In 1969, a group of far north Queensland artists began a search for Hells Gate – a by then lost location at the heart of the Palmer River gold rush 100 years earlier. Percy Trezise, Dick Roughsey, Ray Crooke and anthropologist Frank Woolsten went in to tough country in the Kennedy Creek region of Cape York Peninsula, at the start of a lengthy exploration of history, country and story. The story of that long journey is eloquently told in an exhibition about to open at the Cairns Regional Gallery – Searching for Hells Gate.
Hells Gate was a pass in the Great Dividing Range and a significant short cut on the journey from the Palmer goldfields back to Cooktown, the closest town and port. As the name implies, it was a hellish place, very difficult to traverse and the ideal place to ambush a prospector and relieve him of his gold. Hells Gate became part of the mythology of the gold rush, but its precise location was forgotten by the early 1900s.
In 1969, Percy, Dick and Raye set out to find Hells Gate – it was the start of a long creative friendship, an exploration of indigenous and European Cape York history, and the creation of some tremendous art.
LISTEN to Percy Trezise and curator Justin Bishop. :
We’ve had a few cold nights in far north Queensland recently. That’s what happens when we get these lovely fine dry season days – created by cooler dry air from the south. That sends the night time minimums down to the low teens in Cairns, and single figures on the high country west of us, on the lovely Atherton Tablelands.
Those cool nights won’t be worrying Lara Hudson – if anything, it’s probably helping her prepare for sub zero temperatures she will experience in northern Scandinavia later this year. Lara worked in the fashion industy for 13 years. but found herself wondering about things she had not yet experienced. That led her to a dog sledding trip in Sweden – and now Lara is heading to Norway to work as a sledding guide. Lara will live in a remote wilderness camp a couple of hours from Tromso, with no electricity or running water – but there will be plenty of huskies.
Cairns is the centre of the ukulele universe this weekend – with the 5th Cairns Ukulele Festival well underway. Players of the four-stringed instrument have come to far north Queensland from around Australia and from faraway shores to celebrate an instrument that evokes the tropics more eloquently than any other. Tony Hillier takes a forward and backward look at the Cairns Ukefest.
PLAYLIST
Seisia by Cairns band Kamerunga, as featured on the Putumayo album Australian Playground
Living In Paradise by Hawaiian star Daniel Ho, as recorded at a previous Cairns Ukefest
Take The A Train by Paul Hemmings from the album Introducing Paul Hemmings Uketet
My Girl From The South Sea Isles by the Sweet Hollywaiians, as recorded at a previous Cairns Ukefest
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One of the best Australian films of recent times was Lantana – Ray Lawrence directing a stellar cast in a complex and compelling tale of mystery, lust and the search for something more. The film was based on a play by Andrew Bovell – Speaking InTongues. That play opens in Cairns this Friday night at the Rondo Theatre
It’s a truly engaging story, weaving together separate but related threads and characters in an unusual series of coincidences – strangers draw close, while loved ones drift apart. Secrets, deceit, intrigue – all combine in a story that’s ultimately about what we yearn for, what we need, and sometimes can’t find. Speaking in Tongues runs at the Rondo till July 12th.
LISTEN to excerpts and my interview with director Kevin West
Here’s an opportunity for train lovers to get involved with the restoration of steam engine 3620 – which used to pull the elegant silver carriages of the Cairns Kuranda Steam Railway. It’s a few years since its seen service and has been sitting in the railway yards off Sheridan Street north Cairns, going through an extensive restoration. That’s nearing completion, and the friendly team who volunteer their time and talents on this project have room for some new friends. They’ve set up the Cairns Local Loop club – which you can join here
There’s an assortment of diesel and steam at the north Cairns rail yards, and it’s home to the iconic far north Queensland Savannahlander – that does the run out to Forsayth.
Come an audio tour of the rail yards and meet Rob Rutten and Mike Lee
World Africa Day will be celebrated around the world this weekend – commemorating the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963. In Cairns, you’re invited to enjoy African music and food at the Community Hub on Macnamara Street, Manunda, on Saturday 24th May from 4pm to 10pm.
To get you in the mood, Tony Hillier presents a selection of music from Australian-based African bands.
LISTEN
PLAYLIST
N’Tunya by Sydney band Keyim Ba – on their new album Mami Wata
There’s a fine tradition of free publications in Australia – newspapers and magazines independent of major commercial interests, that devote their columns and pages to lively coverage of music, the arts, local issues. In Cairns, Barfly blazed an entertaining and honourable trail between 1990 and 2005.
It chronicled the local entertainment scene, giving local music and theatre the coverage it deserved and often couldn’t get elsewhere. It championed local performers, it raised local issues, and, to use the Australian vernacular, it stirred the possum and took the piss. This made for lively reading, but it also drew on the remarkable talents of a swag of visual artists to produce a magazine that was uniquely far north Queensland.
The first edition hit the streets in March 1990, and apart from an 18 month hiatus, it continued in one form or another until 2005. One of Barfly’s key contributors is now also the keeper of its distinguished history. Tony Hillier had his work published in all but one of Barfly’s 701 editions, and was it’s longest serving editor. Tony is a fine musician, a newspaperman from way back, and our ABC Far North music specialist heard each Friday afternoon on Tony Hillier’s World of Music.
Tony told the Barfly story at the regular Pecha Kucha night in Cairns at the Tanks Arts Centre this week. It’s an entertaining saga of culture and courage, and Cairns in a fondly remembered era.
Somewhere between 1589 and 1595, a young English playwright by the name of William Shakespeare tried his hand at comedy. The result was The Comedy of Errors – one of his shortest plays, telling a farcical story of mistaken identity gone crazy, with wordplay, puns and slapstick that would have delighted Marx Brothers fans four centuries later. Since then, the Comedy of Errors has been an opera, a film, and a piece of musical theatre many times over. Later this week, it opens in Cairns in the hand of some very talented teenage actors. TheRondo Youth Theatre brings together a cast of 15 talented Cairns high school students, who have also created the posters, original music and handled the choreography, costumes and sound track. And they’ve clearly come to grips with the intricacies of Shakespearean dialogue. It should be a very entertaining production.
LISTEN to excerpts from the play and meet cast members here.
The Comedy of Errors is on at the Rondo Theatre this Thursday and Friday – with performances at 5.30 & 7.30pm each day.
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Claire Douglas loves coffee. She is almost certainly addicted to the rich black brew. Coffee is the fuel, the life-blood of her adventurous life and new love in tropical far north Queensland. But Claire is about to be tempted – by a bloke, and by tea. Claire hails from Melbourne, she thinks she’s bound for Italy, but she finds herself near Dimbulah, on the high country well west of Cairns. We first met Claire in The Coffeeholic & The Cafe– Cairns author Elizabeth Martin‘s first novel. Today, Elizabeth launches the sequel – The Tea House in the Lime Trees.
Elizabeth and her character, Claire, have a bit in common. They both moved to FNQ from Melbourne, and Elizabeth has an abiding and infectious passion for good coffee and cafes. Both of her novels are set here in Cairns and the far north, vividly conjuring the characters, sights, sounds and scents of our tropical surrounds. It’s always a thrill when our region features in a film, a TV show or a novel – and Elizabeth has distilled the flavours of far north Queensland into The Tea House in the Lime Trees.
LISTEN to Elizabeth Martin talk about her new book, and her journey to becoming a published author.
CAIRNS AUTHOR ELIZABETH MARTIN
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Across Australia this week the Red Cross celebrates its 100th birthday. Here in Cairns, the local branch wants you to join the party – at Fogarty Park, on the Cairns esplanade, from noon Saturday May 3rd for the Picnic in Paradise.
It’s an old-fashioned family day out with food, live music, to celebrate a very proud history of a century of service to the communities of far north Queensland. Among other things, there will be live performances from the Cairns Concert Orchestra, Cairns Chamber Ensemble, and the Cairns Concert Orchestra. And we’ve put together a very 21st century musical tribute to the local Red Cross branch, we’ll play it a couple of times during the afternoon. We’ve borrowed the massive Psy hit Gangnam Style, and turned it into Red Cross Style.
LISTEN
Red Cross Style is the work of the very talented trio of Cairns State High School students, Daniel Walker, Denzel Kennedy & John Tikitau, who very kindly volunteered their time to make their recording debut in support of the Cairns branch of the Australian Red Cross.
In 1969, a group of far north Queensland artists began a search for Hells Gate – a by then lost location at the heart of the Palmer River gold rush 100 years earlier. Percy Trezise, Dick Roughsey, Ray Crooke and anthropologist Frank Woolsten went in to tough country in the Kennedy Creek region of Cape York Peninsula, at the start of a lengthy exploration of history, country and story. The story of that long journey is eloquently told in an exhibition about to open at the Cairns Regional Gallery – Searching for Hells Gate.
The Mojowire 