5 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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Chiltern Journal
Journal · Page 2
Earlier entries from the Chiltern kitchen.
5 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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5 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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5 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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5 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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6 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.
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6 min read
Winter school holidays in Chiltern: small adventures for cold days
Sixteen days of winter holiday, a small town in the high country, and children who want something to do. A guide to the cold weeks in Chiltern with kids: birds to find, a museum to thaw out in, and a morning at the bakery.
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4 min read
The Australian meat pie: a short history of a winter habit
The Australian meat pie came out with the British, fed the goldfields, and never left. A short history of a cold-weather habit, and the plain pie at our door.
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6 min read
The King's two birthdays: a short history of the long weekend
Why Australia toasts a November-born King in June, why the date is a Monday and not a birthday at all, and how a habit older than the country became the long weekend at our door.
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