Family Secrets

We’ve been sitting at the kitchen table looking over old family photos. My mother was never one to talk about or delve into the past. A conversation with an old friend , [ they’d met in a refugee camp and came out to Australia on the same ship after The War ], the subject of their youth came up.
...

When Ross Hannaford Went Out West



I met Ross Hannaford in 1996-97. He was a middle age Australian Rock Legend and I was an improbable young entrepreneur. At face value we had very little in common. Apart from both living in Kew and we both wanted to get the fuck OUT ! Around this time Ross moved into a former workshop in Yarraville- he was a pioneer of 'warehouse' living in the West. He was getting the odd gig at The Commercial Hotel in Yarraville- the only music ...

Suburban Lifestyle


We have a mature walnut tree in the backyard which attracts cockatoos in droves around this time of the year. It’s party time for the cockies . I can protect the figs, plums, peach, pomegranates and persimmon trees from their ‘rape and pillage’ assaults but the walnut tree is far too large and unruly to cover. My father planted many of these tress over 50 years ago. Our backyard is a quasi Eden at certain times of the year when prodigious blooms and ripe fruit...

Andre’ Rieu vs Asian Pop Music
The Culture Wars Out West


I’m subjected to - forced to listen to a steady stream of both Andre’ Rieu and Asian Pop on a regular basis. We live on the edge of a Little Saigon Shopping Strip. A couple of DVD stores within earshot of the family house rotate Asia’s latest Boy-Girl Band R & B soundtracks and the annual Lunar Festival Celebrations sees us subjected to 10 hours of ‘non stop Asian Extravaganza entertainment’ on a grand scale. And ...

I’d heard some horror tales about bad trips to Morocco. Midnight Express like tales where small time dope deals turn out horribly bad- undercover police stings. Resulting in imprisonment and extortionate demands from crooked cops to drop charges . And a bloke I knew was over powered and sodomized by a carpet dealer in a Medina. I picked up a Moroccan travel guide while living in Germany and the opening paragraph read, 'Morocco, einmal und genug, oder immer wieder.' ‘Morocco, one time and nev...

‘Old Olympian’s’ Lust For Life
Film Maker’s Passion for Sport Ivan Gaal was selected to represent Australia at the 1960 Rome Olympics. This was an era when athletes in non high profile sports, such as canoeing were expected to pay their own way. Having escaped his native Hungary after the Soviet invasion in 1956, economic circumstances saw him unable to fund his fare back to Europe. Heartbreakingly he had to pass up the opportunity to participate. Ivan harboured niggardly ‘I could have been...

Lost Bloke’s Home
Still a Place For Ageing White Men


Melbourne’s Inner City is the domain of IT Professionals, upwardly mobile sorts of all persuasions, and that ubiquitous Lifestyle Loitering Lot. Laurie Davis isn't one of them. He was born and grew up in a Carlton light years from its present Lifestyle Hotspot. His formative years were a time long before Sushi Bars replaced Milk Bars. Holdens ruled the roads and John Nicholls was biffing blokes behind play at Carlton...

One Man’s Love of Music
An Old Punk who didn’t Burnt Out or Fade Away “You’re not really into music, are you ? ” A question posed to me by my daughter. She was comparing me to her boyfriend ‘who is really passionate about his music’. This got me thinking about my old mate Peter Miller. He was at the vanguard of the Punk Push in Brisbane in the late 1970s. Organizing gigs, playing in his band Just Urbain,producing records and generally flying the flag of the then nascent Punk movement. ...

The Best Grass in Town
Nimbin Bowlo- Rebels with a Cause There’s something out in left field about Nimbin Bowls Club. For starters visitors are welcomed by an artist commissioned 3D mural prominently plastered across the front of the club rooms. Then there’s the 3 flags flying from the mast, The Eureka Flag, a Skull & Dagger pirate’s flag and one sporting a Pink Elephant. There’s a palpable feeling of - ‘We do it differently in Nimbin’...and the back of the club’s business card cheekily r...

Rejuvenating Bowls Clubs.
And Why Pissheads Shouldn’t be Office- Bearers. Our club lost some prominent members last season because we’d become ‘too progressive’ in their reckoning. There are those who still doggedly cling onto a quasi Edna Everage Ethos of a 1960s Suburban Bowls Club as the ideal. Princess Park is a small club on the ascent, having won 4 pennants in the last three seasons [ RVBA & Bowls World combined]. Not bad for a club with only 55 bowlers on the books. We’ve taken some...