Tragedy + Time = Comedy: Anneli Cole on Eating Disorders

By Alice Matthews

The Afternoons program on ABC Radio Canberra has invited the stand-up comedians of Canberra to share the saddest or most difficult thing they've been able to turn into a joke.

Afternoons presenter Alice Matthews was joined by Anneli Cole who spoke about her experience with an eating disorder and how it has shaped her comedy.

If you or someone you know needs help or support for an eating disorder or body image issue, call Butterfly's national helpline on 1800 334 673 or call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

First published at ABC News, February 12, 2025

Anna Matthew, Presenter

Cate Armstrong, Producer

Imogen McDonald, Producer

Giant schnauzer Monty crowned top dog at Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show

Owner Katie Bernardin kisses Monty after he receives his trophy and ribbon. (AP: Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Dogs

A giant schnauzer named Monty has been crowned Best in Show at the 149th annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

Monty emerged victorious from more than 2,500 top-ranked canines competing in a two-day contest, held in New York City.

It’s the first Westminster best-in-show title for a giant schnauzer in the 95 years the breed has been entered.

After coming close in the past two years, handler and co-owner Katie Bernardin was almost too emotional to speak.

"He always tries so hard, and we're just proud of him," she told the crowd at Madison Square Garden.

According to co-owner Sandy Nordstrom, Monty is bold, cocky and fun.

"He's just a really cool dog," she said in an interview before the competition, which will be his last.

The five-year-old is retiring from showing.

Monty had tough competition, participating against seven semifinalists for the coveted crown.

They included a bichon frisé called Neal, a Skye terrier named Archer, a whippet and repeat runner-up known as Bourbon and a shih tzu called Comet.

Also in the mix were a German shepherd named Mercedes, who came in second last year, and an English springer spaniel called Freddie.

The show is considered to be the most prestigious competition among pure-bred canines in the United States.

It also bills itself as the second-oldest US sporting event, behind only the Kentucky Derby thoroughbred horse race.

How do judges pick a winner?

To the casual viewer, it might be hard to fathom what judges gather from patting down and carefully peering at prepped canines.

But choosing a winner requires an encyclopedic knowledge of 201 different breeds.

Judges perform hands-on examinations and watch dogs in motion to work out which one comes closest to the ideal for its breed.

This is set out in a "standard" that details desired features.

President of the Westminster Kennel Club Donald Sturz says he looks for the "presence of virtue, versus faults".

"I focus on the dog that rings the most bells of virtue for me as I go from nose to tail."

But at the end of the day, it comes down to which canine performs best on the day.

"There's just something that a dog will bring that night that will put them a notch above the other great dogs in the ranks," Mr Sturz said.

Gallery of glamorous dogs

Monty and the other semifinalists weren't the only pretty pooches on display.

Check out the gallery of pampered pups below.

First published on at ABC News, February 12, 2025

Endangered loggerhead turtles break nesting record at Mon Repos beach

 

Baby loggerheads emerge from nests from January to March at Mon Repos. (ABC Wide Bay: Johanna Marie)

By Joanna Marie

Visitors to Queensland's famous Mon Repos Beach have witnessed history with a record number of endangered loggerhead turtles hauling their way up the sand dunes.

The rookery on the Bundaberg coast, about 400 kilometres north of Brisbane, is home to the largest concentration of nesting turtles in Australia and the South Pacific.

This season has seen an influx of endangered loggerheads, with more than 500 females laying approximately 265,000 eggs at the protected beach since November.

A loggerhead turtle nesting at Mon Repos. (Supplied: Cathy Gatley)

Mon Repos Conservation Park ranger-in-charge Cathy Gatley said it was "an exciting season" for rangers and visitors.

"That's our best numbers for the endangered loggerhead since the 1970s," she said.

Old and new turtles

Among the star performers was a turtle that was first tagged in 1980 and has undertaken 13 seasons of breeding.

"It's always great to see those old-time nesting turtles," Ms Gatley said.

"We've had a number of new girls coming ashore as well, so turtles breeding for the first time in their life."

Ms Gatley said favourable environmental factors had contributed to the boom in nesting mothers.

"It's probably likely that there's been really good food sources in the feeding grounds," she said.

"[They] need good food to be able to build up their body condition so that they're ready for a breeding season."

Loggerhead turtles are carnivorous, feeding mostly on shellfish, crabs, sea urchins and jellyfish in coral reefs, bays and estuaries.

Ms Gatley said the new breeding turtles were likely hatchlings from Mon Repos that had returned after reaching sexual maturity at around 30 years old.

"We do know that the hatchlings, as they're in the nest and crossing the beach and heading out to the water, they're getting that orientation to the Earth's magnetic field," she said.

"If they survive through to adulthood, then they will use that orientation they get as a hatchling … to come back to our area to undertake nesting."

Hatchling numbers boom

Environment and Tourism Minister Andrew Powell said nightly turtle tours had been popular among tourists wanting to learn about the animals.

"Our rangers are run off their feet every night trying to get people through our new Mon Repos centre," he said.

"It's a wonderful opportunity for people to become a champion in conservation for the turtles."

Visitors have been delighted by the experience.

"The kids absolutely loved it ... it's been beautiful," said Chelsey Maclean from the Gold Coast.

Ms Gatley said the hatchling season began in January and was already off to a busy start.

"We've basically been getting lots of clutches emerging each night since they kicked off," she said.

"The further we get into February, the hatchlings will increase.

"We get a lot of people tell us it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience that they're going to remember forever."

First published at ABC News, February 12, 2025

Microchip data for tens of thousands of Australian pets at risk as company goes dark

A microchip and registry company used by vets and animal shelters has not been contactable since December. 
(ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)

By Georgie Burgess

The microchip data of tens of thousands of pets across Australia is in doubt, with a major registration provider stopping operations and a warning animals could become untraceable.

HomeSafeID, a microchip and registry company used by vets and animal shelters since 2009, has not been contactable since December.

A warning on the home page of its website states that the company is "no longer communicating or paying for the hosting of this site, and so this site is likely to go offline in the future".

"You may want to investigate alternatives to your pet's registration, as once this site goes offline the registration data will no longer be available online or searchable via [microchip search engine] PetAddress," it reads.

Canberra-based vet Dr Michael Hayward, who is a spokesperson for the Australian Veterinary Association, said tens of thousands of animals would be affected if the website went offline.

"In that event, veterinarians, animal shelters, local pounds, local governments and all other interested parties will not be able to identify an animal based on its microchip number,"  Dr Hayward said.

In Victoria, legislation prevents pet data being moved from one database to another, and microchip registries must be licensed with that state's Agriculture Department.

The Victorian government has de-listed HomeSafeID as an approved animal registry, which means it is legal for a pet owner to transfer data to another approved registry.

The Victorian Agriculture Department website said pet owners would be contacted if they were registered with HomeSafeID.

Dr Hayward said the Victorian and Queensland governments kept data and may make it available to another provider.

"We don't know when that will occur. This issue has been brewing for months and the Victorian government hasn't announced what it will do with the data," he said.

"In the meantime, the logical course of action is that owners who wish to ensure their pet is recoverable in the event it goes missing should consider registering their pet and its microchip number with one of the other national private databases."

Shelter's letters returned to sender

Hobart cat shelter Ten Lives has used HomeSafeID since 2017, and has micro-chipped 9,000 cats during that time.

Ten Lives has been forced to change providers after losing contact with the company.

It is leading the way with informing cat owners about the issue.

Ten Lives president Paula Wriedt said the shelter had made inquiries to ASIC but had been unable to confirm the company's status.

"Letters sent to the director's address have been returned to sender,"  Ms Wreidt said.

"We are still investigating the matter, but we are not optimistic.

"This means our adoption clients may not have a current, searchable microchip registration sometime in the near future."

Paula Wreidt says Ten Lives cat shelter in Hobart is still investigating the matter, but isn't optimistic. 
(ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)

Ms Wriedt said Ten Lives had been speaking to other providers that were offering registry services for free, and was publishing details on its website.

Registries generally charge $12-$15 to transfer data.

Ms Wriedt said it was a reminder for all pet owners to make sure their pet's microchip details were up to date.

"This is a great opportunity for those clients who have had cats from Ten Lives for a number of years, and who may have moved house in that time, to change to a new provider, but also to update their address details," she said.

"Because when your cat gets lost, you want to be reunited with it as quickly as possible."

Dr Hayward said the issue highlighted the need for a central system.

"There is a national database that applies to livestock, but as is so often the case, issues relating to dogs and cats fall between the cracks and are legislated at a state government and local government level.

"There is no single responsible minister at a national level for these issues.

"It's left to the individual state and territories and sometimes individual local governments to manage these problems and that's a very unsatisfactory situation."

RSPCA advice for pet owners

RSPCA Australia said in most states and territories it was mandatory for cats and dogs to be microchipped.

A spokesperson said in Australia there were five private and two state government pet microchip registries.

"In some jurisdictions, like Victoria, your government authority may be in contact with you directly if your pet is registered with HomeSafe ID to assist you," the spokesperson said.

The RSPCA advises people to search PetAddress using your pet's microchip number.

"PetAddress searches the Australasian Animal Registry, Central Animal Records, and PetSafe and, if your pet's microchip is registered on one of these, it will redirect you to the database that lists your pet's microchip number so that you may contact them directly."

"If you cannot find your pet's registry by searching on PetAddress, you may like to contact your vet or microchip implanter to find out which database your pet is listed in.

"While currently these pet registrations are managed differently in some jurisdictions, the RSPCA advocates for the regulation and adoption of a nationally consistent protocol for the electronic identification of companion animals under state and territory legislation."

First published at ABC News, February 12, 2025

 

Canberra Contemporary names new director

Sophia Cai. Photo: Garry Trinh

Well-known Melbourne curator and arts writer Sophia Cai has is the next director of Canberra Contemporary, formerly Canberra Contemporary Art Space.

She takes up her new role on February 25.

Cai has more than 10 years’ experience curating and working in leadership roles in the arts, with research interests including Asian art histories, the intersections between contemporary art and craft, and art practices rooted in feminist and anti-racist work.

From 2023 to 2024, she was the artistic director of Bus Projects, as well as teaching at the Victorian College of Arts, University of Melbourne and Monash Art Design & Architecture, Monash University.

Her first book Clayful was published by Smith Street Books in 2024.

An ANU first-class honours graduate in in art history and curatorship, receiving the Janet Wilkie Art History Prize for her thesis, she also has a Masters in History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London.

First published at Canberra City News, February 12, 2025 

Freedom banners recall Wave Hill walk-off

One of the 10 Freedom Banners.

HELEN MUSA lists arts everywhere around the town and beyond in her latest Artsweek column.

An exhibition of 10 Gurindji freedom banners tell the Gurindji account of the famous walk-off led by Vincent Lingiari AM with Gurindji, Ngarinyman, Mudburra, Bilinara and Walpiri workers from Wave Hill Station in 1966. ANU School of Art & Design Gallery, until March 28.

The Indonesian embassy will hold a public batik day part of the Indonesia Modest Fashion Week Melbourne, supported by eight well-known Indonesian designers. Wisma Indonesia, 16 Monaro Crescent, Red Hill, February 15.

ArtsNational Molonglo Plains have Robert and Catherine Ketton for a session on the Life and Times of JMW Turner. Robert talks about Turner while Catherine takes to the easel. C3 Auditorium, Monaro Street, Queanbeyan, February 13. Bookings 0427 625 860.

The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia and the Canberra Writers Festival will partner once again for a series of linked screenings and discussions, kicking off with Jurassic Park and a discussion with Chris Flynn, author and critic Dinosaurs brought to Life from Ancient DNA. NFSA, February 16.

Dr Pat O’Grady and Prof Samantha Bennett, of the ANU School of Music, will launch O’Grady’s book Bee Gees, Process and Latent Elements in Music Production, Wig & Pen, ANU School of Music, February 19.

Heartbeats@The Hive  is a live music celebration of love at The Yellow House, Crawford Street, Queanbeyan, until midnight,  February 14.

Stage

• Tinderella is a one human comedy cabaret, created and performed by Alyce Fisher. The show exploring real-life tales of contemporary app dating culture. Tuggeranong Arts Centre, February 14.
• Queanbeyan Players are presenting Bubble Boy, a 2008 musical about a boy raised in a bubble-room for his own protection. Belconnen Community Theatre, February 14-23.

Galleries

• NatureArt Lab’s exhibition Resonance: Art as the Voice of Nature is now showing at Canberra Museum and Gallery. Until July 27.

• Sylvia Curley: Woman on a Mission is also showing at CMAG, looking at the story of a trailblazing woman who influenced generations of Canberra nurses. Until May 18.
• Jonas Balsaitis: Analogue is a survey exhibition of paintings, prints, and experimental films by Australian artist Jonas Balsaitis from 1968 to 2001, curated by Oscar Capezio. ANU Drill Hall Gallery, February 14-April 13.
• Nature artist Sharon Field is showing her world-famous scrolls featuring of drawing of plants and animals that we’re at risk of losing due to climate change. At Belconnen Arts Centre, February 7-March 23.
• Al Munro’s work spans painting, drawing and textile media to explore the connections of colour and pattern to art, craft and design and their links to geometry. ANCA Gallery, Rosevear Place Dickson, February 19-March 9.
• Moonsnake by Steven Holland shows yellow snake dream drawings with a selection of bronze serpent sculptures, alongside Studio and Table, a celebration of two years of collaborative art making together and John Brooks’s show Unconditional. Tuggeranong Arts Centre until April 5.

Concerts

• Ayse Göknur Shanal (voice), Matthew Tsalidis (violin), Karella Mitchell (cello) and John Martin (piano), with be joined by tango dancers Karina and Fabian Conca for a Valentine’s Day tango showcase. Smith’s Alternative, February 14.
• Fred Smith has a show called Domesticity. It draws on his 2020 album Domestic, which dealt with love and home life. Smith’s Alternative, Civic, February 14.
• The first Art Song Canberra concert for the year will feature soprano Jane Sheldon, joined at the piano by Jack Symonds. Wesley Music Centre, Forrest, February 16.
• Canberra Symphony Orchestra’s Chamber Classics series celebrates Valentine’s weekend with Folk Melodies. Albert Hall, February 16.
• Stephanie Jones, a virtuoso of the classical guitar now based in Germany, will perform Australian music, classics, Piazzolla and even bossa nova, Albert Hall, February 17.
• Soprano Rachel Mink performs with The Ellery Quartet in the next Wednesday Lunchtime Concert at Wesley Music Centre, February 19.

First published at Canberra City News, February 12, 2025 

The sisters are doing it for themselves

String sisters Kristine, left, and Margarita Balanas… their most formative years were in Latvia where, says
Kristine, the education is very strong. 

String sisters Kristine and Margarita Balanas. Arts editor HELEN MUSA looks at the hard work that goes into their performance.

From singing Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley in a small Latvian town to striding the stages of Berliner Philharmonie, Royal Albert Hall and Carnegie Hall, string sisters Kristine and Margarita Balanas are the perfect exemplars of how hard work pays off in the world of music. 

They’ll be at Snow Concert Hall soon after recitals in the Melbourne Recital Hall and the Sydney Opera House on their first Australian visit.

I catch up with violinist Kristine by WhatsApp as she’s passing through Brussels but in fact she, like her siblings, cellist Margarita and electric violinist Roberts, is based in London travelling around a lot but especially to Riga, the capital city of their native Latvia.

Busy bees, together with Roberts, they founded Balanas Classical, which promotes classical music through novel concerts, projects and charity masterclasses for young musicians.

Although they’ve all continued their careers in London, Kristine says, their most formative years were in Latvia where the education is very strong. Blessed with brilliant teachers and working very hard when they were little, there was no time for what she calls “silly things – not so much boys, but more like causing trouble, for instance burning down houses”.

Not much time for that because, unusually for classical music performers, they were all singing in a family rock ‘n’ roll band, “like the Tapp Family,” she agrees, only with different music – Chuck Berry and Elvis were their role models.

Their parents were largely self-taught but their dad, she says, had a very good musical ear.

Because of their relatively remote location in the small central Latvian town of Dobele during the 1990s, when there was not much material available, they spent a lot of time listening to rock music and writing the lyrics down from cassettes.

“I’m the oldest and we all went to the local music school then moved with our family to Riga, where our parents threw us into all kinds of artistic endeavours – art, dance folk dance; our mum was very much keen about providing an overall education,” she says.

After their basic studies, they went to the Royal Academy of Music in London, “a really fun time,” she says, praising the support the academy gives to anyone who is seriously ambitious or hard working.

“It changed our lives and it is still part of that,” Kristine says. Margarita went on to win a place in the professional diploma course in conducting there, but as Kristine says: “The academy is fantastic with opportunities,  but it doesn’t instantly get you work; that’s up to you.”

“What you do afterwards is important or you’ll be in an institution forever.”

Nonetheless, she made the best of friends there, a great support to her as she travels around the world.

All of the siblings pursue solo careers, Margaret as a conductor in Zürich and Kristine a solo violin career, this year with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra.

And Roberts, who combines his background in classical music with the sound worlds of pop, rock and funk, has won praise from Elton John for his solo violin.

The Balanas Sisters chose Winter and Summer from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons to perform when in Canberra, Kristina says, as they are favourites from among their own arrangements for string duo.

One of the highlights in the second half of the concert will be Latvian composer Pēteris Vask’s Castillo Interior, which commemorates a rare 16th-century woman.

“It’s very moving,” she says, “Vask has heard us play it… he is a very spiritual person, it’s a lot about finding beauty, undamaged by anything.”

When in Sydney, the Balanas Sisters will be playing two Australian compositions, Matthew Hindson’s Always on Time, and Anne Cawrse’s Sanctuary, but they’re not on the program for Canberra.

That, Kristine hastens to assure me, is because they were cramming a lot in – but they will definitely do some Australian compositions for the encore.

The Balanas Sisters, Snow Concert Hall, February 20.

First published at Canberra City News, February 12, 2025

Led Zeppelin superstars share their story in the rock band's first fully authorised documentary

Becoming Led Zeppelin charts the iconic band's early years. (Supplied: Madman Entertainment)

By Luke Goodsell

They were one of history's biggest bands, in every sense of the word — commercially, sonically and mythically monumental, the patron dark saints to generations of suburban wastoids, fantasy nerds and guitar-shop enthusiasts the world over.

Watching Led Zeppelin give their first English performance at London's Playhouse Theatre in March 1969, however, their super-stardom hardly seems preordained.

As the band tears into the seismic 'Communication Breakdown', the camera captures shots of audience members plugging their ears, chatting awkwardly and wondering just what to make of all this hammer-of-the-gods racket. A few people can be seen tapping their feet. Polite applause follows. To paraphrase Marty McFly, their kids were gonna love it.

The moment is writ large in the engrossing new documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin, in which vocalist Robert Plant, bassist John Paul Jones, and musical magus Jimmy Page — together with late drummer John Bonham, appearing via a never-before-heard audio interview — convene to trace their paths from post-war English kids to rock 'n' roll titans.

As the band's first official, fully authorised documentary, it skews family-friendly — there's no mention of groupies, jailbait girlfriends or communion with the dark lord, and the movie ends before the band's notorious 70s excesses. At the same time, and unlike so many fame-obsessed rock docs, there's a dedicated focus on the music itself — as exclusively recounted by the people who made it.

An almost tender sense of reverie grips Page, his snow-white hair pulled back into a guru ponytail, as he views a clip of himself as a clean-cut adolescent performing on the BBC in 1958.

Already something of a guitar virtuoso, he would go on to become a valued session player across scores of recordings in the 60s, including tracks from The Rolling Stones, The Who and on Shirley Bassey's 'Goldfinger'. The classic Bond theme's orchestra also featured Jones, a former teenage church organist who would cross paths with Page in studio sessions. No wonder the band's musical palette was so rich.

Meanwhile, Bonham and Plant — who was considering a career in chartered accountancy, of all things — connected through the local band scene up north. It was a meeting that would prove fateful when Zeppelin, morphing from Page's version of The Yardbirds, was recruiting a vocalist in 1968.

"I was expecting some soul singer," says Jones of first meeting singer Robert Plant, "and here was this screaming maniac."

Director Bernard MacMahon, a specialist in documentaries on American folk and blues, is keenly attuned to Zeppelin's musical lineage, taking time to highlight the band's sonic influences — particularly the way they borrowed, and re-sculpted, the sounds of their Black heroes.

"The beginnings of stories are the most informative to the young audience, the most helpful and the most inspiring,"
director Bernard MacMahon told IMAX about focusing the documentary on the band's early years.   
(Supplied: Madman Entertainment)

Page recalls the American rock'n'roll of his childhood as seeming like "electricity coming from Mars", while Plant says hearing Little Richard was akin to "the syringe in the arm, forever". On recording Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta Love', which famously swipes a Willie Dixon verse, he says: "I was finding the best bits of Black music and putting them through the wringer."

For Bonham, it was the rhythm section of James Brown's band. "I'm gonna get that sound," he says. Later, Jones recounts a moment in which the Godfather of Soul's drummers were astonished during a festival sound check as 'Bonzo' warmed up the kit.

While there likely won't be any revelations for the hardcore Zeppelin fan, the documentary is punchy and formally striking, a combination of vividly restored archival footage and contemporary media clips that approaches the sensory experience of Bowie’s Moorage Daydream.

Watching Page summon lightning from his guitar with a violin bow, during a performance of 'Dazed and Confused', is an almost supernatural experience — especially in cavernous, full-tilt IMAX.

Elsewhere, MacMahon and editor Dan Gitlin craft explosive montages that capture Zeppelin's rise as the 60s' dreams of peace and love were going up in a puff of pot smoke. If not exactly the catalyst for the demise of the decade, the band were certainly its soundtrack — the irresistible sound of doom as the dark armies rode for Mordor.

Whatever was in the air, it must have irritated rock critics, who were notoriously hostile to Zeppelin.

Reviewing the band's debut record, Rolling Stone deemed Page, "a very limited producer and a writer of weak, unimaginative songs" and dismissed Plant's singing, "strained and unconvincing shouting".

Watching the documentary it's hard to imagine what critics were thinking, though no doubt gripes about authenticity — and the long, ignominious tradition of white rockers swiping blues riffs — played a hand in their rancour.

Whatever the case, the band has long been enshrined in the classic rock firmament. And in conversation, Page, Plant and Jones are surely three of the most genteel, well-adjusted geezers to ever have mainlined the seamier side of 70s rock excess — though Page remains fond of the occasional orphic aside.

"This is a guitar that takes a full journey," he says of the instrument passed on to him by Jeff Beck, "Like Excalibur, the mythical sword."

First published at ABC News, February 11, 2025