Arts

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.

Local fiddlemaker Martin Scuffins is a creative artist who loves the natural world and finds joy in the expression of life through music and art. He has a passion for fiddle making and a special interest in Norwegian Hardanger fiddles which are fitted with ‘sympathetic’ strings that resonate in harmony with the played strings.

Tickets are now available for Classical Reimagined, where The Queensland Chamber Orchestra (Camerata) will premiere Alexander Voltz’s composition inspired by Emerald ... Central Highlands Regional Council is proud to be partnering on bringing this family fun event to the region with a free show in the Emerald Botanical Gardens from 5.30 pm, Thursday 12 May.

The Victorian Ministry for Agriculture has responded to a community-led petition by confirming that specialty timber from State forests is exempted from the 10 year phase out of native timber harvesting in Victorian public forests contained in the Victorian Forestry Plan ... James Kidman from Otway Tonewoods gave Australian Rural & Regional News some background on the 61-page petition he prepared and the Victorian Minister's confirmation of the exemption.

On ANZAC Day the Harcourt Bowling Club was crowded with people from community radio for the celebration of the sector’s 40th birthday and launch of a new commemorative book, Radio Waves. The Bendigo region’s community radio service began from the Harcourt railway station building on ANZAC Day, 25 April 1982. From those beginnings, it grew to the media force it is today, with four operating stations, PhoenixFM, KLFM, FreshFM and MainFM.

In her new exhibition, Animal as Object, at Tweed Regional Gallery, Deb Mostert explores the paradoxical ‘objectness’ of animals in nature through taxidermy and in culture through the souvenir.

Narrandera Aboriginal fashion designer Lillardia Briggs-Houston has made the cover of the illustrious fashion magazine Vogue Australia due out in early May. The front cover of the May issue featuring Aboriginal models and fashion designs shows model Magnolia in a dress created by Narrandera’s well known local designer.

Richard Malawkin managed to take some stunning photos of the F/A-18F Super Hornet flying over Kyogle on April 25. The jet was fast yet Richard captured an image. Here’s how he did it ...

Kyogle’s Liesl Pederson spends her day at the front of the classroom teaching students at Casino Public School. But she has a dream that goes way beyond the classroom — she wants to sing.

Lynne Mowbray. The last couple of years have proved to be a trying time for anyone attempting to hold an event and organisers of the 117th Maclean Highland Gathering, were keen to make this year’s event, a great one. Maclean Highland Gathering Chief Peter Smith said that they were expecting a particularly good gathering this year and it did not disappoint.