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Radio Woodfordia
Never Give Up — with Shannon Molloy
Season 1, Ep. 32
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A note before you listen
Radio Woodfordia reaches listeners around the world, and this episode includes discussion of bullying and suicide. Wherever you are, support is available.
Australia
Lifeline: 13 11 14 (24/7) | https://www.lifeline.org.au
QLife (LGBTQI+ peer support): 1800 184 527 (3pm–9pm daily) | https://www.qlife.org.au
United States
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988 (24/7) | https://www.988lifeline.org
The Trevor Project (LGBTQ+ youth): 1-866-488-7386 (24/7) | https://www.thetrevorproject.org
United Kingdom
Samaritans: 116 123 (24/7) | https://www.samaritans.org
Switchboard (LGBTQ+): 0300 330 0630 (10am–10pm daily) | https://switchboard.lgbt
International
https://www.befrienders.org — connects to crisis support services worldwide
"I'm looking for hope in lots of places." — Shannon Molloy
Shannon Molloy started his first neighbourhood newspaper at age six — the Arthur Street Chronicle, covering the price of ham at Christmas and local goings-on. By 14 he was writing for online magazines from his bedroom in regional Queensland, using words the way some kids used escape routes. He needed one.
Shannon is an award-winning journalist and the bestselling author of Fourteen — a memoir about growing up gay at an all-boys NRL-mad Catholic school in Yeppoon, central Queensland, in the year 2000. The book began as a single opinion piece about the Safe Schools debate that generated thousands of responses from people who recognised themselves in his story. It became a bestseller, was longlisted for an ABIA Award, and was adapted into a sell-out stage production that went on a national tour after what was meant to be a one-off season at Brisbane Festival.
Harley Breen sits down with Shannon for a conversation that moves between the personal and the political with the ease of someone who has spent decades doing both. They talk about the fatigue of journalism in the age of relentless bad news and how Shannon has found an antidote in writing about hope and resilience. About the year that shaped everything — the violence, the isolation, the writing as refuge, and the small community of people, including a purple-haired youth worker in Yeppoon who insisted on drum circles, who made survival possible. About whether "it gets better" still holds as a message in a world that sometimes feels like it's moving backwards. And about men — where they're finding community now, why that matters, and what Shannon thinks is missing.
This episode is for:
- Anyone who has ever used creativity as a way to survive something
- People who believe that small acts of kindness have more power than we know
- Anyone thinking about what it means to build genuine community for men and boys in 2025
Dive in to hear about:
- The flea market typewriter Shannon's mum brought home when he was five — and how it became the most important object in his life
- Growing up gay at an all-boys Catholic school in Yeppoon, and the writing that got him through
- The Safe Schools opinion piece that generated thousands of responses and planted the seed for Fourteen
- Why Shannon thinks "it gets better" needs a more honest update — and what he'd say instead
Key topics: Shannon Molloy, Fourteen, memoir, LGBTQ+ Australia, journalism, men's health, community, hope, resilience, Queensland, bullying, Safe Schools, coming of age
To come to the Woodford Folk Festival this year visit: https://woodfordfolkfestival.com/
FOR MORE:
Harley Breen: https://www.harleybreen.com.au
Shannon Molloy: https://www.shannonmolloy.com.au
Fourteen and You Made Me This Way are available wherever books are sold.
CREDITS: Host: Harley Breen | Guest: Shannon Molloy | Executive Producer: Benny Wallington | Producers: Cameron Scurrah, Bree Hickson-Jamieson | Video Editing: Nick Haddow | Music by: The East Pointers | Recorded on Jinibara Country | Recorded November 2025
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For the festival: www.woodfordfolkfestival.com
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Credits:
Host: Harley Breen
Executive Producers: Bree Hickson-Jamieson, Josh Weier, Benny Wallington
Audio mastering: Kieron Atkinson
Music by: The East Pointers
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34. If I Fell Backward, Someone Would Catch Me — with Mama Kin Spender
36:22||Season 1, Ep. 34"Our job as songwriters is not to ask people to feel better — it's to get better at feeling." — Dingo Spender, Mama Kin SpenderMama Kin Spender are Danielle Caruana and Dingo Spender — a duo flung to opposite sides of the country who make music by getting on planes, meeting somewhere in the middle, and going into the dark corners together to find the gold. Their 2025 album Promises debuted at number two on the ARIA Australian Albums Chart and was nominated for Best Blues and Roots Album at the 2025 ARIA Awards.This episode was recorded live at the 2025–26 Woodford Folk Festival, just hours after Mama Kin Spender played the Amphigrande. It's hosted by Jordan Royal stepping into the chair for Radio Woodfordia.Mama Kin opens with the observation that Woodford is one of those rare festivals that grows artists — the audience buys tickets before the program is released, trusting the programmers and trusting the experience, which means artists can bring their most vulnerable material and know the room will catch them. Dingo describes Woodford as a place where, if you fell backward, someone would catch you and buy you a delicious meal and sing you a song.They talk about Promises — how some of its threads existed as far back as 2019, how the songs were already there, waiting — not for words alone, but for music, rhythm, the body to fully understand itself. How the song that became their North Star felt at first like a sewer main, and turned out to be the truth.They talk about what it means to make music as two people on opposite ends of the country — the limitation as its own kind of grace, the trust that lets you go for things that are harder to reach, the creative producer who holds the space until you get to the hot spot. And they talk about what they're carrying into the new year. Joy — not as a blinder against grief, but as its equal. The realisation that being achingly human is itself an act of resistance. And Dingo's question for whatever comes next: what would the soundtrack to joy sound like?This episode is for:Anyone who makes things with another person and knows what it costs and what it givesPeople who have ever wondered whether it's okay to feel joy when the world is breakingWoodford devotees — and anyone who wants to understand why this festival means what it means to the artists who keep coming backDive in to hear about:Mama Kin on Woodford as a festival that grows artists — and why she wants to play here until she can't anymoreDingo's first Woodford: four or five gigs in a day, running between stages without putting his saxophone downThe full family Woodford — the year Mama Kin, Dingo, John Butler, and Mama Kin's daughter all played gigs, the same kid who was in nappies backstage at her mum's first festivalThe writing house, the songs that were waiting for language, and the track that felt like a sewer main and turned out to be the truthWhat a great music producer actually does — and why their creative friendship is the container that lets them go into the dark cornersJoy as practice, grief as fuel, and why being achingly human is the game worth playingKey topics: Mama Kin Spender, Danielle Caruana, Dingo Spender, Promises album, ARIA Awards, Woodford Folk Festival, songwriting, creative collaboration, folk soul, Australian music, joy, grief, communityTo come to the Woodford Folk Festival this year visit: https://woodfordfolkfestival.com/FOR MORE: Harley Breen: https://www.harleybreen.com.au Mama Kin Spender: https://mamakinspender.love Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mamakinspender Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mamakinspender Jordan Royal: https://www.instagram.com/j0rdanroyal/CREDITS: Host: Jordan Royal | Guests: Danielle Caruana and Dingo Spender of Mama Kin Spender | Executive Producer: Benny Wallington, Bree Hickson-Jamieson | Producers: Amelie Barham, Benjamin 'Tofty' Toft, Georgia Shaw, Madeleine Corcoran | Video Editing: Nick Haddow | Music by: The East Pointers | Recorded on Jinibara Country
33. Every Meal Needs a Story — with Matt Golinski
33:28||Season 1, Ep. 33"You come home from Woodford with that feeling of, oh, okay, maybe the world's not so bad after all." — Matt GolinskiMatt Golinski grew up on a tropical fruit farm in Palmwoods on the Sunshine Coast — pawpaws, avocados, mangoes, bananas, and enough tomatoes and zucchinis to know instinctively what a good one looks like. That early understanding of where food comes from and what it takes to grow it has quietly shaped everything he's done since.He spent nine years on Ready Steady Cook, which is how most of Australia came to know him. He'd rather you call him a cook than a celebrity chef. He still cooks every day, he sources almost everything he uses directly from the farmers who grow it, and he'll drive hours into regional Queensland with a car stuffed full of pots and pans to cook a dinner for 300 people in Roma if that's what's needed. He does it alone, he does it happily, and he considers the friends he makes along the way as much a part of the job as the food itself.Harley Breen sits down with Matt for a conversation that covers a lot of ground — the farm, the TV years, the philosophy behind cooking with local producers, the honest economics of running a one-person catering operation in a tough industry, and what it actually means to care about where your food comes from. They also talk about what happens to the kitchen culture when the head chef is a psycho, why there should never be such a thing as a food trend, and the 50,000 pasta machines currently sitting unused in the backs of Australian cupboards.And then there's Woodford. Matt has been coming since the very first festivals at Maleny — living on home brand baked beans and a $20 tent that collapsed on the first night, surviving on very little and loving every minute of it. He's watched the trees grow from saplings to the canopy they are now, including some he helped plant. He lines up on Christmas Eve every year for his favourite camping spot. And he describes driving through the gates as feeling, simply, like coming home.This episode is for:Anyone who has ever stood in a paddock or a farmers market and felt that something was missing from the way we talk about foodWoodford lifers, and anyone who wants to understand why people keep coming backPeople who believe the best meals are the ones with a story behind themDive in to hear about:Growing up on a tropical fruit farm in Palmwoods and what it taught Matt about ingredients before he ever set foot in a kitchenNine years on Ready Steady Cook, why the term celebrity chef makes him cringe, and what he thinks most celebrity chefs stopped doing years agoWhy Matt refuses to give anyone a menu more than a week out, and why that's actually where the creativity livesCooking an 80th birthday dinner sourced entirely from the local producers the birthday boy spent a lifetime championingThe First Offenders, the Woombye Hall, Maleny in the early days, and a $20 tent that didn't survive its first nightWhy Matt stopped cooking at Woodford, and what he loves about just being a punterWatching trees he helped plant grow into the canopy that shades the festival todayPizza Loca: a thirty-five year love affair, and the most unexpected celebrity endorsement in festival food historyKey topics: Matt Golinski, Ready Steady Cook, local produce, farm to table, Sunshine Coast food, Woodford Folk Festival, Maleny Folk Festival, Australian food culture, community, seasonal cookingTo come to the Woodford Folk Festival this year visit: https://woodfordfolkfestival.com/FOR MORE: Harley Breen: https://www.harleybreen.com.au Matt Golinski: https://mattgolinski.com.au https://www.instagram.com/mattgolinski https://www.facebook.com/ChefMattGolinskiCREDITS: Host: Harley Breen | Guest: Matt Golinski | Executive Producer: Benny Wallington | Producers: Cameron Scurrah, Bree Hickson-Jamieson| Video Editing: Nick Haddow | Music by: The East Pointers | Recorded on Jinibara Country | Recorded November 2025
31. Born on a School Oval — with Jacko and Lewy of Beddy Rays
26:06||Season 1, Ep. 31"You just got to grab it and go for it in that moment." — Jackson Van Issum, Beddy RaysBeddy Rays are four best mates from Redland Bay, Queensland who have been inseparable since they met on a school oval at age six. Their debut album hit #1 on the ARIA Vinyl chart and #2 on the Australian Albums chart. They've appeared in the triple j Hottest 100 multiple times. They won the Rock Award at the 2024 Queensland Music Awards. And they play like a band who never forgot why they started.Harley Breen sits down with vocalist Jacko (Jackson Van Issum) and lead guitarist Lewy (Lewis McKenna) on the afternoon of their first-ever Woodford Folk Festival performance — a headline slot at the Amphigrande, the festival's biggest stage — to talk about how they got here.The conversation covers the full origin story: four primary school kids bonding over Green Day and The Offspring on a school oval, eventually picking up instruments because someone had to play the drums and their mate Benny turned out to be frighteningly good at Guitar Hero. The house party at Jacko's place while his parents were away that became their first gig. The years of playing venues around Fortitude Valley without a manager, without a plan, and without quite understanding how the music industry worked — until they got one and realised how much they'd been figuring out the hard way.They also talk about the creative process — how Jacko writes from the centre of the song outward, why he tries to finish an idea the moment it arrives, and what it feels like to sit down to write and think: have I forgotten how to do this? (He hasn't. Neither has Harley.)And they talk about what it means to play a folk festival when your sound is breezy coastal punk rock — and why, once you understand that folk is the precursor to punk, to hip hop, to protest music, it makes complete sense.This episode is for:Anyone who has ever started something with their childhood mates and just kept goingFans of honest songwriting and bands who mean every word they playPeople who think folk and punk have nothing in common — this conversation might change your mindDive in to hear about:The school oval, the Green Day phase, and how four kids from Redland Bay became a bandLearning drums via Guitar Hero on expert mode — and why it actually workedThe house party that became their first gig (and the rum cans left up the side of the house)Five years without a manager, and what they learned when they finally got oneHow Jacko writes songs — and why finishing an idea in the moment is everythingPlaying the Amphigrande on their very first Woodford Folk Festival appearanceWhy folk music is the natural home of storytellers — whatever their genreKey topics: Beddy Rays, Jacko Van Issum, Lewy McKenna, Queensland punk, Australian indie rock, Woodford Folk Festival, songwriting, coastal punk rock, music origin stories, Australian musicTo come to the Woodford Folk Festival this year visit: https://woodfordfolkfestival.com/FOR MORE: Harley Breen: https://www.harleybreen.com.au Beddy Rays: https://linktr.ee/beddyraysCREDITS: Host: Harley Breen | Guests: Jackson Van Issum and Lewis McKenna of Beddy Rays | Executive Producer: Benny Wallington, Bree Hickson-Jamieson | Producers: Cameron Scurrah, Georgia Shaw, Amelie Barham, Benjamin 'Tofty' Toft | Video Editing: Nick Haddow | Sound Editing: Kieron Atkinson | Music by: The East Pointers | Recorded on Jinibara Country | Recorded December 2025
30. A Flower Growing Out of a Compost Heap — with Charlie Mgee
51:45||Season 1, Ep. 30"A song is sort of like a flower coming out of a compost heap." — Charlie Mgee, Formidable VegetableCharlie Mgee once turned down $120,000 a year cutting carrots for a fossil fuel company. His finger wouldn't send the email. Instead, he took $2,000 and spent a year volunteering at festivals around the country — ending up at Woodford, where the seed of Formidable Vegetable was planted in a permaculture talk at the Greenhouse.More than 20 years later, he's built a straw house in Denmark, WA with 40 friends. For a while, he could buy a croissant from the local bakery made from the same wheat crop as his walls. He's played Glastonbury five times, quit flying for seven years, and written a viral song from a hotel room in Slovakia that got shared by Reggie Watts and contributed — he'll take it — to a wobble in a certain streaming giant's share price..Harley Breen sits down with Charlie for a conversation that covers an almost unreasonable amount of ground. They talk about what permaculture actually is once you get past the composting dunny of Charlie's childhood and into the systems thinking, the indigenous knowledge frameworks, and the radical idea that self-sufficiency is a myth — community is the point. About the impossible balance of being a touring musician who believes in living locally. About a major streaming platform investing artist royalties in AI killer drone technology, and the song Charlie wrote about it in a hotel room in Slovakia. About what it means to be a Luddite in 2025 as an act of resistance. And about active hope — the Joanna Macy framework that keeps Charlie going on the days when nihilism starts winning.Also: garden snails purged with flour, eaten like salami bites, and treated as pets first. You've been warned.This episode is for:Anyone who has ever wondered if the small ethical choices they make actually add up to anythingPeople who believe music can change the world — and want to hear from someone who has spent 20 years testing that theoryAnyone who has looked at the state of the world and needed someone to give them a framework for not losing their mindDive in to hear about:The $120,000 fossil fuel job Charlie's finger wouldn't let him accept — and the year of festival volunteering that followedHow a permaculture talk at Woodford's Greenhouse stage became the origin story of Formidable VegetableThe viral song recorded in a hotel room in Slovakia, Reggie Watts, and what it means to chip away at a giantWhy Charlie quit flying for seven years, what it cost him, and why he started againActive hope — Joanna Macy's framework for staying functional in the face of the world's problemsWhy AI music is the next frontier and Charlie's plan to troll it backKey topics: Formidable Vegetable, Charlie Mgee, permaculture, regenerative living, music activism, Woodford Folk Festival, sustainable building, Glastonbury, AI music, active hopeTo come to the Woodford Folk Festival this year visit: https://woodfordfolkfestival.com/FOR MORE:Harley Breen: https://www.harleybreen.com.auFormidable Vegetable:Socials: https://www.instagram.com/formidableveg/https://www.instagram.com/not_just_charlieWeb: https://formidablevegetable.com.au/https://formidablevegetable.bandcamp.com/ Joanna Macy and the Work That Reconnects: https://workthatreconnects.orgCREDITS: Host: Harley Breen | Guest: Charlie Mgee of Formidable Vegetable | Executive Producer: Benny Wallington, Bree Hickson-Jamieson | Producers: Cameron Scurrah, Georgia Shaw, Amelie Barham, Benjamin 'Tofty' Toft | Video Editing: Nick Haddow | Music by: The East Pointers | Recorded on Jinibara Country Recorded December 2025#RadioWoodfordia #FormidableVegetable #CharlieMgee #HarleyBreen #WoodfordFolkFestival #Woodfordia #Permaculture #Sustainability #MusicActivism #AIMusic #RegenerativeLiving #ActiveHope #Podcast #LiveMusic
29. Piano Fixed the Maths. Then She Played Woodford — Grace Alexandra
19:09||Season 1, Ep. 29"I started doing piano lessons and I started getting better at maths." — Grace AlexandraGrace Alexandra came to Woodford on a pay-it-forward ticket. The next year, she was performing at it.Grace is 16, Darug, and already the kind of artist who makes you lean forward. She first came to Woodfordia as a child, dancing with the Jinibara Dance Troupe in 2018. She came back in 2024 as a punter — watched Jaguar Jones, Yothu Yindi, and Caravana Sun — and left knowing she wanted to be on those stages. Twelve months later, here she is.Harley Breen sits down with Grace — and, delightfully, her mum, just off camera — for a conversation that's warm, unhurried, and quietly remarkable. They talk about the unlikely chain of events that led Grace to music: failing maths, choosing piano lessons over a tutor, and discovering, almost by accident, that she could sing. About growing up Darug , travelling to Sydney to connect with the Gadigal community, and writing a song about a place that moved her so deeply at age ten that she couldn't not write about it. About what it means to be a young Indigenous artist right now, and why the community of peers she needs doesn't quite exist yet in her area.What she's already done is not nothing. One of 15 First Nations artists nationally, Grace was selected for the First Sounds National Album, funded by AMRAP. She's played Bluesfest and the Gympie Muster. And now, Woodford.This episode is for:Anyone who believes the best origin stories start with failing mathsPeople who want to hear what the next generation of Indigenous Australian music sounds likeAnyone who needs a reminder of what it looks like when a young person is completely, quietly sure of themselvesDive in to hear about:How failing maths led Grace to piano lessons — and how piano lessons fixed the mathsThe pay-it-forward ticket that brought her to Woodford as a punter, and the moment she decided she'd be back as a performerThe place Grace visited at age ten that became the heart of an original songBeing selected for the First Sounds National Album out of 15 First Nations artists nationallyWhy there's a gap in peer community for young musicians in her area — and why Woodford helps fill itKey topics: Grace Alexandra, First Nations music, young Australian artists, Woodford Folk Festival, singer-songwriter, Indigenous storytelling, Sunshine Coast music sceneTo come to the Woodford Folk Festival this year visit: https://woodfordfolkfestival.com/FOR MORE: Harley Breen: https://www.harleybreen.com.auGrace Alexandra: https://linktr.ee/grace_alexandra_music CREDITS: Host: Harley Breen | Guest: Grace Alexandra | Executive Producer: Benny Wallington, Bree Hickson-Jamieson | Producers: Cameron Scurrah, Georgia Shaw, Amelie Barham, Benjamin 'Tofty' Toft | Video Editing: Nick Haddow | Music by: The East Pointers | Recorded on Jinibara CountryRecorded December 2025#RadioWoodfordia #GraceAlexandra #HarleyBreen #WoodfordFolkFestival #Woodfordia #FirstNationsMusic #IndigenousAustralian #SingerSongwriter #AustralianMusic #NewMusic #Podcast #LiveMusic
28. How Large Mirage Found Their Sound at the Intersection of Everything — with Large Mirage
21:51||Season 1, Ep. 28"It's a concentrated fantasy, this whole place." — Large MirageThey'd never been to Woodford Folk Festival before. You wouldn't have known it.AJ, Bailey and Blake of Large Mirage arrived at their first Woodford — first time as a band, first time as human beings — and immediately looked like they belonged. Within five minutes of their first set, the Pineapple Lounge was heaving. The second night was better still. And somehow, between all of it, they still had time to pull up chairs at a campsite bluegrass session and call it a private gig.Harley Breen sits down with three quarters of Large Mirage for a conversation that moves at the pace of one of their extended instrumental jams — warm, a little unpredictable, and genuinely fun. They talk about what psych rock actually means when you're the one playing it, why the genre label is both accurate and completely insufficient, and how AJ ended up in the band after being spotted at a lawn bowls club gig by a man in double denim. They talk about the band name — born from two bandmates both seeing the same thing on an airport tarmac, and a rhyme that only works in an Australian accent. And they talk about what it means to fly to New South Wales on New Year's Eve afternoon to play a show, then fly back to Woodford to play Bluestown stage at 1am.Stretching. Eating well. Drinking water before the set. Rock and roll has changed.This episode is for:Anyone who has walked into a tent at Woodford not knowing what was playing and ended up having the best timePeople who believe the best bands are the ones that can't quite be contained by their own genre labelAnyone who has ever dramatically underestimated how heavy a Hammond organ isDive in to hear about:What psych rock actually sounds like from the inside — extended jams, organ solos, Texas shuffles, and a sound that wears many hatsThe lawn bowls club gig, the double denim, and the very random encounter that brought AJ into the bandWhy "Large Mirage" only rhymes if you're Australian — and the airport tarmac moment that started it allThe New Year's Eve schedule that has them flying to a Central Coast show and back to a 1am Bluestown set at WoodfordKey topics: Large Mirage, psychedelic rock, Woodford Folk Festival, live music, Australian independent music, Hammond organ, festival cultureTo come to the Woodford Folk Festival this year visit: https://woodfordfolkfestival.com/FOR MORE: Harley Breen: https://www.harleybreen.com.auLarge Mirage: https://largemirage.com/ https://www.instagram.com/largemirage/ https://www.tiktok.com/@largemirage CREDITS: Host: Harley Breen | Guests: AJ Stanton, Blake Rochester and Bailey Brown of Large Mirage | Executive Producer: Benny Wallington | Producers: Georgia Shaw, Amelie Barham, Benjamin ‘Tofty’ Toft, Bree Hickson-Jamieson | Video Editing: Nick Haddow | Music by: The East Pointers | Recorded on Jinibara Country Recorded December 2025#RadioWoodfordia #LargeMirage #HarleyBreen #WoodfordFolkFestival #Woodfordia #PsychRock #AustralianMusic #IndieMusic #LiveMusic #FolkFestival #Podcast #RockAndRoll
27. From the Crowd to Playing the Pineapple Lounge – with Tjaka
39:54||Season 1, Ep. 27"For us being at Woodford from an early age, seeing so many shows — you walk into a tent and you just start dancing. That's the feeling we try to put into our shows, because we know how great that feels." — TjakaGeoff, Jake and Felix of Tjaka know exactly what a Woodford crowd feels like. They've been standing in one since they were kids. In 2024, they found out what it looks like from the other side.They are, in the truest sense, Woodford babies — kids who watched their dad perform on the Grande and the Amphitheatre stages, who spent years in the crowd absorbing everything from eight-piece jazz funk bands to carrot flutes before they ever set foot on a Woodford stage themselves. In 2024, that changed. Tjaka played four shows, including New Year's Eve just after the countdown, and the crowd went exactly as wild as they always knew it would.Harley Breen sits down with the three of them for a conversation that's as warm and chaotic as a Tjaka set. They talk about how a dislocated elbow, a radio show, and a very long friendship between families became a band. About touring Taiwan, playing The Great Escape in the UK, and still stacking yoghurt in the dairy aisle twenty-four hours after a sold-out show. About the Didjeribone — Charlie McMahon's slide didgeridoo invention, made from PVC pipe, capable of ten keys in one, and apparently a serious conversation starter with airport security.And they talk about what Woodford actually does to musicians who've grown up inside it: how the diversity, the energy, and the sheer what-the-hell-is-this-and-why-do-I-love-it magic of the festival becomes a philosophy of performance.This episode is for:Anyone who has stood in a tent at Woodford and had their mind completely changed by something they never would have chosenPeople who believe the best artists are the ones who grew up loving live music firstAnyone who wants to hear a slide didgeridoo improvised live in a podcast studioDive in to hear about:The Didjeribone — Charlie McMahon's slide didgeridoo invention, how it works, why it's perfect carry-on luggage, and the airport security performances it keeps generatingWhat happens when your own band is recommended to you by a stranger in a beer queueThe gap between "we're going on a national tour" and "I am stacking yoghurt in a supermarket right now" — and why Felix thinks he's already won anywayHow a dislocated elbow, a missed psychology exam, and a lifelong friendship became the origin story of TjakaWhy Woodford crowds hit differently when you've spent your whole life in themTo come to the Woodford Folk Festival this year visit: https://woodfordfolkfestival.com/FOR MORE: Harley Breen: https://www.harleybreen.com.auTjaka: https://tjaka.bandcamp.com/music Charlie McMahon, and the Didjeribone: https://www.charliemcmahon.com/ https://didjeribone.com/ CREDITS: Host: Harley Breen | Guests: Geoff Fabila, Jake Fabila and Felix Fogarty of Tjaka | Executive Producer: Benny Wallington | Producers: Cameron Scurrah, Georgia Shaw, Amelie Barham, Bree Hickson-Jamieson | Sound Editing: Keiron Atkinson | Video Editing: Nick Haddow | Music by: The East Pointers | Recorded on Jinibara CountryKey topics: Tjaka band, Woodford Folk Festival performers, Didjeribone, Charlie McMahon, contemporary First Nations music, independent music careers, live performance culture#RadioWoodfordia #Tjaka #HarleyBreen #WoodfordFolkFestival #Woodfordia #Didjeribone #CharlieMcMahon #FirstNationsMusic #AustralianMusic #IndieMusic #FolkFestival #LiveMusic #Podcast #WoodfordBabies
26. A Million Litres and Counting
32:53||Season 1, Ep. 26"The wastewater doesn't lie."You've walked past it a hundred times without knowing it's there. Beneath the stages, the food stalls, and the dusty paths of Woodford Folk Festival runs more than 50 kilometres of sewers — and a treatment system so sophisticated it's now a cover story in American engineering magazines and a blueprint for festivals around the world.Harley Breen sits down with Ben Kele, the quietly hilarious wastewater engineer who has been running Woodfordia's decentralised water system for the past 16 years. What begins as a conversation about poo quickly becomes something much bigger: a story about world-leading science, practical environmentalism, and what it looks like when a festival takes its responsibilities to the land seriously.Ben explains how Woodford processes up to a million litres of wastewater a day during the festival — every drop treated on site, with not a single litre trucked in or out. He talks about the unique challenge of a system that swings from 15,000 litres on a quiet construction day to a million litres on the 27th of December, what the water chemistry reveals about who's on site and what they've been drinking, and how a small research project that started right here at Woodford became the foundation for Australia's national pharmaceutical wastewater tracking program — now used by public health agencies and federal law enforcement nationwide. He also tells the story of his brother Andrew, a flannel dressing gown, a dozen flushed bras, and a very unfortunate encounter with Chris Martin.This episode is for:Anyone who's ever wondered what actually happens when 130,000 people flushPeople who believe the most interesting infrastructure is the kind you never seeAnyone who finds genuine joy in a person who is brilliant at something the rest of us would rather not think aboutDive in to hear about:How Woodfordia became the unlikely birthplace of Australia's national drug-detection-via-wastewater program — and the AFP funding that got it startedWhat the water chemistry difference is between a Woodford Folk Festival crowd and other music festival crowds — and what it says about what people choose to drinkWhy composting toilets work brilliantly in Tasmania and terribly in a Queensland summer, and the fly hatching cycle that explains everythingThe story of Andrew the bog monster, a flannel dressing gown, a dozen flushed bras, and a very famous rock star who witnessed the whole thing from a stretch limousineTo come to the Woodford Folk Festival this year visit: https://woodfordfolkfestival.com/FOR MORE: Harley Breen: https://www.harleybreen.com.au Ben Kele and Arris Water:Woodford Folk Festival Water System — Arris Water Case Study: https://www.arris.com.au/water/water-projects/queensland-folk-federation-qld/Woodford Folk Festival feature — The Onsite Journal, Summer 2024: https://www.nowra.org/Customer-Content/www/news/PDFs/Onsite_Journal_Summer_2024_Online.pdfCREDITS: Host: Harley Breen | Guest: Ben Kele | Executive Producer: Benny Wallington | Producers: Cameron Scurrah, Bree Hickson-Jamieson | Sound Editing: Keiron Atkinson | Video Editing: Nick Haddow | Music by: The East Pointers | Recorded on Jinibara Country#RadioWoodfordia #BenKeele #HarleyBreen #WoodfordFolkFestival #Woodfordia #WastewaterManagement #Sustainability #Environment #MusicFestivals #FestivalLife #Podcast #WaterScienceKey topics:Decentralized water systems for festivalsInnovative wastewater treatment techniquesResearch and monitoring of pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs in wastewater