Episode 05: Blazing Swan & Kulin (Erin, Will, & Oly)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Stevan (00:00):
Hi there.
I'm Stevan Lay and thanks for tuning intothe Bonzaar Podcast, a conversation show
about the special burning relationshipbetween Kulin and Blazing Swan.
Before we start this mega double episoderecording, we want to acknowledge
the traditional custodians of theland, that host, blazing Swan, the
Njaki Njaki Noongar people, and weacknowledge and respect their continuing

(00:24):
culture and the contribution theymake to the life of this region.
Because for the next two episodes,we venture out into the paddock of
the Kulin Race course and talk witha bunch of passionate and dedicated
burners on site at the burn.
Firstly, we're joined by Erin and Willwho are local, cool residents, and
then Oly drops by for Chinwag after.

(00:46):
We continue the conversations withJJ and Wesley, which is available
to listen to in the next episode.
What makes Blazing Swan so awesome?
Let's dial in to find out the secretsauce for this marriage made in
doof Heaven known as Blazing Swan.

(01:19):
We do internet.

Erin (01:21):
We got something?

Stevan (01:22):
Yes, we connection.
I can You guys, there's, yeah,there's no feedback, so it's good.

Will (01:28):
Cool.
Fantastic.

Stevan (01:29):
Excellent.
All right.
So how is everyone?

Will (01:32):
Yeah.
Good.

Erin (01:32):
Good, good, good, good,

Stevan (01:34):
good, good.
Who, who do we have here?
Introduce yourselves.
I'm flying blind here.
I can't see you guys, butum, i can picture you,

Erin (01:40):
we can't see you either

Will (01:41):
No, we can see you.

Stevan (01:42):
Yeah.

Erin (01:42):
Erin here we got Erin.
I'm Erin.
Hey.
Yeah.
Hi.
How you doing?

Stevan (01:48):
Good.

Erin (01:49):
We, um, yeah, I've just taken over the front, over the, the
couch spot, so it's nice and warm.

Will (01:55):
Yes.
Nina's been,

Erin (01:58):
I got Will Will's here with me, Uhhuh, although I'm his mother.
I call him william.

Will (02:03):
Yeah.
Should I do that?
You can call me William.
That's fine.
It's really, it's my

Stevan (02:06):
Awesome.
And you, and you guys are,are local Kulin people?

Erin (02:11):
Yes.
We've been in Kulin for thrity years.
William was raised here.

Will (02:20):
Yep.

Erin (02:20):
Um, and my daughter as well.
She's not here though.
Yeah.
So we've been here.
Well,

Stevan (02:25):
does she come to the Blazing Swan as well?

Erin (02:26):
Yes.
She was here earlier.

Will (02:28):
Yep.

Erin (02:28):
So, um, but she, uh, she comes and goes a bit.
She tired.
Tired.
Yeah.
I think she gets too tired.

Will (02:34):
Yeah.
It's, it's a lot when you're out here.
Um, uh, every year she, she staysfor a little bit longer and makes
her work a little bit better,

Erin (02:43):
but I think, yeah, it's one of the beauties of actually being
a local, you can just kind ofduck home and have a sleep at your
own bed and a proper shower and

Will (02:51):
Yeah.

Erin (02:51):
Feed the cat and all that sort of shit.

Stevan (02:53):
Yeah.
Does that help?
Does that, um, being like, you know,that's a luxury for a lot of people.
Um, does it help to actually goand readjust and, and come back and
be, I don't know, energized again?

Erin (03:04):
Yeah, I mean, we try not to, we try and stay out here as long, you know.
Yeah.
As long as we can.
But I mean it for set up andstuff, like, we don't have to
lugg all our gear from Perth.
We just, I mean, it's still aprobably, you know, 20, 30 minute
drive from the farm to here tobe able to bring everything out.
But, you know, we, we can do all thatjust with a few car trip, so, and we're
gonna whole farm to store all the gear on.

(03:25):
So

Will (03:25):
yeah, being able to store everything just sort of 30 minutes
away from bla is, is a superpower.
It really enables us, because we're,we run two camps on quite a small crew.
Um, not having to hold everything downin one big go, um, is, is massive.
I definitely feel like,

Stevan (03:45):
yeah.
When did you, when did youstart your own camp William?

Will (03:48):
Um, so we started three years ago.
Um, this is our third year runningit, and so we sort of, 'cause
moms run her camp every singleyear since the start of Blaze.
Was there any, any

Erin (04:01):
I did miss one year.

Will (04:02):
Yeah,

Erin (04:03):
that's because we didn't have a crew.
That's the one when, when Megcame and we left you behind.
Yeah.
Yeah.
For your birthday.
My, my birthday, yes.
I bought, I bought his,uh, wife out left and he,
his birthday.

Will (04:16):
And so yeah, we just sort of, um, glot on, we thought it would be
easier to, instead of starting up awhole separate camp to kind of share
resources and marquees and stuff.
And that was a good idea.
But we had to, we had to livedown in the sound alley where all
of the giant subwoofers are 247, which was pretty hard work.

Erin (04:38):
And it, and we had massive storms that year.

Will (04:41):
Huge storm.

Erin (04:42):
And we joined two marquees together and they leaked all down the center.
Yep.
It was, it was a trial.

Will (04:48):
Yep.
Um, but then you persevere everyyear, you come back and you improve.
Um, we learned that, so we,we split the camps and we had
one down the way and one up.
So mom runs the camp,THE Tin Horse experience.
And so we wanted to run a, um,a sort of vapor wave, windows 95

(05:15):
nineties computing era theme camp.
So we caught ourselves, THE internet,um, with the same styling, which has
caused a lot of confusion for ourDJs when we say come down to the camp
and they show up to the internet.
But, um, we're working through it.

Erin (05:33):
We've even, we live in, uh, even our, uh, crew camping
area now called The Mess.

Will (05:38):
Yes, we have the mess and the camp and the internet.

Erin (05:41):
We're getting the everywhere.

Will (05:42):
I think we'll do a little, we'll do a takeover.
We'll start,

Erin (05:46):
we, we even, were supposed to have a, a, a mutant vehicle
this year, but we cursed it bycalling it the Internet Explorer.
Um, and it didn't just wouldn'tgo, wouldn't load, wouldn't start.
So unfortunately

Stevan (06:01):
that, that's a great name.

Erin (06:03):
Yeah.

Stevan (06:03):
Yeah.
But we can't, 'cause itdoesn't exist anymore.

Erin (06:05):
I know.
And nor did our mutant vehicles,so we had to walk everywhere.

Stevan (06:09):
It's called Microsoft Edge or something, or I dunno what, it's a relic.

Erin (06:14):
I, well, we, well, you know, we're not relics really.

Will (06:17):
That's, that's kind of the idea because there's, there's,
I think there's a real beauty inthings that are, are not long gone,
so they aren't quite respected yet.
'cause obviously.
You look at ancient Egypt and peopleare, are reverent of the things
that they had and that they did.
But no one looks at a beigecomputer monitor and thinks, wow,

(06:40):
what a, what an interesting time.
But it, it kind of is.
And as you get a little further away,each time gets a little more interesting

Erin (06:47):
to the point where this year we've, um, the, the deck, I do the decorations
for the internet and we had, uh, Iactually pulled apart a flatback monitor
and uh, used that as a decoration.
I sort of put it so it looked like itwas all overgrown with weeds and things.
And our mailbox, we all the camps havea, all the theme camps have mailboxes

(07:08):
'cause it's a mail service that goesaround and ours is made out of an old.
Beigey, uh, computer, you poke themail through the CD rom spot and yeah,
definitely making good use of that stuff.

Stevan (07:22):
Well, there were floppy discs before that as well.

Erin (07:24):
Yeah, well we've got floppy discs.
In fact, I pulled a floppy disc apartto, uh, just for the artwork and
uh, William said I didn't actuallyrealize they were floppy on the inside.

Will (07:35):
Yeah.
I finally realized whyit's called a floppy disc.
Why is everyone calling thisstiff square a floppy disc?

Erin (07:44):
I haven't got some of the really big ones.
They're like, what are they, five anda quarter inch or five and a half inch,

Will (07:49):
something like that.

Erin (07:50):
Yeah.
I haven't found a few of thoseleaking around at home, so, um, thank
goodness I hang onto everything.

Stevan (07:56):
Yeah, that's how I see the apo abacus as well.
Like I look at it fascinated by it.
It's, it's such an old tool, oldtechnology, but people weren't
using it back, back in those days.
It was prevalent, yeah

Erin (08:07):
it did work.

Stevan (08:09):
Yeah, it still does.
Yeah.

Erin (08:10):
Oh yeah.
That, that one still does.
I'm not sure the stuffthat we've got does.
So,

Stevan (08:15):
yeah.
No.
Well, welcome to the Bon Podcast guys.
Um, this episode, I wanna look backat Blazing Swan, look at Blazing
Swan, the Kulin Township and theblaze community, and the relationship.
And also from your, from your,um, perspective as well, because,
uh, you guys, are, local and livethere and, um, bla when Blazing

(08:37):
Swan came to, uh, to the site in2014, or be even before that, Erin.

Erin (08:42):
Yeah.

Stevan (08:43):
What was the, uh, the whole, uh, story behind that?

Erin (08:47):
Uh, um, so I, uh, well we, we have a, um, a racetrack set up in Kulin.
We run a, an annual Bush Racersevent, like horse running.
That's, and uh, it's anawesome sort of space.
It's on someone's farm.
Um,

Stevan (09:03):
the Kulin cup.

Erin (09:04):
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah, definitely the Kulin cup.
There's a whole heap of things, but, um,we also race any, anything that moves.
We've had sheep racers and camelsand tractors race every time.
Uh, dog, dog races, they're always good.
Hobby, hobby sheepalways go the wrong way.
Hobby horses, uh, and tin horse.
Little mini little tinhorses on, on, uh, trays.
We race those.

(09:24):
But anyway, so the, but this, the space,it also has ablution blocks and stuff.
And so when blaze looking forsomewhere to be, they, um,
asked, you know, several shires.
Would they want them?
I think most of them probablylooked at 'em and said, no, no, no.
Anyway, uh, they came to Kulinand Kulin and said, yeah, why not?

(09:45):
And plunk us.
And like I said, we got the, the, thefacilities all set up and everything.
And so, uh, yeah, the first yearactually I, I mean, I knew nothing.
I knew nothing about it.
I mean, I heard of Burning Man and stuff,but, you know, all I heard was a bunch of
hippies in the mud, so all or the dust.
So, um, for me, and then someonecontacted me 'cause I'm, um, with that

(10:06):
Kulin and arts and we, they sort ofsaid, oh, you know, this is coming.
You know, you do you wanna be involved?
Yeah, why not?
So

Stevan (10:14):
this Koasis coming, but what, what, what is it
that, that is described to you

Erin (10:17):
Exactly.
You really didn't actuallyknow what was coming.

Stevan (10:20):
This is coming.

Erin (10:21):
Yes, this is coming.
So I think the first one was onlylike three days or something.
And so I came out with a friend, we setup a, we thought, you know, we heard
that you've set up camps and stuff.
So I thought, well, it's a greatway to bring, I, I was already doing
mini tin horses, so I thought it'sa good way to, um, like why not
have other people come and do them?

(10:41):
So we set up our, uh, portable gazeboand we had all our stuff out and really
had no idea what the hell we were doing.
Um, it bucketed with rain.
That's when the, uh, camp, the KoasisRiver was formed because the amount of
water that was running down the hilland it just formed a whole river and

(11:03):
it was just wet and it was horrible.
But we had, we had fun and, you know,

Stevan (11:08):
now have, have you experienced that kind of, do you guys experience that
kind of rain or that kind of weather?
Um,

Erin (11:14):
oh, for sure.

Stevan (11:14):
Out there?

Erin (11:15):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I, I make a, a comment when, when,when William was small, actually, we
had a, a flood and the, uh, out theback from our farm is the Kondinon
lake and it overflowed so much.
It was up and over the road.
So we were actually, we, we bought alittle boat and we had our little boat,
so we were sailing on the road, literally.

(11:36):
But that, that sort of flooding.
Yeah, we don't, we haven'tseen that for a while.
But, um, you know, we, yeah, I think therain, I mean the weather's changing all
over and it's certainly changing out here,but we seem to get, rather than just a, a
run of rain, you'd get like, it all fallsat once type thing, so, um, but it's good.
Settles the dust.
So it's nice out here if we havethat hasn't rained this year.

Stevan (11:58):
Yeah.
And, and it feels, it feels up toSalt Lake, which is a good thing.

Erin (12:03):
Well, yeah.
As long as people, we've had years wherepeople have actually gone out in the Salt
Lake and they had, so that's, uh, Jilikanlake and they have rolled in the mud.
And honestly, the runoff that comes fromthe farms around, I wouldn't go in there.
It's pretty disgusting.
Uh, and they, they, they had tobe ho they tried to get, use all

(12:24):
the showers, but then they end upjust getting one of the fire trucks
and hosing them all down, I think.
Which they're

Will (12:31):
infamous Mud men incident.

Erin (12:32):
Yes.
They try not to have, try notto have people go out there.
Um, but yeah, peoplewill go where they go.

Will (12:40):
People do it.
Turns out that all of these freespirited hippies like doing things Yes.
When they see somewhere,they think I can go there.

Erin (12:48):
Yeah.
But my one year there wasan, an awesome Mandela.
Someone did a, a Mandela allout of natural, uh, you know,
seeds and branches and whatever.
It's quite, quite large.
And they did that on the Salt Lake.
That's pretty cool.
It features in a lot of, um, pictureson, I think it's actually on the,
like the website and stuff, so

Stevan (13:06):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a great art piece.
Yeah.
Yeah.

Erin (13:08):
But it's, it's a good location for that.
You know, we've got jilikan rock andother rock, you know, a lot of formations
that it's not just flat ground, which Ithink when you look at burning it sort
of, that's what it seems to be just flat.

Will (13:19):
Completely, completely flat out there.

Erin (13:21):
So it's nice to have some other things here.
And you know, we've got Cnut rock.
Gets its name changed quiteregularly and for others.
So yeah.
But even, yeah, like last nightwe had the Temple Burn people,
there's a rock just we, you know,great overview of the temple.
So they get up and, and uh, can sitright up, up high and look at that.

(13:43):
So

Will (13:43):
you see everyone up there each night for the sunset.
Less people for the sunrise, less
people are

Erin (13:50):
we, do you hear, you hear a chia go up and you go, oh, the sun's gone down.

Will (13:54):
Yeah.
Um, and it's quite beautiful.
You see all the people up there and,uh, it's nice having the, the terrain
around here to help shape the land.
And over the years it's sort ofgotten, utilized and become kind
of mythologized as the, the culturearound the, the area builds.

Erin (14:13):
There's a, I mean, there's a theme camp out right around
over the other side of some rocks.
Uh, you know, we're talking, you know,big, big, uh, formations that's quite
a trek called the magical Frontier.
And they have all these light, all thesecandles and things all set up in the
rocks, and they do toasties at 10 o'clock.
And it's, uh, it, it, and you basicallylooking straight out because you

(14:35):
know, the horizon is very big here.
So you can look out andit's just amazing view.
It's my view every day people say, doyou go to the sunrise or the sunset?
And I'm going, yeah,I see it all the time.

Will (14:45):
Yeah.
I'm always wowed when I, when I getback out here at how much sky there is.
Mm-hmm.
There's just more sky out herethan there is in the city, and
it's especially beautiful at night.
So yeah, if you, if you comeround to the magical frontier,
you lie on the back of the rock.
The, a lot of the sound and the lightand the madness is behind you and
you're looking straight up and intothe stars, that's quite beautiful.

(15:08):
Mm-hmm.

Erin (15:08):
Just the scope of, yeah, like being able to see so much,
so many stars and everything.
We've had some good clearnights and so, yeah.
And I, it, it's actually good.
Makes me re-appreciate itsometimes because you kind
of, for me it's just the norm.
Um, but you know, it's good you get to

Stevan (15:25):
I think so.
Yeah.
I think once, once you get, uh,to see the Milky way in, in its a
whole, you know, presence, you geta different perspective of, of how
significant in or insignificant we are,

Erin (15:37):
yeah.
Yeah.

Stevan (15:37):
So, yeah.

Erin (15:38):
But I just love the, you know, the effect it has on people who live in the
city or, uh, you know, just don't, don'tget to see that sort of thing very often.
I mean, for some people this is the.
You know, hopefully they'll make themcome more, which is what we'd like.
We'd love people to come.

Stevan (15:55):
Well, let's, let's talk about, Kulin, yeah, let's talk about Kulin.
The Kulin Shire.
The Kulin township, um, whereit is, how far people we have
to drive all those facts?
Bit history, if you have

Erin (16:05):
Oh, okay.
I'm not that old.
Uh, so Kulin's, uh, we're southeastof Perth and about three hours,
so it's whatever, I don't know,270 Ks or something, I think

Will (16:19):
confuses people because everyone in Perth, they only
know down south or up north.

Erin (16:25):
Yeah.

Will (16:26):
Okay.
So obviously you live down south.
No, no, no.
Go east.

Erin (16:28):
Yes.
So, but not, not as far as Kalgoorlie.
Um, so we're in the wheat belt, sothat means some people, you know,
you say, wheatbelt and they go, what?
But that, what that means isbasically we grow wheat, so
we do, it's a lot of cropping,cropping of barley, wheat, canola.
Uh, Philipp Peas, lupins.
Yeah.
So, uh, a lot of that, one ofthese days I'm gonna make my

(16:50):
own beer outta my own wheat.
I live on a farm, sowe grow our own stuff.
Also, sheep, we

Stevan (16:56):
need to survive with all the grains every morning, every nighttime.
Yeah.
So it's very important

Erin (17:03):
it is

Stevan (17:04):
wheatbelt area.

Erin (17:05):
Yeah.
Oh, for sure.
Yeah.
I mean, you, you know, the, you'rehaving your toast in the morning,
that's Mm. Wheat it's come fromhere, so gonna come from somewhere.
We won't get into this.

Stevan (17:13):
You're having your noodles or rice, you know, evening everything.
It's

Erin (17:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Stevan (17:16):
You having your sandwich in the lunchtime.
Yeah.

Erin (17:19):
Yeah.
So, yeah, so, you know, I don'tthink people realize quite how much,
you know, their everyday stuff.
And we, we talk about milk and wetalk about meat and the veggies
and stuff, but the, you know, yourstaples are being grown out here.
But, yeah, so sheep is the other thing.
Run out here.
Some people do have cattle, but you needa lot of water for cattle and that's not
really something we have lots of, yeah,

Will (17:40):
lots of land, not very much water.

Erin (17:42):
Yeah.
So it, you know, farms are huge.
Like, they're not justlittle pokey hobby farms.
They're, they're quite, quite large.
I mean, ours is actually smalland we've got like two and a half
thousand acres, so, but yeah.
Um, lots

Will (17:54):
not to brag.

Erin (17:55):
Brag.

Stevan (17:58):
What's the pop population of Kulin?

Erin (18:01):
Um, someone said, and I think, oh my God, I dunno.
Kulin shire is quite, quitewidespread, uh, in town.
There's probably like, you know,we're working in the hundreds.
I think when we first cameit was like 800, but now not
in town, but the whole shire.
And as I was saying, like farmsare very big, so you don't, you
sort of have massive amount ofland, but not many people there,

Will (18:22):
one family living there

Erin (18:24):
and the problem.
Yeah.
And we, a lot of the farms now, people arebuying, like if you're selling, you know,
someone's selling up and they'll buy andthen the neighbors will buy their farms.
So we're not getting more people coming.
That's what, that's whathappens to the population starts
to decline for that aspect.
And I mean, the town, the town is herefor the farmers, but also you need the

(18:46):
farmers to, to buy from the businesses.
So, you know, it gets a bit tricky.
So you don't have a lot of diversityin the sort of stuff that you have
in town as far as shops and things.
But, you know, we've got a pub,we've got hire, actually the
pub's owned by the community.
It's now the Kulin Community Hub.
Mm-hmm.

Will (19:03):
Yep.

Erin (19:04):
Uh, so the kulin, it was like basically getting sold.
No one wanted to buy it.
So the community, we have a, acommunity group and they came, they
stepped in and actually bought it.
So as a result, on a Thursday wehave volunteer day, so anyone can
go in and work in the, in the pub.
And, uh, I mean obviouslythe right licensing in.

(19:31):
But yeah, no, it's good.
We, we have a, you know, decentcollection, enough, enough shops that,
you know, you can certainly be out hereand, and, um, and have all that happening.
Yeah.
So,

Stevan (19:42):
and you guys are known for your, your, yeah.
Sorry,

Erin (19:46):
I was gonna say we also have a massive water slide.

Will (19:49):
We do.

Stevan (19:49):
Yes.

Erin (19:49):
We have, we have the biggest water slide.
We have a little aquatic center.
Uh, I mean, our aquatic center is a pool.
Yeah.
Um, and we have a massive water slide thatis the biggest in country WA or something.

Will (20:02):
I think something like that.
It changes every time.
Yeah.

Erin (20:04):
Or the southern hemisphere or, or the world.

Will (20:06):
Yeah.
I think it might be the world.

Erin (20:09):
I'll say the world.
Um, but it actually came, that, thatall came from, um, some farm, someone
in Queensland was selling, well, theywere literally giving it away, I think.
Um, but you had to come and get it.
So a bunch of our farmersgot in their trucks, drove to
Queensland, dismantled this slide.
Mm-hmm.
And they, uh, and they verycarefully numbered all the pieces.

(20:33):
So its gonna be like ajigsaw to put it back all.
They got the high pressure hoses out toclean it and rubbed off all the numbers.
So, um, but it's up, it's fantastic.

Will (20:45):
It's, and it really is like a, a cornerstone of the
childhood of any kid in town.

Erin (20:51):
Yeah.
My daughter got a concussion on it.

Will (20:53):
Yeah.
She was one was,

Erin (20:56):
she was like the third person down right on the side.
She'd hit her side, hit her head, butwe don't talk about that, but it, but we
get people, like, they'll like, you know,come out here, uh, schools will bring the
kids out for a, you know, drive with a busand bring their kids here for a, a day.
So, you know, you get it.
It's quite a draw card for, for peopleto come to, come for just for the slide,

(21:19):
you know, they'll drive and, and outhere, you know, driving a hundred Ks
to go down a water slide is nothing.
So, yeah.
You know, that's what we do.
That's just what you do.
So,

Stevan (21:29):
and you also have one of the cheapest, uh, petrol
prices around town as well.

Erin (21:35):
Oh yes, yes, we do.
Definitely tell.
Yeah.
So we decided that you need to, um, make,be, you know, you want people to come to
call and so how are you gonna do that?
So things like our caravan parkis a, a pay what you think.
So you basically, you pullin, there's no set fees.

(21:56):
If you wanna pay 10 bucksfor a night, you do.
If you wanna pay 50, you do.
So if you just, you set your own fee.
But also, yeah, we have the petrol,we have a 24 hour petrol and the
extra, like most people, like whenthe fuel comes in, it's obviously
the, whoever gets the fuel charges, itputs their, their little bit on top.

(22:16):
But our Shire doesn't do that.
It, you know, keeps it fairly minimaland as a result we we're quite
comparable to Perth a lot of the time.

Will (22:23):
Yeah.

Erin (22:24):
Um, you know, so, um,

Will (22:26):
sometimes we, we leave from Perth and we get down here and
we're like, why do we bother?
We shouldn't have feel that when we left.
Yeah.

Erin (22:35):
Yeah.
So, you know, that, and, and that'sjust one of the things that Kulin does.
Like, you know, we're very, Ithink we're very innovative about
some of those sorts of things.
You know, even our bush racesevents been going for, this
is our 30th event this year.
So, um, and you know, that draws infour thousand people in for a weekend.

(22:56):
They're, they're actually lesscivilized, I think, than blazing Swans.
I think they, they don't understandthe concept of Moop, which is, um,
matter out of what's it, matter,matter outta place, matter outta place.
So like, rubbish.
Um,

Stevan (23:10):
that's a nice, that's a nice compliment to the burn community.

Erin (23:13):
Oh yeah.
Much better.
I mean, I have literally seenpeople on their hands and knees
picking up little bits of glitterand stuff off the ground here.
Mm. So I think they leave it betterthan they, than when they arrived and,
you know, same, you know, the amountof stuff that's out here for a week,
it's, you know, certainly is a bigcredit to the Blaze community for,
for, you know, thinking about all that.

(23:35):
So I think they prob yes, theyprobably pick up some of the
Bush races rubbish as they go.

Will (23:39):
Probably do, probably do.
Well that's one of the, the thingsthat Blazing Swan wanted to ensure
is that cool wasn't just the placethat it was being hosted, that they
were sort of getting something back.
And so there's been a lot of artdonated to Kulin, the Big Egg.

(24:01):
Um, yes, with the flame throwremoved, they decided that wasn't,
uh, a good public sculpture.
Um, more flame that swanthan in town normally.

Stevan (24:12):
Uh, where, where is that actually situated or located?
So people can
probably go visit it.

Erin (24:20):
Opposite the pub.
The visitor zone, um, orvisitor discovery zone.
So there's a whole walkway and you canactually, the walkways has little plaques
on it that shows where the Bush races havedonated money back into the community.
But also it has, there's a little sortof stage area and a bit of art there, and
the eggs sort of mounted up on the stage.

(24:43):
So it's, uh, yeah.
Opposite the pub next to it.
We've got a new, um, all agesprecinct, which has got flying
foxes and basketball and a wholebunch of, of other stuff for Yeah.
All ages.

Will (24:55):
It gets bigger and nicer every year.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It come through, um, that, thatwhole strip all the way, like
used to just be the skate park,a gazebo put in playgrounds.
The wall memorial is beautiful there.
Yes.
Yeah.
Across from the hall.

Erin (25:13):
And we are still actually someone's, we had a, recently had a, a town meeting
of, you know, what, what do we do next?
Um, and I think they're, they're stilllooking at more ways of making that
whole entrance look good and, youknow, invite people to stay in Kulin.
And we're getting that now.
People stay in Kulin rather thanstay out at, you know, and then they

(25:34):
stay out at hiding or something.
So they stay in Kulin andthen they venture out.
But that means that, you know, they'redoing all their stuff in Kulin.
Mm-hmm.
Um, and uh, rather than stayingsomewhere else and then just visiting,
so walking down the street and.
I say, oh, great.
You know, we, we booked, wethought we'd be here for two days.
We've stayed a week, so we must be doingsomething a a little bit on the right way.

Will (25:59):
Yeah.
And it's all along the main street.
And along like same road is the,the tin horse highway essentially.
Yeah.
When comes, um, there's a lotof towns when that you just
know from driving through.
There's a lot of towns out here thatsometimes I look around the corner and I
go, I don't even know where this place is.
Yeah.
I've been through here 600 times.

(26:21):
I've never looked one block deeper.
And so having the, the beautifulmain street that's really inviting
lots of caravan facilities and stufflike that is a, is a huge draw.

Erin (26:32):
And I think we talking about the, the Tin Horse Highway.
So because we have a Bush Racers event,the first, I think it was after the
first one and one of the farmers, so thetrack is about, uh, 15 Ks out of town
and the road that leads out, um, oneof the farmers along there put a made a
tin horse and stuck it in the paddock.

(26:53):
And then the next, you know, the farmerover the, over the fence sort of said,
well, I can do that better as we do.
And so they put, you know, something out.
And then we ended up with anentire, a whole football match.
They've made outta tin horses witha, a suspended on a wire, a football.
And they were like doing mayou know, up on each other's,
I dunno what you call that.
What do they do when they, you know,jump on each other's back in Footy

Will (27:15):
Screamer

Erin (27:16):
Is that what it's called?

Will (27:17):
Pretty sure.

Erin (27:18):
Okay.
Whatever.
Uh, but then as a result, you know,there's well over a hundred tin
horses of various shapes and sizes.
Uh, we have a competitionevery year at the Bush races.
Uh, so we get a lot coming in from out oflike, not even Kulin people now they're,
they're coming in from out of town.
Mm. And it's also spread.
We, I actually live out theother side of town, so, um, we

(27:42):
have ours on the, the west side.

Will (27:44):
Yes.
The best side.

Erin (27:46):
The best side.
Well, we have the biggest,we have the, the West.
Kulin Whopper.
It's what it's called.
It's massive.
It's yeah.
Very.
Yeah.
Think big, huge, likegiant pineapple sides.
You know, that's sort of

Will (28:01):
giant pineapple size.

Erin (28:02):
well, you know, what are the giant, you know, giant banana, giant crayfish?

Will (28:07):
Yes.
Yes.

Erin (28:07):
Isn't there a giant pineapple

Will (28:08):
There probably is, probably, is probably in Queensland.

Stevan (28:11):
There is a giant pineapple.
Yes.

Erin (28:13):
That make sense.

Stevan (28:15):
Giant sheep.
Yes.
Yeah.
Big banana

Erin (28:18):
And there's a actually in Wagin and there's Bart the sheep.
He's, he's pretty massive too.
Name.
Yeah.
His name is Bart.
Well, very definitely around.
Yeah.
Anyway.
Um,

Stevan (28:30):
so what are these, so what are these, uh, tin horses,
uh, or tin uh, characters?
What are they made of and how doyou, how do you guys produce it?
How do you guys make it?

Erin (28:38):
Okay, so they, they're well tin generally

Stevan (28:43):
but from a barrel, I guess from a,

Erin (28:45):
yeah, yeah.
So like 44 gallon drum, uh, is thesort of the usual sort of size.
But we do, you know, honestly, they,they've ended up, they've made out of all
sorts of stuff and a lot of, I tend to,my dad and I, we've made over 20 of them.
Some of them we've had toretire through wear and tear.
A few of them have had theirtummies shot through several times.

Will (29:09):
I think the East Kulin Whopper burned down

Erin (29:11):
the east.
Kulin Whopper?

Will (29:12):
Yeah, that was one out this way.

Erin (29:13):
Was it?

Will (29:14):
Yeah.
A big, big one made of hay.

Erin (29:16):
Oh.
Oh, okay.
Well that's, there you go.
So they're made out everything.
So, but we're actually, yeah,so basically we just, yeah.
Get an idea like we wanted to do,like I did, um, I came across some,
um, of those gas bottles that youdo for like the helium ones, and
they were sort of round and pink.
So I made a row of horseradishes.

(29:38):
So they have heads, likea horse, look like a radi.

Will (29:42):
There's a lot of puns.
Along the road.

Erin (29:44):
Um, and generally yeah.
You just make them out of all
sorts of stuff and hopeful.
Yeah.
Hopefully they, and we've had someout there for, you know, 20, 25 years.
Mm. Um, just go out every now and againand give 'em another spray paint and a
bit of pot riveting and a bit of white on.
So many of 'em are just wired up.
I sometimes get a bit embarrassedbecause my opinion is they should

(30:06):
just be viewed from a distance, but,uh, people get up really close and
personal and they just look like crap.
They're well worn.
Yeah.
But we've had, um,

Will (30:17):
if there's anything that farmers have a lot of it's spare metal and Yeah.

Erin (30:22):
And the, and the ingenuity.

Will (30:23):
Yeah.
The ability to, to fixthings to each other.

Erin (30:26):
Yes.
Wire you wire anythingto anything, so, yeah.
Yeah.
But, uh, yeah, but we've had, um,on the highway, we're on the third
police car, so someone put out a carwith a couple of police standing,
doing random breast testing, and,uh, two of them got set fire to.
So we're on our third one out there.

(30:48):
I've had three of them.
People have taken them for awalk and never bought them home.
Anyway, that, you know, that happens.
We just build another one.

Stevan (30:56):
I saw, I saw one that was of Raygun from the Olympics.
The Olympics, Raygun.

Erin (31:02):
Oh yeah, yeah, someone did of that.
There's there's two, there's two of them.
So that's, yeah, sometimes whateverthe, the, the recent topic is, you
know, they'll, they'll do that.
So I think, are they called Haygun?
Naygun, that's Ray Na I dunno.
Whatever.
Right.
But there're, there's actually twoof them, and they've, they've put
them on the highway side by side.
They were, they were inlast year's competition, so.

Will (31:22):
Yep.

Erin (31:22):
Um, but someone did one that's, it's an entire, it's a whole wave,
like a, um, one of those tube waves.

Will (31:28):
Yeah.
Yep.

Erin (31:29):
And they've got a, it's Matt, it's just huge.
And they've got like a horse ona surfboard coming out of the
tube and one sitting off a top.
There's even a dog on asurfboard and, and everything.
So, but they, there is just,you, you name it, someone's
probably made it into a horse

Will (31:43):
and really like everyone gets involved.
Um, there's a couple of onesbuilt by students from the school.
Um, I think I did one as a student.

Erin (31:53):
Yeah.
Pegasus.

Will (31:54):
Pegasus is out there.
The hardest one to spot probably.
Yeah.

Erin (31:57):
Oh yeah.
It was the Constellation Pegasusrather than the actual constellation.
Uh, we got, we got one out therethat's, or we've got two, actually.
One was painted by someone at Blaze.
Uh, but another one was made by, um, thepoolroom, one of the theme camps here.
So it's a unicorn with a rainbow.
Surprising.

(32:18):
It's surprising.
Yeah.
So it's, it's, it's aunicorn with, with a rainbow.
And that's out there as well.
Mm-hmm.
So.
Mm-hmm.
Um, and we've got someone drivingaround at, at Swan at the moment.
They've, they've actually gotone, a tin horse on top of Yeah.
On top of something with electricsand they're driving that one around.

(32:38):
So, um, they're, they're quite,uh, they get into everything.

Will (32:42):
Yeah.
Yep.
Trying, I was trying to think of someof the, some of our puns, because
there's the Australian defense horses.

Erin (32:50):
Oh yes.
I like that.
Yes.

Will (32:51):
All, all three branches.
You've got the dead-cert dead

Erin (32:55):
is literally, it's a, a skeleton.
Yeah, a horse skeleton.

Will (33:00):
It's a bit morbid, but, um, but no, there're, yes.
Good one.

Erin (33:05):
I dunno what else.
We got?

Will (33:07):
trying to remember what the name of our boat is.

Erin (33:09):
Oh, that's, um, nag Kulin.
And instead of calling Nags says,well, it says Kulin Dags, and then
the Ds crossed off and says Nags.
That was my dad's joke.
Um, I also think it says mtgg

Will (33:23):
mtgg?

Erin (33:24):
That's its number, like its registration, which
is MTGG is a hungry horse.

Stevan (33:30):
So does building a tin horse

Will (33:36):
what's
a hungry
horse?
Who raised me,

Erin (33:48):
not me.
Blame your father.

Stevan (33:55):
So building tin.
So building tin horses.
Do you guys get inspired of, uh,in doing, uh, other art projects?

Erin (34:01):
Uh, yeah, I guess

Stevan (34:02):
at, at Blaze.

Erin (34:03):
Oh, at Blaze.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, I'm all about the tinhorse out here, but this year I,
I've actually been, because I justbring out a shit load of, of craft
materials and tell people go for it.
Because they say, oh, how do I do this?
And I say, well, it's a tin horse.
It's not real.
It doesn't actually matter.
But I, you know, get people comein and they'll say, I'm really
not crafty or anything, but Ithought, come and have a look.

(34:24):
They'll be in there for hours andthen they'll come back the next day.
Literally, I've had people like two daysin a row, just in my tent for six hours.

Will (34:31):
I think like every year there's always one person who
just spends every day there.

Erin (34:36):
Yeah.
But this year, so this year we've also,I, I incorporated, um, costume blinging
so people could come in and, you know,jazz up their costumes or a lot of, a
lot of newbies don't quite know how to,

Will (34:50):
how crazy some of the outfit are.

Erin (34:51):
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
That's probably what I'm looking for.
So they just wanna add some extra.
I, I had a whole bunch of peoplehave come through this year.
They've collected tins as their cups.
Um, I said, please wash them.
Um, and they've decorated them, sothey're walking around with these,
hanging around their neck and using'em as their actual receptacles.
We've had doof sticks being done.

Will (35:13):
We're gonna have to go, go stick searching for next year.

Erin (35:15):
Yeah.
Everyone comes and says,where do I get a stick from?
We say, well, look where you're, you'rein the middle of look around the corner,
you're in the middle of a paddock.
I say, go up the hill.
There'll be a stick.
Um, but yes,

Will (35:26):
literally grow trees.

Erin (35:27):
I have had to put a a stop to people hot gluing gems to their body
though that we we're not doing that.
So some people try everything.

Stevan (35:37):
That's too kinky.

Erin (35:39):
Not too kinky.
It's too fricking hot.

Will (35:40):
Painful.

Erin (35:45):
So, yeah.
So, you know, uh, but I mean there'slots of other arty stuff and there's
more art camps showing up, likewith just jet all sorts of arts.
It wasn't lot whilstrunning a little art house.
Yeah.
It was fantastic.
And like yeah, doing allsorts of other things as well,
which is um, which is good.
So there was a whole little tentthat was all covered in crocheting.
Like we, we did that on one year.

(36:06):
We had a a a frame covered in crocheting.
It was a crochet chill cave.

Will (36:12):
Yep.
Yep.

Erin (36:13):
Um, so, um, yeah, which is great.
It's good to have, takes pressure offmy stuff, other people doing stuff

Will (36:21):
because it gets really busy.
I think we're gonna haveto scale up a bit off a
bit.
It's full everyday.

Stevan (36:31):
Set up theme camps or volunteer or,

Erin (36:33):
uh, no, not as, not theme camps.
We, we've got a few people who, um,may might join in with another camp.
I know of a couple of locals who, well,there are ex locals, I should say.
They like family still here,but they, you know, moved on.
But, um, they come and they've joinedother camps, but, uh, yeah, I think we

(36:53):
are the only actual theme camp from kulin.
They had one year, they had did havesome, some guys came out, they had the
export tent and basically they, yeah,they gave away export beer and they
had, every night they had some sortof animal on a spit and, uh, which
got complete, every bone sucked dry.

(37:17):
They, they expected this bunch ofhippies who wouldn't, who would
all be vegan or something in there.
We just went nuts for this roasted meat.
So that's, yeah.
Um, yeah.
So, uh, I think they, they came outjust more as a, it was also a bit of
a dig at the whole live export thing.
Yes.
That, that's how longthat, that's been going on.
Really.

Will (37:35):
Yeah, true.
I forgot about that.

Erin (37:37):
Won't get controversial over that.

Stevan (37:40):
Yes.
Yeah.

Will (37:41):
Most of the time

Stevan (37:42):
I remember year.

Erin (37:43):
Yeah.
Yeah.

Stevan (37:45):
There was a whole thread, there was a whole, uh, discussion
about that, so it was interesting.

Erin (37:49):
Yeah.
And I think, yeah, like they,they did have a bit of it.
Someone actually got,did the wrong thing and.
That you can basically do what you likeas long as you're not offending or you
know, you're not bothering other people.
But yeah, someone actually did somegraffiti on their tent, I think,
because, but not in right way.

(38:11):
And I, and I tell you what, the communitycame down very hard on that person.
So, um, but anyway, yeah.
You know, each theirown, but they kept going.
The boys didn't mind all a bunchof local, young farmers, so Yeah.
They love a good joke as well.

Will (38:27):
Yeah.
Um, most of the, the locals thatI see out here are the ambos.

Erin (38:34):
Yeah, yeah.
The firies

Will (38:36):
who chatting with the Firies.

Stevan (38:37):
Yeah.
Yeah.
How do they, uh, how do they,um, sort of like view Blazing
Swan, what's their take on it?

Erin (38:44):
I, I think it's, like I said, compared to the Bush races,
it's actually way more civilized.
Um, you know, considering theamount of time that it runs for

Will (38:53):
Yeah.

Erin (38:53):
And the, just the diversity of people.
Mm-hmm.
But it's actually, you know, andobviously the things that might
be consumed out here, I thinkthey find that it's actually, you
know, much, much easier to work.
You know,

Will (39:08):
people are a lot more responsible for themselves and if not themselves,
than for the other people around them.

Erin (39:13):
Yes.

Will (39:14):
It's, it's a really big support network.
Mm. Like, yeah.
Um, you see it musicfestivals or similar things.
Somebody in the in the crowd is havinga hard time or they fall, um, and
they sort of get pushed to the side.
Here, you'll get taken off and given somewater and the rangers will get called in.

Erin (39:38):
Yeah.
You know, and even if, whether, youknow, you know, and, and everyone's
sort of, no one's gonna walk pastsomeone who's in trouble that,
you know, every, everyone will.
Yeah.
Um, will, will, someone,will help, help you

Will (39:50):
strong, strong sense of sort of civic responsibility.

Erin (39:52):
Well, it's that community.
Yeah.
It's definitely a community,you know, that, that happens.
So, so yeah.
So I think as locals, I think they're,you know, they're quite happy, you
know, even the cops and that Yeah.
They, they zap everyone onthe way out, but, you know,
fair enough, that's their job.
Um, but, you know, theystill don't have any issues.
You know, actually sometimes the, theworst issue is when we get some, some

(40:16):
yahoos from town who thinks they can justjump the fence and come in and cause a
bit of a ruckus, but they don't, yeah.
They're just, you know, make, they'renot the people who it would normally be.
They're not burners,they're just annoying.
So I think some,

Stevan (40:34):
yeah, there was one year, there was one year a bunch of bikers
showed up at the gate, I think.

Erin (40:38):
Yeah, that'd be right.
So, um, yeah, and I mean the,you know, the, the police.
Actual people inside.
So, um, I think overall, I mean,you know, the, and, and the, the,
and that's the thing about mostlypeople respecting kulin as well.

(40:58):
You know, there's always gonna be acouple of, you know, go a bit too fast
through town or fill up their water or

Will (41:05):
use the emergency fire hose to clean their car.

Erin (41:08):
Last year, last year we had over 30 degrees every day.
And it was just, it was, honestly,it was even, I was just blah.
Yeah.
And it was so much dust that we,someone, uh, saw that, uh, at the
petrol state, well the, the petrolthere, they were, um, using the, the

(41:28):
emergency fire hose to wash their car.
Um, and so one of my friendactually went over and said,
yeah, you can't really do that.
So I reminded, I, so I get on andremind people about, you know, how to
treat kulin on the way through as well.
So

Stevan (41:43):
yeah.
You're using up the local resources.

Erin (41:46):
Yeah.
Well, not just that, but, um,that's actually illegal, I think,
but yeah, that's, and like peoplesay, oh, you know, can we fill
up our water tanks in Kulin?
And we, and I, we'll automatically get onthe chats and say, no, you can't do that.
You know, it's, it's even, uh,you know, bigger, more, uh.
It's so we need and less ofthan you'd have in the city.

(42:07):
So please just, you know,bring all your own, own gear.
Yeah.
Um, yeah,

Will (42:12):
I'm talking, talking to the people at the hardware shop sort of day before
Swan kicked off, and I was saying like,well, they were saying that basically
all of their business that day was peoplegetting last minute things for Swan.
Mm-hmm.

Erin (42:27):
Well, their trailers broken this, or their caravans broken.
Yeah.
Cut

Will (42:30):
a couple of bolts, a spare battery.

Erin (42:33):
And that's the other thing, like, um, the organization users, well, you
know, they, they don't, uh, we, youknow, we say to people, don't come here
and expect to buy all your groceriesbecause, you know, there's only a limited
amount for us, sort of, or, you know,it's, it's not like a Coles in the city.

Stevan (42:50):
Yeah.
It's not Costco or Walmart or something.

Erin (42:51):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, you know, but if you doneed something, it's certainly
please you, you know, shop here.
But, and, and I think and Swan do that,our hardware, you know, they sort of
have a deal and, you know, get things in.
Although I went to buy somestar pickets and they said,
oh no, Swan's taken them off.
But, um, yeah, so it's good.
So, you know, the Swan's trying touse the Kulin facilities as much

(43:15):
as possible, but without runningus into the ground, so, which makes
it, makes it a good event, you know?

Stevan (43:20):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think it's a, it's aperfect relationship,
artsy and.

Will (43:32):
Yeah.
And I think that you can really seethe, the comparison that one of our
most cherished parts of the townis the Tin Horse Highway, and that
it's a big community events and thatit's quite artistic and that it's
quite resourceful and creative, whichis exactly what Blazing Swan is.

(43:54):
Mm. Um, you can reallysee the parallels there.

Stevan (43:58):
And with the site, it's, it's a private property?

Erin (44:01):
It's, yeah, it's, um, yeah, but I mean, the whole
setup is here all the time.
Um, but, but it is still privateproperty and they will put a
crop in, like put, um, yeah.
Some sort of crop in when there'sno one around, like, between events.
So our, our events not till like theBush races, not till October, so at
this time to actually put in somesort of cropping system, but yeah.

(44:26):
So they, yeah.
And they're quite happy.
They work in well with,with everyone and mm-hmm.
Uh, they, so the owner, he,you know, he comes past, I was
doing a, a training for rangers.
So we have rangers who go aroundand just keep an eye on everything.
They're not the police,they're more there as helpers.
Um, and they, um.
They and the owner went past in onhis quad bike and they said, see that

(44:49):
guy, he can do whatever he wants.

Stevan (44:53):
Surge.

Erin (44:54):
Yeah, Surge.
Yeah.
Including the, I think it was thefirst year that he, um, or the second
year, uh, where we had, uh, burningthe effigy, which is the, and he, um.
Uh, it was pouring with rain and we'reall still standing out there watching
this, this thing, and Surge strippeddown to his undies and raced around.

(45:14):
And I think that's where the, theNudie run started after that years.
Uh, yeah.
It's more and more this year.
Year.
It's huge.
Yeah.
Down and run around the, the effigy.
Yeah.
Um, it's,

Stevan (45:26):
and he wasn't even a burner at the time.

Erin (45:28):
Nah, god no.
No.
He just,
he just enjoys a good time.

Stevan (45:33):
Yeah.

Erin (45:36):
So, yeah.
No, we love it.

Stevan (45:37):
Alright, I've actually, I've actually designed a little
quiz, a blazing swan quiz.
You guys wanna play along?

Erin (45:43):
Oh, absolutely.
We'll try.

Stevan (45:45):
Let's test your memory then.

Erin (45:47):
Oh,

Stevan (45:48):
so this is all about blazing swan.
It's, uh, asking about themesand what year and so on and how
many people attended, if you can,

Erin (45:56):
I dunno how many people attend.

Will (45:57):
This is all on you.
Sorry,

Stevan (46:00):
it's on the website.
Erin.

Erin (46:01):
Is it, do I look at the website?
Why would, and there's no connections out.
No, uh, yeah, we've got nocoverage out here at the moment,
so, um, we can't even cheat.

Will (46:10):
Website.
Website is for people thathaven't been to swan yet.

Erin (46:12):
Well, we're the internet, so I do, I do say people, I do
say we are the internet, so maybe,I dunno, maybe just come to us.

Will (46:31):
20?
Or is it 20?

Erin (46:33):
21?

Stevan (46:35):
It was two years.

Erin (46:36):
Oh, so 20.
So 20 and 21.
It was one year where they did shorten it.

Will (46:40):
One was canceled, one was

Erin (46:41):
canceled outright,

Will (46:42):
didn't run.
And then one was, and thenthere was a shorter version.

Erin (46:47):
20 and 21.
I know.
I've got a 19.

Stevan (46:50):
Yeah, 22.
Yeah.
20 and 22.
Yeah.

Erin (46:55):
Oh, there you go.

Stevan (46:55):
And what was the, what was the reason why it was canceled?

Erin (46:58):
Uh, COVID.

Stevan (46:58):
Yeah.
Yeah.

Will (47:07):
I remember that year because we got all of our friends
excited to go who hadn't been,we're gonna have like a big year.
Everybody was excited.
It was like the perfect time in our lives,and then it got canceled, didn't come
back on, and now they've all got kids.

Erin (47:27):
Anyway.
Well, there you go.
Well, we still do.

Stevan (47:30):
In which year was a theme beyond the Black Stump used for blazing swan?

Erin (47:34):
Ooh, I shoulda hat.
I've got all my, I have all my tags.

Will (47:38):
We went to that one.
So it must been 18.
Yeah.

Stevan (47:42):
Yes, correct.
Yes.
2018.

Erin (47:44):
Two for two.

Stevan (47:46):
How many people attended that year, do you think?

Will (47:48):
Like 20

Erin (47:49):
millions.

Will (47:49):
20 or 30.
Somewhere between.

Stevan (47:58):
More than that.
It was three 3000, over 3,200 around,

Erin (48:02):
there you go.
Wasn't far off.

Stevan (48:04):
It was probably one of the biggest, uh, attended.

Erin (48:06):
Is that right?

Stevan (48:07):
How many one were Yeah, around that?
Well, 20 18, 20 19 I think was peak.

Erin (48:12):
I always thought it was a silly, silly theme.
Anyway.

Will (48:14):
Silly theme.
It did come after.
Yeah, because it was sort of after achain of like illumination, imagination.
Exactly.
And then it's the emergence sort of thing.
So that it was beyond the blackstump, but then we sort of pivoted
and now it fits in better now thatwe're doing cosmic coincidence.

Erin (48:31):
Yes.
I I feel like it should all be, always be.
That's what the theme should be.
Something like that.
Yeah.
Because we had illumination and Yeah.
Blah, blah.
Yeah.
Anyway.
Okay.

Stevan (48:42):
Well this is the next question.
How many one word themehave blazing Swan used?

Will (48:47):
There you go.
Well, probably up to 2019 sincewe think that was the first.

Erin (48:52):
Yeah.
But they've had, what was last year?

Will (48:55):
Last year was vintage.
No Neon.
Neon

Erin (48:59):
caravan.
Neon caravan.
That's it

Stevan (49:00):
hold on that could be an answer.

Erin (49:04):
Yeah.
Got that one right too.
Um, I reckon

Will (49:08):
so did, did

Erin (49:12):
half of them blazing.
Swan had 10 many.
One was 10 last year, sothis is 11, maybe five.
Five,

Stevan (49:19):
four.
Inception, inspiration,illumination and element.

Erin (49:26):
We knew that.
We do now.
Okay.

Will (49:27):
What Elemental was my Elemental First Swan that I attended?

Erin (49:33):
Was that the one?

Stevan (49:33):
So that would be 16.
No, 17.
Maybe

Erin (49:37):
17.

Stevan (49:37):
Anyway, that's probably a question down.
What 2025 for Blazing Swan?

Will (49:44):
2025...

Erin (49:45):
Cosmic Coincidence.

Will (49:46):
Space Crabs.
Yeah,

Erin (49:48):
space crabs.
Most definitely.

Stevan (49:51):
What was the other one?
Bat.
Bat Country.

Erin (49:54):
The what?

Stevan (49:55):
Bat country was it?
Do you remember?
Bat Country.
Oh, an alternative kindof theme for Blazing Swan.

Erin (50:01):
Yeah.

Stevan (50:03):
What was

Erin (50:03):
Larry?
Larry,

Stevan (50:06):
question seven.
What was the 2021 Blazing Swan thing?

Will (50:11):
21

Erin (50:14):
didn't have one.
Oh no, we did

Will (50:16):
it,
the small one.
I went
we're, it consulting withmy wife across the room

Erin (50:27):
and we're now realizing she can't hear you.
So,
uh, 2021.

Will (50:32):
2021.
Let's do it.
Anyway, that was the theme.

Erin (50:36):
Have a fun time.

Stevan (50:38):
Were you there?
Were you guys there?

Erin (50:40):
Probably.

Will (50:41):
I had a Phoenix rising.
There you go.

Erin (50:45):
Really?

Will (50:45):
Now she's nodding and smiling.
She knew.
Oh.
Yeah,

Erin (50:51):
that was the year We didn't actually have a camp,
but we, I didn't, we did come.

Will (50:54):
Well, no, you went

Erin (50:56):
Megan.
I did.

Will (50:57):
Meg went, yeah,

Erin (50:59):
William to celebrate his down the road.
We actually, literally did, we didn'tsleep here because my daughter had a, she
was ready, rent a place just up the road.
So we literally went home every night.

Will (51:11):
Mm-hmm.

Erin (51:12):
That's good.
Good sleeping.

Stevan (51:14):
Question eight.
In which year was Poseidon's flameused for a theme for blazing swan's?

Erin (51:21):
Not, what are we, 2023.
It's only recent 23.

Stevan (51:25):
Yes, that's right.
Yes, that's right.
Yes,
I think And how many, how manypeople you reckon attended that year?

Erin (51:31):
6,000.

Will (51:33):
I mean, it must be around three

Stevan (51:35):
80,000

Erin (51:39):
I
think that was burning man that year.

Stevan (51:47):
So this is just, uh, just after, after the cancellation.
So people were like ramping back up.
Yeah.

Erin (51:51):
Is that counting, is that counting part, is that just the,
is that counting crew as well?

Will (51:57):
Sure.

Stevan (51:58):
Uh, yeah.
Probably entire.
It's around ballpark number.
Yeah.
Do you remember that year?

Erin (52:06):
Yep.

Will (52:08):
That was the first year that ran, the year we ran it together.
We didn't sleep much.
So it was pretty, itwas a pretty rough year.

Erin (52:15):
It was.
That's why, see, they called it Poseidon.
That's why Poseidon's Adventure.

Will (52:18):
True.
Yeah.
They did invite and

Erin (52:20):
it down the rain

Will (52:21):
storm.
Yeah.
Not just evoking Poseidon.

Erin (52:25):
Oh my God.
It was a storm,

Stevan (52:28):
well, well, how's that for picking a theme and then,
not realizing the weather.

Erin (52:32):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think they, they just jinxed it.

Will (52:35):
Yeah.

Stevan (52:36):
Yeah, yeah.
Fair enough.
What was the theme forBlazing Swan in 2019?

Will (52:41):
2019?
Was that elemental?

Stevan (52:50):
They finished the one word themes,

Erin (52:51):
Larry.

Stevan (52:52):
Oh yeah.
We, yes, into this one.
Happy as Larry.

Erin (52:56):
All I think of is Leisure, Larry.

Will (53:01):
A little different.

Erin (53:02):
Little different.

Stevan (53:07):
And that was it.
That was last question.

Erin (53:08):
Did, did we win?
Did we get It did pretty well actually.

Stevan (53:12):
Good memory.
Good memory.

Will (53:12):
It was gonna be harder.

Stevan (53:14):
It helps.
It helps being there as well.

Erin (53:15):
And we didn't even use Google,

Will (53:21):
we're we?
I quite like this year'stheme, uh, cosmic coincidence.
I've had a, like a lot of people have beentalking because when you're at Blaze, your
entire time is sort of just coincidences.
One after the other, bumping into someone.
Haven't six years suddenly, or justat the right time, you think, oh,

(53:46):
I left my water bottle at home.
The person next to you has one.
And it really is
just lots of coincidenceshappening all the time.
And that's what drives you forward.
That's what a, a blaze moment is.
Mm.

Stevan (54:00):
But I find that happens every year.
Like you get

Will (54:02):
all Yeah.
Yeah.
But, um,

Stevan (54:04):
connections or

Will (54:05):
Absolutely.
Plays,

Stevan (54:06):
blaze miracles or synchronicity or

Will (54:08):
blaze miracle is a, is a good term.

Erin (54:10):
That's a good word.
I suppose in last year, last yearwas just a bit too much neon for me.
I think

Will (54:15):
I was quite annoyed because that was our theme.
Our theme is the, isthe neon pink and blue.
So

Erin (54:22):
Yes, yes.

Will (54:23):
We weren't, we weren't special.
We were just, uh, doing the theme.

Erin (54:27):
We thought we were special.
Oh.
We're special.
Anyway.
Yeah.

Stevan (54:32):
So thinking, so thinking about the past effigies and temples, what
do you guys remember and what's your,uh, favorite ones or the ones that you

Erin (54:42):
I remember, I remember one year I got in trouble 'cause I stuck on
the ground early and I took a photoand I posted it and they told me off.
I do remember that, um,the year that they had

Stevan (54:51):
So you're the one

Erin (54:52):
Yeah, I'm the one, the big swan with the egg, obviously,
because the eggs in Kulin.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Um,

Will (54:57):
like there was, there was one with two swans

Erin (55:00):
Yes.

Will (55:00):
Next to each other.
Yes.
I liked that a lot

Erin (55:02):
because I like, and the change of location, like, you know, having, because
I used to all be down on the, the flat.
Down, down the bottom here.
So, um, but now they're, yeah.
All in the same spot up here.
Uh, last year's was pretty cool with allthe different, all the different effigies.
They, they had depiction of thedifferent effigies all the way round.

Will (55:22):
That was very cool.
It was very good.

Erin (55:24):
So that was a good one.
I didn't like the, hat

Will (55:26):
of my favorite burns is

Stevan (55:29):
Happy as, Larry.

Erin (55:29):
Nah.
Didn't like that.

Will (55:32):
My, one of my favorite, I don't actually remember.
I don't think it was, uh, a temple or areal effigy, but it couldn't get burnt
that year because the weather was no good.

Erin (55:43):
Oh yes.

Will (55:43):
And so we came around a week or two after.

Erin (55:47):
Oh no, that was, um, Swan Henge.

Will (55:50):
Yeah, Swan H

Stevan (55:50):
Yeah.
You're talking about the swan henge.

Will (55:52):
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so we came around afterwith a handful of people.
I was pretty young.
I would've been probably 17.
Yes.
And we had Colin brought out his trache.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that was such a beautiful night whereI met all these sort of swan people.

Erin (56:06):
We all slept in the, um,

Will (56:08):
slept in camp heart

Erin (56:09):
in Camp Heart.

Will (56:10):
Um, we, we played and set, tried to figure out the rules to hold them poker,
burn something.
And that was like my real firsttaste of the swan community.
That's probably a good wayto, was really experience.
And, but yeah, really small scale,really intimate and really special.
That's probably what kindof hooked me forever.

(56:33):
So that's, that's my, um, slightlyoff center answer for best
effigy is the one that, the onethat no one else gotta see burn

Erin (56:43):
wasn't, actually,

Will (56:44):
wasn't an effigy in the first place.

Stevan (56:47):
It art piece.
It was,

Erin (56:50):
it was all made out of, um, hay bales.
It was a, a swan henge they called it.
Yep.
So like stone henge.

Will (56:56):
Yeah.
Yep.

Erin (56:57):
And we actually, um, like when they were looking, they were looking
for like crowdsourcing it, and I put,I, I put in the contributed the most,
so I, I got the right to set fire toit, which is set off the, the spark.
Yep.
And then of course we didn'thave it, so that's where we Yeah.
We came back and cameback and did that one.
So.
Yeah.
Um, and that's, that'sanother thing about,

Stevan (57:16):
that was the second year, wasn't it?

Erin (57:17):
The what?
Oh no, that was a second year.
No, no.

Stevan (57:20):
Or first year?

Erin (57:21):
No, it was quite, it was,

Will (57:22):
it was a couple of years in, but not many.

Erin (57:24):
Yeah.
But that was, um, that's onething about living Kulin.
Yeah.
We could come and have that still happen.
Yeah.
So we, um, which was anice, nice extra bonus

Will (57:35):
in, in terms of best temple or my favorite temple.
It's very hard to top this year's.
Uh

Stevan (57:42):
Okay.

Will (57:43):
Which is a, a beautiful courtyard of trees, basically.
Just, just a, a really amazinguse of space, um, and structure.

Erin (57:54):
It actually burn really beautifully too.

Will (57:56):
It burned beautifully,

Erin (57:57):
you know, with it sort of

Will (57:58):
big ember was coming up straight through the center and

Erin (58:01):
Yeah.

Will (58:02):
Billowing up.
Yeah.
And it had really sort ofpowerful message inside.
Yeah, definitely some, some recency bias,but it's stuck in my mind very strongly.

Erin (58:13):
I don't always get to see the temple

Will (58:15):
before it goes.
I have a problem.

Erin (58:16):
Yeah.
Because I, because I run a daytime camp.
Um, unless I'm wandering around the night,I don't always get to see everything, so.

Will (58:23):
Yeah.
Well, and because we run adaytime and night camp True
daytime and a nighttime camp.
So you wander over to the internetand answer people's queries Yes.
At night.
So

Erin (58:32):
Yes.
Yes.
But yeah.
But yeah, no, you know, I mean, any ofthe burn, I mean, they, they had a special
burn this year where they burn the church.

Will (58:42):
Yes,

Stevan (58:43):
yes.
Let's talk about that.

Erin (58:44):
Yeah.
The original church.
I missed that too.

Will (58:47):
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.

Stevan (58:49):
oh, you missed it,

Erin (58:50):
told you I can't get to anything.

Will (58:53):
We were having dinner,

Erin (58:54):
but I mean, I remember, you know, the church when they,
when, you know, they used to

Stevan (58:57):
next minute church burns down.

Erin (58:58):
Yeah.
When we were first, when we were down,um, yeah, they would right down at the,
the, almost the exit going out, youknow, going leave when you were leaving.
And that's where wewould house the church.
So you had to wander all the, there theywere never allowed in with everyone,

Will (59:15):
but would make the pilgramage out there.

Erin (59:20):
They had blood baths and stuff,

Will (59:22):
they're always far away.

Stevan (59:23):
And did people, did people understand the history
or the meaning or why it wasburnt and the story behind that?
Do, do you know, think,

Erin (59:32):
I think there's plenty of us around who, who know, you know, what the church
is about and, and all the rest and thatthey, uh, you know, they're a nice,

Stevan (59:42):
it was a part of blaze.

Erin (59:43):
Yeah.
They're a nice bunch of people,but geez, they're funny Actually.
We thought the naughty nunswere out again this year.
Delivering ice.
Yes.

Will (59:49):
The Nuns on ice.

Erin (59:49):
Nuns on ice out.
That was pretty cool.
So we haven't seen them for afew years, so that was, um, that
was a nice thing to come back.
Yeah.

Stevan (59:59):
Did they deliver it in a hearse?

Erin (01:00:00):
No, they did, they deliver it in a hearse.
They borrowed one of the art carsand just filled it up with ice.
So, um, and we just, yeah, butbasically you gotta ask them for
ice and they tell you to fuck off.
So I don't really how that went.

Will (01:00:12):
Yeah.
Well that's what I asked aroundabout why I was being burn and
I also just got a fuck off.
So

Erin (01:00:21):
probably need to ask them after swan.

Stevan (01:00:22):
That's actually the real answer.
Why?
I think,

Erin (01:00:26):
yeah, I think it just, well it's probably, it's ten years old,
so maybe it's just done it's dash.
Its everyone needs to upgradeor, or maybe got termites

Stevan (01:00:35):
Well, the church in all of us now, so.
Yeah.

Erin (01:00:37):
I feel like would've got termites.
We,
yes.
Talking about I actually been to poxeclipse, but that's my, my next challenge.

Stevan (01:00:51):
Well, hopefully Oly will will be on, and we can chat
about that a little bit as well.
Um, let's talk about, um, why doyou guys come back every year?
I mean, this is your Easter holiday aswell, and you guys must have had Easter
traditions over the years as well, so,well, why come back to Blazing Swan.
What's, what, what is it aboutbasing Swan that you love?

Will (01:01:09):
Well, it's, it's actually, uh, easier for me because my family is here.

Stevan (01:01:16):
Mm.

Will (01:01:16):
So mom's coming out here every year.
Um, you wanna do Easter with the family?

Erin (01:01:22):
I think that's where it's the first few years.
My husband sort of wasn't too surebecause I, I was also taking the kids
with me, so, well, not when they'relittle, but I mean, you know, they
were coming out here, so yeah, he sortof felt a bit lost with no Easter.
I mean, we've never been, Imean, yeah, there's enough
chocolate to go around here,

(01:01:43):
I think, and hot cross buns, but, um, I, Imean, look, I don't, it doesn't bother me.
I'm, I'm, I'm a teacher, so also I'm onholidays at the moment, and, uh, yeah.
And being of the older, oldergeneration, I'm probably not,
I'm not working or anything, so,but it, it's a good way to go.
This year, actually, this year is quitegood because, um, you know, obviously

(01:02:05):
today being the Easter Monday, or wedon't have to call it Easter Monday,
um, but then we have Anzac Day holiday.
So it's a three day week working.
A lot being here and, you know, stayingfor the, until the, until the end.
Mm-hmm.
But you do get people who just comefor the over the weekend sort of thing.
Yep.

(01:02:26):
Um,

Will (01:02:27):
yeah, but I mean, I think the, the thing that keeps me coming back
is that there's nothing like it.
There's, there's nothingwith the same mixture of, um,
community and art and music.
Um, you can get little slivers.
You go to a festival, they got themusic, but they don't have the community.
You go to a doof and it'slike this, but kind of weird.

(01:02:50):
Um,

Erin (01:02:52):
I, I've always said if it wasn't in Kulin, it's not something I would've done.

Will (01:02:56):
Mm.

Stevan (01:02:57):
I was, I was gonna, I was gonna ask you that.
What happens?
What if it was in Perth?
Would you drive four hours?
Like

Erin (01:03:03):
No.

Stevan (01:03:04):
Everyone else?

Erin (01:03:05):
No, no.

Will (01:03:06):
We'd make, we'd make it,

Erin (01:03:07):
it's become my thing now.
Yeah.
But it was definitely, you know, ifyou're thinking like 11 years ago or,
or longer, um, it was not, I, it, yeah.
Definitely wasn't my sort of thing.
I mean, I was, I'm an arty person Yeah.
And all that and, and mu you know,music wise and everything, but

(01:03:27):
just not something I would go to.
But because it was here, I, and I guessbecause we got actually contacted being,
you know, with the Kulin arts, we, wesort of got contacted and said, you know,
this is happening, blah, blah, blah.
And yeah, sort of wentfrom there that we just.
And I thought it, yeah.
Anyway, I, and I'm all about, youknow, like I said, all about bringing

(01:03:48):
people to kulin, so that's why I bringa bit of kulin into here so as well.

Will (01:03:55):
Yep.
And, uh, I think probably it beinghere and you going helped turn
me into the sort of person thatwould wanna, would want to be here.

Erin (01:04:04):
Yeah.

Will (01:04:05):
When I saw this, um, for the first time relatively, like very formative
years, that definitely changed thedirection of my life quite significantly.

Stevan (01:04:15):
Are you also planning?
Yeah.
Are you also planning toexperience, uh, the East Coast
burns or international burns and

Erin (01:04:22):
that's what I

Stevan (01:04:22):
even burning man burning.

Erin (01:04:24):
No, I'm not that, I'm not, sorry, I'm not, I'm not that keen.
I mean, I don't do, you know,festivals or anything like that,
you know, that's just not what I do.
But, um, like I said, I, you know,here, I, I don't, I don't think I,
I enjoy being a theme camp becauseit gives me something to do.

(01:04:44):
And I love seeing people coming in andexperiencing crafty shit for the first
time and doing stuff and, you know,the, just the, you know, the people
who come in and say, I can't do this.
And you say, yeah, you can, and they,you know, spend six hours doing it.
And, um, I think as I, I did comeone year with my, my daughter-in-law,

(01:05:06):
you know, just as a participantand I knew people, so it.
Quite nice.
We could hang out with them,but it was not the same.
I didn't, I, I felt likeI didn't have a, a home.
Mm. Yeah.
You know, um, I needed, uh, Ineeded to, uh, have that space
and that connection, I think.
And, but, um, I just didn't getit as a straight up participant.

(01:05:31):
Mm-hmm.
I, I need to be doing something I need,

Will (01:05:33):
and you need, you need to be giving something.

Erin (01:05:35):
Yeah.
And that's because that's whoI'm, you know, you know, I like
to, I'm a big volunteer person.
I like to do a lot ofvolunteer work in Kulin.
So, um, or anywhere I dovolunteer work, Brunswick.

Stevan (01:05:48):
Yep.
Um, it's also the, it's alsothe small town mentality.
I think It's, which is more welcomingas well as getting involved.

Erin (01:05:56):
Yeah.

Stevan (01:05:56):
Getting to know people.

Erin (01:05:57):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, you know, smalltowns thrive, uh, you know,
you have to have volunteers.
Um, you know, I mean, our, our entirebush raise events run by volunteers,
you know, and you're talking to4,000 people coming into town and,
and it's getting less and less.
And I, I trying to, I'm sort of workingon some things at the moment where

(01:06:19):
I'm trying to encourage that volunteerfilling in people and, you know, the,
the, just the wanting to help out.
Mm. Um, and do that sort of stuff.
So, you know, for me, that's my challenge.
I.
Um, you know, family volunteer.
My mom and dad, you know, mydad's 90 and mom's 85, and they're

(01:06:43):
the biggest volunteers I know.
So

Will (01:06:46):
I was gonna say that it's, it's in your lineage.

Erin (01:06:48):
It's definitely in my blood to be a volunteer for things.
So yeah.
So that's, that's, you know,and I, that's what I was saying.
I, that's why I needto be doing something.
Mm. I'm not necessarily wanna betaking, and, and, and I know that's
not the concept here, but you know, theidea of, I I, I couldn't give enough.
Maybe that was it.

(01:07:08):
Maybe.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So whereas running a camp,God running two camps now.
Yeah.
It's just, that's my, yeah.
I, I like it.
Love that.
So, I dunno.
So I dunno if I'd go to, to others.
No.
I guess if you,

Will (01:07:22):
I also only really have like one a year in me.

Erin (01:07:25):
Yes.
Well true.
Take a while.

Will (01:07:28):
Every year and a half or so would actually be nice.
Come around quick.

Erin (01:07:33):
Just when you're coming down from Swan, you rev then you start
back up again for the next one.
Yeah.
Doing all that stuff and all that stuff.
We say, we're gonna straight up Swan,let's do this and this, and we don't.
Um, it's definitely,

Stevan (01:07:47):
well how do you, do you guys decompress after this?
So what, what's your usual routine?

Erin (01:07:53):
I, uh, I sort out all my craft materials
and all take everything outta crates.
The.
I just, yeah, I mean I'm, I'm a on my ownsort of person anyway, so I find, but I,
like, I've got the, my crew around for,you know, a few days, which is quite nice.
We, and we do mega chill, um,sit around and watch bad, just

(01:08:17):
camping and eat pizza and Yeah.
And twisties.

Will (01:08:21):
Yeah, we try to take the pack down a little slow 'cause
it's, it's very hard to pack.
Packing or setting up isfun because it's exciting.
It's as much work, possibly more work,but, you know, you're building something
and then you get, get to enjoy it.
The pack down is the, is the hard part.

Erin (01:08:41):
You're tired.

Will (01:08:42):
You're tired.
You spent like all week at Swan.
Um, the sound system exploded

Stevan (01:08:48):
and you don't wanna leave as well.

Will (01:08:49):
And you don't wanna leave.
Yeah.

Erin (01:08:51):
It's another advantage of also being local is we can, we can take
our time and we can come and go.

Will (01:08:58):
Yep.

Erin (01:08:58):
I mean, you know, one year I came out, 'cause they were short on people
to help, like the general helping, uh,and I sorted all the lost property.
That was quite fun.
And not, it was a wet year.
But, but yeah, that, you know, and, andeven that, you know, that's sort of a
nice way to, and being here with all thecrew that all the, you know, organizers.

(01:09:21):
And, um, you know, be helpingthem out in that regard.
Mm. But I think it's,

Will (01:09:26):
and that, I think that does taper you off a bit from
the intensity of the week.

Erin (01:09:29):
Yes.
It's not just an abruptin I go back to work.

Will (01:09:32):
Yeah.
Which I did.
I had that, I didn't do mydecompress very well last year.
Um, I had basically, we, we had a,a pretty rough pack up, very rushed.
I got up back home and then thenext day I was still going, I
was still on, on full throttle.

(01:09:52):
And so I was like, I know what I'll do.
I'll unpack everything.
I'll clean all of my extension cords.
Like I'm in the kitchen with acloth cleaning to a hundred meters
of extension cables and movingcars around and dropping stuff off.
I was like, this is great.
I'm getting so much done.
The next morning I caught in sick forwork because I couldn't get outta bed.

(01:10:14):
Just all crashed all at once.

Erin (01:10:16):
You definitely need to take that time.

Will (01:10:18):
Yeah.
I just didn't move all day.
So this year, we'll maybe, um,be a little bit more respectful
of my, of my body and my energy.

Erin (01:10:28):
I think that's part of also the difference between people
who run theme camps and peoplewho just come as a participant.
Um, I think, yeah.
I don't, I don't know that peoplerealize quite, I mean, people say, oh,
thanks for this and thanks for that.
But I don't think they quite realizejust, you know, blazing if there was no
theme camps, there's no blazing swan.
I mean, there's no anything.

(01:10:49):
So, you know, really, um, weare the backbone of it all.
And, and I think, uh, yeah, wejust, you put a of work into it.

Will (01:11:00):
You do, you do.

Erin (01:11:00):
But we do it for the fun of it too.
Yeah.
That's what we doing.
Again,

Will (01:11:02):
you, you put in a but load of work and it's all worth it when you,
when you look out and there's 20 peopleholding hot glue guns and, um, you see
people, three people dancing to thesilliest music you can play in your tent.
It's most definitely, um, it, itbecomes all worth it very quickly.

Stevan (01:11:21):
Yeah, it does.
Yeah.
That's why we love it.
Yeah.
That's why we come back.

Erin (01:11:24):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Will (01:11:25):
Exactly.
Plus it's, it's a challenge, right?
Every, every year.
'cause we had quite a roughfirst year as a theme camp.
We had a pretty good second year.
You, every time you come back andyou think we're gonna do better, you
don't think, oh, that was really hard.
Not gonna do it again.
Let's give up.

(01:11:45):
Yeah.
You know, it's a, it's a real, it'sa, it's a tricky challenge to do
and it's all for not just yourself.
I guess a lot of the, someonewas saying after they'd spent the
whole day in the, in the camp.
Doing up there, doof stick.

(01:12:06):
He was so excited at the end of the day,he said, it's been a long time since I've
put so much energy and time and focusinto something for myself and not just
for like the person paying for my time.
Um, and I think that's a huge part ofit, is that this is something that I,
that we want to provide and it's hard,but that, that makes it worth it and

(01:12:32):
it makes it a good challenge to crack.
Um,

Stevan (01:12:37):
yeah.
How do you, Will, how do you, how doyou sell it or how do you tell people
what, what you're doing, like what thiscommunity is or what blazing swan is?

Will (01:12:45):
It's really tough.

Stevan (01:12:46):
Do you have a good way?
Yeah, it's tough.

Will (01:12:48):
I don't, I don't have a good way.

Erin (01:12:51):
I've sort of tried to develop one on the years.
Yeah.
Like, especially for telling kulin people.
Mm. I've, I've done, you know, I,the first few years I spent and I
would do a little report, I guessup for our local, local paper.
Um Mm. But just trying to explainto people what it is about and.

(01:13:13):
Out here doing drugs and yeah, whatever,

Will (01:13:15):
but also running around naked.
It sort of is.

Erin (01:13:20):
People always look at, I always say, look, there, this, this goes
on, you know, people are runningaround naked, blah, blah, blah.
I, I don't,
not wrong probably as well, I guessI'm, I'm trying not to put that image
in their brain, seeing as I am alocal and they look at me every day.
So, yeah,

Will (01:13:40):
it's, it's really hard to explain.
Once someone comes for thefirst time, it sort of clicks.
But yeah, I, I haven't found aneffective way to, to get across the idea.
I usually try and invoke Burning Man.
I say, you know, you know, burningMan's big, big, massive thing out
there and people tend to know that.
Some people know it too well.

(01:14:01):
Um, yeah, I mentioned it to acousin the other day and he was
like, oh, so it's like a bunch oftech millionaires, cosplaying as
homeless people and say, well, no,there's less tech-billionaires here.

Erin (01:14:13):
I actually go with the community.

Stevan (01:14:15):
Not at blazing swan.

Will (01:14:16):
Yeah.
No, not at Swan.

Erin (01:14:18):
I tend to go with the community thing.
I say, you know, we, it's,it's, it's a community.
Yeah.
Um, it's, you know, and everyoneis like-minded if, if you here, you
tend to, well not everyone, but youknow, the majority of people are here
with the same mindset or the samelike mind that you are here to, you

(01:14:39):
know, be a friend to everyone to.
And I think the gifting community,you know, having all that going, um,
is, is that how that happens too?
You know?
Yeah.
People are constantly, you know, they get,get in the, and it, they get in the swing.
And I think it's for some people whoyou don't experience who don't have
that sort of volunteer experience andall the rest, and then just suddenly,

(01:15:00):
you know, how welcoming someone iswhen you gift them a piece of your
apple or a, you know, something small.
It doesn't have to be huge.
And I think for some people that's a,that's a huge eyeopener to, to what, what
human beings can be and who we could be.
Um, so yeah.

(01:15:20):
Makes it, it's a great thing.
It's a good learning for, for thosepeople who don't get that chance to
Yeah.
To do it.

Will (01:15:26):
The daytime is definitely the hardest to explain.
I usually have to have to give examplesbecause people can sort of understand
at night there's people set up bigsound systems and they play music and
they have fancy tents, but there's,and they say, oh, who's playing?
And you go, no, no, no, no.
There is is no playing,there is no who's playing.
It's just like

Erin (01:15:47):
someone will,

Will (01:15:48):
you know, someone that can play will be playing

Stevan (01:15:51):
no headliners

Will (01:15:52):
and they're, they're not brought in for the event.
They're going the eventand they're also here.
And so people sort of get that across.
But then I say during the day, youcould also go and get a coffee or
have a nap or watch a incredibly.
Competitive and surprisingly violentpillow fight at the pillow dome.

Erin (01:16:17):
Yes.
Um, it's scary.

Stevan (01:16:19):
Well, we do get, we do get Daft Punk as well, I
anything to do up on fence,

Erin (01:16:25):
up on the trash fence.
I think that's where everyone went toget their sticks for their doof sticks.

Will (01:16:29):
They probably did.
Probably did.

Erin (01:16:32):
Yeah.
That, that's about as headline as we get.

Will (01:16:34):
And I definitely think that actually, like the camp is a great
example of we just bring a bunchof craft supplies out and people
can wander in and make something.
And I think that starts to get theball moving in people's head about
what people are bringing and giving andwhat you'll be doing while you're here.

(01:16:59):
Um, that definitely helps.

Stevan (01:17:03):
Alright.
Um, finally, do you guys wanna givea shout up or say anything else?
Shout to your crew, to thepeople that helped you out and,

Erin (01:17:11):
oh, I always, yeah.

Stevan (01:17:12):
Any,

Erin (01:17:12):
yeah, definitely my crew.
Yeah.
Like, I mean, I love them all.
I mean, we're all family.

Will (01:17:16):
They do a,

Erin (01:17:18):
literally,

Will (01:17:18):
they do a, a mega job.
Like it's a lot of work.
There's not many of us, buteverybody in the crew is, is
super passionate and is willing tohelp out and, and understanding.
Like, it's, it's probably thehardest thing that we do all year.
But everyone still shows up.
And, um, I think

Erin (01:17:39):
yes, we haven't, haven't lost anyone to, I mean, you know, people come and
go, but, you know, usually circumstancessomething might change for them.
Mm-hmm.
But generally, you know, with everyone,they'll say, look, they can't come this
year, but I couldn't come next year.
Yeah.
Um, and but I think also to allthe other theme, camps, I mean, you
know, as I said, without this Yeah.
Without theme camps, blazingSwan doesn't exist, you know?
Yes.

(01:18:00):
From, from the, thesmallest little tent to,

Will (01:18:02):
without black Lagoon, nothing happens.

Erin (01:18:04):
No.
Get coffee in the morning.
Bought my own pot machine out this year soI didn't have to wait in line for coffee.
But I mean, you know, right downto, you know, the belligerent
churchies, we love them.

Will (01:18:16):
Yeah.
And the organization for sure.
And all of the infrastructure, DPW thei I was thinking the other day about
how crazy it is that we have a radiosystem we call in, say, you know,
black Swan, this is the internet, anduh, 24 7 person will be on there and

(01:18:38):
they'll direct you in their little room.
I assume they've got like aold timey operator board that
they're plug everything into.
Like that level of organizationis not just important, but
like, just the whole It's vital

Erin (01:18:52):
the infrastructure.
Yeah.
To get power to every camp.
Yeah.

Will (01:18:56):
Power to toilet.
The toilets are amazingly clean.
Yeah.
For how filthy everyone isout here, it's pretty, yeah.
They do a fantastic job andlike without that, the whole
thing falls apart horrifically
Oh.
And so quickly.

Erin (01:19:11):
Yeah.
No, there's just to anyone, anyonewho does all that pre-work and, you
know, the effigy builders, the templebuilders, the, you know, everything.
It's just phenomenal amount of work Yeah.
Um, that goes in behind thescenes that, you know, people
just don't realize, I think.
And

Will (01:19:28):
Yep.

Erin (01:19:29):
They certainly need Yeah.
Mega, mega, mega, mega praise.

Will (01:19:34):
Absolutely.

Stevan (01:19:35):
And when do you guys get, uh, preparing for and planning
for next year, next event?

Erin (01:19:40):
Bigger and better.
No,

Stevan (01:19:42):
usually you start like pretty early?

Erin (01:19:45):
I got told I should be bigger, I might need a bigger tent.

Will (01:19:47):
We, we probably should scale up a little.

Erin (01:19:49):
Yeah.
It's just more cleaningup of craft material.
So yeah,

Will (01:19:52):
we start planning next year,

Erin (01:19:54):
today,

Will (01:19:55):
the day that we rock up to Swan.
Yeah.
And we start putting things togetherand we go, why didn't we bring this?
Oh, we have to do that next year.
No one writes it down.
Mom does.
She writes some things down.

Erin (01:20:04):
I sit and write notes.
Yeah.

Will (01:20:05):
And then your brain refuses to think about Blazing Swan for
six to eight months and then youmadly rush to get the next year.
Yeah, we get the next one.

Erin (01:20:15):
Visiting every opshop

Will (01:20:18):
seems to be the system,

Erin (01:20:20):
but we, yeah.
No,

Stevan (01:20:22):
hasn't failed.

Erin (01:20:28):
I thought this year when I started, when I opened up for costume building,
I thought, oh, that's gonna be all thetin horses are becoming, you know, blase.
No one wants them and nah,they roll out of here.
And the thousands, I, Ishould count one year.

Stevan (01:20:43):
You guys are part of the, the whole landscape now.
I mean, that's rightfrom the beginning start.

Will (01:20:49):
Yeah.

Stevan (01:20:50):
part of the furniture.

Erin (01:20:51):
Yeah, furniture pretty much.

Will (01:20:54):
We're on a very low couch.
I'm not sure that'sgonna be, get outta this.
So she may literally, yeah,literally become furniture.

Erin (01:21:04):
Thank goodness.
See, that's why I have a young crew.
I figured out they carry all mystuff and when I'm, uh, in my tent,
I say to people, right, look down.
If it's not dirt, pickit up, put it in the bin.
Or in one of my tubs andmy knees say thank you.
So it's getting to that point.

Stevan (01:21:22):
Well how the, the uh, double Gs,

Erin (01:21:26):
they're not too bad that our end.
Not too bad this year.
I mean, they're around.
I,

Will (01:21:29):
yeah,

Erin (01:21:30):
I'm sorry.
It's just part of the landscape as well.

Will (01:21:32):
Stepped on a couple,

Stevan (01:21:32):
it must be just the first two years I think when, when there was
no, um, you know, hippies on site yet.
So yeah.
Think the first year was pretty terrible.
Yeah.

Erin (01:21:41):
I can't believe how many people get around in bare feet still, but, oh yeah.
Hopefully disposing them ratherthan just chucking them around.
But um, yeah, no, they, I thinkthey, but I mean it's a staple.
Yeah.
I take my caravan back to my dadafter this and he always finds double

(01:22:02):
G like six months later in there.
So I think you just have to have toput up with, its one of those things.

Stevan (01:22:11):
Alright, thank you very much for coming on the, having a chat.

Erin (01:22:15):
Yeah.
Welcome.

Stevan (01:22:15):
Fascinating stuff.
Yeah,

Erin (01:22:17):
I'll see if I can get off your couch.

Will (01:22:19):
Yeah, it was great.
Um, thanks for having us on.

Erin (01:22:22):
Nice chat with you too.

Will (01:22:23):
Yeah,

Stevan (01:22:26):
we've got Oly coming on next for chat so let's take a
short break and we'll be back afterthese short burner voice messages.

Double Shot (01:22:36):
This is Ranger Double Shot coming to you from Blazing Swan 2025.
Just wanna shout out my, uh, beautifulRanger teammates for doing such a good
job of keeping everyone safe this year.
Love you guys heaps.

Hotwire (01:22:53):
Xin chào Stevan Nam Lay.
What's up man?
This is Hotwire here.
Uh, I just wanna say congratulationsand well done on the Bonzaar podcast.
Man, the website looks incredible andjust kudos to you for all the hard
work and effort you've been putting in.
I can't wait to, uh, sit down andhave a little chin wag with you.

(01:23:15):
I just think this medium,uh, is incredible.
As you know, we've been talkingabout this for a long, long time,
and it's, uh, so good to see this.
I think communicating and chattingand sitting down and expressing
ideas, uh, in this burner communityis just such a wonderful thing,
and this is a great medium.
So hats off to you, bro.

(01:23:35):
Kudos.
Can't wait to see you.
Maybe burning seed, who knows?
But, uh, yeah, every time we seeeach other, it's always a great time.
Thank you so much for the silentdiscos and yeah, man, just
keep going, keep doing art.
Art is amazing and this, uh, this,this audio art is incredible.

(01:23:55):
I think sitting around and having a, agood conversation with people and, uh,
you know, hearing about their art andtheir expression and their, their joy
and their wonder is just incredible.
So thank you so much.
Can't wait to see you again, buddy.
Can't wait to chat.
Love you heaps.
This is hot wire.
Take it easy.

Stevan (01:24:18):
Yeah.
Okay, cool.
We're recording.
Okay.
Alright.
Welcome.
Welcome to the Bonzaar podcast.
Uh, we have Oly on.
How's it going, Oly?

Oly (01:24:28):
Going good just towards the end of the event and a little
bit sleep deprived, but All good.

Stevan (01:24:32):
Yeah.
Uh, quite a, an eventfulday, you said earlier.

Oly (01:24:35):
Yeah.
We just have the, the last minutesort of stuff going on with tired
participants sort of leaving and peopleenjoying themselves with what they've
got left and having a bit of fun.
And we're just maintainingit in the bigger picture.
It's not that much, but it's just a bit,a bit of work for us behind the scenes.

Stevan (01:24:52):
Mm-hmm.
Always busy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's, it's a pleasure having you on.
Um, let's chat about,uh, your origin story.
How did you get involved or howdid you discover the burning man
culture and how did you get involvedforming, forming Blazing Swan?

Oly (01:25:04):
So basically the first time I found about Burning Man culture was I was
riding a motorcycle through North andCentral America, caught up with some
mates and they were headed to Burning Man.
And I happened to be in, I thinkit was in Oregon at the time, and
then we headed on down and couldget tickets at the gate still.
I think it was back two thousand10, I think it was off the top of
my head and sort of over a festivalsort of styles, uh, at the time,

(01:25:29):
like not really my jam anymore.
I'd rather go to see, uh, artistsplay and then went to Burning Man.
I was like, holy crap, thisisn't, uh, a normal festival.
And was mind blown.
And then ended up going again,uh, two years later and.
Started possibly making a burnhere in WA with a few crew.

Stevan (01:25:52):
Yeah, that was 2012, 2013?,

Oly (01:25:56):
Yeah, it was end
started doing stuff on the groundand become a, I suppose, an entity

Stevan (01:26:05):
and had a campout at first,

Oly (01:26:08):
yeah.
So yeah, I was reliving thiswith a few people before, like
our memories going like, this isabout, what, 12 years ago or so?
And so my understanding is we hadsomething happen up at, uh, Bickley
Valley up at one of the organizersplace, Paul's place, and we did a
small, like a three-hundred 50 personcamp out on a property up there.
And that was with all the key members.

(01:26:29):
I think you've spoken toquite a few of them already.
Um, Wez sort of, I'm trying to offthe top head, Cat and Matt and, um,
I'm not gonna remember everyone'sname off top head right now.
Seven, I think it was 12 people at thestart and seven of us jumped on the board.
Mm.

Stevan (01:26:48):
And then, and then it was the, the, uh, planning of
the first burn in inception.

Oly (01:26:53):
That's correct.
That's right.
We, um, you've probably been toldthis, well, couple, a few people we
organized that we didn't find, we gotthe property, I think it was in December.
We got access or, or permits to be ableto hold it up and Kulin the wheatbelt.
And then we decided, and sothat's what four months set for.

(01:27:18):
And we were only expecting youthree 50 people, like we did at
the first one up in Bickley Valley.
That quickly escalatedto about 1200 people.
Um, and it was like, holy cow.
So action stations.
But luckily we had a core groupof people who just had all the
skillset that matched each otherto be able to pull off everything.
So we all chipped in and any holethat was there, it was filled

(01:27:41):
by another member of the team.

Stevan (01:27:43):
Well, there there's a story behind the, how it became, uh, how
it was first, uh, rejected for.
God said no.
So let's talk about the,

Oly (01:27:55):
do you know about that story at all?

Stevan (01:27:57):
Well, I do know it's, it's, it's, so it's been passed on.

Oly (01:28:01):
I'll give you my version of it.
Mm-hmm.
So basically we were looking for,venues were searching sort of areas
to go and chase and I think, and a fewof the guys went down to a place, sort
of southwest of Perth, sort of startof the wheat belt country and looked
really promising venue, but it wasmore rolling green hills, grounded out

(01:28:22):
crops in a creek and stuff like that.
So it was really beautiful, verylush, green place sort of stuff.
Not, not, not a ideally, uh,playa sort of version of a thing.
And, um, so,

Stevan (01:28:32):
and this is for, and, and this is for, you're picturing for
300 people, like you're saying?

Oly (01:28:36):
Yeah, about 300 people or something like that.
So it would've been a bit of a challenge,I think, to grow into that space.
Plus I didn't actuallyvisit the space myself.
Um, I've just got told, um, different,well, the accounts of the place and,
because then I remember after theylooked at the venue, they told me they
went back to the, the house or the, thefarm or farm shed or whatever it was

(01:28:57):
that there and, um, space with lots ofbackpackers or woofers, and all that sort
of, and help out the farm and got there.
Then the lady, I think it was the ladysaid, um, this sounds really amazing.
I just have to ask and seewhat God says about this.
Okay.

(01:29:18):
That's interesting in itself.
So the left.
I think we were, um, this was likea week or couple weeks, I dunno
what the actual timeframe was.
We were all having a meeting up at PaulJorgensen's house and um, there was a
phone call, um, one on someone's mobile.
And, um, it was the, the lady ringing upand basically she ran up and said, um,

(01:29:40):
well look, unfortunately God said no.
And so we're like, okay, it's probablya good, we minor dodged a bullet there.
So, and then obviously Lewithen started up his theme camp.
God says No, and I actually,with Frankie started up another
theme camp called God Said Yes.
So, and then we had the, theswan, the first one in between.

(01:30:02):
God said yes and God said no.
Um, yeah, yeah.

Stevan (01:30:06):
Parallel to each other.

Oly (01:30:07):
Yeah, exactly.
All the nice straight lines.
I think God said no was on theedge of the playa at the time.
And we were up, uh, thebase of Cnut Rock, or, yeah,

Stevan (01:30:16):
so they, they were actually on, on the Salt Lakes.

Oly (01:30:20):
Uh, we have one camp on the Salt Lake because the Salt Lake's
actually too soft to go onto.
It's, it's um, it's as soon as you breakthe surface, we've had to pull a few
people out there try to go driving onit, and it's just mud after about an
inch, it's just mud after the crust.

Stevan (01:30:36):
Yeah.
And then, and then the, uh, Iguess it was, uh, God did say no
because we had a drenching, right?
So

Oly (01:30:44):
yeah, we had a drenching.
I dunno whether that's Godsaying no or God bringing
everyone together because I think

Stevan (01:30:49):
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.

Oly (01:30:50):
What created the community of the Hollow Blazing Swan was that
flood, because it put everyone out.
Um, there was tents underneath the mud.
I remember the, I think itwas Camp Koasis, um, it was
coming through Knee deep

Stevan (01:31:05):
Koasis Creek.

Oly (01:31:06):
Yeah, it was coming through knee deep through the camp, therefore we
called it Koasis Creek after that.
And um, yeah, I think, Ithink it was a DJ playing.
And he just got on set and they, him toget off and he, like, I just started.
And they go look down,and he's like, oh, okay.
Down there.
And was a couple funny memes afterthat with the inside of the koasis.

(01:31:27):
And it's got God blazingSwan, God says no.
That sort of stuff.
Pretty,

Stevan (01:31:32):
yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And how did the, uh,the, the locals react?
Um,
well, looking back at it,

Oly (01:31:38):
well, um, the first one we, when we burn, when the
rain started to come through.
We had the owner of the propertysurge down in his tidy whitey, um,
after maybe let's say two or threebeers, um, dancing up a storm and

(01:31:59):
sort of semi breaking perimeter.
And when the perimeters ask, who's this?
And it's like, uh, he's the owner ofthe land and he's been the only person
on site who's been allowed to breakperimeter, um, yeah, the whole time.
But he was at a safe distance.
He just kept an eye on, but yeah, heabsolutely, because it's a break of the
rains up here, so it's wheat area, so theylove all the, when the raids come through,

(01:32:19):
which is normally around the time, butat the start it was obviously those
dirty hippies out in the bloody bush.
Having bloody orgies andtaking lots of drugs.
And then, um, now it's come tobe part of the community up here
and they're really responsive toit and a lot of 'em get involved.
We've got like the Tin horse experience,um, out here that, 'cause we have

(01:32:41):
the Tin Horse Highway, which isquite famous in this area around the
kulin area, and they build littletin horses at, in at Blazing Swan.

Stevan (01:32:49):
Hmm.
Well, do you remember the first year wehad the emu export camp, which was a local

Oly (01:32:54):
Yeah.
Which was on the sheep export life,live sheep export, which sort of
twisted a few people the wrong way.
And I think there was some, um,graffiti left on the export tent,
which, because they were serving up,uh, sheep on a spit and emu export.
So, which they would've neither northere about it, but was offended a few

(01:33:18):
people, but everyone to be fine with itbecause that's what the livelihood way

Stevan (01:33:22):
Yeah, no, that, that was just a, a local gesture for the community.
Yeah.

Oly (01:33:25):
Yeah.
Jumping farmers, jumping in andgetting involved and loved it.

Stevan (01:33:29):
Yeah.
And, and what about the, thefirst, uh, two, three years?
Well, the first four years Ithink when I was there, um.
The, the theme was, wasmostly like a one, one letter.
Yeah.
Like a one word theme.

Oly (01:33:43):
We certain could, couldn't seem to give away from a letter.
I, I think it was inception, um, therewas Ignition or Ignite or whatever.
Then there was, I can't remember.

Stevan (01:33:53):
And then it's like Beyond the Black stump.

Oly (01:33:56):
Beyond the black Stump.
Yep.
Which is at the back of nowhere.

Stevan (01:33:59):
But it makes sense.
Yeah, it makes sense.
Yeah.
You've gotta drive four hours to Kulin.

Oly (01:34:02):
Yeah, exactly.
Unless you come out to poxEclipse, which is a bit further.

Stevan (01:34:07):
Five hours.

Oly (01:34:08):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's, it's a heavento drive back from here.

Stevan (01:34:13):
Well, let's talk a a little bit about that there.
POX I've never been yet, uh,looking at, at the photos and
the videos, it looks so good.
How did you guys, uh, it's how doesit run and how do you guys, uh, manage
to, to, to keep that community aswell, like to build that community?

Oly (01:34:29):
So basically it was born out of like myself and Kristen from the Church
of Belligerence because our, like most,we're right into our car scene and sort of
motorbikes and, and rock music and that.
So we've been toying with the ideafor a long time, probably about nearly
eight years or so, and just lookingfor the place to be able to hold it.

(01:34:51):
And, um, but there's such a community.
It's like, it's like a burning man.
It's like your Wastelandweekend over in America as well.
And it involves, I.
Quite, we've got quite afew larpers coming out.
Um, but also we've got guys whoare just into Mad Max to no end.
Like we've got one guy, Kev, who's justgot, he's got two Mad Max vehicles.

(01:35:15):
He is got the Mad Max in a ceptfrom Mad Max One and Mad Max two.
He's building, um, whatis he building now?
He is doing the Night Riders car,um, and doing an MFP car, the
yellow and red and blue, uh, pursuitcars from the seventies and yeah.
But that's been jumped on boardand everyone seems to love it

(01:35:36):
and it's just been growing.
We're trying to keep numbers reallysmall, like we're at about 500 and
we're happy at that size at themoment because we don't go too big.
We wanna keep community rather than justopen it up to everyone at this stage.

Stevan (01:35:49):
And, and how's, how's the, how's that, how's the relationship,
uh, with the locals there?
Is it Southern Cross?

Oly (01:35:55):
Yep.
Southern, yeah, Southern Crossis where it's held, so it's,
it's going really well out there.
Um, Shire's been helping us out to noend and doing some really cool stuff,
you know, giving us a nice space ofland out there involved with the,
the local, uh, motor cross community.
Um, there's been a few littletensions here and there, but

(01:36:16):
it's all been pretty, pretty wellmaintained and really well going.
Looking at holding our next one inOctober this year, and yeah, looks
like it's all going ahead, flat out.

Stevan (01:36:27):
Yeah, was a bit of hesitation in terms of what you
guys were bringing to, to the place?
Uh, just like, just likeblazing a swan in with Kulin.

Oly (01:36:35):
Um, there was a little, little bit of hesitation, but I think they're probably
more on board with the theme that we'vegot being, uh, a country mining town where
you've got all the people who are sortof into their cars and stuff like that.
So it's more of a, and like a,I've been talking to a lot of
farmers, even around blazing area.
They're pretty keen on it because alot of them have got cars or hidden
away in their sheds and stuff likethat, so there's a lot of heads around.

Stevan (01:36:57):
Yeah.
That's a bit of a hike forthem, but know that's good.

Oly (01:37:00):
Yeah, absolutely.

Stevan (01:37:02):
Yeah.
You gotta go where the party is.

Oly (01:37:03):
Yeah, definitely.
And it's a pretty damn good party.
It's very different than BlazingSwan because obviously we've got a
licensed venue out there, so we, weput on a main stage, which is on the
back of a semi trailer trailer andwe have bands playing in the back
of a truck and we have a bar there.
And then we have what we callclans as what your theme camps are.

(01:37:25):
And they're all based around you got,we've got a radio station out there,
dead end radio, and we've got, uh, wasit Bodega Bazaar, um, which do like a
cabaret sort of style thing and it'sall just very wasteland looking and all
nice red dirt, which gets everywhere.

Stevan (01:37:44):
Yeah.
And you've got somevolunteers as well out there?

Oly (01:37:46):
Yeah, we've got a lot of volunteers.
Got a lost lot of cross volunteerswith Blazing Swan and that, so a lot
keeping like the Ranger theme going overthere and mental health sort of stuff.
And we're growing slowly because obviouslywe're a lot smaller and so we build as we
need in regards to those sort of stuff.

(01:38:07):
But yeah, it's a verybig cross pollination.

Stevan (01:38:10):
Yeah, I can see a lot of crossover there with, with the burn community.
Um, like.

Oly (01:38:15):
Yeah, it's just like, um, wasteland Weekend and Burning Man.
Very like you got the DeathGuild basically from Burning
Man going out and building theThunderdome out at, um, Wasteland.

Stevan (01:38:26):
Yeah.
Cool.
Well, let's talk about a bit aboutthe, the evolution of, uh, of Swan.
So yeah, you, you, you werethere in the beginning.
Uh, we were there.
Uh, and until now it's, it's been,you know, a lot of work and it's,
it's, I think it's, you know, from,from the perspective of, you know,
people from the East coast, it's oneof the better burns in Australia.

Oly (01:38:49):
Oh, thank you.
Yeah.
Um, yeah, it's a really good burn.
It's, it's just absolutely amazing.
It just blows your mind.
At the, we were a bit worried howit was gonna work because a lot of
people hadn't been to Burning Man.
Sort of heard about it, but didn'tknow the concept of it and like
theme camps were like, oh, they'regonna be able to understand what

(01:39:10):
we're trying to get them to portray.
And all that first year bang on,they just smashed it outta the park.
And it's, having that base hasbeen so, so good to work from.
And it's just, it grow and growand grow is absolutely amazing.

Stevan (01:39:23):
Hmm.
Yeah.
And, uh, like the, the landscape as well,it's, it's grown, it's grown bigger.
The city's is obviouslyfilled up with more people.

Oly (01:39:33):
Yes, certainly has.

Stevan (01:39:34):
And the theme camps has evolved as well.

Oly (01:39:36):
They certainly have.
We got, um, some of the oldfavorites, sort of getting a bit
older and having new blood go through'em and change sort of styles.
And then you got all the new bloodscoming through and absolutely
smashing it out the park with, um,what they're bringing to, to the, or
to the edge of the playa, I suppose.

Stevan (01:39:54):
Yeah.
And but also in an, endof era for the church.
The Church of Belligerence.

Oly (01:39:59):
Yeah.
That was, uh, burnt the church, it was aninteresting one on the, I think it was the
Thursday night, um, uh, we got out thereand they built the church and that was our
first burn at, um, blazing Swan this year,which was a absolutely marvelous burn.
A bit of a. Heart wrenching one.

Stevan (01:40:16):
It took, it took a while.
Yeah.

Oly (01:40:17):
Uh, it actually went reasonably quick.
Um, they did a wonderful job onsetting it all up and the, uh, doing
all the burn plan and stuff like that.
And it was burnt to exactly as plannedflames popping through the roof and coming
through all the little, um, paneling onthe, on the walls and stuff like that.
And, you know, a bit sad tosee the church go, but I'm
sure they'll grow a little bit.

(01:40:38):
Although their new camp where they'rebased out of it is being called Temu
Church because it's just thrown together.
Everything from Temu

Stevan (01:40:47):
that's not the official name.
Right?
For next year.

Oly (01:40:49):
I dunno.
I think we can make itthat they won't like it.
They don't like it.
I know that.

Stevan (01:40:54):
Yeah.
Yeah,

Oly (01:40:56):
yeah.

Stevan (01:40:57):
But I, I don't think a lot of people are familiar or aware
of, like, there's a backstory tothe church being bent down or even
the church belligerent itself.
I think so.
Um, do, do you,

Oly (01:41:10):
I know basic stuff on it.
I know a little bit how it startedout of the far away Tree Tribe.

Stevan (01:41:18):
Yeah.

Oly (01:41:19):
Where it was started and you had, um, two different sort
of styles of people in there.
So you had like the happy faraway Tree Tribe people, which
were beautiful people then you.
Well, they got the name from, Ithink, I can't remember name off

(01:41:40):
the top of my head at the moment.
Um, basically called Kristan Belligerentand he liked the name so much he
thought he might as well start somethingwith it there, started the Church of
Belligerence and um, from there on.
Um, and have they been belligerent?
Yes, they have.
Doing all their stuff like um,raining blood and black metal yoga.

(01:42:06):
I find it quite nice.
And walking home two or threein the morning, uh, walking away
from the doof-doof in there in thebackground, you can hear a nice
pantera playing or just some nicemetal in the background that's going.
Ah, that smooth my soul.
Some normal music.

Stevan (01:42:26):
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah, it was definitely, uh,in the cards or planned like
they were gonna burn it down.

Oly (01:42:32):
Yeah, it had come to the end of its life.
It'd been used for, I think itmight have been eight years or
so, it might been more than that.
Um, and just the condition of the actualpaneling and everything they built.
It's just old now, so they'vegotta do something new.
So they decided, well we were gonna besuper belligerent and for pox eclipse to
steal the church belligerence and takesit to POX and burn it rather than burn it.

(01:42:56):
Its blazing swan, but we,we got too slack to do that.

Stevan (01:42:59):
That's too
meta.

Oly (01:43:07):
So, yeah.
So

Stevan (01:43:08):
you, you're crossing festivals.
Yeah.

Oly (01:43:10):
Yep.
Yeah, exactly.
Uh, same but different.

Stevan (01:43:14):
Yeah.
And and you said it was emotional?

Oly (01:43:17):
Yeah, I, no, I think there was a photo of Kristen.
I was sort of involved.
I was, I was event manager at the time,so I didn't get to get super emotional.
I was more working.
But, um, I, I think there's a photoof Kristen with tears in his eyes,
but also that cheeky, bloody evil,smoky as in his face at the same time.
So yeah, end of an era, startof a new and quite a few of the

(01:43:42):
church crew afterwards and there.
Yeah, happy and sad andit's good to see it.
burn.
It was a really good performanceas well, so it was not just
the burning of the church.
There was a full performance by thechurch belligerent crew, um, before
they did it, and it was really amazing.
I think there would be some video out soonon that was a bit able to describe exactly
what it was without actually seeing it.

Stevan (01:44:03):
And like, usually they, they always feed the crowd afterwards as well.

Oly (01:44:06):
Usually.
I dunno what happened there.
I had to shoot off before the trafficgot bad and I couldn't drive the car
through the, um, the crowd becausethere was quite a few people there.

Stevan (01:44:16):
Yeah.

Oly (01:44:17):
And quite a few people yelling, save the church when everyone
else is yelling burn the church.

Stevan (01:44:22):
Well, for, for the uninitiated, they, they will probably get offended.
So, because it, it is asymbolic kind of a figure

Oly (01:44:29):
ab Well, it is until you go into the Church of Belligerence.
The good old greeting of, fuck you withthe good old middle finger raised and
all the belligerent sort of behaviors andum, yeah, so, because I remember, I think
Kristen was toying with the idea of takingthe church of belligerent to Burning
Man and the idea was to have a upsidedown cross burning on the front of it.

(01:44:55):
And I think then they realized,oh, maybe that's got slightly
different connotations in America.
Um,

Stevan (01:45:01):
yeah.

Oly (01:45:01):
So it might not go down too well, but they ended, didn't end up having the
facilities to go take it to Burning Manitself, so it all got done here instead.

Stevan (01:45:08):
Well, you need, I think you need to build a following.
You need to build ahistory and the backstory.
Yeah.

Oly (01:45:14):
Yeah.
I think they've, they'vedone it pretty well.
A lot of their books that they relatebecause they have their own little,
because we have the, well Swan hasthe wtf, the Where's the Fun Guide,
and I think, uh, the church printsbooklets out every year for, um, all
the people that go through there andgives backstory and tells what the
events are on all that sort of stuff.
I think this year they got lazy andthey couldn't be bothered writing

(01:45:35):
stories, so they just wrote this pageleft intentionally blank on every
single page on the left hand side.
It was very, very belligerent of them.

Stevan (01:45:45):
Uh, they, they're collectors item.
I've, I've got some of them.
I've got one of them.

Oly (01:45:48):
Yeah,

Stevan (01:45:48):
probably the first one.
Yeah, they do good swag.
The church.

Oly (01:45:53):
They do absolutely amazing swag.

Stevan (01:45:56):
Yeah, but let's talk about some of theme camps this
year or over the past as well.
How it's evolved.

Oly (01:46:02):
Yeah, so,
well we still got, um, goodold Koasis from the first year.
They're, yeah, they'repumping what, today's Monday.
So Rum Punch Monday still cranking.
So I'm gonna be on working tonight soI can see I'm gonna be dealing with
a fair few drunk people, um, becausewe close at midnight tonight here.
And, um, I don't evenknow what time it's now.

(01:46:23):
It's probably about eight o'clock, seven,eight o'clock or something, whatever.
Three hours less thanwhat you are over there.

Stevan (01:46:30):
Three hours.

Oly (01:46:30):
Yeah.
Seven 30.
Um, and so yeah, we'd go aroundand shut people down tonight, so
it's gonna be, um, good to be thefun police, which is gonna be fun.
Um, but yeah.
Other theme camps we've had, um, theMagical Frontiers are really amazing
camp, so if anyone knows the cave rockarea around the back of that, they're

(01:46:51):
sort of, you walk through around theback of the cave rock and they've
got a theme camp through there, whichis sort of like, uh, you go through
these swinging Western style doors andyou get in there, they have a little
bar there, a little of candlelightberry lights and amazing toasties.
They do really cool toasties.

(01:47:13):
Um, people just absolutely lovethem and live music playing out.
Who the lead of the crew, Joe actuallydid the temple this year at Blazing Swan.
So they had their, um, fair bit of workput in front of them having to build
their theme camp plus also build thetemple as well, which was a amazing

(01:47:38):
feat in an amazing temple as well.

Stevan (01:47:41):
And now what about the, you know, you talked about the live
music, uh, that's something thatit's kind of like, you know, dying
in the last few years of live music.
It's for electronic music now, so

Oly (01:47:51):
Yeah, most of the, most of the theme camps are based around electronic music.
So you've got God said no size downthis year, a little bit comparative
to what they normally do with liketheir big pyramid and stuff like that.
Um, you've got Funkaz Bar, whichhave been cranking the tunes.
You've got Abode who, uh, anotheramazing electronic music space.

(01:48:14):
Um, what else we got up there?
We've got, um, uh, yougot to be confirmed.
Confirmed.
Um, another really cool space.
Um, what else have we got up there?
Trans, trance Central Station.
I think it was, I'm trying to rack mymemory late in the, in the evening.
Um, what else is up there?

(01:48:35):
Treetops, good old treetops are up there.
Um, we've had, um, chainsaw Cobrawho've been here for a while.
They seem to have changed up there.
Their lead has had to move awaynow and to a cabaret style.
Uh, performing arts happening.
Um, I think I went past, therewas a clown on stage doing an act.

Stevan (01:48:59):
Nice.

Oly (01:48:59):
And I think there was accordion being played there
as well and all sorts of stuff.
So, and

Stevan (01:49:06):
that's a different transformation.
Transformation,

Oly (01:49:08):
yeah.
They had a huge techno system before.
They're all techno based and nowthey've gone more cabaret style,
which is quite interesting.
Um, and then, I'm trying to think whatelse is down through this way then you
got the old steampunk pancakes, um, whereI'm sitting right now in the library,

(01:49:29):
or I can't remember the, the officialname for this place, but I'm sitting
in a nice little library set up, which

Stevan (01:49:35):
that, that's the infinite loop.

Oly (01:49:37):
Yeah.
Up in Infinite Loop, which is thequietest spot for camping and for
a couple of theme camps and a bitof crew camping and, um, yeah.
And I don't think they'veorganized the library too well.
There's no decimal system alphabetized,so we haven't had anyone with OCD come
in and get overly ambitious on it yet.
So I think they're still waiting.

Stevan (01:49:59):
And how does, and and what was the, uh, the, this year,
both the Effigies and Temple,

Oly (01:50:07):
I can speak for the Temple
build.
I think we're pretty big because I'vehelped do the fireworks before and
these, so this year I was feelingthe vibrations in my, in my tent.
So it woke me up, but I didn'tget to see it unfortunately.
But, um, temple Burn was amazing.

(01:50:28):
Um, we had a big circular temple.
Um, 'cause to me the whole thing,blazing Swan is the temple.
It's the heart of Blazing Swan, whereasthe effigy is the party and the temple
is where all the community gets togetherto either unload emotions or help

(01:50:51):
people through or just unload stufffrom their life in the default world.
And I think they did an amazing jobthis year and the, the burn they did
this year, slightly unsuccessful inthe lighting of it because it was
trying to get, um, a flame arrowbeing shot onto a lighting pad.

(01:51:13):
And unfortunately it missed on a coupleof shots, but we ended up getting
it lit up with one of the flamingarrows being dragged across to it.
Been hard to see in the dark becauseit got delayed a little bit as
all burns always seem to happen,delayed by about 20 minutes or
so, and it's just too dark to see.
But then it went up and it wasactually, this year was actually
amazing because there was a fewpeople heckling at the start.

(01:51:35):
Soon as it all started, therewasn't a noise at all on the hill.
It was just dead quiet.
It was quite moving.
Absolutely amazing.

Stevan (01:51:43):
Yeah, the, the silence makes it more impactful.

Oly (01:51:46):
Oh, it's just, it hits you so much harder and having that many
people all together in one spaceand everyone just being respectful
and silent was just mind blowing.
Uh, it, um, it pumps up the heart.

Stevan (01:52:02):
Yeah.
We've had incidents previouslywith the Temple Burn where people,
you know, it wasn't silent.
And I think that's through thegrowth phase of the community.
So it's more of the educationthing and respect and, you know,

Oly (01:52:14):
yeah.
We've be trying to do educationthroughout the whole, I think all
burns suffer from the same thing.
It's just when it's quiet and there'speople who have had a few, few things
to drink or whatever, and they getexcited or bored and it's quiet, so
it's their chance to do a big yell out.
And, but this year it was, ithappened at the start, but then
it was all quiet from there.

(01:52:35):
And it's just a process of justteaching everyone what the whole
burn is about and understanding.

Stevan (01:52:40):
Yeah.
So let's talk about the, well,the West Coast, you know,
the Perth Freemantle area.

Oly (01:52:47):
Yep.

Stevan (01:52:48):
How is it different to the other Burns East Coast burns
or Yeah, how, how's it unique?
Blazing Swan?

Oly (01:52:54):
We're cooler, um, no, I guess we're more isolated over here.
We don't have such a big, um,population base on the West
Coast and sort of initially youm.
It's got that sort of arts culturesort of thing, which is getting
slowly pushed outta Fremantle due togentrification and stuff like that.

(01:53:17):
But that base around there, you got allthe people who are sort of in this burner,
I suppose you'd say, burner mind, likepeople who understand the whole concept.
And so that's helped tremendously.
And then now it's spread across allthe Perth and everyone's started
to get into it because now BlazingSwans, it's going really amazing now.
I think we had about three andhalf thousand people this year.

(01:53:40):
Um, and no real major issues, whichhas absolutely amazing everything,
um, we've been able to handle inhouse and it's all been pretty good.

Stevan (01:53:51):
Yeah.
There's a lot of artists and, um, youknow, creative people in Fremantle.

Oly (01:53:54):
Yeah.

Stevan (01:53:55):
Which, uh, which builds that community, you know, away from the
Blaze, you know, away from the Kulin.

Oly (01:54:00):
Yeah.
And been going as long, long as Blazehas for about 10 or 11, 12 years.
It's fostered the community as wellby putting back all the art grants
and getting people to be able tounderstand that they're artists.
Everyone could be an artistjust given a chance to be able
to create something out there.

Stevan (01:54:17):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
A a lot of people do.
It's the checklist is to, yeah.
Have any travel tips?

Oly (01:54:24):
Well, it's, it's good to have touch base with some local burners here to
be able to help you navigate if you'recoming from interstate or overseas or
something like that, because it is alittle bit difficult to get outta here.
But everyone's willing to help out andchip in and might be easy to get on with
a theme camp and have a chat with themecamps and suss out what's going on with

(01:54:47):
them and help out through that way.
Um, if not general campingand pretty much your neighbors
will look, help look after you.
And it's a big community.
Everyone seems to understand thecommunity side of things, which is
really good and helping each other out.
So it's been tremendous in that respect.

Stevan (01:55:04):
Yeah, and for the people that wants to create something,
build something, there's alsosupport in in Perth there as well.

Oly (01:55:12):
Yeah, so we give out grants and um, well we used to have the Swans Nest, which
is now no longer, which is a space we usedto be able to help artists build stuff at.
Um, there's looking at doingsomething again similar.
Um, we've done a lot of stuff wherewe've been able to, well I haven't
been involved with it, but they'vebeen creating space on site laid down

(01:55:34):
in yard where we can keep artworks andstuff up here and reuse and repurpose
and all that sort of stuff as well.
But yeah, being able to give money tohelp people create the art that they
need through the Blazing Swan Artsprogram has been absolutely wonderful.
And there's been some amazing art outhere this year, which is really good.
Lot, lots of light effects and ondifferent aspects of what art is.

(01:56:00):
Shart Gallery, which is,is it shit or is it art?
So it's up to the person tomake their own decision, whether
it's art or shit or shit.
Yeah.

Stevan (01:56:10):
And what about the art over the years?
What, what impressed you?

Oly (01:56:14):
Um, just the different sort of concepts.
Like I remember one year someone got allthe 5 cent pieces and created the echidna.
So made a sculpture outta theechidna and then glued all 5 cent
pieces, which has got the echidnaof the 5 cent piece on it, on it.
And it was this huge, I dunno how muchI, how much money was actually put on it

(01:56:36):
and gluing all these 5 cent pieces ontothis art piece, which is about just over
a meter high, I think, and probably about800 mil wide and, um, stuff like that
to these, these geodesic shapes with allthese lights on it, with infinite mirrors
and oh, there's, yeah, I think, I'mtrying to think of another, all the art

(01:57:00):
that I've seen, um, what was the space?
Crabs, incubation space, um, laserprojection things and trees with
speakers and all sorts of stuff.
And yeah, obviously would like to haveseen more art, but I've been working
too much, so there is more art here.

Stevan (01:57:23):
Uh, there, there'll probably be some people asking about the what
happened to the millennial falcon?
What happened to the Star Wars guys?

Oly (01:57:29):
Uh, I think you can Google it and it'll give you directions how to
get there because they've, um, I saw

Stevan (01:57:35):
they parked it somewhere.

Oly (01:57:36):
Yeah, so they're, they've moved to just north of Perth.
Um, the guys, they've been doing it,they've been the nineties doof crew, so
they're all getting on an age now and ittakes a toll coming out here and building.
Well, the first year, I think theybuilt the desk, uh, no, the, um,
start Destroyer, which was probablyfits about 20 or 30 people in.

(01:57:58):
Then they stepped it up and Obiand all these crew then built
the Millennium Falcon, which was,I think that could hold about a
hundred and something people in it.
And I remember sitting inside at onetime, full screens in the background.
They had the, well, what's the bar fromthe, um, star Wars movies in there.

Stevan (01:58:17):
Okay.
The Cantina bar.

Oly (01:58:18):
Yeah.
Had the Cantina bar in there.
Um, and I'm sitting in the middle of asheep paddock just going, you wouldn't
believe this is a sheep paddock.
It's a full Millennium Falcon nightclub.
So from the outside they've all paintedup and, or basically made out of, um, was
it a patio or shed structure And then.

(01:58:45):
Canvased in from the old CB,which is quite bit of bulk
handling wheat silo things thatthey have here, leftover canvas.
And so they did all that and then I thinkit was about three or four years ago,
got a bit too much and then they movedthe Millennium Falcon to a property about
an hour a bit outta Perth, which hasnow been concreted into the ground and

(01:59:08):
now used it as a venue for fundraisersfor a lot of the Council Blazing Swan,
especially koasis and a few other ones.

Stevan (01:59:16):
Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Oly (01:59:19):
Yeah, absolutely.
So they're still still open to the Blazercommunity and to be used, but also it's
on private property, so if you do findit on Google Maps, you can't see it from
the road because it's down a hill behindit, so you can't try looking for it.
But it's on Google Maps as well.

Stevan (01:59:38):
Yeah.
Well, speaking about permanentart, um, what about the, the year
when they built the egg as welland they relocated back into the C

Oly (01:59:47):
Ah, yes.
Matt, the Shire, Matt Brave.
So that's the, what's that, the thirdyear I think it was where we built
that ginormous one with telephonepoles holding up its wings and like a.
Swan with its wings together in frontof it, the body behind and in the
middle it was sort of covering anegg, a wooden egg, which when burnt,

(02:00:09):
then revealed the metal egg below it.
And that was then gifted into thecool and Shire at the end of that
blaze and is now sitting in the shireof, well, the town of Kulin, I think
in the rotary park down there, whichcan be seen by anyone driving past.
So that was donated through to themand that was, was probably about

(02:00:32):
nearly two meters high, I believe.
And yeah, fractured sort of egg.
It was really cool.

Stevan (02:00:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It was a good gift.

Oly (02:00:44):
Absolutely.

Stevan (02:00:45):
Yeah.
It's, it's a, it's a unique relationship.
I mean, you know, most, most burnsand, and events would, should, would
have to have this kind of relationship,um, with their, with the landowners.
Um,

Oly (02:00:57):
yeah.

Stevan (02:01:00):
Talk to us about, you know, building that relationship with Kulin.

Oly (02:01:04):
Well, 'cause we were really lucky because when we first jumped in and
we got the property, there was, um, Ithink, I'm trying remember the surname,
but Jen was involved with the shireof, she was, I can't remember her role
engagement officer or something todo with helping create the community
officer, build a community, and um,which is really progressive town already.

(02:01:30):
Ev chargers in here andall that sort of stuff.
And they've got the Kulin Bush races,which is the site we actually run,
uh, blazing Swan on, and that havebeen running for about 20 something
years, I think before we got here.
I think they're into the 27th year.
And they're pretty big as well.
So they do all the bush races here,but obviously when we first get in with
the dirty hippies, dirty, freo hippiescoming in, doing all the crazy stuff.

(02:01:55):
But because of the management team wehad in place and management plans and
all the professionalism we had behindit, all the, the people were dealing with
in the shire were understanding that weweren't just coming out to have a big
bloody party in the bush, which we were.
But um, we were also planningbehind it as well and making sure

(02:02:17):
everything was done properly and tothe law and all that sort of jazz
and just continuing on communicationbetween each other and slowly
growing and working with each other.
It was a few rocky years, but likeI just caught, I haven't been here
for a couple years and then I caughtup with all the locals and they're
just loving, loving it all up here.

(02:02:37):
'cause the man of, um, well coming peoplecoming into town, going and buy stuff,
the fuel, buying all the stuff from thegeneral shops and then on the way back the
cafes and stuff get absolutely hammered.
Because it's basically just a local puband a couple of shops and, and the towns

(02:03:02):
are, are dying because all the youngpeople go into the city to live their
life and leave, move away from the farms.
But coming out here, it's sort oflike revitalizing the sort of area, I
suppose, to a small degree with thisand the Bush races going through.
So it's been been quite good.
And you have key communitystakeholders with all the police

(02:03:24):
and the Shire and little St.John's Ambulance and all the people
involved there, the firies and that.
It's been really great.

Stevan (02:03:32):
Yeah.
It's, it's hard to seeBlazing Swan anywhere else.
Yeah.

Oly (02:03:35):
Yeah.
Absolutely.
This is it's home.
Mm,

Stevan (02:03:38):
mm-hmm.
Mm. Should we talk about the, where doyou see the, the future of Blazing Swan?
I mean, we've got a lot of, uh,younger, well, new faces you're saying.

Oly (02:03:49):
Yeah, absolutely.

Stevan (02:03:50):
Um, as, as well as the old faces are also, you know, always sort of coming
back to blazing swan year after year.
Yeah.
It's good to see.
But um,

Oly (02:03:58):
yeah, it was quite good this year because there was quite a few of the older
crew come back who hadn't been out herefor a few years, and there's been a few
that have been out for quite a numberof years and just catching up with 'em
on site and just seeing how the, how ourlittle baby's gone and where it's going.
And it's absolutely amazing tosee that it's, it's still got
the community there and it's, Iit's been transferred well and.

(02:04:24):
And all the infrastructure behind.
It's easy to grow because Iremember the struggling the first
few years trying to figure outhow to bloody pay for everything.
Now I think it's slightly morecomfortable where they've ever got a
little bit of cushion in the bank tobe able to afford to do things, whereas
we had to wait to ticket sales beforewe could actually do anything to it.
Spend money because we were basically,yeah, spend it all on making it

(02:04:45):
grand and as big as we could toinspire people to create art and
theme camps and stuff like that.
And yeah, it's been, yeah, I thinkit's only way is up for me, I suppose.
Good old classic quote.
Yeah.

Stevan (02:04:58):
Yeah.
With, with the, with thesocial media as well.
I think the more peopleparticipating in the discussions

Oly (02:05:04):
Mm.

Stevan (02:05:04):
And keeping it alive, I think that's a, you know,
we have to keep it alive.

Oly (02:05:07):
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
And yeah, the community's here forit and it's, yeah, it's great to see
it growing and as I think, I don'tthink it'll grow too much more.
We're sort of getting close tocapacity here, um, regards to site
size, unless we rejig a few things.
We have got other places onthe property we can access.
Um, and as good as driving down today.

(02:05:28):
And I saw the owner of the land comethrough, had a nice chat with her and
she's really supportive of all, comesdown and watches it all and has a good
time and gets to go home and go to bed ina nice, after a nice warm would've been.

Stevan (02:05:49):
That was, that was luxury the first few years.

Oly (02:05:51):
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Showers and everything for everyone.

Stevan (02:05:58):
Yeah.
So for sure.
Yeah.
I mean it's, we, we, we do, we doneed the, the, I guess the virgins,
you know, the new people in andfresh ideas, you know, ways of
looking at things and running things.
So,

Oly (02:06:10):
yeah, absolutely.
And just getting different people'sideas on what, what they wanna
create the event into and, um,how it'll look in the future.
Because if you just stay the same, thenit's just gonna, it won't last as long.

Stevan (02:06:23):
Yeah.
So had quite a good number of volunteersthis year, which means, you know, you,
you can, you have that luxury too.

Oly (02:06:30):
Yeah.
That, that blew my mind when I remember,I only got here on the, the Monday
afternoon I think it was, and set upcamp, and I think the guys had been on
site for about three weeks before that.
And I went down to one of the meetingswe had at the kitchen up here, and
it looked like there was about 200volunteers here to set bloody thing up.
And I was like, holy cow, howdo we feed all these people?

(02:06:50):
This is unbelievable.
But yeah, so the engagement ofvolunteerism is quite, quite huge.
And it's, yeah, it's, it's amazing Peoplejust volunteering their time, their own
time to be able to build things for thecommunity and it's, yeah, it's absolutely
mind blowing, that sort of stuff.
I love it.
Absolutely love it.

Stevan (02:07:09):
Yeah.
Blazing SWan is different as.
Also added a new volunteerrole, which is the Exodus crew.

Oly (02:07:22):
Yes.
I can't talk to you about that.
I have no idea about it.
I'm about to find out about it soonbecause we're about start Exodus.

Stevan (02:07:30):
No, but that's, that's a good initiative.
I think.
Uh, it's different to, to the other,I guess, gatherings or festivals.
You gotta look after your, your people.

Oly (02:07:38):
Yeah.
That's why we, that's why we shutmusic down at midnight tonight because
most people will drive home tonight.
We wanna make sure they got a good bitof sleep and rest before they drive.
What is it?
The four hours back to, um, the city.
Three and a half, four hours.
And most 'em do it in the afternoon,which is a worry because then you
got the sunlight in your eyes.
So we're just trying to minimize on peopleor minimize risk driving back to Perth

(02:08:02):
because we have been out here for seven,if not more days if you're a volunteer.
And yeah, it can be tiring and emotional.

Stevan (02:08:11):
Alright, cool.
Uh, any shoutouts.
Who's who's, who else is in thecrew that you wanna mention?

Oly (02:08:18):
Um, so the main crew I've been working with, um,
so all the event ops teams.
Uh, good old Lewi who started doingthe stuff back in the day, well before
blazing Swan up in the sand Dunes ofLancelin back in 2008, or might been

(02:08:40):
might, his owns little burns up there.
Stressed as hell.
So shout and, um, making it andjust, yeah, all the rangers and
um, what the crew, all the DPWcrews sometimes cause more havoc

(02:09:01):
than, than they fix, but that's DPW
and um, yeah, and just all the other crew.
It's just everyone that's been involved.
Even just the theme camps themselves.
Amount of work, theme camps.

Stevan (02:09:16):
Yeah, theme camps,

Oly (02:09:17):
amount of work, theme camps put in.
Everyone just thinks, oh, they'll justdo a theme camp outta here for a week.
It takes forever and a day to be ableto get all that stuff together back
in the city, plan it, spend the moneyon it, logistics to get all that in
site, then to build it and then topull it down after you've had a long,
or probably building, partying, and.

(02:09:39):
And then never wantingto do it ever again.
Then three months later, theyforget how bad it was and remember
the good stuff and do it again.
So yeah, theme camps are, that's thelifeblood of Blazing Swan, really.

Stevan (02:09:50):
Mm. Theme camps and the art.
Yeah.

Oly (02:09:53):
Yeah.
Absolutely.

Stevan (02:09:54):
Well, I, I just wanna, I just wanna say a shout out to you
too, uh, oly, uh, for contributingto, you know, formation blazing Swan
building the community, um, and alsokeeping, you know, uh, you, you,
you're still, you're still part of it.
Yeah.
You're still here.

Oly (02:10:09):
Yep.
I'm still stupidly doing crazyhours and event management and yeah.
All volunteer having fun.

Stevan (02:10:19):
Well, what's the, what's the main reason why, why you do it?
I mean, uh,

Oly (02:10:22):
it's about, to me it's for community and creating a space for people
that'll enjoy and express themselves.
And just going out and justhaving all the people together.
It's just a good time.
It's a really good time.
So just enabling people to be, be who theywanna be out in the space where they wanna
have fun, creating art and camps and allsorts of stuff, and cars and whatever.

Stevan (02:10:45):
Yeah.
So, Blazing Swan is not a doof,
it's not a festival.

Oly (02:10:48):
Uh, no.
Depends on who goes.
It depends on who goes really whatthey, what they attend it for.
It can be just a doof if you wanna makeit a doof, but if you look deeper behind
the scenes, it's a, it's a community.
It's people putting stuff on for make.
Or just chill out camps or whateverit is, or libraries like I'm sitting

(02:11:12):
in, it's, yeah, it's all different.
So it can be a doof, or it can bea very whole different experience.
Indeed.

Stevan (02:11:20):
Yeah.
That's right.
It's home.
Yeah.

Oly (02:11:24):
Yeah.
People live for it.
Some, some of people just live to blaze,it's quite, quite an amazing thing.
Yeah.

Stevan (02:11:29):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cool.
Thanks very much for, for having a chat.
Appreciate

Oly (02:11:34):
No worries, mate.
So easy.
Great to chat with youhas been way too long.

Stevan (02:11:40):
Yeah, it has.
Yeah.
So what I'm trying to do isjust to start up, uh, just to
chat to people having on record

Oly (02:11:47):
Yep.

Stevan (02:11:47):
And, and preserve it and, you know, to keep this culture
or this, this community alive.

Oly (02:11:51):
No, awesome.
That sounds awesome.

Stevan (02:11:54):
Yeah.
So we just started.

Oly (02:11:55):
Yep.

Stevan (02:11:55):
And, uh, we're gonna move around, talk to Japan Burn
and Dragon Burn burning seed.
We'll take, we'll take this to Burningseed and talk to some of the, the
people working in the Sausage factory.
Yeah.
Um, we'll have a chat with them and,uh, yeah, it's, it's, it's more about,
I guess the collective part of it'sthe learning, the sharing, networking.

Oly (02:12:15):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And just, yeah.
Helping each other get betterand create a wider community.

Stevan (02:12:21):
Yeah.
And this is the formatI, uh, I like anyway.
Yeah.
So, yeah.
But the long form format, I think, um,
yeah, it's, yeah.

Oly (02:12:31):
Gets you engaged.

Stevan (02:12:33):
That's right.
Yeah.

Oly (02:12:37):
Too Easy mate

Stevan (02:12:40):
thanks to my earlier guest Erin and William and Oly, and also the
library for letting us use this space.
See you in the nextepisode with JJ and Wesley.
Keep listening.
If you want.
Hear the outtakes for Nina and Will.
Show

Nina (02:12:56):
two.
Suck my dick.

Stevan (02:12:58):
Yeah, I'm back,

Nina (02:13:00):
Steven.
We're recording in three, two.
Suck My penis.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.

Will (02:13:12):
Which I think means,

Stevan (02:13:13):
was that a sound check?

Nina (02:13:14):
Yes.
Yes.
That was a sound check.

Will (02:13:18):
Checking that Nina's accessories aren't coming through too much.

Nina (02:13:24):
Did you get the vape smell there?

Will (02:13:28):
We haven't invented the, the Smell edition.

Nina (02:13:29):
Mm-hmm.

Stevan (02:13:30):
Internet
is pretty shit

Nina (02:13:35):
Namlay You're meant to start now.
Start the podcast, correct.
Namlay.
Start the podcast.
Steven.
Is he gone?

Stevan (02:13:45):
Can you hear me?
Yes.
Hello.

Will (02:13:46):
We can hear you.

Nina (02:13:47):
We can hear you start the podcast.

Will (02:13:49):
Can you hear Nina?
And can you hear me?

Nina (02:13:53):
Is it this?
Maybe I can hear me though.

Stevan (02:13:56):
Can I call you?
Hold on.

Nina (02:13:57):
Okay.
Can you not?
Can you hear us?
Of course.
The problems at his end are.
I gave you the sticker.
This is not your fucking problem.
Do you wanna just run it without him?
I'm gonna have to go in like,

Stevan (02:14:24):
yes.
Alright, got you.

Nina (02:14:25):
Can you hear us though?

Stevan (02:14:27):
Hello?
Can, are we lagging?

Nina (02:14:29):
Can you hear us?
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?

Stevan (02:14:33):
Is is the internet on?
Oh, the internet on?

Nina (02:14:37):
How would you be talking to us if the internet, if

Double Shot (02:14:39):
the internet wasn't fucking on, won't be able to hear you.
You coming on signal?
For fucks sake.

Stevan (02:14:43):
It's pretty bad.
Bad connection.

Nina (02:14:47):
We're in a fucking paddock.
Of course.
It's a bad fucking connection.
Oh, also, also, it's not us, it's you.

Stevan (02:15:00):
Yeah, I think it's me.

Nina (02:15:01):
Okay, so we're actually recording.
So do you wanna start the podcast?

Stevan (02:15:04):
Okay, so go let's
mm-hmm.
Yes.
Tell us, tell us.
You set up, is it actually working?
Have you guys recorded some?

Nina (02:15:17):
Oh my god.
Will you shoot me?

Stevan (02:15:19):
Oh, the audio.
Hold on.

Nina (02:15:24):
We're recording.
We're.
Okay.
Okay, cool.

Stevan (02:15:32):
Yes.

Nina (02:15:33):
Cool.
So go
start the podcast.

Stevan (02:15:39):
Hello.
And the blaze community.
So who do we have with us today?
There's, there's a panel of peopleand as well as some audience.

(02:16:00):
Audience.

Nina (02:16:01):
That's right, Stevan.
Uh, so today we have me, I'm Honey Badgerand I'm here representing the cat, hers.

Stevan (02:16:07):
Who do we have?

Nina (02:16:08):
Swan and we also have on the couch with us Will.

Will (02:16:13):
Yep, that's me.
That's me.

Nina (02:16:16):
And Will, who are you?

Will (02:16:18):
Well, I'm Will,

Nina (02:16:20):
will you are

Will (02:16:21):
I run, uh, the internet outta theme camp.
I'm most well known for having a mom

Nina (02:16:30):
and, and Will's mom is in the audience here.
She may be on the podcast later.
Hi Erin.

Will (02:16:34):
She's, she's the, the runner of the camp and a Kulin local, um,

Nina (02:16:40):
'cause Kulin is where Blazing Swan is held.

Will (02:16:42):
It's, so we pull that back out as much as possible because as
soon as you say, yeah, no, no, no,I was, I was actually born here.
You instantly gain a lot of rap.

Nina (02:16:52):
So many friends,

Will (02:16:53):
you get a lot of hugs really quickly.

Nina (02:16:55):
So Will, what does your camp do?

Will (02:16:57):
Uh, we just play loud music.

Nina (02:17:00):
No, come on.
That's true.
But like

Will (02:17:03):
we play the loud music that, uh, no one else,

Nina (02:17:05):
but some of your blurbs and your like music events
are really hilariously named.

Will (02:17:10):
That's true.
We do try to, you try to theme itup quite a lot because otherwise

Nina (02:17:14):
what's the control?
Dance control.

Will (02:17:16):
Yeah.
Control alt dance.
Um, what, what do we have?

Nina (02:17:20):
I don't fucking remember.

Will (02:17:21):
Megabyte mixed down.
DB mix 2.3.
Like

Nina (02:17:29):
they're like, they're like, in my head you're like the 90, late nineties
nerds who grew up on the internet.
Yeah.
And then discovered friends.

Will (02:17:35):
Well they that's exactly what it's, yeah.

Nina (02:17:37):
Sick.
We also have Will's wifehere, so he, he made a friend.

Will (02:17:42):
She's, she's here.

Nina (02:17:43):
She's laughing at us laughing.
Yeah.
And I don't know what I do.
I I first started the camp shit.
Gift at

Will (02:17:50):
Did you start?
Shit.
Gift, but

Nina (02:17:51):
fuck Yeah, I started shit gift.
So I'm the cause of shit gift.
It's a shit camp.
We ran it for like $300 andit was shit and so much fun.
We did coon and Goon at noon bitchesand then it kind of devolved into
like goon showers, which are actuallyhappening down the hill right now.

Will (02:18:08):
Yeah, I can see that.

Nina (02:18:08):
Um, we're like the, the bogan trash of the paddock,
but I, I rage quit that 'cause.
I didn't wanna have to kill my friends.

Will (02:18:16):
I love, uh, I love walking past and you just see like,

Nina (02:18:19):
fuckery,

Will (02:18:20):
two people sitting in a gazebo looking grumpy with
a bathtub out the front.

Nina (02:18:24):
Oh.
So they've put the leftoverice in the bathtub today.
They're doing ice baths.
And ice shots.

Will (02:18:29):
Ice shots.

Nina (02:18:29):
So if you, well 'cause the booze goes in the ice and then if you put
yourself in the ice, that's the ice bath.
And then if you do that,you get an nice shot.

Will (02:18:37):
There you go.

Nina (02:18:37):
People actually quite like it.
Yeah.
We try to do it on like the Mondaywhen some people are leaving.

Will (02:18:42):
Yeah.

Nina (02:18:43):
And we try to ask, are you driving?
You get cordial.
Are you not driving?
You get vodka?
Yeah, it's good.

Will (02:18:50):
Yeah.
Camp shit gift is one of my favorite camp.
Yes.

Nina (02:18:53):
Have you ever made to a spew?
Drew at you?

Will (02:18:55):
Spew drew at you?
I think you'd like itactually, no, I haven't.
I haven't.
It's so much fun.
I did wanna come this year because itwas described as um, uh, for people that,
uh, like books but don't wanna read.
Well if you like being read at you like

Nina (02:19:08):
so many, many moons ago, drew Barrymore wrote an autobiography,
I assume with a ghostwriter andit's called Little Girl Lost the
Autobiography of a Young Drew Barrymore.
And I shit you not, this thing'sgoing for like a hundred dollars
on uh, like eight books or whateverbecause like there are no more copies.
So one year, many moons ago, wehave a shit gift tub at shit gift.
So you can like leave agift, take a gift, no Moop.

(02:19:31):
It all has to be shit.
So somebody put this book in there and wewere all, I don't know, fucked, hung over.
And so we started reading it.
It's amazing.
That woman, she's had a life.
It's been difficult.
We're lucky she's still here.
She was like jacking her mom's credit cardat 12 years old and like flying to LA with
a friend to do blow with like movie stars.

Will (02:19:50):
I mean, who wasn't

Nina (02:19:52):
anyone else?
She'd been to rehab bythe time she was 11.
Like Drew's had a rough one.
It's amazing.
She's where she's today.
Really?
Yeah.
Um, so every day at a time weread like a random selection of
five pages of her autobiography.
They've been doing it for like five years.
They haven't finished the book.

Will (02:20:11):
I mean, it sounds like there's a lot to get through.

Nina (02:20:13):
It is.
There's so, so many activities like Yeah.
So much life lived.

Will (02:20:20):
Yeah.
I I love the the rawsimplicity of shit gift.

Nina (02:20:23):
Yeah.

Will (02:20:24):
We, we bring exactly what we need.
And

Nina (02:20:27):
I love when people come to the tub and try to take a gift
and they're like, this is broken.
And I'm like, can you, like,it's in the name shit gift.
We did have to draw theline one year though.

Will (02:20:37):
Yeah.

Nina (02:20:37):
We were gonna put in, we were gonna poke holes in a condom with
a needle and put it in the tub.

Will (02:20:41):
That is a bit far.

Nina (02:20:42):
It's an unwanted pregnancy is a shitty, shitty gift.

Will (02:20:45):
That's a very bad gift.

Nina (02:20:46):
And then we were like, is that also like legally liable?
Oh, we can't do that.
That's true.
So that was the line

Will (02:20:54):
as soon as the law came in, ethically you didn't really mind.

Nina (02:20:57):
I actually, that actually traumatized me.
Do you want hear about the incident?
The.
Have idea or like, I don't havea penis, so it doesn't traumatize
me as much as penis owners, butI assume you do have a penis.
So like, do you wanna not hear this?

Will (02:21:15):
Alright, let's, I mean, let's go.
This is not, this is not whatI thought I was signing up for.
When I, when I,

Nina (02:21:20):
well, I, to be clear, podcast listeners, we were given no prompts
and the podcast host is awol.
So this is now the Nina andWill show, um, which means that,
tell me if I'm talking too much.
So it was many years ago.
It was like 2019 I think.
And like the event had ended andwe just got, it was really hot.
So like we packed down for a couplehours and then communally without

(02:21:42):
speaking we're all just like, fuck it.
And like, boarded up the door andhuddled in the murky 'cause we were
just fucking hot and started likeconsuming everything we had left.
Let's say, um, blah, blah,shit happened, blah, blah.
My friend is naked 'causeit was hot, and who cares?
And then like, we're standing outside thetable and he's got a hammer in his hand.

(02:22:04):
No one knows why.
And he's flopped his dick up on thetable and he's just like, tapping it,
just tapping with a fucking hammer.
And we finally figure out whathe's doing and his boyfriend
is like, whoa, I like that.
Don't hurt it.
And the rest of us are like, we like you.
We don't wanna, whoa, whoa.
And he's just like completelyglazed over just like you.

Will (02:22:31):
When you have a penis, you do just sort of do stuff with it.
I gotta say,

Nina (02:22:34):
that's the impression I get.

Will (02:22:35):
I gotta say and like, I dunno.

Nina (02:22:36):
So do you do that stuff with a hammer?

Will (02:22:37):
Sometimes?
You see a hammer and you go, I wonder

Nina (02:22:40):
you married this, don't you?
Look at me, you birthed this
father's, will we, we allblame your father will.
So, so we're like, and he's like, he looksdown and like catches what he's doing and
is like, oh, and puts the hammer down.
And we're like, okay.
This kid had been like hanging outat our camp, this like 22-year-old

(02:23:01):
Swede, and he picks up the hammerand we're like, okay, whatever.
And he's standing across the table.
He picks up the hammer, herears back with his arm.
He brings that hammer down so hard.
We all screamed and fell on the floorabout an inch away from my friend's dick.

Will (02:23:16):
Oh my God.

Nina (02:23:18):
And at that point we were like, tonight is finished.
You're not hanging out with us anymore.
There was, there was like silence.
Just we were, it was terrifying.
And then we decided we needed to not bewith each other and we needed to go make
new normal friends and we all split.

Will (02:23:33):
That's it.
That does seem that'sthe, the exiting incident.

Nina (02:23:37):
It was a, it was a thing.
A thing that happened.

Will (02:23:41):
There you go.
That is, um, that is kindof just a blaze story.

Nina (02:23:46):
Well, what's the blaziest thing that's ever happened at the internet?

Will (02:23:49):
At the internet?

Nina (02:23:52):
Gremlin invasion.

Will (02:23:54):
Gremlin invasion.

Nina (02:23:54):
Were they humans?

Will (02:23:55):
So we, we ran our, our church night.
Um,

Nina (02:23:58):
oh, you mean like two days ago?

Will (02:24:00):
Last night.
Last night.
Okay.
Last night, uh, we ran our churchnight Sunday, um, after the,
the Church of Belligerence weresort of a infamous theme camp.

Nina (02:24:11):
They were initiated because someone had had too
much of the woo and the hippies.

Will (02:24:17):
Yeah, exactly.

Nina (02:24:18):
And someone pitched a fucking fit one night and just apparently went
on a massive ass rant, like, you know,him and everybody there was like,
oh my God, you're so belligerent.
Like if you ran a church, if you werein a church, it would just be the
church of belligerent, belligerent.
And he was like, yeah.
And he made it.

Will (02:24:36):
Yeah.
So sort of an anti theme camp.
They're against everythingthat you're for.
Um, and so

Nina (02:24:42):
if you try to get a drink, they won't serve you unless you scream
Fuck you at them.

Will (02:24:47):
Yeah.
And then you'll get like somelemonade and a cigarette butt.
That's a true story.

Nina (02:24:52):
Oh, I was like, that's not far off as church.

Will (02:24:57):
Um, and so we run out night where we're playing like heavy
metal and intense dark music.

Nina (02:25:04):
Dude, you had shock.
They like shockinglygood music last night.
'cause normally the churchmusic is just fucking terrible.

Will (02:25:10):
Pretty rough.
So bad.
But, um, so we're running ourchurch night and um, we've.
Official church member on the deck.
Um, which was fun, we thought.
Yeah.
You know, get them involved.
Not, not just makingfun of them or anything.
It's wanna be friends here.

Nina (02:25:30):
It's a love hate relationship.

Will (02:25:31):
But of course we didn't really consider that, uh, they would
get in there and be belligerent.
And so,

Nina (02:25:37):
sorry, sorry, sorry.
How did that not occur to you?

Will (02:25:40):
Very quickly.
They started, um, ducking into the back.
They started tipping our paintings around.
That's amazing.
Throwing our Paul flamingoup into the ceiling.

Nina (02:25:53):
I've seen your mar I hope you put it up one year.
Whatever they did probably helped.

Will (02:25:59):
Um, and we, we can't get them out here.

Nina (02:26:02):
Oh, but no, you shouldn't touch the artwork.
I just meant the marquee itself.
It's this like massive white pieceof shit they bought for a dollar.

Will (02:26:09):
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Sorry.
Whoa.
This is our brand new shiny marque.

Nina (02:26:13):
Oh shit.
You bought a new marquee.

Will (02:26:15):
This is our brand new,

Nina (02:26:16):
I take it all back.
Nevermind.
You're a real boy.

Will (02:26:18):
We, yeah.
Yeah.
Mom's got the bad one.

Nina (02:26:19):
You gave the shit one to your mom.

Will (02:26:21):
Well, I mean, they were hers to start with.

Nina (02:26:23):
Oh, I was gonna say bad son, but nevermind.
You just like re return gifted.

Will (02:26:28):
Yeah.
Um, 'cause the, the first year,so mom's becoming every single
year, every single blaze,

Nina (02:26:34):
your stuff gets bigger and bigger.

Will (02:26:36):
Even the weird one.
Um,
the cOVID one.

Nina (02:26:40):
Yeah.

Will (02:26:40):
And which my, my wife went to instead of my birthday.
So just a little fun fact.

Nina (02:26:46):
Wow.
And you married her.
This is true fucking love with himself.
She skips your birthday love.

Will (02:26:56):
And so mom's been every single year.
Um, and she runs the CampTin Horse experience.

Nina (02:27:02):
It's adorable.

Will (02:27:02):
It's

Nina (02:27:03):
because, so the road out to site from the town of
Kulin is the Tin Horse Highway.
Mm-hmm.
And clearly you two would know moreabout this than me, but like, basically
every farmer or house out there takestrash and turns it into a tin horse.
So like oil drums, it'sabsolutely adorable.
And my favorite is the used cop car.

Will (02:27:23):
Yes.

Nina (02:27:24):
'cause it gets me every time, every time It's like a joke.
Tin horse art sculpture.
It's like we country art

Will (02:27:29):
about, we thought about putting out a, a Facebook post saying, Hey guys,
just, you know, let you know there'sa, there's a cop on the, the punchers.
It's so funny.

Nina (02:27:38):
So Erin does crafting, so you can come and use like a tin of beans or
whatever the chi is obviously cleaned.
Um, and you can craftyour own little tin horse.

Will (02:27:45):
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.

Nina (02:27:46):
Do you still do the Tin Horse races?
Wow.

Will (02:27:50):
Yeah, that was fun.
We've, we've got the tin horsesthat you can take for walks.
We didn't do any races this year.
They do disappear.
They do, yeah.
But they usually comeback, um, most of the time.
Um, but yeah, I talking

Nina (02:28:02):
about, so yeah, your mom does that.

Will (02:28:04):
So, so she runs the camp, and so we've got these two big white
Marques, um, and we had this bigsound system and we thought, Hey,
what if we play music out at Swan?
What if we just did that?
And so,

Nina (02:28:20):
but you live in Perth now?

Will (02:28:21):
We do.
So we live in Perth.

Nina (02:28:22):
So you guys have to like come back here to

Will (02:28:24):
Yeah, so we, so we lu all of our stuff down, um, and we said for the
first year we'll just be the same camp.

Nina (02:28:30):
Mm.

Will (02:28:30):
We'll just have the two Marques.
And at night we're sound Oh yeah.
Remember.
And during the day and theday, we're craft, we're craft.
And so we're down in thesound alley and it's.
The least prepared we've everbeen for a week of pure torture
of sleeping in the sound alley.

Nina (02:28:47):
You slept there?

Will (02:28:48):
We did.
We did sleep there.
I mean, you're at least young,didn't do a lot of sleep.
I never slept down there, so Ithink, I think mom slept pretty
well actually slept blaze.

Nina (02:28:57):
For people who haven't been, the site planners done where there's
like, they try to zone it for sound.
So there's sound Camp Alley where likethe loud fuckers who, what the fuck were
they playing till 6:00 AM last night?
I liked it.
It was was good.
It was abode and it was good.
So they stay down there and mostof them, this is how they survive.
They don't actually camp there.
They put their tents up here.
Mm-hmm.

(02:29:17):
So you must have not known that.

Will (02:29:19):
Yeah, we didn't really think it through.
Yeah.
We thought we'll just,we'll all be together.
Yeah.
And so we'll sleep there and thenwe'll wake up and we'll live there.
And then we spend the whole day therefor a week and we'll lose our mind.
And then we play ourown music even louder.
And then you sleep to publictransport playing hardcore trance
at like 4:00 AM in the morning.

Nina (02:29:39):
Have you been in symbiosis?

Will (02:29:41):
We have.
We have been in symbiosis.

Nina (02:29:42):
I like this camp and I wish they play different music.

Will (02:29:45):
We feel that all out.
A lot of things.
Yeah.
Okay.
That's why we started our own camp.

Nina (02:29:48):
I'm not into the psy trance, but like the kids who run it are super
cool and their camp set up super cool.
And oh, here's a good one.
Did you go into 6 1 0 5?
It's a new camp this year.
Camp 6 1 0 5.

Will (02:29:59):
We, we did,

Nina (02:30:00):
do you know what the name means?

Will (02:30:01):
No,

Nina (02:30:02):
it's the postcode for fucking Armadale.

Will (02:30:04):
Ah.
I thought it was somewhere.
Armadale.
Makes sense.

Nina (02:30:08):
So for people who aren't from Perth, Armidale is a suburb of Perth that is

Will (02:30:12):
sort of the armpit of Perth
.Nina: Yes.
I was gonna say the themeth capital of Perth.
That's Rockingham

Nina (02:30:19):
true.
Oh, I have friends in Armerdale.
They come to me.
I don't go down there.
So apparently there's a campof like Bogans from Armerdale,
which I like respect.
I'm gonna go in there after this actually.

Will (02:30:30):
They're going,

Nina (02:30:31):
I'm gonna meet them.
Oh, they're gone.

Will (02:30:32):
They gone there outta here.
Fuckers.
Yeah.
There's only two of them.

Nina (02:30:35):
So they did that whole thing with two people?

Will (02:30:37):
Yep.
Yep.
Oh, like crazy.

Nina (02:30:39):
It was small, but not that small.

Will (02:30:40):
No, it's like, it made us put us to shame because we're six people.

Nina (02:30:44):
I didn't say that you said that,

Will (02:30:47):
but we did.
So same kind of vibe over there ofjust like a couple of people who
just wanted to bring something.

Nina (02:30:52):
No, that's super cool.
Oh, like they did.
Well, I would've said itwas more than two people.

Will (02:30:57):
Yeah.
Yeah.

Nina (02:30:58):
Um, so I actually have to go run an event in about 20 minutes.

Will (02:31:02):
You're running the event?

Nina (02:31:03):
Yeah.
Would you like to hear about,do answer any questions?
Would you like to hear aboutmy, have you been to my event?

Will (02:31:07):
It's the, well, you could you explain it to me?

Nina (02:31:09):
So I run an event called Ask a drunk Scientist.
Um, and yes, I, my friend Liz and Istarted it, but she's dumb and she moved
back to Yankee land, so now it's mine.
Um, and so we acquirea panel of scientists.
I am on the panel becauseI'm an overeducated human.
Um, and basically just anybody with abackground in science or we have one
mathematician because we love her.

(02:31:30):
Whatever.
We love her.
She's great.
She's a nude vomiter,

Will (02:31:32):
right?
What about Paul?
Uh, he's just a, he's,he's also a mathematician.

Nina (02:31:36):
I fucking know.

Will (02:31:37):
He doesn't count at all.

Nina (02:31:38):
And we also have Paul, we love him ish.
I guess we, we have a Paul,but we've got like a botanist.
We've got eologist this year.
Um, we're pretty heavy ongeos and microbiologists.
We've got a psych, aclinical psychologist.
We have a vet. It'skinda all over the place.
And then basically we just getshit-faced and the people ask us
science, and half the time we answerwith like really proper answers.

(02:32:02):
And it's really informative.
And half the time we justscream science words at punters.
I can't describe it.

Will (02:32:09):
There was a lot of shitting on science.

Nina (02:32:11):
One of our audience members has just arrived to this podcast
and she's here because she literallyattends this event every year.
It's fabulous.
But yeah, I have to go do that.
Um, so the point was maybe weshould wrap up my portion of
the podcast with something.
I don't know.
What do you want One more topic.
What do you wanna talk about?

Will (02:32:26):
I, I sort of thought you were inviting me to freestyle rap for a second.

Nina (02:32:30):
Okay, let's do that.

Will (02:32:31):
Which I don't think I could do.

Nina (02:32:32):
I've never done that.
Let's see how that goes.
I'm here at the place.
I got flies up my nose, my thongs hurt.
Uh,

Will (02:32:40):
that's about how I expected it to go.
Yeah,

Nina (02:32:43):
my thongs hurt.
The squishy in my toes,let's never do that again.

Will (02:32:49):
It was your idea.

Nina (02:32:49):
Hey, did you go to shock collor Jenga?

Will (02:32:51):
Sh no, we didn't go to any of the shock color things,

Nina (02:32:54):
so I tried to go to Shock collar karaoke, but they were being respectful
because it was during Welcome to Country,so they didn't wanna be too loud, so
they turned it into shock color Jenga.
Mm-hmm.
And it fucking blew my mind.
Yeah, I got the shock button.
Paul Castle.
I've named names Paul, themathematician, put the shock collar on.
I signed a consent waiver, which I amabsolutely sure was not like legal.

(02:33:15):
And he gave me consent.
And so they, it's big Jenga and they writenumbers on each block, one to a hundred.
And the shock color goes fromone to a hundred intensity.
And so whichever block you're doing forthe Jenga, that's what you get shocked.
And you can only shock the person whilstthey're actually touching the block.

Will (02:33:30):
Whoa.

Nina (02:33:32):
I know there's some grimacing from the audience.
They're wrong.
It was fucking awesome.

Will (02:33:38):
We did really wanna do the shock color,

Nina (02:33:39):
whatever.
Burners in the Australasia regionare listening to this, you need
to import shock color jenga.
Um, also, Paul, if you're outthere, you are a fucking pussy.
And I had such a good time.
There was another person there, Sarah,from the church, and she, it was on
99 and she was like, Matt, whatever.
Paul's like, gimme, gimme, gimme seven.

(02:34:02):
And I hit the beeper and he is like, ah,
no, he's just, he doesn'thave high pain tolerance.
Yeah, he is a pussy.
All right.
I think I've talked enough.
Erin, would you like to comeup here with your, your son?

Erin (02:34:17):
Yeah.

Nina (02:34:18):
Okay.
We're gonna have a handover now and Godknows where the podcast producer is, but
thank you to our audio tech PY, who'sa magician and very grumpy about it.
I'm trapped in cords.

Will (02:34:35):
You, you.
That's, thanks

PY (02:34:49):
Stevan.
Are you fucking there?

Will (02:35:09):
Try

Erin (02:35:11):
visionary
that's down
is a lot further than us.
Sorry.
Technical mic.

Will (02:35:41):
I'm remembering why we stopped using these headphones.

Erin (02:35:44):
Yeah,
we had them on yourholiday to New Zealand.
And we had to try and find overhead ones.
It was sort of when theywere just coming out.
Um, because yeah.
And you guys scratch.

(02:36:09):
It's got a,
it's that feeling like when you put, um,
down, just
down
Uhhuh.

Will (02:36:25):
Yep.
We'll need to, um, toyou mic a back a little.
Oh.
Say something.

(02:36:45):
Are you with us?
Wake up in

Erin (02:36:48):
the room.
Get your fuck outta bed.

Stevan (02:36:52):
Hello?
Can you hear me?

Will (02:36:53):
Hello?
We can hear you.

Stevan (02:36:54):
We can, can you hear me?
Yeah.
You guys.
Oh, cool.
Yeah, I heard you guys earlier onthe messenger, but some feedback.

Erin (02:37:02):
Sorry.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We weren't.

Stevan (02:37:08):
Hello?
Yeah, the, the, the signals.
Hello?
The signal's not too, too great.

Erin (02:37:24):
Can you hear us?

Stevan (02:37:25):
Can you guys hear me?
Or

Erin (02:37:26):
we can hear you.

Stevan (02:37:27):
I can hear you, but it's not too great.
It's, it drops out now and then's.
Alright.

Erin (02:37:32):
We got,

Stevan (02:37:33):
yeah, it just drops out now and then, so I can't really hear you.

Erin (02:37:38):
Hello?

Stevan (02:37:38):
I think the messenger was better, but you couldn't hear me, right?

Will (02:37:43):
No, we, I don't think we anything.

Erin (02:37:45):
No, they've just been adlibbing

Will (02:37:46):
previous time, basically.

Stevan (02:37:48):
That's pretty cool.

Will (02:37:53):
Okay, we gonna get a messenger now.

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On Purpose with Jay Shetty

All Episodes

Episode 05: Blazing Swan & Kulin (Erin, Will, & Oly)

Stuff You Should Know