Jess, Musician & Gardener, Campbells Creek, Dja Dja Wurrung Country

Jess came to Castlemaine to escape a rough breakup four years ago; she originally just came for the night but while at the pub she met someone looking for a housemate, and someone else offered her a job at the local brewery. By the time she left the pub that night she had all her plans set to move to Castlemaine the next week.

She lived in town for a year, before stumbling upon this beautiful old cottage she lives in now. One day shortly after having lost her job at the brewery, while perusing gumtree she noticed a job pop up that was for a very nondescript gardening role. She was studying horticulture though hadn’t worked in the field, and applied for the job anyway. Soon after she got a call from the poster of the ad, who turned out to be a prolific artist who was converting the old gaol into a gallery. He offered her the job. 

Jess also works as a musician; playing gigs locally and in the city, and has now recorded 2 albums at local analogue recording studio Sound Recordings (see Alex).

I asked Jess why she decided to run away to the country in the first place to escape her breakup, rather than going to another city (she’d been living in the suburbs of Melbourne at this time). She said even though she’d grown up in the suburbs, she spent a lot of her youth in the high country - riding horses and swimming in rivers. She couldn’t let go of the memories of that, and had always loved the idea of maybe one day moving to the country. Castlemaine made it easy for her to move - the opportunities presented themselves, but she also says that it was made easy for her because the people here are so lovely that it’s easy to make friends, and she couldn’t imagine moving back to the city now.