Ranges Art & Multi-media – Emerald Community House

Successful Gardening Workshops

Any time is a good time to boost your gardening expertise and improve your yield. You will gain skills in controlling pests and diseases, soil improvements and get inside tips from our expert. You will learn how to work with nature which will save you time, money and resources. An excursion to the Peace Farm […]

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Woorilla Poetry Prize 2018 – Entries Close June 29

2018 Woorilla Poetry Prize entries are open until 3pm Friday 29th June Prizes Available Open Section Winner $1000 Runner Up $250 Youth Section (age 12-18) Winner $200 Runner Up $50 — Open Section entries $10 per poem or three for $25 Youth Section (age 12-18) entries are FREE Entries can be submitted online here Details: […]

Edward Vivian ‘Vance’ Palmer

Edward Vivian ‘Vance’ Palmer (1885-1959) Vance Palmer lived in Emerald in Rose Charman’s cottage with his wife, Nettie, and two daughters Aileen and Helen from 1919 to 1925. His novel Daybreak (1932) recounted the Great Strike at the nearby Nobelius Nursery. Between 1910-15 he spent time in England and France and briefly visited the United […]

Thomas ‘Louis’ Buvelot Esson

Thomas ‘Louis’ Buvelot Esson (1878-1943) Thomas Esson and his wife Hilda spent time in Emerald after their return from Europe and America in 1921. They stayed with writers Vance and Nettie Palmer and formed ‘The Pioneer Players’ a group dedicated to the production and performance of local drama. The group’s first performances were in 1922. […]

Janet Gertrude ‘Nettie’ Palmer

Janet Gertrude ‘Nettie’ Palmer (1885-1964). Nettie Palmer and her writer husband Vance lived in Emerald between 1915-17 and 1919-1925. Nettie believed in the importance of the bush and in cultivating an appreciation of the land. At the time she wrote a literature page for the Argus newspaper and a series of articles by her was […]

Katharine Prichard

Katharine Susannah Prichard (1883-1969) Katharine Prichard lived in Emerald during the First World War from 1916-1919. Her time in the Dandenong’s, spent at Rose Charman’s cottage, brought her into contact with a remarkable group of literary friends. She became an outspoken activist against conscription and the war, a fact made more poignant through having met […]

Joy Hester

Joy St Clair Hester (1920-1960). From 1950 to 1956 Hester lived at Avonsleigh and Upwey in the Dandenong Ranges. Her watercolour and ink Bushfire, Avonsleigh (1955) was created in that time. The reoccurrence of Hodgkin’s disease which had been in remission since diagnosed in 1947 caused her to leave the area for Box Hill where […]

Charles Blackman

Charles Blackman (1928 – ) In late 1954 Blackman moved to Avonsleigh with his wife and poet Barbara Patterson Blackman in a house opposite Joy Hester on the Macclesfield Road. They stayed for six months and his moonlight paintings were inspired by his late-night walks home from town. It was the first time Blackman had […]

Young Voices in Politics

Author and activist Sandra Meucci once quoted “Rather than standing up or speaking for children, we need to stand with children speaking for themselves.” In simple terms, she believes society as a whole should encourage the youth of today to fight for their rights independently, instead of being smothered by the overbearing voices of adults. […]

Local Champions

On Wednesday the 22nd of November, my all-girls team of seven left for Maryborough to participate in the 2017 RACV Energy Breakthrough event. Months of preparation, rehearsals and training had readied us for the week ahead of scrutineering, presentations and, of course, racing. The weather in Maryborough the time of year was, as usual, very […]