THE public is being urged to look out for illegal yabby traps in our waterways as they pose a major threat to native wildlife, including platypus and some endangered fish.

“Last month two dead platypuses were unfortunately hauled from the Murrumbidgee River in an illegal yabby trap,” regional manager, National Parks and Catchments Brett McNamara said.

“Yabby traps, such as ‘opera house’ traps, are illegal in public waters in the ACT and the eastern half of NSW.

“The public should be aware that it is an offence to be in possession of an opera house trap if you are in or beside public waters and to use them in open waters in the ACT.

“Opera house traps are known to catch and drown air breathing animals such as platypus, turtles, native water rats and birds. These traps can also catch and kill the threatened Murray River crayfish. The use of opera house traps is one of the greatest threats to platypus and is responsible for an increasing numbers of deaths each year.

“The public are asked to immediately report any enclosed yabby traps found in lakes and rivers in the ACT and Upper Murrumbidgee region. These traps can still be used on private land to catch yabbies, shrimp and minnow, but must not be used in any public or open waters.”

“There are a number of signs of an illegal trap, including rope or string tied close to the bank going into the waterway, a plastic bottle bobbing in a fixed position in the stream or a lonely fishing float or a small plastic ball not moving with the current.

“We are also asking people to be on the lookout for discarded fishing equipment. If you see any, please remove it to prevent further harm to wildlife.”

Report illegal traps 1800 333000 or Access Canberra on 132281.

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CONSTRUCTION will start soon on a student and tourist accommodation facility at Exhibition Park, following the Chief Minister’s turning the development’s first sod today.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr. Photo by Andrew Campbell

“Thanks to the new student and tourist accommodation that will be on site, Exhibition Park will now be able to play a key role in our attempt to grow the ACT’s overnight visitor expenditure to $2.5 billion by 2020,” Chief Minister Andrew Barr says.

“As Canberra seeks to build its reputation as a host of major events, it is important to ensure there are accommodation options around our city for interstate visitors.

“By hosting events such as Summernats, The National Folk Festival and the Royal Canberra Show, Exhibition Park already makes a significant contribution to our visitor economy.

“Tourism is an important industry for the ACT, which contributes $1.62 billion to the ACT economy every year and is one of the territory’s largest private-sector employers, supporting 14,700 jobs.”

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GARRAN Medical Imaging has been open for a couple of months settling into the smart new premises in the medical centre that looks quite imposing and impressive in what is a suburban shopping centre.

Its close proximity to the Canberra Hospital is an advantage no doubt but the intent of the practitioners is absolutely patient focused.

With their state-of-the-art equipment, it is still a journey into the unknown for most of us.

For the official opening with staff, doctors and suppliers the Tardis-like premises went from an average-size reception area to large rooms with giant machines that can do more body shots than the paparazzo on warp speed, but none you’d want published in the glossies!

Dr Ian Duncan explained the equipment and I examined closely some magnificent archive pictures of bung bits in real bodies and marvelled at the clarity of the plant-like form of the blood vessels to the brain.

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There’s a new pop-up outdoor theatre venture in town, ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has announced today.

“The Public Theatre” will see a two-week program of performance, music, spoken word and film coming to The Multicultural Fringe’s former stamping ground, Civic Square, in the second half of November.

The project is the brainchild of Julian Hobba, artistic director of the relatively-new Aspen Island Theatre Company, who said the space was being reconceived by project partner Cox Architecture, inspired by the “timeless design” of the Classical Greek theatre but realised in a pop-up aesthetic.

Visitor to the launch were treated to a small sampling of the coming performances and viewed architectural drawings of The Public Theatre structure shown by Graham Humphries from project partner Cox Architecture

“Civic Square is the political and cultural heart of Canberra. Like the ancient Greek theatre next to the Parthenon, we want to enliven the space with performance and ideas,” Hobba said.

The two week program, he said, would feature “great local performers and examples of the country’s finest established and emerging theatre talent.”

Supported by Design Canberra, the Hellenic Club, SpringOUT and Canberra CBD Ltd, the initiative aims at fulfilling Aspen Island Theatre Company’s mission to “make contemporary Australian theatre in Canberra and seek to engage with national and international theatre practice”.

Highlights include screenings of films such as “Don’s Party” that were based on famous plays, “Bomb Collar”, a one-man sci-fi cabaret by  Nick Delatovic, “Sappho in 9 fragments” performed by Mary Helen Sassman, a conversation about our city hosted by Cox Architecture and, for a very theatrical finish, “Four Day Oedipus”, a moved reading prepared over four days of  Sophocles’ “Oedipus Tyrannos”, to be co-directed by Hobba and Katie Cawthorne.

“The Public Theatre” in Civic Square, November 17 -29, further details at aitc.org.au

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L-R Alyssa Anderson, Lachlan Anderson, Oliver Johnstone, Natalie Mitchell pic Jenny Anderson

Nina Stevenson is the director and up-and-coming conductor, Leonard Weiss, is the musical director of the play written by Brian D Taylor, with music and lyrics by Bill Francoeur and Scott Deturk.

Alice in Wonderland this year, Stevenson points out to us, celebrates 150 years of capturing the imagination of children and adults alike.

Explained simply, this play see Dorothy and her friends from Oz off course on their way home and ending up not in Kansas, but in Wonderland.

Dorothy, Lion, Scarecrow and Tin Man, The Mad Hatter, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and other characters from “Alice” are all there.

Can Dorothy and Alice beat the Queen of Hearts at her own game and get back home to their families again? You know the answer.

Meantime, Ickle Pickle Productions, marking its tenth birthday, is presenting a production of their first show, “Goldilocks”, written by local playwright Peter McDonald with music composed by Adam Bluhm.

Some of the original cast will be on stage and most of the original production team will be behind the curtains.

It’s a re-telling of the classic children’s story, with a twist — the evil Sheriff of Gunningham is plotting to steal the Three Bears’ secret porridge recipe to open his own chain of porridge outlets. Together with his assistant, Frogmore, the Sheriff kidnaps Goldilocks and holds her to ransom for the recipe. Will the Sheriff’s evil plot succeed?

Goldilocks, Jenny Lange. Photo by Donna Larkin

Now it has more than 40 theatre productions to its name, including commissioned works for the National Gallery of Australia.

Watson says: “Goldilocks was so much fun 10 years ago that we decided to bring it back as part of our tenth birthday celebrations. Rehearsing the show has certainly brought back lots of memories, and we are excited about bringing the show to a new generation of theatregoers.”

“Dorothy in Wonderland,” at Canberra College Performing Arts Centre, Launceston Street, Woden, October 2-9. Bookings to trybooking.com.au/isks

“Goldilocks,” Belconnen Community Theatre, Swanston Court, Belconnen, Oct 3-10, $10, bookings to stagecenta.com or 6253 1454. Groups 10 or more call 0401 169793.

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FIRE crews have extinguished a fire at a two-storey ACT Housing apartment on Berrigan Crescent, O’Connor.

Firefighters attacked the fire from the front and rear of the property with both levels involved and the fire spreading to the roof space. The roof may have to be removed to ensure all hot spots are extinguished.

It is not yet known what started the fire.

One man in his twenties has been taken to Canberra Hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.

The man, a woman and young child self evacuated.

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DOUBLE demerit points are in effect until midnight Monday. 

Double points will be enforced for speeding and seatbelt offences across the ACT and interstate. One additional demerit point will be applicable for all other types of offences.

Sgt Susan Ball, of police traffic operations,  says Canberrans should stay vigilant on the roads over the long weekend.

She says police will “actively target” dangerous driving with high-visibility patrols monitoring major arterial roads as well as the back streets.

“We’ll also patrol rural areas like the Cotter, which see an increase in traffic on weekends,” she says. 

“Motorists should think carefully about the impact of losing their driver licence. Think about the impacts that could have on your work, your social life and your family. With double demerits in effect, you could lose your licence with just one or two offences.”

“If you’re caught exceeding the speed limit by 45km/h or more, you will accrue 12 demerit points and lose your licence.  If you’re caught without your seatbelt on or with a passenger without their seatbelt on, you’ll lose 6 demerit points, which is half-way to losing your licence.”

Motorists who commit any other traffic offence, such as running red lights and failing to stop at stop signs, will receive one demerit point in addition to the usual penalty.

Police issued 214 Traffic Infringement Notices and over the Canberra Family and Community Day and Labour Day long weekends last year.

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IN my late teens, I carried a spear in a Brisbane production of Shakespeare’s Scottish play. Within five years, the young men who played Macbeth and Macduff were both dead. Superstition is alive, well and perhaps a tad scary!

The internet movie database lists 94 moving-image productions of the play. Writers Jacob Koskoff and Michael Lesslie have given Shakespeare’s text a buzz cut for Australian director Justin Kurzel.

I mourn the omissions – the comicality of “husband’s to Aleppo gone”, “nose painting, sleep and urine”, “rump-fed ronyon”, the angry despair of Lady Macbeth’s plucking of her nipple from her child’s toothless gums.

Lady M rather than the king speaks the “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” soliloquy, although the change doesn’t diminish its force. The way to dusty death beckons us all.

The actors playing the adult men are bewhiskered beyond recognition. Michael Fassbender plays MacbetH, David Thewlis is Duncan, Sean Harris is Macduff, Paddy Considine is Banquo.

Marion Cotillard’s portrayal of Lady Macbeth takes no harm from her slight residual French accent and Elizabeth Debicki is a poignant Lady Macduff tied to a stake with her children waiting for Macbeth to light their pyre.

Kurzel’s sombre lighting of the action matches the drama. The Isle of Skye provides bleak exteriors.

You’d never call the play a bundle of laughs, but you must remember it was written for an audience clamouring for blood and death. Its modern audience is less easy to categorise.

At Palace Electric

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FOR Robert De Niro, the role of 70-ish widower Ben Whittaker in writer/director Nancy Myers’ romantic comedy is a doddle. Most of his screen time requires him to do little more than dress stylishly, whether for office or bedroom, and smile sweetly.

He’s playing opposite Anne Hathaway as Jules who has, within 18 months, built an online fashion store from five people into an operation employing more than 200. Ben has been a middle-level executive in a firm that publishes phone books. In lonely retirement, he has refused to spend his remaining time doing nothing. Jules has employed him as an intern whose main task is to tell her half-hourly if there have been any messages. Which is a refined form of doing nothing.

It gets better, at least for Ben, as Jules comes to depend increasingly on his no-nonsense, do-anything work ethic. She allows him into her private life and family, with no real crises but enough little ones to keep the plot simmering. At home in one of those brownstone terrace houses for which New York is noted, she has a house-husband and a sweet six-year-old daughter.

“The Intern” isn’t going to win any peer-assessment awards but it’s pleasant enough. An April/October romance? Not really. Older women still find Ben attractive. Playing the one he chooses, Rene Russo has aged well.

At all cinemas

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ANDY Weir wrote a book. Drew Goddard adapted it into a screenplay for Ridley Scott to direct. Nothing in the credits for “The Martian” acknowledges Daniel Defoe who, in 1719, published the novel on which his reputation survives, about Alexander Selkirk, marooned for four years on a South Pacific island as punishment for arguing with the captain of the ship on which he was a crewman.

Cut to a few decades or perhaps even centuries after our present time. Alexander Selkirk has become Mark Watney (Matt Damon), the botanist on a mission to Mars. Botanist? Mars? How can that be? No worries. In the movies, all is possible.

The other members of the expedition led by Lewis (Jessica Chastain) depart in haste following a bad weather event, believing that Watney is dead. But no, he was only unconscious. And now he has to survive until NASA hears his calls and organises his rescue.

Watney can grow potatoes to augment the rations left behind. He can play with the communications equipment and the rover vehicles and apply everything else that’s available to make his life comfy. His attitude is fatalistic.

Much of the credit for the appearance of “The Martian” belongs to the unsung backroom heroes who designed and supervised the construction of its sets and related paraphernalia. By the time Watney needs them, the logisticians have carted enough stuff up to build several supply bases on the Red Planet. Payload limitations haven’t been a problem. In the movies, anything is possible.

It’s science fiction handsomely mounted to surmount dramatic improbabilities, with good tensions and amusing earth-bound political shenanigans, including a gratefully-accepted Chinese offer to provide a vehicle to help the rescue. The closing credits take about 135 minutes to appear.

I can’t help wondering how “The Martian” might have evolved if recent discoveries about Mars’ environment had been known before it was written.

At all cinemas

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POSSIBLE water discolouration is being flagged for Weston, Waramanga, Holder, Wright, Coombs and Stirling when Icon Water begins a planned clean of Chifley reservoir from Tuesday until Thursday.

The instrumentality says Duffy Reservoir will be used as an alternate water supply but because of a change in the direction of the water flow for that period, some discolouration could occur due to naturally occurring sediment being stirred up within the network.

Icon Water  says it will endeavour to minimise any impact to the community throughout this essential work, and that anyone experiencing discoloured water is advised not to use washing machines and dishwashers as it may stain clothing or clog filters.

“Whilst it is difficult to predict to what degree the water will be affected, Icon Water advises that any discolouration should clear with normal use,” the company says.

“If you are experiencing any issues as a result of discolouration after Thursday, please call 6248 3111 and select option 1.”

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ONE of Canberra REP’s fast-rising directors takes the lion’s share of the shows in the company’s 84th season, launched on the set of “Much Ado About Nothing” at Theatre 3.

Jordan Best… directing a thriller.

Meantime, another REP favourite, Aarne Neeme, who will already have done “The Threepenny Opera” in February as part of the current season, returns from Sydney during June and July to stage Agatha Christie’s post-Nuremberg courtroom drama, “Witness for the Prosecution”.

Aarne Neeme… directing drama.

At the “Excel” end of the spectrum, from April to May we’ll see Chekhov’s comedy “Uncle Vanya” directed by Geoff Borny, who has written a book on the Russian master. That’s balanced by Tony Turner’s production of Goldsmith’s “She Stoops to Conquer” from September to October, clearly intended to “Entertain”.

Ed Wightman… directing farce.

As for the fourth part of REP’s slogan, “Join”, that’s up to you, the audience.

Canberra Repertory Society’s 2016-17 season, at Theatre 3, Acton, bookings to 6257 1950 or canberrarep.org.au

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POLICE are seeing witnesses to a hit-and-run collision between a vehicle and a pedestrian near the intersection of Barraclough Crescent and Ashley Drive, Monash, early on Friday morning. 

About 1.40am, police received a report that a 28-year-old man had turned up at Canberra Hospital for treatment of serious injuries.

It is believed a vehicle hit the man just after midnight yesterday before fleeing the scene. The man is unable to provide a description of the vehicle.

Anyone who may have witnessed the incident or seen the 28-year-old man in this vicinity should contact 1800 333000 or via act.crimestoppers.com.au. Information can be provided anonymously.

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Maxi Blaha in “Soul of Fire”.

In a gripping performance, Austrian actress, Maxi Blaha, portrays episodes from Bertha von Suttner’s life and work. Costumed by Moana Stemberger in a turn-of-the-century period gown over a pair of modern-day trousers and stylishly modern shoes, Blaha creates an impressive figure, giving a modern-day relevance to the story of this woman who achieved so much for the peace movement.

All aspects of this complex woman are portrayed extremely well. We see the frustration of an intelligent, educated woman trying to find her place in a world of men, flirting with a singing career initially and turning more successfully to writing.

She’s not perfect. Some of her airs and graces are unattractive and there are hints of depression.

The accompanying mood music on electric guitar played by Georg Buxhofer adds a pleasing and haunting dimension to the show. The simple set gives the impression of a period drawing room with tall windows using only some simple curtaining and expert lighting.

This is an opportunity to see a major Austrian actress in performance. The depth of characterisation presented here is quite extraordinary.

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POLICE have seized weapons following a raid in Red Hill on Friday.

Armed with a search warrant, police seized two replica double barrel shotguns, two replica handguns and a large, prohibited dagger.

Also located were amounts of suspected methyl amphetamine, cannabis and items linked to the sale of controlled drugs.

Investigations are continuing.

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