Kyneton News Roundup: September 2026 Local Updates

Table of Contents

September in Kyneton began with daffodils and ended with a run of unresolved arguments. The festival filled the town with art and gave the old primary school its first community project. Away from the parade, residents and council were still contesting a skatepark budget and a subdivision beside Bald Hill Reserve. The councillor who represents Kyneton stepped back to run for the state seat of Macedon, and the town’s clubs closed their season with medals rather than a senior flag.

Sources for everything below are listed together at the end.

The Daffodil Festival, on the Wall and in the Old School
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The art prize was the part of the festival that stayed up after the parade had passed.

Almost 200 entries hung in the Daffodil Art Prize at The Old Auction House on Mollison Street, Midland Express reported on 8 September 2026. Denise Martin won the $1,500 Open Medium Major Prize for I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud, a painting judge Laurie Benson praised for the character of its daffodils and the textured background behind them. Heather Mills’ Daffy Dills was highly commended. The Friends of Kyneton Botanic Gardens sponsored a prize for work inspired by the gardens, which Deidre Bain won with Tree of Life with Daffodils. The exhibition was open from 10am to 4pm each day of the festival, just as cafes and shops along the street were at their busiest.

The old primary school, meanwhile, was being used rather than merely promised. On 22 September Midland Express reported that photographer Sandy Scheltema and Social Foundry had run a pop-up studio in the heritage library, where young photographers made 94 portraits in four and a half hours. The pictures are destined for a mural inside the library, and a second pop-up at the Sunday parade added more. Fourteen-year-old Annabell Edwards, from Kyneton High School, said she loved learning the cameras and meeting people. Anyone who wants a portrait included can contact Scheltema or Social Foundry, and the education guide has the longer background on the site.

Skatepark Tender Questioned as the Budget Blows Out
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The long-awaited skatepark redevelopment picked up a procurement dispute and a much bigger price tag.

Midland Express reported on 15 September 2026 that local designers Baseplate and EastbyWest lost the design contract to Melbourne firm Convic despite a higher raw score. Freedom of information documents showed a design budget of $99,000. Baseplate/EastbyWest quoted $58,640, based on the $1.5 million construction budget and 1,200-square-metre park in council’s Skate and BMX Strategy; Convic quoted $48,530. The raw scores were 44 out of 50 against 42, but weighting handed Convic the contract by 0.05 points.

Designer Darren White argued that council’s own procurement toolkit pointed to a price formula that would have reversed the result. He also questioned emails which, in his account, showed officers planned to invite a third supplier to revise its quote after the request had closed. Council’s director of assets and operations, Dominic Testoni, said the process had already been reviewed, met council policy, and would not be discussed further.

The cost is the bigger worry. A draft Convic concept puts construction at $2 million to $2.5 million, up from $1.5 million, blaming cost escalation and site constraints, and the report concedes the full strategy scope no longer fits the original budget. A final concept once due in mid-August has slipped to October. Testoni said the final cost would be confirmed when the concept was released later in September, but no report had confirmed a figure by the end of the month.

Residents Fundraise for a Bald Hill VCAT Hearing
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On the edge of town, objectors to a nine-lot subdivision began raising money for legal help.

Midland Express reported on 22 September 2026 that residents opposed to the development beside Bald Hill Reserve had launched a fundraising campaign ahead of a Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal hearing on 17 November. Council refused the application in December 2025, even though planning officers had recommended approval with 63 conditions, and the Melbourne developer appealed.

The land lies between Pipers Creek Road and Mt St Marys Lane, next to the 96-hectare reserve, which is home to the endangered brown toadlet. Residents fear nine houses would cut into remnant vegetation and a habitat corridor, and they point to traffic on the narrow lane, bushfire risk, wastewater and rural character. Councillors who refused the permit cited the design and layout, the waterway crossing the site, habitat fragmentation and limited services.

Charlotte Blair said the group had spent hundreds of hours on reports and hearings and now needed a barrister. Lisa Biggins said they were not against development of the land, only overdevelopment, and would prefer access from Pipers Creek Road rather than Mt St Marys Lane. Two residents have offered to cover half the legal costs, and the rest is being sought through GoFundMe. Council and the developer both have lawyers already.

Two Councillors Take Unpaid Leave for the State Election
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The 23 September council meeting changed who will be in the chamber while the state campaign runs.

In a statement carried by Mirage News on 25 September 2026, council said it had approved leave for two councillors standing in the District of Macedon. Under section 35(4) of the Local Government Act 2020, Cr Kate Kendall’s leave runs from 1 October until the election result is declared, and Cr Dominic Bonanno’s from 24 September to 30 November. Neither will receive an allowance, and council said business would continue as normal.

Star Weekly added the political context on 28 September. Kendall is the Liberal candidate and announced her run in July; Bonanno is standing as an independent and announced in September, ending his leave on 30 November because of councillor commitments on 1 December. The North Central Review had reported on 22 September that Bonanno was not legally required to take leave but chose to, and that Kendall had lodged her own notice of motion beforehand so that the two roles stayed separate.

For Kyneton the absence that matters is Kendall’s. Her West Ward covers Kyneton, Malmsbury, Tylden, Woodend and Carlsruhe, while Bonanno represents the South Ward, which includes Gisborne and Macedon.

Farmers Question a Review of the Agricultural Rate
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A council rating review unsettled primary producers across the shire, including the farming country around Kyneton.

Stock & Land reported on 23 September 2026 that Macedon Ranges Shire Council will review the roughly 1,000 properties paying the agricultural land rate, currently 80 per cent of the general residential rate, as part of its 2025–2029 Revenue and Rating Plan. Council says the aim is to confirm that land use still matches the definition of primary production.

Macedon Ranges Agricultural Alliance chair James Walsh asked whether it was purely a rating exercise, or whether the information gathered could later be used for planning, compliance or environmental regulation. Pastoria East prime lamb producer Daniel McKenna said the landscape people admire exists because of working farms, and he was wary of how council defines primary production when hobby farms and land banking are already part of the local debate.

Corporate director Lisa Knight described the review as routine and said it is not meant to change the agricultural rate or reduce support for farming. Landowners may be asked how they use their land, and anyone found ineligible would be able to discuss the outcome with council before their category changes. The rate itself is not moving. What farmers want to know is what else the review might be used for.

Kyneton Clubs Close the Season with Medals, Not a Flag
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The town’s clearest individual sporting result came in netball.

At the Riddell League medal count in Melton, Kristiana Manu’a won the Jannine Ryan Medal with 27 votes, Midland Express reported on 29 September 2026. It was her first season with the Tigers, and she has signed on as assistant playing coach for 2027. She also took the league’s most valuable player and best defender awards, and Kyneton has now won the Ryan Medal three years running, after Tilly Shepherd’s wins in 2024 and 2025 (Shepherd is now with Gisborne). Club president Julie Priestley said the late-season departure of goal shooter Elle Bird, who kicked 607 goals, put an A-grade finals berth out of reach; the side finished seventh, just behind Macedon. Reserves footballer Jacob Poyser also won the league’s Scarborough Medal.

The club held its own presentation night at Kyneton Bowling Club, reported on 22 September. Danielle Bourke was named Club Person of the Year and Brad Ryan received life membership. Matilda Candy won A-grade netball best and fairest, with Manu’a runner-up, and Hamish Yunghanns won the senior football award. Both go with the Flynn Medals, given by Dan and John Flynn in memory of their brother Tim. Next season marks 25 years of the Flynn family’s connection to the club, and it will be the last year the medal is awarded.

Junior soccer offered a shorter sequel to August’s league premierships. On 23 September the paper reported that Kyneton District Soccer Club’s Under 16 Girls, 12B Girls White and 12C Mixed Maroon each won Super Cup flags at Epsom, while three more junior sides finished as runners-up.

Conclusion
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September in Kyneton was public in the way the daffodil festival always is, and unsettled in the way growth arguments tend to be.

The art prize and the old-school portraits showed a festival that still makes room for the people who live here. The skatepark figures and the Bald Hill fundraiser showed that what gets built is now as much a question of budgets and tribunals as of concept drawings. The councillor for the town’s ward will spend the campaign away from the chamber and without an allowance. On the field, the winter ended with a medal count and a night at the bowling club rather than a senior flag, and the Tigers now look to 2027.