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editor’s letter

Welcome!

A

also as a study in the healing power of forgiveness and of love (page 32).

There’s also power in laughter, something cover star Magda Szubanski knows all about. She opens up on traversing the sometimes bumpy path to true happiness, and gives the team plenty to smile about on set (page 14).

Nicole Byers EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Top: Magda gives The Weekly’s Juliet Rieden a preview of her new book. Above: Jason and Jemma Donovan with The Weekly’s team in Melbourne.

Six months after the genocide, The Weekly’s Nicole Byers (top) travelled to Rwanda, spending time in a refugee camp with displaced children. Right: Maggie Beer and her beloved daughter Saskia.

Email me at awweditor@bauer-media.com.au Follow me on Instagram @nicolebbyers

NICOLE BYERS PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW FINLAYSON. CORRIE BOND/BAUERSYNDICATION.COM.AU.

s an adventurous but naive 20-year-old backpacking through Africa with my then-boyfriend, I jumped at the chance to trek into the Rwandan jungle to see the gorillas.

It was 1995 in a country where just six months earlier – while I’d been obliviously ‘finding myself’ in India – one of history’s worst genocides was unfolding. In what was grimly titled “100 Days of Slaughter”, Tutsi villagers were massacared in their hundreds of thousands by extremists from the rival Hutu tribe.

It’s hardly surprising then that we didn’t encounter many fellow travellers. Instead, it was volunteers from Médecins Sans Frontières who invited us into their temporary home and, on a rare day off, joined us and an armed local guide on our trip to see the gorillas. As powerful as the sight of those noble primates was, it was the stories of the local refugee camps our new friends shared that left the greatest impact. We offered to help any way we could.

I will never forget seeing that camp come into sight – the endless hills of shabby tents, the hordes of kids roaming around in playful packs, the endless queues for water, food and medical attention. Then there were the makeshift hospital tents, where newly injured villagers (random attacks continued long after the major bloodshed) would be deposited alongside those gravely ill with malariaa, dysentery or worse. While my knack fo or fainting at the merest hint of blood meant I was of limited use in the medical tents, there was plenty to do corralling kids and sorting supplies. It was an experience I will never forget.

So when I heard the remarkable storry of Rwandan genocide survivor Frida Umuhoza, I knew it was one that, no matter how hard it was to hear, needed to be shared. Not only so the world never forgets what happened there, but

And finally, I would like to extend the team and my deepest sympathies to our beloved long-time food contributor and national treasure, Maggie Beer. The tragic passing of her daughter Saskia shocked and saddened us to the core, particularly those who had the pleasure of spending time with this vibrant young woman and her family recently for a Weekly story.

Our hearts go out to all who knew and loved her.

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March 2020

84

Contents 32

68

46

Marvellous

EXC LU S I V E S

Magda

DOLLY PARTON SARAH FERGUSON & JEAN KITTSON

How this funny lady learned to be truly happy

BILLION DOLLAR BABIES

Food to Love Tasty vegan, Cooking for two +Pie maker perfection!

Is the fertility industry putting profits before people?

TRUE CRIME

WHO KILLED BRENDA? The adventurer who disappeared without a trace

Special

R E P O RT

GRACE KELLY’S LEGACY Can her grandchildren return Monaco to glory?

8

Plus

The lost art of handwriting

On the cover 14

MARVELLOUS MAGDA: how this funny lady learned to be truly happy

26

BILLION DOLLAR BABIES: is the fertility industry putting profits before people?

102

Up front 4

EDITOR’S LETTER: from the desk of The Weekly’s Nicole Byers

64

WOMAN TO WATCH: AFLW star Tayla Harris is a campaigner for equality

SPECIAL REPORT: Grace Kelly’s legacy – can her grandchildren return Monaco to glory?

32

OUT OF AFRICA: Frida Umuhoza survived unspeakable horror in the Rwandan genocide

74

46

84

38

EXCLUSIVES: Dolly Parton, Sarah Ferguson and Jean Kittson

the details on Princess Beatrice’s big day

52

TRUE CRIME: who killed Brenda? The adventurer who disappeared without a trace

98

THE LOST ART OF HANDWRITING

MICHAEL ROWLAND: a freak accident almost stopped the News Breakfast host’s career before it started

58

137

FOOD TO LOVE: tasty vegan, cooking for two, and pie maker perfection!

THE

ALL IN THE FAMILY: comedienneJean Kittson on helping her parents navigate older age

106

PAT McDERMOTT: being busy is the new black

68

THE DONOVAN DYNASTY: history repeats itself when actress Jenna Donovan arrives at dad Jason’s former TV home, Ramsay Street 80 UNSPEAKABLE ACTS: reporter Sarah Ferguson shares the turmoil of filming her new TV series

9 OPEN LINE 10 IN THE NEWS 22 ROYAL WEDDING:

RELATIONSHIPS: Hannah Richell is soothed by water after tragedy

A PRECIOUS GIFT: mentors and the women they’ve helped to inspire

90

WILDLIFE WARRIORS: the women turning back the tide on animal extinctions

96

HUMOUR Amanda Blair gets a dressing down

Fashion & Beauty 108

AUTUMN STYLE: update your wardrobe

118 FASHION NEWS 120 BEAUTY: the lowdown on the latest injectables

124 128

PRETTY LIST BEAUTY NEWS

Health 130

FIRST FLOOR: take care of your pelvic region

132 134

VOICE OF AUSTRALIAN WOMEN SINCE 1933

HEALTH NEWS ASK THE DOCTOR

164

70 Test Kitchen 138

SALAD DAYS nourishing and delicious for mains, sides and lunch

144

TABLE FOR TWO: forget leftovers – these recipes are just right for two

150

MONDAY MORNING COOKING CLUB: sweet offerings from the popular community cookbook

150

144

184 CRAFT: a simple scented soy candle to make 186

MONEY: the trick to saving is all in your mind

158

VEGAN DELIGHTS: from fried rice to ‘steak’ sandwiches, all meat-free and ready in just 30 minutes

189

READING ROOM: the latest books, plus a Great Read by Anne Enright

162

QUICK BITES: the latest food news and kitchen products

164

PIE IN THE SKY: celebrating all things pastry, savoury and sweet

194

TRUGANINI: author Cassandra Pybus celebrates the life of a great Tasmanian

158

138

198

THE DIARY: the best shows, exhibitions and music

200

SUBSCRIPTION OFFER: subscribe to receive six issues of The Weekly for $30

Home & Regulars

201 PUZZLES: test your skills 206 BAUER MEDIA’S

170

TRAVEL: ambling along the Murray, rebuilding local towns, and taking in the sights of Wellington

178 180

189

PRIVACY NOTICE

208

HOROSCOPES: astrology with Lilith Rocha

HOME HINTS

210

OPEN MIC: Gabbie Stroud’s message for parents

HOMES: downsizing on the Gold Coast

AC K N OW L E D G E M E N T of C O U N T RY The Australian Women’s Weekly acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as the traditional custodians of the place we now call Sydney, where this magazine is published. The Weekly also pays respects to Elders past and present.

team

Editor-in-Chief Nicole Byers Editor-at-Large Juliet Rieden Deputy Editor Tiffany Dunk Editorial Co-ordinator Zachary Bryant (ZBryant@bauer-media.com.au)

JOURNALISTS News and Features Editor Samantha Trenoweth Senior Writers Sue Smethurst; Susan Chenery Writer Genevieve Gannon This month’s contributors Jenny Brown, Sarah Ferguson, William Langley, Tamarah Pienaar, Ingrid Pyne, Hannah Richell, Gabbie Stroud, Jac Taylor

DESIGN Creative Director Joshua Beggs Deputy Art Director Sarah Farago Senior Designer Jennifer Mullins Photo and Shoot Editor Samantha Nunney This month’s photographers Phillip Castleton, Will Horner, Julian Kingma, Alana Landsberry, James Moffatt, Chloe Paul, Kristina Soljo, John Paul Urizar

C O PY E D I T O R S Senior Copy and Travel Editor Bernard O’Shea Deputy Copy Editors Nicole Hickson, Bronwyn Phillips

LIFESTYLE Acting Style Director Maya Wyszynski Acting Style Editor Jamela Duncan Beauty & Health Director Vicki Bramley Fashion & Beauty Assistant Editor Stefani Zupanoska Medical Practitioner Professor Kerryn Phelps Columnists Amanda Blair, Pat McDermott

FOOD Food Director Frances Abdallaoui Food Contributors Maggie Beer, Michele Cranston

MARKETING Marketing Director Louise Cankett General Manager Subscriptions & E-Commerce, Marketing Sean McLintock Senior Subscriptions Campaign Manager Ellie Xuereb

A DV E RT I S I N G Head of Brand Anna Mistilis Brand Implementation Executive Rachael Potter NSW Sales Director Karen Holmes Victoria Sales Director Jaclyn Clements Queensland Head of Sales Judy Taylor

PRODUCTION Production Planner Sally Jefferys Production Advertising Co-ordinator Dominic Roy

B AU E R M E D I A G R O U P Chief Executive Officer Brendon Hill Chief Financial Officer Andrew Stedwell Commercial Director Paul Gardiner Executive General Manager Digital Operations & Publishing Sarah-Belle Murphy General Manager Media Solutions Jane Waterhouse Business Analyst Georgina Bromfield EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES The Australian Women’s Weekly, GPO Box 4178, Sydney, NSW 2001, phone (02) 9282 8120, visit aww.com.au. The Australian Women’s Weekly is published by Bauer Media Group.

Available at all good bookstores

SYNDICATION ENQUIRIES syndication@bauer-media.com.au Published by Bauer Media Limited (ACN 053 273 546), 54-58 Park Street, Sydney, NSW 2000. © 2019. All rights reserved. Printed by PMP Print, 31-35 Heathcote Road, Moorebank, NSW 2170. ISSN 0005-0458

Your letters

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Open line I have seen many moving and poignant images from the bushfires, but the one that leapt from the pack and brought me to tears was that of a Muslim community service group donating their time in support of the firefighters and bushfire victims (Black Summer special, AWW, February). They would have felt the blowtorch of intolerance in the past but despite this they have still been able to rise above the hate against them and prove beyond doubt that they are Australians.

Women from the Australian Islamic Centre brought supplies and a cooked breakfast to country Victoria.

M. Wouters, Bundaberg, Qld.

A COURAGEOUS LEGACY

PEARL

Jill Emberson’s story touched me deeply (When pink meets teal, AWW, February).

What a brave, selfless woman. Although very ill with the dreaded ovarian cancer, Jill had the strength and determination to do something positive and think of others. A lot is done towards breast cancer, and how right it is that “the disease that whispers” should receive more awareness. I hope the campaign supports courageous Jill’s legacy.

My heart ached reading of her death.

May she rest in peace.

OF

WISDOM

“He who is content with his own opinion is a danger.”

–AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Terry Stormon, Goonellabah, NSW. Legacy

F. Rooney, via email.

HUMAN APPEAL INTERNATIONAL. GETTY IMAGES.

LOVE BEFORE DUTY What a beautiful cover photo (right) of a young Prince Harry and his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales (AWW, February).

Yes Harry, protect your family and live the life you want. Family first.

Jill E M B E RS O N

When

meets t

k

Jill Emberson was a courageous campaigner for those, like her, whose lives are cut short by ovarian cancer. Shortly before heer death she spoke with Genevieve Gannon of love and life, and thee hope that her work will lead to better outcomes for women with ccancer. first met Jill Emerson late last year n a room behind an old heritage l sted art gallery in the NSW port town of Newcastle Dozens of women were gathered around a long table, chattering brightly as they sewed silk and cotton flowers Only two colours were used n their creations the p nk of the breast cancer awareness campaign and the teal of the ovarian cancer movement Their conversations stopped, but their work d dn’t, as he woman they were sewing for entered At 60, Jill was dignified, warm, vibrant, and hiding the pain in her body, as she addressed the group about sav ng the lives of women with ovar an cancer “It takes numbers more women asking for change, demanding change,” Ji l insisted But there the problem l es, because ovarian cancer is so lethal that not enough women surv ve to raise the

I

awareness and research fund ng that could significantly improve outcomes Which is why Jill a broadcaster, wife mo her and committed d act vist resolved to bring toge her the p nk and the teal, the breast cancer and he ovarian cancer awareness movements “By working together we can make a difference ” she said determinedly She knew she had little time but she had resolved to use a l she had left to improve he odds for other women confront ng ovarian cancer J ll had a passionate nature and an engaging manner As we spoke in a sun drenched courtyard that afternoon, there were few outward signs she had term nal cancer But within mon hs of our nterview, n Jill d ed, tragically fulfi ling the prophecy she was fighting to change ➝

60 The Au tralian Women’s Weekly |

History shows that much of southern Australia is extremely bushfire-prone, so I read your article (Fireproofing our future, AWW, February) with interest.

To be frank, we are not going to get anywhere with the bushfire threat until we commit to effectively managing

M. Margetts, Kelmscott Hills, WA. | The Australian Women’s Weekly

D. Cooke-Ford, via Instagram.

FOR THE FUTURE

Joyous moment J ll and Ken Lambert on their wedding day in Newcastle

W R I T E to us Letter of the Month wins $100.

The winner of our Pearl of Wisdom this month wins a 12-month subscription to The Australian Women’s Weekly, valued at $90. Your postal address must be included in all correspondence. Please state clearly if your letter is not for publication. See Contents for the location of Bauer Media Ltd’s Privacy Notice.

hazardous fuels in the broader landscape, in conjunction with adequate hazard separation and fire-wise landscape adaptation around our vulnerable homes and towns.

61

PUPPY LOVE

I had a bit of a smug reaction to Amanda Blair’s heart-to-heart about her dog (Gone to the dogs, AWW, January).

Our adored canine went through a phase of stealing food but all was forgiven.

Ha! The beggar (sorry, beloved animal) has just stolen this evening’s dinner. Our pooch is definitely in the dog house and I am not feeling so smug anymore!

J. Esots, Willunga, SA.

S E N D YO U R L E TT E RS to O P E N L I N E , T H E AU ST R A L I A N WO M E N ’S W E E K LY, G P O B OX 4 1 78 , SY D N E Y, N SW 2 0 01, or E M A I L O P E N L I N E @ BAU E R - M E D I A . CO M . AU.

WE CATCH UP on the LAST 30 DAYS

In Brief NEWS BITES

Catherine took som me time out from her work w to admire the anim mals at The Ark Open Farm.

Down on the farm THE DUCHESS of Cambridge has been talking to parents

Royal updates

and grandparents about their little ones to promote a national discussion about the early years of life. Catherine visited a farm in Northern Ireland with her UK-wide “5 Big Questions” survey, that aims to bring about a national conversation and lasting change for generations to come.

Peter’s marriage comes to an end The Queen’s grandson, Peter Phillips, and his wife Autumn have announced their 12-year marriage is over, but they are committed to co-parenting their two daughters, and maintaining

10 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

an “ongoing friendship”. Autumn met the young royal at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal in 2003 and reportedly dated him for six weeks before learning he was the son of Princess Anne. In a statement the couple said their first priority was the upbringing of their wonderful girls, Savannah, nine, and Isla, seven.

Women we admire

Welcome to the world Turia Pitt (right) and partner Michael Hoskin have grown their brood, welcoming a precious second son. Rahiti.

“I’m overjoyed, delirious, sleep deprived and extremely emotional,” Turia wrote, adding cheeky big brother Hakavai is “adjusting”.

DANCING QUEEN Sydney’s Stephanie Kurlow, 18, is one step closer to becoming one of the first professional ballerinas in a hijab after touring with The Wiggles.

GETTY IMAGES. AAP. FAIRFAX. IMAGE SUPPLIED AND USED WITH PERMISSION.

Sylvia Jeffreys (left) and Peter Stefanovic have also welcomed a bundle of joy, Oscar Hamilton Stefanovic. Sylvia says he has “deep blue eyes” and is “absolute magic”.

SHE’S A STAR NASA astronaut Christina Koch has secured her place in history books after spending 328 days orbiting earth in the space station, the longest mission for a female.

Finland’s female Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, has announced every new parent in Finland will receive seven months’ leave with full pay.

Farmers’ wives want a friend from the city AS THE SUN baked our drought-ridden

DELHI LIE IN Across Delhi, women are taking group naps in public parks to reclaim their ownership of a city where rapes have skyrocketed in recent years.

regions, Angela Thiele was sitting in her air-conditioned home thinking there had to be something she could do. Then she came across the Adopt A Farmer’s Wife group, which seeks to bridge the gap between city women and country ladies. Angela “adopted” a family and started collecting clothes, household goods and clean water. “Here we are in our little bubble and there are people out there with no drinking water.

I thought, I can do something about that,” she says. She loaded her ute and headed to NSW’s Dumaresq Valley. “There has been so much support,” she says. Visit the Adopt a Farmer’s Wife group on Facebook for more.

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Jane’s green red carpet

Activist and actor Jane Fonda stood by her commitment not to buy new clothes by recycling a dress she wore at Cannes in 2014 (below) to the Oscars (left).

Archaeologists have discovered a 7000year-old wooden well that shows Neolithic craftsmen were far more sophisticated than previously thought.

WA acts to protect pooches PUPPY FARMS will be outlawed

in Western Australia and pet shops will be banned from selling puppies as part of a government move to protect our canine friends. Premier Mark McGowan said the move will ensure dogs are treated well throughout their lifetime. Pet shops will shift to rehoming displaced or abandoned puppies and dogs.

12 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

SINGLE MOTHER Amanda Elsner becomes tearful when she talks about her boys. She hasn’t always been able to give Ethan, 13, and Cooper, six, everything they want, but through the help of The Smith Family she is seeing them grow into confident and capable young men. “Ethan can now read better than me,” jokes the Port Adelaide mum. Ethan was 12 when he was invited to take part in The Family Scholarship program. He was paired with a reading buddy as part of the student2student program and is now ahead of the benchmark for students his age. The reading program has improved reading skills in 97 per cent of kids who take part. “That gave him the confidence to read more and more,” Amanda says. Young Cooper followed suit, and is also thriving. The Smith Family has also enabled Amanda to ensure her boys have everything they need. “You go to school feeling better about yourself if you look good, and that’s a huge thing.

Whatever I don’t spend I put into a savings account for them,” Amanda says.

“It makes me teary. We’re very lucky.”

For information on how to support kids like Ethan and Cooper, visit thesmithfamily.com.au.

GETTY IMAGES. BELINDA VECCHIO.

With a little help from the family

Clockwise from far left: Kirk Douglas; with daughter-in-law Catherine Zeta-Jones; Kirk and son, Michael; in his most famous role, Spartacus.

Kirk Douglas Accepting his honorary Academy Award in 1996.

1916-2020

A star for the ages F icon Kirk Douglas spent 103 years on this Film Earth and he made the most of every moment.

E

Kirk Douglas with his sons Joel and Michael, who both followed in his footsteps in the film industry.

THE BEGINNING of Kirk Douglas’s life was as dramatic as his Hollywood career that spanned seven decades. Born to penniless immigrants after his father fled conscription into the Russian Tsar’s army in 1916, Issur Danielovitch Demsky grew up selling snacks to mill workers to earn money for food. He put himself through drama college by working as a professional wrestler and adopted the name Kirk Douglas.

Legend has it that his classmate, Lauren Bacall, was responsible for his big break, mentioning him to a director while Kirk was appearing in stage productions after an injury cut his WWII naval service short. His on-screen charisma was undeniable and he went on to light up the screen in

more than 80 films. Spartacus is certainly his most famous role, but he also won acclaim for his portrayal of Vincent Van Gogh and was nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award three times, though he never won. His eight-year marriage to his drama college sweetheart Diana Dill produced two sons, Michael, who would also become a revered actor, and Joel, a film producer.

He had two more sons, Eric and Peter.

In his later years, Kirk produced, wrote and threw himself into philanthropy. In tribute, Michael Douglas wrote, “To the world he was a legend ... but to me and my brothers he was simply Dad. Kirk’s life was well-lived, and he leaves a legacy in film that will endure for generations.”

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Cover story

s ’ e r Thseomethi n g t u o ab

M

The comedienne winning memoirist, now children’s book Szubanski, never stops contemplates 60, happier, she tells

14 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

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extraordinaire, e awardequality activist, and author, Magda evolving and as she she couldn’t be Juliet Rieden.

HAIR BY PETE LENNON. MAKE-UP BY ZOE KARLIS. THIS PAGE: MAGDA WEARS ET AL COAT AND DRESS, EDWARD MELLER SHOES, AND DINOSAUR DESIGNS CUFF. OPPOSITE PAGE: MAGDA WEARS MARINA RINALDI COAT AND THE FAMILY JEWELS BRACELET AND EARRINGS.

P H OTO G R A P H Y by ALANA LANDSBERRY ST Y L I N G by JAMELA DUNCAN

“I’d love to have a parcel of kids running around.”

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Cover story

agda Szubanski is funny. She just has to roll her eyes, strike a pose or – of course – open her mouth and everyone is laughing. Indeed, from the moment she walked into the studio for our exclusive cover shoot, Magda had The Weekly team in stitches. It’s a gift the instinctive comedienne has recently used to brilliant effect in an inspired run of Uber Eats adverts.

But Magda is also hilarious in print, as I have just discovered from her new project, the first of a series of laugh-out-loud – I kid you not – children’s books called Timmy the Ticked-Off Pony.

At the heart of the Timmy stories is a study of fame and what it can do to you – which is something Magda knows all about. “They say, write what you know, and really I’ve spent most of my life being various degrees of famous,” she explains. “Timmy is about the perils of shallow fame and being addicted to ‘likes’. I don’t want to sound preachy, but I worry for young people and the intense scrutiny and judgement they are exposed to – including from themselves. I’ve been around fame long enough to know that it cannot fix what’s broken – it can often make it worse. But when fame is built on a solid bedrock of sound values, you can use it to do some great stuff.”

The star of the books – Magda has two more in the works and hopes the series will run and run – who turns into a bit of an anti-star, is selfobsessed, cranky, overconfident, diminutive pony Timmy. And the inspiration for the character is a joke on Magda herself. “A friend of mine who knows me very well – she’s actually the one who came up with that Kath & Kim classic ‘foxymoron’ – said to me: ‘You know you’re very cute but you’re like a little ticked-off Shetland pony in certain moods’. And it’s just stuck. I’m usually pretty good natured, but I’ve got a bit of the Irish temper in me [from her grandfather on her mother’s side]. Then another friend had a pony called Timmy and so it became Timmy the ticked off

M

16 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

Shetland pony as my nickname. When I’m in a ‘certain’ mood, they say, ‘oh, Timmy’s here!’”

In a break between shots, Magda settles on the sofa and proffers a reading from her book. She immediately hops into character with a toothy salivating voice, perfect for the pocket pony ... perhaps she should be recording an audio book too!

It was publisher Scholastic who felt Magda would make an inspirational children’s writer, not just for her humour but also for her honed sense of empathy. “They asked me eight years ago,” she notes, raising her eyebrows skywards. “It took me eight years to write Reckoning [Magda’s award-winning memoir in which she discovered her father was an assassin with the Polish resistance] and eight years to write this. “What’s so funny with my life now is it feels like it’s going full circle,” she ruminates.

“When I was 19 and I worked in a

Clockwise from top: Magda’s mum Margaret and great-nephew Nathan; the Szubanski family (young Magda pictured far right); celebrating marriage equality; with sister Barb and great-nephews Max and Jacob.

women’s refuge, I didn’t have many practical skills to offer but I used to spend time with the kids. We’d go away on camps and I ended up being the one who would improvise and tell them stories.

“I remember really vividly one time we were on camp and of course every time I’d say ‘poo’ or ‘fart’, they’d scream and roll around with laughter.

I ended up with this story where the

“I still have conversations with Mum in my head.”

having her own. “On and off, but I was never really in the right situation,” she confides. “I wouldn’t have been a single mother and there was a point where I thought I might have children but it just didn’t pan out that way.

Sometimes I think I’d love to have a parcel of kids around but I’m really lucky to have gorgeous great-nephews – and they are gorgeous kids – as well as other kids in my life, but sometimes I think, oh, I would have loved that.

What can you do? It goes the way it goes.”

MAGDA WEARS ET AL COAT AND DRESS, EDWARD MELLER SHOES AND DINOSAUR DESIGNS NECKLACE AND BANGLE. GETTY. IMAGES SUPPLIED AND USED WITH PERMISSION.

Losing Mum

kids all had to go to Canberra to make an appeal to the Prime Minister, but they couldn’t get the plane off the ground so they had to fart in unison so they could get updraft. That was when I realised that kids love that sort of silly potty humour. I think many adults do, too.”

Calling on those early years, Timmy’s first tale is dubbed Timmy the Ticked-Off Pony and the Poo of Excitement, and manure features significantly in the plot. The publisher has tested the book on children and

received an immediate thumbs up. For her part, Magda has also tried it on two of her great-nephews, 13-year-old Jacob and nine-year-old Max, who loved it. Her third great-nephew Nathan, three, is too young. Magda is also godmother to Betty, one of TV host David Campbell’s twins, and has sent them a book to read, although she thinks they may also be a bit on the young side for Timmy’s capers.

Unsurprisingly, Magda is a hit with kids and loves having them around, and I wonder if she ever considered

The last time I interviewed Magda her mother Margaret was still around, albeit in a weak state. She couldn’t make it to our shoot as planned but told me on the phone how proud she was of her daughter. Soon after that, Margaret started suffering from dementia and moved into a nursing home. She was having regular mini-strokes and Magda saw the mum she adored disappear mentally and physically.

“There’s still a lot of work to do, even when your parent is in the nursing home and I was the primary carer for her. I used to go and see her every day and I loved that. But she was ready to go. She was tired of life,” says Magda.

Margaret was frail and tiny, consigned to a wheelchair, and although she knew little of what was going on around her and at times thought Magda was her mother or her sister Mary, she never lost her sense of humour. “She was hilarious. A few months before she died, on Mother’s Day, we were all gathered and my brother had brought a box of Cadbury Favourites. She grabbed a Crunchie – her favourite – shoved it in and was chewing and of course her dentures couldn’t cope with the honeycomb. I looked across and she was dribbling on herself. She was always so neat, and I went, ‘Oh Mum’, took her teeth out and washed them.

Then I popped her dentures back in and – this is a woman who hardly spoke by this point and drifted in and out of reality – she turned to me → MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

17

and winked and said, ‘Fancy chocolate turning on me like that after all the devotion I’ve shown it.’ Brilliant! That sense of losing her was very painful, but it was so great that it was that one beautiful element of her, her humour, that remained.”

The last days of Margaret’s life were extremely tough. Magda was up to her elbows fighting the marriage equality battle – something her mother wholly endorsed – when she got the call. “It’s really confronting watching your mum die. Old age is full on, and that last bit can be quite brutal. With Mum, it took seven days and we were there 24 hours a day.”

Margaret died on September 4, 2017, aged 92. “It’s a very weird feeling when you lose your final parent, especially your mum. Suddenly you’re not anyone’s daughter anymore. Of course, that also means you’re your own person and something else starts to grow in you. That’s the cycle of life.

That’s as it should be. But I think about her and Dad every day. I still have conversations with them in my head and they still drive me crazy, the way parents do. Mum had a real Scottish-Irish temper and she and I used to fight, but it was that ‘have an argy-bargy’, as we’d say, and then it was all gone. No grudge, just mothers and daughters, I suppose.”

After Margaret’s death, Magda was swamped with a mass of feelings that she is still working through. “There’s guilt. I think it’s a real daughter thing: I didn’t do enough to help her. That’s the one that can wake me up at night, thinking about all the things I should have done.” The funeral was at the Sacred Heart Church in St Kilda. “It was absolutely beautiful,” Magda sighs.

“She was Catholic but took issue with the church on a lot of things and felt terribly betrayed by the whole child sex abuse issues and how that was dealt with, as I think so many people of that generation did and do. She was tough but there was a genuine, deep compassion in her, she understood the suffering of others and the suffering of the underdog. She really got it.”

At the Mass, Queenie van de Zandt sang Amazing Grace and a lone piper

18 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

“It’s a very weird feeling when you lose your final parent.” led the coffin out of the church.

“There wasn’t a dry eye in the church,” says Magda. “But then, just as the coffin was disappearing, someone put on the most kitsch version of Scotland the Brave and we were all pissing ourselves laughing, thinking that’s Mum saying, ‘Oh don’t take yourselves so serious!’ As Mum said to me, ‘You’re aye greetin’’ which means you’re always crying. I’m such a crier.”

At that moment Magda felt embraced by her church but the attitude of some parishes towards homosexuality cuts deep. “You’re always there on the good graces. You have one change of pope, who’s more hard line about that stuff, you have one change of archbishop and you’re out on your arse again, so you never feel you can really put down roots in a spiritual community, which is important to me.”

In response Magda is toying with the idea of setting up a new church with friends. “We looked it up on Wikipedia and you actually can start your own church,” she says with a smile even though she’s pretty serious about the idea. “We just thought it would be great to have a spiritual community that we could belong to where one of the primary beliefs is the acceptance and affirmation of LGBTQI people, for straight people as well, but just not where we can be booted out. That’s all we want.”

Becoming an elder

It’s a shame Margaret didn’t see marriage equality passed in Australia, but she would certainly have been cheering her daughter from above.

“It was a terrible time because

Mum was dying, but it was one of those absolutely transitional times.

I came out of it not the same person at all. I did feel a lot stronger.

“I really believed in marriage equality. I don’t know if I’m capable of marriage myself, but I totally think that those rites of passage, everyone in society needs to be fully included in those. To me it’s really wrong that 10 per cent of the population don’t have the same rights.”

Since then, Magda seems to be speaking out more about issues that concern her – whether it’s the dangerous negativity on social media, climate change, female empowerment or gay rights. She has started a GoFundMe page to raise funds for mental health support for those affected by the bushfires and is full of ideas to offer grassroots help.

So is activism her new calling?

“I think I was on that path when I was 19 working at the women’s refuge, but then the time wasn’t right for who I was. I was so at odds with the way that most of the world was.

So instead I was just enjoying being a lightweight entertainer. It was fun.

“But there’s a certain thing that you feel when you’re a bit older, I think you start to become an elder – and I do it via things like mentoring and helping people.” She’s currently mentoring and working with Will Connolly, better known as “Egg Boy”, the activist who smashed an egg on the head of Senator Fraser Anning in response to the Senator’s controversial comments following New Zealand’s mosque attacks. Will and Magda are partners in her bushfire relief funding project. “One thing I know about is fame. It’s a really tough course to navigate and I’m now Twittertoughened. You see a lot of people get so terribly burnt by it. I keep trying to shut up but I think at the moment there are very destructive forces at play in the world and there’s a lot of work to be done.

We’ve all seen the writing on the wall in terms of climate change with the fires that have happened, and I think everyone feels a need to contribute and do something.” →

MAGDA WEARS ET AL JACKET AND DRESS.

Cover story

Cover story

“The last few years have been really great for me.”

But while she’s being using her voice to great effect, a year or so ago she thought she’d lost it – literally. She was feeling “off-colour” and went to the doctor but when she tried to talk nothing came out. “It was like I’d run out of petrol. The doctor ran out of the room, called the ambulance and I burst into tears. I thought I’d had a stroke.”

After a barrage of tests, Magda was diagnosed with post-menopausal stress-induced migraines – “a result of that hard couple of years with Mum dying and fighting for marriage equality,” she explains. The treatment is 31 Botox injections in her forehead every three months. “It’s full on but it’s really helped.”

The other thing that helps is a mass of “truly great and loyal” friends.

“I don’t have a partner but I am really blessed with friends,” she says. “The other night I was having a bit of a wibble-wobble about something; I rang a friend and I said, I’m really lucky that I can be this vulnerable and this open.”

I ask if she would like to find a partner. “I’d love to be in love and my friend jokingly suggested I should do a Magda Wants a Wife TV show – but no way!” she jokes.

Magda’s latest TV adventure has been those genius Uber Eats ads with Kim Kardashian and Serena Williams.

“When my agent called me with the idea I thought this is so funny I have to do it. I couldn’t believe that Kim had agreed and would wear a netball strip and even a pudding bowl haircut.

20 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

Magda and Kim Kardashian went viral with their Uber Eats ad, in which Magda reprised her role as the beloved Sharon Strzelecki.

I helped with the writing of it and I improvised some of it as well, just mucking around, which was really fun.” While they filmed at different times, Magda did talk to Kim on the phone and says she was “really lovely”.

She shot the ad with Serena in person and her phone screensaver is the “great hug” she shared with the tennis star. “Dad [who adored tennis] would have loved that,” she sighs.

In April, Magda will be celebrating her 59th birthday, which means next year is the big 6-0.

“It is different from 50 in that things start to happen, like getting the migraines. I’ve started referring to myself saying I’m nearly 60 and, to be honest, I’m kind of amazed that I’m still around doing stuff, being silly and making up stories. I count myself very lucky,” she says.

Does she feel wiser as well as older?

“Well, there’s two things. Someone said just when you get your head together your arse falls off. So true!

But I am wiser in some ways, in that I see patterns and that helps. As you get older you go, ‘oh wow, I’ve seen that, that’s come round again’.

“But the best thing is that I’m definitely happier. I have my anxiety issues but I acknowledge those now and I work with them.

I do meditation, I see a therapist and I use medications when necessary, very judiciously, but I’m on to it much more. I feel like the last few years have been really great for me. Ever since coming out, ever since all of that marriage equality, I feel very satisfied. The wheels haven’t dropped off now and it’s a pretty good life.” AWW Timmy the Ticked-Off Pony and the Poo of Excitement by Magda Szubanski, published by Scholastic, is on sale from April 1.

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Royals

PrincessBeatrice & Edo

We’regoing to thechapel

History, romance and the glamour of Buckingham Palace gardens are in store when The Queen hosts her granddaughter for an exclusive family wedding in May, writes Juliet Rieden.

AAP. GETTY IMAGES.

M

other of the bride-to-be, Sarah, Duchess of York, said she had “tears of joy” when her eldest daughter, Princess Beatrice, became engaged to Italian property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi. Sarah had known Edo since he was four – “his brother is my godson” she said – and was thrilled he would now be her son-in-law.

There’s no doubt the proud mum will be shedding more tears when the couple ties the knot in what will be a private and intimate wedding for close family and friends on Friday, May 29.

It’s going to be a beautiful ceremony for Princess Beatrice, 31, and the exceedingly dashing Edo, 37, who

Princess Beatrice and her fiancé, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi (pictured left in their official engagement portrait) will be married at the elegant Chapel Royal (above).

will be saying “I do” in the Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace.

Many royals have married in this very special chapel in the heart of London, including Queen Victoria and Prince Albert back in 1840, and the Queen’s grandparents, the then Duke of York and Princess Victoria Mary of Teck (later King George V and Queen Mary), and in 2013, Prince George was baptised at the chapel font. For Beatrice to be married there The Queen had to grant permission and the ceremony will be followed by a

reception given by Her Majesty in the gardens of Buckingham Palace.

Unlike her sister Princess Eugenie’s sizeable do at Windsor Castle, this will be a significantly lower-key event but there is no question the Princess is being honoured by her grandmother and there will still be plenty of royal pomp and pizzazz. The Chapel Royal is steeped in royal history, from Henry VIII’s time through World War Two, when it was bombed, to its restored glory today, and it is quite exquisite inside.

Buckingham Palace has confirmed that Prince Andrew will walk his daughter down the aisle and → MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

23

Prince Andrew and the Duchess of York (both left) will attend the reception at Buckingham Palace (top). In celebration, Princess Eugenie shared a sweet throwback picture (above). Right: Princess Beatrice looking elegant in 2014.

watching on will be 150 close family and friends. Since Beatrice was the maid of honour at her sister Eugenie’s wedding, it’s expected that Eugenie will return the favour and it’s possible that bridesmaids and pageboys may include the Cambridge children.

Edoardo’s three-year-old son Christopher, known as Wolfie, may also play a key role and his mother, Edoardo’s former fiancée Dara Huang, will probably attend.

The bigger bash will be at Buckingham Palace, where the gardens will be resplendent at this time of year. I understand that the couple is busy planning every detail of their day and in line with their wishes the ceremony will not be televised. But well-wishers may catch sight of the guests and couple arriving and departing both venues and travelling between St James’s Palace

24 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

and Buckingham Palace, which is a short walk through Green Park or a drive up The Mall.

Beatrice began dating Edoardo in 2018 and he proposed in Italy with an art deco-inspired diamond ring he had specially made. It was hand-cast in platinum with a 2.5 carat stone and two baguettes on either side. Princess Beatrice reportedly loved the ring and their engagement was formally announced on September 26, 2019.

“We are both so excited to be embarking on this life adventure together and can’t wait to be married,” the couple said. Also excited were their parents. Nikki Williams-Ellis and Alessandro Mapelli Mozzi – a British Olympian and descendant of Italian nobility – were “truly delighted. Our family has known Beatrice for most of her life,” they said. “Edo and Beatrice are

made for each other, and their happiness and love for each other is there for all to see. They share an incredibly strong and united bond, their marriage will only strengthen what is already a wonderful relationship.”

The Duke and Duchess of York added, “We are the lucky parents of a wonderful daughter who has found her love and companion in a completely devoted friend and loyal young man.”

Beatrice’s 10-year relationship with businessman Dave Clark ended in 2016 but now she has found her match. “We share so many similar interests and values and we know this will stand us in great stead for the years ahead, full of love and happiness,” the couple said.

In lieu of wedding gifts, the couple has asked guests to support Big Change, the youth charity which Princess Beatrice helped found, and Cricket Builds Hope, a charity that uses cricket as a tool for positive change in Rwanda. AWW

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BABY No.3FOR MICHAEL BUBLE

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BABY

BUSINE$$

Investigation

As the $25 billion fertility industry continues to grow some are questioning the ethics of marketing hope to couples when treatments fail more often than they work. Genevieve Gannon investigates.

J

essica* had undergone two bruising rounds of IVF when she decided to switch doctors.

With her first failed attempt being followed by a traumatic miscarriage, her treatment was proving to be tougher than she’d expected. Her body was bloated and sore from the hormone injections, but she had pulled herself together and focused on the baby she longed for. She was at an early scan with her husband, feeling good about her decision to change clinicians, when her new doctor made an alarming comment.

“She was looking at my follicles and saying, ‘That’s okay. Have sex tonight, and then have sex tomorrow,’ and we were sitting there confused,” Jessica, 37, recalls. “She said, ‘Sorry, is that confusing? You need to have sex.”

Jessica had to remind her doctor that her fallopian tubes had been removed, which is why she needed IVF in the first place.

“It is stuff like that that’s really quite damaging,” she says in a tearful interview with The Weekly. “It’s like, come on, we pay you thousands.

Thousands and thousands. You should at least read your notes before I walk into your consult room.”

It may seem like a small oversight made by a busy doctor, but this incident was part of a frustrating pattern that left Jessica feeling like she was a “uterus on a conveyor belt”.

The rigours of IVF – the hormone treatment, the hidden costs, the disappointment and what she describes as a lack of information, compassion and support – have left her feeling depressed, anxious and at times, even suicidal.

“I just lost the ability to function,” she says. “It was pretty full-on, and it felt like it was handled so badly and with no follow-up.”

Her sense of powerlessness prompted her to talk about her experience. Not enough people speak openly about how arduous fertility treatments can be, she says, and the stories that do make it into the media tend to focus on the starry-eyed result rather than the difficult journey to get there.

Since the birth of Australia’s first IVF baby in 1980, the health sector has expanded massively, morphing from bespoke specialist treatment into a global business estimated to be worth $25 billion. Now, about four per cent of babies born in Australia are conceived with the help of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and the ethics of selling hope have come under the microscope. A Victorian review of the sector recently found “the commercial character of these firms has intensified over the last 10 years”, raising concerns that the welfare of women is being sidelined as fertility companies seek to grow their profits.

Former Victorian Assisted Reproduction Technology Authority chair Michael Gorton, who conducted the review, says fertility clinics are

“We pay you thousands.At least read your notes before I walk in.”

responsible for great joy but there are also stories that are “concerning”. His investigation found evidence of up-selling, misinformation, poor reporting of breaches and a failure of the sector to provide patients with a way to make complaints. The conflict between commercial and health outcomes was a problem, he found.

“There’s a significant risk that people seeking treatment to form a family may be misled by providers who charge considerable sums for ART services and may not adequately communicate to patients the efficacy of treatment and the likelihood of successful treatment,” Mr Gorton found.

Dr Sonia Allan, who conducted similar investigations in WA and SA, said she heard accounts of some doctors having sales targets, and if the doctors and clinicians have to meet targets, she believes, it changes the nature of their service.

“It is a concern,” she says bluntly.

“It’s even referred to as an industry.

It’s increasingly commercialised and therefore is run in a way that is looking at profits for the shareholders.”

The industry has acknowledged it can improve the way some things are done, and has already strengthened the way it polices add-on therapies, which can be pricey without having proven effectiveness. But it has also defended itself against allegations that have surfaced in the wake of the reviews.

President of Fertility Society Australia Dr Luk Rombauts said the industry backed many of the Gorton report’s recommendations and he rejected the Victorian Government’s claim that there exists an element of “heartless, rogue operators” that prey ➝ MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

27

Investigation on vulnerable people. He says he’s unaware of any “sales targets”.

An infertile couple’s desire for their treatment to work creates a unique challenge for medical professionals, Dr Rombauts says. “It is a very dynamic tension between what doctors think might be useful to help their patients and what patients themselves are demanding.” The difficulty of balancing a couple’s wish to become parents and the harsh reality of what medical science can deliver is a fine line to walk, he says.

Selling the dream Sonia Kruger was 48 when IVF helped her conceive her daughter, Maggie.

Geena Davis was 48 when she had twins and Janet Jackson was 50 when she gave birth to her son, Eissa. Forty and 50-something celebrities with pregnancy bumps make great fodder for the media, but they create a misconception about the likely success of IVF later in life.

“The nature of a life in the spotlight often means more access to resources enabling long-term continuation of high-quality fertility treatments such as IVF,” Monash IVF says, as it cautions against the hope that older celebrity mothers inspire.

But the industry itself is contributing to the skewed expectations of what the technology can deliver. Mr Gorton noted a “significant increase in the marketing of services” and said providers use targeted advertising, including social media, to promote services that can lead to unrealistic expectations.

“This marketing is highly emotive and can be misleading,” he found.

Birth rates are improving. IVF delivered the ultimate gift to more than 15,600 couples in Australia and New Zealand in 2017/2018 – the largest

number ever – and the rate of successful transfers improved by three per cent over a four-year period. ART has revolutionised the way we create families, particularly for older couples.

But only 26.8 per cent of transferred embryos result in a live birth, and the chance of success drops off sharply when the mother is over 40.

Dr Allan wants the industry to do a better job at ensuring patients fully grasp their likelihood of success. She says the information given to patients needs to focus on the reality of the treatment, rather than the outcome: “When people aren’t given the full picture, are marketed to, it really creates a different setting around whether there is informed consent and if people are being led down the garden path”.

Just three years ago, the ACCC cracked down on the way clinics advertised their services because some were counting the creation of embryos towards their “success rate”, and illustrating the data with photographs of newborn babies.

“That’s marketing spin,” Dr Allan says. “If you suffer a miscarriage you don’t walk away thinking that was a success. That’s the missing bit – all the grief and the reality and the statistics around live birth outcomes and what it takes to get there. There are very few industries that would have such lack of success and be able to keep selling the message: come back and try again.”

Jan Seeley is a former IVF counsellor from Victoria who also went through two rounds herself, but did not conceive. She agrees that there is a culture of putting couples through round after round after round, regardless of the likelihood of success.

“You’ve got people in their mid-40s doing multiple, multiple rounds when their chances of success are pretty

much zilch,” she explains.

Approximately one quarter of women who access ART are over 40.

“I think sometimes people just keep going and doctors don’t say stop.

You’ll get people who go through 10 rounds,” Jan says. “I was very lucky that I had a doctor who, after two rounds, said to me: ‘Your eggs are no good. This isn’t going to work for you.

I wouldn’t continue’. I think that’s a really rare thing for a doctor to say.”

But she doesn’t believe that doctors who perform repeat rounds are always driven by profit: “They just find it really hard to lay it on the line with couples that they should give up.”

Dr Rombauts, who is a clinician at Monash IVF as well as the FSA President, says there is significant pressure from patients for doctors to try anything and everything.

“I get a lot of patients who do their own research and they sometimes dictate what they want,” he says.“It’s not always necessarily doctor driven. We’re seeing a strong patient-driven demand.

“That is a tension that is difficult to handle because you deal with very vulnerable patients who would love nothing more than having a baby.

Denying them something that they strongly believe might give them a benefit is difficult.”

The price we pay

Jessica says that fertility clinics need to play a more active role in helping patients make informed decisions about their care.

“You feel like you’re always having to fight the system, or put trust in the system that seems to continually let you down,” she says.

Her fertility treatment began shortly after the operation to remove her fallopian tubes. She still had puncture

26.8%

FOR EVERY EMBRYO THAT IS TRANSFERRED, ONLY WILL RESULT IN A LIVE BIRTH 28 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

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93300 129705 marks k from f her h surgery when h her first round started.

“We asked the specialist, should we be going into this round so quickly?

He reassured me, ‘It’s fine, it’s fine’.

But it was far too quick,” she says.

“It was just too much for my body.”

The first round failed, and Jessica was blindsided by how painful that was because she thought she had mentally prepared herself for the transfer not to work.

Jessica’s first round was a “fresh transfer”. Her doctor believed frozen embryo transfers had a higher chance of success, but transferred a “fresh” and less developed embryo anyway. A different doctor told Jessica that first round had been “a complete waste of time” because “it probably would never have taken. But the jury’s out on that. Every specialist does it differently,” Jessica says.

On another occasion she had spotting after an embryo transfer and was told by a nurse “not to bother” coming into the clinic for the blood test that would measure if her latest round of IVF had worked. She grieved the

loss, explaining that the failed rounds are just as hard as the miscarriages.

“You go into them with such hope and put everything into them,” Jessica says. “You do everything the doctor says and you eat healthy food – pineapple cores; all these crazy IVF things – because, it might work, and then to have that taken away from you.

It’s enough to send you over the edge.”

However, 10 days later, Jessica began to suspect she was pregnant. She took two home pregnancy tests that confirmed she was. When she called the clinic to say she’d had a positive test result after the nurse had told her there was no hope, the specialist questioned Jessica’s version of events. “She was saying, ‘Are you sure?’ as if I was making it up,” she says.

Five weeks in, the pregnancy was on-track. “Then everything came crashing down again,” Jessica says.

“I just felt so isolated and had zero support really, apart from my husband, who was going through it as well.”

Her clinic was “just so removed” from the emotional fallout. “They see you as a uterus. I went through a

suicidal spot after the fourth round.

I just didn’t have anyone to talk to.

I had a couple of girlfriends who were there for me. One of them got pregnant during the first round, which was devastating.”

Discovering fertility forums online was a blessing, Jessica says, but nobody at the clinic told her about them. She stumbled across them herself.

“The women on the forums keep saying, ‘keep going. You’ll get through it, it’s worth it’,” she says. “When you’re in it, it’s like: I don’t know how much longer I can keep going. I don’t know how many more times we can put ourselves through this interminable roller-coaster.”

She and her husband have both put on weight due to stress.

“The hormones and the lack of being able to have any sort of physical routine … the time taken … It’s so exhausting. I look back at photos of me and I think: I was so carefree.

I can’t keep putting us through this.”

Jan agrees there’s a lack of information about how the treatment itself will affect women. ➝ MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

29

Investigation

“People don’t realise, it’s not just hard, they’re playing with your hormones,” she says. She was aware of the emotional toll the treatment would take, but it was because she worked in the field, not because she was forewarned by her treating doctor.

“Nobody said to me, ‘they’re going to be giving you hormones and you’re likely to be experiencing big mood swings’. I reckon I was quite crazy when I was going through it.”

$

Whatever it takes Confusion reigns in online fertility forums where some women rave about experimental treatments that others say are snake oil. Add-on treatments like herapin, DHEA, seminal plasma and growth hormones are popular, despite a lack of information about them.

A recent review of 10 commonly used IVF add-ons found there is “no high-quality evidence to support [their use] in routine practice”.

“More often than not, after an add-on has been introduced into a routine practice, it will be found ineffective in randomised trials and, in some cases, even harmful,” the report published in the journal Fertility and Sterility said.

This is an area Dr Rombauts agrees needs to be subject to greater control.

The Fertility Society of Australia has recently written guidelines for the use of add-on treatments and if the guidelines are found to be effective, they will be incorporated into the industry’s code of practice, which means they will be auditable.

Jessica says the popular use of unproven supplements adds to the already stressful nature of the treatment.

“You ask, ‘Why are we doing this injection?’ And they say, ‘Oh well, you didn’t do it last time so we’ll give it a go this time. Some small study in Spain said blah-blah-blah’. Then they send you away with all these drugs and there’s no warning of how they might affect you.”

Dr Rombauts says doctors need to tell their patients exactly what is known and not known about their treatments, particularly when it comes to add-ons, “because they’re often not very well researched. If they were well researched

30 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

$

and proven to be beneficial, we wouldn’t be calling them add-ons. We would be just doing them all the time”.

The flip side of this, of course, is the women who find success after opting for the extra treatments. Forums are awash with would-be parents who would gladly try anything to improve the chance their IVF will succeed.

One woman commented that she went through five failed cycles before being “upsold” treatments.

“We now have a healthy three-yearold,” she wrote “If there’s a next time, I’m paying for those extras.”

This tension between hope and reality is the reason Dr Allan says doctors have an obligation to ensure their patients are fully informed.

Dr Rombauts agrees. “We’re willing to accept things can be done better but I always ask the media to look at the

“They send you away with all these drugs … there’s no warning.”

things the industry does well,” he says.

He adds there are benefits to having large, corporate fertility treatment providers. More funds go into research and development, they provide bigger scales of economy so certain things become easier and cheaper. There are commercial drivers but that’s true of all areas of medicine, Dr Rombauts says.

He rejects the notion business interests are compromising patient care.

The challenge for the industry is ensuring the couples they treat remain patients, not customers. As the Australian Financial Review noted in 2014 when Monash IVF and Virtus Health were floated on the stock market, people will pay almost anything to have a baby.

This is something Jessica knows only too well. Having just suffered another miscarriage, she is taking a break from treatment for a little while.

But her desire for a baby remains, and she knows she’ll try again. “The urge comes back, to get on that rollercoaster again,” she says.

For now she’s taking it one day at a time and she’s full of hope that one day, with the help of IVF, she will get to be a mother. She sighs, wistfully.

“It’s just baby steps, you know.” AWW *Name has been changed.

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At just 14 years old, Frida Umuhoza lost her family and was buried alive in the horrific Rwandan genocide. But out of even such incomprehensible trauma, love can grow. Sue Smethurst meets this most courageous woman and her family at home in Melbourne.

32 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

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Frida and Rob with their children (from left) Tyler, Maxwell, Kristi, Natasha, Brandon, Janie and Asher Regis.

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Survival

T

he smell of the blood never leaves Frida Umuhoza.

Sometimes it’s so vivid she can almost taste it. And the coldness of the muddy grave where she was buried alive is seeped deeply into the marrow of her bones.

“I will never forget my little brother’s screams,” she says softly.

Frida Umuhoza is tucked away in a quiet corner of a busy Melbourne cafe.

It’s the day before school returns and the coffee shop is buzzing with harried parents taking a break from the lastminute to-do list. None could imagine the horrors the graceful woman sipping chai latte beside them has endured.

“I have invisible scars,” she says. “If you met me today, you’d never know I survived genocide.”

Frida Umuhoza shouldn’t be here.

Twenty five years ago, she lost her entire family during the genocide against the Tutsi people, her people, in Rwanda.

Then 14 years old, Frida was chosen to die. She was lined up on the edge of a muddy ditch and clubbed until her lifeless body fell into a mass grave alongside the mutilated bodies of her mother and 15 relatives.

However, Frida wasn’t dead. She regained consciousness and after hours of lying silent and still, too scared to move a muscle in case her killers returned, she was rescued.

“I remember it vividly, as if it was yesterday – the feeling of being buried alive, the smell of the blood of my brothers,” she says. “It’s hard to talk about it, but we must so we never forget.”

In those dreadful hours, buried under layers of mud, Frida promised herself and God that, if she survived, she’d make it her life’s purpose to spread a message of love and forgiveness, and she has fulfilled that promise. The 39-year-old mother of seven has shared her story around the globe, addressesd the United Nations and now she has penned a moving memoir, Frida Chosen to Die, Destined to Live. “I don’t want people to feel hatred or revenge when they hear my story, I want them to learn from my story, to learn love through hate,” she says. “There’s a lot of hate in the world right now. I lived with hate. We must be better; we must be men and women of

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integrity, to not repay evil with evil.

That’s how we’ll change the world.

“I was given a second chance at life.

Prayer has helped me cope and I cry.

I still cry. It was 25 years ago but at times it feels like yesterday. I’m still here, therefore I’m going to keep my promise to God and do everything possible to ensure our story is told and respected.”

In 2018 she moved to Australia.

Born in the wrong tribe

Frida Umuhoza was just six years old when she learnt she was from ‘the wrong tribe’. It was her first day of school and the Principal arrived to

conduct a head count. He wasn’t interested in the number of new pupils, only who and how many were Tutsis.

Frida had never been labelled by tribe, but her best friend from the village identified Frida as Tutsi.

“My parents never spoke about Hutu or Tutsi. We were all one people, never them or us. Immediately I was made fun of, I was called a cockroach and a snake because I was Tutsi. That day I learned I was from the wrong tribe.”

For decades, tensions had simmered between the two tribes of Rwanda, the Hutus and Tutsis. Much of the conflict dates back to the Belgian colonists, who

Survival

“We could hear our neighbours begging for their lives.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIAN KINGMA. FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS SUPPLIED AND USED WITH PERMISSION. FRIDA WEARS DIANE VON FURSTENBURG DRESS FROM MYER.

Above: Frida (far right) with four of her siblings.

Right: Frida‘s parents, who married in 1977.

favoured the Tutsis and regarded them as superior. While Hutus were in the majority, Tutsis generally commanded greater wealth and social position.

After Rwanda gained independence in 1962, the country was mostly controlled by Hutus, who made Tutsis scapegoats for many of Rwanda’s problems. But in the Nyanza village where Frida lived, families lived peacefully side by side. However, in the 1990s, violence flared and the carefree life the villagers had known was gone.

“The genocide began long before people realise. If a Tutsi went to hospital for even the smallest thing, they didn’t come back,” says Frida, whose baby sister was killed by a Hutu doctor at a local hospital. “She was nine months old.

“People who travelled to other villages never returned. Suddenly we became very aware of the discrimination and for the first time we felt fear. My mother wanted us to flee but my father believed there was a goodness in the heart of our Hutu neighbours and friends. He couldn’t believe they’d ever hurt us.”

However, on April 6, 1994 everything changed. A plane carrying Rwanda’s Hutu President Habyarimana crashed and Hutus claimed it was a Tutsi assassination. They immediately called for revenge. The President’s death triggered unprecedented violence.

“I remember hearing the message broadcast on the radio: ‘Finish the job’.

What they were actually saying was, it’s time to kill,” Frida says, “and that was

it. We knew Tutsis were in trouble. We ran from our home, not knowing if we were ever going to return.”

Packs of machete-armed Hutus moved from house to house, village to village. For almost a month Frida and her family hid in the Virunga Mountains, made famous in the film Gorillas in the Mist, but eventually they were surrounded, with nowhere left to hide. Frida’s father had been separated from them amid the bloodshed, but her mother, grandparents and siblings, three brothers and a sister, bravely returned home knowing they would die together.

“We knew our attackers. They were people we’d been to school with, people we’d shared our home and our food with. We could hear them coming through each house. We could hear our neighbours begging for their lives.

It was too late for us.”

Chillingly, Frida recalls that her attackers allowed them to choose how they wanted to die: “If we chose to be shot, which was more humane, we’d have to pay for the bullets, which were expensive.

We had no money to buy ourselves a better death,” she says. Frida saw her mother beheaded before they both fell into the shallow grave.

After their Hutu murderer had left, a woman tending nearby banana plants heard Frida’s cries and called a young man who had worked for Frida’s family. He began digging and found her.

“I left my entire family in that grave and walked away,” she says.

The Rwandan bloodshed lasted 100 days, during which one million Tutsi people were murdered. The military, international peace keepers and survivors were confronted with horrific scenes as they moved through villages assessing the catastrophe.

Frida was miraculously reunited with an uncle and eventually found shelter with foster homes where she began the very long road to healing.

“I was given a second chance at life,” she says. “Prayer helped me cope. I pray about everything and I cry. I still cry. It was 25 years ago but it feels like yesterday. I’m going to keep my promise to God and do everything possible to ensure our story is told and respected.”

In an effort to ensure her family was not forgotten, Frida rebuilt the family home, destroyed during the genocide.

It’s a legacy of love in their honour, with every detail painstakingly recreated, including gardens and surrounding farm, restocked with cows, chickens, goats and turkeys, exactly as her mother liked it. Today Frida sponsors a family to live there and make it their home.

“My mum would’ve wanted to put a poor woman in that house, to give her the chance to raise her kids, to create a home and a life, so that’s what I did,” she explains. “These were the values of our family and they live on in me.

“It gave me a sense of empowerment to rebuild our home. It’s a tribute to my mum, my dad, brothers and sisters. ➝ MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Survival

“Thrivers move on, they rebuild and live their lives to the fullest.�

They’ll never be forgotten and their place in our village and community will not be forgotten. I don’t just want to be a victim of genocide; I want to be a survivor, a thriver. Thrivers move on. They rebuild and live their lives to the fullest.”

As she was building the home, the body of her father, who she’d been searching for since 1995, was dumped outside by his killer. He is now buried together with the rest of her family.

Between them, Rob and Frida have seven children, who came together as a family in 2018. Left: Rob’s mother Ankje and Asher Regis.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIAN KINGMA.

New lands, new life Frida married in Rwanda and had three children, Maxwell, Natasha and Asher. When her marriage broke down in 2011, she moved to the United States where she graduated from Bowling Green State University in Ohio with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Since then, she has travelled the world, sharing her story of survival and the power of forgiveness, speaking at churches, schools, universities, the Memorial de Shoah in Paris, the Melbourne Jewish Holocaust Museum and the United Nations in New York. She found love again with long-time friend and father of four, Rob van der Zaag. The couple met 10 years earlier when Rob was visiting Rwanda to attend a conference where Frida was one of the guest speakers.

“Many years later we reconnected as friends, sharing the same experience of going through terrible divorces and raising kids on our own,” Frida says.

Over time, their friendship blossomed into a long-distance romance, with Rob back in Australia and Frida in America, but in 2018 they married, bringing together a family of seven children under one Melbourne roof.

“I had no idea I’d be able to love or trust anyone the way I trust Rob,” she says. “Blending a family comes with a lot of hard work but I can say I have learnt so much about myself since our families merged. I have so much love around me and it is an honour to be taking care of this huge family.”

Frida works as an advocate and social worker with a community of refugees and domestic violence survivors in

Melbourne but the family regularly visits Rwanda, and Frida has maintained close ties to her village, even though the perpetrators who killed her family still live there.

In the spirit of forgiveness, she met the man who killed her father and watched curiously as her children played with the children of the villager who murdered her mother and siblings.

“The children come running onto the street wanting to play,” she explains.

“My kids had no idea who they were and I didn’t hesitate to let them all play together. When my children got older, I explained these were the kids of people who’d killed my family. At first, my children were aghast – they didn’t want to continue playing – but I taught them tolerance and forgiveness. A heart full of hate achieves nothing.”

Frida and Rob have established a foundation, Compelled by Love, and work with disadvantaged communities in Australia, India and Rwanda to build strength and resilience. She’s been working with Rwandan women, the wives of perpetrators and their victims who’ve come together for healing. They make soap to sell to support themselves.

Frida is also passionate about telling survivors’ stories.

“I recently met three women in Rwanda,” she says, “who were so viciously raped during the genocide their bones were broken. They’ve remained in bed ever since, unable to walk, with no adequate treatment, living in the scene of their crimes, never feeling the sun on their skin.

Many people are still living the nightmare of genocide every day. I want to help these people share their stories.”

Surrounded by love As she prepares for her photo shoot with The Weekly, seven siblings are fussing around the family’s sprawling suburban home, and Frida couldn’t be happier. It’s these small moments in life that she appreciates the most: a kiss on the cheek from the kids on their way to school, dinner with her family and the chance to tuck her children into bed at night.

“I love it!” Frida enthuses. “I love every bit of every day.”

At 39, she is the same age as her own mother was when she was murdered.

“I don’t take those moments for granted. I savour them. I look at my son, who is 15, my daughter, 14, the age I was buried alive. I was orphaned and had to find shelter, food, safety – their lives are so different. My kids go to bed each night after a meal in a safe home, surrounded by love. How amazing.

“I get a lot of love from my kids and I have the opportunity to be the parent my mum wasn’t. For that I’m grateful.” AWW Frida: Chosen to Die … Destined To Live! is available from frida.net.au MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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A star for the ages: Dolly lighting up the stage in the ’70s at the UK Country Music Festival, and backstage at the CMA Awards last year (opposite).

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BEYOND COMPARE

She’s the dirt-poor Tennessee girl with big dreams who became a global sensation. As Dolly Parton brings 9 to 5 The Musical to Australia, she talks to Juliet Rieden about love, ambition and not having children.

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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T

here’s a fantastic opening two lines to 9 to 5, the theme tune Dolly Parton wrote for the ground-breaking 1980 comic movie which Dolly later transformed into a stage musical, that always stop me in my tracks. “Tumble outta bed and I stumble to the kitchen/ Pour myself a cup of ambition.”

It’s genius!

Somehow Dolly manages to bring a gritty positivity to the battle of sexes while also being ironic, all to a thighslapping beat. And as I talk to the global sensation that is Dolly Parton, I constantly catch sight of the razorsharp mind and wry sense of humour, cloaked in those famous perky Southern vowels and big hair, that power this country music icon.

“That’s one of those lines as a songwriter when you just think, thank you, God,” Dolly explains. “When I wrote that song, I was thinking about how you’re getting up and stumbling to the kitchen because that’s what you always do to pour a cup of coffee, and then all of a sudden that line just came to me. I got so excited. It’s all about your first cup trying to wake up, whether it’s coffee or tea or cola, to get you started and motivated. And I said, ‘oh my God, a cup of ambition!’”

When she played the song on set for her co-stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, they were blown away. “Lily and I had goosebumps,” Jane has said since.

“We knew it would become a huge hit and anthem.” It did. Today 9 to 5 is a feminist anthem, a term Dolly doesn’t identify with even though she says she’s “all for women”.

Since the film is about three female employees who plot to get even with their “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot of a boss”, who in Dolly’s words later in the song is one of those executives who, “just use your mind and they never give you credit”, it’s ironic that Dolly opts to pass the line off as a gift from a higher – male – power.

“I was thinking, that must have come from somewhere else, because that’s one of my more clever lines, so I always try to credit that to those powers that be. I always say, yes, thank you a lot for that one, up there!” she says.

40 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

Dolly does this undercutting a lot.

It’s not that she doubts her own powers, nor that she’s afraid to put them on parade. Rather, I think it’s an inbuilt humility learned from her pious upbringing which clicks in whenever she feels she being too boastful. Her maternal grandpa – Jake Owens – was a Pentecostal preacher and she was raised on “love, spirituality and creativity” and – of course – that pride is a sin.

Dolly says that her own morning cup of ambition “involves a lot of stuff.

I’m a very early riser and I’m a very spiritual-minded person. I really like to start my day with my meditation and my prayers and my little ritual that I do to get myself anchored. So, I pour myself a cup of ambition in a lot of ways, through prayer and making little plans, communicating with God as I perceive him to be. I ask for guidance for the day so my cup runneth over with a lot of good things, and ambition is one of them.”

“If I want a little nip and tuck here and there I’ll go do it.”

That ambition – and significant talent – is what catapulted Dolly from poverty in the Great Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee, the fourth of 12 children born to Avie Lee Owens and tobacco farmer Robert Lee Parton, onto the lucrative Nashville country music scene.

“We were very poor people but the thing is everybody in those parts was poor. It’s more a personality trait back then than it was anything with me,” explains Dolly. “I was always a dreamer, talking about how I was going to be a star and sing on the Grand Ole Opry.

The other kids just thought, that’s far-fetched – so I think it was more that people didn’t understand dreamers at the time. I’ve thought about that a lot.

I was different in that I always thought that I was going to do something else and go somewhere else and be

something else. I really wanted to do something more.”

The Opry was a famous country music stage founded in 1925 as a weekly one-hour radio barn dance to showcase local music talent. It later morphed into a concert hall and it did indeed prove pivotal in launching Dolly’s career.

“I actually got to sing on the Grand Ole Opry when I was about 10 years old. For me, the Opry is like the song New York, New York – if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere,” says Dolly. And at 13, Johnny Cash introduced Dolly on the Opry stage.

She was on her way.

Music was like breathing in the Partons’ house, but for Dolly it held a special fascination. It was part of her heart and soul, a means to express herself and to tell the stories swirling round her head. As the story goes, she composed her very first song at five years old. Little Tiny Tasseltop was all about the corn doll with corn silk hair that her mum made for her. By age seven Dolly was playing the guitar and started to glimpse life beyond Locust Ridge.

“I always believed it early on because my Uncle Bill, one of my momma’s younger brothers, he played guitar and he took a real interest in me because he saw how serious I was and he dreamed of being in show business himself,” explains Dolly. “So we were partners in crime, so to speak. He would take me around to different places to sing and soon I was on a local radio show.

I was about 10 years old when the crowd asked for an encore – I had to sing it over and over – and it was incredible. That’s when I thought, ‘oh, they like me, I’m going to be a star.

This is what I’m going to do’.”

Dolly says there was no doubt in her mind. “I felt that power of the energy that came from that surge of excitement, that thrill, of thinking that applause was for me. It was a tingling kind of feeling that gave me an inspiration and drive to think this is my calling.”

While her family lived in a one-room cabin, sharing beds and eking out a living, Dolly says she never felt poor.“My mother always taught us that there was always somebody in worse shape than we were, no matter what we were →

GETTY IMAGES. ALASTAIR MUIR/SHUTTERSTOCK. AP PHOTO. 20TH CENTURY FOX/KOBAL/SHUTTERSTOCK.

Exclusive

Clock kwise from top left: Dolly D and Johnny Cash on stage in 1978; a mo ovie poster for 5; the musical 9 to 5 in acttion; with her trade emark big hair portrait from in a p 1965;; posing in the ’70s – Dolly has combined her striking looks with business smarts for a long, successful career.

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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going through, somebody had it harder, and somebody had less food than we did, somebody had less cover on their beds than we did. So she made us count blessings and realise that we were not poor. She always hated that word. She’d say, we’re not poor people, we’re rich in things that matter like loving, kindness, understanding and just togetherness.”

The stability of her parents’ marriage was key to the Parton siblings’ upbringing and while the children all played a part, raising each other, Avie and Lee were significant role models.

“I think the fact that Mom and Daddy stayed together was very, very helpful,” muses Dolly. “We didn’t have what some kids have where their parents are not there. We were always together and I think just knowing that gave us a certain kind of strength, too.”

I ask Dolly if there was a secret to her parents’ marriage. “Well, love,” she replies laughing. “Mom and Daddy were really passionate. Even as they got older, they’d argue back and forth but it was still passionate. They were cute and stayed with that childhood sweetheart kind of power and that kind of love. Obviously having one kid after another, they never lost their sex drive nor their passion for one another! We’d see them sneaking off somewhere or walking down by the creekside, holding hands, Daddy with his arm around Mom’s waist, and we’d think ‘uh-oh, we’re going to have another baby before you know it’.

“My mom was also very jealous, because Daddy was very good-looking.

Other women found my dad very appealing because he had a great sense of humour, and a magnetism about him. And so even if it was just Daddy being friendly, Mom would take it as Daddy flirting. She’d say, ‘Lee, now you didn’t have to talk that much; Lee, you don’t have to rag on her that much’. Lee this, Lee that. He’d say, ‘oh Momma’s getting jealous’. We thought that was cute too, because we thought it was romantic.”

But beyond the romance, having 12 children over more than two decades would have been physically exhausting for Avie and taken a huge toll on her body.

42 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

Clockwise from above: Dolly and husband Carl Thomas Dean in an undated photo; a Parton family shot; one of Dolly’s early performer portraits, taken circa 1955.

“There’s only 18 months to two years’ difference in all of our ages.

Momma was married at 15, she was 16 when she had my sister Willadeene, the first one, and she was 35 when she had the last one. She had one set of twins. Six of us were born at home in the mountains with my grandma, my aunts and my daddy to help. When she had problems the local doctor, who was actually a missionary, would ride in on horseback to help. But Momma had one right after another and she never had vitamins, no follow-up care, no nothing.

The last three children she had trouble with. Rachel and the twins just before that, so she had them prematurely and we almost lost the babies and almost lost Momma, too. That’s when the doctor said, no more. Her body was giving out.

Although she got back on her feet after that. She was strong. Until she died at 80, she was in pretty good health.”

Despite leaving home for Nashville as soon as she graduated from school, Dolly remained very close to her mum.

“I learned faith and a positive attitude from Momma. She would quote those old sayings like, ‘To thine own self be true’, which to me is one of the greatest sayings ever. If you really tear that apart

and analyse it, it means know who you are. One of my sayings that I made up is, ‘Find out who you are and do it on purpose’. Just know what you’re about, who you are, accept yourself as you are.

“Momma always taught us to love people, to try to be caring and giving and understanding, to try to put ourselves in other people’s places. She said everybody feels just like you, everybody’s tears are wet, everybody’s blood is red, everybody’s heart is soft and tender.”

Dolly didn’t want to leave home, she loved her family, but felt compelled to grab on to her chance for a bigger life.

“I had a drive and an inner compass that was pulling me toward it. I knew I could always go back home if I didn’t make it. I always had that as a safety net. I prayed every day that God would bring all the right things and all the right people into my life, and take all the wrong things and people out.”

One of those people was her husband Carl Thomas Dean, whom she met on her first day in Nashville outside the Wishy Washy laundromat. Carl has since said, “My first thought was I’m gonna marry that girl”, which is pretty much what happened. “I left two boyfriends back in East Tennessee and I thought, the last thing I want is a boyfriend. I don’t want anything to slow me down. I was just going to get a grand start on my career before I got caught up with any boys again. But I met Carl the first day I got to Nashville →

MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES.

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44 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

children inspired her to set up her Imagination Library, a book-gifting charity that sends free books to preschool children all over the US. “I always say when talking about my literature program, God didn’t mean for me to have kids so everybody’s kids can be mine.”

Dolly says that at 74, “I feel wiser and I know I’m older. I never think about being old unless I’m sick, when my husband’s always quick to remind me, ‘well, it’s your age’. I don’t have time to get old. I tell him I may not be as young as I used to be but I refuse to get any older, even though I might in time.

If I want a little nip and tuck here and there I’ll go do it. Anything that makes me feel a little better about myself. I’ll do whatever and I think everybody should, if you’ve got the nerve and the money to do it, and the desire.”

Her high-glamour look – the wigs, the acrylic nails, the skin-tight rhinestone studded outfits and high camp make-up – are all part of Dolly’s image, famously inspired by the “streetwalkers” whose sparkly look she admired as a teenager. But it’s also part of her mystique. “I’ve always thought that a certain bit of what magic I may have had in the minds of people was based on the fact that I look completely artificial,” she says. “But I am completely real as a human being.”

Dolly seems to come from a bygone era, from those Smoky Mountains of her childhood and a country music background that is also part of conservative bible-belt America. Yet beyond the country music ballads, which are the brilliant bedrock of her global success, there are many layers to Dolly. Her dogged control of her own career is impressive, especially in an industry where so many fall prey to unscrupulous managers. Her creation of a theme park – Dollywood – which not only supports her view of the world and builds her brand, but provides tourism and employment in Tennessee, is incredibly shrewd.

And now Dolly is having a new moment in the spotlight. It’s partly thanks to a podcast series, Dolly Parton’s America, in which cool US radio host Jad Abumrad interviews

the icon and follows her around.

Added to this is a TV series on Netflix dramatising the stories behind eight of her songs.

The timely revival of 9 to 5 The Musical, which comes to Australia in April after a hit run in London, is another piece of Dolly’s genius. “I think with the #MeToo movement last year and the year before, the issues around women in the workplace have started up again and needed to be addressed,” she says.

Our time to talk is up, but as a parting question I ask Dolly to name five guests, living or dead, she would ask to her ultimate fantasy dinner party. “Well ... I talk to Jesus every day but I’ve never had dinner with him, so I think I’d love to have Jesus at the head of the table because there’s a lot of stuff I’d like to talk about in person. And, of course, I’d like to have Elvis – we’d have a lot to talk about, being Southern people. We’d talk about Graceland and Dollywood and how we’ve both loved our mommas. Maybe I’d also have a chance to hear him sing. You know, I never did, but he almost recorded I Will Always Love You and that didn’t happen so maybe we could lean over in our chairs and sing a little chorus together. Then I’d have Momma there because she loved Jesus and Elvis, and I miss her. And James Corden [British actor and host of The Late Late Show on US TV]. He does the [carpool] karaoke. He’s so funny and crazy and we could all do some singalong and I imagine the two of us would have some belly laughs. Finally, I would have my best friend Judy, just because I think she would enjoy it so much.”

I offer to be the waitress and Dolly promises me a big tip with extra cash from Elvis adding, “Oh ... if Jesus is there we may not have anything but bread and wine,” as she collapses into laughter. AWW Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 The Musical, starring Caroline O’Connor and Marina Prior, premieres at the Sydney Lyric Theatre from April 19, followed by a season at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne, from July. For tickets, visit ticketek.com.au

GETTY IMAGES.

and just fell head over heels in love with him,” says Dolly, chuckling.

“We’ve been together 56 years in May – married 54 years and we dated for two years before that, so my goodness, I think it was meant to be, I really do.”

Carl never took to Dolly’s music – he’s more of a hard rock, Led Zeppelin fan – though he has inspired many of her songs. And he rarely goes to see her perform but in many ways this has helped Dolly thrive. “He certainly didn’t slow me up; he gave me freedom to work and gave me strength and inspiration. He gave me a safe place to come home to, a safe harbour,” says Dolly.

“It was the same thing with my best friend Judy [Ogle]. We met back home when we were in 3rd or 4th grade.

We’re with each other all the time [Judy has been by Dolly’s side at most of her concerts around the world] and we’ve travelled together and stayed best friends. Judy and Carl have been my support system, my leaning posts all these years.”

Coming from such a big family, having children was always something Dolly imagined she would do, but this was one thing not even Dolly could make happen. “In the early days we thought we would have children. We didn’t do anything about having them or not having them, and when my career started coming along pretty well I thought, well, I don’t need to have them right now so I took birth control pills. I came off those because they were causing me problems but we never did get pregnant ... Then I had some problems with my apparatus later on and life went on. I had to have surgery, which meant I then couldn’t have kids.”

Yet in typical Dolly style there are no regrets. “I think it was meant to be and I say that because I’ve brought several of my younger brothers and sisters to live with me, from the mountains, not long after Carl and I got married, and all of them went to school here, we raised them like our own kids. Then when they got married and had kids, their kids are like our grandkids, although they’re nieces and nephews.”

Dolly feels it’s all part of a divine plan, especially since not having her own

Clockwise from left: Dolly hops on a ride to celebrate the opening of the ‘Country Fair’ section of her theme park Dollywood in 1993; dazzling in a rhinestone dress for a movie premiere in 1989; the Dreamsong Theatre in Dollywood; Dolly leaves her hand prints on the cement outside a record store in Atlanta, 1977.

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Michael

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Michael Rowland has the best job in the world, he’s head over heels in love, and, adds wife Nicki, is the daggiest of dads. But a freak accident at 19 cast a pall of insecurity over the breakfast TV host, he tells Juliet Rieden.

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HAIR AND MAKE-UP BY JULIA GREEN. NICKI WEARS COUNTRY ROAD TOP AND SKIRT. MICHAEL WEARS COUNTRY ROAD SHIRT AND TROUSERS. OPPOSITE PAGE: MICHAEL WEARS COUNTRY ROAD SHIRT.

of this… ichael Rowland says his knees literally “quivered” when he proposed to the love of his life, fellow journalist Nicki Webber.

It was late December back in 2001. Oh what a night! to quote a seasoned Frankie Valli song.

The ABC News Breakfast anchor is a selfconfessed music tragic, so it’s tempting to add a soundtrack to his life story, although his song of choice would be slightly more blokey. He cites The Rolling Stones, Midnight Oil, The Beatles and Cold Chisel among his top of the pops. He actually took Nicki to a Stones concert on the night son Tom was due. “We hadn’t bought tickets naively thinking the baby would be born on its due date,” recalls Nicki.

But when a colleague couldn’t use their tickets Michael couldn’t resist. “He absolutely loved it …

I was uncomfortable and unborn Tom spent the whole concert kicking.”

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“Michael also croons Frank [Sinatra],” Nicki adds. He can’t hold a tune, though he thinks otherwise, and to prove it gives The Weekly team a few bars of Fly Me to the Moon as he corrals his family for our photo shoot in their home.

Yup, he can’t sing. Nicki says Michael is the quintessential “daggy dad” and right on cue his footy-mad son Tom, 16, who plays for home club Altona Vikings, and daughter Eleanor, 15, who has a beautiful singing voice and performs in school musical theatre productions, roll their eyes.

“It was the most nervous I’ve been in my life,” says Michael, continuing his marriage proposal story. “I’d booked a table at the restaurant at the top of the Sofitel Hotel. It has big views over Melbourne, although that was the last thing on my mind in the elevator on the way up there.”

The couple had been living together for a little over a year, having met as political journalists covering parliament. “He was a radio reporter for ➝

P H OTO G R A P H Y by JULIAN KINGMA • ST Y L I N G by JAMELA DUNCAN MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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the ABC and I was the state politics reporter for the Herald-Sun,” says Nicki. “I’d see him at door stops and outside Parliament House. He was very handsome and a bit aloof. He didn’t speak a lot but he’d ask a question of a politician and I thought, ‘oh, there’s a bit going on in there’. I didn’t ever expect that he would look at me.”

Both had had relationships before, but knew this was different as they entered what Nicki calls “a very old-fashioned courtship … we didn’t want to stuff it up.”

Nicki was raised in a tiny country town “in the middle of nowhere”, riding horses and running free. Her natural bent is to embrace adventure, something she did when she married a handsome Greek on the island of Antiparos. “We were together for two years, married for one – short lived, but everything brings you to where you are today and how lucky am I?”

48 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

For Michael, Nicki was the first girlfriend he had lived with and while he was in no doubt she was the one, nor that she would say yes, “it was a big life decision to make. I’d never asked anybody to marry me before”.

On Nicki’s part, she was preparing for the worst. “I didn’t see it coming,” she recalls. “I met him for a drink beforehand at a little bar in Collins Street and he seemed twitchy and uncomfortable. I thought, ‘he’s going to dump me!’. He was so nervous and out of sorts. Then we went for dinner and he ordered expensive champagne and I thought, ‘that’s unusual’. And then he blurted out: ‘It’s been the greatest days and months of my life, will you marry me?’.”

A sense of humour is one of the qualities that sealed this union – “she’s got that in spades,” says Michael – and 20 years after they first found each other, the couple is still laughing,

a picture of love’s young dream.

“I still look forward to seeing him every day,” says Nicki. There’s a yin and yang-ness to Michael and Nicki; their differences completing the whole.

He is quiet and considered, while she is a ball of passionate energy.

“I operate on a much faster orbit than he does. Michael goes at Michael’s pace. He’s very calm and steady. My world before I met him was chaos, delightfully so, but he’s the ballast in the ship for me,” explains Nicki. “We balance each other. We make each other laugh. We frustrate each other as well. It sounds such a cliché – but we’re a really good team.”

I’ve been talking to Michael and Nicki separately and again I feel a song coming on. This one goes – We met at nine, we met at eight, I was on time, no, you were late.

Ah, yes, I remember it well – for their stories often conflict, even though

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIAN KINGMA. FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS SUPPLIED AND USED WITH PERMISSION. TOM WEARS ZARA T-SHIRT AND PANTS. NICKI WEARS GINGER & SMART DRESS AND SENSO SANDALS. ELEANOR WEARS TIGERLILY DRESS AND DINOSAUR DESIGNS BANGLES. MICHAEL WEARS COUNTRY ROAD SHIRT.

Michael and Nicki with Tom and Eleanor at home in Melbourne.

Exclusive

Michael is spot on when he says, “We’re both on the same wavelength.”

Unlike Nicki, Michael tells me, “We both decided early on that we wanted kids together.” Nicki’s memory is that when they met neither of them wanted to have children.

“We had a disagreement when we were going out, when I’d realised that I wanted to have kids with this man and he said, ‘I don’t want them’. Then he changed his mind, and quickly.

From that moment on it was: ‘I want kids straight away’.”

They married four months after the proposal; Tom was born less than a year later and Eleanor 17 months after that. As Michael tells it there were “no real bumps in the road” in their early years as a family. Nicki proffers a knowing smile when I tell her this. Michael has never been a panicker, treating drama with calm reason. “We’ve had bits and pieces along the way,” explains Nicki. When Eleanor was 18 months old the couple was told

“There’s a yin and yang-ness to the couple.”

she may have cancer. “She didn’t, but his mum “had five kids under eight it was scary. We nearly lost Tom a at one stage, which kept her busy”. couple of times too. He had unusual He was extremely shy growing up, food allergies and nearly died at four a nerd who loved to study. “I was months. Then when he was five he always a good boy at school,” says was diagnosed as legally blind in one Michael. “I only copped the strap eye. I felt terrible because we hadn’t once or twice and that was because noticed. We were in the US at the time. the whole class was getting it because They made Tom look into binoculars some idiot down the back was asking him what he saw: a tractor, a throwing things at the teacher. I recall cake?’ they asked. Nothing. We were a couple of teachers who enjoyed shocked.” It turned out to be a type of wielding what was quite a thick amblyopia – also called lazy eye – and leather strap. It hurt like bloody hell. was fixable with special glasses that “I put a lot of pressure on myself Tom had to wear for a long while. around exam times. When I was in Now it’s corrected itself and he’s Year 12 I had no idea what I wanted completely fine and a passionate to do and my first job after school was Aussie rules footy player. as a management trainee at Westpac.

Michael was the eldest of five living It lasted three months. I didn’t want in a close-knit home in Sydney’s inner a career in banking in the end. I got west. His dad was “a public servant in a good enough mark to get into a one of the NSW electricity authorities journalism degree at the University before they were all privatised” and of Technology in Sydney. I’ve been in the journalism game ever since.”

Although he didn’t realise, there was a signpost to Michael’s future which sits in the family film archives. “There are tapes of me commandeering the cassette player and pretending I’m a newsreader. Hello, this is Michael Rowland – I’m seven or eight – this is the news. I’d forever be stealing the microphone from my siblings.”

Michael quit UTS after a year.

He had been a copy boy at The Sun and when he scored a cadetship with the ABC all his dreams came true.

The couple Michael was on his way. married in But his world came crashing down 2002. Below: when a freak accident threatened to The young ruin everything. “It happened in family had challenges. Left: January 1988, I was 19,” remembers Michael as US Michael. “I was out with a mate correspondent. driving through Sydney when some idiot with a slingshot was taking pot-shots at cars. The pellet – an acorn – hit me directly in the eye.

If I had been driving I probably wouldn’t be here. It ricocheted off the back of my eye. I can still hear it.

Then my eye started filling up with blood and I couldn’t see a thing.

“My friend drove me to hospital.

They operated that night and the surgeon told me he came close to having to take the eye out. He saved it but as a result the pupil is ➝ MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Exclusive

permanently dilated.” When Michael woke up, his parents were by his bedside. “Dad went up to St Mary’s Cathedral for the first time in many years and lit a candle while I was in surgery.

He and Mum had been told the worst-case scenarios by the surgeon: that I’d have a glass eye.

So, there might have been a bit of divine assistance ... ” Michael was scarred by the accident and that trauma is still in evidence. “I came out of it thinking life’s not going to be the same, the first thing people will notice is this bung eye, as I thought of it. I had to wear an eye shield which cramped my social scene for a long time. And a patch for a period after that, so I got pirate gags. It did have a big impact on how I viewed the world and how I thought the world viewed me. I was very selfconscious. It accentuated my shyness and I’d go to parties and think everyone was looking at my eye.” That feeling has lessened over time, but it’s still there.

“I don’t notice it at all but when I first met him he wouldn’t make eye contact with people,” says Nicki. “I’d introduce him to my friends and he would hold his hand over his eye. He thinks that’s all people see. Sometimes he’ll get an email from somebody saying, ‘you might need to get your eye checked out’ which is hard … But he’s become more comfortable with it and in his own skin as he gets older.”

Today Michael has regular checkups. “If I close the good eye there’s a bit of a gauziness over my sight and if I come in from bright light without wearing sunglasses I’m temporarily blinded coming into a darker room.”

Michael’s eyes also play other tricks on him because he’s colour blind.

When I ask him the colour of his wife’s wedding dress he says pink.

It was blue. It’s something the whole family laughs about and there is no way Michael is let loose on furnishings and clothing choices.

“I just wear blue and white” he quips.

“But I always double-check. To the

50 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

“I thought, life’s not going to be the same.”

naked eye it’s blue but you’ll hear me asking ‘are you sure it’s not purple?’”

“A few years ago I was away and Michael took the kids shopping,” adds Nicki. “They were in a clothes shop in the mall and Tom pointed to Michael’s feet and said ‘Dad, what are you doing?’

He was wearing odd shoes. Both sneakers – but one was blue and one was white. The kids wanted him to go home and change but he carried on shopping.”

In May Michael celebrates 10 years at News Breakfast. When he was picked for the job it was with four years as the Washington correspondent under his belt, which included Barack Obama’s election. “One of the highlights of my career has been standing in Grant Park, Chicago, on the night Obama won. There were thousands of people, lots of AfricanAmericans crying, it was such a great moment. As a journalist it feels you’re writing the first draft of history.”

In 2010 Michael set his alarm for 2.45am – Nicki says it’s 2.30am – and joined Virginia Trioli on the breakfast sofa for what today he calls “the best job in broadcast journalism. On any day you could be interviewing the PM

or a film star. It requires nimbleness.” Back then the show was drowned out by the commercial networks and had a tiny audience. “Three people and their dog,” jokes Michael. “People come to us because we’re the best news brand in Australia.

That’s fine, but as Paul Keating said, you’ve got to know how to flick the switch to vaudeville and flick back. That’s an organic process. I was at the forefront in wanting to loosen it up. It’s a different beast 10 years on.” The show’s ratings recently hit a record 262,000.

The ABC is also a different beast and Michael is strapping in for a tough 2020 of cutbacks. How is morale? “It’s much better now with both Ita [Buttrose] as chair and David [Anderson] as Managing Director. Ita was a controversial appointment in the sense she was a personal pick by the Prime Minister but she’s very popular and garners respect as a journalist. She and David make a very effective double act compared with the dysfunctional relationship between the then MD, Michelle Guthrie, and Justin Milne the chairman.”

Beyond Breakfast Michael and Nicki have big plans. “We’re starting to look forward to the next stage when the kids grow up and we spend more time with each other,” he says.

“I’m not going to lie, it’s a bit exciting,” agrees Nicki, who celebrated her 50th in January; Michael is 52 in July. “We got together, married, had kids, went overseas and then he’s doing this crazy, intense job. We’ve been go-go-go. It’ll be nice to pause and go, how good is this?” AWW

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World affairs

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It was once a fairytale principality, replete with its own movie star princess, but in recent years Monaco’s air of shiny, untroubled glamour has begun to tarnish. William Langley travels to the ’Pink Palace’ to find a surprising new generation of royals who just might hold the key to Monaco’s reinvention.

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hen Greta Thunberg, the teenage France, which supervises many of Monaco’s affairs and Swedish climate activist, sailed into has long coveted its riches, is fuming over new allegations New York harbour on August 28 last of official corruption, and in recent years a number of private year, foghorns hooted and flags flew, banks have closed their operations, apparently sensitive to but few in the cheering crowd on the suggestions of money laundering. Worst of all is the sense quayside noticed the slender young man with the cool blue that the place is losing its cherished aura of style and glamour. eyes and blonde stubble at the boat’s helm. Pierre Casiraghi, Many believe the principality needs a completely new the 32-year-old son of Princess Caroline of Monaco, prefers image – something more modern, relevant and progressive. to keep a low profile, even on public occasions. Having As the current ruler, Prince Albert II, a balding, 61-year-old safely delivered Greta aboard his $8 million zero-carbon American business school graduate, plods through the racing yacht, Malizia II after a 14-day transatlantic second decade of his reign, the dashing Pierre, his exotic crossing from England, Pierre stowed his oilskins and sister, Charlotte, and brother, Andrea, are being touted as slipped quietly away. The clubs and salons of Manhattan the faces of the future. held little appeal for him, and he was soon headed back A dark, glamorous past to the tiny, super-rich principality, snuggled into a stretch Like many of the best stories, Monaco’s begins on a dark of Mediterranean coastline, that his family has controlled and stormy night, when a 13th century brigand, François for 700 years.

‘The Cunning’ Grimaldi, disguised himself as a monk and Pierre takes care to speak well of Monaco and his tricked his way into a fortress guarding the headland that family’s tenacious hold on the tiny, sun-kissed playground is now Monte Carlo. While his hosts slept, whose 45,000 residents pay no income tax and Pierre, Charlotte and François slit their throats and opened the gates enjoy one of the world’s highest standards of Andrea Casiraghi are to his men waiting in boats below. So began living. But behind the enclave’s comic-operatic the hope of Monaco, trappings – toy town soldiers in cockaded hats, once the playground of seven centuries of Grimaldi rule over this wild candy-striped flag posts and the burlesque sex Grace Kelly (top left) and piece of coast.

The family doggedly clung to power, fighting lives of its often-errant royals – the realm is currently ruled by Prince Albert II (above, right). off invasions from France, Italy and Spain, → facing threats to its survival.

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until securing full sovereignty in the early 19th century.

The creation of today’s Monaco, however, began with the arrival of the glacially gorgeous Hollywood actress Grace Kelly in 1956.

Albert’s late father, Prince Rainier III, met Grace at the nearby Cannes Film Festival, and wooed her with all the aristocratic ardour and charm he could muster. Their wedding was the biggest social event of the decade, packed with Hollywood stars and the cream of international high society. Grace, aged 26, took on 140 new titles, which took 25 minutes to read out, and moved into her husband’s home, the turreted ‘Pink Palace’, with 58 pieces of luggage.

Grace’s arrival changed everything for Monaco. From a faintly louche Riviera gambling haven, described by author Somerset Maugham as “a sunny place for shady people”, it became the most fashionable destination on earth, drawing big-name stars such as Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and Cary Grant. High-rollers filled the old, Belle Epoque casino and the yachts of the super rich fought for space in the harbour.

As ‘Graceland ’, Monaco was awash with money and teeming with celebrities. But the princess’s shocking death in a still-mysterious car crash 37 years ago left a void that has proved impossible to fill.

The enigmatic new guard Bathed in Mediterranean sunshine, Monaco may look as alluring as ever. The streets are beautifully kept, packed with designer boutiques and virtually free of litter or graffiti. During a recent three-month period, the only reported crime of violence involved a nightclubber being hit in the eye by a Champagne cork.

Policemen, dressed in 19th century uniforms, still salute when spoken to, coutureclad blondes in mustard Bentleys swoosh idly between the Beach Club and the bar of the five-star Hôtel de Paris. At its best Monaco is a romantic curio, a throwback to the days of kings in castles, fortune-hunting bounders, raffish dandies and peachyt: cheeked princesses. Its tra, Gr Grant and follies and scandals have e th Taylor.

Ta entertained the world for e Prince e: years, but the tawdry realities nierr II III and of modern life have been Kelly. slowly catching up, and now the reckoning has begun.

This, according to Monaco-watchers, is where the young Casiraghis come in. Untainted by the trappings of the old royal order, they are viewed as cosmopolitan, clued up and shaped by what their mother once called, “my sense of duty, obedience and guilt”.

Although eighth in the royal line of succession, Pierre, like his brother and sister, declines to use a title and makes few official appearances. He was just three when his father, Italian businessman Stefano Casiraghi, 30, was killed in a freak speedboat accident. Caroline, who had married Stefano seven years earlier against the wishes of her father, plunged into a long period of mourning, which saw her leave Monaco with her children to live in a remote farmhouse in the south of France. When the family returned, the young Casiraghis were carefully shielded from public view, and even today, Monaco’s 7000 citizens know relatively little about their daily lives.

“There are people in Monaco you never stop hearing about,” says Yanou Collart, a flamboyant French showbusiness publicist who lives part-time in the principality, “but the Casiraghi kids give extraordinarily little away.”

Albert is seen in these parts as diligent but dull, and ill-equipped ill equipped to tackle the realm’s realm s mounting problems.

A series of high-society scandals – notably the contract murder of its richest female resident and the arrest of a high-profile Russian oligarch accused of bribery and infl influence peddling – has added to the unease gnawing away at Monaco’s carefully honed image of security and hedonism.

“But it goes beyond that,” says Gerard Serrou, a French investigative journalist based across jo the he border in Nice.

“There’s a sense that the place isn’t moving with the times, that it’s still just a playground for rich people who want to shut themselves away from the world.”

The only official position Pierre appears to hold is as Vice President of the ultra-exclusive Monaco Yacht Club, M heeadquartered in a glassy, ‘five deck’ building on the seafront, and boasting its own ballroom, designer boutiques and

GETTY IMAGES.

World affairs

Pierre Married to Beatrice

Maserati dealership The member ees are confidential, but an old Monte Carlo hand says the minimum cost of joining would be around $50,000, “and it would help to be a friend of Prince Albert”, who personally vets all applications.

When 17-year-old Greta, who refuses to travel by air, was looking for a ride to New York for a United Nations Climate Summit, Pierre stepped up as her prince in shining gumboots. His 18-metre monohull is one of the few boats in the world which can claim to be totally carbon zero.

“Her team had a lot of questions,” he said later. “They had been exploring various ways to get across. We explained that this is a racing boat, there’s little comfort, but she seemed fine with that.”

Although born into one of the world’s richest royal families (the Grimaldis’ personal worth of $2.5 billion is estimated to be at least three times that of the House of Windsor), Pierre and his siblings went to a local state school, where, he says, “We were like any other kids. You went in the mornings, came home, did your homework.

We were conscious that our situation wasn’t exactly the same as everyone else’s, but I don’t think it affected us.”

Four years ago he married filmmaker and journalist Beatrice Borromeo, the daughter of a wealthy Italian

nobleman, and the couple n Borromeo (above, far left), now have two small children, n the couple have two boys, Stefano, two, and Francesco, S Stefano (pictured with one. o Despite the prodigious Pierre, far left) and efforts of the French and Francesco. The third child of Italian gossip sheets, the Princess Caroline and family has largely managed Stefano Casiraghi, Pierre to dodge controversy and sailed Greta Thunberg stay out of the spotlight. (middle) to New York.

“Everyone deserves their privacy,” Pierre told a yachting magazine earlier this year. “I understand that people are curious about our family ... but privacy is something that touches you and your immediate circle. Poor William and Harry. I mean, it’s difficult to compare us. Look, Britain is a big place with a lot of people; we come from a small place with different traditions, but they also deserve their privacy.”

Still, there’s only so much glitz-avoidance a Monaco royal can manage, and on his return from New York, Pierre was soon rubbing shoulders with stars including Nicole Kidman, Robert Redford and Andy Garcia at the principality’s Monte-Carlo Gala for the Global Ocean – an event which claims to be the world’s biggest charity fundraiser. The eye-popping auction prizes include the use of the entire Palace of Versailles near Paris for a private dinner party, and a collection of Picasso ceramics.

“This is the third year we’ve done it, and Pierre has been very active in helping,” says an aide to the event’s chief → MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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World affairs

organiser, Milutin Gatsby. “As a yachtsman he has seen first-hand what is happening to the seas, and he wants to do everything possible to help.”

Not that Pierre has escaped allegations of hypocrisy. It has emerged in Monaco that one of his main business interests is a company called Monacair, which runs a helicopter shuttle service, flying well-heeled visitors from nearby Nice airport into the principality at $200 a time for the sevenminute trip. “Fifty flights a day,” sniffed the French business magazine, Valeurs. “How much carbon emission does that add up to?”

Everything said ‘Grace’ If anyone echoes Grace’s vanished presence in Monaco, it is Pierre’s 33-year-old sister, Charlotte, the most accomplished and intriguing of all the younger royals. Her June wedding to Dimitri Rassam, son of renowned French film actress Carole Bouquet, was considered the most stylish since Grace’s own spectacular nuptials 63 years ago.

The civil ceremony was h ld in the glittering grand salon n of the Pink Palace, with Charlotte wearing an Yves int Laurent brocade dress and heer grandmother’s three-string Cartieer diamond necklace, changing for the evening reception at a villla overlooking the Mediterranean into an old-Hollywood style cream dress by Chanel.

“Everything about her look said ‘Grace’” according to Point de Vue magazine.

“It was unmissable.”

For the religious service a few weeks later, guests werre ferried to the 12th century y Abbey de Pierredon, a few w kilometres from the Provenca al village where Princess Caroline raised her children after Sttefa ano’s death. This time she wore a white w bridal gown designed by Ittaliian couturierr Giambattista Valli.

Charlotte grew up aroun nd famous designers – the late Karl Lagerfeld was a lifelong friend of her mother’s – and by her mid-20s she was on the cover of French h

56 The Australian Women’s Weeeklyy | MARCH 2020

Charlotte Married to Dimitri Rassam (above), she has two children, including Raphael (far left). As stylish as her grandmother Grace Kelly (above), Charlotte grew up around designers including Karl Lagerfeld (with her mum, Princess Caroline, middle).

As a young child (above, left with dad Stefano), Charlotte was a keen equestrian (left).

Andrea

GETTY IMAGES.

Married to Tatiana Santo Domingo, the couple have three children including Alexandre (far left). Aged just six when his father died, Andrea (below as a boy with his siblings) was labelled the “wild angel”.

Vogue, photographed by Mario Testino. Every outfit she wears and hairstyle she adopts is minutely scrutinised by the European glossies, which will pay tens of thousands of dollars for an exclusive photograph of her. None of which would be so surprising, if she wasn’t trying to make a career as a philosopher.

Her first book, Archipelago of Passions, co-authored

by Robert Maggioro, one of France’s most fashionable intellectuals, argues that our lives are controlled by our emotions rather than our circumstances, and has been well reviewed in the heavyweight French press. She has since become president of a group called Les Rencontres Philosophiques de Monaco, which holds discussion workshops on such topics as ‘Time, Age and Death’ and ‘The Irreversibility of Nostalgia’.

She has two children, Balthazar, one, with Dimitri, and six-year-old Raphael from an earlier relationship with a Moroccan comedian, Gad Elmaleh.

“She’s seen as a kind of rebel, but she’s still very much part of the Grimaldi family elite which controls everything down there,” says Ophélie Renouard, one of Paris’s top social organisers, and founder of France’s annual Debutantes Ball. “It’s a smart thing for her, because elitism is out of fashion at the moment, so she has the best of both worlds.”

The least visible of the Casiraghis is 35-year-old Andrea, who lives mostly in London with his wife Tatiana Santo Domingo, an exotic South American heiress who is even richer than the Grimaldis. Andrea was six when his father died and went through a troubled adolescence, which led to him being labelled the “wild angel”.

Caroline packed him off to a boarding school near Paris, where he first met Tatiana, the daughter d of Julio Santo Domingo, a Columbian business tycoon. Upon Julio’s f m cancer in 2009, Tatiana inherited a reported fortune of over $3 billion. After a lengthy engagement, they were married in 2013, and now have three children.

Tatiana, 36, co-runs Muzungu Sisters, a London-based ethical fashion company which sells handmade clothes, bags and accessories from around the world. Andrea is said to keep a close watch on his own business interests in Monaco, although he is rarely spotted there. “He used to be much more chilled,” says a long-time resident.

“You’d see him at parties, and he even did an advertising campaign for an Italian menswear company, but we don’t see him much now. He’s supposed to be close to Albert, though, which means he has influence.”

Grace and Rainier may have seemed like a figurehead couple, but they fought ferociously for their fiefdom, and as recently as 10 years ago, Albert fought off an attempt by France to curtail his powers. The actual heirs to Monaco’s throne are Prince Albert and Princess Charlene’s twins, Jacques and Gabriella, who at just five years old are a long way off assuming that responsibility. In the meantime, should they step out of Albert’s shadow, no one doubts that the young Casiraghis’ intriguing combination of intellect, idealism, style and unimaginable wealth could provide a little of the generational change that Monaco needs. AWW MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Family

With her characteris honesty, Jean Kitts and lows of helping older age. Jenny Bro PHOTOGRAPHY by ALANA LANDS

ver a lavish assortment of cakes, Jean Kittson is gently teasing her nonagenarian parents as they prepare for The Weekly’s photo shoot. Or is it the other way around?

This is familiar territory for the comedienne, writer, actor and public speaker who first shot to fame on ABC television’s The Big Gig in the late 1980s. For her mother and father, Elaine and Roy, it’s less routine but they are handling the unaccustomed spotlight with poise and a hefty dose of humour.

“Now you know it’s not all glamour – those poor movie stars on the red carpet, having to suck everything in and stand up straight,” Jean smiles to her 94-year-old dad, a former mechanic and lifelong Mr Fixit, as she jokily stage manages the mood.

“How about you put your head on my shoulder? You’re completely dependent on me, you know that,” she chortles sarcastically. “Or you could be strangling me – a strangling shot would be good. You could both look cross and I will look frightened.”

As Roy rolls his eyes, 95-year-old Elaine – an early feminist and businesswoman who remains fiercely independent, despite her blindness and loss of hearing – crisply interjects: “Well, that’s how it is! You should be scared of us!” Her comic timing is impeccable.

Jean obviously inherited her talent to amuse from both adored parents, who are the inspiration behind the bestselling author’s latest book, We Need to Talk About Mum & Dad, a uniquely practical and surprisingly funny (given the subject matter) guide aimed at helping our elders live the best life possible. Four years in the making, it offers a clear, concise summary of everything you need to know about the labyrinth of aged care in Australia, from →

e Jean

I T TS O N

NSKI

58 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

HAIR AND MAKE-UP BY KELLY TAPP. JEAN WEARS COS NECKLACE.

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home help to palliative assistance, last rites and all stops in between.

It’s not just Jean’s minute research that took considerable time. Life as a busy working wife and mother of two, plus the complexities of “parenting ageing parents”, kept getting in the way. Like the heart-stopping accident in which Roy took a tumble two years ago and smashed his femur in three places, ending up in hospital and rehab for three months.

“He was washing his car and got caught in the hose,” Jean explains while her husband, cartoonist and political satirist Patrick Cook, 70, makes tea at their airy, treetop home on Sydney’s Lower North Shore. “You know, we’d told Dad not to do that, to get someone else to do it for him, but of course that’s like a red rag to a bull ...

“Naturally, next day he decided to wash his car and then I got a phone call to say he was in hospital, really broken up. And he is Mum’s carer, which made it all the more difficult. So this is how I wrote the book. Wait until there’s a crisis and learn how to do the right thing after getting it wrong with my own parents!”

From personal experience, Jean now knows not to convert your garage into a granny flat for the folks without consulting them, however good your intentions.

Especially a granny flat with more than 20 steps and no bathroom hand rails. “Why, I ask you? What were we thinking? They took one look and both said, ‘Nup.’ Then they went home. Via their club.”

Game, set and match to Elaine and Roy. Don’t presume to make decisions for your parents – ask them first – was just one valuable lesson learned by their 64-year-old daughter.Another was to keep an eye on their fridge, where forgotten food and leftovers grow penicillin faster than a laboratory petri dish. Then there’s the vexed issue of her father’s hospital appointments, which tend to get cancelled, mysteriously, by his “imaginary friend” Bert. And let’s not forget the question of moderating mischievous Roy’s reliance on his preferred medication, Moselle wine.

Inevitably, the Kittsons’ parent/child relationship has shifted down the decades and continues to evolve.“I don’t take them my washing anymore, as I would when I was a teenager,” grins Jean, who grew up the eldest of three siblings in suburban Melbourne and seaside Sorrento, Victoria, where they ran wild in the bush, fished from the pier and sometimes had to be rescued from Portsea back beach.

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MUGS AND TEA TOWEL FROM MARIMEKKO. PICTURE SUPPLIED AND USED WITH PERMISSION.

Family

Jean, Roy and Elaine have developed a special bond as they navigate older age. Right: Jean (far left) with Alan (Elaine’s nephew), brother Bill, Elaine, sister Rachel and Roy.

“Once I would go to my parents and have a cry on their shoulders.

Today I wouldn’t burden them. I’m careful not to lean on them. I let them lean on me, if they want to. Some of the intimacy goes, especially when you’re deaf, because it’s very hard to have an intimate conversation at 20 decibels.” Nowadays, Jean, her father and mother all use hearing aids.

“We don’t sing and dance and watch films together the way we used to.

It’s not as much fun. But we completely trust and love each other, so that hasn’t changed.”

With a three-hour round trip to reach Elaine and Roy’s retirement village on the NSW Central Coast, she is a fully paid-up member of the “sandwich generation”, struggling to care for elderly parents and children simultaneously. Her older daughter Victoria, 28, works for the ABC and has moved out, but psychology student Charlie, 21, continues to live at home.

It’s a tough juggle and Jean is frequently overwhelmed by sorrow.

“Luckily for me, Mum and Dad are mentally fine, very switched on. But there’s still a lot of grief, watching your parents diminish and diminish and get more and more unhappy,” she says, confiding that she couldn’t cope without support from her husband and family. “Old age is full of indignities, the humiliations of being ill and needing help and having accidents. It’s an exhausting, constant battle trying to get them the right care, but they were always so good to us. They actually moved up to Sydney from Sorrento to help my sister and I when we had young children and full-time jobs. They have done so much.”

How long has the popular television, radio and theatre performer been keeping a weather eye on Roy and Elaine?

“Interfering, you mean,” she shoots back, chuckling.

“I guess I’ve been worrying about them since Dad was 75, when it wasn’t really needed. So that’s another tip.

Don’t worry about your parents prematurely. Now I’m nearly 65, I realise they were young back then and had so much further to go.”

It’s more than 40 years since her capable, no-nonsense mother was diagnosed with macular degeneration – “before they even had a name for it” – and warned to expect inexorable blindness. “Mum was used to being a completely modern woman, but when she lost her sight and her licence, she suddenly became reliant on Dad to drive her places,” recalls Jean, a hard-working ambassador for the Macular Disease Foundation Australia and a slew of other health-related charities.

Elaine’s devastating diagnosis began the family’s painful odyssey through increasing frailty and illness.

“After Mum lost her sight, she had a stroke. She wanted to die but she wasn’t sick enough,” Jean wistfully reveals. “After that she broke her shoulder and reckoned she’d really had enough, then broke her hip three weeks after I broke mine.” Pause. “She’s very competitive, it was the same hip! I think she recovered better than me.”

Like so many of Jean’s laugh-out-loud stories, this also comes with a hefty dose of pathos. “Mum wanted to die at that point too, so that upset Dad and he cried.”

A born romantic, amateur artist Roy sets out Elaine’s pills in a heart shape on Valentine’s Day. Their love remains strong after 65 years of marriage, despite vigorous bickering over cleaning, cooking and a study full of broken computers, tape recorders and other → MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Not that her mother, who was busy working, always knew what her eldest child was up to. It remained a guarded secret when Jean was injured falling off a “forbidden” motorbike.

But there was no hiding it when she dyed her hair in pink and purple stripes the night before an admission interview at the very proper Toorak College in Mount Eliza.

Elaine, who remains amused yet slightly miffed by that incident, says: “You know, our relationship has changed completely, and that’s rather strange. You have to adjust to altered circumstances, if you can, and that’s half way to accepting your life as it is. Jean used to look to us for advice, and now it’s the other way around. We ring her up and say, ‘We have a problem,’ and she does her best to help us out.

“We try not to call on her too much but I’m afraid we do it quite a lot really. Our other children are good too, but Jean lives the closest so she’s the one who comes to see us most.

At least once a fortnight – she never lets it go much longer than that.”

Driving up and down the M1 freeway to Gosford, Jean gets ample opportunity to ponder the problems of aged parents.

“Every time I come away from visiting Mum and Dad I think I should have handled things differently,” she admits.

“I guess I wrote the book to help other people make the right decisions with their parents, to manage the system and not be overwhelmed by it, to work out the best way of doing things as they are today.

“I was trying to make people aware, to provide information so they go into this with their eyes open, at least a little bit, because it’s fraught. There are so many bureaucracies, so many acronyms and there’s so much jargon involved, it’s like another language. It might as well be in Klingon!

“I’ve drawn a lot on our own family experience, because you so often feel like you’re doing the wrong thing. I just want Mum and Dad to have a happy end of life, but I’m not managing that as well as I would like and it really upsets me.

“I realise none of us knows what to do, and I want that to change. I want the way we treat elderly people to change, because so many of them are depressed, isolated and lonely. They are treated like lepers, kept in colonies together. We are outsourcing their care, and I don’t think that’s right. It’s not good for them, and it’s not good for us as a community ...”

Impassioned, she stops to draw breath. “I wish I could be with Mum and Dad 24 hours a day – that would be better – but I have a husband, a daughter living at home and a day job. There are so many of us in the same boat.

I can’t just move in with Mum and Dad and be there for them.”

She hesitates, but can’t resist one final gag: “Actually, I don’t think they could bear it if I was there 24/7.” AWW

“I want the way we treat elderly people to change.”

paraphernalia that handyman Roy means to mend. Eventually.

“Walking into their house is like ringing the bell in a boxing tent,” quips Jean, who graduated as a teacher before drama-ineducation led her down a different path.

“They just argue the whole time I’m there.

But it gives them a chance to let off a bit of steam, because Mum is angry about her loss of independence and Dad, who has always been an incredibly optimistic, happy, creative character, is sad.

“They are handling the end of life with dignity and courage, and I really admire them for that, but it feels like they are suffering more than they should. So I try to help without taking over and always with them at the centre of everything. Every decision that’s made is still their decision.”

According to her mother, Jean was always a nurturer. “It’s my fault, I was always busy with something and I think I put a lot of responsibility on her as a child,” career woman Elaine confesses. “Growing up, she was the one who defused family arguments at the dinner table with funny stories that made everybody laugh. She was a good girl, and she still is.”

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We Need to Talk About Mum & Dad by Jean Kittson, Pan MacMillan, is on sale now.

JEAN WEARS COUNTRY ROAD SHIRT AND WITCHERY SKIRT.

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OMEN W to 20 20 WA

TCH

SPORTSWOMAN

Tayla Harris WO R D S by SUE SMETHURST

T

ayla Harris lifts the hem of her training shorts and grins. Her royal blue Carlton footy nicks hide a tattoo of American television doyenne Judge Judy in trademark ‘talk to the hand’ pose. The words ‘Only Judy Can Judge Me’ are inked underneath.

“It was a spur of the moment thing when it was all happening,” Tayla says. “I was feeling very high and mighty, and feeling like no one could judge me.”

The ‘it’ she is referring to is the moment, 12 months ago, when an image of Tayla kicking a goal almost broke the internet – for all the wrong reasons.

It had begun as a normal Sunday afternoon of footy for the AFLW marquee recruit. Tayla’s beloved Carlton Blues were taking on bitter rivals the Western Bulldogs. It was a hard-fought game and the teams were neck and neck. Then, as the clock ticked down and pressure mounted, Tayla marked the ball 40 metres out of the goal square.

It was a crucial moment.

The 22-year-old took a few steps back, pacing herself, then launched a blistering kick. Every

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tendon in her hamstrings visibly flexed to breaking point as her right leg stretched into a grand jeté-like leap, her toes almost touching the heavens.

She propelled the Sherrin straight through the goals. “It was just another day at work for me,” says the talented athlete. “That’s just what I do.”

It was a triumphant moment on the sporting field and Tayla’s majestic athleticism was captured by award-winning photographer Michael Willson, who later posted the striking picture to 7AFL’s social media page in recognition of Tayla’s skill.

The powerful image rightly attracted high praise, but among the thousands of comments were also many so shocking that, within hours, 7AFL rushed to take it down. Among the congratulations were dozens of explicit and grotesque threats of sexual violence and rape. Others doctored the image, removing clothes and superimposing genitals on Tayla's body.

“What scared me most was that the people who posted them, by their own profiles, were clearly husbands and fathers pictured with their own daughters. →

GETTY IMAGES.

To mark International Women’s Day this month, we are launching our Women to Watch in 2020 series. And what better way to kick it off than with the AFLW superstar and campaigner for women and girls who is now an Our Watch Ambassador.

“The tweet was a totally honest and instinctive response.”

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Schoolgirls flank Tayla (centre) at the unveiling of her statue in September 2019.

expecting anything to come of it, certainly not the response it received. It was overwhelming, amazing. I don’t think I completely understand the magnitude of it yet.”

Fire beneath her feet Tayla Harris was born with fire ants under her feet – she couldn’t sit still. From the crack of dawn until the Queensland dusk, the beach blonde poppet with braids and pigtails was on her flashy white BMX, belting around the streets of Brisbane’s northern suburbs where the Harris family lived. When she wasn’t racing between her dad’s marine workshop and her grandparents, who all lived nearby, she could be found fearlessly launching her bike into the stratosphere from makeshift ramps or jumps she’d constructed with big brother Jack. In the family’s spare time, they hit the water, skiing and wakeboarding.

There wasn’t time to sit still.

At age five, Tayla followed Jack onto the footy field and instantly found her place at the Aspley Football Club, despite being the only girl in her team. At home,

she decorated her bedroom walls with posters of her favourite AFL player, Brisbane’s Michael Voss.

“I just loved playing footy,” she grins.

“I didn’t care who I was playing with – boys or girls – it didn’t matter. I played because I liked it and it was fun, and I still only play because I enjoy it. The day I don’t enjoy it is the day I’ll happily walk away.”

She says her sporting ability comes from her parents in equal measure. Mum Lisa taught her a sense of self control and logic, while her father Warren gave her physical strength and courage.

“He’s a big unit,” she says cheekily of the man she clearly adores. “He’d like me to describe him as built like the brick shithouse!”

At age 12, Warren took Tayla to the local gym to teach her the basics of self-defence – fortuitously as it turns out – in case she ever needed to protect herself. He unwittingly introduced her to her second sporting love, boxing, and she’s been training and sparring ever since. The shorter AFLW draw gives her time to compete professionally in the

GETTY IMAGES.

“You have to be really sick in the head not just to think of those things, but to then actually write them publicly, not even anonymously. Some had tagged in other mates to their comments and they’d say, ‘I’d like to do xyz to her ...’

What are they thinking? I just can’t understand it.

“I have a thick skin and I can scroll past it and not let it bother me. But I started to think about what would happen if this wasn’t me reading it, if it was a young girl, a footy fan, or another woman playing sport who didn’t have the same strength as me. I thought about what it would be like to read this and not be able to handle it, and it started to make me really angry. I understand 7AFL were trying to protect me, but taking it down wasn’t the answer, I knew I had to fight back.”

So rather than be beaten by the abuse, Tayla fought back. On the spur of the moment, she re-published the image herself, declaring: “Here’s a pic of me at work ... think about this before your derogatory comments, animals.”

Then she went to sleep.

Overnight, the tweet raced around the globe gathering support, and suddenly the story of the young Aussie footballer ran in newspapers from London to New York, Ireland, the UK and Canada. Akin to Julia Gillard’s famous misogyny speech, Tayla’s words unleashed an outpouring of emotion so profound that some argue it is a moment that will define a generation of young women. Her tweet became the most liked social media post in Australia in 2019 and earned her the only Australian nomination on the BBC’s ‘100 Women of 2019’ list.

“At the time I didn’t think about what I was writing, not to any great degree,” she says.“The tweet was a totally honest and instinctive response. I wasn’t

OMEN W to 20 20 WA

Clockwise from above: Tayla (third from left) and the Carlton Blues AFLW team; with mum Lisa and dad Warren; the incredible kick that would change Tayla's life.

friends but I was so hopeless! I couldn’t keep the ball in the court. I just love Ash!” she says, “I’d love to meet her one day.”

Ambassador for change footy off-season, and last year she won the Australian Female Middleweight Title. Of seven professional fights, she was won six bouts.

“There’s a competitive streak in me, which I think I get from Dad,” she smiles.

“I like to do my best, though I feel I’m competing more with myself than anyone else.”

Tayla’s talent and ability to effortlessly switch sports prompts comparison with another multi-talented Queenslander, Ash Barty. Tayla laughs. After watching Ash play at the Australian Open, she was inspired to pick up a tennis racquet and have a go: “I played with some

Posters adorn the walls of the Carlton training gym where Tayla spends hours every week with her teammates working on her skills and crafting her elite body.

Sweat and liniment waft through the drafty halls of the weight room tucked under the old grandstand at the hallowed ground. Some of football’s most legendary names built their careers here, but today it is Tayla and her teammates who are writing a new chapter in the footy club’s famed history.

Tayla never set out to be a role model or changemaker. She was just ‘doing her thing’ and living life to her best ability.

But it is this very focus and composure that has ensured she will make her mark in the world. And now the star athlete has

become an ambassador for Our Watch, determined to add her powerful voice to the organisation’s campaign for gender equality and the prevention of violence against women and children.

Patty Kinnersly is the CEO of Our Watch and a board member of the Carlton Football Club. She has formed a strong bond with her young AFL charge and says without a doubt, Tayla’s courage has already made a mark.

“I think Tayla’s story resonated with so many Australians because she immediately drew the link between disrespectful attitudes towards women and the abuse she encountered. It’s not a joke, its not a bit of harmless banter online, it is violence and there is never any excuse for it,” she insists.

Today, the image of Tayla that captured the world’s attention has been immortalised in bronze outside the corporate headquarters of the National Australia Bank in Melbourne’s Docklands. Women and young girls regularly visit the statue, many of them imitating Tayla and sharing the love through the hashtag #morethanakick.

The iconic image will be forever linked with fighting back, breaking down barriers and taking a stand against online harassment.

“If I’m doing something good for someone then I’m happy. I hope my legacy is greater off field than on,” says Tayla.

“Our Watch is an organic connection for me. I’m very passionate about fighting online abuse, we have to call it out.”

Patty predicts we are still to see the very best of Tayla Harris.“By doing what she loves she is inadvertently breaking down society’s expectations of what women and girls are capable of. On top of that, Tayla has chosen to use her platform to talk about the impacts of online trolling and young women and how we can all call out disrespectful behaviour online when we see it – pretty admirable stuff.

“We often say ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’. Tayla is out there for women and girls to see, and I personally look forward to a new generation of girls who say, I can be whatever I choose.” AWW

TCH

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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P H OTO G R A P H Y by ALANA LANDSBERRY ST Y L I N G by JAMELA DUNCAN

Interview

Keeping it in the family STRALI

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HAIR AND MAKE-UP BY JULIA GREEN. JASON WEARS COUNTRY ROAD KNIT. JEMMA WEARS H&M DRESS.

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D O N OVA N S

As a starry-eyed teen, Jason Donovan became famous for his role on Neighbours. Now history appears to be repeating itself for his daughter Jemma.

The pair tell Tiffany Dunk why the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Interview

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“Neighbours is the perfect home for Jemma.” you don’t have credit card issues or school fees ... It’s a new experience and those things are very galvanising.”

Today, another Donovan is fresh out of school and starting their own giddy adventure. Jason’s daughter Jemma has recently made the move across the ditch to call Ramsay Street home. His eldest child with stage manager wife Angela Malloch (the pair are also parents to Zac, 18 and Molly, 8), Jemma caught the acting bug early. Not only that, she’d always dreamed of moving to Australia.

So during a short trip to test the waters early last year she went on several

auditions, set up by Jason’s Australian agent. The final one was for Neighbours.

“I remember getting the phone call from my agent saying, ‘I’ve got some news,’ and I cried,” the 19-year-old newcomer’s proud dad says with tears brimming again now in his eyes. “It just made me so happy that she has an opportunity, that there is a foundation and a good reason for it. Neighbours is the perfect home for Jemma.”

On air, Jemma plays Harlow Robinson, the granddaughter of series original Paul Robinson (played by Jason’s former on-screen brother, Stefan Dennis).

SHUTTERSTOCK.

ason Donovan was looking for a birthday card for a friend near his London home recently when he stumbled across one that made him chuckle. Picking it up, he took it to the counter and placed it face up. “Can I buy this,” he asked the nonplussed clerk.

“He sort of looked at me and I looked at the card,” Jason recalls gleefully at the baffled look he received in return. “And I felt like saying, ‘Do you want to give me that one for free? I didn’t get paid.

I’m not getting a royalty on this!’”

Emblazoned with the title of their hit duet, Especially For You, the card featured the iconic wedding picture of a young Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue, taken at the 1987 nuptials of their Neighbours’ characters Scott and Charlene.

“I thought it would be a bit tonguein-cheek if I bought it,” the 51-year-old chuckles of the real life-meets-reel life moment. “You know, we were part of popular culture, it’s insane. When that show hit off in 1986, for four years it was just an incredible experience. And then that experience becomes not just incredible for you, but for the rest of the world.

“You don’t realise when you’re in it what’s actually happening. You never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory. Memories are what we live for.”

Jason’s entire world shifted when, aged 17, he was cast in the role of Scott Robinson in the series which celebrates 35 years on air this month. Fresh out of high school and eager to follow in his father Terence Donovan’s acting footsteps, not only did Neighbours become a huge hit, but Jason, with his puppy dog blue eyes, toothy grin and resplendent blonde locks, became the boy next door every teenage girl dreamed about. His on and off air romance with Kylie Minogue captivated fans around the world and would springboard huge UK pop careers for both, along with all the trappings of fame that came with it.

His coming of age was a heady time, one he describes as “magic”. “When you are that young and the air is fresh, the sunshine bright and the sea blue and

She was nervous to take the role, she admits. Would people perceive her hiring as nepotism, despite her dad having left the show 30 years earlier?

“I love that people associate us together but I want to show people I’m not just on Neighbours for my last name,” Jemma says. “I need to prove to people that I can do this.

That was also great because it gave me a lot of drive.”

“I’m very proud of her,” Jason adds. “She’s very passionate about what she does. She loves the work and at the end of the day it’s what’s on the screen that’s the most important thing. I just keep saying keep your mind on the acting, that’s all that matters – the rest will fall into place. As long as that inspires you to get out of bed every day, which it does.

Genuinely she says, ‘I can’t believe I got this job, I love what I do.’ And isn’t that amazing? To love your work? That’s a gift and I got that gift at a young age, too.”

Jason got his first working gig with a small guest role on Australian series Skyways at the age of 11. His daughter is threatening already to outdo his track record. At 10 she started attending regular Saturday drama classes. Two years later she

Above: Jason and Jemma pose on iconic Ramsay Street. Left: Jason and Kylie Minogue as Scott and Charlene in Neighbours.

debuted professionally in BBC film Mr Stink, starring David Walliams and Hugh Bonneville. At 15 her second job came in the form of Netflix crime drama Spotless. “I loved doing that TV series so much and for six months I got to miss school,” she reminisces now. “I didn’t want to go back when it finished but obviously my parents had a different opinion. So I went back to school and I loved it. But acting was a passion I knew I had. I was always going to end up doing it at some point.”

While Terence had originally discouraged his son from picking up the craft, Jason knew better than to try doing that with his own child. “As long as she’s passionate about it, and happy, that’s all that matters to me,” he says now.

“Because my dad knows the industry really well, asking him for advice has been really helpful,” Jemma reflects. “A lot of people my age are thrown into it with no idea what goes on and no help. And Dad works so hard. When he gets a script he won’t put it down, his work ethic is mad. He’s always said to me, ‘Fail to prepare, prepare to fail’. If you don’t put the work in, there’s not much point. My work ethic has come from seeing just how much it means to him, how in every performance he gives his all.”

That certainly seems to be the case in Jason’s latest gig. He’s about to wrap up the Melbourne run of Chicago, alongside fellow Neighbours alumni Natalie Bassingthwaighte – a show he admits has pushed him to the brink of exhaustion. “It’s a bigger beast than I thought it would be: eight shows a week is an incredibly intense thing to do,” he says. “But I’ve always been ambitious because I love what I do. I’ve never considered giving up [performing] because I don’t know what else I’d do. And I do love the buzz.”

The Australian production has also allowed him some precious one-on-one time with his daughter, something he realised he’d missed once she flew their Notting Hill nest.

“There was a four or five month stretch when she was away from home and hadn’t seen anyone. There was a lot of FaceTime where she was pretty vulnerable and missing home, and fair enough,” he says. “We’re a close family. Now, maybe because I’ve been away from home for three months, I feel a little bit vulnerable too and she is there for me.”

The duo is clearly close, the banter and laughter constant during our photo shoot. Jemma mocks her dad for owning an artwork made up of multiple photos of himself. → MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Interview

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Above: Jason and Jemma have always loved the beach. Left: Jason and wife Angela with Jemma and brother Zac at a movie premiere.

“Ange is a very strong woman and I had options.

The option I took was about being a dad. And I got it right. The kids are genuinely my best achievement by far.”

Also right was his decision to marry Angela, which he did in an intimate Bali ceremony in 2008. “She’s my best friend, you know,” he says of the woman who changed his life. “She’s a unique woman.

She’s a strong person, a loyal person.

And we are a great team. She respects me and I respect her.”

Despite his life having played out so publicly in both the Australian and UK press, Jemma has remained for the most part blissfully ignorant of her father’s infamy. While other children with famous parents can struggle, “not many people my age know who he is, to be honest,” she laughs.

The first time she figured out he wasn’t like her friends’ dads came in 2006, when he took part in UK reality series I’m a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!

The series filmed in Australia and the whole family came out to see him battle it out in the finale.

“That was my earliest memory of that sort of realisation,” she says. “We

got to run on when he came third – it was a lot of fun.”

She had never watched Neighbours before auditioning and is only now seeing those early scenes that are so ingrained in the psyche of millions who tuned in, back in the late 1980s.

They pop up on Facebook, much to her amusement.

Working with her dad is not “on my to-do list” she says, adding she likes to keep her family and work life separate.

“It crosses some weird kind of line.

I kind of enjoy the fact that we do our own thing. It’s nice to have those moments of just being dad and daughter rather than working together.”

However, if that opportunity were to come about, it almost certainly won’t be on Neighbours. “That show has changed my life, there’s not a day that goes by probably where I don’t refer back to that,” Jason says, choosing his words with care when asked if he would ever return to reprise his character.

“I’m very grateful for it. But with respect to the show and for myself, with something like that the publicity becomes bigger than the moment itself. But you don’t know what is around the corner in life. You don’t know.” AWW

GETTY IMAGES. IMAGE SUPPLIED AND UISED WITH PERMISSION.

He counters by reminding her it’s the one thing she told him she wanted to keep when he died.

He gives her humorous tips on how to pose for our photos, she corrals him into line when he fails to follow our photographer’s directions. In between takes, they make plans to have an Aperol Spritz to celebrate once the shoot is done.

They are a lot alike, Jemma tells us, and she’s been making the most of having her dad in the same town.

“I do call him my partner in crime,” she chuckles, her deep dimples flashing. “We have the same interests, same personalities. We do a lot of trips to the beach, we love swimming in the sea. He’s been meeting all my friends here, which is really cool.

“And I literally move in with him every night. It’s just nice knowing there is someone I can go to after work and just chill with. Even if I’m sitting in my room in his house and he’s sitting in his. It’s been lovely to have him here.”

The picture of a domesticated dad is one which for a while many people didn’t believe Jason would achieve.

He notoriously went off the rails in the ’90s, working hard but partying far harder, cocaine his drug of choice. It came, he would reflect later, from a desire to be cool, to break out of the cheesy pop and musical theatre actor role he’d found himself drifting into. It would lead to him collapsing publicly multiple times, first in Melbourne in 1994. By far the most notorious incident, however, came in 1995 when he suffered drug-induced convulsions at a 21st party for model Kate Moss at LA’s Viper Room.

“I loved being on cocaine,” he told the Times Weekend magazine in 2016. “I was the most interesting person I know and it gave me a terrific buzz. Unfortunately, it went on three years too long.”

Enter his now-wife Angela. The pair met working on The Rocky Horror Show and had a short-lived romance before splitting. When she later told him she was pregnant, he realised it was “time to move on”. And he’s never looked back since.

WHO KILLED T

he last known letter from Brenda Hean was sent to her niece late in the winter of 1972, shortly before her mysterious disappearance.

In it, Auntie Bren – as all the nieces called her – thanked Diane Rex for hosting her on a recent trip to Melbourne, delighted in Di’s young son, Philip (“never known a more intelligent or loveable child”), extolled her freshly permed hair (“Great

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improvement. Helps a lot.”) and wrote excitedly about an upcoming “wonderful adventure”.

On September 8, she planned to fly from Hobart to Canberra in a World War II Tiger Moth to lobby federal MPs to save Lake Pedder, a pristine glacial lake in Tasmania’s south-west wilderness. Refined, perfectly coiffed and in her early sixties, Brenda made an unlikely eco warrior. Yet something about Lake Pedder had touched her

– the way it touched many – and in its salvation, Brenda found her calling.

And so, she wrote to Di: “off we go to persuade the Powers that Be that we are so devoted to our cause and the enormous future value of keeping Lake Pedder in its original state that we are prepared to risk getting stuck in a large tree top on one of the Strait’s convenient islands.”

Unbeknown to Brenda, she and pilot Max Price risked far worse.

ALAMY. GETTY IMAGES. NEWSPIX. PHOTOGRAPHS SUPPLIED AND USED WITH PERMISSION.

On a cold morning in 1972, Tasmanian society matron, environmentalist and Minutes later, her plane vanished. As Ingrid Pyne discovers, many

Mystery

BRENDA HEAN? adventurer Brenda Hean took off in a Tiger Moth en route to Canberra.

Tasmanians still wonder who wanted this “troublesome” woman dead?

Within hours of take-off from Hobart’s Cambridge Airport, the vintage Tiger Moth would vanish.

No wreckage or human remains have ever, officially, been found.

Yet, almost half a century on, rumours and questions still obscure the pair’s fate. Many Tasmanians believe the plane’s fuel tank was sabotaged in a politically motivated attack to silence Brenda, but the mystery has never been solved.

Perhaps it will remain hidden in the bosom of Tasmania forever, along with the isle’s other dark secrets.

“My own personal view,” Diane tells The Weekly, “is that she was the victim of foul play.”

Birth of a movement

Next year will mark 50 years since Lake Pedder was flooded as part of the Tasmanian government’s $100 million hydro-electric scheme. Former

premier Eric Reece – dubbed “Electric Eric” for his enthusiasm for the scheme – had been hell-bent on luring industry to the state through the cheap, renewable energy that dams could provide.

Yet when the state’s powerful Hydro-Electric Commission first trained its sights on Lake Pedder in 1967, there was an immediate public outcry, spearheaded largely by Brenda.

Petitions were signed, protests ➝ MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Although wealthy and conservative, Brenda still helped create the world’s first green party.

LAKE PEDDER 1970S

“I will never call it a day. We will never give up the fight.” launched, referendums demanded, action groups formed and families split down the middle.

“These people [the protest organisers] can be compared to some degree to Frankenstein,” Premier Reece said at the time.

In early 1972, Dick Friend, 19 at the time and between jobs, wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

He hiked for a full day through rough terrain until he came upon the pristine lake and its pink-hued beach which was, by his estimate, 700 metres wide and about three kilometres long.

“What I saw quite literally changed my life,” he tells The Weekly. “This was a place that defies description.”

Dick went on to become an activist and a friend of Brenda’s. Now retired, he has travelled widely to many of the world’s other wonders – Iguazu Falls, Machu Picchu, Patagonia, Italy’s northern lakes. Yet, he says, “none of them compares to the impact of Lake Pedder”.

Before the Lake Pedder campaign, Brenda had never been drawn to the barricades. She was a social conservative, a wealthy society widow,

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a devout Christian. But the decision to drown this natural wonder galvanised her to the cause. Together with the state’s eco activists, she helped create the world’s first green party, the United Tasmania Group (UTG).

Brenda stood unsuccessfully as one of the party’s candidates in the 1971 state election. She also initiated a High Court action claiming that the Hydro-Electric Commission was illegally flooding the lake.

Former Greens leader Bob Brown says Lake Pedder is the real birthplace of the green political movement internationally. “Lake Pedder is hugely important – on a state, national and international level – to the history of environmental politics.”

And Brenda’s work was central to the cause.

Brenda’s plan to fly to Canberra and emblazon “Save Lake Pedder” across the sky marked the first time that activists had tried to get a local Tasmanian message out to the

mainland. This strategy later became the blueprint for the Franklin River protests of the early 1980s, during which activists travelled the country making the Franklin Dam an issue of national concern.

“We had learned from the experiences of the Lake Pedder campaigners – both their successes and their mistakes,” says Bob Brown, who spearheaded the Franklin anti-damming campaign. “Those experiences were key to saving the Franklin.”

Before she took off on her ill-fated flight, a journalist asked Brenda when she would give up the fight to save Lake Pedder: “Just at what stage will you call it a day?”

In the archival footage, Brenda is seen shaking her head even before his question is complete. “I will never call it a day. We will never give up the fight. We have a lot of British spirit left yet! Let’s really not think about it … until it’s gone.”

Mystery

Clockwise from far left: Brenda (second from left) meets Prince Charles in 1970; marching to save the Franklin; Bob Brown at a Franklin protest; Brenda and other UTG candidates at Lake Pedder.

FAIRFAX. GETTY IMAGES. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA. NEWSPIX. PHOTOGRAPHS SUPPLIED AND USED WITH PERMISSION.

Death threats and sabotage

According to an article published on February 8, 1968 in The Hobart Mercury, four and a half years before her death, Brenda Hean was “a woman of many varied interests”. She was president of the Hobart Ladies’ College Old Scholars’ Association; a life member of the Arts Club; a member of the St Ann’s Rest Home for the Aged Auxiliary; vice-president of the Eventide Appeal; a member of the Hobart Philharmonic Society; an associate member of the Tasmanian Music Teachers’ Association; an official music examiner; and a member of the Hobart Walking Club.

She was also involved with the Girl Guide Association; played piano with the Tasmanian Orchestra; sang with the Memorial Church Choir and was interested in floral arranging, gardening and antiques. In old footage, Brenda appears elegant,

thoughtful and refined. So when this Establishment woman decided to take on the Establishment, she was hated by her own class.

Brenda was aware that she was up against powerful political and commercial interests. Days before her final flight, she told Diane and other friends about threats she had received.

An anonymous caller had phoned to ask if she was willing to concede defeat over Lake Pedder, now that the flooding was underway. When she replied that, no, she intended to still fly to Canberra to save the lake, he replied: “Mrs Hean, how would you like to go for a swim?”

The threats must have frightened Brenda, although she claimed to Diane that they did not.

“She was absolutely and completely committed to saving her lake,” Diane

recalls, before quickly correcting herself: “Well, not her lake. But she was going to do anything ... She didn’t have children, her husband had died. She could do anything she liked within financial reason and she was going to do that.”

In early 1972, months before her death, Brenda began a brave vigil by Lake Pedder as the dammed waters slowly rose. Dick Friend, who transported her to the vigil, tells The Weekly they set out in a tiny dinghy, packed to the gunwales with provisions, and only a small motor to propel them across a vast expanse of the partly flooded lake. They spent a night camped in the branches of flooded trees, and almost 50 years on, Dick remains struck by Brenda’s courage and commitment to the lake, which she once called “a masterpiece of perfect creation”.

Scientist and fellow conservationist, the late Dick Jones, who helped found the UTG, believed Brenda was prepared to give everything for the cause. “I think that she had come to the conclusion that if she gave her life for Lake Pedder, that extreme sacrifice would move people.

They’d suddenly say: ‘This is not good enough, when such a nice person’s life is lost for this’. In her mind, I think, she had made that decision.” ➝ MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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“She didn’t try to martyr herself,” Dick Friend elaborates. “She loved life and wanted to keep contributing, but she was prepared to die for the cause.

She was prepared to take the risks.”

We can’t know whether Brenda was thinking about the death threats when, at 10.16am on September 8, 1972, she and her pilot, Max Price, set off from Hobart’s Cambridge airport, but if she was, it doesn’t seem that would have stopped her. There, waving them off, was Brenda’s youngest sister, Barbara Ditcham, and her niece, Celia, then just 14. Auntie Bren had taken her godmother duties to Celia very seriously, teaching her the piano, taking her on bush walks and having her to stay in her “lovely big old home” on York Street, in the leafy Hobart suburb of Sandy Bay. “I vividly remember farewelling her,” Celia Watchorn, now 61, tells The Weekly. “It was all so exciting, watching her set off on this unknown adventure. I was completely unaware of the gravity of the situation, the risks of the journey or the political implications. We just watched this gallant little plane take off, flying northwards.”

Then, nothing. Until Diane, Brenda’s other niece, received a call to say the Tiger Moth had failed to stop for refuelling.

The family at first assumed the obvious – that the plane had simply gone down into the sea somewhere between St Helens and Flinders Island.

But within days, disturbing reports began to emerge and, as Dick Friend puts it, “people started to get spooked by it all”.

Like Brenda, Max the pilot had received death threats before the flight. One caller told him: “Don’t get involved in this – you may not make it”. More sinister, the night before the flight, the plane’s hangar had been broken into Brenda (second and its emergency beacon from right) with hidden behind fuel drums. her sisters Joan, From that day forward the Phyllis and Barbara. police and government might

“She was prepared to die for the cause, to take the risks.”

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have considered the possibility that Brenda and Max’s demise was no accident. They could have launched a rigorous investigation. Instead, the police disposed of the case expediently, without following up on key questions or with key witnesses.

The state government, meanwhile, resisted calls for a public inquiry and not one member of the government made any public statement of sympathy or concern for the pair. Brenda’s younger sister Barbara told journalists years later that the family had felt “very much abandoned” by the authorities.

From the start, conservationists pointed the finger at those with an interest in having Brenda silenced: the government, big business, the hydro-electric scheme.

Bob Brown still believes something was fishy. “The fact

GETTY. IMAGES. STATE LIBRARY OF VICTORIA. PHOTOGRAPHS SUPPLIED AND USED WITH PERMISSION.

The ill-fated flight

Mystery

SEARCH AREA Scallop fishermen in the Banks Strait, where the Tiger Moth vanished, claimed to have dredged up a plane’s wings, tail and fuselage parts.

Launceston

Flinders Island

FLIGHT PATH

1980s

In 2008, filmmaker and writer Scott Millwood tried to piece this puzzle together. Curiously, he had received a large package of police files on Brenda and Max’s disappearance and been told “use this for good”. Scott personally offered a $100,000 reward for any information, and collected new tips and evidence.

Ten people told him they’d reported seeing the Tiger Moth flying overhead that day, but the police had never interviewed them. According to his documentary Whatever Happened to Brenda Hean? a search aircraft spotted wreckage in the water, but

Lady of the Lake’s legacy

Orford Hobart

State of silence that there wasn’t an adequate, independent inquiry into how come the safety beacon had been removed, how come the hangar had been broken into and that the flight had been preceded by what was effectively a death threat: Well, I put all of that together and say they died as a result of foul play,” he tells The Weekly. “It was pretty disgraceful that the Premier of the day didn’t have a full inquiry.”

Others suggest that there were several people who might have wanted Max out of the picture – for the old-fashioned motives of love and money. These theories focus on Max’s reputation as a womaniser who had been having an affair with his sisterin-law, causing bad blood in the family. He was also in conflict with a business partner after making allegations of embezzlement.

Scott’s documentary also suggests that then Premier Eric Reece ordered his aides to “stop that damn plane”.

Certainly, just months before Brenda’s flight, in April 1972, the UTG had come within 200 votes of winning a seat at the state election. For the first time anywhere in the world, environmentalists were posing a tangible political threat. And the loss of the hydro-electric scheme would take a hefty financial toll on Tasmania. But despite Scott’s best efforts, he was unable to find sufficient evidence to finally crack this four-decade old mystery.

Tasmanian Premier Eric Reece (left) was hell-bent on bringing hydro-electric power to the state, and refused to hold an investigation into Brenda’s disappearance.

was ordered to return to base, and a police boat did not follow up the report until three days later.

Scallop fishermen in the Banks Strait, where the Tiger Moth vanished, claimed to have dredged up a plane’s wings, tail and fuselage parts during the 1980s, but threw them back because, “they didn’t want to get involved with the cops”. One fisherman said he pulled up a dress and a bottle of champagne. Wreckage was also said to have washed up on a beach, where it was supposedly buried on the orders of “a person of very high standing in Hobart”.

Fifty years on, Bob Brown believes it is “a national disgrace” that we still don’t know what happened to Brenda Hean. And perhaps now we’ll never know whether this great unsolved mystery was in fact a great unsolved crime. But Brenda’s friends and family are certain that her life wasn’t lived and lost in vain.

“Brenda was this hugely intelligent, courageous and spiritually strong character,” says Bob, “who reconnected with the planet in an age of materialism.

She became an environmental warrior in her own way. To fly to Canberra in a Tiger Moth took enormous guts.

She showed that everyone shares a role in saving life on earth. She’s up there in the pantheon of environmental campaigners on a planet that needs many more. She’s a beacon of inspiration.”

Bob and fellow former Greens leader Christine Milne have been inspired by Brenda to lead a campaign to drain and restore Lake Pedder to its original state by 2022, to coincide with both the 50th anniversary of its flooding and the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030.

It’s early days yet, but last September the United Nations Environment Programme offered a preliminary endorsement of the plan.

Today Lake Pedder remains an emblem of the green movement, and Brenda Hean, who died fighting to save it, continues to inspire generations to her cause. AWW MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Sarah

F E RG U S O N

In the powerful ABC TV series Revelation, Sarah speaks to perpetrators of disturbing acts against children, and looks at the institutions that covered up the crimes.

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In her words

Unspeakable

acts

Investigative reporter Sarah Ferguson shares the deep outrage and inner turmoil she felt when she came face to face with convicted paedophiles for her shocking new TV series.

P H OTO G R A P H Y by CHLOE PAUL • ST Y L I N G by JAMELA DUNCAN

SARAH WEARS CARLA ZAMPATTI TRENCHCOAT, OROTON BLOUSE, SPORTSCRAFT TROUSERS AND CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN SHOES.

I

n the car on the way to the prison, the crew was unusually quiet.

We were due at the prison at 9am to see Bernard McGrath, a former brother of John of God, now a convicted paedophile, serving 39 years for crimes against children. No one knows, or likely ever will, the total number of his victims but we knew of more than 50 children, molested and raped while he was Brother Bernard, a teacher and headmaster in residential schools run by the Catholic order of St John of God in Australia and New Zealand.

Throughout the rolling scandal of clerical child abuse in Australia, the voice we have not heard is the voice of the perpetrators. I wanted to speak to these men to ask them face-to-face how they led their double lives, masquerading as our moral guardians while abusing children in their care, and to get from them what hidden details I could about the cover up by their superiors.

On these journeys when the interview ahead is hard, I will the journey to last longer, to give me more time to fix my method. How do I approach a man whose crimes are so vile, so disturbing, crimes against vulnerable children? The children in the schools run by St John

of God were often wards of the state or children with behavioural or learning difficulties, shipped off to boarding schools run by sadistic men like Bernard McGrath, protected by his order and the high standing of the brothers in a naïve, trusting community. I can’t let my revulsion at his crimes drag me off course.

But I’m also a mother of sons.

They are older now than the victims were when they met McGrath, but I remember those years. I was generally trusting of teachers and other adults with whom they interacted. Too trusting, I think now of the system and individuals. It made me think about the role of parents in this scandal. The mothers and fathers I met during filming were full of pain, desperate but unable to turn back the clock to make different decisions.

They had sent their children into the hands of cunning and manipulative offenders. Most didn’t notice any change in their children when the abuse happened and in the most painful cases, found out but didn’t believe them.

Inside the prison, the guards got us to set up in the empty visitors’ room, a large hall with a children’s mural painted in one corner, like a nursery.

There were dozens of small round

tables with stools screwed into the ground. It meant McGrath and I would be sitting very close, almost knee to knee, although the permissions stated we were not allowed to touch him, except for the sound recordist when attaching his microphone. McGrath peered through the glass of the heavy prison door, waiting with a guard for the airlock to open. He walked towards me grinning, feigning surprise at the camera set up. “Is this all for me?” he asked, swiping off his prison issue beanie. I greeted him neutrally. I had seen him last in court during his recent trial where we had exchanged polite greetings. It had taken time and patient negotiation to get this interview, both with McGrath and the prison authorities; it felt unnatural not to offer some small encouragement.

He sat down and tried immediately to draw me into a whispered conversation. I was prepared for this; in court one of his team had warned that he would try to manipulate me.

I moved backwards on the stool, making him lean in further, shifting the power balance. All substantial interviews take place on a platform of sorts, whatever the location, and you must control the space. I felt a jolt of apprehension, not because of who ➝ MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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In her words

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Sarah interviews convicted paedophile priest McGrath in prison. It took months of negotiations to arrange, and Sarah was warned McGrath would try to manipulate her.

Our first meeting with a priest paedophile was at the start of filming for the series. Vincent Ryan was a priest of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese who had already spent 14 years in prison. He was facing new charges from men who had been altar boys in his church in the 1970s. We were about to film his trial.

Routinely called a monster in media reports, journalists don’t know what other words to use to describe Ryan because his crimes are so terrible. I went to Ryan’s apartment where he lived in Sydney, climbing the stairs almost reluctantly. From a journalist’s point of view, I should have been excited. These men at the heart of one of the biggest scandals in contemporary Australia had never spoken on camera; indeed, in the world there was only one former priest in the US who had ever given an interview, but I felt the taint of Ryan’s crimes and the responsibility of ensuring the interview had meaning.

It is basic to the job of a journalist to hold power to account and the system which protected these men and enabled them betrayed the entire community. The account of that great

wrong is far from complete. Which is why I find myself sitting in a simple red brick apartment, opposite an old man with wet eyes. The crime scene he created, with primary school-aged children, sitting on the bench in his sacristy, is sharp in my mind.

Victims and others in the series reflected on the outward ordinariness of paedophile priests. As the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin put it, “If they had horns nobody would go near them.”

Ryan appears ordinary but the camera finds him out over time. He tried to hide his obvious intelligence as if it undermined his claim not to understand the person he was. It wasn’t sincere, rather a way to live with himself, cut off from the deeds.

On a trip to Ireland for the series, two leading figures described how behind closed doors, senior church officials blamed the children for the deeds of the priests who assaulted them. Within a few minutes of our

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ABC. OPPOSITE PAGE: PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHLOE PAUL.

McGrath was but the professional challenge of drawing him out.

There was a risk in putting criminals like this on camera, the material has to justify the affront.

The producer stood behind McGrath, careful not to catch my eye. Behind me the camera man, Aaron, said quietly that we were ready to begin.

When we first contacted McGrath many months earlier, we knew he was a convicted child sex offender, but we hadn’t met his victims. Since then we’d sat with men who were little boys in the schools where McGrath taught, their lives shattered by the consequences of the assaults on their young selves.

McGrath took them from their beds at night, or cornered them in the chapel, or the canteen, even the school bus. He told some he loved them and made sure none would tell, picking especially vulnerable children and charming their parents when they visited the schools.

Paul was rare in the cohort of McGrath’s victims in that he seemed to have survived to adulthood with his life intact. He had children, a partner who’d endured much to hold the family together, a comfortable house with dogs and birds (as for many victims we met, the uncomplicated love of animals was a solace). Aged nine, as a pupil at Kendall Grange, McGrath made Paul trace the shape of animals in the hairs on his chest then raped him. Paul told us he was no longer angry about the abuse he suffered, that the hate only hurt him but in front of his wife he told us he didn’t like being touched, that when she touched him in bed he was revolted. Paul spoke to us because he wanted justice for the victims of McGrath who’d committed suicide.

Months later I met Paul’s parents at the court where McGrath was due to be sentenced. Their shame at not knowing what was happening to Paul as a child was overwhelming. They took refuge in the banal details of the proceedings, the formality, the kindly security guards, unable to speak about the abomination being described.

“He wanted justice for the victims who had committed suicide.”

interview beginning, Ryan said something similar, not that the children were to blame but that children carried sin for the things he had done to them.

The idea was monstrous.

The interview went for hours, over two days because the material was exhausting to both of us. Ryan had more of an idea of contrition than McGrath, but it was insufficient to match his deeds. Could any human acknowledge crimes of this nature with the years of pain they cause?

I don’t think so. Ryan looked at me at one point, his eyes swimming with regret at what his life had become, self-pity at that moment. He said

whatever we thought of him, he was certain of God’s forgiveness.

I am slow to offence; it obscures critical thinking, but this outraged me. Not because it wasn’t possible (according to his faith) but because he had not earned it – he was so far from understanding the effect of his crimes that he was nowhere near the extended hand of forgiveness.

The experience of making this series scored deep lines of sadness and understanding in me, of the crime, of the complicity of a powerful selfserving institution and above all the ruinous consequences of child abuse on an innocent being who is ripped

from childhood in that moment but held down at the same time, as if underwater, by a powerful hand. It is a nightmare from which very few awake.

I couldn’t have done it without the producer, Nial, and cameraman Aaron, who knew after each day we had to find ways to deflect the suffering lest it overwhelm us. Like doctors and police and lawyers in this field and every profession that experiences this peculiar trauma, we found ways to manage the burden of the day; it may sound a strange note but as always, the way through is with humour aimed at ourselves and every mistake we made.

The interviews we filmed are compelling. You can’t take your eyes from these men; the initial shock of their ordinariness and then the unflinching revelation of what they did. I could not look away. The charm and charisma of paedophiles is shallow, designed to work on trusting children and perhaps their blinkered parents but brittle and shabby before a knowing audience.

Their instinct to protect institutions that protected them is largely intact.

They told us more than they intended yet their allegiances remain forever. I’ve lived my professional life understanding power and in trying to give succour to the weak when abused by power, but nothing before this took me so deep into the journey of human selfishness and suffering. It’s part of me now. I want you to see what I saw – understanding is our best defence against a repeat of these crimes in the future. AWW Revelation screens on ABC TV from March 17 at 8.30pm and on iView.

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Mentoring

The

Friend, guide, confidante: a true mentor is a precious gift. Samantha Trenoweth meets two young women and the mentors who shone a light on the road ahead.

WOMAN who changed zeena Nuhumaan was 15 years old and wanted to turn her life around. It was September 2001 – within weeks of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

The day that changed America also changed Azeena forever. The teenage troublemaker began to get an inkling of the power that could be wrought both by evil and by kindness, and she knew in her heart which side she wanted to stand on.

The question was how to make that shift? And would her family and the staff and students at her local high school in Sydney’s west give her the benefit of the doubt while she turned her life around? Luckily the principal of that school, Dorothy Hoddinott, was an unusual woman. At Holroyd High, she had created a groundbreaking experiment that proved just how much

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could be achieved by kids from economically challenged and culturally diverse backgrounds when someone had their back. And it helped that Dorothy had been a bit of a tearaway teen herself.

Azeena knocked on Dorothy’s door and said, “I want to do the 40 Hour Famine, and I want to help with the school’s 9/11 fundraiser. There’s so much I want to do, but will anyone believe me? I have a past.”

“I’m not interested in your past,” said Dorothy. “I’m interested in your future.”

Right away, Azeena signed up to help with fundraising. She began supporting a child through World Vision and volunteered with the State Emergency Service. Azeena researched and became a passionate advocate for human rights.

She went on to represent her school at a United Nations national conference on women; she represented young Australian women at the Asia-Pacific Conference in

Bangkok; she was a delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women at the UN in New York; she was Auburn City Council’s Young Citizen of the Year and Holroyd Council’s Young Ambassador; and she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal. All before she turned 19, and it all began with that tentative knock on the principal’s door.

“Every young person needs a mentor,” Azeena says. “Every young person needs a Dorothy Hoddinott.”

Mentorship is as ancient as human society itself, but its first mention in the Western canon appears in Homer’s Odyssey. The character, Mentor, was a wise and trusted advisor who guided and protected Odysseus’ son, Telemachus, while the Achaeans battled Troy. Mentor was a flesh and blood human but the goddess, Athena, assumed his form in times of critical need. Which is not so surprising, because the appearance of →

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALANA LANDSBERRY. HAIR AND MAKE-UP BY KELLY TAPP.

A

Y LIFE

Azeena & Dorothy

Katrina & Sally

“I’ve gained a sister in Sally, and a lifelong mentor.”

Mentoring a mentor can feel a lot like a bolt from heaven.

However, as mentorship pioneers Kathy Kram and Belle Rose Ragins have found, “mentoring is no myth. It is a very real relationship that has been an integral part of [life] for thousands of years.” In their trailblazing Handbook of Mentoring at Work, they explained: “When asked to contemplate relationships that have made a difference in our lives – relationships that have given us the courage to do the things we think we cannot do, relationships that have guided our professional development or even changed the course of our lives – many of us think of mentoring relationships ... Mentoring relationships have the capacity to transform.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILL HORNER. HAIR AND MAKE-UP BY KELLY TAPP. KATRINA WEARS WITCHERY DRESS.

Opportunity knocks

Azeena’s father fled from Sri Lanka to Australia in the early ’90s. In ’96, when Azeena was 10, she, her mother and her seven older siblings followed.

Primary school was tough. “I was picked on,” Azeena admits, “because of the language barrier, because of my colour. Even though I went to a very ethnic public school and I was the same religion as many of those kids, it was a different community – it was the Arab community – and I struggled.

“Also most of those kids had been born in Australia. They spoke perfect English and I didn’t.” Although the school had an English as a Second Language program, Azeena was never referred there. “In Year Seven, my English teacher discovered that I couldn’t read English at all.”

Azeena arrived at Holroyd High struggling academically, with a chip on her shoulder and a propensity to make trouble: “I was up and down, I had a lot of attitude. So, at first, Dorothy got to know me for my naughtiness ... I’m not proud of it,” she admits, still with the hint of a mischievous smile.

“Wherever there was trouble,” Dorothy recalls, “there was Azeena in the middle of it. And then she would come and protest things that were being done to sort the situation out. So I quickly got to know her quite well.”

But Dorothy noticed two things that set Azeena apart. First, she had a finely

honed sense of justice, and second, “she would always come and tell us what she had done.” She was honest to a fault.

“What that told me was that this was a different sort of person,” says Dorothy.

“I’ve always been alert to kids who were outside the square, who didn’t work within conventional behaviour patterns, because I didn’t as a child. So I listened to all the kids. My door was open. Kids would storm out of class with a huge, undying sense of injustice and come down to my office and I would listen to them.”

When Dorothy listened to Azeena, she remembers, “I could see that she’d had more challenges than most but that she obviously had leadership qualities.

Leadership doesn’t always take a conventional pathway. You can give little nudges to take people into positive directions rather than negative ones ...

Some of what you do at school is spotting talent and helping that potential to happen.”

Dorothy encouraged Azeena every step of the way. Earlier in her career, Dorothy had pioneered ESL teaching in Australia, so she made certain that Azeena was supported in her efforts to catch up. She was hyper aware of the challenges faced by children who came from economically disadvantaged backgrounds (and there were many at Holroyd High) and she made sure they were provided with the same resources, technology and academic choices as more privileged kids. Dorothy helped Azeena raise funds for her projects – she raised the money herself to send Azeena to the conference in Bangkok. And it wasn’t just Azeena. If students showed potential, Dorothy became their one-woman cheer squad. There were refugee students at Holroyd who weren’t eligible for HECS, so she paid their university fees with her credit card.

Over the 23 years that Dorothy was principal, Holroyd went from a disadvantaged school struggling with truancy, bad behaviour and spiralling drop-out rates to one where mutual respect was the bottom line and 60 per cent of graduates went on to university.

Dorothy, who retired as principal in 2018, was honoured with an Order of Australia and an Australian Human Rights Medal for her work.

“That’s what it’s about,” Dorothy says simply. “Education is about mentorship. It’s about changing lives for the better. It’s about transformation.”

I’ll never let them down

There are reams of studies over decades to prove that, young or old, those who are lucky enough to have a mentor do better at school, receive more opportunities and promotions in the workplace, earn higher salaries, report greater job satisfaction, make better decisions, are more likely to realise their potential and have a more positive outlook on life. It’s very nearly a magic bullet, and not just for the protégé. Many of those benefits flow on to mentors, too.

One particularly well-known Harvard study followed a group of men over 70 years and found that mentors were happier, more successful, less likely to be depressed and lived on average eight years longer than non-mentors. Mentors were three times more likely to be enjoying life at 85 than those whose lives were “centered on themselves”.

Sally Kahlbetzer is a volunteer with Bump, a program that links young mothers (aged 13 to 23) with a peer support group and a more experienced mum mentor from their local community. Sally is 37, a psychologist and a mother of three. She hadn’t worked since her firstborn came along and was getting a little bit of cabin fever when she chanced on the idea of mentoring.

“I’d just had my third child,” she explains, “I hadn’t been at work for a really long time and mentoring gave me an opportunity to feel I was being useful again outside the home.”

Sally first met Katrina Lofthouse at one of Bump’s mentorship “speed dating” afternoons. The young mums sat in a circle and the more experienced mothers moved from one to the next with just a couple of minutes to chat. When Katrina, then 22, nominated Sally as her preferred mentor, the two women were thrown together in a relationship that has lasted for four years, well beyond the program.

Both women say they’ve gained a sister.

Katrina was the middle child of three, born and bred on Sydney’s Northern → MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Mentoring Beaches and from the outset she was the spirited, independent one. She loved athletics and nippers, and in her teens she played rep netball for Manly Warringah.

But she was also “a bit of a handful,” she admits. “I was the one you had to look out for.”

Katrina left home at 16, though she continued studying for her HSC through TAFE with a unit in early learning, and straight after school she started working in childcare.

She met the man who would become the father of both her boys – Jai, now four, and Max, nearly two – at a beach party. “We instantly connected as soon as we laid eyes on each other,” she says.

They were young, carefree and led what Katrina admits was the Northern Beaches party life. But when Katrina became pregnant, she knew her world had to change. “I became a mother,” she says, “but he didn’t evolve into a dad.”

She saw the warning signs while she was pregnant. “I knew right away that this would make or break us. Jai was born 11 days early because I had a fight with his dad and it brought on the labour ... I felt that sense of loss when I gave birth. He was in the room but he wasn’t supportive. That was when I knew I had to let go.”

The pair split soon after Jai was born.

They tried to reconcile and Max was conceived two years later but ultimately, Katrina says, “he didn’t step up. He just stayed young and continued partying, and I knew that wasn’t right for the boys ... As a mum, the boys come first. Being pregnant for nine months and having that connection already, there was no way I was going to choose him over the boys.”

Katrina had no problems with the nuts and bolts of parenting, but Sally’s mentorship was a lifeline because it provided reassurance, friendship and support.

“None of my old friends really came along with me on this journey,” she says.

“They didn’t know what it was like to be a mum. They just kept drinking and partying, as you do at that young age, but I stepped up. It was important to meet Sally and to make new friends with other young mums at Bump. I was going through some big changes but I

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Find a mentor or be one Mentorship can be a simple, informal relationship between colleagues, friends or family, or it can be a more formal arrangement. Here are just a few examples: • If you’re interested in becoming a mentor for Raise in either the Bump program for young mums or the In School Mentoring program, you can find out more at raise.org.au/volunteer.

• If you’re a young mum, or you know one, who could benefit from having a mentor, you can register interest at raise.org.au/portfolio/bump.

• To help children from refugee backgrounds achieve their dreams, contribute to Dorothy Hoddinott’s Refugee Scholarship Fund. Visit sydneycommunityfoundation. org.au/find_a_fund/ dorothy-hoddinott-ao-fund.

didn’t have any problems with postnatal depression, and I think that’s partly because I had this support from the group and from my mentor.”

“Katrina didn’t need someone to tell her how to parent. She knew how to do that,” says Sally. “She just needed a cheerleader along the way, and I’m really pleased I was able to do that. It was about reassuring her that she could do absolutely anything she wanted and helping her to gain the confidence. She needed someone to reassure her that she was doing a really great job.”

Katrina has moved home with her parents, who are enjoying grandparenting, and she’s back at work part-time. She catches up with one of the friends she made at Bump and her two little ones every week, and she and Sally keep in touch, too.

“I’ve gained a sister in Sally, and a lifelong mentor,” Katrina says. “I feel like she’s a part of my family.

“It’s been a big life change but I’ve just loved it. I am so grateful to have these two beautiful children. I feel so lucky. They’re my little best friends.

I look at them every morning and I never want to let them down.”

Paying it forward

Mentorship is important. It has proved especially important for children from less privileged backgrounds, for refugee and migrant kids, for women in the workplace, for Indigenous students, for people with disabilities. However, as Kathy Kram points out, there is a mentorship “gap”. An American study found that while 76 per cent of people think mentors are important, only 37 per cent actually have one. And that’s largely because more prospective mentors need to step forward and volunteer.

Like Dorothy, Azeena has an opendoor policy in her office. After years working in migration and refugee support services, she is now a team leader with the Australian Red Cross.

Last year, Azeena married the love of her life, Hazem, in a ceremony conducted in both English and Arabic among the trees in Parramatta Park. Dorothy was one of her most treasured guests.

“Azeena and I have been in touch ever since that day she came to me and said she wanted to change the way she did things. Azeena is no longer just a former student, she is a young friend, and I am very proud of her. I am proud of everything she has achieved. She has thrived! She has the confidence to take risks and to stand up for what she believes, and those things are important. I know that we’ll remain friends and that I will watch Azeena go on to do many more generous and courageous things.”

While Azeena was in Sydney for her wedding, she caught up with some of her 23 nieces and nephews. “Some of them were doing amazingly,” she says, “but some were not and I asked myself, ‘Where is your Ms Hoddinott?’”

So Azeena has set herself a new challenge for 2020. In the months to come, she hopes to develop a network that will connect young women with mentors and give them the kind of inspiration and support that changes lives. AWW

C l of Environment

the ild

Ev summer’s bushfires, Australia had more endangered species than most places on earth. Susan Chenery meets five determined women who have dedicated their lives to saving them.

CR Leadbeater’s Possum

JASON EDWARDS/AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC

CENTRAL HIGHLANDS VICTORIA, CRITICALLY ENDANGERED.

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ast December, Australia hit a turning point. Twelve million hectares of our country burned at an intensity that has never been seen before, and those bushfires took with them a billion of our precious and unique animals that could neither run nor fly to safety. Even before the fires, Australia had the highest mammalian extinction rate of any continent.

Of our 600,000 species of flora and fauna, more than 1800 are listed as threatened or endangered. It’s too early to tell exactly how the summer of 2019-2020 has affected those figures, but it has certainly been devastating.

There is, however, some positive news for our native fauna and flora, and that is that the desperate nature of their plight has rallied the nation. Australians have realised just how much these wide brown plains and rainforest gullies, the call of lyrebirds and bellbirds, the majesty of the kangaroo and old man emu actually mean to us. There has been an outpouring of support from scientists, conservationists and ordinary Aussies and their actions, large and small, have the potential to heal our environment.

“All over the country communities are working urgently to save birds, animals, plants, our very way of life,” says Professor Lesley Hughes, ecologist and Professor of Biology at Macquarie University, and councillor with the Climate Council of Australia.

Last summer we learned how close the danger is, and how much we love our country. It is time now to protect and heal it, and this month, The Weekly meets five women who have dedicated their lives to doing just that. ➝ MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Environment

Katie Chartrand

Senior Research Officer, James Cook University Centre for Tropical Water and Aquatic Ecosystem Research.

Katie grew up in the American Midwest, thousands of kilometres from the ocean. It was on family holidays driving across the country to the coast that she fell in love with the sea and knew she would “always have a connection to the outdoors and nature”. Coming to Cairns for a year to work on the Barrier Reef, it was two weeks before her flight back to the US forever that she met the skipper of the Undersea Explorer and didn’t board that flight. Thirteen years later they’re married and work together on restoration of the reef.

In October and November every year there are mass spawning events where the corals release egg and sperm bundles. In 2018 “it was the fifth night after the full moon and it was a spectacular event, an underwater snowstorm of these bundles being released that float up to the surface”.

In the natural world “the majority of floating larvae get lost in wind and waves and currents. Very few will get themselves back to a reef system where they can settle successfully … It is estimated that one in a million new larvae that develop actually make it into a full grown colony.”

But 2018 was the first year Katie began capturing and rearing billions of coral larvae. Building on the work of other scientists, working with the tourism industry’s boats and expertise, “we were able to capture millions of these bundles into large floating pools.

And these pools were a floating nursery system. We reared these developing embryos for a week …

Then we settled them on a reef.”

In that first year, Katie’s project had a very high settlement success rate.

Last year an operation on a larger scale repopulated hundreds of square metres of reef. “We’re hoping to be talking about square kilometres soon,” says Katie. “I have to pinch myself, watching thousands of little coral babies being seeded, I am hosing the reef with these little things.”

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But, says Katie, even though VU a project like this brings a glimmer of hope and Greater Glider positivity, “It’s buying time.

EASTERN It’s not bringing the reef back AUSTRALIA, to life. We’re not going to VULNERABLE. restore it to health by these actions alone. It’s creating an opportunity to maintain the coral until we can get back on top of our emissions. It’s no replacement for action on climate change.”

Danya Jacobs

Senior Lawyer for Environmental Justice Australia

Last month, in a dramatic 6pm court ruling, the government-owned logging agency VicForests was ordered to immediately stop logging in the habitats of threatened species including the Greater Glider, Powerful Owl, Sooty Owl, Leadbeater’s Possum and Smoky Mouse in parts of Victoria’s central highlands. The Supreme Court granted an interim injunction to citizen science group Wildlife of the Central Highlands (WOTCH). It was a critical decision, particularly as this summer’s catastrophic fires have destroyed so much habitat. And 35-year-old Danya

Jacobs is the environmental lawyer who drove the case.

Helping people stand up to governments and big companies is something of a David and Goliath battle, but she says, “I’m humbled by the strength of regional community groups that take on these challenges and I just love working for them.

Small community groups are tireless in their efforts to protect the places they love and their local environment.”

Danya’s strength and passion comes from learning to love these forests during childhood camping holidays.

“We used to lilo down the rivers and race around underneath giant trees in the magical wet forest in the Otways.”

She first saw a logged forest at age 14:

EN Tasmanian Devil

AUSSIE ARK. PHOTOGRAPHS SUPPLIED AND USED WITH PERMISSION.

TASMANIA, ENDANGERED.

“It was really horrifying. I couldn’t understand why we’d do that. From that moment on, I knew I wanted to defend these beautiful forests.”

This year’s fire season has renewed Danya’s commitment. “So much was wiped out,” she says, “and it is so important to protect what is left. I’m really passionate about that.

“The law hasn’t developed fast enough to keep up with the environmental crisis. We need to see more legal protection for our climate, water and wildlife. But even so, I have done a number of court cases that have protected some magnificent forests, and I’m really proud of that.”

I work with a 40-gram parrot, so how things change,” she smiles.

For the past six years she’s been working on a program to save the Tasmanian Devil, which was expected to be • Grow native plants in extinct within 30 years. your garden.

Carolyn works as part of a group that researches • Leave a container of “how we can better water in a shady spot, understand the immune especially in very hot systems of animals in weather, and place a rock or a stick in it so small declining populations animals can get out. and how we can use that to protect them ...

• Keep pets indoors at Europeans have changed night and ensure cats the landscape, creating wear collars and bells. population fragmentation, •Avoid plastics, even reducing gene flow and micro plastics, which can diversity,” and increasing escape into the animals’ vulnerability to environment and injure diseases such as devil wildlife. facial tumour disease.

• Choose recycled paper Since the Save the to protect native forests.

Tasmanian Devil project’s • Choose renewable inception, there have energy or a renewables been remarkable mix from your power breakthroughs, and a company to help limit the thriving, cancer-free impact of climate change. population on Maria • If you see an animal in Island is now strong distress, call WIRES, the enough to reintroduce to RSPCA, a vet or another the mainland. But Carolyn animal rescue service. is concerned the prognosis for other endangered species in Australia is not so positive.

“In Australia,” she stresses, “we had the largest mammalian extinction rate Research Manager, Australasian in the world, and that was before Wildlife Genomics Group, School of these recent fires … The work of Life and Environmental Sciences, millions of years of evolution is taking University of Sydney. the human race not long to destroy.

Conservation biologist Dr Carolyn If we don’t make some significant Hogg grew up in South Africa, changes we will never get it back. The watching wildlife. “That is where fires have highlighted this crisis, with my passion comes from,” she says. some species losing their last remnant Immigrating to Australia in her habitat. It will take years to early teens, she gained a PhD in understand what we have lost.” reproductive and population biology, What gives Carolyn hope is the way worked overseas “with whales and local communities, conservationists big animals” and returned to Australia and scientists have come together to deal to study the immune systems of with this emergency. “The Australian threatened species. “I used to say conservation community has rallied I wouldn’t work with anything that together to use all the skillsets available,” weighed less than 10 tonnes and now she says. “I hope it will be enough.” ➝

How you can help

Dr Carolyn Hogg

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VU Bilby DESERT REGIONS OF WA, QLD & NT, VULNERABLE.

DD Flatback Turtle CONTINENTAL SHELF, DATA DEFICIENT.

walking and living in the desert,” she says, “but we’re using satellite imagery and collecting data as well.”

“Country,” says Jacko, “that’s the place I want to be. The most important thing is looking after country because the old people say, you look after country and country looks after you.”

Jacko Shovellor

Head Ranger on Karajarri country in Western Australia.

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Dr Sally Box

The Australian Government’s Threatened Species Commissioner.

us about the medicine tree, what the medicine is good for.”

Jacko’s responsibilities include recording migratory shorebirds, spending days in the desert surveying mammals and reptiles, monitoring Flatback Turtles laying eggs, and patrolling beaches and reefs. “The beaches are changing from weather events and people taking things from the reef,” she says.

Jacko and the other rangers also practice cultural burning. Using Indigenous cultural knowledge is “more important than ever,” says Jackie Wemyss, Women’s Ranger Coordinator. And today its efficacy can be monitored with technology.

“We’re trying to manipulate our fire management plan into what it used to be like when traditional owners were

Before the recent fires, Sally Box had 1800 threatened species to worry about. Back then, the government’s threatened species strategy had 20 priority birds, 20 priority mammals and 30 priority plants. Now that list barely hints at the problem.

Analysis has shown that “49 per cent of species have been affected by the fires and 69 per cent have been half affected,” Sally explains. It’s too early to know how many have suffered irreparably.

“I hope there aren’t any that will go extinct,” she says. “There are a range of things that can be done quickly to give the best chance of survival.”

Sally rattles off options: “pest control – weeds, foxes and cats. Some species might need to be brought into captive breeding and released back into the wild. It’s important to protect those unburned areas that can provide habitat. We need to carry out on-ground assessments, provide food and water, arrange rescue of species in habitat places that are too small. Then, there’s the longer-term regeneration of habitat,

DAVID BRISTOW/AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC. GETTY IMAGES.WILLIAM MARWICK. PHOTOGRAPHS SUPPLIED.

A native title holder, Jacko works on a “healthy country plan”, protecting culture and heritage places, looking after bush tucker, sea and saltwater resources, applying traditional practices that have been used over millennia and are now being put back in place.

“I was born and grew up in Broome,” says the mother of three, “but we came back here on school holidays and weekends and went out on country in camps with family.” Her uncle was a ranger, and when her family decided to go back to country for good, “I wanted to do something like him, being out on country,” she says. “Conservation is important and our own people used to look after country very well.”

Fishing and collecting bush food and medicine were traditionally done by women. The knowledge passed onto Jacko has made her something of a bush medicine guru, running workshops for health professionals and medical students and developing a commercial bush medicine plan for the community.

“Growing up learning bush tucker was a thing the old people used to do.

They would take us out collecting bush foods and learning about the bush fruit trees and what trees had bush medicine. My grandmother told

Environment protecting it, making it as safe as possible. The government recognises this is a long-term challenge.”

The Weekly suggests this is a big responsibility. “I think many Australians feel responsible,” Sally says earnestly. “It’s a responsibility we all share. It would be hard to imagine Australia without a platypus or a koala or a kangaroo. These are all part of our identity and culture. If we lose a species, we lose part of ourselves.”

Sally admits her job can be overwhelming. “It’s really challenging, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the scale and nature of the challenge we face globally. But it’s important not to shy away from the challenge,” she says.

One of the joys of a job that’s so urgent and critical is the people working on the ground and in the habitats of threatened species. They have the same dedication she does.

“That gives cause for hope that we can rise to this challenge,” she says.

“If people feel they can’t do anything or there’s no hope, it doesn’t empower them to act. It’s important to talk to people about things they can do. That can be simple things like planting native trees in their garden so they can attract native animals. It can be reducing plastic waste so it doesn’t end up in the ocean and damaging turtles and seabirds. There are lots of things people can do that make a difference.”

Sally believes that, in an increasingly urbanised society, Australians don’t always value what we have: one of the richest and most complex ecosystems in the world, a large percentage of which can be found nowhere else. But she has been inspired by “the outpouring of support for the environment in recent months.

NT It gives everybody hope,” she Platypus says. “There is a real EASTERN commitment to recovery”. AWW

AUSTRALIA, NEAR THREATENED.

VU Koala QLD, NSW & SA, VULNERABLE.

Communities and citizen scientists to the rescue The scientists and ecologists we’ve spoken to have been impressed by the community and citizen science groups springing up around the country.

Karina Waterman is a member of one of those groups, the Coomera Conservation Group, which was set up to help the koala population in an area of the Gold Coast that’s rapidly urbanising. Members trained to become rescuers of sick and displaced koalas, wrote submissions and met with politicians – “any we could get a hold of really”. Then, last December, their efforts bore fruit.

The Queensland Government announced there will be no new developments within 570,000 hectares of a “koala priority area” in south-east Queensland.

The community at Toondah has also rallied. They’ve fought against a proposed marina that would destroy the habitat of shorebirds that fly from the Arctic every year. And 2000 NSW South Coast residents formed Wildlife Stations Shoalhaven and left food and water where there were signs of life after the Currowan and Morton fires.

Social ecologist Tonia Grey at Western Sydney University told the ABC people are often paralysed by ecological grief, but that “this kind of volunteer group is giving people an agency to do something rather than feel totally powerless”. The Environment Recovery Project at the University of NSW is enlisting citizen scientists in bushfire affected areas to record the fires’ impacts and signs of returning life. Visit inaturalist.com to find out more.

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A fashion dilemma Should a good mother save her daughter from terrible sartorial choices?

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’was the eye roll I noticed first. She quickly followed this with a jaw drop and a loud exhalation worthy of Puff the Magic Dragon himself. Hands went to hips, head tilted to the side and then the words that no mother wants to hear. “Thanks, Mum, but I didn’t ask for your opinion. I think this looks good on me. I don’t tell you what to wear, do I? So I don’t think you should tell me.”

She relegated me to the pouf outside the change room where I sat idly but yet contemplatively reflecting on this milestone moment. What happened to my darling girl, my sweet compliant Miss who dutifully wore all the outfits I’d purchased her without complaint?

The child who happily modelled A M A N DA BLAIR tartan skirts with white tights and hand-knitted woollen jumpers when asked, even if she suffered heat rash? The child who slipped effortlessly into whatever hand-me-down or op-shop ensemble I placed in her wardrobe? I’d convinced myself that I’d broken the cycle, that she was destined to not be “one of those teens” who obsesses about outfits and Insta “look books” and what’s “on trend”.

I thought I’d sown the seeds of individuality and sophistication through my endless banter about the perils of fast fashion, the beauty of style icons, how Kardashian is actually Latin for cheap and nasty, and by the constant WITH

threats of boarding school should she ever utter the words “midriff top”.

I’d failed in my parenting, again, confirming there is no point speaking to my children, because when I deliver words they receive white noise.

This time it was me who sighed like Puff. I knew resistance was futile, that in order to maintain our relationship and to one day have access to my future grandchildren I had to give in, nod my head and tell her that the midriff top looked lovely on her.

My honest self wanted to say that midriff tops are more suited to somebody carrying more height, a little less puppy fat and a stomach more washboard than pillow top.

She walked from the store head high with confidence and I walked behind head down, knowing I had years of parental restraint ahead of me. This was the beginning of a long tunnel of darkness where I will confront many demons like hideous haircuts, blue eyeshadow, fake tanning, piercings in places I didn’t think pierce-able, high heels and higher hems. Years when I will watch the car crash of bad choices from the sidelines, able to do nothing but nod and beam a vacant smile like a contestant in the Miss World Pageant.

Good grief. But who was I to judge?

I should be happy for her. Proud that I’d borne a child who didn’t really care about appearance, confident enough to eschew good taste in favour of her right to choose. After all, it didn’t reflect on me, did it? She was now her own person and I shouldn’t be embarrassed about her lack of fashion sense.

I was drawing inspiration from her attitude. Damn it. She was giving me permission to shine and to be my own person too. To throw ice on convention and be who I’ve always wanted to be.

So 2020 is all about hot pants and halter-necks for me. Miniskirts and skinny jeans on chubby legs. I’m sure she won’t mind when I turn up at school pick-up wearing a midriff top.

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, right?

Besides, like she said “I’m expressing myself through fashion … DON’T YOU KNOW ANYTHING?” AWW

ABOUT THE WRITER Amanda Blair lives in Adelaide with her four children and a husband she quite likes when she sees him.

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ILLUSTRATION BY BRENT WILSON @THEILLUSTRATIONROOM.COM.AU.

Humour

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Mindfulness

It’s not just that the art, skill and romance of a handwritten letter may be slipping away. Research suggests putting pen to paper also has far-reaching health benefits for the brain, writes Vicki Bramley.

GETTY IMAGES.

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tudying handwriting was long thought of as a way to delve into the psyche. In fact in 1991, 91 per cent of French companies still used graphologists to screen job applicants.

They scrutinised the size, shape, spacing, angles, slopes, links, pen pressure and deviation from the norm to assess personality traits. While the science on this is sketchy, we do know that messy writing may be a sign of ADD and increasingly illegible scrawl could signal cognitive decline.

Though more than the science, it’s the romance of handwriting that we often yearn for. “I’m an actress, a writer ... a pretty good cook, and a firm believer in handwritten notes,” said Meghan Markle before marrying Prince Harry.

Handwriting is more than wellmannered, though. Research shows us that it has a positive effect on emotional health. In a 1999 study in Journal of Traumatic Stress, transcribing a stressful experience by hand had a greater positive outcome than typing it out. It seems the manual act of putting pen to paper is therapy in itself. Emoticons were invented to bring feeling into typing. When we write, however, we can use emotion to shape our lettering, express ourselves by doodling in the margins, and see the progression of our thinking as we cross out and rewrite whole sentences.

Writing by hand also lights up the brain’s learning zones more than tapping away, the same study notes. A 2014 investigation found that for learning, longhand was more effective than laptop note-taking. That’s because we can’t write fast enough to copy down verbatim, so we take the time to think, process and condense instead, learning more deeply along the way.

The fact that handwriting is more time consuming than typing should be seen as very 2020. It forces us to slow down, tapping into the trend for slow everything – slow homes, slow cooking,

slow living. The crux of the slow movement is to be present. And when we handwrite, it’s thought we naturally have more time to explore our vocabulary, be expressive and reflect on what we say. Not to mention the creativity we can unleash when “freewriting”, where we let our minds spill onto the page without deleting, backspacing, spellchecking or stopping to critique.

Composing a heartfelt note or card comes with all the sensorial pleasure of natural textures, too. For both the writer and the receiver. The weight of the envelope, the feel of the paper, the pleasure of real ink. Once you’re accustomed to handwriting again, you may even find yourself reaching that elusive “flow”, a state of full immersion which brings relaxation. The same can be found in other rhythmic activities, like knitting and colouring in.

Alena Tsarkova always loved bringing a smile to people’s faces with handwritten cards. Now, she teaches

brush lettering, a modern, popular style using a special marker that you’ve probably spotted on birthday invitations and cafe signage.

“It’s very relaxing and I treasure this art that’s being taken over by the digital era,” says the Sydney Community College tutor. “I tell students to think of brush lettering as meditation. You’re drawing letters rather than writing them. The mindfulness comes in because you have to be aware of the next brush stroke, keep the right angle, create the spacing. It helps a lot of people and some completely zone out while they’re working. I had one going through chemo and another with a brain illness who both came to brush lettering classes to feel better and keep fighting.”

In Brisbane-based handwriting teacher Barbara Nichol’s experience, many people who shy away from putting pen to paper are tripped up by simple technique.

“They scrunch the pen and tighten all the hand and arm muscles and some ➝

Practice with this alphabet

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Mindfulness even hold their breath … no wonder handwriting is losing favour,” she says.

“If they use a fountain pen or dipping pen they must stretch out their fingers and let the index finger pull the downstroke and the middle finger make the upstroke … this is such a revelation and then yes, it’s possible to turn inwards and watch the ink flow and time stands still … even if only for a few seconds.

The feeling does the heart good.”

And while there is no sign of the digital revolution slowing, all is not lost when it comes to the written word.

Handwriting is still taught at Australian schools – my sons practice every day at their preschool and primary. And for them, the promise of learning “running writing” in year three is almost as exciting as the compulsory iPad required for year five. ationery ere, either. it’s been most adults e in three x months. the allure s, paper espite a handy hones, new ners” ) find a r fridges. alligraphy, a natural t, with There

with beautiful cursive through to elaborately penned aspirational quotes you might like to frame for your wall.

Over on Etsy you can have your signature, or a loved one’s, laser-cut into a gold necklace. Martha Stewart suggests preserving handwriting by turning family recipes into tea towels, or needleworking names into napkins. Even the social media crowd are piqued. A recent Oprah magazine Instagram poll about how you write an “X” (and what that reveals about you) scored over 2000 likes.

As for what to write? “Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart,” said William Wordsworth. Or you can write to-do lists. Compose something lovely on a Post-it for your partner. Copy uplifting or humorous quotes you’ve e across. Write out your worries or

ideas before bed so they don’t keep you awake. Try your hand at beautiful invitations, thank you letters, birthday cards, even a love letter. Or note down everything you’re grateful for each day, combing handwriting and gratitude for two powerful mood improvers in one.

As Michelle Obama notes in her book Becoming: A Guided Journal for Discovering Your Voice: “Write down your experiences, thoughts, and feelings, in all their imperfections, and without judgement ... Writing is a way to process, to understand, to grow, and yes, to remember.” AWW The Lost Art of Handwriting by Brenna Jordan (Simon & Schuster), available from booksellers.

fl urish “Flourishes are like accessories for letters,” says Brenna Jordan in The Lost Art of Handwriting. “Like jewellery, scarves and shoes, flourishing ties a piece together, creating a wow factor that brings basic to the next level.”

Here are her top tips:

ALWAYS THINK BIG When creating larger, sweeping flourishes, utilise your whole arm, not just finger movement, for a more natural-looking effect.

LOOK FOR OPPORTUNITIES Apart from ascenders and descenders, capitals and letters with crossbars (t) are also conducive to flourishing.

The beginnings and ends of words also work well.

STRIVE FOR BALANCE Words like Friday, which contain both an ascender (F) and descender (y) nicely spaced, are ideal for flourishing practice since balance is more easily attained.

TRY IT! The following exercise with the words chocolate and beautiful shows a progression of flourishing from simple to elaborate.

Trace these, then pick words to make your own advancing levels.

Artline Supreme Brush Markers, RRP$2.50.

Artline Calligraphy Pens, RRP $6.

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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y r o t s y M

Finding a place toheal

British-born author and mother of two Hannah Richell tells how, after she lost her husband, Matt, in a surfing accident, she felt compelled to leave Sydney for England. But Australia had seeped into her soul.

We all have moments that change us forever, events that can spin the course of our lives in an unimaginable direction and alter everything. For my family, that happened when my husband died suddenly in 2014. One moment I was married to a man I loved, the next I was a single parent making decisions for myself and my children while navigating our grief.

As soon as the deep brain fog that comes with loss had eased a little, I took the difficult decision to leave Sydney, the city I had called home for over a decade, and return to England. In November 2016, we packed up our house and our lives and left Australia. We exchanged summer clothes for winter woollens and set up base in rural Wiltshire, near my mum. I began to reacquaint myself with seasons and landscapes and faces that I had known long before my Antipodean life. I had my first cold Christmas in years, the kids their first snow. Relationships that had been conducted over email and long-distance phone calls, with occasional, intense weeks of reunion grew easier, softer. I was able to drop in to my mum’s for a cup of tea, or babysit my brother’s kids, or visit my elderly grandmother in her care home.

Yet moving meant a painful trade-off. It meant leaving good friends in Australia and saying goodbye to a country that had nurtured and sustained me for 11 years. I missed my local community. I missed the glistening harbour waters, the salt-breath of the ocean, walking barefoot on the warm, golden sands of Sydney’s iconic beaches.

I missed the watery beauty of the city I had called home.

I felt its loss like a deep ache.

102 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

We’ve known for some time about the inherent benefits of ‘green spaces’ on our mental health, but recent studies have shown that spending time near water, be it an ocean, a river, a lake or even a well-placed fountain can also improve our mental and physical wellbeing. My husband died in a surfing accident and in the early months after his death I felt drawn to the ocean, rather than repelled.

As well as reminding me of the man I loved and missed, I found time spent beside something as vast and permanent as the sea helped to remind me of my own fragile impermanence, and often revealed the trivial nature of my own worries. There is, after all, something undeniably soothing about the constant wash of the tide, so reminiscent of the in-out rhythm of our breath or the closeness of another’s heartbeat. There is something meditative in its repetition and something hopeful in the sight of the sun rising over a tide-swept beach. We tend to think of our bodies as solid flesh and bone, but we are 50 per cent water. Perhaps it’s no wonder many of us feel ‘better’ when we are near it. It is our life force.

I had prepared myself to miss my Australian friends and routines. What I hadn’t prepared for was how I would ache for the ocean – a glimpse of it at the end of an Inner West lane, or spread beyond the sprawl of Bondi’s promenade.

Settled in a small, landlocked town in England, I missed my proximity to the ever-churning ocean. As pretty as my new town was, I missed walking down to the harbour and watching the ferries traverse the water, or jumping in the car to sit on the sand at Bronte Beach to watch the Nippers

IMAGES SUPPLIED AND USED WITH PERMISSION.

Relationships

play and the surfers face the waves.

Worse still, as a novelist, I discovered that landlocked meant mind-locked.

My creativity had vanished. Away from that big, vibrant landscape, ideas for my work were frozen.

I didn’t recognise myself in this alternate environment.

Understanding the part of me that was aching for big skies and an endless, blue ocean, I took myself to the nearest source of water I could find. The River Avon curves through the town I now inhabit. It neatly bisects it, the two halves joined by an ancient stone bridge, picturesque but just a little too narrow now for the volume of traffic and pedestrians churning through the centre. I found a riverside path and started to walk, following the curve of the green water, my solitude broken only by the sighting of grey heron, motionless on the riverbank, or a canoeist quietly paddling upstream, or very occasionally a rare kingfisher darting from a branch. Outside, beside the flowing river, I felt that same sense of calm and perspective slowly return.

Walking, sometimes jogging, along the river became a place of healing and, gradually, it also became a source of inspiration. The idea for a new novel – about a family growing up in a ramshackle riverside home, facing the ebb and flow of life and love – surfaced in my mind.

The head-clearing quality of being outdoors and moving through the landscape began to unlock my imagination, and my own experience of love and pain became woven into a new fictional world. Gradually I found my creativity, my peace, and my sense of self.

We often speak of life as a journey, almost as if there is a map to follow or a sure direction to take. While most of us are lucky enough to be able to make calculated choices and decisions that can help steer our lives, the truth is, none of us know exactly where we are headed, or what life might throw at us. We all learn this at some point. I try to look upon life now as a little like a river – the endless flow – the relentless course of it. Through my own experience, I have learned that acceptance is key; we follow the meandering flow of our lives, allowing new tributaries to emerge, weathering occasional storm-floods or droughts.

Being fortunate enough to travel and live in other countries is a gift, but it can sometimes feel like opening Pandora’s Box, offering a tantalising taste of a myriad alternate lives. Travel means we cannot always have the ones we love the most at our side. Can we ever be sure

Despite missing Sydney’s beaches, Hannah Richell has found solace by the River Avon, in her new hometown.

we have made the ‘right’ decision? If we are truly home?

In moments of dissatisfaction, loss or deep sadness, we might question, ‘will I ever be truly happy anywhere?’

I’m learning that whichever corner of the world you live in, wherever you plant your feet, there is beauty and peace to be found, if you look for it. I may no longer have the Pacific Ocean on my doorstep, but I find the pull of an English river soothing me. I find my beauty now beside the river, in the light playing over streaming green reeds or the autumn leaves drifting on its surface. I recognise my good fortune for the continued flow of all those varied moments we string together and call a life – the love, the joy, the pain. So I keep walking new paths, keep following the unknowable flow, knowing that even in the darkest moments, life returns.

Sometimes, you have to trust your instincts. Sometimes, you have to seek out your ‘blue space’. Sometimes, it might just be the thing to lead you home. AWW The River Home by Hannah Richell, published by Hachette, is on sale now.

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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h e t a r ’ p p u i y o & y w y ou k n o If

COME & PLAY Enjoy over 12 hours of entertainment and over 50 free shows daily.

Take a seat in The Australian Women’s Weekly Theatre Kitchen and sample delicious dishes prepared right before your eyes. Don’t miss the woodchopping championships, the all new evening spectacular and more.

Pre–purchase tickets today & save* at

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*Online fee applies. Public transport included in the ticket price for Sydney Metropolitan lines only. A separate access fee is payable from airport stations.

Gathering the troops

The children are grown, the men all at home, so why is planning a girls’ night still a tactical mission?

L

orraine called. Could we all meet for a night out?

I telephoned Pat H. She checked with Kathy who left a message for Maggie.

Maggie phoned back but Kathy didn’t pick up so Maggie left Kathy a message to say she’d contact Maryanne who’d contact Vivienne who’d remind Lorraine.

It was like planning a royal wedding only without the staff.

When we had young families it was even worse. We didn’t go out with the girls until tomorrow’s school lunches were packed, shirts ironed, permission slips signed, the cat fed, reminders posted on the fridge door and dinner in the oven.

Men went out or stayed out regularly.

“I didn’t go out all the time,” says the MOTH (The Man of the House) testily. “I just didn’t come home.”

He was waiting for “witching hour”

to be over. The time between 5pm PAT McDERMOTT and 7pm when everybody’s hungry and nobody’s happy.

Always a good time to be somewhere else.

Six phone calls later we agreed that, despite our impossibly crowded schedules, we’d meet at our usual cafe Friday at 7pm. We opened a nice unwooded chardonnay and followed it with cheese, coffee, chocolate and the latest gossip. We went round the table detailing successes and setbacks since we last met. We updated our kids’ résumés and admired photos of beautiful grandchildren.

We stayed for hours, long after our usual bedtimes.

Before we left we cleaned our table and wiped down the bar. The barista was asleep, poor darling, so we put the milk in the fridge, the plastic dome WITH

over the muffins and tucked our money into his shirt pocket. Then we crept out, locking the door behind us.

We’re mums. We’ll always have a soft spot for tired young men.

When my own children were young, we didn’t go to cafes. We went to each other’s houses where we sat on dodgy sofas or blankets in the backyard, surrounded by a restless mob of squirming babies and whining toddlers. There was instant coffee, teabag tea and Scotch Finger biscuits straight from the packet. If it was someone’s birthday we brought Iced VoVos and Tim Tams.

Bliss!

When you’re a sleep-deprived young woman, overwhelmed by motherhood, even a soggy, pre-sucked arrowroot biscuit has its charms.

Our kids are grown-up now with babies of their own. In theory it should be dead easy for we grandmothers to meet for coffee. But everyone is still busy. Very, very busy.

“Busy is the new black,” one friend sniffed. “It’s saying you’re not old.

You’re in demand!”

Did she have a point? While I waited for friends to arrive I listened, discreetly, to a woman at the next table.

“Gwen, I’ve got my diary open on my mobile.”

“How’s Tuesday?”

“No good. Pilates, then my accountant.”

“Thursday?”

“Body corporate meeting. Chasing up overdue levies and finding out who is putting beer bottles in the paper bins.”

“Monday the 24th?

“What year?”

“2021 or 2022 suits me.”

“July 14, 2024 is good for me.”

“Where will we go?”

“The old cafe. If it’s still open then.”

“Great! Oh Gwen?”

“Yes.” “You will let me know if you die in the meantime, won’t you? I’d hate to sit there taking up a table for no reason.”

“Of course. I’ll get someone to text you! Have to run! Busy, busy!” AWW

TO CONNECT WITH PAT ON FACEBOOK v is it FACEBOOK.COM/PATMCDERMOTTAU

106 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

ILLUSTRATION BY MARISA MOREA @THEILLUSTRATIONROOM.COM.AU.

Family matters

Now in store and online Conditions apply. See in store or website for details.

FROM LEFT: Alex wears H&M dress, $79.99. ValĂŠre earrings, $210. Spurr mules, $59.99 at theiconic.com.au. Bree wears Oroton top (with belt), $349.

Witchery shorts, $119.95.

Maui Jim sunglasses, $379.

Zara wedges, $69.95.

Barbara wears Witchery dress, $159.95. Everyday Cashmere knit, $299 at Faid Store. Dinosaur Designs necklace, $180. H&M sneakers, $29.99.

108 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

Fashion

Bree wears Essentiel Vayen dress, $803.

HAIR BY BRAD MULLINS. MAKE-UP BY KELLY TAPP. |ALL PRICES ARE APPROXIMATE.

New n o s a se style Autumn’s just around the corner so update your wardrobe with this season’s key trends.

P H OTO G R A P H Y by ALANA LANDSBERRY ST Y L I N G by JA M E L A D U N CA N

FROM LEFT: Barbara wears Marimekko jacket, $665, and trousers, $465.

Saba shirt, $179. H&M sneakers, $29.99.

Alex wears Oroton blouse, $299. Thurley trousers, $399. ValĂŠre earrings, $250.

Fashion

Bold prints

STYLING BY STEFANI ZUPANOSKA. STILL-LIFE PHOTOGRAPHY BY PHILLIP CASTLETON.

If you like your fashion with a side of fun, a print with a punch is your wardrobe go-to.

Opt for a classic silhouette and pair with block colours or neutral tones to let your retro print become the focal point of your outfit.

Aere shirt, $79, and Camilla & Marc skirt, $450, both from theiconic.com.au. Bailey Nelson sunglasses, $175. Wittner slides, $180. Respiro handbag, $599.

Cecilie Copenhagen top, $289.

Significant Other skirt, $199.95. Valere earrings, $199. Dinosaur Designs medium resin bangle, $90. Kayu clutch, $265.

ASOS Design sandals, $70.

Faithfull The Brand dress, $189, at theiconic.com.au. Oroton bag, $429.

Dinosaur Designs earrings, $280.

Bailey Nelson sunglasses, $145.

Zara sandals, $59.95.

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Fashion

Gone to rust

Call it the new neutral, rust tones are infinitely wearable and have an informal elegance. Gold and chocolate coloured accessories blend perfectly with this palette.

Aere top, $89, and pants, $119, from theiconic.com.au. Brie Leon bag, $189.

Senso sandals, $220. Brie Leon earrings, $129.

112 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

Tigerlily dress, $249. ASOS Design bag, $36. Sensi Studio hat, $195.

Charles & Keith sandals, $69.

Sancia T-shirt, $89. Elka Collective skirt, $269. Valere earrings, $210, and necklace, $185. Zara bag, $79.95, and sneakers, $69.95.

FROM LEFT: Barbara wears Cos dress, $250. Uniqlo belt, $39.90. Louise Olsen earrings, $310. Louise Olsen x Alex and Trahanas bangle, $360. Valere cuff, $210. Senso heels, $220. Bree wears Cos top, $59. Matteau skirt, $500. Worn store belt, $69.

Dinosaur Designs cuff, $350. Senso sandals, $265.

Alex wears Significant Other blazer, $259. Witchery knit (worn underneath), $99.95. Sancia pants, $219.

Zara earrings, $25.99. Edward Meller shoes, $255.

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

113

FROM LEFT: Alex wears Mina dress, $375.

Oroton clutch, $299.

Bree wears Saba dress, $299.

Sarah Curtis hat, $595.

Arms of Eve bracelet, $59 from Faid Store.

114 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

Fashion

White out

A trans-seasonal hero shade that lends itself to unexpected styling. Keep it clean and minimal in tonal or mix with upbeat coloured and/or textured accessories.

ASOS Design blazer, $120, and pants, $90.

Worn Store top, $219. Sportsgirl earrings, $19.95. Au Revoir Les Filles necklace, $139.95. Oroton bag, $299.

Sportsgirl flats, $69.95.

Oroton shirt, $299. Zara jeans, $69.95.

ASOS Design hat, $28. Marrimekko bag, $195. Charles and Keith sunglasses, $73.

Maria Farro sandals, $165.

Magali Pascal dress, $625. Reliquia ring, $179, and necklace, $179. The Daily Edited bag, $169.95. Oscar Wylee sunglasses, $129. Senso sandals, $220.

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Fashion

Soft pastels

These sweet looking hues can be incorporated with almost any colour. Either mix and match with other pastels or try brighter colour shades for a side of cool.

Ginia dress, $349.95. Anni Lu bracelet, $200. Sportsgirl sunglasses, $39.95.

Zara bag, $179. Teva sandals, $99.95.

116 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

Magali Pascal dress, $449. Boohoo sunglasses, $20. The Daily Edited Bag, $149.95. Anni Lu necklace, $370.

Caverley heels, $209.95.

Worn Store top, $189. H&M shorts, $131 (online exclusive). Holly Ryan necklace, $520. Arms of Eve earrings, $95.

Charles & Keith Bag, $129.

Mara & Mine sandals, $425.

FROM LEFT: Bree wears Sabatini blazer, $429, and trousers, $399.

Witchery knit top, $99.95. Atmos & Here shoes, $99.95 from theiconic.com.au.

Alex wears Oroton dress, $479. Arms Of Eve necklaces, from $79 each. Witchery shoes, $149.95.

Barbara wears Ginger & Smart dress, $499. Arms of Eve earrings, $85 from Faid store. Sportsgirl wedges, $79.95.

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Fashion

Fashion news

Denim that is saving lives Created by Aussie couple James and Erica Bartle, Outland Denim began as a way to provide employment to young women who had experienced sexual exploitation and abuse by providing an income, basic skills, dignified work and a viable career pathway. A favourite with Meghan Markle and Leonardo DiCaprio, Outland Denim is creating positive change for some of the world’s most vulnerable women along with ethically produced, long lasting fashion items. Visit outlanddenim.com. au for more information.

WE LOVE

SANS BEAST founder Cathryn Wills wanted her range to reflect her stance on animal welfare and the environment.

Sans Beast’s collections are 100 per cent vegan, ethical, design-led and versatile.

Sans Beast bag, $199.

A lunch date withTheWeekly Grab a friend and join The Weekly and some very special guests for a day of fine food and fashion at the International Women’s Day Runway lunch. This premier event will be held in the City of Stonnington’s stunning Malvern Town Hall as part of the 2020 Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival, Friday March 6, 12.30pm.

Visit vamff.com.au for tickets.

Underwear update 1 FROM BIKINI TO FULL CONTROL, OUR GUIDE TO UNDERWEAR FAVES.

M&S LACE BANDEAU MEDIUM CONTROL FULL BRIEF SHAPING KNICKERS, $26 (SIZES 8-24).

118 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

UNDERLINE BY FINE LINES BRIEF, $24.95 (SIZES 10-16).

Knitting pretty

With autumn around the corner, get inspired by making your next winter wardrobe! Each kit contains everything you need to knit your own unique garment, includi g the yarn balls, wooden es, pattern and wing needles.

s start from $39, reknitters.com.au

THE KNICKER CLASSIC FULL WAIST BRIEF, $15 (SIZES 10-20).

STILL-LIFE PHOTOGRAPHY BY PHILLIP CASTLETON.

E D I T E D by JAMELA DUNCAN

Help enhance firm and radiant skin with Beauty Rosehip.

Beautiful skin starts from within. Nature’s Way Beauty Rosehip tablets contain Rosehip extract and Collagen to help enhance skin firmness, improve skin elasticity and help promote skin health from the inside out.

Formulated with added Grapeseed extract, Biotin and Vitamin C & E, Nature’s Way Beauty Rosehip helps promote skin regeneration and collagen formation to help maintain skin health, for a more radiant you.

Available at: Always read the label. Follow the directions for use. If symptoms persist, talk to your health professional. CHC73554-0319

Forget swollen lips and frozen faces. In skilled hands, cosmetic injectables are flatteringly subtle and help slow down skin ageing.

By Vicki Bramley.

B

ack in t workin s we live e to addr deep cl to make way for fresh new skin) and face lifts (surgically slicing and tightening sagging skin).

Now, treatments such as dermal fillers and antiwrinkle injections are skyrocketing in popularity.

While the idea of needles near our faces may be deeply disturbing, enduring a few pin pricks is relatively pain free. And consider this: the results are instant. Which is a world away from the skin trauma and healing time of deep peels and strong lasers, let alone surgical face lifts.

120 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

y’re tired of looking tired, ,” says Dr Steven Liew at age] we lose bone volume er cheek so we develop a n, flat look and our faces drop.”

That’s where the “liquid face lift” comes in.

Anti-wrinkle injections are used to soften expression lines and fillers are used to shrink dark circles, restore youthful volume and bring back our cherubic cheeks.

For Dr Naomi McCullum, founder of The Manse Clinic (themanseclinic.com.au), fillers are versatile, too. “They’re so effective, they last a year or more and they can also contain ingredients like hyaluronic acid and act as collagen stimulators, so you’re giving your skin an anti-ageing treatment at the same time.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KRISTINA SOLJO. HAIR BY BRAD MULLINS. MAKE-UP BY ALLISON BOYLE. ALL PRICES ARE APPROXIMATE.

Ne to

Beauty

Muscle relaxants

AND, RELAX…

Botulinum toxin (known as Botox, Dysport) is injected into facial muscles around the forehead and eyes to stop or soften contractions.

What happens when you have Botox? I first

tried Botox in my early 30s in a panic over faint forehead lines.

I never topped it up though, because apart from the eye-watering expense, I didn’t like ‘needing’ it. I wanted to feel comfortable in my own skin and welcome the changes to my face.

A decade and two children later I look a little (lot) more tired (exhausted) than I’d like. So I jumped at the chance to try it again. Arriving at the dermatologist in a cold sweat, I was terrified I’d get a droopy eye, look odd or suffer some rare complication. All that happened was I felt nauseous for the rest of the day. Nerves, no doubt.

I also developed a little fluttery feeling at the corner of one eye (injection site irritation, I’m told). It passed by morning and then … nothing, because it takes 10-14 days to kick in. I did get a few headaches though, because suddenly I couldn’t squint or tense in the same way. Others find their headaches disappear.

Then one day I woke up and looked … bright. Not chronically underslept. And I enjoyed it. My derm explained that she gave me “baby Botox” which stops you from scrunching up your face as much as usual, but doesn’t freeze it completely.

Three months later it’s almost worn off. No, I didn’t ‘need’ it (what I need is better sleep), though I did like it. I was once told Botox is a slippery slope, but I think you can like just a little bit. VB

We may think of muscle relaxants as blunt tools to freeze frowning, but they’re also used to freshen up the face in more subtle ways, says Natalie Abouchar, registered nurse and director at Privée Clinic:

SLIMMING “Teeth grinding builds up the masseter muscles and injecting there can slim the jaw in six to eight weeks, while protecting teeth and reducing headaches.”

LUMINISING “Botox is mixed

with hyaluronic acid and vitamin C and injected into the skin instead of the muscles to reduce pore size, redness and fine lines. This is sometimes called skin Botox or mesotherapy.”

LIP FLIP “We can reduce

puckering and smoker’s lines by focusing on four injection points along the top lip, which flips it up.”

BROW LIFT “Instead of

Keihl’s Ultra Facial Cream 125ml, $84 Formulated with glacial glycoprotein to deeply hydrate and squalane to strengthen and restore skin’s moisture barrier.

Instant f

Incorporate these saviours into your beauty routine as a speedy way to revive skin.

Christian Dior Capture Totale Supe Potent Serum, $215

targeting above the brows to stop your muscles raising them, you can also inject just below the brows, freeing them from the muscles that pull them down.”

Ordinary Hyaluronic d 2% B5 30ml, $12.90 bines 3 types of hyaluronic id to deliver multi-depth hydration.

A luxurious update on th classic serum based on floral extracts.

Lancome onique Confort 400ml, $90 Honey and sweet almond extracts leave skin feeling soft and hydrated.

NIOD Copper Amino Isolate Serum 2:1 15ml, $90 This unique blue serum (thanks to the copper peptide) promotes the production of collagen and elastin in skin.

Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye Supercharged Complex, $105 Features concentrated repair technology to protect and restore the eye area.

All products available at Myer.

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Beauty

Fillers

Shaping the face with fillers is one of the top cosmetic trends of 2020, according to Dr Naomi McCullum, a Cosmetic Physicians College of Australia Board Member.

What happens when you have filler? Heading to my assessment with

Dr Naomi McCullum and the doctors at The Manse Clinic I was nervous but open-minded about the best course of action to refresh my perpetually ‘tired’ appearance. There were just two things I was clear on. One, I didn’t want to look like I’d had ‘work done’. And two, I was absolutely not getting lip fillers. The so-called trout pout, favoured by many reality TV stars, is one of my pet hates. But after listening to the Manse’s doctors (it’s key to make sure an experienced surgical or cosmetic doctor does your procedure), I found myself agreeing that a modest dose of filler, to replace lost volume at the top of my cheek bones, a sprinkle of strategically placed botox to help ‘open up’ my saggy eyelids, and, yes, a ‘feathering’ of filler in my lips, was the way to go. I’d long been unhappy with the way my smile had thinned and my mouth dipped at the corners, leaving me with resting ‘sad face’.

The doctor explained a very small amount of filler expertly injected at the corners of my mouth – top and bottom lips – would help turn them out and restore a youthful look.

After numbing cream and local anaesthetic, a small amount of filler was introduced to the top of my cheeks via cannula. Besides a few sharp pricks from the initial needles, and a slightly odd dragging feeling as the filler was manipulated into position, it was a quick and relatively painless procedure. The lip injections did sting a bit, and left me slightly swollen for a few There have been devastating cases of hours. However, it was the blindness caused by dermal fillers, including mental stigma of having in Australia. This happens when the filler is something I once considered mistakenly injected into arteries, blocking the taboo done (was this vanity blood supply to the eye. The high-risk zones are gone mad?) that was the hardest between the brows and either side of the nostrils for me to overcome. The result two – and some doctors no longer treat those sites. months later is a face I no longer Some fillers can be dissolved with an injected grimace at in the morning mirror; one antidote, if your doctor acts fast enough. The that looks a little fuller, decidedly Australian College of Cosmetic Surgery says to fresher and, even a little friendlier! Yes, always see a highly experienced, reputable it’s subtle. And yes, I love it. NB doctor with a clear emergency protocol.

MICRO-NEEDLING: AN IMPORTANT POINT Micro-needling is a treatment using a special multi-needle device that causes tiny, shallow punctures in the skin.

Your skin should create new collagen as it heals and ultimately look more refreshed. However, at time of press, the TGA recently cancelled one electronic micro-needling device and advises consulting a dermatologist if you’re considering treatment. Risks include redness and infection.

Hydra-filler

The latest way to use hyaluronic acid, the hero hydrating ingredient, is to micro-inject it all over to generate a natural glow. Meet the new kid on the injectables’ block.

What happens when you have Hydra-filler? The idea of a one-off

treatment to leave my skin looking more supple, hydrated and glowy sounded appealing. Add to this the promise of smoothed out wrinkles and a boost to my natural collagen production, and I was game to give it a go. Numbing cream was used before the hyaluronic acid was applied across my face via a series of micro injections. I’d be lying if I said it was a painless process, and I did find my fists balled up tight as the practitioner covered some of the bonier parts of the face, particularly around the jaw. However, discomfort was fleeting, with only slight bruising over the coming days. This is by no means a radical treatment, and you shouldn’t expect dramatic results. But within a few weeks I was receiving regular compliments on my complexion – a pretty sure sign of success. Results last up to nine months. NB HydraFiller is available at Australian Skin Clinics (Australianskinclinics.com.au).

THE NEEDLE-FREE FACE LIFT If you’d like facial sculpting and lifting, but you’re not okay with needles, the IntraOral Facial Massage by Isabella Loneragan could be for you. There’s the loveliness of a classic French facial: pillowy bed, puffy blanket, warm steam, deep cleansing. Then Isabella starts to knead out knots in my jaw, smooth tension across my forehead and press into my brow bone. Soon, the gloves go on and I feel fingers inside my cheeks. The aim is to unlock stiff joints and loosen tension in the facial muscles, where we often hold stress. Afterwards I look glowy, as you do after a French facial, and feel pummelled, as you do after a massage. There’s a definite sense of “shift” and the release in jaw muscles is real. NB. The Intrinsic Facial Experience with Buccal facial sculpting technique is available at The Dermal Diary (Thedermaldiary.com).

122 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

Beauty THE W E E K LY

Edit

Good vibrations P H OTO G RA P H Y by KRISTINA SOLJO • ST Y L I N G by STEFANI ZUPANOSKA

If you’re looking to add some positive energy into your daily routine, try sneaking crystals into your skincare and self care.

3

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WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT? As we shift to more holistic beauty and wellness approaches, crystals have gained momentum. There’s no scientific proof but each is believed to have different powers.

Rose quartz is thought to encourage self love, malachite to disperse negative energy and sapphire to protect.

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9

10

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5

8 6 1. CAW Rose Quartz Crystal Straw, $69. 2. Iittala tumbler glass, $34.95 (for two). 3. Angela Caglia Rosebud Eye Treatment Set, $99. 4. BYBI Crystal Clear Gel Cleanser with rock quartz, $39. 5. Salt by Hendrix Rose Quartz Gua Sha, $24.95. 6. Kora Organics Rose Quartz Luminizer, $34.95. 7. Sisley Paris Eye Contour Mask with Malachite, $170. 8. Rare by Livkin Rose Quartz Crystal Eye Mask, $159. 9. Rare by Livkin Glacial Clay Hydrate and Restore Day Mask with Sapphire, $129. 10. CAW Crystal Roller, $45.

124 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

ALL PRICES ARE APPROXIMATE.

7

AT LAST! BLOCK EXPRESSION WRINKLES without paralysing muscles!

NEW WRINKLE BLOCK

starts working to block visible expression wrinkles in 30 minutes, with dramatic results on both wrinkles and under eye bags in just 7 days.

“It’s the biggest breakthrough in needle free wrinkle relaxing in 20 years and it’s fully reversible in 48 hours!"

Blocks more than 70% of visible expression wrinkles in 30 minutes, with up to 48 hour activity With 2 powerful peptides, WRINKLE BLOCK not only slows down the visible expressions which create wrinkle creases, it simultaneously charges skin with the energy it needs to bounce back from expression trauma.

Clinically proven activity in 30 minutes, measurable visible results in just 7 days Almost 40% of deep wrinkles were smoothed away in just 7 days! And results just keep getting better with up to 60% less visible wrinkles in 28 days.

close to 40% visible wrinkle reduction up to 76% visible eye bag reduction up to 60% less visible wrinkles in 28 days!

Energy Peptide provides burst of freshness for eyes and face, and dramatic results on puff y eyes and eye bags Ideal for crow’s feet, frown lines, smile lines and marionettes, WRINKLE BLOCK’s skin energising action also has the remarkable effect of waking up eyes and freshening the entire face, whilst reducing the appearance of eye bags and puffiness by up to 76% in just 7 days.

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WRINKLE BLOCK reduces wrinkles, reduces eye bags and wakes up the entire face with a burst of freshness in just 7 days

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Beauty

Cheat sheet gen

Does it work?

A 2019 review in Journal of Drugs in Dermatology found collagen peptides can increase skin elasticity, collagen density and hydration.

“Research shows you should see the skin become more hydrated, then a reduction in fine lines and wrinkles in 6-8 weeks,” says Sally Obermeder, creator of SWIISH Wellness.

Elasticity and firmness may show at 12 weeks.

Colla

We first saw luxurious collagen creams in the ’80s before learning the molecules are too big to penetrate skin. Now, there’s collagen in pills, powders, drinks and snacks.

8

Away with tags

Marine collagen is derived from the skins and scales of wildcaught or sustainably farmed fish and should be tested for heavy metals and microbes to meet strict food standards.

3

A structural protein that makes up almost 80 per cent of our skin. It’s what gives you a nice firm, fresh complexion. However, we lose 1 per cent per year starting in our 20s and more with sun exposure, smoking and pollution.

Pure collagen peptide powders are odourless, tasteless and can be mixed into any drink, hot or cold.

But which type? “Marine collagen has type 1 which is suited to beauty,” says Dr Jaroslav Blazek, PhD in Food Science. “It’s rich in amino acid hydroxypropoline, which is essential in skin, and hence used to enhance hydration and reduce wrinkles.”

Is it safe?

2

What is collagen?

How do we take it?

1

4

5.

7

Can’t I just eat more protein?

Yes, but it may not work as well. “Collagen peptides have the correct molecular size for absorption and the right combination of amino acids to support collagen synthesis,” says Dr Blazek.

I’m vegetarian!

Veggiecol (Rejuvenated. com) is a popular egg6 based option, or try ‘collagen THE PILLS: 4. Nature’s Way Rosehip + Collagen, $29.99 boosters’ with nutrients like vitamin for 60 tablets. 8. Trico.lab Good Hair Vitamins, $39.95 C. There’s also new nano-collagen for 56 capsules. THE POWDERS: 1. SWIISH Glow Hot Chocolate Hydrolysed Collagen Powder, $59.95 for eye patches with impressive results, approx 30 serves. 3. Vida Glow Cranberry & Lime or collagen-stimulating skincare Marine Collagen, $59.95 for 30 sachets. 5. The Beauty such as peptides and retinol. “Retinol Shake Rich Chocolate, $29.90 for 7 serves. 6. WelleCo hampers the breakdown of collagen, Super Boosters Aquatic Collagen Skin + Hair + Nails, $60 thickens the skin and stimulates for a 7 day pack. THE SKINCARE: 2. Elizabeth Arden collagen and elastin production,” Retinol Ceramide Capsules, $150. 7. ActivLayr 5 Second says Dr Dendy Engleman.

Nano-Collagen Boost Patches, $89.99 for 7 eye patches.

Skin tags appear wherever there’s rubbing, and while harmless, they can be pesky. With your doctor’s nod, you can freeze small ones yourself. You might need help to reach awkward spots and the tag will feel chilly, then take 14 days to fall off. Medi Freeze Skin Tag Remover $29.95.

128 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KRISTINA SOLJO.

How to use collagen supplements (and the next big thing, nano-collagen) to keep your skin youthful,

by Vicki Bramley.

MINIMISE PORES

MAXIMISE SKIN PERFECTION Discover Dr. LeWinn’s Multi-Action Toning Mist, a lightweight, alcohol free formula enriched with Snap-8™, a high-performance peptide to reduce lines and wrinkles.

Potent pore reducer Witch Hazel works to minimise the appearance of pores, while powerful hydrators deliver a healthy and glowing complexion: Hyaluronic Acid – acts as a moisture magnet to hydrate, smooth and plump the skin Green Caviar – delivers an instant hydration boost to refresh and soothe dry and tight skin

83 % OF USERS NOTICED A 88 REDUCTION IN SKIN SHINE^ % OF USERS NOTICED A 88 HEALTHY LOOKING GLOW^ %

OF USERS NOTICED SIGNIFICANTLY CLEARER PORES^

^ Results based on 1-week consumer study as part of an independent laboratory study. Refer to drlewinns.com.au for more information.

Floor plan Does the thought of jumping, running or even sneezing fill you with dread? Professor Kerryn Phelps tells how all of us can (and should) make pelvic care a daily health habit.

130 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

Health

ME

N

’S

Y

ST

WEEKL

RALIA

T

he N challenge H T L of pelvic A HE T R floor PE EX health problems came into sharp focus in recent months when the Federal Court handed down a judgement in favour of more than 1200 Australian women in a landmark class action over pelvic mesh implants.

The mesh implants were used in surgical procedures to treat women with prolapse and urinary incontinence, but left many women with chronic debilitating pain or recurring infections. Since the mesh debacle, women are searching for more conservative and non-surgical but low risk, effective options for the treatment of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and urinary incontinence.

WO

• T H E AU

GETTY IMAGES. PROFESSOR PHELPS PHOTOGRAPHY BY YIANNII ASPRADAKIS.

So, what is POP?

One in two women have a degree of POP, where the ‘sling’ of muscles and ligaments supporting the pelvic organs (bladder, bowel, uterus and cervix) drop down with age or vaginal childbirth. It can vary from a minor inconvenience to severely limiting your lifestyle. Symptoms include: • tampons not feeling right • sensations of dragging or pressure in vagina or low back • slow urine stream • incomplete bladder emptying • incontinence with sneezing, coughing, jumping or straining • trouble emptying the bowel without using finger pressure Pelvic health physiotherapist Angela James of Sydney Pelvic Clinic treats many women

First floor?

We should exercise our pelvic floor muscles once a day, though shorter sessions might be easier at first. Start by sitting or lying down, eventually working up to standing.

The pelvic floor muscles are tricky to ‘isolate’ (or switch on) so if in doubt see a pelvic floor physiotherapist or continence nurse. Visit jeanhailes.org.au for more.

with POP and other pelvic issues. “We know that with pelvic floor training in pregnancy, there is a 50 per cent less chance of incontinence in the postnatal period. Women know they should be doing pelvic floor muscle exercises but they are not sure what to do,” she says.

When it comes to treatment, according to Angela, mesh isn’t the only option: “Many women I see say they didn’t realise there was something other than surgery that could help them. They need to know that there are really effective non-surgical options available such as muscle training to support the pelvic organs, vaginal pessaries and lifestyle measures. It is not a downhill slide.”

Surgery for POP is not inevitable. There are conservative measures you can take to maintain your pelvic health: • Seek advice from an experienced pelvic health physiotherapist.

• Learn pelvic floor muscle training to do yourself with an expert practitioner.

• Try a pessary (silicone device inserted into the vagina to hold the pelvic organs in place) that suits your anatomy and condition.

• Maintain a healthy weight.

• Avoid repetitive heavy lifting, including children!

• Take measures to avoid constipation with a high fibre diet and drinking plenty of water.

• Never strain to open your bowels. Instead, sit and relax with feet on a small stool.

• Make sensible exercise choices.

Trampolining may not be right for you right now.

By managing prolapse effectively with the pelvic muscle exercises, pessaries and lifestyle techniques you can reclaim your normal life and get back to doing the things you love.

For more information on transvaginal mesh, visit betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/ conditionsandtreatments/Transvaginal-mesh

1

Tighten the pelvic muscles as if you’re ‘holding on’ and draw them up inside. Don’t push down, hold your breath or squeeze your bottom or legs. Count slowly to three. Let your muscles go completely and count to six.

Repeat up to 10 times.

2

Once you’re comfortable with these, try tightening for a count of six to eight. Then try some shorter, harder squeezes, working up to 20 in a row.

The art of hap-pee-ness Whether we’ve had prolapse or not, we all need to take care of our bladders, according to Jean Hailes.

That’s because those occasional tiny leaks you may notice after childbirth can get worse. Plus, the oestrogen drop that comes with menopause makes women more susceptible to prolapse.

DO: hold on

Going before you really need to go can eventually weaken your bladder. That’s because pre-emptive peeing (such as before leaving the house) conditions it to hold onto less and less urine.

DON’T: stand for it

Your bladder relaxes better when you sit on the toilet. In public, put down some loo paper or a disposable toilet seat.

DO: stop leaks

A few drops, even during a run, is not okay because it will likely get worse. Consult a specialist physiotherapist to learn the activities to avoid and the exercises to support your pelvic floor.

3

Eventually you can try to weave these into your day when standing in queues, sitting at a desk, wherever you can take a moment to focus.

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

131

Health

Health news EDITED by VICKY BRAMLEY

Just five key habits hold the key to a longer, healthier life, according to new Harvard research studying thousands of adults. ● Don’t smoke; ● Exercise 30 minutes daily; ● Keep a healthy BMI below 25; ● Drink moderately; ● Eat a healthy diet.

Those who adopted these habits at age 50 lived years longer – 14 for women and 12 for men. A follow-up study showed they also lived well. The women gained up to 12 years free of diseases such as diabetes and cancer.

Tick of

approval Ticks can bug the whole family, fur babies included.

While researchers are investigating the link between tick bites and Lyme disease, they can cause other illnesses as well as tick paralysis in children and pets. It's important to remove ticks as soon as possible. Here’s how:

Medi Freeze Tick Off, suitable for kids 4+, $24.95.

MediPet Tick Freeze, $27.99.

DID you KNOW?

Fresh eyes

Good eggs

Egg lovers rejoice. Extensive new research, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, reveals there is no link between egg consumption and heart disease, and no negative effect on cholesterol levels. The study concludes that, contrary to old school nutritional advice, an egg a day is not harmful, even for those with a history of heart disease. Omelette anyone?

YES, GREY HAIR

An Aussie innovation could help restore sight to thousands.

Associate Professor Chandra Bala's keyhole-shaped punch makes delicate corneal transplantation safe. In a clinical trial of 13 at Macquarie University, four saw fantastic improvement in their sight and one now has 20/20 vision.

Details at personaleyes.com.au.

CAN BE CAUSED BY STRESS. IT'S LONG BEEN ANECDOTALLY TO BLAME, BUT NOW SCIENTISTS AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY HAVE PROVED THAT THE TYPE OF NERVE INVOLVED IN THE 'FIGHT-OR-FLIGHT' RESPONSE, BROUGHT ON BY STRESSFUL SITUATIONS, DOES INDEED CAUSE PERMANENT DAMAGE TO PIGMENT REGENERATING STEM CELLS IN THE HAIR FOLLICLE. TIME TO BOOK THAT HOLIDAY!

The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

GETTY IMAGES.

1. Freeze (kill) it with an ether spray, then wait 10 minutes.

2. If it doesn’t fall off, grip it at the skin with surgical tweezers.

3. Gently and smoothly ease the tick out.

ver t late

Family friendly

New studies shed light on healthy ways for families to spend their evenings. A large analysis in Pediatrics found that reading aloud was beneficial for children and parents. As well as reducing behavioural problems, it lessened parental depression and stress. The blue light from screens may also not be as sleep-disruptive as thought, according to a study from The University of Manchester. Try brighter, warmer light by day and dimmer, cooler light at night.

Smooth it over

After a long summer you might notice dry legs, arms, hands and heels. Prolonged sun exposure impairs barrier function, so step number one is to lock moisture into the skin. Avoid irritating soaps and fragrances, and look for skin softeners like glycerin and vitamin E. Kenkay Sorbolene range, from around $3.45.

A whale of a time

Menopause may be difficult for you, but it’s good for families. That’s why grandmother whales are crucial for keeping their grand-calves healthy, according to new research. Orca calves that lost their grandmothers were more likely to die, especially when salmon was scarce. "Our new findings show that just as in humans, grandmothers that have gone through menopause are better able to help their grand offspring," said Darren Croft, a professor from the University of Exeter.

Lose the bruise with Hirudoid. ®

Available in leading pharmacies.

Always read the label. Use only as directed. If symptoms persist see your healthcare professional. *Reference: In one study of 10 healthy volunteers, the time it took for 50% of the bruise to be absorbed was 2.1 days for Hirudoid and 4 days for the inactive cream. Research conducted by B. Larsson, S. Fianu, A. Jonasson & B. Forsskahl. Financial sponsor of research unknown.

ASMI 29576-1118

Medical Q&A

Ask the doctor PROFESSOR KERRYN PHELPS

Q

My 15-year-old daughter has POCS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) and was put on the Pill to regulate her periods. Is POCS serious and can it be cured? S.P., NSW. PCOS is a hormonal condition associated with irregular periods, excess facial and body hair, acne, overweight, reduced fertility and an increased risk of diabetes. It requires long-term lifestyle management with strict attention to diet, weight control and exercise. The contraceptive pill may be prescribed to regulate periods but does not solve all of the problems.

Medication to help with insulin resistance and assist with weight loss may be prescribed, such as metformin. There are long-term health implications if it is not carefully managed.

Q

My father has trouble walking but he refuses to get a walker or cane. How can I convince him to get some sort of walking aid? G.G., WA. The first thing is to understand why he’s having trouble walking.

Does he have osteoarthritis in his hip or knee or a neurological problem like Parkinson’s disease?

Is he simply deconditioned?

There are many possibilities.

A medical or geriatric assessment would help to work that out. He may then be referred for medical treatment or a strengthening rehabilitation program which might recommend a walking aid.

DID YOU

KNOW?

The effectiveness of devices for snoring control, such as nasal strips and special pillows, depends on the cause of snoring.

In some cases, sleeping position (side or back) or neck angle makes a difference.

Your GP can refer you to a specialist (sleep physician and/or ear nose and throat specialist) for assessment and advice.

H AV E a

QUESTION? Write to Ask The Doctor, GPO Box 4178, Sydney, NSW 2001 or email openline@ bauer-media.com.au.

Letters cannot be answered personally.

See last Puzzles page for Bauer Media Limited’s Privacy Notice.

134 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

Q

I’m 56 with lower back pain.

What are my treatment options? J.L., Qld. Chronic low back pain has many causes and treatment depends on diagnosis. Your GP or physio will decide if you need a CT scan or MRI to determine the cause. Then you can make a treatment plan such as physiotherapy, exercise or steroid injections or, in some cases, surgery.

Q

I had a beauty spot above my lip removed three years ago during a mole check. Now it’s coming back and although it’s not as dark, it is visible. How can I remove it permanently? Z.A., NSW. Being such an aesthetically important area, I would seek an opinion from a cosmetic dermatologist or a plastic surgeon. Your GP can advise you on the most appropriate referral.

PROFESSOR PHELPS PHOTOGRAPHY BY YIANNI ASPRADAKIS. GETTY IMAGES.

wit h

Q

Can drinking water with lemon prevent kidney stones? I’ve had one before and don’t want to have one ever again. B.E., SA. There are different types of kidney stones.

Calcium oxalate stones are the most common. There is a genetic association in some cases. A high protein diet and high salt intake increase the risk. There are some ways to reduce your risk: drink adequate water (1.5 to 2 litres) each day.

Added lemon juice has been shown to help in some cases. Reduce consumption of soft drinks. Reduce salt intake. Switch some animal proteins to plant proteins in your diet. Magnesium and vitamin B6 can help reduce risk of some types of stones.

REMOVES STAINS FOR

WHITER * TEETH Introducing the new Oral-B 3DWhite Whitening Therapy range.

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Go beyond whitening and give your smile the therapy feeling, with Oral-B 3DWhite Whitening Therapy.

Oral-B 3DWhite Whitening Therapy with Charcoal puriďŹ es teeth by removing surface stains for a whiter, cleaner smile.

Oral-B 3DWhite Whitening Therapy with Coconut Oil gently removes surface stains to whiten teeth.

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TAKE THE CAKE

THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S WEEKLY CHILDREN’S BIRTHDAY CAKE COOKBOOK EXHIBITION 18‐25 March 2020 The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia Presented by Queen MFWF.COM.AU

Dinners for two E D I T E D by F RA N A B DA L L AO U I

Loaded salads PAGE

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Vegan dinners PAGE

158

Easy as pie PAGE

164

womensweeklyfood.com.au

Creamy chicken caesar salad with croque monsieur baguette R E C I P E PAG E

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P H OTO G R A P H Y by JOHN PAUL URIZAR

138 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

ded

ST Y L I N G by OLIVIA BLACKMORE

Sensational salads Cheeseburger salad with crunchy brioche croutons R E C I P E PAG E

PHOTOCHEFS: REBECCA LYALL, VIKKI MOURSELLLAS.

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salads

The beauty of a salad is that it can be anything you like – main course, side dish, nourishing bowl or desk lunch. The Weekly’s new cookbook Happy Salads pushes the creative boundaries with delicious recipes for new-look salads.

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

139

T E S T K I TC H E N

TIP For extra zing, add some baby capers to the potatoes with the celery in Step 5.

Zesty yoghurt potato salad with salmon

SERVES 4 PREP AND COOK TIME 35 MINUTES

1kg kipfler (fingerling) potatoes, scrubbed, halved lengthways 100g pancetta 1 tablespoon olive oil 4 x 150g skinless salmon fillets, pin-boned 2 stalks (300g) celery, trimmed, leaves reserved, sliced on the diagonal ZESTY YOGHURT DRESSING ½ cup (140g) Greek yoghurt ½ bunch chives, chopped finely,

plus extra to serve 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind, plus extra to serve 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 Cook potatoes in a large saucepan of salted boiling water for 10 minutes or until tender; drain. Cover to keep warm.

2 Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Cook pancetta for 3 minutes each side or until crispy; drain on paper towel.

3 Wipe frying pan clean. Heat oil in

140 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

cleaned pan over medium heat; cook salmon for 3 minutes each side for medium-rare or until cooked as desired.

4 ZESTY YOGHURT DRESSING Place ingredients in a screw-top jar; season to taste. Shake well.

5 Place potatoes in a large bowl with celery and half the Dressing; toss well to coat. Transfer potato salad to a large platter; top with flaked salmon and the pancetta, then sprinkle with extra chives and extra rind. Serve with remaining Dressing.

Not suitable to freeze or microwave.

Sensational salads Creamy chicken caesar salad with croque monsieur baguette

SERVES 4 PREP AND COOK TIME

35 MINUTES (+ STANDING TIME)

1 cup (250ml) chicken stock 2 x 200g chicken breast fillets 4 eggs 1 large (340g) baguette, cut in half lengthways 150g shaved leg ham 60g parmesan cheese, grated finely, plus extra to serve 60g cheddar cheese, grated finely 2 (260g) baby cos lettuce, quartered CAESAR DRESSING ¾ cup (225g) whole-egg mayonnaise 1 tablespoon lemon juice 4 drained anchovy fillets, chopped finely 3 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 Bring chicken stock and 1 cup water to the boil in a medium saucepan. Add chicken; reduce heat to low. Cook for 10 minutes or until chicken is just cooked through; cool in poaching liquid.

When cool enough to handle, shred chicken.

2 Meanwhile, cover eggs with cold water in a small saucepan; bring to the boil. Boil for 4 minutes.

Drain. Cool eggs in cold water.

When cool enough to handle, peel eggs.

3 CAESAR DRESSING Place ingredients and 1 tablespoon water in a screw-top jar; season to taste. Shake well.

4 Preheat grill to high. Place baguette halves on an oven tray; top with ham and combined cheeses. Place under grill for 5 minutes or until the cheese has melted and is golden.

5 Arrange lettuce, shredded chicken and halved eggs on a large platter or bowl; drizzle with Dressing. Serve with baguette, topped with extra parmesan.

Not suitable to freeze or microwave.

Beef taco salad

SERVES 4 PREP AND COOK TIME 35 MINUTES

2 teaspoons olive oil, plus extra to serve 1 large (300g) red onion, chopped finely 2 cloves garlic, chopped finely 500g minced beef ⅓ cup (95g) tomato paste 30g packet taco seasoning 400g can red kidney beans, drained, rinsed 175g plain corn chips 1 cup (120g) coarsely grated cheddar cheese 2 (360g) baby cos lettuce 250g cherry tomatoes, halved and quartered 1 medium avocado, sliced thinly ½ cup coriander sprigs lime wedges, to serve

1 Heat oil in a large frying pan over high heat; cook onion, garlic and beef, stirring, for 5 minutes or until beef is browned.

2 Add tomato paste, seasoning and 1½ cups (375ml) water to beef mixture; stir until well combined. Bring to the boil.

Reduce heat to low; simmer for 10 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Add beans; stir until heated through.

3 Preheat grill to high. Place corn chips, in a single layer, on an oven tray; top with cheese. Place under the grill for 2 minutes or until cheese has melted.

4 Meanwhile, separate outer leaves of lettuce; chop hearts.

5 Divide lettuce, beef mixture and cheesy corn chips among bowls; top with tomatoes, avocado and coriander.

Drizzle with extra oil; season with ground pepper. Serve with lime wedges.

Not suitable to freeze or microwave.

Serving idea Serve with sour

cream. For a little extra heat and texture, top with Lemon, garlic and chilli crumbs (see below).

Lemon, garlic and chilli crumbs MAKES 1½ CUPS PREP AND COOK TIME 15 MINUTES

Heat 40g butter and 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat.

Add 1 clove crushed garlic, 1 finely sliced long red chilli, 1 tsp finely grated lemon rind and 1 cup coarse sourdough breadcrumbs; cook, stirring, until breadcrumbs are golden and crisp.

Easy swap For a different

flavour, make this salad with vegeroni spiral pasta instead of the red lentil spiral pasta.

Cheeseburger salad with crunchy brioche croutons SERVES 4 PREP AND COOK TIME 35 MINUTES

(+ REFRIGERATION TIME)

500g minced beef ⅓ cup (95g) store-bought caramelised onion ⅔ cup (200g) whole-egg mayonnaise 2 (100g) brioche rolls, torn into chunks 6 slices (60g) cheddar cheese, chopped coarsely 8 rashers (240g) streaky bacon 2 tablespoons olive oil 80g baby gherkins, plus 2 tablespoons pickling liquid ½ cup dill, chopped, plus extra to serve 2 tablespoons American mustard 2 (260g) baby cos lettuce, leaves separated 250g cherry truss tomatoes

250g red lentil spiral pasta 250g rindless streaky bacon rashers 1 (180g) baby cos lettuce, leaves separated 250g heirloom cherry tomatoes, halved ½ cup (40g) shaved parmesan cheese DRESSING ¼ cup (75g) whole-egg mayonnaise 2 teaspoons wholegrain mustard 2 teaspoons lemon juice 1 tablespoon finely chopped chives

Drain; return the pasta to the pan.

2 Meanwhile, heat a medium non-stick frying pan over high heat; cook bacon for 3 minutes each side or until crisp.

Drain on paper towel.

3 DRESSING Whisk ingredients in a medium bowl until combined. Season to taste.

4 Place pasta and bacon in a large bowl with lettuce and tomatoes; toss gently to combine. Drizzle with half the Dressing; top with parmesan. Serve salad with remaining Dressing.

Not suitable to freeze or microwave.

1 Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Line two large oven trays with baking paper.

2 Place mince, caramelised onion and 2 tablespoons of the mayonnaise in a medium bowl; mix well, season. Using damp hands, roll heaped tablespoons of mixture into balls; flatten slightly to make 16 patties in total. Transfer to one lined tray; refrigerate until required.

3 Place brioche chunks on second lined tray; top with cheese. Bake for 10 minutes turning tray halfway through cooking, until brioche is crisp and golden and cheese has melted.

4 Meanwhile, heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat; cook bacon for 3 minutes each side or until crisp. Drain on paper towel. Wipe pan clean. Heat oil in pan over medium-high heat; cook patties for 2 minutes each side or until browned and cooked through. Drain on paper towel.

5 Whisk remaining mayonnaise, reserved pickling liquid, dill and mustard in a small bowl; season to taste.

6 Arrange lettuce on a large platter, top with tomatoes, gherkins, bacon, patties and croutons; drizzle with dressing.

Serve with extra dill, if you like.

Not suitable to freeze or microwave.

1 Cook pasta in a large saucepan of salted boiling water following the packet instructions until just tender.

salad further by adding sliced avocado and crunchy croutons.

Patties can be made a day ahead.

Keep covered in the refrigerator.

BLT pasta salad

SERVES 4 PREP AND COOK TIME 15 MINUTES

Serving idea Load up this

142 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

Test Kitchen tip

Sensational salads Chicken katsu salad

SERVES 2 PREP AND COOK TIME 25 MINUTES

1 cup (200g) frozen shelled edamame 4 (300g) chicken tenderloins ¼ cup (35g) plain flour 1 egg, beaten lightly ½ cup (35g) panko (Japanese) breadcrumbs vegetable oil, for shallow-frying 250g microwave long grain white rice 2 (260g) Lebanese cucumbers, sliced thinly 2 green onions, sliced thinly 60g snow pea tendrils DRESSING ⅓ cup (100g) Japanese mayonnaise 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar ½ teaspoon shichimi togarashi

1 Boil, steam or microwave edamame 4 DRESSING Place ingredients in a screw-top until warmed through; cool slightly. jar; season to taste. Shake to combine.

2 To make chicken katsu, lightly toss 5 Heat rice according to packet directions. chicken in flour; shake off excess. Dip in Divide rice between bowls; top with egg, one piece at a time, then press into edamame, cucumber, green onion, snow breadcrumbs to coat. pea tendrils and chicken.

3 Heat oil in a deep frying Drizzle with Dressing just Sesame rice pan over medium heat before serving. Season with paper crisps until oil reaches 180°C ground pepper.

SERVES 6 PREP AND COOK on a thermometer or Not suitable to freeze TIME 15 MINUTES breadcrumbs turn light or microwave.

Preheat oven to 180°C golden in 1 minute.

(160°C fan-forced). Line Shallow-fry chicken, two oven trays with You in batches, for 3 minutes baking paper.

Cut six can use coriander leaves each side or until golden 13cm frozen spring roll instead of the snow pea and cooked through. wrappers in half to make tendrils, if you prefer.

Drain on paper towel; 12 rectangles; place on season. Cut in half on lined trays in a single the diagonal. layer. Spray wrappers For added crunch, top with oil; sprinkle with with Sesame rice paper combined 2 tsp each of crisps (see left). white and black sesame seeds and 1 tsp sea salt flakes. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden; cool. Break into pieces.

Easy swap

Serving idea

Happy Salads now on sale No longer a sad side dish, salads have found joy in their own right.

Inspired by the increasing popularity of salad bars and build-your-own convenience foods in supermarkets, this book is full of new and exciting salad combinations. Start with a base of leaves or grains, add a protein and cooked or raw vegies, then top it off with a delicious dressing and topper for crunch.

$39.99. Available where all good books are sold and at awwcookbooks.com.au

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

143

P H OTO G R A P H Y by JAMES MOFFATT AND JOHN PAUL URIZAR • ST Y L I N G by KATE BROWN AND MICHELE CRANSTON

Table for

2

Cooking for two can be a challenge. Recipes don’t always scale down easily and it hardly seems worth it to spend a lot of time preparing food for just two people, but these delicious meals will have you cooking them time and time again.

144 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

Weeknight dinners

T E S T K I TC H E N

TIPS We used flathead fillets here, but you could use snapper, ling, whiting or blue-eye trevally, if you like. If you don’t have an ovenproof frying pan, transfer the fish to an oven tray lined with baking paper before baking. Serve with extra baby gherkins or cornichons, if you like.

FOOD PREPARATION BY ANGELA DEVLIN AND VIKKI MOURSELLAS.

Baked fish ‘n’ chips with yoghurt tartare R E C I P E PAG E

147

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

145

Weeknight dinners

T E S T K I TC H E N

TIPS Sage leaves fried in a little olive oil are a delicious garnish for serving with the quiches. Defrost frozen quiches in refrigerator overnight before reheating in a moderate oven.

Cook and freeze pumpkin quiches

30g mixed baby salad leaves beetroot relish, for serving

MAKES 4 PREP AND COOK TIME 1 HOUR 15 MINUTES

4 sheets shortcrust pastry 900g butternut pumpkin, chopped 1.5cm 2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly 1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh sage, plus extra to serve 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil ½ cup (125ml) milk 4 eggs, beaten lightly ½ cup (60g) frozen peas 100g fetta, coarsely crumbled 1½ tablespoons pine nuts

1 Preheat oven to 220°C (200°C fanforced). Oil four 9cm x 12cm oval pie tins 1½ cups capacity.

2 Combine the pumpkin, garlic, sage and oil on an oven tray lined with baking paper. Season. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove, cool.

3 Meanwhile, line pie tins with pastry, leaving about 1.5cm overhang; press into side. Freeze for 5 minutes.

4 Reduce heat to 200°C (180°C fanforced). Place tins on an oven tray. To blind bake, cover pastry with foil or

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baking paper and fill with dried beans or rice. Bake on lower shelf for 15 minutes. Remove foil and beans; bake for a further 5 minutes or until pastry base has dried out.

5 Combine milk and eggs, whisk lightly.

Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

6 Divide pumpkin mixture among pastry cases. Pour over egg mixture. Sprinkle with peas, fetta and pine nuts. Bake for 35 minutes or until set and browned. Cover edges with foil if pastry is overbrowning.

7 Serve two quiches with salad leaves and relish. Freeze the remaining quiches for another meal.

Suitable to freeze. Not suitable to microwave.

Baked fish ‘n’ chips with yoghurt tartare

SERVES 2 PREP AND COOK TIME 30 MINUTES

1 large (500g) orange sweet potato, unpeeled, cut into thin wedges 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 400g skinless, boneless firm white fish fillets (see Test Kitchen tips, page 145) 2 teaspoons ground cumin 2 teaspoons ground coriander ½ teaspoon ground turmeric 1 teaspoon coarse cooking salt 1½ tablespoons white sesame seeds ⅓ cup (25g) panko (Japanese) breadcrumbs 1 egg 2 tablespoons plain flour 30g rocket lime wedges, to serve YOGHURT TARTARE ½ cup (140g) Greek-style yoghurt 2 teaspoons lime juice 1 tablespoon finely chopped baby gherkin (or cornichon) 1 green onion, chopped finely 2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill

1 Preheat oven to 220°C (200°C fan-forced). Line an oven tray with baking paper.

2 Combine sweet potato and half the oil in a medium bowl; season.

3 Place sweet potato, in a single layer, on lined tray; bake for 15 minutes or until browned lightly, cooked through and crisp.

4 Meanwhile, cut fish into large pieces.

Combine spices, salt, seeds and breadcrumbs in a wide shallow bowl.

Place flour in another shallow bowl.

Lightly beat egg in another shallow bowl.

Coat fish in flour, shake off any excess. Dip fish in egg, then in breadcrumb mixture, turning until fish is completely covered.

5 Heat remaining oil in a non-stick ovenproof frying pan over high heat; cook fish for 30 seconds each side or until browned all over. Transfer frying pan to oven; bake fish for 3 minutes or until just cooked through and browned.

6 YOGHURT TARTARE Combine ingredients in a small bowl; season to taste.

7 Serve fish with chips, rocket and Yoghurt tartare and lime wedges.

Not suitable to freeze or microwave.

T E S T K I TC H E N

TIP Have everything prepared before you start to cook. Use brown rice instead of jasmine, if you like.

Honey-lemon prawn stir-fry

SERVES 2 PREP AND COOK TIME 25 MINUTES

1 teaspoon sesame seeds 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 500g medium uncooked king prawns, shelled, deveined, tails intact 1 small (80g) onion, cut into thin wedges 1 medium (120g) carrot, cut into matchsticks 1 tablespoon finely shredded fresh ginger ¼ medium (250g) wombok (Chinese cabbage) chopped coarsely ⅓ cup (115g) honey 2 tablespoons lemon juice 250g packaged microwave jasmine rice 2 green onions, sliced thinly ¼ cup loosely packed fresh coriander leaves

1 Toast the sesame seeds in a heated wok or frying pan until browned lightly; remove from wok.

2 Heat half the oil in wok or frying pan over high heat; stir-fry prawns for 2 minutes or until prawns just change colour and are almost cooked. Remove from wok.

3 Heat remaining oil in wok over medium-high heat; stir-fry onion, carrot and ginger for 3 minutes or softened.

Return prawns to wok with wombok and honey stir-fry until hot. Sprinkle over lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground white pepper.

4 Meanwhile, heat rice according to packet directions.

5 Serve stir-fry with rice, sesame seeds, green onions and coriander.

Not suitable to freeze or microwave.

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“Get ahead and make a double batch.

Freeze the pies unbaked.”

Chicken and mushroom pot pies

SERVES 2 PREP AND COOK TIME 40 MINUTES

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil 2 cloves garlic, crushed 1 small (200g) leek, sliced thinly 1 small (200g) fennel bulb, sliced thinly, reserve fronds 200g Swiss brown or button mushrooms, quartered ¼ cup (80ml) dry white wine 1 tablespoon plain flour 450g chicken breast fillets, chopped coarsely 1 cup (250ml) pouring cream 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley 2 sheets butter puff pastry 1 egg, beaten lightly 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, optional ½ teaspoon sea salt flakes rocket leaves, for serving

1 Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan-forced).

2 Heat oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat; cook garlic, leek, fennel and mushrooms, stirring, for 5 minutes or until vegetables soften. Season.

3 Stir in wine; cook, stirring until wine has evaporated. Add flour, cook, stirring 1 minute. Add chicken and cream; bring to the boil. Reduce heat; simmer 8 minutes

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or until chicken is cooked through and sauce has thickened slightly. Remove from heat, stir in mustard and parsley.

4 Spoon filling into 2 x 2 cup (500ml) ovenproof bowls or dishes. Cut 2 x 1cm strips from pastry. Place around the rim of the dishes to form a ‘collar’. Cut 2 x rounds from pastry sheets to fit dishes; top pies with pastry. Crimp edges to seal; brush with egg. Using a small knife, make a slit in pastry. Sprinkle with fennel seeds and salt.

5 Bake pies for 25 minutes or until pastry is puffed and golden.

6 Serve with rocket leaves.

Suitable to freeze. Not suitable to microwave.

Weeknight dinners Paprika and cuminspiced chicken

SERVES 2 PREP AND COOK TIME 45 MINUTES

1 clove garlic, crushed 2 teaspoons smoked paprika ½ teaspoon cumin seeds ¼ cup (60ml) extra virgin olive oil ¼ cup (70g) Greek-style yoghurt 2 x 200g chicken breast supremes (see Test Kitchen tip) 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil, extra ½ x 400g canned chickpeas, drained, rinsed 200g cherry truss tomatoes 100g firm ricotta, broken into large chunks coriander sprigs, for serving

1 Preheat oven to 240°C (220°C fanforced).

2 Combine garlic, paprika, cumin and half the oil in a small bowl.

3 Combine yoghurt and 1 teaspoon of the spice oil mixture in another small bowl; season. Cover yoghurt mixture; refrigerate until required.

4 Rub 2 tablespoons of the remaining spice oil mixture over chicken; season.

Heat the extra olive oil in a medium flameproof non-stick frying pan over high heat; cook chicken for 2 minutes each side or until browned. Transfer chicken to a baking dish. Roast chicken for 6 minutes.

5 Reduce heat to 180°C (160°C fanforced). Combine chickpeas, tomatoes,

ricotta and remaining spice oil mixture in a large bowl. Spoon chickpea mixture around chicken in pan; season. Roast for a further 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

6 Serve chicken and chickpea mixture with yoghurt sauce, sprinkled with coriander.

Not suitable to freeze or microwave.

T E S T K I TC H E N

TIP Chicken supremes are chicken breasts with the skin on and wing bone still attached.

Use the remaining chickpeas in a salad or freeze in a snap-lock bag or container.

The sisterhood

Monday morning From left: Lisa Goldberg, Jacqui Israel, Natanya Eskin and Merelyn Frank Chalmers.

c P H OTO G R A P H Y by A L A N B E N S O N

g ST Y L I N G by DAV I D M O RGA N

In a new cookbook Now For Something Sweet, the Monday Morning Cooking Club continue to weave the tapestry of a culturally diverse community that loves to cook and nurture through food.

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y a d n o M Who is ? b u l C g n i k oo C g n i n r o M Lisa Goldberg, Merelyn Frank Chalmers, Natanya Eskin and Jacqui Israel from Sydney’s Jewish community came together almost 15 years ago as friends with a shared desire to uncover their food-obsessed community’s heirloom recipes. The sisterhood has been meeting every Monday morning (and now many other days) for almost 15 years with an unwavering mission to preserve recipes from past generations for us, and from our generation for the future.

Custard chiffon R E C I P E PAG E

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Yolan Frank

It’s hard for Merelyn to believe her humble but elegant Hungarian mother has become the torchbearer and gold-standard holder for chiffon cake. From a secret recipe guarded for over 50 years, to a published recipe baked all over the world, we had to share this postergirl cake again. It still breaks our hearts just a little that Yolan passed away just months before her recipe was published in our first book; sadly, she never got to see her chiffon masterpiece in all its glory. We are so proud that she lives on through her cake, a true culinary legacy.

Custard chiffon SERVES ABOUT 12

180g (1 cup + 2½ tablespoons) self-raising flour 1 teaspoon cream of tartar 35g (¼ cup) custard powder 6 eggs, separated 345g (1½ cups) caster sugar ½ teaspoon vanilla extract 80ml (⅓ cup) oil 170ml (⅔ cup) warm water icing sugar, to serve

1 Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). You will need a high-sided angel cake (chiffon) tin that is not non-stick, has a centre funnel and removable base. Do not grease it. Before starting the cake, find a bottle that will fit into the top of the funnel – you will need to use this as soon as the cake comes out of the oven.

2 Sift the flour, cream of tartar and custard powder together three times to ensure they are fully combined.

3 Using an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks with 230g (1 cup) of the sugar until thick and pale, then add the vanilla. Pour the oil and warm water into a jug. Continuing to beat on low speed, add the flour mixture and the oil and water at the same time, beating well until you have a smooth batter.

4 In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, then gradually add the remaining sugar and continue to whisk until the egg whites are stiff but not dry. Very carefully, fold the egg whites into the batter with a metal spoon or silicone spatula until just incorporated. Pour the mixture into the cake tin.

Bake for 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

5 After removing the cake from the oven, insert the bottle neck into the funnel and immediately invert the bottle and the tin in one movement so the tin is balancing on the neck of the bottle (the cake will be dangling upside down). It is important for the cake to be inverted and suspended upside down until it is completely cool to stop it from collapsing.

6 When cool, turn the tin right side up and run a knife around the outside of the cake and the funnel. Holding the funnel, lift the base out of the tin and then use the knife to cut the cake off the base.

Invert onto a lightweight plate, remove the funnel piece, and then invert once again onto your serving plate.

7 Once cooled, dust with icing sugar before serving.

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step by step 1

2

Mix and sift the dry ingredients together to ensure they are fully combined.

Using a stand mixer with the paddle beater attachment, beat the egg yolks with the sugar until thick and pale.

Beat well until the sugar has almost dissolved.

(You can also use a handheld electric beater.)

7

8

After removing the cake from the oven, insert the bottle neck into the funnel and immediately invert the bottle and the tin in one movement so the tin is balancing on the neck of the bottle. It is important for the cake to be suspended upside down until it is completely cool to stop it from collapsing.

When cool, turn the tin right side up and run a knife around the outside of the cake and the funnel, literally cutting the cake away from the sides of the tin.

The sisterhood

how to chiffon

A chiffon is a light, airy sponge cake, typically using oil instead of butter.

Before you begin: You will need a high-sided angel cake (chiffon) tin that is not non-stick, has a centre funnel and removable base. Do not grease it. Before starting the cake, find a bottle that will fit into the top of the funnel – you will need to use this as soon as the cake comes out of the oven.

3

4

5

6

Continuing to beat, gradually add oil and beat until well incorporated. While continuing to beat on low speed, alternate between adding other wet ingredients (milk, juice, etc.) with dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, etc.) in 3 lots; beat until just combined.

In a separate bowl, using the whisk attachment on medium speed, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining sugar while continuing to whisk on medium speed, and whisk until they are just stiff but not dry.

With a metal spoon or silicone spatula, very carefully fold egg whites into batter until just incorporated. (To fold means gently mix in a circular motion, pushing the spoon down the side of mixture to the bottom and then back over the top, turning the bowl and repeating.)

Pour into the cake tin, using a spatula to scrape all the mixture out of the bowl. Bake as directed until completely cooked through.

9

10

11

12

Holding the funnel, lift the base out of the tin.

Use the knife to cut between the cake and the base.

Invert onto a lightweight plate, remove the funnel piece.

Invert once again onto your serving plate.

when is your cake cooked?

Merelyn looks for a deep golden colour, Lisa lightly touches the surface to feel if it is firm, Natanya waits for the slight fall after it has finished rising and Jacqui inserts a skewer into the cake to see if it comes out clean. Don’t be tempted to take it out of the oven early; an undercooked cake may fall out of the tin when inverted (yes, it’s happened to us all).

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Gelato Bar

We could probably start a Sydney-wide argument if we asked the public to choose the best cake from the Gelato Bar, so we asked our husbands instead; they unanimously agreed on the cherry strudel. We’re so thrilled to document this recipe from Nilly’s memory, and to share it with those of you who’ve been craving it since the Gelato Bar closed. Huge thanks to Nilly Berger, from the Gelato Bar family, who came to our kitchen, and also to ‘the strudologist’ on the end of the phone, providing much-needed guidance.

Cherry and cheese strudel MAKES 1 STRUDEL SERVES ABOUT 8

This recipe gives you the option of making 1 Cherry Strudel or 1 Cheese and Cherry Strudel.

PASTRY 5 sheets filo pastry 60g ghee (clarified butter), melted 1 tablespoon caster sugar, for sprinkling HAZELNUT MIXTURE 30g (¼ cup) ground hazelnuts 55g (¼ cup) caster sugar 1½ tablespoons fine breadcrumbs CHERRY FILLING (for cherry only) 1 x 680g jar morello cherries in syrup (330g drained weight) 75g (⅔ cup) ground walnuts, plus extra if needed CHERRY FILLING (for cheese and cherry) ⅔ x 680g jar morello cherries in syrup (220g drained weight) 50g (heaped ⅓ cup) ground walnuts, plus extra if needed CHEESE FILLING 125g farm (pressed cottage) cheese, crumbled 125g ricotta cheese 60g (¼ cup) caster sugar 1 egg yolk

2 teaspoons semolina finely grated zest of ½ lemon

1 To make a Cherry Strudel, you’ll need the cherry filling (for cherry only). To make a Cheese and Cherry Strudel, you’ll need the cherry filling (for cheese and cherry) as well as the cheese filling.

2 Remove the filo pastry from the fridge and allow to sit at room temperature for at least 2 hours.

3 CHERRY FILLING Drain the cherries, discarding their juice. Allow them to drain overnight or, if time doesn’t allow, wrap them in paper towel to remove as much juice as possible. Toss the drained cherries with the ground walnuts and mix well – you should have a mixture with the texture of wet sand with chunks of cherries. You may need to add a little more of the ground walnuts if the mixture is too wet.

4 CHEESE FILLING Combine farm cheese, ricotta, caster sugar, egg yolk, semolina and lemon zest in a bowl. If ricotta is very dry, reduce semolina to 1 teaspoon. Using a whisk, mix well to combine until most

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of the lumps have disappeared.

Refrigerate until needed.

5 When ready to make the strudel, preheat the oven to 220°C (200°C fanforced). Line a large baking tray.

6 Remove 5 sheets of filo from the pack and place on the benchtop. Cover with a damp cloth (otherwise the pastry will dry out and crack when rolled).

7 On a piece of muslin (or a light tea towel), lay out 2 sheets of filo pastry, one on top of the other, with nothing in between them. Paint the top layer lightly from edge to edge with the melted ghee. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the hazelnut mixture evenly on top.

8 Top with a third sheet of filo, paint with the ghee and sprinkle with another 2 tablespoons of the hazelnut mixture.

Top with a fourth sheet of filo, ghee and hazelnut mixture. Then top with a fifth and final sheet of filo, ghee and hazelnut mixture.

9 Make a line of filling along the front edge, about 5cm from the edge, leaving a small space at both ends. If using cherry filling, make small logs of filling in the palm of your hand and line them up end to end, along the length of the filo.

If using both cherry and cheese fillings, place a log of cherry filling along the length of the filo and then a log of the cheese filling next to the cherry filling.

1 0 Using the muslin or tea towel, guide the filo edge closest to you over the filling and roll up as tightly as possible, gently squeezing as you go. Squeeze a little less tightly if using the cheese filling as it expands while cooking.

1 1 Place the strudel, seam side down, on the prepared tray and press the ends together to seal. Paint the top of the roll with the remaining melted ghee and sprinkle with the caster sugar.

1 2 Bake for 20 minutes then reduce the heat to 200°C (180°C fan-forced) for a further 10 minutes or until the strudel is a deep golden brown and nicely caramelised on top.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool before slicing and serving. This is best eaten on the day of baking.

The sisterhood

Leah Koenig

One of the best Passover cakes we’ve tasted. Ever.

One of those ‘I can’t believe it’s a Pesach cake’ cakes. We’ve tried it with plums and almonds, and figs and hazelnuts, and it is just so great! You can replace the matzo meal with plain flour for a cake any time of the year. In her book Modern Jewish Cooking, Leah explains that she isn’t a fan of baking with matzo meal, but in this cake it’s very well hidden.

Passover pear cake Serves about 10

60g (½ cup) pecans, chopped 110g (½ cup) firmly packed) brown sugar 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg 4 eggs 230g (1 cup) caster sugar 125ml (½ cup) oil 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 140g (1 cup) superfine matzo meal (cake meal) 4 medium pears, unpeeled, sliced

1 Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fanforced). Line a 20cm square baking tin.

Mix together the pecans, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a small bowl.

2 Using an electric mixer, whisk the eggs until creamy and light. Add the caster sugar, 2 spoons at a time, whisking until the mixture is thick and billowy. Add the oil in a steady stream, followed by the vanilla, and whisk until just combined. Add the matzo meal and mix on low speed until just combined.

3 Pour half the batter into the prepared tin. Sprinkle with half the pecan mixture and arrange half the sliced pears on top. Pour over the remaining batter, smoothing the top with a spatula. Top with the remaining pears, followed by the remaining pecan mixture.

4 Bake for 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely before removing from the tin.

“Through laughter, sharing and many hours, we work hard to create something special for generations to come.”

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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The sisterhood

it a h C e nn a r a S

This recipe comes from across the ocean, yet masquerades as an Anzac biscuit.There was always a jar of these in Saranne’s mother’s kitchen in Cape Town for the family to snack on, so when we were searching for that perfect biscuit to mark Anzac Day we were just so happy to discover this one with its unusual roots. We love that Saranne and her boys, who now live in Sydney, bake and deliver packets of crunchy deliciousness, tied with ribbon and rosemary, every Anzac Day to their very lucky neighbours and friends.

Crunchies

MAKES 24 MEDIUM SQUARES

275g (1½ heaped cups) plain flour 110g (1 cup) rolled oats 175g (¾ cup) caster sugar 85g (1 cup) desiccated coconut ¼ teaspoon salt 220g unsalted butter 2 heaped tablespoons golden syrup (light treacle) 1 teaspoon bicarb soda

1 Preheat the oven to 150°C (130°C fanforced). Line a 32 x 22cm baking tin.

2 Mix the flour, oats, sugar, coconut and salt together in an extra-large bowl.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and golden syrup together, and then stir in the bicarb.

Once it froths, pour it into the dry ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon. Use your fingertips to separate any clumps that form.

3 Tip the mixture into the prepared tin and just smooth the top, not compressing the mixture too much.

Bake for 30 minutes or until deep golden. If it is not deep golden at this stage, cook for an additional

“These are the sweet recipes we will make and remake. These are the desserts we truly long for after we’ve eaten the last spoonful.”

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10 minutes or so. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before turning out and slicing into squares (as big or as small as you like).

4 Place the cut squares onto a flat baking tray then put into the stillwarm oven (it should be switched off) for 2 hours or until crunchy.

They will become hard and crunchy once they cool completely.

RECIPES FROM NOW FOR SOMETHING SWEET

BY MONDAY MORNING COOKING CLUB (HARPERCOLLINS AUSTRALIA), RRP $49.99, OUT NOW.

n a g e v dinners

Speedy

Whether you are already vegan or simply vegancurious, try our tasty recipes that’ll be on the table in 30 minutes.

Coconut, tomato and lentil soup

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Easy vegan Sweet potatoes with chickpea tabbouleh

SERVES 4 PREP AND COOK TIME 20 MINUTES

4 small sweet potato (1kg) (see Tips) 400g can chickpeas, drained, rinsed, chopped coarsely 2 small tomatoes (180g), chopped finely 1 Lebanese cucumber (130g), chopped finely 2 green onions (green shallots), chopped finely ½ cup small mint leaves (see Tips) ½ cup (130g) hummus 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil ¼ teaspoon sumac

1 Pierce the sweet potatoes a few times with a sharp knife. Microwave on HIGH (100%) for 8 minutes or until soft.

2 Meanwhile, combine chickpeas, tomato, cucumber, green onion and mint in a medium bowl; season.

3 Whisk hummus, lemon juice and 2 tablespoons water in a small bowl until smooth; season to taste.

4 Cut sweet potatoes lengthways along the top, being careful not to cut all the way through. Squeeze the sides gently to create a well in the centre. Fill potatoes with chickpea tabbouleh; drizzle with hummus dressing and olive oil, then sprinkle with sumac.

Not suitable to freeze or microwave.

T E S T K I TC H E N

TIPS Try to buy sweet potatoes that are equal in size so they cook evenly in the microwave. We used mint in this recipe; you can use any chopped soft-leaf herb such as flat-leaf parsley, dill or coriander. You can use kidney or black beans instead of chickpeas.

Coconut, tomato and lentil soup

SERVES 4 PREP AND COOK TIME 30 MINUTES

2 medium tomatoes (300g) coriander leaves and lemon wedges, to serve

1 tablespoon coconut oil 1 small onion (80g), sliced thinly 2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds 2 teaspoons curry powder 2 tablespoons tomato paste 1 cup (200g) red lentils 1 litre (4 cups) vegetable stock ½ cup (125ml) coconut milk, plus extra to drizzle

1 Heat coconut oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat; cook onion, stirring, for 3 minutes or until soft.

Add mustard seeds; stir for 4 minutes or until they start to pop. Add curry powder; cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

Add tomato paste; cook, stirring, for a further 30 seconds.

2 Add lentils, stock and coconut milk;

Sweet potatoes with chickpea tabbouleh

bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low; simmer, covered, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes or until lentils are tender.

Coarsely chop 1 fresh tomato; stir into soup until just heated through.

Season to taste.

3 Coarsely chop remaining fresh tomato. Ladle soup into bowls; drizzle with a little extra coconut milk, then top with chopped tomato and coriander leaves. Serve soup with lemon wedges.

Suitable to freeze. Not suitable to microwave.

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Mushroom ‘steak’ sandwiches

T E S T K I TC H E N

TIP You will find spring roll wrappers in the freezer section of the supermarket. Thaw before using.

Vegetable spring rolls

MAKES 10 PREP AND COOK TIME 25 MINUTES

50g dried rice vermicelli noodles 1 tablespoon peanut oil 1 clove garlic, crushed 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh ginger 1 shallot, sliced thinly 1 large carrot (180g), cut into matchsticks ½ teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder 2 cups (160g) shredded wombok 1 teaspoon sesame oil 2 tablespoons tamari 1 teaspoon cornflour 10 x 20cm frozen spring roll wrappers 3 cups (750ml) vegetable oil sweet chilli or sriracha sauce, for serving

1 Place vermicelli in a medium heatproof bowl; pour over enough boiling water to cover. Stand for 2 minutes or until soft; drain well. Using scissors, snip noodles into shorter lengths.

2 Heat oil in a large wok or frying pan over medium-high heat. Add garlic, ginger, shallot and carrot; stir-fry for 5 minutes or until carrot is soft. Stir in five-

MAKES 2 PREP AND COOK TIME 20 MINUTES

¼ cup (60ml) olive oil spice, wombok and sesame oil; stir-fry for 1 minute.

3 Combine tamari and cornflour in a small bowl. Add to vegetables, stir until thickened slightly. Transfer mixture to bowl, stir in vermicelli until combined.

Cool to room temperature.

4 Place a spring roll wrapper on flat surface. Place ¼ cup of filling, onethird up from the bottom edge in a line, leaving 1.5cm border at each side. Fold over once, then fold in the sides and roll up to enclose filling; brush the join with a little water to seal. Repeat with remaining wrappers and filling.

5 Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat until 190°C (or until a small cube of bread browns in 10 seconds).

Fry spring rolls for 3 minutes or until golden and crisp. Drain on paper towel over a wire rack.

6 Serve spring rolls with a sweet chilli sauce or sriracha for an extra chilli kick. Accompany with steamed Asian greens and white or brown rice for a substantial dinner option.

Suitable to freeze. Not suitable to microwave.

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1 large onion (200g), sliced thinly 1 large green capsicum (350g), sliced thinly 375g portobello mushrooms, sliced 2 cloves garlic, crushed 2 tablespoons smoky barbecue sauce ⅓ cup (80ml) vegan beef-like stock 2 slices vegan cheddar (36g), halved 2 long seeded bread rolls (100g), split in half 2 tablespoons American mustard fresh or pickled sliced jalapeño chillies, to serve (optional)

1 Heat olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan over high heat; cook onion and capsicum for 4 minutes or until softened. Add mushrooms; cook stirring, for 5 minutes or until golden. Add garlic; stir for 1 minute. Add barbecue sauce and stock; cook for 2 minutes or until thickened. Season.

2 Place vegan cheddar in the rolls, spoon hot mushroom mixture on top. Drizzle with mustard; top with jalapeños.

Not suitable to freeze or microwave.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY SIMONS AND CATH MUSCAT. STYLING BY EMMA KNOWLES , SOPHIA YOUNG AND OLIVIA BLACKMORE. PHOTOCHEFS: TESSA IMMENS, REBECCA LYALL AND ANGELA DEVLIN.

Vegetable spring rolls

Mushroom ‘steak’ sandwiches

Easy vegan

Chicken-like fried rice

SERVES 2 PREP AND COOK TIME 20 MINUTES

1 bunch broccolini 200g block tempeh 2 tablespoons tamari 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar 2 tablespoons sriracha 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 250g packet microwave long-grain white rice ½ cup frozen peas sliced long red chilli and lime wedges, to serve

1 Split broccolini in half lengthways.

Cut a tempeh into small cubes.

2 Combine tamari, rice wine vinegar and sriracha in a small bowl. Heat vegetable oil in a wok over medium heat; stir-fry tempeh for 5 minutes or until golden on all sides.

3 Remove from wok; keep warm.

Add long-grain white rice; stir-fry until heated through. Remove from wok; keep warm. Add broccolini and frozen peas to wok; stir-fry until bright green.

4 Return rice to wok with tamari mixture; toss to combine. Serve fried rice topped with tempeh, sliced long red chilli and lime wedges.

Vegan in 30 Minutes now on sale Whether it’s vegan for one, or vegan for the clan, our inventive mix of over 100 recipes incorporates hacks and swaps, as well as short ingredient lists of everyday staples, to help you get there. It includes nutrition guides and vegan substitutes.

$34.99. Available where all good books are sold and at awwcookbooks.com.au MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Test Kitchen TIME TO GO BUSH The Buy From the Bush campaign (now with over 215,000 Instagram followers) was set up by Grace Brennan after a friend suggested a ‘buy from the bush’ Kris Kringle late last year. It aims to create connections between city consumers and bush businesses. Visit buyfromthebush.com. au fo fashio and food like pickles and

Get your fill to help boost rural communities.

In season nto these uits. Perfect oury recipes, ed simply. prosciutto little brown o an upside e best eaten rchase but in a single -towel lined erate until

E D I T E D by FRAN A

Cure cancer, one BarbeCURE at a Who doesn’t love a barbie? BarbeCURE is an initiative run by Cure Cancer Australia, with ambassadors including Lyndey Milan OAM (right), which fundraises for much-needed research. A BarbeCURE can be anything from a casual backyard get-together to a black-tie corporate event.

All you need to turn your barbie into a BarbeCURE is to ask all your guests to make a donation towards cancer research. Register your event at curecancer.com.au

WHAT’S IN IT? With confusion around food labelling, a new free app, Init, works to simplify the nutrition, ingredients and organic provenance of food products. In the blink of an eye it deciphers the health score and simple information on what foods are healthy and what should be avoided. Go to init.app

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We’re LOVING

Ice-cream dreams We’re currently crushing on denada – a small ice-cream brand created by three Western Australian women. It’s sugar-free and comes in dairy-free and vegan varieties. Available from selected Coles supermarkets and independent grocers.

For stockists, go to denadaco.com

WEET PARTY CAKES Collaborating with The Australian Women’s Weekly Test Kitchen, Cadbury has reimagined the classic 980 children’s birthday cake book o bring back all the favourites plus ome new cake creations. $14.99, on ale now in selected newsagents.

GETTY IMAGES.

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Natural gas Naturally part of every day. bright-r.com.au

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Family favourites

Easy

Easy apple pies R E C I P E PAG E

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Embracing the kitchen appliance trend that’s taken Australia by storm, The Weekly’s new cookbook, The Pie Maker, celebrates all things pastry pies as well as a host of clever creations you’d never expect.

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PHOTOGRAPHY, STYLING, RECIPES AND PHOTOCHEF: BREE HUTCHINS.

pie

Reuben toastie R E C I P E PAG E

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Family favourites T E S T K I TC H E N

TIPS

Top piemaking tips

Use a mandoline or V-slicer to cut the unpeeled apple into thin slices; slice at the last moment to avoid apple discolouring.

These apple pies are best served on the day they are made but will keep stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Size matters

Most pie makers are designed to make four individual pies and are similar to operate. The main difference lies in the size of the pies they make.

One of the most popular-sized machines makes ⅓-cup (80ml) pies; however, there are also machines for larger ¾-cup (180ml) pies, and even those that produce a single 2½-cup (625ml) family-sized pie.

Here’s our guide to fillings: Four-hole (⅓-cup/80ml): each hole will hold approximately ¼ cup filling.

Four-hole (¾-cup/180ml): each hole will hold approximately ⅔ cup filling.

A family-sized single pie holds approximately 2⅓ cups filling.

Take care not to overfill pies or they will make a mess. You can always check one pie before filling them all.

Read pie makers’ instruction manual for specific guidance around use.

Utensils

Your pie maker has a non-stick coating, which is best preserved by non-stick cooking utensils. Most pie makers come with a cutter designed to cut out both the bottom and top rounds of pastry to fit the brand of pie maker.

Cleaning

When making multiple batches, wipe pie holes clean with a damp paper towel and avoid abrasive cleaning agents.

Pastry

The best combination for most pies (or tart bases) is a shortcrust base for crispness and then either a puff pastry or shortcrust top. For speed, pastry rounds can be cut to size and stored in the freezer so they’re on hand.

Prepping

Meat pie fillings can be made ahead and refrigerated. To reheat frozen pies, place pies in the pie maker for 12-14 minutes or reheat in a 180°C oven for 15 minutes.

Easy apple pies

MAKES 4 PREP AND COOK TIME 20 MINUTES

385g can apple pie slices 2 tablespoons caster sugar 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 sheet frozen shortcrust pastry, thawed 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed 1 egg, beaten lightly 1 small pink lady apple (100g) (see tips) 2 teaspoons cinnamon sugar

1 Drain canned apple over a small bowl; reserve 1½ tablespoons of juice; discard remainder. Combine apple, reserved juice, caster sugar, rind and cinnamon in a medium bowl. (Makes 1¾ cups.)

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2 Lightly grease and preheat a 4-hole (⅓-cup/80ml) pie maker.

3 Using pastry cutter provided, cut four large rounds (11cm) from the shortcrust pastry and four small rounds (9.5cm) from the puff pastry. Line prepared holes with shortcrust pastry rounds, pressing into base and side.

4 Spoon ⅓ cup apple mixture into pie cases. Top with puff pastry rounds; press edges firmly to seal. Brush tops with egg.

Decorate each pie with a fresh apple slice. Close the lid; cook for 5 minutes or until golden brown.

5 Serve pies warm, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.

Suitable to freeze. Not suitable to microwave.

Pork, sage and apple pies MAKES 4 PREP AND COOK TIME

35 MINUTES (+ COOLING TIME)

400g pork and fennel sausages 40g butter 2 small Granny Smith apples (260g), peeled, cored, cut into 1cm pieces ½ cup (120g) sour cream 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh sage leaves ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg 4 sheets frozen shortcrust pastry, thawed 2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed 1 egg, beaten lightly small fresh sage leaves, extra 1 cup (300g) apple sauce

1 Slit sausages at the top with a sharp knife; squeeze out sausage meat from casings.

2 Melt butter in a large saucepan.

Cook apples, stirring, for 3 minutes or until softened. Add sausage meat; cook, stirring with a wooden spoon to break up lumps, for 5 minutes or until browned. Stir in sour cream, sage and nutmeg. Season. Cool.

3 Lightly grease and preheat a 4-hole (¾-cup/180ml) pie maker.

4 Using pastry cutter provided, cut four large rounds (15.5cm) from shortcrust pastry and four small rounds (12cm) from puff pastry. Line prepared holes with shortcrust pastry

rounds, pressing into base and side.

Refrigerate remaining pastry rounds until required.

5 Spoon ⅔ cup sausage mixture into each pastry case. Top with puff pastry rounds; press edges firmly to seal. Brush pastry with egg and decorate with extra sage leaves; spray with oil. Close and cook for 8 minutes or until pastry is golden.

6 Serve pies straightaway with apple sauce.

Suitable to freeze. Not suitable to microwave.

Family favourites T E S T K I TC H E N

TIPS We used 7 fresh lasagne sheets measuring 15.5cm x 29.5cm; if you buy smaller sheets, you will need more. Freeze any leftover lasagne sheets and bolognese sauce for up to 2 months.

Lasagne

MAKES 4 PREP AND COOK TIME 20 MINUTES (+ STANDING TIME)

375g packet fresh lasagne sheets (see Tips above) 425g tub fresh beef bolognese pasta sauce ½ cup (60g) grated cheddar ½ cup (40g) finely grated parmesan, plus extra to serve cooking oil spray basil leaves, to serve CHEAT’S BÉCHAMEL 1 cup (240g) smooth ricotta ¼ cup (60ml) thickened cream 1 egg, beaten lightly

1 Lightly grease a 4-hole (¾-cup/180ml) pie maker.

2 Place four lasagne sheets on a work surface. Using pastry cutter provided as a stencil, mark four large rounds (15.5cm) and four small rounds (12cm) on lasagne sheets; cut out with scissors. Cut 12 x 8cm squares from remaining lasagne sheets. Cover and refrigerate until required.

3 CHEAT’S BÉCHAMEL Whisk ricotta, cream and egg in a medium bowl until smooth.

4 With pie maker turned off, line prepared holes with large lasagne rounds; press into base and side, making sure there are no gaps. Spread 1 tablespoon béchamel and 1 tablespoon bolognese on each base, then sprinkle each with 3 teaspoons of combined cheeses; top with a lasagne square.

Repeat layering two more times. Spread another 1 tablespoon bolognese on each to cover lasagne square. Be careful not to overfill or filling with bubble over. Top with small lasagne rounds and press edges firmly to seal; sprinkle with remaining cheeses and spray with oil.

5 Turn on pie maker. Close lid; cook lasagne for 8 minutes or until browned.

Carefully remove; stand for 5 minutes before serving.

6 Serve lasagne topped with fresh basil leaves and extra parmesan.

Suitable to freeze. Not suitable to microwave.

168 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

Reuben toastie

MAKES 4 PREP AND COOK TIME 15 MINUTES

8 slices rye bread 8 slices pastrami (130g) 8 slices Swiss cheese (160g), halved ⅓ cup (50g) drained sauerkraut cooking oil spray pickles, to serve RUSSIAN DRESSING ¼ cup (75g) whole-egg mayonnaise 2 teaspoons sriracha (chilli sauce) 1 teaspoon horseradish cream ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 Lightly grease and preheat a 4-hole (⅓-cup/80ml) pie maker.

2 To make Russian dressing, stir ingredients together in a small bowl.

3 Roughly trim crusts from bread and discard; roll slices with a rolling pin to flatten to 3mm thick. Line prepared holes with four thin slices of bread; press into base and side.

4 Fold pastrami slices into quarters; place two in each bread case. Top each one with a slice of cheese, a quarter of the sauerkraut, 1 teaspoon Russian dressing and another slice of cheese. Top with remaining bread slices; the bread will extend over the top. Close lid to seal the edges, then immediately open again.

Spray tops of pies with oil. Close lid; cook toasties for 7 minutes or until bread is toasted and cheese is melted.

5 Serve toasties with remaining dressing and pickles.

Not suitable to freeze or microwave.

RECIPES FROM THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S WEEKLY THE PIE MAKER, $24.99, AVAILABLE WHERE ALL GOOD BOOKS ARE SOLD AND AT AWWCOOKBOOKS. COM.AU

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Along a meandering stretch of Australia’s greatest river system, Samantha Trenoweth finds peace, beauty, history and abundant life.

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t’s an hour before sunrise and we’re drifting in the dark across the Murray River. The runabout thuds against the far bank and six sleepy travellers disembark, stamping feet, blowing steam, wrapped in scarves and gloves and beanies. We begin our winding, upward climb by torchlight, then find a path that meanders along the rust-red clifftops. There, with slabs of carrot cake and mugs of strong tea, we watch the sun cast its first light across the green, grey and ochre floodplain below.

The four-day Murray River Walk is one of the iconic Great Walks of Australia. It covers the internationally recognised Riverland Ramsar wetland in South Australia, a breeding ground for rare birdlife and forests of ancient, towering river red gums that grow to 700 years old. Each night’s accommodation is on board a luxury houseboat and each day is a gentle mix of cruising and hiking. At 10 to 14 kilometres on foot per day, with leisurely breaks for birdwatching, foraging, elevenses and lunch, it feels more like an extended stroll than a marathon.

Setting off by boat from Renmark on day one, we’re followed by a flock of welcome swallows, dipping close to the misty river, soaring skyward, gliding above our wake.

At Woolenook Bend, our day’s walking begins, crosscountry behind the river’s main branch to explore

170 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

billabongs, creeks and lakes where ducks and darters glide and eagles soar overhead. Our guide, Cass, equipped with binoculars (and a bag of sweets in case spirits flag in the afternoon), shares her considerable local knowledge and her undisguised delight with every sighting of a rare or intriguing species.

We stop at a clearing by the river. An old iron shed, scattered stonework and an overgrown cricket pitch are all that remain of a WWII internment camp. While we were walking, lunch was mysteriously delivered here: thermoses of steaming tea and a feast of cold meats, falafels, salads. A gentle climb in the afternoon takes us to the top of Heading’s Cliffs, from where we can see our houseboat moored in a sheltered bend across the river.

On board, our suitcases have been delivered to five comfortable double bedrooms, each with a vast picture

Travel

Where to S TAY Why not spend an extra night or two in Renmark and explore the Riverland? Places to stay include the Murray River Queen (a refurbished riverboat moored in the centre of town with a terrific Thai restaurant) and the Renmark Hotel on the waterfront. Just out of town, The Frames offers luxury accommodation and breathtaking Riverland views, while Paringa Resort has comfortable family cabins. Houseboat rentals are available from Wilkadene Station and River Murray Houseboats.

Renmark is a three-hour drive from Adelaide; 1.5 hours from Mildura Airport in NSW.

ALAMY. QUENTIN CHESTER.

Writer Samantha Trenoweth goes tree climbing.

window onto the wide, green river and towering cliffs whose many-coloured layers tell the tales of millennia. Each evening offers three courses of regional flavours matched with local wines.

Tonight it’s a hearty fish chowder followed by kangaroo osso bucco and finally quandong crumble tart. It’s all prepared on board by resident chef and runabout captain, Kaila.

On the days that follow, Cass and her offsider, Sam, lead us across bone-dry farmland and riverbanks teeming with life. We spot emus, kangaroos, a rare striped honeyeater, a tawny frogmouth and a multitude of parrots. We walk through ancient red gum forests, some majestic and living, but also entire fields of grey corpses, felled by the Millennium drought. We see middens and scar trees from which vibrant, prosperous Aboriginal communities once carved canoes. In an old growth forest, Cass forages for samphire (which she later pan-fries and serves with olives and cheeses) and saltbush (to add to our morning scrambled eggs).

On our final day, we’re farewelled by fleets of pelicans as we cruise south to Wilkadene Station, with its haunting history and hipster microbrewery. On the bus back to Renmark, eyes drift closed. Weary travellers are already dreaming of a return to the Riverland. AWW

The walk operates between May and September to make the most of the cooler weather. Visit murrayriverwalk.com.au MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Stunning Orion Beach near Jervis Bay in the Shoalhaven.

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What nicer way to help bushfire-affected towns rebuild than by paying them a visit in the coming months.

GET ON BOARD

The bushfires that threatened Port Macquarie had receded by the time peak tourism season arrived, but the damage had been done. “I’m grateful we’re not on the south coast, but it definitely affected tourism,” says Corey Enfield of Soul Surfing, which offers surfing, yoga, art therapy and healing retreats (see soulsurfing.com.au). If you’re heading there for a #RecoveryWeekend, you can visit the nearby Koala Hospital to check on the progress of its patients. See koalahospital.org.au

Road trip to the Shoalhaven

Just two hours from Sydney and Canberra, you can enjoy: Beautiful beaches galore: take your pick from those at 100beachchallenge.com. Wine tours: the Shoalhaven’s many cellar doors include Two Figs and Coolangatta Estate.

Coffee and cake: Try Hyper Hyper in Nowra for the caffeine, Milkwood Bakery in Berry for the sweet stuff, Native cafe for the food and views of Ulladulla harbour.

More at shoalhaven.com.au

Mallacoota

is back in business. The East Gippsland town, scene of the biggest maritime evacuation in Australia in early January when residents fled to the beach to escape fires, hosts its Wild Harvest Seafood Festival on April 3-5. Book accommodation in town, #comewithemptyeskys and experience a weekend of food and festivity. Activities include oysters and champagne extravaganza, cruises on board the MV Loch-Ard, kids’ entertainment and live music. Plus food stalls showcasing local seafood. More at wildharvestseafoodfestival.com and visitgippsland.com.au

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Events to support March 13-15, Katoomba, NSW The Blue Mountains Music Festival’s special 25th anniversary edition has a great line-up of local and international artists, including Kasey Chambers, John Butler, the Backsliders and YolanDa Brown. Details at bmff.org.au April 1-30, Oberon, NSW The Field To Forest festival includes mushroom foraging, truffle hunting and walnut harvesting, and is a great way to support the local rural industries. More at visitoberon.com/ events/. Combine it with the Mayfield Garden Autumn Festival (April 10-May 3), a rare chance to see all 65 hectares of Australia’s largest privately owned garden. Details at mayfieldgarden.com.au

For more inspirational ideas and stories, head to rebuildourtowns.com.au

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Local escapes

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Promotion Clockwise from left: Rachel Hall; Te Kairanga; The Martinborough Hotel; Lighthouse Gin.

destination for Wellingtonians.

For scenery and wildlife, venture further south to Cape Palliser, for its picturesque lighthouse and sunbathing fur seals.

Wairarapa’s spectacular night sky is also worth staying up for. The region is applying to be certified a ‘Gold Standard’ International Dark Sky Reserve. Martinborough will become one of three internationally recognised dark sky locations in New Zealand and one of a handful in the world.

Ray of light

PRODUCED BY STORY

New Zealand’s first female gin distiller has turned a passion into a world-glass gin.

There’s a wonderfuly unassuming ease about Rachel Hall despite the fact that she singlehandly produces one of New Zealand’s most delicious gins. Being a distiller is a long way from her childhood dreams of becoming a country butcher, although her passion for rural living remains strong.

Working out of a small section of the Martinborough Vineyard estate, Rachel’s role as Head Distiller of Lighthouse Gin has earned her a reputation as one of the Wairarapa region’s talents. The brand is as authentic as Rachel herself – each batch is produced in the locally made copper still, hand labelled and bottled.

During busy periods her family and a local friend lend a hand with bottling.

“You know when we’re busy,” she says, “because the room is filled with gales of laughter from the girls all day long.”

Reflecting the natural wealth of the renowned wine region, the gin is made using purified natural spring water that travels high in the Remutaka Ranges down to Wharekauhau Country Estate in nearby Palliser Bay, while the local Yen Ben lemons and navel oranges used in the recipe are hand-zested by Hall, with the remains being recycled back to her chickens and worm farm.

Part of the greater Wellington area, Wairarapa is gorgeous wine country (think Burgundy, France). Apart from the rolling hills, 20-plus wineries and small villages, it’s also rich in local produce, making it a regular weekend

In the village Any visit to Wellington deserves a day or overnight trip to the Wairarapa region’s pretty little town of Martinborough, just over an hour and a half’s drive from Wellington city centre (or an hour by train). Set around a town square, it’s home to plenty of shops, boutiques, cafes, restaurants and the iconic Martinborough pub, housed in a distinctive two-storey weatherboard building.

Diagonally opposite, the Wine Bank has brought a new opportunity to visitors to the area to taste the region’s best. You can even buy your favourite drops and have them shipped home.

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO PLAN YOUR WILD WEEKEND, VISIT WELLINGTONNZ.COM

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Time for a mini-adventure…

• Explore the historic tunnels of Wrights Hill fortress.

• Take the vertiginous drive hugging the mountains of the Remutaka Range.

• Do a daytrip to Martinborough’s gorgeous wineries.

• Visit the glorious urban ecosanctuary Zealandia, where reintroduced native wildlife is thriving.

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• Head out to the highly acclaimed Lord of the Rings film-themed WETA Cave and mini-museum – it’s free and you can even buy replica movie props.

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Clockwise from main: Oriental Bay; the Cable Car; QT hotel bar; market stalls on the waterfront.

Sunday: high times

It’s always a good idea to head up high to get the scope of a city; with Wellington’s challenging topography, it’s a must. The pillar-box red Wellington Cable Car is New Zealand’s only running funicular, and has taken excited passengers on its five-minute ride up out of the city centre to lofty Kelburn for more than 100 years. At the top, the free Cable Car Museum provides a look at historical machinery, an interesting film, and you can even S TAY Museum of New tickle the ivories with a QT Wellington Zealand Te Papa thoughtfully placed piano. (above left) is a creative Tongarewa. It’s an Take the postcard-perfect art hotel opposite the arresting mix of photo at the top next to Te Papa museum. contemporary art, everyone else – we dare interactive displays, you not to – then stroll Novotel Wellington and natural history over to the Space Place for its central location exhibits – and best of at Carter Observatory and direct access to the all, it’s free. for a futuristic full-dome Lambton Quay shops.

Continue past planetarium experience Whairepo Lagoon and and oft-changing digital Ohtel you’ll find Wellington exhibits. Explore the in Oriental Bay: staying Underground Market winding paths through the at a beach a stroll from open every Saturday on 25-hectare Botanic Garden: the CBD is an unusual Jervois Quay; typically visit the formal Lady experience – try it. creative, sometimes Norwood Rose Garden on left-of-centre, there are your way back downhill to locally made souvenirs, the city, or choose the Cable hats, artworks and quirky clothes.

Car Loop walk and end up back at (For more markets, head to Cuba the top. From here, there’s a fiveStreet later for a Saturday night buzz.) minute shuttle bus to the Zealandia Meanwhile, stop for lunch or a hot ecosanctuary (see box, opposite page), chocolate in Frank Kitts Park, then or take the funicular back down. it’s an afternoon sampling the delights For late-afternoon beauty, head up of Queens Wharf. For actioneers, to the Mount Victoria lookout to gaze Fergs Kayaks can help you explore across the water and mountains in true the harbour under paddle power; for 360-degree panoramic style. It’s a fair those more hedonistically inclined, workout – about an hour from CBD to take a tipple at Cuckoo Cocktail summit, including some steep bits – so Emporium then settle in for an bus or taxi are alternative options. AWW informal, bibs-on seafood fest at For more info, visit wellingtonnz.com The Crab Shack, or a finer affair at and newzealand.com Dockside Restaurant and Bar.

Where to

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ALAMY. GETTY IMAGES.

he harbour water is rippling rather charmingly, which is fitting given this is Aotearoa’s ‘windy city’. Tourists are seated along the waterfront boardwalk, stretching out their legs to the blue sky, while bohemian uni students pass by in earnest conversation. Here on the southerly point of New Zealand’s North Island, perched between the mountains and the sea, Wellington crams a lot of character and creativity into its compact frame. The melange of Kiwi friendliness and surprising sights makes it ideal for a weekend ‘over the ditch’.

The waterfront is Saturday: clearly the jewel in Wellington’s crown. on the It’s been boardwalked, waterfront signposted and decorated with artworks and plaques to within an inch of perfection. Start with a dip at the beach in Oriental Bay – unusually close to the CBD – and grab breakfast at one of its stylish cafes. Take a photo op next to the cute boatsheds then take the waterfront path to Te Papa, more formally known as the

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Autumn Festival in Bright • One-way flight to Melbourne from Brisbane, Sydney or Adelaide • Opulent ‘Diamond Class’ OR luxury ‘Gold Class’ coach travel • 3 nights in Beechworth • Bright Autumn Festival Gala Day • Ghost tour Mayday Hills Asylum • Gundagai ‘Dog on the Tucker Box’

• 2 nights in Bowral or Sutton Forest • Fitzroy Falls & Berry • Riverboat Postman cruise on the Lower Hawkesbury River • 2 nights in Newcastle • Slim Dusty Centre at Kempsey • Overnight in Grafton • 23 meals

DEPARTS > GOLD: 30 APR 2020; DIAMOND: 1 MAY 2020

Per person twin share

FROM

$3490*

DAY

10

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The Magic of Melbourne

Vivid Sydney Spectacular

Melbourne Cup Cellar-bration

21 MAR 2020 |

8 JUN 2020 |

27 OCT 2020 |

from

from

from

$3999 pp ts

6

$3550 pp ts

10

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$4800 pp ts

7

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Fraser Island Whales

Festivals of Spring

Brigadoon at Bundanoon Festival

18 AUG 2020 |

17 SEP 2020 |

2 APR 2020 |

from

from

from

$2190 pp ts

$4550 pp ts

$3590 pp ts

WE HAVE MAJOR FESTIVAL & EVENT TOURS AUSTRALIA-WIDE

We visit every State & Territory of Australia along with various International Tours *Prices & dates are correct as at 30 January 2020 & are subject to change. Prices are PP = Per Person Twin Share. Prices are quoted in Australian Dollars.

Domestic & international flights included are economy class from selected capital cities as per 2019/20 brochure inclusions. S2673

D-I-Y Tips

Home hints

E D I T E D by GEORGINA BITCON

READER’S PRIZE HINT

S. Burt, Fitzroy, Vic.

Travel companion

Wet a couple of reusa make-up remover pa with micellar water a seal in a ziplock bag f face cleaning when travelling. Rinse and re-use at your destina

Use the empty tube from a roll of paper towel as an extraflexible crevice tool on your vacuum cleaner to clean window tracks and narrow spaces, such as under the fridge and cup holders in the car.

Ask THE W E E K LY

Q: How do I get rid (and prevent the return) of a nasty odour in my front-loading washing machine?

V. Stoyles, Hillcrest, SA. A: Every month or so, run a clothes-free hot wash with ½ cup of bicarb soda sprinkled in the drum and the conditioner dispenser filled to the maximum with white vinegar. Keep the filter and door seal clean, always leave the door ajar after washing and rinse out the detergent drawer frequently.

Shake it off

To clean inside a narr necked vase or bottle in 2-3 tablespoons of coarse rock salt, add good splash of white vinegar, shake until gl is clean, then rinse.

Mind the gap

Apply a small selfadhesive velcro dot between buttons on a shirt band that gapes

178 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

Tight fix

If you wind a little steel wool around a screw that keeps coming loose before putting it back into its hole, the steel wool will tighten it up and keep the screw in place.

A tidy solution

Keep appliance cords neatly coiled and stored by fixing a self-adhesive cord bundler (from hardware and stationery stores) to the side or back of each machin

spread it directly on the garden and cover with a more ‘conventional’ mulch.

Water wise

In areas of water restrictions, cut the bottom off empty PET plastic bottles, drill holes in the lid, three-quarters-bury them near shrubs and vegies and fill with water to ensure precious moisture is delivered to the subsoil, rather than

Paper cut

If your local council won take shredded paper fo recycling, put it in your compost instead, or dam down in a bucket of wa

Baker’s delight ts me n y, l ia. for nt

To separate a cake into two even layers, insert several toothpicks at the halfway point around the edge of the cake, then take a long piece of non-flavoured dental floss, wrap it lightly around the cake at toothpick level and pull the ends gently but firmly in opposite directions until the floss cuts the cake in half.

TTY IMAGES.

To remove persistent suncream stains that have made a perspex pool gate cloudy and white, rub gently with a cutting car polish and buff with a clean cloth.

On a roll

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Downsizing to a Brisbane townhouse to be closer to relatives was a welcome challenge for an interior designer, her husband and teenage children, writes Tamarah Pienaar.

Homes

F

or some people, their first home is their ‘forever’ home, renovated or redecorated only once a decade or so. Other people are free spirits who change their surroundings whenever the mood strikes. Interior designer Bronnie Masefau is in the latter camp.

Originally from Brisbane, Bronnie, her husband, A.J., and their children – Isaiah, 21, Nate, 19, and Kayziah, 16 – lived in various addresses in Melbourne over a span of 13 years, ranging from a heritage-listed house to an apartment “a stone’s throw from the National Gallery of Victoria”.

Yearning to be closer to family, the Masefaus decided to return to the Sunshine State in 2016.

“Prior to moving to Melbourne, my parents lived with us on a property in Samford Valley [about 40 minutes’ drive from Brisbane],” says Bronnie.

We all have wonderful memories of that time, so when relocating to Brisbane, we were keen to buy a home that could also accommodate Mum and Dad in the future.”

After much searching, a 1980s townhouse came up for sale near Bronnie’s parents – right next door, in fact. It was really too small to accommodate the Masefaus. “We four to five adults physically wouldn’t have fitted in the townhouse when purchased,” Bronnie recalls. But they were undeterred. “We decided to downsize our stuff and upsize our lifestyle,” she says.

A family meeting was called and everyone laid their needs and wants on the table. They decided to ➝ HOME DESIGN

TIP

CATHYSCHUSLER/BAUERSYNDICATION.COM.AU.

“I appreciate many design styles and enjoy experimenting with them in our home,” says interior designer Bronnie. “The best investment you can make is discovering what ‘home’ means to you.”

The home incorporates different textures, colours, artworks and revamped antiques.

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

181

Homes convert the double garage into a family room and a studio for Bronnie and tweak the floor plan elsewhere to improve liveability. New lighting, flooring, joinery and paint throughout would freshen things up too.

“The design really boils down to what home means to us,” says Bronnie. “We enjoy spending time together as a family and we love to entertain, so an open plan layout really works for our lifestyle. We are all bookaholics and love to bring home mementos when we travel, so incorporating plenty of storage/display space HOME DESIGN was essential.”

The front door opens to a short hallway leading TIP to the laundry and powder room to the left and “I like the aesthetics of the family room and Bronnie’s studio to the right. a space to develop Straight ahead is a spacious new open-plan kitchen/ over time, to evolve living room, which opens onto the verdant backyard organically,” says with sweeping views of the local golf course.

Bronnie. Artworks, both Upstairs are three generous bedrooms, the main modern and vintage, with ensuite. adorn every wall and However nothing about the renovation was stamp personality on straightforward. “Every new job uncovered another the home, while plants bring the outdoors inside and create a connection with the green surrounds.

The home has sweeping views of the local golf course. Right: The double garage was converted into a family room and studio for Bronnie.

182 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

“We’re all bookaholics and love mementos so incorporating display space was essential.” serious issue,” says Bronnie. “Termites, water damage, uneven flooring, unsafe wiring – you name it.” Fortunately, Bronnie’s industry experience allowed her to take all the ‘surprises’ in her stride and bring the project in on budget.

Each room features a dazzling combination of bold colours, tantalising textures, eye-catching patterns and revamped antiques – Bronnie’s signature ‘Australian vintage’ style. But there’s always room for more, she says.

“I like the aesthetics of a space to develop over time, to evolve organically.” Artworks – both modern and vintage – adorn every wall, firmly stamping the Masefaus’ personality on the home. Plants, too, are prevalent, bringing the outdoors in and creating a connection with the green surrounds.

Isaiah recently moved back to Melbourne, but the rest of this tight-knit family find daily delight in their bright and beautiful home. “The kitchen is so welcoming, and the TV room so cosy,” says Bronnie. “In our master bedroom and ensuite, we feel like we’re in a spa retreat. And did I mention the outdoor space overlooking the golf course?”

Clearly, they love it all – and their only wish is that they had made the move sooner. “Having Mum and Dad next door is just wonderful,” says Bronnie. “It’s generational living at its best.” AWW

Craft

ing scents

night mith shows how to make citronella candles.

Citronella is a natural, non-toxic insect repellent, ideal for warding off mosquitoes.

Combine with a natural, non-toxic soy wax and you’ll be able to breathe easy, having avoided the use of nasty chemicals.

Plus, soy wax is easier to clean up after using.

184 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

You will need

1 Start with a clean work surface.

Makes 1 candle Glass tumbler 80mm high x 77mm diameter or similar (must be heat-resistant and not too large) 250g soy wax, melted (approximately 2 cups wax shavings) 10ml citronella fragrance or essential oil Wick (longer than the depth of the tumbler) Double-sided tape or hot glue to hold wick in place Wooden wick holder Pyrex jug Wooden ice-block stick for stirring Pot to use as double boiler Candy thermometer Candle-making items available from craft stores such as Spotlight.

Label, twine and heat-safe glue like super glue for porcelain (optional)

A

Measure and lay out all the ingredients before starting (A).

2 Use a piece of double-sided tape or hot glue to secure the wick to the bottom of the jar. Make sure it is centred with the help of a wooden wick holder. Alternatively, make a hole in an ice-block stick, or use a wooden peg to hold the wick in place.

3 Using the double-boiler method, melt the wax. Fill a saucepan a third of the way with water and heat so it continues to simmer gently.

For a tumbler of this size we used approximately 2 cups of wax shavings.

Place wax in a Pyrex jug (B). It will look as if you have more wax than you need, but when melted it shrinks significantly. Make sure the handle of the jug sits over the outside of the pot.

Heat the wax until it reaches 80-85°C, gently stirring the wax occasionally so it melts evenly. The melted wax should look like olive oil (C).

4 Remove jug from the double boiler and set aside on a heat-resistant surface like a wooden tray. Add approximately 10ml of citronella fragrance (D), stir for a minute or two, making sure the fragrance has been mixed through thoroughly.

5 Wait until the temperature drops to 65°C (E), give it another gentle stir and slowly pour it into the glass tumbler (F).

Be careful not to spill the wax down the sides or on yourself. Fill the tumbler until it reaches 10mm from the top. You may need to adjust the wick and wick holder so it sits nicely in the middle (G).

B

C

D

E

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Note: We used glass tumblers that are purpose-made for candles. If you are using other types of containers, make sure the glass isn’t too cold. Aim for room temperature or slightly warmer to ensure the glass doesn’t crack and the wax cools evenly.

6 Set the candles aside somewhere dust-free, where they can’t be knocked while setting. Let the candle cure for at least 48 hours before using (1 week is best). Once cured, trim the wick 10mm above the top of the wax.

7 Wind twine half a dozen times around the tumbler, using a few drops of glue to hold in place. Photocopy, cut out and glue the label on.

Tips and safety PHOTOGRAPHY BY BAUER STUDIO (NZ).

• When lighting your homemade

• •

citronella candle for the first time, let it burn for long enough to create a full pool of melted wax to the edges.

This helps it burn evenly later.

It will be easier to clean the Pyrex jug if you do it while it’s still warm.

Other types of wax, various wick sizes and essential oils have different properties and may burn differently, so use these instructions as a guide

• • •

only, if using products other than those suggested.

Never burn your candle for longer than 3-4 hours at a time.

Never leave candles unattended and always keep out of reach of children and pets.

Use on a heat-resistant surface and stop burning once wax is 20mm from the bottom of the glass tumbler.

Photocopy label MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

185

Money

The psychology of saving Saving is the cornerstone of good financial planning but it can be hard to stay on track.

Genevieve Gannon explores some expert tips to help you stop spending and start saving.

The terms ‘retail therapy’ and ‘buyer’s remorse’ are well known, but what you may not know is that these emotions are driven by the same brain chemicals at play in addiction. When we’re bargain hunting, our brain releases dopamine, which gives us a shopping high.

“It’s about slowing down and finding mechanisms to do that,” financial planner and author Kate McCallum says. Rules to short-circuit this thrill, she says, can ensure your savings aren’t being frittered away.

“I got an email the other day from an activewear company. The designs were beautiful and they were on sale.” She felt herself being drawn to the buy button. “I picked a few things and I put them in the cart and then I logged out.

By the next day I thought: you know what, I’ve got enough for now. “I felt a sense of relief, not disappointment at not buying something.”

Kate has a 30-day shopping rule.

Whenever she sees something she likes, she makes a note of it in her phone and reassesses it after 30 days.

Often she finds she no longer really wants the item.

“It’s about asking, is this the best use of that dollar?”

Research into shopping addiction tells us that the decision to buy is often made in a split second, and is driven by the desire to feel

that shopping rush rather than rational thought.

“It’s flipping it from that autopilot into conscious thinking,” Kate says.

“When we make conscious choices, they have more weight to them.”

Tip 2: Visualise your goals

Saving for a new car? Pin a photo of it above your desk. Working towards a holiday in Queensland? Make the Great Barrier Reef your phone screen saver. Having a constant visual reminder of what you are trying to achieve is a useful way to help prevent you straying from your goal.

“One of the things I talk to clients about with that goal-setting exercise is to get a big poster and use post-it notes and represent it visually,” Kate says.

A lot of her clients use mood boards or visual cues to remind them what they’re working towards.

“The psychology says those visual stimuli are fantastic ways to keep you on track,” she says.

Tip 3: Shoot for the moon

“One of the questions I love for personal planning is, ‘What are the boldest things we could do?’” Kate says. “It creates a really lovely pull into the future, something that’s fun and something to look forward to.”

In her book, The Joy of Money, Kate talks about using these bold

186 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

ideas to clarify your priorities. “You can reshape a goal to still reach the heart of what you really want,” she writes, with co-author Julia Newbould.

“For example, you might want to hike the Camino in Europe, but decide that you would be equally happy to hike the Three Capes in Tasmania.

“Or, if you decide this big grand idea is something you really want, you can break it into smaller, achievable chunks to help you stay on track.

“If you can hit a goal that has a big impact, that’s super-motivating,” Kate says.

The best thing about micro goals is that if you miss one, it’s less deflating than if you don’t achieve a big goal, and so it’s easier to recover from. “It’s much easier to get back on the wagon with baby steps,” Kate says. AWW The Joy of Money by Kate McCallum and Julia Newbould will be published by Bauer Books in April. RRP $29.99.

GETTY IMAGES.

Tip 1: Remove the rush

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A story of love and faith, destiny and betrayal

Available at all good bookstores

Reading room THE

E D I T E D by JULIET RIEDEN

Literary fiction

Actress

REVIEW BY JULIET RIEDEN. ILLUSTRATION BY LIZ ROWLAND @ILLUSTRATIONROOM.COM.AU

by Anne Enright, Jonathan Cape Almost everything about famous Irish actress Katherine O’Dell was fake. She wasn’t Irish, her name wasn’t O’Dell, her titian hair wasn’t red, but she did love her only child, Norah, who in turn adored her mum. That reciprocal love, though, is far from blind and as Norah retells her mother’s life, it is cracks and all. The world of Katherine and Norah unfolds in a swirling whirlpool of stories in this lyrical, sometimes bitingly witty, ponderous and engrossing novel from the brilliant, genuinely Irish novelist Anne Enright. It is a place of grease paint and putting on a show, of drunken nights and inappropriate lovers, of violence and loneliness and ultimately of an extinguishing of the light.

“I have been waiting to do a book set in the theatre for a long time. At one stage, and briefly, I worked as an actor in Dublin,” Anne tells The Weekly.

“Theatre people are my kind of people.”

While embedded on the boards, the novel actually has a filmic quality, reading like a first person docu-drama, the lens capturing every seedy detail.

We roll back to Katherine’s childhood, the daughter of strolling players who stepped onto the stage age 10 and grew into a luminous star. Norah lives in her mother’s shadow, gazing from afar as others swoon. But as she grows older she sees the truth. At her 21st birthday Norah can’t bear to have her mother stand beside her, bulging out of a dress

About the author Dubliner Anne Enright, 57, grew up on her mother’s tales of the glamour of the city of her youth and says her latest novel, Actress, “is a bit of a love letter to that old Dublin when the theatre was one of the more exciting places to go”. Anne was always a writer but as “an interruption” became a TV producer/director before returning to her main passion 30 years ago.

She has won many awards including the 2007 Man Booker for her novel The Gathering. The prize secured her writing life and she happily notes “gave me a huge increase in readership”. She currently lives in Dublin with her husband, two children and a dog.

that was too tight. “The dress was a costume, it made her look demented,” she says. Katherine was nevertheless the belle of the party which included staged photos for the press but Norah notes “there was a stage in the drinking when faces went slow and the room filled with difficulty”.

Early on we learn that Katherine died at 58 and that she was committed to the Central Mental Hospital in 1980 after shooting a film producer in the foot – literally. How she got to this point and Norah’s own path is the haunting tale of the novel, an insightful portrait of “anguish, madness and sorrow”. And the power is in the tension between a daughter’s love and her adult critical observation of her mother. “I have written several different mothers in my different novels. This time, the narrator’s mother, Katherine O’Dell, is wonderful and much loved (though in fact quite a handful),” explains Anne. “This sense of wonder comes from that place where we think our mothers are completely amazing – perhaps when we are two years old. The truth of the matter is that mothers are just women.”

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

189

Books

4 TRUE SURVIVAL STORIES

Food investigation

Family memoir

Hope and healing

Life-changing accident

THE FATE OF FOOD

HER KIND OF LUCK

ONCE MORE WE SAW STARS

PROGNOSIS

by Amanda Little, Bloomsbury

With a subtitle: “What We’ll Eat in a Bigger, Hotter, Smarter World”. reporter Amanda Little discovers how food giants are producing specially sealed products for families to lay down for the future. “Of all the places I’ve visited the Pot Pie room [in Salt Lake City, Utah] is one of the most surreal I’ve seen.” Steel machines and a funnel the size of a dumpster pump out “a grayish blend of freezedried potato chunks, carrot, celery, onion, peas and whey protein”. She imagines her children, grown-up, surviving underground on pouch meals. What will be on the table for Thanksgiving 2050?

by Michelle Balogh, Brio Books

Michelle Balogh traces the life of her step-great-grandmum Shan-Yi, who died in 2012.

Foretold she would die at 90, Balogh believes the prediction was true, as that was when Shan-Yi’s mind began to slip. Balogh’s concurrent descent into depression meant her mother cared for them both, and it was her suggestion she move into Shan-Yi’s apartment when she died. She discovers bookshelves containing silver; books hiding Scotch. And so begins her journey to peel back the secrets of a girl whose father sailed to the US, set up a company, but forbade her from pursuing a violin scholarship in New York.

by Jayson Greene, Hachette

Greta Greene, inquisitive, radiant, the light of many lives, was just two years old, when, sitting with Grandma Suze on a bench in New York, a brick fell from an overhead windowsill and knocked her unconscious. Her father, Jayson, and mother Stacy were faced with impossible grief. They had hours to decide if they wanted to donate her organs, which they did. Jayson feels guilt they stayed in such a fast city, when other parents moved away. Later we discover a building inspector warned of the crack in the building. This memoir will reach into your heart.

by Sarah Vallance, NewSouth

“I’ve not written anything in this book I do not believe to be true,” Sarah Vallance says.

“I’ve spent months researching parts of my own life”. Fearless child Sarah would stomachskateboard down a steep hill from home into another suburb, and was a carbon copy of her father, who described her as the pea to his pod on his death-bed. On the day when “death was stalking her” she nearly overturned friend Tim’s quad bike. When she rides his horse, she falls, her skull hitting a rock “part crack, part slosh … my last thoughts with a healthy functioning brain.” This is her shocking story to her best recovery.

Wartime secrets

Girl With A Pearl Earring author Tracy Chevalier tackles the clandestine toiling of the real-life women who sacrificed leisure time to stitch the complex cushions and hassocks (kneelers) for Winchester Cathedral in the 1930s in this brilliant bittersweet novel.

Adorned with Mary Tudor, Richard the Lionheart and embroidered on canvas, the pieces even had a special benediction service when presented in the house of God. Fictional Violet Speedwell, 38, has been engaged forever and just moved out of the suffocating

190 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

house she shared with her miserable mother.

She works as a typist in a stuffy office, but her pay doesn’t stretch to a hot meal after she’s paid for heating and hot water in the house where her landlady serves poached eggs for breakfast every day and lodgers hang stockings to dry. On a night out she waits for young men to top up her glass. But when she stumbles upon the broderers club, friendships and new skills flourish. Only Chevalier could make antimacassars (coverings on the arms of chairs) and rice stitch sound sexy.

REVIEWS BY KATIE EKBERG.

A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier, HarperCollins

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Historical romance

Family saga

Child abduction

THE DRAGON LADY

THE SEVEN OR EIGHT DEATHS OF STELLA FORTUNA by Juliet

DISAPPEARING EARTH by Julia Phillips,

by Louisa Treger, Bloomsbury

The guests of honour at the party held at Eltham Palace by Stephen and Virginia Courtauld were recently crowned Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. Once a royal palace, it was leased to the Courtaulds who moved in with Ginie’s pet lemur Mah-Jongg.

In this fictional replaying of the Royal visit, Wallis leans in to ask, “That marvellous snake [tattoo] on your ankle …

I love it!” In 1930s London, “foreign divorcee” Ginie was outcast, despite the King being in her social circle. The Courtaulds left post-war Britain for Rhodesia in the 1950s.

But their liberalism in opposing racial segregation wasn’t welcome. Still the Marchioness with the “dragon tattoo” and Sir Stephen left major philanthropic achievements.

Grames, Hachette

Mariastella Fortuna and sister Concettina were best friends for 67 years. Born into poverty in Calabria, Stella was tough. Her prowess at everything – numbers, debating – was fire in her belly. At 16 she bore the scars of nearly dying from boiling eggplant burning both arms.

A few years later her stomach was ripped open by pigs. The sisters slept together until marriage then lived in neighbouring houses.

In 1988 Stella had her eighth “near death” – a cerebral haemorrhage, saved by a lobotomy.

But, waking from her coma, she refused to talk to her sister.

Everyone pitied “selfless, spurned” Tina. Stella Fortuna’s reputation was besmirched – she was 100 but “demented and resented.”

Simon & Schuster

Set on the Siberian peninsula, Alonya, 11, watches over sister Sophia, eight, at the water’s edge. When Alonya spots a man on the beach it’s time to go. But she agrees to help the “injured” man to his car. The girls are abducted. Alonya told Sophia a story of an earthquake which ripped a village apart, but it was the giant wave that followed which left “the place where that town had been empty”. The book is such a tsunami, as the crime reverberates through the women of the community. Olya’s mother trusts her daughter to stay alone at 13. She doesn’t listen to those who say the girls are smuggled to Sapporo. A spellbinding story of vulnerability in a region on the other side of the world.

WARM, WITTY AND WISE THE BOOK

EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT

Books

Coffee table Floral tale

The Tulip: The Story of a Flower that has Made Men Mad

by Anna Pavord, Bloomsbury This exquisite hardback is an investigation into the passionate back story of the beautiful tulip. It’s a tale of greed and desire, power and anguish as the tulip heads on its journey from Asian wild flower to take Western Europe by storm.

Originally published 21 years ago, the book became a surprise bestseller and this new edition is stunningly updated.

Modern Gothic

Romance

Wife After Wife

by Olivia Hayfield, Piatkus

King Henry VIII is the very loose inspiration for this rollicking tale of womanising mogul Harry Rose, number 18 on the Forbes rich list who, as the novel opens, is already salivating over his new – female – assistant. As 54-year-old Harry tries to hide the pains shooting through his leg, the consequence of a crash in his Aston Martin some years before, he also tries to quell his lustful behaviour. Olivia Hayfield has a lot of fun with her modern reimagining of the Tudor King, who is petulant, entitled, jaw-droppingly hypocritical and still, it seems, irresistible to womenkind. But Henry has the #MeToo generation to battle with as his business comes crashing down and his glamorous life unravels. You don’t have to know your Catherine of Aragon or your Catherine Parr to enjoy this slick romantic romp, but if you do it’s even more enjoyable.

192 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

The Bass Rock

by Evie Wyld, Vintage If you’ve yet to discover the power of 2014 Miles Franklin Award winner Aussie/UK novelist Evie Wyld, this is the book to dive into. The lives of three women across 300 years are entangled in a complex tale of witches, sex, violence and sacrifice beneath Scotland’s rather spooky Bass Rock. While the scale is ambitious, the writing pulls you in to a tale where patriarchy comes under the microscope. Newlywed Ruth finds herself trapped in a big house by the sea looking after the two sons of her often absent husband. Is there a presence in this edifice of secrets or is she going insane? Jump forward 50 years and Viv is going through her grandmother Ruth’s belongings. And then centuries earlier in the 1720s, a priest and his son are trying to help Sarah from being burnt at the stake for witchcraft.

An engrossing read.

REVIEWS BY KATIE EKBERG.

©RHS Lindley Collections.

The Tulip: The Story of a Flower that has Made Men Mad is on sale now.

OUT NOW

Honouring an Australian legend She was dignified, daring, a powerful swimmer and renowned as the last of her clan. But Cassandra Pybus tells Juliet Rieden, it’s Truganini’s remarkable life, not her death 144 years ago, that should be celebrated.

G

rowing up on her ancestral land, the “paradise” that is North Bruny Island, Cassandra Pybus had a phantomlike sense of Truganini but not one she paid any attention to at the time.

“Like all Tasmanian schoolchildren, I heard the mawkish tale of the lonely old woman in the black dress and the shell necklace who was ‘the last Tasmanian’,” she says.

But what Cassandra didn’t realise then was that this shadowy legend from the history books was intrinsically connected to her family; to the undulating hills she loved to play on, the whispering beauty of the mudflats of the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, the “evocative aroma” of the eucalypts and musk trees of Oyster Cove that cultivated her senses. For as Cassandra was to discover, this bucolic environment wasn’t just Cassandra’s stamping ground, it was Truganini’s.

194 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

And more importantly, the Aboriginal icon and her people were there long before her family took possession.

Cassandra left Tasmania for Melbourne at the age of 10 and while she never gave Truganini a thought, the land was fiercely imbedded in her soul. “I love her country so much.

I feel an extraordinary connection to the landscape” she muses.

A quarter of a century later, friend and fellow historian Lyndall Ryan

Books awakened an attachment that has now consumed Cassandra when she came across the Pybus family’s role in Truganini’s life. This extraordinary woman became a touchstone of the profound Aboriginal footprint in this part of Australia which was so brutally rubbed out. But today, Cassandra says she feels Truganini’s presence all around and for her it’s personal.

ALAMY.

Island gift

It was 1829 when Cassandra’s great-great-grandfather Richard Pybus, fresh off the boat from England, was handed what she describes as “a massive swathe of North Bruny Island, an unencumbered free land grant”. Richard paid “nothing at all” for this beneficent gift from the new colonial invaders. It didn’t matter that local woman Truganini and her family were living there.

And later Richard, his wife and their two children were also given a land grant for a southern part of the island too.

This was the traditional hunting ground for Truganini’s Nuenonne clan, the original owners of the land, but again no heed was paid.

The key to unlock what has developed into “a powerful bond” between Cassandra and the Indigenous legend were the detailed journals of George Augustus Robinson, builder, preacher and appointed Protector of Aboriginals. “He was the person who basically went around Tasmania and rounded them all up,” says Cassandra who confesses her vision of this essentially peaceable man is conflicted.

Robinson was Richard Pybus’s friend and neighbour, living on the adjacent block. As a good Christian he wanted to smooth the way for a humane occupation of Tasmania and felt a patriarchal responsibility towards the native population. He saw himself as the mediator between the colonial leaders and the Aboriginal clans who

grew to trust him implicitly – even though his endgame was to remove them from their homeland.

Robinson learned their languages, watched their rituals and became very close to many families, especially Truganini and her husband, Wooredy, who he writes about at length. Like many who met her, Robinson is clearly captivated by her. She travelled with

says. “I couldn’t believe this man.

At first I was awestruck by him and then of course I was also heartbroken and very concerned about my own family’s involvement.”

Family guilt

Cassandra wrote her first book, Community of Thieves, inspired by Robinson’s journals 30 years ago. “It was a foundational story for me and my family,” she says.

Cassandra has But that investigation got her been consumed by thinking. “I began to ask myself Truganini’s story questions about how complicit after discovering a was my family in the genocide link with her family. in Tasmania. It was well under way by the time my ancestor arrived from England. But we were the major beneficiaries of the Nuenonne people and it isn’t enough to say, ‘oh well, we didn’t know’ or ‘anyway it wasn’t our fault’.”

That first book was more about Robinson, whose self-aggrandising obscured what Cassandra knew to be the real story; the Aboriginal clans people driven from their land and systematically killed. For decades Cassandra couldn’t get the Nuenonne out of her mind, especially Truganini.

“I knew the Pybuses had been here for a long time; that we were among the very early settlers. But it wasn’t until I came back here in my 30s that I realised I was raised on stolen land,” says Cassandra.

“At the turn of the century there was a British collector of him for five years helping Robinson find Aboriginal skeletons and remains who came out here and interviewed people survivors from the bitter battles in the about the original Tasmanians; he 1820s and exile them to “safety” on interviewed members of my family, to Flinders Island where influenza and talk about Truganini walking across sickness ultimately killed them. These their land and how they used to see her writings have become the most and give her tea and sugar – which her important source for what really people were already addicted to – and transpired in Tasmania, something what a fabulous swimmer she was. today we largely concede was genocide.

They would never have seen it as her The Pybus family also appears in land that she was walking across.

Robinson’s exhaustive journals and it is They didn’t think that way. for this reason that her friend brought “Luckily, as far as I could see, them to Cassandra’s attention. “His members of my family were not ➝ journals turned my life around,” she MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

195

Truganini (left) with her third husband, William Lanne and Bessy Clarke. Below: A painting depicting ‘the last Tasmanians’.

involved in the Black Line or any kind of military operations against the Aboriginal people because the people on Bruny Island were pretty well all dead by the time my ancestor arrived. There was just a small group of people there.

They were obviously objects of pity and Christian charity.”

In her gripping new book Truganini: Journey Through the Apocalypse, Cassandra “turns Robinson’s lens around so that instead of being all about him, I’m really trying to liberate the people he’s writing about from his own self-interest,” she says.

The real Truganani

The Truganini Cassandra uncovers is very much her own person. “I like her a lot,” she says. “She can be very coquettish but she’s also very spirited and the idea that she would somehow be the creature of George Augustus Robinson, who took her working around laneways, is certainly not born out. She’s very quick to be critical and speak her mind.”

Truganini had husbands but also was an object of lust for the white men.

Many abused and raped her, but Cassandra notes this incredible woman was also in charge. “There’s no denying that Truganini had a robust sexual life and that she had quite a lot of sexual relationships, as many Aboriginal women did at the time with white men because that was not really a choice they had. She had an extraordinary presence even as an old woman and she made the ‘gentleman callers’ do what she wanted them to, which was mostly get her alcohol, but also before that to take her over to Bruny Island.

“I see her as a remarkable survivor, and what makes it remarkable is that she lived to be nearly 70 years old, which was extraordinary in the 19th century for black or white women. She clearly had venereal disease, syphilis, which killed a lot of people, but not her.

She must have had extraordinary physical stamina.”

Her clan did not manage as well. The indigenous people were flummoxed by the brutality of the whalers, the soldiers and some of the settlers, says Cassandra, and this was

their downfall. “They had no reason not to trust … there was nothing in their history to suggest to them that people would come along and take everything they’ve got. Even where they had battles between different nations, these were resolved in negotiations that everybody abided by.

“What happened in Tasmania was a combination of systematic neglect. They were pushed off their land, taken to an offshore island where they had no capacity to feed themselves and then fed scant rations they were not used to and made them sick. They died of many

196 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

causes and were knocked over by influenza every winter.

“Taking them off their land was a deliberate policy. Year in and year out.

It was a concentration camp with terrible neglect. They didn’t have the capacity to reproduce themselves. They had children on Flinders Island who died. By the time they got down to Oyster Cove everybody knew it was just a matter of time, we just had to wait for them to die. Then their bones were stolen and traded to European museums. Now if that’s not a genocidal project I’m hard-pressed to know what would be.”

Books Paintings show Truganini and Aborigines at Oyster Cove (left). Below left: Bruny Island.

“I see her as a remarkable survivor, she lived to be nearly 70.”

ALAMY. GETTY IMAGES.

Coming home

Cassandra’s return to Tasmania in her 30s forced her to confront her family’s place in the island’s history. She was visiting her childhood home with her then boyfriend and all of a sudden everything changed for her. “As the plane was coming into Hobart airport – and I still get this feeling every time I fly in – I got this amazing sense of déjà vu. It was quite incredible. Then most of the time we were there I was awash with it. The landscapes just spoke to me and I remembered the places where I was a child, where I now live. I went down to visit my uncle and I saw the jetty which was the Pybus jetty and the name Pybus everywhere. It was just overwhelming. I thought, I’ve got to come back here.”

Cassandra did go back. She visited the Tasmanian Museum, where a ghoulish diorama “of a domestic scene of a family pre-contact times” transfixed her gaze. And then she spied photographs of Truganini with eight companions carefully posed in a tableau at Oyster Cove. It was taken by the

local bishop in 1858. “The bishop’s unwilling subjects were stiff as mannequins in the layers of ill-fitting clothing they had been made to wear.

In doleful monochrome, they seemed so desolate.” she says.

Cassandra was starting to feel something elemental. “I went to see my uncle Ken, whom I hadn’t seen since I was a little girl, and he told me how this old place was getting too much for him. So I said ‘I’ll buy it from you’. Just like that. I went back to Sydney, I told my father that I’d bought this house in Lower Snug, as it’s called. He said: ‘You’re crazy. Why would you ever want to live there?’ which I though an extraordinary reaction. It was his ancestral country. He grew up here too.”

Cassandra, now 72, has lived in Lower Snug ever since and says Truganini is with her every day. “I think about her most of my waking hours – she’s always present. It was almost like a dream that I suddenly said to myself, I have to write about Truganini. It was about three o’clock in the morning, a realisation that that was something

I had to do and that I wasn’t going to be too concerned about whether people would say, you haven’t got the right to do this because I felt, it’s my story, too.”

In her book Cassandra paints a rich, layered portrait of Truganini and I ask what she hopes readers will take away from her brilliant opus. “It’s a monumental tragedy but I’m hoping that’s not what they take away from it. Rather I want them to read about a remarkable woman who managed to live through one of the worst moments in modern history.

Which is in itself a remarkable thing, and right up until the end managed to keep a sense of humour and her dignity.

“I want to rescue her from the maudlin mythology around her that this was a woman who should be remembered because she died. She’s a woman who needed to be remembered because of the way she lived.” AWW Truganini: Journey Through the Apocalypse (Allen & Unwin), is on sale March 2.

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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What’s on

the

2

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8

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Noodle Markets and rise with r balloon display as Canberra nnual Enlighten Festival (5). enlightencanberra.com • FEBRUARY 28 Explore European influence on Japan’s traditional art in the exhibition Japanese Modernism (8), at the National Gallery of Victoria. ngv.vic.gov.au • MARCH 6 Sculpture by the Sea (7) will transform Perth’s Cottesloe Beach, with more than 70 artists showcasing their work over the 18-day festival. sculpturebythesea.com/cottesloe • MARCH 13 Celebrate cultural diversity at Parramasala (2), a three-day extravaganza in the heart of Parramatta. discoverparramatta.com • MARCH 13 The Australian Ballet’s Volt (6) will electrify audiences with a modern ballet program.

At the Arts Centre Melbourne before travelling to Sydney in April. australianballet.com.au • MARCH 14 Dance Nation (4) takes a satirical look at ambition at Sydney’s Belvoir Theatre. belvoir.com.au • MARCH 20 Country music stars including Lee Kernaghan (1) will rock Willowbank in I i h f CMC R k Q l d k

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5 198 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

COMPILED BY NICOLE HICKSON. GETTY IMAGES. © COPYRIGHT SALTY DINGO 2019. DAN BOUD. PENNY LANCASTER. VISITCANBERRA. LYNETTE WILLS. CLYDE YEE. JAPANESE POPULAR MUSIC SCORES 1928–32, EIGHT PIECES, 26.3 X 19.0 CM (EACH), PURCHASED WITH FUNDS DONATED MAUREEN MORRISSEY, 2017.

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BABY No.3FOR MICHAEL BUBLE

Puzzles

Find A Word

Easy Crossword 1

G E N E R A T I O N S M S Y W R E B M E T P E S L I J I

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SEASONS SEPTEMBER

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MILLENNIUM

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HISTORY

NOWADAYS

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INTERVAL

OCTOBER

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ACROSS

1. Quivering, shivering 8. Providing with weapons 9. Common name for USSR, … Union 10. Arid regions 14. Covers, … the presents 17. Frying liquid 18. Arthur Miller play, … of a Salesman 20. Sprinted along 21. Unkind, mean 24. Have, own 29. Extend, make …

30. Eating grandly 31. Pickled or tinned, eg

TODAY TOMORROW

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31

T H G I N T R O F M O N T H J related to time in the grid. These words can be spelt horizontally, vertically, diagonally, backwards and forwards, but always in a straight line. When you have found all the words listed below you should have 12 letters left over, and these will spell the winning word. Write the winning answer on the coupon on the last Puzzles page for your chance to win $100.

25

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Y R U S N A I D I R E M Y I A

WIN 5 X $100 We’ve hidden a collection of words

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Solution in next month’s issue.

DOWN

2. Lift up, elevate 3. Strength, power 4. Missing, mislaid 5. Not at any time 6. Costing nothing 7. Discreet glance 10. Suffocate in water 11. Price reduction events 12. Fishing-pole 13. Well-honed, a … blade 15. Concur, see eye to eye 16. Washbasins 19. Theirs, … and hers 22. Small particle 23. Bengal big cat 25. Directive, command 26. From that time on, … then 27. Forwarded, … on 28. Painting, sculpture, etc

WIN 5 X $100 When you complete the crossword, the letters on the shaded squares, reading left to right, top to bottom, will spell the winning answer. When you have the winning answer, write the answer on the coupon on the last Puzzles page for your chance to win $100.

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Ceremonial gowns Threshed husks of corn Joke-teller, comedian Discovered, located Latin American line dance Arrive at, … destination Cinema attendant Chocolate-coffee mixture Savage fiend Finally become, … as (3,2) Killer whales In the countryside, … area Capital of Bulgaria Unit of gem weight Catty, mean and …

Follower of an Indian religion Clogged, … pipes Argument Preserves in vinegar Give voice to, … views Speak Give a movie a new soundtrack Backward flow Dynasty producer, … Spelling Egg on Convenient As well, plus Nobody (2-3) Take a seat Incendiary crime Subtly signify Sticky black substance Captivates, bewitches Number in a duo Dining hour Unknown author (abbrev) Identical sibling Cars’ approach to a house World’s highest mountain Beg forgiveness (6,2) Fault, defect Singer-guitarist … Clapton

71. Device that attracts 75. Adjourn, … proceedings 80. Parents’ brothers 83. John Farnham hit, Two Strong …

85. Scattered around 86. Hue, shade 87. Sulawesi’s country 88. Small and delicate 89. Magical potion 91. Looks daggers, … at 93. Analgesia, pain …

96. Hermit, loner 100. Unnecessary ado (4-2) 103. Borders, … on the ridiculous 104. Silhouette cast by sunlight 105. Lead-tin alloy 108. Deep purple-red shade 112. Ailing 115. Eagle nests 117. Full of cheerful good humour 118. Get involved, intervene (4,2) 119. Out of shot, an … accident (3-6) 120. Stage plays 121. Toreador Song opera 123. Gentle wind 125. Iconic Star Wars actress …. Fisher 127. Anticipates, looks forward to 131. Scallywag 134. Examine medically 135. Church recess 136. Important traffic route (4,4) 139. Husbands and wives 140. Dalai Lama’s religion 143. Cab for hire 144. TV show compere 145. Making aware, … to danger 147. Argentinian heroine, … Peron 148. Person who lives abroad to evade government charges (3,5) 150. Area of salt water, Dead …

151. Literary or artistic style 154. Dance nightclub

157. Almond or pecan, eg 158. Pry 160. Australian actor, … Edgerton 162. Slipped up 164. Ostentatiously creative 166. Extreme fear, live in …

167. Put into service 168. Catch red-handed, … criminal 170. Home improvement work (1,1,1) 171. Hit high, … the ball 173. Dormant state 174. Little devil 175. Gave an answer 176. Drive too fast 180. Atlantic or Pacific 181. Small cove or bay 182. Reversal (1-4) 183. Meeting of lovers 184. Pinafore 185. Walk slowly 186. Milestone period 187. Head covers 188. Small shop, beach …

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Bucharest is there Performance of mutual services Alarming, frightening Furiously Transport up a mountainside (5-3) Married love cheat Newly made Nickname for white area at base of fingernail Low in price Having therapeutic qualities Small individual gateaux Avoided, … work Foam on a drink Eccentric

15. Unsettle, … the peace 28. Prohibition 31. Nearest star 33. Game of Thrones actor, ... Glen 34. Comfort, consolation 35. 007 movie, The Spy … Loved Me 36. Place for exercise 38. Hard lolly, … sweet 40. Ray of light 43. Large protective leather glove 45. Branched horns of deer 46. Bishop’s district 48. Songwriter 50. Infrequently 51. Italian volcano 53. Tendons or ligaments 55. Stoned, … olives 56. Absolutely huge 58. Alcove, niche 65. As regards (4,9,2) 68. Hunched in posture (5-10) 72. Higher than 73. Australian actress, … Watts 74. People feigning sickness 76. Not warranted, … force 77. Punitive, … code 78. Olfactory organs 79. Planned differently, … the schedule 81. Egyptian capital 82. Praise enthusiastically 84. Knight’s title 85. Droop 90. Magazine edition, eg 92. Cowboy’s lariat 94. Statute 95. Classic movie, All About …

96. Symbol of Aries 97. Tooth on a wheel 98. Large tea dispenser 99. Geological period 101. Be in possession of 102. Baked pastry dish 106. Movie crowd-filler 107. Narrow to a point 109. Append firmly 110. Rub out

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Twitter post Dresses in Peruvian animal Male offspring Medical injection, eg Swap over Electrical-current impeder 125. Curly punctuation marks 126. Show mild disapproval (5,2,7) 127. Naval flag 128. Early settler, explorer 129. Waterfall 130. Ribbons worn over the shoulder 132. Person’s history of convictions (8,6) 133. Rock-clinging shellfish 137. Controlled portion, food …

138. Pimples condition 141. Salt Lake City’s US State 142. Dismal, dull 146. Not as much, … than 149. Children’s board game 152. Good enough to be voted in 153. Make run faster, … the engine 155. Passports or driving licences, etc (1,2) 156. Huge and dark, … space 159. Friend, mate 161. Pass the car in front 163. Reported, … to be 165. On-screen charity event 166. Tried hard, … your best 167. Cocky newcomer 169. Tennis court assistant 170. Refusing to admit, … the claim 172. Added incentives 177. Small and cute 178. Invited visitor 179. Show contempt, … at 180. Alternative, the … option

Solution in next month’s issue

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

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Insider WIN 5 X $100

Spud Single time: only –

Classroom educator

Canberra, London, eg: – city

Area of water: Tasman –

Old land measurement

Sympathy Public transport vehicle

Few and far between

Shade of brown

Agitated: all – up Isolated: out on a –

Nun’s uniform In good health

Strong wind Cake: – pastry

Cannot: I am – to go Helicopter blade

In debt: – money Conceals

Have, possess

Belittle: speak – of Seeing organ

Gamble, wager

Frozen treat: – cream

Appear: – to be Generally: – a rule Satchel: school –

Behind schedule Microbe, bacterium

Makes a mistake Informed on: – in

Them: him and – Baby’s bed Regal persons

Penniless Fastener: safety –

Request: – for a favour

Colony insect: bull – Eastern exercise Spot: polka –

Stir-fry pan

Fitness centre Pig pen

Regret: – the day

Metric fluid units You and I Undoes: – the knot

Tennis playing area

Japanese currency

GETTY IMAGES.

The clues for this puzzle are all within the grid itself. Write your answers in the direction shown by each arrow. All answers run left to right or top to bottom. When you have finished, the letters on the shaded squares will spell the winning answer.

When you have the winning answer, write it on the coupon on the last Puzzles page for your chance to win $100.

Solution in next month’s issue.

Car accidents Our star: – Shields

Our star: – Irons

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WIN 5 X $100 In this puzzle, each letter of the alphabet is represented by a number from one to 26. We’ve put in three numbers and their corresponding letters in the top panel. Fill this in as you go, then use your letters to fill in the squares below the panel to get your winning answer.

When you have the winning answer, write it on the coupon on the last Puzzles page for your chance to win $100.

Solution in next month’s issue.

Got your hands on the latest AWW Puzzle Book yet? On sale now at $9.99, it’s packed with crosswords, clueless, find a words, cryptics, quizzes and more, plus hundreds of great prizes! Available at stores and newsagents.

Cryptic Crossword 1

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20.

Group of actors to get role, then split up (4,7) Swimsuit seen on atoll (6) Concealed canvas dwelling on edge of Los Angeles (6) Refer to look back at umpires (8) Month gets zero dressing (4) Times somewhat erased (4) What busy artists do when deciding at random? (4,4) Please shift when slumbering (6) Prime time, we hear, for making dried grass! (6) Second thought at restaurant booking (11)

Solution in next month’s issue.

How many words of four letters or more can you make using the letters given here?

Each one must include the central letter and you should have at least one nine-letter word in your total. Avoid plurals, proper nouns, hyphenated words, those with apostrophes and verb forms ending with “s”, eg, “bakes”.

25 SMART 28 TERRIFIC 32+ BRILLIANT! Solution overleaf.

Sudoku

Each number from 1 to 9 must appear in each of the nine rows, nine columns and 3 x 3 blocks. Tip: No number can occur more than once in any row, column or 3 x 3 block.

Solution overleaf.

DOWN

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

11.

13.

14.

15.

16.

18.

New priest gets fizzy drink (6) Judges change bar rites (8) I’ve followed performance that’s busy (6) Melts to a point when refines ore (6) Taught when audibly stressed (4) Sidney said to be from city (6) May alias move to Asian country? (8) About to organise holiday destination (6) Dart around at start of episode then leave (6) Hit on burnt remains of spiritual retreat (6) Exercises on public transport (6) In addition to Chelsea, partially (4)

7 4 1 6 9 7 1 9 5 2 4 3 6 5 2 8

2

7 6

5

8 5 3 1

Spot The Difference Test your powers of observation. The two pictures at right may look the same, but we’ve made five (5) changes to the one on the right. Can you spot them all?

Solution overleaf.

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

205

H w to e t r & in!

Answers

March WORD MAKER: Allergy, Alley, Allure, Ally, Earl, Early, Gale, Gall,

Write your puzzle answers on the relevant line, then cut out the whole coupon and MAIL to:

AWW Puzzles 2003, PO Box 414, Eastern Suburbs, MC NSW 2004 Entries must arrive by March 25, 2020. Draw date and time: 12:00pm AEDT on April 1, 2020.

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE: 1. Wattle tips removed from middle left branch. 2. Flower towards centre changed to white. 3. Stems removed from purple flower lower right quarter. 4. Small green flower removed top left quarter. 5. Green flower added middle left.

INSIDER:

Winning answer: Caravan.

COLOSSUS:

'Australian Women's Weekly Puzzle Entries', select the relevant magazine issue number and fill in the issue's answers. Only one online entry is accepted per issue.

Find A Word: Easy Crossword: Insider: Clueless: NAME ADDRESS

3 9 2 5 4 8 7 1 6

5 3 1 2 9 6 8 4 7

7 4 9 8 5 1 3 6 2

6 2 8 4 3 7 1 5 9

1 8 6 3 7 4 2 9 5

9 5 4 1 8 2 6 7 3

2 7 3 9 6 5 4 8 1

R H E S F R D I G I N E A T T E M P E E P L E X U O R S A W A K E

WE E D I E S T I N N E G L E G S OY A D A T OR A B UG L E G T O I P A CO A C N E S L R G L U E F L D U EMU T I E D I N C V E Y E D H B A R D N E A A H L E I R B A YOU G I G O M N H E O P E R E T T A N E O P E S P I N P A P A I E D T S N OW L O N E O E E AN M I S D E A L T E I D A F H I R E D U T E O E Y E N D WA N D COO P E A C H R P E S T E VA X O OR E D H U L A T S E V E R F T M L M F OR AM I T Y L I N P O AMP D UO P U P A E R I P E D E T A C H E S

W E A R R E S I N

T O C I T T O E T E D R R O T S E M A C A D N A R O E N V Y K E O S D E T A I T V E R G S E R E N

R E C L U S E L E A

S A C H H O Y A M P A T E R I R E P E A

B A C K S A R E NA B E E T R OO T O A U M X C U E H C O L I MP S B A T C H A F A R T A P L E H L R E A R L O U B I L L I B E R A L L O WI P E R R N I O U N I T E S L A T H EM S E AM A A P E G S E A A C T B A S S C U R T S C R AG AN T E P I E U S I T E I R OR P H AN N U T S L OC A T E S O H AV E Y T L Y A E S WA T H E S T EM I S L E D S I D RO T A I A D A P AN OD E A P RON A R G O E CG N X O A S C A S S A T A O S T R I C T E R S T O K D WA S T E A A E I N H I B I T E D E A S Y L OO T E N T P D AM U Y N E MO T I O N A L P ANG P ROD I S E E S F E L ON A S E R WA R M E S T E T U S S OC K S E D L W P E P N I A I I T S U S E S A C L A U D S N O P I UM T Y OW L S T K E D U M WE B C AM S EWS A U D I B L E H ME S H O D E D D R T A K E T O I R K S Y OW L A J A R ON E R E A R E GG I S P Y B A T H S I NN S E R R S A B S E E K G E U O E A S E L C M I S U B T R A C T S T O H UMAN S P E B H C A B S A E D T E P I D H A I K U L E S S D Y E A E D O N B OO E I E B E R R Y ROGU E CO L D S NA P

EASY CROSSWORD:

Winning answer: Match.

MU S E U O C N S U R V I T I O S P A N B T I S S U E C Q Y OG H U C R A L E A S T E I O S E N T R

M

S T R I V E C A K DO L Y E D A S S R T P E I E X E L C Y H E

A T U S E T H E E R T O P H I N G S U M E N R L U M S M C U T E A S A L T H

CRYPTIC CROSSWORD: S L E DG E M A E C A E T O N ON R H S N M E R I NO F T M R E S P Y I V Y T S I R E P O R T N P I G F O L L OW U P U E H A S T U D I O N

I R A G E A E E MA N D P T A S T E R E A B L E C O T I NG R E E C R U S V E S T E D

FIND A WORD:

Winning answer: Constellation.

CLUELESS: 1=C, 2=Y, 3=J, 4=K, 5=M, 6=H, 7=R, 8=U, 9=X, 10=S, 11=F, 12=T, 13=W, 14=V, 15=Z, 16=P, 17=I, 18=B, 19=Q, 20=G, 21=A, 22=O, 23=D, 24=E, 25=N, 26=L.

Winning answer: Rapid.

MARCH 2020, VOL 90, NO 3. BAUER MEDIA LIMITED, ABN 18 053 273 546. Head office: 54 Park Street, Sydney, NSW 2000.

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8 6 5 7 1 3 9 2 4

February

To enter ONLINE simply go to

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SUDOKU:

Gallery, Galley, Glare, Glue, Gluey, Gruel, Gull, Gully, Gule, Lager, Large, Largely, Laurel, Layer, Legal, Luge, Lure, Lyre, Rally, Rarely, Real, Really, Regal, Regally, Regular, Regularly, Relay, Rely, Rule, Ruler, Rural, Rurally, Ugly, Ullage, Yearly, Yell, Yule.

4 1 7 6 2 9 5 3 8

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Pisces

Aries

Taurus

F E B 2 0- M A R 2 0

Happy birthday, Neptunians, basking in the radiance of your month in the sun, singing your signature siren song of poetic innuendo and allure. Mercury’s mid-month return to your sign signals time for that business presentation or pitch: show solid commitment yourself to seal the deal. As Saturn goes through your closet of closure and unresolved issues, some life cycles are approaching a natural conclusion. Here the word ‘coddiwomple’ offers a useful approach: the practice of travelling purposefully toward an unknown destination while staying open to all possibilities.

While swift, decisive, energizer bunny Mars likes to take the direct route, you may prefer the scenic meander this month. Try reframing this tendency from irritating to interesting, because substituting curiosity for judgement is your savviest growth strategy this year.

When the celestial birthday present of the late-month sun, this year’s new moon in Aries and a five-planet bonanza in your professional sector detonates your creative flame, remember that this extravagant window of opportunity won’t come again for over another decade, so carpe the diem out of it in your own audacious way.

Tribe Taurus can look forward to a lush, relaxed love month as Venus sashays through her ultimate comfort zone: your sign. The full moon of sensible sensualists on March 10 is an ace date for sumptuous schmoozing with significant others or taking your flirting muscles out for a flex. When Mercury picks up speed again mid-month, so do plans and projects on standby, followed by late-month Saturn starting its thorough restructuring of your career trajectory. Even though Taureans don’t like letting things go, it’s worth asking yourself if there’s enough space available for new life experiences to fit.

Gemini

Cancer

Leo

Keeping their feet on terra firma can be challenging for Geminis at the best of times, but Mercury see-sawing from forward thinking to wild surmise plus Venus in dreamland this month doesn’t make it any easier. The most useful approach? Stay in the present moment with what’s in front of you right here, right now, instead of projecting into future fantasia. Make decisions one day at a time. With so many planets in your intimate depth sector, you’re a love and money magnet, but forget your usual cool and casual: you’ll need to start sharing those emo feelings, even if it’s just with your twin self.

With Mercury retrograde for the first fortnight of March, you can’t be too cautious about over-sharing. It’s way more beneficial to listen, especially when the full moon hits your communication station on March 10, making what you don’t say even more important than what you do. Later in the month, when Saturn moves into your joint ventures sector, expect trust and intimacy challenges along with awesome rewards for lessons learned. Teaming up with a powerful partner, private or professional, is possible now – even a rival who can provide a missing piece of your personal jigsaw. Bring your A-game.

While the thought of organising your act might bore you to snores, your success this month revolves around spaceclearing your office or operating zone and making a timeline grading ambitious plans into consecutive steps. Hire help if necessary. The full moon on March 10 could illuminate a financial path forward if you widen your viewfinder and don’t linger longer on something that’s run its course. Saturn is presently challenging anything on shaky ground and insisting you make a choice: will you shore up the status quo? Or listen to the adventurous late-month new moon outlining a brave move to greener pastures?

M AY 2 2- J U N 2 2

M A R 2 1 - A P R 21

J U N 2 3- J U L 2 3

208 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

A P R 2 2 - M AY 2 1

J U L 24 - AU G 2 3

Horoscopes w ith

Virgo

Libra

Scorpio

Romantic routines getting a bit ho-hum?

This month suggests a refresh as Venus sets adventurous plans on the menu, or has you thinking sexy escapades out of your usual range. When the once-a-year Virgo full moon on March 10 spotlights your achievements, it’s time to reward yourself with some earthy, non-virtual pleasures. From mid-March onwards, your planetary CEO, Mercury, gets group projects back in synch, while efficient Saturn arrives for the first time in 30 years to spend several months doing a few of your favourite things: streamlining, pruning, decluttering, organising and refining la vie Virgo.

Your galactic guardian, Venus, at her most laidback, indulgent and steamy makes Librans flirty, frisky and in the mood to frolic this month. Which is excellent prep for get-it-right Saturn starting an extended course of finessing your authenticity. Lucky you, as the celestial disciplinarian insists you follow your bliss and even in the midst of responsibilities do everything from business admin to shopping to lovemaking consciously, and in your own inimitable style. As the year’s first quarter closes, consider how you might want to accomplish this during the rest of 2020. Then start putting the word out.

Love planet Venus in your relationship house could make this one of the year’s sweetest months for strengthening long-time bonds or for solo Scorps to meet their match. The full moon shines on a turning point in a professional or team relationship as something that looked like fizzling either gets its sizzle back or finally flames out. During the last half of March, it pays to listen (your forte!) and shift focus away from faults on to solutions. The late month’s new moon fizzes with efficient ideas for achieving better results with less effort – you’ll be working smarter, not harder.

Sagittarius

Capricorn

Aquarius

Your wild mind and mouth working a mile a minute at the start of this month exemplifies Sagittarian William Blake’s quote that the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom, sometimes via the route of mistakes: those mistakes we must make to learn from them. After mid-March, more insights are available for negotiating emotional issues and partnership agreements: though if you’re wanting others to change, how willing are you to do the same? The fiery new moon on March 24 is a passionate play date for circulating Sagittarians and coupled-up archers alike to freshen up their romantic choreography.

The first half of March supports finalising whatever needs locking in or wrapping up, so you’re clear to assess opportunities coming in the final fortnight, when you’re the eloquent Mercury-inspired business whisperer attracting sales and clients. You’ll be happy to hear this month’s Venus is a material world diva who loves glamming up: this is your chance to lavish some upmarket, Capricorn-style pampering on you and your plus one. If emotions erupt round the new moon on March 24 for reasons you can’t get a read on, press pause, shift into neutral listening and table discussions for when temperatures cool.

While touchy-feely Venus makes your connections this month more soulful and conversations more deep and meaningful, astute Mercury in your sign during the second and third weeks of March suggests reviewing a shared portfolio or checking the figures on a prospective deal. The planet Saturn goes into Aquarius late in the month to finesse your personal ethics and expertise, then Mars blazes in at the end of the month to reignite that dashing Aqua swagger, along with anything that’s gone a bit blah or predictable – an energetic and amorous transit that won’t happen again for another couple of years. AWW

AU G 24 - S E P 2 3

N OV 23 - D EC 2 1

ILLUSTRATIONS BY LUCILE PRACHE/THE ILLUSTRATION ROOM.

LILITH ROCHA

S E P 24 - O CT 23

D EC 2 2 - JA N 2 0

O CT 2 4 - N OV 2 2

JA N 2 1 - F E B 1 9

MARCH 2020 | The Australian Women’s Weekly

209

A THE

K LY

210 The Australian Women’s Weekly | MARCH 2020

EE

Gabbie Stroud catering service and can adapt the curriculum to serve the dietary needs of each learner. Again this speaks to a social culture of children being so special they deserve something beyond the ordinary. Tailored learning is an excellent theoretical ideal and teachers do this for their students where and when they can, but teachers don’t teach in a theoretical bubble. Teachers teach in the real world with overcrowded classes, an overcrowded curriculum and a finite number of hours in the day. And coddling our kids in an atmosphere of ‘special’ doesn’t give them wings. It keeps them tethered to the adults that keep telling them how special they are.

So, how do I cater for your child? How do I honour their specialness?

I get to know them. I talk to them, share jokes with them.

I ask about their pets and their weekends. I recommend books to them. I place them in small groups and prepare lessons according to ability. I provide open-ended activities that allow them to show me the scope of their knowledge.

I keep an eye on friendships. I listen to them.

I cater for your child by doing the exact same thing that I do for every child. Catering to students’ needs should look like a classroom where everyone feels they belong, everyone has work to do and everyone has the tools they need to get on with the job.

Our children are special. They’re so special that they deserve better than the indulgence we’re giving them. They deserve to believe that they’re special, deep within themselves, not because they received some external reward for simply turning up. They deserve to feel special because they worked hard, faced difficulty, called on their own resourcefulness and actually achieved something.

This year, let’s allow our children space to struggle, to take risks and to face challenges. Let’s stop rescuing them and stop celebrating the mundane. Let’s work in partnership – teacher and parents – to empower our kids to truly become their own special selves.

Sincerely, Your Teacher Gabbie Stroud is the bestselling author of Teacher.

Her new book, Dear Parents (Allen & Unwin, $32.99), is in bookstores now.

ANGI HIGH PHOTOGRAPHY.

Now that we’ve had a few weeks to settle into the school year, I thought I would write to say how much I’m enjoying working with your children, watching them grow and learn and change. There’s a restless kind of beauty to these first few days of a school year; haircuts are admired, playground friendships reignite, little ones turtle along with too-big backpacks, new shoes trudge into line and broad-brimmed hats shade bright young faces. Such beauty, such treasures: our children are just so special.

Every child is special. I truly believe that. That’s why I became a teacher. I want children to grow up knowing that they matter, that they are important in this world and that they have interesting, challenging, extraordinary lives to live.

Every child is special but that doesn’t mean they’re entitled.

I’m a parent myself. I know that deep, protective, adoring love that overcomes us when our child arrives. Every time I looked at my firstborn daughter, I felt a delicious sense of pleasure; like I’d just had a sip of Kahlua! But we need to remember that just because they’re our wondrous, unique creation doesn’t mean they deserve anything extra or different. Just because they’re special doesn’t mean they need special treatment.

As a teacher, I can see this ‘special’ archetype being cultivated around our kids and I feel it’s causing more harm than good. We’re fostering a sense of entitlement where our children have learnt to ask ‘what’s in it for me?’ before engaging in a task. So many children are lacking resilience because they’ve learnt that someone will rescue them at the mere hint of adversity.

I see it when caregivers write a note for their child, excusing them from a common school activity. My favourite from last year was this: please excuse my son from school yesterday – his sister was home because she was sick, so he didn’t want to go in either. I see it on social media in the contrived and stylised ways some parents celebrate a child’s every milestone. And I see it with my own kids – a simple trip down the street and they come home like decorated war heroes: a balloon from the bank, a piece of fruit at the supermarket, extra marshmallows at the cafe and a rubber wristband from the guy selling raffle tickets.

As a teacher, I’m often asked by parents how I’m accommodating their child as though I’m providing a

W

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

E N ’S

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