Ride4Rotary
This Sunday in the city, help raise funds for vulnerable young people
A fundraiser for Southern Youth and Family Services (SYFS), the Ride4Rotary is moving from Unanderra’s velodrome to Marine Drive this year for the first time in the event’s 10-year history. “There’s a 10k option, a 20k option, a 29k option, which is beautiful, takes you up the coast and back,” says Jason Saladino
at SYFS. “There’s also a loop around the lighthouse, which is 1.8km, which is ideal for for kids and families to do. It doesn’t matter how quick you ride or how many k’s you do. It’s about getting out in the sunshine and having a go and being engaged in the cause.” Register online or from 7am on Sunday at Lang Park.
May Daze fundraiser
From 6.3opm Friday at Towradgi Beach Hotel
Join Women Illawarra for their 3rd Annual Fundraiser; “May Daze; dreaming big for a better tomorrow”, A celebration of resilience and community, a night of enchantment, wonder and delight.
Walk into an enchanted room, a dream-like state where reality fades away and imagination takes over. This will be a night of entertainment,
canapes and libations to warm your heart and loosen your purse strings. With performances from local artists, a raffle and some fun games. Dressing up and dancing are highly encouraged! All funds raised will go towards supporting the Women Illawarra Building Fund.
Contact 02 4228 1499 or wi@ womenillawarra.org.au
Shopping by the sea at Kiama Farmers’ Market
By Cathy Law
KiamaFarmers’ Market is preparing for a temporary move from its prime location at Surf Beach to allow Kiama Council to rehabilitate the damage done by tidal storm surges in early April.
“The park was a mess of sand, debris and fish on the morning of our first market in April, which was heroically cleared away by a great team of volunteers,” says the market’s manager, Tricia Ashelford.
“The eastern side of the park is still covered by sand, which is killing the grass, so Council wants a few months from sometime in June to be able to fix it properly before Christmas.
“It will all be well-publicised and signposted, and we are hoping that
people will understand the need for the move.”
At time of writing the temporary location hasn’t been finalised, but nearby Chapman Oval overlooking Kendalls Beach is looking likely.
As the market heads into its 12th winter season, Tricia says the cooler days don’t lessen enthusiasm for farm fresh produce.
“Winter is often a time for hibernation, so there is something special about rugging up to enjoy some time by the sea with the rest of the community.
“There is no nicer way to support local growers and producers who are here rain or shine.”
Amongst the stallholders is
“There is no nicer way to support local growers and producers who are here rain or shine.”
– Tricia Ashelford on shopping by the sea at Kiama Farmers’ Market
Orange-based Yuri Hulak, who has been selling produce from a collective of growers since the market first started.
He says winter is all about citrus, with the mandarins followed by the navels and Valencias.
“We get the citrus from a farm at Peats Ridge designed by permaculture pioneer Bill Mollison, which is now run by a relative,” says Uri.
“That’s where we also get our avocados and quinces at this time of year.”
On the veggie front, expect cabbages and caulies from Uri’s cousin at Canowindra.
Guy McPhee of Egans Farm Runnyford, near Mogo, also comes up to Kiama each week. He says that his supply of eggs from pasture-raised chickens will slow over winter, but there will still be plenty for the market.
The beginning of winter will, however, see the tail end of the Robertson potato season.
“The frosts get us in Robertson, so we can’t plant over winter. Our season is from January to July,” says Nicky Hill of Hill Family Potatoes, a multigenerational farm that grows about 20 varieties.
“We stagger the varieties throughout the season and bring them all down to the market for people to try something different.”
She recommends giving the Royal Blues, Russets or King Edwards a try in a mixed bag, or you can stick with the
classic Sebago throughout the whole season.
The potatoes they sell at the market are dug up that week and will last for a couple of months.
Michaela Dimassi’s family farm in Tahmoor, Wollondilly Fresh, also comes to the market each week, topped up with produce from neighbouring farms.
“In addition to cauliflowers and cabbages, our winter produce will include tomatoes, zucchini and capsicums which we grow in big greenhouses with heaters,” she says.
While the recent rain has affected their outdoor crops, experience has led them to growing a bit of everything in the greenhouses which means supply can be guaranteed.
The market’s homegrown grower, Kerryn McInnis of The Passion Project – located on The Pines Kiama’s Saddleback Mountain farm – has learnt to cope with the torrential rain differently.
“It is still pretty wet, but because I did no-till beds there is so much organic matter in there the compost is holding a lot of water, so everything is still pretty happy,” she says.
“We’ve got Brussel sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower in the ground at the moment. They are down the bottom of the hill so they get more sun, with a big crop of leafier veg up higher.”
In addition to the market, her produce and seedlings are still available when The Pines do their pop-up on farm.
Toast to local, sustainable food
By Tyneesha Williams
“People
were after some education around the seasonality of food”
–
Phil Preston
OnMay 6, Impact Hour Illawarra hosted a sustainability meet-up and ideas exchange at Reub Goldberg Brewing Machine, Tarrawanna. About 40 people attended the event, eager to learn about local, sustainable food.
Speaker, author and event host Phil Preston says: “The biggest, most consistent theme that came out of this event was that local consumers and residents mightn’t have a real understanding about the options available in local food.”
The panel of sustainable food business experts answered questions about the future of local food, and what’s being done to bring fresh local food to the area.
The panel included:
• Jo-Anne Fahey, managing director of Darkes Glenbernie, a sixth-generation family fruit farm at Darkes Forest;
• Ryan Aitchison, publican of the Illawarra Hotel, managing director of the Smith Street Distillery and president of Business Illawarra’s Regional Advisory Council;
• Rod Logan, market garden coordinator at Green Connect, chair of Thirroul’s Flame Tree Food Co-op and co-founder of the Woonona Community Garden;
• Professor Karen Charlton, an expert in nutrition and dietetics at the University of Wollongong;
• Phil Preston, author of Connecting Profit with Purpose, co-founder of Impact Hour and Purpose Ignition.
“People were after some education around the seasonality of food – what’s the difference between supermarket options and going directly to a primary producer, or Green Connect, or someone else,” Phil says.
“Then, we were looking forward to how those producers and players in the region market what they’re doing, and what they are already doing, and how to educate the local community about that.”
Impact Hour Illawarra aims to bring together people passionate about business and sustainability to connect, learn and grow together. Since November last year, Impact Hour has hosted themed events every few months for local sustainability enthusiasts, researchers and climate-focused businesses. Attendees are welcomed to ask questions and join the conversation.
Phil says that Impact Hour is looking to bring together smaller local producers who are doing interesting things for their next event.
Every piece has a story May 9 - 26 Timbermill Gallery
We live in a world largely disconnected from our natural resources. This exhibition of local woodworkers will reconnect you to the stories behind the makings and the makers.
Opening Night Friday May 9 6pm - 8pm
Food, drinks and live music by Taylor Davis and Jess Reiss. Come celebrate and appreciate the amazing world of wood!
Meet the Makers
Friday May 16
6pm - 8pm
Nibbles and drinks
Stuart Montague Illawarra Woodwork School
Brett Davis Woodstories
Timbermill Gallery 2/6 Molloy St. Bulli
Why fungi hunting is for everyone
By Amanda De George
Fungi are popping up everywhere right now. I’ve had a couple of rounded earthstars (Geastrum saccatum) burst up from under the clothesline. Side note: I often use common names, despite the confusion they can sometimes cause. I’m all about keeping nature, and the observation of nature, accessible. More on that later.
These fungi are almost alien-like in appearance and this is the first time I’ve spotted them. After the second one popped up, I couldn’t wait any longer. It was time to hunt!
Along the Mt Keira Ring Track, among the moss-covered boulders and near a trickling creek, we found Violet-Toothed Polypore (Trichaptum biforme), occupying a huge, dead tree and overlapping each other.
This was another fungus I’d never seen before and my husband and I promptly named it ‘Purple Rain’ – he’s a Prince fan and I’m a sucker for a name that calls it like it is.
All photos: Amanda De George
Now this isn’t about searching for mushrooms for food, but rather seeing how many different shapes and colours you can unearth, looking around the leaf litter and on and around decaying logs and branches. Some are seriously tiny and so it takes a bit of skill, a lot of patience and the more eyes the better. So bring your friends!
Ferreting around closer to home, we found, along with countless leeches, a couple of Golden-Scruffy Collybia (Cyptotrama asprata), which wasn’t far off the ‘Yellow Fluffy’ as we had christened them. These incredible mushies are only small – the first we found was maybe a centimetre tall and the second just a little spiky blob nestled in a nook on a fallen tree – and they seem to glow in the gloom of the forest. Further along we found several stacks
Walk in the wild to find Hare’s Foot Fern of happiness
By Emma Rooksby of Growing Illawarra Natives
“The fronds of Hare’s Foot Fern, showing the mix of darker and paler colours on the rhizomes. While the newer shoots are pale, the more established part of the rhizome is covered in dark hair-like scales.” – photos by Conrad Denyer and Emma Rooksby.
Insome cultures, carrying a rabbit’s foot has been considered to bring good luck. Perhaps it still is? I’m always reminded of this bit of folklore when I see one of my favourite local ferns.
The Hare’s Foot Fern, Davallia solida var. pyxidata, is easily recognisable because its rhizomes look like little hares’ or rabbits’ feet. Particularly if you don’t know exactly what those feet look like, or the precise differences between them.
Sometimes the rhizomes are pale, particularly when young, while older rhizomes are covered with dark brown or black hair-like scales. Either way, it’s the loveliest thing to see, and always makes me smile and feel a bit better about everything, because it’s so soft, and furry, and footlike, and so so interesting.
In case you’re wondering, rhizomes are stems that can produce roots and shoots (more stems). With ferns, the appearance of the rhizome is often used to tell different species apart.
Most often ferns’ rhizomes grow underground, or just at the surface of the soil, and need to be unearthed if you want to check them for identification.
Hare’s Foot Fern is something of an exception though, and its rhizomes are often visible above ground, making identification straightforward.
This fern is also common in NSW and can be seen in local parks and reserves,
often growing on rocks, or right up in the forks of tall trees, where it mingles with orchids and other tree-dwelling ferns.
But back to that sense of well-being. It’s not only the Hare’s Foot Fern that brings calm and happiness, though that species is emblematic for me. Study after study has demonstrated the benefits of spending time in nature, on physical and mental health. There is even a growing field of ‘nature prescribing’ in which health professionals recommend people spend time in nature or outdoors (often in conjunction with other treatments).
An article in the Australian Journal of General Practice, by Illawarra experts Rowena Ivers and Thomas Astell-Burt, describes the process of nature prescribing for GPs, although many of the recommendations don’t involve being out in bushland (and I can’t see any mention of the Hare’s Foot Fern!).
Some studies look specifically at the benefits of being in forests. A few have found that spending time walking or contemplating in a forest reduces levels of stress hormone in the human body, while a 2014 meta-analysis by Colin Capaldi, Raelyne Dopco and John Zelenski found a positive correlation between feeling connected with nature and a sense of happiness or wellbeing.
So, if you haven’t already, it’s time to go out and make friends with those ferns.
WOLLONGONG VOLUNTEERING EXPO
WOLLONGONG TOWN HALL
WEDNESDAY 21 MAY 2025
9.30AM – 2PM
For information scan the QR code or visit wollongong.nsw.gov.au/vol-expo
Supported by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care.
Meet a range of organisations and get involved in your community
To coincide with the Thirroul Seaside & Arts Festival, we have invited Sydney eyewear designer Chris Savage to teach you how to combine traditional artisan techniques with the latest technology to hand make spectacles reflecting your own personal style. 18th May 10am Deposit required, to secure a spot call into See Side Optical
Vintage and Art Bazaar at Coledale
By South Coast Writers Centre direct Sarah Nicholson
“Join us at the bazaar to support the fundraiser and hunt down some unique art and vintage wares”
Coledale Community Hall’s delightfully retro interior is set to be transformed into a Vintage and Art Bazaar next weekend, with specially curated stalls offering one-of-a-kind art, handicrafts and vintage wares.
Vintage clothes, toys, records and book sellers at the bazaar on Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th include Goldtone Vintage, Romance Revisited, Cass Jones Vintage, The Bower, Juju’s, Fairly Ghetto Fabulous, and SCWC Good Books & Rare.
They will be joined by painters, fine art photographers, book binders, jewellers, and ceramicists, including Kabby’s Ceramics, Lazy Cherry Club, Karen Heffernan, Diane Zaharis, Lulu Ceramics, Ink Bound Studio, Mud In Mind Ceramics, Middle Valley Stationery, Gobstopper, and Yasashi Studios.
At Saturday’s Twilight Market, High Speed Dubbing DJs will set the stage by spinning vintage vinyl and you can have your tarot cards read by local sage Warrior Woman Oracle. On Sunday, you can make a day of it in Coledale by visiting the Coledale Markets down the road or stop off for lunch at our neighbours Coledale RSL, Earth
What’s next for offshore wind? Scientists plot path
By Genevieve Swart
Walker, Saltie Dog Crepes and Rosie’s Fish & Chips.
Held at Coledale hall, home of the South Coast Writers Centre, the inaugural Vintage & Art Bazaar is a fundraiser for the SCWC’s community writing programs, which include programs for low-income, young, First Nations and culturally diverse writers.
Join us at the bazaar to support the fundraiser and hunt down some unique art and vintage wares!
For more information, visit the SCWC website.
Independent research should be a top priority in the national roll-out of offshore wind projects, scientists recommend in a new plan released last Friday.
Associate Professor Michelle Voyer, one of the leaders of the Blue Energy Futures Lab at the University of Wollongong (UOW), is a co-author of the Australian Marine Conservation Society’s roadmap, titled Improving decision-making in relation to offshore wind.
“Our number one recommendation is that we need to get the framework in place to support ongoing independent scientific research,” Michelle said.
Read more here
South Coast Writers Centre
DJ mixes views, sunset and trop house on Windang Island
By Tyneesha Williams
InApril, 21-year-old Wollongong DJ Jordan Quill performed and recorded the first DJ set played at Windang Island.
“It was the perfect spot,” Jordan says. “There’s a beautiful spot at the very end where you can see a bit of the cliff, a bit of the ocean. It all worked out perfectly.”
The hour-long YouTube video features breathtaking views from the cliffs of Windang Island as the sun sets to the tune of Jordan’s mix.
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“It was a big challenge, doing it at sunset, because it left no wiggle room for error – and the tides. But we wanted to showcase the natural beauty that we have here on the Australian coastline,” Jordan says.
Taking inspiration from the beauty of the South Coast, Jordan is a producer of
tropical house music, a genre that grew in popularity in the 2010s, characterised by island-style beats and a sunny energetic tempo.
“That’s the sort of music I grew up listening to. I loved it so much and I think it really fits the scenery in some parts of the Illawarra,” he says.
“It’s a really nice vibe and that’s what I like to put in to my work. I always like to make it light and positive, even the songs that are less light, I still like to put a hopeful optimistic part to it.”
The genre ‘tropical house’ – or ‘trop house’ for short – was named by a 20-year-old Australian producer, Thomas Jack, in 2013. In the mid-to-late 2010s, the genre grew as artists like Kygo, Robin Schulz, Alex Adair and Sam Feldt began
DJ Jordan Quill on Instagram
to go mainstream and feature at renowned house and EDM festivals Tomorrowland and Ultra.
“A lot of the famous producers that used to do it have moved on to other genres, but I want to keep it going. I think there’s still an audience for it,” Jordan says.
“It’s not very popular anymore, but I like to think I’m keeping it alive, and making sure that it doesn’t go completely forgotten.”
Jordan has been producing music for about five years, and DJing for the past year. His journey started during Covid lockdown, when he started playing with music software to occupy himself.
“I instantly fell in love with it and realised that it was what I was born to do all along,” Jordan says.
“I care a lot about music and it’s really shaped who I am – so I figured I’d do it myself, and hopefully give that same experience to other people.”
Nowadays, Jordan is a resident DJ at Club Windang. He also plays at local venues including Pepe’s On The Beach, Towradgi Beach Hotel, Mr Crown and The Grand Hotel.
“DJing is the bread and butter of every music producer – you need it to get your music out there, to make money and keep going,” he says.
Since his first DJ gig in January 2024, Jordan’s passion has grown to be his only source of income, and pays for major projects such as his video on Windang Island. He is grateful to everyone who
has helped him out along the way.
“My older brother, Jack, helped me with the drone footage, the video wouldn’t have been possible without him,” Jordan says. “My dad helped me out with advice and selecting gear to be as portable as possible.
“I reached out to DJ Phikey, who does similar videos on YouTube and he gave me a lot of advice and was very kind and encouraging.”
Jordan’s producer friends, Qwill (Switzerland), Railow (Germany) and Pavis (UK), all made tracks that are included in the Windang Island set.
“I found that their songs worked really well in the set, and even just having their songs was helpful and really nice to have them involved.”
Jordan has plans for more videos around the Illawarra, as he works on his sixth album. The Windang Island video debuts his new track Take Us There, ahead of the album’s release.
“I’ve got quite a few things on the horizon that I’m looking forward to. I’ve got my first gig with Yours and Owls coming up. Which is a big step in my career,” he says.
Jordan is playing a set at Dicey Riley’s on 15 June, supported by Yours & Owls. In coming months, he is also teaming up with friends from the local area to start his very own record label, called Golden Skies Records.
Keep up to date with Jordan on Facebook and Instagram @ jordanquillmusic
“It was a big challenge, doing it at sunset, because it left no wiggle room for error – and the tides. But we wanted to showcase the natural beauty that we have here on the Australian coastline.”
– DJ Jordan Quill
One of the world’s top human rights lawyers visited Wollongong last week, sharing a message of determination and hope. Chris Sidoti is a UN commissioner who worked on a report titled “More than a human can bear: Israel’s systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October 2023”. He joined a panel with Sara Saleh, activist Safaa Rayan and Dr Bushra Othman, a Palestinian Australian surgeon. Read more…
Hope in the Climate Era
By Genevieve Swart
Scenes from the Climate Era opened at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre (IPAC) this week, with nibbles on everything from zombie mice to a post-aeroplane planet. Of the 50 scenes in David Finnigan’s play, actor Nic English is most looking forward to sharing the story of Smiley the frog.
TICKETS
Find Tickets
$55-$65, via the Merrigong website
“My favourite part of the play, I get to play a man who looks after the last remaining silver fringe-limbed tree frog in a shipping container,” Nic says.
Scenes from the Climate Era provides great scope for its actors, with five cast members performing 50 short plays.
“The play’s a series of scenes dealing with the climate era, climate crisis, climate science, everything really, from a whole bunch of different perspectives,”
Nic says. “I play, at one point, a husband talking to his partner about having a baby in the climate era and, at another point, a scientist in the ‘80s talking about predicting the climate on a computer and being sceptical about that.”
Stan viewers may recognise Nic from TV’s Ten Pound Poms, in which he played Robbie. The Sydney-based actor is new to Scenes from the Climate Era, having joined the cast just two weeks ago after finishing a show at Belvoir called Big Girls Don’t Cry
Fresh cast in Climate Era
“Belvoir did the original production in 2023,” Nic says. “We have one returning cast member, but four new cast members, myself included, and we had a
week to rehearse it, which is nuts, absolutely crazy.
“So I’m very proud of the work that we’ve put in, and very proud of the show.
“There’s a couple of nods to policy and politics and stuff which get a bit of a chuckle. Have things changed? It feels like the conversations around the climate and action have kind of plateaued, I think, or taken a back seat to other issues.
“Hopefully this puts it back into people’s conversation and starts them talking about it again.”
Nic is a millennial and, for his generation, one of the show’s key takeaways is it’s okay to flip between hope and despair.
“You don’t have to sit in one space for your entire life,” he says.
“It’s okay to despair but I think it’s important to remember that you can always come back to hope.”
Nic says people have told him scenes stay with you long after the performance.
“It’s very funny. I hope it does provoke people to take a strong viewpoint, whatever it is. I think that’s the value of good theatre.
“The play kind of has a theme of the stages that people go through when they’re dealing with the climate crisis. I think that that resonates.”
Personally, starring in the play has “just fortified” his opinions.
“It’s easy to be apathetic, so I think it’s emboldened me.”
The show runs for an hour and 20
minutes with no interval and Merrigong Theatre Company recommends it for ages 15+.
“I think young people should see it,” Nic says, “because they are the people who are going to inherit whatever we leave behind.”
Wind farms in focus
The Wollongong performances come after Labor’s landslide election win, a significant moment in the local energy transition, as former opposition leader Peter Dutton had promised to cancel the Illawarra’s offshore wind zone if elected.
“That’s going to be fascinating, because there’s a scene where we’re talking about wind farms, and wind farms versus coal,” Nic says.
“It just unpacks the complexities around people’s preferences when it comes to renewable energies. Like it’s not a ‘one size fits all’ approach, and I think in order to engage people, you have to listen to what they’re saying, what the concerns are, without being judgmental.
“That kind of scene, it’s just really interesting to me, because I’d never thought of wind farms as being problematic.”
The show will be at IPAC from May 14-17 and Nic is looking forward to exploring Wollongong.
“If anybody does come and see it and they have had some questions or want to chat about it and they see us in the street, please come up and have a chat. We’d love to hear what your thoughts are.”
“It’s very funny. I hope it does provoke people to take a strong viewpoint, whatever it is. I think that’s the value of good theatre”
– actor Nic English
