Canberra CityNews September 30 - October 6, 2010

Clubs say enough is enough

ACT clubs are as mad as hell and they’re not going to take it any more. ELERI HARRIS reports

CLUBS in the ACT are rising up against the Territory Government on the issue of pokies at Canberra Casino and the Greens’ Gaming Machine Amendment Bill, tabled in the Legislative Assembly.

Newly re-elected ClubsACT

chairman Max Mercer says clubs will struggle to continue to provide funding to community activity – namely junior sports – if Canberra Casino is allowed to have pokies or if clubs are forced to increase their contribution to problem gambling services.

“What we’re really saying is for a long time we’ve sat back and waited for the Government to make decisions, but it’s not working,” he told “CityNews”.

“We will mobilise our members to ask hard questions of their politicians.”

Canberra Casino has offered the ACT Government $10 million to allow 200 electronic gaming machines at their Civic premises.

The ACT Government says it is still committed to the community club model of pokies licensing, but Mercer is concerned this could change.

INDEX

September 30-October 6, 2010 Since 1993: Volume 16, Number 39

“If we were to see a significant decline in revenue, the clubs will withdraw from the community,” he said.

ACT clubs have a combined membership of 1.5 million members, most people are members of more than one club, and receive about $100 million in annual profit from pokie machines, of which around $400,000 is directed towards problem gambling through the Lifeline service.

In a report earlier this year, the Productivity Commission identified 6000 problem gamblers in the ACT, a number Mercer disputed because one person can be reported as a problem gambler at numerous venues.

Lifeline said they only provided services to 250 problem gamblers last year.

Mercer said he wanted the tender to be opened on Lifeline’s services and Lifeline CEO Mike Zissler agreed this would be fair.

“The issue is bigger than Lifeline,” Zissler said.

“We do support the Greens Bill with the Gambling and Racing Commission as an independent

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manager to take that tender to the marketplace. Some services are not provided by Lifeline and we welcome that competition, we fully accept that to be the process.”

Lifeline would like to see services expanded beyond Civic to Tuggeranong and Belconnen as well as funding for community education programs and local research.

“We’re not saying Lifeline is hopeless,” Mercer insisted, “But

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Max Mercer… “For a long time we’ve sat back and waited for the Government to make decisions, but it’s not working.”

Stress awareness day

HUNDREDS of people are expected to gather near the Carillon, 11am-3pm, on Sunday, October 10 for the third National Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Awareness Day. The ACT and Federal Governments are supporting Picking Up The Peaces – a Canberra-based community group with a national focus – to raise awareness so that those affected can be diagnosed and treated.

Youth health ambassador

ST Clare’s College year 9 student Ashlea Arulanandam has been named the ACT’s Research Australia Youth Ambassador for Health Research. The awards challenged year 9 and 10 students from around Australia to submit essays or YouTube videos predicting the impact of medical technology on health. The national winner will be announced in October.

Trivia challenge

PARKINSON’S ACT is hosting its first annual trivia night at the Hellenic Club, Woden, at 6pm, October 14 to raise funds required for vital services in the ACT and region. It will be hosted by ABC 666’s Greg Bayliss and Greg Spencer. Tickets are $10. Registrations to parkinsonsACT@gmail.com or call Whil Prendergast on 0402 292 491.

there are more providers of these types of services and we’re saying we want to get the best in the business.”

Currently ACT clubs are legislated to set aside seven per cent of their net profit to the community, which in 2009 they voluntarily doubled to 14 per cent.

Seventy per cent of the community tithe goes to sports and recreation and three per cent to problem gambling.

Painting prize

MELBA Copland Secondary School has been awarded $25,000 for its plan for a painting and decorating course with the University of Canberra and other sponsoring partners. The funding from Schools First, which rewards schools across the country with funding for projects in partnership with local communities. Melba Copland is one of two Canberra schools win funding. Fraser Primary was awarded $25,000 for its literacy improvement scheme involving UC pre-service teachers who will get practical experience in teaching literacy.

Bungle handicaps golf clubs

By Eleri Harris

CANBERRA’S golf courses have been hit with surprise water bills of up to $60,000 for the last financial year after an ACT Department of the Environment, Climate Change, Energy and Water communication bungle.

Environment Minister Simon Corbell said golf courses had been exempt from a Water Abstraction Charge for non-potable water from 2003 to last year, when the Water Resources Act was revised.

“Due to a departmental administrative oversight golf clubs were not informed of the charge until May 2010,” Corbell told “CityNews”.

“Not unreasonably, golf clubs have expressed concern that they cannot afford the increase in charges and in particular that they were not advised and therefore had not budgeted for the additional cost in 2009-10.”

In 2003, the Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission had advised golf courses not be charged for non-potable water to encourage a move away from potable water for irrigation.

Canberra’s golf course managers were not keen to comment on the record to “CityNews” about the WAC because it is being “reviewed”, but pointed out that water falls from the sky at no cost to the ACT Government and golf courses over the border in NSW pay a flat rate of $2000 a year.

“How can they justify charging that cost for water that falls from the sky into our dam?” one manager asked.

“At 25 cents a kilolitre, it’s cheaper than before irrigation,” another said, expressing concern not that there was a charge, but that golf course operators had not been informed about it.

ACTEW charges $4 a kilolitre for potable water.

Corbell says the department CEO David Papps will meet representatives from each

“How can they justify charging that cost for water that falls from the sky into our dam?” one manager asked.

golf club to discuss their concerns and report back.

“In the short term, a Treasurer’s Waiver has been sought for the WAC charges incurred by golf clubs for surface water use in 2009-10 and the ICRC have been requested to provide advice on the applicability of the WAC to golf course surface water use,” Corbell said.

Liberal Environment spokesperson Vicki Dunne said the oversight demonstrates a breakdown in Department communication procedure.

“It is unreasonable that any part of the community should be flooded with a bill without warning,” Dunne said.

“This brings up the issue of water pricing, it’s not first-class water and many of these organisations have taken moves to ensure they are not dependent on potable water, they were encouraged to do this by the Government.”

The Greens’ Shane Rattenbury agreed, but said the Government should consider phasing in the charge since the 2010-11 financial year has already begun.

“Water is a valuable resource,” Rattenbury said.

“We need an outcome that reflects the value of the resource without penalising the people involved.”

Under the Water Resources Regulation Act 2007 exemptions, authority may be given to take water “from hard surfaces at premises if it is to be used at the premises” if the exemption “will result in improved environmental outcomes or other public benefit”.

It may be argued the health and community benefits for participation in sport and the managed irrigation of land at golf clubs could warrant continued exemption under these provisions, regardless of commercial gain.

briefly

Innovative teacher

I HAVE enormous respect for the magpies: I like the way they go about their business and the way that don’t take crap from anyone. I’m not talking AFL. I mean the birds!

For nine months of the year, the magpies ignore us completely but come spring they stand up and repel the invaders to their territory with a steadfast resolve.

I went for a ride with my mate Leon recently. We took the bike path into Civic and then headed towards Lake Burley Griffin. The sun was shining, the air was warm and life was good. We’d ridden up Edinburgh Avenue and over Parkes Way. On the downward run towards to the lake foreshore I heard that shrill cry and the flapping of wings.

This was the most persistent and ferocious magpie I’ve come across in years. Head down, bum up, I rode as hard as I could. I got mighty fast on the Kona Zing, but not fast enough to escape this magpie. It swooped at least dozen times, four or five of them involving actual contact on the helmet and backpack.

And all Leon could do was laugh; I’m blowed if I know why he didn’t get attacked as well.

I’ve had a laugh over the years from those cyclists who wear cable ties poking out of their bike helmets, but

By Mark Parton

I’m beginning to think I may have to go down that path. I’m not sure what else to try.

We used to have some seriously ferocious spring magpies in my home town of York in WA. I still remember my classmate Adam Thorn, who used to walk to school carrying a golf club, would hit the magpies out of the sky. We wouldn’t recommend this approach here.

George, from Weston, rang my radio program and suggested that if you look at the magpies and talk to them as you approach, they tend not to attack you. I just don’t know which language to use! My surefire way of avoiding magpie attack while walking involves taking Chocolate, my little mini kelpie, with me. Chocolate doesn’t mind if the magpies attack and given the choice of swooping a human or a dog, magpies will always choose the dog. Choccy’s more than happy to be my magpie decoy and it’s just one more reason why dogs are man’s best friend.

at 2CC.

CANBERRA Grammar teacher Matthew Purcell has won the annual Microsoft Innovative Teachers Award for ACT for his innovative use of technology in the classroom. He will represent the ACT in Thailand in March, where he’ll have the chance to be selected as the national winner. The award is open to all teachers, more information at www.microsoft. com/education/PIL/partnersInLearning. aspx

Bredbo farming fair

THE Kosciuszko 2 Coast Partnership Biodiversity and Farming Fair will be held at the Bredbo Centennial Park between 9am and 4pm, Sunday, October 10. Facilitator Lauren Van Dyke said: “There is such a diverse array of people who will be attending both as speakers and participants. Speakers’ subjects include rivers, birds, connectivity, grasses, reptiles, frogs, sheep nutrition, weeds and more. There will be live music and plenty of great food and the kids won’t be bored as there will be seed balls to roll and puppies to pat.”

Research boost

THE first Benny Wills Golf Day and Dinner has raised more than $36,000 to support brain tumour research. The organisers, Benny’s parents were overwhelmed by the generosity of the Canberra community.

More than just good friands briefly

By Megan Haggan

FED up with friands and cookies as the only dining options when she went out for a coffee, Kelly Robinson and her husband Geoff found a novel solution to her dietary restrictions: Opening their own cafe.

Kelly was diagnosed with coeliac disease, where the body cannot tolerate gluten, in January last year.

“It was just luck that I found out,” Kelly says. “I had not been well for a number of years, suffering from many different illnesses, including recurring viral meningitis and what seemed to be Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

“After I had been particularly unwell for a number of weeks before Christmas 2008, my GP ordered some blood tests, which came back with a high reading for coeliac disease. I then had a biopsy done to confirm that, yes, I was a coeliac – this also helped to explain why my immune system was low and I was forever falling ill.”

The initial lifestyle changes Kelly needed to make were difficult, she says. “Previously, I had had pasta, garlic bread, pizza, sandwiches and so on as a major component of my diet, which were no longer allowed. For a while I lived on salad and fruit – I also lost a number of kilos!”

Some venues offer gluten-free foods, she says, but these are cross-contaminated during the cooking or storage process.

“When you look in the window they have ‘normal’ cakes on the same plate, or right next to the gluten-free ones,” she says.

“I also find it difficult with crosscontamination occurring when staff use a set of tongs to pick up a ‘normal’ cake and then use the same tongs to pick up my ‘gluten-free’ cake!”

Kelly says opening a cafe has long been a dream of her husband Geoff’s, but the idea evolved after her diagnosis.

“I would constantly struggle to find somewhere to go and have a simple cup of coffee and a bite to eat with friends.

A lot of cafés had lovely coffee, but all I was able to eat there would be a cookie or a friand. While both of these items are lovely, I personally am not a cookie eater, and there are only so many friands you can eat before you get bored with them.”

Calling all fishers

FISHERS and other interested people who have a connection with the fishing on 12 reaches within the MurrayDarling Basin, including the Upper Murrumbidgee from Casuarina Sands in ACT to Bredbo in NSW, are encouraged to share their stories and fishing photographs at a launch event of the “Talking Fish” oral history project to be held at the Kangaroos Rugby Leagues Club, corner Stuart Street and Richard Avenue, Queanbeyan from 5pm on Tuesday, October 5 . Drinks and nibbles provided. The project is managed by Industry & Investment NSW’s Conservation Action Unit in conjunction with Rural Solutions SA, and funding from the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s Native Fish Strategy. Conservation manager for I&I NSW, Scott Nichols and oral historian Jodi Frawley will be in the area until October 8. Anyone with a story or have photos to share with the project, should contact him on (02) 8437 4909 or to scott.nichols@industry. nsw.gov.au

Foster friends

“As a coeliac, you need to become a fastidious label reader – this is how you can determine what ingredients are used,” she says.

“I was, and still am, hesitant when

Kelly was surprised at just how many foods contain gluten, which is found in wheat, rye and barley: it’s not as simple as just staying away from breads and pastas.

eating out, as I am a sensitive coeliac in that I fall ill if I even have a few breadcrumbs in my meal. I will only eat at venues that state they have gluten-free food items available, as this indicates to me that they have at least heard of the term ‘gluten-free’ and try to accommodate my needs.”

The Evatt couple decided to incorporate gluten-free snacks and light meals into their menu when they opened the Perfect Bean Cafe, now at the Florey shops.

“Understanding of what gluten-free means is always growing,” Kelly says. “There is is a bigger variety available these days.”

BACK For The Future, a new organisation for former foster-care kids, is appealing to people who grew up in care to come together to support each other. Founder Craig Dadds says the organisation aims to be a support network for adults who grew up in care to share their experiences and provide advice and inspiration to children in care today. More information from craig@backforthefuture.org or visit www.backforthefurture.org

The good oil for a healthy diet

By Megan Haggan

THE Cretan diet, high in olive oil, tomatoes and greens, has been shown to have significant health benefits, says, Associate Prof Catherine Itsiopoulos, head of nutrition and dietetics at the University of Canberra’s Faculty of Health.

While all the various Mediterranean diets are healthier than the Western diet, they’re not created equal, she says.

Catherine’s professional interest in the Mediterranean diet stems from 15 years ago, when she was doing her Ph.D, supervised by Professor Kerin O’Dea, who had presented research showing that people from Crete had extremely low rates of death from heart disease.

“They had the highest-fat diet, but that fat was predominantly olive oil, in a low-meat, high-vegetable diet,” says Catherine.

“I was in a different area of nutrition, but I found it so interesting that I shifted my focus – and I’ve since studied the Mediterranean diet as a model for preventing disease.”

Her latest research, which examined the health benefits of Cretan eating in managing type 2 diabetes, studied 27 Anglo-Celtic Australians who followed the traditional Cretan diet for three months.

Their blood glucose, blood fats, body weight, blood pressure and other diabe -

tes risk factors were measured before and after their stint on the Cretan diet. There was a significant improvement in metabolic control of diabetes, and the participants said they had more energy, better skin and improved mood.

The diet also improved the participants’ antioxidant levels: antioxidants, which help repair the damage caused by diabetes, are depleted by the disease.

Associate Prof Catherine Itsiopoulos... “What’s unique about the Crete Mediterranean diet is that olive oil is the main added fat.

Photo by Silas

“There are many Mediterranean diets – people quote up to 30 types – and many different countries claim that their diet is Mediterranean,” says Catherine. “What’s unique about the Crete Mediterranean diet is that olive oil is the main added fat.

“It’s highly vegetarian – a kilo of fruit and vegetables every day – and low in meat; dairy is fermented yoghurt and

cheese, not milk.

“Carbohydrates are wholegrain. It’s not a pasta diet – when people think about Mediterranean food they often think of pasta but that’s not the case in a Greek diet. We used a village-style bread with seven different seeds in it.”

The study participants had their meals prepared for them by two Greek Australians – one of whom was Catherine’s mother, Theano Itsopoulos.

Catherine grew up in what she calls a “fairly traditional” Greek environment – “we ate family meals together, mum, dad, my sister and I, and on weekends, the extended family: aunties, uncles, cousins.

“We ate a typical Mediterranean-style diet: plenty of vegetables and salads, bean soup (fassoulada) or lentil soup (fakes) at least twice per week, stuffed peppers, casseroles with peas or beans.”

Today Catherine, who commutes between Canberra and her family’s home in Melbourne, says she puts the Cretan Mediterranean diet into practice at home.

“We have an extended family in that my mother-in-law lives with us, and my mother comes to stay on weekends – they do all the cooking and we have traditional meals most nights.

“My girls love lentil soup, and they also love pea and carrot casserole on mashed potato.”

Eating to live

Consume 60ml of olive oil each day, and use it as your main added fat.

Eat vegies at every mealtime, including 100g of leafy greens, 100g of tomatoes and 200g of other vegies every day.

Eat legumes (250g a serve) at least twice a week. Eat fish (150g to 200g a serve) at least twice a week, and include oily fish such as sardines or salmon.

Eat meat only once a week (this includes poultry). Eat fresh fruit every day, and snack on dried fruit and nuts.

Eat yoghurt every day, and cheese in moderation. Include wholegrain breads and cereals with meals.

If drinking, switch to wine – one or two glasses a day, always with meals, and don’t get drunk. Sweets and sweet drinks are for special occasions only.

Device that helps the coaches coach

By Eleri Harris

IN the humid, blue-green light of Civic Pool, cross-country skier Colby Rook propels himself up and down the end lane, doing the butterfly with a little black device snapped to the back of his speedos.

Barely visible in the water, the device, developed by National ICT Australia in Canberra with the help of the AIS, is calculating Rook’s every move, providing statistics on how fast he’s going, how many laps he’s doing and even what kind of stroke he’s using.

“The stats of exercise are really important to me to check out my performance,” Rook says.

“I don’t even notice the device is there, it feels normal.”

NICTA senior researcher, Dr Leif Hanlen says the device, which has been tested on elite athletes and regular swimmers from the ages of 12-60, is ground-breaking, practical and transferable to other sports – including skiing.

“We started when the AIS came to us with a problem,” Dr Hanlen says.

“At the time they were recording what the swimmers were doing by writing down in a log book. So a coach would walk down a lane with eight swimmers or so and write down what everyone was doing and they would count the number of strokes, what kind of stroke it was, how fast, all that timing information, doing it all manually. What they wanted to do was automatic, because the coach actually wants to coach and not write stuff down in a book.

“There seems to be quite a bit of interest at the moment from people who want to record their swimming, so more than just having it say like a pedometer, they want to know what strokes they’ve been doing and how they’ve been doing it. They want to know efficiency and time and improvement.

“Inside the device is an accelerometer. It’s measuring the acceleration of the swimmer, and then based on some computer analysis and some machine learning we can understand what type of stroke, so we can understand the patterns of the acceleration. From the acceleration we can say, this was free-style, it was 26 strokes down the pool, we can calculate the time, the lap, then we can calculate speed and the energy burnt and so forth.”

It was important for the device to be tested on a variety of swimmers since elite athletes are trained to move in a specific way that your average swimmer is not.

“To work on the swimmer it’s got to be consistent,” Dr Hanlen says, “This is the end of the trial, the last bit is the public testing. The final product should only take a couple of weeks from here.”

NICTA and the AIS have been working on the technology since 2008 and are currently negotiating with a multinational partner to commercially release the device in the next 18 months.

“If the AIS can use it, then everyone can use it,” Dr Hanlen says.

Here’s why it was the worst campaign

THIS Federal election campaign was amongst the worst in living memory. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott loves to argue that he ran a brilliant campaign. Not true!

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has already started the process of assessing what went wrong. She admitted in the early days of the campaign that it was going awry and fought to turn it around – but without success.

The table shows the proportion of the Australian electorate that each major party leader was able to convince to give his (and in one case her) party their primary vote since 1949. The figures are based on a proportion of all enrolled voters. There have been 25 elections. So there have been 50 “performances” that can be assessed.

The proposition that Tony Abbott has run “the best campaign as Opposition Leader never to win government” is so ludicrous it is outrageous.

He is at position 39 out of 50. It is not even as though he turned the loss of John Howard around. He improved this party’s primary vote as a proportion of all Australia’s voters by an additional .05 per cent over John Howard’s 2007 achievement by lifting it from 38.32 per cent to 38.39 per cent.

It could be worse. The only woman to run for Prime Minister is at the bottom of the list. Interestingly, she is right next to the penultimate contender Mark Latham, one of the people that played a significant part in ruining her campaign.

By Michael Moore

Performance of party leaders at elections

She dropped the vote by 6.4 per cent from Rudd’s figure of 39.48 per cent. It’s probably not so much her fault, but that of those running her campaign. Her personal campaign performance may have actually prevented an even worse outcome. Who knows. But at least she is not attempting to perpetuate the myth that she and her party did well.

Of the 25 campaigns run by opposition leaders, Abbott’s is the 19th best out of 25. That is, there have been 19 campaigns by opposition leaders that were better than Abbott’s performance (including six that brought their party into government) and only six campaigns that were worse.

Billy McMahon’s losing campaign to stay on as Prime Minister won more support from Australians than Abbott’s attempt at the top job. The list of losing Liberal campaigns that score higher than Abbott’s includes Peacock in 1990, Howard in 1987, Hewson in 1993, and Billy Snedden in 1974. Even in the heyday of the Liberal icon, Sir Robert Menzies, most of Arthur Calwell’s, and all three of Bert Evatt’s campaigns, outshone Abbott’s. Interestingly, Evatt’s 1954 campaign, which still lost, was the eighth best campaign achievement since 1949.

In campaign terms, Abbott has achieved the third-worst performance by any Liberal leader in the past 60 years. Only the

Howard campaign in 1998 (which only just hung on to government) and the Howard campaign in 2007 (which did not) were worse campaigns.

Michael Moore is a former member of the ACT Legislative Assembly and an independent minister for health in the Carnell government.

Hot firies come to rescue of tiny babies

By Megan Haggan

MEMBERS of the ACT Fire Brigade are hoping to raise $50,000 for the neo-natal ward at the Canberra Hospital with their hunky 2011 calendar.

“Last year, the neo-natal ward made the public aware that it was a little over $100,000 short of being able to buy a second humidicrib for Canberra,” says fireman and “model” Damian Holloway, who is part of the 2011 calendar committee.

“We’d done a calendar of sorts before that, for various causes including diabetes, but we thought the humidicrib was a good opportunity to make a contribution toward a local cause.”

Despite being developed and sold in a very short time frame at the end of 2009, the last calendar raised $20,000 towards the humidicrib.

Damian says that while none of the firies taking part in this year’s calendar have needed the services of the neo-natal ward – he’s due to become a father himself early next year – the well-being of babies and children is a cause close to their hearts.

“It’s especially so because of some of the things you see in this line of work,” he says. “The hardest stuff usually involves children.

“The neo-natal ward looks after heavily premature babies, and it’s important to give them the best chance you can, from the beginning.”

Damian told “CityNews” that unlike in some other firefighters’ calendars, the guys are all the real thing: “We’re all Canberra, full-time firies, the blokes who’ll come to your house if it’s on fire.”

Never having modelled before last year’s calendar, he says it’s a rather surreal experience.

“It sort of takes you aback a bit: You’ve got somebody telling you to lean forward, put your shoulders back, and you think it’s going to be the most uncomfortablelooking photo, but then it looks really natural.

“Every firie is holding a different piece of equipment that we use in our day-today work. In the finished product, there’s a background photo each month that will show that piece of equipment in use as well, so people can see what we actually do.”

As well as aiming to donate $50,000 to the neo-natal ward, the firies also hope to raise funds for their athletes to compete in the World Police and Fire Games in New York, in 2011.

Thanks to the support of local businesses, each dollar raised will go straight to the causes, Damian says.

The calendar will be publicly launched at King O’Malley’s in the city on Friday, October 15, and will be available from the Canberra Centre, DFO and every fire station in Canberra.

For more information or to reserve a copy, call 0404 900604.

Hot gossip

IT was show and tell on the Cotter Road when TAMS firefighters met up with colleagues from the ACT Fire Brigade ahead of the coming fire season to learn about the different equipment that both brigades have. It was the Bronto Skylift F44 RLX that caught the snapper’s eye and in a heartbeat he was in the cab and 44 metres off the ground with senior firefighter Mark Stuart. Photos by Silas

briefly

Heroic mum

SINGLE mother, dedicated carer of two and long-term volunteer at Autism

AspergerACT, Margaret Froggatt has been named the recipient of the 2010 Bendigo BankHero Award. The award recognises carers of people with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Autism Asperger ACT president Gay von Ess said Margaret was nominated for being a “fantastic inspiration” for other families who have children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Bank helps

JASMA Stallion, and her staff at Bendigo Bank’s Community Bank branch at Jamison Plaza, Macquarie, which recently celebrated its first birthday, have already assisted Radford and Daramalan colleges, Canberra High School, the local Belconnen YMCA and Murrembateman Field

Days. The bank’s national network of more than 250 locally-owned Community Bank companies recently exceeded more than $40 million in contributions to community groups, clubs and not-for-profit groups.

Safety winners

THE Department of Finance and Deregulation has won a CRS Australia NSW/ACT Employer Award for its commitment to workplace safety. The department’s acting assistant secretary Jane Miles said: “A safe and healthy workplace means staff are more engaged. It’s about treating them as people rather than just workers and our partnership with CRS Australia has been instrumental in reinforcing that message.”

Greetings from Planet Tweet

ELERI HARRIS reports from

the front line of ‘Wonkstock’

CANBERRA was beset with high-class political wonkery last week with the inaugural “#Ozpolitics: The Politics of Social Media” conference.

Bringing wifi to Old Parliament House, along with 150 journos, political hacks, students, bloggers, online celebrities and politicians, the crowd were glued to their iphones/ ipads/laptops and the podium in equal portions throughout “Wonkstock” where Facebook and Twitter as political mediums were discussed at length.

Speakers included the US ambassador Jeffrey Bleich, independent MP Rob Oakeshott, Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull, Greens counterpart Scott Ludlam and ACT Senator Kate Lundy – not to mention a raft of PR/social media geeks and half the Canberra Press Gallery scrum.

The stage was framed by two screens on to which tweets, microblogs of 140 characters or less, with the hashtags #media140 were projected along with amusing cartoons from Crikey’s First Dog on the Moon, who was “live-cartooning” the event.

Ambassador Bleich eloquently illustrated Barack Obama’s online presidential campaign, reminding the crowd that necessity is the mother of invention.

“Hilary had six people who could give her a million dollars, we needed to find a million people who could give us six dollars,” he said.

Oakeshott and Lundy both

gave enthusiastic presentations on the role and possibilities of social media in Australian politics from the elected MP perspective, while the panel of journalists engaged in some serious navel gazing, discussing at length their own interactions with social media, which the “politico-tragic-mediawonk-o-sphere” in attendance and watching online already knew about anyway.

GetUp! political lobby group director Simon Sheik bored the pants off the audience, who began obnoxiously tweeting hilarious comments about his performance (for example “Is this the longest Sheik has spoken for without asking for a credit card number?”) which appeared immediately on the screen next to his head, over and over again.

Social media trainer for the BBC, Clare Wardle, was the star of the show with her presentation on social media in the UK election, rescuing the hungry crowd from a panel on spin (not joking).

Wardle gave what many of the other speakers did not, a summary of how ordinary people use social media, arguing it needs to be coupled with traditional media to successfully function as part of public political dialogue.

For more inane commentary, as @BenFordham said, “If you click on #media140 you can read people on twitter... bagging people talking about twitter... at a conference to do with twitter.”

What do we want? When do we want it?

A DEMO on something in the last days of the election campaign – with its chant of “What Do We Want?” “X!” “When Do We Want It?” “Now!” – took me back to the 1960s, when I think I first heard that refrain.

And it reminded me that although our contemporary culture is full of expectations that we can have want we want NOW (and television ads tell us so), for anything that is other than a simple purchase, the timing is much slower.

Whatever the election promises, and whatever the outcome, things proceed in their normal slow pace for quite a while afterwards. I can recall one Prime Minister defining promises into two categories. The important ones were relabelled “core promises”. I don’t remember that the others ever got a proper name.

When do we get it? Eventually, says DON AITKIN

The impatient growl that nothing is happening. But things do happen, and while the pace can be slow, the effect is considerable in the long run. Take seat belts. They were so new that my first car, bought in 1959, didn’t have them at all, and they had to be bought and fitted separately.

Seatbelts have had a major effect in bringing down the level of road deaths, but the change was slow. I reckon it took a generation for wearing seat belts to be almost automatic. Before that happened, governments had to insist that all motor vehicles be equipped with them, and that took time, too.

Then there was a period of public education, in which we were all enjoined to do the right thing and buckle up. Children and grandchildren became safety recruits, and told to keep a sharp eye out for anyone who wasn’t buckled up. (I have to confess that I have some general concerns about recruiting children to do something that governments think is important – even if I agree with the goal.)

It’s 51 years since I had that seat belt fitted. Today the story is that 97 per cent of people put the belts on automatically when they enter a car. And that’s great. What about the three per cent who don’t? Well, they contribute to just under a third of all road deaths involving motor cars. A third – it makes you think, doesn’t it?

Much the same story can be told

about cigarette smoking, although the numbers aren’t as good. I started smoking at about 17, and if I hadn’t done it then, national service in the Army the next year would have pushed me that way. Three Australian men in every four seemed to smoke, and if you look at any contemporary Hollywood film of the 1950s, the characters seem almost to chain-smoke.

But that’s changed. A slow but steady reduction in cigarette smoking has occurred, and it had many contributing causes: taxing the product higher and higher, education, graphic statistics, a change in culture about where you can and can’t smoke, and so on. Today the figure has dropped from 75 per cent to 18 per cent for men; for women it is a little lower, at 14 per cent.

That outcome, like the reduction in

road deaths, is plainly good for society as a whole, and for us as individuals. There are other examples, such as the reduction in tension between Catholics and Protestants, the growth of an accepting multi-cultural society, and the great levels of education in our country.

But none of those changes could have happened “now”, no matter how badly people wanted them. If societies are to change in significant ways, and for the better, the process has to be a sustained one, and that takes time.

“Incrementalism” very often gets a bad name. So I’m glad to be able to sing a few praises for it!

Don Aitkin, political scientist and historian, was vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra from 1991 to 2002.

Why I’m proud to be working for the people who build this city

THOSE who work in the property industry in Canberra aren’t faceless strangers blowing in from somewhere else. They are Canberrans, members of the community with a vested interest in helping our city remain a pleasant, workable, environmentally gentle place for their families to enjoy.

Property Council executive director and “CityNews” columnist CATHERINE CARTER won the Community and Government Award in the coveted ACT businesswomen’s awards.

Their taxes contribute a major share of the Territory’s revenue. They create jobs for a substantial number of our residents. Without them, and the buildings they create, our city would simply not exist. And I am incredibly proud to work for the property sector. Many people often mistakenly believe that this means I simply work for “developers”, and that these “developers” have the sole purpose of concreting over the town from one side to the other, while ripping off enormous amounts of money from the community in the process.

up of many hundreds of industry professionals, including planners, architects, engineers, environmental consultants and others, all of whom work together to help build and maintain our city, providing the assets that our community needs and expects.

I work for developers who have a passion for Canberra. The ACT Property Council is also made

The council believes more needs to be done to allow for greater density and infill development

in suitable locations, such as adjacent to Civic and our town centres. And I know people want to live close to the action. I know this because developers are currently not able to build enough residential units to satisfy demand. So when I see some argue that infill is only wanted by “greedy developers” to enable them to “line their own pockets” I think this is a shame, and a distraction from proper discussion about a serious issue. I truly am proud to represent the property industry, and especially proud to represent my friends and neighbours who work in the industry.

Frocking up for a good cause

CANBERRAN girls (and some brave boys!) are being encouraged to frock up for October and raise awareness of ovarian cancer.

Frocktober will see participants pop on a frock for a day, week or the entire month of October and be sponsored for doing so: Funds raised will be donated to the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation to help improve the outlook for women diagnosed with the cancer, by supporting the quest for a suitable early detection test.

“There’s 19 fatal cases of ovarian cancer in the ACT every year, which is the highest mortality rate [in Australia],” says Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Health Katy Gallagher.

“Better intervention treatments come through fundraising, so Frocktober could lead to big improvements.”

Information on Frocktober events are at www. frockober.tumblr.com, and donations can be made at www.frocktober.org

Laurie McDonald, president of c anberra c hamber of Women in Business: “My grandmother was an excellent role model for me for always being welldressed when you go out. I like a lot of colour, but I also like comfortable clothes. I’m not a corporate person, more of a cardigan girl!”

“CityNews” asked some Canberra personalities to frock up in this flattering dress, compliments of Enchanté in Garema Place, Civic, and add a touch of their own personal style…

…and now it’s your turn

WE’RE giving you the chance to star on the “CityNews” blog in our Enchanté dress! To find out how to donate to the “CityNews” Frocktober efforts, borrow the dress for a day and be featured on our blog, email Eleri Harris on eleri@ citynews.com.au. The teal-green frock, worth $249, will be available via an online silent auction at the end of the month to the highest bidder. All funds raised will go to the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation.

Danielle Post, WI n

V c

and

ambassador: “I like to be modern, but I don’t like to go too out there. A little bit girly, but I don’t like short dresses because I’m tall! I personally think this is a really good cause: I’ve done the number crunching and more women die from ovarian cancer than breast cancer.”

Katy Gallagher, deputy chief minister for the act:

“I don’t think I’ve worn a frock since my sister got married 19 years ago! Even if I go to black-tie events I tend to wear business dress. It’s not my natural comfort zone, but I’m happy to put myself outside the zone in support of ovarian cancer.”

Macklin is totally misleading on Abbott

I AM surprised that Robert Macklin’s comment about Abbott “dividing Parliament” into two camps was published (CN, September 23).

It was the voters that divided Parliament. I recall Kevin Rudd’s great success in defeating the Howard Government as the elected PM, but I was disappointed (like many voters in Queensland and WA) in the way he was removed by Labor faceless men.

Bloomin’ marvellous!

TAKE a bow Floriade NightFest for an inspiring and kaleidoscopic adventure through the tulips.

After winning tickets to the after-dark extravaganza from “CityNews”, my wife and I were mesmerised by the enchantment of witnessing millions of blooms with added mood lighting last Wednesday (September 22).

Under a full moon and clear skies, we explored the illuminated wonderland of live performers, tasty treats and a treasure trove of stalls.

The bloomin’ memorable evening was topped off with a ride on the Ferris wheel to enjoy a bird’s eye view of the iconic floral festival which shines brighter every year.

Brad

Watts, curtin

G’day, Julia

NOW that Prime Minister Julia Gillard and partner Tim Mathieson have moved into The Lodge, it’s time for them to meet their new neighbours.

While Australia’s annual celebration of community, Neighbour Day, isn’t until March 27, they could simply stop by the residents who live closest and say g’day.

Given that it is harder for people living around The Lodge to ring the doorbell and introduce themselves, our first couple could overcome this barrier with a freshly baked cake or a couple of jars of jams, pickles or preserves. Or some local Canberra wine.

The ninth annual Neighbour Day next year is the perfect day for Julia and Tim to have the neighbours around for a barbecue to celebrate their community, joining fellow Australians in the city and bush who will be doing exactly that.

Will you agree, Prime Minister?

a ndrew Heslop, founder, n eighbour Day via email Praise for the bus

FINDING reasons not to use our ACTION bus service is not difficult.

Canberra is spread across 40 kilometres by 15 kilometres with 340,000 people, but finding somewhere with half-as-good public transport would be a tough task!

J McDonald, Hackett

Memories of Abels

On September 2, “Citynews” ran a story revealing that the legendary Manuka music shop Abels was closing its shopfront for a future on the internet. Here are some fond memories of the store and its place in the local music scene.

ABELS have been very supportive of my recordings and I’m sure many other creative artists music over the years. It’s sad to see a grown-ups music store close. I hope they keep their creative catalogue going strong online.

Vince Jones, jazz singer

The recent election demonstrated Abbott’s remarkable ability to gain the twoparty majority vote for the Coalition in a matter of months after gaining leadership of his party. The Coalition also won the majority of seats. Whether the ALP, now propped up by Greens cronies and some independents, can remain in government is a matter to be tested by time and rigorous debate. Abbott’s remark that this results is

“about as legitimate as a Pakistani cricket team” holds some credibility. Macklin degenerates to an unintelligent and puerile piece of name calling to offer your readership a totally misleading interpretation of events that reflects poorly on his quality of political analysis.

terry Birtles, s pring Range via Hall a dose of dorin

Green ‘moralism’

THE latest Green publicity-generating splash is about ethical investing. I find there is merit in this concept, however there is no moral basis for the Green antipathy to GM crops, coal and oil production, uranium, and even their stance on weapons is fairly marginal, too.

GM offers the opportunity to preserve land and vegetation, by increasing production on existing land, coal and oil are the basis of our entire economy, and are not disappearing anytime soon. Uranium is a non-greenhouse gas-producing energy that the Greens wish to close entirely in Germany, even if there is no adequate or affordable replacement on the horizon.

Will the Greens wish to ensure that our police for instance do not have firearms and so are an “ethical” police force?

This Green “moralism” sounds like a fundamentalist religion.

Martin Gordon,

Flynn

Disagreeing with Moore

T HE Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has revealed that Canberrans being treated for addiction to opioid drugs doubled from 406 in 1998 to 786 in 2008.

I KNOW back in the days of the jazz campus at Manuka, all of us students usually spent our rent money on the latest greatest CDs from Abels. Probably all that listening got a lot of us through the course.

James Luke, jazz bassist

I CAN remember being a student at Narrabundah College and regularly hanging out at the School of Music jazz department’s former location in Manuka, pursuing my ambition of becoming a professional saxophonist. Often, when class finished, I’d head straight to Abels and with the money that I earned busking at the Kingston Old Bus

Hence the Chief Minister’s decision not to have a medically supervised injecting centre (MSIC) in the ACT is wise and necessary (“Needle exchange back on the agenda”, “Canberra Times”, September 16).

Together they cause me to disagree strongly with columnist Michael Moore’s stance on needles in prison (“Stanhope stands up for prison needles”, CN, September 23).

Why? In refusing an MSIC, the Government has clearly rejected implementing the concept of users injecting dangerous illegal drugs on Government premises using clean needles, even under medical supervision. So what black-hole thinking could justify contradicting its own policy by flooding needles into a government institution dedicated to rehabilitation – the Alexander Maconochie Centre?

This undermines the Chief Minister’s own stated philosophy whose words still ring out to the community: “The aim of the ACT Government is to have every inmate drug-free by the time they leave prison... it is hard to see how the provision of needles could fit in with this overarching philosophy” (“The Chronicle”, November 22, 2005).

colliss Parrett, Barton

Depot Markets on the weekend, I would ask the friendly person at the shop what was the latest jazz CD out? Who was good? Who should I be listening to?

Many local artists, myself included, have benefited only too greatly from the willingness that Abels presents in stocking local music.

It is an undoubtedly unfortunate circumstance that Abels will be closing its shop front. The physical accessibility to great music, personal contact and attention as well as the friendly atmosphere the people at Abels Music create will be missed.

n iels Rosendahl, saxophonist

‘CITY N E wS’ DVD w INNERS

Congratulations to the winners of our

and flowers competition who

all about compensation Compo and the challenge

“The basic rule to compensation is to put the injured person (as far as it is possible to do so with money) in the same position as the person would have been in if the injury had not occurred,” says lawyer Bruce Vincent.

Mr Vincent, from A B Vincent Northside Solicitor, says the big issue so far as common law claims go (for damages arising from motor vehicle accidents) is, and always has been, to ensure that an injured client receives proper compensation for an injury or incapacity that comes about due to the fault of another, says

“This is becoming a challenge, more so to date in jurisdictions outside the ACT where, through government intervention, injured persons’ rights to compensation are being eroded,” he says.

Bill Redpath, solicitor at Nicholl and Co Lawyers, and chair of the National Personal Injury Compensation Committee of the Law Council Australia, says that the ACT has a “proud record” of ensuring that injured people have full redress, “and that’s a policy that all political parties have advocated.”

He said that should the ACT system ever be changed to match those of other jurisdictions, future litigants could be at a serious disadvantage.

“In NSW there’s been a dramatic reduction in terms of claims. Often the people hardest hit by introducing thresholds are children, older people, people who aren’t working and stay-at-home mothers, who haven’t necessarily suffered any economic loss but often have suffered some significant damage or injury, but don’t make it across that threshold. It’s a system that rewards people who have suffered economic loss at the expense of those who haven’t.”

before bringing a claim for compensation. As a result of strict time limits and deadlines, adopting this approach could lead to these individuals missing out altogether.”

Bruce Vincent said that while it’s no longer a common misconception, some people do believe that there’s some dissembling among compensation claimants.

“I’ve been working in this area for some 25 years, and have only rarely come across clients who deliberately exaggerate their symptoms.

“The other problem I sometimes encounter is the exact opposite of this: Where there is a very stoic client who is injured, but who hasn’t had much treatment for that injury. This sometimes causes evidentiary problems: Because the person hasn’t had sufficient medical treatment, it is difficult to establish, on the medical evidence, the full extent of the person’s injury or incapacity.

33 per cent of our readers are professional or managerial.* * McNair Ingenuity Research 2006

advertise. 6262 9100

“It is sometimes difficult to achieve this objective, particularly in jurisdictions outside the ACT where compensation is ‘capped’, which may well mean that more seriously injured persons won’t receive adequate compensation to cover the full extent of their loss, or where a minimum threshold has to be reached before any compensation is paid, which means that the less seriously injured may not receive any compensation at all, even though they have suffered injury.”

DAN Crowe, senior associate at Maliganis Edwards Johnson, said that there are increasingly strict time limits which apply to personal injuries claims.

“It is absolutely vital that anyone injured in an accident makes an appointment with a lawyer as soon as practicable,” he says.

“Delay can result in a complete bar to accident victims pursuing their rights under the law.

“One very dangerous misunderstanding is that injured people have the luxury of time to ‘wait and see’ how their injuries will progress

“The vast majority of clients are genuine and have suffered a loss, which can sometimes be a very considerable loss affecting all aspects of their lives, recreational, domestic, work, not to mention the sometimes tens of thousands of dollars incurred in past and future treatment costs for years into the future and sometimes forever.”

Bill Redpath said that another misconception was that engaging a compensation lawyer was always expensive: “They think it’ll cost too much to have a fair go, when there are lots of firms prepared to take matters on a no-win no-fee basis to ensure they receive justice.”

of getting justice

Guidance and support

MALIGANIS Edwards Johnson is a specialist personal injury firm established 25 years ago, “with expertise in litigating and mediating claims arising out of medical negligence, motor vehicle accident compensation, workplace injuries, construction site accidents and wrongful death,” says Dan Crowe.

“Over that period we have gained an intimate knowledge of the factors which drive insurance companies, and have been able to use this to our clients’ advantage in the course of negotiations with the insurers and in running court cases against them.

Compensation specialist

“I F I have a medical problem, I will see a doctor – the same comment applies to legal matters, whether it be in relation to a compensation claim or something else,” says Bruce Vincent, of A B Vincent Northside.

“It is important to find someone who can help. In relation to compensation claims this means finding a lawyer who knows the area of

service and understand that our clients require a great deal of guidance and support during what can sometimes be a stressful period in their lives.”

More information at www.mej.com.au or call 6257 2999.

law, who can explain the risks to you, who you can relate to and who will tell you as far as possible what the legal costs and other deductions from your claim are likely to be before the claim is finalised, so you know how much you will end up with ‘in the pocket’ when the matter is finished.”

More information on 6241 8866.

Small firm, personal service

BILL Redpath says that Nicholl and Co lawyers are different, because “we’re small enough to provide a very personal service, and it’s not a litigation factory churning out matters. We have the expertise and ability to expertly handle these cases.”

The firm handles a range of issues, from personal injury and worker’s compensation through to building disputes, family law and wills and probate.

More information at www.nicholl.com.au or call 6230 1699.

In an English cottage garden

Wo RDs: Kathryn Vukovljak

PH otos: s ilas Brown

A LOVELY cottage garden designed in keeping with the street, which is set around a beautiful central park area shaded by deciduous trees, is opening to the public on the weekend of October 9 and 10.

“When we moved here in 1977, most of the houses had original residents – old people, I thought at the time! – with very traditional, English-style gardens,” says owner Margaret Swieringa. “Mrs Hillyard, who lived a couple of houses up, mentored me and gave me cuttings – her azaleas and dogwood trees are still here today.”

Margaret’s garden in Geerilong Gardens, Reid, will open as part of the Australian Open Garden Scheme to promote the knowledge and pleasure of gardening.

Margaret admits she and her husband Derk weren’t into gardening until their children grew up and left home, and renovations in 2000 meant the garden had to be redesigned.

“We used to do the basics, but we didn’t know anything about gardening,” she says. “Now it’s become a passion, although I’d still say I’m a novice. I’m pretty ruthless, too,” says Margaret. “If something doesn’t thrive, I pull it out. No second chances!”

The garden at 7 Geerilong Gardens, Reid, will be open on Saturday, October 9 and Sunday, October 10, 10am-4.30pm. Adults $6, children under 18 are free. Funds raised will go to the Open Garden Scheme. More information at www.opengarden.org.au

The front garden is new, says Margaret, and came about when they took out a thirsty lawn in 2008. Now there are hellebores, camellias, roses, lavender, agapanthus, leptospermum, and daphne lining the driveway.

The back garden has a large shady deck and a lawn, protected in summer by old pear and plum trees, crab apples, claret ash, Japanese maple and a flowering cherry. Under the trees are camellias, rhododendrons, hellebores, and an edging of seaside daises.

Margaret says she particularly loves the rose arbour, with a Pierre de Ronsard rose on one side and a Duchesse de Brabant on the other, even though the possum keeps eating them.

“The roses haven’t covered the arbor as much as they should have by now,” she says. “Still, it’s really sheltered there and you can come out, read a book in the shade by the water feature and no one can find you.”

At The George’s 30th birthday party, Gold Creek

At Floriade NightFest, Commonwealth Park At Masterton’s launch, Kingston

all about living

Italy’s best of the best

By arts editor Helen Musa

THE 11th Lavazza Italian Film Festival is soon heading to the Arc Cinema at the National Film and Sound Archive and Greater Union Manuka with 26 comedies, dramas, thrillers and documentaries hand-picked from the Cannes, Berlin, Rome and Venice festivals.

Festival director Elysia Zeccola believes this is the best line-up of new Italian cinema ever assembled in Australia. Highlights include the opening film “La Nostra Vita”, which won Best Actor for Elio Germano at Cannes Film Festival and “The First Beautiful Thing” by Paolo Virzì, runner-up for Best Film at Italy’s top David Di Donatello Awards.

A gripping choice is “Baaria,” from Academy Award winner Giuseppe Tornatore of “Cinema Paradiso” fame, a period piece about a poor Sicilian man’s struggle for justice in a

community dominated by the Mafia.

In keeping with the trend for contemporary film festivals to court controversy is the selection of the political documentary “Draquila – Italy Trembles”, Sabina Guzzanti’s excoriating look at Italian prime

minister Silvio Berlusconi’s exploitation of the L’Aquila earthquake emergency. For lighter fare, there is Raoul Bova in the romantic comedy “Sorry If I Want To Marry You.”

A crowd-pleaser for all cinema lovers will undoubtedly be the clos-

ing night feature, Vittorio De Sica’s 1948 classic “Bicycle Thieves.”

At Arc Cinema and Greater Union Manuka, October 7-17, details and screening at www.italianfilmfestival. com.au

Warrior tale for children

By Helen Musa

MUMS and dads have probably seen the film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”. Now it’s time for the kids, with Ickle Pickle Productions’ school holiday staging of Disney’s “Mulan.” It’s the quintessential Woman Warrior story, where a young Chinese girl, Mulan, heads off to the border to fight the ferocious Huns when her elderly father becomes too frail. She returns triumphant and just a little bit liberated.

Ickle Pickle producer-director Justin Watson picked up a copy of the Broadway junior version from the agent Hal Leonard Australia. He’s proud of the fact that his company always manages to come up with something just a little off the beaten track, “like this one and also ‘Robin Hood’ and ‘Hansel and Gretel’.“ He’s particularly tickled that his little company attracted dozens of gifted young Canberrans, from which he easily sourced a cast of 35, including Phoebe Deas, a young artist who’s been performing since age five, for the main role. He also found a tae kwon do expert in one of the dads, Paul Ashcroft, who’s been training them up in martial arts.

“Of course the fights are kept friendly, because it’s a kids’ show,” he says.

“Mulan” runs until October 9 at Theatre 3, Ellory Crescent, Acton. Bookings to 6257 1950.

arts&entertainment

When greed is still good

cinema

Dougal Macdonald

“WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS” (M)

THE principal character in the follow-up to the greed-is-good movie is not Gordon Gecko (Michael Douglas) or hotshot young stock trader Jake (Shia LeBeouf) but Gordon’s estranged daughter Winnie (English actress Carey Mulligan, nominated for many awards for her first film role and winner of many, although not an Oscar).

Alan Loeb and Stephen Schiff’s screenplay pivots around Winnie. Gordon is just out of jail.

Jake wants to raise funds for a renewable energy project. Some big Wall Street names are making life hard for Jake, who’s an item with Winnie, who hasn’t spoken to Gordon for years. Jake and Gordon join forces to bring down banker Bretton James (Josh Brolin) who has pushed Jake’s mentor Louis to suicide.

Winnie is a strong-minded woman unaware that Gordon, by setting up a nine-digit deposit in a Swiss bank in her name, has made her an unwitting party to a felony.

Does this dramatic mix sound complex? To it, add the turmoil of the GFC, season with the rich and often infamous and their wives dripping with expensive bling, top with James’ obsessive compulsion to make more money than he could ever need to live in obscene luxury and self-indulgence, then sit back and marvel how director Oliver Stone has told it in 133 minutes including superfluous creative padding en route to a mildly self-indulgent sentimental denouement.

At all cinemas

at the local cemetery, meets Sam’s ghost every night to honour an agreement to coach him at baseball.

Tess (Amanda Crew) has returned from a long solo voyage. She and Charlie become an item. To be with Tess, will Charlie forgo his promise to Sam’s ghost? Then Tess goes missing on a training run in bad weather. It’s a pleasant enough little film, although in keeping with the customs of ghost stories, somewhat short on credibility.

At Hoyts, Greater Union and Limelight “DIARY OF A WIMPY KID” (PG) FOR kIDS OTHERWISE

GREG is about to start middle school. His older brother fills his head with dire prophecies of what awaits him. His mom and dad blithely assume that all is going well. Greg considers himself academically superior but it’s a delusion. His chubby buddy Rowley is a likeable twit. The film devolves into Greg making plans that Rowley, without a jot of malevolence, manages to derail.

I SAW this sitting among an audience mainly comprising young women emanating strong pheremones induced by Zac Efron as Charlie in Burr Steers’s romantic melodrama-cum-ghost story.

Zac’s performance as Me in ”Me and Orson Welles” confirms his acting cred. He deserves a meatier role than here.

Charlie and his 11-year-old brother Sam (Charlie Tahan) win the local dinghy regatta on the eve of Charlie’s departure for university to study for a degree in sailing. On the night of the road accident while Charlie was driving, their mom (Kim Basinger) thought he was minding Sam. Five years later, Charlie, now caretaker

I suspect that writers Jacki and Jeff Filgo and director Thor Freudenthall have pitched this tale a little above the intellectual level of its primary audience. I sat among a school vacation audience who laughed much. I don’t know how aware they might have been of Greg’s selfish inability to think beyond his own yearnings. I’d like to think they might reject him as a role model.

The film’s teenager behaviour, more often cautionary than intentionally comical, also merits rejection. Any kid with parents like Greg’s deserves deep sympathy. Indeed, the film’s population is preponderantly caricatures of disagreeable stereotypes of whatever age.

At Hoyts and Limelight

Circus of the street kids

By Helen Musa

“MOTHER Africa, Circus of the Senses” may be one of the most spectacular shows you’re likely to see on the stage of the Canberra Theatre in years, with masks, percussion singing, fabulous costumes and mindboggling contortion acts, but to artistic director Winston Ruddle, it’s an idealistic labour of love.

That’s because Ruddle, a former break-dancer from Zimbabwe, has drawn on the gritty artistry of the streets to bring young Africans to the highest level of circus skills providing the chance for street children to run away to the circus and earn a living.

I’m talking to Ruddle by phone in Germany, where he achieved his initial success, about “Mother Africa,” the

stunning production heading for Canberra.

“I discovered many of the artists on the streets or in hotels,” he says, and boasts that many of them are now polished virtuoso circus acrobats.

Trained as a clown during the late ‘80s with Germany’s Continental Circus, he realised his dream of having an Africaspecific circus in 1993 when he formed his own troupe called The Amazing Zimbabwe Brothers Acrobats.

Ten years later, he branched out to the whole continent, travelling in 2003 to Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South Africa to scout for African acrobats and dancers. And Ruddle didn’t stop there. A year later, he founded his

own academy in Tanzania to train young acrobats from the community.

I caught “Mother Africa” at the Gold Coast, and what you’ll see on stage is an extraordinary amalgam of song, dance and physical arts from Africa not hitherto, as he says, especially known for circus.

His performers come from nine different African countries. The lively girl singers are from

Zimbabwe, his fast-talking compere Sibongile “Bongi” Mtshali, from South Africa and his (“very cool”, he says) band from Tanzania. The kaleidoscope of contortionists, jugglers and diabolo artists come from Somalia, Guinea, Senegal, and Ivory Coast.

“Mother Africa” will be at the Canberra Theatre on October 6-9. Bookings to 6257 2700.

arts&entertainment

Tosolini’s spin-off success

dining

Wendy Johnson

WHERE would the world be without small coffee shops?

There are gazillions of them and one of the latest to open in Civic is a spin-off of Canberra’s wellknown and long-established Tosolini’s.

Food to Go is in a great little spot in Jacobs House, Hobart Place, just above Carlo Tosolini’s ever-expanding catering operation. This means getting fresh food into the compact but warm and inviting coffee shop is never a problem.

The coffee is vintage Tosolini’s and we loved every drop. If you prefer, you can always indulge – and I mean indulge – in true Italian hot chocolate.

The new Food to Go coffee shop, which opened a few weeks ago and is a partnership between chef Peter Spencer and Carlo, seats 24 inside and about a dozen outside. Close by is an inviting grassy area with

benches and blossom trees – a nice, quiet spot to enjoy a bite to eat.

The food is inexpensive and pretty decent stuff. The three pre-packaged, country-style salads ($7.50) all looked yummy and on our visit a roasted chicken, classic Niçoise and a Caesar were available. Can’t go wrong with having a salad for lunch.

Other food options include focaccias and wraps. My focaccia was stuffed full of pumpkin with basil pesto, salty feta, fresh baby spinach and garlic aioli (a bargain at $7.50).

My friend ordered the crispy chicken wrap, finding one of the two pieces filling enough for lunch (the other she took away with her). The chicken was tasty and tender although not quite as crispy as she was expecting.

Food to Go also has a range of toasted and untoasted sandwiches (including curried egg, shaved ham and tomato with pickle) and other quick but nutritious options.

Those with a sweet tooth

won’t be disappointed with the huge serve of decadent-looking vanilla slice for only $4.50 or the range of perfectly sized cheesecakes ($3.50). For a tiny treat, try one of the super sweet caramel kisses with a cute dribble of chocolate on top ($1.50). I just had to give one a go, justifying to myself that it was only small. Sigh.

Food to Go, Jacobs House, open 7.30am to around 4pm Monday to Friday. More information on 6247 4317.

London job for local graduate

ADAM Spreadbury-Maher (just Adam Maher to Canberrans) is now artistic director of London’s King’s Head Theatre as well as of the Cock Tavern Theatre, where he scored a smash hit with “La Boheme” last year. The venue turns permanently to musical theatre next month and the plan is to bring opera to less-privileged patrons. SpreadburyMaher, who trained in singing and drama at the ANU then headed for London, has enticed Jonathan Miller, Joanna Lumley, Alan Parker, Tom Stoppard and Janie Dee to become patrons.

JUDI Power Thomson has emailed to say that “All That Jazz”, her painting of musician Don Burrows, is a finalist in this year’s Portia Geach Memorial Art Award. Other familiar local names to be hung are Kerry McInnis, Melissa Beowulf and Leeanne Crisp, who has done a portrait of

arts in the city

Helen Musa

National Museum director Andrew Sayers. THOSE sensational showmen, the Cuban sextet Vocal Sampling, are storming through Queanbeyan and Canberra with a big, free show on the night of October 2 at Stage 88 in Commonwealth Park. It’s part of an Australia-wide Cuban culture craze.

A WARM welcome back to NZ harpsichordist and pianist Colleen Rae-Gerrard, who was for many years a lecturer, accompanist and repetiteur at the ANU School of Music, where she was associated with the Wesley Music Foundation scholarship. She’ll be demonstrating

two contrasting works by JS Bach in Wesley Music Centre at 3pm on October 3. Then on October 6 as part of Wesley’s “Lunchtime Live” series from 12.40pm to 1.20pm, clarinetist David Hatch will perform with a string quartet. No bookings required for either concert. THE junior secondary section in the 2010 Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Competition has been won by 12-year-old Beth Downing, of Campbell High School. The awards attracted 8000 entries, many of which on the chosen theme “I Hear Music”. Winners were flown to Gunnedah, the area from which Mackellar found inspiration for “My Country.”

JOSH Thomas, the Gen Y captain from Network Ten’s “Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation”, is bringing his new hit show “Surprise” to the Playhouse on October 8 and 9. Bookings to 6275 2700.

Loud men, and lots of them

By Kathryn Vukovljak

“IT’S amazing to me that Wales – the land of song – has never had its own national choir,” muses Tim Rhys-Evans, musical director of 20-man Welsh choir Men Aloud.

Tim, speaking to “CityNews” from the M4 motorway near Cardiff (he pulled over to chat, of course) has changed all that – changed the face of the centuries-old male-voice choir tradition, in fact – since creating Men Aloud in 2000 and leading them to victory on the BBC1 reality TV show “Last Choir Standing” in 2008.

“The choir tradition is ageing, but I wanted to get to the reason why younger men weren’t joining the choirs,” he says. “I wanted to make it a cooler image. It became my hobby, it was fun.”

A classically trained singer and former musical director of the Welsh National Youth Opera, Tim says that entering “Last Choir Standing” was a whim. “Actually my partner was horrified and thought I’d never be taken seriously again,” he says. “But I was determined to stand by the standard of our music, no matter what we were singing.”

With their platinum debut album “Only Men Aloud!”, and follow-up album “Band of Brothers” awarded Classical Brit Album of the Year the group has gone from strength to strength.

“I wanted to push the boundaries in classical music, and we’ve always sung a cross-section of music, everything from 17th century classics to contemporary pop – interpretations of songs not normally associated with allmale choir groups,” he says.

“All that’s changed is how many people saw us – seven million people tuned in every Saturday night back then and

things have only got better. I’m delighted to say that people are still coming to our concerts, more than ever. We’ve had to add extra Christmas dates to our next UK tour.”

The choir of attractive young men is known as Only Men Aloud in the UK, but they’ve dropped the “Only” for Australia – where they hope to visit in 2011, Tim says. “The name change started with the American sensitivity to sexism,” he says. “It was just a fun, cheeky name to us!”

Americans might not like the title of Tim’s next project back in Wales, then. “Only Boys Aloud” is designed to encourage boys aged 14-19 to form a choir and be part of the old Welsh tradition.

“I’m glad we’re in a position to be able to encourage others to sing,” he says. “I want to make choirs relevant for young people.”

The choir’s concert “Men Aloud: Live from Wales” is now available on CD and DVD in Australia, and is being broadcast on STVDIO and Ovation in November.

Photo finish body

MATTE lipstick is back, but we’ve come a long way since the flaky matte mouths of the Nineties, says Michael Brown, Lancome make-up expert.

NARS Pure Matte lipstick in Vesuvio, $54.

ulta3 in Siren, $2.95.

Innoxa Couleurs d’Ete Summer Matte Collection in Watermelon, $14.95.

Bourjois Sweet Kiss lipstick in Orange Apprete, $23. YSL Rouge Pur Couture Pure Colour Satiny Radiance in Le Orange, $50.

Australis Colour Inject Mineral lipstick in Salsa, $12.95.

Clarins Joli Rouge Long-Wearing Moisturizing lipstick in 709, Parisian Pink, $42.

Lancome L’Absolu Rouge Advanced Replenishing and Reshaping Lipcolor in 08, Rose Reflet, $49.

“I think the old ‘90s matte textures can be a bit old school or give a dry ‘grandma’ look, but we have advanced so much with adding different bouncing gels in the matte lipstick formulas to allow them to move on the lip so they don’t crack and sit in dry spots,” he says. “Now they can be comfortable and flexible so they stay on, but look good even five hours later, making them appealing for the modern-day matte lipstick wearer.”

Matte lipstick isn’t ideal on its own for those with small or dry lips, because it exacerbates dryness and doesn’t give any extra volume. Fortunately, there’s a variety of finishes fashionable this year, Michael says, from satin to sheer.

“A gloss or even a light sheen built into the lipstick can really lift your look, especially if you have a thinner lip, as it will immediately reflect light to plump up your lip.

“With this in mind, really get to know your lip shape and size, and add a sheen where it needs volume and matte if you have a larger area of lip.”

Exfoliation is vital, he says, to stop lips getting chapped and flaky: “Matte lipsticks need the smoothest and most hydrated lip, as they can catch on dry spots, making the shade not look so even and true.”

– Megan Haggan

health&fitness

Eat well when eating out

By Matthew Quixley

PEOPLE often have trouble sticking to their healthy eating plan while they are socialising.

They put in all the effort to change their lifestyle practices by exercising and choosing healthier meal options to help lose fat, then they go to a birthday party on the weekend or a catered function at work, and the day or sometimes the week’s work can be lost because they had no plan of what they would and would not do while eating in social situations.

While there is no single solution that is going to work for everyone, the best thing is to plan – keeping in mind what is coming up during your day, week, month or year. This way you can increase your activity levels and make your eating habits a little bit stricter if desired, before and after an event where you might be consuming a larger quantity of some foods that are less healthy.

You might think this is a bit over the top, but that little bit of extra effort will make a huge difference when it comes to maintaining a healthy weight range or losing fat.

When it comes to the social situation itself, here are some ideas that can help reduce calorie intake while still indulging:

• Find out what’s on offer: For a catered event, try to find out what food and beverages are available. By knowing what’s on offer, you can find out the nutritional qualities of some of the foods if need be, and set a reasonable limit before you get

there, so that you don’t get tempted to eat too much on the spot.

• Share a treat: If you feel like having a piece of cake, then why not share it with another person – or two! That way you can still enjoy all the taste, with half the calories.

• Keep water nearby: Keep a glass full of water nearby throughout the function, so that you are less likely to overeat. Have

a sip of it now and then, so that you are only eating when you are hungry, and not thirsty.

• Bring something to the party: Bring a healthy platter to the event. This way you know you will have a healthy base for your meal; you can then limit your intake of some of the other platters if you want to, without going hungry.

• Don’t be afraid to make a special order: You can avoid or control extras on the food you are eating by putting less butter on a bread roll, getting a steak without chips and/or getting sauce on the side for that piece of chicken. These extras which come with a lot of foods are where a lot of the fat and extra calories of the meal are stored.

• Drink tea rather than coffee: If you enjoy a cup of black or green tea, then try and make the switch when possible. This can greatly cut down your sugar, fat and overall calorie intake. Tea also has beneficial antioxidants and can speed up your metabolism, depending which type you get!

• Be aware of buffets: Buffets can be great because you can control your portions, and have a little treat if you want without going over the top. They can also get a bit out of hand when you realise that you are going back for seconds or thirds because people keep on recommending how good some of the other, less healthy, foods taste!

Matthew Quixley is head trainer and operations manager of Body Basics.

Slim’s the thing

By Jess Bauer

THE slim leg is back, but don’t worry because bootleg and straight-leg jeans are still in, says Roxanne Baker, owner of Nunie boutique in the city.

“People are opting for the slim leg because they can wear them underneath tunics, long tops and dresses. This combination is very popular for this season,” says Roxanne.

While the slim leg has exceeded both styles in recent times, the bootlegs and straight legs are making a comeback, much to the delight of those uncomfortable wearing the slimmer fit.

The straight leg is not as skinny and doesn’t cling like the slim leg does, which means it is designed to flatter. Its straight leg means that it naturally falls over the legs, rather than change its shape below the knee.

There is a new style making an appearance this season – the ankle-length jean, which is described by Roxanne as “not ¾ length, but not full-length either, a sort of ‘in-between’ jean”.

As for this season’s colours, “medium-blue” is the top pick; a similar shade to the traditional jean colour, but slightly darker.

Roxanne also gave some tips on picking the perfect jean type for your shape: Straight and skinny styles of jeans are best for those who are shorter or have a petite frame. Hourglass figures should choose bootleg styles to accentuate features, whereas curvy figures are blessed, as they are able to wear almost any style, given that the top they have chosen works with the jeans.

Mellowyellow

A SPLASH of yellow’s a great way to brighten up a room, says Celia Quattrociocchi, product and marketing manager at Designcraft in Hume.

“It’s time to take off the heavy, grey winter blanket and fill your home with shades of yellow!” she says.

“It’s a lovely way to be reminded of what spring brings: longer, warmer days, daffodils and an overall sense of new life sprouting all around.”

Laminex Fusion Surfaces in Sliced Lemons FD0070 and Whole Lemons FD0073.

Gubi stool, $1100 from Designcraft Furniture.

FAB28A Smeg refrigerator in Canary Yellow, $3990.

Linea Sunshine Autoswitch powerpoint with black outlets, from $14.95

Egg chair (pictured here in limited edition patchwork, not available; other fabrics and finishes available), $10,065 from Designcraft Furniture.

Cars, bikes, horses and Emily!

BEWARE, not everything with the word “rides” on the internet is not about cars, bikes or horses.

Thank goodness for a slow wireless connection, because I only got to the computer in the nick of time before my seven-year-old downloaded a performance from a sweet-named exhibitionist called Emily!

Now I’m not going to flesh out Emily’s antics, but at least on my son’s part it was all innocent enough. He wants to build a car, well a go-kart really, complete with mag wheels, aerofoil at the back, lots of red paint and lightning bolts stencilled on the sides. Being a new member of the Google generation, my son was carefully typing in “kids”, “cars” and “ride” into the search engine. He was following the links from one page to another, pursuing ideas for his dream car when Google led him to a porn site and nearly into a close encounter with the energetic Emily.

There’s nothing like personal experi -

mum in the city

sonya Fladun

ence to focus one’s thinking, and up until this point I hadn’t really thought too much about kids and porn and internet censorship.

So after this near miss you’d think I’d be pretty keen on the Federal Government’s mandatory internet filter plans. Certainly, it’s worth thinking about if you’re a parent with children either into or about to become internet obsessed. But I’m not a censorship kind of person. Somehow the whole idea of the Government constructing an electronic wall that would stop Australians from accessing certain websites, determined by faceless and largely unaccountable bureaucrats, isn’t something that sits well with me.

That said, there is a lot on the web apart from the likes of Emily that I don’t want my children to have access to.

Taking into account my son’s fascination

with things that go bang, anything that shows children how to make things explode or conduct experiments with volatile chemicals will soon be of particular concern. (The other day he was teaching his four-year-old sister how to say the word “plutonium”.)

Of course, supervision is vital but, even with the best will in the world, parents can’t be constantly peering over their children’s shoulders (and, believe me, hours of go-cart viewing is a true test of mother love).

So, I’m thinking that as my children get a bit older, taking the time to educate them (and me) about the wonders and dangers of the internet is probably the best and most practical long-term solution.

In the meantime, I’m adjusting the settings on the computer and getting one of those nanny software programs that we can tailor to suit our family’s needs and concerns rather than wait for some “one-size-fits-all” Government filter. Like so many things in family life, nothing beats taking responsibility oneself.

your week in the stars

With Joanne Madeline Moore October 4-10

ARIES

(Mar  – Apr 0)

The New Moon promises a relationship renaissance. The challenge is to get the balance right between give and take. (Just make sure you’re not doing all the taking, and others all the giving!) And avoid trying to force your views onto others. Attached Arians – it’s time to kick-start a stale partnership. For single Rams – love and learning are linked.

TAURUS

(Apr  – May 0)

Bulls can get stuck in a boring rut but this week’s New Moon provides a shot of adrenalin to tired old Taurus routines. You love your creature comforts but too much complacency means you don’t reach your true potential. Venus moves backwards (from Oct 8-Nov 19) so it’s time to review close relationships and avoid making major financial purchases.

GEMINI (May  – June )

It’s the perfect week to enjoy the things that turn you on (like love, friendship, conversation, socialising, reading and games) as the New Moon activates your entertainment zone. Don’t be dazzled and deceived by outward appearances though. Don your detective cap and look beneath the surface to discover what’s really going on.

CANCER (June  – July )

Family relationships are not easy at the moment but they are worth the time and effort you invest in them. Be inspired by birthday great Desmond Tutu (born Oct 7): “You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.” Some Crabs will make a fresh start via a spring clean, renovation, house move or new room mate.

LEO (July  – Aug )

For courageous Cats, a setback is only a challenge waiting to be conquered. This week you’re in problem-solving mode, as you get to the bottom of something that’s been bothering you for a while. Loquacious Lions – don’t jump in and monopolise the conversation on Friday. Perhaps it’s time to do less talking and a lot more listening?

VIRGO (Aug  – Sept )

You set yourself extremely high standards. This week’s Virgo/Libra emphasis sees you overdose on trying to be perfect, while the Mercury/Pluto/Saturn links tip your obsessions into overdrive. Slow down, take a few deep breaths, and repeat the following mantra: “It’s OK to make mistakes and perfection is a goal – not a destination.”

LIBRA (Sept  – Oct )

Librans have a passion for fashion. Friday’s New Moon is in your sign so set the wheels in motion for a hot new hairstyle, makeup makeover or wardrobe update. You’ve got plenty of creative plans but don’t be a lazy Libran! At some stage you need to roll up your sleeves and get to work, as you put abstract ideas into concrete action.

SCORPIO (Oct  – Nov )

The more you try to manipulate others, the more miserable you’ll be. Turn your attention inward and get to know yourself better through rest and reflection. A fresh start is likely in an important area of your life, as your intuition points you in the right direction. Expect flashes of ESP, an insightful dream or a fateful meeting with someone special.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov  – Dec )

Sagittarians have large and lofty ambitions. But don’t be so busy dreaming of the future that the simple pleasures of day-to-day life pass you by. As birthday great John Lennon reminded us: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” Business contacts, group projects and community connections are favoured.

CAPRICORN (Dec  – Jan )

Are you pursuing your professional dreams and heading in the right direction? (Which, for ambitious Goats, is only one way – up.) If not, then some adjustments are necessary. The pressure is on at work. You’re determined to push your ideas through but sometimes you need to relax and let your creative Capricorn side do the hard work for you.

AQUARIUS

(Jan 0 – Feb )

Avoiding responsibilities (especially at work) will only complicate matters and make them more confusing. Plan to be professionally proactive, rather than reactive. A cherished goal or dream requires much more planning than you originally thought. That’s okay. Concentrate on enjoying the process, rather than just focusing on the destination.

PISCES (Feb  – Mar 0)

Friday’s New Moon lights up your sex/money zone, so you can expect exciting developments to do with lust or loot. Some flirtatious Fish will start a hot new romance (or reboot an old one) while others will turn a friendship into a financial partnership. You’re drawn to powerful people but make sure they influence you in positive ways. Copyright Joanne Madeline Moore 2010.

all about property

First family moves into new beachside estate

THE first family has moved into the new beachfront housing estate at Barlings Beach, 15 minutes south of Batemans Bay.

Construction of another eight houses in the sold-out first stage of 33 fully-serviced beachside blocks is close to completion, while new roads and footpaths are now providing access around the estate and to the local community of Tomakin.

The first residents are David and Jo Golden and their two young children. Mr Golden says: “There are lots of sealed roads and footpaths where our kids can play securely, while my wife loves living so close to the beach.”

A director of estate developer President Property Group, Mr Blake Walker says Reflection is one of the last waterfront development sites on the south coast and is offering land from $195,000 and house and land packages from $459,000.

Barllngs Beach... “My wife loves living so close to the beach,” says new resident David Golden.

“The estate will be a perfect haven for young families and retirees who are seeking a peaceful beachside setting, with a range of activities and amenities at the front door,” he says.

The nearby Tomakin community features a café and general store and social club, while the estate has close access to a boat ramp and beach for surfing and fishing.

Debbie Edgar, of Batemans Bay First National, is the exclusive agent and inspections can be made by visiting the sales office at the development site from 11am to 5pm from Wednesday to Sunday.

More information from 1800 092798 or at www.reflectionsbarlingsbeach.com.au

right here, right now 000+ houses for sale

Boutique market warms

By t im Humphrey

THE boutique end of Canberra’s office leasing market is seeing steady improvement with a recent increase in the number of leasing deals.

According to Aaron Green, sales and leasing executive at Ray White Commercial Canberra, a key factor has been new enquiry levels having doubled over the last three months in the 100-300sqm range.

“It’s been a really encouraging sign and has made landlords realise there are deals out there to be done,” he said.

“Being prepared to meet the market is really important at the moment with the high level of vacancy. However, smaller property owners are quite pragmatic on this front.”

Mr Green recently finalised a 310sqm leasing deal on all of level 2 of 131 City Walk in Canberra City to environmental consultants, Viridis E3. The five-year deal was done at $250 per sqm (gross +GST) without the involvement of a tenant advocate.

The building was recently refur-

bished after being converted from a youth hostel to office space. There is now only 120sqm for lease on level 5 with the rest of the building already fully leased up. Ray White Commercial has also leased a 120sqm tenancy on part of level 1 at 6 Lonsdale Street in Braddon, to BST Tech for a two-year term at $366 per sqm (gross +GST). The deal incorporated three car parking spaces.

Tim Humphrey is editor of “Property Daily”, a market news and intelligence service focused on commercial property markets nationally. www.propertydaily. com.au

BELCONNEN

Canberra Region Property Summary

BONNER

BRUCE

BUNGENDORE

Canberra Region Property Summary

DUNLOP

Canberra Region Property Summary

GORDON

HACKETT

GOWRIE

GREENLEIGH ESTATE

GREENWAY

GRIFFITH

Peter Blackshaw Tuggeranong 0412 726 025 3BR I

1/12 Bandulla

Call Agent 2/12 Bandulla St Peter Blackshaw Tuggeranong 0412 726 025 3BR I Call Agent 35/51 Cromwell Cct Ray White Tuggeranong 0408 166 833 3BR J Call Agent

Hadleigh Cct The Real Estate Shop 02 6231 3100 4BR H

L.J. Hooker Tuggeranong 0418 624 913 3BR I U

Heddon

7/23 Jondol Pl Independent Woden 0413 909 158 3BR I U

NICHOLLS

Canberra Region Property Summary

NORTH LYNEHAM

4400 2BR M U

6299 4400 2BR M U

0416 182 379 3BR J

0438

TURNER

Canberra Region Property Summary

URIARRA

WAMBOIN

WANNIASSA