Australian CS Newsletter May 2009

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MAY 2009

Welcome to the monthly Australian CS Newsletter!!

Your one-stop-shop to all things CS in the Australian community. News from around the states, Aussie CS and general CS updates, stats, opinions, hints and tips. READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Done something fun yourself lately with your fellow CS members and guests?? Wanna boast about it and get your photos seen?? Then help in the making of this newsletter each month and let your CS community shine!

We are always looking for people who would like to contribute to the newsletter.

This could be on behalf of your local area, for the State News section - especially in Adelaide, Hobart, Darwin, and outside the capital cities. Or, it could involve writing a Couchsurfing stats summary or an overview of media on CS from the month, etc.

Join the Aussie Newsletter Production Mob if you are interested. Just join up and post something or email the moderators.

News from around the Australian States

The following news is brought to you by your Aussie Newsletter Production Mob

Macalla watch - Our Aussie CS mascot, Macalla is jet-setting the Planet !!!

Last word had Macalla somewhere in Austria - have you seen Macalla on her travels? Let us know in Macalla's official group.

And who is Macalla?? - read more here or have a look here.

Queensland

We would be extremely happy to get some CS news from regional Queensland. Please join the Newsletter Production Mob if you are interested in helping out.

Brisbane in April

Scary rides at Screamworld

CS social gathering in the Plough

Screamworld - A group of us went to a night event at Dreamworld called Screamworld which was some good simple fun on the roller coasters and other crazy rides all night.

Zone Report - The Plough Inn has become our regular CS social venue which we are fairly happy about. In April we had two more fortnightly meets there which both brought quite a lot of travelers and new faces. We look forward to more fun there over the rest of the year. Make sure you say hi at the next one!

Byron Bay Blues Festival

Byron Bay Blues Festival - A lot of the Brissy CS'ers ended up in Byron Bay for the Bluesfest, over the 5 days we dealt with all the rain and spent quite a lot of time chilling at cafes and partying at pubs in Byron as well as at the festival.

BBQ on Anzac Day

Anzac Day - To celebrate Anzac Day we had a BBQ at New Farm Park, which we followed up with cheap drinks at the Merthyr Bowls Club then decided to have a 2nd BBQ back in New Farm Park, it was a great day and night with a good mix of locals and travelers.

Coming up in May - We have a group booking to hire Kayaks and Paddle the Brisbane River. See the meeting details here.

Some of us are also planning a road trip to a secluded beach in the Whitsundays, read more details here Originally starting as a small group thing, we decided that we would post to the Brissy, Cairns and Airlie & Whitsundays groups to see if anyone else wants to join us.

Victoria

We would be extremely happy to get some CS news from rural Victoria. Please join the Newsletter Production Mob if you are interested in helping out.

April in Melbourne

Freebies

A free screening of the new Australian movie "Mary and Max", as well as post-movie drinks, was organised by Buddhistguy, an event attended by over 25 couchsurfers. Buddhistguy continued to give Couchsurfers a chance to see top Australian comedians at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for free, arranging for over 60 free passes to various shows to be given out to Couchsurfers.

Easter long weekend in Melbourne

Buddhistguy also arranged an informal Barcrawl for Couchsurfers remaining in Melbourne over the Easter long weekend, to which more then 40 couchsurfers turned up, including the members of the Sydney CS invasion!

CS Sydney-vaders and Melbourne stop to pose on their bar crawl!

Couch Burning Mark II

Cold Erin is wonderfully arranging Couch Burning Mark II, plus working bee. So bigger and better and colder than ever. So far we have offers of cooked food, home brew beer and a couch to burn. Last year 40 odd people turned up and a very good time was had by all. For more details see the posting at the CS page for Melbourne.

Up Close and Personal

Melbourne has been actively organising successful events with big turnouts of 20 or more couchsurfers. But there are still tiny intimate events available for those CouchSurfers looking to make stronger and deeper connections. There was the Sunday vegan potluck organised by TIMMY_TOFU that saw about 8 people show up with arsenals of yummy grub! Selina Sma's Lazy Sunday Melbourne tour also saw a turn up of 5 couchsurfers as they spent the day wandering around the CBD.

Melbourne's first official Bar Crawl - 24th April

The Croft Institute felt the warth of over 60 thirsty and charged up CouchSurfers when we forced them to open up their third level bar and dance floor half an hour early! We started off with about 50 participants on the corner of Spring and Bourke street but uncited sources tell us we had close to 80 at the end of the night! We owe thanks to this successful night to Aaron Schultz, great job!

Coming up in May

The Camping Trip as mentioned above

The Melbourne International Jazz Festival, April 26 - May 2

Don't forget, the Melbourne CS Zone - Every second Tuesday from 5:30pm. One or more of Melbourne's City or Nomadic Ambassadors will be on location at our new winter venue - Sister Bella (Sniders Lane, Melbourne) to welcome new & old travellers and help out where possible. This is getting to be a bigger and bigger event each fortnight! For more info read this and check the Melbourne CS Google Calendar to see when it's on.

Happy Surfing !!

Western Australia

On the Easter long weekend 15 adventurers set out on a road trip from Perth to Kalgoorlie and beyond. Two car loads of people headed out on Thursday to visit and camp at Wave Rock before meeting up with the rest of the group at Karalee Rocks (west of Coolgardie) on Friday night. On Saturday we went into Kalgoorlie to stock up on petrol and supplies, with most of the group invading the house of Shaz's brother for lunch. After a trip to the Super Pit lookout we headed north up to Menzies on the way out to Lake Ballard (dry salt lake). We got to Lake Ballard just in time to see the beautiful sunset and then spent some of the night wandering around under the full moon on the shiny crunchy salt (sounded just like walking on snow!) discovering the Gormley statutes. On Sunday we had lunch at the Ora Banda Inn and then headed back towards Kalgoorlie to camp for the night, travelling back to Perth on Monday. Covering roughly 1650kms over 4 days everyone had a fabulous time and most saw parts of WA they had never seen before. Hopefully we can do something similar next year and introduce more people to the wonders of the WA goldfields.

The unofficial Fremantle CS Zone Meetup was held at Clancy's Fish Cafe on Wednesday 8 April. It was a great night, keep an eye on the Freo Crew group for upcoming details for next months meet up.

The music festival season is coming to a close but we were lucky enough on April 17 and 18 to have a jam packed musical weekend and enjoyed the vibes at the Fairbridge Music Festival near Pinjarra and the West Coast Blues & Roots Festival in Fremantle.

On Monday 27 April, a group met up at the Fremantle Esplanade to enjoy the public holiday and a picnic in the wonderful sunshine.

The 40+ group have started up a Dinner Club and are having their first meal together on Friday 8th May, check out the group for more details.

A Coffee Club has been formed to chat and socialize in a chilled out environment. The first gathering will be on Wednesday 6th May, more details can be found here.

Also many other events happened during the month including International Pillow Fight Day, Fremantle Street Arts festival, German Film Festival and the rodeo at El Caballo

The regular fortnightly Wednesday night Perth CS Zone meetups at the Brass Monkey are still as popular as ever, with many travellers in town enjoying the sunny Perth weather. Keep an eye on the Perth group for all our meetups, parties, hijinks and adventures.

Coming Up in May

Rotto trip
40+ group Dinner Club
Coffee Club

We would love to get some CS news from regional Western Australia. Please join the Newsletter Production Mob if you are interested in helping out.

New South Wales

Home is where the Harts is - This was one of the most popular events in April with over 75 people attending at Harts pub in the Rocks. A great evening was had all round with regulars welcoming lots of new couchsurfers, whilst dining on the free sausage sizzle, pizza and nibbles. Pete played funky tunes which got everyone up and dancing. This regular social event is looking for a new venue as Harts is under refurbishment. If you know of a suitable place please let us know.

Easter BBQ, Centennial Park

Easter Egg BBQ & picnic - Mike was back in Sydney for a visit and so we gave an unusual twist to the normal BBQ & picnic that had taken over the CS summer activities, by having an Easter Egg hunt. Well, that was the plan, but it ended up being more of an Easter Egg throw… being as the kids found the eggs too quickly and throwing them around the group turned out to be much more fun! Around 40 couchsurfers turned up for fun frisbee & football games, yummy BBQ and picnic, as well as lots of entertaining socialising! Soetkin provided her fantastic face painting skills, giving us a butterfly, dragon, tiger and a quite scary Easter Bunny!

Face painting at the Easter picnic, Centennial Park

Camping at Hill End, NSW

Sydney CS'ers visit Melbourne

Camping at Hill End - Art wanted to practice his 4x4 skills and have a fun weekend camping with couchsurfers so he organised a fun trip to historical Hill End; a little old gold-mining village over the west side of the Blue Mountains. Fantastic scenery, food, wine and conversation was enjoyed by Art, Kaori, Serena and Amy.

Road tripping back from Melbourne

Mini Melbourne Invasion - What started as a shared desire for a road trip evolved into a mini-invasion of Melbourne to see the city and catch some of the Comedy Festival. David took on the role of organiser and between himself, Michael and Michael, 3 cars were co-opted to take 10 keen CSers to Melbourne. As we didn’t leave till after 11pm on the Thursday, the drivers were rotated regularly! Hickey, Selena and Igor were kind enough to provide space for everyone to crash. Activities included an epic pub crawl, a Turkish foodies dinner, searching for a tyre shop open on public holidays... and comedy ranging from brilliant through to walk-out bad! The trip ended on a sombre note for Amy, Jeff, Loredana and Michael. They decided to stop at King Lake to take in the devastation of the recent bushfires.

Surry Hills Festival - Lisa and a bunch of other couchsurfers gathered in Surry Hills to be entertained by the delights of the festival. Much fun was had all round.

CS Socials - April saw many impromptu gatherings for couchsurfers; Newtown, Manly and Paddington proving to be popular haunts, with Sultans Turkish restaurant and the Courthouse pub becoming firm favourites. Thanks to Lisa for organising some great evenings out!

Rock Climbing - Couchsurfers often go rock climbing around Sydney. Trips for outdoor climbing have been made to the Royal National Park, and the Blue Mountains, as well as regular indoor sessions at St Peters and St Leonards. Fancy joining in? Why not contact Kimbily, Stuart or Ian who often go.

Coming Up in May … if you want to help organise these events or invent new ones of your own, please contact the CS Sydney Organising group

Sydney CBD GreenSpace Landmarks & Street Drinking! – May 2
Trivia every Tuesday 7pm at Fringebar, Oxford st.
Salsa every Tuesday at Establishment Bar 8:00pm, 252 George Street
Sydney Comedy Festival
Spanish Film Festival: 6 - 17 May
Yalumba Thredbo Jazz Festival: 8-10 May 2009
Primo Italiano 2009: 24 May 2009
[Lighting the Sails (Luminous) Opera House: 26 May - 14 June

International CS Day is June 12th so get thinking about what you would like to do for that!

For all the details on what's happening with this and more, keep an eye on the Sydney Group and bookmark the Sydney events calendar.

We would love to get some CS news from regional New South Wales. Please join the Newsletter Production Mob if you are interested in helping out.

South Australia

Adelaide CS Update

Recent events:

Feet in the sane, beer in the hand

Event link: http://www.couchsurfing.com/meetings.html?mid=29504

With Adelaide predicted to have some warm weather a meet up was planned down south at Glenelg Beach, it was suggested that everyone should try and bring some sort of food from their own country to the meet up which turned out to be a great success with a large amount of food on offer.

After introductions and chatting it was obviously people were getting anxious to get to the volleyball nets for a game so the move was made to the beach and people shuffled into 2 teams of 5-6 depending on interest. The French and German mixed in their soccer skills for some pretty impressive saves and those who didn't know how to play either learned quickly or ended up getting hit by the ball!

An epic 3 hour non-stop volleyball game later people were ready for the great Australian past time of beer and watching the sunset. Heading up to the near Surf Life Saving Club tables were merged and jugs were ordered with the surfers (and some residents!) getting lessons in how to pour a proper Australian beer.

The beer now and the sun having set most people headed off leaving only a few hungry people who wanted food! Options of Indian, Chinese or Mexican being in the area it was decided Mexican was closest and that everyone seemed to like the idea. Everyone seemed to like the ideas of Burrito's and Margarita's so orders were made and it was only then the difference between a fast-food Burrito and a "real" Burrito was made and some had leftovers to take home.

Overall a great attendance, lots of new people and a great suggestion made the meet a great success with fun, beer and food had by all!

Adelaide CS group:

The Adelaide CS group is always interested in new event suggestions, head over to the group at the link below to join and suggest something!

- See it all at: http://www.couchsurfing.com/group.html?gid=1326

We would be extremely happy to get some CS news from regional South Australia. Please join the Newsletter Production Mob if you are interested in helping out.

Australian Capital Territory

We would be extremely happy to get some CS news from the Australian Capital Territory. Please join the Newsletter Production Mob if you are interested in helping out.

Tasmania

In January three CSers from Melbourne embarked on a whirlwind Tasmanian adventure.

Sarah, Elli and Tracey descended on Jo's place to discover the excitement of her DVD collection of great British comedy and the Dictionary Game. And not to forget her two beautiful dogs, Bruno and Nina. We only had four days to cram as much Tasmania into our lives as possible, so sadly, we had to leave the dogs and get out exploring.

Jo lives halfway up Mt Wellington which was extraordinarily convenient for our first mission: the summit. We were constantly stopping, as the view (and the climb) took our breath away. We also started to get an inkling of the friendliness of the Tasmanian people, as everyone stopped for a chat along the way. The trail was fantastic and it would have been the perfect start to our week... only we couldn't walk for the next day or two!

That night another CSer arrived to (what had become) the party house; Kathrin from Germany. So the next day we hit Cascade Brewery. What better way to recuperate aching muscles than with a small beverage? We followed this with an amazing CS cook-up on Jo's deck for dinner. Jo's deck is the perfect place for a glass of wine and a BBQ, as she is surrounded by trees and peacefulness. Games, chats and much much laughing ensued through the evening.

We finally decided that we really did want to rent a car though, but being January, this proved almost impossible (tip for Tassie trekkers: get in early to book a car in summer!). But the stars aligned and we managed to get one for 24 hours.

And we were out for about 18 of those 24. We went to Cockle Creek (stunning!), Oyster Bay (also beautiful) and the Greenie's camp out Lake Peddar way (that's a whole other story). After driving crazily all those kilometres, we chilled out around Hobart for the afternoon before catching our flight home.

The three of us definitely fell in love with Tasmania and will definitely be back. Jo was ace, and we were a bit sad that we didn't have time to meet more CSers... but there's always next time!

Tracey Bell

Natalia at Wine Glass Bay, Tasmania

Natalia's memories of Tasmania:

After a couple of months working in Melbourne, I decided to quit my job and book a flight for the next day down to Tassie to breathe some healthy air, not too many expectations were built, just having some relaxing days exploring the apple island.

Taswegians welcomed the last minute requests and the whole experience ended up being awesome, not only because of the beaches, forests and whole landscape being amazing, but because the people I met there made my time simply wonderful!

A good crowd appeared in the cs meeting organised in Knopwoods. After the introductions and sharing some stories and beers, we all headed out on a pub crawl that kept going all night, keeping us dancing and discovering hidden bars!

Looking forward to going back!!

Natalia Eiriz

Jo's hosting report from Hobart.

The cold season has certainly kicked in down south with a sprinkling of snow atop Mt Wellington. The amount of CouchSurfers have eased off considerably but still a few are making the journey down south to see what an autumnal Tasmania has to offer.

Several surfers, with hosts in tow, got together to enjoy the concerts, performances and installations that 10 Days on the Island produced. In particular the free exhibition at the T-MAG (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery) of Patricia Piccinini's Evolution was admired.

Welsh surfer Emma is planning a return visit to her favourite place in Australia (Tasmania and Jo's house, obviously) next month. Originally Emma had planned to stay two years in Australia, but she decided to cut her time short and wanted to see the place she knew she had to see - Tasmania. Loving it so much in February she is coming back to meet her newly-made friends and see a chilly Tasmania. Not so different to the green grass of home.

So, May will see the next CouchSurfing event down at Rektango with Mulled wine and summer reflection.

Joanna also plans to put on a pot luck at her place in May to get to meet the other Hobart hosts, long time and new. She will send out an invite on the events page soon.

East Coast Janet continued to host out on the east coast, although it is quieter as Jo in Hobart has mentioned. Today was -4c on waking up here on the east coast mountains, so this will see a big slowing down of travellers through Tasmania as is usual in the winter months. Although it is a beautiful time and so very different from the mainland of Australia.

Wicked Campers Michael also gave us some good information about Wicked Campers:

Just giving everyone a heads up that Wicked Campers, a popular choice for many Couch Surfers, has recently opened a Hobart depot. Now expensive and limited public transport plus so-called 'budget' hotels/hostels are no barrier to experiencing Tassie at your own pace, giving you access to places you can only reach with your own vehicle.

Click here to visit the Wicked Campers website

Tasmania has long lagged behind the mainland states in catering to the budget travel market. We intend to help the state catch up and make our amazing island accessible to everyone.

Happy Travels.

Mobile Phone Coverage

And don't forget, as many travellers are discovering, Tasmania has really poor mobile phone coverage outside of the major towns, Telstra is the best of the providers and you will find that most other providers simply have zero coverage at all, just useful to know to let people know if your heading down this way...

Northern Territory

We would be extremely happy to get some CS news from the Northern Territory. Please join the Newsletter Production Mob if you are interested in helping out.

The Boxing Kangaroo Awards

Each month, we like to bring attention to the efforts of CS members who have made a decent contribution to the CS community in their area. It's our way of saying thanks and of bringing attention to some of the great work being done around the country.

This month Sydney would like to nominate Lisa for organising lots of meals and drinks out for couchsurfers, as well as hosting and holding dinner parties at her place. Lisa is a popular member of the regular CS crowd and although planned to have a quiet April, couldn't keep away from CS activities! Thanks Lisa!

We would also like to give a special mention to David for organising a fantastic trip down to Melbourne.

To nominate someone, just join the Newsletter Production Mob and submit your nomination.

Don't forget if you want to become an Ambassador for Couchsurfing you can do so easily through applying here - we could use the support and extra hands. Get on board, it's all about participation!

Our Ambassadors

Congratulations and welcome to 3 new Aussie Ambassadors:

Mark in Melbourne, Victoria
Rafeena in Fremantle, Western Australia
Janet in St Marys, Tasmania

Looking to track down an Ambassador for whatever reason? Your Aussie ambs are listed here.

New Australian Groups

Australian Statistics

If you are interested in how many surfers there are now in Australia and where they all are and what they are all doing go and have a look at the statistics pages - it is all quite fascinating and you get to check out the rest of the world at the same time ..... ever wondered how many Couches there are in Madagascar??

International CouchSurfing News

CouchSurfing has announced a site redesign and new logo to go live on 1 March - read more about this here

Couchsurfing in the Media

The call for experienced editors As you may have heard, CS Org have created a CS News Channels page which will allow for communication to members and volunteers on a scale they have not had yet. Some of these channels are member-made, some are created by volunteers, and others are newsletters adapted for the web.

To receive news from the official channels just edit your subscription settings.

Website Technical Developments

With the millionth member joining the site (whether you believe this to be accurate or not) the new site navigation and logo were rolled out. We're sure you couldn't have missed that seeing as it's everywhere!!!

There are changes afoot with the wiki that could restrict access to edit a wiki to a core team - the impact on the newsletter and how it functions is still to be seen.

The CouchSurfing chat room was closed at the same time as the new navigation for the site went active.

If you are interested in following the Tech developments you will find what you are looking for here.

What is the current Status of your Couch?

As you know you can edit the status of your couch.

Did you know that if you have your Couch unavailable the "Request to Couchsurf with" button is removed?

So as not to receive CouchSurfing requests while you are travelling or unable to host, make sure the status of your couch is what you want it to be. It will solve a lot of unwanted emails. At the same time, it will help those looking for a couch so they don't have to spend time messaging people unable to help them!

Tips and hints for better CouchSurfing

For more tips and hints to improve your profile or your experience of Couchsurfing go to: Australian Tips Hints and links to better CouchSurfing