About Regional Podcast: Recent Episodes
About Regional
About Regional is a digital regional news and opinion platform that celebrates the colour and unique perspective of country people.
Going beyond what you might expect from a traditional news agency, About Regional facilitates conversations, builds connections, and creates experiences based on life under a gum tree rather than a skyscrapper.
Our readers, viewers, and listeners are active participants and add to the depth and variety of our stories. Those who contribute live at the heart and soul of their community, which adds an element of trust and authenticity.
About Regional is proudly part of the Region Media Group
Jan Harris and her family lost their proud Vimy Ridge home in the Tathra and District Bushfire of March 18, 2018.
At the Festival of Open Minds in 2018, Jan spoke of her loss, "I am adrift without the anchors of my life" she told the 350 people gathered before a standing ovation.
David Nyuol Vincent, was a Sudanese refugee who survived famine, wars and 17 years in refugee camps to build a new life in Australia, is September of 2019 he visited Bega at the invitation of Bega Valley Quakers and the Social Justice Advocates of the Sapphire Coast.
David was a little boy when he fled southern Sudan with his father, as war raged in their country. He left behind his distraught mother and sisters, his village and his childhood.
For months David and his father walked across southern Sudan, barefoot, desperately searching for safety, food and water. They survived the perilous Sahara Desert crossing into Ethiopia only to be separated.
David was taken in and trained as a child soldier, surviving the next 17 years of his life alone in refugee camps.
Life was a relentless struggle against starvation, air bombings and people determined to kill him and his people.
In 2004 David was offered a humanitarian visa as one of the 'Lost Boys of Sudan' and was resettled to Australia.
Traumatised by what he had seen and endured, he went about the slow and painful process of making a new life for himself-a life away from hunger, away from guns, away from death. A life where David is determined to improve the plight of his people both here in Australia and back in South Sudan.
Working with journalist Carol Nader, David told his story in the 2013 book ‘The Boy Who Wouldn’t Die.’
David is committed to achieving peace for his people near and far, and its work supported by Bega Valley locals.
Locally, Bega Valley Quakers have supported David’s peace work, helping him attend training and education in Switzerland as his advocacy and community work grows.
In September, David visited Bega to thank people for their support and share his story. Money raised from David's lecture at Bega High School went towards his ongoing peace work.
Alasdair Tremblay-Birchall spent his teenage years in Tathra and went to uni to become an engineer.
After working in the industry for a few years, he decided to swap steady, profitable work for life as a comedian, creating his first Melbourne Comedy Festival show in 2013 – and he hasn’t stopped since.
And the secret to having a show at a comedy festival? “I’ll tell you the secret,” Alasdair says, lowering his voice, “it is unbelievably easy. You have to be able to come up with $550 to register plus pay your nightly venue hire. So the secret is that you have to take a financial risk and be stable of nerve.”
In his 2019 Comedy Festival show, 'Magma' with collaborator Andy Matthews, Alasdair and Andy returned to their engineering roots, giving a fake presentation on how mining magma will solve all the world’s problems.
Even if you’ve never seen Alastair’s work, you’ve likely been exposed to his gags. In between stand-up shows, he works behind the scenes writing jokes for television shows like Shaun Micallef’s ‘Mad as Hell’ and ‘Talking About Your Generation’.
“I treat it like any other job, like being a plumber,” Alasdair says of his television work. “The only thing is that I’m trying to unclog society.”
But there’s no such thing as a steady paycheck and Alasdair has had to get used to “scary gaps” in between bouts of work.
Still, Alasdair wishes he’d known 10 years ago that “anybody can do this if they want to. You learn how to do it from watching other people who are good at it and you start to understand how jokes are made and you can trick the human brain into laughing.”
But it’s not without a lot of self-reflection that successful comedians are made.
“You have to accept it when a joke is not working and kill it until eventually, you have 5-10 minutes of content that does work.”
Alasdair brought laughs and added insight to a deep and dynamic day at the Festival of Open Minds.
Click play to learn more about his trade, talent and ticker...
Paul West has become a favourite some of the Far South Coast of New South Wales. The time and energy he brought to the region and its people as host of River Cottage Australia made him so.
Filming on the TV series based at Tilba ended four years ago, having moved away Paul and his young family are back in the region and putting down roots at Bermagui, south-east of the old River Cottage farm.
"The whole time we were the away we mythologised the South Coast, it served as our North Star to where we wanted to be," Paul explains while holding a cup of tea in his Bermagui kitchen.
"After River Cottage finished my wife and I were a little bit uncertain about our future - as tends to be the case when you become unemployed.
"And we weren't sure if this was genuinely where we wanted to be or because River Cottage had brought us here.
Paul, Alica, Otto and Bowie and Digger stuck around for a little while after filming ended but the need to chase work lead them to Newcastle and Melbourne.
"We were trying on other areas that had been significant in our adult lives," Paul says.
"About a year after leaving here we both [Paul and Alica] had the conversation and said - no we definitely want to go back."
Following the release of Paul's cookbook and a three-month family camping trip up the East Coast to "shake off the city dust" the Wests are back in a house they bought during their River Cottage days just a stone through from Bermagui's main street.
"This morning, I woke up and went outside to see the sun rising, I could hear the ocean and there's a Whip Bird that comes and says 'good morning', then we fed the kids breakfast, walked one block to drop Otto at daycare, then went for a swim at the beach, chatted to some people, saw some whales breaching, and was back home by 9:30 - that's the lifestyle on offer here!" Paul chuckles.
Having come from a country childhood himself wants his boys to experience the same, something that wasn't on offer in busy Melbourne.
As is the case for many regional families - earning a living is the challenge now. Paul's new book 'The Edible Garden' is part of that fix, with a second book on the way, as well as regular freelance work with the ABC, and appearances at food and lifestyle festivals and events around the country.
"But I don't want to be a FIFO worker - to be absent from by family and leave my wife holding the bundle and I don't want to be the absentee community member. My family will be here for a long time and I want to be able to contribute to the community in a meaningful and constructive way," Paul says.
"How that looks yet - I just don't know. The dust is still settling for us."
Having gardened in rental properties for the last two years, Paul's focus at the moment is getting his own garden going again and producing the food he was famous for growing in the rich soils fo Tilba with the nation watching on.
"River Cottage was the most amazing experience. The program has found such a strong home in the mind of the Australian viewer. The message of that program was so positive and fundamentally human," Paul reflects.
"To have played a small part in that I couldn't be happier."
The other 'stars' of the show all still live locally - butcher Matt Christison, baker Nelleke Gorton, and chef Kelly Eastwood. Paul sees the potential in "getting the band back together" and doesn't rule out having some fun with the RCA gang in the future.
The River Cottage property was sold in July 2017 when TV production ended and is now available on AirBnB for $350 a night.
"People send me pictures of it all the time," Paul laughs.
"Which I kinda like, but it also feels like someone sending you pictures of your ex-girlfriend.
"There is a morbid curiosity for me to get back out there but for me the focus now is reconnecting with all the wonderful people.
"But I don't want to be Paul from the TV in the community I just want to be Paul from Bermagui, if you see me come and say g'day I am always up for a chat."
The Festival of Open Minds was proud to showcase Sassi Nuyum, a performer, person, and soul travelling life’s road with a compelling insight and honest creativity that rises above the barriers that sometimes block cultural understanding and open conversation.
Sassi Nuyum, aka Meaghan Holt, has been writing since she was a little girl – writing runs in her family’s blood.
Meaghan lost her mother at the age of 9 and has since been raised predominately with her Aboriginal family, extended and otherwise. That said her mother’s spirit is strong and burns bright, it guides Meaghan’s writing along with her very large bloodline of ancestors.
Her writing and subsequent performance can pack a punch, hence her creative name ‘Sassi Nuyum’ – Nuyum meaning spirit in the Wakka Wakka language. A spirit that is always edged with a lively, bold, stage presence that supports the idea of a ‘sassy spirit’.
Sassi now lives on Yuin Country in the Bega Valley but was born on the lands of the Kurnai People in Yarram, Victoria.
Her mother’s family are of European background – dairy farmers who were very connected to the countryside they made a living on. Her grandmother (Pickering) is from Wakka Wakka Country, her grandfather (Holt) was born on Bidjara land at Springsure, west of Gladstone in Queensland and her father is a Gayndah man also a Queenslander.
Meaghan’s ancestors also had periods of being removed to Worrabinda and Cherbourg missions.
It’s heritage Sassi has a deep connection and respect for, values that impress and leave a mark on audiences.
Sassi writes on subjects ranging from – mental health, colonisation, domestic violence, substance misuse, environment, and grief, with each performance guided by the moment and the spirits at her side.
Last year’s Giiyong Festival at Jigamy between Pambula and Eden was the first time this thirty-something artist performed publically, it lit a spark in her and the rest of the community, both wanting more and a deeper understanding.
Meaghan Holt, both as herself and as Sassi Nuyum, channels the hurt, pain and resilience of her own background and that of her peoples in a way that open minds, hearts and shared understanding.
Her performance at Open Minds 2019 in September prompted a standing ovation and tears from the audience.
Click play to be a part of the experience...
Currently living in Wollongong, Aly Khalifa is an innovator of global stature focused on social impact and sustainability.
Aly is driven by harvesting plastic waste from our oceans to turn it into useful products for a circular economy.
His training as both a designer and mechanical engineer, coupled with deep international manufacturing experience, has enabled him and his team to launch products for some of the most recognised consumer brands.
His work has been celebrated internationally, he’s an Eisenhower Fellow who has garnered more than two dozen patents.
Aly is also working closely with the Bega Valley Innovation Hub.
Nas Campanella is a journalist and radio newsreader with the ABC and Triple J.
She lost her sight when she was six months old. Nas also has a sensitivity condition which means she can’t read Braille.
Winning an ABC cadetship in 2011, Nas spent her first-year news gathering and reading in here in Bega at ABC South East.
In 2013 Nas joined Triple J, where she produces, writes and reads the news several times a day.
Nas Campanella is the only blind radio newsreader in the world.
Sound recording by Gerry Corcoran at the Bega Valley Commemorative Civic Centre. 'People with Oomph' written and performed by Damon Davies.
Marking the first anniversary of the vast and long-running Yankees Gap Bushfire west of Bega takes in a few different dates.
The fire started on Yankees Gap Road at Bemboka on August 15, 2018. Warm gusty winds stirred a smoldering pile burn that had been ringing alarm bells in the week before. September 15 was another bad day with communities closer to Bega and even Bega itself put in harm's way when the fire had a second run.
The fire fighting effort on land, water and in the air lasted and exhausting 44 days. At 4 pm on September 27 the Rural Fire Service declared the fire 'under control'.
The community breathed a sigh of relief.
During those 44 days, four homes were lost, over 20,000 hectares of bush and pastures burnt out, hundreds of kilometers of farm fencing were destroyed and an unknown number of livestock were killed.
Not to mention the anxiety and stress caused to the communities of Bemboka, Numbugga, and Brogo who lived alongside this volatile situation in their beloved bush for an extended period of time.
Janet Reynolds was one of those left homeless by the flames of Yankees Gap. She moved to her piece of paradise 26 years ago, "I arrived in the Bega Valley to see a friend and thought - oh this is nice! And I ended up buying 100 acres of bush," Jan laughs.
"I grew up in the industrial midland of England, in Spondon, within spitting distance of the power station.
"The air used to rot the curtains but I remember going to my father's allotment and thinking - one day I am going to live in nature."
Jan was there the day that the nature she loves turned on her and destroyed the home and environment she tended to.
"August the fifteenth, I was there watering my orchard, it was a bit smokey and hazy but I hadn't heard any dire warnings," the almost 75-year-old remembers.
"The police arrived and said - you have to go now!
"That was an enormous shock, it just took my breath away, I threw a few things in the car, jumped in and left.
"The place went up like a nuclear explosion. I went to neighbours and watched the fire race through the forest towards my place. It was pretty overwhelming."
Jan, a long-serving but now retired (only in recent years!) school teacher from Cobargo Public School, built her stand-alone home at the end of Desert Creek Road from scratch and beams as she speaks of the Red-tailed Black Cockatoos she shared the land with.
Artefacts collected from her life in Africa were all destroyed, along with photos of family and friends and "love letters and drawings from children I had taught, letters from my parents, even love letters from my youth!"
Even now, 12 months on Jan is 'discovering' possessions she no longer has, a cruel twist of habit and memory.
This "little piece of paradise" was ready for fire, while she loves the bush Jan is realistic.
"[The bush] was practically swept clear, the gutters were clean. People say I should have had a sprinkler on the roof and I say - 130 km/hr winds I don't think a sprinkler is going to do much."
While optimistic an positive about her future, one of the deep scars Jan still feels 12 months on is a sense of being forgotten by the government agencies that had such a high profile in the response to the Reedy Swamp, Vimy Ridge, and Tathra Bushfire just five months prior.
Sixty-five homes were lost in and around Tathra on March 18, 2018. In the 10 days that followed, the NSW Government committed $10 million to the early cleanup phase, “The quicker the clean-up is completed, the faster the community can heal, and people can get on with rebuilding," Member for Bega and NSW Transport Minister, Andrew Constance said at the time.
The resources of a number of state agencies, private contractors, and Bega Valley Shire Council were deployed to clear blocks and dispose of the ruins that remained.
Side by side with that effort, Mayor Kristy McBain launched an appeal that attracted over $1.5 million in donations from around Australia, including $160,000 that was raised at the Band Together concert which attracted the likes of the Hoodoo Gurus and 1927.
Regrettably, those funds could not be used to help those impacted by the Yankees Gap Fire.
“The Mayoral Appeal funds were donated specifically for Tathra and district and according to ATO legislation, it cannot be used for those impacted by the Yankees Gap Fire," a spokesperson for Bega Valley Shire Council told Region Media in May this year.
Speaking of her experience now, Jan says, "nobody seemed interested, apart from the good community."
"I found that quite saddening and disappointing and I do hope it doesn't happen for other people.
"I did have insurance and that insurance will go a little way towards what I have to do now, but the best thing would have been if somebody in council had said - hey let's help you to clean up.
"Instead of having to go for seven months, day after day with bags and shovels, being confronted with the 'the body' - shoveling up the remains of your life."
Jan is hopefully the response next time will be different and applauds the establishment of the council-run Bega Valley Disaster Relief Fund so that an easily accessible pool of money is available for when disaster next strikes.
The Band Together Two Music Festival on November 30 is the start of that fundraising effort.
"Wonderful neighbours and friends" helped get the job done for Jan in the end. "Now it's down to earthmoving, knocking down dead trees, and clearing tracks," Jan says.
Rebuilding her home is part of a future Jan looks forward to, but for the time being, she's enjoying living in Bega and not being so isolated from people and events.
"Kevin McLoed [of Grand Designs fame] I read yesterday says you should spend three years thinking about your house before you build it," Jan chuckles.
"Even though it was devastating and it still is devastating when I think of certain things, you have to choose your attitude and I don't have enough years left to be miserable."
The Rev Tim Costello is one of Australia’s most respected community leaders and a sought-after voice on social justice issues, leadership and ethics.
For 13 years until October 2016, Tim was Chief Executive of World Vision Australia, and up until earlier this year, he was World Vision’s Chief Advocate.
In his evocative memoir that has just been released - A Lot with a Little, Tim explores the people and experiences that have shaped him into a fighter for the world’s most challenging issues.
Speaking at the Festival of Open Minds last Saturday (September 14) Tim called on us to find unity in these challenging times and reminded us of the strength in compassion and hope, and the responsibility we all have to see justice served...
The Festival of Open Minds held in Bega on Friday and Saturday (September 14/14, 2019) attracted some of the nation’s big thinkers to regional New South Wales, but loud in our mind is always making a place for local voices to take centre stage and add their own weight.
The theme for Open Minds 2019 is ‘People With Oomph’ inspired by Bega Valley song man Damon Davis and his song of the same name.
The line up of speakers included Tim Costello of World Vision, Nas Campanella - blind Triple J newsreader, Pastor Christie Buckingham - spiritual counselor to executed Bali 9 drug smuggler Myuran Sukumaran and Emma Booth - para-equestrian competitor, represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Our ‘Panel of Oopmh’ boasted people from the hills and beaches of the Bega Valley and Eurobodalla, locals who have been spurred into action by a need they see in their community and in themselves.
It was a wide-ranging discussion across many and varied experiences, and proof that great people - people of insight, passion, and depth are not far from our shoulder.
Audience member Peter Howe penned this poem on the back of the experience:
***I searched the whole world over
I went to many kinds of nations
Took the highways and the byways
I was looking for inspiration
And I found it
In this town
In this town
In this town***
Emerging from the 40-minute panel discussion was a sense of identity, one forged on a relationship with first nations people, one connected to the environment, one connected to each other, and one of embedded compassion, tolerance, and understanding.
Leading the discussion are:
Louise Brand who was enjoying retirement with her husband David when he was killed while riding his bicycle with friends in a road rage incident on Mount Darragh Road, west of Pambaula in June last year.
Louise now has a new life mission, to change attitudes and raise awareness, to make our roads safer for all.
Erica Dibden who is passionate about food provenance, sustainability, agriculture and nutrition.
Along with her husband Nic, Erica manages a large family, a herd of Jersey cows, and the burgeoning Tilba Tilba cheese and dairy business - Tilba Real Dairy.
Warren Foster Jr is a Djiringanj performer and creator and a founding member of the Gulaga Dancers. He runs a regular Friday Hip Hop event at the Grand Hotel in Bega, and is a mentor for the music development organisation, Grow the Music.
For Hannah Doole civil disobedience is part of how things change.
Since finishing school in Bega, Hannah has been on the frontline of climate action in Queensland.
Like many people around Australia, Darren Jones wanted to do something to help in response to the Tathra and Distrist Bushfires of March last year.
What happened next was the Band Together Music Festival, which raised $160,000 for the Mayor Bushfire Fund. Band Together Two is happening this November.
The Eurobodalla's Kate Toyer said she wanted to be two things when she grew up, a veterinarian, and a girl.
As a veterinarian, married with children, in 2011 she told her wife she wasn’t a ‘normal’ guy. In 2015, Kate started her gender transformation journey.
Australia’s most respected and experienced social researcher, Hugh Mackay, believes something is wrong with our nation and in the lives of its citizens.
At the inaugural Festival of Open Minds in September 2018, Hugh came to Bega to explain what and why, but more importantly how he thinks we can change for the better.
"It's at the local level that we will transform Australia and where we will be able to begin addressing the twin problem of social fragmentation and rising anxiety," he told the 350 people who gathered to listen on that sunny spring day.
"The state of the nation starts in your street."
It's a rallying call we revisit and publish for the first time as a podcast ahead of the 2019 Festival of Open Minds.
Hugh is the bestselling author of 19 books, including The Good Life, The Art of Belonging, and his latest, Australia Reimagined.
Hugh has had a 60-year career in social research and was also a weekly newspaper columnist for over 25 years.
He is currently a patron of the Asylum Seekers Centre and an honorary professor of social science at the University of Wollongong.
Among many other appointments, he has been deputy chairman of the Australia Council for the Arts, chairman of trustees of Sydney Grammar School, and the inaugural chairman of the ACT government’s Community Inclusion Board.
In recognition of his pioneering work in social research, Hugh has been elected a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and awarded honorary doctorates by Charles Sturt, Macquarie, NSW, Western Sydney and Wollongong universities.
He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2015.
In the discussion he led at Open Minds 2018, Hugh touched on disappointment in our political leadership, a loss of faith in once-respected institutions like the church, faltering education standards, a fracturing of families, and the erosion of community, and the proliferation of social media leading, paradoxically, to more loneliness and less privacy.
A deep, heavy discussion on one hand but as only Hugh Mackay can mix with an optimistic but challenge for the future.
You may not agree with everything he says, but you won’t be able to ignore the intelligence of his argument or not be moved by the passion of his convictions, his warmth and easy humour.
The Festival of Open Minds 2019: The theme for Open Minds in 2019 is ‘People With Oomph’ inspired by Bega Valley song man Damon Davis and his song of the same name.
“People with oomph – they’re not lyin down. People with oomph – spread the good life. People with oomph – keep their own style. People with oomph – walk mile after mile,” Damon sings.
The 2019 Festival of Open Minds line up so far includes:
- Tim Costello, Chief Advocate, World Vision;
- Nas Campanella, blind Triple J newsreader;
- Pastor Christie Buckingham, spiritual counselor to executed Bali 9 drug smuggler Myuran Sukumaran;
- Aly Khalifa, founder of Oceanworks, focused on harvesting plastic waste from our oceans;
- Emma Booth, para-equestrian competitor, represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics;
- Alasdair Tremblay-Birchall, comedian, joke writer, grew up in Tathra;
- Sassi Nuyum, aka Meaghan Holt, rising Aboriginal writer, performer
More announcements will be made very soon, stay in touch via the festival website.
Early bird tickets and lunch options are on sale now via Eventbrite. Early bird prices end August 14!
Thank you to our Festival partners –
- Southern Phone
- Julie Rutherford Real Estate
- Bega Valley Commemorative Civic Centre
- Bega Valley Library Service
- Bega Valley Regional Gallery
- Tathra Beachhouse Apartments
- Bega Valley Innovation Hub
- Sapphire Coast Regional Science Hub
- North of Eden Gin
- Honorbread
- Verona Road Olives
- Tilba Real Dairy
- Port Authority of NSW
- Regional Express Airlines
- Bega Valley Waste & Recycling
Local support services speak of people still in need, still in emotional distress, still foggy and unable to cope with too much more.
In episode two of this special three-part podcast series, we hear from Anne Leadbeater who was the recovery coordinator for Kinglake following the 2009 Black Saturday fires in Victoria.
She is ten years down the track and still feeling the influence and impact of her communities bad day.
"I am not sure you ever get back to your full capacity. What that tells us is the profound effect disaster has on people," Anne says.
"Communities evolve through this experience, I am not sure that they ever end up just like they were, I think they end up just like they should be."
Anne fears that with the recent 12 month anniversary of the Bega Valley's experience, many people might have expected that to be the end of their pain, stress, and grief.
"It's a long process, we put a lot of emphasis on that first 12 months, what we are not so good at is knowing that the second 12 months is pretty tough as well," she says.
"The challenges continue beyond that anniversary and that's where people will be at now, there is a lot that needs to be resolved."
Anne says the expectations around recovery can compound the issue, "in most cases people have experienced something that they have never experienced before."
"You do come out of the other side of this but I think it is sometimes made more difficult if we impose expectations on people about how they should move through and experience this event."
There is much to digest in this podcast, perhaps too much to do on your own, people and services are still available to help you with that:
- Bushfire Recovery Psychological Support Service runs until March 2020, providing free face to face counseling support. Find a free counselor near you HERE.
- The Chaplaincy Network is also still at work through the Anglican and Uniting Church of Tathra and Bega. Offering pastoral care to individuals, couples and families; caring for people as they seek to rebuild their lives and homes. There is also a support group that meet at ‘Blend @ Tathra’ on Tuesdays at 10 am, lead by Sherryn Burrop. Contact details: Rev. Capt. Stuart Haynes on phone – 0421 170 071 or 64925 555 or email – angbega@bigpond.net.au
- Bega Valley Shire Council Recovery Support Service, led by Anne, June and Caralyn, is available Monday to Friday via Unit 6 at Tathra Beach House Apartments. Contact details: Recovery Hotline - 6499 2475, or email -recovery@begavalley.nsw.gov.au
- Red Cross Emergency Service team is always available to provide psychological first aid at events. They also carry stock of printed resources which might be useful reading as you, your family and community continues this journey. Contact details: Linda Mayo, Recovery Officer on phone - 0438 901 481 or email - lmayo@redcross.org.au until 30 July and then, Sandra Arnold, Response and Recovery Coordinator on phone - 0466 502 211 or email - sarnold@redcross.org.au
This special podcast series is a collaboration between The Australian Red Cross, South East NSW Primary Health Network and About Regional. In episode three, a focus on assisting children and young people affected by a disaster over the longer term.
Missed episode one? Catch up HERE.
The 'Ideas from the Edge' forums at the Cobargo Folk Festival, "are an opportunity to refresh your activist spirit, meet with local troublemakers, activists, and thinkers, as they discuss their ideas and visions for a better world," according to the Yuin Folk Club.
At the festival held earlier this month, the Ideas agenda took in climate change, education systems, and Aboriginal culture.
Region Media's Ian Campbell facilitated the lunchtime Saturday session, 'Reimagining the Housing Dream; Co-housing, Land Sharing and Tiny Houses in the Bega Valley.'
Co-housing and Tiny Houses are well-established housing options internationally, but relatively new to Australia.
As part of the sharing economy, they are an innovative and collaborative way to create affordable and socially supportive housing and help build stronger communities across all demographics and needs.
The panel and those gathered considered what Bega Valley Shire Council is of could be doing to facilitate innovative, and collaborative responses to the housing crisis - such as tiny houses.
What are the barriers to the uptake of Co-housing and tiny houses in both urban and rural communities in the Bega Valley, and what supportive networks exist in the Bega Valley to explore and develop new housing options?
The panel included:
Cathy Griff, Bega Valley Shire Councillor, Coordinator of the shire's Affordable Housing Working Party;
Ludo McFerran, recognised internationally for her domestic violence and workplace rights activism and member of the Bermagui Co-housing for Older Women Project;
Rick Cuthbert, Tilba Tiny Homes.
With the buzz of the Cobargo Festival in the background, press play and take your seat in the Yarnin Tent…
As the one year anniversary of the Reedy Swamp, Vimy Ridge, and Tathra Bushfire approaches many in the community will be feeling the effects of the last 12 months.
It's been a crazy busy time for many. Activity always implies progress and suggests a 'recovery' that should be well advanced, but that is not everyone's experience.
Milestones, like March 18, will challenge those expectations and perhaps stir new or festering discontent and emotion.
Clinical psychologist David Younger wants people to be ready for what the anniversary might bring, he says people might be in for another surprise as the rollercoaster of this event hurtles forward.
In the days before, he wants people to do some thinking about how they might mark the day. There is no wrong answer or response, but David does want you to stop for a moment and give March 18 a thought before you find yourself in the middle of it.
"If we leave our collection of stories in the cupboard and never take a look at them, all too often, down the track, something else will happen and people then realise - far out I never made the space to look at what went on in my life back then," he says.
In this, episode one of a special three-episode podcast series to mark the anniversary, David talks about the range of experiences people had on March 18 and since. People who lost their home, people who mourn the loss of their neighborhood, people who evacuated, people who fought the flames, people like you.
David also tackles the growing resentment in the community around 'recovery' and 'the journey'.
Support services and advice:
Australian Red Cross
Recovery Officer - Linda Mayo, phone 0438 901 481; email lmayo@redcross.org.au
South East NSW Primary Health Network/Coordinare
Free counseling is available, visit their website to find a local provider or call 4474 8410.
Bega Valley Shire Council's Fire Recovery Support Service
Anne, June, and Carolyn, phone 6499 2475; email recovery@begavalley.nsw.gov.au
Recovery Hour podcast series
The ‘Recovery Hour, Life After Disasters and Emergencies’ podcast, with David Younger, Clinical Psychologist, subscribe HERE.
Anniversary events:
On Sunday, March 17, the whole Bega Valley community is invited to join in a range of events designed to help people remember what is good and great about this community and to take strength and support for the ongoing challenges.
Thompsons to Tathra Bushwalk, 50 to 75 minutes
Meet at Mahogany Rd, Thompsons for an 8 am start. No parking at Thompsons, hop on the free shuttle bus from Tathra Surf Club from 7:30 am.
Terrain will include Thompsons and Tathra verge, fire roads, and mountain bike tracks. The bus can follow part of the route for those wanting to join but unable to walk. The walk will have a leader and sweep and sections of the walk will be set aside as silent. The walk will finish at Taylor Square.
Please bring a hat, sunscreen, and water. A first aid officer will be available.
Tree planting on Tathra Headland
Briefing at 9:30 am, event will run until 11 am.
Free shuttle from Tathra Surf Club at 9:00.
Bring your own hat, gloves, sunscreen, and water
Taylor Square Get Together 10 am to 1 pm
Gather together between 10 am and 1 pm for live music, jumping castle, free BBQ.
Official thanks - 11:45 am to 12 pm
Wet weather plan, meet in the Surf Club.
Tathra Anniversary Services
March 17, 5 pm at Tathra Hall. Guest speaker - Stephen Robinson, one of the early responders and National Disaster Recovery Officer with a message of hope and renewal. All welcome.
March 18, 7 am at Tathra Headland. A brief reflection - fire, rubble, regrowth, and hope.
Royal Military College Duntroon Band
On the green at ...
Cancer and health advocates from the Bega Valley and Eurobodalla have made their pitch to those standing for election to the NSW Parliament on March 23.
The NSW Cancer Council's Saving Life Forum attracted around 100 people to the Bega Civic Centre, all there to add their weight and in some cases, lived experience to the Council's four key election recommendations:
1. Strengthen the Smoke-free Environment Act 2000 to ensure that people working or socialising in a bar or club in NSW are protected from second-hand smoke.
2. mend the Public Health (Tobacco) Act 2008 to ban tobacco vending machines and introduce an annual licence fee to encourage retailers to stop selling. These measures will reduce the risk of young people developing this fatal habit and support smokers to quit.
3. Remove junk food advertising from state-owned property to reduce children’s exposure, and support national regulations on food marketing to children.
4. Provide funding for public lymphoedema services across NSW to ensure that people with lymphoedema have timely access to evidence-based care, regardless of where they live.
In New South Wales during 2019 more than 46,000 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed and more than 15,000 people will die from the disease.
"This means that every day, more than 120 people in NSW will hear the words ‘you’ve got cancer’ and too many families will lose someone they love," says Jeff Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer, NSW Cancer Council.
"In March 2019, voters will go to the polls to decide who will govern NSW for the next four years. The next NSW Government has the power to reduce cancer risk within our community and ensure that people who have experienced cancer get the support they need.
"The priorities outlined in Saving Life 2019: NSW Election Priorities, will support the next NSW Government to take action to further reduce the impact of cancer in our community. Building on the successes of previous governments.
"We look forward to working with the next NSW Government to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer for the benefit of the entire NSW community," Mr Mitchell says.
Three candidates standing for the seat of Bega gathered to hear the personal stories and experience of locals and to answer the question - “What will you do to make sure that these recommendations are endorsed and adopted by your party?”
Greens candidate, Will Douglas was first to respond followed by Labor's Leanne Atkinson, and finally the sitting member, representing the Liberal Party, Andrew Constance.
Significantly, Mr Constance as NSW Transport Minister said he would ask that a review be done of fast food advertising on Sydney's transport network.
Three local's opened the discussion, sharing their personal stories and experience.
Candelo based nutritionist Nikki Wagner spoke of the influence and impact of processed foods on physical and mental health, Moruya's Iris White outlined her life with lymphoedema, and Cobargo's Debra Summer spoke of the impact of second-hand smoke.
Gillian Triggs has made a rallying call for the freedoms we take for granted to be safeguarded during her Friday (November 2) night lecture in Bega.
With the doors of the Bega High School theatre wide open to catch any passing zephyr, Triggs started a conversation just as hot as the day had been.
As President of the Australian Human Rights Commission between 2012 and 2017, Triggs was often in conflict with the government of the day around asylum seeker policy in particular.
With speculation mounting that all children currently in offshore immigration detention will be processed by Christmas, the visit by Ms Triggs was incredibly timely and put Bega on the frontline of this national debate.
"There appears to be evidence coming from Canberra that we will have all the children off Naru with their families by Christmas," she says.
"Now when I first heard that news my immediate and rather cynical first response was - they said that several years ago and it wasn't true.
"This time I think it probably is true."
Ms Triggs urged her audience of around 150 people to maintain pressure on the issue until the truth of the government's position is clearer.
"I think [this] reflects a number of important elements, one of them is what I believe is a shift at the community level," Ms Triggs says.
"Regardless of political views, I've found that in Australian's all over the country there is a sense that to keep children, young men, and their families on Manus and Naru for five and a half years without charge or trial is grossly contrary to our most fundamental principles."
With a new book on sale in the foyer, Triggs took the discussion further suggesting a Bill or Charter of Rights would better protect the rights of citizens, minorities, and non-citizens and "ensure a culture of respect for the rights that underpin our democracy."
The former Director of the British Institute for International and Comparative Law in London and Dean of Law at the University of Sydney believes the adsence of a Bill of Rights has enabled sucsesive governments to sidestep the rights and freedoms of asylum seekers and increasingly the broader population.
Triggs says the freedoms that Australian's have taken for granted and assume are part of our law are not and in recent years have been eroded by some politicians and the media, with an "unprecedented, creeping expansion of executive powers and of Ministerial discretion."
"We are the only democracy in the world that does not have a Charter or Bill of Rights."
You might ask, "Doesn't the Constitution do that for us?"
"The answer is that it does not," she says.
"The Constitution is a functional document on the relations between the Commonwealth and the States - it was the deal done to make Australia in 1901.
"There are almost no protections for our fundamental rights.
"We have a right to the freedom of religion in the Constitution, but our Constitution does not protect our freedom of expression, their is no right to protest, no right to freedom of association, no right to privacy, and no prohibition on arbitrary detention without charge or trial."
It's Ms Triggs view that progressive High Court Judges and a civil society largely uphold these principles.
"We could do this [Bill of Rights] in a very simple document," she says.
"The Electoral Commision did a survey a few years ago and asked 3,000 Australians - Do we have a Constitution?"
"Forty-eight percent said 'no'. Then they asked a second question - Do we have a Bill of Rights?
"And 65% of Australian's said 'yes'.
"We know more about our rights from American television, wouldn't it be nice if we educated our children and if we understood that the strength of our democratic system in Australia lies with those fundamental freedoms.
"But ultimately the strength of our democracy lies with the community and with citizenship," Ms Triggs says.
"In a time when our governments are not meeting the v...
Vimy Ridge resident and Bega Valley Shire Councilor, Jo Dodds strongly believes climate change is at play in her community, she points to the bushfires of March 18 that ripped through her community at Tathra.
Sixty-five homes were lost on that day, Jo's home was very lucky not to be one of them.
Her appeal to the Prime Minister in the week after those flames captured the attention of author, environmentalist, and co-founder of the global change agent – 350.org, Bill McKibben.
Mr McKibben invited Jo to be a speaker on his ‘Fossil Free Acceleration Tour’, which took in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, and Newcastle in April and May.
Jo called on leaders to act now to reduce the risks of further climate change, advocating as she does for regional communities.
When Jo spoke at The Festival of Open Minds on September 1, the vast Yankees Gap Fire was burning in the hills west of Bega. That blaze went on to claim four homes and 20,000 hectares of bush and grassland.
Linda Burney was elected the federal member for Barton in 2016, following a 14-year career in the NSW Parliament as Member for Canterbury.
Linda began her career as a teacher in western Sydney and then as an education bureaucrat before being appointed Director General of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in 2000.
During her state political career, she served as minister in a number of senior portfolios including as Minister for Community Services and later as Deputy Leader of the Opposition.
Following her election to the Federal House of Representatives, she was immediately appointed as Shadow Minister for Human Services. In mid - 2018 she was promoted into Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services.
As a proud member of the Wiradjuri nation, Linda was the first Aboriginal person to be elected to the NSW Parliament and the first Aboriginal woman to serve in the Australian House of Representatives.
Linda Burney came to Yuin Country to talk change across a number of fronts - employment, education, media and communication, reconciliation and her own personal life which she says has been buffeted by change.
Her appearance at the Festival of Open Minds (September 1) came just a week after Malcolm Turnbull was ousted as Prime Minister.
Zachary Sequoia is an innovator and serial entrepreneur who has worked within the digital technology industry since the mid-1990’s starting in San Francisco.
For the last 20 years, he has worked for some of the world’s best known digital brands on three different continents.
At the Festival of Open Minds, he urged his audience of around 300 people to embrace innovation and accept it as part of our shared futures.
"We need to become engaged in helping the transition of skills and make sure the young people of today and anyone that wants to change has the skills that they need," Zak says.
"We have no responsibility to protect jobs, jobs change, what we have is an absolute responsibility to protect people."
Zak is part of the drive and vision behind the recently announced Bega Valley Innovation Hub at the University of Wollongong, a first of its kind start-up engine room in a regional setting like Bega.
His time at the Festival followed a demonstration by the Robo Rebels from Narooma High School. Teachers and students came to show off their creations, which included their winning robot soccer team.
Inspired by the spark of youth before him, Zak lept to the podium positive about our future.
Thanks to Gerry Corcoran and the Bega Valley Commemorative Civic Centre for their audio, visual, and tech support at the Festival.
Gabbie Stroud and her powerful and moving memoir ‘Teacher’ has captured Australia’s attention and is part of the current news cycle.
In 2014, Gabbie was a very dedicated teacher with over a decade of experience. Months later, she resigned in frustration and despair.
Her ground-breaking essay ‘Teaching Australia’ in the February 2016 Griffith Review outlined her experiences and provoked a huge response from former and current teachers around the world.
In her powerful memoir ‘Teacher’, Gabbie tells the full story; how she came to teaching, what makes a great teacher, what our kids need from their teachers, and what it was that finally broke her.
Gabbie has just signed on to do her next book, called, "A Letter to the Parents of Australia"
In talking about the new book, Gabbie says, "For too long the voices of parents and students have been absent from the conversation around education."
"This book will help parents find their voice and give them the permission to use it."
Gabbie will also be part of the Q&A panel on ABC TV on Monday, October 8. Her voice will be heard amongst, YouTube sensation and maths teacher Eddie Woo, Finnish educator, author and scholar Pasi Sahlberg, and
Council of International Schools researcher Jennifer Buckingham.
At the Festival of Open Minds, Gabbie reminded us that children naturally have an 'open mind' and that as adults, we would prosper to follow their example…
Jo Saccomani is the founder of Two Sheds Workshop, she is one of the bright sparks of the Bega community and inspired 300 plus people at the recent Festival of Open Minds.
Despite growing up with parents who built, renovated and decorated the family home, it was by chance that Jo became a carpenter.
From school, she began an Arts Degree at ANU but left in 3rd year upon hearing of a government-funded women’s building program in Sydney.
As soon as she began that carpentry program she realised she had found her calling.
Now, having been a qualified carpenter and running her own building business for over 30 years, she is passing on the skills of woodwork and carpentry at her community-based woodwork school.
Last year Jo become a Churchill Fellow and traveled to the USA to discover new and innovative ways to extend carpentry and woodwork skills to women and children.
Jo now has her sights set on challenging the status quo and the low number of women looking to building trades as a job option.
Through Two Sheds Workshop Jo aims to change entrenched cultural and attitudinal barriers on a local community level.
She holds regular classes and workshops in Bega but during September, October, and November is running weekend workshops for women at the Lyons Scout Hall, Tooms Place.
You’ll build an Australian hardwood shelf unit with a drawer and learn and practice some woodwork skills that will set you up for building whatever your heart desires!
Have a girls weekend and enjoy building something with your own hands. No experience necessary!
Check the Two Sheds Workshop Facebook page for details.
On September 1 at the Festival of Open Minds, Jo's speaking slot got moved around, she approached the delays with her usual good humour.
Thanks to Gerry Corcoran and the Bega Valley Commemorative Civic Centre for their audio, visual, and tech support at the festival.