To forestall inclement weather, our event has been moved to the Lockyer District High School Hall, William Street Gatton. The movie we will be showing is ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2’. BBQ/Canteen will be available. Children under 12 to be supervised by a responsible adult.
Submitted by:
Wyatt Cook-Revell (Secretary)
On Behalf of the Lockyer Valley Regional
Youth Council Executive Team
Mob: 0477 932 984
E: wyattcookrevell@yahoo.com.au
As from Friday 15th February, Cressbrook Dam has reopened for all recreational use, following its closure due to ex-Tropical Cyclone Oswald on the Australia Day long weekend.
Boating, day use and camping and land-based fishing are now permitted at the dam. The dam was closed to boating when water flowed over the spillway making it unsafe for this pursuit.
However, dam users are advised that any significant rainfall in the catchment area may result in the dam being closed under Council’s Emergency Action Plan.
Cooby Dam at Loveday Cove is now open for recreational uses including boating, however Cooby Dam wall remains closed.
Diabetes Queensland has welcomed the State Government’s announcement of a hard-hitting public health campaign to address the state’s skyrocketing obesity epidemic.
Diabetes Queensland CEO Michelle Trute said the government was to be applauded for taking a tough stance to tackle the state’s burgeoning chronic disease burden. Type 2 diabetes is the world’s fastest growing chronic disease, with 62 people diagnosed every day in this state alone,†said Ms Trute. And rates are expected to triple across Australia by 2025.”
This government is to be congratulated on this investment in preventive health, essential to the long-term health of Queenslanders, she said. We look forward to working with Health Minister Springborg and the Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young.â€
Ms Trute said government and organisations like Diabetes Queensland, the Heart Foundation, Cancer Council and Nutrition Australia needed to work together if Queensland was to effect real change and address this deadly issue.
Ms Trute said more than two thirds of adults are classified as overweight or obese. It’s vital that we take community action to increase education and support, and help people make better lifestyle choices,†she said.
Type 2 diabetes is one of the country’s greatest emerging health and economic burdens, at a financial cost of up to $6 billion annually,†said Ms Trute. This is a costly condition which we all have a responsibility to tackle together, to stop this epidemic spiralling out of control.â€
Type 2 diabetes is known as a lifestyle condition which can be largely prevented or delayed through regular exercise, ensuring a nutritious diet and maintaining a healthy weight.
The festival is the only one of its kind in Australia and is being staged at Cobb+Co Museum on February 23rd and 24th. Festival attendees are encouraged to ‘have a go’ at more than 30 creative activities from blacksmithing to silk painting, millinery, wood turning and cake decorating. The program includes have a go activities, demonstrations and mini workshops where visitors can create with their hands under the guidance of leading and national award winning artisans.
The 2013 program release marks the 7th year of the festival†explains Cobb+Co Museum Director, Ms Debbie Bailey. For the first time we’re staging the event over one weekend to ensure visitors who come to Toowoomba can experience the best on offer. We have also extended the program to include an evening ‘have a go’ experience called Dancing Under the Stars with Latin dancing and twilight cinema screening of Dirty Dancingâ€.
Most importantly we’ve really tried to keep the festival affordable for locals and visitors alikeâ€, explains Debbie, Daily passes are just $10 per person and children under 5 are free. We also have family and week-end passes availableâ€.
The festival program features more than 30 award winning local and visiting artisans including well-known timber designer and New Inventors panellist, Richard Vaughan who will hold a masterclass on Creativity – All you need to do is learn how to allow itâ€. Other special guests including master craftsman, Frank Weisner and local artisan, Andrew MacDonald who will hold an open forum on the woodwork bench, the heart of many work sheds.
Other festival highlights include creating your own fascinator or hair clip with milliner, Elaine Mergard, creating a leather wrist cuff or bookmark with Cherryl McIntyre and hand made books with Lorraine Brown. Brisbane-based silversmith, Dan Cox will reveal the ancient trade of making silver jewellery with demonstrations on the Sunday.
To obtain your complimentary copy of the 2013 Have A Go! Festival Program, just phone 07 4659 4900 or call into the Cobb+Co Museum at 27 Lindsay Street, Toowoomba. You can also download the festival program on their website at www.cobbandco.qm.qld.gov.au. Tickets can be pre-purchased online or at the door of the festival daily.
Submitted by:
Krista Hauritz
Cobb+Co Museum
Toowoomba
The 2013 annual Australasian Real Estate Results Awards (ARERA’s) were held at Luna Park in Sydney recently, unearthing some of the most talented agents across Australia and New Zealand. The annual Awards recognise Real Estate Results Network Members for their outstanding achievements in the real estate industry, putting a strong focus on service excellence, community achievement and innovation.
Real Estate Results Network founder and CEO Michael Sheargold congratulated the finalists and winners on not only surviving 2012, but thriving during a challenging year.
Mr Sheargold said that the results of the independent agencies were a testament to the entrepreneurial spirit of small business owners through various market conditions. The awards are contested by the nation’s best of the best independent agencies and performers and again we were impressed by the high level of competence and quality shown by agencies and the people behind the brands,†he said.
This is a reminder of how successful agencies can be without the constraints of the once traditionally secure franchise real estate model, and shows how agencies which are owned and managed by families and have a strong code of ethics, underpinned by old school values can thrive in this industry.â€
Real Estate Results Network consists of independent agencies, agents, property managers and support teams, all competing for these accolades.
Australia’s Wally de Backer(Gotye) has been awarded three Grammys for Alternative Music Album, Pop Duo/Group Performance and the prestigious Record of The Year at the 2013 Grammy Award ceremony in L.A.
This is the biggest haul of awards by an Australian since Olivia Newton-John and the Bee Gees in the 70’s (though of course they were living in the US at the time).
It’s only the second time in the 54-year history of the Grammys that the Record of the Year prize has been won by an Australian artist (the only other winner was Olivia Newton-John in 1975 for “I Honestly Love You”) and the first time ever that an Australian male solo artist has received multiple Grammys in the same year.
The Record of the Year award is particularly prestigious, with past winners including Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson and U2.
Wally has said “I’m grateful to everyone at home for their constant support. It’s been amazing and I don’t take it for granted. I’m particularly pleased that my album “Making Mirrors” has been acknowledged as well as the single. Hopefully this means there’s a place for adventurous, interesting music out there – and for completely silly music too!”
The awards are the icing on the cake for an incredible 18 months since the Australian release of Gotye’s third album Making Mirrors. That album sold over 2 million copies worldwide and was a Top 10 album in over 25 countries, won multiple ARIAs in Australia and its equivalents abroad and spawned the hit single, ‘Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra)’. The song has sold over 13.5 million singles, was viewed over 373 million times on Youtube and was the most streamed song globally on Spotify in 2013. It was the #1 iTunes single in over 50 countries.
Last week, Gotye played his last show of an 18-month world tour with a memorable gig in India. Next week? He’ll be resting. A lot.
Toowoomba is one of the state’s diabetes hotspots – with rates of type 2 diabetes diagnosed in the city increasing by more than 23 per cent since 2008 (Type 2 diabetes is known as a major cause of avoidable hospitalisation in Queensland, above the flu and asthma).
Diabetes Queensland is calling on members of the Toowoomba community to take action, by personally helping to educate more people about the world’s fastest growing chronic disease. Volunteers are being sought to present the new community-based program ‘Know the Score’, designed to educate people about type 2 diabetes, its complications, and how, where possible, people can prevent or delay the onset of the condition.
With 60 more Queenslanders diagnosed with type 2 diabetes every day and rates expected to triple across Australia by 2025, Diabetes Queensland CEO Michelle Trute says the rise of type 2 diabetes is having a major impact not only on individuals, but across this state as a whole.
Type 2 diabetes is known as a lifestyle condition which can be largely prevented or delayed through regular exercise, ensuring a nutritious diet and maintaining a healthy weight. The condition is one of the country’s greatest emerging health and economic burdens, at a financial cost of up to $6 billion annually.
Every person with diabetes costs the health system up to $10,000 per year,†she said. This is a costly condition which we all have a responsibility to tackle together, to stop this epidemic escalating out of control. Across Queensland, we all need to heed the warning signs. With more than two thirds of Australian adults classified as overweight or obese, it’s vital that we take community action to increase education and support, and help people make better lifestyle choices.
‘Know the Score’ is presented by committed volunteers, who are passionate about championing the type 2 diabetes prevention message at a grass-roots level. Volunteers from the Toowoomba region can register for free to complete a one-day training course to gain the skills and resources necessary to deliver know the score. Those who can communicate well with others, are confident public speakers and have the time to give are encouraged to apply.
The next volunteer training session is scheduled in the region for Wednesday 27th February. Register your interest by contacting Diabetes Queensland on 1300 136 588 or by emailing knowthescore@diabetesqld.org.au. Places are limited with registrations closing on 19th February.
More information about the impact of type 2 diabetes across Queensland and ‘Know the Score’ is available at www.diabetesqld.org.au.
An exciting collection of ceramic works will be on-show in the University of Southern Queensland’s Arts Gallery this month.
1200 DEGREES OF SEPARATION explores the unique nature of the handmade ceramic as studied by the students of the USQ Visual Arts program.
USQ Lecturer in Ceramics and exhibition curator, Alexis Tacey said, the exhibition looks at what is currently happening in ceramics at USQ showcasing recent work by students in the first, second and third year of their studies.â€
They will present work based on their current research, ranging from formal/informal dinner settings and wheel thrown functional ware, to origami-style folded porcelain and slip cast porcelain based on forms found in nature.
All of the work is handmade, positioning it in a unique way when we think of machine made ceramics with little to no apparent nuances, which are very visible in handmade pottery.â€
Ceramics are used for a variety of purposes in the industrial world such as insulators for electricity transmission and even by NASA for tiles fixed to the outside of space shuttles.
The clay used in most of the work we do is transformed from its raw, vulnerable state to a hard, vitrified state by firing the work to about 1200 degrees Celsius. However, when we think of ceramics as an insulator used on spacecraft, the clay is fired to a much higher temperature.
One of the newest forms of clay materials included in the exhibition is Keraflex; porcelain sheets as thin as 0.5mm which are translucent and extremely flexible allowing them to be folded, cut, stitched and even woven.â€
Ceramics has been taught at the University since the 1970s and, over the past four decades, many different art practices have developed and evolved.
A graduate herself of the USQ Visual Arts program (then DDIAE), Alexis went on to study with Janet Mansfield in Sydney/Gulgong and completed a four year apprenticeship in Japan with Yoshida Yoshihiko.
As Lecturer in Ceramics at USQ, Alexis shares the knowledge gained from these studios, encouraging students to experiment and understand as much as possible the materials, skills and ideas necessary to make meaningful and well resolved ceramic work.
We encourage students to explore a multitude of processes and techniques in the studio including hand building, wheel throwing, slip casting, wood firing and glaze making to name a few.â€
1200 DEGREES OF SEPARATION will be officially opened on Tuesday 12 February at 5pm and continues until 7 March in the USQ Arts Gallery.
The Gallery is open from 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday and admission is free of charge.
Submitted by:
Michelle Fox
USQ Artsworx
Ph 07 4631 1111