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By Danielle Nohra
BEING hours from the nearest beach, Canberra isn’t the ideal location for a budding marine biologist but for Siobhan Heatwole, 30, it was never a barrier.
Luckily, her grandparents lived on the central coast of NSW and it was there, as a child, observing marine animals in their natural environment that Siobhan became drawn to a career in marine biology.
She would spend most of her days there in the water, swimming, snorkelling and later scuba diving.
Now she’s in Indonesia working as a coral reef rehabilitation adviser with Mars Symbioscience.
“I travelled to Indonesia for a scubadiving holiday in 2005 and was captivated by the beauty of the coral reefs and marine life that I saw,” she says.
“Indonesia is a biodiversity hotspot, but a lot of the ecosystems in the region are under threat.”
Siobhan wanted to be part of a project in Indonesia that encourages marine sustainability because damage is being done to many of the coral reefs.
“I had been working as a marine researcher, studying the impacts of human disturbances on coral reefs and I thought it would be great to put some of that knowledge into practice ‘on the ground’, so when I saw the role adver-
tised with the Australian Volunteers for International Development program, I knew immediately it was right up my alley,” she says.
“I knew that to be involved in a project that helps restore and protect that biodiversity while simultaneously helping local people to maintain a more sustainable livelihood would be very rewarding for me.”
Professionally, with a background in fish ecology, Siobhan has gained more experience in the area of corals.
One of Siobhan’s projects has been to help with the establishment of a coral nursery at Bontosua Island.
Mars Symbioscience grows corals in the nursery so that they can later harvest fragments to return to areas of the reef that need to be rehabilitated.
“Coral reefs are important and valuable ecosystems and are some of the most diverse ecosystems on earth,” she says.
“Everyone needs to take care of coral reefs, because healthy coral reefs provide shelter, food sources, spawning
and nursery grounds for fishes which in turn supports the fish stocks that over a billion people rely on.
“A decline in the health of coral reefs can have severe consequences for fish stocks.
“Coral reefs also act as a natural barrier to waves and provide protection from storms, which reduces problems with coastal erosion.”
Before Siobhan went to Indonesia she was living in Taiwan, doing research in the South China Sea and before that employed by the ANU to do field research in Darwin and Panama.
But her childhood home is Canberra, where she lived with her family in Latham and then in Flynn, later on working for the public service in the Department of Industry and Science.
For Siobhan, her experience in Indonesia has meant that she has formed another family.
“I have been so completely blown away by how welcoming, inclusive, and accommodating my colleagues have been,” Siobhan says.
“We have been through some very sad and trying times together, and during these times they have looked out for me and have drawn me into their community.”
After finishing her work in Indonesia, Siobhan will have a few weeks in Australia to spend time with family and friends, and then she’s off to Taiwan again.
Dementia
study seeks volunteers
ANU researchers are looking for people experiencing memory or other cognitive problems to take part in a new study on how to reduce the risk of dementia. The study is a lifestyle intervention for people aged 65 years and over and who live in the ACT and surrounds.
Mitchell McMaster, from the ANU Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing, said: “We are looking for people who experience memory or other cognitive problems in day-to-day life. So things like forgetting appointments, problems managing money or medications or problems with their attention or maintaining their train of thought,” he said.
To participate call 6125 6351 or email bblmci@anu.edu.au.
Pelvic floor workshop
WOMEN of all ages are invited to attend a free workshop presented by a physiotherapist from ACT Health who will provide information, education and self-help strategies for women experiencing or wishing to prevent continence problems. At the Belconnen Community Health Centre, 56 Lathlain Street, 1pm-4pm, on Tuesday, August 1. Bookings to 6207 9977.
Cover: Richard and Debbie Rolfe.
Marine biologist Siobhan Heatwole at the Mars Symbioscience Mariculture facility in Takalar, Sulawesi… “Everyone needs to take care of coral reefs.” Photo by Darren James
Lucky, well-heeled us, another pollie looms...
What about digging up some different data… For example, which Canberra suburb boasts the most private tennis courts?
STATISTICALLY, we Canberrans appear to be a bunch of well-heeled heathens.
The controversial 2016 census stats are in and it turns out more Canberrans are losing their religion and receiving the highest national pay packet. Over 34 per cent of Canberrans ticked the “no religion” option, up almost 12 per cent on the 2011 count. And, in a city with a median weekly wage of $998 and already awash with pollies, the latest population headcount at just over 400,000 also qualifies us for greater representation in the House of Reps.
THE periodic gathering of information provides thousands of pieces of seemingly useless but vital information to ensure an orderly future for our nation. But are we really getting value for money?
What about digging
up some different data that would at least provide unimaginative breakfast radio people with entertaining content. For example, which Canberra suburb boasts the most private tennis courts? Hawker’s my tip, but we’ll have to wait and see if that mystery is solved the next time a “snapshot” is taken.
NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro says the ACT government’s ban on greyhound racing creates an opportunity for his electorate to embrace the sport. The member for Monaro says a greyhound racing track could be established at Queanbeyan. It may also be prudent to consider adding a pacing circuit. Despite a five-year funding deal on the table from the ACT there’s a suspicion harness racing is under threat as the government bends over further to appease the Greens. Pigeon fanciers are also understood to be getting a bit nervous.
STILL in the menagerie; former Labor MLA and minister John Hargreaves is threatening to set the cat among the
pigeons over a new plan to contain moggies in the ACT. Presently a dozen Canberra suburbs are zoned for “cat containment” but there’s pressure for the policy to be extended to cover the entire region. Hargreaves, who has two cats, says: “I would be very, very upset if the law changed that said: ‘You have to put a cat run up’.” Asked if civil disobedience was on the cards, the forthright Hargreaves said: “Yep”.
dose of dorin
authentic avenue to sartorial eloquence with the imminent closure in Bunda Street of John Hanna Fine Clothes for Men. The John Hanna fashion journey began at suburban Kippax Fair in the ‘70s before moving upmarket to the iconic Europeanstyle showroom in Civic. Hanna says it’s time for him to slow down but he will miss the challenge of staying one step ahead of fickle fashion trends.
Hanna has dressed many famous men along the way, but is coy on providing details. One such tale might involve AFL bad boy Ben Cousins , on the run from a salivating media pack several years ago, popping in to purchase a pair of socks.
FANS of the man they call “golden tonsils” will be pleased to know there’s a new book out about the great broadcaster. “Lawsie – Well....you wanted to know” is John Laws’ replies to a series of questions put to him over a year.
Has the nearly 82-year-old, who kept the dream alive on 2CC for many years, mellowed?
A BAN on smoking at a further 3000 sites around the territory may also spark acts of civil disobedience. Smokers, already forced to skulk in desperate huddles on the outer reaches of society, are being asked to abstain around bus stops, taxi shelters and train stations, which may just be the final straw that breaks the (unfiltered) camel’s back.
CANBERRA men are about to lose another
“No, I’m still as angry as I ever was,” he told me.
Famous for legendary long lunches, he does compliment his one-time adversary Alan Jones as “a competent broadcaster and fun to have lunch with”. Would he break bread with former understudy Ray Hadley?
“I only have lunch with people I like,” was the curt reply.
25 YEAR STEEL FRAME WARRANTY
Crocodile tears amid banks’ greedy hypocrisy
HYPOCRISY! Hypocrisy and greed.
These are the hallmarks of Australia’s four big banks.
For years they have been mercilessly ripping off ordinary Australians through outrageous interest rates on credit cards and sneaky bank fees.
Now they are crying poor over a 0.015 per cent levy on bank liabilities.
The latest round of appalling behaviour by the banks emphasises why Australia badly needs a Royal Commission into banking in this country.
The huge banks with their massive profits pay less corporate tax than people on the lowest income-tax brackets. It gets worse. The banks are now crying poor because SA has found a way to add a levy of just 0.015 per cent on the banks’ liabilities. In SA the Treasurer, Tom Koutsantonis, says the levy will raise around $100 million a year.
The Commonwealth Bank’s net profit after tax (NPAT) for the half year ended December 31 was $4895 million. I should write that as $5 billion. The previous full year was $9.4 billion. The same bank claims it has “low-rate credit cards” with 13.24 per cent for purchases and 21.24 per cent cash advance. A rip off – simply usury!
In June the Reserve Bank of Australia “cash rate” was just 1.5 per cent.
The latest round of appalling behaviour by the banks emphasises why Australia badly needs a Royal Commission into banking in this country.
The banks have come out fighting.
“Lights out on new investment. Lights out on jobs” screamed a full-page advertisement in a major paper by the Australian Bankers’ Association. Apparently, 0.015 per cent is going to bring the banks to their knees.
NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has indicated that his state might follow suit. The ACT Chief Minister and Treasurer, Andrew Barr, should keep an open mind.
The conservative federal government has already been hooked into the campaign and has asked for advice on the legality of the tax. In the meantime, Koutsantonis argues that SA is “satisfied with the legal advice we have”.
The campaign smells. No, it stinks. It has all the hallmarks of the campaign against the super profits mining tax in 2010 under PM Kevin Rudd. I wrote at that time: “The Minerals Council of Australia understood that the best fabrications are based on some truth enhanced by exaggeration, fear and uncertainty. They used threats of doom and gloom for the mining industry and had international CEOs claiming intention to withdraw from Australia”.
The same pattern is being followed. Arguments are about the risks to the viability of the banks, jobs, mum and dad investors and “sovereign risk”.
Commonwealth Bank CEO, Ian Narev, fronted the arguments in an opinion piece in
“The Australian Financial Review”. He argued this tiny taxation will undermine the willingness and confidence of huge international investors including pension and superannuation funds. Apparently ordinary people will be the losers. No. It is the large investors that will really have to pay this minute percentage of tax.
The banks are also angry at the Federal government. Narev says that this tax is only possible as the SA government “walked through the gate the Federal government left open”. He accuses both governments of “unprincipled bank levies”.
This is why we need the Royal Commission. It is not elected governments levying taxes as part of their role that is “unprincipled”. Rather, it is the greedy, hypocritical banks who object to contributing a small share of tax (0.015 per cent) when the lowestincome taxpayers contribute a third of their salary.
According to the banks it’s not only unprincipled to place a 0.015 per cent levy, it’s also reckless. And the banks are supported by (Surprise! Surprise!) – big business.
London-based Jason Pidcock, of Jupiter Asset Management’s $875 million Asian income fund, is reported in the same paper describing this tiny tax measure as “grand larceny”. His colleague Matthew Haupt, of Wilson Asset Management, described it as a “disgrace”.
Shroud waving is alive and well. It illustrates how vulnerable the banks are feeling. However, the vulnerability is not about money, investment or sovereign risk. It is about the danger of their own practices and deceits being exposed through a proper and thorough inquiry. Ironically, the appallingly poor behaviour of the banks simply throws fuel on the fire for a Royal Commission.
Michael Moore was an independent member of the ACT Legislative Assembly (1989 to 2001) and was minister for health
Actsmart offers a range of free programs for ACT businesses including: • support to implement efficient recycling and waste management practices • obligation free onsite energy and water assessments • rebates of up to $5,000 (on a cost share basis) to upgrade inefficient equipment More than 1000 ACT businesses have already signed up to Actsmart programs.
Ian Narev… angry at “unprincipled” bank levies.
Big new job for no ordinary Joe
DURING his rugby union days Joe Roff was operated on by surgeons who helped out in programs at the John James Foundation.
Now the former Brumbies and Wallabies player will be working with them in a different way.
The 41-year-old will take over as CEO of the John James Foundation next month.
“It’s an organisation that does incredible work, but not too many people know how much they do for the community,” he says.
Born in Heathcote, Victoria, Joe moved with his family as a 14-year-old to Canberra. He went to Marist College, which was where he first started playing rugby union because all his mates were playing.
“I love sport, I was that kid that always had a ball in my hand,” Joe says.
But he never thought he would end up playing for the Wallabies and caught himself and his family off guard when he started making representative teams.
At the age of 19 Joe was selected in Australia’s 1995 Rugby World Cup squad, where he made his debut against Canada scoring a try, followed by another two against Romania.
“I was nervous meeting and playing alongside my heroes,” Joe says.
“I was just a country kid a few years earlier and then I was playing with legends I grew up watching.”
By 2004 Joe was losing the passion and
Oxford University taught former rugby player Joe Roff to believe he could change the world. He plans to do that in his new role.
Reporter
DANIELLE NOHRA has the story
energy he once had for the game.
“The excitement had gone, the nerves weren’t there and it felt like a job,” he says.
Needing a change, he moved to England to study politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University.
“The thing that Oxford does to you, is that it makes you believe that you can change the world,” he says.
“I always had a passion for not-for-profit work but it was refined there and I thought to myself that I want to do something that has a positive outcome.
“I wanted to change the life around me and around Canberra.”
So when Joe moved back to the ACT he took a job as the director for workforce and development at Lifeline Australia.
Joe saw friends struggling with transitioning out of sport.
“I had good friends who are world-class athletes who tried to take their lives,” he says.
“As an athlete you live in a bubble and you have to understand that real life is not like the bubble,” he says.
“It’s a struggle for everyone because you go from the top of the mountain to the bottom, where you’re made to start afresh.”
After two years with Lifeline Joe moved to the role of CEO of the University of Canberra Union where, during his six years there, he was instrumental in bringing the Brumbies and the UC Capitals to the campus.
But he wanted to work for a not-for-profit again and knew he could add value to the John James Foundation.
“I want to build on the partnerships that already exist. I think Canberra is the greatest city in the world because individuals and organisations are willing to collaborate,” he says.
“The John James Village is a perfect example. The government, John James Foundation and Leukaemia Australia partnered to create a facility that is now at capacity and making a positive difference to patients and families of victims.
“I just want to work with good people and do good things.”
Until then Joe is planning to spend time with his three children, read a book and get some headspace before he “hits the ground running” in his new role.
Right: Joe Roff… “I just want to work with good people and do good things.”
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Over the past 25 years the Rolfes have become a two-person tour de force when it comes to philanthropy in sport and charity in the ACT.
THE image of a Special Olympics swimmer with a beaming smile receiving a medal atop the dais from the Sydney Olympic Games is an unforgettable memory.
Or Melissa Breen breaking the long-standing, national 100 metres record on the track, or the Capitals’ dominance in the WNBL, or the emergence and success of the Canberra Cavalry in the Australian Baseball League, the Brumbies and the Raiders… the list goes on.
The one thing they have in common is they have all been the beneficiaries of support, in one way or another, from Canberra couple, Richard and Debbie Rolfe.
Over the past 25 years they have become a two-person tour de force when it comes to philanthropy in sport and charity in the ACT.
Such is the range of organisations they have supported it is probably easier to list charities and sports that they haven’t been involved with. Three significant community organisations that they have supported are the Canberra Hospital Foundation, the Early Morning Centre and Home in Queanbeyan.
Fittingly, they have been appointed Members of the Order of Australia in last month’s Queen’s Birthday Honours on top of their previous nomination for the Local Hero awards in the Australia Day Honours.
The impression I get is they would happily do it without any recognition.
It started 25 years ago when their children
were young and involved in sport in Canberra. From that moment, they not only became heavily engaged in their own children’s sporting endeavours but also did all they could for the wider sporting and charitable community.
Since going to the men’s and women’s basketball at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics they have been supporters of the Canberra Capitals and, while they were in the NBL, the Canberra Cannons.
The couple’s love of the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games resulted in their personal backing of Melissa Breen.
Matt Beckenham who has coached Mel almost through her entire career says of Debbie and Richard: “Their passion is amazing, I have no doubt Mel wouldn’t have made the Olympics without Richard and Debbie standing by her side and, most importantly, caring about the person first and foremost”.
Their four-car garage over the years has been filled to the brim with sporting memorabilia. Richard bought the medal dais from the Sydney Olympics, which has resulted in thousands of athletes receiving medals on the dais that was once graced by the likes of Ian Thorpe in 2000.
Glenn Keys, who has been a driving force for Special Olympics in the ACT, paid tribute to Debbie and Richard saying many athletes with a disability have benefitted by their generosity.
Don McMichael, from the Canberra Cavalry baseball team, also suggested that a number of baseballers playing in the US would be still play-
ing locally had it not been for the support of Debbie and Richard. The good news for Canberra as a community is that they are more determined than ever to help those in need. We are lucky to have them as part of the Canberra community; they have made it a better place to live.
IT’S also worth noting the passing of two people who also made our combetter place
of the ACT cricket side, becoming one of only two players in ACT first-grade cricket to have scored 4000 runs and take 400 wickets. He then went on to become a leading umpire, a board member and a life member of ACT Cricket.
Joan Kellett was president of ACT Swimming for close to 20 years. Her involvement in Canberra swimming started at the Dickson Pool and continued well after her children had finished in the sport.
Many a swimmer in Canberra has benefitted from the programs put in place by Joan over the years.
Debbie and Richard Rolfe… more determined than ever to help those in need.
Joan Kellett.
Uncovering the deep mysteries of Googong
BY staring at the water surface long enough, it’s possible to just make out the once-white stucco walls and, even after all these years, the tinge of the formerly red, corrugatediron roof.
The stone and hand-hewn timber homestead once stood proudly overlooking the river valley that almost a century and a half later would be its death knell – the dammed waters swirling through and over it, submerging it forever.
“Googong”, the original property of 1845 (first known as “The Googongs” and later rechristened “Beltana”), drowned to build a mighty dam, is not the only lost heritage of what is much more than Queanbeyan’s newest suburb.
A schoolhouse from the 1880s that vanished 100 years ago may yet be one of those to re-emerge in what is actually one of the old city’s earliest European-inhabited areas.
As such, the place that was for those arrivals the very “edge of civilisation”, is more obscure and enigmatic than might be expected, encompassing tales of everything from disappearing skeletons to a local “hairy man of the woods”.
First officially mentioned in the registers of Queanbeyan’s Christ Church in 1848, the “forest country with some scrub, intersected by rugged gullies” was sighted by white explorers 25 years before that.
In 1825, it was taken up by one of the region’s pioneering – and largest – landholders, Robert Campbell. Responsible for Duntroon House (1833), the Campbells purchased almost 2000 acres (809 hectares) seven kilometres south of Queanbeyan in 1836, then referred to as “The River Station”.
How it came to be “Googong” is one of the outlier’s many mysteries (so, too, its meaning, which remains unknown).
One version suggests it became thus about the time it was sold to a raffish Irishman John Feagan who, legend has it, Campbell didn’t think could pay – until he opened his sad-
dlebags to reveal the gleam of his discoveries on the Araluen goldfields.
Following Feagan’s death in a riding accident, his son-in-law Albert William Studdy became master of all he surveyed, building a new homestead on higher ground with a picturesque view of the river running through it and ringed by the hills beyond.
Of course, it was this natural amphitheatre that also saw Walter Burley Griffin incorporate it as a potential reservoir in his Canberra plan – and it was Studdy’s concern about this that resulted in the sale of his home to grazier JC Gorman in 1920.
In a revision of that account, detailed by the Queanbeyan Heritage Committee in 2010, it was suggested the name “Googong” had been “pinched” by Studdy or Gorman from another settler, James Brown, who also acquired much land in the vicinity. Eventually, this came under the ownership of William Joseph Wells, also in the 1920s, who it’s alleged at that time changed it from “Googong” to “Wellsvale”. Whichever account is correct (and the first appears most likely), it was on Brown’s property the now disappeared Googong Public School was situated from 1883.
Described as “a singleroomed slab building with a chimney, that was open to the weather” after almost three decades of use, for some unspecified reason, it was moved closer to Queanbeyan. By the end of 1913 though, its tenure was at an end.
With no existing records of its actual placement, it was overlooked and eventually forgotten, any remains covered with the inevitable sands of time. Now an archaeological
dig has uncovered old-style pencils and stone foundations they are hoping will see the schoolhouse re-imagined, reminding the young students of the area’s latest educational facility of how different things were for their forebears.
In the meantime, there are those that will never rise again – the skeletal remnants of that very first building that went to its watery grave in 1976, at that point offering an ominous prediction of the potential fate of the city lying below it.
The Googong Dam wall holds back the equivalent of 50,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools and when it stood only 17 metres high, Queanbeyan was subjected to its third most dramatic flood event on record. So serious were the fears the wall would be breached, 5000
residents were evacuated from low-lying ground.
As to Googong’s other anomalies, they’ve been vouched for by many a prominent source including a local policeman who, in 1874, discovered human bones hidden in a cave. The bones went missing in the time it took him to get to Queanbeyan and back again. One of the region’s most decorated war heroes, Maj-Gen Sir Granville Ryrie, recalled yowie encounters when he was a boy in the 1860s – and even “The Queanbeyan Age” reported the drowning of one of the mythical hominids in the ‘76 flood.
With all of that, who wouldn’t want to be a Googonian?
Nichole Overall is a Queanbeyan-based journalist and social historian
“Beltana” homestead, the original property of 1845... drowned to build a mighty dam. Photo 1976, ACT Archives
“Googong” homestead built by Albert William Studdy on higher ground with a picturesque view of the river running through it and ringed by the hills beyond. Photo 1976, ACT Archives
When the world put Trump to one side
MY first response to Donald Trump’s spurning the Paris climate change accord was anger.
One foolish fellow had used his power to put the lives of my granddaughters – and their billions of Earth-bound compatriots – in jeopardy. It was outrageous, perhaps even a crime against humanity.
At the very least, I wanted him ripped out of the Oval Office by the scruff of the neck and kicked all the way down Pennsylvania Avenue. I didn’t even think then about our place at Tuross which, if Trump and his followers had their way, would eventually disappear beneath the rising waters of the South Pacific. That came later as the lullaby of surf breaking on Coila Beach took on a more ominous tone. But then something quite unexpected happened. The world put Donald Trump to one side and decided to fight climate change without him. The Europeans were adamant. Australia was unmoved. Even some of the biggest states and cities in America – California among them – were determined to continue the battle, whatever the tweeter in the White House said and did.
But perhaps the most significant effect of his foolish action was to surrender the leadership of global action to America’s principal economic rival, the People’s Republic of China. And with that leadership comes an
I wanted him ripped out of the Oval Office by the scruff of the neck and kicked all the way down Pennsylvania Avenue.
extraordinary capacity to dominate the great renewable energy industries in the same way that America dominated the IT, defence and aviation industries in the 20th century.
And when you add to that China’s massive One Belt, One Road initiative that will develop land and sea-based infrastructure across half the world, we’re looking at a transformation of the global power ratio with enormous political and economic consequences for Australia.
I have a particular interest in this changing of the guard. For the last two years I have been researching and writing a book, “Dragon and Kangaroo”, which charts Australia and China’s shared history, from the goldfields to the present day and it explores the little known and understood impact that each country has had on the other.
It deals with the “riots” against the Chinese in the gold rush that led directly to the White Australia Policy, which cut us off from our regional neighbours for 90 years. And it reveals the extraordinary role the Chinese played in the settlement of the NT and north Queensland.
It unmasks for the first time the operations of two remarkable Australians who helped to overthrow the last Imperial Dynasty and install a republic in 1912; and in World War I they helped to defend China against Japanese invasion. It also reveals the part China played in preventing a Japanese invasion of Australia in World War II.
But since then we have been very close allies of the US. And we have little liking for the oppressive, one-party rule of the Chinese Communist dynasty (though it has been remarkably effective in raising its own people from poverty). And our Defence establishment has based its operations on the presumption that China is the notional “threat”. This is despite China being far and away our biggest trading partner, without which our economy would collapse. Indeed, former PM Tony Abbott caught the favour of our approach best in one of his three-word slogans: “fear and greed”.
It seems – at least for the moment – that Trump doesn’t care about this historic shift, though if his polling numbers become critical he could easily choose the tried and true political trick of creating an international crisis with China as the enemy. And with Australia’s weak leadership at present and in prospect, we might very well be caught up in the manufactured crisis.
But there is a bright side. Trump’s election to the Oval Office has shown that in the American political system, almost anything is possible. Even if he’s run out of town after his four-year term, he’s a stark reminder of just how unwise it is to put all our eggs in the one American basket.
There’s no question of our swapping one “great and powerful friend” for another. But it does drive home the importance of our developing a fiercely independent foreign policy of our own.
robert@ robertmacklin.com
Off leash and large
I FOUND the article by Lucy Alexander (“What to do when faced with an aggressive dog”, CN, June 22) very informative and helpful.
A badly behaved dog can be very intimidating and frightening for anyone, especially children.
I’m a dog lover. I own two little dogs, and frequently take them to exercise in approved “off leash” areas in Canberra, as a lot of other dog owners do.
Thankfully, most dog owners are responsible and call their dogs.
However, on two occasions a large dog has made a beeline for my two and shown aggression. On both occasions I picked up my dogs, yelled a bit and the aggressive dog eventually lost interest.
fair trading
Keeping kids safe from falling furniture
IT can take one moment of inattention and your little tike is scaling a bookcase, using the dresser drawers to practise their climbing or trying to get closer to (or cuddle) the flat-screen TV.
For a child, falling furniture can be deadly. Or, at the very least, cause significant injury.
Research shows at least two children tragically die each year in Australia due to injuries sustained when climbing or pulling heavy furniture or appliances on to themselves.
There are countless more injuries, including in the ACT – many of which could be prevented.
Yet there are simple but critically important steps that can prevent the risk of injury in the home from falling furniture and appliances.
And this is not just for parents. Anyone with young children visiting their home – even on the odd occasion – or a grandparent, aunt, uncle, should do this, too:
• Undertake a quick “audit” of the furniture and appliances in the house considering risks if you were a child.
• Secure all freestanding furniture and TVs using furniture straps, angle braces or anchors screwed into the wall.
• Use child-resistant locks on furniture drawers to stop young children from opening drawers and using them to climb.
• Move heavy items or toys on top shelves or bookcases that children may want to reach.
• Discourage small children from climbing on furniture.
Anyone renting should not be deterred; get permission to install furniture straps, braces or anchors from the landlord or agent. When you explain the need to install such safety measures, you’ll find there is a high level of support.
Together we can work to ensure our homes remain safe places for children to explore, grow and thrive.
David Snowden is the ACT commissioner for Fair Trading.
I’m wondering if Lucy may be able to publish some tips on what the owner of a dog can do to prevent a dog attack by another aggressive dog and how to break up a dog fight.
Barbara McGann, via email (We shall ask her for you, Barbara – Ed)
Here’s the Bill
The ALP deserves full marks for its July 1 marketing prowess. Impressive conflating of issues that are completely unrelated.
The sizzle is in the Shorten onslaught about reversing award penalty rate changes, hiking taxes and bringing marriage equality.
As for the sausage, the onslaught overshadows the eye-watering taxes and charges increases of the mainly state and territory ALP governments from July 1 (adding to everyone’s cost of living pressures). It overshadows the minimum wage rise that is occurring around now and overshadows the end of the ALP-supported temporary high income tax levy.
As for marriage equality it will be no credit to Bill Shorten but to Tony Abbott who will have enabled Shorten (ironically, originally a plebiscite supporter himself) to get the credit for a long overdue and popular reform. I am sure Shorten cannot believe he has a political opponent in Tony Abbott who helped him while PM and even as a backbencher.
Martin Gordon, Dunlop
Forester for me
I SEE a Peter Sesterka attacking exforester Peter Marshall in “City News” (“Standing up for the arboretum”, Letters, CN, June 22) re his stance on the arboretum.
I would be interested in knowing what Sesterka’s qualifications, experience and knowledge are in relation to the various forests which comprise the arboretum.
On balance, I am more inclined to believe Peter Marshall.
Ric Hingee,
Duffy
2017 Food & Wine Tour
WENDY JOHNSON
DINING every week in... goes
There’s
EVERY year since 1880 the Bastille Day Military Parade is held at the ChampsÉlysées, on the morning of July 14.
Bastille Day, the French National Day, commemorates the Storming of the Bastille in 1789, a pivotal event at the beginning of the French Revolution.
It also celebrates Fête de la Fédération, 1790, a celebration of the establishment of the constitutional monarchy.
The people of Paris stormed the Bastille, a fortress and prison in Paris, during a time of political and economic uncertainty.
Weeks after the Storming of the Bastille, at a session of the Assemblée Constituante on August 4, feudalism was abolished. Later that month, the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen” was proclaimed.
In France, Bastille Day is formally called La Fête Nationale (the National Celebration).
revolution in the air
A local taste of provincial France
WHILE its Bastille Day dinner has sold out, Le Tres Bon Restaurant’s classic French dishes are prepared with local produce.
Nestled in Bungendore village, Le Tres Bon (which means “the very good”) is run by renowned French chef Christophe Gregoire and his wife Josephine.
It is a restaurant and cooking school that its owners describe as the epitome of provincial France.
Born and raised in the Les Vosges region of France, Christophe is imbued with a centuries-old culinary tradition, one based on seasonal produce.
He has a passion for fresh, local produce such as Bungendore’s chestnuts, truffles, organic vegetables, fruit and organic meat.
Christophe says the art of cooking means revealing the inherent beauty of quality produce.
A master culinarian, he aims to provide his patrons
with a memorable gastronomic experience rather than just a meal.
Although a stickler for authenticity who doesn’t adapt recipes, he does cater for diners who require gluten and/or dairy free meals.
The couple says their cooking classes are relaxed, fun and hands on. They tailor a cooking class for groups, corporate team building and cooking classes in the French language.
Le Tres Bon, 40 Malbon Street, Bungendore. Call 6238 0662, email info@letresbon.com.au or visit letresbon.com.au
The Boat House with a French accent
FOR Bastille Day, The Boat House will celebrate the inspiration French food has on Canberra dining.
“It’ll be The Boat House’s take on some popular French cuisine,” says owner James Souter.
“We’re going to transform the style of The Boat House, giving it a French provincial look.”
On the night, cheese expert and Frenchman Olivier Bruge, from Mart Delicatessen, will host the event, share history about Bastille Day and talk about the French cheese on the menu.
Olivier will give diners answers to questions, such as: “Which is older, Camembert or Brie?”
Guests will also hear from chef John Leverink and som-
melier Kate Hibberson about the influences on the “modern French” menu including truffles from The Truffle Farm, and insights into the revered wine regions across France. John recently returned from France and during his travels was inspired to create rockmelon and pinot noir lollipops after eating hollowed-out rockmelon with pinot noir in a small village town.
James says it will be a social event (European style) with shared tables as well as a buffet cheeseboard at the end, followed by dessert.
The Boat House, Grevillea Park, Menindee Drive, Barton. Book via 6273 5500 or theboathouse.restaurant
Chef Christophe Gregoire.
Bill and Hari Simotas with Cia and Harry Kay Sophie and Rachel Bilal
Jim Andriopoulos, MLA Steve Doszpot, JohnPaul Romano with Helen and Alex Stefopoulos
Jaqueline and Julie Bradley Margaret and David Williams with Meredith Hinchliffe
Shannon Brown, Kerry Smith with Maria and Gavin Klinger
Lia Tajcnar, Tiffany Cole and Helen Braund
Tony Stubbs and Ann Ronning
Sophie Quinn and Naomi Taylor Georgia Stynes and Christian Zappas
Maureen Doszpot with Tony and Debbie Olivera
Steve and Stacey Porter with Lisa and Bruce Shearman
Robert Bleyerveen and Jenny Shaw
Maggie Brady and Diana James
Nicola McClelland and Nicci Haynes
Di Summerhayes and Kareen Tait
winter health & fitness Meeting the challenge
KEEPING fit can be hard over the frosty months, but winter doesn’t have to mean cutting down on exercise routines.
There are lots of ways to keep nourished and healthy in order to stay fit this winter. Here is some inspiration…
There’s no better time to be running
WINTER is, surprisingly, the best time for runners to increase their training, says long-time runner and director of The Runners Shop, Nick Walshe.
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Nick, who’s in his late thirties, has been running since he was 15 and says people can go longer in the colder weather without their heart rate being elevated.
Nick’s passion for running led him to take over The Runners Shop in Phillip nine years ago and then open a second shop in Gungahlin in 2015.
“Our staff are all runners or triathletes, providing first-hand knowledge and passion,” he says.
Nick recommends that people change their shoes every 800 kilometres.
“Once people get to the stage when they’re running most days, it’s good to have a couple of pairs of shoes,” he says.
“Shoes behave like the muscles in your body, if you give them a rest between runs they’ll last longer.”
And if runners still need motivation to move this winter, The Runners Shop has been sponsoring the YMCA Canberra Runners Club for 20 years and will have a 5km and 10km fun run starting at Menindee Drive, Parkes, at 12.45pm on July 22. Registration on the day.
The Runners Shop, 76 Dundas Street, Phillip, call 6285 3508 and upstairs 46-50 Hibberson Street, Gungahlin, call 6241 7054 or visit therunnersshop.com.au
The Runners Shop is OPEN in two great locations
• Extensive range of shoes for Runners, Joggers, Walkers and Gym enthusiasts of all ages
• Brands include Asics, Brooks, Nike, New Balance, Mizuno, Saucony and Hoka
• Great range of technical running apparel which breathes (wicks moisture) all year round
• Extensive range of nutrition products from Endura, GU, Hammer & 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!
Learning massage therapy from the experts
CIT Bruce has two massage courses starting during winter that teach how to support people to keep their muscles healthy and fit, says senior educator of health sciences Sara Dukic.
The Certificate IV in Massage Therapy and the Diploma of Remedial Massage give students skills in relaxation as well as experience helping people manage pain and chronic disease.
The Diploma is studied full time over a period of 12 months and the Certificate IV can be counted towards the Diploma if a student wishes to further their studies later on.
While studying, the students will have access to the “Fit and Well” massage clinic on campus to gain industry experience.
“The clinic is open to the general public and students work under qualified massage therapists,” Sara says.
“All are qualified and experienced soft-tissue therapists who have experience treating elite sporting teams such as the Brisbane Broncos and the Canberra Raiders.”
Sara says a large part of the course is focused on sports massage.
“We’ve had graduates in the past receive scholarships to work for the AIS and some graduates worked as remedial therapists for the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics,” she says.
Enrolment information and sessions will be held in room B10 at 1pm or 5.30pm on July 20.
GUNGAHLIN STORE: Hibberson St, Gungahlin Entrance between the Central Café & Gloria Jeans Café 6241 7054
PHILLIP STORE:
The Runners Shop director Nick Walshe.
to stay fit over winer
Tips to fight off the cold season
CHEMIST Outlet has everything to help keep its customers healthy over the winter months, says owner Rhonda Warne.
Chemist Outlet has preventative services such as influenza vaccine and vitamins, which Rhonda says build immune systems to fight off flu naturally.
And, on Mondays to Wednesdays, a university trained naturopath will be in the store to guide customers through the minefield of supplements and vitamins.
“We have a regular range of cough and cold tablets such as Codral to treat your system,” Rhonda says.
“But the vitamins are designed to keep your immune system strong.”
In this cough and cold season Rhonda says the most crucial thing is for people to keep washing their hands.
“If you have a cough or cold you should really be at home having plenty of fluids and rest,” she says.
And because the air is a lot dryer during this time of the year, she says it’s important to apply moisturiser and attend to skin as well as hair.
Chemist Outlet has a new range of Schwarzkopf winter hair colours called “Biology” and a new range of cosmetics from DV and NATIO.
Rhonda says Chemist Outlet has the cheapest prices in North Canberra.
THERE is an epidemic of joint and muscle pain, particularly lower-back pain says CrookBack Clinic owner John Miller.
“It’s often a symptom of a skeleton that’s out of alignment,” John says.
“Get your skeleton back into alignment and there’s a high likelihood the pain will disappear.
“If you don’t have a regular flexibility training program, it’s usually the case that over the weeks, months, years and decades tight muscles take first the pelvis and then the bones above (and below) it out of alignment.
“Then along comes an incident (often trivial) that tips you over the edge and you’re in real pain.”
But John says that there’s good news because if muscles have moved bones out of alignment, then there is a fair chance that muscles can move the bones back into alignment.
“At the CrookBack Clinic we take our clients through a clinical diagnostic assessment to determine which muscles have taken the skeleton out of alignment,” he says.
“We then teach them the exercises they can do at home to get themselves back into better alignment.
“We tell our clients that for 80 per cent of people there’s an 80 per cent chance they can get themselves back to 80 per cent of good musculoskeletal health in around 80 days.”
Lower back pain is usually a symptom that your pelvis and the bones above it are out of alignment.
If it is, we’ll diagnose the likely cause of your pain and give you the exercises designed to get your skeleton back into better alignment. Do that and there’s a high likelihood your pain will go away.
Rhonda Warne.
spotlight on charnwood
How Henry’s old homestead keeps growing
FOUNDED in 1973, Charnwood is named after the Forest of Charnwood in Leicestershire, England, and was the name of the homestead for the district’s first landholder, Henry Hall, who obtained a grant for the 1400 hectares of land in 1833.
The Belconnen suburb is now a place where more than 3000 people call home.
‘Warm, welcoming and happy’ school
THE Parish School of St Thomas Aquinas is a Catholic school and seeks to live its faith in response to the needs and challenges of the times, says principal Cameron Johns.
“Our faith is important to us and underwrites all that we do at the school,” he says.
The Parish School of St Thomas Aquinas is situated in Lhotsky Street, Charnwood and serves the community of West Belconnen, which includes Charnwood, Dunlop, Macgregor, West Macgregor, Flynn, Fraser and Latham. A bus also runs from Murrumbateman on a daily basis.
Enrolment for the school and its early learning centre is 360.
“As a parish school we have strong links to our parish led by Father Drinkwater, and assisted by Sr Colleen Howe, pastoral assistant,” Cameron says.
“We welcome all students. We are a school for all. We include everyone. Underpinning this value is a deep belief in the sanctity of the human person.
“We provide a warm, welcoming and happy environment. We celebrate the world. We celebrate people. We learn and grow.
“We provide a safe environment for our students. We provide routines and structures. We have clear policies on behaviour management and pastoral care. We are very clear about our expectations of student behaviour and we provide all the support needed to help students meet those expectations.”
Visit staquinas.act.edu.au or call 6258 4077 or the ELC 6258 5834.
ONLY a few months old, My Medical Practice in Charnwood has a strong emphasis on quality health outcomes at affordable prices, says director Shravan Bolli.
The practice opened in March after Shravan, a trained pharmacist, and his fiance Amanda saw the need for more bulk-billing services in Canberra.
Shravan grew up in India with a father who worked in public health and says, quality health care should be accessible and should be affordable.
That’s why My Medical Practice is open seven days a week with long hours.
“We look after our patients and spend as much time as we can to get quality outcomes,” he says.
At this stage, My Medical Practice in Charnwood only has GPs but are looking into having specialists in the future.
“We’re always open to new ideas and if possible we want to provide very good health outcomes,” he says.
My Medical Practice, 7 Charnwood Place, Charnwood. Call 6258 0006 or search @MyMedicalCharnwood on Facebook.
Celebrating more than 40 years of education at St Thomas
Serving the community of West Belconnen including Charnwood, Dunlop, Macgregor, West Macgregor, Flynn, Fraser and Latham, the Parish School of St Thomas Aquinas seeks to live out our faith in response to the needs and challenges of the times. Our faith is important to us and underwrites all that we do.
At St Thomas Aquinas we will:
• Provide a stimulating and safe learning environment
• Challenge your child to be his or her best
• Cater for your child’s stage of development
• Teach values – Christian and caring attitudes
• Encourage collaborative learning & cater for different learning styles
• Make effective use of Information and Communication Technologies
• Teach Spanish Language and Culture
• Encourage leadership development
• Provide enrichment, through Sport, Music & Dance
• Provide the fullest potential for each child – spiritual, intellectual, physical and cultural
Henry and Mary Hall, 1875.
Education and care for babies and children
SET in a professional, yet homely environment, Cooinda Cottage in Charnwood provides high-quality education and care for babies to children aged up to five years.
Part of the North Belconnen Community Association, a not-for-profit, community-based organisation, Cooinda Cottage offers 80 places a day across six rooms.
“We program for each child individually, based on the Early Years Learning Framework,” says Catherine Lambourne, director of Cooinda Cottage.
“We provide all food each day, a morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and a late snack. We also provide nappies.
“As we are part of a not-for-profit, community-based organisation we endeavour to keep fees as low as possible for families in the community and all profits go
back into the service.”
Cooinda Cottage has been operating in Charnwood since 1977 and is located in the Charnwood Shopping Complex, which provides free parking.
Catherine says their outdoor play environments include natural and sustainable elements for children of all ages.
“We have lower than legal ratios in many rooms, which provides more opportunities for small group and individual interactions and learning experiences,” she says.
*Terms and conditions apply, offer expires 31 July 2017.
Clinic with a country GP feel
TILLYARD Drive Medical Practice is the oldest surviving, small GP clinic in the north-west of Belconnen says owner Dr Thinus van Rensburg.
Dr Thinus and his wife Dr Riana have been running the practice like an old-fashioned country GP clinic since 2006.
“The doctors and the staff know their patients well and try their utmost to make patients feel cared for and welcome,” says Dr Thinus, who specialises in the management of skin cancer issues.
“Dr Riana has an immense commitment to the holistic care of her patients and looks after a number of very complex and vulnerable patients.
“Dr Kotie has been with us for eight years and is extremely competent and thorough in her approach to her patients’ medical care.
“[And] Dr Chinchu has only recently started with us, but we and our patients love her work.”
Dr Thinus dedicates this to the personalised service that Tillyard Drive Medical Practice provides.
“We make sure we get to know our patients well and look after them comprehensively,” he says.
“This includes being advocates for their care throughout their health journey.”
Tillyard Drive Medical Practice, 123 Tillyard Drive, Charnwood. Call 6259 7216 or visit tillyarddrivemed.com.au
Above right: Owner Dr Thinus van Rensburg. Right: Dr Riana van Rensburg.
Tillyard Drive Medical Practice
arts & entertainment
When kids take over the chocolate factory
By Helen Musa
“THEATRE is great for building life skills –teamwork, working towards goals, public speaking – there are a lot of benefits,” theatre director BJ Anyos tells “CityNews” as she climbs down from a ladder.
Anyos, best known as the founder and director of Child Players ACT, is busy painting Willy Wonka’s Inventing Room for a coming production of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, based on the story by Roald Dahl.
“It’s very, very colourful and the set is four metres tall, so we’re getting up pretty high,” the energetic director says.
It’s the 13th successive winter show for Child Players, which began in 2005 with the idea that “children can do everything”. Putting this philosophy into practice, she has always trained her young performers in backstage skills, too – stage management, set moving props and make-up.
“The wonderful thing about children is that they don’t know they can’t do something if you don’t tell them,” she says.
Not everybody wants to become a professional, but two former child players have become Anyos’ colleagues at Questacon, one works with Eclipse Lighting, some have studied at the Film and TV School and even more have performed with Rep and Ickle Pickle.
With a long background in theatre and a degree in primary school education, Anyos works as a professional performer at Questacon with the “Excited Particles”, a wonderful name for a theatre group, she says.
Describing Child Players as “my baby”, she believes that professionalism has always been to the forefront, so she gets professional lighting and tech experts in to teach the young artists.
“I like to introduce the kids to people from other worlds,” she says so that when she staged “Doctor Dolittle’s Circus”, Warehouse Circus came in to help. This
year for the sensational Oompa Loompas, creatures in “Charlie” who hail from an isolated Pacific island, she engaged a professional drummer to do workshops.
ANU Art School graduate Bec Setnicar designs all of the scenery and well-known musical director Georgia Pike composes songs for Anyos’ scripts.
Although her view of theatre is holistic, Anyos is keen to get children reading classic stories, which she fears may be unfamiliar these days. For that reason her shows reflect well-known tales such as “Alice In Wonderland”, “Alice Through The Looking Glass”, “The Jungle Book”, “Peter Pan”, “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe”, “Doctor Dolittle”, “The Marvellous Land of Oz” sequel and, above all, Roald Dahl’s stories such as “The Witches”, “James and The Giant Peach” and now “Charlie”.
Over the years audiences have come to expect unusually subtle characterisations from the actors in Child Players and it’s no accident.
At the end of the first term after they study stagecraft and characterisation, they all write a character bio, she says.
“We’ve got two young boys playing Grandpa George… and they have come up with the back story that grandpa was in the war, suffered shellshock and yells out things every so often – they just bring the character to life,” she says.
Child Players always double-casts, so that when one cast is performing in the morning the other cast is doing backstage work and then in the afternoon the roles are swapped. Nobody is disappointed and the two boys playing Willy Wonka have both been with Child Players since they were 10 or 11 – now they’re 15 and 16.
So what are highlights of “Charlie”? Easy, Anyos tells us, the Oompa Loompas – ”they’re gorgeous, all young kids not only acting, but singing and dancing”.
“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, theatre@bcs, Belconnen Community Centre, Swanson Court, until July 15. Bookings to canberrarep.org.au or 6257 1950 or at the door.
The particles start flying
By Helen Musa
SCIENCE meets art and humanity in a hit romantic comedy coming to The Street Theatre soon, but it’s not as simple as it sounds.
Indeed, many people might find the idea behind “Constellations” daunting, even terrifying; as the celebrated quantum physicist Niels Bohr once said: “Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it”. That would be most of us.
British playwright Nick Payne has found theatrical momentum in the scientific principle that energy is not continuous, but rather comes in small units or “quanta”.
So far, so good. Sensitive, professional beekeeper Roland (Kristian Jenkins) meets theoretical physicist and cosmologist Marianne (Lexi Sekuless) at a barbecue and the particles start flying.
Payne has made the particles of quantum mechanics into the objective for the vagaries, uncertainties and chanciness of human relationships in what Hollywood might call a “sliding doors” or “back-to-the-future” scenario.
Marianne and Roland’s first dates, proposal, breakups, reunions and affairs are worked and reworked over and over again in a 70-minute theatrical powerhouse that had the West End reeling with excitement when the play
was first seen in 2012.
Marianne is the intellectual partner in this relationship, a quantum theorist with a penchant for articulating her feelings – most of the time.
In contrast, Roland provides the foil to Marianne’s intellect. It makes for an immensely humorous set of initial encounters, a playful element in “Constellations” that set designer Imogen Keen has taken particular note of – in her view, it’s a case of two people “ballroom dancing”.
Director Caroline Stacey, holding up the cerebral side of the dramatic equation, believes it’s a play about choices, asking her cast: “If you make a decision in one place, what are the consequences, what’s the flow-through?”
Welsh actor Kristian Jenkins, a graduate of London’s Drama Centre, plays Roland, whom he describes as “quite earthy and romantic”. Canberra’s Lexi Sekuless, a first-class honours graduate from London’s Central School of Speech and Drama, playing Marianne, has been busy meeting physicists.
It’s their job to keep the sparks flying, but consistent with the ever-flying particles of quantum mechanics, you might never be able to draw any conclusions at the end of “Constellations”. Jenkins sums it up as, “raising questions rather than giving answers – in true postmodern spirit.”
“Constellations”, The Street Theatre, July 14-29. Bookings to thestreet.org.au or 6247 1223.
“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” cast members, from left, Jade Breen, Jonah Robertson and Logan Steed.
Welsh actor Kristian Jenkins (as Roland) and Canberra’s Lexi Sekuless (as Marianne) in “Constellations”.
Watching the wicked woman get away with it
“Lady Macbeth” (MA)
TO create the screenplay for director William Oldroyd’s feature debut, Alice Birch went to a much-filmed 19thcentury novel by Russian writer Nikolai Leskov.
The resulting film is an ensemble piece for five. Florence Pugh plays Katherine, alone except for a domineering father-in-law and servants in a wellfounded house on a bleak moor near a Scottish lake. Her husband is away in London. Katherine isn’t having much fun. Her loyal personal maid Anna (Naomi Ackie) turns a reluctant blind eye when Katherine takes farm hand Sebastian (Cosmo Jarvis) into her arms and then her bedroom.
When that happens, father-in-law becomes even more of a hindrance and it’s not long before something nasty in the coffee sends him to an early grave. When husband unexpectedly arrives home and catches the lovers in flagrante delicto, he too has to go, as you might expect. While he fights with Sebastian, Katherine wallops him several times with a heavy candlestick. That’ll do it every time.
One of the dead man’s former inamoratas arrives with a small boy and a document claiming his right to inherit the farm. More deaths. The police take Sebastian and Anna away in manacles. Katherine’s periods have ceased some time ago, She sits alone in the house. It’s hers. What next? Finis
The filmgoer may be excused for wondering what justifies putting all that murder on the screen. Fundamentally, it’s a horror film with enough style to attract and hold the attention of filmgoers who would normally avoid horror films. The pace is unhurried. The tensions build slowly, without exaggeration or bluster. We come away aware of having seen a wicked woman getting away with it.
At Palace Electric
Child Players ACT proudly presents
“Monsieur Chocolat”
(M)
CIRCUS has a long and honorable tradition of entertaining all social strata with acts they couldn’t see in any other way. It’s fair to say that after a slow start, cinema has relegated it to the back stalls of entertainment. And political correctness has demoted it to the sanitised, animal-free, modern kind.
French filmmaker Roschdy Zem has looked back a century to bring us a story about how the son of Haitian slaves in 1897 embarked on a career that took
This exciting and colourful production is suitable for all the family
PERFORMANCES @ 10.30am & 2pm
6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14 & 15 July, 2017
theatre @ BCS
Belconnen Community Centre Swanson Court
For bookings call 6257 1950 (weekdays 10am-4pm) or visit www.canberrarep.org.au
Tickets available at the door one hour before (cash sales only)
Tickets $18
Discounts for families and groups of 10+
him to the height of Parisian circus, which in those days played in permanent buildings.
The screenplay by Cyril Gely and Oliver Gorce opens in the travelling Delvaux circus performing under canvas.
M. Delvaux is auditioning new acts. Clown Footit (James Thierree) isn’t pulling crowds. A roustabout wants
arts in the city
to better his life. Footit takes him on as fall guy in a tumbling comedy act. He needs a name. Chocolat is a natural choice.
And Omar Sy plays him in a bravura performance that cries out for acclaim when the next film-industry, peer-group assessment season comes around.
The film covers the rise and fall of a man who deserved better but, having tasted it, wasted it on the frivolities that accompany sudden success.
In Paris, Footit and Chocolat were a huge success. The partnership and the friendship were sometimes at odds with each other. Footit was a dedicated professional whose private life the film portrays as rather ascetic. Chocolat was a spendthrift, gambler, womaniser and laudanum junkie. Worst, Madame Delvaux betrayed him to the cops for being in France without the appropriate documentation, which saw him in prison where a black freedom fighter befriended him.
When Chocolat voiced his ambition to play Othello the balloon went up. As Omar Sy plays the closing scene, it was a memorable performance. Irrational racial prejudice brought him down on opening night.
He ended his days in poverty exactly a century ago. We in the film audience can come away aware of having seen a film that tells a story of courage and compassion with performance skills that do its technically-difficult subject admirable honour.
At Palace Electric
Monaco calls the Pigeonhole troupe
PIGEONHOLE Theatre’s production “Playhouse Creatures”, seen at The Q last year, has been invited as the only Australian representative at the Mondial du Theatre in Monaco in August. Chip in and help director Jordan Best and her all-star Canberra cast get there via the crowdfunding site, australianculturalfund.org.au
TO celebrate NAIDOC week, Tuggeranong Arts Centre presents “Ecology, Tradition, Art”, exhibitions of work by glass artist Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello, Luritja painter Kayannie Denigan and Blue Mountains artist Karen Lee. The exhibitions run at 137 Reed Street, Greenway, until July 29.
CHILEAN percussion whiz kid Fabian Hevia plays music inspired by jazz and the music of South America. As part of the jazz combo Far Beyond, he’ll be appearing at the Bungendore Woodworks on Saturday, July 15, in a dinner and concert show. Bookings to 6238 1688.
“INTERLACED” is a new exhibition of handwoven cloth by Belinda Rosee, one of the artists who assisted
another Canberra weaver, Monique van Nieuwland, when she was asked to design and produce fabric for the Hollywood movie “Gods of Egypt”, starring Geoffrey Rush. Van Nieuwland will open Rosee’s show at Strathnairn, 90 Stockdill Drive, Holt, on Saturday, July 15, at 4pm. The exhibition runs to August 6.
JAZZ in Concert at The Gods is dead, but now organiser Geoff Page tells us that “Jazz at the Village” has arisen from the ashes. Its first concert will take place at the ANU Reunion Pop-up Village on
University Avenue, just past The Street Theatre, 7.15pm, Tuesday, July 11, featuring the quintet Sandy Evans & Friends. Bookings essential to gpage40@bigpond.net.au
CANBERRA-raised baritone Jeremy Tatchell does a nice line in villains. In his latest triumph as Satan for the State Opera of SA’s production “Love, Sex and Death” he was praised by one critic for
looking on “sneeringly from the sidelines as he plotted the downfall of a succession of heroines, including Butterfly, Tosca and Carmen”.
Cast of “Playhouse Creatures”… off to Monaco.
Fabian Hevia.
Florence Pugh as Katherine in “Lady Macbeth”... a horror film with enough style to attract and hold the attention of filmgoers who would normally avoid horror films.
dining / Tipsy Bull
Making the most of Tipsy time
“There comes a time in the affairs of a person when they must take the bull by the tail and face the situation.”
WC Fields would have been at home at Tipsy Bull and chuckled at how this relatively new eatery does everything a bit tipsy. Like the three-martini lunch with four plates for $75 (Wednesday to Sunday) that would certainly make me tipsy.
Tipsy Bull is located where the Schnitzel House lived its brief Braddon life. It’s a pretty big space (indoors and outdoors) and the food, staff say, is “friendly, fine-ish dining”.
Certainly dishes are designed to share with tapas plates dished up large and small. For some tipsy faves order up the six-course chef’s selection ($65 per head).
We were there for lunch and my two friends had dug in because I was tied up. Even though I arrived at the tail end, it was “no sweat”. Staff happily ensured I caught up.
The Betel Bites ($4.50 each) caught our eye. We adore caramelised pork belly and this sat pretty on a bright green betel leaf. It was served with crunchy cashew nuts, chilli and tangy lime. Our only comment was the lack of
chilli, which would have balanced the sweetness of the pork. My friend mentioned this to staff who said Tipsy Bull caters to the “lowest common denominator”. We get that some like it hot and some not, but you need to taste the chilli.
The crispy spiced squid ($16), served with creamy lemon garlic aioli, was cooked well and yummy. The fresh kingfish was a major hit ($24), even though one friend was
hesitant, feeling that kingfish can be bland. It wasn’t, thanks to the avo, cucumber kimchi and tapioca cracker. It’s a dish with a difference.
I was starving when I arrived and indulged in the 52º Tasmanian sous vide cooked salmon ($22) from the large plates. The dish was delish. The salmon was succulent and the sweet eel glaze drizzled on top added flavour and colour. The sushi rice was perfectly sticky and the
sundayROAST
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.
pickled onions added texture.
The menu at Tipsy Bull has variety but we were challenged to describe its overall personality, even though we pinpointed Asian, European and Australian characteristics.
Desserts are intriguing, including the smoked chocolate parfait with matcha powder ($12) and Spanish flan with Pedro Ximenez Sherry crème caramel (also $12).
Tipsy Bull is happy if you want to stay a bit or much longer, perhaps enticed with their creative cocktails (more than 80 types of pretty specky gin are available). Let the good times roll.
Tipsy Bull has a pretty laid-back atmosphere. The service was great and staff didn’t hesitate to accommodate.
Tipsy Bull, 2/5 Lonsdale Street, Braddon. Open Tuesday to Sunday, noon to late. Call 6248 7999.
52 Degree Salmon.
Photo by Maddie McGuigan
GARDENS in winter can be full of interest, a time of looking at interesting bark on trees, such as the beautiful mahogany bark of Prunus tibetica
When walking through the Botanic Gardens, look for the different bark on eucalyptus trees and the many that peel to reveal beautiful colours underneath.
In winter we mustn’t forget indoor plants and their care. Many indoor plants prefer cooler growing conditions and can suffer from dry, overheated rooms.
It’s important to keep them away from ducted heating vents or radiators and avoid fluctuating temperatures and draughts.
As many people turn down or off heating overnight, fluctuating temperatures can cause leaf and flower drop. Ideally, indoor plants like a minimum temperature of 15C-20C.
Often indoor plants are kept near windows for light, but they can be extremely draughty. So move plants into the centre of the room and never leave them behind curtains where cold air is trapped.
Lower temperatures also reduce the need for watering and fertilising demands. Overwatering can be the death of a plant with root rot if sitting in a saucer. I suggest sitting the pot atop a saucer filled with pebbles. Discontinue feeding indoor plants in winter.
IT’S time to plant rhubarb. When planting the crowns, thoroughly mix into the soil compost or cow manure. Don’t use chemical fertilisers in the planting hole.
For an early crop after planting, cover the crowns with a layer of pea straw or similar. Place
an upturned bucket over the crown to exclude light. A large flower pot can be used, but you’ll need to cover drainage holes. Check every few weeks to see the bright pink stems forming and colouring up. Pull the stems off the crown rather than cutting to avoid crown rot.
THERE’S no hurry to prune hydrangeas. It’s better to leave the flower heads on over winter to provide extra frost protection for the new buds. Pruning can be done in early spring when the worst of the frosts are over. At that time,
I’ll discuss more detailed pruning methods. The dried flower heads also make great indoor flower arrangements.
IF you have a garden with neglected roses and are unsure where to start or are growing roses for the first time, the Horticultural Society’s upcoming rose-pruning demonstrations might be a help. The first is at the society’s trial garden, corner of Battye and Purdie Streets, Bruce, 1pm-3pm, on Saturday, July 15. The second will be held at 1 Spence Place, Hughes, 1pm-3pm, on Sunday, July 16.
Jottings…
• Ngaire Gamack will talk on “Barbados – the Gardens of Paradise” at the Horticultural Society’s next meeting at the Wesley Church Centre, National Circuit, Forrest, 7.30pm, on Monday, July 17. All welcome, no charge and followed by supper.
• Prune roses any time.
• Look for Daphne odora in flower at garden centres.
• Feed Hippeastrums (syn Amaryllis nightly with Neutrog Seamungus to build up bulbs once the flowers fade.
The beauty of bare silver birches against a clear, blue sky.
The beautiful mahogany bark of Prunus tibetica.
ARIES (Mar 21 – Apr 20)
Restless Rams – ‘Keep moving forward and don’t look back’ is your current motto. You’re keen to call the shots on Monday, but domineering behaviour will only lead to dramas and confrontation. So slip on your humility hat instead. Attached Aries – listen (carefully) to what your partner is saying. Jumping to conclusions is definitely not recommended. Sick and tired of being single? You could be bitten by the love bug while studying or travelling. What a way to go!
TAURUS (Apr 21 – May 20)
Communication looks strained on Monday. The more stubborn you are, the more likely you’ll get drawn into an argument (either in person or online). And do you sometimes feel stuck in a mind-numbing rut? Friday or Saturday is a terrific time to rev up your usual routine. Be a brave Bull as you turf your timetable and go on a spontaneous adventure. Be inspired by birthday great, writer Henry David Thoreau: “Rise free from care before the dawn and seek adventures.”
GEMINI (May 21 – June 21)
Venus is vamping through your sign, which greatly boosts your Gemini charisma and sense of fun. So it’s a wonderful week to turn up the charm factor and call in a few old favours. However, too much happy hilarity (and no action) will just annoy others (who are doing all the work). So try to walk your talk. Friday is a fabulous day to make a splash on social media or learn something new. But resist the urge to be the neighbourhood nosey-parker and spread salacious gossip.
CANCER (June 22 – July 22)
Don’t allow a loved one to manipulate you on Monday, as they try to persuade you to do something against your better judgment. Have the emotional strength (and common sense) to stand your ground and say no. With the Sun and Mars in your sign you’ve got energy to burn, but make sure you channel it into productive and worthwhile pursuits. Mental activities and communication are favoured on Friday and Saturday, when you’ll pick up information with lightning speed.
LEO (July 23 – Aug 22)
Early in the week (courtesy of potent Pluto) an obstacle will be placed in your path. Or you could be drawn into a power struggle with someone. Which may lead to a perceived problem or failure. That’s OK! Sometimes, hurdles help us to stop, see the path ahead more clearly, and then we can adjust our compass and tweak our plans. So your motto for the moment is from birthday great, writer Arianna Huffington “Failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.”
VIRGO (Aug 23 – Sept 22)
With the Sun and Pluto at odds, your obsessive/compulsive side is likely to take over. If you sweat the small stuff, then you’ll end up feeling tired, emotional (and exhausted) by the end of the week. Perhaps it’s time to de-stress, as you sample a session of meditation or a spot of yoga? You might just enjoy it! Plus pay close attention to the messages in your nightly dreams. Are they trying to tell you something? Friday is fabulous for matters involving business and finance.
LIBRA (Sept 23 – Oct 23)
Laidback Librans can be a luxury-loving, lazy bunch as you enjoy the good times and avoid venturing out of your comfort zone. This week, Mercury and Jupiter encourage you to be more adventurous as you learn something new or travel somewhere off the beaten track. It’s also a wonderful week to grab an opportunity that takes you in an exciting new direction. Be inspired by birthday great, actor Harrison Ford: “We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance.”
SCORPIO (Oct 24 – Nov 21)
You’re in the mood to manipulate others on Monday. But be warned – loved ones are primed to fight back and you may find you’ve bitten off more than you can comfortably chew. So why not drop the control freak persona, release any grudges, and let bygones be bygones? With Venus visiting your intimacy zone, it’s time to make love not war! Professional projects are favoured on Friday, when Mercury and Jupiter boost your ability to communicate clearly and creatively.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22 – Dec 21)
This week you’ll be given the chance to heal an old emotional wound or patch up a relationship problem. Don’t let false Sagittarian pride stop you from taking a leap forward when it comes to love and forgiveness. Accept the opportunity gratefully, with outstretched hands and an open heart. Group activities and international connections are favoured on Friday and Saturday, when Mercury and Jupiter encourage you to be friendly and free-spirited; curious and kind.
CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 19)
Relationship dramas are likely on Monday, unless you can slip out of fussy Capricorn control-freak mode and instead, try the gentle art of compromise. Other people are acting as a mirror, reflecting back negative personal traits that you may have been unaware of. So use these experiences to work on your weaknesses – and build on your strengths. As always, cool co-operation is the key to interpersonal harmony. Friday is fabulous for business transactions and contract discussions.
AQUARIUS (Jan 20 – Feb 18)
As the week kicks off, you’re inclined to question your inner motivations. Which can be confronting. But a soulful examination of your interior life will give you the self-knowledge and confidence to let your authentic Aquarian nature shine. With Mercury moving through your relationship zone, clear communication is the secret to positive partnerships at the moment. And Jupiter encourages you to extend your peer group to include an inspiring international new crowd.
PISCES (Feb 19 – Mar 20)
Some Fish will bump into an old friend, discover long-forgotten love-letters, or re-connect with a former flame. But are you living in Pollyanna Land? Just remember – memories are so seductive because they’re so damn selective. You intuitively know what is right for you – even though you may appear confused to others. (Welcome to Planet Pisces!) Don’t let loved ones (from the past or present) push you around and persuade you to do something you don’t believe in.
Copyright Joanne Madeline Moore 2017
Across
4 What is another term for affluence? (6)
7 Name the capital city of Australia. (8)
8 Which lizards are mostly nocturnal, and many have adhesive pads on their toes? (6)
9 That which has fallen into disuse is considered as what? (8)
11 To be learned or scholarly, is to be what? (7)
13 What do we call one who performs feats with balls, knives, etc? (7)
15 What is a position from which there is no escape? (7)
17 Name another word for a white ant. (7)
20 Which term describes a person who practises malicious burning of another’s property? (8)
23 Which gland is located in the midbrain? (6)
24 What is the science of being, as such? (8)
25 To draw tight or taut, is to do what? (6)
Down
1 Name the British essayist and critic, Charles ... (4)
2 What is the form of a rectangle? (6)
3 Which term is descriptive of the Celts in the Highlands of Scotland? (4)
4 Name another expression for a bet. (5)
5 What is an arched, roofed-in gallery? (6)
6 Which fish is too small to be a salmon? (5)
9 To express disapproval, is to do what? (6)
10 Name a particular variety of dog. (7)
12 What do we call a person who has special skill or knowledge in some particular field? (6)
14 What is a microscopic, one-celled animal? (6)
16 Which term describes historical records generally? (6)
18 What is a decree issued by an authority? (5)
19 What is a claw, especially of a bird of prey? (5)
21 Which word refers to confirmed drunkards? (4)
22 What is a narrative or legend of heroic exploits? (4)
Indira and Gordon came to see me for preparation of their 2017 tax returns and were especially keen to know what's changed over the past financial year and what's ahead for the next. I told them there had been a few changes and suggested we start with Indira's intention to make additional contributions to her superannuation fund.
"From July 1, you are now able to make tax-deductible, personal superannuation contributions up to your superannuation cap of $25,000," I told her.
"This includes the amount your employer pays on your behalf. Previously it hadn't been possible for you to contribute directly. In addition, from July 1, 2018, if you have less than $500,000 in superannuation, you will be able to use any unused portions of up to five years' caps. This could also help you build up your superannuation. The first year you can do this is 2019/2020.” Gordon wanted to know if they could still claim for medical expenses.
"You haven’t been able to claim general medical expenses since 2015," I said.
"But you can claim an offset of 20 per cent for expenditure over $2299, if your joint income is less than $180,000, for disability aids, attendant care and aged-care expenses. However, this offset is scheduled to cease on June 30, 2019. If you need hearing aids, this year is a good time to get them.
“The small-business, income-tax offset has also increased from 5 per cent to 8 per cent of your business income with a ceiling of $1000. You will get the maximum offset if your business income exceeds $12,500 and you are not operating through a company.” Indira wanted to know if there were any changes that would affect the couple's rental property.
“Nothing for 2017, but for 2018 you will not be able to claim deductions for travel expenses related to maintaining, inspecting or collecting rent for your residential rental property," I advised them.
''There is also a new rule whereby if you buy a new residential rental property that costs more than $750,000 you are required to produce a clearance certificate from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) confirming that you are an Australian resident. "If you cannot produce this certificate, 10 per cent of the purchase price will be deducted and paid to the ATO. There are, of course, penalties if this doesn't happen.”
“There are also changes to depreciation on newly purchased properties. If you buy a new property that has been rented previously you can't transfer the depreciable assets to yourself and continue to claim depreciation.
However, you will be able to claim depreciation on any new assets that you buy and install in the rental property. You can also continue to claim capital allowances otherwise known as building depreciation. This change occurred on May 9 and still needs to be legislated.”
“I know that in the past we have talked about your HELP debt and I should remind you that the threshold for repaying HELP has now reduced to $42,000 so this may also impact you.”
Gordon said: “Thank you Gail, that answers all our questions.”
If you have any tax questions contact the friendly team at Gail Freeman & Co Pty Ltd
Solution next edition
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