I know that I'm biased about Armidale. It's not just that I grew up there. It's really a great place.
Neil Whitfield, a fellow blogger, alerted me to Chris Walker-Bush's Aussie on the Road blog. It's quite a fun blog, but that's not the point of this post. Chris did Theatre Studies at UNE. His The Country Charms of Armidale records his liking of the place.
From my experience, he underestimates both parties and adventure! But it's still a nice picture.
It is just two months since I did my last New England media round-up, although I have been monitoring. Last time my focus was as the title said - Around the New England media 15 - small town & independent focus. This time I thought that I would take an east-west slice.
In Grafton, MP for Clarence Steve Cansdell (Nationals) remains concerned about the complete absence of Clarence Valley representation on the Northern NSW Local Health Board.
I actually blinked at the name. I didn't know that Northern NSW had a Local Health Board. It doesn't - this is the name for the Northern Rivers Board. The other New England Boards are Hunter-New England and Mid North Coast. This one is going to roll on for a while, I think. Tysona from Grafton was not impressed:
Steve's " not sure what happened" is not reassuring for his understanding of issues in general. If his comments are to be believed re Bob Thompson, it would appear the North Coast Nationals got rolled by the Sydney Libs. Steve's "not sure what he will achieve" is further evidence that the Nat's are really second fiddle to the Sydney Libs and not really any power in the government even over matter in rural areas. This does not bode well for the bush, and particularly our part of the bush. The Health Board now has one rep from Clarence, one from Tweed and the rest from Lismore, with the same ever persistent CEO married to an upper house Lib. New Health management structure ?? NO same old same old.
Meantime, Maclean is seeking to enhance its links with the Clarence River. The trigger is the development of the MacLean River Precinct Plan.
The aim of the plan is to maximise Maclean’s relationship to the river so that the town can be better accessed from the water by “yachties”, and so that visitors and residents in the town can get the most out of the river.
As an outsider who used to know Maclean quite well, this would seem to make a good deal of sense. One of the wonderful things about the Clarence is the varying relationship between river and the surrounding communities.
The claim applies to only crown land that is vacant and does not apply to public infrastructure of private holdings.
The map from the Grafton Daily Examiner shows claims. What the map doesn't show is that the Clarence is the junction of three major language groups.
To the north are the Bundjalung (also Bandjalang), there are the Yaegl at the mouth of the river and then the Gumbaynggir to the south. Yaegl is a Gumbaynggir language, but is sufficiently different to be classified as a language in its own right.
We now move inland up the Gwydir Highway. This original map from Mark's Clarence Valley Today shows the old and new roads to Glen Innes.
in Glen Innes, Wendy Watts has been re-elected as chair of the Australian Celtic Festival committee. New England has a strong Scottish connection. Maclean has, I think, the oldest continuous Scottish celebration in Australia, while Glen Innes has turned its Scottish connection into a national Celtic festival.
Continuing this theme, the Combined Gaelic Clans of Australasia Inc gathered at the Cooramah Aboriginal Cultural Centre for the Chieftain’s midwinter-dinner. Now there's a mix of the old, older and new!
Glen Innes is participating again in the Country and Regional Living Expo at Sydney’s Rosehill Gardens with a three member team: deputy mayor Col Price, Economic Development and Tourism manager Wendy Fahey and Economic Development and Tourism officer Melanie Fuller. Developed by Armidale's Peter Bailey, the Expo aims to market non-metro living to Sydneysiders interested in tree or sea change.
It's a slow process. I spoke of one success story in Sydney barrister tree-changes to Glen Innes.
Moving west just down the road to Inverell, the Inverell Times reports on the NSW State Government's plans to regulate wind farms. This has been quite a hot issue in the Glen Innes-Inverell area, with considerable community opposition.
The NSW opposition has called on the government to immediately clarify its position to put the concerns of rural and regional residents to rest. This led the Member for Northern Tablelands Richard Torbay to point out that this could be very much a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
“That’s a bit rich, coming from a former government that prematurely approved developments and over-rode the requirement for a two kilometre buffer zone,” Mr Torbay said.
In November 2009 Mr Torbay attacked the then Planning Minister for approving a wind farm near Glenn Innes where two residences were less than 900 metres from the turbines.
At the time Mr Torbay said the decision was unacceptable and flew in the face of Glen Innes Severn and Inverell council guidelines that turbines should be at least two kilometres from people’s houses.
He also labelled the Labor Government’s decision as premature because it pre-empted the recommendations of an Upper House Committee inquiry into wind farms, which was still sitting at the time.
New England's environmental battles, something that I have written on a fair bit, continue.
In Inverell, the council is also worried about the impact of the carbon tax.
“The first thing that we do know is that electricity has already gone up, and in our current budget we’re up for another $190,000,” Cr Johnston said.
“Near enough to $200,000 extra for electricity, that’s without the carbon tax, so we can only assume that will continue to go up; the other thing we are aware of in this proposal is if the diesel fuel rebate goes, that’s $150,000 – now for us to raise another $250,000 we would need a special rate rise of three per cent above inflation.
“Our recent 2.8 per cent rate rise did not keep up with our Index Of Costs for Local Government, in NSW there’s a rate pegging legislation, which is obviously popular, but council has to comply with every other law in the country too, we can’t cut wages, we can’t cut superannuation contributions, we can’t cut long service leave entitlements, so the only thing we can cut is our services,” Cr Johnston said.
Cr Johnston said people had to understand there were only two things council could do; do the job and pay for it or not do it and not spend the money.
Meantime, Federal Opposition leaders continue to maintain the anti-carbon tax campaign in the Inverell area.
Continuing down the Highway, we pass onto the plains and reach Moree. Here, like Inverell, national issues affect debate. In this case its the poker machine levy. The Moree Champion reports:
MOREE’S two registered clubs say they would have to close their doors if the Gillard Government pushes ahead with plans to introduce a ‘licence to punt’ for poker machine players.
The Moree and District Services Club and Moree Golf Club would face a $1.6 million bill to install the Federal Government’s mandatory pre-commitment technology. Revenues are also expected to fall by a further $3 million annually as recreational gamblers refuse to sign up for the Government’s pokie licence.
The general manager of Moree Golf Club, Geoffrey Benson, said that such a high installation cost was simply impossible to meet for not-for-profit clubs.
“The Federal Government is ignoring the important role clubs play in the community just so they can keep a Tasmanian independent MP onside,” he said.
“Here in Moree, our two clubs have more than 6200 club members in a town with a population of around 8000 people.
“We provide and maintain sporting facilities including an 18-hole golf course, two bowling greens and sports ovals. Without our two clubs, Moree locals would have to travel 100km to access these facilities.
“We also sponsor cricket teams, netball teams, junior golf, the local race club as well as a range of other local charities and organisations.
“The Government certainly won’t provide that community funding when we’re forced to close our doors,” Mr Benson said.
I am going to have to stop here. I have run out of time!
Outside the Northern Rivers where he had a farm and practiced in his later years, Alec Shand was not well known in New England. Yet he occupied a niche in New England history.
I don't know what it was about the Shands, but they were all larger than life. This was certainly true of Alec's uncle Don Shand.
John Athison's piece in the Australian Dictionary of Biography draws out some of the colour of the man. In 1947, Don founded East West Airlines, the airline seen by so many New Englanders as their airline. Alec's father, John Wentworth Shand, became a board member.
Now what I had not realised is that Alec later became a board member. There is actually in my mind a degree of confusion here. Mark's obituary refers to Alec as Don's cousin. He was in fact Don's nephew. So I'm not quite sure how father and son fitted together in the history of East West.
I have written a number of posts on EWA. I will do an overview post at a later point.
The painting, Cornflowers with Pomegranates 1991, is a pretty typical Olley work showing her mastery of colour.
Her recent death marks the end of an era. I have not yet seen a full obituary, but details of her life are covered in the ABC report Artist Margaret Olley dead (and here).
One thing that I had forgotten was that another painter with New England connections, William Dobell, had painted a portrait of Margaret Olley in 1948 that became something of a cause célèbre because of its style. The painting seems very mild now, but it did attract controversy then.
On a purely New England note, I see from the Lismore Northern Star that her death may create difficulties for Lismore's attempts to create a Margaret Olley gallery. Lismore, Margaret Olley's birthplace, has been struggling to raise funds. Another problem is that a number of places can claim an Olley connection, making time important.
Postscript.
I really love the comments and feedback I get! Anon wrote:
Margaret Olley also had connections to Newcastle.
She bought many properties on the The Hill and in Maitland and lived there for quite a few years in the 1960s.
She donated a painting a year to the Newcastle Regional Art gallery. Sadly they probably don't have enough space to display them.
She should be remembered as great New England artist.
So now we have three New England connections!
Postscript 2
In a comment, Greg kindly pointed me to this 2007 ABC interview between Peter Thompson and Margaret Olley. This shows quite clearly her affection for Newcastle.
I thought it worthwhile quoting a few bits in full.
On childhood:
MARGARET OLLEY: My earliest recollections of living in Tully, in north Queensland, were the sounds of the rain on Mt Tyson. You could hear the roar as it approached. It louder and louder. My mother would have time to run out and take the washing off the line.
My mother Grace has been a nurse and my father, Joseph, he was a farmer. I eventually was old enough to go to school and we had to ride across the Tully River 'cause when the river was swollen, you'd have to swim the horses across with your little feet above the saddle. I can always remember that. I think I must have fallen off a horse a couple of times.
Then I was sent to boarding school at the age of six, in Townsville. It certainly cuts the umbilical cord and makes you independent. Then we went down to live on the Tweed River. I think that's when my childhood really began.
And those days, the Depression was on. There was no money. We were living in the country. You made your own amusement. We rode across the river, picked up by the school bus and went to school in Murwillumbah.
I remember the whole of my school week seemed to gravitate round the art class. And when I left school, my mother would have loved me to become a nurse. Can you imagine! I think I would have killed a patient. But she said "Send her to art school."
On the Dobell controversy:
The painter William Dobell said he'd like to do a portrait of me. I was about to go up to Brisbane for holidays before I left for overseas. He did a few little drawings, one quick one, then he did a very detailed drawing. I never saw the painting until I came down from Brisbane with news that it had won the Archibald Prize.
VOICEOVER: Dobell. In the '40s, he rides the crest of fame on controversy. His portrait of fellow artist Joshua Smith is dubbed a caricature and grotesque. But he retains the Archibald Prize and in 1948, does it again with his portrait of young Brisbane artist, Margaret Olley. The critics again protest.
MARGARET OLLEY: And of course the publicity surrounding that award was horrendous. I've always been a shy person so I was not really prepared. There were photographers hounding me and the press were hounding me and quite frankly, I couldn't cope with it. You couldn't get away from it. I found it very difficult, when I came back, to even approach the painting. I really wanted to take another look at it but I kept thinking there must be somebody watching me, or a camera would come out, and I'd have to quietly go round the corner and take a peep at it.
PETER THOMPSON: You were emerging as an artist at this same time.
MARGARET OLLEY: I was, and it used to irritate me when people would say "The sitter of the Dobell prize." I used to say "And I also paint." I'd have to add very curtly "And I also paint."
On Newcastle:
Then I became interested in Newcastle. Of course, I love Newcastle. It's so masculine. The topography, it's just what a painter needs. I bought my first house in Newcastle and then a few others. Not that I made a lot of money there - I didn't. I just made enough to give me the freedom to paint. People used to say "Where do you live?" I used to say "I don't know, I live in a basket" because I always seemed to be on my way from Sydney and Newcastle to Brisbane. I had clothes and paintbrushes in every place. You just take a few things in the basket from one place to another........
Tonight I'm off to the Newcastle Regional Art Gallery. It's their talk on philanthropy, which I'm a great believer in. I'm going with Christine France and of course Christine France will be doing most of the talking. I haven't thought yet what I'm going to say but as I love Newcastle so much I hope it'll come out alright.
CHRISTINE FRANCE: Now I'm going to hand you over to one of Australia's greatest living benefactors and artists, Dr Margaret Olley, rate payer of Newcastle.
MARGARET OLLEY (at the lecture) : The marvellous thing is, I miss all that smog and that sort of humming in the night that used to be part of Newcastle. It was like the heartbeat of Newcastle. Lucy Swanton that ran one of the very few art galleries, she gave very generously. I used to think she was mad. I never, ever thought that I might be doing a similar sort of thing and get the same sort of favour.
She was a remarkable woman.
Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express on 20 July 2011. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because the Express columns are not on line. You can see all the columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011.
Have you ever heard of Karl Ludwig Wilhelm Kirchner? I hadn’t until just a few years ago, and yet he’s quite an important figure in New England history.
Wilhelm Kirchner as he is usually called was born in Frankfurt in 1814.
His father was a wealthy burger. Wilhelm received a good education and then, at age eighteen, went to Manchester to stay with friends. There he met two Sydney merchants.
Attracted by the idea of the new colony, he left for Sydney on the Mary arriving on 20 July 1839. Achieving commercial success, he became consul for Hamburg in 1846 and then persuaded the NSW Government to appoint him to bring German migrants to Sydney on a bounty basis, with the first 600 arriving in 1849. In the end, thousands of German migrants came to the colony over the next decade.
The Germany that they left was not the Germany that we know today. To understand this, we need to go back into history.
The Napoleonic Wars raged between 1803 and 1815. In many ways this was the first modern war in which the resources of the state were marshaled for the purposes of armed conflict. Had Napoleon won this war, it is quite possible that the French Empire would today be the dominant power in Europe, that the European colonial expansion would have been dominated by the French. Instead, the British Empire became the dominant global power.
Prior to the Napoleonic Wars, the territory that is now Germany formed part of what was called The Holy Roman Empire, or from 1512 The Holy Roman Empire of the Germanic Nation.
The Empire was always a somewhat ramshackle affair, caught in constant tensions between the centre and the competing parts. By the start of the Napoleonic Wars it was a crazy patchwork quilt of states, principalities, religious territories and free cities.
The Empire was formally dissolved in 1806 following military defeat by Napoleon. When Napoleon in turn was defeated, the Congress of Vienna in 1815 established the German Confederation as a loose confederation of 39 states and free cities. That is why Wilhelm Kirchner could become consul for Hamburg, for Hamburg was effectively an independent state.
Riven with internal conflicts and especially rivalry between Austria and Prussia, the Confederation collapsed in 1866 following war between Prussia and Austria. In 1871, the Prussian controlled German Empire was formed.
All this may sound complicated, and indeed it was. However, it sets a context, for many of New England’s German settlers came to escape the turmoil and sometimes persecution within their homelands. In doing so, they added greatly to the depth and texture of New England life.
The settlers that Wilhelm Kirchner himself brought out settled in various parts of New England from the Hunter Valley north. The German influence was especially strong in the Clarence Valley where Kirchner established significant business interests.
Many of the German settlers were what we would call today skilled migrants, skilled in building, wine making and various crafts. Many became very successful farmers and business people.
One of the Kirchner settler families, for instance, was John (Johan) Sommerlad and his wife Louisa Wilhelmina who became part of Tenterfield’s growing German community. Their son Ernest founded one of New England’s press families, a family that exercised a profound influence on the country press over several generations.
Like the Sommerlads or Jacob Scheef who settled on the Rocky River diggings, many of the German settlers were devout protestants who were to play active roles in church activities including the Methodist Church. However, the new arrivals were not just protestant.
The Ursuline nuns who came to Armidale in 1882 were also escaping religious persecution. Highly cultured, the nuns brought a different influence and perspective to New England life, enriching individual and community life in a variety of ways.
In the 1920s, a young English boy called Maslyn Williams was sent by his family to work as a jackaroo on a big station outside Tenterfield. Falling in love with Australia, Williams became one of Australia’s best known writers and documentary film makers.
In 1988, Williams published a best selling memoir, My Mother’s Country, on his life on the station.
In that book, he talks about the influence of the Ursuline nuns. He also talks about the local newspaper editor. Although he does not name him (Williams wrote in the third person and concealed or altered names), it is pretty clearly Ernest Sommerlad.
In writing, Williams was not concerned with Germans or Germany. Yet his book provides glimpses of the continuing German heritage now absorbed into the patterns of every day New England life.
I found that very satisfying.
I have written two stories on floods in Kempsey, both connected with the 1949 disaster - Belshaw's World - Kempsey disaster – six killed, huge damage, Aeradio and the 1949 Kempsey Floods. Now I see from the Macleay Argus that Kempsey Mayor John Bowell is worried about the state of the levees protecting the town.
One on the features of New England rivers is their quick rise with heavy rainfall. Quiet streams can quickly go to rampaging torrents.
I do wonder whether or not we need new approaches to flood mitigation. It's not an area I am expert in. I do know that in the 1950s there was a coordinated approach to the topic centred on dams and levies. The approach now seems to have become much more reactive. In fact, we seem to be struggling to maintain the work previously done.
I am not saying that we should build more dams, although that may be sensible in some case. I am just wondering how we get a better approach.
During the week there was an email exchange with Matt on my long standing desire to create a proper New England guide book, one that covers all of Northern New South Wales.
This photo of Australian band Cold Chisel comes from Newcastle's Urban Insider.
As I wrote in Round the New England blogging traps 21 - a few photos, Cold Chisel's song writer Don Walker came from New England.
Because of its industrial tradition, Newcastle has a gritty tradition. The band Silverchair came from Newcastle, while Cold Chisel had a very strong following there. If Walker's Flame Trees is about Grafton, "Star Hotel", an attack on the late-70s government of Malcolm Fraser, was inspired by the Star Hotel riot in Newcastle. It somehow seems appropriate that Cold Chisel should plan to begin its new national tour in Newcastle!
It is very hard for a single writer to capture all the elements of the ever changing textures of New England life. They are simply ignored by the dominant metro media. They just don't see the links, or the geographic or historical context.
That is one reason why I want a proper guide book. When I look at the influence of, say, the Lonely Planet guide books, they create a structure for others to enjoy the history and life of a particular area.
Further, once created, they (the guide books) acquire a life of their own because of the constant feedback to the guide book creators.
Who in Australia knows about the Newcastle musical tradition? Since they don't, local bands and venues have no chance to build on the tradition through visitor attraction. Just a small example, but it's one replicated across every aspect of New England life.
Postscript
Greg made an interesting comment on this post that I think worth repeating in full.
Hi Jim, I was at the Star Hotel on that night in 1979. Cold Chisel were indeed very popular in Newcastle and to this day some will even claim that Cold Chisel played. For the record it was actually local band Heroes.
The hotel was due to be closed permanently and Heroes were the last act to appear before it's demise. The Star was a popular live venue and it was standing room only as the pub was packed with emotion charged youth such as myself eager to send it out on high.
Unfortunately, the police were also there and on the nose of closing time shut the power and tried to empty the pub. It was a spark to a powder keg and the patrons reacted angrily - spilling over onto King Street, confronting the police, hurling missiles, upturning and setting fire to cars in what become an infamous confrontation played out on national news bulletins.
In addition to a thriving music and art scene, Newcastle is also a hotbed for dance. International artists such as Marilyn Jones, Dein Perry and Damian Smith all came from Newcastle and there are many Newcastle trained dancers on the international stage. Also Newcastle boy Rhys Kozakowski was one of the four boys who performed the lead role in the Australian musical stage production of "Billy Elliot".
Many high profile dance companies and schools around the world have Newcastle trained dancers in their ranks and Newcastle is recognised internationally as a breeding ground for excellence in dance.
At the concert hall of the Opera House this weekend is the final of the MacDonald Performing Arts Challenge (Sydney Eisteddfod). The tradition continues with two of the eight finalists in the solo section from Newcastle. Newcastle is also represented as one of the six finalists in the group section.
The arts tradition in Newcastle is alive and thriving and the city punches well above it's weight. It is ironic that Newcastle is perhaps better know internationally in this regard than right here in our own country.
Well done Newcastle, but it also demonstrates again the point I made in this post about out of sight, out of mind.
There is already a Manning River Summer Festival. Now I see from the Manning River Times that there is a Winter Festival as well.
Next year's Festival will be held over a four day period, June 7-10, 2012.
Sixty-four organisations have been approached and the organising committee is awaiting responses from them.
Roger Woodward, world renowned concert pianist, will appear in an afternoon concert at the Manning Entertainment Centre on Sunday June 10, on the new grand piano.
Other events already scheduled are: the art awards at Manning Regional Gallery, combined choirs concert, artists walk and art gallery exhibition, possible dance or ball and the Melbourne Comedy Festival.
Should your organisation wish to be involved in the program next year, contact president Mike Collins (02) 6553 6659 or Don Macinnis (02) 6552 3080. There doesn't appear to be a web site at this point.
I was fascinated to discover that Australian Bauxite had been investigating bauxite deposits near Guyra. You can find the company's press release here.
The map shows the drill hole locations, with thick, high grade bauxite marked in red.
It appears that the bauxite includes some exceptionally high grade, thick gibbsite bauxite suitable for use as a sweetner in bauxite refining.
Apparently, you mix the high grade with lower grade bauxite to accelerate the refining process.
You can see that the new discoveries are close to the now disused Great Northern Railway. The suggestion is that bauxite mining might support the re-opening of this portion of the line.
This post is just a short muse.
You would think that Peter Firminger (and @PeterFirminger)and I would not get on.
He is a Green supporter and I am not. He is seriously worried about mining development and is an active protagonist of the country and regional movements designed to stop certain mining activities in their tracks. I am more worried about New England economic development and consider that if environmentalists had had their way, had even existed in the past, then key economic developments would simply not have happened.
Yet despite all this, Peter and I cooperate. There are a number of reasons for this.
Both of us believe that local community development and empowerment is central. Both of us believe that current structures work against the local and regional, that blind imposition of centrally imposed rules by people who do not understand that their decisions can adversely affect people in ways that they barely understand is simply silly. Both of us support New England self government, the creation of constitutional structures based on geography and community interest that will make government more effective and representative. Both of us believe that that we must develop new approaches. And both of us are inclined to try to do too much in pursuit of new approaches!
Like Peter, I have been a community activist. I still wear sloppy joes carrying the slogan Save New England on the front, No Big guns on New England on the back. These date back to the days when Canberra wanted to turn a large proportion of the western half of the New England Tablelands into a military firing range. I get some very strange looks now when I wear them!
There is a blind insensitivity today in Government decision making. People do not recognise that Government decisions create a pattern of winners and losers. Perhaps more precisely, they do, but regard it as abstract and unimportant.
Take mining in the Hunter Valley. The costs of that mining are local. The economic benefits including taxation largely go elsewhere. You shouldn't be surprised, therefore, when locals object.
I am not saying that the local should override the benefits of the "broader good" however defined. I am saying that our current systems do not allow the local and the regional to be taken into account. They do not allow for a fair sharing of the costs and the benefits.
Those like Peter and I who argue for new approaches are ignored until the wheels finally fall off.
I listened to a radio report on coal development on the Liverpool Plains. Personally I support this. But the glancing reference to possible pollution of ground water on the program seemed oblivious to the fact that, and it is a fact, that these ground water reserves are the greatest reserves in Northern New South Wales, the broader New England.
The farmers who use this fact to attack mining are using its for their own ends. However, that doesn't of itself make the argument wrong. The public servants, politicians and mining interests who accuse the farmers of self-interest are just as guilty of the same.
My point is that we need more discussion, more analysis, to allow people to work though the issues. There will still be real differences at the end, there will still be winners and losers, but we will have a much more sensible final outcome.
