Lost Magazine March 2019

YOURS TO KEEP VOL 19 ISSUE 182

LOST FEATURE

The Garden of St Erth

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In the middle of the native forest on the outskirts of Blackwood is a sprawling garden that has erupted into a riotous range of oranges and reds. After a long, hot, dry summer the Garden of St Erth is giving way to the change of season by putting on a colourful cloak of autumnal hues before it gives way to the chill of winter. At 600 metres above sea level, The Garden of St Erth is a cold climate garden that covers 2 hectares ofsloping land on the edge of the Simmons Reef gold fields above the headwaters of the Lerderderg River. It surrounds a squat but beautiful former general store that was built from sandstone in 1854. There are pin oaks and English oaks and a copper beech planted in 1973 by then owner Tommy Garnett, the former headmaster of Geelong Grammar. The beech was given to him as a retirement present along with a linden tree and a dawn redwood.

“What you’ll notice about St Erth is that there are no native plants,” says head gardener Julian Blackhirst. The garden is part of the Diggers family of gardens that includes Heronswood in Dromana and Cloudehill in the

“

We also really love to show what can be grown in a productive garden.

”

Dandenong Ranges. “What we want to explore here is the idea that you can grow plants from similar climates from other parts of the world to give your garden form and colour,” explains Julian. “We also really love to show what can be grown in a productive food garden.” While the gardens look lush it has been several lifetimes’ work to repair the earth that was trashed by the goldminers. “There was virtually no topsoil here,” explains Julian.“We make huge amounts of compost from our gardens and kitchen scraps from the café,” he says. “Tonnes and tonnes and all turned by hand.” With that remark, a flock of yellow tailed cockatoos emerge from above the canopy of the forest and letting out playful shrieks.

The cottage is surrounded with a colourful herbaceous garden that still bears the last of the summer salvias and humming bird mint. Above, the deep pink heads of echinacea dance about in thebreeze. The corners and backgrounds are planted out in tall grasses their tail like seed heads bobbing along.

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LOST FEATURE

Further up the hill, under the shade of an arbutus, its twisted trunks covered with pale green lichen, is the start of the Dry Climate Garden. Great grey leafed Californian tree poppies sit in the middle of the garden, their grey green foliage looking like over sized celery leaves. Again, big grasses and New Zealand flax give the garden its structure and height, plants like euphorbias, with their lime green flower heads punctuating the garden.

We pass the heritage apple trees, delicious fruit with names like Belle de Boskoop and Pomme de Neige, grafted onto dwarf rootstock no higher than your shoulder. We pass through a hedge of pomegranate trees into the food forest. It is a permaculture garden soft herbs grow under black currant canes that are shaded by taller Chinese quince trees. Pumpkin vines trail wildly through the limbs of olive trees under which grow dahlias. Dahlias? “They were originally brought into Europe as food plants,” explains Julian. “People would eat the tubers.”

At the top of the garden comes the trickling sound of water and the ribbing call of pobblebonk frogs. Surrounding a small clear dam planted out with grasses and surrounding shrubs are a series of canvas bell tents. These are part of St Erth’s new glamping programme. Guests have a seriously comfortable bed, heater and fan and a view of the forest. There is a shared kitchen, bathroom and lounge facilities in a cabin a little down the hill. Meals can be provided and beer and wine ready for your arrival. “People love staying here and getting close to the bush,” says Julian. With that a pair of crimson rosellas fly through the trees giving a loud squawk as they fly by.

Garden of St Erth; 189 Simmons Reef Rd, Blackwood; Open daily 9am-5pm, $10 admission (Diggers Club members free), The Fork to Fork Café serves light meals. www.diggers.com.au

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Win a night's glamping at Garden of St Erth!

LOST GIVEAWAY

Garden Beds Glamping!

The Garden of St Erth is now home to Garden Beds Glamping – six billowing bell tents outfitted in earthy luxury for secluded weekend getaways, nature-filled honeymoons or special group gatherings in the wilderness. A chance to get out of the everyday and wake up in a world class garden! You’ll also have access to the shared amenities cottage featuring a wood fire and fabulous bbq and dining set up, and modern showers and bathrooms.

To celebrate this new addition to the region, The Garden of St Erth and Lost Magazine are giving one lucky reader the chance to win a St Erth Garden Bed voucher for a one night stay for two on the night of your choice (subject to availability and valid for 12 months).

Simply email us at Lost - found@lostmagazine.com.au and tell us in 25 words or less, what is your favourite garden plant and why.

Entries close on Friday 5 April at 5:00pm. Winners will be notified. Judges decision is final

Book now to stay in The Garden Beds of St Erth. Call 03 5368 6520 or visit gardenbedsglamping.com.au

LOST EAT

Good

Food.

STORY AND IMAGESBY RICHARD CORNISH

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LOST EAT

Tansy Good places a small plate of marinated sardines on the table. The dish is simple and delicious. The small fillets of fish are fresh and firm, the marinade punctuated with clean notes of citrus and garlic and the bright flavours of green herbs. While the dish is mouth filling there is just one thing missing. Chef Tansy Good has not laid out a Phil Spectorstyle wall of flavour, instead, in her considered style, she has left space on the palate for wine. This, and the potential for the diner to enjoy them together. The restraint in her cooking is palpable. “I can’t help myself,” says Tansy emphatically. “The simplest food is the hardest to perfect because there is no place to hide.”

Tansy is a one name food identity. Along with Stephanie and Maggie she pioneered the concept of women leading the kitchen during her years as chef and owner at her eponymous Carlton and Spring Street restaurants during the 1980s. With a determined work ethic and staunch adherence to the principles of traditional French technique she ran kitchens in which

“

The simplest food is the hardest to perfect because there is no place to hide.

”

trained some of the best names in the business today: Andrew and Matt McConnell, Rita Macali, Karen Martini, Philippa Sibley and the legendary Gerald Diffey from Gerald’s Bar. After she closed up in Spring Street, she teamed up with Diffey in 1997 at his Prahran restaurant The Locarno. Lauded by locals and diners it was savaged by a critic whose ‘fail’ review saw thefledgling business wither on the vine. After that Tansy took a less prominent role in the 2000s cooking exceptionally good dayto-day meals at the Melbourne University Burnley campus café and with butcher Skinner and Hackett.

In January this year Tansy and her sommelier partner John Evans opened the doors to Tansy’s in Piper Street, Kyneton. The 40- seat dining room has a smart, yet slightly bohemian salon feel. The menu is compact but packed with classic dishes such as nicoise salad with snapper fillet, duck breast with red cabbage or something as simple as salmon gravlax with crème fraiche and pickled cucumber. While the peaches are in season expect peach Melba

STEAK . SEAFOOD . LIQUOR Upstairs 74 Vincent Street. Local Grass Feed Black Angus Beef www.daylesfordsteakhouse.com.au 03 5301 8157

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with a raspberry and caramel sauce. The menu changes with the produce that is available, and Tansy makes the most of the garden surrounding the old corner weatherboard home housing the restaurant. She might make a rose petal syrup to dress a dessert later in the year or pickle some vegetables to put on the charcuterie plate. “You can see and taste the technique and style in every dish,” says John. He has put together a small but excellent wine list of unusual wines from well-known local winemakers and some well selected European wines with more than token emphasis on female wine makers.

The overall offer is of exceptionally wellcooked seasonal food that is prepared using classic French technique with a light modern feel. Service is delivered by John who is an industry veteran. “We look after people,” he says. “That is what we do.” The new Tansy’s is not fine dining. It is more casual and bistro style. It has an air of the familial, of an egalitarianism between patrons and hosts. John and Tansy have been doing this for a long time and are beyond being lauded by media and critics. “Just make sure you put in the article…,” says Tansy with a stern smile, “’No Food Wankers Please’. Thank you.” With that she returns to the kitchen to tend to her stocks quietly bubbling away.

Open lunch and dinner Thursday to Saturday; lunch until 5pm Sundays. 91 Piper Street, Kyneton, 03 5422 1392.

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LOST DRINK

The Royal King

STORY AND IMAGES BY RICHARD CORNISH

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LOST DRINK

Local hospitality king Frank Moylan

and his wife Melissa Macfarlane have returned to Kyneton’s Royal George Hotel. After almost a decade since they poured their last glass of wine in their 160-year-old Piper Street hotel they have been rightfully restored to their place behind the jump. They bought the lease and freehold of the Royal George 19 days after they left the Farmers Arms in Daylesford in 2006, swearing they would never do hospitality again. A little older and a little wiser they are offering a wonderful mix of fine and affordable wine, CUB and craft beer and a menu based on their best-selling small and shared plates they made over the past 20 years in hospitality.

“What we have really noticed is that customers want value for money in wine,” says Frank over a glass of Granite Hills The Gordon, Bordeaux style blend from the nearby Cobaw Ranges. “Gone are the days when (a restaurateur) could foist an ok to good wine by the glass for $14,” he says. “People want value for money and something drinkable under $10 a glass. People are better educated, and they know how much decent wine costs.” Frank is selling some very French sauvignon blanc for $8 a glass. He knows his wine and his judgement is respected. He was recently cast as a presenter in the SBS TV series Battle of the Vines where his understanding of the modern drinking palate shone through. “The other thing that has changed in the last decade is that

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regionalism is firmly locked into wine lists from pubs to cafes to clubs,” he says. “While even a decade or so ago it was just us and Annie Smithers who were shouting out ‘drink local, local, local!’, now everyone is on to it. Which is good.” This normalisation of buying local has allowed Frank and Melissa to relax and share their love of European wines mix with local drops over their 40 strong wine list.

Frank is very man with a wry wit. “Some people used to be scared of admitting they liked Carlton Draft,” he explains. “Now they are coming out of the woodwork and saying, ‘I don’t understand craft beer, do you have a beer I don’t have to think about too much?’” Frank says it’s not just his older patrons but young people, particularly younger women who will happily down a frothy CUB beer over a hopped artisan ale. That said he still pours a lot of beer from Shedshaker Brewing in Castlemaine.

What Frank and Melissa are really enjoying is returning their old pub to its former glory as a welcoming, ecumenical, happy place to eat and drink. They bring their dark bohemian touch of 20th century furniture, exposed antique wallpaper, dark wood and stuffed deer heads back to the old girl. “By simply being ourselves,” says Frank, “by serving the food and wine we love makes what we do here real. We are not about tokenism. We are about the relationships that we have built up with winemakers, such as Lou Knight from Granite Hills and Gilles Lapalus from Maidenaii over decades,” he says. “By being true to what we love means that the whole hospitality package comes naturally.” He gives a big smile and passes over a plate of smoked pork and beef stuffed dumplings on a bed of sour cream and paprika butter washed down with a coffee infused black lager from Shedshaker. “Perfect,” says Frank with a smile.

24 Piper St, Kyneton; royalgeorge.com.au

Passing Clouds Winery

cellar door & Dining Room9 minutes from daylesford

Cellar Door 7 days 10am-5pm Dining Room Friday - Monday for Lunch

30 Roddas Lane Musk VIC 3461 passingclouds.com.au | (03) 5348 5550

For Dining Room reservations: feast@passingclouds.com.au

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Man of Colours

STORY AND IMAGES BY RICHARD CORNISH

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Artist John Lloyd sits in a stuffed leather chair under one of his landscapes. Wide as his outstretched arms the oil on canvas painting portrays a local but imaginary landscape.

It seems like a typical Kyneton or Daylesford farm scene in winter. A green paddock sits under a dark and brooding sky filled with low menacing clouds. A tractor track cuts a dark dual path towards a lone pine sitting in the middle of the paddock. Called Sidetrack, in it John has captured the nature of the winter light that floods central Victoria in winter. Gold and metallic yet soft and ethereal.

“It’s a bit like me,” says John with a cheeky style. “Dark and moody.” He brings out another painting. This is a square landscape of rolling hills covered in a patchwork of different coloured fields. It is bright, happy, fantastical. “The work I do is inspired by the land around us here,” he says. “But it all comes from my imagination.” His studio on Piper Street in Kyneton is also his gallery. Large landscapes hang from the walls while postcard size works are stacked up on the steps of an old ladder. The pleasant smell of fresh artist’s paint and linseed oil hang in the air.

DAYLESFORD MACEDON RANGES 2019

OPEN STUDIOS

MEET THE ARTISTS 13-14 + 20-21-22 APRIL

24 Artists / 21 Studios www.dmropenstudios.com.au - find us on facebook

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LOST MAKE

John has been living in Kyneton for a decade now. He was born in Hobart, grew up in Sandy Bay and went to art school on the slopes of Mount Nelson. “I sort of fell into art school,” he says. He shared a house in North Hobart with now renowned Tasmanian bush landscape artist David Keeling and partied hard. “But music was my first love,” says John.

He moved to Melbourne and joined a band called The Highrise Bombers with a young singer / song writer who had just come from Adelaide called Paul Kelly. John continued to drum with Paul in his next band Paul Kelly and the Dots. John left Melbourne for Sydney and joined a band called The Flowers who later renamed themselves Icehouse.

John played and toured with the band for five years leaving them to join the long list of Icehouse alumni. “I was a bit disillusioned,” he admits. “Touring wasn’t for me.”

Moving to Byron Bay he wrote music and played as a session musician in recording studios there. But he found himself lost. One day he picked up a pack of pastel pencils he had been carrying with him for years and started drawing. “It flicked a switch in me,” he says with a smile. A local gallery took some of his moonlit landscapes, all dark Prussian blue and indigo. “I went away to Brisbane for a week and when I came back, they had all sold,” he says.

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John’s life changed, moving from music to art. He started working with a gallery in Richmond who represented him. In 2009 he bought an old shop in the Kyneton and moved into town.

John listens to music as he works. He moves between the likes of Pink Floyd’s How I Wish You Were Here and Africa’s answer to James Brown, Fela Kuti. He breaks from painting at his easel when customers walk in the door. You can see the delight on his face when people engage with his paintings. “People connect with a piece and just to have it,” he says. “Which really makes me happy.”

John Lloyd Gallery, 48 Piper Street; johnlloydgallery.com.au

MENS COUTURE ART ODDITIES MILLINERY & A HOST OF CAMP WHATNOT

20 HOWE STREET DAYLESFORD VICTORIA OPEN FOR BUSINESS ON FABULOUS DAYS ONLY OR BY APPOINTMENT

RUBYSLIPPERS.COM.AU

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LOST PROFILE

Alison’s

Amazing Underworld

BY RICHARD CORNISH.

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Alison Pouliot changed the way I see the world and she continues to do so. A trained ecologist she is an expert in mycology. Fungus. “What a lot of people do not understand is that in taxonomy there is an entire kingdom devoted to fungus,” says Alison. “You think about the animal kingdom and the plant kingdom but there is also a kingdom to which fungi belong.” Alison is a woman whose enthusiasm for her subject is palpable. With her there is always a sense of engagement and she has a way explaining the mysteries of the world of fungi in a simple way that is never patronising. “When we think fungi, people think about mushrooms and what are called ‘toadstools’,” she says over a cup of tea in the Glenlyon General Store. “But these are just the reproductive bodies of the fungus,” she says. “The fungus itself is a web of underground threads called mycelium, that can extend over hundreds of square metres.”

She spends her time between central Victoria and Switzerland. There the culture around fungi is so developed that there are professional mushroom police or pilzkontrolle who check foragers’ baskets for poisonous species. She leads tours and workshops in Europe and here in Australia educating people that fungi are an integral part of broader ecosystem. “Those mycelium, those underground threads are amazing,” she says, her eye widening as she speaks. “They actually hook up with the roots of plants and trees. The trees give the mycelium (fungus) sugars that they have made in their leaves through photosynthesis and the fungus in turn gives the trees trace minerals,” she explains. “By hooking up with the mycelium a tree can extend its roots a thousandfold!”

Alison has just released a new book with the CSIRO. Although brilliantly researched and footnoted it is way beyond dry scientific reading. Called The Allure of Fungi: 1000 Days

in the Forest it recalls conversations, some random, with people who have a relationship with fungi in the wild. She travelled to 12 countries including Austria, France, Italy, Portugal including Madeira, Turkey, Sweden, Finland and Australia talking to the locals and finding out about their local fungi. The book starts right here in the Central Highlands with Alison exploring the native forest with a five-year-old companion, a child who sees the world with a sense of wonder. You get a feeling reading her book that the same sense of wonder has never left the author.

For those wanting to explore this part of the world through the eyes of a fungus expert Alison is holding several workshops and seminars around this region and the state over autumn and winter. Do not expect to pick a single mushroom. Her tours are not gastronomic. Instead they are designed to open the mind and expose you to the truly amazing world of fungus. Over the years Alison has shown me liver shaped bracket fungus that live on trees and were a source of food to the indigenous people of the area. She has shown me a broad fungus with well-defined gills that glowed a lilac hue at night. Then, on the top of Mount Macedon several years ago she showed me a tiny fungus growing from a caterpillar. “The caterpillar eats the fungus,” she explained. “The fungus infects the caterpillar’s brain and makes it bury itself underground. The fungus then feeds on the caterpillar and emerges as that tiny mushroom from its head.” Her work still blows my mind.

For tours and workshops visit alisonpouliot.com

WIN A THREE HOUR GUIDED MUSHROOMFORAY ON THURSDAY 30 MAY.

EMAIL FOUND@LOSTMAGAZINE.COM.AUBY FRIDAY 29 MARCH AND TELL US IN 25WORDS OR LESS, WHY YOU WOULD LOVE TOMEET ALISON AND LEARN ABOUT FUNGUS.

Left: Cruentomycena viscidocruenta by Alison Pouliot.LOST MAGAZINE | 31

Reasons To Get Lost...

5COMPILED BY RICHARD CORNISH

LOST PLACES

01. ChillOut

From humble beginnings in 1997, ChillOut Festival has grown to become Australia's largest Queer Country Pride festival. After the success of the first ChillOut day at The Olde Winery, Musk Vale in 1997, members of Springs Connections and others in the LGBTI community were keen to do it again. This March Labour Day long weekend, ChillOut Festival returns to Daylesford and Hepburn Springs with an extraordinary lineup of events. This includes: The World Famous Beagle Tent featuring 13 acts from the bent to family friendly; songstress Wendy Stapleton performing songs of the sixties; Moulin Rouge Cocktail Party; Shake Your Tail Feather Disco feature Immaculate Madonna; walks in the country with ecologist Tanya Loos; Frank and Connie's South American inspired lunch with ceviche and pisco sours; authors talks; art exhibitions and of course the much loved and very colourful ChillOut Parade in Vincent Street, Daylesford and the massive Carnival

Day at Victoria Park on Sunday. This is a brilliant weekend celebrating the colourful, diverse and frankly, quite fabulous LGBTIQ community, friends and family. ChillOut will also see the official launch of Raising Rainbows, a new ChillOut initiative to reduce GLBTIQrelated bullying in regional schools and community groups. An art auction fundraiser complete with cocktails and nibbles will be held at Palais-Hepburn on Thursday 7 March.

ChillOut Festival March 7-11; chilloutfestival.com.au

COFFEE, FOOD, DELI + WINE

OPEN SEVEN DAYS FOR BREAKFAST AND LUNCH PURVEYORS OF PRODUCE. GIFTS, HOMEWARES AND WINE

30 RAGLAN ST DAYLESFORD 03 5348 3279 FOLLOW US @CLIFFYSEMPORIUM CLIFFYSEMPORIUM.COM.AU

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LOST PLACES

02. Lost Trades Fair

The Lost & Rare Trades Fair was established as an artisan-led event to provide a single platform for career artisans and traditional tradespeople to share their skills. People are fascinated when true artisans and talented craftspeople openly demonstrate their incredible skills and share their knowledge of their trade and craft. In its fifth year, the Fair showcases over 100 makers, with some masters of their trade having practised their craft for more than 60 years - openly demonstrating and sharing their skills, talent and craftsmanship. The Lost Trades Fair is unique, captivating and possibly one of the most inspiring and authentic shows on earth. Held at the Kyneton Racecourse tickets are limited to 8000 each day. Expect to see coopers, carriage builders, silversmiths, stonemasons, glass blowers, gunsmiths, chairmakers, printmakers along with getting the chance to try out many of the trades.

March 9-10; 10am-4pm. losttradesfair.com.au Tickets via Trybooking $5-$20

03. Castlemaine State Festival

The Castlemaine State Festival is a ten day extravaganza of art, music, film, culture and fun. The program is packed full of captivating events in some of Australia's finest Gold Rush era venues.

Set amongst Castlemaine and surrounds, a town of 7,000 swells to over 15,000 during peak festival time. Audiences congregate from across Victoria for one of Australia's longest running Arts Festivals, now in its 42 year, which makes it Victoria’s key regional arts festival. Festival goers will no doubt enjoy the unique atmosphere of our Central Victorian community which comes together to celebrate this biennial ten-day multi-arts celebration. The festival covers music, dance, performance, talks and events. The is a strong free programme. This is a very popular event and some of the programming has already sold out.

March 22-31; castlemainefestival.com.au

04. Last Drinks

The Old Hepburn Hotel is closing up shop. The freehold has been sold and the new owners won’t be continuing the lease. A bastion of live Australian music for 16 years will fall silent and the district will lose one its most egalitarian and truly grass roots venues. The doors will close for the last time on Sunday March 17. So make the most of your time left with the old girld and get down there for pub grub and good tunes. While the team at the pub haven’t announced the line up for the final weekend of the 15-17 March just get down there for this is going to be a brilliant party weekend.

236 Main Rd, Hepburn Springs, 5348 2207, oldhepburnhotel.com.au

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05. Festival of Small Halls

The Festival of Small Halls is a series of tours that takes the best folk and contemporary acoustic artists performing at two of our country’s largest festivals, Woodford and Port Fairy, and sends them on the road to tiny halls in communities all over Australia. It’s an opportunity for music-lovers from welcoming communities to invite artists from home and abroad into their towns, and a way of exploring this vast country in the spirit of hospitality and great fun. This April sees the Glenlyon Town Hall included in the programme. The 120-year-old Glenlyon Hall has long been a proud focal point for the local community. The Festival of Small Halls rolls into Glenlyon on Wednesday, 3 April 2019 with award-winning Canadian trio The Once and Australia’s John Flanagan

Buy tickets at smallhalls.iwannaticket.com.au or via the Glenlyon Progress Association

And just one more...

Daylesford Polo

LOST PLACES

There will be more than a few pretty fillies when Daylesford Polo makes its debut at the Mingela Polo Club in Drummond on Saturday 23 March. Mingela Polo Club is set on 1,000 acres of incredibly picturesque countryside and owners have kindly donated the grounds of their polo pitch to host this inaugural event to raise funds for TLC for Kids - an organisation that has worked with over 400 hospitals to provide support for children in need.

Saturday March 29 11am-5pm, 2029 Daylesford-Malmsbury Rd, Drummond. daylesfordpolo.com.au

Take home the taste of Spa Country.

Organically grown and hand harvested in Hepburn.

Lithia Springs Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Available at Hepburn General Store and Daylesford Organics. Farm Door Sales by arrangement. Contact Claire on 0419134084. www.lithiaspringsolivegrove.com.au

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