To coincide with Stonework, we invite you to bring your treasured rocks, stones, minerals or fossils to Talking Rocks and have your items assessed and/or identified by an esteemed panel of Geologists. Perhaps you will discover something new about the rocks in your life!

On a first come first served basis, please bring 1-3 items (maximum) per person, with sessions limited to 5 minutes. Please keep your specimens to an easily held size and bring a pen and paper to note any advice, as written assessments cannot be given.

Optional gold coin donation to participate. This is an informal event, and participants and attendees are invited to listen in on each assessment session.

Suitable for all ages!

All welcome. No RSVP required.

Geologist Experts

Dr Bill Birch
Dr Bill Birch, Curator Emeritus, Geosciences, joined the Melbourne Museum (Museums Victoria) in 1974 as Curator of Minerals and retired at the end of 2013 after 40 years. His main roles were to grow and improve the museum’s collections of minerals, rocks and meteorites for use in research projects and exhibitions, and to engage with the wider community across many topics of interest within the vast field of geology. Birch's personal research interests are in the analysis of minerals, especially unusual species, documentation of mineral assemblages, and historical mineralogy. Working with other experts, he has described over 50 minerals new to science.

Clive Willman
Clive Willman started his career as a geologist at Chewton’s Wattle Gully mine in 1980 and later worked for the Geological Survey of Victoria and in Victoria’s gold exploration industry. He has contributed to numerous scientific papers and books on Victoria’s geology. Clive was awarded the Geological Society of Australia’s Selwyn Medal in 2003 for a ‘significant contribution of high calibre to Victorian geology’. Clive has produced a number of science education films for his YouTube channel ‘Geology Films’.

Dermot Henry
Dermot Henry, Head of Sciences, Museums Victoria Research Institute, joined the Museum in 1982, initially working in a variety of roles within the Geosciences section. Now, as Head of Sciences, he has responsibilities for a large multidisciplinary team that works across the broad disciplines of zoology, palaeontology, geosciences, and human biology. Through his career he has been responsible for managing and developing collections, developing public programs and exhibitions, conducting peer-reviewed research, communicating science to a diverse range of audiences, and promoting the Museum in a wide variety of forums. He has published on a variety of mineralogical, petrological and meteoritic topics and has edited and contributed to four books on Victorian mineralogy.

Bringing together historical works from the CAM collections with contemporary and First Nations artists, Stonework reveals there are many ways of looking at a stone.

Celebrate the exhibition opening of Ancestor Treasures: First Nations Tools and Adornment on Jaara Country on Saturday 16 December, 2pm.

As part of this event, we also celebrate the launch of our latest Terrace Projection, a video work of paintings by First Nations collective Pitcha Makin Fellas, and an off-site billboard featuring a work by Ash Thomas (Yorta Yorta/Wiradjuri), both presented as part of the touring exhibition Collective Movements, with support from NETS Victoria.

Thank you to major sponsors, local winemaking co-operative Boomtown Wine, and local bar and brewery Love Shack Brewing Company for sponsoring wine and beer, alongside support from StrangeLove with non-alc beverages. Thank you Murnong Mummas for supporting this event with refreshments.

Free event. Please RSVP here.

Ancestor Treasures: First Nations Tools and Adornment on Jaara Country

Under the care of Jaara and Dja Dja Wurrung Country, First Nations ancestor tools and adornment have been within the stewardship of Castlemaine Art Museum since its inception in 1913 – having been housed as part of CAM’s Collection – and held in trust for the local Jaara and Dja Dja Wurrung community, as well as all First Nations people.

Many of these items are being exhibited for the first time in Ancestor Treasures, under the direction of Uncle Rick Nelson (Jaara), Dja Dja Wurrung Traditional Elder; Alvin Darcy Briggs (ADB) (Yorta Yorta, Taungurung, Ngarigo Walbunga), Artist; Tiriki Onus (Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung), Associate Dean of Indigenous Development and Head of the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development, University of Melbourne; and Sharnie Hamilton (Djaara), Cultural Values Manager, Djandak.

Ancestor Treasures also includes traditional tools made by contemporary artist ADB (Yorta Yorta, Taungurung, Ngarigo Walbunga), in response to the Collection, and a video by First Nations photographer James Henry in collaboration with Henry Harmony Nelson's Descendants – the Saunders family from Mooroopna.

Terrace Projection: Collective Movements - Pitcha Makin Fellas, Why Don't Whitefellas Like Trees?

'Why Don’t Whitefellas Like Trees?' is an after dark video projection of paintings by Pitcha Makin Fellas – a First Nations collective hailing from Ballarat on Wadawurrung Country. This work was created by Gimuy Walubarra Yidinji woman Trudy Edgeley; Dja Dja Wurrung, Gunditjmara and Yorta Yorta woman Alison McRae; and Gunditjmara man Ted Laxton. This is a Monash University Museum of Art / NETS Victoria touring project. This project emerges from the touring exhibition Collective Movements.

Collective Movements - Ash Thomas, The Hunters

A new billboard, featuring 'The Hunters', a vivid artwork by First Nations artist Ash Thomas, is presented on Midland Highway, Castlemaine. Ash Thomas is a Yorta Yorta/Wiradjuri artist who creates detail-oriented paintings that interconnect culture, spirituality and realism. This is a NETS Victoria touring project, with support from The Torch. This project emerges from the touring exhibition Collective Movements, initiated by the Monash University Museum of Art.

Choose your own adventure print poem! To coincide with the 2023 Experimental Print Prize, now showing at Castlemaine Art Museum, we’re thrilled to present a unique screenprinting workshop lead by Troppo Print Studio on Saturday 20 January 2024.

As a group, participants will screenprint a selection of words on tote bags and t-shirts, creating a wearable concrete-style poem. Participants are asked to choose a descriptive or poetic word related to the theme of Environment. Prompts or examples of words include: activate, energy, future, nature, positive, reality, revolution. These words will then be incorporated into the screens for the workshop.

When booking tickets, submit your descriptive word, or email us with your word before 12 January 2024.

Workshop includes all print materials and tote bags. Participants are also welcome to bring a light-coloured t-shirt (e.g. white, creams) to screenprint on!

Troppo Print Studio is an artist run open access print studio in Melbourne's (Naarm) North. Facilitating workshops, leading to membership options, and happenings like the Screen Print Social Club. Troppo offer darkroom facilities, and accommodate paper, fabric, and garment printing.

Bookings essential. Limited spaces available.

Tickets: Purchase tickets here.