John Travolta's old luxury jet bound for Australian aviation museum by ship

By Justin Huntsdale and Fairly Hamilton

The fuselage of John Travolta's old jet has been dismantled and transported to a ship bound for Australia. 
(Supplied: Worldwide Aircraft Recovery)

After years of logistical setbacks, millions of dollars in repairs and false starts, John Travolta's luxury jet is officially on its way to Australia.

The movie star first announced he would donate the plane to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) almost a decade ago.

The former Qantas ambassador purchased the Boeing 707, gave it Qantas livery and fitted out a luxury interior that includes two bedrooms, a bathroom and entertaining areas.

Despite being in excellent condition, airworthiness restrictions meant members of Shellharbour's HARS were unable to fly it to Australia.

Instead, the plane was dismantled and sent by ship.

Bob De La Hunty says it was cheaper and safer to transport the plane by ship. (ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale)

"We probably could've taken off and flown it to Australia and been arrested when we landed here, so we thought we better not,"  HARS president Bob De La Hunty said.

"We decided the most safe and practical way to do it was the big jigsaw puzzle, and that was the answer to those very expensive problems."

While the engines and small parts have already been shipped to HARS, the fuselage and wings have now been loaded onto a ship at Brunswick, Georgia, where the plane has been stationed.

John Travolta talks to media in front of the Connie aircraft at Shellharbour Airport in November 2019. 
(ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale)

When will the plane arrive?

The dismantled 707 is due to arrive at Port Kembla on May 9.

Once cleared by customs, it will take a short 15-kilometre drive to HARS at Shellharbour Airport by truck.

The journey will most likely be in the middle of the night due to traffic disruptions, and some fencing will need to be removed from the airport to allow the aircraft to get in.

"It will then be craned off, and that will be before the Wings Over Shellharbour Airshow the following week, so the public will be able to see quite a construction going on," Mr De La Hunty said.

"There are 4,800 bolts that came out that need to go back in."

Taxi rides to give insight into life of rich and famous

Once the plane is rebuilt, Travolta has committed to being in Shellharbour for the official unveiling.

The intention is to bring the aircraft up to a standard where it can be taxied around the Shellharbour Airport tarmac for tourists.

The Boeing 707 has been stationed at an airport in Georgia since being moved from Travolta's property. 
(Supplied: Worldwide Aircraft Recovery)

"Another future generation of fanatics like me might try and get it back in the air, but we'll have it so we can take people around in it," Mr De La Hunty said.

"The interior is very expensive, and it's an example of what the rich and famous do to fly aircraft around the world with accommodation and entertainment areas.

"When John took us through the aircraft, he said Barbara Streisand sat there, and Frank Sinatra sat there when he owned the aircraft, so there's a huge amount of history for the visitors to Shellharbour."

US crew thrilled to be part of 'monumental relocation'

The plane has been painstakingly dismantled and moved by a small team of aviation enthusiasts in Georgia.

The crew spent 60 days disassembling the aircraft to be transported this week.

"Being involved in such a monumental relocation has been amazing," Worldwide Aircraft Recovery member Jay Penry said.

"We are just a small company doing extremely large things, but all three of us love saving aviation history.

"Saving aviation is our passion, and we are glad that we were able to be a part of this amazing move."

First published at ABC News, March 18, 2026

Film reveals the genius of pianist Geoffrey Tozer

Tozer shortly before he left for the opening recital of the Berlin Festival in September 2001.
Photo: Peter Wyllie Johnston

For all its beauty, the film Pure Genius: The Geoffrey Tozer Story leaves the sense that the renowned pianist himself remains, in some ways, unknowable, writes arts editor HELEN MUSA.

An enthusiastic crowd of music lovers with long memories gathered at Palace Cinemas earlier this week for the unveiling of a new film about the life of the late Australian virtuoso pianist Geoffrey Tozer, who died in 2009 of liver disease at just 54.

It is not to be confused with a 2018 film Eulogy, which featured the late conductor Richard Gill in search of the truth about Tozer.

The documentary, Pure Genius: The Geoffrey Tozer Story, is a labour of love produced by Tozer’s estate executor, Peter Wyllie Johnston, a musician, writer, former opera singer and longtime friend of the pianist.

Wyllie Johnston wrote the script and co-directed the film with Raymond Hoefer. Hoefer also handled cinematography alongside Oscar Nasri, while actor Colin McPhillamy narrates the film.

Wyllie Johnston says the documentary aims to restore Tozer “to his rightful place among the ranks of the world’s great musicians.”

At his death in he left a catalogue of over 150 compositions, more than 1000 live recording and 45+ CDs on Chandos and other labels.

The film includes breathtaking archival material, featuring around 50 musical performances by Tozer. Among them are historic concerts filmed at the Sydney Opera House in 1982, the Vigadó Concert Hall in Budapest during 1987, and performances with the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra in the early 2000s.

A child prodigy, Tozer quickly achieved international acclaim.

But even late in life he stood out. One of the film’s most remarkable moments revisits a historic performance in China. In May 2001, Tozer became the first Western artist invited by the Chinese Ministry of Culture to perform the Yellow River Piano Concerto in China. The concert was broadcast live on national television and reportedly watched by an audience of 80 million people. He was swamped with floral bouquets.

As the film shows, despite his global reputation, Tozer spent 10  important years living and working in Canberra as a pianist, composer and teacher. The film explores this chapter of his life and his friendship with former Australian prime minister Paul Keating.

Keating appears frequently in the documentary, describing Tozer as a rare genius of the keyboard. The prime minister first became aware of Tozer when his son was studying at St Edmund’s College Canberra and it emerged that an internationally respected pianist was teaching there to supplement his income. Keating was instrumental in getting him signed up with Chandos records.

Their association grew strong. Through his Creative Artists’ panel, Keating later awarded Tozer two major fellowships — each worth $150,000 — under the government’s Creative Artist Fellowships program, widely known as “the Keatings”.

The documentary also examines Tozer’s time in the Canberra region, including troubling, haunting footage of the pianist wandering the corridors of Benedict House, a former convent in Isabella Street, Queanbeyan. Tozer and Keating had purchased the building with plans to establish a music centre there, although the film offers little explanation as to why the project ultimately failed.

Similarly, the documentary leaves some mysteries unresolved. It does not fully explain why Tozer’s flourishing European and Australian concert career came to an abrupt halt, though Keating suggests he may have been the victim of Australia’s indifference to the arts and believes Tozer might have fared better had he lived overseas.

The film also touches only lightly on Tozer’s formidable mother, Veronica Tozer, who travelled to India to give birth to him and later moved with him to Australia once it became clear he was a prodigy.

Tozer is seen mourning the loss of both his aunt and his birth father, of whom we had previously heard nothing, but no mention is made of his mother’s passing.

Instead, Pure Genius focuses primarily on Tozer’s extraordinary musical achievements. The film includes reflections from friends and admirers, among them the late Hazel Hawke, actress Patricia Conolly, former model and movie star Jill Goodall and Canberra music advocate Ross Gengos, who served on Keating’s fellowship committee.

But many aspects of Tozer’s personal life remain veiled, including the illness that eventually led to the liver disease which ended his life prematurely.

For all its beauty, the film leaves the sense that the pianist himself remains, in some ways, unknowable.

I once talked with Tozer sitting quietly beneath a flowering tree outside the ANU School of Music. Even then, he seemed a figure of mystery.

Despite the insights offered in this loving documentary, he remains one still.

First published at Canberra City News, March 14 2026

At last, Sitsky’s waiting ‘major’ work will be heard

Arnan Wiesel and Alice Giles… Their four-concert series opens with a coup, the world premiere of Larry Sitsky’s Worlds of the Kabbalah.  Photo: Peter Hislop

By Helen Musa

When harpist Alice Giles and her pianist husband Arnan Wiesel speak about the 2026 season of Harmonic Curves, there’s excitement and a sense of homecoming.

The four-concert series opens with a coup, the world premiere of Larry Sitsky’s Worlds of the Kabbalah for cello and harp. Composed in 2015 specifically for Giles and cellist David Pereira, the substantial four-movement work has been waiting patiently on her shelf for more than a decade.

Now, at last, it will be heard.

“It’s a major work, about 20 to 25 minutes,” Giles says. “Larry has written on a virtuosic level for both instruments. The sounds are incredibly stimulating, and there’s a spiritual language to the concept. It’s unique.”

The combination of cello and harp is for Giles deeply meaningful. She describes the instruments as sympathetic relatives, their strings resonating with one another through bowing and plucking, creating colours that differ markedly from the more familiar harp and piano pairing.

For her family, the premiere carries added emotional weight. Wiesel’s mother Aviva, was a professional harpist and his father Uzi was a famous cellist who toured Australia and internationally. 

Sitsky, now 91 and frail, may not be able to attend the performance. If he cannot, Giles and Pereira intend to take the music to him. 

“If he’s not well enough to come, we’ll go to his home and perform it for him. It’s really important he hears this first performance,” Giles says. 

The premiere sets the tone for a season shaped by independence and renewal. They launched Harmonic Curves last year with an ambitious six-concert program, Wiesel initially collaborating with his former student pianist Aaron Chew in four-hand repertoire. In 2026 they pared the series back to four concerts, a more sustainable offering.

The desire to create their own platform runs deep. After a traumatic upheaval at the ANU School of Music in 2012, both artists stepped away from Canberra’s music scene and pursued international careers. From their home in Murrumbateman, they continued to perform around the world.

“We were determined to do something locally,” Giles says. “We wanted to create something ourselves, to present the kind of pieces we play instead of just being asked. That was really important at this stage of our lives. And we wanted to make a statement that we are part of a musical community we’d been separated from for a while.”

Far from slowing down, both have remained prolific. Giles has performed in Antarctica on her wind harps and formed the Penta [five] Harp Ensemble while Wiesel served as inaugural president of the ACT Keyboard Association. 

Now, entering what they call the “older generation” stage of their careers, they are embracing collaboration once more, inviting longtime colleagues David Pereira and guitarist Timothy Kain to join them in a nod to the good old days of Canberra music. 

“We still have much to offer,” Giles says. 

Alongside the Sitsky premiere, audiences will hear a new composition, Pereira’s Still Dancing, for cello and piano, featuring evocative passages and rhythmically charged sections, as well as the Fantasiestücke Op. 73 by Robert Schumann. 

Giles promises balance. “We like to present an assorted program on a Sunday afternoon. We don’t want people to feel like they’re in an education session. They’ll encounter the new among familiar sounds,” she says.

One of the season’s most personal highlights comes in Concert Three, Elemental, where their daughter, performance poet Moran Wiesel, will present works from her forthcoming anthology woven through music inspired by ice, water, fire, earth and air.

First published at Canberra City News, March 10, 2026

Concert to mark Causeway Hall’s century of service

The Causeway Hall in Kingston.

By Helen Musa

Canberra’s Causeway Hall in Kingston marks a century of community, culture and creativity with a special Centenary Concert presented by ACT Hub and the Canberra City Band, honouring the hall’s place in the city’s cultural life on March 7.

In addition to Canberra City Band, five outstanding vocalists will be featured:

Louisa Blomfield, Dave Collins, Joe Dinn, Janie Lawson and Jarrad West.

First published at Canberra City News, March 4, 2026

Rembrandt painting worth millions rediscovered after 65 years

Rembrandt was 27 when he painted the high priest Zacharias, father of John the Baptist

By Ian Youngs - Culture reporter

A long lost painting by Rembrandt has been rediscovered and authenticated by experts, after its whereabouts were unknown for decades.

Rembrandt's Vision of Zacharias in the Temple, from 1633, was excluded from a list of the Dutch master's works in 1960, and disappeared after being sold to a private collector the following year.

But it resurfaced when its owners presented it for tests at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which undertook a two-year examination.

"When I saw it in our studio when it was restored, I was immediately struck by the incredible power it has," Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbits said.

The Rijksmuseum receives many emails from people asking for information about paintings they have inherited or bought, Dibbits said. In this case, they knew it could be something special.

"It came to us via email and one of our curators thought, this is really an interesting image, we've known about the painting for over 100 years but we've never seen it."

The museum confirmed the authenticity after studying the paints, which fit with those used by Rembrandt during that period, and the painting technique and build-up of layers, which are also comparable with his other early works.

'Dedicated his soul to it'

The signature is original and the wooden panel dates from the correct period, the researchers said.

"Materials analysis, stylistic and thematic similarities, alterations made by Rembrandt, and the overall quality of the painting all support the conclusion that this painting is a genuine work," the gallery said.

The painting has all the hallmarks of Rembrandt at the "peak" of the early part of his career, Dibbits said.

"It's very high quality. Sometimes with Rembrandt's portraits you feel that he's producing in quantity, but with this painting you really feel that he dedicated his soul to it."

The museum will put the painting on public view from Wednesday.

Its value is not known, but the world record auction price for a Rembrandt painting is £20m, set in 2009.

Other Rembrandt paintings to be sold in recent years include one for £8.6m in 2019, a self-portrait for £12.6m in 2020, and another once-lost Rembrandt work for £11m in 2023.

In 2015, a Rembrandt painting was given a price tag of £35m by the UK government after being sold privately.

Last month, a drawing of a lion by the artist sold for $18m (£13m).

Rembrandt was 27 when he created the painting, which depicts the Biblical scene when priest Zacharias is told by the Archangel Gabriel that despite their age, he and his wife will have a son, John the Baptist.

The museum said Rembrandt had given the Biblical story an innovative twist. Instead of depicting the Archangel Gabriel visibly, he only suggested his presence. In doing so, he departed from established visual traditions and introduced a new way of representing this subject.

Rembrandt deliberately chose the decisive moment, just before Gabriel reveals his true identity.

It is one of the few history paintings Rembrandt created during this period. At the time, he was primarily producing portraits, which were highly lucrative.

First published at BBC News, March 2, 2026

Local author wins Victorian fiction prize

Omar Musa collects his prize for fiction at the Victorian Premier’s Awards.

By Len Power

Queanbeyan author Omar Musa has won the 2026 Victorian Premier’s Award for Fiction for his novel Fierceland.

The $25,000 prize was announced in Melbourne, with judges describing Fierceland as “in turns expansive and tenderly intimate” and “a searing excoriation of colonialism and inheritance”.

The novel follows a sweeping, globe-spanning narrative that weaves past and present into a family saga on a mythical scale.

Musa, a Bornean-Australian author, visual artist and poet from Queanbeyan, has released four poetry books, five hip-hop records and several novels. He has also held a number of solo exhibitions, including The Hurt Business, currently showing at Megalo Print Studio in Canberra.

The overall winner of this year’s Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards was indigenous writer Evelyn Araluen, who took out the $100,000 prize as well as the $25,000 Prize for Indigenous Writing for her poetry collection Rot. Judges called the work “a work of remarkable poetic intelligence; formally bold, emotionally exacting and politically uncompromising”.

The $2000 People’s Choice Award went to Palestinian-Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah for her novel Discipline. Abdel-Fattah had earlier been cancelled from the Adelaide Writers Festival this year.

Other winners included Eunice Andrada (Poetry Prize) for KONTRA; Micaela Sahhar (Non-Fiction Prize) for Find Me at the Jaffa Gate: An Encyclopaedia of a Palestinian Family; Margot McGovern (John Marsden Prize for Writing for Young Adults) for This Stays Between Us; Emilie Collyer (Drama Prize) for Super; Zeno Sworder (Children’s Literature Prize) for Once I Was a Giant; and Charlotte Guest (Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript) for The Kookaburra.

First published at Canberra City News, February 26 2026.

Top cat Chris scoops the theatre awards pool

Chris Baldock accepts the Gold CAT Award. Photo: Janelle McMenamin

By Helen Musa

Canberra theatre director Chris Baldock scooped the pool at the 31st Combined Area Theatre Awards (CATS), held on Saturday at The Q in Queanbeyan.

Not only was Baldock named Gold Cat (top cat) for his extraordinary theatrical output at Belconnen Arts Centre, but he also won individual awards for Best Performance in a Monologue or One-Act Play, Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play, and Best Direction of a Play.

As well, his company Mockingbird Theatrics took out four more top awards, meaning that the audience saw rather a lot of Baldock on stage during the evening.

Silver CAT Awards went jointly to Georgia Pike-Rowney, for her collaborations with Child Players to provide fun, yet artistically and musically satisfying educational and performance experiences for young people, and Telia Jansen, for sharing her high-quality and sensitive audio technical expertise.

The annual night of nights for amateur theatre drew enthusiastic barrackers from around regional New South Wales, with the Parkes Musical & Dramatic Society boasting the strongest lungs.

A star is born: director Kelda McManus with the camel from Joseph. Photo: Janelle McMenamin

Many of those regional companies participated in a pacey musical and theatrical program directed and produced by Leisa Keen, interspersed with the announcements.

Although the showstopper which opened Act 2 featured Joe Dinn as Pharaoh in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and a gold-clad cast of hoofers, they were almost upstaged by a theatrical camel from the same show, who later took out the John Thomson Theatre Magic Award.

The awards announcements by MC Andy Bell and Keen, spread over two sessions, were greeted with whoops and cheers.

First published in Canberra City News, February 1, 2026