In today's episode we learn about the Emerge 2020 exhibition, meet local photographer Jimmy Scaboo, and welcome new music host Ellie D who will be bringing us the stories and songs of local artists, starting with Brendan Egan.
Local news highlights include the extension of COVID relief measures for some airport tenants, a naturalisation technique to channel stormwater to Baldwin Swamp from Belle Eden Estate, One Million Trees Bundaberg launch, the 2019/20 Bundaberg Regional Council Annual Report and more.
In today's episode we learn about the Emerge 2020 exhibition, meet local photographer Jimmy Scaboo, and welcome new music host Ellie D who will be bringing us the stories and songs of local artists, starting with Brendan Egan.
Local news highlights include the extension of COVID relief measures for some airport tenants, a naturalisation technique to channel stormwater to Baldwin Swamp from Belle Eden Estate, One Million Trees Bundaberg launch, the 2019/20 Bundaberg Regional Council Annual Report and more.
Hello and welcome to the weekly Bundaberg Now podcast. I'm Dana Maggacis from Bundaberg Regional Council and today we have another interesting programme with news and information from across the Bundaberg Region. Soon we'll hear about the fantastic exhibition emerge 2020, meet a talented local photographer and have our first music segment from Ellie D. But first, here's Michael Gorey with the news headlines.
Michael Gorey:Thank you, Dana. Making news this week Bundaberg Regional Council has extended COVID relief measures for some airport tenants until the end of the year. With flight numbers down businesses inside the terminal have had their revenue decreased significantly. Council hopes that as our state borders open up aviation services will return to normal. Stormwater will be channelled to Baldwin Swamp and the Burnett River from Belle Eden Estate using an innovative naturalisation technique. Here's civil engineer David Fulton to explain.
David Fulton:The idea is to naturalise the drainage channel through Belle Eden Park to reinstate the water treatment capabilities of a natural stream or creek. The naturalisation will treat stormwater runoff and remove certain pollutants which are generated from urban development. We want to remove those pollutants so they don't impact some of the very important natural areas we have downstream such as Baldwin Swamp, the Burnett River and ultimately the Great Barrier Reef.
Michael Gorey:The 1 Million Trees Bundaberg programme was launched last Friday. Ray Johnson from Gin Gin Landcare says there are many benefits.
Ray Johnson:If we really can convince that this is the way we need to be going in the world, I see no problem with 1 million trees. Takes a bit of effort and a bit of expense to get them in, but it's worth every bit of it. I suppose there's lots of good reasons why we should be doing it. Because there's lots of good reasons for trees. Without it we wouldn't last very long on planet Earth. But number one for shade, habitat for birds, animals, and for cleaning the air. They are the lungs of the earth. So yeah, we need we need trees and lots of them.
Michael Gorey:Local irrigators are being encouraged to complete a survey to measure future water demand. The information will be used to shape decisions regarding Paradise Dam. Bree Grima from Bundaberg Fruit and Vegetable Growers says the survey is very important.
Bree Grima:If ever there was one survey that the growers in this region need to fill out this is it. So you know if they if they're sitting in their tractor and they've got the GPS guidance on, that's the time to jump on fill it out takes around about half an hour. But that's the most important 30 minutes that they will have. Because this information will be fed into the into the reports and then that's essentially going to be determining what happens with that dam. We need that dam return to full supply level. There's no doubt about it.
Michael Gorey:In sport, Bundaberg swimmer Toby Street has received an Australian Olympic Changemaker award and a scholarship to Bond University. During his short career so far, 17 year old Toby has received many accolades. He's also been in the national top 10 for his age group in freestyle. Now let's hear from Bundaberg Regional Council Chief Executive Steve Johnston about highlights from the Council 2019/20 Annual Report. Mr Johnston says it was a tale of two halves. Then back to you Dana.
Steve Johnston:This year's annual report I described as a 12 month period in two halves. The first six months, so from July to December last year, it was really business as usual. We had an election looming in March, a local government election, there were certain restrictions about to be imposed on not just Queensland but nationally because of COVID. That had a number of impacts on the organisation. Obviously, the first thing we had to get through was the local government election. But then we also have to look at what the impact was going to be financially and economically on our own community. What the Council did at the time was to put a number of measures in place to try and assist particularly local businesses and local community groups and sporting organisations to ride through the impact of that COVID situation. I think ironically, for us that it wasn't ever really a health crisis, it quickly morphed into a financial and economic crisis. A couple of things that Council did straight away was to put a six month freeze on charging any rent on any property owner that Council rented property to particularly including properties at the airport, who were very adversely affected by the impact of COVID. The other thing that happened was in the main street, we stopped issuing parking fines. So the Council also looked at ways in which they could assist those local businesses by putting a freeze on trade waste charges and we put a moratorium on charging interest on rates and charges that are outstanding. We came out of the financial year, probably in a slightly better position than we had thought we would because of those impacts. And that was largely due to the fact that we were in a good solid financial position, which enabled us to absorb some of those shocks and make some of those concessions available and a continuation of a number of those measures that we put in place initially, that now run into December. So, overall, about nine months worth of relief measures the Council's implemented to try and assist local businesses right through that. And of course, the new Councillors also looked at a range of other measures to try and stimulate the local building local construction industry, the local development industry.
Dana Maggacis:Thanks, Michael and Steve. Now, here's a little bit about the emerge 2020 exhibition.
Rebecca McDuff:Hi, I'm Rebecca Macduff. I'm the Gallery Director for Bundaberg Regional Galleries. I'm really excited today to be here talking about our latest exhibition, which is emerge 2020. emerge is a fantastic exhibition. It celebrates the contribution that emerging artists make to our cultural landscape. It draws out works from six regional high schools, and it aims to excite, challenge and inspire the audience so that they can see the world through the eyes of our young artists. Something really interesting about emerge that is actually in part of the cultural landscape for Bundaberg for over 30 years. It started out at Shalom College as the Combined Schools Art Exhibition, and since then, it's had various incantations to its current status as emerge and it sits within Gallery One at Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery. Each year, there are varying students involved in it from various year levels. This year, we have 70 artists participating in the exhibition. And those 70 artists are from grade 7 through to grade 12. The artworks that we see at emerge always vary. It depends a little bit on what the assessment pieces have been, but also really reflects what's happening for the young people within our region each year. This year, of course, we've seen a huge influence by COVID-19 and the isolation that factored into the lives of everyone particularly impacted on our young people in their schooling. So we see a lot of art works looking at the theory that thoughts about isolation about mental health issues, about that sense of feeling alone, but there are also some just wonderful whimsical pieces as part of the exhibition as well. And so it's really exciting to see these small sculptures that have been created by St Luke's College after an artist in residency with Carolyn Watts, Brisbane based artist, those small sculptures, they have this beautiful bone sculpture as part of them that is just gorgeous. There's also some fantastic projections and film noir from Kepnock State High School this year, and you'll be able to go into the vault to see those. We've got a various array of paintings from Bundaberg State High School, North State High School, and Shalom College this year. And I really think it's exciting to see the way that students develop as they go through their schooling and really the material that they end up using for their final product. Some other things that are really exciting about emerge this year is that on the opening weekend, we have a pop up exhibition and performance happening in Gallery Two by local emerging artists Rhys Williams. Rhys is a young actor, but also involved in the Moncrieff and Gallery Teams. Rhys is doing this really interesting exhibition called a retrospective of Lindsay Hayes and he's written this play himself. But alongside that he's worked with regional artists to create an exhibition that stands alone. And the play that he has developed explores these artworks, and the story of the fictional Lindsay Hayes and how she fits into the exhibition scene. Unfortunately, there are no spots left any of those performances because that Rhys managed to sell out that show in 24 hours, I'm exceptionally proud to see a young emerging artists doing so well for himself. Later on emerge, starting on the seventh of December, we also have the emerge fringe festival and this is where you will see street art popping up around the Bundaberg region featuring the work once again of our young emerging artists. There are approximately 14 artists contributed and to the street part of the festival and keep your eye out over the school holidays for those. Another exciting thing on the opening night of emerge is that we all have local artists, Becc McPherson live creating a piece of public art on the front of the gallery. And so really excited to see Becc doing this as a performance piece alongside some great local musicians that are going to play for the opening. We're also really lucky for emerge that we are able to offer emerging artists awards. Now these are sponsored by The Money Edge. And these are enable four artists within the exhibition to be given prizes of$250 each and recognised for their outstanding contribution to the exhibition. It's always a very difficult award to judge. And this year we welcome Shelley Pisani from the Ideas Distillery along to make that final judging. We also receive every year strong sponsorship from Art Plus. Art Plus sponsor our People's Choice Award and this is great. This is where the people get to come in and vote on which is their favourite artwork and Art Plus sponsor a$250 voucher for the student that gets the most votes. So I really want to thank our sponsors because they're also in their own way saying a huge thank you and acknowledgement for the students and the work that they create for us. Everyone in the public that come in and enjoy the emerge exhibition I really encourage if you haven't been to the gallery before, this is the exhibition to come and see because it really is an amazing snapshot of what is happening for the young artist within our region.
Dana Maggacis:Thanks, Rebecca. Over to Kylie Lane, from Council's tourism and events team, and she's joined by local photographer, Kevin Hill, or as you may know him, Jimmy Scaboo.
Jimmy Scaboo:Sure. My name is Kevin Hill. I'm also known as Jimmy Scaboo. On Facebook, I do a lot of nature photographs in the Bargara region, and I'd like to go elsewhere, but there's so much to do in Bargara
Kylie Lane:It keeps you busy.
Jimmy Scaboo:I'm not gonna finish it for a long time.
Kylie Lane:Well, that sounds great. So I wonder if people could imagine that they're able to spend most of their mornings and afternoons out and about exploring our beautiful region. It just sounds so inviting and that's exactly what what you do. Every day. Kevin aka Jimmy, to his Facebook friends is up before dawn, camera in hand ready to capture the day, and once again in the afternoon to farewell the setting sun. So if you don't mind, tell us about some of the interesting creatures you've come across in your daily walks.
Jimmy Scaboo:Well, it's it's quite amazing what we do have in our region. It's a tropical subtropical paradise and its seasonal, of course. So that's what makes it so interesting. I never know what I'm going to get. I head out to get the sunrise and there'll be dolphins or there'll be a very large kangaroo showing his muscles. There'll be there'll be birds galore, which I've only just in the last five or six months of my walks noticed how many and how colourful they are. What I do is I if I see a really interesting one, I put it up there and I asked for help with ID.
Kylie Lane:Oh wonderful, and people get involved and help you out.
Jimmy Scaboo:And I'm hopeless with fish too. So I asked for that when I see sea snakes washed up on the beach, or tuna jumping. There's just so many things out there and and I'm fortunate that I'm retired.
Kylie Lane:Well, that sounds great. And earlier this year, I believe you captured an image of spotted eagle rays at Mon Repos Beach and you may like to share with us how you managed to get the photo. Were you just lucky waiting particularly for a sea creature to the show above the waves?
Jimmy Scaboo:It's amazing that the more you're out there, the more you're attuned to nature, the luckier you get. It has not much to do with luck, okay, it has to do with being in the right place at the right time, you won't get all of it, your photos won't all work out that you take 20 or 30,000 photographs, you gotta get a good one.
Kylie Lane:You're going to get one surely. And is that generally, you just snap away snap away the photos, and then go home and work through them?
Jimmy Scaboo:I walk through the reserve and along the beaches, you have to be you have to have your perception, you have to be either looking for larger things or smaller things. It's hard to be focused on both. So I will now and again, switch between the two. Look at the small picture, then turn around look behind you. Because if you're doing a sun set, and there's a beautiful rainbow behind you, I have missed things like that. So I've got the acquired the habit of looking at all distances, and all sizes of things.
Unknown:I really appreciate your meeting with us this morning. It's wonderful. And we look forward to seeing your photos on on Facebook and people can keep an eye out and make sure that
Jimmy Scaboo:They can call me Jimmy if they want
Kylie Lane:Give Jimmy a wave on the beach of a morning and let him know what's out there.
Jimmy Scaboo:Give me the hot tips on what's around and I will capture them.
Dana Maggacis:Thanks Kylie and Kevin. To finish up today. I'd like to welcome Ellie D as a special guest with a passion for local music. We're excited to welcome Ellie onboard as a recurring host as she brings us the stories and songs from local musicians over the coming weeks. Over to you Ellie.
Unknown:Hi, I'm Ellie D. I'm a podcaster and a publicist focused on showcasing Australian singer songwriters. It's exciting to be here with you on the Bundaberg Now podcast because not only do I live locally, I'm also keen to share more about our local musical talent. Today I'd like you to meet Brendan Egan. Brendan has been involved with the local Bundaberg music scene since he was eight years old playing in various orchestral groups and choirs classically trained in violin, cello, double bass and piano, Brendan went on to perform with Bundaberg Youth Orchestra, Bundaberg Symphony Orchestra and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra all before he was 13 years of age. That was when he decided to start his first band as a teenager. Brendan played music to crowds across a local Bundy pub scene but under parental supervision because he was only 13. Playing three nights a week at local venues, he was also juggling school and his orchestral commitments as well. So he was pretty busy, but by the time he reached 18, he decided to embark on his solo career. Brendon decided to start moving outside of Bundaberg so he started to perform in Agnes Water, Rockhampton and Gladstone then he started to get gigs on the Sunshine Coast, in Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Aside from what's been happening with COVID he's very well known and loved across clubs and pubs here in Bundaberg, you know that he has performed here on a regular basis, you know, Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights and afternoons. But he also does play outside of our beautiful region. You could say once he started out on his solo career, that's when he started to write and compose original music and lyrics, so not just performing covers, and it was then that he decided to incorporate his original songs and music into the covers he was performing. He discovered a very unexpected success. It was from that point that he was encouraged to continue to develop his original content and to explore the boundaries of his musical and lyrical skills. This all led to his public release of his debut album, Public Opinion, which was released in November 2019 and featured 11 of his original songs. Brendan is super proud of this album, particularly because he used the talents of people here in Bundaberg to create that album. He did want to make a point to prove to everyone in the Wide Bay area that you don't have to go to Nashville or outside of this state of Queensland to record a quality album. His thoughts, well, if you have local talent, why not use your current relationships and rapport with fellow music in the area to create something that is absolutely brilliant. From 2011 to 2019, Brendan received multiple national awards at the Australian Commercial Radio awards for his achievements in production. More recently, Brendan stepped up to the challenge as issued by Sam Mack on Channel 7 Sunrise to write a song about his hometown Bundaberg. He did it in six hours and went on the show to perform it live. His success doesn't stop there. One of the singles from his debut album, Public Opinion was added to the nationally syndicated radio programme known as Oz Made which is a programme on the grant broadcasters radio network. He's also had the great opportunity to recently perform his original music on the Triple M network's Concert On The Couch series. And it was really well received. Brendan is incredibly thankful not only for the support of his followers in the community here in Bundaberg, but also for the support of his wife and three children who are constantly encouraging him to work towards his goals and to continue to achieve success. I'll be back again next week to introduce you to another local Bundy muso but for now let's have a listen to this track, it's an original by Brendan Egan it's titled Following You Down.
Dana Maggacis:That's all for today. We hope you enjoyed the programme. Join us next week for more news and stories from across the Bundaberg Region. Bye for now.