CANBERRA’S iconic merry-go-round in Petrie Plaza celebrated its 40th year in the capital today with free rides, popcorn and fairy floss along with the sound of the antique German automatic pipe organ that was originally imported to accompany it on the St Kilda waterfront, where it resided until 1974.

Photos by Stephen Easton

“This is a great outcome, as it will not only ensure that the merry-go-round continues to be available to residents and visiting tourists, but that the opportunity to work in a commercial environment is provided to people with a disability,” Mr Rattenbury said.

Tia Evangelista, 3, loves to ride the merry-go-round.

“We were looking for an operator that not only wanted a financial return on their investment but a social return on investment as well, and that’s exactly what LEAD offered. On top of that, LEAD has been operating the merry-go-round on a trial basis since September 2012 and is, therefore, across how to best operate the attraction so as to ensure its preservation.”

Australian Railway Historical Society ACT general manager Alan Gardner, left, with Simon Corbell.

Mr Corbell said that despite the Centenary year being over, there would be plenty of smaller centenaries to celebrate, such as the 100th anniversary of the first steam train’s arrival in Canberra in 1914, which has inspired the theme of this year’s Heritage Festival: “Journeys”.

A Gebrueder Bruder 69 Keyless Elite Apollo Orchestra Organ, built in Germany in 1910 and shipped to St Kilda to play with the merry-go-round.

“As part of the Heritage Festival, close to 100 festival events will showcase what makes our region special with tours, workshops, talks, open days, dances, high teas and special children’s activities.”

Dominic Lavers performed a song inspired by the merry-go-round.

The party also featured a song inspired by the merry-go-round’s role as a meeting place for friends, written and performed by former Centenary public relations officer Dominic Lavers, who now works at Tuggeranong Arts Centre.

Political spin… Simon Corbell rides the merry-go-round.

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POLICE are seeking witnesses to the violent robbery of a young woman in Manuka at about 8pm last night.

A man approached the 24-year-old woman from behind and snatched her handbag as she opened her car, which was parked on Murray Crescent between Captain Cook Crescent and Flinders Way.

As the woman turned around to face the man, he punched her in the face and stomach before fleeing with the handbag, according to police.

He was last seen running in the direction of Captain Cook Crescent.

The offender is described as Caucasian and about 20 years old with short, brown hair.

Anyone with information about the robbery or suspicious activity in the area can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or online at act.crimestoppers.com.au. Information can be provided anonymously.

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ACTEW Water and ActewAGL will donate $20,000 to Boundless Canberra, the giant playground designed for children with disabilities to play alongside their peers.

Boundless Canberra board member Natalie Howson at the playground’s launch event.

Boundless Canberra board member Natalie Howson praised the water and energy utilities for their “proud history of involvement in and contribution to the Canberra community”, which would continue with the donation.

“Shortly we will have swings, sandpits, water play, and a fort open to the public,” Ms Howson explained. “Stage 1 of the playground is close to completion and the layout and amenities can now be visualised, which is very exciting.”

Ms Howson said the donation would help the playground with “no barriers to play or inclusion” to open later this year.

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I’VE read much about World War II including the small Allied (mainly Brit) units that went behind the Axis front line to administer well-deserved discomfort.

Matt Damon and Cate Blanchett in “Monuments Men”.

Another thriller was “The Train”, about resistance efforts to foil a German officer’s plan to despatch the Jeu De Palme museum’s collection to Germany.

That event gets passing mention in George Clooney’s film about how a small unit of art historians and conservators hopped the Allied front to find paintings, sculpture and objets d’art that the Nazis had stolen from private collections and homes.

Calling themselves the monuments men, photographed results of their work backgrounding the film’s end credits give Clooney’s film credibility. The film’s meat comes from a book by Robert Edsel, who in 2006 co-produced “The Rape Of Europa”, a doco interviewing some of the Germans actually involved.

Clooney’s screenplay adapting Edsel may play a little fast and loose with the monuments men’s daily fortunes, but nearly seven decades later, a little liberty with reality may be forgiven. They are all dead now.

So it’s a buddy movie. Clooney playing the CO gets to drive the captured kugelwagen. John Goodman is an academic enjoying the changed professional ambience. Matt Damon plays a restorer who for some reason alone of the group got commissioned. Cate Blanchett comes close to stealing the film as a mousy French woman who’s clandestinely been recording the stolen works and their destinations.

Structurally, the film is a bit bitty. Old soldiers are no longer on hand to advise film-makers about realism and its recreations of wartime scenes and events may dismay serious historians.

At all cinemas

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WITH what of merit does first-time writer George Gatlin provide his audience enough to sustain their attention for 131 minutes?

In the hands of director Scott Waugh, after the first 20 or so minutes, little that’s new. The bulk of Waugh’s cinema CV lists frequently uncredited stunts in 41 films and TV episodes of little intellectual weight since 1988. One should not trivialise the profession of risking life and limb on camera to save the bacon of higher-priced, less agile, more fragile talent. But Waugh’s work has seldom been in films that you’d want to watch for the comfort they offer to heart and mind. What he gets younger stuntmen to deliver in “Need For Speed” is polished and accomplished of its kind. But enough is enough, don’t you reckon?

Dramatically, it’s about fast cars and their inexorable attraction for young men whose testosterone needs no other mysterious way in which to perform its wonders!

The performance shop where Tobey (Aaron Paul) and his buddies tweak already obscenely-powerful engines to deliver yet more power is financially dead.

Street-racer mogul Dino (Dominic Cooper) offers Tobey the GT500 AC Cobra which Carroll Shelby left uncompleted as a keeper if it wins the next illegal but exciting muscle car contest promoted by lunatic-at-large Monarch (Michael Keaton).

Julia (Imogen Poots), savvier about muscle cars than any blonde chick has any right to be, strikes sparks from Tobey’s narrow-focused ego and over-inflated self-esteem.

These characters and the opportunities they offer for snarling beasts driven contrary to just about every traffic and public safety rule from New York to California to settle Tobey and Dino’s festering rivalry, form the bone and muscle of a film built chiefly to satisfy the hazard cravings of impressionable young minds.

Its best moments are high-speed off-road chases along the rim of the Grand Canyon and the California coast. Its emotional validity wouldn’t pull the skin from a rice pudding. Its credibility is strained. Its acknowledgement that the US does not build, nor has ever built, the world’s best-performing, best-handling muscle cars, is grudging at best. In a straight line, perhaps. But in the real world, nah, no way.

At Hoyts, Dendy and Limelight

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THE ever-innovative Bilk Gallery for contemporary metal and glass in Palmerston Lane, Manuka, is today introducing two new artists to its ever-expanding stable.

Rings by Godwin Baum

The new exhibition falls into two discrete sections, thus providing an insight into each makers practice as well as their use of materials and the forms they choose to create.

Baum has formed a special relationship with a select group of Melbourne contemporary goldsmiths like Marian Hosking, Susan Cohn, and Carlier Makigawa. He spent a period of 10 years working and travelling between Australia and Germany, before settling in Germany. Baum, whose work is contemporary, even though it is inspired by classical techniques and forms, produces brooches, rings, earrings, neckpieces and bangles with great emphasis placed on comfort and wearability.

Bila’s non-functional metal vessels explore a dynamic and unconventional combination of processes and materials as he investigates ways of expressing this dialogue on the surface of his vessels through cracks, creases, welded seams, metal oxides and tool marks that accumulate through the processes he uses.

Cluster of vessels by Vito Bila

“Crossover, Godwin Baum & Vito Bila: an exposition of jewellery and vessels,” at Bilk Gallery for contemporary metal and glass in Palmerston Lane, Manuka, until April 12. Opening celebration, Friday, March 14, from  6-8pm, all welcome.

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SENIORS Card holders will travel free on Action buses during ACT Seniors Week - Sunday, March 16 to Sunday, March 23, inclusive. 

Territory and Municipal Services Minister, Shane Rattenbury, says the MyWay ticketing system will automatically provide free bus travel to ACT and interstate Seniors MyWay card holders during the week.

“Patrons with combined Seniors MyWay cards will need to tag on at the beginning and tag off at the end of their journey to ensure no fare is deducted. This will also help provide valuable data about where passengers get on and off for future network planning,” said Mr Rattenbury.

“Seniors who do not have a combined ACT or Interstate Seniors MyWay card will still be able to travel for free during Seniors Week by presenting their Seniors Card to the driver.”

Mr Rattenbury said seniors interested in arranging a combined ACT Seniors MyWay card should visit any Canberra Connect Shopfront, ACT Public Library or the Council on the Ageing office in Hughes.

“We recognise that providing good public transport for older Canberrans is one of the best ways to build and maintain an age-friendly city,” said Mr Rattenbury.

More information at transport.act.gov.au or call 131710. Timetable information at action.act.gov.au

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AN elderly man died this morning, after the car he was driving crashed into a tree.

The collision took place at the intersection of Dixon Drive and Hindmarsh Drive in Duffy at about 11.30am.

Attempts were made to resuscitate the man, who was the sole occupant of the car.

The Coroner will now determine whether the primary cause of death was the collision itself or an unrelated medical condition.

Any witnesses to the incident who have not yet spoken with police can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, or online at act.crimestoppers.com.au

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THE diminutive pianist Marcela Fiorillo is a power pack of agility and confidence, measured with romanticism and sensitivity, who is able to extract from her instrument its full range of emotions.

Marcela Fiorillo… standing ovation.

The first half really set the scene for Fiorillo’s work, drawing on the music of Sculthorpe and Edwards and Argentine composers Juan Carlos Zorzi and Alberto Ginastera.

The program was not what you would call entertaining; it was highly intellectual, demanding as much concentration and interpretation from the audience as the artist. There was drama, mystery, tenderness, rhythm and abstract thoughts, along with hints of Rachmaninoff and Beethoven and perhaps a French composer or two.

But it was the “Weereewa Suite” that stole the show. It was an unlikely combination – music by an Argentine composer/pianist, mixed with introductions to each of the four movements, written by the composer but transcribed to the Ngunnawal language and recited by Duncan Smith about the mysteries of Weereewa, or Lake George, and its landscapes and moods.

The piece demanded considerable virtuosity, which Fiorillo delivered brilliantly. The modest-sized audience was captivated throughout; it was easy to picture the images conjured up by each movement. The sustained standing ovation was testament to its consummate success.

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MORE “Sex in the City” than “The Sound of Music”, “The Witches of Eastwick” is a raunchy, adult musical about three unhappy divorcees who each become entangled with the same mysterious stranger in their quest for love.

Louiza Blomfield, Kelly Roberts and Vanessa de Jager are a formidable trio of leading ladies. Each offers superb singing and a strong characterisation. Their trios are especially impressive.

Jarrad West as the mysterious interloper impresses with a strong, committed performance, but needs to dig deeper into his own undoubted personal charm to make the boorish behaviour of his character palatable.

Michelle Klempke has great fun chewing up the scenery as the interfering town busybody. She gets great support from Dennis Bittisnich as her ineffectual husband. Laura Dawson and Alexander Clubb are charming as the young lovers, while Georgia Foster playing the little girl steals the best laugh of the night with a surprise twist.

Good songs, very well sung by all the cast, arresting performances from the principals, big production numbers featuring energetic dancing, some impressive scenic elements and Rose Shorney’s taut and terrific band, should have guaranteed first-night success.

However, despite everyone’s valiant efforts, the huge technical challenges ultimately proved too much, with principal characters too often unlit at crucial moments, stage hands much too visible, unfocused direction and occasional moments that blurred the fine line between sophistication and tackiness. Recommended for adult audiences.

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POLICE, while generally happy with last night’s Skyfire evening around Lake Burley Griffin, had to reunite about  30 children reported missing with their parents during the event.  Underage drinking was also an issue for the police with seven juveniles taken into protective custody for alcohol-related issues. One adult male was taken into custody for intoxication.

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SMALL food gardens popped up at the local shops in Downer and Chifley yesterday as part of an initiative by Canberra City Farm, a nonprofit group that advocates “socially, economically and environmentally responsible food production and sustainable living”.

L-R: Canberra City Farm committee member Arian McVeigh, A Bite to Eat owner Tony Bogovic and Canberra City Farm vice president Mark Spain at the Chifley shops.

At the launch of the Chifley pop-up garden on Sunday, Canberra City Farm vice president Mark Spain said he hoped the gardens would inspire more Canberrans to grow some food at home.

“These pop-up gardens are particularly suitable for Canberra’s dry climate as the design reduces the waste of water through evaporation and only need to be topped up with water once per week,” he explained.

The pop-up garden at Downer Community Centre.

Wicking beds are a form of planter box that contain a water reservoir allowing the plants to draw moisture from below.

The pop-up gardens are located at A Bite to Eat cafe at the Chifley shops and outside the Downer Community Centre.

Canberra City Farm will demonstrate wicking bed construction and other urban farming techniques at Floriade 2014.

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A 25-year-old man died this morning after his motorcycle collided with pole on the side of Canberra Avenue at about 1am.

Police are still investigating the crash, but say the man was travelling north-west on a sweeping right-hand bend when he lost control of his BMW F650 motorcycle and hit the pole.

General duties police officers from Woden arrived first at the scene, as they were attending another incident nearby, and performed CPR until paramedics arrived. The motorcyclist died a short time later in hospital.

Coincidentally, a report released today by the NRMA Road Safety Trust called “Reducing motorcyle trauma in the ACT”, which looks at motorcycle crash data over a ten-year period, says that 52 per cent of fatalities involved collisions with fixed objects on the roadside, and that injuries from motorcycle crashes occurred most often in the 16-25 age group.

The Coroner is to investigate the circumstances of the accident this morning, which is the fourth fatality on Canberra’s roads for 2014.

Police would like any witnesses to the crash, who have not yet spoken to them, to contact crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, or online at act.crimestoppers.com.au

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A 35-year-old man was rushed to the Canberra Hospital in a serious condition with multiple injuries after he was cut out of a wrecked car on the Monaro Highway this morning.

Firefighters had to remove the roof and two doors of the car and roll back the dashboard to get the man out, as paramedics provided emergency medical care.

The single-vehicle crash took place near Hume on the southbound section of the Monaro Highway just before 4am this morning.

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POLICE have called for help from the public in the investigation of an alleged sexual assault on a 33-year-old woman who accepted a lift in north Canberra during the early hours of Friday morning.

Police say the woman had been walking alone from Belconnen toward Florey, along Joynton Smith Drive, Belconnen, and  Coulter Drive and John Cleland Drive, Florey, between 2.30am and 4am. A vehicle stopped and offered her a lift, which the woman accepted. She was then sexually assaulted.

Police are looking for witnesses who may have seen a woman in the vicinity during the early hours of Friday morning. Or from any witnesses who may have information about vehicles seen in the area at the time, or a vehicle stopped on the roadside at these locations.

Police can be contacted on 1800 333000 or via act.crimestoppers.com.au. Information can be provided anonymously.

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A LARGE crowd turned out to voice displeasure at the actions of the Federal Government at Canberra’s “March in March” protest rally outside Parliament House, a day later than most of the co-ordinated events around Australia.

The protesters came together to advance a wide range of causes and express their opposition to Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the current government and a long list of its specific actions, decisions and policy changes since coming to power in September.

The Canberra event’s official Facebook page describes March in March as “three days of peaceful assemblies, non-partisan citizens’ marches and rallies at Federal Parliament and around Australia to protest against government decisions that are against the common good of our nation”.

A “speakers corner” began at 9am outside Old Parliament House, and at 10.45am the march began the short walk to the front lawns of Parliament House, with speeches and songs scheduled till about 2pm, with Greens MP Adam Bandt appearing at 1.30pm to symbolically receive what is described as a “people’s vote of no confidence in government policies and decisions that go against common principles of humanity, decency, fairness, social justice and equity, democratic governance, responsible global citizenship and conserving our natural heritage”.

Those who joined the movement particularly oppose the Abbott government’s policies on asylum seekers and the environment, especially climate change, along with the scaled-back National Broadband Network, public sector funding cuts, a perceived lack of support for science, the government’s refusal to subsidise struggling manufacturing businesses and its clampdown on information released to the media.

Several of the marchers who spoke to “CityNews” said they considered themselves neither left-wing nor Labor supporters, but had strongly opposed more than one of the Liberal government’s decisions.

Other members of the crowd were organised by left-wing and progressive organisations, including unions and socialist groups as well as refugee advocates and environmentalists.

Before the event, the organisers rejected suggestions that holding the march on a Monday, rather than on the weekend as in most of the other cities, would limit the number of people in attendance.

Photos by Stephen Easton

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