This is an impression of Jack and Ella Thomas’s yard, Lancelot Terrace, Moonta Mines, drawn in the 1980s. Jack (known as Janna) bred and raced champion pigeons. Ella raised goats. She was very cluey. Both were so Cornish.
Jack could just remember the end of the mines 60 years earlier. The mine owners blew up many of the mine buildings, he said, so the now-jobless families wouldn’t be able to use them.
At election times the Moonta Mines polling booth would be the only Labor booth on the Yorke Peninsula. Ella Thomas handed out the Labor ‘How To Vote’ cards and made sure you knew how to make your vote count.
The remains of a structure on the left in the picture once supported a wind generator that charged batteries which powered the lights in the house. When mains electricity reached Moonta Mines residents were not able to connect to the power until they had dismantled their wind generators.
Photographer Peter Richards lived next door and here are two of his beautiful photos of Jack and Ella, taken back then.
The Sydney International Storytelling Conference, June 6-8, was a gathering of wonderful storytellers. My cartooning at the event illustrated moments from their presentations, workshops and, of course, stories.
Chris Ategeka has created a book of one hundred ‘one-liner jokes to survive the Road Trip of Life‘.
Here is a small selection from the 100 cartoons that illustrate Chris’s witty thoughts -with a few words from the jokes added just to give you a taste of his humour. To read more you will have to buy Puns and Chuckles, One-liner Jokes to Survive the Road Trip of Life! And to discover the more serious side of Chris Ategeka’s work click here.
The Sydney International Storytelling Conference, June 2-4. Israeli-born Noa Baum gave the keynote presentation on how she is working on bridging the divide between Israelis and Palestinians. Listening with heart and mind, accepting dissonance and uncertainty.
And two days of moving stories, and workshops. These conferences are wonderful treats.
Venturing Out is a book of ‘poems and portraits’ by Roger Rees, published by Moonglow Publishing. The background illustration for the cover and the pictures to introduce each section:
Simon Kneebone - cartoonist and illustrator 