Swan Magazine October 2019 by Douglas Sutherland-Bruce

IN THIS ISSUE FEATURES

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Books and Writing

Just Out 3 The Idler 55 Poetry 61 Society of Women Writers 5 The Noble Recreation 44 Your Voice Matters 6 Business

Front Page Photograph: Halloween Kids Photograph courtesy of 123RF

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Business Card Board 67 Networking 60 Community Annie’s Collective Wonderland 24 Australian Monarchist League 57 Federal Notes 18 Flinders University News 61 Guildford’s Twilight Market is Back! 9 Notes From Parliament 21 SAFE 64 Standing Up For Swan Hills 20 SVRN 58 The Compassionate Friends 65 What’s On 22 Leisure

Mosaic + Mandalas = Magic Mundaring Hills Open Studio House and Garden

52 10 7

Entertainment

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Film 26 After the Wedding 30 Downton Abbey 27 Fleabag 30 Portal 32 Rembrandt - the Later Years 31 Slam 26 Suzi Q 28 Footnote People in History 62 Swan Stage 30 Reviews Best Bits 36 Potchnagoola 37 & 38 Present Laughter 35 The Campervan Tales 33 The Captive 33 Theatre Companies Garrick Theatre Club Inc 41 Gilbert & Sullivan Society 40 Second Chance Theatre 39 TV with Chris 42

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Email: editor@swanmagazine.com.au Registered Address: 18 Tokay Lane, The Vines, Western Australia 6069 OCTOBER DEADLINES: Advertisements: 1st November Editorial: 1st November Copyright: Swan Magazine 2019

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0DISCLAIMER The information in this publication is of a general nature. The articles contained herein are not intended to provide a complete discussion on each subject and or issues canvassed. Swan Magazine does not accept any liability for any statements or any opinion, or for any errors or omissions contained herein. 2

BOOKS AND WRITING JUST OUT Title: Author: Publisher: ISBN:

obsession, Cameron begins to notice frightening lapses in memory. As if, all around, words, images, even people are beginning to fade from sight. As if unravelling the riddle of this book may be unravelling the nature of reality itself. And something frightening and unknown is taking its place... A noirish mystery, timely work of unbridled imagination from a startling new voice, Elizabeth Bryer.

This Side of Night J. Todd Scott G.P. Putnam’s Sons 9780 7352 1292 3

n the Mexican borderlands, a busload of student protesters is gunned down in broad daylight, a violent act blamed on the Nemesio cartel. But its aging leader, Fox Uno, sees the attack for what it is: another salvo in the longrunning battle for control of Nemesio itself; perhaps by a rival cartel, or maybe someone closer to home... Across the Rio Grande, Sheriff Chris Cherry and his deputies America Reynosa and Danny Ford find themselves caught in Fox Uno's escalating war with the recent discovery of five dead men at the river's edge. But when El Paso DEA agent Joe Garrison's own Nemesio investigation leads him into the heart of the Big Bend, he's not ready to accept the cartel leader's retreat or defeat. Not only does he suspect a high-profile drug task force in a neighboring county is corrupt, he can't shake lingering doubts about the loyalty and motives of the young deputy, Ame Reynosa. And he won't let Sheriff Cherry ignore them either. In this pitiless land it's kill or be killed, where everyone will make one final bloody stand to decide the fate of Nemesio, the law in the Big Bend, and most of all, the future of America Reynosa.

About The Author Elizabeth Bryer grew up in Heyfield and now lives in Birraranga/Melbourne, on never-ceded sovereign lands of the Gunaikurnai and Kulin nations respectively. Novels she has translated from Spanish include Claudia Salazar Jiménez’s Blood of the Dawn (Deep Vellum, 2016) and Aleksandra Lun’s The Palimpsests (David R. Godine, 2019), for which she was awarded a PEN/Heim from PEN America. She was inaugural translations editor of The Lifted Brow, and she is still hanging around at Brow Books. ~oOo~ Title: Author: Publisher: ISBN:

n a rainy night in postwar Berlin, British journalist John Terrant encounters Ellen Content, a young civilian typist in the American Army’s office of information. Their romance quickly blossoms, but as soon as Terrant realizes that Content is a spy, she abruptly vanishes into the divided city’s treacherous maze of ruined streets. Terrant’s anguished inquiries receive only bland assurances from the authorities that Content will contact him when her job is finished. Two years later, Terrant’s compulsively close reading of newspapers uncovers his first clue since Content’s disappearance: her name appears in a list of passengers recently embarked on an ocean liner headed from London to New York. Within a few hours, the reporter is headed for the United States, despite dire warnings from the CIA and Scotland Yard to desist in his pursuit. After long months of inactivity, suddenly every minute counts as Terrant races to solve the mystery, find

About The Author J. Todd Scott has been a federal agent with the DEA for more than twenty years, working cases investigating international maritime smuggling and domestic meth labs, and led a multiagency strike force dedicated to attacking Mexican cartel smuggling routes. He has a law degree from George Mason University and is a father of three. A Kentucky native, he now resides in the southwest, which provided the backdrop for his novels of the Big Bend. ~oOo~ Title: Author: Publisher: ISBN:

The Content Assignment Holly Roth Dover Publications 9780 4868 4145 8

From Here On, Monsters Elizabeth Bryer Picador Australia 9781 7607 8755 4

n a city locked in a kind of perpetual twilight, antiquarian bookseller Cameron Raybould accepts a very strange commission - the valuation of a rare codex. Within its fragile pages Cameron makes a curious discovery. Although seemingly ancient, the codex tells of a modern mystery: an academic missing for eleven years. Stranger still, as finding the truth becomes ever more of an 3

his lover, and avoid becoming the latest victim in a string of killings.

Jane’s new colleagues make it clear that they don’t think a woman is up to the dangers of the job. Dealing with some of London’s most ruthless armed criminals, who think the only good cop is a dead cop, is no joke. Determined to prove she’s as good as the men, Jane discovers from a reliable witness that a gang is going to carry out a massive robbery. But she doesn’t know who they are, or where and when they will strike . . .

About The Author Holly Roth (1916–64), who also wrote as K. G. Ballard and P. J. Merrill, worked as a model before moving on to writing for newspapers and magazines and eventually becoming a prolific author of crime novels. She died under mysterious circumstances while sailing the Mediterranean, falling overboard from a small yacht; her body was never recovered. ~oOo~ Title: Author: Publisher: ISBN:

Someone We Know Shari Lapena Transworld Digital 9781 4735 5357 6

About The Author Lynda La Plante was born in Liverpool. She trained for the stage at RADA and worked with the National theatre and RDC before becoming a television actress. She then turned to writing - and made her breakthrough with the phenomenally successful TV series Widows. Her novels have all been international bestsellers. Her original script for the much-acclaimed Prime Suspect won awards from BAFTA, Emmy, British Broadcasting and Royal Television Society as well as the 1993 Edgar Allan Poe Award. Lynda has written and produced over 170 hours of international television. Lynda is one of only three screenwriters to have been made an honorary fellow of the British Film Institute and was awarded the BAFTA Dennis Potter Best Writer Award in 2000. In 2008, she was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to Literature, Drama and Charity. If you would like to hear from Lynda, please sign up at www. bit.ly/ LyndaLaPlanteClub or you can visit www.lyndalaplante. com for further information. You can also follow Lynda on Facebook and Twitter @LaPlanteLynda.

t can be hard keeping secrets in a tight-knit neighbourhood. In a tranquil, leafy suburb of ordinary streets – one where everyone is polite and friendly – an anonymous note has been left at some of the houses. ‘I’m so sorry. My son has been getting into people’s houses. He’s broken into yours.’ Who is this boy, and what might he have uncovered? As whispers start to circulate, suspicion mounts. And when a missing local woman is found murdered, the tension reaches breaking point. Who killed her? Who knows more than they’re telling? And how far will all these very nice people go to protect their secrets? Maybe you don’t know your neighbour as well as you thought you did . . . About The Author Shari Lapena worked as a lawyer and as an English teacher before writing fiction. Her debut thriller, The Couple Next Door, was a global bestseller, the bestselling fiction title in the UK in 2017 and has been optioned for television. Her second thriller, A Stranger in the House and third, An Unwanted Guest, were both Sunday Times and New York Times bestsellers. Someone We Know is her fourth thriller. ~oOo~

Title: Author: Publisher: ISBN:

The Dirty Dozen Lynda La Plante Zaffre 9781 7857 6854 5

he gritty new thriller from the Queen of Crime Drama and the fifth book in the Sunday Times bestselling Jane Tennison series. Jane Tennison has worked hard to become the first female detective ever post to the infamous Flying Squad, or ‘the Sweeney’. But the Dirty Dozen is a notorious boys’ club, and 4

BOOKS AND WRITING WRITING YOUR LIFE STORY MARIA BONAR

ould you like to chronicle your life as a gift to your family? Or perhaps you would like to publish a memoir about a really interesting period of your life? To celebrate Seniors Week, the Society of Women Writers WA is again hosting the popular Writing Your Life Story Workshops, on Saturday 16 November 2019 at the North-West Room, Second Floor, State Library of WA. Helen Iles, award winning writer and Managing Editor of Linellen Press which focuses on publishing memoirs, will conduct two workshops. The morning workshop, Writing Your Life Story, is from 10.15am to 1.15pm. Helen will show you how to structure and focus your writing to engage and interest the reader and how to capture the poignant, the memorable, the historic and the truly unique aspects of your life story or memoir. She will also outline a variety of ways you can set up your book and publish your story economically.

Photograph restoration can be impressive

Writing Your Life Story Saturday 16 November 2019 Venue: North-West Room, Second Floor State Library of WA, 25 Francis Street, Perth 10.15am to 5.15pm

The afternoon workshop, Photo Restoration and Publication, is from 2.15pm to 5.15pm. Helen says, "If you have started writing your life story, but are stuck in the development phase, bring your manuscript to this interactive workshop and I will help you progress your project towards completion and publication." During the second half of this workshop, Helen will teach you how to enhance and restore old photographs. Men and women are invited to attend. Cost is $25 per workshop. Bookings are essential due to limited seating at this venue. Please email swwwabookingofficer@gmail.com or telephone 0429 116 395. For information about the Society of Women Writers WA, visit: www. swwofwa.com.au.

Helen Iles Writing Your Life Story 10.15am â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 1.15pm Helen Iles, award winning author and poet; editor and publisher, invites you to this Life Writing workshop. You will learn how to structure and focus your writing to engage and interest the reader. Capture the poignant, the memorable, the historic and the truly unique aspects of your life story or memoir. Helen will also outline a variety of ways you can set up your book and publish it economically. Photo Restoration & Publication 2.15pm â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 5.15pm Bring your 'Life Writing Project' to this session if you are unsure of how to progress it towards publishing or are simply stuck in the development phase. Helen Iles, Managing Editor of Linellen Press, a local publisher of memoirs and life stories, will answer your questions and view your project in this interactive session. During the second part of this workshop, she will teach you how to enhance and restore old photographs. Men and women are encouraged to attend. Cost $25 per workshop. For bookings, contact the Society of Women Writers WA swwwabookingofficer@gmail.com or telephone 0429 116 395 For further information about the Society, visit: www.swwofwa.com.au

WA Seniors Week 2019

Helen Iles 5

BOOKS AND WRITING YOUR VOICE MATTERS SHERENE STRAHAN

s a pragmatic former journalist, I’m all too familiar with the need to just do it. Sit down and write what needs to be written. Push through self-doubt and get your work into the world. Have a consistent routine and deadlines. Our writing benefits from obligations outside ourselves they help counter the resistance. But - and this is so important - we also have to protect and support our creative selves. The business of bringing ideas to life takes more than just fingers on the keyboard. It takes deep thinking and persistence, patience and imagination. How can we bring these qualities to our work if we operating from a place of deprivation? Deprived how? Deprived of the simplest basic things that our bodies and minds need. Enough sleep. Plenty of water. Fed well. Movement. And having something that gladdens our heart in our writing space. It sounds too obvious, doesn't it? Yet these basics, so easily neglected, can power our creative process. Take the British children’s author Roald Dahl for example. He was a prolific writer of books, short stories, poetry and screenplays. (He sold 250 million books for goodness sake). And his writing routine was maximized for optimum output. Each day he ate breakfast in bed and opened his mail. At 10.30am he walked through the garden of his Buckinghamshire home, to the little brick hut that he had specially built as his writing room.

He would sit and write for two hours before walking back up to the house for lunch and - oh how decadent - a gin and tonic. Lunch apparently was often prawns with lettuce and mayo. Then back to the solitude and comfort of his writing hut for another two hours of work. So yes, Roald Dahl - author of over one hundred published works - believed fervently in writing routinely and consistently. He also believed in taking care of himself. Enough sleep. A break for lunch. Movement. The beauty of his hut, which he rarely allowed anyone to enter. I’m assuming he also drank enough water but I haven’t any evidence. I just hope so. When you sit down to write, are you lacking anything? Sleep, hydration, nourishment, movement and beauty - we can get by without them but is getting by what we really want for our work? Protect and support your creativity so you can produce something worthy of yourself. And beauty - make sure you notice beauty in your life. It’s what you probably urge others to do. You deserve it too.

IT STARTS (AND ENDS) WITH THE AUDIENCE

The executive producer of the Today Show was outlining priorities for my new job as one of the three senior line producers. As well as putting the show to air, we had to make sure our reporters, producers and researchers found the most interesting, most talked-about stories for our show. Preferably exclusively. Live television is a beast that demands to be fed constantly and consistently. Otherwise the audience goes elsewhere. Sound familiar? The demands of the digital world can feel overwhelming at times. Finding content to meet those needs is often cited as one of the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs and businesses. But maybe they’re starting in the wrong place? Hands down, the Today Show was the most exciting, demanding and rewarding place I’ve ever worked. There’s nothing to match live television for adrenaline. It was addictive. But after the show each day, the production meeting was all about what’s next: tomorrow, next week, next month. “What are they talking about? What do they want to know about? What should they want to know about?” These were the questions we obsessed over at every meeting. Ideas would be thrown out and shouted down. Talked up and put into action. It all boiled down to one thing - would the audience be interested enough to keep watching, and to come back next time? It’s the same question that needs to be asked by content creators about every single thing they are considering putting in front of an audience. Concluded on page 60 ...

Roald Dahl in his specially built writing cabin 6

HOUSE AND GARDEN NATIVE FLOWERING GARDENS MARION LOGIE

he soil is the foundation of any garden, providing nutrients and water to anchor plants. Made up of several minerals, organic matter, water, air, and a whole host of living organisms, soil differs from garden to garden and region to region. In Perth, many homes sit on ancient sand dunes, meaning the soil is predominantly sand based. Dealing with sandy soils can be difficult, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a great looking garden. There may not be much home for an English Country styled garden, and lush, tropical ferns may present a few problems, but if you choose hardy, native species of plants then you can still have an enviable garden that doesn’t rely on too much maintenance. Native plants are becoming increasingly popular amongst landscapers, gardeners, and homeowners, with their wide range of foliage and flowers and drought tolerant nature. In recent years there’s been a lot of development with new hybrid species and grafted specimens, and these improved forms provide better shaped plants and more colourful displays. Grafted forms allow many native flowering plants to perform more consistently outside of their original conditions, and can actually work really well in Perth’s sandy soil. Many people think that native Australian plants are difficult to grow, but as it is with all plants, it simply depends on matching the right plants to your particular garden environment. If you grow plants that are naturally suited to your area, and you offer them healthy soil, then native plants will actually grow very easily. So what are some plants that work well in Perth?

2. BLUE TONGUE – MELASTOMA MALABTHRICUM This is a popular evergreen shrub grown in Western Australia that requires light pruning from a young age and after flushes of flowering. Grown as a hedge, in a pot, or as part of a border, Blue Tongues like a warm low sun and offer consistent pretty pink-purple flowers. Growing to a height of up to two metres, the leaves and seeds of this plant are edible, however, expect to find yourself with a blue tongue and sour taste in your mouth.

1. BACON AND EGGS – EUTAXIA PARVIFOLIA Commonly known as ‘Bacon and Eggs’, Eutaxia Parvifolia is an evergreen shrub species in the Fabaceae family. Endemic to Western Australia, the plant produces yellow and red flowers between the months of August and December. Usually growing to between one and two metres, it has a plant spread of 0.8 metres and is ideal grown as an informal hedge.

COMMUNITY GUILFORD’S TWILIGHT MARKET IS BACK! BROMWYN FACER

aturday, October 12th sees the return of the Guildford Twilight Market to the picturesque grounds of Stirling Square for yet another fabulous season. Aptly named, the Twilight Markets run from 5:00pm as the sun sets through the golden hours until 9:00pm, when the day draws to a close. Getting the season off to a rockin’ start with live music is The Perfect Storm Duo along with The Straymen With Kathy Carver who’ll get your feet tapping so don’t forget your dancing shoes. The Holden Car Club of WA will be holding their annual Show & Shine with a range of vehicles on display for everyone to appreciate. Relax, enjoy a bite to eat from the Food Hub where you’ll find some of Perth’s finest Street Food Vendors serving up traditional tastes from all corners of the globe including, Brazilian, Indian, Vietnamese, Italian, Hungarian and Mexican With Vegetarian, Vegan and Gluten Free options in plenty, there is something for everyone. You’ll find Market Stalls to browse packed with locally handcrafted artisan products, home décor, locally produced gourmet food, fashion and accessories along with recycled, upcycled and re-purposed wares and a touch of vintage. With loads of free Children’s Activities including, Face Painting, Totem Tennis, Giant Games, and Bouncy Castle fun. There truly is something for the whole family to enjoy when you visit the Guildford Twilight Market. Dogs on leashes at all times are welcome. More details can be found by visiting the markets’ Facebook page: www. facebook.com/guilfgotftwilightmarket

ART AND LEISURE MUNDARING HILLS OPEN STUDIO

HOW IT STARTED

his year marks the Tenth Anniversary of a very special event initiated by a small group of talented enthusiasts in 2009. Ongoing participation has given the artistic community living in the Mundaring hills the opportunity to open their studios in late October and to share their work and environment with fellow artists and visitors. Following a successful trial of extended opening times last year, some twenty-seven studios and the work of forty-nine artists will be showcased this season between Saturday 19 and Sunday 27 October. Actual opening days are individual for each studio and their times are detailed in the brochure and on the web. If you can’t make it to the hills for the weekends, check and see if the studios are open to the public on the days between or perhaps by private appointment. The Mundaring Hills Open Studio event is a rare opportunity to experience the lives of our local artists and to gain an insight into their work environment, skills and methods. The open studios will give you access to art work in an incredible range of mediums – from glass and ceramics to oil paint, water colours, textiles, wood and recycled metals and much more. The artists too range across the spectrum – from professionals with international acclaim to those who work part time or as a hobby – and all of them want to share their creativity with you. This is an opportunity to talk to them, explore techniques, share ideas, admire art and even acquire a unique piece of local artwork. On the trail there are also many delicious food venues, pubs and wineries and a range of picnic spots – all welcoming you to the hills environment and helping you to create a memorable visit.

In 1991 artist Joel Smoker moved down to a property in Stoneville where he established a ceramics studio and kiln shed. Joel’s art sold through various galleries and craft shops but he was keen to sell from home as well. The idea of an open studio came about in the mid 2000s when Joel and his wife visited a number of art studios one spring weekend. The event involved an art trail using a provided map that showed the location of the open studios. Joel reckoned that a similar thing could be done in Mundaring. With this in mind Joel approached the Mundaring Art Centre. No funds were available so he presented a proposal to all the artists and craftspeople that he could think of in the Shire of Mundaring. There were ten responses and a meeting was set up. After much discussion it was decided to hold the first MHOS event on the last weekend of October, 2009 and each artist contributed money to pay for the trail maps to be distributed. Founding artists involved in that first MHOS weekend were; Brian Aylward, Joanna Capella, Greg Crowe, Inta Goddard, William Hienecker, Christine Hingston, Jeremy Holten, Judy Kotai, Graeme Pages-Oliver and Joel Smoker – some are still participating. MHOS has come a long way since then and now has forty-nine members. It is a great opportunity to see such a diverse range of art and learn how it’s made. With so many artists involved, the event is now spread over two weekends and the week inbetween, which gives many the opportunity to see more. So slow down, take the time to enjoy the hills in Spring, talk to the artists and take something special home with you.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land on which we are holding the Mundaring Hills Open Studio event, the Noongar of the Mindahlung, and we pay our respects to Elders past and present. We thank Silvana Ferrario, Neil Elliott, Liz Berry, June Stevens, Rachel Gillam, Dee Parker and Ian Kay (the organising committee) who give their time to make this event happen; the advertisers who help make this brochure possible; the Shire of Mundaring for their financial contribution and the Mundaring Arts Centre for their support. And thanks to the visitors who appreciate and support local artists and, of course, all of the artists who have opened their studios with a warm welcome. All this makes for a successful open studio event. 10

JANET DAY - Oil Painting 19 Cupello Drive, Swan View WA 6056 T: 0488 914 263 E: janday@westnet.com.au W: janetdayart.com Janet is a realist oil painter which is her preferred medium due to the consistency and fluidity of the paint. Her main concern is depicting the light and atmosphere of the landscape. Having lived in Kalgoorlie and now Perth, Janet’s work reflects the warm colours and heritage of these regions. The painterly surface is important, ranging from thin glazes to textured impasto.

STACY GARDOLL - Oil Painting 16 Fordham Drive, Swan View WA 6056 T: 0430 611 463 E: stacy_gardoll@hotmail.com W: stacygardollart.com Stacy paints from her home in the Perth foothills. She paints contemporary realist paintings of natural themes, predominantly botanicals and landscapes. She strives to capture the calmness and stillness of nature, as a source of reflection and meditation, and as a respite from the busyness of domestic life. She finds endless inspiration in the natural world, and is particularly drawn to the shapes found within botanical forms. Stacy also engages in large-scale projects, including murals and theatrical scenic art. STEPHANIE BLAKE - Painting T: 0433 092 976 E: info@sjblake.net W: sjblake.net Stephanie is a Perth based artist who paints small painterly portraits of children. She has previously worked as a set and costume designer in the theatre, working both nationally and internationally. She finds the painted portrait as endlessly compelling, full of possibilities, challenging and deeply beautiful, as are all our children. CAROLYN FRANCIS - Sculpture and Painting 68 Pittersen Road, Darlington WA 6070 T: 0407 179 686 E: carolyn@carolyn-francis.com W: carolyn-francis.com I invite you to join me on my creative journey exploring many different pursuits. Being a crazy passionate artist and a bit of a bowerbird, I combine these to create interesting sculptures from metal and natural items. I am also well immersed in the local life drawing scene facilitating and co-ordinating a few sessions each week. This allows me to work on my own drawing skills exploring new possibilities and pushing boundaries to the breaking point. When sculpting I draw on my jewellery making background creating what I call “house jewellery”. CLAUDIA KRAUS - Painting T: 0428 949 919 E: claudiakraus@bigpond.com W: wildwondersart.com.au Claudia is a professional artist with a passion for marine wildlife. Her paintings highlight the beauty of the coral reef and underwater environments. With an impressionistic style that is contemporary and fresh she creates colourful and engaging works of art.

JENNIE MERRITT - Glass Jewellery T: 0415 049 330 E: jennie@jenniemerritt.com W: jenniemerritt.com Jennie is a glass artist using traditional lampworking skills in a non traditional manner. As well as making solid and hollow glass beads, she creates unique components by sculpturing glass directly onto wires. She combines these glass wires with mixed media elements to create unique pieces of jewellery and sculpture. Colour is an important element in Jennie’s work, using the transparent and opaque glass to evoke the qualities of nature. IAN JOWETT - Painting Ian Jowett Gallery, 90 Markham Way, Swan View WA 6056 T: 0403 573 587 E: iansart@optus.com.au W: ianjowett.com.au Ian has been painting for seventeen years as a self taught artist and immerses himself in creativity. Ian paints in acrylic and makes his own canvases. He is very diverse in style and paints abstract as well as realism. This year he is doing a series of landscapes from photos he has taken on travels. Come and visit his large array of diverse artwork. 11

RACHEL GILLAM - Painting 10A Orange Road, Darlington WA 6070 T: 0400 177 068 E: rachelart01@gmail.com W: rachelgillam.com.au Rachel is a contemporary abstract artist; whose love of West Australian nature is a major influence on her work. When Rachel is painting, the end result is not planned, she “just starts,” allowing intuition to take over. It could be due to the walk she had that morning, a scent or a photo that she took as a reference that evokes a memory. It comes from within. “Art is a part of me, it’s where I can express a visual dialogue about my experiences, subconscious and surroundings”. Rachel’s work is included in private collections in Australia and overseas. ELLIS PEARSON - Painting 58 Stone Crescent, Darlington WA 6070 E: ellisdpearson@gmail.com Ellis trained as a graphic designer before being bitten by the theatre bug. This took him to Paris where he trained in mime and mask work. For the next thirty five years he created a visual, unique style of theatre which he performed all over the world. All this time his love of the visual arts deepened and he evolved an energetic, visual way of painting. He now teaches theatre in Perth and paints out of his garden studio. Surrounded by the sounds and wonder of the fauna and flora, Ellis has plenty of material to inspire him to fill his large canvases. JO MEREDITH - Painting Juniper Studio, 41a Dalry Road, Darlington WA 6070 T: 0439 918 010 E: jo.meredith@live.com W: jomeredithart.com.au After studying in Perth, Florence, London, Salisbury & Tasmania, local artist Jo Meredith has spent the last 5 years teaching contemporary dance, yoga and painting full time. Jo loves to move, explore her own physicality & venture into the WA landscape with her pup Olive. Her works are full of life: dogs swimming, immersive landscapes and figure work. She enjoys working primarily with oils & watercolours, painting from life whenever possible. Jo’s studio residence was built by Robert Juniper and forms part of the Juniper Galleries. IAN KAY - Sculpture Log Cabin Art, 215 Ryecroft Road, Darlington WA 6070 T: 0419 119 810 E: imkay045@gmail.com One time forest ranger, journalist and manufacturer Ian has a special knack of re purposing materials. Visual Art has always been a creative outlet and Ian is now focused on developing his flair in three dimensional creation. Ian’s interest in the discards of life has helped him accumulate a plethora of found objects in which he can see some artistic opportunities. In his re-jigged studio, Ian’s saved timber and metal treasures become the basis of ideas that begin to fester until a sculptural image evolves. Pencil sketches hold the key until time and the urge collide. GRAEME PAGES-OLIVER - Sculpture/Printmaking T: 0409 082 696 E: graemepo@bigpond.com W: pajez.com.au “I can’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t creating art. The creative process has been a part of my life, from childhood, through a career in art education and now semi retired in Darlington.” Through his studies Graeme was drawn to printmaking, and in particular silk screen printing, as a means of expression. It is a technical and process driven way of creating art, which he enjoys. It seems the more complicated he can make the production process, the more he likes it. This, along with his interest in technology, photography and drawing has formed the basis of his art work. MAYA BOUCHARD - Painting/Visual Art/Design Nest Gallery, 20 Brook Road, Darlington WA 6070 T: 0412 025 893 E: info@nestaustralia.net.au Maya Bouchard, The Bird of NEST Studio and Gallery was born to be a creator. Her credentials are diverse, starting in design, moving into environmental art/design, fashion and textiles, working in theatrical set design, styling fashion shoots, poetry, singing and songwriting and also teaching art. Today she weaves all of these different elements into creating an everevolving NEST, a Centre for Creativity and Wellbeing located in the heart of Darlington, Perth Hills. SHARON DAWES - Painting 32 Allpike Road, Darlington WA 6070 T: 0408 267 582 E: sharondawesart@icloud.com Sharon has been exhibiting locally and nationally since 2007. Her work reflects her love and fascination of animals and an interest in the properties of paint and how it can be applied, in a paint specific way, to deepen the understanding of animal. Painting domesticated and introduced species Dawes aims to elevate the animal to new heights, often giving her dislocated characters powerful and distinguished names, that immediately connect with the viewer. She believes that we need to have a greater understanding and appreciation for these fine creatures. Dawes work can be seen in many homes across the nation and overseas; a pair of camels currently reside in Texas and Roosters in Singapore. 12

KATH WHITESIDE - Mosaics 1610 Glen Forrest Drive, Glen Forrest WA 6071 T: 0419 850 822 E: whiteside_kath@bigpond.com Love to recycle. What you can make from broken china, glass and old tiles is endless. Kath’s passion for mosaics began ninteen years ago when a friend suggested they should try this just for fun. Giving a second life to items destined for the tip is rewarding. So far she been able to claim about a third of her shed for her hobby. Not allowed over the white line that’s painted across the floor and up the wall though. No way! Kath is a member of MAANZ (Mosaic Association of Australia and New Zealand). DEE PARKER - Ceramics White Peacock Studios, Lot 44 Glenburn Road, Glen Forrest WA 6071 T: 0418 942 406 E: dee@whitepeacockstudos.com.au W: whitepeacockstudios.com.au Dee challenges herself with bigger forms. Inspired and driven by the incredible pots and potters of centuries past and present - Japanese, Chinese, Korean, African, UK, NZ and best of all our Australian potters. Dee’s great love for clay and creating has given her the opportunity to fill her life and others with beautiful functional pieces we can use everyday, made from rustic rich iron bodied clays through to the silkiness of porcelain. Larger sculptural art forms, brushed and painted with natural oxides gives her the diversity and excitement she’s looking for with this medium. CAROLYN MCINTOSH - Fibre T: 0404 696 014 E: wanderingfigstudio@gmail.com W: wanderingfigstudio.com.au Carolyn is a mixed media artist who is currently creating soft sculptures from natural fibres, fabric, paper, vintage and found objects. Her sculptures are created using needle felting techniques with wool or hand stitching with fabric and fibre. Carolyn has a particular fondness for Western Australian birds and is inspired by her close encounters with Western Australian wildlife whilst volunteering for several years at a wildlife rehabilitation centre in Perth. Ten percent of proceeds from any sales made during open studios will be donated to Birdlife Western Australia. JENI SLEIGH - Ceramics/Painting T: 0407 496 869 E: jsleigh59@hotmail.com Born in Kitwe, Zambia in 1959, Jeni schooled in South Africa where she studied Fine Arts Teaching. She taught at school and also ran adult classes in South Africa, Zambia, Brazil and Australia. Jeni has recently returned home to Perth after 3 1/2 years in Rio de Janeiro. With an evolving art career in Rio, Jeni exhibited her drawings and prints there, with two Drypoint prints now on permanent exhibition in Rio de Janeiro. She also took part in ceramic and oil painting exhibitions in Lusaka and South Africa. Pastels are Jeni’s latest medium and she has completed a number of commissions and sold some in Kalamunda. WILLIAM BOISSEVAIN - Painting White Peacock Studios, Lot 44 Glenburn Road, Glen Forrest WA 6071 T: 0418 942 406 E: dee@whitepeacockstudios.com.au W: wimboissevain.wixsite.com William Boissevain is an extremely gifted artist who has devoted his life to capturing still life and nuance of the female form. Born in New York in 1927, William spent the majority of his youth living in foreign lands including America, Asia and Peru. From the time he moved to Perth he began to establish his reputation as one of Western Australia’s most talented artists. His figurative works are layers of rich pastels and charcoal atop colourful oil glazes. His drawings reflect the skill of the great French masters while also embedded with spontaneity of colour, line and form. LIZ BERRY - Ceramics T: 0419 987 762 E: info@koredesign.com.au W: koreearth.com.au Liz is an artist and graphic designer with 30 years’ experience working with creative formats including acrylics, watercolour, ceramics and digital design. Her love of ancient Chinese and Greek pottery has been the inspiration behind the recent desire to make large vessels by using the coil and throw method. Liz also creates wheel-thrown functional stoneware that fits well in the hands becoming an extension of the user’s own body. She incorporates earthy tones and textures brought about through experimentation with glazes and the unpredictable chemical reactions. REBECCA TESTER - Ceramics T: 0457 182 597 E: rebeccatester61@gmail.com Rebecca comes from a graphic design background but has been potting part time for the past four years and enjoys creating unique handmade and hand thrown pottery that can be functional and decorative. She enjoys all aspects of working with clay, getting dirty and processing the clay, throwing, decorating and then glazing and firing. Clay has this unique ability to slow her down which in turn allows her to relax in her own world. Nature is what inspires Rebecca and the amazing art and beauty around her. 13

THAO NGUYEN - Ceramics White Peacock Studios, Lot 44 Glenburn Road, Glen Forrest WA 6071 Thao is new to the joy of creating ceramics works. Inspired by her love for food and entertaining, the kitchen is her creative space and inspiration for her tableware pieces. Thao’s pieces are shaped from a mix of hand built and wheel throwing techniques, each formed with the intention of tactility to connect the user to the art of creation.

LAULA PEREY - Jewellery T: 0403 792 410 E: createfromthenest@gmail.com The artist behind this ethical range of handcrafted feather jewellery is Laula Perey, a self taught jewellery artist who soaks up the inspiration from the natural serene world. Every feather used in her art is sourced ethically from bush walks, moulted birds and the occasional casualty bird. This process of sourcing creates a knowing and story with each feather, where it was found and from what bird. Knowing where the feathers are sourced deepens the story as they are re-assembled into one of a kind eloquent wears. TINA BRYCE - Painting 18 Springside Crescent, Glen Forrest WA 6071 T: 0405 190 867 E: malleegirldesigns@gmail.com Tina Bryce is a visual artist creating mixed media works on canvas. Her artwork is bursting with colour, bold florals multi-layered in acrylics with collaged textures. After many years living in West Africa, Chile and the Goldfields, Tina has created a cosy studio space in a colourful garden setting. Her love of the natural environment is reflected in her vibrant canvasses. Her floral series embraces the positive energy of nature and reflects her outlook on life. Latest works explore new themes and mediums, with many small works in bright watercolours and alcohol inks. SHARON PETERKIN - Visual Art T: 0412 316 831 E: hello@sharonpeterkin.com.au W: sharonpeterkin.com.au When you fall in love with a piece of art, you make an emotional connection and each time you look at it, you’ll be transported to a time or place, or reminded of the giver. “I draw and paint what’s in my heart and how I see the world. Sometimes it’s a bit weird, and I love hearing the different interpretations, but quite often people interpret exactly what I intended!” Sharon is a practising visual Artist who has dabbled in many mediums but has found her true love with painting and her whimsical style is portrayed in her work. LEE WOODCOCK - Ceramics 3 Nichol Street, Glen Forrest WA 6071 T: 0406 350 363 E: lee.woodcock87@gmail.com Lee Woodcock is an exciting young artist who draws inspiration from all aspect of life and creates one of a kind ceramic and pottery pieces. Lee has recently been exploring the realms of large pot making using a coil and throw method which allows him to make forms that can exceed 1.5 metres in height. Lee prefers to collect his clay and glaze making ingredients from surrounding nature. The pottery is fired in Lee’s own designed and hand built woodfiring Anagama kiln which must be fired for up to 4 days and nights (100hrs) to obtain the raw natural beauty that he strives for. NEIL ELLIOTT - Sculpture/Painting 12 Springside Crescent, Glen Forrest WA 6071 T: 0439 801 221 E: neilelliott21@hotmail.com W: neilelliott.com.au Neil Elliott is a multi award winning Perth hills based painter and sculptor. His work is usually mixed media and created with a sense of humour. Neil draws his inspiration from history, engineering, his dreams and the many interesting objects found in his studio. In 2016 Neil won the Packer’s Prize for his painting “Bathroom Intruders’ at the Royal Perth Show. In 2017 he was awarded a state-wide touring exhibition of his sculptures with ART ON THE MOVE. In 2018 Neil won the best in show at the Hale Art Awards. BETHAMY LINTON - Jewellery T: 0430 463 736 E: mail@bethamylinton.com W: bethamylinton.com A fourth generation West Australian silversmith my love of working with metal was conceived as a child during hours playing in my family workshops. Having trained with my family as a silversmith, apprenticed as a fine jeweller and having spent time working with notable silversmiths and jewellers around Australia, my practice now encompasses silverware and jewellery pieces for exhibition and by commission. My work focuses on the natural environment and reflects themes of history and connection to place. 14

PENE TURNER - Woodwork E: pstubbs@iinet.net.au Pene has spent her life surrounded by all that art contains and began her ‘career’ at age two when she redecorated her parents house with wax crayon. Her childhood was spent in the pottery studio of her mother, Alison Brown where her love of drawing and painting was encouraged, then developed through high school and beyond. More recently, she has added woodwork to her creative bow. What she calls “Spoons” range from very traditional stirring spoons, to extra large serving vessels, through to ladles and scoops and ‘Spoonbowls’. Pene is inspired by colour, texture and form all of which wood provides. SILVANA FERRARIO - Glass Siju Glass, 2790 Thomas Road, Mahogany Creek, WA 6072 T: 0418 908 763 E: siju@live.com.au W: sijuglass.com Silvana is an award-winning glass artist. Her inspiration comes from her experiences, memories and surroundings. She is intrigued by the geometry present in both man-made and naturally occurring structures, and its opposition to the fluidity of the natural elements. Silvana particularly likes to use the fluidity of the glass when it is hot to give movement to her work, even with a structured subject. CHRISTINE HINGSTON - Painting/Ceramics E: christinehingstondsl@dodo.com.au W: christinehingstonartist.com Christine uses many mediums to create her work and is best known in Western Australia for her iconic landscapes depicting people at play. Australian landscapes have always been a major inspiration for Christine and for this year’s Mundaring Hills Open Studio exhibition she will be creating a series of hills landscapes featuring rocky outcrops, twisted gum trees and Zanthorreas. For the last two and a half years Christine has been studying ceramics at Gaya Ceramic Studio in Ubud where she has been experimenting with different clay bodies and glazes to find her medium. This body of work will also be on exhibition. KJERSTIN BJELLAND - Weaving T: 0409 299 045 E: kjerstinkb@gmail.com W: artworkarchive.com/profile/kjerstin-bjelland Kjerstin is a self-taught weaver developing her skills and making beautifully woven creations since 2008. To extend her skills and expand her ‘library’ of threads Kjerstin also learned to spin. She uses mainly natural yarns made from wool, alpaca, silk, cotton and linen. She loves playing with colours and textures, rather than complex patterns. At her home studio in Walliston, Kjerstin has three large countermarch floor looms and a table loom.

LUCEE BLAKE - Painting Wit’s End Art Studio, 270 Hillcrest Road, Mundaring WA 6073 T: 0429 021 357 luceeblake@gmail.com W: witsendartstudio.com Lucee has been painting for about 30 of her 40 years and graduated from ECU in 2001 to teach art. Inspired by an offbeat and alternative aesthetic she paints a big range of subject matter in a variety of styles, but always with a quirk or twist often one that only keen eyes can detect. Portraits make up the bulk of her painting hours, but are painted to commission and always moving. Nothing is exactly as it seems, landscapes marred by graffiti, faces contorted with wry expressions. Come have a look. SUE THOMAS - Painting T: 0421 278 291 E: wands.thomas@bigpond.com W: witsendartstudio.com With over thirtry years of art practice and teaching art Susanne continues to experiment and develop. She has accumulated a handful of regional awards, various solo and group exhibitions in the Pilbara along the way. Susanne incorporates pouring, glazing and other techniques with acrylic paint on canvas. Paintings feature clear, bright colour & exaggerated contrast. Subjects range from her own Impression of Monet’s garden in Giverny, France, Australian & other seascapes and bright abstracts reminiscent of landscapes or figures. All paintings are ready to hang without frames keeping prices down and leaving the option to frame with patrons. JUNE STEVENS - Oil Painting 1590 Seaborne Street, Parkerville WA 6081 T: 08 9295 5673 E: june.stevens5@bigpond.com W: junestevens-artist.com After many years teaching ballet, June moved into the exciting world of painting focussing mainly on impressionist landscape and seascape works. She paints in oils, both large and small works and as with all impressionists endeavours to capture the effect of light in our world. She tries to catch those magical and fleeting moments on canvas and is drawn to atmospheric scenes including water. “I love to take a new canvas and with a few brushstrokes begin a ‘new’ world which challenges and confronts me. The search for expression of the beauty around me is enormously rewarding.” 15

LYNN IREDELL - Glass 4955 Stoneville Road, Stoneville WA 6081 T: 0428 221 128 E: aliredell@yahoo.com.au W: lynnsglassstudio.com Lynn is inspired by where she lives in the Perth hills on her bush block. She has been creating unique and original glass for five years. Attending several international glass workshops here in Perth helped her push herself to grow and her new skills have been incorporated into her work. Lynn also visits any glass exhibition when travelling and attends short workshops. Her desire to introduce glass to others has led her to run introductory workshops in her studio. Searching for other techniques and resources is ongoing. Recently Lynn has exhibited her art and is always encouraged by artist friends and family. SUE FINDLAY - Resin Sculpture T: 0400 591 452 E: artwork@suefindlaydesigns.com.au W: suefindlaydesigns.com.au New to the Open Studios this year, Sue is a resin artist who likes to push the boundaries of what resin can do. Taking her inspiration from glass and its interactions with light, Sue’s latest collection is an exploration of texture and form. You will often find Sue in her studio bending and forming resin into interesting shapes, creating unique vases, sculptures and wall art. Sue’s art begins in the form of liquid. When semi cured it is then moulded into shape. By the very nature of resin and how it moves, no two pieces will ever be the same. ALISON LINDSAY - Painting/Drawing T: 0401 012 269 E: hallalison13@hotmail.com Alison grew up in the UK and has travelled extensively over the past decade. Her art is inspired by the world around her including a love for animals, landscapes and the cultures of the people and places she has lived, with a definite passion for Africa. She uses a variety of medium including oil, acrylic, pencil and charcoal to bring her ideas and stories to life. DEE CONSTABLE - Painting/Ceramics 4955 Stoneville Road, Stoneville WA 6081 T: 0481 545 704 E: dee@deeconstable.com.au W: deeconstable.com The daughter of Australian artist and designer Bill Constable, Dee grew up surrounded by the paraphernalia of her father’s art. Encouraged by the freedom to explore paint and other media in his studio, she developed a deep love of form and colour. Moving to Perth brought a whole new curiosity for the diversity of colour, shape and form in the local environment. Her work is inspired by a sense of place and love of the world around her. She creates both real and imagined landscapes allowing the viewer’s imagination to roam beyond the mere painting or pottery itself MEL ELLERO - Ceramics 3 Grenville Road, Stoneville WA 6081 E: odetohands@gmail.com W: odetohandsaa.com Mel is an artist who has exhibited in group and solo shows across a range of different mediums. She has predominately worked in hand-built and wheel thrown ceramics since 2006. Her practice explores the creation of forms which depict the natural qualities of clay and the alchemy of the firing process. The natural environment and surrounds inspires her work. She works in series and repetition, currently making sculptural forms and functional ware. Exploring the subtle evolution of form and the quiet beauty found in everyday utilitarian objects. RIC BURKITT - Painting Ric Burkitt Studio, 1 Grenville Road, Stoneville WA 6081 T: 0452 259 590 E: bomberic9@gmail.com W: ricburkittartanddesign.com.au Ric’s contemporary realist landscape paintings are a spontaneous response to the countryside adjacent to his studio and surrounding areas. They are also an invigorating, process-driven adventure in semiabstraction, informed by his large scale, non-representational work, and the desire to interpret and react, rather than reproduce. Ric began delving into abstraction a few years ago in an attempt to ‘loosen up’ and paint in a more reactive way, and to work without knowing too much about the ending. It is this aspect of abstraction that still motivates him to wander off into the unknown, to explore new problems and find worthy solutions. PAMELA SISTRUNK - Textiles Wild Yarns, 120 Woodlands Road, Stoneville WA 6081 T: 9295 1720 E: wildyarns@bigpond.com Pamela Sistrunk is a Textile Artisan and has been designing throws, scarves and beanés for over 30 years predominantly through the medium of knitting. She discovered the joy of weaving and spinning during the last 3 years and has been astonished and delighted with how beautiful woven garments can turn out. As a textile artisan, Pamela feels it is important to keep up the tradition of knitting, weaving and spinning and Wild Yarns became the vehicle which provides this through meaningful and sustainable work and the preservation of crafts which can be handed down, generation to generation. 16

MARIE HAASS - Painting 405 Colwyn Road, Mount Helena WA 6082 T: 0409 008 159 E: mariehaass@hotmail.com W: www.mariehaass.com Marie Haass is a French/Australian visual artist. She studied and worked in Paris and Berlin before moving to Perth with her young family. She works in a variety of media, including oil painting, drawing, pastels, collage dependant on the conceptual needs of the project. Her current work continues to explore the transient passage of time. In her new series, based on still life, she uses coloured pencils extensively. Marie’s work is represented in various collections. ROSEMARY HAMERSLEY - Textiles T: 0407 037 890 E: rosemary.hamersley@bigpond.com Having lived in the hills most of my life, connecting with the forest through my art is the story I want to tell. Using Rust and Eco Dying has given me the opportunity to develop my textile art, often discovering each piece has a story of its own, and that it is my role to be custodian of that story. The story can be hidden in the dyed cloth and, through embroidery and embellishment, is revealed. Wandering often gives me ‘finds’ that later become Incorporated into my art. Inspiration can be found in the simplest of things, by accident or by design. JANE NEWTON - Pottery 925 Helena Terrace, Sawyers Valley WA 6074 T: 0417 935 711 E: ja.sey@hotmail.com Jane started her love affair with clay in London in 1969, whilst she was training as a nurse. She was taught by a master potter learning the traditional skills of throwing and turning pots on a wheel. In 1973, her skills were consolidated at Midland Tafe where she received many distinctions for her work. Jane has won numerous awards for her large bowls, jars and vessels which have gone worldwide. Jane inspires her students at Sawyers Valley to create unique beautiful creations. Jane’s work reflects her passion for shape and colour that is dominant in her beautifully MIKE MOORE - Painting/Sculpture Leather Green, Sawyers Valley WA 6074 T: 0408 885 380 E: sallyahom@mail.com Mike is a retired bricklayer pursuing a wide range of artistic disciplines. For this open studio event he is concentrating on ceramic sculptures. A recent trip to Turkey sparked an old interest in archaeological finds from antiquity, particularly fertility gods from Sumeria, Akkadia and Babylon. This interest led to research of similar artifacts from other cultures of the same era, roughly 2,000BCE. These simple yet challenging objects have been an exciting introduction to sculptural techniques and ceramic intricacies. Unearthed at grave sites, domestic foundations and temple complexes these sculptures have caused much debate and conjecture as to their religious and cultural significance. BRIAN AYLWARD - Painting T: 0447 144 862 W: tbrianaylwardart.com Brian Aylward has painted all his life and has been a full time artist for thirty years. Arriving from England fifty-two years ago he was struck by the light and the varied scenery of Western Australia, a fascination that continues today and is his inspiration. He has a licensed studio/gallery at Wooroloo. The two hectares have a winter brook and over a hundred sculptures of stone, clay and steel are displayed. These are on show in a sculpture trail that runs through the property. Brian has taught art at thirty-three locations across the State, both for TAFE and private clients. He has won 90 awards and commendations and has had 48 solo exhibitions JAN PITTMAN - Painting/Drawing 671 Reen Road, Gidgegannup WA 6083 T: 08 9574 6671 E: rothiemay@harboursat.com.au W: janpittman.net Jan Pittman lives in Gidgegannup, and is a member of the Watercolour Society of WA, the Australian Guild of Realist Artists, and the Botanical Art Society of Australia. She has won awards at many shows and exhibitions, and was a finalist in the Mortimore Prize for realistic painting in 2012, and the inaugural Splash Award for Contemporary Watercolour in 2018. Jan has travelled with members of the Watercolour Society of WA to China and Italy to participate in watercolour exhibitions. She paints portraits, flowers, animals, birds, shells and interesting objects, in a realistic style. GLENDA DANN - Textiles 125 Inthanoona Road, Gidgegannup WA 6083 T: 0409 760 288 E: glenda.dann55@gmail.com Glenda Dann is a textile artist who likes to weave, stitch, sew and in general play with yarn, fibre, cloth and stitch. Having a diploma in fashion and design and a Batchelor of Arts in textiles and printmaking she is passionate about all aspects of the textile process.

FEDERAL NOTES 1.4 MILLION FOR CHILD ABUSE CENTRE

HON KEN WYATT AM, MP Member for Hasluck , Minister for Aged Care and Minister for Indigenous Health

ederal Member for Hasluck, Ken Wyatt has walked the final stages of the Bibbulmun Track with a much-loved high school teacher and mother of four, Carolyn Riordan. Ms Riordan set out to complete one of the world’s great longdistance treks in honour of her late father and to raise vital funds for Australia’s biggest cancer killer. Ms Riordan, who was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer last year, finished the Bibbulmun trek and raised $20,000 for Lung Foundation Australia in the process. Her efforts to complete the walk with a partially collapsed lung have attracted the attention of local politicians due to the startling statistics of the burden of lung cancer in Australia. “Lung cancer is this nation’s biggest cancer killer. Mortality rates and five-year survivorship are considerably worrying when compared to other commonly diagnosed cancers,” Mr Wyatt said. “As the decision makers for our country we have a responsibility and commitment to the people living with health conditions such as lung cancer to ensure that we come together and discuss these issues. “Together we need to ensure that stigma and misinformation are no longer a barrier to improving patient outcomes and quality of life.” The stigma associated with lung cancer impacts on the level of research funding and support available for the 12,500 Australians diagnosed each year. “Carolyn’s walk has allowed us to shine a light on an oftendiscriminated disease. People with lung cancer are not given a

fair go in terms of research to match the burden of disease,” Lung Foundation Australia CEO Mark Brooke said. “There is a stigma that this disease is associated with smoking when in fact, like Carolyn, 20% of people living with lung cancer are life-long non-smokers. “We know that research improves outcomes – through sustained investment in focused research, we have seen incredible advancements in treatment improve survival rates for other cancers such as breast and ovarian in the past 25 years. But because of this stigma, lung cancer struggles to attract adequate government funding to support research into better treatment and support. “Passionate advocates like Carolyn are carrying the torch of hope for a brighter future. Since being diagnosed last year, Carolyn has been fearless in her approach to tackle the stigma associated with lung cancer and her story has touched the hearts and minds of the many people who have followed her on this journey.” Carolyn was diagnosed with lung cancer in the week of Mother’s Day in 2018 – a devastating disease that kills an Australian every hour. “I didn’t think it was possible for me to get lung cancer. I had never smoked and my exposure to passive smoke was minimal. Yet in 2018, the impossible became possible. All I ever had was a dry cough,” Carolyn said. “I would love to see a cure for lung cancer but for this to happen Aussie’s must change how they think. The Australian

Supporting

OUR LOCAL COMMUNITY

ge to Visit my website or Facebook pa s ew hear about local projects and n

KEN WYATT mp FEDERAL MEMBER FOR HASLUCK

Shop 10-12 Hawaiians Forrestfield, 80 Hale Road, Forrestfield WA 6058 08 9359 0322 Ken.Wyatt.MP@aph.gov.au kenwyatt.com.au KenWyattMP Authorised by Ken Wyatt, Liberal Party, Shop 10-12 Hawaiians Forrestfield, 80 Hale Road,Forrestfield WA 6058.

public are beginning, at last, to talk about lung cancer. The landscape is changing for the better.” Completing the Bibbulmun Track was both a fitting tribute to her late father, Peter Hewett, who worked in the Forests Department back in 1972, and an honourable way to raise awareness for a worthy cause.

BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It is yet another strong reminder to all Australian women they should put their health and well-being first. Early detection remains the best chance of survival. It is important women of all ages self-check their breasts, and women aged 50 to 74 years take up BreastScreen (L to R): Mark Brooke Lung Foundation CEO, Carolyn Riordan, Penni Ellis Australia’s invitation of a and Ken Wyatt, Federal Member for Hasluck at the Northern Terminus of the free screening. Many women Bibbulmun Track are still not participating in the free screening program, • The listing of Ibrance® (palbociclib) on the although it could save their lives. Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, saving women with Federal Member for Hasluck, Ken Wyatt, urged women to an advanced form of breast cancer around $55,000 for a learn about breast cancer, and have regular breast checks to year’s treatment. catch the disease early. Minister for Health, Greg Hunt encouraged women to visit “Breast cancer is the most common cancer among Cancer Australia’s website - breastcancerriskfactors.gov.au – to Australian women, excluding non-melanoma skin cancer,” better understand their own risks. Mr Wyatt said. “More than 19,300 Australian women will be “We all know someone who has been affected by breast diagnosed with the disease this year and more than 3,000 women cancer,” Minister Hunt said. “This month is a great time for every are expected to die from it. I encourage all women to take up woman to think about this disease, learn more about the risks BreastScreen Australia’s invitation of a free screening, which and take action to protect herself.” could end up saving their lives.” The Morrison Government is committed to reducing APPLICATIONS OPEN cancer’s toll on Australians. Support measures include: Federal Member for Hasluck, Ken Wyatt MP is encouraging • From 1 November, breast cancer scans and PET scans female coaches, officials and administrators to progress for advanced breast cancer will both be subsidised by their leadership development by applying for the Australian Medicare, saving patients up to $1500 per scan. Government’s 2020 Women Leaders in Sport program. • The number of McGrath Foundation breast cancer The Women Leaders in Sport program has provided nurses will increase from 57 to 98 by 2022-23. professional development to more than 24,000 women since its inception in 2002. “As your Federal Member for Hasluck, I’m proud of our association with this important national program, which gives aspiring female leaders the skills to shape the future of sport in Australia. “I encourage women in Hasluck to apply to participate in this program. The Women Leaders in Sport program provides opportunities for women to reach their leadership potential as coaches, officials or administrations and develop an even stronger sporting culture.” Continued on page 62 ... 19

STANDING UP FOR SWAN HILLS VOLUNTARY ASSISTED DYING JESSICA SHAW MLA - MEMBER FOR SWAN HILLS

decisions through the debate. During the debate, we heard many MP’s personal experiences of suffering and grief. As I consulted with my community on this issue, I also heard many stories of loss; of people who have confronted some terrible circumstances and who are currently struggling with these issues. I want to thank the people of Swan Hills for being so generous and willing to share their views and experiences with me. Overwhelmingly, the people of Swan Hills have told me, through letters and emails, community forums, surveys and conversations, that they support voluntary assisted dying. Polling across Western Australia has indicated that 88 per cent of people support voluntary assisted dying. In Swan Hills, 92.8 per cent of people who participated in my survey are supportive. Of those who were against, I deeply respect and acknowledge their right to hold these beliefs and to apply their conscience as they see fit when the time comes for them to make decisions about their own lives. However, I cannot accept that the views and beliefs of some should prevent others in my community from accessing a safe and compassionate framework to achieve a dignified and gracious death at a time that they decide. My responsibility as the member for Swan Hills was to give the proposal before Parliament my objective consideration, based on the extensive briefings provided by the Department of Health and a range of other organisations; the work of the Ministerial Expert Panel on Voluntary Assisted Dying; and the findings and recommendations of the Joint Select Committee on End of Life Choices. I was satisfied that the Bill contains robust and rigorous safeguards to ensure that individuals are well informed and understand the implications of their decision to access VAD; that they are appropriately assessed for eligibility; that they make their choices completely voluntarily and without coercion; that they have access to medication in a safe and auditable fashion; and that they are appropriately enabled or assisted to finally exercise their choice. This legislation gives terminally ill, dying people the ability to pass with dignity, when their life may be devoid of it. It provides the ability to exercise choice and have control and perhaps provide peace at a time when otherwise life would be filled with fear, uncertainty and pain. It allows them to be supported and have their freedom to decide respected and to be surrounded by their loved ones in a place of their choosing, as they exit this life. The passage of this legislation would bring parliament into step with community expectations. Whilst its profound subject matter warrants detailed debate (as we had in the lower house), I hope that it is not unreasonably delayed in the upper house or prevented from coming to a vote. I want to assure the people of Swan Hills that I listened to your views, considered this matter in great depth, searched my conscience and reflected deeply on my role as your elected representative. I have thought long and hard about the profound responsibility you have given me to make a decision on your behalf, that will have far-reaching consequences for our community. Continued on pg 60 ...

n the 24th September, the Legislative Assembly passed the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2019. I was proud to support Bill, reflecting my own conscience and the views of so many constituents in Swan Hills. The Bill must now pass through the upper house to become law. As many people may know, legislation usually progresses through parliament along party lines. “Conscience votes” are utilised in the gravest and most serious of matters – usually on moral, religious or ethical questions. This was the first conscience vote I’ve participated in. The exercise of my vote has caused me to reflect very seriously on my role as a parliamentarian and your local representative. It is one thing to roll off an opinion about the types of choices that we as individuals would like to make about our own lives, and the sorts of rights we think should be available to others. It is quite another thing to be placed in the position where you actually have to make a decision on behalf of your community, that will either help or hinder so many others to make decisions about their own lives. Like my colleagues, I examined my own moral and ethical beliefs. I also undertook extensive consultation with my electorate, to ensure that I understood the views of the people I am so privileged to represent, and on whose behalf I made Advertisement

Jessica Shaw MLA LOCAL MEMBER FOR SWAN HILLS

@JessicaShawMLA Jessica.Shaw@mp.wa.gov.au 9296 7688 HERE TO HELP Aveley, Bailup, Belhus, Brigadoon, Bullsbrook, Chidlow, Ellenbrook, Gidgegannup, Melaleuca, Mount Helena, Sawyers Valley, The Vines, Upper Swan, and Wooroloo. Office Address 13/31 Egerton Drive Aveley WA 6069

Postal Address PO Box 2265 Ellenbrook WA 6069

Standing up for Swan Hills Authorised by Jessica Shaw, 13/31 Egerton Drive, Aveley, WA 6069

NOTES FROM PARLIAMENT STARTING OVER

Hon Donna Faragher JP MLC Member for East Metropolitan Region

uring September it was a pleasure to host a successful community morning tea to raise awareness about Starting Over Support, a community initiative of People Who Care. Starting Over Support is dedicated to providing free household goods and furniture to individuals and families, particularly those escaping family and domestic violence who have been referred by women’s refuges and other agencies when they leave the security of a shelter or refuge. The event not only provided a valuable opportunity for guests to learn more about the services that Starting Over Support provides across the community but to also donate items that will form part of the packages provided to families. From cleaning products to kitchen utensils, children’s toys and other household items the generosity shown by everyone who attended the event or who dropped off donations to my office over the past few weeks was incredible. In total we delivered a van-load of donations to Starting Over Support and also raised over $1,200 which will be used by the organisation to purchase new pillows. Starting Over Support is always looking for donations of furniture, household appliances, crockery and children’s items. If you would like to support their cause please visit www. startingover.org.au or stop by their warehouse at 40 Bassendean Road, Bayswater. ~oOo~ ADVERTISEMENT

I have also recently hosted my parliamentary colleagues, Tjorn Sibma MLC and Michael Mischin MLC, on two separate visits to the East Metropolitan Region. As Shadow Minister for Veterans Issues, Tjorn joined me at the Kalamunda RSL Sub-Branch where Vice President Geof Irvin outlined the Branch’s activities and later in the week I introduced Michael, in his capacity as the new Shadow Minister for Heritage, to the Machinery Preservation Club of WA and the Swan Guildford Historical Society. These valued organisations are dedicated to collecting, preserving, cataloguing and restoring historical and often rare artefacts. The meetings provided an important opportunity for both groups to highlight a range of current issues and to showcase their significant and unique collections. I would like to thank the Kalamunda RSL Sub Branch, the Machinery Preservation Club of WA and the Swan Guildford Historical Society for hosting these informative visits. If you would like assistance on any State related issue, please do not hesitate to contact my office on 9379 0840.

Donna Faragher JP MLC Member for East Metropolitan Region

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Here to help! Contact Donna

9379 0840 | faragher.eastmetro@mp.wa.gov.au donnafaragher.com.au DonnaFaragherMLC Ground Floor 108 Swan Street, Guildford WA 6055 Authorised by S.Calabrese, Liberal Party, 2/12 Parliament Place, West Perth WA 6005.

WHAT’S ON IF YOU WOULD LIKE AN EVENT LISTED IN THIS COLUMN RING our office on 0418 934 850 Entries for non-profit entities are free.

SWAN VALLEY COMMUNITY CENTRE

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS - Glen Forrest Group Every Monday evening We meet at 7.00pm at the Glen Forrest Uniting Church, Mc Glew Rd, Glen Forrest. Call Dermot 0488 905 211 or John 0448 074 536 or the Perth Office (all hours) 9325 3566.

Monday Mornings The Art Group meets at Baskerville Hall from 9am – 12pm for just $5.00 per session. Group leader Gilly can help and advise with most media. Feel free to come and have a look and meet our local artists – they are a very friendly lot, new members welcome! For more information call 9296 1976 or enquiries@swanvalleycommunitycentre.com www.swanvalleycommunitycentre.com

AUSTRALIAN BREASTFEEDING ASSOC. Discussion groups, guest speakers, morning tea. Free breastfeeding counselling. Expectant mothers, mothers, babies and children welcome. National Breastfeeding Helpline 1800 686 2686 is a 24 hour 7 days a week service.

EASTERN DISTRICTS MACHINE KNITTERS

Friday - second and fourth We meet from 9:00am to noon at 10 Brockman Road, Midland. Feel welcome to join us for morning tea and see how easy it is to make your own garments. For more information contact Pat 9309 3260; Liz 9572 7074 or Pat 9295 2793.

Swan/Mundaring Group meets every Monday, 9:30-11:30am at the Gumnuts Family Centre, 8 Mudalla Way, Koongamia.  A qualified ABA counsellor is present at each meeting to give confidential information and support on breastfeeding issues. Contact Natalie 9572 4971. Kalamunda Group meets fortnighly on a Thursday, 9:3011:30am at the Maida Vale Baptist Church, Edney Road, High Wycombe. Contact Jenny 9252 1996.

SWAN HARMONY SINGERS

Wednesdays Come and sing with us! Swan Harmony Singers is a community choir that meets, 7-9pm, to sing music ranging from jazz to pop, plus the occasional classic. No auditions. Join us at the Salvation Army Church Hall, 371 Morrison Rd, (opposite Swan View Primary School), Swan View. Enquiries: call Anna on 9299 7249, or Chris on 9298 9529 or 0435 062 728.

Northam Group meets each second Tuesday of the month at the Bridgeley Community Centre, Wellington Street, Northam 10am to Noon. Fourth Tuesday each month at Toodyay Playgroup, Stirling Terrace, Toodyay. Noon to 2pm. Please phone Louisa 9574 0229.

TALKING HORSES

ELLENBROOK COMMUNITY WEIGHT LOSS CLUB

Wednesday evenings 6:00pm The WA Horse Council equestrian radio program is now in its seventh year. The programme is broadcast on the Community Radio Station 91.3 SportFM. To ensure that your club, event, breed or business gets coverage, call Diane Bennit 0409 083 617.

Every Tuesday evening We meet from 6.45pm to 8.00pm at the Woodlake Community Hall, Meeting room 1 Highpoint Blvd, Ellenbrook. Friendly support group at low cost. Male and females of all ages welcome. Contact Shirley 9276 7938 shirleysardelich@aapt.net.au.

THE ZONTA CLUB OF SWAN HILLS

HILLS CHRONIC PAIN SUPPORT GROUP

Wedneswday, March 20th at the Mallard Duck. Zonta, an International Service organization works to improve the lives of Women and Girls locally and internationally. Projects include Studies Assistance Grant to two girls at Cyril Jackson and Let Us Learn Madagascar a program that encourages girls to attend school, ensuring there are suitable toilets and girls have access to sanitary items. Teacher training is provided. Guests are welcome. To find out more about these and other projects or if you wish to be a guest please contact Ruth (08) 9272 9442 or email ruth@amsaustralia.com. Find us on facebook on www.zonta.org.

1st Wednesday of each month Hilltop Grove Estate, 1645 Jacoby Street, Mahogany Creek. Morning tea provided, between 10.30 - 12.00 noon. Enquiries Terina 9572 1655.

MORRIS DANCING

All welcome. It’s like bush dancing, with sticks and bells. It’s aerobic exercise and great fun! Tuesdays 7-9pm practice, Guildford Town Hall, cnr James St and Meadow St, Guildford. And drinks later at the Woodbridge Hotel with live Irish music For more information please contact: Christine Hogan: 9279 8778 Email: madtattersmorris@iinet.Net.Au Website: madtattersmorris.myclub.org.au

JUST A PIECE - TEXTILE KINSHIP Fortnightly Fridays This textile art group meets every fortnight Fridays 9.30 to 12.00 at Just Add Passion on Richardson Rd Stoneville. $5 per session, everyone welcome Check us out on Facebook or text Janette on 0407 633 771.

SWAN WOODTURNERS GROUP

The group meets in the rear hall of The Senior Citizens’ Centre, The Avenue, Midland, at 1-00pm. on 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Tuesday, and at 7-00pm. on 2nd Tuesday of each month. A demonstration and cuppa are the norm. Men and Women are welcome. Enquiries to Ted 9295 4438.

ELLENBROOK AND DISTRICT MENS SHED INC.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday We are open at 4 Transit Way Ellenbrook from 10.00am to 3.00pm. Potential members can turn up on those days and there will be someone to explain what we do and give membership 22

WHAT’S ON details. Annual fees are low and members can do their own thing, participate in projects for the community or simply just come in for a chat and a cuppa. We are considering extending our days to include Saturdays or evenings if there is enough interest.

SING AUSTRALIA SWAN VALLEY Monday nights We are a community singing group in the Swan Valley and welcome anyone who loves to sing. There are no auditions or expectations on ability. We welcome absolute beginners and experienced singers. Singing has enormous health and wellbeing benefits which helps promote joy and positivity in people’s lives. Come along, give it a go and bring a friend for a great night of singing. The group meets 7.30 to 9.30pm in Baskerville Hall, 129 Memorial Ave, Baskerville. Call us on 0407 888 759 or email: singaustraliaswanvalley@outlook.com for inquiries.

MUSTARD SEED - DISCOVERING COMPUTERS

Mustard Seed is a nineteen year old non-profit organisation and teaches all aspects of everyday computing. Ability levels from beginners onwards. Want help with Windows 10? In need of instruction with your Mac computer? Have an iPad or Android tablet and don’t know what it will do? We can help. Cost is $2 per session. Classes are held at 56 McGlew Road, Glen Forrest. To gain a place enrol now by phoning 0491 044 805 or emailing: mustardcomputers@gmail.com W: noodlebytes.com

THE HILLS CHOIR

Monday Evenings Do you enjoy singing and joining with others to make beautiful music? Come and join the Hills Choir. We meet from 7.30 to 9.30pm at the Uniting Church on Stoneville Road, Mundaring. Contact Margie on 9295 6103 for further information.

SWAN VALLEY COMMUNITY CENTRE SWAN VALLEY HOMESCHOOL FAMILY PLAYGROUP

Thursday mornings 9:15am to 11:15am Older siblings welcome to join playgroup in a rural setting in the Swan Valley. Normal playgroup guidelines apply for children zero to five years old. Baskerville Hall, 129 Memorial Drive, Baskerville. For more information ring 0419 922 792 or email enquiries@ swanvalleycommunitycentre.com

MIDLAND MEN’S SHED

Every Tuesday morning We meet socially every Tuesday morning from 9.30am to 11.30am in the Bellevue Baptist Church Hall and our usual attendance is around fifty-five. At least once a month we have a guest speaker on a range of topics. We also go on excursions to various places of interest (e.g. HMAS Stirling, Aviation Museum, Fremantle Ports, ALCOA, etc.). Our workshop with wood working and metal working is in Midvale and for the opening hours and further details please contact Brian Beer on 0411 833 055. Also in operation is our music group – the Rockin’ Shedders which is going from strength to strength and their repertoire of songs increases each week. For more information on the Shed please contact Kevin Buckland on 0417 961 971 or email: kebinsv@tpg.com.au. THE HILLS CHOIR Mondays We practice on Mondays from 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm at the Uniting Church in Stoneville Road, Mundaring. We are looking for Sopranos, Altos, Tenors and Basses over the age of sixteen to join us. We sing a range of sacred and secular music in four parts. Please phone Margie on 9295 6103, email the thehillschoir@gmail.com or visit their website www.hillschoir.org.au.

PO Box 381, Guildford, Western Australia 6935

Website: www.zontaswanhills.org.au Email: zonta@zontaswanhills.org.au

Do you want to make a difference to the lives of women and girls locally and internationally???? For 100 years Zonta has been working to change the life experience of women through service and advocacy projects. For 21 years the Zonta Club of Swan Hills has been working towards these aims. We also make a difference in the lives of women like you, providing fellowship and many ways to contribute your unique skills. Join us for an information session and afternoon tea. We would love to get to know you!" Find out about. Local projects, Breast cushions, Studies Assistance Grants. International projects, Ending Child marriage, Amelia Earhart Fellowships and more. Zonta’s relationship with the UN We need YOU to join us, so together we can continue to make a difference. We Invite you to an information afternoon to find out what Zonta is all about followed by afternoon tea. Sunday 13th October 2- 3.30 pm. Ellenbrook Community Library Level 1, 90 main St, Ellenbrook WA 6069 Parking available on site. Please RSVP for catering purposes. ruth@amsaustralia.com. P08 9272 9442

Zonta International is a leading global organization of professionals empowering women worldwide through service and advocacy. Zonta International envisions a world in which women's rights are recognized as human rights and every woman is able to achieve her full potential. In such a world, women have access to all resources and are represented in decision making positions on an equal basis with men. In such a world, no woman lives in fear of violence www.zonta.org

COMMUNITY ANNIE’S COLLECTIVE WONDERLAND DOUGLAS SUTHERLAND-BRUCE

s you drive around the UK, if you’re at all interested Aeverywhere in old, antique and vintage you will see just about ‘Antique Centre - 60 Dealers. Places like Leominster (pronounced ‘Lem-stir’) seem to have huge buildings convered into collective antique stores with the dealers taking turns to man the counters or even hiring a manager. This means that you can see specialist collections and dealers, rents are shared, and dealers have time to source new (old) material while business continues. We don’t seem to have the same concept here in Australia yet. Or we didn’t until Annie had a very bright idea when Swan Settlers Markets was floated as a concept. If you love vintage, retro, antique, flea markets, shabby chic and just plain quirky, I expect you already know about Annie’s shop at Taylor’s Art House Annie’s Vintage Wonderland. If you don’t, immediately put it on your ‘To Visit’ list. But the shop at Taylor’s, even with knocking into the next building is too small for Annie’s wonderland of wonders, so she has joined up with Swan Settlers Markets and rented a huge area in it, acting as a collective with a number of other dealers and suppliers. She even has her eye on an expansion within the markets, which would double the area and dealers’ spaces available. Annie has moved some of the more portable items from Taylor’s, raiding her large stock from the warehouse and buying in new old stock. ‘New’ seems like an odd word to use, but ‘old’ seems less accurate - perhaps ‘odds and ends’ might be better. A sampling of her goods might include, vintage jewellery and clothing, collectable stamps, matchbooks and boxes, suitcases, tins, Australiana, toys, books, walking sticks, 50’s furniture and she is one of only five Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint stockists in Western Australia. Annie is a real person, unlike Betty Crocker, and is on hand to talk, deal and her happy cheerfulness is a huge asset to her shop.

COMMUNITY

The collective is open from Thursday to Sunday, plus Public Holidays from 10:00am to 3:30pm, but if you ‘like’ her on Facebook - facebook.com/AnniesVintageWonderland/ you can shop on her ‘Annie’s Vintage Wonderland Online Wonders’ pretty much all the time as treasures are photographed and posted in batches. Prices are open to negotiation, so now’s the time to call in and have a browse, make an offer and collect something you’ve been seeking for ages - be it a 1963 Beano comic, a matchbook from the Playboy Club, a plastic soldier originally found in a Cornflakes packet, a street name or a dresser in peppermint green with orange trim. Whatever it might be - Annie may well have it, will get it, or knows where there is one. And while you’re there, you can browse the vast range of other stallholders at Swan Settlers Market - the newest addition to tourism in the Swan Valley. If you’re a dealer looking to open a low-rent shopfront, talk to Annie - she can probably help.

FILM REVIEWS

LISA SKRYPICHAYKO Film: Slam Director: Partho Sen-Gupta Reviewer: Lisa Skrypichayko A captivating, slow-burn thriller inefestOZ is one of Australia’s premier film festivals, screening Australia’s best new films alongside films coming to Luna Leederville this month. Slam is an Australian-French coproduction which had its world premiere at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival on 27 November 2018. It screened at the Sydney Film Festival in June, and I watched it at CinefestOZ in Busselton last month. Completely captivating for all of its 115 minutes, this thought-provoking, slow-burn mystery drama offers a multitude of perspectives to consider in modern-day, multicultural Australia - or arguably any modern Western country. There are too many tantalising plot twists and character studies in this highly-engaging film to mention, so instead I will give a brief introduction and summarise my impressions. Lucky for Swan Magazine readers, this film will run at Luna Leederville this month - so I will avoid spoilers. Writer/director Partho Sen-Gupta, born in India but now based in Sydney, describes Slam, his first Australian feature film, as a socially-motivated thriller. The story revolves around the mysterious disappearance of Ameena Nasser, a gifted, passionate slam poet, whose character Sen-Gupta based on recently deceased Palestinian-Australian queer poet, performance artist and vulnerability advocate Candy Royalle. Royalle’s slam poetry features in this film, which is dedicated to her. An unapologetic second-generation Muslim woman of Palestinian descent, Ameena (played by Danielle Horvat) pulls no punches in her spoken word pieces. The film opens with a closeup of Ameena, spot-lit against a black background, head covered with a vibrant red scarf, transfixed in her performance. We soon learn that Ameena’s incendiary words and political fervour inspire some while infuriating others. Before making her way home after an enthusiasticallyreceived performance, Ameena stops outside the venue to check her phone and message that she is heading home. At least half the audience will have shared the sense of foreboding that I felt, watching a woman standing alone at night in a dark and secluded spot. Sen-Gupta’s screenplay predates the rape and murder of Eurydice Dixon as she walked home from her standup performance in Melbourne, but this moment was an uncomfortable echo of that shocking crime. Cut to a stylish, uppermiddle-class house party, where Ameena’s brother Ricky (a Westernised short form of

his birth name Tariq) and his heavily-pregnant Caucasian wife Sally are guests. Having assimilated comfortably into Aussie culture, Ricky (played by Adam Bakri, from the Oscar-nominated film Omar) and Sally (Rebecca Breeds) run a small Sydney cafe together and live a happy life far from the troubles alluded to in Ricky’s family history. Friends, work colleagues and family are all having a good time, and the fact that Ricky is the only non-white guest seems irrelevant until a news bulletin interrupts the flow of the evening to inform that that an Australian fighter plane has been shot down in Syria. We watch Ricky’s mood change from relaxed to watchful as the other guests hear the news and he waits for their reaction. Noticing this, Sally makes excuses and they head home. Ricky’s sudden sense of otherness made me recall Jordan Peele’s great 2017 horror film, Get Out. As the film progresses, Ricky’s worried mother asks him to call the police on behalf of the family. It is not normal for Ameena to be out all night without notifying her, and when Ricky goes to the family home (which he rarely visits these days), he is taken aback by the array of radically political posters, books and quotes from Malcolm X and others, in Ameena’s bedroom. Opening her laptop, he discovers Twitter threads full of racist and anti-Muslim rants and abuse, veiled and overt threats of violence, and an invitation from a supporter to join the Caliphate. Ricky reports Ameena as missing to Officer Joanne Hendricks (sensitively portrayed by Rachael Blake of Rake, Cleverman, and Lantana). Ricky speaks and we note the contrast as the white officer records all relevant details about Ameena, her habits, and the hate messages found on her laptop, in a professional, matter-of-fact manner, and remarks that “some people just don’t want to be found”. Recently returned to duty after an absence, Joanne goes home at the end of the day, tired and alone. We see photos of a young boy and an Australian soldier, and when Joanne steps into the shower it seems the little boy is watching her - or perhaps it’s reverie. In parallel with Joanne’s flashbacks, Ricky often also awakes at night with visions of a young boy, and we learn that his own father died violently when Ricky was five years old.

Hendricks, and Sally’s parents. Each of these characters is played with truth and empathy, and while we may not agree with every perspective, we gain a greater understanding of where they are coming from. My mother-in-law watched Slam with me, and we have since had many vigorous (shall we say) discussions about our own reactions to and thoughts on this provocative film. The strong cast is impressive, with convincing performances by lead actors Bakri and Blake, as well as supporting actors Lebanese-French actor Darina Al Joundi as matriarch Rana Nasser, Julian Maroun (Cleverman) as Ricky’s friend Omar, and the late Damian Hill in an understated performance as Joanne’s troubled and troubling ex, Shane. Slam screens at Luna Leederville from 17 October - don’t miss it, and make sure you book a coffee / dinner debrief date for afterwards! Very Highly Recommended Indeed. ~oOo~ Film: Downton Abbey Director: Michael Engler Reviewer: Chris McRae Royals and Loyals he film event of the year for fans of the beloved series and the latest small screen favourite to receive the film treatment. Big screen adaptations of television series’ are always approached with trepidation as the charm and success of the

For their apparent outward differences, the two seem to have some sort of tragedy in common. Meanwhile, tensions escalate due to the intensifying fighting in Syria. The film is punctuated by news reports that the pilot of the downed fighter plane has been taken hostage by Isis, talk-radio segments debating immigration, stripping of citizenship from foreign fighters, and other contentious foreign policy issues. The news reports and commentary amplify feelings of fear and mistrust on all sides. A reporter covering Ameena’s disappearance visits the station to interview Officer Hendricks about the case, remarking that “Muslim girls don’t just go missing” and “an Islamic angle would make it newsworthy”. Resisting the easy out of accepting this narrative, Hendricks sticks to the facts at hand and continues pursuing the missing person’s case. Ameena’s disappearance becomes politicised however, and what began as a routine case morphs into a national security media frenzy, as ASIO agents assert their agenda-supporting theory that Ameena is a homegrown terrorist who has travelled to Syria to become a foreign fighter. Concerned about the intense and invasive media scrutiny surrounding Ameena’s whereabouts, Ricky’s inlaws demand that he take a public stand on the matter to protect Sally, their daughter, and their unborn child. Ricky is torn between wanting to maintain his hard-won place in Australian society, and seeking justice for Ameena. To say more about the plot would be a disservice to any reader who plans to see the film (which you most certainly should). We watch the story develop through the eyes of many people in Ricky and Ameena’s life - his wife, his mother and sisters, Ameena’s best friend, Officer 27

series does not always translate. Downton Abbey bucks the trend and creator Julian Fellowes and director Michael Engler have given audiences a charming film which not only captures the strengths of the series but expands the characters and story into unexpected and delightful territory. The wealthy Crawley family headed by Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) and Lady Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern) continue to provide a beacon of light for the surrounding village and a vital source of income for the dedicated servant workers in 1927. The family is sent into a frenzy of excitement as a royal visit is announced and the servants and Crawley Family prepare for the arrival of the King and Queen of England. However, trouble arises when a mysterious stranger arrives and begins to twist Tom Branson’s (Allen Leech) political beliefs to his advantage. At the same time, the servants are threatened by the Royal staff and begin to stage their own fightback to regain their own sense of purpose. The original series is an absolute joy and is beautifully executed. The film re-captures everything that made the series so popular with iconic and likeable characters, exquisite attention to detail and captivating performances. The Royal storyline does what any good film adaptation of a television series should do. It gives the original setting something different and brings new layers to an already strong foundation. The added elements of the threat to the monarchy and the sub-plot involving the Downton workers’ fightback are particularly enjoyable. This film will prove to be an absolute joy for fans of the television series and will delight Downton fans from start to finish. with hubby and friends. Before this last film premiere of the festival, audience members enjoyed a Welcome Celebration at Margaret River’s brand-new arts hub HEART, entertained by Novac Bull of Boom Bap Pow! and surrounded by the wonderful, meticulously whimsical works in local artist Leon Pericles’ exhibition, Storm in a Teacup - after his daughter Nia’s documentary film of the same name which premiered earlier in the festival. The musical warmup plus a few drinks had the audience primed and ready for a lively and very insightful film. Donning complementary (& clever!) Suzi Q badges and clutching our promo stickers, we headed in. Listening to the chatter around the room, it was clear that a sizeable portion of the effusive audience were serious Suzi fans. They were not disappointed by this feature, which entertained as much as it informed. Suzi Q, directed by Liam Firmager and co-produced by Firmager and Tait Brady, is a five-year passion project completed only days before its world premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August 2019. Including fortyone songs and 370 pieces of archive footage, the film is a strategically-timed lead-up to tours across the UK and Australia (her 37th tour downunder). Firmager and Brady took part in a Q & A session following the screening, with participation from a very active and engaged audience. In 1973, women rock and roll artists were very rare, and Suzi Quatro’s emergence that year as a leather-clad, bass-playing, band-leading kickass rocker inspired women in decades to come to follow her path. Tracing Quatro’s evolution from girl group bassist to worldfamous headliner, Suzi Q includes interviews with a constellation of rock and roll nobility, including Alice Cooper, Deborah Harry, Tina Weymouth (Talking Heads), Joan Jett and Cherie Currie (The

~oOo~ Film: Suzi Q Director: Liam Firmager Reviewer: Lisa Skrypichayko Women in Rock Trailblazer inefestOZ is one of Australia’s premier film festivals, and its Festival News page states that this year it “delivered more than 150 film screening events in Western Australia’s South West, including fifteen world, eleven Australian and fifty-three WA premieres… [and] attracted record numbers of film submissions and audience members.” The impressive CinefestOZ 2019 programme featured several notable documentaries including Suzi Q, which I viewed

Runaways), Andy Scott (Sweet), Australianborn record-producer/songwriter Mike Chapman, plus Henry Winkler, reminiscing on the Leather Tuscadero days. The overall impression from the interviews is that Suzi was not only ahead of her time, but too early on the music scene to achieve the renown she truly deserves. Also interviewed are some of Quatro’s family, shedding light on her musical upbringing, her earliest performances as bass player in a 1960s all-girl rock group, The Pleasure Seekers, and her resounding successes in the UK and Europe. Difficult times in Quatro’s life are discussed, such as rivalries with her bandmates and sisters and her unsuccessful attempts to become as big a star at home in the USA as she was abroad. Sensitively conducted interviews reveal the mixed feelings between Quatro and her sisters - honesty that speaks volumes about their parents’ and each of the girls own ambitions. At one point, Quatro remarks that the tradeoff of life versus fame and success was “huge”. Quatro states that she never considered herself to be a feminist icon, although she is becoming increasingly recognised as a trailblazer for women in rock. Past members of female rock bands L7 and The Runaways saw Quatro as a role model of a female rocker making music on her own terms (notably, Joan Jett was often mistaken for Quatro and vice versa). In an interview, Quatro recounts how young Suzi, at five-and-a-half, saw Elvis perform and said “I want to do that”, not

worrying for a moment that he was a man and she was not. She observes that it was difficult for women in the early days of rock - they were considered “risky”, as it was thought they were liable to get pregnant or fall in love and quit performing. Quatro maintains however that she personally didn’t think about her gender; she just went out and played. The film continues, recounting Quatro’s career and life highs and lows, punctuated with interview footage of her and her music business contemporaries. It touches on the many different facets in Quatro’s life, as she sought other ways to express herself. In between her life as a rock and roller, she also married (twice), had children, and performed in musical theatre (notably as Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun - look for it on YouTube, and as Talullah Bankhead in Tallulah Who?, which she co-wrote with Shirlie Rode). Quatro attained what was arguably her greatest fame in America playing Leather 29

Tuscadero in TV’s Happy Days, from 1977 to 1979. She turned down an offer of her own spinoff to avoid being typecast. Quatro has appeared in other TV and radio programs, became a songwriter, and writes poetry, some of which she recites in the film. As Suzi Q nears its end, we catch glimpses of Quatro’s disappointment at her failure to make it big in her homeland (having had number one hits in the UK, Australia and Europe, but never ranking higher than number four in the USA with Stumblin’ In), as she examines what might have been. Quatro, now a very youthful sixty-nine years old, embarks on her fifty-third year of touring, never admitting to regrets, never complaining and never giving up. We see Quatro jogging to stay fit for her gruelling performance schedule and signing autographs for fans - it is a point of honour for her never to refuse. A quotation from Quatro on suziquatro.com sums it up nicely: “I will retire when I go onstage, shake my ass, and there is silence”. See this film for: Exciting footage of concert tours the world over, including her 1974 Australia visit, where she was greeted at Sydney Airport by a motorcycle motorcade of Hells Angels; fabulous leather costumes and majestic mullets; in depth interviews with Quatro, her bandmates, family, and many notable musicians and other celebs and afantastic soundtrack for your trip down memory lane. Suzi Quatro herself plays at the Regal Theatre in Subiaco 27 October, and the documentary Suzi Q will screen again in Australia from 21 November. ~oOo~ Film: Director: Reviewer:

timing. Her show, Fleabag, is playing to full houses in London’s West End and on Broadway. She has just cleaned out the Emmys cupboard of eleven of its major awards (including best writing, direction, actress, comedy series). She is raunchy and bawdy and she mesmerizes the audience. One is like a deer caught in the hunter’s headlights and gun-sights. There is nowhere to run. Born in 1985 in West London, she dominated her drama classes from primary school. A graduate of Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), she has appeared in many BBC TV series. She is a co-writer of the latest James Bond film No Time to Die. As an actress, she decided that no material was going to be as good as the stuff she wrote for herself. Fleabag is her bestknown character: a single woman, she has an unsteady boyfriend and is running a seedy café with an undependable partner who owns a guinea pig called Hillary. The stage show has Phoebe Waller-Bridge, as Fleabag, delivering an eighty minute monologue. She races onto the stage as someone late for a job interview. She hauls herself onto a high chair, somewhat reminiscent of Dave Allen, and launches into the story of her current predicaments. Unlike Allen who put together an act based on a series of jokes, Waller-Bridge has a well-structured sequence of vignettes to relate. This is the latest West End show filmed by NT Live at the Wyndham Theatre and being shown around the world. The show has been followed by two BBC television series of the same name. Fame and the Emmys (the TV equivalent of the Academy Awards) soon followed. This show is not for everyone. To say it is politically incorrect is an understatement. Dave Allen explored and mocked religion. Fleabag explores and mocks the sexual behaviour of the modern woman. In explicit detail. With demonstrations. Hilariously. However, this show should be compulsory viewing for all those who are devising late-night acts for next-year’s Perth Fringe. You do not need to use the ‘F’ word five times in every sentence in order to be outrageous. Let Phoebe demonstrate how. Fleabag is having a limited run at Luna Cinemas from 11th to 16th October. Highly recommended for all those wanting to witness how current comedies are pushing the boundaries. ~oOo~

Fleabag Vicky Jones James Forte

Superior Fringe Theatre ccording to the Hollywood gossip, in fact by practically any criteria, English actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge is the hottest property around. A gifted scriptwriter, she is also a comedienne with perfect

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After the Wedding Bart Freundlich James Forte

Everyone Has a Price fter the Wedding is a powerful and intensely human drama. Although most of the plot twists and revelations can be guessed quite early, the story holds your interest through the emotional complexity of the four major characters. Within the first ten minutes, we discover that Isabel is an American running a small orphanage in India. Perpetually short of funds, she is offered a substantial donation by New York media tycoon Theresa, although she must return to America to discuss the details. Rapidly she is drawn into Theresa’s family circle: her artist husband Oscar and their

Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Fleabag 30

After the Wedding daughter Grace who is about to marry. Isabel is invited to the wedding, where she soon discovers that not everything is as advertised. The strength of this film is in its ability to have us empathize with all the characters despite the conflicts between them. We want them all to achieve their goals. The direction by Bart Freundlich is uniformly superb. There is an old joke that the quality of a movie is inversely proportional to the number of helicopter shots. These days the helicopters have been replaced by the much cheaper and more nimble drones. The film opens with a marvelous drone approach over the town to a close-up of the occupants of the Indian orphanage. Later we will see a similar shot of Theresa’s palatial country estate. The contrast is well illustrated, but the temptation to use them everywhere is resisted. Soundtrack and photography is of a similar high standard. The casting is perfect with Michelle Williams as Isabel and Julianne Moore as Theresa. Their acting in a couple of scenes will raise the hair on the back of your neck. The excellent screenplay is copied from the critically acclaimed 2006 Danish film of the same title – although in that the two main characters were males. After the Wedding opens at Luna Cinemas on the 24th October. Recommended. Four stars. ~oOo~ Film: Director: Reviewer:

This film combines those paintings with the extensive collection in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam to provide the definite coverage of his life - with particular emphasis on his later years. Experts from both galleries provide detailed commentaries on the works. Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669 ) was a gifted portrait artist in the right place at the right time. It was the golden age of Dutch exploration and trading. Amsterdam was awash with money - and wealthy merchants who wanted their likenesses immortalized. He was willing to experiment – with compositions, with light and shade, with his application of paint to canvas with brush and palate knife. At the age of twenty-seven he was the leading artist of his time. He was prolific, he was a pioneer of etching and he thrived. Rembrandt is narrated by Robert Lindsay who interviews people such as A C Grayling, the well-known philosopher, on the impact of his portraits. Modern artists demonstrate his methods and techniques. All his best-known works (for example The Night Watch) and dozens of his self-portraits are examined. This is no dry lecture of a film. It is hard to imagine a more fascinating and effective way of gaining a deep knowledge of the arts than via these films. Rembrandt was shown on the 2nd October. Watch out for further opportunities to see this film. Also have a look at Van Gogh and Japan which will open at Luna Cinemas from the 23rd to 27th November. Highly recommended.

Rembrandt - the Later Years Kat Mansoor James Forte

Art at a Superior Level ometimes, while promenading through an art gallery, you come across a picture which stops you dead in your tracks. You are overcome by the sheer beauty of the work. You ask yourself: “How could the artist get it so right?” It speaks to something deep inside you and you will never be the same again. In the April 2019 issue of Swan Magazine, I wrote about first seeing Monet’s Water Lilies. That was such a moment. Rembrandt gives a similar experience. Luna cinemas continue showing their series of art events through high-resolution films of the contents of the great European galleries. Last year, the National Gallery in London mounted an exhibition of Rembrandt’s works.

Rembrandt van Rijn - self portrait in 1660 31

~oOo~ Film: Director: Reviewer:

on a quest for inner peace, Vietnamese refugee Due Quach who overcame developmental trauma through ‘mind hacking’, elite athlete Heather Hennessy who reinvented herself following a career-ending injury, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana who found freedom in the confines of a personal catastrophe, and neurosurgeon James R Doty MD who had to lose everything to find the meaning of life.” There are also a small but powerful band of experts – Three futurists and a humanised robot struggling with

Portal Jacqui Fifer Sharron Attwood

Our Way Forward aving had a busy month, I barely skimmed the outline of the movie before attending. Ironically, it’s message of needing to slow down in life to better manage our emotions, our relationships – our lives – was not lost on me. Whilst billed as a documentary, it’s mix of interviews, scripted re-enactments, animations and strong voice over – made it feel visionary rather than retrospective. It felt immersive rather than something to passively watch. Blending together thoughts on love, human potential, philosophy, brain hacking, stillness, inner peace and meditation, Portal offers example after example of people coming through the most challenging moments in their lives by being aware of the power of thought and stillness of the mind. A three-year collaboration by visionary director, co-writer and human potential advocate Jacqui Fifer and Producer and co-writer Tom Cronin, who, as the creator of the Stillness Project has also created a global movement to inspire one billion people to meditate daily. Tom is also one of the world’s most prominent speakers and teachers in this space. Filmed across 2016 – 2018 in a Syrian refugee camp, The USA, Canada, Australia and Indonesia, once we get through the opening audio visual, which runs long but may well have been designed to disorientate - we are thrown into the backstories of the documentaries’ subjects. Kids with issues and we just know their life will be tough. The loners, the ignored, the abused and the misunderstood. The busyness of life rendering them almost invisible. To quote the producers: “There is Ron ‘Booda’ Taylor—a retired US serviceman managing PTSD, Human Rights Expert Amandine Roche whose commitment to global peace took her

human emotions. Mikey Siegel, Dr Julia Mossbridge and Daniel Schmachtenberger offer up their own thoughts on the application of technology in transforming human existence. Given that change is inevitable and technology is ever emerging – we need to look at approaching life in a different way – an evolved way. Amidst the noise and apparent chaos in life – it is proposed that we need to embrace stillness to find our way through it or just to live within it. The stories are powerful and they support the message in a way theory or science alone never could. It’s a message we all need to hear – right now. Portal aims to bring about a planetary shift in an incremental way – prompting one person at a time to move through the portal and experience life from a place of calm. It’s more than just an idea whose time has well and truly come – it’s our way forward.

REVIEWS

maid Josephine (Bee Tandy) to the Eternal City with him. Irene says she wants to stay in Paris to continue her art classes, but her father finds she has skipped classes for weeks; he suspects her refusal has something to do with the family of his friend, Mr D’Aiguines (Jarvys McQueenMason).

Production: The Captive Producer: Murdoch Theatre Company Reviewer: Gordon the Optom

he Captive is a translation of the 1926 French play known as La Prisonniere, written by Édouard Bourdet; He was married to the poet, Catherine Pozzi, and they had a son Claude Bourdet. While serving in the military during World War I, Bourdet met a fellow officer who told him of a similar unhappy marriage, thus giving Bourdet the idea for the play. One can only wonder how much of this story is also autobiographical. Murdoch Theatre Company’s latest quality production is of this forbidden love story, which at the time was so controversial that the entire cast was arrested for indecency. Many books were destroyed by the disgusted, as a result, an original copy can now fetch about $700. This powerful and superb, two-hour play for adults is being presented in Studio 411 – across from Car park 4 – within Murdoch University’s South Street campus, Murdoch on the Friday 11th and Saturday 12th of October, at 7.00 pm. There is a 2.00 pm matinee on Saturday the 12th. The production is managed by Jordan D’Arcy. The Scene: Modern day. In the Paris home of politician, Monsieur Montcel and his student daughters. The set: Was designed and built by Julia Parks. It is simple but effective, Irene’s bedroom and Jacques’ office. A line of 1.5-metre high flats stretches across the rear of the stage. There are no drapes. Two of the flats are decorated with hand-painted wallpaper, these rotate to give the impression of the two different venues. Irene’s bed with a flamingo design duvet, becomes a settee with black cover in Jacques’ home. The girls’ makeup counter becomes Jacques’ office desk. James Jury operated the lighting design created by Des Smalberger and Simeon Brudenell. The lighting levels were slowly and subtly changed with the mood – this can be a risky effect, but it worked well this time. Stage manager Phil Bialis proved his skills when at the end of Act 1 a team of stagehands and actors moved in and rapidly changed the Montcel’s home to the lounge room / office of Jacques. Irene de Montcel (Beth Williams) and her young ingenuous sister, Gisele (Izabella Day) live in Paris with their father, Monsieur De Montcel (Andrew O’Connell). Having accepted the post as Ambassador to Rome, the father plans to take his two daughters and the

Rapidly losing friends and feeling cornered, Irene clutches at a name, selecting that of a wealthy old school friend, Jacques Virieu (Jacob Murphy) whom – she lies to her father – is on the verge of proposing to her. Thrilled, Mr De Montcel agrees that Irene can stay in Paris, if supervised by Miss March (Andrea Kendrick) the housekeeper. Jacques is horrified at the pretend engagement, as he has a secret love of his own and suspects he is being used as a cover by Irene, who wants to be near another man. The trouble is Jacques really does love Irene and in order discover Irene’s real partner, calls upon the help of his maid Georges (Tiarn Hutton) and best friend, Françoise Meillant (Domenic Scriva). Can Irene overcome her difficulties and find true love? This play has been VERY well directed by the two first-time directors, Zenna Newman-Santos and Sarah Papadoulis. You can see the huge amount of thought that has gone into each and every character by both these directorial debutants and the talented actors. Even those with minor parts showed a full understanding of the emotion and the complex relationships. The storyline has love (both forbidden and unrequited), anger, the search for truth, intrigue, mental challenges and despair, all clearly demonstrated by the well-rehearsed cast. Beth William’s performance in particular showed every nuance of her suffering. Some scenes were extremely demanding for the actors, but they showed full confidence throughout. The Murdoch Theatre Company has an excellent record for producing consistent quality. This is a play for those who appreciate gifted acting and subtle themes. MOST enjoyable. ~oOo~ Production: The Campervan Tales Producer: Blak Yak Theatre Company Reviewer: Gordon the Optom The Campervan Tales is a series of three- or four-minute plays, all written by Perth playwright James Forte, a scientist with a passion for writing. A couple of these were delightful monologues in the style of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads. Blak Yak Theatre, whose main aim is to encourage and help new writers, kindly offered to put on James’s collection, each being directed by a different director; however, in the end, Jarrod Buttery was ‘lumbered’ with the challenging task of directing the whole six. This 110-minute production was put on for one-night, 27th 33

The Gold Brick Safety System A young secretary, Sybil (Sarah Thillagaratnam) is working for an airline company and is desperate for promotion. One day she comes up with a novel idea to make her truly indispensable. Unfortunately, the original actor had to withdraw from the part only a couple of days before the production went up. Sarah stepped in and performed the piece as a reading / moved reading with plenty of emotion and passion. Well done, you did the fascinating story justice.

A Bloke’s Coda - with Paul Cook & Josh Harris

September at 7.00 pm, as a theatre-meal production at Rigby’s Bar in St George’s Terrace in Perth; then on Saturday the 28th September as a standard production in the Garrick Theatre in Guildford. Lighting design and operation were by Jarrod Buttery and Michael McAllan. Soundscape operated by Vanessa Gudgeon had a wide cross section of music, from James Bond to the Moody Blues.

A Bloke’s Coda Young Barry (Josh Harris) who is in his final year at school is desperately trying to find a specific poetry book in his father’s book collection. His Dad (Paul Cook) is suspicious, why would a tearaway like Barry want a volume of romantic verse? Two strong performances, with a good rapport between father and son. Any parent would recognise the son instantly. The storyline had a good twist. Busselton Jetty 1969 On a holiday in Busselton, Dr Amanda Kingston (Vanessa Vance) recalls the days of her youth and the boy of her dreams, Steve (David Heder).

The Scene: Beyond the black stump eight travellers in their campervans have been cut off by floodwaters. Whilst waiting for the waters to recede they relate stories from their lives. The Set: A few tables and chairs – all that was required.

A beautifully poignant tale that brings a tear to the eye. Another powerful performance from Vanessa. Kurkervation, Volume 6 Dr Eddy (Sarah Christiner) is thrilled to be invited to her latest book launch and signing. On the stage to interview her is radio personality, Whirl (Ben Small) an egotistic, totally self-centred pain in the posterior. Can she get her message across to her enthusiastic fans?

Night Train from Rastani On a train in Eastern Europe, a young woman (Vanessa Vance) meets a man (Ben Small) – a fellow Aussie. They are enjoying each other’s company when a threatening soldier (David Heder) storms onto the train and takes them to the passport office for further checks. Is there a hidden secret?

Great teamwork as a cool intelligent scientist meets a presenter from hell. Sarah was at her best, coping with a wonderfully annoying Ben. Plenty of laughs.

A good story, with two enigmatic characters and a story of intrigue and tension. The three actors worked well together, feeding the story out at a perfect pace.

A couple of minutes is such a short time to create a personality and lay down a meaningful and interesting storyline,

The Stained-Glass Portrait Dr Brenda Wilson (Ann Speicher) discloses a schoolgirl ‘merry jape’ (to quote the Secret Seven) that carried on for years and has one wondering, who exactly is this doctor talking to the group? Ann is a highly admired actor, having been nominated for various awards, but sadly on Saturday night she was having a problem focusing – something that happens to us all at some time or another. Ann kept smiling and managed to bring the tale to satisfactory end. The story was fascinating and I wonder how many of us have tried something similar in our seedy pasts. 34

but in each case the actors, under the watchful and advising eye of the director Jarrod, presented their well-crafted piece. A good mix of stories giving a good night-out to all. ~oOo~ Production: Producer: Reviewer:

Present Laughter Old Mill Theatre Company Gordon the Optom

Present Laughter is a comic farcical play written by Sir Noël Peirce Coward in only six days of May 1939. However, the play was not produced until 1942 because of the theatres closing due to the Second World War. During the War Coward worked in the Propaganda Office and then for the Secret Service – amusing with a name like ‘coward’ and his use of the German umlaut above the ‘e’ in his name – before entertaining the troops. This popular and well-written play with its themes of fame, desire and loneliness are exactly what was required to cheer up the nation after years of hardship. Coward starred as the original Garry as have Albert Finney, Donald Sinden, George C. Scott and Kevin Kline. A wonderful version of this semi-autobiographical play – whose name comes from the line “present mirth hath present laughter” in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night – can be seen at the heritage-listed Old Mill Theatre on the corner of Mends Street and Mill Point Road in South Perth (opposite the Windsor Hotel and Australia Post). The two-and-a-half-hours of splendid classic comedy in the inimitable Coward style can be seen at 7.30 pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays until Saturday 12th October. The Scene: The mid 1940s at Garry Essendine’s Sloan Square flat in London. An area still famous for its yuppie Sloan Rangers. The Set: Was designed by David Cotgreave, who always thinks outside the square. Here he has produced a white skeleton set, mainly comprising wide white architraves and beautifully moulded 20 cms skirting. A touch of luxury which was most effective in the absence of plasterboard walls and pictures. The room corners were marked by simple vertical white wood strips. There was a double picture window. The panelled

doors were white with brass fittings. At the rear of the stage was a short staircase to the bedrooms, and a vestibule to the front door. Other doors led to the spare bedroom and an office.

Noël Coward and friend The set was built by David Cotgreave, Mark Nicholson and Lindsay Crane; and painted by Mark Nicholson, Sarah Christiner, Jeremy Heenan, Peter Clark, Grace Hitchin and Barry Park. The furniture included a drinks table, an oak grand piano and a resplendent luxury, large cream-suede armchair and matching two-seater settee. There was a telephone table behind the settee. There were many fabulous props of the ‘40s supplied by Grace Hitchin, Jenny Howard and the cast. Mark Nicholson’s quality lighting design was supervised by John Woolrych and slickly operated by Callum Hunter. Soundscape design included Overture music by the Mantovani or Frank Chacksfield strings. The sound operator was Martyn Churcher. The show was stage managed by Mark Fitzpatrick and his assistant Lindsay Crane, who were fast efficient and silent. It is mid-morning in the studio flat of the famous, yet insecure, lecherous playwright and actor, Garry Essendine (Peter Clark), when a young and beautiful admirer, Daphne Stillington (Tarryn McGrath) emerges from the spare room wearing Garry’s pyjamas. When the doddery old retainer, Swedish housekeeper Miss Erikson (Grace Hitchin) shuffles in to clean the room, she is followed by Essendine’s disdainful and longsuffering secretary, Monica

Present Laughter 35

Reed (Jenny Howard) carrying fan mail. Daphne asks if someone could call Garry to come down – they are horrified – he never rises until mid-day.

Osage County and even madcap pantomimes. The most important point in producing a play is to select the cast carefully. Here we have one of the best rehearsed casts that I have seen for months. Not only word perfect but every actor understood what they were saying and the best style of delivery to ensure the greatest pleasure for the audience. The teamwork was outstanding. The comic timing flawless and the pace galloped for the show’s full 150-minutes. Every character was superbly written, each was richly created, all with very different personalities. Fabulous performances, but relative newcomer Thomas Dimmick was ‘disturbingly’ good. The costumes by the Jenny Prosser and Nyree Hughes’ costumière team were not simply a few quickly selected outfits. The well-tailored garments came with harmonising nail varnish (as ‘polish’ was called in those days), with matching handbags, shoes, hats and gloves. Every item had been chosen carefully. Often in plays shoes are forgotten items, but here we have genuine 1940’s two-toned, wing tipped leather shoes, with white plus the relevant corresponding colour. The accessories of the day, large pearl necklaces, diamanté hair clips. The costumes were impeccable, oozing wealth – except for the ‘bag lady’ maid, Miss Erikson, with her hairnet and rollers, white linen gloves, horrendous overall and that cigarette welded to her bottom lip – a fabulous creation. A warning this extremely funny show was almost sold out before opening night so get in quickly for the valuable remaining tickets or pay scalpers’ prices. One of Coward’s best plays immaculately presented by all concerned. EDITOR: This show is now completely sold out. ~oOo~

The chirpy young Cockney valet, Fred (Declan Waters) walks through the room carrying some fresh towels and a rubber duck for Garry’s bath. Although famous Garry seemed to be still lacking confidence and is childlike, after being repressed by most people around him. Eventually, Garry staggers downstairs only to find his estranged wife, Liz (Nyree Hughes) waiting for him. She is accustomed to her husband’s romantic infidelities and sympathises with young Daphne who returns to the spare bedroom and later emerges wearing a stunning powderblue satin ballgown. As she is leaving the flat, the producer of Garry’s plays Henry Lyppiatt (Dean McAskil) arrives with his glitzy wife Joanna (Grace Edwards) and Garry’s philandering manager, Morris Dixon (Nigel Goodwin) to discuss their next production. The doorbell rings – it is an aspiring but totally mad playwright, Roland Maule (Thomas Dimmick) who has a play for Garry’s consideration. Then the wealthy aristocrat, Lady Saltburn (Meredith Hunter) arrives with her nubile daughter, also for Garry’s consideration. Can this randy actor escape from his complex life? Like so many of Cowards plays, despite its age this comedy still as fresh and funny today, another of his ‘entertaining evergreens’. Coward has a genre of his own and there are few actors who can carry off the suave dry wit required for each leading man. Peter Clark had every subtle nuance in this glorious classic comedy performed perfectly. Involved in theatre since the 1970s, director Barry who is recognised as a Coward aficionado, has presented numerous award-winning productions, from his Best Play and Best Director of Madame Butterfly to acclaimed serious plays like August:

Production: Best Bits Producer: WAAPA Reviewer: Ruby Westrall Best Bits is a tradition for the Third Year Music Theatre students at WAAPA, as a way of celebrating their three year journey from raw student to industry-ready professional, while at the same time raising funds for their “Showcase” tours of Sydney and Melbourne. Best Bits is an opportunity for the Third Years to revisit any piece that may have been particularly good, or perhaps more importantly, particularly bad and to get that monkey off their backs before presenting themselves to the industry. I attended the Sunday night 18+ edition of Best Bits which included a number of performer’s best bits that weren’t on show in the earlier performances! The format of the Best Bits includes potted versions of the shows this group of Third Years have been involved in during their MT journey at WAAPA, but mainly focusses on the three main shows they present in their final year. In this case, Rock of Ages from second year, Company, Strictly Ballroom and Sweet Charity were the 36

shows that received the condensed version treatment. In Rock of Ages, Ben Barker as Stacee Jaxx worked the audience like a pro, leaving one young woman in particular breathless with excitement as he singled her out for his semiclothed lascivious enjoyment during Dead or Alive, while Harry Targett’s bright clear rock tenor was heard to great advantage in Oh Sherrie. Isabelle Davis as Sherrie never failed to impress, and the energetic ensemble lifted these excerpts to a rousing level at the very beginning of the night’s programme. The Company selections were tinged with a commentary on the inner political workings within WAAPA, very interesting for an outsider to be privy to. With Ethan Jones inhabiting the persona of Andrew Lewis, Associate Dean of Performance, some interesting commentary was made regarding the casting of ‘covers’ for the season of Company and the choice to have the ‘cover’ of the pivotal role of Bobby sing Being Alive while the very talented Conor Neylon, who was the main cast Bobby, sat on the sidelines, gave great credence to the importance of learning how to be a cover, and more importantly for the MT profession, how the role of the swing needs to work. Axel Duffy showed that he was more than equal to the task of singing this demanding Sondheim role, and this also demonstrates the depth of talent at WAAPA. Victoria Graves, as Joanne, nailed the ubiquitous Ladies Who Lunch soliloquy with astonishing maturity for a young student. Strictly Ballroom was the mid year offering from this group of Third years (with Second years as ensemble members) and was presented at the Regal Theatre in Subiaco. This year was fraught with challenges for the WAAPA students and production staff, and involved second year covers going on in place of unwell third years and the cancellation of a performance due to the failure of the lighting desk, as well as an ad hoc extra performance added to accommodate those audience members discommoded by the cancelled show, helmed by David King, Head of Musical Theatre. Ethan Jones as the arch villain Barry Fyfe excelled in his show stopping Dance to Win and Grace Collins showed off her excellent dance moves in Life After Dance. Rose ShannonDuhigg, who starred as Fran, sang the Doris Day standard Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps with great sensitivity while demonstrating her dance credentials. Harry Targett as Scott was also highlighted and his physicality and vocal prowess demonstrated how powerful this production was in it’s entirety. The final show slot was Sweet Charity and Caitlin New reprised her successful portrayal of the title character with a shortened rendition of If My Friends Could See Me Now. Jackson Peele and the entire cast were energetic in bringing Rhythm of Life into technicolour glory. Interspersed with these show reprisals were wonderful solo moments from these talented students. Axel Duffy showed his charming romantic comic style in Ilona from She Loves Me, Isabelle Davis was vulnerable and heartfelt in Somewhere That’s Green from Little Shop of Horrors, while Tahra Cannon demonstrated her quirkiness in Crossword Puzzle. Jed McKinney was breathtakingly haunting in Night Song from Golden Boy, his languid, caramel tones enchanting the audience. Maddy Jolly Fuentes was hilariously assisted by Isabelle Davis and Ben Barker in Loud from Matilda and Annabelle Rosewarne imbued Watch What Happens from Newsies with meaning, especially given the recent climate change strikes worldwide. In the second half of the programme, Alex Landsberry and male ensemble were riotous in Hard to Be the Bard from Something Rotten, an hilarious take on William Shakespeare,

his life and times, while Luke Wilson equally had the audience in stitches as he enunciated his unhealthy obsession for Claire, the lady of his desires in To Excess. Ciara Taylor also presented an extract from Something Rotten, Right Hand Man demonstrating her rich, full, mezzo to great effect. Jack Shatford, supported by Axel Duffy sang What Would I Do from Falsettos with sensitivity and Sara Reed, supported by Ethan Jones took Words Words Words from The Witches of Eastwick to new levels of depravity and hilarity. Production and Design students brought the evening together and piano accompaniment was provided flawlessly by Joshua Haines with additional guitar by Luke Wilson. Each one of the graduating class of 2019 showed us they are ready to take on the challenges of entering the professional industry. This is yet another year of astonishingly talented and well trained, wonderfully prepared students on the cusp of interesting careers. ~oOo~ Production: Potchnagoola Producer: KSP Writers’ Centre Reviewer: Rashida Murphy Award -winning playwright Louise Helfgott was commissioned to write Potchnagoola, a play that celebrates the friendship of her brother, pianist David Helfgott, with writer, Katherine Susannah Prichard (KSP), in the mid 1960s when the pair used to meet at the writer’s home in the hills of Perth. Staged in a room of Katherine’s heritage listed former home, Potchanogoola is a stunningly original and authentic

The cast of Potchnagoola - Kerry Goode (KSP) and Cameron Tarran (David Helfgott) with the real David Helfgott at the opening night 37

performance directed by Douglas SutherlandBruce and actors Cameron Tarran (as young David), Kerry Goode (as KSP) and Douglas SutherlandBruce at the voice of Hugo Throssell VC. The name Potchnagoola was coined by David Helfgott. It is an amalgam of some of the titles of Katherine’s novels, which he read as a young man when he visited her home in Greenmount. The intimate setting of the writer’s home, the presence of 72 year old David Helfgott playing the piano at the end of the play and an intuitively written script made this an eerie experience. Kerry Goode is to be commended on memorising and delivering lengthy monologues with skill and heart, while young Cameron Tarran showed glimpses of the famous twitchiness and repetitive intensity that would mark Helfgott in his later years. The score from Brilliantissimo by David Kerry Goode and Douglas Sutherland-Bruce with Karen Throssell, Katharine Helfgott provided scene breaks and served to Susannah Prichard’s granddaughter highlight the feeling that we were watching ‘reallife’ play out through some sort of time warp. An 81 years of age with an 18-year-old David was being told within especially nice touch was the projection of a photo of Hugo the very same walls over Fifty years later was poetic yet also felt Throssell (KSP’s dead husband) on to a communist flag sourced somewhat voyeuristic. The intimately staged play, a credit to especially from Russia. Director Douglas Sutherland-Bruce, who also took on the role KSP was famous as ‘The Red Witch’ for her defiantly Hugo ‘Jim’ Throssell VC – was so easy to watch. With a small cast communist world-view at a time when a nervous Australian consisting of just Douglas, established actress Kerry Goode as government vacillated between promoting her skill as a writer Katharine with the talented and very well cast Cameron Tarran and condemning her politics. It is in our nature to be fascinated by glimpses into the lives as David, I did fear a heavy handed round of verbal tennis. However, a combination of meaningful and realistic of people we know through art, cinema, literature and music, especially when those glimpses are provided by those who were conversation between characters and emotional monologues gave us the light and shade the story needed. It is after all, quite ‘there.’ The movie Shine offered one such glimpse and this play an unlikely friendship. offers another; an endearingly different look at a man whose The play was written by Louise Helfgott, playwright and life has become story. More than that, it recreates KSP as a sister of David. She shared how she remembers her brother woman haunted by the suicides of her father and husband, and foreshadowing the suicide of her only son Ric, after she had died. visiting Katharine, and he having to walk all the way from her Greenmount home to the Helfgott family home in Highgate – a Katherine was truly a woman ahead of her time, unwilling to fit into the conservative anti-communist society of Perth in the distance of twenty-one kilometres, when he has missed the last bus home. decades after the Second World War. This was retold in the play – and you can by then imagine It is fitting that her struggles are captured in this a young David, so enthralled in his conversations with mentor commemorative play by the sister of a man whose friendship Katharine, deciding a long walk was worth the chance to finish provided solace at the end of her life. It is also not easy to write their chat. a new version of well-documented lives, and to do so in a way Katharine’s association with the Australian Communist that captures both the intellectual and emotional imagination. party was introduced early on as it forms a large part of her Louise Helfgott has done both. And in doing so has provided personal story. Her writing was well regarded, culminating in crucial insights into the hearts and minds of two of Western many awards both overseas and in Australia, she was also the Australia’s literary and musical prodigies. 5 stars out of 5. recipient of many grants from the government. A Government First published on www.artshub.com.au which was also highly suspicious of her Communist sympathies About Guest Reviewer: Rashida Murphy is a Perth based - which saw her go on to be a founding member of the Australian writer and reviewer. For more information visit her website: Communist party. www.rashidawritenow.com. Her home was raided from time to time – and in the play, ~oOo~ she speaks so matter of factly about those times. As if was small personal price to pay considering her convictions and the fact Production: Potchnagoola she was often tipped off – giving her time to move letters and Producer: KSP Writers’ Centre books to a handy bush in the garden. Reviewer: Sharron Attwood Coming to know Katharine through the words of Louise s a local, and a student of literature, Helfgott, I agree that she saw the communist way as being I was surprised to be so completely supportive of the working class and of women – causes she was unfamiliar with the works and personal story passionate about. David’s father was supportive of his education of Katharine Susannah Prichard. I was more in these issues and David in turn, enjoyed the challenge of their familiar with the talents and story of David Helfgott, but in seeing the play, was looking forward to learning friendship. Being mentored by a strong women who saw more in him than he often saw in himself, lead him to accept more of more about the both of them. Having the play set in Katharine’s home and staged there in the opportunities that came his way. She in turn appreciated his company, his music and his enquiring mind. was poignant. The realisation that the story of her friendship at

SECOND CHANCE THEATRE PLAYTHINGS

ALICIA GOULD

ounded in 2011, Second Chance Theatre (SCT) is a Perth-based, Siobhan Dow-Hall graduated from WAAPA’s acting course independent and award-winning theatre company. Producing in 2009, and received her Masters by Research in 2017. She has hit indie shows such as Josephine!, Laika: A Staged Radio Play, starred in numerous short films, as well as major productions Between Solar Systems- SCT is dedicated to fostering emerging including Foxtel’s Cloudstreet, Singapore based HBO series artists and Expanding the limits of what can be put on stage. Serangoon Road, the WA horror feature The Reckoning, and Lucy and Arnold are thirteen. She listens to the Jebediah ABC’s The Heights. Siobhan is currently a lecturer at the Ali and he’s just discovered Queen. Roberts Studio, and WAAPA. He’s a bit sensitive and she loves The Simpsons – you know, St John Cowcher is an actor, theatre-maker and puppeteer. before it got shit. This week, he has an English assignment due. He works with many excellent companies including Black Swan, And she’s planning on killing her stepdad. Barking Gecko, The Last Great Hunt, and Second Chance Theatre; Playthings is a darkly funny new play about growing up is an associate artist with Spare Parts Puppet Theatre, Weeping in suburban WA. A modern day horror mixed with John Hughes Spoon, Variegated Productions and The Big Hoo-Haa, and a coming-of-age vibes that takes you back to your teenage years in proud Equity Australia member since 2015. an ode to being young, dumb, and angry. Playthings runs from 5th November until the 23rd at The Writer/ Director Scott McArdle explains: “This is a work Blue Room Theatre that’s pulled straight from my childhood. It’s an ode to growing Tickets may be booked on www.blueroom.org.au. up in Australian suburbia, to being a Millennial. It’s about angry kids, lost kids, sad kids - to the freaks, geeks, goths, and loners. But most of all, it’s about surviving and how you can’t survive on your own - that friendship is life’s strongest life raft.” The cast consists of Courtney Henri (Lucy), Daniel Buckle (Arnold), Siobhan Dow-Hall (Miss Richards) and St John Cowcher (Rhys). Courtney Henri is a recent graduate of the Bachelor of Performing Arts degree at the WAAPA. Over the past few years she has been in shows such as The Cockburn Incident and The Raver and multiple musicals at The Regal Theatre during her time in high school. Throughout her studies Courtney was able to explore storytelling through a variety of forms and her love for performing grew. Daniel Buckle is a children’s entertainer, and improviser who studied at John Curtin College of the Arts, and received a Diploma of Screen Acting at the Film and Television Institute. Buckle co-wrote and starred in Fish in the Sea. He has been a member of The Big HOO-HAA! Arnold (Daniel Buckle) and Lucy (Courtney Henri) in Playthings improvised comedy troupe since 2012.

GILBERT AND SULLIVAN SOCIETY YEOMAN OF THE GUARD JOHN-MICHAEL SWINBANK

Passion, intrigue, and fabulous moustaches! lind passion, deceptive intrigue, mistaken identity, overdue beheadings, there’s never a dull moment around the Tower of London, according to WS Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan in their madcap musical, The Yeomen of the Guard at The Dolphin Theatre for a season from October 24. Presented by The Gilbert and Sullivan Society of WA hard on the heels of their sold-out season of The Mikado, The Yeomen of the Guard is just the merry romp to get you out of the house and into doublet and hose. Set in ye olde England but about as Shakespearean as Errol Flynn in tights, the plot, like many a G&S show, is as silly as a soufflé but filled with the most wonderful characters and songs. Blindfolded heroines, dashing heroes, indomitable dames, and pedantic gaolers with a penchant for thumbscrew torture, compete with each other to steal the show and your affections. Making his debut as a director, Michael Brett, who has been musical director of many of the Society’s recent productions, said that The Yeomen of the Guard was the most surprising in the G&S repertoire of fourteen shows. “Gilbert and Sullivan went all out with this one,” he said. “There is still the trademark hilarious comedy and crazy characters but a deepening of the music and exploration of the

The cast of Yeomen of the Guard in rehearsal human heart - and with the most fabulous moustaches in the business.” From the team that has brought you The Mikado, HMS Pinafore and The Gondoliers, this new G&S WA production features elaborate period costumes in a lush setting. With a cast of twenty five and a live orchestra, under the musical direction of Georg Corall, this season of one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most fascinating musical comedies is a ‘must see’ that will have you laughing at the antics and musing over the follies of the human heart long after you leave the theatre. Tickets are extremely limited for the nine-performance season. Bookings can be made 24/7 at www.ticketswa.com (no online booking charges) or on 6488 2440 between noon and 4pm Monday to Friday. Founded by Bernard Manning in 1951, The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Western Australia has produced over 100 productions of Gilbert & Sullivan's extraordinary contribution to the musical theatre.

The cast of Yeomen of the Guard in rehearsal 40

GARRICK THEATRE PUSS IN BOOTS AT GARRICK CONSTANCE MORRISON-BURKE

veryone loves a pantomime (Oh no, they don’t!; Oh yes, they do!) - it’s an innocent family entertainment for all ages drawn from ancient theatrical traditions, going back as far as the 16th century commedia dell’arte tradition of Italy overlaid and mixed with the British stage traditions of music hall. The panto, as it’s affectionately called, has developed along certain fixed lines - incorporating song, dance, buffoonery, slapstick, cross-dressing, in-jokes, topical references, audience participation, mild sexual innuendo and an occasional disregard of the convention of the ‘fourth wall’ by directly addressing the audience directly. The Dame (almost exclusively played by a man) is a hugely comic role and the Principal Boy is usually played by a young woman in breeches. The audience are presumed to know the plot, most often a well-known fairy tale, and wild liberties are taken. This Christmas Season entertainment is Garrick Theatre’s production of Puss in Boots - with songs, a

few jokes and lots of fun for all. Directed by Douglas SutherlandBruce, with musical direction by Lyn Brown and choreography by Siobhan Vincent, Puss in Boots includes all the traditional ingredients, with a cast of nearly forty, a live band , ‘killer rabbits’, a talking cat, an ogre and a beautiful princess. Douglas has collected a talented cast drawn from all ages, many from previous musicals, pantos and music halls. Douglas: “I just love the whole idea of panto, the tradition, the audience participation, the essential innocence of the medium. We’ve put together an amazing cast and we’ve picked all our favourite songs. Bookings are coming in rapidly and at least one matineé has been booked out already. It just shows that panto is as popular as it ever has been. Even our own Queen was in one as Aladdin during the war” Princess Elizabeth of York (now Queen Puss in Boots opens on the 28th Elizabeth II) as Alladin in the panto at November and Buckingham Palace in 1943 runs until the 14th December at 8:00pm, Garrick Theatre, 16 Meadow Street, Guildford. There are matineés on the Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets cost $25 (Adults), $15 (Children under 12) and $75 (Family - two adults and two children) and may be booked by ringing Elaine on 9378 1990 or on-line at Trybooking on www. trybooking.com/ BFQWN.

The cast of Puss in Boots in rehearsal 41

TV WITH CHRIS OCTOBER 2019

Get set for plenty of sashaying, attitude, personalities and special guests by the dozen including Maisie Williams. Andrew Garfield, Twiggy and Geri Halliwell. For fans of all things drag and theatrical, this is one spectacle not to be missed.

pring has well and truly sprung and with the Emmy’s in the rear view mirror, it is time for a new bunch of original content and returning favourites to light up our small screens. Here are some highlights to look forward to.

Title: GET SHORTY - Season 3 Network: Stan The unconventional but highly entertaining pairing of Chris O’Dowd and Ray Romano return for the black comedy crime saga. Following a mobster turned movie mogul (O’Dowd), the first two seasons had action, thrills and comedy by the bucketload and provided a very entertaining ride. With a terrific supporting cast, get set for more twists and turns as Get Shorty returns for round three!

Title: RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE UK Network: Stan Everyone’s favourite drag queens are heading international as the Emmy award winning series kicks off its UK version. After 11 seasons and 13 Emmy Awards, the iconic and charismatic RuPaul brings the highly popular RuPaul’s Drag race to the UK.

Title: EL CAMINO: A BREAKING BAD MOVIE Regarded as one of the best shows of all time, Breaking Bad is set to receive a film length spin off in the form of El Camino. It follows series favourite Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) who finds himself in his own kind of trouble as he looks to evade capture and the authorities. Coming from the creator of the original series is a great sign and if it is anything like the quality of Breaking Bad, audiences are in for a real treat! Title: LIVING WITH YOURSELF Season 1 Network: Netflix - 18th October Who doesn’t love Paul Rudd? The famously youthful nice guy steps into the world of original comedy in the new Living With Yourself. Playing a man who undergoes treatment in the hope of a better life, things take a turn

when he is replaced by a replica (or doppelganger). Rudd’s comedic timing and chops are impeccable so expect plenty of intelligent laughs in this one! Title: THE KOMINSKY METHOD - Season 2 Network: Netflix - 25th October The sleeper comedy hit of last awards season makes its anticipated return as Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin reprise their roles in the razor sharp comedy about an ageing actor turned acting coach Sandy Kominski. Moments of laugh out loud comedy are interspersed with elements of melancholy as Arkin’s Norman Newlander must deal with his wife’s death to cancer and a drug addicted daugter. Wonderfully scripted, the second season is set to be just as good as the first! Title: GREENHOUSE ACADEMY - Season 3 Network: Netflix - Starts 25th October Largely unknown and aimed at a younger audience, this original series follows sibling pair Hayley and Alex as they navigate the challenging world of The Greenhouse Academy, an elite private boarding school for future leaders. After discovering some dark secrets under the surface of the school, questions still linger and Hayley’s relationship drama is set to be resolved. A fantastically complex story for young adult audiences with some intriguing plot lines and mystery. Season 3 is set to be entertaining!

NON - FICTION THE NOBLE RECREATION

“The detective-story is the normal recreation of noble minds.” Philip Guedalla DOUGLAS SUTHERLAND-BRUCE

THE FATHER OF DETECTIVE FICTION

EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809 – 1849)

dgar Allen Poe is the acknowledged inventor of the detective story as we understand it. Not just the detective fiction per se, but also several variants which have become standards of the genre. No less an authority than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said: “Each (of Poe’s detective stories) is a root from which a whole literature has developed.... Where was the detective story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it?” He is the originator of the Locked Room mystery; the Gifted Amateur Detective; the ‘idiot friend; the use of codes, ciphers and cryptography in detective stories; the ‘armchair detective’; the least-likely suspect being the guilty party and the use of real-life murder narrative as the basis of a plot. As well as being a major influence on the detective genre, he was also a significant influence on Gothic romantic literature, re-invigorated Science fiction and he anticipated the Big Bang Theory by eighty years. He was a remarkable man who led a remarkable life and we’re going to look at him in two sections, firstly his life, and then his works. Edgar Poe was born in Boston (the future home of Robert B Parker’s Spenser) in 1809, the son of David and Elizabeth ‘Eliza’ Poe. The two had been performing in Shakespeare’s King Lear the year before, which might explain the ‘Edgar’, a character in Lear. David Poe abandoned the family a year after Poe’s birth and the year after that, Eliza died of tuberculosis. Orphaned, the young Edgar was taken in by a wealthy childless family in Virginia, John Allen, a tobacco merchant and his wife Frances. Although never formally adopted, Edgar lived with them until well into young adulthood and took Allan’s name. In 1826 Poe left to attend the University of Virginia, where he excelled in his classes but accumulated considerable debt. Allan had sent Poe to college with less than a third of the funds he needed, and Poe soon took up gambling to raise money to pay his expenses. By the end of his first term Poe was so desperately poor that he burned his furniture to keep warm. Humiliated by his poverty and furious with Allan, Poe was forced to drop out of school and return to Richmond. Poe’s last months in the Allan mansion were punctuated with increasing hostility toward Allan until Poe finally stormed out of the home and enlisted in the United States Army, rising to the rank of Sergeant-Major. Two years later he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point while continuing to write and publish poetry. Poe hated West Point and made every effort to get thrown out - a popular rumour says he finally achieved it by reporting for Parade dressed only in his cartridge belts and a broad smile. The truth is less entertaining - Poe was court-martialed after he stopped going to class, parade, roll calls and chapel in January 1831. The following month, he was dismissed. Broke and alone, Poe turned to Baltimore—his father’s 44

A daguerreotype of Edgar Allan Poe taken in 1849 home—and called upon relatives in the city. His aunt Maria Clemm, became a new mother to him and welcomed him into her home, where his brother Henry had already been taken in. Clemm’s daughter, Poe’s cousin Virginia aged eight at the time , soon became the object of his desire. While Poe was in Baltimore, John Allan died, leaving Poe out of his will. By then Poe had started publishing his short stories, one of which won a contest sponsored by the Saturday Visiter. He published more stories and eventually gained an editorial position at the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond. It was at this magazine that Poe finally found his life’s work as a magazine writer. Within a year Poe helped make the Messenger the most popular magazine in the south with his sensational stories and his scathing book reviews. In 1836 he married his then thirteen-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm. By all accounts it was a happy marriage but money was always tight. Dissatisfied with his low pay and lack of editorial control at the Messenger, Poe moved to New York City and to Philadelphia a year later, where he wrote for a number of different magazines. In January 1845 Poe published The Raven which made Poe a

heart disease, epilepsy, syphilis, meningeal inflammation, cholera and rabies, but no one really knows. Almost immediately after his death, Rufus Griswold, who had been the subject of one of Poe’s more virulent critiques, exacted his revenge with a vicious obituary, followed by an even more venomous collection of Poe’s writings (the rights to which he had defrauded from Poe’s mother-in-law Maria Clemm) and in which he wrote a biographical preface filled with half-truths, lies and forged ‘evidence’. In it he depicted Poe as a depraved, drunken, drug-addled madman; immoral and instable. Instantly contradicted by those who had known Poe well, nevertheless it became the major biographical source, influencing writers even now, despite the many contradictions and the forgeries, However, Griswold totally failed in his objective, which was to relegate Poe to the dustbin of history - as we shall see with Monsignor Ronald Knox’s attempt to belittle Sherlock Holmes, the whole plan backfired. Rather than shunning Poe’s work it intrigued the public and his works became increasingly popular and have gone on to great fame, while Griswold is known, if at all, merely as Poe’s first biographer. Virginia Clemm Poe (1823 - 1847)

HIS WORKS

Poe’s reputation in detective fiction rests entirely on five short stories, all but one of which can be found in the Tales of Mystery and Imagination, the usual collection of his short work. The first to appear was the short story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, published in 1841 and which introduced his detective, the Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin . Of course, he wasn’t called ‘detective’ since the word had not been coined then, Poe described the stories as ‘tales of ratiocination’. The Murders in the Rue Morgue is the first of hundreds of ‘locked room’ mysteries which propose the puzzle of the dead body found in a room which seems to be effectively sealed. Sometimes the problem in these stories concerns the

household name, although he himself only received US$9. He was now famous enough to draw large crowds to his lectures— and also began demanding better pay for his work. He published two books that year, but his wife’s deteriorating health, and rumours about Poe’s relationship with a married woman, drove him to a tiny cottage in the country. It was there, in the winter of 1847, that Virginia died of tuberculosis at the age of twenty-four. Her death devastated Poe and left him unable to write for months. His critics assumed he would soon be dead. They were right. Poe only lived another two years and spent much of that time traveling from one city to the next giving lectures. On October 3, 1849, Poe was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore, “in great distress, and… in need of immediate assistance”. He was taken to the Washington Medical College where he died four days later without explaining how he came to be in his dire condition and, oddly, wearing clothes that were not his own. All medical records have been lost, including his death certificate. Newspapers at the time reported Poe’s death as “congestion of the brain” or “cerebral inflammation”, common euphemisms for death from disreputable causes such as alcoholism. The actual cause of death remains a mystery. Speculation has included delirium tremens, The cottage in Fordham where Poe and Virginia spend their last years 45

of Marie Rogêt, written and published in 1842. It is based on a true life crime and closely follows the murder of a girl named Mary Cecilia Rogers in New York. She worked on the counter in Anderson’s shop on Broadway, where Poe was a customer. He read in the newspapers, who called her the “Beautiful Cigar Girl”, that her body had been found in the Hudson River. She had apparently left home with a young man on the Sunday before the Thursday when her body was found. She had previously disappeared for a week, claiming that she had stayed with friends in Brooklyn. The real-life crime was never officially solved. Some months later her grief-stricken fiancé Daniel Payne committed suicide by overdosing on laudanum. The story of Marie Roget, as written, is the forerunner of all ‘armchair detective’ stories. Dupin merely stays in his apartment and reads the newspaper cuttings (although attributed to French papers, these are almost word for word similar to those in the New York press on the Rogers murder). The cuttings are interspersed with the comments and conclusions of Dupin, who relies for his evidence wholly upon this, contradictory, press information. The story does not end with a solution - merely an indication of the line of investigation which the police should find most rewarding. Poe himself claimed that he had solved the Rogers killing in the same way, stating that Mary had been killed by someone who knew her and not a stranger, that he was probably a former lover, and that the murder was committed to conceal a pregnancy. Poe claimed that Mary Rogers was killed by Philip Spencer, a naval officer and son of John Spencer, Secretary of State for the United States Navy. Philip Spencer had an unfortunate record of drunkenness and disorderly conduct and was expelled from several colleges. If he was the murderer of Mary Rogers he did not escape ultimate justice, for he was hanged for his part in a mutiny. A persuasive argument is that she was murdered, or dumped by noted abortionist Madame Restell after a failed procedure. The third and final of the Dupin stories by Poe: The Purloined Letter first appeared in 1845. The story is based on the concept that the most apparently unlikely person/solution is in fact the correct one, with the ingenious addition in Poe’s story that that which seems most unlikely is really perfectly obvious. A document ‘of the last important’ has been ‘purloined from the Royal apartments.’ The identity of the person who took it is known, but he is a Minister, too important to be arrested without proof. The police search without success, every night for three months, the hotel in which the Minister lives. They probe with needles, remove table tops, look for cavities in bed legs, examine the rungs of every chair and the moss between bricks, measure the thickness of book covers to see if the bindings have been tampered with. At the end of all this Dupin pays a visit to the hotel ands sees the letter at once. It is in full view, placed in a filigreed card rack of pasteboard, soiled and crumpled and torn nearly in two across the middle. It has been put into a place so obvious that the police

murder method (how was X stabbed, shot, poisoned etc., when nobody could have entered the room and there is no trace of a weapon or a container for the poison) and sometimes the means of entry or egress. One common form of solution is that in which the murder was committed before the door was locked or after it has been opened. Another depends upon some mechanical device like a murder weapon which will operate at a particular time, and yet another still is related to some possible means of entry which is not immediately obvious. In Poe’s story the investigator, C August Dupin (pronounced ‘due-pan’) deduces that the two women found brutally murdered in the sealed room were murdered by someone who had come through the apparently securely nailed window. He finds that one nail in the window is broken, so that it only appears that it’s holding the window, which is also retained by spring. The police, thinking the nail was completely driven through the window, did not trouble to look for the spring. By this, and other deductions, Dupin comes to the correct conclusion that the murders have been committed by an Orangutan which has escaped from its owners. If this solution seems bizarre and incredible, bear in mind that during the summer of 1910, a series of daring jewel robberies took place in Paris, delighting the press and baffling the police. The highly unlikely, almost incredible, truth of these crimes is that they were carried out by a chimpanzee from a traveling zoo, trained by its keeper to open safes and strong boxes in the apartments, rifle the contents and bring the jewellery to its owner outside. The second Poe story to engage our interest is The Mystery 46

Illustration for The Purloined Letter ignore it. Dupin goes to see the Minister again and retrieves the letter when he is distracted by a musket fired in the street (previously arranged by Dupin). These three stories are directly associated with the detective story as we know it. They create a detective who is, in all but name, the prototype of the aristocratic gifted amateur detective. A line that stretches from the Chevalier through Sherlock Holmes, gentleman (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), Lord Peter Whimsey (Dorothy L Sayers), the possibly Royal Albert Campion (Margery Allingham), baronet’s son Roderick Alleyn (Dame Ngaio Marsh) to Viscount Lord Lynley (Elizabeth George). The Chevalier Dupin is presented without a physical description and he seems less human than his successors because Poe wanted to stress the supreme importance of the intellect, unencumbered with emotional considerations - a character, in short, who was idealisation of himself. Detesting daylight Dupin prefers to sit behind closed shutters in a room lit only by a couple of tapers which, ‘strongly perfumed, threw only the ghastliest and feeblest of rays’. He frequently remains in his room, a small library at the rear of number 33 Rue Dunot, Paris for a month or more without allowing a single visitor. From this sanctuary he sometimes comes out at night to walk the dark, gas-lit streets and enjoy ‘the infinity of mental excitement’ afforded by observation. Dupin is poor, but he considers this condition unimportant as long as he has enough for necessities and his one luxury books. He is ‘of an excellent - indeed of an illustrious - family’. Poe, who would have liked to have had such a background, provides him with an ancestry equal to his intellect and creativity. An omnivorous reader, Dupin once admitted writing certain doggerel: reminiscent of the limerick form. He smokes

heavily, enjoying a quiet meerschaum with his friend. His green spectacles improve his short-sighted vision and also enable him to observe people surreptitiously but intently. Young, scholarly, eccentric, romantic, aristocratic, arrogant and apparently omniscient, Dupin has only one companion - the nameless friend who chronicles his adventures. His devoted assistant is intellectually far inferior to Dupin and his role establishes the precedent we have called ‘the idiot friend’ - which all gentlemen detectives have - Dr Watson, Mervyn Bunter, Maggersfontein Lugg, Inspector Fox and Sergeant Havers. Many of the qualities with which Dupin has been endowed appear in one form or another in many of his successors, most notably in Jacques Futrelle’s The Thinking Machine, Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe and Conan Doyles’ Sherlock Holmes. The other two stories by Poe of importance to our narrative of sensational literature are, firstly, The Gold Bug. Written in 1843, it is a true puzzle story and the solution relies on the deciphering of a cryptogram. A plot well used, most notably by Conan Doyle in the Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Dancing Men. In this story Poe’s narrator, Legrand, breaks the code by using his knowledge of the predominance of the letter ‘e’ in the English language. A scrap of paper left by Captain Kidd, the pirate and a lost treasure on a strange island are the ingredients of this story, many of which re-appear in Robert Louis Stephenson’s Treasure Island. Poe’s final story of importance as far as we are concerned is Thou Art the Man, a far lesser known that the other four. The story shows a nice blending of Poe’s interest in detection and his obsession about the narrow barrier between life and death. Thou Art the Man is a murder mystery. The wealthy Barnabas Rattleborough has disappeared, and several clues indicating that he has been murdered are found by his friend, Charlie Goodfellow, all of them leading to the conclusion that Rattleborough has been murdered by his dissipated nephew, Pennyfeather. They include a blood-stained waistcoat and knife, both belonging to the nephew, and a bullet found in Rattleborough’s dead horse dead horse, ‘exactly adapted to the bore of Mr Pennyfeather’s rifle’ and ‘containing a flaw which corresponds precisely with an accidental ridge or elevation in a pair of moulds acknowledged by the accused himself [Pennyfeather] to his own property.’ Goodfellow gives a party to celebrate the arrival of a case of Chateau Margeaux. However the case proves to contain, not wine, but the battered, bloody and semidecomposed body of Rattleborough which 47

sits up, looks directly at Goodfellow and says ‘Thou art the man’. Goodfellow’s confession follows with the revelation that all the clues (false, of course) have been planted by Goodfellow and the further revelation by the narrator that he had found the body and devised the ‘jack-in-the-box’ effect with whalebone down the throat before folding the corpse into the box. The voice was created with ventriloquism to create the few words of accusation. The originality of this improbable story from the detective point of view rests in the trail of false clues, the first use of primitive ballistics and the eventual discovery of the commission of the crime by the least likely person. These then are the themes with which Poe gifted the writers who followed him, to use, expand and elaborate. Poe’s originality does not end with the provision of material for plots for the use of other writers. Because his work was popular and sold well - he is believed to be the first person in America to wholly support himself by writing - his success other writers to adopt this theme and expand the art form. Poe himself wrote no other tales of ratiocination because he himself tired of the idea and in any case was more interested in mystery and horror. Charles Sholefield QC, one time President of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London has said of these tales ‘I do not recommend them; I have always considered that they are horrible.’ While bearing in mind that he is talking from a somewhat prejudiced point of view; in this, as in so many other things, he is quite correct in that the underlying nastiness of the stories does percolate through. None of this is said with any intention of denigrating the contribution which Poe has made to the development of modern detective fiction. An intriguing footnote on the life of Edgar Allan Poe is that he met Charles Dickens in 1842 in Philadelphia. Dickens arrived in Philadelphia to lecture and on learning this Poe sent him a letter requesting a meeting, along with a two volume collections of his short stories. Dickens responded at once and a meeting was arranged. The two discussed contemporary English and American writers and talked about the necessity for an international copyright law. Poe asked Dickens to help him get his stories published in England through his contacts. Dickens promised to try but unfortunately failed. By the time Dickens arrived in America the second time, Poe was dead. However, when Dickens learned that Poe’s mother in law, Maria Clemm was ill and living on charity, he visited her, pressed some money into her hand and later, from England, contributed a thousand dollars to her upkeep.

Metropolitan Police was created with the purpose of preventing crime rather than undertaking post factum investigations. Two detectives were attached to each division of the force and two inspectors and six sergeants were established at Scotland Yard. In the event, the detectives’ success in tracking down murders changed public perceptions and their mode became forensic. Inspector Bucket appeared in 1852 in Bleak House, first published as a twenty-part monthly serial. He became the prototype of the official representative of the police department: drab, undramatic and unexciting, but honest, hardworking, fair, confident, stolid, competent and inevitably successful. Possibly Bucket’s most noteworthy characteristics are his tenacity and an apparent ability to be omnipresent. Regardless of the furious action around him, Bucket always manages to ‘lurk and lounge’. Mr Bucket pervades a vast number of houses and strolls about an infinity of streets - to outward appearance benign and forgiving of mankind’s little peccadilloes. His warmth and compassion, however, have limits: ‘I am damned’, he says, ‘if I am going to have my cases spoilt by any human being in creation. Do

CHARLES DICKENS

Charles Dickens himself made a major contribution to the genre with what I think may be fairly called the first detective in English literature - ‘Inspector Bucket of the Detective’. Note the use of the word, possibly the first time it was used in fiction, although the title had been bandied about since about 1830 and in 1842 the first Detective Branch of the 48

it to his ears, and it whispers information, he puts it to his lips, and it enjoins him to secrecy; he rubs it over his nose and it sharpens his scent; he shakes it before a guilty man and it charms him to destruction.’ The fictional Bucket is based on the Inspector Field, who Dickens detective real life Field thus: described He admired. the thieves den, entered he ‘When him, like a before comes here thief every ster.’ His eye schoolma his before schoolboy g, everythin saw he roving, and was keen access have to and everyone know to appeared society. criminal in re everywhe In the keenness and sagacity of Field, his and in mannerisms, including the corpulent forefinger, we may recognise the shadow of Bucket. Bleak House is not even by the widest definition of the term, a detective story, although it does have elements of mystery in it, the focus is primarily satire on the Court of Chancery and the law. The real villain of the book is Jarndyce v Jarndyce, aided and abetted by the processes of law. Dickens unfinished last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, is sometimes classed as a mystery or detective story. It was left unfinished at a particularly tantalising point, when Drood has disappeared and the movements of the sinister John Jasper are being watched by several people, among them the obviously disguised Mr Dachery. Had the book been finished these puzzles would, of course, have been resolved, and intriguing though they

A clean-shaven Charles Dickens in 1852, when Bleak House was published you see this hand, and do you think I don’t know the right time to stretch it out and put it on the arm that fired the shot?’ The long arm of the law in embryo. Average-looking, Bucket is stout and middle-aged, with an honest, amiable face. He generally stands with his hands behind his back, listening. His most notable feature is his fat forefinger, which seems invested with magic - ‘He puts

are in themselves they do not mean that the novel was intended to be, or would have appeared when completed as a mystery story. An immense amount of ingenuity has been expended in solving these fortuitous puzzles, and the clues left by Dickens, who did not intend them as clues, may be - and have been - interpreted in various ways. On the balance of probabilities, the solution proposed by Mr J Cuming Walters is not unreasonable. He postulated that Mr Datchery is Helena Landless in disguise, and that Jasper had killed Edwin, or at least believed that he killed him. I would however, have an each way bet on Michael Innes’ suggestion that Datchery may have been someone not previously mentioned in the story, but closely connected with one of the leading characters. But the real mystery here is Dickens’ intentions and my guess is that the completed novel would have been a mysterious thriller rather than a detective story.

WILKIE COLLINS

Dickens’ close friend and fellow novelist, Wilkie Collins, in many ways shows the same serious intent in his writings as does Dickens. They shared a common disgust with the status quo in society and the plight of the poor. Collins’ preface to his second novel, Basil, makes this plain. He wrote: ‘the business of fiction is to exhibit human life’ and that it was permissible to depict ‘misery and crime’ if they were turned to a ‘plainly and purely moral purpose.’ In most of his novels the moral purpose is only too clear, he has nothing like Dickens’ subtlety. William Wilkie Collins was born in 1824, the son of William Collins RA, a noted landscape painter and member of the Royal Academy. From 1836 to 1838, he lived with his parents in Italy and France, which made a great impression on him. He learned Italian and French, in which he would eventually become fluent. After his formal education he was apprenticed to a tea merchant and during this period he wrote his first novel, Antonina or The Fall of Rome (1850). The following year he and Dickens met and became firm friends, often collaborating on articles and stories. Collins also wrote for Dickens’ magazine Household Words. Collins never married but spent most of his adult years with Caroline Graves, whom he said he met in similar circumstances to those he immortalised in the opening scene of The Woman in White (1859). Collins was walking down a country lane one evening when he heard a scream from a darkened garden and then saw a beautiful young woman dressed all in white. Obviously terrified, she raced away, with Collins close behind. After he caught up with her, she told him an anguished story of her past several months, during which she had been held prisoner by a man. She and her illegitimate daughter, Harriet, moved in with Collins, who did not hold with formal marriage and divided his life between Caroline and a Martha Rudd, with whom he had three children - Marian, Harriet and William. The Woman in White was not the only novel engendered by his unorthodox relationships - No Name (1862) centered on the stigma of illegitimate children.

William Wilkie Collins (1824 - 1889) The Woman in White is one of the two novels that assure Collins’ position as one of the founding fathers of detective fiction. The plot appears to have been drawn partly from Collins’ experience with Caroline Graves and partly on an eighteenth century French criminal case - the case of the Marquise de Dauhault. The Marquise came to Paris in 1787 in order to recover from her dishonest brother certain properties and land which were hers by right of inheritance from her father. But her brother had her kidnapped and confined, drugged, for many years until she managed to smuggle out a letter to friends, who effected her release and exposure of her brother. Protagonist Walter Hartright employs many of the sleuthing techniques of later private detectives. The use of multiple narrators (including nearly all the principal characters) was a novelty in thrillers and as he points out in his preamble: “the story here presented will be told by more than one pen, as the story of an offence against the laws is told in Court by more than one witness”. The Woman in White is the liveliest of Collins crime stories and the most full of memorable characters. The novel tells the story of a young woman, Laura Fairlie, who is the victim of a villainous plot conceived by Count Fosco and carried out by her husband, Sir Percival Glyde, to defraud her of a large estate. When Ann Catherick, a woman resembling Laura, dies and is buried under her name, Laura cannot prove her own identity. She is aided by Marion Halcombe, her half sister and the diligent detective work of drawing instructor Walter Hartright, who also 50

falls in love with her. Marion is the true heroine of the book, her strength and courage being largely responsible for the downfall of the fat, unctuous fat Count and the sniveling, debt-ridden Glyde. The Woman in White was published in serial form in Dickens’ All The Year Round and was immediately popular, coming out in book form in 1860. A first edition of fifteen hundred copies, in the expensive three volume set, was quickly sold out. Collins’ other book of detective fiction is The Moonstone which came out eight years later. It is not as good a book as The Woman in White judged as a novel of event and character. There are no characters in it equal to Fosco or Marion and although Drusilla Clack is a fine comic figure, she quickly becomes tiresome. However, if we look at the skill shown in plotting then The Moonstone is a masterly performance, influencing many, many later novels. The moonstone of the title is a great yellow diamond that John Herncastle stole from a religious idol in India. Worth a fortune, it is said to bring bad luck to everyone but the worshipers of the moon god from whose head it was taken. According to Herncastle’s will the gem is to be given to his niece, Rachel Verinder, following his death. A genial young solicitor, Franklyn Blake, is assigned to transport it to her; the night after he turns it over, it disappears from her room. All clues suggest that Rachel herself took it, for unknown and unfathomable reasons. Rosanna Spearman, a housemaid, suspects Blake of the theft because of an incriminating stain on his nightgown that corresponds to a smudge in the room in the room in which the crime was committed. Spearman hides the garment and for her love for Blake, who loves Rachel, who is engaged to Godfrey Abelwhite, commits suicide. A menacing contingent of three Indians seeking the return of the gem is never far away. Both The Women in White and The Moonstone are long novels with complex plots, typical of Collins’ works.

Illustration for The Moonstone As a popular novelist of the time he ranks with Dickens, and although his other works have not lasted the carefully worked out plots, carefully placed red herrings, cliff-hanging mini climaxes, and elusive alibis are superior to any other novelist of the mid-Victorian era. Collins suffered much from rheumatic gout which caused intense pain, so severe that several secretaries found his cries of pain unendurable and left his employ. His step-daughter Harriet served as an amanuensis for several years. To assuage the pain he began taking opium, and became addicted. As a result the quality of his later writing suffered badly. The quality of Collins’ fictional works in the last decade of his life was accompanied by a general decline in his health, including diminished eyesight. He was often unable to leave home and had difficulty writing. Collins was under no illusions about the value of his work and asked, and received, as the epitaph on his tombstone: In memory of Wilkie Collins Author of The Woman in White and other works of fiction Next time we shall be looking at another of the founding fathers - Emil Gaboriau, before looking at the first author to bring the detective story to general notice - the towering talent of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. 51

ART AND LEISURE MOSAICS PLUS MANDALAS EQUAL MAGIC DI GRANGER

rtists express themselves through their art, whatever that art form may be, and many create a signature style that is recognised immediately. Painters Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol are two that spring to mind. You can just about always pick their style and will hear their pieces spoken about as ‘that’s a Picasso or that’s a Warhol.’ Mosaic art on the other hand can be whatever you want it to be. Historically, mosaics was a form of picture, capturing life through tesserae and leaving behind a legacy or story, often with great meaning and always with much beauty. It may be too soon for legacy, but mosaics today is definitely about story and beauty. Some will determine a style and others will simply break and stick and allow the design to unfold as it goes. Either is fine. There are no rules. Mosaics is all about first breaking something and then compiling it into something new and very often beautiful.

MOSAICS AND MANDALAS

The substrate (the thing you wish to mosaic onto) can take many forms. When learning it is likely a board (round, square or oblong), an old table from the garden or a planter pot; all good beginner pieces. A 30cm round piece of board is the perfect substrate to create fabulous mandalas that can be used as either wall art or as a trivet (something to protect a table or bench top from heat).

WHAT IS A MANDALA?

Mandala’s are symbolic figures representing life, love and the universe. And according to Carl Jung (Jungian psychology) in a dream, they represent the dreamer’s search for completeness. Mandalas tell a story, even if we don’t consciously start out with that story in mind. Jung says, such events are not mere coincidences at all, but what he called synchronicity or meaningful coincidence.

WELLNESS AND MOSAICS

THE MAGIC OF MOSAICS

Mosaics is a wonderful activity that can nourish your creative wellness; because being well, is much more than simply not being sick. Often, life will get in the way of undertaking soul/spirit nourishing activities. How many reading this perhaps didn’t join dance-yogabridge (insert any activity, you have thought about doing) because you’re just too busy? Or you wanted to do the wine and paint course, but just couldn’t find the time? You’re not alone. It happens a lot. Yet, our overall wellness suffers as we need to feed our creative. We often need to get out of our intellectual/rational heads and into soul warming, nourishing activities where we get lost in the moment. The getting lost in the moment is referred to as mindfulness.

Mandalas in mosaic designs creates magic; whether it be a single mandala as a trivet … OR an entire tabletop (mandalas within a mandala) as shown in the pictures.

MOSAICS AND MINDFULNESS

Mosaics is one of those activities. Apart from crafting a beautiful end product, the whole process simply feeds your soul; from the design, choosing colour, cutting, smashing, sticking… to the final grout and polish and satisfaction of a job well done. Often, there may be no specific design in mind when embarking on a mosaic piece. Or, there may be an idea but what tends to happen it changes and unfolds as you go.

EXAMPLES

The following are similar round (800mm wide) tables (a mandala itself) but with the mandalas placed differently.

On one table the design has unique discrete circles and on the other the mandalas are overlapped, which creates a threedimensional effect.

The meaning or story of each mandala can be derived and different for each of us, and that’s the beauty (pardon the pun). It is the beauty contained within the beauty. Let’s have a go. Let’s create a story with the red framed mandala with a sun or star as shown below: LIFELONG LEARNING is a Toodyay based learning and development business offering products and services in three key areas: workshops, wellness and tours. Workshops: focus on being or becoming a lifelong learner? A regular schedule of workshops is offered around all things that enhance wellness, such as learning about the 9-dimensions (of wellness), communications – which we call conscious conversations, learning about Self using tried and proven products such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator – MBTI® and the Magic of Mosaics, a great mindfulness activity along with creating a beautiful mosaic piece. Wellness: focuses on the mind-body connection, using a nine dimensions model for exploring overall wellness. There is a Book of Wellness, a Journal and many workshops to enhance well-being and optimise wellness. Our signature workshop: Wellness, Witchcraft and Wonder explores the nine dimensions, awakens the magic within through Spells and opens our minds to the wonder of possibilities and potential.

The red border determines passion. The six point object is referred to as a hexagram and is steeped in meaning and symbolism. A six-point star can mean love - life – loyalty – knowledge – wisdom – understanding. Given it is surrounded by green (grass - earth) triangles (the power of three, holy trinity, ancient wisdom, mystic-ness, an energetic gateway, the sacred feminine - masculine energies, resilience - as it is self supporting) and immersed in yellow (sun – energy); a story does unfold.

Tours: provide time out in Toodyay. Many tours include a ‘long table learning lunch’ another favourite product of ours that explores topics to enhance wellness over great conscious conversations and fabulous local produce. Lifelong Learning is an Accredited Tourism Business (ATB). Lifelong Learning operates Wednesday through to Sunday. Visitors are welcome to drop in on advertised OPEN days between 10am – 3pm. Contact Lifelong Learning: 0413 748 884 www.lifelonglearning.com.au

THE STORY OF THE HEXAGON MANDALA

So, in essence the story of the mandala above could be - a blue (calm) hexagon, depicting love, life, learning (knowledge), that sits within green triangles, grounded and resilient, immersed in the glory of the sun’s energy and surrounded by passion. How nice to ponder your mosaic piece and to be reminded of the story and the value of being in the moment? What do you think? Courtesy of Lifelong Learning 53

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THE IDLER The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Mind

MONKEY BUSINESS GLENNYS MARSDON

What is it about humans and monkeys? n 1965 the Life Nature Library first published the well-known and much modified stages of evolution image. Called The March Of Progress or The Road To Homo Sapiens, the image depicts human evolution from an apelike species. By 2005 researchers had moved the image closer to reality by sequencing the genome. Their studies hypothesized that we share around ninety-nine percent of our DNA with monkeys, specifically chimpanzees. In comparison we only share forty percent of our DNA with rats. I’m guessing this lower percentage explains a rat’s penchant for never-ending cheese nibbling, whereas our brains have evolved to understand that, all actions have equal or greater reactions, and in the case of cheese that’s not good. It’s just as well really as The Road To Rats doesn’t have quite the same ring does it? Besides, I’m quite sure the image of a plague of rats transforming into a Pied-Piper-esk human form, wouldn’t have had the same marketing impact. 2019 has seen things ramp up a notch in the evolution research stakes and not everyone’s happy about it. As reported in the MIT Technology Review and the Beijing journal National Science Review, Chinese scientists have “put human brains in monkeys”. Yes, you read that right, though maybe not quite as it sounds. In southern China scientists have created transgenic macaque monkeys by giving them extra copies of a human gene that’s thought to play a role in intelligence. “This was the first attempt to understand the evolution of the human cognition using a transgenic monkey model,” said Big Su, geneticist at Kunming Institute of Zoology. So far while the “modified monkeys” have performed better on a short-term memory test involving colour and block pictures, the results have yet to identify more about what makes us human. The research has created considerable debate about the ethics of creating an animal that won’t fit into either world. Whilst this is all very interesting,

personally I think the academics have missed a glaringly obvious step in the evolution chain. Two well-known, highly respected monkeys have come closer to explaining the missing link by ignoring DNA and concentrating on digital codes. Exhibit A. Born in 2001, an unassuming little scamp called Mailchimp snuck into the human world. Sure, he can’t eat a banana or fling bodily fluids, but this cheeky little cap wearing fellow far exceeds the bounds of human intelligence, well at least those of most Baby Boomers if not Millennials. His international vocabulary and spelling abilities far exceed all humans. So too his ability to network with millions of people across the globe, even though his lack of opposable thumbs impedes a descent handshake. Exhibit B. Mailchimp’s older sibling Survey Monkey. More serious than the young sprite, the first born entered our world in 1999, when we were all dancing into a new millennium, distracted by a certain Prince song. His vocabulary is equally as impressive as his younger sibling although missing some of the latest street cred. Not only can he communicate outwards to the world, Survey Monkey can also receive commentary back. Millions of two-way discussions, from a myriad of nationalities, received, catalogued, interpreted and trends reported back within seconds. Not even your nosiest neighbour can achieve that. What’s more it’s all performed by a monkey with no face. Clearly both these online primates have shown a significant level of evolution and far beyond that of the transgenic blighters. These two chaps laugh in the face of a simple block memory test, their capacity for recall stretching right back to the day they were initially booted up. Mailchimp’s emotive cheeky grin may even be the first signs of the much sought after “Humanity Switch”. What’s more, both require little feeding, grooming or maintenance. Should they start to cause a problem this is quickly resolved by the flick of the off switch. Wait three seconds and they will be back to their enthusiastic best. In concluding I’d warrant that the worlds scientists had best keep an eye on the rapid evolution of these online monkeys. Who knows what’s next in their evolutionary chain, a gorilla that gleefully takes on ironing duties? Now that would indeed be revolutionary. That’s it, I’m off to apply for a research grant.

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A SORRY TALE PHILIP BENWELL

t no time in the modern history of the British Westminster parliament have we seen a government so pitted against its parliament and now the highest Court in the land. A very basic chronology is: The Cameron Conservative government held a referendum in June 2016 with 51.89% of votes cast to leave the European Union. David Cameron then stepped down and was replaced by Theresa May as Prime Minister. Ms May was unable to secure a successful vote in the British parliament on any deal agreed to by the European Union because a number of Conservative MPs voted with Labour against all the proposals she put forward. She resigned in June 2019 and was replaced by Boris Johnson the next month. Unable to get backing from the parliament to leave the European Union without any deal, Boris Johnson then sought to prorogue the parliament for around five weeks until 14 October, two and a half weeks prior to the final exit date (from the EU) of 31 October. Johnson then formally advised the Queen, by telephone, to prorogue parliament between the 9th to 12th September and to hold a Queen’s Speech on 14th October. On 28th August, Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg, Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Privy Council, Mr Mark Harper, chief whip, and Baroness Evans of Bowes Park, Leader of the House of Lords, attended a meeting of the Privy Council held by the Queen at Balmoral Castle resulting in an Order in Council proroguing the parliament between those dates. Throughout this entire process the Queen acted, as she is obliged to do, on the advice of the government and the Privy Council. There were appeals brought by members of parliament before the Court of Session in Scotland, which ruled that prorogation was illegal. A Guyanese-British business owner and activist, Ms Gina Miller appealed to the High Court of England and Wales which ruled that the matter was political and was therefore not justiciable. Ms Miller then appealed to the Supreme Court, which is the highest court in the United Kingdom. The court looked only on whether the advice given by the Prime Minister to the Queen was lawful and the legal consequences if it was not and held that the decision to advise Her Majesty to prorogue parliament was unlawful because it had the effect of frustrating or preventing the ability of parliament to carry out its constitutional functions without reasonable justification. The court held that the Order in Council to

which the advice led was also “unlawful, void and of no effect and should be quashed” and therefore the prorogation was also void and of no effect and that parliament has not been prorogued. It is difficult for people in Australia to understand all this, because our system has not been so politicised as that in the UK. The problem that Boris Johnson faced was that a 2011 Act of parliament, brought in under the Cameron government, required fixed-term elections with a general election is scheduled for the first Thursday in May of the fifth year after the previous general election. The only way in which a general election could be otherwise held would be if there was a vote of no confidence in the government or a vote of two-thirds of the House of Commons. Not having a majority, Johnson was not able to muster a two-thirds vote and therefore resorted to the proroguing of the parliament. On reflection, he should not have done this and even if he and his government considered that the advice tended to the Queen and the Privy Council was sound, he should have considered the implications of so doing, particularly since he did not control the parliament. Of course, what should have happened a month or more ago is that the parliament should have held a vote of no confidence against the government. The Queen would then have asked the leader of the opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, and possibly others to try to form a government and when that failed, call a general election. However, elements within the parliament did not want an election but they continued to disrupt the proceedings of the government thereby making the parliament unworkable. Therefore, the ultimate blame must lie with the parliament and the Speaker, John Bercow - who seems to be acting rather like a second John Pym, the Speaker who brought about the English Civil War of the 17th-century. All have been politicking at the expense of the people.

SWAN VALLEY AND REGIONAL NETWORK GRANTS AVAILABLE FOR SWIMMING PROGRAMS

ederal Member for Hasluck, Ken Wyatt, is encouraging local community groups to apply for new swimming grants to enable or improve opportunities for people with disabilities and from diverse backgrounds to enjoy this great Aussie past-time. The Community Swimming Grants Program allows organisations to apply for grants of up to $10,000. “Swimming is a big part of our way of life in Hasluck and is a great way to stay active and healthy at any age. However, some people in our community need extra support to be able to enjoy the benefits of swimming.” Within this program, grants may be used to subsidise the costs associated with delivering swimming and aquatic activities such as entry fees, lane hire or membership fees. The Move It AUS Participation Grant Program is already delivering sixty-two projects across the country to provide great new ways to get more Australians moving. Supporting more Australians to get more active more often is a priority for the Government and we’re delighted to be working with Swimming Australia to deliver greater access to swimming and aquatics for up 3,200 people through this program. For more information and to apply for Swimming Australia’s Community Swimming Grants Program, go to www.swimming. org.au/community-swimming-grants.

NOMINATIONS OPEN Who makes a real difference to your community? t's now time for Community Citizen of the Year nominations. If you know someone great, it's time to nominate them for the 2020 Community Citizen of the Year Awards, to be presented on Australia Day. Seniors and Ageing Minister Mick Murray has led the call for nominations ahead of the 2019 WA Seniors Awards. The annual awards recognise and celebrate the State's most remarkable seniors, while acknowledging organisations working to improve the lives of older Western Australians. The awards will recognise both the metropolitan and regional WA Senior of the Year, as well as the WA Age Friendly Local Government of the Year and the WA Age Friendly Business of the Year. Entries can be lodged by members of the general public or by organisations, with nominations closing at 5pm on October 4, 2019. The 2019 WA Seniors Awards are presented by the Council on the Ageing (WA) in partnership with the McGowan Government and are promoted as part of WA Seniors Week celebrations, which run from November 10-17. WA Senior Awards recognises someone 50 years and older. Self-Nominations are welcome – Entries close October 31, 2019, so get those nominations in quickly. More info here: www.citizenshipawards.com.au

NEW STATION FOR BFB

Swan Hills MLA Jessica Shaw: "A lot of work has gone into delivering this vital firefighting facility for our community and I'd like to thank everyone involved. "It's been my pleasure to work closely with the West Gidgegannup Volunteer Bushfire Brigade and the City of Swan as the project has developed so it's great to see it finally open. "As a local resident, I know how important this station will be to Gidgegannup. "I want to express our community's great appreciation for the brigade members' care and commitment and I look forward to continuing to support their efforts in protecting our homes and lives."

brand new station for the West Gidgegannup Bush Fire Brigade was officially opened today providing a new base ahead of the bushfire season. On top of a record sum of $1.295 million, the City of Swan added a generous $1.2 million for the built-for-purpose facility. It is the biggest investment ever made in a stand-alone volunteer bushfire brigade facility. The new facility covers 400 square metres with space for four appliances, and includes stateof-the-art incident control and radio rooms. The West Gidgegannup Bush Fire Brigade volunteers, Department of Fire and Emergency Services and the City of Swan worked collaboratively to plan and build the station. The facility will help improve the brigade's response times and provide firstclass facilities to make it easier for volunteers to train and upskill. It is West Gidgegannup Bush Fire Brigade's first permanent home. Emergency Services Minister Francis Logan: "The State Government is proud to make this record investment in a long-needed facility for the West Gidgegannup Bush Fire Brigade to help keep the community safer. "Our firefighting volunteers do such an important role protecting the community, and it's critical that they have the resources they need to do the job. "I have no doubt this new facility will serve West Gidgegannup well into the future and I wish volunteers all the best for the upcoming bushfire season." 58

SWAN VALLEY AND REGIONAL NETWORK UPGRADE UNDERWAY LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT REVIEW

estern Australia's riskiest intersection is set to undergo $370,000 worth of upgrades to improve safety and traffic

flow. The intersection of Great Northern Highway at Swan Christian College was voted WA's riskiest intersection in the 2018-19 RAC Risky Roads survey. More than 23,000 vehicles use this section of Great Northern Highway daily, 23.5 per cent of which are heavy vehicles. Over the past five years there have been eleven crashes at the intersection. The $370,000 package of modifications to the intersection include, modifying the turning pockets on Great Northern Highway; new pedestrian ramps and footpaths, improving safety for more than 1,500 students and their families attending the College. The southern access road to the College will be widened and there will be an installation of an island to better indicate the right of way for entering vehicles; widening of the northern access, an exit only road, with improved line marking and signage; redesign of the existing median on Great Northern Highway; and installation of new line marking and signage. Transport Minister Rita Saffioti: "The upgrades are expected to be completed before the end of the year and will make a big difference for students and drivers alike."

n 27 June 2019, the Local Government Legislation Amendment Act 2019 was passed in Parliament. The Act includes a requirement for the introduction of: • A mandatory code of conduct for council members, committee members and candidates (Code of Conduct); and • Mandatory minimum standards covering the recruitment, selection, performance review and early termination of local government Chief Executive Officers (CEO Standards). The department is seeking feedback on the draft Code of Conduct and draft CEO Standards and accompanying guidelines. To provide feedback complete the online survey by clicking on the following links: Code of Conduct survey - www.surveymonkey.com/r/SRMNKFS CEO Standards survey - www.surveymonkey.com/r/JRLLCPP You can also send a written submission to actreview@dlgsc. wa.gov.au Submissions close on 22 November 2019.

PICNIC IN THE SCULPTURE PARK

he Swan Valley Slow Food Convivium and Gomboc Gallery Sculpture Park present this art, food and wine event. Meet multi-awarded hosts, Ron and Terrie Gomboc, before meandering through 4.5 hectares of Ron's incredible sculptures. Stroll through the neighbouring vineyard to arrive at Garbin Estate Wines, where you can purchase award-winning beverages to enjoy with lunch. Then head back to the Sculpture Park to relax and be tantalised by the picnic offerings prepared by Vincenzo Velletri and the Convivium with the Slow Food ethos of using seasonal and local produce reflecting the region’s cultural food styles. Tickets $65 non-members, $60 Slow Food members, $30 children under 15, drinks extra There is onsite parking with overflow parking at Garbin Estate Winery. BYO picnic chairs, blankets and environmentally aware glassware, cutlery and plates. No BYO alcohol. Non-alcoholic drinks and water will be available for purchase. Dietary requirements must be advised forty-eight hours prior via email to mkatich@iinet.net.au. The event will run regardless of weather conditions on Sunday, 13 October 2019 from 11:30am to 03:00pm.

The Synergy Xmas Lights Trail is the home of Christmas lights in WA, connecting people who love to decorate their homes with the people who love to visit Christmas lights. We also use our Synergy Xmas Lights Trail to support Lifeline WA who help people in crisis at what can be a very difficult time of year for some.

An easy way to promote your local events this Christmas

Every year, many local government authorities run a range of decorating competitions and local Christmas events for residents. We’d like to invite you to join our Synergy Xmas Lights Trail platform – it’s a free and simple way to engage with residents, activate tourism in your local area and create a wonderful sense of community spirit.

BUSINESS - NETWORKING WHAT DO YOUR KIDS TELL PEOPLE YOU DO? SHARRON ATTWOOD

re you getting the referrals you want? So often I meet with clients disgruntled at a lack of referrals. How does it feel to see friends and even family go elsewhere? Unless you are bad at what you do – in which case they should be going elsewhere – why aren’t they coming to you? Most often the answer is that they just don’t know what it is that you do or they aren’t sure if you want the work. Many business owners struggle to consistently and coherently explain what their business is all about and who they want to do business with or for. If you aren’t clear about things how can you expect anyone else to be? For your advocates to get out there and advocate they need to know what you do, the way you do it and that you will actually do the thing. They need a great level of understanding and a modicum of confidence before they go forth and spread the word. Advocates do not necessarily need to have been a client – they just need the tools and a desire to connect people. Mom explains this: “I want to be very clear on my child’s I always cringe when I see business owners post on illustration. It is NOT of me on a dance pole on a stage in a social media about how they hate being so busy or enquire strip joint. I work at Home Depot and had commented to my re the proximity of ‘wine time’ - as if they truly can’t stand daughter how much money we made in the recent snowstorm. the thought of taking on another client. So why would we This picture is of me selling a shovel.” send them one? It’s the same outcome when we just don’t know what you naturally want to make the best match possible. do. I’ve had that conversation with colleague, “I really like that I have seen trainers and coaches get their clients to ask guy but what does he do?’ – even when they’ve known that guy their kids what they think Mum and Dad do. Even more redundant for years. We may have seen him around networking events, is the social media post of ‘What do you think I do?’ – who cares workshops, expos and book launches. Yet as nice and charismatic what kids and a random assortment of Facebook friends think as he is – we will never refer work to him as what he does is either you do? a complete mystery or just confusing. A correct answer may well indicate consistency in your Similarly, we may be overwhelmed by all the things you do – message – but unless they represent your Advocate base, your appearing a jack of all trades and master of none. When making market or your ideal client – they won’t necessarily be tuning in a referral a specialist will take priority over a generalist. We to your message as it’s not relevant to them. Would your kids even understand the words you use? My kids ebb and flow according to whatever they have seen me do that is relatable for them. The cooler the better. I’m on radio and TV but that’s not my business even though it forms a big part of my personal brand. So what are they saying. Fortunately they have also seen me speak at events and exhibit at Expos – so the may well have a pretty good idea of what I do and for whom – but it’s not really relevant to me on a business level. And in case, they’d never pay and just expect things for free. Expectations around payment also forms a part of this conversation. The more clarity we have the easier it is to expect and garner a payment. Concluded on page 62 ...

FLINDERS UNIVERSITY NEWS BEE BIODIVERSITY

he biodiversity buzz is alive and well in Fiji, but climate change, noxious weeds and multiple human activities are making possible extinction a counter buzzword. Just as Australian researchers are describing colourful new insect and other species, some are already are showing signs of exposure to environmental changes. Flinders University PhD candidate James Dorey – whose macrophotography has captured some of Fiji’s newest bee species – says the naming of nine new species gives researchers an opportunity to highlight the risks. “Homalictus terminalis is named so to indicate that, like many Fijian bees, it is nearing its limit and is at risk of climaterelated extinction,” he says. “Found only on Mount Batilamu near the city of Nadi, where many tourists launch their holidays, H. terminalis has only been found within ninety-five metres of the mountain peak.” South Australian university students under the Australian Government’s New Colombo Plan mobility overseas study program have gone to Fiji in the south-west Pacific for several years, naming nine new species in one of their latest research publications in Zootaxa. The impressive black Homalictus achrostus, featuring unusual large mandibles, is one of the most interesting endemic bee species on Fiji. But, like many Fijian bee species, H. achrostus has only ever found on a single mountain top. “Six individuals were collected on Mount Nadarivatu in the 1970s and two in 2010, but despite frequent searching almost every year since no more have been found,” says Flinders University Associate Professor Mike Schwarz, a co-author on the

paper. “A likely driver of this possible extinction is changing climates,” he says. “The cooler climate of the Fijian highlands could be slowly pushed upwards and off the top of the mountains bringing with it the species that require this climatic refuge. “With H. achrostus one of the four previously described species of endemic bee in Fiji, this raises real concerns about the extinction of many highland species in Fiji and across all of the tropics.” South Australia Museum senior researcher terrestrial invertebrates, Dr Mark Stevens, says the bee genus Homalictus Cockerell has not been taxonomically reviewed in the Fijian archipelago for forty years. “These field trips have allowed us to redescribe four known species and describe nine new ones, bringing the number of endemic Homalictus in Fiji to thirteen species,” Dr Stevens says. “Most of the species diversity (eleven species) live 800 metres or more above sea level, which highlights the vulnerability of highland-restricted species to a warming climate.” One of the new species, the eye-catching Homalictus groomi, was named in honour of Flinders biological sciences graduate Dr Scott Groom, who began uncovering this hidden diversity using molecular techniques with Flinders University and the South Australian Museum in 2009. Previous New Colombo Plan biological sciences field trips have also studied the effects of noxious weeds and human activities on other animals and plants in Fiji.

POETRY THE TOWN OF ACCOLADIA WAYNE PANTALL

T which came in at a bargain price - and what a grand he town of Accoladia had bought a neon sign,

design. But who’s name would best fit the thing, and who should shine on high upon the screen upon the hill – and did it matter why? The town of Accoladia was set to have a vote. They jockeyed for position and they dug hard for a quote. The race to lead the punters, and to have one’s name in lights, took on a new dimension, at the Tuesday council nights. Each week the Accoladians, would read their local rag. Might it be a Wonderman, or would it be a dag? Would members vote with conscience - or would council vote in block for left or right or centre, and each other’s choices, mock? Now, how would Bloggsville fit the sign – and how would Smithtown go with Mister, Misses, Miss or Ms and what about Joe Blow?

The folks of Accoladia - the punters, as they might, still helped each other selflessly and saw each other right. A members meeting up the creek, was where they would decide upon the words, up on the sign, and who would burst with pride. Lightning flashed as storm cloud blew – a thunder bolt went “BANG”. Then came the mighty flooding rain, as loud the church bell rang. In darkness, as the torrent rose, they scrambled for the boat. “Which way will we row” they cried, “We’ll have to take a vote”. The left voted for this way, whilst the right voted for that. So round in circles Council spun, thus deepening the spat. “We must get back to Chambers to ensure our sign’s OK. But how will we get back on course if we keep on this way?” A generator burst reply – the sign spat brilliant white: “WELCOME TO ACCOLADIA WHERE TOWNSFOLK SEE YOU RIGHT!” 61

FOOTNOTE PEOPLE IN HISTORY KATHARINE SUSANNAH PRICHARD (1883 - 1969)

atharine Susannah Prichard was born to Tom and Edith Prichard in Levuka, Fiji in 1883 during a hurricane - her autobiography was entitled Child of the Hurricane. Her father was then editor of the Fiji Times, but lost that, and a sucession of others, leading to the family moving to Launceston, Tasmania and back to Melbourne, where Edith worked as a seamstress, Katharine’s anxieties and resentment of poverty, and of the social system which she blamed for this, are focussed in her account of the auction of the family’s best furniture in the semi-autobiographical The Wild Oats of Han. The family’s financial plight, her mother’s illness and the higher priority given to her brothers’ education (Nigel was to study medicine) made governessing, journalism and the Melbourne Public Library Katharine’s substitutes for university. As a governess, in South Gippsland and in the far west of New South Wales, Prichard began her lifelong practice of filling notebooks with detailed accounts of people and places that would recur in her fiction. Prichard’s first published writings were in the children’s pages of Melbourne newspapers. The New Idea initiated her career as a journalist, publishing her prize-winning love story, Bush Fires, in 1903 and a six-part romanticized version of her governessing experiences in 1906. A year after her father’s suicide in 1907, she set out for London, bearing a letter of introduction from Alfred Deakin (a family friend and then Prime Minister). As a journalist in Melbourne, London, Paris and North America, Prichard was struck more by the lives of the victims of poverty, oppression and war than by her interviews with the rich and celebrated. In 1913 she published a small collection of poetry, Clovelly Verses, but the decisive event was her success in the Australian section of Hodder & Stoughton’s All-Empire Literature Prize. The Pioneers (1915), composed in London but based on her Gippsland notebooks, won her £250 (Au$45,800 in 2019 dollars) and literary fame in Australia. Before returning to Victoria in 1916, Prichard met in London the wounded Lieutenant Hugo (Jim) Throssell, V.C. She was to marry him on 28 January 1919 and move from Melbourne to 11 Old York Road, Greenmount, on the Darling Range escarpment, her permanent home for the rest of her life. After her return to Australia, the romance Windlestraws and her first novel of a mining community, Black Opal, were published. Prichard was also discovering socialism, syndicalism and communism, the writings of Marx and Engels and the political activities of Bill Earsman, Guido Baracchi and Christian Jollie Smith, soon to be founders of the Communist Party of Australia. With Wilmot she began her long campaign against conscription and war, which she saw as symptoms of the malaise of capitalism. She wrote most of her novels and stories in a self-contained weatherboard workroom near the house. In her personal life she always referred to herself as Mrs Hugo Throssell. Her friends called her Kattie. They had one son, Ric Throssell born in 1922,

later a diplomat and writer. The publication of Working Bullocks (1926) transformed Prichard’s literary reputation. For Miles Franklin it represented ‘the breaking of a drought’ for the Australian novel. A passionate, lyrical celebration of the intuitive lives of the small community of timber-getters in the Western Australian karri forests, Working Bullocks reflects both Lawrence and Hardy in its symbolic patterns as well as demonstrating the explicit, if idealized, Australianisms of Prichard’s fiction. Prichard was a founding member of the Communist Party of Australia in 1921 and remained a member for the rest of her life. She worked to organise unemployed workers and founded left-wing women's groups, and during the 1930s she campaigned in support of the Spanish Republic and other left-wing causes. Although she had frequent arguments with other Communist writers such as Frank Hardy and Judah Waten over the correct application of the doctrine of socialist realism to Australian fiction, she remained supportive of the Soviet Union and its cultural policies when many other intellectuals, such as Eric Lambert and Stephen Murray-Smith, left the party during the 1950s. Her public position as both a communist and a female writer saw her harassed by West Australian police and the federal government throughout her life. The official surveillance files which were opened on Prichard in 1919 were not closed until her death in 1969. Prichard's commitment to her politics and her position as a woman in the public sphere also saw her socially isolated by the conservative social groups which dominated Perth in this period. She was the subject of constant rumours and frequent anonymous tip offs to Western Australian police of any communist activity. She was also part of a new community of 62

free thinking public intellectuals who, amongst other things, challenged notions of acceptable sexuality. In 1929 Coonardoo appeared. Like her play, Brumby Innes (1927), which won the Triad’s competition for three-act plays, and the short story, The Cooboo, Coonardoo originated in the notebooks Prichard completed during her extended stay at Turee, a cattle station in Western Australia’s far north-west. Coonardoo became notorious for its candid portrayal of relationships between white men and black women in the northwest. Most of the short stories in the first of her four collections, Kiss on the Lips (1932), were also from the 1920s, her decade of creative activity. During this time she wrote her most adventurous novels, stories and plays. Perhaps ironically, the literary fame they won led many of her contemporaries and later interpreters to insist upon a dichotomy between the literary artist and the political activist in Prichard, on a disjunction between her aesthetic and ideological stances. To her chagrin, political friends saw her as the celebrated author, while literary critics regretted the didactic and homiletic strains in her works. In 1933, when Prichard was in Russia collecting material for her book-length polemical pamphlet, The Real Russia (1934), her husband shot himself, his war-initiated melancholy having been intensified by his financial failures during the Depression. Her novel Intimate Strangers differs significantly from Prichard’s earlier novels. A close psychological analysis of the disintegrating marriage of the sensitive, talented Elodie Blackwood and her devoted but inadequate husband Greg, it is set in a Perth seaside suburb. Prichard, had left the draft of Intimate Strangers with Throssell, deferred its publication until 1937, four years after Throssell’s suicide and altered the ending: the original suicide of Greg Blackwood was replaced by an implausible marital reconciliation and brave optimism about a dawning socialist utopia. She feared that Greg’s suicide might have been interpreted as influencing her husband. As pamphleteer and public speaker, Katharine Prichard fearlessly and emotionally promoted the cause of peace and social justice. Her extended work The Goldfields Trilogy—The Roaring Nineties (1946), Golden Miles (1948) and Winged Seeds (1950) is a considerable reconstruction of social and personal histories in Western Australia's goldfields from the 1890s to 1946. Meticulously, even excessively documented, the trilogy deals in turn with three stages of gold-mining, 1890-1915, 1914-27, 1930-46, and with the lives of the Gough family whose passionate matriarch Sally is the most remarkable of the powerful women who dominate Prichard’s fiction. While The Roaring Nineties won praise for its narrative vitality and the characterization of Sally Gough, it has been attacked for allowing ideological preoccupations to subvert character and plot. In the years following its publication, Prichard found herself isolated in the anti-communist context of Australian society. Vilified

by conservative politicians, she intensified her commitment to communism, nuclear disarmament and the peace movement, being awarded the World Peace Council medal in 1959. Yet within the Communist Party, her unswerving loyalty to Russia estranged Katharine from many of her Australian comrades, especially when she refused to condemn the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. She was also a founding member (later a life member) of the Western Australian branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers. Although she wrote one more novel after the trilogy (Subtle Flame, 1967) and her autobiography, Child of the Hurricane (1963), her literary ideology was as inimical to the achievements of such writers as Patrick White as her politics were to modern Australia. In 1964 she told Dorothy Hewett: ‘My Australia has gone forever now. I don’t understand this Australia … and I don’t like it’. Hewett’s image of Prichard in 1949 characterized the last two decades of her life: ‘She had the courage to stand, frail among epithets and flying bottles on the tray of a truck in a Communist Party election campaign’. Many of her works have since been republished and newly translated. Her writing has found new critical interpretations and new readers and the dichotomy between her literature and her politics has increasingly been set aside. Prichard died at her home in Greenmount in 1969. Her ashes were scattered on the surrounding hills. Like her husband, her son Ric Throssell committed suicide, when his wife Dodie died in 1999. He had fought for many years to clear his name after being accused of passing classified information to his mother, or actively spying for the Soviet Union. His 1989 book covering this was called My Father's Son. Her home has now become the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers' Centre, a foundation promoting humanitarianism, the study of Katharine Susannah Prichard, and encouraging writing in Western Australia. The Shire of Mundaring public library branch in Greenmount is named after her as well. This year, 2019, marks the fiftieth anniversary of her death and the KSP Writers’ Centre commissioned and produced a play covering her life and work and her close friendship with piano prodigy David Helfgott, then 18. The play, called Potchnagoola, was written by Louise Helfgott, younger sister of David. EDITOR: Reviews of the play Potchnagoola may be found on page 37.

PHOTOS: SARAH’S FURTOGRAPHY & JENNIFER WILDEY, SHUTTER PAWS

#AdoptLove

ORIENTAL OCTOBER We have some stunning, beautiful natured and sociable cats available for adoption from our Perth branch, SAFE Metro.

GIANNA

Gianna and Emilio

Could you be to adopt double the love? Both one year old, Emilio and Gianna have decided that life is better together than apart and are now looking for a home with enough love for them both. These two, friendly super-smoochers, love attention from people, cats and dogs alike. They are at their happiest when they are lazing about the house, with some food and a lap to sit on. Gianna and Emilio are desexed, microchipped and up to date with their vaccinations, and can be adopted with a combined adoption fee of $300.

Sugar

Sugar is the most confident cat on the block. This tall, one-year old Red Point Siamese loves to meet new people and he is looking for a busy home with lots of love to give. He is very human orientated, loves to be held and cuddled, and has an enormous purr to showcase his level of satisfaction. Sugar likes one thing more than attention, food. If you give him a treat and a pat, he will be yours forever ever.

SUGAR

Sugar is desexed, microchipped and up to date with his vaccinations, and can be adopted with an adoption fee of $175. Are you ready for some spice in your life? Contact SAFE Metro on 0475 346 545 to adopt love. Saving Animals From Euthanasia Inc (SAFE) is an animal rescue organisation that has saved and rehomed more than 26,000 homeless animals since its beginnings in 2003. It has grown to be WA’s largest volunteer-based animal rehoming organisation using foster care instead of cages. SAFE has 12 branches state-wide. In 2018 it was the national winner “Outstanding Rescue Group” in the Jetpets Companion Animal Rescue Awards. SAFE is the Western Australian arm of Animal Welfare League Australia (AWLA). FOSTER CARE means animals live the lives of normal pets, with no time limits, being loved in their place of care, and socialised in the home and community. Their carers’ knowledge of how they respond to different situations means SAFE can make a great match. Would you like to help animals on their journey to a new life? To become a foster carer, the first step is to contact our SAFE Avon Valley branch on 0409 000 259 or our Perth-based branch, SAFE Metro on 0475 346 545 or 0448 893 033. VOLUNTEER: https://safe.org.au/volunteer/

DONATE: https://safe.org.au/donate 64

ADOPT: https://safe.org.au/find-a-pet/

COMMUNITY he Compassionate Friends of Western Australia Tregardless strives to support families who have lost a child, of that child’s age throughout WA.

We are a non-profit, non-government funded charity that provide peer call support, group meetings, a drop in centre, sending out quarterly newsletters, Anniversary Cards, we hold Walk of remembrance and a candlelight service (non-religious) at Christmas. We are run by volunteers and bereaved parents that are further along in their grief and wish to help others who have suffered this tragedy. Although everybody’s grief is different it helps to talk to someone who has actually had this tragedy happen to them. They WON”T say “I know how you feel” as no one can, but they will say “I don’t know exactly what you are feeling but this is how I felt when my child died”.

WALK OF REMEMBRANCE HELD IN MARCH EACH YEAR Events like these above give the bereaved some hope of a life after the death of their child. They connect with others that have been through the same tragic experience. In doing so its helps them to feel that they are not alone in their grief, that there is a worldwide connection to other suffering the same. DONATIONS Donations allow us to purchase stamps so we can send our booklets and other information to the newly bereaved, community groups, doctors surgeries and hospital throughout Western Australia. They help us cover advertising cost in newspapers throughout Western Australia, pay for our office and utilities allowing us to have Peer Support Workers come in and contact to bereaved that wish to have contact. The Compassionate Friends of WA Inc. receives no Government funding in any way.

We raise funds by holding events, charity drives and donation from our members and outside bodies. Although this is fantastic, we still struggle with the cost of keeping our doors open so any suggestion on fundraising or donations are gratefully accepted. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED We are always looking for volunteers to help man Sausage Sizzles, Charity Shopping Centre Drives and other events along with peer support volunteers (bereaved parents) for telephone support and group meeting facilitation.

54 Simpson Street, Ardross 6107 6257

Concluded from page 6 ... Will they be interested in this? Is it what they want or need? Sadly my experience in working with content creators, and as a content consumer, is that the audience’s needs don’t usually come first. The starting point for most content is what the business wants to communicate. “What do we want them to know? What message do we want to get across? What’s important to us?” And then they complain that much of their content is ignored by audiences. Is it any wonder? When I was in the newsroom, more than half the media releases from PR companies would go straight in the bin because they were focused on what the client wanted to say. And as journalists, we knew that wasn’t what our audience wanted to hear. So how do we find out what our audiences want? We ask and we listen. We listen more than we talk. When we meet people who are interested in our field, we ask them what they’d like to know about it. We pay attention to social media comments and consider how we could take the most engaging ideas further or in a different direction. We think about the questions that come up most frequently and how they could become content ideas for us. We use surveys to ask them what they would like to know more about, what troubles them and what pleases them. Almost anything we want to tell people can start from what they want to know. Anything less will have them switching off us before our show has really begun.

Concluded from page 19 ... The Women Leaders in Sport program is managed by Sport Australia in partnership with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s Office for Women. The Women Leaders in Sport program comprises Leadership Workshops for individuals and organisations, as well as development grants of up to $3,000 for individuals, and up to $20,000 for organisations. Minister for Youth and Sport Senator Richard Colbeck said the program was part of the Australian Government’s commitment to supporting more girls and women in sport at all levels. “This program complements a range of Federal Government initiatives to support more girls and women in sport, such as our $150 million investment to build and upgrade female-friendly facilities around the country,” Minister Colbeck said. “A program like Women Leaders in Sport builds capability among women and is a fantastic avenue to attract, retain and nurture female talent in sport.” For more information on eligibility and how to apply for the Women Leaders in Sport program, go online to www.sportaus. gov.au/grants_and_funding/women_leaders_in_sport.

Concluded from page 16... It is my sincere hope that this legislation now passes through the Legislative Council, but the decision now rests with your Upper House representatives. If you support this legislation, PLEASE contact your upper house member and express your view. Concluded from page 58 ... It’s clear what we do and that there is a need to get paid for it. No ‘brain picking’ when people know that the information they are seeking forms the basis of the service we offer – and that it attracts a fee. I hear from coaches who are quite offended that people ask for a free chat that essentially turns out to be a coaching conversation. If it was clear to people, and to you, what the business provides, it would be easier for you and others to see at which point they pay. And how they pay – and how much. I very rarely get the ‘love to chat about my business over coffee’ requests, as it’s clear how I operate and how I can add value. That said, I do have coffee chats and take meetings, when they make sense to both parties. I may be looking to know more about you so we can increase the likelihood of being referral partners. But to get to that place I first have to have a pretty clear idea of what you do. So, consider why you may not be getting the referrals you think you should get. Take responsibility for what you discover. Get clarity over who your client is and what you can do for them. Next up I’ll cover how to know what they already think – it’s easier to tell than you realise – and not reliant on kid feedback. Courtesy of Brand Ettiquette

YOUR COMMUNITY

Volunteer Community Representative Do you live in Ellenbrook, Aveley or surrounds and interested in what is happening in your community? Would you like the opportunity to be part of the decision making process? The City of Swan is currently seeking nominations for positive and motivated community representatives for the Ellenbrook Community Advisory Group (ECAG) and Aveley Community Advisory Group (ACAG). The advisory groups make recommendations regarding funding of both community infrastructure and community development programs in Ellenbrook, Aveley and surrounds based on an understanding of local community issues and priorities. Applications must be received by 5pm on Friday, September 27, 2019. For more information or to apply for the position, please complete the nomination form located on the City’s website or contact Evan Hillman on 9207 8579, or by email cdellenbrook@swan.wa.gov.au CoS2373

DISCLAIMER The information in this publication is of a general nature. The articles contained herein are not intended to provide a complete discussion on each subject and or issues canvassed. Swan Magazine does not accept any liability for any statements or any opinion, or for any errors or omissions contained herein.

www.swan.wa.gov.au

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