by Cat Holloway /
With wattle blooming throughout Shoalhaven, and Olympic green and gold fever tempting us to strip off the winter layers and take up swimming along our beautiful coastline, Paris 2024 has captured the nation's hearts and minds and the Paralympics haven't even begun.
I'm a sucker for heart-stopping stories of Olympic miracles. Indeed, what's missing from our local government election coverage is more raw elation, heartbreaking tears and some smashing of cultural barriers and records.
The 2024 local council election campaign has, so far, provided the usual party platitudes, dubious generalisations and social media bleating about how the Mayor is to blame for everything from cleaning public loos to controlling inflation.
So, the Spark invited each of Shoalhaven's Mayoral candidates to compete in the first Shoalhaven Mayoralympics. Three of the four candidates agreed to compete, but one of those, Clr. Paul Ell, was unfortunately removed from the ballot following the Liberal Party's nomination deadline bungle, the political equivalent to Raygun's Olympic breakdancing routine.
Spark subscribers and Shoalhaven voters play an essential role in the Shoalhaven Mayoralympics, besides cheering from the sidelines. Here's how:
Aim of the Game
To lift debate and communication during the Shoalhaven City Council election campaign and seek out honest insight into the character and perspectives of the individuals running the race to become our Mayor.
Rules of Engagement
Each Mayoral candidate is given equal space, simultaneously, in the Spark to answer eight focused questions across the three weeks before pre-polling begins.
Competition Structure
Heats, Aug 18-31 - Six questions provided by the Spark.
Semi-finals Sep 2,4 - One reader question to each candidate.
Final Sep 6 - A final question from the outgoing Mayor, Amanda Findley.
Scoring
- Spark subscribers can comment and vote for the best answer to each question.
- Those votes determine the order of the semi-final posts and the final score.
- Subscribers submit questions to the candidates and, from a selection of these questions, candidates will choose one to answer in their semi-final submission.
Rules
1. Questions are provided to candidates at 10 am the day before publishing.
2. Answers must be received by 10 am on the day of publishing.
3. Answers must be 350 words or less and cannot mention a political party/group.
4. Heats are written answers, but a 2-min video/audio is allowed for semi-finals.
5. Each candidate may submit one relevant picture to illustrate their answers.
6. No editing of answers is allowed by the Spark except to cut after 350 words.
Thank you to Mayor Amanda Findley and candidates Kaye Gartner and Jemma Tribe for taking on this democratic challenge. Let the games begin, this Monday.
Also thank you to Spark's first featured local photographer, Shane Collins, for this stunning Cockatoo gallery, a reminder to us all to get out, get active and get involved in creating a healthy, equitable future for this place we call home.
The town of Nowra is named after the Yuin name for yellow-tailed black cockatoo, 'Nou-woo-ro'. Mount Cambewarra is the site of the black cockatoo’s creation story of a white cockatoo that flew over a major bushfire and turned black. Photo gallery by Shane Collins
Shane hails from St Georges Basin and targets Cockatoos that inhabit the thick coastal heathlands of his home area, especially glossy black cockatoos, a species under enormous pressure from habitat loss. Shane photographs throughout the Shoalhaven and Illawarra using a Canon R7 paired with a Sigma 150-600 mm lens.
"I find bird photography very challenging as every trip is an adventure and you never know what your result will be."
The Aboriginal custodians of the Shoalhaven landscape are using their knowledge of culture and country to rehabilitate glossy black cockatoos and their habitat following the 2019-20 bushfires. The Healthy Country for Glossy Black Cockatoos program surveys feeding and nesting environments to determine the impacts on the population and how to regenerate the birds' habitats.
We would love to publish more work from local photographers or artists. Don't hesitate to get in touch about submissions via thesparkshoalhaven@gmail.com
Thanks to Birdlife Shoalhaven's Chris Grounds for his expertise and experience in correcting my Indigenous names for the black cockatoo species. The yellow-tailed black cockatoo is Nowra while glossy black is Ngaroora.
