February 4, 2025 • 27 mins
This week Sam speaks to Port Campbell resident Brendan Hyland, member of the Port Campbell Accessible Beaches Project providing equipment and accessible pathways to and from Port Campbell Beach for people with disabilities.
After our chat with Brendan, you'll hear from Joseph Friedman who catches up with Sam to speak about his involvement with Inside Voice, a new reading program on Vision Australia Radio featuring content by and for incarcerated persons in Australia.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:13):
From Vision Australia. This is talking vision. And now here's
your host Sam Colley.
S2 (00:23):
Hello, everyone. It's great to be here with you. And
for the next half hour, we talk matters of blindness
and low vision.
S3 (00:30):
The importance is that if you provide access through the
ways of, in this case, the accessible matting and the
right equipment, you then encourage and give people the option
to be included. So we've got the access to the
beach now. Now our community that could never, ever access
the beach now can be included in those beach activities.
(00:50):
So it's wonderful.
S2 (00:52):
Welcome to the show. This week I chat with Brendan,
a local resident of Port Campbell, who's working together with
people in the community to make the Port Campbell Beach
more safe and accessible for people with disabilities. That conversation
is coming up just around the corner, so make sure
(01:14):
to stick around. Then after we hear from Brendan, I'll
catch up with Joseph Friedman, the managing director of About Time,
who've worked together with Vision Australia Radio to present Inside Voice,
a reading program featuring content written by and for incarcerated
(01:35):
people in Australia. I hope you enjoy this week's episode
of Talking Vision. Around this time of year, a lot
of us like to head down to the beach and
have a bit of a swim and cool down. But
for some people in our community that's not as inclusive
(01:57):
or accessible as it should be, and that's where our
next guest comes in. He's part of a project in
his local community in Port Campbell to make the Port
Campbell Beach more accessible. His name is Brendan Hyland, and
it's my great pleasure to be joined by him right now. Brendan,
(02:21):
welcome to Talking Vision. Thank you very much for your
time today.
S3 (02:25):
Good morning, Sam, and thanks very much for having me.
S2 (02:27):
Now, Brendan, let's start off with a bit of an
overview of the Accessible Beaches program. Tell us a bit
about the program.
S3 (02:37):
Yeah, it's a very exciting program. Myself and a team
of locals from Port Campbell called the Port Campbell Inclusive
Beaches Project. And we're all about making the Port Campbell
Beach and foreshore as accessible and inclusive as possible to
all members of the community and to all who visit
the town. Port Campbell is a highly tourist destination, with
(03:01):
the 12 Apostles just up the road. And about four
years ago, it became quite obvious to me that the
beach wasn't accessible to anyone that had difficulties or a disability.
So we started the work about four years ago to
try and advocate for accessibility to the foreshore and onto
the beach. So that's what we've been working towards. And yeah,
(03:24):
we finally had some success.
S2 (03:26):
Was there a particular tipping point or an event or
an occasion that four years ago where you thought, look,
enough is enough? Things have got to change. We've got
to do something about this issue. Or was it sort
of just a bit of a consensus amongst yourselves in
(03:46):
the local community?
S3 (03:49):
Yeah. Great question. There's a group down here, leadership group
called the Leadership Great South Coast. I was a part
of that. And with that group have to do a
community Project, and our community project was to look at
all the beaches in the Great South Coast, which is five,
actually five beaches, but four of them patrolled. And look
(04:11):
at those beaches, see what level of accessibility they've got,
see what sort of equipment they've got from a community
point of view and from a disability point of view.
And with that, we did a scoping exercise, and there
was four of us in the team. We were assigned
a beach to each four of us, and I ended
(04:32):
up with the Port Campbell Beach, which at the time
had no equipment, only a very steep ramp down to
the beach and steps. So there was nothing there at
Port Campbell at all. So during that project, this sort
of got hold of me and I couldn't let it go.
After the program finished, I continued on with building a
(04:54):
group and bringing people together from the local community to
continue to advocate for change to be made. So that's
how it was born. And then it's been going from
there for the last four years.
S2 (05:04):
Had you worked in the accessibility and inclusion space prior
to getting involved in the work in Port Campbell? Has
that been something you've been involved in for quite a while,
or was a lot of this quite new to you?
A bit different?
S3 (05:26):
No. Look, it was totally new to me. I'd never
even thought about or considered inclusion or accessibility. I played
sport all my life. I'd been involved with sporting committees
and that sort of thing. I was a big advocate
for gender equality with women to come into sports such
as cricket and football. No sorts of things, but I'd
(05:46):
never actually, until this came along, looked at anything through
the lens of inclusion. I think that's the key point,
is that it's not a deliberate point of view People
just haven't looked at it through the lens of inclusion.
It's not a discriminative thing. It's it's simply people just
haven't taken the time to look at it holistically and go, oh, actually,
(06:08):
this is not right. This is not going to suit
all members of our community. Only a portion of our
community can use this. And this is on not just beaches,
but parks and playgrounds, etc.. And I think that's slowly changing.
S2 (06:19):
Mhm. Which is good because as you've said, there's quite
a few people out there that just don't really have
the experience of either knowing people with disabilities or even
having lived experience of disability themselves. And so it is
a bit of a different perspective. And through no fault
(06:41):
of people's own, they just as you said, it's like
just sometimes it's not really a perspective that they think
about in their everyday life. And so this is why
these projects that you've been involved with are so important
to Two people within the disability community. Now, just recently,
(07:02):
Brendan and this is quite exciting. There's been quite a
big event which just recently took place at the Port
Campbell Beach. So tell us a bit about that. On
just the past Saturday it was now.
S3 (07:17):
Yeah, it was on Saturday. A wonderful day. A huge event.
We officially launched and opened the accessible beach matting and
the equipment and tools for people with a disability, or
even those that don't, just the elderly who are uneasy
on their feet, or parents with prams and young children. Uh,
we officially launched and opened that accessible beach matting so
(07:37):
that people could make their way down onto the beach. We,
over the last six months, have been successful in getting
community donations to supply us with all the equipment the
beach wheelchairs, the beach walkers, lifting hoist, mobile lifting hoists
being the equipment side of things. And then we had
(07:59):
a huge donation from the local community. And then, being
the former recreation reserve committee, gave us a large sum
of money for the purpose to buy accessible beach matting.
The Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority also made
a donation so we could finish that project off, and
we were able to purchase the matting and put that
down the ATV ramp that the Surf Lifesaving Club uses,
(08:21):
and use that as a dual access ramp until we
get a better all abilities ramp, which is in the pipeline.
It's in the planning, but we officially opened that and
we dedicated that matting to a young girl, Goldie Ellison.
She's a seven year old and lives with a neurodevelopment
condition that causes epilepsy and seizures on a daily basis.
(08:44):
Wonderful young girl, so strong, so brave. And we dedicated
the matting and the access to her. The importance is
that if you provide access through the Through the ways of,
in this case, the accessible matting and the right equipment.
You then encourage and give people the option to be included.
So we've got the access to the beach now. Now
(09:05):
our community that could never, ever access the beach now
can be included in those beach activities. So it's wonderful.
S2 (09:11):
It is wonderful for sure. And Brendan, it's not just
people with disabilities that benefit from these initiatives either. There's
quite a few other groups as well that benefit.
S3 (09:24):
Yeah, correct. Sam, you did right there. Um, there's so
many different groups within our community that don't have the
access to the beach at different times. So look at
young parents with children in prams and strollers. It's a
real task for them to get down to the water's
edge and the hard sand, if they want to walk
along it or take their kids down to build sandcastles, etc..
So they're a group of young people that struggle with
(09:47):
access if it's not provided for them. You've also got
an aging population Who many of uneasy on their feet,
or not as confident as they used to be on
their feet. So they do struggle with steep ramps and steps, etc.
so if you provide them with access, they can also
get down to the beach with a lot more confidence.
You also have the younger generation who play football, cricket, netball, etc.
(10:10):
who may have injuries, ankles, knees or hips or what
have you. And when they're on crutches or in a
state like that, quite often their rehab involves walking through
the water and if they can't make access to it,
their rehab is somewhat held back. So it's all groups
of the community. It's not just the one the disabled
community that this affects. I think it affects a much
(10:31):
larger portion of our community than what we realize.
S2 (10:34):
What are the future plans to perhaps expand these sort
of measures and accessibility initiatives to other beaches in the area?
S3 (10:46):
Yeah. Look, there's a little bit of work going on
there with the Great Ocean Road and Coast Authority who
are on our committee and have been very active in
working with us, and they're using a lot of their
learnings here to implement in other areas. There are already several.
There are six beaches between Torquay and Port Campbell now
that are accessible. We are the sixth beach and we're
(11:08):
probably the most difficult because we have retaining walls and
our beach is almost comes into a cove at Port Campbell,
whereas a lot of the other beaches are bays. So
to be able to lay down matting and get that
access piece is not as difficult as what it was
at Port Campbell. But obviously they still need all the equipment,
(11:28):
the wheelchairs, the lifters and the walkers, etc. to be
able to do that. The thing is, you can really
only do it at patrolled beaches, so you've got to
have an online booking system or a on the spot
booking system with QR codes to be able to access
that equipment, sign it off, do all the quick assessment
(11:49):
of the equipment and then sign the equipment out to
the person or the carer who's using it. So you
really need to have it a patrol beach and there
is momentum now and I believe it's starting to grow,
especially the more we get it into the media, the
more we get it into the public awareness side of things.
We get more and more and more support to be
able to expand it all the way through the full
(12:10):
length of the Australian coastline, not just here in Victoria,
but also New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. It's
quite exciting. So we'll just keep going with it. And
a lot of shires already have plans in place or
have installed different things that allows accessibility e.g. wider car
parks so people can have the room to be able
(12:31):
to get their equipment in and out, ramps or easy
ways down to the beach itself. They may not have
the matting, but a lot of that stuff is in planning.
But it does need the community to come together and
make sure that they advocate for it to get it
to happen.
S2 (12:46):
Well, it's super exciting, as you've said. And, um, I'm
very interested to see how it pans out. And if
people out there would like to keep tabs on the
work that is going on, what's the best way for
them to stay in the loop and stay updated?
S3 (13:05):
Yeah, great. Great question. Through the Great Ocean Road and
Coast and Parks Authority website. They have an accessibility beaches there,
and they have all of their six sites listed and
continually kept up to date. And also, the Port Campbell
Surf Life Saving Club website also have up to date
information regarding the equipment, the accessibility and which way the
(13:27):
booking system works. The final place is the Port Campbell
Tourism Information Centre. They are up to speed with it
as well. They've been a fantastic advocate for it, working
in conjunction with ourselves and the Surf Life Saving Club
and with Gore Capra as well, which is a Great
Ocean Road Coast Authority. So they're the places to be
(13:50):
able to go and keep up to speed, where this
project continues to grow and continues to move forward to
get complete and full accessibility to the Port Campbell residents
and visitors to the town.
S2 (14:00):
Perfect. Lots of places to check out to keep tabs
on heaps of exciting initiatives that are going on in
Port Campbell and the region more broadly. Brendan, thank you
so much for your time today. It was great to
catch up with you and hear about all the fantastic
initiatives that yourself and so many other people in the
(14:24):
town and the region have been involved with. And, you know,
making these beaches so much more accessible and inclusive to
so many more people, it's absolutely fantastic work you're doing,
and a lot of people really do appreciate it, I'm sure.
So thank you very much and keep up the good work.
S3 (14:46):
Certainly will. And thank you very much for having us
on your program and raising awareness through your network and
your connections are really appreciated. And just before I go,
I'd like to say well done and congratulations to the
Australian blind cricket team who won the test and the
ashes back in December. So well done to you guys
as well.
S2 (15:04):
Well done indeed to everybody involved in the Australian blind
cricket team. It's a fantastic achievement. That was Brendan Hoyland there,
member of the Port Campbell Inclusive Beach project. I'm Sam
(15:25):
Colley and you're listening to Talking Vision on Vision Australia Radio.
Associated stations of Reading Radio and the Community Radio Network.
I hope you enjoyed that conversation there with Brendan. If
you missed any part of that conversation or you'd love
to hear it again Talking vision is available on the
(15:48):
podcast platform of Your choice or through the Vision Australia library.
You can also find the program on our online podcast
feed at RVA radio.org. That's RVA radio all one word.org.
Our next guest has been a freelance journalist, a lawyer,
(16:09):
but currently he's the managing director of About Time, who
have been collaborating with a Vision Australia radio program, Inside Voice.
His name is Joseph Freedman and he joins me now. Joseph,
welcome to Talking Vision. Thank you very much for your
time today.
S4 (16:29):
It's great to be here. Thank you Sam.
S2 (16:32):
Now today we're here to chat a bit about Inside Voice,
which is a new reading program featuring content on Vision
Australia Radio by and for incarcerated people. But that's, you know,
just a bit of a very brief overview. Could you
tell us a bit more about Inside Voice?
S4 (16:51):
Yeah, absolutely. So Inside Voice is obviously this new radio
program for the Vision Australia network. And one of the
publications that Inside Voice reads out each week is About Time,
which is Australia's new and only national prison newspaper. So
(17:12):
each week the presenter on Inside Voice reads out some articles, letters,
stories and experiences from people in prison and people who
have been formerly incarcerated who have written in to about
time to share their story with each other and with
the wider community. And I come in because I'm one
(17:34):
of the founders and managing directors of About Time, the
national prison newspaper.
S2 (17:39):
We'll get back to your involvement with About time in
just a sec. But I'm also keen to hear a
bit about paper Chase, and if you would be able
to tell us a bit about them.
S4 (17:52):
Yeah, so there's two publications that publish content from inside
prison and are read out loud in Inside Voice. And
the second one, of course, is Paper Chained, which has
been around for longer than about time. It was started
by a formerly incarcerated person, Damian Lennon. It's predominantly distributed
in New South Wales, and it's a platform for art
(18:16):
and creative expression. They have monthly publications and they're kind
of a magazine of sorts. Most of the content is
incredible art and creative writing from people inside prison.
S2 (18:29):
Now, I'm very interested to hear about your involvement as
one of the founders of About Time. How did that
all come about? What's the story behind that?
S4 (18:39):
Yeah, so About Time is inspired by similar projects overseas.
So in the United Kingdom since 1990. In fact, there's
been a really successful prison newspaper called Inside Time. It's
distributed across the UK. I think they print more than
50,000 copies each month. And it's almost 60 pages long.
(19:00):
It's colour. It's just full of incredible content and experiences
shared by people in prison. When it was started, it
was somewhat unique and it's a way for people in
prison to express themselves. People in prison are obviously incredibly isolated,
often bored. They lack the necessary information to make informed
decisions about their life, both today and when they're released.
(19:23):
And Inside Time tries to combat all of that. And
so I heard about Inside Time. I've got a background
in law and in journalism and a particular interest in
criminal justice. And I heard about inside time. I realized
Australia didn't have anything of the sort. And I thought,
you know, what a what a wonderful initiative this could
be for the Australian incarcerated population.
S2 (19:44):
And Joseph, how did the collaboration come about between About
Time and Inside Voice and Vision Australia radio to put
inside voice to air.
S4 (19:55):
Yeah. So one thing we're really conscious of is that
there are many people in prison who have low levels
of literacy, and there are also many people who are
vision impaired. And we know that we want as many
people as possible to consume the content and experience the
stories that we share. But not everyone can do that
(20:17):
in the written form. And so we were put in
touch with Conrad from Vision Australia quite a while ago,
in fact, about finding a way to bring to air
these voices in the paper. And it's been a long
process to get there, but about six months since it
all came about, here we are with Inside Voice.
S2 (20:37):
That's fantastic. And as you've said, you've had a journalism
background for quite a while. As I understand, you've been
a freelance journalist for quite a bit. Has that sort
of sparked your interest in radio through there, or did
you sort of come about it through other avenues?
S4 (20:56):
Yeah, that's a really good question, Sam. I suppose even
before I started freelancing, I've always consumed an enormous amount
of media. And I think radio and podcasts are one
of the very best mediums to tell stories and make
you feel like you're there. You're almost that fly on
the wall figure you can often feel when you're listening
(21:17):
to a podcast or the radio, that it's just you
and the presenter, and everyone has that special relationship, even
if they're listening separately from their home or from their
car or somewhere else. And so, yeah, I just think
it's a really valuable medium and a great way to
bring something that's in print to a different form.
S2 (21:35):
And other than your involvement in journalism and as the
managing director of About Time. You've mentioned this already. You've
got yourself a law background and most recently an associate
at the Supreme Court of Victoria. So tell us a
bit about that and your background in law and that
(21:56):
sort of how that's tied in with your work with
about time and the stories and the interest you've had
in criminal justice for quite a while.
S4 (22:05):
I think when I started my law degree, the enduring,
the degree, the subjects I always found most compelling were
related to the world of criminal law, and particularly a
unit I did in my second last year, which was
called Current Issues in Criminal Justice. And it really kind
of struck a chord with me about how broken our
(22:28):
system of punishing people really is and how much there
is to fix it. I spent some time in America.
I'm working for an Innocence Project in the state of Wisconsin.
So representing clients convicted of murder and other serious offenses
who we believe to be innocent. I spent some time
(22:49):
in the Northern Territory at the Aboriginal Legal Service for, um,
people in Darwin and in Alice Springs, and I also
did some advocacy work for an organisation called the Capital
Punishment Justice Project, trying to advocate to end the death
penalty in countries in Asia. So I've been really passionate
(23:10):
about this space for a long time. Criminal justice is
an area where the most vulnerable people in our community
suffer the most, and it's vital that we make decisions
that are evidence based and grounded in empathy. And so
I think that a newspaper like this, which gives people
a voice, allows them to have a say in decisions
(23:33):
that affect them, feels really vital and very much connected
with with where my passions lie.
S2 (23:39):
Well, there's so much to discuss there. We've had a
couple of programs on Vision Australia radio in the past.
You may have heard Talking Law, where a lot of
those things have been covered there in quite a few
stories from a few volunteers who were or are lawyers
in this area. It's really interesting how inside voice ties
(24:02):
in with that, and it's great to have that opportunity
to share these stories from both paper chain, but also
about time and your enthusiasm and passion for criminal justice
and making visible these stories is fantastic to hear. Now,
in regards to how people can access Inside Voice, I
(24:25):
believe there is also the podcast. Inside voice is broadcast
across the Vision Australia radio network every Thursday from 4:30 p.m.
and repeated on Monday at 4:30 p.m., including Adelaide. And
if people would like to listen to Inside Voice, all
(24:45):
the episodes are available on our online podcast platform. Or
you can of course, head to Vision Australia Radio's website
at RVA radio.org. That's RVA radio all one word.org. I've
been speaking today with Joseph Freedman, Managing Director, from about
(25:06):
time involved with Inside Voice, the new program on Vision
Australia Radio, featuring content by and for incarcerated people, featuring
content from About Time and Paper Chained. Joseph, thank you
so much for your time today. It was great to
catch up with you and talk about About Time and
(25:29):
Inside Voice.
S4 (25:30):
It was a pleasure. Thanks so much for having me, Sam.
and I do encourage all your listeners to go check
out Inside Voice.
S2 (25:41):
For people with disabilities. WA has extended the cut off
date for expressions of interest from presenters for their upcoming conference.
People interested in submitting an expression of interest can now
do so by the 14th of February, 2025. Links to
(26:02):
the form can be found on their website at PWA, PWA,
dot org and their Facebook and LinkedIn pages. People can
also email Vanessa jessett from people with disabilities WA on
(26:23):
Vanessa at PWA. That's vanessa@iowa.org org to receive the link.
And that's all the time we have for today. You've
been listening to Talking Vision. Talking vision is a Vision
Australia radio production. Thanks to all involved with putting the
(26:44):
show together every week. And remember, we love hearing from you.
So please get in touch anytime on our email at
Talking Vision at Vision Australia. Org. That's talking vision all
one word at Vision australia.org. But until next week it's
Sam Corley saying bye for now.
S1 (27:08):
You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us anytime during
business hours on one 384 746. That's one 384 74
six or by visiting Vision Australia. That's Vision Australia.
S5 (27:25):
Org.
From Vision Australia. This is talking vision. And now here's
your host Sam Colley.
S2 (00:23):
Hello, everyone. It's great to be here with you. And
for the next half hour, we talk matters of blindness
and low vision.
S3 (00:30):
The importance is that if you provide access through the
ways of, in this case, the accessible matting and the
right equipment, you then encourage and give people the option
to be included. So we've got the access to the
beach now. Now our community that could never, ever access
the beach now can be included in those beach activities.
(00:50):
So it's wonderful.
S2 (00:52):
Welcome to the show. This week I chat with Brendan,
a local resident of Port Campbell, who's working together with
people in the community to make the Port Campbell Beach
more safe and accessible for people with disabilities. That conversation
is coming up just around the corner, so make sure
(01:14):
to stick around. Then after we hear from Brendan, I'll
catch up with Joseph Friedman, the managing director of About Time,
who've worked together with Vision Australia Radio to present Inside Voice,
a reading program featuring content written by and for incarcerated
(01:35):
people in Australia. I hope you enjoy this week's episode
of Talking Vision. Around this time of year, a lot
of us like to head down to the beach and
have a bit of a swim and cool down. But
for some people in our community that's not as inclusive
(01:57):
or accessible as it should be, and that's where our
next guest comes in. He's part of a project in
his local community in Port Campbell to make the Port
Campbell Beach more accessible. His name is Brendan Hyland, and
it's my great pleasure to be joined by him right now. Brendan,
(02:21):
welcome to Talking Vision. Thank you very much for your
time today.
S3 (02:25):
Good morning, Sam, and thanks very much for having me.
S2 (02:27):
Now, Brendan, let's start off with a bit of an
overview of the Accessible Beaches program. Tell us a bit
about the program.
S3 (02:37):
Yeah, it's a very exciting program. Myself and a team
of locals from Port Campbell called the Port Campbell Inclusive
Beaches Project. And we're all about making the Port Campbell
Beach and foreshore as accessible and inclusive as possible to
all members of the community and to all who visit
the town. Port Campbell is a highly tourist destination, with
(03:01):
the 12 Apostles just up the road. And about four
years ago, it became quite obvious to me that the
beach wasn't accessible to anyone that had difficulties or a disability.
So we started the work about four years ago to
try and advocate for accessibility to the foreshore and onto
the beach. So that's what we've been working towards. And yeah,
(03:24):
we finally had some success.
S2 (03:26):
Was there a particular tipping point or an event or
an occasion that four years ago where you thought, look,
enough is enough? Things have got to change. We've got
to do something about this issue. Or was it sort
of just a bit of a consensus amongst yourselves in
(03:46):
the local community?
S3 (03:49):
Yeah. Great question. There's a group down here, leadership group
called the Leadership Great South Coast. I was a part
of that. And with that group have to do a
community Project, and our community project was to look at
all the beaches in the Great South Coast, which is five,
actually five beaches, but four of them patrolled. And look
(04:11):
at those beaches, see what level of accessibility they've got,
see what sort of equipment they've got from a community
point of view and from a disability point of view.
And with that, we did a scoping exercise, and there
was four of us in the team. We were assigned
a beach to each four of us, and I ended
(04:32):
up with the Port Campbell Beach, which at the time
had no equipment, only a very steep ramp down to
the beach and steps. So there was nothing there at
Port Campbell at all. So during that project, this sort
of got hold of me and I couldn't let it go.
After the program finished, I continued on with building a
(04:54):
group and bringing people together from the local community to
continue to advocate for change to be made. So that's
how it was born. And then it's been going from
there for the last four years.
S2 (05:04):
Had you worked in the accessibility and inclusion space prior
to getting involved in the work in Port Campbell? Has
that been something you've been involved in for quite a while,
or was a lot of this quite new to you?
A bit different?
S3 (05:26):
No. Look, it was totally new to me. I'd never
even thought about or considered inclusion or accessibility. I played
sport all my life. I'd been involved with sporting committees
and that sort of thing. I was a big advocate
for gender equality with women to come into sports such
as cricket and football. No sorts of things, but I'd
(05:46):
never actually, until this came along, looked at anything through
the lens of inclusion. I think that's the key point,
is that it's not a deliberate point of view People
just haven't looked at it through the lens of inclusion.
It's not a discriminative thing. It's it's simply people just
haven't taken the time to look at it holistically and go, oh, actually,
(06:08):
this is not right. This is not going to suit
all members of our community. Only a portion of our
community can use this. And this is on not just beaches,
but parks and playgrounds, etc.. And I think that's slowly changing.
S2 (06:19):
Mhm. Which is good because as you've said, there's quite
a few people out there that just don't really have
the experience of either knowing people with disabilities or even
having lived experience of disability themselves. And so it is
a bit of a different perspective. And through no fault
(06:41):
of people's own, they just as you said, it's like
just sometimes it's not really a perspective that they think
about in their everyday life. And so this is why
these projects that you've been involved with are so important
to Two people within the disability community. Now, just recently,
(07:02):
Brendan and this is quite exciting. There's been quite a
big event which just recently took place at the Port
Campbell Beach. So tell us a bit about that. On
just the past Saturday it was now.
S3 (07:17):
Yeah, it was on Saturday. A wonderful day. A huge event.
We officially launched and opened the accessible beach matting and
the equipment and tools for people with a disability, or
even those that don't, just the elderly who are uneasy
on their feet, or parents with prams and young children. Uh,
we officially launched and opened that accessible beach matting so
(07:37):
that people could make their way down onto the beach. We,
over the last six months, have been successful in getting
community donations to supply us with all the equipment the
beach wheelchairs, the beach walkers, lifting hoist, mobile lifting hoists
being the equipment side of things. And then we had
(07:59):
a huge donation from the local community. And then, being
the former recreation reserve committee, gave us a large sum
of money for the purpose to buy accessible beach matting.
The Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority also made
a donation so we could finish that project off, and
we were able to purchase the matting and put that
down the ATV ramp that the Surf Lifesaving Club uses,
(08:21):
and use that as a dual access ramp until we
get a better all abilities ramp, which is in the pipeline.
It's in the planning, but we officially opened that and
we dedicated that matting to a young girl, Goldie Ellison.
She's a seven year old and lives with a neurodevelopment
condition that causes epilepsy and seizures on a daily basis.
(08:44):
Wonderful young girl, so strong, so brave. And we dedicated
the matting and the access to her. The importance is
that if you provide access through the Through the ways of,
in this case, the accessible matting and the right equipment.
You then encourage and give people the option to be included.
So we've got the access to the beach now. Now
(09:05):
our community that could never, ever access the beach now
can be included in those beach activities. So it's wonderful.
S2 (09:11):
It is wonderful for sure. And Brendan, it's not just
people with disabilities that benefit from these initiatives either. There's
quite a few other groups as well that benefit.
S3 (09:24):
Yeah, correct. Sam, you did right there. Um, there's so
many different groups within our community that don't have the
access to the beach at different times. So look at
young parents with children in prams and strollers. It's a
real task for them to get down to the water's
edge and the hard sand, if they want to walk
along it or take their kids down to build sandcastles, etc..
So they're a group of young people that struggle with
(09:47):
access if it's not provided for them. You've also got
an aging population Who many of uneasy on their feet,
or not as confident as they used to be on
their feet. So they do struggle with steep ramps and steps, etc.
so if you provide them with access, they can also
get down to the beach with a lot more confidence.
You also have the younger generation who play football, cricket, netball, etc.
(10:10):
who may have injuries, ankles, knees or hips or what
have you. And when they're on crutches or in a
state like that, quite often their rehab involves walking through
the water and if they can't make access to it,
their rehab is somewhat held back. So it's all groups
of the community. It's not just the one the disabled
community that this affects. I think it affects a much
(10:31):
larger portion of our community than what we realize.
S2 (10:34):
What are the future plans to perhaps expand these sort
of measures and accessibility initiatives to other beaches in the area?
S3 (10:46):
Yeah. Look, there's a little bit of work going on
there with the Great Ocean Road and Coast Authority who
are on our committee and have been very active in
working with us, and they're using a lot of their
learnings here to implement in other areas. There are already several.
There are six beaches between Torquay and Port Campbell now
that are accessible. We are the sixth beach and we're
(11:08):
probably the most difficult because we have retaining walls and
our beach is almost comes into a cove at Port Campbell,
whereas a lot of the other beaches are bays. So
to be able to lay down matting and get that
access piece is not as difficult as what it was
at Port Campbell. But obviously they still need all the equipment,
(11:28):
the wheelchairs, the lifters and the walkers, etc. to be
able to do that. The thing is, you can really
only do it at patrolled beaches, so you've got to
have an online booking system or a on the spot
booking system with QR codes to be able to access
that equipment, sign it off, do all the quick assessment
(11:49):
of the equipment and then sign the equipment out to
the person or the carer who's using it. So you
really need to have it a patrol beach and there
is momentum now and I believe it's starting to grow,
especially the more we get it into the media, the
more we get it into the public awareness side of things.
We get more and more and more support to be
able to expand it all the way through the full
(12:10):
length of the Australian coastline, not just here in Victoria,
but also New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. It's
quite exciting. So we'll just keep going with it. And
a lot of shires already have plans in place or
have installed different things that allows accessibility e.g. wider car
parks so people can have the room to be able
(12:31):
to get their equipment in and out, ramps or easy
ways down to the beach itself. They may not have
the matting, but a lot of that stuff is in planning.
But it does need the community to come together and
make sure that they advocate for it to get it
to happen.
S2 (12:46):
Well, it's super exciting, as you've said. And, um, I'm
very interested to see how it pans out. And if
people out there would like to keep tabs on the
work that is going on, what's the best way for
them to stay in the loop and stay updated?
S3 (13:05):
Yeah, great. Great question. Through the Great Ocean Road and
Coast and Parks Authority website. They have an accessibility beaches there,
and they have all of their six sites listed and
continually kept up to date. And also, the Port Campbell
Surf Life Saving Club website also have up to date
information regarding the equipment, the accessibility and which way the
(13:27):
booking system works. The final place is the Port Campbell
Tourism Information Centre. They are up to speed with it
as well. They've been a fantastic advocate for it, working
in conjunction with ourselves and the Surf Life Saving Club
and with Gore Capra as well, which is a Great
Ocean Road Coast Authority. So they're the places to be
(13:50):
able to go and keep up to speed, where this
project continues to grow and continues to move forward to
get complete and full accessibility to the Port Campbell residents
and visitors to the town.
S2 (14:00):
Perfect. Lots of places to check out to keep tabs
on heaps of exciting initiatives that are going on in
Port Campbell and the region more broadly. Brendan, thank you
so much for your time today. It was great to
catch up with you and hear about all the fantastic
initiatives that yourself and so many other people in the
(14:24):
town and the region have been involved with. And, you know,
making these beaches so much more accessible and inclusive to
so many more people, it's absolutely fantastic work you're doing,
and a lot of people really do appreciate it, I'm sure.
So thank you very much and keep up the good work.
S3 (14:46):
Certainly will. And thank you very much for having us
on your program and raising awareness through your network and
your connections are really appreciated. And just before I go,
I'd like to say well done and congratulations to the
Australian blind cricket team who won the test and the
ashes back in December. So well done to you guys
as well.
S2 (15:04):
Well done indeed to everybody involved in the Australian blind
cricket team. It's a fantastic achievement. That was Brendan Hoyland there,
member of the Port Campbell Inclusive Beach project. I'm Sam
(15:25):
Colley and you're listening to Talking Vision on Vision Australia Radio.
Associated stations of Reading Radio and the Community Radio Network.
I hope you enjoyed that conversation there with Brendan. If
you missed any part of that conversation or you'd love
to hear it again Talking vision is available on the
(15:48):
podcast platform of Your choice or through the Vision Australia library.
You can also find the program on our online podcast
feed at RVA radio.org. That's RVA radio all one word.org.
Our next guest has been a freelance journalist, a lawyer,
(16:09):
but currently he's the managing director of About Time, who
have been collaborating with a Vision Australia radio program, Inside Voice.
His name is Joseph Freedman and he joins me now. Joseph,
welcome to Talking Vision. Thank you very much for your
time today.
S4 (16:29):
It's great to be here. Thank you Sam.
S2 (16:32):
Now today we're here to chat a bit about Inside Voice,
which is a new reading program featuring content on Vision
Australia Radio by and for incarcerated people. But that's, you know,
just a bit of a very brief overview. Could you
tell us a bit more about Inside Voice?
S4 (16:51):
Yeah, absolutely. So Inside Voice is obviously this new radio
program for the Vision Australia network. And one of the
publications that Inside Voice reads out each week is About Time,
which is Australia's new and only national prison newspaper. So
(17:12):
each week the presenter on Inside Voice reads out some articles, letters,
stories and experiences from people in prison and people who
have been formerly incarcerated who have written in to about
time to share their story with each other and with
the wider community. And I come in because I'm one
(17:34):
of the founders and managing directors of About Time, the
national prison newspaper.
S2 (17:39):
We'll get back to your involvement with About time in
just a sec. But I'm also keen to hear a
bit about paper Chase, and if you would be able
to tell us a bit about them.
S4 (17:52):
Yeah, so there's two publications that publish content from inside
prison and are read out loud in Inside Voice. And
the second one, of course, is Paper Chained, which has
been around for longer than about time. It was started
by a formerly incarcerated person, Damian Lennon. It's predominantly distributed
in New South Wales, and it's a platform for art
(18:16):
and creative expression. They have monthly publications and they're kind
of a magazine of sorts. Most of the content is
incredible art and creative writing from people inside prison.
S2 (18:29):
Now, I'm very interested to hear about your involvement as
one of the founders of About Time. How did that
all come about? What's the story behind that?
S4 (18:39):
Yeah, so About Time is inspired by similar projects overseas.
So in the United Kingdom since 1990. In fact, there's
been a really successful prison newspaper called Inside Time. It's
distributed across the UK. I think they print more than
50,000 copies each month. And it's almost 60 pages long.
(19:00):
It's colour. It's just full of incredible content and experiences
shared by people in prison. When it was started, it
was somewhat unique and it's a way for people in
prison to express themselves. People in prison are obviously incredibly isolated,
often bored. They lack the necessary information to make informed
decisions about their life, both today and when they're released.
(19:23):
And Inside Time tries to combat all of that. And
so I heard about Inside Time. I've got a background
in law and in journalism and a particular interest in
criminal justice. And I heard about inside time. I realized
Australia didn't have anything of the sort. And I thought,
you know, what a what a wonderful initiative this could
be for the Australian incarcerated population.
S2 (19:44):
And Joseph, how did the collaboration come about between About
Time and Inside Voice and Vision Australia radio to put
inside voice to air.
S4 (19:55):
Yeah. So one thing we're really conscious of is that
there are many people in prison who have low levels
of literacy, and there are also many people who are
vision impaired. And we know that we want as many
people as possible to consume the content and experience the
stories that we share. But not everyone can do that
(20:17):
in the written form. And so we were put in
touch with Conrad from Vision Australia quite a while ago,
in fact, about finding a way to bring to air
these voices in the paper. And it's been a long
process to get there, but about six months since it
all came about, here we are with Inside Voice.
S2 (20:37):
That's fantastic. And as you've said, you've had a journalism
background for quite a while. As I understand, you've been
a freelance journalist for quite a bit. Has that sort
of sparked your interest in radio through there, or did
you sort of come about it through other avenues?
S4 (20:56):
Yeah, that's a really good question, Sam. I suppose even
before I started freelancing, I've always consumed an enormous amount
of media. And I think radio and podcasts are one
of the very best mediums to tell stories and make
you feel like you're there. You're almost that fly on
the wall figure you can often feel when you're listening
(21:17):
to a podcast or the radio, that it's just you
and the presenter, and everyone has that special relationship, even
if they're listening separately from their home or from their
car or somewhere else. And so, yeah, I just think
it's a really valuable medium and a great way to
bring something that's in print to a different form.
S2 (21:35):
And other than your involvement in journalism and as the
managing director of About Time. You've mentioned this already. You've
got yourself a law background and most recently an associate
at the Supreme Court of Victoria. So tell us a
bit about that and your background in law and that
(21:56):
sort of how that's tied in with your work with
about time and the stories and the interest you've had
in criminal justice for quite a while.
S4 (22:05):
I think when I started my law degree, the enduring,
the degree, the subjects I always found most compelling were
related to the world of criminal law, and particularly a
unit I did in my second last year, which was
called Current Issues in Criminal Justice. And it really kind
of struck a chord with me about how broken our
(22:28):
system of punishing people really is and how much there
is to fix it. I spent some time in America.
I'm working for an Innocence Project in the state of Wisconsin.
So representing clients convicted of murder and other serious offenses
who we believe to be innocent. I spent some time
(22:49):
in the Northern Territory at the Aboriginal Legal Service for, um,
people in Darwin and in Alice Springs, and I also
did some advocacy work for an organisation called the Capital
Punishment Justice Project, trying to advocate to end the death
penalty in countries in Asia. So I've been really passionate
(23:10):
about this space for a long time. Criminal justice is
an area where the most vulnerable people in our community
suffer the most, and it's vital that we make decisions
that are evidence based and grounded in empathy. And so
I think that a newspaper like this, which gives people
a voice, allows them to have a say in decisions
(23:33):
that affect them, feels really vital and very much connected
with with where my passions lie.
S2 (23:39):
Well, there's so much to discuss there. We've had a
couple of programs on Vision Australia radio in the past.
You may have heard Talking Law, where a lot of
those things have been covered there in quite a few
stories from a few volunteers who were or are lawyers
in this area. It's really interesting how inside voice ties
(24:02):
in with that, and it's great to have that opportunity
to share these stories from both paper chain, but also
about time and your enthusiasm and passion for criminal justice
and making visible these stories is fantastic to hear. Now,
in regards to how people can access Inside Voice, I
(24:25):
believe there is also the podcast. Inside voice is broadcast
across the Vision Australia radio network every Thursday from 4:30 p.m.
and repeated on Monday at 4:30 p.m., including Adelaide. And
if people would like to listen to Inside Voice, all
(24:45):
the episodes are available on our online podcast platform. Or
you can of course, head to Vision Australia Radio's website
at RVA radio.org. That's RVA radio all one word.org. I've
been speaking today with Joseph Freedman, Managing Director, from about
(25:06):
time involved with Inside Voice, the new program on Vision
Australia Radio, featuring content by and for incarcerated people, featuring
content from About Time and Paper Chained. Joseph, thank you
so much for your time today. It was great to
catch up with you and talk about About Time and
(25:29):
Inside Voice.
S4 (25:30):
It was a pleasure. Thanks so much for having me, Sam.
and I do encourage all your listeners to go check
out Inside Voice.
S2 (25:41):
For people with disabilities. WA has extended the cut off
date for expressions of interest from presenters for their upcoming conference.
People interested in submitting an expression of interest can now
do so by the 14th of February, 2025. Links to
(26:02):
the form can be found on their website at PWA, PWA,
dot org and their Facebook and LinkedIn pages. People can
also email Vanessa jessett from people with disabilities WA on
(26:23):
Vanessa at PWA. That's vanessa@iowa.org org to receive the link.
And that's all the time we have for today. You've
been listening to Talking Vision. Talking vision is a Vision
Australia radio production. Thanks to all involved with putting the
(26:44):
show together every week. And remember, we love hearing from you.
So please get in touch anytime on our email at
Talking Vision at Vision Australia. Org. That's talking vision all
one word at Vision australia.org. But until next week it's
Sam Corley saying bye for now.
S1 (27:08):
You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us anytime during
business hours on one 384 746. That's one 384 74
six or by visiting Vision Australia. That's Vision Australia.
S5 (27:25):
Org.
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