Streets of Your Town

And now to another episode of my special Streets of Your Town series - The Outback Project - bringing the great characters and sounds of Australia’s bush to you. At first blush, one may think that being a palliative care nurse and a comedian may be a strangely odd combination of professions. But for Carolyn Mandersloot, it’s absolutely natural, and in many ways essential, providing a yin and yang balance to her challenging work. She helps many people in the outback with mental health challenges and all from her outback Charleville base. And as Carolyn explains on this episode of Streets of Your Town, her unusual perspective has led to the development of her own podcast - Living and Dying with Cancer, to encourage people to have frank conversations while they’re still alive, about what a good life, and a good death looks like for them. For more shownotes and links go to my Streets of Your Town digital magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com

Australian rock and roll legend Mark Lizotte - aka Diesel - has written and performed the anthemic soundtrack for many Australians’ lives over four decades. His first love has always been performing. So he decided to mix up the back catalogue - by throwing the song choice back to his loyal audience. Diesel’s By Request tour has just been extended after overwhelming demand and a string of sold-out performances around the country. And the key - placing the setlist firmly in the hands of his fans who are invited to submit the songs they want to hear before each performance - cover songs included. As Diesel tells us on this interview for Streets of Your Town, that’s led to some surprises he would never have expected, that have become the hallmark of the tour. For more shownotes and links go to my Streets of Your Town digital magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com

And now to another episode of my Streets of Your Town series - The Outback Project - bringing the great characters and sounds of Australia’s bush to you. This episode coincides with and helps commemorate Vietnam Veterans’ Day in Australia, this year marking the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan - one of the major military engagements in Australia’s wartime history. In the tiny town of Morven in Queensland’s remote south-west, is a small but incredibly moving memorial to the nurses who served in the Vietnam War, Australia’s longest military engagement of the 20th century. The walls are covered with documentary photos from the time, of nurses deployed to Vietnam treating Australian casualties in incredibly challenging conditions, after they were retrieved from the battle zone by choppers and taken to hospitals for treatment. A visitors book bears signatures from all around Australia, with messages of appreciation for what this memorial has recognised. After writing the book “Our Vietnam Nurses”, author Annabelle Brayley was determined that the service of these brave women would be properly acknowledged, and never forgotten. The Vietnam Nurses Memorial in Morven is a tribute to their service. Annabelle is now raising funds for a bronze statue of the nurses to honour their devotion to duty, and is indefatigable in her advocacy for us to remember their courage, sacrifice and dedication under the most trying circumstances. For more shownotes and links go to my Streets of Your Town digital magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com

And now to another episode of my special Streets of Your Town series - The Outback Project - bringing the great characters and sounds of Australia’s bush to you. The Charleville base for the Royal Flying Doctors Service serves a vast and isolated population in one of the most remote areas of Australia, covering an area more than 622,000 square kilometres, which is almost the size of the United Kingdom. It is steeped in history, with an RFDS Visitors Centre for people to wander through one of the original bases for the medical service established by Dr John Flynn more than 80 years ago. And while emergency specialists such as Dr Aidan Fenoglio from our last Street of Your Town episode are crucial to RFDS operations and saving people’s lives, there are many more people in the support crew that keep the planes in the air and the service going 24 hours a day, every day of the year, becoming an embedded part of the community. On this episode of Streets of Your Town, we speak to some of the crew from Charleville - Courtney Bylett, Liane Spencer and Nick Tully, who give us a glimpse of their daily emergency filled life. Courtney Bylett is one of the on call flight nurses for RFDS Charleville. As well as her emergency work, the budding entrepreneur has now started a boutique coffee shop and high end restaurant in Charleville to take up her downtime when she’s not on shift. Liane Spencer is the base coordinator, continuing a tradition of service handed down by her father who was an RFDS engineer when she was a child. She knows the layout of the Charleville base intimately, having grown up with the RFDS. And of course, where would the RFDS be without the people flying the planes themselves. Nick Tully grew up in Quilpie, a town two hours drive down the road from Charleville but which locals talk about as if it was a next door neighbour. Nick became a pilot and takes great pride in coming back to the outback where he grew up. For more shownotes and links go to my Streets of Your Town digital magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com

And now to another episode of my special Streets of Your Town series - The Outback Project - bringing the great characters and sounds of Australia’s bush to you. In all my years of reporting from outback Australia, one organisation has stood out to me from all others in all my travels, for having the respect and appreciation of everyone in the bush. And that’s the Royal Flying Doctor Service. The Royal Flying Doctor Service in Queensland operates 24 hours a day, every day of the year, doing aeromedical retrievals across the vast expanse of the state, and caring for more than 330,000 Australians each year. As well as the dramatic plane rescues, the RFDS also delivers primary and preventative health care to some of the most remote regions in Australia, and indeed the world. Today on Streets of Your Town we hear from Dr Aidan Fenoglio - who is one of the on call doctors on the roster for the RFDS, based from Brisbane, and Charleville. He gives us a glimpse into the life of an emergency doctor in one of the most pressured environments that you can practice in, from the back of an aeroplane. For more shownotes and links go to my Streets of Your Town digital magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com

And now to another episode of my special Streets of Your Town series - The Outback Project - bringing the great characters and sounds of Australia’s bush to you. Today we meet a true living legend of the Australian shearing industry. Well known Morven local Les Heaydon picked up his first shearers’ handpiece at the age of 14, and just recently shore 100 sheep in one day - to celebrate his 80th birthday. As he tells us on Streets of Your Town - Les has aimed to do this impressive physical feat since he was a young man, and loves shearing so much, that retirement is long way away yet. He’s joined by his beautiful wife Gail - who joined him as the cook at many of the stations he worked at as a shearer in the day. For more shownotes and links go to my Streets of Your Town digital magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com

And now to another episode of my special Streets of Your Town series - The Outback Project - bringing the great characters and sounds of Australia’s bush to you. Today we meet renowned Barcaldine artist, cultural champion and Indigenous advocate Suzanne Thompson. Suzanne was awarded a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering last year, in recognition of her cultural and scientific knowledge, and is a member of the Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee - which is responsible for Australia’s carbon credit scheme. She’s also a Director of the Indigenous Carbon Industry Network. I recommend making a pot of tea, and sitting back to listen to Suzanne’s incredible story, of growing up on country, moving away, and returning decades later when her ancestors called to her to come back to Turraburra just outside Barcaldine. As Suzanne tells us on Streets of Your Town - her passion from a young age, is to “walk in both worlds” building connections between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. For more shownotes and links go to my Streets of Your Town digital magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com

And now to the second episode of the special Streets of Your Town series - The Outback Project. The vast distances of the outback are daunting and hard to comprehend for many city people. Jennie Feldmeier’s patch dubbed the Cunnamulla-Burke and Wills Remote area, is a ten hour drive from top to bottom, and about eight hours from east to west. But that’s part of the joy and challenge of the job for Chappie Jen as she’s known to locals in Queensland’s remote south-west, in her role as Frontier Services bush chaplain. She’s only been there two years, but with massive flooding hitting her region soon after starting, Jennie hit the ground running, and has made a huge impression on the people of her region. For more shownotes and links go to my Streets of Your Town digital magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com

And now to the first episode of the special Streets of Your Town series - The Outback Project. Fittingly I recorded this intro at the beautiful outback town of Barcaldine - hopefully you can hear those sounds of birds, outback winds, and road train trucks in the background as I gather everything into Mildred the cantankerous kombi for today’s travels. But firstly for this launch episode - we head back to where the journey began - for an outback interview from Brisbane. Remote outback Queensland is providing the perfect backdrop to a hilarious character-driven mockumentary following four female cabaret performers, as they risk everything for their big break. Mother Funkers Go Outback evolved out of the real life adventures of comedian Jenny Wynter and her Funny Mummies tours through regional towns. Director Katrina Channels brought the story arc when she envisioned the storyline of a desperate performer being scammed by her charismatic manager. From there, as they learnt on the road, anything can happen. Let’s get straight into Jenny and Katrina’s fantastic chat with us on Streets of Your Town - talking about how sometimes the best ideas can evolve organically from friendship, and even the tiniest of tiny budgets can’t stop them. And as you’ll hear in this interview - they’re taking the trailer for their dream mockumentary to Winton for the Vision Splendid Outback Film Festival - just a casual 15 hour drive from Brisbane - to raise support for the next stage of production. For more shownotes and links go to my Streets of Your Town digital magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com

It’s a dilemma faced by many people - where to go for justice when all your legal avenues are exhausted - mainly because of your financial situation. In Australia, there is a broad grassroots social movement that responds to this enduring problem - out of the belief that the legal system is inaccessible to many people, and that too often it operates without challenge or scrutiny. Caxton Community Legal Centre is celebrating its 50th year of practice, evolving from somewhat tenuous beginnings to now becoming Queensland’s oldest and largest community legal centre. But what fascinated me about the way that Caxton operates, is its reliance on a highly skilled volunteer base. Some of the biggest legal names in the state have given their time at Caxton over the years - often on top of their own casework - to ensure that the law is accessible to everyone - particularly those excluded from power. When it first started, Caxton operated for just two hours every Monday night. Today there’s more than 80 employed staff supported by more than 200 volunteers, assisting about 30 thousand people each year with free legal help and social support. Two veterans of the service are joining us on Streets of Your Town today, Ros Williams who worked for 30 years as a solicitor and part of Caxton’s General Law Team, and Phil Hall, who has recently risen from being a regular volunteer to becoming Legal Practice Director. They both have some fascinating insights into the important role of community legal centres in Queensland and around the country, where Human Rights guide decision making on everyday realities. For more shownotes and links go to my Streets of Your Town digital magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com

It’s not often we celebrate a world first feat of engineering that underpins the society surrounding it. But today on Streets of Your Town, we pay tribute to a technological triumph built four decades ago at the Gold Coast, and still going strong today, which is now being recognised as one of the most important developments in the region’s history. Before the Gold Coast Seaway was built, the notorious Southport Bar was a shallow, dangerous and ever-changing sandbar that made navigation hazardous and caused numerous boating accidents. But a permanent sand bypass system which took two years to build, became a key part of stabilising the Nerang River mouth, enabling this nightmarish stretch of sand to become the main navigation entrance from the Pacific Ocean to the Gold Coast Broadwater. On this episode of Streets of Your Town we hear a bit of this history, from one of the original engineers on the project who was there to celebrate its 40th anniversary at a special ceremony at the Sand Pumping Jetty that forms a central part of the project. Dean Patterson tells us how he transformed his surfer experience growing up on this golden stretch of sand in the 1950s into an intricate understanding of interface of tide and sand, and how to ensure humans are safe in that environment. We also hear from Gold Coast Waterways Authority Chair Deanna Nott, who started celebrations by recalling what the waterway was like before the Gold Coast Seaway was built, and how the Gold Coast would not be the same place today without it. For more shownotes and links go to my Streets of Your Town magazine for this episode at https://soyt.substack.com/p/gold-coast-seaway

Acclaimed Quandamooka artist Delvene Cockatoo-Collins has brought a beautiful insight into an ancient story from her people to the Museum of Brisbane. The artist-in-residence from Minjerribah/Stradbroke Island continues to evolve her arts practice, and this time has reimagined the Museum of Brisbane’s creative space into an interactive and immersive realm exploring the ancestral story of Warrajamba the Mermaid. In doing so she has created a hub of tranquility in the bustling CBD of Brisbane, bringing audiences to slow down and connect with Country and culture. She’s inviting all of us to join her on her quest to find Warrajamba - a central figure in her art, as she continues the ongoing search to find the ending of the mermaid's story. And as Delvene explains to us on this episode of Streets of Your Town, this significant story of her people was passed down to her from her mother, grandmother, and generations before them. For more shownotes and links go to my Streets of Your Town magazine for this episode at https://soyt.substack.com/p/weaving-traditional-stories-delvene-cockatoo-collins

The story of proudly Aboriginal owned and led sustainable fashion label Magpie Goose can be summed up in its motto - `stories you wear’. The vibrant and colourful collections of this Brisbane based fashion label are featured in an exclusive exhibition until October 5 at the Museum of Brisbane, tucked inside Brisbane’s glittering City Hall. Co-owner and Kamilaroi man Troy Casey tells us on Streets of Your Town how having their creations on display is a pivotal moment in the evolution of Magpie Goose - giving visitors a glimpse of how they use fashion as a canvas for storytelling. “The stories are not about time,” Troy says. “They’re about country and connection and culture and community, and these stories are both ancient and contemporary in nature. That's what makes the brand so special." For more shownotes and links go to my Streets of Your Town magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com

Kris Mizzi is a troubadour and quintessentially Australian singer songwriter, who knew his calling for musical storytelling from an early age. I was lucky enough to hear him play a couple of sets of his Australian folklore at the Woodford Folk Festival, and wanted to share his talents with Streets of Your Town. It was his first Woodford Folk Festival, and while the heat of this Queensland summer was a shock to the Victorian Moe born and bred raconteur, he loved having the blank canvas of a rural woodland as the backdrop for his songs of struggle and the country characters he grew up with . The bush space offered the perfect palette for creatives such as Kris to become just one part of a chain that keeps the magical land of Woodfordia alive forever. Kris tells us on Streets of Your Town how his songwriting is rooted in finding the beauty in the hardships we all go through, and defying the temptation to jump on board with the negative. He says to find beauty in everyday events is the challenge that brings him so much joy. For more shownotes and links go to my Streets of Your Town substack magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com

Danielle Caruana is an award winning singer songwriter - better known to many by her on-stage moniker of Mama Kin. This spellbinding singer and percussionist taps into the DNA of generations of creatives before her as half of the duo Mama Kin Spender - mesmerising audiences with her firebrand performances and songwriting. Mama Kin Spender’s latest album Promises was nominated for an Aria this year, and on this episode of Streets of Your Town Danielle tells us how she lays her heart bare in the lyrics and emotion of this album, going into the layers of the demise and saving of her relationship with fellow musician John Butler. She also wholeheartedly explores how to stay fierce as a woman and is unapologetic about desiring success and recognition for her work. It was such a joy to speak to Danielle from her base at the eclectic creative hub of Fremantle in Perth about her songwriting, her upcoming performance at Woodford Folk Festival on the other side of the country, and her philanthropic work. For more shownotes and links go to my Streets of Your Town substack magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com

This episode of Streets of Your Town is a tribute to 30 years of friendship, and the power of the creative process in whatever form it takes. Wren Valentino is an author, playwright, actor, film producer, entrepreneur and teacher based in Sacremento California. He’s the CEO and owner of Blue Dasher Productions, helping to bring more than 100 independent movies to the screen and championing the transformative power of the arts. Eight of his original screenplays and seven of his stage plays have been adapted for the screen. And by an incredible stroke of kismet, this little Aussie Wandering journo met Wren almost exactly 30 years ago in a youth hostel in New York, where we bonded our friendship by sharing our artistic dreams over a hair dryer, while listening to a banging 80’s soundtrack during one of the city’s most savage snowstorms. And we celebrate all of that on this episode of Streets of Your Town. For more shownotes and links go to my Streets of Your Town substack magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com You can find more information on Wren on Instagram, Facebook, and Tik Tok. You can find more of his works at wrenvalentino.com

Sometimes our lives deviate from what we expected in ways we could never have imagined. For Cairns based journalist, media trainer and author Kirsty Nancarrow, her bestselling and now award winning book Himalayan Dreams is proof that you never know what could be around the corner. As a journalist for 15 years with ABC Radio in Queensland’s far north, Kirsty had covered literally thousands of stories for broadcast. However one of them stuck with her more than any other. She met Som Tamang after the 2015 earthquake in Nepal. Som was living in Cairns but still had strong links to his homeland of Nepal through his ongoing work with the organisation he founded - Friends of Himalayan Children. He went straight back to Nepal with volunteers from Cairns to help in the aftermath of of the earthquake where thousands of people lost their lives. Kirsty soon discovered the backstory - that Som had made it his mission since escaping child slavery himself, to give all Nepalese children access to education and a better life. She would eventually go to Batase Village as a volunteer teacher 18 months later, and decided then to write the story of this remarkable man in her first book. As Kirsty tells us on Streets of Your Town, she is constantly inspired by Som’s story and how much of a difference he has made particularly for girls, saving many from a life of early marriage and back breaking labour. She says he shows the difference that anyone can make when they don’t allow the obstacles in their life to overcome them. For more shownotes and links - please go to my Streets of Your Town magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com You can find more information on Kirsty at https://www.kirstynancarrow.com/

For proud Darumbal and Wulli-Wulli man Garret Lyon, singing and connecting with his audience has been integral to his existence since he was a small child when he would sing show tunes to his family. But just when he thought his talents were all coming to fruition, it was cruelly turned around in a way he didn’t expect. However on reflection, he’s realised now that experience was a gift, and that what we sometimes see as failure, can be turned into success. Garret has taken his singing from the bush where he grew up in Rockhampton in central Queensland, to all over Australia, performing and teaching the next generation of First Nations talent wherever he goes. And as he tells us on Streets of Your Town from the dressing rooms of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre before another performance, he’s now come full circle, returning to performing the musicals that he first fell in love with. For more shownotes and links - please go to my Streets of Your Town magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com You can find Garret on Instagram @garretrueben and his single Circles on Spotify

In a culture swamped by AI and technological change, it can become easy to dismiss our creative urges and tell ourselves that we missed our opportunity to shine. However multi-instrumentalist, choir leader, singer and performer Kate Barzdo shows that creativity can burst forth at any time in our life, but only if we heed it and listen to it. Kate has emerged from the recording studio again and released her third album of uplifting and inspirational melodic sounds that come straight from her heart. Called Be the Love - this album defies genres with a mix of folk, country, gospel and reggae, and as Kate tells us on this episode of Streets of Your Town, it’s filled with messages of hope peace and joy. Kate is a strong advocate for the benefits of music in everyone’s lives. For more shownotes and links - go to my Streets of Your Town magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com

This week on Streets of Your Town, we’re going to Adelaide to celebrate one of the great founders of Australian rock music. Bunna Lawrie is the frontman and founding member of the band Coloured Stone, whose song Black Boy released in 1984 is still an anthem for First Nations people. He most recently performed at the Sydney Opera House in Generations and Dynasties, alongside his children, sharing stories of resilience, creativity, discrimination and empowerment through their music. The proud Mirning Elder from the Nullarbor is also a passionate environmentalist and whale dreamer as well as his prolific music career, where he continues the songlines of his people to protect these ancient creatures. He is a leader in the Fight for the Bight campaign, working against big oil and gas exploration companies in efforts to have the Great Australian Bight preserved as a World Heritage Site. His connection to country and fight to protect it make him a perfect fit for Streets of Your Town podcast, and we are so lucky to have him share his story with us. For more shownotes and links - go to my Streets of Your Town magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com nancehaxton.com.au