The Lake Mac Way

What do Vancouver, Boolaroo, New York, Speers Point and Lusaka, Zambia have in common?

They have all, at some point, had the Pippa Budge touch.

Our Curator and Operations Coordinator at the Multi-Arts Pavilion (MAP) mima in Speers Point Park, Pippa has already lived a remarkable life – and she is only just getting started.

In this episode of The Lake Mac Way, she shares the lifetime of learning that comes from serving coffee in Africa to wandering the corridors of the world’s most famous art spaces, and choosing Lake Macquarie as the place to express yourself.

At the age of 20, Glenn Bunny climbed into bed after getting the phone call he’d been dreaming of and working tirelessly for.

He was going to tour Argentina as a professional rugby player.

Winning selection for legendary Super Rugby Club the Canterbury Crusaders was a major leap forward in his professional rugby career.

The start of something really big.

He’d been training under New Zealand’s best and there were whispers that, with more hard work and a dash of good fortune, he may even be mentioned at the All Blacks selection table.

It must’ve been hard to sleep that night.

It must’ve been even harder to sleep the next night.

Glenn blew his knee out in a club game the following day, quit university to devote nine months to intensive rehabilitation in a desperate bid make it back onto the pitch and rekindle his hopes.

He would last only minutes in his comeback match, only to look down and see a broken ankle and his All Black dreams shattered.

Glenn Bunny is now Lake Macquarie City Council’s Director of Development, Planning and Regulation, overseeing 150 staff and close to 1.5 billion dollars of development applications every year.

He sits down with Aaron Kearney in this illuminating and inspiring first episode of the Lake Mac Way.