LIKE ME, the average Australian is wondering why there’s so much fuss over gay marriage. And you know there’s a fuss when federal politicians decide they must have a conscience vote over it . But what’s this got to do with their conscience? The legal recognition of same-sex unions is a pragmatic decision; it’s about whether or not you want to change the meaning of marriage within the Marriage Act.

If you’re religious or archly conservative then you want to stick with the centuries-old concept that marriage is a legal union between a man and a woman, with the aim of having children. If you’re not religious and of liberal views, then you see no problem in a legalistic re-draft of the Marriage Act to include unions of same sex couples.

Sadly, Australian politicians who are leading this debate have taken a ‘winner takes all’ approach: either same sex marriage or no national and legal recognition of same sex unions.

The last few decades have shown the reality that gay couples are stable and can raise healthy, well-adjusted children. If you have any doubt about this I suggest you view a young American’s passionate Facebook support of his lesbian parents. It is astonishingly honest, articulate and heart-felt: http://frontmoveon.org/two lesbians-raised-a-baby-and-this-is-what-they-got/#

Same-sex marriage is a growing trend across the world, even in countries that have strong religious and moral codes. These include Canada, South Africa and Argentina, as well as Portugal, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Iceland.

That doesn’t mean we have to follow suit of course, but it does mean we should separate the facts of how we recognise gay couples, from the ongoing emotional fear and loathing of homosexuality.

I fail to see how bringing in a politician’s’ conscience helps this kind of debate. It suggests falling back on privately-held belief systems that rate right against wrong, good against bad, and outmoded, gut rejection moral views of homosexuality that dictate … it just ain’t natural.

The reality is that our scientific and psychological knowledge of sexuality has deepened to the point where we no longer regard homosexuality as an illness to be cured.

Despite more enlightened views and a majority of Australians favouring same-sex marriage, many gay couples still feel rejected because it is Australian law that rejects them. There is a sense that their relationship is not valid or is of a lesser value than heterosexual unions. Certainly federal laws, including the Marriage Act reflect this rejection. They deny same-sex couples basic financial and work-related entitlements because as couples they are simply not a man and a woman.

Same-sex couples and families get fewer leave entitlements, less workers’ compensation, fewer tax concessions, fewer veterans entitlements, fewer health care subsidies and less superannuation. They also pay more for residential aged care than opposite-sex couples in the same circumstances.

There are between 20-30,000 same sex couples in Australia with up to 10 per cent of those couples caring for children. So, clearly the country cannot go on ignoring this social change, because it won’t go away.

Lawyer Michael Sexton has a different take. He says that the institution of marriage is basically worthless, and has lost almost all of its use in Western society.

He asks, even if the High Court were to find in favour of the term marriage covering same-sex unions, “why would anyone now want to adopt a status that has no legal or social significance in present-day Australia?”

I think Michael underestimates how important many people still view a stable relationship sanctioned by the state. We know too that the divorce rate is levelling off in Australia, and formal weddings … civil and religious … are on the rise. (In fact, far more civil than religious).

As the new year begins and the gay marriage conscience vote nears, let’s hope we can stick to a pragmatic debate without the emotion of irrational fears, homophobia and discimination.

As one woman internet blogger on this debate says: “Babies are born of same-sex couples, and no babies are born of heterosexual marriages. Surely your God doesn’t discriminate – well mine doesn’t.”

Michael Berry

The Christmas hamper was filled with $600 worth of locally produced food products along with a couple of bottles of French bubbly. The surprised winner is Greg Freney of Chevallum whose lucky ticket came from Maleny’s Concept IT Systems.

Greg had bought a small laptop computer from Concept IT and believes in being loyal to local traders. He says he will share the contents of the huge hamper with his father and the rest of his extended family over Christmas and the new year.

Second prize winners of the dozen bottles of mixed wines were Elsie and Trevor Mulvena of Maleny. Elsie’s lucky ticket was in Maleny Jewellers where she had just bought a pair of stud ear rings. Elsie was shocked when told of her win as she said this was the first prize she had won in her life.

The third prize winner of the locally, cured ham, ham sack and jar of French mustard, is Sarah McMahon. Sarah was in Melbourne when told of her win, but her partner Peter and son James collected the prize on her behalf.

Sarah had been shopping in Sweets on Maple when she filled out her winning entry. Sarah, Peter and James live in Nambour.

The Hinterland Times congratulates all our winners and thanks all those who are committed to shopping locally across the Blackall Range.

Renee Kelly is young woman who started life 21 years ago with a huge disadvantage … a tiny 620 gm birth weight and hopelessly under-developed heart and lungs. She had only a very slim chance of survival … but survive she did.

Now Renee is making her mark on life, despite a disability that would have detered the most determined of spirits.

IN WHAT could turn out to be the adventure of a lifetime, Witta resident Renee Kelly has been invited to travel to London to play with an Irish band.

It’s a trip that even the most independent first-time traveller would find daunting. But even though Renee has a significant disability, her courage and determination to face challenges will carry her through.

Born 21 years ago in Mackay at 25 weeks (15 weeks premature), Renee weighed only 620g and her torso was the length of a pen. Given less than a 50/50 chance of survival, her first few months were a nail-biting time for parents, Donna and Tom. Tiny Renee’s under-developed heart and lungs required a number of operations and use of pure oxygen, which, tragically, caused the loss of her eyesight.

Thankfully, today, Renee is a healthy, confident and attractive young woman with a passion for all things Irish and a gift for drumming. Having climbed up on a chair at the age of three to explore her dad’s kit, she now has her own electric drum kit, which is both small and portable but still packs a punch.

Earlier this year, while cruising the Internet, Renee came across a song by Irish band, Saoirse, and sent a message to guitarist, Jamie Connors, to say how much she liked their music.

“I told him that I was a drummer and I love all sorts of music and I’m fully blind,” she explains.

Within 24 hours, Renee was delighted to receive a response, inviting her to send samples of her work.

“So I made a DVD of me playing drums to one of their songs and sent it over,” she says. “Next thing, there’s a message in my inbox inviting me to come and have a jam with them in London, where they are based. I was blown away!”

Renee is no stranger to seizing the moment: recently, through friend Kel Cork (of The Rain), she was invited to play with fellow Maleny-ite Kevin Borich, a formidable musician with a 30-year professional career. It was a nerve-wracking experience that tested even her mettle.

“A week beforehand I was a wreck – I was texting Kel about five times a day,” she says with a laugh. “Then the day beforehand, the power went out and I couldn’t practise – I was furious! When I got there, I was shaking like a leaf but the moment I started playing, I knew this is where I have to be.”

When she’s not studying, Renee enjoys listening to audiobooks and it’s no surprise that one of her favourite authors is Maeve Binchy. Many of her audiobooks are supplied by Vision Australia, which also supplies equipment for blind and low vision clients. Just to keep her on her toes, she is about to start learning the violin, having long admired fiddle players Kristin Kelly (no relation) from The Barleyshakes and Joe Murray from Sasta, both bands well known to Irish music enthusiasts.

Plenty of famous musicians have held down a day-job well into their career, and Renee is sensibly working on her fallback in the form of a business qualification. She lives part-time in Brisbane with her two elder brothers, attending TAFE where she is studying for a Certificate III in Business, with a view to working in the police force.

“I enjoy typing and hope to get a job transcribing police interviews,” she says, matter-of- factly. “The course is pretty full on – it requires a lot of reading.”

Studying is abnormally time- consuming with all text being ‘read’ by Renee using a voice synthesis program. First, every book used in the course must be turned into digital format and any pictures in the document described. The result is made suitable for her screen reading software, JAWS, which was developed for computer users whose vision loss prevents them from seeing screen content. Sadly for Renee, JAWS does not offer an Irish accent option.

With London set firmly in her sights, Renee is hoping that she might also be able to visit Ireland and listen to some of her favourite music in its homeland context. One can only imagine her excitement. And perhaps trepidation?

“I’m pretty good at overcoming my fears,” she reflects, her fine features masking an iron will. “I just live with the belief that life’s full of risks – there’s a risk in getting out of bed in the morning!” “If an opportunity comes along then you should take it while it’s there and see what happens.”

“I know I was born to play music and I want to focus on that. The business course is good, but music is the main thing I really want to do. If this London thing goes ahead, I’m going to be so stoked; it could open up doors that I never could have dreamed would happen.”

Undoubtedly, Renee has the spirit and determination to take this opportunity and turn it into a reality.

Wayne, Fran and Zach, their youngest of four children - on the Hinterland since August 2011

IT TAKES courage during these uncertain times to pack up and travel across the world to settle in a new country. But Wayne Markwort and his wife Fran and their four children Tess, Jordie, Anika and Zach have taken it in their stride. This young family moved to the Blackall Range in August from Huddersfield in the north of England. Perhaps courage is the wrong word for Wayne and Fran who are both professional artists. Because they both exude confidence and determination to establish themselves, coming as they do with an impressive breadth of skills from ceramics to stone carving, painting and digital art.

Nature Altar. Bronze

Wayne was trained at college as a stone carver and on graduation he immediately started pitching for public art commissions. He found it a very competitive area and eventually went on to further study in stone carving in Barcelona where he met Fran 17 years ago. “There’s such massive competition for public art work in the UK,” says Wayne. “I have a sense that the Australian artworld is more accessible and we will be approaching galleries with our portfolios.” Wayne’s portfolio reveals an impressive range of monumental abstract sculptures, delicate bronzes, and bold spray can images in primary colours.

“Narrative is important to what I do,” says Wayne. “I don’t think it’s really art if there is no story behind the composition. Craft and design on their own are OK but without a narrative it is simply a utilitarian object.”

With four young children, Fran is careful to find time for her ceramic sculptures, and as they settle into Range life, Wayne is planning to install a bronze foundry at home to make small bronze pieces, which he sees as more commercially attractive than large stone sculptures.

“Abstract sculpture is such an elite art. You have to work at it and I have gradually developed a style which often relies on religious iconology for its form and theme.”

Like many artists, Wayne is prepared to work at most things to sustain his creative bent, from gardening to building.

“For me, art comes first. Creative ideas tend to build up and then they rush out. For example, I have just finished about 17 spray can paintings – still lifes and very classical in composition.”

Having travelled the world with their art – making their way through America, Africa, Europe and SE Asia – Wayne and Fran have settled on the Blackall Range. That’s partly because Wayne’s father lives here but Wayne also sees things through the eyes of an artist.

Boats - spray can colours on board.

“Apart from the weather, there is something about the space and time here – every hour seems to last longer,” he adds with a smile. “There’s a solidity here, and despite the sometimes deafening bird chatter, there is a stillness about this place.”

Bob Cameron beside the completed cob oven at Maleny’s River School.

strong sense of responsibility for the well-being of our community and our planet.

Bob’s concern for the planet is rock solid…

BOB CAMERON is an enigma – a self-proclaimed corporate hippie. His business, Rockcote, which specialises in advanced architectural coating systems, was built on solid green foundations and recently signed a multi-million dollar deal with Bunnings. He didn’t complete his university studies because he didn’t ‘fit the system’ and yet in 2010 he and wife, Chris, were made honorary senior fellows of the University of the Sunshine Coast.

And while he could be lunching with high-flying clients anywhere in Australia (or the world), Bob would prefer to get muddy while teaching a group of Hinterland enthusiasts about cob ovens.

Unlike some other ‘green-washed’ business leaders, Bob’s environmental ethics are both genuine and visionary. He started Rockcote 30 years ago and from inception measured its success in terms that include, but are not limited to, financial – he believes success is about living in accordance with your beliefs, respecting the planet’s resources and encouraging others to do the same.

Resting in the shadow of towering silos, the garden is living testimony to the company’s philosophy that people live best when they are in harmony with nature.

I had met Bob a month beforehand, when I joined 15 enthusiastic workshop participants at the River School in Maleny. Our mission was to build the school a cob oven and, along the way, learn about this fascinating method of construction.

While waiting for the workshop to begin, I introduced myself to a shy man wearing a floppy hat, loose shirt and friendly smile, who turned out to be Bob Cameron.

He launched the workshop with an explanation of why he believes natural building materials are an important solution to today’s economic and social woes.

“Most of the problems we face today emanate from the difference between the way nature works and the way humans think,” Bob began.

“Although our march towards civilisation has brought many benefits there are also some very important things that we have lost, many of these just in the last generation.”

Bob is passionate about keeping alive the knowledge that helps us keep in tune with the rhythms of nature. He believes we should be identifying and preserving the skills that equip us to:

• grow food without huge inputs of fossil fuel energy and chemical fertilisers;
• process, store and prepare food without the use of modern chemical additives;
• design communities that are not reliant on cars and that function as nurturing communities for all age and ethnic groups; and
• design and construct our buildings so that they don’t rely on huge amounts of fossil fuels to make them liveable and comfortable.

Neither romantic nor devolutionist, Bob believes we need to marry traditional knowledge with modern techniques and understanding, his views reminiscent of Bill Mollison’s permaculture writings (without the larrikin anarchist angle).

“For too long we have been looking exclusively to science and the future to lead the way,” he observed sagely.

“However, many solutions can be found in traditional cultures. For example, cob (a mix of clay, silt, sand and straw) has incredible thermal properties, is genuinely sustainable, natural, plentiful and carbon neutral, and yet has been overlooked in favour of synthetic, non-renewable materials.”

Bob inside his Yandina Rockcote warehouse - the business he started 30 years ago.

Our introduction over, the workshop participants mixed and moulded the cob using our feet, hands and arms. Working side-by-side to create a functional work of art was both bonding and satisfying, especially knowing that it would be used to nourish River School children for years to come.

Sitting alongside the school’s new edible garden, ‘Myrtle’, as she is to be known, is an attractive addition to the school’s resources that support a broad range of subjects, including mathematics, physics, chemistry, environmental studies, health, food and cooking. It is for this reason that Bob is passionate about building cob ovens and introducing other traditional arts in schools.

“If we don’t keep these traditional arts and skills alive, we are in danger of losing them forever,” he warned. “We are not talking about this happening some time in the next century – it could happen in the space of the next generation.”

“It is vitally important that we introduce this knowledge at primary school level and inspire kids to understand how it can be used in the modern world to solve some of the systematic problems their forebears have created.”

Bob Cameron may not fit the traditional business leader mould but his altruistic business approach is a beacon of optimism for the future.

Eye of the Storm and The Hunter have been nominated in multiple categories, including best film, for the 2011 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Awards (AACTA).

Eye of the Storm

120 min M15+ Friday 20 January – 8.30pm

Judy Morris has translated Patrick White’s droll and penetrating prose perfectly to the screen in this adaptation of The Eye of the Storm. The film opens in a grand old mansion in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in 1973, where wealthy matriarch Elizabeth Hunter (Charlotte Rampling) is dying. Her two adult children, Basil (Geoffrey Rush) and Dorothy (Judy Davis), have reluctantly returned from their respective expatriate locations to be at her side. Although middle-aged, they are still as children, trapped in the emotional web spun by their selfish and manipulative mother.

Long-suppressed but still raw family tensions are re-inflamed and complicated by the around-the-clock presence of Elizabeth’s nurses and her housekeeper (Helen Morse). Valiant family solicitor (John Gaden) is a placatory influence.

Fred Schepisi directs with supreme assurance, turning out an elegant, enjoyably florid last word in dysfunctional family dynamics, and there’s no questioning the across-the-board quality of the film’s rich array of nuanced performances, especially from the three leads.

Face to Face

120min M15+ Saturday 21 January – 3.00pm

Based on a play written by David Williamson and adapted by director Michael Rymer, Face to Face is an intense drama, in the vein of the classic Twelve Angry Men, but following the progress of a dispute-resolution session instead of a courtroom drama. Flashbacks are used to reveal the actions that have brought the characters together.

What appears simple at the start – an angry young man lashing out against his boss for firing him – grows in complexity and intensity as the characters reveal motives and grudges, weaknesses and ambitions that have been festering beneath the surface. As new revelations emerge, the audience is forced to shift their moral alignment.

The screenplay is funny, moving and brilliantly structured. It shines a light on contemporary Australian society and attitudes. The strong ensemble cast includes Vince Colosimo, Sigrid Thornton, Matthew Newton and Luke Ford (Black Balloon, Red Dog), whose raw performance as the central character is perfectly pitched. A powerful, engaging film delivering insight and emotional punch.

The Hunter

100min M Saturday 21 January – 8.00pm

Martin (Willem Dafoe), an industrial mercenary, is sent from Europe by a biotech company to track down the last Tasmanian tiger, wanted for its DNA. In Tasmania local veteran Jack (Sam Neill), arranges for Martin to be based at a remote house with the despondent wife (Frances O’Connor) and spirited children of a missing zoologist.

While Martin lays traps in the Tasmanian wilderness and waits, he builds a friendship with the family, who are watched over constantly, in a possessive way, by Jack. In time, the prevailing environmental conflict (greens versus loggers) and his developing connection to the family and the wilderness, force Martin to confront the reality of his work and personal morality, with dramatic consequences.

Based on an award- winning novel by Julia Leigh, The Hunter has been skillfully crafted by director Daniel Nettheim. Exquisite wilderness scenery and a nuanced soundtrack help to create a dense and compelling claustrophobic atmosphere in this tense eco-thriller.

International drama and documentary filmmaker, Robyn Hofmeyr has combined with Sunshine Coast hinterland Gubi Gubi elder, Bev Hand to produce an intriguing look beneath the surface of Bev’s ancestral land.

Robyn, who directed the confronting Women and War documentary, has employed her directorial skills on this portrait of a hinterland unknown to most white residents.

Here, Robyn describes the making of Walk Talking Country.

BEVERLY asked me if I would assist her to make a film. It was also a personal initiative of mine – I had been out with Bev before and I thought I would love to help her promote her cultural tours.

Beverley Hand performing at the Bunya Dreaming Festival

In the 26 minute film “Walk, talking Country” Beverly Hand, a Kabi Kabi woman, guides us through the Maleny Hinterland, pointing out the significance of local flora and educating us about the Indigenous knowledge of the region.

Beverly pays particular reference to the social, historical, environmental and cultural significance of the Bunya trees that are now scattered around the Blackall ranges. When the Bunya trees were heavy with nuts, Indigenous people would travel certain pathways across the land to the Blackall Ranges where the biggest Bunya trees were located. Beverly recreates the Bunya Festivals in a contemporary way every January to keep this ancient gathering alive. People come from far and wide to the Boroon Pocket dam to celebrate with her.

In the film we follow her along ancient and modern pathways across the Blackall Ranges, through old forests, to the now submerged sites of the Bunya Gatherings that were held at the Baroon Pocket area for centuries. Beverly points out plants and describes some of the ways her ancestors would use them. We see and learn how healthy landscapes

made healthy people and that contained within the landscape are all the natural resources necessary for a healthy life – medicine, fire making, shelter, fibre, nutrition etc.

“Walk talking Country” is a film about aboriginal tradition, culture and the environment. It is also a visual journey through a spectacular landscape.

Making the film has been a real challenge. It is a big story – Beverly Hand is a great storyteller, she is one of the conveyors of the oral traditions and legends of the Maleny Hinterland and Coastal areas. The challenge has been to tell her story in 26 minutes and to capture the beauty and highlight the diversity of this wonderful landscape as well as making sure the film has a strong narrative structure. I have been hampered by a shoestring budget, the weather and our work commitments but with the support of Beverly, my editor, good friends and family I have managed to produce a film that I hope gives viewers an insight into some of the Indigenous knowledge of the region.

Beverley Hand (left) and Aunty Gambril at the Bunya Dreaming Festival.

Actor, Director, Scriptwriter … Judy Morris

… is Outspoken with writer, Steven Lang

WE ALL KNOW writers have a hard time of it. Their business is words and let’s face it, they’re not shy of using them to let us know how difficult it is being them. But what about scriptwriters? Not only do they have to come up with an idea and put flesh on its bones, they then have to sell it to producers, directors, backers, cinema chains, all of whom, should they even choose to take it on, want to tweek the original. And then, just supposing their script gets through all that, they have to deal with actors.

Someone who knows a fair bit about the process is Judy Morris. She started off as a child star in both Australia and America. She later returned here to star in such films and television programs as Alvin Purple, Bellbird and Mother and Son. After appearing in fifty-four different shows she took up script writing. Working with George Miller and others she wrote Babe: Pig in the City and Happy Feet, the Oscar-winning animated film.

Her most recent project has been the script for Fred Schepisi’s adaptation of Patrick White’s The Eye of the Storm. Judy will be Maleny Film Society and Outspoken’s special guest at this year’s Australian Film Festival. The two organisations have teamed up to bring her to Maleny for a conversation about writing in general and the Eye of the Storm in particular.

‘The thing about Patrick White,’ Judy says, ‘Is I think he is incredibly funny. He’s extraordinarily witty, but then he turns on a dime so you’re suddenly in very serious territory. He catapults you between the two all the time. It’s what I love about him, that you don’t know whether you’re going to be laughing at something … or crying about it, he’s so multi- faceted.’

Judy Morris, in conversation with local author Steven Lang, an Outspoken event presented in association with Maleny Film Society’s Australian Film Festival, Friday 20th January. Doors open 6.00 pm. $18 or $13 for members. Maleny Bookshop 5494 3666. Passes for the whole Festival are also available.

Above: Judy Morris stars in the 1986 movie, “The More Things Change” and the writer of “Happy Feet”.

Peter assures us that the oven works efficiently with the oven being raised and lowered electrically from its steel platform.

“The problem,” says Peter, “is, that the oven is a bit too unwieldy and large for a suburban backyard, and it gets shaded a lot of the time by the surrounding buildings and trees, which impairs the overall efficiency. So, I have decided to donate the oven to a person or organisation in a rural setting, as that would make the most sense. Peter assures us that over Christmas he was able to roast a turkey.

Peter is willing to donate his solar oven to a Hinterland community organisation which believes it could make good use of it.

If you are interested contact the Hinterland Times editor: editor@hinterlandtimes.com.au

Peter says the oven can be disassembled into manageble ‘chunks’ for moving. “I own a stationwagon, it would simply mean another ute and some willing manpower.”

Sam Lucas keeps his eye on a musical future

SAM LUCAS is a young cellist with a career as a classical musician that is well mapped out into the future. His success seems assured not only because of a natural talent but a strong determination to succeed through rigorous practice.

“The constant practice is not a chore for Sam,” says his father Ian Lucas, who with wife Lee run the remarkable Lucas Parklands concert venue in the middle of their Montville rainforest property.

“Practice is something he actually enjoys,” adds Ian. ”In fact it’s Sam’s practice ethic that has allowed him to improve at the rate he has.”

Sam has recently been accepted to compete in the ABC Young Performer Awards in 2012.

Round one is on 30 January and at 15 years old, Sam is apparently one of the youngest to be accepted into the competition. In this round he’ll be required to play a solo recital.

Round two, on 31 March requires a full concerto to be played from memory. If successful after that, the same concerto would be performed in Round three with an ABC orchestra – either the Tasmanian Symphony or Western Australia Symphony. This is Australia’s most prestigious competition and Sam is the first entrant from the Sunshine Coast. Winners of this competition usually go on to become Conservatorium graduates.

Sam has been positively influenced by artists at Lucas Parklands, and has been accompanied by some of the world’s best pianists.

“I am so grateful for the opportunity to play with these artists,” says Sam, “and to observe their professionalism and hear their wonderful stories of performing in great concert halls around the world – it makes me try harder.”

The highlights of Sam’s coming year include a master class in Paris with Martine Bailly, principal cellist of the Paris Opera Orchestra. Sam met Martine at the International Cello Festival in Adelaide earlier this year.

Sam will also receive cello lessons in September with leading Bulgarian cellist, Plovdiv.

“I am very lucky to grow up in a musical home,” says Sam, “where every day music is played, discussed and performed.

“Maleny, Montville and Mapleton are all thriving artistic centres,” he adds. “It’s a fantastic learning environment and there are talented people who understand my ambitions.”

Sam doesn’t see that hours of practice mean a loss of social life. He has many interests other than music, having recently joined a local archery club to improve his technique, meet new friends and join their social competitions.

He’s a keen basketball player and will join his team at Nambour Christian College in the Sunshine Coast school competition. Fishing, go kart racing and athletics fill any spare time.

Sam has high ambitions for his musical career and his parents, Ian and Lee, hope he is able to realise his dream of becoming a professional cellist.

“It’s a very exciting time in his life,” says his mother Lee, “and he’s impatient to start university studies- he’s ready to go and we wish him the very best on his journey.”