Community ………………3 to

Dec 10th - Mark Dabin at Batemans Bay Soldiers Club Dec 10th - Jeff Aschmann at Grumpy's Mogo, 11:30 Dec 10th - Flock of Haircuts at One Tree Inn , Tuross Dec 10th - Steve Benic – Tuross Club (7.30pm) Dec 10th - Josh Mason at The Patch, Tomakin Social Dec 10th - Moondog at Moruya Golfy 5pm - 8pm Dec 11th - Solo West at Tukka Cafe, Moruya Dec 11th - Ben Fowler—The Patch, Tomakin Social 2-5 Dec 16th - Gedupndanz at Batemans Bay Soldiers Club Dec 16th - Pearlerz – Club Malua (8pm) Dec 17th - Gedupndanz at Batemans Bay Soldiers Club Dec 17th - Dave Berry – Club Tuross (7.30pm) Dec 17th - Big Mama and the Hanged Men at Moruya Golfy Dec 17th - Leigh Barker Band featuring Heather Stewart - St Johns Anglican Church Moruya - Tickets: $35 @ the door, cash or Tap-n-Go Dec 18th - Eurobodalla Live Music at Moruya Golfy Dec 23rd - Driving Sideways at Batemans Bay Soldiers Club

Dec 24th Rod Folpp at Club Tuross Dec 24th - Driving Sideways at Batemans Bay Soldiers Club

NYE Party Moruya Waterfront Hotel 19-Twenty • Fractured Minds • Eklypse • Angus Murray. Orphan Music & Moruya Waterfront Hotel presents - 2022 New Years Eve Party ! Over 5 hours of live music! 19-Twenty, Eklypse, Fractured Minds & Angus Murray. Original Rock & Roots + one of the best covers bands ever to grace the stage at the Moruya Waterfront. Watch the sunset & enjoy the best way to bring in 2023, LIVE MUSIC & CLOSE FRIENDS! Dec 31st - Drive Time at Club Tuross - Drive Time is a 4 -piece band based around the vast experience of lead guitarist and singer Rick Bamford who is a regular at Club Tuross as a solo ar st. Other members of the band are Adam Twyford on drums, Paul Leeder on bass and James "Hoogie" Hoogstad on harmonica and saxophone. Dec 31st - This New Years Eve Bay Soldiers is going back to the 80's with a fun 1980's themed party. Tall Puppy Syndrome will be performing live from 8pm on the night, playing a great range of 80's hits and party rock through the night. there will be fun prizes for 80's themed fancy dress on the night too, so come back to the 80's with us this New Years Eve!

Future Bird presents a fantas c Stand Up comedy showcase night at the

Batemans Bay Soldiers Club on Saturday January 14th. A great night of fun and laughter with four great comedians on show. Rob Andrews Is an award winning Sydney Based comedian who will have you laughing at a range of situa ons faced by those with mul ple children and mul ple chins. Rob will also MC the evening. Michelle "Be sy" Be s - Semi-finalist for Quest for the Best and winner Comedy Court compe ons. Michelle has been performing Stand-Up comedy since 2009 a er gradua ng from Stand-Up comedy school in Sydney. Chris na Van Look - Chris na has performed extensively in Australia and overseas including in London, Las Vegas and New York's iconic Gotham City Club. Her debut solo show was nominated for "Best Comedy' at the Sydney Fringe Fes val in 2019.

Down the coast at our little Tuross bolthole we have a regular visitor. She’s no trouble, either to us or to the paying guests who help with the rates, the mortgage and all the other seemingly endless expenses that come with a coastal hideaway. She makes her own bed, feeds herself, entertains the occasional cousin, but very discretely. In fact, she comes from quite a large family. They’re a bunch of lay-abouts who come and go as they please. She’s not a pet exactly. In fact, if she thinks about at all – and I’m not sure just how deeply kangaroos contemplate such matters – but if so, she would be the official resident while we were her occasional roomies. Either way, it works for both sides. Usually I pretend she’s not there, even though her bed is in a little bush alcove beside the back deck, and when I emerge in the mornings with my bowl of Crunchy Nuts and sliced banana I sit on the steps in a non-threatening manner before starting a fairly one-sided conversation. I generally pick a non-controversial topic. ‘Another lovely day…forecast is pretty good too; maybe an afternoon shower…’ I give her a quick glance as she flicks her ears back and forth while looking straight ahead. And after a while she either hops out to the grassy back lawn for her breakfast or leaves for what I fondly hope is her morning exercise by the nearby golf course. She’s one of the many reasons I’ll be campaigning for a ‘Yes’ vote in the referendum for an Aboriginal Voice to be enshrined in the Constitution. For while I have met and become instant mates with a fair number of Aboriginal people since I was a jackaroo in Western Queensland all those years ago - and have written books about the vile whitefella treatment of them – it’s my little marsupial friend who epitomizes the personal shame I feel for what went before. At the end of a day’s mustering, we shot them from the back of a Land Rover. We did it, we told ourselves, to feed the dogs on the legs we sliced from their carcasses. But in truth, we did it for the thrill, and to show off our expertise as riflemen, even though the ‘targets’ were usually standing quite still only 60 metres away. But that’s just us. The truly great joy of the Christmas-New Year break is the way it reconnects a whole nation with that Australia of the bush and the coast where despite the ravages of civilization, we’re again exposed to the natural world of yesteryear. For so long we’ve tried to bury it in the Big Fib we call the British history of our country. The religious stuff is not very convincing, and the mad buying spree makes even less sense. But somehow, the real Australia has been surviving in the Aboriginal people and their unique totemic creatures – the glorious birds, the reptiles, the fish and the mammals - that populated their world. And it’s so refreshing to make their acquaintance again, even if they cause a pang of conscience. To me, they’re the real meaning of Australia’s holiday season; and happily, I’ll soon have the chance to make what small amends are symbolized by the simple casting of a vote for my gentle marsupial visitor. Looking forward to that.

Reading—A beer with Baz Bazza flicked open the screen door and padded across the lawn to greet the pos e. He blinked at his bright yellow fluro, electric gadgetry on his hip, and paused for a moment to take in the large box structure on the back of the motorcycle. Bazza half smiled. Decades ago he had delivered telegrams as a holiday job to either smiling faces or trembling hands for Australia Post. “It’s all parcels these days, Bazza. Online shopping is the na onal pas me, but…. here you go….. a le er for you. It’s hand wri en…….ahhh….. that explains the spring in your step.” Bazza was expec ng the le er. Every December an old sweetheart from his youth provided an update on her life in London.

He made a cup of tea, sat at the kitchen table and, as per his ritual, used the le er opener to reveal its contents. He inhaled the hint of familiar perfume and unfolded the heavy paper. The handwri ng was calligraphic and elegantly sloped to the right. As always, he paused a er ‘Dear Barry” and rubbed his chin. Bazza’s mother and his wife were the only other people who called him ‘Barry”. She provided details of her family in the opening paragraph and boasts about the various achievements of their three daughters. The imminent arrival of grandchild number five had him smiling and a touch envious. He half groaned at her annual, deliberate reference to the Royal Family and could picture her smug smile. The tone of the le er changed on the second page. Her sentences shortened and he noted a slight tremble in the handwri ng as she recounted the death of her father during the year. Bazza closed his eyes to capture a memory of her Dad…… and bit his thumb at a less pleasant one……. when he had ques oned young Bazza’s ‘inten ons’.

The remainder of the le er was more upbeat. She recounted in detail the wonderful summer they had spent together on the South Coast of NSW. A carefree me of sun, surf and sand. Bazza closed his eyes again and his nose crinkled at the memory smell of ‘Reef Coconut Oil’ applied liberally to each other’s back. He laughed at her recollec ons of fun evenings at the annual carnival at Batehaven. She signed off with Christmas wishes, a ‘love’ and a single ‘kiss’ and Bazza carefully folded the le er back into the envelope. He would reread it a number of mes. His thoughts were interrupted by the beep of his iPad. Bazza opened the large group email from his niece, now living in New York. His eyes flashed across an array of emojis; The wri en text was li ered with abbrevia ons from ‘LOL’, ‘OMG’ and ‘BRB’ to quite a few ‘WTF’s. He shook his head, s ll wondering how her life was fairing. He closed the iPad. He picked up his favourite pen, carefully dated the top of the page and began “Dear…” Have a beer with Bazza at john.longhurst59@gmail.com

THROUGH the axe he was using gliding off the wood, Mr. George Bele e, of Mogo, severely gashed his leg. SOME of our local anglers had excellent sport on Sunday on the shores of Broulee. In a short me three lines were responsible for 44 sand whi ng and bream being landed. PILOT Chapman, who was reported to have been killed in his flight from Braidwood to Bateman’s Bay arrived safely in his Sunbeam aeroplane at the la er town on 29th inst. Mr. Chapman con nued his flight to Milton the following day. THE Gloria light has been installed in the Holt Trinity Church, Tilba. CONGRATULATIONS to Midshipman W. Bull, elder son of Den st R. N. Bull, who has successfully passed his final examina on at Jervis Bay. Our clever young Midshipman is now ready for an appointment on a warship. VERY li le interest was taken in the Shire Elec ons on Saturday. Only two Ridings were contested for, viz, E. and F. on the Southern end of the Shire. In the former Riding 50% of the ratepayers voted and in the la er only 33%. Mr. H. J. Bate of Tilba, was re-elected for E. Riding, defea ng Mr. F. E. Grenenger by 48 votes. Mr. John Bate was not seeking re-elec on for F. Riding, Messrs. S. W. Bate and A. G. Sutherland contested the seat, with the result that the la er was returned with a majority of 3 votes. … VALE! VALE! – One of the pioneers of N.S.W., in the person of Alfred Edward Webber, passed away recently at Nelligen. The late Mr. Webber was born in Bristol, England, nearly 80 years ago. When very young he came to Australia with his father, who had opened a wheel-wright’s business on the historic slope of Brickfield Hill – somewhere near the present site of Anthony Hordern’s, Ltd. (Incidently I might be permi ed to men on here that o en the li le English boy sat on the three-railed fence which passed along where the Sydney Town Hall now stands, and watched the grimy bullock-drivers urging their teams along straggling George Street). In December, 1860, the father and son came to Nelligen in “the good old days,” when the gold rush was booming. Again they opened a wheel-wright’s business, which they carried on for many years. Gradually this trade was merged into the saw-milling industry, with a branch yard in Sydney. The depression in business about 20 years ago caused the selling of this, and since then wheel-wrigh ng was again carried on in a small way. … He died as he would have wished – busy at work ll a few days before his death. His wife, four sons and two daughters survive him. FOR SALE. – A LADY’S MARATHON BICYCLE, Coaster Hub, almost new. £7 or near offer. ‘Phone 7. MRS ROSE, Pilot Sta on, Moruya. Extracted from the Moruya Examiner by the Moruya and District Historical Society Inc. h ps://www.mdhs.org.au