Buying gifts for the men in your life can feel hard at the best of times. Whether you're buying for your brother, partner or dad, we've rounded up some of the top gifts for men with a little bit of help from Amazon to help you out. We've sought out goodies for tech lovers, outdoorsmen, and gamers, as well as the men who like a bit of luxury. Plus, if you've left gifts to the last minute, Amazon has some of the latest delivery days out there, which is good news for those of us who tend to resort to last-minute Christmas shopping. 1. Pocket Knife The ROXON M2 Mini Storm 14-in-1 Multitool is a man's dream come true. Made from premium stainless steel, with a smooth, lightweight design and ceramic glass breaker, this is the ultimate handyman's accessory. While small, it has 14 functions, including a knife, a nail file, pliers and wire cutters, just to name a few. 2. BOSCK Watch A casual watch that also looks the part, this classic business watch from BOSCK is a simple gift for those who love their accessories. The watch features a striking black strap made of stainless steel, is designed with five layers of hinges and a folding buckle and features a 40mm watch diameter, high-accuracy quartz movement and a classic three-eye dial design. Oh, and it's waterproof. Comfortable, convenient and durable. What more could you want? 3. Retro Game Console The ultimate blast from the past, this retro console from CZT takes us right back to endless days spent gaming days as a kid. Take it anywhere and play until your heart's content. The Tetris-esque game may be simple, but it's a formula that's survived for a reason. All you have to do is move and flip the blocks left and right to create a complete line. Choose from four colours including green, purple, pink and blue. 4. Gamepad 3D Illusion Lamp This one's for the more hard-core gamers out there. The Gamepad Illusion Lamp from the Attivolife Store is a lamp or night light in the shape of a game controller, made with laser engraving on an optical acrylic plate to create an epic 3D illusion. With 16 colours, four kinds of flashing and adjustable brightness, this little thing is the ultimate way to elevate a dark corner of a room or add some extra decoration. 5. Electronic Accessories Carry Case For the men in your life who need help when it comes to organisation, we got you. Enter the electronic travel organizer. It comes with three dividers, so you can organise all those chargers, batteries and hard drives in a way that works for you, with no more tangles. Made from Oxford Fabric and with a soft, spongey inside, the case will also protect all your prized gadgets. A perfect gift for men who travel a lot or are just a little OCD. 6. Camping Hammock A gift for the camping aficionados out there, this portable camping hammock from Lineno is the ultimate way to combine outdoor fun with a bit of relaxation. Simply find some trees to hook it onto and use it as a bed or perch in it for a momentary swing. And when you're not hiking or camping, the hammock also makes a nice addition to the backyard or balcony. 7. Beer Mug Does Dad already have more stubby coolers than he can keep track of? Why not mix it up with a beer mug? The Stanley Adventure Big Grip Beer Stein keeps beer cold for two hours and keeps iced beer cold for an impressive 20 hours. Made from stainless steel with a heavy-duty handle, this mug can hold up to two cans of beer, which is more efficient, really. It can also keep hot drinks warm for up to one hour, perfect for mulled cider or even a cup of coffee in the morning. 8. Nespresso Essenza Mini The De'Longhi Nespresso Essenza Mini single-serve capsule coffee machine is a generous gift for the men in your life who may be known fondly as coffee snobs. The compact, sleek design of the machine is simple and easy to use, with a 19-bar high-pressure pump and fast heat-up system, so coffee is ready in under 30 seconds. Because Nespresso offers a wider variety of coffees, this machine is the way to go if you're not 100 per cent sure how your dad, uncle or father-in-law likes their coffee. And this is not something you want to just assume and, god forbid, get wrong. 9. Smart Ball A gift for all the football-lovers, soccer-lovers, or whatever you want to call it. This Smart Ball Bot is the next generation of the game – relying on state-of-the-art sensors to track and tackle the ball to test your football skills. There are three-speed modes to accommodate all skill levels, and it features an in-built LCD score tracker which keeps track of your current score and records your highest achievements. We can't think of any sports fanatic who wouldn't be happy seeing this under the Christmas tree this year. 10. Asēdos Perfume Often, the last thing he has on his list to buy, you can never go wrong with gifting a man a new perfume or cologne. This Spicy Pepper EDP Spray from Asēdos is our pick. Known for their inclusive, gender-neutral vegan fragrances, this scent features Calabrian bergamot and pepper, with middle notes of Sichuan pepper, lavender, pink pepper, vetiver, patchouli, geranium and base notes of ambroxan and cedar. It lasts between four to six hours and is small enough to keep in your pocket or bag. Images: Supplied. This article contains affiliate links, Concrete Playground may earn a commission when you make a purchase through links on our site.
Melbourne Place has been in the works for a few years now, but it has finally opened to the public. The new hotel on Russell Street is 14 stories high, boasts 191 luxury rooms and suites, and houses a basement bar and rooftop restaurant that are set to become destinations in their own right. When it comes to places to rest their heads, guests can choose from a number of room formations, from simple rooms to a totally lavish penthouse. The team isn't shying away from colour or multiple textures throughout the rooms, and is adding luxury elements with bespoke finishes and furnishings. Mars Gallery has also been brought on to fill the hotel with a heap of local art. Melbourne Place is taking its drinking and dining destinations very seriously as well. Hatted Young Chef of the Year Nicholas Deligiannis (ex-Audrey's) has been enlisted to run the hotel's culinary program, giving particular attention to its 150-person restaurant Mid Air. Located up on the 12th floor, Mid Air is championing Mediterranean eats throughout its breakfast, lunch and dinner menus. Either tuck into these bites inside or out on the terrace when Melbourne's weather is behaving. When it comes to the ground-floor dining room and basement bar, Ross and Sunny Lusted (Sydney's Woodcut and Aman Resorts) are in charge. They're running the Portuguese restaurant Marmelo and late-night bar My Mills, which are slated to open within the coming weeks. Marmelo (the Portuguese word for quince) will feature vibrant snacks like silver-served anchovy fillets and two savoury takes on the much-loved pastel de nata. The first version comes with crab meat and custard, and the second is filled with sheep's cheese crisp and salted pork. Ross is also well-known for cooking with charcoal and wood, so you can expect plenty of flame-kissed eats to slide across the pass. You'll find wood-grilled southern calamari with green coriander seeds and goat milk butter; suckling pig shoulder served with oranges and bitter leaves; whole john dory with kale; and O'Connor grass-fed beef with pickles. You can also head down a grand chartreuse-hued staircase to find the duo's Mr Mills basement bar. It will be an altogether moodier and cosier space with intimate booths as well as the option to dine at the bar or open kitchen (a big win for solo diners). Here, the inspiration is also Spanish and Portuguese, but drinks are more the focus. Small plates of Iberian classics and more substantial bites are paired with an extensive cocktail menu and wine list showcasing drops from Victoria and Europe. "Neighbouring the city's best restaurants, bars, nightlife and retail, [Melbourne Place] will be the place to be, providing guests with a unique lifestyle and cultural experience situated among the best offerings in the city. It is the ultimate location to experience the pinnacle of Melbourne's life and spirit. It is the ultimate location to experience the pinnacle of Melbourne's life and spirit," shares Executive General Manager Tracy Atherton. You'll find Melbourne Place at 130 Russell Street, Melbourne. For more information and to book a room, you can visit the venue's website.
So. Your iPhone 6 keeps dying at 28 percent battery, apps have started quitting unexpectedly and the home button has just stopped working. It must be time for the new iPhone to come out. Just as iPhones everywhere start living our their convenient two-year life expectancies, Apple announced the details of the brand new iPhone 7 (and iPhone 7 Plus) in San Francisco overnight. Design-wise, it looks pretty much the same; the new model is the same size and shape and the home button hasn't disappeared (although it isn't clicky anymore) — the biggest change to the look is that it comes in some v sleek new colours (like "piano jet black"). Oh, and it'll have two cameras and be water resistant. Of course, Apple is calling this the best bloody phone they've ever invented. In their words it has the "best performance and battery life ever" (well, you'd hope so), "immersive" speakers (how immersive) and "the most powerful chip ever" that will make it twice as fast as the iPhone 6. But enough with the brand speak. Here's seven details about the new iPhone 7 in dot point form that you can use for prime water cooler convo at work today. THERE WILL BE NO HEADPHONE JACK — WE REPEAT, NO JACK FOR HEADPHONES But you knew this was gonna happen already and have mourned the fact that you will ever have headphones on you at all because you will surely lose these wireless ones immediately. Apple's new-age headphones are called AirPods and they'll connect with all your Apple devices wirelessly. Siri will also live inside them, so you'll also be able to talk to them and get her to do stuff without touching your phone. Apparently they'll last up to five hours. IT WILL HAVE NOT ONE, BUT TWO REAR-FACING CAMERAS Why on Earth do you need that? To shoot a photo for one of those 'shot on my iPhone' billboards, of course. The iPhone Plus will be both a wide-angle and telephoto lens, and supposedly the phone will take a photo will both of them, and then allow you to choose your depth of field when editing, which is pretty cool. The regular iPhone 7 has had a bit of an upgrade too with a larger ƒ/1.8 aperture, which should make those sexy low-light photos a little more hi-res. IT WILL COME IN NEW FIERCELY-NAMED COLOURS LIKE PIANO JET BLACK In what seems way overdue, Apple are finally doing an all-black iPhone. Both matte black and a shiny piano jet black options will join silver, gold and rose gold. IT'S GONNA BE WATER RESISTANT Your long history of seeing off your iPhone in a death bed of rice may be over. The new model will be the first iPhone to be splash, water and dust resistant. THE HOME BUTTON LIVES! Sorta. Everyone thought the home button was going to be tossed out on this model — and while it still looks the same, the button isn't going to be clicky anymore. It'll be more of a touch situation (i.e. non-clicky). Apparently it'll still feel like it clicks though. YOU'RE GONNA HAVE HEAPS MORE STORAGE Everything can stay. Those cats at Apple have very generously doubled the storage so that the phones will be available in 32GB, 128GB and 256GB. Because 16GB was a crock anyway and we all know it. YOU'LL BE ABLE TO PLAY SUPER MARIO Even if you're not planning on upgrading your phone, just make sure you update to iOS 10 when it's released on September 13. According to The Verge Nintendo will release a new Super Mario Run — and it will only be available on iOS. The iPhone 7 will be available from September 16, and keen beans can pre-order from September 9 here.
Hitting the town is one thing, but the people behind MCOBeauty, Nude by Nature and esmi Skin Minerals know that the real party often starts long before you arrive at the event. The three Aussie beauty brands have joined forces to launch Beauty_Bar – a bright, bubblegum-pink concept store on High Street in Armadale. Sitting among the suburb's luxe boutiques, the space is basically a Barbie dressing room come to life, swathed in pink from floor to ceiling and complete with sleek vanity stations and shelves stocked with a full range of products from each brand. Beyond retail therapy, Beauty_Bar also offers a suite of professional makeup and skincare services at refreshingly affordable prices. A quick skin pick-me-up costs $30, with a choice between a collagen-boosting LED treatment or a facial tailored to your specific skin needs. Add 20 bucks to indulge in an anti-aging facial designed to refine tone and texture, or a vitamin-C-infused treatment for a boost of brightness. Once skin prep is out of the way, there are two types of makeovers: a $40 natural look or a $50 full glam glow-up. Quick studies can definitely pick up a thing or two from getting their makeup done by an expert, but $45 lessons are also offered for beginners or anyone wanting a step-by-step guide on recreating the look at home. Getting ready is way more fun with a killer playlist and some company — the private GRWM Glow room is a stylish way to squeeze in some quality time with the girls before hen's nights, birthday bashes or any occasion where you want to turn heads. Images supplied Bookings for Beauty_Bar can be made through the website.
It's no secret that Melbourne has benefited from a wave of recent Greek restaurant openings. It was about time, considering its huge Greek population. Astoria Bar Kè Grill was one such opening, from hospo veteran Nik Pouloupatis (Grossi Florentino, Attica, Vue de Monde). He's worked in the industry for a good 35 years, but struck out on his own, opening Astoria in the former Shadowboxer venue on Toorak Road in 2024. If you're familiar with Shadowboxer, you'll see that the space's design has not changed much. The Victorian terrace house got a good lick of paint and new furniture, and that's about it. Most importantly, the front terrace remains, which is ideal for sipping and snacking sessions or long lunches in the sun. And what will you be feasting on? Here, classic Greek fare gets a contemporary twist — without straying too far from tradition. You'll tuck into familiar small dishes like house-made spanakopita, zucchini fritters with tzatziki, pan-seared saganaki, prawns with oven-baked tomatoes and feta, and pickled Fremantle octopus. Then you've got the mains, which are really easy to share. Get around a chargrilled fish of the day, a vegetarian Moussaka or a lamb shoulder with tomato. Greek and Aussie wines and beers are up for grabs as well, plus all your usual cocktails and mocktails. The welcoming spot has introduced Meze Afternoons just in time for summer. For just $40 for two people, you can enjoy a meze plate loaded with dips, olives, pickled octopus, warm bread and a drink per person. You'll find Astoria Bar Kè Grill at 302 Toorak Road, South Yarra, open 4–10pm from Tuesday to Thursday, and 12pm–late from Friday to Sunday. For more details, you can visit the venue's website. Images: Kit Edwards.
If you're fond of a certain 1996 sports comedy that features Adam Sandler (Spaceman) taking to the green, then this'll be magic: the full sneak peek at Happy Gilmore's long-awaited sequel. Netflix has been teasing the film for months, but the streaming platform has saved the longest look at the movie yet for just under two months out from Happy Gilmore 2's Friday, July 25, 2025 arrival. As Virginia Venit's (Julie Bowen, Hysteria!) told the feature's namesake in an earlier teaser trailer, "we're not done with golf". Almost three decades after first getting tap, tap, tapping as a hockey player with an anger problem who makes the jump to a different sport — and after Happy Gilmore became one of the best-known comedies of the 90s, as well as one of Sandler's best-known films — its star is back chasing more glory with a club in his hand. In the initial flick, Happy won the Tour Championship in 1996 in an effort to make enough money to save his grandmother's house. Since then, he's repeated the trophy-claiming feat several times over, and now has a bust of his head to honour five-time winners to show for. It's been years since he has played the sport, though, and he's a little intimidated by today's golfers — but soon he's back in the swing again, albeit with a few missteps, to help rustle up some cash to put his daughter through ballet school. Alongside Sandler and Bowen, Ben Stiller (Nutcrackers) and Christopher McDonald (Hacks) return from the original Happy Gilmore. Among those joining them in the cast: Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio (Cassandro) aka Bad Bunny; Sander's daughters Sadie (You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah) and Sunny (Kinda Pregnant); Travis Kelce; Blake Clark (a regular Sandler collaborator, as seen in The Waterboy, Little Nicky, Mr Deeds, 50 First Dates, Click, Grown Ups and more); and Margaret Qualley (The Substance). Then there's the lineup of IRL professional golfers, such as John Daly, Rory McIlroy, Paige Spiranac, Scottie Scheffler, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Will Zalatoris and Bryson DeChambeau. All part of trailers so far, too: a new happy place, unexpected reunions, broken clubs, more than a few rounds of advice encouraging Gilmore to get back to the sport, shanking shots, Happy's temper, breaking in his caddy, getting everyone talking and, unsurprisingly, a heap of nods to the first film. Just as with the original, Sandler co-wrote Happy Gilmore 2 with Tim Herlihy (who has also penned or co-penned Billy Madison, The Wedding Singer, The Waterboy and eight other Sandler flicks through to Hubie Halloween), but Kyle Newacheck (Murder Mystery) steps into the director's chair instead of the initial film's Dennis Dugan (Grown Ups 2). Check out the full trailer for Happy Gilmore 2 below: Happy Gilmore 2 will stream via Netflix from Friday, July 25, 2025. Images Cr. Scott Yamano/Netflix.
Sometimes in The Whitsundays, sometimes outside the Sydney Opera House, sometimes in the rooftop carpark of a Melbourne Woolworths, thousands of people have disrobed for Spencer Tunick. The New York-based artist stages naked installations in public places that also become nude photography works. He's filled Bondi beach, Federation Square, Munich's Bavarian State Opera, a patch of the Nevada desert and many more places with folks sans clothes, too — and, in both 2023 and 2024, he's turned his attention to Brisbane as well. Tunick first hit the Sunshine State last November for a piece called TIDE by the Brisbane River, which formed part of 2023's queer arts and culture-focused Melt Festival. On a spring Saturday, more than 100 participants shed their attire for the camera by the water. Before that installation even took place, it was revealed that he'd back in 2024 for an installation now called RISING TIDE. It too is part of the same fest, and it also involves another Brisbane landmark: the Story Bridge. [caption id="attachment_973212" align="alignnone" width="1920"] TIDE, Spencer Tunick[/caption] On Sunday, October 27, 2024, the famous river crossing will welcome thousands of naked volunteers. Accordingly, it isn't just traffic that will bring the structure to a standstill this spring. For the shoot, the stretch across the water is closing to cars. If you're keen to get your kit off for the camera — and be part of history — there's no limit to the number of people who can take part. RISING TIDE is just one way to engage with Tunick's art in Brisbane this year, however. The other: the just-announced TIDE Exhibition, featuring images from his debut in the River City. It'll display at Brisbane Powerhouse from Saturday, September 28–Sunday, November 10, also falling into Melt, featuring projected video from the installation. [caption id="attachment_970675" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Brisbane, Spencer Tunick[/caption] The TIDE Exhibition marks a few firsts for Tunick as he celebrates 30 years of making his style of art, over which period he's staged more than 100 installations. This is his first-ever Australian exhibition, and it's the first time that his work will be on display for the public. The single-channel video at the heart of the TIDE Exhibition not only includes imagery from the shoot by the Brisbane River, but also stories from participants. "Creating TIDE was a very special experience, and I hope the exhibition will speak to diverse groups of people. It is a privilege to be making art that centres around the LGBTQIA+ community with all its beauty and vibrance," advised Tunick. When RISING TIDE was announced, the artist said that "the series will hopefully speak to diverse groups of people, and everyone navigating their way through the difficult challenges of our current world". "This challenging work on the Story Bridge marks the second in my two-part series in Brisbane scheduled one year apart, in 2023 then 2024. It is the first time I have ever worked on installations with the same institution for an extended two-year project. This will allow me to deeply explore the city, its light, environment and its people." [caption id="attachment_973211" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sydney, Spencer Tunick[/caption] [caption id="attachment_973210" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Barcelona, Spencer Tunick[/caption] [caption id="attachment_926439" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Gateshead, Newcastle, England by Spencer Tunick.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_874950" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dublin, Spencer Tunick[/caption] [caption id="attachment_926442" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jay Cull[/caption] Spencer Tunick's TIDE exhibition displays from Saturday, September 28–Sunday, November 10 at Brisbane Powerhouse, 119 Lamington Street, New Farm. Spencer Tunick's 2024 Story Bridge installation RISING TIDE takes place on Sunday, October 27, 2024 during Melt Festival. Head to the festival website to register to take part. Top image: Spencer Tunick.
Got a greasy pizza box that you can't recycle? Hold on to it, as you'll soon have a chance to put it to good use. That's because Pizza Hut is hosting its first-ever nationwide free pizza exchange, taking over stores across the country from 4–7pm on Friday, November 21, and celebrating the launch of their garlic and cheddar golden stuffed crust. Representing the latest evolution in Pizza Hut's ever-popular crust upgrade, this brand-new offering features a generous blend of cheddar cheese combined with signature hot dust garlic seasoning. Making for a golden, crispy finish that adds a whole new element to your slice, expect serious cheese pulls with every bite. With the prospect of free pizza almost impossible to resist, this fun-loving exchange will be up and running in four states. In NSW, head to Pizza Hut Surry Hills and Pizza Hut Waterloo, whereas QLD fans can visit Pizza Hut Forest Lake and Pizza Hut Runaway Bay. Meanwhile, Victorians can visit Pizza Hut South Melbourne, as those in WA are invited to complete the swap at Pizza Hut Morley. "Pizza Hut has always been about fun, flavour and innovation, and we wanted to give Aussies a reason to fall back in love with our crusts," says Pizza Hut Australia's Chief Marketing Officer, Wendy Leung. "The new Golden Stuffed Crust delivers on all three." If you decide to swing by your nearest exchange, the equation is simple. Just hand over a pizza box from any rival brand and walk out with a steaming hot Pizza Hut Golden Stuffed Crust Pepperoni Pizza. Why a rival? Well, the idea is that Pizza Hut is the only place to get the real deal when it comes to stuffed crust pizza that never misses the mark. Says Leung: "The Get Stuffed Free Pizza Exchange brings that spirit to life by giving people the chance to trade in their pizza frustrations for something they'll actually love." The Pizza Hut Get Stuffed Free Pizza Exchange is happening at various store locations around Australia from 4–7pm on Friday, November 21. Head to the website for more information. Images: supplied
In Melbourne, brunch certainly isn't hard to find. No matter where you are — from Thornbury to Windsor to Kensington — a cafe serving up poached eggs, smashed avocado or a bowl of superfood granola probably isn't too far away. But, what's rare, is for a cafe to look beyond noon and have a lunch menu that's more than just an afterthought. Tucked down a CBD lane, Operator25 ensures that, no matter how you operate, you'll be completely satisfied — and will probably be left coming back for more. Opening quietly earlier this year, Operator25 has been slowly building an inner city following on, quite simply, really good food. In a stunning heritage-listed building on Wills Street (just off LaTrobe) in a pocket of the city that's usually reserved for business only, everything about Operator is unassuming. Yet, from the crisp design to the polished menu, it fits right into its environment and surpasses the likes of other so-so CBD cafes. What's apparent from first glance is that the menu has a real culinary feel — it could almost be restaurant dining if it wasn't for the price bracket. Created by chefs Valerie Fong and Felipe Pereira Guedes, the menu treats both pre and post noon options with equal amounts of creativity and flair. For the 'Early Operator', breakfast — which is served all day — includes the sweet corn fritters (with avocado mousse, an egg sunny side up and tomato and coriander salsa; $16) are some of the best around, and the ricotta pancakes ($15) are light and not overly sweet. For those who operate from noon, or just like to skip straight to the good stuff, the lunch menu is substantial and goes beyond the confines of typical cafe lunch fare. Excellently presented, the pan-fried potato gnocchi with heirloom tomatoes, black olive tapenade, goats curd and parmesan crisps ($16) triumphs on the gnocchi's lightness and golden consistency. However, a range of other options, from the braised lamb shoulder to the open steak sandwich, make choosing perhaps the biggest task. Sealing the deal is the coffee is from Brunswick's superb Code Black roastery, and a dessert that is worth the visit in itself: the parfait-like tonka bean and coconut sago with a tangy citrus curd, mango and pistachio salted caramel crumbs ($9). So, whether you're an early riser — someone who fits in a run, a latte and a bowl of Bircher before 9am — a late bruncher or someone who skips breakfast altogether, Operator25 can help. With an exceptional all-round menu, they make good use of heritage building with a sleek interior and, with some of the best coffee south of Queen Street, it's sure to be a CBD go-to. Appears in: The Best Coffee Shops in Melbourne's CBD
When New Year's Eve rolled around in 1999 with its blend of Y2K excitement and anxiety — including fears about how the world, or at least the technology relied upon to run it, might crash — Emily Browning wasn't yet a teenager. Thanks to the film The Echo of Thunder and TV series High Flyers, she was also already an actor, however. Over a quarter of a century later, the Australian Ghost Ship, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Uninvited, Sucker Punch, Magic Magic, God Help the Girl, Legend, Golden Exits, The Affair and American Gods talent is back at the last evening of the 90s. In One More Shot, she can't escape it. The Aussie comedy, which premiered at SXSW in Austin before its local debut at the 2025 Melbourne International Film Festival, and will hit streaming later in the year via Stan, is a time-loop movie. Rather than Bill Murray waking up each morning to Sonny and Cher's 'I Got You Babe', Browning resets to the front door of a NYE shindig where the sounds of James' 'Laid' echo from the just-starting party inside. After a career so far that's taken her to Hollywood and back Down Under on multiple occasions, Browning is making her own return: to Australian film. The last time that she starred in a homegrown picture was in 2011's Sleeping Beauty. The only other local fare that she's had reach screens between then and now is 2023 Prime Video series Class of '07, which is set at a high-school reunion as an apocalyptic wave hits. The Fox with Jai Courtney (Dangerous Animals), Damon Herriman (Together) and Miranda Otto (The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim) is next, as written and directed by Danger 5's Dario Russo. Genre-wise, Browning is charting new territory in each of her three latest Aussie projects, too, embracing her comedy era. When you're leading a movie about reliving the same night over and over again — One More Shot's New Year's Eve cycle is sparked by a magical bottle of tequila — then you're leading a film about choices. Whenever the genre pops up, be it with Groundhog Day, Edge of Tomorrow, Happy Death Day and its sequel, Palm Springs, video-game adaptation Until Dawn or TV series Russian Doll, decisions and selecting the right options are always at their heart. That's a theme that aligns with Browning's approach to her career, especially in the two decades after playing A Series of Unfortunate Events' Violet Baudelaire opposite Jim Carrey (Sonic the Hedgehog 3) as Count Olaf. The film hit cinemas when she was just 16. That kind of fame wasn't her dream, even though she grew up with an avid love of movies. As Minnie Vernon, her One More Shot character, also does as she keeps retracing her steps as the new millennium dawns, Browning learned from it. Her Lemony Snicket experience has influenced how she has chosen projects since. "It's very much feelings-based, and also a desire to not repeat myself — not for the sake of optics or anything, but just because I get bored really easily. So really, I just go towards what interests me," she tells Concrete Playground. "Of course, there's about ten people in Hollywood who get their pick of any movie they want, and I'm certainly not one of them. And so a lot of it is also what's available to me at the time," Browning continues. "It's a combination of that and things that I love. But I've only done one or two things that I really didn't like and that I did because I needed to work. And I think I'm too — I just don't think I have the constitution for that. And so I really mostly just wait for something to come along that speaks to me in some way, and sometimes I wait for a really long time — sometimes I have huge breaks in work. I mean, I'm so incredibly lucky. There are so many talented actors out there who don't ever get the opportunities that I've been given, and so I feel like incredibly lucky for that, but I just follow my gut. I'm just going with what feels right to me." In One More Shot, Browning's Minnie is an anaesthetist who's having a chaotic day that she thinks rekindling her on-again-off-again romance with Joe (Sean Keenan, Exposure) will fix. More than that, she believes that plunging into a relationship with him now that he's back from New York will solve her general sensation that something's missing from her existence. Their loaded pal Rodney (Ashley Zukerman, In Vitro) and his wife Pia (Pallavi Sharda, Spit), who are parents to an infant and feeling the stress of the change to their lifestyle, are their hosts — but the night instantly alters for Minnie when she meets Joe's new girlfriend Jenny (Aisha Dee, Apple Cider Vinegar), then swerves again (and again and again and again) when taking a swig of tequila sees her kick off the party from the beginning once more. [caption id="attachment_1017510" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Nick Robertson | @nickmickpics[/caption] When Class of '07 gave Browning her first taste of comedy as an actor, she was apprehensive. As the series proved, she needn't have been. Browning was also uncertain when One More Shot came her way — especially about playing drunk, one of acting's most-challenging tasks. Again, the same applies. A particular highlight of the Nicholas Clifford (Monologue)-directed, Alice Foulcher- and Gregory Erdstein (That's Not Me)-co-written film, which also features Hamish Michael (Scrublands: Silver), Anna McGahan (Darby and Joan) and Contessa Treffone (Totally Completely Fine) among its cast: Browning's ability, even though every protagonist in every flick hopefully changes and evolves, to convey that shift when those changes and evolutions are firmly in the spotlight — each step along the way, each tweak. How do you respond when a time-loop rom-com that sparks its temporal trickery with slinging shots hits your inbox? What's exciting about diving into comedy more than two decades into your career? Does a transformation arc change how you approach playing a character in a movie like this? In our chat, Browning also filled us in on all of the above, plus finding Minnie's mix of vulnerability and selfishness, acting tipsy, her journey since her first on-screen credit at the age of 11 and the thrill of making Australian projects. On How You React When a Time-Loop Comedy About a Magical Bottle of Tequila Comes Your Way "So every script you get sent, there's sort of a little blurb, like the kind of elevator pitch of the story that's trying to like sum it up in a paragraph or two. I guess that's for the actors who get sent so many scripts that they don't have time to read them all, but I'm just always happy to read a script. The blurbs are also never written by the creatives — they're written by someone at an agency somewhere. And so I read the blurb and I was like 'romantic comedy about a time travelling bottle of tequila?'. I was like 'aaah, I don't know about this. I'm not so sure'. But then I read the script, because I just like to read scripts, and I got not even probably 10–15 pages in and I was like 'oh, wait a sec'. I could just tell immediately that the quality of writing was really good. And I found it really funny. And then by the time I was through it, I was really nervous. I wasn't immediately sold, mostly because I didn't know if I could pull it off. When I first read it, I read it as though Minnie was getting progressively drunker through the whole film. And playing drunk is really, really, really hard to do, and so I was like 'oh, I don't know, this might be too much of a challenge'. But I really related to the themes of the choices that you make in life meaning that you have to say goodbye to other possible choices, and how do you decide what you want your life to look like — and the feeling of regret, and the kind of grass-is-always-greener feeling. And I really loved it. And then I when I spoke to Nick Clifford, the director, he just really further sold me on it. And yeah, I'm really excited about it. I feel really, really proud of it now." On Embracing Comedy After Initially Being Apprehensive Before Class of '07 Gave Browning Her First Comic Role "I love it. I love it so much. And I love it because it still feels really hard to me. I'm a person who gets bored really easily and I like to be challenged. I mean, I know that's a really trite thing to say. I know everyone says that. But without the fear of failing spectacularly, I feel like I don't have the — how do I explain this? I only really am able to be my best, most-creative self when I'm under a lot of stress and when I'm feeling really anxious. I guess it's maybe kind of an ADD thing where I just don't have enough dopamine in my brain unless I'm kind of borderline panicking. And so I think, yeah, comedy still feels really scary, and that's why I love to do it. And I really also, I really credit Class of '07 and Kacie Anning [Madam], the creator of that show, for opening that up in me — because she really put me through the wringer. We were playing improv games and doing a bunch of crazy stuff to prepare for that show. And she was pushing me. She was like 'you're still too afraid of being embarrassed. You still have to be more of a dickhead'. Like, 'you have to embarrass yourself more'. And it really broke something open in me, because I think before that I was really terrified of embarrassing myself, and I kind of wanted — I did a lot of straight drama, and I think I got to the limits of what I could do in my career without being willing to embarrass myself. And so now that's a fun and exciting risk for me — when I read a script where I'm like 'ohh, I'm going to look like a real idiot doing this', that's a pro now instead of a con." On Playing a Character Whose Change and Evolution Scene by Scene Isn't Just in the Spotlight — It's One of the Key Points of the Film "It was a challenge — there's so much repetition of setpieces and of moments, but ideally you don't want it to be repetition of the emotion or the acting, because then it becomes a really boring film. So that was a huge challenge, was like 'okay, how do I make sure every loop, the similarities between every loop' — like the literal similarities — 'feel different enough every time we're doing it?'. And I try not to think too much about how the audience is going to respond to a film. I don't really think that's my job when I'm filming it, when I'm acting. But I definitely wanted to make sure that Minnie, that there was some or a lot of variation between each time loop. But I think having such a clear transformation arc was really fun, actually. I love playing kind of an unlikeable character, and I just think it's more interesting and more fun. And I think Minnie, the fact that we get to watch Minnie over the course of the film go from unlikeable to a-little-bit-more likeable is really great. There's nothing more fun, honestly, than playing a character who has no self-awareness. There's something really freeing about it. As someone who's a total people-pleaser, there's something so enjoyable about playing a character who just doesn't give a shit about other people's feelings." On Finding Minnie's Balance of Yearning and Vulnerability, But Also Selfishness and Recklessness — and Plenty More "It's interesting. I think so much of that is a credit to the writing. I'm trying to get better in my work. I'm trying to get better at being proud of myself and owning the things that I'm good at — which I think growing up in Australia can sometimes be a tricky thing, when it's always like 'oh, don't get too full of yourself'. But I have always thought of myself or I've thought of actors as a medium in the way that paint is a medium. Like, I'm a paint colour and a director chooses to paint with me. And I know I've said this to a few actors and they're completely horrified by it, but an actor has very little control in the outcome of a film. And I think that this is why actors can become such nightmares sometimes, because they have this delusion of control and this need for control, where there really isn't any. It's really a job where you don't get much creative control. And so I think that I just am trying to tap into exactly what I imagine Minnie feels in the moment, and I get that from the script. I know that sounds like kind of a cheap answer. It makes it sound like I have no agency. But I'm a real overthinker in every other area of my life — but when it comes to work, if a character feels right and if a story feels right, something clicks for me where I'm really not thinking very much. I'm not a studious actor. I'm not poring over the script every day. My favourite thing is to get in there and talk about the scene with the director and with the other actors, and then just do it. And when I'm doing, I'm not thinking about it at all." On the Difficulties of Acting Drunk — But Only Really Needing to Act Tipsy Here "One of the ways that Nick Clifford reassured me about taking on the role was by telling me that she doesn't get progressively drunker. She actually resets for every loop. So really, Minnie is only ever tipsy, which is a lot easier — because I think that there's a broader area to play with with tipsiness. Some people, you can tell if they're tipsy — some people, you can't. Minnie is an anaesthetist. She's in a very serious profession. She probably went to a great school and her job means that she's taken very seriously. So I feel like Emily's normal personality-level silliness is probably Minnie's tipsiness. So I wasn't really thinking about playing tipsy. I was just thinking about playing Minnie being maybe slightly less reserved than she normally would be — or than she would be at work. The only moment in the film that I really felt that I was playing inebriated in some way was the scene with Sean in the bathroom, where Minnie does a line of C-Word's [Michael] cocaine. I've had conversations with a lot of people who were on cocaine, and I found that much easier than playing drunk — because essentially, a person on cocaine is just talking a bit faster and a bit more excitedly and animatedly, but really they just don't give a fuck what you have to say. They just want to hear the sound of themselves talking. And I was like 'yeah, I can do that.' That's a lot easier to act than drunk. Whereas drunk is like — when I see a great drunk performance, I'm really, really, really impressed by it. People think it's impressive when actors cry easily. I'm like 'no anyone can do that'. When someone can play drunk, that's when I'm really — I think that's really incredible. I don't know if I can really do it, to be honest with you." On Browning's Path From Making Her Screen Debut Almost Three Decades Ago in The Echo of Thunder Through to Now "That was my first acting role, and it kind of happened by accident. It was very random. A friend's parents saw me in a school play and knew a casting director, and the casting director was looking for an eight-year-old girl — and it kind of just happened. Before then, I loved movies so much. I loved movies. All I did was watch movies. But I just didn't think — I never made the connection in my mind that that was a job you could do. And then it just happened, and I was like 'cool, I guess this is my job now'. And it meant that I got to be out of school for a few months of the year, and it felt more interesting to me than school did. But I think from the beginning, I was like 'well, this is what I do now, I guess'. And then I remember doing Lemony Snicket when I was 14, and I loved that experience, but it was my first time in LA and it really freaked me out in a way that was like 'I actually don't think this is the life that I want'. I was there, I was in West Hollywood, and I was meeting all these young actors who seemed so — they just seemed to not have any other life outside of making films and it just all felt a bit yuck to me. And so I actually kind of quit for a few years, and didn't start again until after high school. But even that, it's only really in the last few years, since COVID, that I've really felt like I fully committed to wanting to be an actor — which is crazy because I'm in my mid-30s now. But it took me a long time. I was very afraid for a long time. The idea of being famous has always been terrifying to me. I'm only now at the point where I'm like 'okay, I think I know myself well enough and I can let myself accept the fact that I would like to be successful'. I still don't want to be famous. I still have no interest in being — like, I don't want to be in superhero movies, really. But I would like to do this for the rest of my life, and I would like to be able to do really interesting roles. And that means learning how to play the game to some degree, I guess, which feels gross, but I think it's just part of it. I've spent a lot of time leaning in and then pulling back, and hiding from the scarier elements of the industry — or the elements that were scary to me. And now I finally feel like I'm at a place where I'm like 'okay, I want to do this for real', even though I have been doing it for real for a long time. But I finally feel ready for it." On Coming Home for a Project — and One More Shot Being Browning's Australian Film Since 2011's Sleeping Beauty "Honestly, other than my gut, it's the fact that I get to come home. It's a huge drawcard to be able to work at home. And honestly, more and more recently, so much of the most interesting stuff that I've been reading has been Australian stuff. So it's been a really lucky thing — especially during the strike and everything, when a lot of my friends just had to wait it out. And the fact that I was still able to be reading stuff in Australia, I feel really, really lucky for that, that I have this other — it's not a second career, it's all part of the same career, but the fact that I can come home and work is really, really incredible, especially now considering that everything's a bit more global now. With streaming, people see things from all over the world and you can be anywhere. I'm not going to take a job in Australia just because it's in Australia, but if something is in Australia that I already love, it's going to make me even more excited about it. I think One More Shot — and The Fox as well — are both things that I'm incredibly excited about. And they both happen to have been made here, which is really cool. It makes them even more special." One More Shot screens at the 2025 Melbourne International Film Festival — and will stream via Stan later in 2025. MIFF 2025 runs from Thursday, August 7–Sunday, August 24 at a variety of venues around Melbourne; from Friday, August 15–Sunday, August 17 and Friday, August 22–Sunday, August 24 in regional Victoria; and online nationwide from Friday, August 15–Sunday, August 31. For further details, visit the MIFF website. One More Shot images: Ben King/Stan.
When Christmas rolls around each year, some folks go all out, decking every hall and wall with every decoration they can find. Others are lucky to remember to drag out their stockings on Christmas eve. Whichever category you fit into, and however you choose to show your festive spirit — or not — super-cute tiny trees should suit just about everyone. They're small, adorable, 100-percent living, suitable for homes of all sizes, and you can plant them in your garden afterwards. These trees hail from Australian plant delivery service Floraly, which focuses on sustainable blooms. Since 2019, it's also been doing a Christmas offering — and yes, it really is that time again, with pre-orders open now for deliveries starting in the second half of November. The big drawcard: those gorgeous living trees. If you're happy with a pint-sized version — because the traditional towering ornament-adorned showpiece isn't always practical, or wanted — then this tiny plant is about to make your festive dreams come true. 'Tis the season to order a 45–50-centimetre-tall tree that comes with decorations, fairy lights and a pop-up pot; then wait for it to be delivered; then feel mighty jolly. Sourced from farms in Victoria and New South Wales, and able to be sent Australia-wide, Floraly's trees also arrive with soil, baubles, bells and a tree-topper — so they really do look like miniature versions of the usual Christmas centrepiece. There are two versions available, so you can opt for red baubles and a gold star for the top, or go with white decorations and a silver star. In line with Floraly's eco-conscious mindset, its trees still have their root system intact. That means that once Christmas is over, you can replant them, keep them for some year-round merriment and then enjoy their splendour next year. The trees also come in fully recyclable packaging, further reducing their environmental impact. If you're keen, you can order a small bundle of greenery from the Floraly website for $95. Fancy sending a tiny tree as a gift? You can do that too, adding in wine, champagne, beer, bottled cocktails, candles, skin care products, chocolate, cookies, Christmas puddings and more. Floraly's tiny Christmas trees are available to pre-order now by visiting the service's website, with deliveries starting in the second half of November.
If you're keen to surround yourself with art in the most-immersive fashion on offer and you haven't yet visited The Lume, Australia's digital art gallery, then you'd better get organised: the Melbourne venue will close up on Sunday, June 1, 2025. News that the site was set to say farewell was first revealed in 2024, but with a January 2026 end date; however, those plans have now moved forward. Accordingly, The Lume will shut up shop when its present Vincent van Gogh showcase finishes. Art exhibitions are fleeting, of course, gracing walls and halls for just days, weeks or months at a time, then moving elsewhere or never being seen again. But when The Lume opened in 2021, you can be forgiven for thinking that it wouldn't be such a brief addition to Australia's cultural scene. The closure comes after Grande Experiences, the company behind it, decided not to extend its lease at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Whether you're an art lover based in the Victorian capital or elsewhere around the country, a last trip to the site means enjoying van Gogh delights, complete with The Starry Night projected large, taking over an entire room; the immersive Sunflower room, where golden petals stretch as far as the eye can see; VR experience Finding Vincent; a cafe inspired by the artist's Café Terrace at Night; and more. The Lume actually launched with the same exhibition. Also wowing audiences at the gallery since its opening: a celebration of Monet and his contemporaries, a huge showcase dedicated to First Nations artists and all things Leonardo da Vinci. Across its four-year run, The Lume has unsurprisingly proven popular, with 1.5-million visitors heading by to-date. "The Lume Melbourne has been a defining chapter in Australia's cultural landscape — a place where art, innovation and imagination came to life for millions of visitors. We are deeply grateful to our team, our partners and every guest who stepped through our doors," said Grande Experiences Founder and Chair, and The Lume Melbourne CEO, Bruce Peterson. "As we look to the future, we see an opportunity to once again redefine immersive storytelling. Rather than simply continuing, we are choosing to evolve — embracing new technologies that will take cultural experiences to even greater heights." "This was not a decision we made lightly, but one rooted in our ambition to push the boundaries of cultural storytelling even further. The landscape of immersive experiences is evolving rapidly, and we are seizing this moment to lead that evolution on a global scale. Our focus is now on creating even more groundbreaking, transformative stories through innovative new technology," Peterson continued. Melbourne's The Lume is one of two worldwide, with the other in Indianapolis in US, which is remaining open. Even as its only Australian site confirms its farewell, Grande Experiences hasn't ruled out more Aussie venues, advising that other states have flagged their interest in hosting the gallery — but nothing has been locked in so far. The Lume Melbourne will close at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, 5 Convention Centre Place, South Wharf, Melbourne on Sunday, June 1, 2025. Van Gogh at The Lume displays until then. Head to the venue's website for tickets and further information. Images: Grande Experiences.
In Stay of the Week, we explore some of the world's best and most unique accommodations — giving you a little inspiration for your next trip. In this instalment, we take you to Epvalis Hotel in Greece, a picturesque, openair delight overlooking the water on the sunny island of Santorini. If you're dreaming of a sun-soaked Mediterranean adventure this summer, think about spending a few nights here. WHAT'S SO SPECIAL? Epvalis is a four-star hotel that overlooks the village of Kamari on the famous Greek island of Santorini. The area is known for its volcanic black beaches — and you'll feel be able to finally find that sense of inner calm while gazing out at the azure waters of the Aegean sea. THE ROOMS The 45 rooms available at Epvalis are designed in the Cycladian style that Santorini is famous for. Think neutral whitewashed walls, rounded external corners, flat roofs and stone-paved floors. Each room has all the amenities you'll need, as well as private balconies overlooking either the gorgeous Santorini architecture or the sapphire bay below. Sound like a bit of you? Not only are the rooms gorgeous, but we've got an epic deal to make your Santorini snoozing even sweeter. Book the Epvalis through CP Trips and you'll knock a huge chunk off the price for a five-night stay — and nab perks like free cancellation and parking. [caption id="attachment_888518" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Karl Solano - Pexels[/caption] FOOD AND DRINK If you're headed for Santorini, you're probably prepared for a hearty Greek feed or three. You could choose to stay in and dine at the deli, or order a meal to your room to enjoy with sunset views. Every guest also will get to enjoy a complimentary buffet breakfast, which is open for three hours daily. In terms of onsite drinks, there are two bars: one an indoor lounge and the other a poolside bar. Epvalis is tucked away in the far south corner of Kamari, which keeps you away from the noise, but it does mean a night out is a roughly 15-minute beach walk away. Hey, all the more reason to stop and take in the waves. THE LOCAL AREA Kamari is a bustling seaside village on the southeast coast of Santorini, which is famous for its volcanic black sand beach. Along said beach are all the bars and cafes you could ever need to fuel your Mediterranean getaway, as well as thousands of beach chairs and umbrellas for hire. Looking for an activity? No worries — you can choose from watersports, art studios and even an openair cinema. [caption id="attachment_888517" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Dimitris Mourousiadis - Pexels[/caption] THE EXTRAS One of the most popular destinations in Kamari is Mesa Vouno, the second-largest mountain on Santorini. Epvalis lies on the foothills of the peak, which puts you within driving or walking distance of the ruins of Ancient Thera, a large Greek city that dates back as far as the 8th century. The ruins stretch across the top of the mountain and as far down to the beach, where a small shrine to Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea, keeps watch over swimmers. On the summit, you'll find ancient excavated theatres, markets, temples, bathhouses and more. Feeling inspired to book a truly unique getaway? Head to Concrete Playground Trips to explore a range of holidays curated by our editorial team. We've teamed up with all the best providers of flights, stays and experiences to bring you a series of unforgettable trips in destinations all over the world.
Balmy, breezy and beckoning, the warmer months are well and truly here, bringing with them blue skies and long days. And while Melbourne isn't blessed with too many beaches in the inner city, it does have plenty of exemplary outdoor pools just waiting for you to glide into their cool, blue waters — either for exercise, play or to just plain cool down. Get your swimmers, slather on some sunscreen and head out to some of the best outdoor swimming pools in Melbourne, stat. Recommended reads: The Best Heated Swimming Pools in Melbourne The Best Beaches in and Around Melbourne The Best Swimming Holes in Melbourne The Best Waterfalls That You Can Swim Under in Victoria Fitzroy Swimming Pool, Fitzroy Fitzroy Pool on Alexandra Parade is a dreamy old-school pool that's perfect for weekday lap swimming or weekend poolside chills. The modernist building is flanked by murals and features an eight-lane 50-metre pool as well as two kiddie pools. The water is always the ideal temperature a swim here is just generally an invigorating experience. It's one of the best pools in the north Melbourne. And the poolside bleachers are the perfect place to sunbathe after your swim. But this pool isn't just for summer. When the weather cools, the team turns on the heaters, keeping it warm (or at least not freezing cold) throughout the year. 160 Alexandra Parade, Fitzroy. Open 6am–8.45pm Monday–Friday and 7am–6.45pm Saturday–Sunday. North Melbourne Recreation Centre, North Melbourne The outdoor pool in North Melbourne is small but perfectly formed. The 25-metre pool has eight lanes for you to just keep swimming and is kept at a balmy 27.5 degrees all year round. There's a seperate kids pool and a few lanes tend to be opened up in summer so people can simply paddle around and float in the main 25-metre pool. Adults don't have to swim laps to cool off here. In the past, it has run aquatic movie nights, where you can catch movies on the big screen while floating in an inflatable pink swan (BYO pink swan and water-resistant popcorn). North Melbourne Recreation Centre is a bit of a hidden gem, still fairly quiet throughout summer. This helps make it one of the best outdoor swimming pools in Melbourne. 204-206 Arden Street, North Melbourne. Open 6am–8pm Monday–Friday and 8am–7pm Saturday–Sunday. Prahran Aquatic Centre, Prahran The Prahran Aquatic Centre may be a public pool, but it's a little bit fancy. The eight-lane, 50-metre pool is heated and overlooked by a gorgeous wooden sunbathing deck — and has recently undergone a major renovation. The pool itself had a refurb, as has the surrounding areas where the team often runs all-day pool parties with DJs and sausage sizzles. The best spot to lay your towel? On the lawns, partly beneath the shade of the trees. Here, there's no need to worry about accidentally napping after swimming a few too many laps. There's also a spa and sauna for those wanting to sweat it out in between dips. 41 Essex Street, Prahran. Open 5.45am–7.45pm Monday–Friday, 6am–6.15pm Saturday and 7am–6:15pm Sunday. Brunswick Baths, Brunswick Whatever swimming you feel like doing, Brunswick Baths have a body of water to suit your needs. it's got a 20-metre indoor pool as well as a spa, sauna and steam room, but when it's hot out you'll want to head straight to the heated eight-lane Olympic-sized outdoor pool. It's open all year round and is great for hardcore lap swimmers. Adding this spot to the list of Melbourne's best outdoor swimming pools is a no-brainer. 14 Dawson Street, Brunswick. Open 5:30am–9:45pm Monday–Friday and 7am–7:45pm Saturday–Sunday. Brighton Baths, Brighton Brighton Baths is not so much a pool as a patch of ocean, so it's not for the faint-hearted or those used to heated water. But if you want to get salty and safely swim 50-metre laps in the ocean, this is the pool for you. The pool area has been sectioned off with a private boardwalk that you can laze around on to dry off. Those swimming here also have access to Brighton Baths' change rooms, steam room, showers and lockers. No need to worry about leaving your valuables on the shore while you swim a few laps. 251 Esplanade, Brighton. The baths are staffed from 6am–8:15pm Monday–Friday and 7am–6pm Saturday–Sunday Monash Aquatic Recreation Centre, Glen Waverley For those of you out east searching for your everything pool, check out the Monash Aquatic Recreation Centre. It has some incredible features, including a 25-metre indoor pool; a spa, sauna and steam room; and — wait for it — a wave pool that you can take a boogie board into. They even set up inflatable obstacle courses for kids parties (sadly, this one isn't for adults). The 50-metre outdoor pool is also one of the best in Melbourne, heated to 26 degrees in summer and 27 degrees in winter. 626 Waverley Road, Glen Waverley. Open 5:45–9pm Monday–Friday and 8am–7pm Saturday–Sunday. Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre, Albert Park Just south of Southbank, you'll find the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre (MSAC) hidden away in Albert Park. If you're a sports person who enjoys running, jumping and movements of all varieties, you'll absolutely love MASC and its huge range of fields, courts and sports doodads. But its aquatic facilities blow all others out of the water (excuse the pun). It has a lush 50-metre outdoor pool that's perfect for both exercise and play. Plus, a 50-metre indoor pool, a 25-metre indoor pool, 14 indoor diving boards, a multipurpose indoor pool, a hydrotherapy pool, an indoor wave pool, a water slide, a spa and change room great facilities. Yes, it's all here. 30 Aughtie Drive, Albert Park. The outdoor pool is open 5:30am–10pm Monday–Friday and 7am–8pm Saturday–Sunday.
The world is an incredible and enigmatic place that holds many secrets and wonders that we humans sometimes struggle to explain. There are places that many of us would find difficult to even dream about or conjure up in our imaginations, yet they actually exist. Ranging from popular tourist destinations to awe-inspiring sights, here are a handful to add to the bucket list of amazing ones to visit before you kick it. 1. Wisteria Tunnel [Map] This stunning and mesmerising array of purple, cream and lilac flowering trees appears as though it has sprung from the pages of a childhood fairytale. This Japanese garden contains three massive wisteria trellises that are at the height of their beauty in May and is just a four hour drive out of Tokyo. 2. Cinque Terre [Map] Located on the rugged coastline of the Italian Riviera, Cinque Terre is an historical and unfathomable sight to behold. With the almost non-existent corporate development or public transport infrastructure surrounding the area, these majestic hillside terraces are a magnet for tourists searching for an authentic taste of Italy’s most spectacular cultural destination. 3. Hotel La Montana Magica [Map] A Lord of the Rings-esque four star lodge, Hotel La Montana Magica is a breathtaking establishment in the biological reserve of Huilo, Chile. The hotel is set in the middle of a 120,000 hectare native forest and built inside a man made volcano, which actually spurts water from its peak and then flows down the side of the mountain past the windows of the thirteen rooms inside. With moss and vines wrapping their way around the structure it would be hard not to feel part of a fantasyland whilst bunking here. 4. Crooked Forest [Map] If you thought trees could only grow straight up in a linear direction, then you obviously have never been to Nowe Czarnowo in West Pomerania, Poland. The grove, known as the Crooked Forest, contains approximately 400 slanting pine trees, which were planted in the 1930s. Seemingly defying gravity, these wonder trees will be sure to awe, and quite possibly confound you, as though you were living in perpetual state of ‘opposite day’. The reason for their planting is to this day still unknown, but plain beauty is good enough for us. 5. The Tunnel of Love [Map] Dubbed the Tunnel of Love, this old train tunnel surrounded by giant trees is located in Kleven, Ukraine. In true love story fashion, it is believed that if couples visiting the tunnel share genuine love then kiss and make a wish, their wish will come true. 6. The Blue Lagoon [Map] The mystic and mesmerising geothermal spa, the Blue Lagoon is one of the most visited places in Iceland, and for good reason. With temperatures ranging from 37-39°C and having therapeutic powers to help sufferers of skin diseases such as psoriasis, this relaxing and soothing oasis would be a tough one to miss. 7. Ice Canyon [Map] The sheer beauty of the Ice Canyon in Greenland speaks for itself, as is visible in the innumerable images of this icy wonder. One of the most photographed spots in Greenland, it is also (quite literally) one of the coolest places on Earth. The canyons were carved by meltwater and can measure to be a near whopping 50m deep. The area is home to lush mountains, stunning icebergs and various flora and fauna unlike anywhere else on the planet and is also a popular sporting and recreation spot. 8. Ball's Pyramid [Map] Measuring at 562m high, Ball Pyramid is the tallest volcanic stack in the world, which formed around 7 million years ago. It is an erosional remnant of a shield volcano 20km south of Australia’s idyllic and secluded Lord Howe Island. The pyramid was discovered in 1788 but after failed attempts wasn’t successfully climbed to the summit until 1965. The ancient wonder is also home to a number of rare insect and plant species, which were previously thought to be extinct. 9. The Great Barrier Reef [Map] Australia’s own natural wonder, – only one of seven in the world – the Great Barrier Reef is the only living thing on Earth visible space. Boasting of breathtaking beauty and incredibly diverse and vibrant marine species, it contains over 3000 individual reef systems and coral cays as well as thousands of dream-like tropical islands. The marine park extends over 300km along the Queensland coast, entailing one of the most spectacular underwater experiences the globe has to offer. 10. Plitvice Lakes National Park [Map] The Plitvice Lakes National Park really demonstrates nature at its best, both in terms of beauty and natural marvels. 16 lakes can be seen from the surface of the largest national park in Croatia, which are all interconnected and arranged in cascades, yet separated by natural dams of travertine. These travertine barriers are created by the accumulation of moss, algae and bacteria and serve to retain the flow of water, causing the height of the dams to continuously grow. The luscious greens, greys and blue of the lake clusters alter depending on the minerals in the water, making this unpredictable spectacle all the more fascinating. [Via Buzzfeed]
The mighty cheese wheel is making a return to Hawthorn's Vaporetto Bar and Eatery. This month — and just in time for the cooler weather — you can warm up with a giant plate of pasta cooked just right and finished at the table before your eyes. This time, you'll be treated to cacio e pepe fettuccine. It's an Italian classic that's made with just three simple ingredients: pasta, pepper and cheese. When the pasta is ready, the Vaporetto folk will bring it piping hot to your table. Then, they'll place it in a wheel of parmesan, and stir it while scraping the sides so that every strand of pasta on your plate is covered in cheese. Showtimes for this delicious piece of tableside theatre are scheduled seven days a week for lunch and dinner service. Bookings are highly reccommended, but don't leave it too long — the wheel rolls off into the sunset on the last day of April.
Daniel Craig's run as Bond, James Bond might be over, but that just gives him more time to spend as Benoit Blanc. Back in 2019, the British actor added sleuthing his way through murder-mysteries to his resume, playing the private detective in star-studded whodunnit Knives Out. The end result was not only ace, but also such a hit that Netflix hopped on two sequels. The first followup, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, arrives this December — to stream on December 23, in fact, so consider it any early Christmas gift. It's also filled with famous faces, as the just-dropped first trailer illustrates. Joining Craig: Edward Norton (The French Dispatch), Janelle Monáe (Antebellum), Kathryn Hahn (WandaVision), Leslie Odom Jr (The Many Saints of Newark), Jessica Henwick (The Gray Man), Madelyn Cline (Outer Banks), Kate Hudson (Music) and Dave Bautista (Thor: Love and Thunder). In this chapter of the Knives Out franchise, the action moves to Greece. If you saw the original — or any murder-mystery involving a motley crew of characters brought together in one location when someone turns up dead — then you'll know how it works from there. There's a lavish setting, that aforementioned big group of chalk-and-cheese folks, threats aplenty and just as much suspicion. Glass Onion takes place on a Greek island, but also sends its various players on a cruise — and yes, thinking about Agatha Christie, including this year's Death on the Nile, is a natural reaction. "Lock the doors. Stay in your rooms. Everyone is in danger," Blanc advises in the sneak peek, because all of that goes with the territory as well. Is the culprit Bautista's Duke Cody on the yacht? Hudson's Birdie Jay in the games room? Hahn's Claire Debella by the pool? You'll have to watch to find out. Just like its predecessor, Glass Onion is both written and directed by Rian Johnson, with the filmmaker moving onto the franchise after 2017's Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi — and still indulging his love of on-screen puzzles, as shone through in Brick and Looper as well. Check out the first trailer for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery below: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery will be available to stream via Netflix from December 23. Images: John Wilson/Netflix © 2022.
When French stage actor Sarah Bernhardt performed in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, posters helped spread the word. The art that featured is as famous as the star herself. Responsible for the designs: Czech-born painter and illustrator Alphonse Mucha, who is virtually synonymous with Paris in the art nouveau period as a result. He's also the subject of the Art Gallery of New South Wales' huge 2024 winter showcase. AGNSW has unveiled its program for the year ahead, and its biggest-name exhibition is impressive. It'll also be exclusive to Sydney. Running from Saturday, June 15–Sunday, September 22, Alphonse Mucha: Spirit of Art Nouveau will be the most-comprehensive showcase of the artist's work that Australia has ever seen, in fact. Posters for Bernhardt and others will feature, alongside illustrations, photographs, jewellery and interior decoration. Surveying Mucha's five-decade career, created in collaboration with the Mucha Foundation in Prague and featuring pieces from the Mucha Family Collection, Alphonse Mucha: Spirit of Art Nouveau will also include a digital component. There, his painting cycle The Slav Epic from 1912–26 will get the immersive treatment. [caption id="attachment_942045" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Alphonse Mucha 'Reverie' 1898, colour lithograph, 72.7 x 55.2 cm © Mucha Trust 2024 // Alphonse Mucha 'The Seasons: Summer' 1896, colour lithograph, 103 x 54 cm © Mucha Trust 2024. // Alphonse Mucha 'Princess Hyacinth' 1911, colour lithograph 125.5 x 83.5 cm © Mucha Trust 2024[/caption] "Thanks to the close and generous collaboration with the Mucha Foundation in Prague, this extensive exhibition brings many of Alphonse Mucha's exceptionally important works to Sydney, revealing an artist and designer whose powerful influence remains with us today, some 85 years after his death," said Art Gallery of New South Wales Director Michael Brand, announcing the exhibition. "Mucha was a prolific and versatile artist whose work spanned many areas of design, from the iconic theatrical posters that made his name, to design and advertising, to jewellery, sculpture and interior design, book illustration and, of course, painting." "As an artist, activist and philosopher, Mucha moved beyond art nouveau in his search for an art to elevate the human spirit, coming to focus attention on the socio-historical issues affecting the Slavic peoples then under the domination of the Austro-Hungarian Empire," Brand continued. [caption id="attachment_942047" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Lesley Dumbrell 'Solstice' 1974, Liquitex on canvas, 173 x 296 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales, purchased with funds provided by the Patrick White Bequest 2019 © Lesley Dumbrell.[/caption] Alphonse Mucha: Spirit of Art Nouveau sits on AGNSW's 2024 lineup alongside a wealth of other reasons to hit the Sydney gallery. The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes will be back, of course, displaying across winter as well. The Volume festival, which debuted in 2023, will also return — albeit with dates and details to be confirmed. And the site is a venue for the 24th Biennale of Sydney from March–June, too. The abstract art of Australian talent Lesley Dumbrell, paintings and sculptures by South Korea's Lee Ufan and stepping into Wendy Sharpe's creative process are among the other highlights, from a list that goes on. One particular must-see: What Does the Jukebox Dream Of?, where the gallery will go big on defunct media — complete with Susan Hiller's large-scale installation Die gedanken sind frei (Thoughts are free), a customised Wurlitzer jukebox, which will hit Australia for the first time and play 100-plus anthems spanning centuries. [caption id="attachment_942046" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Susan Hiller 'Die gedanken sind frei (Thoughts are free)' 2012, 102 songs on customised Wurlitzer walnut jukebox, vinyl lettering, books, benches, sound, overall display dimensions variable, Art Gallery of New South Wales, gift of Geoff Ainsworth AM and Johanna Featherstone 2017 © Estate of Susan Hiller, courtesy Lisson Gallery, photo: Jack Hems.[/caption] Art Gallery of New South Wales' 2024 Exhibitions and Events: Until Sunday, March 10 — Kandinsky and Georgiana Houghton: Invisible Friends Until Sunday, April 28 — Louise Bourgeois: Has the Day Invaded the Night or Has the Night Invaded the Day? Until Sunday, April 21 — ARTEXPRESS 2024 Saturday, March 9–Monday, June 10 — 24th Biennale of Sydney: Ten Thousand Suns Saturday, March 9–Sunday, September 22 — What Does the Jukebox Dream Of? Saturday, March 9–Sunday, June 2 — Jelena Telecki: Mothers, Fathers Saturday, May 25–Sunday, August 11 — Wendy Sharpe: Spellbound Saturday, June 8–Sunday, September 8 — Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes 2024 Saturday, June 15–Sunday, September 22 — Alphonse Mucha: Spirit of Art Nouveau Saturday, June 22–Monday, October 7 — Emily Hunt Saturday, July 30–Sunday, October 24 — Lesley Dumbrell: Thrum Saturday, August 31–September 2024 — Lee Ufan Saturday, September 14–Sunday, January 12 — Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial 2024 Saturday, September 21–mid 2025 — Angelica Mesiti: The Rites of When Saturday, November 2–Sunday, February 16 — Leyla Stevens Saturday, November 9–Sunday, February 9 — Nusra Latif Qureshi TBC — Volume 2024 [caption id="attachment_942048" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sampa the Great performing at the 2023 Volume Festival at the Art Gallery of NSW, photo © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Daniel Boud.[/caption] For more information about the Art Gallery of New South Wales' 2024 exhibitions — all of which will occur at The Domain, Sydney — visit the venue's website. Top image: excerpt of Alphonse Mucha 'Reverie' 1898, colour lithograph, 72.7 x 55.2 cm © Mucha Trust 2024 // Alphonse Mucha 'The Seasons: Summer' 1896, colour lithograph, 103 x 54 cm © Mucha Trust 2024. // Alphonse Mucha 'Princess Hyacinth' 1911, colour lithograph 125.5 x 83.5 cm © Mucha Trust 2024
We take travelling seriously at Concrete Playground. Whether you're planning luxury getaways abroad, interstate camping trips, weekend jaunts to a city or bathing beachside, our team of avid travellers and destination-obsessives like to think we've got all the necessary tips for where to eat, drink, stay and hang out to get your itineraries in the best possible shape. But it has come to our attention that we've lapsed in our advice when it comes to what to put in your luggage. So, what must-have travel essentials should you be bringing with you on your next trip to make packing for your holiday a simple and stress-free task? In partnership with the folks at Kmart, we're going to share our top tips for packing, depending on what kind of adventure you are about to embark on. Carry-on Connoisseurs If you are attempting to eschew those ever-increasing checked luggage bag fees but aren't quite keen on stuffing a pillowcase with all your belongings, it might be time to assess what you are actually packing. If you've committed to confining yourself to cabin baggage alone, pack items that can do multiple jobs. A simple button-up shirt can be casual with jeans and a tee, a throw-on layer over swimwear, or be dressed up by buttoning it up and tucking it into your pants. Dresses are the ultimate outfit saviour if you favour a single-item outfit. With a simple hairstyle or accessories, a dress can take you from chill brunch to a luxe wine-tasting or fine-dining experience. Don't put yourself out, and ensure you are always looking your best, whether you are sipping on sparkling next to the Riviera or exploring food markets in Japan. Luxury Lovers There's nothing more luxurious than having options for everyday activities on your five-star getaway. But with all your outfit choices, how can you keep tabs on your belongings? Easy, get yourself organised with luggage organisers. Packing cubes are excellent for all kinds of travellers, whether you're hiking the Great Dividing Range or booking yourself into a relaxing retreat. Keep your items organised, from your electronics to your toiletries, your swimwear to your evening wear. With the right travel accessories, you'll never have to worry about where your perfect evening outfit or super luxurious sunhat is. International Explorers If you're that person who is constantly returning from an overseas trip and planning the next one, you probably need new luggage. All that travelling plays havoc on your baggage. From the usual wear and tear of being pulled through the terminals to the stress of being chucked around on baggage chutes, bus racks, taxi boots and more. Before you start planning your next vacation, make sure your bags are in good nick for overseas travel. You don't want to have to be scouring local supermarkets for duct tape. Get yourself sorted with a stylish new set, and you're basically halfway ready for your next adventure. Weekend Warriors Do you keep your eyes peeled for budget-friendly interstate flights or car hire sales for your next weekend escapade? Much like the Carry-on Connoisseurs above, you're only going for the weekend, so make sure you pack lightly (so you can fill your car/suitcase with all the local goodies you can). Whether you're heading for the hills or journeying to a dense metropolis, walking shoes are a must. No matter if you are a guy planning a luxe trip to the south Pacific or a gal heading to the mountains, the ratty trainers you've been rocking to the gym simply won't do (and neither will that stylish new pair you're yet to break in). Get comfy, versatile walking sneakers or boots that match your fave 'fit for city exploring or countryside wandering and wear them on the way to your weekend destination. Adventure Seekers If you love spending your weekends exploring the bush or hiking up mountains, it's important to be prepared and get your camping gear in order. A sturdy shoe, head torch and waterproof pack can make or break a weekend — so be prepared for every kind of weather and dress for the elements to change. Remember: it's cold at night, even during an Aussie summer. If you're a keen camper, stock up on gas fuel for your stove and a first aid pack (with sunscreen and bug spray). It's the times that you need it that you don't have it. Don't put yourself in that position and get prepped for adventure. Foodie Fanatics Do you spend your holidays sampling wines, tasting local produce and snagging the best dinner reservations in town? Dress to impress and pack a skirt that can bring you from the market to the restaurant in an instant. Whether you're more of a mini, midi, or maxi skirt kind of person, a stylish skirt can elevate your outfit for the perfect look for embarking on your epicurean adventure. Discover more of your must-have travel essentials over on Kmart's website.
For a suburb sandwiched between South Melbourne, St Kilda and Australia's only Formula 1 track (sorry, Adelaide), Middle Park still feels like a well-guarded secret. But if there's one thing that's been shining a spotlight on otherwise slept-on suburbs in the post-pandemic era, it's the opening of a cosy neighbourhood wine bar — and, finally, it's the leafy bayside neighbourhood's turn to join the snack-and-sip party with the opening of Middle Park European. This smart, sun-washed new bistro has landed in the charming Armstrong Street village, care of the fast-expanding Valarc Group, the team behind Richmond's Tartine Bistro, Windsor's Ines Wine Bar and Sistine, The Meatball & Wine Bar, and Ned's Bake & Bistro (which has an outpost further down Armstrong Street). The venue features an Italian- and French-leaning menu and channels the spirit of the all-day wine bars more typically found in Europe — and to that end, this newcomer is open for lunch and dinner. [caption id="attachment_1007758" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Chege Mbuthi[/caption] The design is a nod to both old-world Europe and the heritage architecture of its location, with walnut detailing hand-crafted by a local boatbuilder, imported Italian lighting, rustic tiling and natural stone finishes coming together to bring a touch of Paris or Rome to Melbourne's inner south. At the pass is Head Chef Aaron Wrafter, whose resume includes time at Michelin-starred Birmingham restaurants Turners and Harborne Kitchen. Under the mentorship of legendary chef Ian Curley, he's crafted a considered menu that spans from small plates, like crab with fennel on milk loaf and stracciatella with pickled chilli, mint, persimmon and pistachio, to more substantial dishes like handmade pastas, dry-aged steaks, and even fish and chips. [caption id="attachment_1007757" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Chege Mbuthi[/caption] The drinks program is equally thoughtful. There's an approachable lineup of Australian, French and Italian wines — including drops from Valarc's own Sandhill Estate in the Macedon Ranges — as well as a selection of premium champagnes and a cocktail list inspired by the group's other venues. "We wanted to create a place that feels like home for the community and surrounding suburbs, but also a destination worth visiting," says Valarc Group owner — and proud Albert Park resident — Matteo Bruno. Now that Middle Park is on the Melbourne wine bar map, Bruno may have done just that. [caption id="attachment_1007761" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Chege Mbuthi[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1007759" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Chege Mbuthi[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1007756" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Chege Mbuthi[/caption] Middle Park European is now open at 20 Armstrong Street, Middle Park. It's open Tuesday–Sunday for lunch and dinner. For more information, head to the venue's website. Top image: Chege Mbuthi.
The waves aren't the only things making a splash at Melbourne's new surf park Urbnsurf after a much-anticipated culinary addition — the first Melbourne outpost of Three Blue Ducks. While the park's surfing lagoon has managed to get in a few months of operation since opening in January, the restaurant wasn't quite so lucky, forced to skip its planned March launch due to COVID-19. But the doors have now swung open, in time for a busy summer of surf, sun and sustainable fare. Known for its farm-to-table food ethos and with five permanent outposts across Sydney, Brisbane, Byron Bay and the Snowy Mountains, Three Blue Ducks is now set to deliver its sustainably-focused offering to Australia's first surf park. In a 350-seat indoor-outdoor space overlooking Urbnsurf's sparkling lagoon, the team's plating up an all-day menu built around simple food, and top-quality local ingredients. Whether you've just put in a morning's worth of waves, or you're there solely for the food, the breakfast menu is set to impress. On it, you'll find inventive creations like the spanner crab scramble ($25) matched with bean shoot salad and house-made Sriracha; a bacon and chilli jam brekky roll ($16) finished with slaw and mayo; and harissa-glazed pumpkin ($20) with sauerkraut and turmeric cashew cream. [caption id="attachment_792592" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kitti Gould[/caption] Deeper into the day, you can settle in with share-friendly starters — think, kingfish ceviche ($24) and crumbed pulled pork ($21) served with pickled onion purée — in addition to vibrant pizzas ($22–26), a daily-changing vegetarian pasta ($25) and mains like the Portuguese-style rotisserie chicken ($33) and a bone-in porterhouse ($55) with bagna cauda (an Italian garlic and anchovy sauce). Sides ($11–13) might include the likes of carrots done with burnt honey and ricotta salata, and dessert ($15–16) will see you feasting on treats like a flourless chocolate cake matched with rich whiskey cream. And no matter what time of day you visit, vegetarian and gluten free diners can count on being spoilt for choice. The sustainable focus extends to the drinks list, too, with Single O coffee showcased alongside local beers and ciders from the likes of Moon Dog, Stomping Ground, Bodriggy and Fixation. The wine selection celebrates organic and biodynamic practices, while a produce-forward cocktail lineup stars sips like the Balmy Nights Spritz, made with tequila, lime, chilli and strawberry. Right across the offering, there's a commitment to minimising both food miles and wastage, so expect to find on-site composting systems, a kitchen garden growing herbs and edible native plants, and plenty of drinks served on tap, rather than from the bottle. Venue images by Ed Sloane; food and drink images by Kitti Gould.
Collingwood needs no introduction as a destination for bar hopping, with those of the dive, wine and public persuasion filled with patrons night after night. But the inner-north neighbourhood is increasingly becoming a hotspot for bigger, later and louder nights out. In 2018, The Lame Duck popped up on the corner of Smith and Gertrude Street, offering late-night disco fever, while iconic nightclub New Guernica moved to Smith Street in 2021 following 12 years in the CBD on Little Collins. Now, tucked beneath this latter venue, a new kind of after-dark clubbing venue has arrived, with the launch of The Collingwood Basement. Owned and operated by the same crew behind New Guernica — Steve Costa, Dominic Lococo, Jaff Tzaferis and Kyle Bush — revellers can expect an intimate experience compared to happenings upstairs in the sprawling main club. With only capacity for 100 guests, each event that takes over the subterranean space is intended to feel "like its own community." "We invite different subcultures to curate the program, which gives space to niche music and left-field culture that rarely gets a spotlight in bigger venues," says Tzaferis, keeping details about the space ambiguous for now. "For us, it's not just about running a business — it feels more like a social service, creating a platform where people can connect, create and keep these scenes alive." [caption id="attachment_834491" align="alignnone" width="1920"] New Guernica[/caption] Entering via a separate side entrance on Langridge Street, The Collingwood Basement is designed to celebrate the city's underground sounds, especially those emanating from the north. Think queer-centred techno nights, boutique record label takeovers and boundary-pushing promoters bringing cutting-edge tunes to the dance floor. And with a 4am license and a Funktion-One sound system, feeling connected to Melbourne's most eclectic scenes comes even easier. "The sound has been designed with the same care, powerful on the floor but balanced so the seated social areas aren't intruded on, because we value human connection just as much as the connection our patrons have with music," says Tzaferis. While rooted to Smith Street, The Collingwood Basement is envisaged for all of Melbourne's north, from Brunswick to Coburg. More than just a spot for wide-eyed movement, it offers the city's varied communities a chance to thrive alongside a fit-for-purpose space. "Our larger venue upstairs works on a very different scale, and while it's great for headline acts and big nights, it's harder to give consistent space to niche music and culture on a weekly basis there," says Tzaferis. "The Basement changes that. It's intimate, community-driven, and designed to highlight the sounds and ideas coming out of the northside." [caption id="attachment_833678" align="alignnone" width="1920"] New Guernica[/caption] The Collingwood Basement is now open Friday–Saturday from 10pm–4am at 0 Langridge St, Collingwood. Head to Instagram for more information.
Croissants aren't easy to make, and no one in Australia knows that better than Kate Reid. For a decade, she's been the face of Lune Croissanterie, the bakery acclaimed by everyone from Yotam Ottolenghi (who called its flaky wares "the croissant that should act as the prototype for all others") to The New York Times (who anointed them "the finest you will find anywhere in the world"). The Melbourne-born chain's pastries didn't just luck into that effusive praise, however. Drawing upon her background as an ex-Formula 1 aerodynamicist, Reid took to the task of making the perfect croissant with scientific precision back when she changed fields. Lune's climate-controlled glass cubes, where its croissants are made and baked, have also become famous — adding even more complexity to an already-intricate pastry-creating process. After ten years spent crafting its titular treat, and also expanding the brand across Melbourne and Brisbane (plus Sydney in 2023), Lune has its croissants down to an art — and a science. Australia's pastry fiends clearly agree, spanning the chain's classic OG number through to its rotating array of monthly specials; head to any Lune location and the lines are proof enough. But Reid doesn't want croissant aficionados to only covet Lune's baked goods by heading in-store, not that anyone needs much encouragement there. Cue recipe book LUNE: Croissants All Day, All Night, which endeavours to share and demystify the croissant-making method — the butter, layers and laminating all included — across its hefty 272 pages. [caption id="attachment_871783" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Lune's Kate and Cam Reid[/caption] Reid hasn't found a croissant-making shortcut for the masses, but she has reworked Lune's greatest hits to whip up at home. "Making croissants is really hard, and there's a reason why it's normally a bakery with commercial equipment," she tells Concrete Playground, chatting while touring the country launching the book. When it came time to write the tome, the pandemic struck. Reid describes herself as "a hermit" as a result, but put the situation to good use. "It was coincidental that we ended up in a lockdown, and I was basically stuck in my kitchen at home," she explains. "I was like, 'okay, well what I'm surrounded by is what everyone who buys the book is going to be surrounded by'. So I basically rewrote the recipes from scratch with the home baker in mind." Yes, while everyone else was trying out sourdough, Reid was creating the world's next home-cooking obsession. (When Concrete Playground suggests that perhaps readers will approach Reid's recipes Julie & Julia-style, baking their way through them all from start to finish, she laughs approvingly.) If that commitment sounds like the act of a perfectionist, it is, and Reid freely uses the label to describe herself. You don't get to be an Australian who's globally renowned for a French pastry — so much so that LUNE: Croissants All Day, All Night is being snapped by up folks with bakeries in Wales and Prague, Reid advises — without being diligent and meticulous. You also don't get there without learning plenty. When Reid founded Lune, she did "honestly just want to make the best croissant". She was dedicated to that task — starting work at 5am and putting in 10–12-hours-plus a day rolling croissants up until just a couple of years ago — but didn't once dream of having "five stores around Australia, soon to add to Sydney to the mix (which we're all super-excited about), a book, 170 staff and a wine bar", as she itemises. She credits that modest initial outlook and the genuine passion behind it for Lune's success. It might seem surprising for someone clearly so detail-oriented, but she also champions discovering when to not sweat the small stuff, as she talked through in a chat about croissant dreams, cookbook essentials and the best advice she's ever received. ON STARTING LUNE TO CHASE THE PERFECT CROISSANT "The story's well known about leaving Formula 1 and coming back to Australia, and being interested in being a baker or a pastry chef. But it was going to Paris and spending the time at Du Pain et des Idées, and working exclusively in their raw pastry kitchen. Prior to that, I'd been working in cafes, and making cakes and tarts and biscuits — and while I enjoyed that, I needed something that presented far more of a technical challenge. Discovering that at a bakery in Paris, I finally felt like every single one of the receptors that I needed to be stimulated to feel fulfilled in my work were. I was working in a bakery in France where I had to speak French, and learn new techniques that are physically challenging. I came back from Paris so inspired by what I'd learnt — and then wanting to find a croissant in Melbourne that had matched what I'd been eating and making in Paris. I couldn't really find anything that came anywhere near it, so I guess that was where the idea for Lune was born." [caption id="attachment_668102" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Peter Tarasiuk.[/caption] ON SWAPPING A CHILDHOOD DREAM FOR A PASTRY-FILLED FUTURE "I think I'd turned 30 the year I started Lune. For 20 years just preceding that, I'd been laser-focused about a career in Formula 1. I'd literally planned out my retirement. I was going to be the first female technical director of an F1 team, and wanted to retire in Scotland. When I got sick and came back to Australia, the thought of planning too far ahead scared me, because planning so far ahead had put me in a pretty dark place and things hadn't panned out the way I'd thought. So Lune was a bit more of a one-step-at-a-time approach. Like, 'okay you've discovered this new thing that you love, and you've got an ideal to open a little wholesale bakery in Melbourne — let's start there'. Maybe that's been one of the keys to the success of Lune, in that I didn't have a hard and fast outcome that I needed to achieve other than continuing to hone and perfect this pastry, and therefore it has grown in quite an organic direction. The right people have come along at the right time. Cam [Reid's brother and co-owner] came along 18 months in and he's been instrumental. And Nathan [restaurateur Toleman, of Dessous, Hazel and Common Ground Project] came onboard another year or so later, and he's been instrumental as we've been growing in Victoria and interstate. And then there's the chefs that've crossed our paths over the years. We didn't even know that we were going to go to Brisbane up until two years ago, when the opportunity presented itself. I think now where we are, it's important for us to have a growth plan and a vision, but I think all of us — myself, Cameron and Nathan — are all aware that you don't know what life's going to throw at you, or what your business or you are personally going to have to face, and what challenges are going to come. And it's better to be open-minded, as doors will open when you don't expect." ON WRITING A LUNE COOKBOOK TEN YEARS ON — AND CATERING FOR ALL BAKERS "I've had experiences, not just with bakery books but cookbooks in general, where you follow a recipe to the letter in a book and somehow the end result isn't exactly what it promises to be in the photo or the inscriptions. You always blame yourself, because you're like 'well I'm not a professional chef that wrote that recipe, and I don't work in that restaurant, so I must've done something wrong'. I really wanted to write a book that, short of having me in the kitchen with you, the person who bought it and wanted to cook from it really felt like I was like coaching them through the process in a very detailed way. So, the recipes had to be achievable by a home cook. In order to do that, I discovered over probably six or seven weeks of pretty frustrating trials at home last year that I couldn't just replicate what we did at Lune, obviously, because no one in their home kitchen has all the commercial bakery equipment that we have at Lune. I make no bones about it: there's a reason that we don't make croissants at home. But I think especially over the past few years — and with thanks to people like Chad Robertson from Tartine, who's really normalised and championed more technical baking at home, especially with the understanding of making sourdough bread — people out there want a bigger challenge. Especially over the last couple of years with going in and out of lockdown, people got really savvy in their own kitchens making things that otherwise they might've just wandered down to the local bakery to get. There will be many people who read the recipes I've written and, at the start it tells you you've got to dedicate three days to it —there's managing of temperatures, and pulling batches of pastry in and out of the fridge to make sure the butter's the right consistency; it's very technical. The technical home baker will absolutely dive into the recipes. But for those people who don't want to dedicate three days of life to try to make them from home, there's a couple of chapters in the book dedicated to twice-baked recipes that are cult-classics at Lune — like our coconut pandan or the carrot cake, the mocha, the choc-chip cookie-slice bake — and then there's also a leftovers chapter. Those chapters mean that you can just walk down to your local bakery, buy half-a-dozen plain croissants, then engage with the book and cook from it in a couple of hours of cooking in the kitchen, rather than three days." ON PICKING THE RECIPES — AND PLAYING FAVOURITES "I actually compiled a list of every single special we've ever done at Lune, and the list is hundreds long. Then I looked through it, and basically went and picked out my 60 favourites. The book had to come from my heart, and I needed to make sure that there was a really lovely story behind each recipe included. I also wanted it to be a good balance of sweet and savoury, of simple and complex, and pastries that Lune customers remember from the last ten years. It'd be very hard for me to go past the traditional croissant, and just the challenge of mastering the plain croissant at home. Anyone who embarks on that recipe is going to have a great amount of satisfaction when they pull them out of the oven on day three. But in terms of what to do with the croissant pastry and be creative with it, there are so many recipes in the book. The fish pie one is genius because it uses the scraps of the scraps, so nothing needs to get thrown in the bin. And then with the kouign-amann recipe, which isn't a cult Lune recipe — it's a classic French pastry — even if you've stuffed up your lamination a bit in the raw pastry, you are going to get the most delicious pastry you've ever made at home." ON THE BEST ADVICE REID HAS EVER RECEIVED "It's probably been from Cam, my brother. I am absolutely a perfectionist, maybe to my detriment, and had Cam not come along I potentially could've gotten really stuck in the detail of perfecting the croissant — and at the expense of making a viable business. I'm a control freak as well, so it took me a long time to be able to step back and let go of control of elements that ultimately I didn't need to have control of. The advice is to let go of the things that don't matter, and let other people take hold of things, because somebody's always better at something than you are. If you can find someone that's better at it than you, it's going to be to the benefit of the business and the product, and ultimately you as well. And trusting in people. I think my biggest learning is that to grow a business, 100-percent the most important thing is to have a really good recruitment program, because to get the right people involved in your business is the only way for a business to grow and succeed." AND SOME ADVICE FOR LUNE: CROISSANTS ALL DAY, ALL NIGHT READERS "Source really good ingredients to start with, because you can't make something great from bad ingredients – you just can't. They're your foundation, your good ingredients. If you live in a really hot, humid environment and you don't have air-conditioning, it's probably going to be the most frustrating recipe of your entire life. It's really not designed for warm environments, and if you don't have the ability to control the room that you're doing the pastry in, then you're not going to have a great time. And please tag me on Instagram if you try to make it, because I'm so excited to see everyone's results. That's not advice — that's a request!" LUNE: Croissants All Day, All Night is available at Australian bookstores and online, with the hardback edition retailing for $55.
No one wants to relive the worst experience of their life again and again, but Peter Greste has been doing just that for a decade. The Correspondent is the latest instance. In December 2013, while on assignment in Cairo with Al Jazeera to fill in for a colleague over Christmas, the Australian war correspondent answered a knock at his hotel room door. He wouldn't taste freedom again until February 2015. Over that period, he wasn't just detained and interrogated, as the new Australian film shows — the Sydney-born, Brisbane-raised journalist was arrested, refused bail, incarcerated, put on trial for reporting that was deemed "damaging to national security" by Egypt, barely afforded resources to mount a defence, found guilty and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment. New coverage came fast, flowing unsurprisingly furiously during Greste's 400-day ordeal. In 2017, then arrived The First Casualty, his memoir. More than a decade since Greste's Egyptian encounter began and exactly that since he was deported back to Australia from a country that still considers a convicted terrorist to this day, now The Correspondent brings it all to the big screen. Countless movies have made their way to cinemas by following a similar path, even if the specific circumstances at the heart of the nightmare differed. For the man at the centre of this powerful and empathetic one — who endured not merely a gruelling fight for his own freedom, but was caught up in the bigger ongoing battle for press freedom — how does it feel to see this chapter of his life flickering through picture palaces? The first time that he watched it, in the room with director Kriv Stenders (Last Days of the Space Age, Lee Kernaghan: Boy From the Bush), "was kind of weird. I walked out of that feeling a little bit shellshocked, I have to admit", Greste tells Concrete Playground. "After I got out of Egypt, I wrote the book. I've since given countless talks about the whole Egypt experience. I've built a career on it, in a way, and so I thought I was across all of it. I thought I've dealt with it. I mean, I don't suffer from PTSD. There's no sort of psychological fallout. And in a way, all of that talking has been a form of ongoing therapy, if you like," Greste advises. "But I don't think I was really quite prepared for what I saw on-screen. These guys managed to nail — obviously there are little details here and there that are different to what I went through in Egypt, and the story itself has been modified a little bit, not in any significant way — but in its essence, at its core, they managed to get the feeling of what it was like to be stuck in that concrete box, the kind of loss of control, the Kafka-esque nature of the trial, that sense of ongoing doom, if you like, and the real angst about whether or not this would ever come to an end. So in really essential ways, I walked out of there feeling as though I'd kind of been a little bit punched." By "these guys", Greste is referring to Stenders — the son of friends of his own family, with both his and the filmmaker's Latvian-born parents knowing each other for decades — and also actor Richard Roxburgh (Force of Nature: The Dry 2), who steps into his shoes on-screen. Stenders describes watching the film with Greste for the first time as "very nerve-wracking, obviously". He continues: "it was a funny screening because Marc Wooldridge, our distributor, was in the room at the same time. And the minute the film started screening, Peter was sitting right next to me and Mark was a few pews down, I realised 'this is actually a really bad idea to have Peter here in the same room, because what if Peter hates the film?'. And then the film finished and Peter didn't say a word. He went out, and I went 'oh my god'. And he came back five minutes later obviously quite emotional, and he hugged me and said 'that was amazing'. And just the relief was palpable. I just went 'thank you'. He then just proceeded to tell us how happy he was with the film, and how it was difficult for him but how he felt the film really, really captured his experience." Roxburgh's tension came at the beginning of the process, when screenwriter Peter Duncan (Operation Buffalo) suggested the Aussie acting great to Stenders to play Greste on-screen. Thanks to Rake, plus films Children of the Revolution, A Little Bit of Soul and Passion before the hit series, Duncan and Roxburgh are long-term collaborators; Stenders was the star's director on Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan. "I guess I approached it with some trepidation, because it's not as if I'm a close match in any way, particularly to Peter. And because he was somebody," he shares with Concrete Playground about being canvassed for the part. "I remembered the story vividly. He was a journalist who I respected so much and respected the horrors of his experience." "Talking to Kriv early on helped to massage some of those fears, because he said that we were never going to try to make it an act of mimicry in any way — that it was going to be about the internal life of what that human went through in that environment. And so that helped me, in a lot of ways, to work my way into where it needed to be." [caption id="attachment_1001033" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Australian Human Rights Commission via Flickr[/caption] Also among the apprehension surrounding The Correspondent: for Greste, whether recounting his stint in Egypt would be as timely and topical as it undeniably proves to audiences now watching Stenders' intimate, immersive, like-you're-there recreation of it, which only ventures elsewhere to jump back to an earlier assignment in Mogadishu. For viewers, it feels as if this tale was always destined for the screen, and that it would always be relevant — the movie has released at a period when journalists still keep facing arrest and imprisonment for doing their jobs in some corners of the world, and when attacks on reporters have been spreading to nations where that once would've been unthinkable — but its subject wasn't always so sure. How involved was Greste, and how did that assist Roxburgh and Stenders? How crucial was the picture's tight focus on Greste's experience with the Egyptian authorities from arrest to release? Why was he uncertain about the movie's timeliness? We asked The Correspondent's key trio about the above, too — and about casting Roxburgh and his history of portraying real-life Australian figures (Bob Hawke twice in Hawke and The Crown, Roger Rogerson in Blue Murder, Ronald Ryan in The Last of the Ryans, Graham Ashton in Bali 2002, plus more), Greste and Stenders' childhood ties, how Stenders' mix of documentaries (including The Go-Betweens: Right Here, Brock: Over the Top and Slim & I) amid his features (such as The Illustrated Family Doctor, Lucky Country, Red Dog and Red Dog: True Blue, Kill Me Three Times and Australia Day) helped and other subjects. On Greste's Involvement with the Film, Including Giving Roxburgh a Resource to Drawn Upon — and Coming to Set, But Only Once Richard: "Peter and I met — well we brushed elbows a great many years before at some strange awards night." Peter: "Richard won't tell you that I got the award for Man of Chivalry." Richard: "He did. He was awarded the Man of Chivalry. I don't know what my award, I can't even remember what my award was for. But we met properly at the first read-through at Carmel Travers' [The Correspondent's producer] house. And I was quite nervous, again, about meeting Peter. But having him in the room — and seeing and feeling his support for the project — it was incredibly helpful, incredibly useful for me along the way. And a relief as well. So I was able to, I guess, quietly observe Peter and the way that he was up close and personal, which was obviously incredibly useful as an actor. But also to have somebody that I could message with irritating thoughts, questions and observations along the way." Peter: "I guess it's one of those choices that you make, either you abandon it and let them get on with it, or you engage with the process and hope by engaging with it, you can help nudge things in a direction that works for you — that worked for me. I was a little bit nervous at the beginning, because there's all sorts of stories of people who've given over their lives to filmmakers and come away fairly battered by the experience. But everyone involved from the moment I met Carmel to working with Peter Duncan and Kriv and then Rox, they all showed real curiosity, real empathy with the experience. And there was a real willingness to try to make something that was as authentic as possible. And as Rox said, he and I, it's not like we'd spend whole weekends together, but the communication was pretty free. And I realised that he was trying to do something that was really empathetic to the experience, and I was more than happy to help and support that." Kriv: "He wasn't on set very much. He only came to set once, only for one day, but he and Peter worked — Peter always ran, Peter Duncan, that is, always ran the drafts by Peter Greste, and Peter was very open to not censoring the story. And what I felt, even though we decided to make the perspective very much Peter's perspective in Cairo, the other story I think that was really important was Kate Peyton's story in Mogadishu [where the British BBC journalist was killed on an assignment with Greste]. And the idea of that coming in these fragmented flashbacks was something that Peter Duncan and I talked about, and I felt as well, from a formalistic point of view, the idea of being able to escape that unrelenting internal Cairo world, it would be great to open it up into Mogadishu. That was something we decided on, those two kind of colours, but what was great was that Peter Greste was very open to us going there — because it paints Peter in a kind of compromised light, and Peter was, I think, very brave. It's quite brave for him to allow us to tell that side of the story and what he went through, but it was also important, because I think it shows what these journalists sacrifice and how it's not a glamorous job — and how there is a price to pay for being a truth-teller." On the Importance of Starting The Correspondent on the Day of Greste's Arrest and Ending It on the Day of His Release to Take Audiences on an Immersive Like-You're-There Journey Peter: "From my perspective, I didn't really understand how Kriv was going to do it. It was very obviously a directorial choice, and I think Rox will probably have a lot more to say about it than for me, but I was actually feeling quite puzzled by how he was going to pull this off. How do you make a compelling movie about arguably the most-boring, tedious situation imaginable, where you're stuck in a concrete box ad nauseam? How do you turn that into something that's actually watchable? And so when I saw the finished product, that's one of the things that really astounded me — was how gripping the whole thing was, how it seemed to move quite relentlessly through this story, but at the same time by not going very far at all. That, I think, is a testament to Kriv's directing skills and experience, but also to Rox's acting." Richard: "I think it really speaks to Kriv's understanding of the craft, and also his daring as a filmmaker — because a script like this could go in any number of directions. You could tell this story in all kinds of ways, and go off on lots and lots of different pathways. Kriv's choice was pretty astounding and bold — that it starts with the knock on the door and it ends with walking out as a free man — and the kind of strictures and the discipline that that applied to the filmmaking itself was so strong. But he was so avowed and had such a great vision for how he was going to, and belief, self-belief, I think, in how he was going to bring that to the screen. As Peter was saying, as a story that in fact is surprisingly full of suspense and has a forward momentum, it's a testament to his filmmaking craft skills." Kriv: "Well, it was more of a reductive process. The book, Peter's book, obviously, it's chequerboard, the chapters of chequerboarded are between Peter's experience and his other assignments and other stories. And the initial draft [of the script] was quite, very different. It had a number of parallel storylines going on, or timelines going on. It had, I think, the family or people back in Australia. It had the consulate. It was a much more, I guess — it had more scale in terms of the other storylines and the other characters. And my connection was 'well, you know what, I'm really interested in what Peter went through'. And I felt that if we just reduced it to Peter's experience and made it a very first-person journey from the minute that he gets a knock on the hotel room door to when he's released, if we just scaled everything to that, then we've got a really interesting movie that can say more by the way, not so much doing less but by being less. It can be much more interesting. And as a director, your currency is form. I always think my job as a director is to really play with form, and that's my remit. So once I pitched my approach to Carmel and to Peter Duncan, the writer, they could see, I guess, the throughline, and we then just quickly — very, very very quickly — adapted the script just to be that one-person perspective. It's critical because I felt, I just thought 'well, what would it be like to be arrested?. What would that feel like? What would that sound like? What would it look like?'. And what I realised, it would literally be a series of corridors, prison vans, prison cells, courtrooms — and you wouldn't really see Egypt. You'd just hear it or you'd feel it. And to me, I wanted the audience to — and I wanted to — experience what it would be like to actually be thrust into that position. And therefore, being put into that, how would I feel by the end of the journey? And by the end of the journey, I think you really do get a sense of the hugely traumatic gauntlet that Peter went through and how lucky he was to escape it." On Whether There Was a Sense of How Timely The Film Would Be — and That It'd Feel Like It'd Never Not Be Relevant Peter: "Well, you say it was always going to be timely. I didn't think it was. I was actually really worried about that when I first wrote the book. I told the publishers to get the story out quickly because it would start to date pretty quickly. I trace back the origins of what I've come to think of as the war on journalism back to 9/11, when George W Bush declared the war on terror. And what that did was, it kind of liberated the language, the rhetoric around national security and terrorism, so the governments were able to use it to introduce all sorts of what I think have become pretty draconian crackdowns on freedom of speech, on the lot of civil liberties and freedom of the press. What happened to us in Egypt was a way in which the government had weaponised that definition of terrorism and used it to come after uncomfortable journalism. But I honestly thought that the further we moved away from 9/11, the more that that rhetoric would feel dated, would feel tired, that we'd grow up, we'd move past it, that journalism would recover its traditional role in our democracies. But as you said, quite the opposite has happened. The numbers of journalists that have been imprisoned are at record highs. The numbers of journalists that have been murdered on the job are at record highs. We're seeing assaults on media even in the United States from the White House — which is supposed to be the bastion of liberal democracy, the bastion of freedom of speech and press freedom. They've got the First Amendment, for christ's sake, that gold standard of press freedom, of a defence of press freedom. And so yeah, and in ways that I don't think I ever really anticipated and certainly wouldn't have wanted, it does feel more timely than it ever had ever before. It wasn't a plan, put it that way." Richard: "It feels like the film is coming out at a period of some real urgency. It's not that the film itself is a didactic work or that it's meant to be. Above anything else, it's an extraordinary piece of storytelling. But as Peter says, it couldn't be more timely given what's happened to journalism and to the role of journalists. And hopefully, if anything, if it opens a discussion about that with people who've seen the film or it brings some attention to that matter, then that's all for the better. Journalism used to be, up until very recently, something that was protected under the Geneva Convention. And so for that to have completely vanished, certainly in theatres of war; that journalists are now people who are essentially regarded as the enemy; and to have governments of leading democracies now talking about journalists as the enemy of the people — I think we are at a time where there's no more pertinent story to tell." Kriv: "I think when Peter wrote the book — and when it happened to him, then when he wrote the book — I think we were more than a decade on from September 11, and the idea that journalism was under threat was still, it was there, but it was nowhere near as acute as it is now. So the relevance of the story has, I guess, amplified over the last ten years — and that's the biggest takeout that I've got. And then the biggest motivation we had making the film is that this story is more important than it ever was. I was just thinking about this this morning — I was thinking, just looking, you're always aware of what's happening in the world, and we're heading into, I think, a very, very scary time. I mean, America is turning into — it's becoming a fascist state. It's a really terrifying time. And I think it's very important even if the film just reminds us what democracy is. Journalism is a basic foundation to any kind of functioning civilisation or democracy, and the minute you start eroding that — and even now, people are questioning universities. It's just like 'what?'. This is just absolutely insane. A new dark age is coming. And I think it's very important that films, journalism, politicians, all corners of society, start to remind each other and remind ourselves what's important and what's crucial that we don't lose." On Why Roxburgh Was the Right Actor — and Dream Pick — to Play Greste Kriv: "Because Peter Duncan told me that he's the one. Because Peter Duncan and Richard have a long working relationship. And I'd worked with Richard previously on my last film Danger Close, and I loved working with Richard. He's such a beautiful actor to work with. I liken him to like a Rolls-Royce: he's just beautiful to drive. It's just a pleasure to work with him. And when you're trying to cast a film, there's all these pressures to cast a name and whatever — but when Peter said 'look, really think about Richard', I did. And I went 'well, why not?'. It wasn't like Peter Greste is a well-known face or well-known voice. You could find an actor who could interpret Peter. It didn't have to be slavish. It wasn't like we're making a film about Elvis or Muhammad Ali. It wasn't a biopic in that respect. So you could have the license to have an actor interpret it. And when I thought about Richard, it just made so much sense on so many levels, because he just brings this wonderful humility and at the same time, this gravitas, that I think the role needed." On How Roxburgh Approached Conveying Greste's Emotional Journey, Through Shock, Exasperation, Determination, Bravery, Weariness and More — and the Kind of Direction Needed, If Any, to Help Richard: "It was a project that, in conversations with Kriv, we really wanted it to feel minute, so that it was about trying as much as humanly possible to just sit in the circumstance. And to that end, I think the exhaustion helped. I think it was a tough shoot, but that was a good thing because it helped. I think it helped to give, to have a sense of being more emotionally ragged, of being spent — of, I suppose, having some sort of proximity to the way Peter might actually have felt, through all of the exhaustion of the shoot. This one was very particular in the sense that, because it was 100-percent POV, it meant that I'm in every single frame of the thing, which was new territory for me. But I think the sheer exhaustion of doing that was a useful thing, because it strips everything away and it just leaves you closer to where you need to be to countenance what Peter actually might have gone through." Kriv: "I think really as a director, when you work with actors, the biggest direction you give them is really casting them. That's directing. Once you've cast them, that is really the biggest bit of direction you're going to give, because you've chosen them to play the role — and as a director, really, it's a matter of trust. I really believe that the actor should know more about the character than me, because all I am is just a sounding board. All I am is a pair of ears and a pair of eyes. And if it sounds right and looks right, we just move on — and I'm just there to tell the story, orchestrate telling the story, and the actor is there to actually bring the character to life. So there's really not much direction I give as a director — it's purely there to support and to make sure that we're getting the material we need in order to tell the story." On How Roxburgh Tackles Portraying Real-Life Figures, and Helping to Chronicle Very Diverse Aspects of Australian History On-Screen, as He Has Several Times Across His Career Now Richard: "I guess I don't really think about it in that way. There's obviously a huge, huge responsibility that comes with playing figures who are in the public consciousness, who are actual people. In this case, it was something very different altogether, because this was a man who was in the room, a man who had been through this terrible ordeal and somebody who I really respected. And so that came with its own particular set of concerns, and I guess a bigger sense of internal responsibility to the storytelling. I think for both Peter and myself, it was some relief to feel like I was not going to be doing a Peter Greste, in the sense that I wasn't going to be copying Peter's way of being — that, in a way, it was about embodying that experience, the kind of internal landscape of that experience, if you like, as much or as empathetically as I could." On Greste and Stenders' Childhood Connection — and Whether Stenders Ever Thought He Might Make a Film About Greste When He Was Seeing the Latter's Ordeal Play Out in the News Kriv: "Not at all. No, no. That's why it was very funny when — I mean when it happened, it was like 'yeah, wow, that's sounding really heavy'. And it was because, when it's happening, you don't see the end. You're in the moment. And at that point, when he first got arrested and then when he got sentenced, it felt really hopeless. Then when he was released, obviously there was relief, and I got on with my life and with other projects and things, that wasn't really something that was foreground for me. But when Carmel called me up out of the blue and said 'do you know anything about Peter Greste?', I just laughed and I went 'yeah, I do'. I told her the backstory and then she said 'look, I've got this idea' and suddenly it clicked. I went 'yeah, I'm onboard'. She didn't even have to pitch it to me, really. She just said, when she said 'I'm adapting it into a story', I just went immediately 'yes, I'm in' — because I knew what it was, and I knew I kind of had a personal connection to it immediately." Peter: "As you said, it had been many, many, many years since I'd met Kriv, and I think we barely remembered each other from that initial meeting. Although we did meet, we realised that we had crossed paths, we had played together as kids. And I think it's more the synchronicity of it that feels right somehow. I'm not the kind of person that believes in the universe planning things out and sending messages, but there just does seem to be something delightfully synchronous about having Kriv on this particular job. I remember when I was telling my father about how Carmel was hunting around for a director and we thought we'd found someone. And dad, I couldn't say anything more, dad jumped in and said 'oh well, listen, if you need some help finding a director then my friend Andy, his son I think is in the movie business and maybe he might be able to help'. I said 'dad, it's okay, it's under control. We've got Andy's son Kriv'. And that, I think, is delightful. Kriv also — Kriv gets it. He's the kind of director, at so many levels, he's obviously incredibly skilled at filmmaking, but he's also done a lot of documentary work. He understands not just the creative elements of really good nonfiction storytelling, but he also has a really good handle on how to tell a good true story. And I think all of those elements came in. He brought all of that into this narrative. And, of course, being Latvian as well brings a certain kinship and understanding, I guess, which is also really lovely." On the Sense of Responsibility That Comes with the Job for Stenders Given That Personal Connection Kriv: "I think even if I didn't know Peter, the responsibility and that same weight would have been there. The fact that I knew him, it just allowed the access to be a little bit more fluid, because there wasn't any of that guardedness that you had to break down. So we were already, we were able to get that out of the way. And I think the trust — I think what it did give us was a different level of trust than I would have normally had if I didn't know Peter." On Whether the Documentary Side of Stenders' Filmography Assisted with The Correspondent Kriv: "A little bit. Documentary and fiction are actually not that different. They're still storytelling. You're still editorialising everything, still making decisions about what to show and what not to show. There's a physical obvious thing about the handheld camera and the verite feel of it, that, I guess, comes from documentary — and that you don't, even though you labour a lot over the way it looks, you also try to make it look effortless, and documentary just does that by default. The difference, though, with this was that yes, it's based on a true story, but you still take dramatic license — which you can't in documentary. So you still stylise certain things, you still shorthand certain things, you still abbreviate certain things. But having a documentary background, I think all it does is — I call it cross-training. I do documentary. I also do features. I also do television drama. And those three disciplines, just oscillating between those three, they sharpen up your intuitive muscles and reflexes. So when the day's going difficult or when you're in a tight corner and you don't know what to do, another part of your brain, your documentary brain, goes 'well, we're just going to do this' — or your TV drama brain says 'look, we can shoot this in one hour if we do this'. So I just adapt to the situation or to the problem at hand." The Correspondent opened in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, April 17, 2025. Images: John Platt / Daniel Asher Smith.
As spring brings a breath of fresh air, South Yarra's Bar Carolina enters a fresh new chapter under the ownership of renowned Melbourne chef and restaurateur Karen Martini. This latest venture marks Martini and partner Michael Sapountsis' first independent foray since 2020. The change in ownership came about naturally through conversations between outgoing owner Joe Mammone and Martini. Martini notes that "Joe did such an amazing job, and this feels like a natural progression." While the classic fit-out by Chris Connell will remain mostly unchanged, the kitchen has seen major upgrades, amplifying its capacity. The all-day dining offering will be built around Karen Martini's signature exploration of both northern and southern Italian cuisine. Kick off long lunches and leisurely dinners with cicchetti, small snacks and plates such as stuffed and crumbed olives and pizza fritta with vinegar salt and whipped cod roe. Antipasti like focaccia with brown butter mayo and anchovies, and beef carpaccio will follow, before diners move on to house-made pastas such as tagliarini with blue swimmer crab, and Josper-grilled proteins. "This particular pocket of South Yarra is iconic," Martini says. "I'm excited to add to the vibrancy of the street and to share our hospitality along with great food and wine. Hopefully, it feels like a very personal expression of our love of Italian food and culture." Bar Carolina will reopen under Martini's leadership on Thursday, September 18. The buzzy rooftop bar, Tetto di Carolina, will reopen in time for summer with a new snack menu and summery seasonal cocktails. Images: Chege Mbuthi. Bar Carolina will commence trading Tuesday through Sunday from lunch until late. If you're looking for more, check out the best Italian restaurant in Melbourne.
Sometime in the near future, Rose Byrne, Seth Rogen and filmmaker Nicholas Stoller could easily join forces on a new rom-com. In fact, they should. Until then, buddy comedy Platonic makes a hilarious, engagingly written and directed, and perfectly cast addition to each's respective resumes. Reuniting the trio after 2014's Bad Neighbours and its 2016 sequel Bad Neighbours 2, this new Apple TV+ series arrives on Wednesday, May 24 to pair Australia's comedy queen and America's go-to stoner as longterm pals who are never anything but mates — and haven't been in touch at all for years — but navigate a friendship that's as chaotic and complicated as any movie romance. That's an easy formula; however, there's nothing by-the-numbers about watching the show's stars bicker, banter and face the fact that life doesn't always turn out as planned together. Smartly, Platonic doesn't try to be a romantic comedy. It doesn't set its two protagonists on a path towards coupling up and, while one of the most annoying on-screen questions there is does earn a mention, the series isn't really asking it. Ignoring the precedent set by When Harry Met Sally and a wealth of other rom-coms both before and since — openly satirising it, actually — Platonic knows that men and women can easily be friends, instead exploring what happens when two former besties have gone their own ways, then come back together. Platonic also knows that reconnecting with old pals is always tinged with nostalgia for the person you were when they were initially in your life. And, it's well-aware that reckoning with where you've ended up since is an immediate side effect. There's nothing like the blast from the past that is slipping into a decades-old dynamic to make you take stock, and to provide the spark you might need to move forward. Sylvia (Byrne, Seriously Red) reaches out to Will (Rogen, The Super Mario Bros Movie) after hearing that he's no longer with the wife (Alisha Wainwright, Raising Dion) she didn't like, an opinion she didn't keep to herself. She's also a suburban-dwelling former lawyer who put work on hold to become a mother of three, and can't help feeling envious of her husband Charlie's (Luke Macfarlane, Bros) flourishing legal career. Her old BFF co-owns and runs an LA brewpub, is obsessive about his beer and hipster/slacker image, and hasn't been taking his breakup well. They couldn't be in more different places in their lives. When they meet up again, they couldn't appear more dissimilar, too. "You look like you live at Ann Taylor Loft," is Will's assessment. Sylvia calls him "a '90s grunge clown." Neither is wrong. Created by Stoller with his spouse and creative partner Francesca Delbanco, as two-season Netflix comedy Friends From College also was, Platonic reteams Sylvia and Will at turning points, and gives them inescapably sitcom-style broad troubles and struggles. She's frustrated with domesticity and responsibility day in, day out, even with fellow school mum Katie (Carla Gallo, Happiest Season) frequently by her side. He gets into full midlife-crisis mode, including dating the younger Peyton (Emily Kimball, Daisy Jones & The Six). Indeed, on paper the two characters and their arcs sound like unhappy housewife and manchild 101. Thankfully, that's just Platonic's scaffolding. As well as astutely sending up the whole "can men and women be friends?" nonsense, this series unpacks well-worn character stereotypes, fleshes them out and bounces them off of each other — as the Bad Neighbours movies did with young parents and the fraternity next door, and amusingly. Art clearly isn't imitating life in Sylvia and Will's specific details, but its stellar lead casting makes them feel emotionally authentic. Byrne and Rogen are reuniting themselves, of course, and capitalise upon their evident buzzing real-life chemistry as friends and colleagues. Stoller and Delbanco mightn't have come up with the premise purely to get their stars sharing the screen again, and to give them all an excuse to knock about, but that's the vibe, too. That isn't a criticism; Platonic works because Byrne and Rogen are such joys to watch together, and because viewers want to spend ten half-hour episodes watching them spend time together. It's a hangout series itself, because that's what it's audience gets to enjoy — and its leads make for charming company. Both play to their respective comic strengths, genuinely share the series, and take Sylvia and Will on resonant emotional journeys (while also finding laughs in iguanas, wild nights out, e-scooters, UFOs, ridiculous beer flavours and more). Platonic is always thoughtful, a pivotal trait that applies not only when Byrne and Rogen are together — or when they're just as ace in they solo scenes — but everywhere. Sylvia isn't stuck in a cliched bad marriage. Charlie isn't dull or awful. Family life isn't painted as either rosy or boring, or simple. Will's newly single existence has its ups and downs, and Will himself can be both juvenile and perceptive. And lengthy relationships, whether they're romantic or platonic, are seen as the ebbing and flowing experiences that they are, requiring not just sparks and a rapport but commitment, understanding and effort. It's a show about a reunion. It reunites two winningly matched talents, and also reteams them with the filmmaker who first unleashed their combined magic (and mayhem) on-screen. Trust Platonic to keep the theme going with Stoller's Bros star Macfarlane, who is sensitive and warm as Charlie, and with Rogen's always-welcome Undeclared co-star Gallo. It's no wonder that there's such a sense of comfort in each of the show's key performances — or, again, that it's so easy to hang with. Unless they're overtly courting cringing, great comedies know that cast charisma is as crucial as comic timing; this boasts and thrives with both. If Byrne, Rogen and Stoller don't reconnect for a rom-com next, or find another season of Platonic in them, then any situation that brings them back together will do. Byrne and Rogen's odd-couple setup is that energetic and entertaining — argumentative but affectionate, too — and they make that delightful a pair. Plus, Byrne's other Apple TV+ series, the excellent Physical, will end after its upcoming third season, and no one should be forced to miss her comedic presence for long. On- and off-screen, Rogen clearly can't, and no one watching Platonic will ever want him to. Check out the trailer for Platonic below: Platonic streams via Apple TV+ from Wednesday, May 24.
We're off the see The Wizard again: in not one but two movies, the first arriving in cinemas in November 2024 and the second in 2025, the wonderful world of Oz is returning to screens. It took a mere two years for L Frank Baum's 1900-published book to reach the theatre, with the debut film version following almost four decades later. Now, 85 years have passed since The Wizard of Oz initially entranced cinemas. Its latest big-screen comeback owes debts to both the page and the stage, but beyond the novel that started it all. Wicked first enchanted in print in 1995, when author Gregory Maguire conjured up an alternative Oz-set tale. Since 2003, it has worked its magic as a Tony-winning Broadway musical, before it too makes the eagerly anticipated leap to picture palaces. The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, the novel's subtitle, explains Wicked's focus. Whether reading the book, seeing the play or watching the upcoming two features, audiences are whisked into origin-story territory — not only for the green-skinned Elphaba but for Glinda. At the Land of Oz's Shiz University, the pair meet and, despite their differences, cement a friendship. Even before they cross paths with The Wizard, everyone who has ever seen Judy Garland follow the yellow brick road with the Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion and Tin Man knows Elphaba and Glinda's destinies. Giving Wicked the movie treatment: a wide-ranging cast and crew led by director Jon M Chu, with the Crazy Rich Asians filmmaker making his second and third stage-to-screen musicals in succession following In the Heights. On-screen, he's enlisted Emmy-, Grammy- and Tony-winner Cynthia Erivo (Pinocchio) as the misunderstood Elphaba, Ariana Grande (Don't Look Up) as Glinda and none other than Jeff Goldblum (Kaos) as The Wizard, plus Michelle Yeoh (A Haunting in Venice), Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton), Bowen Yang (Saturday Night Live) and more. Off-screen, a six-time Oscar-nominee — five of them for Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer) films — also couldn't be more pivotal. When Academy Award recognition comes your way for art direction on The Prestige and The Dark Knight, then for production design on Interstellar, Dunkirk and Tenet — and for Damien Chazelle's First Man as well — jumping to Oz on Wicked's two parts might seem like a massive change. But English production designer Nathan Crowley is interested in world-building first and foremost, and has been ever since his first screen credit on as a junior set designer on 1991's Hook. Also on his resume recently: The Greatest Showman and Wonka. And, he's a veteran of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Braveheart, Mission: Impossible II, Escape From LA, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight Rises, John Carter and the Westworld TV series as well. When you're taking a well-trodden path thanks to multiple books, the Wizard of Oz movie that's been beloved for generations, blockbuster stage musicals, and everything from The Wiz to Oz: The Great and Powerful, you're embarking on an enormous task. That isn't lost on Crowley, he tells Concrete Playground, although the full scope dawned on him slowly. Not only does he need to bring Oz to life beyond the painted backdrops of the Garland-starring film, but he has the job of creating Shiz University — not to mention a field filled with nine-million tulips as part of Munchkinland and a throne room featuring a mechanical version of Goldblum's head, plus various forms of transport, such as by rail, river and air. Ahead of the first Wicked film's release in cinemas — including premiering at Sydney's State Theatre on Sunday, November 3, with Erivo, Grande, Goldblum, Bailey, fellow stars Marissa Bode (a screen debutant) and Ethan Slater (The Marvellous Mrs Maisel), plus director Chu, all in attendance — we also chatted with Crowley about those nine-million flowers, the joy of practical effects, aiming to get audiences to fall into a fantastical world, what he makes of his career so far and more. On How Planting a Field of Nine-Million Tulips in Norfolk Is Symbolic of the Scale of the Task of Bringing Wicked to the Screen "It was the first major challenge for me. My thing is, I love doing things practically because there's a colossal joy to it. So one of the first challenges was: what do all the munchkins do? I need something for them to do in their village. Okay, they're flower farmers and they use the dyes to make colours, because they're colourful people. And so each house, that allowed me lots of scope with the colours of the buildings. So then it was like — and I think it must have been Jon — 'well, what if it's the colours of the rainbow?'. Which is a massive thing. So then what goes in strips of colour? Tulips? You grow tulips in strips of colour. So that's kind of where 'oh we need tulips'. And then it was like 'well, let's grow them'. It was myself and the location manager Adam [Richards, Wonka], who I've worked with many times before. It like 'where can we grow tulips? We can go up to Norfolk'. He found a tulip farmer and was like 'let's go up there and see if we can grow'. I'm going quickly, but there's lots of between. I planted 500 acres of corn in Interstellar in Canada. So I've been a farmer before and I knew if could find the right farmer — and with Adam's help, because ultimately it was crown property; I needed it to be without trees, because in Oz trees are circular. I needed it to be a perfectly large sky, a tulip sky. So we found Mark the farmer, who's just simply brilliant, and he got us our bulbs. Then I had to go back to the production and explain: 'we have a field, we have permission from crown properties to plant, you need to write a check for tulips. You've got to get them from Holland. And we've got to get them in the ground quickly before it freezes'. When you're a flower farmer, you've got to get the bulbs in the ground. And so there's a lot of umming and aahing, and it was difficult, but I think it set the pace of what we were trying to achieve. And Jon, and Donna Langley from Universal, was very into it. She was like 'I love it. Let's do it'. We planted them and we got to know the farmer. He was into it, and we got the colours — and it was just a great life experience. You need to step out of your department occasionally and get into the real world. So, practical filmmaking. So that started it off, and then of course, it snowballs. But they all grew, they all worked. It was brilliant." On Valuing Practical Effects in Age Where CGI Is Everywhere in Visual Effects — and Combining the Two "That [CGI] is very powerful tool now. But you have many tools. We have 120 years of filmmaking experience. My thing is if we can make it enough for real, and light it and get real photography, we can tell visual effects what it should look like and their job becomes symbiotic with ours — and we become one rather than working as a line. So I always feel the balance is essential and we can do it. I guess it's so obvious to me that you build as much as you can until you can't foe whatever reasons: landscape, weather, money, time. So you have to balance it — and then if you balance it, and this really goes back to the audience in the cinema, can you not make them not notice how you did it? Can you do a film, especially a fancy film, where they don't pay attention, they're into the film, they're not paying attention, nothing bounces them out, so you fall into the film? Ever since I was little, when I go to the cinema, I want to fall into the telling of the story. And so I believe that we almost have to go quietly — and to do that, I strongly believe you have to do it practically, because if you suddenly cut to visual effects, I think audiences know that. The emotion is taken away from the audience. It flattens it. So if you can make it seamless, I don't want the audience to notice. Because then you're just in it and you're into the emotion of it." On the Massive the Scope in Not Just Bringing One of the 21st Century's Biggest Stage Musicals to the Screen, But Reimagining Much That's Crucial to The Wizard of Oz "I guess I was a little naive about how big Wicked, the stage show, was. I had three daughters who had grown up and they were like 'what, oh my god!'. And The Wizard of Oz, to me, they sit side by side. What was brilliant is that Wicked is the alternative story to The Wizard of Oz — so together, what a piece of cinema. The realisation I had to recreate Oz kind of slowly dawned on me. And that was like 'oh'. It was like 'Jesus, we've got to remake, we've got to figure out Emerald City'. And Emerald City was just a painting on a backdrop, and everyone's childhood, everyone's reimagined what that is — it's very clever. Everyone's filled in all the blanks of what they didn't show you. So we're going to tread on people's nostalgia for Emerald City — and how do we do that? And then you've got the Wicked fans, there's little things that they want in the film, Shiz details, and it's very important. But luckily we had Marc Platt [the film's producer, and also the stage musical's], who's all things Wicked. So he was my constant guide to Wicked. And then Wizard of Oz was just making sure I didn't hurt and I enlarged people's opinion of what Oz is, rather than shrunk it. So, it was a massive challenge. The biggest challenges, the two films in my career that sit as giant design challenges: Wicked and Interstellar. And they both hurt your head. It's not a physical thing, it's like they hurt your design brain. On How the Wicked Set Became the Most Complex of Crowley's Career So Far "First of all, it was the design, because Shiz, there's so many versions of Shiz — the school, Hogwarts, Cambridge, there's all these perceived ideas. So, one, you have to find a design. And secondly, I realised that the first day of school when everyone comes in, we've got no horse and carriages because the animals aren't enslaved. We've got no trains because they belong to The Wizard, and we have to introduce them later. We can't come by airship, because the balloon belongs to The Wizard. There's no cars. So how do you get anywhere in Oz? And then it was like 'oh, we go by a river' — which is a tradition. Of course we go by river. But what that means is the set, we have to build a giant water tank for the set so we can row the boat into the Shiz courtyard. And of course I like everything practically, so it's like 'we've got to build a giant water tank that takes seven days to fill'. And that was a challenge because, if you know about practical filmmaking, there's never been a tank that didn't leak. So you have a servicing problem with it. Every tank always leaks. Then Shiz for me was about finding architecture. The Wizard of Oz is an American fairy tale, so I need Americana, so White City of Chicago, 1893 World's Exposition, those giant Burnham and Root arches. I need to put some Americana in it. I need to put the scale of America in it. But then I need the nostalgia of every great ancient educational facility. So I need you to, when you walk into to Shiz, you feel this sort of ancient learning vibe. I need to take architecture from all over the world and change the materials of it, and try to blend it — from onion domes to Venice staircases. So I was really trying to make it fantastical, but familiar. So when you watch it, you'll see something that's kind of familiar to you. And if you've been a tourist in in Italy, you'll feel it a bit — or if you've been to Spain, to the Alhambra, you'll feel it a bit. Or maybe a little bit of Melbourne. Not much Georgian architecture, I'm afraid. On the Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity of Building a Throne Room Around a Mechanical Version of Jeff Goldblum's Head "It was so exciting. Every film has influenced the last one. So back on The Prestige — and really Bram Stoker's Dracula, we did automatons and mechanics, and we had to puppeteer the head and get expressions. So the joy of realising we had, one, a phenomenal special effects scene. Who could do that? And puppeteer it? And then secondly, okay, we've got the head, and if we could come through the curtain and say 'I am Oz' and put an eye through it, that's exciting. But then you think, 'well, what about the curtain?'. And so we came up with all these string curtains, it's almost like an art installation. We sat there for a very long time with drapers and mechanical people. We'd sit there at the end of the day and try all different things. And we had Joss [Carter, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom], the puppeteer, who was just brilliant. It comes down to just trying something, developing it and and being with the right people. And it's people — you're with all these people, and they're all creative, and the fun out of it is remarkable." On What Crowley Makes of His Career Three-Decade-Plus Career in Cinema So Far — and What Gets Him Excited About a New Project "I think when I look back, I just think 'wow, I got a bit lucky with the people I met'. There's a huge part of luck in if you happen to bump into the right people when you're younger. It's just like if you turn left at a certain time. So I look back at it and wonder 'how did all that happen?'. And I just like to get excited. So what does that mean now? Still to this day, I remember walking on to the old MGM lot for my first day at Hook and there was a ship on stage 27. They built a water tank. There was a ship in it, the Hook ship. It was giant, and it was just like 'this is incredible'. [caption id="attachment_614251" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Interstellar[/caption] So I'm really just looking to world-build. Films like Wonka and Wicked opened those doors — things I've not done before. I wouldn't have said, I couldn't have said to you that I would end up making lots of musicals. To me, that wasn't even in my mind when we were doing Interstellar. 'I do lots of musicals? You're going to do four musicals?' I couldn't imagine that, but they've been some of the most-interesting design jobs I've ever had. So definitely new experiences, new journeys. You've got to keep yourself interested, you especially as you get older." Wicked releases in Australian cinemas on Thursday, November 21, 2024, with limited previews on Wednesday, November 20 — and tickets for the latter on sale now.
A venue's atmosphere sets the tone. So the kind of atmosphere generated by a spacious interior, booming sound system, bright neon signage and the energy of 100-plus diners is powerful. That's what you get at Hawker Hall. This addition to the shining portfolio of restaurateur Chris Lucas (Chin Chin, Kisumé, Society and more) is a bustling, scaled-up establishment that pays homage to the intimate and grounded experiences of hawker-style Malaysian and Singaporean street food. The menu is extensive, starting with shared bites like san choy bao with chicken and shiitake; salt and pepper tofu with chilli and coriander; roti; dumplings and buns — like crispy prawn and pork wontons, mushroom and cabbage dumplings or bbq char siu pork buns. There are also salads, seafood and meat mains, noodles and rice, curries, sides and desserts. Beyond the choose-your-own-adventure menu, there are set menu banquets to speed up the delivery of food to your mouth. The main two are the 'Hawker Feed Me' and the 'Chef's Banquet', built around Hawker specialties like roast duck, char siu pork or coconut roast chicken. We could go on and on about the food, but we also need to mention the other pride of Hawker Hall: the drinks menu. Hawker Hall has a truly excellent selection of beers on tap, all independent brewers selected by the team. Plus, there's a cocktail happy hour every Thursday 4–6pm and a bottomless boozy yum-cha, where $66pp gets you a huge spread of reimagined dim sum classics and 90 minutes of free-flowing bevs.
It can be tricky to do something truly new in Melbourne's packed dining scene, but recently opened Ms Parker in The Motley is well on their way to achieving just that. Nestled on the ground floor of the bold and eclectic Motley Hotel, the menu celebrates seasonality and locally-sourced produce, taking cues from chef Steve Harry's rich and diverse culinary experience. Earlybirds can tuck into the likes of wattleseed sourdough, 'nduja shakshuka with dukkah, and even a brekkie pavlova paired with coconut sorbet. But while Ms Parker serves up coffee and excellent cafe fare by day, it's the transition into a clever yet unpretentious diner in the evening where the menu really shines. Guests will spot a healthy dose of Australian nostalgia, from a kangaroo tartare on top a vegemite cracker and a reimagined Dagwood dog, spiced with 'nduja and pickled mustard seeds. Diver deeper into the menu to indulge on plates that might touch on Harry's experience in Japanese kitchens, nod to his Northern African heritage or showcase traditional French technique. Bone marrow is elevated with a miso brûlée and fermented daikon, while rainbow trout is done up with roe and a beurre blanc. Grilled tiger prawns are tossed through tamarind and curry leaf, while duck liver parfait profiteroles showcase the team's creativity and culinary flare. Pavlova makes another welcomed appearance in the dessert section, and a small but curated menu of wines, cocktails and local beers are available throughout the day.
Perched aloft Collingwood Yards, Runner Up is a rooftop bar with stunning views of its surrounds. The vibe is a fun and playful blend of old and new with bold colours, 70s fitting and fixtures, and velvet curtains. The rooftop — suitable for whatever weather Melbourne throws at it with its retractable awning — can accommodate up to 70 people, and there's often a rotating list of DJs from Thursdays to Sundays. Drop by between 5 and 7pm on weekdays for 'golden hour specials' that range from $7 shandy to $15 Tommy's Tap Marg. Cheekily, '$9.99 all the time' is a price-tag attached to lager and the second-best red, white, orange and prosecco on the menu. The wine list spotlights Victorian natural wine producers as well as a smattering from France, Italy and other parts of Australia. Cocktails are classic with a twist, like the espresso martini that features Biscoff-spiced vodka or the vodka martini that incorporates fresh tomato-infused vodka. Snacks are limited to Chappy's, mixed olives, dolmades, and the choice of either duck terrine or mushroom pate for something decadent to spread across pita crisps. If you're hankering for something more substantial, order pizza from the nearby Thin Slizzy anytime from 5pm.
Apart from the fact that health is seriously on trend right now, it's also becoming really damn delicious. If we can eat a piece of raw vegan nut butter chocolate everyday and not have to feel bad for it, well, go right ahead and sign us up. And raw chocolate is just the beginning. Now, cafes all around our fair city are dicing, blending and cooking up a healthy storm — and we love them for it. Here are some of our favourites. LITTLE BIG SUGAR SALT These guys are all about good (yummy) food that's good for you. We see absolutely nothing wrong with this. Tucked into a corner building on Victoria Street in Abbotsford, LBSS has always been about doing things a little differently. Whether that's a raw chocolate coconut treat with your almond milk or the artwork that lines the walls. And speaking of the stuff, their coffees (cold or hot) are made just that little bit better by their almond milk that's made in-house. When it comes to the menu, for a healthy bite, go for the acai bowl topped with quinoa muesli, coconut yoghurt, and fruit, or the gluten free almond berry pancakes. Or you could even go the freekeh cakes served with cashew cream, chilli jam, kale and eggs. All the good things, basically. 385 Victoria Street, Abbotsford, (03) 9427 8818, lbsscafe.com ADMIRAL CHENG HO Another Abbotsford local, Admiral Cheng Ho is the little sister to Monk Bodhi Dharma and churns out a lot of the same dishes — much to northsiders' delight. No more crossing the river. Coffee is serious here folks, and with six simultaneous grinders on each day, you can expect to be spoilt for choice. When it comes to the food, they've got all the dietary concerns front of mind. For a sweet start to the day go for Cheng's Granola: a house-made organic spiced raw granola with fruit and house made organic hazelnut milk. Or if savoury is more you, their Avoca Ho is a smashed avo dish worth the trip, as is their umami mushrooms served on polenta bread with feta, thyme, and red chilli oil. 325 Johnston Street, Abbotsford, admiralchengho.com.au SHOKUIKU You know a venue is serious when they are entirely raw. Shokuiku on High Street in Northcote know a thing or two about the natural side of foods. The drinks list alone is health craziness. In a good way, of course. You can go for the Ultimate Smoothie ($25) if you're feeling rich: it includes coconut water, coconut meat, berries, hemp, cacao nibs, goji berry, ashwagandha, astragalus, MSM, camu camu, fulvic acid, reishi, maca, marine phytoplankton, mega hydrate, vanilla, and lakanto. Phew. The dinner menus change monthly and feature things like coconut cream and lime soup with zucchini noodles for entree, layered vegetable bake with vegetable mince and marinara sauce for main, and a banana cream tart with cacao truffle slice for dessert. They also offer custom-made raw cakes, a range of granolas and supplements to take home with you to continue your raw journey. It honestly feels like an adventure. Give it a try. 120 High Street, Northcote, 0403 569 019, shokuikuaustralia.com COMBI Combi is all about health. Sitting in a small shopfront in Elwood, these guys have lines out the door on the weekends, so go mid-week if you can swing it. The menu reads like a health nut's dream with cold pressed juices, smoothies, kombucha on tap, acai bowls, sprouted breads, house-made nut milks, raw cakes and treats to die for. If you like your indulgences in liquid form go for the Velvet Cacao smoothie, made with raw cacao, cacao nibs, berries, coconut flesh, cinnamon, banana, raw chocolate fermented protein powder and house made nut milk. For something on the savoury side, you can grab a raw pizza made of dehydrated almond, sunflower and flaxseed topped with raw kale pesto, shredded vegetables and raw cashew cheese. And don't forget to take home a slice of the raw caramel slice. Seriously. Do it. Shop 1/140 Ormond Road, Elwood, (03) 9531 0084, wearecombi.com.au PANA CHOCOLATE Pana Chocolate has been stocking our health food stores for a while now with their 45g chocolate bars, but their shopfront in Richmond is whipping up some serious raw desserts that are sure to change your mind about what raw food tastes like. A raw lemon cheesecake is a decedent and rich version of its namesake, while the Holy Fudge — a mix of raw chocolate, raw fudge, and raw nut butters — will most likely leave you grinning and speechless. At least until you ask for more. You can stock up on raw cacao, coconut, and other sweet staples while you're there as well. We dare you to leave with just one thing. 491 Church Street, Richmond, 1300 717 488, panachocolate.com VEGIE BAR Oh the Vegie Bar, a trusted pit stop for those who steer clear of meat, or are just looking for some hearty nosh. The Vegie Bar caters to most tastes with anything from raw pad Thai to a Mexican burrito filled with cheese, sour cream and beans. Hey, it's still vegetarian right? But with a rep for always being ahead of the curve, it's a given that these guys brought in raw dishes — like the raw tacos — before Melbourne was even excited about it. Kudos to you Vegie Bar. And your desserts are off the charts. 380 Brunswick St, Fitzroy, (03) 9417 6935, vegiebar.com.au YONG GREEN FOOD Yong's is the quiet achiever of the health food scene. They don't say much, but they've got a healthy fan base — pardon the pun — that does the talking for them. You can go down the raw path here with a 'rawsagne' of layered zucchini with mushrooms, avocado, cashew cream, and raw walnut bolognese, or perhaps you're after a raw cheese platter? Yep, it exists here: herbed garlic cashew cheese, nut bread, tamari almonds, olives and balsamic figs await. If you like your food cooked you can go for the chickpea korma served with brown rice and mango chutney, or the tofu katsu: a fried tofu patty made with shitake, arame and vegetables battered with quinoa, served with brown rice, coleslaw and a house-made katsu sauce. Finish with a raw dessert like the chocolate cheesecake. They are a perfect treat. 421 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, (03) 9417 3338, yonggreenfood.com.au PATCH CAFE Patch in Richmond is championing the Paleo way of eating. No dairy, grains or refined sugars — you get the picture. They do it here, and they do it well too. They're making their own Paleo bread, which makes your morning bacon and eggs feel almost normal. For a real meaty experience go for the Cave Man: eggs, bacon, tomato, wagyu beef, sweet potato fritters, silverbeet, kale and relish. If you're more of a Bircher and latte kinda Paleo, don't worry, they've got you covered as well with their Patch Bircher. Theirs includes activated hazelnuts and almonds, goji berries, apricots, pumpkin seeds, coconut, chia seeds, honey, vanilla bean and orange with coconut yoghurt and blueberries. Oh and an almond or coconut milk latte. 32 Bendigo Street, Richmond, (03) 9029 0328, facebook.com/patchrichmond NUTRITION BAR Nutrition Bar is all about clean ingredients, and protein. Gym goers rejoice. Their smoothies are the main attraction here, followed by the acai bowls and the raw treats. Go for a superfood smoothie with coconut water, raw cacao, acai powder, chia gel, agave, vanilla protein powder, LSA, raspberries and ice. It's very very tasty. Their protein acai bowl is again a good protein hit with crushed nuts served on top. Raw treats range from protein balls made by Health Lab, to raw snickers and bounty bars. All the treats. 121 Swan Street, Richmond, VIC, (03) 9995 4329, nutritionbar.com.au BARRY Barry in Northcote is one of those cafes that really caters to everyone. From the team originally behind Pillar of Salt, Barry is one of those cafes that knows how to do things well. The space on the corner of Barry and High Streets is one of those that draws a wait list on the weekends. But, even so, they always deliver. The menu ranges from coconut chia puddings with banana, caramelised buckinis, sour cherries and coyo, to a burnt onion, buffalo mozzarella and basil omelette in the morning, to a crisp prawn sub with kewpie mayo, pickled cucumber and carrots and raw falafels with beetroot relish, tahini, and pickled cauliflower in the afternoons. 85 High Street, Northcote, (03) 9481 7623, barrycoffeeandfood.com Yong Green food courtesy of shelleysgoodeats and Barry images courtesy of flepsycola and lidiaferreira__ via Instragram. View all Melbourne Cafes.
If you're a fan of Japanese TV series Midnight Diner, you'll be pleased to know One or Two is inspired by the anthology-style serial that traces the story of a different diner customer every episode. Tucked away off an unassuming cobblestoned alleyway, the 24-seater cocktail and whisky bar is firmly in the heart of Chinatown since 2022. One or Two is the first independent offering from Melbourne bartender Andy Chu, who's worked at the likes of the Everleigh, Black Pearl, Byrdi and Above Board. Dark natural wood and monotones abound in the chic space, which has an extensive whisky list of 50 small-batch varieties from around the world — available as flights or highballs — alongside a tightly curated wine, beer, sake and soju menu. Cocktails run the gamut from stalwarts like Margaritas, Martinis and Old Fashioneds to more inventive mixes like a rice-wine-and-gin-infused spin on hwachae (a milky Korean fruit bowl dessert) or a cosy mezcal-forward quince and spiced pear concoction. Every visit is a surprise due to quarterly menu changes, but there's always a guest bar featuring recipes from a slew of bartenders around the world. The bar doesn't accept any reservations and is only suitable for groups of up to six, so be sure to visit solo or in small groups. Images: Kristoffer Paulsen and Griffin Simm.
At the intersection of Brighton Road and Chapel Street, St Kilda's historic Trinity church hall has entered a new phase of existence, reborn as a 300-person pub, beer garden, event space and food truck park. The brainchild of third-generation Melbourne hospitality owner Matt Nikakis, pet-friendly Trinity has fast become a St Kilda go-to. In front, an all-weather courtyard is filled with outdoor tables and fringed by that day's food truck lineup. There are always a couple of guests on rotation (think, Nem 'n Nem and Cha Chas Vegan Mexican) joining Trinity's resident kitchen, housed in a shiny 1956 Airstream. This is your pitstop for snacks like fried chicken tenders ($14), mac 'n' cheese bites ($13) and crispy onion rings ($9), alongside a range of things in buns — maybe a double beef and bacon number ($20), a Southern-style chicken burger ($17), or a fried fish roll with dill tartar ($17). The red-brick former church hall building has been converted into a lofty, light-filled beer hall, complete with soaring ceilings and a huge central bar. You'll find roomy booths in emerald velvet, a separate sitting room filled with a curation of vintage furniture, and a suite of elegant Art Deco-inspired finishes throughout. The glass-walled mezzanine level is available for private functions and sports its very own bar. The drinks offering is a hefty one. A 12-strong tap list heroes familiar favourites from Balter, 4 Pines and Mountain Goat, while the beer fridges showcase drops like Colonial's pale ale ($9), the Kaiju Krush tropical ale ($9) and a slew of Saintly seltzers. Wines are largely local — think, Seville Estate's Sewn Chardonnay, or the Wilds Gully Tempranillo out of King Valley — and cocktails celebrate reworked classics. Settle in with one of three margaritas, try the house ode to Four Pillars' shiraz gin ($22), or get into the good times groove with the mezcal-infused Holy Trinity ($25). Images: Nicole Cleary
"The grid. A digital frontier. I tried to picture clusters of information as they moved through the computer. What did they look like? Ships? Motorcycles? Were the circuits like freeways? I kept dreaming of a world I thought I'd never see. And then one day, I got in." If you've watched 1982's TRON and its 28-years-later sequel TRON: Legacy in 2010, or listened to the latter's sublime Daft Punk-scored soundtrack, then you've heard those words. But what if everything that Jeff Bridges (The Old Man) describes as Kevin Flynn wasn't relegated to the virtual realm? In TRON: Ares, viewers will watch what happens when the program that shares the movie's moniker makes the jump from the digital space to the real world, giving humanity its first encounter with AI beings. Indeed, amid its heavy lashings of laser-red hues, the just-dropped first trailer for the feature has a monster-movie vibe when worlds start to collide. Flesh-and-blood folks such as Greta Lee (The Studio) stare up, then start fleeing. While things happen quickly in the digital realm, films about it clearly don't always earn the same description, given that it has now been over four decades since the first TRON film made its way to cinemas, and 15 years since its first sequel. A third movie was announced the very same year that TRON: Legacy released, in fact, but TRON: Ares has taken time to return cinemagoers to the grid. For much of the past decade and a half, it's been one of those pictures in the "I'll believe it when I'm actually sitting in a theatre watching it with my own eyes" category, until Disney not only announced that the feature had a date with picture palaces in 2025, but also dropped a first image from it. The date that you can see the next TRON on the big screen: Thursday, October 9, 2025 Down Under. Cast-wise, Jared Leto (Haunted Mansion) plays Ares, aka the threatening face of AI. Bridges is also back as the software-company employee who first found himself in the digital world in the initial flick. Evan Peters (Agatha All Along), Hasan Minhaj (It Ends with Us), Jodie Turner-Smith (The Agency), Arturo Castro (The Vince Staples Show), Cameron Monaghan (Shameless) and Gillian Anderson (Sex Education) co-star in TRON: Ares, while Joachim Rønning (Young Woman and the Sea) directs. Following on from Daft Punk's masterpiece of a score for TRON: Legacy was always going to be a tough feat, but TRON: Ares isn't skimping on musical talent. Doing the honours, as heard in the feature's first trailer: Nine Inch Nails, adding to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' run of film work (see also: Soul, Mank, Bones and All, Empire of Light, The Killer, Challengers, Queer and The Franchise just in the 2020s alone). Check out the first trailer for TRON: Ares below: TRON: Ares releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, October 9, 2025. Images: courtesy of DIsney. © 2025 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This article is sponsored by our partners, Rekorderlig. Whether you want to board in your bikini in Californian sunshine, conquer some of the most extreme territory in the European Alps or rehearse your newly acquired Snowboarding 101 skills on friendly slopes, there’s a snowboarding spot somewhere on this planet of ours that’s made just for you. Here’s our pick of the world’s ten most exciting, beautiful and terrifying destinations. MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN, CALIFORNIA, US If you fancy hitting the slopes in your boardies or bikini, Mammoth Mountain is the place to do it. You can realistically expect 300 days of sunshine and clear skies out of every 365. Plus the snow season lasts ten months, kicking off in October yet not seeing the final flakes melt until July. While you’re cruising around Mammoth’s 3,500 or so acres or testing your prowess on the 6.7 metre Super Duper Pipe, there’s a chance you’ll catch snowboard champ Shaun White in action — it’s his preferred training ground. NISEKO UNITED, JAPAN Welcome to the second snowiest resort on the planet. The first, if you’re wondering, is Mount Baker, which you’ll find in Washington state. Most seasons, the slopes of Niseko United (situated on Hokkaido Island) are covered in a minimum of 15 metres of the white stuff. The Japanese skiing authorities are astoundingly relaxed about their guests going back country, so freeriding is the order of the day. That said, it’s an awful lot safer with a guide leading the way. Boarders of all levels will find a trail to keep them keen and floodlights mean Niseko is open until 9pm. ST ANTON, AUSTRIA For freeriders, St Anton is Europe’s holy grail. There are 180 kilometres of marked off-piste possibilities, featuring challenging steeps, open tree-lined glades and powder to die for. If, however, your preference is to stick to tried and tested trails, you have 280 kilometres to play on. That said, St Anton is certainly a destination for boarders of intermediate ability and above. Novices are likely to find it scarier than a Freddy Krueger movie. THREDBO, AUSTRALIA For a world-class experience that doesn’t involve long-haul flight prices, there’s Thredbo. The beginningest of beginners can rehearse their moves on the utterly non-threatening, 12 degree-angled Friday Flat before stepping things up on the resort’s gloriously wide, tree-fringed intermediate trails. And for hardcore carvers, there’s the rest: vertical drops, naturally formed jumps, wind lips, sizeable powder bowls and some of the finest off-piste terrain this side of the equator. If your muscles ache after a day on the slopes, a swim in the Rekorderlig Hot Pool should put you right. VERBIER, SWITZERLAND For some of Switzerland’s most extreme snowboarding, Verbier is your destination. To get the most out of it, you need to be on top of your game — you’ll be boarding alongside some of Europe’s most passionate and skilled riders. One lift pass enables access not only to Verbier but also to four other linked resorts — Val de Bagnas, La Tzoumaz, Veysonnaz and Nendaz — meaning 400 kilometres of trails. For beginners, Nendaz is the best bet. TIGNES, FRANCE This resort, situated at 2,100 metres, was one of the first in France to roll out the red carpet for the snowboarding community. While skiers in other places were warily guarding their territory, the Tignes crew was begging baggie-panted ones to come carve it up. The variety of terrain — both in terms of piste action and sheer visual beauty — is mind-blowing. There’s a glacier, a lake and runs to suit all shapes, sizes and ability levels. MOUNT BACHELOR, US Mt Bachelor might not have the steeps necessary to thrilling adrenalin junkies, but what it does have is some of the cruisiest, most enjoyable freeriding in to be found anywhere — which means that you can revel in the freedom of going off-piste without having to be as wary as you do in other places. Plus, if you want to brush up on your freestylin', there are three terrain parks and a half pipe to keep you happy. CHAMONIX, FRANCE For rugged mountain tops and that je ne sais quoi, Chamonix is the one. It's one of France's oldest resorts and was the site of the very first Winter Olympics back in 1924. Rough and ready is the vibe — there's less infrastructure in comparison with other places — but if you're keen on atmosphere and some opportunities for wild adventure, it's hard to beat. WANAKA, NEW ZEALAND Boarding on New Zealand’s expansive, uncluttered snow fields is a bit like surfing on an impossibly white, open sea. It’s often rather surreal, ridiculously fun and incredibly liberating. Rather than having to follow fellow boarders and skiers down particular trails, you can choose your own adventure. Plus you’re nearly always treated to the stunning backdrop of the Southern Alps. From Wanaka, you can reach Cardrona, Treble Cone and Snow Park NZ easily, meaning you can pack three resorts into one mighty vacation. WHISTLER-BLACKCOMB, CANADA This one comes as no surprise, right? The thing is, it’s not exactly possible to compile the world’s top ten snowboarding spots and leave out Whistler-Blackcomb. As far as North America goes, it’s the jewel in the Snow Queen’s crown. Between them, the two mountains offer 8,171 acres of snowboardable land. There’s something for everyone, whether you’re a newbie or a pro. For views worthy of a Peter Jackson trilogy, Whistler’s got the goods. For more Narnia-esque tree-lined runs, the world-famous Nintendo Terrain Parks and the second biggest vertical drop on the planet (at 5,222 feet), head for Blackcomb.
Reward yourself this autumn at Lillian Brasserie, with its new unlimited oyster special. Running every Tuesday to Sunday between 12pm–3pm, this Chris Lucas favourite is serving up bottomless salty molluscs for a bargain $44 per person. Slurp your way into the weekend by digging into as many Pacific oysters as you can handle, all freshly shucked to order. After you've treated yourself to some of the ocean's finest, you can look towards one of Lillian's daily specials, all spiked with European influences and priced at an easy $29.50. There's a confit duck leg with bacon, lentils and crispy kale, or a lighter option that pairs pumpkin, zucchini and ricotta with linguine. A classic sirloin steak sandwich marries smoked cheddar, tomato, bearnaise and beetroot slaw, while a smoked trout salad is elevated with a herb emulsion, potatoes and radish. Lillian sits alongside Society, at 80 Collins Street, Melbourne.
Four years in the making, the doors have finally opened at Barragunda Dining – an innovative produce-driven restaurant nestled into Cape Schanck's rugged coastal landscape. Set on 1000 acres, regenerative farmland brushes up against the native bush, enabling a hyperlocal menu where seasonality is at the heart of everything on the plate. And with just 40 seats in the restaurant, each meal is set to be an intimate one, too. Food system advocate and philanthropist Hayley Morris, of the Morris Family Foundation, is at the helm of this forward-thinking operation. Working in close collaboration with executive chef, farmer and Mornington Peninsula local Simone Watts (Coda, MoMo, Daintree Ecolodge), this eco-conscious pair's vast experience in regenerative farming and creative hospitality ensures this part of the Mornington Peninsula resonates through every bite. "Creating Barragunda Dining has been a long-term aspiration of bringing to life and sharing the story of the opportunity and the challenges of small-scale regenerative farming," says Morris. "Barragunda Dining is more than a restaurant – it's a place to reconnect, learn and partake in the simple joy of sharing a meal." For guests, the paddock-to-plate experience starts before reaching the restaurant doors. Flowing along the property's driveway through native bushland, a landscape rich in tea tree, coast wirilda, she-oaks and moonah guides your arrival. Stepping inside a rejuvenated farm shed, Melbourne-based architecture practice Dubois reimagined the space as a top-notch dining experience while elevating its heritage and estate views. Think corrugated iron, recycled timber and raw concrete set against terracotta-toned brick and leather dining chairs. The menu is similarly thoughtful, featuring a vegetable-leaning philosophy that makes the most of estate-grown produce through share-style plates. Of course, this restaurant's highly seasonal approach means a frequently updated offering, but its summer opening presents dishes like oxheart tomato, smoked stracciatella and tomato leaf oil; Merguez sausage, pepper leaf, fermented ezme; and Barragunda black Angus, smoked and soused rosa bianca, green fig served with zucchini, kefir, and wild fennel. Picked from the 800 mature trees that make up the property's orchard, stone fruits lead the current dessert menu, with a special highlight including peach, semolina, citrus blossom and burnt honey with cashmere cream. There's also a concise wine list that shines a light on Victorian producers who share Barragunda's environmental philosophies, while cocktails also made with fruit from the orchard are a mindful addition. "Barragunda Dining is more than a restaurant to me; it's part of our daily lives and represents a commitment to embrace the seasonal cycles of the estate's diverse farm system," says Watts. "Through the restaurant, we're opening up the estate and inviting guests to experience the rich and authentic story of the land, its strong sense of place and our values to nurture the estate for years to come." Barragunda Dining is now open at 113 Cape Schanck Road, Cape Schanck. Head to the website for more information. Images: Arianna Leggiero / Kristoffer Paulsen.
Most of us have a local pizza spot we'd defend until our last breath (or slice). But the fact that Pascoe Vale's SHOP225 has just been named among the world's best pizzerias by the 50 Top Pizza Awards could mean you can't resist letting your tastebuds wander further afield. Launched in 2016, owners Lorenzo Tron and Roberto Davoli have built a loyal following around their pizza-making excellence. Yet what makes this particular pizza shop stand out is its steadfast dedication to gluten-free and vegan-friendly options, making a top-notch slice accessible to all. With the 50 Top Pizza Awards recognising the world's best pizzerias for their culinary excellence and superior craft, SHOP225 has been ranked fifth on the Asia-Pacific list. Now the team travels to Naples to discover where it lands on the global top 100. "We are incredibly honoured to be part of this journey," says Tron, ahead of the rankings announcement on Monday, September 8. "To be recognised on such an international platform not only shines a light on our hard work and passion but also on the quality of pizza being created here in Melbourne." SHOP225 achieved the highest spot of any Australian pizza shop, but it wasn't the only one to make the cut in 2025. In fact, ten Aussie pizzerias landed in the top 50 overall for Asia-Pacific. With locations in South Yarra and Elsternwick, 48h Pizza e Gnocchi Bar ranked 12th on this year's list, while Al Taglio from Surry Hills in Sydney reached 17th. So, what gave SHOP225 the edge over the others? According to 50 Top Pizza, the restaurant offers a "familiar environment where everyone can feel comfortable as if they were at home." Plus, the Neapolitan-style pizzas — including its flagship Zio Pino — showcase immense "attention to the dough and high-quality ingredients." SHOP225 is open Monday–Thursday from 5–9.30pm and Friday–Sunday from 12–9.30pm at 225 Melville Rd, Pascoe Vale South. Head to the website for more information. Images: HiSylvia Photography.
Fashion isn't the first industry that most rugby stars choose post-retirement. For Lewi Brown, however, it was a chance to channel his creative streak into a self-run project. Earls Collection is an elevated menswear label that creates nostalgic and sport-inspired looks. Now in its sixth year, the brand is going from strength to strength with new collections and its Paddington brick-and-mortar store. We caught up with founder Lewi Brown in Sydney to learn more about Earls Collection and why it's helping him find the community he lost after leaving the NRL. Founded just days after retiring from the NRL in 2018, Earls Collection represents a strong family connection for the Māori creative director. Lewi grew up as the child of a single mother and used his creativity to get by. While it would be decades until he explored the fashion world seriously, Lewi always had a creative streak, crediting skaters as his ultimate sport and style inspiration. "I had to get creative with what we had," he says. "We didn't have much money so I wasn't wearing designer stuff. Half the time I was wearing my aunty's skate shoes, my sister's skate shoes, just to try and piece things together. As I grew up, I started to embrace the creativity of dressing." The name also ties to Lewi's family legacy. Earls is the middle name of Lewi, as well as his father and grandfather, both of whom passed by suicide. "This brand is built off mental health [awareness]." Now, Lewi is channelling a whole new community using the creativity he didn't know he had as a child. Through working with creative collaborators on shoots or via the face-to-face relationships built in the Paddington store, Earls Collection is helping foster a sense of community that can often be lost when leaving an institution such as the sporting world. [caption id="attachment_1028531" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Declan May - Galaxy Z Flip7 is featured[/caption] "When I played rugby league, community was huge. You had your community within the boys at training each day, then the wider community, then the fans." As a business owner, the founder and creative director has to wear many hats, but Lewi loves the juggle and credits tools such as the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 to his creative drive and success. From booking meetings on the fly to campaign photoshoots and helping make styling and business decisions, the phone is supercharged by Google Gemini*, making it even easier to run his self-made brand. "I always knew it would be a challenge. Some days I'm logistics, some days I'm designing, some days I'm in the warehouse packing orders. When you love something, and you're so passionate you'd do anything for it," he says. In addition to his familial and community inspiration, Lewi often looks to vintage stores and clothes to help inspire Earls Collection's aesthetic. During our catch-up, Lewi takes us to the consignment store SWOP Darlinghurst. "The most beautiful thing about vintage wear is that you can't emulate that. The textures of the fabrics [get] better with age and time and patience. That's the beauty about thrift shopping." While many celebrity ambassadors take on similar projects to chase fame and money, it's clear that the sporting community spirit is at the heart of Earls Collection. "I'm not just here for money or fame or to have a profile. I'm really passionate about clothing." Explore more at Samsung. Images by Declan May If you or anyone you know is experiencing emotional distress, please contact Lifeline (131 114) or Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636) for help and support. *Gemini is a trademark of Google LLC. Gemini Live feature requires internet connection and Google Account login. Available on select devices and select countries, languages, and to users 18+. Fees may apply to certain AI features at the end of 2025. Editing with Generative Edit results in a resized photo up to 12MP. Accuracy of results is not guaranteed. Flex Mode supported at angles between 75°and 115°. Some apps may not be supported in Flex Mode. Gemini is a trademark of Google LLC. Requires internet connection and Google Account login. Works on compatible apps. Features may differ depending on subscription. Set up may be required for certain functions or apps. Accuracy of results is not guaranteed.
The minimalist Japanese retailer famed for its low-waste ethos and no-logo policy has just opened its largest ever Aussie store. Ditching its old Chadstone Shopping Centre digs, the label has moved into an expanded 1700-square-metre space, located on the Lower Ground Level near the precinct's newly revamped Food Atrium. But this new 'concept' store has a whole lot more to offer than just a whopping huge floor plan. Shoppers are also able to get their hands on an extended offering of Muji's signature bedding, clothing (men's, women's and kid's), skincare, storage bits and bobs, stationery (there's a lot) and travel goods, as well as a line of household furniture not available in any other local store. There's also an on-site embroidery service for jazzing up your just-bought threads and a self-serve coffee facility to fuel those lengthier shopping adventures (although no Muji Cafe, unfortunately). A 'Melbourne to Go' concept showcases various things to do around town, which are chosen by staff but suggestions from shoppers are also encouraged. The store also stocks Muji's book range and new non-gendered garment capsule line, Muji Labo. And as if that wasn't enough to keep you busy for a while, the new space also plays host to a dynamic workshop and exhibition space, dubbed Open Muji. Stay tuned for a program featuring everything from artist talks to craft sessions. The Japanese brand kicked off its foray into Australia when it opened the original Chadstone store back in 2013. It now boasts five locations across Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. But this is its biggest one yet. Find Muji at Shop B151, Chadstone Shopping Centre, 1341 Dandenong Road, Malvern East. It's open from Monday–Wednesday 9am–5.30pm, Thursday–Saturday 9am–9pm, and Sunday 10am–7pm.
When Shabana Azeez says that "it's been wild", she's telling Concrete Playground about 2025 for her so far, and about being in the cast of The Pitt. Her words could equally apply to the 15-hour shift that the gripping medical drama's debut season follows, which happens to be the first day working in the emergency room for Azeez's character. In the exceptional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital-set series, the Australian actor plays Dr Victoria Javadi — a third-year medical student, and also a 20-year-old prodigy, who begins her ER rotation on what proves not only a chaotic and challenging but also a traumatic day. Between January and April, when the show was dropping its first season's episodes week to week, how that trial-by-fire initiation turned out for Javadi was appointment (and can't-look-away) viewing. "It's been really wild. I was actually travelling after we wrapped — which, I think when we were shooting, there were four episodes that came out, maybe more," Azeez continues. "And then I was in Berlin and I was in London and I was in Italy and in Texas for film festivals and stuff, and people were recognising me from The Pitt in a lot of places, which was strange. To have a show you made in one sound stage, in a little beautiful life, have an impact in multiple places — it's so, so surreal." The Pitt was always going to attract interest. With not one, not two, but three big names that helped make ER a hit involved, viewers were bound to tune in. The Pitt boasts actor, co-writer and executive producer Noah Wyle (Leverage: Redemption) leading the on-screen charge — and, behind the scenes, reuniting with director and executive producer John Wells (Shameless), plus this Max smash's creator, showrunner and writer R Scott Gemmill (NCIS: Los Angeles). Yes, it might take ER fans a second to get used to seeing Wyle in scrubs being called Dr Robby rather than Dr Carter, but it only takes a second. Yes, those in that camp will spot the symmetry of The Pitt kicking off on Javadi's first emergency-room day, and that of a few of her fellow medical students, as ER did with Wyle's beloved figure. Within mere moments of its premiere episode starting, The Pitt establishes its own intensity. The format — "15 episodes. 15 hours. 1 shift" is the tagline — helps set the tone, as does the dedication to realism that anyone who has spent time in a hospital will recognise. With attending physician Michael 'Robby' Robinavitch, senior residents Heather Collins (Tracey Ifeachor, Wonka) and Frank Langdon (Patrick Ball, Law & Order), charge nurse Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa, Daredevil: Born Again), third-year resident Samira Mohan (Supriya Ganesh, Grown-ish) and second-year resident Cassie McKay (Fiona Dourif, Chucky), plus Javadi and other Pittsburgh Trauma newcomers Mel King (Taylor Dearden, The Last Thing He Told Me), Trinity Santos (Isa Briones, Goosebumps) and Dennis Whitaker (Gerran Howell, Ludwig), the series chronicles a gig that'd be tough and hectic on a standard day, let alone when a mass-casualty event occurs in the city courtesy of a shooter at a festival. Azeez's task, then, is to portray a character who is trying to impress on such an unforgettable first shift, and endeavouring to provide excellent medical care to the many, many patients that need it — and, as someone only just out of her teens, attempting to fit in, too. Javadi has the weight of parental expectation bearing down, because she's followed in her parents' footsteps. She also tries to ask a colleague out on a date. It's only when the shift wraps up that she has her first-ever beer. Taking on the role meant Azeez moving across the world, attending boot camp with her co-stars and, as an Australian thankfully unaccustomed to the active-shooter situation depicted, researching gun violence. It also meant unpacking what Javadi is going through given her age and intelligence, what she's missed out on by speeding through school and college, and the pressure of her whole existence. Azeez can't speak highly enough about being welcomed into The Pitt's cast and crew to play Javadi, and what being one of the show's stars means to her. "I think I'm learning a lot from Noah," she advises. That's after she's already had quite the massive past year or so before The Pitt even started airing, became such a smash, had viewers around the globe hooked and was renewed for a second season. If you watched Apple Cider Vinegar, you should've spotted Azeez in an episode. In 2024, she was on the big screen in Australian thriller Birdeater. When Aussie animation Lesbian Space Princess won the Teddy award in Berlin this year — ahead of making its Down Under debut at the 2025 Sydney Film Festival — it did so with Azeez voicing its eponymous figure. We also chatted to the Adelaide talent about that path to The Pitt, alongside what appealed to her about stepping into Dr Javadi's shoes. Working among such an excellent ensemble, the show's impressive pedigree, being protective of the character, her research process: our discussion covered them all as well, among other topics. On How Azeez Feels About Her Huge Past Couple of Years, Not Only with The Pitt But Also Birdeater and Lesbian Space Princess "Who even knows? I really feel so lucky. But also it feels like, I don't know, The Pitt was so — it was seven months we shot, which is, for an Australian, kind of wild, right? Because Australia shoots fast. And so my longest gig before that would've been like six weeks. And so to pick up my life in Melbourne and move to LA for seven months, now it feels like my perception of time is so strange. Apple Cider Vinegar, I was just there for one day. And Birdeater shot in little pockets over a few years. And it's just very strange when things come out, because it's the combination of so much work when you're a film actor. And then often people are like 'oh, my god, this thing's coming out' and you're sitting at home unemployed alone. So it's very feast and famine, and very strange, but I'm so lucky and I'm having a great time." On What Appealed to Azeez About The Pitt and Portraying Dr Javadi "The team, obviously. We got the brief and it was like 'the people that made ER and The West Wing are making a new show' — that's a once-in-a-lifetime casting brief. And we knew the TV that they make goes on for a long time — these are really cultural moments, John Wells' productions, shows — and obviously that was a massive, massive selling point. Not that I was in a position to be choosy. I was just wanting to audition and that was exciting to me. Also, the script was insane. I don't know if the scripts are public at all or if anybody can see them, but they're novels, they're dense and they're incredible. I remember having to go out to get more highlighters in different colours to be able to track which character was who — because it was all surnames and I couldn't figure out who anybody was, and there were so many characters in that first episode. And sitting in my apartment trying to audition, figuring out who I'm talking to in my audition scene, took ages. It was a really cool audition. It was out-of-body — thinking about it now, I'm like 'god, who was I back then coming to this audition?'. And then for Javadi, I was so excited by her as a character. I think being a young woman, there's a massive variation in the types of auditions you can get. But there's not a single female character on the show that's sexualised — or the idea of something. Everybody's fully fleshed out. In a way, that's just so incredible to see. And I know it should be the standard, but the writing is amazing, and the female characters are so complicated and beautiful and incredible. And smart — like really smart — and not really existing for anybody else's character growth. We're all there for each other as an ensemble, and it doesn't seem like there's a lot of imbalance there. So it was so exciting to get a script with a big ensemble of interesting characters and be like 'oh, this young one' — especially being the youngest one. I'm kind of scrappy and I think we have a lot in common, except that she's really smart and a brilliant doctor, and I'm an actor. But she was just very interesting — I've never seen a brief like her before." On Juggling Javadi's Intelligence, Age, Nerves, New Job, Love Life and Attempts to Give Excellent Medical Care, All on a Traumatic 15-Hour Day "I think that was really — I don't want to say 'easy', but it was really served by the way we worked, in that we shot chronologically. So usually when you're shooting, you're shooting out of order, and so you're doing so much work to be like 'my character's experienced this crazy thing and this crazy thing and this crazy thing', and I have to, in my head and in my body, know all of those things and then shoot scene 75 before I shoot scene two. In this situation, we were building on what we've done. Except for Pittsburgh — we shot the exteriors in Pittsburgh over one week, and so that final scene of the entire show we shot before we'd even read past script nine, I want to say. So I hadn't read the mass shooting. I hadn't read a lot of it. And there was just a lot of putting trust in the editors and the directors and the producers, and knowing that they would treat all our characters with care. I'm very protective of Javadi. She's just so little, and she's just trying her hardest, but I knew I could trust them with her. She's our little baby. I think it was really nice, because it was written so organically that that's just how complicated real people are. It was like that thing, right — none of these characters are the idea of a trope. They are fully fleshed-out human beings. And you can be — in fact, most really smart people are, really, there is a deficit that balances out somewhere else in the character, right? So I think that her being really, really smart, it makes sense that she would also then be socially quite complicated and struggling, because she's growing up so lonely and so isolated. I remember R Scott Gemmill, in one of our first character meetings, said to me 'you know, her parents kind of used her as a party trick' — and it's really interesting to think about what that would do to a small child, to be valued for being impressive. The type of bravery it takes to be publicly, confidently bad at something — to ask a boy out, even though you've maybe never done it before and you're going to have to stay on the shift and see him, even if it goes badly — the bravery and the courage that it takes when you have been disproportionately valued for being special your whole life is something that I think I really want to explore with her more and give her credit for. I think, often for me, her worst behaviours or her least-impressive behaviours — or her most-cringey or -embarrassing behaviours — are the things for me that I love most about her, and they speak the most to her positive and beautiful character traits. Because I think to put yourself out there in that way is really brave. I don't know that I could do that, and I grew up with a lot of friends and not socially isolated in the way that she has been. It's really exciting also to see people react to her awkward moments and like it, and think that she's funny — it's really rewarding." On Working with a Stellar Ensemble While Diving Into Such an Intense Scenario "It's really lovely and really nice — it's so much background work on the show, and it's really immersive being on the show, and so it's like, yes, the cast, but also all the background we have, and all the crew are wearing scrubs all the time. And the amount of immersion you can get from every bit, being around everybody all day, and everybody giving it their all in that way — it's so special because it's so immersive. Usually, you're on set, and maybe you're crying and you're looking at a tennis ball or a line somebody's drawn on the wall, and these people wearing Dickies are all around you, holding lights to your face. Whereas in this situation, you fully are like 'no, I'm in a trauma situation. I'm in a surgery room'. The lights that we use are real. The level of immersion is so special, and it makes shooting seamless and fast. It's amazing. And the people are so great, and I think it's lovely to work with people who are great at their job, obviously, which everybody can see — but I also think everybody in the audience can see how wonderful the people are that we're working with, even if they're playing assholes, maybe. It's really funny watching people be like 'that girl must be so mean to you in real life', but Isa is a lovely, beautiful friend. So that's really lucky that everybody's kind and easy to work with as well." On Being Part of a Series with an Impressive Pedigree, and That Sits Among Fellow Great Medical Dramas "Honestly, I don't think I had time to be nervous. I did one self-tape — I sent in a tape — and then I did one zoom, and then we got the call that I booked it. And I had a month to move to America and be on the ground at Warner Bros. So I don't think I had time to panic about anything. I was panicked about getting a Social Security number and all the logistics of moving your life. And accents and medical research and all that stuff. And so for me, I was just so, so grateful to be there. I think that they really did the work to not make it nerve-racking for us younger ones, too, in that our casting process was really chill and relaxed and warm and safe. And so that energy, I think it ended up funnelling into experience on the set. And also we did a boot camp before we started acting, so for two weeks we got to know each other and get comfy with each other — and not just with the other actors, but also with John Wells and R Scott Gemmill. Obviously there was pressure and excitement to be working on such an incredible show with such an incredible team, but every single person on a personal level worked their asses off to make sure that they weren't creating pressure, they were creating warmth and safety. To the point of: we all spend time together, even with John and Scott, before we started, giving you enough about the job to combat all the natural pressure and scary feelings — and I'm so grateful for that. That level of skill — I think you can see the skill on the show, there's so much skill, there's so much writing skill, so much directing skill, so much producing skill, you can see that on the show. But the soft skills that come with being a creative, they were 10 out of 10, 100 percent all the time with all of that as well, and that's not really visible to the audience — and it's really special to get it." On the Research That Goes Into Playing Dr Javadi as an Australian in an American Medical Series "I did a lot of research on gun violence. And I ended up getting specific things from the writers, too — like 'which one did you base this on?' and 'what resources would you recommend to me?'. Then I also did specific things on Javadi's experience of guns — so growing up in Pittsburgh, what suburbs she would've grown up in? Things like that, picking a house on Google Maps. But also, she would have gone to school in this time — how many school-shooter drills were happening at this time? And what kind of school-shooter drills were they? A lot of resources were coming up that school-shooter drills, often kids don't know they're a drill — or they do know they're a drill, but they're simulating all these really scary things, so they can be traumatising in way that a shooting can be. And so figuring out where she sat on certain spectrums, and how long she was at school for, because she's sort of a savant and she graduated school at high school at 13 and started college really young. Also doing a lot of research into what it's like to be a kid genius and how lonely that is, and the experiences of being isolated from your peers and being really young around a lot older people. What does that do to you? Does it stunt you or do you meet them somewhere? What's the experience of doing American college with no alcohol? That sounds so silly, almost. But even in Australia, alcohol is a massive part of our culture, and obviously she's too young — and we see her have her first beer in the last episode of The Pitt at 20. So how does that isolate you if everybody's going to the pub after an exam, or going to a bar to decompress after a week? How does not being able to participate in any social thing affect your self-worth or your ability to build rapport? And so I think we see her be quite awkward in the show, and I did a lot of research into why she would be like that and how awkward to be, so hopefully that comes through. And that's really exciting stuff to do, because it's just so different to my experience of the world." On Azeez's Journey From Adelaide and Short Films to a Series-Regular Role on a Hit US TV Show "It means so much to me. Obviously growing up in Adelaide, LA is worlds and worlds away, and it was this fantasy that I didn't — and also LA is a fantasy even in American media. LA is just this strange sort of utopia for filmmakers, right? And it felt for a long time like that was just never going to happen to me — because how? How do you get from Adelaide to LA? I still don't really understand it even though it's happened to me, I guess because it seems so unlikely. And there's no obvious pathways when you're an actor. You really do have to cede control, in a way. So the fact that this thing that I've been convincing myself was not possible for so long — it's like 'temper my expectations', all of that — but the fact that I didn't have to temper my expectations and it happened is so lucky. I don't even know if 'lucky' is the word. It feels blessed. It's so crazy to me, and I don't know that I'll ever understand it or feel like — like how do you earn something like that? How do you earn being on The Pitt? I don't know. I just feel very lucky, and I'm not questioning it, lest somebody else with power question it. But for my career, I think Australia — there's this saying in Adelaide where if you want to work in Adelaide as an actor, you have to move to Melbourne and then come back, and then people in Adelaide will be like 'oh my god, they worked in Melbourne, they must be great'. And I think that just happens at every stage, except with The Pitt, where they didn't. They thought I lived in Adelaide, Australia, when they cast me in The Pitt. The did not care about where I came from or what my context was, they just wanted me for this role. And that level of freedom, creatively, where they didn't want me to have any sort of audience, they didn't need me to be famous, they didn't need me to bring anything to this project except myself, was so special to me. I don't know that I've ever experienced the confidence that they had in me as a creative, to just give some kid from Adelaide this series-regular role in their massive TV show. That means a lot as an artist, obviously. But it also is the blueprint for me going forward of how I want to be as an artist. I think I'm learning a lot from Noah. And to get to learn from these people and then bring that knowledge back to Adelaide or Melbourne or wherever I end up is so, so meaningful. I'm very grateful." The Pitt streams via Max in Australia and Neon in New Zealand.
Sometimes you just need a little escape. You need cuddles, you need adventure, you need wine. In those times, both Queenstown and Wanaka are perfect backdrops in which to drink and dine at world-class eateries, stay at some very cosy accommodation, have some adventure-filled antics and spend time with the person who makes you feel like thousands of years of romantic poets have. Queenstown is an all-embracing renaissance city with more on offer than any holiday or pocket can stand. Although it is known as a ski town it also offers every other kind of activity – from wine tours on bike to sky diving. Its eclectic streets are packed equally with Lacoste-clad preppy folk as well as dreadlocked backpackers. Over the hill, Wanaka is a more easy going, quirky alternative where you can go watch films in an old drive-in inspired cinema, hike in one of the most beautiful national parks and go horseback riding. Eat Inside its neat little 4 x 4 town centre, Queenstown packs a culinary punch. It would take a decent part of a season to eat one's way through it all in order to write about all of the noteworthy eateries. Nevertheless, we definitely picked up a few new favourites on our most recent trip. Should you want to break your steak glass ceiling – and have the best steak you will possibly ever try in your lifetime – you'll want to promptly book yourself a table at Jervois Steak House. There you will be served with juicy, tender steaks that could be cut with a butter knife, practically. Steaks range in price from $39 for a petite eye fillet to $140 for a beautifully marbled, well-massaged, grain-fed, Japanese Wagyu beef. Jervois Steak House's excellent steaks fall in line with its culinary mission to properly pay homage to and reintroduce customers to traditional English and New Zealand food – many menu items read like the kind of garden variety dishes you'd be able to construct out of a shop from a supermarket near you (onion rings, brocollini, creamed spinach, croquettes etc.). The difference is the absolute quality of the ingredients used by Jervois and the sheer passion infused into the meals which plucks the meals from banality and converts them into something completely fresh. For example, the Yorkshire pudding – which was originally invented to be a first course meal filled with thick, cheap gravy so that guests wouldn't eat too much of the more expensive second course – here becomes a beautiful, interactive DIY pie with bacon, beef and the finest of fillings. Other (more typically fancy) dishes, like the buttered crayfish are executed amazingly as well, and still with that same warmth and passion mentioned before (the crayfish tasted like a buttery embrace from an old friend). Jervois Steak House is basically the love child of high-end dining and a casual steak house. This idea permeates not just the menu but the entire setting. Waiters, for example, are trained in silver service but dress in butchers' aprons and sneakers. It's a dichotomy that works and one you should definitely experience first-hand. Another lovely restaurant to visit in Queenstown central is Madam Woo. Established by the Michelin-starred Josh Emmett, the sassy Malaysian-inspired lady is an approachable, charming local favourite. Looks-wise Ms Woo is a total keeper. She's fresh without being annoyingly trendy and incorporates her heritage without being stuffy and archaic. With meals designed to be shared, you're looking at getting about three to four dishes between the two of you. Highlights of the menu include the eggplant hawker roll, which is a heap of fresh mint, cucumber, shredded lettuce and eggplant piled into a taco-shaped pie (or for those with a more enlightened food vocabulary, a roti). The hawker roll manages to nail all sorts of cravings in each mouthful – spicy meets fresh meets salad meets the pie-esque roti. The honey and soy tossed squid is also quite a crowd pleaser, especially for those of the sweet tooth persuasion. Lastly, No5, which is situated below the incredible suites at The Spire, is a good, classy little cocktail bar to visit. Cocktail options range from the likes of the Absinthe Mansinthe – a traditional absinthe which was commissioned by Marlin Manson, to the Burning Man – a showmen's drink consisting of Woodford Reserve bourbon, grapefruit, burn sugar and smoke. The drinks menu is a niche, well-designed and unique mixture of cocktails, but should your regular favourite not be featured, the very capable and talented bartenders can easily make you an amazing custom cocktail from scratch. No5 is also a restaurant and does a pretty well-priced mezze which follows the Greek/Turkish custom of serving many small dishes simultaneously or in succession for the entire table. The mezze is priced at either $50 (dishes only), $60 (includes dessert) or $100 (includes three matching local wines). A little bit further out of town is my absolute favourite of the region, Arrowtown's Saffron. It is a well established fact that the best ideas are sketched out on napkins, which is exactly how Saffron started. The restaurant which specialises in beautiful, seasonal and local fare serves what can be best described as hunter's food with a quirky bowtie on. The incredibly well thought-out, intuitive, visionary meals that Saffron dish up reduced this reviewer into a primal gurgle on her visit (albeit a quiet one – it's a pretty upmarket place after all). It's hard to write about the restaurant even now without feeling my mouth salivating. The paua tortellini, for example, was just a creamy beautiful symphony of flavours while their tender lamb was soft enough to swallow after one chew. Another favourite was the goat's cheese sorbet with amaretto-soaked dates which was served as a dessert. Sweet, warm, cold, fresh, comforting – it was pure genius. Although we only tried a handful of meals, I would venture that every single meal on the menu would be able to make the culinary equivalent of those Greatest Hits albums we all had in the '90s. I do not throw around the word 'must-do' lightly, but this is definitely one. Oh, and be sure to drop in to the Blue Door next door after dinner for a drink inside a cosy, cavernous bar. Over the hill, Wanaka has been developing some great restaurants too. Kika, the newly opened younger sister to Francesca's Italian Kitchen, is a notable mention. Serving Italian shared meals such as tea-smoked duck salad and patata fritte the trendy eatery accommodates all appetite sizes. Stay In order to soak in the most impressive bathtub in town, a stay at The Spire is imperative. With a perfectly crafted, wide and deep bowl, the bath has a way of letting hours pass in a steamy sigh of relaxation. Open the bathroom shutters up to a glorious view of the Remarkables for an even higher level of perfection to your bathtub experience. There really is nothing like it. Afterwards, clad with a complimentary, fluffy bathtub and slippers sit back into the leather armchair with a cup of tea (whichever type you prefer from the wide selection) and a sense of satisfaction that won't leave you for the duration of your stay. In fact, the only downside to this level of comfort offered by The Spire is the fact that it makes it near impossible to leave the room to enjoy the rest of Queenstown's offerings and eateries. With a cosy fireplace lit and cloud-like bedsheets to sink into, bunkering up with the significant other and never leaving the room – not even for food (room service is available) – is an easy choice, but for those who wish to stretch their legs just a little bit without hitting Queenstown's sometimes biting cold, the downstairs No5 is always there as a halfway house. The Spire is an absolute accommodation favourite and definitely something special for the two of you to enjoy together – even if you have to save up for it. Nearby, Arrowtown House Boutique Hotel also offers an excellent, deep bowl of a bathtub which is almost swimmable. Although the Arrowtown House, as the self-explanatory name states, is in Arrowtown– which is about a 15-minute drive from Queenstown – it is incredibly close to Arrowtown's central district which offers its own little collection of unique eateries, making a night-time food-motivated hike to Queenstown redundant. Breakfast at Arrowtown House is another highlight: a three-course meal with homemade pastry dishes and seasonal produce from award-winning chef and co-owner Jeanette. A little bit further out of town, a stay at the historic vineyard Kinross Cottages is a beautiful escape where a raft of chatty ducks – Jemima, Crispy, Pancake and l'Orange – will welcome you upon arrival. The ducks have so much personality that they've become quite Instagram famous and co-manager Adam Ross has even been dubbed The Duckfather. The cottages are all self-serviced, with pictures of the original Kinross family who ran a trading post on the site in 1860s decorating the walls. Kinross still has an on-site general store, but nowadays it also houses a cellar door where you can sip on five of the nearby Gibbston Wines. For those wanting to see the vines where the local wines' grapes were grown from up close, bikes can be hired from Kinross in order to take on the 8.7km Gibbston River Ride (which forms part of Queenstown trail) nearby. A post-bike hot tub session near the duck pond finishes off the day perfectly. For those who'd like a little bit more of an intimate host-to-guest experience, a small bed and breakfast such as the Riverview Terrace in Wanaka is quite a nice option. Run by a local winemaker, James McElrea (who just recently started his own delicious label called Black Peak) and hospitality veteran, Nicky McElrea, guests at the Riverview are no sooner welcomed than small, delicious nibbles are placed within arms' reach and glasses of wine hug their hands. The private hot spa overlooking Albert Town and the nearby Mount Burke makes for a pretty little spot to relax in. Do While skiing or snowboarding is a stalwart winter activity in Queenstown and Wanaka, many snow virgins find their initiation a little bit unnerving – which is why The Remarkables (alongside Coronet Peak) have assembled a four-day beginners pack for a steal at $499. For those who fall in love with the snow, an upgrade to a season pass is just another $100 extra. The Remarkables ski field, which is the closest skiing turf to Queenstown (about half an hour's drive) is a laid-back ski field geared at intermediate and beginner snowboarders looking to have a good time.* *Ice bar included. Another good ski field to try out currently is Cardrona, a park and blue skiers' paradise and the the highest ski field in the area at 1670m - 1860m in altitude, making snow coverage guaranteed from season start to finish – even during this pretty hot winter the region's having. While the weather gods (in particular those in charge of the snow department) might still not be fully cooperating with the wishes of thousands of locals and snow carvers alike, there are also plenty of off-mountain activities to fill your calendar with. For one, Skyline Stargazing offers lovers an opportunity to give gazing into each others' eyes a miss in order to take in the skies above. Secondly, if you're going to go and fall in love (with all the trappings that come with it: fear, vulnerability, learning how to trust, excitement etc.), you might as well replicate those emotions and fall out of a plane as well. NZONE Skydive offers packages for the latter. With over 25 years of experience – which translates to up to 25,000 dives in experience for the most experienced tandem jumpers – you're in safe hands. They are New Zealand's first Tandem Skydiving operation too, after all. You've also got what is probably the best skydiving view in the country, which you can appreciate while hurtling at 200km/hour towards a little farm nestled between the Remarkables and Lake Wakatipu. Skydiving is honestly one of the most surreal experiences a human can have and couples visiting Queenstown should definitely make some time in-between candlelit dinners and hot spas to try it out together. Thirdly, taking some time to go on foot through the Mount Aspiring National Park near Wanaka is well, erhum, inspiring. The DOC visitor centre in Wanaka can provide you with detailed maps, assurance and advice for which tracks to follow to find awe-inspiring beauty compliments of nature. The Rob Roy Glacier track would be my pick. For those who prefer to explore nature on hoof, Backcountry Saddle Expeditions offers a two-hour horse trek near Cardrona through high country farming plateaus and a historic gold mining valley. Another Wanaka favourite is a visit to the drive-in themed Cinema Paradiso, for a more relaxed night out. After all your adventuring together, a session at the well-known and very romantic Onsen Hot Pools in Arthurs Point near Queenstown rounds off any full-on trip nicely.
In a converted Easey Street warehouse, Mary Minas and Freya Berwick have delivered Collingwood Sense of Self, a contemporary wellness space that welcomes all genders, promotes ancient wisdom and boasts modern design. Whether you're someone who likes to soak in communal baths, relax into a massage or simply nurture the relationship with your body, Sense of Self is the spot for you. Encouraging you to come as you are and take what you need, this wellness space provides its clients with an opportunity to feel good via an unpretentious offering that's dedicated to connection, inclusivity and restoration. Minas spent five months visiting the bathhouses of Europe, Africa and Japan, while botanist-turned-hotelier Berwick spent plenty of time sweating in Scandinavian saunas during her three years in Norway. So, expect influences pulled from all four locations here — and plenty of plants. The facilities at the bathhouse include a Finnish-style sauna at a hot 80 degrees, a large 39-degree mineral bath and a cold plunge pool. Passes give you access to all the facilities, and start at $59 for two hours. Bathing on the weekend will set you back $69 for two hours, or you can get discounted multi-packs from $169 for three. Upstairs at the massage and mindfulness studio, you'll find a menu of body treatments for relaxation, remediation and pregnancy, backed by a soothing lounge area where naps are not just welcomed, but encouraged. Find Sense of Self at 30–32 Easey Street, Collingwood. The bathhouse is open from 7am–9.30pm Tuesday–Friday and 8am–8.30pm Saturday–Sunday.
This guide to the best dog-friendly hotels in Australia is made for those fur parents out there who can't bare the thought of travelling without their pooch — and let's not to mention the pain of finding a dog-sitter. For you dog owners, the best holiday is one where both your two-legged and four-legged mates are there. There's no denying it. Luckily, there are heaps of accommodation options all over Australia where you don't need to choose between the two. Each spot catering to your pup in its own way — think special beds, treats, beaches and walks, all for your furry pal. Looking for a spot where your dog is welcomed as much as your human friends? These dog-friendly hotels and B&Bs in Australia are here for you. CRYSTALBROOK ALBION, NEW SOUTH WALES The Crystalbrook Albion (formerly, Little Albion) team believe that our little fur babies deserve to enjoy life's luxuries just as much as we do. That's why they've designed their Urban rooms (located down on the ground floor with direct access to outside) to be pet-friendly. They mostly cater to cats and dogs with their special beds and pet treats but are open to other creatures – just make sure to call them up and enquire. We're assuming it's a no to your pet snake…? How much? From $370 per night. YONDAH BEACH HOUSE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA At Yondah Beach House (a 3.5-hour drive from Adelaide), owners Michele Bain and Nick Cureton take the term 'pet-friendly' to a whole new level. They know animals are part of the family — so, they let your dog on every inch of the expansive 150-acre property, including inside the award-winning house, where a special gift will be awaiting your pooch. The beachside home is also fenced on three sides and is one-kilometre from the road, so it's safe for your pup to roam around the Yorke Peninsula coastline on your doorstep. The place isn't just for dogs, either; in the past, Yondah has also welcomed cats, birds and even a turtle. How much? From $490 per night. FOUR SEASONS HOTEL SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES The Four Seasons is the latest addition to the growing group of dog-friendly hotels in Sydney. Their Pet Paw-fection package includes putting you and your pooch up in rooms made specifically for your needs. Each fur-tunate pup gets its own plush bedding, dog toys, bath amenities, outdoor water bowls and specialty treats — Bone Appetit. The concierge is also brimming with knowledge about Sydney's best dog-friendly places and activities. They'll direct your pooch and you all around the city. You can check out the best dog-friendly parks, cafes and bars with your four-legged friend or choose to leave them behind with the dog minding team. They haven't been doing this service for long, but they're already up the top of the list for Australia's best dog-friendly hotels. How much? From $495 per night. MT COTTON RETREAT, QUEENSLAND Mt Cotton Retreat's self contained cabins are located just 30-minutes from the Brisbane CBD, yet offer a real bush retreat for you and your pup. Choose from lakeside or treetop accommodation, with select cabins specifically reserved for pets (and prior approval needed). The property spans 20 hectares and is situated within a private nature refuge — expect to see koalas aplenty, along with wallabies, possums and goannas. And Venman National Park is just a short one-kilometre walk or drive away. So you and your fur baby can't possibly run out of things to do, and will have nice warm cabins to come back to. How much? From $260 per night. ELEMENT RICHMOND MELBOURNE, VICTORIA A great city escape for fur parents is Element Richmond. It's an eco-conscious accommodation option that welcomes guests of both the human and four-legged variety. The hotel expands over 168 suites and offers a contemporary design by award-winning local architects Rothelowman. Up to two pups can share your room, which comes equipped with extra comfy dog beds. Element Richmond also boasts a dog-friendly mini-bar that has featured treats like the Quarter Hounder (pan-fried steak served with green vegetables) and The Good Dog (market fish with steamed carrot). It's safe to say your dog won't want to leave this lap of luxury. How much? From $214 per night. SHAMBHALA BYRON BAY, NEW SOUTH WALES Set along a private stretch of Belongil Beach in Byron Bay, Shambhala is a true oasis for you and your pet. The cottages are located right on the sand, and also back onto stunning rainforest. Each offers sweeping ocean views, specifically across the Coral and Tasman seas. Some of the cottages also include a separate deck that comes complete with an outdoor barbecue and an eight-person dining table, and the resort features a giant steam room and a hot rock sauna. But your doggo isn't forgotten here, either. The hotel provides food and water bowls for your pooch, as well as offers a map of the off-lead and dog exercise areas within range. So, humans and animals alike can soak up all this luxury. How much? From $395 per night. BANNISTERS PORT STEPHENS, NEW SOUTH WALES Bannisters Port Stephens is an opulent dog-friendly hotel in Australia that welcomes your pooch with open arms. It has three dog-friendly rooms, including two ocean deck rooms and the ground floor luxury suite. All three rooms open out onto the garden and are walking distance to Wanda Beach where your pup can roam free. Doggos can also enjoy the Terrace Bar deck, where humans have the added benefit of an infinity pool (not for dogs, sorry). Your four-legged friend can also accompany you for a bite in the Cheeky Dog beer garden. These rooms understandably book out quickly, so be sure to plan in advance. How much? From $320 per night. OVOLO NISHI CANBERRA, AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY Bush and beach retreats aren't the only options for your dog-filled holiday, either. Heaps of Australian cities are now extending accommodation to doggos as well, including Canberra's Ovolo Nishi. The city centre hotel is dedicated to luxury, nature, sustainability — and your four-legged friend. Opt for the VIP Pooch Package, which takes care of dogs just as much as humans. For starters, it includes a special doggy bed, food mat and bowl. Plus, both you and your fur baby will get goodie bags on arrival — your dog's will include toys and treats exclusive to the hotel. And to take it to the next level, the pet-loving staff will also act as dog-sitters, ready to provide assistance as needed. For those looking to venture elsewhere, Ovolo's other hotels in Sydney and Brisbane have the VIP pooch deal, too. How much? VIP Pooch Packages start at $376 per night. LILIANFELS BLUE MOUNTAINS RESORT & SPA, NEW SOUTH WALES Located in the foothills of the Blue Mountains in the small town of Katoomba, Lilianfels offers luxury and pampering for you and your pup. Here, you can book a special BYO dog package, which includes a deluxe view room that comes equipped with a bed, bowl and treats just for your fur baby. The dog-friendly room overlooks the gorgeous surrounds, which also include a tennis court, a spa, two pools — one of which is a heated outdoor infinity pool — and a fine-diner. Plus there are heaps of easily accessible bushwalks to enjoy with your pooch. How much? From $350 per night. THE LANGHAM, VICTORIA AND NEW SOUTH WALES The Langham in Sydney and Melbourne both offer up one of the most luxurious dog-friendly hotel experiences in all of Australia. They're not holding back in any capacity. Four-legged loves staying here get a dedicated Pet Room Service Menu as well as plush beds, signature Langham bowls, gourmet goodies and a pet gift bag on arrival. Reckon you might need a break from your utterly indulged friend? No problem. Pet sitting and walking services are on-hand. They also offer breakfast in bed for both you and your cat or dog (their private dining pet menu is damn impressive). They won't get pampered like this anywhere else, making this a clear front runner for the very best dog-friendly hotels in Australia. How much? From $570 per night. BRIAR ROSE COTTAGES, QUEENSLAND All aboard a dog-friendly wine tour of the Granite Belt! Set up a luxe base camp at Briar Rose Cottages, just 1km outside of Stanthorpe (which happens to be one our favourite day trip destinations from Brisbane). These three darling little cottages are straight out of a picture book. Think, 'aspirational country chic'. Crackling wood-fire heating, white wicker chairs on the verandah and heritage elegance with a welcoming, homey feel. They're self-contained, for 2, 4 or 6 people, but as there's no fence on the property, you'll just have to keep the doggo on a leash when you're outside. When you've settled in, head out to one of the numerous dog-friendly wineries, including Ridgemill Estate, Robert Cannon Wines, Summit Estate and the trendy Symphony Hill Wines. A tasting for you, some head-pats for the pup, then return to your cosy country abode. How much? From $220 per night. QT, VARIOUS AUSTRALIAN LOCATIONS At all QT Hotels & Resorts across Australia and New Zealand, your dog can come for a luxurious sleepover with you. The chain's Pup Yeah! fur-friendly stays include a night's accommodation for you and your doggo, an in-room menu specifically made for woofers and a pooch-friendly mini bar offering and designer canine bedding. The doggy food range is overseen by the brand's head of treats, Nic Wood, and includes steak tartare with raw beef, mushrooms and egg yolk; bone marrow risotto with bone broth and crispy pigs ears; and chicken livers and pork necks on wholemeal toast with chicken gravy. Fancy a pupper dessert? There's also a bacon ice cream sandwich, made from bacon ice cream, dried liver and oat biscuits. The team will also help guide you to all the best pet-friendly cafes and bars in the local area. And this isn't just one of the best dog-friendly hotels in Australia, it's also one the best hotels in Melbourne, period. How much? From $350 per night. HAWLEY HOUSE, TASMANIA A self-proclaimed 'animal paradise', Hawley House is set on a 150-hectare homestead on the northern coast of Tasmania. Your four-legged friends are welcome free of charge — and that goes not only for dogs but also for ferrets, rabbits, horses and cats. At this dog-friendly accommodation, you are surrounded by Tasmanian wildlife, as well as kilometres of private bushwalking trails and a dog-friendly beach that's set just below the property's garden. Dogs are specifically allowed to stay in the Stables Spa Rooms and the Aquarius rooms, as they are ground floor and have easy access to the outdoors. But if you want to get away with all of your best human and furry mates, book out The Hill House — the four bedroom, two bathroom home sleeps up to ten guests and also includes an outdoor deck with barbecue. How much? From $380 per night. PIER ONE, NEW SOUTH WALES Pooches checking into Pier One won't be quite as ridiculously spoiled as those at The Langham, but nonetheless, they'll be greeted with their very own bed, bowl and toy ... not to mention all the harbour views. What's more, the hotel's staff are mad dog lovers, so be prepared for enthusiastic showers of attention. Don't go getting jealous, now. Pet-friendly hotel rooms come with direct access to the pier, so, when walk-time craziness hits, you'll merely have to open the door. The Rocks and Circular Quay are a waddle away, and, should energy levels reach exploding point, there's always nearby Barangaroo. THALIA HAVEN, TASMANIA Located just an hour from Hobart airport, Thalia Haven is set on a private 130-acre peninsula that's surrounded by the Great Oyster Bay. Tassie's wild east coast is at your doorstep, and there are a whopping five kilometres of secluded coastline, plus a private beach for your entire group to enjoy. The ancient stone cottage contains four bedrooms, so it's the best option for you and your entire crew of dog-loving mates. The place is also solar and wind powered and includes an outdoor bathtub, shower and wood-fired sauna. It's safe to say that this would be an incredibly fancy getaway for you and your pup. How much? From $1500 per night. Top image: QT Hotels Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
Plenty happens at an awards ceremony. For 2024's second round of Emmys — the first took place in January, after the 2023 event was postponed from its usual September timing during Hollywood's writers' and actors' strikes — history was made before the glitzy televised ceremony even happened. At the Creative Arts Emmys, Shōgun picked up 14 awards, making it the most-decorated show in a single season ever. The love for the series continued on Monday, September 16, 2024, and rightly so, with the historical Japanese drama also nabbing four more gongs: for outstanding drama series, directing, lead actor and lead actress. The Bear also won big again in the comedy categories — after hosts and Schitt's Creek favourites Eugene and Dan Levy joked in their opening monologue that, in the true spirit of the dramedy, they wouldn't be making any jokes in their gig. The pair's opening remarks spanned everything from calling out the number of movie stars now popping up on streaming series to noting how often Nicole Kidman (The Perfect Couple) graces the small screen these day. Baby Reindeer "sent from my iphonn" gags and recognising that it took three seasons for the Emmys to even nominate the sublime Reservation Dogs also helped get the ceremony started. A Schitt's Creek reunion, Jeremy Allen White advising that The Bear changed his life, Murphy Brown great Candice Bergen meowing, a tribute to Saturday Night Live's 50th year, a Happy Days ode with Henry Winkler punching a jukebox, John Leguizamo celebrating diversity: they all happened once the night started flowing. So did Fargo's Lamorne Morris telling The Sympathizer's Robert Downey Jr he has a poster of him in his house, Slow Horses' Will Smith riffing on the fact that he's not that other Will Smith, Brendan Hunt going all Coach Beard, Joshua Jackson's reaction to 'I Don't Want to Wait' from Dawson's Creek playing him on and familiar faces from The West Wing all together. At the first post-Succession Emmys, the list of winners is similarly hefty. While a few shows went home with multiple statuettes — including Shōgun, The Bear, Baby Reindeer and Hacks — the list of recipients also spans Slow Horses, True Detective: Night Country, Ripley and Fargo. And, thanks to The Crown, Australia was represented among the accolades with Elizabeth Debicki emerging victorious for playing Princess Diana. As always, if a nominated series didn't end up with its stars or creators on the Emmys stage, that doesn't mean it wasn't ace. Cases in point: Only Murders in the Building, Reservation Dogs, Mr & Mrs Smith, Abbott Elementary, Lessons in Chemistry, Loot, Palm Royale, Fallout and more. What did nab a trophy? Who else was in contention? We've got that covered. Here's a rundown of the awards handed out at the main ceremony, plus the nominees competing for them — and you can check out nine winning shows that you should watch ASAP, too. Emmy Nominees and Winners 2024: Outstanding Drama Series The Crown Fallout The Gilded Age The Morning Show Mr & Mrs Smith Shōgun — WINNER Slow Horses 3 Body Problem Outstanding Comedy Series Abbott Elementary The Bear Curb Your Enthusiasm Hacks — WINNER Only Murders in the Building Palm Royale Reservation Dogs What We Do in the Shadows Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series Baby Reindeer — WINNER Fargo Lessons in Chemistry Ripley True Detective: Night Country Lead Actor in a Drama Series Idris Elba, Hijack Donald Glover, Mr & Mrs Smith Walton Goggins, Fallout Gary Oldman, Slow Horses Hiroyuki Sanada, Shōgun — WINNER Dominic West, The Crown Lead Actress in a Drama Series Jennifer Aniston, The Morning Show Carrie Coon, The Gilded Age Maya Erskine, Mr & Mrs Smith Anna Sawai, Shōgun — WINNER Imelda Staunton, The Crown Reese Witherspoon, The Morning Show Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Matt Berry, What We Do in the Shadows Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm Steve Martin, Only Murders in the Building Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building Jeremy Allen White, The Bear — WINNER D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Reservation Dogs Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary Ayo Edebiri, The Bear Selena Gomez, Only Murders in the Building Maya Rudolph, Loot Jean Smart, Hacks — WINNER Kristen Wiig, Palm Royale Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Matt Bomer, Fellow Travelers Jon Hamm, Fargo Tom Hollander, Feud: Capote vs The Swans Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer — WINNER Andrew Scott, Ripley Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Jodie Foster, True Detective: Night Country — WINNER Brie Larson, Lessons in Chemistry Juno Temple, Fargo Sophia Vergara, Griselda Naomi Watts, Feud: Capote vs The Swans Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Tadanobu Asano, Shōgun Jon Hamm, The Morning Show Mark Duplass, The Morning Show Billy Crudup, The Morning Show — WINNER Takehiro Hira, Shōgun Jack Lowden, Slow Horses Jonathan Pryce, The Crown Supporting Actress in a Actor in a Drama Series Christine Baranski, The Gilded Age Nicole Beharie, The Morning Show Elizabeth Debicki, The Crown — WINNER Greta Lee, The Morning Show Lesley Manville, The Crown Karen Pittman, The Morning Show Holland Taylor, The Morning Show Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Lionel Boyce, The Bear Paul W Downs, Hacks Ebon Moss-Bachrach, The Bear — WINNER Paul Rudd, Only Murders in the Building Tyler James Williams, Abbott Elementary Bowen Yang, Saturday Night Live Supporting Actress in a Actor in a Comedy Series Carol Burnett, Palm Royale Liza Colón-Zayas, The Bear — WINNER Hannah Einbinder, Hacks Janelle James, Abbott Elementary Sheryl Lee Ralph, Abbott Elementary Meryl Streep, Only Murders in the Building Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Jonathan Bailey, Fellow Travelers Robert Downey Jr, The Sympathizer Tom Goodman-Hill, Baby Reindeer John Hawkes, True Detective: Night Country Lamorne Morris, Fargo — WINNER Lewis Pullman, Lessons in Chemistry Treat Williams, Feud: Capote vs The Swans Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Dakota Fanning, Ripley Lily Gladstone, Under the Bridge Jessica Gunning, Baby Reindeer — WINNER Aja Naomi King, Lessons in Chemistry Diane Lane, Feud: Capote vs The Swans Nava Mau, Baby Reindeer Kali Reis, True Detective: Night Country Directing for a Drama Series Stephen Daldry, The Crown Mimi Leder, The Morning Show Hiro Murai, Mr & Mrs Smith Frederick EO Toye, Shōgun — WINNER Saul Metzstein, Slow Horses Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty Directing for a Comedy Series Randall Einhorn, Abbott Elementary Christopher Storer, The Bear — WINNER Guy Ritchie, The Gentlemen Lucia Aniello, Hacks Mary Lou Belli, The Ms Pat Show Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Weronika Tofilska, Baby Reindeer Noah Hawley, Fargo Gus Van Sant, Feud: Capote vs The Swans Millicent Shelton, Lessons in Chemistry Steven Zaillian, Ripley — WINNER Issa Lopez, True Detective: Night Country Writing for a Drama Series Peter Morgan and Meriel Sheibani-Clare, The Crown Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, Fallout Francesca Sloane and Donald Glover, Mr & Mrs Smith Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks, Shōgun Rachel Kondo and Caillin Puente, Shōgun Will Smith, Slow Horses — WINNER Writing for a Comedy Series Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary Christopher Storer and Joanna Calo, The Bear Meredith Scardino and Sam Means, Girls5eva Lucia Aniello, Paul W Downs and Jen Statsky, Hacks — WINNER Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider, The Other Two Jake Bender and Zach Dunn, What We Do in the Shadows Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer — WINNER Charlie Brooker, Black Mirror Noah Hawley, Fargo Ron Nyswaner, Fellow Travelers Steven Zaillian, Ripley Issa Lopez, True Detective: Night Country Writing for a Variety Special Alex Edelman: Just for Us — WINNER Jacqueline Novak: Get on Your Knees John Early: Now More Than Ever Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man and the Pool The Oscars Outstanding Reality Competition Program RuPaul's Drag Race The Amazing Race The Traitors — WINNER The Voice Top Chef Outstanding Scripted Variety Series Last Week Tonight with John Oliver — WINNER Saturday Night Live Outstanding Talk Series The Daily Show — WINNER Jimmy Kimmel Live! Late Night with Seth Meyers The Late Show with Stephen Colbert The 2024 Emmy Awards took place on Monday, September 16, Australian time. For further details, head to the Emmys' website.
Television perfection is watching Elle Fanning (The Girl From Plainville) and Nicholas Hoult (The Menu) trying to run 18th-century Russia while scheming, fighting and heatedly reuniting in ahistorical period comedy The Great. Since 2020, they've each been in career-best form — her as the series' ambitious namesake, him as the emperor who loses his throne to his wife — while turning in two of the best performances on streaming in one of the medium's most hilarious shows. Both former child actors now enjoying excellent careers as adults, they make such a marvellous pair that it's easy to imagine this series being built around them. It wasn't and, now three seasons in with its latest ten-episode run arriving on Stan and Neon from Saturday, May 13, The Great has never thrived on their casting alone. Still, shouting "huzzah!" at the duo's bickering, burning passion and bloodshed-sparking feuding flows as freely as all the vodka downed in the Emmy-winner's frames. This devilishly loose and amusing parody of Catherine the Great's reign first found life on the stage, with its Australian creator Tony McNamara initially unleashing The Great's winning havoc upon Sydney Theatre Company in 2008. His process: stepping into the past, throwing familiar figures and events together, then shaking them around to make his own satirical story. Earning him a BAFTA and an Oscar nomination for co-penning The Favourite, too, that approach clearly resounds with the playwright, screenwriter and producer. Here, it results in a savage and witty charmer that ponders which tales end up echoing through history, and why, while also tearing into royalty and wealth's sense of entitlement and privilege — eating the Russian rich and powerful, and making it an exquisitely moreish meal. In season one, the former Princess Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg of Prussia travelled to Russia to marry the gleefully frat boy-esque Emperor Peter III, a plan on his part that'd have history-making repercussions. It's meant to solve her family's financial woes and give him an heir, but her idealism plus his arrogance and immaturity prove a Molotov cocktail. Swiftly, she's plotting her way to the top job, to enlightening her adopted homeland with progressive ideas and to far-from-harmonious wedded life. In this "occasionally true story", as The Great has happily badged itself from its very first days, there was never any question that Catherine would overthrow Peter; the details, however, don't simply spill into the handsomely staged and colourfully costumed series from reality. Season two saw the show's main couple still waging war on each other, including via soldiers and within the venomous royal court. As their various hangers-on kept jostling for relevance and importance — including Peter's lifelong pals Grigor (Gwilym Lee, Top End Wedding) and Georgina (Charity Wakefield, Genius), his aunt Elizabeth (Belinda Bromilow, Doctor Doctor), Catherine's former servant Marial (Phoebe Fox, The Aeronauts) and co-conspirator Orlo (Sacha Dhawan, Doctor Who), the country's resident Archbishop (Adam Godley, Lodge 49) and military head Velementov (Douglas Hodge, I Hate Suzie Too) — it also had Catherine pregnant, her acid-tongued mother (Gillian Anderson, The Crown) make a visit and its central marriage come to stabbing blows. Now, in a new batch of instalments all either written or co-written by McNamara, Catherine and Peter begin the third season sure about their love for each other, but just as flummoxed as ever about making their nuptials work. She's attempting to reform the nation, he's the primary caregiver to their infant son Paul, her efforts are meeting resistance, he's doting but also bored playing stay-out-of-politics dad, and couples counselling is called for. There's also the matter of the royal court's most prominent members, many of whom were rounded up and arrested under Catherine's orders at the end of season two. From Sweden, exiled King Hugo (Freddie Fox, House of the Dragon) and Queen Agnes (Grace Molony, Mary, Queen of Scots) are also hanging around after being run out of their own country due to democracy's arrival. Also, Peter's lookalike Pugachev (also Hoult) is agitating for a serf-powered revolution. In lesser hands, The Great might've been a mere soapy diversion (when it comes to jumping back into the past, eagerly ignoring the facts and merrily dishing up straightforward melodrama, see: Bridgerton). But this series remains one of the sharpest programs currently airing as well, thanks in no small part to its astute insights. Each subplot, whether it's Catherine and Peter's conflict over ordaining Paul as next in line to the throne by divine mandate, or the chaos caused when Catherine legalises divorce (including for Marial and Grigor's affair), or the especially sycophantic Arkady (Bayo Gbadamosi, War of the Worlds) and Tatyana (Florence Keith-Roach, Juliet, Naked) doing whatever it takes to stay in court, unpacks today's social and political ideas as much as its setting's. When Pugachev starts riling up crowds at big rallies spent attacking Catherine, for instance, thinking of recent headlines happens instantly. The Great has always been as magnificently absurd as it is smart and biting, a blend that also doesn't stop now. Since episode one, Bromilow has carved her place alongside Fanning and Hoult by playing Elizabeth as delightfully fanciful but steely, while The Gallery's Henry Meredith steals almost every scene he's in as Marial's 11-year-old shoe-loving wannabe-assassin cousin and husband Maxim. But season three skews darker, too, which is also a terrific and intelligent turn. Indeed, in a show that's never been shy about a body count (when Catherine wants to criminalise murder in this run of episodes, neither the court nor the people respond warmly), it's positively bold about adding to its casualties, contemplating the choices that grief inspires and exploring raw emotions. It was true in season one, never in doubt in season two and an established fact with season three: The Great keenly, heartily and truly lives up to its name. In fact, the show's latest go-around is a case of something great becoming even greater — and more addictive and irresistible — in its willingness to get bleak, its joyous mix of ridiculousness and drama, and its superb main performances. Fanning relishes Catherine's complexities again and again, leaning stunningly into heartbreak and leadership's heavy toll. Flitting between suave and rough-and-tumble, Hoult couldn't be having more fun in his dual parts. When they're together, their scenes are ceaselessly electrifying. McNamara gives season three an exceptional ending, complete with a nod to Australia, after ensuring that The Great has been forever changed by this supremely bingeable return; here's hoping, though, that there's still more greatness to come. Check out the trailer for The Great season three below: The Great season three streams in Australia via Stan and in New Zealand via Neon from Saturday, May 13.
Buying a plant is a bit like getting a pet — except, at times, even more difficult. You see a fancy-looking fern in the plant store and think, whoa, this would look great on the kitchen bench. So you take it home and try your best, really, to take care of it, and dream that one day it might love you back (hopefully). But then disaster happens; you see a few brown leaves and it looks a little wilted. What do you do? Truth is, some plants can be pretty needy, and some just don't flourish in certain environments. It can be really hard to figure out what your plants require and where they grow best, so we spoke to Georgina Reid, founder and editor of online magazine The Planthunter. She's given her seasoned advice that'll help you keep those plant babies alive, organised by the different parts of your home. THE SUNNY, NORTH-FACING, INDOOR SPACE This is your well-sunned living room or kitchen with a nice big window. There's a lot that can grow here due to the amount of sunshine pouring in. Many succulents will work well in this space; look to hen and chicks (Echeveria spp.), jade plant (Crassula spp.) and even mistletoe cactus (Rhipsalis spp.). Aesthetically, the fiddle-leaf fig looks snazzy in a well-lit, white room (although apparently a little cliché in the plant community), and so does peperomia with its thick, slightly succulent leaves. Just be aware if this space doesn't get that direct afternoon sun — this may be good for you in the middle of summer, but not so much for any cacti or herbs. These guys need a big dose of sun so this spot may be a bit depriving. THE SUNNY, BACKDOOR COURTYARD Conveniently located at the other end of your house, the courtyard is most likely at ground level so there's a good chance you can plant directly in the soil and keep things in pots. As a result, consider this spot the all-rounder. It's an ideal location for succulents, flowers, vegetables and herbs. Oregano, rosemary and thyme are quite easy to grow, and the great thing about them is that they're perennial — they'll live for more than one year (unlike basil, coriander and parsley who live fast and die young). Many veggies need roughly four to six hours of sun each day, making a sunny courtyard an ideal space for them to thrive. And if you're not after edibles, Reid recommends checking out the spaghetti-like hanging fronds of the mistletoe cactus (Rhipsalis spp.) which provide an eye-catching, refreshingly sculptural addition to a shadier outdoor space. THE OFTEN HUMID, STEAMY BATHROOM Plants might do a great job of freshening up the bathroom, but the steam from your shower is enough to drown a large number of genera — FYI, that's the plural of genus— so Reid suggests looking for tropical climate plants. Ferns are great here as they love that moisture. The Boston fern is a great bathroom addition visually. They're also pretty tough and grow very tall. Maidenhair fern is also a popular bathroom addition, but be warned: this one may be for the greenest of thumbs. According to Reid, the Maidenhair can be quite temperamental if not provided with near-perfect growing conditions. THE LOW-LIT STUDY OR BEDROOM Our bedrooms and studies aren't reliably bright, so the desk cactus doesn't like this part of the house, regardless of how cute it looks next to that lamp. Reid recommends you swap it for a big leafy plant or fern instead. She suggests looking for rainforest plants: "They've evolved with large, glossy leaves to grab as much light as possible." Although not applicable to all plants, many of these have 'drip tips'. You can identify these by the point at the end of the leaf that water spills off. Some of Reid's favourites include the hoya, a beautifully sculpted climbing plant with incredible flowers, and Devil's Ivy — the name comes from the fact that it's near impossible to kill this guy. Also, the Fruit Salad plant (also known as monstera) doesn't really need a whole lot of sun and grows really well in dim light. THE HOT, WEST-FACING BALCONY The west-facing balcony might be the hottest part of your place, after the oven. In summer, the afternoon sun will roast this area, making it scorched and dry. So, it's best to put those plants that require a lot less moisture out here. Cacti love this setting: if at all, they require very little watering — they thrive in the desert, after all. Herbs are great too and so are veggies: they all need a good showering of sun. Succulents will grow well in the heat, too. Reid recommends plants from the aloe genus, particularly picatilis or Fan Aloe. Like other succulents, it's the perfect plant to survive a heatwave as all the moisture is stored within its leaves. So how much water do succulents need? You'll notice when they need more moisture; they'll be trying to draw water from itself and will look a little withered. "It's best to give your plants a good soaking every week or two, rather than a trickle every day," says Reid. You can tell if they need a water by sticking a finger into the soil. If there's moisture, it's probably fine. There's no need to drown the poor thing. All in all, getting your plants to thrive can be tricky and often needs more than one go. But if it doesn't work out, try again. "Plants die," says Reid, "that's just how it is." Plant Life Balance is a new initiative designed to get Australians excited and confident about styling their homes with plants while promoting the healthy benefits plants bring. The initiative also delivers an Australian-first, virtual greening app. The Plant Life Balance app, asks Aussies to rate their space, then improve their health score by choosing a look for their room or outdoor area, grabbing a plant list and hitting the nursery. Download the app here.
So if you're lonely, Franz Ferdinand will be here waiting for you across Australia before 2025 is out. Fresh from releasing their sixth album in January, the Scottish band have announced a visit Down Under in November and December, with five gigs on the itinerary. Their stops: Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne, Thirroul and Sydney. It's been more than two decades since the Alex Kapranos-led group made a helluva splash with the catchy second single from their self-titled debuted album. Even just reading the name 'Take Me Out' is enough to get the number-one tune in Triple J's 2004 Hottest 100 stuck in your head. The song was also nominated for two Grammys, while the record that it springs from won the Mercury Prize. Franz Ferdinand's latest trip to Australia kicks off in Perth at Red Hill Auditorium on Wednesday, November 26, before heading across the country to Brisbane's Riverstage on Saturday, November 29. Next destination: Melbourne, playing Live at the Gardens at the Royal Botanic Gardens on Friday, November 28. Then comes a Tuesday, December 2 date with Anita's Theatre in Thirroul in New South Wales, before wrapping up on Wednesday, December 3 at On the Steps at the Sydney Opera House Forecourt. On every stop, Melbourne's Delivery will be in support — and everywhere except Thirroul, so will the Mornington Peninsula-born Teenage Dads. Since the huge success of 'Take Me Out' and their 2004 Franz Ferdinand album, the band have dropped records in 2005 (You Could Have It So Much Better), 2009 (Tonight: Franz Ferdinand), 2013 (Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action), 2018 (Always Ascending) and this year (The Human Fear). Touring-wise, their past Aussie trips have included sets at Big Day Out, Splendour in the Grass and Falls Festival. Franz Ferdinand's 2025 Aussie visit comes just a few months after Bloc Party, who benefited from Kapranos' approval when they were starting out, do the same in August. Franz Ferdinand Australian Tour 2025 Wednesday, November 26 — Red Hill Auditorium, Perth Saturday, November 29 — Riverstage, Brisbane Friday, November 28 — Live at the Gardens, Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne Tuesday, December 2 — Anita's Theatre, Thirroul Wednesday, December 3 — On the Steps, Sydney Opera House Forecourt, Sydney Franz Ferdinand are touring Australia in November and December 2025, with ticket presales from 10am local time on Monday, May 12 and general sales from the same time on Wednesday, May 14. Head to the tour website for more details. Select images: Raph PH via Flickr.
Being alone is wonderful. Especially if you love nothing more than a quiet solo venture with your newest paperback squeeze. Adequate lighting, quality drinks and comfy perches for single derrières have been paramount when choosing these best ofs. As well as those that are inspiring the literature community at large. Sink into someone else's couch, have an author sign your book, join a book club, cosy up with a fire, get fresh at an alfresco table, raid a liquor-licensed library, or simply smash a good vino whilst reading alone in a courtyard — these are your best Melbourne nooks for reading a book.
It spent almost 100 years of its life as a dry venue, but the beer's flowing freely now at The Victoria Hotel, as it enters its next phase as Mister Munro. The historic Little Collins Street pub has been reimagined as a dapper dining room and bar, named in a nod to former Victorian Premier and temperance advocate, James Munro. Here, you'll find a locally-focused all-day offering that leans to the classics, much like the fitout takes its cues from the building's art deco origins. Breakfast might mean baked eggs with mushrooms and asparagus in slow cooked tomato sauce ($14) or a brown rice 'morning bowl' ($14). An all-day grazing menu features bites like beetroot carpaccio teamed with orange, goats cheese and candied walnuts ($12), tempura salt and vinegar haloumi fries ($8), and a charcuterie platter loaded with a largely local lineup of cheese, cured meats and wild fig compote ($18). Come dinnertime, there's the likes of a pistachio-crusted Millawarra lamb rack served alongside rustic sweet potato fries ($38) and Victorian rainbow trout, starring garlic butter, capers and shaved fennel ($22). The bar offering is a certain hit for that after-work tipple, too. Think, craft beers, an Aussie-led wine list and sophisticated signatures like the A Touch Of Class — a blend of sloe gin, prosecco, watermelon and basil ($18).
