VIEW Clubs call on the community to help make change this volunteer week

Narooma VIEW Club is calling on members of the community to give their me to children’s educa on charity, The Smith Family, as part of Na onal Volunteer Week (15-21 May).

VIEW (Voice, Interests and Educa on of Women) is a leading women’s organisa on with 14,000 members in 300 communi es across Australia, all dedicated to suppor ng children in need with their educa on through The Smith Family. Members do this through community fundraising, spreading awareness, and volunteering.

The theme for this year’s Volunteer Week is ‘The Change Makers’, which Kath Harris, Club President said is an accurate reflec on of VIEW’s work across Australia.

“We help The Smith Family make tremendous change by giving children the best start to life through a quality educa on. Last year alone, the charity’s educa onal and mentoring programs reached almost 160,000 children and young people across the country.”

VIEW members volunteer their me for The Smith Family in a variety of ways, all of which have a las ng impact on a child’s life.

“We help raise funds for programs like student2student, which pairs younger children with reading buddies, we sponsor students through the Learning for Life program, so they are supported throughout their en re educa on, and members can volunteer at Learning Clubs, where children are given help with their homework a er school.”

The Smith Family’s CEO, Doug Taylor, said the charity could not have the impact it does without the help of volunteers.

“Each year, thousands of volunteers play a vital role in our learning support and mentoring programs and provide invaluable in-house administra on support, with the students and families we support being the ul mate beneficiaries.”

“We are very grateful to all VIEW members for con nuing to donate their me and energy, especially during the last few years which have been disrupted by the pandemic, and now the cost-of-living crisis.”

Members of Narooma VIEW Club volunteer for The Smith Family by raising funds for the Learning for Life Program]. Kath Harris said “There are many opportuni es for people to help out”.

“We are always looking for women to join us in suppor ng The Smith Family and we’d encourage anyone interested to get in touch and come along to our next mee ng to learn more about VIEW.”

Anyone interested in finding out more about Narooma VIEW Club contact Kath Harris (President) on 0437 744 567; Rosemary Towers (Secretary) on 0418619725 or visit www.view.org.au.

Narooma VIEW Club Meeting

11 for 11:30am

Friday 26 June

Narooma Golf Club $30pp

Presenter: Artist and musician Margaret Moran

Contact: Rosemary Towers 02 44762614

May 20th - Suede Cats – Club Malua

May 20th - Joe Driscoll at Tomakin Social Club

May 20th - Tony Wade at Club Catalina

May 20th - Michelle Bri – Club Tuross (6.30pm)

May 20th - Joe Driscoll – Tomakin Club (7.30pm)

May 20th - Suede Cats – Club Malua (7.30pm)

May 20th - Riff – Soldiers Club (8pm)

May 20th - Parmy Dillon at Smokey Dans

May 21st - Eurobodalla Live at Moruya Golfy

May 26th - Tim Freedman is coming to Smokey Dan's in Tomakin

May 26th - Jason Maynard – Club

Malua

May 27th - Circuit Breakers – Club Malua (7.30pm)

May 27th -Jason Maynard at Tomakin Social Club

May 27th - Vinyl Rain at Club Catalina

May 27th - Creedence/ Friends –Batemans Bay Soldiers Club (8pm)

May 27th - Canberra Blues Band SunBears, support by local muso

Kara Coen at Narooma Kinema

May 27th - Dave Berry – Club Tuross (6.30pm)

May 27th - Parmy Dillon at Tukka Cafe

May 27th - RNB Takeover at Moruya

Waterfront

May 28th - The Vallies – Batemans Bay Soldiers Club (8pm)

Jun 3rd - AC/DC show at Moruya

Golfy

Jun 3rd - The Radiators at Moruya

Waterfront

What’s on South Coast Music Society presents

ANDREW HAVERON (VIOLIN) AND KATHRYN SELBY (PIANO)

Mozart Sonata No 32 in B flat major K454

Beethoven. Sonata No 9 in Amor Op 47 “The Kreutzer”

"Drama and Virtuosity, Power and Emotion"

2pm SUNDAY 28 MAY

St Bernard’s Church

Batehaven

Tickets

Adults $45, Concessions $40 Students and an accompanying adult FREE

Purchase tickets at www.southcoastmusicsociety.com

Batemans Bay’s Premier

Entertainment venue

Bound is a 1996 American neo-noir crime thriller film

wri en and directed by the Wachowskis[a] in their feature film directorial debut. Violet (Jennifer Tilly), who longs to escape her rela onship with her mafioso boyfriend Caesar (Joe Pantoliano), enters into a clandes ne affair with alluring ex-con Corky (Gina Gershon), and the two women hatch a scheme to steal $2 million of Mafia money.

Bound was the first film directed by the Wachowskis, and they took inspira on from Billy Wilder to tell a noir story filled with sex and violence. Financed by Dino De Lauren is, the film was made on a ght budget with the help of frugal crew members including cinematographer Bill Pope. The directors ini ally struggled to cast the lesbian characters of Violet and Corky before securing Tilly and Gershon. To choreograph the sex scenes, the directors employed sex educator Susie Bright as an ad hoc in macy coordinator, and she also made a cameo appearance in the film.

Bound received posi ve reviews from film cri cs who praised the humour and style of the directors as well as the realis c portrayal of a lesbian rela onship in a mainstream film. Detractors of the film found its plot superficial and cri cized the violence as excessive. The film won several fes val awards.

Gadfly 286 By Robert Macklin

My long- me friend and fellow author, Peter Thompson was recently strolling in Hyde Park, London where he now lives (appropriately) in Thackeray Street, when he came upon a scene that stopped him in his tracks.

Peter’s a regular London walker and it takes a lot to surprise him. The last me I accompanied him on one, the actor Bill Nighy crossed the road to chat. (That was my turn to stop in the figura ve tracks!)

What absolutely stunned Peter this me was the appearance of a series of ‘wilding projects’ in the western area of the Park which had escaped his a en on for several years. ‘They have turned whole acres into medieval forest,’ he says, ‘with thick undergrowth and huge dishevelled oaks dripping with vines to form such a barrier of foliage that you could get lost in there.

‘This sort of scenery disappeared under Capability Brown who landscaped everything and turned the forests surrounding great country houses into the sort of characterless parkland that we see in Jane Austen movies.’

I have since learned of other similar projects in Europe, Scandinavia and North America with the same general philosophy. The revela on could hardly have come at a more opportune me since, as men oned in an earlier column, I’m wri ng the first biography of our own great arborist, hor culturist and gardener, Charles Weston who between 1913 and 1926 planted some 3 million trees and shrubs in Canberra and its surrounds in pursuit of his ‘dream city’

His task, for which he’d trained 17 years in Britain, rising to the top of their massive garden industry, then a further 15 in Australia at the Sydney Botanic gardens before crea ng what his obituarist in 1935 called Canberra’s ‘green mantle’.

But it’s very much more than decora on for the bush capital, nor even a fortress against the worst effects of climate change. What Peter’s observa on confirms is a movement – of which Charles Weston was a pioneer - to bring the world back to health by revisi ng the past and learning from our fatally mistaken greed and wilful ignorance.

When Weston first ventured to the Capital site in 1911, he was confronted by a landscape ravaged by the early colonial se lers who ringbarked every tree in sight and whose spor ng compatriot Thomas Aus n in Winchelsea, Victoria in 1855 had released thirteen European wild rabbits - specially collected by an English rela ve. The voracious herbivores had by then become a great grey de across the Limestone Plains. Weston’s massive reafforesta on would have to begin with their elimina on.

Today there’s now a gradual realiza on that to save the planet and our place within its natural habitat we need to appreciate the mistakes we have made and to seek the wisdom of our forebears. And in the Great South Land we occupy, the opportunity is at last at hand to make our contribu on. In simple terms it’s a ‘Yes’ vote in the referendum for the Voice. robert@robertmacklin.com

Con nues….

On a different authorial issue, I’m delighted to report that my biography of the late Trevor Kennedy has now been privately published. Born in far off Albany, WA, Trevor turned The Bulle n into Australia's must-read news magazine, rose to head Kerry Packer's Consolidated Press, including The Women's Weekly but they fell out over the a empted takeover of the Fairfax newspapers. He and Malcolm Turnbull then became mulmillionaires as pioneers of Australia's first email company; and Prime Minister Paul Kea ng offered Trevor the post of Ambassador to Washington DC.

I understand that if there’s sufficient public interest, the publisher will make it available online and print on demand.

The book, tled “Cas ng His Net”, runs to 420 pages and has been published in a limited edi on, with the plan to mount it online and make it available via print on demand.

To register interest, email robert@robertmacklin.com

Sydney Writers' Fes val - live streamed to Shire Libraries

The annual Sydney Writer’s Fes val is Australia’s largest forum celebra ng books and ideas. Bringing the world’s finest authors and esteemed thinkers to Eurobodalla audiences in real- me through live streaming.

The events are free, but booking is required. To book, visit eventbrite.com/cc/sydney-writers-fes val-live-stream-2147769

The Sydney Writers’ Fes val is one of Australia’s best-loved forums for literature, ideas and storytelling and Eurobodalla Libraries will livestream featured SWF events from Thursday 25 to Sunday 28 May.

Libraries coordinator Samantha Fenton said the line-up for this year’s livestream promised to be a cracker.

“Whether you want to listen to foodie banter between Stephanie

“The conversa ons, debates and ence par cipa on with live Q&A

“While a endance is free, places

To see the host of events on offer at the libraries, visit the Euro-

Mick let out a deep breath, accelerated and flicked on the cruise control as the bitumen terminated the dirt road.

Bazza leaned back in the passenger seat, loosened s ff muscles and marvelled at random ice stalac tes posing as characters in the frosty visual fairytale.

“Minus four degrees this morning, Bazza but it’s good to get an early start. Anyhow, I hope you have picked up a few ps from Outback Jack, we got a lot done.”

Bazza gave his chin a long rub.

“Well…… Mick. I was going to say OJ belongs in Tom Roberts’ very busy ‘Shearing the Rams’* but I cannot imagine him staying s ll long enough to be painted. The bloke should star in one of those commercials for long life ba eries. But…… I reckon a verse or two from Banjo Pa erson’s ‘Clancy of the Overflow’ sums him up.

In my wild erra c fancy visions come to me of Clancy Gone a-droving "down the Cooper" where the Western drovers go; As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing, For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.

And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars, And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended, And at night the wond'rous glory of the everlas ng stars**

Mick furrowed his brow.

“Bazza….Bazza….Bazza……. I did not ask you to put him in a pain ng or one of your bloody poems……..what did you learn?

Bazza’s eyes half closed as Mick gobbled up the silence and kilometres with catchphrases; ‘ me management’, ‘units of me’, ‘planning and efficiency ‘, ‘tailored outcomes’, ‘lay the founda ons’, ‘mission statement’, ‘need to opera onalise’, ‘holis c approach’.

Bazza closed his eyes and Mick deepened his voice to con nue with ‘core competencies’, ‘leverage’, ‘paradigm shi ’, ‘trac on’, and ‘silver bullet’.

Mick frothed slightly at the mouth as he built long sentences around; ‘Shoulder to shoulder’, ‘communica on is key’, ‘reinvent the wheel’, ‘push the envelope’, ‘forward es mates’ and ‘skin in the game’.

Just outside Tarago, Bazza jolted awake as Mick hit a pothole and cursed.

“There you go, Bazza……… I hope you have ‘enough bandwidth’ to take all that in. I’ve summarised what OJ was showing you over the past few days.”

Bazza rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

“Ahhhhh thanks, Mick……. I reckon it would be easier to invite Outback Jack down to my place to fix up the front fence and gate. He is also good for a yarn a er the work is done.”

Mick’s jaw dropped.

“And what’s in it for OJ, Bazza?”

Bazza grinned.

“I can teach him how to relax, Mick……. there is no sense in all of us being good at the same thing.”

*h ps://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collec on/work/2920/

**h ps://www.australianculture.org/clancy-of-the-overflow-paterson/

Have a beer with Bazza at john.longhurst59@gmail.com

Write Stuff : Ruth Pollock

BY Gary Keady

As a young woman, Ruth’s mother Dorothy vowed, “If he’s the last man on earth and dripping in diamonds I’ll never marry a farmer”. In fact, the fashion-conscious, young city dweller married a tractor mechanic but a er three boys in five years her husband did become a farmer. Ruth was born thirteen years later in 1942 in the country town of Denmark, on the south coast of Western Australia. Being a farmer’s daughter, and her father ins lling the love of country into her heart, she grew up with a respect for the natural environment and the beauty of rural surrounds and, as an only daughter, a degree of independence.

A er her second day at school, Ruth told her mother she wanted to be a teacher. Over the years her father o en tried to discourage her by saying, “All the years of study and educa on will only be wasted because you’ll get married and have kids.” Much to his chagrin she became a teacher and although she loved reading books, English grammar was never a favourite subject. Eventually her teaching career developed as a homebased business, teaching English as a second language to interna onal students.

Her family actually had the greatest influence on Ruth for developing the desire to write. Her mother, Dorothy, a loving wife, in an uncomfortable environment was a wonderful supporter and role model. She had had so much to contend with in a male dominated world, experiencing the catastrophes that resulted from two world wars, an economic depression, and cultural chauvinism but Dorothy’s experience and for tude resonated throughout her daughter’s younger life. This gave Ruth a spirit of posi vity which inspired her to find an inner strength to convince her that determina on and belief in oneself could override many of the issues we must face in life.

Ruth’s paternal grandparents were Swedish immigrants and arrived in Western Australia in 1900. Her grandmother passed away when Ruth was two years old but her mother, and other family members o en told wonderful tales about the spirited and courageous woman. Eventually, as those family members passed away Ruth came to the realisa on that she was the only one in the family in possession of the stories. Alida, it seemed, had been a strong, ‘gutsy’ lady, someone whose story should not go untold.

So, Ruth set about wri ng Alida’s story in 2010, followed by Dorothy’s story, all with a blend of social events, history and poli cs.

When “Alida’s Story” was completed Ruth then wrote her mother’s story and her own. The resulting trilogy,

“Hard Women” encompasses the life patterns of women over three generations, and is an understanding of the times, including the difficult and unreasonable situations faced by women over the past century. “Hard Women” is to be published shortly.

The business that Ruth and her husband, Don had established in the Victorian Alps town of Mount Beauty, kept them busy for 27 years un l it had to close in 2020 because of the Covid Pandemic. They then decided to move closer to family, most of whom live in the Southeast region of NSW. Ruth and Don had been wri ng for several years and considering the impact of losing the business and their familiar surrounds in the mountains, they both decided to concentrate on wri ng. When they se led in Bateman’s Bay, Ruth then decided to write fic on. The first step was to become involved with a group of similar thinking people and by chance she was introduced to the Eurobodalla Writer’s Group.

Ruth has just had her first book of fic on published. “Clouds and Sunshine”, the story of two daredevils with dreams of the future. From the days of se lement during the early 1900s in the mid-western New South Wales farming region, to the 1980s, there is genera onal discord, inheritance arguments, and jealousy, all of which ul mately create dissension between the characters, while adventurous pursuits con nue in the isolated, NSW, country town of Gunnedah.

In the 1980s when Don was a leading stunt pilot in Australia, Ruth wanted to a empt wing walking with Don but it was illegal at that me. So with research and an acceptable way around the illegali es, the unfolding of the story became an exhilara ng journey. Ruth explored the world of wing walking through the character's eyes and got a taste of what it was like to be up in the clouds.

Being part of the Writers’ Group for nearly two years has been very satisfying for Ruth and she admits that the knowledgeable discussions that develop around the table at both the night group and the day group have boosted her confidence, widened her mind and influenced her writing. The support of the group members has been constant and empathetic.