoming Australian citizens.
Citizenship ceremonies are one of the most incredible things I am able to do as Mayor, and it is such an honour.
As usual, I was joined by Council CEO, Darren Fuzzard, who emceed the ceremony, and Uncle Rick Nelson, Dja Dja Wurrung Elder, who shared a beautiful Welcome to Country, and offered each new Australian an individual a blessing and welcome to Djaara Country
I find our citizenship ceremonies very moving, and feel a lot of joy being a part of them while in the Mayoral role.
It’s lovely to talk to the new Australian citizens, and their families and friends, before and after the ceremony, and learn more about their backgrounds and lives, and what led them to call our shire home.
2025/2026 Budget update
Thank you to everyone who provided feedback on the proposed 2025/2026 Budget, and especially those who attended the Special Meeting of Council to speak to their submissions.
Councillors have considered all feedback and submissions, and hope to adopt the 2025/2026 Budget at the next Meeting of Council, on 17 June.
Council Plan, Municipal Public Health & Wellbeing Plan, and Community Vision
This month, Councillors, the Executive team, and Council officers have continued our work on the 2025/2026 Council Plan, Municipal Public Health & Wellbeing Plan, and the check-in on our Community Vision.
These are all incredibly important pieces of work which will guide and shape Council’s priorities and strategic direction over the next four years – so it’s important that we take our time and get it right.
We hope to share draft documents with the community soon for feedback – stay tuned!
National Simultaneous Storytime
It was a joy to join David at the Castlemaine Library on 21 May to read this year’s book for National Simultaneous Storytime.
Each year, the same book is read at the same time, all around Australia.
This year’s book was The Truck Cat by Deborah Frankel and Danny Snell, and was a beautiful story about a cat and a truck and finding home in a new country.
Thank you to the children, parents and childcare workers who attended – it was such a fun time!
National Volunteer Week
Later that day, I joined the CEO in marking National Volunteer Week by celebrating some of our fantastic volunteers at a special afternoon tea and awards event.
I cannot overstate how incredibly important volunteers are in our shire, and how much they contribute to what makes this place as special as it is.
If you volunteer – thank you! Please know that the work you do is seen, valued and deeply appreciated. If you don’t volunteer – why not think about it?
There are so many ways you can contribute, and I guarantee it’ll fill up your cup, too!
National Sorry Day and National Reconciliation Week
On 26 May, we commemorated National Sorry Day.
It’s a day we stand together each year to acknowledge an awful part of Australia’s history – the forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, and the impact it had, and still has, on First Nations people across the country.
This year, we gathered at Victory Park to mark the day. It was a huge turnout, including many primary school students.
Uncle Rick performed a Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony to begin, and there were speeches from Kath Coff, students from many local primary schools and the secondary school, and myself.
It’s a deep privilege for the Mayor of the day to be able to offer a reflection on Sorry Day each year, and be part of our ongoing commitment to Reconciliation.
We also launched the Djaara Cultural Mud Map, designed by Uncle Rick and Trace Balla. Located in the south-west corner of the park, the new installation will further share Djaara Culture and Country with visitors and locals alike, right in the heart of Castlemaine.
It was a solemn, but hopeful, event – full of heart. Thank you to everyone who attended, and especially to those young people who spoke. Listening to their reflections was incredibly moving and, as always, gave me a lot of hope for the future.
The following day was the launch of National Reconciliation Week. This year’s theme is Bridging Now to Next, and urges us to look ahead and continue the push forward, guided by past mistakes and lessons.
As part of the event, community members gathered to watch Shane Howard perform Solid Rock with local school kids on the steps of the Market Building. It was a wonderful performance, and a fitting start to Reconciliation Week!
I hope you have a lovely King’s Birthday weekend – there’s a lot on, including the Castlemaine Jazz Festival, the Rotary Art Show, the MAIN Game, the Maldon Swap Meet, the Maldon Portrait Prize and much more!
That’s it from me (for now).
Rosie
Mayor Rosie Annear
Mount Alexander Shire Council