Melbourne Hub: August 2013

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Manly storm over Melbourne in NRL clash - TVNZ

Manly five-eighth Kieran Foran probes for a gap. - Source: Getty

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Manly jumped above Melbourne into third spot and claimed their first top-four scalp of the season on the back of an electrifying first-half display at Brookvale Oval on Saturday.

Winger David Williams bagged a first-half hat-trick as a switched on Manly overcame an early injury setback to back-rower Jamie Buhrer to score the first 20 points on their way to a 28-8 victory.

The Sea Eagles, who needed to win by 11 to clamber above the Storm on the NRL ladder, scored all six of their tries down Melbourne's left-hand side, in arguably their best performance of the season.

The margin might have been greater if captain and centre Jamie Lyon hadn't had a wayward night with the boot - missing five of his seven kicks at goal.

Manly, who had drawn with Melbourne earlier this season and lost twice to both the pacesetting Rabbitohs and Roosters, underlined their title credentials.

Starting Saturday's penultimate round NRL game two points behind the third-placed Storm, Manly produced a scorching start, piling on 12 points in the first 13 minutes.

Fullback Brett Stewart crossed twice before leaving the ground late in the game.

A besieged and uncharacteristically mistake-ridden Melbourne looked rattled in the first quarter.

The Sea Eagles performed with pace precision and confidence despite losing back-rower Buhrer after little more than 70 seconds.

He was taken to hospital for X-rays, appearing to suffer a rib injury after being caught in an awkward tackle between Ryan Hoffman and Ryan Hinchcliffe.

Within half a minute of Buhrer leaving the ground, Manly had their first try, with Williams crossing after Melbourne forward Jesse Bromwich lost the ball in the opening set.

The rampant Sea Eagles were in again in the ninth minute, when Stewart was set up by brother Glenn.

Williams crossed twice in the right hand side to expand his tally for the season to 17, after Manly players knocked back high crossfield kicks from five-eighth Kieran Foran.

Williams almost scored two more before the break and was outside Stewart when the fullback dived over for his second four-pointer.

Two minutes before the break, Melbourne finally got on the board when winger Sisa Waqa beat opposing winger Peta Hiku to a perfectly weighted kick from fullback Billy Slater.

In the second half, Waqa, on two occasions, and fellow winger O'Neill almost scored as the Storm played with more urgency and intensity.

Stewart scored Manly's fifth try before O'Neill crossed late for Melbourne.

Halfback Daly Cherry-Evans notched Manly's sixth try after Storm five-eighth Brett Finch fumbled a pass from an uncharacteristically out-of-sorts Cameron Smith.

Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy was at a loss to explain what he described as a really poor performance by his side.

"Obviously our defence was poor and usually that comes down to a poor attitude," Bellamy said.

"I'm not quite sure why we had the poor attitude tonight.

"But it was really disappointing, so we've got a fair bit of work to do.

Smith, normally one of the NRL's most eloquent spokesmen, turned taciturn when asked why Melbourne lacked intensity.

"No. I don know what more to say, there's no reason at all," Smith said.

Manly coach Geoff Toovey praised his team's effort, especially after the early loss of Buhrer.

"It was a gutsy performance, particularly after losing Jamie Buhrer in the first minute," Toovey said.

"We had to shuffle players around,, but I think the first half was definitely our best half of football this year."

Toovey wasn't fussed Manly had finally beaten another top four team.

He said he would know more about Buhrer's rib injury on Sunday and that Stewart was taken off as a precautionary measure with a slight

hamstring strain.

Bellamy said O'Neill could be out for a while after being kneed in the back.

Paul Roos close to signing $2m deal to coach Melbourne Demons - The Australian

Paul Roos

Paul Roos has said he has "more interest" in coaching the struggling club. Picture: Michael Klein

SYDNEY'S drought-breaking premiership coach Paul Roos appears certain to be appointed coach of struggling Melbourne on a long-term deal.

Roos will command an annual salary of close to $2 million - the highest ever paid to an AFL coach - a figure he pitched to Melbourne several months ago, not long after the club's initial approach.

The cash-strapped Demons will be given financial support, up to $3 million, by the AFL to restructure their football department.

Melbourne, which plays its final game for the season tomorrow against the Western Bulldogs, is working towards announcing Roos at Thursday night's best-and-fairest award function.

Following vigorous approaches by Melbourne chief executive Peter Jackson, Roos' exact salary and terms are being discussed by the Demons over the weekend.

Roos, who this week turned down the vacant senior coaching position at Brisbane, has had a significant turnaround in position over the past fortnight.

Last night on Fox Footy, he said he had renewed interest in the Melbourne job and flagged his chances as 50-50.

"'In terms of the Melbourne job, there is some more interest there than there was 12 weeks ago. I have had some discussion with Peter and said you have got to work to your timeline, not mine. (But) if he calls me, I am happy to take his call," Roos said.

"He has continued to talk to me. When I started the process 12 weeks ago you go from zero per cent interest in coaching to 100 per cent, you can't do it in such a short space of time.

"There is more interest now. I am certainly not at the point where I can say, 'Yes I will do it', but you start thinking about it, you start picturing yourself doing it, what does it look like, and all those things.

"Where am I at? I have moved from zero to around that 50-50 mark, but at some point you have to say are you going to dip your toe in the water. You have got to be fair dinkum about it."

On August 17, in his New Limited column, Roos said: "As someone who has coached and happily finished with a view never to coach again, it is a massive decision to go back into it. But when weighing up whether or not to step back into the ring, my message to myself you must be ready'."

The Australian understands Roos has a package of former and present Sydney associates ready to head to the Demons, including highly respected assistant coach George Stone, who will head up a new Melbourne development program, which is a priority for the club.

As well, premiership defender Tadhg Kennelly is expected to join Roos as an assistant coach.

Roos' current contract with Fox Footy expires at the end of the current season.

He handed over the Sydney job to John Longmire at the end of 2010 after being the longest-serving coach in the club's history. The 2005 premiership coach had eight full seasons with the Swans after coaching the final 10 games of the 2002 season on an interim basis.

Friday, August 30, 2013

Melbourne bursting at seams as population booms - The Age

Melbourne's population is swelling by 2 per cent a year, adding more than 900,000 people since this century began - and putting it on track to be a city of 8 million people by 2050.

The Bureau of Statistics estimates that in mid-2012, the city's population was about to hit 4.25 million, after six boom years in which it grew by almost half a million.

Recent bureau figures imply that Melbourne today is home to 4.35 million people - and 27 per cent bigger than the city it was at the start of 2000.

If growth continues at that rate, Melbourne's population would pass 5 million by 2025, overtake Sydney by 2037, and reach 8 million by 2049.

The booming population growth raises serious doubts about the Napthine government's plans to build only one major infrastructure project at a time, and avoid new debt.

With a rapidly growing population squeezing into road and rail systems that are barely growing at all, this would intensify the strain on the city's infrastructure, leading to increased congestion on the roads and overcrowding on trains.

Most of Melbourne's growth is in the outer suburbs. The bureau reports that South Morang had the biggest population growth of any suburb in Australia, growing by 500 people a month over the five years to 2012. Point Cook was second, Tarneit third and Craigieburn fourth.

The population of the city of Melbourne grew by 5138 in 2011-12 alone, and has more than doubled since New Year's Day 2000 to 105,360. That included 23,867 people living in the city centre itself, 13,505 in Southbank and 6640 in Docklands - 44,012 between them, compared with just 1796 in 1992.

But the bureau's figures show populations are growing in almost every suburb of Melbourne, and in most towns of any size across Victoria. Ballarat had almost 100,000 people by mid-2012, its growth rate matching Melbourne's, with Bendigo not far behind.

While people are drifting away from small towns and rural areas, in most of Victoria, that is outweighed by those drifting into towns such as Mildura, Warrnambool, Shepparton and Wodonga. The exceptions are the eastern Mallee, the Wimmera and the southern Grampians.

In mid-2012, the bureau estimates, Victoria was home to 5.63 million people, and Australia 22.71 million.

Melbourne had the largest growth of any Australian city over the five years, but Perth was growing fastest. Its population shot up by 271,500 to be 1.9 million in mid-2012, and on track to pass 2 million late this year.

Paul Roos says he's a 50-50 chance to coach Melbourne next season - NEWS.com.au

Paul Roos has shocked Fox Footy's Friday Night panel, revealing he is still in discussions with Melbourne.

Paul Roos

Paul Roos has given Melbourne fans hope he could coach the club next season. Source: News Limited

PAUL Roos has sensationally roared into favouritism for Melbourne's vacant coaching position after declaring he was ''50-50'' to coach the Demons.

The Sydney premiership coach said over the past 12 weeks he had started to consider Melbourne as an option, and was now in dialogue with Demons chief executive Peter Jackson.

He said that while he could not relocate his family to Brisbane to replace Michael Voss, his family would be happy to move to Melbourne.

The Demons are again going through a horrific on-field season and yesterday were delivered another blow when Rodney Eade withdrew from their race to stay at the Pies.

The Herald Sun reported this week the Demons hadn't ruled out luring Roos, and on Fox Footy he made it clear why.

Eade stays a Magpie

''In terms of the Melbourne job there is some more interest there than there was 12 weeks ago. I have had some discussion with Peter and said you have got to work to your timeline, not mine. (But) if he calls me, I am happy to take his call,'' he said.

''He has continued to talk to me. When I started the process 12 weeks ago you go from zero per cent interest in coaching to 100 per cent, you can't do it in such a short space of time. There is more interest now. I am certainly not at the point where I can say, ''Yes I will do it', but you start thinking about it, you start picturing yourself doing it, what does it look like, and all those things. Where am I at? Is it 50-50 I have moved from zero to around that 50-50 mark, but at some point you have to say are you going to dip your toe in the water. You have got to be fair dinkum about it.''

Roos had previously said he was not afraid of the huge challenge of coaching Melbourne, but could not see him coaching again.

But his decision to effectively declare himself in the race is a massive fillip for a Melbourne side that could still win the wooden spoon this weekend.

It would also have massive sponsorship and membership benefits.

And while the AFL will not fund a salary that would be well in excess of $1 million a season, the Demons would be a significantly higher chance to receive a priority pick with a proven name like Roos as coach.

Roos had told Brisbane chairman Angus Johnson last week he would not relocate, but said last night he was open to moving his family to Melbourne.

'To clarify we discussed the move to Brisbane and it wasn't going to work from a family point of view. Melbourne, the state, is an option.

''Does it mean I am going to coach Melbourne? No, but going through the process you work out what is achievable. My family is the most important thing for me . So absolutely, is Melbourne more of an option? Brisbane is not an option from a family point of view.''

The Demons coaching selection committee is believed to have had several interviews with candidates including Eade and premiership coach Mark Williams.

But he could claim the Melbourne job with one phone call to Peter Jackson.

Melbourne would not comment last night, but it is known they will continue their coaching selection process in case Roos pulls out.

Neil Craig is yet to officially commit to throwing his hat in the ring at Melbourne, but it is known he would be an extremely strong chance to coach on if Roos did not coach them.

It would see a huge shakeup of the Demons under the AFL's stewardship almost complete, with a new president in Glenn Bartlett, a new chief executive in Glen Bartlett and the dream coach in Roos.

Former Fitzroy and Sydney defender Roos, 50, coached 202 games at the Swans for a 115-84 win-loss record with two draws, and is considered the perfect option for Melbourne.

Paul Roos a '50-50' chance of coaching AFL strugglers Melbourne Demons - ABC Local

Posted August 30, 2013 20:30:15

Former Sydney premiership coach Paul Roos has flagged an interest in signing up with AFL strugglers Melbourne, saying he is a "50-50" chance of joining the Demons.

Roos has been anointed as the ideal man to rescue Melbourne from its mire of mediocrity, ever since the club sacked Mark Neeld in June and named Neil Craig as interim coach.

Roos, who steered the Swans to their 2005 grand final win that snapped a 72-year premiership drought, had remained quiet about the Demons' interest and said many times that he was unsure if the fire was there to coach again.

But on Friday, Roos acknowledged discussions with Demons chief executive Peter Jackson had taken place and that he was warming to the idea of coaching the club.

"There's more interest now, and you always try to be as honest as possible," Roos told Fox Footy.

"I'm certainly not at the point where I would say I will do it, but I'm certainly thinking about it.

"I've probably gone from zero to about that 50-50 market.

"Then you have to decide if you're serious about it."

Roos recently informed Brisbane he was unwilling to relocate to Queensland and as such would not put his hand up to be Michael Voss' successor.

There was a massive betting plunge on Roos in the market for the Melbourne coaching position on July 1.

AAP

Topics: australian-football-league, sport, melbourne-3000, vic, australia

First 787 Dreamliner touches down - Herald Sun

First 787 Dreamliner touches down

The Air India Dreamliner arrives in Melbourne. Pictures: Angie Basdekis Source: News Limited

THE first Boeing 787 Dreamliner carrying passengers to Australia has touched down in Melbourne, marking the return of direct Air India flights.

Flight AI311 arrived at Melbourne Airport at 11.59am, 39 minutes behind schedule.

The 256-seat plane left Delhi for Sydney before continuing on to Melbourne.

Melbourne Airport CEO Chris Woodruff said the new daily service was an aviation milestone.

"We are delighted to welcome Air India to Melbourne Airport," Mr Woodruff said.

The Dreamliner approaches the terminal.

Victoria has the largest Indian population in Australia, with numbers more than doubling since 2006.

"Melbourne also has the largest population of Indian students in Australia, and the new service will also provide opportunities to strengthen connections with the important education market,'' Mr Woodruff said.

Air India will fly Melbourne-Delhi direct four times a week and Melbourne-Sydney-Delhi three times a week.

It last flew direct to Australia about 20 years ago.

Baggage handlers prepare to unload the Dreamliner.

Melbourne will be the home of the Dreamliner in Australia, with the first of 14 Jetstar's Dreamliners expected to arrive in late September-early October and another two before the end of the year.

The Dreamliner program was grounded earlier this year because of problems with batteries overheating.

Jetstar must work with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to certify the plane, which is being assembled in Seattle, before it starts commercial flights in November.

"With components of the 787 partly manufactured here, Melbourne is proudly the home of the Dreamliner in Australia, and we look forward to welcoming more 787s to Melbourne," Mr Woodruff said.

The Jetstar Dreamliners will replace its current Airbus 330s on long-haul routes.

Paul Roos says he's a 50-50 chance to coach Melbourne next season - Herald Sun

Paul Roos has shocked Fox Footy's Friday Night panel, revealing he is still in discussions with Melbourne.

Paul Roos

Paul Roos has given Melbourne fans hope he could coach the club next season. Source: News Limited

SYDNEY premiership coach Paul Roos has flagged a renewed interest in the top job at Melbourne.

Roos made the stunning revelation on Fox Footy this evening.

"There is some more interest now than there was 12 weeks ago," Roos said.

"(I've) probably moved from zero (per cent interest) to somewhere around that 50-50 mark.

Roos said he was open to further discussions with Melbourne chief executive Peter Jackson.

Eade stays a Magpie

"I'm certainly not at the point I can say yes, 'I will do it'.

"But certainly start thinking about it, picturing doing it, (thinking) what does it look like.”

"At some point you got to then decide, (are) you going to dip the toe in the water (or not), you got to be serious about it."

Roos turned down the vacant Brisbane job, citing family reasons, following Michael Voss's shock sacking.

More to come...

Tropfest heads to the pub after losing its Melbourne home - The Age

The Domain, Sydney. The 20th Sydney Tropfest 2012. Pic Shows...Crowds enjoying the films ...Photo: Quentin Jones. 19 Feb 2012.

The Domain, Sydney, hosts Tropfest in February 2012. The event has now moved to Centennial Park in December. Photo: Quentin Jones

Tropfest is on a roll globally, but the short film festival is without a proper home in Melbourne due to a loss of its Myer Music Bowl venue following a date change from February to December.

The website of Tropfest - which bills itself as ''the world's largest short film festival'' - shows that next stop is Abu Dhabi, followed by an Australian tour, then South East Asia, New Zealand, and the US. Dates are yet to be confirmed for Israel, China, India and France.

But the event that grew out of a gathering of 200 filmmaking buddies in the Sydney cafe that gives it its name will have to make do with a handful of bars and pubs in Melbourne when the 22nd event rolls around on December 8.

The Sidney Myer Music Bowl will no longer host the Tropfest short film festival in Melbourne. Photo: Rebecca Hallas

While Tropfest managing director Michael Lafferty says he is disappointed that the Sidney Myer Music Bowl won't be available on December 8, he says the push into clubs, pubs and entertainment venues is part of a national strategy to expand the Tropfest audience and capitalise on a recently signed, five-year agreement to broadcast the event on SBS2.

Earlier this year, Tropfest announced the event would move from February to December, largely on account of the tropical weather that routinely turns the Sydney event, which reliably attracts a bumper crowd of 90,000-100,000 people and a cavalry of A-list celebrities, into a mud bath.

For the past few years, the Melbourne leg of Tropfest has attracted a much smaller audience of around 5000.

The date change put Tropfest in direct competition with the busiest time of year for live music, and Myer Music Bowl confirms it has a booking for another, yet-to-be-announced, event on December 8.

Though Lafferty concedes he is disappointed the iconic outdoor venue adjacent to Melbourne's Botanic Garden won't be available, Melbourne could still ''potentially have another venue'', he says.

In the interim, Tropfest has ''put out a call'' for venues that are interested in hosting the event and projecting the SBS2 broadcast onto a large screen.

But that is not qithout its challenges. As well as losing the picnic-and-Esky atmosphere of the Tropfest night, the move to licensed venues effectively makes it off-limits to under-18s.

According to Lafferty, Tropfest's key audience is 18-to-35s.

The last Tropfest was broadcast for the first time on free TV on SBS One (it previously lived on pay channel Movie Extra, a Tropfest sponsor), where it achieved an average five-city live audience of 187,000, which by SBS standards qualifies as a modest success given its marathon 3 hour and 15 minute running time.

Lafferty is hoping that 50-60 venues across the country will participate in the December event.

He predicts that between 20 and 30 of those venues which will be in Melbourne, and that the shift from a large outdoor venue has the potential to expand the audience.

The move to SBS2, which was recently relaunched as an edgy, youth-focused channel, will be complemented with programs featuring previous Australian and global Tropfest films.

However, SBS2's share of the free-TV audience is between 1 and 1.5 per cent. Last Sunday, for example, SBS2's five-city audience between 7.30pm and 10.30pm averaged 42,500.

Melbourne IT breach highlights need for security culture - ZDNet (blog)

Summary: Spearphishing attacks are cheap and will continue to be effective unless organisations — and those they deal with — develop a security culture.

Somewhere this week, a Melbourne IT reseller is wishing they'd never clicked on that link — and certainly wishing they'd never typed their Melbourne IT username and password wherever it was they typed them — because that simple mistake allowed the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) to log in and take down The New York Times and big chunks of Twitter. Oops.

But we shouldn't be too hard on this unknown person. A simple mistake is all it was. Spearphishing attacks — those individually tailored for a specific human target — are getting very good indeed. So are the targeted emails that try to persuade their recipients to click through to a compromised website, which then attempts to install malware on their machine.

Even seasoned security professionals can fall victim, as Trend Micro's vice president of strategic markets, Blake Sutherland, discovered when the company's security researchers put him to the test.

As a university student, Sutherland had worked a summer job assisting a geophysicist measure the wobbles in the Earth's motion — which, unbeknownst to him, earned him a footnote credit in a research paper. But the Trend Micro staffers found that paper, and, using Google and LinkedIn, constructed an email supposedly from a Russian geophysicist, referring to the paper, mentioning the lead researcher by name, and asking to be linked to him on LinkedIn.

"There was a link there to look at his profile ... He knew so much about this. I certainly recognised the work when he described it. And curiosity will kill the cat every single time," Sutherland told the media in Sydney in March this year.

"It was very, very simple, and it was amazing that they dug up that information on me that I didn't even know. That wouldn't have even showed up on my resume."

Sutherland said the whole process of researching and crafting that targeted email took only "a couple of hours". Even at full Western defence contractor rates, that'd cost no more than a few hundred dollars.

In recent years, far more elaborate spearphishing and targeted malware attacks have been seen in the wild. Emails have precisely replicated the email formats of an organisation with which the target does business, they're sent supposedly from a specific named individual known to them, and they're written in their personal style about a real, known issue, with an attached PDF file that's a genuine document from that organisation — apart from it being weaponised with malware.

"I have kids, a lot of folks have kids. How many times does their soccer schedule change? Here's [an email with] the map to the new field. The truth is, the map is correct, the schedule has changed. It's on a website," Sutherland said. "It comes from someone you know, it comes on a topic that is relevant to you, and it's just simple to accomplish."

And now that individuals are posting so much information about their lives on social networking sites and elsewhere, it's easy for an attacker to construct a plausible scenario.

There's talk of attackers with budgets of AU$10,000 or even AU$100,000 or more to penetrate specific organisations. That's ample funding to explore more indirect ways of penetrating the organisation — attacking through a partner, as in the Melbourne IT case, through the global legal firm that signs off the contracts, or through the translators who work on them. It's all about finding the weakest links.

Attackers have also been inventive when it comes to persuasive social engineering tricks. One attacker sent emails to the executives of the target company at 4pm on a Friday afternoon in the form of a subpoena, requiring them to give evidence at 10am on Monday morning — or if that time wasn't suitable, just click here to change your appointment time.

The apparent ease with which Sutherland and the Melbourne IT reseller were compromised contrasts with the experience of the Reserve Bank of Australia. There, one penetration attempt was reportedly thwarted by the organisation's security culture.

"There was an employee that went 'something's not right here', raised the flag, and by all accounts they seem to have done a good intercept [in terms of preventing data exfiltration]," IBRS security analyst James Turner told the media in April. '[There's] got to be the shift that we see across the entire industry in terms of the culture around security events."

Jason Brown, national security manager for defence contractor Thales, would agree."Every employee needs to be thinking about security the same way they think about brushing their teeth each morning," he told last year's Security 2012 conference in Sydney.

But developing such a security culture needs support from the most senior levels of the organisation. Brown recommended appointing a specific "security champion" so it gets the required focus and attention — because technology won't save your organisation from nation-state cyber espionage, he said; your corporate culture will.

Or, as a Gartner executive put it at last week's Security and Risk Management Summit in Sydney, "Why do executives keep getting compromised? They click on the dancing pigs."

First 787 Air India Dreamliner lands at Melbourne Airport - Herald Sun

First 787 Dreamliner touches down

The first Air India Dreamliner arrives in Melbourne. Picture: Angie Basdekis Source: News Limited

The first Air India Dreamliner gets ready to touch down at Melbourne Airport. Picture: Angie Basdekis

The first Air India Dreamliner gets ready to touch down at Melbourne Airport. Picture: Angie Basdekis Source: News Limited

Baggage handlers prepare to unload the Dreamliner. Picture: Angie Basdekis

Baggage handlers prepare to unload the Dreamliner. Picture: Angie Basdekis Source: News Limited

THE first Boeing 787 Dreamliner carrying passengers to Australia has touched down in Melbourne, marking the return of direct Air India flights.

Flight AI311 arrived at Melbourne Airport at 11.59am, 39 minutes behind schedule.

The 256-seat plane left Delhi for Sydney before continuing on to Melbourne.

Melbourne Airport CEO Chris Woodruff said the new daily service was an aviation milestone.

"We are delighted to welcome Air India to Melbourne Airport" Mr Woodruff said.

Victoria has the largest Indian population in Australia, with numbers more than doubling since 2006.

Air India will fly Melbourne-Delhi direct four times a week and Melbourne-Sydney-Delhi three times a week.

It last flew direct to Australia about 20 years ago.

Melbourne will be the home of the Dreamliner in Australia, with the first of 14 Jetstar's Dreamliners expected to arrive in late September-early October and another two before the end of the year.

The Dreamliner program was grounded earlier this year because of problems with batteries overheating.

Jetstar must work with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to certify the plane, which is being assembled in Seattle, before it starts commercial flights in November.

"With components of the 787 partly manufactured here, Melbourne is proudly the home of the Dreamliner in Australia, and we look forward to welcoming more 787s to Melbourne," Mr Woodruff said.

The Jetstar Dreamliners will replace its current Airbus 330s on long-haul routes.

The damage to Anna Burke's office. Picture: Anna Burke Source: Facebook - The Australian

A LABOR and a Liberal MP have had their office windows smashed and daubed with asylum-seeker related graffiti in the latest in a spree of attacks on politicians' offices in Melbourne.

Labor speaker Anna Burke came to work this morning to find her office in Syndal, in Melbourne's east, had been spraypainted with the words "fre (sic) the refugees", and large panes of glass on a wall shared with other offices in the block smashed.

Cyndi Lauper - The Age

Reviewer rating:

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The Palais

Thursday, August 29

Careening onto stage in circulation-stopping shiny tights, biker boots and leather corset, with her long hair twisted into neon-red Medusa curls, Cyndi Lauper flailed around like a punk banshee and reminded us that she’s still so unusual after all these years. On the 30th anniversary tour of Lauper's career-defining debut, She's So Unusual, she's performing the album in its entirety from start to finish, and her spirited cover of the Brains' new-wave track Money Changes Everything opened the show with such vigour on Thursday night that she had her work cut out trying to sustain it.

Lauper looked like a woman of half her 60 years at a Goth club, or a veteran bush doofer, albeit one dressed by Vivienne Westwood. Descending from the stage to sing while stalking along the front row, fans were so delighted to get so close so soon that the faithful rendition of Girls Just Want to Have Fun that immediately followed felt a bit tepid in comparison.

After her synthy, jangly cover of Prince's When You Were Mine, Time After Time rounded out the four-song opening and was best showcase of Lauper’s voice to that point, an instrument still in remarkably good nick. She employed it in the latter half of the set to pad out the album's weaker back half with rambling anecdotes and the occasional interesting tidbit on the making of the record, taking aim at Miley Cyrus - a "sleazy twerp" - and recalling causing havoc during the recording of '80s charity single We Are The World with her jangly bracelets.

But Lauper was at her most mesmerising in the encore, seated with just her dulcimer to perform an eye-wateringly good True Colours. As always, Lauper knows how to have fun, but her longevity comes from knowing how to touch hearts too.

Plans to double grain exports from Melbourne - ABC Online

Posted August 30, 2013 12:33:22

When you visit the Melbourne port terminal, you get a feel for just how close it is to the city.

A new residential development in Docklands appears to be just a stone's throw away.

Each day, thousands of tonnes of grain arrives at this terminal from across the wheat belt, for export right around the world.

On a busy day, the site can load about 20,000 tonnes of grain onto a ship, destined for Africa, the Middle East or Asia.

Grain marketer and handler Emerald Grain wants to double its exports at its terminal in the Port of Melbourne.

Emerald terminal manager Murray Wilkinson says the company wants to expand to take more barley and canola through the Melbourne site.

"Emerald are looking to increase the site from currently 1.4 million tonnes a year to, in the medium term, 2.5 million tonnes, and 2.8 million tonnes in the longer term," he said.

"That will involve addition receival hoppers and storage hoppers as well as some other infrastructure around the site. We are in the developmental stage at the moment."

There are three grain export ports in Victoria. GrainCorp owns the facilities at Geelong and Portland.

With the impending takeover of GrainCorp by US based commodities giant Archer Daniels Midland, grain growers have been asking questions about transparency at port facilities.

The Victorian Farmers Federation grains group recently toured the Melbourne port terminal.

Warracknabeal farmer Rob McRae says the Emerald site is important for competition

"As a farmer, you come and look at these sites to see how efficiently they're run. The efficiency is really important for us, because we know that if it's inefficient we are losing money.

"This site is one of the sites that's independent of the ADM GrainCorp issue, so it's fairly important for competition."

But the problem with operating a port so close to the city is you have to bring the grain in on roads and rail through busy suburbs.

About half the grain exported through the Emerald terminal arrives by road and half by rail.

Mr McRae says it's challenging to move grain from the wheat belt into the heart of the city.

"My really practical hat would say that getting grain into Melbourne is interesting.

"Half of the grain coming in here is coming by road, which is not easy to get into the city with trucks.

"That's probably not as efficient as it could be, as with going to a port like Portland.

"The expansion here is going to be difficult because of the lack of room they've got for road, rail and storage.

"But they are going to go ahead and build some more storage here."

Topics: rural, agribusiness, grain, rail-transport, road-transport, sea-transport, port-melbourne-3207

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Aussie rules: Melbourne named world's best place to live for the third year ... - Daily Mail

Melbourne was lauded for its healthcare, education and infrastructure

The city beat Austrian capital Vienna into second place in the rankings

The table was compiled by the Economist intelligence Unit

By Steve Nolan

PUBLISHED: 05:37 EST, 29 August 2013 | UPDATED: 05:56 EST, 29 August 2013

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With its beautiful parks, enviable healthcare and location next to one of the world's best coastal drives, it's little wonder people want to live in Melbourne.

While it may not necessarily have the glamorous appeal of Sydney, Australia's second city has been ranked the world's most liveable city for the third year running.

Home to almost 4.25million people, it beat Austrian capital Vienna into second place, with Vancouver in Canada ranking third.

Top spot: Melbourne was lauded in every category from healthcare to education in the rankings which saw it crowned number one place to live in the world for the third year running

Australia dominates the ranking with four cities - Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Perth - in the top ten, with Canadian cities accounting for three of the others.

Despite its popularity with tourists however, London is nowhere to be seen.

The rankings were compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit which explains that the destinations that score highest are 'mid-sized cities in wealthier countries with a relatively low population density.'

The ratings take into account: stability, worked out by looking at crime rates and civil unrest; quality of healthcare; culture and environment; education and infrastructure.

Each city was given an overall score out of 100 based on its ranking in each catergory.

As well as the best places to live, the EIU also ranked the worst - with 28 cities seeing their score drop because of civil unrest from the Arab Spring.

Unsurprisingly, war-town Syrian capital Damascus finished bottom of the list.

Tripoli in Libya and Tehran in Iran also ranked close to the bottom.

1. Melbourne, Australia

Winner: Australia's second city was lauded in all categories, scoring the maximum 100 out of 100 for its healthcare, education and infrastructure and being awarded 95 and 95.1 in the stability and culture and environment categories respectively. The city, home to 4.2million, has topped the rankings for the past three years, scoring 97.5 overall. Melbourne is famed for its vibrant multi-culturalism, burgeoning arts scene, excellent food and wine and is the sporting capital of Australia.

Runner up: Vienna was one of only two European cities to make the top ten. Like Melbourne, it scored maximum marks in terms of healthcare, education and infrastructure, and matched the city in terms of stability. But surprisingly, given that the Austrian capital is steeped in history, it fell short in the culture and environment category with a score of 94.4. As well as its history Vienna has a colourful contemporary arts and culture scene, a bustling nightlife, picturesque vineyards on the outskirts and an innovative performing arts scene.

Third place: Vancouver in Canada Scored top marks for health, education, and culture and environment. It gained third spot thanks to its 95 out of 100 ranking in terms of stability and a 92.9 mark for infrastructure. The city is known for its majestic natural beauty located between the Coast Mountains and the Pacific ocean. The city is relatively small compared to some of the other top ten destinations with a little over 600,000 living there.

Fourth: Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the most populated city in Canada. It scored top marks in terms of stability, healthcare and education, but fell short of the winners as it scored 97.2 in terms of culture and environment and a relatively low 89.3 in terms of infrastructure. The city's most famous landmark is the CN Tower, which at 1,815 ft tall is one of the world's tallest buildings. The city's surrounds are home to some stunning wineries.

5. Calgary, Canada

Fifth: Calgary is the largest city in Alberta, with a population of almost 1.1million. It scored 100 out of 100 in the stability. healthcare and education categories as well as an impressive 96.4 in terms of infrastructure. But it didn't hit top spot because of its 89.1 rating for culture. It was once ranked the world's cleanest place to live by Forbes magazine. It's a relatively young city but still claims to have a rich history and was the first ever venue for the Winter Olympics.

6. Adelaide, Australia

Sixth: Known as Australia's wine capital, Adelaide scored top marks for healthcare and education. But it could only muster 95 in terms of stability, 94.2 in terms of culture and environment and 96.4 in terms of infrastructure. The city's tourism website describes it as the '20 minute city' with all amenities including the airport and beauty spots such as Adelaide Hills within a short distance of the city centre. Adelaide has a diverse cultural mix.

Seventh heaven: Sydney is the third of Australia's four cities in the top ten. It scored top marks for healthcare, education and infrastructure, but 90 for stability and 94.4 for culture. Famed for its outdoor lifestyle, the city's iconic landmarks include the Harbour Bridge, the Opera house and some of the world's most beautiful beaches. Sydney is a great place to live if you like watersports, surfing, seafood and wine.

Eighth: The Finnish capital scored top marks for stability and healthcare and impressive scores of 96.4 for infrastructure, 91.7 for education and 90 for culture and environment. It is the most populous city in Finland and located on a picturesque arm of the Baltic Sea coastline. It is famed for its art nouveau architecture and maintains its small-town feel despite being an international municipality and a hub for Finnish commerce.

Nine: The final Australian entry in the top ten. Perth hit top marks in healthcare, education, and infrastructure and scored 95 in the stability category. But its overall marked was dragged down by an 88.7 score for culture and environment. It is the largest city in Western Australia and home to almost 1.9million people. Australia's 'sunniest capital city', Perth mixes vibrant city culture with stunning nature and is home to some gorgeous beaches.

10. Auckland, New Zealand

Top ten: Auckland in New Zealand scored top marks for its education. It scored 95 and above in all other categories bar infrastructure, which saw it score 92.9. Like many others in the top ten, Auckland, known as Tamaki Makaurau to the indigenous Maori people, combines nature and a vibrant city life. The city claims that everyone lives within half hour of a beautiful beach, a hiking trail and 'a dozen enchanted holiday islands'.