spring 2014
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welcome from the editor from the mayor published by the Lismore Business Panel & the City Centre Manager Issue 1: Spring 2014 cBd magazine is a seasonal magazine published four times a year on behalf of the businesses of Lismore. It is designed to support and promote the local economy, community associations and creative industries that keep our town alive and interesting. If you would like to contribute to cBd, send words and pictures to cbdmag@cometotheheart. com.au photos: Natsky writing: Helen Fry design: Dogwhistle Creative printing: Lismore City Printery Cover image: sesame rice paper rolls from Keen On Green, photo by Trevor Worden
Welcome to this fresh new look at our fabulous CBD and surrounds! I’m a very proud supporter of all things Lismore—I love our city centre for its food, fashion and fun. Whether shopping at a big brand retailer or in an independent business selling local hand made goods, I can find everything I want in Lismore. Especially in last few weeks before Christmas, I invite you to be a local shopper too. Not only will you support your local economy but I guarantee you will find fabulous gifts that promote Lismore to all your family and friends. In the pages of this new magazine you’ll also find features on some of our leading CBD restaurants, profiles on some of our fabulous living treasures and a calendar of the season’s events. Just like the CBD itself, the cBd magazine will excite and delight you. Enjoy reading the contents and more importantly, spend time exploring the contents of our wonderful town. Jenny Dowell, Lismore Mayor
The Lismore Business Panel is very excited to introduce this new vibrant magazine to our community. With so much on offer in our CBD heart, the cBd Magazine is the perfect medium to share experiences, profiles and events with you. Lismore’s CBD is in the midst of a major revitalisation program that has been building over the past few years. The last few months have seen a dramatic increase in the number, and diversity of events and activities on offer here. This will continue as part of our strategy to provide our community with more variety and encouragement to shop locally. This will be easy to do with the opening of several new eateries and specialty stores to tempt shoppers. The CBD continues to delight with the people behind our shopfronts—from notable chefs, artists, musicians, retailers and restaurateurs, professional services and health community based groups. So like our Mayor, I encourage you take time to find out a little bit more about our region’s heart and those businesses that keep it alive. I can assure you, you will be pleasantly surprised. Jason Mumford, Lismore City Centre Manager cometotheheart.com.au
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sign up to buy local
If you own or run a business in Lismore and you haven’t registered on the Buy Local Project procurement portal, it’s time you did.
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The Buy Local Project was launched in 2013 and is a partnership between the Northern NSW Local Health District, Lismore City Council and the University Centre for Rural Health.
plugging the car in Lismore City Council has an electric car. The Nissan Leaf is a new Lismore Recycling & Recovery Centre fleet car. It does not use any fossil fuels and plugs into the wall at the Lismore Recycling & Recovery Centre so it can charge straight from the rooftop solar panels. The new car has lithium-ion batteries and can travel up to 170km on a full charge. It features a small solar panel on the rear spoiler which powers many of the interior accessories via a 12-volt battery. Some of the car parts are even made from old products including water bottles and plastic bags. The electric car is another step toward Lismore City Council’s bigger picture goal of generating all electricity from renewable resources by 2023.
It’s a simple online tool where businesses can sign up for free and receive an email when a tender for their business or service becomes available. As an example, 50 work packages —with an expected contract value of $30 to $50 million—were released earlier this year as part of the Lismore Base Hospital upgrade. The tenders were for a variety of work from carpentry to catering, medical supplies, fencing, glazing, joinery, curtains, painting, signage and much more. Signing up to the Buy Local Project is free. Visit www.regional.icn.org.au.
time to spring clean Council’s next Tip Free Day is on Sunday 16 November at the Lismore Recycling & Recovery Centre. This is a great chance to spring clean your cupboards or shed and get rid of all your old junk for free. Please bring along proof of residency for the Lismore City Council area (rates notice or driver’s licence), and please keep scrap metal, timber, green waste, household items and other recyclables separate. You cannot dispose of commercial quantities of chemicals, asbestos or truck/tractor tyres. Tip Free day runs from 9am to 4pm. Come early to avoid the queues. For more information visit www.northernriverswaste.com.au.
recycling centre open day Since the opening of Council’s new, $3.65 million Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) earlier this year, there has been a lot of interest in the new recycling facility. On Sunday 9 November the Centre is having an Open Day. You will be able to go on a tour of the MRF and guided walks of the Lismore Rainforest Botanic Gardens plus there will be a sausage sizzle, and lots of children’s activities. 9am to 2pm and entry is free. The Centre is at 313 Wyrallah Road, East Lismore.
The policy essentially means water, sewer and infrastructure charges (Section 64 and Section 94 fees) are waived for those setting up business in existing buildings in the CBD. It also provides great savings for people building new secondary dwellings (granny flats) on the same land as their existing residence. Within Lismore’s city centre, charges no longer apply to new businesses or existing businesses changing location or varying their operations, provided they can accommodate this new service within the fabric of an existing building. This could represent potential savings of between $1500 and $50,000 depending on the nature and size of the business.
affordable accommodation As well as encouraging the continued revitalisation of the city centre, the new policy is designed to facilitate smaller, more affordable accommodation in existing residential areas. This could assist the growing number of single people and couples without children in the area and allow elderly residents to continue to live independently in their twilight years, while having the support of family living in a primary residence.
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Lismore City Council has adopted a new policy to encourage new business in the CBD and broaden affordable housing options throughout the city.
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boost for CBD businesses
The policy enables people to build additional accommodation on their existing land as long as the total does not exceed five bedrooms, two laundries and three toilets. Normally the charge would be an average of $7,000 for each additional bedroom, so the savings are significant.
In addition, the new policy seeks to encourage city centre living by waiving fees for those renovating existing buildings to provide ‘shop top’ or flood-free apartments in the CBD.
Black Sombrero, Lismore’s popular new eatery, was one of the first businesses to benefit from the policy and saved $50,000 on set up costs. Owner Julie Dickson said had she not secured the fee waiver, she would have set up shop somewhere else.
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community Meet the Lismore Business Panel
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The Lismore Business Panel (LBP) is a group of dedicated businesspeople working to make Lismore a better place. The LBP oversees and advises on the activities of the Lismore Business Promotion Program, which is all about attracting people to our city centre and breathing life into our CBD.
The program is funded by the businesses of Lismore for marketing, promotion and revitalisation of our CBD. Recently we’ve seen a number of successful activities and events in the CBD such as June’s Stocktake Sale, the Summerland Sports and Classic Car Show, the 20th anniversary of The Lantern Parade, Arts in August, A League Football, the National Rugby Championship
(Country NSW vs Brisbane City), The Back Alley Gallery Street Party, the Sample event An Evening with Digby and Clayton (featuring artist Digby Moran and Clayton Donovan), and fashion runway show Thread 2014.
The panel
These are all designed to raise awareness of Lismore through events that bring people to our city centre.
Phil Clynes (General Manager, Northern Star and Northern Rivers Echo)
Events such as these are funded through our Event Funding Program and we encourage groups and organisations to apply for funding to further support the development of our amazing CBD and urban fringe precincts. For further information regarding the Event Funding Program, contact City Centre Manager Jason Mumford on 1300 87 83 87.
Michael Haddin, Chair (Chandlers Betta Home Living) Jodie McRae (Price Attack and Beauty Spot at the Square) Nick Woodham (Night Owl)
Barry Robinson (Wyrallah Road Shopping Centre) Paul Deegan (LJ Hooker) Sharon Dowling (The Professionals and Stella Network) Chris Knight (Satay Hut and the Lismore Chamber of Commerce) Every LBP member gives their time on a voluntary basis, and each of them are equally hard-working businesspeople with the best interests of our community at heart. The group also includes Lismore City Council Executive Director Sustainable Development Brent McAlister and Councillor Isaac Smith. The cBd Magazine is produced through Lismore Business Promotion Program funds and we encourage you to send our production team information that we can use in future editions of the magazine. This might be up and coming events, community projects, special events or advertising. Email cbd@ cometotheheart.com.au or phone 1300 87 83 87. Left: Chair of the Lismore Business Panel, Michael Haddin
HEELS – The reason, apparently, why most of us work so hard.
The Stella Network was formed as a support network for women in business in the Northern Rivers under the umbrella of the Rotary Club of Summerland Sunrise and has continued to grow because of that uplifting support it is providing for our members.
This year also marked the first ever The Stella STRUT, where we strutted the streets in support of the amazing organisation, Under The Red Dress! The ladies added a touch of red to their looks and took to the streets of Lismore!
For those of you who have never been to The Stella Network meetings, or for the lads out there wanting to know what secret women’s business we get up to, here are a few of our key terms:
THE PLUG – Ripped off from Rove Live all those years ago, our favourite part of the night, hearing about what people want to promote the next month.
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It has been quite a year for The Stella Network! Starting our chair at the LBP, a year of dynamic guest speakers sharing knowledge that provided professional, spiritual, physical and emotional development for our ladies.
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Strutting Stella Style
The Stellas have fun, form friendships and take something away from every meeting.
We hope to see more faces, so please hop onto our Facebook page www.facebook.com/ thestellanetwork or email news@ thestellanetwork.com.au to subscribe to hear about our events!
The Stella Network meets monthly, except in January every second Wednesday of the month at 5.30pm, La Baracca on Keen Street, $5 entry including light nibbles.
HATS – When a woman is part of more than just her sole job or business – ie: charity work, mother hood, and more. Currently, each of the women who help run The Stella Network have at least 3-4 hats, as with most of our members! STELLA VIRGINS – The Stellas who are new, once you’ve come that’s it though, you’re one of us!
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The words ‘authentic’ and ‘grass roots’ are the ones Julie chooses to describe Black Sombrero BLACK SOMBRERO IS AT 136 KEEN ST, LISMORE CBD
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Black Sombrero
It is with great humility that Julie Dickson tells the story of her success, beginning with the
creation of Lismore’s popular pizza restaurant, Fire In The Belly, (which scooped up a swathe of business and restaurant awards) and then moving to the establishment of a fine dining restaurant in the terraced mountains of Indonesia called Bridges Bali, and back to Lismore where she finds herself at the helm of its newest darling on the eaterie circuit, Black Sombrero. Of course none of this happened by accident. Julie is absolutely clear—and she admits, slightly obsessive—about each of her projects, and the series of steps she knows she must take to make them happen. It seems she makes herself do things beyond her experience: like agreeing to establish a restaurant in a country where she didn’t know anyone or speak the language, and creating and submitting a complete Development Application on her own, for the renovation of a sports store into a restaurant, now Black Sombrero. Julie has an ability, it seems, to attend coolly to big picture issues such as business plans and DAs, while also scouring online furniture stores for the right bar stool or lamp shade.
Pushing herself to learn new things and grow in new directions makes Julie the quintessential businesswoman: brave, creative and willing to shoulder 100% of the responsibility for all her projects. And yet she is not the only person who benefits. When she was invited to Bali to establish Bridges, Julie chose an ex-apprentice named Nicholas Lazzaroni to accompany her. He was a young man at that time, who had never travelled overseas, and in fact had barely left Lismore. She took him to Bali and put him in charge of the restaurant. Today he is executive chef at one of the best resorts in Bali, and has an Indonesian wife and family. But Julie moved on. After spending 6 months in Bali and finishing the task she had taken on, she came back to Lismore and started wondering, ‘what next?’ ‘I saw that Mexican was really beginning to stir everywhere,’ she says, ‘and yet Lismore still didn’t have a Mexican restaurant.’ So I decided to go for it’. ‘I set out finding spice importers, comissioning and importing a tortilla press from the US, consulting with the likes of Attila Yilmaz, Sydney’s infamous Taco Truck Champion, and basically reading, eating & breathing Mexican recipes. Now, just over a year later, Black Sombrero is already popular with locals, who regularly fill it to overflowing.
The formula is based on North Mexican cuisine, with the specially made charcoal pit at the heart of the kitchen, and a range of authentic dishes, many of which are hand made by well known local chef Peter Fleming, who has taken on the position of exec chef at Black Sombrero. The words ‘authentic’ and ‘grass roots’ are the ones Julie chooses to describe Black Sombrero. This is not your Tex Mex restaurant of the eighties and nineties. Authentic spices and chillies are imported from Mexico, but, says Julie, ‘we also have a lot of really lovely locals who drop us bags of home grown chillies and limes, that really add to the local feel of the restaurant.’ ‘It’s a great feeling to be connected to your community,’ says Julie, ‘And I also enjoy the teamwork, watching young people step into their potential.’ And so, it is only fair that the rest of us watch as she continues to step right into hers. No surprise that Black Sombrero was recently given the Best New Business Award at the Lismore Business Excellence Awards.
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sweet treats ‘I find a recipe, cook it and then tweak it to taste,’ says Mary who has transformed herself COFFEE SHOTS IS AT 6 /106 LISMORE ARCADE MOLESWORTH ST, LISMORE CBD cometotheheart.com.au
food Coffee Shots
Banana cream pie, lemon meringue pie, white chocolate raspberry cheesecake, caramel and macadamia cheesecake with lacy toffee, white chocolate malteaser cheesecake… If your mouth is watering, you’re not alone. These are the creamy sweet flavours that have people navigating their way through the back alleyways and arcades of Lismore in search of a very special café … Coffee Shots. And the very special person who churns these treats out every week, is a self confessed ‘bad cook’ who transformed herself into a chef. Mary Bryant had never cooked a cake in her life when, many years ago, she went on holiday to Perth and visited a café that displayed a range of beautiful home made cakes. She came came back to work and suggested to her boss that they should do the same. Her boss agreed and swiftly gave the task of baking those cakes to Mary.
profile ‘On Saturday we send everyone home early and clean up ourselves,’ says Mary who attributes a big part of her business success to her husband. ‘It’s our passion,’ she says. ‘We spend every weekend, starting Friday, together preparing the food, cooking the cakes, quiches, frittatas, savoury mince, and rissoles for the hamburgers. We never complain because we love it,’ she says. Mary starts every day at 5.30 am and knocks off at 4. She then goes home to cook for the next day. And you can tell that complaining is not something Mary is inclined to do. ‘Why would I complain?’ She says. ‘I have wonderful staff, who know the orders of our regulars and treat all of our customers in just the way I believe is right.’ ‘And I have incredible suppliers. Customers say our coffee is one of the nicest in town and it keeps them coming back. Our Belaroma coffee suppliers Natalie and Kathryn provide amazing support and help out whenever we need training or maintenance on the machines.’
And so began a culinary journey that saw Mary not only master the art of baking, but also become proficient in creating and inventing delicious new cake and pie recipes, each of which has her own special stamp on it, and which, these days, are key to the success of her own business Coffee Shots. ‘I find a recipe, cook it and then tweak it to taste,’ says Mary, who has transformed herself from someone who ‘didn’t really like cooking’ to a respected pastry chef. But it’s not surprising that she has come so far. Mary and her husband Gary started in hospitality with Summerland Fruit Salad which supplied fruit and vegetables to large Lismore hospitals and wholesalers for decades. From there they parted ways professionally, and Gary went into real estate while Mary went to Coco’s restaurant and began acquiring the knowledge she would one day apply to her own awardwinning business. And while Gary works elsewhere during the day and stays behind the scenes, he is pivotal to the daily operations of the business.
Mary and her team were recently rewarded for all their hard work with a Best Business Award in the Hospitality & Tourism category. ‘It really was a total surprise,’ says Mary, who nearly didn’t enter the awards. ‘The whole auditorium erupted when our name was announced, and it’s been great for buisness.’
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fashion Flourish Designs
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Think, if you can, of a French boudoir. There’s a lot of lace and rich colour, stitching and embellishment. Flowing fabrics are hanging and looping, textures are fused, collaged and layered in a range of luxurious garments, that drip from hangers and hooks. There are crystal beads, corded lace, capure lace, and patterns of colour exploding onto satin and cotton. There are also some simple, comfortable, stretchy and wearable items—contemporary, and typically North Coast.
And this is contrasted with some headless dolls, a collection of crocheted skeleton earings and some darkly humorous art made of ceramics, macrame and plastic collage. It’s Flourish Designs.
Heading up this arty fashion house is business owner and creative director, Jeht Burgoyne, qualified fashion designer and fine artist who fuses her love of both these arts, to create distinctive off-thewall pieces of clothing and art. The shop is a work of art in itself, with an imposing purple feature wall. Clothes, accessories and art works festoon the shop space, and at its centre is Jeht, with her lively warm personality, big and bright enough to fill her almost supernatural surroundings. Flourish has been open in Casino Street South Lismore for just on a year. Before that the building was a delicatessen, and Jeht has taken advantage of that. The dressing room used to be a cool room, her sewing studio used to be a storage and preparation area. But they are perfectly suited to their current purposes, enabling Jeht to work and sew on the premises, and providing plenty of space for measuring and fitting clients. Those clients come from all over Australia and the North Coast, and many of them are what she calls ‘loyal customers—the ones that chase me down the street.’
profile While she sells a lot of her clothes straight off the rack in the shop or at market stalls, Jeht also has a lot of people ask her to create something for a special occasion. ‘Most of my clients are ladies between the ages of 30 and 90 who want something different and arty,’ she says. ‘Many come to me with an idea for something specific like a wedding dress or race day outfit, and we will work together to come up with something. I love that collaborative process, because it always ends up producing something amazing. It’s such an interesting process.’ ‘Originality is so important. That’s what I offer. People can come into the shop and buy directly from the designer.’ ‘So many designers are tempted to go overseas to get their garments made, and I have resisted that.’ ‘I’ve always believed in following my heart and my dreams. Even if you think something is unattainable, you’ve at least got to give it a shot once in your life.’ ‘That’s what I did with Flourish, and I’m so glad I did.’
making magic Even if you think something is unattainable, you’ve at least got to give it a shot once in your life FLOURISH DESIGNS IS AT 15 CASINO ST, SOUTH LISMORE
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food Keen On Green
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profile
Jaz Gill grew up in the kitchen of his parents’ Indian Mumtaj restaurant in Lismore and when he was old enough, he too decided to become a chef. After finishing his schooling at Trinity College, Jaz attended Wollongbar TAFE to undertake his chef’s apprenticeship and then moved to Coffs Harbour where he opened his own restaurant. Despite the fact that he comes from an ancient cooking tradition, he represents a very new and different generation. Yes, he has spent several years working for his parents and cooking the Indian way, but last year he decided to branch out and create something totally new. So new in fact, that there is very little cooking involved. Keen on Green is a predominantly raw, organic, vegetarian and vegan cafe that Jaz has designed to meet the demand he knows is out there. ‘There are a lot of people in the area who are looking for something like this, something unique,’ he says. ‘And there is a strong push towards raw food, so I decided I wanted to try it.’
Jaz works in the cafe and employs two part time helpers, one of whom is a naturopath with plenty of ideas about new foods and dishes for the menu. Apart from their assistance, Jaz handles the bulk of the workload himself, starting at around 7am every morning, but preparing much of the food at the end of the day so that it can go into freeze overnight. ‘A lof of the cakes and slices need to be frozen and then thawed,’ he says. ‘ And the layered cakes need to be set at each layer, so that they don’t melt into each other. It can be very time consuming.’ But the time spent is so worth it! One of the outstanding features of much of the food at Keen On Green is the way it looks. Jaz makes full use of the colours in specific foods, like beetroot and pumkin, to give his cakes and treats a flourescent glow. But it doesn’t stop there. The food is delicious. His chocolate pudding is made of avocado, cacao, strawberries and coconut and tastes like a dream—rich, creamy and chocolatey, but raw, low on sugar, without dairy or animal products. The pudding slides down like mousse, but doesn’t have that heaviness often associated with rich desserts. Jaz also makes a vegan blueberry and buckwheat cheesecake, a walnut and beetroot raw cake with avocado mousse, walnuts, goji berries and cacao, a Thai pumkin pie with buckwheat and beetroot base, a vegan, gluten-free lasagna with cashew nut cheese and a lentil shepherds pie. Add to that a range of vegetarian baguettes made on organic breads sourced locally, plus some Nimbin bliss balls and some raw chocolates, and you have a full and interesting menu. Jaz avoids the use of sugar, and this includes fruit, so his recipes include just a slither of strawberrry or banana here and there. ‘I like to use dates to sweeten the dishes,’ he says. He also relies very heavily on the humble avocado to do a lot of the work for him. His chocolate pudding gets its rich creamy texture from the avo, so well disguised with a teaspoon of cacao that you really don’t know it’s there. ‘It’s a refreshing change to make things this way, and it’s something I really enjoy.’
good is sweet His chocolate pudding is made of avocado, cacao, strawberries and coconut & tastes like a dream KEEN ON GREEN IS AT 1/142 KEEN ST, LISMORE CBD
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art on a plate Last month Lismore’s Back Alley Gallery played host to an Art & Food event that brought two of our best Indigenous creatives together to do what they do best in front of an admiring crowd.
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Chef Clayton Donovan is probably best known for his work on the ABC television show Wild Kitchen, which filmed him as he travelled through some of Australia’s Indigenous nations, sourcing fresh traditional produce and creating his unique and distinctive dishes.
happenings Clayton kicked off the Lismore proceedings by telling the crowd that cooking is like ‘reconciliation on a plate. Because everyone shuts up when you serve up good food.’
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He had the 200 strong crowd drooling as he stepped them through his own San Choi Bao recipe using roo meat. ‘After all, you don’t see many fat kangaroos, do you?’ he said.
He was followed by artist Digby Moran who spoke about his life in the Northern Rivers, and his journey to becoming one of the region’s most respected Indigenous artists. The evening was introduced by Mayor Jenny Dowell and MC-ed by Northern Rivers Food Chair, Pam Brooke from Brookfarm.
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Lismore Cruise & Travel
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What Max the fluffy tabby knows about the complexities of travelling abroad, he’s not letting on, but with typical cat-like assurance, he travels the length and breadth of the office of Lismore Cruise and Travel.
Perhaps Max has worked out by now, how many hotels and airports there are in the world, but just let’s say, he’s keeping it to himself. Lucky for us his owner Kaylene Hopf has a much better idea about the complicated nature of the travel industry. She knows that there are thousands of airports, and hundreds of countries and territories, each with their own visa regulations, cultural expectations, currencies, and the rest. Add to this, thousands of touring companies, each with special offers, plus a raft of insurance companies and ticketing systems, applied to a range of airports and languages, and you start to get the idea of what is involved in being a travel agent.
Sure, travel agents don’t have to know the address and phone number of every single hotel, or touring company, language or baggage code, but they must know how to find it, and what kind of service, or convenience it offers, plus what challenges it may present. Let’s just say, Kaylene is all over it! And so she should be, she’s spent 26 years behind the travel desk. Kaylene Hopf was born into this industry and started working for her parents at age 17. Over the years her brain has captured and saved data that would rival today’s computer programs and databases.
‘I just know how to find it. I know where to look and what to do,’ says Kaylene, who believes that while the computer and internet have made it a lot easier for people to find and book their own travel, nothing beats the extensive knowledge offered by an experienced travel agent. Five years ago Kaylene bought Lismore Cruise & Travel from her parents and began to put her own stamp on it. One of her main priorities these days, is to hand on the knowledge she has to her staff so that they can continue to give customers the best shot at a great holiday. ‘I want to give customers the holiday they’ve always dreamed about,’ she says. ‘There’s nothing better than getting that post card or email or photo from a really happy satisfied customer.
‘The best way to do that is to keep up the training—it’s never ending, and I’m a bit obsessive about it, you could say. I spend a lot of my time making sure that my staff have access to the information and the ways to find it,’ she says. A big part of providing great service is ongoing training and education, but the other part is travel! Yes, that’s right folks, Kaylene’s staff do get to go travelling… and call it work. ‘The thing is when you’ve been somewhere, you can give the customer that little bit extra that no website will provide. There’s nothing more reassuring than getting advice from someone who’s been there,’ she says. The other one of Kaylene’s priorities in the business is to connect with the Lismore community she knows so well. The Lismore Camera Club, Rotary, Rural Youth, Lords Taverners, 4 Wheel Drive Camping Show, and the Lismore Rugby Club all benefit from the support of Lismore Cruise and Travel. Not only that but Kaylene is also doing her bit for the environment, with solar panels on the roof, a paperless office and extensive recycling program which she implements in her business. In 2014 her business was awarded Retail Business of The Year at the Lismore Business Excellence Awards—an award well earned by Kaylene and her team.
itchy feet? I want to give customers the holiday they’ve always dreamed about LISMORE CRUISE & TRAVEL IS AT 55 WOODLARK ST, LISMORE CBD
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artist Michael Philp
profile
Early memories help us forge our life stories. But there are always things that can’t be explained, emotions that overwhelm, deeds and words that seem unfair.
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For Michael Philp, art is his way to explain those memories and to find his way back to a childhood lived in Tweed Heads in the sixties and seventies as the youngest of 10 children, born to an Aboriginal mother and white father, in times when such unions were frowned upon from both sides of the cultural divide. His memories are strong, and include a large supportive Aboriginal clan full of cousins and aunties and uncles, and a distant, professional fisherman for a father, of digging pippies at dusk, of nights spent out at sea, rowing in the dark, swatting mossies and hauling heavy nets. But Michael spent the first part of his adult life blotting out the memories, hurtling down a hill of self destruction, alcoholism and drug abuse. That was until about 15 years ago when his father died, and he pulled up and saved himself. ‘I realised then, that I couldn’t blame him for who I was anymore,’ he says.
family and childhood came spilling out, what started to become very clear to those around him was that Michael’s art was stunning. In some of his works vast blocks of colour are highlighted by just a few dots. (But ‘not in the traditional style, I wanted to avoid the dots’.) In others small figures line a massive horizon, others loom large in a crimson landscape or blue ocean. His works are perfectly simple, yet have an undeniably epic quality. About the time that Michael was discovering his artistic talents, Arts Northern Rivers was coordinating a project called A Special Kind of Vision, consisting of an exhibition and catalogue that would showcase the talent of Indigenous artists in this region. ‘I wasn’t going to do anything about it, but a friend of mine Penny Evans kept on saying to me that I should put in for this thing. I kept putting it off, but in the end I think it was partly to get her off my back that I entered. I’m very grateful to her now,’ he says. That project marked a shift in Michael’s attitude to his art and in the years following he created pieces for his first solo exhibition Lovers in My Country, which sold out and was followed by another two years later. ‘I’ve been amazed at how well I’ve been received by the art world,’ he says. ‘Sometimes I think that I don’t belong because I don’t have the training, but then I think I’m lucky because I don’t have all the restrictions that the art theory can put on you.’ ‘I’ve never had any expectation on myself to be part of the art world. When I say to myself “I must paint” it doesn’t work. When it happens it happens, and it can’t be for money. I don’t think about money, but just about the feelings and the colours.’ ‘And it can be hard work’ says Michael. ‘I put my heart and soul into my work and it can knock me around a bit.’ ‘Some days I come into the studio and just doodle and stare. But I always come in.’
What he was confronted with when the fog started to lift were ancestors and family members coming to him in memories—not just appearing, but connecting with him and bringing back a lifetime of emotion. As a way of healing he started doodling and to make his own unique kind of art. And as the stories of his
He shares his studio with fellow artist Justine Barratt, who Michael describes as friend and admin support, and someone who keeps him on track. ‘I wouldn’t have lasted this long or come this far if it wasn’t for her,’ he says. ‘I have a belief that my ancestors are with me always—I feel they guide me.’
feeling colour
I put my heart & soul into my work and it can knock me around a bit SEE MICHAEL’S WORK AT WWW.MICHAELPHILP.COM.AU/
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master juggler So he’s back to where he likes to be—with several balls in the air ONE ONE FOUR IS AT 114 KEEN ST, LISMORE CBD cometotheheart.com.au
food One One Four
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Peter Fleming seems to have an amazing ability to calmly juggle the undeniable stresses of chef with the demands of business, while also keeping up a solid family life. Having worked for 5 years to build up Alpahdale 561 just outside of Lismore, he let go of that business this year, but not before he’d already opened his Lismore café, One One Four on Keen Street.
Yes, he was running two busy restaurants at once, while also being husband and father to three little children. And, in typical style, no sooner had he sold Alphadale 561, and moved his focus to One One Four, than Peter had taken on exec chef position at Black Sombrero just up the road. So he’s back to where he likes to be—with several balls in the air. This time one of those is a new baby due to arrive on the day this interview was taking place. Pete’s not at all edgy about the impending birth, assuring us that his wife Busara will call if there’s a need. ‘It’s the fourth,’ he says.
In 2005 he moved to the Northern Rivers and for 4 years worked at the Richmond Hotel under the tutelage of John and Carol Quilky who helped him set a path for the future. In 2009 he opened Alphadale 561, which he and wife Busara transformed, building a reputation for quality fine dining, alongside great café food. Which may be why this latest venture is a café. Here he is able to finesse a formula that keeps the customers coming back. Peter is calling One One Four ‘the home of the $10 deal’, inviting people coming to work between 7 and 9am, to stop here and get a coffee, morning tea and lunch, all for $10. It’s a cheap offering, but also a smart one. Capturing that early morning trade, building a loyal customer base, maintaining a community street appeal—all of these things will go a long way to ensuring that One one Four will keep its share of the important morning and lunch crowds. ‘Alongside the wraps and muffins and salads, I’m also interested in serving fast fresh food, with punchy Asian flavours,’ he says. ‘And we are serving on bamboo plates, using recyclables, keeping it simple and environmentally sound.’
How will they manage? ‘We’ll bring the bub in here sometimes. We’ve done that plenty of times. The kids can sleep well here while we work.’ And why wouldn’t they? The cafe is a wonderful environment: warm, safe, stimulating and full of friendly faces, yummy food and quiet places. It’s your quintessential community gathering joint— open and friendly with a street frontage plus a quaint arcade. There are plenty of footpath and arcade tables, plus a large communal table inside. But One One Four is a far cry from Peter Fleming’s origins. He has spent his career at the pinnacle of his profession, starting with an apprenticeship at the elite Hayman Island Resort, which was awarded No 6 Island Resort in the World while he was there. From there he headed to Melbourne and landed in an already hatted restaurant, Centonove in Kew, then moved to quality eateries, Money Order Office and Bottega.
‘Because,’ he says, ‘the way we appreciate food is changing. There’s a move to a much simpler, more honest cuisine based on fresh, seasonal ingredients. It’s not as contrived as it once was.’ ‘These days we will sit at a communal table and share our food. We encourage that here.’
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lost & found sound
Your hair will stand on end, you will get 24goosebumps & you may even shed a tear THE AUDIO ROOM IS AT 61 MAGELLAN ST, LISMORE CBD
cometotheheart.com.au
music The Audio Room
profile
Here’s a story that’s a lot of fun to tell. It’s an almost mythic tale of a man who stood his ground against the powerful forces of economics and won; a man who chose beauty over profitability and convenience.
‘After a while I thought to myself, well if there’s still even just a small demand out there, then I’ll give it another go, and I opened a shop in Lismore,’ he says.
The story begins way back in the 70s when Nick Barovsky first began to sell music: in the days when ‘music’ was vinyl. That’s how people listened to their favourite bands, singers and orchestras. The vinyl record was the heart of the musical experience—an enjoyment often supplemented by the inferior (but more portable and recordable) audio cassette.
But in the last decade there’s been another big shift in the industry—one that provides us with a fitting happy ending to our tale and incredible vindication for Nick, who never would compromise.
Turntables, styli, amps and speakers were all central to the musical vocabulary and a big part of listeners’ focus was on the purity and quality of the sound. For 15 years Nick Barovsky inhabited this world, and his music shop in a Northern Beaches suburb of Sydney enjoyed strong customer loyalty. Then, almost over night the way people consumed and enjoyed music began to change. The early- to mid80s saw the introduction of digital music—CDs and CD players. It was heralded as a revolution in musical appreciation: cheap, compact, light, and convenient. The fact that it didn’t sound even remotely as good as a vinyl record didn’t seem to be an issue.
It’s 18 years since Nick opened The Audio Room and for the first half of those years the shop remained a niche provider for a small group of connoisseurs. ‘Only about 15% of my business came from Lismore in those days. Most of it was from out-of-towners, some of them even flew me to Sydney,’ he says.
Vinyl is back. Seriously. While the analogue technology never died, and records continued to be made, they were pretty much invisible to 99% of us. But now in 2014 vinyl makes up an amazing 25% of the industry and is on the rise. ‘For the Baby Boomers it’s like they forgot what they had, and are just remembering,’ he says. ‘But the younger people are also buying. I had one girl the other day who turned her parents back onto it,’ he says.
Except, that is, for NIck, who spoke out strongly against the new digital medium. ‘I was there at the launch and I heard this thing and I was saying, I don’t get this, what are people doing here?’ he says. ‘The difference was huge.’ ‘I was quoted in the newspapers saying how bad the CD sounded, and I felt it would be hypocritical of me to sell the things I had spoken out against. So I got out.’
‘If it had only been a matter of degrees, I never would have bothered with vinyl,’ says Nick. ‘But anyone can hear it immediately. I don’t have to sell, I just help people buy.’
Nick sold his business and moved north where he bought property first in Broken Head and then on the Alstonville Plateau where he grew organic custard apples for 10 years.
And for those of you out there who have never (or not recently) heard a vinyl record played on a proper system, do yourself an enormous favour. Visit Nick, sit on his couch and let him blow you away. Your hair will stand on end, you will get goosebumps and you may even shed a tear.
He kept his vinyl and his turntable and remained loyal to the medium. He also maintained contact with some of his old customers who continued to source vinyl records through him.
It’s a sound you will never again forget.
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news
events
the main event
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Rich in the arts, culture, cuisine and sport, Lismore celebrates its abundance and diversity each year with a busy calendar of vibrant, colourful and spectacular events. These events excite, entertain and illuminate visitors and the local community and also make a substantial contribution to the Lismore economy. Visitors attending these events fill our cafés and restaurants, book out our hotels, motels and B&Bs, and spend up big on transport, shopping entertainment and services. In just the last couple of months, Lismore has hosted a whole swag of events that firmly positioned Lismore as the region’s entertainment and sporting capital.
melbourne cup visit A piece of racing history set Lismore abuzz when The Emirates Melbourne Cup Tour visited in August. A full day of exciting activities were enjoyed by race fans as the tour provided a rare opportunity for punters to get up
close to the ‘People’s Cup’ and even have their photos taken holding the iconic trophy.
fathers day
The City centre was pumping on Fathers Day, September 7, as football fans flocked into Oakes Oval for the Annual Craig Foster Cup. This year’s event saw Melbourne City FC take on the Central Coast Mariners in an exciting A-League pre-season clash.
rugby union clash Rugby fans poured into the city on September 14 for the NSW Country Eagles vs Brisbane City at Oakes Oval. This high level match features some of Australia’s rugby superstars and talented up and coming players.
The Fast Track Talent Showcase, held over a weekend in late September at Lismore City Hall, attracted hundreds of auditions and rewarded talented 12 year old, Hannah Parrington from Possum Creek, with a $2,000 prize for her performance.
The Regional Pop Up Concert Tour at the Northern Rivers Conservatorium on September 28 was also a huge hit. Taylor Henderson and Jai Waetford, both previous contestants on the ‘X Factor’, had the fans screaming for more.
baseball championships Lismore’s idyllic spring weather welcomed fourteen elite Baseball teams, their families and supporters in early October for the Queensland U16 & U18 Baseball Championships. Hundreds of families were treated to an exciting display of baseball at the Albert Park complex battling for the Queensland State Age Championship honours. Lismore City Council’s Event Unit bids for many of these events and also helps event organisers with event management, marketing, registration, ticketing and research support.
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missdoon’t ut! entrie closes octobe r 31 facebo ok Lismor eN imbinT ourism
NOW!
november
24 & 25 but wait ... there’s more
1 Lismore 2074: Imagining Lismore 60 years Hence
Circus Oz, brought to you by NORPA at Lismore City Hall, Friday 24 Oct (7:30pm) and Sat 25 Oct (1:30pm & 7:30pm).
A participatory project, led by Duke Albada, linking with the 60th anniversary of Lismore Regional Gallery. instead of looking to the past, we are looking 60 years into the future, to ask: “How do you imagine Lismore in 2074?”.
This is NORPA’s last show for the year.
Image: winning artwork by Karla Dickens, January 26, Day of Mourning 2013, 280 x 124 cm, vintage Australian flag, thread and embroidered appliqué, Photographer: Zan Wimberley
26 Three Brothers Art Project
26 Parliament of NSW Aboriginal Art Prize The Parliament of NSW Aboriginal Art Prize is the richest art incentive on offer for Aboriginal artists born in or living in New South Wales. The exhibition features works by 35 finalists.
On May 22nd 2014, selected Bundjalung students from the six local public primary schools and Roy Gordon came together at Albert Park Public School to produce a series of paintings based on The Three Brothers Dreaming story. The paintings on display in this exhibition are the result of that collaboration.
spring
diary
october
1 Raimond DeWeerdt: Silent Speech
Raimond DeWeerdt subverts the notion that photography captures reality and is therefore a measure of truth. His images are of places he has encountered, but we find them altered, invested with an other worldly quality that belongs to historical painting genres from Western Art.
8 60th anniversary To mark the gallery’s 60th birthday, the Friends are holding a 1950’s themed gala party in the grounds of the gallery’s future home – Presently C-Block, near the Lismore Library. The lawn area will be transformed into a 1950’s garden complete with marquee and jazz band.
The Lismore VIC has colourful
that are chock full of fabulous products from all around this wonderful region. There’s something for every one and every occasion. We can even make one up especially for your special someone. Drop in and check out our amazing range.
207 Molesworth St, Lismore • 02 6626 0100 • visitlismore.com.au
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whether you’re a visitor or a local, we’ve got just about everything you need and if we don’t have it, we’ll tell you where to go!
207 Molesworth St, Lismore • 02 6626 0100 • visitlismore.com.au