Streets of Your Town

DM Podcasts

Join dual Walkley award winning Wandering Journo Nance Haxton in conversation with authentic, sometimes eclectic, and often pre-eminent Australians about the streets of their town. Stories about where they grew up, the environment they live, and what inspires them. Go on an audio journey with Nance highlighting a different slice of Australian life each episode. Find all of Nance Haxton's links and work https://lnk.to/p2NSuH (HERE)

  1. 5d ago

    Mother Funkers go Outback for the first episode of Streets of Your Town - The Outback Project!

    And now to the first episode of the special Streets of Your Town series - The Outback Project. Fittingly I recorded this intro at the beautiful outback town of Barcaldine - hopefully you can hear those sounds of birds, outback winds, and road train trucks in the background as I gather everything into Mildred the cantankerous kombi for today’s travels. But firstly for this launch episode - we head back to where the journey began - for an outback interview from Brisbane. Remote outback Queensland is providing the perfect backdrop to a hilarious character-driven mockumentary following four female cabaret performers, as they risk everything for their big break. Mother Funkers Go Outback evolved out of the real life adventures of comedian Jenny Wynter and her Funny Mummies tours through regional towns. Director Katrina Channels brought the story arc when she envisioned the storyline of a desperate performer being scammed by her charismatic manager. From there, as they learnt on the road, anything can happen. Let’s get straight into Jenny and Katrina’s fantastic chat with us on Streets of Your Town - talking about how sometimes the best ideas can evolve organically from friendship, and even the tiniest of tiny budgets can’t stop them. And as you’ll hear in this interview - they’re taking the trailer for their dream mockumentary to Winton for the Vision Splendid Outback Film Festival - just a casual 15 hour drive from Brisbane - to raise support for the next stage of production. For more shownotes and links go to my Streets of Your Town digital magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com

    24 min
  2. 5d ago

    The importance of community legal centres in Caxton's 50th year

    It’s a dilemma faced by many people - where to go for justice when all your legal avenues are exhausted - mainly because of your financial situation. In Australia, there is a broad grassroots social movement that responds to this enduring problem - out of the belief that the legal system is inaccessible to many people, and that too often it operates without challenge or scrutiny. Caxton Community Legal Centre is celebrating its 50th year of practice, evolving from somewhat tenuous beginnings to now becoming Queensland’s oldest and largest community legal centre. But what fascinated me about the way that Caxton operates, is its reliance on a highly skilled volunteer base. Some of the biggest legal names in the state have given their time at Caxton over the years - often on top of their own casework - to ensure that the law is accessible to everyone - particularly those excluded from power. When it first started, Caxton operated for just two hours every Monday night. Today there’s more than 80 employed staff supported by more than 200 volunteers, assisting about 30 thousand people each year with free legal help and social support. Two veterans of the service are joining us on Streets of Your Town today, Ros Williams who worked for 30 years as a solicitor and part of Caxton’s General Law Team, and Phil Hall, who has recently risen from being a regular volunteer to becoming Legal Practice Director. They both have some fascinating insights into the important role of community legal centres in Queensland and around the country, where Human Rights guide decision making on everyday realities. For more shownotes and links go to my Streets of Your Town digital magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com

    32 min
  3. Jun 17

    Gold Coast Seaway celebrating 40 years of world first infrastructure

    It’s not often we celebrate a world first feat of engineering that underpins the society surrounding it. But today on Streets of Your Town, we pay tribute to a technological triumph built four decades ago at the Gold Coast, and still going strong today, which is now being recognised as one of the most important developments in the region’s history. Before the Gold Coast Seaway was built, the notorious Southport Bar was a shallow, dangerous and ever-changing sandbar that made navigation hazardous and caused numerous boating accidents. But a permanent sand bypass system which took two years to build, became a key part of stabilising the Nerang River mouth, enabling this nightmarish stretch of sand to become the main navigation entrance from the Pacific Ocean to the Gold Coast Broadwater. On this episode of Streets of Your Town we hear a bit of this history, from one of the original engineers on the project who was there to celebrate its 40th anniversary at a special ceremony at the Sand Pumping Jetty that forms a central part of the project. Dean Patterson tells us how he transformed his surfer experience growing up on this golden stretch of sand in the 1950s into an intricate understanding of interface of tide and sand, and how to ensure humans are safe in that environment. We also hear from Gold Coast Waterways Authority Chair Deanna Nott, who started celebrations by recalling what the waterway was like before the Gold Coast Seaway was built, and how the Gold Coast would not be the same place today without it. For more shownotes and links go to my Streets of Your Town magazine for this episode at https://soyt.substack.com/p/gold-coast-seaway

    15 min

About

Join dual Walkley award winning Wandering Journo Nance Haxton in conversation with authentic, sometimes eclectic, and often pre-eminent Australians about the streets of their town. Stories about where they grew up, the environment they live, and what inspires them. Go on an audio journey with Nance highlighting a different slice of Australian life each episode. Find all of Nance Haxton's links and work https://lnk.to/p2NSuH (HERE)

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