The Sunshine Coast Mayor, Bob Abbott, wants people here to help Council resist state government dictates on increasing our population. An interview with him about that led our 9 March edition of What’s Going On?

Also in that show were interviews

• on finding compromises between live music noise levels and opportunities for musicians to make a living
• an expert community rebuilder consulting with the Mary
  Valley people
• a Nambour high school helping an Aboriginal primary school in north Queensland
• how a puppy starts a career to guide dog for a blind person
• and theatre notes

Views expressed were ours or those of the people talking to us, not necessarily those of Noosa Community Radio.

“They’re going to force the population numbers on us and not allow us to plan properly”

The state government has directed Council to make some major changes to its proposed “Palmview Structure Plan”, which Council submitted to them as required in the Regional Planning Act. Mark spoke to Bob Abbott about the changes, where Council stands and what they
recommend Sunshine Coast residents do to make it clear to the state government that they support the responsible planning submitted by council. Basically, this is Council urging us all to resist the state government’s push to overpopulate your Sunshine Coast.

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Council invites you to have your say on the proposed Palmview Structure Plan and associated planning documents. When preparing your submission, you can also refer to Council’s summary of significant amendments. Submissions close on the 19th of April. All the documents mentioned and more information can be seen at Council’s website. As Bob Abbott said, he is really keen to get the community to stand up on its hind legs on this one…”this is the litmus test”.

Musicians seek Council support for entertainment precincts

Sunshine Coast musicians are having to lobby hard to hold on to ever fewer live gig opportunities. They are asking Council to support them to put control of the gigs into council’s hands instead of the state’s liquor licensing authority which is now in charge. On 2 March there was a forum of liquor licensing officials and industry stakeholders organised by the Musicians Association of the Sunshine Coast (MASC). Their treasurer, local singer-songwriter Harii Bandhu was at the heart of it. He told Mark the outcome.

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“It’s almost like the government are sulking, they’ve moved away, it’s kind of like there’s no contact”

The government’s Traveston assault ripped the guts out of the Mary Valley. 2,000 people have left it, vast swathes of land are going to ruin, businesses and schools have closed. An enormous revival effort is needed. The Valley people have had a community recovery specialist in for two days to share some ideas. According to his website, Peter Kenyon has advised around a thousand communities all around the world. Diet asked him after meetings with Valley groups what he’s been  advising them:

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“Don’t spend your time dancing under government funding priorities – you have got to take the lead”

Peter Kenyon told Diet not all the troubled communities he’s worked with were able to recover. His “Bank of I.D.E.A.S.”, as he calls his consultancy, operates from the basic assumption that communities do not develop from the ‘top down’ or from ‘the outside in’. He believes that communities need to build from ‘the inside out’, and their residents must invest themselves, ideas, assets, capabilities and resources. With those givens, is the Mary Valley still a viable place after everything the now sulking and not communicating George Street bullies have inflicted on it?

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“Hope to bring the kids down to have a camp at our school”

Nambour Christian College has started partnering a small Aboriginal primary school in Normanton, in the north Queensland Gulf Country. Diet asked Jesma O’Hara, the chairwoman of the college board, how that idea came about:

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“You start changing a community one life at a time”

The Nambour-Normanton school partnership reminded Diet of an opinion survey published about three years ago that found about 70 per cent of Australian parents opposed to Aboriginal history being taught in schools. So he asked Jesma O’Hara what sort of history she thinks will be taught in Normanton.

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At this point Diet needed to vent some anger. “I have heard from a friend who leads a team of workers that includes a young Aboriginal man, here on the Coast, that he gets abused by his workmates who call him the despicable names for Aboriginal people that can earn you a
court conviction. My friend stepped in and gave the abusers a tongue lashing. The Aboriginal man – about as light as a Mediterranean person, by the way – told my friend, he didn’t mind what the fellow workers were calling him. My friend told him he should mind. It saddens both of us that racial abuse can be so corrosive that the victim would rather put up with it than resist.”

“We feel very proud of that dog when it eventually goes to the blind person”

Ever wondered how the career of a guide dog for the blind begins? As some Community Radio people and their loved ones were cheerfully getting soaked by shower after shower on our car boot sale in the parking lot of the J on Saturday Feb 27, a lady led a beautiful white dog – a labrador-golden retriever mongrel – to the Simons’ stand. It was wearing that orange coloured rug – or whatever that dog garment is called – that denotes “guide dog at work”. But it looked so young. So Diet took Veronica Carley from Yandina across to the studio and began by asking her why an ordinary person, who’s not a specialist, gets involved with a dog like that.

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A number to call if you want to get involved is 1800 810 122; their website is Guide Dogs Queensland

Synda Turnbull provided theatre notes

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Hear What’s Going On? again at 11 a.m. next Tuesday, 16 March. We’d love your feedback. You can email us to markrzz@bigpond.com or leave a message at 5447 2233.

Click here for the entire show as it aired
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• Authorities stopping yet more live music on our coast,
• a daring new play at Noosa Arts Theatre
• and free parenting courses funded by Council were the main stories of What’s Going On? on 2 March.

All comment is ours or that of the people talking to us, not necessarily that of this station.

The state government’s liquor licensing authority has shut down the three hours of live music on Sundays at the Sunshine Beach Surf Club because of a complaint that it was too noisy, made, it’s believed, by just one resident, probably a newcomer to the area. Coast musicians are up in arms and asking Council to back them up. They’re losing opportunities to make their living. Tad Graham is in The Big Easy Band that played at the surf club.

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Mark tried to get comment from the Surf Club but they haven’t got back to him yet.
Harii Bandhu activist musician and treasurer of the Musicians Association of the Sunshine Coast (M.A.S.C.) was on his way to a  meeting with Councillor Lew Brennan and Council officers to talk about Council’s position and possible role in declaring entertainment precincts to alleviate the problems with liquor licensing laws.

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Harii Bandhu

Harii talks about the upcoming forum between licensing officials and industry partners (musicians, venues, tourism bodies) seeking information and the best way forward.

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20,000 demonstrated for live music in Melbourne

Imagine 20,000 people, two fifths of the Noosa population, taking to the streets to demonstrate for live music. That’s what happened in Melbourne recently where that many rallied to protest against a new liquor licensing law which declares live music a “high security activity”. Two security guards are required for any gig with a crowd between one and 100 people and there are also noise issues. The security doubles the cost of music for a small venue. A spokesman of a Fair Go 4 Live Music movement, Jon Perrin, told Mark about the rally and the situation in Victoria generally.

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“No peep show, but high class theatre dealing with sensitive issues”

Starting on the 25th of this month, Noosa Arts Theatre is being very daring with a play in which we’ll see some partial nudity. I asked director Sam Coward why he’s putting on a sex play.
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So, will we see some flesh?

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[View with PicLens]

You can book by phoning 5449 9343, or online at noosaartstheatre.org.au or you can go along to the theatre most mornings from 9 to 12. Only over 18-year-olds will be admitted. Diet  wonders if the same restriction would apply if it were all about blood and guts?

Bus terminal “development by stealth”

The people who want Noosa to become its own shire again are criticising the construction of a bus terminal just down from the Shell roundabout in The Junction. Their chairman Bob Ansett gave us this comment.

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“When we’re in a good space we’re skilful in our parenting”

Elizabeth Blomkamp

Kids wearing you down? Feeling guilty for even daring to think that they are? Giving, giving, giving but wondering ‘what about me’? Join the club, all very familiar stuff to most parents, especially mums. A parenting expert, Elizabeth Blomkamp will bring relief soon. She began by explaining anthroposophy to Tania Nash.

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Tania and Elizabeth then considered the role of dads.

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The course starts in Nambour on Monday evening the 8th and continues on Wednesday morning the 10th of March, and it begins in Cooroy in April. That phone number again 5449 1477.

We’d love your feedback. Catch us again next Tuesday at 11. You can email us at markrzz@bigpond.com or phone 5447 2233 to leave a message.

Click here for the entire show as it aired.
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About 200 people in the Pomona Memorial Hall, used daily by various groups.

You probably thought that the huge Kin Kin quarry soon to start operating is a worry only for the people up there in the hinterland hills, not for us down here by the sea. Think again.

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You first heard Robert Glen, an anti quarry campaigner, then Dr Seonaid Melville, Chair of the Noosa Biosphere Community Environment Sector board, addressing a public meeting last Thursday. Two hundred people packed the Pomona Hall to capacity. Pomona faces huge losses, as you’ll hear.

(Left to right) Michael Donovan, David Gibson, Warren Truss, Seonaid Melville

The Kin Kin quarry dispute was my main story on What’s Going On? on Tuesday 23 February. It also contained

• criticism from the Save the Mary River group over plans to suck the river dry for Brisbane water consumers;
• and how the Noosa Heads branch of Rotary is pitching in to an international campaign to eradicate polio from the four countries where it is still a huge problem. The crippling disease can jump countries;
• theatre notes on upcoming rehearsals for One Act Plays in Noosa.

You’ll hear a lot of opinion, which will be mine and that of the other people talking, not necessarily that of Noosa Community Radio.

(Left to right) Robert Glen, Michael Donovan, David Gibson, Seonaid Melville, Gary Martin, Steve Hilditch

The most immediate worry of the people in several villages from Kin Kin to Tewantin, who’ll be impacted by the quarry expansion, are monster trucks with trailers running every six to nine minutes. Steve Hilditch told the meeting what a disaster that would be for Pomona.

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Many of you have probably driven on the spectacularly beautiful but very narrow, hilly and winding Range Road between Kin Kin and Pomona, so you’ll be able to relate to fears that frequent quarry truck traffic on it would become a death trap for residents in general, and school children in particular. Gary Martin, Chairman of the Kin Kin Community Association:

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The residents likely to be impacted have taken the Sunshine Coast Regional Council, Australia’s fourth-largest, to court. They’re challenging the legality of three different licenses that have been given to operate the quarry. Allan Packer explained how the litigation began with a directional hearing on the 12th of February in the Planning and Environment Court in Maroochydore.

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Six days in court could cost the plaintiffs anything up to 50 thousand dollars. But even if they win in court, their fight will only just begin, Gary Martin pointed out.

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Gary went on to argue how the quarry would wreck the hinterland lifestyle that attracted people to the pristine area.

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Federal MP for Wide Bay, Warren Truss

Citing the campaign that stopped the Traveston Dam on the Mary River as an example, the federal member for Wide Bay, Warren Truss, urged the quarry opponents to look for help outside the area, Australia-wide.

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Campaign manager, Robert Glen, and Noosa Biosphere chair, Michael Donovan

The campaign manager, Robert Glen, appealed for help of all kinds:

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If you want to pitch in, these are the numbers I’ve been given for contact: Jo at Kin Kin Community Group Inc. 5485 4251, Robert Glen, Campaign Manager, robertjglen@gmail.com, 5485 4520, Robyn Jones (activated Kin Kin resident) 5485 4326, Steve Hilditch (Pomona Inc.) at 0419 028 950, Jody (horse rider protest) at 5485 4112.

Steve Hilditch accused Council of leaving the hinterland people in the lurch.

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Michael Donovan has had a long career as chief executive of various enterprises. He’s now chairman of Tourism Noosa and chairman of Noosa Biosphere Limited, which is totally owned by council. He suggested that ultimately the protesters might have to make a deal with the quarry operators, and as a professional mediator he was willing to facilitate that.

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Member for Gympie in the Queensland parliament, David Gibson

State and federal MPs for the area, Dave Gibson for Gympie in the Queensland parliament and Warren Truss, pledged their help. First, David.

A sentiment was expressed to the Pomona crowd that I wholeheartedly share and many of you probably will, too.

In the Kin Kin quarry story, we’ve heard that Main Roads, a department of the Queensland government is dragging its feet, or perhaps, not even willing to budge, on yet another life and death issue for our people. The Bligh gang have ripped the guts out of the Mary Valley and now it looks like they’ll get their way with Mary River water, after all, by sucking it out and pumping it to Brisbane through the northern connector pipeline. Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett, who’s on the skids over the house insulation and solar programmes, has just approved the pipeline. David Kreutz, secretary of the Save the Mary River Coordinating Group, gave us their response to that.

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Who remembers polio, that crippling and potentially fatal disease that mainly affects children under five years of age? There’s probably a whole generation in this country, as in most prosperous ones, who have no knowledge, let alone experience of it. Routine oral vaccination has wiped it out in our societies. But four countries still have it, and Rotary International is helping to try to eradicate it. Jesse Loxton of the Rotary Club of Noosa Heads Daybreak explained how they’re pitching in.

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As a GP, Jesse Loxton has been in India himself and seen some of this happen on the ground.

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Auditions are coming soon for the One Act Plays season at Noosa Arts Theatre and rehearsals are in full swing for a play about sex, Synda Turnbull reported.

Catch the next What’s Going On? on Tuesday 2 March at 11 am. You can email us to Markrzz@bigpond.com, or phone 5447 2233 to leave a message.

Pictures by Brigitte Simon-Enderl

Michael Anderson & Senator Rachel Siewert

Sovereignty was a key issue at the gathering, convened in the Australian National University by Michael Anderson, last survivor of the four founders of the Aboriginal Embassy in 1972. The summit elected a task force to examine options like international and domestic sovereignty.

Diet Simon attended because he’s been friends with Michael for 10 years and helps him with his media relations. Diet began the 16 February What’s Going On? with a brief selection of voices to set the tone of his report. Opinions you hear or read are Diet’s or those of the other people speaking, not necessarily that of Noosa Community Radio.

Githabul men explaining their country, Michael Anderson in the background

Representatives of the Githabul nation of northern NSW and southern Queensland won a lot of attention with their assertion of sovereignty which they claim has attracted international support and some offshore funding. Based on their research of centuries-old British documents, the Githabul affirm their sovereignty by completely rejecting British or Australian law. Githabul man, Mark McMurtrie, said neither Queen Elizabeth nor her colonial Australian government have a writ over this country.

Venezuelan Ambassador, Nelson Dávila Lameda (left), wiith Lara, his Aboriginal interpreter

The 120 to 150 elders and young people attending heard the ambassador of Venezuela explain how that country’s indigenous people have won secure rights, including guaranteed representation in parliament, under the revolutionary government of Hugo Chavez. Enthusiastically applauded throughout his presentation, Ambassador Nelson Dávila Lameda pledged Venezuela’s help to Australian Aboriginal people in any international forums where they might pursue sovereignty. He spoke through an Aboriginal female interpreter:

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Long-time sovereignty campaigner, Paul Coe

Paul Coe, a former barrister, has campaigned for decades for sovereignty and said a lot of explanation needed to happen in communities about just what it meant.

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One of the things delegates were most angry about were Aboriginal people in high positions in government and elsewhere holding back grassroots Aboriginal progress. They were decried as Abocrats.

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Marianne Mackay

The gathering heard a lot of raw pain and fury on a wide range of issues, from continuing deaths in custody to the Northern Territory intervention. Marianne Mackay, a Nyoongar woman from Perth, spoke about the Aboriginal Elder who was baked to death in a private detention van.

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Les Malezer (Photo by Paul Harris)

Les Malezer has campaigned for Aboriginal rights in international forums for many years. Ray Jackson, president of the Sydney based Indigenous Social Justice Association, responded to his presentation.

Michael Anderson and a taskforce in the making

A task force of about a dozen people was elected to address concerns like deaths in custody, over-policing of children and youth, institutional racism, review of child protection laws in consultation with the Aboriginal nations, sustainable Aboriginal economic development, respect for Aboriginal religion and spirituality, cultural tourism and ownership of all Aboriginal policy making. One of the first things to be planned will be to send a delegation to England “to claim the rent”, as convenor Michael Anderson called it.

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Barbara Shaw, from the town camps in Alice Springs was a prominent attendee.

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Barbara Shaw (left) from Alice Springs, Raelene from Hermannsburg outstation

A woman of the Larrakia nation, the traditional owners of all land and waters of the greater Darwin area, explained that they’ve lost trust in Aboriginal land councils because they pursue white agendas, including making deals with mining companies that communities don’t want.

A woman commented from the floor:

Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation will proudly host the 9th World Indigenous Women and Wellness Conference from the 22nd to 25th of August.

Tjanara Goreng Goreng, an Aboriginal woman who was a senior public servant in the federal government, blew the whistle on the intervention to the press. She told how she was victimised as a result.

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A young man argued that there can’t be Aboriginal sovereignty without an economic base.

There was obviously some tension in the gathering between young bloods wanting action and older people holding them back, accusing the young of not knowing where they’d head.

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Michael Anderson, a Black Power activists in the 70s, suggested civil disobedience.

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Several speakers spoke of police bullying and criminalising of Aboriginal children and youth. Michael Anderson recounted what goes on in northwest New South Wales.

Other summit outcomes briefly:

• A demand for Aboriginal Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin to be replaced by an Aboriginal person selected by Aboriginal Peoples.
• Unanimous rejection of the Rudd government-sponsored ‘National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples’.
• A call for the hundreds of Aboriginal nations to make treaties with each other as a precursor to full sovereignty.

The next summit is being planned for Sydney over Easter.

Diet says, “Now, why am I not surprised that I haven’t seen or heard anything about this summit on mainstream media? Maybe I just missed it….. I doubt that. I believe this is the iron curtain locking the Aboriginal experience away from perception by the majority of Australians. The collective guilt complex? The see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil syndrome? My comment, not that of Noosa Community Radio.”

There’s more about the summit on the Internet. Surf to http://indymedia.org.au/ and scroll down to the story “Aboriginal sovereignty to go to the Senate”.

You can reach What’s Going On? by emailing markrzz@bigpond.com or phoning 5447 2233.

The conference closed with a powerful Aboriginal rap.

All photographs by Thomas Wicking, except as indicated

What’s Going On? on Tuesday 9 February also reported on

• the resistance against desalination plans for Marcoola,
• saving on power bills and potentially even making money from solar power,
• the horrific lives of Cambodian girls sold into sex slavery,
• a Noosa group helping to build high-tech orphanages in Kenya,
• and a deal with Council for twice-monthly Peregian Originals until a review in November.

The people opposing a salt water desalination plant proposed for Marcoola by the Queensland government had two public meetings recently. The president of Communities Against Desalination, Debbie Johnson, brought us up to speed.

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We began by asking David Kreutz what the northern connector pipeline is supposed to do.

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Some of us have been thinking about heating our household water with sunshine and perhaps even producing power with the sun. Then there was a letter pooh-poohing the idea in the Sunshine Coast Daily. Time to get the facts, so Diet I rang Jennifer Mazoudier, who works in the industry.

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Ten thousand dollars is available interest-free from the federal government, repayable at 48 dollars a week. Diet suggested to Jennifer that considering the savings on their power bills, most households could afford that.

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You’ll need strong nerves to stay with us for the next story: the horrors perpetrated on Cambodian girls sold into sex slavery. A Coast woman, Nicky Mih, has just spent a month in that country to help them and to find out what people here could do for them. A book by Somaly Mam, who was sold into sex slavery as a girl herself and now helps to rescue others, inspired Nicky to take action. She told Alfie Noakes she was a bit scared at what to expect before she left.

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Alfie found it hard to grasp that this kind of abuse still goes on.

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Alfie asked Nicky whether any kind of community care is available to the girls.

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You can email Nicky at nicky@inspired-living.net.au. She’s also on Facebook under Nicky Mih. To something happier now. Stephen Hollins of Sunrise Beach has set up 15 orphanages and 19 schools in the Philippines and has just returned from setting up his latest there. He did all but the last by himself. The last was built by a registered charity, “Precious Jewels Foundation”, which he’s formed to canvas community support. Precious Jewels are now planning and starting an environmental village project in Mombasa, Kenya. Stephen told a group in Doonan about it.

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David Kelsey, from Noosa Heads, is the project manager.

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Gill Norman of “Avante Films”, a Doonan-based enterprise, is making a film about the project to publicise it and talked about fundraising efforts in support of it.

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Some good news for Coast open-air music lovers: Council has agreed to keep Peregian Originals running twice monthly for at least this year, with conditions. Frank Wilkie explains:

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Unless something unforeseen and really big happens before then, the next What’s Going On? will be about a rebellious Aboriginal conference in Canberra which Diet attended. Contact What’s Going On? by emailing markrzz@bigpond.com or phone 5447 2233 during business hours.

Booin Gari means “come this way” in the language of the Gubbi Gubbi the tribe whose traditional land encompasses the Sunshine Coast.
Arguably the most spectacular manifestation of Aboriginality was again the dancing and singing of the Gubbi Gubbi Dancers as they welcomed us to their country.

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The Gubbi Gubbi Dancers got things off to a goose-bumpy start with singing, dancing, didge playing and a demonstration of making fire by rubbing sticks. Diet talked to their leader, Lyndon Davis.
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The member for Noosa in the Queensland Parliament, Glen Elmes, who’s been able to rustle up some state money for the festival, sees it as a role model.
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Diet Simon heard Shona Kendrick, a former 101.3 presenter, talking to Glen Elmes about her concern that the dingoes on Fraser Island might be exterminated. So Diet butted in:

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People gave us their views on the bush tucker being handed around:

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Geoff Walters, General Manager of United Synergies , explained to Gerard Broerson that Booin Gari was launched because they felt they were not engaging enough with the Aboriginal community of our area.

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Singer-songwriter and high school teacher in Ipswich, Lizzy Connor, performed some of her songs and talked with Kerry Redfern, presenter of our ‘Solid Ground’ Aboriginal show on Saturday mornings.
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Also packed into the four hours were presentations by local Aboriginal painter, Peter Mulcahy who explained his Gumilaroi people’s dreamings that inspire his works and who gives talks in schools. There was a bush tucker cooking demonstration by  Dale Chapman , there were art workshops and storytelling, and a discussion on the Stolen Generations led by Judi Wickes , a local Aboriginal woman with partly white heritage.
Also, a white woman who learnt from female Aboriginal fellow students at Queensland University in the 1970s, some of whom are now nationally famous, harshly criticised the Northern Territory intervention in that session. Jenny Harvey, who calls herself “a semi-retired activist”, told Diet Simon that at university she became aware for the first time of what was happening in her own state, Queensland.
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More voices of people at the festival:

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Another song by Lizzy Connor and talk with Kerry about Lizzy’s wish to build a cultural foundation.

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We talked to representatives of services that provide support specifically for Aborigines along our coast and who presented at Booin Gari.
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And some more groups offering services:
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Elders under shade tents specially reserved for them told us how they appreciated the event.

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The Sunshine Coast Daily reported 500 people attending. The five of us who were there from this station think there were more.
We ended the program with the closing ceremony from the Gubbi Gubbi dancers.

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Contact What’s Going On? by emailing Mark at markrzz@bigpond.com or phoning 5447 2233 in office hours.

Council starting work with CSIRO on assessing local sea rise vulnerability.

People and property in Noosa and the Coast generally will be at risk due to climate change hazards like rising sea levels, unless flaws in a draft state government coastal management plan are rectified. That’s what the Sunshine Coast council has submitted to the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources. We talked about those issues with Steve Skull, Council’s environment policy manager, and began by asking him what faults council sees in the state’s plan:        

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“There is a level of misogyny in some of the people who’ve been employed to deal with us”

Yandina land owner Laurelle Somerfield is angry at the state government for bullying her over the use of her land to build the northern stage two of the water grid pipeline. New research by the University of the Sunshine Coast and consultants Parsons and Brinckerhoff has found serious reasons for scrapping the $400 million stage (see Sunshine Coast Daily story) and for dumping desalination plants from the state’s water strategy. In tough talks with state officials Ms Somerfield has got some concessions on the use of her land to park pipes and equipment but she’s still pretty upset about a number of unresolved matters.  

Temporary holding area, Lees Road Yandina (approx 1.5km away). The holding area for the Somerfield's land is to hold soil from the 24hr tunnelling, until removed, communal areas and amentities for workers and offices.

The threatened rose arbor

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“We will need the landlords on side because they will drive the building changes”

Property and business owners, council and community will work on ways to boost Noosa Junction’s attractiveness in a new strategy plan for the area. We had Noosa Junction Traders Association president, Lorraine Marshall, and a new town centre officer, John Waterhouse in to tell us about it.  We began with John’s role and background.

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Art garden, more greenery, more open space, more convenient meeting places, eating areas, music, night life

We asked Lorraine Marshall and John Waterhouse for some nitty gritty on what buildings and greenery are going to be there and what traffic arrangements they’re thinking of.

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Council driving the project “to some great degree”

Continuing the conversation about sprucing up Noosa Junction:

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“We need to have a good level of engagement and involvement from people in the tourism industry”

How would you like to have your say on the way forward for Noosa tourism promotion or on ways to teach our people about sustainability? These fields will be addressed in two new so-called sector boards set up by Council-owned Noosa Biosphere Ltd. They’re also looking for people to nominate for all the other boards.  Ben McMullen, Council’s project manager for Environmental Initiatives, came in to explain the process:    

Ben McMullen and Henrietta at a Social Board meeting

Sector Board meeting notes on table

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“What we’re really looking for is people who have a genuine interest in the Noosa area and have a genuine interest in the Biosphere Reserve process”

We asked Ben what the organisation delivers and whether it’s more than just a talk shop.

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Diet commented that it sounds a bit authoritarian to him, “like: don’t argue with us, we know best. And another observation: more Council-wide discussion of Noosa tourism promotion ahead, when there are concerns, voiced on this programme and elsewhere recently, that the successful Noosa way of doing it may be watered down to a one-fits-all, Coast-wide approach. Not good. But it’s my view, not necessarily that of this station.”

Contact What’s Going On? by emailing Mark at markrzz@bigpond.com or phoning 5447 2233 in office hours.

Lyndon Davis, Gubbi Gubbi Dancers leader

For the third year running Sunshine Coast people had an opportunity to build positive relationships and share in local Aboriginal culture, and Aboriginal people could inform themselves about support services available to them, at the Booin Gari festival in Tewantin on 19 January.

Booin Gari means “come this way” in the language of the Gubbi Gubbi the tribe whose traditional land encompasses the Sunshine Coast.

Packed into the four hours were presentations by local artist Peter Mulcahy

Pomona-based Aboriginal painter, Peter Muraay Djeripi Mulcahy, explained how the dreamings of his Gumilaroi nation, passed to him by Elders, inspire his paintings. The one his right hand is on tells how butterflies came into being in the Lightning Ridge area of north-western NSW. Peter gives talks in schools. He originally trained as a policeman but told Diet Simon in an interview a while back that he soon discovered that was not for him.

and performers, including a bush tucker cooking demonstration by Dale Chapman and tastings, art workshops and storytelling, a discussion on the Stolen Generations lead by Judi Wickes , the Gubbi Gubbi Dancers, a reptile talk and handling session, learning circles and workshops incorporating storytelling, Murri art and boomerang art. The Sunshine Coast Daily reported 500 people attending. The 5 of us from the radio who were there think there were more.

The event is run by United Synergies a not-for-profit company supporting young people, families and communities, with particular emphasis on those experiencing some form of disadvantage. Their General Manager, Geoff Walters, told us they launched Booin Gari because they felt they were not engaging enough with the Aboriginal community of our area.

Support came from the Sunshine Coast Regional Council , the Queensland Department of Communities , local businesses and dozens of individual volunteers.

[View with PicLens]

Below are three of about a dozen interviews we did. We’ll be broadcasting them on 2nd February from 11am till noon and adding them to our website after that program.

Geoff Walters (United Synergies general manager of special projects) talks to Gerard Broersen (presenter of the “Solid Ground” indigenous program on Saturdays at 9am)

Under the cultural wing.... (in the background) Lyndon Davis sings the welcome to country with Mark Rodriquez holding the microphone.

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Jenny Hervey (activist) talks to Diet Simon (presenter of “What’s Going On?” Wednesdays 6pm)
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Lyndon Davis (leader of the Gubbi Gubbi Dancers talks) to Diet Simon
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Tugun Desal Plant (photo taken and donated by Mark Swain of "Above Photography")

Water was the issue on the 20 January edition of What’s Going On? with Diet and Mark.         

The Councillor for Division 8, Debbie Blumel holds the major projects portfolio, which includes the water business. Smack in the middle of her ward the state government plans to put a huge desalination plant at Marcoola. She has thrown her weight behind those resisting the idea. From her, and from Debbie Johnson, who heads up a fairly new multi-community grouping, we heard why desalination is a rubbish idea. Debbie Johnson appeals for people to join their fight and Mark and Diet add that Traveston Dam wasn’t going to be exactly in our back yard, but Coast people rallied against it, so let’s now get behind the anti-desalination fight in the same way.

We began by asking Debbie Blumel where Council stands on desalination, and you’ll be as surprised as we were at the answer:
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Here’s what Mayor Bob Abbott told What’s Going On? immediately after Traveston was axed and Premier Anna Bligh announced there’d be desalination instead:

Tugun Desal Plant 2(photo taken and donated by Mark Swain of "Above Photography")

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Tugun Desal Plant 3 (photo taken and donated by Mark Swain of "Above Photography")

..and back to Debbie Blumel

(in 3 parts)

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Debbie Johnson is president of Communities Against Desalination, a group formed in Marcoola in response to the state government’s proposal to build a huge desalination plant near Maroochydore airport.  The group needs your help in a hurry, because the Christmas-New Year break slowed down their campaigning. Mark put it to Debbie that they’re not just a “not-in-my-backyard” group.

Tugun Desal Plant 4 (photo taken and donated by Mark Swain of "Above Photography")

part 1 runs  7′26″

part 2 runs 4′02″

Sounds like some well-organised campaigning there. But we’ve had to get good at that here on the Coast, and in our hinterland, haven’t we, there’s so much trouble coming out of George Street. If you want to drop in to our station, we’re keeping a few submission forms here. You can also download them from http://www.cadi.org.au/. You can find a link to the Queensland Water Commission’s draft proposal on this site.

We finished our wrap-up on water with a quote from Narelle McCarthy, manager of the Sunshine Coast Environment Council an alliance of more than 40 groups, stretching from Cooloola to Caboolture, and more than 300 individual, family and business members. She said this after Anna Bligh announced her desal plans.
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You can contact What’s Going On? by emailing markrzz@bigpond.com or leaving a message 9 to 5 weekdays at the station, phone 5477 2233.

From the second of February this show will be on
Tuesday mornings from 11 to 12.

The show also reran an interview by Tania Nash about Reality Bites, Australia’s premier non-fiction literary festival taking place in and around Cooroy from the 24th of July to the first of August; it had a talk with a 15-year-old Maroochydore lad who’s scored a part in a fantasy movie for kids; heard a 12-year-old girl’s take on life; and poetry about aspects of love.

“It should worry a lot of people”

Steve Cooper CEO, Tourism Noosa

There’s talk of homogenisation, or harmonisation, or levelling out of tourism promotion all along the Sunshine Coast. That worries a lot of people in Noosa, including the CEO of Tourism Noosa, Steve Cooper.

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“We can have a concentration of authors over a shorter amount of time”

Reality Bites coordinator Annette Hughes

Federal, Queensland and Council financial support has been pledged for the            Reality Bites non-fiction literary festival this year, the third time it’s happening. Most of the week’s events will take place in and around Cooroy. The coordinator, Annette Hughes, talked to Tania Nash.
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“I do all the staff that the actual actor doesn’t want to do”

A Maroochydore boy of 15 has won a stand-in part in a movie due for release next year. It’s “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, the 3rd episode in a series of seven fantasy novels for children, “The Chronicles of Narnia”. Narnia is a place where animals talk, magic is common, good battles evil and children play central roles. Morgan Keavney-Rattue from Kuluin had his own rock show with us for a while last year before leaving to pursue his acting career. Mark began by asking him why he was chosen for the role.
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The hollywoodesque encounter of a 12-year-old girl

What do you remember about starting high school? The music you liked at 12? How much pocket money you received, if any?! Jasmin Midgley spoke to a young local girl about such things.
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“Nobody has taught me how love feels….”

Poet Jens-Uwe Korff, a Sydney-based web designer and friend of Diet’s who was up here for a Christmas break, mused about aspects of love.
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Little Ella gets to see a specialist about her tonsils

Mark had received the good news that after an insanely long wait due to Queensland underfunding of health care, 20-month-old Ella Lawrence will get to see a Brisbane specialist on the 26th of next month to assess her tonsils, which have been infected practically all her life. You might remember an interview with her mother just before Christmas. Her parents think that may have helped to get action. And most likely more clout came from Noosa MP, Glen Elmes, who passed the case and our interview on to the opposition spokesman for health and who told us that Queensland Health was in breach of the law in making the Lawrences wait so long.

Contact
To contact Diet or Mark email markrzz@bigpond.com, or leave a message with our receptionists between 9 and 5 weekdays at 5447 2233. Let’s have your tips on stories you’d like them to cover.