The former Victorian gold rush town of Clunes had a cameo in Tony Birch’s 2009 short story collection Shadowboxing, but it took more than a decade for the Indigenous writer to step foot in the historic village.
Over the weekend, Birch took to the stage at the Clunes Booktown festival as part of a lineup of 25 writers including Jane Caro, George Megalogenis, Tim Fischer and Alice Pung.
He had to confess to the audience that he’d broken his own writing rules when it came to Clunes.
“As a creative writing teacher who has always said to students, ‘If you’re going to write about a real place, at least go there to get a sense of it’, which I always do – except for Clunes,” Birch told a panel discussion, beneath the stunning plasterwork ceiling of the 1872-built town hall.
As autumn sunlight streamed through the high arch windows, Birch joked that he’d had a moment of panic when he was driving to the festival, as he hoped he had accurately portrayed it.
About 36km north of Ballarat, Clunes is likely to be familiar to many movie lovers. The picturesque main drag has featured on big and small screens: from Mad Max (1979), Ned Kelly (2003) and the Tomorrow when the War began series (2016) to last year’s Picnic at Hanging Rock miniseries and an episode of HBO’s The Leftovers (2016).
On Saturday, two red tractors are parked out the front of the festival zone as marquees full of booksellers and market stalls take over that main street. All kinds of colourful sideshows and characters have come out for the event, including three women swanning about in elaborate steam punk costumes with top hats and corsets, lending an air of carnival to the day.
Clunes punches above its weight on the Australian literary scene. About 2,200 people live in the town, but organisers say this year’s festival attracted 15,000 visitors. It might not have the vast crowd numbers of the Sydney writers’ festival (around 100,000 reportedly attended this year), but the Clunes festival makes up for it with oodles of small-town charm, fresh country air, Victorian architecture, a relaxed vibe and thriving local food culture (see Quigley & Clarke and Bread & Circus Provedore).
The emerging crime writer Joshua Pomare, whose debut psychological thriller Call Me Evie was released late last year, grew so fond of the township he now splits his time between it and Melbourne. He edited his first book in Clunes and is now working on his second book there.
“The endless distractions of the city aren’t necessarily conducive to a sustained period of focus on a singular project like a novel,” he says. “Writers who live in New York City, that always baffles me.”
The New Zealand-born writer says Clunes partly reminds him of Rotorua, where he grew up. He describes the township as a haven for stimulating conversations with savvy and cultured locals. “People who are native to urban settings don’t know what it’s like to see the stars at night and the silence.”
Spending time in a small setting sets his imagination on fire. “You have the time to think,” he says.
“I think about writing as a slow brain activity, you can’t have your mind racing and then sit down and write for eight hours.”
Authors Kirsten Bradley and Nick Ritar also added local flair to the festival, as they spoke about the benefits of feeding both the mind and the body.
Like Pomare, they did the tree change – turning their backs on city life for the joys of vegetable gardens, chicken and goat raising.
The couple live nearby at the Melliodora property at Hepburn, one of the world’s best known permaculture experimental sites. Their book Milkwood is an in-depth look at the art of tomato growing, mushroom cultivation, natural beekeeping, seaweed and wild food foraging.
“This enduring fantasy that we are outside of nature, [that] you can spend your weekend reconnecting with nature, that’s bullshit,” Ritar said. “Every bit of food you eat, the glasses of water you drink passes through nature.”
For those who didn’t get to attend this year’s festival, the magic of Clunes Booktown continues with monthly author talks on Sundays. Author of Skylarking, Kate Mildenhall, will appear at Clunes Booktown on 19 May while Ann Blainey, author of Charles Kingsford Smith: King of the Air, will speak at the 16 June event.
