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Beatson Park, Wollongong

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Google street view The Spreading Figtree, Beatson Park, 5 May 2011. Photo: Neil Whitfield. Why, and what for? During November 2024 the writer was contacted regarding the history of Beatson Park, Wollongong. This small public reserve is located on the northern side of Crown Street, the main arterial road through the city. It contains a magnificent Moreton Bay figtree and is surrounded on three sides by buildings, with a busy road on the fourth, to the south. The correspondent had spent some time there with a child and was interested in the site's historical background - when was it set aside? What was it set aside for? Who was Beatson? And what of the magnificent figtree located at its very heart? Some of these questions will be answered below. According to information provided by Wollongong City Council , J.A. Beatson Park is a Crown Reserve and Public Park, located between 370 and 372 Crown Street, Wollongong. Within the reserve there is a picnic table, a park sign, fencing,
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Philippe Mora - artist, film maker and Australian expat

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The following are archived transcripts of some published interviews with, and articles by, Australian-born and United States resident Philippe Mora. Refer to the associated links to the complete, illustrated articles and to the reference section for additional material. Philippe Mora, Culture Shock: Australians in London in the sixties , 2003. [Article] Marc Mohan, Inside the "Mind of Mora": Director Philippe Mora visits Portland for his first-ever American retrospective ,  October 2023. [Interview] Chris Donner,  This bizarrely captivating 35-year-old sci-fi film is based on an unbelievably true story , November 2024. [Article] --------------------- Articles * Philippe Mora, Culture Shock: Australians in London in the sixties, Art Monthly Australia , 156, December 2002 - February 2003, 2003. It’s an old canard that if you remember the sixties, you weren’t there. I do remember. My sixties, as for many others, drifted into the early seventies. Some cultural commentat
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The 14th Dalai Lama & the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT)

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Tibet: Archive | Australian Greens Tibet Policy | Edinburgh 2005 | Free Tibet! Wollongong | New Kadampa Tradition | NXIVM cult | Tibet on Film | Tibetfest 2006 | Tibetfest06 - Karma Phuntsok | Tibet Support Groups in Australia | Tokyo 2008 | Wollongong Dharma Collective | 1.  Om mane padme om The present writer is a lucky individual. As a member of the Australian Federal parliament between 2002-2004, and an Australian Green, the writer was privileged on three occasions to meet with, or be in the presence of, His Holiness the 14th Dalia Lama, Tenzin Gyatso (b.1940). Those occasions were: (1) a packed room as part of a press conference followed later by (2) a meet & greet with politicians from around the world at the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh, on 19 November 2006 (see image opposite); and (3) in a hotel in Sydney during 2007 as MC for a meeting between His Holiness and a group of staff, students and parents from Smith's Hil
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The art of Aunty Julie Freeman

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Shoalhaven: |  Aunty Julie Freeman art  |  Australian First Nations research  |  Berry' Frankenstein & Arawarra  |  Cullunghutti - Sacred Mountain  |  Gooloo Creek, Conjola  |  Mickey of Ulladulla  |  Mount Gigenbullen  |  Byamee's Hands, Shoalhaven River  |  Ulladulla Mission  |  Words  | Aunty Julie Freeman, Nir-ing djamaru (Rush cutters) , 2024. On Saturday, 2 November 2024, the Bundanon Art Museum will celebrate the opening of the exhibition bagan bariwariganyan: echoes of country , a creative collaboration between Gweagal / Wandiwandian storyteller and artist Aunty Julie Freeman, leading Walbunja / Ngarigo artist Aunty Cheryl Davison, and Wiradyuri / Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones. It will run through to 9 February 2025 and include Aunty Julie's first solo exhibition. The present writer, being a non-Indigenous Illawarra historian, had visited Aunty Julie at Wreck Bay during April 2024 to discuss Shoalhaven Indigenous cultural heritage issues, in associatio
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