Baby corals have been successfully spawned and grown for the first time by an Australian farm in a process that could one day help restore the Great Barrier Reef.
Key points:
Monsoon Aquatics has recorded the first spawning of a coral species at its Bundaberg aquaculture facility
The worldwide aquarium industry is reportedly worth $4 billion
Commercial industry could lead reef restoration of the Great Barrier Reef
Monsoon Aquatics operates Australia’s largest dedicated land-based coral farm at Burnett Heads near Bundaberg, where the company recorded the first spawning event of Homophyllia australis last November.
Almost 10 months later, the company has been able to grow baby corals in captivity, hailing the spawning event with success.
“That’s a species of coral which is basically only found from around Pancake Creek up to the Whitsunday area and Swains Reef, and so it’s unique to this southern Great Barrier Reef area,” company director Daniel Kimberley said.
Daniel Kimberley operates Australia’s largest land-based coral farm.(ABC Wide Bay: Johanna Marie)
Craig Humphrey from the Australian Institute of Marine Science’s national sea simulator said it was a “significant achievement”.
“If there’s a decline in the reef… these things could be bred in captivity to supply the market,” he said.
From the reef to the aquarium
Monsoon Aquatics is one of 39 active license holders in Queensland’s commercial coral fishery who can target a broad range of specialty corals to be sold to aquariums and hobbyists.
According to Queensland Fisheries, there was 100 tonnes of coral harvested from the Great Barrier Reef in the 2020-21 financial year.
A sample of coral at the Monsoon Aquatics facility in Bundaberg.(Supplied: Monsoon Aquatics)
“If you were to look at the reef as a whole, it’s a fraction of what’s out there,” Mr Kimberley said.
“The worldwide aquarium industry is worth over $US4 billion.
“A lot of that product is coming out of Indonesia and Vietnam and Tonga and Fiji and places like that, so there’s still huge scope for Australia to grow in that space.”
Mr Kimberley said successfully spawning and growing corals in captivity would mean a reduced reliance on harvesting wild corals.
“It’s about producing corals for our current ornamental market beyond what we can take from the wild, what we can harvest under quota,” he said.
The worldwide aquarium industry is worth billions of dollars.(ABC Wide Bay: Johanna Marie)
The life of coral
Footage shows the coral releasing eggs which are then fertilized and develop into larvae before eventually growing into baby coral.
“They start morphing into essentially what looks like a little slug, and that little slug will float around in the water column until it senses the particular substrate and habitat where it wants to settle,” Mr Kimberley said.
“It will then go to the bottom, stick onto the rocks, and then start to form its first mouth and tentacles and become a coral.”
The eggs develop into larvae, and eventually grow into coral.(Supplied: Monsoon Aquatics)
Coral spawns around the same time every year in both the wild and in captivity.
“It’s the change in water temperature, day length and the phase of the Moon, so in general it occurs just after a full moon in November and December,” Mr Humphrey said.
reef restoration
A report by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) found there has been a rapid recovery of coral on the Great Barrier Reef from past storms and bleaching events, but it has come at the expense of a diversity of coral species.
Mr Kimberley believes commercial enterprise should be leading reef restoration projects, and spawning coral in captivity was the way of the future.
A scientist is led around the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, as part of a monitoring project.(Supplied: Australian Institute of Marine Science)
“The really exciting thing for us is that it’s the first steps towards habitat restoration. And one day being a part of the solution to replant the Great Barrier Reef,” Mr Kimberley said.
“I think to drive these changes in these restorations… it needs to be commercially viable and driven by industry.”
Mr Humphrey says researchers are exploring it as a possibility.
“If you do culture them in a lab or in aquaculture setting, how do you get them out to the reef? And how do you retain them within the reef,” he said.
“There’s a whole range of research being undertaken in all those areas.”
Someone on $45,000 receives a tax benefit of 19.5 per cent – income tax of 32.5 per cent plus the 2 per cent Medicare Levy, minus the 15 per cent contributions tax your fund pays on the money.
Chapman points out that for those with incomes up to $42,016, there is also a super co-contribution scheme, under which for each added dollar of after-tax contributions put into a fund, the government contributes a matching 50 cents. The government’s co-contribution is capped at $500.
If your income exceeds $42,016, the co-contribution from the government progressively reduces and cuts out at $57,016.
However, those on lower incomes are more likely to have more immediate uses for their refund, including paying bills, Chapman says.
Fast track home deposit
Glen Hare, financial planner and co-founder of Fox and Hare, says parking your tax refund in superannuation under the federal government’s First Home Super Saver Scheme can be a good way to fast-track getting on the first rung of the property ladder.
Under the scheme, first-home buyers can save for a home deposit in a quarantined area of their super account, where the money is earmarked for the purchase of property and benefits from concessional tax rates.
The amount that can be held inside super under the scheme increased from $30,000 to $50,000 on July 1.
The limit on annual contributions for a home deposit that can be parked in excess of $15,000. They must be personal voluntary contributions, rather than compulsory payments made by your employer.
Start a share portfolio
Chris Brycki, founder of online investment adviser Stockspot, says a tax refund is an excellent way to start investing for your future in the sharemarket.
A good starting point for newbies is to purchase an exchange-traded fund (ETF), whose units are bought and sold on the Australian Securities Exchange.
ETFs provide broad exposure to market returns without having to worry about trying to pick winning stocks.
ETFs are available that track the returns and prices of all sorts of markets, not just Australian shares. They include overseas equities and even commodities, such as gold – and have low management fees.
“There is no need to constantly watch the market or know which shares to buy and sell, as ETFs are meant to be ‘set and forget’ investments,” Brycki says.
On the precipice of release day, Cult of the Lamb’s creative director Julian Wilton was still pinching himself: “I haven’t taken it in yet, because my priority has been getting the game out,” he told ABC Arts.
“I was refreshing the Steam store page yesterday, and watching the numbers continue to go up… this is in a totally different league to our previous games.”
In the year since his studio Massive Monster’s fourth game was announced at the European trade fair Gamescom, Cult of the Lamb has become one of the most keenly anticipated video games of 2022.
Ahead of its global release on Friday, pre-orders alone had driven the Melbourne-made indie to the top of the sales charts on digital video game marketplace Steam.
At its Gamescom debut in August 2021, Cult of the Lamb immediately distinguished itself from other games. The announcement trailer focused on narrative and aesthetic rather than the mechanics of gameplay; In stunning cell animation, it dramatized the game’s titular protagonist as it escapes the sacrificial altar to start its own cult of adorable animal followers, exacting revenge in the name of a mysterious entity known as The One Who Waits.
Cult of the Lamb is animated by Half Giant, an Australia studio.(Supplied: Massive Monster)
Set to a groovy, ethereal beat by First Nations musician and producer Narayana Johnson (who wrote the game’s soundtrack), the trailer triggered a flurry of activity on social media that has continued to grow in the year leading up to Friday’s release.
When Massive Monster released a demo of Cult of the Lamb a few months after its trailer, it was clear that the game’s blend of creepy and cute ran deeper than its aesthetic: it combines action-packed dungeons and tightly designed combat with gentler gameplay such as fishing, community building and home decoration elements inspired by titles such as 2020’s smash hit, Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
It’s a game that puts fun first, welcoming in a wide variety of players without sacrificing (no pun intended) the strategic edge and replayability of a challenging title.
Speaking to ABC Arts ahead of the global launch, Wilton graciously ascribed the game’s reception to the marketing campaign by the game’s US-based publisher (“Devolver Digital really know how to do their job!”). But the game’s early success also has something to do with his studio’s respect for the breadth and diversity of the people who play video games.
Julian Wilton, the creative director of Massive Monster, won an Australian Game Developer Award in 2019.(ABC Arts: Kate Disher-Quill)
Making approachable games
Massive Monster’s first official title was 2018’s The Adventure Pals, but the studio’s three co-directors have been working together for more than a decade, since they met online as teens.
Making approachable games has been a guiding principle for their collaborations from the get-go.
Wilton met art director James Pearmain and design director Jay Armstrong through chat forums dedicated to Adobe Flash, a piece of computer software used to make games and animated shorts.
Widely proliferated, free, and easy to use, Flash was the backbone of the creative internet in the 00s, and Wilton was drawn to it from his teenage years.
The online Flash game community encouraged “jumping in and making something weird, and people would check it out,” Wilton says.
This community allowed all three developers to hone their sense of the kind of mechanics that people could pick up quickly.
Rather than offering complex narratives or high skill thresholds, successful Flash games were generally short in length, and designed to be played for fun by anyone with an internet connection; for a small, browser-based game, approachability is key.
Wilton enjoyed early success through this community with a Flash game called Angry Bees, which was published on popular video game website Miniclip, earning the then-teenager a cool $20,000 (which promptly saw his PayPal account shut down for suspicious activity).
These formative experiences with the Flash game community led to a game design approach that Wilton describes as iterative, unprecious, and audience-led.
In fact, the way the Massive Monster team worked together in the early stages of Cult of the Lamb sounds less like the work of three software developers and more like a band jamming together, layering different approaches and ideas until something sticks.
However their goal was clear: they wanted to make a strategic video game based on layered systems that offered players lots of ways to play and replay – something more complex than their previous adventure games, Never Give Up (2019) and The Adventure Pals. Crucially, however, it had to be fun first, challenge second.
The Adventure Pals (2018) is a platform adventure game about friendship and exploration.(Supplied: Massive Monster)
“We always like to make things very accessible and easy to pick up. When we make a game, we want your grandma to be able to pick it up and play with it – or at least to have fun with it,” Wilton says.
“It’s important to us to make things approachable and casual.”
Bringing roguelikes to a broader audience
Despite its mass appeal, the gameplay in Cult of the Lamb was initially inspired by a genre that is notoriously challenging: the roguelike. The term is named for the 1985 computer game Rogue, and refers to video games that share a set of challenging gameplay features.
Typically in a roguelike game, the player journeys through a series of randomly generated rooms fighting enemies to gain power-ups, weapons and loot, becoming stronger as they go — but when they die, they die permanently, and any new run will see the player starting again with none of their previous spoils, at square one.
Because roguelikes reset the character’s skills with each death, they particularly reward the player’s strategy; really skilled roguelike players become so familiar with the kinds of enemies and opportunities that can arise, and the frequency with which they do, that they can strategise their way through each unique run based on percentages, making strategic decisions and taking risks as they go.
As a result, playing roguelikes can be incredibly rewarding; however, they are also notoriously unapproachable to new players.
In the last 10 years, the roguelike genre has seen a resurgence through titles such as the hugely popular Darkest Dungeon and Binding of Isaac. At the same time, the genre has seen pushback from players who are left out due to these games’ high barrier to entry.
For someone unfamiliar with the genre, playing a roguelike can be punishing – they take a long time to start feeling fun.
Cult of the Lamb isn’t the first recent indie hit to remix the roguelike for a broader audience and find success. In 2018, Supergiant Games’ Hades swept awards season with the story of Zagreus, son of Hades, whose repeated attempts to escape the underworld reveal new aspects of the story, in addition to skills and weapons.
Hades, by Supergiant Games, was released in 2018. (Supplied: Supergiant Games)
By using narrative to motivate a player through each ‘failure’, Supergiant Games found a way to make the roguelike appealing to an audience who cared more for story than strategy.
The game also featured a ‘god mode’ that increased the player’s defenses every time they died; it meant that the assistance they received was commensurate to their personal skill level, and evened out as their skills improved (rather than making the game easier by removing elements of gameplay completely).
Difficulty modes for everyone
Like Hades, Cult of the Lamb draws on the challenge and replayability of the roguelike, while offering accessibility and difficulty modes that help open the game up to more players.
While there are some differences in Cult of the Lamb’s four difficulty settings that are discernible to the player – you have fewer health points in harder modes, for example – there are also subtle assistive aspects built into the game’s standard mode that respond directly to player behavior .
“The game tries to figure out if the player is struggling, and adjusts the combat or the dungeons accordingly,” Wilton explains.
“[But] in the two harder modes, those settings are turned off.”
Knowing that they wanted the game to break through to wider audiences, Massive Monster chose to treat these assistive aspects as the game’s standard; the ‘unassisted’ challenge of a typical roguelike is available for players who want it, but on an opt-in basis.
Combined with accessibility options that allow players to turn off flashing lights, camera motion, and alter the size of the text, these design decisions offer a highly customizable game experience.
Play how you want
Cult of the Lamb also welcomes in a broader player base by facilitating play styles that favor less combat and more community building.
While the core gameplay is the same for every player — venture out to a dungeon, combat enemies, return with supplies, build your community with those supplies — the game supports a range of methods for approaching these challenges.
Cult of the Lamb is set in the Evermoon Forest, a mythical place ruled by warring cults and dark magic.(Supplied: Massive Monster)
Spending time developing your cult can generate resources that make each dungeon run easier, and visiting neighboring villages offers the opportunity to gather resources through trade or quests, minimizing the player’s time in combat.
Massive Monster took a similar approach to darker elements of the gameplay, too – the player can be a relatively benevolent leader or a vicious tyrant.
“Our approach is: it’s okay if some of that dark stuff is there, so long as we’re not forcing any of this stuff on the players,” says Wilton.
Video games are for everyone
Cult of the Lamb’s design is founded on a deep respect for the diverse reality of video game players.
In the 2022 Digital Australia report from the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association, a survey found that 17 million Australians play video games. Of those surveyed, 46 per cent identified as female, and 1 per cent as non-binary.
The age range of players is also more diverse than video games’ youthful reputation would suggest: the average age of a video game player in Australia is 35, and 42 per cent of adults who are 65 years and older also play video games.
Not only do a wide variety of people play games, but they play for a wide variety of reasons, including socialisation, creativity, and relaxation.
This is reflected in the sales charts; Alongside Cult of the Lamb, the top-charting games on Steam in August include university management simulator Two Point Campus and cat adventure game Stray, as well as more aggressive, action-packed games such as Elden Ring and Rust.
With over 60,000 pre-orders on the Steam store alone, Massive Monster’s approachable design looks like a winning strategy – but even if it wasn’t, Wilton wouldn’t want to make games any other way.
“I also designed the medium difficulty mode after my own skill level,” he says.
A banned Teletubbies sketch—titled The Lion and The Bear—has been revealed after decades.
An uncensored version of the sketch, which is from 1997, has been released on YouTube, reports The Sun.
teletubbies was a beloved British children’s television program about four colorful characters — Tinky Winky, Laa-Laa, Dipsy and Po — who roamed around a grassy floral landscape whenever they weren’t hanging out in their earth house, the Tubbytronic Superdome.
The original series ran from 1997 to 2001.
Anyone who watched the show might remember that it was funny, colourful, and educational, but typically not scary.
However, one teletubbies sketch which was broadcast in 1997 was actually so terrifying that it was banned in countries around the world.
“The Lion and The Bear” was a sketch about two cardboard cutout characters who were, unsurprisingly, a lion and a bear.
The Bear arrived first, followed by the lion, who was chasing her.
In the original sketch, the Teletubbies were terrified by the arrival of the Bear who creepily repeated the same sentence several times.
“I’m the Bear, I’m the Bear, and I’m coming!” she repeated.
After she appeared on screen, she continued rhyming in her terrifying voice.
“I’m the Bear, I’m the Bear, with brown fuzzy hair. I’m hiding from the Lion but he doesn’t know where,” she said.
Then the “scary” Lion arrived.
“I am the scary Lion, with big scary teeth. I’m scary on the top and I’m underneath,” he growled.
This dialogue was followed by a dramatic chase scene across the green hills while Laa-Laa told his fellow Teletubbies to hide.
These scenes proved to be too traumatizing for young viewers and were called out by parents for not being “age appropriate.”
One review from 1997 even dubbed the scene as “the greatest horror film of all time.”
Four years later, the BBC edited the sketch to make it more child-friendly.
In the censored sketch, many of the original elements had been changed.
Now the Teletubbies appeared excited about the arrival of the Bear. The Bear’s voice had also been edited to sound less scary and the threatening music was swapped out for something more upbeat.
Instead of being scared by the Bear, the Teletubbies now giggle at her presence.
They continue to laugh all the way through and celebrate when the Lion chases the Bear far away, instead of running away themselves.
This article originally appeared in The Sun and was reproduced with permission.
A top-four finish is not beyond them with the Cowboys and Sydney Roosters – at what will be a packed brand-new Allianz Stadium in the final round – to complete the run home to September.
Seeing Mitchell in full flight is one of the coolest things to watch every week, and his warning to rivals after full-time at CommBank Stadium was celebrated by Souths.
Cody Walker and Damien Cook celebrate a try.Credit:NRL Photos
While most NRL coaches dread their players saying anything remotely controversial that might fire up their opposition, Demetriou welcomed his No.1’s fighting words.
“We want players to be themselves, and what I’m loving about Latrell is he’s living that mindset at every training session and with every performance on the field – and his teammates are living it as well,” Demetriou said.
“I’m not big on motivating other teams with what we say through the press.
“But at the same time, there’s an expectation that when you do make a comment, you back it up, and that’s the headspace Latrell is in at the moment.
“I think it’s all to do with the leadership position he’s in. He enjoys standing in front of the boys and saying, ‘Let’s go, we’ve got this’.
“When you grab blokes after a good win they can get excited during an interview. But you want them excited, you want them enjoying their footy and being excited about the next challenge.
“We’re under no illusions how tough the next six to eight weeks will be. I still think there’s more in Latrell, and that’s exciting.”
Souths look to be a happy club with a tight playing group, and Demetriou said that genuine bond off the field was transferring to their on-field efforts.
Demetriou also dismissed any concerns the Bunnies had started their run too early, claiming they could remain physically and mentally fresh heading into the finals.
Mitchell is the X-factor with Parramatta prop Junior Paulo in awe of the powerhouse fullback when he gets in a mood.
“He’s one of those players where things just seem to happen around him,” Paulo said.
“When the middles get them on the front foot, it’s easy for Latrell to do what he does. He’s hard to stop.”
‘Embarrassed’ Eel commits to Samoa
Parramatta prop Junior Paulo said the way the Eels were dominated in the middle from the opening whistle was “embarrassing”, and what made things worse was the pack focused all week on not being outmuscled by the Rabbitohs.
Eels coach Brad Arthur slammed his players for a “lacking physicality” after the Friday’s loss.
“And if you’re not going to be physical, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing, you’re not going to give yourself a chance,” Arthur said. “We lacked it, badly … we got steamrolled.”
Parramatta prop Junior Paulo was kept quiet against Souths.Credit:Getty Images
Paulo, who ran for a season-low 60m, told The Sun-Herald: “We were even challenged throughout the week to win the battle in the middle, so what we ended up showing was way below our standards. It was actually embarrassing, to be honest.
“We were not physical enough and didn’t chase the collision. Brad was right in everything he said after the game.
“We want to challenge ourselves week in, week out. When it comes to Souths, we haven’t done that for three or four years now. We haven’t shown our best version of ourselves against them, and our best version is when we’re physical.
“We need to bounce back against the Dogs who are another club who embarrassed us the last time we played them as well.”
Mitchell Moses is an outside chance to return from a broken finger against Canterbury next Saturday, but even the No.7 has again drifted in and out of games all year.
Before Friday’s kick-off Paulo made it known he would commit to Samoa ahead of Australia for the World Cup, largely because he wanted to honor his grandparents and parents for leaving the tiny Pacific nation to give him a better life.
Paulo also knows Samoa never got the best out of him at the last World Cup when he and then Canberra teammates Josh Papalii and BJ Leilua returned to pre-season training a combined 30kg heavier.
“I want to pay my family back and repay Samoa for having the belief in me and knowing the impact we can have on a game if we all gel,” Paulo said.
Paulo hoped Joseph Suaalii would commit to the minnows, especially with the chance to wear the No.1 jersey, a positional wish he would not be granted should he side with the Kangaroos.
Stream the NRL Premiership 2022 live and free on 9Now.
Party members are forced to turn off their phones at events to select candidates. Speeches are not recorded, making it impossible to report direct quotes from McGowan’s address.
McGowan was contacted by The Sunday Agebut declined to comment.
Last week, he was appointed Guy’s top adviser after the previous aid, Mitch Catlin, quit over revelations he sought $100,000 from a private donor.
McGowan’s selection surprised some MPs because laws disallow political staffers from campaigning during work hours, and also due to the cutting remarks about the parliamentary party during his speech.
It is not unusual for candidates to highlight a party’s flaws and offer prescriptions when seeking the support of branch members to run for Parliament.
However, McGowan’s comments create awkwardness given he now runs the office responsible, along with shadow ministers, for the policy and strategy he faulted. He gave his speech from him more than a week before the donor saga began, meaning he would not have foreseen his entrance into Guy’s office.
Labor and Liberal insiders contend the Andrews government has lost support, particularly in outer suburban areas, after years of pandemic restrictions and strain on health services. While some Liberals remain bullish about their ability to win seats, Guy is hampered by synchronous hurdles.
Inside his Parliamentary party, his leadership is being questioned by some MPs after two wasted weeks answering questions about the donor saga.
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Within the broader Liberal organisation, many conservative branch members are angered at progressive policy positions on climate change and a treaty with Indigenous people, which were pursued by the Parliamentary team to help modernize the opposition but have alienated members who volunteer at election time.
It was this exasperation that McGowan – who was Guy’s chief of staff when he was planning minister and held UN peacekeeping roles in places such as Congo and Liberia – tapped into to win his preselection. Some MPs believe his grip on the party’s issues will improve the opposition’s fortunes ahead of the November election.
A grueling fortnight for Guy, characterized by upheaval staff and tetchy media performances, has taken its toll on loyal Liberal branch members and candidates who quit their day jobs to campaign for a change of government.
“There have been people at functions in tears. They want Andrews gone, but they worry if the Liberals can do it,” one source said.
The preselection of anti-abortion and trans rights opponent Moira Deeming has created an ongoing sore. The Victorian Socialists have pledged to demonstrate against Deeming’s candidacy for her at upcoming party events. Last week, Guy left a fundraiser in Tarneit shortly after arriving and before he was due to make his speech about her. Sources said the arrival of protesters outside the venue prompted his departure from him.
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Nearly one year after the last Airbus A380 was delivered to Emirates, its CEO Tim Clark has announced a desire for Airbus to build a replacement jumbo jet. The airline has undoubtedly been the biggest supporter of the aircraft, acquiring nearly half of all A380s. Airbus has no plans to restart production of the aircraft as global demand is calling for smaller, more fuel-efficient aircraft. It is unlikely that Airbus would build another jumbo to meet the needs of one airline.
Hopeful for another jumbo
The CEO of Emirates, Tim Clark, has recently made it known to the public that both he and the airline he represents is hopeful that Airbus will produce a replacement for the gargantuan A380. This information was shared nearly a year after the last A380 was delivered to Emirates. Airbus has entirely ceased production and has informed the public that it has no plans to restart the project.
SIMPLEFLYING VIDEO OF THE DAY
Emirates has acquired nearly half of all Airbus A380s. Photo: Emirates
Clark has been one of the aircraft’s most vocal supporters. Nearly half of all A380s ever produced have become valuable assets of Emirates. It has become a key asset to the airline’s operations. Based in Dubai, the A380 has assisted Emirates in connecting passengers from all corners of the earth through its central hub. Clark told the public that he believed the aircraft to be far from obsolete. Clark stated,
“The notion that the A380 was a spent force was always a little bit of a difficult one for us to swallow.
“I was chuckling to myself, thinking ‘Wait and see.’ We started flying the A380 into Heathrow six times a day in October of last year, and we haven’t had a [free] seat on any of them since.”
A shrinking fleet
Airbus chalked up the A380 project as a commercial failure. Despite selling hundreds of aircraft, the manufacturer did not receive sufficient orders to consider the project a success. Emirates has 118 A380s in its fleet, 80 of which are currently operating. The aviation industry has seen a significant resurgence in demand for air travel since travel restrictions have been eased. While the pandemic was the nail in the coffin for many jumbo jets, Emirates had little choice but to hold on to the jumbo.
Emirates fleet of Boeing 777s does not have the capacity required to fully replace the A380. Photo: Boeing
The airline now has plenty of demand to fill its jumbos and plans to see all of its A380s returned to service by spring 2023. Close to 70 of these A380s will undergo interior renovations later this year. The airline will be installing a new premium economy class, reducing the number of available seats from 519 to 484.
Emirates currently plans on retiring its A380 fleet in the mid-2030s. The airline is hopeful that a new jumbo will come along before this, but it is preparing to operate without these jumbo assets. The airline has ordered 50 smaller, more fuel-efficient A350 aircraft to fill the crucial role played by the A380, as well as the 777X. The airline also operates a sizable fleet of Boeing 777 aircraft. Unfortunately for the airline, neither the A350 nor the 777 can rival the capacity of the A380.
What do you think of Emirate’s request for another Airbus jumbo? Let us know in the comments below.
If you google Markella Kavenagh’s date of birth, many of the results will tell you she was born in 1990. Given her long list of acting credits, this seems to add up. But when the fresh-faced actor sits down for an interview with sunday life, it’s clear she’s much younger than the 32 years various websites claim her to be. “I’m only 21,” she says, laughing. “I was born in 2000.”
This correction makes the work Markella has squeezed into a few short years even more impressive – and shows why you shouldn’t trust everything you read online.
A self-confessed “theatre kid”, Markella was in high school at Melbourne’s Wesley College when she landed her first role, in Foxtel’s 2018 series Picnic at Hanging Rock. This was quickly followed that year by a gig on Stan’s break-stomper (“I rocked up to school with a shaved undercut,” she recalls), and the BBC’s acclaimed drama The cry. Next was the 2019 film The True History of the Kelly Gangdirected by Justin Kurzel, then another Stan series, The Gloamingin 2020.
Markella was still a teenager, barely out of school and working at fashion retailer Sportsgirl, when she got the call that would change her life.
“I remember being in the back room and I was locking up for the night,” she says. “Then I got this call from my agent about an audition. It was so surreal. I just thought, ‘Well, you know what, I will do the audition and that’s where it probably will end. And I’m so grateful to be able to do it and be in the room.’ But then I got a call a couple of weeks later…”
Markella wears Michelle Mason dress from The Outnet. Paco Rabanne jewelery from Parlor X.Credit:Hugh Stewart
That call was to tell her she’d been cast as Elanor “Nori” Brandyfoot in the massively-hyped Amazon Prime Video series, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. It’s due to air next month and Markella is flat-out on the publicity trail in the lead-up to the launch, including today’s photo shoot and interview with sunday life.
Ever since Amazon bought the television rights to The Lord of the Rings for $US250 million in November 2017, die-hard fantasy fans have been picking over any tiny morsel of information they can get their hands on about the series. So it’s not surprising then that online forums went into a frenzy when Markella was the first casting to be announced, accompanied by an image of her character from her.
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As Nori, Markella has curly ash-brown hair and elfin ears. Her cheeks are round and rosy, and her expression is wide-eyed and innocent. It’s a far cry from the look she is adopting for today’s shoot and interview: a vampy goddess in a sequined dress, her lips cherry red and her long hair jet black. “It was initially for testing hair colors for a role,” she says of her raven mane de ella, “and I just really liked it.”
Markella plays the hobbit Elanor Brandyfoot in The Lord of the Rings: The Power of the Ring. Credit:Prime Video
The series is based on the world created by JRR Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings and its appendices. Set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before The Hobbit and The Lord of the Ringsit follows a cast of both familiar and new characters as they confront the threat of evil returning to Middle-earth.
Those familiar with Tolkien’s work will be able to identify the character of Nori as one of the “new” variety. “She’s not specifically a canon character,” explains Markella. “But obviously, there are Harfoots in the Legendarium.”
Harfoot’s? Legendarium? those not familiar with Tolkien’s work might be scratching their heads. First up, the Legendarium is the body of writing that forms the background to The Lord of the Rings.
When it comes to explaining Harfoots, Markella does that best. “Harfoots are kind of the ancestors to Hobbits – they look quite similar,” she says. “They’ve both got the feet, they’ve both got the ears. But the main difference is their circumstance.
“So the Hobbits that we’ve seen in the books and later in the Fellowship, they have the Shire, they have their home. Whereas the Harfoots are very much still in the process of finding that sense of solid, secure place.”
Markella wears Zara dress. Jimmy Choo heels.Credit:Hugh Stewart
What else can Markella tell fact-hungry fans about Nori specifically? “Nori is a very resolute, very inquisitive Harfoot. She kind of pushes the boundaries and she just really wants to subvert tradition and the expectations of what being a Harfoot looks like. She kind of leads with the idea that a fear of risk can be greater than the risk itself, so why not just go out there and take it and see what you can do.”
“”I never thought that I would find myself in fantasy,” she confesses. “I fell in love with film through minimalist, neorealist movies like Bicycle Thieves and Shoplifters.”
The way Markella speaks about her character and the Tolkien world, she comes across as a dedicated fantasy fan. But it turns out she hasn’t always been au fait with Harfoots and Hobbits.
“I never thought that I would find myself in fantasy,” she confesses. “I fell in love with film through minimalist, neorealist movies like Bicycle Thieves and Shoplifters. Those are the films that I love, because they’re focusing on the space between people in relationships, and in our real life. There are no fancy cuts and visuals.
“I knew and I appreciated that there was a place for fantasy through comfort and escapism. But it’s been so liberating to see that you can take those same themes, and that same truth and the same approach, and focus on truthful stories and portraying specific storylines and character arcs, just in a fantastical context.”
Given the feverish fascination with Tolkien’s work, is Markella ready for the fame that will become her reality when the series goes to air? “I’m just kind of staying open and seeing what happens,” she says, either completely unfazed or possibly unaware of what lies ahead.
Markella wears Rachel Gilbert dress.Credit:Hugh Stewart
A quick look at Markella’s Instagram profile shows she has a modest 12,000 followers. No doubt that she will explode with her growing celebrity. “I have so many thoughts about social media,” she says. “For me, social media is something that I’m continuously navigating. If I wake up in the morning and the first app I check is my Instagram and I see something that was posted five hours ago, I’m already starting my day in the past. When I personally can struggle with being completely present, I want to focus on investing as much as I can in my interests and in issues I care about.
“So it’s making sure that I’m investing in my real life and in the people who I love. Because otherwise, I feel like you can get stuck. You can get stuck scrolling, stuck comparing.
It can be a bit of a vicious cycle and I don’t want to contribute to an echo chamber. I really want to make sure I’m taking the time to reflect on how I would like my online presence to be.”
For many breakthrough actors, a move to Hollywood is the obvious next step. But Markella is not so sure. “There’s a quote by Aldous Huxley that says, ‘There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly. Lightly my darling.’
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“I think that’s easier said than done sometimes. But I really try to hold on to that. To not let any outside noise or expectations affect what I decide to do and the choices I make. I’ve thought about moving to LA but I just want to see what I gravitate towards naturally.”
With her level-headedness about fame and social media, her love of neorealist films and the ability to casually slip a Huxley quote into a conversation, Markella displays a degree of maturity far beyond her years. Perhaps the birth date on Google is correct after all?
“My friends are always making fun of me because sometimes I’ll listen to a song and I’ll just be like, ‘You know what, I feel nostalgic for the ’90s,’ “, she says, laughing. “But I wasn’t even born then!”
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on Prime Video on September 2.
Styling by Penny McCarthy and Emerson Conrad; Hair by Daren Borthwick using Oribe; Make-up by Linda Jefferyes using Liqlips by Linda Jefferyes. Shot on location at the Bob Hawke Beer & Leisure Centre.
Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.
Manchester United legend Gary Neville says his former team hit “a new low” during its embarrassing loss to Brentford before unleashing on the club’s owners for a hands-off approach that has created a “toxic” environment.
Erik ten Hag’s bad start as Manchester United manager descended into an embarrassment on Sunday morning (AEST) as a 4-0 thrashing by Brentford left the Red Devils bottom of the Premier League for the first time in 30 years.
United have now conceded four goals or more seven times in the Premier League since the start of last season.
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Brentford, who only ended a 74-year absence from English football’s top flight with promotion to the Premier League in August 2021, punished a series of errors to score four times in the first 35 minutes to spark joyous scenes at their west London ground.
United fell behind in woeful fashion when goalkeeper David de Gea somehow let a Josh Dasilva shot slip through his grasp before Mathias Jensen struck as the visitors failed to play out from the back. Ben Mee then exposed United’s frailty from set-pieces for his first Brentford goal and Bryan Mbuemo rounded off a stunning counter-attack 10 minutes before half-time.
David De Gea of Manchester United acknowledges fans following the defeat in the Premier League. Picture: Catherine IvilleSource: Getty Images
De Gea took the extraordinary step of voluntarily fronting the media post-game to take responsibility for the loss, telling Sky Sports: “I think I cost three points to my team today to be honest. It was a poor performance from myself… It was a horrible day.”
But ten Hag said he was the “main responsibility” for a humiliating loss.
The jubilant home support taunted Ten Hag with chants of “you’re getting sacked in the morning”. But the Dutch coach has inherited a rabble rather than being the root cause as United lost a seventh consecutive away league match for the first time since 1936.
“We all have seen the game. I think Brentford were more hungry and we conceded goals to individual mistakes,” said Ten Hag.
“You can have a good plan but that puts the plan in the bin.”
Liverpool legend Jamie Redknapp pointed to stats from the game that showed Brentford covered 109.4km during the match compared to Manchester United’s 95.6km
“That for me is just not good enough by any stretch of the imagination,” Redknapp told Sky Sports.
Manchester United’s striker Cristiano Ronaldo reacts as Brentford players celebrate. Picture: Ian KingtonSource: AFP
“You’re not always good, you can’t always play great – but you can always run around. That is so damning for that Manchester United team – I don’t care who the manager is, I don’t care who the owners are, that has got nothing to do with it. That is running for the shirt.
“That is a disgrace from their point of view. If you’re the manager and you go into the dressing room and you show them that, I would be so embarrassed a footballer
“From the players that started and finished that game, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more abject performance from a club that I would regard as one of the biggest in the world to play like that.
“I just don’t think they showed they cared.”
Neville said Manchester United players had now come under three different managers “they don’t work as hard as the teams they’re playing against”.
“How long have we been saying in football ‘hard work will beat talent when talent doesn’t work hard’? That Manchester United team don’t run hard enough, they don’t run fast enough,” Neville told Sky Sports.
Manchester United’s manager Erik ten Hag. Picture: Ian KingtonSource: AFP
“They are absolutely drained of all confidence, they’re struggling badly – and they have been now for 12 months.
“Today was a new low. It seems that continually Manchester United can surpass their previous lows – and when is the lowest low going to come? Because the reality of it is this is really, really bad.”
United were last crowned champions of England in the 2012/13 season in manager Alex Ferguson’s final campaign before retirement.
The arrival of £57 million ($69 million) centre-back Lisandro Martinez from Ajax has done little to shore up United’s leaky defense and questions will be asked of why Ten Hag has left Raphael Varane on the bench in favor of the Argentine and the out -of-sorts Harry Maguire.
While Ten Hag was keen to bolster his squad, he was adamant the team he sat out at Brentford was far better than this result indicated.
“It is clear we need players but I don’t want to think about that at this moment,” he said.
“The good players we had should have been better. I hoped for a better start, but still I have to believe because I have seen good things but the two games from now are disappointing.”
Former England full-back Neville – a longstanding critic of the Glazer family, the club’s US-based owners – slammed the hierarchy at Old Trafford for failing to give Ten Hag adequate support.
United fans are fuming. Picture: Catherine IvilleSource: Getty Images
“Manchester United have known for eight to 10 months they needed to rebuild the squad for the summer,” said Neville, now to Sky pundit.
“To not get the players in early, the quality of the players, the number of players that Erik ten Hag needed to be able to start the season, is baffling and difficult to forgive.”
Neville said the only money spent by Manchester United on players was from cash generated or borrowed “through its incredible fan base and a great commercial operation”.
“There’s a family over there in America who are just literally letting their employees take all the hits for them – and that is unforgivable,” Neville said.
“Joel Glazer has got to get on a plane… get over to Manchester and he’s got to start to divert the issues away from the club and tell everybody what the hell this plan is with the football club. What is he doing?
“You can look at the players all you like, but there are that many big things that need to be put right first, they’ve got to show up and basically face the music. Now’s the time. You can’t keep hanging over in Tampa and thinking that nothing’s going to come back to you.
Manchester United’s defender Harry Maguire. Picture: Ian KingtonSource: AFP
“These owners since Sir Alex Ferguson have proven in 10 years they cannot manage a forward-thinking football club. It’s been overtaken in every single department and it’s painful and it’s woeful.
“At this moment in time, there has been a toxic culture and atmosphere created at the club over a 10-year period without its leader, Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill, who were propping the club up whilst the family sat there in America glorifying the fact that they were part of it. We’re now seeing what has happened without Sir Alex Ferguson, without David Gill, without leadership. We’re now seeing what’s happening and it’s a mess.
“It cannot continue to go on.”
United host Liverpool, who beat their historic rivals 5-0 and 4-0 last season, in their next game on August 22.
It was inundated with negative reviews and hit headlines over its overpriced menu – yet Salt Bae’s controversial Nusr-Et restaurant in London has proved a hit with Instagrammers.
Diners have filled the social media platform with glamorous snaps showing them posing with the social media sensation or on the steakhouse’s standout stairs and showing the expensive dishes.
The Knightsbridge restaurant, part of a chain run by Turkish chef, Nusret Gökçe, who rose to viral fame back in 2017 for his unusual meat seasoning technique where he lets salt run down his elbow, made £7million of sales in its first four months.
This week, Nusret UK Limited, the company behind the steakhouse, filed financial reports to the UK’s Companies House revealing that it ‘performed higher than expected and made a profit of £2.3million in 2021.
Yet the impressive figure is hardly surprising when considering how expensive the menu at the steakhouse is.
Specials include a Golden Giant Tomahawk steak for £1,450, Golden Giant Striplion for £1,350 and Golden Kafes for £500 – while a simple burger and Red Bull will set you back £100 and £11 respectively.
It was inundated with negative reviews and hit headlines over its overpriced menu – yet Salt Bae’s controversial Nusr-Et restaurant in London has proved a hit with Instagrammers (pictured)
Diners (pictured right) have filled the social media platform with glamorous snaps showing them posing with the social media sensation or on the steakhouse’s standout stairs and showing the expensive dishes
The Knightsbridge restaurant, part of a chain run by Turkish chef, Nusret Gökçe, who rose to viral fame back in 2017 for his unusual meat seasoning technique where he lets salt run down his elbow, made £7million of sales in its first four months. Pictured, a diner at the steakhouse
This week, Nusret UK Limited, the company behind the steakhouse, filed financial reports to the UK’s Companies House revealing that it ‘performed higher than expected and made a profit of £2.3million in 2021. Pictured, a diner at the restaurant
David Beckham, Jason Statham and Naomi Campbell are among the famous faces to have eaten at Nusret’s restaurants – which include locations in New York, Dubai and Istanbul.
Meanwhile, Coleen Rooney and husband Wayne, Gemma Collins and Sam Thompson and Zara McDermott are some of the British celebs to have visited the London-based eatery after it opened in September 2021.
Yet just months after its highly-anticipated opening, it became one of the worst ranked restaurants on TripAdvisor after being slammed by unhappy customers online.
Diners were left less than impressed with the glitzy steakhouse, with a slew of bad reviews leaving it at number 20,491 out of 23,811 in the capital on TripAdvisor.
One person commented: ‘Do not be fooled by the glitz and glam and waste your money. Terrible food. Meat was not at all tasty. Ended up going for a £5 kebab after a £300 bill… this place is the biggest joke in London.’
Meanwhile another wrote: ‘Insult to humanity. Worst food, worst service. Paid over £1,800 for three of us. Poor quality, smelly meat, small portions. Rather spend £50 in the local restaurant, it will be better! Never again! Stay away, it’s a death trap!’
Yet the impressive figure is hardly surprising when considering how expensive the menu at the steakhouse is. Pictured, a customer at the restaurant
Specials include a Golden Giant Tomahawk steak for £1,450, Golden Giant Striplion for £1,350 and Golden Kafes for £500 – while a simple burger and coke will set you back £100 and £9 respectively. Pictured, a diner at the steakhouse
Just months after its highly-anticipated opening, it became one of the worst ranked restaurants on TripAdvisor after being slammed by unhappy customers online. Pictured, customers at the steakhouse
In March 2022, a sommelier who was fired from Salt Bae’s restaurant for ‘eating an avocado after 5.30pm’ branded the eatery a ‘toxic working environment’.
Guillermo Perez, 30, from Madrid, compared Nusr-Et to a ‘McDonald’s for rich people’ for charging guests extortionate prices – despite allegedly serving them ‘frozen chips with Heinz ketchup’.
Sommelier of eight years Mr Perez, who has lived in the UK since 2012, claimed the London eatery was ‘immoral’ in a scathing attack, adding that bottles of wine were being marked up by ‘incredible’ amounts.
‘Bottles worth £1,000 would be sold for up to £3,000, for example,’ Mr Perez told MailOnline. ‘Of course you can charge people whatever price you want, but it’s pretty immoral when the quality of the food and service does not match the price.
Cash to splash: Gemma Collins previously spoke of her shock at her £1,450 bill for a 24 carat Golden Tomahawk steak at Salt Bae’s London restaurant Nusr-et
Loved-up: Gemma enjoyed her meal at the Knightsbridge restaurant with her partner Rami Hawash
‘One day I saw a big bag of frozen chips and I thought “really? That’s what we are serving people?” And they had Heinz ketchup and mayonnaise, which you can get from the shop.’
Mr Perez continued: ‘I have worked in Mayfair and other good restaurants, but my experience there was very disappointing. I think people there want to show how much money they have, almost everybody paid in cash.’
Mr Perez said he was dragged into HR on January 20 after he was rated by a chef in the staff canteen – which is shared with a hotel – for eating his own avocado and rice.
David Beckham, Jason Statham and Naomi Campbell are among the famous faces to have eaten at Nusret’s restaurants – which include locations in New York, Dubai and Istanbul
Meanwhile, Coleen Rooney and husband Wayne, Gemma Collins and Sam Thompson and Zara McDermott are some of the British celebs to have visited the London-based eatery (pictured) after it opened in September 2021
Workers from Nusr-Et are not allowed to eat food from the canteen after 5.30pm, Mr Perez said.
‘I arrived with my own food at 5.35pm and took a plate and the chef started shouting at me telling me I can’t eat from the canteen,’ alleged Mr Perez, whose past work experience includes the upmarket Sushisamba.
‘I tried to explain that the avocado was mine and that I was just taking a plate and some cutlery and he accused me of being aggressive and called my general manager.’
Within 30 minutes, Mr Perez said he was told to report to HR, where he was chastised for ‘arguing with the chef’ and told not to return after that day. He said he was told he would not receive his week’s holiday pay or work a notice period.
MailOnline contacted Nusr-Et for comment.
Revealed: The eye-wateringly expensive menu in full
