Beechworth set to celebrate a legend Ned Kelly Weekend on two weeks from today Fri 1, Sat 2 & Sun 3 August

Ned Kelly enthusiasts from around the country are set to flock to Beechworth in the North East of Victoria for the historic gold-era town’s celebration of its links with Australia’s most notorious bushranger from Friday 1 to Sunday 3 August.

This year’s packed program, taking place in the 150 year-old Historic & Cultural Precinct, has attracted bookings from as far afield as Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland.

Many Ned Kelly Weekend visitors are regulars at the annual event, and include direct descendents of some of the principal players in the Kelly story. This year they include Nola Love, the great granddaughter of Constable McIntyre who was the sole survivor of the police shooting by the Kelly Gang at Stringybark Creek and Leigh Olver, a direct descendent of Ned’s mother, Ellen Kelly.


Now in its fifth year and regarded as Australia’s most significant annual celebration of the Ned Kelly story, the Ned Kelly Weekend commemorates the anniversary of the outlaw’s committal hearing held in the historic Courthouse from 6 to 11 August 1880. Sentenced to death and hanged later that year, the bushranger’s celebrity shows no sign of fading nearly 130 years on.


This year’s Ned Kelly Weekend offers a lively and entertaining program to suit all tastes and pockets and includes new events as well as old favourites.


New this year is the Ned Kelly Weekend Heritage Market on Saturday 2 August. From 10am until 2pm, the Historic Precinct area of Ford Street will be closed to traffic and transformed into a colourful market square featuring delicious, good old-fashioned food such as soup and damper and tea and scones, as well as traditional crafts including spinning and weaving, knitting, demonstrations of wood crafts, blacksmithing, coopering and whip making, along with live music and buskers.

And back by popular demand is the Ned Kelly Weekend opening event Ned at the Nic – a traditional Music Hall ‘knees up’ at the Nicholas Hotel, featuring a sit-down three course dinner, entertainment from another local legend, Lazy Harry and his sensational band, dancing until late and the hugely popular Ned Kelly trivia quiz.



Also featuring across the weekend are theatre productions, a fabulous Kelly-themed art show, the unveiling of a new display of one of the four original Ned Kelly death masks at the Burke Museum, talks in the Historic Courthouse by Ned Kelly experts, the re-enactment of the Committal Hearing on Saturday and Sunday, the new Best Beard competition, The Great Fight commemoration and Ned On the Big Screen in the historic Town Hall.



Full weekend passes or tickets to individual events are available at www.beechworthonline.com.au
or phone the Beechworth Visitor Information Centre on 1300 366 321

Seating increased 50 percent for Tim Flannery’s talk in Beechworth

The response to this year’s Kerferd Oration in Beechworth by Professor Tim Flannery has been so strong that organisers have enlarged the seating capacity from 300 to 450 seats.

The oration is being held at the Kerferd Conference Centre at the Beechworth campus of La Trobe University on Sunday, July 27, at 11am.

Kerferd Oration committee member Joan Simms said the response this year had been “quite overwhelming”

“So many people want to hear from someone like Professor Flannery. His oration on The Climate Change Challenge is more topical than ever. There’s been the recent draft Garnaut report, various local moves towards forming sustainability groups and a growing awareness of the need for all of us to do our bit for the environment,” Ms Simms said.

“We’ve had to increase the seating in the Kerferd Conference Centre to 450 seats and we have provision to stretch that a bit more to the deck outside,” Ms Simms said.

“We have advertised that doors open at 10.15am and the feedback we are getting is that some people are coming quite early to queue up before that. One group has told me they are bringing their breakfast to have in the grounds while they keep an eye on the length of the queue.

"And I know of another group from Melbourne who are extending their holiday at the snow, and staying in Beechworth overnight to attend the Oration.”

Ms Simms stressed that no booking was required for this free community event, however only the first 450 people at the door would be certain of getting a seat inside the conference room.

Students from Year 7 at the Beechworth Secondary College will have artworks and installations on the theme of sustainability on display inside the conference centre.

Parking is limited close to the conference centre and Ms Simms advised people to park in nearby streets and walk in to the venue.

Beechworth businesses ‘tread softly’ as environmental art takes to the streets

Beechworth businesses have offered their shop windows for the month of July to display the work of dozens of regional artists taking part in tread softly, an exhibition focusing on environmental issues relating to climate change, global warming and loss of habitat and biodiversity.

The exhibition is being presented in the lead-up to the 2008 Kerford Oration which will be delivered by Professor Tim Flannery on ‘The Climate Change Challenge’ at LaTrobe University’s Beechworth campus on Sunday 27 July at 11am.

tread softly, which includes works on paper, photography, paintings, objects, jewellery and sculpture, celebrates the environment and draws attention to environmental issues as well as provides a showcase for the ideas and work of regional artists.

A diverse range of subjects tackled by artists featuring in the exhibition include a commentary on the impact of domestic pets on native wildlife, declining river systems, salinity, drought, the massive and mounting global problem of waste disposal and the warming of the planet as a result of human impact.

But while many of the themes are both confronting and alarming, the work Milagros for Beechworth by gold & silversmith, Rose Wedler, on display in the Pots of Thyme window, tells a good news story. The work celebrates the small miracle of the rediscovery near Beechworth a few years ago of a plant previously thought extinct – the Swainsona recta or Purple Pea.

Catalogues for this intriguing and innovative exhibition are available from the Beechworth Visitor Information Centre at 101 Ford Street. In keeping with the theme of tread softly, collection points for recycling the catalogues are available around the shopping precinct.

Painting The Beechworth Town Hall Almost Complete

The Beechworth Town Hall has been unavailable for June whilst the painters from Period Restoration moved into give the Town Hall a make over.

We think they have done a terrific job! Well done to Graham and the team! The Town Hall will be available for bookings by the end of next week.

Congratualations to our July Operators of the Month

Congratulations to our June Operators of the Month: Milawa Mustards, Gorge Walk B&B, Stone Cottage and Kinross B&B. Our operators of the month have their brochure in prime position with in the VIC and their image and link on the home page of www.beechworthonline.com.au

Beechworth Celtic Festival, 7th-9th November 2008

Beechworth’s annual salute to its Celtic heritage, now in its 14th year, is set to be the best yet.
This three day event set in Historic Beechworth celebrates all things Celtic, with a full program of live music, theatre, dancing, comedy, pipe bands and a street parade. The Celtic Festival is a diverse event with something to offer every age group.

Highlights of the 2008 program include a Gala Celtic Dinner to open the weekend on Friday evening and the Official Celtic concert to be held on Saturday evening. The concert evening will feature a night not to be missed, with live music, dance, comedy and a theatrical performance from the renowned Celtic group Braemar. The theatrical production, Lochaber No More, outlines the history of the Jacobite Rebellion in narrative and song.

Ticketed live music venues will be located throughout beautiful Beechworth, in its historic hotels and halls, with a free chalkboard stage to be located in the heart of town. The street parade, a great event for families, will feature a number of pipe bands, dancers and other performances.

The Celtic Festival is truly a festival of fun, entertainment and celebration in the celtic spirit. So put on your favourite kilt and get yourself up the hill to Beechworth this November to celebrate all things Celtic.

For further information or ticket enquiries visit http://beechworthcelticfestival.com.au or phone the Beechworth Visitor Information Centre 1300 366 321 for accommodation and other enquiries.

The Beechworth Celtic Festival Inc.