Development: lead us not into temptation
MICHAEL MOORE
Scoring points with workers’ safety
ALEX WHITE
Off the field, the Brumbies falter
TIM GAVEL
The bitter truth about chocolate
CLARE WOLSKI
In the grip of the orange vulgarian
JOHN GRIFFITHS
158 SOCIALS familiar faces
YOUR Canberra clubs gave $131.6 million to local sport teams and sporting infrastructure since 2000.
IF YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR CANBERRA CLUB, SEARCH YOUR CANBERRA CLUBS ON FACEBOOK OR VISIT YOURCANBERRACLUBS.COM.AU TO REGISTER YOUR SUPPORT.
Your Canberra clubs are not-for-profit organisations that plough their revenue back into the local community.
Clubs are amongst the biggest contributors to Canberra. They play a vital role in our social and economic fabric, they help define our city’s culture and have done so for over 90 years.
Clubs support our community with jobs, entertainment facilities, recreational and sporting infrastructure, training opportunities, charitable donations and so much more. They provide safe inclusive, social environments where people of all backgrounds can meet, relax, dine, celebrate special occasions, exercise, play sport and enjoy cultural activities of all kinds.
Research tells us many of the 200,000 club members in the ACT don’t fully understand the valuable contributions clubs make to the community, or realise the future of clubs is directly threatened due to an uncertain legislative environment.
Canberrans are accustomed to using beautifully maintained sporting facilities in the ACT, but don’t know most of them are owned and maintained by clubs who have over $500 million of assets under management. Clubs also plan to invest $150 million in facilities or greenfield sites in the next three years.
Whether you’re involved in junior sport, or senior bowls, whether you’re learning to swim, or keeping your cultural heritage alive…
Imagine what life would be like without your Canberra clubs.
ANNOUNCER Chris Coleman has returned to the station where his passion for radio started.
“2CC was the first radio station where my voice was heard on air,” he says.
“As a teenager, in the 1980s, I was recorded reading a joke for broadcast on the Peter Mobbs show.
“Everyone at school heard it and I realised the power of radio, it hit me. I knew that was what I wanted to do.
“2CC has always had a special place in my heart because of that –and it’s an exciting time to be here.”
Chris is the new host of the 3pm6pm, weekday, drive-time show “Canberra Live”.
Having moved back to Canberra in January for his wife’s job, Chris says he had been planning a break following his redundancy from the ABC to write a book and do some jobs around the house. However, he says he was thrilled to get the call from 2CC.
“Things happen quickly in radio; we negotiated the deal on the Thursday before Easter, then I was on air on the following Tuesday,” he says.
“When an opportunity like this comes along you jump at it.”
Chris worked for ABC Local Radio for 15 years in Wagga Wagga, Dubbo and Canberra, presenting local and national programs. He’s also worked in commercial radio in Orange and Muswellbrook.
“It can be a tough game, every day you put yourself out there, and people are judging you on you. But you can’t control how people will react to you,” he says.
“I’m very much myself on air – a larger-than-life version, but it’s still me. There’s no point trying to be anyone else.”
Chris, who has four grown-up children and one grandson, says he has a soft spot for Canberra as the place he spent his formative years and early 20s.
“We moved here in the mid-1980s and, like any teenager, I just went, ‘why?’ I’d lived in London, Queensland, Perth,” he says.
“But it’s a great place. It’s small enough to be friendly and it’s a vibrant city, growing in a nice way with a go-ahead mentality. Not many other places are growing like that.”
Chris says his first week back on air was “non-stop”.
“With talkback you have to be over-prepared in case no one rings in, and you can’t predict how it will go,” he says.
“The tapes sounded great, but it was
Cover: Mikayla Williams as the Little Mermaid. Story Page 6. Photo by Andrew Campbell.
CEO: Greg Jones, 0419 418196, greg@citynews.com.au
Editor: Ian Meikle, editor@citynews.com.au Senior advertising account executive: David Cusack, 0435 380656 Ph 6262 9100 Fax 6262 9111 GPO Box 2448, Canberra 2601
the duck principle, there was a lot of paddling going on under the surface!
“You might think you have the hottest political topic to discuss, but people that day want to talk about a three-legged dog on YouTube or whatever.
“MOVE over Agatha Christie, it’s murder on the Limestone Plains!” says Nichole Overall, founder and organiser of the sellout Ghost Train of the Limestone Plains tour, which returns bigger and better on the evening of Saturday, April 16.
She promises history intertwined with mystery, on an interactive journey that will explore the darker side of our region’s past in the “most unusual of ways”. Passengers will have the opportunity to help solve the mystery.
The interactive train trip, including a light supper, dessert and beverages (including limited alcohol) costs $110. Bookings to qbn@qbncityofchampions.com.au or call 0413 671123.
THE 2016 Songkran Festival and Food Fair, which celebrates the Thai New Year, will be held at the Thai temple, Wat Dhammadharo, 80 Archibald Street, Lyneham, from 10am to 4pm, on Sunday, April 10. Admission is free and all welcome.
Chris graduated from St Edmund’s College and says he has always come back to Canberra throughout his time away, to fill in on air and keep up with the Canberra Cavalry, the Raiders and the Brumbies.
“I know a little bit about a lot, and I’m happy for the show to go anywhere. I like the unpredictability.”
LEGACY’S annual concert which will feature songs and music from popular to the classics will be held in the Canberra Convention Centre, from 2pm, on Sunday, April 17. The concert is free for Legacy widows and their carers and $10 for concessions. Tickets at the door.
TWO very different political campaigns kicked into first gear this past week. Yet in each case the incumbents, PM Malcolm Turnbull and CM Andrew Barr, paraded the big picture while their challengers, Bill Shorten and Jeremy Hanson, countered with nuts and bolts.
Turnbull’s tax proposal with the states and territories stunned almost everyone, not least his own Treasurer, Scott Morrison. Without the necessary preparation it was not surprising that the premiers pushed it off the political cliff and happily pocketed the new health funding. It was a serious misstep from Turnbull, but at least it ended any idea that he was running on Tony Abbott’s record.
Shorten plugged away with his negative gearing policy which, according to respected former Finance Department head Michael Keating, will not be quite the disaster the PM trumpeted. In fact, Keating said, it wouldn’t make much difference either way.
Locally, Barr gave us his vision of Canberra as “a complex ecosystem willing to embrace change”. People around the world, he said, were “flocking to cities where the collision of ideas and talent at the heart of modern business innovation takes place”.
He said a lot more of the same – including a big plug for light rail – and sounded more like Malcolm than Malcolm.
Hanson and
deputy Alistair Coe responded with a much more conservative plan that would see oodles of buses replace the tram at a fraction of the cost. But whether car-addicted Canberrans would actually use them is the great unknown.
MEANWHILE, Victoria gave the nation a lead in
response to its Royal Commission into domestic violence. Premier Daniel Andrews pledged to accept all 227 recommendations.
“We’ll punish the perpetrators of this violence, we’ll listen to the people who survive it and we will change the culture that created it,” he said.
A big call, but one that needs a national program of support, including the ACT.
SPEAKING of social misdeeds, Donald Trump’s idiotic call for “some sort of punishment” for women seeking abortions provided the first crack in the façade of a
Locally, Barr gave us his vision of Canberra as ‘a complex ecosystem willing to embrace change’... and sounded more like Malcolm than Malcolm.
campaign that has shamed America in the eyes of the world.
Trump recanted soon after, but by then the dam, it seemed, was bursting.
THREE cheers for Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk who publicly nailed the British “invasion” of Australia in 1788. The time had come, she said, for our schools and universities to tell “the full details of Australian history”. Hard to argue with that.
WHILE we were enjoying our seemingly endless summer, the Great Barrier Reef was turning white with anxiety. And new modelling of the Antarctic ice shelf showed that rising sea levels are becoming a real and present danger to Canberra’s beach-house brigade.
SPEAKING of our beloved Tuross, newly-retired champion basketballer Lauren Jackson will now have more time to spend with her folks who live there. While she was understandably sad that a busted knee ended her career at only 34, it could be a blessing – she’s young enough to return to uni, have a family and there’ll be no shortage of lucrative offers to sit on boards… even that fibreglass kind among the ever warmer Turossian waves.
robert@robertmacklin.com
By Helen Musa
THE last time we saw Mikayla Williams, was in the lead of “Legally Blonde: The Musical” for Free Rain Theatre and now she’s back to play that quintessential “fish-out-ofwater” role, the Little Mermaid.
“This is the light interpretation of the Hans Christian Andersen story, that’s tragic but this is happy,” says director David Atfield.
In this Disney fable, scripted by Doug Wright, a feisty young female fish determines to teach those around her a thing or two about life. She’s looking for an equitable relationship with the prince. By contrast, Andersen’s story is a case of impossible love.
“This is a fun show and it doesn’t get too lost in seriousness,” he says.
Atfield is pleased to have Williams in the lead role, saying: “She’s the triple threat, she is a great actor, dancer and singer.”
Williams, for her part, is impressed by Ariel the mermaid (Andersen didn’t give her a name). “She’s something of a hero, she is absolutely different and she saves the day,” she tells “CityNews”.
It’s been a busy two years since last we saw Williams, involving travelling overseas, working with a producer on an album of her own original songs
and teaching acting, but she’s happy to be treading the boards again in a show different from the Disney film.
For one thing, she says, the females are very strong in the play, whereas the film highlights Prince Eric (here played by Tim Dal Cortivo) as the strong-man hero. Atfield agrees, saying: “I think the writer of this play wants to give it a feminist age, a young girl is on the cusp of womanhood, breaking the rules.”
“Ariel engages in rebellion, she makes the underwater characters come around to see the goodness in humans and she’s not afraid to stand up to King Triton,” says Williams.
It’s a far cry from Andersen’s subservient mermaid, besotted with love for the prince, wracked with pain on land, where walking feels like treading on knives and silenced by having her tongue cut out. In the play, Ariel saves the prince from drowning but has only to sacrifice her voice to become a woman in a deal set up by Ursula the Sea Witch (Louiza Blomfield). The worst that happens is that she’s initially shaky on her land legs.
Essentially, “The Little Mermaid” is a spectacular piece of theatre, with big musical numbers such as “Under the Sea”, “Kiss the Girl”, and “Part of Your World”, scenes above water and underwater moments, too.
Director Atfield is arguably just as much a fish out of water as Ariel. After
all, the award-winning NIDA graduate and former director of Canberra’s famous Company Skylark puppet theatre is best known for non-musical shows, including “Charlotte’s Web”.
Now he’s directing crabs, flounders and seagulls as well as landlubbers, but maintains that much of his job is just theatrical “motivational work”. Although his experience of musicals has hitherto been confined to a youthful star role in a musical about Jack the Ripper, he tells “CityNews,” he comes at it straight.
“I look at the dramatic through-line,” Atfield says, “I think the dialogue is just as important as the song and the dance.
“In musicals, people often approach it with the idea that the dialogue is just what’s in between the songs, but I don’t agree with that.”
Atfield says there are some pretty radical special effects, such as Ariel’s transformation.
“And the undersea work is quite a challenge, especially where we have undersea and earth work simultaneously… what a challenge, but we’ve worked out a lovely way to do it,” he says.
Disney’s “The Little Mermaid”, Canberra Theatre, April 8-17. Bookings to canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 6275 2700.
“My home energy bills were really high so I contacted the free Home Energy Advice Service. It was so easy and their tips saved me money and made my home more comfortable.”
“We must have the most useless bus service in the country,” says reader BELINDA PEARCE, who is grumpy at having her life held to ransom by the timetable
MY life is being held captive by the ACTION bus timetable. I am totally dependent on public transport as I, alas, cannot drive. You wouldn’t think that something as seemingly innocuous as a bus timetable could have such a dramatic impact on a person’s entire life but it does. I assure you. I cannot do anything unless the timetable permits it.
What I can do is interrupted by the lack of any late-night bus service. Does ACTION not realise that there is life after 9.36pm? Yes, that’s the latest I can stay out on any weeknight as that is when the last bus leaves the city.
This is supposed to be a metropolitan city, yet we must have the most useless bus service in the country. In other cities, buses run much later than this, so why not here?
People are positively encouraged to use public transport yet it’s hopelessly inadequate. Weekends, the time when people are able to get out and do things, are even worse.
On Saturday and Sunday buses only run once an hour. On Saturday nights when you would think buses would run to a much later hour, they don’t. So don’t plan on going to any concerts or any of the other activities often enjoyed on Saturday nights because you won’t be able to get home unless you can afford a cab.
Sundays are worse. Yes, worse; 7pm is the cut off time because, of course, nobody could possibly want to be out later than that on a Sunday! I had to give up doing something I love very much simply because there was no way I could get home as it was a Sunday.
Canberra’s bus travellers are getting a very raw deal.
Grumpy is an occasional column dedicated purely to things that get up your nose. Readers are invited to vent (no more than 300 words, please) at editor@citynews.com.au
CHOCOLATE is one of the most commonly craved foods and the demand for chocolate worldwide is increasing.
Over the past decade there has been emerging evidence about the health benefits of chocolate, but do these benefits outweigh the negatives? Is chocolate good or bad?
Pros
Raw cocoa (often called cacao) has very high levels of polyphenols. Polyphenols are a large group of chemicals, which may have beneficial effects on cardiovascular health through a range of physiological effects, including:
• Lowering blood pressure – Many studies have observed reductions in blood pressure after eating raw cocoa and dark chocolate. Moderate dark chocolate consumption is also linked to long-term lower blood pressure.
• Reducing inflammation – Laboratory tests of cocoa polyphenols have demonstrated anti-inflammatory responses and a moderate consumption of cocoa polyphenols has shown to reduce inflammatory markers in the blood of human subjects.
• Lowering cholesterol – Animal and human studies of polyphenols derived from cocoa have shown reduced LDL (unhealthy) cholesterol and increased HDL (healthy) cholesterol.
• Improving brain health – Cocoa polyphenols may increase blood flow to the brain, resulting in improvements for memory, mood, vision and mental processing. It all sounds pretty good! So why aren’t we eating chocolate at every meal?
Cons
• Processing – Chocolate is made from the beans of a cacao fruit tree. The beans are fermented, dried, cleaned, roasted and ground to make cocoa and cocoa butter.
Many things have happened to the cacao bean between the farmer and your chocolate bar, writes
dietitian CLARE WOLSKI
Unfortunately, about 70-90 per cent of the polyphenols in raw cocoa are lost during these processes. Most of the supermarket milk chocolate will be low in polyphenols.
• Sugar and fat – In order to make chocolate deliciously sweet and melt in your mouth, manufacturers have to add sugar and fat. The bottom line
While there are some health benefits of the polyphenols found in raw cocoa, chocolate is a processed food. Many things have happened to the cacao bean between the farmer and your chocolate bar. Chocolate is not “good” or “bad” and eating it won’t make you “good” or “bad”. I love chocolate and definitely believe that it can be included in a balanced diet, just not every day. Look at your week as a whole and decide on a few occasions when you’d really like to enjoy some chocolate.
Enjoy your chocolate
• Choose a darker chocolate. It will have more polyphenols and the rich taste helps to prevent overeating.
• Consciously put a portion on a plate and put the rest away.
• Avoid distractions. Step away from your work, turn off the TV and put your phone down. Focus on how much you enjoy this food.
• Eat slowly and enjoy every mouthful.
Clare Wolski is a practising dietitian at The Healthy Eating Hub, call 6174 4663.
IT is a very exciting time to be following the US presidential election process from the relative safety of Canberra.
Even better is that, thanks to Twitter, we can follow the shock and outrage in real time.
I’ve been pretty lukewarm about Twitter since its inception, it’s an essential tool for a journalist, but also a cesspit of vacuity and, frankly, desperate self-promotion.
But give that man Donald Trump a platform to plunk his short fingers on to in 140-character bursts and you’ve got dynamite.
People who don’t pay attention to politics are outraged that Trump can have come so far and, indeed, looks likely to be the Republican nominee for the presidency.
But if you look closely at the grey weasels who’ve infested Washington’s corridors of power since the 1980s, Trump starts to make electoral sense.
The weasels have perfected a system whereby they harvest vast amounts of money from corporate donors and, in return, try and justify policies that are great for their donors and awful for the public.
Then a bright-orange vulgarian turns up throwing some outrageous truth bombs in amongst incendiary misdirections.
Corporate donations? He says he doesn’t need them because he’s got loads of his own money.
Invading Iraq? Yep, that was a terrible decision.
The particularly delicious irony is that most of his terrible falsehoods don’t trouble the Republican establishment at all. But dare to say the manifest obvious truth about Iraq and, my god, watch the feathers ruffle on the roost.
In many ways, Trump represents everything the average, white American man wishes he could be.
Trump is pretty good at golf and can get away with lying about being even better still, he trades in wives for
younger upgrades on a regular basis and gets away with having affairs, and he can say whatever’s on his mind without anyone telling him to shut up.
Trump also represents a repudiation of the establishment by the supporters of the party of the establishment, which is an interesting development.
Over on the Democrat side we have the beautiful spectacle of the Bernie Sanders insurgency asking very uncomfortable questions about why the richest country on earth can’t direct its resources to the wellbeing of its citizens.
And then in this froth of insurgent candidacies we have poor old Hillary Clinton. Former First Lady, former Senator, former Secretary of State, darling of the corporate donors.
In an electorate hacked off to the back teeth with business as usual, Hillary is running on more of the same, but with a sensible woman in charge for once (spare a thought for the protocol officers trying to figure out what to do with Bill on inauguration day).
And yet if you were going to place a bet, she’s just about the only likely eventual winner out of the whole process.
But could it happen here? To some extent Clive Palmer’s run at Canberra in 2014 was a harbinger of Trump. Fundamentally though our political parties have a better lock on the system. It’s also worth noting that anyone can get into our politics. They just have to be willing to sit through a lot of very boring meetings.
And why do that when you can
A NUDGE and a wink; doing deals; an understanding between mates; looking after the team; the quid pro quo... it’s the small decisions that breed complacency and that’s how problems grow.
It’s minor issues that initiate a path towards corruption and they need to be nipped in the bud.
Planning deals are the most obvious and they must stop. Two current examples are illustrative. At this stage, they’re not decisions, just temptations.
When Hong Kong-based Aquis Entertainment, the new owners of Casino Canberra, offers a development carrot to the ACT government it is sorely tempting.
The quid pro quo is access to poker machines. Aquis is prepared to support a Canberra icon – the Brumbies – and is offering a development in one of the quieter parts of Civic, including two new hotels with 100, five-star rooms with restaurants and high-end retail outlets.
Manuka Oval presents a similar deal. Grocon is prepared to support AFL and the Greater Western Sydney Giants.
The promise is for a new oval as well as a hotel and cafés, serviced and general residential apartments along with 140,000 square metres of retail and office space. And renewal of Manuka Oval.
These are unsolicited proposals. A trade-off of community benefit for such deals is full of pitfalls. The value can
When a developer floats ideas, the government should make them public, finesse the ideas and then put them out to open competition.
come back into community coffers in much more transparent ways.
When a developer floats ideas, the government should make them public, have them considered on merit by planners and the Land Development Agency, finesse the ideas and then put them out to open competition.
The money raised in this way can then be prioritised by the community. It just might be that funding for a school in Gungahlin is a higher priority than improvements to the Manuka Oval precinct. Allowing developers to set priorities is an anathema to good planning.
These are the sorts of examples that make the residents nervous. Look at Red Hill. What is going on? Who is pulling what strings and why? The redevelopment of the public housing precinct is largely welcomed. However, as the Red Hill Action Group convenor, Stuart Rogers, points out: “The Barr Government approved a variation (334) to the Territory Plan, effectively rezoning 5.3 hectares of Red Hill from public housing and low-rise housing to the highest residential density possible”.
If passed, it will allow buildings of five storeys plus plantroom across the
road from low-rise dwellings.
Why are such extremes allowed? Who are the winners and losers?
As Mr Rogers points out: “The variation also contains several provisions which benefit a future developer rather than protecting the interests of the existing community”.
The community group is not opposing redevelopment – just the size and scale.
The Yarralumla Brickworks site started at 1800 dwellings and five storeys and has been pared back to 380 and three storeys.
Within the ACT Assembly there are also challenges. Conflict of interest is one. Steve Doszpot MLA was spot-on when he told the Assembly: “It is very regrettable and naive, or arrogant, of the Chief Minister to put former education minister Ms Burch into such an incredible conflict-of-interest situation by nominating her to a position on the Education Committee”.
The committee is looking into issues
that have resulted in an audit into the Canberra Institute of Technology by the Australian Skills Quality Authority from the time that Ms Burch was the Minister responsible. Having her as part of the deliberations is patently unacceptable.
Doszpot also pointed out a personal as well as the institutional conflict of interest in telling the Assembly: “The former minister implied, while denying there was anything amiss at CIT, that the person who had first brought this to the committee’s attention was someone we should not regard with any seriousness”.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr assigns these responsibilities. Being blind to the conflict puts Burch into an impossible position, undermines the workings of the Assembly committees and creates discord. When an Assembly committee is divided equally between Labor and Liberal it is untenable to have a former minister deliberating on issues that may have been failings in her own portfolio responsibilities. From even small foibles large afflic tions grow.
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AS part of the ACT Heritage Festival, Hall School Museum and Heritage Centre is holding an exhibition based on the “lost” village of Ginninderra. From the 1860s, for half a century, the village flourished and, in its prime, boasted a church, two schools, store, police station, post and telegraph office and a hotel, but by 1915 Ginninderra was finished. It’s at the former Hall Primary School, Victoria Street,10am-4pm, April 9-10 and 16-17. Free entry.
DEALERS and non-commercial rock enthusiasts will be selling a range of wares including jewellery, crystals, minerals, gemstones, opals, fossils and lapidary supplies at the Lapidary Club’s Annual Rock Swap at Exhibition Park, 8.30am-5pm, on April 16 and 17. Entry is free.
MATT Napier, who will be kicking a soccer ball 2250 kilometres across southern Africa to raise awareness of global poverty, will be farewelled at a charity trivia night at Eastlake Football Club, Griffith, 6pm, on Friday, May 6. Tickets and information from wendy@walktoabetterworld.com or call 0404 182494.
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JUST a few years ago, Canberra was the least-safe jurisdiction in Australia. More than 50 people were seriously injured each week.
After a series of catastrophic and fatal workplace accidents, the Getting Home Safely inquiry was established to try to stop the workplace carnage. That independent inquiry found that: “Government procurement practices do not emphasise work health and safety as prominently as they should.”
It exposed a private sector that “disregards work health and safety” and “has a sense of inevitability about the occurrence of serious injuries”.
Every worker has the right to go to work and get home safely at the end of the day. The appalling injuries and tragic workplace deaths were preventable and working to prevent them is what union organisers do every day.
The Getting Home Safely inquiry recommended that the ACT government “use its purchasing power to ensure through its tendering process that only contractors with good health and safety records and the capacity to complete a project as safely as possible are allocated government work.”
It stated that “unions have an important role to play” in ensuring safe workplaces through advising and informing government of what was really happening on the ground.
Unions worked closely with the ACT government, WorkSafe and business groups at the time to improve safety processes and procedures involved with procurement. This has ensured that ACT ratepayers’ money is
Sadly, some conservative commentators and business lobby groups have spent the past 12 months making noise that safety concerns are a ‘myth’.
awarded to reputable companies with a strong track record in safety. That’s why UnionsACT has a memorandum of understanding on procurement with the ACT government.
Sadly, some conservative commentators and business lobby groups have spent the past 12 months making noise that safety concerns are a “myth”.
Last month “CityNews” columnist Michael Moore wrote an article that is a worrying example of the callous disregard for safety and rights at work that we tackled just a few years ago. It is to his deep discredit that he makes light of the important safety protections contained in the MOU. Even more concerning is that he wrote an opinion piece filled with unfounded and party-political attacks on safety culture.
No true Canberran would seek to play politics with the real and continuing safety risks in Canberra’s workplaces and Mr Moore should reflect on the damage his comments do towards building a culture of safety.
Canberra today is a great place to work, with high wages, secure jobs and (mostly) safe workplaces. Employ ees of ACT government contractors
know they will get paid on time, that they have secure employment and that they will get home safely helped by the memorandum of understanding that UnionsACT has with the government.
It is disappointing that Mr Moore, Canberra Liberal leader Jeremy Hanson or Master Builders’ boss Kirk Conningham (whose members injure 42 Canberran construction workers each month in the ACT) have sought to score political points on this issue. Safety at work, the principle that everyone who goes to work should get home safely, is our core priority. We are proud that the MOU we have has helped so many tens of thousands of employees working for ACT government contractors.
Alex White is secretary of UnionsACT, representing 48,800 union members and supporters in the Canberra region.
THE seminar, “Living Options for Ageing Canberrans”, will be held at St Ninian’s Uniting Church, Lyneham, 10am-3pm, on Thursday, April 14. There will be speakers from COTA, DUO and UnitingCare as well as information on support available to remain in own home, public and private housing including independent living, aged-care facilities and rental options. Cost is $5 for morning tea and lunch. Enquiries to mcconnell@grapevine.net.au or jashaw@grapevine.com.au
DR Susanne Döpke, a Melbourne-based speech pathologist and consultant on bilingualism, is the guest speaker at a free seminar and discussion for families raising children in more than one language, early childhood educators, teachers and others interested in bilingual education. It will be held at the JG Crawford Building, ANU, 2pm-4pm, Sunday, April 10. More information at actbilingual.weebly.com or email canberrabilingual@gmail.com
QUAKER Service Australia will be the beneficiary of a garage sale and book fair at Friends’ Meeting House, corner of Bent and Condamine Streets, Turner, 8am-2pm, on Saturday, April 23. Proceeds will aid domestic and overseas development projects. The sale will offer bric-a-brac, books, portable furniture, household items, working appliances, jewellery, produce, toys, and linens.
THE proposal to remove all trees from the median strip of Northbourne Avenue is a desecration of the principal vehicular entry to Burley Griffin’s unique “bush capital”.
Replanting Northbourne Avenue with Brittle Gum, which has earned a reputation for shedding limbs, will increase the risk to the overhead lines of the proposed Gungahlin tram
If indeed the NCA considers itself the “trustee of the National Capital” it should endorse an alternative to the “scorched earth” policy proposed by the ACT for Northbourne Avenue by applying the Pareto principle.
That is, by removing 20 per cent of the trees on the western half of the median strip it would retain afternoon summer shade for commuters. Likewise, by retaining 20 per cent of the trees on the eastern half it would open up the median strip to the morning winter sun. This would not only save half the trees, but add to the comfort of morning and evening commuters year round. Griffin’s vision for Canberra and his travails with public works bureaucrats are well documented, here’s hoping the NCA does not add another chapter.
David Dickson, Kaleen
THE article on Jolimont Centre being a disgrace is spot on (Grumpy, CN, March 24). The author is right.
For the ACT government to spend millions on light rail, Northbourne footpaths and roads in Woden Valley that don’t need repairs or upgrade (eg, my area around Garran), yet lets the bus station be so tiny and disregarded is disgraceful.
I, too, wrote to Murray’s about the behaviour of one of its drivers, but got no response.
The centre is dirty, homeless people sleep there and it’s generally seedy – like much of the perennially neglected Melbourne and Sydney buildings. All told, I’m disgusted with this government. It’s wasteful and its priorities for spending on public facilities highly dubious.
Greta Nielsen, Garran
RE the proposed tram. I keep hearing “mandate, mandate”. How can Messrs Barr and Corbell believe they have a mandate? On a two-party vote at the 2012 election they, Labor, lost.
Admittedly, not by much but the Liber-
als won. Labor’s relying on the support of one Green is not a mandate, that’s an “oh, thank you, thank you” Mr Rattenbury.
Michael Attwell, Dunlop
YEARS ago, in a forgotten war, I did a bit of deep jungle-bashing with rifle, ammunition, backpack, six other frightened nashos and a subaltern with acne and a tendency to panic. What follows might be considered the outcome of that traveller’s tale.
Kokoda creates its own awe and many of us consider it as near-holy ground because, back in 1942, a Japanese invasion of the Australian mainland seemed inevitable.
PNG has an unenviable air-safety record and this, combined with the growing number of Australian trekkers who fall by the wayside, made me wonder whether a light railway might not be constructed alongside the Kokoda Trail? It’s only 100 klicks, of which more than half is more or less straight, the sort of thing trains like. There is a bit of up and down but modern engineering should easily cope.
I visualise air-conditioned carriages slowly making their way inland, allowing
pilgrims to witness, then ponder, the sort of impossible conditions in which our young Diggers fought so gallantly. There is no disrespect here, only an acknowledgment that the route wends its way through climate and terrain extremely unfriendly to older Australians.
Precedent exists in government funding for the growing number of Australians visiting Gallipoli and the Western Front. Plus, I reckon the train could provide much-needed work opportunities for the people of PNG.
These possibilities are worth serious consideration by an Australian government that would, I’m sure, be delighted to be seen as contributing in a meaningful way to the welfare of our northern neighbour.
My plans are made and should it happen in my lifetime, I’ll be on the first train.
Roger Marchant, Lyneham
IN columnist Robert Macklin’s take on the media in the US and Australia (CN, March 24), I agree that ABC Radio National and TV are the best and most balanced source of news.
However, his use of adjectives describing Trump as “exciting” and Bernie Sanders as “whacky” should be reversed.
Bernie has had the greatest turnouts at his events (over 30,000 in Seattle) and the most diverse support of any of the candidates in the US. Bernie is the only candidate generating excitement and hope for positive change.
Pamela Collett,
Narrabundah
By Kathryn Vukovljak
AS a proudly “old-fashioned” record store, Songland Records in Weston Creek will celebrate International Record Store Day on April 16 with a charity sale, says owner “Frog” Harris.
“International Record Store Day is a worldwide promotion of record stores,” he says.
“It’s the busiest day of the year for independent record stores and we’ve already had some donations from the public of really great stuff.”
Frog is asking anyone with unwanted vinyl, DVDs, cassettes, VHS tapes or DVDs to bring them to Songland Records as soon as possible before the sale on the weekend of April 16-17.
“We need more donations, and everything will be priced to go as we want all the money raised to go to the animals at the RSPCA in Canberra,” he says.
“I love animals; they’re genuine, loving and don’t ask for anything.”
Frog says that he finds that the older generation values the physical product of a record and the artistry of the acts themselves.
“The MP3 generation can have 20,000 songs on random, which is a very unfulfilling expe -
an old-fashioned record store and we love to talk and listen to our customers.”
Photo by Andrew Finch
rience,” he says.
“When they’re reintroduced to vinyl, it’s a commitment to 20 minutes of listening, the way the artist intended.
“The artist would have spent an eternity on perfecting that track list, and the sound is tactile and richer.”
Frog has owned Songland Records for 36 years, more recently in its current location upstairs in Cooleman Court.
“We’re an old-fashioned record store and we love to talk and listen to our customers,” he says.
International Record Store Day is on April 16. The sale will be on at Songland Records, Cooleman Court, on Saturday, April 16, 9am-5pm and Sunday, April 17, 10am-4pm. All funds raised go to the RSPCA Canberra.
THE legendary rugby league coach, the late Jack Gibson, had the philosophy that a successful club on the field started at the front office.
In other words, if you have a stable, supportive, capable and forwardthinking management and board the platform was laid for success on the playing field.
The Brumbies’ management saga this year, while it may not have an immediate impact, has the potential to have ramifications in years to come if confidence is not restored in the organisation as quickly as possible.
In fact, I would go as far as to say the Brumbies need to return to the values that were set in place when the club started in 1996 when everybody was seemingly moving in the same direction, the team was embraced by Canberra and success followed.
The Brumbies need to return to the values that were set in place when the club started in 1996 when everybody was seemingly moving in the same direction.
The problems at the Brumbies could not have suddenly appeared overnight. They are likely to have evolved over time. I believe off the field they have lost their way in terms of connection with the community.
I have been a critic of the Jake White era despite his taking the side to the finals. However, to his credit, he moved to allocate players to club teams in Canberra after years of Brumbies’ players heading down the highway to play with Sydney clubs on Saturday afternoon, if they weren’t playing Super Rugby that weekend. White’s style of rugby did little to encourage people to go along to games and, although we’ve seen some regenerated crowds out at Bruce, the trend continued downwards for some time. At least an attempt was made to reconnect with the local clubs. With so many registered players, it is a no brainer to do more to engage the clubs
in the hope that they will support the Brumbies’ Super Rugby side. It was a start, but there was still a perception of a lack of connection with the community. Whenever I spoke out about it, I was emailed a list of functions attended by the players. There are plenty of people involved in the Brumbies’ organisation doing a great job to ensure things stay on track despite the turmoil going on behind the scenes. Coach Stephen Larkham has done a remarkable job to keep the team focused. This is a credit to him and his commitment to the side.
The problems are clearly not on the field. The team itself is a credit to the organisation, but I have been contacted numerous times over the past couple of years by people who felt they had lost a connection with the team.
In the early days, when going along to a Brumbies’ game there was a sense of unbridled joy as the team thrived off the community support. I hope we can bring back that feeling. The boys on the field are certainly working towards it.
At Mariana del Castillo’s solo exhibition opening, Kingston
Stay in touch with the names making news on Sundays from 10am as 2CC and “CityNews” present Canberra’s only local weekend news and current affairs program.
It’s a revolving panel show that brings to the microphone great “CityNews” commentators and 2CC personalities.
Be part of the conversation and call 6255 1206 between 10am and noon.
At the first night of Bell Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’, Civic
GUNGAHLIN is an Aboriginal word meaning “little rocky hill”.
Until the recent development of Molonglo, Gungahlin was the newest area in Canberra and has seen dramatic growth over the last couple of years.
Gungahlin is made up of the suburbs of Amaroo, Bonner, Casey, Crace, Forde, Franklin, Gungahlin,
Harrison, Mitchell, Ngunnawal, Nicholls and Palmerston.
Suburbs yet to be developed include Jacka, Kinleyside, Kenny, Moncrieff, Taylor and Throsby. Home to more than 47,000 residents, the Gungahlin region offers natural beauty, plenty of open space and new-style houses as well as thriving business precincts and shopping areas.
PAUL Whyte Automotive is a local, family owned and run business that has been operating since 1985.
Principal Paul Whyte says he stands by the highest standards by personally road testing and checking vehicles once the work has been completed.
He says that for two generations Paul Whyte Automotive has been offering its customers the highest level of honesty, reliability and quality of work.
Since combining existing workshops at Mobil Giralang and Mobil Melba seven years ago, the company has been able to expand its expertise by attracting quality technicians to a modern, fast-paced, friendly environment.
Supported by the latest automotive technology, its mechanics help to get customers’ vehicles back on the road as soon as possible.
Across the road is Goodyear Auto Care, run for the past
six years by Paul’s son, Matt.
“We are experts in tyres as well as any of your mechanical servicing needs,” says Matt.
Most of the tyres they fit bear one of two trusted names – Goodyear or Dunlop – but they also stock leading 4x4 brand Cooper and, Matt says, whatever a customer wants, he tries to get for them.
Along with tyre fitting, Goodyear Auto Care does all mechanical work including brakes and suspension, registration checks, wheel balancing and steering alignment, log book servicing, batteries and even windscreen repairs.
Paul Whyte Auto, 3-4 O’Brien Place, Gungahlin. Call 6241 4047 or go to paulwhyteauto.com.au
Goodyear Auto Care, 1 O’Brien Place, Gungahlin. Call 6255 4955 or go to goodyearautocare.com.au
THE $60 million redevelopment of The Marketplace Gungahlin is set to double the size of the Woolworths centre.
The retail, services and dining offer has been increased in response to community feedback and has been designed to cater for the strong population growth expected in Canberra’s north over the next decade.
“We’re committed to delivering an expanded shopping precinct that builds on the strength of the Town Centre, preserves the intent of the surrounding streetscape and integrates well with the existing retail and community facilities”, says development manager Phillip Knackstedt.
“The improvement of the shopping experience for Gungahlin residents will provide a greater choice of retail stores as well as more convenient parking to service everyday shopping needs.”
The redevelopment features a new, two-level, undercover car park for more than 500 cars, which will open in early August. It’s a welcome addition to the Town Centre and will complement a fully refurbished Woolworths supermarket.
A tunnel has been built under Hibberson Street that links the new Woolworths underground car park to the existing Big W car park, giving seamless access
to more than 1300 car spaces. A new entry to the Big W mall has also been installed to create ease of access to the centre from the bus station precinct. This project is due for completion before Christmas. The existing centre continues to trade as normal throughout the works.
The Marketplace, 30 & 33 Hibberson Street, Gungahlin. Visit themarketplacegungahlin.com.au or call 6123 4900.
YEEND & Associates Family Lawyers opened as the first specialist family law firm in Gungahlin in early 2013. The practice has now grown to 11 staff since its inception. Yeend & Associates specialises in family law matters including parenting matters, property settlement for married, de facto and same-sex couples, financial agreements, superannuation in family law matters, separation and divorce, wills and powers of attorney, child support, spousal maintenance, litigation and mediation, appeals, domestic violence and protection orders, surrogacy, paternity testing, international child abduction, relocation and location orders, independent children’s lawyer, child welfare matters and legally aided matters.
Director Gillian Yeend is an accredited specialist in family law and was recognised in the “2015 Doyle’s Family Law Guide” as a leading divorce and family lawyer in the ACT. The firm was also recognised in the “2015 Doyle’s Family Law Guide” for its expertise and ability.
PROFESSIONAL tattooing and tattoo removal studio
Tatts On Tatts Off has been based in Gungahlin for eight years.
Owner Peter “Bones” Bone says that it is not an average tattoo studio, with six professional tattoo artists from art backgrounds, able to take any concept and cater to every tattoo need, ranging from traditional, old school, horror, Japanese, realism, Polynesian, tribal portraits and more.
Having come from a career in law enforcement, Bones says the studio is independent and has no affiliation with outlaw motorcycle gangs or criminal elements.
Cosmetic tattooing is available by their professionally trained cosmetic tattooist and tattoo artist.
“Because we do this work everyday, our skill set, knowledge and expertise is much higher than other places that offer cosmetic tattooing,” says Bones.
Tatts On Tatts Off also offers a specialist tattoo removal service to enable re-tattooing or removal of an unsightly or unwanted tattoo, utilising laser tattoo-removal systems and the tattoo-vanish method.
Bones says that they will price match any removal.
“The practice meets the needs of the growing Gungahlin community. We are able to provide convenient, professional services with free parking and extended hours from 7am until 7pm one day per week,” says Gillian.
She says all members of the Australian Defence Force, police and Emergency Services, seniors, students and residents of Gungahlin receive a discount for the preparation of all wills and powers of attorney.
“We also actively engage with the community in charitable work, community engagement groups and as a sponsor of the Gungahlin Festival,” says Gillian.
“We offer a free first consultation for all new clients and have a range of payment options including fixedfee work in some family law matters,” she says.
Yeend & Associates Family Lawyers, 117 Anthony Rolfe Avenue, Gungahlin. Visit yeendassociates.com.au or call 6154 5090.
service and Bones encourages anyone interested to contact him.
“We also offer a first-class piercing service by one of our master piercers,” says Bones. Bones is the ACT Board Member of the Body Piercing Association Australia.
Last year, Tatts On Tatts Off began providing free, reconstructive nipple tattooing for breast-cancer survivors who have undergone breast augmentation surgery. So far 40 women have benefitted from this
“We are proud to help the community in this way, in addition to the support that we give to local charities and clubs. We provide the reconstructive nipple tattooing free of charge, which can otherwise cost women up to $5000,” says Bones.
Tatts On Tatts Off, 73 Anthony Rolfe Avenue, Gungahlin. Visit tattsontattsoff.com or call 6242 4679.
best range of shoes in Canberra
AFTER 25 successful years in Phillip, The Runners Shop expanded to Gungahlin last year and located upstairs on Hibberson Street, next to Anytime Fitness.
Owner Nick Walsche says that The Runners Shop prides itself on having the best range of shoes in Canberra, catering for runners, walkers and joggers of all ages and abilities.
“Our staff are all runners or triathletes, providing first-hand knowledge and passion,” says Nick. Nick says that having properly fitted running shoes is very important to prevent risk of injures.
“Poor-fitting shoes can cause blisters and bruises,” he says.
“Running shoes should be replaced after 800 kilometres of use. It is important to replace shoes once they are worn and the cushioning is exhausted,” he says.
The Runners Shop, Level 1, 46-50 Hibberson Street, Gungahlin. Call 6241 7054.
SIBU Beauty, located at both the Nicholls shops and Crace Central, provides an environment to relax, unwind and be pampered by its teams of experienced beauty therapists.
Sibu Beauty specialises in facial treatments, body treatments, massages (Swedish, Balinese and Hot Stone), pedicures, manicures, Bio Sculpture gel nails, Shellac, waxing, eyelash and eyebrow tinting, make-up, eyelash extensions, spray tanning and ear piercing.
Owner Amanda Rutledge says that, as winter approaches, it’s the perfect time to rejuvenate the skin with a deep-cleansing, anti-ageing facial treatment such as a BioSurface Peel or Microhydrabrasion.
“By removing the top level of the skin, these facial treatments help with fine lines, wrinkles and pigmentation,” says Amanda.
“By deeply exfoliating and flushing the skin of debris and oil, your skin will be the cleanest it’s ever been!” she says.
“We are dedicated to excellence and Sibu Beauty’s fabulous staff will make every visit a special one,” she says.
Sibu Beauty, call Nicholls salon at 6241 4115 and Crace salon at 6162 0397 or visit sibubeauty.com.au
FOR more than three years, the Hairhouse Warehouse has been operating in Gungahlin, part of the chain’s 130 stores nationwide. Hairhouse Warehouse Gungahlin is a family business run by mother and daughter Shaneen Holdcrost and Amanda Whitehouse and a one-stop-shop in all hair care needs.
Senior hairdresser Amanda and the team of experienced stylists in the salon side of the shop can transform your look and specialise in great colouring.
Shaneen heads up the retail side, which stocks a wide range of leading haircare brands such as Redken, L’Oreal and Schwarzkopf. The shop also sells straighteners, dryers and brushes. Shaneen says she can help customers with hard-to-find requests and orders.
Amanda has worked with Hairhouse Warehouse for seven years and was awarded one of their top 10 stylists nationally.
She says she enjoys making people feel beautiful and says the relaxed atmosphere, attention to detail and interest in their customers at Hairhouse Warehouse are the reasons people love coming back.
Hairhouse Warehouse, shop 13 The Marketplace, 33 Hibberson Street, Gungahlin, call 6255 7759.
There is not much Capital Trophies and Sportswear can’t do when it comes to fulfilling your trophy, corporate or clothing requirements! Save time and money by contacting us today!
FROM humble beginnings as a house-call practice, Gungahlin Veterinary Hospital has grown to an 11-vet practice working from purpose-built premises on Crinigan Circle.
A large veterinary hospital is able to offer a wide range of high-quality equipment and services for a pet’s diagnosis and treatment.
“We’ve always been proactive – adopting the newest treatments, procedures and tools as they receive robust scientific support. We were the first practice in the ACT to install digital radiology,” says practice founder, Dr Michael Hayward.
The hospital offers ultrasound, video endoscopy, in-house laboratory, measurement of blood and intra-ocular pressure and all the routine services such as vaccination, desexing, dentistry and surgery for a wide variety of problems.
“We work closely with specialists, both in the ACT and further afield, to ensure your pet gets the best treatment,” says Michael.
“We diagnose and treat animals with anxiety and other behaviour problems, and our Certificate IV qualified and very experienced trainer runs puppy classes and dog-training classes,” he says.
“Well over 3000 dogs have passed through these classes – these dogs are now better citizens of Gungahlin and surrounds. We run 6-8 classes per week!” he says.
Whether a pet needs a vaccination, is very ill or needs surgery, Gungahlin Veterinary Hospital offers compassionate and scientifically grounded care.
Gungahlin Veterinary Hospital, 21 Crinigan Circle, Gungahlin. Visit gungahlinvet.com.au or call 6242 7276.
AFTER 30 years in the bicycle trade, David Cook opened Cookies Cycles in Franklin in September.
Cookies Cycles is open six days a week and stocks a wide range of bicycles, skateboards and scooters, as well as parts, accessories and a repair workshop.
“We have recently stocked a range of electric bicycles, which are a great option for commuters,” says David.
THE award-winning team from Gungahlin Anytime Fitness is excited to launch the new Casey gym on May 5.
Located at the new Casey Market Town, the gym will feature the best equipment, outdoor group fitness and a variety of group classes, says club manager, Andy.
“We are the 16th Anytime Fitness Club in the Canberra region and we pride ourselves on being the best service and value facility in the region,” says Andy.
“The same management from Gungahlin and great level of service will be found at Casey,” he says. Anytime Fitness is open 24 hours which gives members ultimate convenience and ease. Andy says that limited foundation memberships are available for the Casey gym.
Email inquiries to casey@anytimefitness. com.au or visit the Anytime Fitness Casey Facebook page.
THERE’S not much Capital Trophies and Sportswear can’t do when it comes to fulfilling trophy, corporate or clothing requirements.
or sterling silver through to sporting participant trophies made of resin for the under-7s.
“They give the rider as much assistance as they need to get up the hills and a lot less effort to get to work!” he says. David says he has always enjoyed the bicycle industry, and Cookies Cycles is his chance to bring his passion to Gungahlin locals.
Cookies Cycles, 227 Flemington Road, Franklin, call 6242 0338.
• Dermalogica facials
• Microhydrabrasion
• Pure Fiji body treatments
• Swedish and hot stone massage
• Manicures and pedicures
• Bio Sculpture Gel nails
• Waxing and tinting
• Professional makeup
• Eyelash extensions
• Spray tanning
• Ear piercing
Shop 4, Crace Shops
Located at 7/101 Lysaght Street, Mitchell, the family-owned business has provided the community with reliable and quality service for 25 years, supplying sporting clubs, large corporations and community organisations. Having provided up to 2000 participant trophies from some of the larger sporting clubs around the city, Capital Trophies and Sportswear covers the entire spectrum, from bespoke trophies using hardwood, crystal, glass
Capital Trophies and Sportswear also offers screen printing and embroidery of a range of corporate, high-vis and sporting clothing and accessories. The staff can bring customer designs to life either as an embroidered logo or a screen print on a shirt.
“There is no job too big or too small,” the company says.
Capital Trophies and Sportswear, Shop 7/101 Lysaght Street. Call 6241 6448 or visit captrophysports.com.au
MOTHER of three, Lisa Senger knew she had to shake up her exercise routine and wanted to go to a women’s-only gym where she would feel comfortable.
She says it took a lot of courage to walk through the door at Gungahlin Curves in August 2014, but since then, she hasn’t looked back!
“I lost 14kgs in six months and, to this point, I have lost a total of 35kgs,” she says.
“As soon as I walked in the door, I was greeted by name. The staff knew my journey and story and were so supportive and motivational. When I lost a kilo or two, they would notice and make me feel good.”
Lisa says that Curves offers a non-judgemental environment for women of all ages, walks of life, shapes and sizes. Its 30-minute circuit-style body basic classes incorporate all the major muscle groups with high intensity workouts of 30 seconds of using a machine, followed by a 30-second rest.
Lisa loved Curves so much that in May she joined the team as a casual staff member.
“So many mums say they don’t have the time for the gym, but I tell them that it’s really only two per cent of our day – you can fit in it!” says Lisa.
“We are real. We say there are no males, mirrors or make-up. We inspire and encourage each other. The Curves experience is fast, fun and effective.”
Curves is located at Gungahlin, Weston, Wanniassa and Belconnen. For information about the best Curves membership to suit you, and to find your nearest Curves, call 1300 287837 or visit curves.com.au
Yeend & Associates Family Lawyers is the largest specialist Family Law firm located in Gungahlin.
Conveniently located on Anthony Rolfe Avenue, we provide our clients flexibility with extended hours from 7am until 7pm and free parking.
Our team was recognised in the 2015 Doyle’s Family Law Guide for our expertise and ability in Family Law. Director
Gillian Yeend is an Accredited Specialist in Family Law and was recognised in the 2015 Doyle’s Family Law Guide as a Leading Divorce and Family Lawyer in the ACT.
Contact us for your initial no obligation appointment with a Family Law Solicitor.
YOGA Centricity, located on the shores of Yerrabi Pond, in Gungahlin, provides a diverse range of yoga styles catering for the needs of people from all genders, orientations, backgrounds and beliefs.
Owner and director Terence Janssen says the studio offers a range of yoga styles – from the slow and steady Yin to the dynamic Hatha fusion class. There are early morning, evening and weekend classes available.
“We are community focused. Our aim is to break down barriers and be
accessible and welcoming. We want people to come and make friends and not be too serious!” says Terence. Terence has a martial arts background and found yoga gave him mental and physical well-being as well as helping him lose weight.
“Our studio believes that diversity and humour are the spice of life, and we invite students to explore yoga in their own way,” he says.
Yoga Centricity, visit yogacentricity.com. au or call Terence on 0415 733723.
“AT Effortless Beauty, we focus on making beauty easy!” says owner, Marilynne Read.
“And the first step is to have great skin. If you have good skin, you have more confidence and less need for make-up,” she says.
Having hypersensitive skin herself, Marilynne says she appreciates how hard it can be to find the right products and treatments to care for sensitive skin.
“I offer a free, 15-minute, skincare consultation, talking clients through the products, how they work and why skincare is so important,” she says.
“I provide follow ups and consistent care to help people with their concerns such as dry, oily or red skin,” she says.
Using David Deans premium skincare products, which are made in Australia, Marilynne says that Effortless Beauty’s passion is to care and look after its customers’ skin.
Effortless Beauty offers a range of beauty treatments such as facials, waxing, tinting and manicures.
Effortless Beauty, Palmerston. By appointment only, call Marilynne on 0407 151870.
THERMA Quilts is a family-run business that specialises in making and servicing feather and down products from quilts to pillows, cushions and anything made from feather and down.
Using quality textiles, the seamstresses at Therma Quilts hand-make every item suited to the customers’ needs and provide a top-up service for when quilts and pillows show signs of wear or loss of warmth and fluffiness.
Therma Quilts rejuvenates feather and down products.
“We restore fluffiness to woollen underlays that often become flattened when slept on. We differ to laundromats and dry cleaners in our approach as we brush the wool by hand two times before cleaning
it,” says owner Jennifer Kusa.
“We can also clean and freshen your silk, cotton or polyester blankets.”
Therma Quilts has special detergents from Germany made from rice, wheat and maize starch formulated specifically for each of these different products.
“Down is nature’s own memory foam, it will always spring back to its original state when properly cleaned – an investment in down products is well worth it and can last a lifetime! It is comfortable, lightweight and an affordable luxury,” says Jennifer.
Therma Quilts, 10-12 Kemble Court, Mitchell. Call 6241 6859 or visit thermaquilts.com.au
• Extensive range of shoes for Runners, Joggers, Walkers and Gym enthusiasts of all ages
• Brands include Asics, Brooks, Nike, New Balance, Mizuno, Saucony, Hoka and On
• Great range of technical running apparel which breathes (wicks moisture) all year round
• Extensive range of nutrition products from Endura, GU, Hammer, Huma & Tailwind
• Come in and speak to our staff of Runners, Triathletes and Orienteers with a passion and a first-hand knowledge of our entire product range!
Entrance between the Central Café & Gloria Jeans Café Hibberson St, Gungahlin 6241 7054
Feel the Power of Good Hair
• Cuts and Styling
• Colour specialists
• Hair extensions
• Upstyles for that special occasion
• Regular weekday specials
Or visit our ‘long running store’ in Dundas Court Phillip 6285 3508
• Book now for your free style and haircare consultation
Keep your hair looking salon-beautiful everyday
• Walls of your favourite haircare products at great prices
• Full range of electrical dryers, curlers and straighteners
• Specialist scalp care and professional products
• Knowledgable haircare advice from our trained staff
Mothers Day Catalogue out mid-April for fantastic Mothers Day Ideas. Why not get her a gift voucher?
AN inner-south snout tipped CC off about a question of grammar in signage at the grammar school dedicated to girls in Deakin.
A photographic wander around its large campus revealed three signs secured into walls that say: “Canberra Girls Grammar School” and only one that looks, on first blush, the more grammatically correct saying “Canberra Girls’ Grammar School”.
How can this be, principal Anne Coutts was asked on the “CityNews Sunday Roast” program on 2CC?
In a charming hour of profile, the erudite head of school said the sign with the apostrophe was an old sign. So the newer three are grammatically incorrect?
Not so, said Anne. There had been some debate and it had been decided that as the school didn’t actually belong to the girls (nor the parents paying for it), the need for a possessive apostrophe didn’t apply.
“FROM our two-day visit to Canberra, it was clear that the whole place had rapidly evolved in recent years. Often maligned for a lack of soul and unfairly aligned with its main industry, Federal politics, the city is, nonetheless, worthy of its place as our national capital and well worth a visit – especially if you haven’t been for five years or more.”
Well, this sounded a very promising nation-wide post from Sydney-based Peter Saxon, co-owner and editor of radioinfo.com.au (“a site for broadcast professionals,”
it says).
He and his wife were “irresistibly” here for the Tom Roberts exhibition.
“Having previously stayed at the magnificent Hyatt, this time we decided to try something new. We opted for Hotel Hotel.
“The room came equipped with a fully functioning, internet connected, iPad.
“The iPad’s home page, which is the first thing I see as I approach the bedhead, gives me the time, temperature, forecast, an alarm AND, of course, a radio. And because it’s an online setup, I can pick up stations from Cairo to Calais, Karachi to Kathmandu, but not Canberra.
“When I touch Australia in the location menu all I get is a selection of four community stations and the syndicated program, ‘My Generation’, on loop. No 2CA or 2CC. No Hit104.7 or Mix106.3. Not an ABC station to be found on the technological marvel that is the Hotel Hotel iPad.
“Outraged that such a basic human right as access to
live and local radio could be denied to guests of Hotel Hotel, I went down to the front desk to express my displeasure in person.
“Despite our great expectations, by the time we returned to the room that evening, nothing had changed. Next morning as we were checking out, I complained again about the lack of radio in the room – and even more so the lack of enthusiasm for doing something about it. Not good enough for a five-star hotel, Hotel Hotel.”
EVERY customer to fashion retailer Zara would seem to be a suspected shoplifter. The international fashion chain’s store at Canberra Centre apparently now X-rays women’s handbags going into and out of the change room.
“What an outrageous intrusion into personal privacy”, harrumphed one of our retail snouts, miffed and resolved to never return.
GOING mowing? Might be best to take a shovel if this warning sign spotted on Alexandrina Drive, Yarralumla, recently is any guide. Little wonder they can’t keep up during the grass-growing season, too much grass to shovel!
By Helen Musa
CONDUCTOR Rowan HarveyMartin says there’s a fine balance between bullying and getting performers to “play their hearts out for you”.
“I think I have a good balance without beating them over the head,” she says and when Harvey-Martin takes up the baton to conduct Mendelssohn’s oratorio “Elijah” on April 16, it’ll be her tenth year as music director of the Llewellyn Choir.
A brilliant violinist and member of a musical family that partly grew up in Canberra, Harvey-Martin has just taken up the full-time directorship of strings at Canberra Girls Grammar School. Before that, she was conductor of Canberra Youth Orchestra and can be seen regularly performing with
the Canberra Symphony Orchestra. You wonder how she fits it in.
“We have a daughter in college and a son in year 8, so I don’t want to run around anywhere – that’s why I’m here,” she says. That might also explain her reputation as a hard taskmistress.
“I’m there to work, I’m not there to have a lovely meeting eating cookies and drinking coffee… if I’m not at rehearsal I go home to my family,” she says.
Called the most popular oratorio next to Handel’s “Messiah”, “Elijah” is sheer drama as the prophet Elijah battles it out with the acolytes of the pagan god Baal, aided by a fiery column from Jehovah.
Harvey-Martin counts herself lucky to have baritone, Douglas McNicol from State Opera SA, with top Canberra soloists Rebecca Collins, Christina Wilson and (husband) Michael Martin leading the 120 voices of the Llewellyn Choir.
The Mendelssohn work is “a very big sing for the choir”.
“The story is fantastic, with lots of fire and brimstone,” she says.
However, Harvey-Martin is no fan of the trend for turning such performances into visual spectacles.
“They are oratorios, I don’t think they need to be acted out, that’s not how they have been written,” she says.
She laments that some audiences have lost the ability to concentrate.
“We don’t have time, it’s rush, rush, rush,” she says.
“Some people want to put lovely pictures on the stage, but I want it just to be a beautiful performance – just listen to the choir and the music.”
The Llewellyn Choir’s “Elijah”, Llewellyn Hall, 7.30 pm, Saturday April 16, bookings to premier.ticketek.com.au
sundayROAST
Sundays from 10am, 2CC
WARHOL Factory superstar and New York’s queen of underground satire, Penny Arcade, returns with her show “Longing Lasts Longer” at The Street Theatre, April 14. Then from April 15-16 at the same theatre, comedian Mark Swivel’s show about poverty, banking and the Bee Gees. “How Deep is Your Love?” tells how he fell in love with a bank in Bangladesh. Bookings for both to thestreet. org.au or 6247 1223.
FABULOUS attendance figures for the Tom Roberts exhibition at the NGA, with the final number of visitors reaching 131,878. This is the highest attendance to an Australian show at the NGA, they’re saying.
THE 2016 Spanish Film Festival features dramas, romances, thrillers and major box office hit comedies from across Spain and movies from Latin America, at Palace Cinemas, NewActon, April 19 to May 8. “Spanish Affair 2” opens the festival with the second instalment of a comedy based on the tensions between Spain’s regions. Bookings to palacecinemas.com.au
SELBY & Friends’ second tour of their 10th anniversary season is titled “Just ‘C’”. Super-violinist Susie Park joins Clancy Newman on cello and director Kathryn Selby on piano exploring piano trio works from Copland, Brahms, Shostakovich and Mendelssohn – all composed in the key of C major or C minor. At James O. Fairfax Theatre, NGA, April 11. Bookings to selbyandfriends.com.au or 1300 511099.
BILK Gallery is exhibiting in ATTA Gallery, Bangkok’s contemporary jewellery gallery, reciprocating a visit here by Thai artists. Until May 14 they’re showing work by Bilk regulars Marian Hosking, Carlier Makigawa, Helen Aitken-Kuhnen and Johannes Kuhnen. As well as artists; Kath Inglis, Mark Vaarwerk, Melissa Cameron, Sean O Connell, Simon Cottrell, Mio Kuhnen and Larah Nott.
ART SONG Canberra’s next concert “Northern Lights” is in the Wesley Music Centre, 3pm, on Sunday April 10. Mezzo-soprano Christina Wilson joins pianist husband Alan Hicks to perform songs and piano solos from Nordic composers including Grieg and Sibelius, as well as Scottish favourites and Barber’s “Hermit Songs”. Tickets at the door only. No bookings.
THE Young Music Society’s autumn school holiday program “Lost in the Wild” is to be a journey into the musical wilderness for primary school children led by musician Jim Sharrock. At Belconnen Arts Centre, April 1822. Applications to youngmusicsociety.org.au
The eco-terrorists in “Kill Climate Deniers”.
By Helen Musa
THE controversial action/hostage drama “Kill Climate Deniers” will be performed at the You Are Here festival, running around the CBD from April 13-17.
It’s about a group of eco-terrorists who take over Parliament House during a Fleetwood Mac concert and threaten to kill all the occupants unless Australia instantly stops all greenhouse gas emissions.
Readers may recall the local political kerfuffle when, as a means to landing a blow on former Arts Minister Joy Burch, opposition arts spokesperson Brendan Smyth raised questions in the Legislative Assembly about the use of taxpayer funding for political arts projects.
Playwright/director David Finnigan prefers to see it as “a drama in the vein of ‘Die Hard’ and ‘White House Down’ with a soundtrack of mostly late-’80s/early-’90s
club music.”
To that end, at You Are Here he’s releasing the script as an ebook with an album of music by Reuben Ingall. There’ll be a solo performance of the work in which 96 armed eco-terrorists storm Parliament and take the entire government hostage. Before that, in the daytime there’ll be a conversation event at CMAG featuring conservative commentator Mark Fletcher, artist Bernie Slater and facilitated by journo Ginger Gorman asking whether political art is compromised by accepting government funding.
Finnigan says “Kill Climate Deniers” asks just one question: “What would it take to actually stop climate change dead in its tracks?”
“Bite the Hand That Feeds You: Taxpayer-Funded Political Art”, at Canberra Museum and Gallery, 2pm, Saturday, April 16. “Kill Climate Deniers”, at The Club, 46 Northbourne Avenue, 10pm, Saturday, April 1. Both events are free.
“Sherpa: Trouble on Everest” (M)
CARTOGRAPHERS call it Mount Everest, after a British surveyor-general in India. Locals call it Chomolungma. There’s a Nepalese restaurant with that name in Griffith.
In 2006, Canberra filmmaker Jennifer Peedom worked on a TV series about Chomolungma. In 2008, she made a doco about Lincoln Hall’s survival after being left for dead on it after suffering altitude sickness. In 2014, she was in Nepal shooting another doco about sherpas whose main income nowadays is as pack animals transporting everything up the mountain for aspiring summiteers. And everything means every thing – tents, tables, toilet paper, towels, tea and teapots, TV sets, telecommunications gear and other stuff with names that don’t start with “t”. And when the eight-week climbing seasons end, Sherpas carry everything down.
On April 18, 2014, 16 sherpas died when an estimated 14,000-tonne ice block fell off the mountain. The opportunity that fell from that tragedy into Peedom’s lap became “Sherpa: Trouble On Ever-
est”, built on a narrative framework involving Phurba Tashi who holds the summiting record (22 times). Those passages, shot during the 12 days before the tragedy, are sensitive, charming and carefully optimistic.
The footage Peedom shot during the seven days after the disaster captures bleak fear and large-scale grief.
Her film mixes people, politics, climbing and environment into a powerful documentary. A significant component of it involves sherpas bailing up their employer between the rock of income and the hard place of working conditions.
From any aspect, Chomolungma’s beauty is breathtaking. Her pitiless treatment of humans with the temerity to clamber over her is frightening. Much of what sherpas carry up to Base Camp is for the comfort of clients – a sherpa gets a climber still in his tent started with a hot towel and hot drink; so much for roughing it during an adventure. During a meeting to protest against wages and conditions, an American climber calls sherpas terrorists. A delegation of politicians visits Base Camp to address that gathering, mouths platitudes then flies away.
Between its lines, “Sherpa” replaces the traditional reason for climbing any mountain – “because it’s there” – with one less commendable – “because Everest’s on my bucket list”. Chomolungma is indeed
Nepal’s economic generator. No human has ever really conquered her. Pessimists with over-heated imaginations might regard Nepal’s earthquake record (324 in the past year!) as Chomolungma’s vengeance against the abuse, garbage and other indignities that climbers have heaped on her and the gentle people who worship her!
At Palace Electric
THE 2015 Cannes Film Festival jury for Un Certain Regard, recognising young talent and encouraging innovative and daring works, awarded its prize to Icelandic filmmaker Grimur Hakonarson’s third feature “Rams”, to which legend (for which I’ve not been able to unearth confirmation) has it that the audience gave a 10-minute standing ovation. The legend, if correct, carries greater weight than the prize. A prize for an outcome determined by a public result can be worthy, but I mistrust prizes awarded for best creative achievement from a field of nominees
following secret deliberation by one or more appointed peers.
Without doubt, “Rams” is innovative. Two houses stand perhaps 200 metres apart on a farm in an almost treeless Icelandic valley. In each lives a man no longer young. Each breeds sheep. At a recent show, the judge placed Kiddi’s winning ram half a point ahead of Gummi’s runner up. Both rams have the same sire, different dams.
That judgement exacerbates a 40-year friction between two brothers, who communicate by one writing a note about a farm matter and whistling for the dog to carry it to the other. The audience laughs gently at this amusing practice, without yet understanding its cause.
There is nothing amusing about the sudden appearance on the farm of the incurable, highly contagious neurodegenerative disease commonly called scrapie. How the film deals with the disaster – for that’s what it is, economically, emotionally – is as powerful a dramatic element for the film as is the rift between the brothers. It’s an element that finds increase as Gummi – or is it Kitti? The pair’s whiskered faces look almost identical – secretes a ram and a few ewes in the basement of his house. Neither brother can bear the prospect of euthanising the last of a champion line of breeding sheep. What follows is a rapprochement building to a powerful ending that leaves us to imagine what will happen next.
At Palace Electric
28 APRIL –8 MAY 2016 FEATURING
Katie Noonan and the Brodsky Quartet
Joseph Tawadros
Poacher’s Way Festival Trip
Chocolate Factory, Mother’s Day Concert
....and much, much more TICKETS ON SALE
WINNERS of the two family passes (four tickets) to see “Disney’s Little Mermaid” at the Canberra Theatre on Friday, April 8 are: Kylie Arnold, of Conder and Moira Christie, of Pearce.
YOU can certainly expect duck on the menu at Ducks Nuts – and good duck, too.
Mondays 5.30 – 7pm except public hols & January
Cellar Bar, University House, ANU
Since 1985 • FREE ( $10 annual Levy )
French, German, Spanish and Danish. New members needed – especially German
Usually at least one native speaker.
Just turn up and look out for a particular language www.canberrapolyglot.org
For more information contact DR Peter Gibson on 0408 231 153, or pgibson2611@gmail.com
Three of us headed to Dickson to discover more about this newly renovated bar and grill, and were glad we did.
At the front door is a “strict” dress-code sign: “Fashionable, upscale attire required. No high-vis, work boots or thongs after 4pm”. We looked at each other and confidently marched in.
The space is enormous and each zone has its own personality and look and feel. It’s well thought out and just a little bit fancy. The bar area is massive (you order your meal and drinks here).
We kick-started our Ducks Nuts venture with, you guessed it, duck. Specifically, duck tortillas. The staff told us that there were two tortillas to the serve and kindly suggested we might like a third for an extra cost to make sharing easy. Nice touch.
They were fabulous – the duck cooked perfectly and with pork crackling providing a perfect crunch. All ingredients married well with the pack-a-punch plum sauce ($24 for three).
I fussed over ordering the Peking Ducks Nuts burger, not wanting to overdose on duck, but needn’t have worried. The burger was loaded with tender duck, a
Three of us headed to Dickson to discover more about this newly renovated bar and grill, and were glad we did.
fresh Asian slaw and a beautiful hoisin dressing ($19). For those not keen on bread, order Ducks Nuts burgers “nude”.
One of us went for the rump steak from the menu’s “Meat Locker” ($26 to $35). She chose classic gravy from the list of sauces and shoestring fries instead of mash. The meat came medium rare as ordered and at 300 grams was a decent size for lunch.
The crumbed pork cutlet was the third dish. As with the others, it looked attractive on the plate and we were impressed with the thickness of the cutlet ($26). It was served with grilled apple and a slaw combining brussels sprouts and parmesan. This was confusing because the wording on the menu, at first glance, implied that sprouts would be served as well as slaw. Anyway, the pork was juicy and tender but with a bit too much “crumb” factor.
We ordered at 1.10pm and by 1.45pm still weren’t eating. When we enquired, we were told a table of 30 had snuck in just before us. Fair enough, but surely the kitchen could have squeezed in three tortillas or let us know about the long delay. But it was all handled well with a second apology and staff asking us, at the end of our dining experience, if we enjoyed our lunch “despite the delay”.
Ducks Nuts, 30 Woolley Street, Dickson, 6230 7675.
Joanne Madeline Moore
ARIES (Mar 21 – Apr 20)
This week’s marvellous Venus/Mars hook up highlights your natural charm and sex appeal. Being pushy is out, and being persuasive is in, as you get what you want in the most diplomatic and dynamic ways! You’re also in the mood to express yourself creatively via cooking, gardening, writing, acting, singing, dancing, drawing, painting or playing music. Whatever rings your bell! Tuesday night is the perfect time for a romantic and passionate rendezvous.
TAURUS (Apr 21 – May 20)
The Venus/Mars trine motivates you to shake off the stress and embrace the good life. Hedonistic Heaven is where you want to be, as you spoil yourself and indulge your senses via gourmet food and fine wine; plus a relaxing massage, hair spa or beauty treatment. Aim to get the balance right between socialising with family and friends, and spending some quality time on your own. Some smitten Bulls will become involved in a secret and steamy love affair.
GEMINI (May 21 – June 21)
It’s all about love and lust, as the planets galvanise your partnership and intimacy zones. So if you are attached, plan something suitably romantic and sexy with your partner. Single? You won’t find your soul mate if you’re sitting at home sobbing and sulking about being solo. It’s time to spread your social net far and wide, as you network like crazy and find the man or woman of your dreams! The weekend is wonderful for serious conversations about profound subjects.
CANCER (June 22 – July 22)
With the Sun, Venus and Uranus all in your career zone, it’s not the time to hole up in your cosy Crab cave. Seize the moment! Lucky and unexpected opportunities are around, but you must be quick to grab them or they will pass you by. And are you worried about a romantic or platonic relationship? With this week’s star patterns you’re less likely to be over-emotional, and more inclined to speak directly and honestly. So open up and talk about how you’re really feeling.
LEO (July 23 – Aug 22)
It’s time for loquacious Lions to talk, text, tweet, mix and mingle, socialise, circulate and network with a stimulating new crowd. Travel, adventure and education are also high on the agenda, as Mercury encourages you to brain-storm with work mates, connect with international colleagues or upgrade your current skills. There’s always something new to learn! The weekend is a wonderful time to indulge in some Leo lux via good food and fine wine plus convivial company.
VIRGO (Aug 23 – Sept 22)
With success planet Jupiter transiting your sign (and forming a trine with your ruler, Mercury) don’t waste time being a bashful Virgo. Be enthusiastic about the opportunities that are around you as you explore and experiment, plus leap through life with a fabulous work ethic and an extra dose of confidence. Draw inspiration from fashion entrepreneur, Victoria Beckham (born on April 17, 1974): “I believe you can achieve anything if you work hard enough to get it.”
LIBRA (Sept 23 – Oct 23)
This week Venus (your boss planet) forms a delicious trine with dynamic Mars. You’re at your charismatic, dynamic and sexy best, as you charm the cynics and dazzle the doubters. Motivation and confidence are high, so don’t be shy about promoting your talents and celebrating your strengths. It’s time to be bold and beautiful! Mercury also boosts your ability to sort the wheat from the chaff, as you become more discriminating and selective about what you do.
SCORPIO (Oct 24 – Nov 21)
This week Venus and Mars stimulate your urge to splurge on extravagant purchases that you don’t really need. So perhaps it would be best for smart Scorpios to avoid shopping sprees … both in person and online. In the words of financier J. P. Morgan [born on April 17, 1837] “If you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it.” Sunday is super for all types of study, research and deep thinking, as you solve a stubborn problem or get to the bottom of a perplexing mystery.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22 – Dec 21)
Jump off the comfy couch Sagittarius! This week’s dynamic stars encourage you to be proudly proactive, as you set professional goals and then actively pursue them. Not sure how to do that? Try rubbing shoulders with your kickass Aries friends … they’ll show you how to crank up your motivation and energise your enthusiasm. Thursday’s Mercury/Jupiter trine is specifically terrific for all work, business, law, commerce and educational endeavours so make the most of it.
CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 19)
The focus is firmly on domestic matters, as peacemaker Venus helps the family pull together in a positive and proactive fashion. The more support and encouragement you give loved ones, the better. But avoid getting drawn into petty power plays mid-week, especially with a work colleague. Learn to use your influence in smart and subtle ways. The weekend Mercury/Pluto trine gives you some profound insights into a complicated situation involving a child, teenager or friend.
AQUARIUS (Jan 20 – Feb 18)
The secret to success (especially at home) is communication as Mercury encourages you to look, listen and learn from those around you. So your motto for the week is from birthday great, actress Emma Thompson: “Any problem, big or small, within a family always seems to start with bad communication. Someone isn’t listening.” Imagination and intuition are heightened on the weekend, when you tap into your unconscious mind and receive important guidance or inspiration.
PISCES (Feb 19 – Mar 20)
Tuesday is the pick of the week, as the Mercury/Neptune connection boosts creativity, compassion and perception and you’ll feel a need to escape into a fantasy world via reading, writing, painting, playing music, day-dreaming or creative visualisation. Your mind could also turn to spiritual or religious matters as you meditate, contemplate or pray. On the weekend, don’t just look at problems from your own perspective. Listen closely to others, with your head and heart.
Copyright Joanne Madeline Moore 2016 Daily astrology updates at twitter.com/JoMadelineMoore
3 Which Australian magazine was founded in 1880 by J Archibald and J Haynes?
7 Name the warmest season of the year.
8 What do we call a person devoted to the welfare of others?
9 To have rented a house etc, is to have done what?
10 Which term relates to the qualities of a mother?
11 Name the former movie star, and 40th president of the US, Ronald ...
14 Which aromatic resinous exudations from certain plants are used for incense, perfume, etc?
17 What is the act of determining the answer to a problem?
18 Name a renowned Australian quizmaster, Andrew ...
19 Name a US prison in New York state (4,4).
20 To appear not certain is to be what?
21 To become inactive, sluggish, or dull, is to do
1 What is another term for a halo?
2 To be entertaining, is to be what?
3 Who is regarded as Australia’s greatest batsman, Sir Donald ...?
4 What is theft also known as?
5 Which volatile liquid lowers the viscosity of paints?
6 Name the widely distributed herbs, armed with stinging hairs.
11 When one strives against something, one does what?
12 Where did the Olympic Games take place in 1996?
13 Which other term describes a craftsperson?
14 Name a well-known Australian TV and film actor and pop singer, Kylie ...
15 To drive a vehicle backwards is to do what?
16 What are cows that are under three years of age, and have not produced calves?
Liam said the place they liked the look of was on the market at a good price but run down and needing repairs, the costs of which he expected to be able to claim.
“I’m afraid it’s not that simple,” I told them. “One of the Australian Taxation Office’s current audit areas is focused on claims for rental deductions for a full year when a property has only been rented for part of the year.
“You need to apportion relevant costs to allow for the period of private use. It’s important that the property is available for rent all year and that it is being advertised.”
Liam said the couple planned to advertise the property through their office social club.
“I’m afraid that won’t be enough,” I said. “The ATO’s view is that the property needs to be advertised to the public at large and listed with a real estate agent for the full year.
“Your proposal could well result in it being empty for long periods. By way of example, if you use it for four weeks and it is rented for four weeks and not advertised, the deductible component would only be 4/52 or 1/13 of the total costs. If the property is advertised to the public at large you should be able to claim 4/8 or 50 per cent of the costs.”
Natasha asked for guidance about claiming for repairs.
“Unfortunately, ‘initial repairs’ is one of the other areas of audit focus of the ATO,” I said.
“As you are buying the property cheaply, the view taken by the ATO is that initial repair costs are not deductible when the repairs are carried out, but deducted from the capital gain when the property is sold.
“The way that capital gains tax is calculated currently, when you sell you will only get a deduction for half the costs.”
Clearly crestfallen, Liam said the plan was not turning out the way he thought it would.
“Unfortunately, your proposal lands slap-bang in the middle of the two current ATO areas of focus,” I told them.
“Perhaps you would be better off to review your plans. As you are buying a property as an investment, the first consideration is whether it is a good investment. If so, then you consider the tax implications.
“Have you thought about how much you will use it? I often see people who want a coast house and then find two years later that they are selling because they don’t use it and are finding it too expensive.”
Natasha admitted that it was the prospect of the tax breaks that made them think aquiring the property was a good idea.
She said my advice had inspired them to rethink their position and they would return to see me once they’d found a more suitable investment.
If you need advice on rental properties or any other tax-related matter, contact the friendly team at Gail Freeman & Co Pty Ltd.
A BEAUTIFUL Japanese-inspired garden with 24 different varieties of maple, daring pruning of a “poodle” bay tree and “lifted” banksia and paths that lead to a surprise around every corner creates a haven for its owners.
Named “Kathleen” for owner Trevor’s grandmother, the garden seamlessly combines natives and exotics with remnants of the old cottage-style, “granny” garden that was here before.
“When I moved in, I think the real estate blurb said: ‘Good luck finding the front door’,” says Trevor.
“It was pretty overgrown, but it was still very much a gardener’s garden, with many plants that were special to the previous owner.”
Landscape designers Greg McGuirk and Trevor Fuller’s garden will be open to the public through Open Gardens Canberra on the weekend of April 16-17.
Describing the garden as experimental but inspired by the romance of Japan, Greg and Trevor say they like to mix up materials and try any plant they like the look of. They also salvage plants from clients’ gardens and try to find a place for things that people want removed.
“We love maples and have found that they’re more hardy than people think,” says Greg.
“They’re actually very low-maintenance and sit well
Photos: Andrew Finch
alongside natives. We have so many varieties and, at this time of year, the differences show through in the autumn colour – some are golden, some orange, red or pink.”
In the back, a kiwifruit vine leads to the productive garden where raspberries, blueberries, gooseberries, olives, peaches, apricots, apples, rhubarb, cumquat and citrus flourish.
With a sacred garden of white stones and a Buddha statue, the garden also features seats where the owners love to pause to admire the micro-views created.
“My favourite spot is to sit by the small moss garden near a miniature black pine and with a view through the maples to the vertical garden,” says Greg.
“As we work on gardens all day, there is always something special about coming home to your own garden.”
“Kathleen”, 21 Downey Street, Karabar, open 10am-4pm, on Saturday, April 16 and Sunday April 17. Admission $8; free to under-18s and Open Gardens Canberra members. It costs $25 to join Open Gardens Canberra and gain free entry to all open gardens until August 31, 2017. More information at opengardenscanberra.org.au/join
Art studio garden, 48 Brereton Street, Queanbeyan West (Open 10am-4pm both days)
A sculptured metal gate opens up to the main garden; a productive permaculture garden full of quirky works of art.
The artist’s studio has a welcoming open front, looking out on to fruit trees and a brick path that steps gradually up to the very top of the garden. Here, the garden recalls memories of the outer edges of a country garden where it merges into the farm beyond.
Railway Park Community Gardens, cnr Henderson Road and Crest Road, Queanbeyan (Open 10am-1pm both days. Entry by donation)
These gardens are getting a makeover from the Queanbeyan Sustainability Group, including a new pergola, disabled access plots, demonstration garden beds and water tanks.
Queanbeyan Sensory Gardens, Ray Morton Park (Open 12pm-4pm both days. Entry by donation)
The Sensory Gardens are a park attraction located on the banks of the Queanbeyan river in Ray Morton Park. The gardens have raised beds and include plants and activities which engage all five senses, with a viewing platform looking over the river.
AUTUMN is a glorious time in Canberra with cooler days and the spectacular show of autumn leaves.
We owe much to the early pioneers for planting Canberra: Weston, Bruce and Pryor. The planting of street trees, for which they were responsible, resulted in the right balance between deciduous and non-deciduous trees, especially spring blossom trees, conifers and native trees. This planting approach is particularly evident in the older suburbs.
Unfortunately, in the newer suburbs and town centres in the late ‘60s and ‘70s there was a change in policy. In Belconnen, the planners decided to follow what was, at that time, the “bush capital” concept, which meant almost every street planting consisted of eucalypts, leading to the high costs for maintenance. Also, these evergreen trees cast shadows during winter, affecting the efficiency of solar panels and photovoltaic systems.
The almost total plantings of eucalypts rob residents of magnificent spring blossoms and the kaleidoscope of autumn leaf colour.
Falling leaves of deciduous trees are a rich source of compost, used for adding valuable nutrients to the soil. Shredding the leaves with a mower is an effective way of breaking them down for adding to garden beds. I put 50 per cent of my leaf mulch on to the compost heap and 50 per cent directly on to garden beds. They rot down and worms, vital in every garden, just love the leaves.
Perhaps there may be a tourist attraction in a festival promoting the colours of autumn leaves as Tumut does with its Festival of the Falling Leaf.
SO, let’s have a quick look at trees with brilliant autumn leaf colour. With the ever decreasing size of blocks I have purposely selected
The superb richness of an Acer dissectum
small trees for small gardens.
This is a relatively small selection. The best place to look is a garden centre where coloured labels give the relative ultimate sizes. There is:
• A crabapple, Malus “Tom Matthews” with stunning pink flowers in spring followed by dark purple-red fruit and spectacular red, yellow and orange leaves in autumn. Growing to just 2.5m high with a similar spread.
• Japanese maples have always been a favourite, not only for their autumn leaf colour, but many with stunning leaf colour throughout the spring to autumn. Acer palmatum “Senkaki”, known also as the Coral Bark due to its coral pink new growth of branches with deep yellow autumn leaves. Slightly larger to 4m high with a 3m spread.
• Acer palmatum “Bonfire”, which as the name suggests has brilliant foliage in spring and autumn.
• The leaves of Acer “Villa Taranto” turn in spring to a deep green with a reddish tinge and rich golden-yellow leaves in autumn.
A word of warning; if you are in a new suburb with little or no tree protection from hot, scorching summer winds, I suggest you put off planting the fine-leafed Japanese maple, many of which have fine, dissected leaves and are quite delicate, especially the grafted weeping maples as illustrated here.
JUST one hint this week to combine with the autumn feeding program using certified organic fertilisers: I recommend giving all acid-loving, deciduous plants (such as daphne and camellias) a dose of magnesium sulphate, ie Epsom salts. Magnesium is the centre of the chlorophyll molecule, so essential for good, healthy plant growth. The usual indicator is yellowing of leaves. Mix one heaped tablespoon full with nine litres of water.
