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Category Archives: community issues

It doesn’t go away …

Ten years ago in South Australia as part of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission: SA citizens’ jury votes against storing nuclear waste. A demonstration of the real value of the citizen jury process. The AUKUS agreement with South Australian involvement in the building and maintenance of nuclear submarines challenges the citizen jury vote in 2016.

Park Lands chipped away …

As designed by William Light Adelaide was a city surrounded by wide parklands – parklands for all. Over many years they have been encroached upon by various developments, and this has ramped up under the Malinauskas government, encouraged by various influential groups, developers, lobbyists and more – as detailed by the Adelaide Parklands Association.

Alright! …

Some of the illustrations for Simon Betts/Soul Trader’s new songs. The first song Alright in the end has been released with more to follow. Eventual ly the illustrations will be used on the album cover.

These things happen …

David Low (PhD), Australian Pollution Research Network:

‘Does this scene look unlikely? Actually, we found that the spraying of cancer-causing glyphosate and PFAS boosted herbicides onto children’s play areas is standard practice at Melbourne’s City Of Monash. The finding is discussed in a new report researched by students from Monash University’s Biosciences Department.

This reckless practice needs to be halted immediately to prevent further harm to children and expectant mothers using parks and gardens in Australia.’

Full copy of the researched case-study here:
https://lnkd.in/gMuSa2Rn

Cartoon from an idea by David Low.

Real world support …

The Australian government’s social media ban for under 16 year olds began this week.

Crossroads …

Cover illustration for the South Australian Council of Social Service SACOSS annual report. The community sector is at a crossroads…

Previous covers:

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Small Town Reinvention …

The 2nd National Small Town Reinvention Conference was held at Kapunda, South Australia, 22-25 September. The cartoons illustrated just some of the many moments and messages over four great days.

The conference was another Peter Kenyon of The Bank of Ideas event. Supported by many – in particular Tony Piccolo MP who brought the conference to Kapunda.

The 28 cartoons were auctioned on the last day, the money raised was donated to the painting of the Kapunda silo art project.

NSW Ombudsman exhibition …

The Parliament House exhibition NSW Ombudsman – Fifty years pursuing fairness for NSW 1975–2025 will be accessible Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm for the month of July. Details about NSW Parliament and the exhibition: https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/visit/events/Pages/Ombudsman50.aspx

In the 1980s one of my first regular cartooning assignments was illustrating a number of each year’s case studies in the South Australian Office of the Ombudsman annual reports. This led to also doing illustrations for the New South Wales Ombudsman – a number of which have been used in the exhibition and also in the History Report: https://www.ombo.nsw.gov.au/50-years-pursuing-fairness-for-nsw-1975-2025

These were early days and it was real work experience for me.

The future is ABCD …

Dimitrios Papalexis, founder and director at Soulgen – building social capital, driving social innovation, enhancing community wellbeing – wanted a design that illustrated Asset Based Communiy Development (ABCD) – for T-shirts and other uses.

The final design (above) came together after three ideas (below) were drawn up and put out inviting feedback.

Small towns – reinventing their futures …

The inaugural Positive Pathways to local Rural Prosperity conference was held in Pickering Brook, Western Australia, September 17-20th 2024. Initiated by The Bank of Ideas which has been committed to ‘supporting the growth of enterprising, sustainable and vibrant small-town communities and economies’ since 1989. Here are a few of the cartoons drawn during the conference highlighting just some of the great ideas from the presentations and sessions. For more about small town reinvention and conference assets and presentations click here.