Mirawara wants to say a big thank you to all the people that supported our program in 2017. Our adventures towards a deeper and more nature-connected human experience will continue to grow in 2018. You can subscribe to our email list to get updates on our upcoming events. We have lots of creative ideas for this coming New Year and can’t wait to share them with you in the near future. Thanks again and hope to see you OUT there soon!
the Mirawara team
Mirawara is launching its first four week introductory rock climbing course: you will learn the basic knots and rope skills required to set up a top-rope anchors, how to belay, how to develop climbing skills, how to place ‘natural’ (trad) protection and practice basic self-rescue skills.
On our last Sunday, we will head out to Mt Macedon and climb some awesome volcanic rocks.
This is a great opportunity to get outdoors and into beautiful environments, make some new friends, challenge yourself to the extreme and simply have heaps of fun!
At the end of the course, there will be opportunity to join our monthly climbing club to keep practicing the skills you learn.
The course is three Sundays on Mount Alexander and one on Mt Macedon. It will be led by experienced rock climbing instructors, Tim Preston and Emmanuelle Dubuc. Hope to see you out there!
More details and booking on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1481981118565390/
A cheeky diversion on a recce for two climbing trips, once we had sorted locations, safety and access we did the long rambling climb Oxbbow on the great rock of Camels Hump.
We were up there preparing for our trips with Sacred Heart College Kyneton and Mondo Lounge.
We had 18 young people from Sacred Heart split into a half a day top rope climbing and half a day environmental interp walk with abseil. It is an amazing environment up there ranging from wet forest to snow gums. Cold conditions up with the snow gums where tricky for the ones that turned up in their PE shorts!
Brett from Sacred Heart said:
After my recent dealings Mirawara I am fully satisfied with the flexibility, professionalism and great range of programs that are offered. The rock climbing excursion to Camels Hump in the Macedon Ranges was a great experience for my students which enabled them to see what outdoor opportunities are right on their own door step. I will be calling on the Mirawara crew again to provide experiences for the next generation of outdoor education/recreation students.
The second trip was with Mondo Lounge and was the final in The Nature Link, a program enabled by Mount Alexander Shire Council’s Community Grant. We’ve been climbing with this great crew on Mount Alexander before so took them to Camels Hump to sample some different rock at the very climbable Back Wall. Mt Alexander and Mt Macedon are both volcanic but completely different rock, though since learning to climb on granite the Mondo crew can handle anything! A perfect end to The Nature Link and a big thanks to the Mondo Lounge coordinators and Mount Alexander Shire Council.
We had the perfect weather for a great mountain bike skills workshop with Jo Wall yesterday. Some exciting new skills were learnt with great enthusiasm from our young crew and they challenged themselves on some great tracks near the Baco. A big thank you to Frank Forster from the Rocky Riders, who organised this great event and also a big thank you to the Bike Vault for providing free bike hire for us. Can’t wait for the next challenge!
What a great day!
A fantastic workshop with a glimpse into deep ecology and re-wilding. A huge thanks to Claire and her team for a day of beautifully presented inspiring ideas and new perspectives. We hope to work more with Claire in the future so subscribe to be kept up to date on upcoming events and workshops.
If you missed out come along to our tracking workshop with Michael Smith, developing awareness in the bush and being able to read what is going on around you.
We had a wonderful day in Boort with Jida last weekend. We visited sacred burial sites, midden areas, saw many scarred trees and learnt so much about Indigenous culture. The cultural richness of Boort is incredible and Jida is doing an amazing job at sharing his knowledge of the area to whoever wants to listen. There was so much to learn and see, that we decided to organise a canoe trip for 20 poeple during the summer holidays. Subscribe to our email list or send us an email if you are interested. Many opportunities to learn about Indigenous culture will flourish in the future, including regular working bees to Boort to help Jida with the multitude of amazing projects he has. Truly worth it! Stay tuned in!
Want to know how to track animals in our beautiful landscape and get that perfect photographic shot or just want to understand and read the stories that nature provides us? This workshop will give you skills to read animal tracks and get a deeper perspective on how to read our landscape. This workshop is the start of a series of tracking skills that will be coming up in the near future and is definetly an event not to be missed. Our facilitator for this amazing workshop is Michael Smith who has over 30 years experience in training in a wide variety of fields including: survival, tracking, climbing, leadership and program development. Much of this has been in a military context including work with the Special Forces Group.
Michael has been involved in the Duke of Edinburgh award, and now is contracting to Outback Initiatives as a facilitator with an upcoming trip in the Kimberley’s.
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/tracking-workshop-tickets-37747440611
The Rocky Riders, the Bike Vault and Mirawara are bringing this pretty awesome event to our young local community with professional coaching from an experienced rider, Jo Wall, who will be covering the following topics for the day: intro to mountain biking, bike components, bike set-up, trail etiquette, safety and basic skills. In the afternoon, you will head to the Baco trail to test your skills. The trail is 15-20 km and is suitable for novice riders. Bike checks will be available in the morning at the Bike Vault and if you dont have a suitable bike for the day, the Bike Vault will provide one for the day, free of charge!
All participants will also get a free pass to the event held this November called ”Ride the train”. Should be an awesome day!
for bookings: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mountain-biking-with-professional-coach-and-the-rocky-riders-tickets-37725192065
Come and enjoy a great day in Boort with Jida Gulpilil and discover one of the richest cultural landscape in Victoria. The tour will included: -cross-cultural interpretation, canoeing and kayaking, Aboriginal Culture and Bush foods, spear and boomerang throwing demonstrations, art and craft demonstrations, Aboriginal music, song and dance and much more….
Transport is provided, meeting in front of Castlemaine Visitor Information Centre at 8.30am, returning at 3.30pm.
www.eventbrite.com.au/e/cultural-tour-of-boort-with-jida-gulpilil-tickets-37723779841