Where am I?

After the last one proved too difficult, we thought we’d make this issue’s Where am I as eazy as possibly peazy. Well, within reason.

Got an inkling where this is? If you think you know the answer tell us and you’ll have the chance to win a $60 prize voucher to enjoy some tucker and a drink at the Brunswick Hotel in New Farm.
Email your answer to editor@theindependent.com.au to reach us no later than 5pm on Friday week, 5 November 2010. Or drop us the answer in the post by the same deadline to PO Box 476 Valley Q 4006.
One lucky winner will be off to the Brunnie on us. Bon appetit!



Sorry! We obviously made last issue’s competition too difficult. No-one identified the building top that sits over the Avis Rent-a-Car office in Wickham Street, the Valley.

Sun to set on a state icon

FROM MY CORNER .... with ANN BRUNSWICK

As you read this it is certain that the outpouring of public grief that began earlier this week is continuing, and will no doubt continue for some days, weeks, or even months and years to come.

In scenes reminiscent of the mass hysteria that followed Princess Diana’s sudden death, Queenslanders have been weeping enough to fill Wivenhoe Dam in the past few days. Yes, the shock news of the death of the Sunland passenger train triggered waterfalls of tears among those of us who love rail travel.
Premier Anna Bligh has announced a $189 million project for Queensland Rail to build two new Tilt Trains. The project will also upgrade the existing two Tilt Trains. Unfortunately, the news was also accompanied by the announcement that the Sunlander services would be coming to an end after serving our state valiantly for the past 45 years.
Premier Bligh said the Sunlander would be replaced by the new Tilt Train services which in the process would reduce travel time between Brisbane and Cairns by five hours. She also made the observation that the Tilt Trains are the fastest in Australia, travelling at up to 160km an hour.
Did you catch those key words “up to”. Yes indeed, the Tilt Trains may travel at “up to” 160 clicks, but they are far from fast trains as they are known in many European and Asian countries.
It is a point this column has made once or twice before. A check of Queensland Rail’s own website reveals the facts. The Tilt Train takes 23 hours and 55 minutes to travel the east coast between our state capital and the far northern sub-tropical city of Cairns. That‘s a distance, as Queensland Rail itself points out on its site, of 1691 km.
Now my trusty calculator tells me that means the Tilt Train has an average speed of 70km an hour.
Wow! If you are on board don’t forget to protect your neck from the whiplash and muffle your ears from the sonic boom as it rockets along and reaches mach 0.12. It is indeed a tragedy that our iconic Sunlander must bite the dust. It has been so much a part of our history. As a young girl living at Bald Hills I would often pedal my Malvern Star to the nearby local station just to watch that morning’s Sunlander trundle past having left Roma Street Station on its way north. It was always an occasion to wonder who was on board and where and why they were travelling in what seemed to be such luxury. Then it was time to pedal back home in time for dinner before it got dark.

***

In making her announcement about the Sunlander and the new Tilt Trains, Premier Bligh said the investment in the new trains had been possible only because of asset sales, including the current public float of the QR National mineral haulage business, and the creation of a separate rail company dedicated to passengers.

Having had to squeeze on to trains at most times of the day it makes me, and no doubt other passengers, wonder why that suburban passenger rail company doesn’t come anywhere near breaking even or making a profit.
And of course now that the profit-making coal haulage business is being sold off, there will be no opportunity to use those profits to offset losses on passenger services or to improve services by adding extra carriages to reduce crowding. No, such improvements, if they ever come, will need to be achieved by higher fares.

Pollies go to war over our right to know

POLITICS ... with Mungo MacCallum

The debate on Afghanistan was long overdue and the Greens are to be congratulated for forcing it upon a reluctant government. But it must be said that we have learned very little from it to date.

A very large majority of the parliament supports the idea of having troops there – or at least most members say they do, but they would, wouldn’t they, because that’s the policy of the major parties. Julia Gillard supports the idea hugely and Tony Abbott supports it even more. But neither wants to send any more troops there and both would really like to withdraw troops as soon as possible … well, within a few years anyway, although it would be a mistake to set a timetable. And we will probably need to keep some involvement going for a some time after that, but we’re not quite sure what or for how long.
It used to be an axiom of military operations that before embarking upon any action, you should have a very clear idea of your objective. In the case of Afghanistan, this is not so. Originally the idea was to wipe out Al Qaeda and capture or kill Osama bin Laden – or so we were told.
Australia was involved because there had been an attack on American soil on September 11 2001 and thus the ANZUS Treaty could be invoked, but the invasion was also approved by the United Nations security council; all tickety boo. Nearly nine years later we are still involved, but the aims have changed.
We are still upholding ANZUS but we are apparently running a holding operation in Oruzgan province while training the Afghans to take over. Al Qaeda is dispersed, mainly to Yemen, Somalia and possible Pakistan; Osama is said to be living comfortable in Pakistan. Afghanistan is as far from peace and stability (let alone democracy) as it has ever been; the fragile and corrupt regime of Hamid Karzai and his fellow warlords holds sway in some areas while the Taliban rule unchallenged in others. The former are slightly less misogynist than the latter, but more dependent on the drug economy.
Apparently there is now talk of some sort of accommodation between elements of the two with a view to power sharing in Kabul and designated areas of influence elsewhere; this might lead to a ceasefire, but would be of dubious benefit to the people.
Both parties are deservedly loathed by a majority of the population. But the presence of foreign troops is resented even more, and not only in Afghanistan. There is abundant first-hand evidence that the principal motivation for most terrorist extremists is the invasion of what are regarded as Muslim lands by infidels. In a very real sense the diggers in Oruzgan are unintentionally moonlighting as recruiting agents for Al Qaeda.
And then there is the nuclear arsenal next door, Pakistan. The Taliban were created in Pakistan by Pakistan, with the overt and covert support of some very important people in the military and the secret services.
No one seriously believes that significant remnants of that support do not still exist. Pakistan is a large and powerful nation whose widespread poverty is due not to a lack of resources but to the fact that the military have grabbed most of them for their own use. While it remains at best ambivalent about its neighbour no end to the strife is possible.
Indeed, history would suggest that no end to the strife is possible under any circumstances and that foreign intervention only makes things worse. There is certainly plenty to talk about, and the debate has a long way to go past the slogans of the party leaders; but it is hard to see anything substantial coming out of it. So far the only serious proposition has come from the Greens’ Adam Bandt, and it was not really about Afghanistan: Bandt wants parliament, not the government, to have the final say over declarations of war.
It sounds attractive, but there are problems. Parliament as a whole can never be privy to all the information held by the intelligence agencies, both military and civilian, and while this may at times be misleading (Iraq’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction spring to mind) it is better to have it than not. And if only parliament can declare war, presumably only parliament can un-declare it; but in practice peace negotiations also have to be kept secret.
In any case, if Bandt’s intention is to give parliament the power to block the executive from getting into wars of which it disapproves, that power is already there; parliament can simply refuse supply, thereby denying the government the wherewithal to fight.
This would, of course, lead to an immediate election, but it seems only fair that the people should also have a say. As it is, it appears that while more Australians than not oppose the war in Afghanistan, they are prepared to trust the government: the anti-war movement is yet take to the streets.
But while Bandt’s idea may be naïve, it is hardly less so than those of John Howard, who enthusiastically and unilaterally took Australia into the coalition of the willing in Iraq. In published extracts from his forthcoming doorstopper, Howard writes that he was really unhappy when the then leader of the opposition, Simon Crean, wanted the endorsement of the United Nations security council before he would offer his support.
In other words, splutters our former Prime Minister, he was prepared to wait on the whim of Jacques Chirac and Vladimir Putin! Of course our man of steel had no such hesitations; ignoring the wishes of his own people and the vast majority of the nations and populations of the world, he flung himself fearlessly behind the whim of George Bush and Dick Cheney.
That’s leadership. Couldn’t we send him to Oruzgan?

One giant sand trap

TRAVEL ... with DAVID BRAY

Now here’s a rare thing. Unique in fact. As a life-long golfer and fairly frequent traveller, your reporter has never set eyes on a golf course he didn’t want to play. Not until a few weeks ago.

Coober Pedy has such a course, surprising in the fact that it’s there at all, totally lacking in appeal. Mainly because its surface boasts not one blade of grass. Sandy soil and stones, 18 holes, 5706 metres, par 72. We are told it is mostly played at night “with glowing balls” (a topic I pursued no further in our tour group bus). Players carry a little square of plastic material around to hit off.
They are welcome. But get this: Coober Pedy is the only club in the world to enjoy reciprocal rights at The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. Checked this one out and the story – from the Aussie Golfer blog – is that the Coober Pedy clubhouse burned down in 2002.
After the replacement was built, the club president sent St.Andrew's a photograph of the course and told them it was about time they got their course in good shape and asked if they would like reciprocal membership.
Surprisingly, a letter arrived from St.Andrew's Links Trust granting reciprocal rights on the provision they grant St.Andrew’s an opal mine. The opal mine and reciprocal rights were given and Cooper Pedy became the only course in the world with reciprocal rights with St.Andrew’s. One small catch: The reciprocal rights granted to Coober Pedy members is for the Balgove Course, the nine-hole and perhaps worst course in the St.Andrew’s Links Trust portfolio. Still a good story.
We find ourselves in Coober Pedy as part of a busy two-day, one- night expedition. That’s how long it takes us to get back of Bourke, underground at Coober Pedy, flying low over Lake Eyre and higher over the channel country into Birdsville.
In fact from front door to back home again is 37-and-a-half hours and I reckon we see more of this astonishing country on this trip than ever before. We are with a group of 60 souls, almost all of us well into the mature years.
Here’s the way it goes:
6 am: Taxi to airport. Head for Alliance check-in counter 11, where there’s no doubt about the demographics of the group – couples, 65-plus, most of us used to a bit of travel. Our transport is an Alliance Fokker 50, high wing, 60 passengers, two each side of the aisle. View is much the same from each, so no real need to swap when the views appear after 90 minutes of cloud.
Two hours to Bourke for fuel, 20 minutes to stretch the legs. Fine clear sunny day. Another two hours plus to Coober Pedy. One of the least appealing townscapes ever. Bare, barren a million holes and heaps.
Lunch underground, then off on a three-hour town tour including a couple of interesting churches (underground), the golf course and a nicely informative film about opals, followed by an opal-cutting demonstration.
Check in to the Desert Cave motel. Dugout room, by request, listed as four-star and pretty close to it. Comfortable, clean and as we find later in the night, very very dark and very very quiet.
Good company in the underground bar and at dinner where the food is adequate and wines good.
SES is running an exercise at the airport, but we get away on time and are quite soon at Lake Eyre where the pilots take us down to 1000 feet and we see just what an enormous expanse of water lies here still.
Onwards and upwards, Goyder Lagoon over fascinating patterns views of the Channel country, it looks almost water-logged and down to Birdsville, sunny, cool and home to an extraordinary museum of Queensland country life.
Reasonable lunch at the pub. Where else? And a three-hour plus flight home, with a glass or so of wine see us through. Down on time and the baggage carousel turns out to be right at the escalator to AirTran terminal.
Eight minutes to the next one. Change at Central, 12 minutes wait.
Home at Toowong by 7.30.

This is an excellent way to see remote and important parts of our country most of us would not otherwise venture into. It sounds hurried but wasn’t really so, even for those of us well into our 70s.

• Australian Air Holidays Weekend in the Outback. $2195 per person.

Secrets to Giesen’s success

WINE ... with DAVID BRAY




It seems as though sauvignon blanc has been around for a very long time and so it has. A few wineries at Marlborough on New Zealand’s South Island really got it going way back in the early 1990s. I loved it, and so did a good deal of the wine-drinking world.

In just on 20 years we have encountered the grape grown in vineyards all over the place and processed neat and in varying blends into wines ranging from brilliant to very good and plain ordinary.
No surprise then that the Giesen Brothers (Theo, Alex and Marcel) and their winemaking team have been wanting to push the boundaries for Marlborough sauvignon blanc. We are told their aim was “to dispel the myth that the region’s sauvignon blanc was a one trick pony”.
They wanted to show sauvignon blanc could make complex, multi-dimensional wines. Well here’s a wine they reckon does that: Giesen traditionally fermented sauvignon blanc. $39 or thereabouts at your local shop.
A fair amount of thought and hard work goes into this job, as of course it does into many of the fine wines now offered on our market. If you would prefer simply to drink and enjoy the stuff, read no further. If on the other hand you find that knowing how that delicious liquid came to be made improves your pleasure, read on. This is basically based on notes provided by Giesen.
The vines were pruned to two canes then shoot thinned to remove double shoots, downward growing shoots and to clear dense areas. After flowering and fruit set the vines were thinned to a maximum of two bunches per shoot.
The vines were hand-leaf plucked to improve fruit exposure and promote even ripening. Near veraison greener bunches were dropped by hand to even up maturity. Pre-harvest a quality control thin was conducted to remove damaged or botrytis infected bunches. The maturing fruit was regularly tasted to monitor acid degradation and flavor profile to select the optimum harvest day.
The first block was picked on April 8 2009 with the last on April 21. fruit was hand harvested into small picking crates which were put in a cool store overnight to chill the fruit before processing. Three days before harvesting they picked a bucket of grapes and crushed them to make a wild yeast starter, which was left in the warmth of the pump shed to get the temperature up.
This bucket of juice, skins and stems started fermenting within a day or two, at which stage they added more freshly crushed grapes. When the vineyard was harvested these yeast starters were brought into the winery, drained off and added to the juice from each block. The idea was to ferment the juice using the yeast that was on the grapes and therefore indigenous to each vineyard.
The whole bunches were pressed without de-stemming and crushing. The pressure was gradually increased with minimal rotating and macerating and the juice was run off to tanks before the barrels were gravity filled. A selection of oak was used including one new barrel and used barrels including some which were five-years-old and previously used for chardonnay.
Once the juice temperature was around 16°C the wild starter was introduced and the ferment was under way. From there the winemaking team were “hands off” with no nutrient additions or temperature control.
The ferments mostly went to dryness with some petering out at around 5 grams/litre residual sugar. It was decided not to allow malolactic fermentation so sulphur was added to the barrels about two weeks after the end of ferment. The wine rested on yeast lees for five months until blending in early October 2009.
End of the technical talk. Hope you learned a lot. It really is a good wine.

Cast brings book battle to life

FILMS ... with Tim Milfull

The Social Network (M)
Director: David Fincher
Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake
Rating: 4/5
120-minutes


Within minutes of the opening of David Fincher’s new film The Social Network, the jilted Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) has dealt with his most recent relationship break-up by writing a program that crashes the servers at Harvard University.

It’s an astonishing solution for dealing with grief, but a perfect way to introduce the audience to the powerful intelligence behind Zuckerberg’s wild eyes. Based on Ben Mezrich’s book, The Accidental Millionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal, and adapted to the screen by Aaron Sorkin (who also wrote The West Wing), The Social Network is a fascinating analysis of the rise and rise of one of the world’s richest young men.
In a clever move, Sorkin tells Zuckerberg’s story through two court cases that were running at the same time; in fact, both shared witnesses for the defence and the plaintiff. In the first case, Zuckerberg is defending himself against charges of stealing the intellectual property of fellow Harvard students, twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Arnie Hammer and Josh Pence), and Divya Narendra (Maz Minghella); while in the second, Zuckerberg’s former best-friend Eduardo Severin (Andrew Garfield) is suing him for his considerable share of Facebook – a company by now worth tens of billions of dollars, which was based on an idea pitched to the programmer by the Winklevosses.
In between alternating rounds of testimony by Zuckerberg, the plaintiffs and their witnesses, we learn of how Facebook became a global phenomenon that has attracted more than half-a-billion members.
The Social Network is nothing less than fascinating viewing, firstly for the background about the social network, but also for some astonishing performances from Eisenberg, Garfield, and the ever more impressive Justin Timberlake as the charismatic but duplicitous Napster-founder, Sean Parker, and an excellent soundtrack by Trent Reznor.




Upholster uprising ultimately uplifting

Made in Dagenham (M)
Director: Nigel Cole
Stars: Sally Hawkins. Bob Hoskins, Miranda Richardson
Rating: 3.5/5
113-minutes

For those not in the know, Dagenham is an East London suburb that became one of the Britain’s industrial focal points in the 1930s after Ford Motor Company decided to establish one of their offshore factories there.

By the 60s the suburb was one of several throughout the United Kingdom that offered much-needed employment for tens of thousands of people. In 1968, when millions of people around the world were protesting about everything from claims to better education and wages, to an end to the Vietnam War, Ford decided to reclassify the entire workforce of female upholsterers to a lower pay-scale, claiming they were unskilled.
Directed by Nigel Cole, Made in Dagenham is a dramatisation of the events that followed on from Ford’s actions, as the women affected so drastically by the decision decided to take industrial action.
Led by Rita O’Grady (Sally Hawkins), and advised by shop steward, Albert Passingham (Bob Hoskins), the strikers bucked the orders by their umbrella union to stand down and let other (male) union actions take precedence.
William Ivory’s old-school screenplay tugs at the heartstrings of his audience, and makes heroines out of O’Grady, Passingham, and Secretary of Employment, Barbara Castle (a much-welcomed performance by Miranda Richardson). Sally Hawkins shows all the charming naiveté of her performance in Mike Leigh’s Happy-go-Lucky and I’m looking forward to her upcoming role in the adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, Never Let Me Go.
This old-fashioned David versus Goliath story pushes all the right buttons.



Going the BIFF in a new way

With a new opening night, new management and new locations, the 19th St George Brisbane International Film Festival has worked hard to refashion itself in a new image.

With the tagline of The Plot Thickens... the event also takes some new directions, and there are some exciting things to see in the program released by director Richard Moore last week.
Opening night on 4 November will feature Australia’s first 3D feature, an updated version of Mark Lewis’s Cane Toads: An Unnatural History.
This time around, and in all their 3D glory, Lewis offers Cane Toads: The Conquest, and the news isn’t good for Australia’s ecology.
With the G-rated CineSparks being cut loose, BIFF has taken on a much more adult flavour; even so, those parents with brave enough kids might like to check out the Dive-In Cinema scheduled for screening at Spring Hill’s Centenary Pool.
Elsewhere, from Palace Centro and Palace Barracks to Tribal Cinema at the old Dendy site in George Street, the range of films and documentaries is breathtaking. There are a dozen or so Australian productions screening, with four world premieres, and 40 world movies from countries as diverse as Tunisia and Uruguay.
The late night Shock Corridor program is back with some frightening fare, including a bizarre take on the theme of Santa – Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale; a weird tale of a malevolent tyre –Rubber – and the Mexican cannibalism film, We are What We Are.
Those looking for something realistic should thank former docomaker Richard Moore, because he’s included quite a few documentaries, including one of the best I’ve ever seen, in Marwencol (pictured above). There’ll be more about BIFF in the next issue of The Indie.

• For more details about times, ticketing, and films on offer, check out www.stgeorgebiff.com.au

Star Signs

YOUR FUTURE ... with Horace Cope

SCORPIO (Oct 24 to Nov 22)
After failing every literature question at a family evening playing trivial pursuit, you start to wonder if you’re about as well read as a copy of Mx.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov 23 to Dec 22)
You suspect the ABC TV might get into trouble with the Trade Practices Commission for describing the new series of The Librarians as “great Aussie humour”.

CAPRICORN (Dec 23 to Jan 20)
Especially seeing Channel 9 is still paying off heavy fines for calling every episode of Hot in Cleveland over recent months “hilarious”.

AQUARIUS (Jan 21 to Feb 19)
And you suspect ABC TV might be gilding the lily just a tad by billing its online preview episode of new comedy/drama Rake as a “world premiere”.

PISCES (Feb 20 to Mar 20)
You hear that new Queensland pollie Wyatt Roy is far from happy with his new office in federal Parliament – there’s no high chair.

ARIES (Mar 21 to Apr 20)
You begin stopping just about every person you meet in the street in your bid to find someone, anyone who actually watched the Commonwealth Games TV coverage.

TAURUS (Apr 21 to May 20)
On that note, as a constituent of Mr Roy you try to obtain an appointment to see him at his office but are told you first need to supply evidence you possess a Blue Card.

GEMINI (May 21 to June 21)
Meanwhile, you hear that things are going better down the corridor, where Rob Oakeshott’s introductory address to his new office staff is nearing its end.

CANCER (June 22 to July 23)
You hear that the motoring show Top Gear plans to test drive the sort of car that the great unwashed out there in TVland might ... just might, mind ... be able to afford – just not any time soon, okay?

LEO (July 24 to Aug 23)
You watch Top Gear Australia and Iron Chef Australia and begin to wonder if they are both made by the same production house and whether it is called Why On Earth Do They Bother Productions Pty Ltd.

VIRGO (Aug 24 to Sept 23)
You couldn’t agree more with the decision by Channel 9 to move Daryl Somers’ variety show to Saturday nights, especially the name change to Hey, Hey, It’s Wednesday.

LIBRA (Sept 24 to Oct 23)
As a teacher you welcome the Bligh Government’s new Schools Against Violence report on bullying because it is just heavy enough to knock out unruly students, yet light enough not to leave a bruise.

Wobbly start for bike scheme

NEWS

Wet weather has made it difficult to gauge the early success of Brisbane’s new CityCycle bike hire scheme but it has not prevented both sides of City Hall from continuing their snipping over the multi-million dollar project.

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman’s administration declared itself “reasonably pleased” with the early support despite the weather, while Opposition Leader Shane Sutton blamed the scheme’s early teething problems on the Lord Mayor’s “failure to implement it properly”.
Launched last Friday week amid much fanfare, the scheme struck some teething problems other than the inclement weather, with reports of some users mistakingly returning their bikes to stations not yet commissioned, some other docking problems and some malfunctioning of the scheme’s subscriber card system.
But Lord Mayor Campbell Newman’s administration said it was happy that more than 1000 subscribers – the bulk taking year-long commitments – had joined the scheme by the end of the first week. City Council is hoping for 12,000 devotees within 12 months.
The CityCycle scheme started with 500 bikes in some 50 stations throughout the CBD, Fortitude Valley, New Farm and West End, and operator JC Decaux is expected to have bikes at 78 stations by Christmas and 2000 bikes at 150 stations once the scheme is in full swing.
“This scheme was always going to have teething problems because Campbell Newman failed to implement it properly,” Labor leader Shayne Sutton said.
“We know people have had trouble unlocking and re-locking bikes from the CityCycle stations. We’ve also heard many people have been frustrated to find that some CityCycle stations aren’t up and running – even though council is promoting them.
“This scheme has been plagued by safety concerns, community opposition, budget blowouts, delays in delivery and a shoddy implementation, and many of these concerns still remain. “Campbell Newman has set the bar for success so low that if anyone actually used these bikes they could ride straight over it.
“Campbell Newman has a lot more work to do if this scheme is going to be safe and successful.” Cr Sutton said.

Above: This bike station besie the Fortitude Valley Post Office is one of a number of Stage One CityCycle spots that are yet to come on line.

Agi scoops phorgraphic pool

Agi Davis of Toowong has taken home $10,000 in prizemoney for this work, Freedom of our Children at Galleries of Brisbane, which has won the open category in the 2010 Lord Mayor’s Photographic Awards.

The work was inspired by Brisbane’s vibrant cultural landscape and the welcoming atmosphere of the city’s galleries and art museums.
Lord Mayor Cr Newman said the entrants this year captured some clever depictions of Brisbane’s unique culture, community and lifestyle.
The youth category (for photographers 30 years and under) was won by 16-year-old Maddison O’Brien from Kelvin Grove for her work, Brisbane Delight, which expressed her feelings about the city.
Maddison won $2500 along with professional development opportunities for her photographic skills. The two winning entries along with the works of other finalists, in now on display in King George Square, hanging in ‘The Verandah’ area until October 31.
“I urge all Brisbane residents to come down, show their support and have a look at how talented our emerging photographers are,” Cr Newman said.

Homeless need helping hand

NEWS

The City Council wants the community to help it reach out to the city’s homeless through next month’s Homeless Connect event at the RNA Showgrounds from 9am to 2pm on November 3, with breakfast from 8am.

Homeless Connect has aided 5000 since its inception in 2006 and aims to ease the uncertainties and isolation suffered by disadvantaged groups in Brisbane. People can enjoy a meal, access medical and optical care, accommodation referral advice, haircuts and clothing.
Lord Mayor Campbell Newman said council was proud to present the important community event and urged the wider community to help where possible. “Donations of clothing, shoes, blankets, towels, toiletries and canned goods can be made at any St Vincent de Paul store, or your local councillor’s ward office,” he said.
“While these goods may not seem like much to us, they will mean the world to those in need.” Cr Newman said it was pleasing to see Brisbane business, community groups and residents unite in support of the Homeless Connect event in May.
“I invite anyone in Brisbane who is experiencing homelessness or is at risk of becoming homeless to come along on the day to access services and support,” he said.
Free bus services will commence at 7.30am on the northside on November 3, stopping at New Farm Neighbourhood Centre, Footprints, 139 Club, Pindari Hostel and Roma House. On the southside the free service will stop at West End Community House, Brisbane Homeless Service Centre, OzCare and Bowman Johnson Hostel.
Council is partnering with Volunteering Queensland and St Vincent de Paul to deliver the event, with support from the Queensland Government’s Department of Communities and Drug-Arm Australasia.
To volunteer, contact Volunteering Queensland at www.volunteeringqld.org.au.

• For further information about Homeless Connect, visit www.brisbane.qld.qov.au or phone council on 3403 8888.