ISSUE
Black + White
NO.
17
Style. Luxury. Performance. Choose three.
The all-new Audi A6 efortlessly blends the worlds of performance, technology and design. It features a heart-pounding 3.0 TFSI V6 with 250 kW and 500 Nm of torque, next-level interior with three screens and an unparalleled level of connectivity, entertainment and assistance with Audi connect plus. Not to mention a striking S line exterior with sporty design cues. This truly is progress at its most exhilarating.
Visit Audi Centre Canberra to ďŹ nd out more.
132 Melrose Drive, Phillip | Tel. 6281 1000 | audicentrecanberra.com.au Overseas model with optional equipment shown. 17000532
The Parade at Campbell 5
Live here this year
1 bedroom apartments from $390,000
2 bedroom apartments from $565,000
Call or text Dallas on 0414 487 086 for more information.
Call or text Jason on 0425 366 663 for more information.
Campbell5.com.au
FoundersLane.com.au
Visit the display: 9 Pentland Street Campbell
Visit the display: 59 Currong Street North Braddon
Live here mid-2020
Move in this Christmas
1 bedroom apartments from $310,000
3 & 4 bedroom townhouses from $550,000
EmbarkOnNorthbourne.com.au
TheRidgeWatson.com.au
Visit the display: 55 Owen Crescent Lyneham
Visit the display: Negus Crescent Watson
ISSUE
NO.
17
Contents
EVERY I S S U E
02 04 06
Editor's Letter Contributors HC Online
E N T E R TA I N M E N T
10 12 12
Film: Noir et Blanc Black and White: Books Podcasts: Hear All About It
LIFE
31
A Matter Of Life Or Death
82
The White Jacket Effect: Chefs Spreading Light Across A Dark Industry
102
Trans, Happy and Free
PEOPLE
FOOD
27 136 146
113
Inside Story: Nicole Page Shades Of Grey Into The Light
CITY
08 21 42
Save The Date
123
Canberra's Coffee Revolution
The Hot List Woden: Ripe For Reinvention
ACTIVE
142
Active After Dark
Chocolate
STYLE
16 37 52 92
Things We Love 101: Trans-seasonal Essentials White Out Head East
T R AV E L
69
Newcastle: Surfing A Cosmopolitan Wave
HERCANBERRA.COM.AU
When we’re young, many of us are taught some simple truths. We are a girl or boy. We will grow up and find our perfect match in someone of the opposite sex. We will get married and have children. We will find our great passion in a career and that’s what we will do for the rest of our life. We will live happily ever after.
Our Black & White edition explores many of these themes—with the dark balanced by a whole lot of light. We hope you love diving into its pages.
We discover the infinite shades of grey that colour our existence.
But before you do—a quick logistical note. You probably noticed that this edition of Magazine didn’t come out at the start of the season, as it has in previous years. That’s because we’ve made the hard decision to bring publication back to three times a year to allow our tiny team of six permanent staff to better balance all our print, web and event priorities. We hope it results in an even better quality product for you to enjoy—in December, April and August each year.
Not everyone feels at home in the body they were born with. Many of us find our great love in someone of the same gender. We may not get married, children may not be part of our story. We will have more than one dream job.
Amanda Whitley Magazine Editor-in-chief HerCanberra Founder + CEO
As we grow older, we realise that life is rarely so black and white.
Editor's Letter
Some of us will not live long enough to get our happily ever after.
TEAM HC
Emma Macdonald Associate Editor
Belinda Neame Production Manager
Sarah Robinson Business Development Manager
PAGE 2
Beatrice Smith Online Editor
Laura Peppas Senior Journalist
Katie Radojkovic Graphic Designer
Sarina Talip Senior Journalist
Bottomless BRUNCH
Grab your besties and join us each weekend in the bookshop at Muse for a sumptuous shared brunch! Fresh Three Mills Baker y pastries, fluffy eggs, mouth-watering, thick-cut Balzanelli bacon and more, all washed down with Red Brick Espresso coffee or Lar sen & Thompson tea, and free-flow prosecco.
From $48 per person Bookings essential Available for groups of 6 - 20 pax Premium packages available. Conditions apply. Bookings & enquiries: musecanberra.com.au
HERCANBERRA.COM.AU
Magazine contributors WORDS Catherine Carter Roslyn Hull Emma Macdonald Rose Maurice Belinda Neame Laura Peppas Beatrice Smith Sarina Talip Ashleigh Went L AUREN CAMPBELL
ASHLEIGH WENT
Lauren Campbell is a Canberrabased wedding, portrait and fashion photographer, approaching all three with unflappable flair. She loves nature, animals, filter coffee and skiing. In the winter months, Lauren spends as much time as she can in the Snowy Mountains to combine as many of her loves as she can!
Formerly HerCanberra’s ACTIVE Editor, Ashleigh Went moved to London earlier this year to become a freelance digital content specialist, working with clients across the globe. No matter where her adventure takes her, Ashleigh will always be a HerCanberra girl at heart.
Amanda Whitley GRAPHIC DESIGN Katie Radojkovic PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT Belinda Neame PHOTOGR APHY Tim Bean Lauren Campbell Monique Easton Martin Ollman MAKEUP Bernadette Jury HAIR Cassandra Lee STYLING Sofia Polak
TIM BEAN
C AT H E R I N E C A R T E R
A firefighter by day (and night), Tim also loves being behind the lens to capture all things food, people and places. You can often find Tim drinking coffee at his local or capturing a time-lapse on Anzac Parade!
Catherine Carter is passionate about Canberra. Head of the Property Council of Australia’s Canberra office for more than a decade, Catherine now provides specialist business and communication consultancy services with a focus on urban environments, collaboration, community building and diversity.
PAGE 4
Belinda Neame MODEL Bernadette Jury PRINTING CanPrint Communications
HERCANBERRA.COM.AU
HC ONLINE Visit hercanberra.com.au for your daily dose of all things Canberra.
@badgerandco.cbr
@floralsbythewildside
@homesliceco
@jodysdiaryw
@madeby_marcelle
@antonkollo
@noble_gatherer
@jessica_christie
@highball_express
#HERCANBERRA FOR THE CHANCE TO SEE YOUR IMAGES IN PRINT
Connect
@HERCANBERRA #HERCANBERRA
PAGE 6
–– STYLE FOOD & DRINK CITY BUSINESS EVENTS AND MORE ––
HERCANBERRA.COM.AU
Save the date A U G U S T
CANBERRA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA – ACTEWAGL LLEWELLYN THREE 21–22 AUGUST Llewellyn Hall, ANU
SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE
CANBERRA WRITERS FESTIVAL
22–31 AUGUST Canberra Theatre Centre
21–25 AUGUST Various venues
canberratheatrecentre.com.au
canberrawritersfestival.com.au
cso.org.au
S E P T E M B E R
HANDMADE MARKET CANBERRA
SWAN LAKE
FLORIADE
7–8 SEPTEMBER Exhibition Park in Canberra (EPIC)
15 SEPTEMBER Canberra Theatre Centre
14 SEPTEMBER–13 OCTOBER Commonwealth Park
handmadecanberra.com.au
canberratheatrecentre.com.au
floriadeaustralia.com
O C T O B E R
BELL SHAKESPEARE’S MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING 11–19 OCTOBER Canberra Theatre Centre
THE FORAGE
WEST SIDE STORY
19 OCTOBER Dairy Rd, Fyshwick
10–27 OCTOBER Canberra Theatre Centre
theforage.com.au
canberratheatrecentre.com.au
canberratheatrecentre.com.au
N O V E M B E R
THE 39 STEPS
DESIGN CANBERRA FESTIVAL 2019
29 OCTOBER–2 NOVEMBER Canberra Theatre Centre
4–24 NOVEMBER Craft ACT
canberratheatrecentre.com.au
craftact.com.au
CANBERRA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SHELL PROM 30 NOVEMBER Government House cso.org.au
more events at HERCANBERR A .COM. AU/EVENT S PAGE 8
HERCANBERRA.COM.AU
FILM
CASABLANCA
Every time someone misquotes a line, Bogart’s ghost groans. Simply the best drama, heartbreak, adventure and all-round classy entertainment committed to B&W celluloid. I’ve seen this 12 times—a beautiful friendship indeed.
Noir et Blanc W O R D S
Roslyn Hull
Many cinephiles firmly believe the feature length film reached its greatest expression, as an art form, long before the era of visual magic we now take for granted.
RASHOMON
Proof that an understandable language and real life colour are superfluous to high art. This multi-narrative film introduced the world to the filmmaker’s filmmaker—Akira Kurosawa—in 1950. I was anchored to my seat when I saw it 40 years later and have been a fan of his work ever since.
Whether used by choice or necessity, black and white (B&W) film has a spirit and clarity that transcends genres. Think of the sharp deep focus of Citizen Kane, the artistry of a Busby Berkeley dance number or even the advancing mob in Frankenstein. This otherworldly quality means that when one more element (speech) is removed it barely makes a difference, meaning PSYCHO
Chocolate sauce down a shower drain still has the nerve-jangling effect Hitchcock (who preferred to work in black and white) wanted. And Mother is so much creepier in greys.
PAGE 10
great expressionist cinema like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is still watchable today. If you’ve never dipped your toe in the midnight pool of black and white film, try my top 10.
THE ARTIST
An homage to silent films, early musicals, the Hollywood backlot and the whole dream factory pastiche. Completely entertaining, evocative but not derivative. Mmm, Jean Dujardin too.
BRINGING UP BABY
SOME LIKE IT HOT
Long before Ru Paul, Tony Curtis managed to be prettier than most of the actual girls in this wonderful comedy with Marilyn Monroe. Jack Lemmon’s one-liners still zing today.
Speaking of zing—mix the eternally dapper Cary Grant with an independent, uptight Katherine Hepburn and you get the best ‘screwball’ comedy ever filmed. Ever!
MR SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON
Jimmy Stewart filibusters the American Senate for the good of the common man, wins the girl and wins the day. They don’t make politicians like that anymore.
“Black and white film has a spirit and clarity that transcends genres."
SUNSET BOULEVARD
METROPOLIS
A film narrated by the corpse discovered floating in the opening shot is going to grab your attention. This is Grand Guignol at its very best— Gloria Swanson was always ready for her close-up.
Fritz Lang’s Art Deco masterpiece is still relevant, with its heartbreaking dystopian storyline and breathtaking cityscape. The first film added to the UNESCO Memory of the World—and the backdrop for Queen’s Radio Gaga.
LA STRADA
Fellini at his most heartbreaking. The depth of emotion delivered by Anthony Quinn and Giulietta Masina would have been unbearable to watch in colour.
HERCANBERRA.COM.AU
WHY I’M NO LONGER TALKING TO WHITE PEOPLE ABOUT RACE Reni Eddo-Lodge
Black + White: Books W O R D S
Rose Maurice
All titles available for purchase instore, paperchainbookstore.com.au
In 2014 Reni Eddo-Lodge posted the piece Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Race where she voiced her frustrations about those who ignored and/or refused the legitimacy of structural racism and its symptoms. The blog post went viral and resulted in Eddo-Lodge publishing this collection of essays, sparking a global conversation about racism. Drawing on her own experiences and research, Eddo-Lodge explores racism in Britain including the eradication of black history, the political purpose of white dominance, links between class and race, and whitewashed feminism. Eddo-Lodge writes with an amazing fervour. This book is a fantastic and necessary handbook for the 21st century. It has won numerous awards including the Jhalak Prize, Women in Creative Industries Awards and the British Book Award for Narrative Non-Fiction.
HEAR ALL ABOUT IT Podcasts for news and current affairs BY ASHLEIGH WENT
In an era of ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’, it can be difficult to know where to turn to stay abreast of news, politics and current events.
PAGE 12
As we turn away from traditional television and radio in favour of entertainment on demand, many of us are at risk of losing touch with what’s happening in the world around us. A 2018 study from Deloitte found that 62% of Australians are concerned about fake news on social media, while 28% of millennials use social media as their primary news channel. Forget relying on an algorithm to update you on the state of affairs— these five podcasts will empower you with insights, perspectives and information.
THE WOMEN IN BLACK Madeleine St John
The Women in Black is an Australian classic set in a department store in Sydney in the 1950s. It follows women who work in the Ladies’ Frocks Department Store—Patty, Fay, Mrs Jacobson and the “new girl” Lisa—collectively characterised by their uniform of black. Each of the women aspire for “something more” than selling high-end gowns. During the trajectory of the Christmas rush to the summer sales, they grow and transform beyond their previously limited imaginations. The novel engages with the context’s cultural awakening of the mid-20th century, including the breakdown of class structures, liberation of women and mass European migration after World War II. A joyous and smart read, it was recently adapted into the 2018 film Ladies in Black.
THE LOWY INSTITUTE For an Australian perspective on international policy, check out the podcast offering from The Lowy Institute. The independent, nonpartisan international policy think tank shares research and perspectives on foreign policy trends shaping Australia and the world. The episodes are recordings of live events with high profile speakers that include professors, academics, policy makers, commentators, authors, and more.
MAGA ZINE I S S U E NO.17
AUSTRALIAN MAGPIE: BIOLOGY AND BEHAVIOUR OF AN UNUSUAL SONGBIRD
COLORLESS AND HIS YEARS OF PILGRIMAGE
THE WHITE GIRL Tony Birch
Haruki Murakami Odette Brown lives on the fringes of a small country town with her granddaughter Sissy. Fearing that Sissy will be taken from her, Odette successfully attempts to stay under the radar of the welfare authorities. The arrival of Sergeant Lowe, however, threatens their existence together. He is determined to enforce the law which saw the removal of Aboriginal children from their communities.
Unlike his four best friends at school, Tsukuru Tazaki’s name did not contain a colour. For unknown reasons, the four friends announce one day that they do not want to see or talk to him ever again. After this experience, he is left meandering through life with no purpose or intimate connections, until he meets Sara, who puts him on the voyage to discover what happened all those years ago.
Set in the 1960s, Birch shines a spotlight on the devasting government policy which saw Indigenous children taken from their families. The prose is evocative, and the landscape is bleak. The characters are incredibly memorable, and their loving bond is immeasurable.
Murakami presents his lonely protagonist as someone that we could all be. He shows vulnerability in his isolation while still craving the universal desire for connection.
This is a story embedded in Australian history from an Australian award-winning author. It is a powerful and unforgettable read.
This is a fantastic and obscure tale about a misfit’s quest for truth and connection. With dreamlike prose, the narrative is rich, poignant and, at times, heartbreaking.
Gisela Kaplan The Australian magpie is an iconic black and white songbird. Known for its vocal abilities, parenting, loyalty, and swooping during the spring, the magpie is instantly recognisable; however, we are still learning about this bird. In this second edition, Kaplan provides a thorough update about research on the Australian continent and its avian species. The book is educational and engaging for people who have an abiding interest in the magpie, with information sourced and backed by a significant scientific background, including Kaplan’s own research into the bird’s cognitive behaviour, song production and communication. This is an informative, accessible, highly-readable and wellresearched reference for lovers (and haters) of this iconic black and white bird.
THE PARTY ROOM
THE HIGH LOW
THE GLOBALIST
HACK
If it’s Australian politics you’re after, The Party Room should be on your radar. Hosted by Fran Kelly and Patricia Karvelas, the show peels back the curtain on the corridors of power in Canberra, with weekly episodes that feature guests including politicians and leading journalists.
If you like your current events with a side of popular culture, you’ll love The High Low. Hosts Pandora Sykes and Dolly Alderton cover everything from prison reform and abortion legislation through to the Kardashians and the best flavour of crisps. Based in the UK, there’s a distinctive British flavour but it’s both informative and thoroughly enjoyable nonetheless.
Running since 2011, The Globalist has recorded more than 2,000 episodes on international news and business, hosted by the editors, presenters, and guests of Monocle magazine. There are five episodes per week, making this an excellent way to keep up with breaking news from across the globe. Expect something from every corner of the globe—from Australia to Romania, China to Sudan, and everywhere in between.
Triple J’s news podcast covers current affairs, music, politics and culture—all with youth in mind. Episodes are short, interesting, and easy to digest, and feature guests that range from Buzzfeed journalist (and former Canberra Girls’ Grammar student) Lane Sainty to Breaking Bad actor RJ Mitte. Expect diverse perspectives, interesting issues and a bit of humour thrown in for good measure.
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M
ANDA L
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AGILITY SPORTS BRA
Having recently revived my stellar career as a Zumba instructor, acquiring pieces for my activewear wardrobe has become a bit of an obsession. The Agility Sports Bra may be my favourite-ever crop—its long line makes it über comfortable (no digging in) and the deep wine colour is to die for. RRP: $69.99 from Lorna Jane, Westfield Belconnen, Westfield Woden and Canberra Centre.
EM
M
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Here's what the HC Team is crushing on for Spring.
LOVES
DECJUBA AUSTIN DROP-CROTCH PANTS
Black is my colour and has been most of my adult life. I also love skinny jeans. But three years ago Decjuba released its Austin drop crotch pants and I was hooked. Funkier than jeans, warm in the winter months, flattering and endlessly comfortable, these viscose elastine wet-look pants can be dressed up or down depending on the day. I am onto my third pair which must say something. Bonus points that they are only $99 and if you drop your lunch in your lap, a quick wipe means you are still good to go to your event that night—completely stain-free! RRP: $99.00 from Decjuba, Canberra Centre and Westfield Woden.
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BE
things we love
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LOVES
LIGHT ME UP ZE RO P RO O F C O C K TA I L
There’s a quote I love that goes something like “soda water tastes like the person who made your drink hates you”. Yet when you’re looking for a party-appropriate non-alcoholic drink, that’s usually what you’re offered. Luckily, Canberra start-up Altina Drinks has an alternative. Their ‘zero proof’ (read: non-alcoholic) cocktails are delicious and contain no added sugar, so you can avoid a soft drink hangover too. Light Me Up is a perfect pre-dinner or celebratory tipple with flavours of wattleseed, forestberry and green tea that doesn't overwhelm with sweetness. For those flying under the radar, it really does pass as a normal cocktail and comes in elegant bottles that put a four-pack of ginger beer to shame. RRP: $25 from altinadrinks.com
THE CENTRE OF STYLE ZARA H&M GORMAN SASS & BIDE HUGO BOSS NIKE T H E N O R T H FA C E
FIND OUT MORE AT CANBERRACENTRE.COM.AU
H
LO
VES
SAR
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HERCANBERRA.COM.AU
TETHERTUG TUGOF-WAR DOG TOY
One of our little darling fur babies, Guinness Nelson, is so obsessed with fetching balls that a day of constantly throwing the ball for him to chase and bring back can get rather tiring (not to mention slobbery)! So think of this toy as a gift for yourself—the Tethertug lets you sit back and relax whilst your dog chases, runs, jumps and tug-of-wars away!
OVE S E L
IN YOUR FACE ETHIQUE FACE CLEANING BARS
BULLER THROW
UR
A LOV
RRP: $174.96 from Provincial Home Living, Fyshwick.
LI
NDA LO
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RRP: $26.99 from your local Priceline store.
In a world that is dominated by technology and kids with their heads down, glued to device screens, I love nothing more than spending time with my kids around a good board game. But my attention span is also limited so Monopoly is out! 5 Second Rule is an absolute scream and will have the whole family laughing, helping each other and generally just chilling. It's perfect for all ages—even my six-year-old nephew is a gun at this game! RRP: $19 from Target, Westfield Belconnen, Canberra Centre, Cooleman Court and South. Point Tuggeranong.
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A
With cool nights due to stick around for a while yet there's nothing like a chunky wool throw to wrap around yourself while curling up on the couch. Being in the midst of a home renovation, I've been eyeing off this one from Provincial Home Living at Canberra Outlet Centre, which will blend perfectly with the crisp whites and cool blues of our Hamptons styling.
These plasticfree, plant-based, cruelty-free bars not only leave your skin feeling fresh and invigorated but your conscience as well. By purchasing this bar you will prevent three plastic bottles from being made and disposed of, and save 2.7 litres of water.
5 SECOND RULE
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RRP: $79 each (Small Tethertug for dogs 7-20kg) from Best Friends Pet Stores across Canberra.
Saturday 28 September 2019 10am-4pm • Botanic Gardens Wagga Wagga Free entry • For kids aged 2-12
For full festival details visit visitwagga.com/springjam
MAGA ZINE I S S U E NO.17
THE HOT LIST
Spring 2019 W O R D S
Beatrice Smith
Time to shake off those layers, Canberra. As the mercury begins to inch upwards once more, the city bursts into bloom (and we’re not just talking about the flowers). Here’s what to eat, drink and do this spring.
PAGE 21
HERCANBERRA.COM.AU
Eat BRADLEY STREET DINING PRECINCT, WESTFIELD WODEN
Why choose one when you can have your choice of six restaurants in the one place? Woden’s Bradley Street has become one of the southside’s most delicious eat streets. With North East’s modern Vietnamese, Fenway Public House’s family-friendly pub atmosphere, sweet treats and caffeinated goodness at Espresso Warriors X Sugar Rush, deliciously fresh sushi (on a train!) at Sushi Musa, The Bavarian’s hearty European dishes and Golden Child’s contemporary Chinese menu a stone’s throw from each other, it’s a location for every occasion. Whether you’re craving brunch, a long leisurely lunch, indulging in a sweet snack or booking dinner for 20, the options are endless—and delicious. Bradley Street, Phillip westfield.com.au/woden/dining
Drink AMICI BAR
Amici Wine Bar & Deli has brought a bright slice of Italian chic to the city’s Melbourne building. From the team behind Molly, 88mph and The Highball Express, Amici Bar is your remedy for European summer FOMO. With boutique wines, craft cocktails and graband-go food on the menu, wine pairings are a big feature of this intimate bar. Paired with what, you might ask? Classic Italian fare, of course. Think gourmet meats and cheeses, antipasti, pizza and more. 59 Northbourne Avenue, Civic amici.bar | @amicicbr
Watch SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE
Hearts will soar as seven-time Academy Award winning film Shakespeare in Love comes to life on-stage at Canberra Theatre Centre. With director Simon Phillips (Muriel’s Wedding the Musical) and the helm, this “side splitting stage comedy with a stirring love story at its heart” is unmissable. 22-31 August | Canberra Theatre Centre canberratheatrecentre.com.au PAGE 22
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HERCANBERRA.COM.AU
Celebrate FLORIADE
Spring is just around the corner and Floriade will burst to life in Commonwealth Park with the 2019 theme of The World in Bloom. With an expanded program of horticultural displays, family activities, food and wine, workshops and, of course, the iconic NightFest, it wouldn’t be spring in Canberra without Floriade. 14 September – 13 October | Commonwealth Park floriadeaustralia.com
Play HAIG PARK
This year, Braddon’s Haig Park is seeing new life from the City Renewal Authority’s Haig Park Experiments. The goal? To reinvigorate and reinvent the sprawling inner north space. With a range of low-impact, community-focused activations taking place in the park from now until October, there’s something for everyone. With activations including a carpark party, nature play, native plantings, spring carnival and more, keep an eye on the website to see what’s coming up.
See WOMEN IN VOGUE: CELEBRATING 60 YEARS
Haig Park, Braddon
IN AUSTRALIA
haigparkcbr.com.au
Arresting. Breathtaking. Unmissable. Women in Vogue will showcase Vogue Australia’s most iconic female portraits from their 60-year history. With familiar faces like Cate Blanchett, Elle Macpherson and Kylie Minogue gracing the National Portrait Gallery’s walls, Vogue’s signature fusion of fashion, beauty and photography will be centre stage in this never-seen-before exhibition. See the changing landscape of Australian womanhood across the last six decades centuries through the lens of Vogue. 11 October – 24 November | National Portrait Gallery, King Edward Terrace, Parkes portrait.gov.au
PAGE 24
4—24 NOVEMBER
ONE CITY 200+ EVENTS
DesignCanberraFestival.com.au PROGRAM ONLINE MID-SEPTEMBER
PROUDLY PRESENTED BY
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Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre is supported by the ACT Government, the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy - an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments, and the Australia Council for the Arts - the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body.
2019 DESIGN Canberra signature artwork created by contemporary jeweller Phoebe Porter. Graphic design: Foundry Co. Photo: Andrew Sikorski
THE NEW BMW 3 SERIES. ALWAYS AHEAD.
Introducing the new BMW 3 Series, an icon for a new era. The 3 Series has been completely reinvented to deliver progressive performance, future-focused design and next-level innovation. And the new BMW 3 Series also has forward-thinking technology, including “Hey BMW.� Now you can control your vehicle, navigation and entertainment systems with your voice alone.
Book a test drive at Rolfe Classic BMW this weekend. Rolfe Classic BMW 2 Botany Street, Phillip. Ph (02) 6208 4111. rolfeclassic.bmw.com.au
DL17000534
MAGA ZINE I S S U E NO.17
INSIDE STORY
Nicole Page W O R D S
Emma Macdonald
P H O T O G R A P H Y
Tim Bean
By day she is the Federal Government Leader for IBM Security—immersed in the murky world of cyber-crime. By night she is scouring Australian fashion houses and international homeware designers for merchandise for her two Braddon stores, Rebel Muse and Bouji. Nicole Page is nothing if not multi-skilled.
PAGE 27
HERCANBERRA.COM.AU
Cassandra Lee
Favourite place to unwind?
My hairdresser’s, Lexi Bannister's in Manuka. Nothing unwinds quite like fresh hair. Reading?
Are you an early bird or night owl?
Tea or coffee?
I’m actually neither—I am more likely to be a shape-shifter if and when the workload/life requires!
Coffeeeeee! But I do mix it up with a mint tea if I’m over-caffeinated throughout the day.
What’s your morning routine?
Fave coffee?
Rise and grind. Coffee (usually served to me like the Queen by my husband), social media duties for the businesses, email check that nothing has blown up and to check schedule for the day, wake my son for school, shower, makeup, outfit, blazer, and finally a cuddle for my French Bulldog named Lagerfeld (Karl for short) on the way out of the door!
Urban Pantry in Manuka has the best coffee without a doubt, I always take my coffee with pouring cream.
Canberra needs?
High end retail! PAGE 28
What are your biggest Netflix binges?
I am a big fan of documentaries and my favourite by far is the The Cyber Wars series. I love First Monday in May and McQueen, and also have to admit I sneak in some Botched and Kardashians for a laugh and a hit of fashion.
I love to read business-related books (recently Roxy Jacenko's latest Little Black Book of Tips and Tricks and Who Moved My Cheese? by Dr Spencer Johnson). I also love hard-cover books (my book stacks are quite impressive) that take you into the world of fashion in picture form. All-time favourite book to this day is still Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. Which suburb are you in and why?
I’m in the inner south, and love it as it’s not far to go for a drive into the hills and away from the suburbs. If you could buy one piece for your home what would it be?
A Leonard Foujitas original painting, his style is incredibly interesting and his background story even more so.
MAGA ZINE I S S U E NO.17
Been anywhere interesting lately?
The last place was a family trip to Japan. We love Japan—we try to get there annually. The people are so friendly, the landscape is amazing and the food is the best in the world (in my humble opinion)! Summer/winter?
I love a good blazer, jacket and fur (faux) so I am leaning towards winter.
Special secret skill no-ones knows about (until now)?
Not sure I would call it a talent but I love to rap (I want to come back as Nicki Minaj or Lauren Hill in another lifetime). On a more serious note I am quite handy, I can fix almost anything with some superglue or duct tape. Why did you buy Rebel Muse?
I see myself being a position to offer up more of my time to help others. I am a keen volunteer (basketball coach) and charity advocate. Eventually I want to transition into helping others stay motivated and be successful in their businesses. I also plan to have at least one more French Bulldog (don’t tell hubby) and to significantly increase my shoe and blazer collection.
I was undertaking a research project into fashion retail as a potential business when Rebel Muse came on the market (I read about it on HerCanberra!). A close friend of mine sent me a link and after some review and negotiation (with the previous owner Alicia Xyrakis and with my husband Dustin) we sealed the deal.... Truthfully I love fashion. I love how something as simple as clothing can make you feel and I want to help others feel amazing in something as simple as clothing.
Scent you are wearing?
What are you most likely to cook
Where will you be in 10 years’ time?
Lady Million by Paco Rabane for every season except winter, winter is Gucci by Gucci (very musky).
for dinner?
Bacon and chilli pasta or homemade pizzas—keeping it simple.
Labels you most covet?
This I need to split into two parts! Australian labels: Camilla and Marc, Carla Zampatti, Joslin, Hansen and Gretel, PE Nation & Alice McCall. Shoes from Department of Finery and jewellery from Brie Leon. Dylan Kain for bags and belts. Worldwide labels: You will always see me in McQueen, Moschino, Jeremy Scott for Adidas, Karl Lagerfeld, Balmain, Versace and — hopefully soon—Chanel when I can afford it! ¡ PAGE 29
@itsthelab
The Skin. The Brows. The Chill.
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MAGA ZINE I S S U E NO.17
A matter of life or death W O R D S
Laura Peppas
P H O T O G R A P H Y
Martin Ollman
They emerge in the loneliest hours, saving lives while the rest of us are tucked up in bed. Most people will only ever encounter them on their darkest days—but for these women working the graveyard shift in emergency services, it’s all just another night on the job.
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NOTHING GOOD ever happens after 2am. It’s a phrase that has never left Senior Constable Lauren Stone in her years working nightshift in the ACT police force. In those long, eerie hours, the city streets seem to morph into something different entirely; where anyone with a hefty amount of alcohol or drugs in their system who isn’t already tucked up in bed is probably likely to get up to more harm than good. In her shifts patrolling the city’s busiest nightspots to target alcohol-fuelled violence, Lauren often sees people in their darkest moments. “The general rule of thumb is the later it gets, the worse the behaviour,” she says. “It’s a time where people have had more alcohol, and as the clubs close, their entire patronage leave— which could be a couple of hundred people all at once. If there is a large group of people fuelled by alcohol at that time of the morning, there's always going to be potential for trouble.” One only has to think of the Sydney case of Thomas Kelly to know just how devastating the consequences of alcohol-fuelled violence can be.
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Photo from iStock
While Canberra’s assault rates aren’t quite at the level of Sydney’s, the prevalence of alcoholrelated problems remains a growing concern in the community. It’s sure to send a shiver up the spine of every parent but Lauren has seen it all; from “coward punches” resulting in head injuries to drug-related problems. Of course, it takes a certain kind of resilience to be in this line of work: when she was just starting out at the age of 22, one of Lauren’s first jobs was to help revive a man who tried to gas himself in his car. The man survived, but it’s a scene that has stayed with her since. “It was quite a confronting thing for anyone, especially a very junior police officer like I was at the time,” Lauren says. “Dealing with people in crisis—or people who are having the worst day of their lives—isn’t easy, so you do have to be a certain personality type to really excel at it. You have to develop a lot of resilience in how you respond to the work that we do. But I think it’s still important to retain some level of humanity and empathy, rather than just switch your emotions off.
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“So many women say ‘oh I could never do that job’ but really, I speak to so many other women in the industry and they just love it, because they discover qualities in themselves and a strength that they didn't know they had.” Fresh-faced with an easy nature, Lauren describes herself as “very single.” After all, it’s tricky to meet people when your working hours are 9 pm to 7 am. “The [police team] become your family, it’s an incredible bond, and knowing everyone has your back is very reassuring,” she says. When I ask how she gets through those longer nights, she responds with a smile: “Humour. You need a lot of dark humour and banter amongst the team to get through it sometimes.” HAVING WORKED shiftwork as a firefighter for over a year, Felicity “Flip” Roantree has seen her fair share of confronting scenes. Blazes, blood and broken bones rarely deter her now—she can keep a level head and steady hand. The only thing that has taken her aback for a mere moment, was her first sighting of limbs “that had left the body.” “It’s something that was very confronting, because it’s kind of like, ‘oh I didn't realise it looked like that,’” Flip says. “There are also the times when there’s a child involved in an incident who may have had their house burn down and lost everything —I have three kids of my own, so you always put yourself in that situation.” A former schoolteacher, Flip discovered her calling at 42, when she decided to apply for the ACT Fire & Rescue team. “I’d always been interested in helping people,” she says. “I noticed they were recruiting and I just thought, ‘this is my chance’.”
Working shiftwork has had its good and bad points— she’s had to get used to napping at odd hours, but it also means getting to spend more time with her three children during the day, or attending assemblies and school events that she wouldn’t usually have been able to. After a year on the job, she says one thing that has never left her is that feeling of adrenaline—blood pumping, heart racing as the fire truck weaves through traffic, siren blaring. “It’s a pretty significant adrenaline rush because, you don't actually know ‘til you can see the fire, what's it going to be like,” Flip says. “Sometimes you can't see it straight away because the fire is inside a structure so, you maybe have to go in and investigate and you don’t know what you’re in for. I can honestly say that no fire has ever been the same, so there are lots of different strategies and different techniques. I can't tell you what my pulse rate is, but it’s pretty high when we arrive.” The knowledge that each job is a potentially life-threatening situation demands a healthy dose of camaraderie.
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Photo by Dawn Armfield on Unsplash
HERCANBERRA.COM.AU
“Sometimes you'll go to a job, and you think it will be kind of run of the mill, but then you’re helping someone who has just lost everything,” Flip says. “After those kind of jobs someone's always checking up on you. They’ll say, ‘is everyone all right? Do you need some support?’ [Post traumatic stress disorder] is much more well-known than it used to be, so we have a good deal of support in place.” It’s not all action, though—some nights are spent waiting around for a callout, chatting with the team, having a cup of tea or resting. One night there might be one call, the next night the team barely have a minute to sit down before they’re called to an emergency again. As well as the physical side of it, Flip says there is “absolutely” a mental toughness to succeed in the job. “You have to understand the things that happen on the job have already happened, and you didn't actually cause them. You're going in and do the very best you can in the situation,” she says. When I ask if, in the height of a particularly stressful situation, she has ever wished she were back safe at her desk in her teaching job, she shakes her head with a slow smile. “Oh, I don’t think I could ever go back to a desk job now—I’ve found my people.”
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WHEN A LIFE hangs in the balance, every moment is critical. Intensive care paramedics Lynda Hawkins and Hannah Brennan are precisely the kind of people you would want around in an emergency—matterof-fact, level headed and no-nonsense. The two have been working the nightshift in emergency services for over 18 years collectively, and are the first point of call for everything from traffic accidents and assaults, to mothers in labour who can’t quite make it to the hospital. “A lot of time you might have 30 seconds or a minute, sometimes you've got five minutes,” Lynda says. “You're in that middle ground and you know you have to do something quickly, but you also don’t want to rush too much and miss anything. If it is a situation that is truly life and death, it’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Often working the graveyard shift together, the two women have developed a close relationship that can be a source of comfort on those long nights. Both admit a desk job was always going to be out of the question for them. “I’ve always been a bit nosy, I want to know what other people's problems are and how I can fix them,” Lynda says.
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“My husband works in an office job and sometimes when he complains about his day, I have to bite my tongue when I think back to all the things we’ve done that day.” Adds Hannah: “This job is different every single day. You don't know what you're coming to, and I love that.” While every shift is touch and go, both Lynda and Hannah admit they can always count on their busiest times to be Christmas Day, any day with rainy weather and the Sunday after a long weekend. “It’s when a lot of people are coming back from the coast, they've had a long drive back on the road and just want to get home,” Hannah says. “People assume nightshift is quiet but really, if it’s 3 am that’s the time when if there’s something wrong and they call, it’s going to be serious.” A low point of the job, of course, is having to make quick decisions that may not always result in a happy ending.
“I think we still struggle every day and I know for me I question every job that I do,” Hannah says. “I go back and I think and reflect on it and you go, ‘maybe I could've done that differently and then next time I’ll learn from that.’ I think that's just the nature of what we do as well. We're constantly reviewing what we've done and said, and how we've treated patients and we take that to our next job and hopefully we do the next one just a bit better.” Lynda nods firmly. “One of the things I was told early on, and I've repeated so many times, is the day you stop learning something is the day you need to consider leaving the job.” ¡
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Canberra’s most luxurious day spa HALEHEALTH.COM.AU ∙ +61 2 6273 3101 ∙10–14 MACQUARIE
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MAGA ZINE I S S U E NO.17
101
Trans-seasonal Essentials S T Y L I N G
Belinda Neame
P H O T O G R A P H Y
Tim Bean
We're nearly there. Although September marks the official start of spring, Canberrans know the cool weather can persist a little longer. We've gathered together a collection of items designed to see you through until summer.
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HERCANBERRA.COM.AU
SHOES
Put those long boots into storage and embrace the sneaker hybrid. These athleisure styles are comfortable enough for a walk with friends but smart enough for streetwear.
Top row, left to right:
Adidas Everyn in Black ($49.99 on sale) and Adidas Superstar in White (RRP $130) both from Platypus Shoes, Canberra Outlet Centre. Also at Canberra Centre, Westfield Woden and Westfield Belconnen. Luvos Sneaker in Black (RRP $199) from elkthelabel.com.
Middle row, left to right:
Converse One Star Ox in White (RRP $100) and Converse CTAS Ox in Black & White (RRP $100) both from Converse, Canberra Outlet Centre. JM Puzzle Leather Sneaker in White (RRP $99.95) from Joanne Mercer, Canberra Outlet Centre. Also at Canberra Centre.
Bottom row, left to right:
JM Colt Leather Sneaker in Black (RRP $99.95) from Joanne Mercer, Canberra Outlet Centre. Also at Canberra Centre. Converse CTAS HI in Black (RRP $100), from Converse, Canberra Outlet Centre.
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MAGA ZINE I S S U E NO.17
BATHROOM
Long, luxurious baths just aren't the same in the summer heat. Make the most of the still-cool days by soaking in a hot, deep tub of perfumed water.
Top row, left to right:
Nova Onyx Hand Towel (RRP $12.95), Nova Onyx Face Washer (RRP $4.95), Immerse Back Brush (RRP $9.95), Stanley Jar with Lid (RRP $24.95) and Soap Bars in Pomegranate and English Pear (RRP $5.95 each) all from Provincial Home Living, Canberra Outlet Centre.
Middle row, left to right:
Bath Salts in Fresh Sage 200g (RRP $14.95) from Provincial Home Living, Canberra Outlet Centre. Rasalia Robe (RRP $149.95) from Sheridan at Canberra Outlet Centre. Also at Sheridan Boutique, Manuka. Provincial Home Living English Pear Soy Candle (RRP $39.95) from Provincial Home Living, Canberra Outlet Centre.
Bottom row, left to right:
Goats Milk Wash (RRP $19.95), Manuka Honey & Goats Milk Lotion (RRP $19.95), Nash Basket (RRP $34.95), Immerse Wooden Foot Brush (RRP $3.95), Immerse Wooden Nail Brush (RRP $2.95) all from Provincial Home Living, Canberra Outlet Centre.
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HERCANBERRA.COM.AU
WINE, CHEESE & CHOCOLATE
It's time to come out of hibernation. Celebrate by packing a hamper filled with your chicest picnic ware and delicious local food and wine.
Top row, left to right:
Long Gully Shiraz (RRP $25) and Yarrh Shiraz (RRP $30), both from Spence Grocer. Nick O’Leary Shiraz (RRP $29.99) from Supabarn Casey Market Town.
Middle row, left to right:
Ceramic Check Plate (RRP $40) from @the_seasonal_ceramicist. Headland Cheese Knife in White Marble (RRP $16.95) from Provincial, Canberra Outlet Centre. Wattle Valley Double Brie (RRP $9.99) from Supabarn Casey Market Town. Fleur de Lys Goblet 4 Pack (RRP $39.95) from Provincial Home Living, Canberra Outlet Centre.
Bottom row, left to right:
Corfu Spreader in Black & White (RRP $22.95), Corfu Cheese Knife in Black & White (RRP $22.95), both from Provincial Home Living at Canberra Outlet Centre. Ash Goats Cheese (RRP $3.49) from Aldi Casey Market Town. Falwasser Charcoal Crackers (RRP $6.99) from Supabarn Casey Market Town. Pana Hazelnut Chocolate (RRP $6.90) from Spence Grocer. Caramel Mocha Bar by Curiosity Chocolate (RRP $12.50) from @curiositychocolate.
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HERCANBERRA.COM.AU
WODEN
Ripe for Reinvention W O R D S
Catherine Carter
P H O T O G R A P H Y
Tim Bean
Could this be Woden's time? An influx of property investment and a reinvigoration of its dining precinct looks set to bring this town centre into the light.
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WODEN IS A BIT LIKE a mouthful of jagged, broken teeth: a jumble of tall towers and squat geometric boxes that look like they’ve been placed at random. But a trip to the dentist isn’t in order. What Woden needs is a massive dose of density. Despite some nervousness in the community, density is the solution to Woden’s ugliness. Because density is just another word for people. And people bring life. While it’s unclear whether Woden was named for the Norse god of wisdom or the Aboriginal word for possum (wadyan or wadhan), everyone I speak to is in furious agreement on one point: Woden is ripe for reinvention.
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Woden has languished after years of underinvestment and has been characterised as a place of windswept squares, Soviet-style office blocks and a sea of surface car parks. But the geographic centre of Canberra is at the early stages of what could be a spectacular revival. “Woden is definitely going through a period of significant urban renewal,” says Nichelle Jackson, Director of Canberra Town Planning. “There’s a lot of development going on and it’s the right type of development—active development— shops, dining areas, residential. Once this is finished, we’ll have that critical mass of population
MAGA ZINE I S S U E NO.17
and the elements that will make it as vibrant as Lonsdale Street.” Could Woden really become Canberra’s next hipster haven? Nichelle says Woden’s “rigid formal legacy” with its “monolithic office buildings” are a challenge, but new developments introduce a “fine grain” and “human scale” to the town centre. It’s this “fine grain” that is found in Melbourne’s laneways, and loved in the streets of Europe. “We’re getting diverse buildings, and we’re getting a more active public realm,” Nichelle adds. “And we’re
seeing that in the revitalisation of the Alexander and Albermarle buildings which will inject more life in and around the square, with retail, activity and a whole bunch of new residents.” THE REBIRTH of the A&A buildings is a catalyst for change, says Jure Domazet, managing director of the developer behind the project, DOMA. He admits that the dilapidated buildings on Furzer Street held back the entire town centre “because they are in the middle of the whole northern area of Woden”. But his vision for the new A&A apartments promise to transform derelict into delightful.
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Built in 1968, the buildings lay dormant after the public service moved out in 2011. But Jure says the buildings’ central location and good bones made them an attractive adaptive reuse proposition. Ideal orientation, narrow floorplates, high ceilings, large windows and on-trend concrete meant Doma’s design team could “play up the industrial aesthetic”, Jure says, and provide a blank canvas for creative types to make the most of the character. Doma’s vision for the 188 warehouse and loft-style apartments, which are on track for completion in 2020, considers the spaces between the two buildings, which are being repurposed as commercial and retail. A childcare centre, commercial gym, cafés and gastropub are in the mix. One of A&A’s great contributions to the area is in its green space. “We deliberately set out to create a green oasis in the middle of the town centre with food and beverage opening up to it,” Jure says. North Walk, which runs alongside A&A, could be the “perfect spot” for weekend farmers’ markets, “changing the whole character of the town centre, providing a northern bookend to a Westfield ant-trail with the Bradley Street redevelopment forming the southern bookend”. “People are worried that Woden is becoming all apartments and no employment, but it’s not like Woden’s running out of land for offices,” Jure adds. “If a tender came out [for government office accommodation] there would be a lot of interest. In the meantime, there’s nothing bad with having people living in Woden. Bringing people creates opportunities.”
GEORGE KATHEKLAKIS, Managing Director of KDN Group, grew up in Woden and says he is “sentimental” about the area. “As a kid I can remember ‘The Bridge’ with all the alternative shops. There was Norman Ross at the top [of the escalator], Palm Court and Clock Court.” He says that Woden is, like the rest of Canberra, “poised to prosper” provided it has “the right settings in place to attract investment”. KDN has been involved with several developments in Woden, including Charles Perkins House, home to key Woden anchor tenant the National Indigenous Australians Agency. George, a trained architect, thinks “renaissance” is a bit rich. The Florentine idea of symmetry and beauty is a somewhat elusive goal in Woden, he thinks, but the town centre is nevertheless “in an extremely fortunate position”. The foresight of the former National Capital Development Commission means there’s enough land reserves for future office, residential and community buildings.
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PHIL O’BRIEN, General Manager of Amalgamated Property Group, is equally excited about Woden’s “rejuvenation”. He also grew up in the area and has been fascinated to watch ex-Canberra residents move back to Woden to raise their own children. Amalgamated Property will deliver more than 1,000 apartments over an eight-year period. Among those is Ivy in Irving Street which will cater to everyone including live-in owners, families and young professionals looking for “amenity without the upkeep”. The area is a key employment node for the federal government, and “we need to ensure they’ve got room to grow”, he says. But we have space in spades. “If I stand at the Hellenic Club and look back towards the town centre, there are still paddocks between them.” George thinks Woden is still “breaking free” from its initial form, with office towers connected to the shopping centre. He wants to see more “visionary” ideas for the town centre emerge and isn’t satisfied we’ve got it right with the current master plan. The great challenge for the ACT Government is to balance the mix of land uses—with residential and retail bumping up against community, medical and aged care facilities “which are all important parts of a town centre”. PAGE 48
Other major developments are reshaping the built environment. Geocon, which transformed the abandoned Juliana House on Bowes Street into Australia’s first Green Star-rated hotel, is now busy transforming the nearby Medicare site. Geocon’s ambitions for Grand Central Towers, inspired by the famous train terminal in New York, includes 430 apartments. Westfield Woden has also evolved since Perron Group purchased half a stake for $335 million in 2016. In April, Westfield unveiled a $21 million upgrade to the dining precinct on Bradley Street, adjoining the HOYTS Cinema complex. It’s amazing to see how some edgy street art, playful fit-outs and swinging seats perfect for the selfie-set can transform a space. The place is now packed with people munching on churros or downing five o’clock drinks.
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“What Westfield has done is fantastic; it’s bringing people back to the precinct,” Phil says. “But Woden town centre isn’t just about Westfield and what’s happening during the day. It’s about the night-time economy too. Encouraging residential development does that—and it hasn’t been since the late eighties that I’ve seen Woden so vibrant at night. We’ve got great confidence in Woden.” MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT AND CITY SERVICES Chris Steel is also excited about the transformation happening in this central part of Canberra. “Woden is my home town and it is really exciting to see it emerge as a mixed-used precinct with commercial and residential developments, a mass-transit transit hub, thriving businesses and services and high-quality public spaces and community facilities.” He points to several ACT Government projects supporting the regeneration of the town centre
including upgrades to public space, a new community centre and new bus interchange. “The Government is also looking at the option of moving the CIT main campus to Woden into a state-of-theart new facility.” Meanwhile the Government’s $1 million ‘Woden Experiment’ offers up performance spaces and sun lounges, pop-up food vendors and tennis tables. Due to the success of the installation in bringing more people to the square, the Minister has now announced that the program will be extended by six months so the community can benefit through the summer. And of course, plans for the second stage of the Canberra light rail, which will terminate in Woden, are taking shape. “Light rail will be just as transformational for Woden as it has been for the City and Gungahlin. We want to connect light rail to Woden and extend the regeneration, jobs and an even better transport network to other parts of Canberra,” he says. PAGE 49
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“We’re on the cusp of Woden’s renaissance. What we’re seeing emerge now is just the very beginning of what we can expect to see in the years ahead as we densify. It’s very exciting.”
WODEN’S UNMET POTENTIAL is in plain sight. Look up at Lovett Tower, Canberra's 93-metres high skyscraper, and see a missed opportunity in concrete and steel. Plans to reimagine our tallest tower as a vertical retirement village have been shelved and it lies half empty. What the future holds is anyone’s guess. “There are still lots of empty sites that haven’t got a determined future yet. The possibilities are there—but we need population to realise Woden’s potential,” says Cassandra Keller, Principal of ClarkeKeller Architecture. Cassandra agrees that Woden needs more than just Westfield, and argues that the town centre is “starting to branch out and develop a new character”. Cassandra designed the Southern Cross Club’s $20 million Stellar building on Yamba Drive, which opened in 2018. She calls it a “marker building” that “starts
the section of rejuvenation” in that part of the town centre, attracting a diversity of age groups—from seniors’ yoga classes to parents’ groups, children’s swimming classes to hyper-fit gym junkies. She’s excited to see “small clusters of retail opening up with different hours”, and “people living in the heart of Woden on the weekend”. Quirky craft stores and escape rooms, day spas and Indian spice huts can coexist alongside offices and apartments. In fact, that’s what the fine grain is all about. “We’re on the cusp of Woden’s renaissance. What we’re seeing emerge now is just the very beginning of what we can expect to see in the years ahead as we densify. It’s very exciting.” ¡
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HERCANBERRA.COM.AU
White Out P H O T O G R A P H Y
Lauren Campbell
As the snow melts from the mountains, we turn our faces to the sun and welcome a new season in a striking palette of black, white and red.
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Cotton On at Canberra Outlet. At right: Olivia Flare Top ($84) from Bianca Pavlic The Label; Snake Print woven skirt ($34.99) from H&M.
Previous page: Red Leopard Print dress from Veronika Maine at Canberra Outlet, Larissa Western Boot ($25) from Cotton On at Canberra Outlet. At left: Cue Snake Print dress ($385); Hariette Lace Up Boots ($25) and Aimee Rectangle Belt Bag ($10) both from
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At left: Red Leopard Print dress from Veronika Maine at Canberra Outlet, Larissa Western Boot ($25) from Cotton On at Canberra Outlet. At right: Lioness Faux Fur coat ($109 ), Bec and Bridge Polka Dot Dress ($240) from David Jones, Canberra Centre.
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At right: Osaka coat ($199.95) Portmans at Canberra Outlet, Addie Tie-Up Top ($74) and Lucy Flare Pant ($100) from Bianca Pavlic The Label.
Previous page: Sequenced skirt, stylist's own; cropped red knit ($24.99) and Black and White bag ($10) from H&M, Canberra Centre. At left: Dress, stylist's own. Earrings from H&M, Canberra Centre.
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Cue Snake Print dress ($385); Hariette Lace Up Boots ($25) and Aimee Rectangle Belt Bag ($10) both from Cotton On at Canberra Outlet.
Previous page: Lioness Faux Fur coat ($109 ), Bec and Bridge Polka Dot Dress ($240) from David Jones, Canberra Centre. At left: Sequenced skirt, stylist's own; cropped red knit ($24.99) and Black and White bag ($10) from H&M, Canberra Centre. At right:
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Behind the scenes CONCEPT + PRODUCTION BELINDA NEAME PHOTOGRAPHER LAUREN CAMPBELL STYLIST SOFIA POLAK MODEL + MAKEUP ARTIST BERNADETTE JURY HAIR STYLIST CASSANDRA LEE L O C AT I O N S N OW Y M O U N TA I N S SPECIAL THANKS TO L AKE CRACKENBACK RESORT FOR PUT TING U S UP IN A STUNNING C H A L E T OV E R N I G H T TO D O A L L O U R P R E PA R AT I O N S
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C E L E B R AT E
Your Garden Party @ Under the shade of our lush orchard or olive grove, experience a leisurely feast with grazing platters, rosĂŠ all day, wine, prosecco bars, cocktails, live chef robata grill stations, lawn games and more.
reservations@pialligo.estate
If you’d like to know more, please contact our Events team for information regarding packages and pricing.
+61 2 6247 6060
MAGA ZINE I S S U E NO.17
NEWCASTLE
Surfing a cosmopolitan wave W O R D S
Emma Macdonald
P H O T O G R A P H Y
Edwina Richards
It’s the next best thing to Sydney—but many would argue it’s even better. Newcastle is more laid-back with an industrial edge and a surfie vibe. From a dip in the iconic Ocean Baths, to a table at a hatted restaurant or a gig at an historic church-turned concert venue, Newcastle is surfing a wave of cool, not coal. Here’s our guide on how to experience a city reborn and brimming with style and energy.
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Eat Newcastle long ago cast aside its staid reputation for meat-and veg to satisfy its hungry and high-viz workers. Now it’s foodie central—helped in large part by coffee-swilling hipsters and close proximity to all the seasonal goodness growing out of the Hunter Valley. Some days it is hard to keep a track of what new fine-diner or café has opened its doors. There are those establishments which have stood the test of time, while others are rocketing up the latest hot-list—it means there’s definitely something for everyone.
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CAFÉ SET THE BLUE DOOR
MOMO WHOLEFOOD
It is, by now, an oldie but a goodie. The Blue Door set an early benchmark for wholefood indulgence in the city with simple but well-executed dishes. The staff serving you have the glow of good health and surfing about them and the place is almost impossible to get a table at on peak weekend brunch sittings.
Similarly, Momo Wholefood sustains vegetarian, vegan and health-conscious eaters with a casual menu served under the enormous vaulted ceilings of a heritage bank building on the corner of Hunter and Brown Streets. Produce is more likely than not sourced from the organic Hunter Valley Phoenix Park Farm.
Blue Door Café
Momo Wholefood
363-365 Hunter Street, Newcastle
227 Hunter Street, Newcastle
blue-door.com.au
facebook.com/momonewcastle
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CORNER HOUSE
ONE PENNY BLACK
BAKED UPRISING
Think blonde wood and bricks with a Scandi twist and a style school sensibility. Corner House is pared back with a simple menu and a coffee obsession. Anyone for a Jigesa Ethiopian on the batch or a Moredocofe Espresso? They’ve got you.
One Penny Black serves coffee just the way Novacastrians like it—strong and deep. The type of place where baristas take every step of the process to heart, here is a café to benchmark all other coffees—serving up filter and single origin brews from a rustic shopfront and offering a small but seasonal menu to go with.
The suburban streets of Maryville have not been so sleepy since Baked Uprising set up shop. Serving up the freshest and most heavenly-smelling baked goods each morning, Alice and her team have earned a loyal clientele keen to secure their share of bread, tarts, brioche, pastries and cakes. Baristas are on hand to make the journey truly worthwhile.
Corner House 29 Union Street, Newcastle facebook.com/cornerhousecafe. newcastle
One Penny Black 196 Hunter Street, Newcastle
Baked Uprising
facebook/onepennyblackespressobar
21-25 Downie Street, Maryville facebook.com/bakeduprising
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GINGER MEG'S
What Ginger Meg's large warehouse fit-out lacks in windows it makes up for in giant Asian murals and brash, raw style, prompting people to wonder where it is they have landed for dinner. Promising Asian hawkerstyle dishes with flair and finesse, such as Shanghai braised pork belly and a plethora of dumpling choices, here is a place which also houses a truly fabulous bar. What is not to like? Ginger Meg's 212 King Street, Newcastle gingermegsx.com.au
FINE DINING SUBO
T H E F LY I N G T I G E R
R E S TAU R A N T M AS O N
It’s time to ditch the boardies and frock up for fine food and an elegant atmosphere. At Subo, it is about delicious and pictureperfect plates with a Japanese/ French twist. Partners Suzie and Beau bring their Sydney and Melbourne restaurant polish to this tiny but brilliant 35-seater establishment. Stay awhile and enjoy the degustation.
The Flying Tiger promises a perfect night out. The bar is downstairs, the restaurant on top, and there are bonus jungle plants, a giant tiger mural, and half a vintage aeroplane suspended in the air for good measure. But don’t let any of this distract you from the menu, which promises a broad range of dishes with a South American bent—heavy on chargrilled meat which is done on a giant multi-level charcoal grill. Yes, it’s every inch as eye-popping as it sounds.
Chris Thorton is a Newcastle lad who went out in search of culinary adventure, worked in Michelinstarred restaurants in the UK, then came back home to win some impressive accolades for his own establishment Restaurant Mason. Not shying from offal, venison, goat, or pheasant (but equally catering for vegetarians) Chris pushes the envelope and sets the city’s top standards. All accompanied by a beautiful wine list.
The Flying Tiger
restaurantmason.com
Subo 51D Hunter Street, Newcastle subo.com.au
31 Hunter Street, Newcastle tft231.com.au PAGE 74
Restaurant Mason 3/35 Hunter Street, Newcastle
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RUSTICA
S E AT AT T H E BA R
Sun, salt, and surf often require a chilled cocktail to take the heat off. But if you want to keep a close eye on those perfect waves, then the Merewether Surfhouse provides the best of both worlds. The terrace bar on the top level is a perfect perch from which to imbibe a fresh cocktail, or ale of your choice. If it sparks an appetite, pop across to Lesley Taylor’s eponymous restaurant and order a bottle of wine to enjoy while the sun sets.
Rustica makes it difficult to know where to look. Up at the hundreds of lanterns which make up its baroque interior? Or out at the crashing waves of Newcastle Beach? Perhaps you should simply focus on the menu, which delivers tapas-style, Mediterranean-infused platters best shared with friends or someone special. Rustica 21 King Street Newcastle East rustica.com.au
BASEMENT ON MARKET ST
Basement on Market St promises drinks as tempting as Limoncello Sorbita—Vodka, Licor 43, mint & limoncello sorbet. If that doesn’t scream Newcastle sunshine then what does? Basement is just as it sounds—dark and moody, with lots of steel, exposed brick, and just the right amount of lighting to set off an enormous stone bar, Basement is where the cool kids congregate for a Malbec and a selection of tapas. Basement on Market St
Merewether Surfhouse 5 Henderson Parade, Merewether
2/2 Market Street, Newcastle
surfhouse.com.au
basementonmarketst.com.au
VAULT 73
COAL & CEDAR
Vault 73 takes its name from the fact it is housed in an old bank building complete with marble pillars, miles of wood panelling and an old-fashioned manager’s door. Large leather armchairs conjure images of Newcastle’s monied forebears in discussion with their mortgage brokers, but really, all you’ll be thinking about is which cocktail goes best with the Italian food you’re about to order. A God Father (Amaretto di Saronno and Scotch whiskey) with Italian meatballs? A sound investment.
You’ll need to be in on a few secrets to visit Coal & Cedar. This hidden speakeasy has no signage or doorbell. But never fear—text a special code to a number on the wall and a host will open the door and usher you inside. There you’ll find a dark and tiny bar holding a maximum of 60 patrons. The bar staff love nothing more than discussing spirits and superior mixes, so tell them what flavours tempt you and see what they come up with.
Vault 73 73-75 Hunter Street, Newcastle vault73.com.au
BABYLON
Step back into the ‘20s at Babylon, which promises an art deco, dark-wooded, sophisticated bar experience even if technically you are sitting in a former Methodist Mission. Don’t let that put you off their extensive whiskey menu or a delightfully obscure craft beer. It feels extra fancy to lounge on velvet sofas underneath giant brass chandeliers.
Coal & Cedar 380 Hunter Street, Newcastle coalandcedar.com
Babylon 145 King Street, Newcastle babylonnewcastle.com.au
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THE OLIVE TREE MARKET
Shop till you drop
DARBY STREET
Darby Street shopping is not for the faint-hearted. It’s a street absolutely crammed with destination points. Fuel up at any one of the 25 cafes and head in to buy the latest street designer wear, alternate music, secondhand books, quirky homewares, or jewellery your heart desires. Unique fashion boutiques will have any style requirements covered. If you can decide on an outfit, peruse one of the private art galleries, where you can chat with a local artist. Darby Street, Newcastle
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Whether it is fresh produce, clothes, art or the most covetable of homewares, Newcastle has an edge as a shopping mecca. Founded in 2008, The Olive Tree Market is the city’s most thriving contemporary handmade art and design market. Featuring 150 stalls each month, you can purchase photography, illustration, fashion, ceramics, home wares, jewellery, printmaking, sustainable design, textile arts, wood and metal work, painting and handmade children’s clothing and toys. There is also dedicated gourmet artisan produce area and delicious food from around the world. First Saturday of the month, and first and third Saturdays of November and December, in Civic Park, Newcastle theolivetreemarket.com.au
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NEWCASTLE FARMERS MARKET
STREET FEAST
Speaking of food, the Newcastle Farmers Market is a true treasure. Peruse avenues of fresh produce and chat to the farmer who lovingly nurtured it to market. If you’re feeling a little lazy, fill your basket with prepared gourmet treats—everything from bread to pasta to wine awaits you. And if you can’t even be bothered waiting to get home, there’s food ready to eat then and there. No one will go hungry.
Street Feast is all the food you need to eat while soaking up a carnival-style atmosphere which shows off Newcastle harbour and those magnificent sunsets. Part of the Hunt&Gather market empire, Street Feast takes place one evening of every month— usually at Foreshore or Dixon Parks. Bring a picnic blanket and enjoy live music while you try and narrow down the food highlights you’re keen to try. Stretchy pants mandatory.
Each Sunday in various locations
Street Feast is held monthly
around the city
huntandgatherevents.com/
newcastlecityfarmersmarket.com.au
street-feast
“If you’re feeling a little lazy, fill your basket with prepared gourmet treats—everything from bread to pasta to wine awaits you.”
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Something a bit different SANBAH GINDHOUSE
F O R T S C R ATC H L E Y
HELI SERVICES NEWCASTLE
Sanbah Gindhouse allows you to eat, drink, shop. And skate. Grab your deck and hit the (indoor) pavement or just watch how the experts do it at any number of competitions and demonstrations. Always buzzing, you can enjoy the 570 square metre concrete skate by hiring equipment for the day.
Built in 1882 to defend the city against a possible Russian attack, Fort Scratchley went into battle in June 1942 during the shelling of Newcastle and was decommissioned in 1972. Set atop Flagstaff Hill, here is a place rich in interest and history, with tours running daily. Or simply explore it yourself. The underground tunnels are particularly thrilling—if you don’t mind confined spaces.
If you want to see the city from its best vantage—go up. Heli Services Newcastle offer a unique perspective on the city from its fleet of helicopters that take in the harbour before swooping over foreshore attractions including Honeysuckle and Nobby’s Head. Try a breweries tour, or the aptly named “vines from the sky”, or head out to the dunes of Port Stephens.
Centre, Newcastle West
Fort Scratchley
Heli Services Newcastle
sanbahgrindhouse.com
Nobbys Road, Newcastle East
8 Cowper Street, Newcastle
newcastle.nsw.gov.au
heliservices.com.au
Sanbah Gindhouse Shop 35, Marketown Shopping
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NEWCASTLEAFOOT
C I V I C T H E AT R E
Alternatively, get out and tour the city on foot. Newcastleafoot offers specialised tours by those in the know. The Seascapes to Laneways Tour includes eclectic streets between the harbour and the sea, hidden houses, art and laneways, and the hippest creative hubs. Get the low-down on everything from Aboriginal culture, to the city’s rich convict and industrial history, right through to what makes modern Newcastle tick. Includes a coffee stop at one of the buzzing cafes that makes the city tick.
The city’s cultural heart beats strongly, and nowhere more so than out of the Civic Theatre. The 1400-capacity venue has a jam-packed calendar of shows to suit every taste—drawing the big international and national names. From comedy festivals, to music and children’s theatre, there is always something interesting to book. Civic Theatre 375 Hunter Street, Newcastle civictheatrenewcastle.com.au
BLACKBUTT RESERVE
If nature is more your jam, Blackbutt Reserve is less than 10kms from the city but feels like a world away. Explore the natural bushland park where you can hang with wildlife including koalas, emu, wombats and loads of birdlife. Reconnect with your contemplative side during a long walk or book in for a reptile encounter or emu feeding time. Blackbutt Reserve Carnley Avenue, Kotara newcastle.nsw.gov.au
newcastleafoot.com.au
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THE WHITE JACKET EFFECT
Chefs spreading light across a dark industry W O R D S
Emma Macdonald
P H O T O G R A P H Y
Tim Bean
Hospitality is a tough gig—marked by long hours, pressure, social isolation, alcohol and drug abuse and low wages. Not to mention, everyone’s a critic when it comes to your work. In Canberra, a group of industry insiders are reaching out to support those for whom the pressure becomes too much.
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A BRISK WIND whips through the car yards at the busy industrial end of Phillip. But behind the frontage of local eatery Manolo’s on Botany Street, a warm light emanates from behind the frosty glass. The door is closed on a Monday night, but, inside, hospitality veterans crowd around a long table sharing platters of food expertly prepared by owner Alex Piris. This is not the start of a private, rowdy, cocaine-fuelled chefs’ all-night gettogether you might read about in The New Yorker. There’s no bawdy language, boastful tales or revelations of past excesses. Instead there is talk is of health, self-care, mental preservation, mentoring and good role modelling for new generations of apprentices.
Amber Kaba is spearheading the White Jacket Effect. She wants chefs who don their trademark white jacket to take on responsibility for changing the prevailing kitchen culture and to provide a beacon of easily identifiable hope within the hothouse environment of a busy meal service. Amber has fallen prey to the devastating realities of a life dedicated to hospitality.
The group, whose impressive collective résumé spans some of the city’s best restaurants, check in with each other. “How are you feeling? What are your thoughts?”
Having been a chef for more than 20 years, earning her credentials at Sydney’s Quay before working in several Michelin-starred restaurants in London, Amber learned early on that she needed to be tough to survive and succeed.
The assembled chefs are aware of a crisis in their industry—a crisis born of alcohol and drug abuse, long hours, social isolation, mental health disorders, low pay, bullying and unrelenting pressure. They are part of a movement—the White Jacket Effect—that is attempting to subvert from within.
Like so many of her colleagues, Amber pushed through the inherent competitiveness of the industry to make her mark. She endured the ridiculous hours, pressure-cooker environment and loss of connection to family and friends in the name of perfection on a plate. But it was not without cost. Those late night come-downs after a big dinner service usually ended in drinking. And after a while, alcohol became an emotional crutch that she leaned on every day.
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Two years ago, Amber hit rock bottom, acknowledging that her alcohol abuse, which she had cleverly disguised for so long, was controlling her. “I tried three times to give up. And none of those times I ever thought to reach out to discuss my problems with anyone. It was drummed into me during my training that you didn’t ask for help because it was a sign of weakness.” Added to that was the prevailing drinking culture in the kitchen which saw many colleagues encourage her to keep drinking even when they could see the personal toll it was taking. But somehow, two years ago, Amber found the inner strength to turn away from the bottle. And she has resolved to stay sober, even when alcohol regularly flows around her in her workplace. She remembers discussing her battles with her mentor, chef Richard Moyser, a well-credentialled British-born Sydney food identity.
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It absolutely knocked Amber for six when Moyser took his own life at the start of this year. She thought he had it all—his own restaurant, great reviews, a place in the limelight. But he was beholden to addictions to drugs and alcohol which began at literally the same time his career started. Amber was beyond devastated. Since then she has been on a mission, attempting to establish the White Jacket Effect as a culturebreaking cause for good across the country. A high-profile launch at Quay alongside industry stars Peter Gilmore and Neil Perry took place in April. Amber has also recently launched in Melbourne, Queensland and Canberra, hoping to raise awareness of the inherent negative consequences of an industry that, despite it all, she clearly adores. Now married and pregnant to Ismail Kaba, who worked in Canberra at the Ottoman before the pair met in Sydney, Amber wants mental health care for hospitality workers to be raised across the industry.
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“My vision is to develop communicative, ‘Safe House Leaders’ in the cheffing community who are keen to abolish suffering in silence, address ‘balance’ and encourage health and wellness and start conversations about how to have a healthy relationship with alcohol. “I am committed to taking action to cause change in the culture of the kitchen and to redefine what it means to put on that white jacket.” Amber is not alone. A number of industry names are broadening their focus from simply plating up to opening up helpful dialogues on mental health awareness and the need for kinder kitchens—names such as Mal Meiers, the Newcastle-based chef who withstood a battle with alcohol and depression before starting Food for Thought, a charity which promotes discussion around mental health in the industry. Sydney chef Liam Crawley has also established Hospo for Life—aimed at promoting longevity in the industry over burn-out, or worse. Amber didn’t have to convince Manolo’s owner Alex that movement needed to happen in Canberra, and he put the call out to a number of local industry heavyweights to support the cause.
Independent of Amber’s movement in Sydney, Alex had already gathered some of his restaurant owner friends at the start of the year and started posing questions. ‘How was everyone feeling? What could be done to make things better?’. “I wanted to connect emotionally with my colleagues. We understand the industry and we understand each other.” Not lost on any of the industry stalwarts gathered around Alex’s table during one of their get-togethers is the fact that apprentices are increasingly hard to find. “We need to clean up the industry so that we can attract more people to it,” says Alex. “The lack of staff is becoming a problem for everyone.” But he is passionate about the positives of the industry as well. Ultimately, the adrenaline rush, the food, the camaraderie, the customers, and the creativity make hospitality a desirable career choice. “I love it, it is in my blood, and I want others to be able to enjoy it too”.
A Facebook page, What’s on Your Plate, is open to local hospo workers and Alex posts some of the increasing media coverage which considers the unfair burden placed on those who serve others, as well as thought-provoking pieces on work/life balance and mental health in general. For Alex, it was the suicide of celebrity chef and author Anthony Bourdain last year, which made him take serious stock. “I think I was in shock for a good couple of days. I mean, here was a man who was living the dream—the food, the celebrity, the travel. And yet, he was not coping.” Within a few months, Sydney celebrity chef Justin Bull had also taken his own life inside his brilliantlyreviewed Bronte café Huxton’s. The previous year, the industry was left in shock after popular chefs Jeremy Strode and Darren Simpson died—Strode losing his battle with depression, and Simpson suffering a heart attack following a lengthy battle with alcoholism. “I really started to question the industry. I didn’t have the answers,” admitted Alex. PAGE 87
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“We all really need a platform to talk and express ourselves and to discuss the drug and alcohol problems that are present in the industry. Some people thrive in the kitchen, but for others, the pressure just destroys them. Nobody wants to see that keep happening.”
Like Amber, Alex saw the need for the industry to be opened up for communication and emotional support. Amber travelled to Canberra and now has the support of some of Canberra’s notable chefs. Chefs like Kurt Neumann from Grazing, who was just 26 when he became head chef at then fine-diner Alto. Kurt considers himself lucky in that he runs Grazing with his wife Tanya, and they have a shared experience of the industry that allows them to debrief and lean on each other when necessary. His concern is for the young apprentices coming up through the ranks. “There’s no way to sugar-coat it. It is a high-paced and pressured environment and some people can crack.” He sees the White Jacket Effect as an important step towards encouraging communication and support within workplaces. He also sees it as perhaps a way to encourage greater female representation within the male-dominated industry. “We have to break down some of the traditional barriers to getting more women into professional kitchens.” Yet he knows systemic change will be a long time in coming. “Ultimately people in hospitality are going to choose their own path but if that involves self-destructive behaviour then I would really like to think that somewhere in their restaurant there is a hand they can reach out to for assistance. It hasn’t been like that in the past.” Nathan Kleinig from Rodney’s Garden Café at Pialligo says the last year has been tough to deal with in terms of high-profile losses and a spotlight shining into the darker recesses of dysfunctional kitchen cultures.
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Coming from a cheffing family, Nathan loves his calling in life, but says he has had to watch some of his staff struggle. “I think we all really need a platform to talk and express ourselves and to discuss the drug and alcohol problems that are present in the industry. Some people thrive in the kitchen, but for others, the pressure just destroys them. Nobody wants to see that keep happening.” For Vanessa Scanes, who made her mark running the kitchen at The Lobby Restaurant when it was the place for power-broking among Canberra’s political elite, her awareness of the industry’s dark side has seen her turn to earning qualifications in educational support and counselling for adolescents. She is also a qualified yoga instructor, turning her focus inwards at moments of intense kitchen pressure, instead of to cracking a good bottle of champagne before or after a service. Vanessa has always had to be tough to survive as a woman, but she also acknowledges she has played a “mothering role” to many vulnerable staff. She has always taken the attitude that she would call out bad behaviour and that she would mentor and support those who were coming up through the ranks. Now running her own catering consultancy, she has taught at Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) and says boundaries, rules and responsibilities need to be taught early on. “Unchecked behaviour and old ways of thinking has enabled abuse to continue and that has set in motion many poor outcomes.” “I’ve experienced the pan-throwing and the ferocious yelling. To be scared is common. But everyone has a right to feel safe when they are doing their job.”
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This right is something Dean Parkes is trying to educate new generations of potential apprentices in. Having cheffed around Australia and Europe, Dean has chosen a different career direction in becoming the Hospitality Coordinator and Food Technology teacher at Marist College. It means he stays connected to the industry but gets to see his wife and three young kids.
“I think with our current mental health concerns about young people in conjunction with them possibly entering the hospitality industry makes this something we definitely need to talk about it.” ¡
NEED TO TALK TO SOMEONE?
He tries to equip his young charges with the right attitude and skills for a bright future. But he is also realistic.
Lifeline 13 11 14
“It’s a hard industry and I have seen many students with amazing skills and enthusiasm just get burnt out within a few years. Low wages, poor conditions are just a start…This stress is for a job where there is not a lot of money compared with the hours you work, no time with family and the temptation of selfmedication. In my time I have witnessed suicides, drug and alcohol addiction, marriage break-ups and drug induced psychosis.”
MensLine Australia 1300 789 978
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Head East W O R D S
Beatrice Smith
P H O T O G R A P H Y
Monique Easton
South of the border, east of the sun, lies Thredbo’s most beautiful accommodation.
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PHOTOGRAPHER MONIQUE EASTON’S personal history is inextricable with that of Thredbo. Many Australians, especially Canberrans, credit Thredbo as a formative influence on their lives, but without the pull of the Snowy Mountains’ quiet slopes (and not-so-quiet village atmosphere), Monique might not be here today. “My parents met in Thredbo at House of Ullr, when my mother was doing a gap year,” she explains. “She was cleaning my dad’s room and had decided to help herself to a slice of his peanut butter toast in the kitchen. My dad came back to pick up something from the room and caught her, mid-bite.” A few years later and Monique was herself traversing Thredbo’s pristine slopes—albeit in a carrier on her dad’s back, which she admits would not “pass OH&S nowadays. What can I say, it was the ‘80s!” As her father worked with the Australian Paralympic Ski team, Monique continued to spend time in Thredbo. But it wasn’t until she had the opportunity to purchase a slice of the town's tightly-held property market that she was able to make her own impression. Purchasing two properties on opposite sides of Thredbo village, Monique set about creating her luxurious mountain hideaways. Rented as separate Airbnbs, the Cedar Cabin and Oak Apartment form The Eastern. Each has its own distinct personality, but they took some time to reveal.
With both spaces purchased in their original condition from the ‘90s, and construction only able to take place in summer, all renovations had to be efficient and modular. However, while Monique sought to keep the properties’ Snowy Mountains soul intact and pay homage to the unique Thredbo atmosphere, she was also influenced by some of the world’s chicest alpine locations. “The Cedar Cabin is both raw and refined with vaulted ceilings, exposed timbers and blackened steel. I mixed Scandinavian handheld carry lamps with Australian bush rimmed crockery and chose objects like a growler and a camp chair by US outdoors company Filson to decorate the space.”
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“Guests love listening to the sound of the water as they go to sleep.”
Positioned next to the Thredbo River, Monique says guests love listening to the sound of the water as they go to sleep. In summer, the river creates a natural swimming hole and, in winter, the cabin’s glazed Onsen-style two-person bath is “always popular with guests after a day on the mountain”. While you may be forgiven for thinking you’re in Colorado’s Sun Valley—or perhaps the Swiss Alps—in the Cedar Cabin, The Eastern’s two-person Oak Apartment was influenced by minimalist Scandinavian spaces and Monique’s own travel memories. “Prior to renovating the Oak Apartment, I had been married in a minimalist farmhouse in Italy,” says Monique. “It was an old farmhouse in a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere and I fell in love with the simplicity of the architecture.” “I wanted the cabin to feel like an extremely luxurious camping experience. The whole process of climbing up the ladder to get to the loft area feels very European and removed from day-to-day life.” “The ceiling is clad in textural, rough-sawn timber and when lying in bed the ceiling slopes down in front of you, almost like a tent. It’s very cosy.”
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“The house had been abandoned many years ago and was picked up by the new owners as a ruin, they commissioned Swiss architects Markus Wespi and Jérôme de Meuron to transform the inside into a minimalist haven, with neutral colours and flooded in light. The property is so stylish and humble and doesn’t compete with the view.”
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“Part of visiting the mountains is all about getting out of the city, switching off and connecting with the landscape.”
When it came to fitting out the Oak Apartment, Monique “took cues from the surrounding environment, keeping the colour palette muted and incorporating natural materials like wood, stone, leather and brass.” “The space is very Nordic minimalist; the design emphasises the clean lines and makes the view a focal point for the apartment. I was very careful to leave the materials in their most natural state—think white washed timbers and ebonised tones with a hard-wax finish.”
“In the Oak Apartment the kitchen is my favourite space. The ebonised timber in a sideboard style looks more like a piece of furniture than a kitchen. A Normann Copenhagen Amp Lamp sits in the corner and the space has a large picture window of Mt Kosciuszko.” Monique explains that in a location where space is at a premium, accommodation quickly tends to be about bodies in beds, not atmosphere. “There’s a common theme in the village of squeezing in as many beds as possible, with no goal other than maximum capacity. This was something I wanted to avoid.” While Monique is well acquainted with Thredbo’s popularity, she says the Snowy Mountains can still represent an experiential hideaway, and this lies at the heart of The Eastern’s appeal.
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“Part of visiting the mountains is all about getting out of the city, switching off and connecting with the landscape,” she explains. “I strategically chose locations on the edge of the village so guests could wake to an uninterrupted view of Mount Kosciuszko, get the feeling of being remote, while still being able to enjoy the local facilities.” “I think climbing up the ladder of the Cedar Cabin and sleeping amongst the woodgrain of the ceiling adds to creating an experience that is removed from everyday life. I feel like modern travellers expect an experience, not just a place to sleep.” ¡ theeasternthredbovillage.com
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Trans, Happy and Free. W O R D S
Emma Macdonald
P H O T O G R A P H Y
Martin Ollman
It’s no small personal transformation to change gender. But for these four Canberrans, it has been the only way to live an authentic life. We meet them at various stages of their journey, as well as the people who’ve supported them along the way.
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“The ACT has led the nation in breaking down barriers for trans and gender diverse people.”
ANNE-MARIE CONDÉ looks back to her secondborn’s early years and sees no signs that her daughter did not identify with the gender assigned to them at birth. But Anne-Marie does recall her child repeatedly asking her what name she would have chosen for a boy. “Edward” was her response. And Eddie, as he is now named, is quietly, confidently, most happily a young man—having undergone a gender transition over the past two years. Anne-Marie is an unflappable public servant who loves her son unconditionally, and gets rather a kick that he chose the name she loved. In fact, she can see him completely settled into his true self. “It was meant to be.” “You just want your child to be happy and to reach their full potential. Gender doesn’t really enter into it,” she says. THERE ARE NO hard statistics on how many ACT residents are transgender. But Joel Radcliffe, Deputy Director at A Gender Agenda (AGA), estimates the population is likely to be much higher than the number formally accessing support services. “It’s impossible to know an exact figure as there is no population data collection method that accurately includes trans and gender diverse communities—in the ACT or anywhere else in the country.” Using a best practice study of young people out of New Zealand, Joel extrapolates the rate is somewhere betweentwo-to-four per cent. AGA received more than 2000 contacts last year and has grown steadily since its inception in 2005 as a grassroots advocacy group for trans, intersex, and gender-diverse Canberrans and their allies. It was born of the need to connect trans community members and tackle discriminatory laws and policies which were in place in the ACT at the time. But a landmark Law Reform Advisory Report, Beyond the
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Binary, in 2012, saw the ACT adopt the nation’s most progressive legislative recognitions of the rights of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, and Intersex (LGBTQI) community. This included a reform that allows people to change their gender on birth certificates without undertaking potentially sterilising surgeries, providing birth certificates with an ‘x’ as a sex marker where requested and, in 2015, the Commonwealth removed the requirement that people under the age of 18 receive Family Court approval before starting hormone therapy. ACT Discrimination Commissioner Karen Toohey said that while Tasmania has been the focus in recent months of plaudits for its progressive legislative changes regarding gender diversity, the ACT has led the nation in breaking down barriers for trans and gender diverse people. The trans community is keen to see the Legislative Assembly pass further changes to allow people under the age of 18 to change or remove the gender marker on their birth certificate without parental permission through the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal—an important step when young trans people are not supported by their parents or carers to legally transition. The AGA was one of the main consultative partners in the Beyond the Binary report and has grown, in recent years, to offer outreach to the trans and intersex community, their family and friends, and provide education for workplaces and individuals seeking to implement inclusive practice. FOR ANNE-MARIE and 16-year-old Eddie, AGA has been a welcome place of support throughout his transition. The message they most want other families to understand is that being trans does not have to be a negative experience. And life goes on for mother and son, just as it would have for mother and daughter. “I actually see our story as really ordinary,” says Anne-Marie.
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“My heart aches for the children in regional or remote communities who cannot access services, or any child who does not get the support they deserve.”
“There was no real drama or trauma involved and a lot of that has to do with living in Canberra. I am extremely grateful for that and my heart aches for the children in regional or remote communities who cannot access services, or any child who does not get the support they deserve.”
Lisa and Stewart accepted their child’s feelings and sought advice to support him to understand his identity. Zeke, however, recalls the subsequent visit to a GP saw discussions focused on possible future medical interventions, which frightened and confused him.
From Eddie’s perspective, he understood the concept behind transitioning in primary school and by Year 6 identified as bisexual. He felt unsettled as puberty struck and, by 13, anxiety had set in.
“I had no idea why I was feeling the way I was feeling, which lead me to falsely believe that there was something seriously wrong with me in the head—so I avoided the whole thought process until it became unavoidable. Had someone explained what transgender meant, I would have most certainly transitioned earlier,” says Zeke.
To this day, Eddie says he finds it difficult to grapple with the words to explain how he felt about growing up as a girl, other than “kind of empty”. Now he feels a sense of himself. “I’m glad I have more of my life to live to the fullest.”
Instead, he backed away from transitioning and continued to try and live as a girl. But by 13, he felt like “crap”.
Having begun hormone therapy at 15, Eddie was delighted to hear his voice deepen over a few months. Less ideal were the skin breakouts and increased body odour, but such is testosterone.
It was only when Zeke broke down one day, coming home in tears, saying “I don’t want to be a girl,” that he suddenly realised his future was clear.
He had chest reconstruction (top surgery) very recently and is delighted with the results. He has no more plans for surgery but wouldn’t completely rule out other procedures further down the track. Eddie considers himself lucky. He has numerous transgender friends and those who are gay and non-binary. Not everyone has had the same levels of acceptance as he has. When he transitioned at Lyneham High School, Eddie said his teachers did not bat an eyelid. They changed his name on the roll and he was able to use the male toilets. The school even has a gender-neutral loo. BUT FOR ZEKE, coming out as a trans boy while he was enrolled at an all-girls’ school proved more testing. Zeke’s internal sense that he was not a girl kicked in a lot earlier than Eddie’s. Born in China and adopted by his Canberra parents Stewart and Lisa when he was a baby, the now 17-year-old first explained to his parents that he felt like a boy around the age of nine. But Zeke had experienced gender dysphoria from far earlier in childhood.
“I look back now and kind of wish I had done it at nine because I would have avoided puberty as a girl altogether.” His parents were on board, as they had always been, and Zeke started the process of transition. Both he and Eddie relate feeling incredible relief in not having to front the Family Court to plead their case for bodily autonomy but they say one of the hardest parts of transitioning in Canberra is the need to travel interstate for many of the specialist medical and psychological services they’ve required. Currently, both receive ongoing hormone treatments through the Paediatric Endocrinology Unit at the Canberra hospital which opened in 2015 due to the increase in trans people and their families seeking support. By 15, Zeke was ready to come out at school, and praises his pastoral care teacher for her understanding and compassion. His name was changed on the school roll. Less supportive was the recognition coming from the school’s hierarchy over the strict dress code. “Having to wear a dress at school was physically and mentally killing me,” he says. PAGE 107
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In the end his mother took matters into her own hands and bought Zeke trousers to wear to school “because my mum is a superstar like that”. Zeke started hormones the same day he got his L-Plates. It was a very good day indeed. While he “passed” for a boy prior to hormone therapy, the testosterone broadened his face and his shoulders and deepened his voice. “The best part of the transition is I have become who I am. The worst part is society sucks with trans people. They are ignorant and prejudiced and scared of us. It’s hard enough being a teenager, but when I see trans mental health stats it really depresses me.”
Christopher says there is no single path to transgenderism. Many children have a clear sense of gender from the age of about three. Some identify as trans as young as five. But others may try and mask it through their lifetime, or come out in middle age or later life. Christopher’s youngest client is 14, his oldest, 76. It is a completely individual thing. So too is the reaction of each trans person’s family and friends. Most heartbreaking are the cases where a transition means complete rejection by a partner, parents or children. It happens far too often.
This includes statistics which show that three-quarters of all trans people present with a mental health disorder and a staggering 48 per cent of young trans people attempt suicide.
Christopher recalls seeing one mother and son where the mother was so unable to come to terms with her son's true gender identity that she begged Christopher to convince him he wasn’t trans—and that it was all just an act.
CHRISTOPHER COLE has been privy to the very darkest and most desperate emotions of trans people who can find the strength to reveal their deepest selves—only to be rejected by the outside world.
But Christopher says no amount of arguing, pleading or convincing can “change” what is fundamentally core to someone’s sense of self. He has never known anyone to change their mind, or to want to detransition.
A specialist counsellor with Relationships Australia, Christopher helped negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding with AGA in 2015, having worked for many years with current Executive Director of AGA, Sel Cooper. The two highly experienced counsellors understood the need for fact-tracked and expert support for trans people in crisis.
Moreover, a 2018 survey of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health surgeons found only approximately 0.3 per cent of patients who underwent transition-related surgery later requested detransition-related services.
Christopher has worked alongside about 30 trans people since then, saying the MOU meant the service was free, immediate and connected to lived experience. “Coming to a mainstream service can be taking a great risk for some trans and gender-diverse clients. Many would have experienced various forms of transphobia at some stage in the community— experiences that can leave the person traumatised, fearful, and suspicious. “If an authentic rapport can be established from the outset, and if the person to senses that you are a true trans ally, then great work can happen in the room, with positive outcomes for the individual and their broader relationships.”
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“I think we need to accept that children have agency and insight into their experience of being a sentient being and 'knowing' themselves,” he says. “I've heard criticisms of gender-questioning adolescents that they're just doing it for attention, or that it's 'fashionable'. Who the hell would 'choose' an identity that can attract such social and interpersonal ridicule, misunderstanding, fear, and violence? Being trans or gender variant is not a choice.” “Rampant cultural and societal paternalism infantilises these children and young people in very harmful ways—leading directly, in my opinion, to very poor mental health outcomes with some people. The saying ‘would you rather have a happy daughter or a dead son?’ rings very true.” The earlier that a child who experiences gender dysphoria is allowed to feel safe and given the space and support to work through it the better, he says.
“When I was about seven, a group of boys at my primary school pulled me up and told me to walk like a boy. I wondered what I was doing wrong, and what I was meant to be doing?” By age nine she developed a crush on her male teacher and figured she was gay. By the time she was a teenager she saw The Sound of Music and remembers “floating around on a romantic cloud wishing with every part of me to have a husband like Captain Von Trapp.” She met her own captain, Paul, in 1993, and they lived harmoniously as a gay couple. Meanwhile, Dr Soo’s practice was going well and earning a reputation as a place which provided professional and non-judgemental care particularly to the LGBTQI community. Dr Soo treats about 40 transgender patients and says they have been a constant source of support and information in her own transition.
Not that outcomes can’t be just as joyful for someone coming out in their fifties. DR TUCK MENG SOO has been a doctor at the Interchange General Practice for the last 23 years. Last year she transitioned, and while she is still professionally registered under her male Chinese name, she has chosen the name Clara Soo for her private life. A few weeks leading to her coming out as female, Dr Soo wrote to all her patients to let them know that she understood it might be confronting for them and she would organise an alternative GP if they needed. Not one patient left her. And on her first day in a dress, a very cantankerous 80-year-old Chinese patient bashed on the door with a complaint about his blood tests. As Dr Soo hurried to calm him down, he turned to her with a huge grin and said “By the way, congratulations” as he pulled out a pearl necklace from his bag to present to her. Born the son of traditional Chinese tiger-parents with a strong streak of social conservatism, Dr Soo knew from a very young age she was female.
Earlier this year, she and Paul married as husband and wife. Paul’s reaction when he saw his partner in a dress for the first time was “one of surprised delight” and he has always cherished Dr Soo’s feminine traits. By the time this article goes to print, Dr Soo will have undergone gender affirming surgery. She is doing this because, while her outer transition satisfies the community’s sense of what a female should look like, the surgical transition will satisfy her own sense of being a woman. Dr Soo says her parents have found her late-life transition to be challenging. But she felt some sense of acceptance when her mother cleared out her wardrobe of dresses and offered them to her daughter to wear. And she attributes her decision to transition to ghosts. Yes, ghosts. In 2017, a holiday in Singapore coincided with the Chinese Festival Night of the Hungry Ghost. “In my teens I had often experienced a nightmare about being chased by a ghost. But it stopped in my late 20s and I feel that was because I had accepted my sexuality and had come out as gay.” But after Singapore, the nightmares returned and Dr Soo said she had to stop and think about what it was in her subconscious that she was suppressing.
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“I have experienced the three emotions of being a man—food, sex and sport—and now I am experiencing the 3000 emotions of being a woman.”
“After thinking about it, I realised, I needed to welcome my gender home.” THE IDEA THAT that welcome can come later in life is also the case for Dana Gambrill—who identifies as a business problem solver, a surfer, bad golfer, muso, pizza-lover, father of three, heart-attack survivor, and woman. Where public transitions are concerned, Dana’s was pretty spectacular. Her workplace, at DXC Technology, was looking to mark International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia in a meaningful way. The company’s Digital Leader for the Public Sector felt brave enough to speak to a camera about her decision to transition from being David to Dana at the age of 54. The company live streamed the resulting video to its offices around the world. Professionally, Dana has not looked back, not only being buoyed by the support of her colleagues and clients in the traditional masculine intersection between IT provision and Government bureaucracies, but also experiencing some sort of a career turbo-charge. “My transition has gone so unbelievably well it has unlocked the world for me. I didn’t realise the amount of mental horsepower I was wasting on hiding who I was, and once I stopped worrying what people thought of me all the time, I could focus on moving forward and becoming way more effective.” Now Dana is hitting goals professionally, while championing inclusion and diversity on the public speaking circuit nationally. She may have suffered gender dysphoria as a man, but as a woman she is experiencing gender euphoria—the simple act of getting her ears pierced or her nails done, bringing a sense of complete elation. Not that it didn’t take suffering to get to that point. Dana describes a recent period in her life of intense personal trauma which left her close to a breakdown.
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“I was lost. I needed to figure out who I was and rebuild from core values up—and I couldn’t do that as David. “At that point it came down to a simple matter of survival. People talk about being brave and courageous. But you only see very limited options when you are in the thick of it.” The big work reveal was “the scariest thing I have ever done, and only came after I had created a circle of trust and knew I had support”. Dana’s three kids were all pretty cool in their own way and in their own time, and her nine-year-old daughter seems unfazed about “Dad” as she is still happily referred to, wearing a pair of killer heels and sporting perfect makeup. “I could not have imagined just what my life would become, I almost feel guilty.” Dana has a new partner who is a woman coming out of a marriage to a man. “Love is love and it’s a gift,” says Dana. Meanwhile, her hormone therapy has been a blessing and a curse. “I mean, what a circus! I have experienced the three emotions of being a man—food, sex and sport—and now I am experiencing the 3000 emotions of being a woman. “I’ve gone through female puberty and menopause at the same time, had the pain of my boobs growing while simultaneously experiencing night sweats. All while crying. What an awakening!” Dana relates how she would often catch a glimpse of herself as David in the mirror each morning and have an automatic flinch reaction to see a stranger staring back at her. Now she sees herself in the mirror and recognises with complete and utter gratitude, the woman she was always meant to be. ¡
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MAGA ZINE I S S U E NO.17
Chocolate /ˈtʃɒk(ə)lət/
noun A food in the form of a paste or solid block made from roasted and ground cacao seeds, typically sweetened and eaten as confectionery.
S T Y L I N G
+
W O R D S
P H O T O G R A P H Y
Belinda Neame
Tim Bean
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Hot chocolate with maple syrup INGREDIENTS 200g dark chocolate, finely chopped 1 L milk 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 Tbsp maple syrup White marshmallows, whipped cream and cocoa, to serve
METHOD
Place the chocolate, milk, vanilla and maple syrup in a small saucepan, and stir over medium heat until the chocolate has melted. Continue to heat for 2 minutes or until hot. Divide the mixture between four 250ml cups and finish with a dollop of cream, cocoa and marshmallows. S E RVES 4 Adapted from an original recipe by Donna Hay
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Nigella’s double choc chip cookies INGREDIENTS 125g dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids) 150g plain flour 30g cocoa powder 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda ½ tsp salt 125g soft unsalted butter 75g soft light brown sugar 50g white sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 large egg (cold from the fridge) 350g dark chocolate chips METHOD
Preheat the oven to 170°C. Melt the chocolate in a small heatproof bowl over a simmering pot of water. Sift the cocoa, flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a mixing bowl. Using a freestanding mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the melted chocolate and slowly mix together. Beat in the vanilla extract and cold egg, and then stir in the dry ingredients. Finish the mixture by adding the chocolate chips and stir to combine. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out 12 mounds and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper about 6cm apart—do not flatten. Cook for 18 minutes, testing with a skewer to make sure it comes out semi-clean and not wet with cake batter. Cool slightly on the baking tray for 4-5 minutes, and then transfer to a cooling rack. MAKES : 12 COOKI ES (MORE OR LES S, D E PE N D I N G HOW B I G YO U LI KE TH E M!) Adapted from an original recipe by Nigella Lawson.
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Double brownie INGREDIENTS ¾ cup cocoa ¾ cup brown sugar 1⅓ cups caster sugar 1 cup plain flour 175g unsalted butter, melted and cooled 1 tsp vanilla extract 3 eggs 125g dark chocolate, chopped
METHOD
Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease and line a 20cm square tin with baking paper. Place the flour, cocoa, both sugars, butter, vanilla and eggs in a large bowl and stir until smooth. Add the chocolate and stir to combine. Spread the mixture evenly into the tin and smooth over the top. Bake for 40 minutes or until the brownie is set—it’s better to undercook than overcook the brownie so you get the gooey effect. Yum. Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before slicing into squares and serving warm, or allow to cool completely in the tin. Serve with a dollop of cream and a dusting of cocoa. MAKES 16 Adapted from an original recipe by Donna Hay
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Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache icing INGREDIENTS 3 cups plain flour 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 1 cup hot water 1 cup cocoa 1 cup cold water 200g softened unsalted butter 2 1/2 cups caster sugar 4 eggs 1 Tbsp vanilla extract METHOD
Preheat oven to 170C and line four muffin trays with cupcake liners. In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, bicarb soda, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, stir together the hot water and cocoa until smooth. Add the cold water and whisk until evenly combined. Using a freestanding mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add half the flour and half the cocoa mixture to the creamed mixture and beat on low speed until smooth. Repeat this process with the remaining mixtures and beat until thoroughly combined—do not overbeat, as this will toughen the mixture. Spoon mixture into cupcake liners and fill approximately three-quarters full. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from the trays immediately and allow to cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes before icing. MAKES ABO UT 3 0 M U FFI N-S IZE D CU PCAKES
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Ganache icing INGREDIENTS 1 1/2 cups cream 400g dark chocolate, chopped METHOD
Bring cream to the boil in a heavy-based saucepan. Place the chocolate in a bowl and pour the boiling cream over. Leave for about 1 minute to soften. Carefully stir the ganache until the mixture is glossy. Let the ganache cool to room temperature and then apply to the cupcakes with a small spatula or place in a piping bag with a star tip and ice using a swirl effect. MAKES E NO U G H I CI N G FOR 24 CU PCAKES Adapted from an original recipe from the Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook
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MAGA ZINE I S S U E NO.17
Canberra's Coffee Revolution W O R D S
Amanda Whitley
P H O T O G R A P H Y
Tim Bean
As Canberrans become increasingly discerning about their daily brew, local coffee roasters are rising to the challenge.
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Lonsdale Roasters It may well be the café that kickstarted Canberra’s coffee scene. In early 2009, Lonsdale Street Roasters was a quirky little café on a fairly lonely Braddon strip, serving excellent brews that soon earned them a big reputation. These days, Lonsdale Street is teeming with caffiends all eager for their coffee fix—and Director Paul Hutt couldn’t be happier. “It’s amazing—since we opened we have seen a massive influx of roasters and cafés in Canberra. It’s great to see young entrepreneurs giving a go,” says Paul. After all, every successful business starts small. From the early days of a 12kg Has Garanti roaster in a 1950s Braddon shed, Lonsdale Roasters (as they’re now known) roast close to two tonnes of coffee per week with a 50kg Diedrich infrared coffee roaster which allows maximum control over the roasting process. And they use only the best green beans they can find.
“We try to source beans from most of world’s great coffee producing regions so we can give our customers a wide choice of flavours,” says Paul. “Right now we are working with an allfemale coffee producing co-op (Nziza Collective) based in Rwanda [and] are donating $2 from every bag sale straight back to the co-op.” But while the beans may be from all over the globe, Paul says nothing is more important than supporting locally-roasted coffee. So opt for a Lonsdale Street Smith and Evans or Johnny Cash before that well-known Sydney blend. “Why you would frequent a cafe that sells coffee roasted overseas or interstate when there are such amazing roasters here? Let your favourite cafe know that they should be buying local!” –––– 4/23 Lonsdale Street, Braddon
lonsdalestreetroasters.com @lonsdalestreetroasters
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“The way in which we approach coffee ... is that every single coffee is an individual whose potential we have to find.”
ONA From humble beginnings at the former Hansel and Gretel cafe in ‘The Lawns’ arcade in Manuka, ONA Coffee is now an international name (as is its founder, World Barista Champion 2015, Sasa Sestic).
All of ONA’s coffee beans are sourced through Sasa’s second company, Project Origin. This "green bean sourcing" company travels across the globe, establishing meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships with coffee producing communities in what ONA calls “direct trade relationships”.
The brainchild of the former Olympic handball player, ONA has evolved in line with Sasa’s passion for coffee, expanding first to a second Fyshwick operation with a roasting facility, and now distributed across Australia and the world.
The beans purchased through Project Origin currently come from more than 10 countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Kenya, Indonesia, El Salvador, India and Rwanda. ONA currently roasts between 5.3 – 6.4 tonnes a week, all at their Fyshwick premises.
“We believe that coffee isn’t just that thing you grab on the way to work to relieve your caffeine headache/withdrawals, but is a product that can bring together communities from all across the world,” says Jordan Montgomery, ONA’s Media and Marketing Coordinator.
“We currently stock four house blends, each roasted and blended to be served as a milk-based coffee. Each blend has its own flavour profile, aimed at catering people who have different tastes,” says Jordan.
“We treat each coffee varietal from each country individually in order to give it the best expression; this honours the hard work undertaken by the farmer to produce it whilst also providing a great experience for the consumer.”
Like chocolate ganache, caramel and mousse? Try Black Betty. If caramel, hazelnut and chocolate is more your thing, head for The Hitman. Keen for something a little fruity? Sip on The Founder (purple berries, chocolate cake) or Raspberry Candy (pink custard, raspberry candy, white chocolate). “The way in which we approach coffee, and how we try to share its story is that every single coffee is an individual, whose potential we have to find … every coffee has a journey to share and individual flavours to discover.” –––– 68 Wollongong Street, Fyshwick
onacoffee.com.au | @onacoffee
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Six8 Coffee Roasters Daniel and Toni Neuhaus’ coffee journey began in the slums of Thailand, streets of Brazil, and villages of Vanuatu. After years of working in these places, they saw much poverty and injustice. “For us, business has always been about empowering people, and coffee was a way to do good and seek justice in an industry that is wrought with abuses,” says Daniel. “Our passion for coffee comes out of our passion for people.” Six8 works with a small number of Australian-based suppliers who work with growers at origin to not only source exceptional green coffee beans, but also invest back into those coffee communities. Currently roasting about 120kg per week
on their cute 5kg Roastmax, their current lineup comes from Brazil, East Timor, Ethiopia, Colombia and Kenya. “Our most popular blend, Bohemian, is rich, smooth and creamy, with notes of milk-chocolate and raspberry. Our other blend is our Spearhead blend, which is big and bold, with notes of cocoa and a hint of peach,” says Daniel. “My favourite single origin would have to be a big juicy natural processed coffee from Ethiopia!” Canberra has become a city known for its coffee excellence, and Daniel says that’s good news for consumer and roaster alike. “Where once it was hard to find a good cup of coffee in Canberra, people now expect to get amazing coffee in any Canberra café,” he says. “We really love that the bar is now so high, as it really encourages café owners and roasters to keep striving for excellence!” –––– 92 Meehan Street, Yass
six8coffee.com | @six8coffee
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Barrio Sam Burns grew up in a house where coffee was handground and brewed every day and that ritualistic approach seeped into him. “The sound and smell of coffee being prepared is powerful and I grew up thinking it was just normal,” he says. Becoming interested in espresso culture while backpacking in Italy aged 18, Sam’s burgeoning addiction grew as third-wave coffee culture swept Australia. He began visiting Melbourne and Sydney, buying coffee through small roasters and making countless coffees, learning about different origins and playing with home roasting. After four years working as a barista and roasting coffee for Two Before Ten, Sam teamed up with Dan Zivkovich and Duncan Turner to create “a neighbourhood coffee shop” serving “clean and refined coffees, sourced as fresh as we can and roasted to retain the characteristics inherent in the coffee.”
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Barrio works with a range of green bean buyers in Australia, sourcing coffees from Colombia, Central America and Africa, and roasts around 90kg of single origin per week. “We look for a coffee that is rich in sweetness and flavour to suit the milk yet also has some nice brightness and fruit character for espresso,” says Sam. “Whatever we are running through the machine will be our most popular as people will enjoy it in a number of different ways.”
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And the key to enjoyment, says Sam, is knowledge. “When you have a coffee you particularly like, ask what it is. It will build a knowledge base that will help choices around what coffee to drink. “Some people like dark coffee with milk, others like light filter coffee that is more fragrant and gentle. Building some knowledge and vocabulary helps to choose something you are more likely to enjoy.” –––– ORI Building, 59/30 Lonsdale Street, Braddon
barriocollective.com | @barriocc
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Two Before Ten This Canberra roaster has had quite the journey. Beginning life as Enter Café in Canberra House in 2008, three years later it became Two Before Ten (TBT) and 12kg Deidrich roaster ‘Hank’ moved in. Then—in an unlikely (but inspired) move—they headed to the suburbs and set up in the delipidated Aranda shops, where they have won a legion of loyal fans. “At Two Before Ten we believe that coffee is a social experience that brings people together—not just friends or co-workers but farmers, importers, roasters and communities all over the world,” says Roaster, Jenna. “For us this means that a great cup of coffee is not an end in itself but a means by which we can make someone’s day a little better, and help people feel connected to a broader community.” Sustainability is important, Two Before Ten actively seeking out farms that engage in environmentally and socially sustainable initiatives, despite the added cost.
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“Some of our current favourite origins include the Burundi Akawa Project, where they’ve built water recycling systems; the Ruli Mountain washing station in Rwanda, run by female manager ‘Glorious’ who sends the profits from the station to a community school and farm; and Selva Negra farm in Nicaragua, a completely self-sustaining, organic eco-estate complete with renewable-sourced energy, and medical centre,” says Jenna. Currently roasting around 650kg per week, Juggernaut is Two Before Ten’s original and most popular blend, with a classic nut and chocolate flavour profile. They also roast Atlas, Sabertooth, Poundcake, Proteus and a sweet, sugarcane-processed decaf. But for the team, it’s about more than coffee. “A lot of people treat their morning coffee as a perfunctory ritual… Next time, take a minute to think about the journey the beans took from the across the globe into your cup, about the myriad people who helped it along the way, and the privilege we enjoy to live in a world where such a thing is possible.” –––– 68 Bandjalong Crescent, Aranda
twobeforeten.com.au | @twobeforeten
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Red Brick Espresso Nestled in a quiet corner of suburban Curtin, Red Brick’s expanding coffee empire started in 2011 with a small 40-squaremetre café and Probat roaster. But they always had big dreams. “We wanted to provide a stronger connection to coffee for local baristas and store owners, and start to create true career opportunities for people in specialty coffee,” says General Manager Madeleine Moore. Today, Red Brick supplies more than 40 businesses within Canberra and the surrounding regions, and boasts five stores. The aim, says Madeleine, is to deliver a unique experience in Canberra, providing a “connection between origin, roasting and the final cup”. “Sourcing coffee we are proud to work with is at the core of what we do,” says Madeleine. “Our coffees are sourced seasonally from different origins throughout the year. We look to different regions for unique characteristics, a chocolatey Brazilian coffee to add body to an espresso blend or a floral Ethiopian for a delicate filter coffee.” Red Brick has three permanent blends: Coffee Coffee (tastes like cocoa pops in milk), Seasonal (dark chocolate and dried fruit sweetness) and Moneyball (think chocolate-coated Turkish delight). All are designed to pair well with milk, whilst also being a balanced black coffee.
And while it can be hard to try something new once you’ve found your favourite brew, Madeleine says that’s where the magic happens. “Every now and then, step outside of your usual coffee habits, there’s a whole world of flavour.” –––– Flagship store 6 / 161 Newcastle Street, Fyshwick
redbrickcoffee.com.au | @redbrick.coffee
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Highgate Ln. Coffee Roasters It’s the Canberra coffee brand that began in 2012 with a homemade roaster cobbled together from a heat gun, bread maker and digital thermometer. “This produced some excellent coffee but, obviously, the output was only 250g at a time,” says founder Dan Rayner. One of the owners of Kingston café Bittersweet, Dan says he and his business partners Tim Geelan and Josh Gray were initially happy with the coffee they bought from their Melbourne wholesaler, but were keen to explore the almost endless possibilities that roasting your own coffee can bring. After investigating a variety of commercial coffee roasters, they settled on a 15kg IMF roaster from Italy—a hybrid between a traditional drum roaster and the more environmentally-friendly air roaster— to roast their 300kg per week (and growing) product. “The green beans we source mostly come from microlots in Asia and South America— these are often wonderfully interesting,” says Dan.
“Spend more than you think you should on a grinder and less than you want to on a machine.”
Sourcing beans from socially ethical and environmentally sustainable origins is important to Highgate Ln., whose brokers work directly with small family-owned farms. The result? Diversity and growth in small businesses, and some truly delicious blends. “Our Thunderbird Blend is easily the most popular blend we have, designed to be as balanced as possible and to work with or without milk,” says Dan. “Our Thruxton Blend is much softer with less acidity and lots of nutty and caramel notes, and our Bonneville Blend is far bolder; balanced between the dark chocolate character of Peruvian beans and bright fruity acidity of the Ethiopian beans.” And for those keen for a great cuppa at home, Dan reckons the coffee grinder is probably the most important bit of kit. “Spend more than you think you should on a grinder and less than you want to on a machine—even with the most amazing espresso machine, you’ll struggle to make great coffee with a poor quality grinder.” –––– Highgate Lane, Kingston
highgatelane.com | @highgatelane
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KYŌ Michael Phelan’s coffee journey began in an edgy cafe in Melbourne more than nine years ago, where he was completely blown away by the experience—the coffee, the food, the music, and the sense of belonging. “From there I worked in almost every area of the speciality industry—anywhere from a junior barista to head state trainer and everything in between—I was completely hooked.” For Michael and his partner Natasja, the industry provides freedom to express themselves, and that’s what Kyō Coffee Project is all about. “It isn't just about the coffee. [We aim to] create unique flavour experiences ethically and sustainably through an understanding of where coffee comes from, awareness of how the farmers are treated and a sound understanding of each origin and its unique flavour profile.”
Kyō have been proudly buying off local distributors Project Origin for more than two years—and not just because they supply “amazing coffees year in, year out”. “We share similar views and morals, [they are] active in the communities they work with and with every bag sold they allocate a portion to the Project Origin fund which goes to funding anything from schools or day care centres, to building fences and toilet blocks.” Currently roasting around 350kg per week, Kyō produce just one seasonal blend—Kikan— named for the Japanese word meaning "a period". It’s creamy and delicious, with flavours of caramel, milk chocolate, macadamia and a long smooth nought finish. “We're seeing good coffee everywhere,” says Michael. “You're no longer just buying a coffee, you're buying an experience. “With coffee prices going up, saturation of cafes and consumers making more informed decisions, the market is more competitive than ever—it pushes the industry to be better.” ¡ –––– G05/27 Lonsdale Street, Braddon
kyocoffeeproject.com | @kyo_coffeeproject
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Shades of Grey W O R D S
Sarina Talip
Meegan Fitzharris recently resigned her role as ACT Government Minister for Health and Transport. As Sarina Talip discovers, the reasons behind the move aren't so black and white.
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IT’S THE DAY AFTER Meegan Fitzharris has announced her resignation as ACT Government Minister and the mood in her office is subdued. “Oh look, it was obviously a really big day, so I must say, it’s a relief that I got through that day,” Meegan says. “And it was really nice to have a lot of nice messages, spend last night with my team, and wake up today and feel a little bit lighter.” In a stylish black and white tweed jacket, black turtleneck and skirt, her instantly recognisable red hair perfectly coiffed, Meegan is friendly but businesslike, still focused on the job at hand. After our interview, she has emails to respond to, briefs to sign. But the day before was another story, and her political staff, who have become “like a family” to her, admitted there were a lot of tears. She will also start the daunting task of packing up her office that she’s made homey with framed pictures of her children’s bright artworks, family photographs, and pretty touches, like the apple green Florence Broadhurst boxes, floral ceramic bowl, and the (many) thank you cards that line her shelves. Within two weeks, she will be gone. The decision to resign as health and transport minister certainly wasn’t an easy one for the former senior Labor frontbencher and member for Yerrabi. But next year is an election year and if she were to get re-elected, her children, Al (13), Esther (11), and Eva (nine), would all be in high school during her four-year term. Al would even have finished high school.
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“If I think about the next four years and what that might be like with three kids in high school, a better balance in our family and professional lives is what’s the most important thing to me,” Meegan says. Her resignation sent shockwaves through the Legislative Assembly, with many political pundits forecasting that Meegan would eventually succeed Andrew Barr as leader of the Labor right faction. She’s disappointed that she won’t see through the second stage of light rail from Civic to Woden, nor the planned $500 million Canberra Hospital expansion project called the Spire (Surgical Procedures, Interventional Radiology and Emergency) Centre. She also would have “loved” to see how the new health services plan for children that the ACT Government announced last month evolved. “But that work will continue without me and I’m really pleased that it’s started,” she says. Since announcing her decision, Meegan has been asked “a lot” about whether juggling a career in politics and a family is impossible for women. “No, it’s not. It’s just that this is a unique time in our family’s journey … And I have not felt that I have been discriminated against, and I’ve never felt that in any way. I’ve had a lot of opportunity,” she says.
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“I think balance is different for different women at different times of their lives, and I think that’s there’s no perfect balance that’s the same for everyone.”
“Being in politics keeps you very real and very grounded, and so does being a parent. But I’m very conscious that in saying that I would like to just get a better balance in my life.
More recently, she came under fire for the overhaul of the bus network that left many commuters with longer journeys, and for the bullying issues within the public health system, but she remains surprisingly sanguine.
“And I think balance is different for different women at different times of their lives, and I think that’s there’s no perfect balance that’s the same for everyone.”
“The opposition and people who comment on politics often like to think something is black and white and it’s almost always not black and white,” she says.
As for why women get posed the question of how to achieve balance in their careers and family life more than men do, she raises a wry eyebrow. “Well, people don’t ask [men], and I think that’s interesting. And it’s one of those things, women talk about their families more, but maybe we should ask dads more often what’s going on for them.” Meegan ran for the Legislative Assembly when she was 40-years-old and encourages any woman who is passionate about making a difference to run for office. “I spent a long time in the Labor Party before that, but you don’t have to do it that way. Politics and a life of being a parliamentarian and a community representative is always a path that’s available,” she says. “I hope more women take it up. And it’s a really good environment here in the ACT parliament, structurally. We don’t have late nights sittings. We have a very family-friendly approach. We have good facilities.” However, Meegan admits it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. “Some issues have been political issues that have been hotly debated,” she says. She’s talking of course about light rail. She presided over the completion of stage one of the infrastructure project, which launched in April, and is proud of her achievement.
“But you do have to draw a line somewhere and you have to listen to a very wide variety of views and balance all of those.” There’s also been the added pressure of being a woman in the historically male-dominated sphere of politics, and the extra demands on female politicians outside of their “core job.” “In the Labor Party you could be involved in a whole lot of policy committees, and then on top of that you can be involved in three or four extra women’s networks and events and I have really found that challenging to do both,” she admits. “I did a little bit of each, and different women choose different paths as well. You want to be a role model and recognise your responsibility … but sometimes that does add another layer to it.” Meegan also hopes the stereotype (and the reality) of politicians trading barbs one minute then delivering slick sound bites the next doesn’t put women off a potential career in politics. She insists that “the gap” between her own experiences as a minister and what people think of politicians is “huge.” “I get stopped in the supermarket, or at a function, or I get stopped literally on the street and people will always say, ‘Oh, I don’t know how you do your job. It must so hard’,” she says.
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“And I don’t think they’re saying that just to be nice. I think they’re saying that because they genuinely think that. “I just think we can narrow that gap a bit. There’s no doubt there’s a lack of [public] trust … And that troubles me because I really want people to be able to put their hand up. “Good people have to, and if they don’t, it’s sort of a really terrible self-fulfilling prophecy. It could be quite damaging for democracy.” Politics as a career could also be more attractive to more people if it wasn’t viewed as the be-all-andend-all that it is at present. “If the normal experience for people now is to be in a job for a shorter period of time, politics has got to catch up with that,” she says. She points to Cathy McGowan, who was elected as an independent MP for Indi in 2013 amid a groundswell of support from the local community.
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She only served two terms over six years before passing the baton on to Helen Haines. “But if people view politics as something that once you go into it, you’re in it forever, that’s a huge decision to make,” Meegan continues. “Whereas, if you do see it as something that you’ll be part of for a certain period, it might make it more attractive to people.” As a mother, Meegan admits there have been times when family life and political life clashed. Like all working parents, she says “it’s always a bit of a struggle in the morning.” Early morning radio interviews were particularly challenging, when Meegan recalls being “locked in the toilet” to get some quiet time and privacy. “‘Is there a strange echo at the other side, Minister?’” she says, laughing as she channels a radio interviewer. “Or, [the children] won’t realise you’re on the phone, and it’ll be ‘Mum’!”
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“I get stopped in the supermarket, or at a function, or I get stopped literally on the street and people will always say, ‘Oh, I don’t know how you do your job. It must so hard’.”
Telephone faux pas aside, she’s thrilled at the way her children have developed their own opinions about the world. Her youngest daughter became a vegetarian last year. “They also tell about the world of memes and some strange language they use to communicate with each other,” she says, laughing. Meegan was born in Wellington and has a younger sister, Kate, who is an artist and librarian and lives outside of Dunedin. But some of her fondest memories are of her time in Singapore. Her family lived there from when Meegan was nine until 12. “I think that people living in close proximity to one another is not inherently a bad thing,” she says. “We lived in an apartment and there were literally dozens and dozens of families living in the same apartment complex that we got to know really well.
“My mum was very young and it was just her and her mum and she had to go out to work [in retail stores],” she says. “She raised my mum who went on to become a nurse, which was better [circumstances] for my mum. But then when my mum went to marry my dad, who was in the police, they vetted all the prospective wives. “In his year there was someone whom the police didn’t support because of her background. And there was a period in some industries where women couldn’t work once they were married… “When I think about the opportunities that my grandmothers had, the opportunities that my mum had, and then the opportunities that I had and that my daughters will have, it’s huge. We’ve achieved a lot in the last hundred years.” ¡
“Because of the climate, there was a swimming pool and we’d spend endless weekends hanging out with people in this real community. And so I think there are different experiences of that. “I have felt particularly upset over time about some people’s views of Gungahlin and that having small blocks and smaller backyards … is not the way that kids should grow up.” Growing up Meegan thought she might become a journalist and still seems a bit surprised that she ended up in politics. But it’s not something she takes for granted. Her maternal grandmother became a single mother in the 1950s at a time when there was still the stigma of separation and divorce, and no childcare or social welfare.
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Active after dark W O R D S
Ashleigh Went
It’s no secret that Canberra has a vibrant sports and fitness scene. From the runners, rowers and bootcampers who populate Lake Burley Griffin on misty winter mornings, through to the packed courts, ovals and cricket pitches over the weekends. But at night? That’s when a different kind of scene comes to life.
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For many an active Canberran, when the sun goes down is when the fun begins. Friends get together for social sport, couples gather under the magic of UV lights for an evening of competitive fun, and people assume alter egos for an hour of fist-pumping glory under the cloak of darkness. Here are five ways to get active at night.
GET GLOWING
GET SOCIAL
You might have spotted Power Kart Raceway en route to Fyshwick, or maybe even gone along for a round of go-karting. Venture past the track and you’ll find Jungle Golf—Canberra’s first indoor glow-in-the-dark mini golf course.
When it comes to social sport, Urban Rec is a standout for its variety of sports, welcoming community and focus on fun.
There are 18 holes across the jungle-themed, UV-lit course, which takes around 45 minutes to complete. It’s just the right degree of difficulty—challenging enough to bring out your competitive side but not so tough that you’ll get stuck at every hole. It’s the perfect activity for a night out with the kids or as a date night with a dash of novelty. To keep the fun going without leaving the facility, try a glide at iSkate Park, Australia’s first synthetic ice rink. Jungle Golf | Power Kart Raceway, 125 Canberra Avenue, Griffith | $15 for adults, $12 for children, $44 for a family of four powerkarts.com.au
Spring Leagues start between September and October and there’s truly something for everyone. Whether it’s soccer on Mondays and Wednesdays, Multisport on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, or dodgeball on Thursdays, you’re bound to find something that both tickles your fancy and fits with your schedule. Urban Rec even offers modifications of traditional sports like Fast 5 Netball or J-Ball with Hockey ACT so they’re more accessible in terms of time commitment and ability. The Urban Rec model is big on flexibility—you can either join as an individual or get some mates together and enter a team. If you’re not into mixed teams, keep an eye out for their women’s only leagues starting in spring and choose from basketball, soccer, and Aussie Rules 7s. Urban Rec Canberra | various locations | check website for pricing and dates canberra.urbanrec.com.au
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LOOK SHARP
Axxe Urban Axe Throwing opened in Canberra last year and has proven popular for couples, friends and even corporate groups. If you’re yet to try axe throwing, it’s exactly what it sounds like—a fun activity where you throw solid steel axes at wooden targets and play fun axethrowing games. Sound dangerous? It’s truly not. Each two-hour session begins with an axe-throwing lesson with an instructor who’ll teach you all you need to know to get started. After a practice throw session, you’ll get to battle it out with your friends to see who is the ultimate lumberjack. The last sessions run at around 8.30pm most nights so there’s plenty of time to play after work. If you really love the experience and community, you even can join the Axxe League and compete on Tuesday or Thursday nights for an eight-week season.
LOSE THE LYCRA
MAKE IT A TRIPLE
If the thought of just playing one sport or activity bores you, 3 Sports could be your new favourite. The next season starts 26 August so gather your friends, register a team and enjoy competition nights at Kaleen Indoor Sports on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 6pm to 9pm. You’ll play a different sport every week, switching between soccer, netball, and volleyball. Mixing it up keeps things interesting and allows you to develop a wider range of skills. Teams are mixed and it’s a great way to meet new people and develop friendships.
session or $180 for the Axxe League
The Sports Club Kaleen has a bar and restaurant so you can toast to victory (or drown your sorrows) and celebrate a game well played.
axxe.com.au
3 Sports | Kaleen Indoor Sports,
Axxe Urban Axe Throwing Canberra | 4/1 Lyell Street, Fyshwick | $50 per person per
Georgina Crescent, Kaleen | $80 registration per team, $70 game fee per game kaleenindoor.com
If you’ve ever gone to a dance class and spent the whole time avoiding your reflection or feeling self-conscious (or worse still, felt too embarrassed to go in the first place) then you will love No Lights No Lycra. At face value, it’s a dark room with loud music and space to dance, but peel back the curtain and you’ll see it’s so much more. You’ll find everyone from small children to grandparents, all different kinds of bodies, all backgrounds, abilities, and genders. The venues are wheelchair accessible and there’s a special focus on inclusion, so everyone is welcomed with open arms. There’s also a diverse range of music, so you’re bound to find your jam. If you’re worried about bumping into people, you needn’t fret. The room is dark enough to provide a bit of anonymity without sacrificing safety. The event is also drug and alcohol free and a self-professed ‘creep free zone’, so you can let loose without fear of judgement or compromising your personal space. Go alone, take your mum, your friends, or the kids—it’s a fun way to get active that everyone can enjoy. No Lights No Lycra North | 7.30-9pm Fridays | 1 Kingsley Street, Canberra | $8 per person No Lights No Lycra South | 7.30-8.30pm Thursdays | Weston Creek Community Centre, Parkinson St and Whitney Place, Weston | $8 per person nolightsnolycra.com
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HERCANBERRA.COM.AU
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Into the light W O R D S
Laura Peppas
P H O T O G R A P H Y
Tim Bean
It’s a daydream of many: breaking away from the shackles of corporate life to pursue your passion. But the switch from corporate team player to business owner isn’t an easy one, especially when you've enjoyed years of the cushy benefits of company life and a steady pay cheque. We meet three local entrepreneurs who made the leap; and find out just how they landed on their feet.
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Matt Fenwick Matt Fenwick knows a thing or two about walking away from corporate life—so much so that he wrote a book about it. “Life beyond lanyards - from public servant to entrepreneur” looks at Matt’s journey leaving the public service and its frustrations—to launch his own business, web writing, strategy and training company True North Content.
Take us through the decision to
How has your business grown in
What are some of the biggest
leave your corporate career.
that time?
lessons you’ve learned?
When I got a job in the public service, I was freelance writing in my spare time. I didn't start True North Content thinking that it was ever going to become such a massive part of my life. It was more a sideline initially. But then I'd been working in the public service for a while, and I knew I wanted more control over the work that I was doing. So I decided to take leave from my government job, go full time with True North and see how it went. A lot of people don’t realise you have that option, but I needed the security of knowing that if it wasn't going well, I could go back. Six months in, I was loving the freedom, so I handed in my resignation and cut the ties.
Slowly! It was definitely not an overnight success. But my business grew at the rate it needed to, and I was ready for. Now we're winning contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. I’m managing teams of 20 plus writers. If I see an opportunity, I can go after it. I don’t have to ask permission. I’ve learned and grown a lot faster than I ever would have if I'd just stayed in that comfortable but confining environment.
There’s certainly a loneliness factor. If you're working for yourself, you've got to go out and create your own support networks. You can’t just expect it to be handed to you on a plate, with the ready-made social network that comes with an office. I've just joined a co-working space, and if I do feel like I'm just going crazy cooped up in my study at home, then I'll go and work from a café, so I’m around other humans.
What are some of the “hard truths” of owning your own business?
When I got my first big contract I remember actually crying with relief, because that meant I knew how I would feed my family for the next six months. That anxiety of not knowing where the money’s coming from—it never completely goes away. I haven't talked to any business owner who doesn't have those 3 am moments of terror. That’s normal, though—you'd have to be a psychopath not to get anxious.
Any advice to those wanting to follow in your footsteps?
Working for yourself doesn’t have to be an ‘all or nothing for the rest of your life’ decision. I know lots of people who’ve left an office job, done their own thing, then found another job. They’ve almost always ended up doing something better. So if you can, don't quit your day job just yet. Set up your business on the side, and just see how you go. Start small and try it out.
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Malini Devadas A former scientist, Malini launched her own academic writing and editing business, MD Writing and Editing, in 2013 after recognising a need to help academics get their journal articles finished and submitted. Last year she set up a second business, Edit Boost, through which she coaches editors who are struggling to run a profitable business.
What was it like when you were
What were some of the biggest
juggling two jobs—your own
lessons you learned?
business and your 9-5 job?
With family responsibilities as well, I didn’t have much time for working on my business at all. People really underestimate the head space required to create a new business and find new clients. How hard was it to leave to pursue your own business?
I felt nervous about the financial side of things and also disloyal for leaving my employer. I guess it was a classic case of letting emotions get in the way of business decisions. A friend recommended a life coach and I had a session with her which was amazing. It gave me the courage to finally leave my job. How has your business grown since then?
It has been up and down as I have changed the direction of my business over the years. I have also had varying levels of caring responsibilities for my mother as well as my children, which affected how much time I could spend working. But although working hours (and therefore income) have been up and down, I have learned so much about how to run a business.
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Probably the biggest lessons were around how I think and feel about money. It might sound strange, but many of us have long-held beliefs about how much is OK to charge and how hard we should be working to deserve to be paid well. In the end, I realised that just because something comes easily to me, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t charge properly for it. Once I allowed myself to do that, everything became much easier— work is now more enjoyable and my income is increasing. Why do you think the rate of people looking to start their own business has increased in recent years?
I think for many women who have children, the appeal of being self-employed is the flexibility that comes with it. If you work from home for yourself you can be quite productive during schoolhour periods (think no commute, no staff meetings). School holidays do become a challenge, however, particularly when the kids are young. It has also meant that I can be involved in the kids’ primary school community, while my kids are still young enough to actually want me there! Financially, while there is security in receiving a pay cheque each fortnight, when you are selfemployed there is no limit to how
much you can earn. You can decide to work more over a certain period to bring in some more money, or you can create leveraged products (for example, an online course) that are scalable. Of course, all these things require effort and courage, but if you can cope with the uncertainty then you can use the freedom to your advantage. What advice do you have to others about quitting their day job to pursue their own business?
As someone who is financially conservative and quite risk averse, I do suggest having some savings or another source of income before making the leap to start up a business. Yes, it is difficult to juggle everything. But, as a business coach for other editors, I see what can happen when things get desperate. You end up taking on projects that don’t pay well, just to get some income. It then gets harder to break away from lowpaying work, so you take on even more such projects while feeling stressed about everything. It’s not a good position to be in. My other advice is to ensure that you can explain what you do in terms of how you help your clients. Don’t focus on yourself. When someone comes to your website, they don’t want to read pages of text about you—they want to know that you understand and know how to solve their problem.
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Kate Neser After working in the public sector for almost 20 years, Kate Neser walked away from a role as the Chief Finance Officer of the then ACT Chief Minister’s Department to start a new career as an Executive Coach in 2010. She describes the feeling of turning her back on a stable paypacket, good conditions and excellent superannuation as akin to “stepping off a cliff into the unknown.” Since that time however, she has worked with over 750 managers and leaders across the public sector, along with more than 30 government agencies and departments.
Take us through the decision to
How hard was it to leave to pursue
leave your corporate career.
your own business? Can you take
As a former senior executive in the public sector, I had adopted a coaching approach with my team, and found it highly effective. I did some more formal training, and loved having an approach which developed the capability of my staff by building up their confidence, and helping them fulfil their own potential. By the time I had done my formal training as a coach, I was so excited with the approach that I started to think about quitting my job, but it was a big step, and I wasn’t sure it was the right one. I remember my sister asking me what I liked about coaching and my response was “I love it when someone’s eyes light up as they see something that they haven’t seen before, realising they can do something more effectively.” My sister said to me “Back yourself – if you could see how your face lights up when you talk about coaching, you wouldn’t hesitate”. That was the moment I made the decision to leave the public sector.
us through your emotions during that time?
I was lucky (naive??) enough to quit my public sector role before I established my new career. I will never forget the feeling when I decided it was time to hand in my resignation. Walking away from a 20-year career, a good stable pay-packet, the conditions and the amazing superannuation was risky. And since I had not established my new career yet, I felt like I was stepping off a cliff into the unknown. I was nervous, excited, and I think close to hyperventilating as I walked into the CEO’s office to hand in my letter of resignation. Walking out, I felt exhilarated. I knew that I was meant to be an executive coach. And while I was walking away from a whole lot of great things about working in the public sector, I was also walking away from juggling 12 weeks of school holidays with only eight weeks of leave shared between
me and my husband, and a whole lot of stress. When I started my new job, I worked 15 hours a week for 40 weeks a year, taking all school holidays off. It was an amazing opportunity. What were some of the biggest lessons you learned?
I learnt that opportunities only seem to arise when you create the space for them. It was only once I had quit my job that people seemed to start approaching me to collaborate with them. And learning the new rhythm of being a business owner was a big lesson. I had always worked for someone—suddenly I’m calling my own shots, setting my own hours, my own rates, my own deadlines, finding my own motivation. It was learning how to be okay with a diary that looks completely blank past the fourweek mark, being confident that the business will come and not getting overwhelmed.
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What have been some of the biggest challenges in running your own business?
Finding clients! Looking back, I’m not quite sure how I thought I would find clients—I was pretty naïve. In fact, I think if I’d known just how difficult it would be, I don’t think I would have left my job in the public sector. I don’t think I really realised just how much of a risk I was taking, and how long it would take to build up a client base. What advice do you have to others about quitting their day job to pursue their own business?
That one’s tricky. People look at my success, and don’t see the last nine years of hard work that have gone into what is now a successful business. I’d love to say “follow your dreams”, but I think that’s irresponsible. Do your homework. Talk to other people PAGE 154
who have taken the leap in the industry you want to work in. Ask their advice. Get some training. Be serious about a business plan, a marketing plan. Develop a group of people that you can ask for help, and help in return. Join industry groups. Network. Say yes to opportunities, even if they are outside your comfort zone— at worst they might be a huge learning opportunity. Looking back, would you have changed anything?
The one thought that had me quit my job was, “looking 20 years down the track, would I regret it if I didn’t take the chance?” I knew that I would, I knew I needed to try it. I could always go back to public sector employment with my tail between my legs. While I would never have predicted that I would one day be running my own business, I love it. ¡
“I’d love to say “follow your dreams”, but I think that’s irresponsible.”
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