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Circulation 1800 plus online visits Issue No 135 October 2014 Olga Masters Comes Home to Cobargo ‘Coming Home’, the Olga Masters Festival, celebrates an esteemed local author “All my writing is about human will discuss Olga’s place in Australian behaviour. There’s not much drama, no literature. great happenings in it. No violence. It’s Sunday afternoon at the Bermagui about the violence that’s inside the human Hotel will see ‘Roy Masters Live’, a heart, I think, more than anything else,” fundraising event for CRABS. said Olga Masters. Well Thumbed Books was inspired The inaugural Olga Masters Festival to hold this festival to shine a light on will be held at venues in Cobargo and Olga Masters and to encourage wider Bermagui during the second weekend recognition and appreciation for her of October. significant contribution to literature and On Friday 10 October at 4pm, women and to the understanding of poverty the Bermagui Library will host the and life. Also to celebrate her life; she is announcement of the winners of the Cobargo’s own and is famous and she gives Olga Masters Short Story Award. There us a sense of place and history. will be a discussion ‘What publishers Olga Masters (nee Lawler) was born are looking for’ with Craig Munro, UQP, in Pambula, the second of eight children. Mary Cunnane and Geordie Williamson In around 1928 the family moved to – the Literary Editor at The Australian. Cobargo. She was first published at the age There will also be a screening by local of 15 in the Cobargo Chronicle, a weekly writer and director Lee Chiddick of his newspaper serving the south coast area new film based on one of Olga Masters’ between Bega and Moruya. short stories, ‘The Mission Priest’, at the Masters wrote as a journalist for most Bermagui Community Hall. of her life, and supplemented the family On Saturday 11 October at 10.30am, income by writing for local newspapers in outside Well Thumbed Books in Cobargo, the towns she lived in with her husband. there will be an unveiling of a plaque On their return to Sydney, she wrote for honouring Olga, followed by guided papers such as The Manly Daily and The walking tours (from 11am) of significant Sydney Morning Herald. sites from Olga’s life in Cobargo complete While she wanted to write fiction with readings from Olga’s books. from an early age, she was not published We then move to the Cobargo as a writer of fiction until the late 1970s. Showgrounds Pavilion for a lunch Between 1979 and 1986 she won nine provided by the CWA and the judging of awards for her work. She wrote fiction full- the cheesecake, ginger cake and corn beef time from 1982, after the publication of The and pickle sandwich competition. Home Girls. She went on to publish three Olga was a prodigious cook and her Olga Masters (right) with her sister Gwen novels, four collections of short stories cheesecake recipe is taken from one of and one play. to Cobargo and the region, with Mary Williams. her books. The cheesecake and ginger cake will It is this ability to compress a wealth of Wine and cheese and book signing and be judged by local chef and SCPA representative images and a long-forgotten way of life into sales will follow this. Geoffrey Grigg. Roy Masters is judging the corn short passages that distinguishes Masters’ Sunday moves to the Four Winds site beef and pickle sandwich; he is looking for the fiction. She focused primarily on the domestic at Barragga Bay, Bermagui, which will be a sandwich of his childhood. See further details and the drama of ordinary life. dream of a day of intimate storytelling and for the competition on page 26. Due to her late start and her relatively performance, featuring music by jazz sensation There will be two panel discussions in the early death, Masters’ published output is small, ‘Hetty Kate’ and local band ‘The Jazz Pack’. afternoon: Bob Ellis, and Roy and Ian Masters but her impact was disproportionate in that her Olga’s own daughters will read her will talk about their childhood experiences style and writings about writing inspired many radio play A Clay Family with live sound and memories of Olga, chaired by Geordie others to take up the craft. effects. There will be two panel discussions Williamson. Then Chris Masters and Bridget Louise Brown with Kate Veitch, and Sue and Deb Masters Griffin-Foley will discuss the themes of ‘The discussing ‘Olga, women and feminism’. Then Years that Made Us’, and the links of the family Geordie Williamson, Craig Munro and others www.thetriangle.org.au The Triangle October 2014 page 1 Editorial Jo Lewis I am told there is a Chinese curse: ‘May The next bone of contention to raise its familicide. This community should take a stand you live in interesting times’ and I rather feel head was advice that the HuntFest which is against approving incremental increases to the we may be entering an interesting space at the held in Narooma over the June long weekend, number and presence of guns. Eurobodalla moment. Objections and irritations, arguments has applied to have its DA amended to allow should stop placing profit ahead of good sense. and more have been popping up in surprising the sale of guns and a shooting range to form And then there is Woolworths, another places. Take Akolele for example. At times it part of the event. This was of course an item DA that removed an application condition seems there are very few irritants but suddenly that was removed from the original application only to reapply a year or so later. This time it up pops a question about maintaining the public only to reappear a year or so later. This comes at is Bega Valley Shire in the spotlight and the toilets on Payne’s Island. A copy of the letter a time when we are hearing via the media and offending item is an amended application for a that Akolele residents (including the writer of other sources that in Australia we are facing liquor license in the new unwanted Woolworths this piece) have sent to the Bega Valley Shire a massive problem of hidden domestic and development. Alcoholic beverages are another Council in response to the suggested closure family violence, particularly violence against prime mover in the field of domestic violence is included elsewhere. The amazing thing was women with most of the perpetrators being and alcohol is certainly not an item in short the number of reasons, risks, adverse impacts men. Normalising and increasing the presence supply in Bermagui. At a time when we are and users (potential and existing) that were and number of guns within the community at trying to bring adolescent drinking under identified as being impacted by the removal of this point is likely to turn domestic violence control in this State, once again big business and this facility. into domestic murder and family violence into its profit motive is undermining society benefits. Letters to the editors Bermagui Landscape environmental weed and are banning further can join and make a difference. planting of these plants, or are removing them Or, if you fancy some good food & Dear Editors, from their streetscapes. company we and other local branches are Firstly, may I commend Bega Valley If residents of Bermagui share my concern hosting a Labour Day BYO Picnic & free Shire Council for their proposal to redevelop about this issue, I urge them to take a look at sausage sizzle starting at 11 am on Monday 6 the streetscape of Bermagui in the future. The the plans on display in the Bermagui Library, or October at the Tathra Lions Park, Mogareeka. second ‘Draft Landscape Masterplans’ are on Council website (look for them under Have This will be a family friendly affair with full on public display at the Bermagui Library at your Say – items on Public Display, then go to facilities and all are welcome. This would also the moment, and show a modern and updated Landscape Masterplans). be a great chance to meet Leanne Atkinson, streetscape that will only enhance the lives of The consultants are holding a ‘listening Tathra resident and ALP candidate for Bega in local residents and attract more visitors to our post’ on Tuesday 14th October in Lamont Street the forthcoming State election. seaside town. to talk to local residents about the proposed However, there is one aspect of the plan plans and hear their concerns. Make sure you Frank Rivers which concerns me greatly. The consultants have your say. Otherwise we will get what we Cobargo who have drawn up the plans have proposed are given by people who do not live in the area. Branch Secretary to plant an avenue of Canary Island Cabbage C. Banados ALP Murrah Day Branch Palms (Phoenix canariensis) right along Bermagui Lamont Street. There are already a few of these (Eds:Last month we slipped up and let a palms outside the hotel, and the planners want Politics political media release through. So, to even up to continue this line. the score, we’ve let ‘The other side’ have a turn. I am not a fan of palm trees – after all we Dear Editor and Friends But please note that The Triangle, in line are South Coast NSW and not the Gold Coast The Murrah Day Branch of the Australian with our own policy will not be printing political – but my major concern is that Bega Council Labor Party (ALP) covers the area serviced material in future editions.) has named the Canary Island Cabbage Palm as by the Triangle taking in Bermagui, Wallaga an undesirable planting in its booklet Grow Me Lake, Cobargo, Quaama, Tilba and surrounding See the Seal? Instead! – a Guide for Gardeners on the NSW districts.