The Melbourne Review - October Issue 2013

THE MELBOURNE

REVIEW ISSUE 24 OCTOBER 2013

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CHARACTERISING THE LANDSCAPE Russell Drysdale at TarraWarra Museum of Art

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LAZY, DISENGAGED AND APATHETIC?

MELBOURNE KNOWLEDGE WEEK

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Jane Smith of M.A.D.E Ballarat on Gen Y voters and democracy

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4 The Melbourne Review October 2013

WELCOME

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Peter Tregear and Artistic Director Richard Mills discuss the 2014 Victorian Opera season

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MUSLIM FAITH AND FASHION

NATION BRANDING

OCTOBER BOY

Wendy Cavenett meets community activist Tasneem Chopra

Is it asking too much to align government policy with national vision?

Phil Kakulas on Mick Harvey’s song for Rowland S. Howard, ahead of this month’s ATP show

Publisher The Melbourne Review Pty Ltd Level 13, 200 Queen Street, Melbourne Vic 3000 Phone (03) 8648 6482 Fax (03) 8648 6480

INSIDE Profile 06

Disclaimer Opinions published in this paper are not necessarily those of the editor nor the publisher.

All material subject to copyright.

Politics 10 Columnists 16 Books 18 Performing Arts 20

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SPRING RACING CARNIVAL

SOMEBODY DREW THAT

The title says it all – one of the highlights of Melbourne’s year is back

Byron George on the virtues of human diversity in suburbia

Visual Arts 27 Spring Racing Carnival 35 Food.Wine.Coffee 41 Venue Guide 46 FORM 51

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WELCOME CONTRIBUTORS

WIN!

Patrick Allington

Dave Graney

Nicole Salvo

David Ansett

Michael Hince

Margaret Simons

Hannah Bambra

Phil Kakulas

Peter Singline

Adam Belt

Stephen Koukoulas

Jane Smith

Wendy Cavenett

Tali Lavi

Anna Snoekstra

William Charles

John Neylon

David Sornig

Jennifer Cunich

Fiona O’Brien

Shirley Stott Despoja

Oil on canvas 39.3 x 49.2 cm TarraWarra Museum of Art collection Gift of Eva Besen AO and Marc Besen AO Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program 2008 © Estate of Russell Drysdale

Alexander Downer

Lou Pardi

Peter Tregear

Suzanne Fraser

Michael Quinn

See page 27.

Andrea Frost

Enzo Raimundo

Our Cover Russell Drysdale, Murphy’s 1947 (detail)

This publication is printed on 100% Australian made Norstar, containing 20% recycled fibre. All wood fibre used in this paper originates from sustainably managed forest resources or waste resources.

“cAreer Best perfOrMAnces” scOt t fOundA s – VAriet y

A hidden truth.

A desperAte seArch.

prisonersmovie.com.au

Strong themes and violence

in cineMA s OctOBer 17

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The Beast Southbank Theatre, The Sumner til Saturday, November 9 Don’t miss Eddie Perfect’s cunning comedy presented by Melbourne Theatre Company in association with Melbourne Festival and Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Benwell: Beauty, Anarchy, Desire A Retrospective Heide Museum of Modern Art til Sunday, November 10 Australian ceramicist Stephen Benwell assembles over 100 ceramics and a small selection of paintings from the early 1970s to the present day.

Blancanieves Selected cinemas From Thursday, October 24 A twist on the Snow White fairy tale that is set in 1920s Seville and centered on a female bullfighter.

6 The Melbourne Review October 2013

PROFILE Chopra says when she turned 18, she chose to wear the headscarf – her mother and two sisters chose not to. She says, “I choose to wear the headscarf, the hijab… It’s not oppressive. If you tell me to take it off, that is oppressive.” has taken on such political representation”.

The headscarf, the burqa, the niqāb – Muslim women who choose to cover, Chopra says, are making a personal choice. “Women are making this choice as an affirmation of their faith to God, so it’s a very deeply intrinsic, spiritual reason.” Chopra, and other prominent Australian Muslim feminists and academics, including Susan Carland and Sherene Hassan, have spoken publicly about this and other issues surrounding Islam and their place within their faith. Chopra says when she turned 18, she chose to wear the headscarf – her mother and two sisters chose not to. She says, “I choose to wear the headscarf, the hijab… It’s not oppressive. If you tell me to take it off, that is oppressive.”

TASNEEM CHOPRA

Cross-Cultural Consultant and Curator at the Melbourne Immigration Museum’s new Faith, fashion, fusion exhibition.

by Wendy Cavenett

I

n the early 1980s, Tasneem Chopra was a Year 9 student at Bendigo’s Girton College.

One sunny morning, when the students were restless and assembly was underway, the Australian folk rock band, Goanna, performed their seminal protest song, Solid Rock. Chopra, barely a teenager, and steeped in the traditions of a country Victorian upbringing, remembers hearing the song’s strident lyrics, each word clearly enunciated by lead singer and songwriter, Shane Howard. “I heard every word,” Chopra says, “and I remember thinking, this song doesn’t correlate with the Australian history that we’ve just been taught.”

Well they were standin on the shore one day / Saw the white sails in the sun / Wasn’t long before they felt the sting / White man, white law, white gun / Don’t tell me that it’s justified / Cause somewhere / Someone lied / Yeah, well someone lied / Someone lied / Genocide / Well someone lied “When I heard that song,” Chopra continues, “I realised that what is taught and what is, there can be dissonance. I think that was the birth of my questioning of everything, including the way I questioned the system, the status quo.”

Today, Chopra works in local and international development. She has a background in sociology and psychology, having graduated with a BA from Swinburne in 1990. In 2011, she completed her Masters in International Development at La Trobe University. She hopes that one day she can assist communities in Kenya – her country of birth. Meanwhile, she builds an impressive history in grassroots community engagement in Victoria. She has worked in the sector for more than 20 years, and is known for her valuable leadership roles in the Muslim community, and for her work with nongovernment organisations. She is Chairperson of the Australian Muslim Women’s Centre For Human Rights (an organisation very close to her heart), an Ambassador for Possible Dreams International, and Chairperson to the board of Lentil As Anything.

As an independent Cross-Cultural Consultant, she presents workshops on race, identity and diversity to a range of audience members, including Supreme Court judges, police officers, church groups and students.

She is one of a growing number of Muslim women in Melbourne keen to talk with the broader community about Islam, and the rights of Muslim women; to encourage conversations about “the extent to which a piece of material

Stepping outside the conventions of this conversation is a new exhibition at Melbourne’s Immigration Museum titled Faith, fashion, fusion: Muslim Women’s Style In Australia, which is set to shift the discussion to ideas surrounding identity and self-expression, engaging the community in a way that explores the “complexities, and layers and nuances” to the Muslim woman. Featuring 10 designers – six from NSW and four from Victoria – the exhibition showcases Muslim women’s fashion that reflects a diversity of style and flair; from beautiful, high-end couture to the more edgy and eclectic. The exhibition also reflects the increasing popularity of the modest dressed market, fast becoming an important part of the global fashion industry thanks to designers such as Aheda Zanetti, whose label, Ahiida®, is responsible for the famous Burqini® / Burkini® Swimwear and Hijood® Sportswear (designs which are featured in the exhibition).

The brainchild of the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, the Melbourne component of Faith, fashion, fusion is curated by Chopra, who chose four Victorian designers: Dima Ghieth, Gertha Imelda, Shanaaz Jacobs-Copeland, and Zulfiye Tufa – thehijabstylist. She also profiles a selection of Muslim women in Victoria who have achieved “something individual and amazing in their own right”. Says Chopra: “The idea is to get people in to see the fashion, but to then discover, inadvertently, that this exhibition is equally about identity.”

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PROFILE When we meet, it is a warm Friday in Melbourne, and Chopra is soon sitting at her dining table, relaxed, drinking tea and talking about her week. As her public appearances suggest, she is a natural conversationalist.

She is also generous with her time and an exceptional storyteller. Outside, the sun is high in the sky, and children’s voices can be heard in the distance.

Chopra, who was born in Kenya in 1970, is a fifth generation East African born of Indian heritage. She says she identifies more as Kenyan than Indian yet she grew up in Melbourne, the “only place I’d ever want to live,” she says. Her three children, who were born in Hoppers Crossing, identify as Indian.

“Well, that’s what everyone at school says,” they admitted to her several years ago. It is an area Chopra finds fascinating – the formation of one’s identity, and how it is viewed, and judged, and understandably, it is fundamental to her work in social justice and community development.

In 1974 – three years after Idi Amin seized power in a military coup in Uganda, and one year after the final vestiges of the White Australia Policy were removed – Chopra’s family arrived in Australia. They spent nine months in “Alice” and then settled in Bendigo. “The Commonwealth of Australia was recruiting doctors from other

Commonwealth countries,” Chopra says. “My dad was a doctor in Kenya, a Commonwealth country, and he was offered a job in Australia.

He accepted.”

Fast forward to May 2013. Chopra, dressed in rich pink and golden heels, addresses a local audience for her TEDx Melbourne talk, Don’t Believe the Hype, Exceed It – The War Against Stereotypes. For nearly 16 minutes, she talks about her experiences and observations as a Muslim woman in Australia pre- (“Islam went from being an exotic unknown”) and post(“to an entity that was to be feared”) 9/11. She hinges her discussion on the idea of (her terms), stereoTYPERS: people who apply stereotypes to others, and stereoTYPEES: people who are the victims of stereo TYPERS (“[TYPEES are] the ones who get labelled,” she says, “and they have to walk around with the baggage of TYPERS”).

Accepting that our brains “default sometimes to stereotype settings”, these are, nonetheless, mostly innocuous (Aussie labourer, British backpacker, Indian student); when stereotypes are offensive (a Chopra favourite is the ‘Islamic militant’), “we need to check ourselves”.

Chopra discusses media’s propensity to promote difference as divisive, as something to be feared; difference sells (is more profitable) “when it is frightening”. Then there’s political will, the provocative language used by mainstream media, the importance of owning

one’s narrative (as an activist, not an apologist), and much, much more.

“At one stage,” she says during her talk, “I was female, over 35, brown, short, Muslim, and with a headscarf. I was off the charts on the quota radar.” Audience members laugh, Chopra smiles, and adds, “but I owned it, I owned that difference because it gave me avenues to platforms I wouldn’t have previously had.” It is the crux of the discussion – the way in which it is possible to leverage some stereotypes into a positive.

Chopra’s talk, which has been viewed by more than 2,500 people on YouTube, is a significant contribution to discussions about oppression, social justice and the Muslim experience in the West, post 9/11. Indeed, conversations are, as Chopra often states, the antidotes to stereotypes. It’s okay to ask questions, she concludes. “Ask, because when we assume, we don’t grow and I think that’s how stereotypes are created.”

»»Faith, fashion, fusion: Muslim Women’s Style In Australia shows at the Immigration Museum, 400 Flinders St, Melbourne, until July 9, 2014 museumvictoria.com.au/immigrationmuseum

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8 The Melbourne Review October 2013

SOCIETY a set of demands and finally fought for their rights. Thirty people died as a result of the Eureka Stockade but that drove the colonial administration to agree to the diggers’ demands. Victorian men over 21 (without property) were given the first male suffrage in the British Empire. They were also able to stand for Parliament and be paid to be a Member of Parliament.

M.A.D.E has gone back to the original Greek word – people + power = democracy. The focus is about each individual finding the issues today that they think will improve the lives of their family, friends and community. Interestingly, this is the way the future generation – the Millennials – see the world.

Lazy, disengaged and apathetic?

Is the future of democracy safe in the hands of the under-30s?

by Jane Smith

I

n a stable, prosperous country such as Australia, it can be easy to take democracy for granted. However, democracy has become a somewhat dirty word, especially with the ‘Millennial Generation’ (born 19822003).

In 1999, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) disbanded its doorknocking function to check voters were correctly entered on the electoral roll. By 2010, about 1.5 million adults were not registered to vote, 70 percent of them under 25. Changes to the Commonwealth Electoral Act 2012 slowed this trend, particularly as online enrolment is now allowed. However, of the 1.2 million people currently not registered to vote, the AEC estimates 46 percent per cent are aged between 18 and 29.

Lowy Institute 2013 research shows that less than half (48 percent) of Australia’s 18to 29-year-olds think democracy is the best form of government, yet most care deeply about democratic ideals such as equality and human rights. The Lowy Institute researcher, Alex Oliver, asked the same question in India, Indonesia and Fiji and concluded that “Australian young people of that age group were the least wedded to the idea of democracy”.

Millennials make up a third of the earth’s population yet feel ignored by those making decisions that will impact their future.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, they are the largest generation in Australia, representing 30 percent of the population. Baby Boomers by contrast represent only 20 percent.

The Millennial Generation don’t trust, and are fed up with, politicians and formal institutions but are open and interested in political ideas. They eschew political parties but support issues and causes. Those that do participate are largely doing it online. According to MTV’s research, Australian Millennials are typically tolerant, open-minded and happy, but only three percent trust and six percent are inspired by, their government. The main influences on the under-30s are family, friends, themselves, celebrities and sports stars.

Traditional media has less influence because Millennials curate their own content from many sources and share, recreate and customise media their way. Peer review is a key source of information and analysis for Millennials. Almost all (97 percent) of Australians aged under 25 use Facebook, making young Australians the highest users of social media in the world.

The emerging “sharing economy” is being powered by Millennials. Success stories such as Airbnb and SeeClickFix (to fix problems such as

potholes) are examples of this. Personalisation, crowdfunding charitable causes and apps to run their lives are central to how the Millennial Generation operates in the world. They operate sideways to their elders, rather than obey the hierarchy.

Why are we failing young people in making a connection to the fundamentals of our society?

How do we re-frame democracy outside of voting and bring the focus back to equality, human rights, access and inclusion? There is clearly a communication, branding and participation gap between how Australia’s youth see the world and their perception of democracy.

The Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka (M.A.D.E) was conceived to encourage national conversations about what democracy means in the 21st century, inspired by the events at the 1854 Eureka Stockade. Young people – aged 16 to 27 – fought injustice about the conditions on the goldfields and won some of the first democratic rights in the world. The diggers on the goldfields of Ballarat had tried a range of democratic measures to get the cost of the gold licence lowered and to reduce the rough treatment they received from the police – largely made of up of ex-criminals.

They held regular public protest meetings, formed the Ballarat Reform League, drew up

We knew that many of the Millennial Generation cared deeply about societal issues, yet a large number had disconnected from formal political processes. So how were we to reach out to the Millennials? How could we hear what they think and learn from the ways they are enacting democracy differently from their parents and grandparents?

We came to the conclusion that part of the answer lies in going where the Millennials already are: pop culture, online and social media. We thought about suitable partners that we could work with. MTV Australia was an obvious choice.

MTV recently conducted a 24-country research project on the Millennial Generation.

They are seen as easily distracted, bored and wanting instant gratification. They see themselves as curious, tolerant, sharing, flexible and optimistic. Being authentic and real is a priority for the Millennials. Eightyfour percent see that they have the potential to make the world a better place and 73 percent think that the way they connect to the internet changes the way they see the world. Happiness for this generation is being part of a loving family and doing a job you enjoy. Key issues for them are dealing with the economy after the Global Financial Crisis, world hunger and finding a cure for cancer.

M.A.D.E and MTV Australia launched MOVEMENT: Search for the Millennial Leader, on September 15 – the United Nations International Day of Democracy.

MOVEMENT is M.A.D.E’s first major foray into the national conversation – it’s an innovative way to give a platform to youth and promote wider, deeper and different discussions about what democracy we want.

We formed an extraordinary alliance with two corporate partners – MTV Australia and Deloitte Digital – who are very much in that space, with support from some of the nation’s largest youth and social action groups – Australian National Development Index (ANDI), Australian Youth Climate Coalition, change.org, Collabforge, Deakin University, Foundation for Young Australians, Foxtel, Global Poverty Project, High Resolves, House of Representatives (Australian Parliament

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SOCIETY House), National Centre for Indigenous Excellence, Oaktree Foundation, OurSay, Pro Bono Australia, Reach Foundation, Ruffin Falkiner Foundation, Young and Well CRC and Youth Without Borders.

during the crafting of policies that will affect their future?

There are promising signs, with entries coming into MOVEMENT in the first two weeks and more than 3500 likes on Facebook. We are expecting a rush of entries at the end of the period!

Australians aged 15-30 can nominate themselves as a Millennial Leader candidate by uploading a video of up to 60 seconds in length and answering four questions at mtvmovement.com.

Jane Smith, Keiynan Lonsdale and Rebecca Batties.

The questions are based on their view of leadership; the issues they care about; what they have done; and what they would want to address as leader.

Then, data analysis of the level of influence generated by each contender will give us the most popular 30. A 10-person panel of their Millennial peers will determine a shortlist of the top five candidates, who will then campaign during a three-week public voting period to elect the Millennial Leader. People will have to register to vote. OurSay will hone the questions to be answered in the election campaign. (OurSay is an independent organisation started by a team of young people passionate about harnessing the power of social media to revitalise participation in Australian democracy.)

The elections will finish on November 13 and the inaugural Millennial Leader will be

announced on November 14. The Leader will be “in office” until September 15, 2014, next year’s UN International Day of Democracy.

The Millennial Leader will have experiences that money can’t buy, including MOVEMENT at the House – up to two weeks being hosted

by Parliament House in Canberra to meet politicians, media and lobbyists and report on the parliamentary session (with support from an MTV producer).

The Leader will have access to a brains trust comprising 29 of Australia’s creative thinkers.

They are available to discuss contemporary leadership and effective social action with the new Leader. The Brains Trust comprises sports stars, media figures, business people, social justice leaders, entertainment industry

figures, entrepreneurs, health specialists, youth and wellbeing experts, innovators and policy specialists. MTV is offering to mentor the Leader, who will produce a blog, monthly TV news items, three video diaries and manage the MOVEMENT social media account.

We hope MOVEMENT will become a platform for many Millennial voices and potential leaders. All generations have a lot to learn from each other so it is really important that younger people feel they can be heard and have the potential to change things for the better.

The launch of the MOVEMENT campaign coincides with the first 100 days of the new government; how great would it be if more Millennial views were taken into account

Key themes so far from the entrants are the importance of happiness, family, friends, helping others and giving a voice to those who are not heard. Mental illness and health is another important theme. Interestingly, 56 percent of the entries so far are from women and 44 percent from men.

The Millennial Generation is the first completely connected generation. They see the world as their canvas and want to use the technology to make the world a better place.

There are lessons for older generations to learn how the Millennials’ savvy and energy can be used to campaign for important social issues and create a different kind of democracy.

» Jane Smith is Director, Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka made.org mtvmovement.com

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MELBA RECORDINGS PRESENTS

ASHER FISCH AND LISA GASTEEN Der Ring Des Nibelungen (Wagner) “the magnificent Brünnhilde of Lisa Gasteen, displaying superb vocal control, effortless power and ravishing beauty...Gasteen is simply sublime.” The Sunday Age “Asher Fisch has to be counted among the front-runners of recorded Ring conductors” MusicWeb International UK Der Ring Des Nibelungen Highlights “this remarkable Australian achievement… this compelling Australian Ring” SA-CD.NET UK Liszt Wagner Paraphrases “love at first sight…guaranteed to go straight to your heart!”

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O R D E R C D S A N D H I G H Q U A L I T Y D O W N L O A D S F R O M M E L B A R E C O R D I N G S W W W. M E L B A R E C O R D I N G S . C O M . A U

Asher Fisch performs as conductor and pianist in two concerts presented by the Melbourne Festival: ON OCTOBER 18 Brahms and Wagner in Song, with German mezzo-soprano Stefanie Irányi, a one-off illustrated lecture including the Wesendonck Lieder.

ON OCTOBER 19 Wagner and the Orchestra, with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and soprano Lisa Gasteen. Preceded by a conversation with Managing Director of London’s Barbican Centre, Sir Nicholas Kenyon.

10 The Melbourne Review October 2013

POLITICS The striking issue with all of this, of course, is that deep down, Mr Hockey and the Coalition know that the budget is in good shape. There is no emergency, no crisis and the current growth momentum in the economy will see the glide path to budget surplus confirmed in a year or two sustained.”

Image courtesy abc.net.au

in gross government debt. He knows that from a longer run, market stability perspective, Australia’s financial markets need a deep and liquid market for government debt.

No news is good news Despite the pre-election alarm bells, the new government’s fiscal policy inaction confirms the strong state of Australia’s economy

by Stephen Koukoulas

W

hen Treasurer Joe Hockey released the budget outcome for financial year 2012-13 a few weeks ago, he confirmed what all sober analysts know about Australia’s budget settings.

One month into the new government and there is no sign of any action from the Coalition government on fiscal policy. There is no talk of an economic statement before year end, which would be an opportunity for it to outline a few spending and tax changes that would address the problems, at least as the Coalition parties see them. Instead, there will be no changes in the budget finances for some time to come.

In announcing the budget outcome last month, Mr Hockey even hinted that the MidYear Economic and Fiscal Outlook document, which in the past has been an opportunity for the government to make some fiscal policy changes as it updates the bottom line numbers of government finances, will not be released until January 2014.

Indeed, it seems likely that rather than having an economic statement to deal with the budget issue, one of Mr Hockey’s first decisions as Treasurer will be to increase the government’s debt limit from the current $300 billion. There will be some irony in that decision, given he is doing little if anything to work against what in opposition he saw a reckless approach to the budget and government debt.

The striking issue with all of this, of course, is that deep down, Mr Hockey and the Coalition know that the budget is in good shape. There is no emergency, no crisis and the current growth momentum in the economy will see the glide path to budget surplus confirmed in a year or two sustained.

During the election campaign, when the Coalition released the rough costings of their promises, the path to budget surplus was the effectively the same as the Labor government, and the net savings outlined reduced net government debt by less than 0.1 percent of GDP.

registered a reasonable rate of growth.

Government finances are in robust shape.

There is no dispute that they are worthy of the triple-A credit rating given from the three major ratings agencies, Moodys, Fitch and Standard & Poors.

It was comforting news given the still acute sovereign debt problems dogging most of the world’s largest economies. The list of countries with a larger budget deficit and higher government debt than Australia is too long to mention. This highlights the grossly misleading discussion on government finances prior to the election where terms like “emergency”, “crisis” and “out of control spending” were frequently used to describe Australia’s budget position.

In 2012-13, the budget deficit was a trifling 1.2 percent of GDP with the level of net government debt equal to petty cash at 10.1 percent of GDP. There was a record cut in government spending in the year and tax receipts were a little higher, coming from a very low base as the economy

The main offenders with these descriptions of the deficit were Mr Hockey and the Coalition leadership team. One may have concluded that on gaining office, they would want to quickly start the process of dealing with the budget crisis and emergency conditions.

The level of new government borrowing has been robust, to say the least, since Mr Hockey assumed the role as Treasurer. Gross borrowing has been over $2 billion a week. Mr Hockey is in a position, if he sees fit, to direct the Australian Office of Financial Management to stop or reduce the government’s borrowing program. Of course this would need to be done in concert with budget moves to build a huge and immediate surplus because the AOFM needs to fund the budget deficit or else the government will run out of money with its “excessive spending” – as Mr Hockey used to like to say.

Mr Hockey has not seen fit to slow down the pace of government borrowing, presumably because he is content with the steady increase

To the extent the Coalition sticks to its policy agenda outlined during the election campaign, its budget settings will be indistinguishable from those of the previous government.

In the end, Australia has a particularly strong set of government financial accounts. This is the good news that will serve Australia well over the years to come, a point that Mr Hockey’s policy inaction clearly acknowledges.

»»Stephen Koukoulas is Managing Director of Market Economics. marketeconomics.com.au

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POLITICS

Letter from Vienna

BY Alexander Downer

T

here’s a T-shirt you can buy at Vienna airport which eccentrically proclaims “Austria has no kangaroos”. Er, no, I guess it doesn’t. But I couldn’t help but reflect on this. Austria, once the heart of the great Austro-Hungarian Empire which was one of the most dominant forces in Europe for around 600 years now worries that it is being confused with Australia!

Vienna itself still has the air of a great imperial capital. It is dominated by the gigantic Hofburg Palace, the one time home of the Emperors. The old war ministry building built before the First World War is vast. That reflects an era when Austria had a large army and a navy which included battleships and submarines. These days it’s hard to imagine an Austrian navy. The Austrian defence force is very modest. Austria is one of the smaller members of the European Union, absorbed into the euro currency system.

So there we have it. A once great empire whose mobilisation against Russian-backed Serbia was the first ugly act of the catastrophe we call the First World War is reduced to T-shirts telling everyone it isn’t Australia!

In a sense, Austria is at the very heart of the modern European story. Once a bellicose nation committed to holding its imperial lands in Europe, these days the European Union, for all its imperfections, has created a totally new European paradigm. It is inconceivable that Austria and Italy could go to war with each other. Less than a hundred years ago that’s exactly what they did.

The problem with the European Union isn’t its supra-national vision but the structure of its institutions. If there ever was an Anglo-Saxon way of doing things it is this. Institutions are changed when circumstances require them to change. They are not torn down, they just evolve. The European model is more revolutionary. The Europeans design a social model, build institutions to accommodate that model and get the public to accept it. It’s a top-down approach. The Anglo-Saxon model is more bottom-up.

So the Franco-German architects of modern Europe did just that. They built a complex of new institutions to run the European Union: a Council of Ministers, a European Commission,

a Parliament with limited powers, a Court of Justice, a central bank and so on. The idea was that these institutions would bind Europe together.

Then most recently, the architects of the EU created the euro. The seventeen members of the euro could hardly be more diverse. Some are rich, others relatively poor, some run cautious fiscal policies, others not; some have extensive outside trade with Latin America, some trade more with Russia and Eastern Europe and so on. Obviously the founders of the euro were very conscious of this. Their argument was simple: the need to preserve the euro would force greater integration.

Well, it was a high risk strategy. And it’s not one which has been particularly popular with the punters. In many European countries they’ve started voting for nationalist populists who denounce these top-down European institutions as undemocratic.

This nationalist populist movement started in Austria when Jorge Haider’s Freedom Party won 27 percent of the vote in 1999.

The EU establishment was outraged. They threatened to suspend Austria from the EU institutions. Why? Because they didn’t like the way a quarter of Austrians voted in a general election. This was the high water mark of EU arrogance towards the public.

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Since then other nationalist and anti-EU parties have had some limited political success.

In Finland there has been True Finns, in France the Le Pen family led Front National, in the UK there is the UK Independence Party and so on. Indeed, in last month’s Austrian general elections the Austrian Freedom Party won around 22 percent of the vote.

These parties are protest parties. People vote for them because the EU establishment won’t listen to them and its institutions have arrogantly disregarded ordinary people.

So there’s a simple message in all of this for EU political leaders. It’s not, as some claim, to abandon the European project. The memories of the slaughter, bitterness and subsequent poverty and deprivation of the first half of the 20th century are too recent for Europeans to undo the achievements of European unity.

The message is that Europe needs to develop from the bottom up, not the top down. Free trade and investment throughout Europe makes perfect sense. That requires an institutional structure to manage and even police. But the more the EU leadership tries to force the pace for European integration beyond a level of public comfort, the more resistance they will get. And, ironically, the more they will risk the viability of the European project.

12 The Melbourne Review October 2013

BUSINESS Needed: a nation brand mindset It is time to move beyond discussions of productivity and red tape to what industries will define as our shared prosperity

by Peter Singline & David Ansett

W

e apologise – we have been very quiet about the need for Australia to pursue an intelligent and cohesive exercise in defining its brand. Early in 2012 we wrote an article for this esteemed publication decreeing that we believed Australia was lacking a coherent game plan for its future. A game plan that puts sectorial self interest aside and adopts a nationwide mindset as to how we should forge our future together.

We were advocating that the nation’s major stakeholders come together and adopt a nation branding mindset. True branding, not in the sense of logo or a strap line, but where all key stakeholders within Australia engage in structured conversations about our future.

Representatives from industry, Government, NGOs, the arts, education, health, agriculture, media and other relevant sectors, along with members of the wider community need to participate in deep, factual and informed dialogue around the desired pathways for building Australia’s future prosperity.

The sad news is nothing has changed. We have just been through an election campaign that had our new Liberal Government promise a future built on the rather glib sound-bite of promising to “build a stronger economy, end the carbon tax, stop the boats, end the mining tax and build the roads for the future”.

Forgetting how one may feel about the lot of asylum seekers or the plight of the environment, what we still do not know is what Australia will base its economic and social prosperity on into the future.

The upside is that during the course of 2013 there have been the stirrings of an appetite for a conversation about our future. The previous Labor Government reflected on our role in Asia with the Asian Century White Paper.

The Business Council of Australia at the end of July released an Action Plan for Enduring Prosperity. BCA President Tony Shepherd at the time of paper’s launch rightly stated

that “with increasing global competition, the construction phase of the resources boom slowing, an ageing population, and technology causing huge change in how business and society works, now is the time to start a national debate about the kind of country we want and how we get there”.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants has also joined the conversation with their own paper on developing a plan for Australia’s economic prosperity. However, what is missing from all of these contributions is a process for identifying what will define Australia into the future. Yes, increasing productivity and reducing red tape are important endeavours, but what are going to be the industries and services that we are going champion to become world leaders?

When we wrote about this very same need last year, we referenced the definitive work that Finland had undertaken defining its future around the concept of brand. The process that Finland undertook was inspiring – so much so that we subsequently packed our bags and headed to Helsinki to see what we could learn that would be relevant to Australia.

The Finns’ level of generosity and willingness to share was nothing short of uplifting. We gained access to a fantastic cross-section of the Finland Nation Brand Committee, from government ministers and bureaucrats through to academics and industry leaders. We learnt a lot, but what was most instructive is that any serious nation branding exercise needs

the active engagement and commitment from Government.

• Matching need against capability, where do our greatest opportunities reside (fact driven)?

When we returned to Australia mid-last year, our view was the Gillard Government was very unlikely to win another term (even with the resurrection of Rudd) and as such it would be futile to begin agitating for a serious nation branding project.

What do we wish to own as a nation brand (essence and value proposition) and what actions will we undertake to deliver on it (how will we define success, what sectors will we invest in, how will we measure our progress)?

But there is no better time than now to begin such a project. We have a new government, with a delightfully vague mandate. It has a full term in which to embark on something transformational. As mentioned above, there are sectors of the business community already up for the conversation. What is a required is a process to engage them, along with a wider cross section of the community.

Some of the questions that need to be addressed in a nation branding exercise are: • Who are we and what do we have to offer?

What does Australia stand for internationally, what characteristics define our culture, what strengths can we leverage?

• How do we define our prosperity today and into the future? What currently drives our prosperity economically and socially – how is it trending?

• What does the world need (today and into the future) that we can play a meaningful role in delivering?

Far too much conversation about our future is in generalisations. We need to become far more discerning, decisive and committed to a number of very specific actions. For example, if a nation branding project decreed that we should become the food bowl to Asia – how will we do it, what time frame, what resources will we commit and who will be responsible?

Ultimately, whatever the agreed game plan, it requires our new government to assume shared accountability with industry for delivering on it.

Wouldn’t it make for an interesting election campaign in three years’ time if the government of the day was significantly assessed against how it had delivered on an agreed nation brand plan?

»»Peter Singline and David Ansett are cofounders and directors of Truly Deeply, a Melbourne based brand strategy and design consultancy. trulydeeply.com.au

The Melbourne Review October 2013 13

melbournereview.com.au

BUSINESS

A link to prosperity

gateways of trade and economic activity – Melbourne Airport and the Port of Melbourne.

Improved business productivity would also aid the growth and development of this city by enhancing urban renewal, promoting commercial development and opening up new opportunities for investment.

by Jennifer Cunich

M

elbourne’s communities and industries should stand behind the East West Link, our gateway to state-wide productivity, competitiveness and greater liveability.

According to the Linking Melbourne Authority, around 200,000 vehicles cross the north of the CBD to make cross-city journeys every day. Currently, the M1 – the Monash, City Link and West Gate Freeways – represents the only high capacity transport connection to the Port of Melbourne, Melbourne’s industrial areas and interstate highways. With no other cross-city road able to withstand similar volumes of traffic, congestion has become a recurring problem during peak periods. The East West Link would help alleviate this logistical bottleneck by diverting traffic that is not destined for the CBD and allowing for faster access to key destinations such as Melbourne Airport and the Port of Melbourne.

Given that almost 74 percent of person-trips around the city every day will be made by car in the next two decades, improving connectivity will have significant benefits for Melbourne’s liveability. The East West Link will effectively be a bridge to those living in the fast-growing suburbs of north and west Melbourne, giving them access to a wider variety of employment, education and recreational opportunities.

Alleviating congestion also means less pollution and consequently, better outcomes for Melbourne’s environment overall.

Since 2004, Melbourne has experienced a dramatic surge in public transport usage, for reasons related to cost, health and lifestyle choices and environmental concerns. Given that over 85 percent of public transport services are road-based, a reduction in the volume of

east-west traffic allows more priority to be given to public transport services such as tram and bus, cycling routes and pedestrian crossings.

Besides meeting key infrastructure demand, the East West Link would also be an investment in the state’s productivity and competitiveness.

Over the next 40, Victoria’s freight will triple and its containerised trade will quadruple.

This logistical challenge can only be managed if there is a transparent, dedicated pipeline of major infrastructure projects such as the East West Link. By removing cars from local streets, the East West Link will help cut down transport logistics times and the time that workers are forced to wait in traffic. Business transaction costs would be lowered and local industries will be able to better access wider domestic and international markets via the

The demand for travel choice and efficiency has a direct effect on the future of city. As Melbourne grows and changes, its future prosperity will be dependent on fast and effective connections in its transport system. Last year, the Property Council identified a shortlist of infrastructure projects that should be prioritised based on their productivity and the economic dividends, in its report ‘Securing Victoria’s Future – A Program to Plan, Fund and Deliver Infrastructure’. The East West Link was included on this list for its ability to deliver numerous short, medium and long-term benefits for Victorians. The Property Council has given its support to the East West Link as we recognise the project’s critical importance for Victoria’s economy and liveability. It is the link to our prosperity that we have been waiting for.

»»Jennifer Cunich is Executive Director, Property Council of Australia (Victoria). propertyoz.com.au

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14 The Melbourne Review October 2013

FEATURE Six Highlights Innovation and Technology Workshop: Leadership Demands from a Networked Society October 29, 9am – 12pm, Old Treasury Building, JJ Clark Room 20 Spring St, East Melbourne Design and Urban Planning Workshop: Cities Learning Together October 29, 12 – 2pm, RMIT University, Council Chamber Building 1, Level 2R, 124 La Trobe St, Melbourne

Photo: Rodney Dekker

Creative and Culture Exhibition: Mirror of the World: Books and Ideas October 28 – November 3, 10am – 5pm daily State Library of Victoria, Dome Galleries 328 Swanston St, Melbourne

Melbourne Knowledge Week

by ADAM BELT

I

t goes without saying that Melbourne is synonymous with cafés, fine dining, theatre and the arts – the entertainment side of the city is without question. So too is Melbourne world-renowned for its dedication to and celebration of sport, in almost any form.

But beyond these more obvious appearances, what drives Melbourne’s economy more than any other sector is that central element of any thriving 21st century economy: knowledge.

Indeed, a recent City of Melbournecommissioned report estimates that organisations in the knowledge sector contribute $28 billion, or more than half, to Melbourne’s estimated Gross Regional Product of more than $53 billion.

The report also found that of the 428,000-plus people working in organisations located in the City of Melbourne, approximately 67 percent are employed in knowledge-related industries.

It is appropriate and timely then that the City of Melbourne is once again celebrating its Knowledge Week, and a broad-ranging program sees elements of research and leisure, hard science and entertainment, community learning and creative culture, urban design and innovation all come together in a profound statement that says: Melbourne is Australia’s leading city of the intellect and of the mind, and should be hugely proud for being so. This status not only drives the local economy, it is what underpins Melbourne’s status as the world’s most liveable city.

Melbourne Knowledge Week has expanded upon its program of 2012, which saw many of the events attracting capacity crowds.

“The importance of the knowledge sector in growing Melbourne’s economy cannot be undervalued or understated,” says City of Melbourne councillor Jackie Watts, who

oversees a team organising Knowledge Week.

“It is a crucial economic driver in Melbourne.

We have the opportunity to capitalise on the significant world class physical assets and the human capital already driving the knowledge industries in our city.

“The reality is,” Watts goes on, “if you’ve got a smart city it attracts smart people. It is self-perpetuating. With the smart people, we attract the right kinds of progressive business.

The idea of the knowledge economy is then something that is embedded into all other areas of the city’s life. The intellect is an economic driver. It’s all about allowing the intellectual life of the city to grow and to flourish.

“We want to do everything possible to allow businesses and citizens to grow in the city of Melbourne,” Watts adds. “We want to support and encourage the intellectual life of the city and that means both business and citizens. You can’t have one without the other. If knowledge industries are about anything, they’re about people.”

Knowledge Week falls into five categories or topic areas, which themselves give an indication of the breadth of interest: Innovation and Technology; Design and Urban Planning; Creative and Culture; Community Learning, and finally Health and Medical.

A key objective of the week will be to bring people directly into contact with ideas and institutions they may not have known of, may not have frequented for many years, or have stayed away from out of a certain fear that

Community Learning Workshop: The Etiquette of ‘E’: A New Way of Knowing October 30, 6:30 – 8:30pm East Melbourne Library 122 George St, East Melbourne Health and Medical Exhibition: Strength of Mind: 125 Years of Women in Medicine October 28 – November 2, 10am – 5pm daily; 1pm – 5pm Saturday Medical History Museum, Brownless Biomedical library University of Melbourne, Parkville Health and Medical Tour: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute Discovery Tour October 28, 6 – 7pm Walter and Eliza hall Institute of Medical Research 1G Royal Parade, Parkville Book online for all events melbourne.vic.gov.au/knowledge

the ‘intellectual institutions’ of the city can engender in those less familiar with them. It hopes to raise awareness that these places exist for all Melbournians.

“There is so much of the intellectual life of this city that goes beneath the radar. We’ve got each of the universities, many of the major institutions, all offering fabulous things to our citizens, but people have to be made aware of this, and to realise how accessible it all is.”

As such, a lot of the Knowledge Week program is free; there is also a strong focus on

THE MELBOURNE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013 15

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MELBOURNE KNOWLEDGE WEEK

“Many events at last year’s Knowledge Week drew capacity crowds and this year we have expanded the program considerably. The Knowledge Week 2013 offers a wider and most stimulating program for all.”

Everything’, ‘Learning the City’ with its focus on WeTeachMe, Laneway Learning and the Creative Performance eXchange, a ‘City of Literature Walking Tour’, a ‘School of Life Secular Sermon on Knowledge’ and ‘CityLab: Fostering Innovation and Urban Hacking in Melbourne’. The common thread running through all of these is the notion of friendly disruption, a minimum-conflict change to the order of things.

Councillor Watts goes on: “When we map the infrastructure, Melbourne has everything you need for a knowledge economy, but the key element is the people and how they see themselves fitting into this idea of innovation and creative sharing. Of course academics, scientists and innovators are critical, but we’re also interested in how citizens understand the value of knowledge in our city, on a number of different levels.”

community learning and how it is enhanced by new technologies of connection. The emphasis is moving beyond the idea that a knowledge economy is driven just by higher education.

The emphasis is on sharing and humanising.

Important though Melbourne’s universities Moving beyond (yet still recognising) the are on both a national and global scale, new obvious drivers of our knowledge economy, non-profit approaches to citizen education such as the biomedical and biotech sectors, are of increasing importance in embedding this is an expansive program that seeks also to the idea of learning and knowledge being explore the link between the highly specialised a part of the everyday fabric of the city’s scientific and academic work carried out in the life. Tours and workshops built around city, and the everyday lives of its people, at all MELBOURNE SHOWGROUNDS ages from primary school and up. the Community Learning theme include Exhibition Pavillion ‘Discovering Melbourne, Learning by Bike’, ‘Laneway Learning: Classes in Anything and Another of the areas of great interest is the

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changing nature and role of leadership in a society in which, in some respects, technology has allowed for certain barriers and hierarchies to be removed. ‘Leadership Demands from a view online Networked Society’, presented with Leadership Victoria, asks how leaders are adapting – or are being made – in the digital world.

“We’re charting new territory here,” says

Watts. “Technology is driving us so fast, and how to handle that, harness it and use it is something we’re all struggling with. How does power play out in the city? How do we map the shift away from recognised, institutional power towards people having a much greater capacity to organise their own lives, within and around their own communities, enabled by technologies of communication?”

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16 The Melbourne Review October 2013

COLUMNISTS Irregular Writings The Age of Vinyl

BY Dave Graney

E

very other month there’s a story in a paper somewhere about the return of vinyl and how it’s all cool and cute and the music business is saved. I went into a record store in the city and the BEATLES had just had some of their catalogue released on high quality heavy vinyl. (I don’t know why, but modern vinyl is sold in weighted terms.) The proprietor said it was hard to keep up with the demand, and it was mainly younger people in their 20s doing all the purchasing. The vinyl albums were going for $50 and upwards. I get the impression; most people buy the vinyl and download the music to listen to. The album is an object.

I must say, I have a LOT of vinyl. But it’s all stuff from the Age of Vinyl. I like to listen to stuff made for that technology within that technology.

The late and much missed Lux Interior had a room of the house he shared with Poison Ivy devoted to their 78 record collection. It was for listening to 78s – on their 78 player. That’s what the music was meant to be heard on.

I bought some vinyl new in a shop in the UK in the mid 90s. It was a time of great creativity in hip hop and drum and bass music and a lot of it was issued on vinyl. Of course, in the UK and Europe, they had never wholesale deserted the whole idea of vinyl as they seemed to do in Australia sometime in the late 1980s. Here, seemingly overnight, all the record shops remodelled for CDs only and got rid of their record bins altogether.

Australians embrace new technology very quickly. Of course, all the vinyl record pressing plants slowly disappeared as well as the skills for mastering and cutting the original plates from which all the vinyl copies would be stamped. It was another level of sound artistry that couldn’t really be recovered.

Very mechanical as opposed to making perfect digital copies – very human and delicate. The arm which held the record playing stylus, for instance, is pulled down with more force at the edge of a 12” vinyl album that at the centre. So

the music had to be a little less in volume at the outer edge. Records cut in the age of vinyl were recorded with frequencies boosted to sit strongly within the hollow ambience of the barely detectable sound of the needle carving its way through the groove. In the early days of the CD, a lot of old time rock ‘n’ roll records sounded flat and unexciting or all wrong when laid bare within the new digital space. They had to master them again to get that old groove back around the songs. And they did just that.

See, it’s all subjective in the end with music.

With this vinyl fetish, you could actually see it as a positive thing. For me, being a musician in 2013, it’s really more of a sad final joke upon us all. I mean, us the players. Might as well make tea cosies or branded condoms as manufacture vinyl albums. They’re expensive to make.

They’re bulky. And hardly anybody in Australia knows how to make them anymore. Like most things, they’re manufactured elsewhere and brought back here.

I knew a world when there was only vinyl.

I went to a plant in Adelaide in 1979 to watch the first record I appeared on get stamped. It was like being in a bakery. The record was a 7” single and we asked for pink vinyl. The man was taking dobs of molten vinyl, shoving it on a plate and it was getting stamped, with the paper circle in the middle, which had been baked to get rid of all moisture.

I went to the same sort of place in London in the 80s. The cutting engineers scratched their names or little private messages into the vinyl at the centre of the record. You got a test pressing and you’d play it on your old machine or go to a friend’s place to compare. Nothing ever sounded as good as it did in the studio the last time you heard it through those big, deluxe speakers.

With CDs, it was all perfect. No test pressings really needed. It was done. You could go into the mastering suite and walk out with a CD to do with what you liked. No further process of mechanical manufacture to contend with. No other variables.

Now, if you’re a musician, you can record track, master it and upload it immediately to a site where people can access it straight away.

No record company, no management, and no filters at all involved. Why the hell would you want to go back to the age of vinyl?

To be continued...

@davegraney

Six Square Metres The Struggle Against Gravity

BY Margaret Simons

T

he persistent miracle of gardening, and parenthood for that matter, is that things grow despite one’s incompetence. They also grow according to their nature. You can train and trellis, but plants still struggle to be themselves.

It’s one of the things that makes gardening fascinating. The gardens of old sprawled across vast estates, an intermediate space between wilderness and home, the playing out of a constant tension between nature and nurture.

Sometimes, you get to cheat.

And sometimes threats work. My mandarin tree, admittedly in a light-starved corner of my tiny back yard, hasn’t fruited for three years. This year I pruned it back mightily and laid on the potash, while muttering threats about the need to earn its keep. Now it has

Longneck The Show Must Go On

BY Patrick Allington

O

f all the far-fetched provocations that the Abbott government dreamt up in the weeks and months after it came to power — the history wars, the climate wars, the Citizens’ Campaign to Make Political Correctness Illegal, Play School versus the Wiggles — none captured the nation’s attention like the Royal Commission into Meryl Streep’s Rendition of an Australian Accent in the Motion Picture Evil Angels.

Prime Minister Abbott personally appointed country music singer John Williamson as Royal Commissioner. It

pushed out a few grudging blossoms.

Gardening when you really don’t have enough space is a challenge. Logic would suggest that my efforts should be mostly to do with things that grow in pots and without much sunlight, but ferns have limited appeal, one canna lily plant is quite enough, and I like to grow food.

Last year I discovered my local garden centre has cunning and distressingly expensive pots designed to straddle a balcony railing. I requested one for my birthday present, which caused the teenagers to roll their eyes, but they bought it nevertheless and I was a convert.

Now I have six of them balanced on my little sundeck balustrade, growing bok choy, strawberries, radishes and lettuce.

Even more novel are the upside-down bags,

proved an inspired choice: if anybody was qualified to probe the authenticity of Streep’s Aussieness, it was ‘True Blue John’. Even the Greens, upon hearing the news, spontaneously murmured ‘oi oi oi’.

Williamson’s genius was to make the hearings an open-mike affair. Sure, that’s also the reason that the Commission took 9 years, 4 months and 11 days to hand down its sole recommendation — about as long as Abbott lasted as PM — and why the costs blew out (despite Tourism Australia paying Streep’s appearance fee in exchange for footage of her cuddling a crocodile).

Things started bumpily. When the first witness, Cate Blanchett, expressed her admiration for Streep — ‘Out of Africa is a classic’ — Counsel assisting the Royal Commissioner branded her a hostile witness (not to mention a Kevin Rudd fan). Subpoenaed to read the entire filmscript aloud in order to ‘remind us what true Australianness sounds

The Melbourne Review October 2013 17

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COLUMNISTS bought for two dollars each on special from Bunnings. I assumed at the time that they were cheap because they didn’t work, and nobody else was foolish enough to purchase.

There isn’t much to them. The bags are like green sausages, around a metre long, with a little hole at the bottom and a big one at the top, together with some wires and a hook by which to hang them.

The idea is that you push a seedling’s leaves through the bottom hole, leaving the roots in the bag, fill from the top with potting mix, water and hang it in a sunny spot so the plant grows upside down.

Four weeks ago I planted an eggplant, a tomato and a capsicum, and hung the bags from the only part of my sundeck railing not occupied by the straddling pots. They look like fat, premature Christmas stockings.

The picture on the package showed tomato plants growing like upside down trees, trailing below the bag and laden with fruit, but my plants are behaving differently. They clearly want to grow up.

Just after their stems emerge from the bag, they take a U-turn and are struggling upwards against gravity. How will they fare once they (hopefully) set fruit? Will they be able to continue the upwards struggle, or will they snap off and die? There is a ghastly fascination to watching the struggle.

Meanwhile I have cleared the gone-to-seed broccoli from my prime growing space – the sunny but narrow strip of soil that divides my house from the street, and cut back the rosemary and lavender to create room for beans and corn.

Instead of putting the rosemary clippings in the green bin, I bundled them up with rubber bands and left them on the gatepost in a bucket with a note indicating they were free to a good home. They were all gone by the end of the weekend. One person’s prunings, another’s dinner garnish. Some things go right with the world.

@MargaretSimons

like’, Blanchett instead channelled Streep channelling Lindy Chamberlain. ‘An act of homage’, she called it.

Blanchett’s brilliant performance divided critics and the public. Thousands of patriotic citizens descended on the Royal Commission, claiming they could do better. In his nowfamous speech to the National Press Club, Williamson declared that ‘the people must be heard’. He ruled that all comers could speak, but only for one sentence. So it was that 40 people an hour for 6 hours a day for 74 days shuffled up to the stand, gave an oath, offered their best rendition of ‘A dingow’s got my baybee’ and stood down. It was riveting stuff.

Things carried on in relaxed and comfortable fashion until Day 68, when a wannabe muso — singlet, King Gee stubbies, weeds-and twigsinfested beard, the whole kit — smuggled in a twelve-string guitar and broke into song. The guards hauled him out despite Williamson’s plea to ‘Set the music free’. In the lunch break,

Third Age It’s Time: for a new party

BY Shirley Stott Despoja

O

n the rare occasions that politicians mentioned “The Aged” in the recent election, it was clear that they didn’t have a clue beyond mentioning a granny in a nursing home (politician pulls long, sad face) or the “ageing population,” which to them meant hordes of old people about to suck up the nation’s resources (politician shows worried, put-upon face).

I detected an occasional hesitation before a politician kissed a baby. In the UK, political writers are suggesting that politicians forget about kissing babies, who don’t vote, and “sidle up” instead to old people who do.

Sidle up? Sidle off, I say. Let’s have a Party. We need The Old People’s Party.

No “grey power” nonsense”: if you start with a cutesy hair stereotype or a genteelism you won’t get the feisty old people we need to get this country moving or the increasing numbers of old people who are about to make a bigger than ever contribution to our nation. Old People’s Party is strong and uncompromising. Old People’s Action Party might be better.

It’s just the time to bring this up. People are moaning about the proliferation of small political parties, but it’s the ballot papers and the preference system that may need reform. The last thing we want is to quash the efforts of people in our lively democracy to express their needs by forming a political party. How about that political pundit fellow on Meet the Press on September 15, who was shocked that parties he’d “never even heard of” were on the ballot paper?

Since when did you have to pass his test of acquaintance to stand for parliament?

It sounded suspiciously like parliament is for “our sort of people”.

Williamson and the bloke sat under a ghost gum and composed a ditty called ‘Me & Meryl Got Something Going On’, which appeared on Williamson’s 2018 album Live in Nauru.

In the years that followed, the Commission sought, without fear or favour, to love and laud America, to denounce and whinge about America, to laugh at America, to wonder at America. No two witnesses seemed ever to agree. Streep’s woeful acting had brought Australians closer together in the same way that Hurricane Katrina had galvanised community feelings in New Orleans. No, her pitch-perfect performance was the best compliment Australia could ever hope for. Streep’s sinister infiltration of Australia proved that we should kick the Yanks out of Pine Gap (and Joel Madden out of Sydney). No, we need US protection and, really, we should offer to store some of their nuclear weapons (and invite Miley Cyrus to emigrate).

Meryl Streep was the Commission’s final witness. Friendly and relaxed — and yet as

The Old People’s Action Party should knock some sense into those who think the old are either a burden or taking up jobs that belong to the young. It is often thought that only volunteer work is appropriate to Third Agers.

Think again. I was interviewed recently by a university researcher who is finding that old people can and do have jobs into their 90s. They just fly below the radar. If everyone were not obsessed with Alzheimer’s (which the young assume that you have the first time you forget their boring names), job-seeking by the old and fit would be common.

In July, The New York Times reported on studies in the UK and Denmark that showed that dementia rates among people aged 65 and older are falling – “sharply”. Experts claim the studies confirm what they had suspected but had had difficulty proving: “that dementia rates would fall and mental acuity improve as the population grew healthier and better educated.”

“The incidence of dementia is lower among those better educated, as well as among those who control their blood pressure and cholesterol… So as populations controlled cardiovascular risk factors better and had more

grand as a castle — she enthralled her audience with anecdotes from her career. But despite Williamson’s pleas, backed by a petition of half a million signatures, Streep declined to utter her famous line from Evil Angels.

‘When the curtain falls, my work speaks for itself,’ she said.

And then she stood and left the witness box.

Even the way she glided towards the exit was a work of art.

‘But where are you going?’ Williamson asked.

‘Say you’ve knocked off for a smoko.

And you’ll be back later on,’ Streep replied.

Williamson could have sworn she’d stolen his voice.

The applause died down, the crowd shuffled out. Williamson retired to the pub, sipped a VB and wrote the Royal Commission’s single recommendation: ‘The show must go on.’

@PatrAllington

years of schooling, it made sense that the risk of dementia might decrease.” And this, it is claimed, is now proven.

It meant, said one Alzheimer’s researcher at Duke University, that the common assumption that every successive generation would have the same risk for dementia did not hold true.

So society is going to have a whole lot of bright old things on its hands. And we learn this just when governments have not solved the problem of stashing hordes of mentally impaired old people away in suitable ghettos.

Just when they were starting to work out how little they could get away with doing for the aged demented.

Dr Dallas Anderson, of the US National Institute on Aging said, “…we are beginning to see that more and more of us will have a chance to reach old age cognitively intact, postponing dementia or avoiding it altogether. That is a happy prospect.”

But what are all these cognitively intact old people going to do with their days? Create and join their own political parties perhaps.

Advocating jobs for all. Quotas of old people on boards and in universities and the cabinet... for a start.

18 THE MELBOURNE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

BOOKS

1913 Florian Illies / Profile Books

BY DAVID SORNIG

Signature years have an exquisite power to deliver history in shorthand form. 1492, 1789, 1848, 1914, 1945, 1968, 1989, and 2001 say enormous things about apparent punctuation marks in human affairs. But the eruption of events does not happen without precursors.

Cultural, scientific and political movements and moods are shaped over years, decades and centuries. It could be argued that in the age of the 24-hour news cycle and the seemingly never-ending mediation of the present through social media, we are less willing now to grasp grand narratives that attempt composing coherent overarching histories than we have at any time over the last century.

Florian Illies’ 1913 attempts to build a bridge between the fleeting and the fixed.

By offering a chronicle of ‘the year before the storm’ of the Great War, Illies offers a context to the cultural shape of the European world that foreshadows not only the signature year that followed it, but the difficult decades that lay ahead. At the same time it isn’t difficult to compare its structure, a chronological

assembly of what are more or less historical fragments, observations, anecdotes and sometimes speculations, to the logic of the social media feed, the aesthetic of the status update.

The stream of present moments in key places – Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Paris, London – bleeds into the past and future.

Some of its characters are interesting for who they will become. At the beginning of the year Hitler and Stalin are both living in obscurity in Vienna and through some wishful thinking Illies imagines them in the same park, perhaps even passing one another. Some of the other key players are already at the peak of their powers. Freud is a giant in the landscape. In 1913 his onetime protégé, Jung, becomes his most bitter rival. The coincidental presence of three of the great writers of the time – Kafka, Joyce and Musil – on the same day in Trieste is tantalising if meaningless.

This is also a man’s world. While women sometimes leap through the year with more agency than the muse, it’s mostly the case that they come into focus because of the relationships they have with men. Felice Bauer corresponds with the doubt-ridden Franz Kafka in Prague, and Alma Mahler’s long-standing and tempestuous affair with the artist Oscar Kokoschka waxes and wanes through the year.

If 1967 was the summer of love when, if you can remember it, you weren’t really there, then 1913 is the year you didn’t exist if you weren’t somehow enmeshed in the family tree of affairs between writers and artists.

The overarching theme of the year is of parricide, the destruction of that which gave birth to the present. From Freud to Stravinsky to Jung to Schnitzler, this is a world that is in nervous premonitionary contortions over the coming overthrow of so many of its cultural and political realities. This undercurrent lends an unhinged quality to the general tone that flirts, through the magnificent translation from the German by Shaun Whiteside and Jamie Lee Searle, between frivolity, intimacy and cool observation. 1913 is a telling and tantalising account of a year at the crest of a terrible wave.

SWINGLAND

GOAT MOUNTAIN

Daniel Stern / Nero

David Vann / Text Publishing

BY WILLIAM CHARLES

BY TALI LAVI

If there were ever any doubt truth is stranger than fiction, throw out your volumes of mummy porn and get a hold of Daniel Stern’s Swingland – a clear-eyed, frank journey through the society of swingers, an extraordinary subculture of those dedicated to casual and group sex. Swingers are prey to easy jokes, but who really knows anything of this lifestyle, its norms, vocabulary and habits?

Stern puts his toe in the water before recounting his full, unstoppable slide into the lifestyle; this documentary narrative follows his transition from lonely heart to group stud, observing as both anthropologist and sexual anecdotist. Stern is by turns outrageous, tender, hilarious and humane.

He is never in any doubt – our human condition is fundamentally absurd, and the lengths to which some people go to find sexual pleasure, enjoyment and adventure is full of pathos and dark humour. Stern couples, triples and group parties with everyone from young models to hipreplacement grandmothers, the latter grinding him so far beyond exhaustion he enters a Zenlike state of calm. A brilliantly told, funny and revealing journey through a subculture and its labyrinths of unabashed human desire.

Ever since his memorable fictional debut, Legend of a Suicide, David Vann’s books have been taking us to brutal emotional terrains, often radiating from his own experience.

The subject here is killing and its spiralling aftermath, after an eleven-year-old boy kills a poacher on a seeming whim during a hunting trip.

Related by the now-grown man he has become, it is filled with invective for humanity and philosophical interrogations into our true natures. The Biblical story of Cain and Abel is employed as a frame on which to hang his central argument: that we all contain this brutality. Although these sections of the narration are sometimes overworked, the rendering of the landscape and the act of hunting is a masterclass of evocation. A particular account of the killing of a buck should be enshrined in literary history. In this boy’s family – as in the author’s – hunting culture is so entrenched that guns are appendages of their flesh. Vann writes into violence; this is no clinical observation. In reading Goat Mountain be prepared to emerge bloody and scarred.

MUSIC IS BEST WHEN SHARED ANAM 2014 Bookings, enquiries or to request a 2013 season brochure call (03) 9645 7911 or visit anam.com.au South Melbourne Town Hall, 210 Bank St, South Melbourne VIC 3205

The Melbourne Review October 2013 19

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BOOKS

Drive By Michael Duffy / Allen & Unwin

BY William Charles

Ninety 9 Vanessa Berry / Giramondo

Tsunami and the Single Girl Krissy Nicholson / Allen & Unwin

BY ADAM BELT

BY Fiona O’Brien

Odd to recall in our zombie and vampiresaturated popular culture that back in the 80s and 90s Goths were a rare and tender breed of oddity, stalking nightclubs, supermarket aisles and all the nooks and crannies of the inner cities, sharing their pitch black romantic outsider’s music, art and worldview in those pre-internet days when mix tapes were constructed with painful doses of love and energy and band T-shirts were more a tribal affiliation than an unthinking corporate choice. Grunge joined in too then, just as dance music exploded. This was a time of more independent ‘indie’ music; street press held an almost uncontested sway on music opinion, and Triple J was just going national. Sydney-based zine pioneer Vanessa Berry fell into and fully lived this world of amateur art, nerdy books and fashion; of The Cure and Sub Pop, Bauhaus, Teenage Fanclub and My Bloody Valentine. In this refreshingly simple and candid memoir, Berry describes with a loving (yet never cloying) nostalgia, how it was to be immersed in a youth subculture in those final years before the internet and the 21st century burst over us. A brave, sincere and hugely entertaining little book.

At 29, Krissy Nicholson is no stranger to overseas travel, having spent three years backpacking to over 40 countries in Europe, South America, the Middle East and parts of South-East Asia. Nothing however, could have prepared her for the next stage of her journey, when she recognises her calling as an aid worker in the developing world. After a year working for the Melbourne branch of Oxfam, she desperately wants to work in the field, but wonders whether the nomadic lifestyle will mean losing hope of her other dream of meeting “Mr Right”. Arriving in Bangladesh, Krissy is quickly initiated into her new life of extremes (of suffering conditions, stress, and love affairs, and for the next six years she searches for love (in what seems like all the wrong places) against the backdrop of adrenalin-fuelled emergency response in disaster zones spanning New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Uganda. As she confronts the myriad of physical, emotional and spiritual challenges thrown her way, she draws strength from the resilience of the human spirit she encounters each day, and rests her hope in the fact that by devoting herself wholeheartedly to her work, her love life just might fall into place when she least expects it.

With the recent Squizzy, the semi-fictional depiction of Melbourne’s crime world descended into the frankly ridiculous. All the more reason then to be thankful for the unflinching eye of Michael Duffy, applying here in Drive By a brilliant mix of reportage drawn from life observation and the novelist’s dramatic touch, to paint a portrait of crime and its effects – grief, confusion, loss, multiple levels of complicity – amongst Sydney’s contemporary Lebanese community. Duffy brings a wealth of experience and a gravitas to this task: he was for many years a crime reporter and opinion columnist at the Sydney Morning Herald; has written biographies of Tony Abbott and Mark Latham; spent a number of years as the contrarian host of ABC Radio National’s Counterpoint program and most recently has emerged as one of Australia’s leading crime fiction writers with his novels The Tower and The Simple Death, featuring flawed local gumshoe Nicholas Troy, along with Bad, his 2011 non-fiction account of the murder of police informant Terry Falconer.

Here Duffy moves his focus to the southwestern suburbs of Sydney – long seen by sections of the popular media as a kind of black hole of morality, a no-go area for good white Anglo Aussie Christians – and the Habib family. Lebanese-Australian Muslims, the Habibs seem to have drawn the short straw in life: with eldest son Imad in maximum security, a middle son falling under the spell of fundamentalist preachers and youngest son Rafi up on a murder charge he swears has been trumped up, mechanic John Habib (‘Honest John’ at his Toyota workshop in inner-city Auburn) longs for the simple choices in life – but isn’t getting to make them. When Rafi’s case comes to trial, the novel excels with its tightly observed legal dramas, its portrayal of a persecuted good cop in young Bec Ralston – who has fled Dubbo

and had an unhappy time of it in the Navy and, even worse, suspects Rafi might in fact be innocent – and all the seething fear of racial tension boiling over from senior cops.

Bad men being bad men – and yet themselves inevitably linked to the Lebanese-Australian criminal world.

With its meticulous attention to detail, its social commentary and its sympathy for the deep complexities of everyday human drama – the simple struggle to get by in the world – the novel unfolds not as a standard thriller but more as an HBO-style urban narrative, a la The Wire. In analysing the webbed relationship between crime, traditional family structures and Australia’s ethnic communities, Duffy goes head first into material that many would prefer not touch. But this is material that is real, and needs to be told – it forms a critical part of the contemporary Australian social fabric.

Duffy neither stereotypes, sentimentalises nor demonises. He spent hours in Burwood Court, where Lebanese families often congregate to support family members on assorted criminal charges, to assist in the authenticity of his narrative. In our flawed natures reside our truths, and Duffy has provided a voice, and a very Australian glimpse, into a layer of our society most of us know nothing of. Highly recommended.

20 The Melbourne Review October 2013

PERFORMING ARTS

Previews by Wendy Cavenett and Hannah Bambra

Melbourne Festival 2013 This year’s Melbourne Festival, the first for Creative Director Josephine Ridge, is as much a celebration of the city of Melbourne as it is a platform for Australian and international acts.

Ridge, who was General Manager of the Sydney Festival for 10 years, has managed to bring some of Melbourne’s most iconic buildings into the Festival fold (including Her Majesty’s Theatre, the Athenaeum, the Forum, the Capitol Theatre and the Palais) offering locals and visitors the opportunity to connect with the city’s rich cultural heritage. There’s also a nod to the very new, with the impressive RMIT Design Hub designated host of the Festival’s design element, while the Festival Hub returns to its spot near the Yarra after its successful debut in 2012. All in all, it’s an impressive Festival program of contemporary and classical music, dance, theatre, visual arts, film and discussion. There are 19 world premieres, a Kids’ Weekend, and a free Opening Night Concert. Big ticket items are numerous.

Highlights include: a special tribute to John Landis, a guest of the Festival, Brahms vs Wagner presented by the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Tacita Dean FILM, piano duo Katia and Marielle Labèque, and Archie Roach at the Playhouse.

LIFE & TIMES: EPISODES 1-4

THE FILMS OF WANG BING

SYLVIE GUILLEM

‘Life and Times: Episodes 1-4 is entrancing, maddening, heartbreaking, sidesplitting… [and] in its humble way, awe-inspiring,’ wrote Charles Isherwood of The New York Times.

Such is the effect this ambitious production has on audiences and critics alike. This is theatre writ large where drama, song and dance create an ingenious response to a familiar question: “Can you tell me your life story?” The answer, which is taken from 16 hours of recorded conversation, seems to be, as Isherwood rightly points out, a ‘singing Facebook page that scrolls on forever’. Well almost, for this is the ordinary made epic, a stunning exploration of our most connected generation: their language, their experiences, their coming-of-age moments played out on stage and in song; the lyricism of their language, the moments of the ridiculous and the absurd somehow, ultimately, poetic.

Showing as both individual episodes (October 22-24, totalling almost eight hours) and in its entirety as a marathon 10-hour performance (with BBQ dinner and intervals on October 26), Life & Times: Episodes 1-4 – a production of Nature Theatre of Oklahoma and Burgtheater Wien – will exert its own seduction, that’s guaranteed.

Described as the cinematic bard of the Chinese working-class and peasantry, Wang Bing has forged a unique place in the world of documentary filmmaking thanks to his singular, epic works. His subject is the social history of China’s everyday people – the miners, the laborers, the farmers: the many hundreds of millions of citizens who live on less than $5 a day. It is their experiences, their emotional lives, that Bing – with his effective hand-held, part observational, part cinéma vérité style – shows us in its real-time (and often haunting) minutiae. This year, the Melbourne Festival offers a range of free screenings of some of Bing’s most renowned works. See the intimate films Fengming: A Chinese Memoir (227mins) and Man with No Name (97mins), screening on a loop, 10am-5pm at Melbourne’s Chinese Museum (October 12-27), or take a rare opportunity to spend time with Bing’s ‘Industrial Epics’ – West of the Tracks (9hrs, 11mins), Coal Money (53mins), and Crude Oil (14hrs), all screening at the Capitol Theatre, October 19 and 20. There’s also The Future in Ruins: Wang Bing’s ‘New Documentary’, a free panel discussion on October 21.

The appearance of Sylvie Guillem, the preeminent dancer of her generation, promises to set this year’s Festival alight with the Melbourne premieres of PUSH (featuring the celebrated pas de deux performed with choreographer, Russell Maliphant) and 6000 miles away, Guillem’s latest collaboration with distinguished choreographers, Jirí Kylián, William Forsythe and Mats Ek. Guillem, born in Paris in 1965, is a former top-ranking female dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet. Known throughout the world for her exceptional talent and her impossibly exquisite physique, she is one of the few ballet dancers to have successfully moved from classical to what one critic describes as the most extreme of contemporary dance. Now 48, Guillem shows no sign of stopping, her flawless movements, her dramatic tempos and intricately executed – and intriguingly cerebral – performances, some of the most technically complex you’re likely to see. The three short solo works and one duet that make up PUSH (October 23 & 24), sees Maliphant and Guillem at their “riveting best” and in 6000 miles away (October 26 & 27), a triptych of powerful dance works create an unforgettable evening that ends with Guillem’s masterful solo, Bye. ‘A magic kind of pleasure’.

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Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre (Ireland)

The Rite of Spring / Petrushka Warning: nudity, sexual references

“One of the most daring and highly original dance theatre companies in the world.”

– The Times (UK)

11 – 14 Oct Comedy Theatre Book online or call Ticketmaster 136 100

melbournefestival.com.au

The Melbourne Review October 2013 21

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MELBOURNE FESTIVAL PREVIEW

FOR ALL INFORMATION VISIT MELBOURNEFESTIVAL.COM.AU

IN SPITE OF MYSELF

GURRUMUL – HIS LIFE AND MUSIC

A CELEBRATION OF MINSK 2011: A REPLY MELBOURNE SKA TO KATHY ACKER

Melbourne-based performance artist Nicola Gunn returns with her new work, In Spite Of Myself. Developed during a residency at the Arts Centre Melbourne, this is an intriguing foray into ideas about identity, performance, and the act of creation itself. Transformation, a favourite Gunn theme, is turned on its head in this subversive mash-up of art, performance, and audience debate where a fictional Nicola Gunn deconstructs her own identity to expose her own processes of self-creation. Gunn, who is known for her many surreal, original works, is one of our most exciting theatre-makers, her experimental approach and her collaborative efforts with her performance and design collective, Sans Hotel, offering a fresh vitality and significance to contemporary performance and theatre-making.

In Spite Of Myself is presented by Arts Centre Melbourne in association with the Melbourne Festival, and shows October 9-11 (Previews) and October 11-13 (Season). As part of Gunn’s Festival program, In Spite Of Everything, ‘a free, one-off participatory public forum’ (October 12), offers a tantalising live art experience where audience members may or may not discuss and debate art practice, and in doing so, contribute to the content of Gunn’s new work.

In an ambitious performance which brings his family, ancestors and homeland onto a screen backed by an orchestra, Gurrumul returns to Melbourne. Moving forward from Yothu Yindi, Gurrumul’s solo work is extremely personal. On stage he sings and tells stories in his language, rich and different from languages of the south.

To take the audience beyond just the spoken word of his people the screen shows dancing, day-to-day life and family in Arnhem Land. This footage of uncles and aunties presenting their surroundings contextualises Gurrumul’s heartfelt music and gives audience members an insightful perspective.

“He has this ability to challenge that nostalgic feeling. What he is singing about is culture and it is connected to a tapestry of icons and ancestors. He is essentially putting words to that connection,” says Michael Hohnen, a collaborator and close friend. A similar performance was staged in Sydney while still experimenting with the concept. Band members were left overwhelmed with emotion and viewers with a very real experience of our first peoples in the middle of the Sydney CBD. Gurrumul will be joined on stage by Sarah Blasko. This will be part of a three-year ongoing set of performances.

Ska music in Melbourne has been largely independent and grass-roots over the past few decades. The malleability of the genre, however, means that even within the local scene there is a great level of diversity.

Stevie Montgomery, of The SKA Vendors, says he dares people not to dance at A Celebration of Melbourne SKA, at Foxtel Melbourne Festival Hub on October 19 and 20. The event is devoted to the rollicking rhythmic riffs of ska, and is sure to draw music lovers keen to embrace their Rudeboy and get “skanking” – a form of skadance that looks a bit like an enthused “running man”.

One performing group, The Caribs, are part of a story very seldom told. Just a humble group from Melbourne, The Caribs laid down some of the earliest ska records in Jamaica. Melbourne is producing world-class musicians and the festival is a chance to celebrate the rich musical heritage of the city and the Jamaican sound of ska. The cross-generational festival of music will celebrate the rhythmically infectious beats, and aims not only to educate on Melbourne’s place in ska history but to engage and have fun through dancing, dress-ups, competition and food which gets your fingers messy.

Every week, 25 artists come together in the dictatorship of Belarus to perform in secret.

The Belarus Free Theatre company, through their art and exploration of sexuality, push against a country which still justifies kidnapping and torturing its civilians in the 21st century.

The stage is simple, the atmosphere frenetic and the actors stripped bare. Sticks beaten on the stage floor represent the physical frustration and lucidity of these individuals, as well as the all-toofamiliar rhythm of an army marching.

Co-founder of the company, Natalia Kaliada, reconceptualises pain, freedom and sexuality in Belarus to a global audience. Kaliada reflects on how men’s scars are generically considered attractive. In an unexpected response, she says the level of police brutality within Minsk makes it the sexiest city in the world.

It was the revolutionary ideas coming out of Belarus in 2010 that reminded Kaliada of Acker’s reflection on New York in 1979. While her piece and its following show an obvious desire for change, the company has been banned, Kaliada exiled, friends put in jail and her family threatened. MINSK 2011: A Reply to Kathy Acker, makes the important distinction that every city is not so lucky and free to express itself.

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S MA EE TH OR SRATHOE EPIS INGL N ODE E S

“The most ambitious theatrical undertaking of my generation. �����” – Time Out New York Nature Theater of Oklahoma (USA)

Life and Times: Episodes 1–4

22 – 26 Oct Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse

BOOK NOW online or call Ticketmaster 136 100

melbournefestival.com.au Presenting Partners Debbie Dadon and Naomi Milgrom AO

22 THE MELBOURNE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

PERFORMING ARTS

Britten in Palestine An anniversary largely unmarked in Australia is celebrated under trying circumstances at the Palestine Choral Festival – with several Australians involved.

BY PETER TREGEAR

O

f the three big composer anniversaries this year, the one that seems to have garnered the least attention from the artistic directors of Australia’s major music institutions is Benjamin Britten. Opera Australia’s mounting of Wagner’s Ring in December no doubt foreclosed any thoughts of a Britten season in Melbourne, let alone a staging of perhaps his greatest creative achievement, the opera Peter Grimes (though Sydney at least got a revival of a production of Albert Herring). Perhaps his War Requiem will feature in orchestral programmes from 2014 as we approach a series

Iain Grandage & Alison Croggon, based on the novel by Tim Winton

of centennial anniversaries associated with the great battles of World War One; otherwise it might appear that Australia’s relationship to Britten’s music is not altogether unlike our commonly expressed feelings towards Britain itself – reticent.

Around the globe, however, it is a different matter, in part the result of powerful advocacy by his publishers Boosey & Hawkes, the Britten-Pears Foundations, and by strong ongoing scholarly interest. One of the more controversial examples of the latter is a new biography by Paul Kildea, Benjamin Britten:

THE RIDERS Victorian Opera 2014 Season

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The Riders is presented by Victorian Opera and Malthouse Theatre.

Benjamin Britten

A Life in the Twentieth Century (Penguin).

Kildea, who was born in Canberra and studied in Melbourne, is also a noted champion of Britten’s music from the podium; he conducted Turn of the Screw for Victorian Opera in 2010.

More recently Kildea conducted one of the more remarkable anniversary events – two performances of Britten’s cantata St Nicolas for the inaugural Palestine Choral Festival (August 22–31). The Festival was directed by another Australian, Michael Stevens, who is currently the head of programming for the Melbourne Festival, and a co-founder of the Choir of London, which provided the core musical forces for these performances. The explicit mission of the group is to be ‘not just a choir’, but a ‘community of musicians who create change’. Since 2003 the Choir of London has toured four times to the Occupied Palestinian Territories and directs concert income to fund a bursary scheme for talented young Palestinian musicians so they can experience musical life in the UK. St Nicolas was composed in 1948 to mark the centennial celebrations of Lancing College in Sussex; Britten’s partner Peter Pears was an alumnus and the School was originally known as the College of St Mary and St Nicolas.

Written for performance by the School, it is cleverly scored for a mix of both professional and amateur musicians and remains ideal for collaborative performances where rehearsal circumstances can be difficult. But St Nicolas himself is also a saint with deep resonance for the local region. The town of Beit Jala near Bethlehem, whose Latin Church was the location for one of the performances, is founded on the site of the cave in which Nicolas is thought to have lived during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land between 312–315 CE. And 1948, of course, was also an eventful year, to say the least, for the region. Local legend has it that

St Nicolas was seen with hands outstretched, catching bombs that fell on Beit Jala during the war that erupted after the creation of the State of Israel.

Thus the St Nicolas we meet both here and in Britten’s cantata is a world away from our impoverished and commercialised imaging of a Santa Claus. But this was a Festival very much about opening minds as well as ears. One lasting benefit for the international musicians who attended was the many opportunities it provided to meet and interact with local communities, both off and on the concert stage, and to visit areas in the Occupied Territories which are usually outside the gaze of the Western media. Here the ‘facts on the ground’ are, to say the least, confronting. The new condo-tower settlement complex on Jabal Abu Ghneim, which lies in the valley between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, for instance, has self-evidently been built to be an immovable object – how it eventually confronts the irresistible force of self determination remains to be seen. And while the Lonely Planet Guide to Israel and the Palestinian Territories notes that ‘as a foreign passport holder you might gain kinky satisfaction from waving a little book that wields power over the guns, walls and barbed wire that deny 2.3 million West Bank Palestinians free passage’, any such satisfaction quickly evaporates when some of those 2.3 million are your musical collaborators or indeed your audience. In ‘Blessed Cecilia’, the Choir of London’s staged rendering of Britten’s music for the Festival that concluded with his Hymn to St Cecilia, the Choir exhorted its audience to remind us that she was not just patron saint of musicians but also a conscientious objector, a fighter for religious and cultural freedom. In such circumstances, such music is indeed well worth performing and hearing.

palestinechoralfestival.org

THE MELBOURNE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013 23

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PERFORMING ARTS

Song Lines

Victorian Opera’s 2014 Seasons includes:

Photo Binci. Courtesy of the Fondazione Pergolesi Spontini.

Victorian Opera launches its 2014 Season

BY PETER TREGEAR

V

ictorian Opera recently launched its 2014 season under the slogan ‘Chapter Two’, as clear a sign as any of the significance it has placed on the arrival of Richard Mills as Artistic Director (last year, presumably, was its ‘Chapter One’). The sense of renewed purpose emanating from the company is timely given the financial and political challenges that the company faces are not getting any easier. A few bad artistic decisions and both a company’s reputation and balance sheet can be in peril. The task of nurturing new operas to life is particularly risky, but in this respect, especially, Mills’ pedigree could not be better. He is undisputedly Australia’s most accomplished composer for the lyric stage, and possesses an acute insider’s knowledge of the nature and challenges of modern musical theatre.

THE PLAY OF HEROD 2-5 October Chapel of the Holy Spirit, Newman College

victorianopera.com.au

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‘Nothing short of a triumph.’

The Telegraph

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The company’s youth development subsidiary, Victorian Youth Opera, sees their 2014 season out with Mills’ own adaptation of a twelfthcentury drama, The Play of Herod (building

THE RIDERS 23 September – 4 October Merlyn, Malthouse Theatre

G

For its concert performance of Bellini’s Norma at the Melbourne Recital Centre in August, VO has been able to attract leading Spanish soprano Saioa Hernández, who will sing alongside notable Australian singers Rosario La Spina and Nicole Car. Mills plans also on scheduling more concert performances of Bellini’s operas in the years to come, with an eye – as audience support and the company’s financial base grows – to mounting fully staged productions.

NORMA 23 August Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre Victorian Opera and Malthouse Theatre present

IN

Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and Jack and the Beanstalk might not seem ‘adult’

Another setting of a fairly tale, Hansel & Gretel, brings us back squarely into the frame of the traditional operatic canon. The score by the late nineteenth-century German composer Engelbert Humperdinck (not the late twentieth-century British pop singer!) achieves the otherwise unlikely trick of using the monumental harmonic and dramatic language of Richard Wagner to create a work that is genuinely delightful and engaging for children and adults alike.

on the success of the company’s adaption of The Play of Daniel last year). This kind of project is important work if opera is going to continue to attract the interest of young people as participants as well as audience members.

Overall, those audiences, Mills believes, remain very knowledgeable and very discerning. If he’s right, they should be particularly flattered by the content of the company’s 2014 season and certainly encouraged to attend.

INTO THE WOODS 19 July – 26 July Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse

LL

Winton is, of course, one of our most accomplished authors, and maybe ‘chapter two’ also draws our attention to just how many of the season’s operas are based on significant works of literature. Verdi’s La Traviata was inspired by a mid-nineteenth century stage adaption of Alexandre Dumas’ The Lady of the Camellias (itself inspired by the courtesan Marie Duplessis who was briefly Dumas’ lover).

While opera plots can often appear to be a mixture of the contrived, tawdry and bizarre (or just plain ridiculous), here, however, we are dealing with social and psychological portraits that are painfully real and familiar. And that’s exactly what Czech set designer Josef Svoboda’s production drives home by using a giant mirror above the stage to both enhance and accuse the audience’s gaze. It is productions like this that show that the label of cultural obsolescence often lazily laid at opera’s feet is really more of a libel.

literature in comparison to The Riders or The Lady of the Camellias, but they, like all the classic fairy tales, also contain darker subject matter, albeit often hidden just under the surface. Indeed such subject matter was often their raison d’être – to introduce children to the hazards and vulnerabilities that awaited them on their path to adulthood. Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods exploits this realm of hidden meaning and allegory, of morals of innocence lost and wisdom gained, to great dramatic effect and, following on from their critically acclaimed production of Sunday in the Park with George, it is pleasing to see VO under Mills make what looks now to be a long-term investment in his works. His body of music theatre must stand as one of the most significant theatrical achievements of the late twentieth century and, questions of genre aside, deserve to be staged and sung well.

HANSEL & GRETEL 18 – 21 June Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio

SE

The stand-out work of 2014 may well end up being the company’s latest new commission, Iain Grandage’s operatic setting (to a libretto

by Alison Croggon) of Tim Winton’s Bookershortlisted novel The Riders. Grandage is a remarkable talent whose compositional career seems to have been predestined to arrive at opera. He was most recently the composer and music director of the incidental music for the Sydney Theatre Company’s stunning production of ‘Secret River’, winning Helpmann awards for his work in both capacities.

La Traviata by G. Verdi, production by Fondazione Pergolesi Spontini (Jesi, Italy).

LA TRAVIATA 17 May – 29 May Her Majesty’s Theatre In association with Fondazione Pergolesi Spontini

THE MOUNTAINTOP

by Katori Hall

1 Nov — 14 Dec Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio Book now mtc.com.au 8688 0800 artscentremelbourne.com.au 1300 182 183 MTC is a department of the University of Melbourne

24 THE MELBOURNE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

PERFORMING ARTS

How a small Australian record label is bringing the world to Australia, and Australia to the world.

BY MICHAEL QUINN

T

wo remarkable conductors whose fortunes owe much to a small Melbourne-based recording company with big ambitions are about to play significant roles in Australia’s music scene.

The Israeli-born Asher Fisch, in Perth last month, will in 2014 be the West Australian Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, a union already generating enormous expectations.

On the other side of the country, Frenchman Guillaume Tourniaire’s relationship with Opera Australia continues to strengthen and next year he will conduct three productions in Sydney and Melbourne.

Rewind a few years and both men’s links with Australia can be traced back to Melba Recordings and the eagle eye (and ears) of Maria Vandamme. Against all odds she recorded Fisch’s ground-breaking Der Ring des Nibelungen with the State Opera of South Australia in late 2004. Three years later she tempted Tourniaire to Melbourne to conduct the first-ever recording of Saint-Saëns’ Trojan War opera masterpiece, Hélène.

Both recordings received unanimous acclaim from European and American reviewers and stamped the mark of brilliance on Fisch, Tourniaire and, for the first time on the international stage, Australia’s classical music recording industry.

“The Ring and Hélène and the five other recordings Asher and Guillaume have made for Melba with our own home-grown artists, have shown to an appreciative world that Australian talent can stand alongside the best from anywhere else in the world”.

Fisch candidly admits there was a time, not so long ago, when Australia didn’t even register on the radar of established conductors let alone feature as a destination of choice. Now, it’s on the itinerary of every self-respecting baton wielder... “We are all struck by the level of orchestral playing here.”

“The Ring was very important for me; it changed everything. And without the wonderful recording, the repercussions of this amazing event would not have reached the Western hemisphere as they have.

“It was very late in the day when Melba became involved,” recalls Fisch, “and that they produced it to such a high technical level, one never before achieved anywhere in the world, was a real achievement. There are dozens of other Rings available, but music lovers will buy this one because of the sound quality alone.

There’s nothing else like it.”

For Fisch, looking from the outside in, Melba Recordings is clearly something that Australia ought to be proud of.

4 September — 19 OctOber 2013

“Wherever I go, people know who and what Melba is and they immediately associate it with the highest quality recording. All the [international] magazines and newspapers listen to all the new recordings from Melba because of their quality. They know a lot more about Australian music making through Melba than they would have if it had not existed.”

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The Cunningham Dax Collection

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The Melba Ring, he adds, was all the more astonishing because “the classical recording industry everywhere is struggling; most labels won’t record opera unless it’s a highlights disc with a star singer. In such a time, the only way to make an impact and to be important is to think differently and out of the box. Someone like Maria Vandamme, who is so committed and drives this thing by herself, gets results for Australia. That’s the future of recording.”

And that’s a sentiment echoed, no less vehemently, by Guillaume Tourniaire who told The Age in 2010: “Maria is so enthusiastic at discovering new repertoire. It is only by taking such risks that music can be kept alive. Maria’s first consideration is the quality of the artistic work and I appreciate this very much”.

With Fisch’s relationship with Melba cemented by the recent and widely acclaimed

Photo: Terry Lane

Melbourne Matchmaker

For Vandamme, a former producer with the ABC, the decision to record Fisch and to bring Tourniaire to Australia was “an inclusive rather than exclusive decision: a desire to place Australian orchestras alongside emerging high-profile European talents to the benefit of both”.

Maria Vandamme

recording, with himself at the piano, of Liszt’s paraphrases of Wagner and “a long list of ideas” for future discs under discussion that includes potential collaborations with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, he will be hoping that similar fortunes shine on his new relationship in Perth.

“The map is changing all the time, and faster now than ever before. The only thing the orchestra needs is a profile and a sound. If we can do that, we will make an impact on the entire Pacific Rim and, in the future, elsewhere in the world. I’m hoping that Melba will play a part in that.”

There’s a fair chance – and if there isn’t, there ought to be – that Melba Recordings will play a vital role in projecting a potential powerhouse partnership in the making onto the world stage. And with plans for future recordings with both Fisch and Tourniaire in tandem with Australian orchestras and artists, Melba continues to assert its namesake Nellie Melba’s credo – It’s got to be perfection – with compelling clarity and confidence.

» Asher Fisch performs as conductor and pianist in two concerts presented by the Melbourne Festival on October 18 and 19. For full details visit melbournefestival.com.au » Michael Quinn is a former Deputy Editor of Gramophone Magazine, and the Associate Editor of theclassicalreview.com

The Melbourne Review October 2013 25

melbournereview.com.au

WORDS & MUSIC

October Boy Mick Harvey

by Phil Kakulas

N

ot long before a seriously ill Rowland S. Howard died of liver cancer in 2009, he made an unusual request of his former Birthday Party band mate and long time collaborator Mick Harvey.

Having learned that Harvey was writing songs for a forthcoming album to be called Sketches From The Book Of The Dead, Howard suggested that Harvey write one for him. A year after Howard’s passing, Harvey fulfilled his friend’s wishes with October Boy; an elegy to the dark spirit of Howard’s music and arcing trajectory of his life.

In a nod to songwriter Lee Hazelwood (a Howard favourite) and the Nancy Sinatra sung Friday’s Child, Harvey uses the title of the song as the foundation of the lyric. Repeating it at the start of each line, as he sketches out a portrait that both personalises and mythologises Howard’s otherworldly persona.

October Boy - sang his songs of sadness October Boy - loved the Shangri-Las

October Boy - showed no signs of madness Was close to the top… but no cigar That Howard was born in October makes sense enough. The moniker of ‘October Boy’ was one given to him in the late 70s, when as part of Melbourne’s fledging new wave scene, he and Harvey cut their teeth with Nick Cave in The Boys Next Door. “For a while Rowland wore a badge with ‘October’ written on it,” recalls Harvey. “I remember from the time, something about him being referred to as October Boy and then on his funeral notification card there it was – written at the bottom – underneath those vital dates.”

October Boy is laden with references to Howard’s distinctive musical style, from the use of a minor key and understated waltz time rhythm to the shards of distorted, reverb drenched guitar that cut through the arrangement. “The idea,” says Harvey, “was to make it as if he were playing along with us which, in a way, he was.”

The guitar part came courtesy of JP Shilo, who had played with Howard and observed his technique first hand. “It’s all about the harmonics,” says Shilo, referring to the overtones produced by placing the fingers lightly upon the strings. “Rowland often remarked that when possible use open strings and let things ring out… left hand free... tremolo arm in the right.”

Where the song’s verses are concerned with the ‘telling of the ages’, as Harvey puts it, the chorus is a simple, poignant reiteration of Howard’s original request. One made, Harvey adds, with a ‘typical Rowland smirk.’

If you’re writing songs for the book of the dead Well write one for me… but not just yet A “somewhat indulgent request”, Harvey notes, that despite its offhand delivery he found impossible to refuse.

The third verse of the song casts Howard as an ill-fated adventurer undone by his own hand. “October Boy took rock n roll poison,” sings Harvey and “bought into that myth.” Ultimately paying the price “of an experimentalist.”

Howard cultivated an image of an elegantly wasted, rock ‘n’ roll aristocrat, his music imbued with the dark narcotic glow of the heroin he used for much of his adult life. If from a distance this lifestyle held an allure for some, for Harvey the reality up close was very different.

“Living in the midst of that kind of drug use is almost the ultimate in destruction of style, creativity and cool,” he explains, “so that’s the myth to which I am referring. Rowland was trapped by it and his addiction for a long time

and it was a great obstruction to his creative output and his life in general.”

The final verse deals with Howard’s death and funeral before closing with a series of questions Harvey directs at Howard himself.

“If I write you a song in my book of the dead,” he sings, “should I make it carefree or make it sad? If I write you a song in that book of the dead will it matter at all what’s left unsaid?”

While not entirely carefree, October Boy’s lightness of touch ensures it is never overtly maudlin or sad. Harvey says this was in part out of respect for Howard, who “would have hated it to be mawkish or sentimental”.

As to the question of what is left unsaid, superficially it would appear to be an explicit expression from Harvey of his mourning and grief. Yet, perhaps it is because these feelings remain unspoken that they are all the more powerfully conveyed by the song.

»»Mick Harvey and JP Shilo will perform in Pop Crimes (The Songs of Rowland S. Howard) at the ATP Festival in Melbourne on Saturday October 26. atpfestival.com

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26 The Melbourne Review October 2013

PERFORMING ARTS / CINEMA Blancanieves

by Luke Stegemann

Becoming Traviata This fly on the wall documentary strips away the opulence of the famous stage production to reveal the raw art of creation.

by Anna Snoekstra

P

hilippe Beziat’s Becoming Traviata invites the audience to sit in on the rehearsals leading up to JeanFrancois Sivadier’s reworking of Verdi’s classic La Traviata. There are no talking heads, establishing shots or descriptive text on screen in this documentary. From the very beginning, we are right there in the rehearsals with the cast and crew watching the masterpiece being recreated from the ground up.

Watching these artists at work is truly something special. We see famed coloratura

7.5pt Univers 57 Condensed

soprano Natalie Dessay wrestle with the character of Violetta, her confidence often wavering. Dessay’s one-on-one work with Sivadier is probably the most fascinating, as they painstakingly attempt to understand the meaning behind Verdi’s lines. Watching the rehearsals as they unfold pairs monotony with high art. You expect voices of this calibre coming from a made-up soprano on stage in an elaborate costume. However, when it comes from a woman in a tracksuit reclining on a foldout chair in a fluorescent room, you realise just how phenomenal the skills of these singers are.

The film works off the structure of the original material, becoming more developed with each scene, so that by the third act the rehearsals are in full costume. Becoming Traviata may perhaps be more fruitful for a fan of Verdi’s opera or anyone with personal investment in stage productions. That said, there is enough in this film for everyone to find enjoyment regardless, however a quick brush-up on the plot of La Traviata wouldn’t go astray.

»»Becoming Traviata now showing at Classic Cinemas, Elsternwick. classiccinemas.com.au/Movie/BecomingTraviata

As the opening credits roll against a backdrop of the exquisite needlework of a bullfighter’s suit of lights, one senses this new Spanish film may be a treat. And it is, in every way. Director/writer Pablo Berger reworks the tale of Snow White into a starkly filmed, silent black and white tale of 1920s Seville – a Spain still very much divided into haves and a vast mass of desperately poor, illiterate havenots. This dreamy chiaroscuro serves the purpose of illustrating the numerous hardedged dualities in Spanish life, and suit the many bullfight scenes beautifully – a sport traditionally played out in light and shadow.

When her legendary bullfighter father, Antonio Villalta, is gored in action, young Carmencita is still in her mother’s womb.

Her mother dies in childbirth, and the hospital nurse (Maribel Verdú) marries her now paraplegic father. The waif goes first to live with her grandmother – Ángela Molina playing the vivacious Andalusian grandmother to perfection – but, after she has a heart attack, Carmencita is packed off to live in a dank cellar at her stepmother’s home. Here she reacquaints herself, in scenes reminiscent of Dickens’ Great Expectations,

with her crippled father, who comes to life and teaches her, from his wheelchair, the rudiments of bullfighting and cape work.

When the stepmother discovers these secret trysts, she murders the father, and Carmencita flees her own attempted murder, falling in with a troupe of bullfighting dwarves.

Carmencita (now re-named Blancanieves) excels at the sport that runs in her blood, and the story proceeds until her day of apparent triumph, once again in the plaza de toros where her father had been gored.

Berger has taken many stylistic risks here, and one or two scenes fall short – a bad pun is poorly translated, and the apple eating is strangely out of sync with the overall aesthetic and folkloric narrative of the film, yet overall this is an entertaining triumph and 90 minutes of exquisite filmography. And with its light and shadow, rampant beasts, stately pasodobles, complex social narratives, costumes, manners, gallantry, ambition and defiant choreography, Blancanieves helps to restore – certain contemporary doubters notwithstanding – the art and aesthetic of bullfighting to its rightful place as one of Spain’s great cultural contributions to the world.

»»Rated M. Opens October 24.

The Melbourne Review October 2013 27

melbournereview.com.au

VISUAL ARTS crucial theme in Drysdale’s artistic career is his coded depictions of “the troubled state of the world”, as seen in his characteristically desolate paintings of remote Australia. In this observation, Heathcote makes reference to the atrocities and social upheavals surrounding World War II. Two superb works brought together for the exhibition, Desolation (1945) and Crucifixion (1946), exemplify this strand in Drysdale’s practice.

Russell Drysdale, Evening c. 1945 oil on canvas, 50 x 60.5 cm. Private collection. © Estate of Russell Drysdale

Characterising the Landscape

The positioning of people – locals it would seem – within the nation’s remote environments is another thematic strand in this exhibition, as can be seen in such works as Man Reading a Newspaper (1941), The Cricketers (1948), and Basket Ball at Broome (1958). In the latter of these we see a skilfully designed scene which highlights both the artist’s interest in contemporary approaches to composition and his interest in finding a new manner in which to portray local communities in the landscape. In this case, the cluster of Aboriginal schoolgirls playing basketball on the left of the scene is strangely counterbalanced by the gesturing figures of a nun and an observing schoolgirl in the opposite foreground of the canvas.

Drysdale is often noted for his intimate depictions of Aboriginal communities during his travels around Australia. In response to this – and with an aim “to view the past through

the filter of the present,” says Victoria Lynn – TarraWarra Museum of Art is presenting a contemporary display alongside the Drysdale exhibition entitled Future Memorials. This project incorporates the work of Sydney-based Wiradjuri-Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones and Melbourne-based non-Aboriginal artist Tom Nicholson, who together present an inventive memorial to the nearby Coranderrk Aboriginal Station. Coinciding with the 150year anniversary of Coranderrk, this exhibition locates new visual language through which to communicate the effects of colonialism in the region in which TarraWarra stands.

Like Russell Drysdale, Jones and Nicholson use contemporary art practice to give expression to something already existing in the world around them. The current exhibition of Drysdale’s work demonstrates the extent to which new visual language can characterise a nation, particularly as concerns the physical landscape.

»»Russell Drysdale: Defining the Modern Australian Landscape shows at TarraWarra Museum of Art from October 19 to February 9. twma.com.au

Russell Drysdale at TarraWarra Museum of Art

by Suzanne Fraser

I

n contemporary commentary, it is nigh on impossible to encounter the name Russell Drysdale without also reading some variation on the phrase “iconic vision of Australia”. In his painting The Cricketers (1948), Drysdale composed a scene that has, thus far, resisted sixty years of social transformation to remain an exemplary representation of postsettlement national identity in Australia. Yet this contemporary perspective of a historic work of art, while revealing its significance in the present, can function to cloud our vision of its value as something indelibly new in the past. Through survey exhibitions like the one opening this month at TarraWarra Museum of Art – entitled Russell Drysdale: Defining the Modern Australian Landscape – the viewer is able to regain some of this past perspective and consider how such iconic images came into being.

Victoria Lynn, director at TarraWarra Museum of Art, notes that this exhibition has “been in the planning for many years”, predating her own role at the helm of the gallery. But with four major Drysdale paintings in the TarraWarra collection, Lynn was happy to embrace the exhibition. Indeed it has become one of the gallery’s key streams of activity to

present an annual show focussing on a single artist represented in the permanent collection; this year’s Russell Drysdale landscape survey follows on from a successful 2012 retrospective of then-living artist Jeffrey Smart.

Curatorship of the current exhibition fell to Christopher Heathcote, “one of Australia’s leading art critics”. When I asked Heathcote how he initially formulated this exhibition, he directed me towards a university library catalogue, where I would find the yield of his research in the sphere of modern Australian art.

Indeed Russell Drysdale fits neatly in amongst the demonstrated interests of his career. In the exhibition at TarraWarra, Heathcote positions the artist as an innovator of Australian landscape painting, a visionary who utilised the stylistic methods of European modernism to author a new language through which to communicate Australianness in the visual arts.

Using a surrealist approach to scale and subject matter, Drysdale seemed to capture something of the persona of central Australia that had hitherto been incommunicable; such a reading might account for the continuing relevance of his paintings in the contemporary period. As Christopher Heathcote sees it, a

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28 THE MELBOURNE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

VISUAL ARTS

Open Range Daylesford Macedon Ranges Open Studios in November

BY THE MELBOURNE REVIEW

T

hirty-five artists from the beautiful Daylesford and Macedon Ranges region will open their doors for six days in November, giving the public a chance to go ‘behind the scenes’ of the creative process, meet artists in their creative spaces and learn about their work and inspiration.

The Daylesford Macedon Ranges Open Studios (DMROS) is based on the famous Cambridge (UK) Open Studios event, and will showcase some of the extraordinary artists working in the region.

The 35 artists were selected by a curatorial panel of experienced arts evaluators, including fortyfivedownstairs gallery director Mary Lou Jelbart; Melbourne gallery director Karen Woodbury; and former NGV deputy director Frances Lindsay.

Participating artists in the Daylesford Macedon Ranges Open Studios program include sculptor and print maker Tim Jones, whose work is represented in almost all public collections in Australia and in the British Museum; 2012 Archibald Prize finalist Rose Wilson; metal sculptor Russell Petherbridge; restaurateur and accomplished painter, Allan Wolf-Tasker (whose studio is located at his famous Daylesford Lake House); textile artist Colleen Weste; ceramist Bridget Bodenham; actor-turned-artist Maggie Millar; sculptor Fiona Orr and bell artist Anton Hassall, creator of the Federation Bells in Melbourne’s Birrarung Marr.

Part of the joy of the experience, beyond the quality and variety of the art, will be the studios themselves: they range from converted storage containers to a studio built of corrugated iron and literally scooped out of the gold diggings, to a light, bright trio of studios set in three acres of bushland.

“Visiting artists in their studios is a privilege which gives great insight into the way they create their work. Studios are special places and often quite private, therefore it’s a special experience meeting the artist in their workplace,” says creative producer Jill Rivers of the opportunity.

The 35 selected studios will form an exclusive ‘art trail’ for the six days, with plenty of the region’s renowned food and wines stops available for people to refresh and replenish as they tour the region.

Rivers is in no doubt about the overall quality of the experience. “As you wind your way round the leafy streets, roads and lanes of the countryside coloured by the changing hues and patterns of its early summer dress, you will understand why so many artists are drawn to live and work in this region,” she says.

“Living close to nature offers them a calming timeless environment and constant inspiration for their work.

“The influence of the ever-changing landscape is reflected for posterity in their paintings, mixed media, sculpture, printmaking, jewellery, ceramics and other expressions of their art.”

Ceramicist, jeweller and painter Robyn Clarke is a case in point. “My exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne have drawn on my responses to my immediate landscape,” she says, “from harbour jetties to bushfire-scarred plateaus to wonderful rockscapes of Central Victoria. My immediate environment drives my expression.”

So too, painter Padma Ostapkowicz: “The process of creating art is an adventure into unchartered territory that is a multidimensional journey, encompassing chaos,

Rose Wilson, Proud Mary.

much joy and exhilaration. Creating art is my meditation as it heightens self-awareness, sharpens intention and opens the mind.

I have been an artist for over 40 years and have enjoyed a continuous flow of inspiration, shared internationally and now locally with the Macedon Ranges community.”

The marriage of artistic creativity with the sights and sensations of the broader Daylesford Macedon Ranges region awaits you in these studios in the tiny hamlets of Basalt and Yandoit between Daylesford and Ballarat, through Hepburn Springs, Musk, Wheatsheaf, Glenlyon, Lyonville, Trentham, Woodend, Mt Macedon, Gisborne, Kyneton, Lauriston and Malmsbury.

The Daylesford & Macedon Ranges Open Studios project is supported by Arts Patron Peter Clemenger, who initiated the idea, and is designed to grow each year along the Cambridge model.

» The Daylesford & Macedon Ranges Open Studios are open to the public on November 2, 3, 4, 5 and 9-10. dmropenstudios.com.au

THE MELBOURNE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013 29

MELBOURNEREVIEW.COM.AU

VISUAL ARTS

Day of the Dead

doubt being Mexicans, the ones they danced with amongst many shots of tequila.

So why not honour those that have passed by, the most important people in life’s journey, by throwing a massive party full of all of the things you know they’d like?

Bringing other Mexican traditions to Melbourne

With Mexican restaurants becoming increasingly popular and many new ones opening this year in Melbourne, some of the signature restaurants, riding the Mexican wave, have been invited to join the festival and be a part of this wonderful celebration.

BY THE MELBOURNE REVIEW

F

or the second year running, Melbourne will join in the celebration of the “Dia de Los Muertos” (Day of the Dead) through food, drink, music and art.

On Saturday November 2, 405 Flinders Lane will be transformed, where the usually Victorian cream walls of the building will become a projection of colourful death masks and Mexican art and Aztec dancers will celebrate their ancestors. There will also be the pulsing backdrop beat of Mexican tunes as provided by underground Mexican and Melbourne DJs as well as the traditional instruments and sounds of a Mexican mariachi band.

The Day of the Dead Festival promotes this ancient Mexican tradition through educating and integrating the Melbourne community in a festive and colourful way.

Proud Mexican señor, Ricardo Amare, is the creative director and brains behind the Day of the Dead Festival. Amare arrived in Melbourne eight years ago, feeling an urgent need to introduce Melbourne to Mexico in a high-end, contemporary form. He has since been highly influential in the restaurant trade, and has plans to take the Festival to every Australian city.

Photo: Peter Coulson

Restaurateurs, chefs, artists, and many other community members will enjoy and learn about this uniquely creative festival day, where rich cultural diversity and tradition are celebrated, along with the honouring and remembering of the lives of departed family members. It is believed that during this day the spirit of the departed make an annual visit to those loved ones left behind. UNESCO has declared it a masterpiece of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

As part of the design of the ‘look’ of the Festival, Amare has drawn in some outstanding national and international collaborators, including Irish milliner Philip Treacy for Alexander McQueen’s headpiece for the shoot.

Don’t let the word ‘dead’ scare you off. The Day of the Dead Festival raises awareness about the relationship and connection we have with

our beloved ancestors and family members who have passed away. Although this celebration is associated with the dead, it is not portrayed as a morbid or depressing time, but rather a period of happiness, colour, food and fun shared with family and friends. Mexicans celebrate this special holiday season by remembering all the people that came before them, the ones they loved with, the ones they laughed with and no

You can support the Festival by participating as a sponsor, exhibitor, artist, and/or volunteer, and share with family and friends one part of the Mexican way of life. On November 2, this Day of the Dead party will officially put Mexico’s traditions, not just their fabulous food, firmly on the Melbourne map.

» The Day of the Dead Festival is on November 2 at 405 Flinders Lane, from 3pm – 1am.

Tickets are $35. dotdfestival.com.au Facebook/dotdfest @dayofdeadfest

TarraWarra Museum of Art

RUSSELL DRYSDALE DEFINING THE MODERN AUSTRALIAN LANDSCAPE

19 October 2013 - 9 February 2014 Curator: Christopher Heathcote To celebrate TWMA’s 10th anniversary, entry is free on 7 – 8 December Please note TWMA will be closed to the public 30 November – 1 December 311 Healesville-Yarra Glen Road, Healesville OPEN 11:00am - 5:00pm, Tuesday to Sunday 7 days a week from Boxing Day to Australia Day ADMISSION $12 adults; $10 seniors; $8 conc PHONE (03) 5957 3100 www.twma.com.au

Russell Drysdale The boresinker and his daughter 1964 oil on canvas 75 x 125.9 cm TarraWarra Museum of Art collection Gift of Eva Besen AO and Marc Besen AO Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program 2008 © Estate of Russell Drysdale

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Indemnification for this exhibition is provided by the Victorian Government

30 The Melbourne Review October 2013

VISUAL ARTS

Jeffery Wilkinson: Untitled

lifetime of consistent production. It was in his home studio that he produced many of the works included in this exhibition.

It is through his bronze sculpture that we are able to get a sense of both Wilkinson’s personality and his talent for modelling. A beautiful series of horses, crafted meticulously using the ancient lost-wax process, as well as a series of torsos which celebrate the female form, show Wilkinson’s skill in formal perfection. Other bronze works illustrate Wilkinson’s ability to experiment, an example of which is an untitled bronze female figure that almost floats above its base. This figure, whose body has been reduced to an allusive silhouette with elongated lower limbs, is reminiscent of the work of the great Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti.

Celebrating the man behind ‘The Swimmer’.

by Nicole Salvo

T

Born in Ballarat in 1921, Wilkinson studied at the Ballarat School of Mines in the 1930s before becoming a teacher in the Pottery Department in the Melbourne Technical College (later known as RMIT). Wilkinson then served in the Royal Australian Navy during the Second World War, first in the Pacific as an Able Seaman and then towards the end as an artist with the Naval History Section. It was during this time that Wilkinson created models of Australian Admiral Sir Guy Royle and Rear Admiral Collins as well as the head of the first Japanese soldier captured at Finchshafen which were presented to the Australian War Memorial.

Returning to the Melbourne Technical College after the war, Wilkinson went on to have a long and successful teaching career, beginning as an Assistant Pottery Instructor in 1946 and advancing to the position as Senior Lecturer of Ceramics, from which he retired in 1985. Some of Jeffery Wilkinson’s students forged their own success in the arts, including the likes of Hedley Potts and Peter Rushforth, who was taught by Wilkinson in the late 1940s and is recognised as one of Australia’s most important ceramic artists.

This exhibition showcases a variety of Wilkinson’s ceramics, ranging from his utilitarian vases and pots from the 1960s, to the beautifully modelled animal figures which have a sculptural quality that Wilkinson went on to later develop in his bronze works. A superbly crafted black sculpturesque work entitled Pot stands out amongst the ceramic pieces.

This work was selected by Kenneth Hood for the exhibition Australian and New Zealand Pottery which was at the National Gallery of Victoria and toured the state galleries from 1963 to 1964. The somewhat organic shaped form of Pot reminds us of coral with its tube-like

Images: Courtesy of the Wilkinson family.

he latest exhibition at The Gallery @ Bayside Arts & Cultural Centre presents a visual archive of the highly accomplished, yet relatively unknown Victorian sculptor and ceramicist, Jeffery Wilkinson. In this survey exhibition we are able to witness the true quality of this artist’s craftsmanship, whose output spanned more than fifty years and encompassed a variety of materials from earthenware and terracotta to bronze and fibreglass.

Jeffery Wilkinson, Blue rider 1953, ceramic, 50 x 40 x 20 cm.

Jeffery Wilkinson, The swimmer 1999, bronze, dimensions various.

fingers that look ready to wave with the water’s movement. Another interpretation of the work comes from Elwyn Lynn, who in a 1964 review for The Australian, evocatively described it as having “protruding gun muzzles – like a new weaponry awaiting victory garlands.”

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Wilkinson’s career as a sculptor was very active, regularly exhibiting at the Victorian Sculptors’ Society and the Argus Gallery, and becoming President of the Victorian Sculptors’ Society in the late 50s. During this time, Wilkinson was regarded as one of the state’s leading sculptors, exhibiting alongside Andor Meszaros, Inge King, Clement Meadmore and Lenton Parr. Wilkinson’s ceramics and sculpture were selected for The Arts Festival of the Olympic Games Melbourne in 1956.

To put this achievement into context, other

artists chosen for the exhibition included distinguished ceramicists Klytie Pate and Ivan McMeekin, contemporary painters Arthur Boyd and John Brack as well as important 19th century artists Louis Buvelot and Frederick McCubbin. Wilkinson was also chosen for various commissions, ranging from religious altarpieces to athletic trophy sculptures and most prominent of all, the Tullamarine Airport Mural with Harold Freedman in 1970.

Significant to his practice, the artist set up a studio with a large kiln and foundry in his home in Black Rock in the late 1950s. It is believed that Wilkinson was the first artist in Australia to sculpt and cast bronze himself in his own studio rather than sending works off to foundries for casting. As a result, he was not only able to control the entire process of his work, but it gave him the freedom to experiment in a

Wilkinson’s sense of irony and wry sense of humour is evident in much of his sculptural work, as exemplified in Self Portrait as Jester. A jester is usually the joker who is there to entertain us and make us laugh at his gags, however here he is presented with an almost austere, sad expression. Instead of depicting himself as the jovial clown, Wilkinson’s jester is symbolic of common sense and of honesty, able to dispense frank insights and highlight the absurdities of society.

Wilkinson’s own observations on society are seen in a number of works, none more so than in the satirical series of Judges and Generals. In both sets of portraits, the more elaborate the headgear (be it helmets reflecting rank, or the wigs of the judges), the more ridiculous the face. We see in these works a real sense of the folly of a society based on rules, on judgment and on authority.

Most people know Jeffery Wilkinson’s large bronze sculpture The Swimmer which has graced the Hampton foreshore since 1999, and in this exhibition we are able to see this work in its original (albeit much smaller) inception from the 1950s. This maquette was interestingly exhibited as a fountain design at an exhibition organised by the Victorian Sculptors’ Society and National Gallery of Victoria in 1963. In spite of this, it seems far more appropriate that when it was cast forty years later, the work was installed in Melbourne’s Bayside, destined to float above Port Phillip and to be enjoyed by thousands of daily passers-by.

Jeffery Wilkinson: Untitled includes over fifty works of art and this exhibition finally gives Melbournians the chance to get to know the man behind The Swimmer and witness other aspects of his dynamic oeuvre.

»»Jeffery Wilkinson: Untitled shows at The Gallery at Bayside Arts & Cultural Centre, corner of Carpenter and Wilson Sts, Brighton, from October 19 to December 19. bayside.vic.gov.au/Bayside_Arts_and_Cultural_ Centre

The Melbourne Review October 2013 31

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VISUAL ARTS The Toorak Village Art Affair will be presenting a diverse and exciting array of original limited edition fine art prints created by artists who use the Firestation facilities.

The exhibition will feature many of the current Firestation artists-in-residence, with a broad range of talent on display.

Chris vander Spuy Pixart Photography

Exhibiting artists include Margaret Manchee, who uses traditional etching and aquatint techniques to explore the human condition and its inherent paradoxes; Bronwyn Rees with her technique of traditional copper plate etching and drypoint on acetate where marks are made with various tools directly on a sheet of acetate and subsequently printed; and Gwen Scott, a Melbourne-based printmaker specialising in limited edition linocut prints. Her colour prints are “reduction prints” where the printing surface is removed after each colour has been printed.

Margaret Manchee - ‘HMV’ Etching

The Community and the Firestation

Also on display will be works by Beata Slifierz, drawing on Polish folklore designs; Trudy Rice who works primarily as a printmaker and combines a variety of printmaking techniques in each work, including watercolour to add spontaneous marks and gestures; and Myra Kaufman, who creates colourful, multilayered monoprints with collographs and stencils exploring the notion of memory, using printed motifs inspired by the minutiae and memorabilia hoarded over many years by her family in old shoe boxes.

The original prints of these and other members of the Firestation Print Studio will be on display for the Toorak Village Art Affair, as the vibrant community of the Firestation continues to grow and develop, contributing to the cultural life of the local area.

The Toorak Village Art Affair is a free event, open 24 hours a day and offering affordable original images for those who simply wish to buy a beautiful work of art. All prints are for sale and easily purchased from Terry White Chemists in Toorak Village – all details are in each store.

»»The Toorak Village Art Affair runs from October 21 to November 17. »»Toorak Village is between Wallace Ave and Grange Road, just east of Williams Road; simply catch the No 8 Tram from Federation Square, along Toorak Road to stop no 35. You are invited to visit Toorak Village in October and November to view this ‘Art Affair’, enjoy the great shopping and take advantage of the warm hospitality of the traders. toorakvillage.com.au

Toorak Village Art Fair set to highlight printmaking in October-November.

by THE MELBOURNE REVIEW

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he Toorak Village Art Affair runs for four weeks from October 21 until November 17. This year, the Toorak Village Traders Association has invited Firestation Print Studio to showcase original graphic prints by local artists, in the shop windows of Toorak Village businesses.

The Firestation Print Studio is an open-access print workshop and gallery in Armadale where professional and amateur printmakers learn, print and exhibit. They foster new emerging artists and mentor graduates, providing a

workshop, studios and gallery to show their art to the world. Manager Edith May has invited all Firestation artists to enter this year’s Art Affair where originality is of importance and linocut, etching and collagraph techniques will be displayed.

For over 21 years the Firestation Print Studio has developed into the printmaking Mecca of Melbourne’s inner east, a buzzing hub of activity where creativity is developed and explored within a supportive environment for both emerging and established artists.

Geoff La Gerche Southern Beauty

Images of Wilsons Promontory along with his book launch

27 October -10 November 320 Bay Rd Cheltenham

T: 9583 7577 Mon to Sat 10am-5pm Sun 12-5pm enquiries@withoutpier.com.au www.withoutpier.com.au Trudy Rice - ‘Insights from the beach II’

32 The Melbourne Review October 2013

VISUAL ARTS 1

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Gallerysmith

Catherine Nelson Other Worlds October 10 – November 9 170 – 174 Abbotsford St North Melbourne gallerysmith.com.au

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Monash Gallery of Art

Jon Frank (finalist) Bowness Photography Prize Until November 3 860 Ferntree Gully Rd, Wheelers Hill mga.org.au mga.org.au/bowness-prize

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Bayside Arts & Cultural Centre

Repeat Offender Kay Abude, CJ Conway, Xanthe Dobbie, Fiona Morgan & Jacqui Shelton October 12 – November 17 cnr Carpenter & Wilson Sts, Brighton bayside.vic.gov.au

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Bendigo Art Gallery

Modern Love Fashion visionaries from the FIDM Museum LA From October 26 42 View St, Bendigo bendigoartgallery.com.au

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Eleven40 Gallery

Nikon-Walkleys 2013 Photography Finalists Exhibition See the biggest stories of the past year through the lenses of Australia’s best press photographers.

October 15 – November 9 1140 Malvern Road, Malvern eleven40.com.au

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Flinders Lane Gallery

Kathryn Ryan Shadow & Light October 8 – 26 137 Flinders Lane, Melbourne flg.com.au

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Geelong Gallery

2013 Geelong acquisitive print awards Until November 24 Little Malop St, Geelong geelonggallery.org.au 8

Flinders Lane Gallery

Emma Walker Walking the Line October 29 – November 16 137 Flinders Lane, Melbourne flg.com.au

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James Makin Gallery

Sophia Szilagyi Inner Landscapes October 10 – November 3 67 Cambridge St, Collingwood jamesmakingallery.com

BOWNESS PHOTOGRAPHY PRIZE The home of Australian photography 860 Ferntree Gully Rd, Wheelers Hill VIC Tues to Fri: 10am–5pm, Sat & Sun: 12–5pm closed: Mondays & public holidays www.mga.org.au / T: 03 8544 0500 Proudly supported by Montalto Vineyard

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until 3 November 2013

Edmund Pearce Gallery

Phil Toledano The Absent Portrait Jana Mare Around the House Greg Elms What Remains October 9 – November 2 Level 2 Nicholas Building 37 Swanston St, Melbourne edmundpearce.com.au

McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park Shaun Gladwell: Afghanistan An Australian War Memorial travelling exhibition Made to last: the conservation of art A NETS Victoria exhibition in partnership with the Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation at the University of Melbourne and supported by Latrobe Regional Gallery October 20 – February 2014 360 - 390 McClelland Drive, Langwarrin mcclellandgallery.com

Jon FRANK African–Australian boy, Eastern Beach, Geelong 2013 pigment ink-jet print, courtesy of the artist

Stories from the photographic world

MONASH GALLERY OF ART

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GALLERY LISTINGS 8

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Bundoora Homestead Heide Museum Art Centre of Modern Art

Senior + Cross This exhibition highlights the work of two significant Darebin artists, Ken Senior and Sid Cross Until December 1 7-27 Snake Gully Drive, Bundoora bundoorahomestead.com

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Flinders Lane Gallery

Alan Garcia Colour Manifesto – Cortical Remapping October 29 – November 16 137 Flinders Lane, Melbourne flg.com.au

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Without Pier Gallery

Geoff La Gerche Paintings October 27 – November 10 320 Bay Road, Cheltenham withoutpier.com.au

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Melbourne Art Rooms

Stephen Benwell Beauty, Anarchy, Desire Until November 10 Albert Tucker: Explorers and Intruders Until March 9 7 Templestowe Road, Bulleen heide.com.au

Megan Keating Mobile Living Until November 3 Sarah Field Centre of my Sinful Earth 418 Bay St, Port Melbourne marsgallery.com.au

TarraWarra Museum of Art

Shepparton Art Museum (SAM)

Russell Drysdale: Defining the Modern Australian Landscape October 19 to February 9 311 Healesville-Yarra Glen Road Healesville twma.com.au

Kate Murphy Probable Portraits Until November 24 70 Welsford Street, Shepparton sheppartonartmuseum.com.au

The Dax Centre The Emotional World of Children Until December 21 Kenneth Myer Building, The University of Melbourne, Genetics Lane off Royal Parade, Melbourne daxcentre.org

RMIT Gallery Music, Melbourne & Me: 40 years of Mushroom and Melbourne’s Popular Music Culture From November 19 Storey Hall, Swanston St, Melbourne rmit.edu.au/rmitgallery

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National Gallery of Victoria

Pedro Reyes Disarm Until October 27 Edward Steichen and Art Deco Fashion From October 18 NGV International 180 St Kilda Rd NGV Australia Federation Square ngv.vic.gov.au

MUMA Reinventing the Wheel: the Readymade Century Presented in association with Melbourne Festival Until December 14 Building F, Monash University, Caulfield monash.edu.au/muma

34 THE MELBOURNE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

A-Z CONTEMPORARY ART

Helpful hints on how to make your art say NOW. Plus ARTSPEAK Bonus Pack

BY JOHN NEYLON

BIG

BAD ART Yes, of course Virginia, there is such a thing as bad art. But Bad Art? Well proof is to hand. Check out MOBA (Museum of Bad Art). It describes itself as the ‘the world’s only museum dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition and celebration of bad art in all its forms. Warning: visitation may lead to addiction.

Photo: Ron Rowe 2012

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ARTSPEAK

Antony Gormley, inside Australia 2002–2003. 51 sculptures sited at Lake Ballard, Western Australia.

Hint: You’ll need a grader licence and a bit of satnav savvy to get into this line of work.

Co-option Consider co-opting an entire environment to your cause. Take a leaf out of English artist Antony Gormley’s book. This artist sited 51 figurative steel sculptures standing 10 square kilometres apart on a Western Australian salt pan, Lake Ballard. Forget big. This is vast. Just get out here and grab an unused lake or valley.

galleries discovered the pulling power of gigantism, our Australian folk artists were toiling away to anoint our highways with big sculptures. Once scorned as kitsch, many are now hailed as icons.

Check out artist Reg Mombassa’s comments. ‘Big Things are a way of saying ‘we’re here, this is our place. They are like our pyramids, our temples.’ So, no more scoffing at big guitars, bananas or crocs.

Lesson: Think like an Egyptian.

Bragging rights.

The earliest ‘big sculpture’ crown in Australia goes to artist Paul Kelly’s ‘Scotty’ the piping Hibernian on Scotty’s Motel Main North Road, Adelaide (1963). Beat the Big Banana at Coffs Harbour by a year. Nice one PK and love your Big Lobster at Kingston S.E. too.

Is your career shrinking? Do you feel unnoticed?

Then embrace the idea of BIG. You’ll be noticed.

Biennale curators will line up up at your studio door because they just love big art works. Gets rid of all those haunting empty spaces.

Hint: Don’t forget to fill out the permission forms.

How Big? The answer is, ‘how big to you want to go?’ Christo and Jeanne-Claude looked like the heavyweight champions when they wrapped up Little Bay, Sydney in 1968-69, not to mention Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970) and Dennis Oppenheim’s Cancelled Crop (1969). Small stuff really. The real heavy lifters were people with plenty of time and cheap labour on their hands such as the good folk who brought you the Nazca Lines in Peru. Enter Bardius Golberg. Bardius who? He’s the so-called ‘wild artist’ credited by some for ‘Maree Man’ in central South Australia.

At 2600 meters in length it’s possibly the world’s largest figurative geolyph.

Suggestion: Go forth and multiply. Gormley again.

His 1994 Turner Prize winning sculpture Field Clive-ism consisted of thousands of hand-sized clay figurines Make no mistake. Clive Palmer’s ascendancy massed together to stare down passing viewers. Cut has the potential to spark a populist lust for to Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s 2010 Sunflower Seeds large creatures. The dinosaurs are on the march covering the floor of the Tate Gallery’s Turbine Hall. from Coolum. Trend spotting: coming soon to All it took was a few million handmade ceramic a roundabout near you. seeds. Too easy. Playing multiplication works with performance art as well. Vanessa Beecroft’s massed World’s Most Hated Big Sculpture nude (and occasionally clothed) female figures stare Right now it looks like contemporary Russian down viewers in a way which ceramic sunflowers artist Zurab Tsereteli’s Peter the Great statue 70 Welsford St, Shepparton VICin3630 Moscow (bigger than The Statue of Liberty). seeds can only dream of. p +61 (03) 5832 9861 It has been rated as the 10th ugliest building in e art.museum@shepparton.vic.gov.au the world by Trip Advisor and the world’s ugliest Big Things w sheppartonartmuseum.com.au Long before most contemporary artists and statue by Foreign Policy magazine. Now publicity

From little things So the idea of making a big lobster or just anything big for that matter, daunts.

BAD PAINTING See above re: warning. One strategy to deal with contemporary art’s habit of disappearing into its own navel.

Deliberately disrespectful of mainstream styles and fashions - so can’t be all bad.

Start with the Hairy Who and go off piste from there. One critic has commented of this genre ‘these people should never be left alone with a paint brush’.

BEAUTY Use of the term ‘beauty’ should be restricted to extensively footnoted academic papers on neo-Kantian perspectives for the 21st century.

Substitute with ‘contemporary sublime’.

If ‘transcendent’ can be slipped into the same sentence so much the better.

BRICOLAGE Originally (from the French) referred to amateur repair. Useful to remember when looking at any late 20th century art which looks a bit DIY. BIO Just put bio in front of anything. Works every time.

like that you just can’t buy so don’t let public opinion get in the way of a big project. Tsereteli, by the way, made of sculpture of Vladimir Putin in a judo outfit.

Desperate to get started?

Money not an obstacle. Just inflate something (air is cheap) or surrender to the cheery charms of installation art.

Suggestion: Generously scatter items to claim maximum territory.

kate murphy.

Now showing until 24 November 2013 70 Welsford Street, Shepparton, Vic w sheppartonartmuseum.com.au p (03) 5832 9861, open 7 days

Kate Murphy Cry me a future (Dublin) 2006 digital video still (detail) Image courtesy of the artist and BREENSPACE, Sydney © Kate Murphy 2010

IMAGE: KJSHKSJDHDS KASJKSA JLAS

Probable Portraits

The Melbourne Review Presents

SPRING RACING CARNIVAL O C TO B E R 2 0 1 3

No 2

IN FULL BLOOM: LET SPRING BEGIN SPRING RACING CARNIVAL

As if spring were not a wonderful enough season, spring in Melbourne is another kind of excitement.

With typical elegance, the city stretches out and begins a celebration of its own beauty and good fortune: flowers bloom, hats are displayed like impossible acts of creativity and daring; thoroughbreds race the tracks, champagne flows and jewellery sparkles.

Crowds flow back into the streets and parks. The world comes to Melbourne, and Melbourne comes out, as at no other time of the year, to greet the world.

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36 The Melbourne Review October 2013

HUGO BOSS

2013 SPRING RACING CARNIVAL

Although there are certain rules around the spring racing carnival, rules can be bent. Of the upmost importance is to feel confident and comfortable in your outfit.

Derby Day Derby Day is the most traditional of the race days, with a firm emphasis on black and

white. This traditional combination creates an air of sophistication and is generally the more subdued of the main race events.

Combination patterns combined with solid black and white pieces create a simple yet elegant look.

Although black and white is the norm for Derby Day, pops of colour can be added in the form of accessories, but these should be kept to a minimum – clutches and head pieces for women and ties or pocket squares for men are perfect little rule breakers.

Melbourne Cup Day Melbourne Cup Day is the day to go all-out and really make your fashion statement.

Fabulous prints, colours, textures and shapes are all combined to create a modern and

chic look. Bright yellows are traditionally incorporated into Cup Day looks, with colourful accents and prints the order of the day. Florals teamed with bright head pieces and accessories for women and lighter suits paired with a statement shirt/tie combination for men create the ideal Cup Day looks and ensure a stylish day track side.

Oaks Day Oaks Day, otherwise referred to as ‘Ladies Day’ has strong feminine undertones. For ladies soft floral patterns and lace paired with understated headpieces and accessories are best suited, whereas men traditionally wear a pink rose.

This is the day to try a pastel colour in a shirt, and a softer combination in the tie or pocket square are the perfect accessories to round out an outfit.

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UGO BOSS offers a diverse range of fashion pieces which can be worked to perfectly suit the dress code of each of the main race events. A collaboration with milliner Louise McDonald ensures HUGO BOSS can provide you with your full outfit for the racing carnival – whether you attend just the one day, or any combination of all four signature days, with their differing dress codes.

To get the look and stand out for all the right reasons trackside this Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival head into a BOSS store now.

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The HUGO BOSS aesthetic lends itself perfectly to the glamour and sophistication of the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival.

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with Hugo Boss

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Day by Day

Stakes Day Stakes Day is the most relaxed of the main race days, but it is of the upmost importance not to under-dress for the occasion. Referred to also as ‘Family Day’, this day has a much more relaxed feel but is just as important to maintain an element of style and sophistication.

Injections of colour such as contrasting shoes and bags can be a great way to have fun with an outfit for the ladies, whereas men can consider brighter suits and tie combinations. Sports jackets with contrasting trousers can be the best way to maintain dress standards whilst creating a more relaxed look and feel. When wearing a sports jacket, pocket squares are a perfect way to round out the look and add sophistication.

The Melbourne Review October 2013 37

melbournereview.com.au

National Jockeys’ Trust Dedication and bravery are prerequisites of almost every sport, and these qualities are found in abundance in racing. Australian jockeys are elite athletes who quite literally place their lives on the line every time they compete in a race.

The National Jockeys’ Trust is a public charitable trust established in 2004 for the purpose of providing funds and other benefits for the relief of the financial difficulties and needs of former and present jockeys and their families, especially where such needs arise through serious injury, illness or death of a jockey.

You can make a donation to the National Jockeys’ Trust online

BENDIGO ART GALLERY –

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Showcasing the work of the most influential and avant-garde fashion designers from the 1980s to today, including VIVIENNE WESTWOOD – ISSEY MIYAKE – CHANEL – YSL VERSACE – DOLCE AND GABBANA – COMME DES GARCONS VALENTINO – PRADA – ALEXANDER MCQUEEN – DIOR MOSCHINO – CALVIN KLEIN – MATICEVSKI AND MORE 26 OCTOBER 2013 — 2 FEBRUARY 2014 TICKETS: 03 5434 6100 • PACKAGES: 1800 813 153

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THIERRY MUGLER, SPRING/SUMMER 1992 (DETAIL), COURTESY OF THE FIDM MUSEUM AT THE FASHION INSTITUTE OF DESIGN & MERCHANDISING, LOS ANGELES GIFT OF ARNAUD ASSOCIATES, PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHEL ARNAUD.

au

National Jockeys’ Trust

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Grants of financial assistance made by the Trust are strictly governed by the Trust’s Deed. The National Jockeys’ Trust faces a real challenge in raising the funds that are required to provide meaningful assistance to an acceptable percentage of those who qualify under the NJT’s charter.

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The Trust has been endorsed by the Australian Taxation Office as an income tax exempt charity and as a deductible gift recipient, and has been registered by the charitable organisation’s licensing agencies in all Australian states and territories.

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Sadly, serious injuries are a frequent occurrence, and more than 500 riders have lost their lives since Australian racing first

began. While accident insurance has become an essential feature of racing, all too often there are cases where jockeys and/or their families are plunged into financial hardship.

PHOTO: Sharon Lee Chapman of Fast Track Photography.

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hroughout the Spring Carnival you will witness the crème de la crème of Australian jockeys, riding Australia’s best horses at one of the world’s greatest horse racing carnivals. However, the flip side is that on Melbourne Cup Day there are another 30 race meetings held in Australia. Most of these meetings will not be televised and we will not witness the bravery and skill of these jockeys riding these powerful thoroughbreds. But all 850 jockeys in Australia face the same risks every time they mount a racehorse, whether it’s 5am in the morning doing trackwork, riding at Flemington in November or riding at one of the hundreds of country tracks scattered throughout Australia.

NationaL Jockeys’ Trust

2013 SPRING RACING CARNIVAL

38 The Melbourne Review October 2013

2013 SPRING RACING CARNIVAL Katnook Estate

Longines: Conquest Classic A timeless collection for the world of horse-racing

The ‘Conquest’ brand was patented through the WIPO back in 1954. Since then this name has been used for many successful models manufactured by Longines across the years.

Today, Conquest Classic joins the brand’s other collections of classical beauty that have helped to make Longines’ reputation and success throughout the world. This new line is dedicated to those race-goers who share the excitement of the season’s most prestigious race meetings.

Conquest Classic is available in three sizes. The ladies’ models show the hours, minutes and seconds as well as the date; they are available in steel, rose gold or in a combination of steel and rose gold. The black or silvered dial has applied 12, 6 and 9 numerals, lending this model a truly sporty

look. The mother-of-pearl dial set with 12 diamonds lends the ladies’ models an extra air of refinement, and in some models the bezel is also set with 30 diamonds. These models are fitted on black alligator straps or steel or steel and rose gold bracelets, each to match the dial. All straps and bracelets have a folding safety clasp.

The chronographs are fitted with an L688 column-wheel movement specially developed and produced by ETA exclusively for Longines. The case is either in steel, steel and rose gold or rose gold alone. The silvered or black dial shows the hours and minutes, with a small seconds at 9 o’clock, date and chronograph functions: a centre sweep seconds, a 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock and a 12-hour counter at 6 o’clock. These chronographs are fitted on a black alligator strap or a steel or steel and rose gold bracelet, all having a folding safety clasp.

Longines has been based at Saint-Imier in Switzerland since 1832, and has generations of experience as official timekeeper of world championships and as partner of international sports federations. Known for the elegance of its timepieces, Longines is a member of the Swatch Group Ltd, the world’s leading manufacturer of horological products.

With the winged hourglass as its emblem, the brand has outlets in over 130 countries.

longines.com

Longines

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s a partner of the most prestigious flat races in the world, Longines was delighted to launch a collection of timepieces to be worn amidst the excitement of the parade rings at prestigious racecourses such as Chantilly, Hong Kong, Royal Ascot, Melbourne Cup and Dubai racecourse. As a tribute to the chronographs produced from 1881 for racegoers and jockeys in New York, the famous Swiss watchmaker has now launched the Conquest Classic line. True to the brand’s values of elegance, tradition and performance, this new collection of models, all fitted with self-winding calibres, present the perfect combination of contemporary and perfectly timeless.

Katnook Estate Beyond bubbles for the Carnival

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he race that stops the nation.

There’s something unique about Melbourne’s Spring Racing Carnival . Whether your scene is a lavish marquee, on the rails or in the comforts of a good ol’ fashioned backyard soiree, Katnook has a range of fantastic sips to savour beyond the dizzying trays of cheap fizz.

Katnook is one of the most esteemed domains in Coonawarra. Located in the heart of the famous terra rossa, Katnook is internationally recognised for its wines of great complexity and distinction. As a region that can genuinely claim the influence of terroir, Coonawarra and its wines reflect the idiosyncrasies of a particular growing season and vintage.

2012 Katnook Estate Chardonnay

supple qualities and notes of black cherry, spicy plum and game make it agreeable number with a variety of dishes. Herbed pork cutlets or pulled beef sliders with chipotle ketchup are perfect combinations for your cup celebrations.

RRP $29 / Cool and classy

“Coonawarra’s cool conditions are favourable to producing Chardonnay with great finesse, elegance and minerality,” says senior winemaker Wayne Stehbens. ‘’The 2012 vintage was an excellent growing season and we were fortunate to pick our Chardonnay grapes at optimum maturities,” he explains. “Many Australian wineries have moved away from the heavily oaked, full-bodied wines of the 1980s with grapes now being picked earlier with lower alcohols and natural acidity. Whilst Katnook’s 2012 Chardonnay is more restrained in style than previous vintages, the wine displays impressive intensity and length of palate, with fine oak complementing the fruit,” he adds. With notes of orchard fruit, nashi pear and honeyed figs, small bites of barramundi croquettes or smoked ocean trout with sweet fish sauce are wonderful dishes to relish this classy Chardonnay with.

2010 Katnook Estate Merlot RRP $40 / Marvellous Merlot

RRP $40

While Cabernet Sauvignon may be at the forefront of consumers’ minds when referring to Coonawarra, Wayne believes that “Coonawarra’s other red varietals are equally impressive as the unique climate provides an ideal environment for a diversity of wine styles.”

A silver medal winner at this year’s London International Wine Challenge, Katnook’s Shiraz certainly has raised eyebrows amongst international judges: “Long, restrained and elegant. A classic example of Coonawarra Shiraz, with alluring blackberry supported by violet and minty notes. Smoky, smooth tannins and incredible length. Very classy.” A safe bet with most meat dishes, we love Katnook’s Shiraz with spring lamb and caramelised onions, with a good lick of juicy plum sauce or aged cheddar with walnut bread and plenty of quince paste.

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Visit Katnook Estate – Riddoch Highway, Coonawarra SA 5263 08 8737 0300

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Merlot is one of the unsung heroes of the red wine world. Often blended with the gutsy Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot seldom receives the praise it deserves. Katnook Estate’s Merlot is a dark horse in its portfolio. Its substantial flavour profile offers attractive ripe varietal notes, regional spicy tones and a generous palate structure with soft tannins.

With 93 points from James Halliday, who has described the 2010 as “well structured, with fine-grained tannins and zesty acidity in complete harmony with the complex fruit on offer,” it certainly is an elegant wine. Merlot’s

2010 Katnook Estate Shiraz

The Melbourne Review October 2013 39

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Penhaligon’s The exclusivity of the English eccentric

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Penhaligon’s

By the end of Queen Victoria’s reign, William Penhaligon had been appointed Barber and

Penhaligon’s continues to work with master perfumers with the ability to interpret distinctive ideas, conjuring up new perfume sensations that flow against the tide. From the atmosphere of a tailor’s workroom on Savile Row to a bluebell wood after a spring rain shower – inspiration comes from the oddly commonplace, the poetic and the strange.

Penhaligon’s scents are made in England

The Penhaligon’s range is sold in Australia through Myer.

.com

Today William Penhaligon’s hugely precious archives continue to inspire and inform his successors in the business. Paying homage to his legacy of creative and innovative perfumery is paramount, while always subtly challenging the traditions of the art and seeking new ways to interpret elegance.

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ons

Back in the Victorian era, founder William Penhaligon lived through an age typified by extremes of invention and flamboyance. Witty and creative, Penhaligon was often inspired by the unusual, and his spirit permeates everything the company aspires to even today. Born in Penzance, Cornwall, he moved to London in the late 1860s and founded a barber’s shop in Jermyn Street, Piccadilly – home to some of the great tailors of London reputation. The very first scent created by Penhaligon’s – Hammam Bouquet – was created by William Snr. in 1872, in that very Victorian obsession with Orientalism, after inhaling the steam and sulphurous aromas of his neighbouring Turkish baths.

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ig

Perfumer to the Royal Court. In 1903 the business was granted a Royal Warrant by Queen Alexandra. Now, some 140 years on, Penhaligon’s holds two long-standing Royal Warrants from HRH The Prince of Wales (granted 1988) and HRH the Duke of Edinburgh (granted 1956.)

using the finest rare ingredients, from handsqueezed bergamot, to jasmine at twice the price of gold. The signature Penhaligon’s fragrance bottle conforms to William Penhaligon’s original design: clear glass with a distinctive ribbon-wrapped stopper.

Penhaligon’s boasts a portfolio of 35 unusual and distinctive fragrances, each designed to elicit a response: soliflores, Orientals, chypres – a palette of intense experiences.

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F

or nearly 150 years, English fragrance firm Penhaligon’s has been providing original scents for modern dandies and independent women – indeed for all discerning eccentrics of whom the English are so proud – determined to go their own way.

Penhaligon’s

2013 SPRING RACING CARNIVAL

THE MELB OUR NE R EVIEW OCT OBER 2013

Food.Wine.Coffee F I N E D I N I N G • S U S TA I N A B L E F O O D • C O F F E E • W I N E

YONG GREEN FOOD Brunswick Street Fitzroy is a hot spot for vegetarian-friendly fare, and Yong Green Food is an excellent addition REVIEW BY LOU PARDI / PHOTOS BY MATTHEW WREN

42 The Melbourne Review October 2013

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

Umberto Espresso Bar Behind an unassuming shopfront on High Street in Northcote, you’ll find one of Melbourne’s warmest Italian restaurant experiences.

by Lou Pardi

Lychee House S

by Lou Pardi

O

n a backstreet in the shopping district of Moonee Ponds, Lychee House might not have a circular front door or dragon mascots, but it’s certainly worth a visit.

Moonee Ponds is spoilt to have Lychee House as its local Chinese restaurant. It’s a simple layout – a small shop with laminex-topped tables and comfortable chairs. It has a certain atmosphere though, with a waist-coated host for whom nothing is too much trouble and everything cleaned to a shine.

There seems to be two classes of Chinese takeaway, post-80s-boom-of-circulardoorways – the super-cheap glutinous mess of cheap ingredients type, and the delicious, fresh and still-affordable variety. Lychee House is the latter.

Customers range from five-year olds accidentally smashing glasses on the floor to regulars picking up their orders, any number of local workers, and well-known Chinese community figureheads dropping in.

The menu runs to 116 dishes, and regrettably I have not yet sampled all of them, but I am working on it. In the meantime, for comfort food I like to start with a chicken and sweet corn soup ($7); for some reason the scent took me straight to a backstreet of Hong Kong – but then perhaps I was having a particularly nostalgic day. In any case this chicken soup lives up to every expectation of its benefits for the soul.

If you like to start out with something crisper, the spring rolls will not disappoint, fresh and crunchy and dangerously more-ish. Peking

duck is offered as an appetiser – those used to a punchier flavour might be left wanting, but they’re good enough ($5.50 each pancake – minimum of 4).

A surprise hit are the omelettes – spilling over the edge of a dinner plate they’re easily large enough to share. The king prawn omelette ($24.80) was a tasty firm round studded with peas and plenty of prawns.

Chicken or BBQ pork omelettes are also available ($19.80 each).

Chef’s specials include king prawns with wasabi and mayonnaise sauce ($24.80) and deep fried oysters (market price). Scallops, fish, duck, chicken, pork and beef are all served up in a variety of sauces and generous main dishes range from $19 upwards.

There’s also a range of rice and noodles.

Desserts include fried ice cream, banana fritters, lychee ice cream and Chinese pancakes with pumpkin paste (all $7 - $8).

Two banquet menus are available. Six dishes ($36) or seven dishes ($43) – minimum of two people.

At just over six months old, Lychee House already has a host of regulars, and for good reason. If you’re in the area, it’s well worth a visit.

»»Lychee House 2A Everage Street, Moonee Ponds (03) 93722 9188 Lunch: Tuesday – Saturday Dinner: Tuesday - Sunday

wing open the glass door to Umberto’s and no doubt you’ll be welcomed by a packed-out restaurant full of friendly folk.

From Italian gents who’ve been friends with Umberto since he first moved into Thornbury in the 60s, to local families and couples and folk who’ve cottoned onto this fabulous place and make a journey to be there.

Whether you’re local or not, you’re made to feel like one by the excellent staff and fellow diners. Take a seat around the long bar and watch the coffee being made. Umberto and son Marco Finanzio are particular about their coffee, Umberto having worked in the business for more than 20 years and Marco having worked in hospitality between corporate finance gigs.

There was a time when High Street was the heart of Thornbury – with butchers, bakers and flower sellers. When nearby shopping centres opened the businesses were killed off and there are still many inactive shopfronts on the Thornbury stretch, but what is there is consistently good. Lowlands, Little Henri and Umberto are warm, welcoming and serve excellent fare. Umberto’s – whilst not as established as you might think, has somehow achieved a patina of age.

It’s hard not to compare it to Pellegrini’s – both long rooms with not much spare space, a long espresso bar and Italian fare.

But where Pellegrini’s is fast, cheeky, strict on vocabulary (it’s a café latte) and bright as its watermelon granita, Umberto has the luxury of being a little more laid-back, with a slightly more sophisticated menu (although still simple Italian fare) and a real warmth to the experience. It could just be a Thornbury vs Melbourne difference, except that it’s more about the father and son team’s particular brand of hospitality.

Having an espresso bar was a dream of Umberto’s – he took his young sons to Thornbury Espresso Bar often when they were

young and connected with friends whilst his son bonded with the pinball machine. It was his father’s dream that inspired Marco to move from finance to hospitality.

And thank goodness he did. Whether you’re at Umberto (the café/restaurant) for coffee, breakfast, lunch or dinner there’s something to satisfy. With a menu designed by a real Italian nonna, you can expect comfort food like scrambled eggs for breakfast, and house-made pasta. The specials are worth checking out – ragus are melt-in-your-mouth delectable and a fluffy polenta is the perfect accompaniment.

And then there are the cold cuts…

Marco is a co-founder of Melbourne Salami Festa – a growing salami festival where families who make their own salami present it for judging by chefs, food writers, and once again, a real Italian nonna. Held annually in September the festival is a fantastic celebration for the salami connoisseurs and the salami-curious with markets, demonstrations and other events.

It echoes the days when Italian families would come together to share their salamis and all are welcome.

Whether you’re local or not, a visit to Umberto Espresso Bar is well worth a spot on your agenda.

»»Umberto Espresso Bar 822 High Street, Thornbury (03) 9484 8654 Breakfast: Saturday – Sunday Lunch and dinner: Wednesday – Sunday umberto.com.au

THE MELBOURNE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013 43

MELBOURNEREVIEW.COM.AU

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

Recreational Hunting

BY MICHAEL HINCE

“

Image: courtesy of Feathers & Fur Magazine

The duck you pluck will taste so much better than the one you don’t,” says American food writer Georgia Pellegrini.

This quote resonated as I sat down to share a meal of wild game recently with Matt Fowles, an avid recreational hunter and CEO of Fowles Wines in Victoria’s Strathbogie Ranges.

Fowles market the hugely popular Ladies Who Shoot their Lunch (LWSTL) range of wines specially blended to complement the texture and intensity of wild meat. According to Fowles it’s all about intensifying the LWSTL wines’ aroma to stand up to the aromatics of game without overwhelming the palate.

Fowles adds: “It’s easy to buy meat from the supermarket with little effort and at low cost and then unwittingly waste it by cooking the whole lot and throwing some out – hunting has made me value meat more.”

Seeing him plucking ducks earlier that day aroused my curiosity about hunting, shooting and fishing generally and recreational hunting specifically. Over dinner I realised he was obsessed with the idea of provenance – the where, how and who of food and wine production and that, for him, hunting was a key ingredient in understanding the provenance of meat.

However to some there’s much more to hunting than just ‘shooting’. There are those who oppose recreational hunting, including the RSPCA, who claim hunting has the potential

My first encounter with game was as a teenager when I waded knee-deep in a paddy field in Malaysia watching my brother-in-law hunt snipe – however all I got were leeches in my gumboots!

In today’s highly urbanised and politically correct environment recreational hunters are often stereotyped as rednecks. Yet game is fast becoming a popular dish of choice on many an inner-city Melbourne restaurant menu.

Urban carnivores generally give little thought to the suffering and horrors of industrial meat production yet get testy when it comes to recreational hunting.

Beyond the city, the celebrity chef TV shows and the trendy cookbooks, a diverse hunting culture exists. Russell Bate, a noted recreational hunter says the importance of game in the local cultures has always been evident. Whether it is “la chasse” in France, “la caccia” in Italy or “la caza” in Spain the hunt is an essential part of local cultures and the source of some of the great dishes of the world.

I’m not sure if there’s an Aussie equivalent to the above, but according to the Seymour-based Field and Game Australia (FGA), Victoria is home to over 300,000 licensed firearm owners, 26,000 of whom are duck and quail hunters.

Since the drought broke in 2010 there’s been a resurgence in hunting, particularly duck and quail and the FGA’s urban membership is on

the increase. Interestingly 92 percent of FGA members prepare and eat game they have harvested.

Like Matt Fowles, FGA members claim to be ethical hunters, using everything they shoot.

Many are skilled marksman and hunt only for the table, not for trophies, contrary to the myth that hunters are not conservationists or have little respect for the environment. Many are and many do.

“From a moral perspective I know that I am ultimately responsible for the way in which my game is harvested,” Bate affirms. “Respect for the game hunted and for the environment in which it is hunted is paramount.

“I observe the rules of fair chase, take only what I eat and am a great deal more aware of the process by which food reaches my table than those who still conveniently believe that their lamb chop or chicken was conceived in Styrofoam, gestated under cling wrap and born in the supermarket.”

to result in significant animal suffering; animals are sometimes chased to the point of exhaustion and then killed with methods that do not cause a quick and painless death.

Meanwhile, back in the US, Georgia Pellegrini thinks hunting is the “final frontier of feminism” – best ask those local ladies who shoot their lunch!

44 The Melbourne Review October 2013

WINE

Sparklers for Spring

by Andrea Frost

I

t never ceases to astonish me just what a well-coordinated and wonderful thing the coming of spring is. As one side of the globe moves closer to the sun, the temperature warms the earth and nature responds with a flurry of activity; budburst in the vineyard, animals out of hibernation and flowers in the gardens.

Even people become livelier, popping corks

on sparkling wines as they celebrate the new season and all it has to offer.

Whether it’s as a wine to sip in the extra hours of daylight savings, a festive drink to enjoy trackside under the shade of your milliner’s latest creation or simply as a toast to the coming of spring, there are many different sparkling wines available. Here is a selection to keep on hand for when spring fever hits.

Wirra Wirra Mrs Wigley Moscato 2013

Dal Zotto Pucini Prosecco NV

Bay of Fires Tasmania Cuvee Rose NV

NV Bollinger Special Cuvee

McLaren Vale RRP $18 wirrawirra.com

King Valley RRP $22 dalzotto.com.au

Tasmania RRP $30 bayoffireswines.com.au

Champagne RRP $80 champagne-bollinger.com

Moscato is a top sparkling option for those with a sweet tooth. Good versions of Moscato are slightly sweet but still present a lick of acid, are lower in alcohol and yet delightfully refreshing to drink. This wine is all that and more – brimming with attractive aromas of watermelon and Turkish delight, it’s as pretty to look at as it is to drink.

It’s the perfect wine to serve when racing carnival activities start early. Serve with fresh fruit, ice-cream and pancakes. And Mrs Wigley? That’s the name of the cat that once neighboured the rustic Wirra Wirra winery in McLaren Vale.

Prosecco is the Italian sparkling wine that has been embraced by Australian drinkers and winemakers alike. The King Valley in Victoria has championed local versions of the sparkling wine style – so dedicated, they have even created the ‘Prosecco Road’, a self-guided tour of the local wineries that make Prosecco. This wine from Dal Zotto is a wildly approachable wine with aromas of fresh apple, pear and white flowers followed with a fresh and lively palate. If you’d like to dress it up a little, add a dash of peach puree and have yourself a Bellini, the cocktail made famous at Harry’s Bar in Venice.

Tasmania is one of Australia’s best sparkling wine regions. Thanks to its position as the most southerly wine-producing region in Australia, the cool climate produces wines of high acidity and freshness, both essential qualities for making great sparkling wine. Bay of Fires is one of the leading producers of sparkling wine and this, their sparkling Rosé, is a lovely salmon colour and brims with aromas of strawberry and red berry fruits before a rich palate of toasty characters and lovely acidity. Typically, sparkling Rosé is a little richer than the ‘traditional’ or ‘blanc de blanc’ styles so it is a great wine to serve with richer canapés or lighter dishes.

Champagne is one of the greatest wines of all time and Bollinger is one of the great houses of Champagne. The Special Cuvee is the Bollinger house style which is famed for its richness and complexity due to the dominance of pinot noir.

Toasty and complex aromas marry with ripe stone fruits and a hint of spice. A delightful wine that may have been the inspiration for Lily Bollinger to remark, “I only drink champagne when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not in a hurry and drink it when I am; otherwise I never touch the stuff unless I am thirsty.”

THE MELBOURNE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013 45

MELBOURNEREVIEW.COM.AU

CAFÉS

Mr Natural Pizza A vegan, a coeliac and a meatlover walked into a pizza shop… and it was fine.

BY LOU PARDI

F

rom the outside, Mr Natural Pizza doesn’t look too different from any other pizza shop – fridge of drinks, counter to order at, blackboard menu. Even the pizza doesn’t look that different – piled high in the fashion of the enthusiastic 80s pizza shops, served in classic pizza boxes whether you’re dining in or out.

Yong Green Food Brunswick Street Fitzroy is a hot spot for vegetarianfriendly fare, and Yong Green Food is an excellent addition.

BY LOU PARDI

A

t the top end of Brunswick, well in Vegie Bar territory, has sprouted Yong Green Food. Boasting dishes from a variety of cultures (nachos, meet green curry) and both raw and cooked

dishes, Yong Green Food is a comfortable little space with loads to try.

Raw options include nachos of chia chips with cashew cream, guacamole and sundried seeds sauce ($14.50) and rawsagna – layers of zucchini, mushroom, avocado, cashew cream, and walnut ‘bolognaise’ ($18).

Take a bite though, and you’ll discover this is no ordinary pizza. Packed with natural ingredients, and available gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan or with meat, the thin base somehow supports the weight of the toppings without being tough to bite. (It’s a nightmare to cut with a knife though – perhaps another sign that pizza is meant to be eaten with your hands?)

There are many options on the menu.

A stand out is the Bezalya – an unlikely combination of steamed potato, olives, onions, feta, capsicum, cheese, roasted pumpkin, tomato and satay sauce. It’s an excellent satay, and a fantastic pizza.

» Mr Natural Pizza 223 Barkly Street, St Kilda (03) 9534 2542 Dinner: Monday - Sunday mrnaturalfitzroy.zwift.com.au

The snack menu gives away the owners’ Korean heritage – with Kimchi pancakes ($12.50) and fried Nori rolls ($12.50). For mains, the Green Thai Curry with vegetables, organic tempeh and a side of biodynamic brown rice ($17.50) is hard to beat. There’s also a range of salads, noodles, wraps and burgers.

The drinks menu is almost as interesting as the food – with a selection of beer, wine and sake, fresh juice, smoothies, crushes and a piña colada.

» Yong Green Food 421 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy (03) 9417 3338

Cuban Arts & Culinary Festival 4TH - 9TH NOVEMBER 2013 5PM UNTIL LATE WALLIS & ED, 1 BOURKE STREET, MELBOURNE

CUBAN FOOD & MUSIC HAVANA CLUB RUM, COCKTAILS PAINTINGS BY CUBAN ARTISTS DANCE PERFORMANCES BY ERIC AND CHANTAL TURRO MARTINEZ (BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB) ON 4TH & 5TH NOVEMBER WWW.THEHOTELWINDSOR.COM.AU INFO@THW.COM.AU

46 The Melbourne Review October 2013

FEATURE ATLANTIC GROUP CATERING

T

his year has flown by – and for many of you, so has the deadline you set for the office Christmas party plans, back in the early and optimistic months of 2013.

You know Christmas is fast approaching, but with the myriad of tasks that need attention now, how could you possibly organise the biggest event of your work calendar year?

Not to worry – you are certainly not alone.

With preferred dates for Christmas events being snapped up quickly, many organisations are starting to worry about delivering ‘The Event of the Season’ that they have promised to their now anticipating staff. Innovation, value and FUN are their expectations, but with little time for back and forth with date preference, transport, costs and logistics with different event planners and suppliers, your silly season is now starting to look stressful.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a company that could deliver the whole package to you?

Transform your office or any other location into any sort of festive wonderland you could imagine? And most importantly, give your staff a night they never expected and will never

forget, all with a flexible budget? If this sounds like your kind of solution then kick back and let the Christmas angels from Atlantic Group Catering deliver Christmas to your office in 2013.

Atlantic Group Catering Born from the expertise behind hospitality experts Atlantic Group [v], Atlantic Group Catering is the outside catering arm which translates the award winning excellence

of Atlantic Group [v] to any location with colour, culinary innovation and industry leading flair.

With market leading experience and award winning knowledge you’ll find this innovative

A CITY TO CELEBRATE The Big Group presents a Contemporary loft style venue with spectacular city views For event & wedding enquiries please visit www.luminare.net.au Phone 03 9661 1546 or email office@luminare.net.au

THE MELBOURNE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013 47

MELBOURNEREVIEW.COM.AU

VENUE GUIDE branch of caterers at some of Melbourne’s largest events, including the Melbourne Cup Carnival and Formula 1® Australian Grand Prix. With a diverse portfolio of culinary creations, chic uniform styling, imaginative themes, décor and concepts, Atlantic Group Catering will merge your vision with their talents to ensure each event is completely unique and unforgettable.

gallery, warehouse or even florist and we’ll create your party there,” says Zowie, Atlantic Group Catering Event Planner.

“We love seeing the look on our clients’ and guests’ faces when they step into our event installations. Our wow-factor, interactive elements and eye for detail always make for unforgettable events. Best of all we make it super easy for the event organiser; offering full event packages and tailored options that reflect your business and reward your staff.”

ANY LOCATION Atlantic Group Catering can deliver your whole event package ‘at your place or mine’ or anywhere else you can imagine. Considering your Christmas party in a winery, an office, a garden or a car park? Atlantic Group Catering lives by a philosophy that delicious, imaginative food and the best events can be presented anywhere. You name it, we stage it!

WE BRING IT ALL Whether your event be an intimate dinner for 10 or a company dinner for 1000, Atlantic Group Catering have all the off-site resources to go beyond exceptional food options, offering a range of china, flatware, glassware and also decorative options which we can provide at an combined cost saving to you.

FOOD PHILOSOPHY AND CUISINE Innovation, flavour and attention to detail inform every part of Atlantic Group Catering’s services, from the hand-crafted creation of each

delectable dish to the seamless execution of a village of interactive food stations for 1000 guests. With a strong focus on sustainability and state of the art kitchens that can be built onsite – Atlantic Group Catering consistently create the best tailored menus with global flavours and food experiences with seasonal and locally sourced produce.

“So many of our clients approach us wanting to stage a Christmas party that staff will want to attend. The good news is – we make it easy to achieve this – all you need to do is avoid standard boring pubs or function venues, step away from tacky tinsel and let us convert your office space into something unique and cool. Alternatively pick a venue such as an art

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE DETAIL Part of what separates Atlantic Group Catering from the pack is our ability to strive to be fresh and forward thinking in every aspect of your event. Innovation in delivering unique concepts is integral to our formula and this is evident in the expertise of our chefs, event managers and operation teams.

If you have not yet finalised your office Christmas party – the Atlantic Group Catering Christmas angels can deliver Christmas straight to your office. Speak to one of the friendly event planners to hear about how we can make your celebration easy to manage and unforgettable to experience.

Atlantic Group Catering (03) 8623 9680 atlanticgroupcatering.com.au info@atlanticgroupcatering.com.au

ed dixon food design introduces their newest melbourne venue

The Great Den Fitzroy’s new home for vintage Scandinavian luxury… for truly great events…

Follow the narrow candle lit laneway and be blown away by a hidden delight of an event space, filled with rare 20th Century Danish treasures.

Creatively catered for by Melbourne’s award winning boutique caterer ed dixon food design.

Looking for a unique event space this Christmas?

Whether it’s a modernist degustation dinner around the rosewood dining table or a sizzling cocktail party for 200 complete with Danish smorgasbord; there’s no limit to the creativity in this inspiring space.

Live the great life and enjoy the perfect night with ed dixon food design at The Great Den.

Consider The Willows A La Carte inspired and memorable time after time.

462 St Kilda Road, Melbourne Vic 3000 | 03 9867 5252 | www.thewillows.com.au

(03) 9419 4502 info@eddixonfooddesign.com rear of Great Dane Furniture 175 Johnston Street Fitzroy

48 The Melbourne Review October 2013

VENUE GUIDE

The Willows

T

Mural Hall

I

n the heart of Melbourne lies a chic European ballroom with soaring ceilings, sweeping stairs and city views peeking through original leadlight windows. Never before seen by the public, this hidden treasure is now available for corporate and private events.

Located on the top floor of the iconic Myer city store, Mural Hall is so named for its impressive collection of 10 original Napier Waller murals displaying influential figures from the arts, opera, literature, dance and fashion.

Filled with lavish stories from the past, the space was originally designed by businessman extraordinaire Sidney Myer to host private fashion parades and exclusive events for the Melbourne elite.

With capacity for up to 750 for cocktail events, or anywhere from 100 – 550 for seated events, the Mural Hall is able to host almost any kind of event: it works as an exhibition and performance space; for fashion and product

launches; gala dinners; private celebrations and weddings; corporate Christmas events and of course sponsored and charity events.

Mural Hall is also the ideal location for wedding clients who are seeking a venue that offers a sense of modernity with a vintage overlay. As the perfect wedding venue, Mural Hall can host the ceremony and reception, catering for weddings of 100 to 450. There is a large dancing area, with no restrictions on the type of entertainment.

A large pre-function area allows guests to enjoy a beautiful selection of seasonal canapés, with wedding menus full of seasonal variety.

We are always able to accommodate particular requests and client needs For all wedding, corporate and private enquiries, or to arrange a site inspection of Mural Hall, please contact The Big Group event managers on (03) 9661 1546 or email office@muralhall.net.au

he Willows has graced St Kilda Road for over 120 years and has been a fine dining establishment since 1972. Its reputation, whilst ever changing, has remained steadfast.

“Throughout our 40 year history there have been many culinary changes,” says Director of Sales & Operations at The Willows, Bridee McMahon. “Over the decades The Willows has transformed in order to tailor to the demands of time. In the 80s we were known as the place to wine and dine. In the 90s we were the home of business deals and the long lunch. The millennium saw the advent of events and celebrations. Today The Willows is not only a well-regarded wedding venue but a fresh alternative for the ever-savvy corporate market.”

The Willows 462 St Kilda Road Melbourne 03 9867 5252 thewillows.com.au

Level 6, Myer Melbourne 314 Bourke Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000 Managed exclusively by The Big Group. muralhall.net.au

The Great Den

Winner of the 2013 Boutique Caterer of the Year Award, the team at Ed Dixon Food Design can create the spark to leave an impression with you and your clients. They offer the highest commitment to the design of all event elements including venue sourcing, menu, furniture and décor Contact Ed Dixon Food Design today to discuss your next event at the Great Den (it might just be the perfect venue for your work Christmas drinks!) or for more information about our range of venues and creative catering services.

A

bbotsford based Melbourne catering and events company, Ed Dixon Food Design, consists of a passionate and energetic team of professionals who work closely and flexibly with clients to create memorable events, big and small. Their passion for food is celebrated with the use of the best ethically sourced ingredients, seasonal menus and a simple and fresh food philosophy. In every way they encourage food as a celebration.

With twelve years’ experience Ed Dixon Food Design caters daily for its corporate clients including meeting catering, boardroom lunches, cocktail parties, product launches and gala dinners.

The Willows strives to create an event experience like no other in Melbourne. “We pride ourselves on offering an a la carte service to all guests, as a standard,” says McMahon. “Our roots are in fine dining and we want to ensure that this is reflected in all of our events.

“We are lucky enough to be spoilt for choice when it comes to impressive dining in Melbourne. If a business isn’t meeting the mark quality & service wise, there are just too many other impressive options to consider. Consequently, diners have become more discerning and less forgiving. In this market we are proud to continually offer exceptional food & service. These elements have established us as a market leader in the events industry.”

Now, Ed Dixon Food Design would like to introduce their newest Melbourne venue, The Great Den, a hidden delight of an event space at the rear of Great Dane Furniture’s Fitzroy Showroom. With soft lighting, a classic record player buzzing and whiskey flowing freely at a vintage timber bar, The Great Den is filled

with a collection of authentic, immaculate and rare 20th century treasures.

Suitable for cocktail parties from 30-200 and seated events for up to 80 people, The Great Den offers a wide variety of options as well as a huge range of Danish furniture, including rose wood dining tables and chairs.

Ed Dixon Food Design info@eddixonfooddesign.com 03 9419 4502 The Great Den info@greatdanefurniture.com 03 9682 2777

50 The Melbourne Review October 2013

VENUE GUIDE

Luminare

C

ity lights glitter against velvet black night – Luminare on the edge of the Melbourne CBD is the most gorgeous and exciting urban rooftop venue available for evening functions you could imagine.

Managed exclusively by The Big Group this contemporary loft style setting, enhanced by sweeping wrap-around balconies and stunning views of Melbourne’s city skyline, is just made for all style of events. Add fantastic food, fabulous staff and brilliant views, and Luminare presents a venue made in heaven.

The Big Group has designed and created a fresh, crisp and colourful selection of delicious menus for the warm spring and summer months.

The menu showcases the best of our new season’s produce, sourced as close to us as possible and selecting the only finest ingredients available.

Our fridges are stocked with green and white asparagus, heirloom baby carrots, fragrant blossoms, local goat’s curd, spring lamb shoulder, baby shoots and freshly churned peaches and cream sorbet.

We’ve imported some exciting new products including caramel and violet pearls, pickled cherry blossom, zesty yuzu syrups and pressed clover.

We’ve also embraced the pop-up movement, having designed and custom made gorgeous food carts to roam our melting cheese and smoky bacon jaffles, popcorn prawn and hot mint sliders and braised pork tacos with pickled jalapeno cream and pork crackle.

This exciting urban rooftop venue is available for evening and weekend functions, with a private entrance ensuring your guest experience is exclusive.

Car parking facilities are available on site, and in addition there is ample street parking

located in close proximity. The Big Group have teamed with Harry the Hirer to provide a professional and seamless solution to all your audio visual, lighting, production and postproduction needs.

Including stunning Bayside terrace for pre-dinner drinks, smaller dinner parties and wedding ceremonies, Luminare can accommodate 80 – 250 guests for a seated dinner and 100 – 450 guests for cocktail and more informal gatherings. Corporate events, product launches, business presentations, anniversaries, Christmas parties, along with private and wedding events can all be catered for.

The sleek, subtle tone of the interior allows the space to be embellished to reflect all manner of themes, colour schemes and characteristics.

The Big Group Event Managers work directly with clients to develop menus, creative approaches and ensure from start to finish that your corporate or private event exceeds expectations.

For further details and information on any style of event at Luminare please contact The Big Group event managers on 03 9661 1546, or email office@luminare.net.au

Corner Browns Lane & York Street South Melbourne, Victoria 3205 luminare.net.au

THE MELB OUR NE R EVIEW OCT OBER 2013

FORM D E S I G N • P L A N N I N G • I N N OVAT I O N

CONVESSOCONCAVO On the doorstep of Melbourne’s CBD, the beauty of waterside inner-city living.

52 The Melbourne Review October 2013

FORM

Into the Sky The rise and rise of townhouses and apartments

by Enzo Raimundo

W

e all know Melbourne has experienced an increase in apartment and townhouse developments over the past few years. It’s hard not to notice these new developments under construction, especially in the inner suburbs. This trend towards higher density dwellings is confirmed in the latest building approvals data as well as in the Census.

In the 12 months ending August 2013, around 44 percent of new building approvals were for the construction of townhouses and apartments.

This is much higher than five years ago, where this share only comprised 27 percent of building approvals, and this trend looks set to continue.

The result is that for a growing number of suburbs, the majority of dwellings are no longer houses. Footscray is one example. According to the 2006 Census, around 53 percent of homes in this suburb were houses. By the 2011 Census,

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only 47 percent were houses, with the majority now in the form of townhouses and apartments.

There are also a number of suburbs which have had a very low share of houses for an extended period of time. These are mainly concentrated in the inner suburbs such as Brunswick, Hawthorn, Richmond, South Yarra and St Kilda. In these suburbs, the median house price may not reflect the typical price of a home in the area. As a result, in many of these suburbs, the median unit price is a more meaningful measure.

However, it should be noted that the unit market is a lot more diverse than houses.

The unit market comprises several types of dwellings such as semi-detached units, townhouses, flats, and apartments. The main ones are townhouses and apartments.

Size is the main difference between a townhouse and an apartment. Townhouses generally have a larger living area than an apartment and many feature a backyard or courtyard space. This difference in size is also reflected in the price, and can be quite substantial.

REIV analysis of June quarter sales reveals that townhouses command a rather large price premium over apartments, especially in the inner suburbs. The price premium is lower in the middle and outer suburbs.

The median price of a townhouse in the inner suburbs is $640,000 in June quarter 2013.

This is 35 percent higher than the median price of an apartment at $472,500. The price premium between a townhouse and apartment is 15 percent in the middle suburbs and two percent in the outer suburbs.

Depending on the location, the price difference between a house and a townhouse can be quite significant – and even more so

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between a house and an apartment. In June quarter 2013, the price of a house is, on average, around 34 percent more than a townhouse. In some areas, like Mitcham, the price difference is only six percent. In other suburbs, like Camberwell, a house can be over double the price of a townhouse.

At the end of the day, this trend has essentially offered buyers more choice in where they want to live and the type of home they want to live in. The prevalence of medium and higher density dwellings in desirable inner suburbs also allows for greater affordability.

For buyers looking to purchase a home this spring, it’s worth considering the various different options available. Choosing between a house, townhouse, or apartment can be the starting point for many home buyers looking in the diverse inner suburbs.

»»Enzo Raimundo is CEO, Real Estate Institute of Victoria reiv.com.au

THE MELBOURNE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013 53

MELBOURNEREVIEW.COM.AU

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Somebody Drew That

when things become more homogenised, our neighbourhoods become filled with people like us. The extreme of this is the gated community, where money and fear of the outside mean that certain things, be they crime or left wing opinion, are safely locked out.

Photo: Thorsten Strasas / Demotix

The whole point of difference

BY BYRON GEORGE

H

ow many times have you gone overseas to a foreign city and just felt at home? Walking around neighbourhoods where you feel like you could just walk up to one of those buildings and in some kind of Bourne Identity delusion, let yourself in, help yourself to a drink from the fridge and relax on the sofa.

Certain cities seem to have this kind of attraction to people. Many spring to mind: Berlin, Barcelona, and New York are some cliché favourites; I could also happily live full time in Hong Kong or Rome. Perhaps anecdotally one of the most common cities people fall in love with is Paris. But even there, certain neighbourhoods have streets that scream a certain joie de vivre, while there are others where people look at you as if you’ve just walked doggie do-do through their freshly shampooed cashmere carpets. If Paris has a fairly uniform urban fabric, at least in the 20 arrondissements, what explains this difference?

The answer is pretty simple – it’s the people.

Why do some areas seem to foster a sense of generosity of spirit, while others breed prejudice and road rage? In the 1960s planning was about architectural determinism, where bad buildings were thought to breed bad people.

This was the justification for demolishing great swathes of our inner city to build the housing

Hundreds march in Kreuzberg against raising rents and gentrification.

commission flats. It didn’t work of course, because the planners of the day didn’t realise that they were demolishing communities and replacing them with silos, separating people from one another and the surrounding urban fabric. Windscreen surveys are never a good way of making significant urban decisions.

The irony of course is that these towers, often seen as beacons of low income and crime in what are now high income and fashionable neighbourhoods, are actually the things that are saving these areas from homogeneity. The bit of “local colour” that keep suburbs like Fitzroy from becoming suburbs like Armadale.

None of this is new. Cities evolve, usually on a cycle that starts with either industry or poverty, moves to hard times, through bohemian, to cool, onto hip and desirable, to posh and finally, dull. The last couple of phases usually kill off the things that made something interesting in the beginning and on the next financial downturn, the slow decay is triggered. This can occur over a much longer time than the rise, so much that you barely notice the decay until

your favourite businesses start to get replaced with convenience stores or chains.

Of course, it’s the people who drive this change. Minorities, students and artists move in because of cheap rents, then the creatives and people who follow blogs about cool things, then the speculators, who clean it up. As prices and demand go up the original people who started the chain can’t afford to live there anymore, or don’t want to. They are replaced by the fine diners who love being so close to things. This cycle is being played out in cities all over the world. Pigneto in Rome, Kreuzberg in Berlin, parts of Queens NY and our own Footscray are currently moving through the minority – creative phase.

This is arguably when a neighbourhood is at its most open-minded and most interesting.

A diversity of culture, age, race and opinion can lead to conflict, but it also leads to a greater understanding and empathy for those around us. You deal with and accept the differences rather than fear them. It also means that you’re not likely to notice or care when someone is different. In the latter stages

This might make some people feel more secure and comfortable in their lives, but it undermines one of the basic tenets of human co-existence – the need to be around others and the friction and interaction that drive debate and ideas.

In Australia we are very good at managing the risk out of our cities. You see it everywhere from the tactile indicators on the streets to the rails stopping people crossing the roads at tram stops. The issue is when this is done on an urban level. The way we move through, live and work in newer parts of our cities has been consciously designed to minimise this human interaction and conflict. The problem with this is that we are not learning how to deal with those who are different. Our asylum seeker debate is testament to this.

I think this is the great failure in Australian Planning. Not congestion and urban sprawl, but the segregation and alienation of people on an urban scale. If we can go back to some of the cities in the first paragraph, I think there is something they all have in common.

Fundamentally, they allow their citizens to bump into each other.

» Byron George and partner Ryan Russell are directors of Russell & George, a design and architecture practice with offices in Melbourne and Rome. russellandgeorge.com

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54 THE MELBOURNE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

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CONVESSOCONCAVO On the doorstep of Melbourne’s CBD, the beauty of waterside inner-city living.

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rare opportunity presents to live at Melbourne’s most exclusive waterfront address while being literally on the doorstep of Melbourne’s CBD. Indeed, residents have already begun to move into Melbourne’s latest luxury residential address following the completion of Convesso in Victoria Harbour.

Developed and constructed by Lend Lease, Convesso is the epitome of premium waterfront living designed by internationally acclaimed architects Bates Smart. Inspired by the reflection of light on water, the cutting-edge design extends to all living options: marina, tower, city-side and wharf side apartments and penthouses. The panoramic views create an awe-inspiring backdrop to this enviable location. High quality finishes and bespoke detailing of a genuine luxury residence set this offering apart from its competitors.

Victoria’s first port to the dynamic residential, office and recreational hub it is today,” said Mr Coughlan.

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High quality finishes and bespoke detailing set a new benchmark in luxury waterside city living. Unrivalled amenity and facilities include a 24 hour concierge services, a 25 metre lap pool, fully equipped gymnasium, spa, sauna, BBQ area, resident’s lounge, cinema and business centre.

To complement the supreme quality, Convesso is Australia’s first residential high-rise tower to truly demonstrate that green design and good architecture can be synonymous.

Each apartment has an in-home display linked to smart meters to provide residents with live data on electricity usage and cost, water usage and cost, and CO2 emissions generated through energy use.

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a 4 Star Green Star Multi-Unit Residential rating and was recently granted a merit award in the Sustainability and Green IT category at the 2012 National iAwards. The awards celebrate the ‘best of the best’ ICT products and services in Australia “The real-time feedback of how much electricity and water is being consumed at any one time, makes residents aware of usage levels and can help them make informed decisions about reducing their usage or moving to off-peak periods saving money, water and energy,” added Mr Coughlan.

Construction on Convesso’s twin, Concavo is due to commence early next year. A unique skybridge will connect building amenity at Level 7, a concept that is yet to be offered in any other high rise development in Melbourne. Convesso prices range from $465,000 to just over $5 million.

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CONSTRUCTION COMMENCED

Artist’s impression

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