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Sky’s not the limit for satellite software success

By Belinda STRAHORN

DR Christopher Capon always wanted a career in space but when colour blindness stopped him from being an astronaut he found another way.

His space-engineering business, Nominal Systems, which he founded with Dr Brenton Smith in 2019, is helping to change the way satellites are designed, built and operated.

“What we do is effectively provide software to help companies design satellites better,” Dr Capon, 31, said.

“We kind of make satellite design like LEGO, and then our software lets companies understand the wear and tear of the satellites so that they continue to work longer in space.”

The Canberra start-up, which launched before covid, now has 11 employees and is achieving great success recently winning the 2022 ACT Exporter of the Year award.

“That award goes largely to the success we’ve had in the UK and some other projects that we are putting together with some

US companies right now,” said Dr Capon.

Dr Capon said the software has been designed with the view to reduce the incidence of satellite failures.

“Over the last decade around 20 per cent of missions have been what’s called dead-on-arrival, so they haven’t been heard from,” he said.

“And roughly 40 per cent of satellites experience partial systems failure, so something doesn’t work within the first four months to a year.

“Our goal was to solve this problem. To make space-mission design simple, and operations scalable, by providing a safe to fail digital world for anyone to turn their space mission concepts into reality.”

When most people think of space they think of the glamour side being rockets, space stations, and astronauts.

In reality, Dr Capon said, most of the hard work is done designing and implementing systems that allow the rockets and satellites to be successfully launched into space.

“In the space industry, unfortunately everyone wants to be the hero, they want to build the rocket or the satellite and there aren’t enough companies that focus on the support ecosystems,” he said.

“What Brenton and I have focused on with Nominal Systems was how we can provide those modern tools to make space systems work better.”

Dr Capon said space technology has come such a long way that the size of the satellites are much smaller than they once were.

“Instead of building a billiondollar satellite the size of a bus, these days lots of companies are looking to build hundreds of thousands of satellites that are more the size of a loaf of bread up to the size of a washing machine,” he said.

“So, the stuff that we do is critical because if you are managing a fleet of cars, for example, you need to know when to replace them, and what’s breaking, and so our software provides a unique way to do that, which is why we have been pretty successful to date.”

One of the greatest challenges facing everybody working in the space industry is the accumulated amount of space junk out there, and how we avoid colliding with it, Dr Capon said.

“It’s getting more crowded than it was, and space debris represents ongoing problems for active satellites that are in orbit,” he said.

“Even a one-centimetre size piece of debris can represent a sig-

nificant risk to another spacecraft because things are moving very fast and you don’t want to get hit by anything.

“Debris is a constant concern and making sure that you are able to operate responsibility and sustainability in space has been a big key interest for everyone going forward.”

As well as building on its net works here at home, the business has forged a strong partnership with the UK Ministry of Defence.

“Our main customer is the UK Ministry of Defence, we have a contract with them to provide the UK space command a version of our digital twinning software as a baseline model simulation platform to support some of their future space programs,” said Dr Capon.

Dr Capon started out studying mechanical engineering, before relocating to Canberra to complete his PhD.

Like most young children grow ing up he dreamt of being an astro naut one day.

“I always wanted to be an as tronaut but unfortunately I’m colour blind and wasn’t allowed, so I decided I’d find a way to build satellites or space stations so that I could go on them as a colour-blind person,” he said.

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If your project is important to you, don’t wait!

WALKING down the street yesterday I crashed into some low-lying ABS data, suggesting that 64 per cent of Aussie men my age were overweight or obese, and I wondered – if we all make resolutions to lose weight every year, how come we’re not all skinny?

Because we suck at resolutions. A Christmas-shopping wander round Tuggers demonstrates that my mates and I look more like John Candy than the Rock. Like our American friends.

Obviously the few Americans with hard abdomens and smug careers have one thing in common – a Ted Talk or book about their success, thanking their deity and their mom, and just possibly trying to sell you something, although usually their books contain sage advice about measurable and achievable goals which make success easier.

Even so, the reality is that most of us do fail New Year resolutions by the start of the Sydney cricket Test. Those of us with legendary resolve might last till stumps on day three. And then we sometimes do what we do best – we savagely criticise ourselves for failure… and quit. All the while encouraging others.

There is another, rather more awe -

some reality. Willpower is a muscle – it requires effort and focus. Think of a person who does something tough every day – perhaps caring for an ill family member – taking 365 days of love and effort. We stand in awe and think “how do they do it?” Reality suggests that it is, of course, because there exists no alternative.

Steve Martin’s character in “Parenthood” got a cracking line. When his wife Mary Steenbergen said of some ghastly family chore “you just have to do this!”, he cried in pain: “My whole life is “have to!” Possibly an even better line in that film was his

endlessly suffering wife’s reply, about “grow up, you idiot”.

The thing is, many of us are actually doing fantastic work every day – many of my patients get up daily to attend a job they are mightily struggling with due to burnout or fear or bullying, because they need to survive themselves or support their loved ones, which means that their willpower muscle is stretched to the limit every day, and by the time they get home they’ve been a hero – and getting into a stripy size 6 and putting all their perfect dishes on Insta is about as distant from reality as me getting picked for the Sydney Test. Many of us do achieve a great deal in our professional roles, but are lucky because we love it. Some of us should get a medal just for keeping

on keeping on. But here are three simple ideas which might have legs.

Firstly, January 1 is only one day – things succeed once they start, so don’t wait to give yourself one shot a year at success. If you “fail” to maintain a standard you set yourself, start again any day – 365 chances a year are a lot better than one. And if your project is important to you, don’t wait. Most people quit smoking successfully. Despite billions in industry, the commonest method remains willpower. And the commonest success outcome is someone who’s tried and failed to quit several times before.

Every time you try and fail gets you closer to succeeding because you practice trying. Don’t mistake your advancements for failure. They are successes!

Secondly, leverage small wins. A few years ago I noted a mate did five different things successfully including calling people he’d missed for many months, writing up meeting minutes, emptying his mum’s shed – what a great effort, we said. Nonsense, he smiled – I’m still only capable of sticking to something for

three days, but every fortnight I’ve planned a new one – so 26 times this year I’ll do something really well for three days and it adds up to heaps!

Thirdly, with care and respect, let’s go to the self help section of a bookstore and find the most smug, perfect, tell-you-how-to-live-your-life bugger on a back cover, and attach their image to a dartboard. Then arrange a no-effort pizza and TV night at home with your friends and throw non-violent nerf balls at the image while reading aloud from the book’s passages.

I guarantee you it will make you laugh, and further guarantee that folly with friends makes you happier than any six-packed marvel of modern dentistry with a spot on Oprah ever will. Resolve on love and kindness to yourself and those around you. And celebrate your failures. They are the first draft of your greatest achievements.

Antonio Di Dio is a local GP, medical leader, and nerd. There is more of his “Kindness” on citynews.com.au

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Steve Martin in “Parenthood”(1989)... “My whole life is “have

to!”

Every time you try and fail gets you closer to succeeding because you practice trying. Don’t mistake your advancements for failure. They are successes!

Linda Clee – Physiotherapist

Linda is an experienced physiotherapist having worked clinically in private practice for over 20 years, in rehabilitation settings and in community based aged care. Having owned and operated her own clinic for over 10 years, Linda offered a range of different therapy options, and has refined her skills and service offerings to ensure a functional focus to therapy; that is holistic and promotes overall wellness. A dancer in a past life, Linda loves to add a bit of fun in her programs, often throwing in rhythm and co-ordination challenges that are good for the body and the mind.

Sophie Bullock – Exercise Physiologist

Sophie has post graduate qualifications in hydrotherapy, and as a non-sports centred Exercise Physiologist, helps clients who struggle with engaging in exercise due to a lack of sports participation. Sophie’s goal is to improve clients health via our hydrotherapy program, gym instruction and in-home visits. Sophie also is known for her passion for working with children.

Natasha Perry – Exercise Scientist

Tash takes a wholistic view of all her clients, considering their mental wellbeing as much as their physical needs. Tash delivers our Nordic Walking, Pilates and Tai Chi programs, all of which have a mental as well as physical component.

Tash also leads our strength and balance program, supporting those with lower levels of mobility or have concerns over falls to regain their confidence, whilst also meeting a great bunch of fellow exercise class participants.

Dorothy Johnston – Exercise Physiologist

Dorothy is our newest graduate Exercise Physiologist who we employed because she was such an outstanding student. Dorothy excells with us, having a soft spot for both older persons with pain, but also a long history of working in disability services with children. Dorothy loves working with people to improve their pain and function, and always has a bright smile for everyone in her care.

Blake Dean – Exercise Physiologist

Blake has expertise in improving clients mobility and decreasing their pain through appropriate exercise. Blake delivers our ‘My Exercise’ program, targeting the relief of lower back and sciatic pain, shoulder and upper body concerns as well as leg, hip and ankle interventions – for those who do not qualify for physiotherapy-led GLAD programs.

Blake provides individual & group exercise for younger people with a disability. Blake treats clients in-clinic or via our hydrotherapy program as well as attending your gym with you.

Jacqui Couldrick – Physiotherapist

Jacqui has a particular interest in hip and knee osteoarthritis. Jacqui delivers the GLAD program designed to reduce the need for joint replacements, or if a joint replacement is unavoidable, to prepare you thoroughly for surgery and recovery for day to day tasks. Jacqui is studying towards a PhD in the outcomes of the GLAD program.

Holly Hazelwood – Exercise Physiologist

Holly is a former sports journalist who believed so strongly in the power of exercise to heal and nurture that she undertook her 4 year degree in Exercise Physiology. Holly is be able to work with people directly to support them through their pain journey and regain independence and a joy for living again.

Holly provides one on one and group exercise classes both on land and at our hydrotherapy centres to support people to gain freedom from chronic pain.

• Occupational Therapy – Assistance with the planning and modification of your home, workplace or car. Applications for NDIS, the Disability and Housing Support Pension, and also driving assessments.

• Physiotherapy – including the GLAD program for knee and hip osteoarthritis, sports injury prevention and rehabilitation, and pain condition support.

• Exercise Physiology – Individual exercise prescriptions, small group classes to increase strength and improve rehabilitation, strength and balance classes, hydrotherapy support.

• Dietetics – meal planning, weight management support, food intolerance support.

www.arthritisact.org.au | e: info@arthritisact.org.au

Chins up, winemakers put bad crops behind them

By Belinda STRAHORN

A MURRUMBATEMAN winery is looking forward to producing its full complement of wine varieties after weather setbacks over recent seasons.

Shaw Wines was hard hit by smoke and wet weather, which left its wine crops decimated.

The well-established family winery was unable to produce 15 varieties of wine including its shiraz, merlot, ries ling and semillon sauvignon blanc.

Shaw Wines director Tanya Olinder said it’s been a challenging few years in which to produce wine, given the prevailing weather conditions.

“We lost two out of the last three vintages,” she said.

“It was just the weather, we didn’t have the sun to ripen, and there was so much rain.

“The other one was the smoke taint in 2020, so two out of three vintages were pretty bad.”

Shaw Wines was just one of the vineyards in the area that were similarly affected by weather events that impacted on their wine production.

“I don’t think there was one winery that had a full pick,” Olinder said.

“Four Winds lost their grapes during the January hail storms, I think Ken Helm Wines and Dionysus Winery did, too.

“We were going to give the other wineries some of our grapes, but when it came to harvest time, there was too much rain and we got disease for the

whites, and later on when the reds were meant to ripen we didn’t get the

“We missed the hail this year, but we didn’t get the good weather to ripen anyway.”

The wet weather did have one positive side effect, Olinder said.

It allowed them to produce a good batch of rose, with the grapes used to produce the wine thriving in those conditions.

“We only got one pick, which was the rose,” said Olinder.

“The reason we got that was when we make a rose, because it’s a red grape, we don’t want it to be fully ripening like a red, so it was good weather for rose, but that was it.

“Everything on our list, about 15 different wines, our sparkling, sparkling semillon, riesling, reserve semillon, shiraz, merlot, semillon sauvignon blanc, cabernet sauvignon, and our dessert wine we didn’t get to

“We also do some blends of cabernet shiraz, and cabernet merlot and we couldn’t do any of those as well.”

Olinder said dealing with weather events is part of what they do, and you just have to roll with the punches.

“There’s no point being negative, that’s a farmer’s life,” she said.

“The wine industry is the same as the farmers, you have to keep your chin up and hope Mother Nature is not

too cranky… although she certainly has been in the last few years.”

During the period of poor production, the winery was forced to import grapes from other regions to compensate for the loss of its own vintage.

“We have had to buy grapes in, that’s what a lot of wineries have to do,” Olinder said.

“You have to find areas that have had a good vintage and hopefully you can buy grapes from them.

“This year there’s a lot of wineries with grapes from lots of different regions, it’s kind of become the norm now.”

Olinder said she is putting this time to good use, preparing for what she hopes to be a good grape crop next year for harvest.

“Because it’s so wet everything is growing quickly, so it’s keeping it all maintained, and keeping the disease factor down if the rain picks up,” she said.

Olinder’s is a family run business, which started more than 20 years ago, with both her parents and husband involved in its operation.

They have reflected on how unkind the weather has been, but they have to deal with it, she said, and hope there’s better days ahead.

“It was just a terrible year this year,” Olinder said.

“We are not hoping for another of the same.”

Shaw Wines director Tanya Olinder… “The wine industry is the same as the farmers, you have to keep your chin up and hope Mother Nature is not too cranky”.

Photo: Martin Ollman

Precious moments sitting in Cedric’s garden

This is an expanded version of an online column PAUL COSTIGAN wrote for “CityNews” in November about the emotions of revisiting the garden of the paper’s long-standing gardening writer, the late Cedric Bryant.

I VISITED the wonderful Bryant garden in Watson, in October –the one established by Canberra’s famous gardener and “CityNews” columnist Cedric Bryant. This garden is a reminder of things that could be.

That visit was about seeing his garden for the first time since his death in October, 2021. Everything in the garden was looking healthy and lush.

Tragically, the pleasure experienced from roaming about such a garden is not going to be there for many future residents of Canberra.

Canberra is now being reshaped by the de-greening programs of the dull and disingenuous leadership of Chief Minister Andrew Barr (Labor) and Greens leader Shane Rattenbury, and their subservient Greenslabor government politicians and chief bureaucrats.

Under their infamous de-greening programs, ad hoc and non-enforced planning rules have encouraged the removal of trees and shrubbery in established suburbs for the building of large and expensive housing – with

little space left for replacement greenery and for abundant gardens.

During this last decade of their relentless reign, new suburbs have been created with restricted spaces available for shrubbery and trees – let alone any gardens. Canberra’s biodi versity has been slowly diminished.

This Greenslabor approach to de-greening, to creating heat-island suburbs and hacking away at the established suburbs was carried out as if this government believed that climate issues were not really that serious. It is as if the climate crisis is for someone else to confront.

The dynamic duo (Barr/Rattenbury) have little interest in aesthetics and design. Good architecture and beautiful landscapes are not what Canberra has been building since these Greenslabor leaders have dominated this city.

A fully established and welldesigned garden with a well-designed climate-ready home attached must be something foreign to them.

Cedric Bryant was passionate about gardens and this city’s landscape –both as a bush capital and as a town where residents used to be encour-

enjoy the visitors to your garden –being the critters and birds who show up and inhabit as if they have assumed that it was created for them.

A garden is a place to sit quietly and ponder (spare us the Greenslabor City Renewal activations).

There’s so much to be said and has been written about what a garden brings to the people who have the opportunity to enjoy a landscaped

design, biodiversity and aesthetics –and for looking after those in need.

One wonders what Barr and Rattenbury and their obedient party members think their legacy will be. Maybe they will award themselves

trophies for the evictions of their own housing tenants.

Once the dynamic duo have gone and people with values get back into government, history will not be kind in recounting the damage they did and the countless lost opportunities.

There are many people in this city who appreciate Cedric’s legacy. They know more about plants and gardens thanks to his sharing of his knowledge and passions. There are many private gardens designed by Cedric Bryant. His legacy lives on. He is still with us.

For those lucky enough to have a garden with a home attached, please make sure you enjoy it as much as possible. Cedric Bryant would definitely encourage you to do so. Now it is time to sit out in my garden and ponder the universe – or just watch the birds having fun.

Paul Costigan is a commentator on cultural and urban matters. There are more of his columns at citynews.com.au

Cedric Bryant… passionate about this city’s landscape.

In Cedric’s garden… everything was looking healthy and lush. Photo: Paul Costigan

Cometh the moment, cometh the… coincidence

COINCIDENCE is a wonderful mystery. It happens at the beginning of every new non-fiction book, especially a biography.

Other author friends report the same phenomenon – suddenly a distant rela tive opens a whole unexpected chapter of the story; an obscure but vital book leaps from a second hand bookshelf; an email arrives from the blue that introduces the perfect publisher… It’s been happening again recently, and it set me thinking about the larger issue of the great coincidences of the past – the sudden unexpected arrival of the perfect persons to change the course of history just when it was most needed.

We could start with the great thinker Socrates blessed coincidentally by an equally profound author in Plato to raise all the questions of ethics and morality that we’re still puzzling today. Or the great social and engineering visionary Caesar Augustus who brought order and connectivity to the vast continent of Europe.

What odds that a privileged young British woman named Florence Nightingale who through sheer determination, courage and caring invented the profession of nursing? And what wondrous coincidence joined the brilliant Polish-born Marie Curie with her Parisian husband to

overwhelm physics with the powers

magic did the German/ Swiss Albert Einstein find himself in a Munich school that taught by rote, so he was forced to teach himself algebra and geometry; that he just happened upon Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason” and by combin ing mathematics and philosophy navigated an entirely new concept of the universe that utterly changed our perceptions of the world around us.

The political experience is redolent

have ravaged without conscience; the assassins who collided in America with John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King and John Lennon; and the Trumpian creatures who

But it is deeply gratifying to see the mad Mullahs of Iran getting their just deserts because a single courageous woman, Mahsa Amini, slain by the “morality police”, has become a symbol of hope for political freedom. And for us, the convoluted political career of Anthony Albanese coincidentally became the perfect foil for the bulldozing antics of his gross

So, the question arises – as the campaign for an Aboriginal Voice in the Constitution gathers pace, who will arise from among the ranks to symbolise and secure this act of

Come on coincidence – it’s time once more to do your stuff.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt who defied returned to 10 Downing

From left, Florence Nightingale, Mahatma Gandhi, Marie Curie and Winston Churchill.

Tram shows government incompetence on display

THE incompetence of the Barr-Rattenbury government is on display with its commitment to light rail Stage 2A despite the disclosure by the NCA that Stage 2B approval would take “many years”.

2A only makes any sense if 2B is developed. To proceed without the approval of 2B would be reckless, unnecessarily spending limited infrastructure funds.

A delay would enable funds identified for its development to be available for other purposes and would allow evaluation of alternatives including bus rapid transit.

The government’s deficiencies are also evident in its failure to:

• Adequately manage the health system;

• Supply enough social housing;

• Improve the coverage and frequency of the bus network;

• Explain why light rail is crucial to its high density vision when there is strong demand for higher density at Kingston and the Belconnen, Tuggeranong and Woden town centres despite the absence of light rail;

• Demonstrate why light rail is being prioritised when there are high unmet needs in health and housing;

• Demonstrate 70 per cent infill is the appropriate level of consolidation;

• Release sufficient land for detached

dwellings thereby contributing to higher house prices and increased car-dependent development in the region;

• Investigate possible greenfields supply areas;

• Investigate the extent of infrastructure capacity and augmentation needed in existing areas;

• Competently manage the quality and design of redevelopment dwellings;

Provide in a timely manner community and commercial facilities in Molonglo; and

• Sufficiently maintain roads, bridges and open space.

In the context of an unelectable opposition, it arrogantly and lazily failed to undertake robust analysis to justify its decisions or respond to community concerns.

It claims it has governed with an “unparalleled level of transparency” clearly believing that if you tell a lie often enough it becomes the truth.

Canberra cannot afford the government’s incompetence if it is to become a more environmentally, socially and financially sustainable city. Can the Liberal Party seize the opportunity and consign the mediocre Barr government to the dustbin of history?

Mike Quirk, Garran

Beware the tram’s ‘poison pill’ contracts

THANK heavens the Canberra Liberals have come out against Tram Mark 2, and will make it an election issue.

This will be the first time we ratepayers

will have a genuine opportunity to register our views regarding this hugely expensive 19th century project for which we still have not seen a business case, but which we know is already driving up our rates and taxes, and deferring other worthwhile infrastructure programs.

However, the Liberals need to get moving on this issue well before the election. The reason being the “poison pill”.

I recall that, at the same stage of Tram Mark 1, a senior ACT government spokes-

person came out and smugly declared that all contracts then being developed would include a cancellation clause with a financial penalty so large that it would be just as expensive to walk away from the contracts as to proceed with them. This is the “poison pill”.

So the Liberals need to access the contracts development process now, either directly or through a qualified independent third party to ensure we don’t get another round of this regressive behaviour.

The ACT auditor-general comes to mind,

but any commercially and legally qualified entity will do. The thing to insist on now, before it is too late, is to secure agreement for this independent observer to be party to the process.

Paul Varsanyi, Kambah

No wonder government’s pushing its case

IN his otherwise very commendable critique of Canberra’s light rail system, Mike Quirk (Letters, CN, December 15) fails to mention what I see as one of the ACT government’s main motivations for pressing ahead regardless of wise objections and informed opinions: residential development along the new transport corridors.

The light rail network will be akin to the human circulation system, with the city at its heart and the rail branch arteries to Gungahlin and Woden; then to Belconnen and Tuggeranong; and (perhaps) finally, to Canberra Airport and Ginninderra.

This is developers’ dreams: they can rest assured that most, if not all, new development will take place along the arteries (or corridors) and make their plans and land or built property purchases accordingly. The ACT government can also be assured that its income stream from rates and other sources will strengthen. It’s no wonder that the government is pushing its case for light rail so determinedly – or stubbornly.

Dr Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin

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Bravo, Hugh’s spot on!

-

So much of our system of government and administration of justice has depended on mutual respect by all parts of the system of the conventions, practices and values that hold it together.

Those making important decisions are relied upon to exercise good judgement and respect counterparts in the system that, as a whole, is supposed to hold the public interest in the highest regard.

We have been let down more than once this past year by those wielding the office and authority. This most recent is a crushing indictment of the administration of justice in this territory, this country.

Bravo, Hugh. Well said. All those with insight into the system will know this, and more. It is indeed time to hold unaccountable prosecutors to account. If they acted accountably, the need for mechanisms to compel accountability would not arise.

Helen Lu, Deakin

Achievements of the ‘invisible man’

I WAS so surprised to receive in my mailbox the other day a flyer from David Smith MP, the invisible man from the Bean electorate.

Of course he was so proud of the Albanese government achievements since the election, but did not mention anything he had done during that time for his electorate, mainly because he had not done a thing.

In the picture on the flyer I think I can see palm trees in the background, that could be one of our holiday islands.

Hope all the people that voted for him are very happy with what he achieved last year.

Looking forward to a flurry of things done for the Tuggeranong valley in the New Year.

Athol O’Hare, Kambah

Government silent on soft-plastic solutions

BEING a keen re-cycler, it’s a shame the amount of soft-plastic that now goes in the rubbish bin since the cessation of the REDcycle soft-plastic “collection bins” located at the local shops.

I am surprised here in Canberra, particularly with the overzealous Greens, the ACT government hasn’t

introduced an alternative collection method – even just a temporary one until a more permanent solution is found. Hopefully, the scheme will get back-up and running soon.

When I think of an “environmentally friendly” government, some action on an issue like this comes to mind and is worth spending money on – but perhaps there is no money left with the mind-boggling cost of fixed rail?

Bjorn Moore, Gowrie

Whitlam’s lot knew about toilets

IRONIC that its the 40th anniversary election of the Whitlam Labor government.

His government was alert to the importance of public hygiene and waste. It spent tens of millions on sewage work in western Sydney and Brisbane.

Our local mob of Labor idiots can’t sewer a park.

The muddled development (Paul Costigan, CN December 1) of children’s parks with no toilets is pathetic, demeaning of the ratepayer, of the parents and children.

Nothing has been learned from the West Basin Park fiasco.

Christopher Ryan, Watson

Use inner wisdom, not drugs

I AM writing to agree with Prof Stuart Reece on his cannabis letter (“Colorado cannabis experiment a ‘disaster’”, CN November 17).

I spent my young days in the early ‘70s in Melbourne and witnessed people go downhill on the use of this drug.

When we consider a view of being progressive, is it? Where is our collective common sense? When we have a legal drug in alcohol, which ruins lives, why add another one?

Let’s get back to wisdom and not senseless idealism. Humans have an inner wisdom, let us use it.

Phillip Frankcombe, O’Connor

KING O’MALLEYS

SUMMER IN THE CITY

The King swings all summer

AFTER what feels like far too long between carefree summer drinks, it’s well and truly time to relax with friends and family in 2023.

And what better place to celebrate and catch up than at the famous Irish-style pub in the heart of the city, King O’Malleys, says managing director Peter Barclay.

“The pub is the heart of City Walk. We are open seven days ‘till late and for over 20 years it’s become a real anchor and meeting spot with people enjoying our outdoor beer garden and the comfort of the inside of the pub,” says Peter.

“With the warm weather and people enjoying some well-deserved time off work, it’s a great time to enjoy some fun together over drinks and a meal, relax and enjoy the sunshine,” he says.

The natural beauty of the shady London plane trees throughout City Walk are special to Canberra and provide a lovely backdrop to King O’Malley’s beer garden.

“The summer is also a transition time for many as young people finish school or uni and want to kick up their heels,” says Peter.

“It’s all about coming together. We have live music playing across the summer and we are open seven days with delicious meals and a great range of beers on tap.”

For more than 20 years, King O’Malleys has presented free live music – from Irish jam to solos and cover bands. Peter says that the pub’s support of the performing arts is something he and his team are very proud of.

“Over the years we’ve been able to nurture up-andcoming local bands, including indie pop band Safia, who is now internationally recognised.”

Peter says he’s had relationships with regular bands, who have come to entertain patrons for the past

gallery, which hosts a lively program of exhibitions and is the only commercial gallery in Civic.

“We are so fortunate to have Nancy Sever, a wellknown member of the art community, and her beautiful art gallery upstairs,” says Peter.

“We love having people come down for a meal and a drink after visiting the gallery.”

And for those keen to get hands-on with art, Peter says the pub hosts regular art classes through local group, “Paint it Up” who offer a painting in the pub-style art experience.

“From fine art upstairs, to creating your own, King O’Malley’s is at the heart of it all,” he says.

HUGH Selby’s opinion piece on the role and shortcom

ings of the prosecutor in the recent failed trial of Bruce Lehrmann on an allegation of rape is spot on in all respects.

By Belinda STRAHORN

CANBERRA author Jack Heath, 37, has been writing for as long as he can remember.

His debut novel, “The Lab”, was published when he was just 19, now more than 40 books later – his newest novel, “Headcase”, has hit the shelves.

A spy thriller set in Houston, Texas, “Head case” is the fourth in the series featuring cannibalistic problem solver Timothy Blake.

When a Chinese astronaut is found dead in a NASA training environment, the CIA calls Blake in to investigate.

“The CIA is concerned that the astronaut might have fallen out of the sky and that there might be a secret Chinese spacecraft surveilling the US, but when Blake turns up he quickly realises that something more complicated than that is going on,” Heath told “CityNews”.

As Blake hunts the killer, he discovers something sinister is happening, something connected to a kidnapping seven years ago, to the technologies being developed at NASA, and to the serial killer known as the Texas Reaper.

“Blake’s main objective is that he wants to somehow get a hold of the body [of the dead

Now Blake’s back with “Headcase”, the fourth book in Heath’s grisly crime thriller and gloomy, and dire, but because of Blake’s wry sense of humour it keeps him fun to

write and read about.”

The fact that Blake is telling the story from within a psychiatric hospital gives the novel a “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” feeling, Heath said.

“As a character Blake has always been a bit insane, so it makes sense that he may need some kind of psychiatric help.

“But it occurred to me that if Blake sat down in front of a doctor and said he’s a cannibal that had been recruited by the CIA, they would assume he was delusional and would try and cure him of his delusions rather than of his compulsions, and that scenario was just

When it came to researching the book, Heath sought advice from Dr Richard Harris, the anaesthetist and cave diver who played a crucial role in the Tham Luang cave rescue

“I had to talk to someone who had an understanding of medicine, and I found myself talking to Dr Harris of the Thai cave

“He helped me out with some of the research for the book, and he was kind

The series of Blake books were Heath’s first attempt at writing for adults. He’s also a successful children’s author,

and has written 35 books for children and young adults.

“I learned a lot from writing children’s fiction,” Heath said, himself a father of two.

“Kids get bored easily and they have more distractions around them so if you are writing a book and even if one page of it is boring, the younger readers will switch to TikTok.

“Adults tend to have more tolerance for suspense so even when I write for adults, I have that adult-writing instinct of keeping the pace up and making sure something dramatic happens on each page.”

Frustrated by the slow pace in most teenage fiction, Heath started writing his first novel, “The Lab”, while in high school.

“At Lyneham High School I started getting exposed to dreary teen fiction, and that was the point when I thought that I could do better than this,” he said.

“I started writing ‘The Lab’ in Year 8, and I finished the first draft when I was in Year 11 or 12 at Narrabundah College, then I sent it off to be published, and the rest is history.”

According to Heath, Canberra is kind to both authors and readers.

Its readers appreciate quality writing and its authors value intelligent readership.

“Part of it is that it’s a great town for readers because it has the type of weather that encourages people to stay inside, but also Canberra has a wonderful variety of people living in it in terms of its professions and life experiences,” he said.

Glimpses of Graeme and a forgotten impresario

By Helen MUSA

CANBERRA authors have produced not one but two important books about dance in recent months.

First up is “Glimpses of Graeme. Reflections on the work of Graeme Murphy”, by critic and dance author Michelle Potter.

The book is just that, a series of glimpses into Murphy’s work through the various reviews Potter has written over many years for publication in Canberra and beyond but, as Potter says, a true biography of Murphy is yet to be written.

There’s a Canberra angle. “Glimpses”, staged at the Canberra Theatre in October 1976, was the winning entry in a choreographic competition called “Ballet, 76” in the year before Murphy was appointed director of Sydney Dance Company. The cast included Canberra dance legends Ross Stretton and Meryl Tankard.

Potter has assembled her selected reviews according to several themes she sees in Murphy’s work – music initiatives, crossing generations, approaches to narrative, elements of design, postmodernism, theatricality and collaboration, so she sometimes returns to individual works under different headings.

The book analyses Murphy’s attention to design in the ‘70s when he was listed as

designer for no fewer than six productions, a practice he continued into the ‘90s. Supremely visual in outlook, he engaged influential artists, notably Kristian Fredrik son, on whom Potter has also written a significant book.

modernism as it applies to Murphy and a section on his famed shock tactics where he is quoted as saying: “It was a way of jolting the audience”. reimagined as a modern love triangle, maybe

Charles, Diana and Camilla. Americans, Potter says, call Murphy “an artistic hero of his country”, but to Potter it is the magic in his choreography, his ability to draw audiences into work emotionally and his firm belief in collaboration that make Graeme Murphy great.

“Glimpses of Graeme. Reflections on the work of Graeme Murphy” (Forty South publications, rrp $45. Available at fortysouth.com.au)

POTTER’S approach is simplicity itself – a series of reflections on Murphy’s career – but Canberra historian John Anderson’s “exploratory” biography, “Forgotten impresario: discovering Daphne Deane”, is exhaustive and scholarly, with a whopping 70 separate chapters. The author owes his inspiration for the book to letters held by his wife’s second cousin, an Australian dancer who worked as the secretary of his subject before World War II.

Anderson speaks of “the relative invisibility of women in history” as he recounts the story of Deane, a forgotten theatrical entrepreneur, actor, singer, journalist, producer and academic, from her birth in Queensland as Theodora Harriette Patience

Lush, her early days, her time working with Sydney theatre director Gregan McMahon during the 1920s, her appointment as the first and only professor of dance at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music and her experiences seeing Anna Pavlova in 1926 and 1929.

In this part, her early marriage to a shyster in Sydney makes for enticing reading.

Deane’s initiatives in the theatre were legion, as the book shows, but her claim to fame rests on her entrepreneurial skills, fine tuned in England, where she toured the Ballet Rambert to provincial France in 1937, reaching their apogee in 1937-8 with her complex manoeuvrings to bring the Ballets Russes to Australia, related in the chapter titled “Conniving a Tour to Australia”. But JC Williamson’s and the Tait Brothers got the credit for that.

Active in the Paris Theatre Guild both pre and post-war, Deane became in part a figure of mystery as she slipped in and out of the limelight, ending up in a serious brush with the law in 1948 that signalled the end of her career.

Back in London on an Australian pension, she was last heard of in August 1976 and no record of her death has been found.

Extraordinarily, there is no entry for her in the “Australian Dictionary of Biography” and in this book Anderson is keen to set things right.

“Forgotten impresario: discovering Daphne Deane” (Google Books, free open access at nla.gov.au).

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ANDREW FREER Principal JO TWIBLE Principal DES MOORE Principal

Graeme Murphy as Jean Cocteau in “Poppy”, 1978. Photo: Robert Hartman

Water-shortage play off to Sydney

By Helen Musa

A BUMPER debut season for fledgling Canberra company Heart Strings Theatre Co has capped the year off with an offer that couldn’t be refused – a professional season in Sydney.

The production, “Urinetown”, directed by the company’s founder Ylaria Rogers, will take the stage at the petite theatre in Potts Point in January and February and it’s all systems go.

Rogers, who worked as assistant director on a production some years ago at the Hayes, after studying at the Australian Institute of Music, has been manoeuvring behind the scenes and in July, even as the production was in its tech run at the Courtyard Studio, she was pitching a proposal for the production to travel to Sydney.

Canberra musical director Leisa Keen will be replaced by Sydney’s Matthew Reid, the choreographer will be Cameron Mitchell who’s just directed the Gershwin musical, “Nice Work If You Can Get It” for Hayes and several Sydney and interstate artists will take some of the roles.

This is to be what Rogers calls a “rebuilt” production of what we saw in July, praised by critics for its mastery of musical satire, and for being, despite the

pessimistic title, a jolly good night out in the theatre.

The 2001 satirical musical was written by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis, has won Tony Awards and had already been staged here by Narrabundah College and Supa Productions.

In it, a water shortage caused by a 20-year drought has led to a governmentenforced ban on private toilets, but a hero

decides that he’s had enough and plans a revolution to lead them all to freedom.

Rogers believes that “Urinetown” is “the right show at the right place at the right time”.

An exceedingly topical show given the wide experience of drought and lockdowns, and a very funny one, too, it is, she says, perfect for “a period of time when we need some relief – high drama

is not really appropriate at the moment”.

It was actually the Hayes, a petite 114seat venue named after Nancye Hayes where top Sydney professionals stage big Broadway shows in an intimate situation, that inspired Rogers to establish Heart Strings Theatre in the first place.

With 92 seats, Canberra’s Courtyard Studio was comparable in size and the production she staged in July won’t need all that much rejigging for Sydney. In fact, she believes she’ll be able to remount it in just over a week with rehearsal, starting on January 2.

The Canberra component of the cast features some of our hottest theatrical properties – Karen Vickery and Natasha Vickery, Deanna Farnell, Joel Horwood, Max Gamble, Joe Dinn and Petronella Van Tienen – and the whole cast will work for a guaranteed fee and a share of

Quite a few of them will be negotiating around a day job, rehearsing in Sydney while working online to Canberra – one of the more advantageous aspects of life in the post-covid era. All will find ways of accommodating themselves in Sydney so that Heart Strings does not incur accommodation costs.

“We are doing it on the basis that they are Sydney-based performers,” Rogers says. “A lot of people give up a lot of things to support their artistic growth.”

“Urinetown,” Hayes Theatre, Potts Point, Sydney, January 11-February 5.

Teeny Tiny sisters’ album gets creative

By Helen Musa

ARIA-winner, Teeny Tiny Stevies, sisters Bethany and Sibylla Stephen, will perform a mix of fan favourites and new material from their new album, “How to be Creative”, 10 songs for kids covering how to overcome self-doubt, try new things and work with others. The Playhouse, 10.30am, Sunday, January 8.

CANBERRA Youth Theatre has announced that its newest Emerging Playwright Commission has gone to Victoria-based playwright Honor Webster-Mannison, for the play “$7.48”, which was selected from more than 60 submissions from every state and territory. The commission offers an emerging playwright $16,500 to create a new, full-length work that brings the voices and stories of youth to the stage. The other finalists, Rebecca Duke and Jamie Hornsby will also receive $1500 each.

TO coincide with its exhibition “Viewfinder: Photography from the 1970s to Now”, the National Library has partnered with PhotoAccess for a school-holiday workshop where children aged 8-15 can experience producing a cyanotype print through a very early photo-imaging process developed in the 1840s using the sun, and harmless chemical reaction patterns and shapes can be captured.

Karen Vickery, left, and Natasha Vickery in “Urinetown”. Photo: Jane Duong

Teeny Tiny Stevies, sisters Bethany and Sibylla Stephen… The Playhouse, January 8.

Anyone for an argument, here’s Nick’s Top 10?

IS there any better way to cause more arguments than via a top 10 list?

Well, here’s my humble attempt to do just that with a round-up of the best streaming TV shows of 2022.

It’s my hope there’ll be something on this list for those in search of a new series to get into or to catch up on over the holiday break.

Honourable mentions to “Pachinko”, “Hacks”, “Barry”, “The Responder”, “Atlanta” and “The Bear”, which just missed out on the top of the pops.

All right, let’s go.

10. “Bad Sisters’’

Apple TV+

Perhaps the year’s most underrated show.

This Irish mystery about a plot to kill a scoundrel husband walked such a narrow beam between laughs and shocks it felt like it was going to fall off at any moment.

And yet, it made it all the way, and it was impossible to stop watching throughout.

9. “The Boys”

Amazon Prime Video

While the ending to season three of this raucous superhero satire didn’t deliver the shock value fans have come to expect, the newest instalment had some of the show’s sharpest and most adrenaline-fuelled episodes yet.

Season four will have some work to do to keep things fresh, but the show’s takedown of pop culture and politics still hilariously refuses to pull its punches.

Apple TV+

A sleek, sophisticated sci-fi thought experiment that might just instil an existential crisis for anyone who’s ever held down a nine to five. It asked the question of what the world would look like if work and play could truly and utterly be separated. Blessing? Curse? Or both?

Netflix’s nostalgia phenomenon proved

Whether you are looking for a round of golf, a delicous meal, or drink with friends, the Braidwood Servicemens Club boasts a wide range of recreational and sporting facilities to cater for every taste.

doctor, the British seven-parter was unafraid to confront audiences with the gory, crushing reality of working in the health system.

A fittingly exhausting experience that was held together by Ben Whishaw’s charismatic sarcasm, “This Is Going To Hurt” is a show that lived up to its name in the best way possible.

5. “The Rehearsal” Binge

Easily the year’s, if not the decade’s most inventive poke at reality TV.

“The Rehearsal” saw Canadian funny man Nathan Fielder take the idea of preparing people for future social encounters and run away with it to absurd extremes.

Hilarious with a surprising side of profundity.

4. “House of the Dragon” Binge

In an earlier column I posed the question of whether this blockbuster fantasy spin-off had the ability to restore the glory of “Game of Thrones” after an ending which left many fans let down.

It did all that and more.

“House of the Dragon” took the best parts of “Game of Thrones” and forged them together into a thrilling spectacle that made it a joy to return to Westeros every week.

3. “Andor” Disney Plus

Just when Disney’s relentless milking of “Star Wars” seemed at its most uninspired, along came a new hope for the galaxy far, far away.

This gritty, mature and surprisingly political entry to the saga brought in writing talent from productions like “House of Cards”, “Nightcrawler” and “The Bourne Identity” to set a new bar for action television.

It captured all the things that make fans love “Star Wars” and even managed to bring in view ers who hadn’t before got swept up in the magic of the world’s favourite space opera.

1. “Better Call Saul” Stan

The big question: did this exceptional spin-off outdo its iconic predecessor, “Breaking Bad”?

This columnist, though many would disagree, believes not quite.

Even then, “Better Call Saul” was still the best thing on television.

What made this series so special was a visual language – one that revealed the thoughts and feelings of its heartbreaking characters more than its snappy dialogue ever could.

Now that’s how good TV is done.

2. “The White Lotus” Binge

When it came time to check-out from this cringe-worthy holiday resort, it almost felt sad bidding farewell to its infuriating, amusing and somehow endearing roster of characters.

Described as privilege in paradise, the show’s second season took aim at the state of modern relationships, wealth, politics, family

NOSTALGIA

dances in Queanbeyan

Bands, punch-ups all part of the Friday dance

By Belinda STRAHORN

QUEANBEYAN residents of the ‘60s and ‘70s would remember the Silver City dances on a Friday night.

Held at the Queanbeyan RSL Hall, the dances were a permanent fixture on the social calendar for young people at the time.

Many locals would have fond memories of times spent at these gatherings.

Amateur historian Phill Hawke said the Silver City dances – sponsored by Donoghoe’s Music Centre –regularly drew crowds of up to 500 people.

“Neil Donoghoe, of the Donoghoe’s Music Centre, sponsored a weekly Friday night dance at the Queanbeyan RSL Hall, which was named Silver City in 1964,” said Hawke, who’s been researching the history of dances in Queanbeyan.

The dances featured local bands and occasionally some big names would appear.

“Popular bands of the time like the Casuals, Penny Farthings, Cyclones and the Phantoms appeared regularly at Silver City,” Hawke said.

“Bigger draw cards such as Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, and Ray Brown and the Whispers occasionally appeared at the RSL.”

While Silver City was the most popular, it wasn’t the only dance that was held in the city at the time.

Other popular dances were held at venues including The Green Eucalypt, The UNO Club, Sound Lounge, Coffee Bean and the Oaks Estate Hall.

Hawke said the Silver City dances sometimes attracted a rowdy element, with brawls breaking out and the police having to be called.

“Charles McManus, who was president of the RSL, said that during a dance in November, 1964, windows had been broken, curtains torn down and toilets

seeking the reintroduction of the Silver City dances,” said Hawke.

“The petition was presented to the RSL board at their first meeting in 1965.

“The dances re-opened at the RSL Hall that year, but they didn’t last long after that.”

It was commonplace for fights to break out at dances right through the district and in Canberra at the time.

“The Canberra Police Citizens Boys Club had to tighten security at their dances,” said Hawke.

“Preventative measures were taken including no pass outs being handed out, and male youths attending were required to wear a tie.”

Describing the gang culture that was associated with these dances at the time Hawke said: “On one occasion a major fight broke out at the Lady Gowrie Hall at Manuka between Queanbeyan youths and a rival Canberra group during a Sunday dance.

“It followed another fight the week before when the Queanbeyan lads sorted out a couple of Canberrans.”

Hawke said the UNO Club, on Crawford Street, featured prominently in the history of Queanbeyan’s early nightlife scene.

The club was previously known as

the Bamboo Restaurant and Night Club, and before that the San Remo Restaurant, where the inclusion of exotic dancers drew the unwelcome attention of the

“The San Remo Restaurant had exotic dancers, which often attracted police, if only to watch the shows,” said

Go-go dancers also featured regularly at the club, he said.

At the other end of the spectrum the period saw rock bands rehearsing and performing at the Oaks Estate Hall.

“The hall was run by Oaks Estate personality Mrs

“It was a special time in the lives of many young people in Queanbeyan,” Hawke said.

“While the dances didn’t last forever, they still live on in the memories of people in the decades that followed.”

Our classes build creative confidence: learn techniques and skills in drawing, cartooning, anime, painting, sculpting, collage, textile art and more.

A print ad from 1964 advertising the Saturday night line-up at the Queanbeyan RSL Hall.

A couple of bob for authors?

IN an earlier column, I decried Australia’s massive secondhand book market that makes vast profits without paying a cent to the creators of the product they sell.

Some of the worst offenders, I noted, were religious charities – such as Vinnies, Lifeline and the Salvos. Unlike the authors, the charities pay no tax, so they get a double dip into the public purse.

By Robert MACKLIN

It was time, I suggested, to devise a scheme like the one applied to other creative arts – music, for example –which is protected by a payment of royalties each time a song is used. I offered to serve on a committee to see if something similar could be devised.

The column attracted plenty of attention, mostly from outraged Vinnies

volunteers. However, a follow-up radio interview on Canberra 2CC’s “CityNews Sunday Roast” put me on the spot. Do we really need such a scheme, they asked, and if so, how would it work?

Well, the authorial arts have been in national limbo since Gough Whitlam established the Australia Council and Public Lending Right (PLR) way back in the ‘70s. For decades the Arts ministry has faded from view and even in the Albanese government it’s just tacked on to the end of Tony Burke’s Ministry for Employment and Workplace Relations. And that, Anthony, is just bloody shameful!

Authors, even the best among us, live a precarious financial life. No employer pays us superannuation; no one cares if we go on strike (except our partners or children) and since almost everyone thinks they have at least one book in them, we battle in a buyers’ market. Our competition is worldwide and includes the finest exemplars the planet has to offer.

What’s more, we’re at the mercy of fashion and external events. Special Forces biographies, for example,

came and went. And during the covid years, no one wanted to read non-fiction; all they cared for was escapist mysteries to take their minds off the awful present.

Moreover, virtually all TV and movie options fell over, in my case two series that trembled at the very brink of production. So, yes, some new funding is necessary, and the secondhand market is a rip-off that should supply it.

I don’t claim to have all the answers; and I’m only concerned with Australian authors. But here’s a couple of ideas that might get the ball rolling. Let’s start with the hundreds of permanent secondhand bookshops and charity outlets across the country. How about designing an attractive Aussie Authors Secondhand Fund (AASF) container for each checkout counter. The sellers could deposit a mere 20 cents per Aussie-authored book; and that surely would be no hardship. Australia’s wonderful posties could collect the funds on their regular rounds and deposit them in a single account at their Australia Post offices (which all have banking facilities).

Then there’s the many hundreds of school fetes and regular markets – all with book stalls. They, too, could be issued with an attractive AASF container and, in this case, perhaps the buyer could contribute the 20 cents per book. A local author would happily volunteer to transfer the funds to the nearest Australia Post.

By my back-of-the-envelope calculation, we could raise a tidy sum, provide a nice little refresher to our cultural life, and salve the conscience of the charities. Authors have already registered their works with the Public Lending Right team so once or twice a year, the funds could be distributed via the same sample system. What do you think?

robert@robertmacklin.com

Across

4 What do we call horses not expected to win? (7)

8 What is literature or art dealing with explicit love? (7)

9 Which term describes subordinate rulers, often despotic ones? (7)

10 When one raises the right hand to the side of the headgear in paying respect, one does what? (7)

11 Name a feeling of rapturous delight. (7)

12 What is a learned person known as? (6)

14 What are outdoor bowls played on? (6)

18 Pinchgut is also known as Fort ...? (7)

21 Which Shakespearean character was the Moor of Venice? (7)

22 What is the transposition of the letters of a word or sentence to form a new word or sentence? (7)

23 To carry out the terms of a will, is to do what? (7)

24 The small edible seeds of a tropical herbaceous plant are called what? (7)

1 Which small carnivores have a long slender body, and feed mainly on small rodents? (7)

2 Name the animal emblem of Queensland. (5)

3 What is the square root of 256? (7)

4 Name a long-bodied, short-legged dog. (6)

5 Which plant, similar to the waterlily, is sacred in India? (5)

6 To originate or come forth, is to do what? (7)

7 What do we call a U-shaped bicycle bar? (5)

13 Which people deliberately destroy property? (7)

15 Which scale is used to express the magnitude of an earthquake (7)

16 What is a young lad’s means of transport? (7)

17 Name another term for trolls. (6)

18 Name some very light units of weight, in the imperial system. (5)

19 What is another term for scrimmage? (5)

20 What might sometimes obscure the sun ?(5)

Sudoku hard No. 331

Unlike the authors, the charities that sell secondhand books pay no tax, so they get a double dip into the public purse.

It’s a big year for the millets

WELCOME to the International Year of Millets, a plant that can be grown in our climate now while the weather is warm.

Millets are an ancient grain and therefore free of hybridisation and genetic manipulation. It is one of the seven ancient grains that use much less water than other grains grown such as wheat and rice.

The millet trade around the world is primarily domestic bird food and also an important staple

food for some countries as a source of protein, fibre and vitamins.

There’s an Australian millet (panicum decompositum) to try in the garden. It’s also known as papa grass or simply native millet.

It grows fast in the warmer months and also could be planted as a cover crop to keep a section of the garden weed free for summer or grown for food and fodder.

Millet is also beneficial for aviaries, chicken coops and a bonus for wildlife for anyone trying to attract more bird life to the garden.

If planted now, it will be quick to germinate and grass-like shoots should appear in as little as three to four days. It’s important to keep the ground lightly watered for a week or two and kept moist.

Native millet can grow up to a metre high and, 70-90 days after planting, it should be ready for harvesting when the top half of the seed heads have browned. Cut to the base of the stems and place in a dry shaded area out of direct sunlight on a drying rack or tie in a bundle and hang upside down to dry for a week or two.

CREPE myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) is a tough shrub or small tree suitable for colour and shade in a small garden or courtyard in summer. They show lovely colour in their foliage in autumn and their decorative bark exposed in the winter is a real bonus.

Flowers can range in colour from white to dark red, and hot pink, too. They flower from midsummer and through to autumn, generally on new growth, so the harder they’re pruned in winter, the more prolific they flowers are.

Recently, a new range was released called “Diamonds in the Dark”. It grows to three metres if left unpruned.

It makes a great feature tree with its deep-

plum or near-black foliage with striking vivid blooms.

THE vegetable patch will need to be kept watered through the hotter months. Watering the ground, not the leaves, in the cool of the day will be beneficial for the plants.

Sowing of brassicas such as broccoli, cabbages and cauliflowers can be done now into punnets of seed-raising mix for autumn planting. It’s also worth trying direct sowing of carrots, leeks and lettuce. Keep them moist but not wet and once the seed has germinated, cover them lightly with mulch.

A PLANT that’s been through extensive breeding programs over the past few years is the humble agapanthus.

Old varieties can be considered old fashioned, but new breeding brings new varieties that have been bred to be disease resistant, drought and frost tolerant and, most important, sterile as well.

The flower colours have also improved from the standard blue or white to beautiful dual colours in the extra-large flowers such as “Queen Mum” (Agapanthus orientalis)

This variety grows up to 1.5 metres and repeats flowering if dead headed regularly. Using agapanthus as a low-growing, no-prune barrier is an excellent alternative to a low-growing hedge. New varieties are suitable for pots in a sunny area where very little will grow.

jackwar@ home.netspeed. com.au

“Queen

Mum”… agapanthus flower colours have improved from the standard blue or white to beautiful dual colours in the extralarge flowers.

“CityNews”

so it’s a period when hard work, discipline and practice will take you far professionally.

NEW YEAR MOTTO

(April 21-May 21)

LOVE & LUST

PLUTO (planet of powerful transformation) shifts signs for the first time since 2008.

On March 23, Pluto transits from conservative, status quo, leader-focused Capricorn into progressive, innovative, group-focused Aquarius.

Then Pluto retrogrades back into Capricorn from June 11 until January 21, 2024. So we’ll get a brief taste of coming attractions in 2023, but the fundamental changes will happen between 2024 and 2044.

The last time Pluto was in Aquarius was from 1778 until 1798, a period that included the colonisation of Australia, the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution and gradual abolition of the slave trade. So expect discoveries, innovations, rebellions and revolutions.

There’ll be radical regeneration in areas involving science, space travel and sustainable technologies, plus increasing power/access/representation for previously under-represented groups in society.

Here is the personal forecast for your zodiac sign:

March 21-April 20)

LOVE & LUST

Expect interpersonal challenges, as three eclipses and retrograde Venus stir up your romance, partnership and friendship zones. Things could come to a head in August, when you finally lose patience with a faux friend or an unreliable lover. Singles – you may have to kiss a few frogs before you find your Prince (or Princess) Charming. But don’t give up – each dating disappointment will lead you closer to your soulmate. Attached Rams – May 5-7 is a good time for a long-weekend escape with your partner when the lunar eclipse boosts your sex drive and lust for life.

LOOT & LUCK

Finances and luck are linked from mid-May onwards, when Jupiter (planet of prosperity and good fortune) transits through your money zone. So expect a boost to your bank balance via a pay rise, bonus, gift or extra business coming your way. Any windfall won’t last long if you don’t manage it wisely though. August is the danger month for overspending when indulgent Venus reverses through your entertainment and gambling zones. In uncertain economic times, smart rams will concentrate on smart saving and sustainable living

LIFESTYLE

Have you been feeling listless and lacking motivation?

Thank goodness Mars (your patron planet) starts moving forwards from January 12, so your Aries energy and enthusiasm should gradually return! Jupiter and a solar eclipse light up your sign, so independence and identity are important themes in 2023. You have a strong need to be your own captain and sail your own ship. But that must be blended with good communication skills, personally and professionally. Balance and compromise are the keys.

NEW YEAR MOTTO

“You have good days and bad days. That’s a marriage. That’s a relationship. That’s a friendship.” – Sarah Jessica Parker

Attached Taurus – the lunar eclipse (on May 5-6) could stir up hidden tensions, particularly if you’ve been putting work before the relationship. It’s best to bring these problems out into the open, where they can be examined, discussed and resolved. Singles – Cupid’s arrow is most likely to strike in March, October and December, so brush up on your flirting technique and seductive one-liners. But avoid joining a dating site, proposing or getting married between July 23 and September 4, when love planet Venus is retrograde.

LOOT & LUCK

Resist the urge to spend too much at the New Year sales when Mars is still retrograding through your money zone. And avoid buying or selling property between July 23 and September 4 when Venus (your ruling planet) reverses through your home zone. Travel, business, group activities and personal projects are favoured during the last two weeks of June, when Jupiter and Saturn send a lucky opportunity your way. So it’s a good time to set goals, make wishes and dream big dreams.

LIFESTYLE

Pluto transits into your career zone and Saturn shifts into your hopes-and-wishes zone. So you have more chance of success if you’re doing work that suits you, and pursuing dreams that capitalise on your Taurean talents. If you write down your goals and aspirations (and refer to them regularly) then there is more chance they will manifest. With Uranus, Jupiter and a lunar eclipse lighting up your sign, it’s time to reveal the beautiful bull you were born to be! Self-confidence is the essential rocket fuel that will take you places.

NEW YEAR MOTTO

“If you’re waiting for someone to believe in you, you’ll be waiting forever. You must believe in yourself.” – Cher

“You gotta get better at something if you do it enough.” – Prince (June 22-July 23)

LOVE & LUST

With Pluto transiting through your relationship and intimacy zones, plus a lunar eclipse in your romance zone, 2023 will be a dramatic year for affairs of the heart. Coupled crabs – don’t let jealousy mar an otherwise promising partnership. 2023 is the year to transform your attitudes to love and long-term commitment. April and May are the prime months to go on an erotic escape with your lover when fiery Mars kickstarts your mojo and your libido goes into overdrive. Singles – you could experience a cosmic connection with a generous Gemini or a passionate Pisces.

LOOT & LUCK

Pluto transits through your ‘money-from-others’ zone from March 23 until June 11, when some crabs will benefit from an inheritance. But avoid borrowing money from a relative or friend, as it could put you under their control. The period from July 23 until September 4 is also not a good time to go into debt (or make expensive purchases) as Venus reverses through your financial zone. Canny crabs will prioritise saving and recycling over shopping and consuming.

LIFESTYLE

Saturn shifts into your education and adventure zones on March 7 (where it stays until May 2025). So it’s important to channel focused energy into learning something new. The more complex and challenging it is, the better. With a supportive teacher, coach or mentor on board, you can achieve great things. If you travel overseas in 2023 it’s likely to be for work, business or study purposes, rather than just for frivolous fun. It’s time to stretch yourself in serious, challenging new directions!

NEW YEAR MOTTO

(May 22-June 21)

LOVE & LUST

Relationships will mostly be ‘steady as she goes’ in 2023, which could be an issue for gregarious, restless Geminis! If you’re attached, do all you can to refresh a stale partnership or fix a frustrating problem. If you allow boredom and complacency to set in, then it won’t be long before you’re heading out the door. Singles – look for love with an amorous Aries or a sexy Sagittarian. But an established or burgeoning relationship could temporarily run off the rails between July 23 and September 4 when love planet Venus is retrograde.

LOOT & LUCK

From January 1 until May 16, you’ll find friendship, luck, travel and business are all linked. So it’s a good time to start (and promote) a promising group venture, especially with a business partner from another country or culture. But avoid making an important personal decision between August 23 and September 15 when Mercury (your ruling planet) reverses though your homeand-family zone. October is the perfect month to pool resources with a loved one for a beneficial outcome.

LIFESTYLE

Has retrograde Mars left you feeling tired, stressed and stuck in a rut? In the second half of January, you’ll feel your Gemini energy and confidence gradually return, when Mars finally moves forward in your sign. So February is the month to forge ahead as you initiate a work project, resume study, get physically fit, travel interstate or holiday overseas. Then taskmaster Saturn transits through your career zone (from March 7 until May 2025)

“There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” – Nelson Mandela

LIFESTYLE

Mid-January through until mid-April are the best months to travel, when Jupiter jumps through your adventure zone. Choose destinations with beautiful natural environments and challenging physical activities that get your Leo adrenaline going. Frustration intensifies from July 23 until September 4, when Venus reverses through your sign and energy and confidence are unusually low. You bounce back from September 5 until October 8 when your cat creativity is firing, and Lady Luck sends some fabulous opportunities your way

NEW YEAR MOTTO

“You write your life story by the choices you make.” –Helen Mirren (August 24-September 23)

LOVE & LUST

Saturn transits through your relationship zone from March 7 until May 2025. So you could take the plunge via an engagement, wedding, moving in together, or by becoming a parent, as you strive for more permanence in your primary union. With hard work and commitment, your love life will slowly go from strength to strength. Singles – the best months to meet your soulmate are February and October, when your earthy Virgo charisma attracts admirers from near and far. But expect a temporary dating drought (or partnership problems) from July 23 until September 4, when love planet Venus is retrograde.

LOOT & LUCK

Lucky Jupiter is moving through your ‘money-fromothers’ zone (until May 16) so you could benefit from a favour, freebie, pay rise, inheritance, gift, bumper tax return, divorce settlement or superannuation payout. Just make sure you manage any windfall wisely, with a view to future needs and long-term financial security. Then (from May 17 until May 2024) there’s money to be made via publishing, education, travel, business trips, international contacts, imports and exports.

LIFESTYLE

July is a fantastic month for travel, when Venus and Mars pave the way for a fun and action-packed trip. The following dates are when your ruler Mercury is retrograde – April 21 until May 15 looks tricky for travel and education. Expect communication, computer or car chaos from August 23 until September 15, when Mercury reverses through your sign. And you need to be extra tactful with family and friends from December 13-31. The best things to do when Mercury is retrograde? Revise goals, research projects and reboot plans.

(July 24-August 23)

LOVE & LUST

Coupled cats – February is a fabulous month to bring more fantasy and fun into your relationship. If you’re single, the best month to look for your soulmate is June, when romantic Venus and proactive Mars are both in your sign. And don’t be shy about promoting your positive qualities. If you don’t love and respect yourself, why should anyone else? The period from July 23 until September 4 is not a good time to join a singles site, go on a first date, propose, get married or renew your wedding vows, as love planet Venus reverses through your sign.

LOOT & LUCK

Leos are natural entrepreneurs and, with Uranus and Jupiter both activating your career zone, May 19 onwards is a positive time to look for a job, hit your boss for a raise, apply for a business loan, expand your present vocation, or live the laptop lifestyle by starting an online business. If extra money comes your way, make sure you spend it wisely. And be particularly cautious about financial and business matters from July 23 until September 16 (when Venus reverses through your sign, and then Mercury reverses through your money zone).

NEW YEAR MOTTO

“As soon as I accomplish one thing, I just set a higher goal.” – Beyoncé

(September 24-October 23)

LOVE & LUST

Coupled Libra – February and March are the best months to travel somewhere special with your sweetheart. But the relationship could hit a rocky patch between July 23 and September 4, when Venus (your patron planet) is in retrograde mode. Singles – the luckiest months to look for your soulmate are January, February, March and April, when Jupiter expands your romantic horizons, and you could hit the love jackpot. But have you got ridiculously unrealistic expectations that no mere mortal can possibly meet? Look for someone who is sexy, smart, successful – and fabulously flawed.

partner, business associate or overseas connection. But avoid being impulsive and buying big ticket items (like a car, home or investment property) between July 23 and September 4, when your ruler Venus is retrograde. Instead, be patient and wait. Your luckiest days of the year are March 2 and October 22 when Venus and Jupiter favour love, money and a touch of indulgent luxury via a boutique holiday break and some personal pampering.

LIFESTYLE

Avoid the Libran inclination to procrastinate and sit on the fence. With a lunar eclipse lighting up your self-esteem zone (on May 5-6) and a solar eclipse stimulating your sign (on September 14-15), 2023 is the year to refresh your physical appearance (via a revised diet and exercise program, a new haircut/colour and an updated wardrobe), showcase your classy Libran style and proactively follow your dreams. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

NEW YEAR MOTTO

“You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!” – John Lennon

until mid-July is a good time to escape on a weekend getaway with your sweetheart.

LOOT & LUCK

Avoid making important financial decisions that involve a partner (like buying a house or applying for a business loan) during the first twelve days of January, when Mars is still reversing through your relationship zone. Your luckiest period is from mid-January until mid-May, when prosperity planet Jupiter moves through your good fortune zone. So it’s an auspicious time to enter a competition, buy a lottery ticket, visit the casino, win at the races or start an entrepreneurial project.

LIFESTYLE

You could face a crisis of confidence in mid-May (when Pluto squares your ruling planet Jupiter) and there could be a challenge involving legal matters, your job, your health or where you live. Avoid over-inflated expectations and taking on too much around this time. The best period to take a well-earned holiday break is from late May until July 10, when dynamic Mars visits your adventure zone. But avoid travelling from July 23 through until September 4, when pleasure-planet Venus reverses through your travel zone.

NEW YEAR MOTTO

“Happiness and confidence are the prettiest things you can wear.” – Taylor Swift

is the prime month for love and passion. But retrograde Venus rocks the relationship boat from July 23 to September 4 and it will take a while to get things back on an even keel. So it’s not a good time to propose, move in together, get married, renew your wedding vows or escape on a romantic holiday.

LOOT & LUCK

Prosperity planet Jupiter transits into your domestic zone. So the period between May 17 and December 31 is a great time to redecorate, renovate, build an extension, sell property, buy a new home, relocate or start a home-based business. Good fortune could also come via a loved one, distant relative or family friend. But Saturn transits through your money zone (from March 7 until May 2025) which will teach you valuable lessons about being financially organised, responsible and frugal. Luckiest days are March 30-31 and October 31.

LIFESTYLE

(February 20-March 20)

LOVE & LUST

Single Fish – the best time to look for love is in February, when Venus sashays through your sign and you could fall for a sexy Scorpio or a vivacious Virgo. But avoid getting involved in a workplace romance between July 23 and September 4 when Venus reverses through your job zone. Coupled Pisces – March is the perfect month for a romantic getaway, preferably in the bush or near the beach. And the sexual sparks fly in mid-September when the solar eclipse luminates your lust zone. Issues involving intimacy, power and trust could also arise.

LOOT & LUCK

(October 24-November 22)

LOVE & LUST

Disruptive Uranus continues to shake up romantic relationships in 2023. The best month for lashings of romance is from mid-March through until mid-April, when love planet Venus visits your partnership zone. If you’ve been putting up with dodgy behaviour from your partner, then things could come to a dramatic climax around the time of the lunar eclipse in late September. Singles – you may find yourself attracted to someone who is much older, much younger, or from a different country or culture. Whatever happens, expect the unexpected!

LOOT & LUCK

Resist the temptation to go on a wild spending spree at the New Year sales when impulsive Mars is reversing through your money zone and financial common sense flies out the window. In uncertain economic times, business-savvy Scorpios should concentrate on thrifty shopping, smart saving and sustainable living. Luckiest months are February and March, when prosperity planet Jupiter sends good fortune your way and opportunity comes calling (especially involving work colleagues and close friends).

LIFESTYLE

Many Scorpios will have to make a difficult decision in May (when Jupiter squares your power planet Pluto) involving a romantic relationship, a family member or home renovations. Expect power plays and resistance from others. Smart Scorpios will calm down and maintain a sense of perspective, as you make a decision that satisfies all parts of your complex nature. The best months to travel are June and July when you mix business and pleasure, learn a valuable lesson, or make important connections with influential people from other countries.

NEW YEAR MOTTO

“I never want to be just one thing. I want to be multidimensional.” – Katy Perry

(December 22-January 20)

LOVE & LUST

Adventurous Jupiter, unpredictable Uranus and a lunar eclipse shake up your romance zone in 2023 … which can be a good thing! Coupled Capricorns – the most damaging thing for your relationship is boredom. So do all you can to reboot the romantic connection between the two of you and keep it fresh and exciting. Singles – look for a lover from outside your comfort zone; someone who is not your usual type. Cupid’s arrows are most likely to strike from mid-March through until mid-April.

LOOT & LUCK

After two long years, penny-pinching Saturn (your patron planet) transits out of your money zone on March 7. And then Jupiter jumps into your good fortune zone in mid-May. So late May, June, early July, late September, October and November are lucky months to sell shares or real estate, enter a competition, buy a lottery ticket, win at the casino or launch a lucrative project. But avoid making important financial decisions (like applying for a loan or signing a contract) when Venus is retrograde from July 23 until September 4.

LIFESTYLE

The solar eclipses signal a fresh start involving home and family (in April) and career or life direction (in September). Do you want to live somewhere else? Is it time to change your job – or your career? Have a long think about adjustments you can make and exciting options you can explore. It’s a fabulous year to foster friendships and extend your peer group. You could also welcome a new baby or enjoy improved relations with a child or parent as you share mutual hobbies, sports and interests.

NEW YEAR MOTTO

“If you don’t like the road you’re walking on, start paving another one.” – Dolly Parton

In 2023, Saturn transits out of your sign and Pluto moves in. So it’s time to reflect on the lessons you’ve learned over the past two years – and the transformative changes you now want to make. The best time to detox, dig deep, dismantle the old and then rebuild the new is from March 24 until June 10. The solar eclipse in mid-September is a terrific time to start a study program or travel to an exciting destination – preferably somewhere that’s exotic and off the beaten track.

NEW YEAR MOTTO

“There are no regrets in life, just lessons.” –Jennifer Aniston

The solar eclipse (in April) promises a fresh financial cycle as you receive a raise or bonus, liquidate assets, start a new job or reboot your budget. Whereas the solar eclipse (in September) signals a new financial partnership or an extra source of income. A fortuitous opportunity could appear in March or June, courtesy of Venus and Jupiter. Just make sure you are ready, willing and able to capitalise on good luck when it comes along. No procrastinating, Pisces!

LIFESTYLE

Taskmaster Saturn transits through your sign (from March 7 until May 2025). So strive to be rational and responsible – rather than gullible and impractical! While Saturn will send some challenges your way, it will also teach you to be more organised, as you celebrate your strengths and learn from your mistakes. With discipline and plenty of patience, you could transform a disappointing short-term failure into a dazzling long-term success. Slow down and listen to the wisdom of your inner voice.

NEW YEAR MOTTO

“Don’t let the noise of other opinions drown your own inner voice.” – Steve Jobs

(November 23-December 21)

LOVE & LUST

2023 starts with some relationship hiccups as lust planet Mars reverses through your partnership zone until midJanuary, which could exacerbate an existing problem or create a new conflict. So avoid making major romantic moves in the first half of January (like proposing, getting married or initiating a breakup). Singles – any dating experiences in January are likely to be disappointing, so be patient and wait until Mars is speeding forwards from February onwards. If you’re attached, mid-June through

(January 21-February 19)

LOVE & LUST

Singles – get circulating in your local community in February and March, because true love could be as close as the boy or girl next door! Potential partners will be thin on the ground in July and August, but things improve from September 4 onwards. Attached Aquarius – March

Winnunga Nimmityjah AHCS is an Aboriginal community controlled primary health care service operated by the Aboriginal community of the ACT.

In Wiradjuri language, Winnunga Nimmityjah means Strong Health. The service logo is the Corroboree Frog which is significant to Aboriginal people in the ACT.

Our aim is to provide a culturally safe, holistic health care service for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of the ACT and surrounding regions. The holistic health care provided by Winnunga AHCS includes not only medical care, but a range of programs to promote good health and healthy lifestyles.

Our services include: