JULY 17-18, 2021

SILVER SPLITTERS Older couples are calling it quits on their marriages in increasing numbers – for better and sometimes for worse

ELISSA LAWRENCE

RUGGED REALITY TV SURVIVOR IN QLD TRUE CRIME INSIDE STORY OF CITY SEIGE CONTENTS

Upfront Mel Buttle 3 William McInnes 3 28 Ordinary People 15 You and Me 16

Features Grey divorcees 4 THIS ISSUE Under the gun 8 True grit 12

Life+Style 23 The recent high-profile split of Wally Lewis Culture Club 19 and his wife Jackie highlights a growing Fashion 20 trend of older couples getting divorced after long marriages. Affairs are sometimes the Cafe 21 cause of the split but more often couples find Dining 23 after their kids have left home, they have 31 grown apart. Unfortunately it is women who Travel 24 are more likely to suffer financially from this Books 26 decision. Elissa Lawrence speaks to two Weddings 28 women with very different stories about their experience of “grey divorce”. Big Quiz 30 Also this week, Amy Price travels to My Life 31 Queensland’s far north west to visit the set of the new series of Survivor, where contestants CONTACT US: Write to the editor, Qweekend, and are put through some gruelling challenges in include full contact details so we can establish bona very difficult terrain. fides. Please keep letters to 100 words or fewer. Letters may be edited for brevity and clarity. EMAIL [email protected]

Editor Natalie Gregg Deputy Editor Alison Walsh Arts Editor Phil Brown Design Sean Thomas Advertising [email protected] MEL WILLIAM BUTTLE McINNES

“Dad had a way of Losing one’s yelling my name perspective

that meant both We all have things we occasionally misplace and sometimes lose, stuff like come here and keys, mobiles and wallets. They can all drive me up the wall when they go wandering and disobey my yells of you’re in trouble” annoyance at the lack of heed they pay to demands that they reappear. These inanimate objects of course couldn’t give a fig how often one o you remember back when mutters or screams, but they become so you were a kid and your indispensable you think you can’t do brain wasn’t anywhere near without them. finished developing and Mobiles are basically little computers you did things that were containing most of life’s functionary lessD than sensible? Me too. matters, and the amount I’ve put in the But your little brain let you think that wash, left in cars, trains, planes, thrown you got away with it and the adults had no out in the rubbish or inadvertently idea of the masterful trick you pulled? broken doesn’t bear thinking about. Here are a couple of things I’ve now But there’s one item that gets my realised that I totally didn’t get away with. goat like no other. Glasses. Eye glasses, I was right into swimming as a little kid, spectacles, specs, cheaters … call them I was even described as a young Tracey what you will … when they go missing, Wickham, high praise for a five year old I blow my stack. Maybe it’s because who had no idea who Tracey was. To be when one loses one’s specs there’s a hint honest by seven I was a bit over swimming of desperation. training, I was really only in it for club Specs are a sign of getting on, of your nights where I got a bag of lollies, which body wearing out a bit, of time passing. heavily featured my favourite red frogs. And it’s annoying, not being able to see Swimming training was after school, so properly. Spec-less, I have been known I turned up full of beans, and coach Tony to spray cooking olive oil on my face said, “Okay, in the pool everyone.” thinking it was insect repellent, have But to be cool (there was an older girl tried to order non-existent items from a in the squad called Jasmin who was doing menu, such as seafood chow, which I part-time modelling), I didn’t just slide in took for chowder, only to be told the like the rest of the squad, I did a huge high at me because she wanted to be my “So Wayne and Jenny had a barbecue dish was superfood chia pudding. dive. I leapt up in the air as far as I could, best friend. and put all their matches in our yard?” he Lord knows what I come back with then plummeted deep into the water. On the weekends my parents would pushed. “Yep,” I countered. from shopping when a face mask fogs I felt my face hit the bottom of the pool. have naps and during these times I would “So when I go and ask Wayne if he put up my specs; it’s like I need an internal I glided up to the surface with a huge pounce on the nearest matchbox, head these matches here, he’ll say yes will he?” demister or foghorn warning everyone smile on my face. Tony was there staring under the anonymous, shady cover of the I paused, jeez he’s good. as to my whereabouts. at me, “Did you scrape your face on the mulberry tree in the back yard and try to “Yep, probably,” I replied, covering my There’s the added pressure on the bottom of the pool Melinda?” he asked. light some of the dry mulberry leaves for bases with a probably and relying on the aesthetic appearance of specs, and “No,” I replied, although my face felt fun. Post-pyro pleasure, covering my fact that Dad hopefully couldn’t be people wear the oddest things to hot and a bit weird. “Are you sure?” Tony tracks wasn’t my strong suit, so I’d leave bothered going next door for a chat impress or make a statement about followed up. “Yep,” I said. Tony and I had the burnt-out matches in a neat pile under because Frank Warwick’s World Around themselves. If people want to wear stuff a stare off for a bit. Then he blew the some grass clippings. Us was starting soon. that looks like some of Elton John’s whistle and training kicked off. “Melinda!” Dad had a way of yelling “I hope Wayne doesn’t leave any more cast-off novelty eyewear and it makes Got away with it I thought. That was my name that meant both come here and matches in our yard because they’re very them feel good, let them go ahead. until Mum picked me up. “Your nose!” she you’re in trouble. He had the whipper dangerous, and Wayne might burn the Stand-in efforts from a chemist make screeched. I flipped down the sun visor snipper out and was standing under the house down, and not be allowed to watch me look like a mad uncle at best or some and saw my red, scraped nose in the mulberry tree. “What are all these Gladiators,” Dad said, as he pulled the freakish figure from a history channel mirror. Well, at least no one saw that, matches doing here?” he asked. Quick whipper snipper back into action. documentary, yet I can see. So that’s must’ve just happened I thought to brain, think. “The neighbours must’ve had Former child genius signing off. something. I guess. myself. Jasmin was probably just staring a barbecue and put them here,” I replied. Mel Buttle is a Brisbane comedian William McInnes is an actor and author

V1 - BCME01Z01QW JULY 17-18, 2021 QWEEKEND.COM.AU 03 GREY DIVORCEES What’s driving couples aged in their 50s and 60s to call time on their marriages?

Story ELISSA LAWRENCE COVER STORY

t was a receipt lying on her lounge room floor that turned her world upside down. Lyell Lamborn knew there had been some troubles in her marriage of 26 years but believed she and her husband were on a path to working things out. But the receipt – for women’s XL underwear – revealed a very different re- ality. The purchased underwear was not in a size that would fit her or her daughters and it Isent a flush of panic up Lamborn’s spine. When she later asked her husband about it, she discovered, at age 58, her marriage was over and that he had been “love bombing’’ another woman for more than a year. Lamborn is one of an increasing number of people who have experienced the phenomenon of “grey divorce’’ – couples aged in their 50s and 60s calling it quits on their marriages. Also known as “silver splitters” or “diamond divorcees”, the number of older couples divorc- ing has been steadily increasing over the past few decades. And there have been plenty of recent high- profile splits that conform – American business magnate and co-founder of Microsoft Corpor- ation Bill Gates, 65, and his wife of 27 years Melinda, 56; rugby league legend Wally Lewis, 61, who split from his wife Jackie after 36 years of marriage; deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, 54, who left his wife Natalie after 24 years of marriage. Australian Bureau of Statistics show there are now almost double the amount of divorces in the 60-64 year age bracket than there was 30 years ago. Lamborn, 60, was with her husband for al- most three decades and they have two daughters aged 26 and 24. She says the break-up has caused her finan- cial stress and up-ended any retirement plans of travel or buying investment property. The cou- WORRIED: Lyell Lamborn, The reasons for more later-life divorces are rise from a change in lifestyle with less income 60, was with her husband ple are financially separated, though still techni- for almost three decades broad but commonly involve couples “growing and simply spending more time together. Dom- cally married. Lamborn refuses to pay the $1000 before they broke up. apart’’ and wanting different things from retire- estic violence may also increase. fee to initiate divorce proceedings “on principle” They have two daughters ment years. We are living longer too, so there are Lloyd says social media may play a role in div- and is not in another relationship. (“He cheated aged 26 and 24. potentially more healthy, active years to be had – orce rates because people are endlessly compar- on me, he’s the one who has moved on with Picture: Mark Cranitch and more years being married. ing themselves to others – what holidays others someone else.”) Sydney-based separation and divorce adviser are taking, how property and house prices rate, Now renting a small house on Brisbane’s and former lawyer Jacqueline Wharton says div- what possessions other people have. There was southern bayside, Lamborn, who works full time orce is “most contagious” when adult children also a big emphasis on “being happy”. in IT, says she will need to remain in the work- leave home, and near retirement age. “We are not as aware or accepting of the dif- force for at least another decade because she is “People can go on different paths. And ferent phases of relationships, we expect to be in running out of years to ensure she has enough maybe they have been on different paths for a love all the time,” she says. money to support her in her older years. long time but the children are the glue that has “Society has changed … we have a different She says she is unlikely to be able to buy a kept them together,” she says. way of looking at life now and social media im- property by herself. “It’s often women around that age that leave. pacts on that. It plays into that throwaway so- “I’m living in as cheap a rental property as If the woman has been the primary caregiver and ciety and instant gratification. We want to feel I can get,’’ she says. “To get another house, be- the children leave, there are a lot of question good now.” cause of my age, banks don’t want to know me. marks about her role. She starts to focus on her- Lloyd says more specialised senior support “I’ve got a cash deposit and I have a full-time self and her own needs, probably for the first services have been set up to deal with breakups job that can support a mortgage but I’d be lucky time since she had children. later in life, including an elder mediation service to get a 10-year mortgage. “She’s raised the kids, she wants to be for separating couples. Advice is also offered on “That is limiting because the repayments more independent, often to rediscover herself how older couples can build a new friendship would be higher for a shorter time. SHE’S RAISED and build a new identity because her identity with each other. For older single people, there is “I’m lucky to still be earning the income I do has been lost. Men have often had that time in help with regards to meeting new people and but I can see I will have to continue working into THE KIDS, SHE their careers.’’ support for loneliness. my 70s. I’ve got to keep a job. Relationships Australia Queensland senior “Older couples seeking relationship help is “I really don’t know where I’m going to go in WANTS TO … clinical supervisor Kate Lloyd says other issues more common than it used to be,” Lloyd says. my older age. It’s a big worry for me. for older couples include differences in sex “I’ve had couples in their 90s come to us. One “If this happened 10 years earlier, I would BUILD A NEW drives, spending habits and levels of activity. It’s couple had been together for 65 years and have been in a better position to be able to build also a time, she says, when addictions can in- 65 years of resentment is a lot to unpack.” myself up financially but being older it is so IDENTITY crease – in gambling, alcohol use and prescrip- There have also been fundamental social much harder.’’ tion medicines. Stress levels in retirement can changes. Since no-fault divorce was introduced

V1 - BCME01Z01QW JULY 17-18, 2021 QWEEKEND.COM.AU 05 COVER STORY

where divorces traditionally peak. But for peo- ple, particularly those in their 60s, divorce rates have gone up significantly. They have almost doubled over that time.” Statistics show there have been other signifi- cant changes regarding divorce. Couples are marrying later in life and marriages that do end in divorce are lasting longer. Consequently, where the majority of mar- riage breakups used to involve dependent child- ren, now only the minority do. The divorce rate in marriages lasting more than three decades has increased from 6.3 per cent in 1999 to 9.9 per cent in 2019. De facto relationships are also now common. Those who do marry are choosing to do so be- cause they believe in the institution of marriage, rather than marrying because they want to move in together and have children. “In the past, if it wasn’t the happiest of marria- ges, well, you just stuck with it,’’ McCrindle says. “These days, the 50s, 60s and beyond are more empowered, have more social freedoms and are happy to make life-changing decisions regardless of their age. “There’s not the same pressure to stay togeth- er the same age group felt in the past. “And by the time people are hitting their 60s, they are far from the old-fashioned stereotype of retirees or pensioners. They have a couple of decades of active living to go and they are look- ing for their happiness in the years ahead.”

Kate Fraser, 64, of Toowoomba, divorced her husband after 35 years of marriage in her late 50s. The couple have two daughters, now aged 39 and 37. Fraser says she and her husband were “very optimistic about our marriage” and fancied themselves “progressive thinkers”. Fraser, an ac- countant, did not change her surname and their daughters were given her surname as their middle name. “It was important to me not to change my sur- name because I thought I don’t want to be con- I WOULD SAY TO ANY WOMAN, BEING FREE sumed by someone else’s personality,” she says. “But I think that’s probably what I allowed to FROM FEELING OPPRESSED IN A MARRIAGE happen anyway. We ended up filling fairly tra- ditional patterns of married life – of me looking IS WORTH EVERY BIT OF STRUGGLE after the childcare and the home and my hus- band becoming very motivated with his career and standing in public life.” Fraser was happy to look after her daughters at home full time when they were small and then returned to work part time when they were aged in Australia in 1975, there has been a slow ebb- Social researcher Mark McCrindle, founder FREE: Kate Fraser, 64, about five and three. divorced after 35 years ing of the stigma associated with divorce. and principal of McCrindle Research, says the with her husband after But, ultimately, her marriage was laid in the Today, divorce is seen more as an understand- royal family has historically been seen by many realising her marriage was foundations of the 1960s and ’70s when “the in- able circumstance. as the “icon of manners and social desirability not a healthy one. fluence of patriarchy ran strong”. Even the English royal family – traditionally and what is expected”. “In our marriage, like many others, the held up as the gold standard of good manners “If we go back to Charles and Diana’s divorce, achievements and public profile of the husband and correct behaviour – has accepted this once it wasn’t the shock it would have been in prior took centre stage,” Fraser says. “Our marriage highly-scorned social state. eras. It all shows a change socially to how mar- had been built on growth and development and Divorce was once so impermissible to the riage and divorce is accepted,” he says. achievement of my husband while I was just a royals that the trajectory of those in line to the McCrindle says statistics show that divorce support act.” English throne was famously forever altered in rates overall are on the decline in Australia. But In her early 40s, Fraser, who is now a Uniting 1936 when King Edward VIII triggered a consti- for those aged in their 50s and 60s, the divorce Church minister, began studying theology and tutional crisis and abdicated the throne when rate has been increasing. sociology which is where she first learnt about he insisted on marrying American divorcee “When we look at it over the long term – over the concept of patriarchy. Wallace Simpson. the past 30 years, since 1991 to current data – the “I heard about how a healthy marriage was But now Prince Charles, the heir apparent to crude divorce rate per 1000 people in Australia one where both partners delighted in the growth the British throne, is himself divorced (from Prin- has gone down,” he says. and development of the other,” she says. “I sat cess Diana) and married to another divorcee, “It’s also fallen in each of the age categories there absolutely stunned and realised that if that Camilla Parker Bowles. Charles’ son Prince for those under 40. Divorce rates in total are was a healthy marriage, then I didn’t have one.” Harry is also married to an American divorcee. going down among younger people, which is Fraser says many women whose marriages

06 QWEEKEND.COM.AU JULY 17-18, 2021 V1 - BCME01Z01QW were based on inequality are now less likely to gle older women aged over 60 are the most likely “We’d talked about working on it. I thought put up with unequal partnerships and are “pre- household type to live in poverty. we were in the marriage to the end and I was pre- pared to draw a line under how they are treated”. Jennifer Hetherington is a Brisbane family pared to try and make it work. I thought I would However, she believes many men haven’t law specialist who has “holistic” Divorce Hub be standing there crying at his funeral. been able to make the adjustment or achieve the and Divorce Hub Legal at Milton, providing fi- “But he was telling me one thing and doing “same emotional growth or awareness”. nancial, counselling and legal support services another. When I questioned him about the “The attitude of many older women has shift- to couples. underwear receipt, his words to me were, ‘It’s ac- ed. Women who may have entered into a mar- She says grey divorce can take a serious finan- tually none of your business.’ riage with patriarchal undertones are no longer cial toll, particularly on women. “I was absolutely distraught. In his mind he afraid to call a stop to their predicament,” she “Good financial advice is really important. A had already separated from me but I didn’t even says. “A lot of men still have an attitude that they challenge, particularly for women, is lack of know that.’’ are entitled. But many women are not going to superannuation because they have usually spent After the sale of their newly renovated house put up with that rubbish anymore.” less time in the workforce and also because of a and financial settlement, Lamborn, who lives by After her marriage ended, Fraser suffered gender pay gap. We usually find the male in the herself (“a new relationship is the last thing that loneliness and depression and was “very hope- relationship will have much more superannu- I want”), bought herself a new car – something ful” she would find another relationship. For sev- ation than the female,” she says. “reliable that wouldn’t break down”. eral years, she actively tried to find another “When people divorce when they are older, She hopes by telling her story, she might be partner through online dating. they haven’t necessarily planned for that. Sud- able to help someone else going through a simi- However, she found the men she met to be denly, instead of a pool of superannuation to lar situation. equally unappealing. support two people in one household, there is a “When you are 58 years old, you look at it “The people I’ve met are men who talk over split superannuation across two households. going, “How am I going to earn any money?’’ the top of you, who are full of their own sense of “If you are approaching retirement age, or are I didn’t have any savings other than matrimonial importance, who are totally focused on their already retired, you don’t have the capacity to re- property. own story and don’t even recognise that you THE SOCIAL build through your income.” “I don’t feel 60 and I don’t act 60 but I have have a story of your own. Why would I put up heard of grey divorce and I think, ‘Oh my good- with that shit?” she says. STIGMA HAS Nearly three years since her marriage ness, that’s me.’” She has now accepted she needs to create her separation, Lamborn is still seeing a psychologist As a way to cope with the heartache, there is a own happiness and is no longer looking for any- LARGELY to help her navigate the emotional trauma of bit of humour too. one else. In 2019, Fraser moved to Toowoomba the split. “My friends and I call him Old and Confused and purchased a house “half and half” with an- DISAPPEARED “To quote Princess Diana, I didn’t know there and her XL (because that was the size of the other divorced female friend. were three of us in this marriage,” she says. underwear on the receipt),” Lamborn says. “It used to be that if you were in an un- BUT THE “The marriage had been in trouble, up and “It’s a joke for us to say that but, really, it’s all happy marriage, you just had to put up with it,” down, but I thought we were working on it. terribly sad.” ■ Fraser says. DOWNSIDE TO “But I would say to any woman that being free from feeling oppressed in a marriage is worth DIVORCING every bit of struggle.” LATER IN LIFE Divorce is no picnic and, financially, it’s a IS FINANCIAL disaster. For older couples, with their peak earn- UNTIL 7 AUG | BILLE BROWN THEATRE ing capacity behind them, it can be particularly disruptive. “Divorce is one of the worst financial deci- sions you can make. But that doesn’t mean it’s the worst decision you make,” Wharton says. “The social stigma of divorce has largely dis- Prima appeared but the downside to divorcing later in life is a financial one. “Older divorcees may find themselves having to delay retirement and work until they are older, assuming they can actually find work. NEW LIVES: Wally and “Women may find it particularly difficult to Jackie Lewis in 2016; Bill Facie re-enter the workforce or may be forced to work and Melinda Gates in 2015; and Barnaby Joyce in low income jobs to make ends meet.” with his ex-his wife Natalie BY SUZIE MILLER The 2017 Household, Income and Labour Dy- in 2016. Lewis picture: namics in Australia (HILDA) survey found sin- Regina King DIRECTED BY LEE LEWIS

A GRIFFIN THEATRE COMPANY PRODUCTION UNDER THE GUN The quick thinking and negotiation skills of a veteran Queensland Police officer were put to good use in a potentially deadly siege in the Brisbane CBD

Story KEITH BANKS

aturday November 27 1993 was a through the building. I had been issued with a WELL ARMED: Pictures and quickly. I instructed nearby officers to form from Keith Banks’ book beautiful day in Brisbane. I’d been five-shot Smith and Wesson revolver with a Gun to the Head, an inner cordon and to call for a negotiator and in the Major Crime Squad for a three-inch barrel. I regularly attended range clockwise from top, police the Special Emergency Response Team (SERT). while and was running two under- training and was also a part-time Operational training at Canungra, front The presence of media and the public also need- cover operations. I was with Mick, Survival Tactics instructor, so I was confident page of The Sunday Mail, ed to be restricted. Keith Banks, front, on the my usual partner and driving our with the weapon. SAS instructor’s course, I ran up the stairs to the foyer and saw Mal, a covert car along Coronation Drive I stopped the car about 10 metres from the en- Banks in 1984. uniformed sergeant, peering from behind a col- from Toowong when the unmistakeable VKR trance to the MLC Centre on George St in the umn. I stopped beside him, using the column as Stone signalling an urgent job sounded from the CBD. A Channel Nine camera operator was cover. I didn’t know if there were hostages in the police radio under the dash. standing on the footpath directly in front of the building or not. The police communications op- Mick and I stopped talking. entrance, aiming her camera inside. A few uni- erator had broadcast that the building had been “Any unit in the vicinity of the MLC building, formed police were on the footpath as well and cleared, but she was only broadcasting the infor- shots fired by a male in the foyer.” The VKR op- one was on the front steps of the MLC building. mation she’d been given. Never assume. erator repeated this broadcast twice and we There was no cordon, and it didn’t appear as if “Where is this prick?” I asked, a little louder could hear units responding from around the anyone was in charge. I pulled my revolver out than I should have. CBD and suburbs. and stuffed two six-round speed strips into my “He’s in there, Banksy.” Mal jerked his head I looked at Mick. “We’re not far, hold on.” front pocket. I was already in tactical mode. to indicate the foyer. I activated the single tone siren and floored I ran towards the camera operator. I still had my gun in my right hand when I it. I thought of the worst-case scenario – of peo- “Police! Move away from there now!” I yelled. heard a deep male voice say, “Put your gun down ple being shot down by a gunman stalking Someone had to take control of the situation or I’ll blow this place up.”

08 QWEEKEND.COM.AU JULY 17-18, 2021 V1 - BCME01Z01QW EXTRACT

under any circumstance, but that box was full of enough gelignite sticks to kill the three of us and potentially whoever was outside. THAT BOX WAS FULL OF Mal still had his gun so, if it all went to shit, it would be up to him. ENOUGH GELIGNITE The gunman looked at me and then at Mal. “Yeah, okay,” he said. “Just don’t do nothing STICKS TO KILL THE quick. Turn around and show me your back. Then lift up your jeans, I don’t want no ankle THREE OF US holsters.” I turned to show him I was unarmed. “Yep, no problem,” I said, trying to calm him. “I’m not car- rying anything else, mate. I’m not trying to trick you.” I lifted the left and right legs of my jeans to show him I had nothing there. He seemed satisfied. “Yeah, okay, come in.” Mal and I slowly moved further into the foyer. We were about two metres from him when he looked at me and said, “Why don’t you come in and have a talk. I won’t hurt you.” “No offence, mate,” I said with my hands raised to chest level, “but I’m pretty scared and I don’t want to get too close.” I remembered that the first thing the nego- tiators I’d worked with did was to introduce themselves. “Take it easy, mate. My name’s Keith. What’s yours?” “Frank.” “Is there anyone you want to see Frank?” “Maybe a doctor. I’ve got no one. I’m alone,” he replied. He told me the name of a doctor he’d been seeing. I asked Mal to go outside and have someone call the doctor. I took a good look at Frank. He was in his early 40s and had shoulder-length black hair and a long black beard. He was dressed in jeans, old runners and a faded T-shirt. He was overweight and looked broken. He was smoking a cigarette with his left hand, which let him keep his right hand on the rifle. His finger lay across the trigger guard, exactly as taught in the military. It was then that I put two and two together and hoped I was wrong. “What have you got in the box, Frank?” I asked. He put his cigarette in his mouth and reached into the cardboard box. I thought he was going to detonate it there and then. Instead, he removed something and tossed it in my direction. I caught it with both hands. A third of a stick of gelignite. Bad enough on its own, but it was sweating, too. I hadn’t been in the bomb squad for a few years, but I knew what that meant. The substance leaking through the wrapping I looked around the column and, as my vision three bullet holes in it, but it was still intact. HIGHLY TRAINED: was nitroglycerine, which meant the explosive Former tactical cop Keith adjusted, I made out an overweight bearded man Adrenaline was coursing through my body. Banks last year. was old and unstable. It could explode if knocked with long, dank hair sitting on the floor with his Cautiously I made my way forwards, keeping Picture: Brett Costello or dropped on the floor. My heart didn’t just skip back against the rear wall. His legs were my eyes trained on the gunman’s box. I wanted a beat; it skipped 20. stretched in front of him and a rifle was cradled to see what he had in it. There were sticks of gel- Mal was now back in the foyer behind across his lap. I could see he had something in a ignite, and a lot of them. I tried to keep the me. Even though I didn’t know him, he was pre- box and what looked like old army webbing in fear off my face. He was also holding electrical pared to step into danger with me. I passed him front of the box. wires and had a 12-volt battery on the floor be- the explosive. The gunman and I were about four metres side him. This was an improvised explosive de- “Mate, take this outside, and treat it very care- apart and looking at one another squarely in vice (IED). This situation had suddenly become fully,” I said. the eye. I had my gun at my side. Okay, I a lot more serious. I turned back to Frank to see he was grinning thought, if he raises that rifle, I can take him I’d seen trained negotiators deal with high- at me. “You look like you could use a smoke,” he from here; two or three to the chest and one or risk offenders many times before, both in real said. “Want one?” two to the head. That was how I’d been trained. I life and in exercises. I raised my left hand slowly, “Well, I gave up, but this probably isn’t a bad was back in tactical mode. Any compassion I’d palm outwards, in what I hoped was a calm- time to start again,” I replied. had was long gone. ing gesture and said, “It’s okay, mate. I’m a police Frank slid a pack of cigarettes and a lighter I stepped further inside, towards where the officer, just take it easy. I’ll give my gun to this across the floor to me. Smoking over unstable gunman sat. I kept my gun at my side, pointed guy, okay?” gelignite was not the smartest move, but downward but ready if I needed it. The ceiling to I handed my gun to Mal, who was close be- there I was, sitting on the floor of the MLC build- the floor glass partition on my right had at least hind me. I had sworn I’d never surrender my gun ing, facing someone with military training and

V1 - BCME01Z01QW JULY 17-18, 2021 QWEEKEND.COM.AU 09 ing along South Bank enjoying their ice creams. I considered diving over him to shove the bat- tery out of the way but discounted the idea. IF ANYBODY Even though I only topped out at 82kg, my weight falling on the box risked detonating the COMES unstable gelignite. “If anybody comes through that door, I’m THROUGH THAT blowing it.” He’d gone from calm to angry in a few seconds. DOOR, I’M I tried to quieten him down. “No one will come in, Frank. Can you just let me go outside BLOWING IT and I’ll get them all to move back, okay?” “Yeah, tell them all to f--k off.” His agitation was scaring me. All it would take armed with a rifle and a homemade bomb. I lit a was a second to touch the wires to the battery cigarette. “Thanks, Frank. So, what’s going and it would all be dust and dark. on, mate?” I walked to the door and yelled at the police “I’m f--ken serious. These c--ts have stolen outside to move back. I couldn’t see any bosses from me and treated me like shit. I’m going to on the scene, but I knew they’d be on the way. blow the whole place up and me too. I’ve got 15 “Okay, Frank, can I come back in?” I asked, more sticks here and three dets wired up.” turning back. Mal was back inside. He sat down close to the “Come in, just don’t do nothing stupid. If entrance. If it looked like Frank was about to do you’re f--ken setting me up, I’ll blow us both.” something stupid, Mal had given himself the I walked back and sat down in front of him. I chance to be up and gone. I couldn’t blame him. decided on a straightforward approach. I, on the other hand, would be royally screwed. “What would it take for you to hand me the There was no way I’d make it out before the rifle? You don’t need it to blow this place up.” bomb went off. To my surprise, he looked at me and said, Frank’s IED was straightforward. I could see “Yeah, I’ll give it to you. But you need to get me a three electric detonators and the detonator wires six pack, and I’m low on smokes.” bared to expose the ends. All he had to do was “Mate, a six pack is out of the question.” touch the ends to the positive and negative ter- I paused. “But I can probably get you a pot of minals on the battery and there’d be bits of both beer.” I stood up and walked outside. The police of us raining across the river, on to people stroll- presence had grown since Mal and I had gone

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inside, and there was now a team of SERT offi- the beer,” Frank chuckled. I pointed the rifle to- cers in single file pressed against the wall outside wards the wall and ejected the round. It fell to the the entrance, fully kitted with vests, helmets and floor and I picked it up. It had been fired. automatic weapons. Police cars lined the streets, “Mate, you’ve got me in the shit because and the media cameras were now all on the far I broke the rules for an empty weapon. Good corner of George and Adelaide streets. one,” I said, bursting into genuine laughter and Plainclothes officers wearing vests with handing him the beer. I put the cigarettes on the POLICE stencilled across the front, some of floor closer to him. He took a long sip of the beer. them brandishing shotguns, had formed an inner “I was getting sick of holding the bloody thing cordon. But more importantly there was now a anyway.” He quickly gulped down the rest of the commissioned officer on the scene, someone I beer and lit another cigarette. knew would listen to me. I walked up to him. I started talking to him and asked what he’d “Mate, I can get him out, I’m sure of it,” I said. done in his life for work. He’d worked in a lot of “But he’s on edge, and we don’t need to set him jobs but nothing serious after he’d “come back”. off.” I described where the gunman was, his wea- I knew it. “Come back from where?” I asked. pon, the IED and the risk factors. Then I hit him “Vietnam.” with my unusual request, the pot of beer. That’s when I really started to worry. A lot of Alcohol was strictly forbidden in a siege or veterans I’d met were screwed up; quite a few hostage situation, but I didn’t particularly care were suicidal. He’d been a combat engineer, about rules that prevented resolution. which explained why his IED looked so pro- “If it goes bad, I’ll be blown to pieces anyway fessional. I’d finally found the common ground. and you can tell them it was all my fault,” I said. partition beside us was starting to groan, its RECOGNITION: Previous I knew quite a few veterans, I said, and I’d spent page, Keith Banks in He broke into a grin. “Deal.” structure weakened by the bullets. undercover mode in 1981; a lot of time at Enoggera Army barracks on A detective I knew well offered to get the ciga- Mal walked in carrying the pot of beer. It above, receiving the Anzac Day, Long Tan Day and Remembrance rettes and beer. I asked Mal to bring them in looked damn good. He handed it to me with the Queensland Police Valour Day. If he understood our common ground, when they arrived and went back inside to my cigarettes, and again eased himself on to the Award from then Police I was hopeful I could encourage him to walk out Commissioner Jim new acquaintance. floor near the entrance. He was aware of the O’Sullivan in July 1994. of the building with me. I walked inside and could hear my rational danger but continued to back me up. I asked him again what had voice asking what the hell I was doing. I walked up to Frank and looked him in the brought him here, and bit by bit he Several things happen when you are very eye. “You first,” I said. I forced a smile and put told me his story. ■ scared. Your senses kick into high alert, you see the beer and cigarettes on the floor. minute details with clarity and time seems to He handed me the rifle with his left hand, This is an edited extract from Gun to slow. I could see the beads of sweat on Frank’s keeping his right with the bared wires near the the Head by Keith Banks, Allen and forehead and hear my heart beating. The glass battery. “It was empty anyway, but thanks for Unwin, $30

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Story AMY PRICE

t’s day 31 on the new season of Australian from the jungle, but here there is no jungle for Survivor when I arrive at Chinaman Creek them. It adds a whole other level to it, a level of Dam, a popular rest stop outside Clon- survival.” curry in Queensland’s northwest. A hoard of trucks and production tents When the pandemic broke out, filming on Sur- are clustered on the banks of the dam, vivor was rescheduled to November. Still unable abuzz with producers, cameramen, divers to return to Fiji, production company Endemol and drone operators, and pontoons adorned Shine approached Screen Queensland, which withI recognisable tribal banners wait in the was already attracting continued interest from water for the upcoming reward challenge on the other stranded international production houses, popular reality TV show. TRUE and began scouting for a new location for the The contestants arrive by car – the land sur- popular series. rounding Cloncurry is too rugged and dangerous “Screen Queensland was thrilled at the op- to walk between set locations – and are relaxing portunity to attract such a stellar series to in the shade as divers sweep the dam for two Queensland,” chief executive Kylie Munnich freshwater crocodiles they know loiter under the says. “We worked closely with them to find the surface. perfect location to really highlight the beauty The contestants’ clothes, clearly once vibrant and diversity of our state. in colour, are matted with stubborn red dirt and “Cloncurry was chosen as the perfect desti- their desperate applause rings out as host Jon- nation offering a uniquely Australian backdrop athan LaPaglia tells them they are competing for for the famous challenges of Australian Survivor a food reward. GRIT and an exceptional landscape that would prove a For newcomers to Survivor, the Australian The new series of Survivor is set in Cloncurry’s true challenge.” version of the juggernaut international franchise The Curry, as it’s affectionately known to lo- is now in its sixth season on Channel 10 and sees rugged countryside and the locals have cals, is an outback community, 120km east of marooned contestants compete in gruelling welcomed the crew with open arms Mount Isa, the birthplace of the Royal Flying physical and intellectual challenges for reward Doctor Service and a true iteration of Queens- and immunity while voting each other off at a se- land outback life, with 3000 locals surviving on ries of tribal councils. the core industries of grazing, transport, copper Whittled down to two contestants after 50 ar- and gold mining. duous days, eliminated contestants, the jury, The previously drought-ravaged community then cast their votes to crown a sole survivor, the had suffered through an unprecedented flooding best game player, who takes home $500,000. event in 2019 that isolated the town for weeks Along the way contestants are pushed to their and devastated the lifeblood cattle industry, physical and emotional limits, surviving with leading to a record council capital works spend nothing but the clothes on their backs, basic ra- of $60 million that financial year to repair dam- tions, and the shelter they build for themselves, age and begin a long economic recovery. all while dealing with the paranoia of alliances, The chance to be involved in a reality TV pro- backstabbing and elimination. duction emerged as an unexpected but highly lu- LaPaglia, a well-known Australian actor crative opportunity for the region. alongside his brother Anthony LaPaglia, has “Before COVID-19, Cloncurry was hit hard hosted all six seasons since 2016, and has been during the floods,” Queensland Premier Annas- living in a rented house in Cloncurry for the past tacia Palaszczuk says. six weeks. “It’s great to have Survivor playing a part in “I’ve lost track of time. It feels like a year and the town’s economic recovery. The environment it feels like two days. Time is elastic out here,” always plays a leading role throughout the series. LaPaglia, 51, says, sitting down with the crew for Cloncurry is an iconic destination in Outback a catered lunch after the latest challenge. After- Queensland. wards the set is abuzz with activity as it is dis- “Securing Survivor for Queensland will en- mantled as quickly as they set it up. able images of some of our most idyllic land- “This is one of the most difficult seasons I’ve scapes to be beamed into millions of homes in 25 done just in terms of the environment, there’s countries.” lots of travel every day … and it starts grinding, it In late October, Endemol Shine approached starts beating you up.” Cloncurry Shire Council Mayor Greg Campbell, The actor has filmed the past five seasons in who was instantly determined to make it work as Samoa and Fiji before the global pandemic can- he looked to tourism as a new way to boost a re- celled the production of the new Brains V Brawn hours after sunset. And then there are other CHALLENGE: Australian gion already built on survival for its hardened Survivor host Jonathan season in April, 2020. It forced producers to look things in the environment; plenty of things that LaPaglia, left, and above, local population. within Australia, which eventually saw the crew will kill you.” at Cloncurry with a snake “We’ve been putting a focus on doing things of 300 city blow-ins move to Outback Queens- LaPaglia rushes off to find his phone and that had to be relocated that are different to what our core business is in land for two months. opens it up to show me a photo of himself, wide- from the set. Cloncurry … so we were very excited,” he says. “Initially I thought they were going to choose eyed with a wild snake curling around his neck, a Picures: Nigel Wright “We know that the Outback is a tough place coasts, so I was surprised when they said the morning gift from local snake wrangler Larry and, for anyone that does live here, we take our Outback but I think it’s added a really interesting Hartig, who was relocating it away from the set. hats off to the Aboriginal people who did live element to the show. The conditions are so diffi- When I tell him he looks a little concerned in solely off the land. cult,” LaPaglia says. the photo, he replies firmly: “I was a lot con- “The Outback is just booming with Australian “The temperature when we first came out was cerned, the lighting is not good, that is a lot con- tourists coming through the area. Once interna- pretty extreme – although the locals will say, ‘oh cerned.” tional borders open a year or two down the track that’s nothing’ – but it was 35 or 36 degrees every “I think the land is more difficult to live off we’d love to have some Survivor-angled product day and it’s a really intense heat that ramps up compared to Fiji,” he continues. so we can attract people to come to Cloncurry to and continues to stay at 36 degrees for four “There’d be coconuts … stuff they can get get a Survivor experience here.”

V1 - BCME01Z01QW JULY 17-18, 2021 QWEEKEND.COM.AU 13 FEATURE

Snake catching had been his dream since he first saw a snake show at the Curry Merry Mus- ter Festival as a kid. He’s been wrangling snakes for more than a decade now, having returned to the region after 30 years driving trucks around Australia. “I was stoked. I couldn’t believe it,” Hartig says. “The opportunity to work on one of the big- gest television programs in Australia and to work with such good people ... I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. It was fantastic. “I’d get out of bed in the morning and just look forward to coming to work.” During the eight weeks Hartig relocated about 60 snakes, including 13 death adders and 15 deadly brown snakes. Memorably, he re- moved a troublesome 13ft (3.96m) olive green snake from tribal council, which was caught on camera by a crew member. “He was such a big animal, he was so strong and I loved it,” he grins. Every member of the crew I meet has a story about Hartig, who had convinced most of them to have a cuddle with a snake, including LaPagl- ia, whom he handed an olive green first thing one morning. “I hadn’t had my coffee for the day so he somehow convinced me,” LaPaglia says. “Larry assured me it was all fine. I trusted him. “And then when I was showing some of the crew afterwards they were like, ‘You’re an idiot; that is a wild snake’. I was like, ‘Yeah, you’re right, I’m an idiot’. I got the photo. I sent it to my kid (Tilly, 16) and she said, ‘You’re an absolute idiot’.” Hartig quips: “He was a little (scared) but he was fine. They were all fine. We just had a lot of fun with them. It sort of opened up everyone’s opinion of snakes.” The passionate Curry local put out an open invitation to all of the crew to come back for a visit so he could properly show them the bush country he loves so much. “I’ve got a few takers,” he smiles. “They were tremendous people to work with and I loved every day of it. By April, 300 crew descended on The Curry, ries. The producers heard rustling in the bushes, HOME BASE: Chinaman “I miss them now that they’re all gone.” Creek Dam and, from left, where they spilt out of the local Gidgee Inn quickly worrying that paparazzi had discovered contestant and AFL Hotel, packed the Wagon Wheel pub, where La- the remote set, before realising it was simply a Brownlow Medalist Gavin It was a mammoth task bringing the production Paglia says he had “an excellent meal”, and local obliviously taking their buggy car out for a Wanganeen, Cloncurry of a major reality series to Outback Queensland, cleared the shelves of the local hardware store as spin, and who toddled away with the tip of a hat. Mayor Greg Campbell, and but a spokesman for Endemol Shine says, “Clon- Screen Queensland CEO carpenters brought in from across Australia de- “We’re Queensland’s friendliest town and we Kylie Munnich. curry delivered … in spades”. signed countless challenge courses. have the award to show it, twice, so the vast ma- Pictures: Tourism and The exhausted crew left Cloncurry last They filmed 24-hours a day, seven-days a jority of people were very welcoming,” Campbell Events Queensland/Anne month, before the series launches tomorrow, week, generating more than 5000 hours of vi- says. “The buzz around town with another 200- Hartung Photography, gushing about the once-in-a-lifetime two- Nigel Wright, Russell sion, which will be whittled down to 32.5 hours of odd people in town every day, going to the coffee Shakespeare months living in the red soil town. television across 24 episodes, beamed into shop and the shops, it just elevated the whole LaPaglia stopped off in Brisbane on the way homes in 25 countries. The Channel 10 show, level of activity.” home to spend a few days with his mother, Maria which was also boosted by $3.9 million in Federal He adds: “That was the one thing that sur- Johannes, who lives in Paddington, before re- Government funding, invested more than $14 prised me: when the scouts first came I said, ‘the turning to his family in Los Angeles where he million into Queensland, about $5 million of services for hire companies, generators, tools said he would “fall over for about a month”. which went back into the 4824 Cloncurry post- and hardware, all of that you’ll be able to get When talk of the next season begins soon, code, and created 220 jobs. without a drama, but you will struggle to get Campbell wants producers to know Queens- The production was given access to private local workers because pretty much everyone land’s friendliest town, where even the snakes cattle property, Roxmere Station, which housed that wants a job in this town has got a job’. are obliging, will keep its doors open. the tribal camps, a number of large scale chal- “But because of the excitement that it brought I LOVED EVERY “Some of the locals have seen some of the lenges and the tribal council, a small set built in we actually had people that took leave from their early post production; if we thought our own the shadow of an impressive rock structure not normal job to work on Survivor …. they got to DAY OF IT. I landscapes were magnificent before, once that far from the station’s homestead and, when I meet some of the talent and the general consen- little bit of magic of TV production goes into it, it visit, close to a resting mob of emus. sus was to just show that warm, friendly nature MISS THEM is going to be absolutely unreal how good the The local council also closed Chinaman that Cloncurry is renowned for.” area looks,” he says. Creek Dam for three weeks to allow the pro- NOW THAT “We’d love to see them back again or any duction to film water challenges. Larry Hartig assumed it was a hoax when he other shows. If they’re interested all they have to Most locals accepted the short closure of the received a prompt on Facebook Messenger ask- THEY’RE ALL do is give us a bell.” ■ popular spot except for a small incident on the ing if he wanted a paid job catching snakes on Australian Survivor: Brains V Brawn premieres day the tribes merged – a big moment in the se- the set of a reality TV show filming in Cloncurry. GONE. Sunday July, 18 on Channel 10.

14 QWEEKEND.COM.AU JULY 17-18, 2021 V1 - BCME01Z01QW ORDINARY PEOPLE

Chris McCourt Teaching golf professional, 50, Carindale

Interview KAREN MILLINER

don’t remember anything about the seizure. It was June 2014. I was having morning tea and the next minute I woke up in the Mater Hospital ICU with my family Ilooking at me horrified. The neurosurgeon came and said, “You’ve got a brain tumour”. The tumour had bled and caused an aneurysm. I said, “Oh well, I’m f--ked aren’t I?” I didn’t say that out loud – just to myself. It was a cancerous tumour, 52mm or a bit bigger than a golf ball, on the left frontal lobe. It was an oligodendroglioma grade 2, so a slow-growing tumour. They said it had probably been growing for about eight years, but I hadn’t had headaches or any symptoms. After my first reaction, that golfer instinct of digging deep when you’re not playing great kicked in. My dad Daniel was a member at Keperra Country Golf Club (in Brisbane’s northwest) and I started playing when I was 11. I was the club’s A-grade champion at 16 and a Queensland schoolboys champion. I did my apprenticeship at the club to turn professional, starting

the year after John Senden That golfer PICTURE: IAN THURECHT (who now competes on the PGA Champions Tour in instinct of the US). We’ve been close digging deep the doctors wanted me to my step-daughters Katie, who’s now 27, did that for a couple of years. I also started friends ever since. have radiation and and Emily, who’s 25, the rest of my family to play golf again and the job of teaching I played on the PGA when you’re not chemotherapy. Without and friends. professional at Keperra came up in 2017, so Australasian Tour for playing great both they said I would The golf community is really a big I decided to go for it – and got it. I am about 11 years. I made only have about six years family and I was very humbled by their loving teaching, especially nurturing the enough money to live but not kicked in to live. I said “I’m not going support and fundraising for me. John junior golfers we have coming up through enough to get on the big to accept that” and did a (Senden) hosted a golf day at Keperra in the club’s program. overseas tours. I then started to do whole lot of research. I refused December 2014 and got a lot of the items People also convinced me to have a go some coaching, but my main work was the chemo and decided on donated for auction and signed by people at the Australian PGA Championship fitting golfers for clubs. I’d always been radiotherapy. I changed my diet, got rid of like Tiger Woods, Adam Scott, Jason Day, qualifier event in 2017. I had to shoot a four good at that. I fitted John’s clubs when he sugar, didn’t have a drink for about five Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson. There under to get through. I hadn’t shot a score first went to play in Europe and the US. I years, and did complementary treatments. was so much support from the community like that for years, but I did it. I really worked at Keperra, then at several clubs I had daily vitamin infusions and bought and other sporting codes as well. rediscovered my love of golf. It felt like I’d around the Gold Coast. myself a portable hyperbaric oxygen The radiotherapy shrank the tumour to never left. Now I play some pro-ams. I’ve I starting losing interest in golf and therapy chamber, which lots of elite about 30mm, and it’s been stable ever entered the PGA Legends Tour and I’ve decided to take a break. I got my trade athletes now use. I sat in it every day for since. I have an MRI every year to check it. qualified for the PGA Professionals Final at qualifications and worked as a house about two years. After treatment and getting my driver’s Hamilton Island in September. painter. I was fitter than I’d ever been. I really channelled positive thoughts licence back I was told I shouldn’t climb Most of the time I don’t think about the That’s when the seizure happened. too. I pictured myself turning 60 and painting trestles and ladders so I started a tumour. My short-term memory has been They couldn’t operate on the tumour, so celebrating, surrounded by my wife Robyn, handyman business with my uncle Leo. I affected a bit, but that’s all.

V1 - BCME01Z01QW JULY 17-18, 2021 QWEEKEND.COM.AU 15 RELATIONSHIPS

A mum and daughter have had a lifelong tight bond, but now they both work as midwives at Brisbane’s You & Me Mater Mothers’ Hospital, they’re closer than ever

Katie Day, 46 Midwife, Mater Mothers’ Hospital I am in awe of the What inspired you to become a midwife? Like many young girls, I grew up wanting caring, capable young to be a nurse and didn’t really know about woman and midwife being a midwife. But when I learnt more about it, I was drawn to so many aspects of she has become the profession. The opportunity to provide care throughout someone’s pregnancy, birth and six weeks afterwards was friends talk about their mums’ work and inspiring. I trained in the UK where the think, “Wow, what my mum does is so role was very autonomous and varied. much cooler than that.”

What is the best part of your job? It’s an What is your earliest memory of your incredible privilege to care for a woman in mum? When we moved to Australia from labour, form a bond with her and her the UK. I can clearly remember the first family and be present when a baby is born. home we lived in – she bought me bunk But it’s also the team that I work with. The beds from Ikea that she had to assemble Mater is a special place and I have worked herself. I think that’s pretty incredible here for nearly 20 years. When I moved to because I don’t think I could build Ikea Australia, it was just (my daughter) Hattie bunk beds by myself, let alone everything and me. The friends I have made here have else she was doing at the time! become my extended family. Did it make you two very close? We have What was it like being a young single been very close my whole life because it mum? It was tough at times, but it was also was just the two of us for so long. Having incredibly rewarding. While Hattie was a this shared profession and passion has surprise, she was the best thing that made us closer though, probably to the happened to me. She made me want to dismay of our family and friends who have make the most out of life. I was also to put up with us talking all things labour incredibly lucky to have the support of my and birth when we are together! mum, which enabled me to go back to uni and finish my midwifery training. I found Did you always want to become a being a single mum in the UK far lonelier midwife? Mum always says she knew I which is why I packed our lives up and was going to be a midwife long before I did. moved here when Hattie was three. I felt like I couldn’t do what my mum did and that I needed to find my own “thing”. What was Hattie like as a little girl? She I went to a careers day at University of was happy and very chatty and got on well Queensland when I was in high school and with adults and other kids. I met my ended up in a health lecture where the husband Brett when Hattie was eight. presenter was a midwife. I went home and SPECIAL BOND: Mater Mothers’ Hospital midwives Katie Day and her daughter Hattie Morley- told Mum, “I’ve found what I want to do!” Do you think taking her on the job Waters have enormous respect and admiration for each other. Picture: Steve Pohlner I just needed to figure it out on my own. inspired her? I didn’t ever intentionally take her with me but there were a couple of What was it like to be there for your times, on weekends, that I’d be out and get (now 12), was 4.5kg and it wasn’t as easy. Hattie Morley-Waters, 24 siblings’ births? Incredible. I was 11 at the a call from a post-natal mum nearby and Not surprisingly, she opted out of my next Graduate midwife time of Oscar’s birth and I left the I’d pop in. Hattie would be with me. I births, but it was really special having her experience with a new-found respect not actually think it was binge-watching One there for Fred’s birth (now 6). She was What is the best part of your job? My just for Mum but for all women and what Born Every Minute and Call the Midwife training to be a midwife by that time. favourite part is supporting and helping they go through in labour and birth. It was that influenced her the most! women through the highs and lows of also very scary and confronting to see What do you admire about Hattie? pregnancy and birth. No two births are the Mum in so much pain. Being at the birth What was it like to have Hattie at your I am in awe of the caring and capable same, every woman brings her own beliefs solidified for me that this was what I subsequent births? I feel really bad about young woman and midwife that she has and fears into the room. Being able to help wanted to do. having her at the first birth. Hattie herself become. One of the things I admire most these women and their families to achieve was a home water birth and I had coped about Hattie is her ability to connect the birth they want and leave feeling What do you admire about Katie? How OK so I thought I would be equally calm with people from all different ages empowered and proud of what they have hard she has worked for our family. She the second time round. However, Oscar and backgrounds. achieved is such an honour. I also won’t lie was a single mum for 10 years and moved – I absolutely love all the baby cuddles! halfway across the world with me and What’s the best thing about sharing the three suitcases to give us a better life. I have same profession with your daughter? What was it like growing up and seeing never wanted for anything and never felt Sharing the stories, and also our your mum in her role as a midwife? I missed out on anything. I have never wanted colleagues. I love that Hattie now works in I always admired my mum so much for the Birth Suites because I know she is work she did and was always envious of Have you ever worked together to deliver for anything and surrounded by an amazing team of people what she got to do and see each day. a baby? Unfortunately, not. However, I never felt I missed out who look after each other as well as the I could tell the women really loved and delivered a baby a few months ago and families that come to birth there. We are respected her and her skills. I was always in discovered my mum delivered (the on anything both passionate about our work. awe of this. I used to listen to my other woman’s) first child a few years earlier.

16 QWEEKEND.COM.AU JULY 17-18, 2021 V1 - BCME01Z01QW Entertainment, Arts, Travel, Books, Fashion, Food, Wine, Quiz

CAESAR SALAD GREEN HOUSE Five writers put a new Oh Boy, Bok Choy! spin on Shakespeare draw the crowds Page 18 Page 23

Waking dream Take a break at a Brisbane five-star hotel and learn how to sleep like a baby Page 24 PICTURE: MARK CRANITCH

V1 - BCME01Z01QW JULY 17-18, 2021 QWEEKEND.COM.AU 17 ARTS

NEW TAKE: Giema Contini, Billy Fogarty and Chenoa Deemal rehearse La Boite’s CAESAR.

chuckle, indicating to us that there might at least be a nod to the clothing of the time. The cast is impressive – Chenoa Deemal, Billy Fogarty, Bryan Probets, Will Carseldine and Giema Contini. Hail Caesar! Deemal, who is from Far North Queensland (her heritage is Guugu Yimithirr) is a QUT graduate whose star is Shakespeare’s famous tragedy many times and is part of the canon. So “It’s a heritage text and this is a reframing on the rise. She wowed us in The Longest faces a rewrite and reframing in why mess with it? of it and this is what happens when we Minute a couple of years ago, a play about Because, as La Boite’s chief executive respond as female and non-binary theatre the North Queensland Cowboys grand this very modern version and executive director Zohar Spatz says, makers in 2021.” final win, and says she’s up for a bit of “La Boite exists to push the boundaries of In Shakespearean style there is a play riffing on The Bard. Story PHIL BROWN theatre and its form by collaborating within the play. “One of the things that resonated with with extraordinary people who “We catch four actors and an me the most is the way that the female enrich and diversify the assistant stage manager at the characters are sort of disregarded and not f you’re going to mess with narratives, practices and beginning of a production really listened to,” Deemal says. “I play Shakespeare maybe there’s safety in voices on Australia’s main of Julius Caesar,” Simic Calpurnia, Caesar’s wife and she has strong numbers. For La Boite theatre stages.” says. “We see them in intuition but he doesn’t listen to her.” Icompany’s next production, “This cutting edge rehearsal, on stage, catch She suggested he beware The Ides of CAESAR, which opens July 24, a group of iteration of CAESAR is them between shows and March but he didn’t and we all know how five talented writers was assembled. Claire exactly that,” Spatz says. see them at the after- that turned out. Christian, Jean Tong, Megan Wilding, Director Sanja Simic party. We track the “He doesn’t listen and then he goes and Merlynn Tong and Zoey Dawson were says this unique lifespan of a production. gets murdered,” Deemal confirms. each assigned an act based on the adaptation (it is described “While there might be a She and the other actors all read the corresponding acts in The Tragedy of as being “after Shakespeare”) singular directorial vision, original play again before embarking on Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, a is the first of its kind to have the work itself will be a tapestry the journey mapped out for them. history play first performed in 1599. five writers collaborate on a new of voices which we hope will deliver “CAESAR mirrors the events in each act The play is a political and psychological version of Shakespeare’s famous tragedy. a rich, sharp and playful text.” Simic of the original play,” Deemal says. drama with a focus on the character of But is it still recognisable as a riff on the describes Julius Caesar as “a cracking I can’t help but ask her about togas too. Brutus who joins a conspiracy, led by original? story”. “You might be surprised,” she says. Cassius, to murder the Roman general and “There’s enough of the original in it for Of course the original is set in Ancient Oh good. statesman Julius Caesar, who was purists to enjoy,” Simic says. “We have Rome which begs an obvious question - assassinated in real life. looked at the original text and unpacked will there be togas? CAESAR, Roundhouse Theatre at La Boite, This play has been staged and filmed so the themes and ideas that appealed to us. “We’ll see how we go,” Simic says with a Kelvin Grove, July 24 -August 7 laboite.com.au

18 QWEEKEND.COM.AU JULY 17-18, 2021 V1 - BCME01Z01QW ARTS

Phil Brown CULTURE CLUB

“As for Hamilton, it’s funny and serious and edifying all at the same time”

’m still trying to figure out why I The Great Satan. Let me segue here liked Hamilton. I’m not what you because one of the things I liked about would describe as a fan of musicals Hamilton is the storytelling and also in general. I like some of them but the humour. prefer chamber music or the opera. Lin Manuel Miranda, the creator and IOr washing my hair. original star of Hamilton, is a funny, smart So what about Hamilton, which is guy and if anyone was going to star in dubbed An American Musical and is being Fatwa! The Musical, it should be him. presented in Australia in Larry David thought so and association with the Michael there is a wonderful episode of Cassel Group? Well, the Curb Your Enthusiasm in thing I liked about it was which David teams up DOUBLE ACT: Curb Your Enthusiasm creator Larry David (inset) and Hamilton mastermind that it’s not really a with Miranda to stage Lin Manual Miranda team up for a hilarious episode of David’s hit TV comedy. musical. Not in the Fatwa!, the most traditional sense at unlikely idea for a some hip hop songs for a musical called Lyndon Watts, was played by Jimmie “J.J.” least. It’s more a musical ever based on Fatwa! too, right? Jeter and he was also great. Obviously the spoken word the Fatwa (death Go on YouTube and have a look at Australian cast of this American creation is performance to music sentence) handed down Miranda as Rushdie in Curb Your as strong as it is diverse. and that makes a to the author Salman Enthusiasm season nine. It is hilarious. The program you will get if you see it at difference. I was lucky Rushdie who also has an As for Hamilton, it’s funny and serious the Sydney Lyric Theatre or in Melbourne enough to see it at the hilarious cameo on Curb. and edifying all at the same time and the next year has a handy historical timeline Sydney Lyric Theatre before On stage there’s a rap, or hip hop, or whatever you want to chart to help you follow the plot. things went pear-shaped wonderful scene in which call it, works a treat. It’s a foundation story for the US and it recently. Don’t worry though, it’s Miranda is playing Rushdie with F. Nice to see that there is a brief tribute to shows, among other things, that they were going to be around for a while. Murray Abraham as the Ayatollah one of the original rappers too – no more united back then than they are And it’s worth seeing because, for a Khomeini, the bloke who handed down the Grandmaster Flash himself. The now. Not sure when or even if we will get start, it’s worth knowing more about Fatwa on Rushdie. David and Miranda end Australian cast is superb, although I got the this show in Brisbane but hopefully it will American history, particularly since up in a paintball duel at the end. standby cast. Instead of Jason Arrow as eventually make its way here. It is well Australia seems to love being a kind of If you can write a musical about an Alexander Hamilton I got Callum Purcell worth a look and even if you’re not that Asia-Pacific Deputy Dawg to the country obscure figure from American history you and he was terrific. And Hamilton’s fussed about musicals you should see it. If I that has been referred to by the Iranians as would be the bloke to help stage and write nemesis, Aron Burr, normally played by enjoyed it you might too. FASHION

Tom Ford sunglasses, $466, suede trucker jacket, $9,384, lyocell and cotton-blend jersey T-shirt, $287, mrporter.com Classic charm

Stylist ANNABEL FALCO

love putting together stylish sartorial options for men. It’s all about comfortable classics when it comes to dressing for the cooler months so look 1 I for cashmere, chinos and corduroy in neutral tones. Add colour in the way of khaki and rusty reds to further warm up your palette and temperature. Layer over quality T-shirts for a “Queensland” spin on winter dressing, where breathable fabrics will last you through until the end of the year. Last, but certainly not least, up the ante with designer details. Statement sunglasses, 2 luxe loafers and textured belts will elevate your overall look. @annabelfalco

11

9

5 3

12 6

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10 4 8

1. Italian Moleskin Item jacket, $390, sportscraft.com.au; 2. Cotton twill side tab trousers, $180, venroy.com.au; 3. R.M. Williams Dynamic Flex Craftsman boots, $595, davidjones.com; 4. Ben Sherman casual belt, $69.95, davidjones.com; 5. Hester long-sleeve rugby polo , $1130, sportscraft.com.au; 6. Tom Ford tortoiseshell acetate sunglasses, $463, mrporter.com; 7. Marlow knit in blue melange, $229, saba.com.au; 8. Givenchy, Urban Street logo-print leather sneakers, $931, mrporter.com; 9. Balenciaga embroidered logo cap, $525, marais.com.au; 10. Maison Margeila stitching details shirt, $410, marais.com.au; 11. Porter wool-blend pea coat navy, $599, saba.com.au; 12. Cooper cords in almond, $180, sportscraft.com.au

20 QWEEKEND.COM.AU JULY 17-18, 2021 V1 - BCME01Z01QW CAFE Natural charm shines Service and a warm welcome are enough to make this outlet on Brisbane’s northside stand out

Review ANOOSKA TUCKER-EVANS

ome people are just meant to be in hospitality and Pablo Uribe is one of those people. S The owner of the recently opened Flora Social Eatery in Albion, a jacket potato toss from the Breakfast Creek Hotel, set about creating “not only a cafe” but “a community hub – a place to meet, eat and mingle”. and soft around the filling. They’re deliciously The result is an endearing, light-filled space, simple and homely and take me back to my time bordered by full-length windows where indoor in Buenos Aires. plants and dramatic rattan pendants create Meanwhile, the fish tacos ($18 for three) enchanting shadows on the walls; where comfy arrive pinned together with a timber skewer to couches surrounded by board games promote stop the sensationally crispy, beer-battered conversation and connection, and where long, Flora Social Eatery barramundi and lashings of mayo and tomato 10-seater tables bring friends and family and onion salsa from escaping. Two wedges of Food together over food. hhhkj lime sit on the plate for extra seasoning, but But it’s Uribe’s welcoming disposition, these bad boys are juicy, acidy and fresh enough. natural charm and considerate attitude that Ambience Coffee comes from Melbourne’s Roasting make this a place you’ll want to return to time hhhhj FRESH BURST: Delicious beer-battered barramundi Warehouse and is available in two blends, says tacos are on the menu at Flora Social Eatery. and time again – whether you're a local or not. Service Uribe, “dark and strong” or “rich and Well that and the food – although we admit hhhhh chocolatey”. The latter is mild with a pleasant the thoughtful service may be making things As my burly male companion orders the bitterness when served as a dairy milk flat white, taste a little sweeter. The menu is a reasonable Value Argentinian-style empanadas ($15 for two), a while there’s also alternative milks. hhhkj size, broken into “quick bites” such as fabulous- concerned Uribe warns they may not be big There are also home-made iced teas, a looking toasted paninis filled with the likes of Overall enough to satisfy his appetite, instead cleansing green smoothie, a handful of big name grilled veg and cheese, and their signature hhhhj recommending the beef burger or a trio of bao beers, popular cocktails at 1990s prices, and just bruschetta boards with the choice of two or four not featured on the menu. We’re set on the over a dozen wines from mostly well-known pieces; plus breakfast items including a Gulf 13 Amy St, Albion empanadas, but heed the advice on the size, labels that are far better value by the bottle. prawn benedict and a big vegan or meat-based 3262 4006 ordering a side of fries ($8) for sustenance. We’re way too full to order the house-made brekky; as well as lunch items encompassing florasocialeatery.com.au For your average diner, however, I’d say the chocolate slice Uribe recommends but he gives soup, salad and burgers. Open Mon-Fri duo of pastie-like creations are more than it to us anyway in a brown paper bag as we leave. On weekends a boozy brunch offering is also 6am-2pm, enough, with the hand-sized crescents loaded It’s more than just a kind gesture, it’s the available for $39, including a meal accompanied Sat-Sun 7am-3pm with liberally spiced beef mince and onions definition of hospitality, and it’s what makes this by bottomless mimosas for an hour. inside pastry that is crisp along its crimped edges suburban cafe stand out from the pack.

WHAT’S NEW

IT’S A KEEPER IN THE PINK Porter ceramic Coops medium glass blush terrazzo vase in antique pink, 355ml mug, $59.95, $39.95, countryroad.com.au until.com.au

PLATTER UP FLORAL TRIBUTE Maxwell & Williams Teas and C’s Blue Jolie Flowers 12cm serving bowl by Contessa oblong platter, $19.95, Pip Studio, $22.95, catch.com.au templeandwebster.com.au

V1 - BCME01Z01QW JULY 17-18, 2021 QWEEKEND.COM.AU 21 RECIPE RIBOLLITA From We Can All Eat That Recipe PAM BROOK

Serves 6

Prep Time 8 Minutes Quaff Cooking Time 60 Minutes DES HOUGHTON

Ingredients l 2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to serve l 2 brown onions, roughly chopped Emerging wine l 3 carrots, roughly chopped proves a victor l 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped (just a tiny Queensland’s Granite Belt boulder amount for babies) country has a new rock star. l 3 celery stalks, roughly Introducing aglianico (al-YAN-i-koh), chopped a black grape variety grown in Campania l 2 large tomatoes, and Basilicata, and virtually unknown in roughly chopped this country. l 400 g tinned In the hands of winemaker Andy cannellini beans, Williams, Hidden Creek Aglianico rinsed and drained triumphed at the recent Emerging l 1 litre (34 fl oz/4 cups) Varieties Challenge, hosted by the quality vegetable stock Queensland Wine Industry Association. (preferably The rich red took the trophy for the best preservative and wine of the show. additive free) Williams released the wine in the l 2 bay leaves (fresh or firm’s Unsung Heroes series. dried) In his tasting notes he describes l 4 large handfuls of aglianico as complex with a bold cavolo nero (or curly personality. kale or silverbeet/ “It shows impressive notes of black Swiss chard), roughly plums, black cherries, and rose petals chopped balanced with a backbone of umami l sea salt (omit for laced tannins and bright acidity.” babies) The fledgling Emerging Varieties l freshly ground black Challenge allows Queensland pepper (just a tiny winemakers an opportunity to pit their amount for babies) wines against wines from interstate. l lemon-infused oil (eg. Master of Wine Andrew Corrigan, infused macadamia or QWIA president, said emerging varieties olive oil) or grated were those planted in tiny amounts. lemon zest, to serve These include white grapes fiano, (optional) vermentino, aligote, maybe viognier, l sliced ciabatta or verdelho and pinot gris; and reds similar bread, to serve sangiovese, nero d’Avola, nebbiolo, l grated parmesan, to This is a heartwarming and nutritious soup. Continue to simmer for 15-20 minutes until mencia and maybe tempranillo. serve (use ricotta for Cavolo nero is pretty much a given if you the greens are wilted. Transfer to serving Corrigan is also a director at Hidden babies) are adding greens to your ribollita, but bowls and season with salt and pepper. Creek but hastens to add he did not have curly kale and silverbeet are great Add a drizzle of lemon-infused oil or a a say in the results, with three judges alternatives. sprinkle of lemon zest, if desired, and serve choosing the winners at blind tastings. Some cooks add zucchini, diced with the bread and grated parmesan on the The best white was Yalumba 2018 prosciutto, leeks, thyme leaves, fennel seeds side. Virgilius Viognier and best Iberian (Spain - and crushed dried chillies for the adults. Store in an airtight container in the and Portugal) red was Yalumba We like to pour in a spoon of lemon oil at refrigerator for up to two days, or freeze for up Running with the Bulls the last minute to brighten up the flavours. to three months. Tempranillo 2019. The best For younger babies tear some bread into Queensland Iberian red was Method pieces and use a hand-held blender to puree Tobin Tempranillo 2016; best Place a medium-large saucepan over the combined soup, bread and ricotta to a Queensland Italian red variety medium-low heat and add the olive oil. Toss smooth consistency. Allow to cool before was Boireann 2019 Sangiovese; in the onion, carrot, garlic and celery and serving. the best Rest of World variety leave to cook, stirring occasionally, for 6-8 For older babies tear some bread into was Bent Road La Petit Mort This is an edited extract minutes, until the vegetables are softened. pieces and add it to the soup to soften, before 2020 Saperavi. from We Can All Eat! Add the tomatoes and their juices, the briefly blitzing with a hand-held blender to a [email protected] That by Pam Brook, beans, vegetable stock and bay leaves. lumpy consistency. Allow to cool before Hardie Grant Books, Simmer for about 30 minutes to bring the serving. Hidden Creek Aglianico $45. Photographery: ingredients together. For toddlers, serve as for adults, but allow “bold personality” Alan Benson Add the cavolo nero and stir well. to cool before serving.

22 QWEEKEND.COM.AU JULY 17-18, 2021 V1 - BCME01Z01QW DINING

GREEN PARTY: Oh Boy, Bok Choy! at Stafford. Deep fried corn riblets, above, coffee panna cotta, below. Pictures: Mark Cranitch

Hieu’s glazed masterstock chicken ($26.50), with the crisp bronzed skin of a 1970s lifeguard, is on the money although the thick tempura Eat shoots batter cladding the accompanying spray of enoki overwhelms the mushroom flavours. Service from a range of staff is friendly and earnest, if somewhat inexperienced, we’re asked Oh Boy, Bok Choy! half a dozen times by different people if we like and leaves our food. However, the food is delivered quickly. Food hhhkj Unusually, the drinks menu offers more non- alcoholic cocktails than alcoholic, most using Plant-based dishes are given equal billing Ambience Australian-made Lyres non-alcoholic spirits. My at a busy, new Brisbane pan-Asian restaurant hhhkj In Between the Trees is a refreshing mix of the Service gin-replica Lyre’s Dry London Spirit with spiced hhhjj aloe, Vietnamese mint and lychee. The clipped Review ALISON WALSH wine list, with 16 bottles and seven by-the-glass Value options, includes five drops from Queenslander hhhkj Witches Falls, supplemented by beers including Oh Boy, Bok Choy! Indeed! After being open dishes from China, Malaysia and Thailand. With Overall a selection from Sea Legs in Kangaroo Point. just 12 days, the new pan-Asian eatery in vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options, the hhhkj Dessert is a choice of soft-serve ice-cream, Stafford on Brisbane’s northside had to close selection begins with snacks such as crispy Vietnamese coffee panna cotta ($10.90) jazzed due to June’s Covid lockdown. Up for a pivot, silken tofu and winds its way through popcorn Must try up with a puff of fairy floss and sesame peanut the owners offered takeaway, something they cauliflower, to bao, dumplings, a vegan pad see Hieu’s glazed brittle or our shared coconut jelly with spiced had not been planning to do until August. ew and chicken pho to larger dishes such as masterstock chicken strawberries and star anise syrup ($10.90), which The green-hued restaurant, with a name whisky tamarind pork belly with watermelon is a not-too-sweet, understated conclusion. designed to draw attention to its vegetable- salad, massaman curry and vegan green curry. What was amazing was that by the time we loving credentials, resembles something of an In a hospitable gesture, all diners receive a 264 Stafford Road, were casting around for a waiter to get the bill, oasis beside busy Stafford Rd, its vibe built with small, complimentary bok choy salad to start. Stafford. the place was almost full. This on a Monday a strangler fig skeleton doubling as a sculpture Next, we gnaw on corn riblets (strips of corn on Open seven days lunch night in a new restaurant. Takeaway also proved up the back, plants spilling from a shelf above the cob) deep-fried for a little too long and 11am-2pm, dinner 5pm- so overwhelmingly popular in lockdown that it the open kitchen, moss-coloured banquettes adorned with a lipsmacking nori and sesame 9pm will remain, with orders at this stage to be placed and a lime neon sign proclaiming the seed furikake seasoning ($11.90). ohboybokchoy.com.au by 4.30pm to allow staff to then focus on the in- restaurant’s name on the back wall. Prawn toast presents as robust fried white house diners. Owned by John and Amanda Scott, who also bread wedges, the top embedded with a Oh Boy is a customer-first kind of restaurant, run the popular Farm House in Kedron, last flavoursome layer of prawn meat crusted with building on the owner’s cafe experience. They year’s The Courier-Mail cafe of the year, it’s a black and white sesame seeds, with yuzu mayo know most families these days have someone welcoming, family friendly venue with bare for dipping ($14.50). The ratio of bread to prawn with a food preference so they’re catering for it. tables able to seat 75 inside and 14 out. is high, but its charms are irresistible none the Demand for alcohol-free alternatives is rising, Heading the kitchen is Hieu Dinh, who came less. Ginger and garlic-enhanced pork and duck they’re on it. And while there were a couple of over from Farm House, and the menu reflects dumplings ($12.50) offer a lighter touch, delicate glitches, the dishes are big-flavoured and his Vietnamese heritage as well as including bundles with a filling that packs a punch. generous and seemingly just what locals want.

V1 - BCME01Z01QW JULY 17-18, 2021 QWEEKEND.COM.AU 23 Luxury sleep therapy A five-star wellness retreat is just the ticket for weary guests

Story AMY PRICE

s I listened to the water fill person lying awake wondering if I locked orange and geranium. On the bed I found at Signature restaurant for the workshop the bath in my king suite at the front door, what else that actor from my sleep essentials pack, including a silk with The Goodnight Co’s Shea Morrison, Emporium Hotel and pressed the Netflix show has been in, or flashing eye mask, essential oil roll-on set, sleep who co-founded the company with the button that frosted over back to childhood memories. mist, and deep sleep drops – their best- Danielle Morrison in 2015 with a goal to the glass wall, hiding the view But in reality we spend one third of our selling natural sleep solution designed to help busy Australians fall back in love Aof the twinkling South Bank skyline lives asleep. We need it to function, cope relax the mind and reduce anxiety. with sleep. beyond, my eyelids turned heavy. with stress and improve our health and A pamphlet explains each product and As we were served herbal teas I learned It was only 6.30pm on a Sunday and while it deserves as much attention as diet includes a recipe for a morning juice and about the other guests, including a sleep- I wasn’t sure if the manifestation spray and exercise, it often falls by the wayside. bedtime bliss balls. deprived new mum gifted the retreat for spritzer used on my face during the earlier So I was excited someone might help my Emporium has a pillow menu featuring her anniversary. sleep workshop was working – I’d argued restlessness when I pulled up to the six options – the classic feather down pillow I’m not prone to anything in the “woo- I manifested tiredness daily, anyway – or Emporium lobby on Grey St in Brisbane’s for me – to complement the kingsize Sealy hoo” category – I’ve never been inclined to perhaps it was the hour-long massage, the cultural and tourism hub that afternoon Posturepedic Dynasty bed. sage my house or align my chakra – so I felt plush king bed or the diffuser expelling a and handed my keys to the concierge. Valet I might be wary of essential oils but with apprehensive. But Shea was beyond helpful calming blend of scents; but I knew I was overnight parking is included and they take this bed, don’t mind if I do. and was the first to acknowledge about to have the best sleep of my life. your luggage to your room. A quick check of the itinerary revealed I suggestions such as sleep journaling and With travel restricted by the pandemic, Situated within the $600m Southpoint had very few tasks for my overnight stay: a the manifestation spray might come across Emporium South Bank is among the many precinct, Emporium features 143 suites, massage, leisure time, a sleep well as “woo-hoo” to some. boutique hotels in Brisbane diversifying dining options including Signature workshop, and some more leisure. What we discussed, instead, was their options for staycations. restaurant, rooftop venue the Terrace and I headed up to Healing Stone on the insightful and scientific. For example the Their latest offering is a Wellness 24-hour in-suite dining, a 23m rooftop rooftop, where I was treated to a foot effects of natural versus artificial light Retreat, a team up with The Goodnight Co, infinity edge pool and bar and massage before my 60-minute remedial meaning a roofer will sleep soundly at 7pm designed to give guests the ultimate uninterrupted views of the South Bank treatment. The dual rooms have a curtain while an office worker struggles at 10pm. relaxing night away coupled with takeaway Parklands and Brisbane CBD. separating each bed, so for couples it’s a We talked through foods that increase knowledge and a goodie bag to improve As I opened the door to my suite, the romantic experience; for solo riders it’s the natural melatonin, the sleep hormone, and their sleep thereafter. blinds opened, letting in sunshine bouncing slight discomfort of hearing a stranger’s learnt the importance of creating a I’m the first to admit, I’m not a good off the Brisbane River, and I could instantly skin on skin contact. No matter, the minimalist sleep space; think like Marie sleeper. I regularly sacrifice it for other’s smell the mist from the diffuser filled with massage was pampering and I left feeling Kondo and get rid of anything in the needs, a good night out, or one too many The Goodnight Co’s goodnight blend – a dopily soothed and stress-free. bedroom that doesn’t spark joy, meaning episodes of a Netflix series. I’m also the mix of essential oils such as lavender, sweet After a quick lie down poolside I was due the bedroom is solely for sleep and sex.

24 QWEEKEND.COM.AU JULY 17-18, 2021 V1 - BCME01Z01QW TRAVEL

Yes, ditch the TV. You walk away with tips BOOK IT NOW to create a sleep routine that will work for you and a renewed motivation to make it a priority. Wellness Retreat bookings are While you are free to dine at the now open for September 19. restaurants, I disappeared for a long, hot The package includes: Emporium spa bath – bath crystals are included – and Hotel South Bank accommodation to settle in for a room service dinner. in a River City King suite; valet I popped the deep sleep drops under my parking; Emporium breakfast plus tongue, misted the goodnight blend over The Goodnight Co special recipe my feather down pillow and felt the world health juice; Sleep workshop; 60- disappear in an aroma of lavender and minute remedial massage; The sweet orange. Good Night Co. essential oil roll on I woke peacefully, pressing the bedside trio kit and silk sleep mask. button to open the blinds, allowing the Cost: $765 for one person or natural light to fill the suite – and with SWEET DREAMS: The view of Brisbane city from the Emporium Hotel’s pool deck; the River City $1135 for 2 people twin share Shea’s advice to start the day with water, I King Suite; and all the essentials for a good night’s rest. resisted the urge to make a coffee. You can also book a Wellness I enjoyed breakfast on the Terrace stay any night of the year. overlooking South Bank and the activities It includes accommodation in a I was free to explore, well slept and River City King suite; valet parking; reinvigorated. Emporium breakfast; 60-minute Whether you’re looking to become an remedial massage; half day essential oils sleep expert or just want a poolside cabana hire; The night at a luxury hotel, you’ll walk away Goodnight Co. essential oil roll on feeling more mindful of a good night’s sleep trio kit and the benefits of treating yourself … and Cost: $599 for 1 person or $784 for entirely glad you did. 2 people twin share And even if you’re not very “woo-hoo” To book: 07 3356 3333, your house will be bathed in that delicious reservations@emporiumhotels. sleep mist for months to come. com.au The writer was a guest of Emporium Hotel South Bank REVIEWS

Fiction Fiction PICTURE: LACHIE MILLARD When You are Mine Both of You Michael Robotham, Hachette, $33 Adele Parks, HarperCollins, $20 Q+A Philomena McCarthy is a young officer in As so often happens in psychological London’s Metropolitan Police, an unlikely thrillers, Adele Parks’ 21st novel starts career given her father is one of the city’s with a shock. A woman, we’re not yet sure most notorious gangsters. Called to a who, wakes up lying on a concrete floor in DEAN KARNAZES domestic assault one day, she rescues a small room, chained to a radiator. Who Tempe Brown, the mistress of a is she, who is her mysterious captor and The San Francisco-based ultra-marathon runner reveals decorated detective. From then on, her what is the meaning behind the cryptic the highs and lows of his life and chosen sport previously ordered life with her good-guy typed messages slipped under the door? fiance, Harry, begins to slowly unravel. Parks then backtracks. Leigh, a successful While the domestic violence incident is management consultant and devoted hushed up, she makes plenty of enemies stepmum doesn’t return from a business within the force and soon her personal life trip. Kai, a loving wife and devoted What is the appeal of endurance A book that had a pivotal impact is impacted and she doesn’t know who to daughter, also goes missing. Each running? The struggle, the isolation, on your life? The Ra Expeditions by trust. Australian author Robotham, who woman’s disappearance appears random the pain, the insight. It holds a mirror Thor Heyerdahl, about the modern has sold more than six million copies of but Parks slowly reveals an incredible and up to you like few other sports and recreation of a trans-Atlantic journey his thrillers, delivers again with a pacy tale elaborate web of lies and intrigue that you are forced to confront your true on a reed boat, demonstrating the that ratchets up the tension and refuses connects the missing women. It’s as twist- self. In the reckoning, you learn possible migration of ancient people to be put down. filled emotional rollercoaster. about the constitution of your from the Mediterranean to South ALISON WALSH MICHELLE COLLINS character, about your inner nature. America. The writing is eloquent and If you can overcome your limitations the storyline is dramatic and and prevail it’s something of a propulsive. transcendence. The book you couldn‘t finish? What connection do you have to I had a hard time with The Great Australia? At 15, I was an exchange Gatsby. I tried, I really tried, but I student in high school and lived in couldn’t get engaged. Sydney for a year. It was the best A book you wish you had read but year of my life! I’m a surfer and the haven‘t got to? The list is long. waves in Australia are legendary. And I should also add that I listen to Beyond that, I found the Aussie as many books these days as I read. culture and spirit more akin to my I enjoy the audio experience, disposition. I was adventurous and especially when a book is well travelled through the country on my narrated. Pride and Prejudice is a Memoir Short stories own at 15 and seemed welcomed book I must get to. Jane Austen is The Life of a Spy The End of the World everywhere I ventured. My parents such a masterful craftswoman Rod Barton, Black Inc $33 is a Cul de Sac later lived in Bundaberg and Bargara. and storyteller. Louise Kennedy, Bloomsbury Publishing, $27 My mother was a teacher and taught What books are on your bedside It’s a long way from Elizabeth South at a school in Bundaberg. We table? City of Thieves by David Primary School to Baghdad, but Rod The stories are very separate but there is travelled together throughout Benioff, Cannery Row by John Barton made it in a few hops. The former something visceral in them all. The big Queensland when I visited them. Steinbeck, Voss by Patrick White and spy presents an engaging review of his picture is the background, the suffering is I’m 100 per cent Greek and I also Good Will Come from the Sea by work around the world. He first used his in the detail. In the story from the title, discovered family members living in Christos Oikonomou. science training to analyse “yellow rain” there is no laboured tale of what went Australia. We became very close. What are you writing now? fallout in Southeast Asia, and ended up wrong, just a young woman living among And I developed many close A Runner’s High is my fifth book and being an expert in the biological weapons the dregs of former luxury in a failed friendships with my Aussie there will be more. My first book, being developed by Saddam Hussein. He housing project. The credit cards don’t classmates that I still maintain today. Ultramarathon Man, is being made was one of the few spies who tried to tell work, her criminal partner is gone and More recently (October 2019), I was into a movie. Writing the screenplay the truth about Hussein’s “weapons of there is only yoghurt in the fridge. There back in Queensland to run the is a different animal, but I’m quite mass destruction”. There are a few is also a donkey in the living room and Blackall 100 on the Sunshine Coast. enjoying the process. There is more James Bond moments: from cocktails when a neighbour arrives to help, he What is the best book you‘ve creative leeway. As the Hollywood with lords in swanky clubs to some near- refers to her as the gangster’s moll. read? Homer’s Odyssey. I don’t think saying goes, “Never let the truth get death experiences. But mostly it’s about In one story a widow takes her mother-in- this is just because I’m Greek, the in the way of a good story’’. sharp observation and careful assembling law on a trip to scatter ashes; in another a storytelling is so vivid and engrossing. A Runner’s High, by Dean Karnazes, of known details – they don’t call it mother frets over her autistic son. They I’ve read many translations. Allen & Unwin, $30 intelligence work for nothing. all hide a punch. ROBYN DOUGLASS PENELOPE DEBELLE

26 QWEEKEND.COM.AU JULY 17-18, 2021 V1 - BCME01Z01QW BOOKS

INSIGHTS: Dr Sarah Holper gives answers to common mysteries around the human body in Doctor her new book, What’s Wrong With You. including bones, muscles and hair follicles all over the body: with one exception. Weirdly, hair follicles on the scalp have the in the opposite reaction to androgens: they shrivel up and stop growing. Men have higher androgen levels in their blood than women. Men’s androgen abundance bulks up their beard follicles while their scalp house follicles wither away.

Why do both teenagers and bodybuilders Medical knowledge is a specialist get acne? Acne is another androgen- area but one enterprising doctor driven problem. During puberty androgen levels skyrocket. At the same time as has written an entertaining book they’re beefing up your underarm hair to help explain the basics follicles, androgens are also enlarging the oil-producing glands in your skin. Bigger glands ooze more oil. Trapped, bacteria- verybody gets sick but unless you infested oil under the skin forms a pimple. go to medical school, the The androgens released during puberty are mechanisms behind your identical to the hormones that Esymptoms are a mystery. Dr bodybuilders inject to bulk up. As their Sarah Holper, a neurology register at the biceps grow, so do their oil glands. Royal Melbourne Hospital, decided to help with a tour around the human body. When is a headache more than a headache? Headaches from potentially Since we now have Dr Google, why do we deadly problems (like brain tumours, or need a book about how our body works? Has living in a pandemic made patients in going wrong with you when you feel blood from a burst aneurysm) happen Dr Google’s medical qualifications are general more concerned about the state unwell. My book is a user’s manual to the because the swollen brain increases the about as reliable as Dr Seuss’s. A Dr of their health? Absolutely, as it has human body: a guided tour explaining how pressure inside the skull. The pain usually Google consultation doesn’t consider throughout history. In the 1660s, the Great your body works and fails to cause your peaks in the morning and is so severe that accuracy, your medical history, or the fact Plague was thought to be spread by “bad medical symptoms. You’ll gain a newfound it wakes you. Random projectile vomiting, that you probably don’t have African air”. Some terrified Londoners resorted to appreciation for your body’s curious quirks without preceding nausea, can happen if sleeping sickness because you’ve never left farting in a jar and wearing it around their and fatal flaws (plus your trivia night scores the brainstem is squashed. When there’s no Australia. Googling how to fix your neck. If they inadvertently inhaled near an will skyrocket). space left to expand the brain extrudes like flickering lamp is harmless; googling how infected person, they’d take a whiff from toothpaste through the hole in the base of to fix your flickering vision, however, could their jar to displace the bad plague air with Among many topics, you cover yawning. your skull, resulting in instant death. be catastrophic. Unless you go to medical even worse gastrointestinal air. Pandemic- Why do people yawn? Yawning is one of school, you’re never really taught how your precipitated health anxiety can be the least understood common human What are you reading at the moment? body works, or how to interpret common powerful. behaviours. We often yawn when we shift The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll medical symptoms. That’s why I wrote the mental states: going from awake to drowsy through the Hidden Connections of the book: to share the body-based knowledge How has it changed your work? I can now at night, for example, or from a calm to an English Language. Exploring and that doctors have an unfair monopoly on. assess hand tremors via a 10x10 pixel anxious state. Yawning somehow perks up experimenting with language Telehealth video and have quite an insight the brain to prepare us for a new activity, – word origins, puns, cryptic Does more knowledge of medical matters into my patients’ home décor preferences. but how it does that remains murky. crosswords – is a passion just make us more worried? Quite the On a serious note, my consultations now of mine. reverse: it’s empowering. If you understand often include a mental health check-up. Why do men go bald but women don’t? how your body works, you can dismiss Balding is caused by hormones called What’s Wrong With You by bogus health claims that you might What are the key takeaways of the book? androgens, testosterone being one Dr Sarah Holper, Hardie Grant otherwise lose sleep over. You have the right to understand what’s example. Androgens make things grow, Books, $30, out now

FICTION RELEASES YOUR PRESENCE IS REQUESTED FOR THE WEDDING OF THE YEAR!

The Disappearing Act The Missing Girl "Beautiful, funny, Catherine Steadman Kerry McGinnis HHHH Simon & Schuster, $33 Michael Joseph, $33 and deliriously happy. " "Luminous." Mia Eliot has travelled Meg has just lost her job EL PAÍS EL PERIÓDICO from London to LA for the when her grandmother, network pilot season, and who raised her, summons WINNER BEST ACTRESS her big chance to make it her back to the family 2021 GAUDI AWARDS as an actor. She meets homestead in the Emily at an audition and Adelaide Hills. When she after doing her a favour, Emily goes arrives she finds the grand home is for missing and Mia appears to have been sale and her grandmother offers her work the last person to have seen her. Then in the garden as well as expecting her to someone else turns up claiming to be help pack up. She confronts the question She’s fnally found the one. Emily and Mia realises that something is that has always remained unanswered, very wrong. why no one loved her as a child. PALACE BARRACKS & JAMES ST SPECIAL ADVANCE SCREENINGS TODAY & SUN! RosasWedding.com.au aced with a 12-month delay to tie the knot due to the unfolding pandemic, this couple made two important Fcommitments to each other. To mark the original date they planned to marry by doing something special and to marry on their rescheduled date, regardless of the circumstances – even if it was an intimate ceremony with just them and a celebrant. “On July 18, 2020, our original wedding date, we took our bridal party out for dinner at the Hellenika restaurant at Calile Hotel,’’ Josephine McKendry says. “It was an emotional day but we made the most of it. The dinner was beautiful and felt like a celebration in itself. I highly recommend marking your original wedding date by doing something special.’’ The East Brisbane couple, who have been together for almost four years, rescheduled their wedding to June 12 this year, and married at the Calile Hotel in front of 100 guests. Josephine wore a customised Karen Willis Holmes gown, with a seamstress adding pleated organza to the sleeves, split and neckline. They danced their first dance to Snare by Cosmo’s Midnight and honeymooned at Mount Mulligan Lodge and Lizard Island.

How did you meet? At Alfred and Constance in the Valley, through a mutual friend.

How did he propose? In Paris. In our beautiful Airbnb. We had spent the day sightseeing and we were about to go to bed, Brad proposed in the living room, it was intimate and so, so special. Brad proposed with his late mum’s friendship ring that Brad’s dad had given her. We designed the engagement ring and wedding ring together.

Engagement ring details? Artisans Bespoke Jewellers at Paddington. Tammy and the team were so lovely and helpful. We came in with a few photos and ideas, and together we sketched a design and picked out the stones. The engagement ring is an Australian blue sapphire with baguette diamonds. It’s an art deco- inspired ring and the wedding ring is a tiara style plain yellow gold ring that matches it perfectly.

What was the standout moment? The speeches. I was blown away by the touching words.

What would you do differently? Set up a website and include it on the invitation. Particularly when we needed to postpone due to COVID-19, it was challenging keeping track of everyone’s details in a spreadsheet. A website would have been much easier. I forgot to throw the bouquet! Hire some lounges for guests who Delay delivers might not want to dance but also don’t want to be sitting at the table the entire evening. Spend more time with the family at the reception, particularly those who had made the effort to travel interstate. It just went so quickly perfect ending we felt like it wasn’t enough time with everyone. What would you spend more or less on? I Covid forced them to postpone their original wedding date last year would spend more on hiring additional furniture but the second attempt went off without a hitch beyond what the hotel included in the package. At the time, the room appeared to be a good size but on the night, there was an empty space Pictures KATE ROBINSON which could have been used for something.

28 QWEEKEND.COM.AU JULY 17-18, 2021 V1 - BCME01Z01QW WEDDINGS

The Bride Josephine McKendry, 33 Profession Administrative co-ordinator Parents Gail and Gerd Grillenberger Bridesmaids Ruth Koszo and Leah Mollett Dress Karen Willis Holmes Veil Harriet Gordon Shoes Loeffer Randall Earrings Christie Nicolaides Hair BellaBrides Make-up Renee Jean Makeup Artist Flowers Kate Dawes Flower Design Engagement ring Artisans Bespoke Jewellers

The Groom Bradley Wray, 39 all speeches and first dance, cake cutting etc, wedding. I did go through a period of before 8pm. Then we had four hours of dance mourning, I was so ready to get married. Profession Radiologist floor. Which was still so fun but it would have Mourning and grief followed by a complete Parents Nick and Linda It was an emotional been nice to know what “usually” happens at lack of motivation exacerbated by the Wray receptions. lockdown in March 2020 left us feeling pretty Groomsmen Heath day but we made the flat. We just put the wedding plans on hold and Adams and Jim Randall Best advice for other couples planning a focused on our health and relationship. Suit Will Valor most of it. The dinner wedding? Invest in a good photographer and Entertainment Nick was beautiful get most of your photos taken before the What helped you get through the stress of Warren Music ceremony. It really helped us to relax before the changing plans? We made a pact that Photographer Kate ceremony. I had a motto throughout the whatever happens, we will get married on June Robinson Photography planning stage, “Don’t get stressed, get 12, 2021. If there was another COVID-19 Celebrant Geoff I would probably get the advice of an event organised!” Absolutely everything was kept in outbreak, we would just get married with the Mazlin, I Do Creative stylist. I wouldn’t spend money on a cake, it was spreadsheets or on the computer. It really, really celebrant. Ceremonies really pretty but no one really cared. helped. Cake Vanilla Pod Advice for other couples whose weddings are Speciality Cakes One thing you wish people told you about Emotions around changing wedding plans? impacted by coronavirus? You are not alone. planning a wedding? We had no idea how to It was such a stressful time for us, however once Join some wedding planning communities on If you’d like your plan a reception run sheet. We wished someone we decided to postpone and set a new date, we Facebook and talk to others who are also going wedding featured in had told us to spread out the speeches felt relieved that we had some time to breathe through the same thing. Look after your mental QWeekend, email throughout the night. Instead, we had planned and really think about the finer details of the health, it’s OK to feel all of the emotions. [email protected]

V1 - BCME01Z01QW JULY 17-18, 2021 QWEEKEND.COM.AU 29 [11] Benigno Aquino III served as [42] Captain Nemo, also known as President of which country from Prince Dakkar, first appeared in 2010 until 2016? which novel? [12] In 1968, who had a hit with the song, [43] Retired professional wrestler, BIG Harper Valley PTA? Phillip Jack Brooks, is better [13] The milk of which animal is used known by what WWE ring to make Parmigiano-Reggiano name? cheese? [44] Australian classical musician, [14] In which 2013 movie did Roger Woodward, is best QUIZ Leonardo DiCaprio play the role known for playing which of Jordan Belfort? instrument? Compiled by RIC ALLPORT 14 [15] What is the only inhabited island [45] Which A-League team awards of the Coral Sea Islands Territory the Gary Wilkins Medal? of Australia? [46] The Logan River is located in [16] Which team won the 2020-21 which three Queensland local [1] Which state won the 2021 NRLW government areas? State of Origin match? Big Bash League Final? [47] Who played the role of Jackson [2] Who wrote the book, Mein Kampf? [17] The Nesher Ramla Homo group extinct species of archaic human, Pollock in the 2000 movie, Pollock? [3] A chanter is a part of which musical identified in 2021, lived in which [48] What is the capital city of instrument? modern-day country? Mozambique? [4] Duncan Pegg was the Member of the [18] As at June 2021, Brisbane-born [49] Who won the 2021 Styrian Formula Queensland Legislative Assembly for politician Andrew Bartlett, has magnesium, radium, calcium, One Grand Prix? which electoral district from 2015 strontium, barium and what? represented which two political [50] True or false? Joseph Stalin was the until 2021? [33] Which Asian car manufacturer makes parties in the federal Senate? leader of the Soviet Union during the Spacia 5-door hatchback? [5] Which sport was featured in the [19] Which US actor was confirmed as a the 1930s. 1997 movie, Fever Pitch, starring judge for the 2021 series of Australia’s [34] Sam Hales, Cesira Aitken, Andrew Colin Firth? Got Talent? Dooris, and Keelan Bijker are the four members of which Brisbane-based [6] Crossing the Bar is an 1889 poem by [20] Hydrargyrum was a former name of rock band? which famous British poet? which chemical element? [35] In which sport can people win the [7] Which sea is located between the [21] Mamungkukumpurangkuntjunya Hill, Timor Sea and Torres Strait? Australian Tourist Trophy? 30 famous for having Australia’s longest [8] In 2018, who became the Earl of place name, is located in which state? [36] Which three islands make up the SSS islands in the Caribbean? Dumbarton? [22] Austrian composer, Franz Schubert, [9] Southport-born cyclist, Jack Haig, is lived during which two centuries? [37] Who presented the Best Actor riding for which team in the 2021 Oscar at the 2021 Academy [23] Which Mount Isa-born actress was Awards ceremony? Tour de France bicycle race? the voice of Combat Wombat in the [10] Who wrote the song, Way Down in 2020 computer-animated superhero [38] The popliteus muscle is the Hole, that was used as the theme film, Combat Wombat? located in which part of the human body? song for the 2000s-2010s TV series, [24] The Archways, Pompeii cave, and [39] The Wire? Bauhinia cave are popular tourist Which team did not win a attractions in which North match in the 2021 AFLW Queensland national park? season? [40] What is the second-largest [25] John Sattler played his entire NSWRL country in Central America career with which team? by area? [26] Pieces of You was the 1995 [41] Who was the Australian federal 5 debut album by which singer- Leader of the Opposition during the songwriter? “utegate” scandal? [27] Lara Giddings was the first female premier of which Australian state? [28] In which TV series did This sequence of words should read the same backwards Kevin Sussman play the asPalindromic forward e.g. Mad puzzle as Adam role of Stuart Bloom? The sequence of words should read the same backward as they do forward; eg. Mad as Adam [29] What type of food is a CLUE: Myself wandered beneath this as some Wiener Würstchen? weary,Clue: Myself naked wandered Kiwi. beneath this as some weary, naked Kiwi. [30] Kelly Rowland rose to fame as a member of which girl group? I i [31] What is the official language of Mali? [32] The alkaline earth metals are t ,

australian word games 164

I roamed under it as a tired, nude Maori. nude tired, a as it under roamed I solution: Palindromic True. 50. Verstappen Max 49. Maputo 48. Harris Ed 47. Coast Gold Logan, Rim, Scenic 46. Roar Brisbane 45. Piano 44. Punk

CM CM 43. Sea the Under Leagues Thousand Twenty 42. Turnbull Malcolm 41. Honduras 40. Suns Coast Gold 39. Leg 38. Phoenix Joaquin 37. Maarten Sint Eustatius, Sint Saba, 36. racing Motor 35. Giants Jungle

The The 34. Suzuki 33. Beryllium 32. French 31. Child Destiny’s 30. Sausage 29. Theory Bang Big The 28. Tasmania 27. Jewel 26. Rabbitohs Sydney South 25. Park National Caves Chillagoe-Mungana 24. Solution: I roamed under it as a tired, nude Maori. Mailman

Deborah Deborah 23. 19th 18th, 22. Australia South 21. Mercury 20. Harris Patrick Neil 19. Greens Australian Democrats, Australian 18. Israel 17. Sixers Sydney 16. Island Willis 15. Street Wall of Wolf The 14. Cow 13.

Jeannie C. Riley Riley C. Jeannie 12. Philippines 11. Waits Tom 10. Victorious Bahrain Team 9. Harry Prince 8. Sea Arafura 7. Tennyson Lord Alfred, 6. Soccer 5. Stretton 4. Bagpipe 3. Hitler Adolf 2. Queensland 1. Answers: Quiz

30 QWEEKEND.COM.AU JULY 17-18, 2021 V1 - BCME01Z01QW MY LIFE Jimmy Barnes Singer, 65, Berrima, NSW Southern Highlands

Interview AMY PRICE

What was the inspiration behind your new What’s your standout memory on tour? My album, Flesh and Blood? Most of it came from life feels like one big tour. I’ve been on the road being in lockdown. Jane and I are just for 45 years. I remember a little gig in a bar in celebrating our 40th anniversary and we’ve Barcelona, which was probably one of the best never stayed still for three weeks and so to gigs I’ve ever done in my life, there were only suddenly spend 12 months at home, it started off 25 people there. Then I’ve played for 100,000 being quite difficult because we didn’t know people and it’s another world. Music for me is what to do with ourselves, but it became really these moments where everything in the world great. Jane started learning guitar and she’d can be out of control, you’re in the middle of a come to me and say, “I’ve learnt this song”, and storm, and you walk on stage and suddenly that so we’d sing it and put it on social media. We becomes like the eye of the storm and realised it was our way of feeling connected, too. everything just takes focus for a minute. Music I was learning more about my girl and she was is the thing that saved me. learning more about me just from doing these songs, so that inspired me. I thought I could What’s the most sentimental thing you own? make a record, one about family and I try to be as hard as I can but really I’m a big relationships, love and hope. softie. Quite often I’ll sit and look around me and I’ll end up in tears. I have a lot of great Why did you decide to feature your family on memories and things I look back on. Even my the record? This record was a lot more childhood, it was traumatic and dark and personal. It’s the first time my wife sang lead horrible, but there are moments of it I look back vocals on a record with me, and that stemmed on and think “that’s the thing to hold onto”, you from those social media sessions, I got to do don’t have to hold on to the bad. duets with all of my kids. A couple of my grandkids are on it, my son-in-law is playing What’s next for you? I’m touring the album. bass, it was a labour of love. We have two books coming out in October. I’ve written a children’s book called Rosie, the What helps you cope when times get tough? Rhinoceros, which is about my granddaughter I get up and I write. Even though I have Rosie, who is wild and crashes into things. It’s everything in the world and a beautiful family, about how you can be anything you want to be. there are times when I still lie alone at night Jane and I have done a cookbook called Where when I can’t sleep and I’m thinking, “Am I good The River Bends. The most exciting thing is I enough for everybody? Have I done all I can feel like I’m growing. With that in mind I do? Am I a good enough human being?”. I honestly believe my best work is still to come. remember sitting at my desk with my telephone and my acoustic guitar at 2am and writing a set Jimmy Barnes will bring his Flesh and Blood tour to of lyrics and singing really quietly so I didn’t the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre on wake the rest of the family up. You’ve got to be September 2 and The Star Gold Coast on September prepared to feel. 3. The album is out now. PICTURE: JESSE LIZOTTE

e went to GOMA the other it. It’s because I use my parking mantra … all parking should be free. I will never drive weekend and parked in the “Find me a spot, find me a spot,” I chant, into the city to park during the week Queensland Art Gallery car visualising one as I circumnavigate the because the charges are so exorbitant. park. And what a spot it was, block. Then, voila, a space! It’s extortion. I wish I owned one of those justW to the left of the boom gates, perfect for I honed this mystical technique in parking centres in the CBD. But I have a quick exit. It was such a great parking spot Townsville. When we visit my mother-in- discovered a secret spot in Spring Hill that’s I sat in the car for a few minutes before law there we usually go to CastleTown a 10-minute walk into town so it’s perfect. leaving the vehicle. “How good is this?” I Shoppingworld and as we approach she will Getting a good parking spot is so said to my wife. express her belief that it will be impossible satisfying. There’s an episode of Seinfeld in “C’mon let’s go,” she said but I protested. to find a parking space. But each time we which George, visiting a hospital, gets such a “No, hang on a sec, let me just savour just seem to saunter into a space using what good spot he spends his visit with his friends, the moment.” has become known as “Phil’s Mantra”. who have had a baby, looking out the Parking is getting trickier and trickier, In Brisbane it works too. Often, just when window raving about the parking spot he particularly in inner city Brisbane. I mean I have been about to give up and drive got right outside. But his bubble bursts when Last Word just go over to James Street on a Saturday home, a spot has magically appeared. someone throws themselves off the roof of morning and try to get a parking spot. And if it is a free spot even better because the hospital and lands on his car. Not such a PHIL BROWN Somehow or other though I always manage I hate paying for parking. It’s my belief that great spot after all as it turned out.

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