Shetler Sam

2024-05-05T08:02:00Z

Tillera: Created page with "{{People |Type of person=Individual |Date approximate=No |Place of birth=Phoenix, Arizona, USA |Date approximate2=No |Date approximate3=No |Date approximate4=No }} Sam Shetler..."

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Sam Shetler

Sam is originally from Phoenix Arizona, USA. After moving 4,000km to Massachusetts he started skating in his early teens. His brother is a professional skateboarder who owns an East Coast skateboard company by the name of All I Need Skateboarding.
He met and married an Aussie and moved to Australia in 2010. He now lives in Evanston South and is heavily involved with Gawler Youth. He teaches free monthly skateboarding lessons at Gawler Skatepark.

Sam is also a secondary teacher and a founding member of the Anti-Poverty Network SA
"Anti-Poverty Network SA is an alliance of people affected and concerned by poverty and unemployment, including job-seekers, low-income workers, sole parents, age and disability pensioners, students, community and welfare workers, and others."

First shared on Gawler in Photographs ‘Humans of Gawler’ series 11 November 2020.

Photographs by Daniel James Down. Please click here to visit the Gawler in Photographs Facebook page.

Gawler History Team Inc thanks Daniel James Down (Gawler in Photographs) and the subjects of ‘Humans of Gawler’ for allowing us to preserve their profiles and photographs for future generations of Gawlerites to enjoy.

Please click here to view photos of [https://www.flickr.com/photos/gawler_history/albums/72177720316721584/ Sam Shetler]

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Vallelonga Cr Jim

2024-05-05T07:56:46Z

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Jim Vallelonga is an Area Councillor serving two terms; 2014 - 2018, 2018 - current.

Jimmy Vallelonga - Cafe Nova
Born and bred in Gawler! Born in 1956 Jimmy attended Smithfield Primary and Tech, he is the owner of Cafe Nova and also one of our councillors for Town of Gawler.

First shared on Gawler in Photographs ‘Humans of Gawler’ series 6 July 2022.

Photographs by Daniel James Down. Please click here to visit the Gawler in Photographs Facebook page.

Gawler History Team Inc thanks Daniel James Down (Gawler in Photographs) and the subjects of ‘Humans of Gawler’ for allowing us to preserve their profiles and photographs for future generations of Gawlerites to enjoy.

Please click here to view photos of [https://www.flickr.com/photos/gawler_history/albums/72157712326165847/ Jimmy Vallelonga]
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Whichello Akeira-Juliet

2024-05-05T07:50:40Z

Tillera: Created page with "{{People |Type of person=Individual |Date approximate=No |Date approximate2=No |Date approximate3=No |Date approximate4=No }} '''Akeira - Juliet Whichello''' "My dream is..."

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'''Akeira - Juliet Whichello'''

"My dream is to get drafted into any team in the AFLW"
Akeira is one of our upcoming footy stars. She plays for the Willaston Donnybrooks and is one of the youngest players to join the SANFLW Central District Football Club senior women's squad.
She went to school at Greenwith Primary School and then Golden Grove High School and it was there that she found such a love for sport. Football (Aussie rules and soccer!), Cricket, and even Korfball (similar to netball/basketball). Greenwith was the place where her love for sport started. A huge influence was her teacher Mr. Smith, who one day suggested to her that the Footy team needed more players, and from there she was hooked!

"I used to be a dancer, but I always loved sport..."
In year 8 she joined the Gawler Rangers Baseball Club Inc. A friend there played for the Willaston Football Club and suggested Akeira come along for a look, she loved it straight away. She's coming up to her forth season with the Donnybrooks. In 2020 she was nominated by Willaston to join the Central Districts development program which meant getting to train and practice with an SANFL team.
In 2021 AJ was nominated and selected to be a part of the Centrals U16s talent shield and from there she was selected by the coaching staff to train alongside the senior women's team. This all led to her being selected to be part of the inaugural development/reserves team and received the coaches award at the best and fairest ceremony that year! In May 2022 she received an email that she was selected to play for the girls U16s SANFL futures academy, which represents the state and all of this was televised. Very cool.
She has also been nominated by the Donnys to play in the SA Country Football Championships. The SA Country Football Championships is an event that showcases, supports and celebrates country football, leaving lasting legacies in communities. 300 talented community footballers from country South Australia represent six zone teams across the men’s and women’s carnivals. Only last month she was named as one of the top 50 SA Country Women players and for her local club picked up awards for Breakthrough Player, best Under 18 Player, Team Of The Year (Ruck Rover) and runner-up in the senior women's Best and Fairest!
She’s also been selected in the Central District U17’s Talent Shield and games begin next week!

"One in all in! I am very humbled by the love and support I have received from everyone since day one, especially those people I look up to. I've received such tremendous guidance from Megan Boers-Veen, Lauren Smith and Katelyn Rosenzweig!"
She loves the family connection with the Donnybrooks and being in a sports team in general.... but when she isn't playing sports, she's watching it! She loves watching all the old-school footy matches with the rough and tumble play style. A huge Crows fan she has favourites in older players like Andrew Mcleod and current players like Shane McAdams. A bit of retail therapy, particularly shoes never goes astray either.

She recently celebrated 50 club games, well done AJ!

First shared on Gawler in Photographs ‘Humans of Gawler’ series 13 September 2023.

Photographs by Daniel James Down. Please click here to visit the Gawler in Photographs Facebook page.

Gawler History Team Inc thanks Daniel James Down (Gawler in Photographs) and the subjects of ‘Humans of Gawler’ for allowing us to preserve their profiles and photographs for future generations of Gawlerites to enjoy.

Please click here to view photos of [https://www.flickr.com/photos/gawler_history/albums/72177720316721444/ Akeira-Juliet Whichello]

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Holme Talitha

2024-05-05T07:43:54Z

Tillera: Created page with "{{People |Type of person=Individual |Date approximate=No |Place of birth=Marion, South Australia |Date approximate2=No |Date approximate3=No |Date approximate4=No }} Talitha H..."

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Talitha Holme

"My nickname is Beef!"
Born in Marion from German and Australian heritage Talitha went to school at Sacred Heart College - Victor Harbour. After finishing school she moved to Victor Harbour working in a café and surfing every day. Surfing was such a part of her life that she decided she wanted to become a pro surfer. Later she was interviewed at Tabor Adelaide to secure a teaching degree. Talitha went to London in 2009 to teach at a primary school level and ended up in Sheffield for a year and half and became easily accustomed to English and football life!

"Two and a half years in the U.K. traveling and having the best time of my life..... I'm still friends with a lot of people there... I've been back since and caught up with lots of friends"
She worked as a relief teacher in the catholic system all over Adelaide before another calling came as a youth worker working with children who are in the foster system. Talitha worked closely with vulnerable children and helped young people develop relationships. Youth work was very fulfilling and rewarding.

“As a relief teacher I became too strict and the schools loved it.... but the students hated it.”
Between all of this, Talitha was still quite involved with sport training at a state level for tennis, as well as training in surfing, and even Gaelic Football and has even just started Jui Jitsu! She's always been sporty and overall just loves Sports!
As a bit of fun, a friend set up a profile for her on a dating site called, "Plenty Of Fish" and she actually ended up meeting her husband Samuel Walton! On a trip to Europe Sam proposed in front of the world-famous Trevi Fountain, Rome, Italy. They got married in 2019 after dating for five years and she moved to Gawler to be with Sam. Whilst still a youth worker she decided to go at it alone and did a diploma in finance and started her own business Talitha Holme - Finance Broker. Her finance business specialises in residential, commercial, and mortgage broking.

"I was Burnt out from youth working, I needed a change of pace and I wanted something more black and white. My passions in property and renovations, i like helping people and i like it being a little more formal.....Being a broker is an ethical job and I get to help people by being bound by legislation"
Talitha loves a challenge and is always willing to take those challenges on and always learns from her mistakes. She had always wanted to start her own business. With the help of her two sisters Miriam and Ferial, they started up a podcast called the Sisters That Slay Podcast. They'll interview people from business who have an experienced business life discussing their business journey.

“I'm a massive port fan, it’s the best thing about me!”
Talitha plays for Willaston Football Club the, "Donnybrooks" in the women's senior team and is happy in any role on the field. The Donnybrooks are a very progressive club and are not defined by anything with all of the volunteers, players and supporters showing passion and dedication and are all considered Donnybrooks.

"One in, all in!"
Her nickname is, "BEEF" and this year she has been the team manager playing in finals and then eventually winning The Co-op BLGW final after her second season! She loves watching her husband Sam play footy and between working and sports she enjoys a coffee and a nice beer and generally socialising,

“In Gawler I love the community in general.... I've always felt very accepted in the sporting community. I love the relaxed atmosphere and the sense of pride in the community”

First shared on Gawler in Photographs ‘Humans of Gawler’ series 9 December 2020.

Photographs by Daniel James Down. Please click here to visit the Gawler in Photographs Facebook page.

Gawler History Team Inc thanks Daniel James Down (Gawler in Photographs) and the subjects of ‘Humans of Gawler’ for allowing us to preserve their profiles and photographs for future generations of Gawlerites to enjoy.

Please click here to view photos of [https://www.flickr.com/photos/gawler_history/albums/72177720316707006/ Talitha Holme]
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Do Maria

2024-05-05T07:36:02Z

Tillera: Created page with "{{People |Type of person=Individual |Date approximate=No |Place of birth=Elizabeth Vale |Date approximate2=No |Date approximate3=No |Date approximate4=No }} Maria - Asian Cent..."

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Maria - Asian Central Gawler Mill

"Now we can have that BIG wedding! Maybe too big 😁 "
By the time you read this Maria will be newly married! Congratulations Maria. very exciting...
Maria is the manager of Asian Central, one of a handful of Asian restaurants here in Gawler. When her father was a young man he decided to leave Vietnam and escape the Cambodian war. He sailed out all by himself to Malaysia. Over a year later he ended up in NSW and stayed with his sister who lived at Wollongong. Sometime later he went back to Vietnam where he charmed his childhood sweetheart and they both moved back to Australia to Virginia to take up farming
Maria was born in Elizabeth Vale and after spending some time back in Sydney, the family moved back to South Australia when she was 10 years old. She went to the Holy Family Catholic School for her primary school education before moving on to Saint Ignatius High School at Athlestone (which is where she met hubby!). Further studies lead to Law and primary school teaching.

"A friend of ours saw that in Salisbury we were really really busy and said, Why don't you come up to Gawler? I own a shop you can start another one up there..."
Out of the blue, her parents opened up Asian Central at Salisbury. Her dad had dabbled with cooking before, just to try something different. The choice was made to come open up a shop at Gawler and it's a real family affair. Mum, Dad, and Auntie all work there and with no experience, Maria jumped straight into the manager's role. In fact, they'll rope in any family members they can! The shop has recently opened up for lunch from Tuesdays to Fridays and the most popular dishes are:
- Mongolian Lamb
- Sweet and Sour
- Spring Rolls
- Satay Skewers

"There's a real obligation, I feel I need to be there. Everyone in Gawler has been so helpful"
She loves their yearly family holiday back home to Vietnam, she always looks forward to it. She was married last year on October 1st with Dad supplying the catering and loads of family coming over for the big occasion. It was a huge Vietnamese/Portugese fusion event!

First shared on Gawler in Photographs ‘Humans of Gawler’ series 23 August 2023.

Photographs by Daniel James Down. Please click here to visit the Gawler in Photographs Facebook page.

Gawler History Team Inc thanks Daniel James Down (Gawler in Photographs) and the subjects of ‘Humans of Gawler’ for allowing us to preserve their profiles and photographs for future generations of Gawlerites to enjoy.

Please click here to view photos of [https://www.flickr.com/photos/gawler_history/albums/72177720316713683/ Maria Do].

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Martinez Patrick Escobar

2024-05-05T02:52:48Z

Tillera: Created page with "{{People |Type of person=Individual |Date approximate=No |Place of birth=Spain |Date approximate2=No |Date approximate3=No |Date approximate4=No }} Patrick Escobar Martinez..."

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Patrick Escobar Martinez

[https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100070957045009 Paellas South Australia]

"...If i had a club it would be the three P's. Paella and Padel by Patrick!"
Living in Australia since 2017, Patrick creates amazing Paellas using traditional, Spanish-sourced ingredients (one of only a few!). Having an Australian partner with all of her family over there they decided to move to Australia to have lots of family support. They met in Spain during St. Patrick's day and soon found themselves living together in Spain being well established leading good lives and running several business's like tax agencies and real estate.

"....quality of life there was pretty good. But we came here for holidays at Christmas, and in the end we just packed up and came here. What with Covid etc, it seems like we made the good choice!
Leaving Spain during the height of the Catalonian Independence movement there were times when he thought moving to Australia just wouldn't happen. Moving from Vila-real was relatively easy and Gawler was a great choice as his partner has family close by, it all just fell into place. Life in Vila-real was vastly different to Gawler and they lived on the 5th floor of an apartment block on a street that was always alive with cafes and bars and carnival.

"...it was a big big change"
He sometimes misses Spain, at least the, "romantic" idea of Spain that he has in his head but understands that things are very different in Spain now than when they left in 2017. With family over there being caught up in Covid (especially hard with a family member dying as a result), it has been hard but he understands just how amazingly lucky we are here in South Australia.
"....a Paella never has Chorizo!"
A friends birthday arrived, and as a present to them Patrick cooked a huge Paella as a present for them, and then the seed was sewn and he decided to turn it into a business. The business is steadily growing with more followers and a bigger audience and also Patrick has been able to source bigger pans enabling him to cook for up to 300 people! And he does all of this from his van. Taking up to an hour and a half to cook he really enjoys paella as it brings family together, to cook and to eat. Everything is prepared and loaded into the van and taken to the various markets and events and cooked right there on the spot so you can guarantee freshness.

"You always want variety... Not many people cook or eat Paella, so its always something different."
Ever heard of Padel? Patrick loves it and would love to see more of a scene here in South Australia. Padel is a mix between Tennis and Squash. It's usually played in doubles on an enclosed court surrounded by walls of glass and metallic mash. The court is one third of the size of a tennis court. The ball can bounce of any wall but can only hit the turf once before being returned.

"There is just ONE Padel court here in South Australia. I was lucky enough to be invited there one day, Its 65km away, but i did not care, i drove there, played the game, and loved it...."
He'd one day LOVE to be a Padel coach,maybe at the Playford City Tennis Centre... He loves a good coffee, loves a good hike, and loves teaching his children Spanish, loves reading his books, and just generally keeping fit and healthy.
And one day he would like to cook the biggest Paella in Australia right here in Gawler!

"....I was in charge of cooking when we lived in Spain, when we were together with our friends....I was always the one who volunteered to do the cooking. It was a kind of natural thing"
Want to be involved in the Humans Of Gawler project? Just comment here or send me a message. You dont have to be rich, successful, well known. Maybe you're new to area? Maybe you want to spruik your business? Maybe you just want your face plastered over Facebook. Everyone has a story to tell.... whats yours?

First shared on Gawler in Photographs ‘Humans of Gawler’ series 7 July 2021.

Photographs by Daniel James Down. Please click here to visit the Gawler in Photographs Facebook page.

Gawler History Team Inc thanks Daniel James Down (Gawler in Photographs) and the subjects of ‘Humans of Gawler’ for allowing us to preserve their profiles and photographs for future generations of Gawlerites to enjoy.

Please click here to view photos of [https://www.flickr.com/photos/gawler_history/albums/72177720316698715/ Patrick Escobar Martinez].

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Knight Matt

2024-05-05T02:44:29Z

Tillera: Created page with "{{People |Type of person=Individual |Date approximate=No |Date approximate2=No |Date approximate3=No |Date approximate4=No }} '''Matt Knight - KOTNmedia''' Originally from..."

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'''Matt Knight - KOTNmedia'''

Originally from the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Matt moved to Gawler when he was 11 with his family through his dad's work. He attended Immanuel Lutheran School Gawler (with a brief stint at Trinity) before finishing High School at Xavier College South Australia as a house captain.

"I wasn't the most academic at school, but the social side of school was something I was really passionate about and loved...."

Mum and dad really enjoyed the historic look and feel of Gawler. Even the house they lived in was a traditional 1900's stone brick home surround by our magnificent churches. It seemed like a really good place to grow up. It was a completely different vibe to Melbourne.

"I come from a heavily sporting background, sport was everything to me in Melbourne...."

The opportunity came up for the family to move to several different countries. But sport was much tougher in those countries and didn't fit the families lifestyle. They were heavily considering NZ, but finally settled on South Australia.

"I nearly ended up playing Rugby at one stage!"

Matt was into footy and cricket along with his father, and his mother even played state softball for VIC whilst his sister played basketball.

"School holidays was just spent with my mates at the cricket nets...

Matt and his colleagues left school really around the start of the social media boom. He'd spent a bit of time working in the Telstra shops his parents ran and being quite entrepreneurial Matt and his best mate Brad used to sell power bands (they'd gotten cheap from China) to his fellow students. They were always looking for the next big thing to create their own business. After working at Optus for a spell he realised that telecommunications wasn't really the field for him and he gravitated towards advertising. It was through this that he knew he wanted to do something in the social space

"I always wanted to run my own business...I love sport. How can I mix sales and sport?"

Matt ended up doing a volunteer radio show for BBBfm 89.1 Community Radio and loved every minute of it, even the commute from Norwood to Tanunda several times a week. This planted the seed of how could he run a business and make it more efficient for himself and with a pretty good understanding of social media he knew what direction he wanted to go in.

"In terms of promoting to a wider audience social media has been amazing, but I strongly believe that the best business relationships are formed face to face over a coffee or a beer or whatever"

KOTN Media officially started back in 2019 as a sports media business. It started off very casual with Matt and Brad having a bit of fun just covering local sport, but when Central Districts and the SANFL reached out they thought "Wow, people want this!" There were no other businesses like that around so they really were in a niche market. In 2020 with Covid hitting, Zoom calls with celebrities was putting them on the map with their interviews being quoted through other sources. They even offered free videos for local Gawler businesses which put their name out there even more. KOTN Media has gone from strength to strength and has even morphed into the social media management side of things and turned into a digital marketing agency.

As well as KOTN, Matt was involved with Eagles WWTFC as the reserves head coach and found it quite surreal with some of the (current and former) football stars he gets the rub shoulders with. He is also a part owner of the Barossa Crushers who play as part of the APL 20/20 cricket league. Only recently he's been appointed as A Grade Senior Men’s Coach of the Athelstone Football Club "Raggies".

"If there's sport in the TV I'll watch anything to be honest...

Matt's recently gotten into soccer and you might even catch him watching some World Series Darts every now and then.

But with all of that other stuff going on, Matt's normal 9 - 5 is working for WISE Employment which is a disability employment service, far away from sports. It's very fulfilling. He still plays a bit of cricket and also football for Gawler Centrals when he can and might even wind down in front of some Call Of Duty on PlayStation whenever he gets the chance.

First shared on Gawler in Photographs ‘Humans of Gawler’ series 27 September 2023.

Photographs by Daniel James Down. Please click here to visit the Gawler in Photographs Facebook page.

Gawler History Team Inc thanks Daniel James Down (Gawler in Photographs) and the subjects of ‘Humans of Gawler’ for allowing us to preserve their profiles and photographs for future generations of Gawlerites to enjoy.

Please click here to view photos of [https://www.flickr.com/photos/gawler_history/albums/72177720316697677/ Matt Knight.]

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Simpkins Brendan

2024-05-05T02:39:13Z

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Brendan Simpkins - Former Editor, The Bunyip Newspaper

Brendan was our most recent editor of the 160-year-old Bunyip Newspaper.
Born in Gawler Hospital, Brendan grew up in Andrews farm and went to school at St Columba College SA his mum was originally from Scotland in the 60's whilst his dad is from Pt Augusta so there are strong ties to the far north area. School was only a two-minute walk away, so a lot of his youth was spent around the same area.

"I always excelled in English, I always knew deep down I was going to do something related to that."
He was quite an early reader and he was always reading books. Even in his early years of primary school, he was trying to write books. He was also super into sports and had dreams of playing football for Newcastle United or Australia with Mum also being super supportive. He came to the realisation that his dreams of playing in the E.P.L. probably weren't going to happen, (although he did play for both Munno Para City Soccer Club and Gawler Eagles FC) but what with his love for sports, he started to think about how he could still be heavily involved. He considered starting a career in physio before realising that journalism is really what he wanted to do.

"I wanted to work for Rolling Stone...."
His father used to be a contributor to the local paper in Pt Augusta and Brendan always felt that he got the journalism bug from him. Starting in creative writing he soon moved on to Journalism at Uni with lofty dreams of being a music critic. He started out doing online blogs and match reports for Football South Australia before moving on as a volunteer to cover women's soccer for The Messenger. It was there he got a real sense of what it meant to work with deadlines. He then worked for 3 years in Clare at the Northern Argus Newspaper. He even considered moving up there at one stage as the three hour round commute from Andrews Farm was getting a bit much! Adjusting to the lifestyle and community in Clare was a struggle as the two communities are so different, he was out on his own as an outsider, and thrown completely into the deep end.

"I was always told the first 6 months are the hardest...."
Sometime later a job was offered to him as the sports reporter at The Bunyip Newspaper (he'd previously applied before) but he was quite apprehensive about accepting it. His ambitions had changed and he knew his heart wasn't really in sports reporting any more, and after much umming and ahhing he decided to turn it down. Then ANOTHER job came up at The Bunyip, he applied, explained his reasons for not accepting the first job and was surprised to be accepted for the role.
"To see my name and my face in there (The Bunyip) was like, WOW this is real....."
His first article for The Bunyip was with writer and, "Director of Bands and Ensembles" Bruce Raymond, and it was about him and famous Australian trumpeter James Morrison playing at Trinity College.

"I don't think people realise how much love I have for that paper....."
Brendan became the 24th Editor of The Bunyip after never really wanting to be an editor back in his early days. But the opportunity came up and he became one of the youngest editors for the paper. Being the editor still allowed him to be hands-on with his reporting, but he scaled it back a bit to give his young team of reporters all the help they wanted. It's a privilege and an honour. With 160 years of history at The Bunyip Brendan considered himself a caretaker, a person to honour the history of the paper and all of those other editors who came before him.
He's left The Bunyip as editor now, but his new role as a communications specialist at the Hospital Research Foundation Group will keep him on his toes.

"I've definitely adopted a hipster vibe 🙂 "
Brendan has a pretty modest collection of vinyl records starting off with just albums he liked and moving on to some classics, rares, and collectibles. He would LOVE to get hold of a rarer copy of the album Bleach by Nirvana. Listening to podcasts is also a favourite pastime. He'd like create a podcast one day, but is still looking for that niche on what to do one on.

First shared on Gawler in Photographs ‘Humans of Gawler’ series 11 October 2023.

Photographs by Daniel James Down. Please click here to visit the Gawler in Photographs Facebook page.

Gawler History Team Inc thanks Daniel James Down (Gawler in Photographs) and the subjects of ‘Humans of Gawler’ for allowing us to preserve their profiles and photographs for future generations of Gawlerites to enjoy.

Please click here to view photos of [https://www.flickr.com/photos/gawler_history/albums/72177720316718294/ Brendan Simpkins.]

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Simpkins Brendan

2024-05-05T02:38:45Z

Tillera: Created page with "{{People |Type of person=Individual |Date approximate=No |Place of birth=Gawler |Date approximate2=No |Date approximate3=No |Date approximate4=No }} Brendan Simpkins - Former..."

{{People
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Brendan Simpkins - Former Editor, The Bunyip Newspaper

Brendan was our most recent editor of the 160-year-old Bunyip Newspaper.
Born in Gawler Hospital, Brendan grew up in Andrews farm and went to school at St Columba College SA his mum was originally from Scotland in the 60's whilst his dad is from Pt Augusta so there are strong ties to the far north area. School was only a two-minute walk away, so a lot of his youth was spent around the same area.

"I always excelled in English, I always knew deep down I was going to do something related to that."
He was quite an early reader and he was always reading books. Even in his early years of primary school, he was trying to write books. He was also super into sports and had dreams of playing football for Newcastle United or Australia with Mum also being super supportive. He came to the realisation that his dreams of playing in the E.P.L. probably weren't going to happen, (although he did play for both Munno Para City Soccer Club and Gawler Eagles FC) but what with his love for sports, he started to think about how he could still be heavily involved. He considered starting a career in physio before realising that journalism is really what he wanted to do.

"I wanted to work for Rolling Stone...."
His father used to be a contributor to the local paper in Pt Augusta and Brendan always felt that he got the journalism bug from him. Starting in creative writing he soon moved on to Journalism at Uni with lofty dreams of being a music critic. He started out doing online blogs and match reports for Football South Australia before moving on as a volunteer to cover women's soccer for The Messenger. It was there he got a real sense of what it meant to work with deadlines. He then worked for 3 years in Clare at the Northern Argus Newspaper. He even considered moving up there at one stage as the three hour round commute from Andrews Farm was getting a bit much! Adjusting to the lifestyle and community in Clare was a struggle as the two communities are so different, he was out on his own as an outsider, and thrown completely into the deep end.

"I was always told the first 6 months are the hardest...."
Sometime later a job was offered to him as the sports reporter at The Bunyip Newspaper (he'd previously applied before) but he was quite apprehensive about accepting it. His ambitions had changed and he knew his heart wasn't really in sports reporting any more, and after much umming and ahhing he decided to turn it down. Then ANOTHER job came up at The Bunyip, he applied, explained his reasons for not accepting the first job and was surprised to be accepted for the role.
"To see my name and my face in there (The Bunyip) was like, WOW this is real....."
His first article for The Bunyip was with writer and, "Director of Bands and Ensembles" Bruce Raymond, and it was about him and famous Australian trumpeter James Morrison playing at Trinity College.

"I don't think people realise how much love I have for that paper....."
Brendan became the 24th Editor of The Bunyip after never really wanting to be an editor back in his early days. But the opportunity came up and he became one of the youngest editors for the paper. Being the editor still allowed him to be hands-on with his reporting, but he scaled it back a bit to give his young team of reporters all the help they wanted. It's a privilege and an honour. With 160 years of history at The Bunyip Brendan considered himself a caretaker, a person to honour the history of the paper and all of those other editors who came before him.
He's left The Bunyip as editor now, but his new role as a communications specialist at the Hospital Research Foundation Group will keep him on his toes.

"I've definitely adopted a hipster vibe 🙂 "
Brendan has a pretty modest collection of vinyl records starting off with just albums he liked and moving on to some classics, rares, and collectibles. He would LOVE to get hold of a rarer copy of the album Bleach by Nirvana. Listening to podcasts is also a favourite pastime. He'd like create a podcast one day, but is still looking for that niche on what to do one on.

First shared on Gawler in Photographs ‘Humans of Gawler’ series 11 November 2020.

Photographs by Daniel James Down. Please click here to visit the Gawler in Photographs Facebook page.

Gawler History Team Inc thanks Daniel James Down (Gawler in Photographs) and the subjects of ‘Humans of Gawler’ for allowing us to preserve their profiles and photographs for future generations of Gawlerites to enjoy.

Please click here to view photos of [https://www.flickr.com/photos/gawler_history/albums/72177720316718294/ Brendan Simpkins.]

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Long Matt & Smith Kelly

2024-05-05T02:31:44Z

Tillera:

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Kelly Smith: London, Ontario in Canada
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Matt Long & Kelly Smith - Long Time Photography

"We just started chatting everyday, 3 years later, we met in person"

Matthew and Kelly are a much revered couple in the local sporting community. Maybe you've seen them at most of the local footy leagues? ESPECIALLY if you're a Gawler Centrals supporter.

Matthew and Kelly first crossed paths in the heady days of Internet chat rooms (something I myself am very well versed in! Remember MSN?) Matthew was here in South Australia and Kelly was miles away in Canada.

"Nobody knew what it (Internet chatting) was, but by the time I got back from my first trip, everybody was on it!"

Matt was born at the old Queen Victoria Hospital in Rose Park, a lot of his family were born there too. He grew up in Paralowie till he was about 15 years old before moving to Ingle Farm till his mid 20's. He was schooled at Salisbury Nth Primary and Bethany Christian School before moving on to Tyndale Christian School.

"I used to come to Gawler a few times during the school holidays, as I had a multi-trip ticket and I wanted to go somewhere special.... back then it was like a trip to the country"

Kelly was born in London, Ontario in Canada and grew up in a small town called Ripley (The Hub of Huron!). She lived there for most of her life before moving on to University at Waterloo and then Ottawa (Canada's capital). Once all of her visa's etc were cleared she moved here to Australia in 2009. Both Matthew and Kelly were studying at the same time and with Kelly finishing her schooling first it made more sense for her to move here. They had been to visit each other in Canada and Australia before tying the knot in 2008 where they got married at Niagara Falls! The transition to move from Canada was fairly easy as the people are generally the same, but the weather takes some getting used to (its currently -2 degree's there as i type this).

"It kind of happened by accident...... people were asking us, "Can you take some shots of us!""

Matthew and Kelly are the owners of LongTime Photography, although im sure many of you will recognise Matt as a console operator at Coles Gawler Green Shopping Centre. Their bread and butter is local sports photography, with the occasional wedding or other occasions thrown in to the mix. Matthew started out taking photographs of his brother when he played for Salisbury North. Back then social media was in its infancy, so people and sporting clubs seeing their teams and players promoted online was exciting stuff! It all started at Kilburn and before they knew it teams and players were asking to see some shots of themselves and when Matt had a light-bulb moment of, *gee i could do this for a real gig!* Everything just fell into place. When Matt was asked to be manager of a reserves team, Kelly came to the plate and started taking some photo's too. Photography at Longtime Photography is now a completely joint role.

It led to them coming to Gawler Central Sporting Club where both Matts brother and coach of Kilburn Matty Wheelan also ended up playing/coaching at Gawler Central Football Club. It was Matty Wheelen who invited them over to Gawler to give the Tigers the same treatment he'd experienced at Kilburn. Longtime now covers match days, reserves and even grand finals. Its even lead to them taking their talents over to the SANFL Women's Football league supporting the Central District Football Club.

They are now the club photographers for the Gawler Centrals seniors side and the Central Districts womens side. A lot of the girls who play in the BLGW also make a mark over at Central Districts, so there is a real sense of familiarity.

"Nothing beats the atmosphere of country footy..."

A couple of years whilst in the middle of a game their camera decided to stop working. They were devastated. The club were also disappointed to find out they didn't have many photos for the game, and that their photographers had no camera! The club and players rallied together, passed the hat around and coughed up some money to buy Matt and Kelly and brand new Nikon D7500

"You wouldn't go out of your way to ask someone for something like that, wouldn't even consider it,. That level of generosity, its unheard of. It was really really humbling."

They're going into 2023 being the photographers for both Gawler Centrals and Central Districts (women's) which is quite a task considering they only have one camera between them! It even earned Matt the title of Gawler Centrals 2022 Club Man of the year!

"If people are enjoying our photos, it makes us want to do it even more"

First shared on Gawler in Photographs ‘Humans of Gawler’ series 25 October 2023.

Photographs by Daniel James Down. Please click here to visit the Gawler in Photographs Facebook page.

Gawler History Team Inc thanks Daniel James Down (Gawler in Photographs) and the subjects of ‘Humans of Gawler’ for allowing us to preserve their profiles and photographs for future generations of Gawlerites to enjoy.

Please click here to view photos of [https://www.flickr.com/photos/gawler_history/albums/72177720316710803/ Matt Long & Kelly Smith]

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2024-05-05T00:11:10Z

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