A swish new park at the Kingston Foreshore has a name – and it's a nod to Canberra's musical heritage.
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The park, between the Waterfront and Aurora developments, will be known as Jack Ross Park, after the founding pipe major of the Canberra Pipe Band, which was formed in 1938 under the auspices of the Canberra Highland Society and Burns Club.
The name was determined after a public competition was run by the Land Development Agency, in consultation with the ACT Place Names Committee.
Mr Ross moved from Sydney to Canberra in 1937 and trained young pipers to form the band. He was a gardener with Parks and Gardens and lived in Leichhardt Street in Kingston with his wife Ivy.
The Canberra Pipe Band "always responded readily when asked to perform at functions of a charitable or patriotic nature".
On November 13, 1939 the band piped the 3rd Battalion to the Canberra railway station in Kingston and in 1954, Mr Ross and two of his students were invited to pipe for Queen Elizabeth II at a private dinner at the Lodge.
Nine submissions were received for the competition, with the place names committee's guidelines including that any person nominated must be deceased.
Green goes batty over Eden-Monaro
The ABC's election analyst Antony Green declared on federal election night that he was looking forward to Eden-Monaro losing its bellwhether status because he was sick of being asked about it.
Back then it might have looked like Labor's Mike Kelly was in with a chance of retaining the seat.
But the votes are all counted now and the Liberals' Peter Hendy was this week officially declared the new Member for Eden-Monaro, meaning the seat did indeed go with the government of the day, as it has since 1972, and has in fact retained its bellwhether tag.
Much to the gnashing of teeth by Green.
"I find the concept of bellwhether electorates just irritating. It drives me batty," he told us.
"You get asked about it all the time but it's just a coincidence. There are always some electorates which are always more likely than others to end up with the government of the day but the fact the one of them always does is just coincidence."
Big day for small brewers
The Small Brewers Beer Festival hopes to be real big this weekend.
The first festival was held in March at the Australian National Botanic Gardens and reached its crowd capacity of 2500 beer fanciers within 90 minutes, according to organiser Mick Strickland.
The second festival – on Saturday – has been shifted to Exhibition Park in Canberra which can cater for 5000 patrons.
The festival is designed to showcase only the small breweries, beer companies and cider makers of Australia – none of the big breweries or their sub-brands are invited to participate.
There will be 30 breweries and cider makers represented at the festival which will also feature live music and gourmet food.
It opens at 11am on Saturday at Exhibition Park in Canberra, Mitchell. Last drinks will be served at 5.30pm before the festival closes at 6pm.
Tickets are $35 plus booking fee and are available at moshtix.com.au. Latest information is on the Facebook page Small Brewers Beer Festival.
McDermott's wolf man look
Former Canberra boy Paul McDermott unveiled a much more hirsute look when he gave a floor talk about his art exhibition The Dark Garden in the national capital this week.
He was virtually unrecognisable with his thick beard and he was revelling in a persona that was far and away from his usual clean-shaven, sharp-suited television image. McDermott told us it was all about being "wolfman" rather than "poodle".
"If you're wanting absolutely honesty, when I'm doing television I'm so primped and pampered and coiffured and made up, I feel like some damn poodle. And it's just such a fake thing that you are this thing that's been fashioned to be visually acceptable in that medium,"he said.
"So when I'm not doing that work, I tend to become quite feral. I sometimes shave my head completely. Or I let my hair grow and I become the wolf man."
Catch The Dark Garden for its last two days at the M16 Artspace in Blaxland Crescent, Griffith from noon to 5pm Saturday and Sunday.
Ice cream eat a real brain freeze
Yes, we're probably encouraging gluttony but it's kind of mesmerising seeing someone trying to eat a sink-full of ice cream.
Actually, make that 35 scoops of ice cream, 10 scoops of things like lollies and chocolate, two waffles, whipped cream and fudge topping.
Down that in under 30 minutes and you'll get a free Cold Rock ice cream every week for a year.
The Beat the Sink Challenge will be held at the Cold Rock Belconnen store any time someone is game to take on the beast. Just apply the Cold Rock Belconnen via Facebook page.
Good to see that the rules spell out that "any vomiting will result in immediate disqualification".
It also costs $50 to enter so you'll really need to love ice cream.
Musician Mike Holberton, 27, attempted the Sink Challenge on Friday and despite a valiant go, was defeated by the sheer size of the job.
"I think the biggest challenge is the extreme headache that comes with it," he said. "I reckon it's possible. I reckon I'll give it another crack after some training."
What's on
- The Lifeline Spring Book Fair continues Saturday from 9am to 5pm and Sunday 10am to 4pm at the Budawang building at Exhibition Park in Canberra. There will also be family entertainment on Saturday.
- Queanbeyan's big 175th birthday celebrations are on Saturday from 11am to 7.15pm. It will kick off with a parade down the old main street, Macquoid Street. The main party is in and around Ray Morton Park with multicultural food stalls, cutting of the cake, live entertainment, family activities including kite making and story telling, a viewing of the Melbourne Cup and then fireworks at 7pm. From 5pm to 7pm there will be a concert featuring Omar Musa, RubyIce and Stik 'n' Move.
- The Australian Cool Climate Wine Show has its public tasting from 11am to 4pm on Saturday at the Murrumbateman Recreation Grounds Hall. Tickets are $15 and available at the door.