Speech 13 - Launch of Hepburn Matters Inc

Speech 13 - The Launch of Hepburn Matters 
 (written and presented by Warren Maloney at the Daylesford Town Hall on Wednesday, 22 June 2022)

Friends and Neighbours,

A Brief Word from and for our Community before we indulge in scones, jam, cream and a cuppa. 

This Evening, we have celebrated a fine Performance by Lyall Brooks in “A Prudent Man”, a Production made possible by our local, distinguished Production Company, Lab Kelpie, under the Leadership of Adam Fawcett. 

This Production generously segues into our Launch, this evening, of a vital Community advocacy Group, Hepburn Matters. 

When our Community was told that the Vision for the Rex Theatre site of preserving the main street heritage building, delivering an expanded Library, preserving the Daylesford Community Cinema, and providing exciting Community Spaces for our Youth and our Arts were cancelled, we felt more than lost. We felt hopeless in the face of silent Bureaucracy and distant Politics. 

A few of us started to meet and more joined and we began to identify the need to encourage the Bureaucracy and the Politicians to Rethink the Rex – to realise that closure was not the only and well may be the least desirable outcome for the future of our Community.  

Out of those meetings, we crystallised the need for a new Community Advocacy Group on Hepburn Matters because Hepburn Matters. 

We identified 5 Essential Elements that must not be lost in either the Re-design or the Sale of the Rex Theatre. 

1.   HERITAGE - We cannot lose the External and Internal Heritage architectural elements of this 95-year-old iconic building in our main street; and 

2.   CINEMA – We cannot lose our Community Cinema – an outstandingly successful and rewarding Community Asset; and 

3.   COMMUNITY SPACES – We cannot accept the loss of the planned and promised Spaces that would have allowed showcasing of our Art and Products, and underpinned Community Meetings and Performances; and 

4.   PUBLIC TOILETS – Our Community, Our Visitors, Our Families, and particularly our Aged depended heavily on the Rex Public Toilets. We were promised their priority in returning. We cannot accept their Loss. 

5.   OUR LIBRARY – Neglected for over 25 years, we need to have its future as a prime target of our Community Vision and Priorities. 

 So, this evening, we formally launch Hepburn Matters and ask you, if you are interested in having your ideas on our Community Heritage and Assets heard and discussed and listened to, then please jot down before you leave, your details on the Expressions of interest forms – so that we can get back to you and invite & involve & include you as we explore and advocate for Hepburn Matters. 

And if you are fired up already, it would be great if you could attend either or both the next 2 Council meetings – next Tuesday and 19th July – and/or take home and display one of our flyers here. 

Thank you for being here. Thank you for supporting this art Event which would have been so simply accommodated in the Daylesford Community Cinema project and thank you for your donations. 

Now to the Scones and Cuppa. Let the Supper and the Chatting begin.


















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