In this episode we chat with two local author illustrators who each use their art and story telling to reach a new generation with messages about love of nature and care for the environment.
Trace Balla is a Castlemaine local and much beloved author/illustrator who has produced multiple comic style books about young people learning about and thus learning to love nature. Her latest creation ‘Landing with Wings’ has just been released by Allen & Unwin.
J. M. Rodier is a Kyneton local and has just published her first book called ‘Lanuola’. It is a whimsical and fantastical short novel for tweens with occasional illustrations all about the real problem of crown of thorn starfish in our reefs.
Links
Click here and then scroll to the bottom of the page to get downloadable kids activities based on the book by Trace Balla.
This episode was created in 2020 as part of a series called Turning the Goldfields Green. This series was created with support from MASG, MAINfm and the Community Broadcasting Foundation.
Transcript:
Allie: Welcome to episode 11 of Turning the Goldfield Green. In today’s episode, I’ll do a very brief update on some things I’ve noticed about the rapidly changing situation with the coronavirus and how it’s impacting the environment. Then onto lighter topics, because at the moment all we seem to be reading and hearing about is the virus, and sometimes it’s nice just to have a break.
So today I’m speaking with two local author illustrators who have recently released books that look at environmental issues. Firstly, Trace Balla talks about her new book Landing With Wings, another gentle heartful story from Trace about community and connection to country.
And then I chat with Michelle Rodier, or JM Rodier, about her new release Lanuola, a book for eight to 12 year olds about the crown-of-thorns starfish. But first let’s acknowledge that this episode has been recorded, produced and is airing from Dja Dja Wurrung country. I’d like to acknowledge their elders, past present and emerging and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded.
Saltgrass theme plays: Salt of the earth people, grass roots change. Listen to all episodes of Saltgrass on your podcast app. Listen to all episodes of Turning the Goldfield Green on saltgrass.podbean.com
Allie: Okay, now for an update regarding the coronavirus and the environment. Coliban Water, our local water supplier, have put out a notice, imploring people not to flush wet wipes or cloth or anything other than toilet paper, not even newspaper or paper towel. People, as many of you will know, have been bulk buying toilet paper. It’s been a crisis for a couple of weeks where toilet paper has not been available and people are starting to get desperate. So people are starting to use other things to clean themselves after they’ve gone to the toilet.
And what they’re not realising is how very bad for the environment this is and how much trouble it’s causing our local sewerage system. So, toilet paper is designed to break up, and any other paper or material can clog up sewers and cause major damage. And there was a recent blockage in a system in Bendigo, which resulted in 20,000 litres of waste water spilling into the local creek, which is not only a health hazard for humans, but is terrible for the environment, the local ecosystem, the animals. Everyone suffers for that.
So don’t flush anything other than toilet paper. If you don’t have any toilet paper or a bidet, or a tabo as described in our last episode, please bin whatever else you are using and do not flush it, or create a special compost heap, if you have the capacity to do that. You could have a bucket in your bathroom that is specially for your human compost heap, and then you take it out and you empty it into your compost heap and cover it with some straw or some old grass clippings.
And don’t use that compost for two years, I believe is the general advice. You could probably look up online, ‘how to compost human waste’. There are a lot of people who do use composting toilets, but if you don’t have a composting toilet, you can still compost what is left over from you wiping your bum, basically.
So don’t flush it. That’s the bottom line. Don’t flush it. The other piece of ‘not news’ about the coronavirus and the environment that I thought was interesting this week, is a lot of people have been trying to post uplifting environmental stories. As a result of the lack of movement and pollution and air travel and boat travel.
Most notably, there was one about how dolphins are swimming in the canals of Venice and swans are back and all of that sort of thing. But National Geographic has released a fake news busting article saying that, ‘I’m sorry, but that is actually fake news’. The photos that we used were taken from a point in the canals where there are often dolphins and another point in the area where there are swans.
So I think that there is no actual, you know, flourishing of life because human activity has stopped. I do think that the waters in the canals are clearer than they’ve been for a very, very long time. And people are noticing that they can see fish in the waters for the first time, which is great. There are amazing benefits to this sudden drop in human activity around the globe, as much as it’s scary for us in a terrible health crisis and we don’t want anyone to get hurt, this lack of movement, the grounding of all these airplanes and public transport and events is actually really good for the planet. And even if it’s just six months of breathing room for the planet, maybe that’s a good thing. At least in terms of emissions, I have also noticed a lot of people commenting on how it’s helping them recognise that their lives were too busy and feel what it feels like to really, truly stop.
‘Cos often even when we’re on holidays, we jam pack it with activities and people and places to see and go to. And now we’re all forced to just stop and be in our home environment. And there’s something really profound about that. And it is affecting a lot of people really negatively. Some people are not coping mentally or emotionally with this forced isolation and lack of movement.
And it really is a genuine concern for some people’s mental health. So if anyone isn’t feeling great emotionally about isolation or feeling scared, there are a lot of phone numbers you can call and a lot of resources available to you. And you’re definitely not alone. A lot of people are struggling with this isolation.
So if you would like any help with that sort of thing, please look on the links of the podcast, saltgrass.podbean.com. And the links underneath this episode will have some links for those of you who might be struggling with isolation.
I’m certainly not suggesting that we all should be housebound for the rest of our lives to save the environment, but there has been a lot of reflection on the idea that we couldn’t do this amount of carbon emission reduction for any other reason than a life and death reason. But climate change is a life and death reason. It’s just not right on top of us, the way the coronavirus is, and who knows what will happen at the other end of this virus, this pandemic. I’m sure that industry will ramp up again.
People will go on with their lives again. People will book holidays. But the effect on the economy is looking to be quite dire. And so there might be a lengthy period of subdued activity around the globe. And what that means for emissions and carbon in the atmosphere is yet to be seen.
It also means people working to develop alternative energy sources are also being paused and on standstill. So, you know, it cuts both ways, this ceasing of activity. All right, enough about the coronavirus. There’s certainly no shortage of news and information about it out there. So let’s talk about some little more cheerful things.
Although the coronavirus, as you’ll see is affecting our artists as well.
Short musical break: bird calls and guitar
Allie: So I’m sitting here with Trace Balla on her front porch, and we are going to have a chat about her book Landing With Wings, which has just been released. I think it’s really interesting. I mean, we’re gonna talk about the book itself because this is why we want to talk to you Trace, but on top of that issue is this overriding problem with the coronavirus and how it’s affecting creative people in general.
Like a lot of creative people that I’ve been speaking to, or follow on Facebook or Instagram, are talking about how all of their performances have been cancelled. All of the side work that they do with schools and things has been cancelled.
And it really, if that’s your main income, that’s huge. Is that what’s happening to you?
Trace Balla: Yeah. Most children’s authors, that’s how you make your money, from sort of being on the coattails of your books, going and doing library visits, school visits, little festivals here and there. You know, I was going to the Eel Festival this weekend. That’s a bit sad. Nevertheless, it’s been going on for thousands of years. So, you know, It’ll probably go on again for a few thousand more I hope.
Allie: Yeah. So that’s been cancelled too because of the virus. Now let’s talk about the book Landing With Wings, which is -you’ve got quite a few gorgeous books under your belt now, but the one that really took off a couple of years ago was River Time, and then followed up by Rock Hopping.
Those two, plus Landing With Wings, are all about connection with nature and relationship to the land. Tell me a little bit about how, why that’s important to you and what that means in your life.
Trace Balla: Well, we are part of nature. It’s sort of like, we’re not even connected to it, we are it. So, I guess they’re stories about how we are part of everything.
This book is a lot more about community than the other books, and River Time and Rock Hopping were about going through country, one on the river, one on the rocks, and this one’s about being in one place and sinking into it.
Allie: And so part of that is you explore is what Indigenous seasons look like and how they’re measured via the life cycle of a frog.
Tell us a little bit about that.
Trace Balla: Well there’s a very tiny little frog or toad called the Bibron’s toadlet, and it’s not that common around here. I have a good friend Carl Just who is helping to protect them by putting in a chain of ponds. He’s done that up on the side of Kalimna. So I’ve been really fascinated by that species and it’s become a feature species in my book, as well as the golden whistler, which is a beautiful bird that lives around here.
And so it was sort of like a jigsaw puzzle, making the story fit around the seasons of what those creatures were doing at which time of year. ‘Cos it set over a whole year, right here in Dja Dja Wurrung country on the Forrest Creek and the Moonlight Flat.
Allie: And you work closely with the Indigenous elder Uncle Rick Nelson and probably a few other people in the local Indigenous community.
What sort of stuff were you working on with them?
Trace Balla: Well, I started off with Uncle Rick. Oh, it was like at least three years ago or four. And also with the corporation up in Bendigo. Firstly, I just wanted to see if it was okay to be making a story on their country. And I really wanted to refer to it that way.
And if there was any things that they would like to have in there. And then I spoke with Auntie Julie and Auntie Kath, and they invited me to come along to the meeting place, the culture school, where I’ve since then been doing nature sketching and making books and artwork with the kids.
So Uncle Rick gave me a few ideas to put in the book, as did some of the kids. And just from my own experience of spending more closer time with some of those lovely folk.
Allie: One of the beautiful things about your books, and this one is the same, is the amount of detail that you put in of nature and all the different species and you even get the correct sounds they make, and you give them their names, and where possible you give them their Indigenous names, that would’ve been like so much culture and language has been lost, especially down south here.
Was it easy to find that information?
Trace Balla: No. At the moment there’s a Dja Dja Wurrung dictionary being made. And that’s been taking a long time to be made. It’s part of a language revival down south of Australia. And so I had to go through like a lot of processes and protocols to get permission. And during that time, the words changed spelling. laughs
And because it took such a long time, Uncle Rick suggested that in the front end pages of the book I get the animals in local language, which is really special, and there’s a limited edition poster of that as well. Well, I’m hoping everyone will like it on their toilet door or somewhere.
Allie: Yeah.
Trace Balla: So, and that’s lovely because when every time I see gurruk now, ‘hello a little gurruk!’ Gurruk’s the magpie.
I know gurruk’s name. Yeah. And that’s very nice to be able to, you know, speak to that bird in the local language. And then the names in the book of the places. I do talk about how, for example, what we call, a lot us call Mount Alexander, but has been known for thousands of years as Leanganook. It was named after a Macedonian emperor and the kids sort of question like, why would we call it that?
So, yeah anyway, I don’t wanna give any more away on that bit. It’s important to me to really respect language that is around and to bring it back to life where you can.
Allie: Part of the character journey, or arc, or development in this story is this idea that this mother and daughter have been travelling and moving house a lot, and they’ve never really settled and put down roots somewhere.
And I found it really interesting that you gave, you didn’t go into depth, like the story’s about the little girl, but you didn’t just ignore the parent as a non-emotional parent figure. You know, the mother has got this story about how she struggles to fit in herself, which I think is really interesting.
And it’s all about finding a community really that you feel you belong to.
Trace Balla: Yeah, well I must give credit to my beautiful editor, Elise Jones from Allen and Unwin who helped me with the story arc and putting that mother in that position laughs ‘cos it wasn’t actually like my initial storyline, storyboard to have that happening.
Yeah. Just added some tension and interest in the story. For me, I need to have community to exist in my life as I think we all do. And at the moment with the terrible things going on in the world with this virus, there is also a lot of great stuff going on, and one of that is like community strength and support and, you know, shining of the community.
And that’s real. Like this story is very much based on my own experiences and neighbours and all that.
Allie: I think a major element for me in the book is that you’ve incorporated lots of local characters throughout that are really recognisable, who are either friends or you see them, or you know them from around this area. Uncle Rick and a few other people were quite recognisable.
Trace Balla: Yeah. Auntie Julie’s in there. Maybe Auntie Kath could be there. Might be the library that we’ve been to. Laughs. Well, I guess it’s like raising awareness of what this country and who this country has been and is. You know, just an awareness of the history, and where we are and where we’re going, and just to tread lightly and be there together. Like life ais so much nicer when you know your neighbours, and your neighbour’s neighbours, and your neighbour’s neighbour’s neighbours.
Allie: I feel like there’s a strong component there about treating the earth kindly.
Trace Balla: That’s like absolutely central to the story is that she treads, the main character treads very, very lightly on the earth.
Yeah. And you know, she has friends that are frogs and birds and things. Yeah. They’re not all human.
Allie: And friends that show her how to grow thing and how to know things.
Trace Balla: Yeah. Yeah. How to grow and how to know. And to listen, to really listen, to just.. and look. Oh, another thing that the girl in the story, she goes around on a bike.
That’s what I do as well. And you know, if you go by bike instead of car you do hang closer to your home and you do get to know the country, the people, you get to know it all more. Yeah. The seasons, everything. ‘Cos you’re connected a lot more.
Allie: So let’s touch a little bit on your creative process.
Trace Balla: Yeah. So I started with taking notes for a few years, just jotted down notes as they came in sketchbooks. I spent a lot of time in the bush and various places like at the market sketching and at the Gung Hoe Growers farm. And so those little sketches then were what I used to do the finished work in my book. And the finished work, it looks like it’s done like my other books, but it’s actually drawn on my iPad.
Allie: So it looks like it’s done with pencil and watercolor. Yeah. But actually it’s done digitally.
Trace Balla: And there’s a reason for that. And that’s because the publisher, they’ve been translating my books and it’s really hard to translate a book where the pictures and the words are mixed up so much as mine are. And so if it’s on computer, then the words can be on a different layer and so you can easily just turn them on or off and then put in new ones in another language.
But when they’ve done it manually, it’s just been such a massive job. So at first I was a bit like, ‘eh, I don’t know about using a computer, I like my pencils and my pens.’ But now I actually really like it. I think it’s a fantastic drawing tool.
It’s all it is. It’s a tool and I am still the artist putting my soul into the work at the other end of that tool.
Allie: And tell us how you got your colour palette.
Trace Balla: Oh yeah. So I was thinking that this programme, there’s probably about a million colours you can use, unlike a pack of pencils or paint. And so I was walking in the bush.
And I suddenly thought, oh, there’s so many colours here. And I just took a bunch of leaves and stones and ochres and all sorts of things and just put them all together and took a photo of them. And then I used the dipping tool to create a palette from those colours of the country here. So yeah, the colours are very much from here.
Yeah. And you can see that in the back of the book, it’s sort of got pictures of how I’ve done it all.
Allie: And so if all the schools and libraries were open, what sort of workshops do you run?
Trace Balla: Well, I do cartoony sort of workshops I call ‘mixing it up’, where you mix up your words and your images.
And that’s great for every age because the early literacy, it’s really great for them. Just doing little sound effects and things to enrich their pictures. And then as they get older you can add more and more things like narrators and detail, and thinking one thing and saying another. So that’s really fun doing that sort of thing.
Or I can do nature journaling. I do a bit of that. And actually -could I give a little possible plug?- I just ran a workshop the other day with the homeschoolers. This is once the virus is getting us to keep a little bit away from each other, and all the kids sat on different picnic rug each with their family, and it was all outdoors in the bush.
And then I did a nature craft workshop with them, and it was lovely and everyone kept apart. It everyone was really safe in their separateness, but we all felt together as well. So if anyone’s interested in getting a group together and doing that, maybe I could offer that. Because that would be nice for people who are feeling a bit separate to come together in that way.
And also good for me, ‘cos I have lost a significant amount of work just because of the virus. Anyway, the main thing is that we all look after each other and keep as well as we can.
Short musical break: bird calls and guitar
Allie: So that was Trace Balla talking about her new book Landing With Wings, which has just been released and is available online via Allen and Unwin, and other online bookshops. And if you are local to Castlemaine, you can actually catch up with Trace and grab a copy from her. She normally would sell quite a few copies at a book launch.
And again, it’s a major source of income for an author such as herself, but the book launch has had to be cancelled entirely because of the coronavirus and the restrictions on people gathering. So I will put links in the episode description at saltgrass.podbean.com. So go there and follow the links.
Or find Trace Balla author illustrator on Facebook and make a connection with her. And you might be able to grab a book from her. Otherwise you can order them online.
Now I’m gonna speak with another local author illustrator, this time a woman called Michelle who lives in Kyneton and has written a book for eight to 12 year olds.
It’s a short novel that they can read to themselves with a few illustrations. It’s her first novel. And she’s written a fantastical story about some sea sprites who go on a quest to try and save their community, and their community’s called Lanuola.
They’re trying to save their community from the crown-of-thorns starfish who are going to come along and destroy their homes and they go through all sorts of adventures to try and save their homes from the starfish. I started off by asking Michelle what the word Lanuola means.
JM Rodier: It’s a Pacific Island route. So I was sort of looking for something that was Indigenous or native to around the area. And Lanuola means colourful. So I went with that one.
Allie: Do you wanna give the listeners a little rundown about what the story is about?
JM Rodier: Basically, it’s a story about the Great Barrier Reef and the crown-of-thorns starfish that’s up there, which is actually a natural part of the reef, but it’s a big destroyer of it too, if it’s not controlled. And it was basically from that that I designed two little characters that were the main heroes in it, and they worked together with a lot of the other sea creatures to try to maintain or fight the crown-of-thorns starfish, some other characters that were actual natural predators weren’t really predators, they actually naturally cull the crown-of-thorns starfish to keep the numbers down.
Allie: So that’s the sea snail. Pictured on the front cover.
JM Rodier: Yep. Giant sea snail. Yep, they’re very good at it. So, they’re actually now trying to introduce more of the sea snails into the areas where the crown-of-thorns are overpopulated.
Allie: The crown-of-thorns starfish has been a problem for decades. I remember hearing about this years and years ago as a problem, and it’s been a continual kind of struggle to keep the numbers down so that they’re not completely overrunning the reef. What made you feel inspired to write a whole book about it?
JM Rodier: Well, as you say, it was decades ago that we first started hearing from them, and at that stage we would take our children up to the barrier reef for a holiday. We’d go on the boat and things like that and you’d hear about them.
Just the devastation that they could cause, the bleaching and they take all the colour out and kill the coral. I just thought, ‘oh, it’d be horrible to see it go’. And the kids were very good at snorkeling, a lot better than their mother, and they would just say, ‘oh mum, it’s just so beautiful down there.’
And I just thought, well, there’s gotta be some way to stop it. And at that stage we didn’t know about the giant sea snails. So being kids, whenever they had a problem, I’d sort of make up a story or something about it and give it a little bit of a twist and make it a bit happier. And then lo and behold, I’ve got the book published, and about two weeks before it was due to come out there was a story going, ‘oh yes, you know, the giant snails are a natural predator.’ I’m going, ‘oh yes’. I was on track without knowing it.
Allie: So you didn’t know that the giant sea snails were at predator when you wrote it? That’s amazing.
JM Rodier: Not way back then. No, no.
Allie: Wow. So yeah, that’s incredible.
JM Rodier: I was pleased to find out that I cured it naturally myself.
Allie: It’s like you manifested it, you wrote the story and then suddenly it was true. That’s amazing. All right. So what has the experience been for you as the first time, to get your book published for the first time, and you’re in print now.
JM Rodier: I loved it. It was really weird actually, because you hear all the stories they say, oh, you know, it’ll be years before -or so many rejections before you’ll get anything through, and you know, don’t get disheartened. Laughs
I’d actually sent two over, and I was in between jobs at the time. I said, ‘I’ll just finish these off and polish them up’. Sent to over to two publishers and they both actually liked them and both wanted to do them.
Allie: That’s great.
JM Rodier: So it was a first time offer, it’s a ‘part cost’. We go 50/50 in the cost, but they organise all the publishing and everything like that, which is wonderful.
They were going to do the illustrations as well. But when I sent over and said I wanted to see them, they’d put in mermaids Allie laughs and I’m not a mermaid type person. Sorry.
Allie: No, you’ve got more like sea sprites, aren’t they?
JM Rodier: Yeah. Yeah. I had this vision of what I wanted them to be and I thought, you know, if they wanted to hide in the barrier reef, I wanted them to actually be like part of it.
So they’re like little sea anemones that can move around with all their wavy hair that they can pop in and out up wherever they go.
Allie: Yeah. Great. And so throughout the book you’ve got some great sort of like educational moments about the starfish. At one point they go and consult a wise old sea turtle and it gives them the very true advice that you don’t wanna attack them and break them into pieces ‘cos they’ll just regrow.
JM Rodier: Yeah. Yeah
Allie: I really appreciated that in the book that it’s got some accurate advice about the starfish.
JM Rodier: Yeah. I didn’t want just all fairytale. I want the kids to actually know, or anyone that reads it, to actually go, ‘oh yeah, that is right.’
Allie: And have you found that what you put in about the snails is correct?
JM Rodier: Yes. Except the snails don’t have to get carried by whales, they actually float along quite well at quite good speed. But being snails, I just sort of had a little bit of license with that and slowed them down a bit.
I just wanted the battle to seem like it was just going in such slow motion.
Allie: Yeah, certainly. And have you had much feedback from kids who have read it? What age group is it aimed at?
JM Rodier: It’s aimed between eight and 13, really, but it’s one of those, I think it’s only because of the length of the book, it’s probably 70 pages.
So it’s not one of those ones that the parents are willing to pick up and do a nighttime read with anyone younger. They like the very quick picture books and things like that. But I did it for age 13 ‘cos they’re self-readers, and try to capture their imagination and keep them going.
And the kids that had read them, I’ve got good feedback. I even got good feedback off my mother! laughs
Allie: You even got good feedback off your mother!
JM Rodier: I did, which is high praise. laughs
Allie: laughing It doesn’t come easily.
JM Rodier: She’s not cruel, but she’s very true of what she thinks, so sure. I just thought, oh yeah, okay. I gave myself a little pat in the back for that one I thought yep, scored one. Great.
Allie: How long did it take you to write and illustrate this over time? I can tell from what you said earlier, that it was sort of bits and pieces like between jobs and-
JM Rodier: -yeah. I’m very lucky when I write because, and especially with children’s stories, once story pops into my head, it’s like reading the book. I can just sit there, it just keeps flowing.
So the first lot was actually while we were on holidays, up on the gold coast years and years ago, and then like anything you don’t sort of think you’re going to amount to much as writing and that, and just say, ‘oh, it was just for the kids’. And there’s sort of stories that you just repeat to the kids ‘cos you know them off by heart and you shorten them.
Allie: Yeah.
JM Rodier: So I sort of sat there for years and years. And about two years ago, probably was when I was starting to get in between jobs and I thought, ‘oh, you know what? I actually would rather work from home and become an author’, and you sort of get that look of people, to go, okay, I won’t tell anyone anymore.
And yeah, I just sort of sat down and did the polishing and everything and probably two days of writing. The illustrations took a lot more because I’m not a very detailed person. I like more the comicky bits and things like that. So trying to get the characters true to what was in my head was a little bit more difficult.
I was still pleased with what I got.
Allie: And how did you do the illustrations?
JM Rodier: Most of them were done with watercolors. I did watercolour painting, sent them over and then they took copies of that. Whereas the next one I’ve got I’ve I’ve tried my hand at digital illustrations. I find it’s a lot easier to colouring.
Allie: It’s a lot easier to edit it once it’s done. Isn’t it?
JM Rodier: Yeah.
Allie: So what’s your next project?
JM Rodier: The next one that’s coming out, the illustrations are just completed, so they’re about to get that one ready for publication. And that’s about a Christmas story. It’s an outback Christmas for that little boy that he always wants -he lives in the middle of the dryness and everything- and he just wanted a green Christmas tree, a proper green Christmas tree, but what he ends up with, he’s very bemused by his mother’s antics, but he’s pleased with it.
Allie: Okay, good.
JM Rodier: The Christmas tree with a twist.
Allie: laughing Great.
JM Rodier: Without giving the whole thing away. Yeah.
Allie: So after you had decided to be a writer, is that what’s actually happening, you’re successfully living as a writer or do you still have other work?
JM Rodier: No, no, no. I’ve got other work that pay the bills. laughs
Allie: Yes. I think it takes a little while.
JM Rodier: I think that might be a long way off. Yes.
Allie: Yes.
JM Rodier: And my partner said goes, ‘oh, you could be JK Rowling’. I say, ‘yeah, no, JM Rodier’s a little bit broker.’
Both laugh
Allie: So it’s just been published by Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie publishers.
JM Rodier: That’s right.
Allie: And it’s available in every good bookstore I would imagine.
JM Rodier: They can order it online through Amazon or through Booktopia.
But if they go on Facebook, they can look at Books by JM Rodier and I’ve actually got a stack of them here. So it saves a hell of a lot with cardage fees and things like that. Being first time authors, they tend to try to sort of recoup their costs. They don’t send them out in abundance as they do with other well known authors.
So I bought a whole stack and if they want to buy them direct, they can certainly do that.
Allie: Okay. So how do they contact you to buy them direct?
JM Rodier: They can go on Facebook and if they go to Books by JM Rodier, they’ll find me there.
Allie: Is there another way to contact you than Facebook? Cause I know quite a few people don’t use Facebook.
JM Rodier: Yeah, yeah, yeah. If they email, they can contact me email. That’s just straight michelle.rodier61@gmail.com.
Allie: All right. Well thanks very much. Good luck with it. I hope it goes well.
JM Rodier: Ah, thank you very much.
Saltgrass theme plays: Salt of the earth people, grass roots change. Listen to all episodes of Turning the Goldfields Green on saltgrass.podbean.com
Allie:
My name is Alison Hanly, and I have been your host today. I hope you’ve enjoyed the episode. If you are interested in any of the books, articles or websites mentioned in the show, you can find links to them in the episode description at saltgrass.podbean.com. You can follow us on Facebook or subscribe to our emailing list to get reminders and updates about the show.
Email us at saltgrasspodcast@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you. If you have ideas for topics, know someone amazing we should talk to, have a recycling tip, a green product review, or have a song recommendation. Again, email us at saltgrasspodcast@gmail.com. This programme was made possible with support from the Community Broadcasting Foundation.
Find out more at cbf.org.au. This programme was produced in partnership with the Mount Alexander Sustainability Group, MASG and MAINfm. It should be noted that the statements and opinions of myself and the people I interview are not the official positions held by either MAINfm or MASG. We welcome feedback and responses to the ideas expressed on the show.
If you would like to respond to something discussed on the programme, we’d love to hear from you. Email us at saltgrasspodcast@gmail.com.
Saltgrass Podcast 