Streets of Your Town

This episode of Streets of Your Town comes to you (again!) from the streets of the Woodford Folk Festival, where the sublime singing of Punjabi Australian singer and dancer Parvyn Kaur Singh drew me into her orbit. As it turns out Parvyn had just completed a cross country adventure from her South Australian home, bringing all her family up in her Subaru wagon so she could perform at the Festival....

Callan Purcell is taking on one of the most renowned roles in musical theatre - Aaron Burr - in the Brisbane season of the Australian production of the worldwide phenomenon that is Hamilton. Aaron Burr is Hamilton’s nemesis in the show, and this young Indigenous performer tells me on Streets of Your Town how he is rising to the challenge of fleshing out this pivotal character. He has shown his per...

This episode of Streets of Your Town comes to you from the streets of the renowned Woodford Folk Festival, an annual gathering in the week leading up to New Years Day that transforms this peaceful rural idyll into a thriving community of more than 130 thousand people, larger than the nearest Sunshine Coast town of Nambour. As I wandered through the many stages on this land now known as Woodfordia,...

Performing in Six the Musical’s Australian tour is the culmination of a lifelong journey for Queensland Conservatorium graduate Vidya Makan, and the realisation of a dream that she could be accepted for her true self on stage. The critically acclaimed Brisbane actor, singer and composer/lyricist has forged her way quickly into the ultra competitive world of musical theatre not only as a performer,...

In this week’s Streets of Your Town podcast I speak to an Australian treasure. The thrill of performing has never left Marcia Hines, not since she started singing in her church choir as a child in Boston more than 60 years ago. She first moved to Australia from Boston to Sydney at just 16 years old, to star in the Australian production of Hair. Since then, she’s become one of Australia’s most belo...

Sometimes you meet someone whose dedication to their craft is so meticulous and thorough, you just have to find out what drives their passion. So it was with international award winning photographer Erick Regnard. He and his twin brother Ian have travelled the world doing high-end art and advertising photography.  They heard about the wonders of underwater photography in Niue, a tiny island off To...

This episode of Streets of Your Town is a story of hope and reconciliation, through science. The people of the Torres Strait Islands in far north Queensland have known for thousands upon thousand of years how their people have journeyed far across the Coral Sea, and now - finally - that First Nations knowledge is being more widely recognised. The Queensland Museum exhibition Connections Across the...

It’s not often you talk to someone whose love for what they do is so infectious that it draws you into their world and makes you want to be part of it. That was how I felt after speaking with Maestro Umberto Clerici - the world renowned cellist with a vision to take the music of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra to the world stage. As he tells us on this episode of Streets of Your Town, he defied...

Rising from impoverished beginnings in communist China, to international ballet dancer and author of best selling autobiography Mao’s Last Dancer, Li Cunxin has lived an enormous life on stages around the world. But as he tells us on this episode of Streets of Your Town, he is still full of gratitude for the opportunities he’s been able to embrace, particularly his present role as Arti...

Nearly two decades on from her meteoric rise to fame with her surprise Australian Idol win at just 16 years of age, Casey Donovan is enjoying a renaissance in her musical career. She’s on a national tour around Australia starring as Judy Bernly in the musical production of 9 to 5, attracting many accolades, with spontaneous standing ovations after her showstopper solo  Get Out and...

Reviving Indigenous languages through song is the driving force for Rochelle Pitt-Watson’s music. Her Quandamooka and Meriam heritage underlie all of her songs, and she hopes that performing them brings some relief from the stresses of these post-covid times. Rochelle is one of the First Nations artists taking centre stage at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in May for Clancestry—...

This week on Streets of Your Town, we speak to renowned author and proud Wiradjuri woman Dr Anita Heiss, who is a special guest of the 60th Brisbane Writers Festival coming up in May.  It's a pivotal year for Anita, as its ten years since the original edition of her book "Amy I Black Enough For You" was released, and it's also the 60th anniversary of the festival itself. In Brisbane, and many...

I figured we all need some light and hope in the world right now, so I’m bringing Streets of Your Town to you from Daylesford in regional Victoria, where the Chill Out Festival takes over the town from March 10 to 14. Many of you will know plenty about the party that is Sydney Mardi Gras. What you may not know is that little Daylesford is on the map for its own pride festival, which this yea...

Karen Jacobsen's voice is familiar to the users of more than a billion devices worldwide, as the voice of Siri. But her movements in the past year are less well known than her voice, which has directed people to their destination through GPS devices around the globe. The pandemic meant she picked up from her home of 20 years in New York, and returned to Australia. She tells us on Streets of Your T...

While many people have heard of the Torres Strait Islands at the northern tip of Australia, not as many know the fascinating history and influence this archipelago paradise has played in Australia's history and future. From the tip of Cape York to the borders of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, the Torres Strait—or now increasingly known as Zenadth Kes—covers an area of more 200 islands...

Today we're going to North Stradbroke Island in the sparkling jewel that is Moreton Bay in Queensland’s south-east. It’s known as "Straddie" to some. But to the Quandamooka Aboriginal people, who have a connection to the island going back more than 20,000 years, it is known it as Minjerribah, meaning “island in the sun”. Delvene Cockatoo-Collins is a First Nations artist ba...

"Tucked away in the hustle and relentless movement of Cairns’ famous Rusty’s Markets on Sheridan Street, is a local institution.  Billy’s coffee has its own loyal gathering of locals every market day, and behind the coffee machine coordinating the barista symphony is the ever smiling Billy Hoade. He’s been serving up coffee from his beloved Papua New Guinea for more th...

This episode of Streets of Your Town straddles two continents on opposite sides of the world - Ireland and Australia. Where the wild Atlantic ocean whips the rocky cliffs of Ireland’s west coast, the people of the small county of Mayo are contemplating whether they can overcome a hoo doo of 70 years. Is it a Coincidence or a curse? I delve into the mystery of how this county has not won an A...

Across the sparkling Trinity Inlet that separates Cairns from the southern beaches beyond, is a small Indigenous community that’s successfully renewed its sacred country from years of degradation, and is now on the cusp of great success. Mandingalbay Yidinji country straddles two great world heritage areas in far north Queensland, the Wet Tropics and the Great Barrier Reef, stretching out to...

This week in Bundaberg, on Queensland’s central Coast, a small but significant ceremony started to turn a long history of exploitation and shame around. And we bring it to you on this episode of Streets of Your Town. Bundaberg Mayor Jack Dempsey, took the step of becoming the first representative of any government in Australia, to say sorry for blackbirding, the practice where more than...

This week on Streets of Your Town we feature the extraordinary project, called Scattered People. The documentary was a six year labour of love, following two young Iranian asylum seekers navigating Australia’s immigration detention system, and the unexpected connections they make through music. Musicians such as John Butler, Missy Higgins, Dan Sultan, Archie Roach, Baker Boy, Michael Franti, and K...

In efforts to bring you a little lock down cheer and hope in the world, in this episode of Streets of Your Town we’ll meet a group of people who cook home made meals for the homeless, rain, hail, or pandemic shine. "Dig In" hasn’t missed a single service to the people who eagerly await their homely meal, with hundreds of volunteers on the roster to cook every Saturday since it was started by four...

It’s a giant grass that many Australians would be familiar with seeing, but not so familiar with eating. When properly prepared, Bamboo is nutrient-rich, and is in fact a staple of many Asian country’s diets. Big Heart Bamboo founder, farmer and entrepreneur Becky Dart is forging a new industry on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast - growing, cooking and preserving bamboo to eat. We walk around her bambo...

As part of Reconciliation Week in Australia, Streets of Your Town speaks to trailblazing Aboriginal entrepreneur and proud Wiradyuri man Birrunga Wiradyuri. His gallery and dining experience in the heart of Brisbane, aptly named Birrunga, has overcome the challenges of COVID to continue as the only Indigenous-owned and operated commercial Cultural hub in Meanjin, otherwise known as the Brisbane CB...

While Australia’s history of blackbirding is becoming more well known and understood, there are many local histories that are only now coming to light. It’s estimated more than 62,000 Melanesians were brought to Australia to work as indentured labour on farms between 1863 and 1904. A garden and gathering place nestled peacefully next to the Caboolture River at North Harbour just north of Brisbane,...