City Hub 14 June 2018

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JUNE 14, 2018

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city hub 14 JUNE 2018

Developers Eye-Off Oxford St

by John Moyle Oxford Street is still reeling after the City of Sydney recently put three blocks of councilowned prime location retail and commercial premises up for expressions of interest for a 99-year lease.

“It’s effectively selling them off, as 99 years is more than any of our lifetimes,” Councillor Professor Kerryn Phelps said.

The shops and commercial premises occupy 40 per cent of Oxford Street’s northern side between Oxford Square and Taylor Square and currently houses 14500 sqm of retail shops at street level, and start-ups, arts organisations and small businesses in the upper levels.

The three properties are at 56, 76, 82, 106, 110 and 122 Oxford Street.

The expression of interest calls for an experienced operator with a ’strong track record in redeveloping and refurbishing heritage buildings’ in exchange for the lengthy lease.

The Lord Mayor Clover Moore said: “The potential redevelopment of these properties is an exciting opportunity that will provide opportunities for local residents, attract greater numbers of visitors and help boost the local economy.”

The notion that something needed to be done with the premises is nothing new.

“I’ve been campaigning for Council to apply the successful QVB model to our Oxford Street property portfolio since 2012,”City of Sydney Councilor Christine Forster said.

It would be an understatement to say that this section of Oxford Street is in need of some love and an injection of retail knowledge, but when looked at closely, it seems that this call from the City of Sydney is a desperate last minute proposal to rid itself of a problem largely of its own making.

This section of Oxford Street has been in commercial decline since the lock-out laws and has seen many of its iconic gay businesses and food and fashion destinations fold or relocate.

City of Sydney gives Oxford Street away for 99 years. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The three blocks were originally owned by the City of Sydney, transferred to South Sydney Council when it was formed in 1968 and later retuned to the City after a merger in 2004.

Sax Fetish has been located at 110 Oxford Street for around 40 years and its current owner has been renting from City of Sydney for 18 years.

“Decency and modesty would prevent you from publishing what I think of my relationship with the City of Sydney as a tenant,” owner, Sax Fetish, Wayne Nicol said.

“They are the worst landlords that have ever walked the face of the earth.”

This view is common among others who have rented in the area.

Stephan Gyory who owns The Record

Store, located nearby in Goulburn Street said: “Council haven’t renovated their buildings and they have been in limbo for at least the 12 years that I have been in the area.”

Wayne Nicol says that no major maintenance has been done on his premises for many years.

“My block has been in decay for years and during that time I have seen four lots of plans and hundreds of thousands spent on consultants and nothing has happened,” Wayne Nicol said.

Cr Prof Phelps said “It is in this dilapidated state that these buildings are to be offered for leasing with nothing to show the ratepayers of Sydney except a reported $40 million spent on reports, refurbishment proposals and activation programs.”

Last year a 250kg key stone fell out of its position above Sax Fetish, crashing through the awning onto the footpath below.

“If someone had of been killed the blood would be clearly on the hands of the Lord Mayor,” Wayne Nicol said.

“The condition reports were listed as average to poor with 110 being rated as poor, and for the Council to own property in such a prime position and then let it fall into a state of disrepair is an inexcusable waste of ratepayers resources,” Cr Prof Phelps said.

Not only has the City of Sydney been derelict in its maintenance of the Oxford Street properties but it could have managed its own information better by informing its tenants before issuing the press release.

“The first time I knew about this was from a mail-out from the Darlinghurst Business Partnership, and it came as a surprise,” Wayne Nicol said.

“The tenants are pissed off and upset and angry and are worried about their futures,” Stephan Gyory said.

When City Hub visited the properties last week it found that almost half of the upstairs spaces were unoccupied and many of the street level shops vacant and pasted over with ‘Creative Sydney’ posters.

When questioned about protection for low income tenants, a City of Sydney spokesperson said: “We do insist that the creative spaces currently offered by the City to creative and artistic groups for affordable prices to be retained in the new development.”

Wayne Nicol said that a developer’s dream could come true because while two of the blocks have considerable heritage protection, his only has the frontage protected leaving the opportunity “to put a modern building behind, and bang - you’ve got multi-million dollar harbour views.”

According to a City of Sydney spokesperson the Council owns 250 buildings valued at around $2 billion, with annual rental income of around $72 million.

Navy should set sail from Garden Island Published weekly and freely available Sydney-wide.

Copies are also distributed to serviced apartments, hotels, convenience stores and newsagents throughout the city.

Distribution enquiries call 9212 5677.

Published by Altmedia Pty Ltd. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy of content, takes no responsibility for inadvertent errors or omissions.

ABN 52 600 903 348 Group Publisher: Lawrence Gibbons Group Editors: Lanie Tindale, John Moyle Contributors: John Moyle, Lanie Tindale, Erika Echternach, Rickie Hardiman, Rita Bratovich, Andrew Woodhouse Arts Editor: Jamie Apps Advertising Manager: Karl Krticka Cover Photo: Jess Husband. Chris Kellan with Wayland Jones Designer: Nadia Kalinitcheva Advertising: sales@altmedia.net.au Mail: PO Box 843 Broadway 2007 Email: news@altmedia.net.au, arts@altmedia.net.au Ph: 9212 5677, Fax: 9212 5633 Website: altmedia.net.au If you have a story, or any comments you’d like to share with us: news@altmedia.net.au altmediagroup

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By Andrew Woodhouse The 30 hectare Garden Island site is the most prized single piece of real estate in Australia with developers and cruise ship lines salivating over its dollar potential and crawling over each other’s backs to get it.

In European times Garden Island was colonised when a few sailors from HMS Sirius, the First Fleet flagship, arrived in 1788.

The ship’s log entry for 11th February 1788 reads: “Sent an officer and party ashore to the Garden Island to clear it for a garden for the ship’s company”.

Corn and onions were planted, our first vegie patch. It died without natural water.

From 1810 until 1856 Garden Island was a residents’ picnic area and by 1834 Potts Point was formed as Australia’s first suburb.

In 1856 the NSW Government was given the island by the Royal (British) Navy which evolved into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in 1911.

The site was resumed and purchased in 1945 during WWII for £638,000 by the Federal Government.

World II saw tremendous expansion on the island until it was joined to Potts Point and expanded even further.

Now the proposal for a massive $700million expansion to build new wharves and berths is causing angst.

Taxpaying locals want to curtail adverse noise and amenity impacts.

They say RAN does not have “squatters’ rights” or a sense of entitlement at taxpayers’ expense.

They were here first since 1834.

Meanwhile, former Labor PM, Kevin Rudd suggested the base be moved north during the

Garden Island. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

2013 election to this home Port of Brisbane, costing $6 billion, It didn’t happen.

And Woollongong’s Senator Concenta-Wells, Minister for the South Pacific put her “Case for Relocation of Royal Australian Navy Fleet Base East to the Port of Port Kembla” down south.

It was made “against a background of heightened security and increased pressure for relocation to a more suitable site.”

It didn’t happen.

A more recent confidential 2017 NSW Cabinet submission by Peter Collins AM, RFD, QC, recommended berths be shared between cruise ships and Navy.

That didn’t happen after locals protested.

Even, former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, a self-proclaimed design expert suffering from M.A.D.D. (media attention deficit disorder) said in 2007, “Garden Island should … not be sold off in bits [for] home units … Keep

Garden Island in public hands … Admirals like big ships and [their] position on the waterfront.”

Speculative developers lob in with fuzzy “artists impressions” of Stalinesque-style 1960s Housing Commission high-rise towers, but with no infrastructure.

Not happening.

So can’t the island’s defence functions be scythed off to other facilities such as HMAS Sterling (WA) and HMAS Coonawarra, Darwin, closer to the South China Sea? And why don’t locals get a say about their backyard and chosen environment?

After all, this area is not really “owned” or belong or anyone.

Let the people decide with a design competition.

Andrew Woodhouse is the President of Potts Point & Kings Cross Heritage & Residents’ Society city hub 14 JUNE 2018

3

City solar soars after renewable spend

By Rickie Hardiman The City of Sydney has increased its $18 million environment budget with an added $4.5 million to encourage the use of renewable energy over the next four years.

The intention is to support more solar panels on residential and commercial buildings along with inviting large-scale investment in renewables.

The Lord Mayor is quoted as saying that there is an estimated 12MW of solar PV capacity in the council area at the moment, which they hope to increase tenfold by 2030.

Currently around 15 per cent of local electricity is sourced from renewables which is planned to increase to 50 per cent by 2030.

The $4.5 million will go towards grants and incentives for solar panels and funding a ‘solar concierge’ that can offer advice on renewable energy to building managers.

This is significant for apartment owners where the range of options can be confusing.

A City of Sydney spokesperson indicated that the project is expected to launch later this year.

The City is spending over $3 million putting more solar panels on its own buildings for energy efficiency.

Future sights are set on a number of community centres, a childcare centre, depot, library and theatre.

There are varying highly efficient buildings in the city of Sydney and Independent Energy Advisory’s Jonathan Prendergast spoke of UTS as leading by example.

The University has one of the most ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets of any Australian university.

New buildings opened since 2014 incorporate best practice energy use with new lifts in the tower building, and air-conditioning upgrades including switching from electricity to gas with a lower carbon footprint.

They plan to reduce emissions to 30 per cent by

City of Sydney to upsize its solar energy plans. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

2020 and recently invested $9 million to improve energy efficiency of existing buildings including solar panels. UTS contracts directly with solar farms in Singleton and Orange in regional NSW. The University of Sydney has rolled out its solar program and is well underway with solar PV systems installed on five building on their main campus, including student accommodation.

They recently revised design standards for new buildings which now require solar energy systems.

They’ve also installed recycling stations throughout the main campus and office workspaces, along with

energy efficient lighting upgrades to major car parks.

Sydney University is committed to contributing to the City’s goal of 70 per cent carbon emissions reduction by 2030.

The International Convention Centre has installed an array of solar totalling 520kW, enough to power 100 homes. All the energy generated by the solar is used by ICC. Stucco, a student co-operative in Newtown run by full-time students of Sydney University, used a grant from the City of Sydney to install solar panels on the roof.

Project manager Dr Sturmberg said: “it’s really a cutting-edge demonstration project.”

Such a shared solar and battery system for an apartment block could well work in the City.

The success of the solar power industry in the USA is in great part due to solar power purchase agreements (PPA), where companies are contracted to buy energy from solar farm or wind developers to buy energy allocations.

Countries using PPA include UK, Germany, South Africa, Chile, Brazil, India and China.

Lisa Stieibel from QED Energy in Canberra said that the ACT is planning on 100 per cent renewables by 2020 with all electricity in Canberra sourced from renewables.

Ms Stiebel pointed out that while it is ambitious Canberra is one of the most advanced cities globally.

Basically, they are achieving this by contracting large scale wind and solar to meet the targets.

Each year Australians send seven million tonnes of food and organic waste to landfill producing a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Darren Pinto from Waste Ninja in Sydney spoke of European countries such as Germany and the UK which are heavily involved in turning food waste into biogas through processes called ‘waste to energy’.

Biogas is produced after organic materials are broken down by bacteria.

Once it is captured it can be fed into the grid to produce heat and electricity replacing coal or natural gas and for use in engines and turbines.

The City of Sydney has plans for advanced waste treatment and has committed $1.8 million to expand residential waste services to divert it from landfill.

These include e-waste collection, trials for food collection from apartment buildings and problem waste items such as gas bottles or chemicals.

A tender for these services is currently in market.

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Putting Enmore’s last BnB to bed

By Lanie Tindale When guests venture through the black and gold gate and up the path to TARA Guest House, they are greeted at the front door by Oscar the border collie, who clambers at the window, eager for pats and cuddles from the new visitor.

Lately there haven’t been many visitors to Enmore’s last bed and breakfast. Suites are still available, even as interested buyers are invited to roam the Italian-style terrace, inspecting its high ceilings and wooden floors.

The ex-boarding house has been operating as a boutique bed and breakfast

by Julian Rapley and Susan “Brom” Bromley since 2009. What started as a way to supplement a furniture showroom grew into a successful business borne out of a passion for people and hospitality.

The guesthouse quickly grew an international reputation, being recommended by Lonely Planet Guides, the UK Guardian and the Louis Vuitton Sydney Guide. The establishment had an 85 per cent occupancy rate until 2012, when the sharing economy took off.

“Over a period about two years, our occupancy went from 85 per cent annually, which is really, really good, down to about 45, 50 per cent,” said Brom Bromley.

With their backgrounds in interior architecture and fashion, a perchance for overseas travel and taste for the eclectic, it’s no surprise that Brom and Julian’s guesthouse is adorned with pink roses in teapots, pine cones in marble fireplaces, bookshelves lined with classic

novels, collections of film reel tapes and cow skin rugs.

But it’s the unassuming long wooden table that the couple will miss the most.

Each morning Brom, a former commercial cook, and Julian rise at 6am to prepare a late breakfast for their guests.

Fresh figs with honey, dim sims, crepes, homemade granola, bruschetta, rhubarb, hollandaise eggs, Asian-style nanata and freshly squeezed orange juice are just some of the delights that may be on offer for guests that have come from all over the world.

But it isn’t just the food that makes the dining room table special.

“It’s a beautiful shared table. Lots of information goes backwards and forwards.”

There is one particular memory that makes Brom emotional.

A Japanese and Chinese group were visiting the guesthouse at the same time.

“They all arrived on the same day, left on the same day, so they sat here every morning. There was lots of conversation going on, lots of interpreting, lots of laughter.”

One the day that both groups were leaving, a Japanese woman called Yuki approached the Chinese group and “did this really formal bow and she said on behalf of myself and my husband and my friend and all Japanese people, we would, I still get emotional. We would like to sincerely apologise for the invasion of China and the rape of Nanjing.”

“That’s a diplomatic incident, a moment that’s really so profound.”

Brom asked one of the Chinese guests how she felt when Yuki said this.

“And she said, my heart shifted. I mean, that is the most profound thing, but it was through just people sitting at the table.”

The couple have made lifelong connections.

One German guest first stayed at TARA seven years ago. “He’s been back about three times so far. And he married last year. We met his then girlfriend, now wife. They’ve had a little boy and they called him Julian.”

Despite winning an award from TripAdvisor for excellence and receiving glowing reviews, the couple have decided to close their doors.

Brom and Julian listed TARA on Airbnb but couldn’t compete with the low prices of other units and houses that do not abide by council regulations, or provide services such as changing linen daily, airport transfers, personalised area maps and brunch.

Bed and breakfasts’, boarding houses, farmstays and guesthouses must adhere to regulations that address fire and food safety, room and premise occupancy numbers and disability access. These establishments also have public liability insurance.

Recent regulations proposed by Minister Matt McKean limit people from letting out properties for less than 180 days if that is not their primary residence. Brom does not think they go far enough.

“I think they should have made it no more than 90 days rather than 180 ...

THE APPRENTICE

Brom Bromley is selling TARA Guest House Photo: Lanie Tindale

That’s not going to stop people. They’ll just go, oh yeah, well I’ll rent it out for two thirds of the year and then just leave it vacant for the other third of the year.”

CEO of NSW Tourism Accommodation, Carol Giuseppi, said that the regulations are “certainly a step in the right direction” but “the only way that government is going to have visibility of who’s doing what is if they have a public register” which includes people’s addresses which can help enforce regulations.

The convenor of Play Fair Airbnb, who requested anonymity, said that “bed and breakfast owners … not only pay land tax, they pay higher domestic local rates, they pay commercial water rates, and obviously if they earn over 75 thousand they pay GST on all the earnings of the business.”

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She said that if someone is “engaging in short term holiday letting … then they should comply by the same conditions as a bed and breakfast does.”

A spokesperson for Airbnb said: “Hospitality is a large, growing market and there’s room for everyone.”

“We are supporting a range of hospitality entrepreneurs from someone sharing their own home through to a family-run boutique B&B. “In recent years, we’ve seen small, independent providers join Airbnb organically. We see many traditional B&Bs and guesthouses offer local, authentic and unique hospitality that fits with our mission of belonging -- and we are making it easier for them to be a part of our community.”

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FEATURE

Pyrmont’s Winter Solstice

Sydney-siders love to be outdoors, even in winter. The proliferation of night markets, and the crazy crowds at Vivid prove the public is hungry for evening activity. Well, now there’s another event on the calendar to feed their restless souls. Pyrmont Ultimo Chamber of Commerce will be hosting the Winter Solstice Pop Up Events in Union Square for three consecutive Friday nights this winter. It’s part of the chambers’ Shop Local initiative to boost the night time economy in and around the Pyrmont village district.

By Rita Bratovich Union Square is one of Pyrmont’s favourite landmarks, surrounded by beautifully preserved historical buildings representing a timeline that dates back to the mid-1800s. The location only became a square in 1998 when Pyrmont Bridge was closed to traffic to create a pedestrian walkway between the City and the western side of Darling Harbour. From then on the entire peninsula flourished.

Pedestrians from Pyrmont Bridge and commuters from buses, ferries and the Light Rail converge at Union Square making it a very busy thoroughfare during peak periods. It was this observation that inspired the concept of a Pop Up event at the site.

Over the course of three winter Fridays, from midday until early evening, the square will be transformed into a lively, welcoming, village-style festival. Fairy lights, themed decorations and live music will create a storybook ambience. Local cafes and restaurants will offer special in-house and take-away deals, which can be enjoyed under a heat lamp at one of the outdoor seating areas being set up for the event. Retail outlets will also take part, with some hosting market stalls, while others will provide vouchers, display their wares on outside trellis tables or offer their services in whichever way they can. Some of those offerings include: free bike tune-up by Sydney Electric Bikes; wine tastings at Porter’s Liquor; a family activities corner run by SDN Children’s Services, and an information display by TAFE NSW. Wok Station Thai Restaurant provided catering for the event launch and information night. New owner, Joy, has already been pro-active in engaging with the community and customising her menu, and she’s keen to do her bit for the Pop Up. “I like the environment around Pyrmont. People are so friendly, and the restaurant is right in a good spot,” she says.“There’s lots of human traffic around here.”

Good spot indeed - they have an enviable position on the corner opposite Union Square. On the opposite corner is Banquerie, a favourite French patisserie and cafe among locals and visitors, and,

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city hub 14 JUNE 2018

Image: Supplied

along with Wok Station, an example of the cosmopolitan cuisine available in the precinct.

Newly refurbished yet distinctly vintage Terminus Hotel will help early evening Popper Uppers loosen up with Happy Hour $12 martinis from 3-5pm.

One of the most animated participants will be Movement Republic, a Pyrmont based fitness organisation.They’ll be performing demonstrations in the space from 12:30-1:30pm and 5:30-6pm on each of the Fridays, giving the public a sample of their unique exercise style.Ann Charleston, owner of the business is excited about the Pop Up events.

“I’m hoping that this Pop Up will have a bit more coverage and exposure than other things that have been done.And the great thing about this one is that other businesses outside food and wine get included,” she says, referring to the many outdoor and evening events that are exclusively focused on food and beverages.

“Any kind of exposure like this is vital, but is also an opportunity to educate the market,” she explains.Among the business owners she has spoken to there is a mutual sense of optimism about the Pop Up event. Many of the non-food/beverage retailers share her delight at finally being included, and they’re enthusiastic about what they’ll bring to it.

“Whether it is businesses actually participating in the Pop Up or offering their skills to help promote the Pop Up, it just brings the community together, and any opportunity to bring the community together elevates everyone,” says Charleston.

Matt Penfold and Genevieve Rechner own 121 Creative and Kwik Kopy in Pyrmont, which are event partners in the Pop Ups.They are producing the artwork and marketing materials for the event, including posters, flyers, vouchers, and street decals along the most popular routes to and from Union Square. Preston and Rechner live and work in Glebe and are very excited about the Pop Up initiative.

“We’re always looking for opportunities to do something for the community and for other businesses. Something like this - it’s a good way for different businesses to contribute their skills and share ideas,” says Preston.

They feel there are a lot of positive elements that bode well for the success of this event: the unique location, the high foot traffic, the number of small businesses within the vicinity, the appetite for this form of entertainment.

With over 30 local businesses already committed and more waiting to sign on, there’s a strong scent of anticipation in the air for the inaugural Winter Solstice Pop Up event in Pyrmont. Rechner sees it as a good omen: “This is a great start. Hopefully it can become a regular event and we can keep building the brand and getting more people involved.”

Jun 22, June 29 & Jul 6. 12-7pm.

Union Square, Pyrmont.

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Delve into satisfying street food bites at Banh Mi Co canteen tucked into a block of double storey buildings on the corner of Harris and John Street in Pyrmont. Reminiscent of a petit French bakery, Banh Mi Co is a fusion of French and Vietnamese both in looks and in flavours, with a green and white striped awning shading the glass fronted entrance where a burst of vibrant colours awaits inside.

As the name suggests, tasty Banh Mi rolls are featured on the menu, incorporating fresh produce with meats like chicken and pork as well as a family secret recipe pâtÊ to tantalise the tastebuds.

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13/6/18 1:33 pm

Future of Callan Park brighter

by John Moyle After many years of committed community action to save it from the clutches of successive NSW governments and their developer friends Callan Park finally appears to be heading into calmer waters.

On Thursday 21 June at Balmain Town Hall local politician Jamie Parker will be hosting a public meeting to unveil the Landscape Structure Plan for Callan Park as presented by the Office of Environment and Heritage and give local residents a chance to have their feedback.

“The absence of apartments on Callan Park today as evidence of our success, but there is so much more to do,” Jamie Parker, member for Balmain said.

While Jamie Parker’s commitment to Callan Park cannot be questioned, the struggle to keep it away from developers started years ago and had the then Leichhardt Council and Friends of Callan Park as it earliest defenders.

“The process up to this point has failed to comprehensively consult the public but it looks like that process is starting now,” president, Friends of Callan Park, Hall Greenland said.

Mental health beds began to be transferred away from Callan Park after the Richmond Report in 1983, which also saw the beginning of successful community actions.

A low point for the ALP in government came in 2002 when it proposed to sell the Park to developers, which due to community action almost cost them their seat and resulted in the establishment of the Callan Park act

that ensured that the site is preserved from development.

In 2006 Leichhardt Council called for a master plan and pressured the NSW Government to continue and upgrade the mental health facilities housed in the Park.

The NSW Government appointed a community reference panel to comment on the master plan which was then passed onto the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority.

The following year Rozelle Hospital was closed and a number of nongovernment health services were moved onto the site.

Reacting to community concerns, Leichhardt Council lodged an objection and the NSW Government handed 40 of the Park’s 60 hectares to the control of the Council under a 99-year lease.

The first scoping document for the Park was prepared by Leichhardt Council in 2009.

“Under the former Government, Callan Park was under constant attack from attempts to sell it off, develop it, move university campuses onto it and promote residential development within it,” Jamie Parker said.

Eventually the control of the Park was handed to the Office of Environment and Heritage, rather than Property NSW under whose auspices it would normally fall.

The Heritage Minister Ms Gabrielle Upton has said that the Government will now ban apartments or development at Callan Park.

“The Office of the Environment and

Heritage has commissioned two firms of landscape architects to draw up a landscape structure plan for Callan Park that will expand the amount of land available on the site,” Hall Greenland said.

Callan Park currently has multiple tenants including NSW Drug Health, Mothers and babies, WHOS, University of Tasmania, and the University of Sydney Fine Arts.

“The SCA (Sydney College of the Arts) studio facilities will move to the University of Sydney’s Camperdown campus and are expected to be complete prior to Semester 1 of 2020,” media, University of Sydney, Sally Quinn said.

Friends of Callan Park expect that many of the early 20th century buildings will make way for more public space, while they also support greater use of the health facilities already there.

“What the Friends are proposing is that the day care patients can come to the facilities , and this would supplement the existing facilities around the city,” Hall Greenland said.

“Callan Park is in the centre of a sympathetic community and would be an obvious place to situate people suffering from mental illness in the more modern buildings at Callan Park.”

Jamie Parker agrees with Friends of Callan Park when he said: ”It is critical that we see the return of modern, humane health services to Callan Park.”

A quick look at Callan Park’s historical assets makes it clear what all fuss for all these years was about.

The Park covers more than 60

Callan Park is home to many historical buildings Photo: Adam J.W.C

hectares of land that includes an extensive foreshore area and apart from its many historical buildings dating back to the mid-1850s, it also includes Aboriginal middens at Callan Point.

Before European settlement the site was home to members of the Wangal clan who were part of the Eora or Dharug tribes, with their territory extending along the Parramatta River.

The grounds also contains some of the remnants of NSW rainforest species including giant Moreton bay figs, rusty figs, Hill’s figs and Bunya Bunya pines.

Chinese junipers and Mediterranean cypresses are scattered throughout the Park.

“We are sympathetic to expanding the parkland and demolishing some

of the buildings as long as some of the more modern buildings are retained for mental health,” Hall Greenland said.

Jamie Parker said: “The real challenge faced by the Landscape Structure Plan is the need to balance the community’s desire to preserve the heritage significance of Callan Park while still allowing it to be opened up as parkland.”

The meeting on the 21st will be the first step for the community to have their say in securing Callan Park’s future while opening it up for everyone to enjoy its natural and manmade wonders.

“This public meeting will be a critical first step in public consultation,” Jamie Parker said.

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Mething with ice Banking on life-changing arts programs

Methamphetamine. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

BY Erika Echternach Methamphetamine (meth) addiction is a worldwide issue and Sydney could be at the centre of the solution.

A team of researchers at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney will test whether administering the ADHD medication lisdexamfetamine to people suffering from ice addiction can eliminate their dependency on meth.

Although the medication is typically used to treat ADHD in children, giving meth addicts a dose three times higher than the amount typically prescribed could be the first step to weaning meth abusers off the deadly drug.

The drug would be delivered in the form of a tablet (lisdex) that is similar to meth in both its chemical structure and its interactions with the body and brain, making it quite possible that the drug could lessen cravings for meth.

The lead researcher of the study at St Vincent’s, Dr Nadine Ezard, said using lisdexamfetamine should reduce negative withdrawal symptoms, naturally leading to a decrease in cravings and ultimately freeing patients from their dependency on meth.

“The idea is that, if it works, it might help those symptoms of withdrawal that trigger a desire to use methamphetamine,” Dr Ezard said.

Dr Alex Wodak, the president of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation and emeritus consultant for St Vincent’s Hospital’s drug and alcohol services, explained the effectiveness of substitution treatments in overcoming substance abuse.

“The most effective treatments for people with severe drug problems generally involve substitution of another, usually, longer acting ‘agonist’ drug to replace the problematic street drug e.g. methadone, buprenorphine or pharmaceutical heroin in heroin dependence,” Dr Wodak said.

“The advantages include replacing an illegal, short acting street drug for a legal and regulated longer-acting drug; replacing inherently risky selfadministered injection of a street drug with much less risky oral ingestion; reduce the extreme variation between the very high peaks and very low troughs in blood concentration seen with short acting street drugs; and providing some daily structure & socialisation to a life previously very unstructured and often very lonely.”

The defining difference between meth and lisdex is lisdex’s slower-acting quality.

Because of how lisdex is metabolised and converted to dexamphetamine in red blood cells, it acts slower than meth and does not produce a rapidly intense high like the deadly drug, sparing users from the crashes that follow. This also means the drug is long-lasting, so one tablet per day is all that is necessary.

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city hub 14 JUNE 2018

Without the incentive of a euphoric high, there is no reason to abuse lisdex.

Recovering addicts could not even abuse lisdex if they tried because another advantage of its slow-acting nature is that neither crushing, snorting nor injecting the drug will generate a high.

“Even if you crush it up and inject it, it’s not going to work quicker, you’re not going to get higher quicker,” Dr Ezard said.

Allowing routine meth users to escape the harmful binge and crash cycle would grant them freedom from side effects such as anxiety, paranoia, insomnia, etc.

Dr Wodak said that contrary to the abstinence approach, the harm reduction approach focuses on keeping people alive, healthy, maintaining good relationships, etc. even if some drug use continues. If substituting lisdex for meth serves this primary purpose, then continuing to take the drug indefinitely would be acceptable to those who support harm reduction.

In 2014, St Vincent’s conducted a test to figure out if a high dose of lisdexamfetamine was safe to administer to patients before proceeding with further trials. The encouraging results inspired the federal government and St Vincent’s Curran Foundation to invest more than $1 million into exploring the drug’s potential more.

The St Vincent’s study will monitor 180 subjects who regularly used meth for 19 weeks. During that period, one group of addicts will receive a placebo pill while the other will be given 250mg of lisdex. After comparing the results, researchers will conclude whether the replacement drug is safe and effective.

Spearheaded by Kirby Institute, the trials will take place at 4 different locations, Darlinghurst and Mt Druitt in Sydney, Newcastle and Adelaide, and is expected to last about two years.

Dr Wodak said that if the treatment is found to be effective, research would then need to be done into maximising the benefits and minimising adverse effects such as reducing cost.

“The ultimate aim would then be to try to ensure that the supply of treatment matches demand,” Dr Wodak said.

This possible breakthrough comes at a time when meth is becoming increasingly purer and stronger at lower prices, contributing to the epidemic Australia now finds itself in. As of 2012, one out of every 10 drug-related deaths in Australia involved methamphetamine.

Currently, the only treatment available to ice-addicts is counselling. Dr Ezard said the trials were exciting for the whole world because it would be great to have another option to offer people.

Should the lisdex trials prove successful, having that option may offer hope to those battling meth addiction.

BY Erika Echternach While recent headlines blazon interest rate rigging, misconduct and other allegations against Westpac, the bank attempted to distract from this negative press by promoting its community grants application which closed Friday 8 June.

Each year the Westpac Foundation’s Community Grants Program distributes $10,000 to 200 local charities.

Although Westpac rakes in $8.1 billion in pure profit annually, only $2 million is allocated for supporting not-for-profit organisations. To be exact, the 200 Westpac grants comprise a slim 0.00025 per cent of the corporation’s yearly earnings.

Even factoring all of the foundation’s programs Westpac donated a meager $3.9 million last year, which is approximately only 0.00048 per cent of what the bank made last year. Priding itself on having donated $35 million to various charities since 1999, those numbers simply mean it took Westpac 19 years to contribute 0.0043 per cent of what it gained in 2017 alone.

To demonstrate the community’s need for Westpac Foundation to be more generous, here’s a look at how two organisations that received a $10,000 grant last year invested the extra money.

Located in Alexandria, Milk Crate Theatre uses the performing arts to change the story of homelessness.

Judith Bowtell, the organisation’s CEO, explained that homelessness is much more than simply “house-less-ness.”

“Experiencing homelessness means not having stable or secure housing, or a place to call home. It includes people living in over-crowded dwellings, couch surfing, living in boarding houses, garages, crisis accommodation etc.,” Ms Bowtell said.

“Westpac’s support allows us to commit to being in the space for the full-year,” Ms Bowtell said.

Unless being presented in a theatre where there is a box office agreement, Ms Bowtell said all performances are free and open to the public because it is very important to Milk Crate Theatre that all who wish to attend a show are able to.

Similarly committed to the public, Our Big Kitchen is a community run, non-denominational, industrial kitchen that makes meals for those in need. The kitchen made and distributed 70,000 meals across NSW the past year.

The organisation was founded in 2005 by Rabbi Dr Dovid Slavin and Laya Slavin after Mrs Slavin noticed that some of her hairdressing clients struggled to put food on the table and began to share food with them.

The outreach grew until a volunteer created a big team to cook and pack large quantities of food. The Slavins began to realise the impact of the project, becoming determined to do even more.

The additional $10,000 has allowed the Slavins to expand their vision and upgrade their kitchen equipment.

“It’s so important for us to have quality equipment in good working order. We had our ovens and mixers serviced to ensure they will work well for many years to come,” Dr Slavin said.

Our Big Kitchen uses their equipment to run many programs including one for children to bake goods to deliver, teaching them how they can contribute, and one that invites the homeless and those with special needs to cook at the kitchen, teaching them important food preparation skills and increasing their employment prospects.

The theatre employs professional practicing artists to conduct performing art workshops and performances, which support positive life changes by encouraging participants to build their confidence, skills and social connections.

In 2017 the theatre partnered with the Black Dog Institute to assess the program’s impact on participants’ wellbeing. After 52 hours of observation, the researchers concluded the participants showed substantial gains in social connection, supporting others, empowerment, skill acquisition and overcoming challenges.

According to last year’s survey, 93 per cent of Milk Crate Theatre participants reported an increase in confidence and ability to connect socially with their peers.

After taking part in the program one participant said, “I am more confident about standing up for my ideas.”

Another participant agreed about the personal benefits saying, “I feel more spontaneous and mentally alert.”

Ms Bowtell said the $10,000 grant had been used to fund a creative workshop hub at Ozanam Learning Centre this year, which runs for 40 weeks. The workshops are also part of the creative development process for the theatre’s next major multi-artform work, Natural Order.

Dr Slavin said the mission is to give people more than they need and encourage them to pass on the goodwill.

“This empowers our volunteers, regardless of their socio-economic status because they become both a recipient and a giver,” Dr Slavin said.

One way Our Big Kitchen accomplishes this goal is by giving a packet of biscuits to everyone who leaves the kitchen to give to someone else.

The meals made at the kitchen are distributed to individuals, public service providers, and charities such as refuge homes. Although located in Bondi, the organisation sends meals to meet needs all over the world.

“Poverty and hardship don’t discriminate and it’s very much a question of needs. To us, Bondi is just a geographical location and we send our meals everywhere, including at times overseas,” Dr Slavin said.

Currently the kitchen is working on a project to grow the outreach by systemising its work, making it easily replicated by others.

Greater funding from a foundation such as Westpac that can certainly afford it would prevent countless more from going to bed hungry.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT WOMAN

Sydney cabaret performer, Jodie Stubbs’ new show takes the audience on a humorous journey that was originally intended to explore the changing roles of women through the ages but has since evolved during development.

Whilst developing the show Jodie and co-writer Tyran Parke came to the realisations that the show would work even better with interruptions from Jodie’s home-life sprinkled throughout.

“Creating this show with Jodie was madness. Sometimes she’d tell her family she was going to the shops but was actually sneaking away to sit in her car to rehearse in peace, singing to me on Skype,” explained Parke.

“We kept trying to wrangle a show under these circumstances until I realised this WAS the show! This hilarious struggle of Jodie trying to

balance her family life while realising her dream - and the guilt that went with it – there was just so much raw humour and emotion, we knew it would resonate with a lot of people.”

Despite the dramatic change to the final product Jodie couldn’t be happier with how the show evolved.

“I’m so pleased with this show because it touches on something so real; this feeling that many mothers struggle with, of being torn between doing something for themselves and being present for their families. Because let’s face it, we’re all in the same boat. We’re all just trying to do our best, but I don’t think anyone feels like they’re getting it quite right.” (JA) Jun 20 & 23. Leadbelly, 42 King St, Newtown. $34.17-$64.01+b.f.

Tickets & Info: www.theleadbelly.com.au

August: Osage County August: Osage County won playwright Tracy Letts the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for the no-holds-barred depiction of a tantrum-prone family and seething resentments, liberally inhabited by wry humour. Set during a sizzling Oklahoma summer,Violet, matriarch of the Weston family, erratically presides over a kind of family reunion after her husband goes missing. She has cancer and is selfmedicating for other ills as well. Her sister, her daughters and their partners converge on the family home where lifelong intergenerational skirmishes continue.

Director Louise Fischer notes that mounting August: Osage County (a play she put on her bucket list when she saw it in 2010) at the New Theatre presented specific challenges,

Air

including how to present a threestorey set on its stage.

“When I read the play again, I knew we had to do it. Because it’s not a play about a set - it’s so much bigger than that,” Fischer says.

“It’s about characters that simmer and leap off the page, about the formidable inner landscape of a family disintegrating on all sides. And it’s about a script infused throughout with the most wonderfully wicked humour.You find yourself laughing when you know you shouldn’t and that’s kind of intoxicating.

Which is somewhat ironic, when directing a play about addiction!” (OA) Until Jul 7. New Theatre, 542 King St, Newtown. $20-$35+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.newtheatre.org.au

A new dark comedy, Air is premiering at the Old 505 Theatre to haunt audiences with the reality of death, grief, holding on and letting go.

The story follows radio host, Annabel, who works the graveyard shift at a radio station and after the death of her father, finds herself reading death notices on air to an invisible audience.Then one morning the phone rings and she unintentionally spills the sorrows and secrets of an entire community, desperate to reconnect with her past.

Actor and producer, Eloise Snape said,“Air is a play that Joanna Erskine wrote based on her own experiences

a&e

Photo: Bob Seary

with grief, but it was also influenced by a project that she was given where she had to use something from the newspaper as stimulus to write a short play in 24 hours.”

Snape is excited to be playing Annabel in this emotional performance as she is a character who is quite “shy” and “hidden away.”

“She is coming to a time in her life where she has avoided a lot of the things that have gone on for her and now she’s almost being forced to deal with the losses that have occurred in her life. She’s cut herself off from her family and she’s a very lonely person when audiences meet her.”

21 STAGE 22 Sounds 23 SCENE 23 SCREEN

Despite being quite a dark performance, audiences will find humour embedded throughout the show and will share quite a few laughs.

“For the audience, it could be particularly touching depending on what their own experiences with grief are,” Snape said. “We really hope audiences are able to see themselves in the play, but are able to laugh too. It is supposed to be a comedy, so for them to laugh and cry would be nice.” (JM) Until Jun 30. Old 505 Theatre, 5 Eliza St, Newtown. $30-$45+b.f.

Tickets & Info: www.old505theatre.com

Arts Editor: Jamie Apps For more A&E stories go to www.altmedia.net.au and don’t forget to join the conversation on Twitter at @CityHubSyd

They Divided The Sky

East Germany arrives to the Belvoir’s Downstairs Theatre with the premier of the Daniel Schlusser Ensemble’s They Divided The Sky. Adapted from Christa Wolf’s first full-length novel of the same title, They Divided The Sky was controversial upon its release in 1963, resulting in state censorship when the novel was translated.

“It’s a book that gives you this frisson of excitement because there is this notoriety and element of danger such that the state felt it was important to omit parts of the story upon its release to the west,” says Daniel Schlusser, who adapted and directed the play.

“Wolf manages to take his incredibly personal story and make it resonate as a broader metaphor for a country that was dividing itself in two.”

They Divided The Sky follows the curious and passionate Rita (Nikki Shiels) as she falls in love with her personality opposite, Manfred (Stephen Phillips). Set against the backdrop of an East Germany in generational turmoil, the pair must navigate the social and political forces challenging their relationship.

“Audiences can expect a very dynamic production performed by two extraordinary performers, telling a story in an intimate space in an intimate way,” says Schlusser.

“The story is both a beautiful love story and a kind of meditation on some of the big forces of history and how they affect individuals.”

They Divided The Sky is part of the Belvoir’s 25A program, an initiative promoting low-cost, independent theatre making. (ES) Until Jun 30. Belvoir St Theatre, 18 & 25 Belvoir St Surry Hills. $25+b.f.

Tickets & Info: www.belvoir.com.au

Contributors: Craig Coventry, Emily Shen, Irina Dunn, Jade Morellini, Leann Richards, Lisa Seltzer, Mark Morellini, Mel Somerville, Olga Azar, Rita Bratovich, Rocio Belinda Mendez, Sarah Pritchard, Shon Ho, Riley Hooper, Georgia Fullerton, Gary Nunn, Renee Dallow, Andriana Vlahos, Erika Echternach & Lili Sekkai.

city hub 14 JUNE 2017

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A Doll’s House

Henrik Ibsen’s classic drama, A Doll’s House, is a beautifully haunting and tragic play with huge historical significance.

Considered the birth of the modern drama as we know it, audiences were seeing real life situations enacted out on stage, snapshots of life, in a new dramatic form, realism. It also has a landmark leading female role that in the maledominated society of late 1800s Norway seemed to foretell a future of independent thought for women.

When the curtain went up on opening night in 1879, everything changed. For the first time people were seeing a woman onstage making independent decisions, decisions that would basically

pull apart the family unit and that was unheard of. It started a whole new way of thinking that women have the ability to think for themselves.

Set in Norway in the 1870s in her family home in a metropolitan town, Nora (Shannon Thomas) lives with her husband and three children.

“We can relate to what is happening in A Doll’s House with the awakening of Nora because her issues are relevant to women today: family, Christmas, being short of money and starting a new job,” said Patricia Rowling, the play’s Director/Producer.

“The language is quite modern but at the same time rich and dense and is heavily laden with symbolism, it’s full

of amazing imagery, every line in the text has an absolute purpose,” she added.

And that is perhaps why A Doll’s House is on the HSC syllabus this year for two unit English and Drama. The matinee shows at the iconic Bondi Pavilion Theatre are aimed at school groups.

Rowling and husband Kyle took over from Shakespeare By The Sea, when founder David MacSwan sadly passed away in 2011, renaming it Bard on the Beach. They have expanded their repertoire of performances to include well-loved classics as well as Shakespeare. (MS) Jun 19-23. Bondi Pavillion Theatre, Queen Elizabeth Drive, Bondi Beach. $16.50$27. 50+b.f.Tickets & Info: www.bardonthebeach.net

Kasey Chambers

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WRITERS WANTED A Call Out for the Retired, Superannuated and Graduate Students Writers needed on local issues across the City Hub’s five distribution regions.

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By Jamie Apps Next year will mark 20 years since the release of Kasey Chambers’ debut album, The Captain, and yet despite this she is still incredibly humble and self deprecating when speaking about her journey.

“To be honest when I first started playing music, even before The Captain, I resigned myself to the fact I would never be successful in music because I realised my style of music wasn’t incredibly popular and I’ve got a pretty annoying voice,” Kasey said with a hearty laugh.

By understanding that her journey through music was likely not going to be an easy one Chambers was able to simply focus on creating the music which “felt right” in the moment rather than looking for the next best career move or opportunity.

“Although this will sound weird I don’t look at making records as part of my career,” explained Chambers. “I just go with what feels right and at the end of the day I’ve based my whole career on that idea so arguably that has been my best career move.”

This could not have been anymore evident than with the release of her latest record, Campfire, which is a stark contrast to her previous release Dragonfly.

Dragonfly was a very produced, pop infused record which saw Kasey working with the likes of Paul Kelly, Keith Urban and Ed Sheeran. “[Dragonfly] was one of the most important and poignant records I’ve ever made,” reflected Chambers. “I poured so much of myself into that record and it was certainly a turning point in my life.”

Having invested so much of herself emotionally into Dragonfly and by also pushing herself creatively Chambers’ “knee jerk” reaction for the next record was to strip everything back in order to reconnect with what makes her who she is “musically and personally.”

In order to achieve that goal Chambers chose to work only with very close friends and family. Working alongside Kasey on Campfire were friend and bandmate Brandon Dodd, longtime family friend Alan Pigram, and her father Bill Chambers.

As Kasey told City Hub simply to have the opportunity to “go so far back to my roots” was a real privilege and something she felt incredibly “lucky” to be able to do. This sense of gratitude also carries through to the response she has seen now whilst touring the record around Australia.

“To have people responding in such a positive way is really lovely,” Chambers said before jokingly adding, “I’m 41 now so I feel so grateful to be able to still go out and play sold out shows, I don’t want to get a day job either so I’m really happy that I can still tour.”

Jun 21. Seymour Centre, Cnr City Rd & Cleveland St, Chippendale. $43.80-$78.30+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.kaseychambers.com

High Tension - Purge

Mike Shinoda - Post Traumatic

The third record from Melbourne’s High Tension features brutal and incredibly impactful hardcore metal throughout.

Purge is filled with songs and lyrics which convey frustration, fear, disgust, horror, hatred and above all else, rage. This record will most certainly be too extreme for anybody not already familiar with the genre.

If however you are familiar with hardcore metal there are specific points on Purge which will stand out. For me the highlight of the record was Surrender with its cleaner vocals making it a much more compelling track, simultaneously the underlying music feels uncomfortably constrained.

In an ideal world it would be great to see High Tension blend the vocal style of Surrender with the powerful music of the remainder of the album. (JA) WW

Following the tragic suicide of Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington there was an incredible uncertainty and darkness hanging over the future of the band and its remaining members. Mike Shinoda’s new record Post Traumatic pierces through this fog and gives fans an insight into Shinoda’s emotional experiences.

Throughout the record Shinoda navigates dealing with the suffocating grief of losing someone so close.

Post Traumatic is a synth driven, haunting and poignant record which blends hip-hop and rock styles. This musical style works cohesively with the emotional gravitas that Shinoda is attempting to convey.

For fans of Linkin Park this record will be an emotionally draining listen but it may also serve as a point of solidarity that signifies not all hope is lost, which was perhaps Shinoda’s ultimate goal and message. (JA) WWW

THE NAKED CITY

VANDALISM IN THE MODERN AGE With Coffin Ed Depending on your interest in history or a preoccupation with garage music, the Vandals were either a rampaging group of barbarians accused of sacking and looting ancient Rome or a bunch of 80s punk rockers from Huntington Beach California. Both no doubt reaped havoc in their heyday but it is the Germanic tribe who trashed Rome in 455 that has given us the current word ‘vandal’.

Over the years Sydney has witnessed waves of what is defined as the crime of deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property.At times that so called ‘vandalism’ was motivated by political or social protest such as the “Change The Date” graffiti on the Captain Cook statue in Hyde Park. Likewise the B.U.G.A.U.P. (“bugger up”) movement of the 80s whereby billboards advertising products such as cigarettes were targeted and their lettering rearranged to reflect a negative message.

On the other hand there’s been the kind of mindless, gratuitous vandalism that is totally devoid

of any philosophical motivation.

In the 60s, when the red rattler trains rolled noisily throughout Sydney, their thin green vinyl seats were often the target of penknife slashers.With nothing like today’s CCTV surveillance, the culprits were seldom caught although it was rebellious teenagers who were the main suspects.

Those same rebellious teenagers were also accused of carving their names into park benches, scratching the duco on parked cars with the old silver coins and blowing up letter boxes on cracker night with the infamous tuppeny bunger. Ironically the perpetrators of the 60s, if they have survived the decades, are more than likely amongst the elderly victims of today’s delinquent vandals.

If the penknife was the instrument of urban spoiling in the 60s and 70s, today it’s the spray can and the texta that have left a trail of tags and nocturnal artwork through almost every suburb in Sydney. If the thrill of old school vandalism was destruction then the reward for the modern day tagger is recognition and self gratification, a public insignia that shouts the author’s own brand.

Yes indeed, sociologists have had a field day speculating why some young folk feel the need to tag and why the phenomenon has spread worldwide.

If once it was only boarded up buildings and vacant shopfronts that were the canvas for tags, today just about anything is vulnerable - even the War Memorial in Hyde Park has

Upgrade

Fresh from producer Jason Blum through Blumhouse Productions is the ridiculously awesome science fiction horror film Upgrade. Written and directed

by Leigh Whannell and starring Logan MarshallGreen in the lead as Grey Trace, with Betty Gabriel, Harrison Gilbertson and Benedict Hardie. Following the Blumhouse formula, Upgrade was produced on a budget of $3-5 million and has already swept up over $9 million at the Box Office in the US. Set in the future Grey Trace is implanted with an Artificial Intelligence chip named STEM to help him after he is left paralysed and his wife murdered in a brutal mugging. With permission, STEM gives Grey the physical abilities to seek vengeance on those involved, leaving a bloody mess.

Even though there were plenty of unoriginal key plot points, Marshall-Green performed a unique, whilst comical version of the host to AI. Unexpected action, gore, suspense and horror. A must watch. (RH) WWWW1/2

copped it.When the City Of Sydney Council puts up those large sepia prints of historic Sydney it only takes a week or two before they are obliterated with tags.Artists spend days painting a street mural in Newtown and within a night or two it’s adorned with shitty tags.

Bus stops and stands are a constant target but does the tag have to make the timetable unreadable? It’s often said there is no honour amongst thieves – there is definitely less amongst taggers and obviously no reverence for history.

If we are to put up with people writing on walls where it is forbidden, at least bring back a recognisable narrative, rather than the indecipherable tag or graffiti. Before there was Twitter and bloggers activists often expressed their outrage with brightly painted slogans, strategically positioned where the most would notice. Some viewed it simply as vandalism, others as a legitimate form of social and political protest.

So when are we likely to see the following piece of urban vandalism or social protest, inscribed in massive metre high letters on a terrace wall in your inner city suburb – ‘FUCK OFF TAGGERS’?

The Leisure Seeker

What initially appears to be a run-of-the-mill roadie flick, quickly transpires into an emotionally-binding film with universal themes which should have audiences laughing and crying simultaneously.

The story surrounds Ella (Helen Mirren), an elderly lady who along with her husband John (Donald Sutherland), board their recreational van appropriately known as The Leisure Seeker and embark on what will be their final road trip.

From the onset audiences realise Ella has a mystery illness and that her husband is suffering from Alzheimer’s.

This comedy drama follows the misadventures which the elderly couple experience along their travels, but more importantly effectively explores

the destructive effects Alzheimer’s has on an ageing mind and a loving relationship.

Mirren delivers a powerful performance as the strongwilled wife who hides her despair and tries to rekindle her husband’s fading memory exclaiming, “It’s nice when you forget to be forgetful!”

With just the right balance of comedy and sentimentality, audiences should be moved by this engaging and pleasurable story of love, ageing, and forgiveness.

There’s a few surprises along the way for this likeable couple who declare, “Our trips have never been so adventurous!”

A shock twist of infidelity and a heart-wrenching but satisfying conclusion. (MMo) WWW1/2

Jurassic Lounge: 2099 The Australian Museum comes to life at night. The museum is bringing back the Jurassic Lounge after-hours party for adults in style this month by sending guests to the year 2099.

After the sun goes down, the museum will turn into the ultimate space-age playground for adults with a futuristic lineup of music, performances, interactive games and pop-up bars, allowing visitors to see the nation’s first museum in a whole new light.

According to Australian Museum Director and CEO Kim McKay AO, “Jurassic Lounge will teleport the Australian Museum to the year 2099. As well as having great fun, it’s an opportunity to understand the challenges facing our planet this century and to spend a Saturday night exploring Australia’s first museum in a futuristic way.”

Along with good food and

drinks, Jurassic Lounge: 2099 will feature a silent disco, an upcycled plastic crafting activity led by artist Jane Gillings, a bestdressed competition, tunes spun

by Mz Rizk DJ, and an interactive wormhole installation.

In addition, sci-fi fans will also have the opportunity to enjoy an exclusive after-hours performance among the priceless treasures in the museum’s permanent galleries, which showcase scientific specimens and cultural objects.

The Australian Museum is working in conjunction with Vivid Sydney and the Supanova Comic Con & Gaming Expo to produce this special event.

Visitors must be 18 years or older to attend. (EE) Jun 16. Australian Museum, 1 William St, Sydney. $25-30+b.f.Tickets & Info: www.australianmuseum.net.au

Ocean’s 8

Audiences will unearth a new gem at the cinema this season with the newest addition to the Ocean’s franchise. Presenting a sparkling all-female cast, Ocean’s 8 is sure to do well as it is fun, glamorous and comical.

Starring A-listers Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchette,Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Rhianna and Mindy Kaling, the cast alone will be sure to pull in revenue.

Taking inspiration from Ocean’s 11, the film starts off with the release of Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) from jail after serving five years. She promises that she wishes to live a “simple”, crime-free life, but that doesn’t fool audiences. Following her parole, she immediately starts on the complex plan she conjured up in the confines of her cell over the years. She aims to steal a necklace with Cartier diamonds

worth $130 million off the neck of celebrity Dephne Klunger (Anne Hathaway) during one of the biggest events of the year, the Met Gala. But to pull it off, she and partner in crime, Lou (Cate Blanchette) recruit money-hungry criminals to help, but little do they know that it’s not just about the money.

Despite several plot holes and some unrealistic occurrences, the film stands on its own with an intriguing storyline that would be watched mainly for mindless giggles.

There were a few twists and turns which kept things interesting and a surprise appearance from the hilarious James Corden during the second half of the film, as well as short glimpses of celebrities such as the Kardashians and Gigi Hadid.

(JM) WWW1/2 city hub 14 JUNE 2017

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football FEVER AWAITS 15 JUNE – 16 JULY

EVERY MATCH FROM RUSSIA LIVE, LARGE & LOUD

The Star practises the responsible service of alcohol. Guests must be aged 18 years or over to enter the Sports Bars.

Think! About your choices. Call Gambling Help 1800 858 858. www.gamblinghelp.nsw.gov.au

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city hub 14 JUNE 2018