HomeNewsBundaberg Now Podcast #22

Bundaberg Now Podcast #22

In today’s episode we learn about fun library events, local aquatic weeds, Mzaza‘s upcoming concert and hear our final Art as an Act of Optimism song from Andrew Udal.

Local news highlights include construction of traffic signals on Branyan Drive, Avoca Road and Dittman Road, National Water Week, Bundaberg Lifeline’s 40th birthday and more.

You can also listen on Google, Apple, Spotify and TuneIn.

Podcast transcript

Dana Maggacis 0:06
Hello and welcome to the weekly Bundaberg Now podcast. I’m Dana Maggacis from Bundaberg Regional Council, and today we have another interesting programme with news and information from across the Bundaberg Region. Soon we’ll hear about fun events at the Bundaberg Library, local aquatic weeds, Mzaza’s upcoming concert and the final tune from Art as an Act of Optimism. But first, here’s Michael Gorey with the news headlines.

Michael Gorey 0:35
Thank you, Dana. Construction has started to install traffic signals on Branyan Drive, Dittman Road and Avoca Road. Long time local resident Bernie Randall says it will improve safety for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. It’s National Water Week and Bundaberg Regional Council hopes to raise awareness about water conservation and management. Here’s Water Services Branch Manager Narelle D’Amico.

Narelle D’Amico 1:01
Thinking around the ways that you shower, so instead of you know, long, languishing showers like my teenagers love to do, 10, 15 minutes, stick to showers of three to five minutes would be a key area of saving water.

Michael Gorey 1:12
Bundaberg Lifeline is 40 years old this week. The organisation formed in 1980 and provides 24 hour counselling to those in need. The global pandemic has made 2020 its busiest year ever. Bundaberg grown sweet potatoes are going Australia wide and a new packaged product as sweet potato chips. Let’s hear from Sweet Potatoes Australia Chief Executive, Damian Botha.

Damien Botha 1:37
It’s very exciting the partnership that we’ve actually created with Simplot Australia. So as manufacturer of Edgell straight cut chips, Sweet Potatoes Australia’s been working with Simplot for around the last 18 months, where we’ve got to the final product which is now available and heading out to a range of hospitality venues across the country.

Michael Gorey 1:56
A Bundaberg man one $500,000 with an instant scratchet ticket this week, bought from Hinkler Lucky Lotto. He now plans to pay off his mortgage and help his family. Lucky man. Now let’s hear a bit more about National Water Week, including no wipes in the pipes, then back to you, Dana.

Narelle D’Amico 2:15
Yeah, so we have some very interesting things. We have everything from underwear right through to the delightful flushable wipes and I’m hope people have heard the stories around the fact that they are not so flushable and that they do collect together in pump stations and create problems with our pumps. They cause them to block which creates operational problems that residents will feel because we see the wastewater build up in the system, so you can’t flush the toilets, and your toilets gurgle etc. Yeah, so it means when those events happen, we have to send operators out there to remove them and to maintain the pumps, which means they can be damaged to the the impellers the the way the pumps operate, but also after our call outs and exposure of our team to, to that environment having to remove those. So it comes at a high cost to us, ends up making what we call a fatberg, so they become big clumps of basically like islands floating islands, and so the treatment process isn’t able to operate as well and it collects up in the inlet works, which means we can potentially have overflows to plants and not least directs our operators have to manually remove them from the inlet of the work. So that’s not something that I think everybody should do.

Dana Maggacis 3:31
Now, here’s a little bit about some fun events our libraries team have put together.

Stephen Harris 3:36
Hi it’s Stephen from Bundaberg Regional Libraries, and I’m here to talk about our upcoming gaming event ‘Among Us’. So what is ‘Among Us’? Among Us is an online multiplayer mystery game that takes place in a space themed setting where players take on one of two roles, either crew mates or imposters. So the goal of the crew mates is to identify the imposters, eliminate them and complete tasks around the spaceship. The imposters goal is to eliminate the crewmates before the crew complete all their assignments. Imposters are discovered through a discussion and voting system and are then removed from the game and ejected into space. This event takes place online on Wednesday, 4 of November at 3:30pm. You can find tickets on our Facebook page. We’ll be streaming it via Twitch TV so you can see the fun and hear all of our witty comments.

The other event I’d like to talk about is our upcoming film club on Tuesday the 27th of October at 12pm. The film we’ll be discussing is ‘Night Tied’. The 1961 fantasy film with Dennis Hopper in his first starring role. The tagline of the film is ‘lovers caught in a dark tide of sinister terror’. We’ll have a guest speaker for the discussion. Filmmaker, Producer, Author and Researcher, Andrew Loveold, colt movie guru. It’s sure to be an interesting chat. Night tide is available to view via the library’s free streaming service and canopy, which you can find on our website, and the full chat is via zoom. Tickets are available through Facebook and Eventbrite. Hope to see you there. Ciao for now. Bye.

Dana Maggacis 5:54
Thanks Stephen. Over to Ro and a guest from our Parks, Sport and Natural Environment Team to teach us about aquatic weeds in our region.

Roana O’Neill 6:02
Hi everyone. I’m talking with Peter Brightwell, Bundaberg Regional Council’s Aquatic Weeds Contractor. Peter can you tell me about what problem weeds we have in our waterways?

Peter Brightwell 6:11
Our four main weeds that we do have a problem with are Hymenachne, Salvinia, Water Lettuce and Water Hyacinth.

Roana O’Neill 6:20
And where abouts are these weeds located in our Region?

Peter Brightwell 6:23
They’re in the Burnett River, Paradise Dam and the Kolan River.

Roana O’Neill 6:28
And why are these weeds a problem?

Peter Brightwell 6:30
When the weeds get out of control, they can actually choke the river system, they can reduce oxygen in the river, which causes a fish kill, and also when we have floods and routes of weed will float down the river system and cause damage to structures lower down.

Roana O’Neill 6:47
So what methods to control the use to control these aquatic weeds?

Peter Brightwell 6:51
On Water hyacinth and Hymenachne, we can actually chemically spray those weeds. On Salvinia, we actually have a bio control, which is actually a little beetle which eats the Salvinia and that sinks to the bottom of the river.

Roana O’Neill 7:05
And are people allowed to remove aquatic weeds from the river system?

Peter Brightwell 7:09
Removing aquatic weeds from river system is quite illegal to do that as they are a pest. A lot of people like to take them home and put them in their ponds, for their aquariums to make their fish safe and healthy, but when they get out of control, they seem to want to throw them back into the river system or into the dams and thus causing another problem.

Roana O’Neill 7:32
So people think that they have aquatic weeds on their property or in their river systems, who can they contact for help in identification of the weeds and just to get further information?

Peter Brightwell 7:43
Council actually have four Land Protection Officers, one in Childers, one in Gin Gin and two in Bundaberg and they can actually contact them on the Council number which is 1300 883 699.

Roana O’Neill 7:59
Thanks Peter.

Peter Brightwell 8:00
Thank you.

Dana Maggacis 8:01
Thanks Ro and Peter. Now here’s a shout out from the band Mzaza who have an upcoming concert at Moncrieff Entertainment Centre.

Arts Bundaberg Advertisement 8:09
The Moncrieff Entertainment Centre, Bundaberg Regional Galleries and Bundaberg Regional Libraries and together we’re Arts Bundaberg. We love the arts just as much as you do, and whether you’re a book lover, an art lover, or a theatre lover, the Arts and Cultural Services of the Bundaberg Regional Council are connecting locals all in one place. To keep up to date with the things you love, jump online to artsbundaberg.com.au

Pauline from Mzaza 8:39
Hello Bundy, this is Pauline from Mzaza, and I cannot wait to bring our brand new show ‘The birth and death of stars’ to the Moncrieff Entertainment Centre on the 22nd of October. The new show is titled after our newest album, and it looks at lots of themes around astronomy and mythology, and of course it brings to life our music which is very much influenced by old European traditions but turns them into something new and contemporary and, and something that represents the cultural mix of Australia today or at least we like to think so. It’s very exotic, we’ve got accordion, double bass, violin shacman, which is a Persian spike fiddle. We have the pacussion, we have guitar and of course lots and lots of vocals in both French and English, and the way that we’ve really brought our compositions to life this time around is by working quite deeply into the production of the show and making it really a lot more theatrical. And the way that people have been describing it, is that it’s a show that’s engaging, meaningful, vibrant, creative, poetic and amazing, which of course is music to our ears, but we really hope that you like it just as much. We have used some elements like projections, we’ve worked with this amazing collage animator from Finland, Laura Multichain, and to do some projections that bring some of the songs to life, we’ve also worked with a director called Benjamin Napton, and who’s really sort of influenced the lighting and the staging of the show, so it’s quite an unusual piece, and what we really hope is that those themes and those sounds, bring to people some joy, and some escapism on a really special journey through the ether after what has been a very tough year for everyone for sure so it’s been amazing to be on the road with this show, we’ve already performed it in quite a few venues around Queensland, but also for Brisbane festival where I was premiered at the Tivoli and that all went great guns and so far, we’ve had nothing but really positive comments and reviews, which is of course heartwarming. So don’t wait too long. Grab your tickets and come and catch up with us on the 22nd of October. See you soon Bundy.

Dana Maggacis 11:04
That’s right folks, it is not too late to grab your tickets to Mzazas ‘birth and death of stars’ live at the Moncrieff on Thursday the 22nd of October after sellout shows in Brisfest 2020, this is an eclectic exotic musical experience you don’t want to miss. Head to artsbundaberg.com.au to book now.

Finally, we have another great tune. The Arts and Cultural Services Team has been working with local artists through Regional Arts Development Fund to showcase their original work right here on the Bundaberg Now podcast. A total of 11 artists were featured throughout the past weeks, and you can find the profiles of these featured artists on the Arts Bundaberg website. This week we will hear from our last artist, Andrew Udal.

Andrew Udal 11:50
Greetings. My name is Andrew and I am a 17 year old composer currently making a name in the film and game industry for music. Over the past two years of my composing life, I have been privileged enough to obtain many opportunities in the world of composing, including being the only Australian to make finals for the 2019 International Commonwealth Resounds Composing Awards, and scoring for our very own Bundy film ‘From the depths, where it all began’. I’ve been privileged enough to earn mentorships through topology, ontology, Commonwealth resounds, and the launchpad programme organised by topology. The last school holidays, I was fortunate enough to have one of my own compositions performed by the Queensland Youth Orchestra in Brisbane as part of the Ontology National Fanfare Competition. This piece that I’ve been composed is called Vados, which is for a game on the hit platform Roblox. The piece describes a Planet, fierce in nature and species, with the brass dominating most of the piece, similar to most Star Wars pieces, which this planet comes from. Cello is among the most important instruments creating the enchanting atmosphere in conjunction with the flutes playing in a higher register. This piece is one of my many compositions I have composed for the Star Wars genre, with over 27 pieces being composed for a major game getting released on the platform called ‘Galactic Conquest’. I’m currently a senior developer for them and have eight or so pieces on their YouTube channel called Galactic Conquest. This piece has an unfinished ending, which is due to the nature of the game, music being repetitive in nature. Although the piece itself isn’t repetitive, it must still be livable for the game. Its grand, director objectives and aims to transform audiences into the world of others. Thank you

Arts Bundaberg Advertisement 17:41
Art as an Act of Optimism the podcast series brought to you by the Regional Arts Development Fund, a partnership between the Queensland Government and Bundaberg Regional Council to support local Arts and Culture in Regional Queensland. Keep listening to the Bundaberg Now podcast to discover more talented artists within our region. To keep up to date with all things arts, jump online to Arts bundaberg.com.au.

Dana Maggacis 18:09
That’s all for today. We hope you enjoyed the programme. Join us next week for more news and stories from the Bundaberg Region. Bye for now.

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