Nick Malpas relies on a three-wheeled mobility scooter to get around, and until recently he was happily catching buses in Hobart.

That stopped in July when he was told Tasmania’s public transport operator, Metro Tasmania, did not allow three-wheeled scooters on board, unless they were stowed in luggage racks, according to a policy that had been introduced more than six years ago.

Mr Malpas said he rang Metro about three years ago, before buying his scooter, to check it complied with the rules, and was told it did.

“I’ve been using the scooter for two-and-a-half years and it’s only just come up as an issue,” he said.

“I would have gotten a different scooter if I’d known about this … I wouldn’t have spent $3,000 on a scooter that I now can’t take on the bus.”

“In New South Wales you can’t take a three-wheeled scooter on a bus, but you can take it on the trains … and the trams,” Mr Malpas said.

“I think it’s particularly pressing that Metro Tas work out a way that all common mobility aids can be taken on buses since that’s our only [public] transport option [in Tasmania],” he said.

Mr Malpas said he could easily move around his neighbourhood, but not being able to catch the bus meant it was difficult for him to travel into central Hobart.

“It means that it’s very difficult for me to get into medical appointments, to go to government services, to go shopping if I need to get anything in the city, and it’s also just very socially isolating,” he said.

A Metro Tasmania spokesman said “three-wheeled mobility aids of any kind are unstable when on board and will not be carried because they are a safety risk to all passengers on board”, a rule that he said had been in place for more than six years.

New South Wales is the only other state that has a blanket ban on three-wheeled scooters on buses.

He wants to see a focus on making buses accessible.

“What we really need is some form of consistency throughout Australia and for Metro and the Department of State Growth … to get together to work out a way in which we can be consistent,” he said.

Source: ABC News

Dr Roslynne Bell, Associate Research Fellow in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne, will present the online lecture Warriors, Weapons, and Wild Women: The Amazons in Greek Art,on Thursday 5 August, at 7.00pm, as part of the Greek History and Culture Seminars, offered by the Greek Community of Melbourne.

Few mythological figures proved more fascinating to the ancient Greeks than the Amazons. In this talk we will look at some of the images that help us understand not only how this race of warrior women were thought to have lived and fought, but also how they challenged perceived norms of female behaviour in antiquity. 

Dr Roslynne Bell is currently an Associate Research Fellow in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. Before this she taught a range of courses in Greek and Roman art and archaeology, first in the Classics department at the University of Canterbury, NZ, and more recently at the University of Manchester, UK, where she held a joint lectureship in the departments of Archaeology and Classics. 

She’s also been an Honorary Academic Curator of the Greek and Roman Collections at the Manchester Museum, and a research fellow at the British School at Rome. Her research is largely in the field of Roman art and the topography of ancient Rome with her latest publication Image and Identity: Augustus and the Cult of the Magna Mater (Oxford University Press) coming out soon.  

She also has a great love of Greek art, which began at the University of Canterbury where, for 11 years, she held the role of curator of the James Logie Memorial Collection of Classical Antiquities.

When: Thursday 5 August 2021, 7pm

Where: This is an online lecture and can be followed on Zoom, Facebook and Youtube

The Berejiklian government has granted permission for spiritual leaders in the eight locked down local government areas to leave their LGAs in order to livestream religious services, following calls this week from NSW Labor.

Reported initially by The Australian, spiritual leaders, including Greek Orthodox priests, were previously not allowed to leave their LGA’s to attend worship.

Spiritual leaders were only allowed to leave to conduct funerals with up to 10 mourners in attendance, and to give last rites.

However, the NSW Government has altered the restrictions to allow faith leaders to broadcast services and ceremonies at places of worship, or provide end of life care and support.

NSW Labor members Sophie Cotsis, Courtney Houssos and Steve Kamper are only a few of the people who called on the Government to make this change.

“I’ve been hearing from a lot of faith groups and a lot of people of faith that they don’t have a service,” Steve Kamper said.

“There’s been an enormous demand to get the authorised worker status provided to religious leaders.”

The Rockdale MP said the changes should only apply if religious leaders can demonstrate “strict adherence” to a Covid-19 safety plan, and if they are joined only by those performing religious rights and one technician tasked with filming and broadcasting the service.

“This is a common sense decision and means so much to people of faith who are doing it tough during this time,” Sophie Cotsis said on Facebook.

“The spiritual value of these live-streamed services to many in our communities is immense.Very pleased to see that our religious leaders will be able to live stream their services.”

Belmore Greek Orthodox Parish president Steve Rafeletos says his church has been “very quiet” for a place which is home to a “passionate religion”, since tough stay-at-home orders were introduced in the Canterbury-Bankstown LGA.

“It’s like people have taken their faith away if they can’t come to church. It’s obviously the social gathering on Sundays as well,” he said to The Australian.

“With these restrictions, our priest who’s been there for 50 years can’t come to work. It makes it pretty tough.”

The affected LGAs are Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown, Liverpool, Cumberland, Blacktown, Parramatta, Georges River and Campbelltown.

Birdwood High School principal Heather Makris, 45, is grateful each day she gets to follow her passion and inspire a new generation.

As a young mum in 2001, she was diagnosed with meningitis after falling unconscious while at home alone with her two then babies, daughter, Eleni-Nicole, aged 18 months and son, Peter, aged six months.

In the two decades that have followed, her children and husband, Michael, have been told to prepare for the worst several times, as the initial illness gave rise to a series of debilitating and life-threatening conditions that destroyed her liver.

In 2016, Ms Makris was placed on life support when she developed septicaemia after a routine operation, one of 25 she has endured. She was told she would need a liver transplant with “the call” coming late in 2019, as she fought to keep her school community safe from the bushfires.

“I didn’t sleep that (transplant eve) night, I put pen to paper and wrote a letter to my donor family because I knew that although we were now elated and hopeful, they were going through heartache and sorrow … I will be forever grateful for their kindness and generosity,” she said.

“I vowed and promised that I would do everything I possibly could to ensure their gift of life to me would make a difference.

“I could not imagine not working, not being around children and young people … for me it is a blessing. I love going to work, I love what each day brings.”

Remarkably, despite the health challenges which she largely kept to herself, Ms Makris has held senior education roles in SA, including at Charles Campbell and Glenunga high schools and delivering education reform within the department.

“I would put on my makeup every morning and I would feel fabulous … I knew that I had a calling to inspire people to believe in themselves, that it doesn’t matter what people tell you, you can tread towards your goals with fierce determination and it doesn’t matter how difficult they appear, you can actually make the impossible possible,” she said.

Ms Makris, now doing well, is the brainchild behind the annual South Australian Amazing Race for Donate Life to raise awareness for organ donations, postponed by lockdown.

To register as an organ and tissue donor, go to donatelife.gov.au/join-register

Source: Adelaide Now