In 2019, the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list – the first Indigenous-led nomination from Australia. Out now, the Second Edition of The People of Budj Bim takes up the story since 2010.
The new edition describes the painstaking nomination process over a 17 year period, culminating in the inscribing ceremony for the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape at the 43rd World Heritage Congress session in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Another added chapter looks at how the Gunditjmara have ably stepped up in healing Country, culture and the people themselves.
It was great to work once again with designer Max Marks; and I'd like to acknowledge the calm and consistent guidance offered by Denis Rose at the Gunditjmara end.
Published by em PRESS in late June 2022.

Woodsman Lachie Park has moved on to build a tiny one room hut out of green wood from locally sourced timbers and materials. It's in a clearing in the 15ha biorich plantation Lal Lal, SW Victoria, managed by Ballarat Region Treegrowers (BRT). Lachie's updated the traditional Aussie invention of the drop slab hut, so it not only celebrates localism, but is another beautiful example of pegging timbers the old, slow way.
In the process of going local and going slow, he reduced carbon emissions. Where combined with avoiding processed products, going local and slow leads to going carbon low. There's a slogan in there.

​Visit BRT's biorich plantation website for an essay on the rationale behind building the drop slab hut – see also the earlier essay on this website called Raising A Green Wood Shed.

Published by em PRESS, each of the 20 walks and 10 bike rides in the Central Victorian Highlands Walk and Ride Circuits guide is supported by full colour, large scale contour maps alongside detailed accompanying track notes. It’s sturdy, wiro bound and well-designed – features that replicate the style of the award-winning Goldfields Track guide. Graded from easy to hard, the circuits are scattered around all points of the compass within a 25km radius from Daylesford.
 
A team of five Great Dividing Trail Association (GDTA) members with vast collective experience specifically devised the walk and ride circuits, all of which are short enough to complete in around four hours. And because all of the routes presented are circuits, there’s no fiddling around with car shuttles.

Visit the GDTA's online SHOP to purchase for $24.99

The People Budj Bim has been reprinted with minor changes. It is hoped a revised edition will come out next year to coincide with the Budj Bim landscape gaining World Heritage listing as Australia's first cultural landscape.

Copies of the book are also on sale via the Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation in Heywood.

Last copies of The People of Budj Bim in stock were sold by em PRESS in early April 2018. Some stock is still held by the Melbourne Museum  bookshop and at Windamara in Heywood.

A decision on World Heritage listing of the Budj Bim landscape is expected next year. So far the application has cleared every hurdle.

Twenty years on from the Goldfields Track's humble beginnings, the 2nd edition of the Goldfields Track guidebook not only brings the colourful history of the region together, but also, for the first time, brings together mountain bike riders and walkers. No longer simply a walking guide, it’s now the Goldfields Track Walk or Ride Guide, providing comprehensive coverage of the longest shared use track in Victoria.
 
The 1st walking guide edition won a community history award for its in-depth coverage of cultural heritage and reading the landscape. Wiro bound, it’s proven tough enough for on-track usage.
 
“This new edition stands on its shoulders and raises the bar to new heights,” says Peter Skilbeck, Chair of Goldfields Track Inc (GTI). “It has totally revised maps and track notes, and new essays from local experts.

The publishers have deliberately fostered ‘a sense of place’ by sourcing the guide’s author, designer, essayists, cartographers and photographers from the goldfields region. Land managers from Parks Victoria to DELWP and local government have embraced the track.
 
“What makes the Goldfields Track truly unique is its cultural heritage, diverse natural beauty from mountain tops to golden plains, and its easy accessibility from Melbourne and regional towns,” comments Peter Skilbeck.

Published by Em PRESS for the GTI & the Great Dividing Trail Association Inc
Gib Wettenhall (author)
Goldfields Track: Walk or Ride Guide
210km from Mt Buninyong to Bendigo, central Victoria
172 pages, fully illustrated             35 maps
RRP $29.99         
ISBN 9780975777886 (pbk.)

Online orders: www.gdt.org.au au or www.goldfieldstrack.com.au
On sale at regional Visitor Centres (Creswick, Daylesford, Castlemaine and Bendigo) and selected bookshops and retail outlets – see the websites

In January,  the Prime Minister and Premier of Victoria came together on the banks of Lake Condah to announce that the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape was being officially nominated for recognition by UNESCO as a World Heritage site.

"It is the first area in Australia exclusively listed for its Aboriginal culture and heritage," said PM Malcolm Turnbull. "It is absolutely an appropriate recognition of its significance and its values."