Please support our citrus farmers

Where are the foodies now? All too busy watching Masterchef?? The citrus industry is facing the most serious crisis in years. Growers are paid 10c per kg whilst supermarkets chains charge about $3 per kg on average. We now have rain and no markets. We have had the devastation of the drought, the floods and now the high dollar. This makes the import on concentrate from overseas cheaper but it ruins our community.

Refuse to drink cheap OJ. It comes from Brazil, it ruins our community and it has carbon miles attached to it. If you live in the riverland go and buy oranges from your local farmers. Help them to get over this mess.

Literary lovers have a ball at the Mildura Writers Festival

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Celebrity cook Stefano de Pieri and Channel Seven newsreader Jennifer Keyte relish the Mildura Writers' Festival.

Sunraysia Daily journalist Allyson Fonseca delves into their literary passion:

http://www.sunraysiadaily.com.au/news/local/news/general/slow-lunch-great-end...

 

Celebration of creative culture in Mildura

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Celebrity cook Stefano di Pieri and Channel Seven newsreader Jennifer Keyte relish literary ideas at the Mildura Writers' festival finale slow lunch.

What a wonderful celebration of creativity in Mildura. The Writers Festival was a great success and my thanks to all involved.

Thanks to Allyson Fonseca for the photos.

Mildura Writers Festival makes the Front page

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Read more here

Hope you get a chance to see this.

Mildura Writers Festival

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An inspiring, convivial few days in Mildura, I really hope to see you there!

Mildura Writers Festival- 14th - 17th July

In 1994 I called up my dear friend Phillip Hodgins, who at the time was living in Timor, near Maryborough, to see if he would come to Mildura to do a poetry reading.  He was enthusiastic and said he'd bring along Robert Gray, an Australian poet from Sydney.  With Donata, my wife, we promoted this event so that guests could dine in the fledgling Stefano's restaurant and then hear the poets' readings.  We wanted it to be a simple affair; a bowl of pasta and the chance to hear two of Australia's finest poets reading their own work and that of others like John Shaw Neilsen. We thought we might get 20 - 25 people keen to come along.  When the numbers blew out to 80 we had to relocate to the Grand Hotel Ballroom.  The night was a great success and it really set the scene for what was to become the Mildura Writers' Festival which is now into its 17th year. 

This year I get to have a chat with an old mate, Shane Maloney, in a session which has been called Two Larrikins. The blurb for the session says we worked together at Brunswick City Council in the 1980's and also on the Melbourne Olympic bid. This is all true.  While the Council was abolished and the Olympic bid failed we have emerged unscathed and look forward to recounting some of the stories from those days.  I'll also be probing Shane about characters in the Murray Whelan crime novels and asking him about the Brunswick Institute  - a questionable, self-appointed solo think-tank located in his back yard.

I really encourage you to have a look at the program and join us for a few events. There's so much to enjoy from current political affairs, to poetry, to satire, to discussions about crime, punishment or sense of place.  Guest writers are the best in their field, here in Mildura for a whole weekend, for you to listen to and chat with over meals or a coffee.  It's a convivial, inspiring couple of days that will leave you looking forward to the next one.  If you haven't been before, don't miss out this year. I would also suggest you consider buying a festival package for only $280 which will entitle you to access to 13 events, three lunches and two dinners.  That's amazing value!! I really hope to see you there.

www.artsmildura.com.au/writers

 

The Still Point Exhibition - join me at the opening

Dear Friends,

The upcoming exhibition at Stefano's Gallery 25 marks a first collaboration between siblings Jillian and David Pattinson, originally from Mildura.  We are delighted to be showing their work in the lead up to the Mildura Writers' Festival which begins on the night of their opening. This is an arresting and varied show where poetry and photography sit side by side and where text and imagery broaden the possibilities for the viewer.  Please join us next Thursday for the opening of The Still Point at 6.00 pm, and continue your evening at the first session of the Mildura Writers' Festival. (www.artsmildura.com.au/writers)

David Pattinson

David Pattinson is an Australian photographer and IT project manager, based in London. David works in both film and digital media , currently favouring a Leica M8 for its portability and speed of use. David specialises in documentary-style portraiture and street photography, generally candid and unposed. David mainly shoots in black and white to emphasise human expression and interaction. David’s photographs have previously shown at the Tate Britain gallery in London and various online forums. David’s work has also featured in commercials and promotions for Leica Camera and the Saville Row tailor Ozwald Boateng. David’s work for an international IT consulting firm takes him, and his camera, to many parts of the world. Photographs featured in this exhibition were taken in Australia, England, China, India and the U.S.A. David lived in the Mildura region from 1978 to 1984, completing his secondary education at Red Cliffs High School.
 
Jillian Pattinson

Jillian Pattinson is an Australian poet and freelance writer, based in Melbourne. Jillian’s poetry has been published in Antipodes (U.S.A.) and many Australian journals and anthologies, including Meanjin, Australian Book Review, Griffith Review, Island, Famous Reporter, Blue Dog, Quadrant, Poetrix, Going Down Swinging,The Best Australian Poems 2007 and Motherlode: Australian Women's Poetry. Jillian is currently completing her first poetry collection with the assistance of an Australia Council grant and a professional mentorship with Judith Beveridge through the Australian Society of Authors. Her working manuscript, The Infinite Library, won the 2010 Alec Bolton Prize for an unpublished manuscript. The Still Point won the inaugural UTAS Place and Experience Poetry Prize in 2010. Dead Sea Psalms was shortlisted for the 2010 Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize, with other poems shortlisted for the ABR Peter Porter Poetry Prize and ACT Rosemary Dobson Poetry Prize in 2010. Jillian lived in the Mildura region from 1978 to 1986, completing her secondary education at Red Cliffs High School. She returns to the region every year to work or visit.

Please join us next Thursday for the opening of The Still Point at 6.00 pm, and continue your evening at the first session of the Mildura Writers' Festival.

Click here to book online

I've just come back from a fascinating visit to Hobart

MONA or The Museum of Old and New Art built by David Walsh, professional gambler, on the site of the former Moorilla Winery in Hobart.
I just spent three days absorbing the magnitude of the undertaking.  David Walsh is my new hero and I will be singing his praises at every opportunity.  Here's a visionary ( a word I don't use lightly) with the balls to put himself on the line and to collect great art for the enjoyment of the general public. He has made Hobart a place to visit time and again.
 
Mona is an integrated structure designed by Fender-Katsalidis comprising a four-storey underground museum, if that is the word, a brewery, a winery, a series of eateries, splendid accommodation on the Derwent river and an outdoor performance area.
The museum is for free and everything else you pay in relation to quality.The art is highly personal, in that it represents the taste of its owner.  The themes are sex and death in no particular order, but not only.
 
Technology in art plays a huge role, reminding me of the original intention of Mildura Palimpsest.  In fact, I cannot help thinking that a proper Mildura Arts Centre, a redeveloped hospital site, an expanded university, combined with the existing arts festival and the Art Vault, could make Mildura an obviously smaller, but equally exciting regional centre.
 
The Hobart locals have embraced this extraordinary space with real gusto.  You see children, people in moccasins, people in the money, of every shape and colour, flocking to this site like it's the ultimate pilgrimage - even better than shopping!
 
Will the day come when our locals will turn up to see the work of, for example, Ken and Julia Yonetani, featured in the recent Artlink magazine, which was based on the salinity issues of Mildura?  Theirs is a work of subtle instruction about the price we pay for our food before it even reaches the table, but free of rhetoric and propaganda.
I wish I had my own museum, but I'm crap at Black Jack.

For more on The Museum of Old and New Art- http://mona.net.au/

For more on Ken and Julia Yonetani - http://www.kenandjuliayonetani.com/contents.html

For an article featuring MONA and David Walsh -
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/temple-of-david/story-e6frg8h6-...

Mildura Writer's Festival begins on 14th July

This is set to be another fantastic festival with lots to listen to. I'm particularly looking forward to my conversation with Shane Maloney on the 15th. Should be very funny.

Click on the link for the full program http://www.artsmildura.com.au/writers/program.asp and for bookings click here

Hope to see you there. Ciao Stefano