Bendigo is a vibrant contemporary regional centre, boasting beautiful streets created from one of the world’s greatest gold rushes. Every visit will reveal new surprises and experiences.
Castlemaine boasts a remarkable community of artists, writers, actors and designers, who offer a host of galleries, theatres, festivals, bookshops and boutiques. It’s a theme that runs through nearby Maldon, Newstead and Harcourt.
Rich in history and opportunity... today’s visitors come to Maryborough and the surrounding villages for many reasons. Many come to wander through the lovely box-ironbark forests with their wildflowers, birds and superb display of Wattle in the spring. Others come to research family history and discover a connection to the Victorian gold rush, or to visit nearby wineries or explore markets, galleries and museums.
Take a deep breath… and travel along the meandering roads of the Loddon Valley. They start at untouched historic villages, weave their way up to spectacular views on granite strewn hilltops, through ancient forests, and then alongside wide flowing rivers and vast wetlands.
One of Australia's oldest and largest regional galleries presenting innovative exhibitions alongside a dynamic and varied suite of public programs and events. Our collection is extensive, with an emphasis on 19th century European art and Australian art from the 1800's, alongside a strong collection of contemporary Australian art.
Bendigo Venues and Events nurtures, develops, presents and celebrates performing arts and culture for Bendigo and central Victorian communities.
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Visit Region"Words in Winter 2025, is a festival that encourages important conversations, celebrating ideas and stories shared by local and visiting presenters."
The presentations include performance, music, storytelling, authors, comedy, poetry, talks, workshops and exhibitions.
A three-day festival featuring a school's program, kick-off launch, six panels, and closing event with fun and fierce discussion about a very serious topic.
View events throughout the Central Goldfields below:
Latest updates: HERE
Friday 30th May: 5.30pm-6.30pm - Bull & Mouth Hotel
Join the Words in Winter Central Goldfields community and become part of something truly special. Meet new people, make new memories and have fun together. Help celebrate the first two-day festival.
Bookings: HERE
Friday 30th May: 10am-4pm - Mill House 88-90 Burke Street, Maryborough.
In this six-hour workshop for early and emerging writers, you will learn how creating a character can create a story; tools for building characters; techniques for uncovering character motivations; which point of view to choose for your character; and how to write convincing dialogue.
What comes first: character or story? In this workshop, early and emerging writers will discover that if you create a character you will create a story. Through discussion, activities and inspiring writing exercises, we will learn tools and techniques for building complex, vivid characters; deepening characterisation; uncovering all-important character motivations; choosing the best point of view; and writing convincing dialogue. We will breathe life into our characters and also let them surprise us.
Tania Chandler is the author of three novels which have been published in Australia and internationally, selected for library reading programs and shortlisted for awards. She lives in Melbourne (Naarm).
When not writing, Tania teaches creative writing, mentors writers and hosts online workshops. She is also an actor, amateur photographer, ice skater and co-creator of Writers on Ice — interviewing some of Australia’s best writers while ice skating!
Bookings: HERE Morning Tea included.
Early Bird until March 31 = $67.50
Friday 30th May: 10.30am-11.30am - Mill House 88-90 Burke Street, Maryborough.
The morning will kick off with coordinators Debbie Macer and Jenny Hurse, retired teachers, announcing the winners of a story writing competition—involving students from local and regional schools. Followed by a writing workshop with critically acclaimed author Martine Murray, where students will be invited to share their writing.
Martine will talk about the importance of words used to create a sense of location—what are some words relating to ‘Winter’ and read writing samples describing a place during Winter. Students will craft a piece of writing inspired by ‘words in Winter’ and share with each other.
Martine Murray was born in Melbourne and now lives in Castlemaine.
She is an award-winning children’s novelist and illustrator. She has written many critically acclaimed books, including How to Make a Bird, winner of the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards Young Adult award in 2004, and The Slightly True Story of Cedar B. Hartley, winner of the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards Children's Book award in 2006.
The morning will finish with lunch kindly provided by the Maryborough Education Centre.
Saturday 31st May: 9-15am-10.15am - Senior Citizen's Hall, 15 Alma Street, Maryborough.
Social prescribing is used in Australia by GPs and other health professionals to link patients with social needs that contribute to poor health, such as loneliness, social isolation and lack of connection to community, to services and activities, such as hobby groups and active living groups via a link worker who can spend time with the patient to come up with a best plan for engagement.
Professor Mark Morgan from Bond University says, 'Social prescribing in Australia is a non-medical way to help people with social needs that contribute to poor health. It involves connecting patients with community services and activities.'
Watch this short video for more information.
Dr Richard Mayes is a GP who works in conjunction with link coordinator Isis Jordan to connect and introduce people with organisations and groups in the Castlemaine area that may assist a person regain health and vitality.
Richard and Isis will be in conversation with Heather Whitford-Roche.
Saturday 31st May: 10.45am-11.45am - Senior Citizen's Hall, 15 Alma Street, Maryborough.
One of the highlights of this year's Words in Winter Central Goldfields Festival is this amazing session featuring renowned scientist, broadcaster and podcaster, Dr Ann Jones. She says she'll talk about how animals talk. With sound effects.
Nature Nerd and Broadcaster. Host of the podcasts 'What the Duck?!' and 'Noisy by Nature' and the video series 'How Deadly'.
Dr Ann Jones is well known to Australians for her informative, hilarious and scientifically accurate talks and shows about nature in all its forms. The sex lives of creatures, great to microscopic. Birds in our neighborhoods and how they talk to each other. And what they talk about. Weird stories of a highwayman whose getaway vehicle was an emu that he rode on the Coorong on South Australia's coastline. Umm...who wouldn't want to listen to Ann Jones?
Saturday 31st May: 12pm-1pm - Senior Citizen's Hall, 15 Alma Street, Maryborough.
Six Peaks Speak: A journey in southern Dja Dja Wurrung Country through the eyes of six iconic mountains.
A compelling storytelling journey in southern Dja Dja Wurrung Country through the eyes of six iconic mountains in central Victoria, Australia. An interdisciplinary and intercultural story across time, cultures, contested histories and unsettled relationships, uniquely traversing First Nations and unsettler, history, geology, ecology, anthropology and reserve management.
Barry and Lynne will be in conversation.
‘Professor Golding presents a cultural and environmental history of landscape in central Victoria, Australia. His vision is for a reconciled relationship on Country. He extends First Nations people respect that has been missing until recently in Australian historiography, providing an important model of how non-Indigenous Australians should engage with traditional owners in research and writing projects.’
Dr Lynne Kelly AO is a science writer and Adjunct Research Fellow at LaTrobe University. After four decades teaching, she completed a doctorate exploring the way non-literate cultures memorise and teach a vast amount of practical information without writing. She has since implemented many indigenous and medieval memory methods in a contemporary context and been astounded by their efficacy.
Lynne has published 21 books, the most recent being The Memory Code, Memory Craft, Songlines: the power and promise and Songlines for Younger Readers. Her new book on why music, art and our connection to place are innate, yet under-utilized knowledge skills was published in September 2024.
Saturday 31st May: 1.45pm-2.45pm - Senior Citizen's Hall, 15 Alma Street, Maryborough.
A lively discussion about all manner of things to do with life, living and transitioning from one's salad days to the autumn years and beyond. Lead by Lee, Ramona and Gail will regale us with stories and views that will be refreshing, intelligent and provocative.
Ramona Koval is a writer and journalist. Her most recent books include: A Letter to Layla: Travels to our deep past and near future (Text, 2020), Bloodhound: Searching for my father (Text, 2015), By the Book: A reader’s guide to life (Text, 2012) and Speaking Volumes: Interviews with Remarkable Writers (Scribe, 2010). Her essay Goodbye and Good Luck appeared in the collection Split: True Stories of Leaving, Loss and New Beginnings, Edited by Lee Kofman. (Ventura, 2019) and For what has been and what will be appeared in Grandmothers, Edited by Helen Elliot, (Text Publishing, 2020). She is an honorary fellow in the Department of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University. She previously presented a range of ABC programs, notably Books and Writing and later The Book Show.
Saturday 31st May: 3pm-4pm - Senior Citizen's Hall, 15 Alma Street, Maryborough.
What can be done to tackle the current political crisis in Australia and globally?This session will offer solutions as part of helping get people out of the sense of despair which is a big part of the current problem. For instance, the session will range over topics about:
Dr Denis Muller is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne and author of several books, including Journalism and the Future of Democracy (2021) and Journalism Ethics for the Digital Age (2014). He is a former Assistant Editor (Investigations) of The Sydney Morning Herald and Associate Editor of The Age. He writes regularly for The Conversation on media issues.
Dr Andrew Scott is Emeritus Professor Politics and Policy at Deakin University. has published 6 books, mainly on labour history, and social democratic policy options for Australia, including The Nordic Edge: Policy Possibilities for Australia which is still no. 1 bestselling political book of Melbourne University Press 3 years after publication.
Dr Dennis Glover is an Australian writer and novelist. The son of factory workers, Dennis grew up in the working class Melbourne suburb of Doveton before studying at Monash University and King’s College Cambridge where he was awarded a PhD in history. He has worked for two decades as an academic, newspaper columnist, policy adviser and speechwriter to Australia’s most senior political, business and community leaders. An often outspoken political commentator, his books include An Economy is not a Society, The Art of Great Speeches and Orwell’s Australia. His debut novel The Last Man in Europe tells the dramatic story of how George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four. His second novel, Factory 19, is an Arcadian story about the factory world and how we lived before the invention of the mobile phone and the computer. And his most recent novel Thaw retells the Scott of the Antarctic story for the age of climate change.
Saturday 31st May: 4.15pm-5.15pm - Senior Citizen's Hall, 15 Alma Street, Maryborough.
Janice will host a conversation with Amy, Adrian and Christine, all award-winning crime writers, about their ideas, their books and their views on crime writing.
Amy Doak writes mysteries filled with action, adventure, fun and heart. Her debut novel Eleanor Jones is not a Murderer won the 2024 Davitt Award for Young Adult Best Crime Novel; was a CBCA 2024 notable; and was shortlisted for both the 2024 ABIA Awards Books of the Year for Older Readers.
The sequel, Eleanor Jones Can’t Keep A Secret, has been shortlisted for the 2025 Indie Book Awards. She has two more mysteries for teens coming out in 2025.
Amy lives in regional Victoria with her husband, two teenage children, dog, and a very grumpy cat.
Adrian Hyland is the award-winning author of Diamond Dove, Gunshot Road and Kinglake-350, which was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Award for non-fiction in 2012. His books have been published internationally, including in Britain and the US, and translated into a variety of languages, including German, French, Swedish and Czech.
Christine Keighery (who also writes as Chrissie Perry) is the author of more than thirty-five novels for children and Young Adults. Her first novel for adults, The Half Brother, won the 2024 Davitt Award for the Best Debut Crime Book.
We’re Not Us Without You is her second novel. Christine divides her time between coastal Fairhaven and Southbank, Victoria.
Janice Simpson lives in Maryborough. Her books to date include a travel memoir Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, and two crime novels, Murder in Mt Martha and A Body of Work.
She has facilitated many panels including at Clunes Booktown, Sisters in Crime and at Words in Winter events.
Sunday June 1st: 9.30am-10am - Maryborough Highland Society.
Central Goldfields librarians, Maree Stephenson and Bec Clarke will entertain us with a discussion about words. Words that we no longer use, words that have become other than their original meanings, new words, politicised words. last year, Maree and Bec in conversation with Patty Brown were HILARIOUS! It will be no different this year.
Sunday 1st June: 10.30am-12pm - Maryborough Highland Society.
Coroner Audrey Jamieson will engage women form the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine (VIFM) in conversation. It will NOT be gruesome. It WILL be factual, unlike what you might see on television shows. And it WILL be funny. These people work on life and death and know how to keep a balance between morbid curiosity and scientific professionalism It is a MUST SEE festival event for 2025.
Her Honour Audrey Jamieson was appointed a Magistrate on 21 December 2004 and has worked as a full time Coroner since June 2005.
Coroner Jamieson started her working life as a nurse and later entered the legal profession after completing degrees in Arts and Law at Monash University. At the time of her appointment, she was a partner at Maur.
Adjunct Associate Professor Dr Joanna Glengarry is a senior forensic pathologist at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, having attained her medical degree in the “Edinburgh of the South”, Dunedin, and completed specialist training across both New Zealand and Australia. She is a lecturer and researcher at Monash University, with her areas of interest including injury interpretation and postmortem radiology. She is a keen runner, reader, and gardener, and knows exactly how to get away with the perfect murder….
Central Goldfields Shire Council acknowledges the Dja Dja Wurrung people as the traditional owners of this land and pay our respects to their leaders and elder’s past, present and emerging.
