Streets of Your Town

Streets of Your Town: Luka Bloom

It’s a strange thing indeed to connect with a country on the other side of the world to where you grew up, so much so that you feel the same sadness when leaving it as you do when you leave home. But this is the experience of Luka Bloom, the great Irish songman who for more than 40 years has put his passion for social justice to music, and given voice to those who aren’t often heard or recognised. His songs have touched a chord in Australia, so much so that he has now toured the country more than a dozen times. In this episode of Streets of Your Town, Luka Bloom tells us about the euphoric joy he feels seeing a Fremantle sunset, and feeling the appreciation of his Australian fans, wherever he goes.

A Middle Ground

A Middle Ground: Anthony Albanese

In this episode of ‘A Middle Ground’, we speak to Anthony Albanese, the Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, and Cities, and Shadow Minister for Tourism. He tells Nance Haxton the policy detail that we rarely have the opportunity to hear, and also gives an insight into how he stays motivated after 23 years in Federal Parliament. Griffith University Professor of Politics and Policy Peter van Onselen also gives his perspective on why Anthony Albanese’s popularity endures.

Streets of Your Town

Streets of Your Town: Cathy Gatley and the Turtles of Mon Repos

On a tiny stretch of sand, near the southern most tip of the largest living thing on earth The Great Barrier Reef, is Mon Repos. Less than two kilometres long, this beach is a critical landing point for endangered loggerhead turtles from throughout the Pacific. And Cathy Gatley is the ranger in charge (of this conservation park), ensuring that this patch of turtle paradise remains their haven. In this episode of Streets of Your Town, Cathy tells us how she balances the needs of the endangered loggerhead turtles and the lucky few people who get to the beach to see this wild event.

A Middle Ground Streets of Your Town

Streets of Your Town: Imtiaz Ali

Imagine for a moment, the fear you would feel if you had to leave the only home you’d known, and all of your family, at just 15 years old because your life hangs in the balance.This was the harsh reality that faced Pakistani refugee Imtiaz Ali. It has taken seven years, including a journey across the seas in treacherous waters, and many months spent in detention centres unsure of his future, for Imtiaz Ali to finally become an Australian citizen. In this episode of Streets of Your Town, Imtiaz tells us how his life experiences have shown him that nothing is impossible.

Streets of Your Town

Streets of Your Town: Rob Layton

Go behind the scenes of the glitz and glamour of the Gold Coast and find yourself immersed in the ocean alongside Rob Layton in this episode. Regardless of the weather, you can find Rob at Burleigh Beach on the southern end of the Gold Coast, surfing and taking photos as the sun rises for another day. And he’s also wanting to spread the word on how that phone in your pocket is capable of much more than just taking good selfies.

Remarkable Tales

Remarkable Tales: Alex Podger

In this episode of Griffith University’s Remarkable Tales, we speak to film school graduate Alex Podger, who has now risen to become Director of the Woodford Folk Festival closing Fire Event – the largest outdoor performance of its type in Australia. The massive ceremony involves a team of more than 160 volunteer artists, puppeteers, performers, painters and pyrotechnicians, and combined with a soaring live symphonic score, takes more than an hour and a half to unfold. It’s just another day in the life for the Griffith University graduate, who has created large scale outdoor theatrical works across Australia and Europe.

Streets of Your Town

Streets of Your Town: Chasing Smoke

Today, we take you behind the scenes of the evocative and triumphant performance of Chasing Smoke by Casus Circus. Casus Circus is Australia’s only Indigenous contemporary circus ensemble, and is about to go on tour around Australia and take Chasing Smoke to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I was lucky enough to speak to the visionary director of Casus Circus and Chasing Smoke, Natano Fa’anana.

Remarkable Tales

Remarkable Tales: Woodford Folk Festival

In this episode of Remarkable Tales, we take you to the Woodford Folk Festival. The Griffith University student newsroom based on site has gathered tales from throughout Woodfordia, where more than 130,000 thousand people gather every year, making it larger than the nearest town of Nambour.

A Middle Ground

A Middle Ground: The worrying cynicism of Australian voters

In this episode, we look at why Australian voters are becoming increasingly cynical about the people in power who lead our nation. Nance speaks to Griffith University Research fellow and lecturer Ferran Martinez Coma, about the sometimes surprising voting habits of Australians in his comprehensive study for the Australian Electoral Commission. He says that cynicism if left unchecked, is a threat to the democratic process, and it’s critical that politicians rebuild the trust of Australian citizens. And Nance also speaks to Griffith Review assistant editor Jerath Head about his top ten summer political reads to keep you company on the beach this holiday, as we look ahead to the pending federal election.

Streets of Your Town

Streets of Your Town: Kagi Kowa

Today, we head to Brisbane’s westside, to meet artist and social entrepreneur, Kagi Kowa. She tells us about her journey from Sudan to Forest Lake, and how that journey of self-discovery continues to this day, years after she first came to Australia’s shores.

Streets of Your Town

Streets of Your Town: Amanda and Dulcie

Today, we head to the unheralded jewel of South Australia to the Clare Valley. It’s here at a Country Womens Association function, that an ancient bus and an energy powerhouse collide, when we meet Amanda Blair, wandering around her charity vintage clothing bus, Dulcie’s Shop of Real Opportunity, which has raised more than a hundred thousand dollars for South Australia’s homeless.

Remarkable Tales

Remarkable Tales: Mongolia

In this episode of Remarkable Tales Griffith University academics Hamish McLean and Duncan McConnell talk about their incredibly successful training trip to Mongolia, giving locals hands-on teaching in the latest paramedic techniques, while using the most basic equipment they had available.

Remarkable Tales

Remarkable Tales: Commissioner Katarina Carroll

In this episode of Griffith University’s Remarkable Tales, we speak to Griffith University’s inaugural Outstanding Alumnus recipient, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services(QFES)Commissioner Katarina Carroll. She tells us about her distinctive management style, and how she navigated significant cultural change in the QFES. She is passionate about her work advancing gender equity, and explains how it makes good economic as well as ethical sense to improve the representation of women in the workplace.

Streets of Your Town

Streets of Your Town: Julia Price

In this episode, we have a wander with one of Tassie’s favourite adopted daughters, former wicketkeeper of the Australian Women’s Cricket Team, Julia Price. We find out what took the Queenslander so far south she shivered through her first days in her new home, and how she was invited to join the greats of the game as a life member of the Marylebone Cricket Club at Lords.

Remarkable Tales

Remarkable Tales: Tasmanian Ghost Town Project

What started as a Griffith University film school final year project has evolved into a three-part series of award nominated documentaries, with a worldwide following. It took nearly two years from conception to completion. The 23 year olds behind the Tasmanian Ghost Town project gained the trust of sceptical townspeople, tired of reporters coming into their dying mining town and telling just one side of their story. Those apprehensive townspeople eventually trusted the filmmakers so much they revealed parts of their lives and stories that had been kept behind the mountains for decades. Hear their story as we go to the world premiere at Queenstown Tasmania with reporter Nance Haxton, where the films were specially selected to feature in the prestigious arts festival, The Unconformity.

Streets of Your Town

Streets of Your Town: Kurt Phelan

In this episode we go to one of Brisbane’s funkiest inner city laneways, Fish Lane, to eat Vietnamese with talented Aussie actor Kurt Phelan. We hear how since playing Johnny in the Australian production of Dirty Dancing, he is now living the transcontinental life between Brisbane and New York.

Remarkable Tales

Remarkable Tales: 6th National Brain Injury Conference

In this episode of ‘Remarkable Tales’, Nance Haxton speaks to former Australian of the Year, Griffith University Emeritus Professor Alan Mackay-Sim, Professor Heidi Zeeman, and Conference organiser Nick Rushworth about how the conference plans to explore the exciting opportunities being opened up by new research in neuroplasticity – at the National Brain Injury Conference at the Princess Alexandra Hospital on November 13 and 14.

Streets of Your Town Streets of Your Town

Streets of Your Town Stories of Survival: Leigh Winsor

In this special edition of SOYT, we go to the Sherwood Neighbourhood Centre, to meet Leigh Winsor. It was only a few short years ago on January 11th 2011, that he found himself at the Sherwood Community Centre with little more than the shirt on his back. He was one of thousands of people caught in the floods that swept through Brisbane and Ipswich. This is his story of survival.