Streets of Your Town

New Meanjin/Brisbane band Yirinda is widening the scope of Indigenous music with a unique take blending Aboriginal language and songs with classical genres.

Yirinda combines ancient Aboriginal language performed by Butchulla songman Fred Leone with dramatic soundscapes from Samuel Pankhurst, accompanied by a string quartet, to invoke thousands of generations of story and culture through music.

The band has just released its debut album on vinyl, CD and digital following on from their performance debut at last year’s Brisbane Festival, before going on to play at the Woodford Folk Festival over New Years.

Fred and Samuel tell Streets of Your Town about their unique evocative sound evolved, and their excitement taking Yirinda on the road with a tour up Australia’s east coast, finishing in Cairns on May 31.

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There’s only two people who have made it onto Streets of Your Town podcast more than once. And journo and author extraordinaire Trent Dalton is one of them.

With the Netflix series adaptation of his first breakthrough novel Boy Swallows Universe now number one in Australia and top ten in the US, it’s time to revisit this Brisbane born and bred talent, whose gritty but hopeful representations of the wrong side of town in his novels have thrust beloved Brissie icons such as the Story Bridge onto the worldwide map.

He knows this underworld because he grew up in it, and Trent tells us on Streets of Your Town how he never could have envisioned as a young child how a story he wrote could one day make it onto screens around the country and around the globe.

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With all the agitation and conflict in the world at the moment - I thought what we need on Streets of Your Town to start this year - is whimsy. Something to make us smile and stir a sense of childlike awe in us again.

And so off I meandered in Mildred the Cantankerous Kombi to the Woodford Folk Festival. It’s on every year in the foothills of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast hinterland helping hippies and hippies at heart to spread harmony and see in the New Year with three minutes of silent contemplation.

The festival attracts more than 130,000 people to the pop-up town of Woodfordia on the site of a former dairy farm, making it the largest gathering of artists and musicians in Australia.

Amidst this glorious muddy throng of people and throbbing music is a contemplative corner of Woodfordia called the Lettering House.

It’s where festival goers can go back to times gone by, and connect to their fellow Woodfordians the old fashioned, non-digital way - by writing a letter or typing it on an old fashioned type-writer.

A team of Woodfordian posties search out the identify of each letter recipient, often based on the vaguest of addresses and identifies, then get on their bikes to find them and deliver the letter by hand, or notify the recipient by text that they have a letter to pick up.

So sit back, and let's ponder the magic of the Lettering House through the words of Postal Clerk Aaron, who explains how they spread their little bit of writing wonder through the festival.

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You can’t be what you can’t see. It’s a saying that prompted a former AFL player to create a children’s band, so that his kids could be exposed to more than the bland musical world they were offered.

Nick Gill is the founder of children’s band The Quokkas, with a mission to show children a modern and inclusive Australia through song.

After his AFL career Nick went on to become a Channel 7 news reporter and then Breakfast radio host in Newcastle, but it’s writing songs for his twins that reflects the diversity of Australia that now keeps him awake at night.

He recruited an elite group of musicians to form The Quokkas, with the attitude that they’re learning as much from the kids as the kids are from the music.

They’ve just released a new album called Songs for Everyone, and have had their videos downloaded millions of times all around the world, on themes such as body positivity, cooperation and kindness. Nick Gill and fellow Quokkas member Matt McLaren talk to Nance Haxton about what's coming up in the future for this exciting children's music band.

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The Wandering Journo has just returned from one of the most exciting secondments of my now three-decade journalism career - from the Cathedral of Sport the great MCG, where I was part of the National Indigenous Radio Service team covering the 2023 AFL grand final.

And I have brought back a glimpse of the action for Streets of Your Town from behind the scenes of the National Indigenous Service broadcast box, where the incredible NIRS commentators call the grand final live. From this tiny booth they broadcast the finals action to some of the most remote communities in outback Australia.

Indigenous players are the backbone of this great Australian game, and I speak to two NIRS broadcasting legends - Ron Rogers, and former Collingwood player Chris Egan.

They both give their insights into the magic that Aboriginal players bring to Australian Rules Football, and the privilege they feel broadcasting ball-by-ball to hopefully plant the seeds of dreams for more Indigenous players from remote communities to become part of the great game.

NIRS AFL commentator legend Ron Rogers has 25 years calling grand finals under his belt, and as he reveals not only does he do the commentary, he sets up the microphones and equipment before each game to broadcast on the AFL website, and to NIRS affiliated radio stations around the country.

While Chris Egan brings his experience as a former footballer for Collingwood to the broadcast team, giving insights into how players prepare and cope with the the big pressure games.

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We made it Streets of Your Towners - the 100th episode of the Streets of Your Town podcast!!!

This episode we return to the man who so kindly kicked off this crazy Streets of Your Town adventure!

The man whose storytelling is equally masterful with words or with the palette knife -  who is bookending this series by featuring in episode 1 and 100.

This internationally renowned artist - harking from a family of journo’s - generously started this podcast series by telling his story - from his idyllic country childhood to rebellious teen, and on to becoming Deputy Mayor of Brisbane, before rediscovering his creative talent anew.

Today we re-visit David Hinchliffe in his inner Brisbane city Fortitude Valley home - to find out what’s changed for him on the street where he lives, what’s different post pandemic, and what has remained the same or even more important than before. The same themes that all of us have pondered, as we reflect on our how our lives have changed too.

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Today on Streets of Your Town we’re revisiting Vidya Makan, who you may remember meeting on this podcast in December 2022 when we featured her as one of the talented performers in the smash hit touring musical Six. 

The show broke all attendance records at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre during its 2022 season. 

But this Somerville House and Queensland Conservatorium graduate has not left her run there, and has now debuted her own musical written in collaboration with Sonya Suares, at Sydney’s Hayes Theatre, again to rave reviews.

The Sydney Morning Herald described Vidya as “a gifted storyteller”, and her show The Lucky Country as “remarkable” - where “national myth-making gets a well overdue shake-up”. 

We go backstage at the Hayes Theatre on Streets of Your Town to speak to Vidya after yet another standing ovation for The Lucky Country, and find out how this acclaimed Brisbane actor, singer and composer/lyricist came to realise a dream that she could be seen for who she truly is on stage.

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From a shy kid on the fringes to years later bringing together an eclectic group of musicians in an orchestra bearing his name, Matt Hsu has found the power of music and passed that joy onto dozens of others.

The Matt Hsu Obscure Orchestra has quickly established a following as one of Australia’s most respected ensembles, bringing together a diverse band of BIPOC, First Nations, disabled, non-binary queer and trans artists at the intersection of art and activism. 

Streets of Your Town takes you behind the scenes to one of the orchestra’s recent musical imaginings at the Museum of Brisbane, bringing the exhibits to life with a roving performance.

The 22-piece ensemble challenges many of the assumptions around traditional orchestras, replacing pomposity with dancing the night away to a range of world instruments made out of found objects.

And as the award-winning Taiwanese-Australian composer and multi-instrumentalist Matt Hsu tells us on Streets of Your Town, his otherworldly and joyful compositions aim to celebrate difference, promote inclusivity and bring together cultures.

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This week’s Streets of Your Town takes you into the world of fast and slow fashion, and what we can all do to lessen the burden of clothes waste on the world.

Have you ever looked down at what you’re wearing, or into your wardrobe, and wondered where those materials came from? 

Who made your outfit, and at what cost to them compared to the cost you paid for it? 

Or pondered what the true cost of that bargain t-shirt is when fast fashion wastage is taken into account? 

These questions are what drive sustainability consultant Jane Milburn on her quest to get as many people as possible thinking about the way they dress, and how to make better choices to become independent of fast fashion. 

She tells us on Streets of Your Town how low cost unethical clothes are creating pollution and contributing to modern day slavery, and how her recent travels for her Churchill Fellowship meeting 55 slow fashion practitioners from around the world has given her tips on how we can all play our part to reduce the burden of clothing waste on the world.

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You never know who I am going to meet on my travels in Mildred the cantankerous kombi. In this episode of Streets of Your Town, we enter the creative wonderland of artist, teacher and jack of all trades Angus MacDiarmid. 

He lives in a converted church in the little town of Boonah in Queensland’s Scenic Rim. 

Despite its close proximity to the bustling cities of Brisbane and the Gold Coast, much of the Scenic Rim remains untouched. 

So if you are lucky enough to go for a road trip through this magical area, make sure you keep an eye out for Angus, and if you’re lucky, he may even paint your portrait. 

On this day in Boonah, I was lucky enough to cross paths with Angus at his home - a beautiful old restored church in the middle of town, that he shares with his partner Jenny. 

He happily tells us how he and Jenny came to settle in this quiet corner of The Scenic Rim, and create their perfect colourful creative home to pursue their lifelong love of art.

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