City of Sydney begins Creative Spaces program

An audio piece on the ‘Creative Spaces’ program run by the City of Sydney for emerging artists. Produced for a university assignment.

The Permeate-Free Milk Debate

I produced this video report for a university assignment.

Manly Sea Eagles Finals Hopes

I produced this video in a couple of hours for the UTS NewsDay assignment. It was a challenge, knowing nothing at all about rugby league, but I am happy with the result.

ACCORDING to Berowra Waters’ restaurateur Allan Ray, only one in 13 restaurants lasts seven years.

This makes it all the more remarkable that his own Waterview restaurant has had continued success for two decades.

This month marks 20 years since Mr Ray established the seafood buffet concept after realising cheap, quality waterfront seafood was nowhere to be found.

“One of the things I noticed was that you couldn’t go anywhere on the waterfront and get seafood at a reasonable price,” he said.

Mr Ray attributes Waterview’s success partly to his exclusive use of trusted suppliers.

“If I can’t shake the hand of the person who owns the company, then I won’t buy off them,” he said.

“I can pick up a prawn and feel it with my fingers and tell you exactly what it’s going to be like just from the feel of it … bacteria grows on the surface of a prawn after two days, so you can tell from the size of the bacteria you can feel,” he said.

Despite the closure of the upmarket Berowra Waters Inn last month, the outlook is positive.

“We need to be really good otherwise we’re going to go out the back door.”

A keen surfer and swimmer, he doesn’t take his success for granted.

“It’s a great life when you can get up, go to the beach and go surfing, have a coffee with your mates and then come to work at lunchtime.”

This article was published in the July 12 2012 edition of the Hornsby Advocate as the lead story.

IN Minnie Harmour’s lifetime, she has seen the invention of the feature film, the Russian Revolution, two world wars and the dawn of the space race and information age.

Despite celebrating her 106th birthday three weeks ago, the North Turramurra resident says she doesn’t even think about the length of her life.

“I just keep on going … no calendars, nothing,” she said.

When she turned 100 she was featured in the Advocate and received a letter from the Queen, which now sits next to birthday cards sent six years later.

Ms Harmour grew up in the Riverina, the daughter of a farmer.

She moved to Sydney and worked at a pharmacy in Gordon, continuing a career as a chemist that she had begun in the country.

“I just kept in the one job for 15 or 20 years,” she said.

She used to mix and grind medicines herself until World War II.

During the war, Ms Harmour worked on a farm at Binnaway in central NSW to feed soldiers and fuel the war effort.

She distinctly remembers an international cruise holiday she took after the death of her first husband.

“I enjoyed that. The only thing is, the lady I was with … she fell and broke her foot. When she came to pick me up at six in the morning, there she was with a walking stick,” she said.

“I nearly dropped dead. I thought we can’t go but she went everywhere, hopped around.”

At 99 years old, Ms Harmour was still living independently.

She celebrated her 106th birthday on June 10 at Southern Cross Residential Care, North Turramurra.

This story appeared in the June 28 edition of the Hornsby Advocate.

THE Aldi supermarket at Mt Kuring-gai is set to begin selling alcoholic beverages after a liquor licence application was approved for the site.

A spokeswoman for the company said the sale of liquor at the store was likely to begin next month.

“The liquor offer will be available at the Aldi Mt Kuring-gai store by mid-July,” she said.

The budget supermarket chain has submitted liquor licence applications for all of its 102 stores in NSW.

However, the inexpensive pricing of the beverages has drawn controversy.

One full-strength can of beer may cost as little as $1, with light beer reportedly even cheaper at 80c.

A 750mL bottle of white wine costs as little as $2.49 at outlets in Victoria and the ACT, where liquor has been sold for a number of years.

The beverages will be sold in a partitioned, non-refrigerated area located in the main body of the Mt Kuring-gai store.

“The Aldi concept is very small compared with traditional bottle shops and is insignificant in comparison with the large format stores,” the spokeswoman said. Concerns in other parts of the state about underage drinking and alcohol-related violence have seen many of the Aldi applications rejected.

A youth worker at Katoomba, where Aldi’s application was turned down, raised concerns about young people buying the alcoholic drinks.

NSW Health told The Sunday Telegraph that Aldi’s sale of cheap alcohol could contribute to further alcohol-related harm and negative health outcomes for communities.

Aldi says it consulted with stakeholders in the Mt Ku-ring-gai area and received no complaints.

“Aldi is an experienced and responsible retailer of packaged liquor,” she said.

The application was approved in October last year.

This article ran as the lead story in the Hornsby Advocate on 21/6/12.

When Rupert Loxton was 10 years old, he began to suffer regularly from vomiting, nausea, headaches and migraines.

Concerned that the family doctor couldn’t diagnose him after four visits, his parents found another medical practitioner, who was also a homeopath.

“I just remember him at his homeopathy station, shaking bottles and that sort of thing,” said Mr Loxton.

He says he was diagnosed with what alternative medicine practitioners call ‘Multiple Chemical Sensitivities,’ or MCS. 

“It’s a fake disease based on the idea that people get sick from exposure to one sort of thing and they gradually become sensitised to different chemicals in modern life,” he said.

Mr Loxton is a disgruntled former alternative medicine patient who is heartened by the Federal Government’s proposal to cut the private health insurance rebate for treatments like homeopathy, acupuncture and chiropractic medicine.

“These [treatments] are just worthless so there’s no real good reason to provide it, no benefit.”

Emeritus Professor John Dwyer, a professor of medicine at the University of New South Wales and critic of the alternative medicine industry, says such diagnoses are common, and misguided.

“The evidence is overwhelming that … [MCS] is a psychological condition, it’s quite serious and needs treatment from a good psychiatrist or psychologist to help people, not homeopathy or acupuncture,” he said.

Mr Loxton says he was wrongly given chelation treatment by another alternative medicine practitioner.

“It’s a legitimate treatment for heavy metal poisoning but a lot of [practitioners] just use it as a cure-all … there’s serious risk of side effects,” he said.

Greg Cope is the president of industry group the Australian Homeopathic Association.

He believes that by providing rebates for homeopathy, governments can reduce healthcare costs.

“[The government should investigate] the utilisation of homeopathy as an effective low cost treatment option in many conditions,” he said. 

However, Professor Dwyer rejects this view.

“I’d say it’s exactly the opposite,” he said.

“Australians are being hoodwinked by these people offering pseudo-sciences and that just delays accurate diagnosis and treatment.”

Leaving the alternative medicine community often causes friction with friends and family who believe it is effective.

“My family’s had a very long saga with this. It’s created a lot of problems and I just can’t change their mind,” Mr Loxton said.

University of Queensland medical student Sam Edwards gave up his acupuncture training in 2007, and likens the experience to leaving a religion.

“[You have to] admit that … I’ve been pursuing this course of action that was meant to be my means to contribute to society and the whole means is wrong,” he said.

“I can’t imagine what it would be like to have that conclusion in middle age … imagine having to make that realisation, what you’re doing is not effective. That must be very hard.”

The government will conduct a clinical review of natural therapies in 2012-13.

Those treatments found to be ineffective will no longer receive the rebate.

This article was originally written in May and June 2012 for a university assignment.

This post was made on June 10 2012.

Residents of Hill Top in the state’s Southern Highlands say they have evidence of koala habitation at the site of a proposed shooting complex.

This is despite a State Government report which concludes the presence of koalas is unlikely, giving the development the green light.

Hill Top Residents’ Action Group (HTRAG) spokesperson Julie Cook said, “The site itself is possibly the worst possible site that could ever have been picked.”

Wingecarribee Shire Council wrote to the State Government before the April 29 council meeting stating its continued opposition to the approved development.

Councillor Jim Clark moved the motion on behalf of council.

“Given that they’ve clear-felled an area for a new shooting range, you couldn’t say that [the government has] adequately dealt with flora and fauna issues,” Cr Clark said.

He said he was aware of the possibility that koalas lived at the site.

“I’m certain they’ve got the right species of tree for koalas, yes,” he said.

The government’s report, written by consulting firm GHD, states that “no koala scratches or scats were observed at any of the surveyed trees … and no koalas were observed.”

However, a review undertaken by ecological consultancy Ambecol for the HTRAG suggests otherwise.

“The GHD Fauna Assessment is grossly inadequate,” it begins. 

“Key data for the [koala habitat assessment] are not present in the report … no reasonable person would approve the development application.”

Ms Cook provided a photo of a koala which was found in a Hill Top backyard.

“There’s just no way koalas don’t traverse through; its a natural wildlife corridor and part of a linkage area and now it’s been cleared,” she said.

University of Western Sydney koala expert Associate Professor Robert Close examined the site for an objection lodged by the HTRAG.

“We found faecal pellets so a koala must have been there, whether as a resident or disperser we don’t know,” he said in an email.

Users of the proposed Southern Highlands Shooting Complex, which will expand the current single range into five separate ranges, are reluctant to comment publicly.

Dal Birrell, a spokesperson for the Illawarra Regional Shooting Association, said he was “not at liberty” to discuss the expansion.

However, in a club newsletter he wrote that “anti-range agitators are twisting the facts … to further their negative cause.”

Ms Cook believes other ecological factors also present a threat.

“Contamination from the shooting activities will occur across the site and basically be washed down the gullies and water courses in the vicinity,” she said.

The HTRAG is concerned that lime, raked into the surface of the 500-metre range to help break down pollutants from spent ammunition, could wash into local waterways.

Development will almost certainly proceed.

“We are only months away from being able to shoot in comfort on a modern range with all the facilities,” said Mr Birrell.

The Department of Sport and Recreation declined to comment on the allegations, as did the Minister, Graham Annesley MP.

Koalas were added to the national threatened species list on 30 April.

This article was originally written in May 2012 for a university assignment.

This post was made on 13 May 2012.

Multi-talented Wahroonga resident Herbert Young has been creating art for the better part of 85 years.

Photographs and paintings by the photographer, painter, jazz pianist, graphic designer, former advertising artist and agency director will go on show from this Friday.

Born in Sydney in 1927, Mr Young has led a colourful life. 

“I started off in commercial graphic art … I was working in publishing, in newspapers, and also as a cartoonist, as comic strip illustrator, and then I worked as a creative director in advertising, and eventually finished as owning my own advertising agency,” he said.

He has a natural talent for visual art, developed by his work as a junior advertising artist at a furniture store in the city.

This nurtured his skills as a painter, and also led him into a career in advertising.

“[I then worked] in magazine publishing, and then with The Sun newspaper, and I branched out as a creative director,” he said.

“Towards the latter part I got into photography because I didn’t have time to do art … I thought photography was the quickest way to get expression through.”

Mr Young’s photographic talent was quickly noticed.

“I was able to become part of the [Australian Institute of Professional Photography] and the first time I ever showed there I won awards,” he said.

He was twice the recipient of the Hornsby Art Prize for painting.

“I won it for two years … quite accidental I think,” he said.

Music is another creative pursuit for Mr Young.

While he was a student at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, he found jazz music, not classical, to be his calling.

“I was the worst student of classical music… but whenever there’s a party, I was the one they always asked to play at parties. They couldn’t do that.”

The exhibition of Herbert Young’s artwork will run for three months at the Thomas and Rosetta Agst Aged Care Service, Pacific Highway, Wahroonga.

Australia’s economy will be damaged unless businesses stop saving and start borrowing again, a high-ranking banker warned in the CBD last week.

NAB business banking executive Joseph Healy made the comments at a Wednesday lunch organised by think tank CEDA, the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia.

He said: “We may be storing up problems that will be reflected in our … capacity for wealth generation in the future.”

Mr Healy’s speech came as business borrowing levels dropped to four-decade lows this year, meaning that businesses are holding more cash and are reluctant to invest in new technologies.

Mr Healy said the downturn is partly because economic problems in Europe are impacting investor confidence in Australia.

“Some commentators might say that all we’re really seeing in Australia right now is the same as we’re seeing in other developed economies … [but] we are in a very distinctive set of circumstances here,” he said.

Mr Healy spoke positively about the Australian economy, saying: “As much as we might moan and complain sometimes about our economy, there is no developed economy anywhere in the world that you would rather be in, live in and think about the future in than this economy.”

Speaking at the forum on behalf of city businesses was Sydney Business Chamber director Patricia Forsythe, who joined Mr Healy in emphasising the importance of strong leadership to restore investor confidence.

“We need a new spoon of optimism and clearly some strong leadership at the political level, at the business level,” Ms Forsythe said.

She also called for political changes, saying “it can’t come soon enough that we have a revision of the planning system, that we have a review of local government, that we have an attitude now of encouraging business … we have to de-risk the system.”

Both speakers discussed the potential consequences of continuing underinvestment, and Mr Healy highlighted the plight of the Eastman Kodak company, which went into administration in January this year.

He described the company as “one of the great icons of the business world.”

“That company failed to adapt to a changing world even though it had all of the tools and resources to adapt, but failed to do so,” he said.

ABC economics correspondent Stephen Long says there are spending opportunities in mining, but other factors hamper enthusiasm for investment.

“High Australian dollar, uncertain global outlook and high interest rates [are] hitting demand and investment,” he said on Twitter.

The retail sector is reluctant to spend money at a time when consumers are less willing to buy.

Speaking to the Australian Financial Review, Harvey Norman co-founder Gerry Harvey said “It’s got to the stage where there’s no incentive to open a major new store in Australia.”

“Our rate of expansion in Australia would be lower now than it’s ever been.”

However, the Managing Director of Sydney energy provider Ausgrid, George Maltabarow, has highlighted the need for investment in infrastructure, which he says has been neglected for years.

“Previous regulatory regimes were overly focussed on price outcomes at the expense of … timely investment,” he said.

“And that means we’re having to catch up and invest now, which means consumers are paying for it all in one hit.”

Managing Director of the Entrepreneurs’ Organisation Sydney, Carden Calder, chaired the CEDA event.

She said: “One of the things I take away from it … is about the need for leadership, and for someone to take the first steps, perhaps with a very well-informed perspective when they do.”

Businesses are not the only group borrowing less, with the joint JP Morgan and Fujitsu Australian Mortgage Industry Report, released in March, suggesting homebuyers are also avoiding loans.

Employers are also more likely to be “firing than hiring, saving than spending” as underinvestment continues, according to Mr Healy.

“Realism and confidence is a powerful mix, but it’s not an easy mix to put together … failure to be confident about your ability to deal with those challenges can be a recipe for failure.”

This article was originally written in April 2012 for a university assignment, and was modified substantially for submission to Alternative Media Group’s City News newspaper. It appeared in the April 26 edition.

This post was made on 4 May 2012.