Wishing all our readers a safe and peaceful Easter
Remembering the brave local lads NICHOLE OVERALL Health goes short as tram mandate is met JON STANHOPE
Chief planner’s quotes come home to roost PAUL COSTIGAN Hell hath no fury save for silent Julia ROBERT MACKLIN
Star soprano JANE SHELDON will be singing not swinging at the music festival’s circus-style opening
Autumn Session
29 April - 6 July
L earn French with the French experts!
“Ye are brothers! Ye are men!”
These words adorn the Roll of Honour at the historic Queanbeyan Public School (QPS), commemorating 126 former students that served in the “Great War”, 28 of whom fell.
Despite early recruits being required to be at least 21, they could sign up from the age of 18 with parental consent. And with or without it, thousands would. Plenty much younger, also.
In reality, many were barely men; often, little more than boys from country towns such as Queanbeyan, any number of whom had probably never ventured much further than from where they’d grown up.
Brothers though, they certainly were – not only in arms, but with distressingly high frequency, in actu ality. And as Anzac Day approaches, the impact of this at a more intimate level deserves reflection.
This year is the centenary of the signing of World War I’s Treaty of Versailles, officially heralding peace (not just ceasefire) – most memorials bear the inscription 1914-1919 – and when those who remained came home. It’s also a poignant time to think on those who didn’t.
Almost 420,000 Australians enlisted from a national total of just shy of five million, constituting some 40 per cent of the eligible male population. Of course, all were volunteers – a goodly proportion willing; others, dutiful.
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and villages where everyone knew everyone, signing up with cousins, nephews, uncles – even your father –was far from unusual.
With residents numbering only around 2500 in the Queanbeyan
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and (by then) the Canberra region, potentially up to 120 families sent more than one of their own to fight halfway around the world for a cause they were not always entirely sure of. In some cases, it was all of the males under one roof. A wider known example of such familial tales include descendants of grazier John Single, of Castlereagh, in NSW. Thirty-three went to war. Nine were killed, three of them on the same day.
The Southwells, one of Queanbeyan’s earliest pioneering names, had as many as 10 go to war (four lots of which were brothers). One was killed: Malcolm, near Gueudecourt, France, in 1916; hit in the head by a fragment of shell as he went to fill his water bottle.
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Potentially up to 30 sets of siblings from this locality signed up – and not all brothers.
Of those QPS recruits, there were 13 pairs of brothers and five families – the Hincksmans, Richardsons, Robertsons, Bingleys, and the Feagans – sent three sons each.
One of Queanbeyan’s first to fall was the younger of the two Bale brothers. Harry was mortally wounded at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, on August 27, 1915 –the same day Alexander Feagan was killed. Alex’s older brother, William, would also die, on September 27, 1917.
Records suggest more than 2800 sets of siblings were lost to the greater war effort. Along with the Feagans, two boys each of the Beattys, the Mayos, the Richardsons and the Fords went to the war. George Ford would pass away from bronchopneumonia on Boxing Day, 1915, before even setting sail for battle.
Out at Bungendore, there’s a Champion Lane, named for three brothers, sons of the reverend Champion. Two were killed in action on the Western Front, their graves originally recorded as unknown.
In 2003, a French farmer unearthed the remains of four soldiers, left where they’d fallen. One of them was revealed
to be Lieut Christopher Henry Duncan Champion, who died on April 14, 1918, at the age of 25. All four were buried with full military honours.
And then there were three Gallaghers, also of Bungendore: sisters Flora and Evelyn who signed up for the nursing corps with their cousin, Janet.
In Queanbeyan, the Dawsons sent seven sons to war. While, statistically, approximately one in five Australians died during this time, incredibly, each of them came back.
From a personal point of view, as a mother with sons of an age that meant they could have marched off just over 100 years ago, to imagine those women waving their men goodbye – pride inevitably conflicting with dread – brings into stark relief the true sacrifice of not only those who served and others who laid down their lives, but entire communities, too, during and long after.
Lest we forget.
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BARELY hours after PM Scott Morrison called a Federal election for May 18, news teams were on the streets of Queanbeyan – the heart of the once bellwether seat of EdenMonaro – feeling the pulse.
At the same time, across the border the streets of Manuka were alive with the colour green as half a dozen Greens volunteers hit the ground early, handing out material on behalf of the party’s candidate for the seat of Canberra, Tim Hollo and ACT Senate hopeful Dr Penny Kyburz
MEANWHILE back in Eden-Monaro, incumbent Dr Mike Kelly’s teething troubles have been fixed. Months ago, an unknown wag blacked out a couple of his pearly whites in Kelly’s enormous image plastered on the outside of his Monaro Street office, giving the good doctor an imbecilic look. But there’s nothing like an election to bring out the best in people and Kelly’s beaming smile has been restored with the unsubtle application of white paint.
OUT among the people this week was popular therapy alpaca Hercules, still grieving the death of partner Mimosa, killed last month in a dog attack. He’s back to doing what he does best, participating in selfies with his legion of fans. Handler Nils Lantzke says Hercules spent a few
days after the attack waiting by the gate for Mimosa to return, but is back to his regular gig of visiting patients at Clare Holland House.
IN local politics Liberal MLA Mark Parton is indeed a brave man. Taunting animal rights activists has been a free-for-all this week, but as a public figure Parton is certainly inviting strife. The former radio man tweeted: “If you wanna be vegan, all power to U, but DON’T FORCE IT DOWN MY THROAT. Don’t trespass on to hard-working farmers’ homes and properties. And leave meat workers the hell alone”.
WHEN I first worked in the northern industrial suburb of Mitchell, early 2003, there were probably three or four coffee shops, a bakery and a Greasy Joe’s fast food outlet. The area now boasts many fine coffee brands, impressive pastries, an award-winning craft beer brewery, IT and production houses gaining national reputations and a tram-shed full of shiny red Spanish trams. The suburb has just taken a massive technological leap as a potential Tech Hub, housing the launching pad for the world’s first drone delivery service by Wing, owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet. And for those who may be wondering
exactly how this delivery service works, online site producthunt.com simplified the process: “Customers place an order for popular items like food, coffee and medicine through Wing’s app. Minutes later a drone arrives with the goods at their doorstep.” The company initially plans to deliver into Gungahlin, Harrison, Franklin, Palmerston and Crace by mid year. The company predicts by 2030 there could be more than 10,000 drone deliveries each day in Canberra.
LATEST stats reveal the capital is now officially the most expensive city in Australia in which to rent, with houses here around $30 higher a week than in Sydney. And to make matters more stressful for renters entering the market, scammers are also active. One newcomer to the region applied for a rental property in Lyneham, only to be told they needed to shell out $2400 via bank transfer before being able to inspect the property. He quickly smelt a rat and notified AllHomes, which took the apartment off its listings. The property later reappeared on HomeAway.com, again being quickly deleted.
OUR northern suburbs’ snout “Pete” was recently left incredulous after discovering the National Press Club, which also houses the ACT/NSW NBN office, does not yet enjoy the benefits of the political football that is the national broadband network. A bit of snooping by “Pete” revealed 16 National Circuit does have a cable – of sorts – passing its front door but no connection has yet been made. He’s been assured a hook up is “imminent”.
LIGHT rail is operational. Congratulations are due to the government; it has kept its election promise and honoured the mandate from the people of Canberra.
Mandates are funny things. The tram was the singular point of difference between the Labor/Greens government and the Liberal opposition at the last ACT election.
The Liberals demanded that the business case for the tram – such as it was – in the interests of good government and prudent and responsible financial management, that the project not proceed. The people of Canberra disagreed and Labor and the Greens were returned to government. They kept the faith and stage one of the tram is up and running and stage two is set to be launched.
The tram does, of course, come at a cost. In fact, for stage one alone the whole-of-life cost is, according to the auditor-general, $1.779 billion, to the taxpayer.
This is a lot of money, particularly when measured against the size of the annual ACT Budget, which is only around $6 billion. Stage two of the tram, from Civic to Woden will cost much more than stage one and could conceivably cost residents more than $2 billion over the whole-of-life.
To put these costs in perspective, stage one alone is equivalent to approximately 4.5 per cent of the ACT
The ACT Budget is at its weakest – weaker even than at the time of the Global Financial Crisis. Net debt is increasing at an unsustainable rate of 23 per cent a year... or by more than $1 million a day for four years.
economy. By comparison, the NBN is approximately 3 per cent of the national economy. Relative to the size of the respective economies stage one of the tram is, therefore, one and one half times greater than the NBN.
The full tram project was committed to by the government, but the cost of which has not been disclosed will be, conservatively, more than 12 times the scale of the NBN relative to the respective economies of the ACT and the Commonwealth.
Because of the scale of this project it would have been wise for the government to have explained where the money to pay for it was coming from.
It is moot then to ask now that it’s running, where the money for the tram has in fact come from and whether the mandate which the government clearly received from the people of Canberra to build it extends to the government taking whatever steps it has deemed necessary to pay for it.
This question has increasingly occupied my mind as the govern -
ment fends off growing concern and justifiably strident criticism of its performance in the area of greatest concern to the community, namely healthcare. Experience tells us that the most likely explanation for a change in the level or quality of any government service is a change in its funding.
It was in light of this that a colleague of mine, Dr Khalid Ahmed, and I recently had a close look at the state of the ACT Budget.
What our analysis revealed is not pretty. In summary the ACT Budget is at its weakest – weaker even than at the time of the Global Financial Crisis. The operating budget is labouring under a significant underlying deficit. Net debt is increasing at an unsustainable rate of 23 per cent a year and is forecast to increase from $1.3 billion in 2017-18 to $2.95 billion in 2021-22 or by more than $1 million a day for four years.
Net financial worth, the amount by which total financial assets exceed financial liabilities, at the end of 2018 was negative $662 million. This
means that the government does not have sufficient assets to cover its financial liabilities. At the end of 2013, the ACT’s net financial worth was a positive $767 million. In other words, in the period since we committed to the tram, our net financial worth has deteriorated by $1.429 billion.
Our analysis of the ACT Health budget reveals that, after taking into account population growth and an increase in demand related to ageing and new health technologies, that the hospital budget has been going backwards at about 1 per cent a year over the past four years – even before wage increases and increasing costs of medicine are taken into account.
We estimate that in 2016-17 an extra $37 million should have gone to the hospitals just to keep pace with demand and that, in order to properly fund growth in demand, as well as wages and other costs, the hospitals should have received, conservatively, an additional $120 million in that year alone.
It seems to me incontrovertible that the reduction in the nature and quality of health and other services is a consequence of reduced funding.
However, the question I am asking
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is: can the government fairly say in response to this mounting criticism that it is doing no more than respecting the clear mandate from the people of Canberra to proceed with the tram and that its expenditure priorities, which have, for example, involved massive cuts to health, simply reflect the will of the people? Can anyone really deny the government the right to say that surely we all knew, when we voted for the tram, that the billions of dollars it is going to cost had to come from somewhere and where else if not from the health budget.
Jon Stanhope was chief minister from 2001 to 2011 and represented Ginninderra for the Labor Party from 1998. He is the only chief minister to have governed with a majority in the Assembly.
Recently, I was approached by a patient looking for a second opinion. The week prior she had been to a retail hearing aid store in her local shopping centre, hoping to get some advice regarding her hearing loss. As a pensioner, she should have been able to claim free hearing aids as part of the Australian Government’s hearing loss scheme under the Office of Hearing Services, but when she inquired about the program she was told by the salesperson that the governmentissued hearing aids were of poor quality and inadequate for her needs.
”We need to speak out and about what is going on in the hearing aid industry if we want change.”
– Dr Vass
The salesperson insisted what she needed was one of their more expensive hearing aids, priced at over $7,000 for a pair. Anxious about not being able to afford what seemed to be a necessity, she reached out to a friend who suggested she make an appointment with me for a second opinion.
After consulting with the patient and looking over her results, it became
clear to me that the assessment from the shopping centre was completely wrong. The patient had had surgery on one ear 20 years ago which had resulted in worse hearing loss in that ear and not the other. Yet the “hearing test” from the shopping centre showed that her hearing was equal in both ears. Was this because the tester was incompetent or the equipment was faulty? Or was it just an attempt to cover up a medical condition that would have required the patient to be seen by a doctor before hearing aids could even be considered for her? It is likely we’ll never know the answer, but any of the above explanations would be unacceptable.
We need to speak out and about what is going on in the hearing aid industry if we want change. Anyone who has a similar story can report it to the ACCC.
If you would like to have a complimentary second opinion with Dr Vass please phone 02 6282 2717 to make an appointment.
US comedian Amy Schumer says in her new stand-up TV show that she runs home from her subway stop when she’s alone at night.
She admits that she’s not just doing it for the cardio workout, but out of a genuine fear of assault. She then poses the question about whether men really know how scared women are of them.
Amy lives in big, bad New York, but it got me thinking about all the things I do and have been taught to do both consciously and subconsciously to monitor the environment, myself and situations in order to keep myself safe… from men.
And, sadly, for women these are lessons that my male friends didn’t need to learn to stay safe.
A male relative told me that he feels perplexed and a little offended when a woman crosses the street if he happens to be walking behind her in the gloom of his early morning walk.
“If something was wrong and she needed my help, I would come to her aid,” he says.
“I don’t know why she feels she has to move away from me, like I am a threat to her. I’m just a guy having a walk!”
It’s hard to understand why women do these things when you have generally been able to go through life free of prevailing
Women deal with fear and threat every day. We are conditioned to check behind our shoulders, to quickly find polite excuses to leave when conversations become creepy and even to hide from men when we feel scared.
threat to your safety, real or imagined.
Recently, I wrote about my memories of my 10-year highschool reunion. I left out what happened at the end of the night, as a small group of my high-school friends and I went to a fast-food restaurant before heading home.
When we were ordering food, some young guys started chatting us up. It turned out they had finished high school the year before and, as 28-year-old women in relationships, we weren’t interested in them in the slightest. They kept pestering us. We politely answered their questions, but it became awkward and creepy.
We quickly finished our fries and hurried out, it was so quiet on the streets and I called a cab. The guys followed us out so we started walking faster away from them, keen to avoid any more contact with them. We ended up hiding in a side alley, cowering as they hurled their thick shake at us
when they drove past.
These guys were 10 years younger than us, but they had the ability and power to intimidate, frighten us.
We all felt embarrassed about what happened, but now I feel angry. Nothing “happened”, we got home safely, but the memory of those leering “boys” throwing their milkshake in disdain, takes me back to how small and powerless I felt.
Women deal with fear and threat every day. We are conditioned to check behind our shoulders, to quickly find polite excuses to leave when conversations become creepy and even to hide from men when we feel scared. Tragically, the recent murders of women in Melbourne as they were walking home, shows that sometimes women don’t have a chance.
Perhaps men don’t realise how scared we really are, but it’s time you knew.
I don’t offer this commentary to point fingers at men, but I truly wish men and women could continue to work together for a future in which my daughter can move around this world, free from harm and fear. That she doesn’t have to constantly regulate her behaviour and look over her shoulder.
I offered the following advice to my male relative for his morning walks – what about slowing down or crossing the road yourself to give the woman some extra space? When she’s alone in the dark, she’s vulnerable and can’t assess if you are just a “good” guy taking a walk or someone she needs to be wary of.
These minor suggestions might seem crazy, but perhaps a fair exchange in light of the constant adjusting women make each day.
TO mark Parkinson’s Awareness Month in April, Parkinson’s ACT is launching a singing group for people living with Parkinson’s at Ainslie Arts Centre, Braddon, 10am-noon, on Mondays. “If you can talk, you can sing!” says conductor, Chrissie Shaw, who has conducted choirs in Canberra for more than 20 years. Anyone interested should call 0407 079748 or email chrissieshaw@apex.net.au
CANBERRA company face2face has been awarded a national award for Recruitment Services at the Australian Small Business Champion Awards 2019, the only ACT company to win in any category. A record 2200-plus applications were received and 16 ACT companies were finalists in a variety of categories. Face2face was also a finalist in the Business Entrepreneur, Business of the Decade and Business Growth Award categories.
THERE is to be a charity screening of the documentary “Summer in the Forest”, the story of the founder of L’Arche, Jean Vanier, who revolutionised the way in which people with an intellectual disability are seen and cared for, by simply inviting them out of institutions and into his French home in the 1960s. Hosted by the Canberra L’Arche branch, the screening is at Capitol Cinema, Manuka, 6.30pm, on Wednesday, May 8. Tickets at $25 from summerintheforest.com.au
EMMA Turner will speak about Red Cross services and volunteering at the next lunch meeting of the Weston Creek VIEW Club, at the Southern Cross Club, Woden, from 11am, on Tuesday, May 7. The cost is $28. The club welcomes new members. Bookings to 0408 864616 by 5pm, May 2.
SATURDAY 20 APRIL 2019
Your ticket to ride
Celebrate with music, live entertainment and activities for the whole family at the Gungahlin and City Termini from 9am – 4pm. For more information visit transport.act.gov.au
CANBERRA IS BETTER CONNECTED
CANBERRA has an honour role of blokes who did good things in designing and planning for the city’s future.
The result of their collective efforts is a city not like other major cities.
Canberra was envied nationally and internationally and was known affectionately as the bush capital or a garden city. What residents now fear is that the current blokes’ club is not delivering much to be celebrated by future generations.
One way to judge where things are going is to assess statements made by someone holding down what should be the most important position in shaping this city for future generations.
Just over two years ago the ACT government named Ben Ponton as the new head of ACT’s Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development directorate. This also meant that he has the title of ACT chief planner.
Ponton went on the record in the daily paper with a statement that can be used to assess whether he has met his own
One way to judge where things are going is to assess statements made by someone holding down what should be the most important position in shaping this city for future generations.
key performance indicators (KPIs).
The points published in that April 19, 2017, article have been edited below to 10 points in italics, short comments added and a score out of 10 has been allocated to each. Let’s see how the chief and his directorate are going based on things said often by residents at community meetings over the past two years.
1. Pursue a “citizen focus”: Residents constantly talk about and witness how planning and development is not about residents but about so-called economic development. Score 2 (out of 10).
2. High quality public spaces and improved environmental management: Trees are disappearing, public spaces used for developments, West Basin as a suburb is still being pursued, heritage ignored, proposed Northbourne apartments are not anything to rave about. Score 2
3. Build up trust in the planning process: No need for comment on the obvious beyond there remains absolutely no trust from residents in planning and development. Score a zero.
4. It’s about being genuine, listening, engaging with key groups: Are his key groups the developers or the residents? So many community groups spend heaps of time on submissions and they then see their work either ignored or misrepresented. Score 3
5. New ways to loop more Canberrans into the planning process earlier: Being looped in early is meaningless if any involvement is meaningless. ACT’s planning remains complex, dubious variations are sneakily introduced and then used inappropriately, and all the old tricks and marketing spin keep being employed.
Score 1
6. Engage with the local residents because they know the area better than anyone: No matter how engaged people are brought into the process, sadly what they
groups.”
say is largely sidelined because the politicians and the bureaucracy know better (everyone knows that!).
Score 1
7. Those worried about developments need not fear being lambasted for speaking up. True – because they will be ignored.
Score 3
8. Building of trust early in the process: Doesn’t happen – residents
do not see any trust being built.
Score 2.
9. Deal with people feeling like they haven’t been engaged early enough and they’re surprised at what they’re reading about and what they’re seeing: Surprises remain normal. Score 3
10. If you have people joining you on the journey early as you work up the proposal, you’re going to have a smoother ride: Oh dear! If it was a smooth ride, why are residents continually raising objections to almost every major development?
Score 2
That’s a total score of 19 points out of a possible 100. Anyone receiving such a dreadful low ranking would be counselled and asked to rethink their future.
Given the influence the chief planner has on the city’s future, maybe residents should get to vote on who gets this high ranking planning and sustainability position. The score applies to the whole planning directorate with Ponton as the boss who answers to Mick Gentleman, the Minister. Anyone wish to estimate his score?
Paul Costigan is an independent commentator and consultant on the visual arts, photography, urban design, environmental issues and everyday matters.
LIKE war, the first casualty of an election is truth. The propaganda has already started. The first salvo from the government is a blast on who can manage the economy. Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, says it has taken them five years to repair the economy because, apparently, Labor left the country in ruins.
Mr Morrison may not be stooping to World War I tactics presenting Labor as eating babies. However, he has already launched into the politics of negatives and fear, arguing we were much worse off six years ago under Labor.
Liberal propaganda offers “a stark choice” between his government and a “Bill Shorten Labor Party”. While Bill Shorten lags in personal support in the polls the Liberals attempt to frame the conflict as between themselves and Bill Shorten rather than between Labor and Liberal for government. The truth is a casualty in the reframed message in two ways.
Australia does not run presidential elections.
While both sides are telling lies (politely framed as propaganda) the question will be, can any of them be trusted?
No-one in Canberra will vote for Bill Shorten or Scott Morrison. That is up to the constituents in their own electorates. Canberrans will vote for our own local representatives who, in turn, will choose the prime minister, as the “first amongst equals”.
Secondly, leader-focused elections may have been better for the major parties in the era of mass media. The leader of the major parties heads the campaign, the rest are told to shut up, and the media is dragged into a two-person contest. Note how quiet backbench members have been in the pseudo election campaign that has been running for months.
This deliberate strategy lets the two major parties keep the media focused on the battle between themselves as the titans with the crossbench hopefuls largely eliminated.
ABC reporter Brett Worthington pointed out, as parliament was prorogued, that Mr Morrison “channelled former prime minister John
Howard and the ‘who do you trust’ campaign slogan he made famous during the 2004 election”.
While both sides are telling lies (politely framed as propaganda) the question will be, can any of them be trusted?
The Liberals and National parties remind us that they have brought the budget into the black. Another casualty of truth. Australia does not yet have a surplus. Somewhere in the forward estimates there is a surplus predicted. We certainly have had a temporary reprieve based on a rise in commodity prices. This was luck, not good management. However, both the government and the opposition are on an election spending spree as though there is a sustained long-term surplus. Who should we trust?
Like Lazarus arising from the dead, the Labor Party has been using the famous Whitlam slogan of “It’s time”. Labor wants to frame the Liberals as unstable, asking who will be prime minister in a year’s time if they win government. Tony Abbott brought the Liberals to government six years ago. Malcolm Turnbull was the leader at the last election and now the party
has opted for Scott Morrison – after a failed coup intended to elevate Peter Dutton.
As Labor is not in government, it is forced to run both a vision for the future and a negative propaganda campaign. It knows how effectively its campaign to protect Medicare worked at last election. Now it is attempting to frame Medicare as a Labor positive with a huge promise around its role in treating cancer. They have also presented policies on negative gearing and franking credits to achieve a “fairer Australia”.
Labor’s prime negative pitch has already commenced in exposing Liberal and National Party infighting.
The battle between the conservatives and socially progressive liberals is barely kept in check, even within the election context. An unstable, divided party can never win an election. This is a vulnerability Labor has already commenced exploiting.
Electioneering on the politics of propaganda, negativity and fear is a proven formula. However, our democracy and politicians across the spectrum are the losers. The key lesson from current electioneering is that deception, lack of vision and negativity dominate political life. Voters draw the obvious conclusion: our politicians are disparaging people who are not to be trusted.
Holy Week – Monday - Wednesday 6.30pm – Said Mass
Maundy Thursday – 18th April
6.30pm – High Mass with foot washing Good Friday – 19th April
9.30am – Good Friday Liturgy
2.30pm – Stations of the Cross Easter Sunday – 21st April
6.30am – Easter Vigil Mass 9.30am – High Mass
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HELL hath no fury like a prime minister spurned… unless, it seems, if you’re a woman.
Malcolm Turnbull’s lashing out at Peter Dutton – with a backhander to Scott Morrison – is a perfect case in point. It’s almost as though he was waiting for the slightest stumble before ripping in with the old one-two combination to the ribs and the jaw.
Dutton had left himself open with his agreement to lunch with slimy Santo Santoro and his client, the thoroughly disreputable Huang Xiangmo.
It didn’t matter a jot to Malcolm that Huang’s bid for Australian citizenship – the reason for the lunch – resulted in his being banned from the country via an ASIO intervention. For the spurned PM it was clearly “very troubling” and Morrison could not “wave it off as gossip in the bubble”. Oh, how Malcolm relished it. The desperate need to unload on the men who snatched the grand prize from his grasp had been growing in intensity ever since that nightmarish day in August, 2018.
Now in a single outburst he had revived all the memories of the Liberal Party infighting
The
silence Julia Gillard has kept since Bill Shorten (among others) engineered her downfall speaks volumes.
that disabled Federal governance for half a decade. He’d almost certainly ensured that Dutton would lose his ultramarginal seat of Dickson; Kerryn Phelps might just squeak back in Wentworth; and Morrison would be haunted by his version of Banquo’s ghost throughout the campaign.
In doing so, Turnbull had joined two of his predecessors in the helpless fury of rejection. It’s as though they have been unmanned by the shock. Their whole identity has been ripped untimely from their grasp. They have no recourse but rage and revenge to withstand the public humiliation and fill the sudden vacuum of self-regard.
As it happens, I had a seat in the dress circle when the first of them was suddenly bereft. I had spent many hours at close quarters with him in preparing my 2008 book, “Kevin Rudd: The Biog-
raphy”. And I knew of the secret religious fervour that underpinned his self-belief in the rightness of his cause.
One day, perhaps, he’ll confess it, but since his late teens when he had a spiritual epiphany he had no doubt that greater forces than he were guiding his footsteps. So he pursued his political muggers with the burning power of righteousness.
Tony Abbott was similarly bereft. He was quite serious when in the shadow of his fall he promised “no wrecking, no undermining, no sniping”. But his rage had a mind of its own and it allowed him no resting place until his bushwhacker was himself brought low.
The exception in our quartet of the spurning is of course the one person that the maxim tells us is most vulnerable to the fury that follows in its wake:
the womanly Julia Gillard. And it is germane perhaps that she carried no religious baggage into The Lodge. Her “bag” was education, and her conduct since she left it has been a lesson to us all.
The silence she has kept since Bill Shorten (among others) engineered her downfall speaks volumes. Just what it says about her, her gender and perhaps her party is more complex than we have space to pursue. But it does suggest that the progressive feminisation of our political system is certainly a notion worth exploring.
Men, it seems, are far more vulnerable to another more valid maxim: “The human mind is a precision instrument of self-delusion”. robert@ robert macklin. com
WODEN Valley is said to be named after a nearby homestead, whose owner Dr James Murray titled it “Woden” in October, 1837, after the Old English god of wisdom.
It was a fitting name from Dr Murray, who wanted to spend his life pursuing wisdom.
But another man, Dr Harold Koch, questions this and believes Woden Valley’s origins come from the Aboriginal word for possum.
The Aboriginal word, either “wadyan” or “wadhan”, became known to English speakers as “Woden”.
The traditional custodians of the district are the indigenous people of the Ngunnawal tribe.
FOLLOWING the launch of Daana Res taurant’s catering service, co-owners Sanjay and Sunita Kumar say it’ll be the talking point of any conference, function or event.
“Winners of ‘Best New Restaurant’ in 2017 and ‘Best Indian Restaurant’ in 2018, our chefs will surprise and delight your guests with their delicious global fare and friendly personalised service,” Sanjay says.
“Daana provides generous catering options to match any budget and takes the hassle out of organising meals for groups of 15 to 500 for corporate clients, government agencies, university departments, embassies, small offices and for private celebrations with family and friends.”
THE Hellenic Club was established in Phillip after an overwhelming social need for Canberra’s Greek community came to the fore in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.
“They needed a place to bring their families alongside their Greek and Australian friends,” says operations manager Mick Douros.
“They needed a place they could call ‘home’.”
The Hellenic Club has since been serving the community for 40 years, and Mick says this significant milestone was celebrated on
He says the birthday celebrations have been in full swing, with more than 50,000 members as well as the whole community embracing the cultural and customer experience that the Hellenic Club prides itself on.
“Two words have been used a lot lately that illustrate the proud qualities you will find inside the Hellenic Club,” he says.
The first he says is “philoxenia”, which translates to “friend to a stranger”, and the second is “philotimo”, which translates to “love of honour”.
“The relationship between members and staff has never been stronger with everyone feeling part of the family,” he says.
“We are forever improving and reinventing our customer service and offerings to ensure that our members and guests are on the receiving end of the best customer service in Canberra.”
Sanjay says they have many different options to “wow” guests, from a variety of different international cuisines such as Mediterranean, Australian and Asian.
To make it easy for customers, Sanjay says people can order for all corporate catering online.
“Or you can chat with us about your requirements and budget, and we’ll put together some menu options that will really ‘wow’ your guests and have
you fielding compliments for days,” he says.
Impressed with Daana’s fresh ingredients and unique menu options, Sanjay says they started catering through word of mouth before the official launch and have already catered for places such as the ACT Legislative Assembly, ANU, UC and Canberra Hospital.
Daana Catering. Contact 5105 1048, email chef@daana.com.au or visit daanacatering.com.au
With Daana Catering, those memories will be a talking point for all the right reasons.
For seamless professional catering that really makes an impact, let the multi award winning team from Daana Restaurant and Catering take care of your event.
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• Convenient Online Ordering System
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Winners of Best New Restaurant 2017* and Best Indian Restaurant 2018*, our chefs will surprise and delight your guests with their delicious international fare, and friendly personalised service.
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SINCE opening more than 20 years ago, Colleen’s Lingerie and Swimwear in Garran has evolved and now specialises in bra sizes and styles that are hard to find.
Originally Colleen’s Lingerie and Swimwear was established to help women who have had breast cancer surgery with its post-surgery bras.
Gillian Horton, a former customer after having surgery herself for breast cancer, took over the store in 2014.
“What women don’t know is that anybody can come in and be fitted,” she says.
“We’re finding that women who have difficulty finding bras that fit well can come and get fitted.
“We cater for large cups, large backs, small cups and front closing bras.
“If you’re actually fitted in the right bra size then you’ll be more comfortable. “The right bra will give you the right foundation.”
But Gillian says Colleen’s Lingerie and Swimwear doesn’t just sell bras and has other items such as underwear and swimwear.
In the past 20 years Gillian says the choices have increased and there are now different types of bras for all occasions.
“We also have very spacious fitting rooms to make women feel comfortable when they come in,” she says.
“And we make sure they receive an excellent customer service. Our focus is the customer.”
Colleen’s Lingerie and Swimwear, Shop 6, 22 Garran Place, Garran. Call 6285 1311 or visit colleens.com.au
THE family-run business Paint Place in Phillip, formerly known as The Decoration Centre, has been delivering quality advice and paint to the region for 41 years, says owner Alex Hetenyi.
Initially established by Alex’s dad, the store is backed with two generations of knowledge with Alex joining the team as a teenager, before becoming the owner with his brother, and now on his own.
“With the experience we have and the level of knowledge we have, we can solve any project and maintenance issues with the correct advice and correct products from the beginning,” Alex says.
Being paint specialists who only deal with paint, Alex says they get a lot of customers complimenting their services.
“We’re friendly, we’re backed with knowledge and we can help with any project from staining or oiling your deck to painting the inside of your house or painting furniture.
“We offer colour-matching services and have an interior decorator who can help with colour advice in store by appointment.
“We service a lot of trade in Canberra as well and have a good, better and best range, which suits any budget.”
Paint Place also has allergy friendly paints, which Alex says have up to zero VOCs (volatile organic compounds) in them.
“This means people can paint in the home during the day and then sleep in it at night with no problems,” he says.
Paint Place, 38 Botany Street, Phillip. Call 6282 3666 or visit paintplace.com.au
ESTABLISHED in 1986, the team at Capon & Hubert are not only backed with decades of experience but they also love what they do, says its finance director Rhonda Hubert.
The team, who work out of Phillip, enjoy assisting its clients and Rhonda says they hope it shows!
“A large part of our client base comes to us by way of referral,” she says.
“It’s a measure of our success and so is the confidence which our clients and other professionals put in our experienced, friendly and family oriented team.”
The staff at Capon & Hubert work in areas such as wills and enduring powers of attorney, estates and probate.
Its principal solicitor, Ken Hubert, has more than 32 years’ experience in the Canberra region and specialises in family law and mediations.
And, the conveyancing team is headed by Daryn Griffiths who has expertise in commercial and residential property. Capon & Hubert, 32-38 Townshend Street, Phillip. Call 6152 9203 or email enquiries@chsol.com.au
Conveyancing
At Capon and Hubert Lawyers we are up to date with the changes in Stamp Duty, Identity Verification, and Tenancy laws. Our Conveyancing Solicitor will apply these changes to your unique situation and work with you for the
servicing Canberra and its surrounds for about 50 years and Rosslyn says they look forward to welcoming new and old customers to its showroom
Alexanders Furnishings, Shop 5, Paul’s Centre, Hindmarsh Drive, Phillip. Call 6281 1611.
WITH a focus on giving its customers an efficient yet quality service, Woden Valley Glass is the destination for custommade shower screens, wardrobe doors and kitchens, says Woden Valley Glass, which has been in Canberra for about 50 years, was taken over by Achim about a year ago, bringing
“I’m a builder so I know a lot about shower screens and I have been doing bathrooms and the rest for a long time, so I
“A lot of other companies have sub-contractors who do the work and rush through it but we make sure that the job is
Before deciding on a sliding wardrobe door, a kitchen splash-back, a glass palestrate, a mirror or glass replacement, Achim says customers can come into the showroom where
“We’ll go through the advantages and disadvantages of different products and come up with something that works
Cafe couple loves bringing community together over
WHEAT and Oats’ owners Phattreeya Thongphet and Jinsun Joo love bringing together the community with their Korean-infused food.
“We treat everyone like family as we feel so blessed to be part of this community,” Phattreeya says.
“We know that people in Canberra are busy bees and we want to help in our own way by providing a more nutritious meal.
“We try to make everything in-house as much as possible and try to purchase ingredients or items that are local within the area and Canberra.
“Although we are a Korean infused cafe we try to buy the ingredients locally in order to know exactly what we are serving.”
On Good Friday, Phattreeya says they will have live music from 9.30am to 11.30am and 6pm to 8pm as well as a new menu for the week.
“There is also a free easter egg hunt for the children at 12pm,” she says.
“We have live music on Saturday mornings, run many workshops such as macrame plant hangers, kokedama and kids’ cooking class to help introduce healthy options for kids.”
Wheat and Oats also does catering and Phattreeya says their most popular items are spring rolls, curry puffs and Korean fried chicken.
Wheat and Oats, 22-24 Colbee Court, Phillip. Call 6282 6828, email wheatandoat@gmail.com or visit @wheatandoats on Facebook.
Sleek &
*Offer Ends 30/04/19. Retail offer only. Conditions apply – see in-store for details. Buy a 4L or 10L can of Haymes Ultra Premium paint at Paint Place Phillip & you’ll receive an eftpos card, up to the value of $100. * Now that’s a good time!
THE once-notorious English novelist DH Lawrence published his intriguing Australian tale “Kangaroo” in 1923.
Almost a century on, Lawrence’s eighth novel, written in just 45 days while staying in Thirroul, north of Wollongong, on the NSW south coast in 1922, has stood the test of time and yet again been re-published.
“Kangaroo’s” recent reappearance has renewed interest in its depiction of Australian society, including the republishing online of a 1958 article by Sydney journalist Tom Fitzgerald.
In the ‘50s Fitzgerald used to visit Thirroul, where Lawrence and his wife Frieda had stayed in the winter of 1922.
Fitzgerald wanted to know if any of the locals remembered the exotic couple and to his delight he discovered that
In some whimsical research, STEPHEN HOLT unmasks his gruff, old headmaster as a cousin of a man who got to look after the great writer DH Lawrence (and his beard) in Thirroul
hairdresser – “a dignified, slimly built man of about 60” –identified as GS Laughlin.
In 1922 Laughlin had provided Lawrence with valuable information about Australia’s social and natural peculiarities.
The briefings occurred over beard trims in Laughlin’s shop.
These references to Laughlin in Fitzgerald’s resurfaced article struck a peculiar chord with me.
I went to Dickson High School (1963-1967) when the headmaster was Noel Laughlin. He was, I later discovered, a native of Dapto which is not too far from Thirroul.
After reading the Fitzgerald
links. He treasured his copy of “Kangaroo” in which his helpfulness was alluded to. He seems to have been quite chuffed when, in 1934, Frieda Lawrence sent him a copy of her autobiography. Her husband had died in France in 1930 of tuberculosis. He was 44.
Fitzgerald’s article in 1958 put the Laughlin connection on the public record.
The likelihood of the future headmaster knowing about his cousin’s connection with Lawrence is high.
Admittedly, there was no discernible sign of any connection with the famous English novelist at Dickson High in the 1960s.
Its headmaster gave off no literary vibes whatsoever.
And yet the undoubted family link is currently having a delayed beneficial effect.
A Canberra headmaster from the 1960s, who came across to many a teenaged student back then as grim and gruff, can now be seen in a far softer light.
For it is surely a real, if minor, distinction to be finally unmasked as a cousin of the man who got to look after the great DH Lawrence and his beard in Thirroul in the winter of 1922.
Who says research can’t be
Stephen Holt (sjholt@fastmail. fm) is a Canberra writer.
THE actions of Australian and NZ forces during World War I’s Gallipoli campaign left a powerful legacy.
The “Anzac legend”, inspired by that bloody campaign, has become an important part of the identity of both nations, shaping Australia’s views of the past and the future.
Anzac Day commemorations have been held since 1916, and the Australian War Memorial continues this tradition, commemorating not only the Anzacs, but the courage and sacrifice of all Australian servicemen and women during periods of war and peace.
Held on April 25 of each year, Anzac Day was initially created to honour the members of the Australian and NZ Army Corps (Anzac) who fought at Gallipoli during World War I. Now, Anzac Day is also recognised in the Cook Islands, Niue, Pitcairn Islands and Tonga.
EVERY Anzac Day, thousands of people join together at the Australian War Memorial to pay tribute to and remember those who have served in all conflicts.
This year marks the 104th anniversary since soldiers landed on Gallipoli’s beaches and the Australian War Memorial says it’s proud to host commemorations on April 25.
“Anzac Day goes beyond the
anniversary of the landing on Gallipoli in 1915,” says Australian War Memorial director Dr Brendan Nelson.
“It is the day on which we remember all Australians who served and died in war and on operational service past and present.
“The spirit of Anzac, with its qualities of courage, mateship and sacrifice, continues to have meaning and relevance for our sense of national identity.”
Anzac Day at the Australian War Memorial will begin at 5.30am with a quiet, reflective and reverential dawn service, which will include a commemorative address delivered by Cpl Mark Donaldson.
From 10.30am to 12.30pm is the national ceremony. It’ll be a traditional order of service including a commemorative address, wreath laying, hymns, the sounding of the last post, observance of one minute’s silence, and the national anthems of Australia and New Zealand.
This year’s commemorative address will be delivered by Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove.
To conclude the day’s commemorations is a special last post ceremony, which this year will tell the story of Sgt Charles James Backman, who was killed on the first day of the Gallipoli campaign.
More information at awm.gov.au/ commemoration/anzac-day
Thursday 25 April
Join us at the Australian War Memorial to remember all Australians who have served and died in war and on operational service, past and present.
Image Projections evenings of 23 and 24 April
Memorial Forecourt
Pre-Dawn Readings 4.30 am
Parade Ground
Dawn Service 5.30 am
Parade Ground
Anzac Day Breakfast 6 am (6.30 am start)
Anzac Hall
Purchase tickets at awm.gov.au/breakfast
National Ceremony 10.30 am
Parade Ground
For ticket enquiries call (02) 6206 9813 or visit our website.
Last Post Ceremony 4.55 pm Commemorative Area
Free bus services will run for the Dawn Service and National Ceremony. See transport.act.gov.au for details.
Information about ticketing, road closures, parking and more, visit awm.gov.au
awm.gov.au
JUST a five-minute walk from the Australian War Memorial, Mercure Canberra is a great location to warm up after the dawn service, or relax after the National Ceremony, says general manager Patina Farnham.
Starting from 6am Mercure Canberra will have egg and bacon rolls, hot and cold drinks in the car park, a shotgun breakfast operating in Olims Bar and Bistro as well as a buffet breakfast in the courtyard restaurant.
Then, from noon, the front car park will be alive with food stalls and pop-up bars and two-up, which will be followed by the local band, Back to the Eighties.
“You need to be there early to get a spot at the front,” she says.
With a vibrant atmosphere, Patina says Anzac Day at Mercure Canberra is always a melting pot of people from all walks of life coming together to remember the Anzacs and say thanks for the sacrifices made both on that day and still to this day.
“It’s important for the Mercure to commemorate Anzac Day as this significant part of Australian history has shaped our nation to what it currently is,” she says.
“Without our Anzacs we may not be living the amazing lives as Aussies that we currently do.”
Mercure Canberra, corner of Ainslie and Limestone Avenue, Braddon. Call 6243 0000 or visit mercurecanberra.com.au
EVEN though the traditional site of the Canberra Services Club was burnt down in Manuka in 2012, it’s still around and it’s still the spot to go on Anzac Day, says president Mike Kinniburgh.
“We haven’t gone, we’re still here,” Mike says.
“At the moment there isn’t a proper services club or RSL club in Canberra so we need support so we can keep supporting service men and women.”
The club, which was built straight after the war in the ‘40s, is one of Canberra’s oldest clubs.
This year, Anzac Day will continue to be acknowledged on the old site – at “the tank” on Canberra Avenue and Mike says all proceeds will be going to war widows of the ACT.
The day starts at 4.30am with a gunfire breakfast and then the club will continue to serve food all day.
Mike says people can hang around or go to the War Memorial and then come back for two-up, which will kick off at 1pm, finishing at 6pm.
“It’s a great family atmosphere,” he says.
“The beauty about it is it’s outside so there’s lots of space for kids to run around.
“We have a wet weather option as well.”
Traditional Canberra Services Club Site, Canberra Avenue, Manuka, near Manuka Oval, call 6162 0503 or email info@canberraclub.com.au
ON Anzac Day the Canberra Labor Club in Belconnen is always buzzing with wonderful people commemorating the day, says Labor Club marketing co-ordinator Melanie Steele.
“The club has a buzzing atmosphere full of likeminded people looking to commemorate the day and show their respect to the Anzacs who have served our country,” she says.
“We believe in the importance of commemorating the
Anzacs and the service they provided for our country.”
On Anzac Day there will be a $12 veal rump or veal schnitzel lunch special, which will be running from midday, along with two-up.
“We have great specials, great facilities and great staff to make it a fantastic day,” she says.
Canberra Labor Club, Chandler Street, Belconnen. Call 6251 5522 or visit laborclub.com.au
At the opening night of ‘The Miser’, The Playhouse
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.
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By Helen Musa
THE 2019 Canberra International Music Festival is in a 25th anniversary celebratory mood and will kick off on May 2 with an extraordinary combination of music and acrobatics, which they’re describing as “an explosive collaboration of contemporary circus and music”.
Put more simply, Brisbane’s performing company Circa is joining forces with Sydney’s Australian Brandenburg Orchestra to create a “collision” between baroque music and the kind of razzle-dazzle Circa artistic director Yaron Lifschitz has been wowing audiences at the Canberra Theatre with for some years. Festival director Roland Peelman is also planning chills and thrills of a purely musical kind as he turns the spotlight on the music of JS Bach this year. There’ll be “A World of Bach”, “Bach Orbit”, “Bach in the Central Desert” with the Ntaria Ladies Choir, “Bach for Breakfast”, “Bach on the Mountain”, “Bach The Teacher”. “The Children’s Bach”, “Bach In Africa” and, a treat for Canberrans, “Winther’s Bach”, featuring Canberra-born violin virtuoso Kristian Winther.
But a world premiere circus – that’s something completely new for Peelman and for Llewellyn Hall, which will be transformed by Lifschitz and Brandenburg artistic director Paul Dyer into English masque settings showing The Court, The Bedroom and The Chapel.
“CityNews” caught up with soprano Jane Sheldon, the frontline vocalist in this explosive evening of music from 16th and 17th-century England by composers Purcell, Dowland, Corelli and Handel, with traditional tunes such as “Scarborough Fair” and “The Gartan Mother’s Lullaby” thrown
in to evoke the right atmosphere. Sheldon, who developed a cult following after her recording of Elena Kats-Chernin’s Eliza’s aria from the ballet “Wild Swans”, returned to Australia two years ago after a decade in New York when her husband, an academic, was offered a job at Sydney University and has no regrets.
“When I left Australia a decade or so ago there were just not enough opportunities to perform chamber music, but by the time we were considering coming back, there really were,” she says.
“I maintained my presence in Australia
while living in New York, especially singing with the Sydney Chamber Opera and now there’s plenty of work to be done in Australia,” she says.
As well as busying herself in operas and recitals, she is now the director of the chamber music series “Symbioses” and co-director of the Resonant Bodies Festival.
“I will leave the trapeze work to the professionals and will probably resist any suggestion that I should climb up or drop down,” she says of the coming collaboration with Circa, preferring the vocal acrobatics for which she was once praised by the
sang Andrew Ford’s song cycle “Last Words” with Teddy Neeman on piano, David Pereira on cello and Helen Ayres on violin, an experience she describes as “a lot of fun”. Next up, after “English Baroque” tours to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane with the Sydney Chamber Opera will be Elliott Gyger’s opera based on Peter Carey’s “Oscar and Lucinda” and she’ll head back to New York for the premiere of her own work, “Poem for a Dried Up River”.
“English Baroque with Circa”, Llewellyn Hall, 7.30pm, May 2, for Canberra International Music Festival, May 2-12. Book at cimf.org.au
HEADING to the south coast for Easter? If you’re wandering through the Batemans Bay area and slightly beyond to Mosquito Bay, there are two spots on the water worth a visit.
JJ’s, at The Marina, Beach Road, is a spacious café and bar with pretty specky views of boats moored and crystal-blue waters. You can even stroll alongside the Marina up to the new sculpture called “Pelicant” by Eden artist Jesse Graham.
JJ’s focuses on seafood. A fave dish is the freshpeeled prawns, creamy avocado and bright green wakame salad ($25.50). It’s great as a main or for sharing. The plating has varied on this dish (we’ve indulged more than once). It’s sometimes a feast for the eyes and sometimes not.
We gave a big thumbs up to a special celebrating local, fresh figs served in a quinoa salad with haloumi and a yum honey mustard dressing ($19).
Steamed local mussels are menu regulars ($21 to $25) as is white bait coated in Szechuan seasoning and deep fried. Have fun dipping them into fresh lime aioli ($16.50). If you’re a tactile eater, order a big bowl of prawns and peel your own ($27). You can’t go wrong with the good old fish ‘n’ chips, either ($28).
JJ’s also has live music Fridays and Sundays. It hosts happy hour Tuesday to Friday, 3.30pm-5.30pm. The
service is friendly but could be more efficient and attentive at times (like the day our entrees were served well before our wine).
BEYOND the Bay, at quaint Mosquito Bay, is Three66 Espresso Bar. It serves great coffee and food and is more on trend with the previous places positioned on this precious spot were. They never seemed to get it quite right. This time we were off for brekky, ordering at the counter and lucky to get a seat in the sun overlooking the water.
Dishes are beautifully plated and the flavours fantastic. The sweetcorn fritter stack ($19.50) was one of the best we’ve had. It arrived with bacon, wild roquette, poached egg, aioli and a chimichurri tomato salsa. The fritters were crunchy on the outside and packed with goodness.
The salmon bruschetta ($19.50) also hit the mark. We loved the radish and pickled red cabbage, caper berries, the poached eggs cooked “just so”, the smashed avo and fresh lemon.
Service was painfully slow and we were taken aback by how long it took staff to tidy up a very messy outdoor area – there were dirty dishes everywhere.
JJ’s is open seven days, breakfast through to dinner (hours vary) and Three66 Espresso Bar serves breakfast 8.30am-noon.
By Helen Musa
CANBERRA troubadour Fred Smith will sing highlights from his new album “Warries” on Anzac Eve and at the Australian War Memorial’s National Anzac service. The album is a non-jingoistic retrospective documenting a period in which Australian soldiers and civilians deployed into conflict zones in the Pacific and Central Asia as warriors and peacemakers. It is a sequel to his extraordinary “Dust of Uruzgan” album. At The Street Theatre, 7.30pm, Wednesday, April 24. Book at thestreet.
THE National University Theatre Society (NUTS) is presenting its first show in the new Kambri Drama Centre. It’s a physical and devised theatre adaptation of “Peter Pan” by director Amy McDonald and artistic director Claire Holland, full of magic, mermaids, pirates and fairies. At Kambri, ANU campus, April 24-27. Book at nutspresents.getqpay.com
AUSTRALIAN dance legend and 2015 “CityNews” Artist of the Year Elizabeth Cameron Dalman is cooking up a 30th birthday celebration of Mirramu Creative Arts Centre, Lake Road, Bungendore, April 26-28, and would like to hear from people involved in the journey at elizabeth.mirramu@ gmail.com or via mirramu.com ON the final weekend of “Love and Desire: Pre-Raphaelite Masterpieces from the Tate”, Essential Theatre and Three Birds Theatre from Melbourne will stage three nights of “Enter Ophelia”, a “darkly funny” reimagining of a different future for Shakespeare’s tragic damsel, and a new look at femininity, isolation and silliness. At the National Gallery, April 26-28. Book at nga.gov.au
“SHORT+SWEET” Canberra is back for its tenth anniversary festival with a mix of 10-minute works from elsewhere and here, including plays by Canberra arts identity Harriet Elvin and “CityNews” arts critic John Lombard. Ten “All Stars” performances will be seen in the Courtyard Studio, April 26-27, while new works will be seen April 30-May 4. There will be anniversary cake and bubbles after the April 26 show. Book at canberratheatrecentre.com.au US singer Arlo Guthrie and his humorous mix of folk, rock, country, blues and gospel styles will be at Canberra Theatre, April 22. Book at canberratheatrecentre.com.au
“The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” (PG)
APPARENTLY, director Terry Gilliam had the notion of filming “El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha” more than a decade ago. The result of his perseverance (released last May in France) is 132 very funny, very perceptive, minutes of pure cinema delight, mixing the high points of Cervantes’s novel (published in two parts in 1605 and 1615) with a well-judged satire on the professional, artistic, hubristic, cynical and creative madness called the movie industry.
Jonathan Pryce and Terry Gilliam have a long professional association. This time, Pryce plays an old Spanish cobbler whom tyro Hollywood director Toby (Adam Driver) early in his career had cast to play Don Q. Toby now has a professional creative reputation matched to a tyrannical personal reputation bordering on manic. Filming a contemporary version of Don Q in Spain, Toby rediscovers the old man, who now believes that he is indeed Cervantes’ immortal hero.
Sit back and watch a delightful intertwining of a 17th century classic with 21st century mastery of the moving image telling a classic story with style, imagination, great performances, spectacular Spanish locations, gently satirising movie industry political and financial machinations paraphrasing a line from an Irving Berlin musical theatre favourite – “there’s no interest like self interest”.
I’m surprised that “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” is screening at only one local cinema
Freda (Flora Thiemann). Stephen is pragmatic about the war’s outcome. Freda is not. Lewis allows them to occupy a small suite of rooms in the house.
Lewis goes to work every morning, leaving Rachael by herself in a strange land during a severe winter. She carries the agony of their 11-year-old son killed during the blitz three years earlier.
WRITER/director Tina Gordon’s film is about a bossy bitch who learned at school that the only way to get one’s own way is to be the boss.
“The
and that I watched it alone. It’s refreshingly different and deserves wide exposure.
At Dendy
“The Aftermath” (M)
WHILE director James Kent’s film doesn’t set out to deliver a message or confront a major issue, its human dimensions and its dramatic development are structurally dramatically real and complex enough to provide entertainment values that sustain it right down to the wire.
Set in Hamburg in the first winter after the end of World War II, the screenplay by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse
introduces Rachael (Keira Knightley) whose husband, Col Lewis Morgan (Jason Clarke) is involved in managing the city’s recovery from the devastation caused on a single night by a greater mass of allied bombs than the Luftwaffe dropped on London throughout the blitz.
Lewis has commandeered the country house belonging to the Lubert family, occupied now by scion Stephen (Alexander Skarsgård) and his teenaged daughter
Stephen is a widower, now working at tasks below his professional qualifications and social origins. Propinquity rears its head. A handsome widower and a beautiful but neglected wife carrying a burden of grief make for an emotional dynamic leading where you might expect. Meanwhile, Freda is associating with a young man still locked to the Nazi ethos.
The mixture is potent. For the filmgoer, the choices develop for Rachael and Stephen on one hand and Rachael and Lewis on the other. The narrative is leading to a choice between two inevitable denouements. Which one will survive? That leads the film to a conclusion that by the time it arrives has accumulated a satisfying tension.
At Dendy, Palace Electric, Capitol 6, Hoyts Woden
Jordan (Regina Hall) owns a company designing apps for smartphones. Her biggest customer has just told her that unless she comes up in two days with cyberspace’s greatest social app, he’s migrating to another firm to get a fresh approach.
In a movie short on dramatic innovation, it happens that at the school where Jordan got the aforementioned advice, one kid is a bit of a magician. One wave of this child’s wand and lo and behold! Jordan’s body is reduced to what it was around puberty. Body transformation only. Still a selfish super-bitch. Child actor Marsai Martin, who plays the new body, says her ambition is to become a legend. I hope she learns to be a human before that happens.
“Little” might have been less intolerable if its main substance had been less unvarying. The film induced a high boredom in me. Not so the three adolescent girls with whom I shared the session, who told me that they found it good. What it lacks is a classification “not suit able for grown-ups”!
At all cinemas
By Helen Musa
“FLASH Fiction” is the flavour of the decade in writing circles and Canberra is about to see a whole weekend devoted to it.
Written in all genres – romance, thriller, horror, sci-fi, and even non-fiction – Flash Fiction, according to the director of the festival, Suzanne Kiraly, is about “saying more with less… when you only have 500 words to express yourself you have to learn to be precise.”
Flash Fiction, she says, can be a complete narrative story under either 2000 words, 1000 words or, for her purposes, 500 words or less and is also known as micro fiction, short-shorts, very short stories, sudden fiction, postcard fiction and nano-fiction.
Kiraly started the event in April last year and says it’s suitable for emerging, mid-career and even senior writers. Writing is a solitary affair, she believes, and those who’ve made a name for themselves often say it involves an element of luck, but she’s certain there are things a writer can do to increase the chances of making it.
Mixing with what she calls “the crème de la crème of the writing world” is one way, so she’s got on board a line-up of writers in different genres to give “Flash” 30-minute accounts of their literary journeys and to participate in workshops and panel sessions.
Bookended with performances by Canberra singersongwriter, Fred Smith, there’ll be Graeme Simsion, author of “The Rosie Project”, Canberra novelist Marion Halligan (“Always good value,” Kiraly says), south coast poet Gabrielle Journey Jones, crime writers Anne Buist, Jack Heath and Karen Viggers, who as we have reported in “CityNews”, is making it big in France, with an estimated 800,000 sales for her 2016 novel “The Lightkeeper’s Wife”.
Children’s author Suzanne Gervay, who was MC last year, will run a workshop this time around. Social commentator Bettina Arndt gets two sessions, not only about her journey but about her experience holding
attend, Kiraly says this one, is “a writers’ festival for writers” with professionally oriented sessions on editing and publishing, pitching story ideas and distributing and marketing work.
There’ll also be a short story competition from which the selected winning stories will be published in a book edited by Irma Gold. They did the same thing last year and the result book will be launched on the weekend.
One of the quirkiest highlights will be a pitch session, which will be “like literary speed dating”, where a maximum of 20 writers get five minutes each to pitch their stories to members of a panel of publishers.
The weekend will open on the Friday evening with the exceedingly popular “Tales after Dark – storytelling for grown-ups” session, where professional actors read out short stories on which the audience gets to vote.
Applications are now open for the 10197NAT Certificate IV in Acting for Stage and Screen, Canberra’s professional acting course.
Start in July, study at our fullyequipped studios at Fyshwick, and explore acting technique for TV, film and theatre, how to audition, and how to break into the industry.
Course info session/auditionMay 2. Register online.
THE range of native plants in flower during the colder months puts a lie to the idea that winter gardens lack interest.
Take for example the wonderful winterflowering plants of the large correa family; there are 80 varieties listed in Wrigley and Fagg’s book “Australian Native Plants”.
A few examples include Canberra Belle, especially bred by local native plant breeder Peter Ollerenshaw to celebrate Canberra’s Centenary in 2013 and alba, which generally flowers in winter.
One other correa I recommend for its long-flowering period from autumn to spring is Catie Bec, a lower-growing variety to one metre.
Most callistemons (or bottle brush) flower in the spring or summer, but there are exceptions that include pink champagne, which will grow to three metres by two metres. As with most native plants, a light prune after flowering is beneficial. This can be difficult as this plant not only flowers in winter but can also have flowers most of the year.
Westringia fruticosa, with grey leaves and white flowers, appears almost year round. Growing to two metres, Wrigley and Fagg say this is an incredibly hardy shrub that will grow in almost any situation. It is useful as a clipped formal hedge for screening.
AT this time of the year I like to remind gardeners of the winter-flowering value of the ericas and heathers. They can be planted
Colourful heather… Mostly low growing, they make an ideal border alongside paths. Winter-flowering callistemons… a light prune after flowering is beneficial.
in groups in front of other winter-flowering plants for an additional lift to the garden.
Mostly low growing, they make an ideal border alongside paths and also as an ideal companion plant when grown in combination with conifers.
There are many varieties available here, but I’m not even going to attempt to recommend specific types as, for example, one UK nursery catalogue lists more than 190 varieties and the Royal Horticultural Society
list has double that number. In addition to planting in the garden they are popular in pots and hanging baskets.
IT is often mentioned in the gardening media that it is okay to place tulip bulbs in the crisper of the fridge until the ground temperatures are low, usually about May. Please ignore this advice.
According to one of Australia’s principal Dutch bulb growers (and if anyone knows about bulb culture, it is the Dutch), tulips – or for that matter any bulbs stored in the crisper – can be affected by ethylene gas put out by fruit, especially bananas, near them. This can result in poor flowering or even no flowers at all. Then, possibly, the poor old garden centre cops the blame for selling inferior bulbs! Simply store the bulbs in a cool spot until the ground has a couple of frosts.
DURING frosty mornings, due to arrive at any time, I suggest you apply a fine spray of water to camellias and other late autumn and winter-flowering shrubs in the early morning. Do this early before the sun hits the frost-covered flowers and they get sun scorched. Of course, you will not be able to do this if you forget to put the hose away overnight or the outdoor tap and water pipe does not have any insulation
round them to stop them freezing!
OF special mention is Iris unguicularis (syn. Iris stylosa), the winter-flowering iris. Usually this iris is not grown to its full potential as the flowers and buds are hidden in a mass of thick, grass-like foliage. Or they are attacked by snails or slugs.
This is a real toughie with its home ranging from Algeria to Greece. As such, it is happy in full sun, although equally happy in dappled shade. The best way to get the benefit of the flowers is to cut back all foliage to ground level at this time. This is before the buds and flowers start to appear and snails will have little protection. The lavendermauve blooms have a unique fragrance and are an excellent cut flower, lasting for quite some time. When picking, pull the flowers from their base rather than cutting.
THE March edition of “The Garden”, the journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, reports that liquids and pellets containing the compound metaldehyde, which is used to kill slugs and snails, will be banned from June in the UK with Environment Secretary Michael Gove saying the chemical poses an unacceptable risk to birds and mammals.
Apart from Multicrop Slug and Snail Killer pellets, other slug and snail pellets sold in Australia contain metaldehyde. From personal experience, I contributed to the death of our cocker spaniel when it ate from a packet containing this product left in our garden. Besides pets and birds, it can kill other native fauna such as blue tongue lizards. Check the product when you buy a slug and snail killer.
• Beware walking under oak trees when acorns are falling. They are slippery on footpaths and can present a hazard.
• When repotting containers, place a layer of charcoal in the bottom. Besides aiding drainage this keeps the soil sweet.
Joanne Madeline Moore
ARIES (Mar 21 – Apr 20)
As the resident Warrior Man/Woman of the zodiac, your modus operandi is one where you charge into situations with guns blazing. (The long list of Aries hot-heads includes Butch Cassidy, Bette Davis, Marlon Brando, Alec Baldwin and Russell Crowe.) Rams are also notorious for lacking follow-through – especially this week, when Mars squares meandering Neptune. So make sure your fiery enthusiasm is tempered with plenty of persistence and a long-term plan.
TAURUS (Apr 21 – May 21)
This week boisterous Bulls are raring to go! The Sun/Uranus union activates your dormant adventurous side but slow down before you come a cropper. (As birthday great Charlotte Bronte wrote: “Look twice before you leap.”) You’re keen to get started on a project that excites you but don’t get confused, carried away, and end up way off course or way over budget. If you are creatively focused and financially frugal, then you’ll get much more bang for your buck.
GEMINI (May 22 – June 21)
Mars is in your sign, plus Mercury and Venus are visiting your social networking zone. So you’re keen to connect with a wide range of people from a variety of places as you talk, text, tweet, post or publish. Many Geminis are versatile writers and performers (like Mike Myers, Stevie Nicks and Russell Brand) so start writing that story, script, song, blog, book, report or essay. But be careful what you say on Saturday, when Neptune scrambles your communication antennae.
CANCER (June 22 – July 23)
This week the Sun and Uranus encourage you to explore new horizons. The wider your circle of friends and acquaintances, the more influence you will have in the big world outside your door. Being confident and decisive are the keys. Plus, with harmony planet Venus visiting your career zone (until May 15) do all you can to bypass workplace dramas and fix professional problems. It’s time for Crabs to be more conciliatory as you sit down and smoke the pipe of peace!
LEO (July 24 – Aug 23)
The week starts with a career surprise or a drama with a student, classmate, colleague, client or customer, as the Sun and Uranus pair up in your job zone. The more you rock the boat, the more disruptive things will be. Money matters also look rather complicated, especially if your paperwork is chaotic or you’re behind with paying bills. Incoming funds are in a state of flux so the more focused and informed you are, the more manageable your finances will be.
VIRGO (Aug 24 – Sept 23)
A romantic, platonic or business relationship looks very confusing. You think you know the person well but you need to walk a mile in their shoes before you really know how they are feeling. As birthday great Harper Lee observed: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from their point of view.” And are you keen to travel or achieve a major goal? Circumstances are constantly changing so don’t make any firm plans until you have more solid information.
LIBRA (Sept 24 – Oct 23)
Librans can be a rather complacent bunch, as you become preoccupied with life’s little luxuries and avoid venturing out of your comfort zone. Mars is moving through your adventure zone (until May 16) which encourages you to be more intrepid, as you learn something new or travel somewhere off the beaten track. Some discretion and common sense are required though, otherwise you could head off in a totally unsuitable direction. As always, balance is the key.
SCORPIO (Oct 24 – Nov 22)
A surprising partnership or a creative joint venture looks promising but you must be realistic about what you (and other people) can bring to the table. Fabulous professional and/or financial opportunities are around but you need to work out the perfect time to strike (and don’t be afraid to ask others for help). Plus avoid getting half-baked financial information from a flaky friend. Smart Scorpios will look to a successful colleague for some astute business advice.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov 23 – Dec 21)
Don’t be a spontaneous flash-in-the-pan Sagittarian! With Jupiter charging through your sign you’re full of enthusiasm and are keen to start an ambitious project. Just make sure your fabulous promises and well-meant intentions can last the distance, so you finish what you begin. This week you’re also keen to assist someone in need but don’t offer more help, time or money than you can actually deliver. Remember… words are easy and promises are cheap.
CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 20)
When it comes to a social event or a complicated friendship, hold onto your hat and prepare for some surprises! It is a good week to spruce up your domestic abode and entertain at home, as you enjoy fine food and convivial company. However, when dealing with a fractious family member, you’ll find some creative sugar-coating will help to convey your message in a more positive way. On Saturday, make sure you’re not heading off in a vague or confusing direction.
AQUARIUS (Jan 21 – Feb 19)
Freedom-loving Aquarians can only be on their best behaviour and toe the line for so long. So expect the unexpected this week, when the Sun and Uranus stir up your restless (and reckless) side. You’ll balk at restrictions being placed on you by others (especially at home) but resist the urge to be a disruptive influence. Aim to be smart and selective as you fulfil your basic responsibilities… then go off and do something exciting and eccentric somewhere else!
PISCES (Feb 20 – Mar 20)
Some Fish will bump into an old friend, re-connect with a relative or tangle up with a former flame. But are you living in Pollyanna Land? Remember – memories are so seductive because they’re so selective. You intuitively know what’s right for you - even though you may appear to be confused to others. (Welcome to Planet Pisces!) So don’t let a loved one (from the past or present) push you around or persuade you to do something you really don’t want to do.
Copyright Joanne Madeline Moore 2018
as? (4)
13 Which fruit is used as a substitute for chocolate? (5)
16 What are places where things are situated? (5)
19 Which disease is characterised by an eruption of the facial skin? (4)
21 Name the administrative capital of the Northern Territory. (6)
22 Jefferson City is the capital of which US State? (8)
23 Which kind of celestial being is often represented as a beautiful winged child? (6)
24 What was the ancient classical literary language of India? (8)
25 Name a form of address for a registered nurse. (6)
Down
2 Bucharest is the capital of which SE European republic? (7)
3 Name the earlier Secret State Police of Nazi Germany. (7)
4 What are one's seniors known as? (6)
5 Which term describes goods or personal property? (7)
6 What is something given as security, or in part payment? (7)
7 What are facial expressions called. (7)
13 Which is a more readily-known term for an apothecary? (7)
14 What are dried grapes? (7)
15 Which rocket-launcher is designed to destroy armoured military vehicles? (7)
17 Who was the Australian novelist, author of Lasseter's Last Ride, etc, Ion ...? (7)
18 Name a pale-yellow New Zealand cheese. (7)
20 What are decrees issued by authorities? (6)
