Randwick City Council

Two popular Sydney beaches were closed today after a baby whale carcass washed onto rocks nearby.

Maroubra and Coogee beaches have been shut until further notice by Randwick Council.

Local authorities are monitoring the situation and are considering methods to remove the carcasses.

Dead whales can potentially attract sharks, posing a potential danger to swimmers.

Sorry, preaching to the choir, really.

This is the amazing work Ashley's doing at the moment with Randwick City Council and promoting reading and literacy.

It's such a tightrope, isn't it? Because you've got this huge part of the population that is not reading for one reason or another and have barriers there that often they don't have control over and finding ways to get people reading whatever they can, whenever they can.

It's a devilish problem.

I know that Randwick City Council have just, uh, gone through the process of paid parking across all the beaches-

Mm

... across the, the eastern suburbs there, the Randwick Council.

Um, w-when I was president of the business chamber here, which is now Kiama Business Network, um, that was, uh, we went out to members and it was about a fifty-fifty, here's what's good, here's what's bad.

Um, so I think that it sort of hovers around that for a, for a consultation kind of, um, outcome.

It's something we should, uh, never forget, never forget.

Uh, and I'm almost positive, and, uh, I'll check, but I'm pretty sure the one at Coogee Beach, uh, Randwick Council run that, uh, and have done every day.

That'll be at Dolphins Point at 10 o'clock in Dunnings Reserve.

The, uh, that features the dove release they've been doing every year and speeches and the laying of flowers.

Well, we...

Uh, it, it all depends on budget, and this is why we've got, uh, Randwick, uh, Randwick Council, our sister council, has said, "Well, we'll, we'll help you raise some funds for it.

Try and get some funding." And, uh, we're quite excited about the idea, and the councilors unanimously at, at Randwick supported the idea on both sides of politics.

And we just went, "Well, let's, let's see where it heads."

[upbeat music] This is a little bonus episode talking about something really fun, really special, and I think as well, actually really important.

If you've been paying any attention to either of our social media, uh, in the last month or two, you may be aware that Ashley has been involved, well, not involved in, has spearheaded, uh, an amazing initiative with Randwick City Council in Randwick, uh, here in Sydney, to promote reading, to promote writing, to promote literacy with two weekends of events, of workshops, and of space to get involved with books and words and reading.

We just wanted to put out a little bonus episode telling you a bit more, not just about this and about the events that Ashley is doing, but talking about the importance of reading, writing, and literacy in Australia more broadly, and why it's not, uh, trending in the right direction at the moment, and the things that we can all be doing to help arrest that.

Ashley, how are you? Welcome to your podcast.