Mindil Beach and Fannie Bay

Jeanette, a friend from Alice Springs is in Darwin to do some classes at the University, so I met her tonight, a quick bite to eat at Mindil Beach and a walk around where we saw this indigenous artist

then a sunset drink at the Darwin Sailing Club.

Melbourne trip

I had a brief trip this weekend past to Melbourne to attend a seminar at the State Library of Victoria to hear how Victorian and other public libraries are handling the hard to reach clients,including people from the Horn of Africa. Malcolm Anderson accompanied me to the seminar, which was well worth attending.


Thirteen percent of Victorians have been identified in Libraries Building Communities Report 3: Bridging the Gaps who could benefit significantly from the use of their public libraries, but are not users for a variety of reasons – the ‘hard to reach’ group. See the reports here

The Connecting with the Community research took those findings a step further and focused on five target groups to investigate barriers to use. The resulting report has highlighted a lot of great initiatives Victorian and interstate public libraries have implemented to engage with community members and groups considered ‘hard to reach’. The research targeted five groups: Indigenous Australians, disadvantaged young people, Horn of Africa communities, low income families and vulnerable learners. The latest Report is available here.

I met Shane Cathcart from the City of West Torrens who was a great speaker and someone who I have been communicating with over our own hard to reach clients!
His library team have been working with Sudanese refugees and their efforts have won won awards. See his paper here

The seminar was quite welll attended with I understand 86 attendees. The catering and organisation was great as was the the fact it was free to attend!!

It was good also to take a look around the SLV building and displays especially
The Medieval Imagination exhibition

A favourite excursion

Sunday morning at Camberwell there is a great flea market run by the local Rotary Club of Balwyn. It took a train and a tram to get there from Devon Meadows via Cranbourne.



Its so full of stalls with a huge range of things, tools books clothes collectibles and buskers.

A quick trip to Melbourne

After leaving Darwin at 2.30 this morning I was met by Malcolm Anderson, former colleague and team member form CDU. We met a lifelong friend of his David Murray-Smith and we enjoyed a breakfast at Fitzroy


David mentioned that just down the road there was mural by the late graffiti artist Keith Haring that Malcolm then took me to see.(see this website for more information) and also this 2004 article from The Age

This shot is tilted as I had to put the camera through a locked gate!


There is even an official website for kids see this link

Mindil Beach Thursday

I remain astounded at the crowds already and the Dry season has only just started. Many people were enjoying the sunset as I arrived.

Visit to the Southern Vales

In dire need for rest and recuperation after starting a new job , I traveled down to Adelaide for a long weekend. Barbara picked me up, breakfast at the Adelaide Central Market and then a trip to Iron Bank to visit her parents. Max senior is still very unwell so it was good to chat to him again. Then we gathered up her sisters and had a great few hours visiting the Southern Vales wineries, including Tapestry,Hugo's, Chapel Hill and Wirra Wirra.



Christine's husband Stan and Joanne's Wayne,joined us for a meal at the Three Brothers Arms Hotel at Macclesfield which I have wanted to try for years.

Then a mad game of pool at Stan and Christine's




Sunday we took Max jnr. and Chloe to Glenelg.


They enjoyed riding a camel and pony respectively


On Monday before I traveled back to Adelaide we had lunch at Millies Cafe in Mt Barker. Clearly young Chloe enjoyed her sausage roll and sauce!!

and then met elder son Dave for a meal before a late night flight getting home at 3 am!

Mindil Beach Market on again

Mindil beach has fired up again. On Thursday night I took a quick look (There were 15,000 people there then!) before going to a gallery opening of an exhibition of "Imagine the Art of John Lennon" See these links for information. and another link (Paranoid about being sued by Yoko!!)
I joined Hughie there again tonight.. again busy with a large crowd and heaps of colour and photo opportunities. There was a chap who we have seen before who walks around with a Black Cockatoo and the usual busker's.