Albany Shantymen credited as inspiration for Nathan Evans's TikTok hit, The Wellerman. A group of "hairy, middle-aged men" from Western Australia's south coast have been recognised as part of the inspiration for the global sea shanty craze.
Key points: A Scottish version of The Wellerman has peaked at number one on the UK chartsThe version was inspired by a rendition by the Albany ShantymenSea shanties, the working songs of yesteryear, are booming in popularity The Albany Shantymen have been named in Rolling Stone by TikTok megastar Nathan Evans as the influence for his hit version of The Wellerman.
The Scottish musician, whose cover of the sea shanty has amassed more than 15 million streams and topped the charts in multiple countries, said he first heard the Albany Shantymen version on Spotify. The recognition was "very flattering", according to Albany Shantymen founder Gary Greenwald. Misogynistic 'radicalisation' of boys online has these experts calling for change. For many, misogyny on the internet is depressingly familiar.
In Australia, 65 per cent of girls and young women have reported being harassed or abused online. But some experts are arguing that in a "manosphere" of online anti-women groups, methods of communication and organisation are becoming more sophisticated. At the more serious end of the spectrum, these experts say, are operators that must be seen and named as "extremist" or "terrorist" groups – particularly if anything is to be done to stop them.
BlazeAid seeks volunteers to rebuild fences on 400 bushfire-affected farms. As clean-up and recovery efforts ramp up for flood-affected communities across New South Wales and Queensland, there are concerns that securing volunteers for bushfire recovery projects in the NSW Snowy Valleys could now be even more difficult.
Key points: BlazeAid's Adelong camp, which reopened at the start of March, has just 15 volunteers400 farms still need help to rebuild fences following the 2020 summer bushfiresBlazeAid has replaced 455 kilometres of fencing in the NSW Snowy Valleys, but needs more volunteers BlazeAid reopened its camp at Adelong earlier this month as hundreds of farmers still need help to rebuild fences that were destroyed in the 2020 summer bushfires.
NT men still outnumber women as COVID hits multi-million-dollar population strategy. Darwin is Australia's only capital city with more men than women and it may stay that way after the COVID-19 pandemic and closure of state borders forced the Northern Territory government to put its multi-million-dollar population strategy on hold.
Key points: Darwin is Australia's only capital city where men outnumber womenThe NT government has halted a $50 million strategy to grow the populationIsolation from family is one of the main reasons women leave the Territory In 2018, amid a national publicity blitz linked to its Boundless Possible campaign, the government launched a $50 million two-year strategy across multiple agencies to help boost the Territory's population, drive economic growth and create jobs, especially for women. The strategy included a range of incentives targeting women aged 20 to 39 years to move to the Territory, including cash incentives if they applied for stipulated "high priority" jobs. The urban farmers taking over someone else's backyard as a reprieve from the pandemic. On a quiet street in suburban Melbourne, there's no sign of the transformation taking place.
Behind an old cottage in Fawkner, Catie Payne and George Clipp carefully tend to rows of flourishing crops. The pair have long wanted to try their hand at farming. But despite years of experience working on market gardens and farms across Australia and abroad, they were unable to afford land of their own. Behind the scenes filming Magda Szubanski and Will Connolly, aka 'Egg Boy', for Australian Story. The minute I spot the little brown box in Magda Szubanski's study, I become like a dog with a bone.
Handwriting scrawled across the top reads 'Precious Dad Film 1997'. I'm desperate to see what's inside. We're filming an episode of Australian Story about an unlikely coming together of the sexagenarian comedian and writer with 19-year-old Will Connolly, aka 'Egg Boy', to help bushfire survivors deal with trauma. Cameraman Simon Winter, sound recordist James Fisher and I are nearing the end of our shoot. Australian Love Stories exhibition showcases the 40-year marriage of Jimmy and Jane Barnes. It was 1979 at the Australian National University in Canberra when Jimmy saw Jane from across the room.
Specifically, it was November 22 at 4:00pm. Rock icon Jimmy Barnes is extremely confident of that fact. "I was completely smitten," Barnes said. "I was trying to catch her attention, trying to get her to look at me. " But the night ended with Jane Mahoney calling him a cab, and parting ways. Unlikely partnership between Magda Szubanski and 'Egg Boy' helping to heal bushfire-hit communities. Magda Szubanski is holding court in a Tumbarumba cafe.
This is not where you'd expect the A-list comedian, actor and writer to hang out. Sure enough, the locals are asking her for selfies and autographs, grateful for the distraction stardust brings. It's been 10 months since the cataclysmic fires of January 2020 tore through more than 4,000 square kilometres of forests, orchards and farmland in the Snowy Valleys area of New South Wales. It was one of the worst-hit parts of the state. And that's exactly why Magda is here. What nine months of interviews told researchers about life in Australia after the pandemic. For 10 years, Tatiana Tarasova has tended a plot at the Veg Out community garden built on a former lawn bowling green in the Melbourne beachside suburb of St Kilda.
She has always loved gardening, but she said the patch brought her extra comfort and a sense of community during the city's coronavirus lockdowns. "You don't just look after your own garden. If people are away, if people are sick, you water their flowers and their seedlings," Ms Tarasova said. That sense of community grew as nearby residents started leaving food scraps outside the locked gates for the gardeners to add to their compost. "More people started to bring leftovers and people became interested in growing more things and they knew where to come to get some seedlings," she said. Career-changing ex-teacher turns tiny cafe into award-winning mega business. Opening a small cafe with coffee and some sandwiches was her husband's dream, not Toni Vorenas's.
"[But] before we opened, he actually decided that wasn't his dream anymore," Ms Vorenas said. "Because he'd supported me a lot throughout my teaching career and my studies, I thought in return I would run the cafe for 12 months for him. " Without meaning to, 12 months has turned into 12 years and a two-site award-winning bakery and cafe serving 150 customers from two commercial kitchens, a bar and function room. Determined to find purpose in a corporate world, the former deputy principal has devoted her business to employing and empowering people from a wide mix of backgrounds and credits that diversity to Metro's success. Power makes people 'more likely to lie, to cheat, to swear' at work, experts say. You can't see or smell power. But with enough practice, it's easy to recognise who has it and who doesn't — especially when you're the one without it.
Social psychologist Professor Dacher Keltner, from the University of California, Berkley, has talked to thousands of people about power. He's studied it for 25 years. He says most of us consider power in terms of work, money or prestige. However what power really comes down to, he says, is your "capacity to alter the state of another person … their thoughts, their feelings, their actions, their pocketbook, their health".
Facebook group furnishes house for Brisbane family returning after living in Italy. When Gigi Mirto's young family returned to Brisbane after out-running COVID-19 in Europe, they had nothing but their suitcases and an empty house but the generosity of the community changed that. In 2018, Mr Mirto, originally from Naples, packed up his young family's life and moved to Italy. He and wife Jenny wanted to ensure their young daughter spent part of her life in Italy, connecting with her heritage and extended family. "[Before we moved] we basically donated and sold everything we owned, even the cars," Mr Mirto told ABC Radio Brisbane. Two families, one big secret — how an amateur sleuth solved a century-old mystery - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Why just kicking a footy can be the best sport of all. I always thought it was an urban myth. Like sightings of the Tasmanian tiger, rumours of a secret society of guys kicking an Aussie Rules footy around on Sunday mornings were heard, but I never saw the evidence and I never quite believed. But then a chance casual remark by a mutual acquaintance led to a reunion with an old school friend. We bonded over Neil Young and a love of Aussie Rules in school 35 years ago. Recess and lunch were spent kicking a footy backwards and forward on the basketball court — him in his scratchy 30 per cent wool, 70 per cent acrylic Collingwood jumper (with collar), and me in my Hawthorn equivalent.
Bin Isolation Outing's creator is awarded for spreading joy on Facebook. But the group is no more. It started as a laugh between friends, a celebration of bin night to fight the lockdown blues, and within three weeks Bin Isolation Outing had attracted one million members from around the world. Key points: Bin Isolation Outing rocketed to success and a million members in just three weeksThis week, creator Danielle Askew was recognised at Fraser Coast Regional Council's Australia Day awardsShe shut down the group at the end of last year after it took a toll on her mental health Danielle Askew started the Facebook group in March last year as she and her friends in Queensland's Hervey Bay dared each other to brighten up a rare trip out the front door with dress-ups.
This week, Ms Askew's efforts were celebrated with a Community Project of the Year award by Fraser Coast Regional Council — but not before she made the decision to archive the group. Love in the time of algorithms: would you let artificial intelligence choose your partner? It could be argued artificial intelligence (AI) is already the indispensable tool of the 21st century. From helping doctors diagnose and treat patients to rapidly advancing new drug discoveries, it's our trusted partner in so many ways. Now it has found its way into the once exclusively-human domain of love and relationships.
With AI-systems as matchmakers, in the coming decades it may become common to date a personalised avatar. Sober lifestyle grows in popularity, with more Australians giving up alcohol. Ten years ago, teenager Ezrah Waith was in a bustling nightclub on the Gold Coast's glitter strip, with lights flashing and music pumping, when he had an epiphany. Key points: Can we learn animal democracy from bonobos, ants and slime mould to better our society? Humans have turned to spider silk to make stronger materials, termite mounds to design cooler housing and bumblebees to refine drone technology. So, if it's so helpful to look outside our own species for answers to problems, why not look to non-humans to help us develop our society and democracy?
Dr Jean-Paul Gagnon, a philosopher in democracy at the University of Canberra, says innovative solutions are needed to address problems in modern democracies and societies, and non-humans could hold the answers. From Australia to Scotland, penpals celebrate 70 years of friendship on opposite sides of the world. Connecting with the people we love from a distance is something many of us have had to adjust to in 2020, but it is something Jill Stretton has been doing for most of her life.
Key points: How the children of Cobargo are moving on from a year marked by bushfires and a pandemic. Birds that play are smarter than those that don't, new research finds. Masking when you have autism can help you blend in, but you might not be doing yourself any favours. The practice of someone being undiagnosed on the autism spectrum and masking their autism is not as uncommon as you might think.
Inside Ballarat's tunnel gallery, where great art and high risk collide in the dark - ABC News. The promise of peace — not the lure of adventure — is taking this man down the drain. Known as The Drifter on Instagram, he has spent years exploring the tunnels below Ballarat in central Victoria. A majority of Australians would welcome a universal basic income, survey finds - ABC News. Message in a bottle found on one of PNG's most far-flung islands sparks an unlikely friendship - ABC News.
They deliver your mail, but Australia's postal workers play a much bigger role in suburban life - ABC News. Joel Bull is a man by many names. Parenting programs in Launceston suburbs helping keep families together - ABC News. Small changes you can make to help make the lives of autistic people easier - ABC News. Mentors behind the wheel helping drive change for unemployed in Launceston suburbs - ABC News. The neighbourhood house proving there's more to a suburb than its reputation - ABC News. Ravenswood men's shed set to lose funding and only paid role after missing grant deadline - ABC News.
How to harness humour as a superpower at work - ABC News. Could one-on-one concerts be the cure for coronavirus loneliness? - ABC News. Tablet computers have kept prisoners in touch with family during COVID-19 - ABC News. The Lab supports children with Autism who 'don't have friends' to gain friendships, learn social skills - ABC News. Funding direct job creation is boosting people out of disadvantage and experts want a national policy on it - ABC News. Victoria's coronavirus success was never in doubt with a community like ours - ABC News. How witchcraft became a multi-billion dollar industry - ABC News. Playwright Angus Cerini on how theatre saved him, and examining Australian masculinity in Wonnangatta, The Bleeding Tree - ABC News.
We all have to weather rejection and get back up again, but overcoming the sting isn't easy - ABC News. Coronavirus closed outdoor markets. For some stallholders, the loss of community spirit — not business — was the hardest - ABC News. Country Victoria is coming back to life after coronavirus lockdown. Mullet trend catches on in Gippsland as 'Fuzzy' the sheep adopts bold new 'haircut' - ABC News. Problem gamblers say pokies venues aren't stopping self-excluded gamblers from losing thousands.
Emotional burden of stage 4 restrictions heavier on lone-person households - ABC News. Child removal 'breaking parents', mother says, as report reveals high levels of dissatisfaction - ABC News. Coronavirus and social distancing have changed my relationships — how can I make it permanent? - ABC News. Coronavirus has stopped the daily high-wire act of parenting. And I couldn't be more grateful - ABC News. During coronavirus, we need social sciences and humanities more than ever. This is why - ABC News. Why religious apocalyptic texts can offer us solace during the coronavirus crisis. Chalk messages and drawings on streets are bringing hope during the coronavirus pandemic.
How the sensitive singer-songwriter was born and changed music forever. Nearly half of Tasmania's released prisoners are locked up again within two years. COVID-19 restrictions an opportunity to plant, Gardening Australia's Tino Carnevale says. Many of us struggle with loneliness, but how do you make new friends as an adult? Facebook 'friends' help Luke crowdsource a path across floods to attend his daughter's birth. Jinn, golems, and pretas: What supernatural beings in religion can teach us about ourselves. Charity op shop based on trust and honesty makes do with no staff, no cash registers. Jamming the revolving door of women in prison, Jill Prior is putting a new spin on lady justice.
Could the science of kindness make the world a better place? - Science News - ABC News. NSW bushfires being tackled by locals taking firefighting into their own hands. Parkrun in prison could reduce reoffending, women's correctional centre boss says. How meat, barbecue and a bunch of mates changed this dad's life. Harry has been searching for his lost pet dog Lucia for three weeks. This is how it is affecting his mental health. 'Banksy of Barwon Heads' explains reason behind koala etched in sand on Victorian beach. Video game developer, online players raise money for bushfire recovery effort. Black Saturday firefighters want you to listen to them, not call them 'heroes' Bushfire forces hundreds to shelter in Mallacoota cinema in 'dystopian novel' experience. Muslim mates 'adopted' by small community, after making 10-hour round trips to cook for bushfire victims.
I am 21 and lonely. This is why so many of my generation are feeling the same. Victoria's regional general stores face challenges of shrinking populations. Teen transforms 'yucky' school toilets into safe space for girls having a tough day. How Lego therapy can be a 'massive win' for kids with autism and their families.
Young people don't understand how texting can turn ugly, report says. Watching Friends without a laugh track turns Ross into an unfunny jerk — neuroscientists tell us why. Silo art brightens up rural town with local farm characters Whisky the kelpie, Diamond the sheep. After Vanity Fair came to town, Byron Bay took a long hard look at itself. Mental health royal commission told wearable tech could help end loneliness. Families take extended breaks from city living and turn their kids into 'road scholars' Message in a bottle author, Paul Gilmore, found 50 years after his letter was thrown overboard. How much is too much talk about sex? This French philosopher believes we're overdoing it.
Aboriginal community Yarrabah turns social media into force for good with #postpositive. The brain benefits of looking up from your phone - Health - ABC News. Albany Regional Prison's dog training program is creating better pets and better people. Witches, wicca, spells and pub 'moots' all form part of Tasmania's thriving pagan community. When premature birth leaves mother and baby in neonatal unit far from home. People more likely to return a wallet with money in it than an empty one - Science News - ABC News. Jolly Rogers Fishing Club on a mission to clean up Queensland's waterways. 'Anti-trans' group invited to help develop trans-inclusive posters for public toilets. From natural disaster comes art — creatives face fire, flood and drought trauma head-on. Tara wasn't married, but it still cost her $20k to leave her relationship.
How a group of passionate locals are helping refugees find their 'home among the gum trees' The Natural Way of Things named book of the year by University of Canberra, which gives free copies to students. Giving your partner the silent treatment isn't harmless — it can be devastating - ABC Life. Gaslighting is 'a form of domestic violence' — and children can be victims too - RN. BlazeAid volunteers lend a hand in flood-affected north-west Queensland. Keeping mothers in work is a gender catchcry. But is the answer to get dads to do more at home? Her World. Red Cross letters unite a humanitarian and her grandfather across the decades. Thirteen taken to hospital from 'high risk' Ultra Music festival in Parramatta.