Chiltern Journal

Field notes from our kitchen

Seasonal stories, local history, and behind-the-counter notes from Chiltern Bakery & Cafe.

All Behind the scenes Food History Press Seasonal Travel

A regent honeyeater perched on a thin branch, black head and back with pale scalloped markings down the breast, bright yellow edging on the wing and tail, and a small identification band on one leg.

31 Aug 20265 min read

Counting regent honeyeaters in the Chiltern ironbark

The forest at the edge of town looks like nothing much. It holds one of the rarest birds in the country, and twice a year people go out and count them.

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A row of nineteenth century shopfronts along a country main street, a newsagent with painted newspaper signs across its verandah, and drapers and emporium signage further down the row under a clear blue sky.

24 Aug 20265 min read

When Disney turned Chiltern into a town called Barambogie

In 1974 a Disney crew gravelled Chiltern's main street, took the signs down and filmed the town as a place called Barambogie. What changed, and what stayed.

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Bare grapevines trained along wire trellises in a dormant vineyard, rows running back to a distant tree line under a clear blue sky, with yellow wildflowers growing between the vines.

17 Aug 20266 min read

Budburst season in Rutherglen's old vineyards

Out toward Rutherglen the old vines are waking up. What budburst looks like, why it happens in a set order, and the frost that still has to be watched for.

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A grey juvenile Australian magpie standing on grass with its beak open, calling, while an adult magpie faces it holding a scrap of food in its bill.

10 Aug 20265 min read

Magpie season around Chiltern, and the six weeks it lasts

From about now the magpies are on nests around the district. What the birds are doing, which ones swoop, and how to get past them without much fuss.

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A dry hillside of Australian bush with dozens of wattle bushes in full yellow flower scattered through the grey-green scrub under a clear blue sky.

3 Aug 20265 min read

When the golden wattle comes out around Chiltern

Late in winter a yellow comes into the scrub along the roads out of town. The golden wattle, the forest it grows in, and the day in September named after it.

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A red-brick colonial homestead with a corrugated iron hipped roof and two brick chimneys, seen through an overgrown cottage garden of roses and shrubs under a clear blue sky.

27 July 20265 min read

Henry Handel Richardson and the house by the lake

A novelist who wrote under a man's name spent eighteen months of her childhood in Chiltern. The house she lived in is still standing on Victoria Street.

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A country football oval during a junior Australian rules match, players in dark and light guernseys scattered across the green grass with trees and low hills behind.

20 July 20265 min read

A winter Saturday with the Chiltern Swans

Through the cold months the town empties out on a Saturday and gathers at one ground. Country football and netball, the Chiltern Swans, and the red and the white.

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A pair of hands cupping several round, dark, knobbly black truffles above a table at an outdoor winter truffle market, more truffles behind.

13 July 20265 min read

The winter truffle, and the dogs that find it

Under the oak trees of the north-east, in the coldest weeks of the year, a rare crop is being lifted from the ground. The winter truffle, and the dogs that find it.

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A home dining table set for Christmas dinner in warm evening light: a white damask cloth, two tall lit candles, a pine-and-rose centrepiece, laid place settings, a glass stand of gingerbread, and a decorated, lit Christmas tree glowing behind.

6 July 20266 min read

Christmas in July: a mid-winter feast, and where it came from

In the cold middle of the year, a good part of the country sits down to a second Christmas. Where the mid-winter feast came from, and why it makes sense in July.

Seasonal History

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