Jingle Jangle!

Can you believe it’s time to jingle those bells again? It seems like no time at all since we celebrated the silly season & the ringing in of 2018.
How do you celebrate Christmas? Do you have special rituals & traditions? My favourite part of Christmas is my family gathering around the Christmas tree in the morning, sharing presents while sipping Rusty Nails & listening out for the CFA truck ferrying a jolly ho-ho-ho’ing Santa around town. As our girls become a part of their partners’ families, the rest of our day is adjusted to fit around others, but our Christmas mornings remain the same.

On the Sunday of Melbourne Cup weekend, Blackwood was a hive of activity as 14 or so households held garage sales, proving that we still love our bargains & your trash is someone’s treasure. Progress cooked a sausage sizzle for the hungry crowd (I believe the onion was on top of the sausage) to the strains of one of our favourite local musical couple’s new vinyl album playing.

At the Community Newspapers Association of Victoria award night in October the AprMay2018 issue of Blackwood Times was a finalist in the Best Community Content category. This category recognizes the breadth & depth of community news publishing. The judges look for a publication which understands & reflects its community. The whole publication is judged. The judges comment was “Tight editing of all the necessary sections, depicting a whole-community feel to the paper.” Out of all the categories this is the one I most treasure because it encapsulates what we strive to achieve in each publication.

Happy Silly Season to you & yours. Stay safe & we’ll be back in February.


Download the December 2018 January 2019 issue of the Blackwood Times here: Dec18Jan19 With more than 6 pages of photos, are you in there?

Enjoy catching up with what’s been happening around town … & don’t forget, if you love one of our contributors articles please shoot us a line for Letters to the Editor. Our regulars spend a lot of time putting articles together for our information & entertainment – they love it when they get your feedback.

Of course all our wonderful contributors articles are scattered through-out the issue.


Please consider supporting our future publications by donating when you download … this helps to pay for printing & other costs associated with publishing our Community paper.

Download your Dec18Jan19 colour issue of the Times … (6.4mb)’


If you’re in Blackwood, pick up your copy from Friday evening from

  • Martin Street Coffee
  • Blackwood Hotel
  • Blackwood Post Office (Jindarup)
  • Garden of St Erth
  • Blackwood Caravan Park

If you’re not in Blackwood you can pick copy up (Saturday on) at

  • Greendale Hotel (Sunday)
  • Red Beard Bakery
  • Trentham Petrol & Stuff
  • Radio Springs Hotel (Lyonville) (next week)

Please do put a coin or 2 in the box when you take your copy, this helps to pay for printing & other costs associated with publishing our community paper.