1. Fake news has one eye on Bendigo
Thanks to United States president Donald Trump, fake news was never far from the headlines in 2017.
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The phenomenon also set its sights on Bendigo when a hoax news website claimed a Bendigo man was blinded because of an intimate encounter with a Thai exotic dancer.
Of course, the story was fabricated, but the most fascinating part was tracing its origins.
Adapted from a US fake news site, the Bendigo yarn commandeered pictures from a Welsh article and even plagiarised the Fred Hollows Foundation page.
I was even able to track down the man pictured in the misappropriated photographs – and he was not happy about his image being used.
2. From Bendigo to Bungendore: on the trail of the lost Olympic Kewpies
One of my fondest memories from childhood is spending an entire fortnight glued to coverage of the Sydney Olympic Games.
I’m not a sports fan, nor am I especially patriotic, but I was enchanted by the international event.
For me, the pinnacles were the opening and closing ceremonies that bookended the sporting action, especially the parade of Australian cultural icons that rounded out the carnival.
Among the props that were later sold off were 12 giant Kewpie dolls, one of which now calls Bendigo home.
And so began my obsessive search for the remaining 11. My research took me to unexpected places: hippie communes, faux colonial townships and into the workshop of a Tony Award winner.
3. Art or eyesore? Castlemaine’s leaning tower torn down
What is art and what is a public nuisance? That was the question raised by Castlemaine’s leaning weatherboard, a piece of guerilla artwork that teetered outside the town’s supermarket for a few short days in March.
When the council demolished the precarious-looking sculpture, their actions attracted the ire of the local artists.
In many ways, it foreshadowed the division between local government and Mount Alexander’s liberal community during the same-sex marriage survey.
Adding mystery were claims of ownership from an online account purportedly belonging to an Iranian-German artist, which turned out to be an elaborate cover for a Castlemaine creative.
4. Drew’s rainbow life in city of gold
The topic about which I wrote most this year was the same-sex marriage survey.
It took what was normally a personal subject matter for the LGBTI community and catapulted it into the public domain.
While the political machinations before, during and after the vote were interesting (some might say galling), what mattered most were the stories of the only people for whom the survey had implications – LGBTI people.
Many were moved to tell their stories for the first time, citing the survey as a make-or-break moment in the history of the queer rights movement.
Among those who shared their experiences was Bendigo man Drew Reid. Once shunned by his Anglican congregation, he now finds himself in a same-sex relationship with a former Anglican priest.
He wanted to his city to know that the traditional definition of marriage was long gone and that it was time same-sex couples received complete equality under the law. To me, he became a symbol of the entirely just and compassionate argument for a ‘yes’ vote.
5. Brace yourselves, Europe: Isaiah has fire to win
Before the end of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2016, I promised myself I would attend the following year’s event.
I did not expect that commitment would see me travel to Kyiv, Ukraine, and I certainly never imagined reporting from the former Soviet country for the Bendigo Advertiser.
But when Echuca-Moama singer Isaiah Firebrace was named Australia’s contestant in 2017, our readers suddenly had a vested interest in the 60-year-old singing competition.
Isaiah was a surprising but clever choice; his brand of soulful pop stood out in a year of dated ballads and his unshakeable teen confidence propelled him to a top 10 finish.
I’ve already booked my tickets to Lisbon, Portugal, in 2018 – let’s hope Jessica Mauboy can be our first winner.