Category: News

Bike polo may not be for the faint-hearted, but age and gender are definitely no barriers, or so says Ollie Wykeham who spoke with me about the sport recently. In fact he reckons there are players in their 50s and there’s even a player in the US as old as 87. As to gender, he said one of the best international players he has competed against is a woman called Birdie and teams often have mixed membership.

See photo gallery below.

You may have seen Ollie, Max, Leon, Maddy and others playing at Musgrave Park tennis court on Sunday afternoons. If you haven’t, do try to get along. The players I spoke with all described the sport as addictive and just watching them has convinced me. I am not a person who lives with regrets, but learning about this sport that has left me wishing I were younger and fitter.

The sport requires real skill and nerve, but the rules are simple. Ollie said the main rule when he started was “don’t be a dick”. The game consists of two teams of three players competing to be the first to score five goals. When a player touches the ground they are temporarily out of play. Hip and shoulder body contact is fine, within limits. As to spills and thrills, Ollie said there are a few, but added dismissively that the maximum damage he has sustained, was a broken finger.

Bike Polo originated in Ireland in the early 1900’s but in its current form is quite young having emerged around 16 years ago from the ranks of bicycle couriers in Seattle who started playing in down times at work. It is now played across North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia: after all as Ollie said, all you need is a bike and a stick. Certainly a stark contrast to the very exclusive and expensive pony polo.

While equipment is generally cheap and accessible it is becoming more specialised, and there is an emerging cottage industry surrounding the sport in Brisbane. Ollie for example now manufactures polo mallets. He likens the stage of development of the sport to the early days of skate boarding.

Local tournaments seem to be largely organised on Facebook. A recent interstate event titled “No Sleep Till Brisbane” held on the weekend of 12 & 13 July, attracted 11 teams from Perth, Sydney and Melbourne, and five from Brisbane: 16 teams in all. Two Brisbane teams, Majestic and Extra Gear, competed for a berth in the final, but in the end the Sydney-Perth combination “JSIM” overwhelmed the local team Extra Gear (Tom, Max and Ollie) for the title. Extra Gear is sponsored by local West End bike shop “Gear”.  Commercial sponsorships for bike polo are likely to increase as the sport expands.

The Brisbane players hire courts at Milton State School on Mondays and Wednesdays and, with the assistance of Gabba Ward Councillor Helen Abrahams, have been using the disused tennis court at Musgrave Park on Sundays afternoons. However, these sites are no longer meeting the needs of the growing sport, and players are looking for a permanent home with lights. Cr Abrahams says bike polo is a real sport with skilled and enterprising players and they deserve a permanent venue, although she say it may be difficult to find a venue in the inner city. In the meantime Cr Abrahams is happy for the players to continue to use Musgrave Park while it remains available.

Next up on the Brisbane players agenda are the world championships which will be held in Montpellier in France from 28 to 31 August. The top seven teams from the recent “No Sleep Till Brisbane” tournament will be attending, including three teams from Brisbane. This is the 6th world championship and this year games will be live streamed on bikepolo.tv with results published on hardcourtpodium.com

My thanks to Ollie, Max Newstead, Madeline Elise,  Leon Cameron and others for sharing their love of bike polo with me; they can count me as a convert, at least as a spectator.

Click here to hear a recent broadcoast on 612 ABC Brisbane.

Beatriz’s War, astonishing first film from East Timor will be screened at BEMAC on Friday 15th August, followed by a special Q&A with co-producer Lurdes Pires

This fim was made guerrilla style by the men and women who fought in the armed resistance and the clandestine movement during the small country’s twenty-four year long war with Indonesia.

The film is the story of one woman’s passion for independence and justice, both for her nation and for her soul. Beatriz’s husband Tomas is arrested after the Timorese resistance attacks Indonesian troops in the village of Kraras.  In retribution for the attack, the Indonesians massacre the entire male population of Kraras. Tomas disappears during the massacre but his body is not found. Beatriz then takes command of the ‘village of widows’ and holds on desperately to the hope that her husband is alive.

WHEN: 7pm Friday 15 August

WHERE:  BEMAC, 102 Main Street, Kangaroo Point, Brisbane

To celebrate the unveiling of Queensland Museum’s latest display, 4000 Species, museum curators are bringing out the A-Z of species cataloguing the wonderful and diverse range of species they have played a role in discovering over the Museum’s 152 year history.

From the skull of a rare Longman’s Beaked Whale to a beautiful, yet endangered species of butterfly and small but nasty carnivorous snail, these and many other species will be showcased, some for the first time on Wednesday, 6 August.

The 4000 Species display is an interactive exhibition that takes visitors on a journey from discovery to naming.

Through the touchscreen you can explore more than 4000 species of tropical and sub-tropical life and learn how they were named and by whom.

Dr Robert Raven, Senior Curator (Arachnida) & Head of Terrestrial Environments said people enjoy finding names for things, whether it’s a house, boat, pet or product and natural scientists were no different.

“We have great fun making names of species and families such as animal groups,” he said.

“The names may be simply based on some part of the anatomy, after a place, another animal on which they live or even after people.

“Even so, there are formal rules in place on how the names must be formed, if the species is named after a male, an ‘I’ is added to the end, while females have an “AE” added.

“And like many others, the Queensland Museum Network scientists and associates have often struggled with the naming process.”
Included within the species featured are 10 dinosaurs, 50 mammals, 89 birds, 370 crustaceans and more than 1100 spiders.

And of the list that now exceeds 4000, Dr Raven has named over 370.

Dr Raven said if a species is named after a person, it is often considered a great honour, even for President Bush who has a Slime Mould Beetle named in his honour.

“Sometimes the honour is given simply because the person gave us the animal or collected it, they may have made wonderful contributions to the museum and its research or sometimes the scientist just wants to express their appreciation for an artist,” he said.

4000 Species is now open on Level Two Queensland Museum Southbank.

The Queensland Museum and Sciencentre open daily from 9:30am to 5pm except Good Friday, Anzac Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. southbank.qm.qld.gov.au

For the fifth year in a row, Griffith University Art Gallery (GUAG) in South Bank, is hosting the Churchie national emerging art prize, one of the country’s most rewarding for emerging artists.

The exhibition is a platform for emerging artists from all over Australia to showcase contemporary art as seen through their eyes and this year 31 exceptional artists competed for the $15,000 prize money, donated by Brand+Slater Architects.

Caitlin Franzmann, a Brisbane based artist who has had four solo exhibitions in Brisbane and Istanbul (2012-14), emerged as the overall winner of the competition for her work – Magical Thinking.

Caitlin Franzmann’s Magical Thinking is a pack of 24 divination cards which provides a space and a moment for the gallery visitors to slow down and reflect on their lives through random symbology, chance and intuitive interpretations.

According to Alexie Glass-Kantor, the Executive Director of ARTSPACE Visual Arts Centre in Sydney, who had the demanding task of judging the set of 41 works of art , the specialty of Churchie which sets it apart from other awards is the diversity and breadth of practice from the artists. Everything from media, to works that rely on explosives, were represented and this aspect introduced an artistic complexity to the range of works.

“Choosing the finalist and the highly commended was a really difficult choice but it was interesting because we ended up with the works of three Queenslanders and all women, unintentional but nonetheless very exciting. The highly commended has gone to Clark Beaumont for an engaging three screen video installation called Waiting for Barcelona which is based on the Woody Allen feature film Vicky Christina Barcelona. The other highly commended work is one of the most discreet works in the exhibition, a work by the artist Sarah Poulgrain and it’s a beautiful little pine frame with two pieces of derelict and a sort of smattering holding an image of a self portrait of the artist, wrapped in a landscape isolated in her own reverie,” she said.

“The whole process of selecting the finalists took probably about three and a half hours and at the end of the day it came down to the fact that these three works, had such an idiosyncratic, creative and natural approaches to the making of contemporary art that they felt like the right winners of the day,” she added.

Unlike other art awards, the Churchie emerging art price has no restrictions, categories or themes hence the exhibition includes painting, sculpture and photography, through to mixed media installation and new media works.

GUAG Acting Director Naomi Evans says that when we build a nation from nothing, culture and art helps to shape the identity of the society. Art, is a platform that allows an individual to explore and express their perceptions about politics, religion, sexuality or personal stories of joy or trauma and although there might be sub topics that some people might find potentially challenging or unsavory, there is no censorship and art is chosen on their merit.

“I think the idea of ‘emerging’ is really interesting, since emerging artists can be of any age and that’s very important to us because across generations there are people who may have had an art practice earlier in their life but stopped making work, everyone has different challenges that emerge in their life so they can be of any age. But I really believe that, it’s people who have shown a commitment to their art practice even though they’re at an early stage of their art career who fall under this category,” she said.

The Churchie exhibition is free and open to the public from 1st August to 20th September, with all works for sale at the Griffith University Art Gallery, 11am – 4pm every Tuesday to Saturday.

Tigers may be rare in Australia, but there are a growing number in Queensland…small business tigers that is.

Minister for Small Business, Jann Stuckey, said ‘small business tigers’ were those small operations that expected to see their revenue grow substantially over the next 12 months.

“Research conducted by DBM Consultants shows that Queensland has proportionally 50% more small business tigers than the other states,” Ms Stuckey said.

“Tigers account for 12% of all small businesses, 14% of the dollars earned in Queensland, and employ 13% of the workforce, the Queensland Government but they are growing fast. They are three times more likely to employ more staff in the next 12 months.

“These small enterprises really hold their own right across the board. They are less fazed by the current economic environment, more focused on managing cash flow, finding suitable staff, assessing the best ways to manage their expansion and have great capacity to finance the growth of their business.”

The Queensland Government is working to make it easier for small business to succeed through the Small Business Strategy and Action Plan 2013-2015.

“This is the first coordinated plan for small business in recent years, and supports the growth of small businesses that are competitive, create jobs and contribute to building a robust and diversified economy,” Ms Stuckey said.

“The upcoming 2014 Queensland Small Business Week, running from 1 to 6 September, will be an opportunity to put the spotlight on small business tigers.

<link>For more information visit business.qld.gov.au/smallbusinessweek

<caption tiger.jpg>Business tigers show speed, intelligence and success.

Restauranters and cafe owners in Southbank have been wallopped with a 30 per cent increase in rent courtesy of State Government.

The State recently took over the operations of Southbank Corporation claiming cost efficiency as a major driver. Southbank Corporation is the landlord for the restaurants along Grey and Little Stanley as well as those tucked into the Southbank Parklands.

Because of its role in maintaining the parklands, Brisbane City Council has been caught in the crossfire. Lord Mayor Quirk was recently pictured on the Westender Website putting a shovel into the sand next to the revamped City Beach. The revamping was largely in response to the extraordinary health challenges involved in maintaining an open air swimming pool with a sandy bottom, under trees containing an active bird population and surrounded by wooden infrastructure. The challenges of keeping the bacterial load below acceptable standards are immense.

Whether it is because of the bill for that investment or simply that the State government intends to milk its new cash cow ‘til it bleeds, we don’t know.

The official statement quotes the high cost of operating and marketing of Southbank. Small business owners who spoke to Westender suggested that with a stated passion for supporting small business and billions in their pocket thanks to the G20, the State Government might have waited for a bit before gouging its newest tenants.