In this star-studded Comic Relief parody of Downton Abbey, “Uptown Downstairs Abbey” brings together some of Britain’s best-loved actors for a hilarious take on aristocratic drama, outrageous secrets, and upstairs-downstairs chaos.
Featuring: Hugh Bonneville, Victoria Wood, Jennifer Saunders, Kim Cattrall, Harry Enfield, Olivia Colman, Joanna Lumley, Dale Winton and many more comedy legends.
Originally aired on Red Nose Day 2011.
As the population ages, the RBA’s interest rate policy is no longer fit for purpose
An extensive government review of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) in 2023 made 51 specific recommendations to enable “an RBA fit for the future”. But the narrow terms of reference confined the review to an economic lens.
The failure to investigate the effectiveness of monetary policy setting through a demographic lens has resulted in an RBA which is no longer fit for purpose.
The Reserve Bank has just one policy tool – the setting of official interest rates – to manage the economy and achieve its twin goals of:
low and stable inflation
full employment.
From a demographic perspective, the reality is that a large and growing proportion of the population is retired, with tax-free income thanks to superannuation and secure home ownership. They are immune to interest rate changes and may actually be fuelling inflation because their spending is not affected by interest rate rises.
A changing nation
After the second world war, Australia transformed economically and socially, driven by industrialisation, social movements and education reform, building on the foundations for a modern welfare state.
Demographic change was also underway. These transformations led to a sustained period of economic growth and wealth accumulation for many, but not all, Australians. The Reserve Bank of Australia was established by an act of parliament in 1959.
Australia was relatively young, economically and demographically. A larger proportion of the population was either school age or working age (15 to 64 years). Rising levels of education and workforce participation meant stronger economic growth, rising incomes and wealth accumulation.
In the post-war years, home ownership became the “great Australian dream”. The post-war baby boom continued until 1971. As a result, the working age population continued to increase until it peaked in 2010.
The great Australian dream
By the 1990s, a large proportion of the population held mortgages. So changes in official interest rates flowed straight through to households. The Reserve Bank’s main policy tool was highly effective.
Over half (54.2%) of those born between 1947 and 1951 were home owners by the time they were 25 to 29 years old, increasing to 77.8% by the time they were 45 to 49 years at the 1996 census and 81.9% by 2021, aged 70 to 74 years.
Now, the post-war baby boomers are in retirement, or close to it. They have very high levels of home ownership, and so their spending patterns are mostly immune to interest rate changes.
When RBA moves had bite
High levels of home ownership and exposure to interest rates meant the RBA could meaningfully manage the economy by shaping household spending and business investment.
Baby boomers reached their peak earnings capacity as the super system matured and also benefited from strong asset price growth. Those born before 1960 could access super pensions from age 55. Now in retirement phase, they receive guaranteed, tax-free income streams.
This tax-free income has further helped to insulate their spending from interest rate moves.
An ageing population
By 2024, the number of Australians aged 65 or older had increased by 437% since 1960 and 85.2% since 1992, according to calculations based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data.
And the majority are homeowners. According to the 2021 Census, 61.9% of Australians aged 60 or older owned their homes outright, 16.7% owned had a mortgage, and 13.8% rented. Based on life expectancy data, they can look forward to more than 20 years of future spending ahead, unaffected by moves in interest rates.
For the RBA, this really matters.
High rates of outright home ownership insulate people from mortgage rate fluctuations. Superannuation pensions provide stable income, regardless of movements in official interest rates.
In fact, for retirees with savings in term deposits or similar accounts, higher interest rates can actually boost discretionary spending, and thus feed through to inflation.
Immune to the RBA’s moves
Wealth accumulated by those born in the post-war era through home ownership and superannuation stimulates the economy. Spending by retirees on recreation, leisure and health, combined with wealth transfers, such as helping children with housing deposits, mortgage repayments or school fees, continues regardless of changes in interest rates.
The demographic reality is the growing over-65 population is not
working, is financially and housing secure, and is immune to interest rate levers. The smaller, younger, working age families with mortgages are bearing the brunt of the RBA’s policy decisions. This risks widening inequity in Australia further.
Other structural reforms should be considered. To achieve long-term economic prosperity and equity for all Australians, reform of tax settings around wealth, superannuation, housing and intergenerational transfers needs to be prioritised.
Without a demographic lens informing economic and social policy-making, Australia, and its governing institutions, risk failing future generations of students, workers and families.
The end of the year means holiday celebrations, summer breaks … and for us, one important thing: best books lists. We asked 35 expert readers for their favourite picks, ranging from novelists to anthropologists, scientists to criminologists – and experts in politics, publishing and philosophy. The only rule? The book had to be published this year.
And the Books & Ideas team are sharing our own best books of 2025.
Books & Ideas editor Suzy Freeman-Greene’s best book is Arundhati Roy’s memoir, Mother Mary Comes to Me (Penguin Random House). Don’t be put off by the cheesy title – Roy re-enchants the genre, eyeing her dysfunctional parents and her political struggles with wit and poetic verve. (Honourable mention: Hasib Hourani’s charged book-length poem, Rock Flight).
Senior deputy editor Jo Case’s standout was The Transformations (Picador), Andrew Pippos’ big-hearted ode to the dying days of print journalism. It follows a wary, wounded, deeply kind subeditor as newspapers shrink and his solitary world widens to let people in – inviting rich complications. (Honourable mention: Olivia De Zilva’s blazingly original, smart-funny-sad debut autofiction, Plastic Budgie.)
We’d love to hear your best books of 2025 too – please share them in the comments at the end of this article.
Fiona Wright
Josephine Rowe’s Little World (Black Inc.) is a surprising, deft and quietly moving book: a novella about outsiders and exiles, told in triptych. It opens with the startling image of the incorruptible body of a child-saint arriving – in a horse float – at a remote desert property, before stretching out across time and space. Its characters are all relics of a kind, all struggling with contrition and connection. It is a technically brilliant, elegant work – one that has stayed with me all year.
Fiona Wright was the 2024-2025 Judy Harris Writer in Residence, Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney.
Sandra Phillips
So much spoke to me in Angie Faye Martin’s debut crime novel, Melaleuca (Harper Collins). Martin is of Kooma, Kamilaroi, and European heritage. A writer and editor, she delivers a clever insider understanding of racialised Australia, with a speciality in small-town cop culture. Melaleuca has staunch and loving Blakfella characters – and not one, but two crimes to solve. Sad at times, funny at others, it is intricate and well-paced in plot and subplot. Right up until the very end, it’s a thrilling read.
Sandra Phillips is associate dean, Indigenous and professor of publishing and communications, University of Melbourne.
Andrew Pippos
The title of Dominic Amerena’s debut, I Want Everything (Summit Books), neatly specifies the farcical ambitions that poison its characters. The interplay between the book’s two narrative strands is an impressive achievement: the Brenda Shale chapters carry a sober emotional weight, while the contemporary framing is playful, biting and fast-paced. This is a comic novel with serious things to say about art and gender.
Andrew Pippos is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Technology Sydney.
Vijay Mishra
Heart Lamp (Scribe) by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi, was originally written in Kannada, a “minoritarian” language spoken by over 65 million people in India. This collection of 12 stories offers an extraordinary tapestry, principally of the quotidian lives of anxiety-driven Indian Muslim women under the unwavering sign of patriarchy. Written in near-minimalist prose, the collection offers delicate accounts of cultural practices, from the rituals of worship, marriage, childbirth and circumcision, to the desire for a funeral shroud dipped in the holy Zamzam waters of Mecca. Deepa Bhasthi’s uplifting and aesthetically accomplished translation transforms Banu Mushtaq’s stories (phenomenal as they are in their source language) into a great work of art.
Vijay Mishra is emeritus professor of English and comparative literature, Murdoch University.
Emma Shortis
Less than a year into the second Trump administration, I am haunted by a line written by Canadian songwriter Rufus Wainwright: “I’m so tired of you, America.” We are all of us, I think, tired. Writing a book on the history of the US that cuts through the tiredness is always a Herculean task; this year, of all years, it should have been impossible. Somehow, with The Shortest History of the United States of America (Black Inc.), Don Watson has done it.
Emma Shortis is adjunct senior fellow, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University.
Intifar Chowdhury
After watching the Netflix adaptation of The Thursday Murder Club, I was hooked by its fresh, witty take on ageing, friendship and crime. So, when Richard Osman’s latest book in the series dropped, I couldn’t resist diving back into the world of Joyce, Elizabeth, Ron and Ibrahim. The Impossible Fortune is everything from quirky clever to utterly heartwarming. A wedding guest with a dangerous secret vanishes, pulling the club back into a whirlwind of mystery and unexpected twists. Osman delivers a page-turning thriller that balances suspense with humour and tenderness. It’s a story about loyalty, resilience and the thrill of chasing answers – even when life insists on slowing you down.
Intifar Chowdhury is lecturer in government, Flinders University.
Carol Lefevre
I read Joan Didion’s posthumous Notes to John (Fourth Estate) with enormous guilt for the invasion of privacy. But guilt aside, Notes reveals a new side of Didion. It documents a woman struggling amid the complex fallout of adoption, a mother who lives in daily terror that her adopted daughter will be lost. It explains the fear of loss that haunts Didion’s fiction, and shows the raw material she worked from in the more poetic Blue Nights. Didion may not have given her blessing to this book, which is an account of her sessions with a psychiatrist, but those who ushered Notes into the world did a good thing for those of us who adore her. It may be a source of solace, too, for many engaged in ongoing struggles with adoption.
Carol Lefevre is visiting research fellow, English and creative writing, University of Adelaide.
Peter Mares
Losing Big: America’s Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling (Columbia Global Reports) is a vivid case study of the harms wrought by online sports betting in the United States after the Supreme Court greenlit the industry in 2018. A landmark parliamentary report chaired by the late Peta Murphy MP documented similar damage in Australia. Yet two years on, the government has not acted on its bipartisan recommendations. Sometimes it helps to understand your own mess by studying someone else’s, so this is the book Australian politicians should read over summer.
Peter Mares is adjunct senior research fellow, School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University.
Elizabeth Finkel
Ian McEwan is my go-to writer for portraiture. In What We Can Know (Jonathan Cape), his canvas widens to civilisations – our current “deranged” one, hurtling eyes wide shut to imminent ecological collapse and AI-triggered nuclear wars – and the archipelago civilisation that follows, where scholars rely on electronic texts, rife with disinformation, to know (and ache for) the prelapsarian world. The title holds the key to the book: a meditation on the inherent murkiness of human knowledge, made infinitely worse by 21st-century tech.
Elizabeth Finkel is adjunct senior research fellow, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University.
Jumana Bayeh
Omar El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This (Text Publishing) is confronting to read for a range of reasons. Some will see themselves in the heartache and confusion Akkad outlines. Others – perhaps most – will see themselves uncomfortably reflected in the complacency that caused Akkad his heartache. Providing insights into what it means to confront the genocide as an Arab in the West, this book outlines how liberal responses to the decimation of Gaza and its inhabitants are experienced by people like Akkad as betrayal, harmful silence and pain.
Jumana Bayeh is associate professor, Faculty of Arts, Macquarie University.
John Quiggin
“Enshittification” is the process by which once-useful parts of the internet, like Google, are degraded by the corporations that control them. It was Macquarie Dictionary’s Word of the Year in 2024. Cory Doctorow, who coined the term, has now written the definitive book on this disease, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It (Verso), describing its pathology, epidemiology and possible cures.
John Quiggin is professor of economics at the University of Queensland.
Joëlle Gergis
Few writers are skilful enough to articulate the complexity of the turbulent times we are living through. Even fewer provide genuine hope. There’s barely a page of Rebecca Solnit’s No Straight Road Takes You There (Granta) that I haven’t flagged to revisit her wisdom and insight. Solnit’s nuanced view of social change reminds us that every chapter in human history has challenged our moral integrity. These lyrical essays are inspiration for world-weary readers who know that giving up isn’t an option.
Joëlle Gergis is honorary associate professor of climate science at the University of Melbourne.
Tony Hughes-d'Aeth
My favourite book published this year was Evelyn Araluen’s The Rot (UQP). I’m tempted to call the book a fever dream, yet there is also something icily cold in the vision of these poems. The “rot” appears in the world as cascading injustice, from the bloodied rubble of Gaza to the escalating misery of the housing crisis. But the rot is also intimate and interior. Once we would have called it our soul.
Tony Hughes-d'Aeth is a professor and chair of Australian literature at the University of Western Australia.
Alice Grundy
Salvage (Picador) by Jennifer Mills is the perfect book to read on your summer holidays. It’s pacey and keeps you turning the pages, while you reflect on how you’re cooking on a heating planet. Salvage is a new genre for Mills, but it has the visceral descriptions readers will remember from her earlier novels, Dyschronia and The Airways, and characters you would love to road-trip with.
Alice Grundy is visiting fellow, School of Literature, Language and Linguistics, Australian National University.
Nick Haslam
“We are not getting sicker,” writes Suzanne O’Sullivan, author of The Age of Diagnosis (Hodder) – “we are attributing more to sickness.” A neurologist working at the clinical coalface, the author of this powerful book argues that over-diagnosis is rampant. Ranging from autism to ADHD to cancer screening, she finds our tendency to pathologise is doing more harm than good. Bracing without being polemical, The Age of Diagnosis pushes back against our diagnostic culture, offering practical remedies for health professionals and the wider public.
Nick Haslam is professor of psychology, University of Melbourne.
John Long
Goliath’s Curse by Luke Kemp (Viking) is both a sobering and utterly engaging account of the historical rise and fall of states. “Goliath States” succeed through violence or threatening it. Inequality leads to autocracy, which fuels Goliath States. Today, 71% of the population lives under autocracy, with more countries heading towards it. The conclusion is that the world will succumb to nuclear war or environmental collapse, unless more states become democratically governed and collaborate to avoid the apocalypse.
John Long is strategic professor in palaeontology, Flinders University.
Melanie Saward
Weaving Us Together (Hachette) is the Blak, queer coming-of-age story I wish I’d had as a teenager. The story follows shy Aboriginal teen, Jean O’Reilly, as they adjust to life in a small, northern New South Wales town. Lay Maloney’s beautifully written novel (which won the 2022 blak&write! fellowship), somehow manages to be a gentle, safe place to land for young people exploring gender, sexuality and identity, while not shying away from inter-generational trauma, stolen children, police violence and racism. A must-read for schools, educators and young people.
Melanie Saward is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Queensland.
Jindan Ni
Without any hesitation, my favourite book for 2025 is Ocean Vuong’s second novel, The Emperor of Gladness (Jonathan Cape). In the fictional US town of “East Gladness”, no one is “glad”. Along with the protagonist Hai, a college drop-out whose attempted suicide is interrupted by an elderly lady with dementia, Vuong compels readers to witness the vulnerable lives of many disadvantaged people. Yet despite their deep precarity, solace and love are generously provided beyond family ties. A heart-wrenching story with an incredible healing power.
Jindan Ni is senior lecturer, global and language studies, RMIT University.
John Woinarski
My best book this year was Nicolas Rothwell and Alison Nampitjinpa Anderson’s Yilkari: A Desert Suite (Text Publishing). There is mystery and meaning in the Australian landscape. Most of us are outsiders in this country, seeing only its superficialities, blind to its spirit, poorer for that lack of connection. At a glance, the western deserts are featureless, inhospitable, best travelled through on the unbending Gunbarrel Highway. Here, accompanied by quixotic guides and encumbered by the gift and genius of western high culture, a narrator recounts his quest to find the essence of this country, to fit into the land. The result is a haunting dream about our nature.
John Woinarski is professor of conservation biology, Charles Darwin University.
Sophie Gee
James Baldwin was a literary provocateur and also a crowd-pleaser; a Black radical and activist who loved Dickens and Dostoevsky; a gay man who lived in Paris, and a public voice for American civil rights. Nicholas Boggs’ extraordinary new biography of one of America’s greatest writers, Baldwin: A Love Story (Bloomsbury Circus), captures all these aspects of Baldwin’s life and writing, giving us a deep and moving account of a person whose life was riven by violence and filled with joy and glamour.
Sophie Gee is vice chancellor’s fellow, English literature, University of Sydney and professor of English at Princeton University.
Euan Ritchie
“Nature is not the backdrop to our lives; it is our lives.” This sentiment and insight from the preface of Nature’s Last Dance (Affirm Press) perfectly frames the strength and vital importance of Natalie Kyriacou’s book. The natural world is under siege, and Natalie describes heartbreaking examples. But ultimately, this book inspires – through thoroughly entertaining, sometimes joyous, well-researched examples of the extraordinary wonders and complexity of nature. Practical advice for readers to enact personal changes of their own fosters hope and empowerment. Bravo.
Euan Ritchie is professor in wildlife ecology and conservation at Deakin University.
Mia Martin Hobbs
Sunil Amrith’s The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years (Penguin) tells the story of how humanity has changed the planet we call home, untangling the environmental costs of empire, war, revolution and “progress” and revealing the devastating effects for the world’s poorest and most marginalised. Amrith shows how the human desire to control nature has, ironically, made our world less safe. The historical craft here is extraordinary: mind-bending and kaleidoscopic, The Burning Earth traverses the sweeping effects of colonisation, resource extraction, agriculture and development across every corner of the globe – while retaining individual stories of suffering and survival in the face of monumental environmental changes. Amrith’s work generates an urgent call to action to recognise the “crisis of life on Earth” before it is too late.
Mia Martin Hobbs is research fellow and historian of war and conflict, Deakin University.
Alexander Howard
Pierre Guyotat was one of postwar France’s most radical writers. Associated with the Tel Quel group and known for dense, hallucinatory prose that stretched language to breaking point, he made his name with Eden, Eden, Eden (1970) – a violent and apocalyptic text composed of a single, unbroken sentence running across 163 pages. At first glance, Idiocy (New York Review Books), his prize-winning coming-of-age memoir newly translated into English, seems formally restrained. However, a closer look reveals it to be just as intense and uncompromising. Spanning the years 1958 to 1962, the book traces his formative time in Paris and his experiences as a soldier in Algeria, where he was imprisoned for inciting desertion. Bearing witness to the atrocities of colonial conflict, Guyotat’s book feels disturbingly relevant right now.
Alexander Howard is senior lecturer, discipline of English and writing, University of Sydney.
Lynda Ng
Can we call it a genocide? Who was there first? Are we allowed to talk about this? In a year when Gaza dominated the headlines and yet public discussion was decidedly curtailed, Pankaj Mishra’s The World After Gaza (Fern Press) made a fearless foray into Zionism and the question of Palestine. Mishra’s decision to tell the history of Israel as a settler-colonial state has been highly contentious. By defamiliarising Middle Eastern politics, he forces us to reflect on how the legacy of European colonialism continues to play out in the world today.
Lynda Ng is lecturer in world literature (including Australian literature), University of Melbourne.
Eve Vincent
The Seal Woman (Giramondo), republished in 2025, was originally published the
same year as the Mabo decision: 1992. Dagmar, a Dane, is the novel’s protagonist. Living in a Victorian coastal town, Dagmar is filled with grief, desire and an obsessive interest in Norse mythology. She also undergoes an awakening about Aboriginal relations to ancestral Country. Beverley Farmer’s prose is incredibly focused and intricate. Reading of rockpools, seaweed, caves, spiders in the house, duplicity and selkies nourished and enlarged my imagination.
Eve Vincent is associate professor, anthropology, Macquarie University.
Tom Doig
Luke Kemp (originally from Bega, now based in Cambridge) has written an epic, sobering account of how and why human societies fall apart in Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse. Drawing on an exhaustive data set of 324 collapsed states, synthesising archaeology with psychology and political economy, he concludes that inequality, caused by corrupt elites, is the uniting feature. Any lessons for the present moment? Um, yep. While I’m usually sceptical of brief-history-of-everything books, Goliath’s Curse is a genuine joy to read. Pity about the ending (for us).
Tom Doig is a creative writing lecturer at the University of Queensland.
Juliet Rogers
Plestia Alqaad’s book Eyes of Gaza is not an easy read. It’s sad, painful and sometimes excruciatingly so. It is a book as witness; documenting the moments of trauma and violence in Gaza in the 45 days after October 7 2023. It shows this world through the eyes of a 23-year-old Palestinian journalist, describing a devastated landscape with nuance, with care and with the eye of someone who can read more than pain on people’s faces. Alqaad tells us of the occupation and the genocide but also the stories of camaraderie, of care, of collaboration between those who had lost everything. How can you share when you have nothing? It seems you can. Space, warmth, love and sometimes laughter are generated in proximity, even among terrible loss.
Juliet Rogers is a professor in criminology and director of the law and justice minor at University of Melbourne.
Natalie Kon-yu
Home – its myths and impossibilities – was at the heart of Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things, and is also the knotted centre of Mother Mary Comes to Me. In this memoir, Roy reveals the slippages that occur between fiction and nonfiction in writing a life. Roy’s mother, her country and her self form a set of nesting dolls that cannot nest, but cannot be understood without one another. A beautiful, generous book.
Natalie Kon-yu is a teaching and research associate professor in creative writing and literary studies.
Edwina Preston
My best book of 2025 is Shokoofeh Azar’s The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen (Europa). Azar’s second novel filled me with wonder and horror, and gave me entry to a strange, beautiful and wondrous world: that of the ancient Zoroastrian culture as it butts up against the murderous modern regimes of Ayatollah Khomeini and Ali Khamenei. A profoundly beautiful and harrowing work.
Edwina Preston is a novelist and PhD candidate in the School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne.
Julian Novitz
I Want Everything (Summit Books), Dominic Amerena’s blackly funny and acutely well observed satire of Melbourne literary life, struck close to home for me this year. I Want Everything explores Australian literary history and contemporary writing lives with an uncompromising eye as Amerena’s unnamed narrator attempts to extract material for an “eminently fundable” book from his chance encounter with a famously reclusive and mysterious author. Brilliantly funny, it develops the pace and tension of a thriller, as gambits and deceptions start to pile up. Best debut and best novel of 2025 for me.
Julian Novitz is senior lecturer, writing, Swinburne University of Technology.
Jen Webb
My pick is Omar Sakr and Safdar Ahmed’s The Nightmare Sequence (UQP). In a year marked by global levels of violence, both discursive and physical, Sakr and Ahmed use poetry and graphic art to express anger, truth-telling and tenderness. They remind readers that we humans are all in this together – and though “History is an angel with seven faces / All of them are turned away from us”, we can turn towards each other.
Jen Webb is distinguished professor emerita of creative practice, University of Canberra.
Matthew Sharpe
Most people are happy enough to accept the latest gadgets coming to us from Silicon Valley without asking too many questions about what the people who run the companies might think. Science journalist Adam Becker is not one of those content to “wait and see what happens”. In More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity (Basic Books), he probes the ideas of the “techbros” and their cheerleaders. And the news is not comforting. Claiming the mantle of science and backed by billions of dollars, these ideas are often troubling melanges from sci-fi, futurism and racist pseudoscience, whose implications for life as we know it are far from beneficent.
Matthew Sharpe is associate professor in philosophy, Australian Catholic University.
Allanah Hunt
Moonlight and Dust (Allen & Unwin) by Jasmin McGaughey is a fantasy novel that’s enticing from its first page with its dark academia and ecological themes. Set in stunning Cairns, the author’s strong voice weaves together a mystery about a young Torres Strait Islander girl who comes to life in the words, along with her endearing family.
Allanah Hunt is lecturer, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, University of Queensland.
Wanning Sun
In Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future (Allen Lane), Dan Wang gives you a new lens through which to view China and US-China competition. Conceptualising China as an engineering state and America as a lawyerly society, Wang shows that China’s strengths are as impressive as its weaknesses are disturbing. But Wang does not take sides: Breakneck argues China has learned from the West, and now the West should learn from China. Whether or not you agree with him, it is likely to be a thought-provoking – even eye-opening – read.
Wanning Sun is professor of media and cultural studies, University of Technology Sydney.
Julienne van Loon
A yoga teacher, a poet and a long-time reader of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, Antonia Pont has delivered us an idiosyncratic and delightful new non-fiction book. With A Plain Life: On Thinking, Feeling and Deciding (New South), Pont advocates for plainness. That is, for a stance in which we decide for ourselves “that one’s life is intrinsically ‘enough’”. It’s a book about expectations and about capacities, including “unlearning meanness” in the context of our neoliberalist age. I believe the best books become not just an accompaniment, but a living companion: this is one such book.
Julienne van Loon is associate professor in creative writing, University of Melbourne.
The Council on the Ageing NSW (COTA NSW) is the peak organisation for people over 50 in our state. We’re an independent, non-partisan, consumer-based non-government organisation. We work with politicians, policy makers, and service providers as well as media representatives to make sure your views are heard and your needs are met. COTA NSW works to empower and engage people over 50. For decades, we’ve shaped the policies and programs that change lives.
Since our beginning in 1956, COTA NSW has introduced policies and programs that make a real difference to peoples’ lives. We have proud record, having created: ■Meals on Wheels, ■Retirement Village Residents Association, ■Australian Seniors Computer Clubs Association, ■Seniors Clubs, ■Seniors Information Service, ■OM:NI – Older Men: New Ideas, ■Grandfriends, ■Grandparents, Relatives and Kinship Care Alliance, ■Medication Management for Older People, and the ■Mature Employment Line
NSW Seniors Card program: Translated Resources
If you're from a culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) background, and would like more information about the NSW Seniors Card program, translated versions of the Membership Guide brochure are available here:
Avalon Soccer Club is an amateur club situated at the northern end of Sydney’s Northern Beaches. As a club we pride ourselves on our friendly, family club environment. The club is comprised of over a thousand players aged from 5 to 70 who enjoy playing the beautiful game at a variety of levels and is entirely run by a group of dedicated volunteers.
Apply for the Seniors Energy Rebate
A new rebate for independent retirees who hold a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card to help with electricity costs. The Seniors Energy Rebate is available for eligible independent retirees to help cover the cost of their electricity.
To be eligible you need to hold a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC).
CSHCs are means-tested concession cards issued by Services Australia and the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA).
The Seniors Energy Rebate is now $200 per household, per financial year.
If your application is successful, the rebate will be paid directly into your nominated bank or Credit Union account.
Note: Gas accounts are not eligible for the rebate.
What you need
your valid CSHC from Centrelink or the DVA
the most recent electricity bill for your current primary place of residence
your contact details
your bank or Credit Union account details
How to apply
Check you meet the eligibility requirements.
Select the 'Apply online' button.
Enter the required details.
Submit the application.
If you're unable to apply online, visit a service centre or call us on 13 77 88.
If your application is successful, you'll receive payment within 5 working days into your nominated bank/Credit Union account. Service NSW will contact you if there are problems issuing your payment.
MWP CARE (previously known as MWP Community Aid) is a local not for profit organisation that was founded by Daphne Elsworthy, a Collaroy resident, 52 years ago and we are still going strong!
In 2022 our programs focus on assisting older people aged 65 years and older, we also assist younger people with a disability and their carers. We are funded by the Australian Government Dept. of Health through the Commonwealth Home Support Program (known as CHSP). Pittwater Online News PROFILE
These services may be eligible for government subsidies. Call us on (02) 9913 3244 for a confidential discussion. Alternatively you may call My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 to discuss your needs. To access our services (and all other CHSP provider services) you must be registered with My Aged Care – the portal for all things related to Aged Care Services
We provide services aimed at helping people to stay independently living in their own homes.
Our programs cover:
Transport – to medical and social appointments
Shopping – Escorted Shopping, Shop By List, Group Social Shopping
Visiting – a volunteer visits a client in their own home for social support
Individual Activities – visit a friend, the library, the beach, local garden, and nursery, go for a coffee & chat, attend community activities etc.
Social Group Bus Outings – our mini bus and experienced staff coordinate a calendar of bus outings to interesting venues
CALD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) social groups/outings – Chinese, Italian, Korean , Filipino, Serbian
Home Maintenance Modification Service – provided to individual home owners at reasonable cost. Services provided by trusted tradespeople can include Plumbing, Carpentry, Handyman, Electrical, Modifications (ramps, rails etc.)
RSPCA NSW understands that to an elderly owner, a pet can mean everything. Our Aged Care program aims to keep pets and their elderly owners happy, healthy and together in their own homes for as long as possible. To do this, we assist elderly pet owners over the age of 65, Indigenous pet owners over the age of 50 and palliative care patients of any age.
services our Aged Care program offers include: temporary foster accommodation and/or emergency pet boarding if the owner requires medical treatment, respite or other assistance
assistance with veterinary treatment
home visits to assist the elderly with basic pet care
assistance with pet grooming
assistance with transport to and from the local veterinarian
a volunteer network to assist with dog walking and short periods of in-home care if the owner requires medical treatment, respite or other assistance
Please note that due to high demand for this program, we ask that pet owners first ask family and friends whether they are able to assist with their pet’s care.
This community program was previously known as Pets of Older Persons (POOPs).
For more information please contact the RSPCA Community Programs helpline (02) 9782 4408.
The helpline operates Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. During weekends and public holidays contact the RSPCA Contact Centre on (02) 9770 7555
Aged Care Program FAQs
Bilgola plateau Probus Club
We meet on the first Friday of every month at the Newport Bowling Club; 2 Palm Road Newport. Our membership is full at the moment, and our waiting list is full. However, visitors are always welcome.
If you have any questions, please contact our Membership Officer, Mary Wearne: mary_wearne@hotmail.com
If you need some help around the house or think it’s time to look into aged care homes, My Aged Care is here to help.
My Aged Care is the Australian Government's starting point on your aged care journey. Find and access the government-funded services you need.
Learn about different types of care
If you are just starting out on your aged care journey, this is your first step. You can see what services are available to help you stay in your own home, or what to expect in an aged care home.
Get assessed
If you’ve had a look at what services might be available and you want to know if you are eligible, this is your next step. Read about how to apply and what’s involved in the assessment process.
Find a provider
If you’ve been assessed and are ready to find a provider and set up your new services, start here. Find out what to consider and get information about service providers near you.
Manage your services
If you are receiving services and want to check what you’ve got in place or make some changes, head to this section.
Need some help?
If you need some help, the My Aged Care team can answer most of your questions over the phone. Call 1800 200 422
Avalon Beach Ladies Probus club meets first Tuesday of every month at Club Palm Beach (Palm Beach RSL).
Meals on Wheels
Meal preparation and delivery: Benevolent Society
Our food services include meal preparation, and delivery of hot, frozen or chilled meals as part of the Meals on Wheels NSW program. This service is currently provided in the Northern Beaches area of Sydney.
Assistance to prepare food at home is available as an activity to help stay active and independent.
To find out if you or someone you know is eligible for this service, call our friendly staff.
Disclaimer: These articles are not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Pittwater Online News or its staff.
Cooking Up a Storm
A group of aged-care residents is proving that kindness has no age limit, donning aprons to cook heartfelt, home-style meals for people experiencing homelessness. In partnership with ONE MEAL Northern Beaches, the residents are helping provide vital food support to vulnerable locals and families. Their involvement not only delivers nourishment to those in need but also brings renewed purpose, connection, and joy to the seniors themselves, a powerful reminder of the impact community-driven compassion can have.
Around a dozen residents from the Scalabrini Allambie Heights Aged Care look forward to a special “in-house” get-together once a month, when they cook up a storm to support the charity, One Meal’s efforts to feed homeless and less fortunate locals.
The initiative which both the aged-care residents and locals in need have been enjoying for around three years, is a win/win for both community elders and those living rough, with the former relishing getting creative in the kitchen and the latter able to enjoy a delicious hot meal.
One Meal is a not-for-profit, community organisation that helps to feed and support the homeless, disenfranchised, vulnerable and at-risk members of our local communities offering weekly meals at seven different locations including Manly and Narraweena.
Part of the fun for Scalabrini’s residents is the menu planning as they aim to make the meal special. This week they cooked up 50 serves of pasta and meatballs and Bruschetta before busing over to One Meal at Brookvale to distribute the meals.
“The residents really love getting involved in this charity activity. It gives them a sense of purpose, and they can see the impact first-hand when we bring the food to One Meal during our afternoon trip on the bus. Even residents who don’t particularly enjoy cooking take part, because they understand the meaningful reason behind what they’re doing” explains Wellbeing Co-ordinator, Alessandra Salso.
Typically a couple of residents family come to assist and also donate sweet treats to go with the meals.
Needless to say, their monthly cook-up creates some truly fun and heart-warming opportunities.
Photo: some of the Allambie Heights Team. Image supplied
Woy Woy The Venice Of Australia
Step back into the mid-1930s and experience a rare cinematic gem that promoted Woy Woy as “The Venice of Australia.” Commissioned by Woy Woy Council in December 1935 and completed by March 1936, this heritage film was directed and narrated by Claude Flemming – a prominent Sydney actor and filmmaker who also directed Peter Finch’s first film The Magic Shoes.
The film follows a young girl and her uncle (Flemming himself) on a scenic train journey to Woy Woy, where they explore the attractions of the peninsula. Their itinerary includes the Woy Woy Bowling Club, a cruise on Woy Woy Bay, Ettalong Beach, Ocean Beach, Pearl Beach, a trip through The Rip, Patonga and Staples Lookout. Along the way, viewers are treated to sweeping views of beaches, mountains and waterways, as well as scenes of horse riding, fishing and boating. Flemming appears throughout the film – arriving at the railway station, playing lawn bowls and taking a boat trip – while narrating the area’s history and recommending Woy Woy as an ideal holiday destination.
Released during the lively ‘Back to Woy Woy’ celebrations in October 1937, the film was part of a broader campaign to position Woy Woy and the Central Coast as a premier holiday spot, competing with other regions such as Newcastle, which had already produced promotional films in the 1920s. Its evocative title was chosen to highlight Woy Woy’s picturesque waterways and create excitement around the region’s appeal. The film was privately screened at Newcastle’s Civic Theatre in May 1936 and remains a fascinating glimpse into Australia’s tourism history and the early days of regional film-making.
Greens chair Aged Care inquiries - cost of care + future of system: Submissions invited
The Senate has voted to establish two further Senate inquiries into Labor’s aged care reforms, amid concerns that the new Act will fail older Australians. (See Greens background on the new Act here)
The previous Senate inquiry into Aged Care Service Delivery , which explored the transition period leading up to the new Act on 1 November, revealed that the aged care waitlist was more than double what had previously been reported (with over 200,000 Australians waiting for care). That previous inquiry was instrumental in forcing the early release of 20,000 home care packages needlessly withheld by the government.
Now that the Act is in force, two new inquiries have been established.
The first inquiry will investigate the government’s planned transition of the Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP), which currently serves more than 800,000 older Australians with at-home supports through “block funding” to providers like Meals on Wheels.
The second inquiry will investigate the ability for older Australians to access care under the Support at Home program,including the impacts of new pricing mechanisms and co-payments.
The government intends to transition CHSP into Support at Home and has only funded the program up until 30 June 2027. The government has failed to answer previous questions about the impacts of closing CHSP on demand for Support at Home packages, leading to concerns that existing services will be forced to close their doors and waitlists for aged care will only blow out further.
As with the previous inquiry, both the newly established inquiries will be chaired by Greens Spokesperson for Older People, Senator Penny Allman-Payne.
Full terms of reference for the inquiries are below.
Greens Spokesperson for Older People, Senator Penny Allman-Payne stated:
“Older people across the country - hundreds of thousands of whom are on fixed incomes - are copping increased costs for their care at home so that privatised aged care providers can make bigger profits. That’s a broken system.”
“Labor’s Minister for Aged Care, Sam Rae, has tried to hide the truth of these aged care changes, but now the reality is setting in and older Australians are waking up to new care arrangements they cannot afford.”
“Older Australians are still dying waiting a year or more for care, and rather than boost needed supports like the Community Home Support Program, they’re planning to close them.”
“Our parents and grandparents need leaders who will fight for them and their right to care, but instead Labor and the Liberals are shaking pensioners down for cash while propping up the profits of privatised aged care.”
“The Greens will ensure older Australians and their advocates are heard, and fight to fix this system so that everyone can access the care they need at the time that they need it.”
Community Home Support Program Inquiry
That the following matter be referred to the Community Affairs References Committee for inquiry and report by 15 April 2026: the transition of the Community Home Support Programme to the Support at Home Program, with particular reference to:
the timeline for the transition of the Community Home Support Programme to the Support at Home Program after 1 July 2027;
the expected impact of this transition, including on:
waiting periods for assessment and receipt of care;
the lifetime cap of $15,000 on home modifications;
the End-of-Life Pathway time limits; and
thin markets with a small number of aged care service providers.
aged care provider readiness for the transition, including their workforce; and
That the following matter be referred to the Community Affairs References Committee for inquiry and report by the Tuesday of the last sitting week of November 2026: the Support at Home Program, with reference to:
the ability for older Australians to access services to live safely and with dignity at home;
the impact of the co-payment contributions for independent services and everyday living services on the financial security and wellbeing of older Australians;
trends and impact of pricing mechanisms on consumers;
the adequacy of the financial hardship assistance for older Australians facing financial difficulty;
the impact on the residential aged care system, and hospitals;
the impact on older Australians transitioning from the Home Care Packages Program;
thin markets including those affected by geographic remoteness and population size;
the impact on First Nations communities, and culturally and linguistically diverse communities; and
Energy rebates are set to go the way of the dodo. Should we keep them going?
Energy costs are a significant concern for all Australians, impacting inflation and the cost of everyday goods and services.
The announcement this week that the Federal Government will not extend energy rebates could be a bitter pill for many in the electorate.
As summer hurtles towards us, energy demand skyrockets, and the roll-out of smart meters opens the risk of household bill shock, the timing couldn’t be worse.
Anyone without solar or batteries will be terrified at the prospect of getting their summer electricity bill.
Surveys conducted by National Seniors Australia (NSA), consistently show the cost of energy as a key concern for seniors. These pressures are felt acutely by those with limited means who struggle most when energy costs and use rise.
While the Federal Government has signalled it is killing off the energy rebate due to budget pressures, could it have been more targeted in the delivery of bill relief to ensure they continue?
Targeted energy bill relief
When announced, energy rebates were touted as a cost-of-living measure and a tool to fight inflation.
According to some economists, energy rebates did have a positive impact, helping to reduce headline inflation.
But there were criticisms that the rebate was not adequately targeted and went to households who didn’t need help. It was said that it was impractical to target the payment – because it was not possible to share information about the financial circumstances of households with energy companies.
Rather than linking energy bills to government payments, it could have used a proxy to target a future energy rebate and/or use the existing Energy Supplement to deliver targeted energy bill relief.
The government could restrict the rebate via energy companies by excluding households with solar panels – information that energy companies likely already have.
While there may be low-income households with solar, those with solar benefit from lower energy bills. Some lucky individuals even have negative bills.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data shows that solar panel installation is much more likely among households with higher net worth and solar is more likely on separate houses.
Solar installation has also been heavily subsidised, so it could be argued that restricting the energy rebate to households without solar is fair on equity grounds.
The other possible way to target energy relief is through the existing Energy Supplement.
The Energy Supplement is a payment provided to income support recipients, including pensioners, carers, job seekers etc, to help them meet energy costs. The amount of supplement varies across payment types. A single pensioner receives $14.10 and a couple $10.60 per person per fortnight.
Unfortunately, indexation of the Energy Supplement ceased in September 2014. As such, its value relative to rising energy prices has declined year-on-year.
The Energy Supplement could be a simple way to deliver targeted energy bill relief to those who need it.
How could it work?
The Federal Government could deliver another energy rebate of $150 to all Australian households directly via electricity bills, excluding households with solar to ensure it is provided to those most in need.
A one-off increase to the Energy Supplement could also be considered for income support payment recipients to bring the supplement to parity with past energy inflation (since September 2014) and indexation should be reinstated moving forward.
For an Age Pension recipient, this would be an annual increase of about $90 (single) and $135.20 (couple) based on the energy component of CPI.
The budget impact of the targeted $150 energy rebate would be $992 million. The cost of indexing the Energy Supplement would be a minimum of $141 million per year.
If you like this idea and want action on energy bills, join our Essential Services campaign todayto show your support and get regular updates.
New Resources Empower Advance Care Planning for Older Adults with Mental Illness
December 8, 2025
Researchers from the University of Sydney and UNSW have developed Australia’s first evidence-informed educational resources to support Advance Care Planning (ACP) for older people living with mental illness.
The initiative addresses a critical gap in end-of-life care, where ACP discussions are often overlooked despite their importance in promoting autonomy and dignity.
Drawing upon two foundational qualitative studies1,2 involving interviews with older adult mental health consumers, their carers, and mental health clinicians, the team identified four key themes: ACP recognised as important but often not initiated; lack of knowledge; skill gaps; and practical and process issues. To address these identified issues, they created plain-language information sheets tailored to the specific needs of consumers, carers, and clinicians, alongside two short training films demonstrating how to introduce and discuss ACP in mental health settings. The resources, available in English and three community languages (Simplified Chinese, Arabic, and Greek), aim to dispel misconceptions, educate and empower, build confidence, and provide practical strategies to navigate sensitive conversations about ACP.
Lead researcher Associate Professor Anne Wand emphasized that ACP is a human right and crucial for quality end-of-life care: “These resources are an important first step towards empowering older adults with mental illness and those who support them.”
The materials are freely accessible via Capacity Australia and will form part of a broader educational intervention to embed ACP into routine practice in public mental health services. The research was supported by the Moyira Elizabeth Vine Fund for Research into Schizophrenia Program.
On the first Sunday after being named leader of the Catholic Church in May 2025, Pope Leo XIV stood on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and addressed the tens of thousands of people gathered. Invoking tradition, he led the people in noontime prayer. But rather than reciting it, as his predecessors generally did, he sang.
The Vatican has been at the forefront of that push, launching an online initiative to teach Gregorian chant through short educational tutorials called “Let’s Sing with the Pope.” The stated goals of the initiative are to give Catholics worldwide an opportunity to “participate actively in the liturgy” and to “make the rich heritage of Gregorian chant accessible to all.”
These goals resonated with me. As a performing artist and scientist of human movement, I spent the past decade developing therapeutic techniques involving singing and dancing to help people with neurological disorders. Much like the pope’s initiative, these arts-based therapies require active participation, promote connection, and are accessible to anyone. Indeed, not only is singing a deeply ingrained human cultural activity, research increasingly shows how good it is for us.
The same old song and dance
For 15 years, I worked as a professional dancer and singer. In the course of that career, I became convinced that creating art through movement and song was integral to my well-being. Eventually, I decided to shift gears and study the science underpinning my longtime passion by looking at the benefits of dance for people with Parkinson’s disease.
The neurological condition, which affects over 10 million people worldwide, is caused by neuron loss in an area of the brain that is involved in movement and rhythmic processing – the basal ganglia. The disease causes a range of debilitating motor impairments, including walking instability.
Early on in my training, I suggested that people with Parkinson’s could improve the rhythm of their steps if they sang while they walked. Even as we began publishing our initial feasibility studies, people remained skeptical. Wouldn’t it be too hard for people with motor impairment to do two things at once?
But my own experience of singing and dancing simultaneously since I was a child suggested it could be innate. While Broadway performers do this at an extremely high level of artistry, singing and dancing are not limited to professionals. We teach children nursery rhymes with gestures; we spontaneously nod our heads to a favorite song; we sway to the beat while singing at a baseball game. Although people with Parkinson’s typically struggle to do two tasks at once, perhaps singing and moving were such natural activities that they could reinforce each other rather than distract.
A scientific case for song
Humans are, in effect, hardwired to sing and dance, and we likely evolved to do so. In every known culture, evidence exists of music, singing or chanting. The oldest discovered musical instruments are ivory and bone flutes dating back over 40,000 years. Before people played music, they likely sang. The discovery of a 60,000-year-old hyoid bone shaped like a modern human’s suggests our Neanderthal ancestors could sing.
In “The Descent of Man,” Charles Darwin speculated that a musical protolanguage, analogous to birdsong, was driven by sexual selection. Whatever the reason, singing and chanting have been integral parts of spiritual, cultural and healing practices around the world for thousands of years. Chanting practices, in which repetitive sounds are used to induce altered states of consciousness and connect with the spiritual realm, are ancient and diverse in their roots.
Though the evolutionary reasons remain disputed, modern science is increasingly validating what many traditions have long held: Singing and chanting can have profound benefits to physical, mental and social health, with both immediate and long-term effects.
Vocalizing can even improve your immune system, as active music participation can increase levels of immunoglobulin A, one of the body’s key antibodies to stave off illness.
Moreover, chanting may make you aware of your inner states while connecting to something larger. Repetitive chanting, as is common in rosary recitation and yogic mantras, can induce a meditative state, inducing mindfulness and altered states of consciousness. Neuroimaging studies show that chanting activates brainwaves associated with suspension of self-oriented and stress-related thoughts.
Singing as community
Singing alone is one thing, but singing with others brings about a host of other benefits, as anyone who has sung in a choir can likely attest.
Group singing provides a mood boost and improves overall well-being. Increased levels of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin during singing may promote feelings of social connection and bonding.
In my own research, singing has proven useful in yet another way: as a cue for movement. Matching footfalls to one’s own singing is an effective tool for improving walking that is better than passive listening. Seemingly, active vocalization requires a level of engagement, attention and effort that can translate into improved motor patterns. For people with Parkinson’s, for example, this simple activity can help them avoid a fall. We have shown that people with the disease, in spite of neural degeneration, activate similar brain regions as healthy controls. And it works even when you sing in your head.
Whether you choose to sing with the pope or not, you don’t need a mellifluous voice like his to raise your voice in song. You can sing in the shower. Join a choir. Chant that “om” at the end of yoga class. Releasing your voice might be easier than you think.
“Rage bait” has been named the word of the year by the Oxford University Press. It means social media content that is designed to create a strong and negative reaction.
Posting content intended to antagonise people may not seem like a wise strategy for a social media influencer. But people who post content on social media can make more money if their channel has a high level of engagements – regardless of how positively people are responding.
In addition, social media platforms use algorithms that tailor the content we see to what we are likely to engage with. This doesn’t necessarily mean content that will make us happy – the algorithm will learn from any engagement that we have with the content, including angry comments we might post in response.
But there are things you can do to help control your reaction to this kind of content. First though, you need to understand why rage bait is so effective.
In evolutionary terms, it is more important for us to pay attention to a situation that has caused anger to our group than a situation that has created happiness. Anger suggests that action needs to be taken to resolve an issue, whereas happiness suggests that everything is OK.
Although social media technologies are relatively new, the ways in which we understand and navigate our world are not. We are primed to look for social information, which includes anything that indicates a difference of opinion or possible threat within our social groups.
In the past, the groups we belonged to were typically local to where we lived – our friends, neighbours and colleagues. But the growth of social media means that we can now connect with people from all around the world. That means there are far more groups we can be part of and, in turn, routes through which anger can reach us.
Research has found that people can be quick to align their views with others on anything that prompts a negative emotion, which provides another evolutionary benefit by providing safety in numbers from a potential threat. In this case the person posting the rage bait content takes on the role of the pantomime villain who the audience unites against to boo at.
The other problem is we can post content or comments and immediately get a reply, non-stop 24 hours a day. Typically, we used to have some breaks from anything, or anyone, that caused us a feeling of rage. This would give us an opportunity to calm down and reflect on what had happened, but with the ubiquity of social media it can feel like we no longer have that escape.
Coping with rage bait
An awareness of the motivations behind these posts is a good place to start. There are of course people who post negative content who genuinely believe in what they are posting. But knowing that many of these posts are posted solely to drive engagement helps us reclaim our power over those interactions.
Think of the person posting the content as being an actor who is playing a character, and whose actions are driven more by a desire for fame – whether that means being famous or infamous – rather than personal beliefs.
The more that we avoid engaging with any content that induces rage in us the less it will be presented to us. Unlike traditional broadcast media such as TV, we do not need to be a passive audience to social media. Instead we can influence and shape social media through both what we choose to engage with, or not engage with.
Hope instead of rage
Despite the speed and strength with which anger can spread through social media through rage bait, there is emerging research which suggests people can be nudged into reflecting on media content designed to provoke anger before they respond. This can dilute the influence of rage bait.
One benefit of social media as compared to offline interactions is that social media is, by its nature, publicly visible. This means that researchers can more easily understand what is happening on these platforms, including how rage bait is being used to drive engagements.
It can also help us better understand how to help people take control over social media content that we are exposed to, so that we can benefit from the positive aspects of these technologies without being drawn into negative content posted solely for profit.
Where many other meteor showers are often over-hyped, the Geminids are the real deal: far and away the best shower of the year, peaking on December 14–15 in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
The Geminids – dust and debris left behind by the rock comet Phaethon – put on a fantastic display every year, but 2025 promises to be extra special because the Moon will be out of the way, giving us perfectly dark skies.
So where and when should you look?
Meteors that radiate from the constellation Gemini
The key thing for working out the visibility of a meteor shower is its “radiant”, the single point in the sky from which the meteors seemingly originate. For the Geminids, at their peak, that point lies within the constellation Gemini, near the bright star Castor (α Geminorum).
The radiant is a result of perspective – the dust that causes a given meteor shower is all travelling in the same direction towards Earth, just like the lines in the drawing below.
The higher the radiant is in the sky, the more meteors you will see. When the radiant is below the horizon, you won’t see any meteors from that shower because they are hitting the other side of the planet.
The dust that creates a meteor shower is all moving in the same direction. As meteors approach the observer, they appear to radiate from a single point on the horizon – the result of perspective.Braindrain0000/Wikipedia, CC BY-SA
What time should I look?
The absolute best time to observe is when the radiant is at its highest in the sky, called “culmination”, which happens around 2am or 3am local time on December 15. But any time between midnight through dawn will be a great time to watch the meteor shower in Australia and New Zealand.
The time at which the Geminid radiant rises varies depending on your latitude. The farther south you live, the later the radiant will rise. And the farther north you live, the higher in the sky the radiant will reach, increasing the number of meteors you will see per hour.
The more light-polluted your skies, the fewer meteors you’ll see. Fortunately, the Geminids often produce many bright meteors so it’s worth looking even from inner city locations. Just remember the rates you see will be markedly worse than if you were camping somewhere dark in the countryside.
If the forecast is cloudy for the night of the Geminid maximum, the nights of December 13 and 15 will still offer a decent display, although not as spectacular.
Where should I look?
The Geminids can appear in any part of the night sky, but the best place to look with the unaided eye is usually around 45 degrees to the left or right of the radiant (whichever direction is a darker sky for you).
The easiest way to work this out is to find the constellation Orion, and look so that Orion is about 45 degrees from the centre of your vision.
I’d recommend spending at least an hour out beneath the stars when looking for Geminids, to give your eyes enough time to adapt to the darkness. Don’t look at your phone or any other bright lights during this time. Instead, take some blankets and pillows and lie down.
Ideally, you want to be resting so that the centre of your vision is about 45 degrees above the horizon. Then lie back, and enjoy the show. Remember that meteors come in randomly – you might wait ten minutes and see nothing, then three come along all at once.
Why do meteors look different in photos?
In the days after the Geminid peak, you’ll doubtless see lots of spectacular images on social media. But photos showing dozens of meteors against the background stars are composites of many photographs taken over a period of several hours.
Keen photographers will often set up their cameras pointing at the northern sky, take a lengthy series of exposures, then pick those with meteors in them and stack them together to make a composite image.
If you want to try this yourself, here are a couple of useful tips.
First, to avoid any star trails on your individual images, follow the rule of 500. Find out the focal length of your lens (common wide-angle lenses have focal lengths of 14 to 35mm), and set your exposure time to be less than 500 divided by the focal length of your lens. For example, if you’re using a 50mm lens, you’d have to keep your exposures under 10 seconds.
Next, set the lens focal ratio, or f-number, to be as small as possible. This will ensure the lens is wide open, allowing it to gather as much light as it can during each image.
Finally, set the ISO of your camera to be relatively high, choosing a number of at least 1,600. The higher you set the ISO, the more sensitive your camera will be to light, and the fainter the objects visible in the dark sky images. However, be warned that setting the ISO too high can make your images grainy.
Once all that is done, set up your camera with the field of view you want to image, take a timelapse of the sky, and leave your camera running while you watch the skies. Hopefully over the course of an hour or two under the stars you might just capture some spectacular shots of debris bits burning up high overhead.
Taking place at either Palm Beach or Manly Beach, Seniors and over 55s are invited to join a Bodyboarding and Ocean Safety Clinic, designed to help you connect with the ocean and boost your confidence in the water. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn from the best and join a welcoming community of ocean lovers.
What’s Included:
Lessons: Learn bodyboarding and essential ocean safety skills from experienced instructors.
All Equipment Provided: Wetsuits and bodyboards will be supplied for the session.
Morning Tea: Enjoy a delightful morning tea and connect with others after the session.
Important Info:
Arrive 30 minutes early to change into the provided wetsuits before the session starts.
Sponsored by Surfers for Climate, MWP Community Care, and Manly Surf School, you don’t want to miss these bi-weekly bodyboarding sessions. This is a great chance to meet others in the community, enjoy the surf, and embrace the ocean with confidence.
Sydney u3a comprises seven regions covering the greater Sydney metropolitan area. The local one is U3A Northern Beaches Region.
Sydney u3a is managed and run entirely by volunteers who contribute time and energy to provide life-long learning and social activities for everyone. Join in to enjoy the benefits of membership! At the one affordable annual membership fee of $85.00 (less than $2 per week), you’ll get:
access to a wide range of courses and presentations
friendly and inviting social events in your region
Members can attend any course in any of the seven regions
Volunteers lead and administer the courses and talks
A wide range of topics is covered – from learning foreign languages to table tennis to history to book/movie clubs to philosophy to science related issues. There’s something for everyone!
Courses are held in a variety of local venues and via Zoom
Events, visits, tours and social activities are also offered
Full details of activities are listed each semester in the Course Book and on individual regional pages
From time to time there are changes to course details after publication of the Course Book. Please keep checking your region’s website or the website home page for updates.
u3a Northern Beaches Region
Our current newsletter includes up to date information on courses, events and any changes to the program. Previous newsletters are available here if you missed any information or wish to refresh your memory.
Please note: The newsletter is distributed to members by email at the end of each month. If you haven’t received the latest copy please check as it may have been captured in your Junk email folder. If this is the case, please adjust your settings so that you receive future newsletters as soon as possible. We also take this opportunity to issue a friendly reminder to contact us with your updated details if you change your home or email address. Thank you.
Walk & Talk: Narrabeen
The Belong Club invites anyone to come and participate in the Belong Club Walking Group!
Every Tuesday we walk along the pathway beside the Narrabeen Lagoon, from the Tramshed Arts and Community Centre to Jamieson Park and back. The route is about 1.8km each way, and is estimated to take 45 minutes.
The up and back walk allows for people of any walking speed to participate and enjoy the walk at their own comfortable pace. Walkers often split into smaller groups naturally along the route allowing everyone to go at their preferred pace. The aim here is for everyone to be included and to have an enjoyable walk.
Our meeting spot is to the right of the Tramshed Community Centre, between the basketball court and kids playground.
Staying physically active is the single most important thing you can do to stay fit and independent, as you get older. Age is no barrier, research shows that exercise, at any age, is worth the effort. If you are in any doubt about exercise, please talk to your doctor.
This website (https://www.activeandhealthy.nsw.gov.au/) can help you find an exercise program in your local area and provides information and tools that can assist you to increase your physical activity.
Join Healthy and Active for Life Online!
Healthy and Active for Life Online is a FREE 10-week healthy lifestyle program for adults aged 60 years* and over.
The program will help you learn how to make small, sustainable changes in your lifestyle to improve your health.
The program covers lots of topics including healthy eating and physical activity.
No prior knowledge or exercise experience is required!
*Aboriginal people aged 45+ years can register.
Healthy and Active for Life Online will help you to be active by:
Providing online exercise programs for you to complete in the comfort of your home
Providing you with an exercise manual and log to keep you on track
Helping you to create realistic goals and increase your fitness
Peninsula Bridge Club- Founded in 1967, we are a key community hub on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. We contribute strongly to our community: with both social connectedness for those who need it and opportunities to learn and train for those with competitive sporting goals.
The Club is a vibrant organisation hosting up to three bridge sessions a day. We have 37 permanently set tables – that’s 148 players. We host over 30,000 player sessions every year. This includes prominent tournaments and education events attracting players from across the region.
We pride ourselves on the friendliness of the club and our strong community spirit. We support local charities but even more importantly we support community members by providing them with social connection and mental stimulus – irrespective of age and mobility.
Our clubhouse is at Warriewood.
We have a new Beginners Course starting the end of September.
Each 2-hour lesson focuses on learning by playing, with a break for tea and chocolate biscuits mid-way. The course runs for 6 weeks and costs $100, which includes text book and support materials.
After the lessons we offer “Help with Play” sessions to practise what you’ve learned; Mondays 7-9pm; Tuesdays 2.15-4.30; Fridays 9.15-11.30. ($7 for members & $12 for visitors – membership
We also offer more advanced lessons each month so you can continue to improve your game if you want.
If you are keen to learn this great game, please call or email Cath Whiddon (Director of Bridge Ed at PBC): 9979 5752 or cwhiddon@live.com.
If you already know how to play, take a look at our website to see what’s on offer this month: peninsulabridgeclub.org.au
If you receive a pension, you may qualify for a rebate on your water bill.
To be eligible, you’ll need a:
Pensioner Concession Card from Centrelink or Department of Veterans' Affairs, or
gold Health Card (also known as a gold card) that shows:
war widow
war widower
extreme disablement adjustment (EDA)
totally and temporarily incapacitated (TTI)
totally and permanently incapacitated (TPI).
You’ll also need to be the owner and occupier of one of the following:
single dwelling
dual occupancy
strata or company title unit
unit in a retirement village with a life term lease.
If you own the property with someone who isn't a pensioner, you may still get a rebate. This depends on your relationship with the other owner(s) and your eligibility.
Rebates are applied to each bill.
You can claim your pensioner rebate by selecting your water supplier from the following list:
A regular contributor suggests we all look at Lumosity to see if will suit keeping active mentally. Their website states: "improve Brain Health and performance. Designed by neuroscientists, Lumosity exercises improve core cognitive functions. Researchers have measured significant improvements in working memory and attention after Lumosity training. Dozens of research collaborations help improve the Lumosity training program and its effectiveness." You can visit their website to decide for yourself at: www.lumosity.com/app/v4/personalization
Heartmoves is a low-moderate intensity exercise program. Regular participation in Heartmoves will help to: Better manage weight, blood sugars, blood pressure and cholesterol; Improve fitness, balance, co-ordination and flexibility; Enhance your quality of life and meet other people. Ingrid Davey is a qualified Older Adult Instructor and accredited Heartmoves Leader who will guide you through an exercise program that is fun, safe and modified to suit you. Tuesday 9.30am and Thursday 10.30am at Nelson Heather Centre, 4 Jackson Road Warriewood. The cost per class is $10.00 casual now and $17.00 for two classes. Phone Ingrid to secure your spot on 0405 457 063. www.heartfoundation.org.au
MWP Care
We've been supporting the community for over 50 years!
Our Neighbour Aid staff and volunteers are able to provide crucial support to vulnerable elderly residents during the lockdown.
Help with going to the supermarket or shopping on your behalf from a list as well as transport to medical appointments. Please get in touch via our website for more information
MWP Care is a not-for-profit organisation that assists frail aged and younger people with disabilities and their carer’s in the Manly, Warringah, Pittwater area to remain independent members of our community.
MWP Care provides support to people who cannot manage alone by providing a range of services. Many of Community Aid’s activities are made possible by the generous work of our wonderful volunteers. Please contact us for more information.
Australian Government Dept. of Health: Hearing Devices for Seniors
Australian Government's Hearing Services Program (the program), offers the option of being fitted with a hearing device if a hearing assessment identifies you have a hearing loss and a hearing device may assist you.
You will be given a recommendation for a fully subsidised hearing device, and may also be offered the option of purchasing a partially subsidised hearing device. These devices have been approved by the Office of Hearing Services.
You can find out more about this program on the Australian Government's Department of Health webpage on the program here
Mah Jong returns to RPAYC
THURSDAYS 5PM - 7PM
Everyone is welcome, from novices to experienced players! Sharpen your mind, connect with friends, learn a new skill or refresh your existing game. Mah Jong if fun for all!
For more information contact Leigh Hudson 0408 941 665.
Stay for dinner in Halyards - book your table online HERE
council has a Home Library Service Available for Seniors
For those unable to visit the library because of age or disability, the Home Library Service maintains a vital connection with all that the library offers. Your Home Library Service Officer will help you select items for reading or listening. Volunteers or staff will then deliver and collect your library items on a regular basis.
Register for the Home Library Service
If you or the person you care for is unable to visit the library or carry library items home due to age, frailty or disability, please complete Council's Home Library Service Application Form or call us on 9942 2393.
A medical certificate or statement signed by a doctor may be required to assess eligibility.
What happens next?
After staff receive your completed application form, a Home Library Service Officer will contact you to arrange a time to meet and discuss the service details with you.
Staff or volunteers will then select your items according to your borrowing preferences and then deliver them to you. During this visit you can return any items that you have finished with.
Community Connect
Need help on where to go to find the community information and assistance you need?
At Community Connect Northern Beaches, our professional staff and trained volunteers are knowledgeable, friendly and approachable and we will be only too pleased to help you find the service you want. We provide information and support, as well as advocacy and referral to other non profit community services and government agencies.
If we can’t help you we will get you someone who can. If you are newly arrived or do not have an English speaking background we can offer individual advice and support. Or Why not come to Specialist Community Support Workshops: Family Law, Power of Attorney plus Wills and Executors; Domestic Violence Support and Prevention; Positive Community Integration ; Crime Prevention; Or Our Free English Classes.
We also provide information on: Family Services: Child Care, Personal Support & Counselling; Health (Including Mental Health) ; Material and Practical Assistance ; Advocacy to access state and federal MP assistance; Accommodation and Tenancy (help with form filling); Legal and Financial Matters ; Consumer Affairs ; Multicultural Issues; Conservation and the Environment ; Employment and Education; Accessing Community Facilities -You are welcome to call in for: Brochures, booklets and fact sheets on a range of topics; Service Directories e.g. Council Guides and Migrant Directories; Publications e.g. The Senior newspaper and Nova.
Access to our community information data base, internet, email, fax and photocopying.(Please note there is a small charge for photocopying and use of the fax to cover the cost of paper, toner and fax call). We also offer: A Legal Referral Program - Monday 1pm to 2pm at our 30 Fisher Road, Dee Why office. Taxation Assistance for low income earners and pensioners from July to October.
What does it cost?: Our services are free, however we are always grateful for a small donation where possible. The program is supported by NSW Department of Family & Community Services (FACS). CONTACT US: Phone: 02 99317777.
Know Your Bones
CEO of Osteoporosis Australia, Greg Lyubomirsky says “bone health is an important part of your general health and anyone with risks for osteoporosis should be investigated.”
He has urged people to try the online self-assessment, Know Your Bones developed by Osteoporosis Australia and the Garvan Institute of Medical Research.
"Simply visit the website, complete the assessment in your own time and a personal report is generated which will outline potential risks and can be taken to your doctor if required.”
EasyLink (formerly Easy Transport Manly Warringah Pittwater) - medical appointments, shopping trips, mystery tours and Saturday Lunch - this great non-profit organisation offers great ideas and solutions.
With around a quarter of a million members, National Seniors is Australia’s largest consumer organisation for the over 50s and fourth largest group of its kind in the world.
NLA Ebooks - Free To Download
The National Library of Australia provides access to thousands of ebooks through its website, catalogue and eResources service. These include our own publications and digitised historical books from our collections as well as subscriptions to collections such as Chinese eResources, Early English Books Online and Ebsco ebooks.
What are ebooks?
Ebooks are books published in an electronic format. They can be read by using a personal computer or an ebook reader.
This guide will help you find and view different types of ebooks in the National Library collections.
Peruse the NLA's online ebooks, ready to download - HERE
Australian Ageing Agenda
Australian Ageing Agenda (AAA) is an independent and authoritative bi-monthly publication for people who work in or around the aged care and retirement sectors in Australia. It provides a broad range of news, education and opinion with an emphasis on knowledge sharing and research translation.
Each issue also contains regular updates on relevant business and financial issues along with a selection of well researched features on crucial systems and operations, clinical care, technology, built environment and other issues relevant to the ‘ageing sector’. AAA leads the way with the industry’s most comprehensive conference details and remains Australia’s number one source of news and information about ageing issues and aged care.
Volunteers are sought to help out on Wednesday mornings (7.30am to midday) at the group's workshed in Ingleside. Volunteers need their own transport and be willing to sort and clean toys that are picked up at different collection points on the Northern Beaches.
Prospective volunteers can call Terry Cook on 0410 597 327 or email him. Find out more about this great community group HERE
Aged Care Complaints Commissioner
Any person can make a complaint to the Commissioner, including care recipients, family members, friends, staff, volunteers, or professionals.
Complaints may relate to any aspect of services including care, choice of activities, discrimination, catering, communication or the physical environment. The 1800 550 552 helpline is staffed 9am to 5pm (AEDST) Monday to Friday.
In 2014-15, there were 10,924 contacts to the Aged Care Complaints Scheme. 3,725 were assessed as a complaint, 3,812 ‘other’ contacts includes non-compulsory notifications, own motion investigations and compliance referrals. There were also 3,387 out of scope contacts which were not related to an approved provider or an approved provider’s responsibilities under the Aged Care Act.
Wellbeing Plus
The Wellbeing Plus Course is a free, online treatment course for Australian’s aged 60 years+.
The course includes 5 lessons delivered over 8 weeks, with optional weekly support from a therapist via email or phone. It aims to help us understand symptoms of anxiety and depression, and practice helpful skills.
Over 95% of people said they would recommend the Wellbeing Plus Course.
Older Persons Advocacy Network offer free, independent and confidential services that focus on supporting older people and their representatives to raise and address issues relating to accessing and interacting with Commonwealth funded aged care services.
Older Persons Advocacy Network seek to ensure that aged care consumers understand and exercise their rights and participate, to the maximum degree possible, in the decisions affecting their care.
Older Persons Advocacy Network achieve this through the delivery of individual advocacy support, information and consumer and service provider education.
Nine State and Territory based organisations form the OPAN network. Older Persons Advocacy Network is funded by the Australian Government to deliver the National Aged Care Advocacy Program (NACAP), providing a national voice for aged care advocacy.
ADVOCACY
Older Persons Advocacy Network organisations offer free aged care advocacy services that are independent and confidential
INFORMATION
Older Persons Advocacy Network organisations provide free information about aged care service provision, referrals and the rights and responsibilities of consumers
EDUCATION
Older Persons Advocacy Network organisations offer free information and education sessions to consumers and providers of Commonwealth funded aged care services
We have a fantastic team of volunteers who help us with a range of jobs. A roster system ensures that we don’t overdo things but many of our volunteers nevertheless are there even when they’re not on the roster. We set up a marquee for shade, put out the urn for tea and coffee, bring the boats out from the shed, set up the boats and put them into the water, sail the boats, ensure that everyone signs in, operate the radio, observer on the safety boat, and at the end of our day’s sailing, do all this in reverse.
You don’t have to be a sailor to be a volunteer, landlubbers are most welcome too. And some of our volunteers are themselves disabled.
Volunteering for Sailability Manly will give you many amazing personal rewards… for starters, what better way of spending a few hours on a Saturday than on Manly Cove? And you’ll find that you will grow as a person through meeting and interacting with a diverse range of wonderful and inspiring people with various disabilities.
If you’re not a sailor don’t let that stop you – we have numerous things that need doing on the jetty and we’re happy to take you for a sail or even train you to become a sailor if you wish.
NSW Seniors Card is pleased to provide members with the 2024 Seniors Card Directory, your guide to the best discounts and special offers from thousands of participating businesses across the state.
The directory includes discounts from each region in NSW. The regions are: Sydney & Surrounds, Central Coast & Hunter, Northern NSW, Southern NSW and Western NSW.
View our regional map below to determine which region you are in. You can view the directory online in your browser or download and save to your computer for quick reference as you need.
Each year five directories are released, one for each region in NSW. The regions are: Sydney & Surrounds, Central Coast & Hunter, Northern NSW, Southern NSW and Western NSW. Please click here to find a location near you.
Hotline to report food quality in aged care now live
Australians now have a simple and efficient way to report food concerns in aged care, with the launch of a dedicated Food, Nutrition and Dining Unit hotline at the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.
The hotline is active and callers will have access to experts in the areas of food, nutrition, and dining, including dietitians and speech pathologists.
A good meal with good nutrition is crucial to quality of life for everyone but especially older people.
The Food, Nutrition and Dining Hotline is also available to aged care providers to access food and nutrition advice, support and education to deliver improved food, nutrition and dining experiences for older people in their care.
Older people, their families and carers, providers and aged care workers can call the Food, Nutrition and Dining Hotline on 1800 844 044.
The hotline builds on the Federal Government’s grant to the Maggie Beer Foundation to build the capability of aged care chefs and cooks working in aged care.
Come and share your knowledge or learn more about your device!
Computer Pals for Seniors Northern Beaches would love to hear from you. We are a not-for-profit organisation helping seniors navigate the wonderful world of technology.
We teach in term times Monday to Friday in a relaxed fun environment.
Common topics requested by Students are: Sending and receiving emails, discovering useful apps, safe banking online, learning how to take and store photos, avoiding Scams, and basically being able to operate their device with confidence.
We teach Android/Apple tablets and phones, and Apple/Microsoft/ Chromebook laptops.
We are based at the Tramshed Arts & Community Centre, 1395a Pittwater Road, Narrabeen, near the B-Line bus stop.
Country Pensioner Excursion ticket: NSW Public Transport
Parents missing out on REAL face time? If they have a Pension Card, sign them up & they could get unlimited $2.50 Country Pensioner Excursion tickets*.
Call 13 22 32 to sign up.
Country Pensioner Excursion ticket (CPE)
A Country Pensioner Excursion (CPE) ticket is an affordable ticket for eligible pensioners and seniors to travel by train in regional NSW and the ACT.
For $2.50 you can book an economy class seat on a NSW TrainLink
Regional train service. You will need to book 7 days or less in advance
The purpose of our group is to support seniors (55yrs +) living with Parkinson’s, their carers, relatives and those who have lost a partner to Parkinson’s, who live on the northern beaches of Sydney.
This support Group has been meeting for around 30 years on the Northern Beaches. Our meetings aim to help reduce the social isolation, and increase community connectedness for our members. Through guest speakers, discussions, and group activities, our meetings will support and promote mental health, healthy lifestyles and well-being.
Our Facebook webpage will be used to store resources and links, and provide another way to safely keep in touch, for those who want to use Facebook. We also have a website that is regularly updated https://wheresdot.wixsite.com/nbpdsupportgroup
We meet regularly and have been meeting at Jamieson Park, The Esplanade, Narrabeen.
Tech Savvy Seniors provides free or low cost digital skills training on how to use computers, tablets and smartphones to keep in touch with family and friends, access essential services, conducting personal business and discover more about the things you are interested in.
Join the thousands of people over 60 who have already completed this fun, practical training and made new friends in the process.
With over 150 training locations across NSW as well as resources online it has never been easier to build your digital skills and confidence, with training available in a range of languages. To find out more about training sessions available near you, visit the Tech Savvy Seniors website to find your local library or community college provider.
For here:
Northern Beaches Council Library at Glen Street, Mona Vale, Warringah Mall 02 9976 1720
Northern Beaches Community College Inc at Narrabeen, Brookvale, Mosman (02) 9970 1000 enquiries@nbcc.nsw.edu.au
The Tech Savvy Seniors website also contains a great range of ‘self-teach’ videos and free digital literacy training resources available to make it easy to learn at your own pace to develop your digital skills from the comfort of your home.
Tech Savvy Seniors is a NSW Government initiative in partnership with Telstra.
Spectacles Program
The NSW Spectacles Program provides glasses and visual aids to eligible recipients who might be at risk of a preventable decline in their eye health.
If you're eligible, you can receive free of charge in any 2-year period:
one pair of single vision glasses, or
one pair of bifocal glasses.
Contact lenses, tinted lenses or low vision aids may be provided in certain circumstances.
You are eligible if you:
receive a full Centrelink pension/benefit
have no other income other than the Centrelink payments
have financial assets less than $500 (if single) or $1000 (if married/partnered or parent/guardian)
are a low-wage earner who earns less than:
the JobSeeker Payment if you're under 65, or
the aged pension if you're over 65.
People living in regional/remote areas and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples may also qualify for the subsidy. At your appointment, your provider will use the program’s online portal to check your eligibility using the information you've supplied.
Visit Vision Australia for more details on the program, your eligibility and how to apply, at:
Computer Pals for Seniors: Northern Beaches - Technology made easy for Seniors
Have you ever struggled with the demands of modern technology? Come and join our friendly club and learn at your own pace.
Computer Pals for Seniors Northern Beaches is here to help you master your device, be it Android/Apple tablets and phones, Apple/Microsoft/Chromebook laptops.
Each lesson is one-on-one for an hour each week during term times.
We are based at The Tramshed Arts & Community Centre, 1395a Pittwater Road, Narrabeen, close to the B-Line bus stop.
If you would like further information please contact Anne - Tel: 9984 0604 or emailanne.computerpals@gmail.com.
Did you know that Pensioners are entitled to concessions on their Council Rates?
Concessions are available for eligible pensioners. To be an eligible pensioner you must receive a pension from either Centrelink or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, and be entitled to a pensioner concession card issued by the Commonwealth Government. You can only claim a concession on the property if it is the sole or principal place you live.
If you are eligible, you are entitled to:
Half of the total of your ordinary rates and domestic waste management service charge, up to a maximum of $250.
Half of your water rates or charges, up to a maximum of $87.50.
Half of your sewerage rates or charges, up to a maximum of $87.50.
To apply, you need to complete a pensioner concession application form. You can obtain these forms from your council - download our area's one HERE
Home Instead Sydney North Shore & Northern Beaches
We are a provider of quality home care and companionship services for seniors in the Northern suburbs of Sydney.
To you, it’s about finding trustworthy care for your ageing loved one. To us, it’s about providing the highest-quality in-home care services to fit you and your family’s needs.
To Us, It's Personal.
We provide services to all areas and suburbs in the North Shore and Northern Beaches of Sydney.
Started in 2000 it now has 20+ trainers and many hundreds of students. At a really low cost (about $50 a school term) they can provide one-to-one training on most matters connected with computing and related technologies like mobile phones and digital cameras. From the smallest problem (how to hold the mouse!) to much more serious matters, there is a trainer who can help.
We offer “one to one” personal tuition or special short courses in the training rooms under the Catholic Church in Avalon. Training is conducted Monday to Friday from 9am to 4pm. For more information visit AVPALS web site www.avpals.com or phone 02 8064 3574
Northern Beaches Concert Band is looking for flute, clarinet, saxophone, tuba and trombone adult players. We cater for players from beginner to advanced and have a varied and exciting repertoire. Come and join us during school term time at 7.30pm, Pittwater High School, Mona Street, Mona Vale.
The Senior Newspaper Online 
A regular contributor suggests we all look at Lumosity to see if will suit keeping active mentally. Their website states: "improve Brain Health and performance. Designed by neuroscientists, Lumosity exercises improve core cognitive functions. Researchers have measured significant improvements in working memory and attention after Lumosity training. Dozens of research collaborations help improve the Lumosity training program and its effectiveness." You can visit their website to decide for yourself at: 
Community Connect
The National Library of Australia provides access to thousands of ebooks through its website, catalogue and eResources service. These include our own publications and digitised historical books from our collections as well as subscriptions to collections such as Chinese eResources, Early English Books Online and Ebsco ebooks.
.jpg?timestamp=1721759749783)
