Street Faces in Geelong

from w
This evening we had the launch of the Street Faces project in Geelong, Australia. Of the twenty-eight faces chosen, Peceli's portrait is on the wall of the Geelong library. Buses took a group of us on a tour of Pakington Street and inner city Geelong to view some of the portraits of a cross-section of people from our wonderful community of Geelong. We had speeches, music, drinks and eats at the Geelong Performing Arts Centre as part of the launch. The project was organised by Diversitat and the City of Greater Geelong with several other sponsors and is part of the Pako Festa for 2010. Twenty-eight faces were used because Pako Festa is 28 years old and our Fiji group have been part of this huge ethnic festival for all of that time - with dancing, participation in the parade and in earlier years with crafts and a stall.

Wholefoods Cafe in Geelong

from w
Today, Peceli and I had a delicious lunch at the Wholefoods Cafe which is run by Diversitat, our local Migrant Resource Centre organisation. The lunch was to meet with the Honourable Duncan Kerr who is the Parliametary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs. (See Babasiga blog for more details.)

This cafe has lovely food and I really recommend it for coffee, meals, and organic food supplies, catering and gift hampers. Diversitat delivers much-needed services to some of the most disadvantaged individuals and communities in the Geelong and Colac areas, especially in training programs as a start to find jobs.
Wholefoods opening hours are as follows:
Café: 10am - 3pm Monday to Friday
Shop: 10am - 5.30pm Monday to Friday, 10am - 2pm Saturday

The Pulse Radio Station v. the ABC

from w
I got an email about the ABC wanting to start up a radio station in Geelong but they want to pinch the 94.7 FM spot on the dial which is being used by the Pulse - a local community radio station managed by Diversitat. Not happy about that one!

from the local Addie:

ABC coming to Geelong and after Pulse beat
Jeff Whalley 20Jun07

GEELONG will be getting its own dedicated local ABC radio station. The national broadcaster and the Australian Communications and Media Authority are investigating the move as a planned expansion into regional centres.

While the Government has fulfilled a 2004 election pledge to get services into Wagga Wagga and Dubbo, the planned Geelong service is now being undertaken by the federal bodies. It is understood the new Geelong service would be similar to existing services in Bendigo and Ballarat which provide local breakfast and drive programming plus news and sport coverage.

But there are concerns the introduction of the local ABC service could force local community radio institution 94.7 FM The Pulse onto another frequency.
It is understood the ABC is eyeing the 94.7 bandwidth as it is a particularly potent frequency able to reach distant regional areas.

Federal Liberal member for Corangamite Stewart McArthur said that the introduction of a local ABC should not be at the expense of The Pulse.``The Australian Communications and Media Authority is investigating the availability of a frequency in our area suitable for a Geelong local ABC radio service and The Pulse FM 94.7 frequency is one that is being evaluated,'' Mr McArthur said.

``If in future ACMA was to recommend any change they would need to consult the community and I would strongly argue in support of retaining the community radio service provided by The Pulse.

``The Pulse operates on a temporary community broadcasting licence and I support their request for a permanent licence based on the proven track record in delivering effective local radio.''

Mr McArthur said Diversitat's management of The Pulse had seen it become a crucial community broadcaster for the people of Geelong with a focus on local content and news and culture.``The Federal Liberal Party strongly supports local content on regional radio and we do not want to see the event where the only news, sport and community events broadcast are from Sydney or Melbourne.'' Mr McArthur's office said he would support The Pulse staying on the 94.7 frequency should the ABC try to claim it.

Head of Diversitat, the community organisation which holds the licence for The Pulse, Michael Martinez said he wanted to see the station stay at 94.7 FM. ``The station is doing really, really well providing a local voice for Geelong. We are just about to launch a major marketing drive and we need to deal with the issue of bandwidth. That should not simply be taken away,'' Mr Martinez said. He said the increasing profile of programs such as the fishing show had attracted statewide listeners on the powerful 94.7 bandwidth. ``We've worked hard and invested a significant amount in programming and the physical infrastructure around that,'' Mr Martinez said.