The Melbourne Review February 2013

THE MELBOURNE

review

THE MELBOURNE REVIEW

THE VALUE OF CONTINUITY Wendy Cavenett profiles Melbourne writer and commentator Gideon Haigh

ISSUE 16 FEBRUARY 2013

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DANCE MASSIVE 2013 Arts House, Dancehouse and Malthouse Theatre join in a celebration of the best in contemporary dance

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PLAY MISTY John Neylon enjoys the intense atmospherics of the Turner from the Tate exhibition

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4 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

Welcome Profile

06

Politics

08

Business

10

Fashion

11

Health

16

Columnists

18

Books

22

Performing Arts

24

Visual Arts

32

Regional Feature

38

Food. Wine. Coffee.

Marc Standing, The Enfolding 6, 2012, mixed media on archival rag paper, 15 x 20cm.

Contents

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36 JAMAIS VU The Melbourne Review talks with Anna Pappas, new President of ACGA, as she curates her major annual exhibition of contemporary art.

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12

Damaged goods

AN EYE TO RETAIL

ELAPID TOURISM

Drugs in sport involves the demise of both the person and the brand

A knowledge of the retail experience is a vital learning experience for young fashion designers

Snakes take centre stage in this feature from Nicolas Rothwell’s newly-published Belomor

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FORM 49

Audited average monthly circulation: 64,856 (Oct 11 – March 12) 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.

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16

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SUPERFOODS

WORDS & MUSIC

MORNINGTON PENINSULA

Professor Avni Sali on the many health benefits of natural fruits and vegetables

Phil Kakulas celebrates Pere Ubu’s ‘avant-garage’ classic of 1978.

This favourite regional destination still guards a variety of secrets and surprises

the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013 5

THE MELBOURNE

review

General Manager Publishing & Editorial Luke Stegemann luke@melbournereview.com.au

Contributors

Andrea Frost

Lou Pardi

Patrick Allington

Byron George

Nicolas Rothwell

Art Director Sabas Renteria sabas@melbournereview.com.au

David Ansett

Dave Graney

Avni Sali

Hannah Bambra

Jane Hayes

Peter Singline

Nina Bertok

Holly Jones

Katherine Smyrk

Wendy Cavenett

Phil Kakulas

David Sornig

William Charles

David Knight

Shirley Stott Despoja

Jennifer Cunich

Stephen Koukoulas

Peter Tregear

Alexander Downer

Tali Lavi

Robert Dustan

Barbara Meurer

Photography

Arabella Forge

John Neylon

Matthew Wren

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Our cover Dance Massive 2013 - A celebration of the best in contemporary dance. Image: Chunky Move, 247 Days. Photo: Jeff Busby.

See page 24

Strong violence, sex scene and coarse language

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IN CINEMAS FEBRUARY 28

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

All material subject to copyright.

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6 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

Profile I’m a journalist and I’ve always thought that a journalist should be chiefly interested in other people’s stories and should find everything more interesting than they find themselves.”

of analysis and psychological intrigue. Haigh has also edited two editions of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack Australia (1999-2000, 2000-2001) – it’s every cricket lover’s Bible, and is published annually in the United Kingdom. Haigh was even asked to become its editor in 2000, but he was happy with his life in Melbourne, and to be honest he adds, “I stayed here because of my cricket club.

I felt I’d miss them too much.”

Haigh, who recently turned 47, says he finds himself less and less interesting as he grows older – he does interesting things, he says, but he’s not an interesting person. He adds, “I’m a journalist and I’ve always thought that a journalist should be chiefly interested in other people’s stories and should find everything more interesting than they find themselves.”

gideon haigh

A quiet sense of continuity allows one of Australia’s most prolific and versatile authors to flourish Wendy Cavenett

I

n 1978 when Gideon Haigh was just 12 years old, he was introduced to Mr Michael Keary, an extraordinary teacher who taught Latin at Geelong College. For Haigh, it was a time where he discovered his own sense of curiosity for the world, and while he forgot most of the intricacies of Latin, he remembered there was something both “wonderfully spontaneous and wonderfully experienced about Mr Keary’s lessons”.

Today, Haigh is recognised as one of the world’s most respected cricket writers. He has been a journalist for almost 30 years and has written 27 books and edited seven. His articles, essays and commentary have been published in more than 100 newspapers and magazines. He is known for

his formidable intellect, for his flair for language and storytelling, and he is also known for his passion for cricket. Indeed, the fact that he was chosen to deliver the tenth Bradman Oration in October 2012 reflects his standing in the Australian and international cricket community.

Last year, Haigh also released three books: The Office, The Deserted Newsroom, and the highly anticipated, On Warne. It’s typical Haigh: lots of issues and subjects. One day it’s cricket, the next, it’s the future of journalism, or the strange cult of the CEO. And like Mr Keary before him, Haigh’s enthusiasm is contagious. “The main way I have developed as a writer is by reading,” he says.

Haigh is speaking from his recently renovated terrace in Melbourne’s inner east. He is relaxed, a little distracted but very welcoming. Throughout

the conversation, he is attentive and often selfdeprecating, his lean body – dressed in neck-totoe black – comfortably positioned in a wooden kitchen chair. The terrace he shares with his wife, Charlotte, daughter Cecilia, and cat Trumper (named after the great Australian batsman, Victor Trumper), is unusually bright thanks to an abnormally humid, overcast Melbourne day.

“I’m a believer,” Haigh says moments later.

He is sipping tea and listening to the whirr of the dishwasher. “I’m a true believer, and I don’t just talk about it – I try to do it too.” Haigh is referring to cricket – the game, the institution, the state of mind that has ‘contoured his life’ and informed much of its content. Indeed, there are cricket bats in several rooms of his home, and it is cricket, he admits – two training sessions and one game each week for his beloved South Yarra Cricket Club – that staves off inactivity and isolation, while offering a sense of continuity to a life that one senses has been a rather solitary, and cerebral one.

“I’m a cricketer,” he said, on the occasion of last year’s Bradman Oration, which he delivered with profound insight and care. “The game is the longest continuous extra-familial thread in my life, and I’m attached to it as tightly as ever.” Indeed, he has written 18 books on the subject, including his most recent, On Warne, an incisive and strangely compelling read that is both entertaining and remarkable in its depth

Yet to many, Haigh is an intriguing individual.

He challenges convention, and he sometimes crosses lines, speaking out when others probably would not – “I give straight answers to straight questions,” he says. In 2010, he wrote the rather incisive critique, Feeding the Hand that Bites: The Demise of Australian Literary Reviewing for the independent literary journal, Kill Your Darlings.

It elicited a far-reaching response.

“The odd thing about that piece was that so many people took it personally,” he says, “as somehow an act of hostility to the reviewing community; it was actually the opposite, trying to draw attention to what an important and neglected function reviewers perform. Then again, reviewing is hardly the only trade in which it’s thought better to carry on smiling through gritted teeth rather than to admit anything’s wrong.”

If you’re wondering if Haigh’s position has changed, he says quite disarmingly, “reviewing is still, with some honourable exceptions, bumping along the bottom.”

Haigh, who has had an unconventional career, completed his three-year cadetship at The Age in the mid 1980s. After a short stint in the UK as a stringer for the business sections of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, he returned to Australia and worked for various publications (including The Independent Monthly and The Australian) before going freelance at the age of 30. As a respected journalist and with several books already published – including The Battle for BHP, and The Cricket War: The Inside Story

the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013 7

Profile walls. To the right it is non-fiction and biography; to the left, a wall for fiction and a wall for sport (mostly cricket). It’s a beautifully peaceful room.

Haigh pauses in front of ‘fiction’. He talks about the importance of seeing his books every day, of the visual cues they offer, the thoughts that transpire. He also discusses various authors (including Evelyn Waugh, George Orwell and Richard Yates), his recent favourite (Sonya Hartnett), and David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King – quoted quite extensively in The Office – Haigh especially liked the way Wallace described the “physicality of boredom”.

of Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket – Haigh easily made the transition to independent writer.

Asked if the uncertainty of his sector is affecting him today, Haigh simply states that he has never changed his approach. Having worked from home for 18 years, he says he is amazingly productive – he doesn’t have to think about the upheavals and the feuds, the egos and the mistakes that occur in most office environments. He believes his is a “supremely self-indulgent career” in that he has always worked on what has pleased him, indulging his curiosity in the way that a journalist always should.

Haigh talks about the pleasures of being a father, and of the comforts of family life. He seems profoundly happy. He also alludes to his lingering sense of disappointment about everything he’s written. To clarify, he adds: “The disappointment has never been discouraging, it’s always been motivating.”

As opening batsman for the Yarras, he scored 92 runs in the last round of the last season of 2012. It is his highest score to date. Listening to Haigh recount that hot day on the pitch, of being brilliantly caught at extra cover by a guy “who looked like he couldn’t catch a cold all

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day”, is to hear a person truly passionate about the game – the challenges and frustrations, the excitement, and the seduction. First in, last out – Haigh seems quietly proud. “Every so often you get a glimpse of the possible,” he says, “and that’s very exciting.”

Also exciting is Haigh’s library, located on the topmost floor. Walk in and it is the aroma of books – that soft “smell like nutmeg” as Ray Bradbury so wonderfully observed in Fahrenheit 451 – that greets you. Visually, there are the spines of thousands of books meticulously arranged upon floor-to-ceiling bookshelves covering three

Downstairs once more, Haigh talks about the future, of not wanting anything to change. “I’d like to respond to the whim of the moment,” he says, “and to follow my curiosity and enthusiasm through a subject.” To write about what interests him, with a willingness to experiment and fail: it’s just part of what Haigh appreciates and identifies with. He’d also like to keep playing cricket, of course, and get a glimpse of what’s possible.

INFORMATION Gideon Haigh’s On Warne is published

by Penguin Books. penguin.com.au gideonhaigh.com

Welcome to a

TA R R A W A R R A

summer

8 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

Politics The Little Blue Book Stephen Koukoulas

W

hile nothing is certain, it would take a massive change in fortune, polling and betting market pricing for there to be any thing other than a Coalition victory at the September 14 election.

This of course means that on September 15, Mr. Abbott will probably be Prime Minister, Mr. Hockey, Treasurer and Mr. Robb, Finance Minister.

It will be the first time in six years that there will have been a Coalition government and Mr. Abbott will become only the third Liberal Party leader to be Prime Minister in the last 40 years.

On taking office, Mr. Abbott and senior Ministers will be given the so-called Blue Book

from Treasury. The Blue Book is a document prepared in the lead up to each election by Treasury for the Opposition of the day in the event of a change in government.

The Blue Book gives the newly elected government an up-to-date assessment of economic conditions and the outlook for the economy; it includes analysis of the various policy announcements made by the Opposition in the lead up to the election and touches on a checklist of big picture themes that Treasury judges to be important short- and mediumterm issues that the new government will need

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to consider as it starts the job of running the country.

It is probably one of the documents most subject to Freedom of Information requests given its sensitive analysis of Opposition economic policies. It has never been released under FOI laws, because, according to Treasury, it sees the information contained therein as “an incomplete draft” of its advice and analysis of Opposition policies.

Treasury continues, “consistent with the Treasury’s long standing policy to protect the confidentiality of advice prepared for a government that is not formed, and consistent with the Treasury’s normal administrative practice, the Blue Book was not finalised,” and after the 2010 election, it noted the strong views of the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Abbott, “that the release of oncoming government briefs would contravene the Westminster conventions”.

Such is the political dynamite in these documents.

That aside, the importance of the Blue Book has been diluted a little in recent elections because of the requirement for the Secretaries of Treasury and Finance to publish a Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook (PEFO) within 10 days of the writs for the election being issued. This means that in the upcoming election, the latest economic forecasts, budget projections and estimates of tax and revenue will be available for all to see on or before August 22. They will, of course, be based on the existing policy settings and will take no account of hypothetical scenarios such as a change of government.

The PEFO is a good initiative, introduced

by Mr. Costello when he was Treasurer as part of the Charter of Budget Honesty. The PEFO effectively prevents the government of the day fudging budget or economic figures just before the election and it stops a newly elected government from having any excuse to break promises because the prior government was hiding a budget or economic problem from scrutiny.

Which brings us back to the early days and weeks of the likely Abbott Government.

Mr. Abbott’s policy announcements to date

involve commitment to reduce government revenue and add to government expenditure. This means a larger deficit unless savings are identified in the seven months until polling day. Abolishing the carbon price and the mining tax are two high profile and revenue-sapping promises offset in part by cutting the school kids bonus, hiking income tax (reducing the tax-free threshold) and cutting other payments.

Mr. Abbott is also committed to increase spending on infrastructure, increase defence spending to 3 percent of GDP, buy new boats to protect Australia’s borders, index the superannuation of defence personnel, give government funded concessional loans for small business indirectly impacted by natural disasters, increase the education tax rebate, establish a “green army” and spend more on roads, to name a few.

In addition, the Direct Action Plan to cut carbon emissions will have significant budgetary implications, all of which points to the need for some policy changes elsewhere in spending or higher taxes to pay for all the commitments.

The fiscal outlook for Mr. Abbott is even more challenging given the Coalition is also committed to having a budget surplus of 1 percent of GDP. It is likely that Treasury and Finance are already working hard on the background for the Blue Book given the range of policy changes that have already been outlined by Mr. Abbott and his economic team.

There is no doubt that for there to be policy credibility and consistency and no broken promises, Mr. Abbott will need to have the Coalition’s policy proposals articulated and costed so that when he walks into the Treasury building with Mr. Hockey and Mr. Robb a few days after the election, he is not confronted with a Blue Book that shows that his policy agenda cannot be delivered.

INFORMATION Stephen Koukoulas is Managing Director of Market Economics. He writes a daily column for Business Spectator. marketeconomics.com.au

the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013 9

Politics

Letter from Mali Alexander Downer

I

m e t a Fr e n c h ambassador recently.

“Congratulations”, I g ushed. “You have shown great courage and leadership in Mali.” He graciously thanked me and then tried to persuade me Australia should do more in Africa. “After the Asian boom,” he said rather improbably, “will come the African boom.”

Well, let’s take one thing at a time. The French intervention in Mali reminds us that the war against Al Qaeda is far from over. For Western politicians, Al Qaeda has become an inconvenience. President Obama, in wanting to distance himself from President George W Bush, has made a great and understandable virtue of the

killing of Osama bin Laden by US troops. But he then wanted to persuade the war-weary American public that the death of bin Laden was pretty much the end of the road in the war on terror.

When late last year the American consulate in Benghazi was destroyed and the Ambassador killed, a controversy erupted over whether this proved that Jihadist terrorism was still alive and well or whether the attack was related to a particular event. The administration seemed to suggest it related to an anti-Muslim film, perhaps trying to play down the continuing threat of Al Qaeda.

Even in Australia the prime minister proclaimed in January that the “9/11 decade is over”. Future threats were more likely to come from States rather than “non-state actors” – meaning terrorists.

There are a couple of issues here. For a start, the good news: America and Australia have successfully protected their homelands from a terrorist attack since 9/11. Huge additional resources have been poured into domestic security. Neither country should become complacent, though. The threat is still there and it will remain so for a long time yet.

Secondly, Jihadist terrorism, including Al Qaeda, is still active. Al Qaeda and other like-minded terrorist organisations are much less organised and effective than they once were. They no longer have the stable base granted to them in Afghanistan by the Taliban… but they are not dead.

Al Qaeda is still active in Iraq although they have transferred much of their activity now across the border to Syria. Extremist Jihadists are an important element of the forces opposed to President Assad and his regime. Al Qaeda is still active in Yemen, as well. And importantly, they are active and effectively so in the Maghreb (North West Africa) and further South in Mali.

If there was one lesson that came out of 9/11 it was that Al Qaeda should never be able to sink their roots in a sovereign country, using its territory for planning, training and as a base. Al Qaeda had literally taken over northern Mali. To have left them entrenched in cities like Timbuktu would not only have left the local people distraught, it would have given Al Qaeda the stable base it needs but no longer has. From that base they could plan, train and launch attacks almost at will. Northern Mali – and perhaps in time all of Mali – would have become what Afghanistan was under the Taliban. That led to 9/11.

The intervention by French troops has been decisive. Al Qaeda has been driven out of the towns and cities it controlled, including Timbuktu. When the rather dour French president, Francois Hollande, recently visited that historic city he was treated as a hero. The crowd was huge; they chanted Vive la France! and Vive le President! with gusto.

France is back as a force for good in world politics. What is interesting is the line-up of

countries prepared to help the French. Once, Americans enthusiastically – you may say too enthusiastically – led the world in the war against terror. This time, France’s major supporter was its old friend Great Britain. British planes flew the French troops to Mali and the Brits have provided 400 troops in support of the French. It’s a bit of a repeat of the NATO Libya operation. That was an Anglo-French led charge as well.

There are two interesting conclusions to draw from all is. First, Al Qaeda may have been seriously degraded over the past dozen years and homelands such as America’s and ours may have been safe from AQ. But Islamic extremists prepared to kill innocent civilians in support of their cause are still around. If they are not dealt with effectively, then their capabilities will only grow. Defeating them will be a long and grinding task.

Secondly, who is going to do this ugly and often controversial work? The Obama administration has pulled back. In doing so, they’ve left a vacuum. It’s a vacuum which could quickly have been filled by Jihadists.

Thankfully, the French and the British have come to the rescue.

This doesn’t seem to affect us much in Australia.

Well, don’t be too complacent. If someone doesn’t do the dirty work of confronting the Jihadists, they will do their dirty work in the West. And that could mean right here.

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Business

Image courtesy of: Truly deeply

The current investigation by the Australian Crime Commission into sport is a sad reflection of the scale of the insidious need to win at all costs. How untimely is Essendon Football Club’s motivational slogan for the 2013 season: ‘Whatever It Takes’.”

What did Lance Armstrong Teach You? Peter Singline & David Ansett

I

n recent times we have witnessed the demise of one of the world’s truly big personal brands in Lance Armstrong.

Interestingly, it became official in a very public chat with an even bigger personal brand, Oprah Winfrey. There has been much written and spoken about this very sorry story, but for us it represents a timely reminder of the fundamental dimensions that shape all of our personal brands. Certainly his tainted legacy of lying, cheating, doping and bullying to secure a victory is at the extreme end, but there are wider lessons to be learnt.

Our day job is in the world of brands, whether it be product, service, organisational or personal brands. What we so often find is that while there may be a level of consciousness around the need to strategically manage product and organisational brands, the average punter seems less aware of the need to proactively manage their personal brand. We all seem to get it when it comes to sports people and the world of celebrities, but in our own careers we are inclined to adopt a far more laissez-faire approach.

However, when working with individuals on their personal brand we encourage them to explore what they stand for on a number of fronts. Two dimensions that are fundamental, relate to their character and their competencies or talents. Stephen Covey (Jnr) has written a great book called the ‘Speed of Trust’ that elaborates on these and other factors that shape the level of trust we engender. An interesting read.

In a consulting sense we have to declare that typically with individuals, our primary focus is to explore the competencies and talents that they have or need to develop to differentiate them in their chosen fields. To us to be of good character is non-negotiable. It is a constant. Competencies on the other hand are situational and relate to the context in which someone is operating.

What Lance Armstrong has demonstrated to the world is that you may seemingly have an abundance of talents, but if your character is found be of a dubious nature – and clearly cheating puts you in that camp – then your personal brand is going to suffer significantly.

What is most disturbing about Armstrong’s case is the way he rationalised his cheating. In

the interview with Oprah Winfrey, he explained how he had looked up the definition of ‘cheat’ and found that to cheat is to gain an advantage on a rival or foe which you know that they don’t have, or of which they are unaware. In Armstrong’s mind, he was not cheating. He viewed it as simply leveling the playing field. In other words, drugs were the norm. It was simply a matter of winning at all costs. Sadly it would seem that the deeds of Lance Armstrong are about to be superseded by the wider sports community in Australia. The current investigation by the Australian Crime Commission into sport is a sad reflection of the scale of the insidious need to win at all costs. How untimely is Essendon Football Club’s motivational slogan for the 2013 season: ‘Whatever It Takes’.

Such a distorted sense of competition and therefore character is not only the preserve of sport. We increasingly see it playing out in business and Government. In fact as specialists in brands, we often have conversations with each other about how hard it is to build strong positive personal brands amongst politicians because there is such a win-at-all-costs mindset at play.

In the political world, personal brands have to be subservient to the party brand, and when the party is all about winning, true character can come a distant second.

Likewise consider business. Should individuals apply the same interpretation to cheating that Lance Armstrong applied when they are attempting to win contracts in some overseas countries? Is bribery OK when seemingly all your competitors are making illegal payments, justified on the basis of cultural difference? To do so would be akin to saying that ethics is relative to location. Presumably then do we rationalise human rights as being

something determined on a location-by-location basis? Of course not, it would be absurd. As is the case in believing that we should always win regardless of the cost, evident in the global bribery campaign of Reserve Bank company Securency, which according to police evidence, extended to more than a dozen countries. Likewise, the actions of former editors to News of the World who are facing phone tapping charges, all in the name of ‘winning a story’.

If you are sitting back reading this and feeling very comfortable about your own character, then let’s turn our attention to the other dimension of personal brand. Where do your competencies and talents reside? What makes you distinctive and valuable in your chosen field? What are you doing to evolve those competencies to stay relevant?

What is your personal brand equity plan?

Business and marketing writer Seth Godin says that “if you’re the average person out there doing average work, there’s going to be someone else out there doing the exact same thing as you, but cheaper.” For individuals shaping their careers the world has become far more competitive, globally connected and demanding of true value. Hence there is a need to differentiate one’s self in ways that are authentic and compelling.

Personal branding requires you to have a heightened sense of consciousness about the journey you are on and develop a greater level of alignment between purpose and passion. It is about identifying the sweet spot where you thrive.

For most people their character test will be very different to the one that confronted Lance Armstrong. It will not be a major ethical dilemma.

More likely, it will be simply a question of whether they are being true to themselves.

INFORMATION Peter Singline and David Ansett are co-founders and directors of Truly Deeply, a Melbourne based brand strategy and design consultancy. trulydeeply.com.au

the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013 11

Fashion

PHOTO courtesy of: Lisa Barron

they need to be able to understand what a woman wants and be perceptive. Then in turn I will be seeking their design skills in helping to create exactly the collection the customers want. Our motto at Lisa Barron is – as a team we strive to create and sell the best garments we can. Everyone in the company’s input is valued.”

Australian fashion: it begins with retail Jane Hayes

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The reality is that the industry needs more people like Barron who invest in their staff and listen to every voice as an equal, integral part of the business operation. People sometimes forget the importance of retail in the greater scheme of things through the product/brand life cycle. In many cases it can mean the difference between a successful and unsuccessful business. In Australia we need to get over our prejudices and realise that there is great skill involved in being a successful retail assistant. Many industry professionals share my sentiments and hope that in future our fashion hopefuls can embrace retail so that our bricks and mortar experience can not only survive but flourish. What is the good of having so many stunning collections when there are so few appropriately trained staff to sell them? We need to change the situation now so that the future of physical retail is assured. Leah Brown, of Albert Park boutique Fox Life Style, adds: “There really is no better place to gain knowledge and experience in fashion than on the retail floor. It is by engaging in conversation with the customer, in a warm friendly atmosphere, that we understand their wants and needs.”

Training up our fashion design hopefuls in retail skills would mean a stronger and more pleasant bricks and mortar experience and would help support the businesses that struggle to find that elusive retail talent.”

INFORMATION Jane Hayes is the owner of Jane Hayes Consulting, a fashion consultancy based in Melbourne. She is the head of the Design Cluster for the Textile and Fashion Industries of Australia (TFIA), head and founder of The Australian Edit – A Fashion Space, and co-founder and managing director of The Spirit of the Black Dress. janehayesconsulting.com.au

AUSTRALIA’S PREMIER STORE FOR D CUP & UP

than a possible career option needs to change.

want to be a famous fashion designer, I hear many young people say as they graduate with fashion and textile qualifications. However there are only a certain number of jobs available and so many students graduating each year. Australian tertiary institutions produce talented, well trained individuals that leave to work in the local and international arenas with great success, but what about those who can’t get a job as a designer when they graduate? Where do they go? The introduction of fashion retail modules into tertiary courses might assist in solving this dilemma.

As a fashion consultant I have observed the retail environment from many different angles. I understand the challenges facing emerging designers as they embark on careers and I see customers often nervous and uncertain of an in-person retail encounter. We have all had the ‘in your face’ hovering and the ‘not interested at all’ retail experience, and as a result have resorted to online in order to avoid personal interaction. As Jo Kellock of the Textile and Fashion Industries of Australia (TFIA) comments: “There is a lack of understanding of a service culture in the fashion industry.”

Training our young fashion hopefuls in the basics of fashion retail would add to their skill sets and help to strengthen an industry currently threatened by consumers choosing to shop online, and in many cases from overseas businesses. “In Europe the retail profession is respected but Australia has not caught up to this,” says local designer and retailer Lisa Barron. If we were to provide these aspiring fashionistas with a greater knowledge of the retail scene and training, maybe they would feel happier about a career in retail.

The perception of retail as a stop-gap job rather

This is a scary thought as the fashion industry in Australia is already in a rather precarious position.

Training up our fashion design hopefuls in retail skills would mean a stronger and more pleasant bricks and mortar experience and would help support the businesses that struggle to find that elusive retail talent. My discussions with retailers on the issue of retail training can be summed up with the words of Lisa Barron, a long-standing and highly regarded local designer and retailer: “I need a skilled, trained individual who has a knowledge of fabric, cut, design, fit and style;

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12 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

Feature ELAPID TOURISM

In this extract from his recently published Belomor, Nicolas Rothwell describes his encounters with the unusual community of snake enthusiasts, from Sydney and Adelaide to the Australian deserts, to Kakadu and the Gulf Country, and finally to the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.

S

nakes—their species and their habits, their symbolic resonances and associations— have a hold on a good number of the highrelief figures one meets on life’s winding course, and the goal and logic of that journey seem at once more mysterious and decidedly more serpentine with each fresh twist and corrective turn.

I see my friend John Dawe, the tall, sardonic park ranger who guided, for many years, the wetland management systems in place across Kakadu. His bearing was much like that of a file snake at rest amid camouflaging branches: watchful, inward, yet benign, full of a primordial innocence. Abrupt

enthusiasms would sweep him up repeatedly: he developed a fierce obsession for the late-model Jeep Wrangler, and subjected the vehicle in all its variants to extreme field tests in the jungles and paperbark swamps that stretch from the Mary River wetlands back to Humpty Doo. He threw himself into the task of breeding pig-nosed turtles in captivity; he built a freshwater lake system on his property so large its outline could be clearly seen on satellite photographs—but none of these passing crazes could rival his love of snakes, which was already full-fledged during his childhood in the sparse backblocks of Naracoorte.

PRESENTS

TIM FINN | XAVIER RUDD | ARLO GUTHRIE | GURRUMUL GLEN HANSARD | KATE MILLER-HEIDKE | CHRISTINE ANU ERIC BOGLE & THE BOGLE BAND | FINBAR FUREY | RUSSELL MORRIS RUTHIE FOSTER | JOHN MCCUTCHEON | CHRIS SMITHER

Tim Finn

PLUS INTERNATIONALS INCLUDING

BUKE & GASE | EUGENE HIDEAWAY BRIDGES | LISA HANNIGAN | GO JANE GO | LAU | SEAN TAYLOR SARA LEE GUTHRIE & JOHNNY IRION | SETH LAKEMAN | LONDON KLEZMER QUARTET JAMES KEELAGHAN | TUBA SKINNY | THE POPES | RED MOLLY | ALASDAIR FRASER & NATALIE HAAS NATIONALS INCLUDE

SKIPPINGGIRLVINEGAR | CHRISWILSON&THEPIRATESOFBEER | KIMCHURCHILL | THE BOSTOCKS THE SKY ROCKATS | SHANE HOWARD &GUESTS | NICKYBOMBA'S BUSTAMENTO | THE CACTUS CHANNEL THE LITTLE STEVIES | JAY HOAD BAND | TOM RICHARDSON PROJECT | FIONA SCOTT NORMAN MATTHEWFAGAN | SUZANNAHESPIE | THE NYMPHS | ANDREWWINTON | BLUESHADDY | BABYETLULU CASHSAVAGE&THE LASTDRINKS PLUS FRANCISCUSHENRI | THE ROYALJELLYDIXIELANDBAND RIOGH | NICKCHARLES | TANKDILEMMA | THE UGLYUNCLES | THE RAMSHACKLEARMY | MADREMONTE ROUNDMOUNTAINGIRLS | GRACEBARBEAFRO-KREOL | SISKINRIVER | THE HOGSTOMPIN’ZYDEGATORS THE STRING CONTINGENT | THE BEDROOM PHILOSOPHER | THE MAN THEYCALLTHE BANJO | JED ROWE BAND MUSTEREDCOURAGE | THE STILLSONS | RUSTYBERTHER | SHAUNKIRK | ALANNA&ALICIAEGAN JACKSONMCLAREN&THETRIPLETHREAT | LIVINGSTONEDAISIES | JIMHAYNES | ANDYALBERTS&THE WALKABOUTS | GIBBTODD | DANNYSPOONER | RICKE VENGEANCE | DENNISO'KEEFFE PLUS THE FRINGE WITH

BANDS | BUSKERS | STREET INVADERS | CHILDREN'S FOLK CIRCUS | MARKETS

Xavier Rudd

Arlo Guthrie

Reptiles, in that country, had to be searched for: they were precious rarities. Dawe escaped to regions of richer supply, and became a keeper— first at zoos, in Adelaide and in Melbourne, then at the Australian Reptile Park in Gosford—but despite this decade-long pattern of persistent snake handling, his charges never turned on him: the strange state of harmony that existed between the Pueblo dancers and their totemic rattlesnakes mantled him also; he tended and ministered to vipers, mambas and cobras; on one occasion a bushmaster wrapped its fangs around his index finger, paused, gazed up and withdrew tenderly, without injecting any of its venom into the puncture wounds left on his skin.

Such experiences, much discussed, ensured his fame in the serpent world, and it was only a matter of time before my enquiring colleague Kelvin Cantrill appeared to pay homage and seek instruction at Dawe’s property on Darwin’s rural edge. What were the possibilities of locating obscure pythons in the savannah country of the North? The consultation began: their friendship blossomed, in the odd, glassy way that snake ties grow—they strengthen into a kind of brotherhood of shared affections, much like the feelings that Tolstoy pictures binding Karenin and Vronsky beside Anna’s sickbed: a species of love that vanquishes all rivalry and sense of self.

Cantrill was a traveller in quest of pure emotions of this kind: he had pursued them;

it was his life’s task to describe them. He was a fluent writer: his prose ran richly to metaphor, metaphor piled on metaphor, until it became hard to keep track of the thread of his initial intentions—and the theme of the work as well as its structure was often serpentine, so that a simple-seeming essay on volcanoes, or a treatment of the evolution of stringed instruments, would offer the unsuspecting reader an excursus that touched on various aspects of snake behaviour and taxonomy before returning to the main flow of the narrative. This focus was near constant, in person as much as in written word.

‘Elapid Tourism,’ Cantrill might well exclaim in greeting, when we met up in some remote roadhouse in the Gulf Country, or made a rendezvous on the straight, oppressive highways of the Barkly Tableland: ‘That’s the future for the Northern Territory— a tourism based wholly on the lure of venomous snakes.’

‘But aren’t they hard to see and find?’ ‘Of course—that’s the whole point!’ And then it would be the moment for him to sketch again his beatific vision of the Australian tropics and the monsoonal country, flush with international visitors on reptile safari convoys, travelling deep into the snake-rich rangelands round the Simpson and Great Sandy deserts. Year in, year out, they would come: ‘And every visitor would have a special snake passport, with all the details of the most elusive species, and those places

the MELBOURNE REVIEW JANUARY 2013 13

Feature Behind them, wide-eyed, staring rattlesnakes of various sizes and colorations floated, coiled up in large preserving jars. He described each one: its characteristics, anatomical and mythological.” would improve our understanding of toxicology and increase our expertise in emergency medicine as well: a perfect economic circle!’

Such was Cantrill. His happiest hours were spent at his dark home in Seaforth, on Sydney’s North Shore, peering into his elaborate terrarium, and whispering loving words to his indifferentseeming diamond pythons, whose elegance he would seek constantly to recapture in word portraits—portraits that became baroque, self-sustaining cathedrals of wild imagery and speculative thought. Their tone and style were somehow familiar to me, and for some months I puzzled over this, as I made my way through the lengthy emails Cantrill liked to send off in the small hours of the night, each file containing whole cascades of these majestic compositions, works of beauty and allusive splendour so elaborate they resembled nothing so much as the growth of corals on some tranquil, sun-dappled reef.

where you would have a reasonable chance of spotting them.’

‘And you could even have dedicated pages,’ I would say, lifted up by his excitement: ‘Something like the visa pages on a standard passport, divided up, and each rare snake would imprint its fang marks on the right page in the passport as identifying proof of the encounter.’

‘Absolutely. What a wonderful idea! And that level of contact would lead inevitably to a rise in incidents of snakebite, and antivenene sales, so it

And then I remembered: I had come across just such patterns of snake rhetoric before, long before, when I worked in the Americas, and became caught up with the rattlesnake researches of José Díaz Bolio, the celebrated historian and poet of the Yucatán Peninsula.

We corresponded for several months, and his letters, handwritten, in the most courtly style, gained in intensity and flourish with each exchange. It seemed essential, in the end, to pay a visit. I took the flight down to Mérida, and began a series of trips to the Mayan snake-cult sites of the inland, and immersed myself in Díaz Bolio’s vast outpouring of books and pamphlets: they contained his interpretations of the art and symbolism of the temple complexes, his calendric studies, his ideas about the snake as the axis of the region’s enduring traditions— and these works, printed on flimsy paper, available only in the back rooms of obscure

provincial bookshops, seemed like hidden, fragmentary texts of revelation. In fact they were mere apéritifs. Díaz Bolio was still working on the definitive statement of his philosophy when at last we came face to face.

It was late in the afternoon of a stifling summer day. At the appointed hour, I rang the bell at the gate of his palazzo. Díaz Bolio received me in a lovely tree-shaded garden. He was wearing a linen suit of fine cut. He shook hands. For a few seconds, he endeavoured to preserve a formality of manner—then the front broke.

‘To the study,’ he cried: ‘At once!’ It was a large room, warm, sun-drenched, with antique maps and deep-shadowed photographs of temple friezes displayed above the bookcases: sheafs of manuscripts and notes were piled on adjoining desks. Behind them, wide-eyed, staring rattlesnakes of various sizes and colorations floated, coiled up in large preserving jars. He described each one: its characteristics, anatomical and mythological. We delved into the latest theories to come to Díaz Bolio’s thoughts. Was it not clear that the cosmos itself, as it was being progressively disclosed by modern astrophysics, had a snakelike quality? Had the gods of creation not revealed this cryptic structure in the first hallucinatory visions that were vouchsafed to the rulers of the Mayan realm?

‘It is crotalic thinking,’ exclaimed Díaz Bolio, stroking a small statue of a serpent deity perched on a table by his side. ‘Crotalic?’ ‘From the classificatory name of the Mesoamerican rattlesnake,’ he said, looking a touch offended.

‘Crotalus. But of course you, as an enquirer yourself, will see these connections immediately.

I have begun to set them out.

Here.’ He handed me a thick typescript: upon the cover there was a stylised tracery of snake

scales and feather plumes: Mi Descubrimiento del Culto Crotalico, announced the title. ‘My last work,’ he said: ‘My synthesis: I draw my thoughts together; and in so doing, I draw myself.’

I began reading from the first chapter: he listened. Even by Díaz Bolio’s own standards, the prose was labyrinthine; it was lush in sound; it took delight in its rhythmic unfurling of clause and paragraph. ‘It’s almost as if the beauty of the structure is what holds the key,’ I said. ‘You mean the meaning is there is no meaning? It’s only the convolutions? How much I fear those ideas.

Throughout my life they have tempted me. But all the ideas in the world are our work: nothing more.

We are vain interpreters. The thing remains. The longer I live, the more I succeed in thinking like a serpent, and the more I realise that the enemy of truth is man.’

INFORMATION Belomor is published by Text Publishing ($29.99) textpublishing.com.au nicolasrothwell.com

A free, immersive film installation by acclaimed filmmaker and artist Warwick Thornton Until 23 June 2013 ACMI, Federation Square — Free exhibition www.acmi.net.au/thornton

Warwick Thornton Mother Courage Mother Courage has been commissioned

by ACMI and dOCUMENTA (13) and is part of the ACMI Commissions Series.

Image: Warwick Thornton, Mother Courage (production still), 2012.

Courtesy of the artist and Scarlett Pictures

14 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

Biotech Dairy innovation Beyond the simple glass of milk: Melbourne’s research hub for dairy manufacturing

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elbournians know their city to be the location for some of Australia’s finest medical research and a large number of biotechnology companies. But did you know that Melbourne is also a central location for agricultural research underpinning Victoria’s large agricultural industries? With about 65 percent of the Australian dairy industry based in the State of Victoria, it is no wonder that Melbourne is also the base for innovative dairy science and technology.

The dairy industry is Victoria’s largest rural industry. A total of 4,588 of the about 6,800 Australian dairy farms are located in Victoria in one of the three pre-dominant dairy regions: the Northern irrigation district, Gippsland and the Southwest of the state. About one million cows are milked daily and produced 5.91 billion litres of milk in 2010/11 with a farm gate value of $2.48 billion. Drought conditions and water shortages have resulted in a substantial decrease in milk production in Northern Victoria since 2007/08, but more favourable conditions since 2011/12 indicate that production is on the rise again. Milk produced in Victoria is manufactured into dairy products and liquid drinking milk. There are over 20 large dairy processing plants located in the state mainly in the production regions.

All of Australia’s large dairy processors have a manufacturing footprint in Victoria: Murray Goulburn, Fonterra, Parmalat, Warrnambool Cheese and Butter, Bega and Lion Dairy and Drinks. But smaller dairy processors play a key role as well as exporters or manufacturers of familiar brands: United Dairy Power, Bulla and Burra Foods, not to mention some of the finest artisan cheese manufacturers such as Yarra Valley Dairy, Meredith or Milawa. The dairy industry employs over 20,000 people in the state.

Australian dairy products are highly regarded in overseas markets and our ‘clean green’ reputation is due to the fact that much of the dairy production still depends on pasture feeding. Australia is a significant exporter of dairy products contributing about eight percent of the global dairy export trade. Milk produced in Victoria contributes 86 percent to Australia’s dairy export volume, and thus returns to farmers are very much determined by the strong exposure to global market conditions such as commodity prices and currency exchange rates.

In 2010/11, Victoria’s dairy exports added about $1.96 billion of value post-farm gate. It is no surprise that two of the largest products exported from the Port of Melbourne are powdered milk products and bulk cheese.

Victoria’s dairy industry is mature and well organised. Both the farm sector and the dairy manufacturing sector are supported by national research and innovation programs based in Melbourne. Significant research support for the farm sector in soil science, animal science and pasture crops is conducted through the Department of Primary Industries and the Dairy Futures CRC. The industry peak body, Dairy Australia, supports both on farm research and research in dairy manufacturing.

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Photos courtesy of: DIAL

Barbara Meurer

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Innovation does not stop at the farm gate: Australia’s dairy processors have created a unique open innovation model for research and innovation in all things that relate to the processing and manufacturing of milk into dairy products. Dairy Innovation Australia Limited (DIAL) is a national post-farm gate research centre based in Victoria.

The not-for-profit company was founded in 2007 and supports the dairy manufacturing sector with state-of-the-art technology capability and a large network of academic research partners in Australia and overseas. The innovation model DIAL operates allows participating dairy processors to share the cost for expensive exploratory and novel research technologies and benefit from use of resources and capabilities developed to enable tailored technology transfer and scale-up trials. As a result, dairy processors are able to support innovation activities across a wide range of processing technologies and hugely diverse dairy product ranges.

Next time you go to the supermarket, take a look at the diverse products that are made from milk. Starting with drinking milk, you will have the choice of any fat level from skim to reduced fat to full cream, or milks fortified with calcium or vitamin D. Moving on to the cheese section, cheddar and mozzarella are still the mainstay of the Australian household, but the number of other cheese varieties on offer is steadily expanding – all available in a number of different sizes from the 1 kg bloc to small bite size portions, shredded cheeses or slices. You will find a large range of other fermented dairy products; have you noticed the recent boom in new varieties of yoghurt? Then there are custards, sour cream, cream cheese, and dips in the refrigerated section.

There is also a wide range of shelf stable dairy products manufactured in Victoria: UHT milk, milk powders and infant formula. We can’t think of sports nutrition without referring to whey powders. And what many consumers may not know – there are a whole host of minor components in milk that convey additional health benefits. A number of dairy bioactive compounds

Spray drying plant in Victoria.

Australian made chees.

have been shown to boost immunity, to help with iron metabolism, to prevent the growth of bacteria (antimicrobial), and to lower blood pressure. Quite a few of Victoria’s dairy processors have sophisticated processing lines capable of extracting these bioactive components and providing them as ingredients for infant formula and other nutritional products.

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The list of manufacturing processes that enable

the constant diversification and innovation of dairy products and ensure their consistent delivery to and safety for the consumer is long.

Starting with transport and pasteurisation, separation technologies such as centrifugation or membrane filtration, fermentation with dairy cultures, evaporation and drying technologies, chromatography, cutting, formulation, filling, packaging – and there are many others. And finally, how can dairy processors extract value from byproducts and reduce the environmental footprint of these energy and resource intensive processes?

the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013 15

Biotech Map of dairy regions in Victoria

Number of dairy cattle

5,000 to 10,700 2,500 to 5,000 1,000 to 2,500 1 to 1,000

Land use

Agriculture (without dairy cattle) Non agriculture

5

200 Kilometres

Dairy Innovation Australia – In the pilot plant at 180 Princes Highway.

Dairy Innovation Australia (DIAL) conducts research and technology transfer in all these areas relevant to dairy manufacturing technologies and product characterisation supporting its member companies, Australian dairy processors who are collectively processing about 70 percent of the milk produced in Australia. A highlight for the six-year-old company was the move into its own premises on Princes Highway in Werribee in November 2012. As an industry funded research institute, DIAL provides state-of-the-art research laboratories, a manufacturing pilot plant, food technology laboratories, sensory laboratory and meeting facilities. With 37 staff, DIAL provides dairy processors with access to a team of highly skilled experts in process engineering, dairy microbiology, and dairy product and ingredient characterisation. DIAL staff develop academic research collaborations in Australia and globally and at the same time lead teams in technology transfer and implementation projects in commercial dairy factories, creating a new breed of scientist with a deep understanding of the context in which innovations are applied and effective in the world of manufacturing. Working on pre-competitive as well as commercially sensitive projects, the DIAL experts are building their reputation as trusted intermediaries and

contribute to productivity gains by translating and applying research outcomes to factory specific improvements. Recognising the potential of this innovation and technology transfer model, the Victorian Department of Business and Innovation recently awarded DIAL a $300,000 grant to expand and formalise its technology implementation strategy and address critical barriers in the translation and adoption of novel technologies.

A good example of the success of the DIAL innovation model are the outcomes from investments to improve the energy efficiency of powder manufacture and the consistency and functionality of different powder products, for example properties such as solubility and longer shelf life. Powdered dairy products are skim and whole milk powder, whey powder, butter milk powder, specialty bioactive powders and other ingredients for infant and nutritional formulas. When DIAL was formed there was little expertise in Australia in spray drying. Led

by DIAL, with support from major funding initiatives such as the Gardiner Foundation, a total of about $10 million was invested over five years to build and implement technology support – about 0.2% of the revenues achieved

from powder production. DIAL has been able to transfer a range of the new technologies to a number of the 41 spray drying plants in Australia. The technologies deliver improved run times and yield increases and generate the opportunity to deliver more than $12 million in annual benefits within seven years with continued adoption.

Cheddar cheese is another of Victoria’s predominant dairy products. Major cheese makers purchase their starter cultures from Dairy Innovation Australia, despite the fact that frozen and ‘freeze dried’ culture concentrates are available from international suppliers. DIAL also supplies starter cultures for mozzarella and hard grating cheese. About 40 percent of Australian produced cheese is made using cultures from the DIAL starter culture production facility. The use of these starter cultures is very economical, delivering an annual benefit to the dairy processors of about $3 million. Underpinning this effort is a collection of almost 3,000 strains of dairy cultures housed at DIAL. • • • • • Over the first six years since its foundation, DIAL has delivered over 50 pre-competitive

research projects conducted either internally or in collaboration with academic partners. DIAL has an extensive network with the Australian research community to access expertise and platform technologies such as electron microscopy, confocal laser scanning microscopy or the Australian Synchrotron. In Victoria, key research partnerships are with University of Melbourne and the Bio21 Institute, with Monash University and with Victoria University.

DIAL is one of the few dedicated dairy research organisations in the world and maintaining close connections to the international research communities is important. This occurs through joint projects with collaborators in countries such as France and the Netherlands and by hosting international conferences such as the 4th International Symposium on Spray Dried Dairy Products held in the Melbourne Convention Centre in 2009. The next joint symposium of the International Dairy Federation (IDF) on the Microstructure of Dairy Products and Fermented Milk is planned for 2014, and Dairy Innovation Australia will be involved in the organisation.

Finally, the Dairy Health and Nutrition Consortium (DHNC) is one of DIAL’s key programs building research partnerships with health and nutrition scientists. Whilst the benefits of dairy consumption is well accepted for childhood development and infant nutrition and also in the context of building strong bones and prevention of osteoporosis, there are many more health benefits that can be attributed to consumption of dairy products.

The Dairy Health and Nutrition Consortium collaborates, for example, with the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne on clinical and epidemiological projects that have delivered new evidence indicating that high dairy consumption can lower the risk of lifestyle related diseases such as type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease.

INFORMATION Dr Barbara Meurer is Manager - Milk Quality & Biotechnology, Dairy Innovation Australia Ltd dairyinnovation.com.au

16 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

Health Supergood superfoods for optimal health Professor Avni Sali

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id you know that only about 12 percent of household food and beverage expenditure is spent on the purchase of fruit and vegetables? According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2009-10), household expenditure on fast food for the same period was 31 percent!

The lack of fresh fruit and vegetables in our diet is directly related to many modern diseases – research clearly shows an unmistakable connection between, for example, cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes, and poor intake of quality fruit and vegetables. In the fight against Australia’s steadily increasing rate of obesity (almost two-thirds of all adults are considered obese or overweight), eating more fruit and vegetables is one of the most effective dietary changes we can make. Fruit and vegetables are ‘superfoods’ in their own right, offering healthful, nutrition-packed sustenance that help our bodies function optimally.

One of the essential components of the integrative approach to health is the goal of not just restoring health but actually promoting optimal health – a vibrant life full of vitality.

This is more than simply eliminating disease, or returning the body to ‘the absence of symptoms’ but instead focuses on the health potential of each individual seeking to ‘create’ the best possible health in the present and in the long term. A ‘super’ life such as this is greatly supported by

‘super’ foods, and in recent years there have been many foods that research has highlighted as having potent effects in the human body. Many fruits and vegetables are now considered to have ‘super’ health properties and many other foods, such as oily fish, nuts, some grains and cocoa, are also classified as superfoods.

What makes a food super? For the most part superfoods are also natural foods, that is, they are handmade by nature not machines, and typically exist as wholefoods in their natural form. Superfoods are readily available (based on seasonal and regional variations) and do not tend to be highly packaged foods. (In recent years, commercial food promotion has annexed the words ‘super’ and ‘natural’ so it pays to be savvy when assessing the label and the real merit of any food that is being marketed in this way.)

The essential key to superfoods is that they are micronutrient dense and calorie light. Many superfoods are classified as such because they contain nutrients the body needs but cannot manufacture. In addition to having unique or higher than typical nutrients (compared to most foods), many superfoods are also high in antioxidants. They also earn their super reputation because they create powerful biochemical responses in the body and are backed by rigorous scientific testing that supports their medicinal effectiveness.

There is no definitive list of superfoods.

Through ongoing research into the nutrients and medicinal properties in common foods, we are continually gaining new understandings about the

unique ways in which various foods can improve our health, typically without side effects.

Including more superfoods in our diets may enhance our health by (but is not limited to): • • • • • •

Promoting good gut bacteria and improving digestion Lowering cholesterol, regulating blood pressure and supporting cardiovascular health Providing protection against (or reducing) inflammation in the body Detoxifying organs and reducing free radicals in the body through antioxidant action Regulating metabolism, blood sugar levels and the fat burning process in the body Enhancing longevity (anti-ageing ) and improving mood

Good gut bacteria is increasingly understood to be of critical importance to health, with research proving links, for example, between poor gut

health and some cancers and even obesity. Some foods, such as raw honey, brown rice, chocolate, kiwi fruit and banana are prebiotic providing the necessary ‘food’ for bacteria to develop, and some superfoods are probiotic with good bacteria already active in their constitution. Although there are trillions of bacteria in the gut, the use of antibiotics, stress and poor eating habits means that most people have less than optimal healthy bacteria levels.

Eat more: Fermented foods such as yoghurt, kefir (a cultured milk product), fermented soy products such as miso and natto (made from soybeans), cultured vegetables such as sauerkraut, kimchi and other forms of pickled vegetables (preferably not commercially prepared as they are often high in sugar, salt and artificial colours).

Promoting cardiovascular health is of concern to many Australians. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death, responsible for over 30 percent of all mortalities. Many superfoods have

“Swisse Men’s Ultivite supports my energy, stamina and vitality” Lleyton Hewitt Australian Tennis Great

the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013 17

Health The essential key to superfoods is that they are micronutrient dense and calorie light. Many superfoods are classified as such because they contain nutrients the body needs but cannot manufacture.” foods high in saturated fats and trans fats, fructose and glucose, which includes most fast foods. In contrast many superfoods have a soothing and restorative effect on the body as they have antiinflammatory and immune-enhancing properties.

been proven to help in symptom management, and also have protective effects.

People on statin drugs (cholesterol-lowering) are warned to avoid citrus fruits, especially grapefruit, as they may super-charge drug potency. Research is now exploring how this may be efficiently used to reduce dosage of some prescription medications by purposefully combining them with specific superfoods.

Eat more: Oily fish such as sardines and salmon (rich in Omega 3 fatty acids), and use olive oil (and eliminate vegetables oils from the diet). Cocoa (or dark chocolate), garlic, pomegranate, avocado and green tea are all superfoods that can support improved cardiovascular health.

Inflammation is the process by which the immune system deals with infections or injury due to pathogenic bacteria, viruses and other pathogens. Pro-inflammatory states in the body can contribute to many diseases and are created by

Eat more: Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, red cabbage and kale for their cancer fighting enzymes and anti-inflammatory effect. Superfoods high in polyphenols such as red grape juice, red wine (in moderation) and cocoa/dark chocolate are highly beneficial. Cherries are also beneficial as they contain anthocyanin, a powerful anti-inflammatory that can provide relief for arthritis. Fish and fish oils have a very strong anti-inflammatory action. Curcumin, which is found in ginger and turmeric, also has antiinflammatory properties.

Detoxifying organs improves and sustains good health. Antioxidants include the vitamins A, C and E, beta-carotene, lycopene and minerals such as zinc, selenium and copper. Antioxidants mop up free radicals circulating in the body. As a general rule of thumb, the darker the fruit or vegetable, the more antioxidants it has.

Eat more: Tomatoes and guava are rich in lycopene, and colourful fruits and dark coloured vegetables are high in antioxidant vitamins and minerals.

Berries, especially blueberries, have a welldeserved reputation as powerful antioxidants.

Blueberries have 50 percent more antioxidants than strawberries, and three times more than kiwi fruit, and have even been shown to improve age-related dementia. Goji berries have been extremely popular in recent years and have excellent antioxident properties.

Leafy greens high in chlorophyll are also excellent detoxifiers and green tea is a proven

superfood, not only for its detoxifying effects, but also for its many other health benefits.

Metabolism, blood sugar and fat burning superfoods are important not just for those attempting to lose weight, but also for ongoing weight maintenance. Type 2 diabetes is a major worldwide health concern with the number of patients expected to rise to 300 million people by 2025. Dietary changes (and exercise) have been proven to be more effective at preventing and treating diabetes than drug therapies, so superfoods can play a particularly effective role in the management of this disease.

Eat more: Oats are low GI and can help regulate blood sugar.

Chia seeds also aid in regulating metabolism and have a host of beneficial nutrients. Green tea, a ‘super’ superfood has been shown in research to help control blood sugar spikes and improve fat-burning processes in the body. Coconut oil is a unique fat that has many benefits including the ability to stimulate metabolism. It is also antiviral and anti-bacterial. Cinnamon has an important role in helping to normalise glucose (blood ‘sugar’).

Enhancing longevity and happiness and superfoods have something in common.

The Mediterranean diet has been noted for its positive impact on longevity and health. In addition to many lifestyle factors that are the cornerstone of Integrative Medicine, the Mediterranean diet is notable for its high consumption levels of superfoods.

The focus on fresh fruit and vegetables, oily fish, olive oil and quality low GI grains is a ‘model’ that we all can benefit from. Feel good superfoods include those high in calcium, magnesium and vitamin B12. Seaweeds or sea vegetables are also high in important minerals and oils that support positive mood enhancement.

Eat more: Olive oil is an important healthy fat. Olive trees are extremely resilient so it stands to reason that the active properties in olives will also be of benefit in our bodies, and research has proven this to be so. The same can be said for tea and cocoa, which are also known for their longevity as plants.

Seafoods, cottage cheese, bananas, spirulina and other foods that contain tryptophan may be supportive in improving mood.

Although food as medicine is a concept that predates modern medicine, today’s science is only now making the important discoveries that provide us with an understanding of why certain foods have such advantageous effects in the body. This means that the list of superfoods will continue to grow and we will be further empowered to choose foods for their particular health benefits, according to our particular needs. Fruits such as figs may not yet appear on the superfood list even though we already know them to be rich sources of vitamin C and an excellent source of dietary fibre. As a food that has been cultivated by many cultures for thousands of years, it stands to reason that they are of superior nutritional benefit – even though they are yet to be subjected to the rigours of science!

There is good reason and great evidence that suggests that the addition of superfoods to your daily meal plan can be advantageous to health. If your daily consumption of fruit and vegetables is at the low end of the scale, superfoods can provide a much needed nutritional boost. If you already enjoy a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, wholefoods, quality grains and good fats from fish, olive and nuts, then the addition of superfoods provides a tasty and nutritious boost that fast tracks the path not only to good, but optimal health today.

INFORMATION Professor Avni Sali is Founding Director of the National Institute of Integrative Medicine (NIIM). He oversees the facilitation of the practice of Integrative Medicine at the NIIM Clinic in Hawthorn, as well as the promotion of education and research. niim.com.au

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18 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

Columnists Longneck Fence-sitting: the new radical Patrick Allington

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hese days, politics imitates sport, which imitates Beyoncé lip-syncing the national anthem at Obama’s inauguration, which is more or less why I’ve come over all let’s-change-theworld and have decided to stand as a candidate in the federal election (assuming I haven’t passed retirement age by September 14).

The nice folks at the Electoral Commission have sent me a ‘How To Win At Democracy’ Fact Sheet. I’ve been memorising my lines in the shower (from where I intend to give all my press conferences): as an audacious, tough, visionary, faintly belligerent leader-in-waiting who instinctively knows what makes our espressoed, tree-stacked, coal-lined country tick, I demand your support. You will vote for me or I’ll … I’ll …

I’m yawning already. Confected rage isn’t my thing, except when I’m sitting on the couch with a glass of red, trying to fathom why the ABC bothers to get Kerry O’Brien to introduce episodes of ‘4 Corners’. Still, I’ll give it a go. As Kevin07 would say, it’s high time that I rolled up my sleeves and got on with the hard work of hectoring the country. Here’s Core Promise #1: I will insult, with senseless venom, a minimum of one person per day for thirty days. By election time, I’ll be humming along at a smooth ten slurs a day. It’s okay, though, it’ll be non-core abuse, forgotten the moment I utter it.

Invective alone won’t get me to Canberra. I need to rebrand … but I’m just not sure who or what I’m supposed to become. I should get my nostril hair trimmed. Obviously. I suppose I’ll need a T-shirt slogan, something like ‘PatrickFantastic’ or ‘Patrick13: not-quiteGreen, rarely seen’. Maybe I should go the whole hog and change my name. I wouldn’t mind being Eddie McGuire for three or four years, except that voters might mistake me for Eddie Obeid

(hang in there, Eddie, innocent until proven guilty, or so the story goes). Maybe I should go for something more reliable, like Ned Kelly. Or Sir Donald Bradman.

I’m not sure which seat I’ll run in. It’s not as if I have to live in the electorate I represent (do I, Julia?). I might settle for Forrest in WA because apparently Margaret River ‘is the place for indulging many passions’. Look out Nola Marino MP, I’m coming for your job. In a genial and non-confrontational way.

I suppose I’ll need some policies. Two or three should be enough (it’s a long campaign but not that long). Okay: I promise to introduce onthe-spot fines for any public figure who says ‘What the Australian people want…’, with repeat offenders forced to watch one-day cricket. I undertake to ban the writing, distribution and reading of Media Releases. And I will introduce a private member’s bill limiting political donations to the price of a cup of coffee — let’s say $3.50, with requests for additional shots, soy milk or single origin organic gold-dusted beans to be made to the Federal Police.

I’ve developed a sophisticated election strategy: if nobody loves or hates me, if I’m ineffectual, then all the other candidates will preference me. I’ll win by default. The media will lap it up, nicknaming me ‘The Accident’ or ‘The Steve Bradbury of Australian politics’.

But I’ve watched super-slow-mo of Bradbury’s skates flinging around the ice during that gold medal race. He planned the whole thing. It took genius and nerve to sit so far back while the rest of them fell over.

Winning Forrest is not enough. I crave the balance of power. And not just on the floor of parliament — the anti-politician-politicians have already been there, done that. I plan to insert myself at the precise centrepoint of 22.9 million Aussies: men, women and children, fat and thin, Christian and assorted heathens.

If you think splitting the country into two perfect halves sounds impossible, have a little faith in democracy. Forget the crossbenches: I’ll build a white picket fence on the grassy knoll outside of Parliament House. I’ll sit on it day and night. If anybody wants to chat — no lobbying allowed! — they’ll have to sit beside me, in plain sight. I’ll have no idea what I’m doing, or why, or how, even after I’ve done it. Vote 1 for indefatigable indecision: it’s the new radical.

IRREGULAR WRITINGS The future is Springvale Dave Graney

I

dropped my phone and the screen went dark. I only use it to get calls but it’s pretty handy – an old model a friend fished out of a bottom drawer.

The camera is quite good and it has more storage than my first computer by a dozen fold. So I thought I’d get it fixed. Looked all over the magic box for ideas and clues as to the problem. Went to several forum areas and even watched a YouTube video on how to replace the screen for that model.

It all looked so easy but I have been involved in that kind of pile of dead parts of a machine in front of me, suddenly like an incomprehensible puzzle, many times before.

So I found myself at a little hole-in-the-wall shop in Springvale that promised to fix problems like mine.

Springvale is an area many people read about in the papers. To do with scary stories of unknowable ethnic crime and the like. It’s in those people’s minds more than as a place they go to very much. Footscray (Footscary!) has the same stories about it with its successive waves of immigrants changing the tone and flavour of the place over the years, but people actually know where that is. Springvale is not in Dandenong, but it’s on the way there. It is actually quite accessible to where I live in the hills. Just a roll down the highway and a turn at Springvale Road. This is one of those long and winding avenues like High Street Road (the south eastern one) or Burwood Highway, which must have been aboriginal walking tracks at one stage. That’s just a vibe I have, understand? Don’t quote me in an essay or anything.

So Springvale Road tootles along, past the posh mall that is Waverley Gardens and Wellington Road and Princes Highway and then you are in an area of unmistakeable ethnic variety. For me, it’s like a fantastic holiday, as the hills are so totally Anglo.

I find the shop and drop my phone off. They tell me to come back in an hour. I have confidence in them. I walk along the road. Great Indian, Vietnamese, Chinese and Middle Eastern grocery stores. Furniture shops and bath and kitchen utensil stores. Stuff for people building homes and businesses. After fooling around in a junk shop for a while I make my way back to the shop. One fellow takes care of the customers and he enters

and exits the backroom through a door behind the counter. Who knows how many people are back there? One? A dozen? The thing is that everybody who comes in is at their mercy. This beguiling smartphone technology is a mystery to all.

Except for a few initiates who are in on the source code. These guys have us by the short and curlies. And who are “we”? Well I find, sitting in the cramped, stuffy room, that I am pretty much the only Anglo guy in the team. A couple of other grey haired, white van driving geezers come in. Tradespeople. The rest of the clientele is a veritable United Nations. The Vietnamese are running the show. A young African girl comes in. They give her a quote as to the repair of her smartphone. She says “I’ll just go and ask my personal assistant.” (She had walked in with an even younger, but taller young bloke with no shoes on.)

Two Sri Lankan guys come in with their phone, then a Sikh with his exotic headwear. This trio all sported skinny jeans though, and were all in their twenties.

Hipster ethnique. Then a young Chinese woman with her son. She had dropped her smartphone too.

The place specialised in waterlogged phones, “unlocking” them and cracked screen replacements.

See, everybody is taught that these things will either never break or, if they do, that it’s only right just to toss them away (or give them to a cheapskate friend) and get a new one. These guys were onto that scam.

Most of the young men affected clothes that clearly came from an R&B or hip hop aesthetic.

A guy from a more Balkan or Mediterranean background was told the people out back would be working further on his phone. “I will push them,” said the capable, smiling guy at the counter.

“Well push them harder!” said the customer. He wore sunglasses and a cap. He had no more time to spend on this. I wanted to wait around to see what happened next but I was told my phone was still dead but they would try some CPR overnight.

The joint was never empty. Can-Do people!

A day later I got the call that my phone, it lived!

I went to pick it up and took the moment to have a further look around this suburb and how its reality compared to its illusory reputation. Hey, it was like being on holiday in the near north. A food market presents the most beautiful array of fruit and vegetables (watermelon seeds and green gauge plums) and then a startling pile of flesh in the meat section. Mounds of pigs’ tongues, heads and casually layered offal. Strange cuts of pork and lamb and chicken. A seafood area with glass cabinets of crawling crabs and all kinds of sea creatures.

I make a note to come out here more often.

It’s the future! Or actually the present. Different from the dormitory nature of a lot of the more Anglo suburbs.

the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013 19

Columnists

THIRD AGE All tragic to the moon Shirley Stott Despoja

A

nother Australia Day has come and gone.

Picture poor old Shirley, sitting like patience on a monument, smiling at her disappointment.

No republic, no good national anthem, no national flag that represents us properly.

Life’s disappointments in one month’s hit. I had also believed, when young, that religion would be a niche interest by my life’s end. How wrong could a girl be?

But I don’t think I am wrong about a

Republic. Many Australians share that disappointment. If it has to entail a referendum and agreement by major parties to sponsor it, and becomes the subject of the sort of extreme political abuse we have seen in and out of the parliament recently, we’ve got Buckley’s. Don’t even go there. You’ll just get the tosh about “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” - a foreign expression, to add insult to injury, to insist on Australia’s being tethered to a monarchy.

The national flag for me will always be the beautiful blue and white flag of Eureka. Not much hope it will be adopted by all. Any change to the flag immediately brings up “Men (and women, if they remember) fought and died under our present flag.” End of conversation. It is too touchy a subject while there are still young people being sent to fight and sometimes die “for their country” overseas.

Too hard, the flag.

Another lifetime perhaps. Though Canada did

it. And now PNG is talking about it.

So that leaves the anthem, or national song as I prefer to call it, since anthem is usually an address or appeal to God. God is always being badgered to defend or save or something. Or God-Understood called upon to advance us…

But who says that has to remain the case? Let’s talk about a song to be played to represent our nation. Not only on the podium, but when we feel our hearts stirred by our ancient, lovely, threatened land.

Surely no one is going to go to the barricades for the present dirge about girt. For me and many other people, the real national song exists, and is our national song simply because it is what we sing when we are most moved by love of country, (and yes, it is sung by soldiers); whose first notes always find spines to send a shiver up, whose atmosphere is mysterious, whose subject… is different. But it speaks volumes about our land. As a national song

it will be esoteric, enigmatic. Not militaristic or belligerent. God, as they say, forbid that.

We should have the confidence as a nation by now to make Waltzing Matilda our national song for all occasions, to hold our head high and embrace the folk tradition of our music.

Tough call. I fear it’s the swaggie that most upsets urban elites, though Dennis O’Keeffe, in his 2012 book Waltzing Matilda: The secret history of Australia’s favourite song (Allen and Unwin), points out that swagman, when the lyrics were written by Banjo Paterson, and the music adapted

by Christina Macpherson, meant an itinerant rural worker. A matilda was the blanket swaggies carried. Waltzing Matilda is much more than ‘a simple song about a petty thief stealing a sheep’.

Then look at the alternative. There is one poem with one phrase that always pulls me up sharp and makes me think of my feeling about my country.

It is a cry, almost a passionate wail: “Core of my heart, my country.”

Dorothea Mackellar was a good sort. In what is known now as “I love a sunburnt country,” she really set out her spiritual feelings about Australia.

“A stark white ringbarked forest/all tragic to the moon./ The sapphire-misted mountains/ The hot gold hush of noon…” A child can understand and be moved by this. And I would think so could every Australian. “Her beauty and her terror…”

Advance Australia Fair is nothing compared to it.

I know there are musical settings of the poem, some of them lovely, but perhaps not robust enough for a national song. Yet the possibility is there. “Core of my heart….” Wonderful stuff: and a challenge for our contemporary composers. ….

I know perfectly nice and smart people who talked last year about those who govern us with a vehemence that shocked me. Politicians were being de-humanised to make this level of abuse possible. It doesn’t make sense. We elected them.

There was a choice. We have a freedom that is the envy of the world.

It must be scary to be the focus of everyone’s discontents. No wonder politicians get carried away in the Parliament. It is certainly dangerous for our democracy to allow political conversation to become abuse.

And don’t blame the internet. You can escape Twitter and the like if you want. What you can’t escape is a mouthful or a hideous poster.

Stop it. Celebrate our freedom. Don’t trash it.

20 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

Socials THE OTHER PLACE AT MTC On January 31, guests of Melbourne Theatre Company gathered post-show to celebrate the opening night of The Other Place, and the beginning of the Company’s 60th year.

Among the crowd was star of the play Catherine McClements and director Nadia Tass as well as friends, family and special guests. The Other Place runs until March 2 at Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse.

Photos: Matthew Wren

Laura Gordon, Ella Caldwell, Bert La Bonte and Amanda La Bonte.

David Whiteley and Nadia Tass.

Sir James and Lady Gobbo.

Andrew Key and Robyn Key.

Nicole Free and Debbie Phyland.

David McCathy and Marieke Hardy.

Rebecca Enerson and Taylor Pearce.

Phillipa Maher and Andrew Boyd Barber.

Sam Strong and Sacha Horler.

Sharr White and Matt Bebbington.

Hottest Hunk Finale Event hosted by RIVA St Kilda Blush Photography’s Hottest Hunk Finale saw twelve male contestants show their wares to a panel of 20 celebrity judges and over 450 guests.

Michala Banas and Melina Bagnato.

Nikki Osborne.

Sapphira and Sapphira’s showgirls.

Lilly Dawson, Colin Sylvia and Lara Shannon.

Photos: Blush Photography

Melina Bagnato and Kate Bollard.

Liz Cambage.

22 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

Books

Lesley Jørgensen Cat & Fiddle Scribe David Sornig Mrs Begum, a traditional, but not altogether conservative Bangladeshi mother in rural Wiltshire, is concerned to properly marry off her three adult children. But son Tariq, who has seriously flirted with jihadism, seems, despite his return to moderation, to be wholly uninterested, and her two very different daughters are bringing degrees of shame on the family. The worst of the two, at least in the eyes of the paterfamilias, Dr Choudhury, is Rohimun, a well-regarded artist who lives unhappily with her possessive and drug-addled gora boyfriend, a London City trader. Keeping up appearances is fashion-slave Shunduri who, under the pretence of study and a good job in a bank, is living out of home, also in London, waiting endlessly on a proposal from Desi wide boy Kareem. Mrs Begum and Dr Choudhury’s cottage lies in the friendly near-orbit of Bourne Abbey where Dr Choudhury has been advising its owners, Henry and Thea Bourne, about the

restoration of the building. As the project nears completion the Bournes’ marriage shows signs of strain and Henry’s brother, Richard, who has abdicated his inheritance of the burdensome country estate, finds himself drawn ever closer to the house which holds more than just one fascinating secret.

Lesley Jørgensen’s debut novel Cat & Fiddle benefits from easy comparison. The most obvious of course is with Pride and Prejudice which, probably not coincidentally, is this year in its bicentenary. Jørgensen’s characters are fairly easy to line up with Austen’s. Mrs Begum is a contemporary marriage-plotting Mrs Bennett and her manoeuvrable husband Dr Choudhury stands in nicely for Mr Bennett. In its multicultural east-meets-west milieu there’s also a fair bit of Zadie Smith’s White Teeth and Monica Ali’s Brick Lane.

Like Pride and Prejudice, one of the central conflicts Cat & Fiddle plays out pits individual romantic desire against the compromised pragmatics of tradition. How does this play out when characters don’t want to follow tradition, or have lost tradition altogether?

It’s a problem in Cat & Fiddle that is reserved mostly for its Bangladeshi characters. Despite their problems, Anglos don’t seem to have the need to repress that individuality all that much. The thesis, presumably, is that there is no such thing as traditional Englishness to hide behind any longer, only the sometimes hedonistic excess of individualism, a source of sometimes self-destructive ennui.

While there are a lot of characters to keep track of, as the families and their problems spiral ever closer toward one another Jørgensen moves their stories forward in smart, entertaining episodes that, in shifting third person focalisation, step easily between them. The prose style and narrative pace are both brisk, and always end up on the right side of functional. It’s a very entertaining read and I expect Jørgensen will find many readers eager to follow her characters through what is basically a rom-com which, while it doesn’t overplay the clichéd comedic potential of multicultural England, also doesn’t stray too far from the comfortable novel of that country’s manners.

Griffith Review 39

Graeme Simsion

Text Publishing

The Rosie Project Text Publishing

William Charles Many of us living on the mainland now look south with envy to the Apple Isle – what with its plethora of gourmet foods, superb wines, untouched wilderness areas and the odd eccentric gambler throwing a party for the State economy, Tassie is the new black. Always astute in its judgement of Australia’s shifting social and political terrain, the latest edition of Griffith Review sees a joint venture with the University of Tasmania, together asking if all this adds up to a tipping point being reached, or whether there remains an underlying resistance to change, tied up with poor education outcomes, ill health and ingrained disadvantage. Is the splendid isolation over, or does that remoteness now have new uses?

How is the long, cruel history of Tasmania coming to terms with its bright new 21st century? An array of researchers, writers, essayists and memoirists – all of them Tasmanians of one stripe or another – attempt to answer these questions. Clichés are examined, then (mostly) over-turned, while there are revelations aplenty. With contributions from, to name but a few, Cassandra Pybus, Favel Parrett, David Walsh, Erin O’Dwyer, Jonathon West and Danielle Wood, expect to be challenged and entertained.

David Sornig Graeme Simsion’s debut, The Rosie Project, is a crowd-pleasing, very funny rom-com. Its narrator, Don Tillman, a professor of genetics who sits somewhere on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum, is looking for a wife. He treats the mission the way he does every other area of his life. Nothing that can’t be sorted without a good ‘objective’ research instrument. But his questionnaire is so prescriptive (‘Do you eat kidney?’ has only one correct answer: ‘occasionally’) that he’s bound to fail. Enter Rosie Jarman, a psychology PhD student looking for the DNA of her real father. Rosie and Tillman are so incompatible – she smokes and is never on time – that, in true screwball spirit, they are bound to fall in love. If only Tillman could understand how that worked.

Tillman is blameless and endearing in his C3P0-like buffoonery. But at times it becomes clear that his comedy is a conscious exaggeration of his profound inability to read emotions. It is how he has survived. The romantic heart of the novel is in knowing this, and in knowing that love is still possible.

the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013 23

Books Inheritance

FAVOURITE. REPLY. RETWEET.

Balli Kaur Jaswal Sleepers Tali Lavi

Secrecy Rupert Thomson Granta Tali Lavi Reading Secrecy is akin to taking a form of literary drug which then insinuates itself into the bloodstream, morphing into an amphetamine, aphrodisiac or inducer of nightmares and hallucinations.

Late 17th century Florence is rife with paranoia and moral persecution. Political astuteness and rapier wit are required to survive court intrigues. Zummo, a Sicilian outcast who creates lifelike wax sculptures, is privately commissioned by the Grand Duke, a Medici. The project is deeply shrouded in secrecy.

Whilst Patrick Süskind’s Perfume may have invented an olfactory vocabulary, Rupert Thomson’s tale is intensely chiaroscuro; its prose connected to the visual realm. A carriage is ‘a spindly, spidery thing’; ‘the flesh of the night sky peel[s] back to reveal the white bone of the moon’.

The author has accomplished with wax figures what Siri Hustvedt did for modern art in What I Loved; the process is luxuriated over whilst the very nature of art is interrogated. Steeped in a sinister atmosphere, populated by florid characters and overlaid with a romantic eroticism, Secrecy is wonderfully Baroque.

Secrecy is published by Granta on February 27.

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Inheritance mimics the form of a Babushka doll, with the Singh family’s tale sitting within the larger microcosm of Singapore’s Punjabi community and further encircled by the narrative of a newly independent state’s shifting identity. Balli Kaur Jaswal skilfully traverses individual perspectives on both the larger experiences of displacement that beset migrant cultures and the insidious motives of the state.

Throughout Inheritance a keenly felt refrain of nostalgia is woven, either the immigrant’s for their former country, those who yearn for an earlier version of Singapore, or the expatriate’s. When Narain, the second son, is sent to study engineering in America – both because education is highly prized and to elude rumours that he is gay – his younger sister Amrit packs him a suitcase. For almost a year he avoids it, not wanting to be like the other identifiable foreign students, but when told that Amrit has gone missing he opens it. Instantly the culture he is trying so hard to deny, the self he is trying to peel off, subsumes him: ‘Sandalwood and cardamom drifted into the air and tinted the skies a rich orange.’

Unfolding over two decades, from the 70s to the 90s, the Singhs each narrate their family’s tribulations. Harbeer, the father, is a proud migrant filled with nationalism for his new country. Gurdev, a father himself, desires to secure his daughters’ futures even if it means depriving others in his family of theirs. Narain’s attempts to attain independence and integrity are repeatedly circumscribed by the responsibility of caring for his sister and his country’s outlawing of homosexuality. Amrit, perceived by her family as ‘acting up’, suffers from what is obvious to modern readers as being bipolar disorder, which unchecked and unrecognised ruptures her former self. These sections are shattering for we, not her fellow

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review

family members, are the ones privy to these confidences.

The fragmentation of Amrit’s self is an echo of the country’s denied self. Fissures running through the family mirror the scars of the country’s development. Surveillance, both from community and state, is stifling. It seems that personal fulfilment and difference must be sacrificed at the altar of the greater good; modernisation and sanitisation, both physical and moral. In this society, Punjabi superstitions and community scrutiny form a second straightjacket.

For the most part Jaswal’s writing is as lush as the place she conjures. ‘The air was sticky all year round and crickets filled the dusty kampongs with mournful songs after the rain destroyed their nests.’ Occasionally, it veers into polemics, such as when it addresses brutal school competitiveness or in the letter Narain writes to the Director of the Social Development Unit criticising their attempts at social engineering. But then, this form of rhetoric is understandable for these statedriven values have destructive repercussions.

The ending resonates beyond these more overtly political passages for it contains a powerful indictment of modernism at all costs, in a way that might only be rendered possible through fiction.

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Performing Arts Dance Massive 2013

T

his year’s Dance Massive will be the third addition of the bi-annual festival established by Arts House, Dancehouse and Malthouse Theatre to collaboratively showcase Australia’s contemporary dance community.

“It’s a real opportunity for artists and audiences to emerge themselves in some of the best and most exciting, contemporary work happening in Australia,” says Angharad Wynne-Jones, creative producer of the Arts House initiative.

Life support

The first Dance Massive came together in Ashley Dyer 2009 when it became evident that presenters and individuals creating work were not aware of each other in the way they are now. The festival not only Life support begins with one performer, dressed provides participants with great exposure but also as a nurse, having a cigarette at break time. And the chance to weave their work into a supportive then smoke begins to fill the room. network of contemporary dance artists and creatives.

As the dancing progresses, more smoke hisses out, morphing and contorting around the The strong collaborative relationships that have performer’s body. The space changes and evolves been formed through the festival do not stop at as the level of smoke increases and the audience performance artists and choreographers, as the next slowly becomes more conscious of their breath, generation in the contemporary dance community more aware of the air around them. are beginning to move seamlessly across art forms.

As the air becomes even more clouded with Through the fusion of hip-hop, street art, architecture, smoke, the question of mortality can’t help but film, theatre and other niches, the strong visual and slip into people’s minds. Thoughts start to emerge performance art scenes of Melbourne and the country about how we as individuals care for ourselves, are highlighted and brought together. The diverse what we do that might lengthen, prolong, or background of the festival’s practitioners also helps to shorten our lives. And this is exactly what the attract audiences of varying interests who encourage piece wants to do.

“There’s a question about responsibility to this hybrid approach.

HB myself, to others, to the greater world,” says lead artist Ashley Dyer.

In the face of climate change and the fatal INFORMATION repercussions that may stem from it, this work is a critical reflection on our inability to take Dance Massive rolls out across Melbourne any meaningful action to save ourselves. “The venues from March 12 to 24. For all information performance leaves people asking the question on events, companies and ticketing, please visit about their responsibilities to the world around dancemassive.com.au them,” Dyer adds.

KS

DANCE MASSIVE

Skeleton Larissa McGowan

dance for the time being Russell Dumas

Skeletons aren’t just inanimate bones lying underneath our skin. In skeletons, there is history, there is memory, there is past.

In the work Skeleton, the dancers are trying to convey just that. They started by looking at X-rays of bones, at the litany of marks and scars present there and thinking about the history in those breaks.

They also took inspiration from pieces by Australian sculptor Ricky Swallows that involved everyday items from his childhood such as BMX bikes, helmets and bean bags combined with skulls and bones.

“What I liked was the idea that he was using things from a period I was growing up in, the 80s and 90s, and the attachment we have with these objects,” says choreographer Larissa McGowan. “Obviously with these things there were accidents, interesting memories, traumas. The whole performance is an archaeological puzzle, and we’re tapping into this idea of history and our attachments to objects, clothing, the things we watched.”

And although these familiar objects aren’t actually present during the performance, expressive dancing and snippets of music from movies like The Karate Kid will ensure the audience is enthralled during this journey through memory and past.

KS

THE MALTHOUSE 15 – 23 MARCH

Sydney, New York and Helsinki are just some of the cities where dance for the time being has alighted.

Now in Melbourne for the Dance Massive festival, dance for the time being – Southern Exposure is the latest offering from the team of eight dancers.

Director Russell Dumas has written extensively about the relationship between ‘being’ and ‘doing’, the movement philosophy behind this production.

The dance is compelled by the sense of touch, and investigates the movements of an ‘unstable body’; a running body, a falling body, a toppling body, a body in flight. The work is dramatically stripped back, with an open studio space in natural light and the performers wearing what would seem to be practice clothes. The only sounds the audience might hear are the thud and tumble of the dancers’ bodies, the occasional shuffle of people in seats, and maybe the distant rumble of a tram going past.

“This is because Dumas is concerned with development of dance as a discrete art form, rather than by its relationship to other more established art forms such as theatre or music,” says Nicole Jenvey, one of the performers.

“The audience’s senses gradually settle and become attuned to the sensation of pure movement.”

KS

ARTS HOUSE 20 – 24 MARCH

12 – 24 MARCH 2013

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CHUNKY MOVE

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the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013 25

PREVIEWS by HannaH Bambra and Katherine Smyrk

THE RECORDING SANDRA PARKER

P.O.V. LEE SERLE

FUTURE PERFECT JO LLOYD

The art of performance is traditionally presented to audiences as a seamless package with no signs of the sweat and preparation that goes on behind the scenes. Choreographer Sandra Parker is fascinated by how actors and dancers move in the wings and during rehearsals when the attention is shifted and cameras are off.

Multiple televisions and two large screens are placed on the set of The Recording to juxtapose the physical presence of the performers with digitally manipulated close-up shots. The piece plays with live and pre-recorded footage, communicating with a public fascinated by screens.

Parker chose to bring two art forms together which run parallel in their production process. A rhythm is created through the repetition of learning moves or lines, rehearsing, setting up a space and offering it to an audience and starting again the next day. Parker’s choreography draws on the expressive, overly gestural body language performers use to convey emotion to a crowd. The work has been evolving over the past two years and now effortlessly manages to cross over two art forms. By borrowing from external, unpredictable places it also expands what contemporary dance, film and theatre can be.

HB

When Lee Serle wandered the streets of New York a few years ago he saw similarities between the big apple and Melbourne. P.O.V. places audience members in a grid to reference the structure of both cities and create an urban setting for dancers to move through and pick up the role of a busy pedestrian or colourful street performer. The audience are perched on swivel chairs and act as drop pins with the bustling cast moving from point A to point B. The piece is structured so individuals are initially treated like architecture, stiff in the middle of an abstract dance routine moving with the pulse of an inner city. Slowly through eye contact, whispering and a breaking down of barriers the audience become part of the performance and a larger conversation. Serle’s message is that if we slow down, we can open ourselves up to more personal interactions with people and environments.

An abridged version of the piece was originally performed late 2011 in the foyer of the New York Public Library. Now in another shared, communal space P.O.V. has been developed and extended for Dance Massive and the flow of our city.

HB

Jo Lloyd is not afraid of making a performance with equal parts of ugliness and beauty. Future Perfect taps into the daunting nature of having something ahead of you with the likelihood of flawlessness not outweighing the possibility of misfortune.

“Future and perfect are pretty huge, loaded words. That contradiction, the future and proposing that it will have happened in time, perplexed me,” says Lloyd.

In her piece, five people represent one. Lloyd has contrasted stark, raw moves with crafted and detailed performance to follow the emotional highs and lows that come with looking forward. Metallic sounds and set provide a platform for reflection and an alternate perspective. The recorded voice of one of the dancers is put on a loop, slowly shifting into a rhythm, to build tension and blur the distinction between beginning and end.

The piece explores the ambiguity of reflections as much as it does transitions. With time an ugly, traumatic experience can have beautiful and poetic elements to it. Lloyd wants to ask the audience when this changeover takes place and how we know when we’ve arrived at the future.

HB

DANCEHOUSE 22 – 24 MARCH

MONSTER BODY ATLANTA EKE

ARTS HOUSE 20 – 24 MARCH

FUTURE PERFECT JO LLOYD

Performing Arts

CONVERSATION PIECE Lucy Guerin Inc & Belvoir In Lucy Guerin’s Conversation Piece three actors and three dancers switch between verbal and physical communication and from spontaneous performance to calculated choreography. The piece begins with an eight minute dialogue between the dancers who have no script, only their own natural methods of communicating with each other.

“I think it’s refreshing to see something on stage that’s not really carefully wrought or considered,” says Guerin. “For that initial period you see people responding to each other in a more natural way, people find that interesting.”

The roles of the actors and dancers are subverted with the actors stepped back, observing the dancers as they converse. They half-listen while clutching an iPhone, as so many of us do. What they record on their devices is later repeated for the dancers to absorb and physicalise.

Conversation Piece launched in 2012 in correlation with Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre. The cast all had a chuckle together when they revisited the list of talking points they touched on which ranged from etiquette on airplanes to Facebook, food, body issues, things people can relate to and debate daily in their minds.

HB

THE MALTHOUSE 21 – 22 MARCH

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26 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

Performing Arts

Australian Voices

S

ince its establishment in 1995, the Australian National Academy of Music has been in a constant process of evolution, sometimes planned, sometimes reactive, sometimes simply a reflection of the considerable scope the Artistic Director has to mould the program around whatever he or she sees fit.

This inherent variability is born of the institution’s curious (some might say fortunate) existence outside the otherwise highly-regulated tertiary education sector; ANAM continues to maintain this freedom largely because it does not run formal degree programs. While the claim it makes in a recent press release that it is “the only music based training institute in Australia and one of only a few in the world” is contestable, there is no doubt they do things differently there. In the words of the current Artistic Director, Paul Dean: “The way we as an institution engage with music is very special and unique. We have forged a growing national and international reputation for innovative collaborations and for giving musicians the opportunity to fully and freely explore repertoire.”

Much of what ANAM does is now also very public, which is in part a positive response to the fact that the 21 year lease it holds over the South Melbourne Town Hall was a point of contention for many local residents and remains the subject of frequent review. In recent years, however, ANAM has established solid community-outreach programs and now has a very significant program of free and ticketed concerts patronised by local residents, among many others.

Most of ANAM’s educational and concert activities are based around a visiting faculty of

musicians from across the country and around the world who are invited to work with the resident staff and some 70-odd students. Their program for 2013 sees the return of a number of musicians and ensembles who already have a significant association with the institution, including the Brodsky Quartet, Finnish pianist Paavali Jumpannen, German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser, and UK violinist Anthony Marwood.

Other notable events include British pianist and musicologist Peter Hill guiding ANAM pianists through Messiean’s Visions de l’Amen and Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier in March and the Hindemith Quintett collaborating with ANAM musicians and guest artists in a series of performances celebrating their namesake in July.

Welcome additional funding announced in last year’s Federal budget enabled the Academy to expand its activities to include substantial programs in percussion and brass and as a result this year also sees Belgian trumpeter Jeroen Berwaerts in residence. In September he will take the ANAM wind players through significant 20th century repertoire, including works by Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu and Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, alongside an arrangement of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. That same month sees the launch of ‘New Beats’, featuring new music for percussion curated by Peter Neville.

Also making an ANAM debut this year is British conductor James Judd, a name already familiar to many of Australia’s young musicians through his appearances as a tutor at the Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Music Camp in 2009. He will direct the free 2013 Opening Performance on Friday March 1 in a program celebrating the early works of three twentieth-century greats, Britten, Shostakovich and Lutosławski.

Photo by: Pia Johnson.

Peter Tregear

The ‘Australian Voices’ series continues to explore works of some of the most celebrated Australian composers, alongside some of the more neglected. This year focuses on Elena KatsChernin (March), curated by ANAM faculty pianist Timothy Young ; Raymond Hanson (April) curated by Michael Keiran Harvey; and Wilfred Lehmann ( June) curated by Paul Dean; other Australian compositions featured include a reprise performance of ‘Conversations With Ghosts’, the innovative creative partnership between singer/songwriter Paul Kelly, virtuoso recorder player Genevieve Lacy, and composer James Ledger, in September.

Through such work ANAM ultimately aims to help develop a new generation of music leaders for Australia, performers capable of charting a secure future for elite music practice.

Such an ambition has, if anything, only become more important given that 2012 was widely acknowledged as an annus horribilis for classical

music organisations across the Western World.

The ongoing reverberations from the Global Financial Crisis, along with the associated slide in political support for large-scale public funding of the arts, continues to take its toll on many a performing arts organisation with knock-on effects for the career of many a musician. The ANAM ambition remains a worthy one for as long as we want Australia to be a place where questions of what makes a good life remain as important to us as what makes a good lifestyle.

INFORMATION The Australian National Academy of Music South Melbourne Town Hall 210 Bank Street, South Melbourne 9645 7911 anam.com.au

Master of Stillness: Jeffrey Smart paintings 1940-2011 21 December 2012 – 31 March 2013 CURATOR: Barry Pearce A Samstag Museum of Art exhibition in partnership with TarraWarra Museum of Art

PUBLIC PROGRAMS: (Visit website for details) Sunday 10 February 2013, lecture by Barry Pearce Sunday 10 March 2013, lecture by Leon van Schaik 311 Healesville-Yarra Glen Rd, Healesville Open 11am – 5pm, Tuesday – Sunday Exhibition open 7 days a week from Boxing Day to Australia Day Phone: (03) 5957 3100 Email: museum@twma.com.au Web: www.twma.com.au ADMISSION: Adult – $12.00 Concession – $8.00

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the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013 27

Performing Arts

Katie Noonan: Love-SongCircus Nina Bertok

K

atie Noonan brings to life the tragic yet inspiring stories of Australia’s first female convicts in the new production, Love-Song-Circus – a project that sees the songstress collaborating with a guest-star circus troupe, Circa, directed by Yaron Lifschitz.

Especially made for the intimate surrounds of The Famous Spiegeltent, Noonan’s performance explores stories of strength, bravery, hardship, love and longing, winding back the clocks some 200 years and retelling “a woman’s story in a man’s time”.

While collaborative projects are far from new to Noonan – the Brisbane-based singer/songwriter having previously worked with Karin Schaupp, Paul Grabowsky, her mother and opera singer Maggie Noonan, as well as fronting bands george, Elixir and Katie Noonan and The Captains – she claims that Love-Song-Circus is unlike anything she’s ever done.

“It started when I heard about an exhibition at the National Museum called Love Tokens,” she explains. “Basically, when convicts were sent overseas they would get this penny coin which was made of soft metal and you’d be able to brush off the image of whoever was the Queen at the time. So they would inscribe their own message for their loved ones on this coin with images for those they were leaving behind. The collection that was on display had over 300 of these coins dating back over 200-plus years, which sounds like a long time ago when you say it, but it’s really not in the scheme of things, especially in terms of Australian history.”

What particularly “grabbed” Noonan was the romantic symbolism of the penny coins which spoke of love, loss, longing and, most importantly, all the things that make up a great song, according to the singer.

“The male’s story has been told in history books, but the women’s story hasn’t really. They were illiterate and couldn’t even write letters, so not only did these stories interest me but they also touched me and inspired me to re-tell these women’s tales in the form of songs. It’s pretty amazing stuff what these people inscribed on the coins. I came to realise that the women were strong, stoic and quite fierce.

It’s so important not to forget that and to keep that alive so each of the songs we’ve done is a dedication to a specific woman.

“What’s sad is that a lot of the crimes they were accused of were just stupid stuff. London was facing extreme poverty at the time and women were desperate to feed their children so they wouldn’t die; things like stealing half a loaf of bread was enough to get you sent away.”

And although the women Noonan celebrates in Love-Song-Circus were fierce and brave, they only became so due to the harsh circumstances they faced once arriving in Australia. According to the singer, this period represented one of the darkest times in our nation.

“The thing that the authorities realised very quickly was that the number of men being sent to Australia was a lot larger than that of women, so they needed to make up for those numbers. The ratio of men to women in the early days was nine to one, so you can imagine the sexual implications of that and the abuse they endured. It was a really, really dark time.

Sometimes the only way for the women to protect themselves was to disguise themselves as men.”

I came to realise that the women were strong, stoic and quite fierce. It’s so important not to forget that and to keep that alive so each of the songs we’ve done is a dedication to a specific woman.”

Despite dealing with such a tragic theme, Noonan says taking on the project has been a delight in that Love-Song-Circus has allowed her to do what she enjoys doing the most – crosscollaborating with her peers.

premiere in Adelaide went so well, we realised we had something special. It would be quite difficult to tour this performance around the country – to be honest, it would be a very expensive thing to do – however, I am in the process of trying to get it funded so that we can take it across Australia. The stories of these women are incredible and I think it’s important for people to know about them.”

Katie Noonan performs Love-Song-Circus at The Famous Spiegeltent, Arts Centre Melbourne from March 19 to 24. spiegel.artscentremelbourne.com.au

Robyn Nevin

Family secrets cut the deepest

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“After I found out about these stories, I immediately started dreaming up this idea of getting acrobats and aerialists involved and creating an entire soundtrack to it all. I thought it would be wonderful to work with Circa and we also ended up adding folk instrumentation, a string quartet and piano, and after the fact that our

INFORMATION

‘Explosive domestic drama.’

28 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

Performing Arts

Port Fairy Folk Festival

Weddings, Funerals, Anything David Knight

T

Robert Dunstan

P

ort Fairy Folk Festival, held annually since 1977 in the picturesque Victorian seaside town, once again boasts an impressive line-up of talent in early March with artists such as American music legend Arlo Guthrie and Irish troubadour Glen Hansard being among the many overseas acts set to play alongside a wealth of Australian talent.

A last-minute addition to the festival’s lineup of over 70 acts is New Zealander Tim Finn (pictured), once of bands Split Enz and Crowded House.

“Tim, who jumped at the chance to perform this year, is very excited about it,” says Jamie McKew, whose has been the festival’s director since its inception, apart from a two-year break.

“I heard Tim being interviewed on ABC Radio recently and he was saying how much he was looking forward to playing Port Fairy and how lots of musicians and the people who go there had told him how good it is. And it’s that reputation we’ve built up over the last 30 or so years that’s enabled us to attract the high calibre of internationals, such as Arlo Guthrie, who now play there. It now has a really good reputation around the world.”

The event, which uses a variety of Port Fairy venues, began humbly in 1977 but has since gone on to become one of the country’s largest and most successful and has far outgrown its focus purely on folk music.

“It was just bush bands and traditional folk groups in the very beginning,” McKew announces with a chuckle. “But it’s now a very diverse program with everything from folk through to reggae and indie pop.”

McKew spends much of the time at the festival checking out each act and is especially looking forward to seeing Guthrie for the first time.

McKew, who remembers doing the festival’s very first posters and programs without the aid of a computer, suggests the event has also been buoyed by the fact that acoustic music has again become popular over the last 20 years, especially with a younger crowd.

“And Gurrumul too,” he says of the indigenous performer. “I’ve already seen him twice this year but am looking forward to seeing how he goes down at Port Fairy. And once the artists get up on stage, there is a really noticeable rise in the energy levels of the audience. That helps make it such a lovely festival.”

“I can remember back in the 80s when it was hard to find enough good acts to have a decent line-up,” the director recalls. “There were a couple of years like that and then there was suddenly a huge wave of exciting new acts, such as The John Butler Trio and The Waifs, coming through and now there’s an

even bigger wave of great new acoustic acts to choose from.

“We now also have a fringe-style program alongside the main festival program to highlight the really new up-and-coming performers,” McKew announces. “So it’s great for the young acts to do a show while experiencing a great festival. And a good side of that is they will be pumped up 10-fold.”

The festival usually sells out before throwing open its gates. “It’s been that way for a while now,” McKew concludes. “There are still tickets left at the moment but we won’t be surprised if it sells out again. So that’s very gratifying but I also put it down to our loyal audience and their good taste.”

here ain’t no party like a Goran Bregović party, as the Balkan bandleader will prove with his Australian performances next month. A former European rock star, Goran Bregović’s music career has taken many twists and turns during his four-decade career. Starting his professional life as a strip bar guitarist in Italy, the Bosnian Serbo-Croat’s life changed when he heard Eric Clapton’s band Cream, which led him out of the strip bar to form Bijelo Dugme, one of Yugoslavia’s biggest and most influential rock bands. If life was represented by three acts, then Bregović’s rock ‘n’ roll life was his first. His second occurred after he quit rock and director Emir Kusturica asked him to score his film Time of the Gypsies (1988), which led to more soundtrack work. Bregović’s third and (likely) final act arrived when he formed the hugely popular Weddings and Funerals Orchestra. It’s a career that no one, including Bregović himself, could have predicted.

“No one could have foreseen that the 18-yearold guitarist playing in strip-tease bars in Italy would have this career - I seem to have lived several lives in one,” Bregovič says. “At the end of the 80s, after 10 years of rock star whirlpool, I retired.

I didn’t want to play anymore, I’d had enough.

Kusturica asked me to compose music for his film Time of the Gypsies and my film composer career began. In 1992, when the war in Yugoslavia started, I was in Paris finishing the music for

INFORMATION Port Fairy Folk Festival runs from Friday, March 8 to Monday, March 11. portfairyfolkfestival.com

The Bombshell range of jewellery One of Oxfam Shop’s producer partners, Rajana, strive to provide Cambodian artisans with fair wages, dignity and sustainable livelihoods. Rajana’s most significant project has been the creation of the Bombshell range of jewellery. The Bombshell Jewellery is crafted from old artillery shell casings that have been gathered up from around the Cambodian countryside and the Mekong River.

“When we make jewellery then we know our country has peace,” said one young silversmith.

The bombshells are left over remnants following Cambodia’s terrible history of the Pol Pot genocidal regime, where over 2 million Cambodians were killed between 1975 and 1979. Cambodian artisans have worked on transforming the symbolism of the bombshell from one of tragedy into one of acceptance and peace.

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the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013 29

Performing Arts Arizona Dream. I could not go back to Sarajevo, and for a while I took what was offered - music for publicity and films. Then I was asked to compose a string quartet for the Balanescu Quartet and that’s how my third career started. I adapted my film music for stage (played with a full symphony orchestra at first), wrote some new songs and my Weddings and Funerals band was born. We first toured Greece, Poland, Spain and Italy... then it spread like wildfire.

In a way I am a war profiteer – my third, international career started because of the war.”

understand that chance plays such a huge role in our life and the way it turns out. In many ways, that’s what makes me extra excited about taking on this project, I know exactly where Nick is coming from, which makes it more enjoyable to get involved and bring his story to life.”

Payne’s tendency to present his pieces in a very personal voice and his knack for encapsulating the complexities of human beings is what makes his subject matter so interesting, according to Caceres.

People are, quite simply, able to effortlessly engage with, and relate to, his characters.

It is likely that the Balkan and Gypsy sounds of his Weddings and Funerals Orchestra, will be his final artistic movement.

“He’s actually really young but he’s written quite a few pieces about heavier topics like climate change and he’s explored some massive ideas.

I love that he takes these subjects and presents them in a very personal voice so that anyone can understand what he’s trying to say. I like that he doesn’t bang you over the head with it. He is a very exciting voice in writing. His characters are so adorably ordinary that they feel like old friends. For example, [the character] Marianne is a physicist whose head is caught up in the quantum realm and the big bang and the history of our universe, while Roland is a beekeeper whose head is in honey and microcosms and these tiny communities that live and work together. You bring these two completely different, mad beings together and you’re bound to get some foot-inmouth moments and silly things.”

“When I was younger I thought there were thousands of possibilities to research. At this age I am aware of how short life is, and when I know that there is only one possibility to be searched wholeheartedly, I stopped searching in the sense that I am trying to say something with my music.

I have limited myself to being a Balkan composer.”

But Bregović’s rock ‘n’ roll upbringing still influences, as he keeps the hedonistic streak from his previous musical life alive in his songs and live show. “Whether I write simple things for children’s instruments or more complicated ones for choirs and orchestras, I must always have fun. And I know that when I have fun, my audience also has fun.”

Constellations

INFORMATION

Nina Bertok

Goran Bregovic and the Weddings and Funerals Orchestra perform at WOMADelaide on March 11, and at Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall on March 19 and 20.

T

ake a boy-meets-girl love story and throw in quantum physics theory and what you get is the Australian premiere of Nick Payne’s critically-acclaimed, awardwinning production Constellations. Starring Alison Bell and Leon Ford, it’s a tale that will appeal to fans of films in the style of Sliding Doors and Sunshine of the Spotless Mind just as much as science and philosophy enthusiasts, according to director Leticia Caceres.

Photo by: Nebosja Babic.

artscentremelbourne.com.au goranbregovic.rs

“At its core, it looks at the probability of an event like this happening at all,” she says. “Nick [Payne] takes the theory of quantum mechanics – which is about probabilities – and explores it in the context of a relationship, like what could have happened when there is an infinite number of possibilities. At the same time,

every single event that is possible can happen simultaneously. The one choice that you choose forks out a whole new universe each time but that doesn’t necessarily cancel out all of the other possibilities, they still continue in some ways.”

In a nutshell, Constellations questions notions of love and the meaning of life – it puts a magnifying glass on where human beings sit in the big, vast cosmos. For Caceres, the story is one very close to her own circumstances.

“It resonates with me on so many levels!” she laughs. “I met my husband through a car accident in Argentina where I’m from originally, and as a result of that – the two people who had the accident both knew us – we started a relationship and we are now married. It took over 16 years for that to occur but we now have a daughter and we live in Melbourne. I personally

Caceres says she is “absolutely honoured” to be able to introduce Payne’s Constellations to Melbourne audiences who are sure to be deeply moved by the very poetic, yet straight-forward and contemporary story.

“It’s a really beautiful piece of writing and it covers such a broad scope of ideas and themes,” she says. “I just feel we’ve been so blessed with the opportunity to bring it to Melbourne audiences that it would be such a shame to miss it. Who knows when we’ll have another chance to put on a special little piece like this again?”

INFORMATION Constellations shows at the Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio, until March 23. mtc.com.au artscentremelbourne.com.au

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30 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

Performing Arts

Family anger

hallway, some in the family room, some in the bedroom,” says Zappa. “So even on a normal stage you would have to do something symbolic in the way it’s presented. It’s basically a big empty space.

But one of the wonders of theatre is lighting, light can define space as well.”

Katherine Smyrk

1

Photo by: Lachlan Woods.

988 was the 200th anniversary of white settlement in Australia, and in an attempt to celebrate, the Australian Bicentennial Commission distributed grants for artists to create work about Australia.

Many artists at the time boycotted the grant, but Stephen Sewell decided to take one. With that money he wrote Hate, a controversial play about fear, deceit and violent anger in Australia, particularly in its politics.

Now 25 years later, the play is being put on again at the Malthouse Theatre.

their country homestead, where John will divide up his empire.

“It’s so relevant,” says William Zappa, who plays the lead in the play. “With the corruption that’s going on in New South Wales and all the stuff that goes on in our national politics, it could have been written this week.”

It is soon clear that the family has gained their wealth through vicious corruption and deceit, but has lost a great deal in the recent financial crisis.

The play centres around Zappa’s character John Gleason, a shadow minister in a coalition party, and the patriarch of his wealthy, powerful family.

The Gleason family all come together for Easter at

“This was all written soon after the financial crisis of the mid 80s, which is very similar to what’s happening now,” says Zappa. “This is why the company wanted to put this play on; it’s like what goes around comes around. Some of the names have changed is all.”

A storm erupts shortly after their arrival, hemming them in, building tension and cutting off the phone line. “In 1988 they couldn’t reach the outside world. In 2013 they would all have mobile phones. That’s the only thing that’s different,” Zappa adds.

As the family members are pitted against each other, ancient bruises start to show, the emotions become violent and the ‘Hate’ becomes very clear.

“It’s exciting… there are some epic aspects of the play that are almost Shakespearean; it’s goodness being corrupted.”

The play is going to be ‘theatre in the round’ style, so that all members of the audience can see the tensions, deceit and manipulation as they swell and then explode.

“Stephen’s stage directions are very abstract.

There’s something like 24 scenes; some in the

Although the title might put some people off, the play will keep you enthralled. Zappa ensures us, “It’s more exciting than it is depressing or dark, there’s a storm that goes through the whole piece, there’s the intensity of being horrified by how awful these people are. And it’s been a fantastic play to work on – it’s really challenging playing this character that nobody likes. The task is to enjoy not being liked.”

Although the play may be centred on a wealthy family that is easy to dislike, Stephen Sewell’s message may well apply to the broader nation.

In a foreword to the reprint of Hate last year, he wrote about the ‘angry, visceral rage’ of Australian political discourse.

“And the answer is not, of course, for us all to be nicer to one another… but for the inequalities and injustices that we have allowed to fester in our nation to be properly addressed, starting with the appalling discrimination and terrible violence still being perpetrated against the aboriginal people,” he wrote.

“Until that problem is decisively and honestly dealt with, Australia will remain the nation of Hate.”

INFORMATION Hate shows at the Malthouse Theatre from February 20 to March 8. malthousetheatre.com.au

Photo: Michael Amendolia

Einstein and Glass

E

xclusively to the Arts Centre Melbourne, late July and early August will see the return to Australia of one of the undisputed masterpieces of 20th century composition, Philip Glass’ Einstein On The Beach.

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Nearly five hours in length and originally conceived in four acts (accompanied by five brief ‘knee plays’), the opera, a collaboration between composer Glass and director Robert Wilson, was first performed in Avignon in 1976. It later triumphed in Europe and New York, as audiences fell spellbound by the revolutionary trance-like journey Glass constructed through various aspects of Einstein’s life, work and thoughts. Eschewing narrative as being too ‘untruthful’ a device, the opera employs a succession of powerful recurrent images as its principal dramatic device, shown in juxtaposition with abstract dance sequences choreographed by Lucinda Childs. Einstein On The Beach is a 20th century classic that brings together elements of dance, visual arts, opera, theatre and music.

It is considered a truly unforgettable experience for audience members.

INFORMATION Einstein on the Beach is performed at the Arts Centre Melbourne from July 31 to August 4. artscentremelbourne.com.au

the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013 31

Performing Arts Like Brian Eno in early Roxy Music, Ravenstine takes a ‘non-musical’ approach to the instrument, conjuring up great clouds of sonic smoke that darken the songs with their poisonous sounds.”

In the song Chinese Radiation, the spectre of the cold war emerges again amid the radio static, television sound bites and 1950s sci-fi style Theremin. ‘I saw the Red Guard, I saw the new world’ cries Thomas, cheered on by the sound of the masses. The punk assault of Life Stinks comes next, offering some shout-it-out style resistance before the broken resignation of the album’s darkest moment, the epic Sentimental Journey.

Going home never felt so bad or so pointless.

Drums explode and bottles smash to reveal the full irony of the song’s title.

Lastly, to the strains of a military beat and an army of jackboots, the album finishes with the defiant Humour Me:

WORDS & MUSIC Pere Ubu: The Modern Dance

Phil Kakulas

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hirty-five years on from its release in 1978, The Modern Dance by Pere Ubu stands as one of the great achievements of the punk era. Steeped in a claustrophobic atmosphere of industrial decay and cold war paranoia, it combines garage rock and arty experimentalism to explore some of the tribulations of life in the modern age.

The album opens with a squall of synthesizergenerated feedback. A metronomic beat ticks off the seconds until an electric guitar finally busts out the mutated Chuck Berry riff of the album’s opening track, Non-Alignment Pact. It sounds like the past colliding with the future. Singer David Thomas, an awkward, enigmatic anti-rock star with a high bleating voice, pledges his love in the language of cold war-era diplomacy: I wanna make a deal with you girl and get it signed by the heads of state, I wanna make a deal with you girl and get it recognised around the world, It’s my non–alignment pact

Thomas sings, shouts and chatters his way through the songs, often teetering on the edge of hysteria as he jumps at the shadows, ranting like a lunatic. The results are disarming, like you’ve been given the keys to his unconscious.

It’s an approach, he has said, that came out of not knowing how to sing.

“I had never sung and I couldn’t hit any notes – I really am tone-deaf… so I worked out how to… communicate a story in a musical way that had a semblance of melody. I create a phrasing… and it all somehow comes out okay.”

Song structures and arrangements on the album are equally unorthodox, the band segueing from heavy grooves worthy of their beloved Stooges or Seeds, to freeform industrial soundscapes. Tom Herman’s guitar lines, at times sharp and stinging, lyrical or woozy, provide counterpoint to the spluttering sound factory of Allen Ravenstine’s analogue EML synthesizer. Like Brian Eno in early Roxy Music, Ravenstine takes a ‘non-musical’ approach to the instrument, conjuring up great clouds of sonic smoke that darken the songs with their poisonous sounds.

According to Thomas, that sound is a response to the environment the band grew up in – the city of Cleveland, Ohio, whose Cuyahoga River was so contaminated with effluents it caught fire in 1969.

“Cleveland is a giant, blown-out factory town,” said Thomas, “there’s the Flats with all this incredible industry, steel mills going flat out all day and all night, and it’s just a half-mile away from where all the people live… all I can say is whatever you feel from the music is what it feels like being there.”

What a world, what a big world What a world to be drowned in…

It’s a joke! That’s a joke?

Uh huh, come and humour me Today, The Modern Dance remains a surprisingly contemporary and relevant piece of work.

The cold war may be over but in its place have come new enemies to fan the old fears, while the album’s anxieties about zealotry, technology and environmental degradation seem more important than ever. Musically, the group’s use of ‘non-musical’ sounds and approaches may be seen as a precursor to the post punk and industrial rock movements of the 80s and 90s.

When Pere Ubu formed in the mid-70s they felt they had inherited the responsibilities of a new music. Rock ‘n’ roll had outgrown its adolescence and was ready to make art. By creating music out of noise and beauty out of ugliness they expanded the vocabulary and aesthetics of rock music. The Modern Dance is rightly lauded as one of the first great artworks of the ‘avant-garage’.

INFORMATION Pere Ubu perform The Modern Dance at the I’ll Be Your Mirror festival curated by ATP and The Drones in Melbourne on Sunday February 17.

Phil Kakulas is a songwriter and teacher who plays double bass in The Blackeyed Susans.

32 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

Visual Arts PROJECT 13: JAMAIS VU

The Melbourne Review talked with Anna Pappas, recently elected President of the Australian Commercial Galleries Association, on the role of the association, the art market in Australia, and her newly curated Project 13: Jamais Vu, showing later this month in Prahran.

The Melbourne Review

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efore we discuss the upcoming Project 13, you have recently been appointed President of the ACGA. What needs to be done? What can the art world expect to see emerging from your presidency, in terms of the practical or indeed philosophical orientation of the ACGA? AP: Let me say first of all that my presidency will be about sincere interest and inclusion. The ACGA has existed since 1975. Many things have changed since then but many have also stayed the same. It is a fact that galleries are the professional market makers for young artists. To my knowledge, no artist or group of artists have reached prominence without being assisted or represented by a gallery and no major museum or other public art event would be possible without the often unnoticed work that galleries put into their artists’ careers.

When in search for accurate information, integrity and specialisation, dedication and expertise, and a guarantee of quality and provenance, the answer is always: a respectable gallery. So to start with, the artists, curators, buyers and collectors will be reminded of this more often, as it is ACGA’s manifesto to broaden public interest in the profession of galleries.

ACGA currently represents 54 Australian modern and contemporary galleries nationally and therefore has a responsibility to address their political interests by becoming very active in lobbying issues such as tax and super which can and has had detrimental consequences for many of them. By connecting, informing and negotiating best ways forward, the voice of 54 professional members carrying hundreds of Australian artists on their books can certainly make a bigger difference than a single voice. For this we also need the well informed and well educated new generation of gallery owners that are opening throughout the country. And making ACGA relevant to today’s savvy young market will also be a priority so we will start by creating a presence through various social media tools.

But it is not only the new generation that we must appeal to. The efforts of individuals who over the years have given so much of their time, knowledge and money to the arts needs to be acknowledged, and I will bring to the table discussions of Award of Excellence where appropriate.

Gallery professionals are hungry for information that is genuine and reliable and bringing in international and local experts to discuss issues that are common worldwide, would also be on the agenda.

How is the contemporary Australian art market faring?

AP: The market is beginning to strengthen after some challenging years, which in my opinion were caused by three primary reasons. Firstly, the global financial crisis! The Australian market, although still very young to be hugely effected by international trends, endured an effect which cannot be ignored.

Art is at the top end of discretionary spend and when the economy is tight spending on art is affected.

Fortunately, there are still some dedicated collectors.

Clare Rae, Untitled, 2012 archival pigment print 60 x 70 cm.

Secondly, contemporary art is a difficult game at the best of times, and the more international the Australian market becomes the harder it will get for the local galleries and artists. International art fairs are great for our artists’ representation as they gain momentum and sales, but at the same time they abduct our collectors to their shores where the choices are greater. Local art fairs will need to become more international in order to make sense, however although few international collectors may visit our cities, it is more likely that international galleries will be the main arrivals.

Thirdly, and probably the one with the greatest impact, is the government’s stricter rules put in place since the Cooper review (SMSF regulation), with an immediate effect on artists, galleries and collectors. The government, in trying to solve a perceived problem, created a real one.

However, I am excited about the future.

Economies always improve; Australian art is becoming the envy of the global art scene and ACGA wants to become a main force in influencing future government decisions.

Are the newly affluent Asian middle classes resulting in further exhibition opportunities abroad? You have recently been in Singapore, for example…

AP: Singapore to me is not a new Asian middle class market. I exhibit in the Art Stage Singapore because of its many synergies with Australia – the geographical location, the language, the level of service and its world class facilities. It is an easier Asian market to engage with and the psychic distance is closer than others. Affluent Asian middle

Stephen Giblett, Panic (detail), 2012, oil on linen, 163 x 200cm.

classes of China and India and other Middle Eastern countries are much harder to penetrate and it will take time, dedication and a lot of money.

Are Australian gallerists embracing these new opportunities?

AP: In the past few years Australian galleries have participated in art fairs from Dubai, Germany, Denmark, LA, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Korea, to New York, Basel, and Miami, just to mention some. They are forging the way to international markets and it has been noted.

How is a young generation of very social media savvy people to be enticed into the gallery experience?

AP: The young generation has been very fortunate

to have been educated about art, and art education is gaining momentum every year. It is much easier for this generation to enter a gallery, or be engaged in a discussion about art than it was for previous generations. Also the stigma of elitism regarding the arts has almost disappeared. Melbourne is blessed with so many good galleries opening their doors almost every night of week. How lucky… to have all that information on their iPhone or iPad. How can they afford art? Should it be seen as part of a long-term investment?

AP: Choose with your heart not your head; buy only what you can afford and buy often. If in doubt get close to galleries you like and trust and ask questions. If you are interested in long-term investment buy property.

the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013 33

Visual Arts Standing, detailed blurry paintings of Stephen Giblett, and Cameron Robbins’ kinetic drawing whiteboard, to the repetitive TV vignettes in Heath Franco’s and 1975 provocative Devos’ videos, they all have grasped the concept with such easiness, honesty and direct response. To try to get deeper into explanations could only harm the concept and the show. I encourage all to visit.

Does anything resembling logic exist in what seems to be a random, intangible, even metaphysical range of experiences?

AP: As per the statement of the exhibition, artists were invited to consider this exact condition of mind and how it may affected their work. Was there a moment when it happened? Did the drugs kick in at a party or is it the state one inhabits quite naturally? Is their work a reflection of the condition, or does their temperament reject it entirely? Does the act of repeating a work or replicating a gesture of production change the meaning of their art? And, if we follow the course of its logic, is Jamais Vu the key to a possible future we are yet to even imagine?

Ernesto Rios, Pyramid 1, 2012, Acrylic on canvas, 85 x 85cm.

Project 13 comes as a continuation of a series. How and where is there a progression, or is that not what one should be looking for?

AP: Project 13 is a continuation of projects we have started with every year since 2006. It is mainly based on artists not represented by Anna Pappas Gallery, it usually has a theme and it offers artists an opportunity to be part of a group show in Melbourne. It is something I love doing every year and plays an important part of my annual program. It also gives me the opportunity to engage professionally with artists that are represented by other galleries or with interstate or international artists that I would not otherwise have had the pleasure working with. Sometimes I also include young or emerging curators and writers. The exhibitions have no age, medium, race or anything else as a prerequisite.

How was the concept of “jamais vu” arrived at, and how does it resonate in contemporary contexts?

AP: Having had the experience of jamais vu myself, either through stress or through an uncomfortable working environment, I thought it would make a perfect statement for what seems to me a rather interesting but common phenomenon. Below is the official explanation: “In psychology, jamais vu is the phenomenon of experiencing a situation that one recognizes somehow, but that nonetheless seems very unfamiliar. Often described as the opposite of déjà vu, jamais vu involves a sense of eeriness and the observer’s impression of seeing the situation for the first time, despite rationally knowing that he or she has been in the situation before. Jamais vu is also explained as when a person momentarily

does not recognise a word, person, or place that he or she already knows. The tip of the tongue syndrome.”

A person in a state where there is too little connection between long-term memory and perceptions from the present, and nothing they experience seems to have anything to do with the past seemed like a logical art concept. Everything seems new, details previously ignored suddenly become engaging, there is no sense of relations to anyone or from anyone… It can be refreshing, liberating and magical but also terribly overwhelming since the information that is received is free from ties and stored memories. To me that is what art is about.

How are the artists addressing the concept of jamais vu?

AP: From the delicate photo-collages by Marc

Sincerity continues, a love and hatred for humanity, the psychological betterment on community, a fashion runway mishap, control and lack thereof, strewn clothes, support and the parasitical, fist of the north star, noble static, roses, written confirmation, the destruction of gods, a project within a poetic flow of abstruseness, colours play, solar flare, decoration and the commissionary, corn flakes and plaster, the relationships and conversations in making, and looking at art, complications, thinking, pondering, taking time, the benefit of the doubt, un making work, twitter, another you, wilting gerbera, stolen glances, hot romance, bamboo in a cup, polysynthesis, intentional misspelling is all intentional no need to change any misspelled words, rocks caught in straws, lack luster finish, credible arrogance. (Christopher L G Hill, Melbourne 2013)

INFORMATION Project 13: Jamais Vu curated by Anna Pappas, shows at Anna Pappas Gallery, 2-4 Carlton St, Prahran, from February 12 to March 2. annapappasgalley.com acga.com.au

34 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

Visual Arts

Play Misty Turner from the Tate: The Making of a Master John Neylon

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Mike Leigh-directed film on the English Romantic artist JMW Turner is scheduled for 2014. This biopic will be a whistles and bells version.

“You don’t make a film about Turner,” Leigh commented, “and cut the exteriors. This is a guy who strapped himself to the mast of a ship to paint a storm. He’s for real.” The National Portrait Gallery holds a death mask, which reveals that at the end of his life Turner had lost all his teeth. So actor Timothy Spall, who has been chosen to play Turner in Leigh’s movie, will have his work cut out sucking in his cheeks while uttering deathless lines like ‘light is therefore colour’ or ‘painting is a rummy business’.

Across his lifetime Turner avoided being drawn or painted and it was left to some fellow artists and caricaturists to fill the gap, with most versions resembling Mr. Punch. Now the exciting news

J.M.W. Turner, Rome from the Vatican, 1820. Photo: (c) Tate, 2013.

J.M.W. Turner, Peace Burial at Sea, 1842 (Detail). Photo: (c) Tate, 2013.

for Turner spotters: a drawing of Turner by a contemporary, the artist Cornelius Varley, may be the real thing. Silent Witness has nothing on this story. An MA student at Dundee University has superimposed an image of Varley’s 1851 drawing onto a 3D laser scan of Turner’s death mask. Bingo. Well Bingo-ish. Forensic scientists and Turner experts at ten paces.

While more prosaic souls continue this quest to uncover hard evidence of the life of this most elusive and enigmatic of artists, the rest of the

world can celebrate the fact that, through his work, Turner has left a vast collection of selfportraits – of his inner imagination and soul. The reason the world knows about the artist is that his reputation as one of the giants of Romantic landscape painting precedes him. His life’s work is visual art’s counterpart to the inspired expression of the Romantic poets, Wordsworth, Keats, Byron and others. They all drank at the front bar of the Sublime. For the Romantics, sublime experience was associated with nature at its most awesome.

For artists, including Turner, nothing could beat a

the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013 35

Visual Arts Conrad Martens to Frederick McCubbin and Hans Heysen and, I suspect, contemporary artists yet to be revealed by a canny curator or writer. Radford also talks of the generations of Australians that have been fortunate to see some remarkable Turner exhibitions on home soil, beginning in the modern era with the Art Gallery of South Australia’s 1960 Adelaide Festival exhibition of Turner’s work followed by several nationally touring exhibitions. Viewers of any of these exhibitions will doubtless have their peak Turner encounters engraved in that part of the brain reserved for such things. For those who have never seen a good original JMW the message is simple – get there. And for the Turner Tragics – why go again? Well, this really is a different bundle. To be able to go on a journey from precocious teenage talent through the turbocharged middle years of arm-wrestling the Masters to the out-of-body luminosity of the later years in a single exhibition is, well, an opportunity not to be taken for granted. None of us fighting temeraires can last forever. Best make a show of it before we get towed away.

INFORMATION Turner from the Tate: The Making of a Master shows at the Art Gallery of South Australia from February 8 to May 19, and at the National Gallery of Australia from June 1 to September 8.

J.M.W. Turner, The Devil’s Bridge, near Andermatt, Pass of St Gotthard, 1802 (detail). Photo: (c) Tate, 2013.

By the time Turner crossed the Channel he was primed to engage with all that nature could offer him. His landscape as well as marine subject apprenticeship had been long and fruitful, tramping the English countryside in the late 1700s.

Atmospherics, particularly the play of light and fleeting weather conditions are the central focus of many of the studies he made while travelling.

Humanity and nature, the grand themes of Turner’s art, are everywhere to be found in the Turner from the Tate: The Making of a Master exhibition. This is the first major Australian exhibition of Turner’s work in twenty years. Embedded within over 100 works (including a number never previously exhibited) are all the narratives which continue to define Turner in the public imagination as a landscapist, an observer of modern life, a lifelong student of tradition, shrewd businessman, sometimes a rebel and above all a romantic spirit who, in his later luminous paintings in particular, speaks directly to contemporary audiences. Much has been written about this aspect of Turner’s work, particularly the ‘abstraction’ of late works.

One perspective is that this claiming of Turner as a proto-modern, an impressionist certainly, abstract expressionist or even a minimalist artist

Wilton’s advice is to celebrate the numinous passages of colour and brushwork but also make the connection with the narrative and symbolic elements that run throughout his entire work.” has been driven by a need to give the modernist project some historical roots. Another has been to associate the late Turners with like works from later generations. An example is the 2012 Tate Liverpool exhibition Turner, Monet, Twombly: Later Paintings exhibition which ran Turner landscapes against some Monet Water Lilies and works from American later 20th century artist Cy Twombly’s Blooming series. Twombly fans will know of course of this artist’s late 1990s Turner-inspired Studies from The Temeraire (a contemporary evocation of Turner’s 1839 painting The Fighting Temeraire). In such company the late and the ‘unfinished’ Turners look kindred spirits.

But as Turner scholar Andrew Winton comments, this retrospectivity may come at a cost. This ‘Turner is great because he is so modern’ mindset, he suggests, discounts the worth of the artist’s earlier work which to eyes primed for essentialist expression look dark and overcrowded with details. Wilton’s advice is to celebrate the numinous passages of colour and brushwork but also make the connection with the narrative and symbolic elements that run throughout his entire work. His other advice is that Turner, from his earliest years, was an innovator, and as an example, considers Turner’s watercolour studies, made in Snowdonia in 1799 when the artist was 24, to

be among his most original contributions to the history of art. Exhibition Curator Jane Messenger supports this perspective. “What makes the exhibition so remarkable is that it traces Turner’s evolution as an artist… he really did change the possibilities of what art could be and you only, fully appreciate that by seeing his early work.”

Art aside (if possible), one of the most fascinating aspects of Turner’s practice to be encountered in the exhibition is the artist’s engagement with the modern world. It is extraordinary. Here is a man who paints works that are steeped in an understanding of the classical and old master traditions. Yet the same artist has an eye for the advent of the modern era as seen in Peace – Burial at Sea, 1842, one of Turner’s classic ‘steam & sail’ images, and for contemporary social issues as seen in A Disaster at Sea c. 1835, based on the wreck of the convict ship The Amphitrite, and the avoidable death of nearly all on board, mostly women and children bound for a new life in Australia. As always with Turner there is more than meets the eye.

Ron Radford’s catalogue essay ‘Turner and Australia’ traces a remarkable story of Turner’s influence on the development of Australian landscape painting from William Westall and

Barbara Hanrahan 1939 –1991 A Rare Bird An exhibition of works by a prodigious Master Printmaker

23 February – 24 March 2013 Conversations Join Liz Williams and Jonathan Woore for personal recollections of Barbara 4.00 pm Thursday 7 March, Sunday 17 March and Thursday 21 March Conversations are free, but bookings by phone or email are essential

Tours of the house, where over 270 works are hanging, are available during exhibition times Also exhibiting: Jewellery from The Mistress Von Berlow Collection Susan Sideris at Hanrahan Studio By appointment, and open for the duration of this exhibition 1.00 – 6.00 pm Thursday – Sunday 48 Esmond Street, Hyde Park, South Australia T 0449 957 877 hanrahanstudio @ bigpond.com

image Barbara Hanrahan, Red Shoes (detail) 1982, silkscreen, 545 x 405 mm

good Alp, or craggy gorge for that matter. Turner had his fill when he made the first of a number of journeys to Europe. One painting, The Devil’s Bridge, near Andermatt, Pass of St Gotthard, 1802, provides an insight into Turner’s determination to capture the moment in both visual and emotional terms. An even more spirited evocation of Alpine sturm und drang can be found in The Fall of an Avalanche in the Grisons, 1810, which depicts a mighty avalanche having a good day at the office in an extraordinary display of painterly bravura and compositional crunch.

artgallery.sa.gov.au nga.gov.au

36 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

Visual Arts The Dax Centre The Body’s Betrayal Works by Rosa Niran Until May 4

Selected Works from the Cunningham Dax Collection Until 2015 Kenneth Myer Building The University of Melbourne Royal Parade, Melbourne daxcentre.org

RMIT Gallery

New Olds – Design between Tradition and Innovation

Flinders Lane Gallery Josh Robbins A Loose Touch

Until March 9 Storey Hall, Swanston St, Melbourne rmit.edu.au/rmitgallery

February 26 – March 16 137 Flinders Lane, Melbourne flg.com.au

McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park

Melbourne Art Rooms

Until July 14

McLelland Sculpture Survey & Award 2012

Janet Laurence The Alchemical Garden of Desire

Hitesh Nitalwala Joan Ross Paper Nights

Until March 3 360 - 390 McClelland Drive, Langwarrin mcclellandgallery.com

Until March 3 418 Bay St, Port Melbourne marsgallery.com.au

Hawthorn Studio & Gallery

Various Artists New Directions: Sculptures, Paintings and Prints February 14 – March 9 635 Burwood Road, Hawthorn East hawthornstudiogallery.com.au

Anna Pappas Gallery Project 13: Jamais Vu

February 12 – March 2 2-4 Carlton Street, Prahran annapappasgallery.com

Gallerysmith Junko Go One + One

February 14 – March 9 Exhibition opening: Friday February 15, 6-8pm 170 – 174 Abbotsford St North Melbourne gallerysmith.com.au

TarraWarra Museum of Art

Master of Stillness Jeffrey Smart paintings 1940 – 2011 Until March 31 311 Healesville-Yarra Glen Road Healesville twma.com.au

Bayside Arts & Cultural Centre

Geelong Gallery

Until March 3 cnr Carpenter & Wilson Sts, Brighton bayside.vic.gov.au/thegalleryatbacc

February 16 – May 12 Little Malop St, Geelong geelonggallery.org.au

Kenneth Jack The Kenneth Jack View

Nick Mount The fabric of work

exhibition current until 9 march —

design between tradition & innovation 55+ international designers play with the past to reconsider the future

“These works are about the design of the world – not just about the world of design.” dr arpad sölter director, goethe-institut australia

RMIT Gallery 344 Swanston Street Melbourne 3000 / Monday – Friday 11– 5 / Thursday 11– 7 / Saturday 12 – 5 / Closed Sundays / Free entry Tel 03 9925 1717 / www.rmit.edu.au/rmitgallery / Like RMIT Gallery on Facebook / Follow RMIT Gallery on Twitter @RMITGallery

RMIT_MelbRev.77x520_final.indd 1

— all welcome free entry

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Gallery Listings Heide Museum of Modern Art

Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery

Louise Bourgeois Late Works

Look! The art of Australian picture books today (A State Library of Victoria

Until March 11

Caleb Shea The Peasants are Revolting

touring exhibition)

49 Sheds Landscape of longing: Shoreham 1950–2012

Until March 24

Sidney Nolan Early Experiments

From February 27 Dunns Road, Mornington mprg.mornpen.vic.gov.au

Until April 28 7 Templestowe Road, Bulleen heide.com.au

Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi

Monash Gallery of Art

All Over Country Summer Exhibition

PEACE: ºSouth collective exhibition

Until March 2 51 Victoria St, Fitzroy gabriellepizzi.com.au

Until April 28 860 Ferntree Gully Rd, Wheelers Hill mga.org.au

Whitehorse Art Space Unveiled

Until March 2

Byzantine Art & Icons – contemporary and traditional Byzantine iconography From March 7 Box Hill Town Hall, 1022 Whitehorse Road, Box Hill boxhilltownhall.com.au

Catherine Asquith Gallery Amanda van Gils Twice Removed

National Gallery of Victoria James Makin Gallery Tim Burns Recent paintings

Until March 2 67 Cambridge St, Collingwood jamesmakingallery.com

Radiance: The Neo-Impressionists Until March 17 RALLY: Contemporary Indonesian Art Until April 1 Ballet & Fashion Until May 19 NGV International 180 St Kilda Rd NGV Australia Federation Square ngv.vic.gov.au

February 19 – March 9 48 Oxford St, Collingwood catherineasquithgallery.com

Art Gallery of Ballarat

Got the message? 50 Years of political posters From March 2 40 Lydiard St. North, Ballarat artgalleryofballarat.com.au

Art Yarramunua Gallery Invest in a piece of Australia

A rare collection of Indigenous art from across Australia, including Stan Yarramunua, Tommy Watson, Jean Burke, Jorna Newberry and Roma Butler. These highly accomplished artists would make a wonderful addition to any art collection. Aboriginal owned and managed.

Gallery Hours: Monday - Friday 10am - 5pm, Saturday 11am - 4pm, Sunday - By appointment only 500 Collins Street, Melbourne artyarramunua.com

New Olds is an exhibition of the Institut für Auslands-beziehungen e. V. (ifa) / Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, Stuttgart, Germany, www.ifa.de

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38 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

Feature Mornington

Peninsula’s

hidd e n g e ms

T

he Mediterranean feel of the Mornington Peninsula houses many secret gems that makes the peninsula a must-visit destination.

You may feel that you know the ins and outs

of this most beautiful region on Melbourne’s doorstep, but here is a selection of activities – some better known than others – that can make for another way to experience and enjoy the Peninsula.

• Neville and Dalton Hutchins Enjoy picturesque beach boxes and freshly caught fish from a fifth generation local with Neville and Dalton Hutchins.

Williams St Mornington (03) 5975 3090

• Yabby Lake cafe Dine in the newly opened Yabby Lake cafe with its stunning views across the peninsula. yabbylake.com

ALTERNATIVE WAY TO SPEND THE DAY • Nirvana Visit chooks who listen to opera while they lay their eggs at Nirvana.

25-37 Nirvana Close, Langwarrin (03) 9789 8728 • Enchanted Maze Try tree surfing at the Enchanted Maze Gardens.

59 Purves Road, Arthurs Seat (03) 5981 8449 treesurfing.com.au

• Port Phillip Bay Go snorkelling among the seahorses and seadragons in Port Phillip Bay. bayplay.com.au • horseback Spend a few hours in the saddle and visit a range of the peninsula’s superb wineries on horseback.

356 Shands Road, Main Ridge horsebackwinerytours.com.au

• Peninsula Hot Springs Relax in the naturally heated mineral waters of Peninsula Hot Springs – with 360 degree views from the ‘Hilltop pool’.

Browns Road, Fingal (03) 5950 8777 peninsulahotsprings.com

• Main Ridge Dairy Go back to your own childhood (or educate the kids) with a visit to cheesemaking facilities at Main Ridge Dairy.

295 Main Creek Road, Main Ridge (03) 5989 6622 mainridgedairy.com.au

• Hummingbird Eco Retreat Go hi-tech and yet remain retro, organic and sustainable in the serene environment of Hummingbird Eco Retreat.

183 Arthurs Seat Road, Red Hill (03) 5989 2504 hummingbirdeco.com.au

• Dromana Drive In Drive-ins still exist! At Dromana Drive In, there are two screens at one of the oldest such venues in Victoria drivein.net.au

The McClelland Sculpture Survey

The $100,000 McClelland Award 2012 was awarded to Greg Johns for his work At the centre (There is nothing). The Art Gallery of New South Wales’ Australian Art Senior Curator, Deborah Edwards, judged the McClelland Award. Other prizes went to Christopher Langton, who won the

Photo by: John Gollings.

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he McClelland Sculpture Survey has emerged as Australia’s most important outdoor sculpture exhibition since beginning in 2003. Displaying a variety of works in different media and styles by emerging and established artists, the McClelland Sculpture Survey is displayed on 16 hectares of bush and landscaped gardens with national and international sculptors eligible to enter the prestigious McClelland Award.

McClelland Achievement Prize for Away with the fairies while the Frankston City People’s Choice Award will be announced in June. Finalists include Zoe Amor, Antonia Goodfellow, Charles Robb, Matt Calvert and Jud Wimhurst.

Presented in partnership with The Elisabeth Murdoch Sculpture Fund and The Balnaves

Foundation, the McClelland Sculpture Survey runs until July 14 and is set in 16 hectares of bushland, lakes and landscaped gardens in Langwarrin, which is four kilometres east of Frankston in the Mornington Peninsula with the Survey providing sculptors the opportunity to present their works in an outdoor exhibition context.

More than 90 sculptures by Australia’s leading artists are present at McClelland Gallery & Sculpture Park, which has a rotating program of exhibitions, events and lectures, which you can discover via free-guided tours. Tours are available every Wednesday and Thursday at 11am and 2pm or by appointment on Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

INFORMATION McClelland Gallery & Sculpture Park 390 McClelland Drive, Langwarrin Opening Hours Gallery: Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm Cafe: Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 4.30pm Entry by donation mcclellandgallery.com

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Mornington Peninsula The Mediterranean feel of the Mornington Peninsula houses many secret gems that makes the peninsula a must-visit destination.�

Yabby Lake Cafe

Pier 10

Peninsula Hot Springs

40 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

Feature They are the most favoured varieties for industrial, large-scale agriculture as they travel well and can be stored for longer periods of time.

In contrast to the hybrid seeds that are commonly available, heirloom varieties are often unpredictable. They come in a wide range of colours, shapes and sizes, they are not homogenous in their appearance, and they taste richer and fuller of flavour. In many instances, they have been shown to have a greater nutrient density than their hybrid counterpart.

Beautiful, edible, do-able Arabella Forge visits the heirloom vegetable gardens at Heronswood in Dromana

Arabella Forge

M

ost people consider vegetable p a t c h e s t o b e s tr a g g l y constructions, designed on the edges of lawns, or in make-shift raised beds outside the kitchen window. They are not always beautiful – in fact, they could often be mistaken for mere patches of rugged, dug up lawn, sprouting only a few runaway green shoots of this or that.

At the Heronswood gardens and Diggers Nursery, the concept of a vegetable garden for mere food growing is turned completely on its head. As you enter the lush fields of heirloom produce, designed to showcase the beauty of the plants as well as the superb garden landscape, you might well be inspired to go home and dig up your front lawn and start planting it with vegetables and herbs. You may also become converted to the cause of heirloom produce, and find yourself smitten by a black Russian tomato, or perhaps even Lazy Housewife string bean.

Heronswood is one of the few places in the world that shows how gardens, filled with both edible and ornamental varieties, can be beautiful as well as productive.

It’s also one of Australia’s largest suppliers of heirloom produce seeds, and its co-founders, Clive and Penny Blazey, have been instrumental in introducing heirloom varieties into the Australian gardening landscape. What began as a small, mail-order seed business organised from the Blazey garage in the late 1970s, soon grew with popular demand. In 1983, they purchased the heritage house and gardens at Heronswood.

For the uninitiated gardener, I should point out the value of heirloom seeds. These are seed varieties that are open-pollinated and can be traced back to the early periods of human history.

They have not been developed or bred into a hybrid seed. Hybrids are the varieties that have selected for their productivity as well as their tolerance to weather extremes and chemical use.

wines Can also be purCHased online at www.crittendenwines.com.au

Crittenden estate administration 03 5981 8322 • Cellar door 03 5987 3800 stillwater 03 5981 9555 • lakeside Villas 03 5987 3275 • 25 Harrisons rd dromana ViC 3936

Diggers aims to inspire people to grow a wider range of plants from seed, and to improve on their skills of home gardening. They teach a variety of workshops, and have a Diggers Club with a regular newsletter and member discounts. Go there and be inspired to grow, pick, harvest and save your seeds for the next season.

The Fork to Fork restaurant represents all that is grown, harvested and enjoyed at Heronswood.

The food is simply presented – you won’t find any foams, tufts, imitations or emulsifications – but is delightfully creative and inspiring. It is rich with the beauty of simple dishes, with emphasis on the diversity and seasonal quality of the harvest from their own giant-sized vegetable patch. Try a dish of five-coloured heirloom silverbeet, as bright as a set of traffic lights, atop a freshly-caught pan-fried snapper, or perhaps a plate of heirloom tomatoes, delicately arranged, as if they had been picked from the garden with a pair of kid gloves, and garnished with sharp-tasting basil, olive oil and rich black locally-grown olives.

INFORMATION The Diggers Club at Heronswood House and Garden 105 Latrobe Parade, Dromana, Victoria.

Melways reference: 159 C9.

(03) 5984 7321 Garden and nursery open every day 9am-5pm Fork to Fork restaurant open daily 10am-4pm.

Restaurant bookings recommended.

McCLELLAND SCULPTURE SURVEY & AWARD 2012 18 NOVEMBER 2012 – 14 JULY 2013

OTHER FINE VENUES • The Rocks Waterfront dining, Mediterranean cuisine, light lunches and fresh seafood, inside or out on the deck.

1 Schnapper Point Drive, Mornington (03) 5973 5599 therocksmornington.com.au • Yabby Lake Cellar Door café now open every day for fine food and quality regional varieties grown from rich and healthy soils.

112 Tuerong Road, Tuerong (03) 5974 3729 yabbylake.com • Flinders Hotel The Flinders Hotel, historic and modern, now a true culinary destination.

Flinders Hotel, Flinders (03) 5989 0201 flindershotel.com.au • Itali.co Wood-fired, award-winning pizzas, splendid views at Sorrento and the dolce vita 1 Esplanade Sorrento (03) 5984 4004 italico.com.au • Pier 10 Fine food and sumptuous dining, accompanied by the best of cool climate wines and local musicians.

10 Shoreham Road, Shoreham (03) 5989 8848 pier10wine.com.au

www.mcclellandgallery.com

Crittenden Estate is a family owned and operated winery that is based on the Mornington Peninsula. Since 1982 we have nurtured the soil to grow grapes in this acclaimed maritime climate. From an early passion for chardonnay and pinot noir, we now also embrace exciting new styles from Italy and Spain. Come and taste our wide range of wines at the cellar door. While here you might like to have a bite of lunch at the acclaimed Stillwater Restaurant overlooking the lake or even stay at Lakeside Villas, also overlooking the lake on the property.

The future growth and heirloom varieties of seeds lies in the hands of home cooks, home gardeners and small-scale food suppliers. In most cases, these varieties don’t travel well, and should be eaten within a few days of picking.

the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013 41

Mornington Peninsula

Crittenden Estate

I

t may be known as one of Australia’s leading small family vineyards but to the Crittenden family their estate is just known as the farm. The family operation was started by Garry, who continues to oversee the vineyard, while his children, Rollo and Zoe, continue the dynasty in the winemaking and marketing departments.

Garry’s love of wine saw him shift from horticulture to viticulture in the late 70s, spearheading Mornington Peninsula’s wine region movement with Crittenden producing Chardonnay and Pinot Noir before becoming one of the first Australian vineyards to embrace Italian and then rural Spanish varieties.

The family still see themselves as farmers with their simple environmental philosophy of looking after the soil and vines to produce even better wines working to great effect.

The Crittenden winemaking mantra is great wines are created in the vineyard, which are then enhanced in vats and barrels. Their respect for the environment means that they minimise the use of chemicals and synthetic products while peas and oats are used as cover crops and for compost.

Rollo and Zoe Crittenden.

Combined, these practices build natural disease resistance in the vineyard resulting in healthier vines and grapes and, of course, better wine.

Some of Crittenden’s wines include the premium Zumma and Crittenden Estate drops, the classic Spanish style of Los Hermanos and

the multi-region Italian influenced Pinocchio.

Crittenden Estate’s industry standing was recognised with Rollo winning the 2010 Australian Young Gun of Wine while Garry was elevated to industry legend at the 2012 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

INFORMATION Crittenden Estate 25 Harrisons Road, Dromana crittendenwines.com.au

Home to the latest in woodfired pizza ovens, a brains trust with a swag of awards, boasting the most amazing views of Sorrento and an expansive menu built on esteemed ideals, this modern trattoria celebrates la dolce vita with a distinctively Italian twist.

Open 7 days Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner 8.30am – 10pm 1 ESPLANADE SORRENTO 03 5984 4004

W W W. I TA L I C O . C O M . A U

42 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

Feature / Mornington Peninsula

Sculpture Prize raised to $30,000 Holly Jones

T

he Montalto Sculpture Exhibition returns for its eleventh annual showing with 24 new works from new and past entrants. One of the region’s longest running sculpture competitions, 2013 sees the prize fund raised by $10,000 to offer the winner an acquisitive cash prize of $30,000, which is awarded by Montalto’s founders, the Mitchell family.

The increased prize fund further strengthens Montalto’s commitment to the art world and secures it as one of the most generous, privately funded, annual art prizes in Australia. Curated by family member and artist Neil Williams, the exhibition encourages artists from all over the world to compete to have their works displayed at Montalto Vineyard and Olive Grove on a permanent basis to an audience of over 100,000 visitors a year.

Alongside previous winning artists such as Christabel Wigley, Craig MacDonald and

Hannah Kidd are returning artists from previous years along with Mitchell Family Choice Award winners Frank Veldz and Joanna Rhodes.

Veldz’s latest work ‘Dreaming’ stays true to his style of using recycled metal and wires and is constructed entirely of recycled and stripped mattresses. The installation can be found in Montalto’s top paddock and sits lightly on the ground, like a hallucination of a structure.

“It’s there, yet ethereal, like imagination itself,” says Veldz of his work. “Walking inside the structure, the viewer can see through to the world beyond and observe nature’s endless cycles.”

Local artist Joanna Rhodes returns with her much-loved style of using laser cut corton steel to create animal forms.Her latest work ‘Lou Lou’ takes on the form of a baby elephant and was coincidently completed on the day Melbourne Zoo delivered their own baby elephant. “Baby elephants have such fun and can be so naughty.

They even throw tantrums, which is why this piece

RESTAURANT | CELLAR DOOR 10 Shoreham Road, Shoreham

“Discover the Peninsula’s local hidden gem. Exquisite dining in a relaxed environment”

RestauRant Lunch | Thursday to Sunday 2 Course lunch $35 Thursday to Saturday Dinner | Friday and Saturday CellaR DooR Thursday to Sunday 12pm – 5pm

Phone. 03 5989 8848 | Email. restaurant@pier10wine.com.au | www.pier10wine.com.au

James Parrett M-thirteen (the remix).

is named after my son,” Joanna says. This latest work is installed on Montalto’s restaurant deck.

Creative Director Williams is thrilled to see so many returning artists. “Our whole process for the sculpture prize has artists in mind.

Montalto attracts a lot of visitors, local, interstate and international, so we offer great and diverse exposure for the winning artist. The costs involved in producing these works have risen in the last 10 years and we continue to increase the prize fund to acknowledge this. We believe we’re approachable for artists, and our judging panel and process are fair and respected. These factors bring artists back year on year.”

Each year a highly regarded guest judge joins the panel, made up of artists and members of the Montalto Sculpture team including Montalto’s founder John Mitchell. Last year Shaun Lakin, Director of Monash Gallery of Art joined as a guest judge and in 2013 the panel welcomes Jason Smith, Director of Heide Museum of Modern Art. “Jason is a fantastic contributor to the judging panel. He brings a further layer of skill, industry knowledge and respect from the arts community and we are privileged to have his involvement. We see it as further recognition of the significance of the Montalto Sculpture Prize in the growth of contemporary Australian sculpture,” says Mitchell.

The exhibition runs from February 17 to April 28, and entry is free. The winner of the 2013 prize and the Mitchell Family Prize will be announced at Montalto Vineyard and Olive Grove on Sunday, February 17. Guests at the exhibition are encouraged to vote for their favourite in the People’s Choice Award, announced at the end of the exhibition.

Greg Johns, Lightning Figure.

INFORMATION Montalto Vineyard and Olive Grove Open daily from 11am – 5pm 33 Shoreham Road Red Hill South Melways Ref: 256 B2 (03) 5989 8412 montalto.com.au

THE MELB OU R N E R EVIEW FEB RUARY 201 3

Food.Wine.Coffee FINE DINING

SUSTAINA B LE FOOD

COFFEE

WINE

Orto

Lucky Hawthorn residents have a new(ish) local Italian bistro and beer garden.

ST. Katherine’s Funky, unpredictable and delicious - Arabella Forge enjoys many surprises at St. Katherine’s

44

FRONTIERS AND WINE Andrea Frost explores the concept of the frontier and its impact on viticulture

46

CAFÉS Lou Pardi visits Little Henri in Thornbury and Batch Espresso in St. Kilda

47

44 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

Food.Wine.Coffee

St Katherine’s Arabella Forge

A

s you enter the wide sweeping doors and generous foyer of St Katherine’s, you’ll be immediately drawn to the daringlylarge graffiti art depiction of the renowned patron saint. It’s funky and unpredictable and, like the food, there are a more than a few surprises in store.

Take the KFC chicken (no, it’s not what you think, try Katherine’s Fried Chicken). Marinated for eight hours in a mix of buttermilk and brine before being tossed together in a mix of paprika cayenne and crunchy corn flakes, there’s a lot more to it than the name belies. Soft and supple in texture, with a winning amount of crunch, it takes you back in a brief, sentimental flashback to long nights at outdoor cinemas and sandyfingered hot meals shared around the dinner table.

Share plates are a trademark of St Katherine’s. If you are making a night of it, the four-course menu entitled ‘When Mum Feeds Me’ is the way to go.

This assortment of share plates ranges from homespun kitchen table favourites to experimental chefs-having-fun-in-the-kitchen style cuisine.

feed a growing Greek army. There’s also fingersized, house-made lamb sausages – which, dare I say, are possibly the best I’ve ever eaten; wellseasoned, tender, and rich in sausage-like charm, but goodness me, there are a lot of them. There’s also a slow-cooked wagyu, wonderfully tender and accompanied by a combination of black beans and honey.

As dessert rolls by, I am looking at the Mrs Whippi (Kat’s style) soft serve ice-cream making its way to neighbouring tables, along with the Nutella-filled doughnuts, and poached summer fruits (did I mention that they cater for kids at this place?). We settle on the peanutbutter parfait with salted caramel, baklava crumbs and toasted walnuts. It’s a delicate mix of sabayon, cream and peanut butter, whipped to a lather, and oozing with nutty-caramel-like flavour.

In an age where food allergies and intolerances are more common than loaves of bread, St Katherine’s is meticulous in catering without fuss for allergies, intolerances and personal preferences of the less serious sort. And what’s more, the substitutes are good – the gluten bread, for example, is supple and full-flavoured and absent any of the usual hint of cardboard.

To start the ball rolling, there is an assortment of dips and tricks, including piquant-tasting pickled eggplant, arancini balls filled with delicate Set in a locale where many diners request a little green peas and mint and a smooth, creamy high-chair and want to leave before 8pm, with dip of pumpkin, almond and cinnamon which others later for an intimate evening, St Katherine’s should fulfill any Middle Eastern culinary fantasy. achieves a good balance between fine dining and food that is designed to be shared.

Things don’t stay humble and home-grown for long – next up is a Greek-inspired pide made with a boat-shaped roll of soft, warm bread and INFORMATION filled with whippy-light-fresh ricotta mix, soft, warm figs and a decadently good fig reduction drizzled on top. It is decadence all over, and I St Katherine’s Restaurant can imagine the cast of Masterchef swooning in 26 Cotham Rd, Kew 9207 7477 the backrooms.

Things become a little more carnivorous from here on – a rotisserie chicken arrives, delicate, smooth, perfectly tender, but large enough to

Mon - Fri: 12pm - 4pm, 5.30pm - 11pm Weekends 11.30am - 4pm, 5.30pm - 11pm stkatherines.com.au

Orto Lucky Hawthorn residents have a new(ish) local Italian bistro and beer garden

Lou Pardi

O

rto is a chameleon of a venue.

Seemingly morphing into the perfect place for a meal with family (including the little ones), dinner with girlfriends, a second date or Sunday afternoon beers with the boys, it’s a welcome addition to Hawthorn.

Head up the stairs next door to Axil Coffee Roasters and you’ll find a huge dining room and an outdoor terrace. If it’s Sunday you might even find a DJ throwing some tunes around. On a sunny day it’s the perfect spot to while away the hours, working your way through an excellent list of beer and wine, with a slice of pizza perhaps.

If the weather turns or it’s one of the 11 Melbourne months you don’t want to be

outside, take a seat inside. The fit-out is a calculated-to-be-quirky collection of upcycled ladders, potted plants, and a combination of benches and tables. There’s a great view into a reasonably sized kitchen too.

There are many ways to tackle the Orto menu.

Whether you’re up for five Italian-style courses, or just nibbles and a beer.

Perhaps start proceedings sharing a bowl of mussels (Cozze alla Tarantina: Spring Bay mussels in tomato, lemon, chilli and garlic $15) which are served with plenty of bread to mop up the sauce. If you’re a really keen seafood type, perhaps add a small bowl of octopus to the mix (Polipo alla Luciana: slow braised Western Australian octopus in tomato, white wine, chilli and garlic - $13.50).

To be honest if you’re not too hungry you could add some of the perfectly-cooked hand cut potatoes (with rosemary salt and garlic $8.50) here and just skip to dessert.

Perhaps though you’re one to go the long way around – so you could move onto pizza, pasta or mains at this juncture. Orto do a lovely thin crust on their pizza and there are a range of fresh toppings to choose from. The Primavera (Bianca – without tomato sauce base) with buffalo mozzarella, tomato, prosciutto and rocket ($21) is lovely. The house pizza, Orto, is a vegetarian extravaganza of mozzarella, eggplant, capsicum,

the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013 45

Food.Wine.Coffee onion, mushroom, artichoke and zucchini ($19). If you’re a real cheese-lover and like something a little richer, the combination of smoked scamorza, asparagus, cherry tomatoes and truffle oil on the Affumicatta ($19) is worth investigating.

The papadelle with veal ragu ($22) and gnocci with tomato sugo and fiore di latte ($21) are available in children’s sizes for half price and are mild enough to suit a child’s palate. For grownups, there’s swordfish, lamb, beef and rabbit on offer ($29 - $30).

To finish up the star of the desserts is the buffalo yogurt pannacotta with berry compote, although many will tell you it’s the Bombolini – Italian doughnuts served with Nutella.

Perhaps what takes Orto to the next level is the staff. Whether experienced or new to the game, they’re helpful, approachable and relaxed – perfectly pitched for this venue.

INFORMATION Orto Level 1, 302-320 Burwood Road, Hawthorn 9819 2200 Dinner: Monday – Sunday Lunch: Friday – Sunday orto.com.au

usually some well thought out dishes for vegetarians.

Plates are made for sharing – they’re not huge but certainly more generous than what you’ll find at other sharing restaurants.

Dessert of choice is the incredibly popular flourless chocolate cake, or for a liquid dessert, try The Low Brow – a cocktail of Angelica gin, Lillet blanc, mint, lemon juice and pineapple syrup.

LongPlay Lou Pardi

T

ucked away on the top end of St Georges Road in North Fitzroy, LongPlay might just be one of Melbourne’s best kept secrets. For those of us who first visited this St Georges Road shopfront when it was Glitch bar and cinema, a crowded front room with a sloping concrete floor and a small cinema out the back, it’s sometimes hard to remember that LongPlay is in the very same space.

The venetian blinds out the front don’t give much away but wander in and you’ll find a welcoming bar with plenty of vinyl (and booze) behind it. At the end of the bar is a teeny kitchen but don’t let that deceive you – this well thought through menu is the best thing to come out of a salamander and a convection oven for a very long time. Perhaps ever.

Created by Adam Sime and Tim Richmond almost three years ago, the beautiful space was fitted out by the pair, who used to work together at Fitzroy institution Mario’s. The tiled floor, long timber bar and beautiful timber booths look brand new, but the venue has certainly been worn in to become a well-loved local.

You’re welcome to sit at the bar and have a glass of vino or one of LongPlay’s excellent cocktails, but you’d be missing out on a lovely food experience if you did. A generous antipasto platter is a good start, and more often than not you’ll find an interesting wine by the glass. One of the knowledgeable staff can walk you through pretty much anything. Just try not to fill up on the incredible smoked almonds set down in front of you.

The menu changes depending on fresh produce available but there’s often a house gnocchi (currently topped with pesto - $15) and a grilled fish or lamb with some sensationally simple salads. There are also

There are a couple of function spaces at LongPlay – a larger room out the back and then the private cinema. They’re excellent for a gathering with a difference or just if you want to see old favourite films on the big screen again. I may or may not have been party to a screening of Moulin Rouge where we took the opportunity of being in a private cinema to sing and dance to the better (and worse) numbers.

Tim and Adam don’t have plans to open another venue in the near future, which is a shame for us, but leaves them plenty of time to follow their other pursuits. Tim released his second album, Dot, late last year and Adam is an artist – which explains LongPlay’s fantastic music collection and lovely interior.

INFORMATION LONGPLAY 318 St Georges Road, North Fitzroy Dinner and drinks: Thursday – Sunday Functions and screenings: by appointment.

46 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

Wine

WINE REVIEWS by ANDREA FROST

Frontiers

F

Devil’s Corner Riesling 2012

Tasmania RRP $19

rontiers come in many forms: literal, metaphorical, geographical, philosophical, technical and even personal. In winemaking, they include some very real and non-negotiable frontiers such

as geology and geography, as well as some frontiers that, with the help of technology, experience and imagination, have shown to be more malleable.

These wines or the places they come from have, at some point, dabbled in the idea of a frontier.

Crittenden Estate Los Hermanos Saludo al Txakoli 2012

Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2012

Mornington Peninsula RRP $25

New Zealand RRP $35

Kooyong Estate Pinot Noir 2010 Mornington Peninsula RRP $45

brownbrothers.com.au

crittendenwines.com.au

cloudybay.co.nz

portphillipestate.com.au

Tasmania is the most southerly place one can grow grapes to make wine in Australia; a viticultural last frontier as it were. Already a lauded winemaking region, especially for Pinot Noir, sparkling wines, Chardonnay and Riesling, demand on the land will likely increase as climate change creeps in and winegrowers seek cooler swathes of land. Ironic that what was once considered the last frontier for those we knew not what to do with, is now the last frontier for many positive reasons. In recent years, some of Australia’s big name producers have bought a slice of Australia’s viticultural frontier, including Brown Brothers who have bought the Tamar Ridge and Devil’s Corner labels into its fold. This wine from the Tamar Valley has an attractive nose of citrus and floral notes; the palate brims with enlivening acid, citrus, jasmine and finishes with a long and lovely length.

In 1982, Mornington Peninsula wine pioneer Garry Crittenden planted five acres of vines on the new wine frontier of the Mornington Peninsula.

In so doing he doubled the size of land under vine in just one weekend. The Mornington Peninsula and Crittenden Estate have come a long way since then; unsuitable varieties have been swapped for those better suited to the maritime region, monoculture has been swapped for biological soil management, French varieties are celebrated alongside Spanish ones, and where once it was Garry at the helm, now he has the help of his son, celebrated winemaker Rollo Crittenden to take the winery into new frontiers. This is one of Rollo’s Spanish inspired wines; a wine guzzled in tapas bars in the Basque region of Spain where Rollo was inspired to make the wine. Pour from a height to awaken the gentle fizz and enjoy this summer drinking, food friendly white wine. A new frontier for some of the region’s pioneers.

Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc broke a new frontier and introduced the world to the wonders of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. When it was first unleashed, it took the wine-drinking world by storm. Cloudy Bay offered an entirely new style of wine that was a distinct, bright, alarmingly expressive wine and just what people wanted at the time. There was not enough of it and shipments could not come fast enough. Although Cloudy Bay was the cult wine of the style, the world had been introduced to a whole new frontier with Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. This latest release of the original style is a harmonious and restrained expression of the wine. It has lively citrus, herb and gooseberry notes and an ever-so-subtle texture relaxes a fine line of acid. A fine expression of an iconic wine. If you’re lucky enough to visit Marlborough, you’ll see that very scene on the label – the Richmond Ranges, fading out on the horizon on a cool and bright landscape.

The process of understanding any new frontier – coastline, ocean, archipelago, mountain range or country – is one of acquiring detail, of sharpening the point of focus with each new aspect. When it comes to wine this zoning in reveals new frontiers of winemaking and viticulture. The Mornington Peninsula, young in any terms let alone considering wine has been made for more than 7,000 years, has benefited recently from a better understanding of place – a greater understanding of soils, of the varieties that grow well, of the wine styles such sites create. In general, a better understanding of how things work.

Sandro Mosele has been prominent in expressing such an understanding of place through the range of Kooyong Wines. The wines range from those made from estate fruit to those that narrow in on the detail of site with the single vineyard series. This, the Kooyong Estate Pinot Noir 2010, has an elegant and berry scented perfume with underlining dark and earthy notes, wonderful acid and lovely fine tannins.

the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013 47

Cafés

Batch Espresso

S

t Kilda favourite Batch Espresso is a comforting little café on Carlisle Street.

From the interior littered with knick knacks to the worn-in furniture and constant stream of local coffee take-away-ers, there is something settled about Batch. The liquor stacked on top of one cabinet for the couple of late nights the café is open adds to this effect.

If you happen to have indulged in a few too many pinots the night before, the Batch brunch menu is sure to bring you back to your senses.

Buttermilk pancakes, boiled eggs with soldiers and seasonal fruits with lavender yogurt all make

Little Henri Lou Pardi

I

t’s hard to get a seat in many of Thornbury’s lovely little cafes, so it’s a relief that Little Henri joined the fray last year. Wrapped around a corner in a delightful old building, Little Henri is decked out inside with distressed finishes and plenty of licks of green paint. It’s a large space with loads of tables and a leather bench stretching along one wall like the lazy hipster grandson of a wise Chesterfield.

Out the back of the sunlit (so long as there’s sun) indoor dining area is a generous courtyard.

The staff are bright and snappy and the coffee is excellent. Having just returned from our northern

neighbour – city of pretty harbours and short macchiato disrespect – I was quite relieved to hear that Little Henri consider their short mac to be one of the most diminutive in town. The menu is a safe but sophisticated mix of current classics. The pulled pork and coleslaw baguette is right on trend, but there’s a reason it’s popular – and you’ll want to stay for dessert – the brownie is a serious undertaking for even the most ardent chocolate lover.

INFORMATION LITTLE HENRI 848-850 High St, Thornbury 9484 8857 Breakfast and lunch: Monday – Sunday

RESTAURANT BAR & GRILL

an appearance. If it’s a more serious predicament, simply apply one of Batch’s trademark burgers.

Choose from haloumi or lamb on a sinful bun dripping with garlic mayo, relish and other fantastic things.

For dessert, take a look into the cabinet and enjoy quirky hand-written labels and some excellent concoctions – like the strawberry meringue cake – a cupcake with a cake base and a meringue top.

INFORMATION BATCH ESPRESSO 1/320 Carlisle Street, St Kilda 9530 3550 Breakfast and lunch: Monday – Sunday Dinner: Thursday and Friday

48 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

Food.Wine.Coffee

BRIGHT N SANDY FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL

B

righton’s Bright n Sandy Food & Wine Festival returns for its ninth celebration of Victoria’s finest food and wine on Sunday, March 3.

Kirkpatrick, will offer tastings during her Champagne talk. Celebrity and local chefs offering cooking tips on calamari, quail, mussels and beer and duck will join her.

An official event of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, the Bayside City Council presented event will feature demonstrations by a gathering of celebrity and local chefs including Allan Campion, Bob Hart, Adam D’Sylva and Paul Mercurio. Visitors can sample food and wine from more than 40 exhibitors while entertainment comes courtesy of The Go Set, Mark Andrew, Popcorn, Eamon & Dudi Project, King Louie & the Cheeky Monkeys and Anthony Young, while Geoff Cox is the Master of Ceremonies.

Bright n Sandy is family friendly event with a children’s program that includes a performance

by The Mudcakes, roving entertainment as well as cooking classes for children.

Bright n Sandy Food & Wine Festival Sunday, March 3, 11am to 6pm Green Point, The Esplanade, Brighton Entry: $2 bayside.vic.gov.au/tourism_brightnsandy_festival_home

donatelifeweek SUNDAY 24 FEBRUARY – SUNDAY 3 MARCH

This DonateLife Week

2013

Champagne connoisseurs will love the free French Champagne tasting in the Demonstration Marquee where the Champagne Dame, Kyla

INFORMATION

Discover, decide & discuss organ & tissue donation

www.donatelife.gov.au

THE MELB OU R N E R EVIEW FEB RUARY 201 3

FORM DE SIGN

PLANNING

INNOVATION

TRANSFORMATIONS

Photo by: John McKenzie.

Byron George on Melbourne’s continual urban evolution

FORTÉ Introducing Australian buyers to Cross Laminated Timber in Melbourne’s Victoria Harbour

50

THE WORK/LIFE BALANCE ‘Lifestyle Working Collins Street’ combines creative planning with community responsibility

53

Playing to our strengths Jennifer Cunich on improving our ‘liveability’

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50 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

FORM Forté showcases a new way of building and living

T

he world’s tallest (and Australian’s g re en e s t ) h i g h-ri s e ti m b er ap ar tment bu ild ing , For té, showcases a new way of building – and a new way of living. Located near the water’s edge in Melbourne’s Victoria Harbour, Forté rises over 10 storeys offering 23 boutique residential apartments.

Forté has been built using a revolutionary new building material called Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) which has a structural strength akin to the traditionally used concrete and steel. Already popular in Europe where it has been used for over a decade, Forté will be the first opportunity for Australian buyers to experience the benefits of CLT. As well as offering a strong, solid, warmer and more natural living experience, the use of timber is also better for the environment. Concrete and steel buildings are carbon intensive but timber, as well as being renewable, has the advantage of storing carbon. Timbers used are also sourced from certified sustainably managed forests.

With the structure being built entirely from CLT, Forté reduces CO2 equivalent emissions by more than 1,645 tonnes when compared to concrete and steel – the equivalent of removing more than 400 cars from our roads.

Designed and produced in a factory environment,

Forté has been built 30 percent faster and safer, and with higher precision than its material counterparts. It has also resulted in reduced construction traffic to and from site, causing less disruption to the community and producing less waste.

The question of fire is often raised in relation to timber buildings. Forté has been engineered to meet or exceed the Australian building code requirements, so that the risk of fire spread is the same as a conventional building. In the event of a fire, solid timber will char, and therefore provides a self-protecting layer.

Forté is built on the principle that what’s good for the environment is good for the resident too. Using CLT offers better thermal performance and requires less energy to heat and cool – which means reduced energy and water costs which averages savings of $300 per year or up to 25 percent less than a typical code-compliant apartment.

The benefits of the CLT structure, along with design elements such as dual aspect apartments where bedrooms and living areas have abundant natural light and fresh air, reduced chemical emissions from paints, carpets, joinery and wood products all make it a healthier and more enticing living option.

Aspiring to be the first 5 Star Green Star As Built residential building, Forté will provide energy

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The Showcase C

efficient appliances, LED lighting, inhome displays linked to smart meters, rainwater reuse and balcony vegetable gardens. It is also conveniently located within close proximity to walking and bike paths, and public transport.

With its direct connection to the CBD via Collins Street, a vibrant mix of residential, office, retail and community open space set along 3km of water frontage, Victoria Harbour offers a truly unique Melbourne experience. Victoria Harbour has 30 hectares of space with spectacular promenades and welcoming parklands. It can also lay claim to having the highest concentration of green buildings in Australia.

A showpiece for the natural and new, Forté reflects the modern urban lifestyle while delivering a healthier, more natural living environment for occupants. It proves that it is possible for people to live more sustainably, without compromising on location, style and quality.

INFORMATION For further information about Forté, please visit forteliving.com.au or call 03 8610 4800

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urious and culturally-minded Melbournians will have the first opportunity to step inside the world’s tallest timber apartment building at the Forté Living Festival on 22-23 February 2013 in Melbourne’s Victoria Harbour.

Showcasing the future of good living in a unique festival setting, the Forté Living Festival welcomes some of Melbourne’s most inspiring individuals from the cinematography, street art, culinary and sustainable design community, including renowned architect Peter Maddison and environmental advocate Arron Wood.

Including Urban Markets, free openair cinema, green transport displays, expert speaker series on sustainability and activities for kids; the Forté Living Festival is not to be missed. Download the full event program at forteliving.com.au

52 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

FORM It’s a bit like breaking up from a long term relationship.

Yes, it’s traumatic and no one wants to go through it, but it does give you that sense of “anything is possible”. After all, what’s left to lose? ” flashy monuments that were more about symbols of Melbourne as a place to do business; Bracks and Brumby gave us new waterside residential and commercial neighbourhoods modelled on the Gold Coast.

From an urban point of view (perhaps with the exclusion of one very large building on the south bank of the river), Kennett’s legacy is the greatest in terms of the architectural endowment on this city as design was at the forefront. Denton Corker Marshall built a number of great buildings in Melbourne at that time that are still fresh and current. With other governments, design seemed to come second in the early years to social policy, the later years to the dollar.

Aerial view of Barcelona.

Somebody Drew That Byron George

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elbourne is a great city. It was lucky enough to be incredibly wealthy in its formative years, at a time when urban thinking was more about pomposity and making an impression than the wellbeing of its citizens. The incongruity of the scale and grandeur of some of our more wedding cake Victorian monuments sitting in dusty or muddy streets must have been amusing for visitors from the motherland. Fortunately, those wide, muddy tracks, with grand names such as “Royal Parade,” set this city up with bones particularly suited to creating great urban scale.

Melbourne’s wealth of course dried up in the 1890s, which was paralleled in the 1990s. In both centuries, the boom had fundamentally changed the face of the city. The 1880s turned us into one of the world’s great Victorian cities, the 1980s saw dozens of high rises appear within the Hoddle Grid.

Big investment and change followed by a big bust.

In both of these busts, Melbourne was more affected than other Australian capital cities for a variety of reasons that I won’t go into here. What

I think is important is the psychological impact of a bust, and how this can have a really positive impact on a city.

Melbourne in the early 90s was in economic turmoil. The loss of jobs, heavy state government cuts, the collapse of the State Bank of Victoria, the Pyramid Building Society. Interest rates were at 18 percent. Melbourne was depressed in the day, and dull at night. Vacancy rates in the glut of new towers were at record highs. Talk of the day had Brisbane overtaking Melbourne as Australia’s second largest city sometime in the early 21st century.

Over the next twenty years, a remarkable transformation occurred in this city. Urban life and food culture diversified and flourished. Melbourne was open beyond 9-5. Apartments sprang up in older empty buildings. A real estate glut meant that back alley spaces were affordable for small business, artists and creatives. Liquor license deregulation led to Melbourne’s famed bar scene.

This change was in part curated by the City of Melbourne. I say “curated” because I think that is one of the great distinctions that really turned

this city around. It was done in a way where a number of urban policies were all designed to drive a certain type of urbanity. Postcode 3000, urban lane way renewal, vertical lane ways to reinvigorate upper levels of older buildings – all of these were City of Melbourne initiatives. Add this to an urban fabric with larger blocks and a capillary-like lane way network and you have a good canvas for urban renewal.

Part of the transformation of Melbourne can be put down to these factors, but I think a greater part could be down to what occurs culturally when a city goes through a major downturn and shake up. It’s a bit like breaking up from a long term relationship. Yes, it’s traumatic and no one wants to go through it, but it does give you that sense of “anything is possible”. After all, what’s left to lose?

The city that was once the butt of jokes from the north has now become the urban model to copy. Brisbane speaks of Melbourne bars, Sydney and Perth are building lane ways. Sydney has recently changed its liquor laws so you can finally go into a bar and not have to deal with old ladies playing pokies. Even Denver is using Melbourne as a model for urban renewal. But Melbourne is more than the 32 blocks within the Hoddle Grid.

Driving someone back from the airport is a case in point. You pass half a century of government urban policy. We have Bolte’s commission flats, a deterministic take on fixing the “poor people” problem by demolishing great swathes of what would now be prime real estate. Kennett gave us

We now have a large scale opportunity for another government to show its urban credentials – Fisherman’s Bend. While there is talk of affordable housing and community being part of a masterplan (both important), I think the real opportunity here is in urban form. Rather than open slather with apartment towers, what about a 6 - 8 storey height limit and some rules about building to the perimeter? This way the form, scale and proportion of the streets could be crafted in a way to make them friendly to people, without dictating what the building will look like. It also allows the city to evolve based on need over the years – a crucial thing in the development of any city. This model has worked in cities from Barcelona to Berlin and created compact and dense urban form that is amazingly livable. Compare some of the newer areas off Barcelona’s Avenue Diagonal with Southbank and this argument becomes very compelling. The amazing thing is, the density of both typologies is about the same.

The irony is, we don’t need to go as far as Barcelona for inspiration. Before the 1960s, our own CBD was built and controlled along these lines. Low enough so the sun shone in the streets, but dense enough for critical mass. It also assisted with one other crucial thing. It allowed the city to grow and change within a framework. This is crucial, because great cities evolve, they are not built.

INFORMATION 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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architects, nettletontribe – the creators behind Stable’s Triptych, one of Melbourne’s luxury apartment buildings and recognised as Australia’s Best Residential Development at the 2012 Property Council of Australia Innovation and Excellence Awards.

Designed principally for small to medium enterprises, the building presents a unique opportunity by delivering the benefits a large organisation would enjoy. Consisting of 137 suites, over ground and four upper levels, including retail and a bar / cafe, the creation will allow small businesses to enjoy the benefits and connectivity that are traditionally associated with large corporations.

Melbourne’s emerging strata-sphere

A

new concept for Melbourne’s small to medium enterprise market is taking shape and charging towards completion.

Located at 838 Collins Street in Victoria Harbour, Docklands, “Lifestyle Working Collins Street” is a refreshing concept that combines architectural vision and creative planning with community responsibility, commercial functionality and environmental sustainability.

The innovative commercial strata office building is unique for Melbourne and a creation

by Lend Lease in collaboration with the Stable Group, the pioneers of the acclaimed “Lifestyle Working Brookvale” in Sydney.

The striking design is by renowned firm of

With an enviable Collins Street address, housed directly opposite the award-winning ANZ Centre and adjacent to Myer, Lifestyle Working Collins Street sets a new benchmark in sustainable office strata office space, housing a fusion of disciplines across industries.

The sustainable characteristics largely define this unique development. With an unprecedented amount of solar panels for a building of this type, we are going to see “Solar: Lots” – strata titled solar arrays linked to specific suites for the individual benefit of businesses occupying those suites. In addition, the base building energy during daylight is run from solar.

The building will feature state of the art voice and data technologies – including ubiquitous

SuStaiNaBle GroWtH SuStaiNaBle Value SuStaiNaBle iNVeStMeNt MelBourNe CoMMerCial Strata • Under construction – completion June 2013 • Invest in the higher yielding sector • Boost your portfolio from $420K • Ground breaking, sustainable design Own or rent 50 sqm - 700 sqm in this groundbreaking building designed for people and business.

Contact us at info@lifestyleworkingcollinsstreet.com

www.lifestyleworkingcollinsstreet.com

wireless connectivity – next generation fibre and Internet infrastructure. It incorporates a series of ‘privileged’ and ‘semi-privileged’ spaces for tenants to utilise. The spaces offer various levels of privacy and containment within the building, as well as a flexible platform for meeting spaces, discussion areas and alternative working environments.

The development also includes landscaped areas within the central open courtyard and the building edge.

The Victoria Harbour location, which is one of Australia’s largest urban renewal projects, presents a unique opportunity to participate in a dynamic and groundbreaking development and offers proximity and connectivity to surrounding business infrastructure, transport, waterways and the CBD. On completion, Lifestyle Working Collins Street will be the latest edition to Victoria Harbour’s enviable reputation as the home of Australia’s highest concentration of green buildings.

INFORMATION Lifestyle Working Collins Street suites start from $450,000, for sale and from 50 sqm to 750 sqm for lease. For further information visit lifestyleworkingcollinsstreet.com.au

CoMMerCial Strata SuiteS froM $450,000 for Sale or leaSe

MaKe aN aPPoiNtMeNt NoW CoNtaCt: Daniel Wolman

0412 957 839 Marc Mengoni

0413 484 866

838 Collins Street, Victoria Harbour, Melbourne

54 the MELBOURNE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2013

FORM At the same time, we must also focus on the talent-based economic development that cities are capable of. In every global powerhouse, the gathering of skilled and entrepreneurial individuals will produce networks that transmit knowledge and breed innovation. That Victoria cannot depend on the resource boom like some of our western and northern counterparts means that our market outlook is intrinsically tied to the extent we attract investment and a talented labour force, which in turn generates more of the same. Melbourne’s status as a global metropolis likewise depends on the extent to which we encourage growth to achieve this critical mass. In the long run, these will be the key drivers of urban and regional growth, and crucial sources of local jobs and wealth.

Today’s cities operate in an increasingly unpredictable environment. There is no recipe for guaranteed success, and the best laid plans are often vulnerable to forces beyond our control. Planning for an uncertain future will require a flexible governance model that brings businesses and communities into play, to reflect the city’s unique character while responding to international forces and market realities.

Playing to our strengths Jennifer Cunich

I

n some respects, no other city in Australia has evoked as much international attention in recent years as Melbourne.

Aside from proudly wearing the title of the world’s most liveable city, we are also quietly realising our potential as a major regional hub. Melbourne is recognised as a compelling destination for providing an

exceptional visitor experience, world-class educational services and a political and economic climate conducive to business and employment.

We have also undertaken joint trade initiatives to forge strong relationships overseas, particularly with our neighbours. There is no question that Melbournians are increasingly reconciled with our own particular brand on the world stage.

However, these successes should not let us forget that there are a large number of serious contenders aspiring to become important financial, tourism and education centres in the

Asia Pacific region. To enhance Melbourne’s capacity as a truly competitive brand, we need to work at removing the bottlenecks to progress.

On this front, there is much work to be done.

Understandably, part of the focus should be on improving our ‘liveability’ – one of Melbourne’s most important advantages. A crucial issue that must be addressed is the delivery of an adequate and efficient transport system, in particular to assist with the heavy congestion that Melbourne currently suffers from. A stock of modern, efficient transport infrastructure will benefit the city significantly – by helping to develop a high quality labour force, boosting productivity, preserving our standard of living and attracting visitors and investors alike. Government projections claim a net increase of 480,000 people to Victoria’s population from overseas migration by 2020. This increase, plus the tourists and foreign students who will flock to our global city, means that connectivity will be a high priority.

The time has come to recognise that our wealth and enviable lifestyle can only be maintained, and enhanced, by playing to our strengths. In this globalised age, the most dynamic cities will be those that offer the infrastructure, knowledge, labour force and institutions to suit the demands of the 21st century. For Melbourne, this means not only providing the infrastructure needed to support a growing population, but also making sure to attract talent and investment that will help develop our city. The enviable lifestyle we enjoy today is no accident, but is rather the product of hard work and far-sighted planning that must be proactively renewed as we build the future of our great city.

INFORMATION Jennifer Cunich is Victorian Executive Director, Property Council of Australia propertyoz.com.au/vic

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22 - 23 February Visit forteliving.com.au[for full festival program

MELBOURNE

UNI

STUDENT SHOUT OUT

Melbourne Uni O’Week Alert Grab your Lygon Court/Student Uni tote (filled with goodies) during O’Week and enter our Top 5 Choc Top Destination Competition for your chance to win a $500 Lygon Court shopping voucher or one of 50 choc tops and Cinema Nova movie passes. Entries close March 31st, 2013 at 6.00pm. See postcard series in tote for competition details.

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