Cr Shirley Cornish has been elected Mayor for a 12-month term, in the third year of the current four-year Council term, at Council’s Statutory Meeting on 10 November 2026. Cr Pat Hockey has been elected Deputy Mayor for the next 12 months.  Both Cr Cornish and Cr Hockey were first elected as councillor for Hepburn Shire Council in the 2024 Local Government elections. Cr Cornish said she was honoured and humbled to have been elected Mayor and was looking forward to the work and year ahead, working together with fellow councillors, Interim CEO Janet Dore and staff, spending less time looking backwards, and more time moving Hepburn Shire forward. “Thank...

2026 was the year Hepburn Shire Council nearly stopped working, and the year Daylesford got its cinema back. Between those two stories sat a summer of fire, a winter of record rain, a premiership, a packed art show and a state election campaign that has put the hospital back at the centre of local politics. The Wombat Post is holding its Annual General Meeting next Thursday where we will review the year, elect the community board and discuss plans for next year. A council brought to a standstill The biggest local story of the year began quietly in March. Council announced that CEO Bradley Thomas and Cr Don Henderson...

A new Federation University report tells how local residents took on Australia's biggest liquor retailer and won, and what it cost them. Three years ago, few people would have backed a loose group of Daylesford residents against Australia's largest liquor retailer. In July 2022 Endeavour Group applied for a licence to open a 626 square-metre Dan Murphy's. The Bridport Road site was opposite the town pool and the school bus stop, a short walk from the primary school and kindergarten. For a small town of around 2,500 people, this was a huge corporate liquor store. Daylesford already had a significant number of liquor stores. The Dan Murphy outlet...

For as long as I can remember my mum would draw.  She called them doodles, this description made them sound less serious, kind of fun.  I...

The Labor, Liberal, Greens and One Nation candidates for the Victorian seat of Macedon took part in a meet-the-candidates forum at the Daylesford Town...