Airnorth airlines magazine - Aug/Sep 2018

Aug/Sep 2018

TAKEME ME HO AD TO RE

THE GREATNESS OF GROOTE Step back in time

SCHOOLING WITH A DIFFERENCE

Yiramalay College and learning outside the classroom

Walk this Way AUSTRALIA'S TOP WALKS WILL GET YOU BACK TO NATURE

AusBiz. The new Aussie business mag

TOUGH, REAL AND WORN BY THOSE TO BE RECKONED WITH.

C OMFO RTA B L E C O W B O Y B O O TS F O R THE WHO LE FAM I LY

Welcome aboard

Welcome, customers, to your Airnorth flight today.

Spring is now upon us! A fresh, new spirit spreads around the country and across our network, with the events season in full swing. Sports, arts, carnivals or food, there’s something on for everyone.

From August 3 to 6, all eyes will be on Gove (Nhulunbuy) for the annual Garma Festival. Now in its 20th year, Garma brings together 2,500 political and business leaders from across the globe to discuss Australia’s Indigenous issues.

Over in the Kimberley region, Broome Turf Club hosts another racing schedule to excite punters. Make sure you’re at the iconic dirt racetrack on August 18 for the carnival’s main event, Broome Cup Day. In Darwin, the arts take centre stage when the city comes alive during the Darwin Festival (August 9–26), and later when the Darwin International Film Festival hits town (September 13–23).

Moving around the East Coast, the lush green city of Toowoomba is expected to draw in thousands for the Carnival of Flowers (September 21–30). Gather your family and enjoy vibrant gardens, fresh produce and live music.

Whether you’re a new face or a loyal customer, we’d like to thank you for flying Airnorth. For now, we ask that you sit back and enjoy our friendly service.

Daniel Bowden Chief Executive Officer, Airnorth

AUG/SEPT 2018

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KIMBERLEY FINE DIAMONDS

Top Destination with Top Souvenirs

93 Konkerberry Drive PO Box 20 Kununurra, Western Australia 6743 Phone: +61 (08) 9169 1133 Fax: +61 (08) 9168 1188 Freecall: 1800 852 144 (within Australia)

KIMBERLEYFINEDIAMONDS.COM.AU

contents

AusBiz. Check out AusBiz. at the back of the magazine. In this edition, you’ll find: TELECOMMUTING More Australians working from home means rising regional property prices.

AGRIBUSINESS We investigate the booming business of bees and honey.

INFRASTRUCTURE The latest innovative developments in healthcare design.

BIRTH BEAT Improving maternity and antenatal care across rural Australia.

MAN & MACHINE Witness the wonder of wooden boats.

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Cover Story

Australia is home to some of the world's most epic and immersive walking holidays.

We count down the best.

Upfront

Features

12 Airnorth News

20 Meet the Chef

Recap of the Airnorth Cable Beach Polo tournament.

14 Airnorth's Community Spotlight

Worthy causes that Airnorth has been proud to support in the community.

16 Events Calendar

Don’t miss what’s happening in Australia throughout August and September.

18 Entertainment

The latest films, books and art to inspire you.

We meet Simone Watts, Head Chef at Julaymba restaurant at the Daintree Eco Lodge. She's also an environmental activist on a mission to improve the world, one dish at a time.

22 Culture Vulture Explore Groote Eylandt with us — a culturally rich island in the far reaches of the beautiful Northern Territory, where Indigenous culture has survived, and indeed thrived, for thousands of years.

22 26 Top NT & WA Adventures

We count down the most adrenaline-pumping experiences across the NT and WA.

30 Philanthropy

We shine a spotlight on the Kimberley's Yiramalay School, which is at the forefront of improving Indigenous education.

34 ArtSpace

Arresting art from Waringarri Aboriginal Arts Gallery in the heart of the Kimberley region.

AUG/SEPT JUNE/JULY 2018

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When it comes to an electrical job done to the highest standards anywhere in the Territory, Jetstream Electrical is the team you need to call.

SERVICING THE REMOTE TOP END AND BEYOND

From Darwin to Alice Springs, rural to remote, Jetstream Electrical has its own fleet of aircraft ready to attend a job in the furthest corner of the Territory – and beyond. The list of destinations this Territory owned and operated company has flown to is long, and includes locations over the border in Western Australia and Queensland, the Tiwi Islands and even the Philippines and Timor-Leste. In remote areas the team plays a major role in keeping roadhouses

and service stations connected. ‘From repairing underground pipes and damaged bowsers to replacing corroded valves and carrying out preventative maintenance, our team can do it all,’ managing director Kevin Pettitt said. ‘We’ve installed unmanned service stations with bowsers and outdoor payment terminals in remote NT and WA, solar lighting on an island in Arnhem Land and generators for remote businesses affected by cable faults. This is just a handful of the jobs we carry out.’ Jetstream Electrical also completes communication works, such as installing long-range wireless networks, and the team

are experts in airconditioning issues. ‘Jobs like this are important in our cities and towns, but become even more so in remote areas, where a whole community might rely on a generator or fuel bowser,’ Kevin said.

‘These problems need to be fixed quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively. That’s where we come in. We offer a 24/7 service and can be mobilised at short notice because we have our own fleet of aircraft – including one for every application and price range.

We don’t have to work around the schedules of others – when time is critical, Jetstream has you covered.’

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Call today: (08) 8984 3434 www.jetstreamelectrical.com

EDITORIAL

Publisher: Michelle Hespe publisher@publishingbychelle.com Editor: Katrina Holden editor@publishingbychelle.com Art Director: Jon Wolfgang Miller Lifestyle & Travel Sales Manager: Sonja Halstead sonja.halstead@publishingbychelle.com AusBiz. Sales Manager: Effe Sandas advertising@publishingbychelle.com Sub Editors: Claire Hey, Sally Macmillan, Jessica Multari Editorial Assistant: Sarah Hinder editorial@publishingbychelle.com

CONTRIBUTORS

publisher's letter My partner and I own a few pieces of Australian Indigenous art that take pride of place in our lounge room. We have two well-paired paintings depicting a bushfire and then the bright native blooms of regrowth by Reggie Sultan which we bought at the Didgeridoo Hut and Art Gallery in Humpty Doo. Reggie was born in Alice Springs and loves to paint stories of his mother’s country, in Central Australia around Barrow Creek. We love the two paintings because together they represent the notion of getting rid of the old and celebrating the new. Just as in a human life, in nature there is the need to clear the land to ensure that future growth is as good as it can be, and I love the fiery strokes of the bushfire and the bright yellows, reds, greens and blues of the flowers that come after the destruction. Both paintings are full of energy and jump out at you to pay attention.

We also own another piece that I love to look at when I need to relax, by Brian ‘Binna’ Swindley from Mossman in Queensland. It depicts a bale of baby turtles. The backdrop is a dazzling blue and the canvas is covered in spots that are more like sparkling stars as seen through ripples of water, as if the painter is lying on the ocean floor watching the baby turtles make it out to sea after their terrified scramble down the beach to safety – as though the stars are shining above to show them the way.

So, for this issue, I was pleased to be able to write about two artists who continue to live and paint around Kununurra, in Outback Western Australia. I’ve been to Kununurra a few times, and it’s like a welcoming oasis in the desert. There are so many wonderful landscapes around Kununurra, including the unbelievably awesome Bungle Bungles. If you haven’t been, add it to your bucket list. The artists are Gloria Mengil and Dora Griffiths, and both are exceptional at their craft, with such different approaches. Read the story on page 34.

And while you do, sit back, relax and enjoy your flight to wherever you are headed in our great southern land.

MICHELLE HESPE

Darren Baguley Kirsten Craze Jill Innamorati-Varley Briar Jensen Leah McLennan Karl Peskett Jo Stewart

PRINTING SOS Print + Media 65 Burrows Road, Alexandria, NSW, 2015

Aug/Sep 2018

TAKE E ME HOMD TO REA

THE GREATNESS OF GROOTE Step back in time

SCHOOLING WITH A DIFFERENCE

Yiramalay College and learning outside the classroom

Walk this Way AUSTRALIA'S TOP WALKS WILL GET YOU BACK TO NATURE

AusBiz. The new Aussie business mag

Photo courtesy of Tourism WA

Together We Fly is published by Publishing ByChelle, (ABN: 78 621 375 853 ACN: 621 375 853) Suite 2, Level 8, 100 Walker Street North Sydney, NSW, 2060 (02) 9954 0349 publishingbychelle.com The reproduction of any content, in whole or part without prior written permission by the publisher is strictly prohibited. Opinions expressed in the content are those of the contributors, and not necessarily those of the publisher. All information in this magazine was believed to be correct at the time of publication, and all reasonable efforts have been made to contact copyright holders.

Publishing ByChelle cannot accept unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. If such items are sent to the magazine, they will not be returned. We apologise if we don’t get back to your email, as we do receive a large volume of communication via various online channels. Some images used in Together We Fly are from istock and Getty images, and we make every effort to credit all contributors.

AUG/SEPT 2018

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i CHARTER ROUTES SCHEDULED ROUTES AUG/SEP 2018

9

custom menswear www.georgeandking.com.au

Photographer: Julian Lallo

George & King

!

airnorth news

12

airnorth news

POLO IN BROOME

2018 Airnorth Cable Beach Polo recap For the eighth time since its inception, the 2018 Airnorth Cable Beach Polo graced Broome’s pristine sands this May. On the weekend of May 26, tourists from all over Australia flocked to the Kimberley coast to indulge in a weekend of worldclass polo, luxury hospitality and unmatched scenery.

Arguably boasting the best playing conditions in the world, Cable Beach attracts teams of polo players from all over Australia and abroad each year, making for competitive and exciting play.

With Perrier-Jouët champagne flowing, tropical beats pulsing and turquoise water glistening on the horizon, the glamorous VIP marquee proved yet again to be the hottest ticket in town. Airnorth Ambassador Chelsea Basham delighted the crowds with her sweet, folky crooning, perfectly complimenting the relaxed atmosphere.”

If there wasn’t enough action on the field during the day, VIP guests got their fill of entertainment away from the field. Kicking off on Friday the 25th, the Airnorth Cable Beach Polo opening party took place on the lush lawns of Mangrove Hotel, where partygoers wined and dined into the balmy Broome night.

Guests at the opening festivities got a first glimpse of the new bespoke Airnoth uniform, unveiled at a welcoming function hosted by Marilynne Paspaley at the historic McAlpine House.

Following the first polo match, guests were treated to an intimate Dinner Under the Stars, carefully prepared by celebrity chef Jack Stein and held on the polo field on a bed of white sand, under a ceiling of twinkling fairy lights.

Sunday marked the final day of polo action, after which the Paspaley Australasian Beach Polo Cup award ceremony took place.

As the sun set behind the ochre cliffs, and the spectators danced on the sand to soak up the final moments of the weekend, it was hard not to be swept away by the unique magic of the Airnorth Cable Beach Polo. See the magic yourself next year.

Make sure you’re following @AirnorthAU on Facebook and Instagram to be one of the first to find out the dates for the 2019 Airnorth Cable Beach Polo.

Airnorth flies to Broome daily from Darwin and Kununurra.

For more information, head to airnorth.com.au.

AUG/SEPT 2018

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airnorth news

Community spotlight NT TRAVELLING FILM FESTIVAL As a proud supporter of the Australian arts scene, Airnorth was delighted to partner with the Northern Territory Travelling Film Festival for 2018. In a wonderful display of quality film work, the festival showcased the Territory’s culture, stories and art to mainstream audiences in a spectacular open-air cinema setting.

A solar-powered screen travelled to remote Indigenous communities and key sites across the Territory, including Alice Springs, Tennant Creek and both Nitmiluk and Kakadu National Parks, displaying a two-hour program of local short films in pop-up cinema locations.

Airnorth is your gateway to the Territory. Fly from Darwin to Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Katherine, Arnhem Land and beyond. For more information, head to airnorth.com.au.

GEORGE HELON, AIRNORTH’S CHRISTMAS CHEER COMPETITION WINNER In January, Airnorth ran a competition in Toowoomba, asking Darling Downs residents to nominate a special and deserving person from their community. Following an influx of entries we couldn’t choose just one winner to fly to Melbourne as a reward, so we chose three!

We’re delighted to share that one of our winners, George Helon, recently travelled from Toowoomba to Melbourne with us. Not only is George a patient, fulltime carer for his elderly mother, he also suffers from rare medical conditions himself. Almost profoundly deaf, George has an inoperable brain tumour and also suffers from Pallister-Hall syndrome and gelastic seizures.

In the words of his mother Helen, “George is committed to always helping others less fortunate than himself and is the founder and administrator of two worldwide online support groups to help those with some of those conditions that he is afflicted with.”

True to form, George used a portion of his trip to give back to others. As well as being an audience member on The Project, he took time to participate in an interview by the staff of the Genetic Support Network of Victoria (GSNV) at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

The interview was recorded for the benefit of gelastic seizure and Pallister-Hall syndrome patients, plus carers, specialists, counsellors and community advocates.

Airnorth congratulates George on his remarkable contribution to society

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FROM LEFT: KARI KLEIN (PROJECT COORDINATOR OF THE GSNV), GEORGE HELON, MONICA FERRIE (CEO OF THE GSNV)

GEORGE ON THE SET OF THE PROJECT

TRAVEL

What's on & what's hot Our pick of the very best gigs, festivals, cultural and sporting events from around the country.

Compiled by: Sarah hinder

August 3–6 Garma Festival

East Arnhem NT This festival of unity aims to bring locals and visitors together in the largest celebration of the Yolngu people of north-east Arnhem Land, whose culture is one of the oldest on earth, dating back 40,000 years. garma.com.au

August 10–12 Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair

August 3–7 Desert Harmony Festival

Tennant Creek NT Expect storytelling, youth workshops, music, dance and a red-dirt setting at this outback celebration of the Indigenous and multicultural demographic of the remote Barkly region. desertharmonyfestival. com

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Darwin NT More than 60 Indigenousowned art centres participate in this rich line-up of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and culture. The program includes traditional dance, workshops, film, fashion and music. darwinaboriginalartfair.com.au

August 11 National Indigenous Music Awards

Darwin NT Presented under the stars at Darwin’s historic amphitheatre,

the NIMAs bring together up-and-coming talent and established artists from all corners of Australia for a special celebration of Indigenous music. nima.musicnt.com.au

August 17–20 Run Larapinta

Alice Springs, MacDonnell Ranges NT Along the spectacularly scenic Larapinta Trail, this four-day, four-stage running race is a unique way to experience one of Australia’s most renowned treks. rapidascent.com.au/ runlarapinta

Events calendar SEPTEMBER 4-8 Tour de Timor

Dili, Timor Tour de Timor is a five-day cycling event starting and finishing in Dili, Timor. Riders can expect over 10,000 metre vertical ascents, visiting some of the most dramatic mountain ranges in Timor. The dynamic race includes single track elements as well as aggressive descents. tourdetimor.com

Shinju Matsuri

August 23–26

August 31–September 2

The Redback

Red CentreNATS

Alice Springs NT The Redback allows mountainbike riders of all skill levels to tackle the single tracks around Australia’s Red Centre. rapidascent.com.au/ theredback

August 23–September 20 Desert Festival

Alice Springs NT Alice Springs’ upbeat arts festival shares stories of the Red Centre and its rich desert culture through vibrant performances and workshops. desfest.com

August 24–26 Freedom Day Festival

AUGUST 9–26 Darwin Festival

Darwin NT The tropical city is transformed when free outdoor events, concerts, theatre productions and multicultural food stalls pop up across town and the decorated Festival Park. darwinfestival.org.au

Kalkaringi & Daguragu NT Commemorating the Gurindji elders who took part in the 1966 Wave Hill walk-off, this festival celebrates their success in procuring Aboriginal Land Rights. freedomday.com.au

August 25– September 2 Shinju Matsuri

Broome WA Japanese for “festival of the pearl”, Shinju Matsuri celebrates Broome’s early days as a producer of rare South Sea pearls. Main events include a Floating Lantern Matsuri and long-table feast on Cable Beach. shinjumatsuri.com.au

Alice Springs NT Over Father’s Day weekend, this festival of wheels puts on a wild show of professional burnouts and drag racing.

You don’t have to be a car enthusiast to belt out to the Aussie rock concert. redcentrenats.com.au

September 1 Mahbilil Festival

Jabiru NT Experience everything from bush tucker and traditional dance to arts and craft at this family-friendly event showcasing Kakadu culture. mahbililfestival.com

SEPTEMBER 7–9 Kimberley Writers Festival

Kununurra WA This one-of-a-kind writers festival connects authors and readers at informal workshops, storytellings and brunches. proximitywa.org/festivals

September 21–30 Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers

Toowoomba Qld During peak spring season, Toowoomba hosts live concerts, movies in the park, a food and wine festival, a polo competition and, of course, stunning floral displays. tcof.com.au AUG/SEPT 2018

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entertainment

Compiled by: Sarah hinder

ART MoMA at NGV: 130 Years of Modern and Contemporary Art

June 9–October 7, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

This year’s Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition presents 200 key works from New York’s Museum of Modern Art that trace the development of art and design from the 19th century through to today.

Expect to see masterworks by Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, Dali, and Warhol.

Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards

August 10–November 25, Museum and Art Gallery Northern Territory, Darwin.

Now in its 35th year, the country’s most prestigious Indigenous art awards celebrate the richness and diversity of contemporary creative practice by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists.

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SALA: South Australian Living Artists Festival

August 1–30, venues across South Australia.

Celebrated to promote visual artists right across the state, SALA Festival features hundreds of exhibitions, talks and forums by professional and amateur artists alike in an eclectic mix of conventional and unexpected locations throughout South Australia.

entertainment books

TOURS

Gene Simmons

Welcome to Country, Marcia Langton

Released May 1, RRP $39.99, Hardie Grant, Travel.

This travel guide to Indigenous Australia and the Torres Strait Islands offers a fascinating look into the history and customs of our traditional land owners, and provides a state-bystate directory of Indigenous tourism experiences.

Out of the Forest, Gregory P. Smith

Released May 28, RRP $34.99/EBook $12.99, William Heinemann Australia, Biography.

A revealing memoir that shares the story of Smith's escape from society to live in near-total isolation in a forest in northern New South Wales for 10 years — and what eventually brought him back.

Whitsunday Dawn, Annie Seaton

Released July 23, RRP $29.99/EBook $6.99, Harper Collins, Fiction.

This eco-adventure is set in the Whitsundays, where Olivia finds herself torn between big business and nature when she meets a local fisherman who opens her eyes to the impact her mining project will have on the Reef.

August 28– September 1 in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane.

Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of his debut solo album, KISS legend Gene Simmons visits Australia for his first-ever solo tour, and will be joined on stage by former band mate Ace Frehley.

Cher, Here We Go Again

DOCUMENTARY Blue the Film

Current screenings across Australia & available on iTunes, Google Play, YouTube & DVD. In the last 40 years, half of all marine life has disappeared, and by 2050 there will be more plastic in the sea than fish. This eye-opening Australian doco tells the story of our dying oceans and the human-imposed dangers destroying them.

September 26– October 20 in Newcastle, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth & Sydney.

Following an overwhelming response to her afterparty performance at Sydney’s Mardi Gras earlier this year, Cher returns for her first Australian tour in 13 years, which is also slated to be the music icon’s last tour Down Under.

AUG/SEPT 2018

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THE CONNECTED CHEF

Meet eco warrior simone watts, head chef at julaymba restaurant at the daintree ecolodge. Words: Michelle Hespe

Meet the Chef

Confit fennel, ruby grapefruit, Mungalli biodynamic labneh, dried olive, Boonie tamarind vinaigrette.

Simone Watts, originally from Melbourne, now lives on a palm-tree fringed beach where she plucks fresh coconuts from the ground for some morning electrolytes, and she works in one of the world’s most pristine eco-systems, the Daintree Rainforest. Every day of her life she is surrounded by an abundance of incredible produce that chefs from all over the world scurry to order for their own award-winning restaurants, meaning diners at Julaymba Restaurant can enjoy the best produce nature has on offer, as fresh as it could be.

The coastal flora is abundant with flowering native hibiscus.

"These stunning yellow flowers have been used for centuries by local Aboriginals as a cure for depression, and make for a beautiful garnish on our desserts at the Lodge," Simone explains. "Quandongs have also started to drop around our gardens, so I come into the kitchen with pockets full of them!"

Simone's connection with the environment has steadily developed over time. "At the beginning of my career I was focused on absorbing flavours, techniques and ingredients, and it wasn’t until I had matured and moved on to managing kitchens that I became aware that chefs play only a small part of the ‘seed-to-plate’ journey of food," she says. "Being a chef and an environmentalist should go hand in hand, because without the land and sea, our world ceases to exist.”

It's an important point that we should all understand.

Down the road, Simone has access to blueberry farms and avocados bursting with flavour, and an incredible array of native fruits such as Davidson plums and the endemic Boonjie tamarind. "In the dryer, warmer areas up north, you'll find some of the sweetest pineapples and bananas in the country," says Simone. "On the coast you’re greeted with produce that requires humid, warm climates such as cocoa, vanilla and green peppercorns. We are also very privileged to call the Great Barrier Reef our front yard, however it is important to mention that seafood from our surrounding waters, as stunning as it may be, is not plentiful and should be sourced from reliable suppliers that can guarantee fish are line caught as opposed to trawling practices.”

Simone believes that the one and only true constant we have in our lives is our relationship with the earth. "The

Aged duck breast, Davidson and black ruby plums, bitter leaves, confit leg and pistacchio terrine and roasted barley jus.

importance of making respectful, mindful choices is greater than ever, as the environment is rapidly becoming a victim of our poor decisions," she says. "We can no longer grow in population and consume at current rates without giving back to allow the circle of life to continue. Chefs have therefore been thrown into the spotlight which allows us to radically influence and transform the way society thinks about food.

It is not only our job to teach people how to cook, but to educate them where their food has come from."

Simone thinks there is something honest and real about the Australian food scene. "The days of pretentious fine dining here are over," she states. "We as a nation don’t have the food history or definitive cuisine that many countries do, so we have reverted back to understanding our land and the indigenous foods and techniques that have been used long before white table cloths were invented.”

Simone's favourite dish currently on Julaymba's menu is kangaroo tataki. "We use Paroo wild-game kangaroo, sourced from an area in Queensland where their dense population is having a negative effect on the environment," she explains.

"There's a ‘male-only’ policy when harvesting, which reduces the impact on juvenile kangaroos. Paroo also work alongside a sister company called ‘Karmine Kangaroo Leather’, which utilises the skin of the kangaroo to make products such as aprons and belts. This no-waste, sustainable approach aligns perfectly with our overall message at the Lodge."

The kangaroo is crusted in native pepper, and marinated in soy and crushed ginger. It's served with a tea-soaked egg using local Daintree Estates tea, miso cream and a crunchy wasabi granola, and garnished with pickled ginger, marigolds from the Lodge's garden and bamboo charcoal salt.

"This dish showcases our native Australian ingredients, and highlights how lucky we are to live in such a multi-cultural country with a variety of inspirational cuisines," says Simone.

It also beautifully showcases Simone's talent, and her passion for appreciating everything that Mother Nature offers her. AN For dining and accommodation options, please visit daintree-ecolodge.com.au AUG/SEPT 2018

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Howgreat is

Groote?

In the remote far reaches of the Northern Territory, Groote Island is a journey through thousands of years of remarkable Aboriginal culture few tourists are lucky enough to traipse.

WORDS: JILL INNAMORATI-VARLEY

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Culture vulture

Top, left to right: Candida Mamarika bush dyeing; Groote sunsets; fishing on the lodge's boat West Wind; Annabell Amagula hanging silk to dry; aerial view over Groote Eylandt.

Bottom, left to right: Umbakumba bush dyers; dyeing silk; swimming pool at the lodge; works of Indigenous art at the cultural centre; cave art; visitors pose with their catch of the day.

GROOTE EYLANDT LOOMS SURPRISINGLY LARGE THROUGH MY WINDOW OF AIRNORTH’S E120 ON OUR FLIGHT FROM DARWIN. The fourth largest island in Australia after Tasmania, Melville and Kangaroo, it measures 50 kilometres from east to west and 60 kilometres from north to south. Part of an archipelago of 40 smaller islands, it’s home to the Warnindilyakwa people, whose Anindilyakwa language is thought to be one of the most ancient in Australia. Interestingly, it's also thought to be the first language spoken by all 14 Indigenous clans on the island.

Ask around and you won’t find too many who have heard of Groote Eylandt (Dutch for “Great Island”) or know of its whereabouts in the Gulf of Carpentaria (off the east coast of Arnhem Land).

The Anindilyakwa, as they are known, have lived here for some 8,000 years. Today Groote is home to 1,500 people across three main Indigenous communities: Angurugu, Milyakburra and Umbakumba.

Around 400 years ago the Makassans were the first foreigners to set foot on Groote, when they began travelling from Indonesia in search of trepang (sea cucumber), visiting the island up until 1908.

These days tourism is still in its infancy, and it’s multi-billion-dollar business GEMCO (Groote Eylandt Mining Company) — in operation since the 1960s — that keeps the island humming, producing more than 3.8 million tonnes of manganese ore a year. That’s around a quarter of the world’s requirements.

Since manganese is a finite resource, it’s only recently that Groote — with permission of the local Aboriginal Land Council — has been opened up to the public, promoting itself as a world-class fishing mecca and welcoming involvement with its remote Indigenous communities.

The arrivals hall of Groote’s rustic airport is a hive of fluoro GEMCO safety vests, plus a cherry welcoming sign and another that proclaims Groote Eylandt cane toad-free. Making his way through the sea of fly-in fly-out miners is my driver, who escorts me to a four-wheel drive for the ride to my accommodation at Groote Eylandt Lodge.

Set in extensive grounds and linked by timber walkways, the Lodge is made up of 60 waterfront suites, plus a spa, fishing lodge and pool.

Getting to grips with Groote My prior knowledge of Groote, I confess, was a little deficient. I’ve come for an outback adventure and to try my hand at fishing, having heard that even a novice like me can drop a line from one of two luxury fishing boats — East Wind and West Wind — to have the fish jump with gay abandon right onto the end of your hook.

Swimming in the sea isn’t an option, unless you want to dodge crocs and AUG/SEPT 2018

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Culture vulture

Clockwise from left: Angurgu bush dyers; views from the lodge; getting around the island.

sharks. “Don’t worry about the crocs; it’s the sharks that are the problem. There are hundreds of ’em!” warns Scotty, our Indigenous guide. And he wasn’t wrong — I kept hauling in reef sharks whenever I cast out my line!

Still, when fishing’s over for the day, there’s always the Lodge’s swimming pool for a relaxing dip, and the romance of standing on the sundeck overlooking the Arafura Sea at sunset, with fresh sashimied fish and a flute of bubbles. Then you know you’re standing somewhere special.

Experiencing the culture

FAST FACTS

4th

Groote Eylandt is the fourth largest island in Australia, and the largest island in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

1644

Groote Eylandt is Dutch for “Large Island”, and it was the name given by explorer Abel Tasman in 1644.

Indigenous rangers on the island have partnered up to establish the ‘Learning on Culture’ program, which seeks to ensure that the stories of Groote — like its cave paintings — live on.

The Church Missionary Society was largely in control of Groote’s affairs up until 1978. In 2006, the Anindilyakwa Land Council took responsibility for the oversight of Anindilyakwa language work, and today it works to promote and preserve it through a collection of language and cultural resources relating to the Warnindilyakwa people.

Hugh Bland, an anthropologist who works with the Anindilyakwa Land Council to protect sites of significance, says culture and traditional ceremonial belief are fundamental to the Anindilyakwa. “These creation stories account for current relationships between people, animals and land,” says Bland. “It is a culture very focused on reincarnation. When someone passes away, senior people sing these songs to ensure they ‘sing’ the person’s spirit back to where it belongs.”

The magic of Groote Eylandt and its people will surely sing me back again one day. AN Airnorth flies to Groote daily from Darwin.

To book, head to airnorth.com.au AUG/SEPT 2018

P H O T O G R A P H Y: G R O O T E E Y L A N D T L O D G E A N D A N I N D I LYA K WA A R T S .

In a place where its people fully embrace their ties to the land, the Art & Cultural Centre is a key attraction on Groote, located on the grounds of the Lodge. Here, cultural heritage is explored through all kinds of traditional art, such as painting and basket and mat weaving, and it’s a place where guests can meet with local Indigenous artists whose work is highly prized by collectors all over the world.

The Anindilyakwa pride themselves on hospitality, and their welcoming of arriving guests is warm and insightful as they introduce us to their art and culture on a tour of the gallery.

It’s from the gallery that four-hour ‘Explorer’ and half-day ‘Cultural Highlights’ tours take in Groote’s rich heritage, teaching visitors about the history of the Anindilyakwa people and language, clans, bush medicine and local art.

On my tour with Scotty I’m struck by the diversity and unique nature of the environment.

In this relatively small area rugged sandstone plateaus meet monsoon vine forests, and open woodland, paperbark swamps and red sand hills lead to pristine beaches.

Our tour stops by open-air St Andrew’s Anglican Church in Angurugu, where Mildred Mamarika is a local Indigenous church leader.

From here, we weave our way along a circuitous, bumpy track to arrive at the ancient cave-painting site Wurrwarpatena, decorated in ochre with all kinds of local wildlife and symbols, all still in pristine condition.

So that cultural knowledge, traditions and skills are not lost by younger generations, schools and

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Outback Adventures

Top

&

NT

WA

Adventures From a thrilling skydive over Rottnest Island to an exhilarating speedboat ride along the Kimberley’s Horizontal Falls, we round up the top adrenaline-pumping experiences across the NT and WA. words: Sarah Hinder

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Outback Adventures Opposite page: Skydiving over Rottnest Island.

This page from left: Horizontal Falls; Ningaloo Reef; helifishing in the Top End..

Helifishing

NT A combination of two outback adventures, helifishing involves a scenic flight over the outback, with doors removed for unparalleled visibility and access to some of the best fishing spots in the Territory, unreachable by other modes of transport. For a chance to catch the region’s famous barramundi, Helifish flights tour the Top End for daytime or afternoon sessions, or even for a two- to five-day fishing adventure. helifish.com.au

Horizontal Falls Kimberley WA Talbot Bay is home to an

entirely unique natural phenomenon that sees intense tidal currents hurtle through the Kimberley’s narrow coastal gorges to create an astounding sideways waterfall effect.

Experience the world’s only horizontal waterfalls on a speedboat thrill ride or take a swim with friendly sharks (cage included). If you fancy a bird’s-eye view, Horizontal Falls Adventures offers scenic seaplane flights. horizontalfallsadventures. com.au

Up & away

MacDonnell Ranges NT Floating high above the MacDonnell Ranges in a hot air balloon, witness

a spellbinding sunrise as bright rays illuminate the desert plains and its wildlife.

Outback Ballooning, one of the oldest companies of its kind in Australia, operates out of Alice Springs almost every day of the year. After your sky-high wake up call, they’ll start your day right with an Aussie-style champagne breakfast. outbackballooning.com.au

of the Yolngu people and the ancient cave systems of Mount Borradaile. The company’s partnership with the traditional owners of the land means you might be lucky enough to be schooled by a local Indigenous guide, in the same way the Aborigines have been passing down knowledge for 50,000 years. outbackspirittours.com.au

Wilderness safari Swim with Arnhem Land NT whales Unspoiled wilderness and sprawling wetlands teeming with wildlife define this special corner of the globe, and a safari here with Outback Spirit will introduce you to the Gove Peninsula

Ningaloo Reef WA One of Australia’s most preserved reefs, Ningaloo also ranks as one of the best spot in the world to swim alongside whale sharks.

Between March and August, AUG/SEPT 2018

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Outback Adventures

Top to bottom: Skydiving over Rottnest Island; driving through the Northern Territory desert; Uluru Camel Tours.

around 300 to 500 of them gather along the World Heritage-listed reef to feed on plankton. These gentle giants share the waters with manta rays, dugongs, sea turtles, dolphins and tropical fish, providing an unparalleled opportunity for diving and snorkelling with Ningaloo Discovery tours. And from August to September, you can mingle with pods of graceful migrating humpback whales and their calves. ningaloodiscovery.com.au

Desert driving

The Binns Track NT An epic four-wheel drive adventure, the Binns Track winds all the way from the South Australian border to the remote northern township of Timber Creek in the far north west of the state. Traversing north for 2,230 kilometres, the track begins at Mount Dare and heads to the western fringe of the Simpson Desert, before journeying through the ancient East MacDonnell Ranges, abandoned goldrush towns, the towering granite boulders of Devils Marbles and the famed “Barra country” of Judbarra/ Gregory National Park. northernterritory.com/drive/ binns-track

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Skydiving

Rottnest Island WA Accelerating from 0 to 200 kilometres per hour in just 60 seconds, imagine rocketing in freefall toward the turquoise reefs of Rottnest Island. Western Australia’s only island skydiving experience begins with a 20-minute scenic flight, followed by an 8,000– 15,000-foot plunge from the plane, with instructor in tow.

Back on safe ground, be sure to take a selfie with the island’s ever-smiling resident quokkas. Further afield, Sky Dive Geronimo also offers tandem skydiving in Busselton and Broome. skydivegeronimo.com.au

Camel riding

Uluru NT Make like the early pioneers and explore the Red Centre on camelback. With 60 friendly desert animals in their care, Uluru Camel Tours offers journeys around Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. For an extraspecial experience, choose between their sunrise and sunset tours to soak up the first or last light of the day against a rich, earthy landscape, before finishing with refreshments. The accompanying camel farm is open year-round and visitors are welcome to a short ride and a wander through the camel museum. ulurucameltours.com.au AN

PHILANTHROPY

Two-way learning In the remote Kimberley region the school day is underway, but class subjects — and the students taking them are not what you might expect. words: Leah McLennan n boab-dotted Leopold Downs Station, local Aboriginal students and pupils from Melbourne spend part of their day learning how to muster cattle, repair fences and forage for bush tucker.

Established in 2010, the Yiramalay/Wesley Studio School is a unique partnership between Wesley College – one of the top co-educational independent private schools in Melbourne – and the Indigenous people of the Fitzroy Valley communities in the Kimberley.

“When Melbourne students come up here, a lot of them haven’t been out bush and many haven’t met Aboriginal people, so it’s quite a culture shock,” says Ned McCord, the Studio School’s executive director and a former cattleman.

“They move in and share accommodation with the Aboriginal students, and a lot of great friendships are made.”

Situated on a working cattle station 85 kilometres from the small town of Fitzroy Crossing, the Studio School enrolls around 60 Aboriginal students, who experience “cultural, spiritual and academic learning” to help prepare them for future employment and education.

As part of the two-way learning venture, the school hosts up to 120 Year 10 students from Melbourne each year. In groups of 20 to 25, the Wesley College teenagers undertake a three-week induction based on life in the Kimberley.

“Our local Yiramalay students immerse the Wesley pupils in Indigenous culture through activities such as traditional smoking ceremonies, mustering cattle, exploring Indigenous art, music and dance, making bush tucker – even learning how to catch and cook goannas.”

O

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The students also learn the story of the Bunuba people’s revered ancestor Jandamarra, a freedom fighter who tried to hold back the tide of European expansion in the Kimberley.

“You’ve got the Aboriginal students learning, and also telling the story as they’ve heard it from their elders.”

And while students from the city might shine in certain classroom subjects, local pupils lead the way when it comes to bush skills, chuckles Mr McCord.

“They were doing some fencing on the station and they had to get lunch,” he recalls. “The Aboriginal students started chasing a goanna. Later when they were preparing it to cook, the local students talked to the Wesley students about how to cut it properly, clean it and get the fire ready. There’s so much learning that is done outside the classroom.”

"They move in and share accommodation with the aboriginal students, and a lot of great friendships are made.” – Ned McCord Teenagers off to the big smoke The two-way learning continues when Aboriginal students pack up and relocate to Melbourne to experience mainstream education and metropolitan culture.

Simara Munda, a Pilbara-born 16-year-old, is one of the 60 Aboriginal students in residence at Yiramalay. She spends half of each year at Wesley College.

“My experience has included meeting new people and learning about them and how different the local Bunuba culture and my culture, Yinjibarndi, are,” says Simara, a year 11 student at the school.

Images Students at the Yiramalay/ Wesley Studio School; officials gather at the opening of the new accommodation.

AUG/SEPT 2018

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PHILANTHROPY

At Wesley College the Yiramalay students can take up opportunities such as a science camp at the University of Melbourne, learning about media and broadcasting at RMIT University’s radio station, and visiting ABB’s Melbourne base to operate an industrial robot.

“I received advice about future careers and we went to Monash University and visited the law faculty,” recalls Simara.

“When I leave school I would like to try journalism in a big city like Melbourne, but for now I like being here [in the Kimberley] because there are different people to meet and I get to swim in the beautiful waterholes.”

Many ways to measure success The overall retention rate of Yiramalay students is significantly higher than the national average for Aboriginal students – 70 per cent of students at the Studio School participate in Year 12, while the national average is 19 per cent. Last year five students graduated Year 12. However, the number of students who complete Year 12 is not the only measure of success.

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“Nearly 75 per cent of all Yiramalay students enrolled at the school since 2010 are now either employed or continuing their education,” says McCord.

“They are in fields such as education, conservation, agriculture, mining and construction. This really speaks for the impact Yiramalay has, and the merit in focusing on the holistic development of students.”

Currently three staff members are former students who completed Year 12. “It’s home for them – and I’ve got more alumni wanting to come back to work or volunteer,” says McCord.

The positive impact of the school is also seen in the health of the Indigenous students, including improved mental wellbeing, and better sleep and physical fitness, he adds.

Experiencing Kimberley life also changes the career aspirations of the Melbourne students.

“A couple of Wesley students have become vets and several are now working on properties in the NT and in WA. The program brings some young people back into the bush.

I love that aspect of it as well.”

New digs in the outback In late May the Studio School held a celebration to mark the official opening of new accommodation.

“Students in Years 10, 11 and 12 were on bunk beds, and now they are two to a room. We bought all the beds locally in Broome and they’ve got lovely doonas. In the first term, with the air conditioners, they loved that as well,” says McCord.

The $1.4 million project was funded in part by contributions from the Commonwealth Government, while half came from fundraising efforts. AN

See us at

the Bush Foods collection nature from the Kimberley.

Connect with a woman’s tradition of gathering the gifts of nature and share the beautiful designs inspired by this cultural practice.

Inspired by her culture, Indigenous artist Gloria Mengil, has created a unique range of hand thrown ceramic dinnerware and stunning textiles.

Your purchase directly supports her and the economic livelihood of Indigenous women to keep alive the cultural practice of bush food gathering.

WARR1468 BRONWYNROGERSDESIGNSTUDIO

Give yourself a beautiful gift of

Waringarri Arts is a not for profit Aboriginal owned art centre supporting the social, cultural and economic well-being of artists and community.

Waringarri Arts • 08 9168 2212 • www.waringarriarts.com.au 16 Speargrass Road, Kununurra WA (Opposite Kelly’s Knob) Cultural tours • art • Gallery • limited edition PieCes

AUG/SEPT 2018

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ARTSPACE

Borne of the Land Here we meet two of Warringarri Aboriginal Arts rising stars, to learn a little about how they continue to explore their country and their people through their art.

WORDS: MICHELLE HESPE

Bush Tucker Connections Looking at one of Gloria Mengil’s paintings is to step back to a time over forty years ago, when her grandmother and mother once collected bush tucker with her as a child, on their traditional land of Binjin.

The paintings are tangible, intricately detailed connections to both her and her family’s past, and also everlasting links between her and the land that she continues to explore and learn from.

When Gloria first began working as an artist, she worked in the mediums of slate and boab — carving out her past, her thoughts, her dreams.

“Then in 2000 I began painting because I wanted to learn more about my country,” she says. “I mostly paint my grandmother’s traditional country.”

Gloria was born in Kununurra – a town on the eastern extremity of the Kimberley Region that is considered an oasis in the desert. It’s a special place that is fertile enough to grow melons and mangoes. It is here that Gloria learned about what she could collect from the surrounding lands to eat, and right from a young age, one of her favourite types of bush tucker was bush peanuts, which she loves to eat after they’ve been roasted on coals.

These peanuts are often featured in her bold graphic paintings, and they’ve now also been adapted to appear on hand-thrown terracotta and stoneware plates, platters and beakers, and they’re digitally printed on elegant silk scarves.

The beautiful pieces are the end result of a collaboration between Warringarri Aboriginal Arts and JamFactory Contemporary Craft.

Sadly, despite there being benefits of increased agricultural expansion in Kununurra and surrounds, the changes to the original habitat in which Gloria and her family foraged has led to the bush foods that have fed Indigenous Australians for tens of thousands of years to be threatened. Today Gloria

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rarely eats the bush tucker that she once survived on. However, through the intricately detailed paintings and objects that celebrate Gloria’s favoured foods, is the hope that these nuts and fruit can be protected for future generations to enjoy.

Mother Country Dora Griffiths has had a rich and colourful life in Kununurrra, surrounded by two things that she loves: her home Country and art. Over a decade ago, she worked at the Warringarri Arts Centre as an artist support worker, helping the elderly artists to mix paints. She then worked as the gallery’s

Images Far left: Gloria Mengil wearing her silk scarf.

(Photo courtesy of Glenn Iseger.)

This page, clockwise from left: Bali Baleng, 2018,

by Dora Griffiths (natural pigment on canvas 80x60cm); Gloria Mengil’s My Favourite Bush Tucker ceramic range. (Photo courtesy of Glenn Iseger); Dora Griffiths wearing Waringarri Arts hand block printed textile; Goodim, 2018,

by Dora Griffiths (natural pigment on canvas 100x100cm.)

AUG/SEPT 2018

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ARTSPACE

Administrator, then moved up to become Gallery Assistant. She then became a Director on the gallery’s Board, later taking on the role of Chairperson. Dora then joined the ANKAAA Board (Association of Northern, Kimberley and Arnhem Aboriginal Artists) and completed the ANKAA Arts Worker extension program.

Being around so much art, history, culture, and talented artists led Dora to putting her own talent to the test, and today, while juggling being a mother and a grandmother, when she manages to find some time for herself she loves to paint her father and mother’s traditional country. She’s proud to follow in the footsteps of her elders, learning about Country, culture and art, from her parents, acclaimed artist Peggy, and recently deceased Alan Griffiths.

In 2017, Dora curated her first exhibition, Legacy, which was a special collection of works that embodied the past, present and future thinking around the art centre’s collection, honouring the work of four deceased artists.

Dora created the concept around the work of former masters Paddy Carlton, Daisy Bitting, Mignonette Jamin and Peter Newry, who were renowned for using art as a tool to celebrate, educate and deliver cultural knowledge to future generations. They were pioneers of their time and helped to create the vision and direction of Warringarrri Aboriginal Arts. They left a powerful artistic legacy that continues to gather momentum today.

“Even though our old people are gone, they are still with us here today, their spirit is here. It is a way of connecting back to the artists and also reminding us how far these artists have carried this place and kept us motivated and connected

Images Left to right: Gloria Mengil’s silk scarf and textiles.

(Photo courtesy of Glenn Iseger.); Goongooloo, 2018,

by Dora Griffiths (natural pigment on paper 38x29cm)

to each other through arts and culture,” Dora said while addressing the crowd on opening night at ‘Legacy’.

The exhibition will continue throughout 2018.

Due to the great interest generated by the show, Dora and Warringarri Aboriginal Arts hope to run more exhibitions in the future, including a prospective focus on the art of Kalumburu, whose remote Kira Kiro art centre Warringarri supports and helps to promote.

AUG/SEPT 2018

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WALKING HOLIDAYS

AUSTRALIA’S BEST WALKING HOLIDAYS From the Grampians’ rugged mountain peaks to the azure waters around the Bay of Fires, Australia is home to some of the world’s most epic and immersive walking holidays.

Words: Sarah Hinder

Bay of Fires, Tas For those after a luxurious and leisurely walking trip, the Bay of Fires Lodge Walk ticks every box. Experience the 32-kilometre track over four days in a small group, led by experienced guides. Trekking with Tasmanian Walking Co means deluxe accommodation every night, spa treatments and local Tassie fare. For an Indigenous take on the area, the Aboriginal owned and operated Wukalina Walk offers an immersive cultural experience in palawa — Tasmanian Aboriginal culture — and nights are spent in bespoke palawa-inspired dome huts. taswalkingco.com.au wukalinawalk.com.au 

WALKING HOLIDAYS

Cape to Cape Track, WA

Winding across the beautiful Margaret River region, between Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin, this coastal track takes in cliffs, headlands, seascapes and inland forests. For a combination of nature and the region’s famed food and wine scene, Walk Into Luxury offers a guided four-day walking experience with nightly luxury accommodation and a smorgasbord of winery and dining experiences. capetocapewalk.com.au

Bibbulmun Track, WA One of the world’s longest walking trails, this scenic walk stretches 1,000 kilometres through karri and tingle forests, coastal heathlands and the awe-inspiring coastline of Western Australia’s south-west. Whether tackling the epic track end-to-end or strolling section by section, the Bibbulmun Track Foundation offers plenty of events and workshops on all manner of bush survival to get you started. Bibbulmun Walking Breaks leads guided half- and full-day or eight- and nine-day tours with nightly stays at bed and breakfasts in rural towns along the way. For those travelling solo, furnished timber campsites, toilets and picnic tables are dotted along the wellmaintained track. bibbulmuntrack.org.au

Scenic Rim Trail, Qld This eco-luxury walking experience explores the World Heritage-listed Gondwana Rainforests of Main Range National Park. Along the three-day trail, expect surreal panoramic views and unspoilt ancient wilderness. Each night, return to Spicers Canopy, a group of 10 luxury eco-tents decked out with creature comforts that make for the ideal glamping experience — especially when you set sight on the blanket of twinkling stars hovering above. scenicrimtrail.com

Heysen Trail, SA

Extending from Cape Jervis on the Fleurieu Peninsula to Parachilna Gorge in the Flinders Ranges, the Heysen Trail winds for 1,200 mesmerising kilometres, taking in wine regions and some of South Australia’s most spectacular scenery. To traverse the entire length would take 60 days, so for a less daunting but equally memorable experience, Trek Tours Australia leads six-day tours with cabin-style accommodation. The Arkaba Walk, meanwhile, is a four-day eco-hiking safari dedicated to educating visitors about conservation. heysentrail.asn.au trektoursaustralia.com.au arkabawalk.com

AUG/SEPT 2018

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WALKING HOLIDAYS

Grampians Peaks Trail, Vic

Here, at one of Australia’s most breathtaking mountainous regions, ancient sandstone formations loom large over fern-filled gorges and spectacular waterfalls. Grampians Personalised Tours & Adventures offers insightful excursions, from guided bushwalks and environmental talks to eco-walks and adventure activities. When the hiking day is done, spend time exploring the surrounding Grampians region, which is bursting with picturesque towns, gastronomic adventures, welcoming cellar doors and arresting local art. visitgrampians.com.au grampianstours.com

HONOURABLE MENTIONS • Cliff Top Walking Track, Blue Mountains NSW: For heartracing views across the Grose Valley, spring wildflowers and waterfalls.

• Maria Island Walk, Tas: An award-winning, comfortable walk around a World Heritage island and its pristine beaches.

• Wineglass Bay, Freycinet National Park Tas: For its white-sand beaches and azure waters surrounded by lush green forests.

• Great Ocean Walk, Vic: Aside from the Twelve Apostles, the wilderness and wildlife of Great Otway National Park are reason enough.

• Mount Sorrow Ridge Trail, Daintree Rainforest Qld: A world-class gem for naturelovers, this track is not for the faint-hearted.

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Larapinta Trail, NT

Six Foot Track, NSW

Atop the West MacDonnell Ranges, the legendary Larapinta Trail winds its way across outback ridges for a grand 233 kilometres. Staggering ridge lookouts descend between blazing orange gorges, with plenty of welcome waterholes scattered along the track. Boutique trekking company Trek Larapinta lead small camping groups, starting from three days through to the full 16-day end-toend trek. Beginning in Alice Springs and winding across the spine of the West MacDonnell Ranges, the trek is famous for its 360-degree panoramas. larapintatrail.com.au treklarapinta.com.au

This historic Blue Mountains track is a three-day journey linking Katoomba and the Jenolan Caves. Originally built as a horse trail in 1884, today there are plenty of overnight camping sites along the way. The 46-kilometre journey offers exceptional stargazing and is thriving with rivers and cascading waterfalls. Sweeping views over the Megalong Valley make for superb photo ops, before crossing the creaking swing bridge over Coxs River.

With outstanding accommodation options and plenty to see and do, it wouldn’t hurt to extend your stay at either end. nationalparks.nsw.gov.au

• Cooloola Wilderness Trail, Qld: Through eucalypt forest and sub-tropical rainforest, you’ll go past sand dunes, volcanic crags and the Noosa ‘River of Mirrors’.

• Gold Coast Hinterland Great Walk, Qld: For three days of wildlife-spotting and sweeping views around Gondwana Rainforest and an ancient volcano.

• Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail, SA: A five-day trek around coastline and cliffs, with terrific wildlife encounters.

Health and fitness Events

Peach Band

Lululemon ‘Down For A Run’ Jacket Stay warm on your run this winter with Lululemon’s latest wind- and water-resistant jacket, made with 800-fill-power goose down and Glyde fabric. Comfy and stylish all at once, it comes in black, white and inkwell. $229, lululemon.com.au

This revolutionary resistance band is suitable for workouts at home and the gym. Short and taut, it allows for optimal time under tension and improved muscle control. Using a Peach Band is an effective way to incorporate resistance exercises into your routine. $27.45, peach-band.com

Health and fitness

Enhance your wellbeing and stay active this winter.

KeepCup This Australian company has succeeded in diverting billions of disposable cups from landfill, instead promoting sustainability through the use of reusable ones. You can design your own personal barista standard KeepCup or customise a branded one for your organisation. $11–$34, au.keepcup.com

Herschel Novel Duffle The Herschel Novel Duffle is practical, wears well and will last years. Ideal as a weekender or gym bag, it comes with great storage space, a separate signature shoe compartment and is available in more than 35 custom designs. $159.95, herschel.com.au AUG/SEP 2018

Health and fitness nts

Dyson Pure Hot+Cool Link Purifier Heater

Travertine Dumbbell 1pce The Travertine Dumbbell is the most stylish of all gym accessories. They are also perfect for use as a paperweight or functional sculpture in the home or studio. $129.90, top3.com.au

Dyson’s purifying heater uses compact filtration technology to capture 99.95 per cent of fine particles, including allergens, pollutants, bacteria and odour. For use in all seasons, the device both purifies the air and maintains your preferred temperature. $799, dyson.com.au

Live Whole Coconut Yoga Mat Made from 100 per cent natural tree rubber and reinforced with coconut coir fibre, this biodegradable yoga mat is one of the most durable — and easy to grip — on the market. With every mat sold the company buys back acres of land for conservation in partnership with the Rainforest Trust. $99, livewholeyoga.com

Blackmores Probiotics+ Immune Defence Providing 20 billion good bacteria, plus a prebiotic, Blackmores’ multi-functioning probiotic formula helps to restore the good, natural bacteria in the digestive system, while providing a healthy dose of vitamin C and zinc for immune support. $29.99, blackmores.com.au AUG/SEP 2018

Health and fitness

DOIY yoga mat terrazzo white DOIY’s Nature Yoga Mat is printed on one side with a natureinspired pattern, so you can bring a little of the outside into your living room/yoga studio. It’s thick, lightweight, easily portable, and has a supportive cushion. $59.90, top3.com.au

Camelbak Ultra Pro Vest Ideal for the competitive runner, this vest is made from ultra-light materials and features a streamlined design.

With a 4.5-litre capacity, secure phone pocket, gear storage and reflectivity for safety, the Ultra Pro Vest aims to change the way you exercise. $185.95, camelbak.com.au

Camelbak Eddy This durable water bottle from Camelbak has achieved the perfect design for hydration on the go. Made from BPA-free materials, it’s equipped with a spill-proof bite valve, plus it’s dishwasher safe. They’re available in a range of colours and in 60ml, 75ml and 1L options. $24.95–$49.95, camelbak.com.au

Everyday Super Food, Jamie Oliver Jamie Oliver makes eating well simple, fun and colourful in his best-selling cookbook, where every recipe is nutritionally balanced and loaded with nutrient- and vitamin-rich superfoods. Delish ideas. $49.99, jamieoliver.com AUG/SEP 2018

Health and fitness

PlanetBox These stainless steel lunch boxes provide a neat way to pack healthy food, keeping everything inside fresh. Ecofriendly and built to last, they don’t cost the planet and better yet, they come with a customisable design. $39.95–$59.95, planetbox.com

Twotags Microfibre Towel Frank Body Coffee Scrub Frank Body’s coffee-infused scrubs exfoliate dry skin, stimulate blood flow and promote collagen production. The scrubs come in original coffee as well as cocoa, coconut, peppermint and a new shimmer kit. $16.95–$19.95, frankbody.com

Soft and lightweight, Twotag’s smart microfibre training towels absorb eight times their own weight in liquid, yet dry in just half the time of regular cotton towels. The built-in pockets hold keys, cash, earphones and other gadgets — very handy when hitting the gym or travelling. $12–$25, twotags.com.au

AUG/SEP 2018

AusBiz.

NEWS+VIEWS | MINING | AGRIBUSINESS | INFRASTRUCTURE

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05 P.5 mining: renewable energy P.10 property: The rise of telecommuting P.16 agribusiness: the booming business of bees P.30 Business: HelloFresh australia. P.34 family business: Thomas cook boots & clothing co. P.40 EDUCATION

Business News+Views

Business News+Views Bringing you the latest insights and analyses. WORDS: Sarah Hinder Mining X-rays map new paths to hidden gold Revolutionary new X-ray technology that provides critical data to miners on gold grades in near-real time is changing the landscape of Australian mining. Developed by the CSIRO and brought to market by Chrysos Corporation, the fully automated photon analysis system drastically reduces the turnaround time on assays from days to minutes.

Adopted by Aussie mining services company Ausdrill, the groundbreaking technology is currently being used in a world-first at their MinAnalytical Perth facility, with two

more photon assay systems to soon be established in the Kalgoorlie goldfields.

At a similar cost to the conventional fire assay technique for gold analyses used for 500 years, this new X-ray system analyses more than 50,000 gold samples a month and can be applied to other minerals, including silver and copper. A faster, safer and more environmentally friendly alternative, photon assay technology is expected to give Australia’s mining industry a competitive edge on the global stage.

Chef in the house?

Meet Andrew — in his mid-thirties, always up for a challenge, with a sense of adventure that has led to living in towns from Western Australia's Pilbara region and also in the Central Highlands area of Queensland. Much of Andrew’s travels around regional and remote Australia has been for free, including his accommodation and meals, because Andrew is a qualified chef.

Some years ago, Andrew approached Atlas People after a recommendation from another chef. Atlas People recruit chefs, sending them to venues in regional and remote towns throughout Australia.

Venue owners and managers also benefit, knowing they can relax when an existing chef decided to move on, because they will secure a chef who has worked for Atlas People before, or who has been referred to them with the necessary, recognised qualifications. If long term appointments are required, Atlas People offer a try before you hire service.

"Let’s face it, anyone can find a chef in the city because of the sheer number of

AusBiz. Promotion people who live there,” says Managing Director of Atlas People, Doug Fletcher. “Away from the city, as any owner or manager of any business will tell you, it is harder to find qualified people.

We've been active in building a large pool of talent, that as well as being qualified chefs, are after a lifestyle that enables them to travel Australia and play a vital role in these communities", Fletcher said.

With a repeat business rate of 75 per cent plus, the advantages Atlas People offer regional and remote venues are appealing. "Our try first offer and available talent pool means we can have a chef in place within 24-72 hours, regardless of your location. We also manage the payroll headaches and our rate includes wages, superannuation, PAYG tax, Workcover and Public Liability Insurances,” said Fletcher.

Contact Atlas People at admin@ atlaspeople.com.au or phone 07 3088 3700 (east coast) and 08 9468 7500 (west coast).

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Business News+Views

Australia’s fish populations in peril Numbers of large fish species in Australia are rapidly on the decline, with populations of fish measuring more than 20 centimetres — such as bream and snapper — down by 30 per cent in the past 10 years.

Since the introduction of marine parks in the 1980s, as well as national regulations that outlined fishing zones, catch sizes and mesh size of nets, Australian fisheries have enjoyed a reputation for being some of the world’s most sustainable. However, the latest statistics have marine ecologists calling for a review of Australian fisheries and

fishing practices.

Research from the University of Technology Sydney and the University of Tasmania suggests that, in addition to climate change and overfishing, the ineffectual managment of marine reserves is largely to blame for the steep decline. Undersized and under-resourced, most Australian marine reserves are largely unable to aid in the recovery of important ecosystem functions.

If Australia wants to manage its commercial fish stocks for sustainability reasons, attention must be paid to the protection of marine habitats.

Fast Facts

50,000

Photon assay technology analyses more than 50,000 gold samples a month.

In the past century, seagrass cover has declined by 30 per cent, while 20 per cent of the world’s mangrove cover was lost between 1980 and 2005.

33%

In waters open to fishing, exploited populations fell by an average of 33 per cent between 2005 and 2015.

Mining

Renewables start to shine for Australian miners RUNNING A MINING OPERATION USES A LOT OF ENERGY. AS RENEWABLE ENERGY COMES DOWN THE COST CURVE, IT’S BECOMING AN INCREASINGLY VIABLE ALTERNATIVE TO DIESEL AND NATURAL GAS. Darren Baguley An agriculture, tech, mining, energy and business specialist writer.

Mines use a lot of energy, whether it is to run draglines and haul trucks, conveyors and crushers or for on-site beneficiation. According to Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA)’s white paper Renewable Energy in the Australian Mining Sector, on average one tonne of coal takes 50.5kWh (kilowatt/ hour) to produce, minerals average 10.7kWh/tonne and metals come in at 54.5kWh/tonne. With coal and minerals, diesel equipment and comminution operations comprise much of the energy consumed, but with metals on-site beneficiation operations cause disparity.

The beneficiation processes for bauxite consume on average 13kWh/tonne while gold averages 210kWh/ tonne. This is because the energy consumed by metals with low on-site beneficiation, such as bauxite and iron ore, is predominantly consumed as diesel for plant involved in extraction and transport. Metals with a high level of on-site site beneficiation, such as copper and gold, consume energy as electricity.

The energy for beneficiation is mainly supplied by diesel (41 per cent), natural gas (33 per cent) and grid electricity (21 per cent), and the industry’s energy intensity is only going to increase as miners chase

Fast Facts

58million Australia has the best solar energy resource in the world, receiving on average 58 million Petajoules of solar radiation per year, approximately 10,000 times its total energy consumption.

30,000

South Australia’s 100MW/129MWh battery is the biggest lithium ion device in the world and is capable of powering about 30,000 homes for a little over an hour.

K E E P I N G D E G R U S S A’ S S O L A R / D I E S E L / B AT T E R Y H Y B R I D P O W E R P L A N T O P E R AT I N G AT P E A K P E R F O R M A N C E I S A T E A M E F F O R T. O N S I T E M A N A G E M E N T T E A M : ( L- R ) TA D G H O ’ S C A N N A I L – SANDFIRE, PETER COOK – OTOC, NORBERT BORCHERT – JUWI, LAURENT LAFFORGUE – NEOEN.

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Mining

M E TA L S W I T H A H I G H L E V E L O F O N - S I T E S I T E B E N E F I C I AT I O N , S U C H A S C O P P E R , C O N S U M E E N E R G Y A S E L E C T R I C I T Y. T H E D E G R U S S A COPPER MINE IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA SOURCES AROUND 20 PER C E N T O F I T S T O TA L E N E R G Y N E E D S F R O M 3 4 , 0 8 0 S O L A R P V PA N E L S C O N N E C T E D T O A 6 M W L I T H I U M - I O N B AT T E R Y S T O R A G E FA C I L I T Y.

ore bodies of ever-decreasing grade.

According to A.R. Bye (Case Studies Demonstrating Value from Geometallurgy Initiatives, 1st AusIMM International Geometallurgy Conference 2011), in the past 30 years the average grade has declined by half while the amount of overburden needing to be removed has doubled.

As commodity price volatility is the new normal and competition from international players grows, our mining industry is under immense pressure to reduce operating costs. Mining operations with a high electricity demand and a long life can support the capital investment required to extend electrical or gas pipeline infrastructure and 65 per cent of Australian mine sites are connected to the grid.

On remote mine sites diesel is generally reliable and quick to deploy, but it’s also expensive. According to the AECOM report Off-grid Solar in the Mining Sector, remote mines can be paying more than $300/MWh in fuel; and diesel costs are likely to rise over time. Natural gas, either CNG or LNG, can be cost competitive if close enough to infrastructure, but price volatility is one of the consequences of the Australian gas market’s recent interconnection with the global market.

According to AECOM, “A 1.2 MW solar installation could reliably supply 5 per cent of the electricity for a 5MW mine, reducing diesel consumption by 600,000 litres per annum, saving around $6 million in diesel costs over 10 years.” It’s

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important to note, however, that even though diesel prices have been edging up recently there is little consensus among analysts about what oil or gas prices are likely to do over the next few years, let alone 10 years.

The report noted several other benefits for mine operators deploying renewables, including “reduced exposure to the uncertainty of the carbon price [and] increased system redundancy, providing an increased level of reliability.”

While it’s true there is currently no price on carbon in Australia, it is only a matter of time before a carbon price, an emissions trading scheme or an emissions intensity scheme is introduced. ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht says any new mining company that has a 10-year plus operating horizon is factoring some form of carbon price into its calculations.

It is important to note that this report was written in 2012, and as well as factoring in a carbon price it priced solar photo-voltaic (PV) generation costs at approximately $226/ MWh. Since then solar PV has moved even further down the cost curve. According to International Renewable Energy Agency's report Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2017, utility scale solar photo-voltaic power has come down to US$10 per MWh. Australia’s leading solar researcher, 2018 Global Energy Prize-winner Professor Martin Green, was reported by ReNew Economy as predicting that the cost of solar PV will fall to about 1c/KWh before the mid-2020s.

While mine sites aren’t quite utility scale and they also need battery storage to smooth out intermittency to work effectively, the cost of renewable energy is plummeting, and the business case is becoming ever more compelling.

Companies are starting to look closely at renewable energy.

Cost saving is the major driver for mining companies

Mining

but they’re also looking to smooth out volatility in fuel cost and hedge against the future introduction of some sort of carbon price. Frischknecht says there are other benefits from deploying renewables on mine sites. “The strongest driver is the cost of the alternative, so for mines that are off grid – and 65 per cent of Australian mines are grid-connected — they’re either using gas or diesel generators and it’s mainly the cost of fuel.

“Solar with diesel and battery storage is predominantly the generation method that mines are looking at. Wind is a possibility in some instances but many of our mines are in cyclone areas and to make a wind turbine that can stand up to a cyclone needs a stronger frame that is more firmly anchored down, which costs more.”

Connecting a battery in-line with solar serves several purposes. The most obvious is that it can store energy for when the sun is not shining. However, an advantage that is not widely recognised is that a battery provides better quality power. “It eliminates the voltage drop caused by clouds passing over the solar array, but a battery also provides more stable frequency and voltage by dampening down the sub-second oscillations that even grid connections experience,” says Frischknecht.

In a way, even a relatively small battery can provide these benefits as it works in the same way that an uninterrupted power supply works for a data centre, i.e. providing power while the generator starts up.

Both Frischknecht and the AECOM report argue that deploying renewable energy provides excellent opportunities for public relations and community engagement, and for improving the environmental credentials of the business. Sandfire Resources’ DeGrussa Copper-Gold Mine is a high-grade copper mine located 900km north east of Perth in Western Australia. The mine was completed in 2012 and in 2016 commissioned the largest integrated off-grid solar and battery storage facility of any mine in Australia, and quite possibly the world.

The $40 million project funded by ARENA comprises 34,080 solar PV panels mounted on a single-axis tracking system that enables the panels to track the sun during the day. The panels are connected to a 6MW lithium-ion battery storage facility and the existing 19MW diesel power station.

The solar panels supply around 20 per cent of the DeGrussa mine’s annual power requirements and cut its emissions by approximately 12,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year — this represents a reduction of about 15 per cent based on the mine’s FY2016 emissions.

Just as importantly, Frischknecht says, there has been a boost in workforce engagement. “I was flying into the DeGrussa mine with some of the workers and without any prompting they started telling me how they love flying over the solar field as they’re coming into work. ‘It reminds us that

T H E D E G R U S S A C O P P E R M I N E ’ S 3 4 , 0 8 0 P V PA N E L S C O V E R J U S T O V E R 2 0 H E C TA R E S A N D C A N B E C L E A R LY S E E N F R O M T H E A I R .

the company cares about the planet, our kids, the future,’ one worker said.”

Despite the advantages, many challenges remain before renewable energy is commonplace on remote mine sites, says Frischknecht. “One major challenge is the shortage of technical expertise. Once a hybrid system is tuned it will run itself but integrating all the different components — solar PV, batteries and the diesel power plant — is a different skillset from running a diesel genset.”

Other inhibitors include the 10-15 year power provisioning contracts that mining companies take out with third parties that are very difficult to vary during the life of the contract.

“There are challenges around the processes and operational principles that large companies operate under.

For example, a genset is an accepted piece of technology and the acquisition of an additional unit may only take 48 - hours to sign off because it’s in the system. By contrast, getting something new and untried like a solar array component can take a year or two,” says Frischknecht.

There is no doubt that projects such as DeGrussa and a similar ARENA-financed installation at Rio Tinto’s Weipa bauxite mine are igniting interest in renewables. In the past few months South32, Image Resources and OZ Minerals have all announced plans to integrate renewables with existing power plants. The South32 project at Cannington, Queensland, will be funded by ARENA and will incorporate a re-deployable 3MW solar farm from Energy Developments Ltd. If the re-deployable system proves successful, it will help solve the disconnect between mine life and ROI that is acting as a brake in investment in renewables.

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New semi-autonomous pile driving solution for Australian solar farms

A combination of Carlson machine guidance, the Vermeer PD10 pile driver machine and technical support promises increased productivity for the Australian solar industry.

Intelligent positioning solutions provider Position Partners has teamed up with heavy machinery manufacturer Vermeer Australia, to streamline pile driving applications in the solar industry. With more than 200 people in offices Australia-wide, in South East Asia and New Zealand, Position Partners is the largest Australian-owned company focussing entirely on the distribution and support of positioning and geospatial solutions for surveying, civil works, mining and building projects.

The amount of posts required for a solar farm varies greatly, from a few hundred to a few hundred thousand. Traditional methods are labour intensive with potential for human error, as they involve a surveyor manually staking out each pile location, along with continuous stringline installation to guide the machine operator. If any pile is a little off its desired location, the racking system that is used to house the solar panels may not fit.

By eliminating the need for manual stakeout and stringlines, the new semi-autonomous solution not only speeds up the process, it also guarantees greater accuracy and improved safety, by removing the need for people to work close to the pile driving machine.

“Depending on the project, we estimate that contractors save between eight to ten dollars for every pile they drive,” said Andrew Granger, Position Partners Business Manager for Mining, Solar and Landfill. “On a small solar farm where every dollar counts that’s a good saving, and on a large-scale farm the savings are significant,” he added.

Carlson machine guidance includes a variety of sensors fitted to the machine, along with a precision GPS unit and a control box that gives the operator real-time information about location, depth and angle of each pile. With all the information required on screen, the solution eliminates the need to manually stake out the piles altogether.

When combined with Vermeer’s PD10 piling system, the benefits of Carlson’s machine guidance are further increased. Vermeer opened up the machine’s CANBUS system to allow for greater communication between the machine and the guidance technology, creating a semiautonomous solution that reduces the risk of human error even more.

“We’ve been working with Carlson’s Australian distributor, Position Partners, for some months on this solution, with great success,” said Jeff Lawson, National Construction Sales Manager at Vermeer Australia. “Vermeer’s most advanced pile driving machine, combined with Carlson’s machine guidance and our combined technical support capabilities enables us to offer a winning combination for Australian contractors.”

For more information about the semi-autonomous pile driving solution contact Position Partners on 1300 867 266 or visit positionpartners.com.au AUG/SEPT 2018

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Telecommuting

Cutting the work commute WITH A GROWING NUMBER OF AUSTRALIANS NOW WORKING REMOTELY, TELECOMMUTING IS RESULTING IN A RISE IN REGIONAL PROPERTY PRICES. Kirsten Craze Kirsten Craze is a freelance journalist who has been writing about property in Australia and overseas for more than 15 years.

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M A N W O R K I N G AT 1 0 0 M I L E TA B L E I N B Y R O N B AY. C R E D I T: D E S T I N AT I O N N S W

Telecommuting

H O O K I N G A L I N E AT F L I N D E R S P I E R , MORNINGTON PENINSULA.

Fast Facts

2020

By 2020, after the completion of the National Broadband Network, the Federal Government aims to give 12 per cent of all public servants the opportunity to regularly telecommute.

8%

According to the latest ABS Census data, telecommuting increased from 8 per cent of the workforce in 2001 to 30 per cent in 2016.

Escaping tedious commutes and high-density living is a dream for many city dwellers, but there is a real fear of missing out on big city salaries. However, a growing number of Australians are managing to make their ideal lifestyle change while maintaining metro wages.

Telecommuting, also known as teleworking and e-working, is an emerging lifestyle phenomenon not only changing the way Australians are living, but also driving up regional property prices.

“Now it seems prices could be peaking in capital cities, so people are looking outside of these areas.

As a result, prices are starting to grow in the regions as people move out to them,” says Mathew Tiller, Head of Research at LJ Hooker.

“Obviously, most of our regional towns have property prices well below capital-city medians. But, for many, the hardest part about moving to a regional centre is income and employment prospects. So if you can take your city income with you and transfer it to an area where life is more affordable, then obviously you’re far ahead of the pack.”

The mass exodus, Tiller adds, mostly includes Baby Boomers who might still be a few years off retirement, and young families seeking a lifestyle change.

While these city defectors are at different life stages, they share the same goal: they want to ditch the commute, cash in on big city property prices and get more bang for their buck in regional towns.

“We’re definitely seeing it on the East Coast, AUG/SEPT 2018

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Telecommuting

particularly for Sydney and Melbourne due to the population growth and affordability issues those two cities have. But the other capitals are experiencing it as well,” says Tiller.

“All our capitals have very scenic coastal towns or attractive regional centres just outside them. Near Sydney you have the Hunter Valley, the Southern Highlands and the beaches of the South and Central Coasts. Close to Melbourne you have the same thing with Mornington Peninsula and the Surf Coast, while in Queensland it’s the Gold and Sunshine Coasts.

Outside of Adelaide you have the Adelaide Hills and the Barossa Valley, and with Perth there is the Margaret River region.”

While many regional towns suffered property price slumps post-GFC, the tides have recently turned.

Although there are a number of reasons behind rising regional real-estate values, Tiller attributes flexible working arrangements and technology as key drivers.

According to recent statistics from property data firm CoreLogic, the median house price in the Central Coast in New South Wales has jumped 74.2 per cent in the past five years to $748,178, while in the greater Wollongong area they have skyrocketed by 76.2 per cent to $831,774.

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In Victoria the regional hotspots are Mornington Peninsula, where the median house price increased by 50.5 per cent in five years to $808,036, and the Greater Geelong area, where prices rose 33 per cent to $518,613.

Queensland’s Gold Coast saw the median house price increase by 34.7 per cent in five years to $640,000, and even units, which endured significant losses post-GFC, have increased in price by 22.2 per cent in that time. Another region of note in the Sunshine State is the greater Toowoomba area, where the median house price now sits at a modest $388,236, up 20.9 per cent.

A recent McCrindle Research survey showed that Australians are eager to make significant changes to their working styles and embrace the freedom to work from home or remotely. Of those surveyed, 80 per cent (82 per cent of women and 78 per cent of men) said they’d be more likely to stay longer with an existing employer if they provide flexible working conditions.

“Most employees are prepared to forego a percentage of their pay in exchange for greater flexibility,” says social demographer Mark McCrindle, founder of McCrindle Research.

While 28 per cent of Australians would be willing to earn five per cent less for significant flexibility, an incredible one in 16 Australians would compromise 20 per cent (or one day’s pay) in exchange for the opportunity to work remotely.

A poll of more than 8,000 people by recruitment firm Hays found that 55 per cent of workers were happy to drop their salary if it meant they could work from home.

Telecommuting

“If you have a long commute, working from home or at another location closer to home will allow you to cut the travel time of your routine, which should improve your physical wellbeing,” says Susan Drew, Senior Regional Director at Hays.

Despite the overwhelming desire of Australian workers to plug into telecommuting, Drew says it is still not the norm for many companies.

“There is a worry among both employers and employees that telecommuting will hinder performance. However, it is down to the individual and the employer to ensure that they remain on track,” she says, adding that companies seeking five-star staff should consider the practice.

“If people cannot access telecommuting from their existing employer they may look elsewhere, which will lead to competitiveness in the market. To compete in retaining and attracting staff, companies will have to

“It's no longer a commuting class.

It's no longer people living in the region and suburbs but travelling to work in the nearest city."

T H E G O L D C O A S T. I M A G E C R E D I T: B R O B E S . C O M .

B E L O W : M O R N I N G T O N P E N I N S U L A B AT H I N G B O X E S .

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introduce working-from-home options.”

Mark McCrindle says that, with this growing desire for flexible work conditions and more affordable lifestyles, it is no wonder population rates and property prices in regional areas are on the rise.

“Some regional cities are actually growing faster than the capitals — it’s phenomenal. People can now work from these areas; we don’t just have to work in the CBD of big capitals. Technology solutions have really been an enabler,” McCrindle says.

“It’s no longer a commuting class. It’s no longer people living in the region and suburbs but travelling to work in the nearest city.”

In many ways, McCrindle adds, the NBN and the ever-changing digital landscape has given regional towns a leg up on capital cities, where house prices are becoming prohibitive.

“People can see the affordability, the lifestyle and now the ability to work from these places. They’re not just holiday destinations now; people live and work there while holding down well-paid CBD jobs,” he says.

“That’s the new way of life that Australians have responded to: they want to live, work and play close to where they are rather than just commute.”

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Agribusiness

A HIVE OF INDUSTRY CRUCIAL POLLINATING MACHINES AND CHAMPIONS OF THE FOOD CHAIN, BEES BRING MORE TO OUR TABLES THAN HONEY.

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Agribusiness

Darren Baguley An agriculture, tech, mining, energy and business specialist.

Fast Facts

25km/hr Bees fly at about 25 kilometres per hour and beat their wings 200 times per second.

10 kilos

It takes 10 kilos of honey to produce one kilo of beeswax — pretty amazing considering each bee only produces 112 of a teaspoon of honey in its entire lifetime.

60,000

A bee colony or hive contains 20,000–60,000 worker bees and one queen. Worker bees are female and live between six weeks and nine months depending on the season.

The honey and beeswax they produce and the pollination services they provide are worth billions to Australian agriculture. But more importantly, life as we know it would be impossible without honey bees.

As humans have spread out across the globe to populate every continent except Antarctica, they have brought their animals, large and small. Of these species’ introductions, none have been more successful than the western (or European) honey bee (Apis mellifera). First brought into Australia in 1822 to aid in the pollination of the colonists’ European crops and pastures, beekeeping is an important rural industry and the pollination services it provides are even more vital than they were nearly 200 years ago.

Amateur and commercial beekeepers in every state and Territory, except Tasmania, are required by law to register their hives. According to Australian Honey Bee Industry Council (AHBIC) executive director Trevor Weatherhead AM, there are 24,000 beekeepers in Australia and more than 647,000 hives, which produce around 20,000 tonnes of honey annually.

The ABARES Australian honey bee industry 2014–15 survey results estimated the gross value of production at $101 million. The report found that, “on average, Australian beekeepers sold around 53 per cent of their honey to major processors in 2014–15. Around 17 per cent was sold to other processors, while the remainder was sold direct to retail (12 per cent), local markets (10 per cent) and door sales (6 per cent). Average sales of honey directly to export were minimal (0.5 per cent).

“This pattern was similar for all states except Tasmania, where a larger proportion of beekeepers sold honey to other processers and directly to retail (34 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively), and 8 per cent sold honey direct to export.”

Around 14 per cent, or 4,600 tonnes, of honey gets exported, according to the ABARES report. Weatherhead, however, says it is exported as a packaged, finished product by processors rather than in bulk. “There is demand for our honey overseas, but price is a big factor — our honey is expensive compared to the world price,” he says. “Ironically, we import honey from China, but there is a big demand in China for food produced outside the country because of our clean, green image and our more stringent quality assurance procedures.”

While honey is the most important bee product by far, beekeepers also sell beeswax, royal jelly, pollen and propolis — a resinous substance used by bees to repair AUG/SEPT 2018

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80 YEARS OF THE VERY BEST In 1938, Charles Warman came up with an idea that would totally revolutionise the mining industry. As soon as Warman’s pumps came on to the scene, they became the very best you could buy.

If it wasn’t Warman, you were wasting your time.

Over the course of 80 years, Warman pumps spread across the globe driven by the ethos to always innovate. Soon, Warman became a global brand with a bigger influence than even the forward-thinking Charles Warman could ever have imagined. All over the world, Warman is known as the very best.

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Agribusiness

and varnish honeycombs.

Live queen bees and packaged bees are also sold to Canada, the Middle East, Pakistan and Japan. “There’s a good market in the Northern Hemisphere as we can supply bees at the start of their season.

They’re able to use imported Australian queens to split hives, and packaged bees to make good any losses they may have suffered over winter,” says Weatherhead.

While it ranks behind honey, pollination services and live bee sales in terms of income for beekeepers, Australian beeswax has surged in popularity and price in recent years, according to Weatherhead and beeswax candle-maker and owner of Queen B, Cate Burton. “There has been a 300 per cent increase in the price of Australian beeswax in recent years,” says Burton.

“Australia doesn’t have Varroa mite (Varroa destructor), so our beeswax is free of the chemical miticides that beeswax everywhere else in the world has. This makes it very popular with pharmaceutical companies making hormone replacement therapy products, and cosmetic companies who use it in hand cream, lipstick, lip balm etc.”

While honey is the main product of bees, in recent years more and more attention has been focused on the role bees play in pollinating the plants that are so vital to our planet, known as ‘pollination services’ in economic-speak.

Modern industrial agriculture is increasingly dependent on beekeepers trucking thousands of hives around the country every year. Due to land clearing and the resulting loss of biodiversity, cherries, apples and pears, almonds and macadamias all need additional bees to pollinate the crops at the appropriate time of the year. According to Weatherhead, 200,000 beehives were needed to pollinate last year’s almond crops in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia.

And it’s not just tree crops that need bees for pollination.

Strawberries, cucurbits, carrots and onions all need bees to pollinate the next crops, as do canola and sunflowers.

A study by Curtin University’s John M Karasinski found that 53 crops rely on honey bees for pollination to some extent, while the economic value of Australian-managed and wild honey bee pollinators is estimated to range between $8.35 billion and $19.97 billion, depending on fluctuations in the AUG/SEPT 2018

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Agribusiness

farmgate value of the crops they pollinated.

Whatever the actual value of pollination services, what we can be certain of is that a world without bees would be a very bleak one. Activists painted this unsettling picture several years ago when a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurred in the United States that saw entire beehives die off. According to Weatherhead, CCD is caused by multiple factors, with Varroa mite being the major culprit, along with starvation. Environmentalists point the finger at a group of insecticides known as neonicotinoids, which are extremely persistent in the environment. So harmful, the European Union is convinced enough of their impact on bees and other pollinators to ban their use, despite legal challenges by chemical companies such as Bayer and Syngenta.

Knowledge of CCD and neonicotinoids teamed with the spectre of a world without bees has led to a massive upsurge in amateur beekeeping in both urban and rural environments. According to NSW Amateur Beekeeping Association (ABA) president Bruce White OAM, “the ABA in 1968 had six branches, in 1988 seven branches, in 1991 eight branches, in 2018, 21 branches; and membership has grown from 706 in 2014 to 1680 in 2018.”

This interest has been driven by the media and popular TV programs such as the ABC’s Gardening Australia, which have publicised the world decline in bee populations and the

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Agribusiness

magnitude of the threat to world food security. “Up to 65 per cent of all the food we eat depends on pollination, with honey bees the main pollinators,” says White.

The invention of the Flow Hive, a new type of easy-to-use beehive, has also played a part.

Weatherhead welcomes the growth in amateur beekeeping, but also cautions that making sure Australia continues to be Varroa mite-free is the best way of ensuring our bee population remains healthy. This will be a big ask as the eastern (or Asian) honey bee (Apis cerana) is the natural host for Varroa mite, but it’s a threat government and the community are taking seriously so far.

“It’s absolutely crucial that we keep Varroa out of Australia,” says Weatherhead. “We’ve been running education programs, including education of wharfies, and there’s the National Bee Pest Surveillance Program which is being run by Plant Health Australia (PHA).”

Perhaps, ultimately, the best thing Australian bees have going for them is our beekeepers. Burton has been making beeswax candles for more than 20 years and has travelled all over the world visiting beekeepers. “No Australian beekeeper — even those doing pollination services and trucking their hives around the country — will shut their bees up for more than 24 hours,” she says. “They refer to the bees as ‘their girls’, and they just have much higher standards of animal husbandry than in other countries.”

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Infrastructure

Picture of Health

Jo Stewart Jo is a Melbournebased author and features writer.

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INNOVATION CONTINUES TO CHANGE THE WAY HEALTHCARE IS PROVIDED ACROSS AUSTRALIA, BUT THE DELIVERY OF NEW INFRASTRUCTURE IS NOT WITHOUT ITS CHALLENGES.

Infrastructure

The funding of healthcare is one of the best investments governments can make. A universal need that benefits the entire population regardless of age, gender or income, healthcare funding is always a hot topic come election time.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) more than $155 billion was spent on healthcare in Australia in 2012-2013, with the federal government contributing $63.5 billion and state and territory governments contributing $41 billion.

Despite this seemingly significant investment, the

Australian Medical Association’s (AMA) Public Hospital Report Card indicates that performance of Australia’s public hospitals remains less than adequate. Contending that public hospitals are facing a funding crisis, the report highlights that emergency room waiting times continue to increase and bed number ratios remain static.

Innovation within the healthcare sector has delivered mixed results in Australia, with the nation’s hospitals and healthcare services using new technology and fresh approaches to meet the evolving needs of the population, but not without failures and setbacks.

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Infrastructure

High-tech hospitals

Technological advances have transformed many industries and the healthcare sector is no exception. Two landmark hospital developments recently constructed in Australia show the changing face of hospitals and the impact that technological advances have on how healthcare infrastructure is planned, designed and built.

As Australia’s most expensive building and South Australia’s largest capital investment project, the new Royal Adelaide Hospital (nRAH) was heralded as a game-changing facility that would use an innovative approach to deliver optimal outcomes for the community.

Costing $2.3 billion, the public-private partnership suffered many setbacks over

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Fast Fact

4 Star

With a 1.6-hectare footprint of green space, high-efficiency water fittings and an on-site heat generation system that uses waste heat, the new Royal Adelaide Hospital has been awarded a 4 Star Green Star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA).

the course of its construction. From budget blowouts to costly legal challenges, planning bungles and design flaws, the ambitious project has captured headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Finally completed in September 2017, the 800-bed facility was described as “a hospital for the future” by the hospital’s Director Commissioning, Elke Kropf.

Despite the challenges it has experienced in its short life, the nRAH remains an example of how modern healthcare facilities are more patient-focused than those of previous generations. Gone are the dour colour schemes found in hospitals of years gone by. Instead, natural light and green space are incorporated throughout the space, with 70 courtyards, terraces and sky gardens scattered across the site. Moving away from shared wards towards private suites, 100 per cent single overnight patient rooms offer greater levels of privacy to promote healing.

Mirroring the move to automation evident in other industries, the hospital harnesses new technology to automate many of its key functions. An automated pharmacy distribution system (one of the largest in Australia) supports fast, precise distribution of medicines. Diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases is supported by the largest automated microbiology system in the Southern Hemisphere, while a digital instrument tracking system efficiently manages equipment.

In Western Australia, the state-of-the-art $1.2 billion Perth Children’s Hospital designed

by JCY Architects and Urban Designers, Cox Architecture and Billard Leece Partnership with HKS Inc also experienced extensive delays and budget blowouts.

Opening in May 2018 (almost three years late) the hospital design prioritises the patient experience by affording more privacy than hospitals of the past. Three-quarters of the 298 beds are housed in single rooms, while family lounges and parent accommodation facilities are designed to provide comfort and ease stress for loved ones.

As with other contemporary hospital developments, green space, natural light and views of nature take precedence in the design with outdoor spaces and private courtyards,

Infrastructure

Fast Fact

88,000

More than 88,000 people across Australia took part in a Royal Flying Doctor Service telehealth or telephone consultation in 2016/2017.

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Infrastructure

changing the perception of hospitals as closed-in, overtly clinical spaces.

While both hospitals were plagued by planning, design and construction issues, the completed projects demonstrate how hospitals have evolved from artificially lit, concrete slabs filled with shared wards to well-lit, flowing spaces that make use of the latest technology to streamline service delivery.

Innovation driving healthcare delivery in regional communities While hospitals remain a priority for healthcare funding, what about people who don’t live within cooee of one?

Australia’s vast land mass and significant number of regional, rural and remote communities make delivery of essential health services to people living far from metropolitan hospitals an ongoing challenge. The birth of key technologies such as the internet has led to the emergence of telehealth services that can overcome some of the barriers that prevent rural-dwellers from accessing healthcare.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) Victoria has provided telehealth specialist services to rural Australians since 2013, enabling rural communities to access health services without leaving the community. The free service started in Mildura and has now grown to service many more communities in need. Offering endocrinology, cardiology, psychology, psychiatry and respiratory services, the telehealth program operates in a number of rural regions, including Swan Hill, Mildura, Kerang, Edenhope, Nhill and Warracknabeal.

A purpose-built platform that operates from a single portal, the RFDS telehealth service not only allows patient and clinician communication but also enables appointment viewing and scheduling, and document storage and sharing. A share-screen feature also allows clinicians to show patients diagrams and pictures.

“Back in the day hospitals bought these large, complex systems with double screens for telehealth, but with our system all you need is a laptop or iPad with a camera and access to the internet,” explains Margaret Kuhne, General Manager, Primary Health Care at RFDS Victoria.

Helping people to stay within their community to access specialist medical advice, the telehealth program reduces the huge distances that rural-dwellers travel to attend specialist medical appointments. Many patients are unable to drive or take time away from work to attend appointments in the city, so the telehealth service has improved the lives of many Australians living with chronic disease.

Kerang resident Ron Hick used to undertake a 600km round trip to see a diabetes specialist but now uses the RFDS telehealth service instead. “The greatest impact for me has been the fact that instead of having to travel four hours each way to see my specialist, I now travel four minutes. I have great respect and admiration for the service,” says Hick.

In the past regional communities may have been overlooked for government funding, yet Kuhne contends that this has changed in recent years. “More and more, governments are supporting innovative models in rural communities. Telehealth is being used more frequently to address the issues that rural and remote communities have with accessing specialist healthcare.”

The ability to operate off low bandwidths means areas without NBN access are still served well. “While it’s not suitable for every type of consultation, it’s gradually becoming the option of choice where appropriate, as patients are saving time and money,” says Kuhne.

Because it is a cost- and time-effective way for service providers to reach rural communities, the expansion of telehealth services to other communities is a priority.

“It takes time to physically transport a clinician from the city to a remote community, whereas clinicians could spend that time seeing patients via telehealth appointments and therefore see a greater number of people across a range of locations,” Kuhne explains.

“It’s a much better use of everyone’s time.

We’re constantly trying to innovate. Innovation and technology is certainly the key to providing better service and access to services.”

Plato may have coined the phrase “necessity is the mother of invention” centuries ago, yet for healthcare providers delivering essential services in Australia’s many remote communities, necessity still drives innovation.

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Start-ups

Start-ups

Birthing a business FRUSTRATED WITH THE LACK OF CHOICE FOR REGIONAL PARENTSTO-BE AROUND THEIR BIRTHING OPTIONS AND PRENATAL EDUCATION, TAMWORTH MIDWIFE EDWINA SHARROCK CREATED BIRTH BEAT, OFFERING ONLINE COURSES ACROSS AUSTRALIA. The conception of her company was a classic story, says Edwina Sharrock, founder of Birth Beat — working out of friends’ living rooms and on dining tables in the New South Wales town of Tamworth.

Sharrock, who grew up in Tamworth, studied nursing at the University of Sydney and began working at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. She had planned to study midwifery there when her father became ill and she returned home. With her plans changed, Sharrock enrolled in studies in Tamworth.

“It was the best way to study midwifery, because I was able to go to Armidale, Inverell and Moree and spend time in those hospitals. When you’re learning in country hospitals it’s often a very small team, so the student gets to do so much more,” says Sharrock.

Settling down in Tamworth and starting her own family, Sharrock, who has daughter Polly (aged six) and son Theo (aged three), was disappointed when the local maternity unit closed down at the private hospital.

“Just because we live in the bush doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have access to and choice around our healthcare,” says Sharrock. “Our choices were taken away and that made me cranky. I was complaining about it one afternoon and my husband said to me, ‘Well, why don’t you do something about it?’ I couldn’t build a maternity wing, but what I could do was provide the very best antenatal classes — and that’s how we started Birth Beat.”

Initially offering courses in Tamworth only, Sharrock had customers travel great distances to attend. One pair came from Cobar, travelling 500 kilometres each way. Sharrock began researching maternity and healthcare options in regional and remote parts of Australia.

“I found out that 41 per cent of maternity units have closed in the last 15 years in Australia, mainly in rural, regional and remote areas. So we’ve taken away this access for women in the country to get educated, and it’s so important to be educated for birth because then you’re not fearful. It’s all

Katrina Holden Editor of True Blue, Katrina has been an editor of business and lifestyle titles for more than 20 years.

about removing the fear,” says Sharrock.

It was then, in 2017, that she decided to take her courses online, signalling the beginning of her start-up journey. Birth Beat was soon recognised by Commonwealth Bank with an Innovation Award, then as a Google Regional Online Hero.

From here, Sharrock heard about the HCF Catalyst program, in which HCF helps businesses that are taking innovations in healthcare which align with the company’s values.

“I was really lucky to get a place on that program,” says Sharrock, although hard work and grit clearly played major roles in ensuring Birth Beat became one of just 10 companies selected from 300 applicants to take part.

“I literally had to pull an all-nighter and build a pitch deck — I had no idea what a pitch deck was — and then get it to them within 48 hours. The presentation was like Shark Tank — it was the most nerve-wracking thing, and I’d got up at 4.30 in the morning and driven from Tamworth to Sydney.”

The 12-week accelerator course has an assigned expert in residence for each business. Sharrock feels privileged to be “hanging out with some pretty smart people doing incredible things in business and the health industry.”

Though the pace has been gruelling, the mum-of-two acknowledges the support of her community. “All my friends and family have rallied around me,” says Sharrock, who advises anyone considering a start-up to just do something.

“That’s the thing in start-ups — people worry that they don’t have it perfect or that the website isn’t 100 per cent. Just get it out there, because you’re never going to have it perfect,” says Sharrock. “Also: talk to your market.”

Looking to the future, Sharrock says she has a greater understanding of her potential customers and is now looking at B2B opportunities with big companies to provide antenatal education to its staff members, many of whom are scattered all over the country.

She has also registered birthbeat.com.

“So we’re ready to go global — but I’m not in any mad rush to do that!”

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Business

A fresh start FOUNDED IN 2012, HELLOFRESH AUSTRALIA NOW DELIVERS MORE THAN TWO MILLION MEALS AND RECIPES EACH MONTH AROUND THE COUNTRY. WE CHAT TO FOUNDER AND CEO TOM RUTLEDGE ABOUT THE COMPANY’S GROWTH. Growing up on a rural property in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Tom Rutledge says the kitchen was the “nerve centre” of his family’s farm.

“From a very early age, I was aware of the seasons and the provenance of ingredients. The blokes that worked on the farm would come into the kitchen every morning — it was where we’d always congregate as a family. It was a place that had very happy associations for me and still does,” says Rutledge.

After graduating from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Economics, Rutledge worked for a number of start-ups, including a human resources company and a wine business, before finding his way onto Network Ten’s MasterChef series as a finalist in 2011.

“Coming from a farm which is a small business, I’d always had the desire to do something entrepreneurial and to be able to tie that in with food, which is a subject matter I was keen on because of MasterChef but have always loved.

It was an obvious place to turn my attention to for opportunities,” says Rutledge, who then founded gourmet food home delivery service Mr Perkins & Co., after taking inspiration from several overseas models.

It was the first meal-kit concept to hit Australia, and it wasn’t long before HelloFresh came knocking. Established in Berlin in 2011, its founders were on the hunt for prime global markets where they could launch concurrently.

Australia was on the list of launch markets (along with Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and France) and

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Rutledge was approached to oversee its launch.

“The blokes behind HelloFresh are very smart guys. We were put in touch by someone who was aware of their plans and what I was doing — and it was a pretty easy decision for me,” says Rutledge.

At the start of 2012, Rutledge set up HelloFresh Australia, initially doing everything on his own and then building a small team, meeting challenges as they arose. Today they’re leaders in the meal-kit market, and their revenue grew by more than 50 per cent year-on-year for the first quarter of 2018, with a current revenue run rate (at May 2018) in excess of A$200 million.

Katrina Holden Editor of True Blue, Katrina has been an editor of business and lifestyle titles for more than 20 years.

HelloFresh Australia is now shipping 600,000 meals a week, and more than 2 million a month.

Business

AUG/SEPT 2018 C H I L L I P R AW N L I N G U I N E

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Erosion Control Blanket

1300 040 050

Business L E F T, T O P R O W : M A C A D A M I A CRUSTED SALMON. BOTTOM R O W F R O M L E F T: PA N S E A R E D BARRAMUNDI; SIRLOIN STEAK. PICTURED: CEO TOM RUTLEDGE.

“The biggest challenge to begin with was finding customers. It was a new service and people weren’t waking up thinking, ‘I need a meal kit’. We were having to get out there and explain the benefits of a meal kit as opposed to traditional grocery shopping,” says Rutledge.

HelloFresh Australia creates recipes based on trends, customer insights and seasonal ingredient availability. The company then transports those recipes and the required ingredients to its customers, with the aim of taking the stress out of weeknight cooking.

Rutledge explains the company has a range of customers, from professionals with no kids to families and empty nesters.

“Our value proposition, which is to solve the decision dilemma around deciding what’s for dinner, appeals to a lot of people. The whole conundrum

of what’s for dinner holds for everyone and not only ‘What do I want to cook and what do I need to buy for that’, but also the constant refreshing of inspiration,” says Rutledge, adding that the company has a very short supply chain and ingredients are packed and dispatched within a 24-hour window.

Rutledge works with a range of suppliers and has a preference for independently run businesses. “But more than anything, we want to make sure we have suppliers who have a quality product and, on top of that, are able to deliver things to us on time and in full. Getting things a day later may not be super-critical for a supermarket, but with a product like ours, it’s imperative for us it's on time or it won’t make it into the box,” says Rutledge.

HelloFresh Australia is now shipping 600,000 meals a week, and more than two million a month. Globally,

HelloFresh has an active customer base of 1.88 million.

Rutledge is most proud of the company’s growth and what that means for its customers.

“What we’re doing is eliminating thousands of decisions every week, and we’re giving our customers and their families the opportunity to still have the fun of cooking without all of the process, decision-making and logistics,” he says.

Committed to further growth, the company plans to add to their product portfolio by expanding the variety they offer customers.

“We also want to continue our expansion into the regions,” says Rutledge. “Last year was a great year for New South Wales and Queensland, and this year we’ve had some good additions in Victoria and Western Australia, with more to come.”

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Family business

T H R E E G E N E R AT I O N S . L- R : M U R R AY C O O K , THOMAS COOK SENIOR, THOMAS COOK II.

Following in the family footsteps

Katrina Holden

WE CHAT TO THIRD-GENERATION FAMILY MEMBER MURRAY COOK, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S MOST SUCCESSFUL BOOTMAKING AND COUNTRY CLOTHING COMPANIES.

Editor of True Blue, Katrina has been an editor of business and lifestyle titles for more than 20 years.

Bootmaking was in the blood from an early age says Murray Thomas Cook, Managing Director of Thomas Cook Boot & Clothing Company.

At eight years old, Murray spent his Saturday mornings sweeping the factory floor of his grandfather’s boot business to earn 50 cents pocket money from his father, second generation Thomas Cook.

Murray’s grandfather, Thomas Cook Senior, established the business in 1924.

His story is a classic rags-to-riches tale, involving hard work, strong business AY CC OO OO KK ..

SS UU EE AA NN DD MM UU RR RR AY ethics and great vision.

Born in Fremantle in 1908, Thomas, the youngest of seven children, was just four years old when his mother died. Unable to cope, his father placed the youngest four kids in a Salvation Army home.

Thomas’s father would remarry and take the children out of the Salvos home for a number of years, but the youngest of the kids, including Thomas, were returned when their father then passed away.

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“It was a very tough upbringing for Pop and he learned to fight in those Salvation Army homes,” explains Murray.

At 14 Thomas landed a job at a dairy farm, and come weekends, he’d box and play football. He soon developed his boxing skills and thought he could have a shot at being a professional. His older brother George was based in Melbourne working at a boot factory, and paid the 10 pounds to put Thomas on a ship to Melbourne, where he took up boxing and started working in the boot industry.

Thomas got his first knockout after winning 20 matches and decided a career in boxing was not for him. “But an opportunity came out of that with fellow boxers making boxing boots for them. So that’s where he started, working out of a shed,” says Murray.

In his early twenties he opened a shop on High Street in Preston, and before long, as the business flourished, he expanded to buy four shops in a row, which he then knocked down to build a small factory that later made way for a

Family business

bigger one.

Thomas II ran the company from 1968 until his retirement in 1990.

Murray loved spending his school holidays working at the factory, painting boot soles and fixing eyelets.

After high school he worked at Melbourne Sports Depot before joining the family THOMAS COOK SENIOR. business.

Today the company produces footwear; men’s, women’s and children’s clothing and accessories; and homewares. The business employs 45 staff in its Melbourne office and 10 sales staff throughout Australia and New Zealand. It has four distinct brands: Thomas Cook, the company’s signature line; Wrangler and American boot label Twisted X, both sold under licence; and the company’s Pure Western label.

“One of Pop’s sayings was: ‘Just remember, it’s my name on the line — you’ve got to make a good, honest product and, once you do, you’ll get a good following,’ recalls Murray. “I certainly carry that through to this day.”

As the National Sales Manager, Murray’s wife Sue loves meeting her customers in their own towns and hearing about what conditions they’re dealing with — be it a closing mine, cattle prices or how drought is affecting them.

“We get to work together, but we also get to see some really beautiful parts of Australia and our fantastic customers and towns that they live in — it’s great,” says Murray, who acknowledges you can’t run a clothing business from behind a desk in the back blocks of Melbourne.

Where other companies have pulled their sales teams from the road due to expense, Murray believes it’s vital to have first-hand contact with customers, and for account managers and product designers to be talking to retailers as much as possible.

With a shared commitment to their company, both Murray and Sue relish working together and “wouldn’t have it any other way”. “We are very lucky,” says Murray. “You talk to some couples and they don’t even holiday together!”

And when it comes to carrying on founder Thomas’s sense of innovation, the company certainly hasn’t hung up its boots, with Murray confirming his beloved business is “forever evolving”.

AUG/SEP 2018

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Man & Machine

The Wonder of Wood LONG AFTER THEIR CONSTRUCTION, CLASSIC TIMBER HALVORSENS STILL HAVE THE GLAMOUR FACTOR TO TURN HEADS.

Briar Jensen Briar Jensen is a freelance travel writer with a penchant for soft adventure. She especially loves exploring Australia in search of inspiring travel experiences to share with her readers.

Glasses clink in salute as water laps the wooden hull. A breeze shimmies through the gum trees, and the setting sun ups the saturation on honeyed sandstone cliffs. It’s cocktail hour aboard MV Kalinda, anchored in Sydney’s Cowan Creek; time to relax, absorb the serenity and admire the varnish.

There’s something romantic about vintage timber craft — their classic lines, distinguished heritage and superb craftsmanship. They exude the refined grandeur of yesteryear, and none more so than Sydney Classic Boat Charters’ MV Kalinda, a 1950 Halvorsen Bridgedecker motor cruiser.

The Halvorsen name is synonymous with timber boats in Australia. Second generation Norwegian boat-builder Lars Halvorsen arrived in Sydney in 1924, and through determination and hard work established a family boat-building dynasty that now spans five generations.

As Mary-Louise Williams, then director of the Australian National Maritime Museum, says in the foreword to Wooden Boats, Iron Men: The Halvorsen Story, “The name Halvorsen is central to the achievements of 20th century boatbuilding in Australia.”

Many Sydneysiders fondly remember holidaying on a Halvorsen, and tall stories about on-board shenanigans. Less well known is Lars Halvorsen Sons’ involvement in World War II, having built more than 250 vessels for the Australian, US and Dutch forces. The family also built yachts, including Freya, three-time Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race winner, and Gretel, Australia’s first America’s Cup challenger.

The quality, workmanship and timeless style of Halvorsens have made them highly sought after by wooden-boat enthusiasts, like skipper of MV Kalinda, John Spry.

“Old timber boats, like old timber houses, have their own individual ‘souls’ — the  AUG/SEP 2018

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L- R : K I T T Y S P R Y, JOHN SPRY AND JEN REDSTON.

Fast Facts Three requisitioned Halvorsen cruisers snared the Japanese midget submarine No.21 in Sydney’s Taylors Bay in May 1942.

MV Kalinda has featured in episodes of The Bachelor and Married at First Sight.

legacy of those who designed them, built them, sailed them, worked on them or lived on them,” he says. “It stems initially from the timber, itself a living thing.”

John started mucking about in wooden boats when he was 12, and MV Kalinda is his fifth wooden craft and third Halvorsen. “I love the style and functionality of Halvorsen designs,” he says. “They were the pinnacle of excellence of their time.”

In 2004 John was contemplating a lifestyle change, so he sold his electronics engineering business and, at 54, became a mature-age boatbuilding and shipwright apprentice, to the amusement of his mates.

At the time he and his wife Debbie owned a 26 foot Halvo, as they are affectionately known, but together with daughter Kitty, an accounts and marketing executive, decided to purchase a larger family boat. “We wanted a classic Halvorsen with the charm and elegance of 1950s luxury, but large enough with plenty of outdoor seating for comfortable day charters,” says John.

In 2007 they found their perfect match — online, in Seattle, USA. The 47 foot Bridgedecker was built in Sydney in 1950 and taken to America by Carl Halvorsen, chasing the Hollywood market. She sold immediately and changed hands many times over the years, by swapping, repossession and the winnings from a game of craps — the dice from that game rumoured to be in the bilge.

Following an arduous ordeal arranging transportation from Seattle, Hardway as she was then named, began to sink when unloaded from the ship in Newcastle.

Despite knowing she would take on water due to plank shrinkage in transit, the volume was far greater than the on-board fire pump could handle, and only prompt assistance from the local water police averted disaster.

Told “you’ll never get an old boat like her into commercial charter,” her owners took on the challenge of restoration, removing live-aboard conveniences of furnace, laundry, trash compactor, dishwasher, cat flap and hot tub. The entire internal space AUG/SEP 2018

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Man & Machine

was gutted, revealing the dice from the winning craps game.

The following years were a labour of love for the Sprys, returning the vessel to its original layout. Tragically, in 2010, Debbie lost her long fight with cancer, but the family continued the backbreaking work knowing she was with them in spirit.

In 2015 MV Kalinda, an Aboriginal name meaning 'the sea' or 'a lookout', was licensed for commercial operations, and now hosts guests for vintage high teas and cocktail parties on the sheltered waters of Cowan Creek, surrounded by Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. Her retro glamour attracts proposals, intimate weddings, anniversary celebrations and photo shoots.

Shipwright skills aren’t a prerequisite for wooden-boat ownership, but time certainly is. “You need to be handy and retired or have bucketloads of money to pay for maintenance,” quips Halvorsen owner Cathy Astridge (who works full-time and maintains her boat herself). But John and Cathy agree

paying someone to do general maintenance misses the point of owning a classic timber boat. “The more you put into it, the more you get out of it,” says John. “It’s an emotional investment.”

All that gleaming woodwork involves at least 10 coats of varnish, though, not something that can be knocked over in a weekend, especially by the inexperienced; which is why the Halvorsen Club was formed in 1991. Commodore Bob Allen says the club adds prestige, provides camaraderie and offers technical support.

Pride comes with preserving a piece of history, and Halvorsen owners see themselves as custodians of their heritage craft which, like vintage cars, are living museum pieces. They willingly share their vessels at wooden-boat festivals around the country, and in the case of MV Kalinda, out on the water, where you too can luxuriate in her vintage charm over a sunset drink. sydneyclassicboatcharters.com.au halvorsenclub.com.au

WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN BUYING A TIMBER BOAT: • Search for known designs, not one-off models; this helps the resale value.

• Check state of varnish, chrome and paint, look for interior mould and dry rot in timber.

• Check age of engine, as a modern diesel can add value, as can good electronics.

• Research the vessel’s history; talk to other wooden-boat owners.

• Invest in a pre-purchase marine survey by a specialist timber boat surveyor.

AUG/SEP 2018

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“We knew that Nudgee College could provide so many more opportunities.

Not just in normal everyday education, but in a way that would expose Tom to new challenges, that could help him to grow into a young man who will leave an indelible footprint on his surrounding world.�

Education Special Feature

All aboard for Junior Boarding Boarders at St Joseph’s Nudgee College share their thoughts on the many benefits and lifelong friendships formed whilst boarding at the school they call home.

For boarders, St Joseph’s Nudgee College is not just their school, it is their home. The connection that many boarders past and present feel towards the College is obvious whenever they reminisce for days gone past or share anecdotes from within the Boarding Village.

While some boarders only experience a year or two in Nudgee College Boarding, others start in Years 5, 6 or 7, and therefore most of their teenage years are shaped by their journey through Boarding.

Head of Murphy Boarding House Ben Ralston spent years as the Head of O’Brien Boarding House, which is a dormitory for boys from Years 5 to 9.

When boys begin their high school boarding experience in Year 7, Ben said it allowed them to form

friendships and develop good habits around study and daily routine under the guidance of experienced staff who provide a caring and nurturing environment.

“I have been able to see the transformation of several boarders I looked after in O’Brien who are now flourishing in a Senior Boarding House,” he said.

“I think that being here from Year 7 has helped these young men really feel as though Nudgee College is a second home to them and has allowed them to mature at their own pace, supported by many great role models.”

College Vice Captain Lawson Saurels has been boarding since Year 7, and said this experience helped him settle in early so he didn’t have to worry about it in his Senior years.

“That is truly where the friendships and bonds start to be created,” he said. “I felt I was helped and supported well as a younger boarder.”

Year 11 student Izaac Fiorini was living in Dubai before he moved into Nudgee College Boarding when he was in Year 7. His father had also boarded at the College, and Izaac said he felt privileged to continue that tradition.

“I loved watching the Nudgee spirit videos growing up, and I would watch

the 1st XV video over and over again before arriving at Nudgee College,” he said.

From fast-making friendships to getting the hang of community living by the end of his first year of high school, Izaac said there were many benefits to his early start in Nudgee College Boarding.

“Starting off in Year 7 has helped shape me, in good times and in bad, into a true Nudgee College man,” he said.

“From an endless sleepover with your mates, to waking up five minutes before morning training, boarding is also just such a convenience for everyday life and study.”

While going into Boarding can be daunting for some boys, Izaac and Lawson agree that the best way to adjust is to get involved.

“From academics to sport, and even supporting others through their sports and extracurricular activities, it is imperative that you get involved,” Izaac said. “You meet new people and time goes a lot faster when you’re having fun.”

“There’s always a calling to something, so don’t be afraid to put your hand up and give it a go.” nudgee.com.

AUG/SEPT 2018

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Finance

Tax time tips Tax time. Two words that bring a sense of dread to most people. If this includes you, read on. We’ve compiled our top tips to ensure smooth sailing this financial year.

Start early

If you’re after a stress-free tax return, the best thing you can do is stop procrastinating and lodge your return as early as possible. Get ahead of the ball this year by organising any statements for savings accounts or other investments in advance, as well as ensuring that you have your Pay As You Go (PAYG) Payment Summary or Group Certificate on hand.

Having these prepared before you begin your tax return will save time and help you receive your tax refund sooner.

Become a boss at deductions

The thought of adding deductions when filing a tax return often seems like a hassle – but it doesn’t have to be. In fact, once you know what you can claim, the process becomes easy and it could end up saving you thousands.

We’ve compiled a quick list of the top deductions that will help you dominate this financial year and put some of your hard-earned tax dollars back into your own pocket.

• Mobile phones – Workers can claim the costs of their phone and internet expenses that are work-related.

• Electricity – Many people take work home with them.

If you don’t want to claim comprehensive home office expenses, you can still claim for electricity used when doing work at home.

• Education – If you’re studying subjects related to your

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current paid employment, it’s tax-deductible after the first $250. You also can claim travel expenses for the cost of getting to and from your place of education.

• Printer ink — There’s a pile of home office items that can be claimed including inks, stationery, printers, computers, chairs, desks, paper shredders and rubbish bins.

• Bricks – The most lucrative potential tax deduction for property investors is not the carpets and curtains, but writing down the bricks and mortar. For most people it’s a 2.5 per cent annual tax deduction on the cost of the building – but not the land, which does not depreciate. For an investment property costing $300,000 to build, that’s a welcome $7,500 tax deduction every year.

• Your income – If you pay income protection insurance premiums, make sure to claim them. It’s the only form of personal insurance that is tax-deductible.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help

An estimated 46 per cent of us spend three or more work hours per week thinking about our finances (PWC 2017 Employee Financial Wellness Survey), resulting in low financial wellness. Add on the stress of a tax return and it’s easy to see why so many of us become overwhelmed.

Our financial wellness impacts all aspects of our lives — from our physical and mental health, right through to the relationships we have with our family and friends.

So, if you need a little extra help filling out your return, don’t be afraid to ask for it. Accountants can take the hassle out of your tax return, leaving you to live your good life.

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Puzzles

CROSSWORD

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SOLUTIONS:

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A N E B C A N O B U G N I R E S M T G S D E I N N A

J S A Z A U A S P M D I Z T B O E A K A A Q G A A B

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A I O N F H I I S G H A M

SOMALIA SUDAN TANZANIA TOGO TUNISIA ZAMBIA ZIMBABWE

Find all the words listed hidden in the grid of letters. They can be found in straight lines up, down, forwards, backwards or even diagonally. Theme: AFRICA

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GAMBIA GHANA GUINEA KENYA LIBYA MALI NAMIBIA NIGERIA SENEGAL

WORD SEARCH

J S A Z A U A S P M D I Z

48

DOWN 1. Feminine 2. Attain 3. Anaesthetises 4. Actress, ... Monroe 5. Dancer’s costume 6. Unrelenting 12. Devour 15. Try 16. Wheel covers 17. Wound with claw 19. Illinois is there (1,1,1) 20. Surrendered 22. Short pasta tubes 23. Highest ranking peers

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ANGOLA BENIN BOTSWANA CAMEROON CHAD EGYPT ERITREA ETHIOPIA GABON

28. Cash machines (1,1,2) 29. Occurred afterwards

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ACROSS 1. Series of rabbit tunnels 5. Look before you ...

7. Consumption 8. Large 9. Australian gem 10. Erected 11. Recesses 13. Eve’s mate 14. Masted vessels 18. Nakedness 21. Pencil end 22. Canoe oar 24. Wear by rubbing 25. Global hostel chain (1,1,1,1) 26. Charitable 27. Dessert, ... pie

The Aboriginal Artists Project combines the fashion accessory designs of Catherine Manuell with the artworks of many wonderful women artists from remote Australian communities. Shown here is the Bush Yams artwork by Evelyn Pultara from the Utopia region of Central Australia. A percentage of the proceeds from the sale of these products goes directly to the artists.

Call us on 03 9486 4066 for help or a little personal service, or email: info@catherinemanuelldesign.com

www.catherinemanuelldesign.com

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