June 1 - 30, 2025: Issue 643

Our Youth page is for young people aged 13+ - if you are younger than this we have news for you in the Children's pageNews items and articles run at the top of this page. Information, local resources, events and local organisations, sports groups etc. are at the base of this page. All Previous pages for you are listed in Past Features

 

Winter School Holidays Break

We're taking a few weeks off to have a rest and spend time with family. We hope you all have a great break too and get a chance to exhale and have some fun, especially if you're devoting some of this break to prepare for HSC Trial exams. Please look after yourselves and each other and remember to do a handstand or cartwheel or two and get out in the fresh air when you need to.

We'll be back Sunday July 20th, but 'at work' on the 14th. 

 

Teenage leaders to be champions for women’s and girls sport

Sunday June 29, 2025

Eight teenage girls have the future of women’s and girls sport in their hands following their selection to the Minns Labor Government’s first Teenage Advisory Committee, as part of the Play Her Way Strategy.

The teenage girls – ranging in ages 16 to 19 from across NSW – were chosen following a state-wide process to identify a group who could be a voice on some of the biggest issues affecting young women in sport.  

The Teenage Advisory Committee is an initiative of the Minns Labor Government’s Play Her Way Strategy, a four-year plan to get more NSW women and girls involved and staying in sport.  

Play Her Way has a focus on addressing the low rates of participation among adolescent girls after research found a 23 per cent gap in participation rates among boys and girls aged 15-17 in NSW.  

The Teenage Advisory Committee will provide advice to the NSW Government on how to break down the barriers preventing teenage girls participating in sport and propose new and innovative ways to keep teenage girls involved. 

Minister for Sport Steve Kamper said: 

“The Teenage Advisory Committee is a fresh approach for the way government develops sporting programs for women and girls.  It flips the script by letting women and girls control their destiny and determine how they play sport.  

“The committee members come from a range of backgrounds, experiences and locations to represent the voices of teenage girls aged 16–20. 

“By giving them a voice, we’re providing a platform to create, advise and inspire change in sport for teenage girls.  

“The Teenage Advisory Committee will shape initiatives that increase participation and retention across NSW.  

“Through the Teenage Advisory Committee, Play Her Way is delivering on what it says: ensuring every woman and girl in NSW can play sport her way.”  

Teenage Advisory Committee Member Matilda Webb, 16, from Bella Vista said:  

“I’m so excited to be chosen as part of this incredible group of diverse girls from across NSW to work on a really exciting strategy and government program to help empower girls and women in sport.   

“Hearing all the diverse voices in the group, it really highlighted that there are common themes that we all value in sport.”  

Teenage Advisory Committee Member Sadida Wilson, 18, from the Central Coast said: 

“There are so many opportunities for girls in sport right now, whether they are playing or whether they are looking for a job working in the sports industry – it’s a really exciting time.” 

Teenage Advisory Committee Member Jasmine Patankar, 18, from Kellyville said: 

“I’m most excited to be able to contribute to offering better and more positive experiences for girls in sport.   

“I’m involved in coaching, so to be able to see the opportunities and experiences the girls I coach are wanting to have, and to be able to have a positive impact on that, will be really cool.”

 

The wisdom of youth to help steer our oldest arts institutions: EOI Closes July 25

Young people will have a seat at the boardroom tables of the Sydney Opera House, Art Gallery of NSW, Powerhouse Museum, Australian Museum, State Library of NSW and Museums of History NSW.

The Minns Government announced on June 27 it has legislated to add a director aged 18 – 28 on each of the boards of the six cultural institutions.

A youth seat will develop a new generation of arts and cultural leaders, giving them exposure to the way cultural organisations deal with complex operational, financial and governance issues.

Sector-wide consultation in the development of the state’s 10-year arts, culture and creative industries policy, Creative Communities, identified the need to increase cultural access and opportunities for young people. Bringing the next generation of cultural leaders to decision-making tables is a critical way for their voices to be amplified.

The initiative is one of three key structural changes affirming the NSW Government’s dedication to the next generation of creatives and the value of culture in the lives of young people.

  1. Young People on Boards: the Cultural Institutions Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 is intended to come into effect on 1 July and the new members of the board must be appointed by 1 October 2025. A 4–6-week Expression of Interest application process opens today.
  2. Creative Youth Network has been established to advise key government Ministers directly on issues impacting young people engaged in the arts, culture and creative industries.
  3. Creative Industries strategies. The government is working with sector representatives on targeted strategies for future growth, including in digital games, fashion and literature. In the digital games and creative tech space, the Screen and Digital Games Act2025 explicitly recognises and prioritises the development and support of the NSW digital games sector. The new legislation recognises digital games as a core creative industry and significant economic contributor, and will ensure better cooperation across government agencies, reduce red tape, and increase opportunities for screen and digital games production.

These initiatives follow the passing of the Creative Statement to Parliament Bill 2025, mandating the preparation of a Statement to Parliament every three years on the size, complexity and health of the sector and drive whole-of-government support of arts, culture and creative industries in NSW.

Successful applicants will undertake the Australian Institute of Company Directors Foundations of Directorship™ (Public Sector) course, the costs of which are covered by the Advocate for Children and Young People, to support them through the onboarding process with these important boards. This training and the opportunity to be on key arts boards will feed into the sector and create the next generation of arts and culture leaders with a strong skill set in board governance.

Information about the expression of interest can be found here. The EOI closes July 25 2025.

Minister for the Arts, Music, Night-time Economy, Jobs and Tourism John Graham said:

“We are developing the next generation of arts and cultural leaders and lovers.

“One of the key commitments in the Creative Communities policy was to ensure the next generation of cultural leaders are at the decision-making table, including advising Ministers directly.

“That is why we’ve established the Creative Youth Network, and why we’ve introduced legislation to ensure all our Cultural Institutions have a board seat for young creative practitioners. These are key steps to keep our cultural institutions and broader arts and cultural sectors as relevant, dynamic and loved by audiences into the future as they have been in the past.“

About the Cultural Institutions

  • The NSW Cultural Institutions play a critical role in supporting the arts and creative industries.
  • Collectively, they reach across all disciplines within the creative industries, engaging almost 19 million visitors annually through their doors, and supporting over 2,500 direct jobs.

About the Creative Youth Network

The Creative Youth Network is an advisory, non-statutory network that will meet twice a year. Establishing the Network fulfils an important commitment from the NSW Government’s 10-year arts, culture and creative industries policy, Creative Communities. Members represent many areas of the arts, cultural and creative industries.

The first meeting attended by the Minister of the Arts, Music, Night-time Economy, Jobs and Tourism, John Graham and the Minister for Youth and Mental Health, Rose Jackson.

The inaugural meeting brought young creatives together to discuss and provide direct advice to the Ministers. This followed on from a Creative Communities consultation roundtable with young creatives with Minister Jackson in 2023 prior to the release of the policy.

Key initiatives raised in the meeting include:

  • An undertaking to introduce legislation to ensure all Cultural Institutions have a new, additional role on their board for a younger artists or leading cultural workers.
  • Developing a financial literacy toolkit and module to support artists and practitioners as well as small to medium organisations in the sector.
  • Further developing pathways to support and mentor emerging artists and practitioners, and make this a condition of NSW Government funding.

Photo: Bernard Spragg

Steel rattlers reach the end of Sydney—Newcastle line after 140 million kilometres in service

They first hit the tracks 11 months after Neil Armstrong made the lunar landing — and in the 55 years since have travelled enough kilometres to reach the moon 17 times each.

Friday June 27 marked the end of the line for the Sydney Trains V-sets that have worked the Sydney to Central Coast line every day since June 1970, and then to Newcastle from 1984, covering an estimated 140 million kilometres during their time in service.

The retirement of the 21 stainless steel, double-deck trains allows the full implementation of the 10-carriage Mariyung trains providing a more spacious cabin, more comfortable seating, accessible toilets, charging ports and many more security and safety features.

The final ever V-set service to Newcastle departs Central Station at 9:20pm Friday and will arrive shortly after midnight Saturday.

Based on 21 V-sets in the fleet, doing a combined 140 million kilometres, is the equivalent of each train travelling:

  • 17 times to the moon (a journey of 384,400 kms)
  • 1,733 times between Sydney and Perth (a journey of 3,846 kms)
  • 41,928 times from Sydney to Newcastle (a journey of 159 kms).

The V-sets were built in Granville by Commonwealth Engineering – known as Comeng - between 1970 and 1989 and were described as 'the most luxurious commuter stock in the world' when they hit the tracks.

That claim no longer holds water and they have gradually been phased out as the new Mariyungs have entered service. From 30 June, 19 Mariyung trains will have entered service and be fully deployed on the Central Coast and Newcastle Line, with all 38 local stations able to accommodate a longer 10-car configuration.

The Mariyung has extra leg room, high seat backs, tray tables for laptops and charging ports for mobile devices.

The NSW State Government has stated it recently launched industry engagement for the Future Fleet Program, which is seeking to revive domestic manufacturing, which could create thousands of jobs here.

The Government has committed to start procuring the replacement of the ageing Tangara fleet of suburban passenger trains by 2027, with a 50% local content target for designing, building, and maintaining the new fleet.

V-sets will continue to run on the Blue Mountains line before they are replaced by Mariyungs. The South Coast line will get Mariyungs following their introduction to the Blue Mountains.

Minister for Transport John Graham said:

“They were space age for their time and it’s almost unfathomable that they have made it to the moon 17 times each in equivalent kilometres during more than five decades on the tracks.

“Today is a moment to say thank you to the workers who built these trains in Sydney that lasted so long in work, with some upgrades along the way. In farewelling the V-sets we reaffirm our commitment as a government to rebuilding a local rail manufacturing industry here in NSW.”

Minister for Regional Transport Jenny Aitchison said:

“Millions of train passengers use the Central Coast and Newcastle line every year and now they can regularly enjoy a more comfortable, safe and accessible service.

“While I understand many train buffs will be sad to see the old V-set carriages go, our community has waited patiently for the new Mariyung fleet and all the comforts they provide.”

Chief Executive of Sydney Trains Matt Longland said:

“Today (June 27 2025) we honour the legacy of the old V-set trains which have carried generations of passengers up and down the line, as we step into a new era with our Mariyung fleet.

“It’s the end of a proud chapter in our transport history, and the beginning of a new one — one that will deliver a more comfortable travelling experience for passengers.”

V18 led by Driving Power Car No.DIM 8056 on a Newcastle Interchange - Sydney Central service entering Broadmeadow station, NSW, 3 October 2018. Photo: Hugh Llewelyn 

The upper deck of a DK series V set carriage. Photo: Gareth Edwards

 

Canoe and I go with the Mosquito Fleet: 1896

Being desirous of winding up a pleasant cruise on the upper reaches of the Hawkesbury and McDonald Rivers with a sail round the coast to Sydney, we-that is to say, the 14ft canoe Golden Butterfly and her skipper-parted company with our companions, the Cissie  and Gaiety Girl, at Peat's Ferry, where the magnificently ugly railway bridge spans the wide river. Setting sail at about 4 p.m. on the 18th instant, we shape a course for Barrenjoey, the bold- light-crowned bluff that stands, sentinel-like, at the southern side of the entrance to Broken Bay, a harbor little behind Port Jackson in capacity, depth of water, and other advantages.

'Barranjoey, Broken Bay' by Henry King, circa 1881-1888. From Tyrell Collection, courtesy Powerhouse Museum - and sections from to show details: Visit -  Barrenjoey Lighthouse - The Construction

Clearing the kerosene-tin lined and old-bucket beaconed channel that leads through the mudflats to Brooklyn, another of the designations which the bad taste of the official sponsors, sufficiently advertised already over the whole of the colony, has added to a village with as many names as houses, we and that a strong, adverse tide and lumpy water make progress unpleasantly wet and tardy. The freshening north-easter, almost dead in our teeth, coupled with the carrying away of a yoke-line, in a place awkward to repair efficiently while afloat, breaks us considerably off our proper course, and we only fetch Little Pittwater, an inlet near the mouth of Cowan Creek, one of the principal arms on the southern side of Broken Bay.

Having no time to lose in order to reach Barrenjoey before nightfall, we here stowed the main-sail and took to the paddle. Although sadly tempted to tarry a while and flesh our maiden oyster knife on the immense deposits of fine bivalves with which the tide-exposed rocks were thickly covered, we resisted the temptation, and, pushing along vigorously under the lea of the land, made good progress, passing one or two sheltered coves, in one of which a party of aquatic holiday makers were snugly camped. Out in the open water several "school sharks" and sea-salmon were leaping and playing around, throwing themselves occasionally several feet out of the water, their quivering lengths glistening in the sunlight, the splash of their heavy fall dashing up a shower of spray being audible at a considerable distance.

Away to the northward, paddling feebly, and with much groaning, to comparatively little progress, on her return trip up river, we recognized poor old Utility, the ancient little ferry-boat that used to ply across Darling Harbor to Pyrmont. She is now a travelling store or hawking boat, and has been rechristened the Emporium.

Rounding the false headland which, until now, had screened the outer harbor and light station from our view, we encounter the full strength of tide, wind, and sea, the long swell swinging in from the Pacific unchecked or broken.

It had been already a fairly long day, our last camping-place being a little below Wiseman’s Ferry, some five-and-thirty miles up the river; but her three formidable opponents tackled the Butterfly in vain, for, wielding the double-bladed paddle for all we were worth, she had gained at sunset the shelter of Pittwater, wherein three or four wind-bound coasters were snugly moored.

Barrenjuey [i.e. Barrenjoey], Broken Bay [picture]. 1869 Jan. 16. by George Penkivil Slade, 1832-1896. nla.pic-an6454687 courtesy National Library of Australia

Right ahead, a mile or so distant, the rugged headland of Barrenjoey reared itself at the end of a long, high sandpit, connecting it with the elevated timber coastland to the southward; the lofty lighthouse and its substantial outbuildings arising prominently from its scrub-covered summit; while at the foot, behind a pretty little arc of sand beach, enclosed by the rocky promontory and a fine jetty, the cottages of the Customs officer and his boatmen snugly nestle in a bower of varied foliage.

On beaching the Butterfly we are made welcome by Captain Champion and his crew, who assist us in carrying the little craft up on to a grassy flat above high-water mark, and the last few minutes of the waning daylight are occupied in making final preparations for the voyage, such as utting reef earrings to the sails, splicing the broken yoke-line, and sharpening a lance kindly contributed by a Brooklyn boatbuilder. This deadly weapon was ingeniously contrived from a shear blade securely seized to a short bamboo shaft, and, effectively administered, it would not doubt have considerably impaired the digestion of any shark who seriously contemplated a change of diet.

Not that its use, save as a last resource, would have been judicious, as the "tiger of the deep" is easily provoked, and it would take more than a buttonhole in his waistcoat to incapacitate or deter him from his purpose once he was fairly "on the job."

As an unpleasant matter of fact, a really hungry shark is a source of far more danger to the experienced canoeist than a gale of wind, as he is almost entirely at the mercy of the voracious creature, who can unship him by merely rubbing against the keel of his comparatively narrow and unstable craft, or chew an end off her at a mouthful.

It was hardly encouraging to learn that not long previously, at this very place, a large, heavily-built fishing boat had had her side stove in, and was with difficulty saved from foundering, by the foiled rush of a big "blue pointer," who was endeavoring to seize a hooked schnapper that was being hauled in ; and that shortly before this one of the boatmen who had been spearing salmon from a 20ft boat found it desirable to throw overboard his fish, in order to divert the too pressing attention of one "Billy," a Colossus among the carcharidae, who was a well-known and much-respected inhabitant of the local waters.

After stowing away an ample and well-earned meal, enlivened by the discourse of some of the youngest inhabitants, we decided to refrain from our usual custom of sleeping afloat, in order to give our friend Billy no more opportunities than were absolutely unavoidable. So we made a bed for the canoe of dried seaweed, and rigging the hard-weather tent, which also does as an apron, over the open well, made all snug for the night.

Before turning in we-that is to say, the skipper-tempted by the fineness of the night, and the companionship of one of the local "waits," who regaled us with more exhilarating yarns about "Billy," indulged in a ramble on the jetty.

The scene was beautiful and impressive. Away overhead, through the starry night, streamed the ruby glare of the landward face of the light; while at several points the distant wooded eminences inland were girdled with bush fires, fanned by the fresh north-easter, which every now and then, as some inflammable bush or tree was caught within the embrace of the glowing circles, flared up like beacons, almost quenching the faint light of the young moon, already veiled by the smoke clouds which swept the western sky.

The dull booming of the long ocean rollers dashing themselves in endless succession against the foot of the lofty cliff and the steep beach without, was mingled with and made more nieloaious by the rhythmic Bong of the tiny surges that rippled along the margin, of the sand and shingle, and the rustling murmur of the trees.

The dark water at our feet was frequently illuminated with streaks and crescents of phosphorescent light, as its numerous finny denizens darted hither and thither, in their various quests and pursuits.

Acting upon good advice, "all hands" were called at the earliest flush of dawn, and in a very short time the little craft was again afloat, with stores and ballast aboard, and in good sea-going trim.

The light north-wester then blowing being too much ahead just at first for us to lie our course under sail, and it being cool enough to make brisk exercise desirable, we paddled out of the littlehaven and round the rocky base of the headland.

The Venus, a little ketch in the firewood trade, was also getting under weigh, bound south, so we hoped for company; but, alas! the goddess' sunflattering namesake, which, judging from appearances, was christened "sarcastic," did not walk the water like Amphitrite of old, and all we subsequently saw of her was her dingy old patched mainsail diminishing to a mere speck astern.

Running out with the full strength of the ebb-tide, we soon cleared the rock-girt headland and gained open water, setting sail on our course to a light, fair wind, over the starboard quarter.

The sea having still a considerable "swing" on, and there being a lively "hobble," due to the rocky bottom underneath, the light canoe was tossed about like a cork in a decidedly un-pleasant manner, making at first little headway; as the breeze barely sufficed to keep the sails from flapping, we again took to the paddle, making fair headway along the broken coastline.

Occasionally we were visited by a "sooty gull" which came sweeping in graceful curves, skimming over the heaving billows like an animated boomerang. To seaward nothing else was in sight save, far away in the oiling, sharply outlined against the brightening morning sky, a little barque in tow of a three-masted screw steamer, which, as well as we could make out without a glass, were two of Sydney oldest marine identities, that have survived alike the perils of the sea, the decaying touch of time, and the ruthless march of improvement-the Fanny Fisher, (left) built here half a century ago to fetch grain from South America to the almost starving settlers, and the Saxonia, in her day a crack intercolonial mailboat. Now both were bound for Newcastle to load black diamonds. How have the mighty fallen!

While passing the second promontory the golden arc of old Sol flamed with a sudden brightness above the rugged, undulating horizon, his beams gilding their wide pathway over the cold, steel grey waves, and transforming the face of nature almost with the celerity of a harlequin's wand, painting the sombre foliage with verdant hues; warming the hitherto monotoned sandstone cliffs with many a weather stained tint; while the foam fringed beaches were lit up with a brightness feebly rivalled by ivory set in diamonds, and every wave was decked with flashing gems. As the uneasy motion of our little vessel suggested the possibility of our having, perhaps, to make an unwilling sacrifice to Neptune, and knowing, from experience, that any neglect to lay in the necessary provision adds to the unpleasantness of the objectionable rite, we got out the tuckerbox, and, all things considering, succeeded in surrounding a very satisfactory meal. On the accomplishment of this feat we were rewarded by a more northerly shift of the wind, which, with added weight in it, rendered the galley slave business unnecessary, and not only made the Butterfly flit along at a considerably increased speed, but checked in great measure her uneasy jerking motion.

By-and-bye the wind settled into its regular quarter, the north-east, and slipping merrily along, the coastal panorama unrolled itself, revealing many familiar objects and localities.

Here and there the old Pittwater-road was to be seen winding its way, like a white thread, among the scrubby sandhills, past grassy knolls and over steep, wooded ridges. Now, just abeam, the prettily-situated buildings of a long defunct powder manufacturing company, the ornate residence of the manager being very conspicuous, show plainly, away back among the dark hills. A little further and we pass a cottage perched high on the hillside, wherein we had spent many a pleasant hour in the days that were. Soon we are abreast of the low sand-choked entrance of Lake Narrabeen, where-how many years ago?-we had spent a pleasant canoeing holiday, in company with a younger brother, now some-where in the interior of the "dark continent." The old Rock Lily Hotel and a more pretentious modern structure are also visible, and one who knows where to look can make out, on a verdant slope overlooking the beautiful little lake, the site of one of the earliest settler's homestead, the scene of an awful bushranging tragedy in the early days. Away ahead the Dee-Why Lagoon, with its reedy marshes, at one time the haunt of many wild fowl, lies just behind the low sandhills.

While off Narrabeen we are passed quite closely to starboard by a small green screw steamer, which did not appear to have her name painted in the usual place, probably because she was bound for Gosford and Brisbane Water. The crew, who were evidently surprised to see so small a canoe at sea, applauded us vigorously, and shouted, "Go it, old man!" "Good luck to you!" and other cheering injunctions; while a solitary lady passenger waved her lily-white hand encouragingly. She-I mean the steamer-looked very pretty, dipping her head deep into the rollers, and flinging the creamy surges off either bow.

Passing Long Reef, on which the sea was breaking heavily, the breeze began to freshen, and by the time the Curl Curl Head was abeam the waves were beginning to show an occasional bréale, which suggested the desirability of gaining some more offing, in order, should the weather freshen, to be able to tip the combers "the stern" without getting too close to the coast, and sacrificing the sea room necessary for safety.

The northern sky was streaked with "mares' tails," and there was every indication of the "blow" which, at the time of writing this little narrative, is still making things very lively for anything afloat. However, with such a short distance still to run, there was no need of apprehension, as only a stiff southerly could have now made our making Port Jackson at all doubtful.

Continuing to make good progress, we slip past "The Village" and Fairy Bower, the scene of the last boating fatality, and are about abreast of the Catholic College on Manly Heights, a prominent landmark for a considerable distance along the northern coast, when we are passed to seaward by one of the most peculiar craft that hails from Sydney. She was a large, flat-bottomed, twin-screw scow, with a lofty mast stepped well forward. Considering the comparatively light wind and sea, she did not appear to be making very good weather of it, and rolled heavily, at times showing a good third "of her length out, of the water as she wallowed over the waves; kicking up more "bobbery" than an ocean liner. Experiences of long ago, however, as "mate" of a very similar craft on the coast of North Queensland and New Guinea convinces us that they are much better sea boats than they look, and very suitable for bar harbors and shallow estuaries.

There is no lack of company for us now. Several fishing boats are beating up to their fishing grounds, and as they are lifted on the crest of the following sea we note their crews taking stock of us. A coastal schooner also, looking pretty enough at a distance, is standing out close-hauled under full sail, and away in the offing are the smoke "trails" of a steamer or two making up and dawn the coast.

And so we run past the precipitous North Point and the Tumbledown, close under the cliff; indeed, rather too close, as the breeze is here very fluky, and the sea breaks occasionally. Luffing round North Head, we are met with some very hot, baffling puffs, that render it necessary to "get out" on the gunnel smartly, and "sit her" while they last, the more so as we have somewhat prematurely "jettisoned" our extra sand ballast, in order to lighten the canoe for running.

Entering the Harbor, we pass more sailing boats, "outward bound," and exchange greetings with an acquaintance piscatorially bent.

Weathering the South Head, and rejoicing in smooth water and all the wind required, we run up the Harbor like a steamer before the now stiff north-easter, and finally, at about 10.30 a.m., bringing up at the club shed in Lavender Bay, where we duly report ourselves, terminate a highly enjoyable and successful cruise.

"Golden Butterfly."

Canoe and I. (1896, January 18). Australian Town and Country Journal (NSW : 1870 - 1907), p. 42. Retrieved from  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71240609

Opportunities:

Open Mic at Palm Beach

Come on down this Sunday from 2–5pm for our Open Mic Afternoon — happening every last Sunday of the month!

Show off your talent, enjoy great vibes, and be part of a supportive local music scene. Don’t miss it!

Club Palm Beach

The 2025 CWAS "David Malin Awards"

Entries close July 1 2025. For details on each category visit: https://www.cwas.org.au/astrofest/DMA/

There is a new International Section open to all astrophotographers - both Australian and overseas residents. 

The Competition Structure:
  • General Section (Open only to Australian residents):
  • Wide-Field
  • Deep Sky
  • Solar System
  • Theme - "People and Sky"
  • Junior Section (Australian residents aged 18 years or younger):
  • One Open Category (can be of any astronomical subject)
  • International Section (Open to all Australian and overseas resident astrophotographers)
  • Nightscapes
An additional prize, "The Photo Editor's Choice", will also be awarded. This will be judged by a major news organisation's photo editor or editors. Entry fees are $20 per entry and can be paid by the PayPal, Credit and debit cards.

Wide field winner in the 2018 CWAS David Malin Awards: Barrenjoey Milky Way Arch
Supplied: ©Tom Elliott/David Malin Awards

More places available in innovative jobs program for women

Applications are now open for the 2025 Future Women (FW) Jobs Academy – an innovative pre-employment initiative designed to help women overcome career challenges and connect them with employers.

The NSW Government invested $5.8 million as part of an election promise to support 1,000 women to be part of FW Jobs Academy.

The program is already showing results with nearly 75 per cent of the 2024 participants now actively looking for work or applying for further study, and 85 per cent reporting they now feel well-equipped to search for work.

Flexible, free and online, FW Jobs Academy is a year-long program that equips women with the skills, networks and confidence they need to re-enter the workforce following a career break. The program offers a curated mix of learning, mentoring and community to assist participants navigate evolving job search tools, employer expectations and workplace environments.

The NSW Government is focused on supporting women who face intersecting barriers to securing employment and career progression through FW Jobs Academy. This includes women from the following communities:

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, who are prioritised and accepted on an ‘if not why not’ basis
  • women from culturally diverse backgrounds
  • women living with disability
  • women living in regional, rural or remote areas.

Jobs Academy is delivered by FW (formerly Future Women), an Australian-based organisation that was founded in NSW. FW’s programs help women succeed in finding work, building their careers and securing their economic futures. Since launching in 2021, the Jobs Academy program has helped thousands of women to return to work and thrive.

The 2025 program will commence in early August 2025. For more information and to apply, visit the Future Women Jobs Academy web page.

Minister for Women Jodie Harrison said:

“FW Jobs Academy is solving two challenges simultaneously. Helping NSW women overcome the barriers they face in finding meaningful work and achieving financial security and, at the same time, helping employers access an untapped talent pool.

“By supporting more New South Wales women to return to work, the Minns Government is not only empowering women to succeed but addressing critical skills gaps in industries that will drive the future prosperity of our state.

“FW Jobs Academy is helping to unlock the full potential of NSW’s skilled workforce, boosting women’s workforce participation and securing their economic futures.”

FW Managing Director and co-founder of FW Jobs Academy Helen McCabe said:   

“Hundreds of thousands of Australian women would like to return to work but can face multiple and intersecting barriers to paid employment.

“Jobs Academy works because we recognise women as experts in their own lives and, with their input, we’re providing the right balance of education, empowerment and connection to achieve real results.”

FW Deputy Managing and co-founder of FW Jobs Academy Jamila Rizvi said:  

“As Australia faces skills shortages in a variety of occupations, FW Jobs Academy offers a practical pathway for women to be part of the solution.

“Having already supported thousands of women to re-enter the workforce or undertake further study, FW Jobs Academy is boosting workforce participation and productivity, as well as addressing skills shortages and helping families make ends meet.”

2025 Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards entries are now open!!

The Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards seek to capture the imaginations of school students across Australia, inspiring them to express their thoughts and feelings through the medium of poetry in their pursuit of literary excellence. The standard of entries year after year is consistently high, yet the winning poems never cease to impress the judges. From reading the entries of both the primary and secondary students, one can get an idea of the current events and issues that have had a great impact on young Australians over the decades. 

The awards are held every year and open for entries until the 30th of June with the winners announced on the first Friday in September.

For more information on the competition and how to enter CLICK HERE.

Conditions of entries:

  • Only students enrolled in an Australian education facility (Kindergarten to Year 12) are eligible to enter.
  • Poems must be no more than 80 lines with no illustrations, graphics or decorations included.
  • Entries are limited to up to 3 poems per student.
  • Poems on any subject are accepted, the annual theme is optional.
  • Poems that have been previously entered in the Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards are NOT ELIGIBLE to be entered.
  • Poems entered in other competitions are eligible to be entered.

Our poets are encouraged to take inspiration from wherever they may find it, however if they are looking for some direction, they are invited to use this year’s optional theme to inspire their entries.

“All the beautiful things” has been selected as the 2025 optional theme. Students are encouraged to write about topics and experiences that spark their poetic genius (in whatever form they choose).

Financial help for young people

Concessions and financial support for young people.

Includes:

  • You could receive payments and services from Centrelink: Use the payment and services finder to check what support you could receive.
  • Apply for a concession Opal card for students: Receive a reduced fare when travelling on public transport.
  • Financial support for students: Get financial help whilst studying or training.
  • Youth Development Scholarships: Successful applicants will receive $1000 to help with school expenses and support services.
  • Tertiary Access Payment for students: The Tertiary Access Payment can help you with the costs of moving to undertake tertiary study.
  • Relocation scholarship: A once a year payment if you get ABSTUDY or Youth Allowance if you move to or from a regional or remote area for higher education study.
  • Get help finding a place to live and paying your rent: Rent Choice Youth helps young people aged 16 to 24 years to rent a home.

Visit: https://www.nsw.gov.au/living-nsw/young-people/young-people-financial-help

School Leavers Support

Explore the School Leavers Information Kit (SLIK) as your guide to education, training and work options in 2022;
As you prepare to finish your final year of school, the next phase of your journey will be full of interesting and exciting opportunities. You will discover new passions and develop new skills and knowledge.

We know that this transition can sometimes be challenging. With changes to the education and workforce landscape, you might be wondering if your planned decisions are still a good option or what new alternatives are available and how to pursue them.

There are lots of options for education, training and work in 2022 to help you further your career. This information kit has been designed to help you understand what those options might be and assist you to choose the right one for you. Including:
  • Download or explore the SLIK here to help guide Your Career.
  • School Leavers Information Kit (PDF 5.2MB).
  • School Leavers Information Kit (DOCX 0.9MB).
  • The SLIK has also been translated into additional languages.
  • Download our information booklets if you are rural, regional and remote, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, or living with disability.
  • Support for Regional, Rural and Remote School Leavers (PDF 2MB).
  • Support for Regional, Rural and Remote School Leavers (DOCX 0.9MB).
  • Support for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander School Leavers (PDF 2MB).
  • Support for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander School Leavers (DOCX 1.1MB).
  • Support for School Leavers with Disability (PDF 2MB).
  • Support for School Leavers with Disability (DOCX 0.9MB).
  • Download the Parents and Guardian’s Guide for School Leavers, which summarises the resources and information available to help you explore all the education, training, and work options available to your young person.

School Leavers Information Service

Are you aged between 15 and 24 and looking for career guidance?

Call 1800 CAREER (1800 227 337).

SMS 'SLIS2022' to 0429 009 435.

Our information officers will help you:
  • navigate the School Leavers Information Kit (SLIK),
  • access and use the Your Career website and tools; and
  • find relevant support services if needed.
You may also be referred to a qualified career practitioner for a 45-minute personalised career guidance session. Our career practitioners will provide information, advice and assistance relating to a wide range of matters, such as career planning and management, training and studying, and looking for work.

You can call to book your session on 1800 CAREER (1800 227 337) Monday to Friday, from 9am to 7pm (AEST). Sessions with a career practitioner can be booked from Monday to Friday, 9am to 7pm.

This is a free service, however minimal call/text costs may apply.

Call 1800 CAREER (1800 227 337) or SMS SLIS2022 to 0429 009 435 to start a conversation about how the tools in Your Career can help you or to book a free session with a career practitioner.

All downloads and more available at: www.yourcareer.gov.au/school-leavers-support

Word Of The Week: Winter

Word of the Week remains a keynote in 2025, simply to throw some disruption in amongst the 'yeah-nah' mix. 

Noun

1. the coldest season of the year, in the southern hemisphere from June to August and in the northern hemisphere from December to February. 2. the period from the winter solstice to the vernal equinox.

Adjective

1. (of fruit) ripening late in the year.

Verb

1. (especially of a bird) spend the winter in a particular place.

From Old English winter, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch winter and German Winter, the name comes from an old Germanic word that means “time of water” and refers to the rain and snow of winter in middle and high latitudes.

The English word "winter" originates from the Proto-Germanic noun wintru-, but its precise etymology is uncertain. It's often connected to the Proto-Indo-European root wed- meaning "water" or a variant wend-, suggesting a "wet season". Old English "winter" (plural wintru, wintras) also meant "the fourth and coldest season of the year". The Anglo-Saxons used winters as a way to count years. 

Compare Wend

From Old English wendan ‘to turn, depart’, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch and German wenden, also to wind.

Verb

"to take one's course or way, proceed, go," Old English wendan "to turn, make a turn; direct, go; convert, translate," from Proto-Germanic wanda- (source also of Old Saxon wendian, Old Norse venda, Swedish vända, Old Frisian wenda, Dutch wenden, German wenden, Gothic wandjan "to turn"), causative of word-root wendh- "to turn, wind, weave"



Sixteenth-century tennis was a dangerous sport played with balls covered in wool

Portrait of a young boy with a paletta and a ball, late 16th century, artist unknown. Wiki Commons/Canva
Penny Roberts, University of Warwick

In 1570, a Frenchman was arrested for smuggling clandestine correspondence between France and England. A passing comment in his interrogation document reveals that he also happened to be carrying a leather bag “in which there were three or four dozen balls of wool for playing tennis”.

The French term used was jeu de paume. This sport was played with the hand (palm), often gloved, rather than a racquet. This developed into the game that in English we usually refer to as “real tennis” (a different beast to the lawn tennis played at Wimbledon).

The interrogator believed that this cheap merchandise was simply a ruse for the man’s true purpose of communicating with Huguenot exiles. I have written a book, Huguenot Networks, based on this interrogation document, which will be published by Cambridge University Press later this year. But, as a historian, I was intrigued by both the number and makeup of the goods he was transporting. The wool, if wrapped tightly, could certainly have made these balls bouncy.


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By chance, I encountered similar objects in a small display in the Palazzo Te in Mantua in Italy. These balls had apparently been retrieved from the palace roof and several others had come from a nearby church. They were variously made of leather, cloth and string rather than wool, probably stuffed with earth or animal hair. Just like the handmade “real tennis” balls of today, they were harder and more variable in size than regular tennis balls, and usually not so colourful, although sometimes having a simple painted design on the outside.

Today, “real tennis” is known as the “sport of kings”, praised for testing agility and athletic prowess. The most famous court in England is at Hampton Court, but many others survive in the UK. For instance, there is one down the road from where I work at the University of Warwick, at Moreton Morrell in Warwickshire.

Medieval painting of Louis X
Louis X of France popularised the sport. Gallica

In the 16th century, real tennis attracted gamblers, meaning it became a later target for Puritans. Anne Boleyn is said to have placed a wager on a match she was watching on the day of her arrest. And Henry VIII, fittingly, supposedly played a match on the day Boleyn was executed.

And if there is any doubt about how dangerous tennis could be, several royal deaths in France are attributed to it. King Louis X of France was a keen player of jeu de paume. He was the first ruler to order enclosed indoor courts to be constructed. This later became popular across Europe.

In June 1316, after a particularly exhausting game, Louis X is said to have drunk a large quantity of chilled wine and soon afterwards died – probably of pleurisy, although there was some suspicion of poisoning.

Likewise, in August 1536, the death of the 18-year-old dauphin, eldest son of Francis I, was blamed on his Italian secretary, the Count of Montecuccoli, who had brought him a glass of cold water after a match. The count was subsequently executed despite a post-mortem suggesting that the prince had died of natural causes.

By the 16th century, there were two courts at the Louvre and many more around the city of Paris as well as at other royal residences. Ambassadors’ accounts describe frequent games between high-ranking courtiers and the king which could sometimes result in injury, especially if struck by one of the hard balls.

Our man carrying many tennis balls in 1570 had probably spotted a lucrative opportunity in response to rising demand. The French game had become increasingly popular in England under the Tudors.

By the Tudor period, no self-respecting European court was without its own purpose-built tennis courts where monarchs and their entourages tested their prowess and skill. They often did so before ambassadors, who could report back to their own rulers, making it a truly competitive international sport.

Thankfully, today’s game has far fewer dangers – there’s no risk of being hit by a ball full of earth or the fear of mortal retribution after beating an exhausted high-ranking opponent.

This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from bookshop.org The Conversation UK may earn a commission.The Conversation

Penny Roberts, Professor of Early Modern European History, University of Warwick

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

How strawberries and cream were a rare and exciting treat for Victorians – and then became a Wimbledon icon

Strawberries and Cream by Raphaelle Peale (1816). National Gallery of Art
Rebecca Earle, University of Warwick

Wimbledon is all about strawberries and cream (and of course tennis). The club itself describes strawberries and cream as “a true icon of The Championships”.

While a meal at one of the club’s restaurants can set you back £130 or more, a bowl of the iconic dish is a modest £2.70 (up from £2.50 in 2024 – the first price rise in 15 years). In 2024 visitors munched their way through nearly 2 million berries.

Strawberries and cream has a long association with Wimbledon. Even before lawn tennis was added to its activities, the All England Croquet Club (now the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club) was serving strawberries and cream to visitors. They would have expected no less. Across Victorian Britain, strawberries and cream was a staple of garden parties of all sorts. Private affairs, political fundraisers and county cricket matches all typically served the dish.

Alongside string bands and games of lawn tennis, strawberries and cream were among the pleasures that Victorians expected to encounter at a fête or garden party. As a result, one statistician wrote in the Dundee Evening Telegraph in 1889, Londoners alone consumed 12 million berries a day over the summer. At that rate, he explained, if strawberries were available year-round, Britons would spend 24 times more on strawberries than on missionary work, and twice as much as on education.


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But of course strawberries and cream were not available year-round. They were a delightful treat of the summer and the delicate berries did not last. Victorian newspapers, such as the Illustrated London News, complained that even the fruits on sale in London were a sad, squashed travesty of those eaten in the countryside, to say nothing of London’s cream, which might have been watered down.

Wimbledon’s lawn tennis championships were held in late June or early July – in the midst, in other words, of strawberry season.

Eating strawberries and cream had long been a distinctly seasonal pleasure. Seventeenth-century menu plans for elegant banquets offered strawberries, either with cream or steeped (rather deliciously, and I recommend you try this) in rose water, white wine, and sugar – as a suitable dish for the month of June.

Painting of three girls having stawberries at a picnic.
Strawberries and Cream by Robert Gemmell Hutchison (1855–1936). National Galleries of Scotland, CC BY-NC

They were, in the view of the 17th-century gardener John Parkinson, “a cooling and pleasant dish in the hot summer season”. They were, in short, a summer food. That was still the case in the 1870s, when the Wimbledon tennis championship was established.

This changed dramatically with the invention of mechanical refrigeration. From the late 19th century, new technologies enabled the global movement of chilled and frozen foods across vast oceans and spaces.

Domestic ice-boxes and refrigerators followed. These modern devices were hailed as freeing us from the tyranny of seasons. As the Ladies Home Journal magazine proclaimed triumphantly in 1929: “Refrigeration wipes out seasons and distances … We grow perishable products in the regions best suited to them instead of being forced to stick close to the large markets.” Eating seasonally, or locally, was a tiresome constraint and it was liberating to be able to enjoy foods at whatever time of year we desired.

As a result, points out historian Susan Friedberg, our concept of “freshness” was transformed. Consumers “stopped expecting fresh food to be just-picked or just-caught or just-killed. Instead, they expected to find and keep it in the refrigerator.”

dish of cream and strawberries at Wimbledon with the court in the background.
Strawberries and cream being enjoyed at Wimbledon. bonchan/Shutterstock

Today, when we can buy strawberries year round, we have largely lost the excitement that used to accompany advent of the strawberry season. Colour supplements and supermarket magazines do their best to drum up some enthusiasm for British strawberries, but we are far from the days when poets could rhapsodise about dairy maids “dreaming of their strawberries and cream” in the month of May.

Strawberries and cream, once a “rare service” enjoyed in the short months from late April to early July, are now a season-less staple, available virtually year round from the global networks of commercial growers who supply Britain’s food. The special buzz about Wimbledon’s iconic dish of strawberries and cream is a glimpse into an earlier time, and reminds us that it was not always so.The Conversation

Rebecca Earle, Professor of History, University of Warwick

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

From Mumbai’s ‘illegal migrant workers’ to Melbourne crypto traders, The Degenerates is global Australian literature

Michelle Cahill, University of Tasmania

In Raeden Richardson’s debut novel, The Degenerates, displacement and travel feature within the lives of aspiring outcasts in the wildly disparate cities of Bombay (Mumbai’s colonial precursor), in Melbourne’s inner-city lanes and southwest suburbs, and in downtown New York.

This is not strictly a novel about identity, nor assimilation. Not all its characters are Indians of the diaspora, but they all seek refuge from forms of oppression, be it caste-based, social or family violence.


Review: The Degenerates – Raeden Richardson (Text Publishing)


The Degenerates opens in 1976, with vivid snapshots of “illegal migrant workers” who leave their villages for Bombay’s Arabian sea slums, with dreams of saving enough money to buy a flat or start a family. The city is being gentrified, drugs get pedalled, arrests inevitably happen – but the lowly are not without humour, optimism and streetwise grace.

They attend “night school”, write in “cursive paragraphs”, learn “Keats and Byron” and “proper British English” from the nuns. Enterprising beggars are a familiar sight in Mumbai, and Richardson shows them to be a community tied to the legacies of colonialism.

Raeden Richardson’s debut novel features displacement and travel in the lives of aspiring outcasts. Text Publishing

‘Dear degenerates’

Richardson focuses on a shoe polisher from Western Maharashtra, Somnath Sunder Sonpate, who runs out of luck in Colaba’s Grant Road district, coming up against enforcers of Indira Gandhi’s mass sterilisation program: part of The Emergency from 1975 to 1977. This was a time of authoritarian rule, corruption, arrests, censorship and forced population control directed at the poor.

Somnath fails to narrowly escape the police and cannot produce a license, so he is sterilised. Meanwhile, Preeti, a woman he shares a tiffin (or meals) with, whose bed is made from the pages of old novels, gives birth in the street, without conception. This stroke of magic realism fuses the Christian belief in immaculate conception with the stigma of an oppressive Hindu caste system. Sadly, for Preeti, it is a double violence. At the hands of the beggar master, her tongue is cut out and she dies by incineration.

Somnath rescues her baby, and names her Maha. In a desperate struggle for survival, Somnath and baby Maha flee the city as stowaways, to arrive in the port of Melbourne.

The plight and flight of this street family rely on unlikely and extraordinary circumstances, establishing a mixed tone of surreal and tragicomic farce. They become squatters in Swan Street, Richmond, in Melbourne’s inner northeast. Then, in Degraves Street, Somnath labours as a shifty motorcycle mechanic in the chop shop and Maha eats herself into florid diabetes, becoming a consummate reader of history, scriptures and poetry.

When Somnath dies abruptly, Maha, also known as Mother Pulse, embraces her oddly divine manifestations. She receives letters on paper bags and napkins from outcasts, whom she addresses as “Dear degenerates”, imploring them to tell her their stories. She has them typed and printed into flyers, which are distributed under the windscreen wipers of cars. And so, the prayers and afflictions of the outcast – those who live precariously at the edges of society – are reclaimed and interwoven.

Critiquing privilege

There’s a hiatus in Maha’s story, as the narrative focus shifts to two selective school misfits, Titch and Skeater, or “ ” – a caesura – taking the place of his name. This grammatical marker becomes enigmatic of repression, private loss and what lies beyond the social fabric. The boys have a codependent, yet deeply poignant friendship at Melbourne High, until Skeater plunges into alcohol dependency.

Subsequent narrative sections cycle around Titch’s working friendship with Ginny, a Greek Australian bookseller and aspiring cryptocurrency trader. Both have troubled families: substance abuse, violence and mental health crises leave a path of brokenness. A survivor of abuse, Ginny escapes from her dysfunctional family in the suburbs with her sister, Marg, for a holiday in New York until her visa runs out. But Ginny’s caprices deviate from tourism brochures.

She befriends stylish, free-spirited Klein, an orphan fostered by an orphan, who self-medicates in burlesque nightclubs with “liquid green manza”. Ginny briefly stays with his queer family; with Gordon, an intern at the The Paris Review; and Shelley, a tall, bald, non-binary Mauritian saxophonist. Their caring and valiant efforts to secure Ginny’s blockchain trade and a working visa in New York are doomed to failure.

There’s more dialogue in this section of The Degenerates, albeit presented through a descriptive mode that frames the narrative action.

The novel’s structure fuses realist and fabulist elements. By turns capacious and wry, it also reads as Maha’s coming of age as she transforms from Dalit orphan to suburban diva. When Titch discloses his crimes of theft, she believes he is a reincarnation of her foster father, Somnath.

Her musings about rebirth and impermanence (“Here, gone”, “Many headed”) imply the plurality of a Hindu pantheon, but Maha is a standalone. Meanwhile, there’s something appealingly subversive and inherently Buddhist about the novel’s attention to small creatures like ants, a drug-intoxicated duckling, and even trilobites, extinct fossils who were “moved by the flux of life: hungering, feeding and hungering again”.

Refreshingly, Richardson’s abrupt sequences creak with a subtle critique of heteronormative culture, and of elite privilege under socialist democracy or late capitalism. There’s more than a hint of reproach aimed at those who too often speak on behalf of the Global South.

Maha’s low-caste mother, Preeti, is rendered speechless for claiming to possess special creative powers. But in its dance of minor perspectives, idiosyncrasies and conflations weaken the novel’s binding. The crystal meth Maha injects, leading to her gangrenous amputations, seems extraneous when diabetes is the cause.

In an interview, Richardson has spoken of urban spaces and laneways in Melbourne, where he was born, as being like a palimpsest. Indeed, the novel is infused with literary allusions and tropes which should be acknowledged.

Somnath’s forced sterilisation is strongly reminiscent of Ishvar’s in Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance, a novel also set in India’s 1975 Emergency period. Titch finds employment in Ginny’s bookshop after impressing her with the absurdity of citing the Russians: “The Tolstoy. The Dostoevsky. The Kafka.” Titch’s theft of drugs and cash faintly echo the transgressions of Raskolnikov, the impoverished student in Crime and Punishment. There is homage and a nod to foundational epistolary fictions such as Letter to Pessoa and To Silence.

Materially gritty

For all its flair and pastiche, The Degenerates retains a material grittiness. Like prose poured into blocks without line breaks, it reads like polished concrete. Each section or chunk is a cameo where the mundane become scenes of scrutiny, often with aesthetic appeal – whether it be Titch’s ants randomly in motion, the flow of water down drains, or the liquid in a case of contact lenses.

Richardson has a penchant for acronyms, such as MDMA, EDM, ATM, CBD, KFC, PVC, BMX. He seems to insist on brands and consumables, like Doritos, Mars bars, Freddo Frogs, Krispy Kremes. Telstra shops, Rebel Sport, Target, SnapChat and even the “Commbank app” make appearances.

Commodity fetishes animate the novel, however, its reliance on jargons of drug subculture and millennial crypto culture can be a strain to read, risking caricatures, at times bordering on cliché:

Bitcoin. Ethereum. Ripple, too. Even Paxos. ‘Look at the gains, yeah,’ he said.

The intense detail in Richardson’s descriptions slows down the action and depletes his characters of their psychological realities. Some of the most interesting “degenerates” – Somnath, Titch’s mother, and Skeater – make transitory appearances. This is, partly, because the author veers headlong into language’s potential for soundscapes, along with its capacity to explain and transcendentalise. Indeed, there’s an evangelical tone to the final section that deifies the writer’s task as being godlike.

When Maha’s hundreds of followers leave their families and jobs to join her in the mythic “Red Plains”, setting up “tents, tarpaulins and laundry lines”, we are told:

They watched her drive by the pages of Titch’s story. She was their creator. Their divine writer. They knew that Mother Pulse had dreamed them, her people, and set them in motion. It was true.

The passive register of omniscient narration stems Mother Pulse’s fully embodied voice, even as she furiously writes about her followers, while they seem content to be written about “with compassion and care”.

Richardson’s prose dazzles and sometimes overwhelms. However, the novel’s energy, precision, risk and charm generates scenes and outcast characters that are part of a community of marginal writing, to be read slowly against the canon, with all its literary categories, gates and privileges.

There are complex reasons why minority narratives struggle to thrive within the flow and countercurrents of a globalising, neocolonial literary economy. The Degenerates is relevant for Australia in this era of hostile immigration policy, populist nationalism and protectionism.

It poses not merely questions of travel, but provocations of travel writing, eschewing middle-class fears and insecurities. Its rare gifts are humour, perversity, syncretism and empathy for those marginalised, and their stories.The Conversation

Michelle Cahill, Adjunct, Department of English, School of Humanities, University of Tasmania

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Warm-ups, layered clothes, recovery: 4 tips to exercise safely in the cold

Maridav/Shutterstock
Harry Banyard, Swinburne University of Technology

Temperatures have dropped in many parts of Australia which means runners, cyclists, rowers, hikers, or anyone physically active outside need to take extra precautions to stay safe and exercise in relative comfort.

Cold environments can also include high winds and water exposure, which present unique physiological, psychological and logistical challenges that can turn people off exercising.

While exercising in the cold does not typically increase injury risk, certain conditions can lead to a drop in whole body temperature (hypothermia) and impaired exercise performance.

One advantage to exercising in the cold is that it often feels easier, since the body perceives lower exertion levels compared to performing the same task in hot environments.

While it’s sometimes tempting to rug up and stay indoors when temperatures plummet, here are some tips for exercising in cold conditions.

1. Wear layers

Start exercising in a slightly chilled state (if you’re warm when you begin, take a layer off).

Strip down one layer as you warm up to avoid overheating and excessive sweating, which can lead to chilling later as you cool down.

Clothing recommendations include:

  • inner (base) layer: wear a lightweight, moisture-wicking fabric (such as polyester) as a base layer to keep sweat away from your skin
  • middle (insulating) layer: add a fleece or thermal layer if temperatures are close to freezing
  • outer layer: a windproof, water-resistant jacket is essential in wet, windy or snowy conditions
  • additional considerations: for hands and feet, wear gloves and opt for polyester socks. A beanie or headband is great for the head and ears because you lose a significant amount of heat from your head.

2. Warming up is crucial

In cold conditions, your muscles may take longer to warm up and may be at a greater risk of injury due to reduced blood flow (vasoconstriction), reduced flexibility and slower reaction times.

Spend about ten minutes (perhaps indoors) performing a structured warm-up. This should include dynamic stretches and exercises such as push-ups, leg swings, lunges, calf raises, squats and high knees before heading out.

This will help enhance blood flow, increase tissue temperature and improve your joints’ range of motion.

No matter what exercise type you choose, start slowly and gradually progress your intensity.

3. Be aware of the risks

Depending on the mode of activity, outdoor exercise can be riskier during winter due to slippery surfaces and reduced visibility.

If you are walking or running, shorten your steps and stride length when it’s wet to maintain control and prevent slips and falls.

If you are cycling, avoid sharp turns or sudden stops. Stick to well-lit areas and paths and try to exercise during daylight hours if possible.

Also, consider wearing bright or reflective clothing at night or in foggy conditions.

4. The importance of recovery

Spend a few minutes at the end of your workout for active recovery (walking and stretching) which helps prevent blood pooling and inflammation in the feet, while bringing the body’s systems back to homeostasis (resting breathing and heart rate).

When it’s extremely cold, get indoors immediately because your body temperature drops fast once you stop moving.

Change out of any damp clothes and have a warm shower or bath as soon as possible to help regulate body temperature and prevent hypothermia. Be aware of signs of hypothermia, which include shivering, slurred speech, cold pale skin and poor coordination, among others.

Other tips to consider

If it’s nearing or below 0°C with wind chill or rain or snow, perhaps opt for an indoor mode of exercise such as treadmill running, stationary cycling or cross-training to avoid unnecessary risks such as hypothermia, non-freezing cold injuries (such as trenchfoot) or freezing cold injuries (frostbite).

To ensure adequate hydration, it is recommended to consume about 500ml of fluid two hours before exercise and to continue to drink during and after exercising.

If you do brave the cold to exercise outside, is still advisable to wear sunscreen (SPF 30 or higher) on exposed skin during the day, since ultra violet radiation can still pass through clouds and is not related to temperature.

Overall, exercise in the cold can be safe and enjoyable with the right precautions and planning.The Conversation

Harry Banyard, Senior Lecturer in Exercise and Sports Science, Swinburne University of Technology

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Using TikTok could be making you more politically polarized, new study finds

Are you in an echo chamber on TikTok? LeoPatrizi/E+ via Getty Images
Zicheng Cheng, University of Arizona

People on TikTok tend to follow accounts that align with their own political beliefs, meaning the platform is creating political echo chambers among its users. These findings, from a study my collaborators, Yanlin Li and Homero Gil de Zúñiga, and I published in the academic journal New Media & Society, show that people mostly hear from voices they already agree with.

We analyzed the structure of different political networks on TikTok and found that right-leaning communities are more isolated from other political groups and from mainstream news outlets. Looking at their internal structures, the right-leaning communities are more tightly connected than their left-leaning counterparts. In other words, conservative TikTok users tend to stick together. They rarely follow accounts with opposing views or mainstream media accounts. Liberal users, on the other hand, are more likely to follow a mix of accounts, including those they might disagree with.

Our study is based on a massive dataset of over 16 million TikTok videos from more than 160,000 public accounts between 2019 and 2023. We saw a spike of political TikTok videos during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. More importantly, people aren’t just passively watching political content; they’re actively creating political content themselves.

Some people are more outspoken about politics than others. We found that users with stronger political leanings and those who get more likes and comments on their videos are more motivated to keep posting. This shows the power of partisanship, but also the power of TikTok’s social rewards system. Engagement signals – likes, shares, comments – are like a fuel, encouraging users to create even more.

Why it matters

People are turning to TikTok not just for a good laugh. A recent Pew Research Center survey shows that almost 40% of U.S. adults under 30 regularly get news on TikTok. The question becomes what kind of news are they watching, and what does that mean for how they engage with politics.

The content on TikTok often comes from creators and influencers or digital-native media sources. The quality of this news content remains uncertain. Without access to balanced, fact-based information, people may struggle to make informed political decisions.

TikTok is not unique; social media generally fosters polarization.

Amid the debates over banning TikTok, our study highlights how TikTok can be a double-edged sword in political communication. It’s encouraging to see people participate in politics through TikTok when that’s their medium of choice. However, if a user’s network is closed and homogeneous and their expression serves as in-group validation, it may further solidify the political echo chamber.

When people are exposed to one-sided messages, it can increase hostility toward outgroups. In the long run, relying on TikTok as a source for political information might deepen people’s political views and contribute to greater polarization.

What other research is being done

Echo chambers have been widely studied on platforms like Twitter and Facebook, but similar research on TikTok is in its infancy. TikTok is drawing scrutiny, particularly its role in news production, political messaging and social movements.

TikTok has its unique format, algorithmic curation and entertainment-driven design. I believe that its function as a tool for political communication calls for closer examination.

What’s next

In 2024, the Biden/Harris and Trump campaigns joined TikTok to reach young voters. My research team is now analyzing how these political communication dynamics may have shifted during the 2024 election. Future research could use experiments to explore whether these campaign videos significantly influence voters’ perceptions and behaviors.

The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.The Conversation

Zicheng Cheng, Assistant Professor of Mass Communications, University of Arizona

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

A strange bright burst in space baffled astronomers for more than a year. Now, they’ve solved the mystery

CSIRO’s ASKAP radio telescope on Wajarri Country. © Alex Cherney/CSIRO
Clancy William James, Curtin University

Around midday on June 13 last year, my colleagues and I were scanning the skies when we thought we had discovered a strange and exciting new object in space. Using a huge radio telescope, we spotted a blindingly fast flash of radio waves that appeared to be coming from somewhere inside our galaxy.

After a year of research and analysis, we have finally pinned down the source of the signal – and it was even closer to home than we had ever expected.

A surprise in the desert

Our instrument was located at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara – also known as the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory – in remote Western Australia, where the sky above the red desert plains is vast and sublime.

We were using a new detector at the radio telescope known as the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder – or ASKAP – to search for rare flickering signals from distant galaxies called fast radio bursts.

We detected a burst. Surprisingly, it showed no evidence of a time delay between high and low frequencies – a phenomenon known as “dispersion”.

This meant it must have originated within a few hundred light years of Earth. In other words, it must have come from inside our galaxy – unlike other fast radio bursts which have come from billions of light years away.

A problem emerges

Fast radio bursts are the brightest radio flashes in the Universe, emitting 30 years’ worth of the Sun’s energy in less than a millisecond – and we only have hints of how they are produced.

Some theories suggest they are produced by “magnetars” – the highly magnetised cores of massive, dead stars – or arise from cosmic collisions between these dead stellar remnants. Regardless of how they occur, fast radio bursts are also a precise instrument for mapping out the so-called “missing matter” in our Universe.

When we went back over our recordings to take a closer a look at the radio burst, we had a surprise: the signal seemed to have disappeared. Two months of trial and error went by, until the problem was found.

ASKAP is composed of 36 antennas, which can be combined to act like one gigantic zoom lens six kilometres across. Just like a zoom lens on a camera, if you try to take a picture of something too close, it comes out blurry. Only by removing some of the antennas from the analysis – artificially reducing the size of our “lens” – did we finally make an image of the burst.

We weren’t excited by this – in fact, we were disappointed. No astronomical signal could be close enough to cause this blurring.

This meant it was probably just radio-frequency “interference” – an astronomer’s term for human-made signals that corrupt our data.

It’s the kind of junk data we’d normally throw away.

Yet the burst had us intrigued. For one thing, this burst was fast. The fastest known fast radio burst lasted about 10 millionths of a second. This burst consisted of an extremely bright pulse lasting a few billionths of a second, and two dimmer after-pulses, for a total duration of 30 nanoseconds.

So where did this amazingly short, bright burst come from?

A white graph with a blue line that spikes suddenly.
The radio burst we detected, lasting merely 30 nanoseconds. Clancy W. James

A zombie in space?

We already knew the direction it came from, and we were able to use the blurriness in the image to estimate a distance of 4,500 km. And there was only one thing in that direction, at that distance, at that time – a derelict 60-year-old satellite called Relay 2.

Relay 2 was one of the first ever telecommunications satellites. Launched by the United States in 1964, it was operated until 1965, and its onboard systems had failed by 1967.

But how could Relay 2 have produced this burst?

Some satellites, presumed dead, have been observed to reawaken. They are known as “zombie satellites”.

But this was no zombie. No system on board Relay 2 had ever been able to produce a nanosecond burst of radio waves, even when it was alive.

We think the most likely cause was an “electrostatic discharge”. As satellites are exposed to electrically charged gases in space known as plasmas, they can become charged – just like when your feet rub on carpet. And that accumulated charge can suddenly discharge, with the resulting spark causing a flash of radio waves.

Electrostatic discharges are common, and are known to cause damage to spacecraft. Yet all known electrostatic discharges last thousands of times longer than our signal, and occur most commonly when the Earth’s magnetosphere is highly active. And our magnetosphere was unusually quiet at the time of the signal.

Another possibility is a strike by a micrometeoroid – a tiny piece of space debris – similar to that experienced by the James Webb Space Telescope in June 2022.

According to our calculations, a 22 micro-gram micrometeoroid travelling at 20km per second or more and hitting Relay 2 would have been able to produce such a strong flash of radio waves. But we estimate the chance the nanosecond burst we detected was caused by such an event to be about 1%.

Plenty more sparks in the sky

Ultimately, we can’t be certain why we saw this signal from Relay 2. What we do know, however, is how to see more of them. When looking at 13.8 millisecond timescales – the equivalent of keeping the camera shutter open for longer – this signal was washed out, and barely detectable even to a powerful radio telescope such as ASKAP.

But if we had searched at 13.8 nanoseconds, any old radio antenna would have easily seen it. It shows us that monitoring satellites for electrostatic discharges with ground-based radio antennas is possible. And with the number of satellites in orbit growing rapidly, finding new ways to monitor them is more important than ever.

But did our team eventually find new astronomical signals? You bet we did. And there are no doubt plenty more to be found.The Conversation

Clancy William James, Senior Lecturer (astronomy and astroparticle physics), Curtin University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Whose story is being told – and why? Four questions museum visitors should ask themselves these school holidays

Olli Hellmann, University of Waikato

The winter school holidays will mean families across Aotearoa New Zealand will be looking for indoor activities to entertain children. With millions of visitors each year, museums focused on the country’s history will inevitably play host to local and international visitors.

Museums tend to enjoy a high level of trust among the public. They’re widely seen as neutral, factual sources of historical knowledge.

But like all forms of storytelling, museums present the past in particular ways. They narrate events from a certain group’s or individual’s perspective and explain why events unfolded in the way they did.

In this respect, museums are not so different from historical films. Consider the different ways two recent movies – 1917 and the remake of All Quiet on the Western Front – narrate the first world war.

In 1917, the storyteller takes the British side, encouraging viewers to invest in the bravery and endurance of British soldiers. But All Quiet on the Western Front is narrated from a German perspective, inviting viewers to grieve for German soldiers as victims of a political system that glorified war.

Museum exhibitions tell stories in a similar way. Visitors should be asking not just what story is told, but why.

Spoiler alert: it often has to do with national identity. Museums tell particular stories of the past because these stories support a particular image of New Zealand as a nation.

Four questions for your next museum visit

At its core, every story has two basic ingredients: actors and events. To turn these into a compelling narrative, the storyteller connects the events into a plot, so they build on each other. The storyteller also transforms actors into characters by giving them particular traits — brave, selfish, wise, cruel and the like. Museums do this, too.

As you move through a museum exhibition, try asking yourself the following questions:

1. Which historical events are included — and which are left out?

Every story begins somewhere. Museums choose which events to include and which to leave out, shaping how visitors understand what happened and why.

Take Te Papa’s Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War exhibition. It opens with the landing at ANZAC Cove but skips over events in the lead-up to WWI — such as Britain’s earlier moves to seize Ottoman territories like Cyprus and Egypt.

Leaving these out helps frame Gallipoli as a noble – albeit tragic – “coming of age” for New Zealand. But in reality, ANZAC soldiers were fighting to support Britain’s imperial ambitions in the Middle East.

2. How are events organised into a plot?

Museums don’t just say “this happened, then that happened”. They link events into a larger plot — a chain of cause and effect that explains how one thing led to another. This can happen through text, but also through spatial layout, lighting, sound and other techniques that guide visitors through rising and falling moments of narrative tension.

Often, museums use familiar plot types to connect events. One common example is the quest narrative — a story in which heroes must navigate unknown terrain, and where mistakes are part of the journey and threaten to derail the mission. It’s a bit like The Lord of the Rings: a journey full of challenges, wrong turns and personal growth.

At Te Kōngahu Museum of Waitangi, Aotearoa New Zealand’s Treaty story is told using this quest structure. The Treaty is presented as something unique and unfamiliar and the British, confronted with this unknown, fall back on familiar colonial practices — the “mistake” that led to the New Zealand wars.

Because this misstep is treated as part of the learning curve typical of any quest, the exhibition avoids harder questions about this violent part of history, and instead preserves the image of Aotearoa New Zealand as fundamentally tolerant and respectful.

3. Who are the main actors in the story — and who is missing?

Every story needs protagonists, and whose perspective frames the story matters. In many smaller regional museums, history is still told almost entirely from the viewpoint of European settlers. But what about Māori experiences of colonisation? Or the histories of Chinese communities and other migrants who arrived in the 1800s?

By focusing narrowly on European settlers as the main actors, these museums present a one-sided view of the past and construct an image of New Zealand as a European nation — one that expects others to assimilate.

4. How are the main actors characterised — and how are we meant to feel about them?

It’s not surprising that museums portray some actors positively and others less so. What’s more revealing is how certain individuals are elevated as symbols of the nation and how museums invite us to form personal connections with them.

In Te Papa’s Gallipoli exhibition, visitors can open drawers and boxes containing soldiers’ personal belongings. This intimate activity encourages us to feel close to these figures — not just learning about them, but identifying with them as embodying national qualities: bravery, resilience and a commitment to peace.

Why does this matter?

Historical museum narratives aren’t necessarily inaccurate — but, much like historical movies, they are selective. They highlight certain events, actors and cause-and-effect chains to tell a particular kind of story. Often, that story supports a specific idea of what it means to be an Aotearoa New Zealander.

By reading museum exhibitions with a critical eye, visitors can better understand not just the past, but how storytelling shapes national identity in the present — and imagine how it might be shaped differently.The Conversation

Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The ARIA charts are about to undergo a big change. It could be a boost for local artists

Catherine Strong, RMIT University and Ben Green, RMIT University

The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), the organisation responsible for collating and publishing Australia’s music charts, has just announced the biggest overhaul of its methods in more than a decade.

From September, the ARIA charts will be divided according to the release date of entries. Anything older than two years will be moved into a new “ARIA on replay” chart, with the exception of some music re-entering the charts after more than a decade.

The stated aim of the reforms is to better connect Australian audiences with new, and particularly Australian, music. They are part of a series of interventions from different groups aimed at solving the nation’s ongoing music “crisis”.

Why is this happening?

ARIA is responding to two related trends through implementing this new chart system.

The first is that the charts are increasingly dominated by old “catalogue” music. Creative Australia reports the ARIA’s Top 100 charts went from having almost 100% new singles (less than two years old) in 2018, to 70% new singles in 2024.

This is related to a fundamental change in what is being counted.

In 2014, ARIA expanded its sources from point-of-sale data (such as CD sales and iTunes downloads) to include plays on streaming services (such as Spotify and YouTube), which are now the most popular means of music consumption.

People will typically buy a physical/iTunes single or album once. But they might listen to a song on Spotify hundreds of times, and each of these listens count as far as the ARIA charts are concerned.

This explains the resurgence of old releases that find new audiences through media (such as Stranger Things boosting Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill), as well as perennial favourites that never seem to be dislodged (Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album has been in the ARIA Top 50 albums chart for more than 400 weeks).

The second trend is the decline of Australian music in the charts. Research shows the ARIA’s singles and albums charts have become more homogeneous in recent decades, rather than more diversified.

Artists from North America and the United Kingdom are dominating Australian charts more than ever. Many of them sit in the charts for extended periods, at the expense of homegrown talent.

How streaming platforms changed the game

A major challenge for artists on streaming platforms is discoverability, or visibility.

Decisions made by platform-employed playlist curators and AI algorithms aren’t well understood, and are hard to influence. Yet they make a huge difference to how many people will encounter a piece of music.

The inclusion of streaming data in the ARIA charts back in 2014 was presented as a way to more accurately assess what people were listening to.

This new plan to separate old and new releases has a more interventionist agenda, attempting to “remove barriers for new Australian music”.

It can be seen as a response to the overarching narrative of a “crisis” plaguing the Australian music industry – one which extends to existential challenges for live music, and the careers of musicians and other industry workers.

The ARIA’s decision to put their finger on the scales of chart success shows how pressing this crisis narrative has become.

What difference will it make?

Even if Australian artists are better represented in future ARIA charts, material challenges will remain.

Actual sales and streams may remain relatively low. Even with millions of streams, the value returned to artists is often too small to maintain a living.

For most artists, a sustainable music career requires that visibility be translated into other revenue sources, such as live performances, merchandise sales, and media licensing deals.

That said, ARIA’s aim of increasing discoverability for local acts seems likely to have some pay-off. Acts with their names in the new charts will enjoy extra visibility and prestige. If even a small number of opportunities arise from this, it could make a big difference to them, the local industries surrounding them, and the local audiences that will discover them.

ARIA’s intervention is part of a patchwork of responses from industry, government, and communities to Australia’s music woes. Another recent response came from a New South Wales government scheme which will reward overseas headliners (through reduced venue fees) for including an Australian opening act in their show.

State and federal governments are also investing in local music development and export. The surprising exception to this is previous trailblazer Victoria, which recently cut almost all contemporary music funding.

ARIA’s new approach is emphasising the message that Australian music should be valued. Tracking how this approach plays out – as well as which Australian artists benefit – will help ensure a healthy music ecosystem in the future.The Conversation

Catherine Strong, Associate Professor, Music Industry, RMIT University and Ben Green, Lecturer in Music Industry and Popular Culture, RMIT University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Celebrities, blue jeans and couture: how Anna Wintour changed fashion over 37 years at Vogue

Jye Marshall, Swinburne University of Technology and Rachel Lamarche-Beauchesne, Torrens University Australia

After 37 years at the helm, fashion industry heavyweight Anna Wintour is stepping down from her position as editor-in-chief of American Vogue.

It’s not a retirement, though, as Wintour will maintain a leadership position at global fashion and lifestyle publisher Condé Nast (the owner of Vogue and other publications, such as Vanity Fair and Glamour).

Nonetheless, Wintour’s departure from the US edition of the magazine is a big moment for the fashion industry – one which she has single-handedly changed forever.

Fashion mag fever

Fashion magazines as we know them today were first formalised in the 19th century. They helped establish the “trickle down theory” of fashion, wherein trends were traditionally dictated by certain industry elites, including major magazine editors.

In Australia, getting your hands on a monthly issue meant rare exposure to the latest European or American fashion trends.

Vogue itself was established in New York in 1892 by businessman Arthur Baldwin Turnure. The magazine targeted the city’s elite class, initially covering various aspects of high-society life. In 1909, Vogue was acquired by Condé Nast. From then, the magazine increasingly cemented itself as a cornerstone of the fashion publishing.

Cover of a 1921 edition of Vogue. Wikimedia, CC BY

The period following the second world war particularly opened the doors to mass fashion consumerism and an expanding fashion magazine culture.

Wintour came on as editor of Vogue in 1988, at which point the magazine became less conservative, and more culturally significant.

Not afraid to break the mould

Fashion publishing changed as a result of Wintour’s bold editorial choices – especially when it came to the magazine’s covers. Her choices both reflected, and dictated, shifts in fashion culture.

Wintour’s first cover at Vogue, published in 1988, mixed couture garments (Christian Lacroix) with mainstream brands (stonewashed Guess jeans) – something which had never been done before. It was also the first time a Vogue cover had featured jeans at all – perfectly setting the scene for a long career spent pushing the magazine into new domains.

Wintour also pioneered the centring of celebrities (rather than just models) within fashion discourse. And while she leveraged big names such as Beyonce, Madonna, Nicole Kidman, Kate Moss, Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey, she also featured rising stars as cover models – often helping propel their careers in the process.

Wintour’s legacy at Vogue involved elevating fashion from a frivolous runway to a powerful industry, which is not scared to make a statement. Nowhere is this truer than at the Met Gala, which is held each year to celebrate the opening of a new fashion exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute.

The event started as a simple fundraiser for the Met in 1948, before being linked to a fashion exhibit for the first time in 1974.

Wintour took over its organisation in 1995. Her focus on securing exclusive celebrity guests helped propel it to the prestigious event it is today.

This year’s theme for the event was Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. In a time where the US faces great political instability, Wintour was celebrated for her role in helping elevate Black history through the event.

Not without controversy

However, while her cultural influence can’t be doubted, Wintour’s legacy at American Vogue is not without fault.

Notably, her ongoing feud with animal rights organisation PETA – due to the her unwavering support for fur – has bubbled in the background since the heydays of the anti-fur movement.

Wintour has been targeted directly by anti-fur activists, both physically (she was hit with a tofu cream pie in 2005 while leaving a Chloe show) and through numerous protests.

This issue was never resolved. Vogue has continued to showcase and feature fur clothing, even as the social license for using animal materials starts to run out.

Fashion continues to grow increasingly political. How magazines such as Vogue will engage with this shift remains to be seen.

A changing media landscape

The rise of fashion blogging in recent decades has led to a wave of fashion influencers, with throngs of followers, who are challenging the unidirectional “trickle-down” structure of the fashion industry.

Today, social media platforms have overtaken traditional media influence both within and outside of fashion. And with this, the power of fashion editors such as Wintour is diminishing significantly.

Many words will flow regarding Wintour’s departure as editor-in-chief, but nowhere near as many as what she oversaw at the helm of the world’s biggest fashion magazine.The Conversation

Jye Marshall, Lecturer, Fashion Design, School of Design and Architecture, Swinburne University of Technology and Rachel Lamarche-Beauchesne, Senior Lecturer in Fashion Enterprise, Torrens University Australia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Dame Anna Wintour in the United States on 30 October 2024. Photo By UKinUSA - https://www.flickr.com/photos/31430487@N05/54106474312/, CC BY-SA 2.0, 

The world at your finger tips: Online

With current advice to stay at home and self-isolate, when you come in out of the garden, have had your fill of watching movies and want to explore something new, there's a whole world of books you can download, films you can watch and art galleries you can stroll through - all from at home and via the internet. This week a few suggestions of some of the resources available for you to explore and enjoy. For those who have a passion for Art - this month's Artist of the Month is the Online Australian Art Galleries and State Libraries where you can see great works of art from all over the world  and here - both older works and contemporary works.

Also remember the Project Gutenberg Australia - link here- has heaps of great books, not just focused on Australian subjects but fiction works by popular authors as well. Well worth a look at.

Short Stories for Teenagers you can read for free online

StoryStar is an online resource where you can access and read short stories for teenagers

About

Storystar is a totally FREE short stories site featuring some of the best short stories online, written by/for kids, teens, and adults of all ages around the world, where short story writers are the stars, and everyone is free to shine! Storystar is dedicated to providing a free place where everyone can share their stories. Stories can entertain us, enlighten us, and change us. Our lives are full of stories; stories of joy and sorrow, triumph and tragedy, success and failure. The stories of our lives matter. Share them. Sharing stories with each other can bring us closer together and help us get to know one another better. Please invite your friends and family to visit Storystar to read, rate and share all the short stories that have been published here, and to tell their stories too.

StoryStar headquarters are located on the central Oregon coast.

NFSA - National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

The doors may be temporarily closed but when it comes to the NFSA, we are always open online. We have content for Kids, Animal Lovers, Music fans, Film buffs & lots more.

You can explore what’s available online at the NFSA, see more in the link below.

https://bit.ly/2U8ORjH


NLA Ebooks - Free To Download

The National Library of Australia provides access to thousands of ebooks through its website, catalogue and eResources service. These include our own publications and digitised historical books from our collections as well as subscriptions to collections such as Chinese eResources, Early English Books Online and Ebsco ebooks.

What are ebooks?
Ebooks are books published in an electronic format. They can be read by using a personal computer or an ebook reader.

This guide will help you find and view different types of ebooks in the National Library collections.

Peruse the NLA's online ebooks, ready to download - HERE

The Internet Archive and Digital Library

The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge." It provides free public access to collections of digitised materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, movies, videos, moving images, and millions of public-domain books. There's lots of Australian materials amongst the millions of works on offer.

Visit:  https://archive.org/


Avalon Youth Hub: More Meditation Spots

Due to popular demand our meditation evenings have EXPANDED. Two sessions will now be run every Wednesday evening at the Hub. Both sessions will be facilitated by Merryn at Soul Safaris.

6-7pm - 12 - 15 year olds welcome
7-8pm - 16 - 25 year olds welcome

No experience needed. Learn and develop your mindfulness and practice meditation in a group setting.

For all enquires, message us via facebook or email help@avalonyouthhub.org.au

BIG THANKS The Burdekin Association for funding these sessions!

Green Team Beach Cleans 

Hosted by The Green Team
It has been estimated that we will have more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050...These beach cleans are aimed at reducing the vast amounts of plastic from entering our oceans before they harm marine life. 

Anyone and everyone is welcome! If you would like to come along, please bring a bucket, gloves and hat. Kids of all ages are also welcome! 

We will meet in front of the surf club. 
Hope to see you there!

The Green Team is a Youth-run, volunteer-based environment initiative from Avalon, Sydney. Keeping our area green and clean.

 The Project Gutenberg Library of Australiana

Australian writers, works about Australia and works which may be of interest to Australians.This Australiana page boasts many ebooks by Australian writers, or books about Australia. There is a diverse range; from the journals of the land and sea explorers; to the early accounts of white settlement in Australia; to the fiction of 'Banjo' Paterson, Henry Lawson and many other Australian writers.

The list of titles form part of the huge collection of ebooks freely downloadable from Project Gutenberg Australia. Follow the links to read more about the authors and titles and to read and/or download the ebooks. 

Profile: Ingleside Riders Group

Ingleside Riders Group Inc. (IRG) is a not for profit incorporated association and is run solely by volunteers. It was formed in 2003 and provides a facility known as “Ingleside Equestrian Park” which is approximately 9 acres of land between Wattle St and McLean St, Ingleside. IRG has a licence agreement with the Minister of Education to use this land. This facility is very valuable as it is the only designated area solely for equestrian use in the Pittwater District.  IRG promotes equal rights and the respect of one another and our list of rules that all members must sign reflect this.

Cyberbullying

Research shows that one in five Australian children aged 8 to 17 has been the target of cyberbullying in the past year. The Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner can help you make a complaint, find someone to talk to and provide advice and strategies for dealing with these issues.

Make a Complaint 

The Enhancing Online Safety for Children Act 2015 gives the power to provide assistance in relation to serious cyberbullying material. That is, material that is directed at a particular child with the intention to seriously embarrass, harass, threaten or humiliate.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION 

Before you make a complaint you need to have:

  • copies of the cyberbullying material to upload (eg screenshots or photos)
  • reported the material to the social media service (if possible) at least 48 hours ago
  • at hand as much information as possible about where the material is located
  • 15-20 minutes to complete the form

Visit: esafety.gov.au/complaints-and-reporting/cyberbullying

Our mission

The Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner is Australia's leader in online safety. The Office is committed to helping young people have safe, positive experiences online and encouraging behavioural change, where a generation of Australian children act responsibly online—just as they would offline.

We provide online safety education for Australian children and young people, a complaints service for young Australians who experience serious cyberbullying, and address illegal online content through the Online Content Scheme.

Our goal is to empower all Australians to explore the online world—safely.

Visit: esafety.gov.au/about-the-office 

The Green Team

Profile
This Youth-run, volunteer-based environment initiative has been attracting high praise from the founders of Living Ocean as much as other local environment groups recently. 
Creating Beach Cleans events, starting their own, sustainability days - ‘action speaks louder than words’ ethos is at the core of this group. 

National Training Complaints Hotline – 13 38 73

The National Training Complaints Hotline is accessible on 13 38 73 (Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm nationally) or via email at skilling@education.gov.au.

Sync Your Breathing with this - to help you Relax

Send In Your Stuff

Pittwater Online News is not only For and About you, it is also BY you.  
We will not publish swearing or the gossip about others. BUT: If you have a poem, story or something you want to see addressed, let us know or send to: pittwateronlinenews@live.com.au

All Are Welcome, All Belong!

Youth Source: Northern Sydney Region

A directory of services and resources relevant to young people and those who work, play and live alongside them.

The YouthSource directory has listings from the following types of service providers: Aboriginal, Accommodation, Alcohol & Other Drugs, Community Service, Counselling, Disability, Education & Training, Emergency Information, Employment, Financial, Gambling,  General Health & Wellbeing, Government Agency, Hospital & GP, Legal & Justice, Library, Mental Health, Multicultural, Nutrition & Eating Disorders, Parenting, Relationships, Sexual Health, University, Youth Centre

Driver Knowledge Test (DKT) Practice run Online

Did you know you can do a practice run of the DKT online on the RMS site? - check out the base of this page, and the rest on the webpage, it's loaded with information for you!

The DKT Practice test is designed to help you become familiar with the test, and decide if you’re ready to attempt the test for real.  Experienced drivers can also take the practice test to check their knowledge of the road rules. Unlike the real test, the practice DKT allows you to finish all 45 questions, regardless of how many you get wrong. At the end of the practice test, you’ll be advised whether you passed or failed.

Fined Out: Practical guide for people having problems with fines

Legal Aid NSW has just published an updated version of its 'Fined Out' booklet, produced in collaboration with Inner City Legal Centre and Redfern Legal Centre.

Fined Out is a practical guide to the NSW fines system. It provides information about how to deal with fines and contact information for services that can help people with their fines.

A fine is a financial penalty for breaking the law. The Fines Act 1996 (NSW) and Regulations sets out the rules about fines.

The 5th edition of 'Fined Out' includes information on the different types of fines and chapters on the various options to deal with fines at different stages of the fine lifecycle, including court options and pathways to seek a review, a 50% reduction, a write-off, plan, or a Work and Development Order (WDO).

The resource features links to self-help legal tools for people with NSW fines, traffic offence fines and court attendance notices (CANs) and also explains the role of Revenue NSW in administering and enforcing fines.

Other sections of the booklet include information specific to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, young people and driving offences, as well as a series of template letters to assist people to self-advocate.

Hard copies will soon be available to be ordered online through the Publications tab on the Legal Aid NSW website.

Hard copies will also be made available in all public and prison libraries throughout NSW.

Read the resource online, or download the PDF.

Apprenticeships and traineeships info

Are you going to leave school this year?
Looking for an apprenticeship or traineeship to get you started?
This website, Training Services NSW, has stacks of info for you;

It lists the group training organisations (GTOs) that are currently registered in NSW under the Apprenticeship and Traineeship Act 2001. These GTOs have been audited by independent auditors and are compliant with the National Standards for Group Training Organisations.

If you are interested in using the services of a registered GTO, please contact any of the organisations listed here: https://www.training.nsw.gov.au/gto/contacts.html

There are also some great websites, like 1300apprentice, which list what kind of apprenticeships and traineeships they can guide you to securing as well as listing work available right now.

Profile Bayview Yacht Racing Association (BYRA)
1842 Pittwater Rd, Bayview
Website: www.byra.org.au

BYRA has a passion for sharing the great waters of Pittwater and a love of sailing with everyone aged 8 to 80 or over!

 headspace Brookvale

headspace Brookvale provides services to young people aged 12-25. If you are a young person looking for health advice, support and/or information,headspace Brookvale can help you with:

• Mental health • Physical/sexual health • Alcohol and other drug services • Education and employment services

If you ever feel that you are:

• Alone and confused • Down, depressed or anxious • Worried about your use of alcohol and/or other drugs • Not coping at home, school or work • Being bullied, hurt or harassed • Wanting to hurt yourself • Concerned about your sexual health • Struggling with housing or accommodation • Having relationship problems • Finding it hard to get a job

Or if you just need someone to talk to… headspace Brookvale can help! The best part is our service is free, confidential and youth friendly.

headspace Brookvale is open from Monday to Friday 9:00am-5:30pm so if you want to talk or make an appointment give us a call on (02) 9937 6500. If you're not feeling up to contacting us yourself, feel free to ask your family, friend, teacher, doctor or someone close to you to make a referral on your behalf.

When you first come to headspace Brookvale you will be greeted by one of our friendly staff. You will then talk with a member of our headspace Brookvale Youth Access Team. The headspace Brookvale Youth Access Team consists of three workers, who will work with you around whatever problems you are facing. Depending on what's happening for you, you may meet with your Youth Access Worker a number of times or you may be referred on to a more appropriate service provider.

A number of service providers are operating out of headspace Brookvale including Psychologists, Drug & Alcohol Workers, Sexual Health Workers, Employment Services and more! If we can't find a service operating withinheadspace Brookvale that best suits you, the Youth Access Team can also refer you to other services in the Sydney area.

eheadspace provides online and telephone support for young people aged 12-25. It is a confidential, free, secure space where you can chat, email or talk on the phone to qualified youth mental health professionals.

Click here to go to eheadspace

For urgent mental health assistance or if you are in a crisis please call the Northern Sydney 24 hour Mental Health Access Line on 1800 011 511

Need Help Right NOW??

kids help line: 1800 55 1800 - www.kidshelpline.com.au

lifeline australia - 13 11 14 - www.lifeline.org.au

headspace Brookvale is located at Level 2 Brookvale House, 1A Cross Street Brookvale NSW 2100 (Old Medical Centre at Warringah Mall). We are nearby Brookvale Westfield's bus stop on Pittwater road, and have plenty of parking under the building opposite Bunnings. More at: www.headspace.org.au/headspace-centres/headspace-brookvale

Profile: Avalon Soccer Club
Avalon Soccer Club is an amateur club situated at the northern end of Sydney’s Northern Beaches. As a club we pride ourselves on our friendly, family club environment. The club is comprised of over a thousand players aged from 5 to 70 who enjoy playing the beautiful game at a variety of levels and is entirely run by a group of dedicated volunteers. 
Profile: Pittwater Baseball Club

Their Mission: Share a community spirit through the joy of our children engaging in baseball.

Year 13

Year13 is an online resource for post school options that specialises in providing information and services on Apprenticeships, Gap Year Programs, Job Vacancies, Studying, Money Advice, Internships and the fun of life after school. Partnering with leading companies across Australia Year13 helps facilitate positive choices for young Australians when finishing school.

NCYLC is a community legal centre dedicated to providing advice to children and young people. NCYLC has developed a Cyber Project called Lawmail, which allows young people to easily access free legal advice from anywhere in Australia, at any time.

NCYLC was set up to ensure children’s rights are not marginalised or ignored. NCYLC helps children across Australia with their problems, including abuse and neglect. The AGD, UNSW, KWM, Telstra and ASIC collaborate by providing financial, in-kind and/or pro bono volunteer resources to NCYLC to operate Lawmail and/or Lawstuff.

Kids Helpline

If you’re aged 5-25 the Kids Helpline provides free and confidential online and phone counselling 24 hours a day, seven days a week on 1800 55 1800. You can chat with us about anything… What’s going on at home, stuff with friends. Something at school or feeling sad, angry or worried. You don’t have to tell us your name if you don’t want to.

You can Webchat, email or phone. Always remember - Everyone deserves to be safe and happy. You’re important and we are here to help you. Visit: https://kidshelpline.com.au/kids/