Raw honey collected from beehives in central Victoria and the Loddon River Newstead. Our honey is extracted, strained and then bottled to pass on the natural goodness just as nature intended.

From Newstead, Victoria:

Loddon River Honey

Design & construction consulting on accessible residential & commercial buildings. Assessment & reporting on legislative compliance for buildings & public spaces.

Janine Young – ja9young.com

Get Connected in Central Victoria!

Click here to visit the Get Connected website!

Solar Kyneton 

Solar Power Systems in Kyneton

Imagine powering your home or business with clean, renewable energy from the sun. Our solar power systems are designed to maximise energy efficiency while minimising your carbon footprint. We offer a range of solar panel options that are not only efficient but also durable, ensuring long-term savings on your electricity bills.

central-spark.com

Ballaarook Wagyu is situated at Coleraine in Western Victoria and has been producing full-blood wagyu bulls since 2012.

Contact Russell Finch (principal).

Visit: Ballaarook Wagyu

The endangered Eltham Copper Butterfly (Paralucia pyrodiscus lucida) is a fascinating story. This is a rare, good news story within the extinction crisis across Australia of how we can save species. With enough care and resources anything is possible.

This small and endangered butterfly is endemic to Victoria where it was once widely distributed in dry open forest from Melbourne to Western Victoria. Land clearing for urbanisation and farming has resulted in large areas of suitable habitat being removed. Eltham Copper Butterflies (ECB) now only occur in three disjunct regions (Eltham/Greensborough, Bendigo/Castlemaine, Wimmera). The largest ECB habitat area currently centres around Castlemaine and Bendigo, where new colonies have been found between 2007 and 2021 mostly within National Parks and reserves.

Eltham Copper Butterflies is a small attractive butterfly with bright copper colouring on the tops of its wings and can only be seen during summer months when it is an adult. The rest of the year it lives predominantly underground coming out only at night escorted by ants to feed exclusively on Sweet Bursaria leaves.

ECB are members of the Blue butterfly family (Lycaenidae), 79% of which have a relationship with ants. ECB have a weird, wonderful and totally dependent (obligate) three-way relationship with two Notoncus ant species and Sweet Bursaria plants (Bursaria spinosa). Not to mention dependency on an unknown array of environmental factors including food and other requirements of the Notoncus ants themselves, local predators and parasites, aspect, soil type, soil chemistry and other nectar sources for adult ECB to eat.

ECB larvae feed exclusively on Sweet Bursaria. The adult ECB lay their eggs on or at the base of Sweet Bursaria plants that host a Notoncus ant colony. Notoncus ants are nocturnal ants which live underground in nests, including at the base of Sweet Bursaria plants. Once hatched the larvae are guided by Notoncus ants into the ant nest where they are tended and guarded. This amazing service is achieved through a mixture of trickery and treats. Trickery in that the larvae of this family of Blue Butterflies are believed to give off chemicals and make sounds that can pacify ant aggression, mimic ant brood hormones, attract and alert ants if the ECB larvae is alarmed. Treats in that the ants feed from sugary secretions which are produced from ECB larvae in proportion to how many ants they need to guard them.

These nocturnal ants then lead the larvae out at night to browse on the Sweet Bursaria leaves and defend them from the many nocturnal predators and parasites that see them as a juicy snack. ECB larvae overwinter in the ant nest and are led out at night to graze. Larvae pupate in or near the ant nest, with adult butterflies emerging from October to March each year, peaking from November to January. The adults feed on nectar of flowers, especially Sweet Bursaria flowers, before they lay their eggs at the base of the plant, and on the cycle begins again.

Find out more about the Eltham Copper Butterfly here!

 

Sandhurst Specialist Hand Clinic sets the standard for Advanced Scope hand therapy practice in Central Victoria. The only practice to be fully integrated with an on-site specialist Plastic Surgical team.

Sandhurst Specialist Hand Clinic’s hand therapists are highly experienced and work closely as an integrated team with their colleagues at Sandhurst Plastic Surgery. Using the advanced scope model, the hand therapist may lead your care, and offer extended services, to improve your journey to recovery.

Visit Sandhurst Specialist Hand Clinic here »

At CoffeeKennels we are a family owned, registered and ethical breeder of Groodles located between Castlemaine and Kyneton in central Victoria.

We take great pride in providing healthy well adjusted pups to their new human families and we’re dedicated to making sure our dogs receive the love, care, and attention they deserve.

Unlike a typical breeding facility who home their dogs in 7m x 3m pens with concrete floors and 1.8m wire walls, we have large, grassed areas where our dogs can frolic and play. They all sleep inside our house at night as they are a part of our family. Our dogs have a 44m square exercise yard that they mingle with each other to get their socialisation and are inside during their pregnancies in air-conditioned comfort for their wellbeing. Our puppies have constant socialisation to ensure they are well adjusted parts of their new family from day one of leaving us. We use Early Neurological Stimulation techniques for puppies. To put it simply, ENS introduces puppies to mild forms of stimulations and stressors. These stimulations can kick start their neurological system and improve their natural abilities. The ENS puppy training consists of different body handling exercises.

Go to Coffee Kennels website

Karen Bedford provides one-on-one coaching conversations in This Amazing Life. No matter what is happening in your life there is always a doorway of grace … and you have the capacity to find it. When you are looking for fresh understanding or change, it can be very helpful to step into a reflective and powerful conversational space with a skilled facilitator.

Click here for This Amazing Life website.

Restorative. Grounding.
Transformative touch.

Originating from Japan, shiatsu draws from the same principles as Chinese Medicine. Shiatsu practitioners work with meridians (energy lines) in the body and use techniques such as pressing, stretching and movement to build, disperse or move vital energy (also known as chi or qi) to restore balance. Depending on your needs, the experience of shiatsu can be gentle and restorative through to dynamic and strong. Shiatsu helps to bring awareness to your body and to the memories held by your body.

A shiatsu treatment is traditionally received fully clothed on a futon mat.

Castlemaine Shiatsu