Marque Magazine Winter 2018

UP, UP AND AWAY Discover magical Napa Valley from the air and behind the wheel

masterpiece remastered Explore the latest model updates fom MINI

THE AUTO CLASSIC MAGAZINE

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The Sky-Dweller The revolutionary watch for world travellers, blending watchmaking ingenuity with simplicity of use.

It doesn’t just tell time. It tells history.

oyster perpetual SKY-DWELLER MARQUE WINTER 2018

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MQ REVIEW

DPS Burch Family Wines

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DPS Burch Family Wines

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CONTENTS MARQUE | THE AUTO CLASSIC MAGAZINE | WINTER 2018 EDITION

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WELCOME TO MARQUE MAGAZINE

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t only seems like yesterday that the long, hot days of summer were beginning to drag. Now, as the winter chill fully takes hold, you’re probably like me and longing for some warm sunshine again.

As that’s still a few months off, I hope you'll find some inspiration in the pages of the latest issue of Marque Magazine. If you’re dreaming of your next escape, take a leaf out of Gill Pringle’s book, and head to Napa Valley. Or if you fancy something a bit more off the beaten track, follow the Gibb River Road and discover an altogether more ancient landscape in the Kimberley.

If you’re looking to update your car, take a look at the incredible X series of BMWs. Matthew Mills describes the differences between the X4, X5 and X6 - the choice is up to you. If you find yourself in Auto Classic’s showroom, make sure you say hello to Becky Le - she’s one of our multi-lingual sales executives and will be very happy to show you around the BMW range of vehicles.

Fancy an interesting tipple to end a meal?

Read all about the many varied liqueurs that are created around the world. And if you want to take a staycation, head to the beautifully renovated Melbourne Hotel. It’s been given a wonderful new lease of life. Feeling stressed and in need of some TLC? Head to the brand new Bodhi J luxury spa at the Westin Perth; Gabi Mills interviews the husband and wife dynamic partnership behind this homegrown, world-beating brand.

I hope to see you soon at Auto Classic happy reading.

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MQ TIPS

he hottest shows, events, T travel and ideas around

14 WATCHWATCH

The latest mechanical timepieces 16 STAFF SPOTLIGHT

Meet Auto Classic’s Becky Le

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TAKE FIVE With Denis and

Diana Murselovic

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MQ REVIEW

The M3 CS

24 MQ LIQUEUR

Unusual tipples from around the world

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10 THINGS TO DO IN . . .

Noosa, Queensland

32 MQ TRAVEL

32 Explore the Gibb River Rd 36 Napa Valley, USA

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MQ BOOK MARQUE MQ MUSIC

Jarid Williams

44 MQ AUDIO

The best bookshelf speakers

Dion Dion Wagner, General Sales Manager, Auto Classic

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MQ LIFESTYLE

BMW active wear

BMW FEATURES

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62 48 MQ SPORT

Meet the boomerang champ, Roger Perry

66 MQ MINI

Next Gen Kings Park and MINI join forces

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51 MQ HEALTH

How to reduce stress

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MQ REVIEW

The X-traordinary X4,

MQ INTRODUCING

Musician Jack River

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MQ TARGA

Electric vehicles make a splash

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Adventures in Mongolia

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X5 and X6

76 MQ INTERVIEW

The Rubens unveil their

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new album

MQ WINE

78 MQ GOLF

Results of the

The March and Burchand story

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MQ ENTREPRENEURS

Bodhi J's Danny and

Tania Taylor

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MQ STAY

The beautifully renovated

BMW Golf Classic

80 MQ BUSINESS

Extraordinary achievers 82 MQ LAST WORD

Foreigner’s keyboard player Michael Bluestein

Melbourne Hotel

THE AUTO CLASSIC MAGAZINE

MQ MOTORRAD

Published by

Editor

Gabi Mills | gabi@premiumpublishers.com.au

Premium Publishers,

Art Director

Cally Browning | cally@barecreative.com.au

26 John Street Northbridge WA 6003.

Sales

Natalie Du Preez | natalie@premiumpublishers.com.au

Ph (08) 9273 8933 premiumpublishers.com.au

Images

Crib Creative.

Printed by

Vanguard Press

Contributors Norman Burns, Tom de Souza, Matthew Mills, Gill Pringle, Jack Stanley.

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PREMIUM PUBLISHERS

TIPS

The hottest events, the best innovations, travel inspiration and exhibitions

COOL SLICE OF HISTORY Cyril Mason’s is the newest microbrewery and pizzeria diversifying Perth’s cultural centre of Northbridge with authentic crispy Romanstyle pizzas and even crisper beers on tap.

World champion pizza aficionado Raffaele Brotzu (of Delisio Subiaco and Perth City has lent his delicious style of pizza cooking to the menu, boasting a traditional thin, crisp base – all house-made, seasonal and moreish.

Throughout his career, Raffaele has won a number of local, national and international awards for his gourmet pizzas including the 2008 World Champion Pizza Maker in Las Vegas.

ARRIVAL OF A LEGEND Cher, the worldwide superstar and icon, will make her highly-anticipated return to Australia and her first ever visit to Perth - this year, celebrating one of music’s most phenomenal and enduring careers, now spanning more than 50 years and six decades..

Bouyed by the amazing response to her March visit to celebate the 40th Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Cher is returning down under after a 13 year absence. Fans need only wait just a few months longer before the award-winning actress and recording artist will perform arena spectaculars this spring. ❱ Cher, Perth Arena, October 12. For complete tour, ticket and VIP Experience information, visit: livenation.com.au.

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Brotzu’s menu extends to other antipasto favourites such as ascolane (stuffed olives) and mouthwatering pasta like the ‘Cheeky Fettuccine’ with slow-cooked beef cheeks, tomato sugo and shaved parmigano that can be paired with wine rom the cellar if beer isn’t your thing.

The Microbrewery serves a boutique range of one-off craft beers developed by brewer brothers Geoff and Dan Goddard

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(previously of Black Salt Brewing). Known for their ability to create quaffable, old-world style beer, the brothers focus on the bespoke craft of small-batch brewing with an exclusive selection you won’t find anywhere else.

To keep the product fresh, beers are only brewed six kegs at a time, with no pasteurisation or preservatives, the way beer is meant to be. The venue has 16 beers on tap with an opening selection ranging from a smooth house pilsner to the more complex oaked Baltic porter.

Venue manager George Gifford (formerly at the helm of The Flying Scotsman, The Bakery and The Moon) wanted to create a venue that was humble yet rich in history.

“Cyril Mason was the local tobacconist and barber, an unassuming character who occupied this iconic corner building in 1899, a cool presence you can feel in the venue,” says George.

Just north of the Perth railway station and Yagan Square, Northbridge is an urban cultural hub that is seeing new venues like Cyril Mason’s enrich the food scene of WA. The result of Cyril Mason’s Bespoke Beer and Restorante is somewhere for Perth foodies, beer enthusiasts and locals to always be greeted like la familia; open Monday to Sunday evenings plus lunch service on Fridays and Saturdays. ❱ CYRIL MASON’S -245 William St, Northbridge - visit cyrilmasons.com.au

WORLD CLASS WARBLING The original and still the world’s best classical cross over group, Il Divo, are heading our way in October for a national tour. Australia is one of the most successful territories for the multi-national vocal quartet, who have become one of the best-selling music groups in the world.

Il Divo have become a global touring phenomenon – they have sold over 30 million albums worldwide, achieved more than 50 No.1 records, received over 160 gold and platinum sales awards in 33 countries and staged four ground-breaking world tours.

They have performed in front of the world’s great and good – from Barack Obama to Britain's Queen Elizabeth. They have shared microphones with fellow superstars including Barbra Streisand and Celine Dion, and their sell-out concerts have been /PTO

MARQUE READER SPECIAL OFFER experience Marchand & Burch wines

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n his very first visit to Western Australia, Pascal Marchand recognised the intriguing potential inherent in the land surrounding the townships of Mount Barker and Porongurup in the vast and untamed Great Southern.

These unique and complex soil profiles and aspects were encapsulated in the newly planted vineyards of Mount Barrow, a glorious south-facing amphitheatre rising steeply up to 400m above sea level, and Gibraltar Rock, a north-facing site in the lee of a forbidding granite outcrop.

Following a simple philosophy gleaned from lived experience with the noble terroir of Burgundy, to “listen to the earth, and respect the fruit,” a selection of the finest blocks of chardonnay and pinot noir were carefully raised into barrel using traditional techniques that allow a wine to make a singular expression of its vineyards and its place.

The Australian Collection from Marchand & Burch was first released in 2007. The 2017 vintage wines reflect a decade of endeavour, channelled through centuries of vinous tradition and overlaid

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onto an ancient geology.

The Marchand & Burch Mount Barker & Porongurup Chardonnay has firmly established itself as one of Australia’s finest examples. Here's some praise: "A superb cool-climate chardonnay. Very powerful, and the length is incredible. It will age very well, too.” James Halliday while the Marchand & Burch Mount Barrow Pinot Noir has set a new quality benchmark for the variety in Western Australia."

“Graceful and seductive, with detailed flavours that tease and fascinate, and a long, seamless aftertaste” Huon Hooke wrote.

Readers of Marque are invited to experience these special wines and enjoy an exclusive 20% discount across the range. ❱ Visit marchandburchwines.com.au and enter the code MARQUE at checkout to purchase online, or contact wine club manager David Stredwick on 08 9756 5200. Read about Marchand & Burch in our special feature (page 60).

MQ TIPS

Hollywood icons including Tom Hanks and Robert De Niro.

The supergroup comprises Switzerland’s Urs Bühler, Spaniard Carlos Marín, the USA’s David Miller, and Sébastien Izambard of France. Il Divo came together following an international search that discovered the fabulous four. They have released seven studio albums to date, most recently in 2015.

They are set to release another album in August in Australia, through Universal Music.

Says Carlos Marín of their impending tour :“We can’t wait to return to your beautiful country and bring our music to you, including all the classics and songs from our new album Timeless! We are very excited to be coming back as we miss our fantastic fans in Australia.” ❱ Il Divo - Timeless Tour, Perth Arena, October 16. Visit ticketek.com.au

tow. Matt Moran is bringing along Vincent Fantauzzo, Archibald prize winner and his best friend. The delightful Colin Fassnidge will be accompanied by the butcher to his chef, Anthony Puharich of Victor Churchill.

Returning to then Good Food & Wine Show in 2018 are the ever-delightful Cape Mentelle VIP Lounge, Tucker’s Natural Cheese Alley, Riedel Drinks Lab, Good Food Village, the renowned Chefs' Lunch, Kleenheat Kitchen, WA wine pavilion showcasing wines from the Swan Valley to Margaret River, plus so much more.

Citi is also bringing back ‘Let’s Eat’ in 2018, a pop-up dining experience featuring three Citibank Dining Program restaurants all offering their favourite dishes. ‘Let’s Eat’ gives GFWS visitors a chance to sit down and take a break from all the excitement with a restaurant-quality meal.

Amp up your Friday night drinks and enjoy food, wine, art and music at the show. MQ ❱ Good Food & Wine Show, August 24 to 26, Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. Visit www.goodfoodshow.com.au.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT The Good Food & Wine Show will return to Perth in August. You can catch all the action at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre for three days of good food and great wine, and this year a series of amazing celebrity chefs will join in the fun – but with a twist. All the chefs hosting demonstrations over the three-day extravaganza will be accompanied by someone special in their lives, because good food and wine is nothing without good company to share it with.

Miguel Maestre will have his brothers in

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You are invited to bring together your friends, colleagues and business contacts for a unique experience in 2018 – and to support Asthma WA as Time will fly by as you and they relentlessly pursue an your guests enjoy a bespoke improved quality of life for 6 course degustation menu every Western Australian BMW wines, competition Offer with matching living with asthma. entertainment by exciting new Western Australian Friday 3 August 2018 artists and, as you build and 12 noon to 6pm nurture your networks Crown Towers Ballroom fuelled by a mutual love of beautiful food, fine wine and longlunchforasthma.com.au a desire to make long lasting connections.

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WATCHWATCH with NORMAN BURNS

TIME TRAVELLERS

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’ve long thought that

BREITLING NAVITIMER 8

the single most useful “complication” (the

Breitling’s mastery of aviation-themed instruments continues with the release of a thoroughly snazzy new collection of pilot’s watches under the Navitimer 8 family. The “8” refers to the Huit (French for eight) Aviation Department set up in the 1930s to manufacture cockpit instruments and pilot’s watches. The cockpit instruments had an eight-day power reserve, hence the connection. The new Navitimer 8 collection features five models (either 41 or 43mm) including Automatic, Day/Date, and one with Unitime (world time) function, Automatic Chronograph. The top-ofthe-line B01 Chronograph sports an in-house movement and a minimum of 70 hours power reserve. Prices range from $5,130 to above $10,000, depending on the model.

Visit watchswiss.com or call 1300 808 135

watchmaking industry’s

term for functionality outside basic timekeeping of seconds/ minutes/hours) in a wristwatch is being able to set a second timezone. They are great for keeping tabs on where you might be going, or where you have come from. GMT (dual time) models were once more in the spotlight at this year’s Baselworld 2018 watch fair, which also saw the release of an innovative new model for Hublot’s Big Bang collection.

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HUBLOT BIG BANG REFEREE 2018 WORLD CUP RUSSIA Soccer fans are the big winners from this sexy, state-of-the-art, connected watch from Hublot, the Official Timekeeper of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia.

This is a powerhouse piece of digital wrist bling (49mm), with an internal operating system using Wear OS by Google via tech developed by Hublot’s owner, LVMH. It’s compatible with smartphones operating Android 4.4 or iOS 9 and above platforms.

What can it do? Well, far more than merely just display the time. For a start, you can customise the dial to the colours of their team (there are 32 options, plus two neutral dials).

As the World Cup kicked off things really got interesting – wearers got updates of kick-off times, yellow and red cards in matches, and the watch vibrated and displayed the word “GOAL” instantly every time a goal was scored. And the Referee is not just for the fans – it will be a working tool, with referees wearing special models that will link the watch to goal-line technology. Limited to 2018 pieces worldwide, all of which are sure to be snapped up by collectors, and yours for $6,700.

Visit watchswiss.com or call 1300 808 135

TUDOR BLACK BAY GMT Tudor’s sharp divers watch, the Black Bay, adds a second timezone function thanks to its 24-hour graduated bezel (the daylight hours are highlighted in the burgundy section and night in blue). The new automatic, chronometercertified Calibre MT5652 movement provides a 70-hour power reserve and the Black Bay GMT is beautifully finished (like all Tudor watches) with its steel screw-down winding crown decorated with a Tudor rose in relief. The 41mm steel case has a polished and satin finish and the watch is waterproof to 200m. Very classy. $4,670.

Visit watchswiss.com or call 1300 808 135

TAG HEUER CARRERA HEUER 02 GMT CHRONOGRAPH Tag Heuer has been a world leader in precision sports timekeeping, especially connected with motor racing, for more than 100 years.

The Swiss brand delivers again in spades with this new collection marking the 55th anniversary of the original Heuer Carrera. While the watch features the original 3-6-9 counter layout from 1963 there’s a heap of very cool updates too, not the least of which is the addition of a second timezone (GMT) function (indicated by the striking red pointer) and adjusted via the crown. With a massive 75-hour power reserve, water-resistance to 100m, and a spectacular skeletonised dial, the 45mm Carrera Heuer 02 GMT Chronograph is a striking example of a modern sports watch. On a steel bracelet it sells for $4,554, or $4,439 on rubber strap.

Visit watchswiss.com or call 1300 808 135

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ROLEX GMT-MASTER II EVEROSE GOLD Superlatives and Rolex watches go hand-in-hand and the world’s most well-known luxury watch brand delivers once more with its beautiful, elegant but rugged GMT-Master 11 Everose Gold model. The new calibre automatic 3285 movement has no fewer than 10 patents pending, delivering a guaranteed 70 hours power reserve among a raft of top-ofthe-line engineering smarts, including the Parachrom hairspring which Rolex says offers greater resistance to shocks and temperature variations.

A second timezone (the GMT function) can be set via the winding crown, and ingeniously the hour hand can be adjusted independently of the minutes and seconds hands. The famous “Oyster” case (waterproof to 100m) in this model is made from Rolex’s patented 18ct gold alloy – Everose gold. A magnificent but practical timepiece. $46,550.

Visit watchswiss.com or call 1300 808 135

MY AUTO CLASSIC

BUILDING BLOCKS

Becky Le is a new face on the BMW Auto Classic showroom floor and she’s determined to make her mark.

MQ Tell us about yourself – how long have you worked at Auto Classic?

BECKY LE I have over seven years experience in the 5-star hotel industry and then went into the luxury car industry in finance for two years before heading into sales with Auto Classic. I have been with Auto Classic now for about seven months, starting my role in December 2017.

MQ What do you particularly enjoy about the job?

BL I really enjoy working together with an amazing team, learning new things every day, and being a part of a winning brand.

MQ What makes a good customer service person in your opinion?

BL I think it comes down to going above and beyond the customer’s expectations and building a longterm relationship. Also being genuine is a big bonus.

MQ What do you love about the cars that Auto Classic sells?

BL I have always loved the finer things in life and, to me, the BMW brand defines luxury and prestige. It is the ultimate driving machine.

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MQ What gives you the biggest buzz about your job?

BL The biggest buzz about my job is when I meet all different people with wonderful and amazing stories.

Finding the right BMW for the customer also makes me very happy.

MQ If you could choose any MINI or BMW, which one would you choose?

BL There are so many to choose from but if I had I really had to then my favourite car would be the 5-series. It is such a classy vehicle.

MQ What are the biggest challenges you face in your role?

BL Referral business is very important to me. Being new to the dealership, I am still building my relationships with the existing customer base. This is a process that is going to take some time but fortunately our BMW clientele are warm, down-to-earth people and they have been very welcoming when I reach out to them.

MQ What do you hope to achieve in 2018?

BL I really want to get to know Auto Classic's customers and solidify relationships by going above and beyond for them. MQ ❱ For your next BMW purchase, visit Becky at BMW Auto Classic,48 Burswood Road, Victoria Park.

REFERRAL BUSINESS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ME. BMW CLIENTELE ARE WARM, DOWNTO-EARTH PEOPLE ...

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TAKE 5 with

... DIANA & DENIS MURSELOVIC

DRIVEN TO SUCCEED Bricks and mortar may literally be the backbone of their business, but for siblings and Auto Classic customers Denis and Diana Murselovic the key to success in the volatile building trade has been their own steely resolve.

By NORMAN BURNS | Image CRIB CREATIVE

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enis and Diana Murselovic are no strangers to hard times – or hard work.

In the early 1990s, the Murselovic family fled their war-wracked homeland of Bosnia.

“We spent six years as refugees in Germany before Germany said we must move on: we got accepted to come to Australia,” says Diana.

So it was in 1999 that Denis, Diana

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and their parents came to Perth and, while they were going to a peaceful, safe haven, arriving in a strange land – speaking virtually no English ­– and having to start life from scratch was a daunting prospect.

Although Diana had qualifications as a dental nurse and Denis dabbled in real estate, both realised the path to self-sufficiency lay elsewhere.

Denis looked to renovating old

homes, with Diana helping with the interior decorating, and the pair soon proved to have a knack for turning properties around for a good profit.

“We thought ‘this is much better than working as a dental nurse or in real estate for someone else’,” says Denis.

In 2008 they set up their own company (DnD Building Co) working out of a tiny space in the family home.

Diana set about completing a

Diploma of Building at TAFE night school and DnD Building Co, from humble beginnings and the result of the pair working long, long hours, is now celebrating its 10th anniversary, gathering a slew of industry awards along the way.

“Diana is very calm; obviously it was a learning curve and it took a lot of years to realise we are a team,’’ says Denis of working with his sister.

“We didn’t go to school to become project managers; we learned as we went. There were ups and downs, and tough times, but at the end we stuck together. Nobody taught us how to do things we had to figure it out ourselves,” says Denis.

Employing three other full-time staff, and with 45 to 50 contractors on the books, DnD Building Co has proved more than a survivor in what has been a rocky few years in WA for the building industry.

“We’re used to working under pressure; we didn’t have sick days, didn’t have holiday times,” says Denis.

A wall-load of awards in their Malaga office is testament to DnD Building Co’s mantra of hard work and providing their customers with reliable, top-quality builds.

“Everybody is amazed at what we do with so few staff,” says Diana.

“When you help someone accomplish their dream and build their dream house and see the look on their faces, it’s very satisfying.”

The siblings’ Perth success has also impressed their relatives back in Bosnia.

“They’re pretty amazed as to what we’ve achieved. We’ve got a pretty good lifestyle here in Perth but we didn’t win Lotto to get it; we worked hard,” says Denis.

Part of that success is being able to drive around in style, comfort and, of course, safety behind the wheel of their beloved BMWs. Diana drives a nifty X1, her brother the mighty X6.

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HARD WORK PAYS OFF Denis and Diana Murselovic have forged a successful building company in tough trading conditions.

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was important for me because my dog (Penny) comes with me 24x7 (including to the office). I wanted space inside too and pretty much the X1 ticks all the boxes for me,” Diana says.

Denis says he’s loved the BMW X6 since its introduction. “I love the shape, the comfort, the dashboard is sporty; it’s brilliant.”

With a decade of experience and having cemented their name as a highly reputable builder, Denis and Diana say they will now be refocusing DnD Building Co towards a more niche, high-end market – and hopefully along the way be also able to finally take some time out to enjoy the fruits of their labour.

“We are established now and have a good name and are going to do custom home design, maybe 2-3 luxury homes a year and some apartments. We are set up pretty well and pretty strong and our clients are in safe hands,’’ says Denis. MQ DnD Building Co, (08) 9249 1244, dndbuilding.com.au

M3 REVIEW

REWAURRDSELF YO The extraordinary M3 CS is the ultimate prize for BMW aficianados, says Matthew Mills.

B

efore we take a close look at the M3 CS, I feel that I have to declare an interest – the 3-series is my true favourite of all of BMW’s remarkable models.

The reason is simple, my first real car was one.

I say real because the the twolitre, maroon saloon that I bought on a sunny morning nearly a quarter a century ago wasn’t the first car I’d owned – I’d had plenty of mend-andmake-do jalopies to get me from A to B before it – but it was the first I’d chosen, sought out, finally got my MARQUE WINTER 2018 ●

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hands on one after years of yearning.

Yes, it was 10 years old, but even so it was, to me, the pinnacle of driving. And I’d bought it as reward – a week earlier I’d passed my journalism exams after two years as a cadet and officially become a senior reporter. That feisty German bombshell was my prize and quickly showed me why a BMW is not just another car.

Twenty-five years later and, well, I’m beginning to feel that if I’ve got this far then perhaps I’m due another prize. If so, please let it be the M3 CS.

E30 BMW M3 Evolution. Sleek, powerful lines run from the signature BMW grill up through the long, dynamic bonnet across the cabin and down to the compact boot.

Under that imposing bonnet is a 3.0-litre high-performance engine which exceeds even the output of the M3 with Competition Package by 10 horsepower, raising it to 460 hp/338kW. That, of course, means it's quick – state-of-the-art M TwinPower Turbo technology propels the M3 CS from 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.9 seconds. The top speed of the new special edition, which comes as standard with the

REST, RELAX, RECONNECT Romantic, secluded, self contained chalets with candlelit sky-view spas, kingsize double beds and tranquil forest outlooks, on 240 acres of natural beauty.

Forest Rise

The M, of course, is what makes this limited run special-edition vehicle all the more exciting – that single letter and the slanting tricolour next to it standing for Motorsport means so much to motoring aficionados. The cream of the BMW range, that M means that they have taken perfection and made it that bit faster, stronger, more beautiful.

And it’s a beautiful car, continuing the decades-long tradition of successful M special editions which began in 1988 with the

M Driver’s Package, is electronically limited to 280 km/h (174 mph).

The six-cylinder in-line engine takes a clear and consistent aim at the higher echelons of performance, but is equally committed to developing significant torque from low engine speeds and achieving high levels of efficiency, meaning it will take you 100km on an impressive 8.5 litres of fuel.

Once behind the wheel, pushing the new red start/stop button fires up the engine, and the distinctive sound produced by the specially tuned

RE ST, RE L A X , RECO NNEC T Romantic, secluded, self contained chalets

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with candlelit sky-view spas, Kingsize

double beds and tranquil forest outlooks, on 240 acres of natural beauty.

231 Yelverton Road, Yelverton Margaret River Wine Region Phone (08) 9755 7110 or email reception@forestrise.com.au

231 Yelverton Road, Yelverton

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● AUTOCLASSIC.COM.AU 021Margaret River Wine Region

Phone (08) 9755 7110 or email reception@forestrise.com.au

WWW.FORESTRISE.COM.AU

MQ REVIEW

THIS SPECIAL EDITION MODEL MS C3 MAY WELL BE THE GREATEST 3-SERIES YET

sports exhaust system of the new BMW M3 CS – with its quartet of tailpipes – proceeds to lay on a feast for the ears.

Generations of technological innovation have converged to ensure the M3 CS truly is the ultimate driving machine. The seven-speed M Double Clutch Transmission with Drivelogic has a separate oil cooler and enables automated gear changes and manual interventions using the shift paddles on the steering wheel. It changes gears in fractions of a second with no interruption in the flow of power, but employs a long seventh gear to keep revs low and minimise fuel consumption over longer motorway journeys.

The suspension largely mirrors that of the M3 Competition Package.

The links and wheel carriers at both the front and rear axles are made from forged aluminium and are therefore extremely light. Ensuring the best possible grip in all driving

conditions is the Dynamic Stability Control system – which includes M Dynamic Mode – and the Active M Differential.

The driver meanwhile can adjust the steering and suspension settings to their personal preferences or the demands of the route at hand.

The M3 CS’s light-alloy wheels are very much at home on the race track, fitted as they are with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres. These semi-slick cup tyres, which are also road-legal, provide unbeatable grip and supreme lateral stability at high track speeds.

The M3 CS can also be ordered with Michelin Sport road tyres.

Moving inside the M3 CS, the generous use of two-tone full luxury trim creates a compelling and well-resolved ambience brimming with sporting allure and undeniable class. Standard features on board are automatic climate control, a Harman Kardon surroundsound system and the Navigation MARQUE WINTER 2018 ●

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system Professional.

True to form, BMW have given the new M3 CS looks that reflect the car’s sporting intent. The signature feature of its prominent front end, complete with cuttingedge twin LED headlights, is the front apron with large, three-section air intakes. The Gurney spoiler lip on the boot lid has been newly designed specifically for the new M3 CS, and teams up with the front splitter and the rear diffuser to help minimise dynamic lift. These components are made from the lightweight and extremely rigid hightech material carbon fibre-reinforced plastic, as are the bonnet and roof.

All in all then, this special-edition model MS C3 – which will be limited to a run of approximately 1,200 units – may well be the greatest 3-series yet. So, if you think you’ve earned a reward for your hard work, then look no further. MQ

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Special Events James Morrison with WASO: The Great American Songbook Fri 3 & Sat 4 Aug 8pm Perth Concert Hall Joined by WASO, Morrison brings his trademark virtuosity and air to classic hits from Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, George Gershwin and more!

Tickets from $49*

Star Wars: A New Hope – In Concert Fri 28 Sept 7.30pm | Sat 29 Sept 1.30pm & 7.30pm Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre Don’t miss A New Hope in concert, with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra performing John Williams’ Oscar-winning score live to the complete film. This performance includes subtitles on the screen.

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Katie Noonan’s Elixir with Michael Leunig & WASO Fri 26 Oct 8pm Perth Concert Hall Multi-Platinum selling singer and songwriter Katie Noonan returns to WASO with a unique collaboration including spoken-word poetry, angelic vocals and sublime improvisation.

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MQ LIQUEUR

LIQUEURISH ALL-SORTS Images courtesy THE GROVE DISTILLERY, VANGUARD LUXURY BRANDS, NICKS WINE MERCHANTS, THE HOOCHERY, THE MARGARET RIVER CHOCOLATE CO, THE HOUSE OF HONEY, LIMEBURNERS

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Centuries ago in Europe, monks dabbled with blending herbs and spices with liquor to create “medicinal” drinks. Their creations set the foundation for the weird, wonderful and wide-ranging world of modern liqueurs, as Norman Burns discovers.

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inter and liqueurs are a match made in heaven.

Who doesn’t like sitting back in front of a fire sipping on a wee dram of, well, whatever takes your fancy because the world of liqueurs is a broad church indeed.

Want something oozing creamy goodness? Yep, you got it.

How about a heart-warmer infused with berries, herbs or citrus?

No problem.

Or a drop that oozes the aroma of a rare tobacco (please, hold all those politically correct protests – I’m not condoning smoking of any sort here)? That’s out there too.

There are brands championing coffee, aniseed, chocolate, spices, nut-flavours – the list goes on.

If you like a tipple with bling there’s even a cinnamon-accented liqueur (Goldschlager) containing real gold flakes – but you’re going to have to shell out a few extra bucks for that one.

When it comes to liqueurs there are no real hard and fast rules, although the European Union defines one as “having at least 15% alcohol by volume (ABV) and at least 100g of sugar per litre, rising to 250g for a ‘crème de… liqueur’ and 450g of sugar for a crème de cassis liqueur”.

On the cheaper end of the scale, liqueurs can be created by simply adding flavoured essences to a neutral alcohol. You won’t find many specialist drinks writers waxing lyrical on these.

More sophisticated production methods involve re-distillation (after the flavouring agents, such as fruit peels, seeds, roots or herbs have been added) which produces a clear distillate called an esprit full of nuanced flavour.

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Then there’s maceration and infusion where the flavouring agents and spirit are left to interact; sometimes this mixture is heated.

The resulting packed-full-of-flavour distillate is called a tincture.

Percolation (yep, just like you do with filtered coffee) is another method to create a tincture distillate.

Fruit-based creations comprise the lion’s share of the liqueur market (such as Cointreau, made with orange peels, Bols Triple Sec and scores more – there are examples made with cranberries, lychees, coconut, lemons, bananas, pineapple, even watermelon).

Nut liqueurs are also popular (amaretto, coffee, chocolate) as too are herbal-based drinks (think the German Jagermeister which contains no fewer than 56 herbs and spices) that can use everything from aniseed, to peppermints to botanicals normally associated with gin.

The cream-based category was started, from scratch, by Baileys in the mid-70s (Baileys, which is made from Irish whiskey, now holds around 25% of the world liqueur market).

Indeed, liqueurs based on specific spirits (such as Scottish and Irish whiskies, cognac and Bourbon, rather than a neutral spirit) are making a big dent in the market.

So just how did the modern liqueur come about?

There is no definitive ground zero, but the origins can be traced back centuries to when monks would concoct herbal “medicines”.

The health benefits of these medicines may be somewhat ambiguous but the nobility (and eventually the rank and file) soon cottoned on that the monks were

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on to a good thing (at the very least the botanical additives reduced the harshness of the underlying spirits).

In the early 1600s monks at a Chartreuse monastery in Veuvert, France, for example, followed an ancient manuscript that listed 130 plants, roots, brandy, distilled honey and sugar syrup, even bark, to create the world’s only naturally green liqueur. It’s still made today, marketed as Green Chartreuse.

Only three monks at a time are allowed to know the secret recipe – and they are never allowed to travel together.

Other brands that have become synonymous with certain styles of liqueur (Benedictine, Irish Mist, Grand Marnier, Drambuie to name but four) are equally protective of their special formulas.

Liqueurs are often the central ingredient for cocktails (such as the Negroni, with its Campari liqueur or the Cosmopolitan which uses orange liqueur) but you can sip ‘em neat or they can add a fantastic wow factor in cooking as an addition to sauces or desserts (Cointreau and strawberries is a favourite in my house).

Western Australian boutique distilleries and producers such as The Hoochery in the Kimberley, The Grove in Margaret River and The House of Honey in the Swan Valley are also producing some great liqueurs.

Butterscotch and Turkish Delight are two of the most popular from Wilyabrup-based The Grove Distillery.

“The base for both is our own triple-distilled vodka,” says The Grove’s Val Hughes. “It’s a two-day process to make the butterscotch and then a further two months’ maturation. We import rose water from France which creates a traditional Turkish Delight flavour.

Val says The Grove’s liqueurs aren’t just for sipping.

“We encourage people to create their own signature cocktail by mixing the liqueurs with soft drinks, fruit juice or cream. And the

butterscotch liqueur, with its rich, buttery taste, is perfect to pour over a sticky date pudding, pancakes or vanilla bean ice cream.”

The Margaret River Chocolate Company (and Coward and Black Vineyards) mixes the best of both worlds – wine and chocolate – with its sambarino range.

“Sambarino comes in four flavours – Classic Chocolate, Hazelnut Mousse, After Dinner Mint and Espresso Macchiato and it’s a unique collaboration between The Margaret River Chocolate Company and Coward & Black Vineyards; it brings together the essence of the Margaret River and Swan Valley wine regions,” says

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spokesman Martin Black.

In the Kimberley, The Hoochery is carrying on the legacy of its late founder, Spike Dessert III, producing world award-winning rums – and some special liqueurs.

Its Aguardiente Verde is an aniseed-based liqueur (the aniseed is locally grown) at 30% ABV, while Cane Royale Liqueur blends Kimberley cane spirit, chocolate and coffee.

In Herne Hill along the Great Northern Highway, the House of Honey has a tasty niche with its honey-based mead and a couple of liqueurs to boot; its Banksia Liqueur features sweet Banksia honey and fortified brandy spirit.

From Albany in the Great Southern, Limeburners’ Whisky Liqueur blends small batch, locally produced malt whisky with native WA karri honey, herbs and spices (including Tahitian vanilla) – but in the great liqueur producer tradition, Limeburners says the recipe is “closely guarded”.

For those adventurous spirits (pun intended), there is also a mindbogglingly array of liqueurs that tread the road less travelled.

Vanguard Luxury Brands distributes

a wide range of specialist liqueurs, including the striking, handmade Mr Black Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur.

Produced in Sydney and with half the sugar and 10 times the coffee of traditional coffee liqueurs, Mr Black has taken the Australian liquor trade by storm.

“It’s the best coffee liqueur I’ve tasted in over 25 years in the industry,” says Vanguard Luxury Brands’ James France.

Vanguard also imports the Czech herbal liqueur Becherovka (made since 1907, only two men in the world know the recipe) and a range of liqueurs from fifth-generation cognac house Merlet.

Melbourne-based Nicks Wine

Merchants has one of the biggest ranges in Australia and some very quirky offerings, including the Goldschlager Cinnamon Schnapps – which contains real flakes of gold.

Then there’s the Grand Marnier Quintessence Liqueur, at a buck under $1,000 a bottle one of the world’s most expensive liqueurs.

Quintessence blends cognac ranging from 100 to 25 years old and has been specially distilled to produce a unique, subtle and elegant orange zest-infused liqueur.

Another off-beat offering is Perique Tobacco Liqueur, created

by New Orleans’ biochemist Ted Breaux, who in the 1990s successfully reproduced many “lost” absinthes.

TAKE YOUR PICK Liqueurs come in myriad flavours, so depending on your mood, there's sure to be one that fits the bill.

DON GIOVANNI HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE 20 | 23 | 25 | 27 October

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Perique tobacco is cultivated in only one small area in Louisiana and is coined the truffle of the tobaccos because of its unique aroma. After 18 months of trials, Breaux (in conjunction with the Combier Distillery in France, which in 1834 produced the world’s first Triple Sec liqueur) created a unique drink with a profile of aniseed, caraway, orange peel – and notes of that elusive Perique tobacco.

Le Birlou Apple & Chestnut Liqueur is the invention of Frenchman Henri Monier, who would serve the locals at his bar his own recipe of beer mixed with a flavouring of chestnuts and apple.

His Birlou (an amalgamation of the word for beer ‘biere’ and ‘pelou’, which refers to a chestnut husk) took off, winning a slew of awards, and it has become popular in France as an addition to crepes. MQ Nick’s Wine Merchants, nicks.com. au; The Grove, thegrovedistillery. com.au; Limeburners, distillery. com.au; Vanguard Luxury Brands, vanguardluxurybrands.com; The Hoochery, hoochery.com.au; Margaret River Chocolate Company, chocolatefactory.com.au; The House of Honey, thehouseofhoney.com.au

10

THINGS YOU MUST DO IN NOOSA

By NORMAN BURNS

THE FIRST RULE OF NOOSA IS . . . IT’S NOT THE GOLD COAST Despite being only 90 minutes’ drive from booming Brisbane, there’s nary a high-rise tower in sight in this gem of the Sunshine Coast which is blessed with spectacular beaches, tranquil rivers, amazing wildlife, vast tracts of hinterland and national parkland – plus incredible accommodation, eating and recreation options.

The Noosa vibe is laidback to the max and pretty much the polar opposite of its flashy, neighbour, the Gold Coast, It’s a town that’s

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perfectly comfortable hosting backpackers straight off the Greyhound bus, millionaires helicoptering it from their private yachts, empty nesters looking to get out of the big smoke, families seeking a beach escape and surfers – the latter spoiled for choice with some of Australia’s most spectacular, accessible, breaks.

The name Noosa comes from an Aboriginal word meaning “shade”, a reference to the cooling forests of the area. And, thanks to surrounding land being designated as the Noosa National Park, it’s still a place where nature – not the skyscraper – rules the roost.

Get on board Shhh . . . don’t tell anyone; Noosa is a surfing paradise.

OK, just kidding as surfers have known this for decades. And not just Aussie board riders either; Noosa’s clean, consistent, swell attracts surfers the world over. And with the area having just been declared the 10th World Surfing Reserve (thanks in part to a twoyear campaign by local surfers), Noosa’s magnificent surf coast will be preserved for generations to come.

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Stand up and be counted There’s a raft of stand up paddleboard operators in and around Noosa – and no wonder, because the area’s rivers and lakes provide a perfect flat water environment to get SUPping, even if you’re a novice. Advanced paddlers can journey from the Upper Noosa River right up to the Cooroibah and Cootharaba Lakes, part of the Noosa Everglades ecosystem.

Hastings Street food safari The foodie heart of Noosa is the thoroughly spiffing Hastings Street, crammed with bars and eateries ranging from uber-casual to fine dining. Celebrity Sri Lankan/Australian chef Peter Kuravita, a Noosa resident, has his Noosa Beach House here, but there are scores of options, whatever your taste. Not too far away, with a spectacular view of the Noosa River, is the five-star Rickys River Bar & Restaurant, a favourite celebrity haunt. I’d recommend skipping breakfast and going on a food “safari” down the street, capping it off with a sunset cocktail at one of the many groovy bars. And if you’re really smart, you might want to time your visit to coincide with the Noosa Food & Wine Festival (May 16-19 2019, see noosafoodandwine.com. au for details).

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Saddle up

Channel your inner Daryl Braithwaite by going riding on the horses at Noosa’s North Shore. From one-hour saunters right along the beach, to week-long bush tours into the hinterland and beach/bush overnighters, Equathon – owned and operated by triple Olympian Alex Watson and his wife Rebecca - has something for everyone, even absolute novice riders. There’s an age limit for kids (no younger than seven). Visit equathon.com for more information..

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MQ 10 THINGS TO DO IN . . .

Everglades - minus the 'gators We’ve all heard of the alligator-infested Florida Everglades - but how about the Noosa Everglades? Yep, this hidden-in-plain-sight natural wonder is one of only two everglades systems on the planet and, via tour boat or kayak hire, you can explore more than 60km of this “river of mirrors” that’s bursting with flora and fauna (including 44 per cent of Australia’s bird life but thankfully no ‘gators). Check out Kanu Kapers (kanukapersaustralia.com) for information on kayak tours or thediscoverygroup.com.au for cruises through the everglades.

Drive time If you can tear yourself away from the beaches, Noosa’s incredible hinterland offers a whole other world of attractions, including the charming village of Cooran with its boutique shops, Eumundi with its arts and crafts galleries and Pomona, with its historic buildings and home to the Noosa Museum. Check out the Noosa Country Drive website (noosacountrydrive.com.au) and plan your own journey via three suggested touring loops (northern, central and southern).

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Birds of a feather

If you find a lot of people in Noosa “twitchy” it’s with good reason - the area is a world-class destination for “twitching” (that’s bird watching to you and me). In spring and summer thousands of migratory shorebirds, some from as far away as Russia, flock to the Noosa River estuary. The Noosa National Park is also home to no fewer than 340 species and even if you don’t know an Eastern Spinebill from a White-Throated Geryone, following the Noosa Bird Trail (see noosaparks.org.au for a comprehensive guide) is a great way to, err, wing it. Another option is get on board a Noosa Eco Cruise with Noosa Ferry.

Noosaferry.com

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TRAVEL

>> 10 THINGS NOOSA Walk on the wild side You don’t have to be an expert hiker to enjoy the scores of amazing walking trails around Noosa (although there are, of course, trails with varying degrees of difficulty).

Prepare to have your jaw dropped along the stunning coastal Noosa National Park Track route – the view at Hell’s Gate is one of the best in the country. Get up to the summit at Mt Tinbeerwah (just west of Noosa) for spectacular, 360-degree views. A great starting point is the Noosa Trail Network brochure, with details of trails for every ability. Visit greatnoosatrailwalk.com.au to download the brochure.

Mountain biking Noosa is a great destination for mountain biking but don’t worry if you don’t have your own bike, you can join a guided mountain biking tour with Bike On who cater for all skill levels. Their Off The Top mountain bike tour is a half-day, downhill adventure that starts from the top of Mt Tinbeerwah (they thoughtfully drive you to the top). The fully guided tour, which includes pick-up and drop-off from your accommodation and a forest picnic, is done at your pace through bush tracks, small creeks and rainforest. Visit bikeon. com.au

Grape expectations Wine making isn’t the first thing you associate with Noosa and the Sunshine Coast but there’s a burgeoning industry producing some excellent boutique wines. The Sunshine Coast Wine Trail takes in nearly a dozen wineries, including Maleny Mountain Wines, 430m above sea level in the stunning hinterland to Kenilworth Bluff Wines, the area’s first vineyard. Kick back and let someone else do the driving with Sunshine Wine Tours (sunshinewinetours.com.au).

THANKS TO Susan Ewington of Tourism Noosa for her input with this article.

For more information on Noosa’s attractions, go to visitnoosa.com.au

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ART

The LAST STRAW Head to York in October to see some extraordinary works of art as part of the town’s annual festival.

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apanese artist Akira Moriya is heading to historic York to create giant straw sculptures of endangered Australian fauna in an event which will be the highlight of the 2018 York Festival.

“Wara Art sculptures are spectacular,” said festival director Jenny Garroun, who recently visited Japan where she and her husband inspected the giant sculptures and negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding for the art exchange with Wara Art Japan, a non profit organisation.

“This is so exciting! It’s taken months of planning and it will be the first time Wara Art has come to a Western country,” said Jenny. Introduced to the concept of Wara Art late last year, Jenny saw clear connections with the York Festival’s own sculpture competition, the Hay Bale Challenge, which was launched in 2016.

She has spent the last seven months working out how to bring Wara Art to York. Now, with the funding from Festivals Australia confirmed, the Wara Art giant

sculpture project will become a reality.

The founder of Wara Art, Professor Shingo Miyajima of the Department of Science and Design at the Musashino University, is designing York’s very own version of the straw sculptures for which he is famous. They will be up to four metres high and will be constructed in three locations around the York town centre.

Wara Art (or rice straw art), started in Japan because rice straw, which had traditionally been used for making tatami mats and other objects, had increasingly been replaced by man-made materials, leaving farmers with a problem: what do you do with the mass of rice straw after the annual harvest has finished?

The farming community in Niigata prefecture approached Professor Miyajima to find a creative solution and he came up with the idea that has since spawned Wara Art festivals across Japan.

“We don’t have rice straw in WA, so our sculptures will be created using wheat straw sourced from one of the few producers who still harvest in

stooks, or large sheaves of grain standing on their end in fields. This producer just happens to be right here in York.”

A local business has been storing the straw needed for the event since it was harvested in December.

Construction of the sculptures will start when the Japanese artist, Akira Moriya arrives in York in late August. Mr Moriya, a veteran of around 20 Wara Art sculptures, including some nine metres high, will supervise the construction which will involve teams of volunteers who will be taught how to split the green bamboo used to form the armature for each sculpture (also sourced in Western Australia), and learn the techniques for stitching and weaving the straw together to form the body of each animal. MQ York Festival 2018, September 8 to October 7, 10am to 4.30pm. Visit yorkfestival.com.au

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The one and only Pink Panther makes his debut in pink gold and platinum on fabulous limited edition ingots, hand set with stunning Argyle Pink Diamonds.

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perthmint.com/pinkpanther THE PINK PANTHER TM & © 1964-2018 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

TRAVEL

The Gibb River Road is one of those bucket list travel destinations and, for Tom de Souza, it didn’t disappoint.

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carton of beer is the Australian outback’s most valuable currency. It’s key to a smooth transaction and a bargaining chip to solve almost any predicament. For my girlfriend, dog, and I, it rescued our road trip and got us back en-route to one of the most stunning and remote regions of Australia.

We were on our way to the East Kimberley when the gearbox blew up. Two thousand clicks from home, turning back was not an option.

The car limped 400km along the

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highway to Broome, no drive in third or fourth gears. We were stranded for three weeks, until a second hand gearbox arrived via air-mail from Adelaide. A backyard mechanic – bribed with a box of ale – fitted the part, and helped us onto our intended journey.

On this potholed, boulder-strewn track that is the Gibb River Road – a 660km former stock-route that cuts a lonely path between the Kimberley’s two major ports, Derby and Wyndham – every bump rattles a loose wheel bearing, and my nerve. We’re MARQUE WINTER 2018 ●

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venturing deep into the Kimberley in an ailing car and if anything happens out here, we’re up proverbial creek without a paddle.

The Kimberley is one of the world’s last true remaining wildernesses. The region of Western Australia’s far north encompasses 100 million acres of land. It’s twice the size of Victoria, Switzerland 10 times over, and it’s inhabited by just 50,000 people. Much of the landscape is inaccessible and uncharted even by Aboriginal footprints; this is one of the final frontiers of travel.

It’s mid-morning when we reach a deep river crossing.

Heat folds in waves over the croc-ravaged Pentecost River. It’s a slow crawl across crunching river stones to the other side, then we’re back on the road. A silhouette shimmers in the distance; we haven’t seen any other sign

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of human life for two days, and out here, in the middle of nowhere, is a cyclist!

Cords of perspiration trickle down his neck. Aside from an army issue jerry can of water strapped to his mountain bike, he carries few supplies. He is Masa, from Japan, but he’s not your average Japanese tourist. He’s decided to ride across the Gibb, in the hottest part of the year, just for fun.

We briefly exchange pleasantries and information about the road ahead. Masa climbs back on his bike with a groan of exertion. He’s thankful for a fleeting moment of company, but he has another 550km to ride. He sets off into the savannah, where the spinifex and boabs whisper with the sweat and aggrievance of many an epic journey.

The first European pioneers to forge this path were cattle drovers, like the legendary Durack family.

They called themselves ‘the Kings in Grass Castles’, and they left central Queensland to build a cattle empire in the Kimberley. They travelled overland with the help of Aboriginal stockmen, driving mobs of thousands of cattle and hundreds of horses.

Their progress was halted only by the most savage droughts and flood.

Fortunately, travelling the Gibb today is a little more hospitable, but listen closely and you can hear the pioneer’s cries in the faint rustle of a breeze.

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eef was once the industrial flesh and blood of the Kimberley, but some cattle station owners have realised you can run more tourists to the acre and opened their doors to visitors. El Questro still runs 6,000 head of Brahman, but the Wilderness Park is their principal business.

The idea of a Wilderness Park was initiated by English tycoon Will

ROAD READY The Gibb River Road is on the bucket list of many travellers who relish a challenging adventure. Unforgettable vistas and a taste of the true outback awaits those who, like Tom de Souza go exploring.

Burrell. He arrived by helicopter on a sunny day in 1991, eager to invest a fortune he had inherited from his grandmother – the doyenne of the Penguin publishing empire. From the air, he looked down upon billionyear-old sandstone cut by the scars of flood, boab forests, and vast spring systems partly hidden by tropical canopy. He bought the cattle station, and envisioned a stylish getaway for adventurous travellers with a healthy toleration for heat and wild isolation.

It’s lunchtime when we arrive. It’s a luxurious retreat, favoured by wealthy Australian celebrities like Kylie Minogue and Nicole Kidman, but the indelible spirit of the outback still remains. It’s remote, and most international visitors fly to Perth, Broome or Darwin, then make their way to Kununurra, where charter flights service the park, or a bumpy 100km track brings you here, to the station gate.

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On a shady veranda outside the reception, a stand advertises enough activities for a lifetime of adventuring.

There are easy walks and weeklong expeditions, lateafternoon gorge cruises and remote horse treks. You can fish at dawn, take a helicopter photo safari after lunch, and see ancient Aboriginal rock-art sites at sunset.

Accommodation options range from the cliffside suite to a shady campsite; the three sites of varying opulence are The Station, Emma Gorge and The Homestead.

Many of the Kimberley’s natural phenomena are contained within this relatively small 700,000-acre station.

Emma Gorge is the most well-known, and spectacular. A vague trail leads up the steep scree of a shady gorge. It’s 7am, and the temperature in the sun is 32 degrees, with 1,800 million-year-old cliff face escarpments tower over the trail. This country has changed little in the last billion years.

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t’s Sunday afternoon, on a track in the Tanami desert, and spinifex, ant hills, and sandstone ridges are glowing gold in the setting sun. For an outback track, the Duncan Road is surprisingly busy. Four-wheel-drives are heading back to Halls Creek. Two tray-back utes stop and wait for other cars to join the convoy. A dozen kids are riding in the tray, smiling and playing among themselves. This is outback Australia, and it’s a picture of happiness.

For every young, hip town in the Kimberley there’s a dusty elder brother, its character impervious to modern development. For Broome there is Derby; for Kununurra,

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MQ TRAVEL

there are Wyndham and Halls Creek.

Halls Creek is not the town it used to be, literally and metaphorically speaking. There are two townships, and on the road to the old town, rusting car wrecks and the detritus of defeated pioneers line the road.

This was once Western Australia’s premier colonial settlement. It was founded on July 14, 1885, when prospector Charles Hall found an 870-gram nugget of gold; the first discovery of payable gold in Western Australia. Word spread overseas and thousands of would-be fortune seekers arrived in the nascent Kimberley goldfields. A township was established to service the migrants, but the gold rush lasted just three months. Some stayed, but severe water shortages forced the town to be totally abandoned in 1954. All that remains is the cemetery.

Lumps of aggregated sandstone form an arched doorway to the well-maintained graveyard. Perhaps the most famous tombstone here is that of Jim Darcy, a stockman and posthumous outback legend from Ruby Plains station, 75km south of here. In 1917, Darcy was mustering cattle when he fell from his horse. He was seriously injured, and when his workmates found him, they threw him in a buggy and dragged him for 12 hours to Halls Creek. They arrived to find neither a doctor, nor a hospital in the town.

Halls Creek’s postmaster, Fred Tuckett, knew Darcy was in serious trouble. He telegraphed Wyndham and Derby, but doctors from both towns were on holidays. Desperate, Tuckett sent a telegraph to Perth using only Morse code. A doctor replied with vague instructions, and reluctantly, Tuckett operated on Jim Darcy with his silver pocket knife. The operation took seven hours – and was performed without anaesthetic.

A day later, complications set in.

It was obvious a medical professional would have to attend; Dr Holland took a cattle boat from Perth to Derby. He travelled the last 555km

by T-model Ford, horse and sulky, and foot. He was too late. Darcy was dead, but his death made headlines and focussed the nation’s attention on the problem of medical services in isolated areas. Shortly after, the Royal Flying Doctor Service was born.

In the new town, similar plaques commemorate legends of the outback.

Outside the Visitors Centre is a tribute to ‘Russian Jack’, a gold miner who carried his injured mate in an improvised wheelbarrow 300km across the Great Sandy Desert to the closest hospital. The outback is a minefield of untold story and a region rich with the strength of human spirit.

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he car, dusty and bruised, struggles down the side of the Carr Boyd Ranges and into the Lake Argyle Caravan Park. We stumble over manicured lawns, set beneath mango trees and frangipanis, and head straight to the infinity pool.

It looks out over a colossal body of water; Lake Argyle spans our entire existence. For two hot and dusty travellers and an exasperated dog, it’s a sight for sore eyes.

The Lake is so big it’s classified as an ‘inland sea.’ It’s 21 times the size of Sydney Harbour, and there are 70 islands studded across its surface.

On this side of the horizon I can only count three. The water is warm, deep, and unusual for the area, it’s free from salt-water crocodiles and safe to swim!

Unlike most attractions in the Kimberley, Lake Argyle is manmade. In the early 1960s, the WA government became aware of the Ord River’s irrigation potential. They began damming the river, storing major reservoirs in the Ord River Valley at what are now known as Lakes Kununurra and Argyle. Shortly after, one of Australia’s youngest towns, Kununurra, was gazetted, and the irrigation scheme began servicing 76,000 hectares of surrounding farmland.

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place for 1,000 generations of Miriwoong people. It was an important trade route and travellers traipsed its banks, exchanging ochre with cognate language groups. They camped along the banks and crossed in dry places or along rocky bars. Food supplies were bountiful: barramundi, wallaby, possums, catfish, water lilies.

Much of the Ord River Valley was flooded by the irrigation scheme. What are now lakes Kununurra and Argyle were once sacred sites and burial grounds for the Miriwoong people, and significant areas of fundamental value to the Miriwoong people were inundated, or damaged by construction work. The scheme laid the foundations for a thriving town, but transformed the social and economic structure of the region at the expense of its original inhabitants.

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part from a legion of deadly animals, the Kimberley is home to an equally colourful variety of the human species. The Kimberley has always attracted adventurers, drifters and oddballs – the type of people who find it hard to settle into the conventional world – like Kimberley

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Spirit tour guide, Scotty Connell.

Scott is a dedicated adventurer.

He’s facilitated military training in the Kimberley with the Nepalese Gurkhas, and regularly hikes into the bush in the inhospitable wet season with little more than a backpack and a mate. In years of exploring, he’s come to know the Kimberley better than anyone else of European descent. He works to preserve one of the world’s ultimate wildernesses, and most ancient cultures, by exemplifying principals of sustainable tourism.

“There is a certain spirit about the Kimberley. It’s an ancient land like nowhere else; one of the few last remaining wildernesses on earth, and it’s here, right on our doorstep,” he says.

“A lot of that stems from the

That’s the key to improving a lot of the social issues up here. Get people working on-country, doing something that’s relevant to who they are and where they come from.”

A kartiya, or non-Indigenous person, Scott is well-versed in the historical and cultural knowledge of the region.

He teams up with Aboriginal elders and youth on his tours in to engage them in sustainable economic practices on-country, and share the true stories of the region with his guests.

Scott grew up in Broome, where his mother ran an eco-tourism business. He grew accustomed to an influx of tourists every dry season, and his curious and friendly nature attracted him to these people.

He considered it his duty to show them around his town, and soon, he realised his dream of becoming a tour guide.

He’s since expanded his operation across the entire region, but despite having spent his whole life exploring, he admits he hasn’t even seen half of the Kimberley.

“It’s just one of those places,” he says.

“There is still that raw element of discovery. It’s so big and so diverse that really, you need a lifetime to see it all. It really is one of the world’s last unexplored wildernesses. ” MQ ANCIENT LANDSCAPES Take a cooling dip in one of the remote waterholes that pepper the landscape, or meet locals who will share their knowledge of this incredible place.

people who have inhabited this region since forever. All the history, the stories, knowledge, dreaming, all the different language groups and people. It needs to be protected and preserved. A big part of it is showcasing the cultural significance of the place, and empowering the Indigenous population to know their stories matter to us.”

In a vast and inaccessible region, Scott has united a legion of like-minded people through the power of Instagram. He manages @thekimberleyaustralia, which has

attracted over 150,000 followers, and he’s a leading figure in developing a sustainable economy that promotes, rather than exploits, the natural resources of the region.

“This online community has brought everyone together to realise we’re all working for one cause: to showcase this place and protect it; develop it sustainably and sustainably develop tourism,” he says.

“Now is the time to get good sustainable tourism practices in place, for our Indigenous brothers and sisters, as well as the Aboriginal ranger groups.

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TRAVEL

Valley girl Gill Pringle goes ga-ga for Napa during a blissful weekend exploring this little slice of foodie paradise.

J

ust five miles wide and 35 miles long, California’s Napa Valley has quickly become one of the world’s most famous wine regions and, with that, a thriving wine tourism industry.

This small, beautiful region -

picture a vineyard-covered fertile valley surrounded by rolling wheatcoloured hills and pine-forested mountains draws visitors from around the world, not just for its wines but for fine dining. Just an hour north of San Francisco, Napa is home to more Michelin-starred restaurants Meadowood and The French Laundry each has three stars - than any other wine region in the US, and also boasts a portfolio of luxe hotels.

Better still are the secret gems and impossibly romantic hideaways tucked away throughout Napa’s distinct towns of Calistoga, St Helena, Rutherford/Oakville, Yountville and the city of Napa.

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we visited The Inn on First at 1938 1st Street, Napa (theinnonfirst.com).

Owners Jim and Jamie proved the most thoughtful hosts, from Jim’s award-winning breakfasts served in a garden perfumed by jasmine bushes to Jamie’s eclectic iPad playlists in every room, the perfect accompaniment for soaking in your private Jacuzzi tub.

Their meticulously restored 1905 house – complete with two snuggly schnauzers – quickly becomes home, just a few blocks walk from downtown Napa and its many tasting rooms, bars and restaurants. Day or night, their living room is stocked with scores of loose teas, fresh fruit and Jim’s delicious fresh-baked cookies, plus an open-pour port bottle to keep the Napa buzz going long after hours alongside a majestic fireplace and grand piano.

Featured on Yelp and Trip Advisor Top 25 US B & B Inns, Jim and Jamie ensure your trip is flawless, providing personalised wine tours and advising on the best cycle trails.

Close to Napa’s lively dining scene, we enjoyed supper

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at Miminashi at 821 Coombs street (miminashi.com). Using mainly locally sourced produce, chef Curtis di Fede has transformed his Japanese passion into a uniquely Napa Asian fusion experience. Shoyu ramen, sweet corn fritters, Japanese pickles and tumbo tuna poke compete for your tastebuds served with an extensive cocktail list and gourmet sakes. It would be rude to leave without sampling the sumptuous mocha blondie cake.

New on the Napa scene is master sommelier Matt Stamp’s Compline at 1300 1st Street (complinewine. com). Ostensibly a wine bar - named for the hour of compline, signalling the end of the working day for the monks who pioneered wine-making - naturally it offers a lavish wine list, although chef Yancy Windsperger ensures guests keep coming back for more with his popular duck fat fries, exquisite salads and hanger steak with chimichurri.

For a romantic evening, you can’t beat Angele with its French country cuisine and idyllic riverfront location at 540 Main Street. Serving oysters, l’escargot, pate, Moule frite and rabbit, it’s a francophile paradise

(angelerestaurant.com).

For such a small region, it might seem that everything in Napa Valley is close by, although it can easily take more than an hour to travel the journey’s length on weekends and summer days so it’s important to plot your visit carefully.

Moving further up the valley to Yountville, we checked in at North Block Hotel at 6757 Washington St. (northblockhotel.com).

If Yountville is dominated by Thomas Keller’s French Laundry, Bouchon and Ad Hoc restaurants with their upscale patrons, then this chic boutique hotel offers an oasis from the culinary insanity.

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THE NAPA WAY Part of the joy of exploring Napa Valley is finding beautiful places to stay along the way, like North Block Hotel (below right) or Chimney Rock Winery (above).

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its own private entrance and patio, North Block’s “welcome experience manager” Ty Green, makes every guest feel special. Having spent five years as the private butler for a British family, Ty’s sartorial style is delightful. While there are few whims he cannot indulge, be it poolside champagne, binoculars for star-gazing from your balcony or an “un-corked” massage at the hotel spa.

A regular Conde Naste Traveler winner, guest rooms are equipped with heated floors, marble vanities, soaking tubs and luxuriant robes.

With its muted charcoal décor and plantation shutters, the insanely comfy king-sized beds feel so decadent you’ll never want to get up.

Boasting its own fine dining on site with award-winning chef Richard Reddington’s Italian-inspired eaterie Redd Wood, his daily changing menu featuring wood-fired pizzas, home made pastas, cannoli and housemade gelato, excuses guests from any need to even leave North Block.

Tucked away in the hillside to the northwest of Yountville is the beautiful Far Niente (Italian translation “without a care”) vineyard, its lush landscaping manicured daily by an 11-strong team of gardeners.

Established as one of the valley’s original eight vineyards back in 1885, it withered during prohibition, today flourishing once more. Take a tour of the cellars beneath the property, a mile of dynamited caves stocked with

MQ TRAVEL

THE FAR SIDE Established in 1885 as one of the first wineries in the region, Far Niente (above) has hosted the rich and famous over the years: Sophia Loren celebrated her 80th birthday here for instance.

vintage vino where Sophia Loren celebrated her 80th birthday four years ago (farniente.com) Travelling south, we checked in at Cottages of Napa Valley at 1012 Darms Lane (napacottages.com).

Hidden from view are eight storybook cottages, perfect places to relax and unwind following a long day’s wine tasting.

The first cottage was built in 1929 on an orchard and Carole Lombard visited while filming They Knew What They Wanted, inviting her own real-life love, Clark Gable, to join her there. Since then the cottages have been used variously for vineyard workers, students and even a brothel.

Purchased in 2004 by local builder Mike Smith, he has spent years lovingly renovating the cottages, retaining the charm of the original wood floors, rustic porches and individual fireplaces where guests can toast s'mores in the evening. Mature cork trees and flowering vines provide additional privacy.

Mike himself is a regular fixture on the property. A delightful raconteur and inventor, he’s a true

gem and invaluable resource into Napa’s secrets.

Each cottage features old worldstyle bathrooms but with new world sophistication like air-jet soaking tubs and heated floor tiles. Comfy elevated king-size beds, cosy sitting area, fireplace and adorable fullyequipped kitchen nook adds to the cottages’ homey intimacy.

At 8.30am each morning, a picnic basket of Bouchon pastries, fresh juice and fruit is discretely placed outside the door with the daily paper.

Recovering from potentially devastating fires and an earthquake, today there are few signs of natural disaster but for occasional glimpses of charred tree stumps on distant hills.

“We were lucky that the vineyards acted as natural fire breaks and mostly everyone’s harvest was in, turning on the vineyard drip lines to stop the flames in their path,” says Victoria McCool at Kieu Hoang.

The French once sneered at the California vineyards but nobody’s laughing now as Australian and Napa wines reign supreme. Bottoms up, we say.

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FACT BOX:

❱ WINE TASTING Napa’s list of 400+ wineries reads like a Who’s Who of wine: Mondavi, Charles Krug, Cakebread, Sutter Home, Beringer and Mumm. Among our personal favourites are Silver Trident at 4495 Washington St, Yountville (silvertridentwinery. com) where Shane and Mallory host tastings in an elegant Ralph Lauren décor house. Also Kieu Hoang’s picture-perfect vineyards at 1285 Dealy Lane, Napa (kieuhoangwinery.com) - so pretty Tina Fey and Amy Poehler recently filmed here. The region’s first Vietnamese winemaker, Hoang’s unique label designs are testament to his ‘day job’ as a blood plasma scientist. Determined to make good wine available to the masses, he produces a highly affordable “People’s Wine”. Over at Chimney Rock (chimneyrock. com) - a stunning white stucco-ed South African inspired estate resident winemaker Elizabeth Vianna handcrafts world class cabernet sauvignons which sell out every year.

Wine tastings are mostly by appointment, an ordinance designed to curtail over-crowding and excessive partying, so be sure to book ahead at visitnapavalley. com/napa_valley_wineries.htm.

❱ NAPA VALLEY WINE TRAIN. All on board the Gourmet Express!

Forget crappy train food and dine

on chef Donald Young’s locallysourced cuisine with wine pairings on board a meticulously restored 1915 vintage train. It's a leisurely threehour round trip between Napa town and St Helena although we opted to disembark between courses to visit the famed Grgich Hills Estate.

Owner Mike Grgich first gaining international recognition in the “Paris Tasting” of 1976 when his 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay was judged the finest white wine in the world. Back on board the Wine Train in time for coffee and dessert, each carriage offers fine views across bucolic countryside criss-crossed with vineyards (WineTrain.com)

❱ BISTRO DON GIOVANNI. Established more than 25 years ago, this sprawling Italian restaurant is where families and couples have been celebrating special events for the past quarter-century. At 4110 Howard Lane, it's just north of Napa serving up traditional dishes like meatballs, pizza, pasta, roast chicken and grilled branzino. The kitchen is always busy, baking focaccia and ciabatta breads and handcrafting semolina and egg pastas for fresh Neopolitan pizzas.

Charming, reliable and loads of fun, it's delicious home-cooked cuisine at affordable prices (bistrodongiovanni. com).

❱ UP, UP AND AWAY. There’s no better way to enjoy an overview of Napa’s distinct regions than by taking a hot air balloon ride across the valley.

Established in 1978, Napa Valley Aloft’s FAA-certified pilots assure a smooth journey while their smallerthan-competitor baskets create a real intimacy. Setting out at dawn, we floated over rolling vineyard-covered hillsides and hidden lakes, high above the morning mist, an ever-changing landscape which shifted as the sun rose higher (nvaloft.com).

❱ PROTEA at 6488 Washington Street in Yountville is where the locals

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eat, priced out of French Laundry but wanting something delicious and daring at the same time. Chef Anita Cartagena specialises in elevated street food with a Caribbean twist using the freshest ingredients for a daily changing menu.

Trained by some of the best female chefs today, Cartagena brings Michelin star standards to casual, affordable dining in a delightful roof-top setting (proteayv.com).

❱ OXBOW PUBLIC MARKET, 610 First Street, Napa. Offering a diverse mixture of farm-to-table food, artisan cafes, organic produce, oyster bar and grill, this is where the locals hang out. A 40,000 square foot marketplace in downtown Napa with a scenic outdoor deck overlooking Napa River, it’s also home to Model Bakery which makes Oprah’s favourite muffins.

So in-demand, customers are limited to a daily dozen (oxbowpublicmarket.com).

❱ GOOSE AND GANDER, 1245 Spring Street, St. Helena. Housed in the historic Martini House, enjoy both inside dining (the fireplace is especially inviting during the Valley’s “Cabernet Season” from November - March) and al fresco style during warm days on their beautiful patio.

Especially known for their killer signature cocktails, chef Nic Jones creates a seasonally-driven rustic American menu with pulled barbeque duck, pub fish and chips and epic burgers. His mouthwatering gourmet pub food has made it a favourite hang-out for San Francisco’s sports elite (goosegander.com). MQ

BOOK MARQUE

NORMAN BURNS REVEALS THE LATEST GREAT READS.

THE A-Z OF SOCCEROOS, WORLD CUP 2018 EDITION Andrew Howe, Fair Play Publishing, $71.50

MURALS OF TIBET

Thomas Laird, Taschen, $16,877 If you think the price tag for Murals of Tibet is a blooper on our part – you’re wrong.

At £9,500 per copy, this work of art from Taschen (I don’t think ‘book’ does it justice) is 498-page hardcover tour-deforce measuring 50x 70cm, weighing 23kg and which comes with its own assembleit-yourself bookstand designed by internationally renowned architect Shigeru Ban. Photographer Thomas Laird used cutting edge multi-image digital photography (and spent more than a decade doing so)

to capture Tibet’s collection of World Heritage listed murals (some as wide as 10m) in all their dazzling intricacy. Murals of Tibet is itself accompanied by a companion volume – a 528-page scholarly dissertation

by Buddhist writer and academic Robert Thurman. Oh, and each of the 998-limited editions is signed by Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Murals of Tibet is available in two ultra-limited (40 copies each, numbered 1-80) “Art” editions. Each comes with a print; each is selling for $39,984 (plus some small change) and the first 40 copies have already been snapped up by well-heeled collectors.

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HOLY MOLY: Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, with the stunning, 23kg art book Murals of Tibet, which comes complete with its own architecturally designed bookstand.

Andrew Howe grew up in New South Wales’ rugby league heartland but it was soccer – or football to the world – that grabbed his imagination after watching a passionate clash 30 years ago between old National Soccer League teams APIA and Marconi in South Australia.

With an eye for numbers (he’s a statistician) – and a good story – Howe’s new book covers the stories of pretty much every player to don Socceroos’ colours since Australia’s firstever international (against New Zealand) in 1922. It’s jammed full of pictures and memorabilia too and shows how Australia’s multi-cultural make-up mirrored the growth of the sport here. Available from fairplaypublishing.com.au or bookstores.

NOWHERELANDS: AN ATLAS OF VANISHED COUNTRIES

Bjorn Berge, Thames & Hudson, $24.95 My daughter once proudly proclaimed, as we sped through the Channel Tunnel on a Eurostar train, that she had been to “four countries”: England, London, Manchester and Legoland.

One out of four wasn’t bad for the-then five-yearold but in the real world, of

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LIVING ON WATER

Phaidon, $59.95

SWAN RIVER POSTCARDS

Oh I do like to live beside the seaside, I do like to live beside the sea…

That famous Victorian music hall song from 1907 echoes the sentiments of many, but then there’s living by the sea and living by the sea. And it’s the latter that this striking tome from Phaidon examines, some of the world’s most incredible, audacious and beautiful waterfront homes – be they beachfront, lakeside or riverside. Divided into three thematic chapters (houses built to look at water; houses built to be on the water and houses built to be reflected by the water), Living on Water features 55 amazing designs – including the jaw-dropping “house on a pole” that overlooks the Great Ocean Road in Victoria (pictured below).

course, it’s not that easy to proclaim your own country.

And if you do you are almost guaranteed there’ll be violence somewhere along the line. In Nowherelands’ fascinating 240-pages, author Bjorn Berge (an architect) casts a witty eye over 135 years (1840-1975) of nationalistic fervour – with a twist. Berge’s “law” to merit inclusion was fiendishly simple – each of these now “extinct” countries and

our past,” he says. John found many rare and collectable images as he trawled through collections of scores of postcards for the book and it’s a fascinating insight into how the Swan River was a vital highway in Perth’s early years.

Available from New Edition Books, 41 High Street Fremantle (08) 9335 2383, newedition.com. au or contact John Dowson at Aussiana Books, (08) 9335 2113, aussianabooks.com

John Dowson, Aussiana Books, $25

Fremantle-based local writer and photographic historian John Dowson’s charming Swan River Postcards is more than just a nostalgic journey through Perth’s past – he wants the book to remind everyone of just how vital the river is to this day. “The reason for the book is to raise awareness of the river’s value and the need to have benchmarks, and guardians, and to allow only sensitive development along the river, not crass and damaging proposals like cable cars up the escarpment of Mt Eliza below Kings Park, or bridges for cyclists at key valuable riverscape areas like Point Walter and Point Resolution,” says John. And this collection of quaint, and many rare, postcards is not only an ode to an artform that is fast dying out (who buys postcards any more?) but reveals just how important the Swan River was to the city’s development. “I’m a photographic historian but realised I had neglected postcards, which are important social documents often telling us a lot about

territories had to have issued a stamp in its name. So here, in all their glory, are the tales (and stamps) behind such exotic long-gone countries as Eastern Karelia (which declared independence during the Soviet-Finnish war of 1922; it lasted just a few weeks), Tannu Tuva, Labuan, Biafra and New Brunswick – even Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania), and many more.

You’ll never look at a map of the world the same again.

WHEN GALAXIES COLLIDE

Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith, Melbourne University Press, $29.99 It's said nothing is certain except death and taxes...

But there's a third, inevitable, event - albeit which will take place a long, long, long, long, LONG, time from now. And that's an almighty, cataclysmic crash between our Milky Way galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy, which is making a beeline for our part of the universe at 400,000km/h.

Leading Australian astronomer and self-confessed space nerd Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith has penned a fascinating look at this big crunch – a mere 5.86 billion years from now. A great read for anyone who has looked up to the heavens on a clear, starry, night and thought, wow. Signed copies of When Galaxies Collide are available from Melbourne University Press, mup.com.au >> Continued over

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MQ BOOK MARQUE

IT’S A GAS! THE ALLURE OF THE GAS STATION Gestalten, $95

CRAZY COMPETITIONS |

Nigel Holmes, Taschen, $45

Author and graphic designer Nigel Holmes (former Time magazine graphics director) heads deep into the weird and wonderful with this brilliant volume on some of the world’s strangest contests and rituals, from the World Toe Wrestling Championships (invented, shock horror, in the UK after a boozy night at a pub) to the World Beard and Mustache Championships, Bog Snorkelling, Welly Wangling plus a host more, including Finland’s legendary Wife Carrying World Championship in which the couple with the fastest time over an obstacle-laden course takes the coveted trophy – the wife’s weight in beer. Taschen books are distributed by New Holland Publishers.

During the golden age of motoring, gas (or petrol in our vernacular) stations were once as wildly distinctive and extravagant as the cars of that era. Sadly, today most big petrol station chains are just bland “cookie cutter” copies of one another but you can discover a time when the designs were almost an art from in themselves in this quirky coffee table hardback offering from German publisher Gestalten.

TURNING THE TIDE ON PLASTIC Lucy Siegle, Hachette Australia, $29.99

EAT, DRINK AND BE STRADDIE

Angie Simms/ Stuart Quinn, $50 “Straddie” is that oh-so Aussie nickname for North Stradbroke Island, a massive sand island off the Brisbane coast. Think sun, surf, laid-back lifestyle and great produce (seafood in particular) and it’s no wonder that husband-and-wife photographer team Angie Simms and Stuart Quinn decided to settle there. Catching the island’s famous “mullet run” one morning, an idea clicked for a cookbook featuring local produce – and local characters. Thus was born Eat, Drink and Be Straddie and although it’s a long way from the WA coast, Straddie’s charms (and recipes) perfectly fit our WA lifestyle. Available from eatdrinkstraddie.com or contact angie@stradbrokeislandphotography.

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China’s recent move to pretty much stop accepting other countries’ waste for recycling could be the wake-up call we needed to start taking action on reducing our rubbish in our own backyard. And plastic is public enemy No.1 when it comes to environmental damage; more than 300 million tonnes is produced each year.

An estimated five trillion pieces of plastic pollute the world’s oceans and by 2050, if the trend continues, there’ll be more plastic in the seas than fish.

And there’s no better place to join the anti-plastic revolution than from your own home and adopting Siegle’s mantra of “reduce, rethink, refill, refuse”.

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1983 THE WORLD AT THE BRINK Taylor Downing, Hachette Australia, $32.99

Remember (if you’re old enough of course) what you were doing on Tuesday, November 8, 1983?

For most it may just have been “another day” but, as Taylor Downing’s chilling non-fiction account 1983 The World At The Brink reveals, we (as in all of humanity) only just dodged a nuclear Armageddon on that Tuesday. While the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 is, on the surface, the closest the world’s nuclear powers seem to have got to pushing the button, an even scarier event took place in 1983 when the Soviet Union’s increasingly paranoid leadership came within minutes of launching a full nuclear strike on Europe and the USA. The ageing Soviet Politburo, already spooked by US President Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars Strategic Defence Initiative which aimed to put anti-missile systems into space, mistakenly believed a NATO exercise codenamed Able Archer was actually a cover for a first-strike on their country and readied their forces for massive nuclear retaliation – which would have almost meant the end of civilisation as we know it. Drawing on previously unpublished interviews and de-classified secret documents, Downing’s tale is a gripping, sobering story that is as relevant in today’s world as at the height of the Cold War. MQ

MUSIC

Jarid Williams has a rare gift - and a rare four-octave range - making his burgeoning musical career about to go stratospheric.

By GABI MILLS.

I

VOCAL GYMNASTICS

t’s not every day an 11-year-old at a party blows the room away with a rendition of Happy Birthday.

But that’s exactly what South African-born Jarid Williams did when he sang the traditional standard at his grandfather’s birthday to a room full of stunned onlookers at that tender age.

As in many stories where destiny collides with a latent talent, that day marked an irrevocable change in Jarid’s life when he discovered his amazing vocal gift. It kicked off a journey where he began mastering his craft with little shows around Perth until the age of 16 where he wowed an audience of millions with his show-stopping rendition of Stevie Wonder’s Lately as a top-50 finalist for Australian Idol in 2005.

Fast forward a few years and Jarid was living in Melbourne, pursuing his musical dream where he continued his rise in the music industry with regular gigs, achieving a Bachelors Degree in Music Industry studies .

He also honed new skills, and most impressively, wrote and produced his own tracks with a refreshing maturity that belied his age.

He also competed in the World Championships of Performing Arts in Los Angeles where he went up against 5,000 of the world’s best and became Champion of the World for Vocal Pop and R&B/Jazz.

Through this great achievement Jarid found himself opening for acts like Brian McKnight in Los Angeles.

He was also nominated for an Australian Independent Music Award for his written material.

Come 2017, Jarid released his first digital release EP, Unfall in Love, which received rave reviews.

It received national acclaim and was played in South Africa on the biggest radio station in the country, 5FM, leading to a multiple-city tour. Jarid also toured nationally in Australia as the support act for the Men of RnB Tour, singling alongside Eric Bellinger, J Holiday, Lloyd and RL MARQUE WINTER 2018

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SWEET SOUNDS Jarid Williams could be the next big thing to make a splash on the Australian music scene.

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from the group NEXT. Jarid’s music is a fusion of all the great elements found in R&B, hip hop, soul, funk and blues. His charismatic voice takes its cue from some of the greats and his songs stand alongside the kind of music artists like Justin Timberlake, Chris Brown and Ne-Yo produce.

It doesn’t hurt too that Jarid’s exceptional four-octave vocal range is one of his greatest assets, especially thanks to the fact that not many male vocalists have the ability to stretch their range as he can. You’ll hear this range to full effect in Jarid’s fresh, readyfor-radio hits like Don’t Complicate It with slick vocal harmonies and killer hooks, or the fizzy, addictive dance floor anthem Wanna Love You. For somebody with a voice that scales the heights, Jarid’s career is guaranteed to take off. MQ To hear Jarid’s work visit reverbnation.com/jaridwilliams

AUDIO

TAKE A SHELFIE Small in size, but big on sound, modern bookshelf speakers are a technological marvel perfect for every lifestyle, budget and musical genre.

By NORMAN BURNS Images courtesy YAMAHA, DYNAUDIO, KEF, DALI

W

hen it comes to bookshelf speakers, great things indeed come in small packages.

Now we’re talking about “proper” hi-fi equipment here, not the multitude of standalone portable speaker systems out there (although many of these are excellent) that can stream highly compressed digital music formats (MP3 etc) off smart phones and the like.

Thanks to spectacular advances in materials, engineering and design, bookshelf speakers have come on leaps and bounds in the past decade or two and pretty much every topend audio brand has models.

So, when selecting a top-quality bookshelf speaker, where do you start?

Well, getting the right balance between room and speaker size is the

first priority, says hi fi expert Dan Cross of Leederville’s Addicted to Audio.

“Make sure you are choosing the correct-size speaker for the room size,” says Dan. “A small speaker will sound small/thin and have little bass in a large room.

“Also think about what volumes you are expecting out of the speakers – normal listening levels or ‘live concert’ in your lounge room.

“Then there’s the budget – you need to have some sort of idea as to what you are willing to spend.

Although be prepared – you may fall in love with something well outside the budget. Remember you’re purchasing a speaker that is going to deliver your music for 20-plus years, so you want to do it right.”

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SOUND DECISION Choosing the best bookshelf speaker comes down to getting the balance betweeen room and speaker size right.

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is also a key to getting the best bang for your bucks.

“Placement is the key to getting the most out of your speakers; stands are not a necessity, although you will have some improvements by using them. Ideally the tweeter (high frequency driver) should be around ear height. Stands can make bass more accurate and give more depth to the music you’re playing,” says Dan. Then there’s the decision whether to choose “active” or “passive” speakers.

Passive speakers are the “oldfashioned” type; that is, connected via speaker cables to an amplifier.

Flexibility is the biggest advantage; you can upgrade the speakers, or amplifier, plus, generally, passive speakers are cheaper than their equivalent active counterparts.

Active speakers are ones with their own in-built amplification and they also need a mains connection to power each speaker.

If you don’t like clutter – especially messy cables running around rooms – the other great advantage is active speakers can be wireless too.

Because of the extra components involved, however, they are normally heavier, and costlier, than similar passive speakers.

The choices for both types, even within the world of bookshelf speakers, are enormous so the best way to find out what’s right for you is to grab that favourite CD, or vinyl record, and go and test those “shelfies” for yourself – with Dan’s expert help, of course.

Addicted to Audio, 197 Oxford Street Leederville, (08) 6478 4816, addictedtotaudio.com.au

ACTIVE BOOKSHELF SPEAKERS

PASSIVE BOOKSHELF SPEAKERS

Yamaha - NX-N500

Dynaudio - EMIT M10

Dimensions 170 x 285 x 238.6mm Price $999 Ideal for The study, bedroom or small living space. Superflexible with inputs and streaming services. Can be controlled from your phone and also be used in a multiroom application with other MusicCast products. au.yamaha.com/en/products/audio_visual/multi-room_audio/nx-n500/index.html

Dimensions 170 x 292 x 253mm Price $999 Ideal for Small to medium-size rooms, this is an absolute gem of a speaker that has won many awards. At this price point nothing touches the performance of these speakers which are still made in Denmark. dynaudio.com/home-audio/emit/m10

Dynaudio - Xeo 2

Dali - Rubicon 2

Dimensions 173 x 255 x 164mm Price $1,999 Ideal for This all-rounder delivers a stunning big sound for its small size. Dynaudio’s neutral sound is happy playing all genres from classical to rock. Has Bluetooth connectivity and both analog and digital inputs, with the option to run up to three pairs of Dynaudio Xeo or Focus XD active speakers in other parts of the home. dynaudio.com/home-audio/xeo/xeo-2

Dimensions 353 x 195 x 335mm Price $2,895 Ideal for the perfect blend between compact size and large sound performance.The Rubicon 2’s are rich on detail with an impressive soundstage and have surprisingly large bass reproduction with both precision and timing. dali-speakers.com/loudspeakers/rubicon/rubicon-2/

Kef - LS50 Wireless

Dynaudio - Confidence C1

Dimensions 300 x 200 x 308mm Price $3,799 (also available as a passive $2,299) Ideal for Offers sophisticated sound fit for audiophiles through inspired audio engineering and the Uni Q driver.

You can make a detailed adjustment, via an iOS or Android app, to optimise sound for different rooms. au.kef.com/ls50-wireless

Dimensions 200 x 445 x 460mm Price $9,999 Ideal for The music lover that wants the best and most revealing bookshelf speaker. Capable of giving their owners a live performance or a step inside the studio in their lounge room every night. dynaudio.com/home-audio/confidence/c1-platinum

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LIFESTYLE

LOOK GOOD GET ACTIVE Head to BMW Auto Classic’s customer lounge for the BMW Apparel mid-year clearance.

BMW GOLFSPORT POLO SHIRT LADIES Functional polo shirt made from breathable piqué material. With antibacterial feature and natural sun and mosquito protection thanks to the dense fabric structure.

Orange - Was $189, now $60 – Sizes XS and S only.

Light Blue – Was $189 now $49.50 – Sizes XS only.

BMW KNITTED SWEATER WOMEN’S GREY Stylish jumper in a soft material blend with the perfect flattering fit. All sizes.

Was $149, now $50

BMW MENS FUNCTIONAL ACTIVE JACKET Was $229 Now $159 Lightweight, water-repellent and highly breathable functional jacket with a relaxed fit and watertight shoulder and hood seams.

Sizes M and XL only.

BMW MOTORSPORT HOODIE LADIES Casual hoodie with thumb holes on the sleeve cuffs and a zip garage.

BMW rubber logo on left sleeve and ‘powered by M’ flag label on side seam. Neck tape with BMW Motorsport lettering.

Was $139, now $69.50 – sizes M and S only

To check stock availability email lifestyle@autoclassic.com.au

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SPORT

When Roger Perry took up a new sporting challenge after injury ended his footy playing days little did he realise it would set him on the path to becoming one of the world’s best boomerang throwers – and makers.

By NORMAN BURNS Images CRIB CREATIVE/ROGER PERRY

THE MAN WITH THE

m r a n e d l go P

erth’s Roger Perry’s first encounter with a boomerang didn’t end well.

“I was at Mirrabooka Primary School and got a chance to throw one – and just about broke it. They wouldn’t let me throw one after that,” he says.

But fate had other ideas.

Before his family moved to WA from Broken Hill, NSW, young Roger had already shown a keen interest in Aboriginal culture and artefacts.

Decades later, Roger is not only a multiple Australian titleholder who competes against the world’s best boomerang throwers, he also designs and makes his own models, of which there is an incredible variety.

The now 63-year-old says a football injury spurred him to take up

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boomerang throwing as a regular sport.

“It was around 86-87 and I injured my knee. They told me that was the end of my footy playing days but I was still an active type of guy – I needed to keep doing something.”

When he chanced across some left-handed boomerangs for sale (yes, there are right and left-handed boomerangs) at the Fremantle Market (“I bought the lot,” he says) the stage was set.

“I figured the boomerangs would come back to me and I didn’t have to run around a lot,” he says.

So it proved and an overconfident Roger decided he would literally chance his arm at the 1987 Australian Boomerang Championships.

“I thought I would go and take it to those guys,” he says. “I got absolutely smashed – but I did win the hunting stick event.”

The moral of the story was Roger had the raw ability but learning to fine-tune his boomerang throwing to compete at an elite level was a completely different ball game.

Plus, his bought-off-the-shelf

boomerangs just didn’t cut it.

After the championships, Roger spent time with a boomerang maker and it dawned on him that his best chance at making to the top in his new-found sport was to make his own equipment.

“I decided if I wanted to be the best I was going to have to make my own stuff,” says Roger, so he did. Today, out of a workshop in the lush surroundings of the Perth Hills, Roger’s Rangs Boomerangs produces hundreds each year, many bought by enthusiasts in the USA, Indonesia, Europe and elsewhere, for boomerang throwing now has a world-wide following.

Boomerangs are seen as quintessentially Indigenous Australian but, says Roger, throwing sticks and boomerang-like objects were found in many cultures.

“Ancient Egyptians had returning ‘boomerangs’ and early cultures in Poland had throwing sticks made from mammoth tusks,” he says.

Boomerangs were mentioned in ancient Sumerian scripts and the Hopi Indians of Arizona hunted rabbits

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RETURN TO SENDER Roger Perry (opposite and this page) is one of the world's best boomerang throwers, and holder of multiple titles.

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with a boomerang-like implement.

In many cultures, the bow and arrow supplanted the boomerang and throwing sticks for hunting, but not among Indigenous Australians.

However not all Aboriginal boomerangs were designed to return to the thrower.

“Some were heavy and made to be thrown in one direction to take out the legs of a kangaroo and disable the animal. But lighter, thinner ones would

MQ SPORT

be used around water – thrown to startle a flock of birds on a lake or river for example. Then others would be thrown to knock the birds out of the sky.”

The boomerang’s fame spread internationally when the British colonised Australia in 1788 and discovered Aborigines hunting with them in inland NSW. By the mid1800s returning boomerang toys were all the rage for kids.

However, it wasn’t until the late 20th century that boomerang throwing evolved into a fully-fledged sport, leading to the first international event in 1981, a “Test” between the USA and Australia. (To the surprise of many, the USA team won).

Today the US and Germany top the world rankings; even Japan has scored a world title (in Perth four years ago).

By the late 1980s Roger was throwing as good as Australia’s best (and he still is – in March this year he was again crowned Australian champion and his son, Grant, runner-up). In 1991 Roger captained the Australian team for the World Championships.

In July Roger will once again tackle the world’s best, this time as part of an international All-Star team (including American throwers and fellow Aussie, Melburnian Robert Croll, a twotime world individual champion) for the 2018 World Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

“There are three main types of boomerangs; the traditional style – and don’t try to catch these because baby, they will bite you; sports models which fly nicely, can return and are catchable and competition models which can reach speeds of 160kmh,” says Roger.

And while the word “boomerang” conjures up an image of a traditional piece of slightly curved wood, the sport has embraced hi-tech, ultrastrong but lightweight materials such as carbon-fibre and phenolic (paper or glass cloth impregnated with synthetic resin) and multi-arm, even avant-garde, designs. Many of

these state-of-the-art boomerangs are worth hundreds of dollars apiece.

Winning a championship, too, takes more than just being able to chuck a boomerang into the air and catching it on the return.

“There are events for endurance, accuracy, trick catching, fast catching, doubling (the coordinated throwing and control of two boomerangs simultaneously) and maximum time aloft,’’ says Roger.

MANY STATE-OF-THEART BOOMERANGS ARE WORTH HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS APIECE

Even as he prepares for the World Championships beginning on July 20 in the USA, Roger has a longerterm goal to introduce more young Australians to boomerang throwing.

“I’d love to see a school program, with Indigenous input on the cultural aspects, for boomerang throwing.

It used to be a safety issue – the boomerangs could be dangerous if someone got hit. But now there are super-safe foam boomerangs, which still have the proper flight characteristics.

These are no danger if they accidentally hit someone,” he says.

And maybe, by giving boomerang throwing a shot in the arm, Australia can produce a new generation of world champions. MQ For more information, contact Roger Perry on (08) 9399 1129 or email info@ rangsboomerangs.com MARQUE WINTER 2018 ●

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HEALTH

A LIFE LESS STRESSED Take a few careful steps to living a less stressful life, says Dr Ron Ehrlich.

L

ife is stressful. The Stress and Wellbeing in Australia Survey, conducted by the Australian Psychological Society, found 5 million Australians reported their current stress levels had an impact on their physical health. It may be an underestimation as it seems everybody is stressed and it is having a significant impact on people’s health.

The epidemic of preventable chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, over 80 autoimmune diseases, diabetes, dementia and obesity, not to mention mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, are all on the rise, and it’s not just that society is getting older.

Children are not faring well either.

One third have allergies, one in four have asthma, one in 10 ADHD, and one in a 100 diagnosed on the autism spectrum. To put that in perspective in the 1970s the number was one in 5,000. Childhood cancer and depression has doubled in the last 30 years.

To expect no stress is unrealistic. A more realistic goal is to live a life less stressed, to build resilience, and enjoy health and wellness. But there are many stresses that go unrecognised,

and yet also challenge health.

Life today requires a broader definition of stress, which includes any factor that compromises the immune system and promotes chronic inflammation, the common denominator in all chronic disease.

Recognising those means people can make informed decisions, build resilience and take control of their own health.

In order to solve a problem, to deal with the stresses of modern life, individuals and organisations need to understand what those stresses are. A useful model is to identify five stresses; emotional, environmental, nutritional, postural and dental. The final stress may surprise people, but it is the story of a hidden epidemic going on right underneath people’s noses.

The key to dealing with these stress challenges is minimising them, and then to build resilience.

As today’s world becomes more complicated, the solutions are actually remarkably simple. There are five pillars of health, which gives an individual a model with which to take control of their health. These include; sleep, breathe, nourish, move and think.

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Dr Ron Ehrlich, author of A Life Less Stressed; The Five Pillars of Health & Wellness. Visit drronehrlich.com.

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and breath are key pillars. Forty-four per cent of respondents in Stress and Wellbeing in Australia Survey recognise that lack of sleep is a key contributor. Sleep is an individual’s non-negotiable, built-in, life-support system. It’s cheap, accessible and profound. Put simply, use it or lose it.

A consistently good night’s sleep, boosts a person’s immune system, memory, ability to think logically, improves blood sugar important in all diseases, decreases the likelihood of a heart attack and affects positively, almost every measure of physical and mental health and wellbeing, including a person’s sex life. A consistently good night’s sleep is a function of quantity (getting enough) and quality (breathing well).

Poor sleep and breathing habits affect young and old alike, and yet the return on investment is well worth it.

If there is one goal in life it should be to fulfil potential. Whether talking about ‘potential’ as an individual, a member of a family, a community or for that matter a company, enjoying good health is central to that goal. Healthy individuals make for a healthy society, or a healthy company. It’s a society that people will want to live in, and a company that people will want to work for.

Taking control, recognising the stresses in life that break us down, focusing on the pillars of health to build mental, physical and emotional resilience to deal with the modern world is a good start to fulfilling that potential. MQ

INTRODUCING

SUGA SPICE

Jack River AKA Holly Rankin has released her first album, Sugar Mountain and, as Tom de Souza discovers, her music finds inspiration from tragedy and resilience.

TOM DE SOUZA: You real name is Holly Rankin, but you perform as Jack River. How did you come up with your stage name?

JACK RIVER: Yeah, so my friends and I made up pirate names when we were like 16. We would go out on the town and get up to mischief.

We thought it was really funny and it kind of just stuck. In music, and for people who haven’t heard it, it’s great because it makes people think I’m a guy and it really throws them and their perception of who I am. Being a woman in music, like six years ago, when I first started to use the name it was a different world. Now it’s kind of a name under which I can do what I want and not feel trapped by

my real personality. I guess it’s like a bit of an alter-ego, sometimes if I’m drunk Jack River might come out, but it’s a great way to feel limitless and not restricted by the everyday self. I don’t feel restricted at all but it’s a really special place, to be able to go and become Jack River, when I’m live on stage.

TDS: You’re from Forster in New South Wales. What was it like growing up there?

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and brother and sister growing up, we lived by the beach in a two-storey brick house. My family still live there, which is kinda cool. I grew up surfing, so I’ve developed a huge connection with the ocean over my childhood. Forster is funny, it’s very much a tourist town; the population triples around Christmas time.

Around the 18th or 19th, a lot of tourists start descending and it becomes a different place, but for all my friends and I it never really phased us. We just stick to our little spots out of the way. I spend a lot of time on farms, camping and riding horses and stuff, but my family and I lived in a brick home by the beach.

TDS: Let’s start with the album name, Sugar Mountain. What’s the story behind that?

JR: So the album is named after my favourite Neil Young song. That certain song is about his youth, and leaving it all behind too soon. The album to me is all about the use, and creation of this starrier, brighter youth than the one I had. It kind of feels as if I’m leaving too soon. Sugar Mountain is about the sugary youth, juxtaposed with a mountain of reality.

I lost my sister when I was 14, and because of that those teenage years were quite different to what I thought they would be. Maybe I would’ve stayed a child for longer if that hadn’t have happened, but life is OK, it’s still beautiful. Everyone feels this eclectic mixture of sadness and happiness when they look back on their life. I’m in my 20s now, and it’s like wow that sugary period of my life is over. It makes me happy, sad, and it’s full of memories.

TDS: The loss of your sister has been a profound influence then, as an artist?

JR: That loss was the main reason I became a songwriter. It’s what I really needed to push myself, and after that I just let myself fall into the world of music and use it to heal.

I’m not sure if I would’ve followed music if that hadn’t have happened. I might not have felt so much emotion to generate the kind of music that you hear in this album. It’s really given me this huge, overflowing of feeling at such a young age, and insight into the darkness that you can feel in this life.

He has a very old soul and he’s a mix of amazing things, based on music and love. When I’m with him I’m like, wow. He’s a very complete human.

discern whether I’m going to make or produce it.

TDS: How do you feel now the album is about to be released? Do you feel you can close the door on your grief?

JR: This album has been written over five years. It’s my first album, and it’s taken from so many years of my life.

It’s like a ‘best of’ of my life. I guess I feel relieved, I’ve held so much in for so long, so many stories and songs and words and ideas, and it’s going to be really beautiful to let them go. I feel I can finally breathe out, but it’s been a very long time so I’m looking forward to letting it go.

TDS: If you could invite three people to a dinner party, who would they be?

JR: Elon Musk, Grimes and Neil Young. Elon Musk is obviously one of the most fascinating people of our time; I admire his drive to create such huge incredible things and to alter society’s reality. And Grimes too because I learned today that she’s dating Elon Musk, and she’s one of my musical idols who takes a huge amount of control in everything she does. She is an amazing producer, performer, director, musician, a great creative. Neil Young because he’s my favourite musician of all time. I think he has a bit of an alien touch. He writes about space a lot, and those three altogether would make for a very interesting dinner. If had to cook, I would make my Mum’s spinach pie. MQ

TDS: If you could change anything from your childhood, would you?

JR: Probably not. I guess I feel everything happens for a reason.I probably would leave it all be, because it’s already said and done.

TDS: Who is the most fascinating person in your life?

JR: My little brother. Hen is probably one of my favourite and most fascinating people. He is 19, and he wants to be an astronaut. Lots of kids have this dream, but he’s very serious about it. He studies chemical engineering, he plays classical piano.

MUSICAL YOUTH Jack River's first album Sugar Mountain draws on her early life and the loss of her sister,

TDS: How does your song writing process work?

JR: I never have an idea from the outset. It all just naturally falls out of my brain. When I feel overwhelmed with a certain emotion, or a certain chord brings it out, I have no idea, but words and a melody come into my head. It might be there the next day or week or month, and if it’s still there after a while, that’s how I MARQUE WINTER 2018

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TARGA

BRIGHT SPARKS

Make Smoking History Targa South West makes history with its new Production Electric Vehicle category.

RACE READY The first EV category of the Targa South West event this year kicked off in May, with the BMW i3 taking a starring role.

H

eld on May 19 and 20, Targa South West 2018 featured Australia’s first dedicated EV category for production electric vehicles in a CAMS tarmac event – the MSP Engineering Electric Targa Tour.

Although a touring category is untimed and speed limited to 130km/h, similar to the timed Challenge Class entries, it set a new milestone in electric vehicles penetrating the Australian motorsport and transport sectors. It also proved that electric vehicles are as capable as their fossil fuel counterparts when put to an apple and oranges test.

Ahead of the EGT Championships and the Jaguar I-Pace Cup, due to start later in 2018 on international circuits, Targa South West honours the origins of motorsport, fielding a wide variety of cars, on real road stages, against a time clock.

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Like the Targa Florio, which is reputed to be the oldest official motorsport event, starting in 1906, Targa South West (and its sister event Targa West) offers entrants the opportunity to compare different vehicles on the same stages.

Although this marks only the beginning of a battle of sporting codes – petrol vs electric – the social media backlash against major car manufacturers for electrifying drivetrains can already be heard loudly, due to the silence of EVs. It’s promising to be an exciting and fast developing new area in motorsport, following the now established Formula E, with battle lines between manufacturers and fans clearly drawn at a measurable decibel level. MQ For more information visit gemtek.com.au

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WINE

THE

FRENCH

CONNECTION

Fergal Gleeson caught up with Burgundian winemaker Pascal Marchand and Jeff and Amy Burch of Howard Park and Madfish fame as the Frenchman marked the 10th anniversary of Marchand and Burch, a wine-making collaboration between his home country and Western Australia.

J

eff and Amy Burch are the proprietors of Western Australia’s largest familyowned winery, operating vineyards across the Margaret River and Great Southern regions. Howard Park has an extensive range from mid-priced to iconic wines. Everyday wines are made under the Madfish label. It’s a thriving business that exports to all major markets. Jeff and Amy's children, Natalie, David and Richard, are involved in senior operational, brand and business development roles.

Meanwhile, Pascal Marchand has a fascinating history. He is

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from Quebec, aspired to be a poet and studied literature in university.

His website describes him as “half a woodsman and half an old seadog”, reflecting a stint in the merchant navy.

After working a vintage in Burgundy in 1983 his dream changed to making great wine.

He was part of a new breed of winemakers in Burgundy. As Pascal says: “There was a changing of the guard. Guys were taking over from their fathers. They had studied abroad.

They spoke English. Things were moving on from the peasant style to a more open-minded one.”

Pascal embraced biodynamics in

1988. “It was a very selfish thing for me. It was not for the people who buy the wine! I was a city guy, not from a grower’s family.

Biodynamics helped me observe nature and understand her rhythms.

I felt comfortable. I see more horseploughing around Burgundy now!

About 10% of wine in Burgundy is made biodynamically.”

He turned around Domaine Comte Armand over his 15 years there and then moved on to the larger Domaine de Vougaraie before setting up his own business.

Pascal first met Jeff in Burgundy, tasting his wines in the cellar of Domaine Armand. They immediately struck up a friendship. When Pascal finished at Domaine de Vougaraie, they established Marchand and

Burch. Their mission was to bring together the best of old and new world winemaking.

Pascal selected Great Southern in Western Australia for the Australian wines. He also brought in some innovative ideas for the time such as whole-bunch pressing, the use of solids and natural fermentation. The objective was to make more “upright and fresh wine” as Pascal puts it, rather than the buttery chardonnays of old.

When Janice McDonald joined Burch Family Wines in 2011 she took over responsibility for the Australian wines in the collection but she still likes to kick around ideas with Pascal.

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MQ WINE

PASCAL FIRST MET JEFF IN BURGUNDY WHEN HE WAS TASTING HIS WINES

quarantine to further improve their Australian Pinot Noir.

Despite the successes there have been lows. “Frost and hail wiped out 80% of production in 2016 in Burgundy. But you had to go out in the vineyard, working it even though there was nothing left. You had to believe that nature would

TO TRY: MARCHAND AND BURCH VILLAGES CHARDONNAY 2017

be generous again. And she was in 2017.”

Marchand and Burch offer an Australian Collection comprising of chardonnay and pinot noir from the Great Southern region in Western Australia and a French collection from regional Burgundies through to grand cru level wines. Visit marchandandburchwines.com.au

37

$

A pristine, perfectly made chardonnay from the Great Southern that channels chablis. It’s chalky dry, with a nice depth of white peach flavour and a long finish. Great value for the quality of the wine.

MARCHAND AND BURCH VILLAGES ROSÉ 2017

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$

An equal blend of shiraz and pinot noir predominantly sourced from Great Southern. Australian winemaker Janice McDonald takes some inspiration from traditional French rosés in this savoury and elegant rosé with an interesting texture.

MARCHAND AND BURCH CLOS VOUGEOT GRAND CRU 2014

690

$

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For wine drinkers they say “all roads lead to Burgundy” and grand cru wines sit right at the top, representing just 1% of Burgundy’s total production.

The Clos Vougeot Vineyard was planted by Cistercian monks from the 12th century. The price, of course, is eye-watering but nowhere else on the planet makes pinot noir like this.

ENTREPRENEURS

Danny and Tania Taylor are the brains (and beauty) behind one of Perth’s great success stories. Their Bodhi J luxury spa brand now takes pride of place one of the best addresses in town - the new Westin Perth hotel - as well as the Qantas International departure lounge, offering succour to weary travellers.

Gabi Mills reports.

D

anny Taylor is in a rush when we meet for a coffee in a cafe in Margaret River.

This state of permanent motion is by no means unusual, it turns out; he and wife Tania are in the middle of a maelstrom of extraordinary activity which shows no sign of letting up since a series of incredible developments for their business Bodhi J. I’m glad he’s got time to sit down and sip a cuppa with me, but I’m aware that this is a brief pause in an otherwise hectic schedule.

The Bodhi J success story started simply enough in 2007 with a single wellness venue in Wembley which the pair took over and remodelled in the now-familiar Bodhi J way. At the time however, it was groundbreaking, taking a holistic approach to the beauty business.

Think restful hues, gentle new

age music, beautifully designed treatment rooms and a definite East Asian influence to the experience for a client.

“It wasn’t long before the Wembley sanctuary was booking weeks in advance and we realised we had to expand,” says Danny. “We acquired a lease on a neighbouring tenancy and increased our capacity by 50%, but agains struggled to meet demand. The opportunity to create another venue at Pier Street on the Perth/Highgage border came up, and we grabbed it.”

The launch of the Bodhi J Wellness Spa Retreat attracted all the A-listers who turn up to events and spread the love via their Insta pages.

It was an instant hit and, just like the Wembley sanctuary, is booked up weeks in advance.

It seemed that Perth couldn’t get

THE BLISS

BUSINESS

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MQ ENTREPRENEURS

enough of the Bodhi J vibe - an ecofocused yet uber luxe spa experience which tapped into a certain clientele’s desire to be pampered without literally costing the earth.

“Nobody in Perth was offering the full organic experience – literally everything we use in our business is low impact or organic,” says Danny.

Running two such successful

luxury retreats may have been enough for most people, but Tania and Danny are not most people.

The dynamic duo were considering their options when, last year, the opportunity to take over one of Margaret River’s most luxurious resort’s spas came their way.

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DREAM TEAM Danny and Tania Taylor (above) have enjoyed a roller-coaster few years of their luxury spa brand, Bodhi J.

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jumped at it,” he says. “We opened in September 2017, the very same week we got the call from The Westin Perth and Qantas.”

Quite a week, by any description.

The exquisite Bodhi J @ Injidup Spa Retreat features three discerningly appointed treatment rooms – one a double room for couples – and each has a beautiful

and unique serenity of its own, with spectacular views spanning the south west coastline. The team of six expert therapists will cater for guests of the resort and visitors to the area, and offers an extensive world-class spa treatment menu with eco-luxe Australian skincare brand Sodashi, hand-made in North Fremantle, as well as the signature Li’Tya Marta Kodo Rock Massage.

“We’d stayed at Injidup many times – it’s our go-to place to unwind,” says Danny. “We knew that thanks to our big following in Perth, those same clients would love to visit a Bodhi J when they’re holidaying down south.”

And that’s the magic formula; whether you’re enjoying a hot rocks massage in Injidup or a facial at The Westin, you can be assured that the experience will be identical whatever the venue, down to the way the fruit is sliced and presented at the end of your treatment.

“Consistency and service is the key to success, we’re very customeroriented,” he says. “Now that there are five venues we work extremely hard through training our staff that the offering is the same across the board.”

Back to that incredible week in September.

The Westin Perth is just the latest in a pipeline of luxury hotels that are springing up in Perth's CBD, and it was extremely pleasing for Danny and Tania to receive a call from the world-wide brand asking them if they’d like to set up a Bodhi J in the new dedicated spa floor in the new destination.

“We got the call and they said that they’d heard that Bodhi J was the best wellness spa in town, and would we like to be part of the new hotel,” says Danny. Needless to say, they said yes.

Since April, Bodhi J at The Westin Perth has been taking the wellness experience to decadent new heights.

The experience is superlative from the welcome to final, reluctant

goodbye. It’s a beautiful sanctuary in the heart of the city, with six treatment rooms, including a gorgeous double room for couples.

Despite the pressures on their time running such a rapidly expanding business, it’s just as likely you’ll be greeted by Tania or Danny behind the reception desk as one of their exceedingly well-trained staff members. They don’t shirk from being hands-on and keep an eagle eye on consistency of experience, wherever they happen to be in their wellness empire.

The latest piece in the puzzle is an innovative one; a wellbeing studio at the international transit lounge at Perth Airport.

“Being approached by Qantas, such an iconic Australian brand, was definitely a highlight so far for us,” says Danny.

Partnering with the airline, premium passengers are offered the chance to enjoy a 15-minute Bodhi J-driven session as they wait to board or have disembarked the non-stop Perth to London route.

So instead of browsing Duty Free, why not instead give yoga a go or brush up on your breathing and meditation techniques?

“The ideal for us is that passengers will arrive via Qantas, check into the Westin, then go down to Injidup for a break, enjoying the same Bodhi J experience at each venue,” says Danny.

It’s almost like they planned it. MQ Visit bodhij.com.au for information.

FAST FACT The Bodhi J tree encompasses the group’s holistic philosophy to beauty and wellness; to enhance each guest’s overall wellbeing using the purest botanicals in an environment of complete serenity.

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IN SAFE HANDS

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rriving at The Westin Perth's Bodhi J luxury spa was like taking a giant sigh of relief. In the heart of the city yet a million miles from all the concerns of that CBD, I was welcomed warmly, more than ready for my Sodashi Pure Radiance Facial at the hands of one of the highly trained Bodhi J therapists.

Shown to the changing rooms, I slipped into a super comfy dressing gown, slippers and at the same time, into a mindset which would, for an hour at least, make me feel like a million dollars.

In the treatment room, Sophie put me at my ease immediately, gently moving around the room, explaining what she would be doing to revive my tired, nearly half-century-old face back to life.

I knew already that a Sodashi treatment would be top of the range; the Fremantle-created organic line of potions, creams and near-miraculous rejeuvenating concoctions are the go-to collection for those in the know. Sophie began to work on my skin, her gentle, rhythmic movements on my chin, cheeks and forehead creating an unbelievably relaxing sensation. The facial is designed to soften, nourish and balance skin as well as giving it a super-charged boost in terms of radiance. I had high hopes I'd emerge after my session literally radiating a newfound youthful glow. The warming compresses followed by a rich, nurturing face mask, enriched with plant essences did its best to draw out 50 years worth of hard journalistic living. While the mask was working its magic, I had an added bonus: a foot rub to end all foot rubs.

And the result? My skin was a soft and radiant as somebody half my age. Not bad for an old chook.

STAY

GRAND CENTRAL STATEMENT

By NORMAN BURNS Images CRIB CREATIVE/THE MELBOURNE

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ow often have you been in an old pub, or once-grand historic building and thought “if only these walls could talk?”

Well, take a stroll through the just-reopened Melbourne Hotel in Perth’s CBD and, with a little bit of imagination, you will hear the hubbub of a hundred years’ patronage loud and clear.

And you can thank design group

Buchan for giving The Melbourne its voice back, for their design not only brings to life the best features of the original hotel (dating to 1897) but seamlessly integrates additions that house 51 new boutique rooms.

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IMAGE The Melbourne Hotel/State Library of Western Australia

One of Perth’s finest Gold Rush era hotels, The Melbourne, is back in business after a spectacular, multi-million-dollar redevelopment that adds a striking, contemporary edge to its rich heritage.

Australia,” says Buchan (Perth) managing principal Lou Cotter, the lead architect on the team tasked with the redesign.

With a brief to provide a “clear reading and understanding of the original” building, the Buchan team’s challenge was to bring two worlds together – the old and the new but without one dominating the other.

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Lou and his colleagues also had to think outside the box to meet their objectives, with one challenge being a very tight construction site.

The resulting design is clever and supremely functional; the original hotel, with its beautiful façade facing Milligan and Hay streets, is centre stage, flanked by two modern six-storey “bookends” for the extra hotel rooms.

Another 22 heritage rooms (“we couldn’t change the layouts but we’ve gutted them and all now have a timeless, classical feel,” says Lou) provide a direct link to The Melbourne’s storied past as one of the city’s premium accommodation venues.

GRAND DAME The Melbourne Hotel's renovation has resulted in a truly stunning new lease of life for the grand old building.

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MQ STAY

A masterstroke is the way the original hotel and the new accommodation wings are connected – in this case by creating a conservatory space, which not only allows natural light to filter into the hotel but gives a real New York/ Melbourne laneway vibe.

The international flavour extends to the hotel’s dining options which include a high-end Cantonese restaurant, the Grand Orient (“we’ve given this a kind of 1920s Shanghai speakeasy look,” says Lou), the seriously moreish Hattendo Japanese cream bun shop (the first in Australia)

and, on the Hay Street frontage, the Keisuke ramen noodle bar, which already has a cult following.

Of course, there’s no point in having a pub with no beer – or more to the point, a pub without a great bar to sip one in, and the owners ensured The Melbourne’s historic corner bar, re-named De Baun & Co after the hotel’s founder, Gold Rush entrepreneur John De Baun, would remain a focal point.

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PULL UP A CHAIR Lou Cotter, (above left) lead architect in charge of The Melbourne's redesign.

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snazzy new logo is a real eye-catcher from street level), there’s a rustic, supremely tactile buzz about the whole space.

You can’t help but run your hand over the exposed stone walls inside the internal courtyard.

Another eye-catching feature within the conservatory space are the offset windows that indicate the positioning of the original hotel room windows on the rear façade.

There’s also a gym and function rooms for weddings, conferences or gala dinners for up to 225 guests.

“I would call it expressive, well-

The Melbourne's historic corner bar has been re-named De Baun & Co, after the hotel's founder John De Baun, Gold Rush entrepreneur.

defined, relevant architecture,” says Lou who also acknowledges that there’s more than just an historical context to bringing The Melbourne “back to life”.

“There’s also recognising the building’s social and cultural fabric,” says Lou, who recalls seeing bands such as The Hoodoo Gurus in the late 1980s and early 1990s when The Melbourne was a live music venue (and home to the infamous late-night haunt The Firm).

The new Melbourne may not host bands any more but one 21st-century lifestyle must in the redevelopment

is a rooftop bar (the Aurora Rooftop Lounge).

The finished project is more than just professionally satisfying for Lou and the Buchan team.

“I’ve been involved in this for 10 years, from the initial inception to the completion. Our (Buchan) office is just around the corner, so I’d go out for lunch and see it (the hotel) taking shape every day. The owners are very happy with the finished result.” MQ The Melbourne Hotel, 33 Milligan St, Perth, (08) 9320 3333, visit melbournehotel.com.au; Buchan, (08) 9211 9898, visit buchan.com.au.

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MINI

PARTNERS IN

PRESTIGE

The Auto Classic team are very excited to partner once again with Next Gen Kings Park.

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ext Gen Kings Park, which first opened its doors in 2007, is a state-of-the-art re-development of the historic Royal Kings Park Tennis Club.

Sharing a synergistic passion for customer service, the partnership was a natural fit. The prestige facilities and a family-friendly membership culture at NGKP was a draw card for Auto Classic.

Next Gen's General Manager, Richard Hardy, is a big fan of the BMW brand.

STRETCH AND RELAX Next Gen Kings Park is offering a special onemonth membership deal to Auto Classic customers.

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for the whole family, whatever your interests age or experience.

Living a healthy lifestyle extends beyond visiting the gym a few times each week. Next Gen Kings Park provide you with your very own contemporary country club, a healthy and comfortable environment for you to spend your leisure time. Whether it’s a workout in the gym, laps in the pool, a casual game of tennis or squash, or relaxing in the lounge over drinks with friends, you’ll find everything you need within the Club.

FITNESS: Combining cutting-edge equipment with an experienced team of instructors and trainers and a wide range of studio classes, NGKP provide members with a tailored approach to fitness success.

The extensive and spacious gym floor is full of cutting edge equipment over a number of dedicated training spaces, including functional training, stretch and free weights with stunning views over Kings Park towards the city skyline.

With over 70 classes per week our extensive range blends the best of choreographed programmes with individually designed freestyle classes to provide a balanced group exercise programme.

AQUATICS: Indoor and outdoor heated 20m pools offer members lap swimming, aquatics classes, learn-toswim classes and more, alongside wet spa facilities that are ideal for fitness and relaxation.

Warm down in the therapeutic spa after a workout or unwind after a long day and relax tired muscles and ease any aches and pains.

Short stints in the sauna will aid your recovery sessions and help loosen and relax muscles after hard exercise. Heavy sweating and an elevated body temperature help your complexion by eliminating toxins and chemicals from the skin, while providing relief from stress and tension from the day.

The steam room will relieve any muscular aches, detoxify the skin and improve your circulation while relaxing tense muscles.

Gen Kings Park. The Royal Kings Park Tennis Club is steeped in history as one of Australia’s oldest tennis clubs and has hosted many tournaments and events, including Davis Cup ties over the years.

Playing squash provides an intense cardiovascular workout where a player could burn up to 4,000kJ in just an hour. It’s an excellent upper and lower body workout making good use of the legs to run around the court and the arms and torso to swing the racquet.

KIDS: Children of all ages will be kept active, engaged and entertained with an extensive programme of activities throughout the year in a safe and supervised environment.

SPECIAL OFFER Richard Hardy // General Manager, Next Gen Kings Park

A

s an Auto Classic customer and non-member of Next Gen Kings Park we would like to invite you to have a family membership at Next Gen Kings Park for one month. This membership will provide two adults and three children (under 18 years of ages) unlimited access to all Club facilities valued at over $600 (admin and joining fees included).

To arrange for your membership to be activated and for any further information please contact: Tel: (08) 9217 6300 Email: infokp@ngclubs.com.au Complimentary Membership // Terms & Conditions – Family membership consists of two adults (over 18 years of age) and three children (under 18 years of age).

Those parties redeeming a complimentary family membership MUST reside at the same residential address.

The complimentary family membership MUST be redeemed by the expiry date listed on the back of the voucher in keeping with its validity.

LIFESTYLE: A relaxing members lounge, licensed café, business zone and rooftop outdoor pool bar provide a range of spaces for members to unwind and catch up with friends, family or clients. MQ

MINI Rooftop Yoga (Minus the Rooftop) The view of Kings Park from the rooftop pool and bar at Next Gen is simply breathtaking. Thus began the concept of “Rooftop Yoga” for Auto Classic’s MINI owners.

Unfortunately rainy weather thwarted rooftop aspirations at the first session but our MINI tribe still found their yoga Zen in the impressive group fitness studio overlooking the natural surrounds. Participants were treated to the experience of their instructor, Luke, who integrated aromatherapy techniques and even performed a few poses with the MINI Countryman.

RACQUETS: With regular social events and competition play running alongside private bookings and lessons from the pros, if tennis or squash is your game, you’ll love playing at Next Gen. With 30 courts across grass, synthetic and plexicushion surfaces, tennis is at the foundation with the re-development of the Royal Kings Park Tennis Club to create Next

The Auto Classic team look forward to re-visiting the concept in warmer temperatures and will be on the lookout for more fun activities to engage with MINI, BMW and BMW Motorrad owners.

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MINI MASTERPIECE

MINI

S

Discover the latest cosmetic and functional improvements to the MINI range.

ometimes, just when you think things simply can’t get any better, amazingly, remarkably, surprisingly – they do.

And so it is with the brilliant news that three of the most iconic cars on the road, a trio of little cars that we’d all thought had reached the pinnacle of fun, luxurious, classy motoring, have been given a make-over and come out looking and feeling even more gorgeous than ever.

That triumvirate of mechanical marvels are, of course, three MINIs that we already know and love – the three-door hatchback, the fivedoor hatch-back and the mercurial convertible.

In the workshops, the technical parlance for the change is an LCI, three letters that stand for “life cycle impulse”. Basically, it’s not a full reboot, more a mid-life makeover, a chance to look at perfection and make it even more perfect.

So what exactly have the boffins done to these three wonderful little

machines? As you’d expect, the quick answer is that they’ve made them even more fun – after all, isn’t that the cornerstone of what has always defined a MINI, from way back in the swinging sixties when they first gatecrashed the motoring party?

And first glance shows you just where they’ve sourced that sense of joy from – the MINIs heritage stands loud and proud with Union Jacks seamlessly segued into the design, popping up across the vehicle.

Next up, the tech gurus have decided to really turn things up a notch with newly available adaptive matrix LED lighting, technology that you’d only normally expect to see on much more expensive cars.

Just wait till you first see the taillights light up and, from nowhere, that Union Jack appears again. You’ll love it, and we can assure you that you’ll also love the smiles of delight from anyone lucky enough to be driving behind you.

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new lights aren’t just great to look at they’re also more energy efficient and give a brighter, clearer shine.

Mechanically, this latest LCI gives even more spark to the lucky trio. The seven-speed Steptronic automatic transmission with double clutch makes shifting gears exceptionally dynamic.

It uses a precision-tuned electronic gear-shifting system that offers seamless transitions with the ability to choose between manual and automatic shift mode.

The start/stop function makes drving more economical too, reducing fuel consumption and emissions.

All in all, MINI has managed to find a way to make these three little bombshells even more fun, even more sporty leaving you only one problem – which one’s the one for you?

Is it the funky three-door, perfect for around-town swagger, or, if you have kids in tow, perhaps the fivedoor is your cup of tea (we can attest that even the largest of sprogs will be comfy in the roomy backseats).

Or, of course, why not go the full monty with the convertible – our state is, after all, built for enjoying the sunshine.

Whichever, you pick, however, this latest update to the MINI range means you’ll get smiles in spades. MQ To arrange a test drive of the latest MINI range, visit the MINI Garage showroom at 10 Asquith St, Victoria Park, call (08) 9311 7577 or visit autoclassicmini.com.au

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MINI LIFESTYLE

GET LOUD T

he MINI John Cooper Works Pro Valve Exhaust System is here and it’s making some noise. Previously an option for MINI Cooper S variants, it's now available to be installed on both the MINI John Cooper Works Hatch and MINI John Cooper Works Convertible.

The upgraded system is engineered for higher exhaust flow and gives drivers remote control over the volume and character of their engine note.

Two clicks on the Bluetooth remote opens a valve, bypassing the rear muffler and accentuating engine acoustics. Made from high quality stainless steel and with your choice of chrome or carbon tip it adds serious track appeal.

For a limited time at Auto Classic, the MINI JCW Pro Valve Exhaust System is available for a very special price.

Get revved up for the MINI John Cooper Works Pro Valve Exhaust System.

JCW Pro Carbon Air Inlet: RRP $696 Special $549*

// Price includes GST and fitting.

For a limited time only while stock lasts. Not available in conjunction with any other offers.

JCW Pro Exhaust Carbon Tips RRP: $5,202 Special: $4,399* + BONUS Duffle Bag JCW Pro Exhaust Chrome Tips RRP: $4,460 Special: $3,799* + BONUS Duffle Bag

JCW Pro Carbon Mirror Covers: RRP $1,336.00 Special $999* JCW Piano Black Headlight Rings: RRP $253 Special $219* JCW Piano Black Taillight Rings: RRP $243 Special $199*

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MOTORRAD

TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH With support from Auto classic BMW Motorrad, Aaron McDonald-King is helping to raise money for Bright Blue Charity for Sick Children.

B

right Blue organises several fundraising expeditions each year to Mongolia, including motorcycle adventure rides. Money raised funds surgeons to travel to the country and treat children with burns while also mentoring Mongolian doctors in burn management.

The Mongolian Motorcycle Ride is a fantastic adventure weaving through spectacular valleys, crossing beautiful rivers and camping in remote areas.

Aaron McDonald-King was in Mongolia, posting regular updates on the Perth BMW Motorcycle Riders Facebook Group. Here’s some insight into what the ride entails.

MQ Where does the ride start and finish?

Aaron McDonald-King: The ride officially started from Perth when the bikes were packed at Auto Classic, and sent on to Ulaanbaatar. We set off from the Ulaanbaatar hotel right in the heart of the city, riding off road and camping for the first seven days through mountain ranges.

Ending in Irkutsk in Russia, we will make our way back to the capital UB to pack the bikes ready to be sent home.

MQ How many riders in the group?

AMK There are 10 riders in the group including myself, a great mixed bunch of different ages and bike models.

MQ How much money has been raised?

AMK Participants have raised $6,500 from this trip for Bright Blue.

FAST FACTS

MQ What first inspired you to participate?

AMK Like most people, I watched the series, The Long Way Around with Ewan McGregor and I remember him saying the country that meant most to him while traveling around the world was Mongolia with its untouched landscape. That was enough to inspire me.

Accommodation on the ride ranges from comfortable hotels to remote camping.

the road to Mongolia

It began on July 14 at Perth International Airport and was due to end on July 29 back in Perth.

DAY 1 (July 14) – Depart from Perth International Airport to Hong Kong DAY 2 (July 15) Travel from Hong Kong to Ulaanbaatar

MQ What has been the biggest challenge?

AMK The biggest challenge would be the endurance required for camping and off-road riding.

MQ What are your top three highlights?

AMK Lake Khövsgöl, Irkutsk, Russia, and the awesome riding in the middle of nowhere in Mongolia.

Day 3-4 (July 16 to 17) Travel to Karakorum Day 5-8 (July 18 to 21) Travel north towards Selenge River ADVENTURE TIME Aaron McDonald-King (below) is exploring the wilds of Mongolia, all for a very good cause.

MQ What has been the best place you have stopped?

AMK We stopped in a village and met a small family who taught us a lot about the Mongolian way of life.

MQ How can somebody participate in future rides?

AMK If you would like the opportunity to take part in the biggest adventure of your life see me (Aaron) at Auto Classic.

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Day 9-12 (July 22 to 25) Travel to Murun and Lake Hovsgol Day 13-15 (July 26 to 28) Murun and return to Ulaanbaatar Day 16 (July 29) Depart for Perth

BMW Motorrad

FP MOTORRAD

BMW Motorrad has continuously set new standards in the art of motorcycle construction for more than 90 years. The Heritage range typifies this constant striving for innovation and embodies the quality and tradition of the BMW Motorrad brand.

Managers Special - $19,990 ride away.

R NINE T RACER with replacement triple clamp and risers that will lift the bars 139mm. This high quality part machined from aluminium, looks fantastic and changes the position from race to sports touring.

Come to Auto Classic to see and feel the difference between the two R nine T Racers. Please email Motorcycle Manager, Jonas at jonas. goulden@autoclassic or call 9311 7533 to arrange a test ride.

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REVIEW

THE FILES

The BMW X4, X5 and X6 all have much to offer - but how do you choose which one will come home with you? Matthew Mills reports.

L

isten hard and you’ll hear whispers and rumblings in the motoring world – already those in the know are beginning to talk about the next big things to come out of the BMW stable.

That discussion is about the new generation of three of the German industry giant’s greatest achievements – the X4, X5 and X6, a trio of powerhouses in BMW’s much-lauded SUV range. However, there’s still a fair while to wait, the roll-outs are still just a dot on the horizon and conversation is more speculation than details.

In the here and now, however, is something equally as exciting. As Auto Classic gears up for the future, it finds itself in the happy position of being able to offer a deal or two on the existing models of these three

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wonderful vehicles.

Interested? Well, you should be. The X4, X5 and X6 you’ll find on the showroom floor today are at the forefront of the SUV market, absolute leaders in their field. To consider one now, then, is the clever way forward, but there is one snag – a snag which brings the phrase ‘spoiled for choice’ to mind.

Yes, basically, the big question here is just which do you go for?

The X3? The X4? The X5? It’s a wonderful problem to have, but can still give you a headache or two.

In some areas, of course, all three boast the ultimate attention that BMW has given to every member of its fantastic X-series.

Technology wise, they’re all at the pinnacle, giving the driver top-of-

SUVs tend to look like drones off a production line, this is a car that stands out on the road. Its striking lines and presence belie its diminutive stature and its long bonnet and high elevation manage to encapsulate both sporty performance and off-road capability in one evocative look.

BMW X5 The one that started it all off is still an absolute world-beater.

We’re always surprised at just how imposing this beautiful car is. Standing proud on the Auto Classic tarmac, it resonates a quite confidence in its place at the vanguard of both the X-series and the SUV market as a whole. The X5’s sweeping bonnet and distinctive grill give instant identity to the range leader while the car as a whole espouses both safety and driving excellence.

the-range access to both safety and entertainment. From the moment the seatbelt hugs you as you pull away – in reality adjusting itself for the perfect fit – you will know that all three cars are looking out for you. Each has features such as lane-keeping assistance, autonomous emergency braking and subtle warnings when other errant drivers are getting too close to help keep you safe as well as all the airbags and structural brilliance needed to earn a five-star ANCAP safety rating.

And each boasts a wonderful entertainment system with Bluetooth hook-up for your devices and superb sound quality for your playlists. Add to that the wonderful heads-up system which displays vital information in the driver’s line of sight – an absolute boon when using the state-of-the-

art sat nav system – and you have a baseline that lifts all three of these magical vehicles above the herd.

The choice, then, that you have to make is just which one is best for you. To help you make up your mind, we’ve spent a few days getting across all three, giving us the chance to present this quick side-by-side guide which, hopefully, will help point you in the right direction.

THREE OF THE BEST The X4, X5 and X6 you'll find on the showroom floor at Auto Classic are at the forefront of the SUV market.

HOW DO THEY LOOK? BMW X4 One word springs to mind when you first set eyes on the X4 – unique. It’s true that everyone seems to be having a go at getting into the crowded SUV market nowadays, but the X4 is the definition of why BMW leads the way. While other compact coupe MARQUE WINTER 2018

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BMW X6 The X6 makes a massive statement wherever it goes. As far as coupe SUVs go, this is an absolute beast.

Wide, high and dominant, it dwarfs most other vehicles. It is an SUV evolved into its final form, big, powerful – pugnacious even. As a whole, it sweeps serenely from grill to boot, the long bonnet sitting front and proud, ready to drive. A true giant in the motoring world, the X6 also manages to look perfectly comfortable in its impressive skin.

INSIDE TRACK BMW X4 For a small car, the X4’s cabin is open and luxurious. Like all BMWs, it’s a pleasure to be behind the wheel, a relief to fall into the easily adjustable seats. There’s plenty of room for both driver and passenger, but the backseat too is fine for grown-ups.

Immaculate leather everywhere and beautiful trim ensure that you and all who travel with you will know that you’re on board a top-end vehicle.

And, while some coupes may have

MQ REVIEW

beautifully. It’s nimble and very quick, a joy to throw into corners before accelerating out knowing the car knows what you want it to do and will make sure it happens. And that punchy acceleration ensures that you’ll be able to get out of trouble should the perils of the road loom.

Just cruising, however, the X4 is a delight – calm, consistent and reliable.

BMW X5 Get behind the wheel of this car and the one over-riding feeling you’ll have is safety. The drive is pure confidence, regardless of what is going on around you. There is torque there, acceleration when you need it, but the X5 is all about being able to go wherever you want without a worry. In traffic it’s impassive, meticulous, but on the open road

to compromise on luggage space, the X4 manages to find more than 500 litres of capacity in its surprisingly large boot.

BMW X5 Step inside the X5 and you’ll know straight away that you’ve got all bases covered. This is a car that will be ready for whatever you want to do, whether you’re an active, sporty family or the kind of person that spends their freetime searching out adventure. There’s space everywhere, ready for you to fill with either a bunch of team mates or the equipment you need to make your dreams come true. Front and back there’s plenty of legroom – and if you’ve really got a lot of stuff to transport the rear seats fold back to reveal a palatial area that will easily fit whatever you have to move.

BMW X6 For such a big car, there’s a wonderful intimacy to the X6. Maybe it’s the way the cabin slopes down towards the rear bumper, but this is a machine that you could easily

picture yourself in with a loved one on a romantic getaway somewhere expensive and luxurious. It’s not that the back seats are small – grown-ups will be more than comfortable – it’s just that the driver and passenger area is wonderfully appointed, a place to settle into on a long drive knowing you’ll enjoy the journey almost as much as the destination.

X FACTOR Interior design is next level for any one of the X class BMWs.

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it’s ready to take off and head to the horizon. Whether you’re driving the daily commute, the school run or the long haul to a bush adventure to remember, you’ll finish your journey in the X5 relaxed, refreshed and ready to get on with life.

BMW X6 Even for the most modest of souls, it’s hard not to smile and pronounce yourself king or queen of the road when you’re out in the X6. The drive is, after all, all about power and opulence. There’s a swagger to this car, a well-deserved confidence –

THE CHOICE THAT YOU HAVE TO MAKE IS WHICH ONE IS BEST FOR YOU.

even a bit of the classic ‘don’t argue’.

It’s quick and nimble for such a big beast, taking off with gusto at the smallest tap of the accelerator, but where it comes into its element is eating freeway for breakfast on a perfect escape.

SO, WHICH ONE’S FOR YOU? BMW X4 We’re not ones for stereotypes, but if we were to picture the driver of an X4, perhaps they’d be at that stage in their lives when they get to be a bit selfish, to indulge themselves. Maybe

it’s before the responsibility of family, maybe its after the birds have flown the next, but this is the car for you if you want a head-turning companion to join you on adventure after adventure.

BMW X5 The X5, meanwhile, has to be the machine for the driver that does everything. Work, play, whatever – the X5 is there for the commute, the school run, the under-12s away match, the big move or the family holiday. Versatile and reliable, this is a car that will never let you down MARQUE WINTER 2018

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in whatever circumstances you find yourself in, but will always deliver that one thing true drivers will always desire – a vehicle you’ll love getting behind the wheel of.

BMW X6 Frankly, this is a car that doubles as a badge of success.

Each time you drive your X6 you’ll be reminded of how hard you’ve worked to get to where you are today.

Maybe it took a lifetime, maybe it took just a moment of inspiration, but making an X6 yours should be like giving yourself a reward for everything you’ve achieved.

A quick insight, then into these three remarkable cars – but don’t take our word for it. MQ Contact Auto Classic for a test drive and a chat about the run out deals on offer.

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INTERVIEW

BUNKERED DOWN The Rubens have spent time off-grid coming up wiht their latest album and, as Jack Stanley discovers, it’s been well worth it.

Images GIULIA MCGAURAN

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idden away in the little town of Camden, NSW, there sits a solitary decommissioned World War II bunker that, up until this point, has been nothing more than a reminder of historical turmoil. However, first appearances can be deceiving.

For The Rubens, this bunker space has been their place for inspiration. It has been their rehearsal space for the past several years and, only just last year, it was transformed into a recording studio and the birthplace of their newest record LO LA RU. This is a place as distant as any from the noise and commotion of metropolis, and for that reason it is possibly the perfect MARQUE WINTER 2018 ●

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place to write and record an album.

For six months during 2017, Elliot, Sam, Zaac, Scott, and Will made this bunker their home, their inspiration, their sanctuary.

However, the rusty, abandoned bunker is in no way representative of The Ruben’s time recording this album. As often is the case, creativity is oxymoronic by nature. In fact, The Rubens' time within a historically heartbreaking bunker, according to songwriter and keys player Elliot Margin, was consumed by nothing more than friendship, happiness and good times.

“The bunker was something we had always wanted to do, but the

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timing never really lined up for us, so when we decided to record this third record we pushed to have the bunker brought up to the standard for recording,” Elliot said.

LO LA RU is the third full LP release from The Rubens and is one which the band themselves says has a different direction all together than the previous two records. It follows the massive success of Hoops, and the same-named hit which went on to be voted number one in Triple J’s Hottest 100 in 2016.

“For this record, we were very much of the mindset that we wanted to write and record a more RnB style record," said Elliot.

“I think we were always inspired

by RnB and hip hop music, and I think the style of music you can expect on this record, while being different to our previous two, is something that we have been steering towards more and more.”

Fans can expect a pretty eclectic mix of songs this time around, with Elliot noting that he and brother Sam have always had very different ways and styles of writing music.

“The way I see this is that it is often a good thing as it provides a plethora of songs to choose from when putting the record together,” Elliot said.

“We really just have fun with it and when you do that you are able to experiment with different sounds and styles.

“When you don’t think about the process too much things seem to become cohesive and find their place.”

Paired with the desire to be more RnB focused, the boys sought the help of co-producers of Run The Jewels and RnB marvels Torbitt Schwartz and Wilder Zoby.

“We met Torbitt and Wilder back in 2013 when they were on tour with EL-P on the Laneway circuit and then we only later found out that they were co-producers of the Run The Jewels records, which we had admired and loved since they were released. After all that it kind of just

made sense, with the direction we wanted for this record, to ask them to work on it,” Elliot said.

Following the release of LO LA RU on June 29 the boys were set to head off on their biggest tour of Australia and New Zealand to date, as support for Pink.

“We received an email from Pink’s booking agent and we obviously replied with interest, but never did we actually think it would lead anywhere,” Elliot said.

“Next thing we know we are headed for a 40-plus date tour, something we are unbelievably excited about.”

While success has been hardearned by the five boys from Menangle, it is something that they

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MILLION MEN The Rubens are riding the crest of the wave of success, with the release of their third album LO LA RU and accompanying Pink on her huge tour of Australia.

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are far less concerned with.

“I think there was definitely perceived pressure from outside sources for us to replicate the success of Hoops, but we were pretty lucky in that we weren’t strapped for time or ideas and I think in allowing ourselves time we set ourselves up not to be stressed,” Elliot said.

However, if the traction of LO LA RU’s two singles Million Man and gorgeous duet (featuring Sarah) Never Ever are anything to go by, this album is going to deliver on the success of its predecessors – and then some.

The Rubens began their tour in support of Pink on July 3 at the Perth Arena before heading to Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Dunedin and Auckland. MQ

2018 BMW GOLF CUP ~ AUTO CLASSIC QUALIFYING TOURNAMENT

Congratulations to the winners of the 2018 BMW Golf Cup International Auto Classic Qualifying Tournament played at Meadow Springs Golf & Country Club on April 26.

THE THREE CATEGORY winners will represent Auto Classic at the National tournament played in Queenstown, New Zealand, in January 2019. Thank you to all who participated and joined in our postgame function.

RESULTS MENS B GRADE

LADIES

1st Ian Watson (38) 2nd Seng Tan (36) 3rd Joseph Boros (35)

1st Jill Penter (31) CB 16 2nd Marguerite Braeckman (31) CB 14 3rd Andrea Housley (30)

MENS A GRADE 1st Anthony Linton (39) 2nd Jonathon Ho (36) CB 20 3rd Peter Cook (36) CB 17

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TO BE ELIGIBLE to compete in a 2018 BMW Auto Classic Golf Qualifying Tournament, you must meet the following criteria: • Be an amateur golfer over 21 years of age.

• Currently hold an Australian certified handicap from a Golf Australia affiliated golf club. Social players are welcome and are eligible for any tournament prizes, however are not eligible to progress through to the Australian final.

• Be a current BMW owner or partner thereof who has purchased a vehicle from BMW Auto Classic or serviced their vehicle at BMW Auto Classic during the past 12 months (this excludes children, extended family members and business partners).

TOURNAMENT FACTS First held in Australia in 1988, the BMW Golf Cup International continues to be an outstanding success.

Attracting around 120,000 golfers in over 46 countries annually, this unique golfing event continues to be the largest amateur golf competition of its kind to take place worldwide.

If you meet the criteria above and wish to register you interest to play in the 2019 tournament please email rsvp@autoclassic.com.au MARQUE WINTER 2018

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BUSINESS

THE SKY’S THE LIMIT

Four Australian entrepreneurs prove the adage that anything’s possible. By ALAN MANLY.

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ntrepreneurs and the famous often appear in our lives oozing success. However, like anyone will tell you, success rarely happens overnight and there are often fascinating stories behind them. So, what can we learn from four of Australia’s most high profile?

Let’s take a look.

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GIRL POWER

Many have dreamed of inheriting the family fortune. Blessed with a famous family name and a legend of a father being Lang Hancock of mining industry fame, Gina Hancock as the only child ultimately inherited the bulk of the family fortune. Along with the fortune came a mountain of debt and an aggrieved step mother.

Being rich, deeply in debt and famous the story made headlines for years. To add a further challenge it would be readily agreed that the mining industry is hardly top of the pops for a girl wishing to build a career. In a classic quote Gina declared where she was coming from.

“There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire. If you’re jealous of those with more money, don’t just sit there and complain - do something to make more money yourself.”

Fate blessed and cursed Gina with a complex situation that only pure determination could overcome. The Forbes Australia billionaires report lists Gina as the wealthiest woman in Australia.

NEVER SAY DIE

A dinner party story John Symond loves telling (which I’ve been present for) is that during a lower moment in business narrowly avoiding bankruptcy, he visited the David Jones store in Parramatta.

Upon selecting a tie he tendered his credit card as payment. The nice girl behind the counter scanned the card, took out a pair of scissors and in full public view cut the credit card in half. It always gets a laugh from those sitting around the dining table for 20 in his $100 million mansion.

After the tie cutting event John borrowed money from his brother and worked long hours offering after-hours home loans consulting to purchasers. He built an empire by offering something the banks were disinterested in offering. Home loan applications service in your home. Aussie Home Loans call sign of “we’ll save you” worked for his customers and saved John from any risk of further financial troubles.

John eventually sold Aussie Home Loans to the Commonwealth Bank.

IF YOU CAN’T MAKE, IT FAKE IT

Dick Smith is a famous Australian often heard in the media declaring his views on issues that affect Australia. Having started his business in 1968 with $610 (approximately $4,000 in today’s money) he took an idea from overseas, being self-service in shops as opposed to counter service. This innovation was a boom for his business as clientele of electronic hobbyists could browse and not require staff interaction. This was a breakthrough in the late 1960s. Business success sometimes requires a nudge in the form of a public relations event and Dick really hit the PR jackpot by getting major media attention for towing a fake iceberg into Sydney harbour. The cost of the barge covered with plastic and white firefighting foam was minor compared to the total radio and TV coverage. Dick Smith became a big name in the community long before serious financial success was realised.

These entrepreneurial journeys involved events and experiences only a few steps more daring than the average punter. The takeaway? A brave approach, and maybe a little pretence of more confidence than usual, and your aspiration for success may be one big step closer.

IT’S NEVER TOO LATE

Few people in their seventies feel like getting involved in a startup. There is one great Australian that did just that. Len Ainsworth is recognised as one of Australia’s great success stories. He was the driving force behind the Aristocrat poker machine empire, when at the age of seventy two, was advised that he had one year to live. It goes without saying that is a traumatic situation. Len divided his fortune into nine equal portions and distributed to his seven children, ex-wife and current wife. As fate would have it Len made a full recovery from his illness. So there he was at seventy two years of age alive and well and decided that he would start again. The result of that decision was the new poker machine company Ainsworth Game Technology that was recently sold for $470 million. Now at 94 years old Len is still Chairman of the company. If ever there was proof that you are never too old for a startup Len Ainsworth is living testimony.

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ALAN MANLY is the founder of Group Colleges Australia and author of The Unlikely Entrepreneur.

To find out more visit alanmanly.com.au

LAST WORD

SEVEN DEADLY SINS FOREIGNER'S KEYBOARD PLAYER MICHAEL BLUESTEIN

With 10 multi-platinum albums and 16 US Billboard Top 30 hits, Foreigner are universally hailed as one of the most popular rock acts in the world, with a formidable musical arsenal that continues to propel sold-out tours and album sales, now exceeding 75 million.

P

erth fans will be thrilled to witness the prolific rockers belt out all of their iconic hits with an 18-piece orchestral backing in October, led by celebrated Canberra conductor Kenneth Lampl. Fan favourites including Feels Like The First Time, Cold As Ice, Waiting For A Girl Like You, Urgent, and the timeless number one global smash, I Want To Know What Love Is, will bring audiences to their feet.

Michael Bluestein (above, second from right) shares his seven deadly sins as the group set off on their Australian and New Zealand leg of the tour.

a private chef with the best wine and food until the money ran out.

Sloth – Where would you spend a long time doing nothing?

In the south of France: Nice or Cannes, just dining out and relaxing and reading and playing music.

Wrath – Which news story makes you white with rage?

Anything involving the NRA and how much they lobby and control Congress.

Gluttony – What is the food you could

eat over and over again?

Strangely, I have had a lifelong love affair with cereal. There’s just something about the texture along with cold milk. I love granola, cheerios ... even some of the naughty ones like Sugar Smacks and Fruit Loops.

Envy – Who’s shoes would you like to walk in?

I am a huge Roger Federer fan. He has had the most incredible career and I admire his disposition and work ethic. I would love to be able play tennis with the grace and genius that he exhibits.

Greed – You’re given $1m that you have

I’m a very good ping pong player.

to spend selfishly – what would you spend it on?

I would charter a luxurious huge yacht in the south of France or the Amalfi coast with my wife and I would bring along lots of friends and just explore and spoil ourselves with

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Pride – What is the one thing you’re secretly proud of?

Lust – What makes your heart beat faster?

I’m a sucker for the latina vixens of film and TV like Penelope Cruz, Eva Longoria, and Sofia Vergara.

Don’t miss Foreigner and a full orchestra at the Riverside Theatre on October 16. Visit ticketek.com.au for tickets.

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welcome

to bodhi j

Perth | Highgate 08 9466 8260 • The Westin | Perth 08 6559 1818 • Wembley 08 9387 5152 • Yallingup | Injidup 08 9750 1300 www.bodhij.com.au

Lifetime Guarantee At Peter Wilkinson & Co, we are so confident in the quality of our workmanship that we provide a lifetime guarantee on all of our repair work.

If, in the unlikely event, you are not completely satisfied with the work we have undertaken, simply contact us and we will gladly address your concerns.

Why Choose Peter Wilkinson & Co? • All work is factory-backed • Lifetime guarantee on all repair • Lifetime product guarantee on all paintwork workmanship • No risk of voiding warranty • 12-month/20,000 km guarantee on all new parts • We use only genuine parts

Accredited BMW Bodyshop | 1 Adrian St, Welshpool WA 6106 ✆ 08 9362 5622 057 AUTOCLASSIC.COM.AU info@peterwilkinson.com.au

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