Regional Australia - Country Shows

Photo: Gordon Smith, Dorrigo Show. Gordon's caption reads in his usual terse but descriptive style:

This is a general view taken to illustrate a few of the sorts of things you’d find at a typical rural Show. On the right is the tent in which The Magician is entertaining some children; in the centre fore- and middle-ground some visitors catch up with the gossip and decide where to go next; behind that a couple of food stalls; then at the left rear are the Dodgems.

Few people growing up in the city with the big city shows such as the Sydney Royal Easter Show can understand the excitement that sometimes attaches to shows in smaller communities.

Preparation begins as soon as the previous show has been completed. There are no staff. Everything is done by volunteers.

As the show approaches, excitement increases. There is cooking to be done, preserves to be made, various crafts to be finished, vegetables to be gathered, livestock to be prepared. Catering has to be arranged, a myriad of logistic details sorted out. Then the showmen arrive and erect their tents and rides.

Show day dawns. People gather, children rush around the sideshows and play with each other. Their elders tour the pavilion to see who has won what, always a matter of great interest, watch the ring events. There is constant gathering as people meet and exchange gossip. Then it's all over for another year.

Local shows are not as strong as they once were. Properties are bigger, so that there are fewer families on the land. As families moved away, many of the towns that depended on them have struggled. Whole show traditions such as the boxing tents have gone as fashions changed. Yet somehow the shows survive, constantly reinventing themselves.

To the visitor, the shows provide a window into local life. To the locals, the shows are an opportunity to meet each other, to say hello to the people they know in their broader community.

Tree Change & the Job Search Process - accessing local information

In my post Tom & Tree Change & the Job Search Process - the story of Katrina and Tom continues I outlined a number of general sources of information that Katrina and Tom might access to find out about job vacancies. They can then use this information to start investigating localities that might be of interest to them

An alternative route if you have already identified areas that might be of interest to you is to start with the local council. Increasingly councils and their economic development officers are playing a pro-active role in trying to attract people to their areas. This is best illustrated by example.

The city of Greater Taree in the beautiful Manning Valley on the Mid North Coast of NSW has a population of 43,000 and is home to a number of significant industrial establishments offering, among other things, the type of boilermaking work of interest to Tom. In this case, the Council web site has a specific relocation section including an on-line job matching service. Here you can enter details of your skills and Council will then match those with local employers needs.

Not all councils are as well organised as Taree. Sometimes you have to dig down a bit.

In the case of Dalby in Queensland for example, the council web site provides a range of general information about the town, but does not appear at first site to have any jobs information. However, if you keep clicking on links you will finally come to Your Guide to the Dalby Wambo Region which does have jobs information.

This split in information sources between councils and local guides, community or development sites is fairly common.

Rockhampton is another example. Here if you visit the council site, then click on tourist, migrant and business information and then on Rockhampton Tourist and Business Information (Information for Migrants) you will be taken through to the information site. This includes a relocation service.

The split in information sources can be a nuisance where proper links are not provided. However, you will usually pick up both through a web search on the town name.

Tamworth, NSW, provides another example of the need to dig down. Here you go to the council web site. Under business/industry there is an employment page. This provides some general information, but it is very general.

In this case, the council does not appear to offer direct relocation support. Your best bet is to go the regional directory on the council site which has a search facility that allows you not only to identify employment agencies but also firms in a variety of industry areas. This allows you to investigate directly.

Some councils sites, Duaringa Shire in Queensland is an example, may not provide any employment information. This shire contains a several mining centres. In this case, you will need to contact the council directly.

What has Jane Austin got to do with food in Regional Australia?

Photo: Virginia Enzerink, Tall Poppy Gourmet, Cowra NSW

What, indeed, does Jane Austin have to do with food in Regional Australia?

I have just been watching Pride and Prejudice (again!) with my daughters. I do wish that I had ten thousand pounds per annum in funds so that I could properly focus on food in Regional Australia.

Today I received an email from Nicki providing information on Nosh on the Namoi. I always try to check my facts first before writing, so I dug down.

A few facts before my mouth starts watering too much.

On Saturday 31 March next year New England town of Narrabri will celebrate the 5th birthday of its annual food and wine festival, Nosh on the Namoi. I will describe the day in a moment. A little history first.

Nosh on the Namoi began with 27 exhibitors presenting products such as olives, ice cream, wine, crayfish, smoked trout, beef, herbal tea, locally produced pasta, preserves, chicken, oysters, condiments, caterers and restaurants.

Digging down further I found that Bellata Gold had been launched at Nosh on the Namoi.

Now I already knew about Bellata Gold from Regional Food Australia. The family owned firm produces the finest quality chemical free pasta, semolina and Durum flour products using traditional methods of low temperature drying, ensuring that their unique flavour is retained in pasta and distinctive herb blends. Then I found that Tall Poppy Gourmet with its luscious relishes had been launched there as well.

I will do a fuller story later. In the meantime, I just wish that I too had ten thousand per annum to help me travel Regional Australia just tasting the food and wine.

Tree Change - Contessa & Removalist's Costs

On an earlier post I talked about Contessa and the challenge she faced in thinking through a move to Sheffield in Tasmania.

In this post I am repeating one part of the comment exchange between us on the original post because I think that this exchange may be of broader interest.

Contessa wrote:

Jim, we have been searching everywhere for SOME idea of how much (approx) it is going to cost us to move...removalists costs...any clues as to how we can work out a guestimate?

I replied:

Crikey, Contessa, that's hard. I would do two things. First, get some quotes from Melbourne removalists to provide a costing base. Then ring Devenport removalists to get a counter cost. My experience has been that local removalists can have a back load problem. That is, more people going to Melbourne from Devenport that are coming from Devenport to Melbourne. This may give you a lower rate.As I said, I don't pretend to have expertise in this area.

Contessa responded:

Jim, the difference in removalist quotes is HUGE...we have one from a Tassie company and one from a Vic company and the Vic one is twice as much.We have signed the docs! BUT there has been a last minute hitch where the vendor raised GST at the signing! We said no, our lawyers said no and he said well if it has to be paid, I'm not paying it...AARRGGGHHH...there is no mention of it in his contract but we had it included as not chargeable in ours. So we are waiting for that to be cleared up and then it's ON! WOW!

I replied:

How very exiting Contessa. I am glad that the removalist hint was helpful. I am going to run the exchange here as a separate post because it might be helpful to others. Hope that the GST issue will be sorted out.Do post from time to time about your experiences. I know that this will be of interest to our still small if growing pool of readers. Who knows, I may be able to give the farm some plugs as well!

Tree Change & the Job Search Process - the story of Katrina and Tom continues

Photo: Park scene, Dalby, Queensland, one of Katrina and Tom's options.

This post continues the story of Katrina and Tom's search for a future in Regional Australia.

In my first post I reported that Katrina had sought advice on relocation possibilities in regional Queensland or possibly NSW. Because final choice depends upon family needs, my second post discussed Katrina and Tom's needs based on information supplied by Katrina.

At this point I diverted from Katrina and Tom's story to discuss the case of Contessa and a possible move to Tasmania. While a diversion, the theme (the need to think through needs) was the same.

Now that we understand Katrina and Tom's needs, the next step is to help them scope the marketplace for Tom's skills as a boilermaker. As they do this, we will then be able to start scoping the pluses and minuses of particular locations. Remember, it's not just a job for Tom that they want, but a life style no longer available in metro Australia.

Information Sources

Many skilled trades jobs in Regional Australia are no longer advertised simply because employers have found it so hard to get a response. I will talk about ways to access this marketplace later. For the moment, I want to focus on major information sources that Katrina can access via computer.

I start with Seek. This site used to be pretty awful outside metro areas, but is now getting much better regional coverage.

I started by doing a search on boilermaker/welder in NSW other. Eleven jobs had been listed over the last 30 days mainly located in Newcastle and the Hunter Valley. This is an area where the growth of the coal industry has had a major impact.

I then looked at Queensland, other. Here there were 26 boilermaker/welder positions listed again with a bias towards manufacturing and mining areas in Regional Queensland. So this simple search has generated over 35 possibilities listed in the previous 30 days.

I then looked at the Rural Press JobsGuide. This covers job ads in Rural Press newspapers. I did not find the search categories here as helpful as the Search categories (there is no provision to search on boilermaking), so ended up searching on trades & services, light industry, NSW. This threw up a few jobs, including an urgent need in Oberon, a town that exactly fits Katrina and Tom's specifications.

I then did a similar search on Queensland, but Rural Press is weak in Queensland, so there was nothing there at this point.

I then looked at APN, who have major newspaper holdings especially in Regional Queensland and the North Coast of NSW as well as parts of NSW. I had a little difficulty finding the APN equivalent of JobsGuide. Finally I found a site called Checkout that allows you to search APN classifieds on APN sites. I then clicked on jobs all locations. I got through the first time identifying a number of boilermaker positions, but then the site went down.

I then found a Queensland Government site providing information on over 12,000 job vacancies in regional Queensland. This site also carries you through to the Australian Jobs Search site, a national site listing over 100,000 job vacancies around Australia. From this, you can drill down by area and occupation.

Next Steps

This should give Katrina enough information to start scoping job possibilities. In the next post I will change focus to look at the approach to be adopted in selecting between localities.

Tree Change & the Loss of the Familiar

Another wonderful photo from Gordon Smith because I like it and because it seemed somehow to fit with this story.

One of my dreams for this blog is that it will develop to the point that reader questions and discussion become its core, allowing me to moderate discussion while feeding in new material from time about the wonders and diversity of Regional Australia. Given this, you will understand why I am so pleased to get comments and questions.

My last post Tree Change - defining your needs continued the story of Katrina and Tom and their search for a regional alternative. This story led Contessa to post a question that I thought we might discuss while I am doing the research to write the next post on Katrina and Tom.

I will quote Contessa's question in a moment and then provide some comments. Please feel free to post your own ideas as comments or questions.

Contessa's Question

My partner, Ian and I have talked about moving to Tassie for the past 10 yrs. I am a cold climate person and a passionate gardener and we both adore Tasmania, although the evil grip that Gunns seems to have makes me very angry and nervous for the future of this beautiful island.

We have the opportunity to buy our own slice of heaven, a certified organic property in Sheffield and I keep swinging back and forth with my feelings on moving. Every time I'm in Tassie I want to live there. Now we have the real chance to do it...I keep having emotional, unsettled, am-I-going-to-regret this thoughts. Will I miss our home of the past 12 years? What about leaving our 4 grown (early 20's) independent kids and family all here in Melbourne? Our entire lives have been spent here and we live in St Kilda.

I don't want you to tell me what to do...I just need some guidance on how to read and interpret my fluctuating emotions. It's not the physical stuff that concerns me, it's just KNOWING if this is the RIGHT thing. I JUST can't tell.I know this is a most unusual request...if you can think of anywhere else I could seek guidance, please let me know.

My Response

As Contessa says, only she and her partner can work this out. Our role is simply to help her clarify issues in her own mind.

I have not been to Sheffield for over forty years, so I thought that I should look it up on the web. Located 27k (27 minutes driving time) from the major centre of Devenport (population 26,000), Sheffield is a small community set in beautiful surrounds that has reinvented itself in recent years as a tourist centre. So Ian and the Contessa will be moving from the cosmopolitan urban life of St Kilda into a very attractive but much smaller community.

When you look at Contessa's concerns, the critical issue for her is to identify just what her real concerns are. Three issues arise:

1. To what degree are Contessa's concerns due to lack of information? She and Ian appear to have done a fair bit of research, so this may not be an issue.
2. To what degree are Contessa's concerns due to worries about risk, about burning bridges behind her? I think that the key here is for Contessa to write any such concerns down so that she can then then address them individually.
3. Linked to 2, to what degree are Contessa's concerns due, as she really suggests, to worries about loss of things that have been important to her, the area that has been familiar all her life, the house, loss of contact with the family?

Number three is by far the most difficult because it centres on the important emotional content of life. It is also a major cause of relocation failure in that people find that they miss elements of their past life more than they expected. So it's not surprising that feelings should fluctuate.

There are no easy answers here. However, again I think that it helps to break things up into bits then look at just what each bit means. For example, how easy will it be for the kids to visit? How easy will it be to return to Melbourne from time to time? In some cases, you may be able to build some of these elements into your plans.

The advantage of this type of chunking approach is that it helps identify where the core concerns are.

Tree Change - defining your needs

Photo: Gordon Smith, Detail of Orchid Flower. Photo included because I like it!

In my last post, In Search of the Regional Alternative - the case of Katrina and Tom, I reported on an email from Katrina: we are looking for a small town some where who needs the services of a boilermaker who loves a challenge , therein lies the trouble, finding one! "

The first step in the in the search process is to understand your own needs and that of your family. Relocation can be a big step, so you really do need to be clear on your needs before looking seriously at possibilities.

For that reason I emailed Katrina seeking more information. My questions and edited answers follow.

Family Connections

Access to family (parents, grandparents, siblings) can be important, especially for women with children. For that reason I asked "where is your family? Near you? Important to be near them?"

Katrina replied: "The only family we have is my brother and he spends more time overseas than home any way so as long as where ever we go has Internet access then he will be just as close to us as he is now. We do have a very special couple living in Briasbane who are more like family than any one else, but again they are big Internet uses as well and we have discussed this move with them and they think it would be right for us and would give them a place to holiday and an excuse to go! "

Katrina's reply shows that closeness to family is not an issue. However, the reply also draws out that the family are active internet users, so access to the internet is an issue to be considered. Many parts of Regional Australia have equal to if not better internet access than parts of metro Australia, but coverage does vary. So this is an issue that will need to be looked at in considering specific locations.

Children's Needs

No matter how happy parents may be, the move may fail if the needs of children are not taken into account. In this context, Katrina and Tom have four children aged fourteen down to nine weeks.

I therefore emailed Katrina "any special features re education?"

Katrina replied: Education, well my eldest is in grade 8 first year of high school while he isn't brilliant he is holding his own, he travels now to get to a decent school so that will be no big deal for him. The only other concern education wise is my second born who is in grade 6. He has trouble with his reading. He is making progress but slowly, so he would need extra help there. He is on the other hand gifted with maths and the arts. My daughter is well above average so is doing grade 3 and 4 work in her reading yet she is in grade 2 so as long as her teacher is willing to let her move forward at her pace. My youngest obviously has yet to start.

Tom and I love a challenge and our children are not really what you'd call city kids they love to be out doors and don't often play video type games. They email all their friends of course and we all have computers but they still love to run!

We haven't gone into this with our eyes closed we have talked things over with the kids so they are aware of what this would mean, they will miss there friends but will make new ones. They know it and so do I, they are all happy go lucky kids and we would rather they grow up some where where the nastier side of life isn't so in your face all the time, some where that we can feel safe to let them play in their own front yard or to go to the park and know that they will not be harassed or called names for being happy together.

We are a close family as we don't really have any one but each other to rely on so we can be happy any where as long as we have each other and a roof over our heads and plenty to keep dad busy!

Katrina's reply draws out a number of important issues. She and Tom have discussed the move with the kids and have involved them. This is very important since a move away from friends can create real worries in kid's minds.

Education may be an issue in final selection between towns and will need to be investigated. This has to be done on ground. The nature of the support available to the eldest to help with any learning diffculties will be important (country schools can be good in this area because of the personal support that can be provided in a smaller school), as will the capacity of the school to provide accelerated learning opportunities for Katrina and Tom's daughter.

Health services will also need to be investigated on ground. Medical services in a smaller town can be limited, with some services provided in the nearest major regional centre. The critical issue here is not distance but travel time.

Partner Needs

Partner considerations are important in any move because both sides have to be happy.

Katrina's responses focused the needs of Tom and her family, leading me to ask: "What do you want? Do you want to stay at home, to work part time, to work full time? What would you like to do?"

Katrina responded:

What do I want? Well I don't really want to work. I love being a mum and Tom works so I can stay home to raise our kids. Pre children I was working as a seamstress so I love all things making, still do it when I get time, sew that is, I love craft, I quilt, crochet and all things made by hand but my real passion is wood turning I have even sold some on line until getting pregnant and being unable to use the lathe for safety reasons .... I love to read and learn to make new things I am always on the look out for some thing new to try and create.

looking at this, Katrina can be happy pretty much anywhere so long as she and her family have the life style they need.

The life style issue is critical. The life Tom and Katrina want is really no longer obtainable in a metro area. Tom and Katrina need a biggish block with access to a shed and place for the children to play, to dig, to have pets. They need an area in which it is still posssible for the kids to hop on their bikes and vanish without their parents being worried.

In the next post I will discuss how Katrina and Tom might set about finding the job that Tom wants.

In Search of the Regional Alternative - the case of Katrina and Tom

On 19 October I invited people to submit questions about life in Regional Australia that I and my colleagues would try to find to answers for. Subsequently Katrina emailed me:

Hello I currently live in outer Brisbane with my husband and four children aged 13 years down to 9 weeks, we are looking to make a "country move" but there seems endless information that tells you not a lot I am afraid. You see my husband is a trade qualified boilermaker with transport and fabricating experience as well as some fitting and body work experience, and we are looking for a small town some where who needs the services of a boilermaker who loves a challenge , therein lies the trouble, finding one!

I was wondering if you new of any small towns in Queensland that are looking for the services of a boilermaker that can turn his hand to almost anything fabricating and isn't afraid of trying new things. If you don't would you be able to help us with where to start we don't have a specific place in mind but mountains come to mind and rivers! We love fishing and camping so we are planning an exploratory holiday in the Christmas holidays so any pointers as to where we may start would be greatly appreciated. I guess that isn't exactly a questions is it oh well we won't know if we don't ask.

I have read through your questions and answers section of the blog site but it seems to deal with NSW not that I have anything against it and from what I can gather we could move there with out worrying about work either but again I have no idea where to start. Thank you for your time. I look forward to your response.

I was very pleased to hear from Katrina since she and her husband are just the type of people Regional Australia needs. So we are going to try to help her. With her approval, we are going to feature the on-going story on this blog.

Old Aussie Food Recipes

I have now switched this site to the new Blogger Beta. This allows me to use labels. However, it will be a little while before I can add these to all my old stories.

As part of my searches looking for material for my Australian Regional Food - Looking Back series I found a rather nice site, Old Aussie Food Recipes, subtitled "Recipes, Cooking and Delicious Meals the old time way in Australia."

Here I was caught by the description:

Like yesterday I remember the glorious aromas coming from my Mum's kitchen. Sponge cake or a scone topped casserole and veges, oven hot scones or damper, hot soup or the look of a glorious bowl of home made ice cream and fruit topping.

The site is well worth a browse by anyone interested in Australian cooking.

An Apology - and a continuing frustration

It is almost a week since the my last post. My apologies. I have been working on certain stories but in doing so have become very frustrated.

I refer you to two stories posted on the Ndarala Group blog. The first story focuses on just what is required to build local tourism. The second story, frustrations of a tourism official, was generated by the first and deals with some of the practical on-ground problems involved in tourism development. Both stories were originally written in 2004 but remain relevant to day.

One of the things that we are trying to do with this blog is to make the interest and variety of the Australian regional experience accessible to a broader audience. In this context, I have just spent over eight hours researching a particular story, it would be unfair to name the story, only to finally give it away because of the paucity of on-line information.

There are tens of thousands of towns and localities throughout Australia. It is simply not possible to feature them all on this blog. To make the material really accessible, I need to work on larger areas, regions, or on themes linking a number of localities. This is where the problem comes in.

There are some good regional sites, South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula for example. There are a few thematic areas where sites such as wine diva, wine is the most developed, provide a national and regional picture that I can draw from. Too often, however, I have to do multiple searches checking multiple sites just to try to get basic information.

A core problem is the way in which even quite good local sites limit themselves just to an immediate area such as a council. Too often, they then provide just a topic based list of things with little interpretive material. Too few have any visual material that I can use. Too often, the focus is inward.

Does this matter? I think that it does, very much. If we want people to enjoy the Regional Australia experience whether for life or just to visit, we have to make it accessible to them, to attract their interest. Because so many people now use the web to find out information, the web front door becomes absolutely critical. And this is where Regional Australia is failing itself.

Regional Australia Food - Australian Native Foods: Lemon Myrtle

Photo: Lemon Myrtle

Australia's CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) is one of the best sources of information (here) on Australia's emerging native foods industry whether you are interested in becoming a producer or as a consumer.

The macadamia nut is Australia's best known native food and so far is the only one to achieve major international success. Lemon Myrtle is probably the next best known.

Growing to a height of over 15 metres, Lemon Myrtle originated in the sub-tropical and tropical rainforest areas of Queensland with a natural rainfall greater than 800m. However, commercial growing was developed in the humid coastal zone of Northen NSW.

The leaves contain between 0.33 - 0.86 % essential oil consisting almost entirely of citral, giving it a strong lemon flavour. In summary:

• COLOR - bright green herb with pale yellow flecks of citrus
• AROMA - early sweet lemon, lime and lemongrass oil bouquet with a citrus middle nose
• PALATE - robust lemon flavour-scent complemented with a mild acid citrus back palate and faint anise and green tea

Current retail product categories include:

• Tea blends and beverages, dairy, biscuits, breads, confectionery, pasta, syrups, liqueurs, flavoured oils, packaged fish/salmon. Dipping Sauces, Simmer Sauces. For use in sweet and savoury dishes.
• Non-food products include deodorants, cosmetics, air fresheners, washing powders, disinfectants, soaps and facial creams.

Regional Australia Food - Bush Tucker and Australian Native Foods

Photo: Celebrity chef Mark Olive was recently honoured at the 12th annual Deadly Awards, honouring excellence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music, sport, entertainment, the arts and community achievement.

Mark hosts The Outback Cafe TV show on Foxtel’s Lifestyle channel, specialising in indigenous Australian cuisine such as possum, emu and native plants.

In a thoughtful response to my last post on bush tucker Vic Cherikoff made the point that there is a huge distinction between bush tucker and authentic Australian ingredients in today's culinary world.

Vic noted that bush tucker covers the food resources of the 600 Aboriginal nations pre-invasion by the English and would include around 2000 different food items from the plant kingdom and perhaps 200 animal and insect foods.

Much of this food is only accessible on location and under the guidance of someone who knows the food stuffs and the area. There is a nice page on Warren Whitfield's The Great Greenway Eco Tours site that will give you a feel here. In Warren's words:

Some of the plant resources utilised by Aboriginal people follow (Please note that some plants contain toxins and irritants. Some plants require treatment prior to eating and not all are edible! DO NOT TRY ANY OF THESE WITHOUT PROPER SUPERVISION).

Vic contrasts bush tucker with Australian native foods, the term used to cover those bush food elements that have been commercialised since the 1980s when Vic and others began work on commercialising bushfoods, thus making them accessible to a wider audience. Since then a considered selection of indigenous foods have entered the market place.

I had not visited Vic's web site before he commented. It includes some fascinating material.

One of the challenges faced by Vic and other pioneers including Mark Olive lies in finding ways to fit ingredients that are both very ancient and new into cuisines that have not had access to them before. Many of the pioneers faced a chicken and egg problem in that they needed to demand to support development but could not attract the required demand without development.

As Vic pointed out, fortunately, we now have over two dozen authentic Australian ingredients forming a backbone of food resources for creative chefs to innovate and develop our own cuisine.

Australian Regional Food - Bush Tucker and the Australian Aborigines.

Aboriginal botanist Warren Whitfield teaches students from Atlanta (US) Emory University about Aboriginal fire-stick management practices and how this affected vegetation. The trees in the background are: Melaleuca leucadendra The Weeping Tea Tree, Paper Bark Tree. Why do these trees have hard flammable leaves and what did Aboriginal people use this plant for?

In recent years there has been growing interest in Australia in traditional Aboriginal life, in the way they managed the country, in the life they led and the foods they ate. When the Europeans first arrived, they too, supplemented the European style diet with local foods. As the country became more urbanised this interest died, in part because of greater availability of other foods, in part because Australian food and animals had not been (apparently) cultivated, domesticated and were less readily available to a growing population.

I say apparently because the Aborigines had developed quite sophisticated ways of managing the country. Here I was fascinated to discover when reviewing the anthropological literature for my history honours work all those years ago (I was part of what was I think Australia's first Australian pre-history class in 1966 at the University of New England) that the Aborigines had actually worked significantly less hours than Europeans had too.

So I plan to look at bush tucker as part of my Regional Australia food series. As a first step for those who are interested, you might like to start here, a Queensland school site on bush tucker.