CityNews 210923

INNOCENCE LOST TO LITTLE BOY’S MURDER IN CURTIN NICHOLE OVERALL revisits Canberra’s oldest unsolved murder

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

Not a peep from ACT’s anti-corruption commission MICHAEL MOORE Secrecy blinds Kingston’s shuffling arts precinct

PAUL COSTIGAN

Is there more to those crazy lighthouse guys?

NICK OVERALL

BUCKLEY’S CHANCE How the Keeling family fell for a dingo refuge dog

TERM 4

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NEWS

Hospital bed leads to David nearly losing a foot

By Nick

OVERALL WHEN David Robinson underwent surgery last year, he could never have imagined his stay in Canberra Hospital would lead to an eight-month ordeal that almost saw him lose a foot.

The 56-year-old was in hospital to undergo surgery for bowel cancer, but in the weeks recovering he said a severe diabetic leg ulcer formed on the bottom of his foot due to the bed being too small for his frame.

“I’ve got no feeling in the bottom of my feet because I suffer from diabetes and my foot had rubbed up against the end of the bed while I was in there for two weeks,” said David.

“At one stage I did ask them for a bigger bed but they said they didn’t have any.

“When I got home my wife told me I had a sore on the bottom of my foot and it had just got worse and worse because I hadn’t been able to feel it.”

The wound eventually became so severe that David was unable to walk and had to give up his job as a sales manager, a role he had held for 17 years.

It would also cost him thousands of dollars in medical bills.

Wounds Australia chair Hayley Ryan.

David Robinson… “I hope my story helps raise awareness of how dangerous chronic wounds can be.”

Luckily, Queanbeyan-based podiatrist Allan Donnelly recognised the dangers and began treatment right away, eventually recommending that David visit specialist surgeons at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney.

David said it was a decision that saved his foot.

“When I went back to the Canberra Hospital they wanted to cut my toes off, but I wanted a second opinion so Allan gave me the people at the hospital in Sydney,” he said.

“I travelled up there and they removed the bone underneath and within four weeks it healed up.”

While David says the wound has

On subs, ‘CityNews’ told ya so, Scomo!

OUR former online editor John Griffith’s fondness of things nautical often sailed through his well-written (well-read) “CityNews” magazine column “Lowbrow”.

In May, 2016, his column took thundering umbrage at the Turnbull government’s decision to throw $50 billion in “the biggest defence contract in the world” at a 12-boat, French submarine contract.

“To the outside observer it looks like a whole bunch of contending interests have stuck their two bob’s worth in (Faster! Shootier! Stealthier!

Better sensors! More frogmen! More range!) and they’ve gone for the design that doesn’t disappoint anyone, because it doesn’t actually exist, and cannot exist,” he prophetically noted.

Fast forward to last week’s sudden announcement of Australia’s involvement in the AUKUS

INDEX

nuclear submarine project with the UK and the US, and the consequent sinking of the French contract to build diesel-electric subs.

As Griffiths noted five years ago: “The winning design, the ‘Barracuda Shortfin’ doesn’t exist.

Prime Minister Turnbull admitted as much on the ‘7.30’ TV program. Let’s go to the transcript: ‘Well, Leigh, the submarine has not yet been designed, so it is – we are working with the French as a design partner. It is going to be based on their latest submarine, their Barracuda submarine, but it is going to be an Australian-French partnership to design a new submarine’.”

But John didn’t get it all right. He wrote: “For today’s decision makers, what’s the risk?

They’ll all be long retired when these chickens come home to roost.”

But the chickens came home way sooner than expected.

Since 1993: Volume 27, Number 38

Arts & Entertainment 15-17 Canberra Matters 8 Crossword 19 Dining 20 Garden 18 Horoscopes 19 Letters 12, 14 News 3-14 Politics 14 Seven Days 4 Streaming 16

Cover: Buckley, the dingokelpie mix, with the Keelings.

Story Page 6. Photo: Andrew Campbell

Well written, well read

Ph 02 6189 0777 Fax 02 6189 0778 9b/189 Flemington Rd, Mitchell 2911

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Ian Meikle, 9b/189 Flemington Road, Mitchell.

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now recovered, he’s still feeling the impacts of the ordeal.

“I had to wear a special boot which itself cost $1000,” said David.

“Being on Medicare you only get five podiatry visits a year so those five weeks went very quickly for me.

“I couldn’t go anywhere or do anything and I like my outdoor sports and fishing so that took a toll,” he said.

“I couldn’t get it wet, so I had to shower with a boot and, as it was my accelerator foot, it also meant I couldn’t drive.

“I hope my story helps raise awareness of how dangerous chronic wounds can be and that they need to be taken more seriously by the health system.”

David is one of hundreds of thousands of Australians who suffer from

chronic wounds, a condition that Hayley Ryan, chair of awareness organisation Wounds Australia, describes as a “hidden epidemic”.

“A wound is technically any break in the skin, but add other conditions behind it like diabetes, immune system issues or even just being elderly and that wound can not heal how it normally would,” said Ms Ryan.

“We speculate that it’s $3 billion to treat wounds every year with up to 400,000 people living with chronic wounds.

“That’s only an estimate because we have no structures in place by departments to actually collate data to see who is living with a wound at any one time. It’s probably a lot higher.”

Like David, Ms Ryan believes that if chronic wounds are taken more seriously by the health system and government bodies, the quality of life for thousands of Australians could be greatly improved.

“If you think about nursing, allied health or medical degrees they are lucky to have one hour of study that relates to wound management, that’s not enough,” said Ms Ryan, “We need to start thinking about things like the Medicare Benefits Schedule and how we start subsidising products that treat wounds effectively.

“Prevention as we say is always better than a cure and ultimately these wounds are preventable.”

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SEVEN DAYS

Cruel faces of cabin fever lap up ‘journo porn’ IS it covid cabin fever that drives the banality of the social-media commentary ahead of the Chief Warder’s daily morale floggings?

2CC’s breakfast contrarian Stephen Cenatiempo colourfully calls the latemorning covid press briefing “journo porn” and refuses to watch. He may have a point.

Watching the ACT Health stream via the ABC there is a fast-moving column of capricious Facebook comments that need to be decoded; ie “15 and no tie”, means the writer is predicting that there will be 15 daily cases and “the Chief”, as the chief (so many chiefs) health officer, Kerryn Coleman, is wont to say of Andrew Barr, won’t be wearing a tie.

Moments before the recent extended-lockdown announcement there was an especially silly frenzy of fast-moving and nervously excited banality a-la “Two weeks, 15, red”. One I saw was along the lines of “35 and free beer”, now there’s a pessimistic optimist.

But in reality it’s a sick social-media tombola from other people’s trauma amid the deadly serious side to this daily update.

I wonder if anyone in intensive care at Canberra Hospital tethered to a ventilator via an intubation tube down their throat would get much joy from the jolly jape of guessing how many people will succumb to covid today.

IN Canberra, half the town is sailing through the inconvenience of lockdown on full pay while much of the other half (the

stressed and more than a quarter said their relationship was more difficult or strained this year compared to 2020.

The survey was conducted while about half of Australia, 13 million people, were in lockdown.

“We’ve seen a big rise in worry and anxiety due to COVID-19 from 49.8 per cent in April – the lowest during the pandemic – to 60.9 per cent in August,” co-author of the study Prof Nicholas Biddle said.

“Australians are less satisfied with the direction of the country than at any time during the pandemic. They are also less confident in the federal, state and territory governments.”

dose of dorin private sector) seriously battles to survive on “disaster” handouts.

The government support for small business is shameful and it is demeaning to have to keep asking for more, as the Canberra Liberals (all on full pay) have, as the Business Chamber (all on full pay) has.

An accountant wrote to me the other day to say: “Everyone is struggling right now. I only wish the government understood.”

But they – Labor here and Liberals there – are choosing not to hear those using the parsimonious government support to haplessly paper over the cracks in their

broken businesses.

“There might be stories in some of these struggles,” the accountant wrote and editor@citynews.com.au is always keen to hear about them.

AND if all this isn’t depressing enough, the ANU is reporting that almost two thirds of Australians believe their life has got worse during the pandemic and more than half are feeling more negative about the future compared to the first wave of infections.

In a national survey of more than 3000 people, roughly half said they were more

“IT is an indictment of AMC management, Corrective Services and the ACT government that the inspector of Corrections did not equivocate in finding that the decision to conduct a forced strip search in this instance: ‘Did not comply with the Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT)’.”

So said a vindicated Julie Tongs, the CEO of Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services, after the ACT inspector of Correctional Services, Neil McAllister, formally reported on the shameful, voilent strip search earlier this year of a vulnerable Aboriginal woman in the Alexander Maconochie Centre.

Tongs praised the “courage and fortitude” of the young Aboriginal woman, who lives with significant health issues, for making the gruelling details of her treatment publicly available to the media.

“The treatment by the ACT government of the Aboriginal woman, the subject and instigator of this report by the inspector of Corrections, is nothing short of shameful,” says Tongs.

Meanwhile, in the parallel universe that is the ACT government, Corrections Minister Mick Gentleman spun like a top by thanking the “committed staff within ACT Corrective Services for their professionalism and dedication”, conceded strip searches “can be stressful and traumatising for both detainees and staff” and committed to minimising strip searching, well as much as possible.

To that end, he’s throwing $450,000 at fast-tracking the purchase of two body scanners and shrugging off the criticism.

Ian Meikle is the editor of “CityNews” and can be heard on the “CityNews Sunday Roast” news and interview program, 2CC, 9am-noon.

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NEWS / cover story

Buckley gets a chance with the Keeling ‘pack’

By Belinda

STRAHORN THREE-year-old Buckley ended up at a pound in Taree after being found as a stray roaming about town.

The dingo-kelpie mix was scheduled to be euthanised the next day.

But when Sydney Dingo Rescue – a shelter based near Bungendore helping dingoes find new homes – heard about Buckley, they saw his potential and rescued him.

“No one came forward to claim him so we drove to Taree and picked him up,” says Charlie Jackson-Martin, founder of Sydney Dingo Rescue.

“We named him Buckley as in ‘Buckley’s and None’ because Buckley was on his last chance and he almost didn’t make it.”

Charlie started Sydney Dingo Rescue almost 10 years ago, when eight dingoes were seized from a backyard breeder.

The shelter takes care of mistreated and orphaned dingoes and dingo mixes and helps them find new homes.

It didn’t take long for Charlie to realise that the ideal home for Buckley was in Canberra with the Keeling family.

“He’s adorable,” Lisa Keeling – Buckley’s new owner – says.

“He’s been with us for about a year now. He’s certainly living his best life.”

Lisa, her husband Andrew and their three children Bella, 14, Rupert, 11, and Amy, 5, live in Hackett.

Dingo mixes – also known as dingo hybrids or dingo crosses – are a cross between a dingo and a domestic dog.

They are legal to keep in the ACT and NSW. Pure-bred dingoes can be kept in NSW without a licence, but not in the ACT. “People think we are a bit strange to have a dingo,” says Lisa.

“But Buckley is a great ambassador for a dingo here in Canberra because he’s so engaging, quirky and everyone loves him.”

Radiating in tan, with upright ears and long skinny legs – greater numbers of the part-native-bred dog are being adopted into domestic homes.

“Dingo mixes are predominantly being adopted into homes in NSW but we are seeing increasing numbers being housed in homes in Canberra,” Charlie says.

Sydney Dingo Rescue has rehomed about 200 dingoes and dingo mixes since the shelter’s inception.

It doesn’t support the breeding of dingoes in captivity, Charlie says, which is why all their dingo mixes are desexed.

“The breeding of dingo mixes for the pet market is a real problem,” says Charlie.

Buckley the part dingo and its new “pack”... the Keeling family, Lisa, Andrew and their three children Bella, 14, Rupert, 11, and Amy, 5.

Photo: Andrew Campbell “Sometimes we might have three to four dingoes or dingo mixes surrendered each week, we’ve had six new rescues just this week.

“We also get a lot of working-breed dingo mixes meaning that an un-desexed cattle dog or kelpie from a farm has mated with a wild dingo.

“Those dingo pups will have some domestic and dingo traits and may not be suitable to work livestock, so they end up being surrendered to the pound.”

The shelter is also committed to helping pure-bred dingoes, which are

often hunted in the wild.

“We do get wild-born dingoes that come in as orphan pups because people are allowed to hunt, bait and poison dingoes in the wild, so the pups are found wandering about looking for food on their own,” Charlie says.

“Many of our pure dingoes are rehomed at zoos and wildlife parks including the Canberra zoo.”

At the moment, the shelter is home to around a dozen dingo mixes and 40 dingoes looking for new homes.

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to one, Charlie says, there are a few things you need to know.

“They are very good jumpers, they can jump almost two metres in the air, so you need good fencing because they can be prone to taking themselves off and going on adventures,” Charlie says.

Dingoes lack the gene to digest starch and grain so a raw, grain-free diet is needed to keep them healthy.

These “unique” animals typically also need a companion, either in another desexed dingo mix of the opposite sex or in a medium or large domestic dog.

“Dingoes live with other dingoes so you become like their pack in a sense, you become their family.”

Lisa says it’s important to understand the differences between the native animals and domestic dogs.

“Buckley has certain traits that are very much like a dingo and not a dog,” Lisa says.

“If a breeze comes in unexpectedly he gets startled, runs outside and hides. I don’t think he’d ever been inside a house before we got him and he certainly didn’t know how to walk down stairs. But he’s getting more confident.

“He’s the sweetest, easiest dog we’ve ever had. Buckley brings us so much joy.”

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CANBERRA MATTERS / Kingston arts precinct

Secrecy blinds Kingston’s shuffling arts precinct THE Kingston Arts Precinct initiative has been the subject of irregular announcements for almost two decades.

This saga has mainly been about strategies, announcements, a couple of presentations at meetings, worthy statements about community engagement – and then lots of silence.

The concept kicked off in 2003 as part of an ACT arts facility’s strategy, with more strategy work by artsACT in 2011 and some time after that the former Land Development Agency made grandiose announcements that the arts precinct was to happen.

There was probably another strategy.

The Suburban Land Agency now handles this project and has listed 2015 as the start date. What’s a little rewrite of history?

This promised a “vibrant” precinct (their word not mine) will house a mix of arts organisations (mainly visual arts), and to paraphrase – “be well-connected to its immediate communities and the broader Canberra community – celebrate and respect the indigenous and early settlements including its industrial history”.

What could go wrong?

The processes have become known for the long silences between the occasional meetings along with little to indicate that there will be adequate recognition of the site’s heritage. The government agencies are relying on the developer to do the master

It is said that arts organisations signed confidentiality agreements not to discuss what’s happening with the Kingston development.

This secrecy is frustrating locals and heritage groups committed to having this arts precinct succeed. planning and as part of that, it is expecting the developer to honour the heritage values.

The developer is doing what ACT developers do – trying to squeeze in as many apartments as possible.

The challenge for the ACT Arts, Environment and Heritage Ministers is to deliver on their government’s commitments. The local communities are observing a painfully slow process of boxes being ticked, but fear the reality of the secretive planning processes will be something else – a badly missed and messed up opportunity.

Having dropped the ball on other heritage matters, this significant cultural development presents the ACT Heritage Minister with the opportunity to respond with more than her wellestablished enthusiasm. Has she got the

Sign of the times… walls of silence and secrecy that’s frustrating locals and heritage groups committed to having this arts precinct succeed.

Photo: Paul Costigan will to deliver real outcomes against the well-documented heritage issues?

At the moment it seems that at least seven arts organisations have signed up to be on the precinct site as part of the larger commercial and residential development.

If what has been reported is true, an amazing thing happened that portrays the tenor around how the community engagements are being conducted. It is said that the arts organisations signed confidentiality agreements not to discuss with others what is happening with the development. This wall of silence and secrecy is frustrating locals and heritage groups who are totally committed to having this arts precinct succeed.

This is not quite the community engagement promised in published

documents and strategies.

But more to the point, what the hell has happened to how arts organisations are being run in Canberra?

To quote from the Australia Council: “Arts and culture are a public good and Australians increasingly recognise their positive impacts in our lives and communities. The arts are vital human expressions that connect us with one another, and with our past and present, and help us to imagine our future. Experiencing arts and culture connects us with ideas, emotions and stories, and sparks pleasure, meaning, imagina-

tion and empathy. In so doing, it builds social cohesion”.

The local arts managers and boards need to read those statements a few times and think about why their attitude to the local communities is being viewed as patronising and short term. Sometime in the near future, the arts bureaucracy will most likely deliver cutbacks in funding because these government-funded bodies are conveniently in the one precinct and can share stuff. Will they then ask the community for support to regain funds?

There are many rumours of the deals being done and that one of the organisations is quietly trying to claim a larger slice of the action. Such rumours could be just that – rumours.

But while secrecy is entrenched in these processes, good relationships with local communities cannot be taken for granted.

The concept was good. Unfortunately, residents are fearful that the reality of what will be announced next will be a done deal – and will be not so good.

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THE GADFLY

The ‘fair go’ finds its voice in two causes YES, the covid pandemic is hard to take, but there is a bright side – while the politicians have been occupied spinning their wildly different stands, the broader community has not forgotten that basic Australian precept: the fair go.

And it’s found expression in two powerful causes – women’s rights and the honour due to our Aboriginal past, present and future.

The Morrison government has tried its very best to bury them under a blizzard of words and phony inquiries on one hand and empty half-promises on the other.

It didn’t work. Women were not silenced; nor will they be. The anger runs too deep. That filly has bolted.

And these days they have key positions in the great media groups that help set the nation’s agenda.

The Aboriginal story probably has a tougher road to travel and it’s that which I believe needs

An allied whitefella group would have understood instantly that the only way to get political action was to expose the community to the reality of the attempted Aboriginal ethnocide by the colonial regime. even more horsepower to find its way to a truly united Australia.

The Aboriginal people have largely pushed the wagon of advancement themselves. The time has come for us whitefellas – male and female – to put our shoulders to the wheel. For it’s not just an Aboriginal issue. Climate change is driving home the lesson that the idea of a Christian God creating the land and its creatures solely for the exploitation of man, is not just silly, it’s a death sentence for all sentient life on the planet.

While the Aboriginal people are naturally gunshy about the participation of well-meaning, white lefties, the movement could benefit greatly from a whitefella group pushing in the same direction, but to a broader constituency.

For example, while the marvellous Uluru Statement from the Heart was an exclusively Aboriginal creation, it would have been more effective in raising public and political support if

its action agenda began with the Truth-telling Commission (Makarrata) rather than the Voice to be enshrined in the Constitution before the truth-telling took place.

It’s perfectly understandable that the First Nations leaders were fed up with being portrayed as victims. It’s an insult to their self-perception in the 21st century.

But an allied whitefella group would have understood instantly that the only way to get political action was to expose the community to the reality of the attempted Aboriginal ethnocide by the colonial regime. For it’s not just constitutional reconciliation that will bring about Aboriginal justice, it’s retribution and massive reparations to rebalance the economic scales and “close the gap”. That can only happen with broad public support.

As well, it’s time to celebrate the lifelong work of some outstanding whitefellas who sacrificed their careers and their health on the altar of Aboriginal advancement. For the last two years I have been researching a biography of the great anthropologist, Donald Thomson (1901-1970) whose

Anthropologist Donald Thomson… struggled against the political, academic and religious establishment. work in Cape York, Arnhem Land and the Central Deserts was central to our understanding of the richness and complexity of Aboriginal culture and society.

Thomson was our first home-grown anthropologist and throughout his life struggled against the political, academic and religious establishment with their callous, so-called assimilation policies. For in reality they were intent on destroying every trace of Aboriginal culture that had nurtured the land for 60,000 years. Thomson trained them in World War II to resist an imminent Japanese invasion and fought behind the lines in Dutch New Guinea with 75 headhunters.

He’s but one of a remarkable cohort whose contribution has yet to be recognised. robert@robertmacklin.com

BRIEFLY Whole lotta luck leads to tape find THE National Film and Sound Archive has unearthed a rare interview with the late John Bonham, the drummer from Led Zeppelin, which has become a centrepiece of the new authorised documentary, “Becoming Led Zeppelin”, to be premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

Curator Chris Arneil chanced upon a tape marked “Led Zeppelin: Robert Plant and John Bonham the week before”.

After digitisation and conducting research, they confirmed it was the very interview director Bernard MacMahon had been searching for.

Help with health HEALTH Care Consumers’ Association of the ACT is hosting a free, online seminar titled “Advocating for Yourself and Your Health” to assist people to find out how to advocate for themselves when using the health system and what questions to ask. It will be held from 6pm to 7.30pm, Wednesday, October 13, via Zoom. Register at eventbrite.com.au or call 6230 7800.

Yummy mango drive WODEN Daybreak Rotary is taking orders for what it promises to be “mouthwatering mangoes”, which will arrive in Canberra in early December. The proceeds will be used to fight malaria. More from wodendaybreak@outlook.com

AN OPEN LETTER TO ACT SENATOR ZED SESELJA

Dear Zed, I wrote to you privately three weeks ago outlining the position of Canberra small business.

I pleaded for more support while praising the federal government for its hard work a year ago to keep our business, and many, many others in Canberra, afloat during these devastating COVID-19 times.

I implored you to use a successful template your government created with Jobkeeper and do it again for small business in what is shaping up to be a local lockdown of nine weeks – or more if the ACT government goes slow on letting the community out.

Things were already bad before the ACT lockdown. Business confidence was low, our friends and clients were looking at Victoria and then Sydney in protracted lockdowns and wondering how they could plan for the future.

We knew we were sitting ducks, always one case away from lockdown. However, we expect things will be worse post lockdown. The Chief Minister may be right in asserting that our affluent population of public servants may be ready to spend big post-lockdown, but our prudent and largely traumatised business community will look to save money wherever it can and plot a narrow path to survival.

Suffice to say that we, the company I own with my family, as well as a much larger Canberra business community, were winded by the pitiful extension to the business-support package announced by the Chief Minister and the Federal Treasurer.

It is half the meagre support offered for a five-week lockdown and “extra” support is again not linked to staffing levels, but to revenue.

Andrew Barr may be the public face of the ACT lockdown, but Josh Frydenberg and Scott Morrison are the public face of the economy.

Andrew Barr will be held accountable for any fallout from the lockdown, but you will be accountable for the failure of economic support.

As the federal election looms, we say to you, Zed, now – like never before – is the time to stand up and do the right thing by Canberra business.

James Anderson,

managing director, “CityNews” 10 CityNews September 23-29, 2021

YESTERDAYS / the murder of Allen Redston

Innocence lost to little Allen’s murder in Curtin A “BEAUTIFUL painting of a clown” in a 1960s classroom was the poignant reminder of a tragedy that has, 55 years on, attained the dubious distinction of the ACT’s oldest unsolved murder.

“Mrs Dunn, the headmistress of Curtin South Infants School, hung the painting so we could all remember Allen,” wrote one long-term resident in the book “Curtin turns 50, 1964-2014”, produced to mark the suburb’s golden anniversary.

The reference is to six-year-old Allen Redston – a name many Canberrans have, at the least, heard talked of in hushed tones over the intervening decades.

September 27, 1966, was an ordinary early-spring Tuesday. At day’s end, Allen left the family home in barely established Curtin with his little brother, off to buy an ice cream at the shops.

Not long after, the younger Redston returned home in time for tea. Allen never would.

As Wednesday dawned, when “The Canberra Times” hit the streets bearing front-page details of his disappearance, so came the discovery no parent should have to suffer.

Almost within viewing distance of the Redston’s backyard, a neighbour’s dog had drawn attention to a spot in

Murdered… six-year-old Allen Redston. the swampy bed of Yarralumla Creek, not even a kilometre away.

A dirty piece of carpet was unfurled to reveal a nightmarish sight. Still wearing his green pullover, checkpatterned pants and sandals, Allen was wrapped in an old dressing gown.

His small hands, feet and neck were bound in a manner so expertly brutal as to be beyond comprehension, where his every move would have slowly strangled the life from him.

The community who’d helped search throughout the long, cold night for the quintessential Aussie boy – all blond hair and cheeky grin – was aghast.

Their new haven was a place of artful, studied planning; children that had scampered carefree throughout the neighbourhood; where

A police photo of Derek Percy. the best security came from knowing everyone – and their business.

Could it possibly have been a disastrous prank? Or, was there something far more disturbing afoot to mar the vision of model suburbia they’d been promised?

Canberra in 1966 had experienced its first true population explosion since its 1913 creation.

Primarily concentrated around the inner-city and to the north, out south former sheep paddocks were only just being repurposed as suburbs of four planned “satellite cities”.

The first, Woden, in the mid-’60s was forlorn enough that a newspaper columnist dubbed it “a pastoral frontierville”; a fledgling outpost of a fledgling capital and an unexpected

setting for criminal barbarity.

While well outside Canberra’s previous experience, Allen Redston’s case was among a widespread series of 1960s crimes against children that have continued to agitate public consciousness.

One occurred only eight months before Allen’s death.

On January 26 – Australia Day – 1966, Jane, 9; Arnna, 7, and four-yearold Grant Beaumont vanished from Glenelg Beach, Adelaide. Their fate similarly remains unresolved.

A prospective link between the Beaumont and Redston crimes has revolved around a disturbing child predator, dead since 2013, Derek Percy.

A debated identikit of a lean-faced man with swept back, fair hair seen with the Beaumonts bore similarities to Percy when charged in 1969 with the murder of a 12-year-old girl. He’d admit to being on the beach that day.

Of the few concrete clues in Allen’s situation was a young male involved in previously tying up other local boys.

The publicised description: “between 13 and 17 years of age, about 5ft 6in tall, blond or fair hair, fair complexion and a thin face”. The identikit shows his fringe styled back

SKETCH

I have gone completely to the dogs…

SARAH MILNE came to Canberra petless but after three years it’s all dogs, dogs, dogs!

I CAME to Canberra three years ago without a pet to call my own and had to make do with friendly neighbourhood cats and a family of six, high-maintenance magpies.

My luck has changed and I now have doggo overload! It begins with my friend Tash who is a volunteer search and rescue mountaineer.

Training of her year-old golden retriever pup, Obi, is well underway and me and best mate Ming are the lucky recruits in these manoeuvres. Our instructions are to scarper off into the bush in various directions, throw ourselves into the scrub and remain stock still until Obi comes to rescue us. Lying face down in the scrub, counting the minutes, you hear the crackling of undergrowth, the thumpity thump of feet and then a wet nose pressed into your face.

Obi then gets a reward. Not as he would hope, a chocolate doughnut, but playtime with a favourite pink octopus. And, of course, what must be running through Obi’s head? These two idiots, why do they keep getting lost?

That’s Mondays and Fridays; Tuesdays and Thursdays I promenade with two dainty poodles of my acquaintance, around the lake shores in Yarralumla.

Controversial as it was, I was kinda glad the local dog park was temporarily closed. My “ladies” would go into the

Sarah Milne with golden retriever pup, Obi. small dog park but spend the whole time regretting their decision. They’d call through the fence to the big guns in the big dog park, asking to be let in.

And what did the big guns do? Taunt them through the fence with what I can only surmise were “dogrogatory” remarks.

And finally, a word about Serek; tall, blond and handsome, still living at home and, according to mum Linda, a bit of a handful. A truly “golden” retriever with a pedigree resulting from the finest eugenics, so fine indeed that it makes the royal corgis seem, well… common.

He came to visit recently and made straight for the muddy pond at the bottom of my garden. He then came in to tell me that I had a pond at the bottom of my garden. Serek, despite being a considerable size, was ACT Parkour Champion in 2018.

He proceeded to leap all over the sitting room while recounting the story of his discovery of the pond, creating a Jackson Pollock to rival that in the NGA. Our rental property lease screams “no pets under any circumstances”. The property agent’s office is less than 100 metres down the road and I could sense the pet-detector alarm going off. I hid indoors, behind closed blinds, for the rest of the day. Phew! Got away with it for now, but it’s only a matter of time. Wonder if Linda and her family will put me up when I am evicted?

And a very final word on the subject of poodles. Spoodles, labradoodles, groodles and cavoodles; is there any living thing not crossed with a poodle nowadays? Leave them alone. What next? Humanoodles?

Sarah Milne has come to Canberra from overseas with her husband and daughter.

She has lived here for the past three years.

from his forehead.

In regard to Percy as a person-ofinterest, questions linger.

With little else of real merit in unpicking this confounding mystery, it continues to lurk in the darkest corners of everyday urbanity.

For those who not only lived through the tragedy but literally around the corner from it, their friend was gone as was the glow of their childhoods.

Another former resident also shared his recollections in “Curtin turns 50”.

“The news that Allen Redston was murdered so close to home was quite a shock,” he recalls.

“There was no going outside on our own on weekends and we had to promise that we would come straight home from school and not go out once we got home. There were hardly any kids around for months after that. We lost our freedom for several years.”

Innocence lost in every respect.

More at capitalcrimefiles.com. au Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers.

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LEON DELANEY CityNews September 23-29, 2021 11

LETTERS

Is parking paranoia a covid-related condition?

MY friend and I had arranged to go for a walk together, as one does in these days of lockdown. I walked to the rendezvous, while my friend drove.

I almost missed her as, quite distressed and thinking she must be in the wrong place, she had started to drive off.

It turned out that two local householders had made it quite clear to her that she was not welcome to park in front of their house.

Naturally, I pointed out to her that this was a public street and as she was definitely not blocking the driveway, she was perfectly entitled to park in a convenient place.

So we ignored the local vigilantes, who were still eyeing us in an unfriendly fashion, and went on our walk, which we both enjoyed.

The whole incident was, though, rather disturbing. Is this slightly paranoid behaviour a covid-related phenomenon? Or are there, even in normal times, people all over Canberra who dislike strangers parking in front of their property, to the point that they will glower balefully at them?

Can “CityNews” readers enlighten me?

Jenny Stewart, Torrens

I disagree with the lockdown I DISAGREE with the lockdown and believe it should be an individual choice.

My brother in Toowoomba, relatives in England and everyone in Denmark are free to roam.

Why not us, if we choose to take the risk? (and of being hit by a bus, or catching pneumonia).

If others choose to self-isolate at home, with masks and Coles deliveries, they may do so.

Hugh Dakin, Griffith

‘Caring’ team on the doorstep

Property investment is ‘unproductive’

no psychiatrist on duty.

I then rang Canberra Hospital emergency and was promptly put through to the Mental and Allied Health Team.

I spoke to a wonderful and caring lady on the phone and soon a team of three, equally caring, workers were at my doorstep ready to assess me and offer all the assistance I would need.

The team’s visit was followed up with a phone call and an appointment was made for me to see a Canberra psychiatrist.

Another team came to my home, days later to follow up on the first team’s assessment, the day before the psychiatrist appointment.

Then I received two further follow up calls and have another psychiatrist appointment booked.

All these workers were kind, compassionate, caring and professional. I offer my sincere and heartfelt thanks to all these good folk, and feel my road to recovery will be enhanced and aided by their good work.

Thank you so much to the entire HAART team, I luv yez all!

Michael White, Oaks Estate

I READ Jon Stanhope’s column (“Mental health demand rises as funding is sliced”, CN September 9) with interest and dismay.

I am afflicted with Bi-Polar-2 and recently had a rather severe onset. I live in Oaks Estate and rang Queanbeyan Hospital emergency department, but found they had

Canberra no longer the lovely place COLUMNIST Paul Costigan is spot on, as usual, with his comments on the deterioration of Canberra’s environment (“Compromised Greens turn backs on biodiversity”,

CN September 9).

I think Canberra should be renamed “Canyon City” and Northbourne Avenue would be “The Grand Canyon”. I think of Athllon Drive as “Zigzag Drive” though temporary repairs have recently patched some of the potholes.

Canberra is no longer the lovely place we came to in 1966.

Gordon Worrall, Torrens

Back to when we welcomed refugees YES, Robert Macklin (“A Glimpse of the Australia we used to be”, CN September 9), I too would like to go back to a time when Australia’s government welcomed refugees warmly and with understanding of their circumstances.

Of giving them the time and space to put themselves back together before anyone seeking refuge felt the need to prove to the world that they are worth being considered human.

I’m paraphrasing the pleas of a recent Afghan arrival in the Middle East after escaping Kabul.

It’s a damning indictment of what sort of society Australia’s become ever since dehumanising refugees with terminology like “those sorts of people” played well with the voting public.

Michael A Crowe, Hawker

JIMMY Savitsky (Letters, CN September 9) laments “the ACT government is by far the most hostile jurisdiction to (property) investors in the country and by a very long way”.

This may be true, but has he considered how nationally unproductive investment in property can be?

When investors, usually with negativegearing tax concessions as a basis for making profit, go about buying up established properties, they do nothing to ease housing affordability.

They add not one dwelling to the available stock of housing, they create very few construction jobs, they reduce the number of houses on the sale market thereby forcing up prices, and they usually outbid young couples and the not-so-well-off thereby pushing them into a high-rent situation.

Yes, property investors provide rental accommodation, but wouldn’t it be better if the millions of dollars invested in speculating with established housing went into the production of new homes to increase supply, hopefully lowering prices and creating jobs?

tural feature, access, the small scale of each project, the fixed orientation of rooftops and the fewer sunshine hours compared to much of Australia, as well as grid-related issues, mean that roof-top solar is the wrong way to develop renewable energy in Australia.

I can only conclude that for governments it is the cheapest way to boost renewable energy content and offer consumers a chance to save a buck on their electricity bill.

Solar farms can collect up to 50 per cent more energy per solar panel through optimal orientation, tracking and more sunshine hours. Utility of scale results in a halving of the cost per installed panel, and a high-energy utility scale battery storage system operating in conjunction with a solar farm costs about one third that of small-scale installations, per unit of energy.

Overriding all of this is that the utility scale solar/battery lends itself to conventional grid integration, whereas if roof-top solar is taken to the extreme feed-in potential, the distribution network will have to be rebuilt.

As usual with governments, it is a case of short-term gain but long-term pain for the taxpayer, and I haven’t mentioned the cost of making the electricity supply reliable.

John L Smith, Farrer

Bill Bowron, Wanniassa

Had Mario even bothered to look...

MARIO Stivala writes that independent Senate candidate Kim Rubenstein would be well advised to indulge in something more substantial than statues of women (Letters, CN September 9).

If Mario had bothered to look at the Kim4Canberra website he would have seen her wide range of “substantial” policies, including climate change, gender equity, citizenship, refugee policy, constitutional change, a First Nations Voice to Parliament, economic and cultural renewal.

Ernst Willheim, Campbell

Roof-top solar is the wrong way THE current adaptation of solar energy into the electricity supply demands an explanation from governments of both sides of politics.

Most people would readily appreciate that their suburban rooftop is not the ideal place for solar panels. The marring of the architec-

The crisis that goes beyond covid AUSTRALIA is a land of fire and flood and, over the last decade, with accelerated global warming, the world is becoming one of fire and flood, too.

As columnist Robert Macklin points out, it is an existential crisis that goes far beyond the impact of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.

Climate crisis also refers to species extinction, deforestation and increasing encroachment on areas where wildlife still exists.

Hunters now have to go further and further into these areas for food and, with this closer contact, viruses and diseases are more easily passed on, for example in “wet markets”.

Bernadette Gately, Stirling More letters Page 14

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POLITICS / Anti-corruption commissions

Two years on, not a peep from the ACT anti-corruption commission THE ACT’s Integrity The ACT Integrity Commission has been tardy.

Commission was the most Despite being established since July 1, 2019, it has still recent anti-corruption commission to be established not produced any anti-corruption reports. in Australia. The only a few headings under “Our work”. jurisdiction left is the federal This strategy looks like a PowerPoint presentation that government, but perhaps they could have been prepared in an have too much to hide!

Despite election promises, the federal government has resisted the establishment of any form of anti-corruption body with serious powers and the teeth to effectively investigate inappropriate and corrupt conduct. This failure comes at a time when there is less and less trust in government.

The ACT Integrity Commission’s 2019-2020 Annual Report explains the role as “an oversight body, in recognition of the necessity to ensure accountable and transparent government and government services for all citizens of the ACT”. The parallel is needed federally.

Even so, the ACT Integrity Commission has been tardy. Despite being established since July 1, 2019, it has still not produced any anti-corruption reports. The current commissioner, Michael Adams QC, was only appointed in early May this year with the chief executive officer being in place since late October, 2019.

So what has the ACT Integrity Commission been doing? Years have passed since the first complaints were made. The website of the commission indicates that “Investigation Reports” and “Special Reports” are “coming soon”. COVID-19 lockdowns have not helped with the office closed until October 18.

The fundamentals of the ACT Integrity Commission are summarised as “investigate, expose, prevent and educate”. An initial

ACT Integrity Commissioner Michael Adams QC. step of the commission identified in the annual report was “its corruption prevention and education function with the inclusion of documentation on its website”.

There is an education and prevention strategy that concludes with a vision “to be recognised as a leader and trusted adviser in the development of practical, best-fit corruption prevention initiatives, which promote and enhance the integrity of government”.

The strategy is just one page and is set out with three headings under “Our Approach” covering: first, “partnership with stakeholders to understand and prevent corruption”, second “anticipate and respond to the needs of the ACT government and community”, and finally “deliver best-fit corruption and prevention products and services”. It also has

hour. Par for the course on the website! Simple, clear messages do have a role to play.

However, for anyone wondering what the commission has been doing for more than two years – there is nothing substantial to be found.

The media section has no media releases over the last two years.

There is a two-page instruction on how the ACT Integrity Commission uses Twitter. The Twitter account is @ACTIntegrity which reveals that by May this year the commission had “received nearly 200 reports of alleged corrupt conduct”. With my addition they now have 74 followers.

When it comes to a federal anti-corruption and integrity commission, it is to be hoped that the legislation is powerful enough and any commission is appropriately funded to do the job. Greens Senator Larissa Waters has an explanation for the reluctance of the federal government.

Senator Waters tweeted a few weeks ago “of the 23 current members of the Morrison-Joyce Cabinet, 12 ministers – more than half – have been implicated in integrity scandals. It’s no wonder the PM doesn’t want a federal ICAC”.

Following the most recent Christian Porter scandal, Anthony

Albanese reiterated the Labor promise to deliver on an ICAC. Scandal-racked Christian Porter should be the straw that breaks the PM’s back. Minister Porter has accepted a large donation for personal legal bills through a blind trust. An ICAC should be investigating this.

Additionally, Porter has resigned as a minister and should resign from Parliament.

The ABC’s David Speers pointed out the precedent when the Morrison government pursued Labor’s Sam Dastyari until he quit parliament “in disgrace” after a China-based company covered some of his personal legal bills. The then Attorney-General, Christian Porter, followed the resignation with a ban on foreign political donations to “improve Australia’s confidence in the political system”.

Anti-corruption and integrity commissions have become a key part of building trust in government and politics. There should be no more delay. An Australian national version must be established with serious teeth, be appropriately funded and get on with the job.

Michael Moore is a former member of the ACT Legislative Assembly and an independent minister for health. He has been a political columnist with “CityNews” since 2006.

LETTERS

Woden’s quiet street to turn into a ‘rat run’ Continued from Page 12

THE ACT government is going to close off a large part of Woden’s Callam Street to traffic to relocate the bus interchange and install a tram station.

As a result, the quiet residential, park and cemetery side, Easty Street, which is parallel and to the east of Callam, will experience much increased traffic, not to mention intrusive bus “layovers” (bus parking areas), turning it into an unsightly, noisy rat run.

Far better to install the new bus interchange underground, with climate-controlled space, shops, cafes, skylights – like Brisbane’s very operationally and commercially successful central underground bus interchange. Callam Street would then sensibly remain open to through traffic.

The underground bus interchange could be below part of its current site (earmarked for a new Institute of Technology facility) and/or under Callam, with its trees preserved.

Bus layovers could be successfully confined to the new facility being installed now, which is off Launceston Street, beyond the northern end of Callam Street.

Jack Kershaw, Kambah

Give us the choice on lockdowns I BELIEVE in quarantining positive COVID cases, and vaccination of the people who opt for vaccination freely, but not in a lockdown that doesn’t end until a percentage of people are vaccinated.

Especially when that percentage is decided upon for the people and not by the people.

Enough people are pro-vaccination, so why not give us the choice? The spread will be reduced considerably, and people are not pressured or coerced into being administered a vaccine that in itself could cause death or long-term health effects The US had 1.5 million people die in 2018-19 from heart disease and about 4.5 million deaths in total.

Covid deaths to date in the US total 664,000. The US is at the top of the list for the number of deaths caused by covid worldwide.

When covid peaked in the UK in January, the total number of deaths on a per week basis from covid was on par with the total number of deaths from influenza/ pneumonia on a per-week basis.

Bernadette Carroll, via email

OPINION / climate change

We need clear and honest solutions, not more confusion Former Liberal politician GREG CORNWELL has been trying to get through the mixed messages and confusion around climate change...

LOCKDOWN has given me time to think about the confusing issue of climate change. And what confusion there is!

Words that regularly pop up such as carbon neutrality, carbon emissions, net zero targets, greenhouse gases, renewable energy and fossil fuels. Dates, too: 2050, 2030 and “half by 2030”. Not that these years will worry me, but they certainly worry others, concerned about their children and grandchildren.

14 CityNews September 23-29, 2021

What does the world, not just Australia, have to do to avoid environmental Armageddon?

Will the solutions proposed to address climate change, carbon emissions etcetera work? Indeed, are there solutions and, if there are, are they so draconian we, the people, cannot be told?

Will our standard of living fall to a degree only the most fanatical environmentalist or greenie will find acceptable?

Has anyone considered the effect of the alternative lifestyle these worldwide changes might have upon our societies? Will the advances in say, science and technology, be impeded by climate-change adjustments?

How long will the corrections take and at what human cost during the transition?

For example, take the question of phasing out fossil fuels and particularly coal. I understand coking coal is not a problem but the rest is.

So these other coal mines across the country are closed down. How many miners are unemployed and how much more significant would be the figure if their families and their

communities also were taken into account?

What about the transport drivers collecting and delivering this commodity locally and to ports? To those in our own industries and the seamen sailing the bulk product overseas and finally, to the people in the countries receiving and converting this black gold into essentials to improve national living standards?

How do we re-employ this army of global workers and how quickly?

Granted, there are alternative renewable-energy methods, but these appear limited in application, such as solar and wind power, unless upon such a massive scale around the world

as to destroy or irreparably damage the very environment we seek to protect.

Nuclear has been suggested, but to many this as a cure is worse than the disease. Population reduction also would help, but is unpopular for social, cultural and financial reasons and short of a pandemic or a big war difficult to enforce.

To a puzzled me, criticism of current practices is not enough, we need clear and honest solutions to this existing global problem.

Greg Cornwell is a former Liberal MLA and Legislative Assembly Speaker.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

INSIDE

When it’s time, it’s got to be Box 5

RICHARD CALVER

Rob’s running hard to make a name for himself

By Helen

MUSA CANBERRA actor Rob Shiells may look as if he’s living the life in Los Angeles, but he’s got one big message for aspiring actors – you have to work hard.

For while the four younger housemates with whom he crams into a three-bedroom LA apartment, are waiting for the jobs to come in, he’s out day after day auditioning, doing screen tests and making connections — they regard him as a bit of a conch, but they do so admiringly.

It’s all paid off, with a small, featuredextra role in Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans”, due out next year, and while because of a non-disclosure agreement he can’t say more than that he “got to meet him a couple of times, he’s a really amazing director”, it’s led to more work. He tells me confidently: “I’ve got some fires over here that are about to burn.”

Shiells was born in Ballarat, but moved to Isabella Plains with his family aged one, so can rightly consider himself a proper Canberran. Though doing drama at Trinity Christian School, he says, “I never thought I’d be an actor, ever”.

LA-based Canberra actor Rob Shiells… ”It would be a dream for me to come back and perform on stage at the Canberra Theatre.”

With school teacher parents, he was supposed to go on to an education degree, but instead, enrolled in consecutive diplomas at Canberra Academy of Dramatic Art, now Perform Australia.

In 2017, Canberra dancer Ethan Hart was heading for the ARTS conference in California and needed an actor-presenter.

Shiells won the spot and soon found himself performing in front of 400 people in LA.

Better still, the New York Film Academy offered him a scholarship to study at its Los Angeles campus.

But he wasn’t sure he could afford to live in LA, so deferred, returned to Canberra and worked four jobs to save up, even becoming the “Bloody Good Mattresses” facts man on TV. Enter Kirsty Budding, of Budding Theatre, for whom Shiells played Mr Bingley in “Pride and Prejudice” and taught four classes a week.

In 2019 he snapped his tibia and was patched up with metal, but went on stage as Young Scrooge in Budding Theatre’s “A Christmas Carol Goes Horribly, Terribly Wrong” with Christmas lights around his moon boots. He also got his first directing gig for Budding Theatre’s “Cheeky Cabaret.”

Still hobbling, Shiells moved to LA in January, 2020, just before covid struck, completing his one-year Acting for Film course at NYFA, much of it on Zoom, a good thing because it taught him how to react in a more subtle way.

“I was always too energetic and NYFA helped me learn a more subtle approach,” he says.

While studying, he scored the stage role of the Fire Chief in Ionesco’s seminal play “The Bald Prima Donna” after someone dropped out and he still nurtures a dream to perform live on Broadway.

By now some Aussie friends were flying

home, but he decided to stay and, on graduating, got a role in the NYC-based Amazon Prime Series “Streets & Avenues”, followed by the same part in the feature, “There’s No Other One” – “low budget, but I loved the chance to see New York City,” he says.

After first auditioning with an American accent, he discovered that an Aussie accent was far more enticing to directors, who were prepared to adapt the roles. Then he got an audition for a TV “Mystical” series, involving demons and vampires, which is in negotiation.

In Los Angeles he came to realise that there is union work and non-union work, but now he’s eligible to join the American actors’ union, which will make a big difference and he’s also signed with a manager. Being fully vaccinated helps, too.

Shiells’ long-term objective is to live comfortably from his acting and at almost 25 he tells me, “I’m getting there, maybe next year I can”.

He’s a fan of Hugh Jackman, who has succeeded on screen and stage, but his all-time favourite actor is Heath Ledger.

But first he needs to get as much work in the US as he can, “to prove that I’m an expert in my field”.

Underlying it all is his wish to show that you can come from a town like Canberra and do something really creative – ”It would be a dream for me to come back and perform on stage at the Canberra Theatre,” he says.

ARTS IN THE CITY

Jasmin faces a global audience

By Helen Musa CANBERRA actor Jasmin Shojai has won a place in the global finals of World Monologue Games 2021, which features performers from 50 countries and will feature in the “Main Amateur” category. More than 100,000 viewers have already tuned in to the qualifiers and regional livestream finals. The global finals will be livestreamed at monologues.com.au on November 12, 13, 19 and 20.

THE new “Little Darlings” Youth Portrait Prize 2022 at the National Portrait Gallery is for students only, with four separate categories across kindergarten to year 12.

Responding to the theme “identity”, young artists can paint, draw, photograph, print or combine all of these to make their portrait. Three winners will be chosen from each category by a panel of judges including NPG director Karen Quinlan. Applications are due by 5pm, Friday, October 8 at portrait.gov.au LANDSCAPE photographer Scott Leggo has expanded his jigsaw puzzle range to cheer up patrons in extended lockdowns, with 13 new puzzles added to his range featuring panoramic photos from Canberra and across Australia. Visit scottleggo.com SHANE Strange, the founder and publisher of Recent Work Press, a small prizewinning press poetry imprint based in the ACT, is keen to set up a patrons’ fund that honours and thanks key supporters while supporting the administrative and operating costs of running an independent publisher. All donations will be tax-deductible in Australia and the fund will be open for one-off or periodic donations until December 31 by emailing contact@recentworkpress.com WHILE preparing for the launch of the inaugural National Capital Art Prize, now postponed to October, Aarwun Gallery director Robert Stephens has commissioned a new logo featuring its catchcry, “Art For

Jasmin Shojai… in the global finals.

Photo: Tina Nikolovski Everyone”. Inquiries to aarwuncanberra@bigpond.com CARWOOLA artist Isobel Rayson is presenting a body of new work with Suki and Hugh Gallery in Bungendore.

But with the gallery currently closed, the exhibition will be presented in a virtual tour utilising Matterport technology, which precisely models the space allowing viewers to walk through at their leisure. We know how gallery director Susan Foxlee feels when she says, of the new technology: “Hopefully I can wrap my head around it.” The walk is accessible via sukihugh.com.au CityNews September 23-29, 2021 15

THEATRE / Lakespeare

On their bare bones, the Bard’s crew presses on

By Helen Musa

LAST year was a rollercoaster ride for Lakespeare & Co’s “Shakespeare by the Lakes”.

It began with a rollicking “Midsummer Night’s Dream” in the forests of Glebe Park, Tuggeranong Town Park and Kambri, climaxed in the aggressive “Rockspeare Richard III” at EPIC, then glided to a gentle halt with “Songs & Sonnets Over Dinner” at Manuka’s Typica café.

The opening outdoor show was the Lakespeare III of a theatrical venture started

by Taimus Werner-Gibbings, Duncan Driver, Lexi Sekuless and Paul Leverenz in 2018, when they staged “Much Ado About Nothing” (Lakespeare I), then continued in 2019 with “Twelfth Night”, directed by Christopher Stollery.

The idea was to stage works by the Bard outdoors and free for all to enjoy, but as 2020 unfolded, the full implications of covid, combined with the departure of Sekuless for a job as a chief adviser to federal Arts Minister Paul Fletcher, began to emerge.

This year has been even tougher. What should have been Lakespeare IV was replaced with “Songs and Sonnets in the Park”, performed for one night only at Glebe Park, after Sekuless’ planned production of Shakespeare’s “Measure For Measure” was abandoned.

Now, in news just to hand, the former long-time head of acting at NIDA, Tony Knight, will join the company in the autumn

Fairies in Glebe Park for Lakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” last Former head of acting at NIDA, Tony Knight… year.

Photo: Holly Treadaway directing “As You Like It” next year. to stage that most pastoral of Shakespearean plays, “As You Like It”.

It’s not the first time the play has been done outdoors in Canberra. I recollect the pleasant sight of one actor sliding down the muddy banks of Aspen Island into Lake Burley Griffin during the time of Nicholas Bolonkin’s Looking Glass Theatre.

The choice of play is music to the ears

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16 CityNews September 23-29, 2021

of Driver, an actor, Shakespeare academic and connoisseur of the Bard’s capacity for creating complexities of character while bending the genders so that when “As You Like It” was written, the boy playing Rosalind dresses up as a girl who pretends to be a boy pretending to be a girl. Weird but true.

Knight, Driver, Werner-Gibbings, Katarina Smalley and possibly Lainie Hart are now

auditioning for the parts, with some help from Zoom, and say actors interested in roles should send in a 90-second bit of “vision” (mobile-phone videos are fine) to give an idea of what they can do and what parts they might like to play.

Meantime, Leverenz and Werner-Gibbings have had their hands full ensuring free performances in favoured venues such as

Tuggeranong Town Park, the Patrick White lawns outside the National Library and the Queanbeyan Riverbank, so this year they needed to set up crowdfunding.

“We will be lucky if the fourth season avoids a sea of troubles,” Werner-Gibbings says with a Shakespearean flourish.

A political candidate for Labor in Brindabella at the 2020 ACT election who missed out by a whisker, he once trod the boards for Lakespeare in “Much Ado”, but says mysteriously: “I am saving up all my credit for next year”.

“Our model is probably the most covidsustainable of anything you can do, with as much space as you like… even if we have to do 10m² we can do it outdoors,” he enthuses, assuring me that they’re going full steam ahead.

In future, they’d like to go north into Belconnen or Gungahlin, he says, and are looking at smaller spots where audiences of, say, 200, could fill parks that might not yet have power points, meaning no microphone.

Unlike Driver, Werner-Gibbings is over Shakespeare’s pastoral comedies, and prefers a different theatrical battlefield, dreaming of twisting the arms of his collaborators before 2022 Lakespeare comes around.

“It’ll be Lakespeare V, so it’ll just have to be ‘Henry V’,” he says. And, yes, there might even be an acting role in it for him.

Auditions and information at lakespeare.com or facebook.com/Lakespeare/ Donations to the crowdfunding campaign via mycause.com.au

WATCH IT! / streaming and stuff

More to those two crazy lighthouse guys?

QUIETLY having washed up on the shores of Netflix this month is “The Lighthouse”, a beguiling black-andwhite tale of two lighthouse keepers both named Thomas stranded on an isle off the coast of New England.

The film is a curious, intense and at times disgusting descent into total madness, far off the beaten path of mainstream movie making hence its addition to the world’s most popular streaming platform coming as a surprise.

But its uncanny sensibilities seemed to have captured the intrigue of audiences and in turn the attention of Netflix.

The only cast members of this surreal experience include Willem Dafoe, an irate, “Captain Arabesque” lighthouse keeper who commands a shady young employee played by Robert Pattinson.

Both actors put on some of the most impressive performances of their careers, especially Dafoe in his deliverance of crazed, folkloric monologues as the situation on the island breaks down.

It’s also shot entirely in an eerie black and white, giving the experience a strange feeling of existing in some kind of limbo.

“The Lighthouse” is about as indie as it gets when it comes to filmmaking, but its success lies in the fact that people can take as little or as much as they want from it.

For some, this may just be a tale of two men going crazy on an island together.

Others may spot the heavy mythological influence, or take it as a psychological deep dive.

Indeed, the story’s influences are as wide as an ocean, including that of Edgar Allan Poe’s final, unfinished story and a real life mystery about three lighthouse keepers who went missing in 1900.

Willem Dafoe in “The Lighthouse” (Netflix).

Many will love it and many will hate it, but either way, it’s almost guaranteed that willing viewers will never have seen anything like “The Lighthouse” before and its credit to Netflix for throwing something so bafflingly unique in the mix.

That’s just the start of what’s hot in the streaming world right now.

Closer to reality, Binge is pushing season three of “American Crime Story”, a dramatisation of the affair between former US president Bill Clinton and White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

This is another anthology show, meaning each season has covered a different topic and can be watched by themselves should viewers only be interested in a certain story.

Season one probed into the OJ Simpson murder case, season two examined the assassination of Gianni Versace and now season three anchors the perspective in that of the multiple women involved in the Clinton political scandal, which lead to his impeachment.

Over on Apple TV Plus this month, they’re

sending “Game of Thrones” into space with its epic “Foundation” series.

It’s not literally a galactic “Game of Thrones” spin-off, although in this era of remaking popular things I almost wouldn’t be surprised if it was, but it is certainly another attempt to fill the gap still left by the fantasy phenomenon after its ending two years ago.

“Foundation” looks to classic sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov for its inspiration, adapting his book series about a band of exiles who must fight against an inter-planetary empire after a genius prophet predicts the future destruction of the galaxy.

This is prime real estate for Apple to splash cash on bombastic CGI to bring more viewers over to the platform, but it also promises some food for thought as well.

“Foundation” dives into some heavy sociological and scientific concepts found in the work of one of the most recognised sci-fi writers of the 20th century.

Issac Asimov’s fame was more cemented from his other popular story, “I, Robot”, which got a very lax adaptation in 2004 with the film starring Will Smith (on Disney Plus).

That film is, of course, a shameless set-up for Smith to shoot CGI robots with some corny one-liners and was always doomed to endless repeats on commercial television.

But after breakdowns of sanity on a cursed island, impeachments of world leaders and galaxy-wide apocalypses sometimes that’s all one needs.

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The arancini balls entree… soft, gooey and creamy.

Photos: Wendy Johnson

Massive lamb shanks... braised in a mixture of red wine, orange, tomato and balsamic.

Flavours ensured all was forgiven D’BROWES has been a major feature of the Narrabundah shops for years and years.

It has a strong following and during covid is keeping regulars and newbies in surrounding areas well fed with hearty takeaway, including with great gluten-free options.

Our entrée arancini balls ($17.50) travelled well and were perfectly formed with blue cheese and parmesan. The crumb wasn’t heavy, and the tomato sauce was full of flavour. They were soft, gooey and creamy.

The mushrooms were divine (and decadent).

The dish combines field and forest mushrooms with a rich, creamy white wine parsley cream (gluten free, $17.50). My accountant, who is a big fan of D’Browes, told me this dish is a “must” and he is dead right. The earthiness of the mushrooms was memorable, but that cream was the star of the show.

While we didn’t order them, oyster fans will be pleased that D’Browes offers ½ dozen natural rocks for $18 and a dozen for $36. Kilpatrick oysters are the same price.

D’Browes is famous for its lamb shanks, and we knew they’d also travel well. It was a super generous serve ($30), and the massive shanks are braised in a fabulous mixture of red wine, orange, tomato and balsamic. The meat fell off the bone and the dish was moreish and oh-so-satisfying in the crisper weather. As with all main courses, the shanks are accompanied with a creamy garlic mash (the garlic tones are not too heavy).

Also, for a main we shared the duck Maryland (also $30). It was a decent serve, but the crispy coated duck didn’t travel as well as the shanks.

Still, the flavour was there and the pear jus delicate and delightful. And we certainly weren’t disappointed with another lot of that garlic mash.

For its covid takeaway menu, D’Browes is also dishing up a chargrilled eye fillet with classic pepper cream sauce, a spicy beef Hungarian goulash with sauerkraut, and an Atlantic salmon (all $30).

For a side we dug into a crispy Greek salad ($10) with loads of colour, crunch and a perky dressing. We longed for riper tomatoes…

The single-serve, sticky date pudding was super-duper sweet for those who love a sugar hit (during or not during covid!). The vanilla ice cream was indulgent. De’Browes’ dessert line up also includes crème caramel, tartufo, chocolate mousse, and bread and butter pudding (all $13).

Some dishes didn’t look exactly attractive, but it’s so tough when they need to be packed into aluminium foil containers to take their trip to their lockdown destination. Flavours ensured all was forgiven.

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WINE

When it’s time, it’s got to be Box 5

By Richard

CALVER DURING lockdown lots of us are trying to bolster the spirits of family, friends and colleagues, sometimes with uplifting affirmations.

For example, a friend said: “Cheer up mate, you could be much worse off, like if you were stuck underground in a hole full of water.” I know he meant well.

So, for a self-bolstering treat I dived into Box 5 in my wine-storage area (a wardrobe, nothing fancy) where I keep my 104 bottles of wine. Box 5 is where I keep the dozen wines that I had bought or are valued at $50 or more.

From this pool of extravagance, I chose a wine that I believed was worth more than $50, but I had no proof of value, as it is shown in my spreadsheet as a gift. Mystery giver, I profusely thank you for the 2016 Capital Wines Kyeema Vineyard Shiraz Viognier.

I called Capital Wines post my consumption of this sumptuous wine to first ask about its

further production and to inquire about its cost.

Bill Mason, one of four new owners of Capital Wines from February 2020, spoke with me. He confirmed that the wine, when available, was $52 a bottle but Capital Wines no longer makes this wine as Kyeema Vineyard had been sold to the Four Winds winery before he and the other new owners had bought Capital. I indicated my appreciation of what a fine wine it was, up there with the Canberra District’s Clonakilla and Ravensworth examples of this blend. Unfortunately, I had not been able to compare the local examples of shiraz viognier with the Cote Rotie French brands, mostly because I baulked at the cost. I had seen, behind security glass at Vintage Cellars in Manuka, a French Cote Rotie for $700 a bottle and my lockdown madness hasn’t extended to that level of devil-may-care.

Bill explained that they had produced a 2021 line up of wines, not including a shiraz viognier, but that the first year of steering the Capital Wines ship had seen bushfires “put us under a cloud, literally one of smoke”. I wished Bill well and said I would make it a post-lockdown priority to visit the Hall cellar door of Capital to taste their new line of wines.

In the meantime, I chose an affordable McLaren Vale shiraz viognier as a useful compara-

tor. I purchased a d’Arenberg 2016 Laughing Magpie for $33 from BWS Kingston.

The d’Arenberg was complex. But the finish was not the liquid velvet that the Kyeema exhibited. Both wines had a very pleasant floral, black fruit bouquet but the mouth feel on the Canberra District wine was fuller, richer and it finished longer and smoother. The Laughing Magpie had a peppery element. The white viognier added to the bulk that is shiraz, tempers the big bold Aussie shiraz flavours and provides a wine that reminds me more of fine pinot noirs than the meaty styles that we are used to, especially from the Barossa. It is a wine type that sings of Canberra District cold-climate influences and the Kyeema (hopefully the Four Winds version, too) provides the crowning glory of the local winemakers’ skills.

As well as doing comparative wine tastings, I decided to examine the internet for uplifting examples of self-care to apply during lockdown.

My advice is to stick to the comparison or even just the consumption of wines rather than taking some of the advice proffered: “Remember to practise self-care: Take a walk, meditate, try yoga, paint a picture, murder someone, burn a body, clean a crime scene...”

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Pick the mix for a good start SPRING is truly here and, with light frost lingering, it’s time to pot up any indoor plants.

If they have outgrown their pots, then either repot to a larger pot or divide or take cuttings to keep its size smaller.

The explosion of indoor plant gardens is in vogue and a must-have in all the rooms in my house with filtered sunlight. The indoor conditions are critical to success and mustn’t have direct sunlight and not as much water as you think.

Wiping the leaves and spray with a light spray bottle can be all some tropical indoor plants might need. There are specific potting mixes required for indoor plants and the most important function is its water-holding capacity (WHC) and air-filled porosity (AFP). Getting this right for indoor plants is a good start to growth.

If the seedlings that are growing are ready for planting, now’s a good time to give them a mild liquid fertiliser once there are four leaves on the seedlings. The first two (cotyledon leaves) will die off to give them a little more sunlight as well.

The most important thing to remember is to keep the water up to them and drainage at this stage. Keep them warm at night and due for planting in October. Then there should be a wonderful display in the garden for Christmas at very little cost.

control. Now is the time to spray it out of the lawn before the seed is set or it is too late in summer.

Dig out winter-grass, bindis and flat weeds using a small, hand-held weeder. Ten minutes a day will make all the difference over time or it’s a good chore for small children to do in the garden for 20c a weed perhaps.

A good lawn fertiliser can be used and there are many different products on the market. There are lawn starters and fertilisers for all specific types of lawns.

Having some knowledge of what type of lawn is in the garden will determine its care. Read the back of the packaging carefully before applying additives to make sure it is suitable. Remember less is more with fertilising lawns otherwise it will burn if too much is applied.

If planting a new lawn then a few to look at would be warm-season grasses such as couch, kikuyu and buffalo or cool-season grasses such as Kentucky bluegrass, tall fescue and ryegrass.

Look at the shade in the garden and then determine what lawn is best.

NOW’S also the time to prepare for the tomatogrowing season. Tomatoes can be planted but won’t really do anything until the soil warms up.

If you have a protected spot where you can give

them a head start, they should be fine.

Sprinkle a little dolomite lime on the soil where the tomatoes are going to be growing.

Dolomite lime is primarily calcium and magnesium, and it will give the tomatoes a terrific start.

Calcium helps reduce blossom end rot in tomatoes and the magnesium makes sure the leaves are green and can maximise the uptake of the sun’s energy for good growth.

THERE will be a proliferation of snails and slugs in vegetable gardens with the lovely moist weather we’ve had. There are many chemical and non-chemical products on the market to keep these at bay.

Some organic ways to keep the numbers of pests down would be to use a dry, coarse mulch such as sugar cane mulch or crushed up eggshells or anything the snails find difficult to climb over. Nocturnal insect numbers can be reduced by using crumpled wet newspaper in a small old pot on its side in the veggie garden.

Shake out in the morning in a bucket of warm soapy water. jackwar@home. netspeed.com.au

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PUMPS - TANKS - IRRIGATION - FILTRATION 18 CityNews September 23-29, 2021

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Your week in the stars

By Joanne Madeline Moore

ADVERTISEMENT

General knowledge crossword No. 800

September 27-October 3, 2021 ARIES (Mar 21 – Apr 20)

CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT

Expect some relationship rumbles this week Rams, as retrograde Mercury and fiery Mars stimulate your love zone and a partnership may feel as if it’s going backwards. Steer clear of being a selfish Aries who is too demanding! Saturn encourages you to get the ratio right between your personal needs and those of loved ones. So do your best to reset the balance between giving and receiving.

Wednesday is a wonderful time to rest, relax, ruminate, contemplate and create.

CRYPTO INVESTMENT COMES WITH TAX CONSEQUENCES

TAURUS (Apr 21 – May 21)

Taurus is a fixed sign and Bulls can be a very stubborn bunch. And Mercury is reversing through your job, wellbeing and daily habits zone for the next three weeks. So prepare for work chaos, health hiccups and/or disruptions to your usual routine. Flexible Bulls will learn to bend and adjust accordingly. Your mantra for the week is from birthday great, Libran peace activist Mahatma Gandhi: “Our greatest ability as humans is not to change the world, but to change ourselves.”

GEMINI (May 22 – June 21)

A relationship with a child, teenager, friend or lover is about to go through a frustrating patch as Mercury (your boss planet) moves backwards. And is a cherished dream taking forever to manifest? Forget about airy-fairy fantasies! Reality planet Saturn urges you to set a solid and achievable goal and then work towards it in a patient and persistent way. So your motto for the week is from birthday great, singer-actress Julie Andrews: “Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.”

CANCER (June 22 – July 23)

It’s a good week to review plans and complete tasks as you tick the to-do list.

Creative projects and joint ventures are also favoured. But retrograde Mercury is stirring up your domestic zone. So (over the next three weeks) prepare for a domestic drama or a family fiasco. Explain to loved ones that you need plenty of personal space at the moment, and pace yourself. Maintaining a disciplined daily routine and keeping up-to-date with domestic chores will also help.

LEO (July 24 – Aug 23)

Hold your horses, Lions! Mercury is retrograde (until October 18) so, if you are too hasty, then you’ll run into obstacles. You also need to be extra careful when you’re communicating with family, friends and colleagues (in person and via social media). If you say or write something when you’re feeling rushed, then it could backfire on you later. And don’t hog the conversation! As writer (and birthday great) Truman Capote reminds us: “A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue.”

VIRGO (Aug 24 – Sept 23)

This week’s celestial salad throws some frustration into the mix, as your ruler Mercury is in retrograde mode (until October 18) which slows things down (especially financial matters). So your stress levels could venture into the outer stratosphere.

Calm down, Virgo! Your motto for the moment is the Serenity Prayer (from Reinhold Niebuhr): “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Down

3 What, colloquially, is an unkind remark? (8) 7 Name the third sign of the zodiac. (6) 8 To appear eager, is to what? (4,4) 9 What is the highest point or state called? (6) 10 Name an alternative term for a spectator. (8) 11 To be clumsy or awkward, is to be all what? (6) 14 What is a community of people, together for spiritual development? (6) 17 Which downy yellow pieces of fruit closely resemble small peaches? (8) 18 Who was the first Australian-born GovernorGeneral, Sir Isaac ... ?(6) 19 What do people go to barbers for? (8) 20 Name the part of the trunk between the neck and the abdomen. (6) 21 When one votes someone back in, one does what? (8)

1 To be in a state of extreme happiness is to be in which heaven? (7) 2 What is the least quantity or amount possible? (7) 3 Which chess pieces can move obliquely on squares of the same colour? (7) 4 Which house in England is the Queen not allowed to enter? (7) 5 What was Harry Morant more commonly known as?(7) 6 What is a sudden burst of ill-humour? (7) 11 Who instructs, as a profession? (7) 12 Name a republic in Eastern Europe, where Kiev lies. (7) 13 Derailleur relates to the gearing mechanism on a what? (7) 14 When one helps, one does what? (7) 15 Which polygon has six angles and six side? (7) 16 What are wattle trees known as in Australia? (7)

FREE SUDOKU EVERY DAY AT citynews.com.au

LIBRA (Sept 24 – Oct 23)

Beauty-loving Librans are famous for being fashionistas and the classiest sign in the zodiac. This week, with the Sun, Mars and retrograde Mercury transiting through your sign, your natural elegance and sense of style shine for all the world to see. Don’t be too preoccupied with glossy outer appearances though! Be inspired by birthday great, legendary Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland: “The only real elegance is in the mind; if you’ve got that, the rest really comes from it.”

Solution next edition

Across

Sudoku hard No. 300

SCORPIO (Oct 24 – Nov 22)

Venus is transiting through your sign, so utilise your natural charisma to charm others and attract opportunities into your world. Then use your Scorpio motivation to take action. Preparation is the key. As birthday great Julie Andrews observes: “Work hard, apply yourself and be ready. Then, when an opportunity comes, you can grab it.” With the Sun, Mars and retrograde Mercury moving through your self-sabotage zone, the only person who’s likely to undermine your efforts is you!

SAGITTARIUS (Nov 23 – Dec 21)

Even though Mercury is retrograde and Jupiter squares Venus, avoid being an argumentative and hot-headed Sagittarian! The Sun and Mars are visiting peaceloving Libra, in your friendship and networking zone. So, if you practice the gentle arts of patience and persuasion, you’ll be surprised how much easier life can be.

Draw inspiration from birthday great, peace activist Mahatma Gandhi: “Leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”

If you need help with your cryptocurrency transactions or any other tax related matter, contact the friendly team at Gail Freeman & Co on 6295 2844.

CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 20)

Capricorns are feeling frustrated and cranky! With Mercury reversing through your career zone (until October 18) it’s definitely not a good time to apply for a job, pitch your boss for a promotion or launch a professional project. Instead, focus your attention on a romantic relationship, business partnership or creative joint venture that has real potential. It’s also a suitable time to show loved ones how much you really care via a warm hug, a welcome gift or a thoughtful gesture.

Disclaimer This column contains general advice, please do not rely on it. If you require specific advice on this topic please contact Gail Freeman or your professional adviser.

Authorised Representative of Lifespan Financial Planning Pty Ltd AFS Lic No. 229892.

AQUARIUS (Jan 21 – Feb 19)

Copyright Joanne Madeline Moore 2021

Solutions – September 16 edition Sudoku medium No. 300

PISCES (Feb 20 – Mar 20)

This week retrograde Mercury revs up your restless side and amplifies your tendency to become distracted. So be extra careful when walking near traffic, driving, cycling or jogging. And have you been contemplating doing some sort of humanitarian, community or volunteer work? The terrific Venus/Neptune trine boosts your compassionate side as you get involved in a charitable cause with a global reach or lend a helping hand to someone in your local neighbourhood.

Solution next edition

Crossword No. 799

With taskmaster Saturn moving slowly through your sign (until March 2023) you may feel as if you are failing to live up to your full potential. And then this week, retrograde Mercury disrupts travel plans and messes with your mind. Don’t stress, Aquarius! Mistakes will just motivate you even more, and challenges will spur you on even further. Be inspired by birthday great, novelist and playwright Truman Capote: “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavour.”!

During a Zoom discussion, Blake told me he had invested in Dogecoin "based on Elon Musk’s advice", but he hadn't done as well as expected. He was looking for guidance on how he should account for it in his tax return.

I told him the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) had published several documents on how profits and losses should be disclosed.

"The ATO takes the view that crypto is not money, it is an asset; so most of the time it comes within the capital gains tax rules," I said.

"You make a capital gain or loss when you sell or gift it, trade or exchange it, convert it to currency such as Aussie dollars or use crypto to purchase goods or services.

"That capital gain is then taxed in accordance with the capital gains tax rules other than some exemptions, which are set out below. It is worth pointing out that the ATO has agreements with the Australian data exchanges so the ATO has information on your purchases and sales.

"There is an exemption from capital gains tax for personal-use assets. So if the Dogecoin cost less than $10,000 and is used mainly for purchasing goods and services and your intention was not to make a profit from it, then the ATO will accept that it does not fall within the capital gains tax provisions.”

Blake explained that he had bought more than $10,000 worth of crypto to make a profit and didn't fit within that exemption.

“As you purchased the crypto as an investment, provided you held it for more than 12 months, any profits that you made will be subject to capital gains tax," I told him.

"You will also be able to offset any capital losses against those gains. The 12-month rule is important so that you can claim the 50 per cent discount on the capital gain on your tax.

"If you didn’t hold them for more than 12 months or your intention was to buy and sell for short-term gains, then you are a trader and the gains would be taxed as assessable income and the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount would not apply.

"Also if you trade your Dogecoin for another cryptocurrency you would have two capital gains tax transactions. The first is the sale of Dogecoin and the second the purchase of the new crypto. Even though no money changes hands, you would still have to pay capital gains tax on the first transaction.

“Also, make sure you have the correct records of your transactions.

You need the date of the purchases and sales of any crypto, its value in Australian dollars at the time of the transactions, the crypto address of the other party to the transactions and the nature and purpose of each transaction.

"In my experience, most crypto dealers provide you with an annual summary of your transactions that enables us to prepare the tax calculations.

"However, you need to bear in mind that the statement could well be in US dollars, which will need to be converted to Australian dollars.”

Blake said: “Thank you so much Gail, I will be able to do the calculations with your help and it doesn’t seem to be quite as scary.”

02 6295 2844 Unit 9, 71 Leichhardt Street, Kingston ABN 57 008 653 683

(Chartered accountant, SMSF specialist advisor and Authorised Representative of Lifespan Financial Planning Pty Ltd AFS Lic No. 229892)

info@gailfreeman.com.au | www.gailfreeman.com.au Follow us on Facebook

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