Melbourne Observer. Feb. 6, 2019

Melbourne

Observer

$2

NEW WBIZ ★ LIFES TYLE ★ TR AVEL ★ FEA TURES ★ BARGAINS ★ SPORT NEWSS ★ SHO SHOWBIZ LIFESTYLE TRA FEATURES

Melbourne

95

ISSN 1447 4611

Observer

Ph 1800 231 311 Fx 1800 231 312

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6 , 2019

VICTORIA’S INDEPENDENT WEEKLY NEWSPAPER

50TH YEAR OF PUBLICATION $2.95

S TATE EDITION Vol 51 No 1721 SERVING VICTORIA SINCE 1969

including GST

BLACK SATURDAY 'This anniversary is a time to reflect on the extraordinary goodwill and compassion shown to us after the fires. It's also a time to remember those who were lost.'

- Cr Sandice McAulay Mayor, Bushfire Region, Murrindindi Shire

Great apartments in Cairns

Argosy On The Beach ● See Page 46

Book direct 07 4055 3333 www.argosycairns.com Turn to Page 25

Old Victorian Fencing 35 Moore Rd, Airport West Phone: 9335 2501 oldvictiorianfencing.com.au

Grosvenor in Cairns Holiday Apartments Fully Self Contained 1 and 2 bedroom apartments Looking to escape the cold this winter; then head on up to Cairns - always warm!

● See advert, back page

Visit www.grosvenorcairns.com.au or email info@grosvenorcairns.com.au

or ring 1800 629 179

Camberwell Sewing Centre

LATEST SPECIALS Turn to Page 28

Sellers of fine antiques, vintage and collectables at affordable prices.

Free shipping around Australia.

Contact us for details. www.marpleantiques.com.au Call Us: 0408 270 289 Email Us: admin@ marpleantiques.com.au

Page 2 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, Februar y 6, 2019

www.MelbourneObserver.com.au

Best Places

STOP - before you 'flick' the page over … read on (it's worth it)

ANOTHER AD….?

YEAH ... But a "great" little ad and worth reading!

NOW is the time to be planning and booking a holiday away from Melbourne … to the and sun of Cairns in Far North Queensland.. What a fantastic time to visit; You won't find any 'advertising hype' here … we don't need to talk like that; we just give you the plain, simple truth about what we offer - great accommodation in Cairns at a good price.

Choose from a 1 or 2 bedroom, fully self-contained apartment that is complete with a full kitchen, large living room, bathroom with walk in shower plus FOXTEL and air-conditioning.

FREE WiFi & FREE use of the 24/7 fitness center/gym across the road.

The pool is solar heated so even in winter when the temperature is down a bit the pool is still usable (21 to 25 degrees as opposed to 17 degrees in an unheated pool).

Adjacent to the pool is an undercover meals/BBQ area that has a shower room and bathroom.

SO … COME ON UP…. Contact us now!

Grosvenor In Cairns

GROSVENOR IN CAIRNS SPECIALS for Melbourne Observer readers only (must mention this ad when booking)

10% discount on whatever the price shown on our website is!

Our website prices are the "lowest" available (except for this special)

10% off - plus an arrival taxi transfer and a bottle of wine SO … visit our website …. Choose your holiday dates and Accommodation type … and then ring or email (don't forget to mention this Ad) … and we will take care of the rest for you! www.grosvenorcairns.com.au PHONE 1800 629 179 (Toll free call - within Australia only) 07 4031 8588 (from outside Australia ring 61 7 4031 8588) 07 4031 8521 (from outside Australia ring 61 7 4031 8521) Mobile 0403 15 0805 EMAIL info@grosvenorcairns.com.au (accounts/information) reception@grosvenorcairns.com.au (bookings) SEND MAIL PO Box 2735 Cairns, Queensland. 4870 STREET ADDRESS 186 to 188 McLeod Street Cairns (on the corner of Grove St)

www.MelbourneObser ver.com.au

Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - Page 3

Killingworth Hill Cafe & Whisky Bar 36 Killingworth Rd, Killingworth (Yea) Open 11am-8pm Friday-Sunday

Closed Fri.-Sat.-Sun. Feb. 15-16-17 Today’s Menu Charcuterie Boards: Your choice of a meat platter, cheese platter, terrine platter or fish platter all accompanied with fresh home grown and made produce, for example, vegetables, gluten free pesto’s, chutneys, nuts, etc,

Fresh Gourmet Pizzas Fresh Homemade Pies Dessert: As per display cabinet Teas/Coffee: Assortment of Herbal Teas and classic Teas & Coffee, Cappuccino, Latte Mug Short/Long Black or Plunger Coffee

Don’t forget our Famous Devonshire Tea We strive for excellence, we do not rest until our best is better We guarantee our products 100%.

If unsatisfactory, please advise staff who will replace or refund immediately

Are you arranging your staff Christmas party or a get-together before the big day? The team at Killingworth Hill Café & Whisky Bar will happily host your party Why not call us to discuss your requirements and make a booking?

Killingworth Hill Cafe & Whisky Bar Phone: 0455 266 888 www.killingworthhill.com.au

Page 4 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, Februar y 6, 2019

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www.MelbourneObserver.com.au

Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - Page 5

Page 6 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, Februar y 6, 2019

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www.MelbourneObserver.com.au

Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - Page 7

WIN TICKETS TO MURIEL’S WEDDING This Month’s Sale Item is a ready-to-hang Limited Edition Art Print of Melbourne in 1882.

This is a stunning Melbourne aerial view showing the historical development of the 1880's era. It is a beautiful reminder of our wonderful past and development.

Big, brash and very cheeky!

The multi award-winning Muriel’s Wedding The Musical is coming to Melbourne in March.

The Local Paper and Melbourne Observer have six double passes to give-away to readers.

The stellar creative team behind the critically acclaimed production is led by theatre director Simon Phillips, set and costume designer Gabriela Tylesova.

Post your entry to by first mail on Monday, February 25, 2019 to: Muriel’s Wedding Comp.

PO Box 1278, Research, Vic 3095

We have six double passes (great Stalls tickets) to give away to readers for Muriel’s Wedding The Musical at Her Majesty’s Theatre at 7pm on Wednesday, March 13.

To enter, complete the details on this entry form, and mail to ‘Muriel’s Wedding Comp’, PO Box 1278, Research, 3095 to reach us by first mail, Monday, February 25.

Only enter if you can attend.

Winners will receive their tickets by mail.

DAY

TELL US YOUR BIRTHDAY MONTH YEAR Not Compulsory

Name: .................................................................................................

Address: ................................................................................................ ............................................ Phone: ...................................................

Subject to Local Media Pty Ltd competition terms and conditions which may include publication of your name, address and birthday details

Page 8 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, F ebruary 6, 2019

www.MelbourneObserver.com.au

You can obtain your Melbourne Observer at hundreds of newsagencies across Victoria

Copies of the Melbourne Observer can be purchased through a network of hundreds of friendly newsagencies, and their subagencies, across Victoria. The Melbourne Observer is on sale each Wednesday for $2.95 per copy. For a modest extra fee, most newsagencies will cheerfully arrange home delivery to your letterbox.

To ensure that you don’t miss an issue of the Melbourne Observer Observer,, place a firm order with your newsagent. Ask to use their 'put-away' service. Any of the newsagencies listed can receive copies of the Melbourne Observer through their wholesaler, All Day Distribution, phone 9482 1145. mail@alldaydistribution.com.au PLEASE NOTE: Shelf copies of the Melbourne Observer sell quickly. Make sure you don't miss out, place a firm order. Not all the newsagencies listed have 'casual' copies automatically on sale. Ask your newsagent to 'put-away' your own copy of the Melbourne Observer. It's easy to arrange, simply hand this coupon to your newsagent to arrange your weekly copy.

AIRPORT WEST. The Lucky Charm. Shop 73, Westfield Shoppingtown.

ALBERT PARK. Dundas Place Newsagency. 18A Bridport St. ALBURY. Albury Newsagency. 518 Olive St. ALTONA. Altona Newsagency. 76 Pier St. ALTONA NORTH. Circle News & Lotto.

63 The Circle.

ALTONA WEST. Altona West Newsagency. 12 Harrington Sq. ANGLESEA. Anglesea News and Lotto. 89 Great Ocean Rd. APOLLO BAY. Hansons Newsagency. 135 Great Ocean Rd. ARMADALE. Highdale Newsagency. 969 High St. ASCOT VALE. Ascot Vale Newsagency. 1/ 208 Union Rd. ASHBURTON. Ashburton Newsagency.

209 High St. ASPENDALE. Aspendale Newsagency.

129 Station St. ASHWOOD. Ashwood Newsagency. 503 Warrigal Rd. BAIRNSDALE. Bairnsdale Newsagency.

21 Bailey St. BALACLAVA. Carlisle Newsagency. 143 Carlisle St. BALWYN. Balwyn Newsagency. 413 Whitehorse Rd. BALWYN. Belmore News and Lotto. 338 Belmore Rd. BALWYN. Burkemore Newsagency. 1060 Burke Rd. BALWYN. Yooralla Newsagency. 247A Belmore Rd BATMAN. Batman Newsagency. 93 Gaffney St BAXTER. Baxter Newsagency. 106 BaxterTooradin Rd BELL PARK. Bell Park Newsagency. 21-23 Milton St. BELMONT. Belmont Newsagency. 132 High St. BENTLEIGH. Bentleigh Newsagency. 359 Centre Rd. BENTLEIGH EAST. Centrefield Newsagency. 939 Centre Rd. BENTLEIGH EAST. Chesterville Newsagency. 299 Chesterville Rd BENTLEIGH EAST. East Bentleigh Newsagency. 761 Centre Rd. BERWICK. Berwick Newsagency. 29-31 High St. BLACK ROCK. Black Rock Newsagency.

606 Balcombe Rd. BLACKBURN. Blackburn Newsagency.

116 South Pde. BLACKBURN SOUTH. Blackburn South Newsagency. 118 Canterbury Rd BORONIA. Boronia Village Newsagency.

Shop 22A, 163 Boronia Rd. BOX HILL. Newsline Newsagency. Shop 70, Centro.

BOX HILL. Whitehorse News and Lotto.

Shop SP037 Centro.

BOX HILL NORTH. Kerrimuir Newsagency. 515 Middleborough Rd. BOX HILL SOUTH. Box Hill South Newsagency. 870 Canterbury Rd BRIAR HILL. Briar Hill Newsagency. 111 Mountain View Rd.

Hand this coupon to your local newsagent to reserve a weekly copy of the Melbourne Observer Dear Newsagent ❑ Please put-away a copy of the Melbourne Observer each week. I will collect it from your store. ❑ Please organise delivery each week to my home of the Melbourne Observer.

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Newsagencies can arrange supplies of the Melbourne Observer newspaper through All Day Distribution, phone 9482 1145. mail@alldaydistribution.com.au

BRIGHT. Bright Newsagency. 28 Ireland St. BRIGHTON. Middle Brighton Newsagency. 75-77 Church St. BRIGHTON NORTH. North Brighton Authorised Newsagency. 324 Bay St. BULLEEN. Thompsons Road Newsagency.

123A Thompsons Rd. BUNDOORA. Bundoora Centre Newsagency. Shop 3, 39 Plenty Rd. BURNLEY. Burnley Newsagency. 375 Burnley St. BURWOOD EAST. East Burwood Newsagency. 16 Burwood Hwy. CAMBERWELL. Burwood Newsagency.

1394 Toorak Rd. CAMBERWELL. Camberwell Centre Newsagency. 628 Burke Rd. CAMBERWELL. Camberwell Market Newsagency. 513 Riversdale Rd. CAMBERWELL. Through Road Newsagency. 18 Through Rd. CANTERBURY. Canterbury Newsagency.

104 Maling Rd. CARLTON. Lygon Authorised Newsagency. 260 Lygon St CARLTON NORTH. Rathdowne Newsagency. 410 Rathdowne St. CARRUM. Carrum Newsagency. 514 Station St. CASTLEMAINE. Castlemaine Newsagency. Shop 1, 45 Mostyn St. CAULFIELD EAST. Caulfield Newsagency. 14 Derby Rd. CAULFIELD NORTH. Junction Newsagency. 71 Hawthorn Rd. CHADSTONE. Supanews Chadstone. Shop 261, Chadstone Shopping Centre.

CHARLTON. Charlton Newsagency. 69 High St. CHELSEA. Chelsea Newsagency. 403 Nepean Hwy. CHELTENHAM. Cheltenham Newsagency. 332 Charman Rd. CLAYTON. Clayton Newsagency. 345 Clayton Rd. CLIFTON HILL. Clifton Hill Newsagency.

Queens Pde. COBURG. Coburg Newsagency. 481-483 Sydney Rd. COLAC. Blanes Newsagency. 164 Murray St. COWES. Cowes Newsagency. 44-46 Thompson Ave. CRAIGIEBURN. The Lucky Charm.

Craigieburn Central. 340 Craigieburn Rd CRANBOURNE. Cranbourne Newsagency. 105 High St. CROYDON. Burnt Bridge Newsagency. 434 Maroondah Hwy. CROYDON. Croydon Newsagency. 166 Main St. CROYDON NORTH. Croydon North Newsagency. 5 Exeter Rd. CROYDON SOUTH. Eastfield Newsagency. 7 The Mall.

DANDENONG. Lonsdale Newsagency.

216 Sunnyside Ave. DAYLESFORD. Daylesford Newsagency.

45 Vincent St. DELACOMBE. Ballarat Authorised Newsagency. 1 Laidlaw Drive.

DENILIQUIN. Deniliquin Newsagency and Bookstore. 14 Napier St. DIAMOND CREEK. Diamond Creek Newsagency. 62A Hurstbridge Rd. DINGLEY. Dingley Newsagency. Shop 2, Dingley Village.

DOVETON. Doveton News & Lotto. 37 Autumn Place.

DROMANA. Dromana Newsagency. 177 Point Nepean Hwy. DROUIN. MVH News. 93 Princes Way. DRYSDALE. Drysdale Newsagency. 14 High St. EAGLEMONT. Eaglemont Lucky Lotto News and Post. 60 Silverdale Rd. EDITHVALE. Edithvale Newsagency. 253 Nepean Hwy. ELSTERNWICK. Elsternwick News & Lotto. 444 Glenhuntly Rd. ELTHAM. Eltham Newsagency and Toyworld. Shop 2, 963 Main Rd. EMERALD. Emerald Newsagency. Main St. ESSENDON. Essendon Newsagency. 15a Rose St. ESSENDON . Roundabout Newsagency. 85 Fletcher St. ESSENDON NORTH. North Essendon Newsagency. 1085 Mt Alexander Rd. FAIRFIELD. Fairfield Newsagency. 99 Station St. FAWKNER. Fawkner Newsagency. 54 Bonwick St. FAWKNER NORTH. Moomba Park Newsagency. 89 Anderson Rd. FITZROY. Fitzroy Newsaagency. Cnr Brunswick and Johnston Sts. FOREST HILL. Brentford Square Newsagency. 29-31 Brentford Square.

FOREST HILL. Forest Hill Newsagency.

Shop 215, Forest Hill Chase.

GARDENVALE. Gardenvale Newsagency.

168 Martin St. GEELONG.. Geelong Newsagency and Lotto. 140 Moorabool St. GEELONG WEST. Murphy's Newsagency.

198 Pakington St.

GISBORNE. Gisborne Newsagency. Shop 20, Village Shopping Centre.

GLENFERRIE. Glenferrie Newsagency.

660 Glenferrie Rd GLEN WAVERLEY. Kingsway Newsagency. Shop 4, 39 Kingsway.

GLEN WAVERLEY. Syndal Newsagency.

238 Blackburn Rd. GLEN WAVERLEY. The Glen Newsagency. Shop 2, 065 The Glen Shopping Centre.

GLENROY. Glenroy Newsagency. 773 Pascoe Vale Rd. GRANTVILLE. Grantville Newsagency.

1509 Bass Hwy. GREENSBOROUGH. Plaza News. Shop 4/5, Greensborough Plaza.

GREYTHORN. Greythorn Newsagency.

272 Doncaster Rd. HADFIELD. Hadfield Newsagency. 120 West St HAMPTON. Hampton Newsagency. 345347 Hampton St. HAMPTON EAST. Hampton East Newsagency. 412 Bluff Rd. HAMPTON PARK. Hampton Park Newsagency. Shop 3, Shopping Centre HAWTHORN. Glenferrie South Newsagency. 546 Glenferried Rd HAWTHORN. Hawthorn News & Lotto. 89 Burwood Rd. HAWTHORN EAST. Auburn Newsagency.

119 Auburn Rd. HAWTHORN EAST. Auburn South Newsagency. 289 Auburn Rd. HEIDELBERG. Heidelberg Heights Newsagency. 35 Southern Rd. HEIDELBERG. Heidelberg Newsagency.

124 Burgundy St. HEIDELBERG WEST. The Mall Newsagency. Shop 18 The Mall.

HOLMESGLEN. Holmesglen Newsagency. 637 Warrigal Rd. HUNTINGDALE. Huntingdale Newsagency. 290 Huntingdale Rd. INDENTED HEADS. Intended Heads Newsagency. 13 The Esplanade.

KEILOR. Keilor Newsagency. 700 Old Calder Hwy. KEW. Cotham Newsagency. 97 Cotham Rd. KEW. Kew Newsagency. 175 High St. KEW NORTH. North Kew Newsagency. 93 Willsmere St. KINGSVILLE. Kingsville Newsagency.

339 Somerville Rd. KNOX CITY. Knox City Newsagency, Wantirna South.

KNOXFIELD. Knoxfield Newsagency.

1597 Ferntree Gully Rd. KOOYONG. Kooyong Newsagency. 483 Glenferrie Rd. KYABRAM. Kyabram Newsagency. 117 Allan St. KYNETON. Collins Newsagency. 95 Mollison St. LANGWARRIN SOUTH. Langwarrin South Newsagency. 1/143-149 Warrandyte Rd LARA. Lara Newsagency. 44 The Centreway.

LILYDALE. Lilydale Newsagency. 237 Main St. LOWER PLENTY. Lower Plenty Newsagency. 95 Main Rd. MALVERN. Lucky Malvern Lotto. 167 Glenferrie Rd. MALVERN. Malvern Newsagency. 114 Glenferrie Rd. MALVERN. Malvern Village Newsagency.

1352 Malvern Rd. MALVERN EAST. Central Park Newsagency. 393 Wattletree Rd. MALVERN EAST NEWSAGENCY. Waverley Road Newsagency. 336 Waverley Rd. McKINNON. McKinnon Newsagency. 163 McKinnon Rd MELBOURNE. Domain Newsagency.

Shop 6, 401 St Kilda Rd. MELBOURNE. Flinders Street Newsagency. 65 Flinders St. MELTON. Newsxpress Melton.

MENTONE. Mentone Newsagency. 24 Como Pde. MERLYNSTON. Merlynston Newsagency.

17 Merlyn St. MIDDLE PARK. Middle Park Newsagency. 16 Armstrong St. MILDURA. Klemm's Mildura Newsagency.

53 Langtree Mall.

MILDURA. Mildura Newsagency and Lotto. 71 Langtree Ave. MILL PARK. Mill Park Newsagency. 4 Stables Shopping Centre.

MITCHAM. Mitcham Newsagency. 503 Whitehorse Rd. MITCHAM NORTH. Mitcham North Newsagency. 228 Mitcham Rd MOOROOPNA. Mooroopna Newsagency.

84 McLennan St. MORDIALLOC. Warren Village Newsagency. 87 Warren Rd. MORNINGTON. Mornington Newsagency. 97 Main St. MORWELL. Morwell Newsagency. 176 Commercial Rd. MOUNT ELIZA. Mount Eliza Newsagency.

102 Mount Eliza Way.

MOUNT GAMBIER. Posters Newsagency.

79 Commercial St East.

MOUNT MARTHA. Mount Martha Newsagency. 2 Lochiel Ave. MOUNT WAVERLEY. Pinewood Newsagency. Shop 59, Centreway Shopping Centre.

MOUNTAIN GATE. Mountain Gate Newsagency. Shop 9B, Mountain Gate Shopping Centre.

MULGRAVE. Northvale Newsagency. 901 Springvale Rd. MULGRAVE. Waverley Gardens Newsagency. Shop 44, Waverley Gardens.

MURRUMBEENA. Murrumbeena Newsagency. 456 Neerim Rd. NARRE WARREN. Narre Warren Newsagency. Shop 1, Narre Warren.

NEWBOROUGH. Newborough Newsagency. 30 Rutherglen St. NEWMARKET. Newmarket Newsagency.

292 Racecourse Rd NOBLE PARK. Noble Park Newsagency.

422 Douglas St. NORTHCOTE. Newsplaza Newsagency, Northcote Plaza.

NORTHCOTE. Northcote Newsagency.

335 High St. NORTH MELBOURNE. Ledermans Newsagency. 234-244 Macauley Rd. NUNAWADING. Mountainview Newsagency. 293A Springfield Rd. PARKDALE. Parkdale Newsagency. 238 Como Pde. West.

PASCOE VALE SOUTH. Coonans Hill Newsagency. 67 Coonans Rd. PASCOE VALE SOUTH. Paper N Post.

372-380 Bell St. PRESTON. Preston N’agency. 377 High St. PRESTON. Preston Town Hall Newsagency. 247-249 Murray Rd. PRINCES HILL. Princes Hill Newsagency.

607 Lygon St RESERVOIR. Broadway Newsagency.

279 Broadway.

RICHMOND. Swan St Newsagency. 108 Swan St. RICHMOND. Vernons Newsagency. 308A Bridge Rd. RINGWOOD EAST. Ringwood East Newsagency. 52 Railway Ave. RINGWOOD NORTH. North Ringwood Newsagency. 182 Warrandyte Rd. ROBINVALE. Robinvale Newsagency. 67 Perrin St. ROSANNA. Rosanna Newsagency. 135 Lower Plenty Rd. ROSEBUD. Rosebud Newsagency. 1083 Point Nepean Rd. RYE. Rye Newsagency. 2371 Pt Nepean Rd. SALE. Sale Newsagency. 310 Raymond St. SANDRINGHAM. Sandringham Newsagency. Shop 5, 18-34 Station St. SCORESBY. Scoresby Newsagency. 14 Darryl St. SEAFORD. Seaford Newsagency. 124 Nepean Hwy. SEBASTOPOL. Sebastopol Newsagency.

Shop 3, 'Safeway Complex'.

SHEPPARTON. Goulburn Valley Newsagency. 314 Wyndham St. SHEPPARTON. Lovell Newsagency. 246 Wyndham St. SOMERVILLE. Somerville Newsagency.

Shop 24, Plaza, Eramosa Rd. SOUTH MELBOURNE. Clarendon Newsagency. 9 Thistlewaite St. SPRINGVALE. Springvale Newsagency.

321 Springvale Rd. STRATHFIELDSAYE. Strathfieldsaye News and Lotto. Shop 5, 939 Wellington St. TARWIN LOWER. Tarwin Lower Newsagency. 45 River Drive.

TATURA. Tatura N’agency. 138 Hogan St. TEMPLESTOWE. Macedon News and Lotto.

THORNBURY. Normanby News and Lotto. 25 Macedon Rd TOORADIN. Tooradin Newsagency. 92 South Gippsland Hwy. TOORAK. Toorak Village Newsagency.

479 Toorak Rd. TORQUAY. Torquay Newsagency. 20 Gilbert St. TRARALGON. Seymour Street Newsagency. 83 Seymour St. TRARALGON. Traralgon News and Lotto.

51-53 Franklin St. TULLAMARINE. Tullamarine Newsagency. 2/191 Melrose Dr. VERMONT. Vermont Authorised Newsagency. 600 Canterbury Rd. VERMONT SOUTH. Vermont South Newsagency. Shop 14, 495 Burwood Hwy. WANTIRNA SOUTH. Wantirna South Newsagency. 223 Stud Rd. WARRAGUL. Warragul Newsagency. 43 Victoria St. WARRNAMBOOL. Reinheimers Newsagency. 145 Koroit St. WATSONIA. Watsonia Newsagency.

Watsonia Rd. WHEELERS HILL. Wheelers Hill Newsagency.

WODONGA. Mahon's Newsagency. 168 High St. YARRAVILLE. Yarraville Newsagency. 59 Anderson St.

SINCE 1969.

50TH YEAR OF PUBLICATION

Melbourne

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Ph 1800 231 311 Fx 1800 231 312

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● Tara Rankine presents Love is a Work in Progress.

Love is a work in progress ■ Production company Big Mood presents the cabaret comedy show Love is a Work in Progress with Tara Rankine from April 8- 14 at Tasma Terrace, and on April 18 and 20 at Caz Reitops Dirty Secrets.

Presented as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Tara describes different types of love all experienced by all with laughter, embarrassing stories and emotional singing.

Love is a Work in Progress explores past love, sex, relationships and heartbreak, all fuelled with real life embarrassment and soul singing.

The show will premiere in the Adelaide Fringe before coming to Melbourne.

Where: Tasma Terrace, 6 Parliament Place, Melbourne When: 10pm on April 8-14.

Tickets: $30 Full , $27 Concession, $25 Tuesday ★ Where: Caz Reitops Dirty Secrets, 80 Smith St, Collingwood When: 8.50pm - April, 18; 6.15pm - April 20.

Tickets: $30 Full | $27 Concession.

- Cheryl Threadgold

HUGH BEAUTY!

■ A memorial service was held yesterday (Tues.) for Melbourne animal welfare advocate Hugh Wirth.

The service was held at the Burwood headquarters of the RSPCA. Dr Wirth had given almost 50 years’ service to the RSPCA, and was well known as a weekly ABC broadcaster.

He died last year after a battle with Parkinsons Disease.

He was a veterinarian in Balwyn, and served 43 years as President of the RSPCA in Victoria, and 22 years of the national body.

Dr Wirth served for more

● Hugh Wirth

than 40 years on the veterinary panel for the Royal Agricultural Society’s Melbourne Show.

His Saturday morning radio program was a popular broadcast across Victoria for almost 30 years.

He attracted talkback calls from across the state, and was known for his strident, no-nonsense approach.

Yesterday’s 10am ceremony was held to allow members of the public to pay tribute to his life.

Dr Wirth was born on September 9, 1939, and died on February 5 last year.

● The Lions Club of Northcote has lost its legal battle against a Land Tax assessment for its opportunity shop at 735 High St, Thornbury.

■ A VOLUNTEER opportunity shop in a Melbourne northern suburb must pay Land Tax, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has ruled.

The Lions Club of Northcote Inc unsuccessfully applied to the Tribunal to have a decision of the Commissioner of the State Revenue overturned.

The Club submitted to Tribunal Member Reynah Tang that it had run the shop for “many years”, and became registered owner of the 735 High St, Thornbury propertyon November 28, 1994.

In December 2016, the Commissioner determined that the property was not exempt from Land Tax, and issued an assessment of $2475.

Club Treasurer Kevin Tait lodged an objection to the assessment in February 2017, contending that the club was eligible for a charitable exemption as the objective was for charitable purposes.

The Commissioner disallowed the objection in September 2017, leading to the Tribunal application.

“The only issue to be determined is whether the Lions club of Northcote is a ‘charitable institution’ for the purposes of section 74 of the Act,” said Member Tang.

Member Tang said that the matter was delayed because a similar case in which he was involved - the Rotary Club of Melbourne Inc v State Commissioner of Revenue - was under appeal, under Justice Croft.

Member Tang determined that the Lions Club of Northcote was not a charitable institution, and pointed to the Club’s social activities for the benefit of its members; and moral improvement of members in their own personal, business and community lives.

Tribunal rules that Lions Club must pay Land Tax

Member Tang pointed to a previous decision of Judge Digby who held that for an institution to be charitable, it must have only charitable purposes or objects, other than purposes or objects that are merely incidental or ancillary to the main charitable object.

In a previous decision, Member Tang had held that the conduct of weekly lunch meetings by the Rotary Club of Melbourne was charitable, despite any social or networking aspect.

The Commissioner of State Revenue submitted that the Club’s purposes, while commendable, pursued not only charitable purposes, but also of non-charitable purposes.

Member Tang said that the club held monthly dinner meetings which were purely social, uniting members in the bonds of friendship, fellowship and mutual understanding.

Radio man dies ■ Tony Featherstone, former radio and TV presenter, has passed away in Sydney after a short illness. Tony worked at 3LO (now ABC Melbourne), GMV 6 and 2CH in Sydney.

He was also the voice of ABC TV until 2011 and hosted the ABC music show The Pop Scene in 1969.

- Greg Newman

VICTORIA’S INDEPENDENT WEEKLY NEWSPAPER

Page 10 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, Februar y 6, 2019

Melbourne

www.MelbourneObserver.com.au

Melbourne

Observer Confidential inc orpor a ting the Melbourne A d vvertiser ertiser, incorpor orpora Ad Melbourne T ict orian Rur al Ne ws Trr ader ader,, V Vict ictorian Rural New and Melbourne Seniors News News..

Victoria’s Independent Newspaper First Published September 14, 1969 Every W ednesda y Wednesda ednesday

Talk is cheap, gossip is priceless

Radio man moves on

Contact Us

Stan and Ollie this month

Office: 30 Glen Gully Rd, Eltham, 3095 Postal: PO Box 1278, Research, Vic 3095 Phone: +61 3 9439 9927 Fax: +61 3 9431 6247 Web: ww w.MelbourneObserv e rr..com.au .MelbourneObserve or@MelbourneObserv e rr..com.au E: Edit ditor@MelbourneObserv or@MelbourneObserve

Distribution: Sam Fiorini, phone 9482 1145

Distribution

● Bruce Lees ■ Gold Central Victoria’s breakfast presenter Bruce Lees hung up the microphone last Friday (Feb. 1).

Lees had started with 3WM in 1981 as an announcer/technician, then worked in a similar role at 3AK in 1986.

Greg Newman from Jocks Journal reports that Lees moved to ABC Western Victoria in 1987-88, finally settling in 1988 as announcer, sales and technician at 3CV. He was Station Manager from 1999-2014.

Back op for Jon

S ta dition: A vailable w eekly a tatte E Edition: weekly att approx. 400 newsagents across the Melbourne metropolitan area, Mornington Peninsula, Geelong, Bellarine Peninsula, Surf coast, and Victorian regional centres.

Recommended retail price: $2.95.

If your local newsagent does not curr ently sstt ock the Melbourne Observ e rr,, currently Observe why not place a weekly order with them, by using their ‘putaway’ service.

Newsagents should contact All Day Distribution Pty Ltd, 169 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, Vic 3122. Phone: (03) 9482 1145.

Across The World Melbourne Observer Online 2.

2.11 million hits annually annually.. w w w.MelbourneObserv e rr..c om.au .MelbourneObserve You can rread ead our paper fr ee on the free internet.

Contact details for our advertisers are also available at our website.

Back Copies Back Copies - Archives w w w.MelbourneObserv e rr..c om.au .MelbourneObserve Back copies for 1969-89, 2002-15 may be inspected by appointment at the State Library of Victoria. 328 Swanston St, Melbourne.

● Jon Vertigan ■ ACE Radio breakfast presenter Jon Vertigan had important back surgery late last week.

Based at Warrnambool, Jon is a son of former 3UZ3DB radio veteran John Vertigan, who is now retired on the Mornington Peninsula.

ARIES: (March 21-April 20) Lucky Colour: Yellow Lucky Day: Wednesday Racing Numbers: 3-1-7-9 Lotto Numbers: 3-13-23-33-34-40 You could be meeting someone who set your britches on fire. Love and all that goes with it will be very much on your mind. Joint financial matters are in a healthy state.

GEMINI: (May 21- June 21) Lucky Colour: Brown Lucky Day: Tuesday Racing Numbers: 6-6-2-8 Lotto Numbers: 1-10-11-32-37-42 An existing romance could be fading into the background; but don't lose heart, a new and exciting one is just around the corner. Money matters should be easing.

● Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy ■ Movie man Tom Schouten, who runs Metro Cinemas Boronia, is looking forward to the launch of Stan and Ollie later this month.

The movie looks at the lives of Laurel and Hardy.

Melbourne Observer columnist Kevin Trask has already seen two previews of the film, one organised by Paul Harris at the Sun Cinema, Yarraville.

Kevin says the movie is so good that he will see it for a third time. seum in Amsterdam, Vincent van Gogh: A New Way of Seeing provides an extraordinary biography of Van Gogh's life.

The film features interviews with key curators and historians including Vincent Willem van Gogh (great grandson of Theo van Gogh), Dominique Charles Janssens (President of the Institut Van Gogh) and many more.

This film gives audiences unprecedented views of Van Gogh's remarkable paintings and drawings.

The film also travels through Europe to the very locations Van Gogh worked on.

■ The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has cancelled the Australian financial services licence of Jade Capital Partners Pty Ltd , which provided managed discretionary account services, and banned one of its directors, James Clinnick, from providing financial services.

Jade Capital's licence cancellation took effect on January 11. Mr Clinnick will be banned for a period of four years.“

Invitations sought

New radio line-up

Banned for 4 years

● Vincent Van Gogh ■ Observer arts columnist Peter Kemp says the awardwinning film on Vincent van Gogh opens in cinemas in Melbourne today (Wed.) Three years in production with exclusive and privileged access to the Van Gogh Mu-

CANCER: (June 22- July 22) Lucky Colour: Purple Lucky Day: Friday Racing Numbers: 2-1-6-4 Lotto Numbers: 2-12-20-27-31-38 The right planetary aspects are favouring your love life.

Love and marriage is in the air; new contacts are indicated. Money should be easier to obtain than you think.

LEO: (July 23-August 22) Lucky Colour: Yellow Lucky Day: Tuesday Racing Numbers: 3-7-6-6 Lotto Numbers: 7-16-25-29-37-40 Many will be falling in love, or chasing that special person that could fulfil their wildest romantic interests.

However, finance wise you will have to learn to curb your spending.

VIRGO: (August 23- September 23) Lucky Colour: Orange Lucky Day: Wednesday Racing Numbers: 7-7-2-1 Lotto Numbers: 7-14-15-27-35-42 Many surprises in your love life. You are not quite sure what to do, or whom to choose, there is no clear cut way.

If you use your creative abilities, you could stand to make some extra cash.

LIBRA: (September 24- October 23) Lucky Colour: Brown Lucky Day: Friday Racing Numbers: 3-4-5-8 Lotto Numbers: 12-13-14-35-44-45 Don't let things slide financially, or you might as well light the BBQ with the money.After that you can let your hair down and have yourself a ball or two!

SCORPIO: (October 24- November 22) Lucky Colour: Blue Lucky Day: Thursday Racing Numbers: 5-4-5-7 Lotto Numbers: 5-13-14-16-28-31 Telling it straight is what a Scorpio does best, except this time.Your info needs checking or it could trigger a monumental mess. Get the facts straight before shooting off your mouth, then keep a low profile. Keep any new plans for ventures on ice for the moment.

SAGITTARIUS: (November23- December 20) Lucky Colour: Green Lucky Day: Monday Racing Numbers: 2-3-9-5 Lotto Numbers: 2-14-18-23-33-34 It is party time and for once you can afford to cut loose something more than hot air. Having a fling with someone shady could land you in hot water. Take time out to cheer up a friend who might be down in the dumps.

CAPRICORN: (December 21- January 19) Lucky Colour: Green Lucky Day: Friday Racing Numbers: 4-3-5-8 Lotto Numbers: 4-12-14-26-29-30 Your little reserve could suddenly go up in smoke. Depression is the order of the day. You could feel deserted; may be your deodorant has gone sour. Getting a hot session between the sheets could give temporary relief, but you could regret the hasty act later on. Seems to be a shortage of cash and "how is your father" this period.

‘Ere ‘Ere Vincent

Independently Owned and Operated The Melbourne Observer is printed under contract by Streamline PressPty Ltd, 155 Johns o y, ffor or the publisher Johnstton S t, Fitzr Fitzro publisher,, Local Media Pty Ltd. ABN 67 096 680 063, of the registered office, 30 Glen Gully Rd, Eltham, Vic 3095. Distributed

by All Day Distribution. Responsibilityfor election and referendum comment is accepted by Ash Long.

Copyright © 2019, Local Media Pty Ltd. ACN 096 680 063.

with Kerry Kulkens

TAURUS: (April 21- May 20) Lucky Colour: Pink Lucky Day: Friday Racing Numbers: 2-1-7-7 Lotto Numbers: 2-12-20-29-37-45 Love is the main topic on your agenda at the present time.

A new love affair or an existing one will really turn you on. Travel is indicated for business reasons. A legal matter may need attention.

Our Team Editor: Ash Long Features Editor: Peter Mac Columnists: Len Baker (harness racing), Matt Bissett-Johnson (cartoonist), David Ellis (wine and travel), Rob Foenander (music), Peter Kemp (the arts), Kerry Kulkens (astrology), Mike McColl Jones (lif e), Gr eg Ne wman (r adio ), T erry (life Greg Newman (radio adio), Terry Radford (Court roundsman), Aaron R ourk e (mo vies ), T ed Ry an (r acing), Jim ourke (movies vies), Ted Ryan Sherlock (movies, DVDs), Cheryl T hr eadgold (local thea e), K evin T hreadgold theatt rre Ke Trrask (sho wbiz), V eritas, G avin W ood showbiz), Veritas, Ga Wood (Hollywood).

Honorary Reviewers: Juliet Charles, Martin Curtis, Sherryn Danaher e tte er Danaher,, P Pe Gr een, L yn Hurs t, K athryn K eeble , Beth Green, Lyn Hurst, Ka Keeble Klein, Ai Diem Le, Deborah Marinaro, David McLean, Graeme McCoubrie, Maggie Morrison, Jill Page Elizabeth Semmel

Your Stars

● Jeanne Pratt ■ Some of the most soughtafter invitations on the Melbourne social scene have been issued.

Jeanne Pratt’s Production Company publicist Julie Cavanagh has sent out the VIP invitations to the 2019 season launch to be held at her ‘Raheen’ mansion in Kew on Tuesday, February 19.

The garden party will include some performances from David Bowie’s Lazarus, which is one of the shows to be unveiled by The Production Company.

The invitation instructs patrons that private photography is not allowed in the Raheen grounds.

● David Schwarz ■ Macquarie Sports Network, broadcasting on the old 1278 AM radio frequency once used by its sister station 3AW, says Mark Levy and Mark Riddell can now be heard right around the country from 5.30am.every weekday.

AFL legend Jimmy Bartel joinz in every day from 9am10am.

Drive with Mark Allen and David Schwarz is now an hour longer, from 3pm-7pm Monday-Friday.

Meanwhile, at opposition sports station SEN 1116, Gerard Whateley has been wowing them in the united States, with his Super Bowl commentary.

AQUARIUS: (January 20- February 19) Lucky Colour: Blue Lucky Day: Monday Racing Numbers: 6-2-9-3 Lotto Numbers: 6-11-18-21-26-35 This period will find you in first place and you finish by a nose! Brown-nosing that is! Well we all have to do that sometime or other, if the stakes are high enough. Eating humble pie now will lead you into a better position later.

PISCES: (February 20- March 20) Lucky Colour: Yellow Lucky Day: Friday Racing Numbers: 2-4-2-6 Lotto Numbers: 2-4-20-24-28-37 Neighbourhood hassles could evolve into a lousy situation and put you through a load of changes you are not ready for. You'll have either to take drastic action or find yourself another abode. You may have to step on a few toes; don't be shy about it.

KERRY KULKENS PS YCHIC LINE 190 2 240 051 or 1800 727 727 CALL COST: $5.50 INC G.S.T. PER MIN. MOB/PAY EXTR A. VISIT KERR Y KULKENS MAGIC SHOP AT 1 693 BURW OOD HWY BELG RAVE PH/FAX (0 3) 9754 4587 W WW .KERRY KULKENS.C OM.AU Like us on Facebook

www.MelbourneObserver.com.au

Observations 25-year ban

■ The Federal Court has wound up Australian financial services licensee CFS Private Wealth Pty Ltd and Combined Financial Solutions Pty Ltd, a corporate authorised representative of CFS Private Wealth, and restrained its director, Graeme Walter Miller, from providing financial services for 25 years.

Mr Miller is also disqualified from managing corporations for three years.

Since 2008, Mr Miller advised clients of CFS Private Wealth, many of them self-managed superannuation funds, to transfer over $4.7 million to another related company, CFS Corporation Pty Ltd, apparently for investment purposes.

Mr Miller instead used those funds for his own personal purposes and to make interest payments to other clients – conduct described

by Justice Reeves in his judgement as a ‘blatant misuse of investor funds’.

Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - Page 11 Melbourne

Observer

Latest News

News Briefs Race Club change

NEW YEAR, NEW SCAM

■ The Yea St Pat’s Race Club will this month (Sun., Feb. 24) hold its final meeting in its own right.

“Following this race meeting St Pats will combine with the Yea Race Club to form a new club to incorporate the two clubs, and to conduct a Yea Cup Meeting and a St Pats Cup meeting,” says St Pats President Leonard Sheahan.

Dior cocktails

■ An invitation-only cocktail event will be held from 7pm-9pm to celebrate Dior Lady Art #3 at the Dior Boutique, 205 Collins St, Melbourne, tomorrow (Thurs.).

Time to move

■ Supervising Producer Emily Smith has finished up at ABC News Breakfast after three years with the team. Emily will be remaining with the ABC.

Vics win awards

● Jon Faine, ABC broadcaster.

■ Victorian recipients of Australia Day AM honours include: ■ Production Company director Deborah Anne Beale, Port Melbourne for significant service to the business and public sectors, and to the community of Victoria.

■ Dr Cindy Louise Bennett, for significant service to the performing arts, particularly to music, and to the Indigenous community.

■ Sally Elizabeth Browne, South Yarra, for significant service to the community through charitable organisations, and to the fashion industry.

■ Kitty Chiller, Brighton, For significant service to sport, particularly as a modern pentathlon competitor and administrator.

■ Jeffrey Neil Davies, Heidelberg Heights, for significant service to the visual arts as an ornithological artist and illustrator.

■ Jonathan Eric Faine, Southbank, for significant service to the broadcast media as a radio presenter, to the law, and to the community.

■ Alan Kohler, Hawthorn, for significant service to the print and broadcast media as an editor, journalist and finance commentator ■ Ian McLean, Fitzroy, for significant service to music, particularly as a promoter and advocate for live performance.

■ Jean McLean, South Melbourne, for significant service to international relations, and to the Parliament of Victoria ■ Graeme Ross McPherson, Arcadia, for significant service to print and digital media, and to the community.

Australia Day OAM recipients include: ■ Norman Lewis Bailey, Balwyn, for service to the performing arts. (Trak Theatre, Victorian Drama League).

■ Richard Alexander Burman, Brighton, for service to the community.

■ Coral Shirley Deague, Wonga Park, for service to dance as a choreographer and teacher.

■ Lauraine Beth Diggins, for service to the ■ Warwick John Hadfield, Newtown, for service to broadcast media as a journalist.

■ Dorothy Evelyn Hamilton, Glen Iris, for service to music, and to people who are blind ■ Brian Francis Hopkins, Warragul, for service to print media, and to the community.

■ Francis Adrian Jackson, Elsternwick, for service to the performing arts, particularly through music.

■ Julie Leeming, Black Rock, for service to the community through charitable organisations.

■ Eileen O’Shea, Melbourne, for service to the media and entertainment sectors.

■ Timothy Foster Thorpe, Melbourne, for service to the broadcast media, particularly to community radio. (Triple R).

● Scammers are impersonating Australian Tax Office officials.

■ The Australian Taxation Office is warning to make their interactions with taxpayers appear taxpayers to be alert for scammers impersonat- legitimate. ing the ATO, as scammers change tactics this “This scam is not just targeting your money, year. but is after your personal information in an atAssistant Commissioner Karen Foat said tempt to steal your identity,” said Ms Foat. scammers have been developing new ways to There are some tell-tale signs that it isn’t the get taxpayers’ money and personal information ATO. The ATO says it will not: over the summer break.

■ send you an email or SMS asking you to “We are seeing the emergence of a new click on a link to provide login, personal or fiscam, where scammers are using an ATO num- nancial information, or to download a file or open ber to send fraudulent SMS messages to tax- an attachment; payers asking them to click on a link and hand ■ use aggressive or rude behaviour, or threaten over their personal details in order to obtain a you with arrest, jail or deportation; refund,” she said.

■ request payment of a debt via iTunes or The ATO received many reports last year of Google Play cards, pre-paid Visa cards, scammers maliciously manipulating the calling cryptocurrency or direct credit to a personal bank line identification so the phone number that ap- account; or pears is different to the number from which the ■ request a fee in order to release a refund call originated. owed to you.

This is known as “spoofing” and is a comThe ATO’s dedicated scam reporting line is mon technique used by scammers in an attempt 1800 008 540.

Melbourne

Observer

What’s On

LOST IN YONKERS

● Robbie Nicholson (Jay) and Henry Smith (Arty) in Lost in Yonkers opening February 15. Photo: David Belton ■ Heidelberg Theatre Company presents Neil Simon’s Lost in Yonkers from February 15 to March 2 at 36 Turnham Ave Rosanna.

Directed by Gayle Poor, Lost in Yonkers is set in Brooklyn in 1942 and tells of two brothers, Jay and Arty who, following their mother’s death, are sent to live with their formidable German grandmother and mentally challenged Aunt Bella.

Their father travels, desperately trying to scrape enough money together to pay off his debts.

Over 10 months, the young boys learn lessons about love, responsibility and the importance of family.

Performance Season: February 15 – March 2 Times: 8 pm, Matinees: February 17, 23, 24 at 2 pm Venue: Heidelberg Theatre, 36 Turnham Ave., Rosanna Bookings: htc.org.au or call 9457 4117.

- Cheryl Threadgold

Andrea leaves

■ Andrea Hamblin departed the Herald Sun last week after five years, most recently as a Crime Reporter and a part-time Night Chief of Staff. Andrea will move to The New Daily as a Senior Editor, to begin at the end of February.

On Saturdays

■ Radio medico Dr Sally Cockburn has moved her 3AW program to 7pm Saturdays, at least until the football returns.

On my darling

■ Clementine Ford has penned her final column for Fairfax (Nine). She will be continuing to freelance covering feminism and social issues. She reportedly angered bosses at The Age.

Melbourne Observations with Matt Bissett-Johnson

Mike McColl Jones

Top 5

THE TOP 5 IDEAL COMMERCIALS TO BE USED IN CHANNEL 7’S LIVE OPER ATING THEA TRE SHO W. OPERA THEATRE SHOW

5. “Slip, Slop Slap.”

4. “Should Have Gone to Spec Savers.”

3. “Oh what a feeling.”

2. “We’re not going to take it.”

1. “Operate responsibly.”

Page 12 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, Februar y 6, 2019

www.MelbourneObserver.com.au

Observer Magazine

■ Samuel Joel ‘Zero’ Mostel was born in Brooklyn in 1915 and he was the seventh child from a Jewish family.

In his teenage years his father wanted him to be a Rabbi but young Sam wanted to be an artist.

When he graduated from college the story goes that his yearbook noted: "A future Rembrandt ... or perhaps a comedian?"

He was teaching art when he married Clara Sverd in 1939. It was apparently not a harmonious marriage as Sam was rarely home and spent most of his time working on his paintings, teaching and socialising with his artistic friends.

He sort of drifted into show business after auditioning as a comedian at the downtown nightclub Cafe Society in late 1941.

The owner hired Sam after Pearl Harbour to give his customers a few laughs at a difficult time.

It was Ivan Black, the club's press agent, who gave Sam the nickname Zero, explaining, "Here's a guy who's starting from nothing."

In 1942 Zero gave up art and concentrated on a career in show business. He was so popular at the nightclub they increased his fee and Zero began to make comedic appearances on radio shows.

He made his Broadway debut in a play titled Keep Em Laughing and then Top Notchers.

He played the part of ‘The Swami’ in the MGM musical Du Barry Was A Lady in 1943.

Whatever Happened To ...

Zero Mostel

● Zero Mostel turned to the stage. In 1960 Zero was hit by a bus when he was returning from rehearsals for a Broadway play.

By Kevin Trask He refused to consent to the amputation of of 3AW and 96.5 Inner FM his left leg and he suffered with the injury for the rest of his life.

Zero and Clara were divorced in 1943 and he Zero returned to the stage later that year and married Kathryn Harkin in 1944 -they had two won the Tony Award for his performance in the sons Josh and Tobias. play Rhinoceros.

Zero served in the Army during World War He originally did not want to play ‘Pseudolus’ II and came under scrutiny as it was alleged he in the Sondheim musical A Funny Thing Hapwas a member of the Communist Party. pened On The Way To the Forum but he agreed He hosted several television shows during after pressure from his wife and his agent. the late 1940s. Director Eliza Kazan cast him in The show won many Tony Awards including the film Panic In The Streets in which he starred Best Actor for Zero. He starred in the film verwith Richard Widmark and Jack Palance. sion which has become a classic over the years.

In 1952 Zero was blacklisted after appearing In 1964 Zero created the role of ‘Tevye’ in front of the the House Un - American Activi- the milkman in the original stage musical Fidties Committee. dler On The Roof and won his third Tony Award.

He won the respect of his colleagues as he He was not cast in the film version but in 1968 would not co-operate and name people. he made a film that was to become a comedy His career was revived in 1957 and he re- masterpiece.

Mel Brooks could not talk Zero into playing ‘Max Bialystock’ in the film The Producers and begged Zero to show the script to his wife Kathryn talked him into it and he was brilliant in the role.

I watched it recently and I laughed from the beginning to the end. Zero and his co-star Gene Wilder became lifelong friends.

Zero was trying to lose weight and went on a diet. He collapsed and was taken to hospita where it was expected that he would recover without any problem. He lost consciousness and the doctors were unable to revive him. He passed away from an aortic aneurysm on the September 8, 1977 at the age of 62.

Just before he died Zero was a guest on The Muppet Show and commented on the creator Jim Henson: "He has the best possible actors If you have a disagreement with them, you can always use them to wash your car."

Sadly, the episode aired after his death and Zero never saw it. What a shame, I though Zero Mostel was a comic genius.

Kevin Trask Kevin can be heard on 3AW And on 96.5 FM That's Entertainment - Sundays at 12 Noon. www.innerfm.org.au

Hard decisions over town’s odd name

■ The unusually-named – some may say, unfortunately-named – town of Dildo on the shores of Trinity Bay in Canada’s Newfoundland province, has resisted numerous attempts over the centuries, including as recently as the 1990s, to re-name itself.

And as far as the majority of the 1200 folk remaining there from onetime thriving fishing and whaling industries are concerned, they’ll continue to oppose any change.

Because as well as its history, they’re enjoying the benefits of a nicely growing little tourism industry, as more-and-more visitors discover their quiet little retreat to snap pictures of anything with the moniker Dildo on it, and to join flourishing whale-watching cruises (primarily through midJune to mid-August) on Dildo’s picturesque little harbour.

Plus spend-up nicely in the few local stores, cafés and souvenir shops.

Just how Dildo got its unusual name is unclear, some locals saying that it was after a Spanish explorer who spent time in the area several centuries ago, while others speculate it came after the discovery in the 1700s on the site of the now-town, of an antiquated test-tube used by early mariners and known as a “dildo glass.”

The town’s 400-year reliance on fishing, whaling and seal-hunting began to die with tough competition on international markets and a Canadawide moratorium on whale-catching in 1972, so Dildo turned to its tourist appeal – including creating a colourful Dildo Days Festival every July with a harbour boat parade and evening fireworks.

And the town, 60 kilometres west of the provincial capital of St Johns, won an award in 2001 as one of the 10 prettiest small towns in Canada, with descriptors in various publications ranging from “really beautiful,” to a more bizarre “bleakly pretty.”

■ When Royal Caribbean Line’s gargantuan new Symphony of the Seas slips out of the yard in which she is being built in France this April, and heads to Barcelona for her first season of sailing the Western Mediterranean, there’ll be enough food and drinks go aboard during just one week’s cruising to slake the hunger and thirst of many a small town.

OK. With John O’Keefe Bill Shatner’s antics

■ Most of us knew William Shatner as the Canadian actor playing Captain Kirk in Star Trek films. These days he gets up to all manner of gigs, including an up close and personal show in Australia. Latest venture is endorsing and riding Pedego Electric bikes in a series of TV commercials currently being screened in America. Commercials are a bit of fun but unlikely to be seen in Aussie.

Great expectations

■ An ex-school teacher in Adelaide turned author has penned a highly successful biography called Bombshell explaining life during the Third Reich The same author obviously missed out on lectures on marketing as promotion consisted of a six-line classified ad in The Age newspaper. Tiny ad also included a plug for a movie mogul to buy the movie rights for $ 2 million. We wonder how many movie moguls scan the classifieds.

Best gig in radio

● Dildo harbour and township. that seats just 16 for very special occasions, to others seating diners by the score. Plus there’ll be nearly 2200 crew who will need to be fed and watered around the clock as well.

So it is little wonder her shopping list for that first sailing, and all subsequent weekly sailings in the Mediterranean, and then from October in the Caribbean, is as gargantuan as the ship herself.

Because it includes 8900kg of chicken, 8300 kilos of beef, 3200 of fish, 5400 portions of lobster tails and 10,000 hot dog frankfurters, 6700kg of potatoes, 4000 of tomatoes, 48,000 eggs, 20,000-plus kilos of fruit and vegetables, enough ice cream to fill 21,000 cones, and 860kg of coffee.

And for those with a thirst, 33,000 bottles and cans of beer, 17,000 of soft drinks, over 2000 bottles of spirits, and with David Ellis 6100 bottles of wine – all for just one Because as the world’s largest- week of holidaymaking.

All these numbers, together with ever passenger ship, Symphony of the Seas will scale-in at over 230,000 10,300 rolls of toilet paper, will be kept tonnes and carry up to 6870 passen- topped-up for every weekly sailing in the Mediterranean and Caribbean afgers.

And all those will need to be fed ter that inaugural week – with ages three times daily, as well as with any- and nationalities of guests monitored time snacks around the clock, in some to ensure all cultures and dietary needs are catered for.

Struth

■ If you’re keen on good grub with a drop of the doings then the best job at a radio station is to be appointed food and wine reviewer. Good example is Tony Leonard who is celebrating 24 years presenting the best pubs as a weekly segment on Neil Mitchell’s show. In all Tony has enjoyed 1170 main meals, and desserts, plus 3528 beverages. Another regular on the restaurant scene is Mark ‘Scorcher’ Davidson who drops his guise as 3AW Breakfast producer to do a chow-down on where to dine in Melbourne.

Station foots the bill when reviewers decide to be guests of the eating establishment of their choice.

Sheik from Scrubby Creek

■ Another year and Chad Morgan is still touring including performing at the Tamworth Music Festival. Chad , now 8,5 is best known for his ‘The Sheik from Scrubby Creek’ as much as his floppy sun hat, not forgetting his buckteeth that Barry Humphries used as inspiration for his Les Patterson character. Born into a family of 14, Chad has collected an AOM, gold records and appearances in successful Aussie films . May he continue to make us laugh.

Royal blood

■ I’m indebted to psychologist Michael Carr -Gregg who told me about a few facts I did not know about Nick Kyrgios, more particularly about Nick’s Mum, Norlaila. Norlaila was born a princess into the Malaysian Selangor Royal family. She dropped the title when she married – aged early twenties - to an Australian.

Victoria’s secret

■ Despite being a very wealthy lady Victoria Beckham’s fashion business is in a most unhealthy financial state. Hubby, David has already made a $10 million cash injection, and more recently an unknown investor has found $23 million to help keep the doors open. Her business probs are compounded by fact that eldest son Brooklyn, aged 18 is dating singer Rita Ora, aged 23. Brooklyn’s Mum not impressed .

- John O’Keefe

www.MelbourneObserver.com.au

Melbourne Obser ver - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - Page 13

Observer Magazine

Stateside with Gavin Wood in West Hollywood

West Hollywood meetsVictoria

■ Hi everyone, from my suite at the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Suites comes this week's news.

Billions back to the US

WeHo-Melb. connection

n It's not every day that international film director Rod Hardy and international hotelier Alan Johnson find themselves back in their hometown of Melbourne together.

The two gentlemen spend most of the year at their respective West Hollywoodoffices.

Alan Johnson is Managing Director of the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Suites in West Hollywood. and Rod Hardy could be anywhere in the world directing movies.

Here they are lunching at the Botanical Hotel in South Yarra.

Goodbye Matt Lauer ■ All Matt Lauer-linked talent is being axed at Today in the wake of the disgraced anchor's departure, including his favourite producer and contributors possibly including chef Giada De Laurentiis.

While trumpeting that Katie Couric is returning to NBC to co-host the Olympics opening, the network quietly announced that Lauer's top producer, Don Nash, "has decided to step away from his executive producer role at Today" after nearly 30 years at the show.

● Alan Johnson and Rod Hardy

Best of

Amazon expands

Radio at its silliest

■ Hugh Wilson, who created the CBS comedy WKRP In Cincinnati and directed the raucous hit film Police Academy in 1984, died at his home in Charlottesville, Virginia.

He was 74. Hill & Wood Funeral Services of Charlottesville announced the death. No cause was given.

House of Horrors

■ The 13 siblings imprisoned by their parents in a California "horror house" were given just one meal a day and only allowed to shower twice a year, according to a horrific new report.

A law enforcement source told NBC that rooms in the fourbedroom house were found soaked with urine.

The news comes as investigators try to obtain statements from the adult children, who are being treated in Corona Regional Medical Centre while doctors are treating their underage siblings at a separate facility.

Their parents, David and Louise Turpin, were arrested after their 17-year-old daughter escaped the house where three children were later found shackled to furniture and alerted police they were being held against their will.

The couple faces nine counts of torture and 10 counts of child endangerment. The victims' ages range from 2 to 29, but investigators say they all look much younger, likely from stunted growth due to malnourishment.

First published Feb. 2018

GavinWood

From my Suite at the Ramada Plaza Complex on Santa Monica Blvd

■ Amazon said that it had whittled the list of possible homes for its second headquarters to 20, including centres of technology like Boston and some surprise locations like Columbus, Ohio. The full list of finalists leans toward locations in the Midwest and South and on the East Coast, and away from the tech-saturated hubs of the West Coast. Many of the finalists, including Dallas, Denver, Raleigh and Washington, were considered shoo-ins from the moment Amazon announced the search, largely because of the attributes that the company said it was seeking for its second home. Those criteria included a metropolitan area with a population of greater than one million and the ability to attract and keep strong technical talent. More unexpected was Amazon's selection of locations not typically thought of as tech centers, such as Columbus, Indianapolis, Miamiand Nashville. Los Angeles was the sole city from the West Coast to make the cut. Just as surprising was Amazon's rejection of applications from Detroit, Phoenix and San Diego. Although it received bids from regions in Mexico, Amazon narrowed its finalists to just American locations and one city in Canada: Toronto.

Weinstein wound up ■ While disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein is reportedly running low on cash, his former company has managed to keep paying its employees in the wake of the scandal that rocked the company. Final details are being hammered out in a sale of the Weinstein Co. that is expected to be announced soon. The film firm's being bought by a group led by Maria Contreras-Sweet, whose offer reportedly includes renaming the company and installing a women-led board.

Britney signs for LV

Out and About

■ Former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus enjoyed S.Y. Kitchen in Santa Ynez. Jon Hamm stopped by Trois Familia.

Music Producer Jerry Moss sat with Richard Donner at Mr. Chow. Ty Burrell checked out Eataly in Century City. Jaclyn Smith had dinner at Farmstop.

Arianna Huffington shared the room with Howard Kurtzman for dinner at Toscana in Brentwood. Patrick Wachsberger and Rob Reiner also were in, separately.

Charo had lunch at Il Fornaio in Beverly Hills. Riley Keough was at Deliah. Larry Flynt enjoyed dinner at Lawry's in Beverly Hills.

Kristen Stewart checked in at Mary Coffee. Zoey Deutch lunched with family at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Adam Levine helped celebrate Chloe Bridges' birthday at Cleo Third Street in LA. It wasn't easy to command the spotlight at Stella McCartney's starry fall 2018 fashion show in Los Angeles, but new couple Chris Martin and Dakota Johnson turned many heads.

While Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Quincy Jones, Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson held court at Tuesday's event in Hollywood, the Coldplay front man was seen massaging the Fifty Shades Darker star's neck as they took in performances by Leon Bridges, Grimes, St. Vincent and Beck.

Meanwhile, Sir Paul jumped onstage to sing Beatles songs Helter Skelter and I Saw Her Standing There with a cover band as the crowd went wild.

■ Apple, which had long deferred paying taxes on its foreign earnings and had become synonymous with hoarding money overseas, unveiled plans that would bring back the vast majority of the $252 billion in cash that it held abroad and said it would make a sizable investment in the United States. With the moves, Apple took advantage of the new tax code that President Trump signed into law.

A provision allows for a one-time repatriation of corporate cash held abroad at a lower tax rate than what would have been paid under the previous tax plan. Apple, which has 94 per cent of its total cash of $269 billion outside the United States, said it would make a one-time tax payment of $38 billion on the repatriated cash. For years, Apple had said it would not bring its foreign earnings back to the United States until the corporate tax code changed, because such a move would be too costly. Now Apple's bet to hold back on paying such taxes is reaping rewards under the Trump administration.

■ Britney Spears has reportedly signed a deal for a new Las Vegas residency in 2019 just weeks after completing her last run in the city. The 36-year-old pop star is said to be returning to the stage for a new residency at Las Vegas' Park Theatre, inside the Monte Carlo resort, shortly after Lady Gaga completes her residency there.

John Fogerty says he's annoyed that Taraji P. Henson's new film, Proud Mary, borrows from his popular song's name without his involvement. Fogerty does not own the rights to his infamous song. In a statement, he says "it irks me when people seek to capitalise on the popularity of my music" for their own financial gain. Henson plays a hit woman in Proud Mary. Its trailer uses Tina Turner's version of Fogerty's 1969 song. ● Matt Lauer

Nightstick to the knee ■ Tonya Harding's comeback tour just took a nightstick to the knee over her own greed and denial.

The disgraced figure skater was dumped by her own publicist/agent for demanding that journalists pay fines if they dare ask about the kneecapping Nancy Kerrigan suffered ahead of the 1994 Winter Olympics.

Michael A. Rosenberg, who represented Harding during the I, Tonya promotional tour, revealed the demand in a Facebook post

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Page 14 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019

10 Years On

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Black Saturday Fires Photos: Ash Long, 2009

● Toolangi: After-fire recovery on the Kinglake-Healesville Rd.

● Glenburn Hotel was destroyed by fire on the night of Black Saturday.

● Break-O’-Day: Forensic examination of fire-affected properties.

● Castella: Kinglake-bound traffic was stopped at the Melba Hwy turn-off

● Melba Hwy: many road signs was destroyed in the 2009 fires.

● Hazeldene: Yea-Whittlesea Rd was closed to public traffic.

● Flowerdale: Homes around Creekside-Riverside were decimated.

● Spring Valley: First of the caravans to set up at the Flowerdale Reserve.

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10 Years On

Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - Page 15

Black Saturday Fires Photos: Ash Long, 2009

● Black Saturday ruins alongside the Hume Fwy, Clonbinane.

● At Coldstream: local roads re-open in February 2009.

● 3AW newsman Denis O’Kane with Sgt Trevor Connell at the Yea Rec.

● Lorraine Keeble, part of the Red Cross team, at the Yea Rec. Reserve.

● At Yarra Glen: signs to indicate free food, items for bushfire victims

● Part of the tent city at the Yea Rec. Reserve after the 2009 fires.

● Residents seeking to cross Police lines at Whittlesea in 2009.

● A sign erected on Maroondah Hey by Yarra Ranges Shire in 2009.

Page 16 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019

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Observer Classic Books

Bleak House - by Charles Dickens “No?” says Mr. Guppy, greedily curious. “What’s the story, miss? Is it anything about a picture?”

“Pray tell us the story,” says Watt in a half whisper.

“I don’t know it, sir.” Rosa is shyer than ever.

“It is not related to visitors; it is almost forgotten,” says the housekeeper, advancing. “It has never been more than a family anecdote.”

“You’ll excuse my asking again if it has anything to do with a picture, ma’am,” observes Mr. Guppy, “because I do assure you that the more I think of that picture the better I know it, without knowing how I know it!”

The story has nothing to do with a picture; the housekeeper can guarantee that. Mr. Guppy is obliged to her for the information and is, moreover, generally obliged. He retires with his friend, guided down another staircase by the young gardener, and presently is heard to drive away.

It is now dusk. Mrs. Rouncewell can trust to the discretion of her two young hearers and may tell THEM how the terrace came to have that ghostly name.

She seats herself in a large chair by the fastdarkening window and tells them: “In the wicked days, my dears, of King Charles the First — I mean, of course, in the wicked days of the rebels who leagued themselves against that excellent king — Sir Morbury Dedlock was the owner of Chesney Wold. Whether there was any account of a ghost in the family before those days, I can’t say. I should think it very likely indeed.”

Mrs. Rouncewell holds this opinion because she considers that a family of such antiquity and importance has a right to a ghost. She regards a ghost as one of the privileges of the upper classes, a genteel distinction to which the common people have no claim.

“Sir Morbury Dedlock,” says Mrs. Rouncewell, “was, I have no occasion to say, on the side of the blessed martyr. But it IS supposed that his Lady, who had none of the family blood in her veins, favoured the bad cause. It is said that she had relations among King Charles’s enemies, that she was in correspondence with them, and that she gave them information. When any of the country gentlemen who followed his Majesty’s cause met here, it is said that my Lady was always nearer to the door of their councilroom than they supposed. Do you hear a sound like a footstep passing along the terrace, Watt?”

Rosa draws nearer to the housekeeper.

Charles Dickens “I hear the rain-drip on the stones,” replies the night), standing at the great south window, saw “Now, come hither,” says the housekeeper. young man, “and I hear a curious echo — I suppose an echo — which is very like a halting her drop upon the pavement. He hastened down “Hither, child, towards my Lady’s pillow. I am to raise her, but she repulsed him as he bent not sure that it is dark enough yet, but listen! Can step.” over her, and looking at him fixedly and coldly, you hear the sound upon the terrace, through the said, ‘I will die here where I have walked. And music, and the beat, and everything?”

Chapter 8 next The housekeeper gravely nods and continues: I will walk here, though I am in my grave. I will “I certainly can!”

“Partly on account of this division between them, walk here until the pride of this house is “So my Lady says.” and partly on other accounts, Sir Morbury and humbled. And when calamity or when disgrace Chapter VIII— Covering a Multitude of Sins his Lady led a troubled life. She was a lady of a is coming to it, let the Dedlocks listen for my It was interesting when I dressed before daylight to peep out of window, where my candles haughty temper. They were not well suited to step!’ each other in age or character, and they had no Watt looks at Rosa. Rosa in the deepening gloom were reflected in the black panes like two beachildren to moderate between them. After her looks down upon the ground, half frightened and cons, and finding all beyond still enshrouded in the indistinctness of last night, to watch how it favourite brother, a young gentleman, was killed half shy. in the civil wars (by Sir Morbury’s near kins- “There and then she died. And from those days,” turned out when the day came on. As the prosman), her feeling was so violent that she hated says Mrs. Rouncewell, “the name has come pect gradually revealed itself and disclosed the the race into which she had married. When the down — the Ghost’s Walk. If the tread is an scene over which the wind had wandered in the Dedlocks were about to ride out from Chesney echo, it is an echo that is only heard after dark, dark, like my memory over my life, I had a Wold in the king’s cause, she is supposed to and is often unheard for a long while together. pleasure in discovering the unknown objects that have more than once stolen down into the stables But it comes back from time to time; and so had been around me in my sleep. At first they in the dead of night and lamed their horses; and sure as there is sickness or death in the family, were faintly discernible in the mist, and above them the later stars still glimmered. That pale the story is that once at such an hour, her hus- it will be heard then.” interval over, the picture began to enlarge and band saw her gliding down the stairs and fol- “And disgrace, grandmother — ” says Watt. lowed her into the stall where his own favourite “Disgrace never comes to Chesney Wold,” re- fill up so fast that at every new peep I could have found enough to look at for an hour. Imperhorse stood. There he seized her by the wrist, turns the housekeeper. ceptibly my candles became the only incongruand in a struggle or in a fall or through the horse Her grandson apologizes with “True. True.” being frightened and lashing out, she was lamed “That is the story. Whatever the sound is, it is a ous part of the morning, the dark places in my in the hip and from that hour began to pine away.” worrying sound,” says Mrs. Rouncewell, get- room all melted away, and the day shone bright The housekeeper has dropped her voice to a ting up from her chair; “and what is to be no- upon a cheerful landscape, prominent in which ticed in it is that it MUST BE HEARD. My the old Abbey Church, with its massive tower, little more than a whisper.

“She had been a lady of a handsome figure and Lady, who is afraid of nothing, admits that when threw a softer train of shadow on the view than a noble carriage. She never complained of the it is there, it must be heard. You cannot shut it seemed compatible with its rugged character. change; she never spoke to any one of being out. Watt, there is a tall French clock behind But so from rough outsides (I hope I have learnt), crippled or of being in pain, but day by day she you (placed there, ’a purpose) that has a loud serene and gentle influences often proceed. tried to walk upon the terrace, and with the help beat when it is in motion and can play music. Every part of the house was in such order, and of the stone balustrade, went up and down, up You understand how those things are man- every one was so attentive to me, that I had no trouble with my two bunches of keys, though and down, up and down, in sun and shadow, aged?” what with trying to remember the contents of with greater difficulty every day. At last, one “Pretty well, grandmother, I think.” each little store-room drawer and cupboard; and afternoon her husband (to whom she had never, “Set it a-going.” what with making notes on a slate about jams, on any persuasion, opened her lips since that Watt sets it a-going — music and all.

and pickles, and preserves, and bottles, and glass, and china, and a great many other things; and what with being generally a methodical, oldmaidish sort of foolish little person, I was so busy that I could not believe it was breakfasttime when I heard the bell ring. Away I ran, however, and made tea, as I had already been installed into the responsibility of the tea-pot; and then, as they were all rather late and nobody was down yet, I thought I would take a peep at the garden and get some knowledge of that too. I found it quite a delightful place — in front, the pretty avenue and drive by which we had approached (and where, by the by, we had cut up the gravel so terribly with our wheels that I asked the gardener to roll it); at the back, the flower-garden, with my darling at her window up there, throwing it open to smile out at me, as if she would have kissed me from that distance.

Beyond the flower-garden was a kitchen-garden, and then a paddock, and then a snug little rick-yard, and then a dear little farm-yard. As to the house itself, with its three peaks in the roof; its various-shaped windows, some so large, some so small, and all so pretty; its trellis-work, against the southfront for roses and honeysuckle, and its homely, comfortable, welcoming look — it was, as Ada said when she came out to meet me with her arm through that of its master, worthy of her cousin John, a bold thing to say, though he only pinched her dear cheek for it.

Mr. Skimpole was as agreeable at breakfast as he had been overnight. There was honey on the table, and it led him into a discourse about bees.

He had no objection to honey, he said (and I should think he had not, for he seemed to like it), but he protested against the overweening assumptions of bees. He didn’t at all see why the busy bee should be proposed as a model to him; he supposed the bee liked to make honey, or he wouldn’t do it — nobody asked him. It was not necessary for the bee to make such a merit of his tastes. If every confectioner went buzzing about the world banging against everything that came in his way and egotistically calling upon everybody to take notice that he was going to his work and must not be interrupted, the world would be quite an unsupportable place. Then, after all, it was a ridiculous position to be smoked out of your fortune with brimstone as soon as you had made it. You would have a very mean opinion of a Manchester man if he spun cotton for no other purpose. He must say he thought a drone the embodiment of a pleasanter and wiser idea. The drone said unaffectedly, “You will excuse me; I really cannot attend to the shop! I find myself in a world in which there is so much to see and so short a time to see it in that I must take the liberty of looking about me and begging to be provided for by somebody who doesn’t want to look about him.” This appeared to Mr. Skimpole to be the drone philosophy, and he thought it a very good philosophy, always supposing the drone to be willing to be on good terms with the bee, which, so far as he knew, the easy fellow always was, if the consequential creature would only let him, and not be so conceited about his honey!

He pursued this fancy with the lightest foot over a variety of ground and made us all merry, though again he seemed to have as serious a meaning in what he said as he was capable of having. I left them still listening to him when I withdrew to attend to my new duties. They had occupied me for some time, and I was passing through the passages on my return with my basket of keys on my arm when Mr. Jarndyce called me into a small room next his bed-chamber, which I found to be in part a little library of books and papers and in part quite a little museum of his boots and shoes and hat-boxes.

“Sit down, my dear,” said Mr. Jarndyce. “This, you must know, is the growlery. When I am out of humour, I come and growl here.”

“You must be here very seldom, sir,” said I. “Oh, you don’t know me!” he returned. “When I am deceived or disappointed in — the wind, and it’s easterly, I take refuge here. The growlery is the best-used room in the house. You are not aware of half my humours yet. My dear, how you are trembling!”

Continued on Page 17

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From Page 16 I could not help it; I tried very hard, but being alone with that benevolent presence, and meeting his kind eyes, and feeling so happy and so honoured there, and my heart so full — I kissed his hand. I don’t know what I said, or even that I spoke. He was disconcerted and walked to the window; I almost believed with an intention of jumping out, until he turned and I was reassured by seeing in his eyes what he had gone there to hide. He gently patted me on the head, and I sat down.

“There! There!” he said. “That’s over. Pooh!

Don’t be foolish.”

“It shall not happen again, sir,” I returned, “but at first it is difficult — ” “Nonsense!” he said. “It’s easy, easy. Why not?

I hear of a good little orphan girl without a protector, and I take it into my head to be that protector. She grows up, and more than justifies my good opinion, and I remain her guardian and her friend. What is there in all this? So, so! Now, we have cleared off old scores, and I have before me thy pleasant, trusting, trusty face again.”

I said to myself, “Esther, my dear, you surprise me! This really is not what I expected of you!”

And it had such a good effect that I folded my hands upon my basket and quite recovered myself. Mr. Jarndyce, expressing his approval in his face, began to talk to me as confidentially as if I had been in the habit of conversing with him every morning for I don’t know how long. I almost felt as if I had.

“Of course, Esther,” he said, “you don’t understand this Chancery business?”

And of course I shook my head.

“I don’t know who does,” he returned. “The lawyers have twisted it into such a state of bedevilment that the original merits of the case have long disappeared from the face of the earth.

It’s about a will and the trusts under a will — or it was once. It’s about nothing but costs now. We are always appearing, and disappearing, and swearing, and interrogating, and filing, and crossfiling, and arguing, and sealing, and motioning, and referring, and reporting, and revolving about the Lord Chancellor and all his satellites, and equitably waltzing ourselves off to dusty death, about costs. That’s the great question. All the rest, by some extraordinary means, has melted away.”

“But it was, sir,” said I, to bring him back, for he began to rub his head, “about a will?”

“Why, yes, it was about a will when it was about anything,” he returned. “A certain Jarndyce, in an evil hour, made a great fortune, and made a great will. In the question how the trusts under that will are to be administered, the fortune left by the will is squandered away; the legatees under the will are reduced to such a miserable condition that they would be sufficiently punished if they had committed an enormous crime in having money left them, and the will itself is made a dead letter. All through the deplorable cause, everything that everybody in it, except one man, knows already is referred to that only one man who don’t know it to find out — all through the deplorable cause, everybody must have copies, over and over again, of everything that has accumulated about it in the way of cartloads of papers (or must pay for them without having them, which is the usual course, for nobody wants them) and must go down the middle and up again through such an infernal country-dance of costs and fees and nonsense and corruption as was never dreamed of in the wildest visions of a witch’s Sabbath. Equity sends questions to law, law sends questions back to equity; law finds it can’t do this, equity finds it can’t do that; neither can so much as say it can’t do anything, without this solicitor instructing and this counsel appearing for A, and that solicitor instructing and that counsel appearing for B; and so on through the whole alphabet, like the history of the apple pie. And thus, through years and years, and lives and lives, everything goes on, constantly beginning over and over again, and nothing ever ends. And we can’t get out of the suit on any terms, for we are made parties to it, and MUST BE parties to it, whether we like it or not. But it won’t do to think of it! When my great uncle, poor Tom Jarndyce, began to think of it, it was the beginning of the end!”

“The Mr. Jarndyce, sir, whose story I have heard?”

He nodded gravely. “I was his heir, and this was his house, Esther. When I came here, it was bleak indeed. He had left the signs of his misery upon it.”

“How changed it must be now!” I said.

Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - Page 17

Observer Classic Books .He gave it its present name and lived here shut up, day and night poring over the wicked heaps of papers in the suit and hoping against hope to disentangle it from its mystification and bring it to a close. In the meantime, the place became dilapidated, the wind whistled through the cracked walls, the rain fell through the broken roof, the weeds choked the passage to the rotting door. When I brought what remained of him home here, the brains seemed to me to have been blown out of the house too, it was so shattered and ruined.”

He walked a little to and fro after saying this to himself with a shudder, and then looked at me, and brightened, and came and sat down again with his hands in his pockets.

“I told you this was the growlery, my dear. Where was I?” I reminded him, at the hopeful change he had made in Bleak House.

“Bleak House; true. There is, in that city of London there, some property of ours which is much at this day what Bleak House was then; I say property of ours, meaning of the suit’s, but I ought to call it the property of costs, for costs is the only power on earth that will ever get anything out of it now or will ever know it for anything but an eyesore and a heartsore. It is a street of perishing blind houses, with their eyes stoned out, without a pane of glass, without so much as a window-frame, with the bare blank shutters tumbling from their hinges and falling asunder, the iron rails peeling away in flakes of rust, the chimneys sinking in, the stone steps to every door (and every door might be death’s door) turning stagnant green, the very crutches on which the ruins are propped decaying. Although Bleak House was not in Chancery, its master was, and it was stamped with the same seal. These are the Great Seal’s impressions, my dear, all over England — the children know them!”

“How changed it is!” I said again.

“Why, so it is,” he answered much more cheerfully; “and it is wisdom in you to keep me to the bright side of the picture.” (The idea of my wisdom!) “These are things I never talk about or even think about, excepting in the growlery here.

If you consider it right to mention them to Rick and Ada,” looking seriously at me, “you can. I leave it to your discretion, Esther.”

“I hope, sir — ” said I. “I think you had better call me guardian, my dear.”

I felt that I was choking again — I taxed myself with it, “Esther, now, you know you are!” — when he feigned to say this slightly, as if it were a whim instead of a thoughtful tenderness. But I gave the housekeeping keys the least shake in the world as a reminder to myself, and folding my hands in a still more determined manner on the basket, looked at him quietly.

“I hope, guardian,” said I, “that you may not trust too much to my discretion. I hope you may not mistake me. I am afraid it will be a disappointment to you to know that I am not clever, but it really is the truth, and you would soon find it out if I had not the honesty to confess it.”

He did not seem at all disappointed; quite the contrary. He told me, with a smile all over his face, that he knew me very well indeed and that I was quite clever enough for him.

“I hope I may turn out so,” said I, “but I am much afraid of it, guardian.”

“You are clever enough to be the good little woman of our lives here, my dear,” he returned playfully; “the little old woman of the child’s (I don’t mean Skimpole’s) rhyme: ‘Little old woman, and whither so high?’

‘To sweep the cobwebs out of the sky.’

You will sweep them so neatly out of OUR sky in the course of your housekeeping, Esther, that one of these days we shall have to abandon the growlery and nail up the door.”

This was the beginning of my being called Old Woman, and Little Old Woman, and Cobweb, and Mrs. Shipton, and Mother Hubbard, and Dame Durden, and so many names of that sort that my own name soon became quite lost among them.

“However,” said Mr. Jarndyce, “to return to our gossip. Here’s Rick, a fine young fellow full of promise. What’s to be done with him?”

Oh, my goodness, the idea of asking my advice on such a point!

“Here he is, Esther,” said Mr. Jarndyce, comfortably putting his hands into his pockets and stretching out his legs. “He must have a profession; he must make some choice for himself.

There will be a world more wiglomeration about it, I suppose, but it must be done.”

“More what, guardian?” said I. “More wiglomeration,” said he. “It’s the only name I know for the thing. He is a ward in Chancery, my dear. Kenge and Carboy will have something to say about it; Master Somebody — a sort of ridiculous sexton, digging graves for the merits of causes in a back room at the end of Quality Court, Chancery Lane — will have something to say about it; counsel will have something to say about it; the Chancellor will have something to say about it; the satellites will have something to say about it; they will all have to be handsomely feed, all round, about it; the whole thing will be vastly ceremonious, wordy, unsatisfactory, and expensive, and I call it, in general, wiglomeration. How mankind ever came to be afflicted with wiglomeration, or for whose sins these young people ever fell into a pit of it, I don’t know; so it is.”

He began to rub his head again and to hint that he felt the wind. But it was a delightful instance of his kindness towards me that whether he rubbed his head, or walked about, or did both, his face was sure to recover its benignant expression as it looked at mine; and he was sure to turn comfortable again and put his hands in his pockets and stretch out his legs.

“Perhaps it would be best, first of all,” said I, “to ask Mr. Richard what he inclines to himself.”

“Exactly so,” he returned. “That’s what I mean!

You know, just accustom yourself to talk it over, with your tact and in your quiet way, with him and Ada, and see what you all make of it. We are sure to come at the heart of the matter by your means, little woman.”

I really was frightened at the thought of the importance I was attaining and the number of things that were being confided to me. I had not meant this at all; I had meant that he should speak to Richard. But of course I said nothing in reply except that I would do my best, though I feared (I realty felt it necessary to repeat this) that he thought me much more sagacious than I was. At which my guardian only laughed the pleasantest laugh I ever heard.

“Come!” he said, rising and pushing back his chair. “I think we may have done with the growlery for one day! Only a concluding word.

Esther, my dear, do you wish to ask me anything?”

He looked so attentively at me that I looked attentively at him and felt sure I understood him.

“About myself, sir?” said I. “Yes.” “Guardian,” said I, venturing to put my hand, which was suddenly colder than I could have wished, in his, “nothing! I am quite sure that if there were anything I ought to know or had any need to know, I should not have to ask you to tell it to me. If my whole reliance and confidence were not placed in you, I must have a hard heart indeed. I have nothing to ask you, nothing in the world.”

He drew my hand through his arm and we went away to look for Ada. From that hour I felt quite easy with him, quite unreserved, quite content to know no more, quite happy.

We lived, at first, rather a busy life at Bleak House, for we had to become acquainted with many residents in and out of the neighbourhood who knew Mr. Jarndyce. It seemed to Ada and me that everybody knew him who wanted to do anything with anybody else’s money. It amazed us when we began to sort his letters and to answer some of them for him in the growlery of a morning to find how the great object of the lives of nearly all his correspondents appeared to be to form themselves into committees for getting in and laying out money. The ladies were as desperate as the gentlemen; indeed, I think they were even more so. They threw themselves into committees in the most impassioned manner and collected subscriptions with a vehemence quite extraordinary. It appeared to us that some of them must pass their whole lives in dealing out subscription-cards to the whole post-office directory — shilling cards, half-crown cards, half-sovereign cards, penny cards. They wanted everything. They wanted wearing apparel, they wanted linen rags, they wanted money, they wanted coals, they wanted soup, they wanted interest, they wanted autographs, they wanted flannel, they wanted whatever Mr. Jarndyce had — or had not. Their objects were as various as their demands. They were going to raise new buildings, they were going to pay off debts on old buildings, they were going to establish in a picturesque building (engraving of proposed west elevation attached) the Sisterhood of Mediaeval Marys, they were going to give a testi-

“Guardian,” said I, venturing to put my hand, which was suddenly colder than I could have wished, in his, “nothing! I am quite sure that if there were anything I ought to know or had any need to know, I should not have to ask you to tell it to me. If my whole reliance and confidence were not placed in you, I must have a hard heart indeed. I have nothing to ask you, nothing in the world.”

He drew my hand through his arm and we went away to look for Ada. From that hour I felt quite easy with him, quite unreserved, quite content to know no more, quite happy.

We lived, at first, rather a busy life at Bleak House, for we had to become acquainted with many residents in and out of the neighbourhood who knew Mr. Jarndyce. It seemed to Ada and me that everybody knew him who wanted to do anything with anybody else’s money. It amazed us when we began to sort his letters and to answer some of them for him in the growlery of a morning to find how the great object of the lives of nearly all his correspondents appeared to be to form themselves into committees for getting in and laying out money. The ladies were as desperate as the gentlemen; indeed, I think they were even more so. They threw themselves into committees in the most impassioned manner and collected subscriptions with a vehemence quite extraordinary. It appeared to us that some of them must pass their whole lives in dealing out subscription-cards to the whole post-office directory — shilling cards, half-crown cards, half-sovereign cards, penny cards. They wanted everything. They wanted wearing apparel, they wanted linen rags, they wanted money, they wanted coals, they wanted soup, they wanted interest, they wanted autographs, they wanted flannel, they wanted whatever Mr. Jarndyce had — or had not. Their objects were as various as their demands. They were going to raise new buildings, they were going to pay off debts on old buildings, they were going to establish in a picturesque building (engraving of proposed west elevation attached) the Sisterhood of Mediaeval Marys, they were going to give a testimonial to Mrs. Jellyby, they were going to have their secretary’s portrait painted and presented to his mother-in-law, whose deep devotion to him was well known, they were going to get up everything, I really believe, from five hundred thousand tracts to an annuity and from a marble monument to a silver tea-pot. They took a multitude of titles. They were the Women of England, the Daughters of Britain, the Sisters of all the cardinal virtues separately, the Females of America, the Ladies of a hundred denominations. They appeared to be always excited about canvassing and electing. They seemed to our poor wits, and according to their own accounts, to be constantly polling people by tens of thousands, yet never bringing their candidates in for anything. It made our heads ache to think, on the whole, what feverish lives they must lead.

Among the ladies who were most distinguished for this rapacious benevolence (if I may use the expression) was a Mrs. Pardiggle, who seemed, as I judged from the number of her letters to Mr. Jarndyce, to be almost as powerful a correspondent as Mrs. Jellyby herself. We observed that the wind always changed when Mrs. Pardiggle became the subject of conversation and that it invariably interrupted Mr. Jarndyce and prevented his going any farther, when he had remarked that there were two classes of charitable people; one, the people who did a little and made a great deal of noise; the other, the people who did a great deal and made no noise at all.

We were therefore curious to see Mrs. Pardiggle, suspecting her to be a type of the former class, and were glad when she called one day with her five young sons.

She was a formidable style of lady with spectacles, a prominent nose, and a loud voice, who had the effect of wanting a great deal of room.

And she really did, for she knocked down little chairs with her skirts that were quite a great way off. As only Ada and I were at home, we received her timidly, for she seemed to come in like cold weather and to make the little Pardiggles blue as they followed.

“These, young ladies,” said Mrs. Pardiggle with great volubility after the first salutations, “are my five boys. You may have seen their names in a printed subscription list (perhaps more than one) in the possession of our esteemed friend Mr. Jarndyce.

To Be Continued Next Issue

Page 18 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019

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Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - Page 19

Santorini on Mudjimba Beachfront accommodation on the Sunshine Coast 4 STAR ACCOMMODATION IN MUDJIMBA, SUNSHINE COAST, QUEENSLAND This four star resort offers you the opportunity to get away from it all. You can do as much or as little as your heart desires. Come and experience Mudjimba, the way the beach used to be.

Just 5 minutes from Sunshine Coast Airport, Santorini Resort on Mudjimba Beach is a favourite for families, sporting groups and romantic escapes. The Mudjimba surf patrolled beach is on your doorstep and the parkland opposite comes complete with barbecues, shaded picnic areas and children’s playground. The beach captures the very essence of what makes the Sunshine Coast so special; with golden sands stretching as far as the eye can see.

In keeping with its prime beachside location, Santorini on Mudjimba will meet all your expectations for a holi-

day to remember. The apartments are spacious and well appointed.

Santorini’s onsite facilities include a resort style swimming pool, half court tennis and a large BBQ & entertainment area. The resort is a non-smoking facility.

Come and experience this unique and convenient location on the Sunshine Coast’s pristine coastline.

Mention this advert or visit our website for special direct booking discounts. www.santorinitw.com

Page 20 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019

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Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - Page 21

M & A McCormack FUNERALS Also trading as Bamfords F.S. Murrindindi 1800 080 909 Family owned and operated

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Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - Page 23

Best Places

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Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019- Page 25

Holiday Apatyments in Cairns, Tropical North Qld

Argosy On The Beach February and March 2019 50% room rates for all bookings made from this ad

Our one and two bedroom apartments are truly relaxing.

Spacious open plan living areas with floor to ceiling glass open onto huge private balconies overlooking the beach while taking in the cool sea breezes.

All feature a queen size bed in the master bedroom with walk in robe and ensuite bathroom and two single beds in the second bedroom. Each apartment has two bathrooms, one with a full sized bath and every bedroom open directly onto rear balconies which over look rainforest and where the birdlife and free roaming kangaroos are simply a delight with all visitors.

Kitchens are fully self contained with everything you need to make the most of your holiday including, naturally a dishwasher, full oven and cook top, microwave and fridge/ freezer. These spacious apartments have a separate laundry with dryer and ironing facilities and are fully air-conditioned.

For entertainment, there are large flat screen TV's, CD music systems and each apartment has direct phone/internet access. For your convenience the apartments have lift access to all floors including wheel chair access to the complex. Premium linen is standard, with extra rollaway beds available upon request.

We have the facility to lock off rooms for one bedroom bookings and these share one bathroom only. The two bedroom, two bathroom apartments accommodate up to a maximum of 5 persons per apartment, they are serviced weekly or by arrangement.

Apartment Features Beachfront accommodation; 16 x 1 & 2 bedroom fully self contained apartments Large private balconies with absolute beachfront views Outdoor patio dining furniture and sun lounges Full air conditioning throughout with ceiling fans Master bedroom with queen bed, TV, walk in robe, ensuite and rear balcony Second bedroom with two single beds, large robe and rear balcony Second bathroom with shower and full sized bath TV, DVD and CD music systems FOXTEL TV Fully equipped kitchens with microwave, dishwasher, oven and refrigerator/freezer Coffee Plunger Separate laundry with washing machine, dryer and ironing facilities Hair Dryers STD/ISD direct dial telephones Wireless internet Premium linen including complimentary beach towels Apartments serviced weekly or by arrangement at your request 2:00pm check-in and 10:00am check-out Lifts to all floors

Book direct and save: (07) 4055 3333

www.argosycairns.com info@argosycairns.com

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Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - Page 27

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Metropolitan and Regional Victoria

GARNET BAILEY 0417 34 6214 ALL HOURS Offering a caring and professional service.

A LOCAL, WHO KNOW S LOCAL NEEDS

Prices start from $2500

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Observer Crossword Solution No 19 A D U L T E R E R

D J U ND D RE R OS

E V Y S E C U O GRE A R RE C I Y TO T I N G CHA T A D R RE D U V ME A U R P E K R B A B E F L A U R DOC D H L E A E I DE C

US P E R I A T Y E E P E R B U ON NE Y R E I N A D S I X E D A I S Y N A T F R

T A G GO G Y P F L I O E N L K D R DE A B V E I L S J A ORD N S E D OA K F I N F L E Y E G L NG A L E T A L S CO E P M E OR B I I E R L A E E N

B L U S T GR RO OU US T D K H E A RB B I S M GU UN I D L A E N E E A S S E E A DR S K NE I C T H S E L O N I S

E

DA S HO F SO T L WOO L T U HUMP D E I NS S A Y NG S P I E S T CA US T I Y A RD P RA C I S T S E N T S C A K I C I AO DS S RA Y ME L F R REM I T S SO L I C I T A L T K E E L L F W RA I T RA Y S C MA X I I B F E E S T I D S L AM A R L DHA L S E AM A R I WO E S T E S S A CK U K S L A Y A I N RODE T E E D T E V E R ONC E DAM A S S K I L I F E R E L I T E TON L OS S D L N M E D I T CO OUR A GA DGE T I

F A B L E C U L L T A I L D A L A I S A P S P A C T N A I L S

S CRUNCH I NG S H R O M O A A GRA B B E D DE R E R I D L GA R US A B L E YODE L E K E S S E A L S A DDS S S COOP E A D H YDRA N T S I DO DOE R E L A D Y ME DA L S Y E A H NE T H U S K EW NO T A F T S AWN M V O A D TWO T I M E S CAM E S S OBOE L I E D B S AGO DA R I E N Y L ON R B R I P E OA T H M I N T GNUS P A NG A D O I NG B U L L I ON T S MA NE T H S L I NO D I V A ROS S DA N N J E T S FORGE D I E S S I DE L L L K I NGDOMS T ME L E E E MA L L S MAMA MA I L S MA P F A NN Y HOOP L A I NS E R E R N A L UGGAGE E I L U S R S L E E V E L E S S

Church

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Rural News

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Melbourne Obser ver - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - Page 35 e urn lbo Me

Every Week in the Melbourne Observer

ver N ser O Ob TI C SE 3

Observer Showbiz

Theatre: Murder By Natural Causes ...................... Page 37 Arts: Peter Kemp’s Round -Up ........................................ Page 37 Music: Rob Foenander’s latest news ................................. Page 37 Jim and Aar on: Top 10 lists, best to watch ......................... Page 38 Aaron: Cheryl Threadgold: Local theatre ............................................... Page 40 PL US THE LLO OVATT”S MEGA CRO PLUS CROSSSWORD

ARTS IN PRISONS Brilliant Lies

● Gilbert Gauci (Paul), Claire Abagia (Susy)in Brilliant Lies.

Photo: Karim Ghantous.

■ David Williamson’s topical comedy-drama Brilliant Lies can be enjoyed until February 18 at the Unicorn Theatre in Mount Waverley.

Presented by Peridot Theatre, Brilliant Lies was first performed in 1993, yet remains remarkably relevant today with its themes of sexual discrimination, harassment claims and the challenging process of separating truth from untruth.

Director Damian Jones has assembled a strong cast whose actors make the most of every comedic, poignant or thought-provoking moment in Williamson’s script.

Claire Abagia is outstanding in her naturalistic performance as self-proclaimed workplace harassment victim Susy, whose stories recounted in the informal reconciliation sessions evoke both sympathy for her trauma, yet suspicion regarding their accuracy.

Gavin Baker delivers a credible performance as Susy’s boss Gary, but once again we doubt his character’s version of events.

Emma Fawcett as Susy’s architect-now-taxi-driver sister Katy is also terrific in her role. The beautiful sincerity of the sisters when expressing love for their father in spite of his alleged past actions is a stark contrast to the play’s tangled web of lies and deceit, adding another interesting dimension to Williamson’s narrative.

It is great to see Gilbert Gauci in the role of Paul, Susy’s righteous, Christianity-loving brother. An excellent performance.

Finally, Kate Bowers is perfectly cast as reconciliation session mediator Marion, professional in manner, but human in nature when candidly expressing her own views.

The simple, multi-purpose set designed by Damian Jones works exceptionally well, and at other times sound effects cleverly convey locations.

The era-authentic costumes designed by Helen McIntosh, Rose Zheng and Cast are well-coordinated and enhance the play’s aesthetics. Marion’s costumes noticeably ramp up in style and tone after the first session with Susy. I Brilliant Lies offers an all-round enjoyable theatre experience – a great script, fine direction, nicely staged and beautifully performed. Do try to see it by February 18.

Performance Season: Until February 18 at 8pm, Twilight matinee at 4pm on February 10.

Venue: Unicorn Theatre, Lechte Road, Mt Waverley Bookings: www.peridot.com.au or 0429 115 334.

- Cheryl Threadgold

● Journey of the Kookaburra ■ The Torch’s Indigenous Arts in Prisons and Community Pro- facilities in Victoria. Sean was a participant of The Torch Ingram marks its 10th anniversary with the largest exhibition to Prisons program from 2011 – 2016 and a member of the Indate, featuring in excess of 200 artworks from over 200 artists at Community program from 2016 – 2018. Sean successfully comSt Kilda’s Carlisle Street Arts Space, St Kilda Town Hall until pleted his parole in 2018 and was employed by The Torch.

February 27.

His appointment is an exciting milestone for the organisation This year, the Victorian government committed $2.206 mil- with Sean being the first program participant to go back into the lion dollars to the program for the next three years - close to a prison system, to deliver the in-prisons program.

200% funding increase for the not for profit organisation.

The inaugural Confined exhibition showcased artworks from "The Torch program is growing in size and scope each year. 18 artists, expanded to 62 artists in 2013, 145 in 2017 and this It’s success and grass roots no nonsense approach based on year the collection showcases the works of over 200 artists.

Indigenous knowledge and support systems, attracted the in- Since the introduction of the Aboriginal Arts Policy Model in crease in funding. This enables The Torch to sustain and de- 2016, $700,000 worth of artworks have been sold and licensed, velop the program and to keep achieving positive outcomes in a with Confined artworks adorning the walls of the Victorian complex and difficult area of Indigenous disadvantage," said Ombudsman’s new office building and collected by the NGV, The Torch CEO, Kent Morris.

Museum Victoria, Shepparton Art Museum and a range of Set within the context of the Victorian Aboriginal Justice government, corporate and private buyers in Australia and overAgreement, the Indigenous Arts in Prison and Community Pro- seas. gram focuses on the role that culture and cultural identity plays Event Details: in the rehabilitation of Indigenous community members who Dates: Until Wednesday, February 27 are incarcerated. It aims to support Indigenous offenders and Time: Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri 8:30am -5pm. Thurs 8:30am – ex-offenders with an opportunity to connect with the community 7pm. Sat 12pm - 4pm and to promote the practice of culture in rehabilitation.

Venue: Carlisle Street Arts Space, St Kilda Town Hall, 99A The artworks are an expression of resilience, strength, the Carlisle Street, St Kilda importance of cultural connection and the hope of a better future Cost: Free from Indigenous artists who are currently in prison or who have Website: http://www.thetorch.org.au/ Confined 10 artworks been recently released from incarceration.

- Cheryl Threadgold In celebration of 10 years, The Torch recently released a hard cover book Indigenous Artists – A Selection of the Best The Torch Collection. The strength of artwork created through the program is featured across 152 pages showcasing 126 art- ■ The works from 77 men and women in the program.

The exhibitions provide income to the artists with 100% of the sales going to the artist. Post release participants receive the full sale value of their artwork directly whilst the proceeds for artists still in prison are held in trust by Corrections Victoria until release.

The Torch employed two men and a woman from the program in 2018, bringing the total number of staff who have come through the program to four. Three have been employed as Indigenous Arts Officers and one in an Administrative Assistant role. Amongst them is The Torch program participant, Sean Miller who has been employed as an Indigenous Arts Officer in Prisons, delivering The Torch program into seven correctional

M

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Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - Page 37

Observer Showbiz

TV, Radio, Theatre

Veritas It seems that al ★ most every 3AW radio producer thinks

they have the same comic genius and timing for sound effects as Breakfast program team member Damian Tadio.

They don’t ... and some of the add-ons are embarrassingly bad. It would never have happened in the days when Clark Forbes (pictured) or Steve Price were Program Directors.

Didn’t Channel 7 programmers stuff it up with the 7pm scheduling of My Kitchen Rules, with Nine’s Married At First Sight and Ten’s I’m ACelebrity, Get Me Out Of Here winning big audiences? H&A’s Facebook page has been flooded with complaints from fans missing out on the latest from Summer Bay. H&A resumes when Seven’s coverage of the cricket is over.

3AW’s Philip Brady (Nightline and Remember When) will celebrate his 80th birthday mid-year. The ‘Flipper’ is currently on three weeks’ leave from the microphone.

Masterclass for comedians

Jersey Boys

★ ★

● Ross D. Wyllie in ATV-0 days Rumour is that Ross D. Wyllie will be unable to appear in The Go Show reunion concert series. The Melbourne show will be at the Palais Theatre, St Kilda on Saturday, May 4. Issi Dye will be appearing.

Ross Stevenson and John Burns present a top-rating breakfast show, weekdays on 3AW, but their discussions of where they have been internationally, can be a bit of a bore. Not everyone, sitting in traffic on Melbourne morning roads, is on the same pay scale as Ross and John, to afford worldwide travels.

Policeman Rod Iddles series on Foxtel, The Good Cop, is worth a watch. Iddles, a former Homicide detective, re-visits six cases, and includes clips from affected families.

Seven has KFC Big Bash Cricket from 7pm tomorrow (Thurs.). Yawn!

There are quite a few Mansfield’s Melbourne episodes from 1997-98, starring the late Bruce Mansfield, to watch free online at www.Channel50.com.au - the episodes were originally aired on Optus Local Vision and Melbourne community television station Channel 31.

Community radio station 3CR dropped normal programming on Australia Day (Jan. 26), and instead had ‘Invasion Day’ programs. Listeners looking for Ralph Knight’s Swing and Sway and Steam Radio missed out on their usual fare.

Observer radio man Greg Newman’s Jocks Journal has just celebrated its 30th birthday.

Christian O’Connell, the Nottingham Trent University-educated host of Gold 104.3 FM breakfast program, is actually the author of the Radio Boy series of children’s books (Harper Collins).

★ ★ ★

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Jersey Boys

● Stuart Daulman ■ Working in Melbourne comedy can be a take the audience through the trials and tribulatough job. Multi-award-winning Stuart Daulman tions of life as a comedian. Drawing from the is presenting a seminar on what it takes to make tried and true formula of online tutorials and a truly great comedian. comedy classes, Stu will apply his own flavour Stuart says the comedy path is one of the to these methods, with a generous dose of parody. most difficult paths to tread as a performer, or Dates: March 27 – April 21 as a human being.

Times: 9.30pm Tue. - Sat., 8:30pm Sun (60 It tests and strains everything. It hurts. It exmins) hilarates. It tests you and it pushes you to your All Tickets: $28.50 Adult, $22 Conc, $22 absolute limits.

He emphasises this is not a masterclass about Preview, $22 Tightarse Tuesday, Group (5+) $25 Venue: The Boardroom, Victoria Hotel, 215 how to be a comedian, it is an exploration of what it takes to become a comedian in the scene. Lt Collins St, Melbourne Bookings: comedyfestival.com.au Co-starring Jake Ludowyke (Wizard Sand- Cheryl Threadgold wiches, Death of a Daulman), Masterclass will

Murder by Natural Causes ■ The Basin Theatre Group presents Murder

by Natural Causes from February 15 to March 9 at The Basin Theatre, Doongalla Rd, The Basin.

A thriller adapted by Tim Kelly and directed

by Bob Bramble, Natural Causes tells of Arthur Sinclair, a world-famous mentalist, married to a beautiful woman who is plotting his murder by natural causes.

Once the scheme is set in motion, the plot begins to twist and turn. But … is everything as it seems?

Performance Season: February 15 – March 9 Venue: The Basin Theatre, Doongalla Rd., The Basin Bookings: 1300 784 668 www.thebasin theatre.org.au - Cheryl Threadgold

Rob Foenander’s Music Column Victoria’s win

■ The Tamworth Country Music Festival was an exciting time for Victorian artists.

Yinnar group Destiny took out the Gold Medallion Media award for Band/Duo of the year whilst Berwick singer songwriter Andrew Swift came home with two prestigious Golden Guitar awards including New Talent of the Year and Alt Country Album of the Year.

Col’s First Fleet

■ Col Millington just keeps on keeping on with yet another CD release of original songs.

First Fleet is all about Australians joining together and celebrating our country and way of life, says Col. Furthermore, it's stories about the people in it, our Bushrangers Towns & Places.

More info: www.facebook.com/ col.millington.3 F

Cartridge Family

■ The Cartridge family give a sincere musical nod to early country groups such as the Carter Family and the likes.

They also bring a stack of foot stomping fun original songs such as Hipster Bogan, Beerijuana, and There Ain't No Facebook in Heaven etc to their show.

They perform at the Caravan Club Oakleigh on Saturday (Feb. 9).

- Rob Foenander

Arts Updates C3 Gallery Gallery 1.

Human Nature: Alicia King Alien Nature explores ideas of biological utopias within the context of the technologisation of nature and anthropomorphisation of technology. In this context, what once seemed familiar is made strange. New works traverse biological metamorphisis, promised by a contemporary global engagement with new technology that places us eternally on the brink of the "future". This idea preoccupies any ongoing practice, exploring the transformative potential of biological matter in humans and the wider environment.

Exhibition closes February 24.

Abbotsford Convent Gallery 1 St. Heliers St, Abbotsford

■ Having opened to rave reviews at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre and at QPAC in Brisbane, Jersey Boys will soon be in Melbourne, playing at the Regent Theatre from Saturday February 23for a strictly limited season.

This internationally acclaimed hit musical tells the true-life story of four guys from the wrong side of the tracks, and the rise to stardom of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, one of the most successful bands in pop music history.

The band sold more than 175 million records and were inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame for their worldwide hits, including Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, Walk Like a Man, Bye Bye Baby, Sherry and Big Girls Don’t Cry, which all feature in the musical.

The cast is a combination of exciting and emerging Australian talent. Stepping into the illustrious shoes of the charismatic singer Frankie Valli are Ryan Gonzalez and Daniel Raso who share the role.

They are joined by Cameron MacDonald as Tommy DeVito, Thomas McGuane as Bob Gaudio, who is making his career debut after graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts and Glaston Toft, reprising his celebrated portrayal of the band’s musical marvel Nick Massi.

Bookings: www.jerseyboys.com.au or in person at the Regent Theatre.

- Cheryl Threadgold

Memorial Day

● Trevor Mills and Tina Bono in the thriller Murder by Natural Causes opening February 15 at The Basin.

Photo: Bob Bramble

■ All National Service men from the fifties through t the seventies National Service Memorial Day is on Sunday February 10.

Meet at the bollards on St Kilda Rd and ANZAC Parade to march to the Shrine at 11.15am.

There will be a memorial service, a flyover of vintage aeroplanes from the Laverton air base and lunch will be served.

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Movies, DVDs with Jim Sherlock, Aaron Rourke What’s Hot and What’s Not in Blu-Rays and DVDs FILM: BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE: Genre: Mystery/Thriller.

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Jeff Bridges.

Year: 2018.

Rating: MA15+ Length: 141 Minutes.

Stars: **½ Verdict: Seven strangers, each with a secret to bury, meet at Lake Tahoe's El Royale, a rundown hotel with a dark past, and over the course of one fateful night, everyone will have a last shot at redemption - before everything goes to hell.

Fascinating and slow burning "Tarantino-wanna-be" indulgent pulp-mystery-thriller is not all together rewarding or completely fulfilling due to excessive length and unnecessary (lingering) padding, but nonetheless, there's enough quirky characters, unpredictability, amusing revelations and twists and turns to keep the imagination alight, but only just.

Set in 1969, primarily in and around the seedy old hotel built right on the CaliforniaNevada border, Jon Hamm as the Salesman/FBI Agent, Cynthia Erivo as the tormented singer, Lewis Pullman as the Bellboy, Dakota Johnson as the cult runaway and Chris Hemsworth against type as a Cult Leader, are all having a great time, however, it is veteran Jeff Bridges as the Priest with a dark secret that steals the acting honours, making its taxing pace all the more enjoyable.

Beautifully filmed and capturing the late 1960s architecture, set design, costume design and period detail with striking realism, along with an intoxicating blend of '60s soul classics, this is not for the more fast paced adrenaline pumping slashersplatter genre lovers, and what should have been a devilishly energetic, stimulating and beguiling experience, is purely nothing more than self indulgent and fleeting.

FILM: HUNTER KILLER: Genre: Action/Thriller.

Cast: Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, Common, Ethan Baird.

Year: 2018.

Rating: MA15+ Length: 121 Minutes.

Stars: *** Verdict: Deep under the Arctic Ice, an American submarine is on the hunt for a U.S. submarine in distress when he discovers a secret Russian coup is in the offing, threatening to dismantle the world order, and he must now join forces with an elite group of Navy SEALs and sneak through enemy waters to rescue the kidnapped Russian president to stop WWIII. Over the top submarine action pot-boiler that is nothing more than a patchwork caricature of nearly every other submarine movie, most notably "The Hunt For Red October" (1990) and "Ice Station Zebra" (1968), along with a mix of "Under Siege" (1992), "Crimson Tide" (1995), "Run Silent Run Deep" (1958) and even Irwin Allen's classic '60s TV series "Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea," to name just a few, in this sub-sub genre geopolitical action-thriller.

Bouncing around in development for the better part of a decade, and filmed two years ago, Gerard Butler as the Captain is having fun with a screenplay filled with page upon page of cliché on top of cliché, with an abundance of the usual "Dive, Dive, Dive," "Incoming on the Port Bow," "Prepare the Torpedos," "Check for Damage," and as for Gary Oldman, he does what he does best, lots of yelling, and aided by a supporting cast seemingly in constant confusion.

Nonetheless, in this toys for boys adventure without a romantic sub-plot in sight, there is plenty of pyrotechnics, action, gun-play and CGI thrills throughout its 121 minute running time, most notably, some spectacular and well filmed moments of the sub submerging and re-emerging from the depths, all put together with little time to breath, only it's not at all that original, but, to compare it to another recent water-logged adventure, this is to submarines what The Meg is to sharks.

FILM: THE PREDATOR: Genre: Action/Adventure/Horror.

Cast: Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, Jacob Tremblay, Olivia Munn.

Year: 2018/.

Rating: MA15+ Length: 101 Minutes.

Stars: *½ Review: The universe's most lethal hunters' return to Earth, only a young boy, a ragtag crew of ex-soldiers and a disgruntled science teacher can prevent the end of the human race.

"The Predator" is back on screens, and writer-director Shane Black, whose previous credits include: as writer: "Lethal Weapon" (1987 + Sequels), "The Last Boy Scout" (1991), "The Last Action Hero" (1993). and as Director+Writer: "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" (2005), "Iron Man 3" (2013) and "The Nice Guys" (2016), (from the opening frame) he has created a big, loud, brutal, frenetic, unrelenting and almost incomprehensible CGI pop culture inspired sci-fi pot-boiler that proves beyond doubt that bigger is not necessarily better.

The old Black magic falls way short in this effort to infuse fresh blood into a failed franchise and reintroduce by its obvious homage to the pop culture spark of the 1980s, most notably due to poor pacing, a chequered screenplay that is seemingly sliced together from other discarded storylines, and with total lack of presence of an ominous, foreboding and tough eye-catching leading man with his tongue-in-hischeek, muscle power and strong screen presence, as is the case with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the original 1987 classic.

Following on from "Predator" (1987), "Predator 2" (1990) "Predators" (2010), and two "Alien" crossovers, there is some fun to be had with the banter between the grizzled rag-tag group of "Dirty Dozen-Esque" soldiers on a mission to save the world, but there's little else emotional connection to grip, and as there's little they can do to save this murky, messy and mediocre B-minus head-spinning, headache inducing action-muddle that even though it opens the door for others to follow, we can only hope any other Predators out there take planet Earth off their to-do list, or even better, become indefinitely Lost-In-Space.

- James Sherlock

Rourke’s Reviews ■ Welcome back everyone, and it's wonderful that The Melbourne Observer is back for 2019. I hope all readers out there had a joyous, happy Christmas and New Year.

With the Golden Globes out of the way, and the BAFTAS and Oscars yet to come, this year is off to a fascinating start. But before we look at what lies ahead, let's look back at what screened over the holiday break. Here is a list of some of the films I saw during that time.

The Kid Who Would Be King (PG). 120 mins. **** Joe Cornish finally follows up his 2011 cult success Attack The Block with this imaginative, smartly written adventure that ingeniously transports the Arthurian legend to modern times. Is still playing in cinemas, so race out and catch this sleeper gem before it disappears.

The Mule (M). 116 mins. *** After the terrible The 15.17 To Paris, Clint Eastwood does return to form with this intriguing true-life drama, but some elements don't work, and while it's great to see the veteran on-screen again, as a director it is far from his best work.

Mary Poppins Returns (PG). 134 mins. ** Disappointing sequel to one of the all-time Disney classics, this lifeless exercise does nothing more than rehash the 1964 original. Emily Blunt tries, but cannot put her own stamp on the role made famous by Julie Andrews. Forgettable songs don't help.

The Rider (M). 95 mins. ****½ Tender, carefully rendered look at masculinity and family, Chloe Zhao's new film has amazingly gone under the radar, and should in fact be an Oscar frontrunner. Zhao could be the heir apparent to the one-and-only Terrence Malick.

Bumblebee (PG). 115 mins. *** After so many headache-inducing entries, this spin-off from the Transformers franchise offers more relaxed, family-friendly entertainment, and is thankfully bereft of Michael Bay's trademark hyper-cutting, overlength, and offensive misogyny.

Spider-Man : Into The Spiderverse (PG). 110 mins. ***½ With superhero fatigue in full swing now, this cleverly constructed animated adventure is surprisingly delightful, and refreshingly doesn't take itself so seriously.

Vice (M). 132 mins. *½ Hollow, empty-headed misfire from Adam McKay, who makes all the same mistakes here he did in the bafflingly well-received The Big Short. Full of tiresome gimmicks and repetitive montages, instead of actual substance and insight. Christian Bale does a convincing imitation of Dick Cheney, but Steve Carell delivers the film's best performance as Donald Rumsfeld.

The Favourite (MA). 120 mins. ****½ Fantastic comedy/drama, filled with terrific performances, and backed up by a trenchant, intelligent script. Director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Killing Of A Sacred Deer) handles the provocative material with confidence and skill.

Roma (M). 135 mins. ****½ Beautifully crafted drama based on

Alfonso Cuaron's childhood memories. Gorgeously shot in black and white and elegant, quietly eye-popping long takes, this hypnotic experience is a true work of art.

Cold War (M). 88 mins. **** Austere, quietly moving drama about two lovers who try to understand the chaotic times and themselves in 1950's communist Poland.

Exquisitely filmed and brilliantly acted, this admirably underplays its potentially melodramatic premise.

Bodied (MA). 120 mins. **** Certainly not for sensitive viewers, this provocative look at how a white boy examines black culture through battle-rap is both unflinching and hilarious. Superbly crafted and acted.

Green Book (M). 125 mins. ** Toothless look at dark subject matter, this has all the dramatic edge of Driving Miss Daisy. Excellent performances by Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali help, but can't lift a compromised, light-weight script.

Skate Kitchen (M). 100 mins. ***½ Quietly arriving at ACMI cinemas, Crystal Moselle's docudrama about a troubled teenage girl who befriends a group of skateboarders is one of those lovely gems that appears from nowhere.

Has just finished in cinemas, so please check this heartfelt film when it arrives on DVD. Mortal Engines (M). 120 mins. *½ Peter Jackson tries to kickstart another franchise, but this big budget sci-fi adventure, based on the first of a series of best-selling books, is a clunky, lead-footed disaster, reminiscent of so many other, better films, and ensures that there will definitely not be a sequel.

Instant Family (M). 119 mins. *½ Based on the director's own experiences, this crude, overlong comedy takes a potentially engrossing premise and proceeds to pummel it to death with cheap laughs and cloying sentimentality.

Assassination Nation (R). 108 mins. ***½ A combination of Heathers, The Crucible, and The Purge, this highly profane comedy/thriller manages to fascinate and entertain, with a game cast who all give committed turns. Some heavy-handed touches can't diminish the film's impressive qualities.

Soni (M). 97 mins. **** Involving and eventually moving examination of gender imbalance in India, seen through the eyes of two female police officers. Unobtrusive but inventive direction complement two superb central performances. Now streaming on Netflix.

Blank 13 (M). 71 mins. ***1/2 Small-scale but captivating film about a young man who attends his long estranged father's funeral, and learns some unexpected truths about the deceased and himself.

Lily Franky is excellent as the unreliable father.

Aquaman (M). 143 mins. **1/2 Aussie director James Wan fills this superhero tale with dazzling visuals and some exciting action setpieces, but protracts a simple story beyond its inherent worth, protracting the film by at least 30 minutes.

Top 10 Lists JANUARY 27 to FEBRUARY 2 THE AUSTRALIAN BOX OFFICE TOP TEN: 1. THE MULE. 2. GLASS. 3. HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD. 4. GREEN BOOK. 5. INSTANT FAMILY. 6. AQUAMAN. 7. DRAGON BALL SUPER: BROLY. 8. MARY POPPINS RETURNS. 9. STORM BOY. 10. RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET. NEW RELEASES AND COMING SOON TO CINEMAS AROUND AUSTRALIA: JANUARY 31: BEN IS BACK, THE FRONT RUNNER, THE HATE U GIVE. FEBRUARY 7: CAPHARNAUM, COLD PURSUIT, ESCAPE ROOM, MARIA BY CALLAS, ON THE BASIS OF SEX, THE COMBINATION REDEMPTION,WHITE BOY RICK. THE DVD AND BLU-RAY TOP RENTALS & SALES: 1. HALLOWEEN [Horror/Thriller/Jamie Lee Curtis, Will Patton].

2. FIRST MAN [Biography/History/Drama/ Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke].

3. VENOM [Action/Sci-Fi/Horror/Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams].

4. DON'T WORRY, HE WON'T GET FAR ON FOOT [Bio/Comedy/Drama/Joaquin Phoenix].

5. AMERICAN ANIMALS [Thriller/Evan Peters, Blake Jenner, Ann Dowd].

6. GOOSEBUMPS 2 [Adventure/Family/ Comedy/Wendy McLendon-Covey, Bryce Cass].

7. NIGHT SCHOOL [Comedy/Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish].

8. ALPHA [Action/Drama/Jens Hutten, Kodi Smit-McPhee].

9. GHOST STORIES [Horror/Drama/Martin Freeman, Andy Nyman].

Also: CRAZY RICH ASIANS, LADIES IN BLACK, THE NUN, CHARMING, DESTINATION WEDDING, CHRISTOPHER ROBIN, A SIMPLE FAVOUR, SEARCHING, SMALLFOOT, JULIET NAKED. NEW HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASE HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK: HUNTER KILLER [Action/Thriller/Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, Michael Nyqvist].

BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE [Crime/ Drama/Thriller/Jeff Bridges, Dakota Johnson].

REIGH OF SUPERMAN [DC Universe Movie/Animated/Sci-Fi/Action/Drama].

DVD AND/OR BLU-RAY NEW & RE-RELEASE CLASSIC MOVIES HIGHLIGHTS: CRY FREEDOM [Biography/Drama/Denzel Washington/Kevin Kline].

NEW RELEASE TELEVISION, DOCUMENTARY AND MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS: BALLERS: Season 4.

SHADOWHUNTERS: The Mortal Instruments - Season 1.

- James Sherlock

www.MelbourneObserver.com.au

Melbourne Obser ver - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - Page 51

www.MelbourneObserver.com.au

Page 52 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 Melbourne

Observer

Lovatts Crossword No 19 Across

1. Able to be modified 6. Run away (4,3) 10. Crumpling 16. Drunkard 17. Canary Islands port, ... Palmas 19. Endure 20. Sheep fibre 21. Brass instrument 22. Snatched 23. Wallop 26. Church senior 28. Alliance 30. Smiles 31. Recite 33. Composer, Sir Edward ...

35. Serviceable 37. Wild grass 38. Fork point 39. Espionage agents 41. Mountain call 43. Supplement, ... out 44. Fragrant flower 45. Scornfully disobey 46. Corrosive substance, ... soda 48. Aquatic mammals 50. Contributes 51. Devout 52. Small fenced-in area 53. Sore secretion 55. Ice-cream server 57. Respectful 60. Ethnic bigots 62. Young man 64. Fire-fighting fixtures 67. Mass 68. Damages (bodywork) 69. Public pool 71. Achiever 72. Endorse (motion) 74. Camouflage colour 75. Italian farewell 77. Naked rider, ... Godiva 79. Bravery badges 82. A single entity 83. Peruses 85. Betray, ... on 87. OK (informal) 89. Tennis barrier 90. Ashen 91. Epsom annual horse race 92. Actor, ... Gibson 94. German Mrs 96. Distort 98. The N of NB 99. Synagogue scholar 100. Send back 102. Sort (through) 104. Cut (timber) 106. Gets 107. Tout 109. Cargo 111. Be unfaithful to (3-4) 112. Nothing 113. Milkshake ingredient 114. Ship's spine 116. Fraud 118. Frog relatives 119. ... of Carpentaria 121. Incursion 123. Woodwind instrument 125. Fibbed 127. Can metal 128. Excursion 130. Sunbeams 132. Truck compartment 134. Palm cereal 136. Tanzania's ... es Salaam 137. Squalid 139. Large racing yacht 140. Tennis ace, ... Nastase 141. Fishing-line fibre 143. Convict's ball & ...

Across 145. Mortuary table 147. Lawyer's charge 148. Wound with dagger 149. Ready for picking 150. Pledge 152. Put strain on 154. Writer, ... Blyton 156. Basketball shot, ... dunk 158. Flavouring herb 159. Oxlike antelopes 161. Acorn bearer 163. Prince Edward, ... of Wessex 165. Spicy lentil dish 167. Hunger pain 169. Restate 171. Fabric join 173. Cropping up 175. Silver bars 177. Pet's parasites 179. Ills 181. Nipples 182. Lion's neck hair 183. Honey wine 185. Positive replies 187. Dismiss 189. ... & downs 190. Kitchen flooring 191. Female opera singer 192. Cloth remnant 194. Security lapses 196. Non-clergy 197. Antarctic inlet, ... Sea 198. Judo level 199. Beijing's former name 202. Deplete 204. Cycled 205. Fast planes 206. Counterfeited 208. Auction 210. Knight's mount 212. Filled pastries 213. Sports team 214. Infant babble (4,4) 216. Happily ... after 217. Contactable (2,4) 219. Realms 221. Devonshire tea cake 223. Red-rind cheese 225. Perform 226. All-in fight 227. Open tart 230. Long films 232. Snowfields elevator (3,4) 235. Shopping precincts 236. Mother 238. Smash into 240. Anaesthetic gas 242. Exclusive group 243. Dispatches 244. Town plan 245. Physician 246. Attacked (3,2) 247. City, ... Angeles 248. Nursemaid 249. Ring-throwing game 251. Hallucinogenic drug (1,1,1) 253. Electricity power source 255. Greener 256. Revise (text) 258. Cash disc 259. Cases 260. Belonging to us 261. Beer 262. Divorce order (6,4) 263. Gizmos 264. Armless (dress)

Down 1. Marriage cheat 2. Vibrates 3. Pixie 4. Very eager 5. Radiant 6. Destines to grim fate 7. At summit of 8. Smoke vent 9. Tale 11. False pretences 12. Push for 13. Unrefined 14. Partook of liquor 15. Aphrodite & Athena 16. Moved to & fro 18. Regrettably 24. Clue 25. Low platform 27. Swollen heads, big ...

29. Yes vote 30. Tile mortar 31. Potatoes 32. Even so 34. Stretch 36. Alias (1,1,1) 38. Cheap booze 39. Indian gowns 40. Drink delicately 42. Windies batsman, Clive ...

45. Pasture 46. Desert plants 47. Kill selectively 49. ... & Gomorrah 51. Dried plum 52. Jerks 54. Voyage 56. Primp & ...

58. Peeper 59. Black wood 60. All set 61. Neck warmer 63. Date of offensive (1-3) 65. Cosmetics boss, Elizabeth ...

66. Israeli city, ... Aviv 68. Sheikhdom, Abu ...

70. Dedicatory verses 72. Cloyingly sweet 73. Duress 74. Roadway edgings 76. Rowing aids 78. Jabbers 80. Vaporised 81. Removes whiskers 83. Resist openly 84. Half 86. Fox brush 88. High temperature 91. Actor/singer, Sammy ... (5,2) 92. Fade (away) 93. Touch with tongue 95. Flying saucers (1,1,2) 97. World Wide Web (1,1,1) 99. Cheese skin 100. Entertainer, ... Harris 101. Layers 103. Mexican food shell 105. Carol, The First ...

107. Common seasoning 108. Afternoon meal 110. Gentle strokes 113. Humdrum 115. Lawful 117. Groaning 118. Close-fitting 119. Cunning 120. Polishes (car) 122. Tibet's ... Lama 124. Pyramids country 126. Blowpipe missiles

Down

129. Commercials 130. British flying force (1,1,1) 131. Produce 133. Overalls, ... & brace 135. Bullfight cry 137. Big cricket hit 138. Unique model (3-3) 142. Persona ... grata 144. African anteater 146. Inclination 148. Clever 149. Betrothal token, engagement ..

151. Scrutinising (accounts) 153. Every day 155. Sketched 157. So! 158. Provides with personnel 159. Squall 160. Obtain (support) (4,2) 162. Bend to pray 164. Mekong valley nation 166. Holidays owed, time in ...

167. Coal mines 168. In attendance (2,4) 170. Abated 172. Breakfast or dinner 174. Enervates 175. Forbids 176. One, numero ...

178. Browns (meat) quickly 180. Disfigure 182. Feel the loss of 184. Michaelmas ...

186. Skim on ice 188. Environmental treaty, ... Protocol 190. Plenty 191. Challenged 193. Midges 195. Filter 197. Cotton spool 198. Avoid 200. Age 201. Candied 203. Requires 205. Abandon (lover) 206. Financial penalties 207. Shady tree 209. Flee to wed 211. Duck's mate 212. Agreement 213. Window ledges 214. Confused 215. Fuses (of bones) 218. Coffee lounge 219. Surfer, ... Slater 220. Sailors 222. Troop formations 224. Flour factory 226. Yacht's principal canvas 228. Antiquated 229. Crooner, ... King Cole 231. Hardens 233. Leo animal 234. 'Tis (2'1) 235. Death in Venice author, Thomas ...

236. China's ... Zedong 237. Pacify 239. Portable 241. Horse-riding show 243. NE US state 244. Corpse repository 248. Fixes with hammer 250. Ayatollah's land 252. Former Italian currency 253. Castle ditch 254. Model, ... Macpherson 257. Used spade

Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - Page 53

Solution on Page 41

MEGA

CROSSWORD No 19 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

16 19

28

29

24 31

45

58

72

84

91

92

127

128

120

129

130

138 145 153

160

161

146 154

162

169

155 163

170 177

183

184 192

171 178

185 193

200 208

195 202

209

214

238

230 239

231 240

245 250

260

220

226 235

236

243

244

248

249

253

254

258

259 261

263

207

213

234

252 257

198

219

242

251

191

206

225 233

151

176

190

218

247

256

175

212

232

246

150

205

224

241

142

168

189

217

136

182

204

223

135

197

216

126

159

181

211

222

134

125

167

196

210

221

124

174

188

203

215

229

187

111

149

173 180

98

141

166

81

105

158

165

179

194

133

157

172

186

201

228

164

97

123

148 156

80

117

140 147

66

89

104

116

132

139

144 152

131

96

110

122

79 88

103

115

65 71

87

109

121

64

78

95

50 56

70

86

108

119

15

43

55 63

102

114

14

36

49

77

94 101

113

118

262

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100

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48 54

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35 42

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255

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33

68

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12

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59

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26

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51

199

25

38

44

10

21

30

37

57

17

20 23

9

264

237

Page 42 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, Februar y 6, 2019

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Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - Page 43

Page 44 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019

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www.MelbourneObser ver.com.au

Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, December 19, 2018 - Page 45

Horses

Page 46 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, Februar y 6, 2019

www.MelbourneObserver.com.au

Rural News

SUMMER IS HERE, ORDER YOUR TANK NOW

www.MelbourneObserver.com.au

Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - Page 47

Page 48 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2019

www.MelbourneObserver.com.au

Learning to Ride

Balance Bikes from Ivanhoe Cycles Balance Bikes (also called training bikes) are pedalless bikes designed to provide fun and exercise and to teach the basic skills of steering, balance and co-ordination.

They are suited to a child from 2 to 5 years of age.

The child simply sits astride the balance bike and "walks" while steering with the handlebars.

It effectively allows them to learn balance without having to learn to pedal at the same time. It cuts the learning "gradient" down. They are also called pre bikes or first bikes.

Balance bikes are becoming increasingly popular, as it is so much easier to learn to ride. Learning to ride can be achieved at their own pace. A less confident child can “walk� it around for as long as they like, then

when ready, they can gradually lift their feet and scoo along until they are ready to simply push off and jus roll along.

More confident kids will be flying around with huge smiles in no time at all.

Because they have a sturdy aluminium or steel frame and well constructed wheels they are virtually trouble free, and can be passed down from child to child.

BYK E250L PURPLE $219

GIANT PRE BIKE - RED $199

Mongoose Lilgoose WNR Girls Balance Bike 12 Inch $179

Byk E250L Purple - Girls 14inch Balance Bike

12 inch boys balance bike that is a perfect gradient for learning to ride a real bike

The low stand-over height makes it very easy to get on and off the bike,

LIL ZOOMER BALANCE BIKE - GREEN $99

BYK E200L $189

Little Zoomer Balance Bike in any colour. A fun way to teach balance and coordination! Suitable 2-4 years.

Byk E200L. Balance Bikes make it so much easier for your child to learn to ride.

MONGOOSE LILGOOSE WNR BOYS BALANCE BIKE 12 INCH $179 The Mongoose Lilgoose Balance bike is not only one of the cutest designs we've seen on a training bike.