Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Recently appointed Children's Court Magistrate Peter Dotchin
On a typically grey Melbourne morning back in May, Peter Dotchin stood in the foyer of The Children’s Court of Victoria writing his name next to each client he was representing that day. “The father: Mr Dotchin, the mother: Mr Dotchin,” he scrawled, until a phone call interrupted him.
“Yep,” Dotchin answered.
“It’s the Melbourne Magistrates Court calling Peter,” the secretary said from the other end of the line. “We’re got two of your clients locked up downstairs, can you organise legal representation for them? They’ve been locked up overnight.”
“Yes, that’s fine,” he said with a sigh before hanging up.
“Great, my day has just gone pear shaped,” said Dotchin to himself, as he resumed sorting through the day’s cases. But just as his biro hit the paper his mobile rang for a second time.
“Hi Peter, its Broadmeadows Magistrates Count calling here. Two of your clients are downstairs, can you arrange representation?” said the secretary from Broadmeadows.
“Oh God, that’s four people, this is going to take me forever!” thought Dotchin. “Today’s just shit all of a sudden”.
The phone rings. Again.
“Yes?!” He didn’t bother restraining himself this time. “It’s the Department for Justice,” a clerk said down the line. “Would you like an interview for the position of Magistrate on Monday?”
“Yeah, that’d be okay,” said Dotchin, as a smile broke his face.
After ten years working with the Victoria Legal Aid Commission, and 14 years in private practice as a solicitor advocate, Dotchin decided the six-day weeks and tolls of running Dotchin & Co were adding up. So with the best referees he could muster, he submitted his application at the beginning of the year.
But he didn’t get an interview. “I had the strongest group of referees you could imagine for the position. Couldn’t get stronger,” he said. But after enquiring to no avail, he forgot all about it until a grey morning in May, when the last thing he wanted was another phone call.
After a month of Government-imposed silence, Deputy Premier and Attorney-General Rob Hulls publicly appointed Dotchin to the Magistrate’s Court of Victoria on the 23 June. In the interim, Dotchin offered his practice to his business partner, Caroline Tan, “for an absolute pittance” said Dotchin, so she would have no choice but to accept.
Retelling the story back in his office buried deep within the Children’s Court building, he spoke with the comfort of someone used to their humour being appreciated. Switching with ease between accents, his stories were told by different characters he assumed along the way; from an Asian man with broken English who attempted to withdraw $30,000 cash from the account of ‘Christopher Ryan’, to 14-year-old boys playing up in court and then wondering why the judge had them locked up. It’s easy to see why he’s so well liked by colleagues, clients and friends alike.
When discussing what effect his appointment to the bench would have on his practice, he was adamant that neither of his two staff members would be left without a job come the beginning of his residency in June. It appears to have been a mutual relationship. Dotchin’s 60-year-old secretary, Paula Hammill, paused to give deserved thought to how she could best describe Dotchin, someone she evidently held in high regard. “Working for Peter was more like working for a friend, rather than a boss. He’s the best person I’ve ever worked for.” Still not satisfied with her response, she added, “His clients also loved him.”
Cherhyll Morgan, who worked with Dotchin as a fellow VLA advocate duty lawyer at Broadmeadows Children’s Court and the former Prahran Magistrates Court, echoed Hammill’s carefully chosen words. “Everybody knew him and everybody liked him,” she said. “He always wore a great big smile.”
It’s perhaps his cheeriness and lack of pretence that sets him apart from other Magistrates. “Sometimes when people go to the bench their whole persona seems to change. I think there can be a dullness and a dourness to these changes,” said Dotchin, when reflecting on his approach to the role. “People are appointed because of who they were, so why the need for change?”
So many years of exposure to matters of the Children’s and Family Court’s have hardened his heart. Clients sometimes question why he isn't shocked by their stories of hardship, leaving him to assure them he has to be objective to help them. Each case needs a clinical approach, he tells them, because when emotions become involved, reason takes a backseat. But just sometimes, emotions can’t be held in check.
“I’m pretty enured to all of this sort of stuff. I don’t get terribly emotional,” said Dotchin. Often it’s not the toughness of the decisions he now has to make, but the poignancy and human tragedies that linger until the silence of the courtroom is broken once again.
But from many accounts it appears he has slipped seamlessly into the role. “He has taken to the Children’s Court like a duck to water,” said fellow Magistrate Fiona Stewart. “The way I’ve worked in the past is more suited to the hurly-burley, the cut and the thrust of the Magistrates Court,” said Dotchin, “And I think it will take me out.”
Success for Peter Dotchin appears to be underpinned by a vigorous work ethic and a naturally personable nature. And a few day’s that suddenly go pear-shaped.
Protesters rally on Parliament steps to call for an end to puppy farms
Alexandra Cottee, June 2010
The stench of faeces and urine burnt her nostrils. One metre by one metre concrete cells lined the walls of the shed, each housing faeces-encrusted bedding, an empty water bowl, and a lone dog.
For the 20 dogs caged on this puppy farm near Meredith, Victoria, those concrete walls were their entire world. Their value was not measured in terms of love or companionship, but in how many puppies they could supply to a pet shop near you.
Local tip-offs had prompted Animal Liberation Victoria to conduct a late-night inspection of the Meredith property in June. Armed with blankets and food, Belinda Vusso and the ALV team documented their findings, and wrested from the owners their retired breeding stock and those in need of urgent veterinary attention.
As supervisor of the kennels department at Seeing Eye Dogs Australia, Ms Vusso was shocked by the squalid state of the cells and the poor health of the dogs.
“They all had urine burns, there was faeces everywhere, three females had tumours and all had severe behavioural disorders,” Ms Vusso said.
Debra Tranter, head of the ALV’s puppy farm campaign, alerted the RSPCA and local council Golden Plains Shire and urged them to conduct their own inspection of the property.
The following day, the RSPCA confirmed the poor conditions and vowed to closely inspect the property in the coming months. But Golden Plains Shire responded that all dogs were registered and conditions were fine. It was also noted that no evidence was found to suggest it was a puppy farm.
Like hundreds of cases before them, the owners of this puppy farm are yet to face punishment for their lack of concern for the living conditions of their dogs, and continue to operate.
Ms Tranter recalls the conditions of a puppy farm in Ballart that was housing over 1000 dogs in 44-gallon drums as one of the most severe cases. “They just seem to get worse and worse because they’re unregulated.”
She said weak legislation in Victoria and a lack of enforcement by local councils has allowed breeders to operate without regard for their dogs’ health and well being.
But Debra Tranter and Belina Vusso are not alone in the fight for our furry canine friends. On Sunday, 60 animal welfare organisation’s and hundreds of dog owners and lovers rallied on the steps of Parliament House to call for an end to puppy farms.
Ms Tranter has been campaigning to ban the factory farming of puppies for 15 years, and saw the rally as a way to raise public awareness about where pet shop puppies come from.
“I have been inundated with emails and calls from people saying they had no idea this was happening,” she said.
Earlier this month the Opposition announced it would tighten breeding codes of practice, increase fines for not adhering to guidelines, and give the RSPCA and local council’s greater power to shut down lax operators.
Shadow Treasurer Kim Wells rallied with protesters, and said a Baillieu Government would increase fines from $1000 to $30,000.
The success of the ALV’s campaign hangs on the government’s take-up of Oscar’s Law. It calls for a ban on the sale of puppies from pet shops, abolishing puppy factories, a reformation of the pound system, improving education about pet ownership and subsidising a desexing program.
But Vicki Knowles, a dog breeder in Woodend, said the law puts a blanket rule on ‘puppy farms’ despite many establishments breeding happy, healthy dogs in a comfortable environment. “Its all very well for people to call for an end to puppy farms, but a line must be drawn between a good puppy farm and a bad puppy farm,” said Mrs Knowles.
“It’s a huge $4 billion industry. That’s what we’re up against, but we’re not going to stop until Oscar’s Law is passed,” said Ms Tranter.
Axil
Link to article on broadsheet.com.au
Australian Barista Champions Open Axil Cafe in Hawthorn
This week the coffee landscape changed when Axil opened its doors to the public. The slick operation by three-time Australian barista champion Dave Makin and partner Zoe Delany is as impressive as they come.
T
o the east of the city lies a small pocket of Melbourne that claims to house more schools than anywhere in the Western world. It’s quite a feat, and one not without its perks. But for those not yet caught-up in the world of Saturday morning football, and weeknights juggled between piano lessons, swimming training and homework, it has became a vast wasteland of serious cafes.Before his most recent venture in Proud Mary, Nolan Hirte can be credited for educating ubiquitous, preened Hawthorn locals on the ins-and-outs of a good single origin. But before the days of Liar Liar, this stretch of suburbs was lagging behind the thriving coffee scene being enjoyed by its northern neighbours.
Yesterday that landscape changed, when Axil opened its doors to the public. And as serious cafes go, this slick operation by three-time Australian barista champion Dave Makin, and his partner Zoe Delany (of equal coffee nous), is as impressive as they come.
Finding a name for a cafe is either so self-evident it hurts, or painstakingly deliberated over. The latter can be said for Axil, which was chosen for its botanical meaning – the axil being the point between the upper side of a leaf, and the stem from where it springs.
On a coffee tree it’s here that the flowers grow in clusters. “We wanted to find something that related to where the coffee story begins. It’s important for us to think about where it all comes from, and we wanted to remind people of this,” says Dave.
The cafe is only one third of the Axil operation. A large strip of a former bowling alley has been converted into a raised communal table. And from here, under the glow of powder-coated milk urns-come-light-fittings (recently relocated from Zoe’s parents’ property near Mt Buller), diners can watch roasters busy at work in the cupping and training room next door.
The recently engaged couple met back in 2006 as competitors in the Victorian Barista Championships. “Since then we took it in turns to train one another,” says Zoe. But when the trophy cabinet became due for an upsize, they decided it was time for a new venture.
In October last year the first Axil coffee beans were roasted in some loaned space at Coffee Supreme’s headquarters in Abbotsford. Since then they have been selling to the wholesale coffee market, and prowling for a site to call their own.
The large, cavernous space now branded with the Axil emblem has a corner devoted to the retail arm of the business, selling their own roasted beans, keep-cups, and coffee equipment for the home.
The crew at ST Design have used a minimalist palette to create a brooding, masculine space with a mix of black walls, highly polished concrete floors, a ceiling lined in corrugated iron and a feature wall of white and green tiles.
A large slab of concrete runs down the length of the room, bearing the weight of the supporting cast: two custom-built, three-group La Mozzocas.
The botanical theme also extends to the fit out. A wall of metal framework lattice, usually found on construction sites reinforcing concrete slabs, supports a variety of succulents that climb from the bench seating right to the ceiling.
The real stars of the show however, are the baristas. Their crew also includes long-time friend and current Australian barista champion, Matt Perger. The couple have been training the 20-year-old for the past few years, and will be travelling to Colombia next month when he represents Australia in the World Barista Championship.
It was also through Matt that the couple met head-chef Andy MacDonald, previously of Lost in South Yarra. “It all just fell into place. Andy came down when it was a construction site and we just got chatting. We got on so well we asked him if he wanted to come on board,” says Dave, and that’s where you’ll find him today.
The menu could be broadly defined as modern Australian, featuring a mix of French, Spanish and Middle-Eastern stalwarts. On the breakfast menu you’ll find everything from buttermilk pancakes with chocolate, pear, praline and zabaglione gelato, to a smoked trout wrap with scrambled eggs, avocado and tomato salsa, and snow pea tendrils.
The lunch menu is equally as adventurous, and is complemented by four made-to-order sandwiches, including a crispy pork ciabatta with pickles, Waldorf salad and chutney, and a slow-roasted lamb-shoulder wrap with mint, yoghurt and tabouli.
For locals it’s been a sigh of relief, and perhaps even those so well serviced in the north will be making their way over to this side of town.
Axil
322 Burwood Road, Hawthorn
Hours
Daily 7am–4pm
Bike Gallery
Link to article on broadsheet.com.au
Bike Gallery in Hawthorn
Once selling Persian rugs, this gallery is now for bikes of all kinds, and you can get a coffee there too.
I
t was “the end of an era!” Or so the sign once read proudly plastered across this unassuming shop frontage in a neat side street off Camberwell Junction. After providing this leafy suburb with the finest in Persian rugs for 15 years, Mr Kamal was shutting up shop, for his namesake Persian Rug Gallery was making way for a gallery of a different kind.What was once Kamal’s Persian Rug Gallery is now The Bike Gallery selling road, town and commuting bikes, and coffee. Little Mule was perhaps the first to introduce the marriage of espresso and bicycles (in one place) to love-struck Melburnians, but if you're serious about your riding you’ll pedal over to Hawthorn for it.
New owner Lincoln Brown and architect Robyn Beattie joined forces to make a swift departure from a dusty and cavernous space to reveal some decidedly good bones. Exposed brick walls meet white church-like ceilings and smooth, polished concrete floors. But once you’ve pushed you’re way through the big canary-yellow door, a cascading wall of ply-wood that houses the two-grind Synesso cyncra with matching canary side-panels awaits.
Brown spoke of four components that define the space. Before all, it is a retail space that doubles as a place for sipping on lattes and strong flat whites made by none-other than ex-world barista champion Dave Makin. There’s also a bike-fitting studio upstairs, and a service centre with a workshop for servicing and repairs.
The coffee is Axil, and the clothing is custom-made by Sportful in Italy. Bikes and coffee, he’s on to a good thing.
Bike Gallery
74 Auburn Parade, Hawthorn East
(03) 9882 2031
Hours
Mon closed
Tue-Wed 10.30am-6.30pm
Thu-Fri 10.30am-7pm
Sat 10am-5pm
Sun noon-4pm
30 Mill Cafe Opens in Malvern
Link to article on broadsheet.com.au
30 Mill Cafe Opens in Malvern
Formerly a mortgage brokers office on a suburban street, 30 Mill (1 shot of coffee) cafe opened this morning opposite the Tooronga train station in Malvern.
A
fter almost a year-long wait for the go-ahead to turn a rather nondescript space into a cafe (soon-to-be) heaving with train commuters and locals, 30 Mill opened its doors in Malvern this morning.A huge poster of the New York skyline and Frank Sinatra’s crooning lyrics of the same legendary song is the only relic of the former mortgage brokers who last occupied the space in on Milton Parade. But what takes pride of place is the shiny new Synesso Cyncra that’s perched on the counter.
Coffee is 30 Mill’s bread and butter. An old hand at third-wave coffee practices, owner and head barista James Laskie will be offering a Five Senses house blend, a rotating single-origin roast, as well as few more interesting additions to the drinks menu such as the 30 Mill affogato – 40mls of the single origin of the week poured over vanilla bean ice-cream, with a smattering of crunchie chocolate over the top.
The fit-out was entirely the work of Laskie and his father Ted, who built everything from the coffee benches to the large communal table and stools. A large 1940s lamp hanging on a system of pulleys and D-bolts nicely ties in an industrial-nautical theme, with a heavy marine rope anchoring the light to the wall with knots so impressive it becomes a feature itself.
The menu is limited, offering breakfast basics such as Noisette toast and pastries, organic muesli, and a choice of sandwiches for lunch or to pop in your bag before jumping on the train. But expect it to grow with time.
30 Mill
66 Milton Parade, Malvern
Hours
Mon– Fri 6.30am-4pm
Sat-Sun 8am-4pm
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