Photo: Sarah Greenwood-Smith

Brown Hill Community Newsletter

A local volunteer-run community newsletter delivered to over 2500 local households, four times a year.

About the Brown Hill Community Newsletter

A project of the Brown Hill Progress Association, the Brown Hill Community Newsletter, Directory and Online Hub creates a sense of belonging for our community. Local residents feel connected, heard and up-to-date with news, events and activities. They find out about the lives of people living in Brown Hill, both current and historical and learn about our beautiful local environment.

This project was an initiative of the Brown Hill Engaging Communities Program, run by the City of Ballarat, which brought together local service, sporting, education and activity groups to invest in improvements for our community. With an initial grant from this program, the first newsletter was printed and delivered to every property in Brown Hill in May 2016. It was a hit! Advertising by local businesses started in Edition 7 and the newsletter has been financially self-sufficient since then, publishing six editions each year until mid-2021. From 2022, the Brown Hill Community Newsletter has been published two to four times each year.

A team of 20+ volunteers hand-deliver over 2850 newsletters to residents and local businesses and almost 1000 people also receive it online. Our local directory for business, community and sporting/activity groups has also been printed and delivered three times. All of the information is kept up to date on the Brown Hill Online Community Hub.

The Brown Hill Community Newsletter is a proud member of the Community Newspaper Association of Victoria and the Ballarat Community News Publications Network.

Editions

Hard copies are delivered to over 2000 letterboxes across Brown Hill and are made available through the Brown Hill Kindergarten, Caledonian Primary School, Woodman's Hill Secondary College, the Brown Hill Hall, Ballarat Wholefoods Collective and other local businesses.

Subscribe to newsletter online

To receive an electronic copy of the newsletter each edition, please subscribe to our mailing list.

Contribute

We welcome stories from across Brown Hill. Submissions can be emailed to newsletter@brownhill.vic.au or delivered in hard copy to the office at Caledonian Primary School, Thompson Street, Brown Hill during school hours and school term.

Remaining submission dates for 2024 are:

  • Edition 41: Wednesday 30 October 2024 (please note, postponed from 9 October).

The newsletter is usually delivered to all letterboxes in Brown Hill within 2-3 weeks of this date.

Editorial Policy

Generally, contributions should not exceed 250 words and up to two photographs per item may be submitted (but may not necessarily be published). However, if you have a feature-story which may require more words, please contact us with your idea. Material may be edited due to space, style, clarity or for legal reasons. The name and address of the person submitting any material must be provided (address not for publication). The Editorial Advisory Committee reserves the right not to publish material considered to be offensive or inappropriate or which is not deemed to have community interest or relevance. The views expressed or information provided in this publication are not necessarily those of the Brown Hill Community Newsletter Committee, the Brown Hill Progress Association or the City of Ballarat, including any officers, members, agents or contractors.

Supporters

Thank you to our 2024 Brown Hill Community Newsletter Supporters:

We would also like to thank Catherine King MP and Michaela Settle MP for their ongoing support of this great community project.

Advertise

We are pleased to offer advertising in the Brown Hill Community Newsletter. The newsletter is free-of-charge and is hand-delivered to letterboxes across Brown Hill by our team of volunteers. It is also available at many local businesses and community hubs and can be accessed electronically. Currently, 2850 copies of each edition are printed.

In 2024, the newsletter is scheduled to be published four times. Editions are released in mid-February, May, August and October. It is printed in black and white. The online version is a full-colour PDF.

Depending on the size of the edition, generally, a total of 25 business card sized spaces are made available, the equivalent of two and a half pages of advertising per edition.

Advertising rates per edition are:

  • $50: 90mm x 55mm (1 x business card)
  • $100: 180 mm x 55mm (2 x business cards - banner)

Payment for new advertising is due within a week of the booking date 2024. Please book your space and we will send you an invoice for direct deposit payment.

There are limited spaces available for advertising, so don't miss out.

By advertising in the Brown Hill Community Newsletter, businesses are helping this important community project to be financially self-sufficient into the future.

Finalist at 2021 State Awards

The Brown Hill Community Newsletter was a finalist in three of the nine awards at the 2021 Community Newspaper Association of Victoria (CNAV) Annual Awards held on 6 November 2021. Congratulations to all of the wonderful volunteers involved - who each play an important part in the ongoing success of this fantastic community project.

Best editorial comment

This is an opinion piece written by or on behalf of the editor. Editorial comment is informed and relevant to the news in that edition of the paper, and it represents the position of the paper as a whole on that particular issue.
(14 entries)

Equal Second Place – Brown Hill Community Newsletter, Edition 30 – ‘In this Edition’ by Sarah Greenwood-Smith.

Best history story

Community newspapers are renowned for their coverage of local history. The history story is a narrative style story documenting an aspect of the region's history. It might be about a person, a building, an aspect of the region's character, or a particular occasion in the history of the town.
(21 entries)

Second Place – Brown Hill Community Newsletter, Edition 27 – ‘The Littlehales’ Brown Hill Family History’ by Roy and Marlene Littlehales, Brown Hill Residents, interviewed by Kevin Holloway, Brown Hill resident.

Best community content

This category recognises the breadth and depth of community news publishing. The judge will be looking for a publication which understands and reflects its community. The entry is the whole publication.
(26 entries)

Third Place – Brown Hill Community Newsletter

Other Ballarat Publications

The Ballarat East Community News was a finalist in two other categories and the Buninyong and District Community News in another three! See the Ballarat Community News Publications Network page on the Ballarat East Neighbourhood House website for all of the information.

Well done to all of the volunteers who help to put the Brown Hill Community Newsletter together - writing, editing, proof reading, taking photos, chasing stories, layout, printing and delivery/distribution! What a great effort.

Contact

Email: newsletter@brownhill.vic.au

Facebook: Brown Hill Community Newsletter Facebook