Ask any surfer about the magic of surfing, and they’ll tell you. But to non-surfers, it can seem like an exclusive club that you don’t know how to get into. Stoked Surf Therapy is slowly changing that surfing image in Warrnambool, by offering free surf lessons to anyone, including people with disabilities and vulnerable members of the community.
And through this, the magic of surfing is being found by a group of people who see it as more of a ‘social prescription’, to improve and maintain their mental health. There’s scientific research that backs this up, from the ‘flow state’of being immersed in water, to the endorphins from exercise and the serotonin that comes from the feeling of achievement in taking up a new challenge.
These ‘gnarly’ effects have been seen well beyond the ocean.
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Stoked Surf Therapy began during the depths of Covid lockdowns in 2021, when surfing was one of the few activities still permitted. From this it has grown through community partnerships and support, to become an award-winning organisation.
This podcast is brought to you by the Fletcher Jones Family Foundations and produced by the Rural Podcasting Co.
Driving through the eastern suburbs of Warrnambool, a large 6-acre garden and fresh food market might be the last thing you’d expect. The area used to be a wasteland and there’s a large hole in the middle, which was once a limestone quarry.
But about 15 years ago, a small group of passionate gardeners had a big vision; to transform the site into a communal space, where anyone can come to grow food and share gardening knowledge. These days you can find a hot house, sensory garden, large chook enclosure, education centre, bush food and multiple individual garden plots that members can rent to plant whatever they like.
The transformation has not only been physical. Many members say it has helped with their wellbeing and connection to the community. Some even see their gardening as an ‘act of everyday activism’: where choosing to grow your own food or buy it at the local market is a way to take a small stand against the food miles, plastic and over processing that can be found in your average supermarket.
This podcast is brought to you by the Fletcher Jones Family Foundations and produced by the Rural Podcasting Co.
More than 20% of Australians identify with a disability. That's five and a half million people. And yet, very rarely is the world set up for disability. The music industry in particular can be even more difficult from ill-equipped stages, late night performances and high expectations of artists in general, just to make do, if you want a career in the industry.
It's also fair to say that there just aren't the same opportunities for artists in regional areas. And that included Warrnambool until 2017, when a couple of locals decided to use their set at the Port Fairy Folk Music Festival, to feature singers with a disability.
It was only meant to be a one-off performance, but soon spun into the FInd Your Voice Choir and then the Find Your Voice Collective, which seeks to support an array of artists who identify with a disability across south-west Victoria.
The Find Your Voice Choir has performed at multiple festivals, on live TV for Australia’s Got Talent and is about to perform with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, to a crowd of 13,000 people.
Hear from:
Julian Patterson - Musician in Find Your Voice Choir.
Grace Kenny - Rap and Hip Hop artist in Find Your Voice Choir
Jacob Paton-Lee - Musician and singer in Find Your Voice Choir
Tom Richardson - Musician, disability advocate and founding member of Find Your Voice Collective
This podcast is brought to you by the Fletcher Jones Family Foundations and produced by the Rural Podcasting Co.
It’s often said that young people are ‘digital natives’. But, when a few Warrnambool creatives started challenging that perception… they found an important gap that needed to be addressed. As teachers as well, they observed how arts and culture was being de-prioritised in tertiary education and found that while young people know how to consume technology, they weren’t being taught how to actually use technology to create something.
And that’s how One Day Studios began. This small group decided to lease a space at the old Fletcher Jones Factory building, where they could provide courses to young people, showing them how to use technology as creative tools. One Day Studios opened its doors in 2020… and then promptly shut them due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite the initial setback, One Day Studios is thriving as a place for mentorship and career pathways in the arts and creative industries locally and beyond.
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In just five years, One Day Studios has well and truly proven that, yes, you CAN make a career as a digital creative… including right here in Warrnambool.
This podcast is brought to you by the Fletcher Jones Family Foundations and produced by the Rural Podcasting Co.
Episode 1 is coming out Tues, Oct 21!
When the Fletcher Jones factory closed in 2008, it seemed like the end of an era for Warrnambool... but it was actually the beginning of something big. As the trucks cleared out , the final pieces of fabric and offcuts from factory, some local artists intervened stopping the truck before it went to the tip and saving the fabrics.
That was the beginning of F Project, a space for artists.
Now there are several organizations which have been built from that same entrepreneurial spirit with social good at their core:
One Day Studios
Find Your Voice Collective
Stoked Surf Therapy
Warrnambool Community Garden
Warrnambool College Indigenous Garden.
F Project
So come with us on a journey to meet the change makers behind Warrnambool's social innovations. And hear their amazing and often surprising stories of how it all came to be.
Big change, starts with us.
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