Arts

With the Alice Springs Beanie Festival coming up at the end of the month, a craftsperson visited Tennant Creek to hold felting workshops to allow Territorians who do not live in Alice Springs to make beanies to enter in the Festival ... Paterson St Hub was open ... for the public to come along and learn felting skills and give making a beanie a go.

Murrami woman Dorothy Roddy is June’s Artist of the Month ... Documenting the history of the Riverina Welfare Farm for Boys and the POW Camp 15 eras between 1928 and 1947 at what is now Yanco Agricultural Institute, the exhibition features 12 oil paintings which should appeal to art lovers as well as history buffs.

A pitch-perfect rural romance from the bestselling author of Magpie's Bend. Diana McIntyre and her four boys have had a tough eighteen months but with the love and support of her family, she believes their lives are finally back on track. Diana's dream of starting a flower farm has been the perfect diversion, with an elderly dahlia expert showing her the ropes. She won't have to do this alone.

Reclaim the Void: weaving country whole is a collaboration between Vivienne Robertson and the Leonora-based Ngalia Heritage Research Council (Aboriginal Corporation) ... Vivienne ... asked: "What is your deepest pain?" One of the Aunties replied: ”Those gaping mining holes left all over our country”.

What do you look for in a tourist attraction? An exciting new project is in the planning phase that will tell a story of a community, showcase our history and add the local region to the insanely popular silo art trail. Plans are afoot to turn the Barham water tower into a 20m high billboard that will attract tourists for an overnight stop to experience everything our towns have to offer.

The Cowboys didn’t get the result they wanted but Margaret Mara was still proud of their performance in jerseys she designed.

The property known as Kurrumbede  was originally part of the Burburgate run, a vast pastoral holding in the 1800s. In 1905, this estate was subdivided into 58 blocks and sold at auction. Two of these blocks were purchased by prominent doctor and politician, Sir Charles Mackellar, Dorothea’s father, who completed building the homestead on the eastern side of the Namoi River in 1908.

Broome artist Sobrane Simcock, is well known for her brightly coloured, joy-filled paintings and her well-stocked gallery is filled with her eye-catching work.   Her artwork also appears in large-scale murals adorning hundreds of walls, watertanks and streetscapes around Australia. But there’s one colourful talent Sobrane usually keeps to herself.   Sobrane is a synesthete; one of those rare people with the perceptual phenomenon known as synesthesia.

Four years ago, a local group was established to offer support, social interaction, and plenty of fun, laughter and friendship, to Clarence Valley residents living with dementia ... it expanded to include locals affected by memory impairment, and senior citizens with limited opportunities to socialise. Together, they sing, they dance, and they enjoy being in each other’s company.

One of the Carter De Freitas crime series by Steve Rogers, this is set in Western Australian goldfields, where farmers and miners are at loggerheads, emotions run high and motives are many. A search prompted by high gold prices, for a gold stash buried 50 years ago, uncovers several bodies. Who killed them and why?

On Monday, 22 April 1901, Maldon’s Chinese community gave a concert at the Temperance Hall (now the Community Centre) to help raise funds for the Maldon Hospital ... A highlight of the evening was the Chinese dragon, worked by Tow Yin, Ah Chong and George Ah Mi. The dragon performed an elaborate dance before miming the actions of eating a meal and bathing and then settling down and going to sleep. The performance was greeted with loud applause.

Narrandera’s first ever three day Narrungdera Earth Festival will start Friday 20 May with a welcome event at the Narrandera Fisheries Centre ... Saturday’s activities include a Cultural Day at the Narrandera Showground featuring animal encounters by Taronga Zoo, a rock climbing wall by Base Zero and weaving with Nioka Dupond. Aboriginal Elder Uncle Michael Lyons will deliver a Cultural Talk and celebrity chef The Black Olive will talk on bush foods.

Emma Pritchard. Flicking through the pages of The Lonely Jacaranda, Manager of The Book Warehouse in Grafton Jess Wood is delighted by what she sees and reads. Written, illustrated and self-published by Grafton author Russell Irving, The Lonely Jacaranda tells the tale of a little jacaranda tree, the first one to arrive in Australia from South America as a seed.

He beat the cloud of dust into the ute. 'Useless bastard!' Through the windscreen all he could see was an ocean of woolly arses bobbing away into the stubble. His black and white bitzer was smiling and drooling all over the tray of the utility ...

This year's winter festival is going to be bigger and better than ever. The 17-day event will begin on Friday 24 June, with a bonfire and story-telling at the Maldon Golf Club, followed by an intimate performance by the award-winning classical guitarist Clancy McLeod.

Raise money for the Cancer Council while enjoying a delicious morning tea at the beautiful, historic Plaistow Homestead this Thursday, 19 May. From 10am, there will be scones freshly cooked, bottomless tea and coffee, stalls with plants, quality knitting and handcrafts and continuous music from the Maldon based Platform Souls. Other musicians are welcome to bring their instruments and join in.

A push is on to rekindle interest in establishing a centre to honour one of Narrandera's most prominent figures from the past - Monsignor Patrick Hartigan ...better known under the pen name of John O'Brien, the legendary, internationally recognised pioneer poet ... Australian champion bush poet Noel Stallard took on the role of John O'Brien for 22 years in the annual John O'Brien Festival.

Katie Moorhouse. Paintings made into puzzles, recycled metal sculptures, and the Penola RSL’s artistic showcase of ‘Animals in Wartime’ are just some of the eclectic exhibitions on show over the weekend of May 12 – 15 as part of the 2022 Penola Coonawarra Arts Festival.

Serena Kirby. This month’s ‘Knowing Nullaki Festival’ is an opportunity to learn and explore, create and celebrate what makes the Wilson Inlet special. The month-long festival, organised in partnership with Denmark’s Greenskills and artist and biodiversity educator, Angela Rossen, will feature 26 free community events.

A stunning possum skin cloak will be a centrepiece of Yorta Yorta artist Treahna Hamm’s new exhibition “For the Love of Art” ... Treahna has developed this exhibition after receiving the Joyce Spencer Textiles Fellowship in 2020, established ... to remember the life of Narrandera artist Joyce Spencer (1928-2019).

Reason 1: The books. Whenever I go to a writer’s festival, I choose one book to buy. This is a budgetary decision, not a choice. I’d happily buy every book from every author at the festival. Before I even get to the Kyogle Writers Festival I have my eye on a few after perusing the program.

A charming story of a young woman who faces challenges and finds joy teaching in outback schools. The year is 1956. Sally Gare is twenty. She's just out of teachers' college, and has been sent to work at a two-teacher school more than 3000 kilometres from Perth. With the head teacher away, she starts out alone with a class of forty-five Aboriginal children, ranging in age from five years to thirteen. Thus begins the career of a remarkable teacher and a life-changing adventure in remote Australia.