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REMEMBERING FNQ ARTIST AND FOLK MUSIC CHAMPION RON EDWARDS – TONY HILLIER’S WORLD OF MUSIC FRIDAY MAY 24

24 May

reI never got to meet the late Ron Edwards, a great far north Queensland artist, collector of folklore, and gifted story-teller. But I did hear many stories of him from the late Bill Scott, who shared many of Ron’s talents and passions. Bill lived at The Coconuts, near Innisfail in the 1950s. Ron arrived in the far north in the late 50s. The two were great friends who shared many adventures here in FNQ and elsewhere.

Ron Edwards is the subject of a retrospective exhibition opening tomorrow night at the Tanks Arts Centre in Cairns. It’s appropriately called The Passionate Observer. Ron was an artist, a publisher, musician, story-teller, singer and craftsman, with a particular passion for Australian folk music. In 1976, he published the Big Book of Australian Folk Song – a work that inspired and encouraged many performers and lovers of the genre, including our own Tony Hillier.

So today we offer a selection of Australian folk songs Ron Edwards would have enjoyed. We hear The Bushwackers from 1974, when they were known as The Bushwackers & Bullockies Bush Band, a Peter Kenyon composition performed by Jan Wositzky http://www.storytellersguide.com.au/ and two takes on an Australian folk classic, from The Bushwackers http://thebushwackers.com.au/ and Tony Hillier’s band, Kamerunga. http://www.entertainmentcairns.com/kamerunga

LISTEN Click on the red arrow to hear this week’s Tony Hillier’s World of Music


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PLAY LIST

The Woolloomooloo Lair  (Trad) by Bushwackers & Bullockies Bush Band from the 1974 LP The Shearer’s Dream

Fool’s Gold (written by Peter Kenyon) performed by Jan Wositzky & Danny Spooner from Jan Wositzky’s 2013 CD The Monster Meeting

Lime Juice Tub (Trad) by the Bushwackers from their 1984 album Lively

Lime Juice Tub (Trad)  by Kamerunga from their 2012 album Worlds Kaleid

More about the Ron Edwards exhibition at www.ronedwardsretrospective.wordpress.com

and http://www.tanksartscentre.com/home/event.asp?eid=618

TONY HILLIER CASTTony Hillier is one of Australia’s leading music journalists and a musician of long standing here in far north Queensland. His informed and insightful coverage of music features in The Weekend Australian and Rhythms magazine http://rhythms.com.au/ .

Tony Hillier’s World of Music is also available as a podcast. Search for Tony Hillier on your podcast app or in the iTunes store. And you can stay in touch with the FNQ music scene with Tony at http://www.entertainmentcairns.com/hilliers-hotline-archive.php

 
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Posted by on May 24, 2013 in arts & culture, Cairns Queensland, far north Queensland, music, People, Tony Hillier's World of Music

 

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PHIL STALEY’S THOUGHTS ON SPORTS FRIDAY MAY 24

24 May

_MG_7611Australians love their sport – but I reckon no-one loves their sport quite like our Phil Staley. Indoor, outdoor, winter summer or somewhere in between – Phil loves it all. Stand at his desk here at ABC Far North and you get the feeling you’ve just run on to Lang Park or the MCG. Phil has a gift for talking about sport in a way that even people who can’t stand sport will enjoy. He gets past the hype and the stats to the magic ingredient that makes sport so compelling – the people who play it and the people who love it.

Phil talks about sport each Friday on ABC Far North at 5:15pm – now you can tune in online as well. This week: the NRL announces its new drug testing regime, the North Queensland Cowboys must-win match against the Tigers in Sydney tonight (live only on ABC Far North), Cairns AFL player Sam Michael makes his debut for the Brisbane Lions against Carlton, and Dave Maiden talks about the NQ Challenge rugby league cup, bringing players to Cairns tomorrow from all over Cape York.

LISTEN Click on the red arrow to hear this week’s Phil Staley’s Thoughts on Sports


 
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Posted by on May 24, 2013 in Cairns Queensland, Cape York Peninsula, Phil Staley Thoughts on Sports, Sport

 

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GORDONVALE’S TRISH RICHARDS – QUEENSLAND’S MOST POPULAR LIBRARIAN

20 May
Queensland's most popular librarian Trish Richards (R) with regular library user Wendy Maddocks

Queensland’s most popular librarian Trish Richards (R) with regular library user Wendy Maddocks

I’m happy to report that far north Queensland is home to this state’s favourite librarian - Gordonvale Library‘s Trish Richards.

Every year, the Australian Library and Information Association invites library users to nominate their favourite staff members, with an online public vote determining the top contenders. And Trish was voted Queensland’s favourite librarian.

Trish Richards has been with the Cairns Regional Council libraries for six years now and she says she loves the Gordonvale library – which plays an important role in this rural community on the southern outskirts of Cairns. Like libraries everywhere, this place is much more than a building full of books.

LISTEN Click on the red arrow to hear ABC Far North reporter Phil Staley visit the Gordonvale Library and meet Trish Richards


More about Gordonvale Library at http://www.cairns.qld.gov.au/library/my-library/locations/gordonvale

More about the Australian Library and Information Association and their 2013 awards at http://www.alia.org.au/

 
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Posted by on May 20, 2013 in arts & culture, Cairns Queensland, far north Queensland, People

 

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THE MANY MUSICAL ENTERPRISES OF NICKY BOMBA – TONY HILLIER’S WORLD OF MUSIC

17 May

bombNicky Bomba is a man of many talents, and has been part of many a musical enterprise. Born Nicholas Caruana in Malta in 1963, he came to Australia with his family a year later. He learned to play drums at age six, and formed his first band in his teens. That band was Fugitive Flight, and since then he’s been in Guided Tour, The Truth, Banana Oil, Bomba, Bustamento and his new outfit, the Melbourne Ska Orchestra.

He’s perhaps best known for his role as drummer with the John Butler Trio. This week, on Tony Hillier’s World of Music, we sample Nicky’s work, beginning with Banana Oil, a band he formed in the mid 90s. We’ll hear music by his next band, Bomba, the more recent Bustamento, and a rousing piece from his new project, the very ambitious and entertaining Melbourne Ska Orchestra.

LISTEN Click on the red arrow to hear this week’s Tony Hillier’s World of Music


BUSTAPLAY LIST

Troubleshooting  from Banana Oil’s 1996 album Guava Lampo

Pomodoro from Bomba’s 2000 album Population

Deep Sleeper Man from Bustamento’s 2012 album

Intrepid Adventures To The Lost Riddim Islands

Get Smart from the Melbourne Ska Orchestra’s 2013 self-titled album

Nicky Bomba plays the Tanks Arts Centre in Cairns on May 24th.

TONY HILLIER CASTTony Hillier is one of Australia’s leading music journalists and a musician of long standing here in far north Queensland. His informed and insightful coverage of music features in The Weekend Australian and Rhythms magazine http://rhythms.com.au/ .

Tony Hillier’s World of Music is also available as a podcast. Search for Tony Hillier on your podcast app or in the iTunes store. And you can stay in touch with the FNQ music scene with Tony at http://www.entertainmentcairns.com/hilliers-hotline-archive.php

 
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Posted by on May 17, 2013 in music, rd on the road, Tony Hillier's World of Music

 

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PHIL STALEY – THOUGHTS ON SPORTS FRIDAY MAY 17

17 May

_MG_7611Australians love their sport – but I reckon no-one loves their sport quite like our Phil Staley. Indoor, outdoor, winter summer or somewhere in between – Phil loves it all. Stand at his desk here at ABC Far North and you get the feeling you’ve just run on to Lang Park or the MCG. Phil has a gift for talking about sport in a way that even people who can’t stand sport will enjoy. He gets past the hype and the stats to the magic ingredient that makes sport so compelling – the people who play it and the people who love it.

Phil talks about sport each Friday on ABC Far North at 5:15pm – now you can tune in online as well. This week: another former Canberra Raider launches into politics, the North Queensland Cowboys chances against the Sydney Roosters, spot fixing is not something done in the laundry, and the Queensland club going for the longest continuous lawn bowls match world record.

LISTEN Click on the red arrow to hear Phil’s Thoughts on Sports


Phil Staley’s Thoughts on Sports is also available as a weekly podcast. Search for Phil Staley on your podcast app or the iTunes store.

 
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Posted by on May 17, 2013 in Cairns Queensland, Sport, Phil Staley Thoughts on Sports

 

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CHIP THE FAR NORTH QUEENSLAND SUGAR GLIDER MAKES HIS RADIO DEBUT

15 May

Ochip 002

Today’s special guest on my ABC Far North radio show was tiny, very cute, and ate all the way through his interview. At one point, he leaped from the microphone, sailed across the room and started climbing up the soundproof wall. Chip is his name – he’s a sugar glider, the best known of Australia’s glider species

Sugar gliders are found here in far north Queensland – and other sub-species occur in Papua New Guinea, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia. They eat insects, but they’re called sugar gliders because they love eating nectar and flowers. They can glide big distances between trees, and when fired up on all that sweet tucker, they move at incredible speeds. And that’s what we saw when Chip started to explore our radio studio – he’d been sitting quietly in Martin Cohen’s hand licking honey from his fingertips – and then he was sailing across the room.

LISTEN Click on the red arrow to hear Chip and ABC Far North wildlife correspondent Martin Cohen talk about sugar gliders


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Chip lives at Zoo To You HQ in Cairns – read more at http://mojowire.net.au/2012/11/30/zoo-to-you-hq-cairns-meet-fnq-wildlife-in-the-centre-of-town/

2 martDr Martin Cohen is ABC Far North wildlife correspondent. He’s on my radio program Wednesdays at 4.45pm. Read more about Martin at http://www.wildaboutaustralia.com/

 
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Posted by on May 15, 2013 in Cairns Queensland, Cape York Peninsula, environment, far north Queensland, wildlife and animals, Wildlife Martin Cohen

 

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MAKING CAIRNS AND FNQ ROADS SAFER FOR CYCLISTS – THE RIDE FOR TANYA

14 May
FLORAL TRIBUTES AT SCENE OF AN EARLIER BICYCLE FATALITY - COURTESY www.cairnsbug.org

FLORAL TRIBUTES AT SCENE OF AN EARLIER BICYCLE FATALITY – COURTESY http://www.cairnsbug.org

Last Saturday morning, sports-loving legal secretary Tanya Roneberg was riding her bicycle on the Cook Highway at Thomatis Creek, on the north side of Cairns. Around 7 o’clock, she was hit by a car and died. She was 37.

Tanya is the sixth bicycle rider to be killed on far north Queensland roads in the past three years. That statistic tells a grim story, but regular riders will tell you many more – chilling accounts of near misses and aggressive driving. It seems our drivers are not all willing, or able, to share the roads safely with bicycles. This constitutes a very real danger to local cyclists, and to the ever increasing number of visitors who want to ride in FNQ.

We have new bike paths and established bicycle lanes in Cairns, but the cycling community identifies danger zones they say need urgent attention. Local police say driver behaviour has to change. “It’s not good enough to say ‘welI I’m a car driver, I own the road’. They don’t,” says Sergeant John Fischer, the officer in charge at the Cairns crash investigation unit.

Tanya Roneberg’s close friend, Emma Miller, believes the best way to bring about change is to encourage drivers to experience our roads the way cyclists do. Emma is organising the Ride for Tanya this Saturday morning – a memorial ride for her friend and a road safety campaign. Emma hopes Cairns and FNQ drivers will join the ride – get out of their cars and ride a bicycle from down-town Cairns to Trinity Beach. By experiencing a few hours or a day on a bike, Emma hopes drivers will understand what it’s like for cyclists. She’s not anti-car or anti-driver – Emma wants to get riders and drivers together to learn from each other, and to make the roads a safer place for all of us.

LISTEN Click on the red arrow to hear my interview with Emma Miller.


The Ride for Tanya will start at the Cairns hockey grounds on Rutherford Street at 6:30am on Saturday, May 18 and finish at Trinity Beach. Riders will be accompanied by a police escort.

 
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Posted by on May 14, 2013 in Cairns Queensland, far north Queensland, transport & roads

 

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