September 2026

Hello folks,

Here I share with you a peek behind the audio curtains of my first Audio Flux piece- a fluxwork– and the sonic whipping up of the sweetest of ingredients: local Ballarat community on the site of an old garage, sweet treats in cute food vans, a city-wide pie competition, an imagined radio ad, and my husband playing Pure Imagination on the trumpet.

Spoiler alert- I didn’t win! But I did have a lot of fun and wanted to share it with you- the three minute submitted version, and the five minute extended cut ; )

Thanks to Jimmy of Common Garage for the great title too ‘Custodian of the Corner,’ his role as he puts it in bringing us together at this humble place of local goodness, coffee and food.

(& I must apologise to Tobias Horrocks who on request sent me a fab review of his tour of this year’s pie competition- I couldn’t make it fit but I think you should have your own radio spot for your reviews!).

At Common Garage, Peel St Ballarat. Erika and Ellen in the van Betty selling Mrs Browne Bakes, including the winner of last year’s Ballarat Pie Competition with their sweet pie Raspberry Goldfields, yummm.

So I have taken part in various short audio challenges over the years with the likes of Radiotopia and All the Best Radio (most recently an ‘Audio Corpse!’ ala the surrealists, where producers from around the world were challenged to 2-3 minute sections of audio to a piece, without knowing what the others will add next. In a weird and wonderful turn of events the online listening party was on whilst I was travelling in Europe and I tuned in from a bed on an overnight train travelling from Istanbul to Sofia! and joined beautiful nerds from all over. ‘Hear the spontaneous and unpredictable results’ here.

Audio Flux, another audio wonder from Julie Shapiro, is an invitation to producers to respond to a theme and prompts to create “short form audio and bold storytelling.”

I had been wanting to submit an entry for a while but when the theme of Confectionary came up I knew it was my time… It was great to join a session with Julie and All the Best crew online to share some tips, inspiration and favourite deserts of course. You can watch back here.

Some takeaways in my notes included having a clear heart of the piece, playing with tone and expectation, and from hearing some past winning examples- just how much can fit in 3 minutes. I also loved the idea of a recognisable ‘sonic signature.’

The flux parameters for Circuit 8 were:

• Feature a conversation with someone you haven’t met before,who lives or works within one mile/kilometer of where you live or work.
• Mention chocolate or another sweet treat.
• Incorporate an audible sonic fluctuation (inspired by the repeated heating and cooling of the chocolate-tempering process).

The additional production challenge I gave myself was to create the story without using narration, a challenge to be sure!

Right, settling on a delectable atmospheric capture of award-winning sweet pies that were selling like…sweet pies ! out of a van around the corner, I grabbed my trusty zoom, jumped on my bike and headed down to the fab local café of food vans Common Garage with an open mind to where my travels might lead. I found myself chatting to punters at the big shared table, meeting their dogs and sharing their cookies. I also got to go inside Betty and chat to the lovely gals of Mrs Browne Bakes and bother Jimmy in his van Alice as he made coffees, and humbly received birthday gifts. I also couldn’t resist getting my pals at The Voice Over Guys involved to do an imagined ad for this annual Ballarat’s Best Pie comp and play with that style too. It was all very lovely and delicious.

Here is what I created and submitted! have a listen then more below.

In the end I had way too much content (and a kind of double or triple story of the pie comp/Mrs Browne Bakes/Common Garage) and the challenge of making it all hang together without narration. While it wasn’t perfect, I think I gave it a good crack using the throughline of Jimmy’s heating coffee machine and the trumpet of pure imagination to set the aural scene of community and wonder, and allowing the various voices of community to weave through and ultimately share a story of how community and food comes together in this special place in ye olde Ballarat. I also managed to get in the sound of the iconic Sovereign Hill Raspberry drops!

In the extended version you get to hear a bit more from Jimmy and the others and of the wonder that is Those Voice Over Guys (TVOG) with my silly pie script.

I do hope you enjoy having a listen (and transcript of spoken text below for the submitted version). Big thanks to all that shared their stories and skills! And Julie and co at Audio Flux for the prompt and opportunity to try some things out.

Voices featured: Jimmy at Common Ground, Ellen from Mrs Browne Bakes, Sally the sweet cookie and story sharer, and the legends at TVOG Dav and Reg- if you need voiceovers they are your guys! You might even see me around there recording some ads for them now and then ; )

Trumpet and production assistance by the one and only Julian Potter

Stay tuned for more as I cook up my new radio show and a return to Ballarat’s community radio station Voice FM, where I hope to share audio stories from around the world. Coming soon!!

 

Transcript of Custodian of the Corner

Amy Tsilemanis. Audio Flux August 2026

Sally: Taste test. Would you like some? We can try some.

Amy: Hello. I’ve been welcomed inside Betty.

Ellen: Welcome into Betty. We’re currently at Common Garage on Peel Street, and we’re selling out of Betty. Getting a few pies and cookies out there to the community.

Amy: And are they all sweet pies?

Ellen: Yeah, they are. We specialize in the sweet treats. The pies, it’s just like a cookie shell, and it’s encased with a beautiful, rich, silky filling.

patron: They’ve sold out of the one with all the sprinkles on it. Thank you. ’cause it was there.

Amy: Hey Jimmy!

Jimmy: What’s going on here?

Amy: How good’s this? What are you gonna get?

Ellen: The sparkly one that’s the Raspberry Goldfields. That was our Ballarat’s best pie. So yeah, we’re still making it a year later, and they’re still as popular as ever, but it’s really iconic to our raspberry drop here at Sovereign Hill.

Dav (radio): Let me take you to Ballarat. The regional goldfields town of Victoria recently crowned the happiest city in Australia, and home to the annual Ballarat’s Best Pie Competition. Last year’s winner was the creation of Erika Browne of Mrs Browne Bakes, with the raspberry goldfields cookie pie, inspired by ye olde Ballarat Sovereign Hill raspberry drops.   Scrumdiddlyumptious

Willy Wonka: Goggles on, please Lights, camera, action! Where’s the chocolate? It’s flying over our heads in a million pieces…

Ellen: I really love it here. Like, I think what Jimmy’s got going on here is so good for the community, and I just love being able to talk to everyone. And then also other people get to talk to each other. And the stories you hear about, like, ’cause I’ve been in Ballarat my whole life, so, like, hearing all the history about it and, my mum used to come here when it was a little milk bar so I think that’s cool.

Sally: So I love that he’s only got the big tables, and the fact that he gets in different trucks and, it’s a good mix. We’ve been coming here since he opened and so there’s people here that we see regularly, you know? And we just smile. “How are you going today?” And it’s, yeah, it’s nice to see regular faces.

Jimmy: I’m just the custodian of this corner that’s had a long history in Ballarat. It’s a place where everyone is welcome, regardless of where you’ve come from or what you do. And a place where hopefully we’re a place of genuine connection.

Amy: Beautiful. Thank you. Well, my cookie is waiting for me over there.

Jimmy: That’s the raspberry goldfields, and you are in for a treat.