Domain Review Bayside & Port Phillip - November 06, 2019 by Domain Magazines

PEOPLE & PROPERTY OF MELBOURNE

NOVEMBER 6-12, 2019

SUSAN CARLAND

THE POW ER OF THE MIND

VIRGINIA TRIOLI

IN TOUCH WITH MELBOURNE

ROVE McMANUS DOING IT FOR THE KIDS

MATT CUMANI A COUNTRY PRACTICE

B AY S I D E & P O R T P H I L L I P

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The editor’s desk

KRISTOFFER PAULSEN

Dr Susan Carland gives First Lady vibes; whip-smart and elegant. Her intellect is as sharp as her manner is gentle; perfect for the role of host on a quiz show for little people with high intelligence. As the quizmaster on SBS’s Child Genius Australia, Carland is face-to-face with Australia’s cleverest eight to 12-yearolds, in a program overseen by Australian Mensa. She wears two hats – social commentator and mum – in this week’s feature by journalist Aaron Langmaid, observing the challenges of parenting in a digital world, and how intellect counts for one thing but kindness another.

RACE AWAY \ Melbourne’s own Thurley will be seen on

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THE EDIT What we love at Domain Review

OUR COVER \ Dr Susan Carland. Photographed by Bec Parsons.

MORE TO LOVE ONLINE Go to domain.com.au/domain-review General inquiries \ 9249 5226 \ editorial@domain.com.au Editor \ Emily Power Deputy editor \ Jessica Dale Senior designer \ Colleen Chin Quan Designer \ Emma Staughton Group picture editor \ Kylie Thomson Managing editor \ Alice Stolz Chief consumer officer \ Jason Chuck Chief executive officer Domain Group \ Jason Pellegrino Real estate sales director \ Mitch Armstrong \ 0438 820 767 mitch.armstrong@domain.com.au Retail sales \ retailsales@sales.domain.com.au

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REVIEW Domain Review is published by Domain Holdings Australia Limited and is printed by Elephant Group (Aust) Pty Ltd, 24c Victoria Street Windsor VIC 3181. All material is copyright.

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FIRST PERSON

“ I am Marella Ryan ” … a V/Line conductor I’ve been a train conductor for seven years. Before that I was a flight attendant. I think I had had enough of flying. It’s nice to fly when you’re going on holidays, but it was enough flying for one job. I wanted something on the ground but I needed something similar. The two jobs are alike in a lot of ways. It is customer service, and really it’s all about safety as well. Of course, there are no trolleys, which is good. But it’s pretty similar in that you’ll walk up and down. You’ve always got to check things on board – check for ladders (in case you need to detrain), firstaid kits, fire extinguishers, whether the toilets have toilet paper. I’m on the Geelong line; we go between Warrnambool and Traralgon. We do Warrnambool

trains on the weekend and then during the week, Monday to Friday, we do one down to Traralgon. We cover a lot of kilometres in a day because Traralgon is about two hours and 20 minutes from Melbourne. The earliest train I’m on is the 4.31am from Waurn Ponds to Southern Cross. That’s when it leaves but we have to sign on here at Geelong first. The latest one departs Southern Cross a little after 1am, and comes back to Geelong. So, it’s almost 24-hour shift work. In the mornings, passengers like to sleep or they’re on their laptops because they’re on their way to work. Quite often at night, you will wake people up. I often say to people, “Don’t forget to set your alarm, just in case”. Not many miss their stop, but there’s a few who do.

As told to

L A R I S SA H A M ●

Ph o t o

I enjoy working on the trains. You see all these country people, they’re very friendly; a lot of them want to chat. We have lot of regulars. I also enjoy it because you do have to help people. I help them with information. Sometimes older people especially struggle to read a timetable, or work out how to get from Southern Cross to Richmond or elsewhere. Footy trains can be fun, especially if it’s the Cats. Everyone’s in a good frame of mind, especially going there. Sometimes there’s singing on the way back, it depends on who wins, otherwise it’s very sombre, analysing the game. Some younger ones probably see this as being a stepping stone to becoming a train driver, not me. I’m happy doing what I’m doing. ●

J U LIA N KI N G M A

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COVER STORY Mother of two, academic and TV host

Dr Susan Carland ponders the future for our children.

cademic-turned-television host Dr Susan Carland was about halfway through filming the first season of the hit SBS show Child Genius Australia when she found herself confronted by a parent with a very difficult outlook for their extremely smart son. The mother had shuffled her child before the cameras and stifling studio lights because she desperately wanted him to fail. Here was a primary school kid who had mastered almost everything. He was top of his class, an apt sportsman with off-the-chart intelligence to match. But he was yet to learn the power of consequence – of how making the wrong decisions ultimately steer us all in life. That, says Carland, was as much a lesson for her as it should be for all of us. The author and social commentator says Australia is nestled in a precarious era where parents hover, buffer and protect. She fears, as do many, it will be to our detriment. “It was quite a jarring thing to hear a mother say they want their kid to fail,” Carland says. “But the more I have reflected on it the more I think, ‘What a great mum’. “Because failure is such an important thing for all of us, but particularly for kids.” Like our immune system, which must be exposed to things so it can develop and look after us properly, Carland says teaching and discovering resilience should be embraced.

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Wo r d s

A ARON L ANGMAID ●

Ph o t o

B E C PA RS O N S

“Yet, so many studies are showing we are raising the least resilient group of kids ever,” she says. “Kids aren’t being given a way to fail in a supportive way – in a way that’s not traumatic, but to experience the pain of failure so they can learn from it and work out how to bounce back and not cry and crawl away. “It is a very important skill to learn.” But as a mother of two herself, Carland says she understands why it can be a difficult concept for parents. “It’s hard because we want to shield our kids from unpleasant situations,” she says. “At university, I am teaching kids straight out of high school and I can see if kids haven’t experienced the consequences of failure – if they are only doing it for the first time as 18-year-olds, these are really hard lessons to learn. “With my own kids, I try to let them, in an ageappropriate way, make their own decisions so they can deal with the consequences of that.”

definitely,” she says. “When I was a kid, the heroes of the school were always the ones who were good at sport. Nobody is as impressed by the spelling bees or the maths whiz. “That hasn’t changed a lot, it’s very much part of Australian culture. I think we can feel a little bit uncomfortable around really smart people. So I hope this show helps normalise it. “I reckon one of the reasons the kids on this show want to participate is because it gives them a platform where they can be celebrated as exceptionally smart and hard-working.” But Carland doesn’t shy away from the debate around an issue that, in some ways, could prove the greatest hurdle for any kid hoping to make a difference. She says devices – or perhaps our addiction to them – is terrible. “I feel sorry for this generation,” she says. “They are a guinea pig generation where no prior

Susan Carland and husband Waleed Aly on the red carpet at the Logie Awards.

MATHEW LYNN

“You can be really smart but if you can be kind as well, which a lot of these kids are, then you will go really far. All things being equal, I think we are in safe hands.” But she says the battle to override that innate parental sense to protect remains the challenge. “That is why the conversation with that mum will always stick with me because I thought it was some pretty exceptional parenting.” In returning to host series two of Child Genius Australia, Carland says she had learnt much. The series pits 16 gifted children aged eight to 12 against each other in a showcase of wit and memory. Overseen by Australian Mensa, quiz master Carland tests the participants’ knowledge of history, maths, spelling and science. She says her own intelligence was no match in a competition where junior players made short work of spelling words like rhabdomancy. While confessing to once being a garden-variety school nerd, she hopes the show might serve as a platform to empower intelligent kids. “I was teased for being a nerd at school,

experiments have been done to find out what the consequences of us all being on our devices all the time. “I was on a train last week and every single person on the carriage was staring at their phone. “We know it’s not good for our mental health and all these other things. But what about for kids and teenagers? “Their brains are responding in a way where we don’t know what it is doing because no previous generation has gone through it. “The only way we will work it out is in 30 years when we see what impact it has had and by then, it is done. There will be no undoing that.” She says there was very little evidence suggesting screen time was a good thing. “We are moving very fast in a bad direction and I think we will all look back at this time and realise it was bad for humanity. Our kids are the ones who will deal with the ramifications of that.”

However, Carland remains hopeful. She says the television program showcasing some of the nation’s naturally gifted young minds is a testament to a generation with enormous potential. “Every kid has to navigate the challenges of the future and you never know what is going to pop up,” she says. “One thing that makes me feel really confident about these kids is that they are incredibly intelligent and driven but also, they are just really nice. “There are no ratbags. “They are polite and funny and cheeky just like kids should be. They should be fidgeting and saying weird jokes and talking to me about their guinea pigs. That’s what kids should do. “You can be really smart but if you can be kind as well, which a lot of these kids are, then you will go really far. “All things being equal, I think we are in safe hands.” ●

CHILD GENIUS AUSTRALIA \ The four-part weekly series premieres November 20, 8.30pm on SBS and SBS On Demand. ● sbs.com.au

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Artist Impression

PROFILE

Morning, Melbourne “I am loving the idea of strongly reconnecting to the Melbourne

AMELIA STANWIX

community again.”

Broadcaster Virginia Trioli is getting in tune with her home town. Wo r d s

irginia Trioli remembers meeting former ABC Morning’s broadcaster Jon Faine on her first day in the job as ABC’s Drive host in 2000. The now retired radio veteran imparted some sage advice. “He said doing a radio show is like a marathon not a sprint,” she says. “You just have to keep turning up day after day and you won’t get it in six months or a year – it’s about sticking with the community and the show. “He said ‘be genuinely yourself’ – don’t be a radio construction or projection, the listeners will find you out like that.”

JA N E R O C CA

The two-time Walkley Award-winning journalist has returned to the radio hot seat, replacing Faine as the ABC’s new morning presenter. For the first time in a decade Trioli can finally hit the snooze button, no longer required to get up at 2.30am for her ABC TV’s News Breakfast role, cherishing the extra sleep in. “If I get to bed late the night before, I can push the alarm to 5.30am,” Trioli says from her home in inner Melbourne where she lives with husband Russell Skelton and their seven-year-old son Addison. “It’s not really considered shift work when you start at 6am, that’s the life of ordinary people,”

she says of her new daily grind. As one of the country’s most respected journalists, Trioli knows she’s got big shoes to fill after Faine called it quits following 24 years at the ABC and as Morning’s big draw card. “I am loving the idea of strongly reconnecting to the Melbourne community again,” says Trioli, who left Melbourne in 2005 for a Sydney radio gig after hosting Drive for eight years. “So much has happened in Melbourne since I left. “This city has grown and changed. It’s got many advantages now, but challenges and some problems too. I am looking forward to constructing conversations with everyone in Melbourne that genuinely reflect our city and want as broad a conversation as possible.” Trioli was born in Bendigo and moved to Nunawading with her Italian-born parents when she was aged two. She is one of seven children and remains close to her family – with special mentions for her sister Angela and brother Peter. She got her break as a reporter at The Age in 1990, and it’s also where she met her husband who was working as the features editor at the time. “I fell in love with Russell’s mind,” recalls Trioli, who had returned to The Age after a year’s leave to pursue a scholarship she won to do her masters in journalism at New York University in 1993. “When I returned to The Age, my feature editor had changed – it was Russell. “I knocked on his office door and told him I was one of his reporters. We spoke for 45 minutes straight from politics to art to the wool price, design and industry policy. We covered a lot of topics. I remember I left and I thought ‘I love that guy’; I was pretty much gone.” Trioli wrote her ground-breaking book Generation F: Sex, Power and The Young Feminist in 1992 (it was a response to Helen Garner’s The First Stone) and plans to write a fiction and non-fiction book in the near future. “I’m of the opinion if you say it you don’t write it,” she says, not wanting to jinx her future intentions. She loves cooking, travelling, cinema, listening to podcasts about Ancient Rome and tunes into the BBC when she can. “I’d like to learn to sing and stand on a stage,” she says of unfulfilled dreams. “That’s long been a personal goal of mine. “I’d also love to be a contestant on Survivor, but living on rice and beans wouldn’t suit me. And there’s a TV and movie script in me too.” For now, the focus is warming listeners to her vivacious and firm interviewing style that she’s perfected in almost three decades in the media. ●

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CULTURE

You’re the voice

Author Fatima Bhutto speaks up on the perils of power. Wo r d s

JA N E R O C CA

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PAUL WETHERELL

cclaimed author Fatima Bhutto is joining writer Helen Garner, activist Monica Lewinsky, musician Courtney Barnett and novelist Zadie Smith for a thought-provoking program which brings together various feminist voices to give patriarchy the ultimate shakedown. Bhutto, who was last in Australia in May for the Sydney Writers’ Festival, was keen to join the Broadside conversation at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne on November 9 and 10. She will join Mona Eltahawy in the Necessary Truths event and unpick the implications for women who speak up against power, while a panel discussing “decolonising feminism” sees her alongside journalists Ruby Hamad and Jamila Rizvi to assess how white women use their power to silence women of colour.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;What I love about Australian audiences is their willingness to be receptive to other views,â&#x20AC;? says Bhutto, who was born in Kabul, grew up in Syria and Pakistan and was educated in New York andÂ London. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There is a suffocation and righteousness about feminism in the world right now. The moment you narrow things to a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;with us or against usâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; point of view, you remove a lot of space for debate and ideas.â&#x20AC;? The 37-year-old author, who is the niece of the assassinated Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto (the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state) and whose father was murdered in 1996, inherited her fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s love of books, and has just released two new titles â&#x20AC;&#x201C; New Kings of the World: Dispatches from Bollywood, Dizi and K-Pop and TheÂ Runaways. The former looks at the shifting tides and influence of American pop culture and the rise in K-Pop â&#x20AC;&#x201C; thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s South Korean pop music, responsible for Gangnam Style, which became the first YouTube video with one billion views â&#x20AC;&#x201C; to the popularity of Turkish soap operas known as Dizi and the lure of

Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bollywood films. â&#x20AC;&#x153;American pop culture is on the decline, it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the uncontested space that it has had for the past 30 to 40 years,â&#x20AC;? Bhutto says. She draws parallels between what is happening in pop culture and Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s political point of view. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Immediately after 9/11 there were a lot of movies about war, American military and internal threats, this was by no means accidental,â&#x20AC;? Bhutto says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very hard to keep making movies about American soldiers as the noble and thoughtful protagonist. So, now Americans makes films about Captain Marvel, Batman and the Joker. There are so many versions of these films it reflects a kind of exhaustion in America right now.â&#x20AC;? Bhuttoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s view that pop culture mirrors what is happening in world politics is a convincing one. â&#x20AC;&#x153;People often dismiss pop culture as frivolous, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not that, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a great mirror for how politics is

thought of and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a great mirror of what people are afraid of,â&#x20AC;? she says. Her second book The Runaways follows the lives of three young people, their Muslim identity and what drives them to radicalisation. Bhutto says it has little to do with religion and everything to do with power. But itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s her most notable work, 2010â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Songs of Blood and Sword, that saw her speak out against her aunt Benazir and her husband Asif Zardari for killing her father Murtaza. This family memoir was critically acclaimed and retells the story of her fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s murder in Karachi by the Pakistan police. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was 14 when my father died, it was very traumatic,â&#x20AC;? she says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My father would take me to the library a lot and he was a great reader. It was inevitable Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be drawn to writing.â&#x20AC;? â&#x2014;? â&#x2014;? wheelercentre.com

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The moment you narrow things to a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;with us or against usâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; point of view, you remove a lot of space for debate and ideas.â&#x20AC;?

Â? Â?

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Rove McManus has added author and illustrator to his Logie-studded CV.

JAMES BRICKWOOD

Quick on the draw

BOOKS

hile it was in television and comedy that Rove McManus made his name, when he was a child it was a career in art he thought he would eventually pursue. Growing up in Perth, McManus had a love of drawing from a very early age. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Drawing has been the one thing Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been able to do since as long as I can remember,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When I was little, my grandparents would put out big sheets of cardboard on the floor for me to doodle on. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And, right up until late in high school, I thought it would be something I would pursue as a career, until performing jumped the queue.â&#x20AC;? Now, he has gone back to doing what he loved and has written and illustrated two childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s books, Rocky Lobstar and Disgusting McGrossface, which are both out now. He says creating the books has been as rewarding as any of the TV accolades he has collected over the years, including all those Logie wins. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s incredibly rewarding to say that I have not

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LU K E D E N N E H Y

ROCKY LOBSTAR \ Rove McManus has read his two new children’s books to his daughter Ruby.

DISGUSTING MCGROSSFACE \ Both titles are out now through Scholastic

They have a five-year-old daughter Ruby, and like any parent McManus enjoys reading books to her, including Disgusting McGrossface and Rocky Lobstar. “Absolutely,” he says. “Admittedly it used to be a good excuse for me to go into performance mode doing the voices for the characters in each story, which she enjoyed. “Now she’s able to read by herself which makes it a bit trickier to join in, but it’s still something we do as a family every night.” The release of the two books comes soon after his latest TV show on Channel 10, Saturday Night Rove, was axed after two weeks. “It was clear looking at the numbers that the audience we hoped would find a freewheeling live show on a Saturday night just weren’t there,” he told website TV Tonight at the time. While the axing was a disappointing for McManus, he has a lot more to look forward to towards the end of the year now the books present a new artistic trajectory. ●

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only written these books, but I did the illustrations as well, especially since many people are probably unaware that I can draw at all,” he says. “It’s one thing to think of these ideas and create these worlds and characters, but it’s another to have the ability to depict them by drawing them yourself.” Some of his favourite childhood books included Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, and Animalia by Graeme Base. He hopes his two titles have just a portion of an impact on children around Australia as those books did on him. McManus compared writing the books to his work on stage. “It’s a truly creatively fulfilling process,” he says. “It reminds me of doing stand-up, strangely enough. “In both instances, you have the idea, write it up and send it out into the world as you intend it to be.” McManus and his wife, actor Tasma Walton, have settled in Sydney after a long stint living in Los Angeles in the US.

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OPINION

Thanks for the memories There’s no place like a childhood home.

arly last year a friend rang me to say that after more than 20 years of living in their two-storey Parkville terrace, he and his wife had just bought my old childhood home in Sandringham. We joked how he’d bucked the trend; when most empty-nesters are downsizing and moving closer to the CBD, Peter and Jenny have gone out to the ’burbs and into a sprawling family home with a swimming pool. “It was a pretty unexpected decision, really,” Peter said, adding that he’d fallen in love with the 1970s modernist-style house my parents built. “We’re looking forward to moving in, and then you’ll have to come around for a drink and see it.” We haven’t had that drink yet, but I am

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always happy to take a trip down Memory Lane via Nepean Highway. Last year, London’s Independent newspaper published a survey, which found six out of 10 Britons consider their childhood residence to be their true home. “Nostalgia is the overriding reason for this,” the paper reported. “Almost two-thirds [of the 2000 people interviewed] revealed their affection for their childhood dwellings is entwined with fond memories of their formative years.” The survey found 38 per cent of respondents think their current home “lacks the magic of their childhood home”, while many say they have taken steps to make their current home reflect decoration and furnishing features of the place where they grew up.

I thought a lot about this while reading Ann Patchett’s new novel The Dutch House. Siblings Maeve and Danny develop a ritual of parking outside their old family house, sharing a cigarette and chatting about their childhood. After a while, they start the car and pack away the memories until the next visit. Australia actor and writer Barry Humphries was in his late 50s when he wrote his first memoir More Please. It was first published in 1992, nearly four decades after Humphries had moved out of his childhood home in Camberwell. Yet, his recollections of growing up on the old Golf Links Estate set the tone for this awardwinning autobiography. “Number 38 Christowel Street [or Christowell Street – it was spelt differently at each end of the street] in the ‘Tudor style’, was my father’s first speculative villa and we lived there until he had built a mock Elizabethan dwelling four doors up the

ISTOCK

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The two houses of my childhood are … like my foundation pillars, they

street,” Humphries recalls of his architect father’s early steps into suburban design. “The New Gentility demanded silver birches, liquid ambers, pin oaks, prunus plums ... And everyone had a Japanese maple, although after Pearl Harbour most of these were patriotically poisoned, ring-barked and extirpated.” How many times over how many years has Barry Humphries revisited the three (three!) houses his father built in Christowel Street, Camberwell? Not everyone is a fan of the nostalgic drive-by. But every few months if I’m in the bayside area, I will take a detour and say hello. The two houses of my childhood are thankfully still intact (one now owned by my friends). They are like my foundation pillars, they allow me to go back, reflect, and then start the car again. Time to move on. ● Corrie Perkin is an award-winning journalist and former managing editor of The Age, and the owner

allow me to go back, reflect, and then start the car again.

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FOOD

Use your noodle

rom November 7 to 24 the Night Noodle Markets will once again occupy Birrarung Marr, transforming the banks of the Yarra into a vibrant hawker market. Here's our guide to tackling it without succumbing to noodle fatigue. DON'T DRIVE \ There’s no official parking, But

ride-share app DiDi is an official partner, which means new users score two $10 vouchers and existing users can claim 20 per cent off two rides when entering the code DIDINNM. LEAVE YOUR CASH AT HOME \ The markets are F LY I N G N O O D L E S’ F I S T O F F U RY

cash-free to prevent long queues at ATMs, so bring your plastic to swipe upon payment.

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Night Poodle Markets have custom treats for pooches.

BEST FRIENDS \ Popping up from 4pm to 7pm on

Saturday November 9, this dog-friendly event features a pho-dog-rapher and custom treats. It’s included in the $5 ticket price with proceeds going to RSPCA Victoria.

Noodle action plan With 20 sizzling street food stalls visitors can expect to see old

JASPER AVENUE

favourites like Hoy HERE’S CHEERS \ The drinks are as exciting as the

Pinoy’s Filipino barbecue

food. The Malt Shovel Beer Garden will serve 10 styles of beer; Jacob’s Creek is the first ever wine sponsor and Marriott Bonvoy is setting up a 1920s Hot Shoppe diner serving root beer floats, Shirley Temples and spiders. ●

and Gelato Messina’s creative desserts, as well as newcomers. Here are our picks: FOR FOOD LOVERS \ Dainty Sichuan’s tasty cold noodles with chilli oil, dried peanuts and pan-fried dumplings. FOR INSTAGRAMMERS \ Flying Noodles’

DIVIDE & CONQUER \ The Night Noodle Markets

Fist of Fury – mixed chicken and pork

are best experienced in a group. Find a spot to call your own, leave someone to hold the fort and then get the rest of your crew to split up to buy food from different vendors.

noodles that cascade from chopsticks miraculously suspended in mid-air. FOR VEGANS \ Pham Sisters’ vegan

ALEX DAVEY

Vietnamese street food, crackling pork banh SKIP THE LINE \ Alternatively, beat the queues

mi and barbecue duck noodle salad.

altogether by ordering via the Easi food delivery app. Food will be delivered to the Easi hub, which will save you queuing at multiple stalls.

MELBOURNE NIGHT NOODLE MARKETS \

Wo r d s

S O FIA L E VI N

November 7-24 at Birrarung Marr

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EDUCATION & INNOVATION

Opportunity beckons How to find which scholarships are on offer and apply for them.

hile some make take some digging to find, there are a variety of scholarship opportunities on offer at Melbourne’s independent schools each year. And it’s not just the academically gifted who can benefit. “I don’t think scholarships are front of mind for many parents in Australia,” says Ross White of the Good Education Group. White says that while scholarships in the US are widely advertised, here parents and students need to do their research to find out what’s on offer. “I also think it’s all too easy for a lot of families to count themselves out from scholarships because they may think they are only for brainy kids, and that’s not the case at all. “Doing some research and having a conversation

with schools about scholarships is very worthwhile. There are terrific scholarships out there that are worth tapping into.” Scholarships are offered by most fee-paying schools and may cover all or some of the tuition fees. Some are offered based on academic excellence while others are awarded to students who are talented in specific areas, such as music or sport. Students who have a proven record of showing leadership, of being community-focused and who are committed to helping people around them may also be eligible to apply for some scholarships. “Not all scholarships are about academic excellence and being top of the class – there are those but there are plenty more,” says White, who publishes the Good Schools Guide.

2021 SCHOLARSHIPS NOW OPEN A range of Day and Boarding School Scholarships are available: Academic Music / Academic Angela Sharman Music Boarding Indigenous Means-tested Applications close Monday, 19 February, apply now at mlc.vic.edu.au/scholarships 207 Barkers Road Kew Victoria | 03 9274 6316 | admissions@mlc.vic.edu.au

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“There are excellent sporting scholarships for kids with talent in a mainstream or niche sport and there are scholarships that recognise social citizenship for children who are involved in a charity, community and leadership. Schools want to recognise those kinds of qualities in students because it helps develop their own school culture.” White says there is no centralised resource that lists all available scholarships in Melbourne schools, so students and parents need to go online and check school websites to find out what is on offer. Or call schools directly and inquire about scholarship opportunities and the application process. “Shortlist schools that you think are going to be of interest based on things like their academic performance, their personal fit for your child and the school curriculum and its sporting or arts activities. Then, call them to find out if they have any scholarships,” suggests White. While the application process can vary, an exam or audition is usually required along with an interview involving parents and the student. “Musical scholarships will be based on a student’s

musical grades and ability and usually a child will have to demonstrate their ability in an audition. Similarly, with sport, a student may have had to compete at state level,” says White. “Schools are looking for students who will embrace the culture and values of the school and be a role model to other students. The school does benefit from scholarships because they get a motivated and engaged student who may have a special talent. “And students gain because receiving a scholarship can make a huge difference to a child’s opportunities. It can expose children to experiences that may previously been out of reach and they can be life-changing. “If you are a scholarship student, that has so many benefits after school because being the kind of person who has been seen as deserving of a school scholarship speaks volumes about who you are. Carrying that forward – it looks very good on your CV. It’s a great feather in your cap.” ● ● goodschools.com.au

Scholarships open for 2021 entry At Wesley we believe a True Education realises the full potential of every girl and boy. Our scholarship program recognises outstanding individuals who excel, not only in academic results, but also in the arts, music, sport, leadership or community service. General Excellence for entry in Years 5 – 11 Academic for entry in Years 5, 7 or 10 Elsternwick Music Scholarships for entry in Prep – Year 6 Elsternwick Language Scholarships for entry in Prep – Year 6 Register to attend our Scholarship Information Evening on Wednesday 27 November.

IT TA KES O P P O RTUN I TY F OR TA LE NT T O E M ER G E. TRUE.

To apply, visit: www.wesleycollege.edu.au/scholarships Email: scholarships@wesleycollege.edu.au Call: 8102 6808

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EDUCATION & INNOVATION

Setting yourself apart

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chool scholarships are highly sought after and so the selection process is carefully designed to identify the most deserving students. “Students may be talented – but we are looking for more than that,” says Dr Mark Merry, principal of Yarra Valley Grammar. “We look at potential scholarship students with a global view – what can they bring to our school and what can our school bring them?” An interview is often a crucial part of the process and involves both parents and students. “Parents come to the interview because the decision to attend a certain school is a family decision,” says Dr Merry. “The interview is an opportunity to learn more about a student and to

Xavier College

Scholarships & Bursaries for 2021 At Xavier College, we strive to form exceptional graduates who are authentic, spiritual, positive, inspiring, resilient and empathetic, with generous hearts and minds who endeavour to make a difference in the world.

The College is pleased to offer a range of scholarships and bursaries for students entering Years 7, 9 and 11 in 2021. • Academic and Excellence Scholarships • Music Scholarships (including Boarding) • Boarding Scholarships • Bursaries (means-based)

Scholarship applications close 31 January 2020 For more information visit xavier.vic.edu.au/scholarships or contact Di Odgers, Head of Admissions on 9854 5373 Senior Campus 135 Barkers Road Kew Kostka Hall Campus 47 South Road Brighton Burke Hall Campus Studley Park Road Kew

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find out their reasons for choosing the school. We often ask what the family knows about Yarra Valley Grammar and our programs, and we want to know where the student’s passion lies. “The interview is also a time for a student and parents to ask questions. You can find out what your son or daughter needs to do when they are a scholarship student and that’s not about getting high distinctions. Contribution, not achievement, is very important.” Yarra Valley Grammar in Ringwood is one of many independent schools in Melbourne that offers a range of scholarships. Dr Merry says most schools follow a similar application process but he says there is more to it than simply a positive interview. “What gets students in the interview room initially is their folio. I love to see what young people have been up to – to find out about the music competitions and concerts they have been part of or to hear about the best and fairest awards they’ve received. All that shows enthusiasm and that is what schools look for,” he says. Dr Deb Priest, principal at Ivanhoe Girls’

The interview is an opportunity to learn more about a student and to find out their reasons for choosing the school.

Grammar agrees that aside from academic excellence, schools are keen to find students who will embrace everything that a school community has to offer. General excellence scholarships, such as the Cooerwull General Excellence Scholarships at Ivanhoe Girls’ involve an academic test but emphasis is also placed on leadership, teamwork and citizenship. “I am looking for girls who have demonstrated persistence in learning an instrument, they might have been doing community service or spent a number of years with Red Cross, or they might be working hard at club sport level,” says Dr Priest. Applications for general excellence scholarships often require written answers to questions in order to highlight a student’s character and interests. “We might ask them what they like to do in their

DR MARK MERRY

recreation time or what they most want to achieve from coming to our school,” says Dr Priest. Students who get through that stage are then interviewed. Dr Priest focuses firmly on the student during the interview and advises parents and students against rehearsing. “Some children have clearly been practicing their responses with their parents for months. They can come across like automatons and don’t show their personality. I would say to students ‘just be yourself’ because I want to know who you are now, today. I want to know you,” she says. “We look for students who can look at me eye-to-eye when they talk and who are eager and interested. I want to see their eyes light up when they talk about things they are passionate about.” ● SARAH MARINOS

EXPERIENCE MENTONE GRAMMAR AT A SCHOOL TOUR Mentone Grammar’s academic, cocurricular and wellbeing programs are designed for the holistic development of our students so that they can achieve their personal best and be happy and healthy young people.

Book a private tour to suit your schedule.

Visit our website for 2020 group tour dates.

www.mentonegrammar.net 63 Venice Street Mentone T: +61 9584 4211

ACHIEVING

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EDUCATION & INNOVATION

A chance to shine How a scholarship has changed the life of a girl from Wagga Wagga.

lly Spain enjoyed life at her local high school in Wagga Wagga but after a few years she knew it was time to move on. Ally had clear ideas of what she wanted to achieve. She knew she wanted to follow the International Baccalaureate program and she also wanted to study law and political science – and these weren’t on offer at her local high school. So, Ally, 16 and her parents began exploring interstate schools and scholarship opportunities. The internet and then a schools and scholarship expo in Wagga Wagga eventually led the family to Methodist Ladies College in Melbourne. This year, Ally joined year 10 and became a boarder at MLC. Her scholarship helps cover her academic and boarding fees and is particularly

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directed towards supporting girls from regional and country areas. “My dad went to boarding school and loved it and I was born in Melbourne and have always loved visiting the city, so I was very happy to come here. MLC was my first choice because it had a bigger subject range and the IB program and I liked MLC’s boarding system, too,” says Ally. Ally’s scholarship application began with a 200-word written report about why she wanted to go to MLC. “I wrote about wanting opportunities I didn’t have at home. It took me quite a while to write and condense why I thought MLC would be a good place for me,” she says. Following her written application, Ally and her

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parents took part in a Skype interview with the head and deputy head of boarding at the school. “My parents were with me for the first part of the interview and then it was just me,” says Ally. “I was asked about my favourite subjects at school and what I wanted to do after school. I explained that I wanted to go to university and study law and political science with a view to becoming a diplomat. “I remember one question took me by surprise. They asked me what sort of animal I was most like. I said an orangutan because they are curious, like to explore and often leave their home but always remember their family. It was an unusual question and an unusual answer!” A few months later, Ally’s parents received a letter from MLC offering her a scholarship. “When my parents told me, I was so happy and excited. But I love my family and being at home and it did hit me that now I would be going away for school,” she says.

“The first month was difficult because I was quite homesick but I knew that would pass and the girls in my house were lovely. I made friends that I will have forever.” Next year Ally will start the International Baccalaureate program, she’s joined the debating team and she is enjoying the drama program, too. “I have been part of the Model UN program where we recreate the assembly of the United Nations, are given a country to represent and then have a problem to sort out. I’ve also enjoyed being in our boarding house play and we’ve had boarding socials so I’ve got to know people from other schools. I would never have had these opportunities in Wagga,” says Ally. “Next year there are biology tours to Thailand and to the Great Barrier Reef and I am interested in those. I am so glad I’m here and I feel very grateful because I have opportunities I wouldn’t get elsewhere. I probably wouldn’t be here at MLC without the scholarship – it has changed my life.” ●

Empowering young women = the Sacré Coeur way At Sacré Cœur we believe that a commitment to academic endeavour and a strong sense of self leads to student excellence. Which is why we are pleased to offer our 2021 scholarships. We are looking for students who will build on our inclusive and diverse student community and are committed to living the Sacred Heart Values. There is a variety of scholarships available and applications close 7 February 2020. Visit sac.vic.edu.au/scholarships today to ﬁnd out more.

2021 scholars hips now avai ab e General Excellence Scholarships: Years 5, 9, 10 & 11 Academic Scholarships: Year 7 Music Scholarships: Years 7, 8, 9 & 10

Sacré Cœur Sacré Cœur Women Shape the World

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SPRING RACING

● cumaniracing.com

Racing royalty’s Ballarat love affair British trainer Matt Cumani is relishing his family life and work in provincial Victoria. Wo r d s

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att Cumani is anything but a city boy, despite working for three years in politics in the bowels of Whitehall in central London. The son of famous horse trainer Luca Cumani eventually found his happy place back home working in the family stables, Bedford House, the worldrenowned thoroughbred training centre near the quaint English town of Newmarket, in Suffolk. Ten years on and Cumani, 38, is on the other side of the world attempting to build a horse-training business under his own name ... and he’s going OK. “I love Ballarat,” he says with genuine passion and a distinctly posh English accent. “Particularly this time of the year; it’s green and you still get a few rain showers that come through and keep down the dust. “Ballarat has the right sort of temperature, cool in the mornings, which is the right temperature to train horses, and warm in the afternoons. I think it is the best place to be in Australia at this time of year.” Cumani said it was a calculated decision to move to a provincial training centre rather than take up residence at the hubs of Flemington or Caulfield. “Apart from it being not too dissimilar to where I grew up [at Newmarket], it’s also a town about and hour and a half away from a capital, which Newmarket is also,” he says. “Ballarat is booming, with development going on all over the place and, importantly for me, it’s close to a lot of country tracks, which, from a training perspective, makes it easy.” Cumani is married to Sarah Bell, a country girl he met while working in Sydney for trainer Chris Waller and they have a 10-month old son Massimo. He operates from stables leased from the Ballarat Turf Club at the racecourse in Miners Rest, just out of Ballarat central. His house is a short stroll across a paddock (the race-day car park) to the barn, but he’s planning to build a 40-box barn at his home. The love affair with Australia was pioneered by his father’s quest to win the Melbourne Cup and a sister, Francesca Cumani, who became a celebrity in Australia covering the spring carnival for Channel 7 (she’s working this year for Channel 10). Making the big move wasn’t as daunting you’d expect because the Cumani tradition is to move and improve. “I couldn’t have gone better, to be honest. Three years ago we had six horses stabled next to the old piggery. Now, we have 75 or 80 horses in work.” The romance of taking over from his father at Bedford House didn’t appeal to him. He knows that he could easily have inherited a stable of highquality thoroughbreds. “I wanted to do it for myself, and what’s more challenging than going halfway across the world and doing it there?” ●

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FEATURE HOUSE

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ALBERT PARK \ 25 ST VINCENT PLACE SOUTH 3

Fancy living on the finest row in Melbourne? Well, here’s your opportunity. Last year, St Vincent Place was voted Melbourne’s best street in a survey of real estate agents from across the city. First developed in the 1850s, this heritage precinct has a pleasingly symmetrical Georgian-style layout, inspired by the London model of terrace houses and crescents built around landscaped gardens. Number 25 St Vincent Place South is in a particularly leafy, tightly held pocket, between Montague and Ferrars streets, close to the shops and within walking distance of trams. The double-storey terrace, built in 1890, has 215 square metres of living space behind its attractive facade. At the front, the big windows of the north-facing formal living room draw in lots of light. Note the high ceilings, Baltic pine floors and marble fireplace, and the custom cabinetry in the adjoining dining room. A wide, arched hallway flows past these grand rooms to a contemporary kitchen with white marble benchtops and European appliances. At the rear, behind the kitchen, is a teen-friendly study or second living space that overlooks the garden and has stairs leading up to a private back bedroom with adjoining retreat and bathroom. For the best views in the house head to the airy main bedroom on the first floor. From its large balcony with ornate iron lacework, you’ll enjoy many a morning coffee gazing over St Vincent Gardens. There’s also a dual-entrance en suite, which is shared with

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SIMON GOWLING – AGENT

ample storage and a powder room downstairs. There are great amenities within easy reach – Bridport Street with its cafes, Albert Park Lake with its excellent sports facilities and Beaconsfield Parade with its cycling paths and bay views. ● MARY DOWNES property@domainreview.com.au

Agent: Greg Hocking, Simon Gowling 0422 234 644 Price: $3.8 million-$4.1 million Auction: 2pm, November 16