Arts

Sarah Herrmann. A moving new mural commemorating those lost in battle has been unveiled in Kadina just in time for Anzac Day. The piece, by local artist Glen Gearing, features realistic poppy motifs and the silhouette of soldiers on a battlefield.

Gallery 85 extends a heartfelt invitation to art enthusiasts, collectors, and curious minds alike to help celebrate its grand opening ... This significant occasion introduces a vibrant new venue to the art landscape of Stawell and the Northern Grampians, offering a fresh hub for contemporary art exhibitions and creative events.

Honor Auchinleck. The opening of the MFSR Bush Festival’s Art and Photography Exhibition last Thursday evening was memorable for the opening speech of Dr Jonathan King OAM. Dr King organised the first modern bush festival in 1995 ... talented local artists and photographers set a high standard and impressed the exhibition patrons.

Fletcher, who is a student at the Allora P-10 State School completed a biography on Aunty Flo Watson (OAM) in the "Yarning with our Elders" competition ... Over the 2023 Christmas holidays, QATSIF and their partners at the Australian Catholic University invited Queensland’s First Nation secondary students to have a yarn with an Elder and Fletcher selected Aunty Flo ... Fletcher’s biography was awarded first place ...

Kimberly Grabham. Linda Goldspink Lord is a name many would know and remember. Linda and her family used to live in Hay, and left the town when Linda was a teenager ... She wrote a book, Crawling Through the Darkness. 

Steve North said it was fate after a play he wrote a couple of years ago was recently announced as one of eight winners in the nationwide Sage Age Playwriting Competition. Entitled The Last Rehearsal, Mr North’s play is based on a theatre group who are preparing to rehearse ahead of an upcoming performance, but unbeknownst to their director ...

Kimberly Grabham. Tim Booth is the son of Lyn and Ken Booth, formerly of Hay. Tim has written a book, titled, You Called an Ambulance for What? ... details the crazy and curious reasons for people calling emergency services, and are situations he experienced while working as a paramedic in Sydney. 

The 40th Anniversary performance of Duprada Dance Company at the Araluen Arts Centre will be a spectacular event showcasing the best of the best inspired from the past 40 years. Music that Moves is a story of movement, migration and music.

NORPA is taking audiences on an adventure outside the theatre once again, announcing it will stage its original work Wildskin in a warehouse space at the Lismore Showgrounds. A sensory, destination-theatre experience, Wildskin inhabits an outrageous and unpredictable world that’s part bush-thriller, part road-trip and a whole lot of NORPA’s signature theatrical style.

QLD Music Trails is a first of its kind tourism experience, inviting participants to embark on musical journeys that showcase the rich tapestry of Queensland's musical culture. CamperMate is a leading platform for travellers seeking camping and outdoor travel experiences. The partnership will leverage the strengths and synergies of both organisations ...

Philip Adams. Central Goldfields Art Gallery has a new exhibition ... The impact of place is the theme that unites Jackie Gorring, Philip Adams and Craig Barrett who are contemporary artists living in Central Victoria on Dja Dja Wurrung country. 

Georgia Harper invites you to delve into her fascinating journey from psychologist to debut author. From her paddock in Allora and under the watchful supervision of her horse, Georgia penned her first novel What I Would Do to You.

Large crowds were greeted by an amazing display of pipe band music, Highland dancing, and traditional Scottish sports at the Maclean Showgrounds on March 29 and 30 during the 119th Maclean Highland Gathering. With the traditional Street Parade consisting of 23 bands also drawing enthusiastic spectators to River Street...

Broughton's local craft group that meet Thursday fortnightly at the Salvation Army have been very busy and have put a collection of beautiful quilts together ... made from mostly donated fabric and are available to purchase with all proceeds going to the local Days for Girls group.

Having read Pip Fioretti's Bone Lands in a sitting and finding it an "extraordinary work", Australian Rural & Regional News contributor, Dr Aedeen Cremin was keen to find out more about this "cracker of a book", its origins and its author.

This is a cracker of a book. I literally could not put it down and read it at a sitting. From the very first page we are plunged into the mind of the main character—we can hardly call him a ‘hero’, though he has performed heroic deeds. A former army officer, badly wounded and literally scarred by his time in the second ‘Boer War’ (1899-1902), Gus Hawkins is by 1911 a policeman, a mounted trooper, stationed in the far west of NSW on the Darling River between Bourke and Wilcannia.

Salt River Road, by WA award winning author Molly Schmidt, is definitely a book with a difference.  Written with a mixture of prose and poetry, it tells the story of the rurally-based Tetley family in the aftermath of the loss of their mother ... Australian Regional and Rural News interviewer, Serena Kirby, chatted with Molly to find out more about the unique and beautiful techniques she used in the book and the personal experiences that shaped her writing. 

It’s easy to see why Molly Schmidt’s debut novel, Salt River Road, won the City of Fremantle’s Hungerford Award and I feel there will be many awards to follow. Salt River Road is set in the late 1970s in southern WA and while it’s a work of fiction it resonates with truth about loss, grief and navigating teenage-hood after the death of a parent.

I’ve read a number of books that delve into issues surrounding Australian food production and it’s fair to say that I found Jill Griffiths’ book What’s For Dinner? the easiest one to digest (pun intended). Jill is a biologist and journalist who’s been writing about the environment and agriculture for more than three decades and her book is a blend of science, history and lived experience.

From the case of the stolen cat flap, to missing lollipops and exploding chocolate milk in a country supermarket, to a custody dispute over a camel - Jamelle Wells has seen the lighter and quirky side of outback courts but has also witnessed the harsh, dark, and petty side of outback life - including the high rates of Indigenous incarceration, alcohol-related and domestic violence.

Colour is uppermost in the mind when you view Craig Gough’s latest exhibition, which is on show at Cascade Art. The exhibition was officially opened by Linden New Art Director and CEO Dr Vincent Alessi last Saturday.