THIS WEEK'S FEATURE ARTICLES




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Mixing it up musically
Reuben and Zachary Allen began playing classical music on a variety of musical instruments when they were six years old. Needless to say, they’ve been teaming up ever since to play duets on piano, trumpet and clarinet. They’ve competed in eisteddfods and have won many awards between them. By the age of 11 Reuben had won enough money to buy his first clarinet. In 2015 he joined the Tasmanian Youth Orchestra, and five years later became co-principal trumpet with them. He became a member of New Zealand’s Youth Orchestra (NZYO), and last year began his studies with the University of Tasmania. Zachary’s eisteddfod prizes include the Adjudicator’s Choice Trophy for Piano and Trumpet, and in 2020 he won the inaugural Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s Aviva Brass Scholarship. Like his brother, he has also played with the NZYO and this year he begins a double degree in music and physics. These two talented young brothers are joining pianist, Jennifer Marten-Smith, to present a concert of Brass, Wood and Keys at Kettering on Sunday 17 March. Jennifer, who has more than 90 operas in her repertoire, and has also been an award-winning and dedicated musician from a young age, is well-known to Kettering audiences. Zachary and Reuben could not wish for a more professional and talented accompanist for this, their first appearance, at Kettering.
The program
Vocalise, the last of fourteen songs or ‘romances’ by Sergei Rachmaninoff, features both Reuben and Zachary. Zachary then performs Felix Mendelssohn’s Rondo Capriccioso in E major, followed by Reuben with Franz Listz’s Hungarian Rhapsody. The last item listed on the program is the first movement from Böhme’s Trumpet Concerto and features Zachary Allen. Solos, duets and trios – and toss in some Vivaldi and other surprises – make this concert a great way to kick off the Kettering Concert year.
The Circle of Four will be exhibiting a variety of their new artworks, and will be accompanied with work by local jewellery artist, Lyn Aitkins.
Tickets at $15 can be booked via ketteringconcerts.au or purchased for $20 (cash only) at the door. The concert is at 3pm on Sunday 17 March at the Kettering Community Hall. Tickets include afternoon tea, and a chance to chat post-concert with these inspirational musicians and artists.
Check out various YouTube performances of the programme items to familiarise yourself with the musical treats in store.
Judy Redeker

The true founder of the colony
 
A recent book called Heroes, Rebels and Radicals of Convict Australia by Jim Haynes made for interesting reading.
As the Courier Mail review puts it, “Aussies love a good story and entertainer Jim Haynes has been telling them for decades.”
This book depicts Australia’s most amazing characters of the convict age, the larikins and lasses and First Nations people whose pluck, resourcefulness and character laid the bedrock of modern Australia.
They include Lady Jane Franklin, cast as the true leader of Van Diemen’s Land; Pemulwuy, the Bidjigal freedom fighter; Sapy Lovell, the Eora gypsy convict; and Joseph Banks, whom Haynes suggests should be known as the true founder of the Australian colony.
Joseph Banks was fortunate to combine a passion for botanical knowledge and a massive inherited fortune. Because of this he went on to encourage and patronise scientific activities all over the world. His vast collection of plants and animals are vital to the British Museum’s scientific collections, for both scientific research and understanding of Britain’s colonial past. Banks was involved in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, one of the world’s foremost botanic gardens. He used his unique privilege to the great advantage of botany, helping raise the study of the world’s flora to new heights. He remained involved at Kew until his death in 1820.
Banks joined the scientific expedition to the South Pacific Ocean on HMS Endeavour from 1768–1771. This was the first of James Cook’s voyages of discovery in that region. Banks funded eight other scientists and naturalists to join him. The voyage went to Brazil, where Banks made the first scientific description of a now common garden plant, Bougainvillea (named after Cook’s French counterpart, Louis Antoine de Bougainville).
The Endeavour then proceeded to the east coast of Australia, where Cook mapped the coastline and made landfall at Botany Bay. At Endeavour River (near modern Cooktown) in Queensland, the party spent almost seven weeks ashore while the ship was repaired after becoming holed on the Great Barrier Reef.
While they were in Australia, Banks, with his chosen group of scientists, made the first major collection of Australian flora, describing many species new to science. Almost 800 specimens were illustrated by the artist Sydney Parkinson and appear in Banks’ Florilegium, finally published in 35 volumes between 1980 and 1990.
Banks also observed a kangaroo, first recorded as ‘kanguru’ on 12 July 1770 in an entry in his diary.
Banks advocated British settlement in New South Wales and the colonisation of Australia, as well as the establishment of Botany Bay as a place for the reception of convicts. He advised the British government on many Australian matters.
We have reminders everywhere of Banks. The Australian Dictionary of Biography says: “Because of his keen interest in the colony, Banks has been called ‘the father of Australia’. Bankstown was named after him; a monument to his memory is at Kurnell; and the north headland of Botany Bay was named Cape Banks by Cook”. Around 80 species of plants bear his name.
As Banks wrote in 1768, “My Grand Tour shall be one round the whole globe.”
Marian Hearn

The Kitchen Garden Guide

Drying herbs
March is the time to cut and dry herbs such as oregano, while they are in full flower. Around the Mediterranean Sea, people have foraged for flowering oregano since ancient times, hanging the tall stems in a warm, dry place then storing them for use in winter soups and stews.
I also cut boughs of lemon verbena and let the vivid green leaves dry fully before packing them into jars and using them for my evening tea during winter and spring, when the plants are dormant. Any herb can be dried now while they are at their most abundant and hence full of nutrition and vitality.
This year I also dried rosemary because it is nice to have it at hand in winter when it doesn’t grow much. I made an oxymel with it too and take one tablespoon any time, even as a salad dressing. It is wonderful for the brain. You can use half a cup of one or all of: rosemary, lemon balm and/or peppermint. Cover with equal parts apple cider vinegar and untreated honey. Shake now and then and let sit for three months before straining.
Propagation
Have you heard of air-layering? It is when you damage a strip of branch then cover it with damp coconut fibre or similar, bind it with plastic, exclude light and leave for one to three months. During that time it will grow roots at the wound. Then you cut it from the tree, pot it up, let it develop more roots then, hey presto, you have a new tree.
At the Cygnet Autumn Garden Market on 28 April, there will be a presentation all about it and Penny will have a stall selling her air-layered plants.
Huon Apple Festival history
Cygnet’s last Huon Apple Festival was sixty years ago this autumn, in 1964. Can you believe 20,000 attended? There were floats, cooking competitions, children’s games and the crowning of the Apple Queen. One year a Guiness World Record was broken for the biggest apple pie ever made.
This year at the Cygnet Autumn Garden Market we are celebrating the Apple Festival with a special display and sales by artist Henrietta Manning, who has a series called A Bite of the Apple about the Huon Valley apple industry and how we live with the past. Nik Magnus will have a stall full of apple varieties for tasting. Bring your apple growing questions too.
There will be an audiovisual display of old photos and footage of the Apple Festivals, in association with the Cygnet Living History Museum. And we will have an apple cake competition for all the cooks… And for the longest or quirkiest tromboncino.
Check the Cygnet Garden Markets Facebook and Instagram pages for details as they are released. All donations this year will go to Cygnet Cares Suicide Prevention.
Seeds to sow
in March
Beetroot
Salsify
Burdock
Tas. swede
Carrot
Parsnip
Spinach
Broad beans
Daikon radish
Asian vegetables
Coriander, pennyroyal, cress
Seeds to harvest
in March
Tomatoes
Beans
Fennel
Lettuce
Sunflowers
Calendula
Coriander
Nasturtiums
Plant out now
Good-sized European brassicas
Spring onions
Chives
Elephant garlic, potato onions
Lettuce
Spinach
Celery
Silver beet
Asian greens
Jobs for March
Prune established fruit trees to improve shape and production.
Rake up all fallen fruit to reduce over-wintering of diseases.
Take semi-hardwood and hardwood cuttings of evergreen plants such as rosemary, sage, lavender, geraniums, correas as well as lemon verbena and anything that is hardening off and not soft.
Kate Flint

YOUTH Book review

By Billie Chatto, Peregrine student, year 8
Introduction
Young Dark Emu: A Truer History is a simplified storybook, based on the original adult version, Dark Emu, by Bruce Pascoe.
It was written for children to learn about Australia’s history, and how Aboriginal people lived on the land we live on today. It is really important for children to learn and understand our history.
Overview
There are six chapters in this book. Each one of them helps you understand Australia’s history
a little better.
Several chapters talk about how the settlers explored, discovered and claimed Australia’s land. Others talk about the houses and infrastructures built by Aboriginal people, including documented descriptions of the villages explored by European settlers.
They also talk about agriculture and aquaculture systems Indigenous people created, as well as food storage and preservation in the different seasons.
The book talks about the many different crops and food Indigenous people had, and how they looked after the land, as well as about seasonal burns and how the European settlers and Indigenous people viewed fire differently.
Other chapters explore sacred places, sustainable futures, and the Indigenous constellation the book is named after.
Aesthetics
The display of this book and how it is presented to the reader are wonderful. The illustrations and colours really compliment the words on the page. It included some great photographs as well, each telling a story, and making the chapters more
understandable.
The earthy browns, reds and yellows used as the theme of illustration in this book were beautiful. They represent home, care, family and earth. These symbols are shown in the pictures and drawings of plants, houses and landscapes, as well as animals, bugs and people, which is perfect for the idea behind this book – to teach the younger generations about how the Aboriginal people lived and cared for the land we live on today.
I give this book four stars out of five
The book was really interesting and I enjoyed reading it. At the same time, the language was too complex and should be a bit more straightforward and simplified for the younger audience it was written for. For me (a teenager), the language was a suitable and appropriate attempt at adjusting ithe adult version of the book, Dark Emu. It wasn’t too easy or too hard for me to read, and that’s perfect.
I didn’t really get attached to the characters or people mentioned. If there was a narrative and a character at the book’s centre, it would make it more engaging for children to read. However, overall I enjoyed this book. It was interesting and filled with useful information.
I took a lot away from this book. For example, I learnt about Indigenous agricultural systems and how First Nations people harvested, hunted and stored food. I learnt about the seasonal changes, like crops, burns and climate-related changes. I also gained a lot of information through the settlers’ descriptions of villages and farms.
It is important to learn and understand the history of where you live because it’s your home, but people were living there before you, and to learn how they lived and looked after the land is a privilege.
It was a brilliant book and I really enjoyed reading it.


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