Opening of new hub facilities to benefit community

BY SAMANTHA ELLEY

What started as an idea over a bottle of wine, recently came to fruition when the Jumbunna Community Hub had its official opening this week.

A multi-purpose hub, it is located next to the Jumbunna Community Preschool and Early Intervention Centre.

“I am so excited,” said general manager Karen McDermott.

“It was a vision for me as I saw we had outgrown the area we had.” workshops, meetings and training,” Ms McDermott said.

“We have three therapy rooms, two of them with telehealth facilities.” people up to 18 years.

The event was attended by the mayor Robert Mustow who officially opened the hub.

“I would just like to say e reader can not help but cheer her on as she realises her successes, but then has to make decisions to bene t her family, sometimes above those of her own personal happiness.

Jumbunna Preschool which went towards helping purchase part of the land.

It is not without its challenges, however, and she experiences moments of personal success and deep despair, including the issue of mental illness.

Maria Prestinenzi is an Italian immigrant who, by writing her life story, has shown how she overcame the odds of being uprooted and planted in a totally di erent garden.

Still living in Melbourne, where her family rst settled, Maria continues to love learning about di erent cultures and traditions and has travelled extensively and met some amazing people.

You can order your copy from shawlinepublishing. com.au

The Jumbunna community started in 1972 when it opened the preschool.

Now with 48 staff and numerous families, the new hub will be a welcome space for the growing needs of the community.

“We have a room for groups to hold

There is also a kitchen, office space and different areas for community groups.

The new facility will provide much needed additional space for family-based support services such as parenting groups as well as NDIS support for children and young thank you to Jumbunna for what you do for our community,” he said.

Two blocks of land had been generously donated by the Northern Rivers Food Co-operative and funding was received through a partnership of the Federal and State Governments, as well as $500,000 from

Children from Casino West Public School performed traditional and modern dances for representatives of the community.

Community groups interested in hiring the space at the Jumbunna Community Hub can contact Karen McDermott on 0429232790.

DUGONGS IN THE TWEED RIVER – BOATIES NEED TO BE VIGILENT

BY SARAH WATERS

BOAT operators are urged to take care in the Tweed River following several sightings of a dugong over the past 12 months, including one last week.

Dugongs are often seen in Moreton Bay, but the presence of the marine mammals in the Tweed is unusual.

Tweed Shire Council’s Team Leader for Coast and Waterways

Tom Alletson said the dugong may have relocated to the Tweed following the impact of the 2022 flood.

“Dugongs feed on seagrass beds and are entirely dependent on these habitats being extensive and healthy,” Mr Alletson said.

“Healthy dugongs need healthy seagrass beds and seagrass is reliant on clear water so the leaves can receive sunlight and photosynthesise.

“So far it appears there may only be one individual dugong in the Tweed, and it is not known if it has been here permanently since the first sighting in May

2022,” he said.

Mr Alletson said good water quality was essential to attract and sustain marine life in the Tweed River.

“To improve water quality, we need to continue to address issues throughout the Tweed River catchment.

“This includes measures such as restricting cattle access to creeks, revegetating waterways with native plants and protecting riverbanks from the impact of boat wake and flood flow.”

Mr Alletson said boat owners need to help prevent potential strikes on marine animals and protect seagrass beds.

“People need to take great care not to chop up seagrass beds with their propellers when operating in shallow water - and take extreme care when travelling at speed, close to our more extensive seagrass beds.

“This is important not only for our dugong guest, but for our resident turtles and dolphins too.”

To find out more visit tweed.nsw.gov.au/ rivers-creeks.

“The test of our progress,” once said WWII American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, “is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” And it is ironically the shared, albeit very far-removed plight of those at the top end compared to those far below, that generate such deeply unsettling reactions in me.

That 123,000 people in Australia were recorded as being homeless on the last census night in 2021 (up 6,000 from the previous count in 2016) is surely nothing short of a national disgrace. In a country like ours: that one entire MCG stadium full of people sleep without a secure place to call home; and that 45,000 of ‘our’ homeless are under the age of 25 thickens the plot in the most shameful way.

Add into the above societal witches brew the near equally damning statistic that 1.667 million people are unemployed in this country (many of which are not in this predicament through any motivational or gaping skill deficiency of their own) and you have a cluster of issues that jaggedly combine to form a national dilemma.

Working our way up now from the bottom of the nation’s prosperity mill to the earnings of our nation’s top executives, this is where the gross obscenity of the discrepancy in earnings between us is hard to reconcile. Not through jealousy or any inclination to lop a tall poppy (if that’s what this cluster of people even represent) but a puzzled inclination to probe the fundamental question – what is the true worth of any of our services?

Dawe

STEVE KILBEY FROM THE CHURCH REVEALS THE STORY BEHIND THE BAND’S LATEST ALBUM

BY SARAH WATERS

Just as Steve Kilbey describes music ‘as the gift that keeps on giving’, the same could be said about his creative energy.

The 68-year-old founding member of Australia’s iconic alternative rock band The Church has recently come off a six-week tour of the US.

His ethereal, dream-like lyrics ‘aided and bettered’ by the instrumentation of seasoned musicians, captivated (and mystified) audiences with songs from the band’s latest albumThe Hypnogogue.

To start the ball rolling, the annual salary of arguably our country’s most important role – the Prime Minister is $549,000 (his fellow politicians rake in around $211,000 each per annum). Keeping in mind $41,900 a year is the national median personal income for Australians and you already have a picture that is somewhat out of kilter. But where things start to become truly warped is the fact the top 5 CEOs in this country each earn no less than $15 million a year ($23.72 million being the highest). Digging even superficially into this earning divergence, our top end Cheshires are often validated their incomes by being in ‘high-risk’ industries (i.e., financial related fields) but one could argue how much more high-risk to one’s life is being homeless or having to function (on behalf of an entire family) just above the poverty line? Which begs the next question - Is anyone, irrespective of what they do, genuinely worth millions of dollars a year? Maybe it’s just me, but I couldn’t look myself in the mirror if I was raking in such an obscene amount of money.

If the above snapshot isn’t stomach-churning enough, then ponder the global predicament, which pits 700-million people in the category of extreme poverty and some 2,640 individuals in the glittering herd of billionaire (holding a net worth of $12.2 trillion between them). I’m not sure where it all ends, but I can’t help thinking somewhere within the vicinity of what Karl Marx once suggested, “The last capitalist we hang shall be the one who sold us the rope.”

Kilbey describes the concept album ‘as the best’ of 26 albums released since the band’s formation 43 years ago.

It came together six years after The Church’s 2017 album Man Woman Life Death Infinity.

The time between albums allowed Kilbey to experiment with ‘every type of music’ he had in him, develop The Hypnogogue’s science fiction narrative and bring together the best band he has formed.

The line-up of musicians includes Kilbey on vocals and bass guitar, drummer and producer Tim Powles, former Powderfinger guitarist Ian Haug, multi-instrumentalist Jeffrey Cain and Ashley Naylor, who is considered one of Australia’s finest guitarists.

Kilbey said the ‘very coherent’ line-up has created a unity he hasn’t experienced in a band before.

“When I first started putting bands together, the last thing on my mind was to have a really coherent band that plays really tightly and plays a really slick show,” he said.

“I was a precocious songwriter, and you know I had my look together - sort of trying to be an Australian version of David Bowie - I could play bass guitar, but there were so many things I didn’t understand, and it took me so long to really understand what drives audiences wild.

“What they really like is when a band is really tight and when they all play together really well - and this band certainly fulfills that.”

The Church played to sold out audiences during their latest tour of the US.

Reviewers applauded Kilbey’s ‘wholesome yet timeless vocals, witty charm and uproarious jokes’ while the band’s ‘collective energy and showmanship’ made for stella performances.

“I felt like we could swagger on stage every night completely confident that no matter what happens, no matter what the nature of the audience was like, we could slay ‘em,” Kilbey said.

The story behind the album, which Kilbey thought a lot about during covid, couldn’t be truer to the band’s psychedelic and prog rock style of music.

It is told through 13 musical compositions made up of melancholy tones, resounding melodies and elegant acoustic guitar the band has become synonymous with.

Kilbey said the new line- up of musicians initially started playing around, got different songs together and over time it occurred to him he was making his first concept album.

“The songs started forming concepts, it didn’t all happen at once, it took me a long time to figure it out and I’m still trying to figure it out…”

The Hypnogogue is based on a songwriter living in a dystopian, broken-down future in 2054, who can’t write songs anymore. He meets a woman scientist Sun Kim Jong in North Korea who invented a machine - The Hypnogogue.

“The woman is a hit-song making phenomenon, but she does it by pulling songs out of people’s minds,” Kilbey said.

“It ends up that the songs are dangerous songs and people who listen to them end up terrified.”

Despite this, the songwriter still uses the machine in an attempt to revive his career.

He falls in love with Sun Kim Jong and then it all goes wrong.

Kilbey said the concept was loosely based on today’s society, or at least where it might be heading, which is becoming shrouded by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and self-interest.

“On the way we bring audiences to certain moments of the songwriter’s life - it’s like a scientific-thriller steeped in music.

“But all the songs work together as compartmentalised pieces.

“There are a couple of songs on the album that I really love to play, one of them is called ‘No Other You’ and to me it’s one of the most lovely and romantic love songs I have ever written - you can take the whole story out of the equation and it’s still a beautiful song.”

Kilbey said the song was ‘unashamedly and unapologetically’ David Bowie.

He hasn’t resisted any of his musical inspiration, like he may have 20 years ago, and said it is the most prog rock album the band has made.

While he admits it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, especially if people are into typical pub rock songs, he describes it as complex, layered music and lyrics that makes listeners think.

“One time I had a guy quote my lyrics - ‘They’re going to send you away she said psychic angels spread on the top of her head’ - and say to me ‘why do you have to write about that stuff’.

“I said what do you want me to write about – he said what’s wrong with cars and girls and getting into fights - you know ‘it’s a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll’ type stuff.

“But our songs have many layers and textures musically and lyrically - it takes people of a journey.

“At first people sometimes can’t understand it but if you listen to it over again it starts to reveal itself.”

After spending almost his entire life making music, Kilbey still isn’t sure how a combination of ‘chords, lyrics and notes’ can be so mood altering.

And his passion for music will be the last thing that fades into the distant out-of-this world realms, his songs transport you to.

“We find we’re constantly evolving and moving forward, and our new songs are as good as our old.

“We’re not a nostalgia act.

“There’s been a bit of a tendency in rock n’ roll where they sort of start getting a bit soft and the big ones (bands) rely on their back catalogue of songs.

“I don’t really like lingering in the past.

“I sometimes wish I was playing to Elton John size audiences in an arena but having to trod out all those songs from 42 years ago that would feel like some kind of death to me.

“I don’t mind trodding out some old ones as long as I can play some new ones and luckily our new album is full of some really good songs to play.”

Kilbey said it had been a long slow haul and after 26 albums The Church, in his opinion, has made some ‘ok albums and some really, really good ones’.

After finally ‘adjusting all the controls and getting it right’ The Hypnogogue has rolled off the table and it as a masterpiece.

“I guess it’s much like Puccini (famed Italian composer) he was doing his best music towards the end of his life,” he said.

Australian audiences are next in line to be treated to The Church’s creative talent.

Kilbey said there is nothing more he would rather do than go around Australia and play the new album, as well as some of the band’s classics such as “Under the Milky Way’.

“It will all be skilfully mixed up together with the continuity through the last 43 years of all the stuff we have done.

“We are giving them a good cross section of songs and it is a long, three-hour show where we run the whole gamut.

“We have an acoustic bit where we take it all down to acoustic guitars and reinterpret some songs, we have pounding, psychedelic jams, we play all the hits from our career - it’s a brilliant across the board section of The Church.”

THE CHURCH WILL PLAY AT THE TWIN TOWNS THEATRE ON SATURDAY, MAY 27 AS PART OF THE HYPNOGOGUE WORLD TOUR. FOR TICKET

INFORMATION

VISIT: WWW. THECHURCHBAND.

NET

THE CHURCH ON TOUR

THE Church have unveiled their 26th studio album The Hypnogogue with eight Australian dates announced for The Hypnogogue World Tour. The ARIA Hall of Fame inductees will celebrate 43 years since their formation by embarking on the extensive world tour performing new music and songs from their 26-album career.

The Australian leg of the world tour will come off the back of a 21 city, six-week US tour and will stop at eight cities across the country, including Brisbane, Gold Coast, Hobart, Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Newcastle.

The Hypnogogue is a monumental concept album which captures the band’s bespoke sound without re-treading creative steps.

The record features band has ever done. recently released singles The Hypnogogue, C’est La Vie and No Other You, offering a pool of melancholy tones and psychedelic swells, transporting listeners to another realm, guided by its striking science fiction narrative.

“We’ve never created a concept album before,” he said.

“It is the most teamwork record we have ever had. Everyone in the band is so justifiably proud of this record and everyone helped to make sure it was as good as it could be.

“Personally, I think it’s in our top three records. The complexity, the way the songs relate to each other and the level of collaboration that has gone into the record.

“It will go on rewarding you for years and years. There’s lots of subtle references to other artists, other songs and other times”.

The album was recorded at iconic Australian studio Damien Gerard Studios on the Central Coast and mixed by Darrell Thorp (Radiohead, Beck, Foo Fighters).

Bassist, vocalist and founder Steve Kilbey said The Hypnogogue is the most prog rock album the

The Church yield an expansive music career with a phenomenal back catalogue of songs including Reptile, The Unguarded Moment, Almost With You and Under the Milky Way regarded as one of the most influential and recognisable Australian rock anthems of all time. Their equally stellar live shows have been deemed ‘spectacular’ by MAGNET Magazine, citing their ‘dreamy psychedelia that will daub your evening with shades of paisley’.

Last year’s performance to a 50,000 strong crowd at USA’s Cruel World Festival alongside Blondie, Bauhaus and Morrissey was heralded as ‘a subtle delight that captivated the late afternoon audience’.

Marigolds Bistro Buffet Fridays

Lunch and Dinner 11.30am-2.30pm / From 5.30pm

Starts 2nd June

Amazing Indulgence

BY TIM HOWARD

The debriefers for the organisers of Grafton’s first Marketta have only one question to answer: when is the next one?

A crowd estimated at more than 5000 packed into the centre block of Prince St on Saturday afternoon and evening to sample the wares of local businesses and