The artists and entertainers of the Yarra Valley were excellent again in 2025.
Here’s just a few stories on how their creativity and talent shone last year.
The newly-formed Hills Act Theatre Company debuted with two-well received shows eaturing local talent last year.
Founded by Healesville resident Phillip Stephenson in September 2024, the company debuted with ‘Breathless’ at The Memo, Healesville in April and May as well as two renditions of their play ‘A Butler Did It’ in November.
Mr Stephenson said the main focus of the company is to get younger people on board to teach all different aspects of theatre.
“Last year, I thought it would be a great idea if I could use anything that I’ve learnt from the theatre to teach younger people who were trying to get into the theatre but couldn’t,” he said.
“I will look at plays that support younger people not only as actors but as directors, stage managers, set designers and everything.”
Through four different conflicts and the stories of four different veterans, Breathless explored the unchanging cyclic horror of war, the unnatural stress it places on soldiers at the front line and how it bleeds into their civilian lives, traumatically affecting not only them but all those who love them.
Actor Adam Boswell said it was incredible to be a part of the debut show of Hills Act Theatre Company.
“I’ve always known that soldiers and veterans go through a lot and struggle a lot. I think it put into perspective how difficult and hidden some of their struggles are. It brought that to light,” he said.
“It’s been a fun experience, but it’s also been very educational and emotional.”
In June, a Coldstream composer was honoured with a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his ‘significant service to music as a composer, arranger and conductor’.
Kenneth Bruce Rowland AM, who goes by Bruce, is most famous for composing the award-winning score for The Man From Snowy River.
Mr Rowland said he wasn’t quite sure yet how to feel, but it came as quite a shock.
“I got this basically for The Man from Snowy River I think…I wanted it to be really importantly Australian, because no one had ever done this, or if they had, they hadn’t really done it properly, they always treated it as being a little thing,” he said.
While composing the award-winning score for The Man From Snowy River might have catapulted Mr Rowland’s career and be one of his most memorable productions, his list of work and accolades certainly isn’t short, with seven awards between the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) for his work.
Mr Rowland said he thinks it’s important to have Australian creative arts out in the world that are reflective of Australia.
“Just to let the rest of the world know that we’re not just a sunburnt country, we do have a brain, we can think and we can deliver, I think that’s important,” he said.
In July, works began on a bright new addition to the Healesville Walk Shopping Centre.
Healesville-based artist Paul Sonsie began painting a giant kangaroo mural as part of his project A Giant Leap Forward, with help from Haynes Paint, Kennards Hire and Yarra Ranges Council.
Mr Sonsie said the positive feedback and support from the community during the project meant the world to him.
“Being an artist or designer can be a pretty solo gig most of the time, so working out in public and getting real-time feedback has been incredibly rewarding. I’ve had literally hundreds of kind comments during the install, people waving, honking, stopping to chat,” he said.
By the end of the month, the job was completed and the shopping centre adorned with the iconic Australian animal.
Mr Sonsie said he is super passionate about Healesville but had seen a gap in Healesville… that the town needed more public artwork.
“I’m really passionate about cultural branding and about helping make our towns feel inspiring, creative and great to live in or visit.
“I want young creatives to see that public art is a real way to contribute, to shape a place, and to make a lasting impact.”
At the start of November, a brand new festival filled with a unique artistic medium arrived in Healesville.
The town’s first Zine and Comic Festival was held, shining a light on the creative process behind comic-making and zines, a small form of booklet-style work.
Event organiser Cora Zon, whose exhibition Cipher was on display during the festival, said they were very excited to be hosting the first Healesville Zine and Comic Festival.
“Zines are the most accessible form of self publishing, anyone can create and publish their own work, whether it be art, photography, poetry or prose using a photocopier,” she said.
The event was filled with a variety of workshops covering any and all kinds of comics and zines, encouraging and teaching attendees how to create their own.
Star Mail cartoonist Danny Zemp facilitated a caricatures workshop throughout the festival and said he loves comics, he lived, breathed and grew up on comics.
“But I didn’t hear about zines until I came to Australia, I’d never really participated in zine making until I became a Toastmaster and after that I embraced the simplicity of a zine, it’s cheap, it’s fast, it’s informative and you can get a message out there fairly quickly, it’s minimal effort,” he said.
A Healesville piper became a record holder in November when AC/DC came to town.
Walter Skilton was one of 374 pipers who descended upon Fed Square in Melbourne on Wednesday 12 November to mark the arrival of AC/DC in the city with a rendition of ‘It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll)’.
Mr Skilton said he started playing the bagpipes when he was in school, so has been piping for over 55 years and it was amazing to be in the middle of the record attempt.
“It’s a very simple tune to play, but just quite amazing to hear everyone play that together, it was very crowded but there was a passage that the bagpipers could move up,” he said.
“After we finished, the crowd just roared, I don’t know how many people but there but it was intense, but great… I felt privileged to be a part of that.”
The congregation of pipers in Fed Square smashed the previous world record of 333 pipers in Sofia in Bulgaria, in 2012.
Healesville author Sandra Thom-Jones found herself in the spotlight again at the Sisters in Crime’s 32nd Scarlet Stiletto Awards for 2025.
Having already had a category win and third overall placing at the same awards in 2023, Ms Thom-Jones went one better and claimed first prize.
Ms Thom-Jones said she was absolutely delighted and shocked.
“I totally didn’t expect it… there were 31 shortlisted writers, so I knew I was shortlisted and I was sitting there as they announced all the category prizes,” she said.
The Scarlet Stiletto Awards is a national competition for Australian women writers with crime and mystery short stories featuring a strong female protagonist, with 231 entries submitted this year.
Winning the first prize this year for her short story ‘Der Hölle Rache’, Ms Thom-Jones said it was inspired by a story on social media she followed about a really terrible case of animal cruelty.
“I was feeling really emotional about it, but really powerless and obviously, in fiction, you can do anything,” she said.
“So I was sitting there imagining what it would be like in a world where there was no rules, and I had no morals, and I could actually do something to avenge these animals who were so badly treated and that was my inspiration for the story.”
