Plus dingo deaths and “big” news. Welcome to Galah Weekly, our award-winning newsletter keeping you up to date with regional headlines that matter, plus other delightful things from life beyond the city. By Dean Southwell, who can’t believe he searched for “giant lawnmower”.
Farmers are facing difficult choices between potential new income streams and food production as the drive to develop renewable energy infrastructure gains pace.
Victoria’s renewable energy unit VicGrid has earmarked one of the nation’s prime dairy regions, the Moyne Shire, as a key area for potential wind farms and solar panels. It’s already home to seven wind farms, with more on the way.
Producers such as Anna and Joseph Conheady are torn between the potential income stream from hosting energy infrastructure and the desire to protect prime agricultural land. Although they support a greener energy system, they argue food production should be prioritised.
Landholders could earn as much as $750,000 over 25 years for each turbine, but a Qld couple rejected a wind farm on their property because of uncertainty over who would pay the considerable costs of eventual decommissioning.
Similar concerns have been raised in NSW, where development is likely in five renewable energy zones.
Other landholders see obvious benefits. WA farmer Hamish Thorn runs sheep and farms crops on the same land he leases to wind turbine companies and argues that on-site turbines help support food production by allowing farmers to stay profitable.
The largest farm in Tasmania, Rushy Lagoon in the north-east, is on the market and could fetch more than $100 million. An obvious factor in that sale price is the multibillion-dollar wind farm proposed for the property.
It’s big – 176 pages – and beautiful. There is even a story with the promising title "Let’s talk about sex" (it is the Pleasure issue after all). It’ll make the perfect Christmas gift or present for a teacher or neighbour or a thanks-for-having-me gesture or, if it’s a subscription, the gift-that-keeps-on-giving for a loved one.
All Issue 11 pre-orders and subscriptions placed before midnight Thursday 17 October receive free shipping (a saving of $10), and will be shipped before the issue’s on-sale date of 11 November.
Outback farmers David and Frances Pollock are turning their grief and anger over the killing of two pets on their sprawling WA property last month into a campaign to end dingo bounty schemes.
The Pollocks have launched an online petition against the local Shire of Murchison scheme that offers a $100 bounty for dingoes. They also want to promote the view that a healthy bush needs dingoes, contrary to what they say is a “wild dog myth” that justifies their killing. More than 13,000 people have already supported the petition.
Dingoes have been a key part of David Pollock’s radical plan to revitalise Wooleen Station, a 134,000ha mixed beef cattle, tourism and conservation property, 640km north of Perth. He says dingoes have helped contain uncontrolled herbivores such as kangaroos as well as feral goats and foxes. His 2019 book, The Wooleen Way, explains his approach and work to regenerate the property.
Pollock has acknowledged his views on dingoes are not shared by most of his neighbours, who see them as a threat to livestock. Murchison Shire president Rossco Foulkes-Taylor this week defended the bounty scheme and spoke of the online abuse that had been directed at him and the shire since the petition was launched.
He sympathised with the Pollocks over the loss of the two dingoes but believed the shire had taken “a fair approach to what every pastoral property in the shire wants us to do – except Wooleen obviously”.
Meanwhile, Victoria has just extended the right to kill dingoes in a move traditional owners and dingo advocates say could threaten local populations with extinction.
Victorian farmer George Cullinan capped 10 years of learning about one of the world’s rarest birds on his Mallee property by leaving a legacy that aims to ensure their survival.
Cullinan died last month aged 98, but not before he’d set aside part of his 2000ha Mallee property to protect the threatened plains wanderer. A covenant established on the property last year prevents the 91ha block from ever being cultivated.
The plains wanderer was once found as far north as western Qld, but now there are believed to be as few as 250, with only occasional sightings in Victoria and NSW.
Cullinan worked with Trust for Nature and the Birchip Landcare Group to learn more about the plains wanderer after finding one dead on his property. Song meters were placed on his property to capture the distinct call of the birds, said to resemble the moo of a cow.
Farmer-author Matthew Evans’ Fat Pig Farm in Tasmania’s Huon Valley will host a two-day farming conference, field day and “a cracking food festival” in December.
Grounded Australia is inspired by the UK’s Groundswell regenerative farming festival and sees its mission as sharing information so farmers can learn skills to heal their land while making money. Organisers want to spread the word that farming has the answer to many of the world’s problems.
Bestselling UK farmer-authors James Rebanks, who wrote the award-winning The Shepherd’s Life, and his wife Helen Rebanks, author of The Farmer’s Wife, are featured speakers.
Grounded Australia will be held on 4-5 December, with a ticketed welcome event on 3 December. Read more
A run-in with a bull 10 years ago sparked career changes that led Qld graziers Michael and Katie Pitt to work in regional health.
Michael Pitt was mustering cattle when he was hurt by a bull that knocked him off his horse. The injury sparked a career rethink and he followed his childhood dream of becoming a doctor. His wife, Katie, switched from agribusiness to become a nurse and they’re now caring for people in western Qld.
Their story is an unusual win in the struggle to attract health professionals to regional areas.
All Galah Issue 11 pre-orders and subscriptions placed before midnight Thursday 17 October receive free shipping (a saving of $10), and will be shipped before the issue’s on-sale date of 11 November.
Castlemaine Galah-on-the-ground Carol Jones took issue with the new national campaign we mentioned last week to get households to reduce their food waste.
Her first targets were the “absolutely ridiculous aesthetic standards” that supermarkets say are “‘demanded by the consumer”. “Farmers are being pretty much held by the short and curlies by the ‘standards’ that supermarkets have themselves set with pretty advertising,’’ she writes.
“Turning the blame to the consumer is in the same bucket as gambling/tobacco/alcohol et al industries telling us that we must take responsibility for their products.
“It's time to re-normalise bananas that don't have a 25-degree curvature, or whatever the stupid 'rule' is. Then farmers wouldn't have to bury tonnes and tonnes of rejected produce.”
The Galah team is growing. This week we welcome Josh Fletcher, our new partnerships manager.
Josh, his wife and their toddler son live with their father-in-law on their cattle and agritourism property in Maryborough, Qld.
“I've worked in sales for the past 15 years, most recently as the head of partnerships for another indi digital publisher,’’ Josh said.
“Sadly we lost our family leader (my mother-in-law) recently to a very swift and aggressive cancer. Through this period, living in a rural town showed how amazing people are.
“I've been a long-time fan of Galah (I have Issue 1 on my desk) so I thought 'what the heck' and reached out to Annie. Fast forward and here I am, introducing myself as the newest member of the Galah family.”
If you’re interested in partnering with Galah, email josh@galahpress.com
Central NSW artists Sophie Corks and Carina Chambers are teaming up for All Year Round, an exhibition celebrating the changing seasons in Orange and surrounding landscapes. It will be the first show held at the city’s Byng St Boutique Hotel. There’s also an artists’ talk and hands-on colour class on 1 November. Open 25 October-10 November. Read more
Curator Georgia Cheesman will honour "the printmaker’s mark" in an exhibition at SA’s Wonderground Barossa featuring works by more than 20 printmakers. The exhibition explores their diverse approaches and celebrates the distinctive mark and legacy of printmaking. Selected works by printmaker and writer Barbara Hanrahan are included. Wonderground Barossa, Seppeltsfield, SA, 18 October-1 December. Read more
“Have galleries but will travel” is one way of summing up this exhibition heading to the regional NSW city of Newcastle. Michael Reid Galleries has five bricks-and-mortar galleries from Sydney to Berlin, but the Michael Reid Beyond program operates as a mobile project on a variety of sites. This exhibition, next to the historic Victoria Theatre, will include work from leading contemporary artists including Gerwyn Davies and Narelle Autio. 14 Perkins Street, Newcastle, 7-10 November. Read more
Interview by Emma Hearnes.
Chrischona Schmidt, an arts manager and researcher with a background in art history and social anthropology, has made a career championing Central Australian Indigenous art, preserving local art histories and highlighting women's contributions. She has worked for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, the National Museum of Australia, the Strehlow Research Centre, and auction houses and galleries across Australia and overseas. For the past 12 years she has managed NT’s Ikuntji Artists, 230km west of Alice Springs, helping to transform the centre into a thriving hub of creativity.
Tell me about the work you do at Ikuntji Artists.
Ikuntji Artists is a not-for-profit remote Aboriginal art centre founded by Western Desert women for women. We’re in the community of Ikuntji (Haasts Bluff), population about 150. We’re run by a board of seven Indigenous directors, all of whom live and work locally, and we’re incredibly proud to be considered one of the most renowned specialised Indigenous art centres in Australia.
Who is a female artist we should all know about?
There are too many interesting female artists to name. Of course, there are the champions, the trailblazers such as Emily Kam Kngwarray and Eunice Napanangka Jack. But then there are also the next generations including Lisa Waup and Grace Lillian Lee. What fascinates me about the work of female artists is their ability to bridge techniques and media and create an expression of interconnectedness through art.
Outside of art, what’s been absorbing your attention lately?
I have been really noticing the impact of the climate crisis on Central Australia – more extreme weather and more unforeseeable weather events. This has had a direct impact on anyone living in Central Australia, but particularly people living in remote areas. Food supplies may not reach them, health services, mail ... everything gets disrupted. It puts a very fragile system at risk.
We can add the big tractor to the national enthusiasm for oversized tourist attractions.The WA wheatbelt town of Carnamah unveiled the world’s largest ”big tractor” last weekend, a Chamberlain 40K replica.
It adds a distinctly agricultural focus to the list of “big things”. Australia is home to an oversized fruit cocktail that includes the Big Banana and Big Pineapple, a national seafood platter including the Big Prawn, and a fulsome flock of birds such as the Giant Cassowary and the Big Penguin.
Of course, SA’s Big Galah holds a special place in our hearts.
But big isn’t always best. NSW south coast couple Jim and Sue Roach have had to build a new shed to contain their collection of miniature buildings that ranges from a replica Tudor mansion to a Queensland pub.
We’d love to hear about the news, events and people that should be making the headlines in the Galah Weekly newsy. Share what’s new(s) in your neck of the woods with us at newsie@galahpress.com
