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Heritage Festival

The Heritage Festival is an annual celebration of all things history and heritage in the City of Melton. It is held during the Australian Heritage Festival each year. This year the Heritage Festival launched on 18 April. For more information visit the National Trust Heritage Festival website.

The City Strategy Team co-ordinates the Heritage Festival programming, but it is the community who has stepped up to lead walks, talks and share the research which contribute to our understanding of this municipality.

This year’s events included:

A Heritage Bus Tour to Wurundjeri Ceremonial Rings, Sunbury
2 Walking Tours of Melton Cemetery
A Dry Stone Wall Workshop
The Willows Historic Homestead Opening
Writing The War Personal Stories From WWI
2 “Finding Your WWI Ancestors Workshops"
A Heritage Bus Tour to Buninyong
A music performance by Bush Gothic at Warrawong Woolshed

Please contact us with your ideas for future events.

Heritage Festival 2018 Highlights

This year we had 2 bus tours. One bus tour travelled to Buninyong where we explored the collections and work of the Buninyong District Historical Society. We enjoyed a guided tour around the beautifully preserved historic town before having lunch in one of the many cafes available.

The second bus tour to the Wurundjeri Ceremonial Rings in Sunbury included a free tour of the Indigenous ceremonial rings with Wurundjeri Elder Uncle Dave Wandin. We learnt about how the Wurundjeri use the ceremonial rings for ceremonies and land practices used on the surrounding reserve.

Professional dry stone waller David Long demonstrated and taught how to safely repair a basalt wall from foundations to coping stone. 25 people learnt about the different types of walls and how to plan what stones to use.

Local historian Judith Bilszta led two walking tours of the historic Melton Cemetery that was built in 1862. We learnt about some local names and heard interesting stories about the history behind the headstones.

There were two workshops with a librarian and members of the Melton Family History Group to help people trace service men and women from WWI. People learnt how to begin their research and how to overcome obstacles.

CS Gallery hosted a touring exhibition (available until 4 June) – Writing the War: Personal Stories from WWI. The exhibition includes photos, letters and diaries from seven personal stories from the State Library’s collection.

The Melton and District Historical Society opened their collection and the historic Willows Homestead on three separate occasions.

Critically acclaimed three piece band Bush Gothic filled Warrawong Woolshed with the sounds of dark Australian folk songs. This daring bush band performed at night in the 19^th Century bluestone shearing shed in Eynesbury with catering provided by Exford Residents Association.

It has been another successful festival and celebration of all things Heritage. Melton City Council would like to thank everyone who has been involved in the organisation of the events, the promotion of the festival as well as all those who attended.

We look forward to seeing you at next years festival!