More Blues live at the Kinema

The wonderful Blues at the Kinema concerts continue in August, hosted by Narooma School of Arts (NSoA) Highly acclaimed blues-root guitarist Geoff Achison of Melbourne will feature at Narooma Kinema on Friday 18 August supported by local legend Tony Jaggers. Geoff Achison is “super excited” about playing at the Kinema.

“The experience of performing with simple acoustic guitar and voice is extraordinarily liberating,” he said. “I soon settle into flowing with the music and telling my stories about these songs. The most exciting thing is seizing the opportunity to set the music free. The plan goes out the window, the chords change when they want to, the arrangement evolves as you bear witness, and the audience comes along for the ride. It’s hard to get the same vibe in the studio. That’s why live music is the best.”

Geoff has been hailed as one of Australia’s finest blues players, a brilliant lead guitarist and a gifted songwriter.

“Geoff draws on deep blues, soul, funk and acoustic folk influences and his music has been compared favourably to Eric Clapton, JJ Cale and the Allman Brothers,” said NSoA concert co-organiser Petti McInnes. “Geoff is invited to music festivals around the world and he’s coming to Narooma Kinema. Why would you miss it…”

Ms McInnes said response to the series of Blues at the Kinema concerts from both musicians and patrons has been exceptional. “All enjoy being up close and personal, and our musicians all say they love a listening audience,” she said.

“The School of Arts is passionate about supporting all the Arts. Bringing quality musicians to the Kinema is also attracting people from far and wide, even from the ACT, Queensland and Victoria.”

Tony Jaggers needs no introduction to Blues fans across the south-east. He has supported many top line bands playing rock and blues over many years, and performed at many major Blues Festivals in Australia and onstage with some Blues greats. He also hosts the community radio Blues programme ‘Mojo and JellyRolls’.

See Geoff Achison and Tony Jaggers at Narooma Kinema Friday 18 August.

Purchase tickets online through www.naroomaschoolofarts.com.au, not at the Kinema. Early Bird tickets cost $35 if bought by 1st August, or $40 after 1st August. If you want to risk missing out by buying on the night, tickets will cost $45 at the door. Doors open 6pm; show starts 6.30pm. There will be a bar with wine, beer and cocktails and noodle boxes for vegans, vegos and meat eaters.

Live at Moruya Waterfront Hotel

Tickets from $37.63 at h ps://bit.ly/45VbtY2

Batemans Bay’s Premier

Entertainment venue

Acadia Winds are trailblazers for Australian wind music. Awarded a fellowship at the Australian Na onal Academy of Music upon their forma on in late 2013, they became Musica Viva Australia’s inaugural FutureMakers musicians from 2015–17. They have brought their brand of energe c, joyful and spontaneous performance to fes val stages in almost every state and territory in the country.

Pictures in Arcadia, featuring popular composi ons by Strauss and Mussorgsky, will take listeners on a sensory journey across the globe. Be swept away by the mo on of contemporary Australian composer Harry Sdraulig’s Meridian, before experiencing Victor Hartmann’s works of art aurally in a striking tribute by Modest Mussorgsky. With innova ve arrangements for wind quintet, these works will enfold you in a fantasy world you won’t want to leave. Please make them welcome to Braidwood!

Venue: Braidwood Uni ng Church, 68 Monki ee St, Braidwood Time: 2pm - 3.10pm

Tickets: $35 adults, $30 concessions, under 18s FREE.Online booking! Get in early.

Gadfly 300 By Robert Macklin

Yes, my wife and I – and many of our friends – belong to the ‘lucky generation’ born in and just after World War II as precursors of the Boomers. Sure, we’ve had a pretty good run, but now, it seems, we’re the bad guys in the great housing debate. It’s punishment time: End negative gearing; pay capital gains on the family home; skyrocket rates; and badmouth the Boomers.

It’s easy to list the advantages we’ve had. In childhood, three good meals a day and we lived in okay houses even if sleeping on enclosed verandas or sharing a bedroom with a sibling. We walked or rode our bikes to primary school with classes of 40 to 50 kids. Our holidays were spent in rented beach houses where we could only stay two weeks before Dad returned to work and Mum to parttime dressmaking. And boy, did we envy those folks with a beach house. My experience was fairly typical. After two years at Brisbane Grammar, two years jackarooing, and a year matriculating with a Commonwealth Scholarship, I scored a cadetship on The Courier-Mail. The ‘south’ beckoned and a stint at The Age led me to the paper’s Canberra bureau in the late 1960s; and pure chance – plus the jackarooing –the opportunity to become Press Secretary for his last year with the great ‘Black Jack’ McEwen. Even better, I’d married the lovely Wendy Webster a teacher, musician, composer and writer and bought our first house in Canberra’s suburban Pearce.

Then PM Harold Holt took his fateful swim and McEwen became interim PM. John Gorton offered him a deal too good to refuse so he (and I) stayed on till his retirement in 1971, then we escaped with our two little boys to the Asian Development Bank in Manila for next five years. That’s where I made documentary films in 32 countries and wrote my first book, The Queenslander robert@robertmacklin.com

A writing scholarship arrived and brought us back to Bateman’s Bay where Wendy taught at the local school till we returned to Canberra where I began a disastrous foray into video production which - combined with 17 per cent bank interest rates - resulted in our losing the Pearce house. Now we were renters and in 1990 I returned to journalism at the Canberra Times.

Happily, a bright spot arrived when a generous colleague shared the acquisition of a little bolthole at Tuross. Then Wendy took an early farewell from daily teaching for the deposit on a house at Weston and I wrote a book with an old Courier-Mail mate. This got me back into writing and 20 books later with Wendy’s relief teaching and a 2003 Canberra Times redundancy, we sold the house and moved to a nearby home unit.

That’s when the housing market went nuts; the value of Tuross passed the threshold that prevented even a part pension, and massively increased the maintenance on two properties. And just because we can’t live in two places at once we’re suddenly the bad guys.

I’m not complaining. In our lifetime, our generation has been spared the threat of invasion. John Bell has brought us every Shakesperean play; we’ve watched great TV drama from Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, West Wing and Rachel Perkins’ The Australian Wars’ ; we’ve been serenaded by The Beatles to Peking Duk; thrilled by the sporting greats too numerous to mention.; relished the defeat of Scott Morrison by a fair election; and devoured the non-Murdoch press and ABC news which is keeping truth alive…just.

I hang my head in shame that we failed to act on climate change and are entrusting our foreign affairs future to the American imperialists. But we have worked very hard – most of us – to acquire our little pieces of real estate, and a modicum of comfort in our final years. I just wonder if the punishment fits the housing crime.

Reading—a beer with Bazza

Mick stared into his schooner and shook his head numerous times. The television blasted continued highlights of the Matildas in full flight.

Mick raised both eyebrows, as Bazza pulled up a bar stool and took a sip of the offered schooner.

“Thanks, Mick…….. by gee you look a bit down. I didn’t think you would take the Matildas’ loss to England so seriously.”

Mick bit his bottom lip.

“It’s not that, Bazza. In fact, I am hoping things get back to normal in this country.”

Bazza’s eyes widened as Mick took a measured sip.

“Well…..Bazza……I reckon it all started to go wrong a month or so ago with the media obsession with securing tickets to Taylor Swift concerts.”

Bazza chuckled.

“All a bit of good fun, Mick…….. I even tried to buy tickets to go with my daughter.”

Mick ran the palm of his hand across his forehead.

“Yeah…..well that figures……. Anyhow, no sooner had that died down and the Matildas hog the limelight ……. record television audiences and packed out stadiums. It was over the top. And if that is not enough the Diamonds Women’s Netball Team won the World Cup…….. for the 12th time…..…… are you picking up a trend here, Bazza?”

Bazza screwed his eyes.

‘That’s all good news, Mick……… I am not following you.”

Mick tightened his mouth.

“Stay with me on this one, Bazza…….. it all came home to me when you tricked me into seeing the ‘Barbie’ movie the other day, when I thought we were seeing ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’. I thought the treatment of Ken in ‘Barbie’ was appalling. He is just an accessory to Barbie throughout the movie……..no hero status. Now…..the movie could of been saved if Barbie falls in love with Ken and they live happily ever after…….but no…. Ken finishes the movie the same way he began it…… as an accessory and unbelievably, Barbie lives happily ever after by herself.”

Mick paused for a decent drink, leaned in and lowered his voice.

“I am feeling under threat these days, Bazza…….. but……. It gets worse……. I reckon your mate, Albo is too soft. He needs to muscle up a bit. You might not have liked Tony Abbott as Prime Minister, Bazza, but it felt good to be a bloke, when he was in power. I mean…. he did bloke things. I just cannot imagine Albo eating a raw onion or completing a triathlon before Question Time in Parliament.”

Mick cradled his forehead.

“If things do not get back to normal, Bazza, we are going to end up with a nation full of Kens.”

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

Wifedom—Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life by Anna Funder

A blazing, genre-bending masterpiece from one of the most inven ve writers of our me.

'Simply, a masterpiece. Here, Anna Funder not only re-makes the art of biography, she resurrects a woman in full. And this in a narra ve that grips the reader and unfolds through some of the most consequen al moments - historical and culturalof the twen eth century.' - Geraldine Brooks

‘There’s exhilara on in reading every brilliant word.’ – Chloe Hooper

Looking for wonder and some reprieve from the everyday, Anna Funder slips into the pages of her hero George Orwell. As she watches him create his wri ng self, she tries to remember her own…

When she uncovers his forgo en wife, it’s a revela on. Eileen O’Shaughnessy’s literary brilliance shaped Orwell’s work and her prac cal nous saved his life. But why – and how – was she wri en out of the story?

Using newly discovered le ers from Eileen to her best friend, Funder recreates the Orwells’ marriage, through the Spanish Civil War and WW II in London. As she rolls up the screen concealing Orwell’s private life she is led to ques on what it takes to be a writer – and what it is to be a wife.

Compelling and u erly original, Wifedom speaks to the unsung work of women everywhere today, while offering a breathtakingly in mate view of one of the most important literary marriages of the 20th century. It is a book that speaks to our present moment as much as it illuminates the past.

‘So, she will live wri ng the le ers she did – six to her best friend, and three to her husband. I know where she was when she wrote them. I know that the dishes were frozen in the sink, that she was bleeding, that he was in bed with another woman – and she knew it. . . .I supply only what a film director would, direc ng an actor on set – the wiping of spectacles, the ash on the carpet, a cat pouring itself off her lap.’

Shameful ac on by Council

What a woeful mob of Councillors we have. Shouldn’t they be across issues and make sound leadership decisions, par cularly when it comes to the Voice to Parliament na onal referendum?

Tuesday’s Council mee ng revealed that our Councillors, with the excep on of the AA team (Anthony and Alison) are lacking in awareness and sensi vity. The rejec on of the advice from Eurobodalla Aboriginal Advisory Commi ee by adding a pathe c third-op on amendment was an insult to that commi ee, and demonstrated a lack of leadership and a lack of concern for the Indigenous people of our shire.

The mayor is paid $64,000 and councillors $26,000 per annum. Are rate payers paying for Council to sit on the fence, keep their noses clean and mimic Pauline Hanson?

Juliet Ramsay

My reflections on courage and what is true leadership.

Sitting yesterday at Eurobodalla Shire Council meeting I listened to heartfelt appeals made by profound and eloquent speakers calling for long overdue respect, justice, equity and courageous leadership from our councillors to make a clear statement in support of the recommendations of the Eurobodalla Aboriginal Advisory Committee. I had been filled with hope that this recommendation would be supported unanimously.

The recommendation of the members of the Aboriginal Advisory Committee, was that ‘the Eurobodalla Shire Council support the vote in the upcoming referendum for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament’. This committee was set up by Eurobodalla Shire Council to ensure that Aboriginal people would no longer be overlooked in considerations. Mayor Hatcher was quoted in his previous statements of support for the Aboriginal community and several of the Councillors expressed their support for a yes vote at the upcoming referendum.

However, I left the meeting exceedingly disappointed that the majority of the councillors had failed so shamefully to show true leadership or courage. Once again, our Indigenous people have been betrayed by so-called community leaders, who sit in places of power and authority, but stopped short of an honest answer of support. A Council that could be visionary and lead our community to higher ideals failed miserably once again.

Indigenous playwright and author, Julie Jansen, clad in her possum cloak, stood to eloquently share her story and some tragic historical truths, as did so many others. How any Councillor could have responded to these speeches and not been deeply affected is almost beyond belief. The majority of them verbally expressed their support, however, in what I believe was a purely political move Cr. Amber Schutz called for an amendment to the motion to remove any decision by Council to support the Yes vote. She suggested that it be “noted”.

Such tactics of literally 'sitting on the fence' are designed to shore up their future votes for the next Council election. Yet surely our society is seeking strong and committed leadership – people with a real vision of what could be achieved when we walk together in partnership and friendship – that moves us higher as a society. Fear holds us back with mean-spirited leaders only thinking of their next opportunities to increase their power and so-called support base.

I commend our Deputy Mayor, Cr. Alison Worthington and Cr. Anthony Mayne for their refusal to support the amended motion. They stood in support of the Aboriginal Advisory Committee clearly quite appalled at what had just been used by the majority as a clever tactical move – to say not yes, nor no – but to stay safely sitting on their respective fences in the hope that they wouldn’t need to stand proudly and truthfully behind their so-called stated position of support.

I feel for our Indigenous people who yet again must feel deeply betrayed by hollow words spoken. I feel for those Councillors who did stand in their own truths and oppose the amendment and who had to face defeat. As a citizen, I feel for us all who feel the deep shame and disappointment that once again we have not risen to the call in a united and compassionate response.

We are the people of Australia, who call for a ‘fair go’ for all. I can only go forward in deep trust and hope that we will rise to the challenge at the referendum.

Sister Laurel Clare Lloyd-Jones (LFSF)

Letter to the Editor, Shameful day for Eurobodalla Council

The Beagle Editor

For over two hundred years our First Nations people have been ignored by various governments with paternalistic, colonial attitudes. Governments have failed to listen. They thought they knew better. History has shown that they were wrong. The result is the current situation of inequality and lack of support where our First Nations are the most incarcerated people on the planet.

In 2017 our First Nations people got together and produced the Uluru Statement From The Heart, requesting the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution. The Federal Government listened, for once, and has agreed to hold a referendum;

“A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Do you approve this proposed alteration?”

It’s politics. You either vote Yes or No. Hopefully after learning and understanding the options. There is no third alternative. Yes or No. Eurobodalla Shire Council has in the past seen the failure-to-listen problem and set up a Eurobodalla Aboriginal Advisory Committee to make recommendations to Council. Today’s Council meeting addressed one of those recommendations;

“We the members of the Aboriginal Advisory Committee recommend that the Eurobodalla Shire Council supports a ‘yes’ vote in the referendum for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament. Also, that the Council advises all residents of Eurobodalla Shire about this decision and advertises this decision in signs on the council’s properties.”

Following two hundred years of paternalistic colonial practice, Councillors refused to listen. Many Councillors claimed to support the Yes case, but also claimed that they could have a third option and not act as Yes or No supporters. They are clearly not well educated about politics and binary referenda questions.

An amendment was proposed; to receive the recommendation but to take no action.

Only Councillors Alison Worthington and Anthony Mayne voted against the amendment, and thus return to the original recommendation. The other seven, including the Mayor voted for the amendment, or in effect to refuse to act on the recommendation of the Aboriginal Advisory Committee.

At that point, about twenty members of the public gallery left the meeting with calls of Shame, Shame, Shame. Eurobodalla deserves better from our Councillors.

100 Years Ago 18th August 1923

Motbey and party are sinking on their new reef near Mt. Utopia. It is maintaining the excellent prospects with which it opened up. Close alongside is a big “blue” reef, also carrying gold. This la er is increasing in width as it goes down.

Smith and Welsh have made a splendid job of their contract for metaling and binding on about threequarters of the road between Tilba and Central Tilba. Motorists say that it is one of the best pieces of road in Eurobodalla Shire. The Shire Engineer was so pleased with the road that he complimented the contractors. The far-famed North-West, which could support millions, lost nearly 5000 people in the census period; the South Coast lost 4450; the Central Tablelands 9254; the Southern Tablelands 5430; the Central Western Slopes 11,013; and the North-West Plains 4960. While the rural popula on is decreasing alarmingly, the city popula on is increasing abnormally.

The Mechanics’ Ins tute having granted the use of the ground, the Moruya Tennis Club has pegged out the posi on for its third court. Mr. W. Luther obtained the contract for gravelling same.

Mr. A. Ison no fies that he has disposed of his butchering business at Bergalia to Mr. H. J. Thomson, who will take over on 1st Sept.

Unless we get 8 or 10 inches of rain very soon, the water supply will be a serious problem. Even now there is li le or no water in the creeks and wells. Our rainfall is 10 inches below the average.

Mr. H. Malone, who runs a passenger service between here and Goulburn, has placed on the line a handsome Studebaker model which is certainly par excellence in appearance. Comparisons are indeed odious when we consider the luxurious mode of travelling now-a-days to that when poor old “Neddie” Corrigan carried his “fare” in an ancient coach with slow horses and string repaired harness.

Eurobodalla Shire. At the monthly mee ng the President, Mr. T. Flood, Crs. A. H. Anne s, R. J. Anderson, H. J. Bate and A. Sutherland were present. Correspondence: From Bateman’s Bay Progress Associa on re pump for Camp Street well. The Engineer was instructed to purchase a suitable pump; From Moruya Progress Associa on re trees and tree plan ng. Permission was granted to plant the trees and to erect the guards, all work to be done to the sa sfac on of the Shire Engineer; From W. J. Crapp. Central Tilba re purchase of Res. 185 Parish Narooma. The Council has no objec on to the purchase of the Reserve; From A. H. Cos n, Narooma, forwarding plan of subdivision of property for approval. The Council did not give approval as the lanes between a number of allotments were considered too narrow; From A. J. Anne s and others, Mogo, re erec on of bathing sheds. Considera on was held over pending further informa on.

Extracted from the Moruya Examiner by the Moruya and District Historical Society Inc.

Wri ng ‘The Light’: how six people produced a novel

A few years ago, one of the members of Eurobodalla Writers’ day group came up with the idea of wri ng a novella together. We had published a few anthologies, so this was a new challenge, but we thought it would be fun.

Eleven met to discuss the possibility. Five dropped out for various reasons. That le six: Rhonda Casey, Eileen Dillon Smith, Stafford Ray, Rosie Toth, Judy Turner and me, Gillian Macnamara. Before we embarked on ‘The Light’, Stafford had published two novels: ‘Cull’, a poli cal thriller, and ‘Australian Gulag’, a love story. Rhonda had a novel on the go: ‘Hessian’, historical fic on about Aboriginality and personal reconcilia on. The rest of us had wri en only short pieces of prose or poetry.

One of the five who dropped out had recounted the true story of the mysterious disappearance over a century earlier of three lighthouse keepers from a remote Sco sh island. This became the basis of our plot. We moved the story to northeast Tasmania in 1949 and placed our imaginary lighthouse on a small island close to the fic onal town of Li leton. The book opens with the light going out, a boat sinking, a man drowning and a lighthouse keeper vanishing.

Rather than wri ng a straigh orward mystery, we were interested in exploring the impact of the tragedy on the locals, which meant inven ng a cast of characters. One challenge we had been considering was how to produce a cohesive work wri en by mul ple authors. As we fleshed out the characters, the answer became obvious: we would each write from the point of view of one or more characters, which would allow for different ‘voices’. This was not as straigh orward as it seemed. We all had to write scenes that included other writers’ characters, and character consistency ma ered. So, an important part of our regular reviews was to check: ‘would he say this?’ or ‘would she do that?’. It was interes ng to observe how real our characters became to us and how much this ma ered. We wrote in the third person, which made transi ons from one character’s point of view to another’s clearer to the reader. The only excep on to this was the free verse wri en in the first person in the voice of the lighthouse.

Several more decisions were needed before wri ng could begin, such as whether to write in the past or present tense. All decisions were made