Your Time Sunshine Coast - January 2023

Persian Nain Silk Inlaid – 3.48×2.50 $8,700.00 $17,400.00

All of Persian Carpet Gallery carpets are supplied with certificate of originality. You can also exchange the rugs at any of our stores across Australia. We have the most amazing rugs from traditional Persian to modern.

Karaz

2.01×1.25

$2,550.00

Persian Heriz – 3.67×2.57 $8,550.00 $17,500.00

TRY BEFORE YOU BUY

Over 50 years in the trade Expert cleaning & restoration Trade-in/exchange

Wnew year than with a stroll down memory lane to 1973, revisiting the big events, and recalling the hopes and dreams of 50 years ago.

I was in my last year of high school and dating the boyfriend who would become my husband. I was earning 60cents an hour at my Saturday morning job. That was enough to buy the important things like lipstick, a new mini skirt and a stash of Violet Crumbles to taunt my younger brother.

Monty Python had caught my imagination much to my father’s disgust: “turn that rubbish off”. And once a week there was a dash to the record shop to pick up the latest list of what had hit the Top 40.

It really felt that the world was my oyster. I was a powerful teenager who had the world at her feet. All fun, little responsibility and blissfully unaware of the real world that was waiting.

Julie Lake this month covers the full ambit of what we were doing and what was going on around us in 1973.

The Sydney Opera House opened to great fanfare, giving Australia one of the greatest buildings of the 20th century. Gough Whitlam was prime minister and the last troops were withdrawn from Vietnam.

Music came from transistor radios and record turntables still had a choice of playing 33, 45 or 78. The magical cassette tape was changing that — no more scratched LPs to worry about.

White bread ruled, televisions were black and white, and most households had only one phone. But if you got stuck away from home you could always make a reverse charge call from the red public phone box.

It seems a lifetime ago — oh that’s right, it was a lifetime ago.

The observation: “1973 was a great time to be young but 2023 is a great time to be old” sums it up nicely.

Dorothy Whittington Editor

is a great nicely

DISTRIBUTION ENQUIRIES distribution@yourtimemagazine.com.au. Or call 0419 746 894

PUBLISHER Michelle Austin 5493 1368. EDITOR Dorothy Whittington, dot@yourtimemagazine.com.au

ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES 0438 717 210 or 0413 855 855. sales@yourtimemagazine.com.au

FOR DIGITAL EDITIONS AND MORE yourtimemagazine.com.au

1973 - it was a great time to be young

It was the time of our life, living on the cusp of change in 1973. JULIE LAKE turns the clock back 50 years and explores the world that shaped our lives.

“Fifty years ago!” exclaims Carole Brennan. “It seems like yesterday. I’d just got married and moved to Brisbane, which was a boring city back then. But safe, and friendly. Was life better in those days? In some ways, yes … but then we were young, and everything was on a roll!”

For Carole, as with other Baby Boomers, to be young and living in Queensland in 1973 was to be living the good life in every possible way.

The state had its own robust free health system but private medical insurance was cheap. So was petrol, despite the oil crisis. Owning your own home was easy for most young couples though limits on borrowing, with banks and building societies the only mortgage lenders, were strict – enforcing modest first home expectations.

Food was simple and mostly unpackaged, with seafood and steak always affordable but bread mostly white and sliced and high in carbs.

Most young people got married and de facto relationships had little social or official recognition but divorce rates were higher, 4.4 per 1000 compared to about 1.9 per 1000 today.

To live in 1973 was to live on the cusp of change. “It’s Time” Gough Whitlam told us all in 1972 when the election of his Labor government ended 23 years of continuous conservative rule.

Most young Queenslanders embraced the new idealism and though Whitlam didn’t last long the scrapping of long-held policies had an impact upon life in Queensland today.

These include the end of the alreadyfaltering White Australia policy and

opening the way for further changes such as abolition of the death penalty for federal crimes. There was a general sense of social liberalisation as hitherto “voiceless” minorities began to make themselves heard.

One of them was the environmental lobby but despite the daily dose of climate change and other environmental issues in the media today, lifelong activists Mike and Elizabeth Russell say that people in the main ae still surprisingly unaware of environmental threats.

Back then there were some major (and ultimately successful) conservation battles being fought; for example to stop sand mining on Fraser Island and to have Cooloola, north of Noosa, declared a national park.

Despite these modest successes, natural habitat in our region, including vulnerable foreshore, continues to be sacrificed to development and global warming has become the dominant issue. At the same the education and employment of environmental specialists, unknown in 1973, is common practice today as government attempts to balance the built and natural environments.

When it comes to entertainment, older Queenslanders are in common agreement – popular music in 1973 was a lot better than it is today.

Over a glass or two of wine Renee, Patti, Jan and Gill reminisce about the music of their youth, when the songs were more varied and the artists more distinctive.

“Not like all this synthesized studio stuff today,”says Gill. “And as for rap –yuk!”. One of the others says it’s not just

Seems a bargain but the cost of living wasn’t really that much cheaper. Average income was about $7000 a year.

an age thing. “I try listening to today’s “young” music but I can’t connect; it has no heart.”

So what were we listening to back then? The biggest selling single was Tony Orlando and Dawn with Tie a Yellow Ribbon and Carly Simon’s iconic You’re So Vain. Elton John came to our attention with Crocodile Rock, Suzi Quatro canned the can – hey, a hard-core, leather-clad female rocker!

Aussie Helen Reddy had two hit singles with I am Woman and Delta Dawn, The Carpenters were On Top of the World, the Rolling Stones gave us Angie and the teenage Michael Jackson and Ben lost the Oscar to Maureen McGovern and The Morning After from the hit film of that year, The Poseidon Adventure.

Michael and his brothers toured Australia, and so did the Stones

And what have our grandchildren and great-grandchildren been listening to this past year? Ed Sheeran had two hits that aren’t so very different to songs of yesteryear, although Bad Habits tips over into weirdness.

Adele’s Easy on Me has an ‘80s vibe, and in Old Town Road by Lil Nas, we have a sort of rap meets country mix.

It’s not bad to ageing ears, but it does indeed seem to lack that special something that makes music memorable through several generations.

We enjoyed pop concerts in the old Festival Hall boxing stadium and dutifully visited the state art gallery in City Hall where Godfrey Rivers’ iconic Under the Jacaranda Tree was the best-known painting.

But the times they were a-changing and down in Canberra they had just purchased, amid great controversy, abstract-expressionist Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles for $1.3 million.

Not to be outdone, the Queensland Government recognised the need for a new state art gallery, performance centre and museum which was soon to be built on what was formerly a scruffy area of light industry, godowns and dubious pubs.

Today, crowds flock to both the Queensland Art Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art for exhibitions as “out there” as any in the world.

In sport, John Newcombe won the Ausralian and US Open without being covered in advertising or smashing his racket or swearing at the umpire. The Socceroos made Australian sport history

in Hong Kong but soccer was still a poor fourth in popularity behind the three other codes. And interestingly, it still ranks third in terms of attendance and media coverage.

Which is strange, says Stevo, one of four mates who have worked, surfed and fished together since the mid-1970s.

We met on his patio with Jeff, Garry, Jimmy and Ron, and discussed the changes to football over the past five decades.

They are all strong Maroons supporters who don’t think the game is as good as it was in Wally Lewis’ time, mainly because “every player today thinks himself a superstar”.

Stevo, the child of Hungarian immigrants, is also a strong soccer fan and says it should rank number one in this country over AFL “a Victorian game that nobody else in the world plays”.

Jeff passes round a picture of himself taken in 1973 wearing long hair, thick beard and bell-bottom pants. He points out that he was skinny back then and ruefully pats his midriff.

The talk switches to food and Garry remembers that his father ate chops or steak for breakfast every day, generally a cheese or devon sausage white bread sandwich for lunch and roast, chops, sausages or steak in the evening until he

died at 59 of heart complications.

“We lived at Redcliffe and a health food shop opened up there in about 1972. First we’d ever seen. My new wife and I got into it in a big way and although I still eat most things, I only have red meat a couple of times a week, eat wholemeal bread, unsweetened cereal and yoghurt, lots of fresh fruit and veg.”

All the men agreed that today’s diet is healthier and with a far greater variety of foods available in every season.

Food is just one area in which 2023 consumers have so much more choice than we did half a century ago – also fashion, sporting goods, health products, cars and household goods.

Not only is the choice of building and home décor items such as tiles, blinds and bathroom fittings much wider and of higher quality but retailers have sophisticated digital gadgets to help us make the right choice.

But it’s not all induction ovens and glass splashbacks! Today we have to put up with trade shortages, long builds and equally long delivery times compared to when I first built a house in 1973.

There is a common assumption among Baby Boomers that the cost of living was much cheaper 50 years ago but

research shows that yesteryear’s prices were much the same when compared to income.

For example, in 1973 you might buy instant coffee for 30 cents a 100g jar, lamb chops for $1.30 a kilogram and a 420g can of baked beans for 15 cents. A cup of coffee and a cake might cost $1.15.

And you could buy a house for under $20,000, compared to an average $782,000 today – though it would have been a much more modest home.

But the average income was about $7000 a year back then. Today the average income is $85,000 a year (though many earn much more) and you can buy a can of beans for less than$1. In fact, a Reserve Bank inflation calculator shows that something costing $1 in 1973 is roughly the same as about $10 today.

By the beginning of the 1970s big shopping malls were already established in Brisbane and few today would argue that these have made retail therapy a lot more comfortable and convenient.

However they, and of course today’s supermarket food palaces have also led to the demise of the corner convenience store along with suburban butchers and greengrocers.

Now, mall retailers themselves are under threat from online shopping which has developed into such a fast, cheap, convenient, safe alternative that, since Covid, many older people have embraced it.

“I even buy some clothes online now,” says Heather Drewes who is in her early 70s. “It’s so much less stressful than going into shops with poky little changing rooms and blaring music”.

In 1973, the last Australian forces left Vietnam and the boys came home to a less than heroic welcome due to the war’s increasing unpopularity.

Since then, our military has been engaged in peacekeeping missions or as part of multi-lateral forces in the Middle East, East Timor, Africa and Afghanistan. Today, our overseas engagement is minimal and limited mostly to training.

There are actually fewer wars in the world today than in 1973 but according to surveys many of us think that society has become more violent, with drugs and lack of discipline for young people cited as the major reasons.

Statistics show there were 82 cases of

continued over>

John Newcombe starred on the tennis court.

The last Australian forces left Saigon in June 1973, ending our Vietnam War involvement.

IMAGES: AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL

homicide and related offences in Queensland in 2021 – down 13 victims from the previous year. Most of them were male and at home, while reported sexual assault and robbery showed an increase.

By comparison, although the annual murder rate – and the population – was lower in the 1970s, there was a spate of particularly violent crimes against women/girls.

In 1973, the highest profile homicide was the deliberate torching of the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub in Brisbane which killed 15 people.

“I never bother with statistics”, says Barbara Hepburn, a retired nurse. “In ’73 you could come off night shift at the Royal Brisbane and walk to your car without a thought. I wouldn’t do it today”.

Barbara looks doubtful when told that the murder clear-up rate is much better today than it was 50 years ago. “It’s not much use if you’re dead, is it?”

Today trade union power is considerably less confrontational than it was in the 1970s, mainly due to the introduction of enterprise bargaining and the Fair Work Act of 2009.

Queensland was mostly free of strikes in 1973 but in Victoria the Broadmeadows Ford factory strike

exploded into violence and in New South Wales the powerful Builders Labourers’ Federation conducted a whopping 53 strikes.

Several of these were so-called “Green Bans” led by union leader Jack Mundey, with a stated aim of preserving parkland, green space, architectural heritage and working class neighbourhoods from destruction by developers. Even Kings Cross strippers went on strike!

Industrial dispute is a quieter affair

went to the drive-in on Saturday night; listened to music on portable transistor radios and cassette players.

Within a decade, desktop computers would appear and then the digital revolution took us over in an exponential storm. The question is, has it made us better communicators?

Former CEO Dick Howlett, mid-80s, thinks not. Despite being one of the early Queensland users (in the 1990s) of mobile phones, he now laments the way in which the smart phone and its apps has come to rule our lives.

He especially resents its uncontrolled use in schools and, like many others interviewed, is concerned that for all its wonders the internet makes older people much more vulnerable to scams and personal information theft than we were in the 1970s – a fear graphically underscored by the Optus and Medibank hacking scandals of the past year.

One phone, usually black, was the norm in most households. If not at home, there was the public phone box for a reverse charge call.

Nor has the digital revolution necessarily improved service, Amanda says, citing banking as an example.

today, with striking employees more subject to legal action or dismissal; a matter of concern to some union spokespeople.

The biggest social change since 1973 has been in communications. The Baby Boomers entering their 20s still lived in households where one phone, usually black, was the norm.

Satellites were a novelty and had little impact on the lives of ordinary people. We wrote letters and sent telegrams;

Amanda Dowie, early 60s and recently retired from working in a Catholic private school, agrees that the poor control of mobile phones in schools is adversely affecting educational standards. She is equally concerned about our dependence on social media and texting.

“I saw a bus go by the other day and all the passengers were glued to their screens. I ask myself whether they are plugged in or plugged out of life,” she says.

“Banks today are so unwelcoming and strange,” she says. “There never seems to be any staff. Just frustrated customers.”

Amanda does concede, though, that applications on her mobile phone such as Facetime have made it much easier – and more affordable – to communicate with her granddaughter in London. She even reads to her over the phone.

Banks are not the only institutions cited as examples of deteriorating service and communication difficulty – medical practitioners, public transport, government services (especially

“We wrote letters and sent telegrams; went to the drive-in on Saturday night.”

Centrelink) and energy providers are on the consumer blacklist.

“Remember when our utilities were owned by the government,” sighs Carole Brennan. “Privatisation was supposed to make things cheaper and more efficient, but has it?”

Another major social change since 1973 has been the status of women – and gender identification. When former Labor prime minister Paul Keating made his first parliamentary speech in 1970, he bemoaned the fact that “husbands have been forced to send their wives to work in order to provide the necessities of life.”

No Australian politician would dare make such a statement today. Fifty years ago most married women with children were housewives. Today, few would identify as such – but that was the time when things began to change and most Baby Boomer women have juggled motherhood with paid work.

What’s more, when Keating made that speech it was to a chamber of male MPs only. Today, women politicians are plentiful, though they are still outnumbered by men.

Women? Men? Only two genders were recognised back then.

Today those who reject gender stereotyping identify as non-binary, same-sex partners can marry and raise children, and transexuals are not limited to The Rocky Horror Show. The Brads and

Janets of our youth have become tolerant with age.

“Perhaps the best thing to have happened in the past 50 years is that people are more accepting of difference in others”, says retired engineer Iain MacPhail.

A summary of other changes to our lifestyle in 50 years include credit and debit cards, safer and more efficient cars, improved health technologies such as organ transplants, joint replacements and more accurate radiology, cable TV, casinos, drug-fuelled crime, greater recognition of indigenous Australians, global shifts in economic power, CCTV and security systems, wider acceptance of profanity and pornography, cybercrime, American food and beverage franchise outlets, age-specific lifestyle communities.

And amid all this change it’s sometimes hard to remember that when we were young many of us dressed like hippies, smoked a bit of cannabis, got drunk, got divorced, disrespected our parents, danced frenetically to loud music and took to the streets in protest.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”, quotes Jeff, one of the four old workmates who had a lot of fun when I asked them to enter the time warp with me for this story.

“Even the beer was colder then! The way I see it, 1973 was a great time to be young but 2023 is a great time to be old!”

SCONETIME is back, connecting seniors and their families with local business owners around the Sunshine Coast over a cuppa and fresh scones with lashings of jam and cream.

Avid foodie Martin Duncan introduced Sconetime in 2018 and despite the pandemic, it continued to grow in popularity.

After the isolation of the lockdowns, its role has become more valuable than ever.

“It’s really important for communities to reconnect,” Martin says. “A lot of people are feeling the loneliness and Sconetime is an amazing way to bring people together as seniors, their families and their business communities get together.

“It’s a very special mix.”

And 2023 is shaping up to be bigger and better than ever. The first will be at

the CWA Hall in Kalinga St, Caloundra on Wednesday, January 25. Sconetime will return to Caloundra a month later, on February 22.

Watch for a Sconetime near you: Wednesday February 8, at the Buderim War Memorial Hall sponsored by 4556 Chamber of Commerce, Buderim Ginger, Fee-ka Espresso and Montville Coffee;

Thursday February 9, at the Beerwah CWA Hall, sponsored by the Glasshouse Chamber of Commerce, Montville Coffee; Tuesday, February 14, Valentine’s Day, at Cooroy Memorial Hall sponsored by Noosa Black Coffee.

Sconetime always starts at 10am.

“It’s the mix of seniors and local business people that makes it really special,” Martin says. “I love to hear the stories. There are some amazing people.”

Your Time is a major sponsor of Sconetime in 2023 – helping our readers connect.

LITTLE WOMAN WITH A BIG CAMERA

HILDA Geissmann-Curtis was one of early Queensland’s best-known naturalist/photographers and her studies of the birds and orchids of Tamborine Mountain during the first decades of the 20th century brought her fame around Australia.

Hilda is now the subject of a biography, Hilligei, by Your Time writer Julie Lake, who is also the author of Creating a Rainforest Garden, Gardening in a Hot Climate and A Garden in Africa as well as co-author of the world’s first camping e-book, Camping in Australia.

Julie, who has a long association with the rainforests of Tamborine Mountain , found much in common with her subject, who died in 1988, a couple of years short of her 100 th birthday.

“Although I never met her, we shared a love or birdwatching, orchids, good books and gardening,” Julie says.

“I first became interested in Hilda, or Hilligei as she was known to close friends, when I realised her importance to Australian natural history. Her photographs and articles were about birds and orchid species which until then were virtually unknown.

“But while male natural historians of that era got their due recognition, Hilda and her work, are virtually unknown. This book is my way of bringing her back to life.”

Hilda Geissmann acquired a secondhand Thornton-Pickard camera in the early 1920s and taught herself how to use it, lugging its bulk through the rainforest and learning how to develop

LETTER

The Your Time story about forced adoptions in the 1950s-‘70s, is stomach churning.

If this were to happen now, lawyers would be lining up to offer their services in a class action, with potentially millions of dollars in compensation, from the hospitals and Government, in prospect.

In my opinion, it would be good to hear from the nursing staff involved all those years ago, to reveal how they feel about their actions now, and the tremendous pressures they were under at that time.

Three cheers to brave women who told their stories, and to the organisations now offering support services to the women of that era.

Ken Moore

Have your say. Send letters to Editor, Your Time Magazine, PO Box 6362, Maroochydore BC 4558 or email editor@yourtimemagazine.com.au

its glass plates. She corresponded with well-known naturalists in Australia and overseas and her photos and articles were published in several newspapers and journals.

“They called her the little woman with the big camera,” Julie says.

“Hilda was an ordinary woman who for a brief period of her life was extraordinary. Her exquisite photographs of orchids won her much acclaim and her articles are delightful because of the way she blended scientific observation with an obvious love for her subject.”

Visit gardenezi.com or email jrlakemedia@ gmail.com

WELCOME to 2023.

There’s still plenty to do in the garden, including mowing which never seems to let up at this time of year.

Statice, marigolds, zinnias, dahlias and roses are all in bloom. Spray Roses for black spot and aphids if required. Fertilise every six weeks for best results.

In the vege garden, tomatoes, corn, lettuce, radish, cucumbers, zucchini and spring onions are growing well and there’s plenty of time to plant more.

If you are waiting for autumn planting of winter veges, add copious amounts of animal manures and compost and cover with a thick layer of cane mulch and you’re guaranteed good crops.

Citrus are setting fruit now. Keep up the water and fertiliser for a bountiful supply.

With the cooler winter weather in my new garden, I am trialling a rhododendron I bought in Toowoomba, along with a climbing hydrangea and a clematis. Fingers crossed for good results.

Rhubarb is growing well and I also had a good crop of potatoes.

Order bulbs early before they sell out. Ranunculi, anemones and gladioli do well.

For something really hardy, you can’t go past day lilies and agapanthus. Happy gardening.

Penny Hegarty

The gift of your body could make a real difference to medical innovation

The opportunity to be able to examine a real human body is a privilege, and the ultimate gift that someone can give to science and medicine.

The QUT Body Bequest Program is a key component of medical education and training at QUT. It is through the generous gift of their body that members of the public play an important role in the training of health professionals such as surgeons, doctors, nurses and allied health workers.

More information

The and Gold Coast, but not to areas.

The main acceptance areas will be Sunshine Coast, to Toowoomba, Greater Brisbane and Gold Coast, but may not be confined to these areas.

To request a Body Bequest Kit that will include additional information and registration forms, please phone 3138 6944 or email bodybequestofficer@qut.edu.au

QUT needs your support to continue this essential training and ongoing research.

WIN A FREE DOUBLE PASS

What’s Love Got To Do With It? is a cross-cultural romantic comedy starring Emma Thompson that will deliver humour and heart.

How do you find lasting love in today’s world? For documentary filmmaker Zoe (Lily James), swiping right to find Mr Right has only delivered bad dates and funny anecdotes, much to her opinionated mother Cath’s (Emma Thompson) dismay.

For her childhood friend and neighbour Kazim (Shazad Latif), the answer is to follow his parents’ example and opt for an assisted marriage with a bright and beautiful bride from Pakistan.

As Zoe films his hopeful journey from London to Lahore to marry a stranger chosen by his parents, she begins to wonder if she might have something to learn from a different approach to finding love.

by Mocco Wollert

expect a thank-you. When somebody thanks us, we will counter with “oh, don’t think anything of it, you don’t have to thank me.” But really deep down, don’t we want an acknowledgement for the effort to find a gift or to give of our time?

As this is a magazine for oldies and olders, you will remember that you would be pressured by your mother “you have to ‘say thank you’ or ‘don’t forget to say thank you’.”

Saying it person to person wasn’t too bad but doing it with a card or note, hand-written of course, was often regarded as quite a chore.

But to receive a present of any kind and not to express appreciation would have been very rude.

Speaking of cards, today there are wonderful cards for all occasions in endless racks in shops and newsagencies. But then there is the question what to do with them when the birthday or anniversary is over?

I have a special box where I keep them but to my shame, I must confess that I never look at them again. While writing this column I took out the box and started reading the cards and notes I had received over the years.

I was soon in tears, reading all those wonderful words – from very small grandchildren and longstanding friends, and from people who are no longer in my life.

by Cheryl Lockwood

“THANK you, driver” the passenger called out when leaving the bus.

I always feel that this acknowledgement of the driver is such a nice thing to do. I have not seen it anywhere else in the world.

January is probably a good time to write about saying thank-you.

Christmas is a time when we receive gifts of all kinds and saying “thank you” should be a given.

We might pretend that we don’t

I can’t remember how many thank-you cards I have written in my life; some with a real feeling of thanks, others because it was good manners, and some with gritted teeth if it was for another ornament I really did not like.

Like most people and certainly children, I hated to have to write a thank-you card or note. Whatever I wrote was stiff and artificial until some-one said to me “don’t write THANKS as expected, write of your feelings of joy. Write like you would tell that person on the phone.” That advice took the terror out of official thank-you notes for me.

There was also a small collection of hand-written little notes that my husband left for me from time to time. Quite a few were obviously written after he had had a drink or two. I did not care; I was the love of his life and he thanked me not just in words but in writing!

Gifts can come in many forms and here are a few words to maybe give thanks for those special gifts:

Thank you for being in my life –thank you for sharing good and troubled times – thank you for picking me up after a bad experience - thank you for being you.

May you receive many gifts and know how to give thanks.

NEW Year resolutions are not high on my agenda and I’m not sure when I last made a genuine one – possibly in my youth when I resolved to grow taller, which has not happened … yet.

I declared I’d give up sarcasm once, which caused much laughter from my family. That idea obviously failed due to lack of encouragement.

It’s not that there’s no improvement needed. I just don’t see the point in making promises that I will not keep.

If I need to change something about my life, I don’t see why it has to be on the 1st of January. What if I decide I’m going to be a better person on the 3rd of May? Do I start there and then or can I just run amok for another seven months?

Dr Richard Hamilton Johnston is a rare breed, Dr Johnston’s introduction to dentistry was as a top Cosmetic Dental Technician working in Brisbane. This means he is extremely good at making beautiful and functional dentures.

Richard then took a hiatus from the dental profession and joined the Australian Defence force in Army Aviation. Dr Johnston then returned to the dental profession, qualifying as a dentist in 2008. This combination of Cosmetic Dental Technician and qualified Dentist, means Dr Johnston can look after all your dental and denture needs, understanding your oral anatomy, your dental health and how to create functional partial or full dentures that look amazing.

Authorised by the Queensland Government, William Street, Brisbane.

Apparently the phrase “New Year’s Resolution” appeared in a Boston newspaper in 1813, but the idea of promising changes began earlier than that.

Historians tell us that the Babylonians were into it way back in 2000BC.

Their New Year involved a 12-day festival coinciding with the start of farming season. A time to plant crops, crown their king or reaffirm loyalty to one they liked and pledge to repay their debts.

I doubt they resolved to use the chariot less often or be less frivolous with their shekels. It was more about returning borrowed farm equipment, which the owners would have needed and were probably peeved at whichever neighbour had held on to it.

They declared their promises before the gods in hope that those same deities would grant them favours for the new year. Good fortune probably played a big role in eking out a living.

The calendar has evolved several times since those ancient days when there were only 10 months in a year. Clearly not enough time to get everything done, so they threw in January and February.

If this was actually the case, I could do with an extra three or four months.

January, named after the Roman god, Janus, is an apt title for the start of our year. Janus had two faces, one looking forward to new beginnings, the other looking back for reflection and resolution.

Tricky for applying make-up, but handy for keeping an eye on the kids.

Fast forward to modern day and many countries still acknowledge the new year with a variety of traditions. Most have the underlying base of warding off the bad stuff and encouraging the good.

In Brazil, revellers wear white, a colour signifying luck and prosperity. White clothing for me usually means I will spill food quite soon after getting dressed.

A tradition for Columbians is to carry an empty suitcase at midnight to encourage a year of much travelling. Not sure that worked so well during the pandemic.

In Denmark, old plates are smashed against doors of family and friends to ward off bad spirits. Collecting the morning paper could be a dangerous mission and who cleans up the broken crockery?

Fireworks are a popular way to bring in another year. I’m not sure if they scare away evil, but they sure scare the dog.

I asked hubby what he thought about resolutions and his lack of enthusiasm matched mine. He did say that he should eat a healthier diet. He was holding a box of after-dinner mints at the time.

The upside of failed resolutions is being able to make the same one next year.

I’ll be happy if 2023 brings me continued good health and plenty of time with my grandchildren.

Visit lockwoodfreelance.com

Palmwoods records its own history

In 1998, to celebrate the looming new millennium, the Palmwoods Progress Association came up with a plan to acknowledge the district’s past and present residents, community organisations and businesses in a memorial pavement. AUDIENNE BLYTH explains how it all panned out.

The brainchild of committed community worker and Lions Club members Roger Brooke, Project 2000 would commemorate the community’s contribution to Palmwoods, which was first settled in 1881.

Terracotta tiles would be inscribed with the names of early pioneer families, past and present residents, clubs and businesses, in a unique memorial pavement which would carry their names into the future.

It would make a fitting centre-point for the historic Main Street.

Three hundred individually engraved terracotta tiles were sold at $100 each. Each tile contained a name and message. Residents were assured the tiles would record their name in perpetuity.

Maroochy Shire mayor, Alison Grosse, officially opened the pavement project in 2001. There is also a historical display of photographs in the Memorial

Hall, all very popular with locals.

About 15 years later, Sunshine Coast Regional Council decided on road widening and a change of street lay-out and removed the original tiled pavement. No trace remains.

It built a boardwalk leading to a village green where the names from the tiles have been etched into the timber flooring. Many locals expressed concern over these events.

The historic Nicklin Clock

which stood above the pavement was also lost.

The original Nicklin Clock was erected in 1979 to honour Palmwoods’ most famous son, Sir Francis Nicklin (1895 – 1978).

He was elected to parliament in 1941 and was premier of Queensland 1957-1968.

Frank Nicklin was awarded the Military Cross in World War I and on his return, took up a 20 acre pineapple farm as part of a soldier settlement scheme, at

Palmwoods. Locals knew him as Frank, a pineapple farmer, a very likeable personality and a man of great integrity.

Because of problems with the original landmark clock, a new clock was commissioned in 2001. It was replaced with a more reliable model in 2010 but has been relocated and is now in a less prominent position.

Palmwoods has been famous for its farming.

Pioneer Peter Kuskopf settled in 1881 to establish his livestock business and supplied beef to the navvies building the railway line.

The Fewtrell, Roy and Spackman families were among the first to establish the pineapple and citrus farms for which Palmwoods became famous.

The opening of the railway line gave the farmers new opportunities.

From 1914-1935 a tram from

Buderim brought fruit and vegetables to Palmwoods to meet the mainline for quick transport to Brisbane. Express fruit trains transported the produce to city buyers.

Avocadoes, strawberries, citrus and pineapples have always been grown in abundance during the1900s. In more recent years, subdivisions and retirement villages began replacing the farms and orchards.

A book, The Palmwoods Pavement Project was recently published by the Sunshine Coast Genealogy Society.

It records the names from the original tiles and also includes remarkable details about the community as well as information about the families and their lives. It will outlast the boardwalk and the tiles.

Audienne Blyth is a member of the Nambour Historical Museum, open Wednesday to Friday, 1pm-4pm and Saturday 10am-3pm. All welcome.

Palmwoods’ pavement project and the Nicklin Clock.

Beds R Us is a locally-owned family business supporting local sports clubs and school sports. Owner Brad and his team will ensure you are given the best advice and the best price when purchasing your new bed from Beds R Us.

An adjustable bed might be right for you as it can assist in pain relief from conditions such as arthritis and sciatica. It can reduce back pain, help eliminate snoring and assist with asthma.

We have a great range of adjustable beds and are proud to support local manufacturers, Sleepmaker and Sleepyhead, who supply us with leading technology mattresses.

Brad and the Beds R Us guys look forward to meeting you, please see a couple of customer reviews below.

Awesome experience the guys there really know their stuff.... Highly recommend.”

“Great staff, very professional and helpful, a very good range of beds and mattresses.”

“Finally, friendly non-pushy sales people. Very helpful and great prices.”

Hot but not bothered

It’s human nature to want to take short-cuts; to find an easier and quicker way to achieve the same result, but it isn’t a great idea for brain health. KAILAS ROBERTS finds a way around it with a pleasurable pursuit that effectively gives a brain boost.

When it comes to optimising brain health, short cuts for the most part are a fool’s errand and the unpalatable truth is that if you really want to optimise and protect your brain over the long term, you must put in the work over the long term.

This is the case for many things that we know are good for your brain – following the Mediterranean diet for instance, or optimising sleep or exercise.

When examples of “hacks” that do work emerge, then I can’t help but get excited. I have mentioned before about the use of sauna bathing, and I think this is one such example of a pleasurable pursuit that requires little effort and yet which seems an effective strategy for boosting your brain. Most of the studies that have researched the benefits of sauna come from (perhaps unsurprisingly) Finland or Japan.

The types of sauna used differs between the countries, with the Finns using the traditional coals-in-a-hot box approach and the Japanese using a type of infra-red sauna known as Waon therapy. Both seem to help the body and brain.

Before we jump into why it works, it is

Virtuous Aged Care Planning

‘Modern services with a touch of traditional dignity’

good to appreciate what specific benefits sauna confers.

These include up to a 50 per cent reduction in risk of death from cardiovascular disease and a 40 per cent reduction in premature death from any cause. It is known to improve blood pressure and the health of your heart. It is also known to reduce inflammation –pertinent to all manner of chronic diseases, including dementia.

There is even evidence that it creates the same benefits as aerobic exercise – so you can be hot, but not bothered.

In animals at least, sauna-like conditions have also led to increased lifespan, and some of this may be due to

hormesis: putting the body under stress so that it is forced to adapt. This improves cell function, essentially revving them up.

And studies also have shown a link between regular sauna use and a substantially reduced risk of dementia, even accounting for the fact that those who use sauna may engage in other healthy lifestyle practices.

Though the link is only observational – we cannot fully conclude that sauna causes the reduced dementia risk - there is a so-called dose effect: the more you use the sauna, the lower your risk.

This supports the idea of it being causative. Indulging four times a week, for at least 20 minutes seems to be especially effective (between 80 and 90 degrees centigrade ideally).

But why does it work? Well, it is not fully understood, but in addition to the hormetic effect above, it increases pulse rate (up to 150 bpm) and blood pressure.

This over the long run conditions the vascular system and improves blood flow, including to the brain. So called heat shock proteins – produced by sauna bathing –also seem to interact with amyloid, a protein involved in Alzheimer’s disease –

to prevent it clumping in the brain and causing damage.

Sauna also increases the level of one of my favourite molecules, BDNF, which is critical for growing new nerve cells maintaining their health.

So, I am a big exponent of sauna, but of course you should discuss with your doctor whether it is safe for you personally and follow professional guidance about how to use it. Unstable angina is a contraindication as is a recent heart attack or certain heart valve abnormalities.

Lastly, I am not recommending you substitute sauna for exercise! Though the former might mimic the latter in some ways, exercise has its own independent benefits, and doing them both is better than just doing one.

Kailas Roberts is a psychogeriatrician and author of Mind your brain

The Essential Australian Guide to Dementia now available at all good bookstores and online. Visit yourbraininmind.com or uqp.com.au

SERVICES:

Cost Free Initial Information Session

An obligation-free appointment with our aged care advisor to help navigate you through this process.

Aged Care Financial Strategy Paper

A Strategy Paper involves a review of your current financial position and provides you with up to 5 scenarios and compares cashflow effects of each option.

Placement Service –Aged Care Facility

We liaise with facilities to organise your move from home or hospital and complete all the necessary paperwork.

Centrelink Service

We look forward to helping you navigate through the next stage of your life.

We enjoy meeting with clients to fully understand your goals and objectives, and working together to find the best outcome for now through to estate planning, ensuring peace of mind and comfort with your financial future.

Office 4, Level 1

Brisbane Road, MOOLOOLABA, 4557 07 5356 9200 kelly@virtuousplanning.com.au www.virtuousplanning.com.au

Your quality time starts now

A vibrant community awaits

From Moreton Bay to the Sunshine Coast, enjoy a quality lifestyle in a Stockland Halcyon Community. With resort-style facilities, low-maintenance living and luxury finishes, move into a new home from $559K*. Tailor your over 50s lifestyle to be the start of something exceptional.

Call 1800 050 050 or Halcyon Communities

*All photographs, illustrations, statements, pricing and information in this advertisement, are for illustrative purposes only and are based on information available to and the intention of Stockland at the time of creation November 2022 and are subject to change without notice. No diagram, photograph, illustration, statement or information amounts to a legally binding obligation on or warranty by Stockland and Stockland accepts no liability for any loss or damage suffered by any person who relies on them either wholly or in part. Indications of location, distance or size are approximate and for indicative purposes only. Subject to change.

Great debate may need to be taken with a pinch of salt

Do you worry about adding too much salt to your meals? Is salt bad for you? KENDALL MORTON takes a fresh look at the salt debate.

Roman soldiers were paid in salt. We have words that derive from salt, such as salaries, salute and salvation.

It was a highly valued commodity.

Salt is made up of two minerals, sodium and chloride, bonded together. They are listed as essential minerals for human health. Salt enhances the flavour of foods.

Let’s talk about nutrition.

It’s common for older family members to eat smaller amounts of food. Their energy output is less. They may live alone and find preparing meals a bother. It’s easy to have a sandwich instead.

Dieticians Australia estimate that about 50 per cent of older Australians in aged care and in the community are either at risk of malnutrition or are malnourished.

The Australian Medical Association’s Position Statement on Nutrition 2018 says poor diet is a factor in one in five deaths around the world, and diet is the

second highest risk factor for early death after smoking.

Salt has been a contentious issue in the medical world for over a century.

In 1904, two French doctors, Ambard and Beaujard, observed that six of their patients who had high blood pressure also ate liberal amounts of salt.

This led to the idea/ hypothesis that high salt intake increases blood pressure. No

randomised control studies were done at the time, but the idea stuck.

However other European doctors in the early 1900s argued restricted salt intake could lead to apathy, dizziness, nausea, muscle cramps and vertigo.

In the older population, dizziness and vertigo can lead to falls, broken bones and hospitalisation.

In a review article in 1950,

two authors went as far as to say, “sodium and chloride being virtually the cornerstones on which the mammalian biochemical structure is built, it is hardly surprising that exclusion of these items from the diet ultimately results in undesirable, or even catastrophic, consequences.”

In another twist, in the 1970s a researcher from the USA Lewis Dahl measured the blood pressure in rats that were given a diet with 500 grams of sodium a day. (this is equivalent to eating around 1200 grams of salt a day. The average salt intake in Australia is 9 grams a day.)

The rats developed high blood pressure.

This study became the basis of the American National Heart Foundation’s recommendation for low salt diets.

More recently researchers reviewed seven studies involving 6250 people and found no strong evidence that low salt intake lowered the risk of heart attacks,

strokes or death regardless of whether or not they had normal or high blood pressure.

In his 2017 book The Salt Fix, cardiovascular research scientist Dr DiNicolantonio, concludes there has never been any sound scientific evidence to say that salt causes high blood pressure.

When you have 1½ teaspoons of salt a day, your body produces a group of hormones called natriuretic hormones.

These nine hormones improve heart and kidney function and vascular health.

Maintaining a good appetite and eating regular meals is key to ongoing health.

An adequate diet can help maintain energy, muscle mass and mental clarity. Adding salt may make meals more palatable and increase food intake.

Kendall Morton is Director of Home Care Assistance Sunshine Coast to Wide Bay. Call 5491 6888 or email kmorton@ homecareassistance.com

Rolling options of exercise balls

Exercise balls are designed to loosen up tight muscles and improve back flexibility. TRISTAN HALL compares a range of options.

First up let’s talk about Yoga Wheels. These look like a fun prop to add to your home stretching routine.

The 12-inch wide wheel is hollow and is designed to massage the spine.

The idea is to start in a seated position with two feet flat on the floor. Put the wheel behind you and lean into it and roll your back over the yoga ball for a few minutes.

The Yoga Wheel does give the shoulder blades a pleasant stretch but is not recommended for the lower back as it can jam the vertebrae together. Yoga wheels can be unstable on carpet.

A similar product is the Chirp Wheel. This is promoted to improve posture and flexibility.

For your comfort the Chirp Wheel has a channel for your spine. It’s used in the same way as the Yoga Wheel.

A third and preferred option is the Fit Ball. These come in a few sizes. When you sit on the right size ball, your thighs will be straight just as in a dining chair. Fit balls are soft and pliable compared to the other options here.

With a Fit Ball, you can massage all of your back. Sit on the floor, lean against the ball and roll it under your back from the top to the bottom. This can reverse the chest constriction that comes from sitting around.

You can use the Fit Ball on carpet or any other stable surface, including grass.

For an upper back stretch, lean back over the ball and hold that position for around 30 seconds. If it’s comfortable, you can drop your arms behind you. As you work to stay stable on the ball, you will activate a range of muscles, in particular around your core.

The Fit Ball can also be used to loosen up the lower back. Sit on the ball and move your hips in small circles for a minute. Swap directions and repeat.

This exercise activates the small muscles around your hips. Core muscles benefit too.

While all of these wheels and balls can help massage areas of your back you can’t reach, in my opinion the Fit Ball is the safest option. It has a range of uses for your home exercise routine which I will go into next month.

Tristan Hall is an exercise physiologist with Full Circle Wellness. Call 0431 192 284 or visit fullcirclewellness.com.au

FIT HAPPENS With Tom Law

AT this time of year, the well-worn expressions, “new year, new you” and “get your summer body now” start sprouting from gyms and personal trainers.

By our age, we have heard it all before but while the marketing may be tired, the message is still a good one. The beginning of the year is a logical time to stress the importance of health and wellness as it dovetails nicely with new year resolutions.

Another given for our age group is that we are generally well aware of the importance of good health and wellness. We may not have the same level of health we had when we were younger but it can always be improved.

Let me give you two examples of people who have drastically improved their health by adopting a sensible exercise and eating regime.

Peter is in his 70s and wanted to lose some weight, and become generally healthier, mainly to better enjoy his grandkids.

We started a program of recording what Peter consumed weekly (in detail) combined with a gentle daily exercise program that included one personal training session a week.

Benefits over the past three months include 20kg weight loss. Peter still records his daily food intake and is well on the way to being a much healthier person. His habits have changed.

Julie is around 50 and has a high-pressure job. We asked Julie to take part in a regular exercise program by herself and to keep an eye on what she was eating. She has her own method of nutrition based on a program that was recommended to her and also does one personal training session a week. This session includes high intensity.

Get some help, take some advice and speak to your doctor. Have a fantastic 2023.

Tom Law is author of Tom’s Law Fit Happens. Visit tomslaw.com.au

PELICAN WATERS PHARMACY

Our award-winning reporters are working hard to inform, connect and celebrate the region, providing high-quality coverage all produced daily. The site features stunning pictures and offers entertaining and insightful columns from a range of writers and experts in their fields.

To join the independent local news revolution visit: sunshinecoastnews.com.au and subscribe to our free daily news bulletin, or load the SCN icon to the home screen on your tablet or mobile phone and get all your local news any time that suites you - FREE.

Outlander moves on up ... and out there

Once a relatively compact, cheap and honest wagon, the Mitsubishi is now bigger and plusher. BRUCE McMAHON writes that the Outlander is out there in 2023.

charging up at home, running on battery until the petrol motor needs to kick in, playing the re-gen game by braking, or coasting to re-charge on the go and, for hoots and giggles, using both powerplants for some real go-go when accelerating.

PHEV Outlanders run with a 2.4 litre petrol engine plus an 85kW electric motor on the front axle and a 100kW electric motor for the rear with a 20kWh battery pack. Mitsubishi reckons the wagon should get around 80km on a full battery and between 1.5 litres and 8.1 litres per 100km; depending of course on the power source.

Yet for the most part it is quiet, with an interior tending toward upmarket and plush seats; soft steering and, generally, a smooth ride.

This is the fourth generation Outlander, now bigger than ever with good room front and back and sporting all of today’s mod-cons and safety items.

(Trickle-down economics may be a furphy but trickle-down features have long been part of the automotive business. Remember when electric windows weren’t even an option?)

More sophisticated, especially when it comes to the wellappointed Aspire PHEV version

– that’s a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle – Mitsubishi’s Outlander delivers most of the fruit.

There have been PHEV Outlanders before, machines that use both petrol and electric engines plus the ability to power the battery pack from the household mains.

Mitsubishi has long been a champion of this particular genre – where other

green offerings may be full plug-in electric or straight hybrid with two power sources – and the Outlander is reportedly world champion PHEV in terms of outright sales.

And this 2023 version should keep the sales flowing.

There are obvious advantages to a PHEV in Australia where fair distances, and availability of roadside chargers, brings on serious range anxiety if out back of beyond in a full-on electric vehicle. Or even out back of Brisbane.

With a PHEV there are the options of

A week around Brisbane town, mainly on electric power, saw consumption around 4 litres per 100km.

These all-wheel drive Outlanders also offer a full gamut of driving modes, including Power and Eco, Sand and Mud/ Ruts, yet this SUV is best limited to dirt and gravel tracks. Clearance isn’t great and tyres and suspension more designed for bitumen.

On the road, the Aspire is one big lounge machine. (To a point; 20-inch wheels and low-profile tyres tend to thump-crash through cracks and potholes.)

It’s a wide machine at almost 2m, big panoramic windscreen and a substantial road stance. Handsome in profile, it’s tidy around the rear end, while the current Mitsubishi family face may be a little too dramatic for some tastes.

There are four trim levels for PHEV Outlanders with prices starting at $54,990 and running through to $68,490.

The Aspire version sits toward the top of the pack at a recommended retail of $60,990.

It’s not the cheapest family wagon out there but one to handsomely showcase some green credentials, and save some fossil fuel, without vaulting into a full-on electric machine.

MILESTONE BIRTHDAYS AND VITALITY OF COMMUNITY SPIRIT

TWO members of Quota Caloundra Club have become ambassadors of empowerment and volunteering.

Clare Balston, 90, and Val Doyle, 75, have together given 60 years of dedicated service to Quota, sharing their skills and compassion with people and causes they care about. They celebrated with their Quota Caloundra members.

Enthusiasm and community

involvement has made them valuable assets, not only to Quota but to all who have engaged in their lives.

The club’s fundraisers have ensured continued resources for local community organisations.

Presentations were made to Driven By KM, which is dedicated to developing support services for Sunshine Coast based families with a medically complex child.

Hope in a Suitcase Australia was also a recipient.

Passionate volunteers aim to show every child in the foster care system that they are valued by their community. Each child is given a suitcase filled with

essentials items, underwear, clothing and something to cuddle.

Angel Flight Australia ambassador Tim received funds to assist in coordinating nonemergency flights to help medically sensitive people access specialist treatment. Flights are free and involve travel to medical facilities anywhere in Australia.

Guests or prospective members are welcome to attend social coffee mornings on the first Friday of every month at 10.15am. Business meetings are the second Thursday at 7pm. Both are at Caloundra Power Boat Club, Golden Beach. Call Karen Zeier 0451 075 677 or Di Bennett 0407 229 879.

MAROOCHYDORE View Club ended 2022, the Smith Family’s centenary, on a high note with a lunch spent buying up the Super Stall goodies and winning raffles and door prizes.

The setting was festive with red and green table decorations.

Guest speaker was member Francis Howes, who spoke about her time in Samoa, working as country manager for the Australia Pacific Coalition educating people of the Pacific Islands.

Jenny Masche received a certificate of appreciation for her wonderful volunteer work with the club – setting up Facebook, compiling the monthly newsletter and managing the website.

New members are welcome to join Maroochydore View Club for fun and friendship, monthly outings, luncheons with interesting speakers, and volunteering opportunities.

View clubs raise funds for the Smith Family and the Learning for Life Program. Maroochydore club assists in the support of 10 Learning for Life scholarship students.

The first lunch meeting of the new year is on January 27. Call Claire 0416 119 053.

Disaster can strike anytime, anywhere and it’s not a matter of if, but when. We all have a role to play and being prepared is everyone’s responsibility.

Visit Council’s Disaster Hub website disasterhub.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au to find the latest updates, practical resources and what to do before, during and after an emergency.

Angela from Driven by KM with Tracie Mason.

Jenny Masche with her awards.

Quota members celebrate Clare Balston’s (centre front) 90th birthday.

Artful senior brings joy to the world

By Garry Reynolds

Mount Goldsworthy, a former iron ore mining town in the Pilbara, seems an unlikely place for a woman who paints glorious Queensland seascapes to break into the art world teaching herself how to paint.

Chatting quietly, 86-year-old Joy O’Farrell creates a word picture of her early life in a remote outback home supporting her husband in the mining industry while raising a family just north of Marble Bar, the hottest place in Australia.

Struggling with the red dust and the isolation, many of the town’s housewives were becoming increasingly bored with life. BHP Mining took note. The big company decided to bring in a tutor to teach the women oil painting and provided each of a dozen wives with a kit to kick start the course.

However, the best laid plans unravelled at the local community hall where the course was to be held.

The big day came and the

women opened their kits revealing paints, brushes, turps and an instruction book, as they excitedly awaited the arrival of the male tutor all the way up from Perth.

Much to their dismay, the prospect of teaching novice female artists in the rugged mining town appeared too confronting and he had bailed out. When the bewildered women came together again in the hall, it was soon apparent

that Joy was the only one who had read some of the textbook and practised at home.

The rest admired her first attempts and looked to her to fill the instructor gap.

Totally inexperienced as both a teacher and a painter, Joy struggled on valiantly until the original momentum dissipated, leaving her the only one to continue painting.

Undeterred, Joy refined her skills as she ventured out into the arid red landscape with her husband to capture scenes of outback life in photos.

Between the daily chores, the young mother used the pictures for inspiration to paint at home while raising five sons and supporting her husband who drove the big iron ore trains.

Joy built on the instructions from her old faithful textbook and was adopting new techniques. She soon ventured beyond oil paints and into other mediums.

Unexpectedly, BHP decided to mount a Pilbara art

competition open to all comers from across the nation.

Much to everyone’s surprise, including her own, Joy’s painting titled End of the Drover’s Day was highly commended.

The judge from the National Gallery in Canberra was dumbfounded by the quality of her work, particularly when he learned of Joy’s story.

Entering middle age, Joy continued to dabble in art as she settled with her second husband in Redcliffe. Here she received more artistic accolades, the local council acquiring a painting to hang in its library as part of its permanent collection.

As a result of her hallmark talent and persistence bred from a tough upbringing and outback life, Joy O’Farrell’s art found its way into private galleries in Brisbane and even overseas.

Seeking stimulation and adventure, Joy returned to her rural roots as she accompanied her husband as grey nomads travelling around Australia twice in a small Mitsubishi Sigma and

living out of a four-man tent.

Along the way, Joy gained lots of artistic inspiration and took many photos as the foundation for future works to be created on their return to Brisbane. But Joy couldn’t wait. She began painting along the way; some of her work being purchased by admirers in the regions they passed through.

In her senior years, Joy has moved to the Sunshine Coast and enjoys capturing its seascapes in her artworks. Despite her years of experience, Joy is not stuck in one medium and is still willing to reinvent herself.

While Joy O’Farrell’s works range from oil paintings to water colours, acrylics and glorious pastels, she says: “I’m relishing experimenting with the latest cold wax and oils techniques. You know, I reckon you can still teach an old dog new tricks.”

Garry Reynolds is an author, who as part of his rehabilitation after three strokes, has set out to capture life stories within the seniors’ community.

Source: Sunshine Coast City Council.

New year, new intentions

If you’re the type who avoids new year resolutions, maybe this will change your mind: Having and naming a goal is associated with overall improved wellbeing.

But there’s a catch.

There are two types of goals. One type is a positively-framed goal called an approach goal.

The other is an avoidance goal, which is negatively framed. The type you pick can influence the likelihood of achieving your goal.

The difference between an approach and avoidance goal is in the why.

Why this goal? Is it to avoid something or to gain something?

Let’s say you want to give up smoking. Listen to what you say, to yourself or others, about your motivation for having this goal.

Are you saying, “I want to give up smoking so I can get fitter and do the weekly fun run with my grandkids?”

Or is it more like “I want to give up smoking because I am worried about lung cancer.”

The first is an approach goal, about adding something and the second is an

avoidance goal, which aims to avoid a bad outcome.

What you focus on and where you put your attention guides your thoughts and behaviour.

Since avoidance goals focus on the very thing you are trying to avoid, they

can lead you away from your goal instead of toward it.

Avoidance goals are also usually experienced as less enjoyable, less motivating and less meaningful.

No wonder they are also associated with more procrastination and an increased sense of hopelessness about achieving the goal.

Simple as it sounds, it is worth rewording your motivation for any goal to be approach focused.

Think about what you might win or gain by achieving your goal and use that to reword your “why”. You will still get the benefit of avoiding that which you want to avoid but your focus will be on the positives you will be gaining.

For this year’s resolution, challenge yourself to set an approach goal and increase your chances of achieving it.

Judy Rafferty is the author of Retirement Your Way, A Practical Guide to Knowing What You Want and How to Get It, at all good bookshops and online.

AGE ON YOUR OWN TERMS

ANTI-ageing specialist Lyndal Linkin provides a practical guide to help slow the ageing process in her new book To Age or Not to Age: Strategies and Life Hacks to Turn Back the Clock.

Drawing on extensive research as well as her own anti-ageing journey, 56-year-old Lyndal shows readers how to feel strong, vibrant and passionate about every part of life – the ultimate anti-aging approach.

Exploring the connection between how we look and how we feel, she covers such topics as simple, time-efficient daily routines for dramatic anti-aging results over time; how to navigate the confusing world of creams and serums; why changing your relationship with food is vital and how to nurture your mind to delay, slow and even reverse the effects of aging.

She also looks at the dos and don’ts of injectables and non-invasive technologies and surgery options.

Lyndal is a successful entrepreneur and corporate leader in Melbourne.

To Age or Not to Age can be purchased for $29.95 at leading online retailers or visit lyndallinkin. com.au

Are you a person who makes new year resolutions? Or do you avoid them, knowing or suspecting, that you will not keep them? JUDY RAFFERTY examines approach and avoidance goals.

Lifestyle changes shape up as a smart resolution

Budgeting, losing weight and a healthier lifestyle are the most common New Year resolutions but, writes LESA MACPHERSON, for many it might be better to think about lifestyle.

Christmas and New Year gatherings can often be a time when caring family members notice a change in their parents or grandparents.

Over time these changes lead to recognition that the house is getting much harder to maintain, health problems are impacting more, and even a lack of community and accessible leisure activities become burdensome. A change from a house to a

CURRENCY CONSEQUENCES

Global investment markets saw significant gains during October. Despite a set of disappointing earnings reports from large technology companies in the US, optimism among market participants showed signs of improvement following a slight moderation in the September CPI print, released mid-October.

Markets are still down year-to-date, but October’s rally helped ease the pain.

Technology stocks (as represented by the Nasdaq index) and emerging markets have some way to go before the position is reversed. Amid a sea of red, the US dollar (USD) stands alongside oil, coal, and the energy sector as one of only a handful of investment segments to deliver positive returns over the past year.

Year-to-date the US dollar index has rallied 11 per cent. All major currencies have fallen against the USD over the past 12 months; the Australian dollar (AUD) is mid-pack, with a decline of 7.5 per cent.

The AUD is towards the lower end of its 50-year trading range against the USD. However, against a broader basket of currencies, the AUD has been under less pressure, with the Trade-weighted index trading at the 40-year average.

A strong USD is typically a headwind for equities and commodities.

While it has been a factor in the former’s weakness (the MSCI All World

retirement village may be timely and beneficial.

Retirement villages usually involve downsizing accommodation, but upsizing community involvement is the happy result. Some refer to this as “right sizing”.

A decision to move to a retirement village is best done as a whole-of-family decision, with the involvement of those making the move and their supportive

children, who are often in their 50s or beyond.

A move into a retirement village is a significant legal decision as well, as the terms of retirement village contracts are complex, lengthy, and onerous.

It is essential that the elderly persons, and their family, understand the ramifications of what they are signing, and what it means to them

down the track. Generalist advice isn’t good enough.

The Sunshine Coast Elder Law website lists 24 points to look for in a retirement village, and all the recent changes in the law relating to retirement villages.

Visit sunshinecoastelderlaw.com.au or call Lesa Macpherson 1800 382 952. Office open January 9, 2023

index is down 21 per cent), it hasn’t dragged down the commodity complex.

Currency movements are a function of numerous factors. As highlighted by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), long-term drivers can include interest rate differentials, terms of trade and commodity prices, international trade, and prices and inflation. Short-term drivers are generally risk sentiment and speculation.

At the moment, with investment markets focused on interest rates, differentials are a key driver of demand for and supply of AUD. If the differential falls, Australian assets become less attractive for foreign investors and demand for AUD declines.

The RBA cash rate has historically been higher than the Fed Funds rate. Since the GFC, however, the differential has narrowed and is currently negative.

The AUD has typically traded as a ‘risk-on’ currency: rising in periods of economic and equity market strength and falling when the mood darkens. The latter has very much been the case over the past 12 months, with the S&P 500 down circa 16 per cent and recession fears looming.

Troy Davey is an Authorised Representative (no 473122) of Ord Minnett Ltd, AFS licence 237121. This article contains general financial advice only and does not consider your personal circumstances. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

The Brisbane Elder Law website lists 24 points to look for in a retirement village, and all the recent changes in the law relating to retirement villages. Visit brisbaneelderlaw.com.au or call Lesa Macpherson 1800 382 952.

Office open January 9, 2023

Meet the incredible tauroursodeoxycholic acid

If you have never heard of Tudca then it’s time to learn more about the benefits of this underrated bile acid. TRUDY KITHER explains that it’s a valuable remedy for many different conditions.

Tudca (tauroursodeoxycholic acid) is a particular bile acid that was originally found in bears.

They were once killed for their bile. Thankfully, the synthetic version is just as good now, which is excellent news for bears of the world today.

Tudca was used for hundreds of years throughout Asia and also by the American Indians for a variety of purposes. It is used to treat gallstones. A superconcentrated cholesterol stone can dissolve if you add more bile.

Tudca is also effective in the treatment of liver cirrhosis as it inhibits fibrosis or scarring on the liver. It also helps to thin bile.

Many people have a condition where the bile is too thick. You may not specifically have a gallstone, but you may have pain in your right-hand

side, just below your ribcage. If this is the case, you may experience a lot of bloating, congestion and pain.

This happens because bile backs up into the liver and as bile is a “detergent”, it is extremely irritating to liver tissue.

It can cause pain that shoots up your right shoulder through the right side of your neck and head, thus causing awful headaches. It also creates a

whole lot of other conditions, including pancreatitis.

Bile can also put pressure on the heart, causing palpitations and even arrhythmia.

The lungs can also feel the effect of the congested bile. If the liver is too swollen, there is insufficient space in the area surrounding the heart and lungs, affecting breathing.

Usually, the recommended dosage for Tudca treatment would be two capsules in the morning on an empty stomach and two tablets before dinner at night to help with digestion.

Bile helps break down and absorb Vitamin A, and there are many other different reasons it helps your eyes.

Much research has been conducted on the eyes and is ongoing. The main objective for the research is to improve visual acuity, Retinal Degenerative Disease, and many other eye issues.

Tudca has been shown to improve symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease because it is neuroprotective. Due to its neuroprotective benefits, it helps the neurons in your brain.

It has also shown positive effects on ALS (an autoimmune disease) and stroke. Not only does it have a positive impact on preventing a stroke but also repairs the damage caused by a stroke.

Tudca can also reduce fevers and spasms and prevent apoptosis (programmed cell death caused by stressed mitochondria). It does this by stabilising the mitochondria. This is extremely important as mitochondria are the little powerhouses of energy and action inside every cell of the body.

Tudca has excellent anti-inflammatory effects, especially in the liver. It can decrease fibrosis and plaquing

World-class cardiac care on the Sunshine Coast

Every specialty of cardiology is covered by our team, making Heart HQ the only practice on the Sunshine Coast to offer a full and comprehensive range of Cardiology services.

Our team of Cardiologists are supported by Sonographers, Cardiac Physiologists, Cardiac Nurses and support staff.

To find out how we can help support your heart health, and to discover more about the comprehensive range of tests and procedures that we can offer, call our friendly team.

admin@hearthq.com.au hearthq.com.au

in the brain. It supports insulin sensitivity so if you have diabetes, you will benefit from taking Tudca.

In a healthy person, digestion recirculates about 95 per cent of the body’s bile salts. Poor diet, impaired liver function and certain medications can negatively affect this process.

Tudca supports the gut lining and is highly beneficial for leaky gut or other gut permeability issues.

If you have either of these, it means you will have undigested food getting stuck in the leaky channels of your gut lining or the pores of your intestines. It is an excellent treatment for colon inflammation and helps protect the kidneys.

Trudy Kither is a naturopath, herbalist, and iridologist at Nature’s Temple Wellness Clinic. Visit naturestemple.net

ASTHMA DEATHS DROP BUT WOMEN OVER 75 VULNERABLE

WOMEN over 75 remain most at risk of a deadly asthma attack even as numbers drop for the second consecutive year.

They represent almost half (46 per cent) of all asthma deaths, compared with only 16 per cent of men over 75 – the age group that recorded the highest deaths for males in new ABS figures released by the National Asthma Council Australia.

“We also see that deaths for women start to creep up as they age, so asthma deaths in women really art to rise from when they are in their mid-50s which is extremely concerning,” respiratory physician and National Asthma Council Australia spokesman Dr Jonathan Burdon said.

“Women over 75 could be experiencing a time of their life when there are huge changes in living circumstances, such as living alone after losing a partner, changes to routine after retirement, as well as the need to start taking other medications, so the focus on asthma risk can lessen.”

The new figures reveal that there were 351 asthma-related deaths in 2021, made up of 244 females and 107 males, down from 417 deaths in 2020 and 427 deaths in 2019.

“Despite the drop, the sad truth is that

most asthma deaths are preventable, so even 351 deaths is far too many,” Dr Burdon said.

“Asthma mortality rates in Australia are still high by international comparison, so this is not the time for complacency.”

He said that to get the asthma death rate down further and stay down, people with asthma needed to take proactive steps to reduce their risk.

In Australia, one in four children and one in 10 adults live with asthma. nationalasthma.org.au

Cataracts and Dry Eyes

A cataract is any clouding of the lens of the eye. The lens is situated inside the eye, behind the pupil. It acts in the same way as the lens in a camera to help focus light rays on to the light sensitive nervous tissue in the back of the eye – the retina.

Dry eye syndrome is a general term for the breakdown of the tear film that protects the eye’s front surface. It is the most common symptomatic eye condition treated at Best Practice Eyecare. Dry eye syndrome causes chronic, tired, uncomfortable eyes.

Are you ready to make a difference in a child’s life?

At IFYS Foster Care we are seeking everyday heroes with extraordinary attribute to work with us to help children and young people realise their full potential. We are looking for people who have the power to do something positive that will change a life for a child or young person in foster care.

With the right support and care we know that children and young people in foster care are capable of overcoming the impacts of previous neglect and/ or abuse but it takes a community to work together to ensure we grow them into strong confident adults, with a bright and happy future. So, if you have ever thought of caring for a child who needs our support why not contact us today and learn more about how you can help. Phone 5438 3000.

Foster Care, It’s Life Changing.

LUXURY RECREATION PRECINCT OFFICIALLY OPENS

STOCKLAND has officially opened its $17.5 million Recreation Precinct at the luxury over 50s lifestyle community B by Halcyon in the foothills of Buderim.

A large function space and bar which opens out to a wide verandah, private dining area, gold-class style cinema and a Creative Arts Pavilion are among the spaces homeowners are looking forward to using in the precinct.

Stockland Halcyon Communities project director Andrew Astorquia said the facilities would become the heart of the boutique community.

“As an over 50s lifestyle community, we’re focused on improving the health and fitness of our homeowners and these luxury facilities are the perfect way to achieve this,” he said.

“Homeowners

The Creative Arts Pavilion, which adjoins the precinct, features two art studios, a music studio, library, lounge and an outdoor artists’ café courtyard.

“Buderim is renowned as a haven for artists, and we wanted to able to foster that creativity within the community,” Mr Astorquia said.

The new facilities complement the Wellness Centre, the Sunshine Coast’s largest private day spa, which opened last year.

The Wellness Centre features a variety of spaces from a covered and heated magnesium salt pool to luxurious private day spa rooms and a fully equipped gym.

BARRY PUSHES THE ENVELOPE

THE dictionary definition of “pushing the envelope” is to behave in a more extreme way or to try new things that have not been acceptable or tried before. And that perfectly sums up Suncare client Barry Pittard.

The retired schoolteacher decided to take matters into his own hands after he became ill and received a poor future health prognosis.

“Many times little equals big,” Barry says. “You need to take small steps, but regularly, in order to achieve results. Like starting with one word, adding more words and making a song . And it always needs to be fun.”

When it comes to exercise, Barry suggests you be gentle on yourself.

“Start with moving a finger. Run like a snail , but run. And use your common sense – your body will tell you what you can do next. The secret is in doing it, not overdoing it.”

Barry now attends the local gym four times a week and his health has improved substantially.

Staying active and positive, Barry loves writing poetry, and with some success - his poem Ukraine 2022, was recently published.

He has also rediscovered his singing voice and hopes to share his love of music and his poetry at retirement facilities in Mapleton and surrounds.

Barry thrives on being independent, and while he likes to walk or catch the bus, he also enjoys the social support and taxi vouchers he receives as part of his Suncare Home Care Package. Visit suncare.org.au or call 1800 786 227.

will be able to gather to enjoy all of the social, wellness, active and creative spaces which are on offer.”

WHAT’S ON

GOING TO GRACELAND

TWO of Australia’s most celebrated singers, Wendy Matthews and Grace Knight, are bringing their showcase of Paul Simon’s work to the Sunshine Coast.

The album Graceland was released in 1986 and is frequently cited as one of the finest of all time. More than 16 million copies sold worldwide.

Paul Simon once said that the title song was an example of how a collaboration works even when you’re not aware of it occurring. The same could be said of Wendy Matthews and Grace Knight’s seemingly effortless synergy and genuine camaraderie as they delight audiences with their interpretation of Simon’s extraordinary songbook.

“The songs and our band are wonderful, and it’s a lot of fun. Grace and I find much joy in performing together and I think that’s infectious,” Matthews says.

“Like Grace, I’ve done many tours of Queensland and it’s always nice to head north to such fun and appreciative audiences.”

The two singers have forged a deep friendship over the years and collectively, they’ve gained numerous accolades –Countdown, MTV and Aria Awards as well as platinum-selling albums.

“After 20 years of talking about doing a show together, we’re finally on stage and having a blast,” Knight says.

Backed by a playful jazz ensemble, Matthews and Knight deliver their take on the very best of Paul Simon – You Can Call Me Al, Late in The Evening, Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes, as well as Simon & Garfunkel gems such as Sounds of Silence, The Boxer, Homeward Bound and Bridge Over Troubled Water

“Paul Simon is such a wonderful lyricist and the stories in his songs are humorous, profound, and everything in between,” Matthews says.

“Grace was the one who suggested his music. I thought it was perfect because it includes Simon & Garfunkel from the ‘60s and ‘70s through to Paul’s African feels.”

Knight says the biggest challenge was deciding which songs to leave out.

“Paul Simon has written so many great, well-known songs that the show would go for days if you tried to include them all,” she says.

Wild Goat Entertainment founder and director Melanie Evans said she was thrilled to present two of Australia’s most cherished artists.

Specialising in the delivery of concerts for theatres, festivals and events, Wild Goat has several exciting projects planned for 2023.

Noosa, 60 Noosa Drive, Noosa Heads. March 9, 7.30pm. Events Centre Caloundra, 20 Minchinton St, March 10, 7.30pm. Visit thej.com.au or theeventscentre.com.au

SWOON TO A BURST OF PASSION FROM BRAZIL

AWARD-winning vocalist Ingrid James teams up with celebrated musicians from Brisbane and NSW for next month’s Jazz & Blues Collective’s afternoon of “swoonable” music.

Together they deliver the passion, vibrancy, romance and sheer heat of A Swingin’ Brazilian Love Affair.

Ingrid embodies the spirit of Brazil with her sultry, powerful “warm like chocolate” voice and irrepressible stage presence and will lead a sensual journey

WHAT’S ON

of warm Bossa Novas and cool sambas, as well as favourite classic swing tunes.

John Reeves is on piano, Andrew Shaw acoustic (bass), Paul Hudson drums and Martha Baartz saxes/flute.

A coffee van will be on site from 12.30pm. BYO liquor licence and feel free to bring food and drinks.

Millwell Road Community Centre, 11 Millwell Rd East. Maroochydore. Sunday, February 5, doors open 1pm, music 1.30pm-4pm. Tickets $26, seniors $24. Bookings ticketebo.com.au or call Graeme 0417 633 734.

RE-ENERGISED ROCK LEGENDS ON THE WAY

A REVIVED 1980s rock band is heading to the Sunshine Coast for its only performance in regional Queensland.

Noiseworks will return to the stage after 30 years as part of their aptly named Take Me Back Tour. The tour is dedicated to guitarist Stuart “Chet” Fraser who died in 2019.

Former Southern Sons frontman, Jack Jones, has joined the band.

The rockers will be playing all their classic hits, including Touch, No Lies, Hot Chilli Woman and Take Me Back. This will be their only show in regional Queensland and for one night only.

The tour comes hot on the heels of their number one-charting hit Heart & Soul as the lead single from their new studio album Evolution, released in November 2022.

Lead vocalist Jon Stevens said the band was energised and excited to return to playing live music to Australian audiences.

“Coming back after 30 years to tour

together and seeing the level of excitement that we have had from our Noiseworks fans, has been a really powerful experience for us. See you on the road!” Stevens said.

Venue 114 Manager Louise Thompson said she was looking forward to welcoming the band.

“Our performance stage is purposebuilt to host music gigs and we are delighted to have these Australian rock legends on that stage,” she said.

Venue114, 114 Sportsmans Parade, Bokarina. Friday, February 17, 7pm. Tickets $69.90 per person plus booking fee. Bookings oztix.com.au

AFTERNOON AT THE PROMS

IN A salute to the BBC Proms Concerts of London’s Royal Albert Hall, An Afternoon At The Proms Spectacular brings the Sunshine Coast a promenade of special guests for an afternoon of magnificent entertainment.

“I’m excited to be sharing the stage with an even larger cast this year,” maestro violinist and Olympic composer Ian Cooper said.

“We have three magnificent sopranos, a principal tenor from Opera Australia, Australia’s foremost pipe band, highland dancers, our classical ballet dancing Strauss Waltzes, Jealousy Tango and The

Can-Can, all accompanied by the Blue Danube Orchestra.”

Other Proms favourites include Rule Britannia, The March of the British Grenadiers and Land of Hope and Glory.

The concert will take a musical journey across Europe, from Spain, France, popular Italian arias, music from the famous Hungarian gypsy orchestras, to selections from The Sound of Music and The Merry Widow, as well as Jerusalem, Carmen’s Toreador Song and the Radetzky March.

The Events Centre, Caloundra Sunday, February 19, 2pm.

Tickets $89, concessions $85, groups 10+ $81. Bookings theeventscentre.com.au

INDUSTRY EXPERTS

LEGAL

ORTHOPAEDIC

SKIN HEALTH

Don’t clause a problem over Christmas!

Buying and selling property over Christmas can be both an exciting and challenging time with parties often wanting to settle contracts as soon as possible.

It is important to carefully consider how this time of year impacts on the parties’ rights under the contract.

The standard REIQ contract provides any day between the 27th and 31st of December is not a ‘business day’. This means no critical date or settlement can occur during this time.

Parties have time sensitive obligations, which typically include liaising with banks regarding finance and finalising building inspections.

Failing to carefully consider business closures may result in parties losing their rights under the contract.

In a “worst case” scenario a party may be in breach of their obligations, resulting in the contract not settling and the exposure to a claim for damages by the innocent party.

It is very important that buyers and sellers obtain legal advice prior to entering into a contract, to ensure business closures do not take the ‘Merry’ out of their Christmas.

Also, don’t forget cyber criminals don’t observe the Christmas break so always remain vigilant about the risk of cyber fraud during the rush.

Recovery after an anterior total hip replacement

Many patients are surprised at how quickly they can comfortably ambulate after an anterior total hip replacement.

Patients are typically mobilised within hours of their surgery. Most of our patients usually rapidly progress to being independent on crutches and require them for only one to two weeks.

There are many factors that dictate how long a patient needs to stay in hospital but generally getting back to your home environment as soon as it is safe to do so is an important component of your physical, as well as your psychological, recovery.

Excessive physical activity in the first two months after a hip replacement is counterproductive. We generally recommend gentle walking and stretching.

Many patients are safe to drive after just three to four weeks and can perform most of their everyday activities within six weeks.

For patients who enjoy more extreme activities such as surfing, they should wait at least three months to return.

All patients are different, and you should discuss your specific situation with your orthopaedic surgeon.

Moles: What’s normal and what’s suspicious?

Regardless of the number and appearance of your moles, they are common.

And they do change over time.

But how do you know if these changes are normal or if they are an indicator of something much more sinister, such as skin cancer?

It is normal for moles to emerge in childhood and adolescence.

They will change in size and colour as we continue to grow and then will tend to fade when we get older.

Moles can become lighter or darker in colour. They can become raised and sometimes they will disappear completely.

Some of these changes may be due to environmental factors, such as UV radiation from the sun, medications, or genetics.

Certain changes though, can be concerning. These might be changes in shape, symmetry or colour.

If you have a mole that is spontaneously bleeding, itching, flaking, or crusting it could be a signal that something is not right.

The best course of action is to play it safe and make an appointment with your doctor as soon as possible.

Packing for travel

With all the current talk of lost baggage, here are some suggestions on how to make your travel as stress free as possible.

Firstly, the carry on. Make sure you pack all your essentials such as medication, laptops and any items you feel you cannot easily purchase at the other end, as carry-on.

Essential for me means spare clothing such as under garments as trying to purchase these on arrival in most tourist destinations can be challenging. Also one full change of clothing, even if it is light and simple, for arrival.

The essential carry-on list:

• Medications

• Technology

• Change of clothing

• Documents

Checked luggage is out of our hands but technology can assist. Purchase a luggage tracker which you can pop inside your suitcase and then you will always be able to see exactly where it is. It certainly will assist should it go missing.

I have these for my phone, keys, and car however you can attach them to any item that you want to locate. They are readily available and not that expensive so I can recommend as a good investment.

Finally, insurance. Make sure you have insurance cover prior to travelling. This is so important in the current environment.

Now you are ready to go, pack the bags and enjoy your next journey.

SUNSHINE

MORE THAN ONE GOOD REASON FOR DESEXING OF THE MONTH

DESEXING is an important part of responsible pet ownership that has a role in health, safety and protection of companion animals.

It means not only fewer unwanted animals but research has found that desexed animals can live longer and healthier lives.

Cats can get pregnant as early as four months of age, so it is important to desex them early.

Desexed animals are less likely to roam, which reduces the risk of being involved in a traumatic accident such as being hit by a car, becoming lost, getting into fights, being exposed to infectious diseases and fighting with other animals.

They are also generally less likely to suffer from certain diseases and illnesses such as mammary cancer and uterine infections in females and prostate problems in males.

Desexing can also help prevent behaviours that are associated with the reproductive cycle that can be distressing, unpleasant, and challenging to deal with, such as female cats “calling” or female dogs having a discharge when they are on heat.

Desexing cats and dogs can also help reduce problem behaviours such as aggression and urine marking in males. Visit rspca.org.au

THE benefits of pet ownership are well recognised and there are pets who need owners too. The Sunshine Coast Animal Refuge, established in 1979 to provide temporary refuge and find new homes for abandoned, abused, stray and unwanted cats and dogs, this month introduces:

Snuggles is a 6-year-old medium-haired cat. She would do best in a quiet home without other animals. Snuggles enjoys being brushed and likes to be around her people.

Adorable Dearg (pronounced Jarg) is a nearly 10 years old and a female Staffy. She loves her walks and to play. She is only 19kg and is looking for a quiet home to retire.

All cats and dogs are vet checked, vaccinated, wormed, desexed, microchipped and medically treated if necessary. The refuge at Sippy Creek Road, Tanawha (adjacent to the Council Pound) is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am-5pm. If you’d like to adopt call 5494 5275, email office@sippycreek.com.au or find more details at sippycreek.com.au

Following the jungle trail of the Sandakan death march

track is now a two-lane highway.

For us, the Sandakan-Ranau death march route begins when we are met a Kota Kinabalu airport after a flight from Kuala Lumpur. Over the next six days we will trek 80km of the 240km the original POWs marched.

We wear strong walking boots, clothes for the climate, and our load is only water as we retire to a guest house at the end of each day. It’s not hard to imagine the hell it would have been for undernourished and sick prisoners, barefoot and carrying heavy packs.

After the fall of Singapore in 1942, 1800 Australians and 750 British prisoners of war were transported to Sandakan in British North Borneo (now Sabah) to construct an airfield. By the end of 1944, more than 900 had died of ill-treatment.

With allied forces within striking distance, rations below subsistence and the airstrip unusable after repeated allied attacks, Japanese Command ordered prisoners to be moved.

On January 29, 1945, 455 of the fittest prisoners began the 240km march through thick, steamy jungle west to Ranau, where they would be used as labourers until they dropped. A second march of 532 prisoners left Sandakan on May 29.

The Diggers had no idea where they were going, couldn’t see the sky for jungle, had rations for four days on a nine-day journey, and were under the watchful eye of captors who had guns and bayonets ready if they became too weak to go on.

The track had been cut through thick growth in the mountains by pro-British locals who, thinking it was for the Japanese soldiers, had chosen the most difficult path.

The route was unknown until 1998, when the full extent of the tragedy was unearthed. It would be another eight years before the actual route was fully identified in 2006. By then, much of it had become roads, rubber and palm oil plantations, and private land. Much of the original

The trail is overgrown and steamy. It’s a challenging trek through thick jungle, much of it uphill, swamps and palm plantations. We cross rivers, streams and old bridges, and discover little villages but there is no pressure to rush. The rain belts down at night and days are clear and humid.

Guides with machetes and relying on instinct know exactly where they are going as they hack our path through the dense jungle, grass that towers above them, and savage prickling vines.

In this tropical wilderness full of leeches, it was harsh enough without the dysentery, malaria, scabies and malnutrition that the POWs had to endure.

There’s unexplored and uninhabited Taviu Valley and Taviu Hill, which gives a view of the path taken by the POWs.

The last two nights are at the Sabah Tea Garden, a plantation and homestead which was built

on the original track. Finally, we hike 12km across Marakayu Hill to visit the Ranau POW campsite, and war memorial at Kundasang.

The Sandakan death march route is raw territory, and remains little travelled, unlike the better-known 96km Kokoda Trail. There are no campsites, and the trail is not marked.

Kokoda is dotted with monuments brought in by helicopter, but there’s none of that here.

The Sandakan route is not a lot different to what it was when the Japanese withdrew in 1945.

And there are no glossy signposts or memorials, just 200 river rocks embedded in concrete honour the sacrifice and pay tribute to the courage and friendship of the local people.

The last 33 prisoners at Ranau who had survived the torturous journey carrying their heavy packs through Borneo’s jungle were massacred at Ranau on August 1, 1945.

Only six men, “skeletons with skin” survived the Sandakan death march. They escaped and were cared for by villagers until being rescued by special forces.

In 2005, trekking expert Tham Yau Kong and Australian historian Lynette Silver plotted and located the original route of the POWs.

They discovered that part of the old track passed through the area now occupied by the Sabah Tea Plantation.

TYK Adventure Tours, an educational tourism award winner, specialises in jungle trekking and offers a variety of packages.

Visit sandakandeathmarch. com or email thamyaukong@ gmail.com

A bridge that has seen better days can carry only one person at a time.

Guides hack through the grass.

It was the greatest wartime act of cruelty against Australians yet remains among stories seldom told. EDWARD SEARLES heads to the jungles of Borneo to follow the footsteps of the doomed prisoners of war on the Sandakan death march.

IF THE new year lies ahead as a blank page, it’s time to start planning some adventures.

Whether it’s a short escape or a grand tour to remote places, put the dates in the calendar and get ready to go.

“There’s a busy year ahead for travellers,” says Paul Brockhurst of CT Travel. “We have a variety of itineraries so there’s something to suit everyone.”

The first is coming up soon. A four-day escape from the Bunya Mountains to the Darling Downs, goes to lesser-known beauty spots and uncovers heritage in a region where nature and history collide.

It departs on January 18, and includes the Bunya Mountains, heritage-listed Taabinga and Jimbour homesteads, Dalby and across the Jimbour Plains to the Darling Downs.

Another four-day escape leaves on March 13 for Fraser Island, staying at the Kingfisher Bay resort.

The itinerary includes a sunset and a full day adventure around the most famous sights of the world’s largest sand island

from the air-conditioned comfort of a 4WD coach.

There’s also an ecoexperience around the Great Sandy National Park islands on the custom-built boat Osprey.

On March 20 and August 1, set off for four days to explore World Heritage-listed Lamington National Park staying in luxury at O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat.

For a bigger dose of adventure, the 2023 Autumn Tour departs April 3 for nine days to the Hunter Valley, Blue Mountains and Canberra via the New England Tableland.

Four days will allow plenty of time to explore the national capital before flying home.

An 11-day trip from the High Country to the Murray Delta leaves on April 13.

The tour begins in Canberra for a stunning drive through the Australian Alps to Albury on the Victorian border, and then follows the Murray all the way to Goolwa in South Australia.

Historic towns such as Echuca, Swan Hill and Mannum and major river lakes as well as local characters along the way

will bring the river and its history to life.

Feed your soul and stir your spirit in the Red Centre and majestic landscapes of the Top End over 18 days from June 1.

Fly into Adelaide and head to Yulara and Alice Springs via Coober Pedy. Daly Waters, Katherine, Kakadu, Litchfield National Park and the Tiwi Islands are also on the agenda before flying out of Darwin.

Carnarvon Gorge tours leave for seven days in July, August and September or try your luck finding an opal in Lightning Ridge visiting outback towns enroute.

Whale watching at Fraser Island, the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers, and touring the spring gardens, historic homes and castles NSW are also planned for 2023.

“It’s easy to choose destination and duration with the tempting itineraries on our website,” Mr Brockhurst said. “Start planning and look forward to setting off an adventure this year.”

Visit cttravel.com.au or call 5391 1648

TWO Queensland Rail heritage 2000 class rail motors have been given a new home in Longreach.

The silver bullet rail motors were built in 1971, fitted with 12.5L Leyland engines and were housed at Queensland Rail’s Ipswich Workshop.

They originally ran services in Brisbane’s southside, the north coast line to Gympie and Bundaberg, and the CorindaYeerongpilly shuttle.

More recently they were used by Queensland Rail Heritage for special tours to Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers.

Since 2019, Outback Aussie Tours owners, Alan and Sue Smith have been overseeing construction of a new maintenance facility and rail siding for the rail motors in Longreach. Their new attraction will be named the Outback Rail Adventure.

“Whether you like trains or like the Outback, or both, this is going to be a new and entertaining experience in Longreach,” Alan said.

“Our new and exciting experiences will begin with the

Great Darr River Run, the Silver Tail Sunset, the historic Ilfracombe Excursion and the Old Bluey’s Flyer.”

Future phases will include Barcaldine, Emerald and Winton.

It is hoped to have the refurbished rail motors operational in Longreach by May.

The 22 tonne railmotors which are just over 17m long, were taken 1100km to Longreach on a special flatbed tilt truck.

2023 Tour Program

JANUARY 2023

South Burnett - Darling Downs Escape (4 Days)

FEBRUARY 2023

King Island (4 Days)

Murray River & Kangaroo Island (11 Days)

MARCH 2023

Fraser Island Explorer (4 Days)

O’Reillys Escape (4 Days)

APRIL 2023

Gold Coast - Northern Rivers Escape (4 days)

2023 Autumn Tour (9 Days)

High Country to Murray Delta (11 Days)

MAY 2023

Norfolk Island (9 Days)

JUNE 2023

Red Centre - Adelaide to Darwin (18 Days)

Queensland Savannah (12 Days)

JULY 2023

Xmas in July - Fraser Island inc Whale Watch (4 Days)

Carnarvon Gorge & Wallaroo (7 Days)

AUGUST 2023

O’Reillys Rainforest Retreat (4 Days)

Carnarvon Gorge & Wallaroo (7 Days)

Lightning Ridge (7 Days)

Fraser Island Whale Watch (4 Days)

SEPTEMBER 2023

Carnarvon Gorge & Wallaroo (7 Days)

Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers (4 Days)

Spring Gardens Tour (12 Days)

October / November / December

Relax with a good book

THE BUTTERFLY COLLECTOR

By Tea Cooper

In 1868, Morpeth, Theodora Breckenridge is more interested in working quietly on her art at the family’s country estate than finding a husband in Sydney society.

She seeks to emulate prestigious nature illustrators, the Scott sisters, who lived nearby, so she cannot believe her luck when she discovers a butterfly never before sighted in Australia. With the help of Clarrie, her maid, and her beautiful

illustrations, she is poised to make a natural science discovery that will make her name. Then Clarrie’s newborn son goes missing and everything changes.

Switch to 1922 Sydney when would-be correspondent Verity Binks receives an anonymous parcel containing a spectacular butterfly costume and an invitation to the Sydney Artists Masquerade Ball. She lands a juicy commission to write the history of the Treadwell Foundation, an institution that supports disgraced young women and their babies. Her investigation quickly leads her to an increasingly dark and complex mystery that has been 50 years in the making.

This historical mystery from a bestselling Australian author has plenty of twists.

Australian wine country to welcome a new addition to the family.

EXILES

By

When it came time to hang Ned Kelly, the job fell to crap-carrier-turnedquack-doctor-turned-drunkenchicken-thief Elijah Upjohn. Such is life indeed.

Hanging Ned Kelly looks at the life and times, crimes and demise of Australia’s most famous antihero from a new perspective: that of the “rogue and vagabond” who finally put the noose around his neck. Elijah Upjohn was the latest in a long line of flogging hangmen allowed to run amok because they’d do the dirty work that let officials keep their hands clean. Despite being duly appointed “finishers of the law” Upjohn and his fellow boozing bunglers were so hated they were hunted by angry mobs. As one writer asked: ‘Who shall hang the hangman?’

Elijah Upjohn’s tale becomes the rusty scalpel that slices open the underbelly of colonial Victoria.

Melbourne, 1930, and the Great Depression is taking hold. Thirteenyear-old Morris Turner feels more at home gazing at the stars than spending time with his detached father Jude, a detective, and older sister, Lottie.

When a young woman is murdered in Jude’s hometown of Gemini, he is assigned to the case. With fear and polio rising in the city, he reluctantly takes Morris and Lottie to the small town he left long ago.

At the family farm, Morris meets relations who are strangers and is drawn into a community reeling from a murder and a financial crash. With no clear murder suspect, suspicions have turned to the downtrodden, huddled in camps outside town but Morris is sure there is more to the case.

With the help of new friends, he turns his attention to the people around him, confronting his fears in a town full of mysteries.

who works in the facility – someone Blake put away seven years ago.

Joining the celebrations is federal investigator Aaron Falk. But as he soaks up life in the lush valley, he begins to suspect this tight-knit group may be more fractured than it seems.

At a busy festival site on a warm spring night, a baby lies alone in her pram, her mother vanishing into the crowds.

A year on, Kim Gillespie’s absence casts a long shadow as her friends and loved ones gather deep in the heart of South

Between Falk’s closest friend, a missing mother, and a woman he’s drawn to, dark questions linger as long-ago truths begin to emerge.

Jane Harper is author of the international bestsellers The Dry, Force of Nature, The Lost Man and The Survivors.

By Jack Heath

By Jane Harper HEADCASE

A Chinese astronaut is found dead in a NASA training environment in Houston, Texas. No one can explain how he got there.

Amid fears of a diplomatic catastrophe, the CIA dispatches Timothy ‘Hangman’ Blake to investigate a convicted kidnapper

Blake is deeply insane, afflicted by terrible urges he can barely control – but he’s also brilliant. Zara, his beautiful and deadly CIA handler, suspects a secret Chinese spacecraft is watching the United States, but Blake can see something much more sinister is going on. Something connected to the kidnapping seven years ago, to the technologies being developed at NASA, and to the serial killer known as the Texas Reaper.

Will Blake survive long enough to uncover the truth? And if he does, will anyone even believe him? A tense, unputdownable thriller from the author of Hangman.

HANGING NED KELLY

Michael Adams

GEMINI FALLS

By Sean Wilson

1. The alloy called “alnico” is made of aluminium, nickel and which other metal? 2. What colour is a ripe loquat? 3. What major Chinese city is near the mouth of the Yangtze River? 4. In the Walt Disney cartoons, what type of creature is Goofy? 5. In what 1990 film did Richard Gere play businessman Edward Lewis? 6. “Indecisive” means to: zig zag, dilly dally, hurly burly? 7. LDL and HDL are the two most common types of what chemical found in the blood? 8. What job is an anagram of “cheater”? 9. Which Australian state was the site of the Eureka Stockade? 10. In the entertainment industry, what are “tix”?

11. Which is heaviest: two pounds, 25 ounces, one kilogram?

12. What sea is east off the coast of Cairns? 13. What item of apparel can be made in a sheath style? 14. What is the main colour of a koala’s nose? 15. What was the value of a British farthing?

16. What is the square root of 49?

17. Who was prime minister of Australia during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic?

18. In the common saying, “Two’s company…..”, how many make a crowd?

19. What relation is Prince William to King Charles III?

20. How many singers made up the group ABBA?

Morrison; 18. Three; 19. Son; 20. Four.

Answers: 1. Cobalt; 2. Orange-yellow; 3. Shanghai; 4. Dog; 5. Pretty Woman; 6. Dilly dally; 7. Cholesterol; 8. Teacher; 9. Victoria; 10. Tickets; 11. One kilogram; 12. Coral Sea; 13. Dress; 14. Black; 15. One quarter of a penny; 16. 7; 17. Scott

Kendall Morton Director

ACROSS

1 Member of Parliament leaving garbage bin for cleaner(6)

4 Cadet treated by hospital is free(6)

8 One’s accepted by key people favoured in the social arena(1-4)

9 Male abseiler tumbled down(9)

11 Race official organised rest at end of qualifier(7)

12 Watercourse plugged by one close to a European holiday area(7)

13 Area mostly kept separate from nearest breeding-ground(4)

14 Dispersal of gas isn’t detected outside troop’s position(10)

17 Put thin girl initially in primary school with toys(10) 18 Pressure applied to one unsettled farm labourer(4) 21 Serious attention given by bird sanctuary(7) 22 Cricketer, keeping quiet, is first to mention debut(7) 23 Cuts of meat and brie packed loosely in boxes(5-4) 24 Types of sure-fire insect controls(5)

25 Criticises good try pulled back(4,2) 26 One with external signs of sexually transmitted diseases suffers(6)

DOWN

1 Conclusion of talks held by severely watchful woman seems to take forever(5,2) 2 Splits up last reserved air canister for windy flight?(6,9) 3 Rank participants involved in contest at eisteddfod(6)

Commendable verse penned by reformed designer(9)

Over half of river, studied in detail, is flourishing(8)

Viewing service organised viable elections(5,10)

A strange climbing flower of Asia(4) 10 Praise new form of latex(5)

Faithful one’s cut of beef is consumed by youngster(9) 16 Talkers, those who are hard to understand after the start(8) 17 Supports spire undergoing renovation(5) 19 Unbeatable opponent is after bodily fluid(7) 20 Trip is arranged with enthusiasm(6) 22 Rubbish found in lower portion of a blast furnace(4)

One-storey house (8)

Belonging to them (5)

Maryland city (9)

Lassoed (5)

Painting of the countryside (9)

Water-rich vegetable (9)

Innumerable (6)

Girl’s name (6)

Hushed words (8)

Common greeting question (3,3,3)

Make a speech (5)

Brief statements (9)

Claptrap (8)

29

2

3

5

6

7

8

14

No. 3694

9-LETTER WORD

16 US president (1963–69) (7)

17

19

20

21

22

I A

D T A I F

F V

Using the nine letters in the grid, how many words of four letters or more can you list? The centre letter must be included and each letter may only be used once.

No colloquial or foreign words. No capitalised nouns, apostrophes or plural words ending in “s”.

5 words: Good 7 words: Very good 10 words: Excellent

BRAVO

No. 066 No. 066

Every row, column and 3x3 outlined square must contain the numbers 1 to 9 once each.

CLONE