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“If you are appalled by the inhumane situation on Manus Island, here is a simple way you can take action. PLEASE SHARE! Call Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s office on (02) 6277 7700 and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s office on (03) 9326 1300.  Say you are horrified by the treatment of refugees held in PNG and Nauru, and that they should be evacuated immediately to safety.”

We caught up with Linda Cusworth and Lisa Gleeson from CRAG (Combined Refugee Action Group).   CRAG is a network of groups from around the Geelong region, all advocating for fair and decent policy for refugees and people seeking asylum.  CRAG is made up of coastal and rural refugee support groups, students, church groups, political groups, union members and concerned individuals.

Continue reading “CRAG, Linda & Lisa” →

Twice Booker Prize winner, Peter Carey was in Geelong. This is an abridged version of an article by Lisa Hill, first published on www.anzlitlovers.com Nov 18, 2017. Published with her permission.

At the opening night of the 2017 Word for Word Non-Fiction Festival in Geelong was Peter Carey in conversation with Maria Takolander. Carey has a connection of sorts with Geelong: his parents sent him to board at Geelong Grammar where, he said, he had a good time but didn’t realise until afterwards that he’d been holed up with the ‘ruling class’. But apart from occasional ventures to the bookshop and the beach with his grandfather (to collect shell grit for the chickens), he doesn’t feel a strong connection to the city; it was more of a place to drive through, on route to his parents’ holiday house in Torquay.

 

Photo: Heike Steinweg

Carey says he is a contrarian by nature. His school reports suggested that he should concentrate on maths and science, and he says he did ok at school. He loved his year at Timbertop (the school’s bush camp) where he discovered a world unlike the landscape between Bacchus Marsh and Geelong, and fell in love with the bush. But when he went on to do chemistry…the misfortune of having a bad car accident meant that ‘he had an excuse to fail his exams’ – which he did. They gave him a second chance with a supplementary exam, and he failed that too.  (Just imagine, had the fates not decreed otherwise, he might have had an entirely different life…)

Continue reading “Peter Carey” →

Save the date! Sunday 7th October 2018. #humansingeelongexpo2018 Thanks City of Greater Geelong, Victoria for confirming funding. Thanks also to Deakin University for backing it. Here are some pics from the 2017 Expo After Party. Lots of fun and laughs were had by all! We’d like to thank Geelong’s newest refugee group, the Syriacs, for coming along and teaching us a dance. Loved your dance moves Peter Doyle of Royal Geelong Yacht Club. Geelong’s own Dame Edna Average almost stole the show, yet again. The The Country Women’s Association of Victoria Inc. – CWA did a brilliant job of helping us with the catering. Beavs Bar was a fabulous venue.

Local Leighton Wells, is bringing Steve Wozniak to Geelong to headline this year’s Pivot Summit. How exciting is this! Please share! Leighton is the mastermind and Founder of the inspirational Pivot Summit, to be held at the Federal Mills, North Geelong on Friday 8^th of December. He tells us ‘The Pivot Summit is a world class event with impact. It’s a one-day summit of game-changing insights into emerging technology, start-ups and social enterprise, bringing Australian and international thought leaders together to share insights on the future of digital and its impact on how we work, live and think. Pivot Summit wants to inspire, motivate and educate its audience of digital and creative people and equip them with ideas and insights to innovate within their own organisations and generate social and economic benefits. http://pivotsummit.com.au

‘I attended an ICT technology workshop in Geelong where there were lots of people talking about running an event like the Pivot Summit. It dawned on me as I was sitting there looking at those around me, I had an extensive network to leverage off and could make something happen.

‘I know Monty Hamilton who was then the CEO of Telstra Digital. They were running an event I wanted to model. It was In-house only at the time and I got invited, there were people from the USA and other parts of the world presenting. I went up to Monty and told him of my vision to hold a similar event in Geelong. He astounded me by saying that if I held the event the day after theirs, we could have a couple of the speakers and they’d foot the bill. This was just the tip of the iceberg. It gave me something, an edge, having these international speakers confirmed. If I had gone to community organisations and sponsors without them there would have been no way I’d get funding.

Continue reading “Pivot Summit. Leighton” →

‘Seeing the look on their faces, their smiles, changed me forever.’ We are talking to Jeffrey Jordan who, with Erick Dela Paz (EDP) are running the ‘Busking for a Change Christmas Project’ event on Sunday Dec. 10^th 2pm – 1am at Beav’s Bar, for its 2^nd year. There will be over 20 artists performing all donating their time and Jeff can’t thank them enough. There will be a sausage sizzle, drinks, raffle, giveaways and the weekly Sunday disco to dance the night away. Absolutely everyone; families, young and old, are invited. Entry of $10 goes directly towards making hampers as Christmas gifts filled with everyday essentials helping the homeless in Geelong and Melbourne. Party goers are welcome to bring along wrapped gifts to go into the hampers for the homeless.

‘Music is my passion and all along I was determined to make a living out of it. I play at weddings and corporate events. Having a faithful Catholic Mum and a big-hearted Grandma, who both gave back so much to the community, made me want to do the same. September last year I asked my best friend Eric if he’d join me in Melbourne to make a video of us helping the homeless. I met a guy who was about 25 and homeless because his family kicked him out for being gay. He had a terrible toothache on the day. With only my acoustic and voice I said I’d like to busk for him to help. I had a sign saying ‘Busking for this legend’. People began to give money with a big smiles. You should have seen his face! It was like his pain was gone, he was loving the music that much he began to move along to it. This is when I realised, I wasn’t just to follow my passion for music to make a living – I needed to follow my passion for music to make a difference!

Continue reading “Busking for a Change, Jeff” →

In 2000, while working as a cleaner, Christine Davey wrote a play, The Last Tiger, which was to win both the 2000 Wal Cherry (Unproduced) Play of the Year Award and Playbox Theatre’s Mentor Program, which resulted in Christine becoming the recipient of a six-month mentorship under renowned Australian playwright Andrew Bovell.

Seventeen years later, an adaptation of The Last Tiger won both the prestigious 2017 Bundanon Trust Award and the 107 New Plot Award. Bundanon is an artists’ colony on the New South Wales coast. It is funded by the Arthur Boyd Trust and supports artists’ new work, research and collaboration by providing opportunities to work as an Artist-in-Residency in Bundanon’s purpose-built studios. The recipients of the Bundanon Trust Award are among Australia’s artistic elite and recent beneficiaries include, Katie Noonan, The Australian Ballet, and writer, Robyn Davidson. Christine, as a recipient, was awarded $10,000 and a month-long sojourn at peaceful Bundanon.

Continue reading “Writer, Christine Davey” →

Helping families is his passion, with retirement only a distant rumour. Dr Bernard Maurice Jenner is a consultant Paediatrician and Family Therapist in private medical practice, former Head of Paediatrics at the University Geelong Hospital Barwon Health and St John of God Geelong Hospital. He undertook his undergraduate training at Monash University, and postgraduate training at The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Sydney, Williams Road Family Therapy Centre Therapy Centre, Melbourne, and Swinburne University.

He had the privileged upbringing of the post war Australia, in a warm caring family environment that had been ravaged the generation before, where his Jewish German father, an orphan and refugee survived a concentration camp during the holocaust, to be sent to Australia ‘the lucky country’. He appreciates the privilege of life and loves every day working ‘semi-retired’ in-hours 4 days per week, with other times in the garden, making Barista style coffee, travel, and treadmill watching political themes. He has four children, two grandchildren, a very happy home life, where he and his wife billet young AFL footballers that are drafted to the Geelong Cats football club as mentor Host Parents; he accepts all the credit for the clubs success! The inner sanctum has taken up a lot of wonderful emotional energy.

Continue reading “Dr Bernard Jenner” →

If I were to describe Maryanne Vagg, Festival Director of Geelong’s Word for Word Non-fiction Festival, in a single word, it would be a toss-up between passionate and visionary. Maryanne’s enthusiasm both for the Festival and for Geelong is, frankly, infectious. Maryanne is ‘passionate about reading’ and furthermore, ‘passionate in the belief that there is a book for everybody.’

In 2014, Maryanne, an experienced festival director, identified a gap in the literary festival calendar; a festival to accommodate the growing number of non-fiction authors.  Encouraged by her vision and enthusiasm Geelong Regional Libraries, together with several stakeholders, including Deakin University and the City of Greater Geelong, jumped at the chance to hold a festival and showcase Geelong. Word for Word Non-fiction Festival is now in its fourth year. It is the only Non-fiction Festival in Australia.

Continue reading “Word for Word, Non-Fiction Festival, Maryanne” →

Thousands of #humansingeelong turned out last night to marvel at the lighting of the iconic Geelong Christmas Tree. It was a magnificent spectacle. A procession of festival goers, were then led up to City Hall to see the projected light display masterminded by local artist Matt Bonner. Tonight, proves to be just as exciting with the 101^st Gala Day parade kicking off at 7.30pm. ‘Gala raises important funds for the Barwon Health Foundation, while providing the Foundation with a way of saying thank you to our community for their generous, ongoing support,’ from the Gala Website www.galaday.com.au

My Dad was in the parade back in the 1950s. He was about 20 and had been in a horrendous motorbike accident, the driver hadn’t seen him. It led to him spending a year in the Geelong Hospital while his leg was being reconstructed. For the parade, they put his bed, with him in it, on the back of a truck and off they went. He loved it! Years later, in the ‘70s, as a video photographer, he filmed every parade for the ABC news. We always tagged along, it became a tradition. Here’s to you JB!

Enjoy the parade tonight Geelong and please leave comments about your Gala Day experiences.

Video and story: Jacqui Bennett