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About
A maga’zine’ about all the interesting people and things happening in the beautiful Dandenong Ranges, south east of Melbourne. With creative design and interesting articles it’s a rockin' read.
Editor’s rave
I have been living in Belgrave for over 20 years and am always amazed at the things I find, out and about, in the hills. Every time I talk to someone, I discover an artist, crafter or musician lurking within.
Or someone who is passionate about the environment, food or fashion and can lead me to some magical place I’d never visited before. And there’s a great sense of community unlike anywhere else I’ve ever lived before.
Inspired by a zine I bought at Melbourne’s craft fair about the crafting community, I decided to make my own maga’zine’ about our thriving local community. And so the hillscene was born.
Adriana Alvarez
Editor/Designer
hillscene reboot - 2026 a fresh beginning
EXCITING NEWS!!!!
The time has come to do a hillscene reboot. I have been thinking about it for ages. It would be more accurate to say procrastinating, but you can't do that forever. Eventually you just have to make the decision and go with it.
Partly the hillscene ended because of COVID and partly because there were so many things going on in my life
I felt they needed my attention; kids growing up, parents getting older, family health issues, menopause! And partly I had run out of steam.
A few years have passed and the world feels like it's changed dramatically. We need community more than ever. The advent of social media which promised to connect us all seems to have done the opposite in many cases. Online forums are filled with division. Rage bait and shock are consistently driving our algorithms. AI is so good it's hard to know what's real anymore.
That's when community becomes so important. Getting out talking with people with similar or different views, seeing things with your own eyes. The hillscene isn't exactly long form writing but it's a lovely short read, about a unique space and time. It's getting out into nature and taking a deep breath 'in real life'. It's people pursuing their passions, starting small and watching them grow.
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My mind was finally made up when one of the hosts of Shameless, my favourite podcast, mentioned she was going to start a community choir. It made me realise that creating a space for community to grow, no matter how small, is worthwhile.
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This issue is filled with locals doing amazing things, creating art, growing gardens, starting sustainable businesses or podcasts. I'm surprised how easily it came together but I shouldn't have been.
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A big thank you to Tanya De SIlva for letting me use her design template from our last issue in 2019/2020. I've loved using her ideas and running with it. Also a huge thank you to Mathieu Dechamps for supplying his sustainable Simply Paper for this first reboot issue. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed making it.
our Autumn reboot issue is available SOON!
Dandenong Ranges Ukelele festival
hillsceneLIVE
hillsceneLIVE 2026
AT A STRETCH​
This years theme,"...AT A STRETCH", invites us into the tension between effort and transformation. To stretch is to lean beyond comfort, to reach into the unknown, to test the boundaries of what is possible. It is a practice of resilience, risk, and reinvention in movement, in thought, in art.
We are asking artists to explore what it means to strain, expand, and grow under pressure. To occupy the spaces between structure and collapse, presence and absence, form and flux. Whether you're reaching across disciplines, across community, or into the deepest parts of your own practice, we invite you to follow that tension and see what emerges when you meet the stretch.
Supporters
hillsceneLIVE is supported by Burrinja.
Keep up to date with the latest news on the facebook page.
hillsceneLIVE Festival!
inspired by the brave // excited by the bold
hillsceneLIVE is an artist development program that culminates in an experimental live art festival held in the Dandenong Ranges.
​The program works TIRELESSLY to create dynamic, responsive and relevant programming through our annual series of performances, workshops and artist-led initiatives.
