Illawarra Grevillea Park
Surf Clubs open up
From 10am-4pm on Saturday, visit your local club
Surf Life Saving Illawarra clubs – 17 in total from Helensburgh Stanwell Park in the north to Windang in the south – will be opening their clubs for the public to come along and meet our volunteer lifesavers.
The open day will be held on Saturday 14 September from 10am to 1pm – so while you are out voting at the local Council elections, pop in and say hello.
The local surf clubs are –Helensburgh Stanwell Park, Coalcliff, Scarborough-Wombarra, Coledale, Austinmer, Thirroul, Sandon Point, Bulli, Woonona, Bellambi, Corrimal, Towradgi, Fairy Meadow, North Wollongong, Wollongong City, Port Kembla and Windang.
All these clubs are looking for new members, from ages 5-13 for Nippers to Youth Members (ages 13-18 can qualify to patrol beaches) to adults, who can volunteer in many roles including patrolling, committee, BBQ, managing nipper groups. 14 Sept
Sculptures return to Shell Cove
Look out for Hungry Egret and more at the marina
The Shell Cove PromenART Sculpture Walk is back for another year with an expanded display of works along the Shellharbour Marina at the Waterfront, Shell Cove until October 30.
The trail presented by ARTPark will wind along the Shellharbour Marina and its pathways and boardwalks. Each will include a QR code link to information about the piece.
Many of the pieces were chosen to reflect the oceanside location of Shell Cove. Three works from Mela Cooke’s The Swimmers series of bronzes depicting women getting ready to take the plunge will be on display, along with Tobias Bennett’s 4.5m steel pipe Hungry Egret (pictured), the show’s tallest piece.
The show’s most valuable piece is Michael Van Dam’s 900kg stainless steel and chain Earth’s Custodian, priced at $224,000, but the pieces start at $8890 for Andrew Kasper’s 105kg 195cm weathered steel Fire work. All works are for sale, visit www.promenart.com.au
Day 15 Sept Clothes Swap Party 5-15 Sept
Mousetrap Until 29 Sept Rhododendron and Rainforest Gardens - Spring Showcase 16 Sept Heathcote Social Media Forum
19 Sept
NSW Leads the Charge: Wollongong
20-22 Sept Folk by the Sea
21 Sept Choral Riffs
23 Sept Tognetti. Mendelssohn. Bach.
26 Sept
The Women’s Adventure Film Tour 2024 Click here for more events
Meet an Artist of the Illawarra
By Melissa Barnard
“My work is predominantly landscape-based and generally representational in style.”
– David Manks
Muchof David Manks’s work is based on the environment within the Illawarra region. Although his work is regional in character and subject matter, he states his intention is “to express and explore a variety of issues that go beyond a localised context.” He explores the landscape, “often focusing on the sublime in an attempt to discover truth with respect to location, and an ethereal interpretation of place, rather than just a pictorial representation.”
Where do you draw inspiration?
From the world around me. To put it simply, it is where I live in the Northern Illawarra and other places that I have lived in the past or visited regularly that inspire me in my art work.
How do your art practice and your life intersect?
Art, and particularly painting, has always been a big part of my life. For me, life and art are one and the same. It helps me stay focused in my life and gives me a true sense of purpose doing something I love.
style. Observational studies and developed drawings are important to me and are an integral to my approach to painting. I have explored abstraction at various times in the past, but I often tend to prefer a type of balancing act between the two, combined with a little ‘artistic license’, to better determine suitable compositions and formats in painting and to avoid a literal or ‘picturesque’ interpretation of the subject matter. It is my intention to create a sense of ‘place’ in my work by reducing and deconstructing the subject matter to give the viewer not just a visual memory, but an evocative sense of being there and experiencing that place.
What do you enjoy about the Scarborough Art Show?
I have exhibited at the Scarborough Art Show continuously for several years. The show has continued to grow enormously in popularity and the way it is organised and managed is second to none. What I like about the show is that it gives artists the opportunity to show their work to the public and meet and socialise at a wonderful event.
The Scarborough Art Show website
Can you tell us a little about your personal artistic journey. My work is predominantly landscapebased and generally representational in
Scarborough Art Show will be back at Scarborough Public School on October 12th (10am5pm) & 13th (10am-2pm).
How the Fancy Ride turned out
By Genevieve Swart
“One creative woman wore an enormous wig that completely concealed her bike helmet, plus an outrageous white pantsuit. And a team of four women sported matching red tutus.”
– Emma Rooksby
Bikes with bling, matching tutus and velvet frocks were all part of the fun at Wollongong’s first Fancy Women’s Bicycle Ride on September 1. Thanks to Fancy Rider Emma Rooksby (who regular readers will know from her weekly Growing Illawarra Natives column) for taking the time to tell us more.
Why did you join the Fancy Women’s Bike ride?
To be part of a fun day showcasing bike riding for and by women. The event was designed for women and their allies to reclaim public spaces, and to challenge societal norms and expectations around bike riding. Too often cycling is associated with competitive racing or endurance sports, and more broadly with men. With a focus on slow and social riding, this event promoted cycling as a sustainable way to travel around town or commute, and just for having fun together.
As Australia’s only UCI bike city, Wollongong has improved its active transport infrastructure, such as separated bike lanes, and it was great to highlight those new lanes with a big, colourful ride. We even attracted a couple of additional riders to join us along the way.
What did you wear to be fancy?
A long black velvet dress and a velvet neckband. But I was probably the least fancy person there!
What outfits caught your eye?
There were around 50 fancy riders, with amazing colourful costumes, streamers in their hair and bling on their bikes. One creative woman wore an enormous wig that completely concealed her bike helmet, plus an outrageous white pantsuit. And a team of four women sported matching red tutus. Bikes were festooned with flowers and ribbons, and I think I spotted a papier-mâché mask on someone’s handlebars.
I was really struck by the diversity of riders, with people aged in their 70s down to young kids. Also, there was a large amount of velvet on display – I wasn’t the only one wearing it!
Where did you ride to, and what was the traffic like?
The ride started at the University of Wollongong and led via shared paths or separated cycleways through Gwynneville to Belmore Basin in North Wollongong. Most of the way we didn’t really need to worry about traffic, apart from the occasional road crossing. That changed when we reached Cliff
Road and did a ‘victory lap’ of Flagstaff Hill. With no bike path available and lots of weekend traffic congestion, the safest way to ride was to ‘claim the road’ and ride two across.
This was great fun and very empowering, and passers-by seemed to enjoy the spectacle.
Funniest moment on the road?
There was lots of laughter along the way, but for me the most memorable moment was seeing the excited curiosity on the faces of young kids as they watched us riding along Cliff Road, dinging our bells as we went.
How did you celebrate after the ride?
We finished with live music at the Basin Cafe and lots of prizes for the fanciest people, teams and bikes. The tickets covered the cost of a hot drink and many people brought picnics, so the lawn at
Osborne Park was full and very colourful!
Do you think this will be a regular event?
Absolutely! The Fancy Women’s Bike Ride was established in Turkey in 2013, to promote World Car-free Day, and has since spread as an annual event to 25 countries and hundreds of cities. The Illawarra Bike Users Group (or iBUG), which organised this ride in Wollongong, is already thinking about an annual fancy ride.
How can we join in?
Joining iBUG is a start, and it only costs $5 a year. Of course, fancy dress – for you and your bike – is also important and means you’ll have a chance to win a prize. So start looking around for a suitable outfit and some bling for your bike. Then keep an eye out for details from the middle of next year.
Stanny playground
By Wollongong City Council
IBUG
Illawarra Bicycle Users Group advocates for cycling to be the most attractive and inclusive mode of transport for everyone and helps to increase participation in cycling. More info: ibug.org.au
A brand-new Stanwell Park Playground is set to be a hit this summer, with the newly constructed site officially unveiled on Wednesday.
The new playground has a tower and tube slide, inground trampoline and spinning carousel and an accessible nest swing.
Kids under five will also enjoy a pint-sized climbing fort, while the climbing net meets a key request from children at Stanwell Park Public School and Stanwell Park Pre-school.
The new site was opened next to a Nature Play space made possible by a $40,000 injection via a NSW Government grant.
An intended throwback to times when kids would play outside in a natural environment, these spaces facilitate an exploration of nature, while encouraging curiosity, creativity, emotional resilience and enhancing children’s wellbeing.
The first of its kind created in the Wollongong Local Government Area, Nature Play spaces invite children to find their own way to play and enjoy time with their friends away from the structure of modular play equipment.
Local History Prize winners add to story of our city
By Genevieve Swart
Bulligrandmother and masters
student Marilyn Hood has won the $3000 Local History Prize for her essay Loss, bereavement and memory –Wollongong’s Cenotaph – 100 years on
Second prize went to Thirroul’s John Corker, a retired lawyer who received $1500 for his report, The Valentine’s Day Blockade Bulli, NSW, Thursday 14
February 2002: An Historical Account
The prizes were announced at a ceremony at Wollongong Library on Monday night, with judges praising both essays as “outstanding” additions to the story of our city.
Marilyn said she was “just gobsmacked” and couldn’t wait to share her good news. “This project started as an assignment for my masters that I’m
completing through University of England,” she said after the ceremony.
“The first thing I’m going to do tomorrow is ring my tutor up at UE and say, ‘look, look what we’ve got’. Because he was terrific, giving positive criticism on the original work.”
Marilyn started working for a bank at age 14 and spent most of her career in administration, but has embraced tertiary education in retirement. At age 68, inspired by her three children, she began a Bachelor of Arts and is now studying a masters in history.
“I’d really encourage anyone in the same situation to have a crack at it, because I found the experience one of the most fulfilling and joyous, apart from giving birth to my children,” she said.
L to R: Local Studies librarian Jo Oliver, Marilyn Hood, John Corker and Jessica Bruce, Wollongong City Libraries Manager
“It’s just been wonderful, really. And the report itself was a labour of love.”
Marilyn’s piece started as an exploration of death, dying and changing funeral practices, then evolved into a history of the people behind the Cenotaph, Wollongong’s Great War Memorial Arch, which today stands in MacCabe Park. She looked at how private mourning – including for the ‘unburied dead’ of Gallipoli – was channelled into constructive grieving and public commemoration. Her 6000-word essay took about three months of research and she is especially proud to have acknowledged the committee behind the sandstone cenotaph’s construction.
“They’re now on the record having contributed. I thought that was important actually,” Marilyn said. “Everybody talks about the memorial, what it means, but nobody ever got down to who did what to get it done.
“My reading of the literature that’s held here, no one had done that.”
Like many students, Marilyn has a practical use for her prize money.
“It’s going towards paying down some HECS debt,” she said.
Publisher required
For the past 10 years, John Corker has been working on a local history book. His winning essay is actually chapter two of that book.
“I thought that if I pop it into this history prize and I’ve got some profile, it
might help me find a publisher for the book,” John said. “And maybe even if I was lucky enough to win some money, maybe I could hire a research assistant.
“So now looking for a publisher and a research assistant.”
The leader of Wollongong’s Yes23 campaign, John spent has much of his 40-year career fighting for human rights, from working for Aboriginal Legal Aid in 1980s Alice Springs to leading the Australian Pro Bono Centre.
After living in Central Australia for 10 years, John and his wife moved to the Illawarra in 2000 and soon added their voices to the campaign to stop a Stockland development at Sandon Point.
“We were very involved in the community picket and I was particularly involved with the Aboriginal Tent Embassy,” John said. “The community picket at Sandon Point was said in Parliament to be Australia’s longest standing, fully staffed picket, 24/7. For about four and a half or five years, that picket had someone in it … People slept there … It was firebombed a few times.”
John’s essay tells of a momentous day, 14 February 2002, when protestors held hands and chained themselves to vehicles to stop the earth movers coming in. “This chapter details the day when we got the injunction and all the bulldozers had to roll out of the site,” John said.
“It’s a good read primarily because a lot of the people that were there, I’ve done extensive interviews with. So a lot of firsthand accounts.”
“Everybody talks about the memorial, what it means, but nobody ever got down to who did what to get it done.”
– Local History Prize winner
Marilyn Hood
Dry times call for tough ferns
By Emma Rooksby of Growing Illawarra Natives
“This little Cheilanthes sieberi has settled in well on a north-facing rocky slope where it gets sprinkles of water from the bird bath nearby. Here’s hoping it thrives in its new home”
Photos by Emma Rooksby
Thecurrent dry, warm and often windy weather is a huge change from the rains that dominated most of the past four years. It’s been a bit of a shock to gardens, parks and natural areas, and many places are looking dry, with lots of fallen leaves littering the ground.
One group of plants looking much less happy than before is the ferns, with everything from tall tree ferns to the smallest ferns like Necklace Fern (Asplenium flabellifolium) drying out, losing fronds and decreasing in size.
Ferns can cope with prolonged dryness, and many can reshoot from underground rhizomes well after the foliage above ground has died off. One classic in this genre are the Cheilanthes, also known as Rock Ferns or Cloak Ferns, depending on the species. These are some of the toughest ferns around.
Some of our local Cheilanthes can cope in poor soils, on rocky outcrops and with relatively high light levels. You can see them in Croom Reserve in Albion Park, on the sandy sandstone-derived soils of the area, and at Wiseman Park in Gwynneville, where they can be hard to spot among taller ferns and grasses.
They are a mixture of lacy-looking and wiry-looking, with narrow dark brown or black stipes (frond stems –these are the wiry bit) and 2- or 3-pinnate fronds, meaning that the frond lamina divides two or more times (which
contributes to the lacy appearance).
There are actually three species of Cheilanthes that occur naturally in the Illawarra region: Rock Fern Cheilanthes austrotenuifolia, Cheilanthes distans (Bristly Cloak Fern), and Cheilanthes sieberi (no common name, but let’s call it something like Dainty Rock Fern or Slender Cloak Fern!) The three species look fairly similar but can be distinguished with attention to detail. The fronds of Rock Fern are broader (at 3cm to 10cm in width), while the other two have fronds that are generally less than 3cm wide.
Rock Fern has an adaptation that allows it to cope with harsh dry summer conditions; the above-ground portion of the plant will usually die off, then resprout again when autumn comes. This means that if you grow it in your garden, you need to treat it the same as a bulb, and make sure you mark the spot where it’s growing while it’s present.
These species can be hard to obtain, but Sutherland Shire Community Nursery has had Rock Fern in stock, which was a source of great excitement to me. As it’s my first time with a cultivated Cheilanthes fern, I don’t have any first-hand experience to share yet, but it’s settled in well on a rocky part-sun slope where it gets a few splashes from a bird bath. If I never mention it again, you can assume the worst!
Flame fundraiser for Need a Feed
10th Biz
Birthday Event raised $500 for local charity
Atthe Illawarra Flame’s 10th Biz Birthday party at Coledale RSL last Friday, guest of honour Maryanne Stuart, the Member for Heathcote, congratulated the entire team behind the independent publication, which is run, written and read by locals.
“Your work has not only kept community news alive but has also enriched our lives in ways that words alone cannot fully capture,” she said.
Named after a beautiful native tree, the Flame is more than just a news outlet, Maryanne said. “It has become a symbol of our community’s resilience, creativity and shared values.
“In an era where local news is increasingly under threat, the Illawarra Flame has defied the odds.
“It has weathered the storms of changing technology, rising costs, and
even a global pandemic. Yet, through it all, the Flame has remained steadfast, continuing to deliver trusted and engaging news to the community.
“The Flame has survived and thrived because of the dedication and passion of its owners – Genevieve and Marcus. Their commitment to local news, to mentoring the next generation of storytellers, and to ensuring that our stories are told is something we all should cherish and support.”
Genevieve Swart and Marcus Craft are journalists who have worked at newspapers and magazines in Sydney, London and Cape Town.
Genevieve said a decade has flown by, as a project that began as a way to fill in the hours while the kids were at preschool has become a full-time job.
“We always tell people that this is the
“[With a food truck] we can meet people where they are, physically and mentally, and we can keep making a difference in the Illawarra.”
– Need a Feed CEO Shaz Harrison
magazine the community made. And it really is,” she said.
“Each month is like doing a 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle and every piece is essential.”
Genevieve paid special tribute to the magazine’s advertising partners.
“Our magazine is almost entirely funded by advertising income from local businesses,” she said.
“Many of these are family businesses like our own. Some of them have been advertising with us for a decade, month in, month out, come Covid, come cost-of-living crisis.
“So today, I’d like to thank all of these business for their constant support. We would not be here without you.”
About 25 people, including local leaders in business, charity and the arts, attended the birthday event. Fittingly for a magazine the community made, the Flame’s anniversary event was held at Coledale RSL, the club the community supports with a roster of dedicated volunteers.
The event doubled as a fundraiser for Need a Feed, raising a total of $540 for the local charity.
Need a Feed is dealing with a surge in demand, with more than 1500 people
sleeping rough each night in the region, CEO Shaz Harrison said.
For people who are struggling, Shaz said that Need a Feed provides much more than food. “It’s really important to share a meal with someone,” she said. “It increases your confidence, it can have a positive impact on your mental health and wellness, you feel a part of something.
“What we do at Need a Feed is we open up a safe space to share a meal, and it has made such a difference. Everyone feels so comfortable and safe.
“There are so many stories from the positive impacts we are having on people’s lives. The money from today will go towards our food truck.”
The food truck is needed to help Shaz reach even more people.
“There is so much need, but it’s hard to get them to where we are. [With a food truck] we can meet people where they are, physically and mentally, and we can keep making a difference in the Illawarra.”
The Flame’s $540 donation was a small start to a fund-raising goal of $97,000. To help Need a Feed, including to sponsor a Breakfast Buddies event, visit the website.
McGill wins Athlete of the Year
By Zachary Houtenville
Above: Athlete Leadership Award winner Marci Davis-Cook.
Photos: Josh Brightman/ Balanced Image Studio.
Steeplechase star Nicholas McGill has been named the Illawarra Academy of Sport (IAS) Athlete of the Year.
Nicholas accepted the 2024 DRB Group Tobin Family Award at the IAS presentation night on September 9 to cap off what has been a milestone year for the track and field athlete, including state and national championship victories. He received $10,000 as part of the Athlete of the Year Award package. He was also named IAS Future Stars Athlete of the Year.
The IAS has been a cornerstone for athletes in the region, providing scholarships and opportunities that offer a path to greatness. This not-for-profit’s track record includes stand-out athletes, such as hockey star Blake Govers, hurdler Sarah Carli, and Australia’s most decorated Olympian, swimmer Emma McKeon.
One of Australia’s most successful Olympic cyclists, Brad McGee, made a special appearance at the event.
“The IAS relies on the support of the community and we are lucky to have had great support for almost 40 years,” said Salv Carmusciano, CEO of the IAS.
Established in 2002, the DRB Group Tobin Family Award for the IAS Athlete of the Year honours an athlete for outstanding performance on and off the field. It also recognises the lasting
contributions of the Tobin family to the academy, particularly the late Ted Tobin.
“My father knew that being involved in sport provided many opportunities that were difficult to find elsewhere,” Ian Tobin said at the event.
“He instilled in my family a love of sport and urged us to learn from the experiences that being involved in sport can bring with it.”
Snowboard cross athlete Marci Davis-Cook won the DRB Group Athlete Leadership Award. Earlier this year the year 11 student became the youngest woman to represent Australia at the Snowboard Cross Junior World Championships in Georgia.
Also recognised were Para Athlete of the Year Jack Gibson (swimming/ triathlon), Indigenous Athlete of the Year Abbey Giltrow (netball), Alina Pasakarnis (basketball), Lucy Allen (cycling road/track), Isaac Baez (cycling BMX), Callum Crofts (cycling mountain bike riding), Zac Oyston (golf), Destiny Ferguson (hockey), Isla Waterhouse (netball), Makayla Henderson (netball umpire), Jake Barritt (triathlon) and Lewis Ebdon (volleyball).
“The award-winners are simply the best of the best,” said Salv.
“Those individuals have had an outstanding year and are truly on the pathway to excellence.”
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SAT 5 OCT, 1-10PM•ALL
MAIN
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STAGE: MAT McHUGH
THE STRIDES • AZURE RYDER • RUBY JACKSON • CIRCADIA
ILE ILU • FRANK SULTANA • THE GROOVE • KUGANG DJARMBI
ROVING: CURIOUS LEGENDS • JERRY HATRICKS • STREET BEATZ
PLUS: LIGHT PROJECTIONS • ART EXHIBITION • MAKERS MARKETS
FOOD STALLS • MARKET DJ'S: DISCO NONNA SULTANS OF SPIN • CHELSEY DAGGER
Presented by Wollongong City Council. Proudly funded by the NSW Government. In partnership with Port Kembla Chamber of Commerce. With support from Illuminart.
Church calls on community to help restore Bulli landmark
By Zachary Houtenville
NorthernIllawarra Uniting Church congregants have launched a major fundraising campaign to restore the historic ‘Chapel on the Hill’ at Bulli.
Last week church members hosted a tour to show where repairs are needed in the nearly 160-year-old building.
“The purpose of this restoration is to really give help and hope to people in the community,” said church minister and campaign spokesperson Reverend Josh McPaul.
“We want it to be an outreach for the whole community.”
The church’s history
In the early 1860s, Bulli residents didn’t have a church for their small congregation of about 25 people, led by
Rev James Somerville. They met in a temporary chapel, which was just a barn adjoining William Somerville’s home at the time.
When the Bulli coal mine opened in June 1863, more people moved to the area and the congregation at the makeshift place of worship grew. They chose to build a chapel at the hilltop site and, after a few years of construction, it opened on May 7, 1865.
Bulli’s Wesleyan chapel has remained a cornerstone of the community. It has hosted funerals, baptisms and weddings for people from all walks of life, and even rang its bell to celebrate the end of World War I. Some of its stained-glass windows serve as memorials to community members, such as Thomas Danks, a
teenager who drowned in 1912.
“The church is always looming or just sitting there in a way, kind of like grandma, looking over the township,” said Will Tibben, chairman of the church’s restoration committee.
What needs restoring
The church has stood the test of time, only needing a few repairs through the years. However, due to the clay soil beneath the building, the west wall has slowly drifted apart, evident by the crack in the front facade. To prepare the building for the next 150 years, the committee would also like to restain the windows, restore the bell tower and repoint the bricks.
“The goal is not to change the facade – it’s going to look just as it has for 165 years,” Josh said.
“We’re going to put some new heating and stuff inside to make it a little bit more comfortable but as a whole, from the outside, it’s just going to look like grandma got a facelift.”
The biggest challenge is funding – the restoration project is tipped to cost $650,000.
Two-thirds of that amount have hopefully already been covered, with one-third coming from the church’s savings and the rest from potential grants and public funds. The church is now asking the community to help raise the final third, with a target of $200,000.
“Our church has never done a big fundraising campaign,” Josh said.
“We feel like that’s a challenge but it’s definitely one that we feel like we can pull together.”
The good news is the church has already raised $100,000 in community donations.
The chapel is on the National Trust Register, so all donations are taxdeductible and directly support the restoration.
“Every dollar that gets spent will directly go into the restoration of the church,” Will said.
What’s next
The church plans to reopen as a community hub after the restoration, hopefully by February next year.
“I think there’s the public safety aspect, in terms of the more practical concern for us in the here and now,” Will said. “We want to be able to use the building.”
They are committed to continuing their work with organisations such as Baby Sensory Illawarra and local charity Need a Feed, which is based at the church and holds a community lunch there every Thursday.
The church would also like to host music events, such as Illawarra Folk Festival gigs, arts and crafts displays, and open their doors for prayer during the week.
“Most of the time those doors there are closed,” Josh said.
“I think our dream is that people drive by and see those doors open.”
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“Due to the clay soil beneath the building, the west wall has slowly drifted apart, evident by the crack in the front facade.”
Protect your pets: Lots of paralysis ticks expected
By Oguzhan Dincsoy
“We usually see more ticks in warmer weather”
–
Dr Lara Vickery, of Companion Animal Veterinary Hospital Dapto
Illawarravets have warned pet owners to be on the lookout for paralysis ticks.
Warmer temperatures have arrived and so have potentially deadly paralysis ticks, with vets already finding the parasites on local pets.
“We had a very sad case recently,” said Dr Matthew O’Donnell of Northern Illawarra Veterinary Hospital.
Matt said a tick had been found on a dog but the dog seemed fine, so the owners decided against the recommended treatment. “Sadly, the dog the next day was so sick they were forced to consider euthanasia because their dog was suffering.”
Tick paralysis is an “awful disease to treat”, said Matt, who has been a vet for 30 years and helped establish the Northern Illawarra Veterinary Hospital seven years ago.
“We don’t want to see pets struggling to breathe,” he said. “And if you do find ticks, please get them [the pets] checked out and don’t assume everything is going to be fine just by removing the tick.”
Matt said Illawarra residents should expect a lot of ticks this season.
“The previous summer affects the tick season the following year,” he said.
“So if you had a really hot summer, the ticks die and you get less ticks the next spring, or if the summer was mild or wet you get more ticks.”
Early treatment is vital Dr Lara Vickery, of Companion Animal Veterinary Hospital Dapto, has also seen early cases of paralysis ticks.
“We usually see more ticks in warmer weather,” she said.
“We had a Jack Russell Terrier come earlier this year that had wobbly legs and we found the paralysis tick and gave the anti-serum and some sedation to help keep it calm.
“It is good that people are coming in and getting their pets checked, even if they have removed the tick themselves at home, for us to then confirm if it is a paralysis tick.
“Early treatment is very important and removing the tick early as you can, so it can’t release its toxin as much.”
The Australian Paralysis Tick is found along the east coast. “They are fairly lethal – they only need to be attached for three days to start seeing signs of paralysis in your pet,” Lara said. “It’s really awful to watch and a lot of animals end up on respirators or will die.”
Tick prevention treatments include chews, topical applications such as spot-ons, and even an annual injection.
Lara also recommends checking your dog daily. “Even local parks or anytime you go for walks around bushland or long grass, it’s important to daily check your dog for ticks.”
Photos: Northern Illawarra Veterinary Hospital,
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f r o m T h i r r o u l - W o l l o n g o n g a n d a r e c a p a b l e i n a s s i s t i n g o u r
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Jonathan Weiss: Creating worlds without limits
By Amanda De George
“On a surface level, just think about it like it’s Mad Max with magic.”
Asa child, local sci-fi/fantasy author Jonathan Weiss liked to make things. He’d spend hours rifling through the family’s Lego collection looking for pieces to build a contraption he hadn’t yet fully visualised. And while there was a certain satisfaction in creating, Jonathan soon discovered that building in the real world came with restrictions.
“The funny thing about that is that I often never really finished building those things,” he said.
“There were always limitations about a physical form like that. There were only so many pieces and so much I could do with them.”
It wasn’t until he started writing at age 15 that Jonathan finally found a medium without the restrictions that the physical
world imposed. He said, “Despite the story I was writing being the usual flawed work that every writer starts with, I still loved the process of it. The scope, the stakes, everything was limitless, and it was in my control…”
And the scope that he works with now is huge. Jonathan’s action-packed novels are set within The Droughtlands, a setting that has been swirling around in his mind for about 10 years, and that he describes as “a world of endless deserts, buried and forgotten skyscrapers, and the incomprehensible magic hidden within them. On a surface level, just think about it like it’s Mad Max with magic”.
He said, “It took me quite a long time to really nail down and define the
characteristics of a world that was so intent on escaping definition.”
There are currently five books set in this vast world, with more planned. What’s particularly fun, and a nod once again to the shirking of limits that Jonathan relishes, is that the books can be read in any order. Want to read one book and then follow that with another from a different series set within The Droughtlands? No problem.
There’s even a handy reading guide on Jonathan’s Facebook page, where he sets out which books to read first if you wanted to read them in chronological, publishing or conception order. Kind of like a grown-up version of a chooseyour-own-adventure but with hidden easter eggs woven throughout the story.
This jumping between books works because it’s also the way that Jonathan writes them.
“While I would’ve liked to have finished one series before starting another, that’s not how my brain, or how my releasing process, works. Switching between series is how I get time to let ideas brew, come back to sequels nice and fresh, and further flesh out the world without painting myself into a corner.
“People really DO judge books by their covers, so make sure to do your research into the genre of book you’re looking to put out... it makes a world of difference in making your story stand out.
“My covers are so vibrantly orange that they work like a super-powered
magnet when people see them in person.”
Self-publishing has allowed Jonathan control over what he writes and when he writes and releases it. It’s this control which has really enabled the expansion of this world without limits, allowing it to change and grow as Jonathan sees fit.
“The Droughtlands is a unique prospect that I realised was unlikely to be picked up by traditional publishers,” he said.
“Add in to that my writing method of bouncing between series, the worry that a traditional publisher could pull the plug on a series if they felt it wasn’t selling well enough and the inevitable battles that I’d need to fight with editors to keep my vision true to what I want it to be, and it made perfect sense to self-publish.”
It’s also allowed him to lean into the science fiction and fantasy aspects of the post-apocalyptic settings, once again when and how he chooses.
“Science fiction asks what could be possible. Fantasy asks what’s impossible,” he said. “Even then, I still view the two as one and the same. There’s an old adage about sufficiently advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic, and I believe the inverse is also true, and that’s the approach I take to my books.”
You can find all the latest on The Droughtlands at Facebook, Instagram and shop for Jonathan’s books here. There’s currently 20% off when you purchase all five released novels.
“My covers are so vibrantly orange that they work like a super-powered magnet when people see them in person.”
– Jonathan Weiss
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