[Will & Kate] (0:00 - 0:32)

Burners of New Zealand, Australia and Asia, Radically making magic on the paddock round the fire. B-O-N-Z-A-A-R Bonzaar Podcast.

[Stevan] (0:32 - 0:54)

This episode, we venture to the southern lands of Australia, also known as the Apple Island, and take a look at an emerging regional burn near Hobart, Tasmania. We have invited some of the team members of the People's Art Collective of Tasmania to discuss about the formation of PACT and creating the inaugural Aurora Experience. Welcome guys.

Say hello to Karl, Kat and Lara.

[Kat] (0:55 - 0:55)

Hi.

[Lara] (0:55 - 0:56)

Hello.

[Karl] (0:56 - 0:56)

Hello.

[Stevan] (0:57 - 1:06)

Okay.

Let's do some quick introductions and tell us briefly about the roles that you have currently at PACT. What do you guys do?

[Lara] (1:06 - 1:12)

Okay.

I'm Lara, Squeaky Queen, the People's Art Collective's President.

[Kat] (1:13 - 1:22)

Hey, I'm Kat. I'm Kat Trail.

I'm the Event Manager and I'm the Treasurer at the People's Arts Collective and one of the founding members, as are my cohort here.

[Karl] (1:23 - 1:29)

I'm Karl. I am the PACT Vice President and another founding member.

[Stevan] (1:29 - 1:42)

Cool. All right. Let's get into my favorite part of the segment is listening to people's journeys into the Burning Man culture, the burning community.

So for you, Lara, how did it start? What was the start of your beginning of your journey?

[Lara] (1:42 - 2:15)

It was on a couch as part of the couch surfing network in Hobart.

I met a burner and he invited me along to Burning Seed many, many moons ago. I think it was 2012 was my first burn I went to out in Matong and I was in awe of everything that was happening in front of me and just wanted to get involved. So as soon as the event was over, I immediately got in contact with the Department of Planning and Infrastructure.

I was like, I want to help. How can I help? And then continued that journey and volunteered for many burns around the world in the last decade or more.

[Stevan] (2:15 - 2:20)

Why did you choose the DPI? Was it the skill sets that you had to offer?

[Lara] (2:20 - 2:45)

Sort of.

It was that I had a fair bit of time on my hands. I was working as a casual nurse doing contract work. So there was periods where I could take six weeks off, no problem, but committing to doing kind of year round things wasn't an option.

So the timing fit really well and I just wanted to be out there for a long period of time because I just wanted to get more immersed. So it was like more time feels like more immersion and that's what I wanted to do.

[Stevan] (2:45 - 2:50)

Yeah, that's a good crew to actually get educated into the burner culture community.

[Lara] (2:50 - 2:52)

Yeah, it was really, really good fun.

[Stevan] (2:52 - 2:54)

All right, Kat, how did you get started?

[Kat] (2:54 - 4:04)

I first heard about Burning Man in about 2000.

I was in year 11 and the internet was very, very slow and I would spend my lunch breaks downloading a photo, a lunch break every September, October when photos started to come out. And I was obsessed with the art. I was really interested.

I didn't know much about the philosophy, but I vowed to go one day. And in 2010, I got to go to the first burning seed up in Bellingen. It was only 300 people and I was hooked.

The culture, the generosity, the presence, the people get to be themselves in a way that I just haven't experienced almost anywhere else in the world. I got to go to Nevada Burn the next year in 2011 and that was incredible. And I met some incredible people who I'm still in contact with today.

And then I went to quite a lot more burning seeds after that. I was obsessed with burning and sick of leaving Tasmania to burn. So it was really fortuitous that we've got quite a lot of burners that live in Tasmania year round and we all banded together and said, hey, let's make one where we don't have to leave the island.

[Stevan] (4:05 - 4:06)

And Karl, how did you get started burning?

[Karl] (4:06 - 5:24)

I have a really good friend, another one of our founding members who isn't here today, who grew up in Reno and grew up going to Burning Man and, yeah, was obsessed with it, as is her whole family. And, yeah, she was running some little sort of burn-adjacent parties around Tassie and then I went to a couple of those and really loved it.

And then she invited me to go with her and some other friends up to Modifyre in Queensland. That was my first regional burn and fortuitously that was the Modifyre year, which I'm sure many around Australia have heard of. But I had such a great time and I was hooked.

I'd never been to events like that where, you know, things were so freeform and people were so friendly and there was so many different activities and cool art and all this other stuff. And, yeah, I got a chance to go to Burning Man maybe in the year after that and went to Underland a couple of times. And I think it was particularly going to Modifyre and Underland and seeing some of those smaller 300 people-ish burns that made me think, this kind of seems achievable.

If I could find some other people that know how to do this kind of thing, I could probably pull this off in Tassie.

[Stevan] (5:24 - 5:32)

So the burn that got you hooked was a burn that would give most people scars in the memory, right? But something that clicked, something that changed you?

[Karl] (5:33 - 5:55)

Well, I think the key to enjoying it for me was I'd never been on the other side of the curtain yet. I was there as a punter. I didn't know.

It's only thinking back on it years later that I can imagine the pain that the people on the ground must have been feeling. But it didn't impact my enjoyment, yeah, as a participant at the time.

[Stevan] (5:55 - 6:07)

Okay, let's talk about the formation of PACT. Now,

Like you were saying, you didn't want to go too far away to burn. So when did you get together and how was it formed and the history, the naming and all that? Let's talk about that.

[Kat] (6:08 - 6:54)

Shall I rattle off my version of it? So a dear friend of ours, Simon Young, also obsessed with burning, and I had lunch in November of 2023, and he said, we should start a Tassie burn. And I said, yeah, we should.

I know some people. And he said, I know some people. And we said, oh, we should have a meeting about it.

And so three days later, I think it was Monday the 9th of November, we had a meeting in the Preacher's Bus, which is a bar in Hobart, and I think there was nine of us there. And so it was Simon and myself, Karl, who I'd never met before. Lara was on an iPad because she was training on the mainland somewhere.

Who else did we have?

[Karl] (6:55 - 6:55)

Tiana.

[Kat] (6:56 - 6:56)

Tiana.

[Karl] (6:57 - 6:57)

Alex.

[Kat] (6:58 - 6:59)

Zoe.

[Karl] (7:00 - 7:00)

Yeah.

[Lara] (7:01 - 7:02)

Nelson.

[Kat] (7:02 - 7:29)

And Nelson and possibly a couple of other people. And we all sat there and went, hey, should we start a Tassie burn?

And everyone said, fuck yeah, we should, without really knowing, having ever worked together before or knowing exactly what it would involve. And so we started planning towards that. We met, was it every fortnight, and set a date for, I think it was Anzac Day the following April.

[Karl] (7:30 - 7:30)

Yeah.

[Kat] (7:30 - 8:01)

And I do distinctly remember that one of my hard yeses or hard no's would be that I wanted to do it above board and I really wanted it to be incorporated and not for profit so that it gave us some structure and so that it would help us with things like insurance and dealing with councils and emergency services and stuff like that. And Karl was like, oh, I've looked into that. Yeah, I've got a clear path forward for how to become Pty Limited.

And I was like, oh, OK, this might actually happen. I'm really excited.

[Lara] (8:02 - 9:25)

Yeah, I was really grateful that we managed to all get together at just the right time because before that meeting in the bus, there'd been some other events going on around the island.

I left the island to go and do some burning stuff on the mainland and set up a little Facebook group with a few others called Burning Man Tass just to keep tabs on what was going on and try and encourage some community to start self-building down here. So when I came back, I checked in on the Facebook group and I came across a Burning Brumby group. And I was like, oh, I wonder what's happening here.

So I got in touch with the Brumby crew, which is partially run by Tiana and Karl, and they were having Burning Man style events. So I went to one of the Burning Brumbies and I was like, yes, this is what we want, but we want to do it a little bit more above board. So when I met Kat and Karl and they were like, yes, let's do it.

It's just everything is lining up. This is perfect. But we weren't supposed to have a burn that first time we planned.

We were just going to meet together and have a camp out and kind of figure out whether we had enough energy in the community to do it. And that quickly turned into, oh, but I could just bring my DJ booth and we could just do a small temple or effigy. We could just have a little theme camp.

May as well have greeters. May as well just have a whole burn. Why not?

We had the energy. We had the drive. We had the people who wanted to do it.

So it turned into a really good burn.

[Stevan] (9:25 - 9:31)

So Burning Brumbies, that's the genesis of the whole thing. Karl, what's behind that?

[Karl] (9:32 - 11:01)

I would say it was the genesis of the whole thing. That was, yeah, my friend Tiana was talking about earlier, a sort of party that she ran and it was, yeah, just like a small private party on a bush block. It was very, there was no official organisation behind it.

There was no real structure. It was pretty, it was capped at like 80 people just because it was a tiny block. And so, yeah, it was, you know, I'd say burner adjacent, had the energy of a burn.

But if it was just one theme camp, having a party is the way I'd describe it. And I think there were, you know, always a few people in that group who would have wanted to take things further and have a more bigger open public event. But none of us were really experienced event runners.

And I think the roadblock I always had in my head was like to run an event publicly and sell tickets, there must be some sort of form you have to fill out or some sort of department you apply for. I didn't know anything about it. I didn't even know where to start.

And that was where, yeah, meeting Kat was really great because she is an incredibly experienced event manager who knows exactly how to do all those things. So I think, yeah, when we first met on that bus, it quickly became apparent that, you know, maybe not a single person there had the skills to just run a burn on their own. But between us, we had all the pieces we needed to actually put this thing that we'd all independently been thinking about probably for years by that point together.

[Stevan] (11:02 - 11:14)

Yeah, the name People's Collective, it's so fitting because you guys seemed like a collective of, you know, a bunch of weirdos and oddballs, I guess, you know, just want to do this thing in Tasmania. So, yeah, that's a good name.

[Kat] (11:14 - 11:15)

Thanks, Stevan.

[Lara] (11:15 - 11:21)

We put a lot of thought into that name also because the acronym People's Art Collective packed a group of people.

[Kat] (11:21 - 11:48)

We have tried to be really democratic sometimes to our detriment in trying to make sure everybody who's at the table's voice is heard and trying to say, you know, what should we do? Is this a direction we all want to go in?

And even naming ourselves was that process as well, which can slow things down a little bit, but I feel like we often end up at a decision that most people are happy with.

[Stevan] (11:48 - 12:07)

Okay. What about that event that you guys had, the campout?

Let's talk about Sparkadia 2024. What are some of your memories and experiences from that? I think I saw some photos.

The effigy was a – what's it called? It's a native hen or a turbo chook. Did I get that right?

Turbo chook.

[Kat] (12:07 - 12:09)

Yeah, flightless bird, native hen.

[Stevan] (12:10 - 12:15)

And you can only find this in Tasmania, just like the other animals.

You have the devil, the tiger.

[Lara] (12:15 - 12:18)

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's only around in Tassie.

[Karl] (12:19 - 12:19)

Yeah, I think so.

[Kat] (12:20 - 12:33)

I think all regions of Australia have a flightless hen or a native hen, but Tasmania has a very specific one and I think most regions have very specific ones. And ours are called turbo chooks because they run really fast.

[Lara] (12:33 - 12:35)

Like up to 50 kilometres an hour, I think.

[Stevan] (12:35 - 12:36)

Are they edible?

[Lara] (12:36 - 12:37)

They're protected down here.

[Stevan] (12:39 - 12:40)

Although you call them chooks.

[Lara] (12:40 - 12:42)

Technically, everything's edible.

[Stevan] (12:44 - 12:46)

They taste like chicken, I guess.

[Lara] (12:46 - 12:50)

I guess so.

Probably pretty tough, though. Not a lot of meat on them, I don't reckon.

[Stevan] (12:50 - 12:53)

So that was a beautiful burn.

Let's talk about some of the memories that you had from that.

[Karl] (12:54 - 13:32)

I think one of my most distinctive memories is probably, I don't know, I've been out there for a few days setting up and camps came and set up. And I remember Kat and I just sort of wandering around after gates had opened and there was a fair few people there and all the camps were going and we just sort of looked at each other and went like, huh, this is really a burn.

Like we actually did it. Like people came and they're doing stuff and there's lights and art and music and theme camps. And, yeah, it was really like since we hadn't intended to do that, it was an extremely cool outcome.

[Stevan] (13:32 - 13:37)

Did it make you proud to be a burner? Like this is, you know, people coming together like this?

[Karl] (13:37 - 14:01)

Yeah, absolutely.

And, like, we had a lot of first-time burners, so I think that was another highlight, just seeing so many people coming for the first time and just really getting it, like understanding what the event's about, understanding gifting and going away with just, you know, massive grins on their face and say, I can't wait to the next one. How can I help? Like, yeah.

[Kat] (14:01 - 14:18)

One thing that blew me away was Tasmania's small, and there's a bit of a joke that you kind of, you know everyone here. But as Karl was saying, like we looked around and I was like, who are these people? I don't know half of them.

This is incredible. I'm so proud of our community. I'm so excited for our community.

[Lara] (14:18 - 14:59)

One of my proudest moments was seeing how well we interacted with the Tasmanian Fire Service. So one of the things that I was worried about was how it would impact the broader community or how the broader community would be impacted by us and making sure that we set those relationships really strong from the beginning was super important so that we've got rapport as being, you know, good citizens and that they'll have us back. And not only did I think we did that really well, they all had a really good time.

The fire engine, as it was leaving, put its lights and sirens on just for fun. And yeah, they stayed and had a barbecue. It was just really lovely to see the broader community interacting with the event as well.

[Stevan] (14:59 - 15:01)

And how many people at the gathering did you have?

[Kat] (15:01 - 15:04)

I think we had about 250, 230 at the first one.

[Lara] (15:05 - 15:05)

Yeah.

[Karl] (15:05 - 15:37)

Yeah, much more than we were expecting. I think we were like, oh, it gets to 120, we've done really well. As Kat said, we just kind of assumed we would know everyone and we didn't really advertise it at all.

We didn't want it to be too big because we hadn't done it before. So we kind of estimated between us we probably knew around 120 people between like the sort of founding members that would be interested. And then, yeah, there were a bunch of people who we didn't know who were interested too who somehow found out about it.

[Lara] (15:37 - 15:39)

Yeah, within our first year we outgrew our site.

[Stevan] (15:39 - 15:41)

Yeah, so that was on the same site, Sparkadia?

[Lara] (15:41 - 15:49)

No, it was on a different site, which was a lovely alpaca retirement village, alpaca retirement farm out in Coldbrook.

[Kat] (15:50 - 15:50)

Coldbrook?

[Lara] (15:50 - 15:54)

Yeah, but we already filled it up, so it's time to move on.

[Stevan] (15:54 - 16:07)

And moving on to Aurora 2025, so this different site, let's talk more about that.

Let's review the whole experience. The weather, you guys had a bit of rain, a bit of dampness, coldness, what was the weather like?

[Karl] (16:07 - 16:17)

Yeah, we just got that.

It was just one day of rain, right? That's my memory. It just rained all day for one day.

I think, was that the Friday or the Saturday?

[Kat] (16:18 - 16:18)

It was Friday.

[Lara] (16:19 - 16:19)

Friday.

[Karl] (16:19 - 16:44)

But everyone was still having a great time. Like I did get sick of carrying an umbrella around all day, like it did wear on me throughout the day, I'll admit, but everyone was still out and about doing activities, interacting, like it wasn't like everyone was just hiding in their camps waiting for the rain to start. So I think it still went really well, even with the rain, and yeah, and then it just made the rest of the weekend seem even better.

[Kat] (16:44 - 17:27)

We are pretty lucky, the site that we're allowed to do this event on is in a huge rain shadow. So not good for farming, but great for events. And it's also incredibly flat for Tasmania.

The first site we were on was kind of a test, like didn't really want to go somewhere that we might burn bridges or, you know, disrupt the community. So, you know, it was very hilly, it was in a little valley. It was beautiful, but there wasn't much flat area.

So being able to get somewhere that's large and flat and in a rain shadow, it's unlucky that we had one day of rain, but mostly it was pretty good weather.

[Lara] (17:27 - 17:58)

And even on that rain day, we weren't concerned about any logistical problems of driving around on site because it's got really good drainage there. Everything drains really easily through like quite sandy, loamy soil, so there's not really any risk of bogging unless you go driving with a heavy vehicle right in the middle of the heaviest rain.

But that was also a very unusual wet day for that time of year. I had a look at those historical records and it was significantly higher than normal. So hopefully that doesn't happen again anytime soon, at least.

[Stevan] (17:58 - 18:10)

Yeah, the dates that you had was in November. So it is our springtime, our spring season. You're going to expect a bit more warmer, stuff like that.

So, yeah. So why was it choice of November?

[Lara] (18:10 - 18:39)

It's at the end of the winter season.

So we're out of the deep cold of Tasmania and the wet and we're into warmer weather, longer days, really long days actually, really nice, long, sunny days. Temperature's usually between 19 and 9 degrees, which is very amenable to outside partying. And it is before the fire season kicks in so we can burn things.

Hopefully before the fire season kicks in, it's always up in the air until that happens. But the chances of fire season kicking in that early are pretty low.

[Kat] (18:39 - 19:33)

One of the other reasons – Sorry.

No, you're right. One of the other reasons is I've been involved with Blazing Swan and Burning Seed and other events. And one of the things I've noticed about the community in Blaze, in particular with their event being in April, is that anyone with a project or anyone with a big theme camp tends to spend all summer working on it.

And in Tasmania you only really get three or four months of good weather. And it's really hard to catch up with your friends in summer because everybody's outside, everybody just wants to enjoy the great weather. And I personally didn't want to impose on our community, oh, you know, if you want to produce an artwork or have a theme camp or a big project, then you're going to basically lock yourself away for all of summer.

So the opportunity to let our community build over winter, when people tend to hibernate, they like to be inside more, dinner parties happen, collaboration happens more over winter. So it also kind of lines up in that way.

[Stevan] (19:33 - 19:40)

And the attendance of the burn, you said you had also a few newbies as well, and interstate travellers.

[Kat] (19:41 - 20:18)

And international. Yeah, we had almost 300 people come to Aurora this year, which we're all really excited about and really grateful for. We have a low ticket price strategy.

Tasmanians aren't very flush with cash as a general rule. And if anybody wants to come from the mainland or overseas, it's expensive to get here. So we have tried to walk a really tight rope of balancing an affordable ticket whilst covering costs like insurance and toilets and a security guard and, you know, buying some infrastructure to make our lives a little bit easier as an organisation.

[Stevan] (20:18 - 20:33)

It was 150 bucks, so that's very, one of the cheapest burns you can go to in Australia. Yeah, very economical. So good value.

What about some of the later, did you guys have fundraisers and stuff like that before the burn? How did you guys try to draw up support?

[Karl] (20:34 - 20:41)

Our only other source of income is memberships.

So, yeah.

[Lara] (20:41 - 20:51)

It's just $30 to become a member of PACT. So that just helps us pay for year-round costs and kind of get things rolling so we've got a little bit of cash in the bank to start things.

[Kat] (20:51 - 20:52)

Yeah, we run on the smell of an oily rag.

[Stevan] (20:54 - 21:09)

Yeah, we discussed earlier, Lara, about the Victorians and the Western Australians coming over to Tasmania for the support and contributions and the involvement and stuff like that. Do you want to talk about how these guys have helped in being part of the community?

[Lara] (21:10 - 21:25)

We had John and Emma come over. They've moved over here permanently now, but they ran a theme camp and Emma helped. She was our volunteer coordinator and crew cook, which is so, so helpful.

What's the camp name?

[Kat] (21:25 - 21:27)

Are you talking about Final Frontier?

[Lara] (21:28 - 21:41)

Final Frontier.

Yeah, Final Frontier. They ran a kangaroo court, which was so much fun. Such, like, safe, fun shenanigans.

Just the, yeah.

[Kat] (21:41 - 21:42)

Can I answer the question a bit more?

[Lara] (21:43 - 21:43)

Please.

[Kat] (21:45 - 22:47)

So we were pretty determined from our, since we set ourselves up, but we wanted to be collaborative with other burns in Australasia and globally, but it's a little bit harder. So we set up a pretty amazing line of communication with Blazing Swan really early on, and so we formalised a skills exchange with those guys in 2023. And Karl and I went over as part of that first skills exchange and learnt some event management from their amazing event manager, Vida, and we had now got cross, not cross-contamination, cross-pollination with Blazing Swan, who have invited us back, and we've got about six people from Tasmania going this April as part of ranger and event management, which is really exciting, and they like to send people to us as well.

So there's some amazing skills exchange, upskilling, supporting each other in burning culture there. I believe we've got a similar thing going on with Underland, which Karl can probably talk to.

[Karl] (22:47 - 23:44)

Yeah, I've volunteered with Underland for three years now, so I was part of the effigy build team two years in a row and then part of SPAM, as they call it, last year.

So that's been really good, just being on the ground and sort of seeing a paddock go from just a couple of cars and a tent to a full event and then back out of the way again. I learnt a lot just by being on the ground there and met a lot of the awesome people who help run CAV, and they were really helpful when we were getting set up. They've got some really smart people who know a lot about the legal structures and the insurance and all that, so they've helped us a lot too.

Yeah, PY came and helped us out from them, some rangering and other things this year.

[Lara] (23:45 - 24:11)

There's definitely been some cross-pollination and collaboration with CAV on their documents as well, every time we need to create a document. CAV's just a few years ahead of us with their documentation and planning things, so I always reach out to the committee over there and just be like, what do you reckon, have you already made this doc?

Because is there any point in us making it if you've already made it? So that's lovely, to be able to not reinvent the wheel every time and have some collaboration.

[Kat] (24:12 - 24:35)

Yeah, similarly we do that with Blazing Swan as well, and we've got a really good skills exchange with the ranger team over there and our ranger team.

And I mean, as Lara said, CAV is a couple of years ahead of us, Blaze is like 10 years ahead of us, so trying to work out what is useful for the scale and size of our event versus theirs has been a little bit of a learning curve for me as well.

[Stevan] (24:36 - 25:03)

Yeah, you guys are well-travelled and also very committed to learning more and skill-sharing and knowledge-sharing. So yeah, well done, and that's probably why Aurora was so successful, transferring those skills and ideas across.

Let's take our first break, let's go for a break. What we'll do is during the break we'll play some of the Burner voice messages, Aurora in 2025, and we'll be right back and we'll talk more about the shenanigans and other stuff.

[Shasta] (25:06 - 25:29)

Hi Burners, my name's Shasta, field name is Rex, short for Tyrannosaurus, and we're here in Tasmania for our second official annual regional Burn, and it is looking a little grey, a little soggy, but the ground is dry and so are we. I don't know if that bodes well or not, but we've got five days to find out.

[Alex] (25:43 - 25:53)

It's Alex, and I want to give a big shout-out to Ash for all the organising they've done here at the Burn for Aurora, and I also want to shout-out to Mead for making honey even better.

[Anita] (25:58 - 26:15)

Hi Burners, my name's Anita, this is my very first Burn, just about to start. I am braced, I think that is the best definition, and I am ready for what's coming, and I have one goal, one goal only, and that is to not be a sparkle pony.

[Stevie] (26:20 - 26:45)

Hey, this is Stevie Fancy Pants, and I'm just here at Aurora 2025 down in Tasmania. We are an hour out of Nipaluna, and it's a beautiful place, nice flat land in Tasmania, which is rare, and I'm just here to give a little shout-out to my brother, Big G, Big Grumbo, having his first Burn this weekend, and he's going to have a good time, and so are we.

[Stevan] (26:48 - 26:58)

Okay, we're back.

I want to talk about the survival guide, but before we do that, let's get a quick description or a poem or a haiku or whatever about Aurora Burn. How would you describe it?

[Kat] (26:58 - 26:59)

Brilliant.

Fun. Crazy.

[Lara] (27:00 - 27:02)

Collaboratively down to earth.

[Kat] (27:02 - 27:33)

I've never seen so many adults just being themselves, maraudering through the paddock, having the best fun of their lives, chasing each other in a game of assassins, sprinting until they literally can't breathe anymore and getting tagged like they're in a game of chasey, then pivoting to a dating game, which ends in the crowd singing zombie to PY, which ends in a midnight, three firefighters in full fire kit bursting out of the mini bar fridge that is a tunnel to another dimension.

[Lara] (27:34 - 27:45)

Oh, and then throw into that the aftermath, the waking up in the morning feeling quite sore and sorry for yourself and being able to go into the arms of strangers because it was super supportive.

[Kat] (27:46 - 27:54)

I think Karl described to me at one stage having more things to do than he could do at once and being very sad about that.

[Karl] (27:55 - 28:27)

Yeah, I remember at one point I was like, I really need a nap and went to my van and I think within five minutes the FOMO was just unbearable and I couldn't sleep.

So I was like, I've got to get back up. There's too much to do. There's so much happening.

Yeah, I think a moment that really stands out for me was someone said to me, first time burner, oh, everyone's playing. I think I really get it now. I remember being a kid and being really sad that adults don't play and that one day I was going to grow up and no longer be able to play, but now I'm here, I can play again.

[Lara] (28:28 - 29:24)

There was one moment at Kangaroo Court, which is where you take your grievances and air them publicly. My mum was called to the stand. Oh, my mum came to the burn.

That's a whole other story. She was accused of parking outside the lions. She got dressed up in her beautiful attire and came with a list of evidence and a representation at why she didn't park outside the lions.

She had photo evidence with a fake lion's head, like a teddy bear head in the shape of a lion, clearly not outside the lions. She had been giving me chocolates and lollies and stashing them in my pouch because I was dressed as a pig with a pouch. She was saying, go and sweeten the crowd.

We don't know who's going to be judging me. Go and sweeten everyone. This is so fun to see that playfulness from a mature adult being able to be playful again.

It was really lovely to see.

[Stevan] (29:24 - 30:03)

Okay, so let's talk about the survival guide. It was interesting reading it, even though I didn't go, but some of the things I want to talk about first is this is not a festival.

So that was pretty much in print on the first page. The other thing was the 11 principles of consent was also highlighted. It also talked about the site.

It's a private residence in Buckland. Some of the key events, like you talked about the effigy, the temple, and also a town hall. So you announce all those activities, key events.

There's no pets or drones or lasers. And no water as well? You had to bring your own water?

The site's not self-contained?

[Kat] (30:03 - 30:21)

Yeah, I mean, radical self-reliance. Everyone has to bring their own water.

We trucked in three IBCs, so 3,000 litres for crew and firefighting. But, yeah, I mean, you could have drones and you could have lasers. You just had to have the appropriate permits and be competent.

[Lara] (30:22 - 30:28)

And it's just a paddock that we're in. There's no facilities there. It's just a sheep paddock, and we're not there.

Surrounded by beautiful forest, though.

[Kat] (30:28 - 30:36)

Yeah, bird nerds were very excited. There's a lot of really fantastic wildlife opportunity watching there.

It's good fun.

[Stevan] (30:37 - 30:40)

And why was it important to emphasize that this is not a festival?

[Kat] (30:40 - 30:42)

It's interesting you say that.

I'll show you. Go, Lara.

[Lara] (30:43 - 30:56)

I was going to say, there's a fairly good little doff scene down here.

We wanted to make sure that it was pretty clear that that's not what you were getting into. It was one of the reasons I think by putting that on the front page that it was important. But there are more.

Kat, you go.

[Kat] (30:56 - 32:01)

I think there is definitely a rhetoric within Australian burner culture that burns tend to be an event rather than a festival. Festivals are perceived as something that you rock up to and you get entertained.

You pay your money. You see a band or you see an act. You know, things are provided for you.

And I know that the rhetoric, particularly on mainland food, some of the burns is, you know, that's a misconception that we want to address up front. And so we've very much taken the lead from places like Blaze and Underland, which have that very much forefront in their mind. And as Lara said, we've got a bush doff scene down here, which is thriving and great.

And one of the other reasons I think we don't advertise Aurora very widely is we want people to hear about it because people have either been and they loved it or they're burners and they're passionate about the culture. So trying to, and this is a terrible word, but enculturate people or each one teach one so that people can get a sense of what it is and not turn up with false expectations.

[Stevan] (32:01 - 32:02)

You've been converting people over.

[Kat] (32:03 - 32:04)

Hashtag not a cult.

[Stevan] (32:04 - 32:05)

Yeah.

[Lara] (32:05 - 32:25)

It has been one of the things we've focused on quite a lot in our first year and I guess as we grow as well, just making sure that we're maintaining our culture as we grow because we have such a thriving burner scene down here, but we don't want it to quickly become flooded with people who are just interested to check it out.

So it's been an interesting conversation to try and balance that.

[Stevan] (32:26 - 32:28)

And the 11th principle of consent as well.

[Kat] (32:28 - 32:42)

Yeah.

It's something that we all believe really firmly in. It's not so much a principle as a rule. It's one that many regional burns adopt and something that kind of underpins all of our actions and all of our democratic choices as well.

[Lara] (32:42 - 33:05)

Yeah. We chose to include it in the principle so that it would get the airtime that it deserves. We understand that the principles at their core, when they were originally designed for Burning Man, were contradictory in nature and a discussion point and not hard and fast rules.

But they do get the airtime and they do get discussed and shared around and we thought it was really important that consent be included in that conversation.

[Kat] (33:05 - 33:27)

One of the other things I'm really proud about with our committee and our community is we're making the 11 principles our own. And so we've actually adapted and updated and amended the wording of the principles to meet more where we think we are as a community and to explain in plain language more what we think our community need to hear.

[Stevan] (33:27 - 33:34)

The site of where you guys held the burn, the Pakana people. Hello, Pakana? Sorry, how do you pronounce it?

[Kat] (33:34 - 33:46)

It essentially means the same thing but it's two different words. It's a north region word Pakana or south region word Palawa. Palawa people or Pakana people, similar to West Australian Noongar.

[Stevan] (33:46 - 33:49)

Any significance to the land and the region?

[Lara] (33:50 - 33:58)

It's really hard to say. Tasmania was pretty much wiped out of its native population so there's not many stories and memories left, unfortunately.

[Kat] (33:58 - 34:30)

We are trying to work towards collaboration with Palawa mob. There are some really fierce and wonderful Palawa people in Tasmania still practising culture. They survived in the face of genocide.

But they're all very busy people and we've invited quite a few to come to the site and kind of tell us anything they know about the region. But as Lara said, people from this region in particular were wiped out in the genocide. So it's a slow process.

[Stevan] (34:30 - 34:38)

Yeah, and the land is on a basin, is that right? Or there's a lot of biodiversity. So what else can you talk about with the site, the land?

[Lara] (34:38 - 34:40)

A little creek that runs through it.

[Karl] (34:40 - 35:03)

Yeah, a little creek and some really cool sandstone caves just sort of up the creek where our crew camp is. And someone was able to make use of that to integrate some art which was really cool because it kind of wasn't part of the main site.

You kind of had to have someone whisper in your ear, hey, there's some art down that path and then go and try and find it.

[Kat] (35:04 - 35:52)

The land itself is in an incredibly biodiverse, rich region of the south east and it's flanked, the property itself is 10,000 hectares, but it's flanked on the north and the east of the property with high conservation land value. We have a place called Tasmania Land Conservancy, which their mission for the last 30 years is acquiring high conservation value land, either putting a covenant on it to protect it or restoring patches that are degraded, putting a covenant on it to protect it and then selling it on.

So to kind of give you an idea of how much wildlife and how easy it is to see wildlife if you do come to Aurora, the land all around it is considered really high value. Another thing that's really high value about our site is it's in Tasmania and there was an aurora at Aurora last year.

[Lara] (35:52 - 35:54)

Yep, and you can see it with the naked eye.

[Stevan] (35:54 - 35:59)

Yeah, cool. Let's talk about that. Did the pictures turn out well as well?

Because usually, yeah, you have to see it in its presence.

[Lara] (36:00 - 36:17)

You can take really good pictures of auroras, but you need to be patient and have a good tripod to be able to capture it well and not have a fun party to go to that you'd maybe prefer to go to. Because I know a few of us wanted to stand there and take pictures, but I'm like, there's an aurora.

That's cool. But also, there's an aurora. I want to go to that.

[Karl] (36:17 - 36:40)

Yeah, I had people telling me there was an aurora and one of the theme camps had set up some lasers that were shining on a hill to north of the site. So I thought they were just tripping out and talking about that, and I kept saying, no, those are lasers. There's no aurora.

Also, that's north. The aurora is going to be coming from the south. It never occurred to me to turn around and actually like see if there was an actual aurora.

[Kat] (36:41 - 36:44)

But there's photos. There's actually photos.

[Karl] (36:44 - 36:48)

Yeah, I saw the photos.

A lot of people strayed last night.

[Stevan] (36:51 - 36:55)

It's something that you're going to be promising again this year at Aurora 2026, you think?

[Lara] (36:55 - 36:56)

I mean, that time of year.

[Karl] (36:56 - 36:57)

Absolutely.

[Stevan] (36:57 - 36:58)

No promises.

[Lara] (36:58 - 37:00)

It's high chance, though, that time of year.

[Stevan] (37:00 - 37:03)

Once in a lifetime thing. So, you know, you can't look away.

[Lara] (37:03 - 37:15)

Well, not really because there's many. We have quite a lot of auroras. I was actually sitting on my deck only in January, just, you know, casually observing another aurora with the naked eye over the top of my head.

And I'm in suburbia in a major city.

[Karl] (37:16 - 37:24)

You could see it too. Yeah, I've seen two from my deck in Hobart City, not right in the city, but on the outskirts with the naked eye in the last 12 months.

[Stevan] (37:25 - 37:30)

Well, it's even more special to see an aurora at Aurora. So that's even better.

[Karl] (37:30 - 37:32)

What's some lasers do you think of an aurora?

[Stevan] (37:33 - 37:46)

Okay. What about the significance or the majestic of the effigy and the temple 2025 aurora? Let's talk about that.

The design and the features and all that, how it burnt and significance of it and all that.

[Kat] (37:46 - 38:22)

So Miles Bruni was our effigy lead and he built a really beautiful thylacine. And the story that he told me as to why he chose the thylacine was really profound.

He had like a vision dream where he was asleep one night and he was a thylacine and he was being fed by a mum of thylacine and he had all this crazy stuff happen to him in his dream. And he woke up and he was like, oh my goodness, I think my spirit animal is actually a thylacine. So he dedicated the effigy to a thylacine this year.

[Lara] (38:22 - 38:35)

It was really cute to watch his daughter explain to me how the eyes were teapot lids. Is she about five maybe? She was so excited.

She wanted to show me how her dad had made it fluffy using branches. It was very impressive.

[Kat] (38:36 - 38:43)

Yeah.

He was also really excited to put some secret stuff in there. So when it burnt, it did different things as it went through the burn process.

[Lara] (38:44 - 38:54)

I think that was Myles' first big art burn.

He's certainly burnt big things before, but not specifically a sculptural art piece. So it was an interesting experience for him and us.

[Kat] (38:55 - 38:55)

Yeah.

[Stevan] (38:55 - 38:59)

And it's more of like a flat effigy, not like a tall kind of effigy.

[Kat] (38:59 - 39:35)

Yeah. We learnt some interesting things about having an effigy low to the ground without anything tall to fall gives a different energy.

And so one of the things we agreed as a committee or as a group is that in future years, it would be really handy to have something in the effigy component that does fall and it gives kind of like a finale component to the ritual. In contrast, our temple lead, Simon Young, one of our other co-founders designed and built this spectacular temple last year. It was a tesseract.

Is that right?

[Lara] (39:35 - 39:35)

Tesseract.

[Kat] (39:35 - 40:35)

And it kind of almost looked like an X-wing out of Star Wars.

If you looked at it from the right angle and you could walk through it, it was like a gate. It had infinity mirrors on the inside. He'd put all these beautiful crystals in it that caught the light at sunrise and sunset.

And he had it facing towards the rising moon. And we had chosen the dates of Aurora last year to match the full moon. So lots of significance and lots of symbolism and thought put into how it was built, how it looked, where it faced.

And it was profound for a group of people. I think almost half the people that came to Aurora had not been to a burn or burn-adjacent thing before, and they got the assignment. They were silent before the temple burn, and it was a really profound community bonding moment to hold each other, half of us bawling our eyes out, watching this spectacular piece of art go up in flame and take our anxieties and say goodbye to the people that we've lost.

[Stevan] (40:35 - 40:43)

Yeah, I saw the whole group shot, the whole community shot that you took in front of the hypercube, right, the Tesseract, I was saying. That was pretty cool.

[Lara] (40:43 - 40:49)

That's definitely not the whole crowd.

That's just as many as we could gather. It's a spiritual moment.

[Stevan] (40:49 - 40:52)

The other people were in the fourth dimension, right? They're in the other.

[Lara] (40:52 - 40:52)

Yes.

[Karl] (40:52 - 40:53)

Yeah.

[Stevan] (40:53 - 40:57)

Yeah, how was the temple and the effigy for you, Karl? What was your experience?

[Karl] (40:57 - 42:01)

Yeah, I had a lot of beautiful moments with the temple, both myself as an individual but also people relaying their experiences to me. I remember one person saying, like I think I'd explain to him, like I'll do some paper. You can write a note and leave it in here, and they said they started writing and just couldn't stop and were crying and wrote out two or three pages to stick in the structure, and yeah, it's really beautiful hearing something like that.

Like, yeah, people really got the assignment, as Kat said. It was a really beautiful structure, and I remember there was a little sign in there with a little placard that said, Do You Realize?, which is one of my favourite songs by The Flaming Lips, but I just thought someone had put it in there randomly. I didn't think much of it.

And then after the temple burned, Simon, the temple lead, went back to his theme camp to start his set, and in the middle of the silence, Do You Realize?, by The Flaming Lips, he just started playing and broke the silence over the crowd, and I was like, oh, he's thought of everything, Simon. He knows what he's doing.

[Lara] (42:02 - 42:19)

Simon is writing some guidelines for us at the moment to help with the next temple and effigy structures to make sure that it's easy for whoever wants to bring an idea to life to do things well and safely.

Those guidelines will be out soon.

[Stevan] (42:19 - 42:26)

So after the burn, there was a big rave afterwards. How many theme camps did you guys have, like sound camps and stages and stuff like that, just the one or several?

[Kat] (42:27 - 42:27)

Five?

[Lara] (42:28 - 42:29)

Yeah, I think so.

[Kat] (42:29 - 42:34)

Five sound camps and 12 theme camps or 11 theme camps?

[Karl] (42:34 - 42:34)

Yeah.

[Kat] (42:34 - 42:37)

I know Stevan sounds like he's got the event guide. He could read them out for us.

[Stevan] (42:38 - 42:39)

Not on me, though.

[Karl] (42:40 - 43:00)

Yeah, there were a couple of theme camps that were just one or two people, and then there were ones that were, like, 20-plus. Huge diversity of theme camps was really cool to see. Like, yeah, we had a few sound camps, but then we had a D&D camp, a camp of people who were – the Trusty Tavern, was that it?

[Lara] (43:00 - 43:01)

Trusty Tankard.

[Karl] (43:01 - 43:16)

Trusty Tankard. So they were medieval themes.

They were giving out quests for people to do. Some people were really, really involved with the quests. Like some people were just questing all weekend.

There was a post office. There were two Western bars.

[Kat] (43:17 - 43:18)

The tuck shop was a highlight.

[Karl] (43:18 - 43:25)

Oh, yes, the tuck shop. Yeah, that was a highlight. Yeah, a lot of creativity and diversity, which was really cool.

[Stevan] (43:26 - 43:27)

A lot of cook-ups as well, I saw.

[Lara] (43:28 - 43:34)

Yeah, boomers and broomsticks were always cooking up some food and had the kettle on. Come and learn how to do some broomstick crochet of yarn.

[Kat] (43:35 - 44:22)

There was actually so much food. There was a noise camp, sound camp that did only day parties, and they called themselves Day Care, and they did crepes and kombucha and other types of food while they were spinning tunes. The tuck shop was incredible.

It was like 1990s eat your heart out primary school tuck shop. You could go up and write your name and your order on a brown paper bag, party pies, sausage rolls, fizz whiz, and then it would get delivered to you somewhere on the paddock at 1pm each day. And then they also did a nine-course degustation, but there was a twist, which you're going to have to come to find out what the twist was, but I didn't expect it.

I was sitting next to Karl when we went to this degustation, and I was like, I'm here with my jants and my fancy jacket. No, I got it wrong.

[Karl] (44:23 - 44:24)

I got it right.

[Kat] (44:25 - 44:26)

You did.

[Lara] (44:26 - 44:26)

I was so impressed.

[Karl] (44:26 - 44:30)

I turned up in my five-jacker and a 4X, if that gives any hints to the theme.

[Stevan] (44:31 - 44:32)

You were saying, Laura?

[Lara] (44:32 - 44:56)

I was just so impressed with the ability for both the tuck shop and the post office to find the recipients.

So Willem from the tuck shop was riding around on his motorised unicycle delivering the orders, which was quite a sight from a distance. And Mark, the postie, was able to deliver to the most obscure places and people, not leaving a letter unsent or unreceived. It was very good.

[Karl] (44:57 - 45:20)

And there was some great unexpected synergy between the camps too. Like Mark from the post office became really pally with the trustee tab and the quest givers. And I don't think he'd met any of them before, but he kind of just became like an unofficial member of their camp and was, you know, helping give out the quests, playing subterfuge for other people who were trying to do their quests, just getting very involved.

It was great to see.

[Stevan] (45:21 - 45:23)

What about the arts around the paddock? What were some of the memories?

[Kat] (45:24 - 45:48)

There was an incredible light installation at the cave where somebody had put these giant butterflies that illuminated at night hanging over this incredible sandstone cave that looked like, you know, those really, I call them cheesy, 1970s, 1980s sand art. We do different coloured sand in layers. It's a cliff face that's like 14, 15 metres tall that looks like that.

[Stevan] (45:48 - 45:52)

Did you guys utilise the cave as an event space as well or you couldn't do that?

[Kat] (45:52 - 46:06)

A little bit. There was the art installation and then someone started a rumour that there was going to be a goth rave at midnight on Sunday there.

So a bunch of us went. There was not a goth rave, but somebody saved the day by reading out bad goth poetry instead.

[Lara] (46:06 - 46:25)

We were a little bit lacking in art spread around the paddock last year.

I think a lot of people were focusing on theme camps, but we didn't have any way to help people bring their ideas to the paddock last year. This year we have art grants available, so hopefully that'll get some ideas off the line and into reality.

[Kat] (46:25 - 46:32)

There was some cute art, the Leave No Trace, that got altered each day to say a different thing.

That was pretty cute.

[Lara] (46:32 - 46:34)

Oh, I didn't notice it was getting altered.

[Karl] (46:34 - 46:35)

Yeah, I didn't notice it was getting altered.

[Kat] (46:38 - 46:55)

Somebody did this incredible inflatable balloon art, which I'd seen at Burning Man in 2011 and I haven't seen since. So it was just really nostalgic for me to see whatever, like 300, 400 balloons with LEDs in them, during the Aurora apparently also.

[Lara] (46:56 - 47:16)

Yep, that was fun.

That was Alex and Ness. I was also going to do the same idea, but when I saw that they were doing it, we collaborated and combined forces. Yeah, that was fun.

Yeah, we finished setting it up and then we turned around and we're like, what is the light in the distance? Is that a real Aurora? We just set up a fake one with balloons and there's a real one?

How rude.

[Stevan] (47:16 - 47:19)

You can call yours a weather experiment and the real Aurora is behind you.

[Lara] (47:20 - 47:20)

Yeah.

[Kat] (47:21 - 47:34)

There was also an amazing amount of roving carts. So carts doing kombucha, carts doing really fancy obscure cocktails, carts doing, yeah, all sorts of stuff.

[Lara] (47:35 - 47:36)

Noodles?

[Kat] (47:37 - 47:42)

Noodles. Was there pizza as well? It was new with bacon, but that's always a given.

[Karl] (47:43 - 47:46)

I remember eating some pizza, but I didn't cook, so someone was doing pizza.

[Stevan] (47:47 - 47:49)

Yeah, and what other fuckery and shenanigans that happened around?

[Kat] (47:50 - 48:04)

Big Game of Assassin seemed to really get lots of people excited, riled up, angry, depths of despair and elated.

And I didn't take part in it, but watching people chase each other down and having tantrums when they got killed was hilarious for me.

[Karl] (48:05 - 48:18)

Yeah, and the Kangaroo Court, I think it became a highlight for everyone. There were a lot of cases brought forth.

Again, the wonderful mailman was out delivering summons to people. Yeah, a lot of fun was had there.

[Lara] (48:19 - 48:28)

Yep.

I like that it was at the same time every day in the morning, so you could roll around and know that that was happening. You could hear the yelling from a distance and laughing.

[Kat] (48:28 - 48:38)

I think at one point there might have been 200 people at the Kangaroo Court, possibly on the Saturday or Sunday, and you could hear the noise from the other end of the paddock.

It was wild.

[Stevan] (48:38 - 48:40)

So this is going to become a ritual, you think?

[Lara] (48:40 - 49:00)

I hope so.

There was also Krapioki at night time. Krapioki was a good fun time. As soon as it gets dark, you know that the sound machine will be turned on and you can hear some beautiful singers and some not-so-lovely voices having a really good time.

I got behind the mic once. It was a really fun time.

[Stevan] (49:01 - 49:10)

Yeah, there's no sound limitations in where you guys are situated?

And how does the sound travel? We did try to do placement so that no sound system was facing each other.

[Kat] (49:10 - 49:28)

We did have a little bit of a fail with this enormous sound system who are deeply obsessed with bass, and I fully support their obsession, but we placed that sound system too close to general camping, and bass is omnidirectional, so it didn't matter that we placed the speakers away from camping.

Everyone could hear it.

[Lara] (49:28 - 49:53)

That's an easy fix for next time, because we definitely want to have bass music back. Just make some placement moves.

But otherwise, I think we did a really good job with the sound camp placement. There wasn't much interference. It's in a little valley, a little basin area, like you said, so there's not a whole lot of potential to annoy people around.

The nearest neighbour is burn positive and probably would have just come around and joined the party if she wanted to.

[Kat] (49:53 - 50:56)

It was pretty fun. When I was scoping the site, I went and door knocked the neighbours, and the nearest neighbour happened to be home, and I was wearing, I don't know, the things I normally wear, which look like your burner, just as everyday wear.

So I took off my hat with my goggles, and I took off my neckerchief, and I took off my big chunky jewellery, and I got out of the car and went and knocked on the door and was like, hi, my name's Kat from People's Arts Collective, and we're doing this thing next door. It's kind of like a Rotary Club, but for nerdy artists, and we build art and we come together, and sometimes we burn it, and we're basically just a bunch of nerds. And she said, oh, is that like Burning Man?

I was like, oh, you've heard of it? She's like, oh, I've got Burning Man at my front doorstep? I'm so lucky.

Yeah, super burn positive, and the guy who owns the property is also really, really down for good, clean fun, so we're very, very lucky.

[Stevan] (50:56 - 51:13)

Well, at least you guys didn't get a God said no, so that's very positive, very inviting. What are the learnings and improvements?

We were talking about the Survival Guide earlier, some improvements there, I think. Putting leeches in the Survival Guide, you know, for people to watch out for.

[Kat] (51:13 - 51:19)

Tiger leeches are a thing, yes.

Leeches bigger than your thumb was an exciting discovery.

[Karl] (51:20 - 51:45)

Yeah, I think it's like we came up with a pretty long list of learnings and things we'd like to improve in our debriefs after, you know, placement, the whole layout. We sort of talked briefly about that.

That's one thing we want to have a look at, and, yeah, a few people commented that Survival Guide was a bit difficult to pause, so, yeah, there's some opportunities there. What else?

[Kat] (51:45 - 52:54)

We did have a big learning between Sparkadia and Aurora.

For all of us who have done a few burns, it's hard to understand what the culture looks like from the outside looking in because we're in it and we love it and we choose to do it. So Tasmanian is, you know, cold and not many people choose to wear a few clothes or get naked. And it had been a bit of an oversight, myself particularly, but others I'm sure as well, that we didn't put in the Survival Guide that there might be nudity and to expect that.

And so a big piece of feedback we got after Sparkadia is that somebody felt really caught unawares and, you know, isn't one of your principals consent and I didn't consent to seeing naked people? And we were like, oh, my goodness, that's actually a huge blind spot. Like, thank you so much.

So we made really big leaps and bounds in trying to make it up front, you know, it's okay to be nude. We celebrate and encourage it if it's done responsibly and with consent. Expect it around the fires after the Effigy in Temple burn.

But, you know, please, if you don't like nudity, don't be in these areas at this time.

[Lara] (52:54 - 53:27)

Yeah, a few learnings around community, communication with the community about rituals and ceremonies. We have a centre hub area which has our rangers and first aid and centre camp and it's a big stretch tent.

And we used it for town halls and a little bit of education, but it was maybe a little bit light on. We're going to look at doing a little bit more with that space next time and help enculturate and educate and just let everyone know about what they've got themselves into.

[Kat] (53:27 - 53:29)

And how to get themselves out again if they need to.

[Lara] (53:30 - 53:30)

Yes, exactly.

[Stevan] (53:30 - 53:36)

Yeah, the afterburn report as well. You guys are sort of like formalising it right now.

What are some key takeaways from that?

[Lara] (53:37 - 54:07)

That we did a really good job, mostly. On the whole, it was very positive and any of the things that were identified as issues have pretty clear solutions and pretty clear paths to get to those solutions.

And they're very achievable. There's nothing that we were blindsided by or like, wow, we didn't expect that and we can't deal with that. Like there was obviously a few things we didn't expect, but when those things happened, we were very capable of sorting through them and coming to a path out.

[Kat] (54:07 - 54:46)

Yeah, I'm really, really proud of the team. All events have curveballs that you don't expect. All events have something happen that you don't plan for.

And the significant things that happened to us for Aurora last year, whoever was on shift or whoever needed to respond to some of the curveballs that were presented to us acted brilliantly and we supported each other. We weren't interested in blaming each other or trying to work out, well, why did this happen in the first place? We all just banded together to fix it and then work out how we could solve it and prevent it from happening next time, which is just the best kind of place to do stuff.

[Karl] (54:47 - 55:21)

Yeah, everyone just works really well together. So, yeah, there were things that went wrong, but we all worked really well to work through them and we all came together afterwards and had a really long debrief on everything, good and bad, and like, hey, here's a bunch of stuff we should do for next time and sort of formed a plan to tackle all that over the next, I guess, nine months or so it is now. So, yeah, as Kat and Lara said, like a very clear path forward to achieving the things you want to achieve to improve the next one.

[Stevan] (55:21 - 55:30)

Okay, let's take another quick break and play some more Burner voice messages from Aurora and we'll be back to talk more about the PACT organisation and 2026 Aurora Burn.

[Stuart] (55:37 - 56:06)

Howdy there, folks, listening in out there around the world. This is Stuart from the Final Frontier. I'm just going to give a little yee-haw to all the scorpions, snakes, resident snake, frogs, what else do we have? We had leeches. It was good down in the swamp. It's a beautiful weekend.

And here's a shout-out to all the crew at the Final Frontier and everyone that came down to Aurora in Tasmania. Beautiful Tasmania.

[Marky-Mark] (56:14 - 56:33)

Okay, like here? Yep. Yep.

G'day, I'm Marky Mark, back again. I'm down in Tassie now. I've put my camera down and I am the postman.

I'm out here on site delivering messages. I've got a post office set up, got the letterbox here and just going around and delivering letters today.

[Storytime] (56:39 - 56:59)

Good day, everyone. I am Storytime Thegren. I am one of your gate gargoyles, one of the black sheep rangers, and I just wanted to thank the contingent from WA and from SA that came out to help from wonderful Aurora for its first inaugural.

So we had a great burn, good times, and we'll see you in the future. Aloha and be well.

[Rashaan] (57:04 - 57:26)

Hello, everyone.

This is Rashaan, a.k.a. Ranger Cinnamon Bun. I crossed the country to be down here at Aurora, and I would like to thank all of the beautiful strangers for their hugs and compassion, which made me feel like home here. And I'd also like to thank my steel chariot, my four-wheel drive Leila, for carrying me across.

[Stevan] (57:32 - 57:46)

Okay, welcome back. Let's talk about the structure, organisational structure of PACT, some constitutions, and how do you guys communicate? What platforms or channels do you guys use?

Do you guys use Signal or Slack or Facebook?

[Karl] (57:47 - 59:24)

Yeah, we use Facebook a fair bit for our external communications with the community. Internally, we're mostly using Slack.

We also just started using Asana for some task management, which Lara set up for us, and I think it's only been a few weeks now, but it seems like it's going to be a huge win for us. In terms of our structure, we're an incorporated, non-for-profit entity, which I did a lot of the groundwork getting that set up. It was something I'd actually researched a couple of years before we started PACT, so I knew a fair bit about it already.

And it differs a bit from state to state, but it's a fairly standard structure. And I think all the burns in Australia now under an incorporated, non-for-profit structure. From the very first meeting, we were all in steadfast agreement, but that was the structure we wanted.

We didn't want a proprietary limited. We wanted to craft our constitution in a way that was very clear that any profits coming in from events, fundraisers, et cetera, et cetera, were not to be used privately by members. They would be used for the community.

So we spent a lot of time, Kat and I, drafting constitution to spell it out very clearly. And it's like a standard template. You can just get off to government, which speeds things up a little bit.

But we made a few modifications to kind of make things a bit clearer in some spots or, yeah, be a bit more in line with our intent. What else can I say about that?

[Stevan] (59:24 - 59:27)

How many people in your committee on the board?

[Karl] (59:27 - 1:00:19)

Yes, we have six, which is sort of the standard in the template, like president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, plus two extraordinary committee members. But we are going to try and make a change in our AGM in a couple of weeks to make it so we can have a sort of more variable amount of ordinary committee members, so anywhere between one and four ordinary committee members as well as the four officers. And that we're hoping will just give us a bit more flexibility.

So if we have some really keen people who are like, hey, I'd really love to join the committee, we can sort of do that a bit easier. Or if we can't fill all the positions we need, we can still run our meetings and get our day-to-day business done. And, yes, it's sort of, you know, learning as we go.

You know, we might have to adjust the rules from every now and then, but it's pretty bog standard on the whole.

[Kat] (1:00:19 - 1:00:42)

It is something I'm proud of. We amended our constitution ever so slightly.

Karl found an anomaly in circular logic in one of the phrases. And so I think it's really good that we practise amending it and refining it and making sure that it's current and is fit for purpose. And if we do that most years we have an AGM, that's a good outcome.

Boring, bureaucratic, but good.

[Karl] (1:00:43 - 1:00:47)

Yeah, Kat and I love processes. We're all nerds.

[Lara] (1:00:47 - 1:00:58)

And I'm really grateful for their skill set and desire to do things in that area. It is not my idea of fun. I have my fun in other areas.

It's a good balance we have in our team.

[Stevan] (1:00:58 - 1:01:02)

Are you guys also submitting for the Burning Man regional status?

[Lara] (1:01:03 - 1:01:31)

We may or may not.

It's really uncertain what benefits we get out of doing so at the moment because everything with the regional network is kind of up in the air. So I know Burning Man themselves are having a conversation internally about what does the regional network look like because it's kind of grown beyond what it was initially designed for and the current structure doesn't support the needs of the regionals anymore. We didn't really think we could if we wanted to.

[Karl] (1:01:32 - 1:02:05)

Yeah, and that was something when we first formed we had a few conversations around it and I think we've really talked about it much since and I think the reason for that is we've only had two events so far so we've been very focused on making our events work, building our community, getting all the fundamentals really in place so that maybe after the next event if everything's going really well we can sort of start looking at something like that again. But like Lara said, we probably want to see some clarity on what's happening with that network before we put any real effort into it.

[Kat] (1:02:05 - 1:02:31)

My understanding of the regional network is five or ten years ago it was really useful for connecting Burns either cross-country or internationally for support, for shared resources, for upskilling or skill sharing.

I don't know if it's just because Lara knew so many people at Burning Seed, Karl knows people at Underland, I know people at Blaze, but we seem to have kind of done that naturally so the main benefit of being part of the regional, we kind of leapfrogged that.

[Lara] (1:02:31 - 1:02:45)

Yeah, and we also already know our regional representatives quite well from New South Wales and Victoria and they've been helping us so we've kind of unofficially been doing the things that a registered regional would do anyway.

[Stevan] (1:02:45 - 1:02:55)

Yeah, let's talk about the Bonza network.

You guys have made some appearances in the last two Bonzas so very committed to coming over and participating.

[Lara] (1:02:55 - 1:02:59)

Oh yeah, skill sharing is highly important.

[Stevan] (1:02:59 - 1:03:01)

Tell us about your experiences with Bonza.

[Karl] (1:03:01 - 1:03:41)

Yeah, I've been to the last two and I've found it extremely, extremely useful. I've met some great people there. I see a few people I already knew from Blaze or Underland but yeah, a lot of other wonderful people doing great things and I think the breadth and depth of the presentations is always really good.

There's always things that I haven't thought about or seen before. Yeah, I think it's a really important event to get all the organisers for Burns and Burn adjacent organisations together to network and learn off each other.

[Lara] (1:03:42 - 1:04:18)

Yeah, it's definitely that networking that I really appreciate because as an organiser of an event I sometimes don't get a lot of time to dream about my own things or my own things are very bureaucratic and kind of policy and procedure and a little bit dull but I can dream a little bit with other people at Bonza because we're all kind of doing similar roles.

I don't know, there's just more chance to have a chat after the presentations with each other as well and ask questions around what that cool thing was that I just learnt. It's really fun. It's a whole weekend we spend together, hang out and chat and listen to each other's special interests.

It's a good time.

[Kat] (1:04:18 - 1:04:57)

One of the things I appreciate about Bonza when we were invited, I had no idea it existed two years ago and being able to offer positions to other keen and interested people in our community and kind of show them that we value them, show them that we want to help them upskill or support them in whatever their goals, ambitions, dreams are and people have given us feedback that they're really touched that the PACT team are like, hey, you showed some interest. Do you want to come to this thing and build the burning community bigger in Australia and Australasia together?

So that's a really wonderful benefit and outcome of being invited to Bonza each year.

[Stevan] (1:04:57 - 1:05:07)

Yeah, you get a lot of new burners locally. So let's talk about the Tassie burner community.

What's the scene like and how big is it? A few hundred?

[Lara] (1:05:07 - 1:05:08)

At least, I reckon.

[Karl] (1:05:08 - 1:05:08)

Yeah.

[Lara] (1:05:09 - 1:05:25)

Quite a few people up the north. So Tassie's a bit divided with the north and south. There's not much going on in the middle of Tassie.

So there's pockets of population at the north and the south. But between us, I reckon, I don't know, I reckon we're probably pushing like 400 or 500 people that I know.

[Karl] (1:05:26 - 1:05:38)

Yeah, there's definitely people who have told us, people who live in Tasmania like, oh, I haven't been able to make it.

Yeah, I really hope I can make it to the next one. We know there's more out there that haven't made an appearance at Sparkadia or Aurora.

[Kat] (1:05:38 - 1:06:11)

Some of the interesting feedback is one pocket, I mean there's quite a few pockets in Tasmania, but one pocket in particular is a little bit anti-technology and have been more successful in getting off things like Facebook and Instagram than other populations or people centres.

So a big piece of feedback we got after Aurora from them was put up posters, please, for the love of God, so that we know it's coming. We don't look at social media. We don't like looking at emails.

So there's been some interesting waves of like, oh, okay, cool. Great to hear from the community. Maybe we'll do some posters this year.

[Lara] (1:06:11 - 1:06:19)

Yeah, if there's any Melburnians or Sydneysiders listening, just think back to like 20 years ago. That's kind of what Tassie's like.

[Stevan] (1:06:20 - 1:06:37)

Yeah, so what other ways are you looking to attract new burners that are adjacent, that has the attitude, that has the passion to burn, like cross-pollinating with other Doof cultures around there or dark mofo or other events?

[Lara] (1:06:37 - 1:07:02)

Yeah, we've naturally done a little bit of that because like Kat said before, everybody knows everybody in Tasmania. So someone knows someone who's part of this event and that crowd. So mainly just talking to people, just doing face-to-face interaction and communication seems to be our best way of engaging with new community members so far.

[Kat] (1:07:02 - 1:07:41)

And we're not out to grow quickly. You know, we just want to grow well and at a pace that we want to sustain the culture of the community that we've started to grow. So, you know, we're not putting posters up on the back of nightclub doors and we're not posting on the Doof Facebook pages of Tasmania.

As Lara said, it's very much chatting to somebody at another event or meeting somebody through some other process. And if they seem cool and if they have ideas and they're like, I've always wanted to build this thing or I have this dream of dressing up like a prawn and scooching across a paddock, be like, I have the place for you, my friend.

[Lara] (1:07:42 - 1:07:58)

Kat made us a bunch of stickers last year to hand out to people.

So I just kept a stack of them in my pocket. And when I was out interacting with people, if they're like, what do you do? I'm like, hmm, can I start talking about Aurora yet?

I'll sneak it into a bit of conversation. And if they pick up on it, they get a sticker.

[Stevan] (1:07:58 - 1:07:59)

There's a cool sticker as well.

[Lara] (1:08:00 - 1:08:00)

Yeah.

[Stevan] (1:08:00 - 1:08:07)

And what about the burning pubs? That's a good way to sort of like getting to know the key players or the behind-the-scenes people.

[Lara] (1:08:07 - 1:08:41)

Yeah, it's a good little touch point in the community too because it happens the same day in the month, every third Thursday of the month. So it's a regular catch-up. Sometimes it's just a couple of us.

Sometimes it's 40 people, maybe. Oh, yeah, there was one that was like 40 people. But it's just a casual hangout and maybe we'll engage with some people who are hanging out at the pub or the park as well.

Like, what are you guys hanging out for? And we'll start a conversation. But it's mainly just for the people who already know what we're about just to come and touch point with each other and not feel like you're all alone because it can feel a little bit dark and lonely through the winters sometimes.

[Karl] (1:08:41 - 1:08:55)

Yeah, it's really useful if someone messages us on Facebook or sends us an email sort of saying, hey, I'm interested, but what's this about? Rather than having a big back-and-forth electronically, you can say, hey, come to the pub next week and we can tell you everything you need to know.

[Lara] (1:08:56 - 1:08:57)

Talk your ear off.

Buy your beer.

[Stevan] (1:08:58 - 1:09:01)

And desires for, like, fundraisers to spread the engagement throughout the year?

[Lara] (1:09:02 - 1:09:18)

Haven't managed to pull any off so far.

There's been lots of talks about having a Recon Population Party after the burn. And I know that some of the theme camps are talking about doing some fundraisers. But I don't think anything's quite gotten off the ground yet.

We're still very young.

[Karl] (1:09:18 - 1:10:00)

Yeah, I think in terms of the PACT committee, we sort of have put a lot of effort into the event. And then in the weeks after Sparkadia, there was a lot of excitement to run a decompression.

And then sort of a couple weeks after, our energy quickly ebbed as we realised how tired we were. So, yeah, I know, like, in Victoria, for example, Melburners generally would run the decompression. So it's a different group running those events and fundraisers to CAV, which I think is a really good model because then you have the people who are tired from just running the burn don't have to now run an afterparty.

But, yeah, we don't have something like that in Tasmania yet.

[Kat] (1:10:00 - 1:10:28)

Oh, we'd love some fundraisers. There's some great spaces to do it around Hobart.

There's some great spaces to do it in Launceston or up in Burnie. I think there's an appetite for it. But as Karl and Lara said, it's another thing to organise.

And the committee are very – plates are full. So if anybody in Tasmania is listening who thinks they might want to contribute by running a party as a fundraiser for PACT, we are all ears.

[Stevan] (1:10:29 - 1:10:47)

Yeah, fundraisers are more for the community to sort of like generate.

But, yeah, you guys have got a lot of things on your plate already. Let's move on to the next segment, a fun segment. I've actually designed a little Southern Light Aurora trivia.

And this is like a true or false, so it's pretty easy. You guys want to play along?

[Kat] (1:10:47 - 1:10:47)

Sure.

[Stevan] (1:10:48 - 1:10:58)

All right, cool. So true or false? I've got some statements here.

Let me know if it's true or false. It's about auroras. So the first one is you can hear auroras.

Is that true or false?

[Kat] (1:10:58 - 1:10:58)

False.

[Karl] (1:10:59 - 1:10:59)

True.

[Stevan] (1:11:00 - 1:11:02)

True. Okay. True or false, Lara?

[Lara] (1:11:03 - 1:11:05)

If you're close, if you're really close.

[Stevan] (1:11:06 - 1:11:06)

Yeah?

[Karl] (1:11:06 - 1:11:07)

Yeah, see in the atmosphere.

[Stevan] (1:11:08 - 1:11:20)

Well, according to the internet, it's false. Scientists have recorded faint crackling sounds under specific conditions, but it's incredibly rare, they say. So I'm not too sure about whether it's true.

You can hear the crackling?

[Lara] (1:11:20 - 1:11:30)

I mean, if you've got a really sensitive microphone, because the molecule is moving, right? So it'd have to make some kind of audible noise, but it'd be very faint.

[Karl] (1:11:30 - 1:11:34)

I don't know if it could be heard by the human ears, but it's probably making some kind of noise.

[Stevan] (1:11:36 - 1:11:44)

Yeah, well, that's a project for the audiophiles out there. Second, true or false, whistling at auroras will bring you bad luck.

True or false?

[Kat] (1:11:45 - 1:11:45)

False.

[Stevan] (1:11:46 - 1:11:49)

Did anyone whistle at auroras when you guys were out there?

[Karl] (1:11:49 - 1:11:53)

I actually can't whistle, so I don't have to worry about this.

[Lara] (1:11:53 - 1:12:00)

I heard a few, like, dog cry noises, but no whistles. So maybe the wrong side of the collar.

[Stevan] (1:12:01 - 1:12:08)

From my research, it's false. So you can feel free to whistle. It won't affect the lights, but it'll probably confuse people while you're whistling.

[Kat] (1:12:08 - 1:12:10)

Whistling in a theatre, on the other hand, that brings you bad luck.

[Stevan] (1:12:11 - 1:12:11)

Right.

[Lara] (1:12:12 - 1:12:17)

Even if it's whistling in a good way at a good thing, oh, man, I've just stopped doing it.

[Stevan] (1:12:18 - 1:12:28)

Whistle how at the auroras, yeah, doesn't do anything. Aurora Australis is most often visible during the winter months when nights are longer and skies are darker.

[Lara] (1:12:28 - 1:12:29)

True.

[Karl] (1:12:29 - 1:12:29)

True.

[Kat] (1:12:30 - 1:12:34)

I mean, both auroras I saw were in autumn, so I don't know.

[Stevan] (1:12:34 - 1:12:41)

Yeah, you guys are stretching out the seasons, huh?

Something to do with global warming or climate change or something?

[Kat] (1:12:42 - 1:12:43)

That's for sure.

[Lara] (1:12:44 - 1:12:49)

Yeah, everything's about three months behind.

None of my dahlias are out in flower yet, and they should have been out in flower months ago.

[Stevan] (1:12:49 - 1:13:06)

Yeah, the answer is true. During the cooler months from March to September, particularly clear nights after 10 p.m., they say, to 2 a.m. around that time, with low humidity and the new moon also enhances visibility. So if you've all got that going on, yeah, good view.

[Lara] (1:13:06 - 1:13:15)

We're holding our burn through a waxing, waning, oncoming to the full moon, so it'll be a little bit brighter than a new moon.

[Stevan] (1:13:15 - 1:13:20)

Okay, number four, question four.

Auroras are spirits of the dead. True or false?

[Lara] (1:13:21 - 1:13:23)

I mean, dead chemicals in the atmosphere?

[Stevan] (1:13:24 - 1:13:26)

This is an interesting one. It's a fascinating one.

[Karl] (1:13:26 - 1:13:29)

Some culture somewhere on the planet that's fought that at some point in history.

[Stevan] (1:13:30 - 1:13:54)

Yeah, you're right. How can you contest that? Yeah, so, well, it's a myth, but scientific, it's just particles.

But yeah, you're right. Some indigenous cultures believe in that, the Maori culture, Australian Aboriginal culture, and early European settlers often interpreted the southern lights as a bad omen, predicting disasters or conflicts, signs of impeding doom or significant events.

[Lara] (1:13:55 - 1:14:11)

I mean, I understand why, because if you've ever seen a mass coronal ejection, which is where the sun spurts out a big fireball, it's pretty scary, and that's what causes an aurora.

So I can understand why people would think it's the end of the world, if they understand that part of it.

[Stevan] (1:14:12 - 1:14:24)

Well, I guess back in those primitive times, people didn't know what they were looking at. So yeah, interesting.

Okay, the most common colours of auroras are green and red, with occasional blue, pink and purple hues. True or false?

[Lara] (1:14:24 - 1:14:24)

True.

[Kat] (1:14:25 - 1:14:25)

True.

[Stevan] (1:14:25 - 1:14:27)

Did you see all those colours out there?

[Karl] (1:14:27 - 1:14:29)

Yeah, I've seen them all various times.

[Kat] (1:14:29 - 1:14:32)

Yeah, I mean, you were down in the Antarctic.

[Karl] (1:14:32 - 1:14:35)

I didn't see any when I was down there. I've only seen them in Tassie.

[Stevan] (1:14:36 - 1:14:43)

And what was the shape? What's the regular shape, normal shape of an aurora? It's like a little wave with, like, columns coming off it.

[Karl] (1:14:43 - 1:14:47)

Sometimes it's kind of like this, it's a column coming straight down at you.

[Lara] (1:14:47 - 1:14:59)

The one that was over my house was like waves, like waves, as if I was laying underneath the ocean and looking up above the rippling water and the whole sky was rippling.

[Karl] (1:14:59 - 1:15:06)

Yeah, sometimes it's kind of like ripples of light that just go through the sky, and other times it's kind of coming out of the sky, right at you.

[Stevan] (1:15:06 - 1:15:23)

Yeah, the colours result from different gases in the atmosphere being excited by solar particles and oxygen producing the green light at lower altitudes and red light at higher altitudes. People say it looks like curtains or arcs, spirals in the sky. Is that how you describe it?

[Karl] (1:15:23 - 1:15:26)

Is that a good analogy?

[Kat] (1:15:26 - 1:15:28)

I've got a true or false for you.

[Stevan] (1:15:28 - 1:15:33)

Okay, the last one.

The phenomenon is named after Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora.

[Kat] (1:15:34 - 1:15:34)

True?

[Karl] (1:15:35 - 1:15:36)

Aurora Australis, I'm going to say false.

[Stevan] (1:15:37 - 1:15:48)

It's true. The term Australis is Latin for southern or off the south, so Aurora Australis is southern lights. Yeah, it's named after the goddess of dawn.

[Karl] (1:15:49 - 1:15:49)

Okay.

[Kat] (1:15:50 - 1:15:55)

I've got a true or false for you. Is every Tasmanian on the Aurora Australis alert app?

[Karl] (1:15:55 - 1:15:56)

You couldn't hear that, Kat.

[Lara] (1:15:57 - 1:15:59)

Your audio is cutting out, Kat.

[Kat] (1:15:59 - 1:16:05)

Oh, bugger.

Is every Tasmanian on the Aurora Australis alert app?

[Stevan] (1:16:05 - 1:16:06)

No, I'm not.

[Lara] (1:16:07 - 1:16:14)

You're not Tasmanian?

Are you? Something I don't know? Are you coming to Tasmania?

Everybody that I know is.

[Karl] (1:16:16 - 1:16:16)

I'm not.

[Lara] (1:16:17 - 1:16:20)

Oh, Karl, what's wrong with you?

[Stevan] (1:16:20 - 1:16:21)

What does the app do?

[Lara] (1:16:21 - 1:16:47)

It tells you when a K, I think it's a K index. KP index is higher than a certain level, because that's when you can see them.

So I think it's 0 to 1 to 7 or something scale, 9 to scale. And there's a certain point where the index is high enough for you to be able to see it with the naked eye, and it just pings the group and says, go and look outside tonight.

[Stevan] (1:16:47 - 1:16:49)

Ah, that's handy.

[Lara] (1:16:50 - 1:16:50)

Yeah.

[Stevan] (1:16:50 - 1:17:01)

Yeah, cool. All right, so let's talk about Aurora 2026.

What do you guys have planned for this coming year? And you also have dates for it as well, so well done. Congratulations.

But no tickets yet?

[Karl] (1:17:01 - 1:17:02)

Not quite yet.

[Lara] (1:17:02 - 1:17:02)

Soon.

[Kat] (1:17:03 - 1:17:22)

Yeah, I thought planning a date early and letting people know as soon as possible. Because we are so far away, even with cheap tickets, people need to be able to plan. They need to be able to take time off work.

It's a long way to travel if you're going to take a car. So giving people as long as possible was important to us.

[Lara] (1:17:23 - 1:17:43)

It was also something that came out of the theme camp debrief that our theme camps would like to know as soon as possible because they all have uni and other events and other things that they want to do because they're all very engaged and creative people.

So they would like to know so that they can definitely come to Aurora. So we set the dates. The dates are the 18th to the 23rd of November.

[Stevan] (1:17:44 - 1:17:44)

And do you guys have themes?

[Lara] (1:17:44 - 1:17:46)

We haven't set a theme.

[Kat] (1:17:47 - 1:17:47)

Not yet.

[Karl] (1:17:47 - 1:17:48)

No, not yet.

[Kat] (1:17:48 - 1:18:14)

I think Karl has said it already, but the focus of getting the event up and happening and safe and having enough people to lead departments and fill shifts so that we've got people being checked in and we've got rangers and we've got first aid people rostered on has consumed our energy. So when we've got that more bedded down and we have a few more people keen and on board year round, then we'll be able to do fun stuff like themes.

[Stevan] (1:18:14 - 1:18:20)

Yeah.

What are some of the other highlights that you want to share with us for this year for Aurora?

[Kat] (1:18:20 - 1:19:03)

It's going to be awesome. And people who are interested in building Temple and Effigy are already talking about what they might build.

They're excited about pushing themselves and getting some interesting aha moments in their burns. And people are already talking about theme camps. People are already talking about collaborating with their neighbours.

One really interesting thing that came out of last Aurora was people starting in one theme camp and then kind of by the end of the six days realising that they were much better suited to a different theme camp on the other side of the paddock. So I wouldn't say allegiance switching, but maybe people finding their tribe and working out where their passions really lie, which is really exciting. So you're seeing the fruit of that.

[Lara] (1:19:03 - 1:19:31)

We've got some more formalised collaboration with mainland theme camps as well. There's a theme camp that did one of the largest indoor or roofed structure in the Southern Hemisphere, I think the claim was. Our Flux theme camp, they're collaborating with one of the theme camps that normally kick around in Victoria.

That's fun. And my mum is returning. She is very excited.

She's been squirrelling away costumes and ideas.

[Stevan] (1:19:32 - 1:19:34)

And last year was her first burn?

[Lara] (1:19:34 - 1:19:36)

Last year was her first burn, yeah.

[Stevan] (1:19:36 - 1:19:37)

Amazing.

[Lara] (1:19:37 - 1:19:37)

Yeah.

[Stevan] (1:19:38 - 1:19:40)

What's her short take on it?

[Lara] (1:19:40 - 1:20:03)

She was very impressed with the level of organisation and the level of fun people were able to have in the safe environment. And just the quality of the connection she had and her partner, Brian, he was really impressed with how he could just have a chat to anyone and everyone wanted to listen.

He spent a lot of time by the fire having a yarn.

[Kat] (1:20:03 - 1:20:05)

I mean, who wouldn't want to talk to Brian? He's adorable.

[Lara] (1:20:06 - 1:20:06)

Yes.

[Kat] (1:20:06 - 1:20:24)

One of the things I'm really excited about are the art grants. They're small with the committee has approved grants of between $300 and $500.

But I'm really excited to see what a little bit of encouragement brings out in structures and artworks in the more general public area.

[Lara] (1:20:24 - 1:20:25)

Yeah, me too.

[Stevan] (1:20:26 - 1:20:35)

Yeah, now you guys have done like one or two burns now, getting some momentum.

So bringing a bit of cash as well, some funding for the community. So, yeah, that's great.

[Lara] (1:20:35 - 1:20:57)

Yeah, we want to feed as much of it back into community as we can.

We also want to hold some workshops in the build-up to Aurora so that if anyone, you know, hasn't built anything before and wants to learn how to sew or 3D print or weld or any of those kinds of skills, they have the opportunity to pick someone's brain and do some workshopping.

[Karl] (1:20:57 - 1:21:36)

I'm also really looking forward to the art grants. So Kat just said exactly what I was going to say.

I think one of the things I personally want to focus on is setting up our centre camp in a way that's a lot more like a centre camp where it's a really comfortable spot that people can come hang out in and maybe have a tea, do some yoga. And we probably made a bit of a strategic mistake with it last time and it was not in the centre. It was probably one of the issues.

But also I think there's a lot more we could do with the space to make it more inviting. So, yeah, that's something I'm excited to have a look at.

[Stevan] (1:21:36 - 1:21:43)

Okay, let's do some shout-outs, some gratitude.

Any shout-outs to anybody at the community team or anything you'd like to say?

[Kat] (1:21:43 - 1:21:57)

Big shout-out to Henry, our lead ranger, who just puts so much heart and work and effort into guiding our ranger team through some tricky things and some really fun things. Very grateful to have him on our team.

[Karl] (1:21:57 - 1:22:30)

I'd like to shout-out to Emma, our amazing volunteer lead and lead cook in the Lead Up Tour. I don't know what we would have done without her. And sort of related, shout-out to Tom, a total legend who drove his bus that was built in like the 50s that he's modified into a house that has solar panels and batteries.

He drove it to site and powered our kitchen and a lot of other essential things. So, yeah, so many legends come out of the woodwork for these things.

[Lara] (1:22:31 - 1:22:38)

I want to shout-out to Jacob, who took on DPI lead and site management and just kicked ass, got all those jobs done.

[Kat] (1:22:38 - 1:22:39)

Had a good time too.

[Lara] (1:22:40 - 1:22:40)

Yeah.

[Kat] (1:22:42 - 1:23:10)

I want to do a shout-out to all the theme camp leads.

It was an effort. It was a big effort. People really pushed themselves.

Flux pushed themselves really hard. Final Frontier just tripled in size and activities. And there were theme camps that had never been to Burns before, like Seffler's Inn and the Tuck Shop and Daycare, who just brought it.

They just really got the assignment and wanted to help build our culture and help build our community. So proud of them.

[Lara] (1:23:11 - 1:23:32)

Oh, and shout-out to Zellers, who did a really good job of keeping the relationship with the Tasmanian Fire Service on point and writing up lots of boring policies and procedures around fire, safe fire management, even though he reluctantly is engaged in organisational roles these days as he wants to be retired.

But we currently don't have anyone else to fill his boots.

[Kat] (1:23:33 - 1:23:45)

Big shout-out to the landowner, Ross. He is a total legend.

He loves a party. And he just had so much fun watching him and his family cruise around the paddock with a joy.

[Lara] (1:23:45 - 1:23:56)

Yeah.

They said that they would probably be going home at, you know, like 10, 11pm. They were there for 4am, having a great time. 6am.

[Kat] (1:23:56 - 1:23:57)

6am.

[Stevan] (1:23:57 - 1:24:00)

Well, next year he's going to bring his swag, right? So he doesn't have to go home.

[Kat] (1:24:00 - 1:24:06)

Well, he says he just lives over the hill. Like, it is his property. So, you know, that's on him.

[Stevan] (1:24:08 - 1:24:15)

Cool. All right. So how do we get in contact?

And, you know, what are your social details or how do we get in touch and stuff on our website?

[Kat] (1:24:15 - 1:24:32)

I'm so glad you asked. You can find us at auroraburn.org.au. And for those of us who are dyslexic and don't know how to spell Aurora like me, it's A-U-R-O-R-A, auroraburn.org.au. We've got an email address.

[Karl] (1:24:32 - 1:24:46)

The easiest one to use is info at peoplesartcollectivetas.org.au. And you can look up People's Art Collective Tasmania on Facebook or Instagram.

[Kat] (1:24:46 - 1:25:03)

We also have a newly minted newsletter. So if you're not on social media and you'd like to keep abreast of what we're up to and any shenanigans or plans or updates or ticket sales or art grants that you'd like to apply for, please sign up to our newsletter.

We'll be putting them out about four times a year.

[Lara] (1:25:03 - 1:25:16)

And if this podcast goes to air before our upgrades are implemented, we're currently in the process of upgrading our website. So it might be down when you go and search for it.

But just reach out by email in that case.

[Stevan] (1:25:16 - 1:25:32)

Okay, cool. Thanks very much for coming on the show and talking about Aurora and organising PACT and stuff like that.

Looking forward to seeing you guys on the paddocks somewhere in the future. What's the calendar look this year for you? Blazing Swan, I guess?

Africa burn or what's next?

[Karl] (1:25:32 - 1:25:35)

Kat and I are both going to Blazing Swan very soon.

[Stevan] (1:25:36 - 1:25:43)

Yeah, cool.

That's a great burn. I love the burn. It's my home burn.

So you're going to love it again.

[Lara] (1:25:43 - 1:26:02)

I haven't decided if I'm going to go to any other burns this year. Maybe Underland.

I might take a year at home, which I haven't done in 14 years, maybe? 16 years? I don't know, a long time since I've only ever gone to a single burn.

So we'll see if I get itchy feet and want to go anywhere.

[Kat] (1:26:03 - 1:26:18)

Can I do one more shout out? Do a massive shout out to the rest of our committee.

Nick, our secretary, Tiana, our extraordinary member and Simon Young, our other extraordinary member, worked so hard, put in lots of effort to help make this Aurora happen.

[Stevan] (1:26:18 - 1:26:35)

Yeah, cool. Hopefully we can get them on and further the story and the history of PACT and Aurora.

So we'd like to talk to them and other people as well. So, yeah, appreciate that, coming on for chatting. Excellent information, info, and straight to the pool room this episode.

So thank you.

[Karl] (1:26:37 - 1:26:37)

Thanks, for having us.

[Kat] (1:26:38 - 1:26:39)

Thanks, Stevan.

Thanks, PY.

[Stevan] (1:26:40 - 1:26:44)

All right, we're going to end with some more burner voice messages, I think. All right, thank you.

[Karl] (1:26:44 - 1:26:44)

Good night.

[Tim, Nick, Rashaan] (1:26:53 - 1:27:19)

You're standing here with Tim. And Nick. And Rashaan.

I'd like to do a shout out to everyone at the Blaze and a big thank you to the giant leeches that hang around here and have done us a solid and stayed the fuck away. Yeah, it's great. We don't always have such successful negotiations, but it was good peace talks.

And, yeah, the leeches got what they needed, and so did we.

[Shasta] (1:27:30 - 1:27:37)

Kia ora, family, and welcome home. Back to the paddock. Glorious.

Aurora. That burning feeling.

Transcripts transcribed by TurboScribe.ai