The Australian Bite

Buildings, bees and sistagirls

3 December 2009

Listen and download: MP3

This week on the Australian Bite, landscape architect Andrew Prowse will tell us about his great job designing a town high on the side of a mountain in Papua New Guinea’s Enga province. We’ll hear about a tiny mite that strikes terror into the hearts of Australian beekepers. And artist and photographer Bindi Cole will explain the background to the photograph that’s just won her a major indigenous art award – the Deadly Art Award.

Bees threatened by parasites

It’s hard to imagine a world without honey bees. Not only would honey be a thing of the past, but we also wouldn’t have most of our fruits, nuts and vegetables. Cows wouldn’t have things like clover to eat, and in terms of food production and food security, we’d be in a lot of trouble. But there’s one little parasite that is threatening to make that frightening situation a reality. It’s called the Varroa Destructor Mite, and Irene Scott  found out more about it from the CSIRO’s Dr Denis Anderson and Jodie Goldsworthy from Beechworth Honey in Victoria. Luckily the mite has not made it to Australia. . . yet.

See more on Irene’s story, including lots of great pics on the Triple J Hack website

“Sistagirl” portrait wins Deadly Art Award

Melbourne based indigenous artist and photographer Bindi Cole has won the prestigious $25,000 Deadly Art Award, which is part of the 2009 Victorian Indigenous Art Awards. It was her photo of Ajay, a transgender “sistagirl” from Bathurst Island – in the Tiwi Islands – that won her the award. So what is a “sistagirl” and where do they fit into Islander culture? Lindy Burns spoke to Bindi Cole to find out more.

Read more and see the winning photo in this report from Aboriginal Art News

The Tiwi Islands are north of Darwin straddling both the Arafura and Timor Seas

You can see some of Bindi Cole’s more commercial work on her flickr site

. . . and in case you’re wondering, “Deadly” is indigenous slang for cool, awesome, excellent etc. 

Designing a town in Papua New Guinea

Imagine a job designing a town on the side of a mountain, where you could literally live in the clouds among spectacular surroundings. Well that’s what Queensland based design firm JNP Pawsey and Prowse had the privilege of doing. The mountain is in Papua New Guinea and the town, which houses 400 national and expatriate mine personnel along with many locals, is Paiam in Enga Province. Alan Saunders spoke to Andrew Prowse about the project, which recently won the Australian institute of Landscape Architecture Queensland Award of Excellence

See pictures of the town here

Music (not in podcast) 

Australian R&B singer Daniel Merriweather was born in Melbourne’s outer suburbs but now divides his time between London and New York. He’s has just released the third single from his second album, Love and War which was released in June this year. It’s called Impossible.

Artist: Daniel Merriweather

Track: Impossible

Album: Love and War