Source: Phil Rothfield and Rebecca Wilson, The Daily Telegraph
ANDREW Johns capped the most tumultuous year of his life yesterday by marrying the English PR girl he fell in love with at a cocktail party to launch his DVD five years ago.
Joey married Cathrine Mahoney in a strictly private ceremony on Shark Island in Sydney Harbour. Guests were taken to the island on a ferry from Rose Bay before the bride arrived on a private cruiser.
Johns’ eight-year-old son Samuel was his best man. Guests included his football mates Danny Buderus, Kurt Gidley, Ben Kennedy, Brett Finch, Anthony Minichiello and Adam MacDougall. Kirk Reynoldson, the player shunned by the Newcastle Knights, was also invited, but there was no sign of the man who sacked him, Knights coach Brian Smith.
Golf legend Jack Newton and his wife Jackie, and horse trainer Kris Lees were also among the guests. So were former team-mates Mark Hughes, Luke Davico, Billy Peden and Mark Sargent, and former coach Michael Hagan. Channel Nine’s Phil Gould was invited to the wedding but was not on the island for the official ceremony.
Source: ABC Online
Vandals have caused a chemical scare at Lake Macquarie High School in Booragul, pouring hydrochloric acid in the science block.
Three fire crews wearing protective suits used soda ash to neutralise the acid, making the area safe before the start of the school day.
Principal Ann McGee says the spill was relatively minor and there is no danger to staff or students.
Source: Justin Vallejo, The Daily Telegraph
NEWCASTLE has been his life-long passion – but Andrew Johns is leaving the Steel City to move to Sydney.
Johns’ house overlooking Merewether Beach is on the market with an asking price of about $4.5 million.
It is understood the rugby league legend will move in with fiancee Cathrine Mahoney near Potts Point until the pair find a home to buy.
While he will be based in Sydney, it is understood Johns is also looking to buy a new Newcastle unit so he has somewhere to stay when visiting son Sam.
The move comes after Johns’ admission he is a long-time drug user – following his arrest in London for possessing an ecstasy pill.
After his arrest in August, Johns spoke about the pressure he felt living in fishbowl Newcastle and carrying the weight of the city’s expectations.
"I was about 19, 20, 21 when I’ve first taken it and to be honest I sort of used it to escape all the pressure and stuff," Johns said at the time.
Source: John Taylor, The Daily Telegraph
NEWCASTLE Jets coach Gary van Egmond is not ready to dismiss the South American experiment as a flop but only Mario Jardel is likely to get game time against Melbourne Victory at EnergyAustralia Stadium on Friday.
"Look, it wouldn’t matter whether the players come from Iceland – they have to be effective," van Egmond said yesterday.
Argentinian Jorge Drovandi wasn’t in the squad against Adelaide, Brazilian Denni lasted 35 minutes before he was substituted and former Brazilian national team striker Jardel played only the last 20 minutes.
Drovandi played first division football in Argentina and his nickname is "La Bala" – The Bullet.
"Is the game too quick or physical for him? Defensively he’s not sure what to do. He is quick with the ball at training and he’s working hard," van Egmond said.
"Denni is very similar. He’s tidy and he sees things early but he’s not coping physically.
Source: Wayne Smith and Stuart Honeysett, The Australian
THE real reason the Australian Rugby Union refused to back Andrew Johns’ planned code switch in 2004 has finally been revealed, with former senior official Brett Robinson confirming yesterday the ARU had been made aware of the rugby league star’s drug-taking.
Robinson, then the ARU’s high performance unit manager, was pilloried in the media after recommending Australian rugby not chase Johns, who was touted as the man to turn around the fortunes of the NSW Waratahs.
At the time, Robinson defended his stance on the grounds that there were doubts about Johns’ age, injury profile and his ability to make the transition – all reasons that were made to look lame the following year when the Newcastle Knights superstar masterminded NSW’s stunning revival in the State of Origin series.
Johns’ manager John Fordham particularly was scathing in his criticism of Robinson.
"I wonder if Brett has had a rethink about Joey following his super-human, match-winning effort in Origin II," Fordham said in June, 2005.
He went on to say Steve Larkham, who was born in the same month and year as Johns, earned a new contract despite his injuries.
Article by David Brake
Lake Macquarie residents can recycle their unused mobile phones, batteries and accessories in support of Keep Australia Beautiful Week (27 August – Sunday 2 September).
Council’s Waste Planning and Education Coordinator, David Brake, said Keep Australia Beautiful Week is a great initiative and a good opportunity for residents to begin their spring clean and empty their drawers of old and unwanted mobile phones and hand them in for recycling.
“With nearly 16 million mobile phones stashed away in homes and offices, recycling them is a really simple and easy way to start helping save the planet,” Mr Brake said.
Source: Newcatle City Council
Last week the Gallery unveiled the country’s most expensive painting, Lucian Freud’s After Cézanne, to Newcastle audiences. This week local figurative painter Bruce Rowland and acclaimed Feminist artist Julie Rrap have their turn. Rowland and Rrap, like British artist Lucian Freud, are inspired by the human body. But be warned, their depictions of the body and their reasons for doing so are radically different.
Sydney based artist Julie Rrap uses her own body as the starting point for photographic, performance and installation art. Her work is a commentary of the absence of woman as active subjects in art history. One fascinating work from her exhibition which opens on Friday night at the Gallery is Hairline Crack. In this work, 20 metres of human hair is mounted along the gallery wall.
Source: ABC Online
A supermarket and shopping complex looks set to go ahead at Cooranbong after the Land and Environment Court upheld an appeal by the developer.
The development was initially knocked back by Lake Macquarie Council.
Blue Sky Capital Ventures wants to put a Coles supermarket, specialty shops, a medical centre and 151 car parking spaces on land on the corner of Freeman’s Drive and Alton Road.
Lake Macquarie Council rejected the proposal earlier this year after requesting it be redesigned due to traffic and pedestrian issues and concerns the development may have an adverse impact on the nearby Avondale Shopping Village.
Commissioner John Watts yesterday upheld an appeal in the Land and Environment Court saying the developers had modified parts of the plan and there was no real reason to refuse the application.
The council is considering appealing this decision.
Former chair of the Cooranbong Progress Association Michael Chamberlain says the community hopes the development will not lead to traffic congestion in the area.
"The main problem is to make sure that the roads we have surrounding the commercial area are adequate and don’t clog up the system," he said.
Source: ABC Online
Lake Macquarie Council has rejected a developer’s request for a six storey building at Warners Bay in the New South Wales Hunter region.
Council has already approved a five storey residential and commercial development on the site on King and Howard streets, one storey above the recommended height for the area.
Councillor Ken Paxinos says the sixth storey would have only added another 1.5 metres to the building height and the footprint would have remained the same.
He says the Warners Bay development control plan needs to be reviewed.
"Very disappointing decision. We put in place an urban design plan for the Warners Bay Commercial Centre over five years ago and so far not one development has progressed. Obviously the bar is too high," he said.
Lake Macquarie Mayor Greg Piper says the local environment plan will eventually be reviewed.
"Certainly Warners Bay in time will need a development review, but it shouldn’t be triggered by any one development," he said.
"Strategic planning should lead development, not the other way round and, as I said, given time, we will get around and we will come back to Warners Bay."
Source: Australian Red Cross
An innovative refugee settlement project run by Australian Red Cross and launched in the Hunter Valley and Newcastle area this year is helping refugees adapt to a new life in Australia.
The aim of the project, financed by a $50,000 ‘Living in Harmony’ grant from the Commonwealth Department of Immigration and Citizenship, is to ensure the refugees have a smooth transition to Aussie life. And this means learning about local services, culture and industry.
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