four years, says Sensei Reece, who earned a top 16 position himself, in the male adult division.
Mitchell and trained there, by the end of the year had three or four students.
Now, Kodokan Cummings Karate
THE not-for-profit Canberra Lapidary Club returns to Epic for its Gemcraft and Mineral Spring Show over the weekend of October 29-30. There will be minerals, fossils, opals and cut gemstones for sale, plus displays of members’ collections. Entry is $7 adults, $12 family, $4 concession and 16 and under, free.
THE 41st Yarralumla Arts and Crafts Show featuring more than 100 local artists, crafters and makers will
Matsubayashi-ryu.
“Shorin-ryu translates as ‘pine forest style’. Our karate style is spe
be held at the Uniting Church Centre on Denman Street, over the weekend of November 4-6. The show promises a large array of art, handmade wares, plants and food with entertainment from local choirs and musicians on the Friday (10am to 8pm), Saturday (10am to 5pm) and Sunday (noon-5pm). The show will support the McGrath Foundation, Spinal ACT, Canberra Refugee Support, Caring for Kiriwina and others.
AS part of its 50th anniversary, the ACT Scale Modellers’ Society is presenting the largest display in Australia of RAAF scale aircraft models at its annual show at Kaleen High School, 108 Baldwin Drive, on the weekend of November 5-6. The society’s annual showcase event draws competitors from all over south and eastern Australia. Admission is $5 for adults, $2 for children, $2 for seniors and $10 for families. More from actsms.asn.au
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promoted to the rank of fifth-degree black belt by three karate masters, which is an internationally recog
It makes him only the second person in Australia within the relevant disci pline to achieve this level, and one of Reece was also invited, as one of eight individual demonstrations, to represent the Okinawan Prefectural Karate-do Federation at the World
“Representing my karate style and the Okinawan Prefectural Karate-do Federation – alongside some of the world’s most senior karate instructors – is an honour and highlight of my 20plus years in the martial arts, and one
And he’s quite the inspiration to Tom, who says: “I want to be like Reece when I grow up. I want to own my own Tom has successfully earned his blue belt (eighth level). The furthest he can earn at his age is a purple belt
“Once Tom turns 14, he can then join the seniors program, and black belt minimum age is 16,” says Reece.
still got lots of learning to do,” says Tom.
Reece has been training for more than 20 years, and on the trip he was
“Being able to be involved in other people’s journeys like Tom’s is some thing that has always been rewarding because you can see the development of others and the growth in their pas sion and enthusiasm,” says Reece.
THE territory’s biggest landlord has just copped a clip over the ear from the ACT Human Rights Commission for planning to put its tenants in an evictable position that would breach their human rights.
Now, what neo-liberal scallywags would deliberately attempt to put tenants with disabilities, older people, single parents, children and young people at risk, people escaping family or personal violence as well as tenants with backgrounds of trauma including refugees, and those reliant on social security payments in this fragile posi tion with no recourse to appeal?
The ACT Labor-Greens government, of course!
In response to its public exposure draft of the Residential Tenancies
Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, Dr Helen Watchirs (President and Human Rights Commis sioner) and Karen Toohey (Discrimina
tion, Health Services, and Disability and Community Services Commissioner) have fired a warning bazooka across the bows of Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury’s whizkids, the Legisla tion, Policy and Programs people at the Justice and Community Safety Directorate.
“While the ACT Human Rights Com mission welcomes aspects of the draft bill, we cannot support it in its current form. The proposed termination provi sions for social housing, community housing and supported accommodation tenancies give rise to serious issues of incompatibility with the Human Rights Act 2004,” they wrote in an 11-page pasting.
A third of households in the ACT are renters. The ACT government is proposing laws to remove “no-cause evictions”, make it an offence for landlords or agents to solicit rent bids and strengthen minimum standards for rental properties, that is unless you’re a Housing ACT tenant.
“It will replace ‘no-cause’ evictions for social housing tenants with several new grounds for eviction that are excessively broad and often not subject to administrative review,” said ACT Council of Social Service CEO Dr
“While this legislation introduces more protections for private tenants, it takes away security of tenure from social-housing tenants, by introducing a raft of reforms that will allow socialhousing tenancies to be terminated with little or no consideration of the circum stances of the tenant.” Rattenbury, with a straight face and no reference to the lot of social-housing tenants, said: “With growing pressure on rental affordability and availability, the ACT government is modernising tenancy laws to create more secure housing and a fairer rental system for all Canberrans.”
But the Human Rights Commission is on to him: “While the draft Bill… promotes the rights of private tenants, paradoxically it reduces security of housing for those tenants in the ACT community with the most acute experi ences of disadvantage… where eviction from home is therefore most likely to lead to homelessness.
“Our primary concern with the proposed termination provisions is that they confer broad and non-reviewable discretions on public, community and affordable-housing lessors. This sits in direct contrast to section 28 of the Human Rights Act, which states: ‘Human rights may be subject only to reasonable limits set by laws’.
“The draft bill proposes a departure from the longstanding status quo whereby all tenancies include the same
clauses no matter if the tenancy is with a private or social housing lessor.”
HOW does this work? A seriously inattentive young householder who sold her Tuggeranong Valley house and moved to Weston Creek in 2018, recently wondered if she’d been paying the annual rates on the new place. She couldn’t recall any rates notices. Best to check. A call to Canberra Connect that only took an hour in wait time (lucky, I guess), revealed a festering, silent debt of $14,500 (including $2300 in penalties). Yikes! How is this possible, she asked?
Turns out the revenue logs diligently kept sending rates notices – year after year – for her new address to her old address and, four years on, no single bureaucrat troubled themselves to wonder why the rates were never paid. Not one knocked on the Weston Creek door. No one wrote. They just kept adding penalties and blindly sending rate notices to the wrong address.
Considering how broke this govern ment is, you’ve got to wonder at the lack of energy to chase debt. The Bank of Dad is getting it sorted.
Ian Meikle is the editor of “CityNews” and can be heard with Rod Henshaw on the “CityNews Sunday Roast” news and interview program, 2CC, 9am-noon.
There are more of his columns on citynews.com.au
AND so, back to the pothole frontline where I have a couple of updates.
The “CityNews” pet pothole in Belconnen has been filled pretty quickly. Big tick.
Meanwhile, south at Cooleman Court, where my Stirling snout initially introduced us to the mother of all potholes, principally the work of heavy buses and fruitless repairs over years.
He reports it’s been fixed, only to subside in a couple of days, scoring the repair work at 1/10.
“The base is not strong enough to cater for buses,” he bristles.
“It’s time local member and Minister for City Services, the man of Steel, and his senior road-making and pothole-filling executives got out there and kicked arse!”
Another reader thinks the prevalence of potholes on ACT roads are the result of cheap road laying.
“I took a friend along on a day’s ‘Canola Drive’ through some of the beautiful Hilltops area via Binalong/HardenMurrumburrah/Boorowa and back,” she writes. “For that day I’d especially put a note on my dashboard: ‘Drive slowly to see any potholes’.
“On return I realised that we’d neither seen nor hit any potholes once we’d left the ACT on that day.”
In his third and final column reviewing the mid-term achievements of the Legislative Assembly, looks at how the Labor Party sees its achievements.
LABOR in the ACT Assembly are proud of what they have achieved over the first half of this term of the Assembly. However, they are also keen to focus on what’s ahead.
The challenge for Labor is to persuade the community, despite more than 20 years in government, they are energetic and innovative and deserve another term.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr re cently told the Assembly: “Two years ago Canberrans voted decisively for an experienced and progressive government”. He was framing his speech around “delivering the infrastructure and services to ensure our city continues to be one of the most liveable in the world”.
The first two years of this Barr Labor and Greens government was tough. The global pandemic put huge health and financial strains on all governments in Australia and internationally.
Labor pursued a $500 million program in direct grants in order to stimulate the economy. They contin ued maintaining economic growth that has been the hallmark for the ACT every year since self-government in 1989.
While maintaining Canberra as one of the most liveable cities in the world, the Barr government also addresses the issue of climate change. Their aim is net zero by 2045. Addressing these dual goals, the government has expanded financial support for Canberrans to make their homes and community facilities more sustainable through the Sustainable Household Scheme. This award-win ning scheme has delivered more than $98 million in loans and thousands of sustainable upgrades.
The ACT is already a world leader in addressing climate change through renewable energy. Around five per cent of eligible households have accessed the Sustainable Household Scheme including rooftop solar, electric heating and cooling, and electric-vehicle chargers. Working with the Greens, Labor plans to con tinue building on this achievement.
In the pipeline is the Big Canberra Battery. This is designed as part of the most liveable city, to support a 100 per cent renewable electricity grid and to ensure the renewable energy we generate can be stored locally. Add to this the development of more op tions for transport such as the move
and for elective surgery have blown out considerably. There is no one silver bullet and the problems with our public hospital systems are exacerbated by cuts to the health budget.
However, the government will continue the Canberra Hospital expansion through 2024 and have
Ground Dickson that delivers 40 new homes for individuals and families at risk of homelessness.
On social justice issues the ACT had the highest vote on marriage equality, and Canberra is formally an official “welcoming city” and “refugee welcome zone”. Over the next two years Canberra “will be the first jurisdiction to raise the criminal age of responsibility and decriminalise small-scale possession of drugs”.
According to Barr: “We’re a city that isn’t afraid to lead. We’re a city-state that doesn’t shy away from complex challenges.
“As in any democracy, some in the community will not agree with every policy and every decision. That is understood. But, to be clear, we are doing what we said we’d do. There are no surprises”.
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. His columns are available at citynews.com.au
An elderly woman with hearing loss came to my clinic for a second opinion, after she had recently been to a hearing aid sales person. I found the cause of her hearing loss was simply the fact that she had build-up of wax in her ears, the salesperson had failed to inspect them. You might be surprised how often this happens!
Here are some things to do to avoid getting ripped off:
1. A visit to the GP may save you from being ‘sold’ something when your only problem is wax in your ears.
2. Look for someone who is independent and can offer you unbiased advice, not just give you a sales pitch.
3. There are a range of hearing aid prices. Finding the right hearing aid might save you money and it will also give you the best chance of success.
4. Hearing aids can be expensive.
Recently I was told by two different patients that they were quoted $16,000 for a pair of hearing aids. This seems a ridiculous amount of money to pay and is most likely not appropriate for the majority of people (or possibly anyone).
5. If you are a pensioner or partpensioner, or a DVA gold or white card holder, you should carefully consider if you want to use the free-to-client government hearing aids or if you’d like to top-up to a different hearing aid.
The free-to-client hearing aids are appropriate for many people, however if you have great difficulty hearing background noise (for example in restaurants) then you might trial the top-up hearing aids, but only if you can afford them. There are a range of top up options and prices, if you are disappointed after a trial, you should return them and trial the free-toclient hearing aids.
If you get the feeling the person you’re dealing with is just trying to sell you something, then take a step back and get a second opinion.
“In an unregulated market there is a lot of opportunity to take advantage of people. Yes you have read correctly, there is no licensing of people who sell hearing aids.”
– Dr Vass
A GREAT photograph can bring about a myriad of memories as well as pose more mundane questions such as why political movements fail.
These thoughts occurred while standing in front of Peter Dombrovs kis’ photograph in the National Library’s documentary photography exhibition “Viewfinder: photography from the 1970s to now”. The photo graph is “Morning Mist, Rock Island Bend, Franklin River” originally taken in 1980.
A wonderful image, besides being pleasurable to look at, can be part of change within society. This happened in the early ‘80s with a campaign in the media and through posters by the Wilderness Society featuring this Dombrovskis photograph.
The campaign set out to save Tasmania’s Franklin and Gordon Rivers threatened by the Tasmanian government’s love of hydro-electric development at all costs. It made no sense. It did not add up. It threatened things cherished by environmentally aware Tasmanians – and soon by people throughout Australia.
That campaign, together with the use of this photograph, influenced the change of federal government in 1983. The new Labor government inter vened to scrap the plans for the dam.
One of the legacies of those environ mentalists was the establishment nationally of the Greens as a political force. Bob Brown was its first leader and besides his time in politics, he maintained a life as a photographer.
There should be an obvious link between the commitments of those early campaigners and the 2022 ACT Greens politicians. Unfortunately, there is a clear disconnect between the passionate Peter Dombrovskis and the ACT Greens establishment.
The ACT Greens’ record is well accepted as being the enablers of questionable actions by the Greensla bor government across social herit age, cultural, health, environment and planning portfolios. They are settled into their prime job of keeping themselves in well-paid jobs.
While their rhetoric contains ele
ments of what should be a progressive environmental, social and urban planning agenda, the stark reality is the last decade’s suburbs with minimal climate preparedness and an agenda that has seen monies taken from social and housing portfolios to pay for the developer-driven tram corridors.
Residents’ campaigns to save Canberra’s heritage, biodiversity, greenery and its quality of life are consistently thwarted by the ACT Greens’ desire to do as little as possible to halt inappropriate and health-threatening developments.
Their hands-off approach to urban planning makes no sense. Their ideologically driven desire for inappropriate suburban developments along the proposed southern tram does not add up.
This southern Barr-tram has been shown to be economic madness and absurd. The ACT Greens have mor phed into being the hardline estab lishment that now threatens things cherished by environmentally aware and urban design loving Canberrans. They have inherited the ways of the ‘80s Tasmanian government that was hell bent on doing stupid stuff as their core business.
When assessed nationally, the ACT residents register in statistics as having the highest participation rate in cultural activities – at least 13 per cent higher than the national average.
This high level of cultural and artis tic interest should be reflected in those representing the people of this city. No matter how you look at the ACT Greens, they fail as a political body that places any priority on aesthetics. Drive along Northbourne Avenue and the results of their approach to urban design and architecture are there to shock visitors coming down this gateway to the city.
The political, social and environ mental movements that stood their ground against the absurdity of the ‘80s Tasmanian government have a legacy that is reflected in Peter Dombrovskis’
“Rock Island Bend” photograph. It is worth standing in front of it and considering all manner of stuff.
Those ‘80s environmentally com mitted individuals held fast against enormous pressures on things that mattered to their society. The 2022 ACT Greens consistently display only token commitments to working with the people of Canberra on issues that matter – such as planning and urban development. The ACT Greens politi cians have not inherited those brave people’s ethics and commitments.
Peter Dombrovskis died alone in 1996 from a heart attack while photographing in his beloved wilderness. The photo mentioned here is one of 125 images on exhibition at the National Library until April 30. The ACT Greens have until October 2024 to get real or be moved aside by candidates who care for the city and its people.
Paul Costigan is a commentator on cultural and urban matters. There are more of his columns at citynews.com.au
Opening hours: Monday-Friday 10am-4pm Saturday 10am-3pm
Drive along Northbourne Avenue and the results of the ACT Greens’ approach to urban design and architecture are there to shock visitors coming down this gateway to the city.
Cataracts are a form of cloudiness or opaque section in the part of your eye called the lens, which sits just behind your pupil.
There are lots of different types of cataracts, from the normal age-related type, to some that are caused by specific events, even some that used to occur to people in specific roles (such as glass blowers) and sometimes people are born with cataracts.
Regardless of the type of the cataract, optometrists are going to monitor them and, once they are at a stage where something should be done about them, refer you on to an ophthalmologist for treatment.
Currently, the only treatment option for cataracts is surgery, hence the need to have an ophthalmologist perform this treatment. Some places promote alternative treatments for cataracts, but there is no evidence that these treatments do what they claim!
I understand that, for many people, the thought of having any sort of procedure on or near their eyes sounds horrible, but cataract surgery is one of the safest forms of surgery.
Ophthalmologists have years of training after their medical degrees and are some of the most highly skilled surgeons around. On top of this, the procedure itself has been refined constantly to both reduce the risk of complications and the accuracy and reliability of the process.
Once you see your ophthalmologist, they will discuss the process with you. The most basic description of the procedure is that the lens and cataract will be removed, and a new plastic lens will be placed in your eye. The surgeon can choose this new lens in order to have your vision set the way you and they prefer!
This ability to choose the best option is one of the littleknown advantages of modern cataract treatment.
After having the procedure, people often comment about the clarity of their vision and the brightness and vibrancy of colours now. For some people, it can lead to a significantly reduced reliance on spectacles for vision.
As an optometrist, I want the best vision and eye health for my patients, and when it comes to cataracts, that means taking the care to get an ophthalmologist involved at the right time.
Collins and Lonergan Evolve Optometry is an independently owned Optometrist in the centre of Gungahlin, conveniently located opposite Coles inside Gungahlin Village. Call us on 6189 5891 or visit evolveoptometry.com.au to book an appointment.
He has fearlessly sat through the good, the bad and the ugly, and written thousands upon thousands of movie reviews for more than half a century. It’s time Dougal Macdonald took a star turn. NICK OVERALL puts him in the spotlight.
DOUGAL Macdonald might very well be Australia’s oldest, most-experi enced film reviewer and “CityNews” couldn’t be prouder of him.
The 88-year-old Bungendore local has been sharing his sharp-witted observations of the silver screen for some 57 years – long er even than celebrated film critic Roger Ebert wrote for the “Chicago Sun-Times”.
“The first film I reviewed was in 1965 and here I am,” says Macdonald, who still gets to the cinema twice a week.
“There’ve been a lot of good films, a few bad ones and the number of stars is my language for expressing good, bad or indifferent.”
Originally from Queensland, Macdon ald still remembers his first trip to the movies as a young boy that would spark his interest in the big screen for decades to come.
“My mother took me to see ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ in the early 1940s and that’s where it started,” he says.
The cel-animated musical was based on Jonathan Swift’s classic novel and one that at the time excitedly promoted itself as being “in technicolor”.
The film’s impact on Macdonald would play a small part in what would one day become more than half a century of writ ing on film – a venture that started with “The Canberra Times” in the mid ‘60s.
“I actually first reviewed books for four or five years and then a reader wrote to the editor saying there’s no information on the movies being shown other than information supplied by the makers of the movies,” says Macdonald.
“That’s a bit of a bias isn’t it?
“From there I gave the book reviews up and went with the movies. The first film I reviewed had Gina Lollobrigida,
Sean Connery and Ralph Richardson in a thriller called ‘Woman of Straw’.”
donald would find a new passion for writing about the pictures, one that would turn into him sometimes seeing up to five films a week.
many movies he thinks he’s seen over all the years Macdonald says it’s a figure he’s never even tried to count.
three computers ago that I started,” he says.
views have become a popular staple of the “CityNews” Arts and Entertainment sec tion for their droll manner and no holds barred style.
Take his recent breakdown of “Top Gun: Maverick”, one of the most popular films of 2022 that Macdonald unapologeti cally panned as “twaddle”.
“What idiot would ride a powerful motorbike bare-headed – no helmet – and wearing Levis, not leathers? Maverick would!,” Macdonald wrote of Tom Cruise’s iconic character.
He’s been unafraid to label some of today’s most beloved franchises such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe as “juvenile nonsense”, the James Bond saga as a “seen one, seen all” type-deal, and even declared that he fell asleep for most of “Godzilla vs. Kong.”
“I don’t write what anyone expects me to write, I’m writing what I think,” he says.
The unrestrained approach has made Macdonald’s praise of those rare, special
firmly grounded on the present time, populated by people who may be fictional but whose provenance and purposes we recognise in our daily media diet”.
Another to recently garner Macdon ald’s infrequent five-star rubber stamp was the Australian film “The Drover’s Wife” – an adaptation of Henry Lawson’s famous short story that he described as “a masterpiece of just about every element of the filmmaker’s craft.”
“As a writer, Dougal Macdonald is a pain in the arse,” says “CityNews” editor Ian Meikle, with a smile.
“He writes brilliantly; like he’s knit ting words and when sometimes there’s a necessity to abridge his copy because of, say, a space problem, it’s a nightmare to winkle them out.
“Get it wrong and you get a call or worse, an email… in red letters guiding you back to the straight and narrow!
“But he is a masterful wordsmith and writes with the adjectival passion of a 30-year-old – he’s naughty and nuanced, and has this constant, cheeky campaign to devise a context that will beat me into al lowing him to use, shall we say, colloqui alisms that might make an editor blush.
“And don’t get him going on why he’s not a critic…”
Too late: Macdonald says: “A critic anal yses, a reviewer describes. My life in re viewing has been sitting in a cinema then helping readers to make their go or no-go decisions about what to see,” he says.
“I see what’s coming and pick those with little accompanying fanfare.”
When asked what he thinks may be the greatest film of all time, Macdonald doesn’t believe there’s an answer.
What he can say though, is that he’s quick to know when he’s seen a film that’s worthy of that rare, five-star seal.
“It’s one that sends me out knowing that I’ve seen something that touched in here,” he says, pointing to his heart.
Dougal’s latest reviews, Page 24.
THE Weston Creek Community Coun cil and Fetherston Gardens Friends are hosting a free community garden party at Fetherston Gar dens, Heysen Street, Weston 11am-2pm, on Sunday, October 30. It will feature children’s activities by MollyCoddle, music by bush band Paverty, food, and a plant sale by Fetherston Gardens Friends.
CANBERRA Knitters and Crocheters are hosting a sale of yarn, kits and equip ment in aid of Red Cross International’s crisis response for Ukraine, Pakistan and other disaster-stricken countries. The sale will offer premium yarns at less than half-price, beautiful handdyed specialities, mountains of single
I FIRST met Bill Stefaniak in 1970, at the ANU Law School. My earliest memories of Bill are of his size – he is big, his good-humoured boisterousness and his love of rugby union.
I also have clear memories of his penchant, after a beer or two, without invitation or inhibition to sing “48 Crash” with a style and verve that even Suzi Quatro would have applauded.
After gaining our law degrees, Bill and I both attended the ANU Legal Workshop as a precursor to obtaining a practising certificate.
At the time we attended the workshop, all participants were paired off into a mock legal firm and in one of life’s mys teries Bill and I, who each see the world through quite different eyes, were lumped together. Notably, we could never agree on whether our “firm” was known as Stanhope and Stefaniak or as Stefaniak and Stanhope.
On completion of the workshop and admission as barristers and solicitors, we went our separate ways. I pursued a legal career in the Commonwealth Public Service and Bill went into private practice.
Our paths rarely crossed again in the next 24 years until we were each elected in 1998 to the ACT Legislative Assembly. Bill as a continuing member of the victorious Lib eral Party under the leadership of Kate Carnell and me as one of the six members of the ALP who prevailed despite what I understand was the lowest vote (27 per cent) ever achieved by the ALP not just in the ACT but in any election anywhere in Australia. Following our thrashing I was elected Opposition Leader.
with her health.
know Bill’s wife Shirley.
Politics is an adversarial, tough and unforgiving business and presents a particular challenge for the partner, chil dren and extended family of politicians. While it is the case that most politicians manage, for the sake of self-preservation, to develop a thick hide in a fairly short shrift, it is much harder for their families to do the same.
While most politicians manage, for the sake of self-preservation, to quickly develop a thick hide, it’s much harder for their families to do the same.
Nevertheless, while that was the environment in which we met Shirley, regardless of our political dif ferences and my and Bill’s at times vigorous arm wrestling and public point scoring, we developed a friendship with her.
Therefore, it was with genuine sadness we learnt in recent weeks that Shirley had died following a long and nobly resisted struggle with her health.
old mate and sparring partner Bill and to all his and Shirley’s family and friends on her death and their loss. May she rest in peace.
Bishop Pat Power officiated at Shirley’s funeral. I hold Pat in as high esteem as anyone I have met in my life, with the exception, of course, of my wife Robyn. It is a mystery to me that Pat has not been invited to be the Pope, unless perhaps it is a question of age, and he is not yet old enough for the job.
However, more seriously, I believe the community of Canberra should consider how we can better recognise those among us, such as Bishop Power, who have made and, in many instances, continue to make an unmatched contribution to our community.
Pat is, I think, one of Canberra’s and Australia’s greatest living treasures and we should, I think, find an appropriate means for recognising him and others like him.
While that result was reversed at the 2001 election, Bill and I nevertheless sat opposite each other in the Legislative Assembly for just on a decade.
It was during that decade as our paths crossed not just within the Assembly but at social, political and community events that my wife Robyn and I met and came to
I was honoured to attend her funeral on October 14 at St Christopher’s Cathedral, Manuka. Tributes reflecting on Shirley’s rich life and her devotion to her family were delivered by Bill; by one of Shirley’s close friends, the Governor of NSW Margaret Beazley AC; family friend Allan Sullivan KC and Shirley’s son John Lane.
I extend my deepest sympathy to my
Jon Stanhope was ACT chief minister from 2001 to 2011 and the only chief minister to have governed with a majority in the Assembly. Read more of his columns on citynews.com.au
CONTEMPLATING sculptures and images of angels in Christian churches and cathedrals – as one does – I wondered about the differing portrayals of angels and – having been an army officer and public servant – whether angels might have a command structure and heavenly hierarchy.
In Christian theology, it seems they do. There are said to be three orders of angels, with three levels in each –that is nine levels in total.
The highest orders are “Seraphim”, “Cherubim” and “Thrones” – they roughly equate to cabinet ministers and other ministers of government.
The middle orders are “Domin ions”, “Virtues” and “Powers” – these are your departmental secretaries, agency heads, and three-star officers.
And the lowest orders are “Princi palities”, “Archangels” and just com mon “Angels” – basically, everyone below the more senior public service/ military levels mentioned above.
In the highest orders, “Seraphim” – literally “burning ones” – serve as the throne guardians of God. They are in the highest rank of Christian angelology but in the fifth rank (of 10) of the Jewish angelic hierarchy.
“Cherubim” are unearthly beings who directly attend to God. Depic
tions of cherubim assign to them such roles as protecting the entrance to the Garden of Eden.
“Thrones” are creatures that function as the actual chariots of God driven by the cherubs. They are characterised by peace and submission; God rests upon them.
Thrones are depicted as great wheels containing many eyes and reside in the area of the cosmos where material form begins to take shape. They mete
out divine justice and maintain the cosmic harmony of universal laws.
Angels of the middle order work as heavenly governors of creation by guiding and ruling the spirits. The most senior are “Dominions” who have the role of regulating the duties of lower angels. It is extremely rare for these angelic lords to make themselves physically known to humans. (Here I am minded of Sir Arthur Tange.)
“Virtues” are known for their control of the elements. In addition to being the spirits of motion, they assist in governing nature. They also assist with miracles, as well as encourage humans to strengthen their faith in God.
“Powers” are angels who have power over evil forces and are able to restrain them from doing harm.
In the lower orders, “Principali ties” are angels that guide and protect nations, or groups of peoples, and institutions such as the Church. Prin cipalities preside over bands of angels and charge them with fulfilling the divine ministry. Some administer, while some assist.
“Archangels” are said to be the seven guardian angels of nations and are concerned with issues and events surrounding international affairs, including politics, military matters, commerce, and trade. They include Gabriel and Michael.
“Angels” are the lowest order of ce lestial beings, and the most common. They are the ones directly concerned with the affairs of humans. Within the general category of “Angels”, there are many different kinds, with different functions. Angels
are primarily sent as messengers to humanity, but they also include Personal Guardian Angels.
Meanwhile, “Fallen Angels” are angels who have been expelled from heaven or who have sinned. Such angels often tempt humans to sin. No doubt Hells Angels bikies would fall into this category.
I suspect that few Christians believe in angels to the above level of detail; much of the angelology theory being based on superstition and supposition from the early days of Christianity. It does, however, help us to better understand and appreciate religious art and sculpture.
On a lighter note: after God created 24 hours of alternating darkness and light, one of the angels asked him, “What are you going to do now?” God said: “I think I’m going to call it a day.”
ANDREW Barr, when discussing his government’s performance on ABC local radio on October 17, claimed the preference of Canberrans was to live in higherdensity housing in established areas and they supported light rail. He said the results were based on political polling.
If Mr Barr is to have credibility, he needs to release details of the polling including its sample size and the questions asked.
His claim that Canberrans want to live in higher-density housing is suspect with the high, largely unmet demand for detached blocks when they are released, indicating many households are willing to trade off extra travel for a more suitable dwelling.
A 2015 Artcraft Research report under taken for the ACT government indicated a strong preference for detached housing by those surveyed. The unmet detached demand suggests the government should consider reducing its arbitrary 70 per cent infill target.
Mr Barr identified infill can provide substantial infrastructure cost savings. The extent of savings will depend on the amount of underutilised infrastructure and the level of augmentation required. Such analysis and the costs of developing greenfield developments needs to be undertaken to enable reliable comparison of their relative costs of development.
Infill can deliver environmental benefits by enabling people to live close to work and reduce the need for travel, but they can be overstated. Such benefits can be attained in greenfield areas if governments direct employment and ensure the timely provi sion of community and retail facilities.
It also needs to be established greenfield areas such as Kowen have major environmen tal constraints and the per capita water and energy use is lower in high-density dwellings.
Infill developments can also have nega tive environmental impacts from increased congestion, loss of tree cover, the develop ment of heat islands and the creation of substandard living environments. “Gentle urbanism” can be brutal if poorly managed.
In contrast to its concern about the high costs of greenfield development, the government is relaxed about the high cost of light rail when compared to bus-based alternatives and the resultant diversion of funds from high-need areas of housing,
health, education, city maintenance and public transport. I wonder if those polled by ACT Labor were informed of these consequences.
Furthermore, Mr Barr argued light rail was supported by the community in the recent election down-playing the wide range of factors influencing voting including the unelectability of the socially conservative Canberra Liberals.
It is outrageous Mr Barr is relying on highly suspect surveys to justify his urban development and light rail policies. His decisions should be based on detailed as sessments to ensure limited funds are spent to maximise benefits to the community.
Mike Quirk, GarranIT’S that time of year for my rates to be paid and I’ve never felt so resentful doing so.
If only I knew my money wouldn’t be mis managed and misspent on useless things like this pathetic tram business, not contributing to improving the woeful state of the Canberra Hospital and recently, spent on policy change to decriminalise meth and heroin!
I guess that’s more votes from the hapless drug users Labor/Greens can count on. Oh! And contributing to the wages of a useless, ineffective ACT Integrity Commissioner (who, quite frankly, looks more like an extra in a Western film than in charge of keeping the ACT government on the straight and narrow).
PLEASE Liberals! Give the ACT something – someone – to vote for in 2024 that has backbone and policies that are community oriented and logical!
Bec Henson, HughesROBERT Macklin’s rosy vision (“The vision splendid for a republic starts here”, CN October 13) isn’t rosy for me.
If The Voice isn’t a dead horse already then it should be. I don’t want to swap blue blood for black blood with an Uncle Charles-like figure replacing King Charles. Neither please!
Any hint of legal-political discrimina tion based on race/culture/religion is an extremely bad idea. Why are we casting Aboriginal people as permanent victims with white people as their permanent
oppressors? Where do Asian people fit in this foolish schema?
The Voice (a cousin to “white guilt”) is an emotional response to complex problems that require rational responses. The fundamental absurdity of The Voice is that there is no “Voice”, and for obvious reasons – just like other humans, Aboriginal people vary in their views, eg our most outspoken Aboriginal parliamentarians: Lidia Thorpe, Linda Burney and Jacinta Price.
The future grotesquery surrounding “Voice Citizen Identification” doesn’t bear thinking about. Whatever your hereditry, let people just be people in our polis. No matter what the problem, that is “all ye need to know”.
Peter Robinson, Ainslie
GENTLE readers may recall my amazement and envy at discovering that planning and development decisions in the Waverley Council area of Sydney are everything they are not here in our “guided democracy”: consultative (the real sort), democratic (idem), inclusive, flexible and impartial.
But, you might have thought: Waverley is only one – perhaps uniquely blessed –council in a big city where, surely, powerful agendas and interests may be expected generally to prevail.
But lo, ‘tis not so! The very Minister for Planning in NSW (one Anthony Roberts) is poised to reject a plan by his bureaucrats and their developer for an overly high, mega-luxurious apartment building in Barangaroo. For such a prime location, the dollars involved must be dizzying.
Well done, Mr Roberts! And if you ever fancy a move to ACT politics, I for one I (and there are many disaffected like me) will surely vote for you.Your country – or at least the quaint, once-beautiful satrapy where its capital resides – hath need of you and others like you.
John Griffin, via email
VI Evans (Letters, CN October 13) doesn’t seem to know the difference between the past and the future. She also seems to think that one can separate different aspects of an issue, focus on one and ignore any others.
Yes, humans have used fossil fuels, along
with other basic materials and combustibles, and solar, wind, hydroelectric, nuclear and geothermal power, to achieve many things in the past and continue to do so. However, what we can do with any of these must be balanced with all the other aspects of their acquisition, processing and use, especially the negative, detrimental ones.
Fossil fuels and other basic materials and combustibles have certainly played major roles in human technological advancement to this point, but must be considered transitional. Their time is well past.
The fact that their exploitation helped get us to this point doesn’t mean that we should continue to rely on them. To want to do so, simply because we have in the past, is folly. We are now increasingly able to move beyond them to do all of the things to which Ms Evans refers, with much less damage to ourselves, our fellow creatures and the environment.
Our collective future relies on hastening the pace and comprehensiveness of these developments.
John M Schmidt, MonashI REFER to the two letters in the October 13 edition of “CityNews”, by Vi Evans and Gavin O’Brien.
As Ms Evans is correct to say how the world is highly dependent on fossil fuels for most modern household, commercial and industrial products – that is not about to change. And could have added that produc tion is still largely dependent on electricity generated from fossil fuels.
Mr O’Brien, although stating he is not an engineer, an economist or medical special ist, claims to be “certain” that “the reliability or cost of renewables [why not both?] far outpaces the unviable use of non-renewable sources” [of electricity, I presume]; I would grant him having faith perhaps but not “certainty”.
Like many proponents, Mr O’Brien seems to be under the illusion from much misinfor mation that renewables are cost-free, which they certainly are not.
Note the capital cost in billions and emissions to make and install wind and solar farms. Note the $20 billion in new distribu tion poles and wires needed to connect users to remote renewable sites. Note the productive land that is being covered with solar farms. Note that the billions invested
in renewables will have to be repeated every 20-25 years and turbine blades every 10 years. Note the environmental damage from mining and manufacture caused by production of renewables and their repeated disposal.
In contrast, nuclear generators take up minimal space, last three times the life of other renewables and would obviate the $20 billion for poles and wires.
But the killer is that no matter what Australia does and spends on renewables in the hope of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it will have zero effect on global warming let alone climate change. Our priority is to climate-proof Australia, not waste billions on wind and solar renewables and attendant infrastructure for zero return.
Max Flint, ErindaleVI Evans (Letters, CN October13) has, perhaps unintentionally, pointed out the imprecise use of language in my letter of September 22. Ms Evans is correct to point out that many of the objects and materials we take for granted these days are made partly or entirely from fossil fuels, in particular petroleum.
However, she seems not to have noted my use of the term “fuels”. This indicates unambiguously that the fossil substances – coal, oil, petroleum gas and coal seam (or natural) gas – are burnt to make use of their latent heat content. This is the process that produces carbon dioxide (CO2), the major cause of global heating.
Ms Evans also refers to steel in connection with fossil fuels – in this case, metallurgical coal. There is a move afoot in Australia, led by Andrew Forrest and Fortescue Future Industries, to make steel using “green” hydrogen, from solar and wind energy. This is also happening in the EU.
The days of coal, including metallurgi cal coal, are clearly numbered. With the advances in electric vehicle technology, and manufacture at commercial scale, the days of petrol and diesel are also numbered.
Dr Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin
Let loose to:
TUGGERANONG, one of the original 18 districts in the ACT, was derived from the Ngunnawal expression “Togranong”, which roughly translates to “cold plains”. These days the district is a set of contiguous residential suburbs consolidated around Lake Tuggeranong, with a population of 89,461.
The businesses in the region deliver a variety of services passionately to the Tuggeranong community, priding themselves on customer service.
YOUR Discount Chemist Tuggeranong offers a full pharmacy range “plus more”, says owner Said Khodary.
“We opened in August, making it the 14th store for the family-owned and run discount chain,” he says
“We have a massive range and have everything people need at our everyday low prices. The store is one of the largest in Canberra at more than 600 square metres.
“We also discount our prescription prices for those people not on concession or pension cards.”
Said says in the lead up to Christmas, Your Discount Chemist Tuggeranong is having a
massive perfume sale of more than 600 designer perfumes with up to 70 per cent off perfume and cologne brands, including Calvin Klein, Ariana Grande, Giorgio Armani, Clinique, Gucci and David Beckham.
The superstore is also filled with vitamins, cosmetics, skincare and even pet care.
“We love the area here, great amenities and it is easy to get to,” he says.
Your Discount Chemist Tuggeranong, Shop 13-15, 38 Reed Street North, Greenway. Call 6293 3782 or visit yourdiscountchemist.com.au
HAVING moved into a new and bigger store earlier this year, Charlie & Chums owner Sandy Borgo says there’s even more to discover.
Now located across from Target in Tuggeranong South.Point, Sandy says the store has added even more to its range of practical accessories and decorative pet-themed gifts.
“We’ve got a whole new lot of dog bowls that are square and rectangleshaped for water and food, which makes it easier for the bowls to sit up against a wall and they come in three colours,” she says.
hair brushes and brooms, bookmarks, bags, painted mugs, figurines, sculp tures, leashes, collars and much more.”
Sandy says the store is also now bet ter set out, with dedicated sections for garden, wall art, pet supplies, giftware and more.
“We’ve even started getting Christmas stock in so people can get their shopping done early,” she says.
“People tell me that the store makes them feel happy. I have people who can come in and spend an hour just looking around.”
Plenty more to purchase online at: charlieandchums.com.au
Come
store
TUGGERANONG Homestead is only 15 minutes from the airport, in a beautiful country setting, says owner Ann Filmer.
“You can get married anywhere on the property, we’ve got every backdrop except the beach,” she says.
Tuggeranong Homestead is also “an ideal venue for conferences, functions and other events.”
“We’ve got grapevines, we’ve got paddocks, country backdrops and rustic. We’ve got a choice between two arbours, dining tables and chairs, and we can set up the big machinery shed with cutlery, crockery and a water station.”
Ann says everything is included in the venue hire. People just have to pay for catering, and decide how much they want to spend.
“We’ve got on-hand expertise and
great customer service as well,” she says.
“We are pet-friendly, too. We encourage it because we’ve got Bruno – our working dog who looks after the chooks – to welcome you and your pet in.
“We’ve got 70 acres, so when you come in it’s very secluded, and you get complete privacy.”
Ann says people are welcome to bring along their own live music too, but they’re happy to supply their own speaker system for music.
One of the biggest things people love about Tuggeranong Homestead is that guests can feed the cows on site, too, as a novelty experience.
Tuggeranong Homestead, 51 Johnson Drive, Richardson. Call 6292 8888, or visit tuggeranonghomestead.com.au
TEACHING a range of classic dance styles, Dale’s Ballroom Dancing offers a fun way to get fit, socialise and compete in a friendly environment, says owner Dale Harris.
With medal classes on every Thursday from 5.30pm, Dale says she loves to welcome anyone to come and learn regardless of age or experience.
“We have people of all ages coming in for the classes,” she says.
“One of the great things about it is the fitness. You don’t realise how much exercise you’re doing, you’re constantly on the move.”
Dale is an expert in many styles of dance including New Vogue sequence dances, standard, tango, foxtrot, quickstep, Viennese waltz, and Latin cha cha, samba, jive, rumba and paso doble.
Backed by more than 25 years’ experience teaching dance, she started dancing at the age of six, when she developed an interest in ballroom dancing.
She’s since received many qualifications in ballroom dancing and is also a championship adjudicator who travels interstate to judge ballroom competitions.
Adult social classes are on every Wednesday from 7pm, and courses are run every seven weeks.
“Anyone can join. You can just rock up on the night and we can get you caught up in the course as we need,” she says.
Social dance is on every Monday from 7.30pm, “everyone and anyone is welcome”.
Dale’s Ballroom Dancing, 6/38 Reed Street North, Greenway. Call 0407 066110 or visit dalesballroomdancing.com
THERE is nothing like Aussie Buggy Adventures in Canberra, says manager Charles Miller, which makes it very appealing.
Aussie Buggy Adventures is an off-road buggy tour company that strives for customer satisfaction, and a desire to share the experience with everyone.
The business opened in 2020, but Charles says COVID-19 forced a temporary shut down.
“It got back up and running this year and it has been very busy ever since,” he says.
“It adds to tourism in Canberra and we have options for everyone, we’re located just six kilometres south of Gordon.
“There is the ‘Hour of Power’, which obviously goes for an hour and it is family friendly, then there’s the ‘Mighty Ninety’ (minutes) and ‘King of the Hill’, which cover all terrains and gives people the opportunity to look out over Namadgi and Canberra.”
Charles says there are plenty of op portunities for photos along the way, as the custom-made trails take people across creeks and over large hills.
Charles says in the lead up to Christmas Aussie Buggy Adventures gets busy and offer gift vouchers for Christmas gift giving.
Aussie Buggy Adventures, 2022 Tharwa Drive. Call 0467 677200, or visit buggyadventures.com.au
SUZY Mooney, owner of About Face Beauty & Anti Aging Salon, is passionate about helping others.
In September, About Face Beauty moved to a new location at Reed Street North, Greenway, says Suzy.
“In 2023, About Face Beauty will be running workshops and short courses for people to earn a Certificate of Attainment, so book now,” she says. The workshops and courses will be run in everything, Suzy says, from waxing to lash and brow tinting.
About Face Beauty & Anti Aging Salon offer facial
treatments, LED light therapy, cosmetic tattooing, manicures and pedicures, gift vouchers, and eyelash and eyebrow treatments, says Suzy, who has been working in the beauty industry for 23 years.
“I enjoy making people look and feel their best, and getting positive skincare results,” she says.
About Face Beauty & Anti Aging Salon, Reed Street North, Greenway. Call 0488 932883 or visit aboutfacetuggeranong.com.au
ALPHA Continental Deli opened in 2019, but Judyta Malkus became the new owner in February this year.
“From the beginning, Alpha Continental Deli was focused on providing European products to the people of Tuggeranong and beyond,” says Judyta.
“We offer mostly Eastern European goods including deli products from Polish, German, Croatian and Australian butchers.
“We sell frozen dumplings, pastizzis, burek, breads, prepared meals and cakes, as well as a wide range of sweets, teas, spices and jars full of healthy and delicious salads, preserves and relishes.”
Judyta says what is most important is that customers of Alpha Continental Deli feel like they are at home.
“They enter the shop and they are in a different dimension, many of them go back to their childhood memories or they say it is like in their own country, the real European shop. For many others it is a learning adventure or a sentimental moment,” she says.
“I love my job now. I am still learning and gradually
A large range of smallgoods to choose from.
huge help from our devoted customers who always ask for something new.
“We welcome everyone into our shop with joy and love talking to our customers. Everyone is invited to come and have a look, try our products and become a regular customer.”
Alpha Continental Deli, Shop 11, 150-180 Soward Way, Greenway. Call 6170 2230, or visit alphacontinentaldeli.com
TO Canberra’s west are two districts with a strong sense of community and a variety of friendly businesses, Weston Creek and Molonglo Valley.
The district is home to a population of 36,065 across its 13 suburbs with the development of the Molonglo Valley linking Weston Creek to the south and Belconnen to the north. In this sponsored post, “CityNews” speaks with experts who have established businesses in Weston Creek and Molonglo.
THE construction of St Jude’s School began in 1974, with the first pupil intake in January 1975, says principal Cameron Reed.
Almost 50 years on, Cameron says the students still love learning.
“They are a joy to be around and they are supportive of each other,” he says.
“Unlike some other schools in the same area, we are reasonably old. With that comes tradition, wisdom and an openness to purposeful growth in everything we do.
“We are a high-quality, community-oriented Catholic educational environment, where students thrive, staff are happy and parents are engaged.”
Cameron says the St Jude’s community believes in educating spirit, mind and body to embrace today and meet the challenges of the future.
“The scroll and the Holy Spirit in our logo sym bolise that St Jude wrote one of the Epistles found in the New Testament. The club and axe are the implements of his death symbolising his martyrdom. The motto ‘growth in truth and love’ is a realistic goal for all St Jude’s students to strive towards.
St Jude’s has an education support dog, named
Judy, to help with student anxiety.
“She is calm, caring and loving, a fantastic addition to our school community,” he says.
Cameron says with Molonglo continuing to grow, they are always open for new enrolments.
“We currently have spaces in all year levels except year one.”
St Jude’s Primary School, Mulley Street, Holder. Call 6288 7688, or visit stjudesps.act.edu.au
MICHAEL Hargreaves, luthier at Things With Strings, offers stringed instru ment repairs, services, maintenance and construction.
He says he started making his own instruments in the shed as a teenager, and his love of music grew from there.
“It is quite a difficult thing to learn in Australia, there is no school or easily obtainable qualification,” he says.
“I have worked on guitars for 20 years, and orchestral instruments for three years.
He used to work under Hargreaves
Guitars but had to rebrand to accom modate for his growing ability to service a wider range of instruments, mainly including guitars and violins.
“I have an absolute love of instru ments and music,” he says.
“Antiques make you wonder when they were last played, and I get to bring that instrument back to life for the first time in who knows how long.
“I primarily specialise in pre-World War II instruments, but I cover all ranges of repairs.”
All of Michael’s services are by ap pointment only, and can include modifications and customisation, bow rehair and repair, custom instrument construction on commission.
“We service everything from violins to double bass, acoustic and electric guitars and bass,” he says.
Things with Strings. Call 0422 889 827 or visit thingswithstrings.com.au
At St Jude’s we want to create an innovative and collaborative community where all children are encouraged to grow to their full potential
We offer a quality Catholic education in a nurturing and supportive environment, where truth and love are valued
St Jude’s Primary School Mulley Street, Holder ACT Ph 62887688 www.stjudesps.act.edu.au
EVERY cup of Femili PNG coffee supports women and improves responses to family and sexual violence in Papua New Guinea, says philanthropy and partnership manager Paul Scott.
“Niugini Arabica is the roaster of Femili PNG, a local roaster support ing their cause,” he says.
“We support the women growers of our beans by purchasing their product.
“In doing this we empower women to achieve meaningful, sustainable lives by participating in the coffee industry, and by purchas ing from local, female growers, we financially empower women and their families.
“Your purchase also supports
Femili PNG, a proudly Papua New Guinea non-profit. Femili PNG helps survivors of family and sexual violence to get the support and care they deserve. Since opening, Femili PNG has supported 5000 survivors of violence.”
Paul says the Papua New Guinea coffee is full bodied, with delicious chocolate and citrus undertones.
“The beans are grown naturally, free from chemicals and pesticides at higher than 1600 metres above sea level,” he says.
“Save on your purchase and get freshly roasted coffee delivery on your schedule with a subscription plan.
Savings are available for sub scription orders of two kilograms or
more and you can choose to repeat orders every two months, one month, fortnight or week.”
Family PNG, available at Niugini Arabica, visit shop.femilipng.org
RECENTLY opened Coombs Brewing is proudly owned by Indian migrants Sukh Gill and Harry Rai. They also own the connected Bottlemart.
Coombs Brewing opened August 12, and Sukh says he’s excited to see the growth and popularity of the store.
“My business partnership with Harry Rai started about two years ago,” says Sukh.
“Coombs Brewing offers a wide variety of scotch, whisky, wines and
champagne,” he says. space for local wines and beers.
a range of selections and the shop is in a convenient location.
Sukh says there are about 120 parking spaces, which adds value and is convenient.
“We were the first shop in the area and had a positive response.
“The Molonglo Valley is a growing community and has shown tremendous support, for which we are very grateful.”
Coombs Brewing, 4/1 Fairhall Street, Coombs. Call 5136 6822.
Things with Strings provides a range of luthier services in Canberra, including:
Service & maintenance
Repair & restoration
Modifications and customisation
Bow re-hair and repair
Custom instrument construction on commission
Fri & Sat 10am–11pm
Thu
AS we move from the frosts, Mollis Azalea, a Canberra classic, is flowering now. It’s a medium upright shrub with funnel-shaped flowers in late spring.
Like all azaleas, it likes protec tion from wind and exposed sites, growing well under the canopy of trees. It likes well-drained, acid soil. The colour range is from white to pinks and my favourite is the spectacular vivid orange of the Golden Eagle.
It’s also the time to plant sensi tive vegetables such as tomatoes, capsicums, pumpkins and basil.
Planting vegetable seedlings every few weeks will extend the yield and prevent a glut of food being ripe all at once.
Some vegetables that have been sitting idle over winter in the garden might bolt to seed as the weather warms. Spinach and herbs are classic at doing this and once the flower spike starts, the leaves can turn bitter and don’t taste very nice.
In most cases removing the flowering parts can increase the longevity for the vegetable or herb and keep the leaves from tasting bitter.
If collecting seed, leave one plant to flower and place a seed bag over the ripe seed for collect ing. A seed-raising mix can be made at home with worm castings or core peat.
For my home potting mix, I sift potting mix and use the fines mixed with perlite and coir peat.
The coarse material collected from the potting mix is used for orchids or light mulch in the garden.
Shallow seedling trays work a treat or egg cartons, which can be cut up and planted directly into the ground. Seeding does not require any fertiliser until there are a minimum of two sets of leaves and growing strong.
Keep them moist and out of direct sunlight. They’re ready for planting out when the roots are growing from the bottom of the seedling tray.
Young seedlings can suffer from snail and slater attack. Sprinkling diatomaceous earth around the seedlings can help keep them at bay.
BIRD boxes, insect hotels or even a frog bog all help with biodiversity in the garden.
Frog bogs are easy to put together. Choose a spot in the garden that offers about 70 per cent shade and 30 per cent full sun. Rocks, logs and bark can be placed around the top of the pond and installing solar lights to attract insects for frogs to eat will be beneficial.
Adding native bog-type plants such as carex and juncus species to the rocks and pond edges will
mimic their natural habitat.
HAVING food available for at tracting wildlife to the garden can be achieved by planting particular species of plants to attract them.
Nectar-flowering native plants can attract animals such as possums, which can sometimes be a pest, but learning to share your outdoor space can be a challenge, but achievable.
Physical structures might need to be used to protect some plants from being eaten or using highly aromatic plants to confuse their scent can work as well.
SPRING-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips will be dying back now and storing energy for next year’s flowering.
As the leaves are yellowing, a general all-purpose fertiliser can be put on the bulbs. If clumps of bulbs didn’t flower as well as they have in the past, then lift and divide them now and store for replanting in autumn.
Dormant spring bulbs may rot if there’s too much water around them in summer. Lifting and stor ing can be done or keep them dry in the garden through summer.
jackwar@home.netspeed.com.au
WHEN Ukrainian bass operatic singer Taras Berezhansky started studying the role of Attila the Hun, which he will perform for Opera Australia soon, he didn’t spend a lot of time on history.
Attila’s reputation, after all, precedes him, and to Berezhansky far more important was the complexity of the character which Giuseppe Verdi and his librettist Temistocle Solera created in the opera, which was a thinly veiled argument for Italy’s independence from Austria.
“He may be a negative character, but he has passions, he has life… He has a lot of enemies, but he feels like a real guy,” Berezhansky tells me by phone from Sydney.
Until not long ago Berezhansky was living with his wife and daughter in the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, where he had studied at the National Pedagogical University of Ukraine and National Music Academy of Ukraine.
“But in Kyiv, we had 10 of the most terrible days I can remember… I was also working at the opera house in Lviv in the western part of Ukraine and so we have moved there – it’s further south and east and the capital is too much of a target,” he says.
He’s just landed in Sydney when I speak to him – “I never dreamt I would perform in this wonderful place,” he says. But Ukraine is a country with deeper musical roots than ours.
“As a singer, you start your professional studies in the national music academy but it’s been a long journey. I took a lot of masterclasses wherever I could and it was very difficult to get a job at first, but then I won a competition in Estonia and after that, my international career started,” he says.
One of his earlier roles was playing the bass part of Leporello, the cunning servant of Don Giovanni in Mozart’s opera, a major role.
“Thanks to Mozart and Verdi, we have a job. Being a bass usually means being a father or a priest, but these two composers have given seri ously good roles to singers at the lower register, although I prefer Verdi for my voice,” he says.
He’s performed before for Opera Australia, as Colline in “La Bohème” and Sparafucile in “Rigoletto, and he performed Attila just twice in 2020 before covid struck and it was cancelled.
It’s a co-production with La Scala, in Milan, directed by Italian director Davide Livermore, known for his huge digital backdrops, although this time the revival director is Kate Gaul.
A favourite part is where he performs on horseback. He’s not an expert horse rider and had to practice for his first performances in Sydney.
“It was quite good until I had to jump off… riding the horse is not all that hard, but jumping off is.”
Luckily his horse Zulu is a very well-trained horse and he believes that the two horses in this produc
tion are the most expensive of all the performers.
“It’s an interesting opera for the audience because it mixes the good and the bad,” he says.
“I have a marvellous aria, ‘Mentre gonfiarsi l’anima’ [As my heart seemed to swell], a very difficult aria with some very high notes for a bass.
“I’m telling my slave friend Uldino about the dream I saw of Pope Leo… I wanted to conquer the Roman Empire, but after that I decided to step back, it’s a crucial point.”
It’s all downhill from there and in the end Attila is dispatched by his wife, the Italian Odabella –that’s almost certainly not true, but it ends the opera effectively.
At 37, Berezhansky is entering the prime age for an opera singer. When he returns to Ukraine, he will perform in the Lviv Opera House, still going strong, and says the crisis in his home country has made him see the power of music and all of the arts.
Like many other Ukrainian singers, Berezhansky has performed in Russian operas, notably in “Eu gene Onegin” and “Iolanta”, both by Tchaikovsky.
“It’s quite difficult to talk about this,” he says. “But for us Ukrainians, we have stopped perform ing Russian music.”
But he has a contract to play in the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, and if he had to perform in a Russian work, how would he approach the situation?
“I think if there were a way, I would use it as a weapon against the Russians,” he says.
Verdi’s “Attila”, Sydney Opera House, October 29-November 5.
AWARD-winning Danish director Tobias Lindholm’s first made-in-US film begins by announcing that it is based on true events. For once, we may be assured of that truth.
It’s about Charles Cullen who, as Wikipe dia puts it, is “an American serial killer who confessed to murdering 40 patients during the course of a 16-year career as a nurse.”
In 2006, Cullen was sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences and was not eligible for parole until 2388. Subsequent convictions have extended that period be yond 2400. Earlier release seems unlikely.
In Lindholm’s film, scripted by Krysty Wilson-Cairns adapting Charles Graeber’s book “The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder”, Eddie Redmayne plays Cullen. Jessica Chastain plays Amy, a nurse with a life-threatening cardiac condition who helps detectives by wearing a wire while talking with Cullen after work (which occupies a major slice of the film’s two-hour run time.)
The film’s look and overall feel combine to give it a sense of discomfort to prepare the viewer for its theme. There are movies galore that depict protagonists and situations that
are distressing for whatever reason.
This one doesn’t shriek its truth from the rooftops although it has a right to do so; Cullen’s score is known to have reached about 400.
Its gentle, matter-of-fact stylistic treatment supports the dramatic power of “The Good Nurse”.
I have only one regret about it – having one or two more lights shining more often would not have detracted from some of its low-tension but high-dramatic moments.
ETYMOLOGICALLY, a barbarian (or savage) is someone perceived to be either uncivilised or primitive.
The human contents of writer/director Zach Cregger’s latest fling into the horror genre fall rather short of that definition. Out-of-towner Tess (Georgina Campbell) arriving in a dilapidated Detroit Airbnb that she has rented for the night before a job interview is the film’s principal character
whose on-screen behaviour suggests that she lacks basic survival smarts – it’s going to be that kind of movie.
An old man lying bedridden and helpless in the house turns out to be its original owner Frank, who in the ‘80s stalked and abducted young women and held them captive in a network of tunnels, raping them and raising the subsequent children.
Another, named in the credits as The Mother and played by Matthew Patrick Da vis, pops up whenever action in the tunnels begins to pall, has pendulous breasts and lacks clothes, vocabulary, normal human attributes or most of its teeth.
The body count begins with Keith (Bill Skarsgård) whom Tess finds has already rented the house for the night and whose interaction with her occupies Act 1 of the drama.
In that process, he’s going to defy the Hollywood convention of being rejected by the girl before the pair winds up together in the last reel, by being the film’s first victim.
I found little to admire in “Barbarian”. The tensions don’t hold up, the continuity is often muddled or confused, its thematic intention falls short of its ambitions. It repeats the nasty passages too often. As the plot develops, its sense of same-old-sameold comes to dominate. And it falls short of fulfilling the promise of its name.
They based it on their dance teacher Ruth Osborne, who was trained in the methods of dance pioneer Gertrud Bodenwieser.
REBUS Theatre is staging a new work to challenge perceptions of disability-led theatre. “Utopiate”, an intergalactic odyssey to a planet without pain, is devised and performed by a mixed-ability cast and brings together dialogue, physical theatre, soundscapes and visual design. Belconnen Arts Centre, November 4, 5 and 12.
SADHANALAYA School of Arts will present “Parijatham”, a Kuchipudi classic created by the late guru Vempati Chinna Satyam. Led by Vanaja Dasika, it tells of Krishna’s dilemma as
QUITE a coup for Ylaria Rogers’ company HeartStrings Theatre Co, which has stitched up a deal with Sydney’s tiny Hayes Theatre for a January staging of its production, “Urinetown”, seen here at the Courtyard Studio in July, with the Canberra cast and new musical director Matthew Reid, who replaces the busy Leisa Keen.
CANBERRA conductor Leonard Weiss reports from NZ, where as assistant conduc tor in residence with Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, he’s stepped in to conduct “The Princess Bride in Concert”. He’s also been booked to conduct their final two perfor mances at the end of 2023.
National Opera presents Handel's Alcina Directed by Peter Coleman Wright AO with Graham Abott conducting the Canberra Symphony Orchestra Starring Emma Matthews, Rachelle Durkin and an all star Australian cast.
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IT’S the time of year when the streaming platforms fill up with everything designed to raise hairs for Halloween.
Netflix’s new series “Cabinet of Curiosities” represents one of this year’s most intriguing and creepy escapades and is well worth checking out for anyone in search of a fright.
Created by horror pundit Guillermo del Toro, this anthology features eight episodes that each tell their own spooky, yet smart horror story.
The Mexican director has brought a new air of sophistication to a genre normally reserved for cheap jump-scares and gim micky concepts.
Take his spellbinding 2006 film “Pan’s Labyrinth”, a gem that’s even caught the eyes of those who otherwise turn their nose up at horror and fantasy.
It’s a nightmarish fairy tale of a 10-yearold girl named Ofelia who, amidst the chaos of fascist-ruled Spain in 1944, is made to live with her sadistic stepfather, a captain of the Francoist dictatorship assigned to hunt down those who oppose it.
Confronted by the horrors of war, Ofelia attempts to escape into her own fantasy world, but the line between monsters both human and otherworldly becomes blurred as this cerebral fable unfurls. Best of all it can be viewed for free on ABC iView.
Del Toro also made headlines in 2017 for his controversial best-picture winner “The Shape of Water”, the bizarre tale of a
woman’s relationship with a fish man held in captivity.
Its Oscar win was a surprise given the Academy’s tendency to ignore such genreheavy stuff. In fact, the only “horror” film to have ever won best picture is 1991’s “The Silence of the Lambs” (on Amazon Prime).
Del Toro also scored a nomination for best picture last year with his film “Nightmare Alley”. Both that and “The Shape of Water” can be streamed on Disney Plus.
All this points to the fact that the director has more than proven himself a master of making things that go bump in the night.
However, in his Netflix show he’s decided to share the top job with others.
Only two of the episodes will be del Toro’s own original work. For the other six, he’s assembled six different horror directors from around the world who have each crafted their own unique story.
While details of these stories have deliberately been left a mystery in the lead up to its release, the talent on hand to bring them to life is undeniable.
That includes Australia’s own Jennifer Kent, who spooked audiences both here and overseas with her 2014 film “The Babadook”.
It’s the terrifying tale of a single mother whose erratically behaved son becomes convinced there’s a monster living in their small suburban home.
Set entirely in Adelaide, this psychological thriller stands out by cleverly revealing that the monster is far from the scariest thing
It can be streamed on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
A star-studded line up of actors has also been recruited to make “Cabinet of Curiosi ties” a reality.
Rupert Grint, of Harry Potter fame, will star in one episode as will Andrew Lincoln, former lead of the long-running zombie phenomenon “The Walking Dead”.
It’s been a few years since Lincoln
departed from “The Walking Dead”, which coincidentally is now also streaming its final season on Binge.
It’s hard to blame him for leaving the show even as its popular main character.
While after 11 years and 11 seasons “The Walking Dead” itself is finally wrapping up, there’s no telling when the franchise will call it quits.
The TV network that owns the show has already got multiple spin-offs planned that will start immediately after the original series supposedly “finishes”. Talk about a walking corpse, indeed.
Netflix’s collection of talent such as Lincoln comes at a time when the platform most needs it.
Its competitors are ever encroaching with their own popular content. Now more than ever, the streaming giant needs original, quality productions if it wants to hold on to its floundering reputation.
While “Cabinet of Curiosities” might have curated some of the world’s best horror storytellers, it’s still not as likely to scare off as many viewers as Netflix’s recent announcement that there’ll soon be ads creeping around the platform.
Friday 21 – Sunday 30 October 2022
Friday 21 October: 6.00pm – 8.30pm
Saturday 22 October – Sunday 30 October: 10.00am – 5.30pm Monday 24 October closed
OFFICIAL OPENING: Friday 21 October at 7pm
Fitters Workshop, Wentworth Avenue, Kingston Next to Bus Depot Markets www.asoc.net.au
OMI’S claim to fame is “Japanese done different”. We landed at Omi after another Japanese restaurant we had planned to visit on Northbourne Avenue was closed, even though all online sources falsely promised it was open.
How hard is it for hospitality to update websites and social media with accurate information or pro vide a phone number and message bank for double checking? Grrr.
Anyway, the food at Omi on Bunda Street, Civic, didn’t disappoint. It’s been open for about four months and the fit-out is clean, minimalist and attractive.
Omi’s specialty is modern Asian flavours with traditional Japanese staples such as rice bowls and udon noodles.
The menu is designed around customer choice... choose your protein, rice or noodles and then a signature sauce Omi creates in house.
It’s an impressive selection, rang ing from light and creamy sauces to heavily spiced. Think salted egg sauce, truffle mayo, Singapore chilli crab, black truffle, black pepper, teriyaki, wasabi mayo and more.
Those fixated on fries will be intrigued with Omi’s salted-egg fries, truffle fries and wasabi-mayo fries.
To start, our vegetarian gyoza (5 for $11.90) went down well with
Singapore chilli crab sauce. Our tofu starter was delightful. Thinly sliced, the tofu was silky and drizzled with Teriyaki sauce ($11.90).
Omi specialises in wonderfully marbled wagyu and sources from award-winning farms such as Blackmore Wagyu (loved by the likes of Neil Perry and Matt Moran), Sher (cattle are pasture fed until 18 months and grain fed for around 400 days) and Robbin (where cattle enjoy Tasmania’s cool climate and pristine environment – even walks along the beach).
Our Signature Wagyu dish ($22.90) was massive, and we were glad we shared. The ingredients were carefully presented in a large black bowl and were super attrac tive. Bright red Mentaiko looked stunning on the egg. This Alaska pollock roe – marinated in sake, konbu and yuzu and then lightly fermented – is super tasty.
We loved the texture of the green edamame and the red Japanese pickles added crunch.
The rice was perfectly sticky and the wagyu divine. Its marbling was true perfection and the beef not at all fatty or greasy... just succulent and high on taste. We loved the Wasabi mayo sauce.
Although we didn’t indulge, des serts include green-tea crepe cake and Houjicha/Matcha green-tea crème brûlée.
Omi’s service is fast, but our ordering wasn’t. Customers order at their table with a QR code and pay at the end. It didn’t work on one mobile and although it worked on the second mobile the system was fussy and not entirely intuitive.
A staff member happily helped by just taking our order. Seems we weren’t the only ones taxed by the system.
Resist the overwhelming urge to be an impulsive and impetuous Ram! Your boss planet Mars is now retrograde (until January 12) so you need to apply the brakes and think before you speak and act and post. Otherwise, you could upset others with your hasty words and reckless actions. When it comes to your Aries aspirations for the future, the main quality you need to cultivate at the moment is patience, as you slow your motor and cool your heels.
Mighty Mars is reversing through your self-esteem zone until January 12, which could dent your confidence and dampen your enthusiasm. Don’t dwell on the negatives! Hold your head high and trust your inner judgement. Be inspired by actress and birthday great, Sally Field (who was born on November 6, 1946): “It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else’s eyes.” On the weekend, keep the lines of communication and compassion wide open.
It’s time for gung-ho Geminis to hit the pause button, as dynamic Mars reverses through your sign until January 12. Which will stymie motivation and increase impatience, especially involving personal projects and close relationships. Jump ing to conclusions is definitely not recommended! Hasty words and ambiguous comments will only lead to drama and confusion (especially on Friday). So slow down and listen carefully to what other people are saying.
Mars is reversing through your seclusion zone. So it’s time to help those around you (especially family members) in a quiet, low-key, behind-the-scenes kind of way. On the weekend, Venus and Uranus could send some surprising news in your direction, especially involving a child, teenager, lover or close friend. Wise words for the week are from fellow Cancerian (and humanitarian) Princess Diana: “Everyone has the potential to give something back.”
Many talented Lions have ambitious aspirations for the future. But a cherished goal or a longed-for dream could be delayed as Mars reverses through your hopes-andwishes zone for the next two months (until January 12). Try to be extra patient! Good things will eventually come to Cats who wait. On the weekend, expect the unexpected involving a work issue, a family matter or a romantic relationship. A flexible and fun approach will see you through.
Mars is reversing through your professional zone until January 12. So it’s not an ideal time to look for employment, apply for a new job or start a challenging work project. You’ll require plenty of diplomacy, discretion, patience and persistence, as you navigate a bumpy career path over the next couple of months. And expect some communication chaos on the weekend when a friend behaves in an unpredictable way, or an important message goes astray.
This week the energy builds towards an opposition between Uranus and your ruler Venus on the weekend. So the challenge is to get the balance right between your independence and the needs of loved ones; between being prudently cautious and being creatively spontaneous. Draw inspiration from fashion guru Anna Wintour (who turns 73 on Thursday): “I try to remain very open to what others have to say. And it’s very important to take risks.”
SCORPIO (Oct 24 – Nov 22)
The more creatively you communicate with other people, the more satisfying the week will be. But Mars is reversing through your trust and intimacy zones until January 12. Attached Aries – strive to be more tolerant and cooperative with your partner. Singles – are you looking for love? Don’t accept second (or third) best. Have the confidence and patience to wait for your soulmate. Good things will come (eventually) to strategic Scorpios who wait!
SAGITTARIUS (Nov 23 – Dec 21)
Don’t expect close relationships to run like clockwork, as Mars reverses through your partnership zone (until January 12). If you respond to problems deftly and diplomatically, then things will soon be back on an even keel. But there could be sudden disruptions or hidden surprises on the weekend when Venus and Uranus upset plans involving work or wellbeing. A secret could also be revealed. If you keep your adaptability muscles well-flexed, you’ll manage fine.
CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 20)
Expect some challenges and setbacks over the next two months, as Mars reverses through your daily routine and work zone. Retrograde Mars also reminds you to reboot your exercise routine so it is more sustainable. Keep on keeping on, Capricorn! Your mantra for the moment is from actor, writer and director Ethan Hawke (who celebrates his 52nd birthday on Sunday): “Success isn’t measured by what you achieve, it’s measured by the obstacles you overcome.”
AQUARIUS (Jan 21 – Feb 19)
The Venus/Uranus opposition suggests a house move, family fiasco, uninvited guests dropping in or some other kind of domestic drama. And some Aquarians could experience disruptions at work. Whatever happens, strive to get the balance right between your public life and your private responsibilities. Retrograde Mars also pushes you to reinvent a close relationship. But don’t get so carried away that you throw the baby out with the bathwater!
Many Fish are feeling rather restless. Mars is retrograde until January 12, so it’s time to ditch distractions, conserve energy and prioritise important tasks. Then slow down and listen to the wisdom of your inner voice. Your motto for the week is from birthday great, fashion icon and Vogue editor Anna Wintour: “I respond to my own instincts. Sometimes they’re successful and sometimes they’re not. But you have to remain true to what you believe in.”
Copyright Joanne Madeline Moore 2022Across
1 Name a city in north-eastern Texas. (6)
7 On which day was the Melbourne Cup originally held? (8)
8 To trifle, is to do what? (6)
9 What is the art of prose in general? (8)
10 Name a style of art, architecture and decoration, of the 18th century. (6)
11 What is something that excites to anger? (8)
14 Which term describes that which is concerned with the scientific side of legal investigations? (8)
18 What is a defensive covering for the head? (6)
19 Name a library or reading room. (8)
21 What describes a trying experience? (6)
22 What, in maths, is the operation inverse to multiplication? (8)
23 Funeral songs are known as what? (6)
1 Name a scurf that forms on the scalp. (8)
2 What is an area of shallow water? (6)
3 Which hormones are used by some athletes for body building? (8)
4 What was Edward Kennedy Ellington known as? (4)
5 Name another term for a partner. (6)
6 What was the given name of John Wayne? (6)
12 Name a coastal river on the North Coast of NSW. (8)
13 Who, in Greek Legend was a son of Zeus and the nymph, Pluto? (8)
15 Name a renowned type of soup. (6)
16 Which movable part of the skin serves to cover the eyeball? (6)
17 What is a motorless aeroplane? (6)
20 What was the pen-name of Charles Lamb? (4)
One of our favourite changes to the superannuation rules in 2018 was to allow a oneoff "downsizer" contribution to superannuation without some of the usual restrictions.
To be eligible for the "downsizer" contribution, a person needs to be:
• 60 years of age or over.
• The primary residence which you sell must be in Australia, have been owned by you or your spouse for at least 10 years, and the sale must be exempt or partially exempt from capital gains tax.
• The primary residence is not a caravan, houseboat or other mobile home.
Individuals can contribute up to $300,000 of the sale proceeds to superannuation (or $600,000 as a couple).
You must not have previously made a "downsizer" contribution to your super from the sale of another home or from the part sale of your home.
Before (or at the same time as) making your contribution you must provide your fund with the "downsizer contributions into super form" which can be accessed from the ATO.
A couple of points to note:
The contributions need to be made within 90 days of the settlement and contributions are not tax-deductible, so you can't claim a deduction for your contribution in your income tax return.
Downsizer contributions are not subject to the 15% contributions tax when they enter your super account.
A final consideration is that if the strategy is to create a pension be sure you consider the minimum pension payments which are aged based.
There are other alternatives to superannuation that may result in better age-pension outcomes and lower means-tested care fees relevant to fund a move into permanent residential age care.
To learn more, call us on 1300 10 22 33 or book a 15-minute call (at no cost) via our website phillipswp.com.au
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