Mountain Writers Festival
Welcome to the inaugural Mountain Writers Festival. Australia’s first writers’ festival to focus exclusively on the environment, with the theme: Place Story Nature. Find out what’s happening on the festival weekend of 4-6 November by visiting our full program at www.mountainwritersfestival.com.au.
CLOSING GALA - How to Save the World in 90 minutes
Sunday 6 November 2022
Comedian Tom Gleeson leads a panel for the last 90 minutes of the festival with the small task of solving the world’s environmental problems. Can’t be that hard can it? Panel guests include Tim Flannery, Sarah Wilson, Tyson Yunkaporta, Claire G Coleman, Costa Georgiadis and Anjali Sharma.
Sponsored by Gisborne Bendigo Bank
Annie's Hall, Macedon Railway Hotel
DAY PASS - MOUNTAIN WRITERS FESTIVAL Sunday 6 November
Friday 4 November 2022
Includes all Sunday author sessions and Sunday Night Closing Gala. Day Pass ticket holders are also welcome to join the bushwalk on Sunday morning but please register for this as places are limited.
Sunday 6 November 2022
Jubilee Hall
WEEKEND PASS - MOUNTAIN WRITERS FESTIVAL 2022
Friday 4 November 2022
Includes Festival Launch on Friday night, all author sessions on Saturday and Sunday, Sunday morning bushwalk and Closing Gala on Sunday night. Does not include the Ash Wednesday play reading on Saturday night which requires separate ticket purchase. Please reserve your places at the Friday Night Festival Launch and Sunday morning bushwalk if you would like to attend these, as places are limited.
Friday 4th November 2022 to Sunday 6th November 2022.
Jubilee Hall & Macedon Railway Hotel
A Life of Environmental Activism
Sunday 6 November 2022
Anna Krien speaks with Peter Garrett about his incredible life of environmental activism and the role activism, politics and the arts can play in creating positive, lasting change.
Partnered with The Wheeler Centre
Jubilee Hall
Trouble in the Outback
Sunday 6 November 2022
Kate Holden, Tyson Yunkaporta and Joshua Kemp discuss how Australia’s colonial history and methods of land management create a lingering darkness in the landscape and consider what remedies might let the light in, facilitated by Billy Griffiths.
Sponsored by Australian Book Review
Jubilee Hall
For the Love of Gardens
Sunday 6 November 2022
Why do we have gardens? Why do we love them? What has Covid taught us about the importance of a garden? Much-adored gardening advocates Costa Georgiadis and Hannah Moloney are in conversation with Jacinta Parsons.
Sponsored by Macedon Nursery
Jubilee Hall
SUNDAY MORNING BUSHWALK
Sunday 6 November 2022
Join much loved Macedon local Bushy (AKA Ben Bush) on Sunday morning for a one-hour leisurely stroll through the Macedon Regional Park and along the ‘res’ to get some air in your lungs before the author sessions kick off for the day. Friendly dogs on leads welcome. Meeting place — Jubilee Hall foyer. Free for festival ticket holders, but bookings are essential as places are limited.
Sunday 6 November 8 - 9 AM
Jubilee Hall
The Big Room
Saturday 5 November 2022
Ash Wednesday Play Reading, starring Shane Jacobson, Nadine Garner, Angourie Rice and special guests.
Written by Kate Rice
Directed by Peter Houghton
Commissioned by the Macedon Ranges Literary Association, this event will feature the first readings of an 'in development' play to commemorate the night of Ash Wednesday nearly 40 years ago, when 300 residents and their animals took shelter in the Macedon Railway Hotel (formerly Macedon Family Hotel) as the bushfires raged outside. The audience will watch the development of the play in action as the script is fine-tuned for its big stage debut in 2023. Recommended for viewers aged 12 and over.
Sponsored by Macedon Ranges Shire Council
Saturday 5 November 8 PM
Please note there is an additional reading for locals prior to the festival, please contact the event organiser if you wish to attend.
Annie's Hall, Railway Hotel Macedon
Crisis, Cure & Hope
Saturday 5 November 2022
Professor Tim Flannery OAM and Dr Joëlle Gergis discuss our environmental past, the present crisis, and consider what a hopeful future might look like, facilitated by Emeritus Professor Tom Griffiths AO.
Jubilee Hall
DAY PASS - MOUNTAIN WRITERS FESTIVAL Saturday 5 November
Friday 4 November 2022
Includes Friday Night Festival Launch and all Saturday author sessions. Does not include the Ash Wednesday play reading on Saturday night which requires separate ticket purchase. Day Pass ticket holders are also welcome to join the bushwalk on Sunday morning, but please register for this as places are limited.
Saturday 5 November 2022
Jubilee Hall
There's No Place like Home
Saturday 5 November 2022
Locked in and locked out. In a globalised world of mass movement, migration, stolen land and exile, Arnold Zable, Claire G. Coleman and Pirooz Jafari discuss how they create a sense of belonging and what home means to them, facilitated by Meg Mundell.
Sponsored by Deakin University
Jubilee Hall
Finding Peace and Purpose in the Wild
Saturday 5 November 2022
Claire Dunn speaks with climate campaigner Sarah Wilson about mental health and improving one’s wellbeing through fostering greater connection with nature and maintaining an environmentally conscious lifestyle.
Sponsored by PanMacmillan
Jubilee Hall
Writing Country
Saturday 5 November 2022
Two remarkable and versatile First Nations writers whose output is suffused with the concept
of ‘Country’. But what does that mean, and how do they do it? With Evelyn Araluen and Aaron Fa’Aoso, facilitated by Declan Fry.
Partnered with Blak&Bright
Jubilee Hall
The Big Trip
Saturday 5 November 2022
Barefoot Investor Scott Pape and beloved children’s book author Alison Lester AM share stories of traveling off-grid with their families and what they learnt about Australia and themselves along the way, facilitated by Astrid Edwards.
Jubilee Hall
FESTIVAL LAUNCH - Writers, Wine and the Weekend
Friday 4 November 2022
Whether you're a volunteer, festival speaker, local festival ticket holder or from out of town on your spring weekend away in the Macedon Ranges, we invite you all to join us for a casual meet-up at Annie’s Hall, Macedon Railway Hotel. It's been a long bumpy road bringing this festival to life, so on the eve of the launch, we could think of nothing we'd rather do than sit at our local pub and celebrate what we've managed to achieve, thank all who have helped us get this far, and raise our glass to the weekend ahead. Entry is free, but please book your ticket on our website. Drinks at bar prices.
Friday 4 November 6 - 8 PM
Annie's Hall, Macedon Railway Hotel
A MWF Lunch with Tony Birch, Evelyn Araluen & Tom Griffiths
Saturday 26 March 2022
The Mountain Writers Festival presents lunch with lunch with Tony Birch, Evelyn Araluen and Tom Griffiths, moderated by Sophie Cunningham AM.
You are invited to be a part of the conversation as these four renowned Australian writers discuss the intersection of story and place in our fragile natural world.
Hosted at The Wine Collective in Macedon as part of the Macedon Ranges Autumn Festival.
Take the Macedon Ranges Hotel and Spa turn-off on Black Forest Drive
The Wine Collective