Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue#21.5 September 2018 i Australian Country

AS THIS ISSUE WENT TO PRESS, PHOTOGRAPHER KEN BRASS AND I MADE A QUICK TRIP TO THE NSW SOUTH COAST VIA THE SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS AND TABLELANDS. It was yet another sobering reminder, as if one were needed, about the dire straits that many farmers across Australia’s east, south-east and south-west are still facing. Bureau of Meteorology reports confirm these car-window observations. June rainfall was below average for most of Australia, and very much below average for parts of the east coast. For Australia as a whole, April to June this year has been the fourth-driest such period since comparable records commenced in 1900. The human face of this climate disaster is evidenced by the increasing numbers of farmers who have to seek work off-farm, the growing incidence of mental health…

Throughout the 1850s and ’60s, they set about constructing a cluster of bluestone buildings on the holding, which at its peak covered 23,000 acres (9307 hectares) of prime freehold and leasehold grazing land. A respect for history and tradition runs deep in the veins of Rob (aka Richo) and Jill Richardson. Their children, Georgia, aged 14, Claudia, 12, Millie, 10, and Jack, eight, are the sixth generation of the family to have lived at Gorrinn station, just south of Ararat on the old Cobb & Co road to Geelong. Their ancestor, Robert Richardson, arrived at Geelong in the 1850s on the Hooghly, a former convict ship, and took up the property he named Goorinn shortly after. With Robert’s encouragement for his new life as a “half gentleman,…

GILLY’S WAXES Gilly’s Waxes are made using a blend of beeswax, soy wax and carnauba wax flakes. Food Safe Wax is ideal for chopping boards, utensils and children’s toys and furniture. gillyswaxesandpolishes.com.au BIRDSNEST If bohemian style is your thing, then you’ll love the new collection from birdsnest. La Dolce Vita features soft, free-flowing silhouettes in lush floral patterns, just in time for the warmer weather. birdsnest.com.au COTSWOLD FURNITURE On the odd days when thunderstorms come calling, outdoor furniture can really take a beating. That’s why we love Cotswold Furniture’s Loop lounge chair: it’s fit for all weather conditions and uber stylish too. cotswoldfurniture.com.au CLEMENTINE SLEEPWEAR What is Sunday without comfy PJs? Our go-to lounging attire comes from Clementine Sleepwear. The fabrics are soft on the skin and the designs are…

EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT COOKING MURDOCH BOOKS, $16.99 With the subtitle I learned from the Country Women’s Association of NSW, this little tome is a compendium of tested and trusted recipes from the collective wisdom of the largest women’s organisation in Australia. While hardy standbys including scones, pavlovas and slices are well covered, there are also offerings such as Spanish tortilla, pastizzi and Greek-style roast chicken that nod to our multicultural influences. Plus there’s a fabulous page of catering hints, including how many sandwiches you can make from a standard loaf of sliced bread, how much butter you need and how many lettuces and tomatoes will serve 50 people. OLIVE PINK: ARTIST, ACTIVIST & GARDENER GILLIAN WARD, HARDIE GRANT BOOKS, $50 Librarian, researcher, artist, photographer and graphic designer Gillian Ward…

KIM SELBY PHOTOGRAPHER Kim is a multi-award winning family, wedding and commercial photographer. She is best known for her natural and emotion-filled lifestyle photography. She loves being able to capture those special little moments that abound in everyday life and knowing people will be looking back at their photos in years to come. She lives in the Macedon Ranges with her husband, two beautiful boys, dog Fergus and Myrtle and Gertie the chickens. DON FUCHS PHOTOJOURNALIST German-born Don has enjoyed a semi-nomadic lifestyle for more than 35 years. Driven by curiosity and the need to know what’s around the corner, he explores the globe professionally and privately. Resident in Australia since 1995, he is a member of the Foreign Correspondents’ Association in Sydney and the LOOK photo agency in Germany.…

It may not have been the most romantic of gifts, but Kylie Warrington says it quickly became one of her most treasured. When her then fiancé, Peter, excitedly ushered her outside their Canberra home to reveal the John Deere 855D Gator that was waiting on a trailer out the front, Kylie admits she may have been slightly underwhelmed. But closer acquaintance with the 4WD all-terrain utility vehicle on their hobby farm in the rugged hills behind Narooma on the NSW south coast changed her perception. These days Peter says he practically has to fight Kylie for access to the Gator, as it has become her vehicle of choice for all shifting and carrying jobs and getting around the steeply sloping terrain of their 10-acre (four-hectare) block. In fact, she is…

Panoramia Villas, Myrtleford One- and two-bedroom self-contained themed apartments overlooking the Ovens Valley. panoramiavillas.com.au Willoaks Boutique Accommodation, Oxley Two guestrooms in the gardens of 1920s homestead on a beef cattle farm with a vineyard. willoaks.com.au Holly House Bed & Breakfast, Moyhu Traditional B&B accommodation with continental breakfast and a bottle of local wine. hollyhouse.com.au Elevation652 at Mt Bellevue, Myrrhee Four separate self-contained apartments on a working cattle farm with vineyard for Redbank Wines. elevation652.com.au Yarranungara Yurt Retreat, Oxley Quirky, off-the-grid glamping in a handcrafted Mongolian yurt with adjoining ensuite bathroom in a photographer’s paradise. yarranungara.com.au Rosemary’s Cottage, Whorouly Two self-contained cottages overlooking an olive grove and a kiwi fruit orchard. rosemaryscottagewhorouly.com.au…

They say you never know what’s around the corner. The adage proved true for Helen and Peter Wallace, when they moved from Melbourne to the Gold Coast in 2010 for what they imagined would be semi-retirement. “We got as far as buying the boat,” Helen recalls. “But it turned out that Peter just couldn’t make that complete step back from work so he was constantly commuting to Melbourne.” On one of those trips in late 2015, Peter inspected a property at Sassafras in the Dandenong Ranges. He made an offer and it was accepted. “We’d bought it before I even saw it,” Helen says. “Fortunately, I trust his judgment. When I eventually did see it, I was stunned at the beauty of the garden. Although it had been let go…

THE REAL DEAL I love that Australian Country concentrates on real country people and their lives. You don’t spend the whole story telling people how much something costs and where to buy it. It is my lifeline when I can’t get out and about and it’s great to read on such diverse subjects from gardening and cooking to painting and travel. Jenny Colley, Tambellup WA COUNTRY COLLATION Your recent issue (May/June) stood out for its very different collection of stories. I particularly loved Pastiche of the Past and the happy sunflower painting that greets people as they walk into the entrance hallway. The jewel in the crown of the property is the silo accommodation … what a novel way to have a farm stay. Catherine Sneesby, Empire Vale NSW AN…

WE’VE TAKEN A BROAD SWOOP ACROSS THE COUNTRY TO VISIT MANY FASCINATING PEOPLE AND PLACES FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE. WE START IN BLINK-AND-YOU’LL-MISS-IT NATTE YALLOCK IN THE VICTORIAN PYRENEES, WHERE ARTIST LIN VAN HEK AND HER PARTNER, SINGER/SONGWRITER AND POET JOE DOLCE HAVE TURNED A DECONSECRATED CHURCH INTO A COLOURFUL CREATIVE RETREAT. WE ALSO VENTURE TO THE OTHER END OF THE SPECTRUM IN THE WESTERN DISTRICT, WHERE TIM AND JANE FRASER ARE GRADUALLY RESTORING THE SPLENDID 1905 BLUESTONE HOMESTEAD AT YALLA-Y-POORA. THEN WE CATCH UP WITH AN OLD AC FRIEND, VICKI DREIER, AT HER HOLIDAY HOUSE AT HALLS GAP IN THE GRAMPIANS. IN ALBURY, WE MEET UP WITH TEACHER KATHY RUPP AND LEARN ABOUT HER PASSION FOR ALL THINGS FRENCH WHILE AT THE OTHER END OF NSW AT MURWILLUMBAH IN…

NOW—OCTOBER 7 (NSW) MYALL CREEK AND BEYOND This year marks the 180th anniversary of the horrific massacre of at least 28 Aboriginal people by colonial settlers on the banks of Myall Creek near Bingara in north-western NSW. While it was no means the first or the last acts of frontier violence, the subsequent sentencing and hanging of seven British subjects for the murder of the Wirrayaraay people did mark the first time white men were brought to justice for their actions. The event is commemorated each year with a gathering of both relatives of the victims and the perpetrators of the massacre at the site. Myall Creek and Beyond, an exhibition of works by contemporary Aboriginal artists has been curated by the New England Regional Art Museum to explore responses…

Sharon Whitfield is no stranger to island life. She grew up on the remote Channel Island of Jersey, where boat trips and beach and clifftop walks are major visitor attractions and nightlife is more likely to involve bioluminescence on the beach than disco lights. Little wonder then, when she arrived in Australia as a young traveller and was offered three months work during summer at a resort on Lord Howe Island, she jumped at the chance. “I’d grown up surrounded by farmland and being accustomed to making my own entertainment,” she recalls. “As children we spent our summers running wild and playing in the sand dunes. So the prospect of being on a remote island, where nature was the main attraction wasn’t daunting at all. Then I met my now…

As a child, Widge Curtin remembers looking up at the twin peaks of Mounts Lidgbird and Gower that loomed over the landscape of her home on Lord Howe Island and marvelling at how amazing the world was. Given that Widge’s world was the 11-kilometre-long World Heritage-listed island, located 660km east of Port Macquarie on the NSW coast, she was starting with a pretty high benchmark. While she grew up to travel extensively and counts herself fortunate to have visited many amazing places, none has ever surpassed the spectacularly rugged landscape, pristine ocean and great swathes of sandy beaches of her island home. For the past six years, Widge — “my real name is Robyn, but no one calls me that” — and her environmental scientist husband, Pete, have returned to…

Red Ramia Trading, Myrtleford An exotic homewares emporium in a barn with a Moroccan cafe attached. redramia.com.au Milawa Organic Beef, Milawa Farmed according organic, low-stress principles, Angus beef cuts packaged and distributed all over Victoria. milawaorganicbeef.com.au Off centre Gallery & Studio, Milawa Local art, craft and homewares within the Milawa Cheese Factory complex. off-centre.com.au Fallen Timber Furniture Company, Oxley Rustic furniture, doors and benches made from timber harvested by natural attrition. fallentimberco.com.au King River Brewing, King Valley A broad range of beers brewed on site and open for weekend tastings. kingriverbrewing.com.au Francesco Wines, Cheshunt Family-run winery with an Italian accent at the top of the King Valley. francescowines.com.au…

The statistics speak volumes. In Australia, women make up less than one tenth of engineering students and a quarter of IT (information technology) graduates. Only one quarter of our STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) workforce is female. Women hold fewer than 20 per cent of this country’s senior research positions. Staff and management at St Scholastica’s College in Sydney are determined to right this gender imbalance. In the past year, they have introduced a raft of programs aimed at redressing the situation and encouraging their students to prepare for careers in STEM fields. The school, which has 1050 female students from years seven to 12, and a boarding house that holds a maximum 100 students, has a strong track record in both academic and extracurricular excellence as well as…

VISION SPLENDID Under peerless starry night skies the spotlight shone on the outback Queensland town of Winton for the fifth annual Vision Splendid Film Festival. Film industry creatives, actors, producers and buffs congregated in the tiny town for a mid-winter week of Australian film screenings, masterclasses, breakfasts with the stars and associated entertainment. Winton has earned the moniker of Hollywood of the Outback, as it has been the location for a number of movies that have been made in the dramatic landscape surrounding the town, which is 1350 kilometres northwest of Brisbane. The festival centres on the town’s open-air Royal Theatre. This year, the Royal was given a spruce up, including new canvas seats, to commemorate a century of continuous operation. A celebration dinner prepared by Margaret River caterer Camilla…