Note: This page is a constant work-in-progress, with new information and corrections being made all the time. To search on the “2020-2024 Timeline” for any particular year, person, event, business, shop etc, simply press CTRL+F and type in the thing you are looking for in the small box that will appear on the screen.
2020 – Jan
The population of Beechworth stands at 4,274.
2020 – Mar
With bigger plans, Travis Hunt closes his Beechworth Cyclery – servicing and repairing bicycles – in front of the Beechworth Gaol after successfully running the small business at the location for a couple of years. He purchases a small shop in Marion Arcade (off Ford Street) in the centre of town and re-opens the business at the end of June (see entry below).
2020 – Mar
Accommodation finally launches at the former Ovens Benevolent Asylum at 9 Warner Road … just six weeks before Covid-19 closes businesses all over Australia! Debby Donkers and her team have spent seven years developing the Boutique Hotel and Luxury Spa within the handmade brick skeleton of the 160-year-old building. Now fully restored and repurposed, the new complex is officially named The Benev. Featuring luxurious and relaxing guest rooms, The Benev is also home to a Sensory Garden, a Dabble Bar and open-air Herbal Baths. A ‘wellness concierge’ guides guests to the spa for massages – known as ‘The Slow’ – offering a choice of beautiful oil blends. The complex is designed to promote modern wellness and to satisfy real human needs.
2020 – Mar 2
23-year-old Beechworth born-and-bred Liv Cartledge and her photographer partner 27-year-old Jake Lancaster (above) open a small shop called Tiny at 14a Camp Street, specializing in coffee, jaffles, loaded hotdogs, donut waffles, gourmet sandwiches and, on selected evenings, a range of delicious cocktails. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic hits shortly after they open, but they persevere and begin offering a new ‘Tiny Eats’ delivery service throughout Beechworth from their shop (below).
| With a passion for music and performing, Liv Cartledge begins busking on the streets of Beechworth as a 10-year-old and in 2015 is named winner of the Telstra ‘Road to Discovery’ talent program. At age 20 Liv releases the single “You Got Me High” closely followed by her EP “Timber”. She and her father Sean regularly perform together around North-East Victoria, until Sean’s suicide in 2104. In the wake if this tragedy, Liv’s mother Lisa Cartledge establishes the annual ‘Beechworth to Bright (B2B) Suicide Prevention Walk’ in 2019. The fundraising 75 km-walk follows the ‘Murray to the Mountains’ Rail Trail from Beechworth to Bright and will raise over $7,000 in its first year. |
2020 – Mar
After almost 30 years in business, potters Judy and Ric Pierce close their Beechworth Designer Gifts shop at 56 Ford Street.
2020
Just three years after buying Billson’s Brewery in 2017, Nathan and Felicity Cowan have revitalised and grown the business and the site at 29 Last Street now includes a brewery and distillery, along with a whiskey bar, cafe, taproom, beer garden, a Barber, and a Blacksmith, along with a large Cellar Door shop (below) stocked with their ever-increasing range or cordials, sodas, gins and whiskeys.
2020 – May 14
Tragedy strikes Beechworth Wildlife Stays when fire tears through Sue Hiatt and David Haythorne’s 2.5 acre bushland property at 278 Buckland Gap Road, 2km from the centre of Beechworth. The fire – which starts inside their home – destroys most of the buildings on the site (established in 2016) along with all their possessions, nearly all their animals and reptiles, including three baby crocodiles, as well as the couple’s much-loved dog and cat and pet cockatoo. Despite also losing their computers and all their business records, they are determined to rebuild and reopen the prospering holiday business.
2020
While his Provenance restaurant in Beechworth is forced to close during back-to-back ‘Covid’ lockdowns, chef and owner Michael Ryan and his partner Jeanette Henderson use the time to create the Beechworth Bitters Company, producing cocktail bitters from a long-forgotten purchase of bittering botanicals. Always fascinated with Amaro (Italian for ‘Bitter’) and cocktail bitters, they use more than 120 botanicals – citrus, fruit, herbs, leaves, bark, roots, spices (many coming from local producers) – to create their tasty range, including ‘Yuzucello’ – their take on a ‘Limoncello’ – an aromatic citrus flavoured liqueur featuring yuzu from the Ovens Valley, delicately accented with hints of flowers and lemongrass.
2020
Bryan McKenzie purchases Bloomfield House, the beautiful home built in 1860 by American-born mining entrepreneur Joshua Cushman Bigelow at 1 Little Scotland Road in Stanley, 7.8 km from Beechworth. McKenzie makes numerous modern improvements to the historic property, including adding solar power and solar hydronic heating, new ensuite bathrooms to all the bedrooms and insulates the roof, then replaces the original cut timber shingles under a new iron roof. The garden receives a makeover including the creation of a beautiful new feature pond (below).
2020 – Jun 19
Cecily Bisset opens Vintage on Ford at 64 Ford Street, next door to her other business – Cellar Door Wine Store at 62 Ford Street. The shop had been trading for some time previously as Ikoleji – The Healthy Home Shop and The Clothes Line, a new and vintage fashion store (below).
2020 – Jun 29
After closing his Beechworth Cyclery service and repairs business at the Beechworth Gaol at the end of March, Travis Hunt relocates to the centre of town after purchasing new premises at shop 2 in Marion Arcade, 74 Ford Street. Passionate about cycling and North-East Victoria, Travis services more than 600 bikes each year.
2020 – Aug
Phil and Cate Lithgow purchase The Plough Inn in Tarrawingee, 23 km from Beechworth from the Nolan family. The historic pub – built by Hopton Nolan in 1864 – has remained in the hands of the Nolan family for over 150 years but suffers major structural damage in the floods of December 2018 (below) when it was being run by Matt Sammon, Jonathan Koop, Hayden Sharp, Andrew ‘Ducky’ Donald and Mick Wilson. Wilson’s uncle is Michael ‘Mick’ Nolan, the last remaining connection with the Nolan family and The Plough Inn.
2020 – Aug
Already established in Albury and Wodonga, Nadine Trist opens a Beechworth branch of her popular Hello Darling women’s clothing and homewares store at 66 Ford Street. She will move the shop to larger premises at 54 Ford Street in 2021.
2020 – Aug
Beechworth’s Burke Museum adds a Medal of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) to its permanent collection after it is donated by the McKenzie-McHarg family. The medal was awarded to the late David Aloysius Patrick McKenzie-McHarg in 1976 for his outstanding services to the community during the 1960s and 70s. The highly respected Beechworth solicitor served on the United Shire of Beechworth Council for more than a decade, including seven years as President. Renowned as a public speaker, McKenzie-McHarg played a significant role in the community including various sporting organisations. He passed away in 1992.
2020 – Aug
After over a year on the market, the old Beechworth Post Office, on the corner of Camp and Ford Streets, is sold in a private sale for $1,358,500. The (unnamed) buyer is reported to be “one of the original and founding families of Beechworth”. They do not reveal their intentions for future use of the iconic 1870 building.
2020 – Sep
Having founded The Bike Hire Company as a ‘portable business’ in Beechworth in December 2017, Nigel Walker takes over the shop at 95 Ford Street – next door to Freeman on Ford – as a fixed location for The Bike Hire Company. In September 2024 Nigel Walker moves his bikes to a new permanent home in a more centrally located shop at 49 Ford Street, between Dalcheri Natural Fibres and Beechworth Toys & Collectables.
| The shop that Walker takes over in 2020 at 95 Ford Street had been the home of the ‘Salvation Army’ thrift shop for a number of years. It is a section of the building that had been ‘Parkinson’s Garage’, selling ‘Shell’ petrol for many years before that. The shop at 49 Ford Street (that opens in September 2024) had most recently been the Beechworth base of ‘Gum Tree Pies’. |
2020 – Sep 26
On the coldest spring day in 20 years, a flurry of snow falls in Beechworth on this Friday morning for the first time since the last big cold snap, during late autumn, on 28 May, 2000.
2020 – Oct
At a cost of $590,000, the Indigo Shire Council completes work on the refurbishment of the old Goods Shed at the former Beechworth Railway Station in order to provide a space for business opportunities and commercial activation of the railway precinct. Due to the historic nature of the building, the refurbishment includes re-use of the original deck timbers; the re-creation of the original trusses and downpipes to show how they once functioned on the Railway Avenue external deck; the retention of all internal walls and evidence of steam train smoke is still visible on the underside of the old roof; and the re-creation of the original train tracks on the floor to show exactly where train carriages once sat.
2020 – Oct
Beechworth photographer Gary Coombe releases his book ‘Beechworth’. Edited by Jennifer Reed, the book contains a beautiful collection of Gary’s images of the town.
2020 – Oct 14
For the second time, Beechworth is announced as the national winner of Australia’s Most Sustainable Community in the Keep Australia Beautiful ‘Tidy Towns’ awards. Traditionally, the 2019 Tidy Town winner – Santa Teresa in the Northern Territory – would have hosted this year’s awards ceremony but, due to the Covid-19 pandemic sweeping Australia (and the world), the awards ceremony is held online instead. Beechworth is also named the winner in the ‘Dame Phyllis Frost Litter Prevention’, ‘Environmental Sustainability – Energy‘ and ‘Environmental Communication and Engagement’ category awards. Beechworth, with a population of 4,566 (at the time of entry), wins three of nine categories and scores highly in the remaining six categories.
2020 – Nov
After being in the private collection of Ken Hose since 1970, the Burke Museum raises $15,000 to return the Falck Clocks to Beechworth. The two clocks were made in Beechworth by Charles Frederick Falck, a master watch-maker from Prussia who immigrated to Australia in 1854. Now worth tens of thousands of dollars, the clocks were part of his famous shop window display on Ford Street.
| Falck made the first of the two large eagle clocks in 1855 and it went on to win a gold medal for excellence in horology at the ‘Exhibition in Melbourne’ in 1856. The second was made in Beechworth around 1870. |
2020 – Dec
Established in 2009, Beechworth Massage & Myotherapy moves from the Marion Arcade on Ford Street to its new, larger home at the end of Boiler House Lane (off Gilchrist Avenue, near Silver Creek Sourdough and the Montessori School) and rebrands as Balance Beechworth. The new studio offers remedial, therapeutic and pregnancy massage, along with myotherapy, pilates and yoga.
2021 – Jan
Well-known local couple Joan Simms and John Hennessey complete Beechworth’s first certified ‘passive house’, only the second of its type to be constructed (so far) in North East Victoria. The small but striking one-bedroom house on Nam Shing Lane is between 70 to 90 per cent more efficient than a home of the same size, which helps reduce its carbon footprint on the planet. After receiving the architectural concept, Ovens and King Builders set about completing the construction plans in mid-2020 with the requisite detailing to achieve the rigorous ‘Passive House Standard of Construction’. The home’s superior performance is attributed to a grid-connected 4kw photo voltaic power supply system; external wall insulation of 100mm PIR foam, battened and fitted with ‘Colorbond Enseam’ wall claddings and triple glazed, aluminium/timber composite windows. The building has a very low energy demand due to high insulation, which includes special insulation layers hidden in the walls and roof, and triple glazed windows making it a completely airtight building.
| The house will be awarded the ‘GreenSmart Home of the Year’ in 2021 by the Housing Industry Association (HIA). It is also named the ‘Northern Victoria Home of the Year‘, the ‘Custom Built Home of the Year‘ and receives the ‘HIA Northern Victoria GreenSmart Sustainable Home’ award. |
2021 – Jan
Tracy McVea – one of the owners of the Beechworth Newsagency since 2003 – is appointed Captain of the CFA Beechworth Urban Fire Brigade, the first female captain in the brigade’s 154-year history. Tracy and her husband Ian joined the local fire brigade as volunteers in 2011. The newly named Captain McVea is also chair of the CFA District 24 Women’s Reference Group – created in 2016 – comprising women from across all District 24 brigades, as well as staff representatives.
2021 – Mar
Beechworth’s Home Timber and Hardware store (above) re-brands to Mitre 10 (below). The building at 4-6 Camp Street was constructed and opened as a True Value Hardware store in 1992.
2021 – Mar 9
Crippled by the covid pandemic, Paula MacDonald closes her Rustique Soul café at 38a Ford Street after running the café since July 2018.
2021 – Mar
Qualified electrican and builder Robert ‘Bob’ Bourke arrives in Beechworth, settling at 482 Chiltern-Beechworth Road, and establishes his own handyman business – “A Bob’s Worth”.
2021 – Mar 19
Nadine Trist moves her popular Hello Darling women’s clothing store from 66 Ford Street to larger premises at 54 Ford Street, next door to the Ox and Hound bistro. Hello Darling also has stores at 86 High Street in Wodonga and at Albury’s Myer Centrepoint as well as 488 Dean Street in Albury.
2021 – Mar 30
Jamie Stacey and Helen Haines combine their surnames (Stacey and Haines) and open Coffee Staines Café and Carvery at 72 Ford Street, the former site of the Granite Café (below). It quickly establishes itself as one of the most popular places to enjoy breakfast, brunch and lunch in Beechworth. Jamie and Helen have lived in Beechworth for the past 9 years, with Jamie’s family spanning back generations in Beechworth.
2021 – Apr
Dirk and Nika Bester open three new purpose-built luxury ‘eco-cottages’ at their Glenbosch Wine Estate, 10 km from Beechworth at 1036 Beechworth-Wangaratta Road Beechworth, Everton Upper. The three cottages (with a fourth on the way) have views over the vineyard and feature either a pizza oven or a woodfired hot tub.
2021
The Lions Club of Beechworth is busy at work restoring the dilapidated and unloved ‘Gang Plate Layers’ cottage at 1B Harper Avenue for use as a community facility. The managers of the community project are Lions Club members Christine Luckman and Iris Mannik.
| Built in 1876 by the Victorian Railways as one of three permanent homes in Beechworth for the ‘Gang Plate Layers’ and their families – many of whom had previously been living in tents along the railway line to Beechworth as they laid plates for the railway tracks – it is the only cottage of the three that remains today, sitting on Crown Land on Harper Avenue. |
2021 – Apr
Beechworth Speech Pathology & Psychology opens at Shop 3 in the Marion Arcade, 74 Ford Street. Speech Pathologist Jasman Stuzinski looks after all areas of speech pathology including paediatric speech, stuttering and fluency, language assessment, literacy and phonological difficulties, and intervention services. Clinical Psychologist Andrea Pavarino attends to patients dealing with emotional and psychological issues.
| The ‘Marion Arcade’ is originally known as ‘Criterion Lane’ after the ‘Criterion Hotel (1854-1877) which stood on High Street, with the lane running between Ford Street and High Street. The busy laneway will later be renamed ‘Warren Lane’ in honour of Richard ‘Little Dick’ Warren (adopted son of newspaper proprietor Richard Albert Warren) who runs the popular Newsagent and Tobacconists shop at 74 Ford Street – on the corner of the laneway – from 1910 until his death at the age of 90 in 1950. In the 1980s the laneway will be partly roofed and renamed the ‘Marion Arcade’ (below). |
2021 – Jun 16-21
With a $3,500 ‘Covid Grant’ from the Community Bank Beechworth & District (Bendigo Bank), the inaugural Winterwords Festival begins in Beechworth with an art exhibition at the Mayday Hills Art Society. Organised by the Winterwords Autonomous Collective (an incorporated association which also receives financial backing from the Indigo Shire Council and the Into Our Hands Foundation) and led by the festival’s creative director Janet Tweedie, the week-long festival is a celebration of words in Art, Drama, Film, Games, Music, Poetry, Prose and Storytelling. It features discussions and special guests at various locations in Beechworth and the nearby town of Stanley. Winterwords becomes a popular annual event Beechworth in June.
2021 – Jun
Nathan Cowan from Billson’s Brewery takes over the beautiful ‘Bed & Breakfast’ property at 3 Finch Street (most recently operating as Finches of Beechworth) and renames it The Brewer’s House as it is situated on the original site of George Billson’s ‘Malt House’. Incorporating three private suites, the luxury accommodation property also features a solar-heated mineral water swimming pool.
| In the late 1860s George Billson and his wife Isabella operate a ‘Malt House’ from 3 Finch Street in Beechworth. The original two-storey brick ‘Malt House’ is demolished in the 1880s replaced by the current stately residence in 1895. Surrounded by beautiful, English-style manicured gardens, it features a tinkling fountain and an 80-year-old magnolia tree at the front of the house. |
2021 – Jun
Diane Ingwersen sells Beechworth Books at 73 Ford Street to Charles Dean and Nadia David. The popular book store was established in its current location in 2000 by Meryl McMillan.
2021 – Jul 12
After being closed for a while, the Beechworth Squash Courts and Fitness Centre at 4 Mellish Street is purchased in April 2021 for $570,000 and refreshed and refurbished by new co-owner Kara-lee Mackinnon, then reopened with a new name – Newtown Fitness – on July 12th.
| In 2023, the original squash courts are removed and reconfigured as part of the gym, and two modern treatment rooms / office spaces, are created, available to be rented by allied health professionals. |
2021
The Beechworth Contemporary Art Space opens at 29a Camp Street. Curated by Nina Machielse Hunt, the unique art gallery showcases works from artists of note from Beechworth and other towns in North-East Victoria. The small, but deep, space snuggles neatly between the Beechworth Bakery and the Beechworth Gold store.
2021 – Jul
After running the Myrtleford Butter Factory for 15 years, Naomi Ingleton opens her Farmacy Co. store – a Herbal Apothecary and Juice & Elixir Bar – at 66 Ford Street (the Clement’s Buildings), next door to the Ageing Frog Fish Bar at 68 Ford Street. Ingleton is a Chef, Horticulturist and Ayurvedic (natural Indian medicines) practitioner and wants to use her store to share her love of herbs and their medicinal benefits through a range of products and clinical consultancy.
| 66-68 Ford Street, also known as the ‘Clement’s Buildings’ (below) – and before that as the ‘Crawford’s Buildings’ – has previously been the home of ‘J.G ‘Snowy’ Anderson’s Gents Hairdressers’ and, most recently, ‘Carol Carroll Living’ and women’s clothing store ‘Hello Darling’. |
2021 – Sep
Tom O’Toole – owner of Beechworth Bakery – announces his retirement from the highly successful business he created in 1984. Now with a chain of Beechworth Bakery stores in Albury, Ballarat, Bendigo, Bright, Echuca, Healesville and Yackandandah, Tom’s long-time business partner Marty Matassoni will take over the business, having started working from O’Toole, after school at age 13, before taking on an apprenticeship at the Beechworth Bakery at age 16.
2021 – Sep 6
Nick Musso (above) opens a Beechworth branch of PhysioLife at 9b Bridge Road. Growing up on his family’s Musso Orchards in country Victoria, Nick graduated from La Trobe University with a Bachelor of Health Services and Master of Physiotherapy Practice. PhysioLife was established in 1990 in the Melbourne suburb of Heidelberg by Len Giles and the new PhysioLife Beechworth branch is the town’s Pilates, Sports Injury and Physiotherapy clinic.
| Contructed in the 1870s as the home of ‘Robert McKenzie and Sons Grain Stores’ the building at 9b Bridge Road has been home to a number of businesses including ‘The Spirited Chef Foodstore & Comestibles’ and the ‘Aboriginal Investment Art Gallery’ (below left) before ‘PhysioLife’ takes over the building in 2021. |
2021 – Sep
Dr Michael Doyne opens Sustainable Health Osteopathy at the rear of 61 Ford Street (3/61, facing the car park – above). Graduating with a ‘Masters of Osteopathic Science’ from Victoria University in 2018, as well as dual health science majors from Deakin University in nutrition and exercise, Dr Doyne first establishes a practice in Warragul in Gippsland before he and and his wife Carolyn decide to move to Beechworth to raise their three children – Martha, Rowan and Harry. Offering gentle manual therapy, rehabilitation & exercise programs, general health, and well-being consults at his Beechworth clinic, Dr Doyne also practices from the comfortable clinic behind ‘Atelier’ Hair & Beauty Salon at 33 High Street in nearby Yackandandah.
2021 – Sep 11
Suzy Unsted from Rubens of Beechworth Eco Hairdressing opens a separate business at Shop 3 in the Golden Vale Centre arcade – The Beechworth Barbershop, offering haircuts for men and boys. The Golden Vale Centre is at 75 Ford Street, on the original site of the Beechworth Supermarket.
2021 – Sep 16
After operating since November 2018 at the former Beechworth Railway Station – and battling through covid restrictions – the Beechworth Food Co-op closes as their lease with the Indigo Shire ends. In its almost 3 years operating from the site, over $160,000 is paid to local fruit and vegetable growers.
2021 – Nov
Lee & Craig Docherty purchase the three cottages – Pickett Cottage, Kelly House and Wright House at 56 High Street. Standing on the original site of the 1862-built Imperial Hotel, the buildings had been lovingly restored by John and Lisa Furlong and opened in 2008. The Docherty’s rename the luxury accommodation complex The Inn Beechworth, with the old Ned Kelly sculpture still standing proudly beside the front of Pickett Cottage (above).
2021 – Nov 4
27-year-old Wodonga-born artist Oliver Payne and his partner Megan Peirce (above) open The Beechworth Conservatory at 9a Bridge Road in the 1855-built Mackenzie Family Store shop on the hill at Newton at the entrance to Beechworth. The Beechworth Conservatory is a boutique indoor plant shop, coffee shop and design studio. In the delightfully restored 1870s-built brick shopkeeper’s residence next door, at 9c Bridge Road, they offer AirBNB accommodation.
2021 – Nov
Beth and Alistair Bartsh establish Wild Emery, making self-care and wellness bath and body products, including ‘small batch’ handmade natural soaps, botanical bath salts, lip balms, bath bombs and shower steamers. Selling their products to over 200 stores across Australia, Wild Emery operates from a studio at the rear of the family home at 48 Library Road, just around the corner from Bartsh Road which is named for Heinrich and Dorothea Bartsh who arrived in Beechworth looking for gold in 1857 and their son Frederick John Henry Bartsh who was born in Beechworth in 1865. Frederick’s grandson built the Sunnyside homestead on Bartsh Road.
| Heinrich Bartsh, a blacksmith, was born at Freiennald in Prussia. He died in Beechworth in 1866 leaving Dorothea with four young children including Frederick. In 1867, Dorothea married Christian Voigt, a gardener at the Black Springs where they both lived. A further child, William Voigt, was born in 1868. Dorothea died in 1910 and Christian Voigt in 1911. |
2021 – Nov 15
Doctor Jennifer Jong and Ellen Larkin establish Beechworth Dental at 14 Camp Street. Jennifer and Ellen are also part of the Alliance Dental Group in Myrtleford.
| For many years the two shops at 14 Camp Street had been the home of the ‘Brigadier Scottish Shop’, opened in 1991 by John and Maria Harvey. John Harvey establishes the annual ‘Beechworth Celtic Festival’ in 1995. |
2021 – Dec 25
After owning and running Beechworth Taxis for 12 years, Noel Evans sells the business to Rod Bell.
2022 – Jan
As Billson’s continues to expand their Beechworth operations, Nathan Cowan and his team outgrow their small office at the original Billson’s Brewery building on Last Street, so they establish a new head office on the first floor of The Birches – the former administration building on Coates Crescent at Mayday Hills (below).
Billson’s Brewery also establish a cordial bottling plant on Diffey Road, next to their warehouse facilities (below). Their range of canned beverages are manufactured at the original Billson’s Brewery site at 49 Last Street.
2022 – Jan
Malaysian-born Mei ‘Pinky’ Lee establishes Carriage Massage in the former restaurant building next to the Carriage Motor Inn at 44 Camp Street. Within a few months ‘Pinky’ has moved her popular service to more central premises at 8a Camp Street (above) near the corner of Camp and High Street.
2022 – Feb 17
After much restoration of the original Manchester House / Corner Hotel building on the corner of Ford and Camp Streets, Miss Amelie Gourmet opens, diagonally opposite the old Beechworth Post Office. Co-owners Chef David Kapay and businessmen Ken Little and Jim Myer opened the original Miss Amelie restaurant in a railway shed at the historic former Wodonga railway station in 2016, before opening a second shop at Myer Centrepoint in Albury..
| Frederick ‘Fritz’ Dreyer took over the ‘Manchester House’ building in 1869 and converted it into ‘Dreyer’s Hotel’ which is quickly renamed ‘The Corner Hotel’. It later becomes ‘The Central Hotel’, ‘The Astor Café’, ‘The Dolphin Café’, ‘Pozzebon’s Pizza’ and ‘Taylor’s Milk Bar’. It almost burns down in June 1911 when illuminations (Chinese lanterns) for the coronation of King George V fall onto the balcony and start a fire. |
2022 – Mar
The Beechworth Football Club – the ‘Bushrangers’ – begin their 2002 season with a big win against Rutherglen – 20.19 (139) to 8.3. (51) at Baarmutha Park. The co-coaches of the ‘Bushrangers’ are Tom Cartledge and Brayden Carey (below), who will continue as co-coaches in 2023.
2022 – Mar
Heather Wells opens Fabric Playground and Gifts at 29 A Camp Street.
2022 – Apr
Work begins on the $600,000 Lake Sambell Precinct Reviltalisation project which will replace the boardwalks around the clay banks, remove a number of large declining pines, improve all walking tracks around the lake, construct new bridges, new timber stairs and new bench seats and add new signage throughout the precinct.
2022 – Apr 9
The inaugural Spring Ditch! family festival is held at the Stanley Recreation Reserve. Effectively replacing the Beechworth Music Festival (established in 2014) the event is headlined by Murray Cook (from The Wiggles) and his Soul Movers and The Meanies and, between the music acts, there are events including a Wood Chop display, a Tug O’War, Golden Boot Toss, pony rides, and special kids ‘chill out’ zones. Co-founders of the Beechworth Music Festival, Lex Fletcher and Rikki Raadsveld have established the new event which ‘tips its hat’ to the former Stanley New Year’s Day Sports held for over 130 consecutive years, which finished its long run in the 1990s.
| The new festival takes its name from the local ‘Spring Ditch’ mine hole, which was converted into a wetland with tree plantings by students from the Stanley Public School in the 1980s. The historical ‘Stanley New Year’s Sports Day’ would consist of events like the wood chop, tennis and horse competitions, dog shows, running races and wheelbarrow races. |
2022 – Apr
Beechworth’s Mitre 10 on Camp Street begins construction on an extension at the Tanswell Street rear entrance of the 1992-built hardware store.
2022 – Apr 16
A new exhibition – ‘The People of Beechworth’ – opens at the Burke Museum over the Easter weekend. Showcasing the resilience and diversity of the Beechworth community, it features 10 photographic portraits of current Beechworth residents, comparing and contrasting their stories with historical collections and personalities of the town. Among those featured in the 10 large scale portraits, captured by Beechworth photographer Erin Davis-Hartwig, are locals Dr David Lawrence, Tracy McVea and Corey-James Jackson, whose stories link to the arts, emergency services and education. The exhibition also includes a portrait gallery of the broader community through images captured at a series of community open days. These portraits are projected onto a wall alongside the current “pioneer board” which features the town’s 19th century founders, and aims to showcase the diversity of Beechworth’s almost 4,000 residents.
2022 – Apr
Elizabeth Mason, who has run The Finer Things of Life shop in Camp Street since 1990, teams up with her daughter Alexandra Perry to open a new store at 122 Main Street in Rutherglen. Merchant Rutherglen sells beautiful Art Deco jewellery – exclusive gold jewellery and sterling silver classic designed items, cultured pearls, earrings and pendants. Their jewellery includes only natural precious and semi-precious stones.
2022 – May
The Beechworth Lawn Tennis Club opens its new tennis courts at the Baarmutha Park Sports Complex on Balaclava Road. The new site includes four new ‘Rebound Ace’ cushioned acrylic hard courts with LED lighting. The former site of the Beechworth Lawn Tennis Club between Albert Road and Tanswell Street – sold in April 2019 – is to be subdivided into a new housing development (below) to be called the Silver Gardens Estate.
2022 – May 25
The property at 6B Boiler House Lane (off Gilchrist Avenue, behind the Montessori School) is sold for $350,000. It is the home of two separate tenants – Ben Ryder’s Beechworth Coffee Roasters (opened in June 2021) and Louise Ritchie’s Silver Creek Sourdough Bakery (opened in 2014).
2022
The historic Beechworth Gallery building at 8 Albert Road (corner of Albert Road and Kerferd Road) is sold to Nathan Cowan of Billson’s Brewery for $1.2 million to potentially use as the new Billson’s head office. Constructed in 1857 as a ‘wine and spirit merchant’, the historic building has been home to several businesses over the years including Robinson’s Store (below).
The 1857 building (above) features vast, solid cellars in the basement (below).
2022 – Jun 1
The first day of winter brings a cold snap and a light dusting of snow in Beechworth and Stanley, with heavier falls at nearby Mt. Stanley (below).
2022 – Jun 15-19
The second annual Winterwords festival is held in Beechworth, with over 20 seperate events held at various locations throughout the area including Beechworth, Stanley and the Woolshed Valley.
2022 – Jun
A $4.5 million sewer upgrade project begins in Beechworth, designed to help resolve the town’s sewer capacity issues during heavy rainstorms. A 1km horizontal long-bore is being drilled from the North East Water’s wastewater treatment plant in Woolshed. The project involves construction of a new 4km long sewer transfer pipe from the bottom of Church Street, along Last Street, Sydney Road and Old Chiltern Road, then under the Historic Park to the sewage treatment plant on McFeeters Road near Woolshed Falls. The new, larger transfer pipe will allow more inflow and protect against sewer spills. A new pump station is also being constructed at the bottom of Church Street.
2022 – Jul 4
Shaun ‘Shaggy’ Pritchard and Petrina ‘Trina’ Sanderson take over Beechworth Plumbing Plus at 22 Junction Road from Mick and Jo Westra, who had themselves taken over the successful plumbing business in 2003 from Ian and Sharon Vincent, who had originally established the plumbing business in 1972. Under the new owners, the 50-year-old business is renamed Beechworth Plumbing and Supplies.
| ‘Best and Fairest’ winner Shaun ‘Shaggy’ Pritchard plays over 200 games for the ‘Beechworth Football Club’ and will be the club’s coach from 2009 to 2011, leading the ‘Beechworth Bushrangers’ to premiership victory in 2010. |
2022 – Jul
After 157 years of operation, Billson’s Brewery opens a new centrally located outlet store at 37 Camp Street. Called Billson’s Soda Bar, it specialises in freshly mixed sodas, ice cream spiders and hot chocolates, coffees and teas. It also features a “secret speakeasy” at the rear of the premises.
| The 1891 building is originally the home of Andrew Porritt’s newspaper the ‘Ovens Register’, later ‘The Green Shed Bistro’ and then ‘The Press Room Wine Bar’ (2014-2020). |
2022 – Jul 31
After 22 years in business, Manager Frances McDonald announces The Ardent Alpaca shop at 35 Camp Street will close.
2022 – Aug
Some good news for Beechworth Wildlife Stays after the 2020 fire which destroyed much of Sue Hiatt and David Haythorne’s property. They are among the recipients of Beechworth’s Bendigo Bank funding program, with a $1,500 contribution to go towards the construction of a shed for rescue joeys, as their property also operates as a wildlife rescue centre. Bendigo Bank’s Beechworth manager Sam Johanson issues 17 grants in 2022 amounting to $47,000, which includes $1,500 for the Beechworth Toy Library to create additional storage space.
2022 – Aug
American-born chiropractor Dr Sanda Thompson takes over the Indigo Chiro practice from Dr Karen Hayes at Shop 4 in the Marion Arcade, 74 Ford Street. After obtaining her Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science and Sports Medicine in the USA, Thompson completed her Chiropractic degree at RMIT University in Melbourne before moving to Beechworth with her husband and three daughters. Indigo Chiro provides a range of chiropractic services, including acute, chronic, paediatric, family-based wellness care, along with a variety of holistic products.
| ‘Indigo Chiro’ had been established in Beechworth’s Marion Arcade in 2014 by Dr Karen Therese Hayes, who tragically passes away just before Christmas in 2022 |
2022
Dr. Helen Robinson moves her Beechworth Veterinary Hospital from 6a Camp Street into new premises at 1 Harper Avenue, after refitting the original 1965 Beechworth Kindergarten – on the corner of Harper Avenue and Albert Road – into a modern and spacious vet clinic. The hospital is operated by Robinson’s ‘Indigo Veterinary Services’ and serves Beechworth, Yackandandah, Stanley, Chiltern Wooragee, the Indigo Valley and beyond.
| Graduating from the University of Melbourne and working in farm animal medicine around Australia, Dr. Helen Robinson also spends time at a mixed and dairy practice in Tallangatta. She begins working at the ‘Beechworth Vet Clinic’ – then owned by Dr. Andrew Colson’s ‘Ovens and Kiewa Veterinary Services’ – before purchasing the Beechworth practice at 6a Camp Street from Dr. Colson in November 2011, and establishing ‘Indigo Veterinary Services’. Dr. Robinson will campaign for Indi for the Greens in 2007 and again in 2019. |
2022 – Sep
Beechworth Pharmacy owner Ruth Parker is named ‘Most Outstanding Community Pharmacist’ by the Australian Patients Association, sponsored by the Pharmacy Guild, for her work with the Beechworth community during the covid pandemic.
| After suffering a stroke in 2012, followed by chronic pain, Ruth Parker is motivated to give back to the Beechworth community by helping to educate others on how to manage and live with pain. She embarks on a ‘Bachelor of Health Science (Naturopathy)’ to be able to offer both pharmaceutical and natural medicine to improve health outcomes. Sadly, Ruth suffers another medical episode on June 29th 2023 and passes away, aged just 47. |
2022 – Sep
Marcus O’Connor moves his Beechworth Accounting and Financial Services from their premises at 47 High Street, where he has been operating for 13 years, and he and business partner Kate Walker establish Beechworth Financial Services at the refurbished shop at 35 Camp Street where The Ardent Alpaca had traded for 22 years. Beechworth Accounting remains at 47 High Street.
2022 – Sep
Paul Conroy sells Warden’s Hotel (1869) to Billson’s Brewery owner Nathan Cowan for $900,000 who plans to restore the 153 year old building and re-open it for accommodation.
| Since closing as a hotel in 1975, the Warden’s building has served as school camp accommodation, a bed and breakfast, a wine bar, and, most recently, an Indian restaurant. |
2022 – Sep
The inaugural Beechworth Contemporary Art Award takes place over three days. Organised by Nina Machielse Hunt, Creative Director of the BCAA, over 200 entries are received from around Australia, with 10 proposals ultimately selected. The artworks are all created to be site specific and are installed at various sites around Beechworth. The BCAA judge, Sydney based curator Sebastian Goldspink, announces artist Susie Losch (above) as the award recipient of $10,000 with her artwork ‘Swell’. The event will return in 2024 as the Beechworth Biennale.
2022 – Oct 7
After almost 20 years of serving breakfasts, lunches and coffees at The Beechworth Pantry, Ian and Robyn retire and close their popular Pantry at 77 Ford Street.
2022 – Oct
Along the Wallace Park-Spring Creek Walking Track (officially opened by Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett in 1998) water rushes over the waterfall into the deep cut tail-race after heavy and constant rain.
2022 – Oct
Water surges over the Woolshed Falls following constant rain.
2022 – Oct
Christina and Troy Dillon open the Vino Bar at 40 Ford Street (formerly the home of Annabelle Bourchier’s Collective café). It trades from Friday to Sunday offering a range of premium local Beechworth wines, beers, French Champagne and food.
2022 – Oct 27
60-year-old Paul Flegal, who lives at the Oddfellows Hall in Loch Street, is killed in a shootout with Barry David Butler at Butler’s property on Buckland Gap Road (below). Butler claims he has no idea why he is targeted by Flegal, who had been making threatening calls and leaving angry messages for him leading up to the shooti as well as making armed threats against Butler around town. Flegal arrives at Butler’s property (with another, unnamed, man who flees the scene) and opens fire using a gun fitted with silencer. A volley of 15 shots are fired by Flegel, one of them hitting Butler in his chest plate before travelling up his arm, severing nerves, and preventing him using the limb. With his uninjured arm, Butler uses an unregistered .45 calibre semi-automatic handgun to fire back, killing Flegel. Butler, who is flown to the Alfred Hospital and spends eight days receiving treatment, does not face charges over Flegel’s death, which is believed to be considered self-defence, although he is later charged with having three illegal guns at his property, and faces drugs charges after police find cannabis plants, and small amounts of marijuana, ice and cocaine at his property at the time of the shooting.
2022 – Oct/Nov
Heavy rain and flooding continue throughout the region, and water from the “Rocky Mountain Mining Company” tunnel – that runs under the township of Beechworth (completed in January 1880) – pours out from the opening above the Gorge.
2022 – Nov 2
The continual heavy rains now take their toll on the 1926-built Spring Creek Bridge on the popular Gorge Scenic Drive Road. It causes structural damage, forcing the closure of road to all vehicles from Powder Magazine to Pritchard Lane. Pedestrian access to the park is still available but there is no access across the Spring Creek Bridge. An engineering assessment of the damage will be undertaken to understand the extent of the damage and an estimate of how long it will take to repair. It has been closed ever since with no re-opening in sight, which is a real blow for the many tourists (and locals) who have enjoyed making the spectacular ‘Gorge Road Circuit’ for many years.
2022 – Nov
With the persistent rain, Lake Sambell overflows, flooding the area around the lake (above and below).
2022 – Nov
Shabbir and Asrathe Hussain serve their final customers at the Beechworth Indian Restaurant which they had established in 2015 in the former 1869-built Midland Counties Hotel (later Warden’s Hotel) at 32 Ford Street. The historic property, owned by Paul Conroy, had been sold in September to Billson’s Brewery owner Nathan Cowan for $900,000 who has plans to restore the 153 year old building and re-open it for accommodation.
2022 – Nov
Rocco Esposito and Lisa Pidutti move their popular providore and wine store Project Forty Nine from 46-48 Ford Street to newly refurbished premises across the road at 57 Ford Street next to the former Star Hotel.
2022 – Nov 18
The first Drag’d Out Festival begins. Put together by Andrew Madden and his partner Scott Daintry, who run the Empire Hotel, over 8,000 tickets are sold for the 4 nights and 3 days of the festival. Part of Camp Street is closed to traffic on the Friday afternoon and evening when a street party and disco is held. Saturday features events like roving drag queens and kings, “Drag Bingo and Trivia”, all leading up to the “Wine ‘n Dine Divas”, a cabaret-style drag show at the Memorial Hall, and Sunday is “Frock Up Family Fair Day” at the Police Paddocks. Drag queens Vanessa Wagner and Cindy Pastel headline the sold-out event which attracts over 2,000 people to town. Drag’d Out returns to Beechworth in 2023.
2022 – Nov 27
Having successfully established her Ivy Phillips Beechworth store at 71 Ford Street in September 2018, Emma Nankervis opens a second Ivy Phillips store at 53 Standish Street in Myrtlefordselling high quality men’s and women’s fashion and homewares. This will be followed by another shop in Beechworth – “Spencer Phillips” – in December 2023, selling kitchenware at 39 Ford Street.
2022 – Dec 26
Michael Patterson and Emma Smith (above) open their Little Nev outdoor takeaway coffee business on the forecourt of the old Golden Era RACV Service Station at 34 Ford Street. Little Nev (NEV stands for ‘North East Victoria’) operates from a beautifully restored and converted horse float which had been sitting, old and rusting, in Emma Smith’s family paddock and is lovingly transformed during the covid lockdowns in 2021. The coffee at Little Nev is supplied by the Sixpence Roastery of Bright. Little Nev also serves Budd Hot Chocolate and Chai, a variety of tea drinks including Patto’s Iced Tea, and home-made lemonade from Yack Ingredients of Yackandandah. Michael will restore and refit a second horse float in mid-2023 to travel around North East Victoria selling coffee at festivals, weddings and events.
2023 – Jan 21
After months of renovations, creative couple Dore Stockhausen and Marcus Foley finally celebrate the grand opening weekend of their OneoffTwo Studios at 5A Coates Crescent at Mayday Hills in Beechworth. The studio and gallery feature paintings by Dore and jewellery by Marcus, a respected gold and silversmith.
| Dore Stockhausen and Marcus Foley established their ‘OneoffTwo Studios’ at Nungurner, near Metung, in East Gippsland in 2006, before moving to Beechworth in 2022. |
2023 – Jan 23
Property management specialists Lee Rourke and Simmone NeumannpurchaseBeechworth’s George Kerferd Hotel from property developer George Fendyk for just shy of $2.6 million. They will change the 20-room hotel’s name to the Grand Oaks Resort. Standing at 22 Oak Avenue in the Mayday Hills precinct, the building stands on the original site of the 1907 Medical Superintendents quarters, later rebuilt as the Kerferd Clinic, an early psychiatric treatment centre.
2023 – Jan
Work begins on the Silver Gardens Estate, a new housing development to feature 10 houses on the former site of the Beechworth Lawn Tennis Club.
2023 – Feb
After mentoring their daughter in all aspects of cattle breeding and stud management, Narelle Forrest takes over Rosstulla at 64 Davidson Lane from her parents Rex and Trish Forrest. Narelle transitions to the management of the Rosstulla Poll Hereford Stud after the 60-year reign of her parents. The fourth generation successful Beechworth cattle enterprise dovetails with a flock of fine wool merinos. The quality of the Forrest’s wool has been recognised on numerous occasions, including the accolade for ‘Best Prepared Clip’ in the 2018 Elders Catalogue.
| The Forrest family have been farming in Beechworth since the mid-1800s when Scotsman David Forrest first arrived in the district. Since then, ‘Rosstulla’ has been managed by further generations of the family including Balfour Ewing Forrest, and his son Balfour Greig Forrest (who is also a Beechworth Councillor for many years, and Shire President from 1931-1932) and, most recently, his nephew Rex Forrest. ‘Forrest Lane’ is named in honour of the family. |
2023 – Feb
A small but dedicated group of volunteers – for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) – begin work on conserving Beechworth’s horse-drawn vehicle collection. Gathering twice a month, they clean the 23-vehicle collection using conservation methods. The historic vehicles include sulkies, drays, buggies and even an omnibus and a hearse. Sovereign Hill coachbuilding and wheelwrighting (above) have assisted, making new wheel chocks for the collection.
| Not currently on view to the public, the ‘Beechworth Carriage Collection’ is housed in secure storage near Beechworth, with hopes that, one day, the collection will be returned to public display. The ‘National Trust’ is turning to condition assessments of the vehicles so it can plan maintenance and restoration work. |
2023 – Feb
The Lake Sambell Precinct Revitalisation is almost complete. The Rotary Club of Beechworth – with the support of Evan Taylor from Beechworth Sand and Soil and excavator and bobcat operator Tim Goldsworthy – reinvigorate the Boat Ramp area. They clean up the area, level out the foreshore, and place river rocks under a bed of sand to make it more ‘user friendly’ for water craft, including the popular Beechworth Golden Serpents Dragon Boat Club (below).
2023 – Feb
Street lighting and curbing is built on a new road (Government Road) which has been created off Forrest Lane in preparation for a new housing development.
2023 – Mar
The renovated and refreshed 1858 building at 89 Ford Street is relaunched as the Beechworth Contemporary Art Space, with The Prospect holiday accommodation opening on the right-hand side (and upstairs) of the same building, operated by Beechworth Short Stays. Nina Machielse Hunt’s original Beechworth Contemporary Gallery at 29a Camp Street (next door to the Beechworth Bakery) has moved to this new site.
| It would appear that Robert O’Hara Burke once resided in the apartment above 89 Ford Street when he was Police Superintendent at Beechworth between 1854 and 1858. |
2023 – Mar
Beechworth’s popular Bridge Road Brewers is voted the “Best Brewery Venue in Victoria” in the Beer Cartel‘s annual craft beer industry survey.
2023 – Mar 31
The final stage of Lake Sambell Precinct Revitalisation is completed with the installation of all-new signage around the lake. The new bridges, walkways and steps are now open.
2023 – Apr 1
The recently closed Beechworth Pantry at 77 Ford Street rises from the ashes to become the Phoenix Cafe & Restaurant. Operated by Zhicheng Li and his family – who also run the Chinese Village restaurant in Camp Street – it is open from 10am to 2pm, serving Australian Brunch and Asian Meals along with authentic Chinese tea.
2023 – Apr 6
Just days before the annual Golden Horseshoes Festival in Beechworth, Regional Roads Victoria close a section of the Beechworth-Wodonga Road after announcing a badly damaged culvert over Rising Sun Creek needs assessment and repair. It appears the main road will be closed to all traffic for some months, and a detour is put in place via the Beechworth-Chiltern Road and Reid’s Way.
2023 – Apr 8
After purchasing 38a Ford Street in early 2021, Walter Facci and his wife Rachael Antoniou finally complete renovations on the building (where Rustique Soul had been trading) and the former, popular Melbourne hairdressers are able to open their Walter Beechworth Hair Salon.
| Originally from Myrtleford, Walter had been running his popular ‘The Lab for Hair’ salon in South Yarra for 22 years before he and Rachael decided to relocate to Beechworth with their daughters Chiara and Estelle for a ‘quieter country life’. |
2023 – Apr 7-10
Despite the inclement and chillier-than-expected weather, the 2023 Golden Horseshoes Festival is more popular than ever, drawing huge numbers to Beechworth and, in particular, for the parade on Easter Saturday afternoon.
2023 – Apr
Construction nears completion on the $7.2 million ‘Murray to Mountains Rail Trail’ section from Beechworth to Yackandandah and Osbornes Flat, with the opening of the trail’s underpass at the Beechworth-Yackandandah turn-off roundabout. The 31km cycling and walking track (mostly) follows the route of the old railway line between the two towns.
2023 – Apr
Owen and Judy Richards put up their fully renovated home at 19 Warner Road for sale. It is the former Wallace Memorial Ward built in 1890 as the new female ward for the Ovens Benevolent Asylum next door. The home has an all new rear and interior, with the front exterior untouched.
2023
Land is offered for sale where Havelock Road intersects with Alma Road in a new housing development. The eight home-development lots are priced between $385,000 and $480,00. Situated 1,300 metres from the centre of town, the properties stand adjacent to the Murray to Mountain Rail Trail and the Beechworth Golf Club.
| Havelock Road is named in honour of Sir Henry Havelock, a British General who spent most of his career in India. There is a statue of Havelock in Trafalgar Square in London. |
2023 – May 20
After 14 years at 93 Ford Street (site of the old Parkinson’s Garage), Janelle ‘Nelly’ Molyneux moves her Nelly’s Niche home decor and gift shop to the shop next door to Mike’s Beechworth Bazaar at 58 Ford Street (run by her husband, Mike Molyneux). It features a large section for dog and pet products at the rear of the store.
2023 – June 4
The Beechworth Singers, founded in 1979, hold a special Sunday afternoon concert at the Beechworth Town Hall. Margaret Phillips leads the singers in “Songs from the Shows” to a packed and appreciatve crowd, who enjoy the beautiful mix of local voices performing musical numbers from “West Side Story”, “The Lion King”, “Oliver!” and many more.
2023 – Jun
Paul Dahlenburg and Lauretta Schulz open their new Grand Flor Private Tasting Room (below) at 46-48 Ford Street, next door to their well established Eldorado Road Cellar Door & Cantina at 44 Ford Street.
2023 – Jul
After selling in January 2020 for $400,00, the almost three years of renovations are completed on the 1890-built Charnwood Cottage at 11 Loch Street, directly opposite Ritchies IGA Supermarket. Situated on a quarter acre block that was once the home of Melrose’s Ovens Bedding Factory (destroyed by fire in 1871) the weatherboard home features 12-foot high ceilings, 4 fireplaces, hardwood floors and sash windows, and stands two doors from St. George’s Hall (built in 1865). With its complete makeover and update – particularly in the rear section of the home – Charnwood Cottage will be put on the market again in April 2024 with an asking price of $1,630,000. The cottage is named after the historic ‘Charnwood Forest’ which covers approximately 67 square miles (170 km2) in Leicestershire in England.
2023 – Jul 21
After almost a quarter-of-a-century running Beechworth Machinery at 30 High Street with their son Luke, Mick and Sharon Stribley retire from their successful business. Originally established by George Fendyk in 1990, Beechworth Machinery is taken over by Gary and Helen Lowndes.
2023 – Jul 25
Following a private sale for $1,358,500 in August 2020, restoration work finally begins on the iconic 1870-built former Beechworth Post Office building. The work includes replacement of roof slates, plumbing, conservation works, and render and timber repairs, as well as the demolition of non-heritage significant amenity buildings, all supervised by “an experienced heritage architect”. It appears, when work is completed, the iconic and much photographed building will be used for residential purposes.
2023 – Jul 28
After being closed to traffic since April 6th, work finally commences on repairing the damaged bridge over the Rising Sun Creek culvert on a section of the Beechworth-Wodonga Road. Regional Roads Victoria install a temporary ‘Bailey Bridge’ and traffic lights that will allow single lane ‘light traffic’ over Rising Sun Creek, but heavy vehicles will have to continue using the detour on the Beechworth-Chiltern Road via Reid’s Way. The repair work takes eight months and, a full year after the Rising Sun Creek Bridge is closed, it is safely restored and opened to two-way traffic again in April 2024.
2023 – Jul 29
After refurbishing and fitting out the old tin shed in Phillips Lane, Bernie and Anne Jovaras officially open The Hub 3747, a marketplace that caters for a variety of makers, producers, artists and small businesses from North East Victoria, showcasing a wide array of the region’s talent under one roof. It will be overseen by Taryn North and Nick Gatsios of Creative Collective 3747, who specialise in restoring wine barrels. The permanent indoor marketplace showcases a rotating display of locally made homewares, furniture, art, ceramics, clothing, garden art, furniture, soft goods and beverages. Phillips Lane runs parallel to Ford Street and leads to the IGA Supermarket. It can be reached both from Church Street and Star Lane.
2023 – Aug
Beechworth-born Luke Brock establishes Kerrupjmara Meats and Black Bird Consultancy in a newly renovated section of the old Mayday Hills Hospital. Kerrupjmara (meaning: Freshwater People) is contracted by Discovered Wildfoods, a wild harvest game meat company. Kerrupjmara Meats utilise whole beasts and are as environmentally responsible as possible, applying a First Nations lens. In 2024 they will open their doors to the public and create Wadeye – a training facility in Beechworth to provide opportunities and ongoing support to young people from remote Aboriginal communities who are keen to learn to be butchers (below).
| Luke Brock started out as the ‘clean up boy’ at ‘Arthur Stephenson’s Butcher Shop’ on Ford Street when he was 13 years old, then spent the next decade working in abattoirs and boning rooms in Myrtleford, Wodonga and Eurobin. In 2000, he commenced work at the old Beechworth Gaol, beginning a 20-year association with the ‘Department of Justice’ supporting the Koori men and their families while in custody at Beechworth before spending five years at ‘Rumbalara Aboriginal Health Cooperative’ as Deputy CEO and then CEO. In 2022 Luke provided the Acknowledgement of Country at Beechworth’s Golden Horseshoe Festival and was the MC for Mitch Tambo’s performance at the festival. |
2023 – Aug
Sarah and Michael Voigt – both from long-standing Beechworth and Yackandandah families – open Property Collective Real Estate at 75 Ford Street, where Rod and Jacinta Devlin had been operating Devlin Real Estate since 2013. Sarah began her real estate career in Beechworth, where she served the community for over 10 years before expanding her knowledge and skills. Michael has over 15 years’ experience in building and construction.
2023 – Aug
A new housing development is announced at 24 Alma Road. To be named Alma Place and featuring a Community Park, the land has a very pleasant view directly out onto the Beechworth Golf Club.
| Alma Road is named after the ‘Battle of the Alma River’ that occurred in the Crimean War between French, British, and Ottoman forces against the Russian army defending the Crimean Peninsula near the port city of Sevastopol on 20 September 1854. |
2023 – Aug
Andrew Thomas moves his Bailey Thomas Solicitors office from the building at 22 Camp Street in Beechworth – first opened as a legal practice by William Lawrence Zincke in 1861 – to new premises on the ground floor of The Birches Building – the former Administration Building – on Coates Crescent at Mayday Hills.
| In 2024, Andrew Thomas will cease his ‘Bailey Thomas Solicitors’ legal practice and it will be taken over by ‘Nevin Lenn Gross’ solicitors. Providing legal services in North-East Victoria since 1955, they have offices in Wodonga, Shepparton, Wangaratta, Myrtleford, Bright, Benalla, Mount Beauty and now, Beechworth. |
2023 – Aug 23
Dominik ‘Dom’ King, who had established the Peddlar Cafe on Ford Street in 2015, opens a new sandwich bar at 31 Camp Street. Inspired by Beechworth’s connection to Ned Kelly, he names it Bandit. As well as making his ‘very good sandwiches’ during the day, on Thursday nights (below) Dom opens up to serve his famous pasta and other specialties!
2023 – Aug 31
Ying Massage opens for business at Shop 2 in the Golden Vale Centre arcade at 75 Ford Street, offering traditional Chinese massage. The business is managed and operated by Ying Hua Lai who had been working as a massage therapist in her home city of Nanning, the capital of the Guangxi region in Southern China before migrating to Australia in 2018.
2023 – Sep 5
After finishing up at the Beechworth Barbershop at Shop 3 in the Golden Vale Centre arcade at the start of July, 21-year-old Martin Miranda opens his own Martin’s Barber Shop at 29 Camp Street.
| Martin arrived in Australia with his family from Argentina in 2010 and, after moving to North-East Victoria, began playing with the ‘Wodonga Diamonds’ Soccer Club’ and is eventually selected to play in the senior team. On Australia Day 2018, the then 16-year-old Martin is the recipient of the ‘Emma George Scholarship’, an honour which recognises a Beechworth Olympian. |
2023 – Sep
An ‘Evie’ public Electric Vehicle Charging Station is opened in the car park next to the Burke Museum at 26 Loch Street. The 50KW charging station offers two types of connectors – CCS and CHAdeMO.
| ‘CCS’ (Combined Charging System) is from the European Automobile Association, while ‘CHAdeMO’ is from the Japan Electric Vehicle Fast Charger Association. ‘CHAdeMO’ is an abbreviation of “charge de move,” equivalent to “charge for moving,” and is a pun for “O cha demo ikaga desuka” in Japanese, meaning “Let’s have a cup of tea while charging”! |
2023 – Sep 18
Dr Suzi Hearn opens Freedom Chiropractic and Joint Health at Shop 3 in the Golden Vale Centre arcade, right next to the newly opened Ying Massage. Dr. Hearn B.AppSc. (Chiro 1986) has over 35 years experience as a chiropractic practitioner, and also operates clinics in Myrtleford and Bright. She will offer her services at her Beechworth clinic on Monday and Thursday afternoons and evenings.
2023 – Sep 28
The Beechworth Gift Shop & Tobacconist opens at 2/91 Ford Street. The manager of the new shop is 23-year-old Tim Prestianni (above) who had been working as a junior chef at Beechworth’s Hibernian Hotel.
2023 – Oct 1
After trading for almost 4 years at 49 Ford Street, Sebastian and Melinda Nedziak are sadly forced to close their popular Gum Tree Pies store after failing to find a permanent local pastry cook. They continue to run their outlets in Yackandandah, Bright and Wodonga.
| Founded in Yackandandah in 2016 and expanding to Beechworth in 2019, the Beechworth ‘Gum Tree Pies’ store has been unfortunately fraught with problems almost from day one … not long after opening just before Christmas 2019, parts of Beechworth are evacuated due to the Black Summer bushfires, followed by the COVID-19 lockdowns from March 2020, staff shortages, rate rises, and the ever-increasing cost of living. Then, in January 2022, a car hits and damages the front of the building! (below) |
2023 – Oct
Beechworth is crowned the state winner in the 41st annual Keep Australia Beautiful Victoria (KABV) awards, the fifth time Beechworth has won the award. At the awards ceremony held in Melbourne, four local projects also win awards in various categories, including the Drag’d Out Festival in the ‘Wellbeing’ category and the Burke Museum’s “People of Beechworth Exhibition” along with ‘Totally Renewable Yackandandah’. Beechworth has four previous Victorian Tidy Town awards – 2009, 2014, 2017 and 2019.
2023 – Oct 28
Metal in the Mountains is held in Beechworth for the fourth time. Taking place outdoors, it rattles the stonework of the buildings around the open-air area of the Police Paddocks and draws a crowd of over 250 people who gather to hear eight bands play throughout the afternoon and evening.
2023 – Nov 10-12
The first Beechworth Heritage Festival is held. Replacing the long-running Beechworth Celtic Festival (first held in November 1995), the new Heritage Festival is a celebration of the town’s rich local history, including its First Nations, Chinese and Celtic forebears, and all the heritage trades that have shaped the community. The three-day festival – held under hot and sunny skies – features captivating performances, interactive exhibits, and a celebration of the range of cultures that have defined Beechworth’s identity. Many of the activities are centred at the Police Paddocks with Heritage Trade demonstrations (below), musical performers, dancing – including an Indigenous performer and Didgeridoo maker – and performances from the Brass Band and Pipe Band. A market with a range of stalls and food outlets is also held at the Queen Victoria Gardens.
2023 – Nov 21
After 38 years operating from 11-15 Camp Street, Beechworth’s perennial Chinese Village Restaurant moves to its new home, opening its doors at 77 Ford Street where Zhicheng Li and his family had been running the Phoenix Cafe & Restaurant since April 1st 2023 in conjunction with their original Chinese Village Restaurant.
2023 – Dec
Billson’s Brewery and Bridge Road Brewers join the growing list of Beechworth businesses to install Tesla Destination Chargers for electric vehicles. Other businesses with facilities to charge electric cars around Beechworth include Golden Heritage Accommodation, the Glenbosch Wine Estate and Haldon Estate Wines (below).
2023 – Dec 5
Professional dog groomer Imogen Bradley opens her Willow & Co Dog Grooming shop (temporarily) at 43 Ford Street (while Lyn Ryder is taking a break from her Table Three Seven Four Seven café at the shop). Beechworth-born Imogen had studied dog grooming at Pitter Patter Paws in Melbourne before returning home to Beechworth in November 2023 to establish her business. At the end of May 2024, Imogen relocates Willow & Co Dog Grooming across the road to its new permanent home at Shop 2 in Marion Arcade, 74 Ford Street (below) as Lyn Ryder returns to re-establish her coffee shop and deli-style café at 43 Ford Street in July 2024
2023 – Dec 6
Wooragee resident Emma Nankervis, who opened her first Ivy Phillips store at 71 Ford Street in September 2018 and her second Ivy Phillips store at Myrtleford in November 2022, now opens her third store – Spencer Phillips at 39 Ford Street in Beechworth. Spencer Phillips specialises in quality homeware products (kitchenware, bathroomware and more) along with a range of women’s fashions.
2024 – Jan 25
One of Beechworth’s tallest trees, a Californian Redwood (number 27) is struck by lightning. Standing on the Churches Walk in Centennial Park behind the old Ovens Goldfields Hospital façade on Church Street, the tree is split all the way from the top to the bottom, meaning it is no longer viable to retain and, sadly, it is quickly felled for safety reasons.
2024 – Feb 19
After originally establishing his Beechworth Cyclery service and repairs business in the front of the Old Beechworth Gaol in early 2018 and then moving to a small shop in the Marion Arcade off Ford Street in June 2020, Travis Hunt now moves to much larger premises at 17 Camp Street. The new prime location of the Beechworth Cyclery shop carries on a long tradition of bicycles and bicycle service and repairs at 17 Camp Street which began in 1973 when the Collier family open their Seagull Cycle Works in the building (below), followed in March 1999 when Wayne and Kaye Richardson took over the premises and established Beechworth Saws and Cycles.
2024 – Feb
After owning and operating the Beechworth Laundromatt at 55 Ford Street for almost 25 years – and adding a balcony to the front of the first floor of the building in 2005 – Peter Rue sells the building and the business, including the popular two-bedroom B&B upstairs.
| Constructed in 1865 for George Gammon and his ‘Gammon’s Medical Hall’, the building later becomes the home of ‘William Bowen’s Chemist’ shop until Bowen’s retirement in 1916. The building on Ford Street will go on to become the ‘Beechworth Dairy and Milk Bar’, the central place in Beechworth for all the town’s dairy products – milk, cheese, cream and so on, up until the 1960s. |
2024 – Feb 26
With university qualifications in allied health, post graduate paediatrics, and an international certificate as a lactation consultant, Sharnie Gavin opens Akesó, an integrative health space at 29a Camp Street in Beechworth. Sharnie graduated with a double degree and Masters of Osteopathy in Melbourne 2008 and then subcontracted her services to multiple health practices in country NSW, Victoria, and the ACT before opening her own interdisciplinary practice in Brisbane in 2012. She then completed her postgraduate paediatric studies, going on to become the inaugural National Chair to the Paediatric Clinical Practice Group for Osteopathy Australia. Akesó is named after the Greek goddess of Well-Being and the Healing Process, worshipped in Athens and Epidauros.
2024 – Feb 27
Billson’s Brewery owner Nathan Cowan announces that 160 staff cuts are to be made at the popular Beechworth business, citing the ever-increasing costs of energy, freight, raw material and ingredients, as well as changing consumer behaviours in a market dominated by large foreign-owned multinationals, and dealing with the third highest spirit tax in the world. It is a major blow for the business – originally established in Beechworth back in 1856 – which Nathan and his wife Felicity purchased in 2017. They have worked hard to revitalise the business over the past eight years and successfully turned the historic brewery into a vibrant tourist destination. They also decide to place the 1869-built Warden’s Hotel back on the market (which they had puchased in 2022 for $900,000), along with the historic building at 8 Albert Road – for sale or lease – having purchased the 1857-built property (below) for $1.2 million in 2022.
2024 – Mar 23
Beechworth’s ninth annual High Country Hop is held on the Historic Precinct Reserve (the Police Paddocks). Celebrating the end of the hop harvest, the event features a diverse range of brewers to showcase their beers alongside live music, food and entertainment. Brewers from the North-East and High Country include Billson’s, the Mitta Mitta Brewing Co, the Bright Brewery, King River Brewing and festival hosts Bridge Road Brewers.
2024 – Apr 5
Empire Hotel owners Andrew Madden, Shauna Stockwell and Scott Daintry hold an auction for their iconic Beechworth pub. Hoping for bids in the range of $1.3 million to $1.43 million, it fails to reach its asking price and is passed in at $1.1 million. Since purchasing the hotel in 2018, they have renovated and transformed the 1879 building, growing the gay-friendly pub and restaurant business, starting a pub choir and serving as the Beechworth hub for the annual “Drag’d Out Festival”. The Empire’s ground floor is licenced for 186 patrons while upstairs is licenced for 55 (internally) along with 97 patrons (externally) on the grand wrap-around verandah overlooking Camp and High Streets (below). Upstairs also features six individual guests rooms, male and female bathroom amenities, breakfast and sitting rooms, plus the manager’s two bedroom private accommodation.
2024 – Apr 29
The ‘Beechworth Courthouse Kelly Trial Exhibition‘ is officially opened with around 40 guests attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony. The exhibition features original artefacts and a combination of traditional museum displays and modern projection technologies (above) and explores both Ned Kelly’s Beechworth committal hearing along with the dozens of trials and hearings that took place at the Beechworth Courthouse during the ‘Kelly Gang outbreak’ between 1877 and 1880. After the Courthouse closed in August 2023 – to allow the development to begin – the $1 million project experienced an unexpected hurdle in November 2023 with the discovery of remnant asbestos in the 1858 building’s roof. Noeleen Lloyd – the great grand-niece of Kelly Hang member Steve Hart – has spent two years working with the exhibition team to provide critical insights into the Kelly story which she is “deeply connected with”.
2024 – May 5
For the third time, Beechworth is announced as the overall national winner of the Keep Australia Beautiful National Tidy Towns Award. The announcement is made at an awards ceremony – held on the first weekend in May – in the town that won the national award in 2023 – remote Gascoyne Junction (population 72) in the northwest of Western Australia. The 2024 national judging panel state that they were particularly impressed with Beechworth initiatives such as the ‘Indigo Future Proof Action Group’, the ‘People of Beechworth Exhibition’, and Beechworth Honey’s Bee School and note that Beechworth “continually demonstrates commitment to sustainability and community spirit that is sought by the National Tidy Towns Awards”.
| The ‘Keep Australia Beautiful Sustainable Communities Tidy Towns Awards’ began in 1968 in Western Australia and have been running nationally since 1990. Beechworth has previously won the ‘National Tidy Town Award’ in 2010 and 2020, and the title of ‘Victorian Tidy Town’ in 2009, 2014, 2017 and 2019. |
2024 – May 10
Beechworth Theatre Company’s latest production, “The Vicar of Dibley” directed by Kath Buckingham, opens at the Beechworth Memorial Hall. Over the years, the company has presented a range of wonderful stage shows to Beechworth audiences including “Cosi”, “Steel Magnolias”, “Bullshot Crummond”, “Dracula”, “Trial and Error”, “Life After George”, “The One Day of the Year”, “California Suite” and numerous short ‘One Act Play’ events.
| The first ‘Beechworth Dramatic Society‘ is founded in May 1866. Over 100 years later, in 1979, the ‘Beechworth Theatre Group’ is established and stages a number of productions over the following two decades before being incorporated as the ‘Beechworth Theatre Company’ (BTC) in 1984. Ceasing operations in 1991, it is re-established in 1996 with a production of “A Christmas Carol” staged at the ‘Bijou Theatre’ at the former Mayday Hills Asylum, and BTC continues to this day. |
2025 – May
In Stanley – 8km from Beechworth – Trini Percy establishes a roadside outlet for her Wild Flour Bakehouse products, on Old Mill Lane. Trini has been successfully baking for many years and has experience teaching apprentices at the Beechworth Bakery.
2024 – May 13
Vietnamese-born sisters Kate and Anna Nguyen open Beech’s Nail Salon at Shop 3, 59 Ford Street, one of the two shops on the ground floor of the old Star Hotel (below). Kate had a number of years of experience working at the Orchard Road Nail & Beauty Salon – located within Myer Centrepoint in Albury – before she and her sister open their own salon in Beechworth.
2024 – Jun 8
Josh Fraser and Shaquille Mackney open their Tough Luck Tattoo Club at Shop 3 in the Golden Vale Centre arcade (below), next to Ying Massage. They specialise in creating tattoos, along with piercings, as well as carrying a range of apparel and jewellery. Josh, who also works as an artist, designer and arborist, had spent the last few years creating tattoos at Unanswered Ink in Cranbourne before he and Shaquille decided to make a ‘sea change’ and relocate to North-East Victoria.
2024 – Jul
After a number of years of dedicated renovation work by the Lions Club of Beechworth, the 1876-built ‘Gang Plate Layers’ cottage at 1B Harper Avenue is completed. Built in 1876 by the Victorian Railways as one of three permanent homes in Beechworth for the ‘Gang Plate Layers’ and their families – many of whom had previously been living in tents along the railway line to Beechworth as they laid plates for the railway tracks – it is the only cottage that remains today, sitting on Crown Land on Harper Avenue. The restored cottage will now be available for use by the community.
| Beechworth’s remaining ‘Gang Plate Layers’ cottage is believed to be just one of four surviving in Australia. The other three (known to be in existence) are in Menzies, Western Australia, 131km north of Kalgoorlie, also in the process of being restored. |
2024 – Jul 31
With $22 million in debts and liabilities, Billson’s Brewery goes into voluntary administration, with owners Nathan and Felicity Cowan saying they are “shattered” by the decision and admitting they
had made “several mistakes … along the way” and “systems and
processes failed to keep up”. 53 staff are laid off, which follows the
cutting of 160 jobs and business restructuring in February 2024 blamed on cost of living, energy prices and taxes. 49 employees remain with the company – which reportedly made close to $100 million in 2023 – and the popular business, founded in 1865, will continue to operate as a new owner is sought, with offers and bids from potential purchasers closing on Friday September 13th.
| After taking over and relaunching ‘Billson’s Brewery’ in 2017, Nathan and Felicity Cowan expanded rapidly – perhaps too rapidly – growing its annual revenue from $2 million in mid-2020 to $90 million in mid-2024. But, at the same time, by mid-2024 Billson’s owe $12.2 million to the National Australia Bank (NAB), $1.8 million in tax, $1.1 million in employee entitlements including retrenchments, $3.3 million to creditors including stock suppliers, and $1 million to ‘TT Logistics’. However, Billson’s have almost $20 million in assets, including $7.5 million in stock and goods, almost $5 million in plant and equipment, and up to $1.5 million in furniture, fittings, vehicles and cash … and is itself owed $6.2 million from other companies. |
2024 – Aug 7
Although it has already been completed and open for a while, the new 32.7km sealed section of the Mountains to Murray Rail Trail between Beechworth and Yackandandah is ‘officially’ opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony in Yackandandah. The Mountain to Murray Rail Trail now stretches 180km, connecting Wangaratta through the Ovens Valley to Myrtleford and Bright, with links to Rutherglen and Wahgunyah on the Murray River, and Beechworth to Yackandandah, and then a further 7km of the completed ‘rail trail’ to Osbournes Flat. The Victorian Government has spent $5.2 million on its construction and the completed project hopes to bring an extra 7,000 – 8,000 visitors to the area every year. Indigo Shire has also invested $1.9 million in the project, as well as leading the project’s delivery.
| After the extension to the ‘Mountains to Murray Rail Trail’ is first discussed back in 2010, a ‘Community Reference Group’ is formed to drive the project forward. Now the completed ‘Beechworth to Yackandandah Rail Trail’, in tandem with the ‘Indigo Epic Mountain Bike Trail’, offers two unique cycling experiences to connect the historic towns of Beechworth and Yackandandah. |
2024 – Aug 16
Tanya Plibersek – the Australian Federal Government Minister for Environment and Water – announces that Beechworth’s historic ‘Administrative Precinct will be the 123rd place added to Australia’s ‘National Heritage List’, meaning the buildings – dating back to the late 1850s – will now be afforded additional protections to ensure they remain intact. Any actions or activities likely to affect the precinct’s heritage values will now have to be approved by the Federal Environment Minister and there will be penalties for breaches of federal laws at the site. Already included on the ‘Victorian Heritage Register’, the added inclusion on the ‘National Heritage List’ is the highest level of recognition for historical buildings in Australia. The heritage protected buildings in the administrative precinct include the Beechworth Courthouse, the Sub-Treasury, the Telegraph Station, the Gold Warden’s Office, the Police Stables, the Chinese Protector’s Office, the Beechworth Town Hall, and the Beechworth Gaol.
| The prestigious ‘National Heritage List’ contains places of outstanding significance to Australia, including natural, historic and Indigenous sites. The 122 sites already on the list include Uluru, the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Rippon Lea House & Garden, the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape, Kakadu National Park and the Batavia shipwreck off the coast of Western Australia. Beechworth now becomes the 123rd site! |
2024 – Aug
Author and award-winning pastry chef Jo Barrett establishes WildPie at 33 Oak Avenue at Mayday Hills, specialising in pies made with sustainable wild game meat. Barrett had previously been creating delicious desserts as the pastry chef at Oakridge in the Yarra Valley and established the Little Picket restaurant in Lorne but decided – along with Billy Staughton from game meat company Discovered Wildfoods – to relocate to Beechworth and start their new WildPie business. In collaboration with chefs Louise Daily and Mark LeBrooy, the new company produce a range of ‘ready-to-bake’ of pies including Chunky Venison with red wine and rosemary; Minced Flinders Island Wallaby with black and green peppercorn gravy; Diced Goat with fragrant Sri Lankan curry sauce; along with Wild Boar Sausage Rolls with thyme and fennel. WildPie also make tasty Dim Sims using Wild Boar meat which proved very popular when Barrett first introduced them at her restaurant in Lorne.
| Jo Barrett is the reigning ‘Good Food Guide Chef of the Year’ and represented Australia with great success at the “2019 International Federation of Pastry Olympics”, a baking competition held in Milan Only the second time Australia has been part of the world’s most prestigious pastry competition, Barrett wins gold for her John Olsen-inspired Emu centrepiece and dessert at the Australian final. |
2024 – Oct 11
Beechworth, like many other parts of Southern Australia, is treated to the rare and spectacular light show known as ‘Aurora Australis’. Caused by large expulsions of plasma and the magnetic field from the Sun’s corona, the early morning phenomenon dazzles the sky over Lake Sambell (above)
2024 – Oct
The Beechworth Football Club announce Jack Neil as the new ‘Bushrangers’ (non-playing) seniors coach for Season 2025. Jack had previously led Kiewa-Sandy Creek to back-to-back Grand Final appearances in 2022-2023. Jack replaces coach Tom Cartledge who will continue as a player with the ‘Bushrangers’. The Beechworth Football & Netball Club also announce Emma Carey and Dan Cooper as the club’s 2025 Co-Presidents.
2024 … to be continued