Merrigong
Comedy Festival
Wollongong’s annual event is back for round three
Meet ‘The Queen of Oversharing’, Diana McLaren, at Wollongong’s Side Door Theatre tonight as part of the city’s third annual Comedy Festival. Her new show ‘Diana McLaren is Defective’ focuses on mental health, dysfunctional families, what does it really means to be an adult and what the hell is going on in this world.
Also on tonight is Thao Thanh
Pride Night
At Wollongong Library
From 5-8pm tonight, head over to Wollongong Library for an exclusive event after hours to celebrate Pride Month!
Get ready for a fun-filled evening with activities, such as rainbow
Cao’s ‘Confessions of a Comedian’, Tom Witcombe’s ‘White Collar/ Dark Jokes’ and The PowerPoint Power Hour.
With than 20 shows, Wollongong Comedy Festival will keep the laughs coming this weekend and next week from Thursday to Sunday, July 7.
For the full line-up of comedians, visit wollongongcomedyfestival.com
Until July 7
Wollongong Comedy Festival
6-7 July Illawarra Grevillea Park Winter Open Days
13-14 July
South Coast Readers and Writers Festival
14 July
Barefoot Bowls Fundraiser
14 July
Illawarra Folk Club Concert
19-20 July
Kiama Readers’ Festival
polymer clay jewellery workshop, henna tattoo workshop, badgemaking, film screening, and much more. Run in partnership with Wollongong Youth Services, this event is open to members of the LGBTQIA+ community and allies, aged between 12 and 25.
Free. Book your spot via Eventbrite. Drop-ins welcome too.
19-20 July
The Listies: Make Some Noise
15-19 July
Merrigong Creativity CAmp
26 July
Illawarra Police Charity Ball
Click here for more events
June 2024
Your reviews of Reel Music
By Tyneesha Williams
“It’s fantastic to hear this sort of stuff in our hometown, and in a beautiful little venue like this art gallery.”
– Barbara and Glen Rixon
On Saturday, June 22, Steel City Strings brought the music from the movies to life at Wollongong Art Gallery.
The Reel Music soundscape drew on cinematic classics, as well as music for Riptide by local composer John Spence and a Steel City Strings commission by composer Lauren Mercovich. Local concert goers shared their thoughts.
The Kilby Family of Corrimal:
Rumi, John, Hayden, Anya
“We came to see the cinematic scores played tonight and it is also always great to support new missions and see new work, especially on a rainy night in Wollongong – just beautiful to see this music. The kids really liked Pirates of the Caribbean, the fast bits. John thought the original piece was really good.
“It made us realise we need to go back and watch half those films, but especially Rip Tide. People immediately knew Psycho during that set.”
Composer Lauren Mercovich
“I really enjoyed the show. The Psycho
one was just incredible… that’s a classic. I really enjoyed John Spence’s Rip Tide score. It was cool, they’re so professional. It was played with a lot of enthusiasm and expression.”
Barbara and Glen Rixon, of Wollongong
“We’ve been living in Wollongong for 60 years or more, so it’s fantastic to hear this sort of stuff in our hometown, and in a beautiful little venue like this art gallery. It was never designed for concerts, just the old city council chambers, but it’s a wonderful concert venue.
“I liked Psycho. Whether you’ve seen the movie or you haven’t, it scares you. Plus it’s good to see local composers, there’s two here and they were both great too.”
Marie, of Cordeaux Heights
“I am in favour of any sort of classical music. I did classical ballet, and I did it until about 2019 and I’m over 70 … And I’m into theatre and art and I volunteer with the Arcadians theatre group in Corrimal. Theatre… and music was my favourite even as a child when I was growing up.”
The Steel City Strings website
Corrimal captain awarded Australian Fire Service Medal
By Zachary Houtenville
PaulDorin, station commander at 269 Corrimal Fire and Rescue, has been honoured with the highest award a firefighter in this country can receive: the Australian Fire Service Medal (ASFM).
Captain Dorin received the ASFM in recognition of his 32 years in Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) in June as part of the Governor-General’s King’s Birthday 2024 Honours List.
“I’ve been able to achieve a lot of things over the years especially with fire safety and it’s really nice recognition for me to be nominated and to actually have received it,” Paul said.
“The award is a very proud moment for myself but also a proud moment for the Illawarra and its firefighters.”
Paul is also a cartoonist for The Catholic Weekly and has always loved to draw, a talent that runs in the family. Art works well with firefighting, as a creative career gives him the flexibility to also fulfil fire station commitments.
When Paul was 16, he saw Rural Fire Service (RFS) volunteers fighting a bushfire and this moment resonated so much with him that the next week he joined Bulli RFS, where he served for eight years.
“That really sort of inspired me and who I am today, my time spent out there and being mentored by those firefighters,” Paul said.
Paul isn’t the only firefighter in his family; his aunt’s brothers were members of the Corrimal Fire Brigade, and her
“The award is a very proud moment for myself but also a proud moment for the Illawarra and its firefighters.”
– Paul Dorin, Corrimal Fire and Rescue captain
father was once the captain. This family connection inspired Paul to join the Corrimal station at age 23 and he has never looked back.
“Even back then, I was rushing out the door to fire calls as quickly as I am today,” Paul said.
As station commander at Corrimal, today Paul oversees 17 firefighters, managing availability, budgets, timesheets and administrative tasks. He is heavily involved in the community, routinely discussing fire safety, including lithium battery concerns, with people of all ages.
He also still responds to fire calls when needed and credits his crew with making it easy to juggle his diverse responsibilities.
“We’ve got a really fantastic station here and a great, great mix of crew,” Paul said.
“It’s the camaraderie, I think that’s what drives the station to work so well.”
The role has its challenges, including being on call and having to rush out to an emergency incident, which affects his home life.
Fortunately, firefighters look out for each other’s mental health.
“It’s a brotherhood and sisterhood, they become family and you always want to be there for your family,” Paul said.
“At my station they look out for me as well, they can notice a change or something different in me.
“It’s nice that they can feel comfortable approaching me with
something, it could be affecting me from a call or an incident that we attended to.”
Despite the difficulties, the job offers many rewards, from camaraderie to the satisfaction of being able to help people.
“The other biggest achievement is your ability to make someone in the community who is having the worst day of their life and turn up to put them at ease.”
Paul is a strong advocate for fire safety, emphasising the importance of working smoke alarms.
After more than 1100 house fires were reported one winter due to items such as electric blankets and heaters, he started a program connecting disability-care facilities with smoke alarm inspections and promoted the fire brigade’s free home-safety checks.
Paul also helped establish June 1 as Smoke Alarm Action Day, urging people to check their alarms are functional.
“We want everyone to take five minutes out of their day, just to test their smoke alarm to make sure it’s working,” Paul said.
“If you don’t have a working smoke alarm, you should be sleeping with one eye open.
“Statistics are showing us that there’s about 50 percent of people that don’t have a working smoke alarm in their homes and that is something that we really need to get fixed up because they are life-saving devices.”
To find out more about fire safety, follow this link
Putting the fun into Italian
By Cathy Law
Havinghoned their craft at leading restaurants in Sydney and Europe, Cassandra and Matthew Bugeja always knew what sort of place they wanted to open.
Their love child, Ain’t Nonnas at the western end of Market St, recently celebrated its second birthday, having built up an enviable reputation and loyal following despite the tough conditions facing the industry.
VISIT
“We wanted it to be like a mamma and pappa trattoria in Italy, where you feel you are being welcomed into someone’s home,” says Cassie.
“They sit you down, put food on your plate, and share their passion.
“We had a clear vision, we kept with it, and we have found our people.”
The chefs met while working at Justin North’s acclaimed Bécasse restaurant in
2011, and their CVs since then include Bilsons, Quay, Three Blue Ducks and Bourke St Bakery in Australia, and Michelin-starred The Clove Club and top cheap eat Balls & Co in London, as well as stints at leading restaurants in Copenhagen.
Their love of travel has seen them take advantage of every opportunity to have new food experiences, with Italy’s all-embracing food culture winning their hearts.
The dream was always to open a place of their own, and on returning to Australia they gravitated back to the Illawarra (where Cassie grew up) eight years ago.
Biding their time, most notably at Kneading Ruby and the Postmans at Thirroul, they eventually tested their idea of a family trattoria by running the
The Ain’t Nonnas website for opening hours
Cassie and Matt Bugeja. Photos: Cathy Law, supplied
“We wanted it to be like a mamma and pappa trattoria in Italy, where you feel you are being welcomed into someone’s home”
– Cassie Bugeja
kitchen at The Throsby Wine Bar for a year as a pop-up of the Ain’t Nonnas concept.
“We were looking to build our confidence and make sure the brand worked before launching into our own space,” says Cassie.
Originally they were looking for something on Crown or Keira to get more foot traffic, and were expecting to do just nights, but they just couldn’t go past a new space they found in Market Street.
“We added a cafe because we really liked the site with its sunken courtyard, and the owner wanted the ground floor to be activated,” says Cassie.
“Without the success of the pop-up I don’t know if we would have had the confidence to do a space this big, off the main street.”
Instead of a 40-seater dinner venue, they ended up with a space for 70 open six days from morning till night.
“It is a fun challenge and I think the success we have had comes from having so many elements,” says Cassie.
While she manages the front of house with style and warmth, Cassie relishes the time she gets to spend in the kitchen baking focaccia and cakes early in the week.
It is hard not to be envious of nearby office workers who call this their local during the week, given their access to housemade focaccia (Roman pizza style
with toppings such as potato and gorgonzola, and broccoli and fennel) and pasta, and small plates of deliciousness (don’t miss the arancini). Not to mention the cakes and the drawer of tiramisu.
“Our regulars know you can come in and ask for a cabinet sandwich – just say meat or vegetarian and the chefs put on whatever they like,” says Cassie.
Evenings broaden their client base, turning it into a lively dinner venue that regularly serves 80 to 100 people on Fridays and Saturdays.
The open kitchen adds to the atmosphere, with the skill of the small team (often only two chefs) on show.
“Having that interaction, getting to talk to your customers, is part of the fun,” says Matt.
The small but perfectly formed menu changes with the seasons, and the quieter mid-week dinners are more likely to offer specials as the chefs have more time to play.
While the occasional fusion dish makes an appearance, they mostly keep true, in a non-traditional way, to their Italian inspiration.
“We always put little spins on our dishes. That’s why we’re Ain’t Nonnas,” says Cassie.
Try these 3 too
• Kneading Ruby, Wollongong.
• The Iron Yampi, Port Kembla
• Ciro’s Pizza, Thirroul
Prickly but pretty… or pretty but prickly?
By Emma Rooksby of Growing Illawarra Natives
“Bees, flies, butterflies, wasps and moths may all pollinate Leucopogon flowers.”
– Emma Rooksby
Rightnow, a low little prickly shrub, which barely grows past your knee, is putting out tiny narrow white flowers, and doing its best to attract a range of pollinators in this wintry spell.
The Prickly Beard-heath or Leucopogon juniperinus, is an understorey species of wet sclerophyll forest, and is often found in the shade beneath towering Blackbutts (Eucalyptus pilularis), Wollongong Woollybutts (E. saligna x E. botryoides) and Grey Ironbark (E. paniculata). It can be quite common in these situations, particularly in well-drained soils. You can see it in natural areas along the escarpment foothills, such as Alvan Parade Reserve in Mount Pleasant.
A member of the heath (Ericaceae) family, it has several close relatives in the region that share the same tubular flowers, which have hairs inside the flower tube (‘leucopogon’ meaning ‘white beard’ in botanical Latin-speak). It is the smallest local member of the Leucopogon genus.
Small and sharp-leaved, the Prickly Beard-heath is easily overlooked in terms of size and colour. But look closer and
you’ll see its gorgeous leaves are arranged in a beautiful pattern on the stems, resembling that of the branches of a European Fir Tree. (Photo above left, by Leon Fuller.)
Prickly Beard-heath’s flowers are tiny but cute when you get to admire them close up. Below is a stunning close-up by ecologist Dan Clarke that shows the white hairs on the petals, which help distinguish Leucopogon species from other species in the heath (Ericaceae) family.
In terms of pollination, Leucopogon species are known as having ‘unspecialised flowers’, meaning they are not adapted to be pollinated by any particular species or group of pollinators. Bees, flies, butterflies, wasps and moths may all pollinate Leucopogon flowers.
If you’ve got a Prickly Beard-heath flowering near you, it might be an interesting exercise to stake it out and record the species of insect that come to the flowers.
Hover flies are still active at this time of year, despite the chill, and who knows what else is out there doing pollination duty?
FOR SALE: Check out the list of plants for sale at illawarragrevilleapark.com.au
Saturday July 6th and 13th; Sunday July 7th and 14th 10am to 4pm
Come and see one of the largest displays of Australian Native Plants anywhere in NSW. The expansive native display gardens showcase plants from all over Australia Enjoy the rainforest and sensory trail and the newly renovated vine forest walk featuring the giant blackbutt Want advice? – bring your questions and we will do our best to help!
Illawarra Grevillea Park
From ‘work experience kid’ to head of Channel Nine news
By Jeremy Lasek, a former WIN-TV journalist, chief of staff and news director
My immediate impression upon meeting want-to-be journalist
Fiona Dear for the first time was “this really is the keenest work experience kid in the world”.
Fiona was doing voluntary (unpaid) work experience in our WIN Television Wollongong newsroom and from day one she was demonstrating a keenness and willingness to learn you rarely see. She was a sponge, soaking up as much about the news business as she possibly could.
That was 25 years ago, and that same Fiona has just been announced as the new director of News and Current Affairs at Channel Nine, one of the most influential jobs in Australia’s news media business.
Fiona is also the first woman to be appointed to the prestigious position, coming at a time when Nine is under intense scrutiny for its alleged “toxic workplace culture” and the shock resignation of its high profile Chair, former Treasurer Peter Costello, following an altercation at Canberra Airport earlier this month.
That’s not the ideal circumstance to take charge as the new head of news but Fiona says she’s more than ready for the challenges ahead.
The very likeable but very determined Fiona certainly breaks Nine’s decadeslong mould of employing mainly gruff, often intimidating, blokey blokes as their news chiefs.
Let’s wheel back firstly, though, to how
Photos: Nine, supplied
Fiona chose a life embedded in the cutthroat world of the Australia news media.
Having grown up in the sleepy community of Camden, on Sydney’s south-western outskirts, and after completing her schooling at the local primary and high schools, Fiona decided to study arts/history at the University of Wollongong (UOW).
At the end of the course and not quite knowing what to do, she decided to enrol in a new Master of Journalism degree at UOW and she knew immediately she’d found her calling.
“When I was growing up, I saw Jana Wendt (60 Minutes and A Current Affair) on television and I thought to myself, imagine being her. And like Jana, I wanted to tell amazing stories,” Fiona said.
Her next challenge was to get her first break into television.
That’s where we first met. Fiona firstly offered herself up for one week of work experience at the WIN-TV Wollongong newsroom.
While she loved the experience, she recalls “nothing came of it”.
“I was working at Woolworths in the pay office at the time and decided I’d better maintain the relationships I’d already created at WIN and asked if I could do one day’s work experience a week there in the hope it might lead to something,” Fiona said.
I remember how keen, bordering on desperate, Fiona was to get a full-time
reporting position. She’d say to me, “I’ll work absolutely anywhere, I just need a chance.” I’d seen enough of Fiona’s drive and tenacity to know here was someone who’d almost certainly make a success out of a career in journalism.
As luck would have it, within a matter of weeks an opportunity opened up in our Wagga newsroom and I suggested to the chief of staff in Wagga at the time that Fiona would be a great fit for his small team.
Shawn Burns wasn’t easily convinced but he had a chance to meet with Fiona the following weekend when we brought all our reporters together from across our newsrooms in Canberra, Wagga, Orange, Dubbo and Wollongong for promo shoots and some team building in the Wollongong studio.
There wasn’t time for Shawn to meet Fiona before the promo was shot, so I suggested we ask If she’d step into the frame for some of the shoots and then we’d take her out of shot for the rest.
It was super awkward, but Fiona understood the deal. If she and Shawn hit it off and she was offered a job, we’d have her included in the on-air Wagga promo. If she didn’t, well, she’d just have to wait for the next opportunity that came along.
Thankfully, Fiona made a great pitch and a strong first impression and Shawn didn’t hesitate in signing her on. Within a week or two, Fiona’s first stories were going to air in the 6pm Riverina bulletin.
Read more here.
“Fiona is the personification of reward for hard work. She has and always has had exquisite news sense and an innate ability to work within and to lead a team.”
– Shawn Burns, senior lecturer in journalism at UOW
Fancy, free and fibre-fuelled art
By Amanda De George
“There’s so much to explore, including motifs of birds and leaves”
– Amanda De George
Winter is the season of knitting, crochet and sewing. It’s the only time of year when sitting surrounded by hundreds of grams of wool or fabric doesn’t make you a sweltering mess.
It’s also the best time of year to head indoors to enjoy textile-based artworks and Wollongong Art Gallery is currently home to three wonderful, must-see exhibitions. Even better, it’s all free (which means more money to spend on yarn!)
Diana Wood Conroy’s An Archaeology of Woven Tapestry explores 60 years of her work in breathtaking colour and scope. There’s so much to explore here, including motifs of birds and leaves intricately woven into her tapestries, and loops and knots of yarn so exquisitely coloured that I could barely resist reaching out and touching them.
Someone else must have had less success at keeping their hands to themselves as a loud announcement was made, warning visitors to ‘please not touch the artwork’.
I was lucky enough to be wandering around the exhibition as Diana was taking students from a weaving workshop she was running around each piece and listened in as she pointed out
two pieces hanging from the ceiling. While the fronts showed intricately woven detail, the backs of each artwork were also viewable with the tails of the yarn still showing; a different and yet equally beautiful side to the work and a visual reminder of the hours of labour woven into them.
What is held, is here is Michele Elliot’s latest body of work. It is a beautiful exploration of “human frailty, loss and longing”. Each Thursday she holds “a tablecloth and three chairs”, a free sewing circle within the exhibition space where attendees can bring their own work to stitch while Michele discusses one of her works.
With Every Fibre of Our Being consists of textiles from the collection and examines how, “Our many histories, narratives, and ways of being are inextricably woven into the fabric of our very being.” It’s incredibly broad, wonderfully delightful and features everything from traditional fabric printing and embroidery to fluffy clip-on koalas and woven bras.
I left the gallery thoroughly inspired and happy for the rainy day, so I could hunker down and play amongst my yarn.
FREE Talks at Wollongong Art Gallery
Boobie shells: remnants of a spiny life
By Andy Lawrence
WhenI was preparing to write this article, I did a quick google search to check whether “boobie shells” were a thing. The results were populated entirely by sites selling silicone ‘shells’ for collecting breast milk. After perusing the products, I narrowed down the search by adding a single word. Only then did I come across a single reference to boobie-shaped coral on Reddit. So, it turns out boobie shells are something that exist in my mind alone.
Sea urchins are what is known as echinoderms, a group that also includes starfish and sea cucumbers. Being a taxonomist, I love a good Greek root… *cough*, you know, linguistically. Anyway, echinos is the Greek root word meaning spiny and derma means skin. Spiny skin, so original.
Echinoderms, including sea urchins, are recognisable by their five-point radial symmetry. If you don’t believe me, go count the arms on a starfish.
READ MORE
Look out for Andy’s parenting columns on Mondays
Until now, people!
That single word I added to the search was “urchin”. Because boobie shells are not shells at all. Well, at least not ones that contain a mollusc. Instead, they are part of an exoskeleton from a dead sea urchin.
They also have a water vascular system that they use to move around the seafloor. This involves filling and emptying tiny tubes ending in suction pads for grip with water like a hydraulic conveyor belt under the body of the echinoderm. When filled, the tubes push
the creature along then empty again in what looks like a line of inflatable tube men doing the Mexican wave.
In the Illawarra, the most common sea urchin washed up on the shore is the purple sea urchin Heliocidaris erythrogramma, which actually comes in an array of colours from deep purple to pink to green.
This fact once convinced scientists that the different colours corresponded to three different species, not merely colour variations of the same species as is known now.
You might have spotted the remnants of this sea urchin species or another washed up on the shore. Depending on how long the animal has been dead, there might be spines attached or you might be left with the hard exoskeleton that protects the soft internal body of the urchin, called the “test”.
Sea urchin tests can be extremely beautiful and are one of my most coveted ocean treasures, made more precious by their fragility.
Once the animal dies, the connective tissues that hold the spines to the test break down and the spines fall away. The place where each spine joins the test is marked by a small raised bump that
looks for all the world like a tiny marine nipple.
The best find is the rarest of all: an urchin test that has been broken up and now consists solely of two little nipple plates side by side to create a pair of boobs.
I’m a breastfeeding mum and I also have an affinity for finding patterns.
Patterns in nature, in concepts, in behaviour. And there is something oddly satisfying to me about the convergence of evolution that facilitated the development of nipple-like organs in two very different creatures for two very different purposes.
I think it’s beautiful. So much so that I sometimes create art with these shells, borne of a desire to pay tribute to the beauty, strength and consonance of the female form. The form is enduring and beautiful in every facet and purpose, something you might only look to the ocean to realise.
So, here’s to hoping I’ve started a thing. Or at least I hope to create one more search result for people to discover if they happen to find a pair of boobies staring up at them from the sand and are curious enough to want to know what created such a joyous piece of art.
“I sometimes create art with these shells, borne of a desire to pay tribute to the beauty, strength and consonance of the female form”
– Andy Lawrence
Sea urchin tests (above) and boobie shell art celebrating nature and the female body.
Winter Wonder Women gather for solstice swim
By Tyneesha Williams
Last Friday, June 21, the Winter Wonder Women met at Austinmer Pool for a sunset swim to mark the winter solstice. Here’s what a few of the women said about their moonlit dip.
Jen from Wombarra
“Friends were doing the dip tonight and I just thought I’d get stuck in! I’ve actually been in a bit of a funk today, so I thought a dip in cold water will snap me right out of it.
“You never ever regret a dip. We were living overseas, in Canada, in Covid and I’d dip and in winter it’s pretty cold. But all I dreamt about was Wombarra pool. We had a really hard time over there, and I got back and dipped in that water and I was like… I’m home.”
Rani from Thirroul
“I’ve been a part of the Winter Wonder Women for quite a few years now. So I have not missed any of their events, pretty much, if I’m around. I love the buzz and the cleansing feeling from the
cold water and also I love the women in the group. They’re just so happy, fun-loving, accepting and supportive of each other, and they’re from all different ages as well. So it just feels like a really joyous group.”
Cassandra from Coledale
“We swim all year, we’re winter swimmers, we also swim in summer but we’re mainly a winter swimmers group. So we just love getting out in the cold water.”
What do you get out of it?
“Friendship, fun, and it motivates you when it’s cold, keeping you going through winter. It makes you feel so young and vibrant and just very happy. Cold water makes you happy, believe it or not!
“We just live in a beautiful area and I
think we should be grateful for everything – good clean water… I’m just grateful to live here, I love meeting new people. I like people to be happy and all these women… some only started a couple years ago and and they’re absolutely addicted now, just constant.
“And then we’ve grown this friendship and we have these events now, we go away on weekends and go to different pools in different areas and we go out partying and it’s a really connected group.”
Judi from Austinmer
“I’m here for the moonlight swim with the WWWs. It’s just fantastic friendships, mental health and immune system. Just overall health and fun. I’ve always swum, but I only joined this group in 2020. I’m 74 and I’m loving it! The oldest in the group I am!”
“Cold water makes you happy, believe it or not!”
–
Cassandra
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