24 January - 30 January 2012– Issue: 396
The hit list
Forget the barbie!
What’s going to make the Hottest 100?
Aussie tastes for Aussie Day
AUSTRALIA DAY P10
VOICES P15
The Anzac spirit
An unforgettable trip to Gallipoli TRAVEL P16
UK AUSSIES OF THE YEAR n
Hundreds gather at Australia House to honour 2012’s Australians of the Year in the UK
By Tim Martin AUSTRALIA Day was celebrated in London early this year as the Australia Day Foundation held their annual gala event to celebrate some of the exceptional Australians living and working in the United Kingdom. Over 300 guests gathered at Australia House on Saturday for an evening themed the ‘Celebration of Australia’s Olympic Heritage & Heroes’, with dignitaries including Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and Australian High Commissioner John Dauth. “Australia Day is a day when Australians across the country and overseas celebrate what is truly great about Australia and being Australian,” the Australia Day Foundation told Australian Times in an official statement. “It is a day when we reflect on what we have achieved and what we can be proud including our values of freedom and democracy. “It is a day to celebrate our cultural diversity and to acknowledge the contribution of both Indigenous Australians and those who have come from more than 150 countries to make Australia their home. “In the UK, it is also a day to recognise the benefits we have
Green & Gold Special Edition
AUSTRALIA DAY Let’s come together and celebrate! | From p6 gained from our British heritage and appreciate the close links that are retained between our nations.” The prestigious Australian of the Year in the UK Award was this year awarded to celebrated Australian comedian and actor, Barry Humphries.
Awarded annually since 2004, it salutes an Australian who has excelled in their own right in Britain “Barry Humphries is quite simply one of the funniest and most revered artists Australia has produced and he is loved by millions of people
FREE ENTRY TO MINISTRY OF SOUND
EVERY FRIDAY SEE PAGE11 FOR DETAILS...
throughout the world,” Australia Day Foundation chairman Philip Aiken told the gathered guests. And as usual, Humphries stole the show and was at his hysterical best in
Push to recognise indigenous Australians in the constitution INDIGENOUS Australians should be recognised in the body of the constitution and racist sections should be scrapped, an expert panel has recommended. Labor has promised to hold a national referendum on the constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians on or before the next federal election, due in 2013. An expert panel of 19 indigenous leaders, politicians and legal minds travelled the country last year holding public meetings on the issue. They presented their report to the government at the National Gallery in Canberra on Thursday. The panel recommends recognition should take place in the body of the constitution, rather than by inserting a new preamble. “There is too much uncertainty in having two preambles,” the report says. It recommended inserting a new section (51A) to recognise that “the continent and its islands now known as Australia were first occupied by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.” The new section will also acknowledge the continuing relationship of indigenous people with their traditional lands and waters. It will also respect the continuing cultures, languages and heritage of indigenous people and acknowledge the need to secure their advancement. The expert panel also called for new section (116A) to prohibit racial discrimination. “The panel came to the view that there is a case for moving on from the history of constitutional non-recognition of Aboriginal ...continued on p4
...continued on p5
AUSTRALIA DAY PARTY FRIDAY 27 JAN Aussie beers and barbie DJs spinning TripleJ Top100 tunes FREE ENTRY to Ministry of Sound for afterparty
2 | News
24 January - 30 January 2012
Happy Australia Day! Publisher: Bryce Lowry Editor: Tim Martin Production/Design: Tamzyn Brookson Australia Editor: Ashlea Maher Music Editor: Paul Judge Contributors: Shannon Crane, Kate Ausburn, Sara Newman, Justin Ng, Phill Browne, Kristy Kenny, Carmen Allan, Mario Hannah, Amy Fallon, Rose Callaghan, Lesley Slade, Simon Kleinig, Kris Griffiths, Guy Logan,
Nathan Motton, JP Breytenbach, Cameron Jenkins, Will Denton, Leigh Johnston, Lee Crossley, Shane Jones, Adrian Craddock, Liam Flanagan, Emily Banyard, Mel Edwards, Raquel Messi Advertising Manager: Dominic Young Directors: P Atherton, J Durrant N Durrant, R Phillips and A Laird Additional content:
WHO ARE WE? Australian Times is written and compiled by young Australian journalists living in the UK. Contributing on a volunteer basis, they are uniquely placed to reflect the interests, opinions and attitudes of our community. If you would like to join us, contact info@australiantimes.co.uk ADDRESS: Unit 7C, Commodore House Battersea Reach, London SW18 1TW TEL: 0845 456 4910 EMAIL: info@australiantimes.co.uk
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right said ed > TIM MARTIN
G’DAY and welcome to the ‘green and gold’ edition of Australian Times. Basically, it’s an extra special edition of your weekly Aussie newspaper jam packed full of even more Aussie goodness. And as you may have guessed already, it’s all in celebration of Australia Day (which falls on Thursday this week, 26 January). Australia Day is a very special occasion, no matter where you are in the world, and to commemorate this we have a very special Australia Day section, starting at page 6. We’re humbled to have the Australian High Commissioner, Mr John Dauth, pen an introductory note to you on page 7. We’ve got our awesome writers giving you insights into what Australia Day means to them (p8-p10). Australian human rights advocate Peter Tatchell explains why he thinks Australia’s capital cities should be renamed (p9). And we’ve got the low down from the Australian of the Year (in the UK) awards ceremony held at
Your Say On: Don’t head home to Australia too early!
So true! Thought of going home does scare me! I just know by touching aussie soil for good will automatically add an extra 5 to 10 years on my life. Everything slows down and you’re expected to settle down like everybody else. So not ready for that, I think I might stay for a tad bit longer! :) Cam AustralianTimes.co.uk/voices What happens when your visa runs out and you’re still not ready to go back? Such is my case and having been back for a little over a month, I can’t stop thinking about life back in London. Everything you said reigns true Kristy. Nik AustralianTimes.co.uk/voices
Every day on …
? What’s your view
Australia House on Saturday night continued on page 5. In case that wasn’t enough for your insatiable appetite of all things ‘fair dinkum’ and ‘true blue’ – we’ve got what songs are likely to make Triple J’s Hottest 100 this year (p10). We’ve got a very comprehensive guide of where you should be celebrating Australia Day around London (p12). And we take a wander down nostalgia alley with the songs that make us most homesick on page 13. But wait – there’s more! All your usual favourites like The Hard Word, Chris’s Kitchen, Bron In The Don and Life After London aren’t left out – they get a run on pages 14 and 15. And on page 22, we cater to the Brits among you (and those curious Aussies thinking of heading home) with a very special Move To Australia section. And who could forget travel? We look towards the other huge day on the Australian calendar, Anzac Day, on pages 16 and 17, and get a feel for the Gallipoli spirit. Done yet? Don’t think so! Sport gets ‘green and golded’ too – with Bernard
Tomic, Tim Cahill, Neil Robertson and many more making the grade! So grab a cold one, put your feet up and settle in for a long and exciting ride as we pave the way to what could just be the best Australia Day you have ever had. Because let’s face it. If you’re not spending Australia Day Down Under, London’s probably the next best place to be (as long as you have your Aussie Times). Enjoy and happy Australia Day from the entire team at Australian Times. We hope it’s bonza!!
Sometimes I wonder who whinges more, Brits or Aussies? Aussies come to London and whinge about how everything is better back home. Then they go back home and do the same. We live in what the rest of the world considers a paradise. Boo-hoo. Mike AustralianTimes.co.uk/voices
nationals) flock over to earn a living. Aus is a land to settle (which is only applicable for grown ups), London is a land to party, experience and travel. So it is fair to say, come back only when you are prepared (mentally and financially) ready to settle into reality. Audrey@Sydney AustralianTimes.co.uk/voices
Yikes I’ve been here for 9yrs and now ready to return…. Or not after reading that ;/) Dee AustralianTimes.co.uk/voices
Perfectly written and what a laugh. For all these reasons; I do not want to return back home. Let’s face it, it will eventually happen… but i would rather it didn’t. You’ve made me scared now. Craig AustralianTimes.co.uk/voices
How can someone coming back from London be broke? Maybe is all the traveling and partying. One thing the article didnt mention, is that the salary of professionals in Aus is still relatively higher than England in general, and that the economy is doing relatively well here. That is why things and houses are expensive (people can afford it), and why many British (amongst other
Don’t forget, you can read everything that is in the paper and more at AustralianTimes.co.uk Tim Martin is the Editor of Australian Times
Still pining for Europe. Best two years of my life. Jelly of my friends still over there. Charles AustralianTimes.co.uk/voices
Share your comments on these and more stories online: AustralianTimes.co.uk
News | 3
AustralianTimes.co.uk
Xenophon warns of ALP conflict of interest ANTI-GAMBLING politician Nick Xenophon is concerned the Labor Party has a conflict of interest with the proposed mandatory pre-commitment pokie machine trial in the ACT. Ms Gillard announced at the weekend the government will pay ACT clubs $37.1 million from February 2013 to host the trial, to cover the cost of mandatory precommitment technology on poker machines and to boost funding to counsel problem gamblers. The decision broke a signed agreement with Mr Wilkie, which helped deliver her minority government, to legislate for a national roll-out of mandatory precommitment technology by May 8 this year. Mr Wilkie has now withdrawn his support for the government, but said he would support a no-confidence motion against Labor only in the event of serious misconduct. Independent senator Nick Xenophon says he is concerned Labor has a conflict of interest.
Canberra Labor Club Group, which is owned in part by the Labor Party, runs four clubs in Canberra with 488 poker machines. He said the Canberra Labor Club Group donates $600,000 to the ALP federal coffers. “You need to ask whether the compensation package that this trial is envisaging will directly or indirectly end up in the coffers of the Labor Party,” he told ABC Radio. The Gillard government has specificied ACT clubs involved in the trial must not use the Commonwealth money for political donations, but Senator Xenophon is not satisfied by that condition. “The compensation could end up paying the clubs more than what it actually costs them in terms of this trial. They could be better off financially,” Senator Xenophon said. “So it follows that the ALP could be a beneficiary of taxpayer funds.” – AAP AustralianTimes.co.uk/news
71 Charged at Big Day Out A 24-YEAR-old man has been accused of trying to smuggle a stash of ecstasy tablets into a music festival on the Gold Coast. The man was one of 71 people charged by police at the first of five Australian Big Day Out festivals on Sunday. Drug detection dogs were deployed at the entrances to the festival, which attracted more than 35,000 patrons to the Gold Coast Parklands. Police said the man was found with 40 MDMA tablets and a small amount of cannabis. He has been charged with eight counts of supplying a dangerous drug. A total of 16 people were arrested on 28 charges at the festival, 41 patrons were handed with notices to appear and 68 liquor infringement notices were issued. Ground staff evicted 63 people.
CHEMICAL REACTION: Frank Iero of My Chemical Romance at the Big Day Out on Sunday. (AAP Image/Bradley Kanaris)
The music festival, headlined by American rapper Kanye West and 90s rockers Soundgarden, will next be held in Sydney on Thursday, before moving to Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. – AAP AustralianTimes.co.uk/news
Cliff Young shuffles into ABC telemovie AT 61 years old, potato farmer Albert Ernest Clifford “Cliff” Young transfixed the nation when he ran 875 kilometres to win the Westfield Sydney to Melbourne ultra-marathon in 1983. Young not only beat world-class athletes and competitors several years his junior, he earned himself a gold medal as an Aussie sporting hero. Now, eight years after his death, his life and athletic career will become the subject of an ABC telemovie produced by Clock End Films. The film, titled Cliffy, will follow Young’s journey from training in paddocks in country Victoria to his 1983 win, which earned him a spot in history
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books, and in many Aussies’ hearts. “It’s a story that people remember so fondly because what he did was such an extraordinary feat,” director Dean Murphy told AAP. “Just to run from Sydney to Melbourne in itself is a feat, but to do it in six days and as a 61-year-old and to beat some of the world’s best athletes is amazing.” The telemovie also follows the aftermath of the race, when Young was thrust from Beech Forest in rural Victoria into the media spotlight. Along with winning the race, Young also pioneered what is thought to be an energy-saving running technique labelled the Young Shuffle. Filming for Cliffy, which is funded by Film Victoria and ABC Commercial, begins in April and will take place predominantly in Albury-Wodonga and regional Victoria. Casting is currently underway. “We’re looking at pretty good cast. Hopefully we should be able to announce the role of Cliffy soon,” Murphy said. “Most filming will take place in Victoria. Unfortunately, some of the places he (Young) spent a lot of time don’t exist anymore so we’re recreating some places.” The telemovie is expected to be completed and aired by January 2013. – AAP AustralianTimes.co.uk/news
4 | News
24 January - 30 January 2012
Indonesians unhappy with Abbott asylum plan Bligh rapped over Qld poll uncertainty n
Indonesian police are the latest to voice concerns about the n Liberal National Party (LNP) leader coalition’s plan to turn asylum seeker boats around at sea but Campbell Newman says Queenslanders Opposition Leader Tony Abbott isn’t backing down. want Premier Anna Bligh to put an end to the uncertainty she’s creating and call an MR Abbott has long promised that a (AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy) coalition government would turn the election now. boats back to Indonesia when it’s safe to do so. But with offshore processing now in legal doubt he is putting fresh emphasis on the plan, calling it a “core policy”. Mr Abbott has suggested the policy would now apply to more boats, including those that had been damaged or sabotaged. They would be repaired before being sent back to Indonesia. But Indonesian National Police spokesman Saud Usman Nasution on Monday said Indonesia was bound by international obligations towards asylum seekers, as was Australia. “For asylum seekers, I think we can’t just send them away, we have to send them to UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees),” Inspector-General Nasution told AAP. “I think Australia is also bound by this regulation. There’s international regulation on it and no one can ignore that.” Inspector-General Nasution is the latest in a long line of people who have expressed concerns about the coalition’s policy. Former Australian Defence Force head Chris Barrie on Monday also questioned the safety and likely effectiveness of the policy. Admiral Barrie said the policy “might work in a few instances” but that it would quickly get very hard as asylum seekers resorted to extreme measures to prevent being towed back. “I just can’t see this problem disappearing,” Admiral Barrie told Sky News. Mr Abbott is unapologetic about the policy.
“THEY BELONG TO INDONESIA”: Tony Abbott says sending asylum boats back to Indonesia is a “core policy” for the coalition. “The navy has done it safely before, there’s no reason why they can’t do it safely again,” Mr Abbott told reporters in Sydney. “I have full confidence in the professionalism of the navy to carry out the reasonable instructions of the government.” Mr Abbott dismissed suggestions that such a policy would damage relations with Indonesia. “I am entirely confident that the next coalition government will have vastly better relations than the current government,” he said. “I make the point that these are Indonesian-flagged, Indonesiancrewed, Indonesian-ported vessels. They belong in Indonesia.” But Immigration Minister Chris
Bowen maintains the Indonesians will not tolerate the policy. “Indonesia has said very clearly and repeatedly that they will not accept boat turnarounds,” Mr Bowen told ABC Radio. “They just won’t co-operate with it, and so the big problem with Tony Abbott’s plan is it just doesn’t work.” Last year, the police officer who then had overall responsibility for Indonesia’s anti-people-smuggling operations said the plan to turn boats around was inhumane and dangerous. “It will certainly affect relations if (Australia) turns boats away,” Brigadier-General Agung Sabar Santoso said at the time. – AAP AustralianTimes.co.uk/news
Say, ‘yes’ to constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians, urges Gillard Continued from p1...
Queensland economy were being affected by the “uncertainty Anna Bligh’s creating”. “Queenslanders want an election,” he said, adding that he didn’t mind if Queenslanders went to the polls before or after the report was delivered. “I think the election should happen in a timely manner, so we can end the uncertainty. “They want the premier to make the call, make the announcement and end all this political game-playing she’s been engaged in. They want to see the state in a new positive direction.” Mr Newman said media reports suggesting that engineers operating Wivenhoe Dam when South-East Queensland flooded last summer had breached the manual were “compelling and disturbing”. Many Queenslanders blame the dam for the scale of the damage in Ipswich and Brisbane but hydrology experts have argued that lower water levels or a higher dam wall would have made minimal difference last January. The Australian newspaper reported on Monday that documents showed that during the weekend before the flood hit Brisbane the dam operator was using the wrong water release strategy. Mr Newman said the issue needed to be addressed by the commission, which he trusted was completely independent. Ms Bligh, whose popularity surged following the floods, said the accusations regarding the dam were unfounded. “The Commission of Inquiry made the assessment that in fact the dam was being operated as it was required to be,” she said. Mr Newman is to outline the LNP’s property and construction policy at a breakfast in Brisbane on Tuesday. – AAP AustralianTimes.co.uk/news
Immigrants can help Australia prosper: Teo
AAP Image/Julian Smith
and Torres Strait Islander peoples and racial discrimination and for affirming that racially discriminatory laws and executive action have no place in contemporary Australia,” the report said. The panel also proposes a new section (127A) stating the national language of Australia is English while recognising that “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages are the original Australian languages, a part of our national heritage.” Prime Minister Julia Gillard said changing the constitution would recognise the “unique and special place of Aboriginal people and strengthen the identity of our nation”. “It’s a great opportunity to continue the journey of reconciliation that began with the previous referendum in 1967,” she said. “To constitutional recognition, I urge our whole nation to say, ‘yes’.” The panel urged the government to hold the referendum as a single question, consult widely about the timing and fund an extensive education program about the issue. It also said the referendum should not be held at the same time as a vote on constitutional recognition of local governments. “For many Australians, the failure of a referendum on recognition of
SPECULATION of an imminent election has been mounting for weeks but Ms Bligh has continued to fend off such claims by telling reporters “not until ..”. First she said she would wait until the first anniversary of the Queensland floods had passed. Next there was a visit to regional Queensland. Ms Bligh on Sunday said Queenslanders had “more than enough to get on with this week” with kids returning to school and Australia Day. She said an election would not be called until the Labor government had received a report about its new plan to abolish Queensland Health, as well as the final floods report. Ms Bligh, before going into Labor’s first caucus meeting of the year at a new school in Brisbane’s north on Monday, said Queenslanders would get to see the flood commission’s final report before going to the polls. “The most desirable outcome is for people to see it first,” she told the reporters. “That’s the best thing to do.” Of the 175 recommendations made by the commission in its August interim report, Ms Bligh committed to implement all 108 relevant to the state government. A report card issued by the government in November showed about 80 had so far been completed. The final report is due to be handed down on Friday, February 24. Although Ms Bligh says she will hold an election only after the report is made public, she can still nominate the date in the meantime. The government’s three-year term expires in March and an election must be held by June 16. Mr Newman told reporters on Monday that all sectors of the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would result in confusion about the nation’s values, commitment to racial non-discrimination, and sense of national identity,” the report said. “The negative impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would be profound.” Outdated discriminatory sections recommended for the cutting board include: section 25, which says an Australian voter could be excluded from voting on the basis of race and
section 51(xxvi) on “race power”. The panel said aspiration of sovereign status had been a significant issue to emerge during public consultations with indigenous people. But the panel believes recognising the sovereign status of indigenous people would be highly contested and likely to jeopardise broad public support. - AAP AustralianTimes.co.uk/news
HIGH-PROFILE brain surgeon Charlie Teo says immigrants are generally good people who could make Australia as prosperous as the US. Dr Teo, the son of Chinese immigrants, said racism in Australia was not as bad as other countries but it still existed. “Is it something that we need to accept as the Australian psyche? Absolutely not,” Dr Teo told reporters after his Australia Day address in Sydney on Monday night. “Why can’t Australia be the gold standard of non-racist environment? “We should start talking about it, we should see that it exists, then we can do something about it. “Any racism, in any form, any degree is a bad one.” Dr Teo said he lived and worked in the US for 10 years and believes Americans have better attitudes towards immigration. “Once immigrants make it into America they are really, really embraced and are given lots of opportunity,” he said. “It’s not like I want Australia to open up the floodgates and let everyone in but we do have to think about the concept of immigration and the concept of immigration is that it does add to the wealth of the country. “Once you accept that immigrants
are actually good for your country then hopefully people’s attitudes and their kindness will improve. “You start with the basic premise that the majority of people that come to this country are good people.” In his Australia Day address, Dr Teo urged Aussies to share their country and put aside their anger. “I want everyone who find themselves angry and intolerant to think first about the misfortunes - such as those with cancer,” Dr Teo said. “I want anyone who has come from another country to embrace the Australian way of life. It has served us well. “I want all Australians to see how immigrants have contributed to our nation and to appreciate that a rich and prosperous country such as ours has a moral and global responsibility to share our resources. “Finally I want to thank Australians for giving me professional and personal fulfillment, for believing in me when some of my colleagues didn’t, for seeing a Chinaman as an Aussie, not as a foreigner.” The Australia Day address has provided commentary on national identity since 1997. – AAP AustralianTimes.co.uk/news
News | 5
AustralianTimes.co.uk
Young Aussie of the Year in UK
ONE of the world’s foremost retail consultants and fashion trend forecaster, Yasmin Sewell, was also honoured at the gala night picking up the Young Australian Achiever of the Year in the UK award. “I got married two weeks ago and had a baby a few months ago so it’s been an amazing couple of months actually,” a delighted Sewell said at the event. Originally from Coogee, NSW, Sewell now calls London home and has carved out a very successful career in the fashion world. In 1999, at just 21-years-old, Sewell set up her own boutique Yasmin Cho in London’s Soho and it was listed by the New York Times as one of the top five boutiques in the world, described as an Aladdin’s cave of almost 50 undiscovered designers. Known for her knack of predicting the “next big thing”, Sewell has launched the careers of many of the most influential designers of today such as Rick Owens, Pierre Hardy, Christopher Kane and Acne. She set up her own consultancy in 2008, and now works with her team on projects including retail strategies, trend direction for fashion brands and
creative direction for young designers. Some of her projects have included London’s Liberty Department store, Westfield (both in Australia and the UK) and working for the British Fashion Council and she is a regular judge of the British Fashion Awards. “Yasmin Sewell has proved that if you are exceptionally talented and have a commitment and love of what you do you can achieve great success in your chosen field and that is why the Australia Day Foundation considers her a worthy recipient of this award,” Philip Aiken, chairman of the Australia Day Foundation said. Sewell is committed to supporting young talent in the fashion industry. Her eye for new designers is well known, and this reputation has been acknowledged through Sewell’s work with the British Fashion Council where she consults on its mentoring programs with young designers. She frequently travels back to Australia where she consults to a variety of clients, from brands, to high street retailers and designers. Sewell is very passionate about continuing to work in Australia because she considers it an important global market place.
WINNERS ARE GRINNERS: Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, Barry Humphries (Australian of the Year 2012), Yasmin Sewell (Young Australian Achiever of the Year 2012), Matthew Jukes (Honorary Australian of the Year 2012), Phil Aiken (Australia Day Foundation chairman) and John Dauth (Australian High Commissioner) celebrate at the Australia Day Foundation Gala at London’s Australia House. Images by Annabel Moeller
British wine writer Matthew Jukes becomes an honorary Australian in 2012
ONE of the UK’s most influential and popular wine writers, Matthew Jukes, has become this year’s recipient of the Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK award. Honoured at the Australia Day Foundation gala evening, Jukes was celebrated for his work promoting Australian wine and charity work. “Matthew Jukes has undoubtedly made a huge contribution to the Australian wine industry and as Patron and Founder of ‘Touch Wine Australia’ Matthew Jukes is a truly worthy recipient of the 2012 Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK award,” chairman of the Australia Day Foundation Philip Aiken said. In a wine trade survey, UK retailers were asked which wine writer has the most influence over their customers. The answer was, unanimously, Matthew Jukes. In another list compiled by OLN (Off Licence News) last year, Jukes was voted the most influential wine writer in the UK. With over nine million Daily Mail readers a week, Jukes has the most keenly followed wine column in the UK and he also writes for MoneyWeek weekly and is a regular contributor to both The Week and Decanter Magazine. Jukes has previously won the highly prestigious International Wine and Spirit Competition’s Trophy for Wine Communicator of the Year and all six editions of The Wine List, his annual wine guide, were UK bestsellers. He created and co-authored Taste Food & Wine, an annual wine guide published in Australia and New Zealand, with Brisbane-based
wine writer Tyson Stelzer. Taste was a number one bestseller in its inaugural year of publication and it has won the Australian Food Media Award for Best Food and Writing. Jukes lectures and judges all over the world, most recently in Canberra for the National Wine Show of Australia. Last January he was asked to sit on the inaugural panel of the London version of the Stonier International Pinot Noir Tasting after having done so twice in Melbourne. He then went on to moderate the Melbourne event last November. He is the creator of a handful of groundbreaking, annual, wine releases including the 100 Best Australian Wines and he launched the ’Hall of Fame’ of the 100 Best Australian Wines in May 2010 in London. He tours the UK each year with his ‘100 Best’ road show spreading the word about these great wines. Five years ago Matthew created The Great Australian Red competition - the annual quest to find the finest Cabernet Sauvignon/Shiraz in Australia, which he says is the ‘the blend that defines Australia’. While the awards ceremony was definitely the highlight of the evening, Australian chef Brett Graham of two Michelin star restaurant ‘The Ledbury’ created a menu “worthy of a gold medal” for the attending guests who also enjoyed some of Australia’s finest wines as they watched a cabaret performance by Australia’s talented Caroline O’Connor. – With sources AustralianTimes.co.uk/news
Aussies of the Year Continued from p1...
accepting the award. “It is about time, really!” he declared with that famous wry smile. He used the occasion to poke fun at media magnate Rupert Murdoch and he opened his acceptance speech by quoting Mr Murdoch’s comments in front of a British parliamentary committee on phone hacking last year. “This is the most humble day of my life,” he said, before revealing he had an inkling he was up for the
award. “I had a friend very high up in the world of media who has been tapping the phones in Australia House for many years. He told me. “I can’t tell you his name, he is married to a Chinese girl. “He said it was between me and Julian Assange and it turned out to be me.” Humphries also joked that his alter ego Dame Edna would be very jealous of the award. But Humphries wasn’t the only one drawing the laughs. In presenting the
award to the man behind Australia’s favourite ‘Dame’, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had a few gags of his own. “What Barry said [to me] was he didn’t think Australia was ready for a prime minister called Kevin. Well, can I just say history has declared its verdict and Barry was right!” Humphries joins a distinguished list of previous Australian of the Year in the UK recipients such as Clive James, Sir Charles Mackerras, John Williams and Stuart Devlin.
6 | Australia Day
24 January - 30 January 2012
y a D a i l a r t s u A ld a r o f y d a e r t e g – London r e h t o o n e k i l n o i celebrat
o g d n a n e e gr
n“Australians all let us rejoice – for we are young and free…” By Tim Martin NO doubt at some stage on Thursday, 26 January, you will find yourself arm in arm with some fellow countrymen belting out the words to our national anthem. That is the beauty of Australia Day. No matter who you are, what race, religion, sex, colour or creed – on Australia Day, that holiest of days for Aussies, what only matters is that you are Australian. Strangers become friends, friends become besties. The day is one huge celebration of everything Australian. And I can’t think of anything better to celebrate than the fact that I am, you are, we are – Australian. We come from a very privileged nation. For centuries (around two centuries to be precise) we have been known as the ‘Lucky Country’. I don’t think there is a more apt description for our wonderful land Down Under. Blessed with perfect climates, with open spaces, with paradisiacal topography, with freedom, democracy and free speech – Australia sets the bar for many people the world over. Our population is made up of nationalities from around the world and at the risk of perpetuating a stereotype many think is tired and incorrect, for me, we are one of the most laid back and friendly of nations. The easy going Australian attitude is what I want to see carried on for many Aussie generations. We love our sport, our mates,
our beaches, our diggers and a cheeky drink or two. We celebrate anti-totalitarianism like a religion (just think, Ned Kelly is one of our national heroes and Julian Assange is endeavouring to be the twentyfirst century version). We embrace happiness as a way of life (especially in places like Nimbin). While others may call us racist, we are one of the most multi-cultural societies on the face of the planet. We lead the world in many fields of science, research and technology and our celebrities are internationally fawned upon. I am proud to call myself Australian. I am proud my parents were born in Australia and that I had the privilege to grow up in what is my favourite country in the world. I count myself lucky almost every day that I was born on the shores of Sydney Harbour. That I could use the Southern Cross as my compass and the famous Aussie drawl as my signature. That I could look upon Paul Hogan’s character Mick Dundee as an idol and be safe in the knowledge that bands like AC/ DC were building our Australian reputation globally. I love the fact that I can count bogans, westies, toffs, posh blokes, concrete cowboys and yobos amongst my mates. I love that when I go home, a beautiful beach is always just a short d r i v e
away. I love our flora and our fauna, our landscapes and our cities. I love that living in London, yes I stand out from the crowd because I am Australian. But no matter what image automatically comes to the minds of our British hosts, they will not forget that we are Australian. They will have stereotypes that we fit or do not fit. They will have preconceived notions of how we should act and talk and behave. But I don’t mind that in the slightest. In fact, I’ll happily embrace it. Because for me, being an Australian is the highest honour anyone can bestow upon me. It’s something that no one can ever take away from me. It’s what I will be celebrating on Thursday when I wake up and realise it is Australia Day. So come on London, join with me now, you know the words: “…In joyful strains then let us sing, Advance Australia Fair!” AustralianTimes.co.uk/ australia-day
AustralianTimes.co.uk
To all Australians on Australia Day
n
A message from Australian High Commissioner His Excellency Mr John Dauth AO LVO, to Australians living in the UK on Australia Day. FIRST of all, happy Australia Day to all Australians living in this great city of London and all around the UK. For our family and friends back home Australia Day means summer, barbeques and, of course, cricket on the television. For those of us living in colder climes we still have a chance to reflect on what our country means to each of us. Personally, I always feel proud to represent such a diverse and equitable people with so many accomplishments. Australia is a successful, strong society with a powerful economy. Our economic strength is due in part
because Australians are famously hard workers (which is why employers love Australians here in the UK). We live in a fascinating time where there is great growth in the world, particularly in our own Asia-Pacific region but many countries, especially in Europe are facing serious economic problems. In light of such issues we have much for which to be grateful. While we are greatly advantaged by our close links to Asia, our traditional links with the UK obviously remain very strong. Our two countries are tied together by many Australians living
and working here and the one million British-born residents of Australia. The UK still provides about a quarter of Australia’s annual immigration intake. These traditional links are augmented by one of the strongest strategic relationships in the world. Australia Day also gives us a time to look forward. No doubt 2012 will be an exciting time in the UK and with celebrations for the Diamond Jubilee, the Olympics and Paralympics we will have many opportunities to join in the festivities. As many of you who experienced Sydney 2000 will know,
such large public events bring a great amount of excitement and collective energy. These milestone events in 2012 will transform the UK and bring people from all walks of life together. I know that many people back home will be following the excitement here. We will be very lucky to be in the thick of it all. AustralianTimes.co.uk/ australia-day
8 | Australia Day
24 January - 30 January 2012
Surviving Invasion Day
By Kate Ausburn
AT this time of year millions of Australians living at home, and abroad, unleash a peculiar brand of patriotism. The flag is worn as a cape, we make judgements about a person’s worthiness as a member of our nation based on their capacity to swill beer and eat meat, and we chant things like “Aussie” and “Oi” in call and response fashion. We do this while hitting the beach or the backyard with a big mob of our mates, and an esky, and we listen to Triple J’s hottest 100 countdown. Because it’d be un-Australian not to. After more than 200 years since the first non-Indigenous inhabitation of this place, and the ebb and flow of migration to our nation, the only thing we can really figure out as a common bond is booze and a barbeque. And even that is a stretch, because not all of us think that cans of beer and cheap sausages are a good idea. Year after year the question of what being Australian really means is raised, and year after year we make little progress on finding an answer. Is being Australian defined by citizenship, is it defined by being Indigenous, is it defined by some supposed shared values? With so many different cultural, racial, religious, political backgrounds, do we actually really share anything in
common? Is chest-thumping allegiance to the Union Jack and Southern Cross more Australian than branding the day Invasion Day and instead calling on the Indigenous flag to be the one we fly-high? Do we really even need to compare these ideas of Australianess? For as long as January 25 remains the day chosen to mark our celebration of nation, these conflicted questions of identity will continue. After all, the date commemorates the arrival in 1788 of the First Fleet, carrying convicts and colonisers from Great Britain. What followed were the darkest years in Australia›s history with Indigenous children stolen, women raped and men killed. In the years since those first years, «rights» have been «granted» but the struggle for autonomy and equality continues for Aboriginal Australians. All the while cultural genocide goes on as sacred lands are destroyed by mining, artifacts destroyed to make way for big developments, and white politicians continue to make laws that discriminate against Indigenous communities the ongoing intervention in the Northern Territory is an obvious example.
And so invasion and survival is what›s called to mind for so many Indigenous Australians each «Australia Day». With this in mind, suddenly the January 25 brand of celebration of Australianism becomes very narrow, and dangerously close to a racist affront to those who don›t feel it is appropriate to partake in a national party on such a date. We need to make way for an inclusive celebration of our nation: January 25 needs to be retired, along with adherence to the monarchy and the inclusion of the Union Jack in the corner of our national flag. There are plenty of reasons to celebrate the nation we are building together, and there are many great things about Australia today, but our colonial past and monarchical leftovers do not deserve the national holiday we continue to reward them. AustralianTimes.co.uk/Australia-day
I still call Australia home By Nina McGrath
LAST year, Blue Monday - the ‘most depressing day of the year’ - fell in the same week as Australia Day. It was a combination of which that caused me to wonder whether it is time to think about heading home. Blue Monday comes about apparently from the grey weather, high debt, long time until next Christmas, freshness of failed New Year’s resolutions and low motivation. Even the sunniest optimist would be muted by the cold, grey London January, and in particular I noticed a fog of discontent permeating the Antipodean population. A Kiwi friend rumbled her discontent on Facebook unleashing an avalanche of comments from her friends and family back home; ‘it’s warm, it’s sunny, come home, we’re here, we miss you’. One or two exLondoners piped up that they wished they were still here in the UK and current Londoners urged her to think of the travel opportunities but these comments were buried in the torrent of well wishers from back home. Just two short days after Blue Monday it was Australia Day. I looked at Facebook over breakfast and it was alive with talk of sun, sea, sand, steak, salads, sheilas, beer, BBQs, blokes, cricket and a day off. I pulled on my green and gold and tried to think warm thoughts as I struggled into my winter coat, pulled on my hat and wound a scarf around my neck. I shoved a brolly into my handbag and couldn’t help but wonder ‘what am I doing here?’. Unexpectedly, London responded as if I had spoken the thought aloud. I was amazed to see an almost empty tube pull into the station to take me to work. I wasn’t crammed into a hot and malodorous carriage and jolted back and forth, I was seated, and my adjacent commuter even gave me the armrest. I enjoyed the smooth,
efficient ride to work and thought how I really hadn’t missed owning a car. Australia fought back via my iPod, which shuffled to ‘I Still Call Australia Home’. It’s a stirring, patriotic song, bringing to mind images of children clad in white standing in dramatic international locations. However it doesn’t exactly call me home, in fact it encourages more travel, hence its use by Qantas to get more “bums on seats” of international flights. Wherever I live, I can still call Australia home, with the added bonus of not calling Australia home for taxation purposes. Undeterred, my iPod shuffled to The Waifs’ ‘London Still’. The mournful Australian accent describing retail therapy at Camden market being totally ineffective against homesickness saddened me, but it was the line ‘I wonder what I’m missing, I think of songs I’ve never heard’ that really struck a chord with me on that Australia Day last year, as Triple J’s Hottest 100 blasted from radios across Oz. When people talk for years to come of the 2011 Brisbane floods, my version of the shared experience is based on online news sites, emails, Facebook photos
and comments. I lost nothing and I wasn’t there to help with the cleanup. What I was missing was shared experiences; at a national level, the swearing in of the first female Prime Minister; at a state level, the flooding; and at an individual level, birthday parties, engagements, weddings, not to mention the minutiae of everyday life that is deemed not worthy of mentioning to a friend who is on the other side of the world. For now I am trading travel opportunities for shared experiences, but maybe I can have a little of both. A trio of Australian wedding invitations arrived this week, and I’ve resolved to attend at least one of them, to share the experience in person and to catch up with all the family and friends from back home. I am elated at this thought until my iPod shuffles to The Ramones ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’, which always reminds me just how long and horrible the kangaroo route flight home is. ‘Twenty-twenty-twenty-four hours to go, I wanna be sedated’. Hey, least there’s always a sunny Australia Day to look forward to! AustralianTimes.co.uk/ Australia-day
AustralianTimes.co.uk
Time to rename Aussie capitals with Aboriginal place names n
Australian human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell says Aboriginal names would help give Australia’s capital cities a unique, distinctive and proud national identity. WHY are most of Australia’s state capitals named after aristocrats from a far away country that invaded and occupied our wonderful land in the eighteenth century? It’s absurd that cities like Melbourne and Adelaide get their names from long dead toffs from Britain. It shows that we Aussies are still mentally and culturally colonised by the imperial power that once ruled over us. The capital of India is not called Mountbatten and Malaysia’s capital isn’t Churchill. If Bombay can be renamed Mumbai, and Salisbury can become Harare, why can’t Australia do a bit of
renaming too? Only a nation lacking in self-confidence and ashamed of its indigenous heritage names its cities after the ruling elite of a country that used and abused it as place to dump its criminal riff-raff. It’s insulting and degrading to all Australians. Instead of tugging our forelocks in a show of collective servility to Mother England, the names of our capitals should reflect the distinctiveness of this glorious country and our amazing Aboriginal history. It is time Australia broke with the era of colonial occupation and dropped its
What’s an Aussie: Do the myths hold up?
n
It’s a universal hazard of being an expat that we come to learn the myths of how the rest of the world views our nation. By Emily Banyard FOR Australia day 2012, I thought I’d try and think of any standing mythologies about Aussies in the UK that I’ve come across in my three years here. Initially I came up with the usual stereotypes like: no we don’t all live on a beach, no we don’t see Kangaroos every day, yes Sydney has over 5 million people, no we do not (generally) wear Ugg boots outside, yes thongs are for your feet, no we don’t drink Fosters... we’ve all heard them countless times. Then I started to think outside these trivial cultural differences, and wonder if the gap between what we might perceive as myth and reality is not so wide. Aussie’s have been coming over to the English capital in hoards for so long now that we are part of the London culture. As a result of this, we have had the time to quash a lot of mythologies by reinforcing our multifaceted identity in the larger community. I also thought back to what my assumptions about the English were before I lived here. I used to work in a bookshop on Bondi Beach, and would often wonder if all Brits were like the crispy lobster-pink customers that came in to buy their holiday reads before invading the beach’s RSLs. This was my first proper exposure to British youth, and they were mostly travellers. On the one hand I had a BBC idea of the English where they lived on grand estates and walked around spouting the Queen’s English. On the other these young English and Irish backpackers sunburnt and singing in my local uni pubs. Of course living here I’ve come to recognise the wider scope of the British identity. A lot of Aussie’s in the UK are constrained to a two-year working visa. This means we too are often seen as constantly carefree party animals to the locals. Furthermore there seems to be an Aussie everywhere you go in
the world, however remote. In this way, one of the main mythologies I’ve encountered is: because we all have this ‘travellers’ mentality, we don’t take things seriously. My very first job interview here I was told, ‘I like hiring Aussies, you work hard – but I’m reluctant as you all return home soon afterwards’. For those that stay for years and years, there is the sentiment that we are risk takers in the work place and very socially networked creatures. Thus I think the assumptions of Aussies living in the UK lies in these two camps; the Australian as ‘traveller and party animal’ and the Australian as ‘go-getter hard worker’. This stereotype has been around for some time and I believe does aptly pick up on some very Australian qualities. We have created this dichotomy. I feel as though we as a nationality want to embody both these carefree and go-getter attitudes. There has been an Oz community in London for many years. We have created a strong cultural presence in this city - hey, I am writing in an Australian paper, as an Aussie, for Aussies in London. On this Australia Day I don’t want to whinge about how we’re seen. Instead I want to revel in the fact that by nature, we are proud of our identity and we desire to quash mythologies. We want to control the myths, poke fun at them and create something stronger than them. Happy Australia Day – long may we perpetuate and destroy our Aussie stereotypes! AustralianTimes.co.uk/australia-day
obsequious inferiority complex. We are a unique nation and the names of our capital cities should reflect this uniqueness. Wouldn’t Aboriginal names be more appropriate, imaginative and original? Renaming would embrace and reflect an authentic Australian identity; honouring the country’s Aboriginal heritage. For example, the Aboriginal names for the areas approximate to the places where the state capitals now stand are believed to be: Sydney: Warrane. Melbourne: Birrarung. Brisbane: Meeaanjin. Adelaide: Tarndanya. Perth: Boorloo. Darwin: Larrakia. Hobart: Nibberluna.
These are far, in my opinion, more appropriate and honourable names for an independent nation than the names imposed during the period of British colonialism. I appeal to my fellow Australians to join me in a great national campaign to rename our state capitals according to the original Aboriginal place names. Let’s do this by the time Australia marks 250 years of colonisation in 2020. Renaming the state capitals is a gesture of national pride. It is an assertion of our authentic Australian identity and shows due respect for the first inhabitants of this
extraordinary country. A mature, confident, independent nation embraces and celebrates its own specialness. It doesn’t copy and grovel. National pride requires the names of our cities to be uniquely Australian, and not unimaginative, fawning tributes to the English nobility. Peter Tatchell is a British-based, Australian-born human rights campaigner. For more info about his campaigns visit Petertatchell.net AustralianTimes.co.uk/australia-day
10 | Australia Day
24 January - 30 January 2012
My first Australia Day abroad By Rebekka Hodges
2012 WILL be my sixth consecutive year that I’ve been in the northern hemisphere in January, but the first year that I’ve not boarded the 24-hour flight to be home by the 26th. In 2007 I was traveling for three months, but on booking my flights, took special care to ensure the return date coincided with the Sydney Big Day Out, which up until recently always fell on Australia Day. In 2008 I was living abroad for six months and again flew back into Sydney to attend Big Day Out with my friends. 2009, ’10 and ’11 were all the same deal, though as the years went by and we got older, the rest of the festival revelers became seemingly younger and we began to find joy in blow up pools, barbecues and Triple J. It might sound crazy to spend all those dollars for a flight to leave Australia, only to return back just in time for one single day, to a country where, let’s face it, I’ll undoubtedly (and fingers crossed) spend at least another few dozen Australia Days, but without hesitation it is my favourite day of the entire year and I could think of no better place to spend it. For me, 26 January is like a melting
pot with all of the greatest elements of Australian culture coming together to form one harmonious day: daytime drinking; sunshine; water; music; and best mates. What more could you want? A few weeks ago, I decided to head back home to surprise everyone for Christmas. It was early December and the cold had well and truly set in. I was definitely ready for sunshine. However, this time on booking my
tickets, I was very excited by the idea of coming back to London for Australia Day. Though there won’t be as many hours of daylight to drink, and it will more than likely be overcast, in the last ten months that I’ve been away, I’ve formed a great group of mates, some old, some new and together we’re looking forward to our first ‘orphans’ Australia Day at the Shepherds Bush Walkabout alongside every other farfrom-home Aussie. AustralianTimes.co.uk/australia-day
nPicking
what’s going to make Triple J’s Hottest 100 list is always a tough ask. That task is made even tougher when you throw the musically inept Australian Times Editor Tim Martin in with our musically gifted but far from home Music Editor Paul Judge! Luckily then, we recruited Aussie correspondent Brendan ‘the Hack’ Hackett to give us a preview of what the J’s are going to serve up this Australia Day. Enjoy!
Lock ‘em in, Eddie
Ode to Australia Day in London By Melinda Edwards
WHILE our friends back home are most likely celebrating Australia Day on the beach, soaking up the sun and celebrating everything good about the land Down Under (with sizzling barbeques and backyard swimming), we’ll be in cold and bleak London. And not to put a damper on things, what with the city’s tall and grey buildings, miserable winter weather and sometimes equally miserable inhabitants, there really is no place like celebrating our home, at home. But it’s not all bad. Celebrating our national day when we’re far from Oz injects a ray of Australian sunlight into an otherwise dreary city. Arguably the greatest day on the calendar for an Aussie in London, it’s the one day throughout the year where it’s easy to get that much needed Australian pick-me-up. And not that we need an excuse but Australia Day in London wills us to get amongst a big home crowd in pubs and at parties around the city, eat meat pies to our hearts content and tuck into endless packets of Twisites and Tim Tams, all in the name of being Australian. This day brings together all Australian expats in London where we can feel a sense of belonging, to be in the same room as strangers yet feel united with them, and most importantly, will chase away the ‘far from home’ blues. Australia Day in London turns up Aussie slang to the max, a day where we will feel the need to yell ‘you flamin’ galah’ or ‘I’m just ganna nip down to the servo for a pie and slush puppy’ so much more than other days. There will be more flashes of green and gold before our eyes than a Usain Bolt race; Aussie flags will be slung around shoulders as capes; and people will be wearing thongs, boardies and singlets even though the city is in the midst of winter (got to love our brute Aussie strength). There will be Australian flag tattoos covering every inch of available bare skin and
What’s gunna be hot in the Triple J Hottest 100
These are the songs that ‘the Hack’ reckons are shoe-ins to make it onto the 2012 list. We’d love to disagree but we think he’s onto some winners here. We’re particularly loving that Matt Corby song ‘Brother’. Who woulda thought an Aussie Idol runner-up (other than Shannon Noll) would be one of Triple J’s most talked about artists of the year!?
Outsiders
Judgie (Paul Judge) has his say, overrules ‘the Hack’ and “will be dirty” if this little band is left off the list. • Black Keys - Lonely Boy • Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know • Boy and Bear – Feeding Line • Matt Corby - Brother • M83 – Midnight City • San Cisco – Awkward • Foster The People – Houdini • The Jezabels – Endless Summer
Each way bets there will be the inflatable Aussie icons – kangaroos and crocs – out in force. We will spend the day singing and dancing to classic Aussie ballads by great Aussie artists no matter how uncool it is if you were to listen to the likes of Men At Work, John Williamson, Little River Band and Lee Kernaghan at home. We will leave the pubs and parties later feeling on top of the world with a renewed energy to continue surviving in the UK in all its glory including its packed public transport, impatience and lousy customer service. It’s our great patriotic duty to demonstrate our pride by making Australia Day all it can be for everyone living so far from home. But most importantly, celebrating Australia Day when we’re miles from home is going to remind us to
A mix of some foreign raiders and some Aussie stayers, these are the songs and artists ‘the Hack’ thinks have a good shot at climbing into the magical 100…but he’s not willing to put his house on them. • Seeker Lover Keeper – Even Though I’m A Woman • The Wombats – Techno Fan • Bluejuice – Act Your Age • Jay Z and Kanye – (He doesn’t know which song to go with but reckons peeps love this duo and they’ll find a way to get on the list somewhere)
Undecided
appreciate every little thing that much more when we eventually return back to the greatest country on Earth. Happy Australia Day! AustralianTimes.co.uk/ australia-day
‘The Hack’ believes these guys will defo make the ‘hunje’ (that’s street speak for ‘100’) but can’t decide which song will propel them to the lofty heights. • Art V Science – A.I.M Fire or With Thoughts • Calvin Harris – Feel So Close or Bounce
Don’t forget the Aussie hip hop...
Making a very valid point, ‘the Hack’ says a Trip J Hottest 100 isn’t the same without some Aussie hip hop. While the Hoods are favourites, he’s asking if their hit ‘I Love It’ was released early enough to poll well? Either way, he’s thinking with 360’s popularity – the voting public will defo get ‘Boys Like You’ on the list. • Hilltop Hoods – I Love It • Drapht – Bali Party • 360 (ft Gossling) – Boys Like You • What do you reckon? Is ‘the Hack’ on the money or is he just that – a hack? Have your say at AustralianTimes.co.uk/ australia-day and make sure you head straight to AustralianTimes. co.uk/entertainment on Australia Day to see the Triple J list in full.
AustralianTimes.co.uk
What we’re following #Australia Day
OzDay “...Australia Day has never really been about the founding moment as such, but about Australia and Australianness... jason_a_w Australia day is awesome we should all be proud. Australia day is a bogan nightmare/national disgrace. There you go I’ve saved you a week. NTebbey Racism will be the focus of Australia Day speech - do you think Australians are racist?
SamLandsberger Thursday (Australia Day) night will be Federer v Nadal, all things going to script. Not a bad encore to day three of the Test! #delicious sach33 I’m going to walk around bare foot this Australia day because that’s the Aussie way. TomSmithdale Absolutely buzzing that Rupert got paid today and wasn’t being
scammed! Drinks on him for Australia Day!!! WileyCareers_AU What’s the ultimate Aussie dish? Wiley colleagues will be cooking up a storm next week for Australia Day. I’m thinking rissoles & pav. Belieberworld02 it’s Australia day soon. looking forward to hitting the beach and looking for some hot surfer guys ;)
Check out what we’re following today on AustralianTimes.co.uk and follow us on Twitter @AustralianTimes
Big Oz night out! n
What to do when Thursday (Australia Day) turns to Friday? Why not head to the Gigalum Australia Day Party & then onto Paul Oakenfold at Ministry Of Sound
GIGALUM’S huge Australia Day Party kicks off on Friday 27 January, with DJs spinning the best tunes from the Triple J Hottest100, Aussie beers on offer and a full barbie menu. It’s free entry, and if you arrive by 9pm you’ll be given a free ticket to Ministry Of Sound where Paul Oakenfold heads up an all-star line up!! In fact from now on, anyone who can get themselves down to Gigalum by 9pm on any Friday will be given the red carpet treatment at Ministy Of Sound. It’s good to get in early
as it’s limited to the first 100 people each night. The free tickets will then be handed out at 11:30pm at Gigalum where discounted taxis will be waiting to chauffeur you to the most famous club in the world. Recent DJs to grace the decks are Armin Van Buuren, Paul Van Dyk, Fedde Le Grand, David Guetta, Above&Beyond, Ferry Corsten, Sasha, the list goes on. This will definitely be an Australia Day to remember! AustralianTimes.co.uk/australia-day
12 | Australia Day
24 January - 30 January 2012
Top 10 Aussie Icons n
We asked our readers who and what they thought are some of Australia’s most recognisable and important national icons. You responded with some spectacular (and some very random responses) as to what we proudly identify with. So in no particular order, we give you the Top Ten Aussie Icons for Australia Day 2012. Bloody good stuff! Ned Kelly
The lovable rogue Australian (Irish) bushranger that captured the hearts and minds of Australia in the nineteenth century - Ned Kelly’s legacy still endures today. Ned became notorious when he clashed with Victorian police in 1878 and then went on the run with his Kelly gang. A string of incidents in the Aussie bush made him the most wanted man on our island before his famous last stand at Glenrowan on 28 June, 1880. Facing an insurmountable troop of police, Ned dressed in homemade metal armour with his now iconic eye-slit helmet and faced the onslaught with a daring and courage that has endeared him to the Aussie public ever since. Numerous films have been made of his life’s struggle, with both Mick Jagger and Heath Ledger portraying the doomed hero. Eventually caught and put on trial after his Glenrowan stand-off, just before he was hanged in November 1880, Ned uttered a phrase that has gone down in Australian folklore: “such is life”.
Shane Warne
Arguably the greatest bowler ever to play cricket, Shane Warne is considered an Aussie hero because of his exploits both on and off the field. He took over 1000 wickets in both forms of the game (Tests and One Day Internationals) and is regularly included in the greatest ever world XI cricket team. However Warnie, as he is affectionately known, was never far from controversy - he was banned from cricket for a period after taking “his mum’s diet pills”, was embroiled in numerous extra-marital affairs and scandals (he has a reputation as a ‘serial texter’), was linked to bookmakers, was fond of drinking, smoking and eating junk food and recently has made a career comeback (he retired in 2007) for the ongoing Big Bash League as well as being engaged to British model Liz Hurley. None of has seemed to diminish his image as a ‘quintessential Aussie larrikin’ and history will mark him, along with Don Bradman, as one of Australia’s greatest ever cricketers.
Paddlepop Lion
An interesting choice - but what is not to love about a Paddlepop icecream, especially on long, hot Australian summer days at the beach. It turns out everyone loves the Paddlepop Lion as well and we all miss the taste of the yummy Banana, Chocolate or Rainbow flavours melting down our paddlepop sticks!
Bert Newton
The legendary Australian TV personality Bert Newton started his career in radio before he broke into television in the 1950s. He has had a long and distinguished career on the box since then, from his days as “moonface” on the Don Lane Show to hosting his own show (The Bert Newton Show), Good Morning Australia, Bert’s Family Feud and recently, 20 to 1 (or What a Year). He’s won countless Logies and is regarded as one of Australia’s most successful television hosts.
Healthy Harold
Who could forget the happy, smiling giraffe that greeted school children around the country with advice and tips on how to grow up big and strong and, predominantly, stay healthy. The mobile units have been travelling Australia far and wide since 1979 with Harold (the giraffe hand-puppet - shhhh don’t tell the kids) dishing out his own unique brand of healthy living. Long live Healthy Harold!
Les Hiddins
Better known around the world as the Bush Tucker Man, Les Hiddins is a retired Australian Army soldier and war veteran, who was distinguishable because of his Akubra hat, big grin and his love and knowledge of the Aussie bush. Using his army training, Les created the very successful TV series The Bush Tucker Man, where he would drive around Oz finding and describing native Australian food or “bush tucker”. Basically, he’s the man responsible for making eating witchetty grubs cool.
Fatso the wombat
Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat was an unofficial mascot of the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics created by Aussie funny-men Roy and HG. He took the form of a life-size stuffed toy wombat with a lazy, cheerful expression and comically pronounced rump. Fatso was a spoof of the official Olympic mascots, who Roy & HG called “Syd, Ollie and Dickhead” on their Olympic daily wrap-up show, The Dream. Nicknamed “the battlers’ prince”, Fatso proved to be more popular among Aussie fans than the official mascots, especially after the Australian Olympic Committee attempted to ban athletes appearing with Fatso on the podium. Fatso’s dream lives on today and watch this Australian Times space
later this year, for some more Fatso inspired humorous Aussie Olympic mascots.
What’s On
Y A D A I L A R T S AU 26 January The Larrik Inn Fulham 9am – 1:30am
The Underdog Clapham Common 9am – 1:30am
Walkabout
Embankment, Temple 12pm – 3am
Uluru
The red rock at the centre of Australia, Uluru (or Ayres Rock) is the largest single monolith (rock) on the entire planet. It is one of Australia’s most recognisable natural landmarks and notable for appearing to change colour at different times of the day and year, most notably glowing red at dawn and sunset. It’s almost a rite of passage for travellers and tourists to Australia to visit the sacred Aboriginal area and it is recognised as a World Heritage Site.
Wally Lewis
There must have been a few Queenslanders voting to get this one in but we can’t deny that Wally Lewis is one of Australia’s greatest rugby league legends. Nicknamed The King, Wally represented Queensland in 31 State of Origin games from 1980 to 1991, spearheading the Maroons dominance throughout the 1980s. He also represented Australia in 33 international matches and was named a rugby league immortal in 1999. He is remembered for his creative, playmaking football and great on-field confrontations - as well as going on to become a popular sports presenter in Queensland after his career.
Those that almost made the list: • • • •
Big Kev Cathy Freeman Agro K e r r i - A n n e Kennerley • Sydney Harbour
Oi, Oi, Oi
(Aussie live music showcase) Under Bar Solo, Camden 8pm ‘til late
Australia Day Celebration (with Australian Business) Grange St Paul’s Hotel 6:30pm – 9pm
Aussie Day @ Big Chill House
Wine Australia annual tasting
Waxy O’Connor’s
The Man From Snowy River
King’s Cross 10am - 2am Although New Zealanders love to claim him as their own (he was foaled in NZ), Phar Lap is considered Australia’s greatest ever race horse (sorry Makybe Diva). Phar Lap dominated Australian racing during the late 1920s, early 30s - winning a Melbourne Cup, two Cox Plates and 19 other weight for age races. Unfortunately, and adding to Phar Lap’s legendary status, he mysteriously died in 1932, from which many conspiracy theories abound.
(with Aussie films) Fitzrovia ‘til 3am
Shepherd’s Bush ‘til late
Walkabout
Phar Lap
Jetlag Bar
Soho ‘til late
The Comedy Tree @ Wahoo Putney ‘til late
Saatchi Gallery, Chelsea 10am – 6pm
(film screening) Shortwave Films, Bermondsey 6pm
these For full details on go to events and more, o.uk/ AustralianTimes.c ay Australia-D
AustralianTimes.co.uk
Music which makes you t’s On a h W homesick for the motherland music from the
motherland > PAUL JUDGE
MUSIC brings with it different feelings and different memories. When you’re living in the UK, particular songs will strike a chord with you regarding the mother country (Australia). You might have always loved them or living over here has given them greater significance. Either way, they have one thing in common, they remind us of the big island we all came from. It’s hard to explain to English people why you love singing about the last train out of Sydney or why one song encourages everyone to yell ‘No way, get f*cked, f*ck off!’ even at the most formal events. It’s because they’re songs which have a special place in the hearts of Australians and you might not realise until you’re far away how much Australian music was and continues to be an important part of your life. In the spirit of Australia Day we thought we’d list a few of our favourite homesick songs, which every time we hear them, remind us about something special Down Under.
London Still - THE WAIFS
hovering over (depending on where you live) it’s fairly bland. Compared with the clear, night sky of Australia and the familiar stars you’ve been looking at since childhood there’s no match for camping under the stars back home.
True Blue
- JOHN WILLIAMSON
We couldn’t leave out a bit of country and the legendary True Blue fits the bill. Simple lyrics, easy to sing along too and mystifies our non-Aussie mates as to what a ‘true blue’ is and do they fit the bill?
In The Summer - LOON LAKE
Only released last year we won’t give it classic title just yet but it sums up days gone by of summer spent on the beach with sand everywhere and a sunburnt nose. The film clip is a gem too, check it out on Youtube.
- THE SHINS Perfect for a bout of homesickness, this song speaks of time spent in London missing the people and places you love back home. Any Aussie expat in the English capital will identify with the emotion of enjoying the London life but at the same time struggling with the upheaval of being over here on the other side of the world.
Bit of a controversial entry considering The Shins aren’t even Australian and the Australia reference is very obscure (just like in the awesome Manic Street Preachers song of the same name which could have almost made the list too). That said it’s a very happy, sweet song which reminds us of a long road trip on dusty outback roads. And it has a banjo in it. Everyone likes a banjo. (Or a song of the same name by those good ol’).
How To Make Gravy
I Still Call Australia Home
This classic Paul Kelly tune gets high rotation at any Aussie orphans Christmas lunch in the UK. The letter from a prisoner in jail to his loved ones switches between the sadness of not being there and funny family antics which happen at Christmas time. He also outlines his special recipe for gravy, his usual contribution on the day.
I Was Only 19 - THE HERD
Aussie hip-hoppers The Herd reworked Redgum’s musical story of Australian men sent to fight in the Vietnam War. Told in the view of a young man conscripted into the army and sent to the jungles of South East Asia, it’s a harrowing, graphic tale of his experience and the long term psychological effects suffered. The Herd were able to capture the brutal reality of a previous generation and helped a lot of us understand the sacrifices made by the teenagers sent to fight in a foreign war.
- PETER ALLEN (OR THE SYDNEY CHILDREN’S CHOIR)
Arguably at the top of the list is one of the most nostalgic Australian songs of all time. Yes, Qantas may have hijacked it and the opening bars will automatically have you thinking of cute little kiddies singing in exotic places around the world but we at Motherland have seen pubs erupt into spontaneous strains of this classic and grown men weep even before the chorus. It’s an expats anthem to our awesome country and no doubt we’ll be hearing it on Australia Day.
- THE CHURCH
We could go on for hours because at the end of the day there’s a certain song for everyone which can tug on the heartstrings or make you smile after a long day so far away from home. Happy Australia Day to you all from Music from the Motherland!
How often do you look up at the skyline of London at night and feel uninspired. Bar the planes flying to Heathrow and the police helicopter occasionally
What’s your song that makes you miss Australia? Tell us at AustralianTimes. co.uk/entertainment
Under The Milky Way
Australian Pink Floyd 24 Mar @ Hammersmith Apollo
The Jezabels 22 Feb @ Koko
Parkway Drive 7 April @ Indig02
Grinspoon 2 Feb @ Walkabout, SheBu
Bleeding Knees Club 23 Feb @ Old Blue Last
Australian Times presents Paul Kelly 3 Feb @ Union Chapel
Qantas Australian Woman of the Year in the UK Award 2012 8 Mar @ The Langham London
Bogan Bingo Every Thursday @ The Underdog, Clapham Common
Phil Jamieson & Pat Davern (Grinspoon) 31 Jan @ Walkabout Temple
For full details...
Australia
- PAUL KELLY
Cloud Control 17 Feb @ Electric Ballroom
...and more Aussie gigs go to: AustralianTimes.co.uk/entertainment
14 | Voices
24 January - 30 January 2012
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie?
Making the old things new
n
Expat Australians around the world encounter common Aussie stereotypes all the time. But MIHAL GREENER, living in the Netherlands, questions what does it really mean to be an Australian? THERE is, of course, no good time to be pulled over by the police. But to make for a truly humiliating experience, have it happen around the corner from home with your parents and kids piled up in the back. Fortunately I escaped a fine after the policeman politely suggested that they have the same road signs in Australia as they do in the Netherlands and I muttered something about a childmuddled brain. I realised afterwards however that the road signs in the Netherlands are completely different from Australia. In Australia if you can’t turn into a road there is a sign with a big line through it (including everyone’s favourite ‘no right turn into marriage road’). In the Netherlands though the signs say what you can do – there’s usually no mention of what isn’t allowed. I started to see the street sign issue as one big metaphor for life in the Netherlands versus Australia. Living overseas offers the chance to gain a different perspective on home and what it really means to be an Australian. These observations are magnified by other Aussie expats, some of whom are desperately homesick while others said goodbye years ago and never looked back. Compound this further with the observations of the Dutch, which can generally be summarised into ‘Why would you want to be here when you could be there?’ Everyone seems to have an idea of what it is to be an Aussie, and after a while I started to question how accurate these stereotypes are. The most famous one, which all visiting celebrities learn by heart, is how laid back and friendly we all are. Obviously this is going to vary depending on where you are, city
or country, Queensland or Victoria, but as a general rule I don’t find Australians particularly relaxed or gregarious. I think the image of us standing around the barbie, beer in one hand, fag in the other is just an idealised notion of Australian-ness. Australians work bloody hard and for bloody long hours, often with a long commute chucked in for good measure. We don’t have much time off and often are increasingly detached from our neighbours and community. A huge advantage of setting up our life in the Netherlands from scratch is that that our home, the kids’ school and the office are all within an easy cycle of each other. And the emphasis given to family life in the Netherlands means that there is less pressure to be seen behind your desk when the boss heads home. It is a huge luxury compared with life in Melbourne where long working hours and heavy traffic combined to make time with the family a brief window at the end of the day. Part of this Aussie notion of being laid back and relaxed is that we welcome newcomers to our shores. But that pretty much seems to depend where they’re from. From asylum seekers to immigrants from the Middle East, in many parts of Australia you’d be hard pressed to win an argument that we’re a welcoming bunch to people who don’t look or sound like us. The Dutch similarly have a reputation for tolerance, which used to extend beyond drugs and prostitution to include new arrivals. But today things have dramatically changed, with immigrants from Turkey and especially Morocco being the subject of debate and alienation in the suburbs and in parliament.
What was gob smacking for an Aussie was how politically incorrect the Dutch are about racism. They are not a people to sugar coat their words, but I was still shocked when I rang the city council to ask about a school and was told ‘you don’t want to send your child there, it’s a black school’. An Australian neighbour in The Hague who had travelled the world for decades working for an oil company, and was about to return home said he thought Australia was ‘the land of No’. The Dutch have such a vivid impression of Australians being informal (which I think we undoubtedly are), but find it hard to reconcile this with our love of -and obedience to - rules. From putting helmets on our kids to finding a harness point for the child seat, the Dutch think it’s a little funny how uptight we are. While you may be slapped with a fine for putting out your garbage bin before 8pm in the Netherlands, individual safety is largely up to the individual. So with New Years Eve just passed, as always, kids were letting off fireworks in every street across the country, and there wasn’t a bike helmet in sight. Perhaps the idea of an Australian stereotype is a ridiculous notion in a country of over 20 million people. But you can always spot an Aussie in a crowd, and it’s not just the accent that gives us away. There is something that binds us, but maybe what that is, is a little too elusive to capture in a slogan or two. What is the ‘real Australian’? Is there such a thing? Do the stereotypes capture the essence of who we are? Share your thoughts at AustralianTimes.co.uk/voices
life after
london
> SHANNON CRANE
IT’S been two months since I moved back to Australia but I’ve already noticed a couple of changes in myself. One of these is becoming less of a FOMO (someone who has a fear of missing out). In the past two months I have spent more nights at home on the couch than I did in my two years in London. And that’s no exaggeration. Despite there being plenty to see and do here, I don’t feel the same pressure to be constantly busy, like I did in London. I guess this goes hand in hand with the slower pace of Melbourne compared to London, and also the fact that this lovely, relaxed, calm country (biased much?!) is my home. It’s where I feel comfortable. It’s easy for Australians abroad to get caught up in the must-see-anddo-everything-even-if-it-means-nosleep-and-bankruptcy lifestyle. For many of us, the move to the UK or Europe is only ever intended to be a temporary one. For this reason life can feel like a race. It’s easy to get swept up in the
buzz of London. You want to experience everything you possibly can during your time abroad. Another change I’ve noticed is my rediscovered ability to smile at, and sometimes even talk to, strangers. Anyone living in London will know how unfriendly shop assistants, fellow commuters and waiters can be. During a visit to H&M, Tesco or any other usual retail giant and you’d be lucky to get a hello out of the person serving you, let alone a “Can I help you?”. As an expat I forgot about this phenomenon called customer service. At first I was taken aback by the friendliness of my fellow countrymen. Why do you care what I’ve got planned for the weekend or where I bought this daggy old dress I’m wearing? At first it was a little hard to adapt to the concept, but now I actually enjoy the chit chat. I’ve even started thanking the shop assistant when leaving the shop. Something which I did very little of in London. While these are only minor things and will no doubt mark just the beginning of changes that my new life holds, they’re things that only an expat can understand. AustralianTimes.co.uk/voices
Motorists should stop spinning their way out of the road rage debate
n
Shane Warne’s bust-up with a cyclist on Melbourne’s streets last week revealed we’ve made no progress on creating a more harmonious relationship on our roads. the hard word > NATHAN MOTTON
WARNIE’S tirade last week on Twitter, following an apparent run in with a cyclist on Melbourne’s busy St Kilda Road began as quickly as it ended, swiftly shifting his attention to calling on the Government to do more to minimise incidents of road rage on the nation’s streets by introducing registration, forcing cyclists to ride in single file, blah, blah, blah. The Hard Word doesn’t want to get involved in the tit for tat argument over exactly what happened and who is right and wrong. Frankly we couldn’t care less. But it has again raised the ugly war on Australia’s roads, a war that cyclists will never, ever win. It has again revealed why our country is so backward in its approach to cycling and why cars will continue to clog our streets. The hating that followed, not so much
by the spin king, but by members of the public through online forums and Twitter as well as high profile media personalities is testament to the fact that cyclists will never be accepted on our roads. One wailed: “why don’t they just pull up in the queue like everyone else?” Another cried: “we are sick of empty bike lanes that make already clogged roads impassable... and cyclists understand that this (motorists taking extra care) is a courtesy bestowed.” Warne too, in a press conference said: “it’s the attitude of the bike rider, they don’t own the road.” No Shane they don’t, but nor do motorists. Cyclists have just as much right as motorists, by law, to use our roads. Just because motorists get around in giant pieces of steel doesn’t make the road their own. Empty bike lanes perhaps, but good on the Government for trying to get people on their bikes. Motorists should be discouraged in every way possible from driving in our cities CBDs. Maybe then congestion will start to
ease and maybe then more people will ride. The idea that motorists being constantly aware when driving, as you would expect of from all drivers at all times, is a ‘courtesy bestowed’ on cyclists is ludicrous. But it’s this idea of the right ‘attitude’ that really gets me. Of course there are self-serving, arrogant holier-than-thou cyclists on the road, intent on flouting the rules and getting their way. The same can be said of motorists. Unfortunately I would argue they represent a minority of the former, not so the latter. Government’s can do what they like in Australia to keep trying to encourage people out of their cars, but until the attitude of motorists changes, until they accept that most cyclists do do the right thing and are just trying to get where they need to go, nothing will change. Visit cities like Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Seville, Barcelona and San Francisco and you will see all that is good about bike riding. Like a collective ‘ding-ding’, cyclists have effectively forced motorists off the roads in the
centre of these cities. Of course they are extreme examples but they represent what can be achieved when motorists (not cyclists) have the right ‘attitude.’ The hysteria over registration is ridiculous and yet another example of Australia’s obsession with over legislating. Where will that stop? Will parents have to register their child’s
BMX when they ride it at home, or (god forbid) up and down their quiet suburban street? It will simply serve as further deterrence for people considering the switch. Stop the spin, fix the attitudes and maybe one day we’ll all just get along. AustralianTimes.co.uk/voices
Voices | 15
AustralianTimes.co.uk
Clipping your way to A taste to celebrate our great nation London’s line in Greenwich n Our Aussie chef in London and Claridge’s main man, Chris Ark, n
Not one to waste opportunities, our London adventurer saw the chance to knock two off her London Top 100 list when she travelled out to the quaint area of Greenwich.
gets in the Australia Day mood with a recipe that’s sure to please!
chris’s
kitchen > CHRIS ARK
ARGUABLY Australia Day is one of the most important days on my calendar. A day for sharing the Aussie spirit of mateship and stories from back home. This year the kitchen at my house will be a hive of activity, as I will be cooking my slow roasted shoulder of lamb - with all the trimmings! The aroma’s drifting out of the kitchen will be jammed packed with rosemary and garlic and are sure to get the taste buds going (and the neighbours jealous). It has been hard for us Aussies to pinpoint a particular cuisine or national dish to call our own. We are a nation that prides itself on quality
bron in
the don BRONWYN SPENCER
NUMBERS 15 and 91 on London’s Top 100 list seemed perfectly suited to each other. So deciding to kill two birds with one ferry, I took the Thames Clipper (#15) to historical Greenwich (#91) for my next adventure. Getting the Clipper is one of the best ways to get from the city out to Greenwich and with an Oyster Card, a one-way Thames Clipper ride to the home of the Mean Line is only £4 from Embankment Pier. It’s a pretty cheap ride of the river and a great way to see the city. From Embankment you can see Westminster, London Eye and you head east down the river passing the Tate Modern and Tower of London. After that I was in unchartered waters as I had never ventured along the Thames past the Tower of London. It was really fun out on the water looking at all the buildings and residential area along the Thames. After what seemed like a short, quick ride we arrived at Greenwich (having passed many waterfront pubs and the striking metropolis of Canary Wharf). There is a lot to do out at Greenwich so we decided our first stop was to check out the Greenwich Market. The market offers fresh food, clothes, jewellery and other bits-and-bobs and is the perfect place to grab a snack and wander through to the other little streets behind it. Beyond the market there are little lanes with boutique stores and cafes that offer anything from lollies to naval antiques. After a wander through the area we started the slow ascent up to the Royal Observatory. Home to the Mean Line, which as we all know marks the point of Greenwich Mean Time, I like to think of this place as the edge of the world. Located at the top of the hill looking out onto green parks with the Maritime Museum in the forefront and the rest of London beyond, the view is worth the steep incline walk to the top. Once up there you are able to see the official measures of yards, feet and a 24 hour clock. I can recommend getting there just before 1pm GMT (I got there at 1.03pm) when the red
Time Ball drops down as an official signal of time. Entrance into the Royal Observatory is £7 which gives you access into the building and into the courtyard with the Greenwich Mean Line. Although for those of you on a budget or not fussed on stars or clocks you can head around to the back of the building for free and see where the Line meets the courtyard and still stand on the edge of the world. We headed into the observatory and wandered through the exhibitions on the Royal Astronomer’s work in deciphering the stars and into his apartments and chambers. From there we wandered through other exhibitions focusing on world time, clocks and navigation. It was really interesting to read about how world time was developed and see some beautiful old clocks and telescopes. Once we had checked out the Observatory it was time to head into the courtyard and grab a photo. You can find the timezone of both Sydney and Canberra (as a Brissie girl I was a bit disappointed not to find my home town) and get as many photos on the line as you want. Although there can be a bit of a queue to stand at the top it is worth the wait and sign language to other tourists on how to use your camera is a welcome amusement. With our heads full of stars and minutes, it was time to wander through the park down to the Maritime Museum. The free museum has great exhibitions and paraphernalia from the seas, ships, beaches around the world and throughout history. There is also the Queens House (also free) featuring a wide art collection but after two museums we were ready for a sit down and some food. Luckily out in Greenwich there is lots to choose from with many pubs, cafes nearby however we headed to the Fish and Chip Shop (so originally named) which has served fish and chips on the same site since 1770. After grabbing a cone of chips and a potato scallop (does anyone else miss these at their local chippy?) we headed back to the DLR to get a ride back into the city. The book recommends spending a day in Greenwich but a day out there almost isn’t enough! AustralianTimes.co.uk/voices
beef, lamb, seafood and some of the freshest fruit on the planet. What we have done is adopt the influences from the great people who made Australia home and now we turn out some of the best cuisine in the world; light fresh and packed full of flavor. Europe has given us some great dishes and Asia has introduced us to the exotic spices and curries that we crave. Aussie chefs are heading up some of the best kitchens in the UK, States and Asia. They are using their skills and adding the touches of ethnic influences from back home to create first class dishes and trends that blow customers away. Still, when we gather to celebrate Australia Day, we turn to the old favorite leg of lamb to celebrate being born under the Southern Cross. (Remember those awesome lamb ads on TV with Naomi Watts turning down dinner with Tom Cruise?)
The shoulder of lamb is a great cut to cook. Having the bone gives us heaps of flavors. The shoulder must include the fore shank. Best to ask the butcher to show you a few examples and select one that will feed the number of people you will be cooking for. We are looking for a generous covering of fat to keep the meat moist during cooking and give the shoulder its flavour. Buy the best quality sea salt available and crank up the pepper mill to season the lamb. Grab a few bulbs of fresh garlic and fresh rosemary sprigs. Don’t use dried herbs, during the roasting process the dried herbs burn and will leave a bitter taste to the lamb. Keeping it nice and simple, here is my slow roasted shoulder of lamb for you to enjoy (as Sam Kekovich says – “you know it makes sense!”). Happy cooking and happy Australia Day! AustralianTimes.co.uk/voices
Slow roasted shoulder of lamb What you need: Lamb
• 1 x 2.5 kg lamb shoulder • Good quality olive oil • Sea salt and pepper mill • 2 x sprigs of fresh rosemary • 3 x cloves of garlic
Gravy
• 1 tablespoon of plain flour • Cup of good quality of dark chicken stock – from supermarkets • 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar • Handful of fresh mint
What to do:
• Turn the oven on to 250 degrees, sounds hot but that’s what we want for the first 20 minutes of cooking. • Using a sharp knife, slash the lamb to allow the flavours of the herbs to get right into the flesh. • Rub the shoulder with the olive oil, sea salt and pepper. Lay the rosemary over the meat • Slice the garlic and pick the flesh with a sharp knife
and insert the garlic to prevent it burning. • Place on a high-sided tray and whack it in the oven for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes remove and cover the tray with tin foil. Turn the heat down to 160 degrees and cook for three - four hours. The lamb is ready when using a fork the meat easily comes away from the bone. • Remove the lamb from
the tray and place covered on the chopping board to rest. Place the tray on the burner and add the stock, scraping all the goodness from the tray. Allow the stock to reduce and add the flour and vinegar. Keep stirring until it thickens. Remove and chuck in the mint and pour into a gravy jug. • To serve, just use two forks to lift the meat from the bone and top the plates with roasted potatoes, greens and lashings of mint gravy.
16 | Travel
24 January - 30 January 2012
Keeping the Anzac spirit alive n
With Australia Day on the doorstep and our thoughts turning to family, friends and home, what better time to remember our ‘other’ day of celebration and commemoration, Anzac Day. CANDICE REED looks at what makes a trip to Gallipoli for Anzac Day so special for so many Australians. MY earliest memory of Anzac Day is hearing the ‘Last Post’ in my first year of high school. I was standing on our school oval with hundreds of my classmates facing the flag pole on an unusually warm April morning. We had just heard an emotional speech from a visiting RAAF representative and were watching the Australian flag slowly being raised while our school band trumpeter stood alone playing the ‘Last Post’. This ceremony was the first time the full impact of what the Australian and New Zealand soldiers had gone through consumed me and I could not stop thinking
about the death and suffering of these men and the sacrifice they had made for our countries. I am still not entirely sure why that particular Anzac Day had such a haunting effect on me. Maybe it was because I was at an age to finally understand, maybe it was because I was a bit of a geek and liked history or maybe it was because I had recently been asking my grandfather about war. Whatever the reason, I am sure we each have one moment like that which we can draw on. Since then the ‘Last Post’ has evoked great emotion within me and I expect these emotions to completely overwhelm me when the trumpeter starts those famous notes and I stand with thousands of others on 25 April at Anzac Cove, Turkey watching the sun rise this Anzac Day. For many years now, making the pilgrimage to Gallipoli has featured heavily on many Australian and New Zealanders travel itineraries. Last year over 20,000 attended the dawn service in Turkey and that number is expected to grow until 2015, which will mark the 100th commemorative year since Australian and New Zealand soldiers landed at Gallipoli. Having evolved into a rite of passage for young Australians and New Zealanders, Anzac Day in Turkey features a dawn service attended by Australian and New Zealand dignitaries, army services and members of the general public. Further services are then held respectively for Australia and New Zealand with guest speakers. While Anzac Day is only one day, the trek to
Anzac Cove starts long before 25 April, the day which marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. Anzac Day tours are recommended by every travel outlet purely because of the volume of people attending the service and the difficulty to access the cove. The Gallipoli National Park covers approximately 35 kilometres, most of which is scrubland and hills and the roads are unlit at night. General security is tight, travellers can be asked for identification if not part of a group and people making their own way to the cove will not be picked up by passing coaches or military vehicles, which will make for a long and tiresome trek. Add to this the fact there is only a single, oneway entrance and exit into the National Park. It results in vehicles being backed up for miles as coaches arrive early to park and secure the best spot for the dawn service. Those arriving late are forced to walk the many kilometres to Anzac Cove. Taking a tour is an ideal and safe way of getting to the dawn service safely, on time and without hassle, and there are companies which
offer Turkish tour guides, guaranteed attendance at the ceremonies and tours beyond the famous Anzac Cove. Once arriving at Anzac Cove you will sit with thousands of others waiting for the break of dawn and the service, coordinated by the Turkish Military and Turkish, Australian, New Zealand and British War Graves Commissions. Eventually, the Last Post will start. Following the Dawn Service, an Australian service is held at Lone Pine, a New Zealand National Service at Chunuk Bair and, depending on your tour, a tour of the battlefields and memorial sites. With current world events in the Middle East, Australian troops have again been called into action in modern times which has resulted in an
Travel | 17
AustralianTimes.co.uk
increase in education in Australian schools about the Anzacs, past and present. In turn, this awareness by Australia’s youth of our army corps has resulted in a surge in numbers in the past decade at Anzac Dawn and Day services across Australia and the world. Today many of our youth are now taking part in Anzac Day marches back home in Australia through our capital cities and regional towns wearing their parent’s, grandfather’s, great grandfather’s or uncle’s war medals. This is not only due to inquisitive young minds about the past, but a pride and an inspired need to carry on an important Australian tradition and history. The last surviving Gallipoli Anzacs in Australia and New Zealand both
died in 1997. Albert Edward (Ted) Matthews died in Australia on 9 December and Alfred Douglas Dibley died in New Zealand on 18 December 1997. Mr Matthews landed in Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 and served there until 19 December the same year. He was the last surviving Australian Anzac of approximately 16,000 and it’s of vital importance that the candle continues to be passed to the Australian youth. Crowds at Australian Anzac Day services are increasing every year and especially those at Dawn Services. Even in London we continue to see numbers surge for the several commemoration services held around the English capital. Young adults are continuing to conduct their own research into the
Anzac legend and this is just part of the reason why so many are now making the trek to Turkey and Anzac Cove every April. In an effort to understand what our war heroes went through, patriotic countrymen and women are recreating those terrible scenes of 1915. It is a combination of many things which has inspired me to travel to Gallipoli this year. The memory of attending so many dawn services at home; the great stories of Australians; modern day wars; and a motivation to say my thanks are also contributing factors. Fellow travellers tell me the silence of the crowd at first light will be an experience like no other. I hope they are right. I hope the ‘Last Post’ rings loud and clear. AustralianTimes.co.uk/travel
Australia on the Western Front, 1916-1918
£80 per person including lunch on the Somme
Guided day coach tours of Australia's Western Front Battlefields: Fromelles, Pozières and Villers-Bretonneux. Departing Central London, travelling in executive comfort, join Battlefront Exploration for a guided tour of Australia's Battlefields on the Western Front. We visit: Fromelles: ‘the site of Australia's bloodiest twenty-four hours’ Pozières: ‘more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any other place on earth’ (Australia's Official Historian) Villers-Bretonneux: ‘the final defeat of the 1918 German Spring Offensive’
Further details, tour dates and payment information can be found on our website www.battlefrontexploration.co.uk.
18 | Travel
24 January - 30 January 2012
A whirlwind weekend in Paris n
Aussies living in London have two stubborn little obstacles standing between them and their next trip. Can you guess what they are? Sure you can – there’s no prizes as it’s obvious: time and money.
croz from oz > LEE CROSSLEY
IN response to it dawning upon us that our time here in the UK has become a fast-burning fuse, the beloved and I adopted a ‘make it happen’ maxim with regards to seeing the world while we’re actually ‘in it’ rather than ‘Down Under’. So, with paltry funds and a tiny time window, we packed our bags and caught the Eurostar to Paris. To be specific, we hit up Barclays first for overdrafts. As for the time limit: we had a little under two days. It was a spontaneous trip, part of my wife’s 30th birthday present. For all the clichés about romance and the mushy stuff, I can happily say that Paris came through with the goods. The Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, Louvre, Notre Dame, Arc De Triomphe – all spectacular.
What was most surprising was the lack of people about. It was a ghost town just a week out from Christmas! If aliens had dropped in from outer space, they’d be forgiven for thinking that it was a town of a couple of thousand, let alone two million. But the exodus of locals did not burst our Parisian bubble! Once there, we managed to jam quite a bit into one-and-a-half days. What would you do in two days in Paris? Staying at the Mercure, just a two minute stroll from the Eiffel Tour, provided us with the ideal point from which to explore this marvellous city. If you had asked me what was I looking forward to about travel before coming to the UK, Paris would have been on my Top 5, certainly, but people’s obsession with the Eiffel Tower has often baffled me. My wife is a hopeless romantic and buckled at the knees upon first seeing it. I remember it clearly. We came out of the Metro (Paris’s answer to the London Tube). “Where is it?” she asked as we both glanced skyward. We rounded a building and there it was: a beacon on the horizon. It was a cracking day – one I’m unlikely to forget. We’d booked tickets to climb the tower the day before, which allowed us to jump the queue. We got to the top as the sun was setting so were able to take in views of Paris during sunset and as it grew dark. If Paris has a personality, it’s moody but kind. It’s quite grey and any colour that exists in my memories resides only in the feelings generated from those memories, rather than the sites themselves.
After ticking off the aforementioned ‘must see’ attractions in record time, we were left with a couple of hours to fill. What better way to spend your last afternoon in Paris than a long lunch followed by some bar hopping in the St Germain district. Now, my mates often laugh at me when I make – in their opinion – ridiculous comparisons with places from Oz while travelling, especially when the places I’m comparing them to are European and over a thousand years older than my Aussie equivalent. But, in my humble opinion, the St Germain district, with its trendy bars and rustic/grunge feel, has a real Brunswick St, Melbourne, feel to it (insert eye roll here!). After a couple of quiet bevvies, the good wife suggests we take a trip to the Moulin Rouge. So, off we go. (The Metro in Paris is fantastically easy!) The Moulin Rouge was ok. We didn’t see a show (it would have cost €90 each) but we got the obligatory happy snaps in front of the windmill and then caught a train to another, more affordable, area for dinner.
Our trip finished with a lovely three-course meal at Le Vaudeville Brasserie (29 Rue Vivienne), the icing on what was a brief but brilliant trip. We caught the Eurostar back to London early in the morning, having got off it less than 48 hours before. Had I wanted to see any scenery on the way home, too bad, I didn’t see a thing for I slept from the moment of my bum went on the seat. But I dreamt of an amazing holiday (if that’s what a Parisian fly-by can be called) where I toured the world’s most romantic city with the love of my life. Ah, the memories! When I woke up it was drizzly and grey (but not Paris grey!). The driver didn’t need to tell us we’d returned to London. If you only had two days and could go anywhere in the world, where would it be and what would you do? Tweet @AustralianTimes or Croz from Oz @leecrossley or comment at AustralianTimes.co.uk/travel
Travel | 19
AustralianTimes.co.uk
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20 | Jobs & Money
24 January - 30 January 2012
New lenders would be welcome: Swan TREASURER Wayne Swan would welcome new foreign lenders to the Australian loans market, saying more competition would mean better deals for borrowers. Responding to reports Japanese banks are considering entering the Australian home lending market, Mr Swan warned the big domestic banks could no longer take their customers for granted. “I welcome the entry of new lenders who meet our strict regulatory criteria and want to get in the ring and fight for customers by offering good deals for Australian families and business,” Mr Swan said in a statement. The Daily Telegraph newspaper said on Monday Japanese banks could snatch $100 billion of Australia’s home loan market by undercutting local lenders. Australia’s big four - ANZ Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank and Westpac - have hinted they might not be able to pass on an expected 25 basis point cut in the Reserve Bank of Australia’s cash rate when its board meets on 7 February. They blame rising funding costs as a result of Europe’s debt crisis. But Mr Swan said the government’s banking competition reforms have put the power back into the hands of consumers. “Banks can no longer take their customers for granted,” the treasurer said. “The banks are now having to earn
Dollar Review
Bullish Aussie Dollar defies negativity from Greece
the loyalty of their customers.” These changes included the scrapping of exit fees on new mortgages from July last year, allowing better access to funds for smaller lenders through the government’s $20 billion investment in the residential mortgage backed securities market and an easier way for customers to compare home loan deals. “The ban on exit fees means it is easier for families to walk down the street to another lender if their current bank isn’t looking after them,” Mr Swan said. At least three big banks, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group, are believed to be considering operations in Australia. Japanese lenders have less of a problem finding funds because they have mountains of inexpensive deposits due to their country’s entrenched savings culture. - AAP AustralianTimes.co.uk/jobs-money
THE Australian Dollar has kept its head high in resilience despite the negative news coming in from Greece regarding their debt negotiations, to see a 12week high. Greece is now expected to meet with bond-holders to try escape a possible default on its debt. Solid performances from last weeks equity markets helped see the Aussie climb up to 104.89 US cents against the greenback on Monday morning – the highest its been since the end of October last year. Reports from Tony Darvall, currency dealer from Easy Forex, is that the Aussie Dollar had backed off slightly after news had broke out that progress in negotiations between the eurozone’s creditors and Greece officials were not moving in a positive direction. He added that despite the ongoing situation in Europe, The Australian Dollar held its ground and should still follow an upwards trend for the next day or so. Tony also mentioned that if the inflation figure slumps, it could lower the Aussie in a downwards direction
with it. This could mean that the market might reach a level of higher sustained selling than previously experienced. Exchange rates as of 09:41, 23 January 2012
Composed by Chad Frieslich :: Note: The above exchange rates are based on “interbank” rates. If you want to transfer money to or from Australia then please register/login on our website, www.1stcontactforex.com, or call us for a live dealing rate. Make use of a Rate Notifier to send you alert when the Australian exchange rate reaches levels you are looking for.
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I am currently on a Tier 2 working visa and hope to eventually obtain my British citizenship. Can you please explain to me what the residential requirements for Indefinite Leave to Remain are, so that I can ensure I fulfil these during my qualifying period, as I need to travel outside the UK quite often?
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Jobs & Money | 21
AustralianTimes.co.uk
NSW in the economic slow lane: opposition IR umpire approves Qantas engineer deal NSW is “spluttering along” at the back of a three-speed economy because of Premier Barry O’Farrell’s lack of leadership, state opposition leader John Robertson says. According to CommSec’s latest State of the States report, NSW has recorded the weakest quarterly economic output of all the states, just eight per cent above its long-term average. CommSec said Australia had a three-speed economy, with WA well out in front on its own. Victoria and the ACT formed the second group, with a third tier made up of NSW, Tasmania, Queensland, South Australia and the Northern
THE industrial relations umpire has signed off on a workplace agreement between Qantas and its engineers. Fair Work Australia on Monday said it had endorsed the agreement, after a long-running dispute between the airline and the workers. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said the carrier was pleased that an agreement had finally been reached. “After such a damaging industrial campaign by the licensed aircraft maintenance engineers union last year, it is a relief that this issue has finally drawn to a close,” Mr Joyce said in a statement on Monday. The determination affecting the 1600-member Australian Licensed
Aircraft Engineers Association sets a three per cent annual pay rise and other agreements related to rostering and transition to retirement. The deal remains in place until 31 December, 2014, and the engineers will be banned from taking industrial action before 2015. Last October, Mr Joyce temporarily grounded the entire Qantas fleet due to the ongoing disputes with the engineers, the pilots union and the Transport Workers Union. The arbitration process with the pilots and transport workers is continuing. - AAP AustralianTimes.co.uk/jobs-money
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Territory. “Nearly one year into his term, Barry O’Farrell has NSW spluttering along in the third lane of a three-speed economy,” Mr Robertson said. “Barry O’Farrell promised to build business confidence in NSW. Instead, the premier is squandering the strong economy he inherited.” “Today’s report comes as no surprise given NSW had the lowest employment growth rate over the past 10 years and the lowest growth of new dwellings per capita over the past five years under State Labor,” NSW treasurer Mike Baird said in a statement on Monday night. “This, along with the global
economic environment is presenting significant challenges for our economy and this will take time to turn around. “However, there are some positive signs with the report showing that NSW economic activity in the September quarter was still eight per cent above its decade average. “The NSW government is determined to rebuild confidence and create jobs through our record infrastructure investment program and Jobs Action Plan, which is providing payroll tax rebates to help create 100,000 new jobs for our state.” Mr Baird said. - AAP
AustralianTimes.co.uk/jobs-money
22 | Jobs & Money
24 January - 30 January 2012
Great southern land of discovery and opportunity n
The first human inhabitants came over 40,000 years ago and Australia’s modern history is characterised by migration, also. It’s a chequered tale of luck, pain, fear and prosperity. THE NEW AUSTRALIA: A Mother is kissed by her son after she took up Australian citizenship at Australia Day celebrations in Melbourne. (AAP Image/Dominic O’Brien)
DUTCHMAN Willem Janszoon is credited with the first undisputed European sighting of the Australian continent, in 1606. The northern, western and southern coasts of what was then known as New Holland were subsequently mapped mainly by Dutch explorers. It wasn’t until 1770 though, by Britain’s Captain James Cook in his voyage on the Endeavour up the east coast, that any significant part of the Australian mainland was ‘claimed’ by a European power (the Dutch only previously formally claiming Van Deimen’s Land (Tasmania) and the French claiming just the coast of Western Australia). “A Proposal for Establishing a Settlement in New South Wales” was presented by James Mantra in 1783. Mantra, who was a junior officer on the Endeavour voyage, recommended a colony at Botany Bay, as earlier suggested by fellow Endeavour crewmate and botanist Joseph Banks, comprised of South Sea Islanders, Chinese and loyalists fleeing the aftermath of the American War of Independence. Notably, the plan did
not include convicts. The first British settlement was established as a penal colony at what became Sydney on 26 January 1788 (now commemorated annually as Australia Day). At the time, the Indigenous population of the continent is estimated to have been anywhere between 350,000 and 750,000. Other British colonies soon sprang up around the continent, servicing the new and rapidly expanding agriculture and marine based economy. Over 165,000 convicts were sent to Australia by the time penal transportation ceased; the last prisoners arriving in Western Australia in 1868. The number of convict arrivals to Australia is far overshadowed though, by those who came chasing their fortune. During the gold rush of 1851-1871 for example, the population quadrupled from 430,000 to over 1.7 million. Conversely, the indigenous population by that time is thought to have fallen below 200,000 (dropping as low as just 62,000 by 1921 as a result of disease and genocide).
The Land Down Under
The Lucky Country
Compiled by Bryce Lowry and Rob Flude For the complete guide about migrating to Australia, including information on visa options and financial services, visit AustralianTimes.co.uk/Move-ToAustralia Image: Cloudbreak min e in Western Australi a (AAP Image/Rebecca Le May)
Australia needs you to work
fluctuations to give a better insight into real living standards, Australia ranks 11th at US$40,836 per year. Australia also consistently ranks extremely highly in global national performance studies, for quality of life, health, education, economic freedom and the protection of civil liberties and political rights. Four of Australia’s big cities – Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide (in that order) - are in the top ten most liveable cities in the world, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit Liveability Poll 2011.
The British move to Australia
BRITISH citizens still comprise the largest single national group of new immigrants who make the move to Australia each year. According to June 2009 statistics, there were about 1.19 million UKborn expatriates living in Australia, making it the most popular country for British people who live abroad. The UK is also the largest source of visitors to Australia, with 590,000
European nationals. From the 1970’s, this discriminatory practice was abandoned. 21st Century immigration policy favours multiculturalism with jobs skills, family and refugee status the key qualifying factors. The population of Australia in January 2012 is estimated at about 23 million - the 50th most populace nation on Earth. According to the 2006 census, 24% of the resident population were born outside of Australia. The indigenous population was estimated at 517,000 in the census – 2.5% of the population.
Image: courtesy Wiki Commons
Brits holidaying in 2009/10. Interestingly enough, the median age of British-born migrants in Australia is 53 years old, while the labour force participation rate was 60%, which is lower than the national average of 65%. New South Wales was the most popular state for UK-born residents in Australia at the time of the Census in 2006, with 25% calling the state home.
ia Find out more at AustralianTimes.co.uk/Move-To-Austral
|
Population: 22,809,773 ) (January 2012 estimate lion GDP: US$882.362 bil (2010) 6,984 GDP per capita: US$6 timate) es P PP nno (IMF 2011 ox 3% GDP growth rate: appr 5.2% Unemployment rate: ) (Dec 2011 years Life expectancy: 81.6
Image: AAP Image/Kirstin Scholtz
AUSTRALIA is the sixth-largest country in the world by area. It has an approximate area of 7,617,930 square kilometres (2,941,299 square miles) and roughly 34,000km of coastline, making it the world’s smallest continent but largest island. 3700km in distance from its southernmost to its northernmost point, Australia also stretches about 4000km across, with the Pacific and Indian Oceans bordering its shores. Australia is the flattest and driest inhabited continent, with the semi-arid land (‘the Outback’) comprising most of its area and is extremely sparsely populated.
ACCORDING to IMF estimates, in 2011 Australia continued its rise up the global GDP per capita league tables, ranking 5th in the world at US$66,984 per year. While largely attributed to a booming resources sector in the midst of global down turn, the nominal climb should also be viewed in light of the resulting dramatic appreciation of the Australian Dollar since the Great Recession began on 2007. When instead applying purchasing power parity (PPP) calculations, which are designed to account for such currency
On 1 January 1901, the by then six British colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Since then, Australia has maintained a stable liberal democratic political system with a constitutional monarchy, comprised of six states and two selfgoverning territories. The population is still heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Immigration became a renewed priority of governmental policy after World War Two. Fuelled by the somewhat paranoid and propagandist notion of ‘populate or perish’, Australian immigration in the 1950s and 1960s was characterised by the nowadays universally deplored ‘White Australia Policy’. A form of government sponsorship was offered to attract migrants. While dramatically boosting immigration levels to the country, it was restricted to being offered almost exclusively British and
Oz stats
In association with
AUSTRALIA is in great need for skilled migrants to in order to maintain its economy growth, presenting some fantastic opportunities. The Department of Immigration regularly publishes a list of skills, professions and occupations in high demand. Visa applications are assessed on a points basis, with the higher-need skills getting preference. The general need in Australia is for hands-on skills for jobs in industries such as construction and trades as well as in health and education. The continually swelling mining industry also provides plentiful job opportunities, particularly in Western Australia and Queensland, including in logistics and project management. The major Australian banks are also undergoing considerable change, with technology and project professionals in high demand.
Sport | 23
AustralianTimes.co.uk
Robertson wins snooker Masters in London Continued from p24...
the fourth player from outside Britain to win the Masters. Having won the 2010 world championship, the 29-year-old only needs to take out the UK Championship to become the first non-British player to complete the Triple Crown. “It means a lot after the world
championship. This is the tournament that I really wanted to win,” Robertson said. “In order to win this tournament, you have to beat all the best players in the world and my path to the final has not been easy. “I am absolutely over the moon. Everyone in Australia will be watching and just a thank you to all the support I
received.” World No.4 Robertson celebrated the title with his Norwegian partner Millie and briefly let his toddler son Alexander loose on the table. The Victorian’s tale of persistence is worth retelling. He has only cut it professionally at his third attempt, having arrived in Cambridge with STG500 ($A750) of
Aussie footballers setting Europe alight Continued from p24...
It was a simple finish from close range for the Australian but he and the Everton faithful erupted at his return to the goalscoring list. He produced his trademark pummelling of the corner flag and was engulfed by his team-mates. With his tail up, he delivered a piercing through ball for Landon Donovan nine minutes later but the American was unable to finish off his good work. The goal appeared to lift a weight off Cahill and he produced his best performance in some time, having been switched between midfield and the forward line in recent weeks. In the English Championship, Scott McDonald maintained his scoring
form with a 66th minute header in Middlesbrough’s surprise 3-1 loss at lowly Coventry. The much-maligned striker at international level has scored seven goals in his last 13 club appearances. Socceroos midfielder Neil Kilkenny set up the second goal in Bristol City’s 2-1 home win over Doncaster by crossing for Kalifa Cisse to nod home. Former A-League player Matthew Leckie was an injury-time substitute in Borussia Monchengladbach’s 3-1 home win over German giants Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga on Friday. In Serie B, Carl Valeri’s Sassuolo continued their push for promotion with a 4-2 home win over Vicenza. The result put them in second spot with the top two teams securing automatic
promotion. Meanwhile, Mitchell Langerak has enjoyed a rare outing for German champions Borussia Dortmund, filling in during the club’s 5-1 thumping of Hamburg in the Bundesliga. It was the highly-rated 23-year-old goalkeeper’s second appearance for the senior team this season, having played in a 2-0 win over Dynamo Dresden in the German Cup in October. Sunday’s win elevated Dortmund to the top of the table in the German top-flight alongside Bayern Munich and Schalke on 37 points. The Queenslander has enjoyed victories in all three of his outings for Dortmund. - AAP AustralianTimes.co.uk/sport
Forty five teams battle it out for Winter Tag Rugby By Phillip Browne THE Late Winter Try Tag Rugby competitions kicked off last week across the capital with a record 45 teams (over 500 players) braving the colder weather to battle it out across five different venues. The Autumn Balham champions, Scrum & Coke are the early leaders in the Borough mixed competition with Champions of Capua on top in the men’s league at the same venue. Seasoned veterans, Rub & Tag lead at Wood Green with Saints & Taggers off to a good start at Rotherhithe. Moves Like Tagger are the front runners at Barnes
with The Frosties on top at Bermondsey. If you wish to play it’s still not too late to get amongst the action as there is room to join teams at Barnes, Rotherhithe (females only) & Wood Green. Try Tag Rugby are currently in the process of hiring three competition supervisors and an administration officer on a contract basis starting in March/April in time for the busy summer period. These roles would suit Aussie sports enthusiasts who would like to make their mark in sports event management. There is also opportunity to join the Try Tag Rugby refereeing ranks. Refereeing Tag Rugby is a great
way to get fit, stay involved and have plenty of fun. All information on employment and refereeing opportunities with Try Tag Rugby can be found at Trytagrugby.com . Meanwhile, registrations are now open for the Spring competition (4 March). If you would like to get involved in one of the fastest growing sports in London, new team and individual registrations are welcome. To register for a Try Tag Rugby competition, go to www.trytagrugby. com or email info@trytagrugby.com for more details. AustralianTimes.co.uk/tag-rugby
Tomic wants to crash tennis top four
ROGER Federer has challenged teenage sensation Bernard Tomic to deliver away from the spotlight as he tries to make good on his promise to become a genuine grand slam force. A young man in a hurry, Tomic believes he can join the so-called Big Four of world No.1 Novak Djokovic, the second-ranked Rafael Nadal, the mighty Federer and three-times major runner-up Andy Murray by the middle of next year. Federer also senses the 19-year-old is headed for greatness, but wants to see Tomic produce more consistently in regular tour events. Tomic has shown time and again his love of the big stage, securing two grand slam junior titles before charging to the Wimbledon quarter-finals as a qualifier last year. He was also the youngest player in history to win a men’s main draw match at Melbourne Park and has already broken Australian Davis Cup records. But he only progressed to one quarterfinal from 15 regular tour tournaments in 2011. Federer said while Tomic had “proved his point” at this year’s Open, it was now all about “keeping that up time and time again - day in, day out when he’s not only just maybe playing on centre court, but also on the smaller courts.
“You have to go through those times as well,” the 16-times major winner said after ending Tomic’s Open campaign. “Then find your way on centre court and then, when everybody expects it again from you, (make sure) that you deliver.” Federer commended Tomic for a “wonderful tournament” and said Australians had every right to believe they have another champion in the making. But he warned against expecting too much too soon from Tomic. “When you’re 19, you have nothing to lose,” he said. “But then you feel an immense pressure, just the constant pounding of knocking on the door from everybody saying: ‘When are you going to make the breakthrough?’ “Well, not everybody is Michael Chang or Boris Becker or Lleyton Hewitt who just breaks through at 16, 17 and then you’re done with the breakthrough and now you’re established. It’s just not so simple. “Some need to work harder. Some need to work longer. I think I was one of those guys who kind of had to understand my own game and then eventually when my fitness and my mind was all sort of coming together. This was when I was able to play my best.”
Encouragingly, Tomic has indeed identified improving his fitness and strength as the key to continuing his rise through the ranks. Having arrived in Melbourne as the world No.38, Tomic will depart possibly inside the top 30. The flip side of his poor run outside the slams last year is he has precious few rankings points to defend in 2012, at least until Wimbledon. “I can play tournaments and play relaxed and know I’m just going to go up. Every match I win I go up,” Tomic said. “So it’s a great feeling knowing `til Wimbledon I have no points. You can be seeded at the grand slams like the French and Wimbledon and it becomes a bit easier than for rounds to get through and not play the big names. “The top four guys are at a different level. From five, six on, they’re all beatable. “But the top four guys have something special. That’s why they’ve all won slams, and that’s why Murray plays so consistent. “I think the rest, they are all beatable.” - AAP Lleyton Hewitt was in action against Novak Djokovic when we went to print. Find out how he went at AustralianTimes. co.uk/sport
borrowed money and needing to be leant a waistcoat for competition. Robertson emerged out of a tight first session on Sunday night with a 5-3 lead before charging out to a 9-4 advantage. However with victory in sight, Murphy relaxed and collected the next two frames before Robertson held his nerve to take out the win. Chants of “Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi
Oi Oi” kicked off once he had seized a match-winning lead in the final frame of the best-of-19 final. The Australian had a tough path to the final, defeating two-time world champion Mark Williams, 2011 UK Championship finalist Mark Allen and rising star Judd Trump.- AAP AustralianTimes.co.uk/sport
RECORD BREAKERS
London brimming with record Tag Rugby numbers P23
AUSSIE CRICKET ATTACK IS BEST EVER: SEHWAG INDIA’S thrashing machine Virender Sehwag paid the home side a mighty compliment on Monday, saying this was the best attack he had faced in his 20 Tests against Australia. Sehwag, who will lead the tourists in the fourth Test starting on Tuesday in Adelaide following skipper MS Dhoni’s suspension for the team’s slow over-rate, is averaging under 20 in three Tests this summer. And the 95-Test veteran says tight bowling has been the key, preventing the dashing opener from pinning his ears back and bashing the loose ball over cover. “They are bowling in good areas. They are not giving easy balls to hit boundaries and they are playing with real patience,” said Sehwag, who boasts a career average of 50.93. “It is the best bowling attack I have ever seen especially against Australia because generally when I have played in the past, I get a couple of balls to hit to the boundary. “But now, in this attack, I hardly get a ball to hit so I think (it’s) one of the best bowling attacks.” When Sehwag first started playing against Australia the home side fielded names like Nathan Bracken and Brad Williams. But a year later in India, Sehwag had to contend with Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, subcontinent workhorse Michael Kasprowicz and champion legspinner Shane Warne. However, the efforts of pacemen Ben Hilfenhaus (23 wickets at 16.00), Peter Siddle (17 at 19.58) and James Pattinson (11 at 23.36) in the current series has left Sehwag struggling to perform his familiar big-hitting tricks. And Australia skipper Michael Clarke says he’s banking on his quicks to continue the job in Adelaide. Young quick Mitchell Starc was handed the role of drinks waiter. Offspinner Nathan Lyon returns to the 11 alongside Siddle, Hilfenhaus and Ryan Harris, who took match figures of 2-67 from 34 tight overs in Perth. Clarke, whose men hold a 3-0 advantage in the four-match series, says he’s determined to lift his fourth-
Aussie Robertson is Master of London
NEIL Robertson is a step closer to achieving a coveted career Triple Crown following his triumph in the Masters snooker tournament. The Australian maintained his perfect record of seven wins from seven finals in major tournaments by defeating Englishman Shaun Murphy 10-6 at Alexandra Palace in north London. The week-long Masters is considered one of the toughest tournaments to win because it only involves the world’s top 16 players. Robertson, who collected STG150,000 ($A224,000) for his efforts, is the first Australian and only
CHANGING
...continued on p23
Cahill ends goalscoring drought
Is Tomic the future of Australian tennis? | p23 placed side back to the top ranking. The skipper and his co-selectors brushed aside the new Cricket Australia policy announced two weeks ago to rotate hard-working pace bowlers which in this case would have meant either Siddle or Hilfenhaus being rested. “It was about picking the best eleven to win the Test,” Clarke said. “I have said that from the start, that we want to win every Test match that we play and this series is no different. “I guess winning the last two Test matches in less than five days has
helped everyone recover so all the guys are fighting fit and ready to go.” While Lyon can expect to get plenty of work in his 10th Test and first at his home ground, Clarke says the former Adelaide Oval groundsman shouldn’t be seen as Australia’s saviour. Clarke says reverse swing will be a major factor with Hilfenhaus set to lead the way as variable bounce comes into play late in the game. “We know these conditions are probably going to suit India a lot more than where we have come from in Perth so we are going to have to be at
our best to beat them,” Clarke said. “I definitely have a lot of confidence in ‘Lyno’. I would hate to put that sort of expectation on him.” Sehwag said the tourists were considering playing two spinners, Ravi Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha. Australia: Michael Clarke (capt), Ed Cowan, David Warner, Shaun Marsh, Ricky Ponting, Mike Hussey, Brad Haddin, Peter Siddle, Ryan Harris, Ben Hilfenhaus, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc (12th man).- AAP AustralianTimes.co.uk/sport
TIM Cahill can’t take a trick at the moment. Only an hour after snapping his 13-month goal-scoring drought for Everton, a goal-line clearance from the Socceroos star bounced off Blackburn’s David Goodwillie’s midriff into the Everton net. The match finished 1-1 with Goodwillie’s 72nd minute goal tempering the joy at Goodison Park surrounding Cahill’s first goal for the Toffees since December 2010. Cahill has endured a frustrating run at club level with a multitude of injuries contributing to his barren run in 2011. The 32-year-old’s season of near misses finally came to end in the 24th minute on Saturday with team-mate Marouane Fellaini literally having a hand in the goal. From eight metres out, Fellaini’s shot was blocked by Blackburn goalkeeper Paul Robinson and the Belgian controlled it with his hand as he found Cahill. ...continued on p23