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TRADING HOURS

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†The save prices listed are calculated from the suppliers RRP (Recommended Retail Price) at the time of preparation and where no such price exists is the retail price found at competing retailers. Due to discount policy we may not have sold at RRP. All products may not be available from all Chemist Warehouse stores. Not all products featured in this catalogue are available online. We beat everyone’s prices! At Chemist Warehouse if you find a cheaper price on the exact same item at another Australian Retail store, we will match it and give you 10% off the difference. (Excludes ‘online only’ offers). Exact same item means exact same product, with the same packaging and where the product on offer at the other retail store is not clearance or run out stock. All products subject to manufacturer’s availability. We reserve the right to correct printing errors.

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FREE COMMUNITY MAGAZINE | LOCAL MEDIA IS BEST

30 APRIL — 06 MAY, 2020

ORANGE PROPERTY MARKET

— YOUR GUIDE TO THE BEST PROPERTIES AND BEST AGENTS — STARTS ON PAGE 21

Mamma Mia

DAT E W E N Banff Mountain Film Festival Friday 18 September at 7pm

AT E D W NE

Orange Theatre Company

NEW

Queen Bohemian Rhapsody

ES DAT

Greatest Hits Tour Friday 30 July 2021

DAT E W E N Leaving Jackson Saturday 10 October at 7.30pm

DAT E W E N Friday 16 October at 8pm

Sunday 18 October at 2pm

Saturday 17 October at 2pm and 8pm

Thursday 22 October at 8pm Friday 23 October at 8pm

Saturday 24 October at 2pm and 8pm Sunday 25 October at 2pm

THIS IS CORRECT AS OF 30.04.2020 Bookings: 02 6393 8111

www.orange.nsw.gov.au/theatre

Orange Civic Theatre

The Robertson Brothers Saturday 22 May 2021

OFFICIAL MEDICAL ADVICE

Coronavirus: Thanks to you, we are saving lives and stopping the spread. But itâ€™s important we continue to keep all Australians safe. Stay at home unless necessary and avoid non-essential travel. Banks, supermarkets, petrol stations, medical services and suppliers remain open.

If you can, you should work from home. Use phones for meetings, stop handshaking, tap to pay where possible instead of using cash.

Maintain physical distancing and hygiene practices. Keep 1.5 metres of physical distance, exercise away from others, and wash your hands regularly for 20 seconds.

Visit australia.gov.au to find restrictions specific to your State or Territory. Authorised by the Australian Government, Canberra 4 30 APRIL â€” 6 MAY , 2020

contents contents ADDRESS: PHONE: EMAIL: WEB: FACEBOOK:

Sponsors Sponsors

ADDRESS: Suite 3/241 Lords Place ORANGE PHONE: 02 6361 3575 EMAIL: reception@oclife.com.au Suite 3/241 LordsWEB: Place www.orangecitylife.com.au ORANGE 02 6361 3575 FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/orangecitylife

reception@oclife.com.au www.orangecitylife.com.au www.facebook.com/orangecitylife

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT ORANGE CITY LIFE

To further help Orange

ToCity further helpour Orange Life keep team City employed and keepemployed Life keep our team bringing you our magazine and keep bringing you our each week, we’re inviting magazine each week, we’re community minded inviting community minded businesses to sponsor businesses sponsor us through to this difficult usperiod through this difficult in our history. Any business interested period in our history. Any in sponsoring us, please business interested in sponcontact our office on soring us, please contact our 6361 3575 or email office on 6361 3575 or email reception@oclife.com.au reception@oclife.com.au The following The followingbusinesses businesses havegraciously graciously agreed agreed toto have sponsorus usuntil until June June 30th. sponsor 30th. We are extremely grateful We are extremely grateful for for their support. their support.

ASHCROFT’S

Friends! Another week has gone by during Pandemic-a-thon and I trust that most

A lot has happened over the last few weeks and it’s fair to say that the world as we know it will be different from here OK. My heart goes out to those who are feeling the full on, and forare quiteholding a while toup come. Many are now facing hardships that they would never have dreamed of just a few weeks back. force of changing circumstances, in some cases it must be devastating. People in safe employment last month now find themselves on unemployment queues, previously successful businessthat es are nowOn facing ruin.note, can I encourage you to read my comment on page 7, I And so it goes on. hope it stirs you into action. My wife and I, like so many other business owners at this time, are scrambling to meet Government regulations, while trying to keep up with community expectations and still come out at the other end. For some, this must seem mission On a lighter note, Mother’s Day is just around the corner and for a bit impossible. In our case, and with co-operation of our fabulous we’reup going to tryanother and defy thelittle odds. more funtheinunbelievable these unusual times, we’veteam, come with My wife and I have come up with a strategy that we hope will enable us to keep all our full-time employees in work, competition us and focus on these ladies our also liferelies whoon others keep producing Orange City to Life help each week hopefully come outbeautiful at the other end. This in strategy who we rely on, such as our printer in Sydney to survive as well. we call Mum. If you love your Mum, and I’m sure you do, and you’d like Defying the odds however will require a number of changes, sacrifices and a lot of understanding. to — tryFrom and something a little special for her thisyou’ve Mother’s Day,to.check CHANGES thisdo issue, Orange City Life will look very different to what become used Many of the types of stories and features we’ve included in recent issues simply can’t be done under the present distancing and out what we’re doing on Page 17. I’m really looking forward to delivering isolation rules. nice to five lucky Mum’s Mother’s Day. different approach. To help ussome all through thegifts Coronavirus crisis, for now at least,on we’re taking a completely We’re going to try to meet the changed needs that many readers now have as a result of isolation or being housebound. We’ll also Imake more usefair of ourto available spacethe to ensure you have read and enjoy each down issue. for think it’s say that world has plenty beentoturned upside Orange City Life will now provide you with more entertainment, more things to do, more ideas on how to keep yourself most people and many are still trying to come up with ways to negotiate busy, all while trying to lift your spirits and put a little sunshine into your day. To that end we’re including more puzzles, and we’relife, also including a serialised Novella Sunshinewho (pure coincidence) thatopen given the extradoors time we all especially those in titled business can’t now their tohave, we hope you will read and enjoy. We’ll also bring you quite a bit of helpful news from local businesses who are keen to keep the The result ofsend thisus is we’re seeing some very creative and serving you, andpublic. we’ll be encouraging you to items to include. SACRIFICES — To keep our costsfrom to an absolute we’ve alsoto hadovercome reduce the number pages we print and enterprising ideas peopleminimum as they work theirofdifficulties suspend several regular features in OC Life that we regularly pay for, among these is our TV Guide. I know a lot of people and circumstances. like to help these people although there isthis love our TV guide but given our presentWe’d circumstances, the cost of providing this and is beyond us, if we are to win battle. Despite all this, there are still ample copies of OC Life being distributed in many of the usual pick up spots right only so much we can do, there’s always something that can be done. If across Orange. you’re “having a go” and feel our magazine could youjust a kick-along UNDERSTANDING — It’s a shame that it takes a disaster like this to bring homegive to people how important our small businesses are in the scheme of things, and why supporting local businesses is so important. Without dwelling in some way, please don’t hesitate to ask, you on it too much, my hope is that locals will knock themselves out to spend every dollar they can with local businesses as we battle might through this together. Please keep spending as much as you’re able and do it at local businesses. We all becrisis pleasantly surprised. need every dollar we can get right now because at the end of the day we’re all in this together.

Once again, we’ve put together an entertaining magazine for you and I hope you enjoy every page.

Spirit WE CAPTURE THE

OF ORANGE

Spirit

Happy reading everyone and go well!

OF ORANGE

Bob

General disclaimer: Whilst every care is taken in preparing this publication, we cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions. The publisher accepts no responsibility for letters, notices and other material contributed for publication. The submitter accepts full responsibility for material, warrants that it is accurate, and indemnifies the publisher against any claim or action. All advertisers, including those placing display and classified or advertorial material, warrant that such material is true and accurate and meets all applicable laws and indemnifies the publisher against all liabilities that may arise from the publication or such material. Opinions expressed in the publication are not necessarily those of the publisher. The editor, Bob Holland, accepts responsibility for election comment. Articles contain information of a general nature – readers should always seek professional advice relevant to their particular circumstances. Complaints: Regional Life Group Pty Ltd trading as Orange City Life has a policy of correcting mistakes promptly. If you have a complaint about published material, contact us in writing. If the matter remains unresolved, you may wish to contact the Australian Press Council. © Copyright 2018 Regional Life Group Pty Ltd. Copyright in all material – including photographs and ads – is held by Regional Life Group Pty Ltd or its providers and must not be reproduced in any form without prior written permission from the Publisher. Printed for the publisher by Spotpress Pty Ltd, 24-26 Lilian Fowler Place, Marrickville, 2204.

ORANGE SQUARE MEDICAL CENTRE WE CAPTURE THE

Good luck everyone!

Bob and Jackie Holland Publishers – Orange City Life

BOB HOLLAND bob@oclife.com.au

THISWEEK’S COVERS THIS WEEKS A COVER show of colour

In a time where we are seeing lots of doom and gloom, Orange decides to put on a show and remind us just how beautiful our colour city is. Welcome Always look for Autumn, we’re glad you’re here.

the beauty!

During these times we encourage our readers to take each day as it comes. Find beauty in the everyday, something that you would usually take Registerer, for granted. Stay safe, Emergency take care of your and health, take care Jessica Yabsley Staff of your mind, we’re all in this toSpecialist Physician, gether.

Frontline faces

Phil Butler are just two of the#TogetherApart many frontline faces working so hard to help us control and conquer Covid-19. On behalf of our entire community, Orange City LifePublished wantsby to acknowledge Regional Life Group Pty Ltd 28126968287 efforts of theABN marvellous our medical staff. Here’s to you all!

#TogetherApart

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30 APRIL — 6 MAY , 2020 5

OCLife

HEADER

‘CAN DO’ ATTITUDE paying dividends — JONATHAN ROE —

THE NOVEL CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC HAS STRETCHED MANY OF THE SUPPLY CHAINS THAT KEEP OUR HOSPITALS AND OTHER HEALTH PROFESSIONALS FURNISHED WITH VITAL SUPPLIES OF PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT AND HAND SANITISER.

ut around the country, help is coming from unlikely sources. Chris Preen, a local engineering business owner and 3D printing supplier, is more at home making components for go karts, but for the past two weeks he has turned his full 3D printing capacity over to making face shields and ear savers which are being snapped up all over the country. “I’ve sent them to every state in Australia and yesterday we sent our first shipment to New Zealand,” said Chris, who had begun tinkering with a few face shield and ear saver designs after seeing how makers in other countries were able to help meet the demand during this crisis. “I’d just been playing around a little bit with having a look at what people had designed on the internet — what you call ‘open source’ which means the design is offered for anyone to use or change as they see fit, there was no point reinventing the wheel so I just picked the ones that I felt were the best design and used them.” Chris was approached locally about the possibility of producing ear savers and then the orders grew. “I asked if they needed face shields and handed them out for people to trial and then put a couple

6 30 APRIL — 6 MAY , 2020

of posts on Facebook on the ‘Buy from the Bush’ group and it just went crazy!” said Chris. “The demand for it was huge. It’s mostly to dentist surgeries and chiropractors and optometrists — people in the medical industries, but who are not a GP or work at a hospital but they are still working with people and that’s where a large percentage this stuff is going.” The frame for the face shields takes about 40 minutes to print and Chris has five machines running nearly 24 hours a day. “We had quite a backlog last week, but at the moment we are keeping up as the orders come in and getting them out the next day.” With supermarkets and pharmacies barely able to keep hand sanitiser on the shelves, two local distilleries have switched from making quality gins and whisky to the much sought-after hand hygiene product. “We were approached by some bigger companies to make some for them, we have the ability to do it with the licensing that we have available to us and we are one of the few companies in Australia that can do it I guess, not everyone deals with the stuff that you have to have to make hand sanitiser,” said Ben Cochran of Parrot Distilling Co. Not that it was a product he ever envisaged

...THE DEMAND HAS BEEN PRETTY GOOD AND A LOT OF PEOPLE SEEM TO BE VERY HAPPY TO SUPPORT LOCAL, TO SUPPORT US, WHICH IS GREAT IN TIMES LIKE THIS...

they would be producing when he founded the distillery two years ago. “No, not at all! But as the virus started to take its toll around the world, we started to realise what went into hand sanitiser and the machines you need to make it and it sort of fell into our repertoire of what we can put out,” said Ben. “The demand has been pretty good and a lot of people seem to be very happy to support local, to support us, which is great in times like this.” Spring Hill’s family-run Jones & Smith Distillery also began producing hand sanitiser after they too were approached by a number of local businesses. “We had local people call asking if we were doing it, or if we could do it, and then the NSW Government were contacting a few distilleries and asking if we could help out,” said Kylie Smith. “Everyone knew there was a shortage and nowhere to turn to…we weren’t initially going to do it, but after we had quite a lot of interest, we thought it is something that people are needing at the moment. “It took quite a bit of effort to get it all together — the ingredients and packaging and equipment that we needed — then everything arrived, and we had everything in place ready to go. We put it up online and we’ve been really overwhelmed!”

OCLife

Comment

OCLife THROUGH MY EYES

with Bob Holland

“

DON’T JUST BE ANOTHER GUNNA! It appears that about 80% of most news bulletins over recent weeks have featured stories about Covid-19 and in most cases, it’s been one bad news story after another. Sadly too, I don’t think there’s much doubt that the news isn’t going to get any better for a while yet.

Who said dinosaurs were extinct? In Cabazon, California, with a population of just over 2,500 this is certainly not the case. In fact this roadside attraction has well and truly put the small desert town on the map, the two enormous steel/concrete dinosaurs, a 45 foot long (46 m) Brontosaurus and 65 foot-tall (20 m) T-Rex , you simply can’t miss the towering figures right off the highway. Located just west of Palm Springs, the attraction also has a dinosaur exhibit featuring over 50 life-like dinosaurs. A real treat for the Palaeontologists in the family.”

~ Melise Coleman

check up on them during this time of isolation. That may not sound like much but having been the recipient of such a call from a caring friend, my wife shared how good it made her feel, especially after being like so may others, basically housebound with no personal contact outside family. For this column I’d like to move right You also don’t have to go far to hear away from the bad news and share how many people are claiming to be some of the good things that I’ve seen climbing the walls. happening among our community, If you follow our Thumbs section things where people are doing nice each week, you’ll also have noticed things to and for others. In doing any number of Thumbs up for people this, I’m hoping that many more of who have done nice things for others our readers might think about what during the pandemic. you too can do to make someone There are so many other nice things else’s situation better or simply just happening between people, far too make them feel good. Our Mission many to mention here, but most of us Statement says we want to try and would have heard about something bring out the best in people so let’s kind or caring that someone has done see if we can do a bit more of that for someone else. here, now. The point I’m making is very simple While walking to work last week along National Avenue, I noticed all and straight-forward. There are a the driveways had been decorated lot of people who have had their with chalk drawings and nice words. world turned upside down over I’m not sure if one person or one recent months and many would be family was responsible or whether it contending with all manner of trials was a street initiative, but it certainly and challenges. You may not be warmed my heart to see the artistic able to solve their problems but it’s work and sense the spirit that had amazing how a little encouragement gone into it. Interestingly, following or a small gesture of kindness can this, my wife and I received a note make a difference in these people’s in our letterbox from a neighbouring lives, possibly even prevent further family inviting kids in the area to hardship or tragedy. participate in a similar exercise in our street near a small grassed but safe roundabout area. I saw the kids involved having fun last week and the result of their efforts on my way to work a day later.

Let me encourage you to think about those around you who would benefit from a word of encouragement, a phone call or maybe something more, and if you’re in a position to do so, make the effort and do it. Good I am also aware of someone who intentions will take you part of the has made almost an occupation of way, doing it will take you all the way. calling their friends to say hello and Please don’t just be another gunna.

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30 APRIL — 6 MAY , 2020 7

OCLife

HEADER

Talking classic movies with Mal MacDonald: Hollywood Epics and Biblical blockbusters — JONATHAN ROE —

THESE DAYS IT SEEMS WE ARE SPOILT FOR CHOICE WHEN IT COMES TO THE READY AVAILABILITY OF MOVIES AND TELEVISION SHOWS. INTERNET STREAMING SERVICES HAVE MADE MASS LIBRARIES OF ENTERTAINMENT AVAILABLE IN OUR LIVING ROOMS AT THE CLICK OF BUTTON. But, as extensive as these options seem, they are far from comprehensive. Many a great movie or classic series from the past are notably absent from any online service, which is where Mal MacDonald comes in. For over 40 years, Mal has made a career out of sourcing and selling unique and hard-to-find movies and memorabilia. His business REEL Memories has a catalogue of thousands of titles, many of which you will have trouble finding anywhere else. With so many people stuck at home burning through their Netflix watch lists, Orange City Life decided to catch up with Mal to talk about some of his picks of classic movies from the past. “There is a wealth of them, but I thought we might start with ‘Epics and Biblical’,” said Mal. Great, so just what makes a film Epic? “It is those wide-scale big films, with casts of thousands. Probably the best one to sum it up and he started it all off was Cecil B. DeMille, he has casts of thousands in his movie. Of course, this was all before CGI came in, where now they can just create people and put them into movies. This was back in the heyday when Cecil B DeMille would say, ‘OK, start the action! and you would have all these people milling around in scenes. “You can find stuff up on YouTube of him behind the scenes directing up on one of the big trolleys that they had to move with the action. And he was directing and all these masses of people! “The Epics are interesting because they were made from the silent period right through into the 60s. And a lot of it was ground-breaking, because they used different camera techniques that are still used today, like overhead panning shots, moving trolleys to get these sweeping 10 30 APRIL — 6 MAY , 2020

shots of scenes you see it in a lot of later war movies… Epics died out, simply because it got so costly to produce them. I mean today you couldn’t remake Gone with the Wind the way it was shot back in the period, because it would just cost too much.” So, what examples can you give us of some of these great Epics? “People will of course remember Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston and Yule Brenner, where there were thousands in it! The Ten Commandments was originally a silent. Cecil B. DeMille was doing films back in the silent period, and he actually remade a lot of his silent film epics. He was a big name in film. A lot of his stuff was mainly tied to Paramount but he did other productions as well. “Another big one was a 1963 film 55 Days at Peking with Charlton Heston. It still occasionally gets a run on TV and it also starred Ava Gardener, David Niven, it was directed Nicholas Ray and produced by Samuel Bronston — he did a number of these big Epics. “Now, El Cid was another Samuel Bronston production released in 1961, again with Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren, Herbert Long, Ralph Stallone and Genevieve Page — people will remember those names. “There was the 1965 production through United Artists, The Greatest Story Ever Told - that had Max Von Sydow, Charlton Heston was in that one again — Chuck seemed to turn up in a lot of these films — Angela Lansbury was in it, who people will remember from Murder She Wrote and even John Wayne had a cameo in it. “From 1954, there was The Egyptian, directed

...Epics died out, simply because it got so costly to produce them. I mean today you couldn’t remake Gone with the Wind the way it was shot back in the period, because it would just cost too much...

by Michael Curtis, who did a lot of action and westerns. “There’s the Richard Egan film The 300 Spartans, now in recent times they did a movie called 300 where virtually all of that was done in front of a green screen backdrop and all the masses of people were just CGI. The original one, circa 1950, and it has thousands portraying the true events of the Spartans who held off the hordes to give time for their army to come. “The Crusades, now this was one of these big Cecil B. DeMille films, circa 1935 and this had Lorretta Young, Henry Wilcoxon, and also Katherine De Mille which was DeMille’s sister… “Gary Cooper’s one from 1935, The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, The Vikings with Kirk Douglas, John Wayne’s The Conqueror… There’s so many, we have just skimmed the surface!” Now, most of these titles are very familiar to me even though they were made long before I was born. Why do you think these films have stood the test of time for so long? I think it is just the unique content of the product. A lot of modern action stuff and dramas, you might watch it once or twice and that’ll be it. But some of these old movies just have repeat viewing. You can watch them over and over again, and unless you’ve been lucky enough to see these on TV or get them from some specialty crowd like myself, these movies aren’t normally around. Mal can be contacted by email reelmemories@ outlook.com or by phone 0419 979 773. He also has a Facebook page where he shares images from his extensive stock of classic and genre movie posters.

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OCLife

MY HOBBY

— JONATHAN ROE — Here at Orange City Life, we love meeting people with a passion for what they do, whether it is art, woodwork, knitting, sport — whatever activity it is that brings you joy. A lot of you out there may be finding yourselves with a bit more time on your hands at the moment — maybe time to get around to that passion project you’ve always wanted to work on but couldn’t find enough hours in the day. So, to inspire you, we thought we’d take a look at how others are finding creative ways to fill in their down time.

What is it you enjoy about drawing, painting, and making?

How did you go about turn your creative interest into a job?

I love it when I get into the flow, where I’m just totally immersed in the work. I’m creating and forget about things that are bothering me or stressing me out.

When I was studying Design at uni, it was always my goal to have my own business further down the road. I had to move to Orange soon after I finished my Design course, and I couldn’t find a creative job in town so I decided to set up my own. I was working on Whimsy Milieu full-time before I had my baby. Nowadays it’s more like sneaking in a few minutes here and there, and at night.

You seem to have a diverse range of creative pursuits from jewellery making to illustrating and design work, has that always been the case or have your interests changed and developed over the years?

THIS WEEK, WE CAUGHT UP WITH LOCAL DESIGNER, MAKER AND ILLUSTRATOR

I get bored easily — maybe that’s why I seem to gravitate towards different things at once or jump from one to another quickly. That’s a coincidental part of the reason why my brand is called ‘Whimsy Milieu’ – the ‘Whimsy’ doesn’t just mean whimsical, but it’s also because I like doing things on a whim.

THE WOMAN BEHIND WHIMSY MILIEU.

So, given the opportunity, what new pursuits would like to learn or try?

Jaqueline Chan,

How did you come to work here in Orange? I am originally from Malaysia. I came to Australia 16 years ago for my tertiary studies in Sydney, and then moved to Orange 8 years ago, because my then boyfriend (nowhusband) found a job here. Honestly, I hated it at first because it wasn’t my choice to move, but have fallen in love with Orange since!

Have you always worked in the creative field? In my past life, I was an engineer — again, not really my choice, but long story — and I went back to university to study Design because I didn’t want to be doing something I dislike for the rest of my life. I have always been crafty and artistic as a kid and dreamt of becoming either a graphic designer or an architect when I was in high school, so I decided to pursue the creative life.

There are so many things on that list in my mind – from learning new languages to new musical instruments… There is just so little time — even with this lockdown — especially because I have a clingy toddler who doesn’t sleep. I like trying and learning new things because as I’ve mentioned before, I get bored easily… and I guess I’m just greedy and want to experience all the things that I like!

Would you recommend that others who might be thinking about following their creative passions take that leap? Definitely – because you only live once! I feel that it’s everyone’s nature to be creative. Doing something creative not only makes you happy; it also makes others happy when they see something awesome that you’ve created. It’s definitely not a bed of roses – as with any other businesses, there’s always the less fun side of it. I think it’s best to not put too much focus on wanting to earn a certain amount of money in a certain amount of time, as that will just put too much pressure on you being creative to the point that you might end up hating it.

Do you have any artistic goals or dreams? Yes – so many. I’ll list a few – paint a mural, illustrate a children’s book, and collaborate with my favourite stationery brand ‘Bespoke Letterpress’.

You can find Jaqui’s work on Instagram @whimsymilieu

Jokes!

Gourmet Pantry

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Where our customers are the heart of the community 12 30 APRIL — 6 MAY , 2020

Did you ever wonder why there are no dead penguins on the ice in Antarctica ? Where do they go? Wonder no more ! ! ! It is a known fact that the penguin is a very ritualistic bird which lives an extremely ordered and complex life. The penguin is very committed to its family and will mate for life, as well as maintain a form of compassionate contact with its offspring throughout its life. If a penguin is found dead on the ice surface, other members of the family and social circle have been known to dig holes in the ice, using their vestigial wings and beaks, until the hole is deep enough for the dead bird to be rolled into, and buried. The male penguins then gather in a circle around the fresh grave and sing - “Freeze a jolly good fellow.” “Freeze a jolly good fellow.” You really didn’t believe that I know anything about penguins, did you? It’s so easy to fool OLD people. I am sorry, an urge came over me that made me do it!!! Oh quit whining, I fell for it too. This laugh from a reader

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WHAT’S HAPPENING AT CADIA

OCLife

THE HULK ARRIVES ON SITE A unique green loader nicknamed “Hulk” made a notable entrance at Cadia Valley Operations this week to raise awareness of mental health and Newcrest’s Employee Assistance Program. The loader, which had previously been used underground at Cadia until it reached 30,000 hours spent several months being rebuilt. Team members from Cadia’s Mining Production team were keen to take the opportunity to raise awareness of mental health and after discussions with Benestar, who provides Newcrest’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP), a decision was made to paint the loader their trademark green and include promotions for the EAP services. The “Hulk” name seemed a logical next step as the finished product came together. Hulk’s arrival on site comes at a time when mental health awareness, and efforts to eliminate the stigma associated with mental illness is more important than ever. Looking out for each other, asking RUOK, and encouraging others to seek professional support for their mental wellbeing remains a key focus at site.

WEEKLY ONSITE BBQ Cadia has launched an exciting workforcedriven initiative which supports local businesses during this challenging economic period. Cadia launched the program by welcoming local caterers, Kate Jones@119 and Mervs Eatery, and provided bacon and egg rolls with a coffee for purchase to the workforce. The breakfast was well received and a great opportunity for Cadia’s workforce to give back and support local businesses that are doing it tough at the moment. The surplus bacon and egg rolls were donated to staff at Orange Health Service. Details of the program and applications can be accessed through Orange360 and will be rotated regularly to support a range of local businesses in the community.

Photos showing Nick Law, Shayne Fortune and Martin Englert enjoying their BBQ breakfast.

Special thanks to Darren Writer (pictured), Jason Trood (not pictured), the Mobile Fleet Team (represented by Adam McAnulty, pictured) and Brett Mackin (pictured), for their involvement in this initiative.

SAVE YOUR RETIREMENT! CHANGES. CHOICES. DECISIONS. It is completely normal to feel unsettled right now, but how you handle fear and the money moves you make have never been more important. Be proactive... have a plan. Book a free financial checkup with Daniel McGregor, your local independent financial adviser. Book online at

.com.au

or call 0411 484 464 Daniel McGregor (1253135) and Wealth Train (1258202) are authorised representatives of Independent Financial Advice and Education AFSL 520963

Jokes!

On vacation, a man and his wife check into a hotel. The husband wants to have a snack at the restaurant, but his wife is extremely tired so she decides to go on up to their room to rest. She lies down on the bed... just then, a train passes by very close to the window and shakes the room so hard she’s thrown out of the bed. Thinking this must be a freak occurrence, she lies down once more. But just a few minutes later a train again shakes the room so violently, she’s pitched to the floor. Exasperated, she calls the front desk and asks for the manager who says he’ll be right up. The manager is skeptical but the wife insists the story is true. “Look... lie here on the bed -you’ll be thrown right to the floor!” So he lies down next to the wife. Just then the husband walks in. He takes one look at the manager lying in bed with his wife and yells, “Hey! What are you doing in here!?” The manager calmly replies, “Would you believe I’m waiting for a train?”

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OCLife

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The current coronavirus pandemic has made Australians more aware than ever of the importance of maintaining good personal hygiene. Not touching your face, washing your hands thoroughly with soap and water, and using alcohol-based hand sanitisers are key measure in our fight against the virus.

ut what about inside our homes and businesses? Local family-run cleaning company Kim’s Commercial Care Service (K’CCS) have an affordable and effective disinfectant solution to give you peace of mind. “We want to let people know about our disinfectant fogging service,” said business owner Monica Kim. Fogging treatment produced micro-droplets of disinfectant that float in the air for 10 minutes after application allowing them to cover all surfaces, even reach under furniture and other inaccessible places. “The fogging disinfectant it is very rapid and efficient with minimal downtime and it is quite cost effective,” said Monica. “And the main advantages of fogging is we can disinfect an area where it is very hard to

reach or very high or the back of furniture and underneath furniture.” Even large areas can be disinfected in under an hour, so there is minimal downtime, no need to move furniture and immediate results. “The disinfectant is kids and pet friendly — We use the chemical that is mainly used in aircraft, so it is the same and very effective against germs, bacteria and viruses,” said Monica. Fogging can be done in any business or office premises, retail shops and even your own home. “All we need is a minimum of 30 minutes with an empty house. So, all the internal doors open and external doors closed and the fogging disinfects the premises,” said Monica. “It doesn’t take long, the good thing about the fogging is it very effective and very efficient, so the customer needs to be out

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for about 30 minutes to 45 minutes and then they are ok to come back.” Following a treatment, there is no need to wipe off or dry surfaces although it is recommended that food preparation surfaces be rinsed and dried afterwards. K’CCS are offering local customers a fogging treatment from just $82 for a 2 bed/1 bath unit, $97 for 3 bed/1 bath house, $116 for 4 bed /2 bath house and commercial area and offices for $1 per square metre. “In Sydney, they charge $360 for a two bedroom apartment, but we want to offer our services quite cheap comparatively as we would like our local people and existing customers to stay safe,” said Monica. “We would really like people to know about this, that it is a good, effective way to get their houses disinfected.” K’CCS are available for all commercial and residential cleaning services.

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PaulTIERNEY PaulTIERNEY PaulTIERNEY

Let’s TalkMoney Money Let’s Talk Daniel McGregor withwith Daniel McGregor Let’s Talk Money

�� Together, Online

MUSIC FOR COMPANY

MONEY WELL SPENT

with Daniel McGregor SAVE YOUR RETIREMENT… MUSIC FOR COMPANY sure you were too. Need something to keep BUCKETS ARE THE ANSWER! you going in these lonely SAVE YOUR RETIREMENT… days? … stay tuned. It’s amazing how a few weeks can feel like a few months… It feels as though we’ve been living BUCKETS through this coronavirus nightmareTHE for a long ANSWER! time already! ARE

ed something to keep replaced. But … online these days is just too peachy to ignore. All you going inIthese lonely can’t think of a time have to do is type in one idea, like s? … staywhen tuned. I was prouder, I’m

‘The awesome 80s’ and you’re set got my dear ol’ dad to thank replaced. But … online these days for an entire day, maybe longer. So, they tellsince us we are amongst the I’ve been a music ‘fan’ is just too peachy to ignore. All you Van ‘leaders’ in thehave world when From it comes to Halen, to the Vapours, to arliest memories. I must have to do is type in one idea, like Tears flattening the curve and doing the For rightFears, to Spy V Spy … it’ll about 3 or 4,thing. but IJust canlike stillthe cleaning spray that ‘The awesome 80s’ and you’re set getto played I’ve gotmum my dear ol’ dad thankfor you, no problems. y remember begging says ‘kills 99% ofto germs’, we’ve had 99% fortoan entire I typed in ‘Rock’ just see whatday, maybe longer. for it. I’ve been a music ‘fan’ since of people jump on the flattening train, our essly rewind the reel-to-reel From Van Halen, to the Vapours, to would and found a playlist my earliest memories. I musthappen, have has been a benchmark for we had of theperformance Beatles ‘White Tears For Fears, … it’ll It’s amazinga ‘balanced’ how a few can feel like fewamonths… It feels as thoug thatawhen downturn occurs, fundweeks within their been working in financial that goes for over 6 hours called to Spy V SpyI’ve other to envy. like the 1% beennations about or 4,But, butjust I can still m’ to play the songs that I 3called get played for you, no problems. of germs that don’t get smashed by the those growth investments havetime alread superannuation. This can be services since 2002, so I’vebeen seen living through this coronavirus nightmare for a long ‘Puremum Rockto & Roll’, I was and still fondlyRacoon’. remember begging we’ve alo Bill’ and ‘Ronky I typed in ‘Rock’ just to see what spray, the 1% of non-conformists have the time to recover. particularly dangerous for those a few financial crises during am, in music heaven. The only two endlessly rewind the reel-to-reel he introduced us to Elton, potential to ruin The it for all of us, with the would happen, and found a those playlisttwo decades and in that While nothing can protect us in the retirement risk zone, annoying things have been (i) having tape we had ofcurve the Beatles ‘White possibility for the to spike again, just h Boys, Hot August Night, to that when a downturn occu a ‘balanced’ fund within their I’ve been working in financial that goes for over 6 hours called from feeling some emotions that is, five years either side of time, I’ve learnt a lot. Not only to‘need’ stop doing because few selfish go my real work for a Album’ahad to play thepeople songs thatto I called e a few. We certainly the those growth investments h superannuation. This can be services since 2002, so I’ve seen ‘Pure Rockof&aRoll’, the beach, Bill’ or hold a birthday gathering when we see our life savings retirement. minute to for find out the name newI was andastill lot about how investment ‘Buffalo and ‘Ronky Racoon’. st and loudest stereo in the time that to recover. particularly dangerous foropportunities those a few financial crises during am,instrument ineducated, music of heaven. The only two their kid, or sneak out of the quarantine, for their expertise. From Like sohow many others, have been giving the as I am down, it’s incredibly Then he introduced ussong to Elton, Thecontinually AsIyou move closer to thought togoing markets work, but also t, and the other kids would or go camping. Sheesh. Imagine how trumpets, to saxophones, to violins, to(i) having While nothing can protect u in the retirement risk zone, those two decades and in that annoying things have been Covid-19 those people who are and not so badly affected thethat fallout andNight, (ii) leaving the keyboard to play Beach Boys, HotofAugust to guitars, reassuring to by know when at retirement human emotions work. presents toretirement, even further ahead the curve we’d be e over so we could play Acca to keyboards, to harmonicas, from feeling some emotions that is, five years either side of I’ve learnt a lot. Not only to stop ‘Panama’ doing my real work for a of time, the going pandemic and to the struggles of those who itare severely a few. We certainly had air let guitar whenthe songs (i) some nincompoop hadn’t thatthe does happen,impacted. a strategy had during retirement, it’s important on musiclike had been transposed to suit With all the craziness a and Sherbetifname at ear-blistering when we see our life saving retirement. minute to find out the name of a new a lot about how investment ship dock and let all the passengers coolest andGood loudest stereo in loose the My every instrument. A whole nation wasat the moment, many people or ‘Kickstart Heart’ come on. already been put in place to deal to put some strategy behind s, whilst doingand air(b) guitar. song as I am continually educated, going down, it’s incredibly As you move closer to markets work, but also how if the people who think their poo together alone for about 20 minutes as street, and the other kids would with it. how your retirement savings are are understandably concerned the TV and radio, they’ve been to help families to take control of their financial s. The more I thought about it, I realised that people doesn’t stink (see my last twoOn columns) and 1.5 (ii)metres leavingapart theout keyboard we stood the front,to play reassuring to know that wh retirement, at retirement and human emotions work. come over sobywe could play Acca Now, imagine if thatlessstrategy set up. A affected retiree with allfuture theirand together, about their retirement savings. we then help other who are basically not or only marginally talking about making playlists of could just abide the rules set by the firstly listening to a kid play The Last Post, ting my drivers’ licence air guitar when songs like ‘Panama’ it does happen, a strategy h during retirement, it’s important With all the craziness going on Daccaand anddoSherbet at ‘songs ear-blistering experts what is asked of them. fortunate familieswas takecombined control of theirs. by making the crisis, actually could sitting come out with saving money in a balanced Sadly, manyfinancially people are youOk,playthen when you’reour lonely honouring fallen with a minutes’ nt I could playthat’s music in the or ‘Kickstart My Heart’ come on. already been put in place to put some strategy behind at on the moment, many people it –whilst off the doing soap box. levels, airor guitar. Good better off if they’re option smart. to silence. Some read The Ode, then the the wrong decisions thousands of dollars a year investment in retirement in the howother to side, that’s Financial planning is about having a vision of thein alone’, but that’s just garbage. n my own as loud as I liked with it. how your retirement savings are are understandably concerned On the TV and radio, they’ve been A big hello to all those mums and dads joyous sounds of Reveille could be heard times. On the other hand, those who are badly affected financial future you want and then putting in place investment fees! would mean that right now they deal with this crisis, acting on I’m never alone when the music COLEMAN — dSEI did. My go-to in ploughed out cassette there who have money, wafting across townsmaking everywhere as Now, imagine if that strateg set up. A retiree with all their about theircan’t retirement savings. financially probably afford to pay for the type talking about playlists of as many smart strategies as possible to work Getting myBig drivers’ licence If these sound like the sorts of are being forced to sell shares at emotion and not realising the is blasting, I’m at Late last and the sun rose and into supporting and ru in the 80s time had ZZ effort Top, wepeace. held back the tears of financial advice theypeople may desperately need at money sitting was combined with saving in future. a balanced Sadly, many are making ‘songs the you play when you’relong-term lonely implications that meantOil, I could thearvo, just things you want when it comes the worst possible timetowards in order of their Tuesday before ts what we can, letstomusic more encouraging theirplay kids learn ainmusical stunningly in the East. try,control early Midnight Aussie this time. thousands of dollars a year investment option in retirement the wrong decisions in how to or alone’, but that’s just garbage. 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Number threekid however took toready for an internet playlist. all of their super savings to cash, track but also helping them ories of going from a school us proud, his country proud, and that the greater than normal distinction between the Haves to meet their superannuation income needs.work hard to your retirement savings a awesome I jumped decisions. - Making Crawl, Theworld Knack the musical likeout aand duck tocourse water,into a list of one looking forIof each st hooked songs byrain onecame, online appointment today. robbing themselves of seeing don’t derail from adult.been a generous efforts in getting them up and runningmake sure they and the Have Nots. Investing with low and diversification on the ride-on, stuck the buds in you value independence wh Sadly, many people arefees flooding I love helping people get their the dollars invested in lessons, other andmeaning I love being a part of that.” Flock of Seagulls as bigoftunes. 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Am in isolation, so this new ANZAC tradition now will a huge the Have things could be very tough! medium and long term these ‘buckets’ will be timesFor when theirNots, money ofIsongs I might add tothe d to gobattling with my (many) morning things and right hope things will have just work morning, like many parents withcouple a businesses Emily said she hopes screamed out lyrics at the top of crisis, both from a health an they will! won’t be the last time we see can happen all over again. I wonder if will go down. Moments like gonna get sicksetof it?moment Who knows. impact what your future ensure when something my extended playlists next week ‘musical’ kid, one single in time Am themselves out over time.on Hope is not a plan! I’ve come up with a plan to dotowhat I canthat to help es. Mythe computer and work Instagram account helps in boosting my lungs whilst mowing for almost 2 economic perspective. How somehow we could allow all the kids A better strategy is to break up dark economic times… in fact, Imost sickevery of my own company yet? Nope. cent and every hourinclude invested both, and still keep my business away. I’mthere is looks likethings in 5, 10 andout 20for years likebubbling this happens, will ‘Mad World’ by Tears these are a good opportunity andmade importantly know that ee lastsales weeks’ column) is aces. So,no imagine getting these sorted to bring their instruments along to the hours. Bliss. Alone. Not lonely. the decisions you are makin retirement savings into short, I guarantee all my clients there inLovin’ music lessons worthwhile. Who would It. My lovely wife made banana the Orange community is behind them looking for support to PAY IT FORWARD. for Fears, the song byservices John Lennon from now. need to be selling out ofyour growth household and then paying it forward for nd the musichave … it’s goin’ on out ANZAC next year, and join in to as remind my clients why their believed that standing out the front right now will have a huge medium and long term ‘buckets’ will be times when their money A couple of songs I might add to this time. absolute bread to goWhat withanmy (many) morning as the Days BuglerIndeed, belts out The Last Post? someone else. For every comes onassets board as he says one ‘Strange (i.e.a new shares and property) money is invested theHave waywho it is. on thethroughout outskirts of Millthorpe, of your house,well on the road, where at 5:55am legend you are Emily, done. impact what your future to ensure that when something will go down. Moments like my extended playlists next week Stay on safe! coffees. My computer and work setclient the next three months, I’llthey workare withdown. a Most Mama…’, by your Well doneOnion mumsSkin and dads, while Many people willover be finding inyou the dim and dawnPeculiar light elling you. hear it?foggy ANZAC If you work with me, you can put me in touch with GiveCan @orangesupportingorange a looks like in 5, 10 and 20 ye like this happens, there is no will include ‘Mad World’ by Tears these are a good opportunity up (see last column) is aces. investments paid off. And very well done Have Nots would mean soweeks’ much? Literally thousands someone you care about who you know couldDaniel use Boom themselves family simplyofsitting in for free. This type of strategy ensures follow Instagram and let’s support our Crash Opera (‘these here are atse days, tenonbucks a month the song by John Lennon now. to behelp selling growth to allfor youFears, talented young ladies and men – toaremind my clients why their adviceneedsome of youngsters hopped Oh, and theacross musicthe … country it’s goin’ on outand and Iout canof help them, or we from can work If you’re Have, you can get great financial crazy times’), The Doors ‘People et youcommunity. accessontothe a billion we are in awehe of says you and what you did toIndeed, website in the days of leading up to where ‘Strange Days assets (i.e. shares and property) money is invested the way it is. here on the outskirts Millthorpe, with Orange City Life and find those deserving of a and set yourself up with a solid financial plan for Are Strange’. matewho who’d Stay s honourathose went ahead of you. theand 25th,there’s to download the correct music I know s, maybe more, Most Peculiar Mama…’, Onion Skin by If you’d like to find outfuture more about how INDEPENDENT financial advice could help youleg manage cashdown. flow, pay off the mortgage faster, get the most out while they are Many people will be finding I’m telling you. Can youadd hear it? up right now. your while at the same time supporting ‘Here I go Again on my own’ by ds if you pay for it. I’ve still got Boom Crash Opera (‘these here are my localthemselves and independent business and of super and invest wisely, then get in touch on 0411 484You 464 may orof head to wealthtrain.com.au This type strategy ensures simply sitting in together have a relative, your parents or your Da These days, ten bucks a month The list Whitesnake. is endless. undreds of vinyls and CDs we will be paying it forward to help meIndependent work with crazy times’), and The Doors ‘People children, a co-worker, a friend, a neighbour or an Daniel McGregor is the man behind Wealth Train and is a member of the Financial Advice and Education. This advice may not be suitable to you because it willthe getmusic you access to a Music billion – you’re never lonely, even de of place, and contains general advice which does notistake any ofthis your personal All strategies andYou information provided are whoever general advice only.like. someone who notintosoconsideration lucky during time. circumstances. Are Strange’. I know a mate who’d acquaintance. can nominate you songs, maybe more, and there’s Daniel McGregor and Wealth Train are authorised representatives of Independent Financial Advice and Education AFSL 520963 y computer won’t ever be when you’re alone.add Turn‘Here it up.I Loud. If you’d like to find out more about how INDEPENDENT financial advice could help you manage cash flow, pay off the mortgage faster, get the mo You can do it anonymously if you wish. Of course, I’d love to be able to do this for free go Again on my own’ by no ads if you pay for it. I’ve still got super wisely, then get in touch on 0411 484 464 or head to wealthtrain.com.au without your support, but I also of need toand beinvest putting been talking to me forlist ages The is endless. What’s in it for you? Well, as we keep hearing our the hundreds of vinyls and“Look, CDs Bill, you’ve Whitesnake.

LET’S WORK TOGETHER TO PAY IT FORWARD

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WHEN ERIC MET GOD

Inabout the line God and stuff,” said Eric, “and I have

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WE ARE OPEN

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(until advised otherwise)

11am - 6pm

Hear the difference

leaders telling us… we’re all in this together! Music – to you’re never lonely, even in pride of place, and theIt’s music contains general advice which does not take into consideration any of your personal circumstances. All strategies and information provided are general advice only. funny how in 24hrs something thought a lot aboutone’s it.” response YOUR LOCAL INDEPENDENT win/win/win scenario with my business ensuring Daniel McGregor and Wealth Train are authorised representatives of Independent Financial Advice Education AFSL Setand yourself up520963 for the financial future you deserve can“Ichange. way up keep theyou’re coast foralone. aback holiday, my know. Youour wouldn’t coming for more on my computer won’t ever be On when Turn it up. Loud. CENTRE itsHEARING survival, people who can make the most of the

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current situation getting great value, independent • Diagnostic Hearing financial advice and those doing it tough being Assessment supported by others in their community. • Excellent Hearing Aid As an independent financial adviser, the only Fittings people who pay me are my clients. I don’t get • Superior level of client any paymentsservice or commissions from any product KAY MCINTOSH providers… it’s what allows me to legally lay claim • Valuable ongoing AUDIOLOGIST to being independent and it’s something I’m support extremely proud of. • Latest technology My pay it forward idea isconnection one practical way for me Bluetooth To discuss your grant application and how

while doing something great. The best thing it is that it won’t cost you anything more than it would have otherwise. It’s simply a way for me to work with you and we both contribute to helping someone else. Let me know what you think.

Knowhow can be the difference between success and failure Knowhow can be the difference I can help you succeed call Amanda Spalding between success and failure

Stay safe! Daniel

If you’d like to find out more about howAnson INDEPENDENT 1/256 Street, financial advice could help you manage cash flow, pay off the mortgage faster, get the most out of super andNSW invest2800 wisely, then get in touch on 0411 484 464 or head to wealthtrain.com.au. Orange

To discuss your grant application and how Daniel McGregor is the man behind 02 Wealth6360 Train and is1884 a member of the Independent Financial Advisers Association of Australia. This advice may not be suitable to you because AMANDA SPALDING Iwww.orangehearingcentre.com can helpgeneral youadvice succeed call it contains which does not take Amanda into consideration Spalding any of your personal circumstances. All strategies and information provided are general advice only. CONSULTING

And God smiled. SATURDAY 11am - 4pm a call or message us Give us11am Daniel McGregor and Wealth Train are authorised representatives of Independent Financial Advice and Education AFSL 520963 - 4pm TUESDAY: THURSDAY FRIDAY 30 APRIL — 6 MAY , 2020 Closed 16 11am 0417 288 246 SUNDAY - 6pm 11am -6pm 11am -3pm MONDAY WEDNESDAY aes@amandaspaldingconsulting.com 11am 6pm SATURDAY 11am - 4pm See you in- store 11am - 4pm

AMANDA SPALDING CONSULTING

PROUD ORANGE BUSINESS

Thoughtful ums MCOMPETITION!

OCLife

FIND MORE HOGSTERS!

ORANGE CITY LIFE is giving you the chance to Win a Special Mother’s Day delivery for your Mum this Mother’s Day - Sunday May 10th. 5 prizes to be won and delivered to local Mums this Mother’s Day. HOW TO ENTER YOUR MUM: Simply take a nice head and shoulders photo of your Mum, send it to us with her name, your name and a few words about something very special that she has done for you during your lifetime. It’s that simple. We’ll choose 5 winners from all entries received and deliver the prizes personally on Mother’s Day. TWO WAYS TO ENTER: By Facebook – direct message us (don’t post to our page) By email – reception@oclife.com.au

WIN 5 X $2 SCRATCHIES For further time-wasting entertainment during these times of home isolation, we’re inviting you to see how many hidden Hogsters you can find throughout this issue of OC Life. To be in the draw to win 5 x $2 Scratchies just tell us how many you found. You don’t have to say where, just tell us the number. To make it more interesting, the Hogsters you’re looking for this competition are different to the one we use in our regular Find Hogster competition.

The one you’re looking for this looks like this

Entries close 12 noon Friday May 8th. Winners announced in our May 14th issue. Good luck!

Entries close next Monday at 5pm. Text or email entries to 0459 022 084 or reception@oclife.com.au

BUILDING BRIGHT

Futures

Kindergarten enrolments are now open for 2021 Limited vacancies available in other grades Applications close 22nd May 2020

Tel. 6362 7926 | stmarysorange@bth.catholic.edu.au | view our website or follow us on 30 APRIL — 6 MAY , 2020 17

OCLife WE'RE ADAPTING TO COVID-19

Tune in for your weekly JAM! JAM Orange’s Sunday Lockdown streaming sessions are here for the duration. With pubs and clubs closed for the foreseeable future, JAM Orange decided to take their Open Mic night online, launching a hosted livestream event where local artist can submit videos of their performance. Following a successful debut, JAM have decided to continue the format and will hold weekly livestreams every Sunday at 6pm. “The reaction we’ve had was really good,” said JAM Orange’s Mark Welch. “A lot of the regular participants tuned into the first one and then the second one, we had new

people tuning in and we are hoping to grow the audience week by week.” The livestreams are an opportunity to continue showcasing local musician’s work as well as that of musicians have performed for JAM, Mark said. “We are trying to cover a broad range of genres and there seems to be growing interest… we’re finding that there are more and more people that are starting to submit which is really exciting and we’ve been getting lots of really good feedback. “And there may be scope to continue it on if people are interested, once the social distancing is over. It could be a teaser for people to get off their couch and go and see a live gig!”

ME IS NNING TIME IS We’re here UT!RUNNING for you!

National Avenue in Orange is certainly one of the luckiest/

prettiest streets in Orange right now, and not just because of the gorgeous tree lined streets with autumn leaves falling. Check out the love that local families are giving and creating in their driveways, positive Easter messages can be seen in front of several houses, along with some pretty clever drawings. What a talented bunch, well done National Avenue!

Are you doing something similar in your street? Send it in to us reception@oclife.com.au

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WE’RE ADAPTING TO COVID-19 OCLife

LOCKDOWN DOESN’T HAVE TO BE SO LONELY The coronavirus restrictions have disrupted all our social lives and daily activities, but for many people living alone the lockdown has left them particularly isolated. But an initiative of our local Catholic Parish called ‘G’day Orange is looking to help. “G'day Orange is a way of connecting people who might be feeling particularly isolated during the lockdown,” said Parish Priest Fr Greg Bellamy. The program pairs volunteers with people feeling isolated at home and gets them to call every couple of days just for a bit of chat and social interaction. “Our volunteers are not expected to be counsellors or professionals but just people who are willing to reach out and have a bit of conversation with people who might be stuck at home and feeling lonely,” Fr Bellamy said. “But every time they ring, they are going to report to us and if there is some identified need with shopping or picking up medication or perhaps even counselling, the Catholic Parish can then help connect them with the right service provider.” The idea has been enthusiastically taken up and more than 30 people have volunteered to help so far. “So we are really trying to get the word out to people

who might be at home and they still may have family who get in contact with them — they don't have to be in a desperate situation, but they just might want a bit more of social contact,” said Fr Bellamy. “And I encourage people not to think that there might be someone else worse off and then won't put themselves forward. It is really here for anyone who is feeling a bit lonely in this time and just want to talk to someone.” If you would like to be involved as a volunteer, or you would appreciate a phone call every second day, you can register your interest at www.gdayorange.org.au or email gday.orange@gmail.com or call the Catholic Parish on 63622378.

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�Isolating at home on the advice of a medical practitioner, for confirmed COVID-19; or COVID-19 trained health clinic triage staff; or �Meeting the current national triage protocol criteria for suspected COVID-19 infection after consultation with either the national COVID-19 hotline, state COVID-19 hotlines, a registered medical or nursing practitioner or COVID-19 trained health clinic triage staff; or �Aged over 70; or Identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander and are aged over 50; or �People with chronic health conditions or who are immunocompromised; or �Parents with new babies or those who are pregnant. �Any of the above require a valid Medicare or DVA card plus dispense a PBS or RPBS prescription. �Limited to one free delivery per month.

CAR PARK WOOLWORTHS

PROPRIETORS: ALISON TASCONE & ANDREW MANIOS

SALE ENDS: 10 TH MAY 2020 30 APRIL — 6 MAY , 2020 19

with AMANDA SPALDING

How to get the BEST out of OUR COUNCILS

WHAT IS IN ORANGE’S BUDGET? As we now know, Orange City Council deferred approval of its 2020/21 draft budget for community consultation from its meeting on 21st April to its next meeting on 5th May. The NSW Minister for Local Government announced on 17th April that she has given councils an extra month to adopt their operational plans and budgets so they can ‘continue to be focused on frontline COVID-19 response efforts’. Councillor Tony Mileto suggested that the extra time should be used to have a longer period of community consultation. However, that was not discussed and the decision was 7 votes to 4 to defer approval for two weeks to the next meeting. Some Councillors said that they felt they had not had enough time for one to one briefings with staff or to ask questions and put forward projects. It was pointed out to Councillors that as a result of reporting deadlines that would give Councillors an extra 3 days to ask questions and make proposals. The Chair of the Finance Policy Committee, Councillor Joanne McRae, resigned immediately after the vote was taken. I can understand her frustration. There was a suggestion that Councillors could make their proposals during the community consultation process, but there were concerns that adding major new proposals would mean that a further community consultation process would be needed, which would be difficult even with the extension to 31st July for final decisions. The discussion begs the question about how the internal process works in developing a draft budget for consideration in public. Theoretically a popularly elected mayor is expected to have more influence over this kind of internal process to make decision-making smoother. The reforms to the Local Government Act in 2009 better defined the role of the mayor to add stature and authority to the role, but not increase powers. The reasoning behind this was that mayors (whether they are popularly elected or elected by Councillors) could make a major contribution to focusing councils on strategic issues, improving governance and strengthening inter-government relations and partnerships with key stakeholders. The fact that the Mayor was one of the Councillors who spoke and voted in favour of a deferral suggests this is not happening at Orange City Council. There does seem to be some confusion within the report. It stated: ‘the Draft Budget has been developed through consultation with the community via the Community Strategic Plan, with Councillors over the last 6 months and with Managers and Directors via a budget bid process.’ I am not aware that there has been any consultation with the community via the Community Strategic Plan over the last 6 months. Later in the report it is stated: ‘Community Strategic Plan As the Community Strategic Plan was approved after community consultation in 2018, and no proposals or recommendations have been made at this time; and because of the now extended election cycle it is recommended that the Plan be re-endorsed for the 2020/21 year.’ It will be interesting to see how much change there is to the reports between now and when the reports for the Council meeting of 5th May become public on 30th April. In last week’s column I wondered whether Orange City Council would be providing for economic stimulus in its 2020-2021 budget and in the report to Council of 21st April, the report stated: •‘Through prudent investment and planning, previous Councils have built the Council finances into a solid state. With historically low interest rates and significant equity, it is considered that now is the time to spend and develop Orange into a City of the future. In addition the significant capital spend proposed will inject significant stimulus into the economy at a time where the COVID – 19 issue is creating great uncertainty.’ This is good to hear and consists of a capital spend of $75.9M in 2020/21. How does this compare with last year’s budget? The capital budget for 2019/20 was $73.2M, so there is a proposed increase of only 3% in 2019/20, so the claims the Council is making that ‘now is the time to spend….(to) inject significant stimulus into the economy’ is somewhat exaggerated.

I ALSO NOTED THAT DESPITE A LONG PLANNING PERIOD OF PLANNING FOR FUTURECITY THE REPORT STATES THAT: ‘Delivery Program Minor updates have been made (e.g. CBD upgrade has included reference to FutureCity as the working title which has been deferred for one year pending a decision on grant funding’. This is extremely disappointing and flies in the face of the description in the report that this budget will inject significant stimulus into the economy. Last year Put Orange First made a submission suggesting (among other things) that Council employ a CBD Place Manager to facilitate engagement and speed up planning processes. The Place Manager would also work with local property owners over lease costs and customer service training because of concerns from local business people a year ago about the difficulties being faced, particularly by CBD retailers. The economic situation and outlook is now much worse. Capital projects over the next 4 years include: • Future City – CBD upscale and renewal $15M a year • Airport - over $3.6M for upgrades and improvements • Gallery extension - $1M of a total $5M • Roads - $7.34M for various roads on the outskirts of town • Water Treatment Plants - $5.6M • Conservatorium - $5M committed though councils needs $20M over 2 years • Stormwater Harvest (Stage 2) - $5M with NSW government to provide 50%. • Sewage Treatment Plant - $3M for inlet upgrade • Spring Hill Lucknow sewer strategy $800,000 • Double storey car park - $4.5M – it is not clear where this is planned to be • Lake Canobolas enhancements - $1M • Aquatic Centre Expansion - $3M • Wade Park Grandstand - $1M • Orange Civic Theatre - $6M • Industrial Land Projects - $2M • Advancing Shiralee Community infrastructure - $1.5M Council staff have estimated the impact of COVID-19 on the 2020-21 budget because of closure of a number of income earning services, resulting in an expected deficit of $1.5M. Some Councillors seemed to think that the additional 3 days would result in more certainty in this estimation. As we know, there are 3 quarterly budget reviews during the year at which the budget expectations can be changed, whereas there is extremely limited scope for increasing income because of rate pegging and it is unlikely that Councillors will want to increase fees and charges beyond those already proposed. The report proposes a general rates increase of 2.59%; water and sewer rates up by 2.5% as anticipated last year. This is at a time when we use less water and the inflation rate has been running at 1.9% for the last 12 months. ‘Land sales will form an important component of the underpinning of the budget. Key sites that will be sold include: • Old Sale Yards site; • Clergate Road industrial blocks; • 1, Summer Street; • Remainder of the old hospital site.’ I guess the delay does give me more time to comment on the draft Operational Plan, and for Council to include the map showing where the various rates will apply within the local government area, which is yet again missing from the Plan and is a mandatory element of the exhibition. Putting it into the Operational Plan would greatly improve transparency.

I have received feedback that many people find these columns informative and I am happy to receive comments from readers about this column and other issues you would like me to cover so please either contact me at Orange City Life or aes@amandaspaldingconsulting.com

20 30 APRIL — 6 MAY , 2020

ORANGE PROPERTY MARKET

BEST PROPERTIES

BEST AGENTS

“ACROSS THE REGION”

www.orangepropertymarket.com.au

PROPERTY OF THE WEEK BROUGHT TO YOU BY

Townsend Real Estate

Agent’s Pick

Stephen Townsend

t. 0427 631 957

‘Finns Store’ - 35 Gaskill Street, Canowindra PRICE - Expressions of Interest Iconic ‘Finns Store’ is situated in the main street of Canowindra. Lovingly restored in 2010 by its currents owners it has gained its new life and has been transformed into a boutique café, gift shop, gallery and function centre which would not be out of place in any cosmopolitan city. Currently open from Thursday to Sunday this thriving business takes advantage of the many travellers seeking a trip back into authentic Australian history with a touch of the modern day hospitality. The store will certainly not disappoint as its has an array of exquisite gifts, homewares, art, clothing, jewellery and furniture. The food is exceptional and excellent value for money and is a premier destination. Not only is the store a feature but the option to utilise the various ‘doors’’ to add future value to an already profitable venture. Attached to the store is the gallery, which doubles as a function room. There is a smaller space which is being used as a solicitors office and the residence attached can be home or the perfect Air BnB for the country getaway. The backyard is so peaceful with a huge willow to sit under to enjoy that afternoon beverage with yet another option to turn the cellar into wine bar or cellar door. An inspection at this incredible property will no doubt awaken your senses and give you the opportunity to continue to grow this already amazing enterprise. APRIL 30 — MAY 6, 2020 21

39 SALE STREET, ORANGE | 6363 1000 | PFISHER.COM.AU ALL OUR PROPERTIES CAN BE INSPECTED BY APPOINTMENT OR VIA VIDEO CALL. PLEASE CONTACT THE AGENT TO ARRANGE. INSPECTIONS WILL BE CONDUCTED IN COMPLIANCE WITH CURRENT REGULATIONS AND SAFETY PRACTICES. 4

2.5

$499,000

24 BORONIA CRESCENT

NEW LISTING

20 CASEY STREET

ENDLESS OPPORTUNITIES

$349,000

Rarely do you have an opportunity to purchase three adjoining properties all on their own Title. 20, 22 and 24 Casey Street provide the opportunity to snap up some prime real estate offering immediate rental return whilst having the scope for potential subdivision of a vacant block (STCA).

CONTACT: JACOB EVANS 0428 130 789

22 CASEY STREET

$395,000

24 CASEY STREET

$349,000

THE WOW FACTOR This truly is a fantastic house! If you’re looking for a family home in a great location, then you just can’t go past 24 Boronia Crescent. The lounge room/dining room is spacious. There is another living area off the lounge which would make a great sitting area or second dining room. Downstairs, the rumpus room lends itself to a variety of uses. If you’re looking to work from home, then it makes an excellent workspace with an old wet bar that has hot and cold water plumbed to it. The home boasts a gas log-fire heater, split system air conditioning in living and rumpus and a wood fire heater. With its great South Orange location, quiet street, fabulous school zoning and proximity to town; the potential for this home is endless. CONTACT: MICHAEL WRIGHT 0421 360 948

14 EL PASO PLACE

$325,000

$829,000

85 SALE STREET

1.5

86 BANK STREET, MOLONG

$360,000

NEW PRICE

Located in a quiet cul-de-sac is this neat and tidy three-bedroom home which will appeal to both the investor and the budget home buyer. Recently recarpeted and climate controlled by a new split system, the north-east facing living room has lots of natural light. The kitchen is in good condition and there is a separate dining area. All the three bedrooms have built in wardrobes, the main bathroom has a shower and bath with a separate toilet. Excellent access to a big yard with plenty of room for extra sheds. CONTACT: MICHAEL WRIGHT 0421 360 948

Built around 1916, the features of this unique double brick home are endless. The home has been modernised in parts but there remains unlimited potential to restore it to its former glory. Fireplaces, decorative ceilings, picture rails and timber floors fill the home with charm and character. There are 4 bedrooms, two living areas and functional kitchen and bathroom. There is also one self-contained unit upstairs with two bedrooms plus kitchen and bathroom. The total block size is 861 sqm and the back yard is very private. CONTACT: ADAM SAVAGE 0419 232 416

48A SHARP ROAD

$199,000

142 ROSSI DRIVE

$860,000 - $880,000

We are proud to offer this 447m2 vacant block with town services connected. Located in a great south Orange location. Surrounded by a reserve, next to Brabham playing fields, walking tracks and cycle paths. Right near space to run and children’s play equipment. Great school catchment area – Orange Public School, Orange High, Anson Street School and James Sheahan. Walking distance from the hospital. Ready for building; enjoy having a new build in an established area.

On 5 acres and with town water, this gorgeous home offers the very best of lifestyle living. The master bedroom has a walk-in-robe and the ensuite features a stunning freestanding bath. Open plan living with a focus on entertaining is a key feature, with the kitchen featuring a waterfall island bench and modern appliances. Large bedrooms with built-ins and a huge rumpus are perfect for the kids. Outside there are 5 usable acres, with three water tanks, playground, chook yard and two-bay shed with carport.

CONTACT: MICHAEL WRIGHT 0421 360 948

26 30 APRIL — 6 MAY , 2020

This is a rare opportunity to purchase a double brick Federation home. From the classic front façade to the back patio, this beautiful home is packed full of charm and character. Picture rails and decorative cornices and ceilings grace most rooms with each room boasting a different pattern on the ceiling. The cosy lounge room and the eat-in kitchen create the perfect family space. There are 3 generously sized bedrooms and the bathroom is in good order. Perfectly liveable as is, this home also offers potential to become something special. CONTACT: JACOB EVANS 0428 130 789

9/222 DALTON STREET

$229,000

This unit has been well-looked after by its owners. Offering a north facing living area and neat and tidy kitchen, bathroom and laundry this is something investors will want to look at. Upstairs are two bedrooms which are both large, especially the master which is big enough to double as a home office or place to keep exercise equipment. Other features include internal access from the lock-up garage and reverse cycle air conditioning. It is located at the end of the complex adding to quiet and privacy. Currently rented at $220 p/w. CONTACT: MICHAEL WRIGHT 0421 360 948

CONTACT AGENT

101 LORDS PLACE

PRICE RANGE: $899,000 - $929,000

28 TALOUMBI PLACE

NEW LISTING

WON’T BE HARD TO CALL THIS HOME What an ideal location, only 2 blocks to the main street of Orange and all the conveniences of central living. This home is just waiting for someone to love it and call it home. Freshly and tastefully painted inside and out, with a neutral colour pallette, hardwood timber flooring and many original features; merely a taste of the great potential this property offers. All bedrooms are double sized, the main bedroom has an ensuite, there are 2 large living areas, one at the front with the original fireplace and the other offering the sought-after northerly aspect to soak up the Winter sun. You will love the location and the lifestyle this home has to offer, inspect today and make it yours – inspections by appointment. CONTACT: ADAM SAVAGE 0419 232 416

29 GALA CRESCENT

$790,000

This beautiful home is a clever fusion of classic style and contemporary features. The gorgeous open plan living area has a fresh colour palette, lovely flooring and many windows to capture the northern sun and is the perfect place for the family to gather. The kitchen is a dream and you will love the luxurious bathrooms. The lounge room is cosy, the bedrooms comfortable, the laundry perfect and the plantation shutters complement the home. The huge garage, with attic storage, is connected to the house via a breezeway. CONTACT: JACOB EVANS 0428 130 789

35 GREEN LANE

Now is your chance to live in beautiful Green Lane! The established trees and gardens create a private oasis away from the hustle and bustle of life. Beautifully comfortable just as it is with a lovely modern kitchen, neutral palette and a wonderful retro bathroom but there is scope for enhancement. If you are looking for space to pursue your creative instincts, there a large studio away from the main house. There is also a large garage and lots of other car accommodation. Your Green Lane dream awaits! CONTACT: LIZ MCATAMNEY 0417 696 987

4/1 BLETCHINGTON STREET

$199,000

Tucked away at the back of a well kept complex this unit has a new bathroom, a peaceful colour scheme and modern carpet. The block is bigger than usual for a unit this size making is perfect for those with a pet or a keen gardener. Recently and consistently rented for $250 per week this unit offers a great return for the astute investor but would also make a lovely home for someone on a budget. A great starter home or brilliant investment. CONTACT: LIZ MCATAMNEY 0417 696 987

$639,000

LIVE A LIFE OF LUXURY This stunning home is all about a lifestyle that is luxurious and stress-free. The modern design will delight you from the grand entrance hall to the amazing al fresco area with integrated outdoor kitchen. The huge master suite is the perfect retreat and boasts a beautifully appointed ensuite. The spacious open plan living area with raked ceilings and skylight windows is the heart of the home. The galley kitchen is gorgeous with a much-coveted butler’s pantry. The living and dining areas opening onto the outdoor area are the perfect place to entertain. Everyone will enjoy movie time in the theatre room with built-in surround sound, the 3 other bedrooms are spacious and the main bathroom is beautiful. The landscaping is low maintenance by design, freeing up time for more leisurely pursuits. There is a triple garage plus another shed and storage inside and out is plentiful. This home has so much to offer, it is well worth your consideration. CONTACT: JACOB EVANS 0428 130 789

42 NUBRIGYN STREET, EUCHAREENA

Nestled on a lovely garden block this home is in perfect order with an open plan kitchen & living area. There is already a great shed but there is lots of space for a larger shed too. The home is next to the local public school and there is a school bus service to Molong and Orange. Located within 30 minutes of Orange, Molong and Wellington and only 20 minutes from Mookerawa Waters you could be perfectly placed for work, rest and play. CONTACT: LIZ MCATAMNEY 0417 696 987

173 ANSON STREET

CONTACT AGENT

This mid-century modern home is just 200 metres from Orange’s CBD, nestled in a tree lined street amongst some of the best period homes in the city. Meticulously maintained, this unique property has only had 2 owners in its lifetime. The home is of grand proportions with north facing casual and formal living and dining areas, 4 double sized bedrooms, 2½ bathrooms, a modern kitchen with quality inclusions. The large wrap around verandah leads to another entertaining area. Perfectly positioned on a huge 1233m2 block with a beautiful established low maintenance garden. CONTACT: ADAM SAVAGE 0419 232 416

$199,000

2.5

$219,000

11/222 DALTON STREET

Located in a quiet complex; boasting size, space and a good rental history, this 2 bedroom unit is well worth a look. Upstairs is an extra large main bedroom, perfect for a king size bed, bathroom and 2nd bedroom. Downstairs there is a separate kitchen, combined lounge and dining area, laundry and handy internal access to the single lock up garage. The yard is easy to maintain and very private. The current tenant is happy to stay (currently rented at $220 per week). CONTACT: MICHAEL WRIGHT 0421 360 948

30 APRIL — 6 MAY , 2020 27

OCLife

ISOLATION IS LOOKING

BRIGHTER IN MANY ORANGE HOMES

— JONATHAN ROE —

nforced isolation measures have given people a lot more time at home these past few weeks. While for some, it has meant catching up on reading, baking or spending more time on their streaming service of choice, others are taking the opportunity to tackle that list of jobs they had always been meaning to get to, but just couldn’t find the time. And it appears that painting is the number one job, people have been putting off, going by a recent surge in local paint sales.

Brendan Kent, of Kent’s H Hardware, said they were expecting business to quieten down due to the pandemic lockdown and even began some large renovation jobs on their Dalton Street store. But, in fact, the opposite has happened. Both trade and home DIY sales have boomed over the past few weeks, particularly driven by people buying paint. “I think it is the first job everyone looks at. They’re home all week and thinking I’ve been meaning to paint that wall for a couple of years, so now is the time I suppose,” said Brendan. “Our paint sales have been going up

quite a bit in the last 12 months, but since this whole virus thing has come about I’d say there has been an increase of 40 to 50 per cent, so that’s quite a bit!” And it is not just his own store, but it appears that all over Australia people are picking up brushes and rollers and giving their homes a fresh new look. “All the suppliers have said it is countrywide, that they’ve had to increase manufacturing and a lot of them are running out of stock,” said Brendan “Talking to those suppliers, the construction industry in general and hardware stores are all having huge

increases— so I guess it is one positive out of all the madness.” “I don’t know how long it is going to go for, but we are still experiencing above average sales, mostly paint but then our DIY sales have increased as well, stuff for garden structures and things like that, so it has been good.” Brendan said they have also noticed an increase in customers asking for Australian made, or Australian owned products. “People are wanting to support local or Australian which is a good thing, so we obviously are trying to buy from as many local suppliers as we can.”

Are you looking for a proactive sales team? Do you need a dedicated property Manager? BLOWES REAL ESTATE HAS BEEN WORKING FOR YOU SINCE 1972 Our doors are open, and our staff are more than happy to help you through the sales process or answer any questions you have regarding managing your rental property.

SO IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A FRESH NEW TEAM GIVE BLOWES REAL ESTATE A CALL ON 6362 1233

BLOWESRE.COM.AU 28 30 APRIL — 6 MAY , 2020

cnr lords place + kite street 02 6362 1233

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O'FP�IZtS TO BEI/\JONEACH

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I We have a $50 gift voucher to give away each week from Ashcroft's Supa IGA. To enter, simply tell us your name and contact phone and what product features in the Ashcroft's Supa IGA ad in this issue of OC Life. Entries close each Tuesday at 12 noon. I

We have a $50 IGA Gift Voucher to give you if this 1 number plate is yours

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Send entries via our Facebook page, Orange City Life, I I email to reception@oclife.com.au

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ILOVEIGA TERRI NEWMAN RANDOMREGO ANDREW JACKSON MYPLACE NOEL PALMER LUCKY BIRTHDAY KAREN MICHAELIDES WHATSHOP DAN CASSON FIND THE PHRASE KAREN DALTON MORE HOGSTERS HEATHER SMITH

RANDOM REGOS

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We have two $75 meat trays from �-tlE RY �� M & J's Butchery to give away each month. Somewhere in this edition of Orange City Life, you'll find this face. To enter, simply write your name and address on the back of an envelope, along with the page number you found the face on or email us an entry Send or email entries to Face in the Crowd, OCLife, 3/241 I Lords Pl, Orange NSW 2800 or reception@oclife.com.au I

Ifyour rego appears, call into our office before 5pm next Tuesday.

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,FIND HOGSTER

YOU'Nl We have two dinners for 2 to give away LOOK/NC each month Each week we'll hide a small fON TIii!••

version of the Hog's Steakhouse mascot 1 "Hogster" somewhere in OC Life. It could be anywhere. To enter, simply find him, then write your name and address on the 1 back of an envelope, along with the page number you found him on. I Send or email entries to FIND HOGSTER, OCLife, 3/241 I Lords Pl, Orange NSW 2800 or reception@oclife.com.au

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Ifyour home appears, call into our office before 2pm the following Tuesday to claim your prize. Bring proofofyour address with you.

sponsored by

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: LUCKY BIRTHDAYS

: We have a $20 gift voucher 1 to give away each week from 1 Cafe Latte. Be first into our 1 Lords Place, office 1 next Monday morning with 1 proof and you'll win the 1 weekly prize. I sponsored by 1

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Deliver or post entries to ''WHAT SHOP IS IT?" TO WIN: Simply unscramble these letters to reveal the name ofa local Orange shop. Put in an entry and we'll draw a winner from among correct entries each week. Entries close Tuesday 3pm each week. THIS WEEK'S PRIZE $50 Win a $50 !GA gift voucher, thanks to Neweys Drive-Thro Cleaners

Last week-Angus Barrett

30 APRIL - 6 MAY, 2020 29

OCLife

WRITER’S CORNER

candlelight and music, and leaving nothing but the lingering scent of sandalwood and a taste of spice on my lips and a sense of something lost that would never be found again. The dawning of reality swept over me in a wave of sadness, encouraged further by the insistent trumpeting from beyond my window... Rotten little black wretch... You could have waited a little bit longer... just until I felt the warmth of Rajeeds’ embrace at least! You’d better be gone by the time I get up, or you’re going to pay for that early wake-up call, dragging me out of a lovely sleep to troop another weary day, plodding through this banal existence that serves as a life. Oh! Rajeed! Rajeed! Wherefore art thou Rajeed! Get up! You moaning mound of misery! There is a shiny new day beyond this dim-lit room! Who knows what adventure awaits?... Adventure???... Hummph! That’ll be the day! The only adventure you’re going to get is when the washing machine decides to get stuck on ‘fill’ and floods the laundry and everything within a three room radius!... Oh! Just get up and stop moaning! I think there is something inherently pointless in getting out of bed in the mornings and trying to keep up the pretence that one is “alive!”

lickering candlelight caressed Rajeeds’ glowing body as he swayed to and fro to the haunting tones of the sitar, with gestures and movements straight from the latest Bollywood extravaganza, his inhibitions and his impeccable manners laying among the clothing strewn about the polished wooden floor. A glistening jewel of perspiration caught my eye as it trickled down his chest, clinging lovingly in its’ slow descent over satin muscles and rippled abdomen, to

Firstly, the minute your feet hit the floor you know something is amiss... How does that song go? The hipbone’s connected to the thigh bone...The thigh bones connected to the knee bone! Or something like that! Then how come my tailbone isn’t connected to anything and the whole bag of bones gets the death wobbles as soon as I stand up? Secondly, once you have the shimmy shakes under some sort of control, and you make it dodderingly to the bathroom, then you have to install all the things that a “living’ being should already have installed!... Put your teeth in!... NO! First put your glasses on so that you can find the teeth, and it isn’t the sink plug you’re trying to fit in your mouth!

vanish into the saffron folds of his crisp, linen loincloth. The heady mix of sandalwood and sitar filled my senses. The taste of cinnamon and spice stung my lips as I imagined the dhoti joining the pile of discarded robes on the floor, and my gaze continued the path to shining golden thighs, sinuously hypnotising in cobra-like grace as he twirled and turned to the music. His smouldering eyes burned through me, and my head began to spin with the spicy-sweet scent of the room.......! Suddenly the shrill, sharp call of the blackbird, a lone bugler sounding reveille outside my window, snatched away my magic carpet of dreams with the flourish of a matador, taking with it my bronzed Lothario, the

Pull, push, tuck, fold, and squeeze until all the bits that bulge, dangle, wobble, protrude and bounce are well and truly under control before you greet the day. Not to mention the battle with thinning, greying hair that either sticks out like a birch-broom in a fit, or hangs as limp as an old man’s fancy... Oh! Sigh! Once you have it all gathered together, and you think you can manage so long as no one comes knocking at the door just when you take the pesky teeth out for a minute to ease sore gums, and you forget and greet them with your ‘wicked witch of the west’ face, then it’s time to get on with the day! Breakfast!... After all the dreams are well and truly washed down the basin with the nights’ grit from eyes and face, and the last thought of bronzed thighs vanishes with the wrinkled vision peering back at you from the mirror... Somehow, I’m not very hungry this morning... A

The two photos below contain five subtle differences. Can you find them all?

SPOT THE

30 30 APRIL — 6 MAY , 2020

1. Hair 2. Extra chess piece 3. Different stream of light in background 4. Change on lettering on T-shirt 5. Change in board number

DIFFERENCE

WRITER’S CORNER

quick cup of Liptons to wash down a couple of painkillers, and a mega vitamin in the hope of resurrecting some forgotten energy from somewhere past does little to pull me out of this listless frame of mind. What is there to look forward to, another day of the same old drudgery? Doing the same old things, over and over, day in and day out, ad nauseum... till even the toast getting burnt is a welcome diversion from dull monotony! My life is uninspiring! I am a frumpy house-frau!... What a lovely word... ’frumpy’... it describes me exactly! (Frump- from the Middle Dutch ‘verrompelen’; To wrinkle!). I wonder why we don’t have English words that are so tersely descriptive? The English are such a stuffy lot, guarding their use of language as carefully as they guard their behaviour. Must keep the upper lip stiff!... Never let your guard down! I wonder how they ever manage to procreate when they are so prim and proper? They should take lessons from Rajeed... now he could teach them a thing or two about loosening up!... Dab a little cinnamon behind the ears, and liberally apply whipped cream, and they couldn’t help but drop more than their áitches’… Hmmmn! Now that has possibilities!... Now there you go again, off in dreamland! Get off your bum and get about the boring business of the day! Maybe I could run away! Just vanish from this place and disappear off into the outback! There is endless desert out there I could get lost in. No one would miss me! It would be like a trek into the Sahara, riding on a camel into glorious red sunsets with my bronzed Rajeed to attend to my every whim, (if only in my mind)... No tedium to plague me anymore, no time card to punch, no gut-busted washing machines or burnt toast... I wonder if I can buy a camel on my Visa? Shopping!... If I could despise anything more than housework, it must be shopping! Especially when all the kids are on holidays, and some snotty-nosed little darling wipes his fingers on the back of your skirt in the crush at the deli, while you patiently wait for the old lady in the spotted dress, who is first in line ahead of twenty others to make up her mind whether she wants shaved ham or ham slices. “No! I think I’ll have the corned beef instead, deary!” she mumbles, after the girl has weighed and wrapped the ham, to a collective sigh from a score of shuffling bodies, and an ear piercing shriek from the brat who now has his sticky finger firmly stuck in the crack between the counters ! Serve you right, you little menace!... I wonder if my wishing bad things upon him did that? Hope so!... I’m sorry, I can’t help smiling! At last, a bright spot in the day! It occurs to me that my life really is pathetic when the pain of another living being is my only source of joy! So in a rather contrite frame of mind I finally reach the

counter and my turn, and don’t even get annoyed when they tell me that the customer before me has bought the last barbeque chicken, and there won’t be any more ready for another hour and a half!...... I didn’t want chicken anyway!... All those greasy calories! “I’ll have fifty grams of devon, thanks!” I mumble... grumbling inwardly at the thought of devon sandwiches, instead of chicken salad for lunch, and suddenly the taste of cinnamon haunts my thoughts, and the fragile memory casts aside the need for chicken and restores the secret smile to my face. Out in the car park, dodging the brats who use the supermarket ramp for skateboarding becomes a lesson in the modern use of four-letter words, and they teach me a few I have never heard before... wonder if they are in my dictionary? Maybe wishing bad things will work on them as well! A large and beautifully tattooed Maori fellow with a body to rival Rajeed, and a grasp of lout language fit to scare the skateboard right out from under the toughest brat, came to the rescue of all the little old grannies coming up the ramp after me, and with a few well chosen four letter expletives sent the brats scurrying to the sanctuary of the plaza over the road, and the grannies red-faced away into the maze of cars in the car park. Good God! Is that the time? Here I am dawdling over my devon sandwich, and waiting for John to rescue Marlena for the umpteenth time from the clutches of the evil Stephano and it’s nearly time for work... Darn! Just when I was getting interested... Oh well! I s’pose nothing much will change till tomorrow, and if she gets rescued, in a months’ time she is only going to be kidnapped again. How does she manage to have so much excitement in her life?... Maybe you have to change husbands every other week before things become interesting... Pity I don’t have one of those to change, or I could give it a try and see if the boredom goes away and life becomes a little spicier...... Sorry, Marlena... I have to turn you off and go and earn my living! Some of us don’t have the same luxuries as others... Oh, by the way... try putting on forty pounds, that’ll get rid of Stephano in a big hurry! Work! Who mentioned work? The word denotes doing something different and more satisfying, less boring than one’s usual routine! But the truth is that it is just a case of doing the same thing in a different place. The remuneration is fine, and the work is no great hardship, nor is it dirty work, but there is no escaping the tedium of doing the same things over and over and over. The only advantage of work is that it gives me lots of time to wander in my fantasies, and this little indulgence helps the day to pass. Work! What can you say about work? It appears to me in my casual observations of others at my work place that the tedium and lack of inspiration that I feel is not mine alone to bear. Take

CROSSWORD 1

12 14

16 19

22 26

27 29

28 30

ACROSS 1 Foolish 4 Carry 7 Mineral 8 Droop 9 Has strong desire 12 Naming word 13 Tempted 15 Opening 16 Secret agent 18 Perform 19 Ignited 21 Determined 24 Veinlike deposit 26 Gap 27 At a distance from 28 Be victorious 29 Wee 30 Herbaceous plant ALL ANSWERS ON CLASSIFIEDS PAGE

for instance the chap in the office at the far end of the corridor, whose diplomas and degrees and various other accolades decorate the walls of his ‘den.’ His educational status and his many sojourns abroad in the interests of his work should make for an exciting, happy and fulfilling life... but no! Every morning, without fail, this privileged individual with the world at his fingertips meticulously constructs and folds a tiny paper boat, whose sole purpose is to deliver his used tea bag over the edge of his desk into the waste paper basket. Never a paper plane! Never just toss it in the bin. Always the absentminded folding of the tiny boat while he sips his tea and ponders the tedium of HIS day! Boredom obviously has no preference for gender or educational status and another desktop proudly proclaims in deeply scratched letters, “I am so bored I could eat my ear-wax!” and it is added to each day with careful tracing of the letters in a different colour, to further imprint the writers misery firmly in his mind. The vagaries of tedium affect us all, from the lady who doodles on every conceivable space, to the person who just sits and stares out the window, then gets into a huge panic as knockoff time approaches and deadlines are not met, to the telephone addict who talks and talks and all the while absentmindedly rolls little balls of sticky tape and delivers them to every corner of the room with the flick of his thumb, and later complains that someone is stealing his sticky tape! I suppose I should be glad that this uninspired life is not mine alone, but the knowledge only serves to make me more miserable. If there is no hope for the well travelled and socially stimulated, then what hope is there for me, in my humble and dreary life? Oh, Rajeed! Come and rescue me! Carry me off into the night on a glistening black stallion, with your saffron robes flowing in the wind. Night! Already? Where did the day go? All that drudgery can’t have passed so quickly! Nothing in this day has been exciting enough to hasten the hours! It must have been all that daydreaming... lingering in memories of cinnamon and sandalwood. I wonder what the girl staring out the window dreams about, or the boat builder, while he sips his tea? Maybe he dreams of sailing off into the sunset in a boat with red sails and no real destination in mind, just following the trade winds to the four corners of the globe. Oh well, I guess I’ll just watch a little bit of telly and then go to bed. Nothing else to do! No one to dance with to the sounds of the sitar! No candle light to sparkle and play on golden thighs! No black stallion on which to ride off into the night! Maybe I’ll just go and make myself a late supper snack! DARN! I must have eaten the last cinnamon roll last night. Oh, well, I’ll just have to settle for the English muffin... Didn’t I have a can of whipped cream in the fridge?

HOW TO PLAY To solve a Sudoku puzzle, every number from 1 to 9 must appear in: DOWN 1 Part of a shoe 2 Seemingly mocked by fate 3 Fasting period 4 Musical group 5 Self 6 Slender and long-limbed 10 Band’s engagement 11 Climb 14 Poems of heroism 17 Abstract 18 Parcel out 20 Gratuity 21 Resist boldly 22 Daybreak 23 Refuse 25 Spanish nobleman

> Each of the nine vertical columns > Each of the nine horzontal rows > Each of the nine 3x3 boxes remember no number can occur more than once in any row, column or box.

OCLife

Sudoku 6

9 5

4 1 3

30 APRIL — 6 MAY , 2020 31

SUBMISSIONS—EMAIL: reception@oclife.com.au // FACEBOOK: ORANGE CITY LIFE // instagram: #ORANGECITYLIFE

The Salvation Arm y’s most recent annual report note d its social service s provided more than one million sessions of care to Australians in need ; helped 46,000 peop le experiencing homelessness, prov ided financial counselling to mor e than 65,000 and offered care to 13,00 0 people who were coping with family violence. The past year also saw an ongoing response to drough t, while Salvation Army Emergency Services responde d to the rolling bush fires crisis by providing more th an 500,000 meals and refreshments to first responders and displaced peop le.

THE DOORKNOCK’ GOES DIGITAL THE SALVATION ARMY’S RED SHIELD APPEAL CALLS FOR VOLUNTEERS.

Your Space

EASY, FAST, ECONOMICAL FOOD

Jack’s Banana Muffins 4 overripe bananas mushed 2 eggs 1/3 cup brown sugar ½ cup rolled oats 1 tbs oil Pinch of bi-carb 1 cup whole meal SR flour

— MELISE COLEMAN — After more than 55 years of knocking on doors each May, The Salvation Army is taking the Red Shield Appeal digital in response to COVID-19’s impact on social contact. Australians are facing an economic and social crisis unlike anything witnessed in recent decades and The Salvation Army is preparing to provide hardship support on an unprecedented scale. In doing that they are asking locals to become digital fundraisers by going to digitaldoorknock.salvationarmy. org.au and using a suburb or postcode to find their nearest Red Shield Appeal to help those doing it tough. The Salvos hope to enlist 10,000 virtual collectors to sign up and fundraise for the Red Shield Appeal Digital Doorknock on May 23 and 24 to help meet the challenging

times ahead. Salvation Army Bathurst/Orange Corps Captain, Kate Cathcart said, “We are encouraging people to sign up as individuals or as a team, and they can either just make a donation or they can run their own fundraiser. We want the community to get creative, for example; get sponsored for the most amount of hours watching Netflix, or maybe they want to do a marathon, we can’t wait to see what people come up with.” 80% of the money raised from the Red Shield Appeal Digital Doorknock in Orange will stay in the Orange region to help fund local initiatives that support those who are experiencing homelessness, addiction, financial hardship, domestic violence and difficulties arising from COVID-19. The

remaining 20% supports the addiction recovery centres, crisis and short-term accommodation and refuges across Australia. These centres have supported and will continue to support people from our own community. With the Salvos going digital this year it’s easier than ever to volunteer your time and help raise money for those in need. Kate continued, “We know when the chips are down, Aussies come together and do what they can to give hope, this is no more important than now. We will also be updating our website regularly with local information and videos. The website is now live so jump on and check it out.” Sign up and volunteer to fundraise or to make a donation: digitaldoorknock. salvationarmy.org.au/orange-salvos

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and spray muffin tin. Mix first six ingredients and then gently fold the flour in (don’t overbeat), place in muffin tin and cook for 15-20 minutes. They freeze well and can also be made as a cake or loaf – just cook for longer. Jacki’s tip: Get the kids to help in the kitchen, it can be a maths lesson on fractions! Recipe courtesy of local Nutritionist Jacki Jasprizza and her Jacki’s Gastronomical Gossip Cookbook, we will share some of the magic that is printed inside each week. For $20 you can get your hands on a copy [trust us you’ll want to], enquiries to Jacki 0427 621 318 or markjacki@bigpond.com

SAFETY FIRST AT RMH — MELISE COLEMAN —

BEING FORCED TO MOVE YOUR FAMILY FAR FROM HOME, WORK, SCHOOL AND YOUR ENTIRE SUPPORT NETWORK DUE TO A CHILD’S ILLNESS IS EXTRAORDINARILY TOUGH. Canobolas Cottage, trading as Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC), provides a home-away-from-home for seriously ill children and their families whilst they undergo necessary treatment at major hospitals throughout Australia. Now, patients and visitors from regional and remote areas will enjoy a safer ride to Central West health and wellbeing services with the announcement of a new vehicle service, following a $25,000 grant from the Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation. This new vehicle (which has already been put to use) will bridge a gap in transport options for residents at RMHC Orange, ensuring the safety and security and enhancing wellbeing for the family. RMHC Executive Officer, Rebecca Walsh said the new vehicle will significantly improve safety to health services for patients and their families from and remote regional areas of Central West NSW. “The arrival of the new house car has been timely and has already begun assisting a family after their child was transferred via air from their hometown. The car allows the family to travel to and from the hospital and even into

town for any needs they may have. The family back home have acknowledged the car has provided much relief knowing their loved one is safe and being cared for has brought them great comfort,” Rebecca said. Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation Chair, Philip Neat said RMHC’s services align with the Foundation’s objective to ensure people have access to the health and well-being services they need. “Patients and their families who need to access the services at RMHC are entitled to access the best medical services available while ensuring their safety to and from these services.” Phillip explained, “The new vehicle will allow drivers to transport people after dark on the hospital site, from the House to the Hospital. It also allows pickups from train stations/public transport to the hospital and associated health service facilities. “The Charitable Foundation’s partnership with RMHC means people can access the care they need as efficiently and safely as possible,” RMHC has implemented a stringent policy to ensure the safety of drivers and passengers to adhere to current social distancing restrictions.

RMHC Executive Officer, Rebecca Walsh and House Manager Bronwyn Cooper with the new vehicle.

30 APRIL — 6 MAY , 2020 33

OCLife

FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE

Sunshine

ORANGE CITY LIFE IS PLEASED TO BE ABLE TO BRING YOU A SERIALISED VERSION OF THE ACCLAIMED NOVELLA, SUNSHINE, FROM MILLTHORPE’S

KIM KELLY

It’s 1921 and the Great War has left in its wake untold tragedy, not only in lives lost but in the guilt of survivors, the deep-set scars of old wounds and the sting of redoubled bigotries. In the tiny hamlet of Sunshine, on the far-flung desert’s edge, three very different ex-servicemen – Jack Bell, an Aboriginal horseman, Snow McGlynn, a laconic, curmudgeonly farmer, and Art Lovelee, an eccentric engineer – find themselves sharing a finger of farmland along the Darling River, and not much else. That is, until Art’s wife Grace, a battle-hardened nurse, gets to work on them all with her no-nonsense wisdom. Told with Kim Kelly’s inimitable with and warmth, Sunshine is a very Australian tale of home, hope and healing, of the power of growing life and love, and discovering that we are each other’s greatest gifts.

Stave V

GRACE A small swift bird darted across her path as she reached the old vineyard at the outer bounds of her own garden, and she looked up from her concern for the neighbour, McGlynn: one bird, two – half a dozen, all dipping and scudding towards the rounded tin awning of the back verandah. Swallows! She smile¬d at the sight. They were called welcome swallows, here, with their gingery faces bright against blue-black heads, and not much different from the barn swallows of her home. Such dear little things, swooshing about like cupid’s arrows. So, you’ve come for your nest, have you? She smiled deeper still. But just as much like a tiny squadron of Fliegertruppe Fokkers, the swallows doubled back, spinning around her, on reconnaissance, sizing up the enemy, and concern returned to her. Some days, or most days in some way, it seemed the war would never end. She’d seen its ceaselessness plainly just now in Joseph McGlynn’s fearful, goaway eyes. Like him, Grace had acquired a kind of second sight, and for her it came as a grey-grimy film underlaying every other more immediate reality: an X-ray showing the bones beneath all we see. She saw at this moment, her ramshackle vine trellises and the beautiful house beyond fall away to reveal the smashed-down stumps and shattered timbers of what had once been the market town of Albert on the Somme. For a sliver of a second, the old schoolhouse in the distance, closer to the river, seemed to be smoking, but it was only the heat haze. She blinked it away. She snatched all thought away from that place. ‘Darling!’ she called out to Art as she reached the 36 30 APRIL — 6 MAY , 2020

back step. He didn’t answer; she didn’t really expect him to: he was crashing. She took a deep breath, sent the usual prayer out along the warm breeze, supposing he might have slunk back off to bed. When she’d left him, half an hour or so ago, with a small pile of honey-buttered toast and tea, she knew more or less where he was heading. Uncanny, the way the body gave up something of the mind’s secrets before a word was spoken: the muscles in his face would always go first, as though he were melting. ‘What are you thinking?’ she used to ask him when she saw this sign, and he would say: ‘Nothing. That’s the problem – it’s nothing. I feel nothing. I am nothing.’ He was suffering from some residual and persistent disorganisation of the brain – obviously. Still, he’d come a long way since she’d first met him, at The Special, in Surrey – the convalescent hospital dedicated to the deranged. Officers only. He could barely move at all; curious case of nervous paralysis. Three days’ solid shelling at Pozieres, that’d do it to you – and he’d been like that for over four months by the time she arrived that December of 1916, a kind of casualty herself, having been shipped back to Blighty after a series of fainting spells brought on by exhaustion. It wasn’t uncommon among the nurses – it was nonstop horror and there was either never quite enough to eat or no appetite for it – but it had been embarrassing to have suffered such a sidelining, such a dismissal. Not as embarrassing as the condition of Captain Arthur Lovelee, though. She’d recognised his frustration and humiliation right away: lying there on a cloud featherdown beneath a pretty bay window in what had lately been Lord Whatshisname’s drawing room. Goodness gracious: she’d been informed that this Captain Lovelee had been recommended for some sort of above-and-beyond gallantry in the field, some breakneck Australian brutality that had shocked even Fritz, and here he was tucked into bed like a baby. His eyes, blue in every sense, begged her as she neared: HELP ME.

The standard treatment then was to pretend none of it was happening. Can’t move your legs? Can’t feed yourself? Never mind. We’ll have a singalong this afternoon, ‘Let Me Call You Sweetheart,’ have another spoonful of jelly and custard so you can feel sick in the stomach too. These men weren’t children; quite the opposite. Grace knew all too well: as surgical nurse and do-it-yourself butcher when circumstances required, she’d too often been up to her elbows in the very substance of them. Cured her of any desire to make medicine a profession; cured her of any desire to bother much about anything at all, at that time. ‘Oh dear me, sh-- soup for tea,’ were the first words she’d said to Art Lovelee, spooning cauliflower mush at him as if he’d lost his teeth. His teeth were strong and straight and white and shame was their shared currency. And he spat the mush all down the front of her pinny. ‘Oh flick it, I’m so sorry!’ She leapt to tidy up the slop, and to apologise, sincerely. ‘I’m so terribly sorry, sir.’ She’d supposed, being Australian, he’d find the vulgarity a little cheering; she’d only hoped to ease his suffering. In her experience, an Australian might have half an arm off, hanging by its sinews, and feel the need to make a grim quip about it. ‘S-s-s’all right,’ this one stammered, it having taken him a good minute to get the words out. ‘L-l-laughing,’ he added, and right there she saw it was true – he was laughing. She saw the light of it sparkling in his eyes, and something sparked between them in that moment: a friendship firm and forever. ‘He hasn’t said a word since being brought in,’ one of the doctors told her later that day. ‘He didn’t buckle in the line, you know – collapsed only in pulling out, finding most of his company gone. Been a mystery to us ever since. Whatever you’re doing, nurse, keep at it.’ So she did; she sat with him every day, for however long her duties allowed, and little by

FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE

little over that first fortnight, with lots of very bad jokes, she coaxed his words out, she laughed his stammer away. They never talked about what happened on the Somme; they probably never would; she was no more inclined to share her own memories of the front. She didn’t mention his paralysis, either. No one seemed to know where to begin with that: a big, strapping man, one moment leading in the field, the next, helpless. Every test had been tried: there was nothing wrong with him physically, no sensory damage, no rupture of the spine. When a doctor had jabbed a pin into his toe, he cried, ‘Ouch!’ and flinched, but when asked to wriggle it – no show. She tried a few tricks instead: dropping a plate; pretending to slip; exclaiming, ‘Oh look!’ at the snow falling outside the windows behind him. But he remained unmoving. And then, just as she thought his condition was too complex for words, or her words at least, he surprised her again. On Christmas morning, as she brought in his festive fruit bun and marmalade, she teased, ‘Ah but have you been a good boy?’ and he teased back, ‘Never – the things I do when you’re not looking.’ Her heart burst for his predicament, for the whole, wide ocean of notsecret secrets that stretched between them and washed them together at once. She put the tray on the nightstand and sat beside him on the bed; break one rule, break the next: she took his hand in hers and squeezed an assurance: ‘I have no doubt whatsoever that you get up to all manner of nonsense.’ At which he nodded, and his eyes filled with tears. ‘Well done, me.’ She squeezed his hand again: ‘Now I’ve upset you.’ ‘No.’ He smiled and shook his head; he glanced down at his hand in hers: ‘It’s just that …Well … I haven’t been touched with any affection, like this, for quite some time.’ What creature is man that one in such deep grief, in such need of having his hand held, had not had that simple need met? She felt the revelation rise inside her and with it her own tears. She kept hold of his hand; she poured all the strength of her affection and respect into this touch, and his tears streamed as she did, blotting into the soft blue flannel of his pyjama shirt. ‘What a display I’m putting on.’ He sniffed. ‘Christmas display. Just for you. You must think I’m a pathetic heap.’ ‘No,’ she said. She wanted to wipe the tears from his face, but she didn’t want to let go of his hand, and she didn’t want to take his tears away from him now that they were here: they were dignified tears. ‘I would never think less of a man for expressing what is necessary.’ She squeezed his hand once more, with the promise of her words; and then – to the amazement of them both – he squeezed her hand back. Before the end of January, he was up and out of bed, and asking her to the pictures.

By midsummer, they were planning their wedding: modest and quick, as war weddings almost invariably are, and in her home parish at Chippenham. ‘He’s not right in the head,’ her mother had said in warning, not unkind about it; only stating a patent truth. He’d been honourably discharged from the army and shoe-horned into a consulting engineer’s job overseeing the final plumbing details of Australia House, the new High Commission building in London, but he was only just coping: beneath the easy Aussie banter he was dithery, always slightly dishevelled and often hard-pressed to tell you what day of the week it was; prone to dancing, especially with his new mother-in-law, reciting tracts of some antipodean poet no one had ever heard of, and drinking vast quantities of beer – often all at the same time. ‘Fine fellow!’ her father bellowed merrily whenever they visited. As branch manager of the local Capital and Counties Bank and amateur railways enthusiast, he was delighted to have a real engineer in the family, and a soldier at that, however broken. ‘What will you drink – bitter or stout?’ By the following Christmas, though, when the sky set in all sh-- soup grey and the streets were slick with ice, Art was sent off to inspect some of the structural damage caused by a Zeppelin bombing raid over central London, and on returning to their Hammersmith flat, he said: ‘I’m very tired, my love. Very tired.’ It was about half-past four in the afternoon, and night had fallen; he went to bed, and stayed there for almost three weeks. Melting. All she could do was have a message sent up to his office, apologising, lying – dreadful winter chest cold – and then join him in bed. Where she asked him: ‘What do you want, darling?’ ‘I want the war to end.’ Didn’t they all. Since she couldn’t give him that, she loved him and held him, and held him and loved him, until he roused, until he rallied, until he said: ‘I want to give you more than this, my love, my wonder. I want to give you the sun. My sun. I want to go home. Let’s go home – to Australia.’ And here they were. ‘Darling!’ she called out to him again, in the here and the now. The back flyscreen slapping shut behind her, she noted the toast untouched on the bench by the sink, a trail of ants making their way up the leg nearest; a blowfly buzzing about, having followed her in. She allowed herself to feel the stab of resentment: Oh God, not again. At least he wasn’t a nasty drunk, she told herself. At least he wasn’t cruel – not ever. But how she despised this phase; this shade: Depression. She wanted to lock the door on him, not see him until it passed. Not see his face. And the thought of not seeing his face again quickened her step down the hall. ‘Art, darling. Darling Art,’ she lightened her

OCLife

voice in the cool, dark heart of this house. A beat of fear, of nightmares that shook her more than any other: that one day, he’d break the pattern of his fracturing and she’d never find him in any condition again, other than gone. But here he was, just where she supposed he’d be: lying on the tangled mess of sheets, in singlet and undershorts, long legs stretched out, crossed at the ankles, notebook open facedown over his thigh. He could be any chap spending a morning at leisure. Any chap who’d lost the ability to smile. A chap on the desert’s edge in every sense. She said: ‘Hm. Well. Well. We know what’s going to happen now, don’t we.’ ‘We do.’ He nodded. ‘That McGlynn a more miserable sod than me?’ ‘Oh heavens, yes,’ she said, reaching behind her to unbutton her dress. ‘Twice as miserable and ten times more soddish. Better looking, though.’ Art snorted: ‘Not hard.’ Perhaps not, she smiled to herself. There were many more handsome men – oh but how she loved this one. Why? Call it a survival pact; a safety pact: he pulled her away from darker paths, too, mostly by keeping her so busy. ‘What have you been scribbling?’ she asked him, hanging up her dress. ‘Trying to remember why I’m doing this.’ He tossed the book on the bedside table. ‘Why I’m here. How I’m going to keep so many young plants alive, and why I should attempt it.’ Oh dear God – no. He hadn’t even constructed the seedbeds yet, nor seen the rootstock ordered up from Nyngan for the citrus, and already he was fretting that he would kill them. Perhaps this business of growing things wasn’t such a good idea. How would he cope if they did all die? And how could she help prevent any such disaster occurring? She wasn’t a farmer. She’d never grown anything more than a potted geranium on a windowsill: that blackened and gave up after the first heavy frost. Highly unlikely there’d be a frost here; highly unlikely the river would run dry. This was the perfect place for growing things. Wasn’t it? She shoved her panic down, deep as it would go, and dropped her slip and her knickers to the floor. She told him: ‘You’re making a future for us. From us.’ Please, she glanced over her shoulder at the sky outside their bedroom window: Please, bring us a child. ‘It’s been almost four years,’ he said. ‘Perhaps God is being kind by denying us.’ No. ‘God has far too much on his mind. I, on the other hand …’ ‘I’m tired, Grace.’ He tried so very hard to smile, to put her off, to make her leave him alone. No. ‘I need you.’ She did: she needed his touch as much as she needed to give her own to him. She needed to feel his life inside her. She also knew he was indeed tired: after slogging away like an actual lunatic these past several days, he was no 30 APRIL — 6 MAY , 2020 37

OCLife

FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE

doubt muscle weary and sore. But if she timed things well, she knew she could turn him around with this love, she could hold him in the present for just long enough to give his mind the rest it needed more than anything else. She would cure whatever was preventing their child, too: her periods had been haphazard since the first casualty rush of the Somme: brutal one month and barely there the next; she would settle that here with all else. ‘Please.’ She held his face in her hands, she held his gaze until she found a glint there in his eyes; and then she kissed him. She kissed him and kissed him until he kissed her in return.

almost twenty-two. And he’s such a nice man.

things. All things.

A nice man who instead not only lost most of his men on that deadly ridge at Pozieres, but who tore into the bodies of their young German counterparts during the most vicious hand-tohand combat imaginable. Unimaginable. Up to his elbows in Germans. He didn’t know she knew, but indeed she knew. When he collapsed in London that winter of 1917, after his discharge, she made an effort to find out a little more detail on what had happened there. One thing to shoot a man, or blow him to bits with a shell; quite another to slit his throat. It was not courage that earned him the medal he later refused to receive, but the worst and most desperate of fears.

A little warm, perhaps, she laughed to herself as she moved across to the far end of the verandah for her broom. She had no intention of using it in this heat – what was it going to be like in summer? – but it had fallen over and made itself a tripping hazard.

How she wished she could kiss it all away. She’d certainly spend the rest of her life trying to. The room was midday-warm, gently roasting, when she woke in his arms, and there was no smile like it. Art was so deeply asleep, he didn’t stir in the slightest as she rose. She’d won this round. It was this kind of sleep, dreamless and worlds away, that healed the mind – she was sure of it. Different kinds of sleep were attached to each of his selves: under Obsession, he’d sleep fitfully for only three or four hours, and become racked with untold visions and relivings; under Dancing Dawg, he’d invariably sleep the foggy and never quite satisfying sleep of the inebriated; under Naughty Boy, he’d wake several times in the night desperate to make love again or eat – usually both; and under Depression, he’d appear to oversleep but not quite sleep at all, whimpering softly inside it now and again, breaking and breaking her heart. But this sleep here – this was sleep. Ordinary sleep. This was where his cure lay, if ever it would be found. It assured them both a respite, anyway, for however long the peace would last: perhaps a week, perhaps a month or even two. She dressed again, counting around all blessings, all miracles, and grateful for every damn one. This sleep ironed the lines from his face, rolling back time to some sweet boyish place, before war and duty, a place in which, if time were ever fair, they might have met. He’d been wanting to leave for England, as it was, and as was commonly done; he’d been seeking a position with a firm or a post-graduate scholarship, whichever came first, when the battle bells tolled – making him believe he’d get his passage over for free, doing his bit in between. If time had taken a different track, perhaps they might have met in the foyer at Drury Lane, on one of her trips down to London, to the theatre, with her parents, when she was just Miss Myles, never Nurse; he’d have been down from Cambridge; her father would have accosted him over some incidental chat about diesel locomotion, after which they’d have gone on to share supper. And perhaps she’d have found him deadly boring and arrogant, altogether undesirable; with her parents imploring her: Time is ticking on, Gracie – you’re 38 30 APRIL — 6 MAY , 2020

As if time found the thought amusing, the swallows outside burst into song – a sound almost insanely cheerful. She couldn’t tell if it was only a figment, but she was sure the laughter of these Australian swallows was louder and more uproarious than those of England. Most definitely their high, throaty chatter here included now and again a particularly long, burbling gurgle that sounded very much like one of them had given themselves over completely to a fit of the giggles. They seemed to have gathered at the front verandah, and she stepped out there to investigate, to enjoy their bright busyness, and as she opened the flyscreen, one flew so close she might have touched it, had any human reflex been so quick. Ha! So, it was their nest up there on the rafter. She supposed they were shouting now: ‘It’s her! It’s her! The one with the broom. Defend the eggs! Defend the eggs!’ She wondered how many eggs were up there, being so valiantly and furiously protected by what must have been a dozen birds; she wondered at such breakneck bonds of family – how she wanted such bonds for herself. She held her hand to her belly, there under the darting, shrieking swallows, willing Art’s life to join with hers. Perhaps it wasn’t the most ideal time to bring a child into the world – a world too wounded in every way. A crippled world, a mangled world, a world that would never, ever be the same. But looking out across this bloomstrewn field towards the river, this world seemed nothing less than perfect. A world of birds: the corellas sat like fat, white orchids dotting the broad canopies of the eucalypt trees; and among the wild daisies, blue fairy wrens hopped about, pecking for seed; a wagtail fanned its glossy black feathers from its lookout on the bonnet of the car, and – what? What was that bird? A green parakeet with a teal-splashed face and gold breast, a flash of crimson at its back. She blinked, but it remained – and there were four of them, foraging in the long grass by the gatepost. This was a perfect place. She kept her hand pressed to her belly. A perfect place to grow

‘Don’t worry,’ she told the swallows whizzing about her head in warning. ‘I’m only going to put it away.’ She glimpsed the nest up there: bowl-shaped, a little larger than her own hand, and the nursery rhyme slipped into her mind with all her wishes: ‘Oranges and lemons, say the bells of Saint Clemens,’ she sang it aloud, half just to join the birds: ‘Pancakes and fritters, say the bells of Saint Peter’s. Two sticks and an apple, say the bells of Whitechapel. Old Father —’ She stopped at sensing she was not alone. A tall, grey-brown shape moved through a copse of low bushes midway between the house and the river, about twenty yards off. She thought at first it might be a kangaroo, and as much as she’d been told by all and sundry what pests they were to farmers, she hadn’t yet seen one except at Sydney’s Taronga Park Zoo, and she very much wanted to meet one where it was supposed to be. ‘Hello there!’ she called out, as if a kangaroo might answer her, and she laughed at herself then, muttering, ‘Who’s mentally disordered?’ just as she saw it wasn’t a kangaroo at all, but a man. She stood there, broom in hand, as he stepped out from the bushes. A brown-skinned man in grey shirt and khaki trousers; broad shoulders and a wave of thick black hair brushed back from his face. He looked like an Indian soldier she’d once treated for a bullet gash to the wrist, behind the lines at Neuve Chapelle. She blinked again, but the man remained.

Stave VI

NEXT WEEK IN ORANGE CITY LIFE

Sunshine was first published 2019 by Jazz Monkey Publications, copyright © Kim Kelly 2019. The moral right of the author has been asserted. This edition for Orange City Life is publ ished with permission of the author. Some phra ses and words have been altered from the original, for a general audience. All rights reserved. No part of this publ ication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any mea ns, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author. The characters in this book are fictit ious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

OCLifeTHUMBS SHOW US YOUR THUMBS!—SMS: 0459 022 084 STANDARD SMS RATES APPLY // EMAIL: RECEPTION@OCLIFE.COM.AU // FACEBOOK: INBOX ‘ORANGE CITY LIFE’

BIG THUMBS UP to Rhonda at Kmart Orange for helping out two good looking roosters who can’t cook. Rhonda showed us a range of different cooking machines in-store so our bellies are now full. Thankyou Rhonda. THUMBS UP to Bruce, Jo and especially Jake at The Door Store for honest advice and expert installation of our new roller door. We highly recommend them to anyone in the area considering a new garage door. THUMBS UP to the Belle Armoire Boutique. I ordered a pair of shoes online and it was hand delivered next day for free with a lovely thankyou card for supporting them at this time. THUMBS DOWN to whoever in their wisdom decided to fence off the March St netball courts. One of a few safe places to take the kids and still have enough room to do social distancing while enjoying a ride on their bike and playing netball and basketball. I Understand there is work happening at the courts but surely this could have waited, the safety of our children at such a horrible time is more important. THUMBS UP to Newcrest Mining for supporting the team in the Medical Ward of Orange Health Service by supplying delicious meals provided by Delish. It has made the staff feel appreciated for all their hard work during this difficult time. THUMBS UP to Rachelle at Orange Real Estate for going above and beyond in securing us a suitable tenant for our rental property. We really appreciate your dedication. Thank you.

A HUGE THUMBS UP to the person who attached a laminated sign to a tree in Moulder Park opposite Lamrock Ave that read “HELLO BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE OF THE WORLD.”

THUMBS UP to Annette for giving all Blayney Retirement Village residents an “egg roll” for Easter, i.e. Two toilet rolls wrapped up with an Easter Egg. Precious act from a precious Gal!

THUMBS UP to everyone for cooperatively sharing exercise areas such as bike paths and Gosling Creek etc. Special thumbs up to motorists for their patience with the many people new to recreational cycling.

HUGE THUMBS UP to all the staff at Wontama Village. Caring for our loved ones ensuring their safety. It’s hard with the restrictions but appreciate all the care you provide. You need more acknowledgement. Thank you.

THUMBS UP As a very busy medical practice in Orange, we would like to send a HUGE Thumbs Up to Orange City Life for the fantastic Certificate of Appreciation and the incredibly generous gesture made to our centre. Our team, like all medical teams in Orange, have been sustaining incredible pressure in the past weeks/months, and your appreciation could not have come at a better time, as we really needed a boost! Your generosity and kind gesture has gone a long way to increase our morale and remind us of the kindness that abounds in our community. Thank you! EDITOR: From our team to yours, you’re very welcome!

THUMBS DOWN to the man seen coughing everywhere in a local shopping centre. At least cover your mouth, inconsiderate person.

BIG THUMBS UP for all person’s looking after us from a safe distance, due to the worry of catching COVID-19, and to the many people I know who are at home with no access to any computer, family, friends, Facebook or Google. We are all hoping to get past the letterbox one day. Big hugs to you all!

THUMBS UP to the two Council workers seen collecting litter on the Northern Distributor 22/4. It’s a shame people are so inconsiderate by tossing their rubbish on our roads. THUMBS UP to Susan from Friends of Orange Botanic Gardens for organizing the donations and distribution of 100’s of native trees to land farmers through Landcare. The trees were grown for the recently cancelled Autumn Sale but have now found new homes and can take advantage of ideal growing conditions.

A BIG THUMBS UP to Orange City Council and its wonderful Live Better and Choices at Home programs and the fabulous staff that implement them. In particular, Gabrielle who runs the monthly Live Better Seminars which give us oldies the latest advice and information to help us navigate life, and Fiona and Jodhi with the Choices at Home weekly bus trips which are such great fun. These women are always smiling and helpful and just so patient with us. Despite the current close down, they still keep in touch with emails and phone calls, to ensure we are ok. I can’t thank them enough.

THE THUMBS REPRESENT THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS OF READERS AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THOSE OF ORANGE CITY LIFE STAFF. EVERY CARE IS TAKEN NOT TO PUBLISH THUMBS THAT ARE CONSIDERED DEROGATORY OR DEFAMATORY IN NATURE

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Available from online https://www.pioneerbrewing.com.au/shop/ Or at Orange Cellars, D’Aquino Liquor store and Lane Cellars.

PIONEER BREWING CO. 339 SOUTH BOWAN PARK RD BOWAN PARK WWW.PIONEERBREWING.COM.AU 30 APRIL — 6 MAY , 2020 39

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