Arts

The mural is finished. It’s been two years in the making but the water tower on the hill overlooking Casino is complete. The mural is broken into four paintings – the swan, the platypus, the farmer and the Indigenous basket weaver.

The Cairns Tropical Writers Festival was established in 2008 and is a biennial event. It brings together our regional community of writers and readers with Australian and internationally revered authors and celebrities, who inspire us and feed our literary minds.

A stately bronze bust of John Riddoch - sculpted by the famous South Australian artist John Dowie AM, has been gifted to the Penola Cultural Association by Peter Rymill – great-grandson of Riddoch (1827-1901). Peter originally commissioned the sculpture of his great grandfather in the 1990s, where it took pride of place at the Rymill Coonawarra cellar door complex for many years.

Winners of the annual Gomaren & Doctor’s Creek Focus on Farms photography competition will be announced at the Jacaranda Day festival in Goombungee this Saturday, 5 November. “No matter where you live, the connection to farming is an important part of our identity as Australians”: competition coordinator Jean Gundry ... the primary school category within the competition has a focus on insects.

A Tennant Creek teacher has become a national poetry celebrity after winning the Australian Poetry Slam competition for 2022. Jo Lang performed her poem titled A Broken System at the Sydney Opera House last Sunday and was received with a standing ovation and a score of 10 from all three judges.

A massive 19 teams signed up for the Lions Club's book themed Trivia Night at the Memo Club last Saturday night. Contestants came dressed as their favourite book character for a fantastic night which was organised to raise funds to provide book packs for schools in the Barkly.

These amazing images were taken by Allora’s Photography Group when visiting Girraween National Park. Members of the Group joined other Wildflower Walkers and were led by knowledgeable guides from the Stanthorpe Rare Wildflower Consortium.

Emma Pritchard. Stunning drawings and paintings by First Nations artists from the Clarence Valley will be projected onto the Sunshine Sugar building in South Grafton each night from October 22 until November 6. Celebrating the life cycle of the endangered coastal emu, glorious creations by proud Yaegl artists Kahlua Charlton, Gareth Charlton and Aneika Kapeen, proud Bundjalung artist Maisie Monaghan, and proud Gumbaynggirr and Bundjalung artist Deborah Taylor have been delighting spectators who have been stopping to admire the impressive visual display.  

It was a joyful, heartfelt gathering at Woodfordia on Saturday night. Around 300 organisers, producers, staff, committee, volunteers and friends launched our programme for the festival this year. It felt like a new beginning.

The Tennant Creek Brio artists have recently returned from a successful exhibition in Byron Bay in New South Wales. Simon Wilson, Joseph Williams and Rupert Betheras showed off their cutting-edge artistic talents to the eastern states which was received with much applaud at Byron Bay’s Thom Gallery.

Erica Boyington, Meredith Schinckel. August 12 and 13th saw fifteen young Naracoorte musicians travel plus one adult musician travel to Mt Gambier to compete in the music division of the Eisteddfod, held at Wehl Street theatre. An Eisteddfod is a wonderful opportunity for budding musicians to gain practice and confidence with performing, while benefitting from expert feedback.

Emma Pritchard. An enchanting and mesmerising journey which showcases the superb talent, skill and artistry of local musicians and performers, ‘An Afternoon at the Proms’ is one of the Clarence Valley’s most popular and highly anticipated annual events. Proudly presented by the Clarence Valley Orchestra and Chorus, and ... renowned conductor Greg Butcher, An Afternoon at the Proms encompasses a rich variety of classical favourites by Mozart, Stravinsky, Elgar and Strauss.

A good place to start reading Farm is at the back. That may sound counterintuitive but by taking a look at the extensive bibliography you’ll quickly see how intensely researched the book is which adds weight to the arguments and questions it presents. While Farm is a memoir that chronicles the journey of Nicola Harvey and her husband after they leave their city lives to farm cattle in rural New Zealand, it is far more than that.

Get Rhythm is an all-family band from Melbourne, starting with the lead singers Mark and Joanne Caligiuri who are married in real life and the singers band include; sons Chris on bass, Lucas on drums and cousin Adam on lead guitar. They have travelled all over Australia and have spent years recreating the authentic Johnny Cash sound that was very distinctive to the man in black.

Chris Oldfield. A medal reflecting 60 years of incredible service has been awarded to our distinguished CFS member and author, Rex Hall. Since the launch of his successful book, Forty Flaming Years, in 2007, Mr Hall has penned three more. Mr Hall, one of Naracoorte’s favourite icons, was also a major force behind the town’s SA Volunteer Fire Fighters Museum.

Nancy Whittaker. Don’t miss visiting the David Moore exhibition at the Cascade Art Gallery in Fountain Street, from now until 13 November ... Red dots abound as the works are so popular and covetable. David Moore is a delightful interview subject, erudite and somewhat self-effacing, given his long and dedicated artistic career, which started with a teacher training course at Hawthorn Tech (now Swinburne).

Kirstin Nicholson. Ros Dwyer likes to think of herself as a social historian. She has been collecting clothes, accessories, memorabilia and ephemera for longer than she realises – and it’s all on display for you to soak in the memories alongside Ros. The Cohuna Art and Craft Gallery has opened its latest exhibition, ‘One Woman’s Collection’ featuring a portion of Ros’s collection.

It’s just a kilometre or two off the New England Highway at East Greenmount and easy to miss if you don’t know it’s there, but Steele Rudd Memorial Park is a must visit attraction for locals and tourists. Arthur Hoey Davis, better known by his pen name of Steele Rudd has certainly left a legacy, not just for the our local area but for the whole nation as his fictional work ‘On Our Selection’ has helped shape Australian culture.

Time traveller  provides a glimpse into Murray Walker’s vast output of collage and assemblage sculpture over the past 40 years. Born in Ballarat in 1937, Walker has worked in diverse media including painting, printmaking, ceramics and tapestry design. ...with limited access to a studio, he began creating collages to diarise his travels.

Following the success of her recent Queensland tours, British singer-songwriter Emily Maguire is touring community halls in northern NSW in November/December 2022. A contemporary folk artist whose songs have been described as 'music for the soul' (Maverick Magazine), Emily has released six albums and toured the UK extensively with American legends Don McLean, Dr Hook and Eric Bibb.

Forty years ago, south eastern Australia was in the middle of a prolonged drought and facing a perilous bushfire season. A new e-book by retired Victorian forester, Peter McHugh, provides a detailed account of the 1982-83 bushfire season from a new perspective ... It was a long and hectic fire season for the Forests Commission Victoria (FCV) which attended 878 fires on State forests and National Parks totalling 486,030 ha, which was well above the 11-year average of 141,000 ha.

The Outback Arts region gains another valuable cultural asset today as the Standing Stories Sculpture Walk in Bourke is opened to the public through the release of the brochure for the self-guided tour ... The project, which has seen 8 sculptures installed at the Back of Bourke Exhibition Centre (in Bourke) has been over 5 years in development.