Qantas Magazine | November 22

Future is an attitude

Accelerate progress

The all-electric Audi e-tron S

The frst all-electric vehicle from Audi to wear the coveted ‘S’ badge, the Audi e-tron S is an artful combination of scintillating all-electric performance and stunning design.

Overseas model with optional equipment shown.

“I’M THINKING BEYOND MY TIME TO THE LEGACY I LEAVE BEHIND.” GISELE BÜNDCHEN, SUPERMODEL, ENTREPRENEUR, ENVIRONMENTALIST AND IWC ENVIRONMENTAL AND COMMUNITY PROJECTS ADVISOR

PORTOFINO.

PORTOFINO CHRONOGRAPH 39

Expressive but understated, sophisticated but casual: With a perfect blend of elegance and sportiness, the Portofino Chronograph 39 exudes freshness and purity – a truly versatile timepiece. The IWC-manufactured 69355 calibre ensures precision timing, the ergonomic 39-milimetre case size excellent wearability.

THE ARTISTS

Five artists share their unique visions of the Australian landscape

Connection Change

THE NEXT GENERATION

Meet the new wave of changemakers inspiring the leaders of today

I WANT PEOPLE TO SEE THE BEAUTY AND INDEPENDENCE OF THE COUNTRY WE’RE LIVING IN.

GEORGE COOLEY

On the cover

Midday Sun Wilcannia (2017) by Luke Sciberras, 120cm x 160cm, oil on board, copyright Luke Sciberras, collection of Arthur Roe. The work appears courtesy of King Street Gallery on William, Sydney.

OUT OF THIS WORLD

Ask the big questions on a tour of the Pilbara led by a team of NASA scientists

64

PURPOSE BUILT

The luxe hotels and retreats where sustainability is second nature

78

SECOND CITIES

Discover the cities in Spain, Japan, Italy and the US you’ll want to go to next

NEW YORK, UNPLUGGED

Have an adventure in the Big Apple with no phone, no apps, just paper maps

155

Dine 107

The hottest food trends taking seed today – from vegan fine-diners to lowimpact eateries – and where you can try them in Australia and around the world.

Design 133

What will our homes look like? What about the office as we know it? How will public space be defined? And how do we include everyone? Six designers show us the future.

Innovate 155

AI, hydrogen, big data, the metaverse, fintech, robots and space... We live in a time of fast-paced change, with exciting technology that will bring radical disruption to how we do business.

On board 185 Inflight entertainment 190 Health, safety and security on board and when you land

194 Games

For more travel inspiration, go to qantas.com/travelinsider

Editorial Editor-in-Chief Kirsten Galliott

Content Direotor Jessica Irvine Deputy Content Director Faith Campbell Content Manager Natalie Reilly Contributing Editor Di Webster

Digital and Content Operations Lead Hana Jo Online Editor Christina Rae Managing Editor, Qantas Hotels Bridget de Maine

Digital Producer Anneliese Beard

For editorial inquiries, contact: qantaseditorial@mediumrarecontent.com

Advertising

Head of Sales, Travel Tony Trovato +61 404 093 472

NSW Sales Manager Callum Bean +61 404 729 224

NSW Senior Account Manager Crystal Wong +61 420 558 697

National Advertising Manager, Business & Travel Isabella Severino +61 459 999 715

Qld, WA and SA Sales Manager Elliott Barsby +61 450 122 236

Head of Sales, Victoria Chris Joy +61 406 397 715

Senior Account Manager, Victoria Miranda Adofaci +61 410 387 707 Senior Account Manager, Victoria Jo Farrugia +61 450 968 882

Digital Sales Director Mike Hanna +61 402 640 095

Digital Campaign Manager and Product Specialist Anna Delgado +61 404 855 041

Creative Director Tony Rice Senior Designer Kate Timms Visual Director Elizabeth Hachem

Copy Director Rosemary Bruce Deputy Copy Director Sandra Bridekirk Copy Editors Pippa Duffy Nick Hadley

Production Manager Chrissy Fragkakis

International Representatives Greater China and Japan Peter Jeffery +852 2850 4013 peterjeffery@asianimedia.com South-East Asia and the UK Nick Lockwood +65 9776 6255 nick.lockwood@ pharpartnerships.com United States Ralph Lockwood +1 408 879 6666 ralph.lockwood@ husonmedia.com

For advertising inquiries, contact: qantasadvertising@mediumrarecontent.com

Commercial

Fiorella Di Santo Head of

Kirsten Galliott

Director Karla Courtney Head of Multimedia

Catherine Ross Financial Controller

Finance

Yane Chak Junior Accountant Yongjia Zhou

FROM THE EDITOR

It feels like we’re on the cusp of something new.

After all the challenges of the past two and a half years, there’s an awakening. We’ve roused, pushed ourselves up and learnt to appreciate the world in a different way.

We see it in the travel industry. There’s a real thoughtfulness to travel now. It’s no longer enough to tick off the sites and add another country to our collection. The travel we do must enrich our lives and fulfil us.

Some of us want to get out on the land, whether that’s through agritourism – where you can pick the vegetables that’ll be cooked that night – or by understanding more about our country’s past with authentic experiences curated by First Nations peoples.

Others want to escape and suck in that great big sky of ours. Switch off in a forest or on an island and remember what it is to stop and cherish the beauty that’s around us.

Of course, there’s still room for bucket-list travel. Dreams have never been more important. Writer Anaïs Nin suggested tossing your dreams into space like a kite. “You do not know what it will bring back – a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.”

But the places we visit and the lives we lead must sit right with us. We want our hotels to be sustainable. We expect the restaurants we eat at to look after their staff. We hope to see local communities actively benefiting from tourism.

This changing consciousness has led us to create this special issue – and a very special cover by artist Luke Sciberras.

We’ve called it The New World to reflect our growing appetite for a different approach to living – and to acknowledge that the pace of change is dramatic.

The future is upon us. Here’s what it will look like...

Kirsten Galliott Editor-in-Chief

kirstengalliott

Our writers are not armchair travellers. Rest assured any assistance we accept from the travel industry in the course of preparing our stories does not compromise the integrity of our coverage.

FROM THE CEO

Last month I flew overseas to Singapore and Europe to meet with some of our overseas teams and some of my airline counterparts. It was clear from those discussions that despite the best efforts of everyone in the industry, it’s going to be a little while longer before air travel in some parts of the world fully recovers.

Airlines and airports globally are working as quickly as possible to bring back staff and aircraft to meet the huge demand for travel but there are still some airlines and airports that won’t be back at full capacity in the short term.

At Qantas we’ve seen a sharp improvement in our customer service levels in recent months and our operations are now largely back to our pre-COVID standards. We’ve hired more than 1500 employees and our frontline teams have provided feedback that’s helped ensure far more of our flights are now getting away on time and far fewer flights are being cancelled.

As we’ve ramped up flying over the past 12 months we’ve been gradually bringing back services we paused during COVID. Many of you would have noticed some of them immediately, like the reopening of our airport lounges, but there are other things that make flying more comfortable and aren’t as obvious.

We’ve updated our domestic Economy menu for the first time since we simplified on-board service during COVID. There’ll be variations of the menu every six weeks because variety is important for customers who travel often with us. We’ve also recently brought back vegetarian meals on all domestic Economy flights.

With international destinations being added to our route map, more customers are using travel credits from when we had to cancel flights during COVID, with more than $1 billion of credits spent already. We’re putting in more support to make them easier to use so I encourage you to put credits you have towards your next trip.

All of these efforts help make your travel experience smoother – and there’s more to come as we continue to invest in our business in the months ahead.

Thanks for choosing Qantas.

Alan Joyce CEO, Qantas

Milestone

Hard to believe but it’s been 25 years since Neil Perry first partnered with Qantas and transformed dining in the sky. “There have been so many proud moments,” says the creative director of Food, Beverage and Service (above with Alan Joyce), who also oversees the lounge menus and wine lists. “We now have 700 dishes, a wide-ranging drinks selection and full service in First and Business, which means direct training of the crew. It’s a totally different experience to any airline’s partnership with a chef or restaurant.”

Connect to Qantas

Fast and Free Wi-Fi

Once onboard, connect your own device to Qantas Free Wi-Fi on domestic flights in three simple steps:

Enable Aeroplane Mode and select the “Qantas Free Wi-Fi” network in your Wi-Fi settings.

Follow the prompts on the “Welcome Onboard” screen to connect.

Once you’re connected, you’re ready to access the internet and start exploring.

Having trouble connecting? Make sure you’re connected to the “Qantas Free Wi-Fi” network and go to wifi.qantas.com in your preferred browser to start the connection process. To ensure an enjoyable flight for everyone, keep flight mode activated, switch your device to silent and refrain from voice and video calls.

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work, live and fly. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and are committed to honouring Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ unique cultural and spiritual relationship to the land and water.

Qantas

Stephanie Gilmore –Sally Fitzgibbons –Kelly Slater

Online now... Expert guides, new openings and dream destinations.

Our hit list of the world’s coolest new experiences

An Antarctic voyage, a geodesic dome hotel in Peru, villas on man-made islands in the Maldives and more.

This is what the future of touring looks like

Five breakout trends, from hard-to-reach locations to culturally immersive trips and sustainable expeditions.

Which European destination do you want to see in 2023?

Discover the Paris of Dalí and street art, escape to the Scottish countryside or take a zipline through Germany’s Black Forest.

Artist Impression

One-o pieces of art are rare and increasingly sought-after. Such is the case for the 1 of One, full-floor level 39 Panoramic Sky Home at Chevron One Residences. With six car spaces and an area spanning one thousand square metres, this is likely the largest single level apartment residence ever seen in Australia and a statement for the ages — a One of One.

AUD

Caitlin Rosenboom – 1800 792 627

Life is fast.

But there is value in stopping to consider the future – and how we can make it better.

In this special issue, we pay tribute to conscious travel, the change agents of the next generation and connection to Country.

We celebrate everything from vegan fine dining to creative industrial design.

And we acknowledge the role of technology and those who are trying to harness it for good.

It’s Life Reimagined. This is The New World.

E N E W W O R

D

D

R

N

M

More of what you love.

The all-electric Taycan GTS. Soul, electrifed.

Just when you thought you’d experienced exhilaration like no other, the all-electric Taycan GTS has taken it to a new level. The embodiment of pure Porsche e-performance, its unbridled power and sporty styling will turn heads and win hearts. With GTS exclusive features, like an enhanced drivetrain, handling and a unique interior design - your driving experience will never be the same again. It’s everything you love about Porsche, put into overdrive. See it at your Official Porsche Centre today.

A piece of you since 1972.

To celebrate 50 years designing and manufacturing fine jewellery, Linneys has created the Limited Edition Artisan Series – 50 magnificent one of a kind pieces, each featuring Argyle pink diamonds.

Featured - The Artisan Series Limited Edition No.1 necklace The Australian Princess, No.2 Kimberley Rain earrings, and diamond rings from the 50th Anniversary Catalogue.

E N E W W O R L D

Luke Sciberras, George Cooley, Shaun Daniel Allen, Gemma King and Peta Clancy

These artists all see and interpret our landscape differently. Here, they show us Australia through their lens.

As told to Di Webster and Bek Day

I F E R E I M AG I N E D

LUKE SCIBERRAS

“This work is not only of a place but it’s about a place. It’s a painting about me being on these seemingly unremarkable clay pans at Wilcannia [in NSW] – beautiful, smooth, flat areas of earth that were occupied for many, many generations up and down the west side of the Darling River. The way they catch and hold light is staggering. I travel to Wilcannia seasonally, regularly, perennially, because every time I go, the landscape is different. But a constant is those clay pans that gather around in almost perfectly flat, liveable areas among the sandhills that stand up above the flat river country.

When I’m in the landscape I sit on the ground and I make works on paper with watercolour, pastels, gouache, charcoal, all sorts of things, and bring them back to my studio. I take all of that observed material, along with my memory, and make an oil painting. What I’m trying to capture isn’t so much the landscape but me in my happy place.

There’s a tremendous amount to be learnt from the custodians of that land, whether they’re Indigenous, non-Indigenous or farmers. They tend to become very good friends of mine because I visit regularly and I respect how much they know about the place and how much they can teach me.

We live in such a varied and vast country. There’s a delicacy and a strength to all the Australian landscapes I’ve visited. Whether it’s as far south as Bruny Island, Tasmania, or as far north as the Kimberley coast in Western Australia, there’s a unique tone that absolutely captivates me.

Landscapes change, they die and are reborn and sometimes they’re starved of nutrients, which is often our fault. They behave in accordance with how we treat them.”

Midday Sun, Wilcannia (2017) by Luke Sciberras, 120cm x 160cm, oil on board, copyright Luke Sciberras, collection of Arthur Roe. The work appears courtesy of King Street Gallery on William, Sydney.

GEORGE COOLEY

“This picture is of Painted Desert country, about 120 kilometres north of Coober Pedy, South Australia, where I live. It’s an area within the Stuart Range that I’ve gone through, slept at or visited on many occasions. You move along the road for five, 10, 20 kilometres and the colour and scenery changes. Although it looks pink, it’s really a reddish-pink and it’s got stand-out whites, yellows and purples and some areas where it’s almost black. It’s a place of beauty and peace, you know. When the sun rises, during the day and at sunset, the colour changes as the time changes.

I think if you’re an artist, you love colour. I’m an opal miner so I’ve seen the colours from about four feet off the ground to about 50 to 60 feet below; layers and layers of ochre mixed in with the beauty of the opal.

There’s something about the Australian environment that makes you want to belong to it, makes you want to love it more and more and makes you want to care for it. I want people to see the beauty and independence of the country we’re living in.

Most Aboriginal people do a different type of painting, you know; they do the dot dot or the circles, telling the story of their experience and family and Country. I’ve got a different way of telling the same story.”

The Breakaways (2022) by George Cooley, 120cm x 90cm, acrylic on board, copyright George Cooley, courtesy of Umoona Arts and the APY Art Centre Collective

SHAUN DANIEL ALLEN (SHAL)

“A lot of people ask what I was trying to capture with this work but the reality is that this piece – and the wider series it’s part of, Balun (meaning ‘river’) – kind of just captured me. I was trying to deal with a lot of negative stuff in my life and painting these works started off as almost a meditation.

My Mob’s all through northern NSW and I grew up on the Gold Coast. My nan worked on boats and all of my early attachment, all of my childhood, everything good, was always centred around these waterways. I think in trying to soothe myself I was chasing the best parts of life and, for me, that’s always going to be water.

If you think about the creation story of the coast, with water flowing down through the hinterland in all the crevices of the hills and mountains, it’s like the ultimate connection between the land and the ocean. I think about my grandfather, a Bundjalung fella, and I think about all the things that he went through and lost. He lost contact with a lot of his family and didn’t have ties to a lot of Mob because of a million things that obviously stem from colonisation, dispossession of land and the decimation of culture. I don’t know, sometimes I feel like everyone’s kind of learning to reconnect all the time.

I don’t think you can be a Blackfella and not be some sort of activist; even your existence is a defiance. And as I’ve slowed down and spent more time on Country, learning from Mob in the city as well, I feel that connection grow; connection to who I am and where I’ve been and connection to this land as a whole.”

Balun (2022) by Shaun Daniel Allen, 60cm x 90cm, synthetic polymer on canvas, copyright Shaun Daniel Allen, courtesy of China Heights Gallery

GEMMA KING

“I live on a farm in Walcha, which is between Tamworth and Armidale in the New England region of NSW. The gully that it’s on has wedge-tailed eagles nearby and you can see echidnas and platypuses and turtles. It’s a special place. There are spreadout rolling hills that you often can’t see animals on so it looks like those old, untouched, pristine Italian landscapes.

This vantage point, which sits up high, is my favourite place to see the colours of those paddocks meeting. There are improved pastures – where that bright strip of olive is – and the orange is the closest paddock, which has a beautiful native grass called Parramatta; kangaroos often graze there. It’s a private, meditative spot for me and I finally decided it’s worth a lino cut – I have to share this now.

Artistically, I’m inspired by Australia’s huge sweeping spaces and how colours meet each other so abruptly. The intense blue of the sky almost mocking a drought-ridden hill that’s turned bright red from the clay in the soil. The landscape is stark and quite abstract but when you stand and listen and become a part of it, the details are whimsical and fine. I get inspired by its bold strength juxtaposed against delicate and tender scrub and the life in it. You feel like you’re on land that’s ancient and unforgiving and doesn’t care about you very much but it has its own song and its own energy. And when you find your own little place, it’s a beautiful thing.

Lino is a great medium for explaining the landscape because you can get that block of colour and these incredibly fine lines that seem too delicate to be real. I think that’s why I’ve stuck with it. I’m always excited when I’m carving again.”

Wallington on Blackfellows Gully to Blue Mountain in Olive (2022) by Gemma King, 44cm x 40cm, unique-state print, single-plate, jigsaw reduction linocut print on Fabriano paper, with Cranfield Colours oil-based inks

PETA CLANCY

“I’ve been working on long-term projects that involve consultation with Traditional Custodians at particular sites and photographing them. This particular aspect of Country is the confluence of Merri Creek and the Birrarung (Yarra River) at Dights Falls in Collingwood, Victoria. I’ve become really interested in confluences and their significance to First Nations people.

The rocks there are between 100 and 400 million years old but in the 1970s the area was dynamited for the development of the Eastern Freeway. Traditional Custodians weren’t consulted then and this area is a significant meeting place, traditionally and in a contemporary sense, for Wurundjeri people. Where you can see the confluence now isn’t how it was originally so there’s this strange relationship with time.

I return to Country with a large-scale photograph I’ve taken of the site, tape it up to a frame and put it in exactly the same location. I then remove part of the image with a blade and photograph it again from two different time frames so there’s a sense of something that’s been covered over or taken away. You can recognise the trees and you recognise Country… but something’s not quite right because the light’s different and there’s a kind of scarring in the landscape.

There are multiple ways of understanding Country. For Aboriginal people, it’s place, it’s ancestry, it’s culture, it’s them, it’s self. You can’t separate Country as a visual, aesthetic subject to explore. People think about Country as being like the outback or in the country but it’s just covered over wherever we are in the city, you know. This location is about eight kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. Country is everywhere. It’s just beneath our feet.”

Confluence 4 ( 2022) by Peta Clancy, 100cm x 150cm, pigment inkjet print, copyright Peta Clancy, courtesy of Peta Clancy and Dominik Mersch Gallery

Take off with La Trobe Financial

INVEST

Earn up to 150,000 Qantas Points* when you invest in the 12 Month Term Account. That’s 250 Qantas Points for every eligible investment of $1,000 in the 12 Month Term Account.

BORROW

Earn 10,000 Qantas Points for every $100,000 borrowed on a La Trobe Financial Residential Loan, plus, 12,000 Qantas Points each year on the anniversary for the first five years of your loan^

start investing or borrowing call 13 80 10

latrobefinancial.com

* T&Cs apply. To earn 1 Qantas Point per $4 invested you must invest a minimum of $10,000 in the 12 Month Term Account. The 150,000 points is based on an investment of $600,000.

^Up to a maximum of 250,000 Qantas Points on an Eligible Residential Loan and an annual loyalty bonus of 12,000 Qantas Points for the first five years when your loan balance is $200,000 or more. T&Cs and eligibility requirements apply.

La Trobe Financial Services Pty Limited ACN 006 479 527 Australian Credit Licence 392385

La Trobe Financial Asset Management Limited ACN 007 332 363 Australian Financial Services Licence 222213 Australian Credit Licence 222213 is the responsible entity of the La Trobe Australian Credit Fund ARSN 088 178 321. It is important for you to consider the Product Disclosure Statement for the Credit Fund in deciding whether to invest, or to continue to invest, in the Credit Fund. You can read the PDS and the Target Market Determinations on our website or ask for a copy by calling us on 13 80 10.

You can earn Qantas Points on your investments or when you borrow with the below offers - making your financial future even more rewarding.

Perhaps the best way to know what the future holds is to look to those who’ll be guiding us through it. So we asked the leaders of today to nominate the changemakers of the future, across the arts, social impact, human rights and more.

These are the people who will challenge the way we think, feel and live.

Compiled by Di Webster, Bridget de Maine, Jessica Irvine and Natalie Reilly Photography by Hugh Stewart

E R E

M

O R

Suzanne Cotter Director, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia

Micheal Do Curator and writer

As head of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), Suzanne Cotter understands better than most the foundation for success in the art world: surrounding yourself with good people. After hearing so much about curator Micheal Do, her expectations were high. When they finally connected earlier this year, to work on the gallery’s annual exhibition of young Australian artists, Primavera 2022, set to run at the MCA until February (mca.com.au), Cotter knew she’d met someone special.

“Micheal’s what I like to call a believer. He’s not cynical but he’s not naïve either,” she says, citing his 2016 exhibition of soft and inflated sculptures, Soft Core, which toured 12 regional Australian galleries until 2019. “For someone of his generation to undertake that type of project shows initiative, enthusiasm and an ability to think about the way art can speak to everyone. He’s humble and really listens to artists, which is so important. But at the same time, he has a clear view of what he wants to achieve.”

Do’s artistic vision wasn’t always so apparent. He grew up in western Sydney, the only son of immigrant parents. It was while studying for a Bachelor of Arts/Law at UNSW Sydney that Do says he accidentally fell in love with art. “I had a great time meeting incredible people and seeing artists in the studio – it lit a fire in me.” He began his career as a curator in 2015. “I knew it was my calling. There was almost a sense of fate about it.”

Now Do has his hands full as curator of contemporary art at the Sydney Opera House and curator of projects at Aotearoa Art Fair in Auckland, New Zealand. And while Primavera 2022 addresses what Do describes as “a global requiem” – how climate change and the pandemic have left their mark on young people – he’s still hopeful about the future of art.

“It’s no secret the art world has been synonymous with elitism. But those barriers are being dismantled and are crumbling before us,” he says. “The future and responsibility of contemporary art is to shine a light and reflect. That’s not about ticking a box but finding and lifting up other voices of excellence. It’s something I’m proud to be a part of.”

Hair, grooming and make-up by Sarah Tammer

THE ADVOCATE > GENERATION NEXT

Georgie Harman CEO, Beyond Blue

GENERATION

Emily Unity Mental health advocate

Georgie Harman (right) was giving Emily Unity a lift home one afternoon recently when the conversation turned to the challenges of the past few pandemic-interrupted years. As Harman opened up about her job, Unity, 25, “listened, followed up and asked probing questions”, says Harman of the software engineer who has harnessed her experience as a non-binary, neuro- and culturally diverse person with mental health issues to support and educate others. “Here I am in my 50s and I’ve got this incredible young person saying, ‘What you’re doing is good enough, what you’re doing is helping others’, and I should have been the one saying that to her!” Unity has the courage, candour and ability to “cut through the BS to get to what really matters”.

It wasn’t always the case. The self-described “extremely privileged” child of immigrants had been diagnosed with depression and anxiety by the age of 13 and made the first of two suicide attempts at 14. “Growing up, I spent so much time trying to fit into everyone else’s expectation of who I should be,” says Unity, “I lost sight of who I was.” Psychiatrists and psychologists helped “to an extent” but it was in online forums of peers that Unity finally saw a way forward. “By finding these diverse people, it felt like there were so many other options available; I wasn’t the problem.”

What was a problem for Unity was relating their struggle to parents from “homophobic and collectivist cultures” (Unity’s mum came to Australia from Vietnam, their dad is from Malaysia) with no clear grasp of mental health. “My mum literally escaped from a war on a dinghy and was out at sea for weeks when she was 13,” says Unity. “She hadn’t learnt about the word ‘trauma’ and didn’t believe [in it].” With those stringent views as a starting point, “they’ve journeyed with me to where I am today… and they’re really proud of me. It’s wild.”

These days, Unity, who has a post-graduate degree in psychology, volunteers as a speaker for Beyond Blue while establishing mental health programs that embed people’s lived experiences into system design. And they’re still knocked out that Harman offered them a ride that day. “Georgie’s just so human… and constantly telling you that she’s learning through this, too.”

While Harman is impressed with Unity, she’s also encouraged by the generation they represent: “Incredible young people who don’t see [a mental health struggle] as a weakness; they see it as a part of the tapestry of their lives. They talk about it, they connect online about it… and they look out for each other in a way our generation never did. I find that incredibly powerful.”

If you or someone you know needs help, please call Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 or go to beyondblue.org.au.

Hair, grooming and make-up by Bradwyn Jones

Hair, grooming and make-up by Sarah Tammer

Ronni Kahn CEO, OzHarvest

Isaiah Dawe CEO, ID. Know Yourself

“I’d heard from others about Ronni, her personality. And I was like, ‘That’s me – I’m enthusiastic, I’m electric,’” says Isaiah Dawe. He’s right, even from first impressions: Ronni Kahn in gold boots that she swears were the reason she got called to the front of a queue recently and Dawe in Nike Airs with his skin name, Yakamarri, emblazoned across them.

Dawe, 28, a Butchulla and Garawa Salt Water man, is founder and CEO of ID. Know Yourself (idknowyourself.org.au), an Aboriginal-led mentoring service for First Nations children living in out-of-home care, established in 2019. In his mission to grow the organisation, the Sydney-based Dawe sought coaching from leaders in the Aboriginal community, the business sphere and, in the case of Kahn, a not-for-profit.

“Isaiah has managed to overcome the challenges he’s been through,” says Kahn, who has worked with Dawe for two years. “It gives him empathy, confidence, power and strength. The core of his story is very, very painful. And yet he’s willing to share it to improve lives. It’s that willingness to really dig deep that true leaders need.”

That story is of a young Isaiah, who was moved between placements in out-of-home care from just two months old. “Here I was, this young Aboriginal kid, quite lost and living in these abusive places,” he says. “I didn’t know who my family was. I didn’t really have much hope or a sense of belonging.”

Dawe’s introduction to the power of mentorships came via an after-school sports program when he was in primary school (“These two role models would just be there for us. I don’t remember anything they said but I remember the way they made me feel”) and his time spent with a Ngunnawal Elder (“He held me accountable”). He knew one day he would “empower kids just like me because I don’t want them to go through what I had to go through”.

Through the ID. Know Yourself program, children are supported in group sessions that focus on areas including wellbeing, culture and advocacy, as well as in Concrete to Country camps. For Dawe, a connection to culture proved transformative. “I thought I was a Ngunnawal kid. It’s the Country I grew up on, the longest placement I had. But it just didn’t feel right. I was like, ‘Who’s my Mob?’ When I finally went back on Country, it was culture that gave me a sense of peace in my spirit, an indescribable experience.”

Dawe’s vision for the future? “I hope that the over 20,000 Aboriginal kids in out-of-home care in Australia have love, hope and belonging so they can have a sense of fulfilment and self-determination. I’d love to have one of those kids be the CEO of ID. Know Yourself. And then I’ll coach them.”

Says Kahn: “Isaiah didn’t wait until he was 50 to create what he knew was needed. And I think we need that immediacy. We don’t have the time to sit around talking about action.”

THE ADVOCATE > GENERATION NEXT

Megan Davis Chair of constitutional law at UNSW Sydney

> GENERATION NEXT

Kishaya Delaney Pro-bono solicitor

“I’ve been an international human rights lawyer for 20 years,” says Professor Megan Davis. “The hard work is the stuff that no-one wants to do. It’s not the glamorous influencer stuff; it’s the work that nobody ever sees. That’s what Kishaya does. And she’s executed it in such an impressive way.”

For nearly three years, Wiradjuri woman Kishaya Delaney and Davis, a Cobble Cobble woman, have worked together on the Towards Truth project, a database driven by the Indigenous Law Centre at UNSW Sydney and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, that maps the historical impact of law on the lives of First Nations people (truth-telling on First Nations history is one of the tenets of the Uluru Statement from the Heart). “This project looks at the way in which the law has endorsed draconian policies that have subjugated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,” says Davis. “Kishaya’s led this piece of work.”

Delaney, who previously held the role of project officer for Towards Truth, now coordinates the support that law firm Herbert Smith Freehills provides the project in her role there as pro bono solicitor. “Being able to understand the huge breadth of the database and just how much First Nations lives have been legislated will help people understand why a Voice [to Parliament] is so important,” she says. Also a member of the Uluru Youth Dialogue, the Sydney-based Delaney adds, “Truth and storytelling for a lot of First Nations people is so crucial for healing.”

While Delaney’s commitment to advocacy has become her career focus in recent years – and allowed her to work with Davis, who, she says, “has made such a difference in Australia and on the world stage” – a purpose-driven vocation always called, with Delaney initially considering teaching or medicine. But pivotal childhood experiences, including the loss of a brother when she was nine and wanting to explore her Aboriginal heritage, ultimately steered her to where she is today.

“I knew I wanted to do something that would be impactful. When I was growing up, my nan didn’t really talk about or understand her Aboriginal heritage. A lot of the work that I do now probably came from my desire to understand things, to write and make sense of it.”

Now, she says, it’s exciting to be standing on the precipice of “the biggest shift” Australia has seen in decades, when it comes to First Nations-related policies. “I think there’s going to be real momentum once this referendum gets up. And I think the generation [that follows us] will keep carrying it forward.”

“Kishaya makes me really proud of the next generation of human rights lawyers that devote their life to this kind of work,” says Davis. “Like Bridget and Allira [see page 50], she has allowed me to renew my emphasis on hope. They’re such brave, courageous young people stepping up in a space where so many won’t.”

“One of the things that attracts me to these women is that they really believe they can change things. And they’re seeing the momentum, the shift in attitudes, the enthusiasm for getting involved,” says Suzie Riddell, CEO of not-for-profit Social Ventures Australia. In fact, she says, “I’ve had a social impact crush on these two from afar.”

Yes, it’s a thing – but unlike other crushes in the digital age, a social impact crush doesn’t change with the news cycle

because neither does the work. For Bridget Cama, a Sydney-based Wiradjuri and Fijian woman, and Allira Davis, a Brisbane-based Cobble Cobble woman, that work began in 2019, when they brought together more than 60 First Nations young people for a three-day summit in Cairns. The summit focused on education on the Uluru Statement from the Heart, advocacy and reform. The group discussed what could be achieved with a First Nations Voice enshrined in Australia’s constitution. Today, in their joint role chairing the Uluru Youth Dialogue based at UNSW Sydney, they continue to run summits and do whatever it takes to reach a shared goal.

The goal is a yes vote in a referendum on a First Nations Voice to Parliament, as called for by the Uluru Statement. “We should celebrate the fact that not only are we a multicultural country but we have the oldest living continuous culture in the world,” says Cama, who is also a member of the legal support team to the Uluru Dialogue and associate of the Indigenous Law Centre at UNSW Sydney. “And the constitution, which is supposed to be our nation’s birth certificate, does not recognise First Nations. We should be able to take our rightful place in this country and having a say over the issues that affect us is a part of that. It’s really important that our Voice is put into the constitution so it can reflect who we are as a nation.”

They support each other in this work (“I think our skills combine really well into this boss-ass woman,” says Davis) but both are quick to recognise those showing them the way. “Our cultural authorities – Professor Megan Davis, Auntie Pat Anderson, Geoff Scott, Nolan Hunter, everyone involved in this process – they lead by example,” says Davis, who is also the niece of Professor Davis. “We’re standing on the shoulders of our old people and our ancestors and that’s where we draw our strength from,” says Cama.

But they also know that much of what they are working towards sits in the hands of Australia as a whole. “We are 3 per cent of the population as First Nations people but we need the 97 per cent to walk with us,” says Davis. “We need them to come along on the journey to make sure we can build as a nation.”

THE ADVOCATE > GENERATION NEXT

Suzie Riddell CEO, Social Ventures Australia

Allira Davis and Bridget Cama

Co-chairs, Uluru Youth Dialogue

Hair and make-up by Sarah Tammer

(From left) Allira Davis, Bridget Cama and Suzie Riddell

Building trust and delivering excellence is what drives us.

“Achieving excellence requires dedication. I’m proud of the hard work I’ve put in over the years and the relationships I’ve built.

Which is why it’s an honour to partner with a company that continually strives for excellence.

LSH Auto Australia is dedicated to building trust. It’s the place for all your premium motoring needs, where the goal is to deliver an exceptional customer experience.”

StephanieRice Proudly supporting

YOU COME FIRST. ALWAYS. www.lshauto.com.au

Mercedes-Benz Sydney | Mercedes-Benz Melbourne | Mercedes-Benz Brisbane | AMG Sydney | Mercedes-Benz Melbourne Airport

Stephanie Rice OAM

Olympic Champion and LSH Auto Australia Ambassador

Rowley

BROOME

Photo credit © PONANT-Commandant Patrick Marchesseau, Nick Rains, © Paspaley, © Tourism WA

PONANT

expeditions in the Kimberley

on board one of Paspaley’s

exploration in barefoot luxury.

E N E W W O R L D

New York with no phone.

WA’s Pilbara with NASA scientists.

The cities in Japan, the United States, Spain and Italy you’ll travel to next.

Eight incredible retreats that also tread lightly.

The journey feels so new.

I F E R E I M AG I N E D

How did life begin? Are we alone in the universe? The answers to these big questions – and their impact on

space exploration – might lie in the ancient landscapes of Australia’s North West, writes Sam McCue

Photography by Tom Putt

“If you were to look from space onto early earth, you would have seen an alien-looking place – it was nothing like the blue-green marble we can see today,” says Professor Martin Van Kranendonk, a geologist and director of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology. “That was until the earliest primitive microbes learnt to harvest light to gain energy. The waste product of their metabolism was oxygen and that oxygen slowly accumulated until it changed the composition of our sky and our seas.”

I’m on Nyamal country in Western Australia’s Pilbara region with Big Questions Xpeditions (BQX; bqx.com.au), whose allinclusive expert-led tours fund scientific research into early life, the universe and human consciousness.

As Van Kranendonk expounds, some of the group nod knowingly; the rest are gobsmacked. I’m in the latter category. We’re a disparate bunch: seven curious people, including two macadamia farm owners and their investor son; a Bangkok-based venture capitalist; a science teacher from a private school; and me, mining my memory for decades-old geography lessons.

Under a cloud-streaked sky, we’ve picked our way through spinifex tussocks up a gentle slope to a rocky red outcrop in a place that holds the vestiges of the oldest life on earth.

We’re on a seven-night adventure with BQX, learning to recognise and understand stromatolites, ancient rock layers formed by the growth of blue-green bacteria. In cross-section they look like little wrinkled mountain ranges.

Humble as they might sound, the Pilbara stromatolites are evidence of life 3.45 billion years ago, eons before humans, eons before dinosaurs and, in fact, eons before any multi-celled organisms evolved. It’s these stromatolites that point to where humankind might find life outside our world – on Mars, perhaps, which has much in common with our planet, including its age.

“As a scientist at NASA, I feel it’s my job to explain why we come here,” says NASA Mars Perseverance program scientist Mitch Schulte of the value of his visits. “A place like this helps people connect with what we’re doing and helps to bring it a bit more down to earth.” After leading a group of fellow Mars scientists on a trip to the Pilbara stromatolites in 2019, he’s planning a second visit by a NASA team in 2023.

Though I was introduced to Schulte and Van Kranendonk ahead of the trip, after BQX sent homework links to articles and interviews with the scientists, I’m a little starstruck to meet them both at the getting-to-know-you dinner in Perth on the eve of our expedition.

Next morning, along with BQX founder and director Darren Dougan and the company’s product manager and organiser-in-chief, Kerryn Rainey, we fly two hours to Port Hedland in the north-west of Western Australia, where we’re divvied up between three 4WD vehicles and given burritos and fruit for breakfast on the go.

The following few days take us to Marble Bar, Karijini National Park, mining town Tom Price and Karratha through stretches of

(Left) Weano Gorge in Karijini National Park; (previous pages) the Pilbara ranges from Mount Nameless (Jarndunmunha)

mauve and yellow wildflowers splashed with scarlet Sturt’s desert peas, iron-rich outcrops and escarpments. The plump termite mounds resemble giant cocoa-dusted chocolate truffles. I see the occasional caravan but they’re outnumbered by 18-wheeler trucks hauling mineral treasures to port.

Despite recent rains that have painted the red earth green, this is tough country. Marble Bar is officially Australia’s hottest town, having recorded our longest heatwave – 160 days over 37.7°C (no wonder these expeditions only take place in the winter months). For much of the year the Pilbara looks a lot like the terrain in images from Mars.

The experts read the landscape like Kelly Slater reads the waves – though the timeframe is vastly, almost inconceivably, different – and they’re teaching us to do the same. “This has brought rocks to life for me,” says veterinary nurse Justine Catto.

The region may be rugged but our digs aren’t too shabby. On the first night we arrive at our private campsite on the Shaw River to find tents with stretchers ready for sleeping bags, a candle-lit linen-clad table under a canopy of fairy lights and another table topped with artfully arranged gum branches next to a cooler of chilled drinks (and a couple of toilet tents discreetly off to the side). Dinner is marinated chicken cooked over coals, baby potatoes, corn and salad, and we wake to a breakfast of yoghurt, fresh fruit and granola.

We spend a night at Marble Bar’s Travellers Rest Motel and have dinner at the Iron Clad Hotel. No longer strangers, we chat happily over beers and pub food about – literally – life, the universe and everything.

Day four takes us to Karijini Eco Retreat where we settle in for a couple of days. We’re in Karijini National Park to learn about

Kalamina Gorge in Karijini National Park

banded iron formations – BIFs to those in the know – but there’s also time to explore and appreciate, at our own pace, the spectacular gorges, falls and lookouts those formations create.

One morning I wake in my big comfortable bed to the sound of birdsong as the sun rises over the bush through the wide netted window of my timber-floored tent. That night we take chairs, drinks and snacks to the nearby Joffre Falls Lookout to watch the sun set as the full moon rises above the gorge wall.

Multimedia artist Helga Groves, who’s developing a new body of work based on this trip, brings an aesthetic perspective. “The Pilbara landforms are beautiful. Their colours are constantly changing throughout the day as the light shifts.”

To date, BQX’s work has supported a Masters student to complete her thesis on protecting stromatolites, Van Kranendonk to host a conference on astrobiology and PhD candidates Luke

Steller and Bonnie Teece to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students from Hedland Senior High School. Upcoming international expeditions include trips to Chile’s Atacama Desert to visit telescopes that help us understand dark energy and dark matter and to Bhutan and Costa Rica, where science of consciousness studies are being undertaken.

For BQX founder Dougan, the enthusiasm and easy interactions between the experts and their guests are an important part of the pay-off. “It’s a great commercial way to provide funds for research and to create an ecosystem of curious Australians. And it’s also a lot of fun!”

In just a week, I’ve flown and driven more than 3500 kilometres across the country in a big loop from Perth to the Pilbara. In my mind, though, I’ve travelled across billions of years, as far as Mars and back.

Knox Gorge in Karijini National Park

from

capital cities,

regional centres, to Perth. qantas.com

A PROMISE THAT WON’T COST THE EARTH.

When you say “I do” you make promises of a brilliant future together. Choosing an engagement ring from Secrets is the sustainable diamond alternative because we’re working towards a better future, so you’ll have peace-of-mind knowing that it won’t cost the Earth.

Dive into action

An Australian Emmy Award winner and a Swiss watchmaker have teamed up to help protect the Great Barrier Reef.

For Queensland-based cinematographer Richard Fitzpatrick, a passion for the Great Barrier Reef and its marine life started at a young age. “I took a live shark to school for show-and-tell in Grade 7,” he remembers. “My mum drove me to school with the shark in an Esky of saltwater.”

It’s no surprise then that he went on to study marine biology at university – specialising in sharks – and started filming the marine life he loved so much. Now, having shot more than 100 films (including David Attenborough’s Great Barrier Reef series) for clients including the BBC and Discovery Channel, Fitzpatrick is renowned for filming complex marine life behavioural sequences and has even won an Emmy for it.

But Fitzpatrick – who founded Australian filming company Biopixel with IT entrepreneur Bevan Slattery in 2013 – is just as passionate about the scientific study of marine life as he is about filming it. He and Slattery set up the Biopixel Oceans Foundation in 2016 to undertake research that can be applied to the conservation of our oceans.

It’s a mission that aligns perfectly with that of Swiss luxury watch manufacturer Blancpain. The company launched the world’s first modern diving watch, Fifty Fathoms, in 1953. Since then, it has had a mission to support and raise awareness of ocean preservation initiatives with the Blancpain Ocean Commitment.

This is why Blancpain is partnering with the Biopixel Oceans Foundation to support scientific research and raise public awareness of the need to preserve the Great Barrier Reef, one of the seven wonders of the natural world.

“The funding from Blancpain has enabled us to spend a lot of time in areas that have previously been overlooked because they were just too remote,” says Fitzpatrick. “We’ve been able to do shark research in the far north of the Great Barrier Reef. To do that is really expensive because you need spotter planes, boats and quite a large crew. We’ve found a previously unknown whale shark aggregation site there.”

Tracking critically endangered animals like whale sharks is important for the reef’s survival

because it shows where upwelling events – when cooler water rises towards the surface – occur.

“Knowing where the upwellings are happening is important because we can focus on the management, protection and research of these more resilient areas,” says Fitzpatrick.

Blancpain’s support will also facilitate a series of films focusing on people who devote their lives to protecting and saving the Great Barrier Reef.

Fitzpatrick says the ultimate aim of their ocean preservation efforts is the protection of the reef. “I’ve seen massive change in the reef over the years. One of the more depressing parts of my job is having to film the bleaching and mass coral destruction. But the reef isn’t dead and there are pockets that are utterly amazing. There are some fantastic projects going on and it’s our job to get that out there.”

The diver’s watch

“When you work underwater, time is the second most important thing after air,” says Fitzpatrick. “You need to keep track of it for safety and the Fifty Fathoms watch makes it easy to do that. When I’m filming an action sequence involving a shark, for instance, I can just glance down and see how I’m tracking for time, thanks to the watch face that glows in the dark. I use the rotating bezel to mark time when I need to film set pieces of a particular length. It’s also a stunning timepiece that looks great out of the water.”

For more information, visit blancpain.com/en

Blancpain

Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatic – Titanium case 5015 12B40 O52B

Photography: Christian Miller

andAttheseincrediblehotelsandretreats,anenvironmentalconsciousness creaturecomfortsgetequalbilling.ByAlexGreig

Victoria ALKINA LODGE

“Touch the earth lightly” was the mantra of renowned architects Glenn Murcutt and Wendy Lewin when they were designing these stunning structures. What they came up with is a next-gen prototype for living gently on the land. Entirely powered by the sun and wind, Alkina Lodge (hotel.qantas.com.au/alkinalodge) is a trio of four-bedroom residences located on the Great Ocean Road, just 15 minutes from the Twelve Apostles. The residences are water self-sufficient thanks to harvested rainwater. In summer, there’s no air-conditioning – instead they make use of the breeze off the South Pacific Ocean for ventilation – and in winter, passive solar heating keeps things cosy. Signature “sky windows” provide star-gazing opportunities from bed – and this close to the Great Otway National Park, the heavens are staggering.

&BEYOND SOSSUSVLEI DESERT LODGE

In the local Nama language, Namib means “vast space of nothingness” and at first glance, the desert is monumental, empty, serene. But the longer one gazes at the rising and falling dunes, the more compelling they become. Rocky ranges go from navy to peach as the sun travels across the sky. And then comes night-time and a sky so studded with stars it’s as if a celestial toddler has spilled glitter all over a dark rug. There’s off the beaten track and then there’s &Beyond Sossusvlei Desert Lodge (hotel. qantas.com.au/sossusvleidesertlodge; below), a hideaway set in a vast 12,715-hectare reserve in the Namib Desert of southern Namibia. The lodge seeks to complement rather than distract from this pared-back landscape, with 10 stone-and-glass suites arranged along an escarpment, offering remarkable comfort while being almost completely self-powered. Here, your neighbours are diurnal lizards and Grant’s golden moles but two hours away in the community of Maltahöhe, contributions by the lodge’s guests (via the purchase of a Consol solar jar, for example) are keenly felt, with a lunch program at the town’s only primary school providing meals to some 970 students.

Lord Howe Island, NSW

PINETREES

Divide 400 people among 18 surf breaks, 11 white-sand beaches, two volcanic peaks and 45 kilometres of hiking trails and you get, well, not many footprints. The blissful seclusion and spectacular natural environment of Lord Howe Island, a tiny UNESCO World Heritagelisted jewel in the southern Pacific Ocean only a two-hour flight from Sydney, is maintained by this cap on visitor numbers – and the islanders’ mission to preserve their utopia. Among them is Dani Rourke, owner of Pinetrees Lodge (pinetrees. com.au; above). In the 1840s Rourke’s antecedents paid two tonnes of potatoes for this land; now her family is restoring an ecological system in a paddock destroyed by grazing. Despite its high-level amenities, Pinetrees is a low-key, unplugged experience that fosters genuine connection, unhindered by wi-fi, mobile reception or television.

Namibia

Australian Ethical was founded on one simple insight:

The power of financial markets could be harnessed to bring about social change.

That was 35 years ago, but it has been our north star ever since.

What our founders knew then – and what people are belatedly realising now – is that a society that allocates resources purely to generate short-term profit is untenable. And so, in 1986 they planted a stake in the ground to help divert capital towards long-term returns through ethical investing.

This was a novel concept at the time. Until then, investors fell into two categories – those trying to make as much money as possible and those trying to make the world a better place.

But our founders could see that it wasn’t a lack of capital that was standing in the way of a sustainable economy, but how this capital was being deployed. They created our Ethical Charter to guide their investment decisions, seeking to allocate investors’ capital to companies doing good and avoiding companies doing harm. Like a compass, the Ethical Charter directed them to the exact point where making money and making the world a better place overlapped.

It’s an approach we’ve been refining ever since. Today, we’re world leaders in ethical investing and creating a virtuous cycle where profit and purpose combine to deliver significant financial returns while changing the world for the better.

We believe by investing in assets that have a positive impact on the world around us, and restricting investments with negative impacts, we can have a positive influence on the planet and all its inhabitants. We believe that the power of money can be harnessed to deliver both competitive returns and positive change for people, planet and animals.

The global pandemic and worsening climate crisis have opened many people’s eyes to the fact that building a virtuous economic system is not just a utopian ideal but a necessity. Because alongside stabilising the continuing threats from the pandemic, how can we prevent inequality and ensure that those who are already hardest hit don’t suffer more? And how equipped are we to address other threats that loom large such as global warming?

There is hope, however. According to research conducted by the Responsible Investment Association Australiasia, 4 out of 5 Australians are now looking to invest in line with their values1

And as Australia’s fastest growing super fund over 5 years2 with continued growth of our managed fund investments, we’re not only proving our success as a purpose-driven company, but also that it’s a no-brainer to invest with heart.

Invest with heart

(1)

Australians are now looking to invest with their values - Responsible Investment Association Australasia From Values to Riches 2022 report. (2) Fastest growing

fund

members,

annual growth basis over

– KPMG Super Insights Interactive Dashboard 2022. Consider if the products are

NIHI SUMBA

Just saying “Nihi Sumba” feels like a great, cleansing exhale. Try it: Nihiii Summbaah. Then imagine how you’ll feel after a stay at this jungle-edge idyll on the Indonesian island of Sumba. About twice the size of Bali but hundreds of kilometres away and with none of its notoriety, Sumba has the unique culture and deserted beaches that Eat-Pray-Lovers would have given their incense sticks for – if only they’d known it was there.

The Nihi Sumba (hotel.qantas.com.au/ nihiwatu) story began in 1988, when surf nomad Claude Graves and wife Petra hatched a plan to encourage like-minded people to experience the rich attractions of the island. Living among the locals as they built a surf lodge, the Graves saw that better healthcare, education and more employment were needed and The Sumba Foundation was born. Work has continued apace since co-owner Chris Burch and his

business partner, James McBride, bought the property in 2012, transforming it into a luxury estate of pool villas and tree houses. Ninety per cent of staff are locals trained at the foundation’s hospitality school.

Guests can spend time helping the foundation, which is working to eradicate malaria and malnutrition and provides clean water to more than 30,000 people. In fact, it’s not the beachfront villas, perfect waves of Nihiwatu Beach, sunset horse rides or treatments in the Boathouse spa that guests return for, says McBride. It’s the tangible ways their stay can change the lives of the people here. He doesn’t attach buzzwords like “eco” to the sustainability measures at the resort. “It’s about being responsible to the environment – eradicating plastic, recycling, composting and having organic gardens – and simply doing what’s right.”

Some resorts ensconce guests in airconditioned suites where it’s possible to forget if you’re in Fiji, Hawaii or Bali. But there is no Nihi Sumba without the local people and their way of life.

Douro Valley, Portugal

SIX SENSES

In the old days, according to Six Senses Douro Valley (hotel. qantas.com.au/sixsensesdourovalley; below) general manager André Buldini, all quintas (wine-producing estates) had to be self-sufficient. This waste-free local-first approach remains the modus operandi in every aspect of the resort in the World Heritagelisted Douro Valley, the oldest demarcated winemaking region on earth. It’s not just the woodland setting, 130 kilometres from Porto, knowledgeable staff, opulent 19th-century manor house accommodations or wine-influenced extracurricular activities (grape-treading is a regional custom) that make this place special. It’s the elevation of wellbeing over wellness. Here, health and hedonism walk hand-in-hand, a happy marriage that encourages guests to do what feels good, whether that’s sipping port in a hot tub on a Vineyard Suite’s terrace or watching the Douro River rush by from a high branch (tree-climbing is encouraged). “This feeling of connection brings peace to the soul,” says Buldini. “In the world we live in, isn’t that the real luxury?”

Queensland SPICERS BALFOUR

The classic Queenslander and elegant Art Deco Simla building that make up Brisbane’s Spicers Balfour (hotel.qantas.com.au/ balfour; above) have each stood in New Farm for more than a century, watching as Brisbane went from city-in-progress to land of opportunity. On the outside, the façades are little changed. But look closer and you’ll see the hotel’s commitment to the future: motion-activated air-conditioning, solar nightlighting and an absence of plastic. Other measures, such as the donation of avocado skins to a local artist to make ink, are less obvious. It’s all in service to Spicers Balfour’s pledge to become the city’s first zerowaste hotel, which it achieved in 2019. And the mission is ongoing, says assistant general manager Jack Fisher. To avoid plastics, the property negotiated with smaller local suppliers. “Since then, most have modified their businesses accordingly.”

The nature-lovers’ playground

Spot whales with a marine biologist

Jump aboard a high-speed tour boat, skippered by a marine biologist, with ECO-certified company Terrigal Ocean Tours (terrigaltours. com.au). See humpback whales and dolphin pods as you explore the bays and estuaries of Broken Bay, home to a thriving colony of endangered little penguins and seals. The team works with local environmental groups to protect marine life and monitor water quality.

Eat breakfast with alpacas

Start your day with bacon and eggs in the company of 70-plus alpacas at Iris Lodge (irislodgealpacas.com), an ECO-certified nature tourism company in Jilliby. The farm was once grazing land but has been regenerated with more than 9000 trees

and is home to alpacas, llamas, sheep and cows. The “breakfast with alpacas” experience takes place every day during the school holidays and every weekend.

Immerse yourself in the Australian wilderness

Thrill-seekers will love Glenworth Valley Outdoor Adventures (glenworth.com.au), which is set on more than 1200 hectares of wilderness comprising bushland, rivers and natural rainforest. Splash through creeks on a quad bike, abseil down cliff faces, paddle in a kayak or channel your inner jackaroo or jillaroo as you help muster cattle through the valley on horseback. A leader in ecotourism, the company is in the process of receiving its ECO Certification.

(Clockwise from far left) Phil Houghton Bridge, Piles Creek Loop; SUP at Brisbane Water, Ettalong Beach; alpacas at Iris Lodge

Where to stay

Sleep well knowing your stay at ECO-certified Noonaweena (noonaweena.com.au) leaves a light footprint. This boutique lodge uses solar power, produces minimal waste, is self-sufficient for water and keeps chickens and bees for eggs and honey.

Wear waders at an oyster farm

Sydney Oyster Farm Tours (sydneyoyster tours.com), also an ECO Certification applicant, is a family-owned and sustainably run farm on the Hawkesbury River. It offers immersive culinary oyster farm tours, where you’ll meet the farmers, learn about cultivation and shuck and taste oysters plucked fresh from the water. Don waders and stand alongside the farmers in the river or complete your journey from farm to table with a seafood lunch on a secluded beach.

ECO Destination Certification recognises the Central Coast as a world-class location for sustainable and nature-based tourism through an Ecotourism Australia and WWF-Australia funded partnership. Start planning your eco adventure today at lovecentralcoast.com/ecotourism

Plan a visit to the Central Coast, NSW’s newest ECO Destination, just an hour’s drive from Sydney. With hidden beaches, national parks, pockets of rainforest and rugged bushland, you can enjoy the great outdoors knowing you’re leaving a smaller footprint.

NAIKO RETREAT

There’s something of the Hebrides in South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula, 90 minutes south of Adelaide, where windswept clifftops and hills clad in velvety green recall the archipelago off the coast of Scotland. The comparison is less apt in summertime, when guests at Naiko Retreat (naikoretreat.com.au) traipse down to its secluded beach, picnic basket in hand, to swim in the aquamarine waters and befriend the local pod of dolphins. At the sight of a kangaroo, the illusion crumbles completely.

A three-bedroom refuge set on the 800 hectares of working sheep farm Rarkang, the retreat is the brainchild of couple Tony and Christine Johnson, who fell in love with the location when they hiked the Heysen Trail, which rambles all the way to the Flinders Ranges. They bought it in 1998 and embarked on a project to restore the natural beauty of the landscape. “Our mission was to preserve the land, heritage and history of Rarkang,” says Tony. “We soon realised it was too special to not share it with

others and that’s how the vision of a luxury self-contained retreat where guests could truly relax was born.”

Completed in 2019, the property is an elegant building in sympathy with its surrounding environment. Winds off the Southern Ocean blow straight over the distinctive curved roof. The concrete floor and stone walls absorb the sun’s heat, radiating it again come nightfall. Wastewater is recycled for irrigation, worm farms make use of food scraps and a low-emission wood-burning heater harnesses timber from trees ringbarked by early settlers and still found around the property. There’s no TV to distract from the view of the restless sapphire-blue Backstairs Passage and Kangaroo Island beyond.

And the land, home to echidnas, kangaroos and goannas, as well as wedge-tailed eagles wheeling overhead, hums with life. All that wildness makes an unlikely backdrop for a somewhat improbable discovery: a flying saucer. Resting among the she-oaks as though it just landed, the Futuro is believed to be one of only 60 left in the world. Originally designed as a mobile ski chalet in the 1960s, this UFO-shaped pod serves as Naiko’s massage and treatment hub.

Wolgan Valley, NSW

EMIRATES ONE&ONLY

A conservation-based resort that takes up a mere one per cent of a pristine 2800hectare bushland preserve in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, Emirates One&Only Wolgan Valley (hotel. qantas.com.au/wolganvalley) is a little under three hours drive from Sydney. Its raison d’etre is to restore the landscape to its pre-colonial state. As a guest, you can get involved in this venture as much as you want, joining group conservation sessions and helping regenerate areas destroyed by the 2019-2020 bushfires. If it all sounds a touch too worthy to be truly relaxing, be assured that a stay at this resort has the effect of deep restfulness. Maybe it’s the deluxe villas with fireplace and heated pool, the incredible food and wine or the facial you’ll have at the spa. But it’s probably the realisation that as much care goes into nurturing the environment as it does into pampering the guests.

Sounds of silence

Colossal mountains, thundering waterfalls and complete remoteness. New Zealand’s Fiordland offers an experience like no other.

In the glacier-carved valleys of New Zealand’s South Island, stillness is a state of being. The sheer scale of the crystalline waterways winding through the bordering rainforest and snow-capped mountains invites silence, reflection and tranquillity.

“On our excursions, we find a spot where we shut down the boat and ask people to stay silent and just listen to the sounds in the vast

mountains surrounding the fjord,” says RealNZ chief conservation officer Paul Norris.

“A lot of people don’t get the opportunity to experience being in a true wilderness area with no human noises.”

RealNZ was founded nearly 70 years ago by Les and Olive, Lady Hutchins. At the time, the couple were at the core of local conservation movements, such as the Save Manapouri

Campaign, and those values informed the company. It’s an ethos that remains at the heart of all it does. Today, RealNZ showcases Fiordland to the world, through day and overnight boat tours highlighting the beauty and grandeur of Doubtful Sound and its better-known neighbour, Milford Sound.

Norris admits Doubtful Sound is “harder to access” – it requires travel by boat and

Doubtful Sound

coach – but being 42 kilometres long, it’s three times larger than Milford Sound, stretching all the way to the Tasman Sea. The fjord offers an acute sense of remoteness, untouched vistas and true immersion in nature.

World-renowned for its towering adjacent rock walls and the often-photographed 1683-metre-high Mitre Peak, Milford Sound is Fiordland’s most famous northern fjord.

“Milford Sound showcases the best of Fiordland – steep mountains, endless rainforest, thundering waterfalls and spectacular wildlife,” says RealNZ general manager of Fiordland Russell Thomas. “It’s known as the unofficial Eighth Wonder of the World.”

On a RealNZ overnight cruise through the Sounds, you’ll take in the serenity of the area with a specialist nature guide. Guests may have opportunities to spot bottlenose dolphins, southern fur seals and Fiordland

crested penguins. They’ll enjoy a three-course carvery-style dinner and a buffet breakfast the next day, provided by the onboard chef.

The warm weather and longer days make summer an ideal time to journey to the region and experience its great walks, such as the Milford or Kepler tracks. Milford Track begins at the head of Lake Te Anau, on the southwest edge of the South Island. RealNZ transfers hikers across the lake to the start of the track, then back to Milford Sound from the end of the trail at Sandfly Point. At 53 kilometres, the trek is not for the faint-hearted and involves three days (five to seven hours of hiking per day) of twisting, moderate pathways traversing wetlands, alpine regions and rainforests. “It’s a great way to spend more time deep in the region and explore one of the world’s most picturesque and wild destinations,” says Thomas.

The region benefits from the education and restoration programs RealNZ supports. The company is heavily invested in conservation activities, such as protecting the native kākāpō and kiwi on Fiordland’s Cooper Island.

“RealNZ has a strong sense of protecting the natural values of the region,” says Norris. “We promote conservation through our nature guides and highlight the importance of safeguarding these areas for generations to come.”

No matter the time of year, visitors will be awed by Fiordland’s staggering beauty and, whether by boat or foot, get closer to nature than ever before. “We make sure this stunning part of the world is protected,” says Thomas, “while our guests explore it.”

Book your own spectacular experience in Fiordland at realnz.com

Milford Sound (left); S outhern fur seal (below)

There is nothing like a capital city for the energy and excitement. But emerging cities offer a sense of discovery, rich experiences and tourist-free zones. Here are some of the world's best.

Photography by Raquel Guiu Grigelmo

The terrace at the Gran Hotel Domine, Bilbao, offers a view of the city’s Guggenheim Museum

Story by Linda Jaivin Photography by Raquel Guiu Grigelmo

BILBAO

You’d be lucky to score an invitation to one of Bilbao’s private, traditionally male-only cooking clubs known as txokos (“cosy corners”). But great fare is everywhere in this ancient city on Spain’s north coast, from restaurants listed among the world’s best, such as the three-Michelin-starred Azurmendi (azurmendi. restaurant), to small bars that pride themselves on their pintxos. Follow the local custom of ir de potes : start in one bar with a pintxo and a drink – a lightly sparkling txakoli from nearby La Rioja or a zurito (taster glass) of beer – then head to another and repeat until you’re ready for a late supper, clubbing or bed. (Book yours at the art-themed Gran Hotel Domine, hotel.qantas. com.au/granhoteldominebilbao, across from the gleaming Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum.)

I’ve been ir de potes with local friends, including Ainhoa, who puts one of the city’s oldest neighbourhoods, vibrant and atmospheric Casco Viejo by the River Nervión, at the top of her list for bar-hopping. The zona’s many great bars include bohemian Marzana 16 (Martzana Kalea, 16; +34 946 743 036) and cosy Baster (Posta Kalea, 22; +34 944 071 228). The district’s 15th-century streets are also home to the Gothic Santiago Cathedral, the Neoclassical Plaza Nueva and restaurants and shops specialising in bacalao, the dried salted cod featured in typical Basque dishes such as bacalao al pil pil. Come morning, follow Ainhoa’s lead to Basquery (basquery.com) for excellent pastries, bread and brunch.

The Basques speak Euskara, one of the oldest and most mysterious languages in the world – “genetically isolated”, as linguists say, from all others. You don’t need to speak Euskara to say kaixo (hello) to good times in Bilbao or to get to know the cuisine that’s central to Basque culture and life.

Helena, my friend from Madrid, lives with her Basque partner in one of the lovely, uncrowded beach towns of Greater Bilbao. “You have everything here,” she tells me. “Nature, modern city life, a healthy lifestyle – and food, drink and fiesta.”

(Clockwise from above) The River Nervión; fresh bread at Basquery; Baster in Casco Viejo

Story by Kendall Hill Photography by Raquel Guiu Grigelmo

PAMPLONA

Stepping into the tile-and-timber interiors of Café Bar Gaucho (cafebargaucho.com) feels like walking into a wall of noise. Staff holler orders across the bar as glassware clinks, cutlery clatters and patrons raise their rapid-fire voices to be heard above the din. Perhaps they’re just as excited about the food as I am.

A serial winner in Pamplona’s annual Semana del Pintxo (Pintxo Week), when eateries across Navarra showcase delicious creations celebrating the bounty of the northern Spanish region, Bar Gaucho’s must-try pintxo is the huevo trufado: a slow-cooked egg laced with mushroom, Navarran truffle oil and fried potato sticks. Rich and luxurious, it’s served in a glass and savoured with a spoon, pairing perfectly with Chivite Legardeta chardonnay from Navarra’s oldest winemaking family.

The bar is close to Calle de la Estafeta, Pamplona’s most famous street for eating – and for running with the bulls. But such indulgence is commonplace across the historic centre and Plaza del Castillo, the main square. (Stay on the square at Gran Hotel La Perla , hotel.qantas.com.au/granhotellaperla, for convenience, luxury and switched-on service.)

Most food-focused travellers to Spain head for swanky San Sebastián or the neighbouring La Rioja wine region but they’re missing the action an hour down the road. “San Sebastián has become a Disneyland,” guide Fran Glaria assures me. “Pamplona doesn’t get as much tourism so our bars have to work a bit harder. They have more imagination.”

Navarra is culturally (though not politically) Basque and similarly obsessed with turning local produce into high gastronomy. Besides Pintxo Week, Pamplona also holds annual contests for best croquette and best cazuela (autumn stew). Thanks to its unique geography – from the north’s mountains and beech forests (home to witches, it’s said) to river valleys and the southern Bardenas Reales, one of Europe’s largest deserts – the province is a food basket of Spain.

Between meals, walk the banks and medieval bridges of the Arga River or the centuries-old city walls that recall Pamplona’s strategic role as a bulwark between Christian and Moorish Europe. Visit the drawbridge at the Gateway of France where pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago enter the city after crossing the Pyrenees.

This city is, thanks to Hemingway, most famous for the unhinged Festival of San Fermín. “For one week in early July, we become the centre of the world,” says Glaria with a laugh. But even when the bulls aren’t running, the party continues in Pamplona.

Qantas flies from Melbourne, Sydney, Singapore and Perth to London, with connecting flights on partner airlines to Madrid. qantas.com

Opposite page Casco Viejo Cathedral, Above Gaucho exterior, below Gaucho Huevo trufado Opp (Clockwise from above) Plaza del Castillo; Café Bar Gaucho and its huevo trufado; Pamplona’s historic old town

PHILADELPHIA

Many locals would fight me on this but the bar that best sums up Philadelphia is the Tavern on Camac (tavernoncamac.com). It’s not particularly beautiful from the outside and the inside is like a sports bar, with televisions everywhere. But there is a grand piano in the corner in front of some paisley wallpaper and on Saturday nights an older gentleman puts out his tip jar and sings hours of showtunes. This city is rough and unpolished, and also surprising and fabulous. It puts you at ease and then knocks you off your feet, like a wallflower who steps up to a microphone and turns out to be a soprano.

The food, people are often surprised to hear, is truly excellent. I don’t mean the hoagies or the soft pretzels or the famous Philly cheesesteak, although all have their merits. I mean the tomato pie at Iannelli’s Brick Oven Bakery (iannellibakery.com) – a focaccia-like pizza with nothing on it but the sauce – which is actually delicious. I also mean the exquisite tehina shake of tahini and almond milk at Goldie (goldiefalafel.com) and the bagels at Korshak Bagels (korshakbagels.com), which are better than anything in New York. (Saying such things while in New York may get you killed.) It is possible to visit Philadelphia and do nothing but eat.

But it would be a shame not to see at least some of the museums. I never get tired of dazzling visitors to Philadelphia with what is perhaps the strangest art gallery in America: the Barnes Foundation (barnesfoundation.org). In the 1920s, Albert Barnes used his considerable pharmaceutical fortune to buy dozens of Impressionist and Modernist paintings when they were much more affordable; then he hung them around his house in elaborate configurations that made the walls themselves into works of art. Today, the collection lives on Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway in a structure that recreates much of Barnes’s house, like a building within a building, with paintings placed exactly as he arranged them.

I like to visit the Barnes then stroll past the also top-notch Philadelphia Museum of Art (philamuseum.org) to the Schuylkill River, which is as hard to pronounce as it looks. There’s a beautiful trail, filled with joggers and cyclists and people doing group yoga on the grass. In the warmer months, a mobile beer garden called Parks on Tap sets up near the old water works. Sitting in a picnic chair with a glass of rosé, it’s impossible not to feel the brotherly love, which is the literal translation of the Greek, “Philadelphia”.

Story by Lance Richardson Photography by Caroline Gutman

(Clockwise from above) Goldie in Fishtown; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Korshak Bagels; the Barnes Foundation

Story by Catherine Marshall Photography by Melinda Ortley

DALLAS

My first visit to Dallas several years ago was fuelled by the pairing of local produce with the southern city’s diverse cultural traditions: gulf oysters washed down with Mezcal Amarás at Boulevardier (dallasboulevardier.com) and sweet buttermilk chess pie at Emporium Pies (emporiumpies.com).

My hotel breakfast at the historic Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek (hotel.qantas.com.au/rosewoodmansionturtlecreek) consisted not of bacon and eggs but lip-smacking green chilaquiles, a Mexican assemblage of chicken confit, eggs, avocado, sour cream and queso fresco. I roamed the Arts District (the largest contiguous urban arts district in the United States) and browsed the litany of food trucks lined up at Klyde Warren Park (klydewarrenpark.org), a vast green space atop an eight-lane recessed freeway.

Dallas has evolved from its cotton, ranching and oil baron origins to become a leading hub for Fortune 500 companies, “thanks in no small part to the absence of a state income tax and business-friendly legislation”, says Carole, my friend and a local. But Texas’s best-known city (due largely to the eponymous 1980s

TV series) has retained its cowboy charm and southern hospitality despite this corporate revolution.

Back then, before I checked out The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza (jfk.org), I ate shrimp and grits at Ellen’s (ellens.com), a downtown diner known for its Southern comfort food. Consolation was key, as I was entering the former book depository from which it is said Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shots that killed President John F. Kennedy as his motorcade passed along Elm Street in 1963. Peering out from that fateful window, I was struck by the precinct’s leafy, genial atmosphere, a salve to the deep national grief imprinted there.

In town on my second visit, I breakfast on Carole’s homemade brioche doughnuts filled with chocolate custard (“Chocolate, vanilla, lemon?” she’d asked before I left Australia. “I’ll happily accept any request!”). Later, Carole and her husband, Dale, introduce me to the most Texan of dishes, tortilla chips and queso, at Tacodeli (tacodeli.com).

“Apparently Arkansas claims it as its own invention but they’re just wrong,” says Carole. It’s a thoroughly Texan meal to me, the bowls of hot, spiced cheese scooped onto chips and guzzled in ample mouthfuls, and it’s a win for Dallas: my heart has been stolen stealthily, by way of my belly.

Qantas flies from Sydney to Dallas/Fort Worth, with connecting flights on partner airlines to Philadelphia. From December, Qantas will start flights from Melbourne to Dallas/Fort Worth. qantas.com

(Clockwise from left)

The former Texas School Book Depository; gulf oysters and a Rye Curious at Boulevardier; Klyde Warren Park; outside the Dallas Museum of Art

Story by Catherine Marshall Photography by Ben Weller

OKAYAMA

On my first day in Okayama, guide Jasmine Nakai foretells my gratitude with a reminder of how to correctly pronounce the Japanese word for “thank you”. “Remember: alligator, alligator, alligato, alligato, arigato,” she instructs. “Easy: arigato.”

There’s much to be thankful for in this city located on an inlet to the Seto Inland Sea, on the southern end of Honshu. On an earlier visit I was introduced to okonomiyaki. The chef cooked the savoury pancake on a hotplate before me; it was stuffed with cabbage and oysters fresh-caught from the sea. A fellow diner grunted at me from across our shared table and his comment was translated as: “You’re not using your chopsticks correctly.”

Opportunity abounds to improve my dexterity. Okonomiyaki restaurants are dotted all over the city but I recline on a tatami mat at a more conventional eatery, Japanese Cuisine Issen (1sen.co.jp). My skills are challenged with a kaiseki of pickles and lily bulb buns, conger eel rolled with kelp, miso-marinated flounder and – oh, joy – a miniature version of okonomiyaki.

“This is Japanese cuisine – it goes best with sake,” says Nakai. “I can compromise with beer, as long as it’s Japanese. But please, you have to learn to expand your horizons. As a sake evangelist, I must tell you – be brave and try some.”

I find the sake pleasantly crisp, light and fragrant, though its effects may hinder my success with chopsticks. Later, I wonder what Confucius would say of my progress as I wander Korakuen, the garden named for the philosopher’s aphorism on delayed gratification. Patience rewards me with surprises in this citadel moated by the Asahi River: the “borrowed scenery”, a central principle of Japanese garden design, comprises mountain contours and Okayama Castle, framed in a froth of flowering cherry trees; Japanese irises refracted in the Meandering Stream; a group of gumboot-shod men sweeping iridescent moss from the pond bed.

Across the moat, Jonathan Hasegawa (hotel.qantas.com.au/ jonathanhasegawa) is an elegant boutique hotel designed in imitation of the serene house that once stood there and as a foil to the commerce and industry on its doorstep. Nearby, the most Japanese of condiments was once produced in the Fukuoka Soy Sauce Building, built during the Meiji era just steps from Korakuen. Today it houses the Fukuoka Shoyu Gallery (fukuokashoyu.org), where digital art collective teamLab’s Tea Time in the Soy Sauce Storehouse can be relished amid the pulsing lanterns and mirrored walls of an experimental basement tearoom (until March 2023).

It’s a mishmash of antiquity and modernity and a reminder to never again dip my fork into a dish of soy sauce; only chopsticks will do.“Come with me, live in my hometown,” says Nakai. “I will make you Japanese.”

“Easy,” I respond. “Arigato.”

(Clockwise from above) Hotplate cooking at Okonomiyaki Sachi; Okayama Castle on the Asahi River; iced matcha and sweets at Okayama Korakuen Garden

by Catherine Marshall

KANAZAWA

by Ben Richards

Kanazawa is suffused with gold dust. It burnishes the objects –chopsticks, lacquerware, ornaments – displayed in shop windows. It speckles the air as artisans tweeze tissue-thin sheets of gold leaf from tins and instruct tourists in its application. It even finds its way into food and drink, flecking tea and enveloping grilled rice balls in bowls of ochazuke. In the Higashi Chaya district, it’s draped around soft-serve ice-creams so that they appear armoured and inedible; only when you sink your teeth into the gold does it reveal its hammerwrought pliability. It’s said that Kanazawa floats in a “golden marsh”, the alluvial plains it was built on and for which it is named.

I expect the entire skyline to be painted in the precious substance, given that almost all of Japan’s gold leaf is produced in Kanazawa on Honshu’s northern seaboard, about three hours by fast train from Tokyo. But this city is a natural beauty, sitting between the Sea of Japan and a line of snow-capped mountains. Urban architecture and structures dating back to the Edo era coexist seamlessly with the environment; laced between them are rivers, expansive gardens and meandering corridors of forest.

“The weather along the Japan Sea is fickle,” says guide Jasmine Nakai. “They say you can forget to bring your lunch box but don’t forget your umbrella!” There’s no need for bento boxes, I discover, as we make our way along rain-slicked, gingko-lined streets to Omicho Ichiba (Market), where stalls groan beneath fruits of the sea – crabs, urchins, broiled eel steaks glistening in their soy marinade – and earthly offerings such as water chestnuts, edible lily bulbs and yams from those mountains. This market has fed the people of Kanazawa for more than 300 years.

History has been similarly preserved at Kenroku-en Garden, once part of the Maeda Clan’s castle grounds and now one of the country’s most esteemed landscape gardens. Here, the many-limbed Karasaki pine tree planted as a seed in the 1800s is propped on stilts over Kasumiga-ike Pond. This eye for nature’s value is upheld nearby at Korinkyo (korinkyo.com), a timber-andstone-finished hotel where guests can blend elixirs from essential oils and distilled water in the onsite aroma distillery.

Adornments are common in the Higashi Chaya district, where powder-faced, rosebud-lipped geishas dressed in luminous kimonos drift past traditional tea houses. But their modern counterparts adopt an altogether different disguise. “People wear masks for pollen and germs on a train,” says Nakai. “And a third reason: girls who oversleep don’t have to do their make-up.”

Qantas flies from Sydney to Tokyo (Haneda). From December, Qantas will start flights from Brisbane to Tokyo (Haneda). qantas.com

(From left) The historic Nomura Samurai House in Nagamachi; the city’s famous gold leaf ice-cream; Kazuemachi geisha district

ORBETELLO

Like an Italian hill town that’s taken a trip to the Tuscan seaside, Orbetello may have fortress-like walls but inside, everything is laid-back Mediterranean charm. Jaunty palm trees shade café-lined piazzas and green-shuttered houses line a series of parallel lanes where locals and holidaymakers come – after the obligatory siesta – to stroll, meet and shop, before adjourning for aperitifs in friendly bars such as Barakà (Via Gioberti, 78; +39 3928 904 686).

But what’s most remarkable about Orbetello, about two hours drive north-east of Rome, is its position – at the end of a finger of land that juts into central Italy’s largest saltwater lagoon. Flamingos and more than a hundred other species of birds nest or pass through here; fishermen in small boats catch eels, bream and grey mullet just as their great-grandfathers did; and a scenic windmill

Porto Ercole, near Orbetello in the Maremma district of Tuscany

Story by Lee Marshall Photography by Susan Wright

– the only remaining of the nine that were dotted around the lagoon in the 17th century – has become a local Instagram star.

“It’s mainly a vacation destination for Italians,” says New Yorker Matthew Adams, who lives in Orbetello and operates a stylish three-roomed B&B called Casa Iris (casairisorbetello.com) in the centre of town, with his partner, James Valeri. “This is a town where everything slows down.”

To the west, connected by a bridge across the lagoon, rises the rocky profile of Monte Argentario, a peninsula with two pretty port towns – Porto Ercole and Porto Santo Stefano – much frequented by the international yacht set and a handful of upscale seaside hotels, including one of Italy’s most exclusive resorts, Il Pellicano.

Back in quiet Orbetello, tuck into a plate of spaghetti with vongole and bottarga (the local fish-roe speciality) at trattoria Per Piacere (Via Roma, 75; +39 0564 867 597) or take things up a notch at smart new Osteria Bolle (Via Vittorio Veneto, 9; +39 0564 182 8235), which opened in May and is looking like the place to visit for good-value creative Tuscan fare. As Adams says of his adopted home: “It’s the perfect place to relax on the beach, take long naps and enjoy the local cuisine.”

(Clockwise from above) Orbetello’s narrow streets are lined with shops and bars; the last remaining mill in the lagoon; the 14th-century cathedral

SPOLETO

Take a train on the meandering Umbria-bound line from Roma Termini station and arrive in Spoleto, just under two hours north of the capital, after threading through a series of tunnels separated by glimpses of wild mountain scenery. Walking towards the high, walled town centre brings you to another portal: a system of civic escalators that burrow up through the rock to emerge just below the magnificent 13th-century duomo, framed by a backdrop of olive-covered hills. For me, these two forays through the underworld make this town somehow all the more magical.

Spoleto, in the Umbria region, mixes grand architectural flourishes with secret corners where rose beds nuzzle up against ancient ruins. Among the flourishes is the Ponte delle Torri –a medieval bridge and aqueduct that leaps across the steep valley

below town on 10 arches. Nearby is Palazzo Leti (palazzoleti.com), a former aristocratic villa that’s been converted into a delightful 12-room hotel, the kind of place that makes you want to dress up and stroll, parasol in hand, through its palm-shaded formal garden.

In the bustling centre, Wine & Passion (Piazza del Mercato 21, +39 3490 220 6917) is the best spot to check out Umbria’s wine scene. At aperitivo time, order a fresh, tangy trebbiano spoletino – an ancient white variety that’s recently been saved from oblivion. Head for dinner to Il Tempio del Gusto (iltempiodelgusto.com), a trattoria not far from the Roman-era Arch of Drusus. Romantic and rustic, its four small rooms (book ahead) are a charming setting for chef-owner Eros Patrizi’s inventive but still genuine Umbrian cuisine, showcased in a fragrant saffron and white truffle risotto.

Given the town’s apparent knack for theatrical set pieces –which include a Roman amphitheatre – it’s perhaps not surprising that Spoleto has hosted Italy’s most prestigious summer music and performing arts event since 1958. For two weeks from late June the Festival dei Due Mondi (festivaldispoleto.com) transforms Spoleto into an open-air concert hall and playhouse. Nureyev has danced here, Pavarotti once performed and in 1968 a young Al Pacino starred in a local production. The Italian TV series Don Matteo – filmed here from the ninth season – offers further testimony to Spoleto’s sheer handsomeness; no filter required.

Qantas flies seasonally from Perth to Rome. Qantas flies year-round from Melbourne, Sydney, Singapore and Perth to London, with connecting flights on partner airlines to Rome. qantas.com

Story by Lee Marshall Photography by Susan Wright

Sample regional fare at Salumeria Padrichelli Giancarlo in Spoleto’s historic centre

Canada’s epic escapes

Sleep in a castle and explore a culture capital. Indulge on an island where icebergs float past your hot tub. If you like bucket-list adventures to come with five-star perks, you’ll love what’s hidden in Canada’s wildest places.

Fogo Island Inn, Newfoundland and Labrador

“The château, which sits on a cliff top overlooking Québec City, isn’t just the iconic hotel on postcards. This place is tattooed on locals’ hearts. We come here for Pernod cocktails or roasted chicken club sandwiches because they are the best – and Québécoise care a lot about food!

The château is part of what makes this city unlike anywhere else in Canada, or the world.

It’s filled with history. The opulent Salon Rose is where Roosevelt and Churchill worked out the plans for the landing at Normandy to end World War II. Princess Grace of Monaco stayed here in 1969. And although it looks so European on the outside, little touches connect to the Canadian landscape: the ceilings in the lobby are painted the blue of the St. Lawrence River and top-level suites have views all the way to Orleans Island and the gentle peaks of the Laurentian Mountains.

The city’s First Nations, Canadian and European cultures are reflected in our cuisine and great chefs are putting emphasis on boreal flavours. One of my favourite restaurants, Bistro Hortus on rue St-Jean in Old Québec, exclusively uses local products and has its own gardens and bees.

Next to the Château Frontenac there’s Chic Shack, which does the best poutine. They make it with potato wedges, fry it in duck fat and top it with cheese curd and a veal stock gravy.

We also love our craft beer and pubs. There’s one called Le Sacrilège in the borough Saint-Jean Baptiste: downstairs, inside a nook in a stone wall, there’s a little case marked, ‘This is where Champlain lies.’ Samuel de Champlain was the French colonist who founded the city. No one knows his resting place and I don’t think it’s really here but it’s very Québec. There’s a little bit of history or culture wherever you look.”

“I love how Fairmont Le Château Frontenac gives old-world magic to a city full of modern food and culture.”

– Marc Duchesne, Québec local and longtime owner of Cicérone Tours (cicerone.ca)

year-round fares to Canada with Qantas and our partner airlines.

now at qantas.com

Blachford Lake Lodge, Northwest Territories for Northern Lights or midnight sun

For most of the year, it’s Aurora chasers who book up the cushy wood cabins and hotel-style rooms at Blachford Lake Lodge (blachfordlakelodge.com). Conditions are so good here on the edge of the Arctic Circle that you’ve got a 96 per cent chance of seeing the lights in a three-day stay. You won’t mind the wait. Strap on the snowshoes or take the kids kicksledding across blankets of snow, play pond hockey or, when conditions are just right (usually in February and March), build an Inuit-style igloo and camp out while watching for the lights. Never fear if you drop off by the fire; there’s an Aurora wake-up service and windows are angled to drink up the sky. From May through early August you can’t

see the Aurora in summer’s 24-hour daylight. But you’ll find a thawed-out wilderness exploding with colour and wild berries. And running from the sauna to plunge in a lake under the midnight sun is its own kind of natural wonder.

Local tip: The snow is so pure that locals roll hot, sweet maple taffy into fresh-fallen flakes and call the snack “Tire sur la neige” – ask the lodge’s cook to show you how.

Fogo Island Inn, Newfoundland and Labrador for watching icebergs from your hot tub

Time moves differently on Fogo Island, a fog-swept, sometimes ice-bound island on Canada’s north Atlantic coast. So remote the Flat Earth Society calls it one of the four corners of the earth, this is a place of coyotes and circling seabirds, where wild caribou cause the only traffic jams. At Fogo Island Inn (fogoislandinn.ca), a modernist haven suspended above rocky shores, the idea is to coddle you while exposing you to the elements. You’ll dine as directed by the seasons on foraged dandelion, sorrel and spruce tips, sea bounty and centuries-old Fogo recipes. Inside, giant windows blur all boundaries between you and the sea. Come between mid-May and June and you might spot iceberg skyscrapers sliding by as you bob in the rooftop hot tub.

Local tip: This is a perfect retreat for couples but Fogo Island is also a haven for solo travellers. It is unlikely you’ll have to share its sandy coves or forests but one of the inn’s community hosts can join you on your rambles if you fancy company.

If you like luxe with a wilder side of adventure, you’ll love…

Jeff Frenette, Martina

Gebarovska, Alex Fradkin

On Vancouver Island, a 45-minute seaplane ride from Vancouver’s bright lights, you’ll find yourself off the grid in iconic Canada: pure air, pristine lakes and old-growth conifer forest begging for bracing adventures. Clayoquot Wilderness Lodge (clayoquotwildernesslodge. com) is the ultimate base camp. The Cookhouse restaurant specialises in sustainable, prairie-raised bison and British Columbia’s freshest catch crafted into ceviche.

But in the evenings, you can still toast s’mores under the sky. Guides can take you horseriding, heli-hiking and canoeing on the smooth-topped Clayoquot Sound before you surrender to a hot stone massage inside the waterside spa. And your tent? Practically a canvas palace with heated wooden floors in ensuites, cushy beds and views across a private paradise.

Local tip: “Come in September to snorkel and swim with wild salmon in our clear – and cold – rivers,” says general manager Sarah Cruse.

Trout Point Lodge, Nova Scotia for rustic luxury in ancient woods

At first it seems all’s quiet in this mossy, green woodland but then your ears adjust: a hummingbird buzzes at a flower, a deer rustles behind a maple and a beaver clunks a log onto a dam. You’ll soon feel part of the ecosystem at Trout Point Lodge (troutpoint. com), a log cabin gone five-star on the edge of a UNESCO biosphere reserve, about four hours from Halifax. Pull on your boots to go fly fishing, forest bathing and canoeing. Then stargaze around a fire pit or retreat to the fireplace in your plush suite.

Local tip: The resort is open May to October. In summer, wildlife is most lively; book in autumn if saunas and crackling log fires are your scene.

Clayoquot Wilderness Lodge, British Columbia for a glamping food safari

Love, Canada

The cab driver glances at me in his rear-view mirror. “Do you want Times Square in Brooklyn or Times Square on Long Island?” he asks. “Nice try,” I counter, after a beat of confusion. He winks and breaks into a throaty chuckle. He’s teasing, of course, but not so long ago he might have got me. It’s been 25 years since my last visit to New York City and back then, travelling with my parents who were born and raised on Staten Island, the trip was an exercise in nostalgia. We visited their friends and hit up old haunts; sightseeing was for tourists. I followed along without absorbing any sense of the city.

Now, with my own teenager in tow, I’m keen to marry insider intel with a first-timer’s sense of adventure. The plan? We’re going old-school, ditching technology – no smartphones, no social media, no Google Maps, no Yelp, no Siri, just one disposable camera. We’ll rely on recommendations from locals and our wits. We’ll live in the moment and connect with the community by sidestepping over-hyped hotspots and Instagram photo-ops. No apps, just paper maps. “I know the city,” my 16-yearold reassures me in the cab from the airport. “It’s in every Spider-Man video game.”

Within minutes of our evening arrival in the foyer of the boutique Wall Street Hotel (thewallsthotel.com), I tell the two friendly gentlemen who welcome us about our planned offline adventure. “I love it,” says the desk clerk. “Seeing everyone glued to their phones on the subway makes me want to unplug from everything and move to Maine. Or at least pull out a book.” I mention that we also hope to eat as much New York pizza as possible. “I gotch you,” says the doorman. “Joe’s [Pizza] in Greenwich Village [joespizzanyc.com]. I don’t know if they sprinkle it with something illegal or what, but I can’t get enough.”

We brave the subway for the first time the following day and head for Times Square. I’m floored by how much my kid takes the lead, securing us MetroCards from the machine and identifying the line we need with unearned confidence. Fifteen minutes and six stops later we’re ducking and weaving past several Spider-Men, a Cookie Monster and other street artists, hoping to snare lastminute tickets for a Broadway show at the Theatre Development Fund’s TKTS Booth (tdf.org). We join the queue under the rubyred steps, eagerly accepting flyers from spruikers and, unable to distract ourselves with a phone, get chatting to a woman in line.

She’s lived in New York her whole life and in our 15 minutes together, I learn she has two daughters (one completed a semester of college in Sydney) and a golden retriever and used to work in the sales department of a TV network. I fill her in on our low-tech mission. “Oh, gawd, that’s wonderful. The only way to see New York,” she gushes. “Whenever I read guides online about what to do here, they’re filled with nonsense.” She lives near Central Park and insists I grab a pen to write down walking directions and her must-see highlights. By the time we reach the ticket window, I tell the attendant we’re tossing up between Beetlejuice and Little Shop of Horrors. “You vaccinated?” he barks. I nod and he hands me two tickets. “Little Shop. Tonight. Front-row centre.”

In the hours before we’re seated arm’s length from a giant Audrey II puppet at the Westside Theatre (westsidetheatre.com), we try to interpret my scrawled directions to Central Park. We end up a few blocks off course but chance by Cassiano’s Pizza (cassianospizza.com) to try our first slices of the trip. “Oh, no!” is my kid’s first response. “How am I supposed to go back to eating regular pizza after this?”

We spend about 40 minutes people-watching and wandering from map to map around the park until exhaustion drives us to hail a pedicab rickshaw. The driver blares Jay-Z’s Empire State of Mind from a hanging speaker as he pedals us around. It’s the kind of New York moment you could never orchestrate and it thrills me that we’re both undistracted by our devices. “Now this really feels like we’re in a movie,” concludes my travel buddy.

Wary of getting lost again, we take a taxi back to Times Square and grab another slice from Famous Original Ray’s Pizza (rayspizza. com). “Unbelievable,” the kid mumbles, “but I don’t think we can top the last one.” Then it’s the same subway line back to our oasis on Wall Street to freshen up before our night out. I can see Brooklyn across the East River from our suite so when we break out a map at our table in the hotel’s elegant French brasserie, La Marchande, we hatch a plan (between bites of Ōra king salmon and Carolina shrimp with smoky cocktail sauce) to hit up the Brooklyn Museum (brooklynmuseum.org) the next day.

hands darting for an invisible phone like a phantom limb. I’m nervous that we haven’t booked ahead online and when we arrive just as the doors open I’m thrilled to score two of the limited same-day tickets. We take our time exploring five floors of eclectic exhibits ranging from ancient Egyptian artefacts to contemporary paintings and sculptures. Ordinarily I’d be third-wheeling around the museum while my teen chats with friends on social media or Googles to learn more about what we’re seeing. “It’s kind of relaxing to wander and just wonder,” they note, reading my mind.

Back in Manhattan by mid-afternoon, we take turns stopping every couple of blocks to ask for directions to Rockefeller Plaza. We know it when we see it from TV shows and movies and stroll through the line to buy tickets for Top of the Rock (topoftherocknyc. com), three levels of indoor and outdoor observation decks 70 floors up. “Is it always this empty or did we just get lucky?” I ask our guide as we step into the elevator. “Oh, it’s never like this. You nailed it,” he answers. “You never know your luck in the big city.”

Foiled by QR codes that offer sightseeing insights, I sidle up to a security guard who happily points out the Chrysler Building, Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square and the Statue of Liberty, far off in the distance. “If you want to see her up close,” she says, “ride the Staten Island Ferry.” On the way back to our digs, we get properly lost for the first time, darting and doubling back between hellishly hot subway terminals. When we finally make it downtown, we race to the Whitehall Terminal to snag a standing-room spot on the packed commuter ferry, cruising past Lady Liberty on the last ride before sunset.

Over breakfast at the hotel, our waiter recommends we check out the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA; moma.org) but first we focus on more pressing pursuits: the doorman-recommended Joe’s Pizza. We’re early and kill time waiting for the ovens to fire up by gawking at the celebrity photos on the wall – Leonardo DiCaprio, Bradley Cooper, Bill Murray, Anne Hathaway. Taking our pipinghot slices to go, we sit on a bench in nearby Washington Square Park and are entertained by a shirtless jazz quartet clashing with a man busking on a grand piano.

MoMA offers more mind-expanding stimulation. On the second floor of The David Geffen Wing is an exhibition called Search Engines, a collection of artworks responding to the way technology shapes our reality. “The ability to search for anything instantly has profoundly changed the way in which we navigate the world and share information,” I read on a plaque on the wall.

Jet lag wakes us early, still humming Suddenly Seymour from the knock-out show. We catch the subway again, this time to the handily named Eastern Parkway-Brooklyn Museum stop. While my techfree anxiety stems from a terrible sense of direction, my teenager seems most twitchy when passing the time in quiet moments,

On our last morning in the city, we walk to the World Trade Center Memorial (911memorial.org). I find the name of my dad’s second cousin inscribed in a bronze panel around one of the two enormous reflecting pools where the Twin Towers once stood. He was working at Cantor Fitzgerald in the North Tower when the planes hit. I only met him once when I was about 10 but I have a vivid image of him on the dance floor at a wedding reception at the Waldorf Astoria. Most of my memories from that 1988 trip are hazy – the famous toy store FAO Schwarz, the stiff, purple taffeta dress I wore to the ceremony at St. Patrick’s Cathedral – but I recall feeling frightened when my father gripped my hand and warned me to “not make eye contact” with anyone as we barrelled along the crowded sidewalk. Statistically and anecdotally, the city has become a safer and friendlier place since then and it dawns on me that I’ve spent the past few days encouraging my kid to talk to strangers.

Checking out of the hotel, I tell the doorman how much we loved Joe’s Pizza. “I told you. But you also need to try John’s Pizzeria on Bleecker Street [johnsofbleecker.com]. You have to buy a whole pie but it’s worth it,” he says. “Next time,” I say – and mean it.

JFK Qantas flies from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to Los Angeles, with connecting flights on partner airlines to New York.

From June 2023, Qantas commences flights from Sydney to New York via Auckland. qantas.com

E N E W W O R L D

The hottest food trends taking seed today – and where you can try them.

Compiled by Alexandra Carlton, Myffy Rigby and Lisa Abend

F E R E I M AG I N E D

Copenhagen ARK

Back in the days when a gourmand would no more travel to Copenhagen to eat than a ski bunny would venture to the Sahara for skiing, a small band of Scandinavian chefs began an experiment: what would happen if they cooked only with local ingredients? The answer: those self-imposed restrictions unleashed an untapped creativity, rather than limiting it. Twenty years and whole galaxies of Michelin stars later, the Nordic food movement is thriving. And at Ark (restaurantark.dk), a vegan fine-diner in the Danish capital that in 2021 and 2022 was awarded a Green Star from the Michelin Guide (recognising sustainability in high-quality restaurants), they’re pushing the boundaries further still.

“I wanted to make something good but didn’t plan to lift it to this level. Then Brett came along,” says owner Jason Renwick of his executive chef, Brett Lavender. “He kind of conned me into it. We went from an à la carte menu to five courses to seven to nine.” Before long, they were all in and, he adds, “reaching for the stars”.

Ark has all the hallmarks of a great Nordic restaurant: a menu based on local, seasonal ingredients, many foraged from the country’s beaches and forests; a coolly chic, one-step-north of minimalist interior crafted of blond timber and streaming light; a sustainable ethos that extends even to the spent coffee grounds. But Lavender and the Australian-born Renwick, who came to Denmark a decade ago because of a woman and has worked in restaurants ever since, don’t only highlight the beach herbs and root vegetables of the north. As

the city’s first vegan fine dining restaurant, they also cook without meat, fish, butter and eggs. “At first the question was, ‘How do we change how people perceive vegan food?’ because the perception was not good,” says Lavender. “And then, as the environmental factor became a bigger part, it also became, ‘Okay, how do we get away from things like avocados?’ They’re standard in vegan restaurants but as we became more sustainable, we started saying, ‘You know what? We’re not going to use something that consumes massive amounts of water and has literally decimated populations.’”

It all sounds deeply admirable, until you start to wonder what it means in reality. Forget about scaling the culinary heights of topnotch dining – as I step into the sleek, cosy room on what passes for a hot summer night in Copenhagen, I find myself wondering what will be left to eat.

An intriguing cocktail made from aquavit infused with tarragon and cherry tomato (Ark is serious about no waste and repurposes vegetable trim and pulp in its drinks menu), delivered to me by friendly beverage director Toby Efteland, quickly eases my scepticism. A first bite of seaweed jelly – slippery and cool, the kombu’s briny flavours freshened with tomato water and sweetened with chive oil – obliterates it. The dish offers a first clue of what Lavender is up to: using Japanese techniques to deliver the kind of richness that the average Nordic chef would get from butter and cream. A silky chawanmushi made from soy instead of the customary egg, evocatively scented with black garlic, comes paired with an addictive croquette whose crunchy exterior holds fat, sweet

A Michelin-lauded fine-diner in the heart of Copenhagen just happens to be sustainable and vegan, writes Lisa Abend.

Ark executive chef Brett Lavender (above) and owner Jason Renwick (opposite)

kernels of corn and wild herbs. A main course of thin turnip rounds fermented in sake dazzles with its umami punch.

But the rectangle of pâté that arrives midway through the nine-course tasting menu has me totally stumped. Smeared onto warm, fluffy brioche (a bit of wizardry given the lack of butter, eggs or milk), its deep, unctuous flavour manages to release the same fatty, iron-y notes as foie gras. The dish is one of several the restaurant has developed based on mushrooms grown a few kilometres away at an urban farm that Renwick co-owns with a grower he calls “the Bill Gates of mushrooms”.

It’s a long way from the steakhouse Renwick originally planned to open. But seeing a couple of documentaries about meat production convinced him that something had to be done to change the way the Western world eats – and in an innovative way. Neither he nor Lavender are hardcore vegans but that, Renwick says, was precisely the point. “The idea wasn’t to make a vegan restaurant for vegan customers,” explains the 40-year-old.

“The idea was to show everybody what was possible with plant-based food and to do it by competing with restaurants that have everything at their disposal.”

Mushroom pâté at Ark

Ark’s chawanmushi made from soy

PLANT-BASED FOOD

Remember when Sydney’s Ester (ester-restaurant.com.au) dared to serve a whole fire-roasted cauliflower as a complete dish? Or the gasps of wonder when the Bentley Group’s Yellow (yellowsydney.com.au) in Potts Point turned entirely vegetarian in 2016? “A couple of locals from the area went out of their way to tell us they felt it was a major blunder that we would go on to regret,” says Yellow’s co-owner and chef Brent Savage, laughing.

“Nearly seven years later, Yellow is stronger than ever and we feel plant-based dining will go from strength to strength.”

The next flex is all about excitement and complexity, such as at the charming Frea

(frea.de) in Berlin, which turns food grown in the ground into a finely crafted adventure, with dishes that are far too interesting to need meat, such as a springy cornbread spiked with apricot adobo-marinated mushroom, spicy fruit salsa and bean crème.

And it’s about omnivorous restaurants where meat is still the main character but vegetables are part of the ensemble rather than a mere support act. “There’s a greater emphasis put on the humble vegetable on most menus across the country now,” says Joel Bickford, culinary director of Sydney’s Shell House Dining Room & Terrace (shellhouse dining.com.au), whose own menu’s vegetable section

functions not as a series of “sides” but as robust dishes that stand up in their own right – like his deep-red ribbons of coal-roasted beetroot and fungus in a blueberry dressing.

Is fake meat next? Perhaps. We’re yet to see a wave of enthusiasm for lab-grown chicken or soy burgers that “bleed” like beef – although some are dipping their toes in the faux universe, including the Ovolo Hotels group, which is using its own branded plant protein as a meat substitute on Australian restaurant menus.

Mainly, though, it seems we don’t need vegetables to pretend to be something they’re not. Done well, we love them just the way they are.

Frea in Berlin

A clear head in the morning is just one drawcard of this new Melbourne bar, writes Myffy Rigby.

BRUNSWICK ACES

I’d be the first to admit that abstaining entirely from alcohol would not bring me a great amount of joy. But over the past few years I’ve been actively looking to reduce my consumption. And I’m not alone. Maintenance-through-moderation is buzzy for a good reason.

This is bigger than a trend; it’s a cultural shift. The dry bar phenomenon has already seen success in the United States with Getaway in Brooklyn, Gem Bar in New Jersey and Sans Bar in Austin. Even Dublin has an alcohol-free bar called The Virgin Mary (see page 114).

At Brunswick Aces (brunswickaces. com), Australia’s first non-alcoholic cocktail bar, the calling card is “drinks for abstaining, moderating and sobercurious Aussies”. Located in a pocket of Melbourne where good eating and drinking is par for the course (it shares a street with Gelato Messina, Market Lane Coffee and, just a few minutes walk away, pizzeria 400 Gradi), Aces is changing the conversation when it comes to hitting the town without hitting the turps.

The setting is well-considered. Peacockblue walls, plenty of gold trim and great lighting. There’s plush emerald-green velvet bar seating for solo visitors and couples. Large tables make it catnip for baby showers and hens parties. And unlike cocktail bars serving alcohol, children are welcome before 6pm (as long as they’re with an adult).

On a Friday night, the bar is busy. You wouldn’t know that the customers aren’t drinking. “Alcohol is not the thing that creates the atmosphere,” says brand director and co-owner Stuart Henshall. “I think the environment acts as a placebo, potentially. People leave and say, ‘I feel like I’ve had about six alcoholic drinks’ and they haven’t had a single drop.”

Here, it’s all about the “built” cocktails. Even the best non-alcoholic spirits, such as Margaret River’s Ovant Royal – a sort of rum/whisky hybrid – lack the heat and depth that alcohol offers. But mixed with Fluère Drinks Spiced Cane Dark Roast, sour pineapple, lime juice, makrut lime and chilli syrup, it’s a robust, fullflavoured tipple you can sit on. English distillery Wilfred’s offers an orange and rosemary apéritif with so much taste and zest that all it takes is a splash of soda to bring all the fun of a spritz without the booze. And Brunswick Aces’ eponymous non-alcoholic gin, sapiir? Try it in a King Louis (cucumber, mint, coconut water and finger lime soda) for a fresh, dry take on a Mojito.

The brand, which started in 2017 with the development of the sapiir, was founded by Henshall, engineer Stephen Lawrence, scientist Cameron Hunt and accountant Diana Abelardo. “It’s very much about being able to realise that alcohol isn’t the centre of your life when you’re socialising,” says Henshall. “Once you have that realisation, it can really change your perspective.”

King Louis cocktail at Brunswick Aces

Melbourne

In May 2021, the bar and bottle shop swung open. As well as being a hit with pregnant women, it has also become a meeting place for recovering addicts who can enjoy a drink without the temptation of alcohol – a place with no stigma or shame and where all are welcome. The venue is also popular with Muslim women who can comfortably come and socialise in an alcohol-free bar.

Okay, cocktail die-hards probably won’t find solace here. But it doesn’t really matter. This one is for the hitherto uncatered for – there’s even an alcoholic gin and tonic on the list as a cheeky nod to the lone non-alcoholic drink that’s usually stuck on the end of menus as an afterthought. Perhaps the future isn’t so much a brave new world as a moderate one.

THE RISE OF...

DRINKING LESS

maybe they’re getting healthy – training for a marathon or something – and want to drop the alcohol for three or four months but they’ll pick it back up again.”

Are Australians turning into a nation of teetotallers? Not exactly. We’re cutting back –our alcohol consumption has dropped from around 10.8 litres per capita to 9.4 litres in the past 15 years (so our rum-guzzling colonist forebears needn’t turn in their graves just yet). But what we are doing is weaving nonalcoholic drinks into our broader drinking repertoire. “The majority of people who drink ‘non-alcs’ – about 86 per cent of them – are drinkers,” says Carolyn Whiteley, co-founder of the non-alcoholic Seadrift Distillery and So-Bar (seadriftdistillery.com) at Brookvale on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. “They might be driving so they have one drink then move on to non-alcoholic drinks. Or

That’s also what Sarah Connolly, co-owner of the alcohol-free Virgin Mary Bar (thevirginmarybar.com), which has outlets in Dublin and Abu Dhabi, says she’s seeing. “Many of our customers will join us as part of a night out where they’re also enjoying alcoholic drinks at other venues. They may want to be mindful of their consumption or just enjoy a different vibe for a while.”

Critically, a good nonalcoholic drink has to have depth and vibrancy – flavoured fizz doesn’t cut it. Think beers such as Heaps Normal Quiet XPA (left), which tastes like a real pale ale, or the expert dupe Lyre’s spirits, served in cocktails at restaurants including Smith + Daughters (smithanddaughters.com) in Melbourne’s Collingwood. Many restaurant dégustations now come with non-alcoholic drinks pairings, often a curious mix of shrubs, kombuchas, distils and teas. “It’s been wonderful to see people embracing this,” says Connolly. “We think it’s reframing social occasions.”

Your passport to a global career

Studying business and international hotel management at the most recognised hospitality school opens doors anywhere in the world – and it starts right here.

Imogen Christie has been enchanted by hotels since she was a child, when she was lucky enough to travel the world with her family. “I loved it so much that I wanted a career where I could travel and work.” When she finished school in Adelaide, a Bachelor of Business in International Hotel Management at the South Australian arm of Le Cordon Bleu was a natural pathway.

Christie started out thinking she would work in a front desk or rooms management role. “But my idea of a dream job changed the more I learnt about the opportunities in the industry.”

Le Cordon Bleu was founded in Paris in 1895 and is famed for its culinary and hospitality schools around the world, including London and Madrid. In Australia, the renowned school has been educating students for 30 years so it was the obvious choice for Christie. It has recently expanded its portfolio to include a suite of business degrees at its Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide campuses and its Brisbane campus

will follow suit in coming years. The majors are wide-ranging and applicable to all aspects of hospitality, from entrepreneurship and innovation to restaurant management, gastronomy and hospitality management.

It’s almost a decade since Christie graduated and in that time her blue-ribbon education has helped her land roles in international luxury hotels, including the prestigious Hilton chain in Canada, where a two-month contract turned into a full-time job. “One of the first things they mentioned in my job interview was the great reputation of Le Cordon Bleu’s alumni.” It’s one of the reasons why 95 per cent of the school’s graduates are employed within six months.

Christie did her alma mater proud, winning a Hilton Circle of Excellence Award. She was also named in the Top 30 Under 30 in the Ontario hotel industry, rising to corporate group sales manager before returning to Adelaide in 2019 for a regional role with Hilton. Today she’s the portfolio

sales manager with Elanor Hotels, which is part of a large investment group.

The Le Cordon Bleu degree gave Christie a broad foundation in the industry she’s so passionate about. “I was in really good hands with the lecturers, who were the best mentors, and I loved that I was able to gain experience in the classroom as well as on the ground, learning in hotels and in the kitchen.”

SCAN TO WIN

Scan the QR code for your chance to win a Le Cordon Bleu hamper, valued at over $200. T&Cs apply. Visit cordonbleu.edu/australia for more information.

Chef Dennis Yong at Parcs

You never know what you’re going to get at this diner but spell the name backwards and you’ll have the first clue, writes Myffy Rigby.

Melbourne PARCS

“My food philosophy has always been similar to an op shop: use something first rather than create something new,” says chef Dennis Yong, who cooked at Melbourne fine-dining restaurants Sunda, Aru and Tulum before opening Parcs (parcs.com.au), a 20 seat wine-and-diner that delivers neighbourhood vibes in a city laneway while serving up “rescued food”. For the players at home, that’s taking unwanted or unused food and repurposing it so it won’t go to waste. “I always wanted to be in the environmental field but somehow got into cooking,” says Yong.

About 60 per cent of Parcs’ menu is made of food that’s come from other venues – the main sources are Aru, Sunda and The Windsor; all three businesses, along with Parcs, are owned by Adi Halim. Another key source is market garden Rémi’s Patch in Willowmavin, north of Melbourne. “We recently got about 100 kilograms of damaged beetroots. When I say damaged, they look ugly but are perfectly edible. The rejection was appearance-driven.”

A chalkboard display in the limegreen dining room lists where all of the rescued food is sourced from. “We’ve been getting some tiny croissants from Lune, which they usually can’t sell. Businesses like this shouldn’t be ashamed of that. It makes sense to actually give it to someone who is able to use it rather than throw it away.”

RISE OF...

WASTE-FREE

It’s a solid temperature check for city dining – approachable food in a sleek setting with a strong ethos of low waste, high taste. The vibe here is date-nighty. And while the space is buzzing, there’s no bumping of elbows. Instead, couples are getting comfy with a natural-leaning wine list. If there’s any pushback about the drinks choice (not everyone wants to sip those occasionally kombucha-ish wines), plenty on the list is easy drinking and waitstaff are happy to make suggestions.

The menu is broken into three(ish) sections. “Unripe” is where I find the snacks. Tonight, “Pickles and Ferments” turns out to be a mixed plate of crunchy, lightly pickled vegetables (carrot, cabbage and beetroot), which I order alongside Sydney rock oysters that arrive bathed in a lively mango kombucha dressing.

I make fast work of the housemade Chinese doughnuts, downing the golden dough slathered in smoked sunchoke purée and moromi za’atar in just two bites. The idea was inspired by Yong’s favourite za’atar-coated bread from his local Lebanese bakery. He wanted to come up with his own version, in keeping with the ferment principle of the restaurant, so he made a za’atar mix with moromi powder (the leftover pulp from soy sauce making).

Next come the buffalo mushrooms — lightly battered, deep-fried ’shrooms served with a whipped tofu dipping sauce that, to my mind, would beat blue cheese

in a cage fight any day of the week. The umami e pepe, however, is the winner. Freshly made hokkein noodles cut on the chitarra (usually an implement you’d see slicing pasta in Italian kitchens) are dressed in a rich, dark sauce with beautiful savour. “This dish is an unabashed bootleg version of the classic cacio e pepe; we replace cheese with our bread miso, giving it that umami element,” says Yong.

Under “Ripe”, fried rice laced with cured salmon belly delivers some serious punch thanks to a base paste of Keen’s curry powder, garlic and ginger. “The original version of this fried rice that I remember growing up eating was at my uncle’s crab shop. It was so good, I can still taste it in my memory.”

Yong says fried rice in general is a great food-waste solution, as it was originally created to use up rice left over from the night before. The dish is a mainstay but the things that go with it change regularly, dictated by the scraps and surplus they get in the restaurant. Today, it’s served with a side of wok-tossed greens.

Finally, there’s a single “Very Ripe” item in the form of brioche miso ice-cream made of rescued sweet bread crusts from The Windsor’s breakfast menu. How does that saying go? One restaurant’s underordered brunch is another’s very popular dessert? It’s a sentiment you could pretty much apply to anything at this scrappy little restaurant that could.

“Waste not, want lots” seems to be an increasingly common mantra among chefs and other food professionals looking to make use of every edible scrap at their disposal – both for environmental reasons and to put a dent in everincreasing food costs. At Re (wearere.com.au), a bar in Eveleigh, Sydney, not only does bartender Matt Whiley use everything from banana peels to the “brains” of pumpkins and discarded fish fat, he’s also launching a circular wastesharing database called Never Wasted to help other venues do the same. “The idea would be that everyone enters whatever they have to waste into the system and then another bar has 24 hours to go and pick it up,” he says. Waste-free is even hitting home cooking. In the tiny town of Mypolonga, about an hour east of Adelaide in the Murraylands, Kelly Johnson from Woodlane Orchard (woodlaneorchard.com) has found a way to freeze-dry discarded supermarket and orchard produce into snacks and just-add-water meals that are so delicious they caught the attention of chef Mark Best. “I don’t know how she gets the caramelisation and flavour into a packet meal but they’re really good, especially the meat-free chilli con carne,” he says. Big praise for something that normally ends up in the bin.

Oysters with mango kombucha dressing at Parcs

THE RISE OF...

CULTURAL CONNECTIONS

Melbourne Big Esso by Mabu Mabu

“Big Esso” is Torres Strait Islander slang meaning “the biggest thank you”. It’s the heartfelt wish from chef and owner Nornie Bero, who’s from Mer in the Torres Strait, to her customers, who have seen her vibrant vision come to life at this neon-splashed restaurant (above; mabumabu.com.au) in Melbourne’s Federation Square. Where possible, the menu sources from First Nations, female and queer producers. You might taste saltbush and pepperberry fried crocodile (an Aussie salt and pepper squid), lemon aspen charred octopus or napa cabbage with bunya crumb and karkalla vinaigrette.

When you walk into this one-of-a-kind restaurant tucked away at the top of the stairs in an old brickworks, you’re not simply going somewhere to have a delicious meal (hiakai.co.nz). You’re being welcomed into the embrace of Māori wāhine – chef Monique Fiso, supported by general manager and co-owner Katie Monteith – telling Māori and Polynesian stories and legends through food. One example is a dish that represents Te Pō (above), a time of darkness and becoming. It’s the colour of the night sky, made with gnocchi, charred corn and sangria radish and finished with black corn tea. “It’s so beautiful,” says Monteith. The depth and meaning behind Fiso’s cooking is often so moving that people have been overcome with emotion as dishes are put in front of them. “Some people have cried, I’m not making that up,” says Monteith, before adding it’s not all tears and solemnity. “We’re not overly earnest. We’re providing an experience but really want people to have fun.”

Minneapolis, United States Owamni by The Sioux Chef

As you step inside the restaurant run by Dana Thompson, a descendent of the WahpetonSisseton and Mdewakanton Dakota tribes, and Sean Sherman (below), a Oglala Lakota Sioux chef from South Dakota, the first thing you notice is the rich scent of burning sage, lit for ceremony and to set intention (owamni. com). The menu (written in English and Dakota) draws only from crops that were available pre-colonisation so no dairy, wheat, cane sugar, beef or pork but plentiful use of ingredients of the Americas, such as sweet potato, duck, turkey and corn. Others are more specific to this region – a sandwich made with elk, a maple chaga cake with sunflower seed brittle. “Our ancestors are proud… because we’re doing something different,” said Sherman when he accepted the 2022 James Beard award for Best New Restaurant. “We’re putting health on the table. We’re putting culture on the table and we’re putting our stories on the table.”

Amber-Jayne Bain, Heidi Ehalt

Wellington, New Zealand Hiakai

Oceans of flavour

When Biota opened in 2011 it began a revolution in country fine dining. The Southern Highlands restaurant featured a menu rooted in its surroundings, thanks to locally grown and foraged produce. Today, chef James Viles (above, right) is transplanting this same ethos to Sydney’s Park Hyatt in The Rocks – and shaking up the very notion of luxury hotel dining.

“Some people questioned whether I’d be able to stick to my values about sustainability at a big hotel like the Park Hyatt but we’ve been making changes from the top down,” says Viles. “We have two beehives on the roof, we’re turning all our perishable waste into compost and we’ve removed all plastics from the operation. And that’s just the start.”

After being forced to close Biota due to the combined effects of the pandemic and bushfires, Viles admits the glittering harbour

initially felt a long way from the Southern Highlands. “There was definitely a period of readjustment where I was looking for inspiration.”

That inspiration arrived in the form of a school of kingfish that “burst out of the water” directly in front of the hotel, as if telling Viles to zero in on seafood for the first time in his career.

“I’ve never done it before as I believe in using ingredients from the location and the Southern Highlands isn’t exactly seafoodfriendly. But it just makes sense to be eating premium Australian seafood while looking at this amazing view.”

Taking over the harbourside icon’s signature restaurant – rebadged Dining by James Viles –has seen the introduction of innovative dishes such as “Bass Strait octopus cooked over coals, served with a pair of scissors so the guests can cut it up themselves, whole lobster

with a native XO sauce and a salad based on a Caesar with a coddled egg dressing and damn good anchovies.”

Viles has even pursued the perfect club sandwich. “It’s at The Living Room, which is a more relaxed space than the main dining room. We use super-fine shaved chook that’s steamed then cut with precision like sashimi. We even have an architectural drawing of it in the kitchen so it’s done properly.”

Plan your visit to Park Hyatt Sydney today. parkhyattsydney.com

Chef James Viles made NSW’s Southern Highlands a dining destination. Now he’s bringing his sustainable focus to the Park Hyatt’s dazzling harbourside address.

Adelaide TOPIARY

I fancy myself as a bit of a seasonality sleuth and chef Kane Pollard has thrown down the gauntlet. The food at Topiary (topiary-dining.com), which sits cupped by foliage inside a 140-year-old homestead that is itself inside a garden nursery in the Adelaide foothills, claims to be entirely of-its-moment-and-place. As I take my seat I run my finger along the menu to check.

I’m visiting in the dead of winter – not the best time to rely on the bounty of nature – but Pollard, who accrued cheffing chops at The Locavore in the Adelaide Hills, where everything is sourced within 100 miles, appears true to his word. The menu is a feast of brassicas, mushrooms, root vegetables and apples. There’s icicle radish (aka daikon), truffles and rhubarb. I think I’ve found an outlier with a nonalcoholic strawberry spritz (no strawberry shows itself until the full sun of summer), but the waiter, Mark, reassures me that the kitchen team preserves their strawberry shrub in the warmer months and it keeps into winter. Well played, Pollard.

Most restaurants (in Australia at least) live by the seasonality ethos to some extent but Pollard puts his heart and soul into it. Seasonality is only one part of the picture. “What our team sticks by is that if we live the way our ancestors did then the world will be a much healthier place,” he says.

To this end, the Topiary crew focuses on using every scrap of leftovers. The menu is peppered with items that most of us throw away, such as broccoli stems and bread ends. Each morning everyone heads out into the surrounding foothills to forage for tiny wild onions, nasturtium leaves and soursob, a lemony weed that I picked in the school playground as a child and sucked ’til my lips puckered but now adds brightness to my market leaf salad.

The latter is a simple but very lovely accompaniment to the best dish on the menu, a lozenge of fire-roasted brassicas, mostly broccoli and Brussels sprouts, enriched with a cauliflower caramel –sticky and umami – that’s then wrapped in sweet cabbage and circled with loops of pickled wild onion. Another hit is a slowcooked winter lamb neck – a difficult-toprocess cut that most restaurants ignore and most butchers throw out – drizzled with a glossy cumquat glaze and a subtle

This restaurant takes its promise of only using seasonal, locally sourced ingredients seriously and creates imaginative dishes of pure enjoyment, writes Alexandra Carlton.

sweet potato and pumpkin XO and homemade labneh. It’s a study in softness, the textures melting together like winter mist.

And then there’s Pollard’s prize dessert – a wild mushroom meringue made with slippery jack mushrooms that are gathered in the forest then dried into a powder. It’s not so much a meringue as a thick, rustic cracker designed for dipping into a satiny crème brûlée dusted with truffles, the dish adorned with fragrant pine needles.

None of it is fussy, cheffy food. Other eateries – the brilliant Restaurant Botanic (restaurantbotanic.com.au) just down the road springs to mind – are doing this sort of thing to greater acclaim but without Pollard’s purity and 100-mile, seasonalonly constraints. Topiary, by contrast, is as unassuming and of-its-place as the little piles of orange gourds and dried sunflower heads that decorate the dining space.

It’s an easy way to eat, though not the easiest way to make a living – Topiary’s food costs are small (unpopular cuts and foraging make sure of that) but all that gathering, pickling and making-fromscratch means staff costs are unusually high. Pollard doesn’t care. “To me it’s not about money. It’s my 10-year passion project. It’s about watching my team and their families grow, giving people jobs, collaborating. It just feels right.”

THE RISE OF...

TRADITIONAL PRACTICES

For decades, food was all about futurism. Chefs tricked things up and reduced things down and fluffed things into foams and gels and dots and smokes until our plates looked more like science experiments than food. There are cycles and seasons in every industry but moving forward, cuisine is looking backwards. The result? Chefs are employing traditional sourcing and cooking techniques with vigour.

In Tokyo, chef Takuto Murota begins preparations for the menu at one-Michelin-starred Lature (lature.jp) by heading out to hunt – personally bagging venison and wild hare that he then breaks down, ages and processes as the jumping-off point for his dishes.

At Boragó (borago.cl) in Santiago, Chile, chef Rodolfo Guzmán uses ancient Mapuche preservation and ash-cooking techniques, driven by the desire to rescue Chilean food history.

The experimental, Willy Wonka-like food lab Alchemist (alchemist.dk) in Copenhagen has teams of chefs and gastronomists doing bonkers things with rabbits’ ears, starfish and even silkworm proteins to see if these seemingly inert and inedible bits of nature

can make their way onto plates. There’s also its Food for Thought (above), ethical pâté de foie gras served in a silicon human head.

Other modern eating rituals are defined less by what’s put on the plate than atmosphere, memory and community. Baba’s Place (babasplace.com.au) in Sydney’s Marrickville, for instance, is a love letter to the Australian suburban immigrant experience; the loud and welcoming ritual of grandkids turning up to baba ’s house for a good feed. Meanwhile, at the tiny 12-seater Omotenashi (omotenashihobart.com) inside the Lexus showroom in Hobart, Lachlan Colwill thinks of his space less as somewhere to cook and serve food than a communal dinner party of decades past, where he and his team are as much a part of the room as the diners. “People even put their phones away,” he says. “They’re not taking photos for Instagram and gloating about it. They’re actually involved in the experience like you’d be when you’re at a friend’s house.”

Fun and food away from screens? That sounds positively ancient – in the very best way.

Claes Bech Poulsen. Kelsey Zafiridis

Topiary chef Kane Pollard

RISE OF...

EGO-LESS KITCHENS

Restaurants and bars have long had a reputation for being demanding places to work: any hospo lifer will tell you tales of endless shifts, underpayment and hierarchical kitchens (streaming hit The Bear makes that clear). But the hospitality industry has realised that something has to change. The conversation has been happening for a while and slowly but noticeably the talk is turning to action.

In Melbourne, New Nordic diner Freyja (freyjarestaurant.com), for example, only opens Monday to Friday and will close for a few weeks at Christmas and on public holidays. “It allows our team to plan their lives and gives them a bit of stability,” says Markus Tschuschnig, chief operating officer of the group behind the eatery.

Women chefs, such as Beach Byron Bay’s Alanna Sapwell (beachbyronbay. com.au), have spoken about the importance of leading “ego-less” kitchens, where the team makes collective decisions that create better food for the greater good.

And at cocktail bar Himkok (himkok. no) in Oslo, Norway, staff are given the sorts of corporate perks and sureties that you’d usually expect to see in a whitecollar firm. “Our staff have working hours of 37.5 hours a week, to a maximum of 40 hours per week,” says bar manager Maros Dzurus. They’re also offered training and education opportunities and discounts for chiropractors, dentists, gyms and psychologists.

A cheerful, upbeat restaurant probably doesn’t make good TV but it has to be a better place for the people inside the kitchen and those sitting at the tables.

Alanna Sapwell (right) at Beach Byron Bay

Freyja in Melbourne

Beau Brummell Introductions founders Vinko Anthony and Andrea Zaza, photo by Sealeybrandt.com

LOW-IMPACT RESTAURANTS

From the day it opened in late 2013, Dan Hunter built sustainability into Brae’s DNA (braerestaurant.com). The farm that services the restaurant at Birregurra in the Otways, southern Victoria, is entirely organic, the property’s accommodation is carbon-neutral and its kitchen uses water from the clouds and energy from the sun. This year, four electric vehicle chargers were installed and the cellar space is being updated to a more energyefficient cooling system, aiming to reduce carbon emissions. It is, like all green projects, an endless process. “We’re always making improvements,” says operations manager Julianne Bagnato. There’s no rest for the good.

Larrabetzu, Spain Azurmendi

Bioclimatic brilliance blends with beauty inside three-Michelin-starred Azurmendi (azurmendi.restaurant) near Bilbao (see our feature about the city on page 80). The brick-like glass building is packed with renewable technology: photovoltaic solar panels and geothermal climate-control systems. It even has a seed bank to preserve native seeds from the surrounding Basque region. If that sounds terribly scientific and dull, prepare to be surprised: a meal here begins with a visit to “the forest room”, where you’re plied with a whimsical picnic, and later includes dishes served in seashells or wrapped in roses.

3

Paris, France

La Table de Colette

You don’t need to investigate your meal’s green credentials at this sunshiney fine-diner near the Panthéon in the 5th arrondissement (latabledecolette.fr) because chef Josselin Marie takes pains to print details of its carbon footprint on each of the three-, five- or sevencourse set menus. Dishes brim with levity, such as carrot from Nantes with lemon carrot condiment and garum shaped like an autumnal tree or an Île-de-France leek croque monsieur topped with sardine sashimi sitting prettily beside a leek confit with cuttlefish ink.

1 Victoria Brae

2

Feel Joy

IN THE MOMENT

Immerse yourself in stunning multi-sensory art. Watch opera on a floating stage. Take a dip in the ocean then dance until dawn. It’s summer in Sydney – let go and live it up.

A fresh spin

Shining icons and secret coves – with a splash of salt water. Dilvin Yasa’s first sailing lesson on Sydney Harbour puts a thrilling new perspective on the Emerald City.

Head right!” a voice bellows over the flutter of sails as I twist the wheel, sending us skimming across the whitewash of passing ferries. This shoots a huge puff of sea spray into the blinding sunlight and I scream with joy. But before I can shout, “I’m doing this! I’m sailing this thing!”, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House glide into view and I’m stunned into silence. “You can see it every day and still never quite believe it’s real,” says George Fotoulis, the skipper aboard the 34-foot yacht I’ve chartered from EastSail (eastsail.com.au) in the harbourside suburb of Darling Point.

The gently creaking boom plays into the theatre of the moment as I tell Fotoulis it feels like the harbour is all mine. The skipper laughs. “Well, in that case, you’d better aim for the flags in the middle of your bridge and see what else we can discover.”

I’ve been promised the world before but Fotoulis is a captain of specifics. A long-time instructor (EastSail runs a sailing school in addition to skippered

and bareboat charters), he rattles off an enthusiastic list of what he can deliver in my four-hour hire. We could moor for the famous fish and chips at Doyles in Watsons Bay, go ashore for a sundappled walk through hidden swathes of harbourside bushland or leap right off the back of the boat to swim at any of the 30-odd sheltered coves along the east side of the harbour. But the thing that gives Fotoulis the biggest twinkle in his eye? Teaching novices like me to sail to any spot. “This is a ‘choose your own adventure’. You can trim the ropes, winch and really get involved — or just sit back and relax while I do all the work.”

We’re blessed with a postcard Sydney morning: water glistening and birdsong rising to regular crescendos. What we don’t have is any kind of wind. No matter; after I clumsily, happily navigate around the curve of Milsons Point and past Luna Park’s mad grin, we gently power north-east to Taylors Bay. This is one of Fotoulis’ secret spots, where the shallows are vivid green and flashing with silver fish. I drop the anchor, dangle my feet and let sunshine dry the salt on my skin. “George, me and the America’s Cup, what do you think?” I say. Fotoulis thinks it over. “I’ve definitely seen better,” he smiles. “But don’t give up practising.”

More epic nature adventures to have in Sydney

Hike the hotspots

Its official title might be the Hermitage Foreshore Walk but the scenic 1.8 kilometre coastal walk, which snakes its way along the Vaucluse shoreline to Nielsen Park in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, is more a tour of the city’s greatest highlights. Splash at secluded Milk Beach, which, facing due west, looks at the Harbour Bridge and gets the last light on a golden afternoon.

Kayak cruisy rivers

Explore the timeless treasures of the Hawkesbury with Hawkesbury River Kayaks (hawkesburyriverkayaks.com.au). Pick up your single or double kayak from Brooklyn and paddle to Jerusalem Bay

for a soothing dip or stop at one of the serene beaches for a picnic. After working up an appetite, park your vessel next to the motor yachts and trade up to a tablecloth and degustation menu at the picturesque Cottage Point Inn (cottagepointinn.com.au).

Swim in seclusion

Jibbon Beach, an 800-metre unpatrolled crescent in the Royal National Park , is just as popular with swimmers for its relatively calm waters (perfect for families) as it is with hikers keen to tackle the scenic 5.1 kilometre Jibbon Loop Track around the coast. Nearby, well-preserved Aboriginal rock engravings from the Dharawal people are said to be at least 2000 years old.

Turn. It. Up.

Dance under a disco ball of stars, eat where the playlist is as fun as the menu and then crash at the coolest new stays in town. Sydney is in holiday mode.

WHAT ’ S NEW

Get your sparkle on

On February 24, national treasure Courtney Act and singer Casey Donovan kick off celebrations for Sydney WorldPride (sydneyworldpride.com) at the family-friendly Live and Proud Opening Concert. Roll out a rug and dance on it. You’ll want to dress like a rainbow and grab a good spot to watch the Mardi Gras parade on Oxford Street on February 25. When the biggest LGBTQIA+ dance party Sydney’s ever seen brings international DJs to The Domain on February 26, you’ll leave it all on the (grassy) dance floor.

Go on a beach-to-art crawl

The Head On Photo Festival (November 4-20, headon.org.au) scatters world-class photography across surprising spots from Bondi Beach Pavilion to the sunken Reservoir Gardens in the boutique hub of Paddington. On Bondi’s promenade, look for Andrew Rovenko’s The Rocketgirl Chronicles, a moving capture of the small joys families found during lockdown.

A little walk onward, Sahat Zia Hero’s Rohingyatography will break your heart then fill it up with spirited portraits from inside Bangladesh’s largest refugee community.

Order opera alfresco

You can’t get a more Sydney occasion than watching Carmen (November 25-December 18, opera.org.au) under the stars before glamping for the night on UNESCO-listed Cockatoo Island. Want more? Handa Opera’s Madama Butterfly (sydneyoperahouse.com) will light up its floating Harbour stage with fireworks from March 24-April 23 2023.

Be wowed by Sydney Modern

A gleaming universe of glass and wide spaces, the Sydney Modern Project at the Art Gallery of NSW (artgallery.nsw.gov.au) – one of the biggest additions to the city’s cultural scene since the arrival of theOpera House almost 50 years ago

– opens on December 3. It’s a destination in itself, where you can stroll in an art garden and explore sculpture in a World War II naval oil tank transformed into a subterranean gallery. Nine Australian and international artists have created new multi-sensory pieces, some of a scale never before possible at AGNSW. Don’t miss the Yiribana Gallery of First Nations art and Waradgerie artist Lorraine Connelly-Northey’s Narrbong-galang work of salvaged metals. And Simryn Gill’s life-size rubbing of a palm tree that was cleared to make way for the new gallery is a show stopper.

Go with the festival flow

The Art Of Summer, the theme of Sydney Festival 2023 (sydneyfestival.org.au), drops more than a hint. From January 5-29, celebrations of imagination held across the city demand you think, dance and sing along with wild abandon. Standout events include Werk It, an eclectic combination of circus, comedy and cabaret (Seymour Centre, January 12-22), and Frida Kahlo:

BAC K I N TIME

The Life of an Icon (The Cutaway, Barangaroo, January 4-29), an immersive exhibition that takes you behind the artist’s works into her brilliant life. At Parramatta’s Riverside Theatre, be swept away by drumming and kora melodies with Afrique en Cirque (January 6-15).

Make it a date

The shiny new Allianz Stadium can pull a 42,500-strong crowd when acts such as Elton John (January) master the stage. And nobody’s eating cold pies. Gig grub has gone gourmet – you can order Dan Hong’s cult-favourite cheeseburger spring rolls from Ms G’s Noodles & Dumplings and cocktails made famous by Totti’s Bondi trattoria. Summer cricket more your speed? At the Sydney Cricket Ground for the T20 (November), fuel up with tasty slices of Vinnie’s Pizza and an ice-cold IPA from hip Newtown brewery Young Henrys.

Crack secret codes

Creativity washes through the heritagelisted wharves of the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct. Not only can you catch an incredible show – Sydney Theatre Company’s The Tempest, starring Richard Roxburgh, plays from November 15 to December 17 (sydneytheatre.com.au) – you can also go in search of hidden messages. There’s a Beethoven quote in wooden braille to find inside The Neilson concert hall and Morse code to decipher across Pier 2/3, home of the renowned Bell Shakespeare.

Find history hiding in plain sight

The Argyle Cut, a heritage-listed roadway carved into the sandstone spine that separates The Rocks from Millers Point, is more than 150 years old according to some history books. But look closer and it tells a story stretching back thousands of years. “This was a cave-like rock shelter, a temporary accommodation when families were fishing in Cadi Warrane [Circular Quay],” explains Dunghutti/Yuin elder Aunty Margret Campbell, who leads 90-minute Illi Langi (meaning “homeland”) The Rocks Aboriginal Dreaming walking tours (dreamtimesouthernx.com.au) along ancient songlines. “Their stories still emit from the cave wall itself – in red, black, yellow and white, our sacred colours.” Learn about sacred birthing pools, the men’s ceremonial site behind the Opera House and a whale engraving nestled beneath the cliff at Hickson Reserve.

Sneak in an epic snorkel

“It surprises even locals that you can be on the Corso in one of the cafés or pubs and then disappear into this incredibly peaceful, tropical-coloured underwater landscape,” says Damien McClellan from EcoTreasures (ecotreasures.com.au), which runs tours of Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve in Manly. “After a 30-minute guided walk through the headland, spotting native coastal birds and, from May to November, humpback whales, we go straight from the beach to explore rocky reefs, beds of kelp, seagrass and pale sand where more than 160 species have been recorded.” Keep your eyes peeled for the endangered Blue Groper fish.

Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve

GO D E

Duck down Spice Alley

Tucked in close to Central Park shopping and the unmissable White Rabbit Gallery of Chinese art (whiterabbitcollection.org), Spice Alley (spicealley.com.au) is a hawker-style cornucopia. Brightly coloured dumplings from Shanghai Dumpling Bar are delicious Instagram bait and you’ll find Alex Lee’s Hainanese Chicken Rice is among the best this side of Singapore.

Eat with your ears

Rekōdo Restaurant & Vinyl Bar (barangaroohouse.com.au/rekodo), Matt Moran’s nod to the listening bars of post-war Tokyo, spins a playlist of Japanese dishes (try the delicious Miso Dengaku) and ginger-sake gimlets while some of Australia’s best DJs work the decks. Donny Benét is playing until November 12 and Lazywax is in the house November 15-December 11.

Taste a legend

Toko (toko-sydney.com), the beloved Sydney dining institution, is back. The slick George Street, CBD, digs are new but favourites such as the tempura bug and Hiramasa kingfish are still on the menu.

Upgrade to the full Italian

All four levels of Hinchcliff House (hinchcliffhouse.com), a heritage sandstone ex-wool store in the CBD, embrace Italian-style hospitality with a kiss on both cheeks. At ground floor, Grana perfects pesto parmesan-filled donuts and house-made pasta. Hit up laneway eatery Bar Mammoni for spritzes and what might be Sydney’s best sandwich, a delicate rectangular croissant stuffed with fluffy ricotta, thick-cut mortadella and salsa verde. You’ll have to choose between luscious beef flank and Murray cod at chic Lana restaurant – so go with someone who won’t mind sharing. Then descend into a “Sicilian bandits’ drinking den” at underground Apollonia bar for amaro highballs and vino from the homeland.

Spice Alley, Grana

W H ERE T O E AT

Drink at a winery with no vines

Natural winemaker Doom Juice’s summer cellar door (161 Princes Highway, St Peters) pours its organic, vegan Gewürztraminer, rosé and lively rouge in a neon-lit garage. It’s inner-west edgy (look for the demon graffiti mural) and the snacks are all class: a rotation of chefs from restaurants such as Cafe Paci and Sagra are cooking on Sundays.

Stay out late

Bar hopping across the city’s late-night playground is virtually a necessity on balmy jasmine-scented nights. Start at velvet-draped basement bar Alice (thisisalice.com.au) at The Rocks – a Tickled Pink cocktail mixing strawberry-infused gin with finger lime is a perfect kickstarter. In Surry Hills, Bar Conte (340 Riley Street, Surry Hills, 02 7254 1170) stirs up 20 different takes on the Negroni. Came to dance? Pick your night at live music mecca Mary’s Underground (marysunderground.com): jazz, grunty guitars or smooth soul pumps until the wee hours.

Go glam pool or sleek urban cool

Slick rooms at Ace Hotel Sydney (acehotel.com) come with a buzzy lobby that’s made for people watching. And wood-fired restaurant Kiln, the latest venture from ex-Acme superstar Mitch Orr, has just opened on the roof. More of a pool-lounge lizard? Oxford House (oxfordhouse.com.au) in Paddington’s shopping precinct is an Amalfi-accented oasis with a chic courtyard pool and bar.

S TAYS

T O P D R O P S

Smart

“A live show is always something special. The communality you feel is really nourishing, for the artist and everyone in the room in a space like Oxford Art Factory. I love how the Sydney scene has so many niches. You can get a drink, play arcade games, then see a gig at True Romance small bar in Newtown – and the food’s amazing. I see a lot of comedy at the Factory Theatre in Marrickville. The city’s indie artists always have something going on.”

Chris Chen

Montaigne’s new album making it! is out now

Montaigne, Sydney singer-songwriter

Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst, Sydney

FEEL LIKE IT’S YOUR FIRST WAVE

Freshwater

Ready, set, go!

London

The Big Smoke is firing on all cylinders. Eat in London’s hot new diner, get lost in immersive art installations and live large in Leicester Square. Here are the places to know before you go…

Stay like a VIP in the West End

Secure a seat at London’s coolest eatery

Walking into this grand dining room, a historic courthouse with distressed pastel-hued plaster walls and dramatic arched windows, is like stumbling upon a Tuscan secret in central London. Cinematics aside, the menu at Sessions Arts Club (sessionsartsclub.com) in Clerkenwell sees a tight selection of seasonal produce plated with Italian nuances and British sensibility. You’ll find rings of confit squid, calamarata pasta in a soupy tomato sauce and slices of cured sea bream in a fig leaf oil. Pair it with a Mirabelle plum bellini (or two) and enjoy.

It’s bold to name a hotel after the city you’re in but The Londoner (thelondoner.com) is just that. The Leicester Square hotel has a collection of five bars and restaurants to choose from alongside The Residence, which features three spaces just for hotel guests (including the marble-adorned Y Bar and plush Whisky Room).

Experience infinity at Tate Modern

Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama’s installations transport you into a world of boundless reflections at London’s Tate Modern (tate.org.uk). In Infinity Mirrored Room – Filled with the Brilliance of Life, visitors wander along a walkway of mirrored tiles, surrounded by shallow water, as hundreds of multicoloured LEDs beam kaleidoscopic reflections. The exhibition runs until August 2023, with bookings open until April 2023.

Pack more into your trip with Qantas Travel Money – the card that’s made for travel

1. Ready

Did you know your Qantas Frequent Flyer card is also your prepaid Qantas Travel Money Card? To activate it – or order a new one – visit qantastravelmoney.com

2. Set

Use the currency converter to view competitive exchange rates. Lock and load your exchange rates for up to 10 foreign currencies, with easy, fee-free load options.

3. Go!

You’re ready to go. Pack your Qantas Travel Money card and use it in-store, online and at ATMs, everywhere Mastercard® is accepted.

Results that are sky-high

With the largest commercial property portfolio auctions in Australia, we attract buyers from all over the world. If you’re on a journey to create wealth, we will sell your commercial property faster, and get you more.

What will your home look like?

What will make you go to the office?

Where will people gather?

And how will everyone be included?

Six designers show us the future.

by Rachel Lees

I F E R E I M AG I N E D

E N E W W O R L D

INTERIOR DESIGN

Sydney-based interior designer Yasmine Saleh Ghoniem launched her multi-disciplinary studio YSG in 2020 and has made Europe Architectural Digest ’s AD100 list, which recognises the world’s most influential designers. She foresees natural materials and virtual reality screens in the homes of the new world.

Photography by Prue Ruscoe Styling by Felicity Ng

The Budge Over Dover project by YSG, in Dover Heights, Sydney

Our vision of the future has always tended to be sleek, minimal. But that hasn’t fully eventuated. What do you think interiors will look like in the future?

The Zoomer generation is absorbed by the digital world, which is delivered to them via their smartphones and laptops. The challenge will be to bring the digital world into their physical space. For example, TV screens could disappear as homes incorporate 360-degree sound and vision. In the next 20 years, rather than classifying rooms by type, such as study or living room, they’ll be more adaptable. For instance, internal walls – except for bedrooms and bathrooms – could be removed to allow one living space, which expands and contracts using screens. These screens could be fitted with virtual reality technology, which allows people to change the décor to suit a purpose or mood.

What excites you about the future in your field?

The way we live is going to alter more dramatically than it did during my parents’ lifetime. Millennials and Zoomers are constantly updating, which is an expensive approach to furnishing a home. I imagine that designers will release virtual editions of their designs on the digital marketplace.

We’ll create digital furniture as single pieces or as packages that might include a rug, table, chairs and an uplight. These designs would be projected onto neutral furniture bases.

What’s the number one thing that influences interiors?

Given our home containment in recent years, interior designers and travel magazines on Instagram and TikTok have been our pandemic bibles. But now it’s all about real-time travel, which will be reflected in our interiors

– they might take on an adventurous flare. Perhaps we’ll see nomadic tents and Turkish poufs popping up everywhere next year… Hopefully in the future, the word “trend” is no longer part of design language. Instead, we’ll see interiors being more personality-driven and influenced by people’s own unique histories and stories.

Social media can lead to homogenisation, which fits with the sci-fi vision of the future. How do you encourage individuality?

I always start with a client’s story to get a sense of who they are and then we look at how they’d like to translate that into their homes. One client had a collection of textiles from her

travels over the years and that gave us a strong starting point for her design… What makes an interior unique and timeless is making it personal to the client.

What’s emerging now in interiors?

Wall finishes that push the envelope – wallpaper with strong patterns and textural finishes and coloured Venetian plaster and limewash walls. Venetian plaster creates an instantly worn-in look that plays with light, while limewash surfaces have a matt depth that makes you feel cocooned in a room. Collecting art is on the rise as galleries with more accessible price lists pop up. And so is retro futurism, which is about taking something from the past and giving it a modern spin, similar to how Samsung’s The Frame turned televisions into wall art when they’re not turned on.

What about colour? What’s on the horizon?

The 1970s chocolate-brown is back, baby. But don’t expect clichéd pairings – like marigold shag carpets – to come with it. In the past year, classic forest-greens have been prevalent, particularly in marble, so I’m expecting jewel tones, such as amethyst and chartreuse, to come next.

Are the materials you use changing?

Right now, natural materials reign. Most of my residential projects incorporate custom-made joinery and furnishings, from marble coffee tables to feature lights made from poplar burl timber. The organic inconsistency of natural materials is what makes them special and poplar burl has a beautiful veneer that works well with light; it has a sense of translucency to it. I like to go off-piste with how I incorporate certain materials, such as tiles that creep out of bathrooms and climb walls or cover tabletops. I also love the robustness of external finishes and applying them in less conventional ways to create a seamless indoor-outdoor space, which makes rooms appear larger.

People generally see the choices for interiors falling into two categories – bespoke or mass market. Is there a middle ground?

Vintage, retro and newer second-hand pieces are a great way to go. It’s convenient to hunt online using websites like Etsy, which is an entry-level outlet, or 1stDibs for premium items. Never feel intimidated by what you don’t know. Befriend your local second-hand furniture dealers and explain what you’re looking for. They’ll call you when something comes in.

The 1906 Apartment (opposite) and Dream Weaver (above) projects by YSG, both in Darlinghurst, Sydney

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Renowned designer Patricia Moore has worked with NASA, Boeing and Whirlpool during a career spanning almost five decades. The recipient of the 2022 World Design Medal, Moore says products should be accessible to all, regardless of identity, age or ability – and that the future of design lies in personalisation and empathy.

The best design shouldn’t be something that screams at you.

“Good design surrounds us from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep at night, including the bed we sleep on. It should be a constant support and not a frustration or, even worse, something that harms you. It’s looking at every element and asking, ‘How can I make this easier? Safer? How can I make this person happier by what we come up with as a solution?’”

All people are equal and design must address equity first.

“The future of design will be assuring all people that they’ll have a quality life. Sam Farber, the founder of OXO Good Grips, was a wonderful mentor. His wife had arthritis in her hands but she adored cooking so I suggested we think of people who wanted the best peeler but not to have trouble with arthritis. When we

designed OXO Good Grips, the kitchen utensils that have become icons for accessibility and usability, we also designed a different line at a lower price point. It isn’t just arthritis that affects people; sometimes the pain is in the pocketbook. Making a solution that costs less money is another way to be inclusive by design.”

Design will help the planet survive.

“In the past 10 years we’ve seen the addition of the CDO, the chief design officer, to the C-suite. Companies are realising designers don’t just pick colours and make things look pretty; they’re meant to drive the entire agenda of a company. Design is the heart and soul of every product on the planet and design will have a lion’s share in helping the planet survive. What we saw at the start of the pandemic was the systemic failure of getting products into place – that we didn’t have enough face masks. The lack of forethought is appalling and can only be fixed by design.”

Design will become highly personalised.

“The mass market is dwindling quickly and we’re going to see more and more personalisation. The better we get in the digital realm, the easier it’s going to be for someone to pick out exactly the clothing or footwear that they want. They’ll have AI [artificial intelligence] presence within their household that helps them determine the best fridge and cooker, you name it.”

Design should address wealth imbalance.

“Rents are going through the roof and first-time home buyers are having a difficult time. The imbalance of riches is horrific and something design should address more aggressively. We’re already seeing wonderful examples, companies that if you buy a pair of socks from them, they donate a pair to a homeless shelter. When startups and entrepreneurs show large corporations how it should be done, there’s hope.”

The next generation has a more humane agenda. “I’ve been speaking to students in the past couple of years about dignity by design and that resonates with this next generation of designers. We have so many ‘tent cities’ in the United States, in all of our major cities, because people can’t afford housing. The IKEA Foundation came up with brilliant flat-pack emergency housing that has locks on doors and air filtration and is a much safer temporary home. This is where design has a serious, humane, holistic agenda.”

Manufacturers must make appliances that can be repaired.

“At the start of the pandemic, grandparents featured with their grandchildren on social media, showing how they stretched a dollar during the Great Depression. It was a charming recognition of the wisdom of our elders, who came from an era without a great deal of technology, where everything was done by hand. Darning socks and putting patches on the elbows of sweaters was a way of living. Now, with the passing of laws in the European Union, manufacturers have to make appliances that can be repaired instead of going into landfill – that’s going back to the past for the future, which is brilliant.”

The opposite of good design is fashion.

“I love having cooking programs on in the background. Recently, a chef was being interviewed and the interviewer asked, ‘In your own kitchen, do you have air fryers and bread machines?’ And he said, ‘Oh no, every few years the industry comes up with some goofy gizmo that everyone starts buying.’

And I thought, bashfully, ‘I bought an air fryer.’ Design can be separated from decoration. Design that’s just fashion is something that’s fun in our lives but it’s also something that we don’t necessarily need.”

New materials drive innovation.

“I’m all about the circular economy; I don’t like landfills and I don’t think they should exist. We should be composting our junk and I don’t just mean the scraps from the kitchen. I thrill at reclaimed materials – anything that we can do with all the plastic waste in our environment. Half of my portfolio is based on a company saying, “We have this new material and we don’t know what to make with it.” Material science has driven so much innovation and creativity and will continue to do so.”

HOTEL DESIGN

THE BRIEF

With more than 200 hotels to his name, including Capella Ubud, crowned the world’s best hotel in 2020, Bangkok-based American architect and interior designer Bill Bensley has long been a force for change in the hotel design industry. His vision for the future is every bit as surprising and refreshing as his work.

“Luxury is dead,” says Bill Bensley, whose hotel projects objectively occupy that space. “There’s no point in designing lavish hotels just to put heads on beds. Every project should have a purpose and a candle to light.”

Far from paying lip service to this idea, he seeks out – and funds – such projects; a stay at his Shinta Mani Wild eco-camp helps to protect the Cambodian rainforest and its endangered wildlife. “It’s not an issue for our guests to spend $2000 or $3000 per person per night. Their hobbies are collecting art and philanthropy so they’re looking for places in which to help.”

In the near future, Bensley wants hotel designers, owners and operators to contribute more. “Big hotel companies are part of nature and society, too, not just the economy. We should shoulder more responsibility concerning issues like education, clean accessible water and conservation.”

Technology is, as ever, changing the face of hotels, with electric-car charging stations, full-length mirrors that broadcast in-room fitness classes and fully automated rooms already a reality. While Bensley is reluctant to predict the next must-have gadget in hotel rooms, he does see a line he’d rather not cross. “I read so much science fiction about plugging into people’s brains. That’s a bit scary so I don’t want to go there.”

While recycling, minimal food waste and zero single-use plastics are now expected in high-end hospitality, the industry is only starting its sustainability journey. Bensley hopes to see hotels “prioritise reduction and reuse over recycling” and his Shinta Mani properties in Cambodia lead by example. “Systems have been set up to eradicate plastic in our entire supply chain. It wasn’t easy at first but it’s doable.”

He says plastic water bottles could be replaced by bottling facilities – “the payback of such an investment is less than 14 months” – and there’s scope to better manage food waste. “A huge number of hotels do not compost, instead throwing out cuttings and wasting perfectly good compostable materials,” says the architect and designer, whose next project (on Nusa Penida, an island south-east of Bali) aims to raise the bar once again. “We’re building the world’s first 100 per cent upcycled hotel.”

(Previous pages and above) Shinta Mani Wild eco-camp in the Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia

Bensley argues that we need to return to more traditional ways of building, combined with new energy. “We should be going back to the way we used to do things because it made sense and it worked,” he says. “A simple idea is to design rooms that have natural light coming into the space from two sides, which saves energy.”

Hotels that integrate solar panels into their architecture can generate enough power to run the whole resort and save up to 35 per cent on heating, lighting and more. Bensley’s designs often allow for cross-ventilation. “Airconditioning is the biggest consumer of energy in most hotels, at about 32 per cent. The sexiest hotel rooms are only partially air-conditioned.”

Two hotels come close to perfection, he says, thanks to designs that work with the landscape and unique experiences. “The interiors of Huka Lodge in New Zealand are beautifully local and I like how interior designer Virginia Fisher brought light and air to the bathrooms. Also, I’m a big fisherman and outside your door there are two fly rods. You pad down the lawn and throw in a line. That’s paradise to me.”

The other is Hoshinoya Kyoto in Japan. “It’s a ryokan with 25 rooms. You arrive by boat, puttering up this crystal-clear river. It’s magical.” Every room in the hotel is different. “There was a conscious effort not to build what is traditional but to take it further with colour, simplification and sculpture – and the Japanese attention to detail is bar none.”

Hoshinoya Kyoto ryokan, Japan (top) and Huka Lodge in Taupō, New Zealand (above)

Many businesses are investing the savings they’re making from reducing their office space into the health and wellbeing of their staff, including improving their WFH conditions.

The perfect set-up

The right office furniture can boost employee wellbeing and reduce business risk.

Working from home (WFH) is now deeply entrenched in our vocabulary and our lives, which means home set-ups are just as crucial as office workstations. WFH is now the norm for many of us.

Providing stylish and affordable ergonomic furniture at home for your WFH team is not just about showing how much you value them – it’s a risk-mitigation imperative for your business.

Work health and safety obligations apply equally to staff when they WFH as they do in the office, says lawyer Nicola Martin, a partner in the Labour and Employment Practice Group at Squire Patton Boggs. “The home environment should be seen as an extension of the office environment, with properly setup workstations. Furniture can also emulate the company’s culture and

standards of working, providing high-quality, productive spaces.”

From a risk perspective, Nicola warns that workers compensation claims for WFH-associated injuries are already on the rise. Many relate to injuries caused by poor posture, muscle strain and RSI, the result of desk set-ups that are simply not fit for purpose. “At a minimum, employers should have WFH policies in place, including health and safety checklists.”

The workstation set-up – even if it’s just a desk and chair – is both the biggest potential risk and the simplest thing to fix. Many businesses are investing the savings they’re making from reducing their office space into the health and wellbeing of their staff, including improving their WFH conditions.

Maxton at Home’s manufacturing partner has been making furniture in Australia for more than 50 years and its team of manufacturing and design experts has paid particular attention to the needs of the WFH world. Sustainability is a core consideration, minimising waste across production in its Sydney factory. The company’s Furniture as a Service (FAAS) enables managers to choose rental or purchase-outright solutions from the WFH range, with rental prices starting from the price of a coffee a day for a stylish ergonomic set-up.

Employees won’t have to deal with the frustration of flat-pack set-ups, either. Maxton at Home’s trained installers deliver and assemble all the furniture on site, tuning it to fit the ergonomic requirements of each user.

Switched-on leaders are prioritising supporting healthy WFH set-ups today, rather than waiting for workers comp claims tomorrow.

Work from home better with Maxton at Home www.maxtonathome.com

ARCHITECTURE

Dillon Kombumerri (c. 2000) by Penny Tweedie. National Portrait Gallery of Australia. Gift of the artist 2004. © Estate of Penny Tweedie.

Where we build our homes is as important as the materials we use, says Dillon Kombumerri, a principal design adviser for the Government Architect NSW. A Yugembir man who grew up on Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island), Kombumerri says we need to start working with First Nations Australians if we want our homes and communities to survive and thrive.

“A lot of housing and construction strategies in Australia come from Europe or the colonial motherland [England] and those systems developed because they are relevant to those places. We are starting to consider that as a people of Australia, we want to truly belong here. This plays out in the way we design buildings.

There have been dramatic climatic and seasonal shifts over the past hundred – and thousand – years but there’s something afoot in recent radical climate change events. We have to fundamentally shift what we’re doing and building and how we source materials.

Our approach to this will change in the next 10 to 15 years. Timber isn’t as long-lasting as a brick and if the brick is sourced locally, yes, more energy goes into making it but it’s around for longer. It also depends on the application. An institutional or public building is likely to be around for a long time so it makes sense to use a resilient material. Whereas constructions with a shorter life might use a material that can be turned over more quickly.

New synthesised materials are emerging. An incredibly strong bonding material from Country is resin, which was used to bind flints to spear sticks. There’s research into bonding resin with synthetic materials to produce stronger latexes, for example. That sort of application, using cultural knowledge and science, creates innovative materials that could fill in concrete when it cracks. With technology, we’re on the edge of creating self-repairing materials.

Country has to be the foundation of all of our actions and we need to work together with First Nations peoples. The knowledge they hold of our weather cycles puts them in a unique position to address these challenges. Being led by First Nations communities means solutions that work for this place.

One of those solutions is cultural burning. Dramatic backburning shocks Country, overstimulates it and can encourage the next wildfire to be more severe. Cultural burning helps to reduce combustibility. The same applies to flooding. Homes are built on wetlands and prevent water from soaking in or moving across the land. Water is diverted and blocked, leading to more severe flooding.

We’re not going to stop floods or fire in Australia so we have to understand those natural events and work smarter with them.

It’s easy for me and others to say, “Don’t build in these areas”, but I understand that when people have bought properties there, it’s difficult to move. Their social networks are set up in these places.

Design industry awards consider appearance to be design excellence but we should acknowledge work that’s in harmony with the natural environment. We also need to take only what we need, not cater to every want. There’s been overdevelopment of domestic settings – McMansions with 10 bedrooms and four-car garages for one couple – beyond what anyone needs.

Wealth building is often to the detriment of our environment and has brought us to this important junction – we are part of the natural environment and if it suffers, we suffer. Where housing should go, in the near future and beyond, is more environmentallyfriendly. We need to think about how materials are sourced and if they’re renewable, how we store and use water, manage waste and how we can use natural systems for cross ventilation. We need houses that don’t rely on mechanical systems as much.

Housing design affects our social behaviour; our interconnectivity with nature and one another. You see walls and fences going up higher. When communities drive cars everywhere, they’re not connecting with their neighbourhood and the social fabric suffers. Beyond offering shade and moderating heat, verandahs are important for social conditioning and connection. In places where there are verandahs and low fences, where people walk to the shops and school, they say hello to one another and make incidental connections – that’s a strong community.”

WORKPLACE DESIGN

Could working from home and the office be the hybrid recipe for more satisfied and productive staff? It can be, according to workplace designer Bianca Hung, a director at Melbournebased architecture practice Hayball – if you get these essentials right.

THE BRIEF

The corporate office as we knew it has changed. And hybrid isn’t going anywhere. “There’s real value in having a workplace,” says Bianca Hung, “but you want it to feel comfortable and inviting.”

Tech giant Google famously took that concept to the extreme as far back as the early 2000s, offering free breakfast, lunch and dinner (including goodies in special snack rooms), on-site gyms and laundry facilities. But the come-to-the-office-and-never-leave model lost its lustre. “In some ways it was luring people to stay at work much longer. It was less focused on staff wellbeing and connection. Now it’s more about creating spaces that support people, while accepting there’s going to be movement in and out. But what you can’t replace is people and community.”

Different industries have their own unique requirements but there’s one universal design element that encourages connection and collaboration. “Pre-COVID there was a focus on lobbies and breakout spaces and as we move forward, there’s going to be more focus on shared spaces – be it a reception area where employees can have a coffee with colleagues in a less formal setting or a café or kitchen space that allows people to heat their food and sit together at a large communal table.”

Technology will collate data on how spaces are performing, she adds. “Sensors can read air quality and how people are using the spaces, which will inform how design might progress or encourage companies to use an area differently.”

Workplaces that are carbon-neutral, environmentally responsible and using green energy are important to employees.

“Having smart systems that adjust to occupation or register if the outdoor temperature means we can turn off the air-conditioning and open the windows is important because it goes hand-in-hand with sustainability and wellbeing.”

We’ve known the benefits of healthy workplaces for decades. Research in 2003 identified 15 studies that linked improved air quality with an 8 to 11 per cent increase in productivity. Another study showed that workers who had window views of nature felt less frustrated, more patient and reported better health than those who didn’t. And of the businesses that implemented healthy building features, 69 per cent reported improvements in employee satisfaction and engagement.

“Brighter spaces connected to views of nature are highly desirable but if you can’t have that, have excellent lighting, air quality, plants and warm materials. I hate to say this word but it should feel like ‘home’,” says Hung. Or perhaps a hotel? “Absolutely, you want hotels to be like an extension of your home but there’s something extra that makes you want to go there, like an amazing lobby bar or restaurant or the bathrooms are luxurious.

“For a workplace, you want your spaces to feel considered and premium. I don’t think offices are going to look drastically different in 2030 but what will progress is how the spaces can become more flexible and underline the company’s values. It’s not about creating a workplace that is your home but one that’s comfortable and inviting. It’s just delineating between those spaces.”

LIMINAL SPACE

From New York’s High Line to Zaryadye Park, Moscow’s first new public park in 50 years, American architect Charles Renfro has helped create some of the world’s most noteworthy public spaces. At New York design studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro, he’s leading the design of Adelaide’s Tarrkarri Centre for First Nations Cultures and says the future of liminal spaces is egalitarian and rooted in our past.

Liminal space is a threshold or in-between space. An airport is a liminal space. But it’s also the realm of public space and space that doesn’t demand you use or understand it in any particular way; it’s open to interpretation by visitors and isn’t owned by anyone. A lot of what our built environment is and what architects do is for people with specific levels of money or education and that’s what we’re trying not to do.

For a space to be usable by all requires a certain level of accessibility. Liminal space needs to be designed for everyone so people who have impairments with hearing, sight, touch, motion or mobility can access it. While we think of the High Line as a park, it’s also a space experience in the form of acoustics, heat and coolness, breeze and stasis, sound and especially smell because we use plants that have blooms. What we tried to do is make delight out of the everyday and universally appreciated conditions that everybody can take pleasure in.

Public spaces are combatants to problems we’re often not aware of. With COVID-19 we’ve all been stuck in our own spaces and fed

the media we’ve inadvertently chosen to be fed. Our lives have become increasingly privatised and commodified. [The past two years have] shown our need for community, for being together, which also breeds tolerance and awareness of others – things that have been in short supply lately. Spaces of collectivity that are owned by the people they serve are everyone’s place and that’s very different to our modern condition of social media and online shopping.

Maybe the future is actually the past. The things we’ve enjoyed in our public realm have been consistent for thousands of years. In Western culture, we’ve had a tradition of public space since the Forum in Rome or the Metropolis in Greece and those are still some of the most delightful spaces to be in. The ingredients of shared space have been around for a long time and I don’t think the basics will change that much. But the things that we bring to those spaces – smartphones, photography and, in the future, augmented reality [AR] – will inevitably impact the way people use shared spaces.

Liminal spaces should not be privatised, even in our way of engaging with them. You see it when people get to particularly photo-worthy places. Rather than stand there and enjoy them, they pull out their smartphones and take selfies to demonstrate they’ve been there, as opposed to actually experiencing the place; they’re trying to make them into their own image. That’s something we need to combat in making future liminal spaces. AR could offer a deeper understanding of places and their history, which is another way of generating empathy and curiosity and assists in making society more tolerant and inclusive.

I’m intrigued by marketplaces in Middle Eastern cities, which balance commerce with openness and civic engagement. I also love national parks in America – they’re not built worlds necessarily but spaces that are welcoming to everyone and they’re spectacular. I’ve come across more people of different opinions in national parks than I’ve ever met in New York City. For that reason, natural attractions are a model of how we could get together and share and be with each other in spaces that aren’t thought to be controlled by anyone.

We should make sure the streets and sidewalks stay ours. There was controversy in New York when sidewalk sheds for dining became legalised during COVID-19 because a lot of people considered them to be privatisation of the public realm. But another thing they did was pull the elitist commercial activity that happens behind doors out of that rarefied space into the liminal space of the city. The design of these sheds could be atrocious and they’re havens for rats but they enlivened the city and made it feel more democratic. We should look at what made them successful and whether we want to take that into our future environment.

Courtesy of Diller, Scofidio + Renfro/ Photography by Iwan Baan

You must be a Qantas Frequent Flyer to earn and use Qantas Points. A joining fee may apply. Membership and points are subject to the Qantas Frequent Flyer program Terms and Conditions. Card products referred to are not Qantas products and not offered or issued by Qantas but by the relevant Card partners. The applicable Card Partner is the credit provider and credit licensee under the National Consumer Credit laws. Points are offered by the relevant Card partner and partner reward program and can only be earned on eligible purchases. Bonus points amounts offered are different for each credit card. Minimum spend, credit criteria, terms, conditions, fees and charges may apply. International flights remain subject to Government and Regulatory approval. Before booking and before departure, ensure you check qantas.com/travelupdates for the latest travel requirements.

COLLABORATION. IT’S HOW TO MAKE A LOW-CARBON LAPTOP.

SABIC bio-based polymers may help reduce the environmental footprint of electronic devices. Electronic devices are always improving. But today, innovation must be accompanied by sustainability. SABIC is working with manufacturers to create bio-based polymers that may reduce the carbon footprint of laptops and phones without compromising on performance. Chemistry that Matters™ is helping the next generation of smart devices to be sustainable by design.

Meet one of the world’s leading chemical companies at SABIC.com/collaboration

AI, hydrogen, big data, the metaverse, fintech, robots and space.

There are more questions than answers.

But one thing’s for sure.

Life as we know it will be so very different…

Compiled by Alison Boleyn, Natalie Filatoff and Jane Nicholls

L I F E R E I M AG I N E D TH E N E W W O R L D

Deepfake technology is getting very good. Free, open-source software Faceswap and DeepFaceLab allow even amateur bad guys to knock up something convincing. “Shallowfakes” – real videos posted with only tiny edits or a misleading context – are even easier to make and harder to debunk; AI can reverse-engineer manipulated pictures and videos but it can’t spot a false narrative.

MIT researchers say fake news travels six times faster than real news on Twitter, even when bots are removed from the dataset. Yet bots proliferate in order to bury genuine debate. The AI language algorithm GPT-3 can so effectively generate “one-tomany” disinformation – short, persuasive lies that read like human speech and go gangbusters on social media – that Georgetown University researchers recommend anyone battling disinformation should focus their energies on identifying fake accounts rather than trying to work out which messages are machine-made.

Agents of disinformation have increasingly sophisticated tech. Countering that will be a more human endeavour.

Use simple tools

You can hunt for photographs’ origins with a Google reverse image search (or keyframe search for video). Online EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) tools show the date and location a photograph was shot, if its metadata hasn’t been wiped. Facebook has human fact-checkers to assess material but there are calls for verification tools within the platform so users can investigate it themselves.

Have sound judgement

The First Nations Voice to Parliament and climate change are on the radar for Information Futures Lab, a Brown University body that researches misinformation. Its APAC director, Anne Kruger, advises organisations to pre-empt issues, educate community leaders and social influencers and keep a library of imagery and

videos to prove any future deepfakes are wrong. “Have the quality information on hand so you can slow down misinformation or stop it,” says the former journalist. Be careful not to amplify. “Particular voices will use you as a gateway to more followers.”

Keep it real

Research following this year’s federal election showed 91 per cent of respondents trust the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) to deliver a safe, secure result – higher than after the 2019 poll. Success came from a reputation management strategy, says electoral commissioner Tom Rogers, which included media briefings by state and outlet, a “stop and consider” campaign, a focus on tight operations and a social media strategy that “wherever there was misinformation, gently correcting the record” in a voice that forewent bureaucratic language for something cheekier. (When one Twitter user accused the AEC of being corrupt, it replied, “Are not.”)

“I still have friends in business who say, ‘Social media doesn't matter,’” says Rogers. “The key point is it matters to those who do matter: journalists, politicians and other influence-setters.”

“Put your social media manager in a very highly regarded position,” says Kruger. “It’s not just pushing out messages. It’s keeping watch on how those might be misused and abused.”

Focus on the bigger picture

Thwarting misinformation in the future, says Kruger, won’t be about disproving individual stories but a wider internet literacy. University of Queensland lecturer John Cook designed a free online course in how to detect common disinformation tactics. “Inoculation theory means if you expose people to a bit of misinformation and show them how the techniques work, they’re like, ‘Aha!’” says Kruger. “Next time they see something, they might just think about it a little before they dive in.”

Space is a key enabler of the modern economy, thanks to the Global Positioning System (GPS), which relies on 31 satellites that keep time for the world. “When you tap your credit card to pay for a coffee, the timing from GPS signals enables those transactions,” says Enrico Palermo, head of the Australian Space Agency. “You’re using space.”

He says that space will help us address some of our greatest challenges, including climate change. “Many of the variables used in climate models can only be observed from space.”

On top of that, there are numerous applications where space technology can make operations safer and more efficient. “In the next five to 10 years, we’ll see incredible opportunities for all businesses to use satellite data to improve productivity.

“Satellite technology enables precision agriculture, for example. Hyperspectral sensors on satellites allow you to analyse wavelengths of light. There are different signatures in a plant when it’s healthy or when it’s not so you can assess the health of your crops.” Farmers can study, in detail and remotely, which areas need more or less water or fertiliser and use GPS to operate robots to autonomously do the hard yakka in the field.

Palermo also sees immense opportunity for SMEs to carve out a slice of the $12-billion space industry the federal government

has forecast will be in action in Australia by 2030, along with 20,000 new jobs. “Rather than an agricultural or mining company becoming specialists in geospatial data, SMEs and innovative startups in Australia are packaging space data into products. A tremendous amount of Earth Observation [EO] data already exists.” Savvy tech entrepreneurs are searching for ready-to-use solutions that can be built using this data, whether it’s monitoring remote assets or managing agricultural crops more effectively.

The Australian Space Agency’s flagship Moon to Mars Trailblazer program puts our nation at the centre of space exploration. “We’re supporting NASA’s Artemis mission to return to the moon, Mars and beyond. It’s also about creating a future workforce and hightechnology jobs here, including in advanced robotics.”

Stage one of the Trailblazer program is a $50-million project to design, build and operate a semi-autonomous rover. “This rover will go to the moon, collect some lunar soil – regolith – and move it to a plant where NASA will assess if it can extract oxygen. If you can extract oxygen from the regolith, it will help with a permanent presence on the moon and to use it as a leaping-off platform to explore the rest of the solar system.”

NASA’s SLS rocket, part of the Artemis mission to the moon

NASA KSC

Could a cyber attack be coming for your business?

Disruption is the new positive force for change. But while innovators are breaking ground, they may be leaving themselves open to cyber attack.

As the pace of innovation continues to accelerate, cyber criminals are not only keeping up – they’re thriving. Hackers are hitting businesses and entrepreneurs in increasingly sophisticated attacks timed to cause the most commercial, economic and strategic damage possible.

“It’s thought that more than $33 billion was lost to cyber criminals last year alone, with the prevalence of ransomware attacks up nearly 15 per cent year on year,” says Grant Walsh, senior manager, Strategy & Consulting, at CyberCX, an end-to-end cyber-resilience provider.

“The professional, scientific and technical services sectors were the hardest hit but it’s not just the big players they’re going after. Cyber criminals cast a wide net so if you’re

making any buzz, they will look at what they can get out of you.”

This means businesses in the value creation phase are often targeted. “It’s when the next revolutionary idea is just starting to crystallise. Theft or ransom of coveted intellectual property in this phase can greatly diminish the benefits of innovation, destroy a company’s competitive edge and take advantage of their consumers.”

The nature of breaking through barriers to create something new is that you move into territory where risks are not well understood. “Often this means that cyber-security measures are bolted on after a new product or service is in the market. You’ve been left exposed early on, meaning your security uplift becomes expensive and increasingly complex.”

Walsh says that companies that start by asking how attractive their innovation would be to cyber criminals – whose business is to extort and destroy other businesses – will have the upper hand. “At CyberCX, we help businesses identify and test vulnerabilities and build a security policy suite that makes their big idea or product secure.”

However, a cyber-security strategy can’t be one-size-fits-all. A strong cyber-security capability is one tailored to protect against ever-evolving threats, to quickly detect a security breach, respond accordingly and recover from a cyber-security incident. “Our cyber-security services constantly adapt to the changing threat environment, meaning we’re ready to support your business on its own journey.”

He says that while there’s no way to completely remove all cyber risk from your business, you can be prepared. “The key is to effectively engage with and manage your risk by partnering with a cyber expert like CyberCX.”

more at cybercx.com.au

In March this year, a report by Deloitte Access Economics calculated that $2.5 billion worth of unsold consumer goods – such as clothing, electrical appliances, toys and personal hygiene products – are wasted and often sent to landfill in Australia each year. That’s not including food.

And an Australian Productivity Commission report has also found that less than 10 per cent of businesses here are using data analytics to inform their decisions about supply chains. By 2030 to 2035, the gap will have significantly closed for every kind of product, from perishables to Persian carpets, to deliver not only savings on surplus stock for businesses but also additional profits from selling more of what people want.

“In data lies the opportunity to align everything an organisation does to an incredibly accurate model of what customers want, when and in what form they want it,” says Adam Driussi, co-founder and CEO of Australian-based global customer analytics company Quantium. He says that the vast majority of organisations currently struggle to coalesce data sets from a variety of sources into a connected model. And analytics generally aren’t strong

enough to predict demand or enable fast decisions that result in timely delivery of goods from a complexity of supply chains.

But AI decision engines – algorithms that harness data to transform decision-making speed and accuracy and are currently deployed mostly by large-scale retailers – will help every size of business hit the sweet spots. AI will enhance sales, predict financing requirements and help manage risk, as well as reduce waste and its associated environmental impacts.

Personal data and preferences, time of year, site-specific store demographics and other factors at the point of sale will connect way up the supply chain to materials sourcing, manufacture and logistics and efficiently deliver a just-right supply of goods. Choosing to share a scan of your body, for example, will enable clothing stores to select items that fit you perfectly.

“Since the dawn of time, customers have rewarded businesses that know them and treat them as individuals. Data means we now have the ability to do that at scale,” says Driussi. “When you opt in as a customer, retailers will predict your needs and deliver them.”

“Lights out! Let’s get to it.” You can envisage the Disney-esque movie in which robots neatly avoid each other as they scurry to and fro, loading materials onto automated manufacturing lines and carrying away the finished products for distribution. This scene will increasingly become a common real-world scenario. Automation and cloud crunching of converging data streams are enabling end-to-end machine-led manufacturing that includes taking orders, choosing ideal materials and navigating obstacles to the mission they’ve been set.

Machines connected by a digital nervous system can do it all in the dark (cue the night shift). In many cases, they don’t need things like air-con. And often they can use smaller spaces than humans would require. All of this adds up to operating (and energy) savings.

“There are already factories running with lights out,” says Pat Boland, co-founder and joint managing director of ANCA, an Australian technology company that makes precision cutting tools as part of integrated, automated systems.

Dark manufacturing is both actual and notional, referring to the ability to make things with minimal human intervention (you can keep the lights on and still go dark). And it heralds a golden age for near-future startup manufacturers because, says Boland, the digital nervous systems are becoming more capable and the technology cheaper. More than 80 per cent of ANCA machines are now sold with a robot driven by software to load and change parts according to the task, for little more than the machine itself cost a few years ago.

Things can only get smarter and more affordable, allowing even legacy manufacturers to cross over, as they compensate for labour shortages and rising costs. And if you think robots need ambient light to use their “vision” sensors, think again. ANCA machines bring their own brightness: the cameras used for measuring either have an integrated array of lights or they can “see” and measure using laser beams — precision without the need for lights to be blazing all night long.

The world will be richer and more engaging, says Louis Rosenberg, a technologist in the fields of AR, VR and AI. But there are caveats…

AR glasses already exist in prototype. Companies like Google, Meta, Apple, Samsung and Snap are releasing their own versions to creators and developers who’ll create the experiences we’ll be choosing from. I think, by 2025, Apple will launch a consumer version that will transform the market, making smartphones a thing of the past. By 2030, receiving and interacting with mobile media through eyewear will be mainstream.

We’ll choose which applications are relevant to us and install them on our AR glasses?

Yes. We’ll be able to customise the experiences and extra layers of information that we see.

You frequently speak out about the potential dangers of the metaverse but you’ve also said that if we do it right, it will be “magical” and “everywhere”. What’s the best-case scenario?

The metaverse is two different realms: one is where people put on enclosed headsets and enter a completely virtual reality (VR); and augmented reality (AR) is where people are present in the real world and technology allows them to embellish their experiences. Both have different applications that can be really positive. AR will soon transition the way humans interact with information. It takes the information we’ve had to look at on flat screens, puts it out into the real world and allows us to engage with it in natural and intuitive ways. AR eyewear will embellish our world with artistic content and information that might be about the buildings you’re seeing or the trees and plants around you.

So we’ll still have to wear some kind of glasses that enable AR but it won’t be via headsets?

To access the full virtual metaverse, you’ll be wearing heavier headsets and will be immersed in the experience, cut off from your surroundings. For AR, you’re wearing lightweight eyewear through which you can see an embellished or enhanced world. The glasses won’t be any more cumbersome than sunglasses. Lightweight

What applications are you most excited about?

In the medical space, AR glasses will superimpose MRIs and other body scans realistically onto the patient so that a group of doctors – each standing at different aspects to the patient – will see the trauma, the fracture, the cancer, etc, “inside” the patient, correctly represented from their perspective. No more looking from the screen and back at the patient and doing the mental gymnastics to imagine where the trauma is located in real life. In research studies, doctors are testing these capabilities and find that they improve and speed up their work.

How will AR transform the retail experience?

You’ll see products through your glasses, as if they’re right in front of you. Eventually, the fidelity will be so realistic that the image will feel seamlessly integrated into your environment. And you’ll be able to move it around – what would that couch look like on this side of the room or against a wall?

And the caveats?

One concern is that in order to enable AR, tech companies need to know where you are, what direction you’re looking, what direction you’re walking, where you slow down and at which store you look in the window.

Shipping has begun its decarbonisation journey… with the wind at its back. More than 90 per cent of global trade relies on shipping, which mostly runs on fossil fuels, such as heavy fuel oil or marine diesel oil, making it responsible for about 3 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions. Expect to see new types of wind-assisted vessels over coming decades as the industry works towards the viability of end-state fuels, such as green methanol and green ammonia.

In ports, keep an eye out for rotor sails – actually cylinders, which are most suited to vessels with deck space – on tankers, bulk carriers and some cruise ships. They look like the slim chimneys on steam ships and work on differences in air pressure generated when they catch the wind and spin, creating a perpendicular lift effect. Norsepower says its technology is 10 times more efficient than a conventional sail and reduces fuel use by about 7 per cent.

On the high seas, don’t fall overboard when you see a kitesurfing cargo ship. French company AirSeas has a 20-year contract with K Line in Japan to retrofit 50 vessels with its 1000-square-metre, sensor-laden parafoil.

Operated by automated flight-control software, which was developed for aircraft, it delivers a 10 to 40 per cent reduction in fuel consumption (an average of 20 per cent over time and variable conditions).

A flotilla of blades may also start making their way into harbours. Windship Technology is an auxiliary power system comprised of three-wing foil sets that are installed vertically on deck and automatically rotate to gain the greatest “motive” advantage from available wind power. You could call it the Tesla of the sea.

The Windship Technology three-wing foil sets

Powered by salt

An Australian company is looking to change how energy is stored. And the key is hiding in your kitchen cupboard.

The world is currently looking for greener energy options and Perth-based company Altech Chemicals Ltd is hoping to provide a new solution. It’s bringing a game-changing new salt-based battery, CERENERGY®, to the market in a joint venture with the German battery research and development institute Fraunhofer IKTS. Here, Altech’s managing director, Iggy Tan, talks about the benefits and future of this groundbreaking technology.

Are we talking about batteries powered by common table salt?

Yes. The use of common table salt, or sodium, in our technology has wide-ranging benefits. It’s both fireproof and explosion-proof and has a 15-year battery life compared with lithium’s current eight years. Salt also has a wider operating range of temperatures, from -15 o C to 60 o C, which means it can be deployed in the most extreme climates. Because it doesn’t use lithium, graphite, cobalt or copper, it’s not exposed to the price, supply and ethical issues affecting those materials. CERENERGY® technology will be 40 to 50 per cent cheaper than lithium-ion batteries.

Does this mean lithium batteries will be replaced?

Not necessarily but CERENERGY® is going to be a game-changing alternative, especially in the grid storage market. Utilities and batterystorage companies will combine our batteries and house the components in a shipping container, which can be positioned as needed on the electricity grid. The batteries will store

solar energy generated during the day, either from solar farms or from communities of residents with rooftop solar, for use at night or at other times when solar isn’t generating.

How did the partnership with the Fraunhofer Institute come together?

Fraunhofer has been working on this technology for the past eight years. It spent nearly €35 million on research and development and another €25 million on the pilot plant. It was looking for a partner to commercialise it and we fit the criteria. Our team has battery experience, an entrepreneurial spirit and a track record in

capital raising. We recently announced our partnership in which we own 75 per cent of the joint venture and Fraunhofer owns 25 per cent.

What’s next?

We’re constructing a solid-state battery plant in the German state of Saxony. Globally, the grid storage market is worth about US$4.4 billion and it’s expected to climb to US$15 billion by 2035. Europe is obviously a big part of that market so it makes sense to build the factory there.

For more information, visit altechchemicals.com

When are collaborative robots, known as cobots, coming?

Within five years, workplace robots will no longer be tools but valued members of the team, says AI specialist Dr Catriona Wallace. “That’s colleagues who are software or hardware robots.” The Responsible Metaverse Alliance founder expects retail, tourism, hospitality, banking, finance and telecommunications to split human and machine work hours evenly by 2025. “High school students are keen to have robot tutors.”

What’s stopping them now?

Most robots are either industrial (caged and unable to sense humans) or coexistent, which means they work alongside and manoeuvre around humans but can’t accommodate uncertainty. In Alphabet’s Everyday Robots project, for example, autonomous robots recognise whether a cafeteria table is free to clean but, notes technology magazine Wired , would douse it in soy sauce if armed with that rather than disinfectant.

Professor Julie Shah, director of the Interactive Robotics Group at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, advances AI that makes machines take actions contingent on human workers’ actions. “We want to develop robots that, rather than just slow and stop as a person nears, monitor and understand the work a person is doing in that moment and predict where they’ll be or what tool or material they’ll need.”

Her research addresses another limitation – robotics experts are rare on shop floors. The lab develops intelligent

machine support so robots can teach people to reprogram, which will be “game-changing for smaller firms”.

How will it impact society?

“Work will need to be reconfigured and reallocated,” says Wallace, whose Digital Gold Rush report for ServiceNow anticipates robots on organisational charts. The “great hope” is that software will free humans from mundane tasks but Wallace quotes the World Economic Forum: by 2025, 85 million jobs will be replaced by machines and 97 million new jobs created. “The 85 million people who lose their jobs won’t get the 97 million new ones,” she warns. AI commentators, including Wallace, are calling for a universal basic income.

What are the risks?

Shah lists “danger modes”. She likens machine learning to an extreme software update; when a robot’s behaviour changes, there can be “mode confusion”. Another is that a person sees the robot learning as it acquires new data, seemingly acting intelligently, and assumes it has wider, human-like abilities. “If a system is a little bit responsive, people think, ‘It understands me,’” she says. Anthropomorphisation is a safety issue. “It’s important to build an accurate mental model of what the robot can and can’t do. A humanoid appearance can be detrimental.”

Robots should be designed to do what they do well, says Wallace. “They do things better than humans do. They’re essentially their own species and should be treated respectfully.”

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT AI

There are three critical areas of concern for leaders when it comes to AI, says Professor Kate Crawford, an Australian-born academic and author of Atlas of AI who has spent 20 years studying the social, political and ecological impacts of artificial intelligence and machine learning. “We can’t talk about AI without talking about the labour, environmental and data harms that can come along with these systems.”

1 The labour challenge

“AI has an enormous labour footprint. There are people working behind the scenes to make AI function, many being paid below poverty wages. Take some of the workers being used to label the data that AI is trained on – they’re often being paid less than $4 an hour.”

2 The environmental concern

“The latest models use an enormous amount of energy. For example, to train a single Natural Language Processing model, which can do things like

predict the end of your sentence, will release carbon dioxide equivalent to 125 round trips between New York and Beijing.”

3 The data biases

“Data is the foundation of all AI. So much data is being harvested off the internet and is now in models that are gigantic. It’s not just a question of privacy, which is a serious problem. It’s also how these systems represent us. Problems of discrimination, dehumanisation and social biases are built into these large-scale models and that comes from indiscriminate harvesting and extraction of data.”

To ensure organisations are not contributing to the dark side of AI, leaders need to “ask harder questions”, says Crawford. “Where did this data come from?

Who were the people who were training the system and how were they paid? What are the long-term environmental consequences of this AI system? What are the real costs of these systems and is it worth the gains? It’s so important that we don’t get taken in by the AI fairy dust and that we ask critical, investigative questions about who benefits and who is harmed. That’s the key metric we need to bring before we can answer the question, ‘Is AI doing good?’”

Switching banks is, irrationally, seen as risky for most of us. We tend to consider it then do nothing about it, sticking to the devil we know. Businesses have long followed a similar route, going to a single institution for all their banking needs. They’ll have their account with an existing bank and “get all their services from them”, says Lindesay Brine, associate dean, Curriculum & Learning, Postgraduate, at Macquarie Business School.

But Brine, who spent a good chunk of his career working in commercial business banking, says we’re in the midst of a dramatic shake-up. Innovations such as the New Payments Platform (NPP) and open banking mean companies can adopt a single banking or payments product because it works better than their existing bank’s service. “Leaders need to be across it because it’s opening up opportunities – you don’t have to follow that old paradigm of having everything with the same bank.”

So you can have your bank and eat your disruptor cake, too. Fintech is going hard to fix international payments, which Brine says is long overdue. “The system has been based on how things were done hundreds of years ago. Same-day cut-offs is one limitation that drives people nuts. There are these arcane rules in international banking that people would love to see go. Leaders can get a first-mover edge by giving the disruptors a try and see how these new services work for them.”

Instant payments have myriad implications for business. “A restaurant could text the bill to you at your table and you could pay instantly via PayID. The big issue for business is that it’s all real time – not batch processing and not end-of-day but right in the moment. You get your money straightaway and it goes out straightaway so you have to be on top of real-time payments but a lot of businesses aren’t.”

Achieving viable hydrogen – that is, hydrogen available in vast quantities for $2 per kilogram or less – is a chicken-and-egg scenario, says Darren Miller, CEO of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). “You need the volume out there to give you the confidence to build your facilities in a scalable way.”

ARENA has committed some $188 million to various hydrogen projects. “I’m certain we’ll achieve the $2 goal by 2035, if not earlier, because hydrogen is a manufactured item. When we make something in a factory, we learn quickly and can improve the production method, which reduces the cost.” Electrolysers, the machines that use renewable energy – generally ultra-cheap solar – to split water into green hydrogen and oxygen, are also manufactured items and their cost is coming down, too.

So assuming we’ll have hydrogen at $2 per kilogram within a decade, how will it be utilised?

Ammonia production

Miller predicts that the first use for green hydrogen will be to replace blue hydrogen (produced using natural gas, with capture and storage of the carbon emitted) or grey hydrogen (made using natural gas or methane but with no carbon capture) in ammonia production. “Ammonia is basically a way to store hydrogen as an ammonia molecule. We have ways of transporting and using ammonia,” he says, so it’s a natural place to start.

As for Australian hydrogen exports, “the Japanese have said they'd like ammonia for co-firing coal-fired power stations to effectively start to green those electricity generators”.

Industrial combustion

Hydrogen can replace natural gas for combustion. Many industries, says Miller, use natural gas “purely to create heat to run processes

like glassmaking, plastics manufacture or cement production”. Hydrogen can generate heat at the same or higher temperatures as natural gas but “the issue is cost. When gas was sitting at $10 a gigajoule, it looked like we had to get hydrogen down to about $1.50. Now gas is much higher than $10 so the bar is lower.” Two dollars is still worth shooting for, he says, because it’s roughly equivalent to a foreseeable gas price of $15 a gigajoule.

Grid support

As we commit to large-scale hydrogen production, we need to decide, says Miller, whether we situate renewable energy farms (solar, wind or a hybrid mix) that power electrolysis off the edges of the electricity grid where land is plentiful or closer to use centres. Coal-mining areas such as Gladstone in Queensland and the NSW Hunter Valley are being mooted as hubs to produce hydrogen for export. Miller says we can choose to also connect these to the grid so their electricity output can be made available to consumers in times of high energy need. “It could be a great thing, building resilience into the electricity system.” He calculates it would also lower electricity costs for domestic consumers by up to 40 per cent.

Mixing it up

“We know we can blend hydrogen into the national natural gas network – we’re doing it already,” says Miller, pointing to ARENAsupported projects in collaboration with energy company Jemena and infrastructure and logistics business ATCO, both in Western Australia. “Roughly 10 to 15 per cent of the volume of gas in existing pipelines could be hydrogen. Beyond that, old steel networks need to be upgraded with PVC, which is expensive, and you also need to start replacing end-user appliances with ones that can deal with a higher penetration of hydrogen.” Adding more hydrogen to Australian gas networks is a possible interim scenario.

Powering a brighter tomorrow

The best energy provider is the one you rarely think about – you’re confident that when you flick a switch, power will be there. On Australia’s island state, TasNetworks delivers reliable electricity to more than 295,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers. “We’re at the frontline of plans to double Tasmania’s clean-energy capacity to 5000 megawatts by 2040, which will help cut emissions by about 140 million tonnes,” says Nigel Bailey, Head of Digital Services at TasNetworks. “That’s the equivalent of taking a million cars off the road.”

The company has embarked on a business transformation that will “save $200 million in the next few years by making us more efficient and customer-focused”. This will allow it to drive important initiatives for the future, such as an EV fast-charger network.

As part of the transformation, TasNetworks has leveraged the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) to integrate data from the SAP ERP and third-party systems. This has enabled an app to be built for TasNetworks field inspectors. “It’s a simplified ‘all-in-one’ intuitive asset-inspection app, allowing inspectors to accurately and efficiently capture information in the field.”

The app has allowed for faster, safer, auditable and more accurate inspections of electricity poles – TasNetworks manages 231,300 of them across the state. “It’s mitigated risks and led to fewer outages for our customers,” says Bailey. “Decision-making has been automated – allowing back-end tasks to be streamlined – and it’s presented through a logical field-inspection flow, using mapbased navigation.”

Bailey says the new app has seen TasNetworks achieve 99 per cent compliance in asset-attribute capture, compared with close to zero per cent before it was introduced. Data is now synced in 30 seconds, compared with the previous 30 minutes.

“We’re now upgrading our core SAP system to unlock more user-friendly functions and implementing further expansions to integrate other optimised work scheduling and tools for our field workforce.”

Run your personal best with SAP. Find out more at sap.com

Tasmania’s future-focused electricity provider is using technology solutions to deliver cleaner energy for its customers.

In the high-stakes field of clinical trials, Melbourne-based startup Opyl is deploying big data “to improve clinical trial efficiency and solve poor recruitment and poor clinical trial design”, says CEO Michelle Gallaher. “We can use data to design much better clinical trials, get better results and a better return on investment for everyone.”

About US$60 billion is spent on an estimated 35,000 to 40,000 active clinical trials globally each year, she adds. “Unfortunately, most fail and only about 50 drugs or therapies emerge from all that investment and effort – US$4.8 billion is spent by drug companies on recruitment for clinical trials across the world.”

No-one’s claiming it’s simple but Gallaher says AI algorithms – paired with human technologists – help Opyl to remove all sorts of biases from clinical trial design. Opyl’s clinical trial match-making platform, Opin, assists biopharma companies and researchers to find suitable patients from around the world. The hope is that this data- and patientled approach will reverse the climbing failure rate of oncology trials. “Cancer drugs are very difficult to develop but cancer has a massive financial and resource investment. The question is whether the return on investment is acceptable and can it be improved. I say it’s unacceptable and big data can improve the return.”

By 2030, electric vehicles will make up 76 per cent of new passenger car sales in Australia. By 2035, it’s predicted to be 100 per cent globally, leaving 15 years for the residual fleet of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars to take the exit ramp by net-zero 2050. That’s if we want to reduce our emissions in line with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees, according to modelling by the Climateworks Centre, a not-for-profit organisation that develops evidence-based solutions to advance our energy transition.

According to Behyad Jafari, CEO of the Australian Electric Vehicle Council, “most consumers want an electric option when they consider their next vehicle”. But with demand outstripping supply, it’s almost impossible to get your hands on an EV right now, with waiting times blowing out to two years for some models. Here’s what’s on the horizon...

Software will rely on fewer chips

Turns out that an EV uses more than double the number of semiconductors than an ICE-driven car. Early in the pandemic, car makers suspended their orders for components, anticipating a long hiatus in sales. That’s precisely when manufacturers of

other electrical goods – laptops, printers, communications devices, even home appliances – swooped to cater to the work-from-home world. Production of electrical circuitry was also slowed by lockdowns. When car sales rebounded more quickly than expected, the makers couldn’t find their place in the circuit queue. Then there was the toilet-paper effect of over-ordering. “It’s obv not a long-term issue,” tweeted Tesla’s Elon Musk, whose company is among those reconfiguring software in their cars to use fewer chips.

Chargers will get faster Forget range anxiety. EV batteries have improved in leaps and bounds and there are already charging stations for top-ups at convenient intervals along most Australian main roads. This network is set to expand even more and also into shopping centres and workplaces. But make way for queue anxiety, when a gang of EVs converge on one- or two-bay charging stations.

Again, technology is accelerating past the challenge. Tritium, an Australian company with global reach, already has a fast charger that adds 350 kilometres to your “tank” in 10 minutes. Of course, there’ll need to be more than one charger in most locations and Finnish company Kempower offers an adaptive-voltage charging solution that allows capacity to be shared between EVs

with batteries of up to 1000V at the same hub. Next anxiety? How the electricity grid will keep up.

Policy will have to change Australia’s biggest problem in meeting demand for EVs is that in a worldwide supply shortage, manufacturers are choosing to take their available stock to countries that slap extra taxes on higher-emitting vehicles. A global outlier, Australia doesn’t have fuel-efficiency standards so car makers can sell outdated models here. The planned introduction of these standards – Climateworks advocates setting the first at 95 grams of CO2 per kilometre in 2024, descending to zero grams by 2035 – will have us breathing easier behind the wheels of new EVs.

Cars will look different

Right now, EVs don’t look that different to ICE-powered vehicles but manufacturers are harnessing the potential of varied weight distribution to explore fresh options. The Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX, a concept car tested this year, weighs just 1755 kilograms and its high-energy-density, lightweight batteries deliver a range of 1000 kilometres per charge. Solar cells in the roof power the car’s navigation system – taking some 2 per cent off the load

on the battery pack – and the brakes are designed to recover kinetic energy that’s usually lost during braking so it “recuperates” on the downhill. As the auto industry switches to lightweight aluminium components wherever suitable, the steel industry is developing formulations for automotive components that can be reused at the end of a vehicle’s life, rather than undergoing energyintensive remelting and reforming.

Trucks get their moment

Within the next decade, light- and medium-duty trucks will go silently and cleanly about their business in every quarter: making deliveries, picking up garbage, carrying out maintenance by electric cherry picker and so on.

Australian electric truck company SEA Electric moved more than three years ago to base itself in the United States, where government policies support fleets switching from diesel-chugging commercial vehicles to electric power. But CEO and founder Tony Fairweather says the federal government vibe here is electric. He’s optimistic about policy changes that could lead SEA Electric to employ “hundreds if not thousands more people in Australia” in coming years, rolling out its electric versions of Hino and other trucks, as well as a ute collaboration with a renowned brand.

It wasn’t long ago that on hearing about 3D printing, many wondered if it had something to do with flock wallpaper. Now additive manufacturing (its grown-up moniker) is possibly the most transformative advance in the sector and a key technology in what’s known as Industry 4.0.

“There are opportunities in many industries but the ones that will benefit the most are aerospace, defence and medical,” says Associate Professor Gwénaëlle Proust, a lecturer in materials engineering and academic director of the Sydney Manufacturing Hub, the new $25-million hotbed of research and innovation at The University of Sydney. The facility works with other universities, research institutions and industry to drive local capabilities in additive manufacturing (AM).

On a tour of the hub, Proust shows off a diverse collection of expensive, cutting-edge AM machines. Many look like giant crates... but the magic happens inside. The machines use a range of processes, such as electron beams, to build objects layer by layer, with materials including metals, ceramics and polymers in powder form. Traditional subtractive manufacturing removes material to create parts, the opposite of AM. “We can produce complex shapes that can’t be made using other technology.”

Parts that previously were fashioned from numerous components can now be 3D-printed as a single, lighter and potentially stronger part. GE Aviation, for example, uses AM to make a fuel nozzle tip for aircraft engines. It consolidated 20 different parts – and the steps needed to machine and assemble them – into a single

structure that weighs 25 per cent less than the original and is five times as durable. GE Additive is an industry partner for the hub, with several of its machines on site.

Additive manufacturing “has been around for 30 years”, says Proust, “but the acceleration of the technology has been in the past 10 years, with more and more materials and faster machines”. AM is still not a speedy solution “so mass production is not what we’re looking at. It won’t replace everything – there’ll still be casting, extrusion and so on. But additive parts don’t have any joints, which are usually the weak points, so you’re going to have safer parts.”

A key aim of the hub is to build Australia’s sovereign capability in AM. “I’m a materials scientist and our projects include making our own metal powder and developing new alloys, as well as projects with polymers with plastic composites for recycling of material,” says Proust. She’s interested in value-adding to the raw materials from our country’s rich natural resources, to turn them into AM powders “and have the entire workflow on our soil”. At present, almost all are imported. “We have all the minerals here. We send them away and buy them back and they’re more expensive than when they leave.”

French-born Proust is passionate about transforming AM. “Academics are really excited and we need industry to get as excited as we are. We want to grow awareness in Australia and for industry to see the future and take some risks. Other countries are doing it and we don’t want to be left behind.”

Hybrid is here to stay

Despite Elon Musk’s tweet that remote workers “pretend to work”, the hybrid office isn’t going anywhere. Strategic decision-makers at one-quarter of the organisations in JLL’s The Future of Work Survey 2022 say they’ll make remote working permanently available to all employees who want it by 2025 and another 30 per cent of respondents already have. After September’s Jobs and Skills Summit, the federal government announced it would amend the Fair Work Act to strengthen access to flexible arrangements.

“Sixty-one per cent of job-seekers say they’d resign if ‘work from home’ was not an option,” says Kendra Banks, managing director of Seek ANZ. Among senior leaders, 30 per cent of men and 41 per cent of women regard it as a “must-have”.

Other studies show an increase in productivity for people working from home. “We have to almost relearn what an office is for, why we’re there and that, in most cases, most people don’t want it,” says Lynda Gratton, author of Redesigning Work “Companies in London, New York, San Francisco and Sydney are all trying to redesign the office so it becomes a place of community, not a place of individualism.”

Middle managers matter

In a world of distributed workforces, middle managers will have their moment. “In the past, people would use words like the ‘frozen middle’,” says Gratton, professor of management practice at London Business School. “‘If only I, the leader, could say what I want and it would flow naturally down to employees and those awful middle managers wouldn’t get in the way.’” But in distributed workforces, a manager’s soft skills have commercial value.

Tata Consultancy Services, for example, has measured a strong correlation between performance and how much time a manager spends speaking with their team. “The words we’re hearing are not so much checking up on people but checking in: ‘How are things going with you?’”

AI will fix talent gaps

A “talent marketplace” is an AI-enabled tool that maps the skills and aspirations of individual employees and matches these with gaps in the business. As an organisation’s needs evolve, the twosided platform shows staff job openings, career-path options, training and mentoring opportunities, cross-functional assignments and “gigs”. This nurtures staff, whose ambitions are not always linear, and gets the company off the hamster-wheel of hiring.

Investing in existing talent is faster and cheaper, while the AI starts to remove bias from the process, says Jonathan Reyes, VP North America and futurist at Australian workforce intelligence platform Reejig. “It’s a win-win for individuals, businesses and society.”

The office meets the metaverse Mark Zuckerberg has extolled a future of working in the metaverse, where people will “teleport instantly as a hologram to be at the office without a commute”. If the Meta CEO’s vision of feeling “like you’re right in the room together, making eye contact, having a shared sense of space” sounds awkward, other cases for workplace VR include technical training, onboarding and socialising. “The trick for Meta is going to be identifying and proving where VR makes the difference. I don’t think they’ve clearly articulated that yet,” says Dr Marcus Carter, researcher in digital cultures and human-computer interaction at The University of Sydney. “We don’t need high levels of immersion for every interaction in a business context.”

There’s also the question of how much we can handle. Participants in a June study spent five eight-hour days using VR for work and recorded significantly worse ratings across wellbeing and productivity measures than they did sitting at a desktop. The University of Primorska researchers noted that “two participants dropped out on the first day… due to migraine, nausea and anxiety”.

THE RISE OF THE DIGITAL WORKFORCE

There are jobs that we haven’t even imagined yet – but they’re starting to take shape now. The pandemic fuelled a boom in digitisation, from telehealth to online commerce, and digital currencies have become more mainstream. Overall, the data economy had a giant growth spurt and this will have a huge impact on the jobs of the future.

As PayPal CEO Dan Schulman quipped, “We went from being the Flintstones to the Jetsons in nine months.”

According to CSIRO’s megatrends report, Our Future World, in order to keep pace with technological change, Australia will need an estimated 6.5 million more digital workers by 2025 (an increase of 79 per cent from

2020). The average Australian worker will need to gain about seven new digital skills and 103 million training sessions in digital skills will need to be conducted between 2020 and 2025 to meet this demand. Education, says Dr Stefan Hajkowicz, co-author of the CSIRO report, “needs to have a 20- or even 30-year view of the future”.

Every augmentation that gives health, anti-ageing or a cure for chronic disease prolongs longevity. Dr Divya Chander, physician, neuroscientist and futurist, counts the ways – and issues –of “human-directed evolution”.

Which technologies could extend lifespan?

“Augmentation” refers to technologies that enhance human potential or capability beyond what a human is born with or could acquire naturally. This includes editing at the level of the code of life, the genome, or its transcripts and proteins. Imagine an organism can be captured at its most potent and youthful form. It’s like maintaining an old car lovingly. Perhaps in 50 years, you’ll go to the doctor for stem cell injections, bionics or an organ built of your own genome or printed using stem cells as a bio ink in a 3D printer.

If you continually replace parts, when do you stop being a human?

We have no inclination to say people who are amputees and outfitted with a robotic limb are any less human. As long as you maintain embodiment, I don’t see how modifying it

makes you less human. Brain-machine interfaces, implantables, bionics, exoskeletons may make you a different kind of human. Cyborg Foundation’s founder Neil Harbisson has an implanted device that translates colours into vibrations he can hear. Part of your brain has to reorganise the cortex to receive that information. That’s not a Homo sapiens 1.0 brain.

Does it come from the impulse to optimise productivity?

Last year, the Weizmann Institute of Science grew mouse embryos in artificial wombs. Imagine how that could democratise things for women, who’ve been left out of this whole longevity revolution. The scientist Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte has created chimeras, a combination of stem cells from different species, so you might be able to grow human organs in an animal.

Or in other human beings.

Every one of these technologies has the potential to be used for bad things. The technology for gene therapy is the same that would enable us to package up a synthetically produced stretch of protein that only goes after groups that share X/Y/Z part of their code. What augments us enables surveillance. Chile has revised its constitution to include neuro-rights so people’s brains can’t be read or written to without consent. Imagine we want to become a spacefaring species. Maybe we could permanently alter the genome to enhance immune responses. Or you might be able to tinker with transcripts during puberty or adulthood. Certain societies might say, “You were born for this role. We’ll optimise you.”

A caste system?

Exactly. In the Kazuo Ishiguro novel Klara and the Sun, the kids who are gene-edited are the ones with means. But maybe gene-editing technology is not expensive and you have disgruntled people who choose enhancement to wage war or adapt to extreme environments.

When you ask audiences if anyone would opt to live on without a physical body, just consciousness uploaded, hands go up. Are more hands going up over time?

No. We should be clear: there is no technology that would enable us to completely digitise a human consciousness. There are companies trying. Their idea is you can preserve the connections in the brain – that the memories plus the complexity of those circuits would somehow make a conscious entity. Or you’d freeze a person after moving their consciousness into a disembodied state, clone or avatar, then thaw them. But any organism, when deprived of environmental inputs, does not develop normally… If people freeze themselves, could they leave things to their children or write contracts that hold weight? What if their money is in an institution that doesn’t exist in 200 years? I see the equivalent of eco-terrorists regarding them as monstrosities. Would that be murder? I don’t know that people who are interested in augmentation as a superpower have fully thought about the ramifications.

AN IMPLANTABLE BIONIC ORGAN MAY SAVE YOUR LIFE

Early advances with firstgeneration artificial organs have already saved or improved lives. “Artificial organs and new biorobotic organs are emerging and we’re on the cusp of a new era in organ engineering,” says Dr Robyn Stokes, CEO of Bionics Queensland, a charity that supports cross-disciplinary collaborations to deliver breakthroughs in bionic mobility, bionic senses, neurotech, implants and organs.

Stokes points to the BiVACOR total artificial heart, an Australian success story that has a single moving part and employs magnetic levitation technology with no mechanical wear. Unlike other artificial hearts, which are usually seen as stopgaps, the BiVACOR should last a decade and is small enough to be implanted in a child. “It was invented by Dr Daniel Timms, a plumber’s son from Bundaberg who did his biomedical engineering degree at QUT in Brisbane. It’s a very exciting innovation at a late stage of development.”

The company’s headquarters is now in Houston, Texas, with work

to advance the device also happening in Australia.

In California, The Kidney Project, led by Dr Shuvo Roy, is focused on creating an implantable bioartificial organ to treat kidney failure and free patients from the short-term solution of renal dialysis. An implanted biorobotic organ will “adapt its functions by interacting with the body’s metabolic system, working in a closed-loop system like a natural organ”, explains Stokes.

“The Kidney Project is welladvanced – if it all goes to plan, the organ recipient won’t need immunosuppression drugs.”

The Holy Grail, she says, is “building a natural organ from scratch with tissue engineering”. It sounds like science fiction but that journey has already begun. A team of bioengineers at Rice University in Houston has made progress in using hydrogels to “bioprint” an organ structure, “building up a complex vascular structure layer by layer. A future is in sight where we’ll engineer organs that become our own. Fully biocompatible implants and organs built in the laboratory will transform many lives.”

On board

Premiere movies, hit TV shows and absorbing audiobooks

Movies

There’s something for everyone in this selection of new films.

Thor: Love and Thunder

In the hands of New Zealand director Taika Waititi, the saga of Thor, God of Thunder, our flaxen-haired himbo, is so irreverent that it verges on parody. Tonally, this movie, the third after Dark World and Ragnarok, lands somewhere between a Xanadu-themed roller derby and a skit on Saturday Night Live. Waititi and co-writer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (the co-writer and producer of the Gen Z Netflix hit Do Revenge), seem to be urging audiences to dial this whole hero worship thing down a notch. Because, honestly, gods who become heroes could do without the pressure. And that’s especially true of Thor (the comedically and physically gifted Chris Hemsworth, above) who, when we find him, is bereft of his

hammer and in the throes of a midlife breakdown. Poor Thor. He’s tasked with not only battling Gorr, the vengeful God Butcher (played by Christian Bale, who looks like a demonic stone carving come to life), but explaining himself to Zeus (Russell Crowe, giving us a winky shout-out to Gladiator with his breastplate and flip skirt). Add in the unresolved tension with his ex-girlfriend and scientist-turned-superhero Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who arrives with Thor’s hammer in hand, and you have a colourful, complicated and thoroughly silly ride. Can Thor get over himself in time to save the universe? As Waititi might say, “Bro, relax! Thor will get there.” And if he doesn’t, there’s always another sequel. Rated M

Breaking

John Boyega, who shot to fame as a renegade stormtrooper in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, gives a staggering performance as a financially desperate war veteran in this compelling tale of a bank robbery gone wrong. Based on a real-life incident and hailed by critics as a modern Dog Day Afternoon, this film omits the fumbling absurdity of Dog Day and instead digs deep into the systemic breakages of a society that has failed so many. With Connie Britton (White Lotus) and Selenis Leyva (above, with Boyega). Rated M

Three Thousand Years of Longing

Directed by George Miller, the man who brought us the Mad Max movies, and based on the bestselling book The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye by multi-award winning novelist A.S. Byatt, this film centres on uptight and lonely academic Dr Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton, above), who appears to break with reality before meeting a djinn (or genie, played by Idris Elba) while in Istanbul. He offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom. What follows is a billowing, fantastical tale about the high stakes of love. Rated MA15+

Words by Natalie Reilly

Bullet Train Watching Bullet Train , a Westernised adaptation of Japanese novel Maria Beetle by Kōtarō Isaka, as it careens all over the screen like a live-action video game, you can almost hear the original pitch to the studio: “It’s Brad Pitt in a bucket hat! Fighting bad guys! On a train!” What’s not to love? At 58, Pitt (right) is still agile and goofy enough to pull it off. He’s an assassin called Ladybug and his only task – given to him by his handler, Maria Beetle, played by Sandra Bullock – is to recover a silver briefcase on a train travelling to Kyoto. Cue an ultraviolent bag of slapstick twists and turns between several commuters, none of whom are what they seem. Co-starring Brian Tyree Henry (Eternals) and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass) and directed by David Leitch, who helmed the joyfully nihilistic John Wick series, Bullet Train has enough neon vibrancy and fast-paced action to keep your eyes occupied. Or there’s always Brad Pitt in a bucket hat. Rated MA15+

Nope Jordan Peele reunites with his Get Out star, Daniel Kaluuya, for his third horror film, casting him as OJ (yes, really), who, with his sister Emerald (Keke Palmer, left, with Kaluuya and co-star Brandon Perea), wrangles horses on his ranch for work in Hollywood movies. When random objects start falling from the sky, OJ and Emerald try to capture the phenomena on camera, with extremely mixed results. While Nope might be considered a sci-fi horror movie, anyone hoping for the allegory of Get Out won’t find it in this sinister homage to Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind . Peele stuffs his film with nostalgic references to 1990s pop culture – and comedy – to delight older millennials, while also weaving in darker themes, including the trauma left by violence and how it’s blithely manufactured and processed by Americans. Rated MA15+

Whatever your mood, there’s a show to match.

“A man with no enemies is no man at all.” This is but one of the many foreboding maxims expressed by suited Japanese men in this eight-episode series, which is inspired by the real-life story of American journalist Jake Adelstein, who lived and worked as a crime reporter in Tokyo in the 1990s. Ansel Elgort (West Side Story) plays Adelstein, who is trying to investigate the world of Japan’s yakuza organised criminals. He has limited success until he meets detective Hiroto Katagiri (Ken Watanabe, above with Elgort) and the two team up. Rated MA15+

Billy the Kid

One of the central myths of the American West – the outlaw – gets an origin story in this miniseries, which traces Billy the Kid’s Irish heritage, his formative years as a cowboy and the impact of his becoming an orphan at 15. The series stars English actor Tom Blyth (above, right), whose face when resting appears to default naturally to dark and brooding. Rated MA15+

6 Festivals

When Aussie teen James (Rory Potter, far left) learns he has cancer, he and two friends decide to see as many bands as they can. A meditation on the power of live music, 6 Festivals plays like The Fault in our Stars meets Splendour in the Grass. Rated MA15+

Reservation Dogs

A dramedy about four Native American teenagers who want to escape their home reservation in Oklahoma for a life in California – any way they can. Created by award-winning filmmaker Sterlin Harjo, a member of the Seminole Nation, the series is written and co-produced by Taika Waititi so you know it’s going to be blissfully free of moralising and pretence. Rated MA15+

Tokyo Vice

Audiobooks

Tune into these compelling stories.

I Give My Marriage a Year

After an especially fraught Christmas, it’s crunch time for Lou and Josh’s 14-year marriage. For the next year, they manoeuvre their way through a series of self-inflicted tests to decide their union’s staying power: is it worth the effort or is it better for both of them to call it a day? Sydney-based writer Holly Wainwright’s novel paints a true-to-life portrait of a contemporary Australian relationship with all its unspoken regrets, everyday frustrations and complicated emotions.

No Friend but the Mountains

In this lyrical memoir, Kurdish refugee and journalist Behrouz Boochani writes of the six years he was incarcerated on Manus Island. His firsthand account of the trauma suffered in offshore processing centres proved to be an act of survival. Winner of the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Literature and for Non-fiction, this book bears witness to the human cost of detention and gives voice to those still in exile.

Bridge of Clay

With their mother dead and father gone, the five Dunbar boys are forced to fend for themselves. To survive, they’ve had to write their own rules. Clay, the quiet fourth brother, will be the one who creates a miracle of sorts, building a bridge for his family to transcend life as it is for something better. This Australian coming-of-age story from Markus Zusak, author of worldwide bestseller The Book Thief, is about the possibility of love and dignity in the midst of terrible loss and cruelty.

News

Enjoy unlimited access to theaustralian.com.au, afr.com.au and themonthly.com.au when you are connected to Qantas Wi-Fi onboard and in Qantas lounges.

Connect to Qantas Free Wi-Fi and Entertainment App

Once onboard, connect your own device to Qantas Free Wi-Fi on domestic flights in three simple steps to access the internet and Qantas Entertainment App.

STEP 1 Enable Aeroplane Mode and select the “Qantas Free Wi-Fi” network in your Wi-Fi settings.

STEP 2 Follow the prompts on the “Welcome Onboard” screen to connect.

STEP 3 Once you’re connected, you’re now ready to access the internet and the Qantas Entertainment App.

Having trouble connecting? Make sure you are connected to the “Qantas Free Wi-Fi” network and go to wifi.qantas.com in your preferred browser to start exploring. Inflight entertainment varies by route and aircraft. Voice calls are not permitted inflight.

Inflight workout

These exercises are designed to provide a safe way to stretch and enjoy movement in certain muscle groups that can become stiff as a result of long periods of sitting. They may be effective at increasing the body’s blood circulation and massaging the muscles. We recommend you do these exercises for three or four minutes every hour and occasionally leave your seat to walk down the aisles. Each exercise should be done with minimal disturbance to other passengers. None of these exercises should be performed if they cause pain or cannot be done with ease.

01

Start with both heels on the floor and point feet upwards as high as you can.

02

Put both feet flat on the floor. Lift heels high, keeping the balls of the feet on the floor.

03

Repeat these three stages in a continuous motion and at 30-second intervals.

Ankle circles

Lift feet. Draw a circle with toes, moving one foot clockwise and the other counterclockwise at the same time.

Reverse circles. Rotate in each direction for 15 seconds. Repeat if desired.

Knee lifts

Lift leg with knee bent while contracting your thigh muscle. Alternate legs. Repeat 20 to 30 times for each leg.

Neck roll

With shoulders relaxed, drop your ear to your shoulder and gently roll your neck forward and back, holding each position for about five seconds. Repeat five times.

Knee to chest

Bend forward slightly. Clasp hands around left knee and hug it to your chest. Hold for 15 seconds. Keeping hands around the knee, slowly let it down. Alternate legs. Repeat 10 times.

Forward flex

With both feet on the floor and stomach held in, slowly bend forward and walk your hands down the front of your legs towards your ankles. Hold for 15 seconds and slowly sit back up.

Shoulder roll

Hunch shoulders forwards then upwards, backwards and downwards in a gentle circular motion.

In the air

Mobile phones and electronic equipment: All transmitting electronic devices, including mobile phones, tablets and laptop computers, must be switched to flight mode* prior to departure. Smaller devices such as mobile phones, e-readers, electronic games, MP3 players, iPads and other small tablets may be held in your hands or stowed in a seat pocket. Unless otherwise directed by the captain, these devices may remain switched on and used in flight mode during take-off, cruise and landing. Larger electronic equipment such as laptop computers may only be used from when the aircraft seatbelt sign is extinguished after take-off until the top of descent. After landing, the cabin crew will advise when flight mode may be switched off.

Headsets: Do not use a personal single-pin audio headset in the Qantas inflight entertainment system unless it is supported by a two-pin airline headset adaptor. Personal headsets that connect via a cable

to a handheld device can be used at any time from boarding until arrival. Headsets and other devices that connect via Bluetooth must be switched off for take-off and landing but can be used during cruise.

*Flight mode enables you to operate basic functions of your mobile phone or personal electronic device while its transmitting function is switched off, meaning you cannot make phone calls or send an SMS.

Fly Well

Your wellbeing is our priority. Our Fly Well program brings together a number of measures to give you peace of mind during your flight.

Cabin air: Our aircraft air conditioning systems are fitted with hospital-grade HEPA filters, which remove 99.9% of all particles including viruses. The air inside the cabin is refreshed every few minutes, ensuring the highest possible air quality.

Inflight: The aircraft configuration, including the seats and galley, act as a natural barrier, and people are not seated face to face. The direction of inflight airflow is ceiling to floor.

Enhanced cleaning: Our aircraft are cleaned with a disinfectant effective against coronaviruses, with a focus on the high contact areas of seats, seatbelts, overhead lockers, air vents and toilets. Our people are trained in the latest hygiene protocols.

Face masks: Some destinations require you to wear a mask during your flight or at the airport. Ensure you check the latest government requirements before you travel. Your face mask needs to cover your mouth and nose, fit securely and must be worn unless you’re under 12 years of age or have a medical exemption.

Your inflight health: When flying, passengers can be seated and inactive for long periods of time. The environment can be low in humidity and the

Foot pumps (foot motion is in three stages)

cabin pressure equivalent to an altitude of 2440 metres above sea level. The following advice helps you stay healthy during your journey.

The importance of inflight blood circulation and muscle relaxation: When walking, the leg muscle action helps return venous blood to the heart. Sitting in the same position for a long period of time can slow this process and, in some people, leads to swelling in the feet. Some studies have shown that immobility associated with travel of longer than four hours (by air, car or rail) can also lead to an increased risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), or clotting in the legs. Personal factors that increase the risk of DVT include:

Age over 40 years

Personal or family history of DVT or pulmonary embolus

Recent surgery or injury, especially to the lower limbs, pelvis or abdomen

Cancer

Inherited or other blood disorders leading to clotting tendency

Pregnancy

Oestrogen therapy (oral contraceptive pill or hormone replacement therapy).

There are a number of ways to help reduce the possibility of DVT, including the following: Avoid leg-crossing while seated Ensure adequate hydration

Minimise alcohol and caffeine intake before and during your flight

Wear comfortable, loose-fitting clothes

During your flight, move your legs and feet for three to four minutes per hour while seated and move about the cabin occasionally Do the light exercises we recommend here (see above) and through the inflight entertainment system.

If you have concerns about your health and flying, or you feel that you may be at risk of DVT, Qantas recommends that you talk to your doctor before travelling. Additional measures such as well-fitted compression stockings or anti-clotting medication may be recommended for high-risk individuals.

Jet lag: Unlike other forms of transport, air travel allows for rapid movement across many time zones, which can disrupt the body’s biological clock. This is commonly known as jet lag. This disruption can affect various body rhythms such as the sleepwake cycle and the digestive system, leading to symptoms such as tiredness and lack of energy and appetite. In general, the more time zones crossed, the more disruption of the body clock and the more symptoms experienced after the journey. We recommend the following to minimise the effects of jet lag.

Before your flight:

Get a good night’s rest During your flight: Eat light meals

Wear loose, comfortable clothing and sleep when you can

Stay hydrated – drink plenty of water and avoid excess tea, coffee and alcohol

At your destination: If possible, give yourself a day or two after arrival to adjust to the new time zone

Go out in the daylight and do some light exercise

Try to eat meals and do other social activities at appropriate destination times to adjust to the new time zone

Cabin humidity and hydration: Humidity levels of less than 25 per cent are common in the cabin, as the outside air that supplies the cabin is very dry.

The low humidity can cause drying of the surfaces of the nose, throat and eyes and it can irritate contact lenses. If normal fluid intake is maintained during the flight, dehydration will not occur.

We recommend:

Drink water and juices frequently during the flight

Drink coffee, tea and alcohol in moderation

Remove contact lenses and wear glasses if your eyes are irritated

Use a skin moisturiser to refresh the skin

Cabin pressurisation: During flight, aircraft cabin pressure is maintained to a sufficient density for your comfort and health. As the aircraft climbs, the cabin may reach the same air pressure as at an elevation of 2440 metres above sea level.

Cabin pressure does not pose a problem for most passengers. However, if you suffer from obstructive pulmonary diseases, anaemias or certain cardiovascular conditions, you could experience discomfort at these altitudes. These passengers should seek medical advice before flying, as some may require supplementary oxygen. Qantas can arrange this but requires at least seven days’ notice before travelling. The rate of change in cabin pressure during climb and descent is also carefully maintained and does not usually cause discomfort. However, children and infants, and adults who have sinus or nasal congestion, may experience some discomfort because of pressure changes during climb and particularly descent.

Those suffering from nasal or sinus congestion because of a cold or allergies may need to delay travel. The following advice may assist:

To “clear” your ears, try swallowing, yawning or pinching your nose closed and gently blowing against it. These actions help open the Eustachian tubes, equalising pressure between the middle ear chamber and throat.

If flying with an infant, feed or give your baby a dummy during descent. Sucking and swallowing help equalise pressure in an infant’s ears. Give children something to drink or chew during descent.

Consider using medication such as nasal sprays, decongestants and antihistamines 30 minutes prior to descent to help open up your ear and sinus passages.

Motion sickness: Air travel, especially if turbulence is experienced, can cause motion sickness, as it leads to a conflict between the body’s sense of vision and its sense of equilibrium. Maintaining good visual cues (keeping your eyes fixed on a non-moving object) helps prevent motion sickness. When the weather is clear, you should look out at the ground, sea or horizon. If the horizon can’t be seen, closing your eyes and keeping your head movements to a minimum will help. While over-thecounter medications are available, we recommend

you consult your doctor about the appropriate medications. More information can be found: At qantas.com.au/info/flying/intheair/ yourhealthinflight

Through the onboard entertainment system

On our information leaflet available from Qantas or your travel agent

Smoking: Government regulations prohibit smoking on all flights operated by Australian-registered aircraft. The use and charging of all e-cigarettes and other personal vaporisers are not permitted on board an aircraft. There are smoke detectors in all toilets and penalties for regulation breaches.

Travelling with children: Please ask cabin crew for help if required. Baby food and nappies (diapers) are available on most flights, while some washrooms are fitted with baby change tables. Please dispose of nappies etc. in the waste bins.

When you land

Leaving flights: On international flights, the cabin crew will distribute the necessary Customs and Immigration forms. If you are stopping en route, you will need your boarding pass to re-board the aircraft. If you’re travelling as a domestic passenger on an international flight within Australia, retain your boarding card with the large D sticker. This will be required to clear Customs at your destination.

Transferring from Australian domestic flights numbered QF400 and above to international

flights: At check-in you will be issued with your international boarding pass. Your international boarding pass and baggage will be tagged through to your final destination. There is no need to claim your baggage or attend check-in at the transfer airport. Follow the signs for international transfers passengers to the complimentary transfer bus (not necessary in Melbourne and Darwin).

Transferring from international to domestic flights numbered QF400 and above: On arrival at your Australian transfer port, go through Immigration and collect your luggage. Proceed through Customs and follow the signs to the domestic transfer area to re-check your luggage. A complimentary transfer bus (not necessary in Melbourne, Adelaide and Darwin) departs at regular intervals for the domestic terminal for your connecting Qantas flight within Australia. If your connecting domestic flight is numbered QF1-QF399, there is no need to clear Customs and Immigration. These flights depart from the international terminals. Customs and Immigration clearance will be completed at your final destination.

Transferring to a Jetstar domestic flight: If your next flight is with Jetstar (JQ) or a Qantas codeshare flight operated by Jetstar (QF5400-QF5999), you will need to collect your baggage and follow the signs to the Jetstar counter to check in for your flight and re-check your baggage.

Qantas security policy

The Qantas Group has a strict policy of denying boarding, or offloading any passenger who makes inappropriate comments or behaves inappropriately inflight or on the ground. Qantas will not accept any inappropriate comments as “jokes”. It will also seek to recover all costs incurred, including diversions as a result of security incidents, from those involved.

Group-wide security

Security screening is subject to the laws and regulations of the country of operation. The Qantas Group ensures that its passengers, staff and aircraft are safe and secure through an outcome-focused, risk-based approach to security management.

Qantas security standards apply across the business, including QantasLink and Jetstar.

A dedicated operations centre monitors global security events 24 hours a day.

Security advice

Pack your own luggage

Do not carry any items for another person

Carry valuables, approved medication and keys in your carry-on baggage

All knives, sharp objects or cutting implements must be in checked baggage

Security measures can include random frisk search after consent is obtained. Passengers may request privacy and must be searched by a screener of the same gender

Important note: Security screening is subject to the laws and regulations of the country of operation.

Restrictions on powders and liquids, aerosols and gels (LAGs)

On all international flights to and from Australia: Each container of LAGs in your carry-on baggage must be 100ml or less

All 100ml containers must be placed in a single transparent one-litre plastic bag Plastic bags containing LAGs are to be screened separately from other carry-on baggage

All powders must be screened separately with restrictions on the carriage of inorganic powders over 350ml (350g)

Passengers may still carry prescription medicines or baby products sufficient for the flight

If departing, transiting or transferring on an international flight at an Australian

international gateway airport, duty-free powders and LAGs must be sealed, with receipt, in a security tamper-evident bag issued at the time of purchase

Full-body scanners

The Australian federal government has introduced full-body scanners at international gateway airports: Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Perth, Melbourne and the Gold Coast

The Australian Federal Government has commenced introducing full-body scanners at major domestic airports: Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Canberra, Darwin, Gold Coast, Hobart, Launceston, Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth, Sunshine Coast, Sydney and Townsville

At international gateway airports passengers refusing to pass through the scanner will be banned from entering the sterile area or boarding an aircraft for 24 hours

Exemptions apply for people with serious medical conditions, infants and small children, and people in wheelchairs

As per advice, the energy exposure is comparable to that from a mobile phone several metres away

There are no known safety concerns for people with pacemakers and metal implants or for pregnant women

Dangerous goods

Common items used every day may seem harmless but on an aircraft they may become dangerous. When the aircraft changes altitude, variations in temperature and pressure may cause items to leak, create fumes or catch fire.

Items that are forbidden on aircraft or have carriage restrictions include lithium batteries, other battery types, camping stoves, fuels, oils, compressed gases, aerosols, household cleaners, matches, lighters, paints, explosives (including flares, fireworks, sparklers and bonbons), emergency position-indicating radio beacons, radioactive material, biological and infectious substances and fuel-powered equipment. This list is not exhaustive so please carefully consider what items you pack for your next flight.

If you’re unsure about an item in your baggage, ask a member of our friendly cabin crew.

For further information, go to qantas.com or email dg@qantas.com.au.

Travel advice

Qantas is a partner in the Australian government’s Charter for Safe Travel. Travellers may obtain the latest travel advice for their destination by visiting smartraveller.gov.au.

Automated immigration clearance

Several countries are introducing automated immigration clearance procedures to cope with growing air-travel numbers. The goal is to provide a faster, smoother immigration experience to eligible passengers without compromising border security. Please note that some automated clearance options may not be available due to COVID.

Countries providing facilities across our network:

Australia SmartGate: e-passport holders of Australia, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Macau, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and US

China e-Channel: citizens of China

Hong Kong e-Channel Residents: citizens and residents of Hong Kong

Hong Kong e-Channel Visitors: frequent visitors that are visa-exempt, including Australians

Indonesia Autogate passport gates: citizens of Indonesia

Japan Speedy Immigration: citizens and foreign nationals with re-entry and special re-entry permits

New Zealand SmartGate Plus: e-passport holders of Australia, New Zealand, UK and US

Singapore enhanced-Immigration Automated Clearance System (eIACS): citizens, permanent residents, work permit holders and APEC cardholders

UAE eGate: UAE citizens and residents

UK ePassport gates: e-passport holders of UK, Switzerland and European Economic Area (EEA)

USA Global Entry system: US citizens and permanent residents, Dutch citizens, South Korean citizens and Mexican nationals. Canadian citizens and residents with NEXUS membership

USA Automated Passport Control: for US, Canadian and Visa Waiver Program passport holders

Fee applies

Pre-enrolment required

What you need to know about your onboard security, safety and health

Quick clues

Cryptic clues

Across

1. Girl can identify Dog Star (6)

Strikes because of restraints (5)

Guaranteed rescue operation (6)

Homer apt to mix this figure of speech (8)

Concerning fasting period, fewer see it as uncompromising (10)

13. Some assault reported during tumble (10)

Unworldly tavern only initiated small change (8)

Complain about buzzer loudly (4)

Uncooperative youth is extremely ill-mannered (7)

Emu’s cleverness disguises strength (6)

Keep quiet in dodgy deal or get flogged (6)

Say no to dip (7)

Strange novelty not to have lot of jealousy (4)

Company plays ad backwards as an added extra (4)

Use rod and nets to catch guinea pigs for example (7)

Speak with contempt about dried-out expedition leader (6)

Saint hid among fawns on the way back and took a break (6)

Shop assistant’s suggestion is to see if you can get away with it (3,2,2)

A pain in it is a nuisance (4)

Footwear for a reptile? (8)

Reg comes back between drinks for a spicy tipple (6,4)

Her clients all give her a hand (10)

Useful stand-by for those who make mistakes in a blizzard (5-3)

Try elm out as an evergreen (6)

Sheen accepts loss following initial gain (5)

The French return covered in blood in copious amounts (6)

Down

2. Alter one name for flower (7)

3. Condition paintings are in will require the highest level of technology (5,2,3,3)

4. On course he’d relocate sonar (4,7)

Classic or future-looking involvement of Greek island (5)

To start with look for tree at top end of street (5)

Inconsiderate to retail mullet, we hear (7)

Leave for holidays? (7)

Two hundred swallow oil mixture for intestinal discomfort (5)

10. Sticky substance relating to crime (5)

Encrypted compact disc has poem imprinted in it (5)

Weird that world peace body can be placed above New York (7)

We take turns using it (8,5)

Six in top spot are furiously angry (5)

An advance, we hear, achieved without help (5)

I sent out for map detail (5)

Threatening to stop making cross (11)

Row when tide’s up, perhaps (7)

Leaning towards nursing (7)

Deacon queries part of master (7)

Duck to change for egg producer (5)

Some of Clinton’s

for

for

(3,2)

(5)

Eastwood (5)

Wheel of words

as many words of four letters or more

you can using the given letters once only but always including the central letter. Don’t use

nouns or plurals ending with “s”. See if you can find the nine-letter word using all letters.

Match-ups –Idiomatic Pairings

out all the words needed to complete these pairs that commonly

together in proverbs and sayings.

leftover letters will spell out an idiom that refers to two things that

don’t go together.

R O

L E

E P

C

A T

A ROCK AND A AIRS AND AND A LEG BE-ALL AND AND GUTS BODY AND BOW AND AND DOGS CLOAK AND

CUT AND AND CONFUSED DOS AND FIRE AND AND FOREMOST AND BLOOD GIVE AND GRIN AND HARD AND HELL OR HERE AND HIGH AND HILL AND HOME AND INS AND AND KIN LEAPS AND LIFE AND AND DAY PEACE AND PLAIN AND AND CONS RAIN OR AND RAVE SAFE AND AND SWEET THE DEVIL AND THE AND TIDE

Spot the difference

Can you spot the seven differences between these two images?

Circle what’s changed on the image below.

Quiz

By Hazel Flynn

01. What are the surnames of Romeo and Juliet in the Shakespeare play?

02. Of avocado and banana, which has the most potassium per serve?

03. Who is the “friendly pirate” in The Wiggles shows?

04. What is Australia’s national netball team called?

05. HOG is the New York Stock Exchange code for what vehicle manufacturer?

06. What is the square root of 625?

07. In what year did the number of letters mailed in Australia peak?

08. Who dueted with Peter Gabriel on the 1986 song Don’t Give Up?

09. Asmara is the capital of what African nation?

10. What is Australia’s largest bird of prey?

11. How many people were trapped when Tham Luang Nang Non cave flooded in 2018?

12. What hit TV show takes place in fictional Hawkins, Indiana?

13. What beverage is traditionally served in a coupe or flute?

14. What was first introduced across Australia in 1917 to save fuel in wartime?

15. What number was a myriad in Ancient Greece?

16. Name three of the five countries whose flag features the Southern Cross.

17 What shape is the fighting arena in UFC competition?

18 What religion is known to its followers by the Punjabi word Gurmat?

19 What is a boater hat traditionally made from?

20. Stevie Wright was lead singer of what seminal 1960s Australian band?

3 9 6 4 2 1 8 5 6 2 8 3 5 1 7 4 9 4 1 5 8 9 7 3 2 6 © Lovatts Puzzles

E H D A L S H I N E E I F S S H O R T H F L D R L A E E C N K A A U A E E F S S T H E R E O G A S E Y D B D N U O S G S H O T F F R G N A R E T A W H G I H I R S U R U K N G P R O S M A T B O L E I O S N E T S C A E L B M P T D A L E T E C A L P D R A H T P I O S D R I E D Z A R G M U N N T I M E E C S N C I Q E K A T B D O O L B A S N

the difference

A rock and a hard place, Airs and graces, An arm and a leg, Be-all and end-all, Blood and guts, Body and soul, Bow and scrape, Cats and dogs, Cloak and dagger, Cut and dried, Dazed and confused, Dos and don’ts, Fire and brimstone, First and foremost, Flesh and blood, Give and take, Grin and bear it, Hard and fast, Hell or high water, Here and there, High and mighty, Hill and dale, Home and hosed, Ins and outs, Kith and kin, Leaps and bounds, Life and limb, Night and day, Peace and quiet, Plain and simple, Pros and cons, Rain or shine, Rant and rave, Safe and sound, Short and sweet, The devil and the deep blue sea, Time and tide.

Solution: As different as chalk and cheese

Wheel of words

Aloe, Alto, Clap, Clop, Clot, Coal, Cola, Colt, Earl, Lace, Late, Leap, Leer, Lope, Lore, Opal, Oral, Pale, Peal, Peel, Pelt, Plat, Plea, Plot, Pole, Real, Reel, Role, Talc, Tale, Teal, Alert, Alter, Carol, Clear, Cleat, Coral, Creel, Elate, Elect, Elope, Later, Leapt, Leper, Paler, Pearl, Petal, Place, Plate, Pleat, Polar, Repel, Carpel, Cartel, Cereal, Claret, Lector, Locate, Oracle, Parcel, Parole, Patrol, Petrel, Petrol, Placer, Plater, Portal, Relate, Repeal, Caltrop, Elector, Locater, Parolee, Polecat, Prelate, Replace, Treacle, Pectoral, Relocate.

Nine-letter word:

O E T A T S L

C

A

E

E

R

P

I E T U P S I D

R E D N U O S O H C E R

I

O

N

A

O G N I D N E T

D E D O C

U F R O C L

S

R

E

E

O

L

U O T T E G

Y N N A C N U

T S R I F S

I

I

T

L

T

E

F S T W E N

T E S N I

H S I F L E S H

G

O

N

N

E G N I R E G N A D N E

M Y N O

(AYERS

NORTHERN TERRITORY

Lake Eyre L Gregory L Blanche Lake Torrens Lake Everard Lake Gairdner

Great Australian Bight

Gulf Carpentaria

TIMOR SEA

INDIAN OCEAN Finke Northcliffe

Newdegate

Smoky Bay

Penong Coorabie EuclaWidgiemooltha

Parachilna Karonie

Cook Wynbring

Maralinga

Menzies Marree

Yalgoo Moomba

Oodnadatta

Birdsville

Areyonga

Jigalong

Barrow Creek

Tanami

Newcastle Waters

Daly Waters

Oombulgurri

Kalumburu Borroloola

Pine Creek

Batchelor

Jabiru Mount Magnet Kingston South

Victor Harbor

Walpole

Mount Barker Augusta Manjimup HopetounMargaret River Esperance BurraCowellKatanning Ravensthorpe Collie Wagin Harvey PeterboroughNarrogin Streaky Bay KondininBrookton Norseman Ceduna Hawker Northam Merredin Southern Cross Woomera Kambalda Coolgardie Boulder

Moora Leigh Creek Andamooka Dalwallinu

Three Springs Morawa Coober PedyLeonora LavertonMullewa

Kalbarri Cue

Meekatharra Wiluna

ErnabellaAmataWarburton

Carnarvon Kaltukatjara

Exmouth TelferPannawonica Onslow Marble Bar

Dampier

Camooweal Tennant Creek

Halls Creek Doomadgee

Kalkarindji Derby

Wyndham

Ngukurr Katherine Wadeye

Daly River

Oenpelli Maningrida MOUNT

Murray Bridge Albany

Bunbury Port Pirie

Mandurah Port Augusta Fremantle

Tom Price BUSSELTON Denmark

DESERT

DESERT

GREAT SANDY DESERT

Island

Eylandt

Island

CHANNEL COUNTRY

GULF COUNTRY

NEWMAN

Lake Eyre

Borroloola

Victor

Cowell

Woomera

Andamooka Port Pirie

Port Augusta

SIMPSON DESERT

Groote Eylandt Kangaroo Island

GOVE (Nhulunbuy) Olympic Dam KINGSCOTE

WHYALLA

Carpentaria

Moonie

Saraji

Mungana

Gayndah

Theodore Monto Moura

Yeppoon

Laura Cooktown

Forster

Grafton

Casino Lismore

Noosa Gympie

Maryborough