THE TWEED www.tweedecho.com.au Volume 3 #47 Thursday, August 4, 2011
Byron Bay Writers’ Festival
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WEEKEND PROGRAM PAGES 2126
LOCAL & INDEPENDENT
Tweed bus service woeful, says report Steve Spencer
Guitar duo not so strung out Luis Feliu
Dutch-born musician Marion Schapp and her Australian partner Peter Constant, who make up the virtuoso classical guitar duo Zoo, almost cancelled their first Australian concert at Tyalgum last Sunday after a health scare, initially suspected to be rubella, only days before their tour. The couple arrived in Australia from Holland last week for their concert at Tyalgum Hall organised by the Tyalgum Festival of Classical Music committee. But soon after arriving, Marion was struck down by a mystery illness, at first thought to be rubella and later diagnosed as a viral infection. Her partner Peter called festival
Virtuoso guitarists Marion Schapp and Peter Constant, the two halves of the duet Zoo, become one as they get their hands around a blues piece which delighted the audience during their concert at Tyalgum Hall last Sunday (and later generously repeated for The Echo). Photo Luis Feliu
spokesperson Alex Wilkinson late last week to say Marion was still recovering and may not make it. Alex told Sunday’s packed audience that, nonetheless, the show went ahead and thanked the duo for performing brilliantly under such trying circumstances. The audience in turn responded gratefully with a hearty round of applause. The Tyalgum concert was the duo’s first performance in Australia before they begin a residency program at the Queensland Conservatorium in Brisbane. To the delight of the audience, they played a range of exotic classical guitars, crafted by Australian luthiers Greg and Paul Sheridan, and brought to life concertos and sonatas by Vivaldi and Scarlatti and some Venezulean waltzes, among other pieces. Marion told the audience the his-
toric wooden hall had great acoustics and it was rather quaint to have some twittering birds outside as accompaniment on a fine afternoon. (Luckily she didn’t hear the barking dogs or the creaking iron roof.)
‘Premier league’ The duo, hailed by Classical Guitar magazine as ‘premier league quality’, met while completing their Master of Music degrees at Yale University, USA, and for more than a decade their ‘first love’ has been playing music together. The Tyalgum Festival of Classical Music, September 2–4, is celebrating its 20th birthday this year with a special lineup and program including string ensembles and orchestras, concert pianists and fiery flamenco. For more information visit www. tyalgumfestival.com.au.
A Tweed Shire Council report has confirmed what long-suffering commuters have known for years – local bus services are too slow, too expensive and too infrequent. A bus trip costs twice as much as one across the border and it takes more than an hour to travel between Kingscliff and Murwillumbah, according to a draft public transport strategy study. It says the ‘simplest and easiest’ way to fix the under-used service is for the NSW government to provide a subsidy similar to one enjoyed by Gold Coast commuters courtesy of the Queensland government. Tweed MP Geoff Provest says he will take up the issue with government ministers but castigated the former Labor government for rejecting an offer to be part of the Queensland transport scheme, TransLink. The study says the poor performance has resulted in only one per cent of locals using the service. It found that travelling from Kingscliff to Murwillumbah took 75 minutes and commuters cannot get to Murwillumbah until 8.30am. An 8km journey from Kingscliff to Tweed Heads costs $6.80, while on the Gold Coast a similar length trip costs $3.11 using a Go Card. ‘Commuters are delayed and inconvenienced when travelling across the Queensland border as they are forced to change buses at Bay Street because of different systems and fee structures,’ says the report, which was compiled by the council’s engineering division. ‘Public transport in southeast Queensland has made strong progress in recent years and of most
significance is the formation of the Queensland government-subsidised TransLink which enabled transport in the region to become integrated and have a standardised fee structure. ‘The simplest and easiest, but potentially politically and legislatively difficult improvement that could be made to improve the attractiveness of public transport in the shire is for the NSW government to join (and subsidise on a similar basis as the Queensland government) the TransLink system for at least services operated by Surfside Buslines in NSW.’ Surfside buses operating in Tweed Shire were already fitted with TransLink ticketing machines and tickets could also be used on the Queensland rail network.
Cheaper services It says benefits would include cheaper and more frequent services with a same fare system, avoiding the current need to change buses at the border. The report says: ‘about 80 per cent of Tweed workers live in the shire and also work within the shire and about 20 per cent live on the Gold Coast. About 6,300 Tweed residents cross the border to work and 3,600 residents of Queensland travel into Tweed to work – meaning about 10,000 workers could be targeted by better regional transport.’ Tweed mayor Kevin Skinner said a ‘seamless’ bus system would increase bus use in the shire. ‘I certainly support integrating the system with the Gold Coast,’ he said. ‘Bus services should be at the same cost as across the border. And increased bus use will also reduce wear and tear on shire roads.’
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