Spike the Echidna a Little Wing Puppets production
When Main Streets Dream Lit Up Two Regional Main Streets
When Main Streets Dream turned two regional main streets into after-dark art trails in August 2026.
Tamworth's Fitzroy Street Plaza went first, on Saturday 8 August. Armidale's Beardy Street Mall followed a week later, on Friday 14 August. Over 140 people of all ages came out across the two nights, drawn by six large-scale projection and light works from local artists Nick Hunt, Daniel Stanley, Logan Hughes, Ethan Lazinos, Daniel Elliott and Pat Harris.
Tamworth, Saturday 8 August: Fitzroy Street Plaza became a canvas of moving light. Giant illuminated octopus tentacles and glowing jellyfish set the crowd's imagination alight. A curated run of projection experiences and interactive digital artworks turned familiar shopfronts into a dreamscape.
Armidale, Friday 14 August: :Beardy Street Mall had its turn a week later. Kids chalked up the pavement in the coloured light, and passers-by lingered longer as Jolly Good Emporium, Nanny McPhee's and Courthouse Coffee stayed open late, giving the crowd somewhere to eat and warm up.
Both evenings featured a stitched-together reel of the projection works, played on the big screen and scored live by Ethan Lazinos. A hush moved through the crowd as the music played under Big Sky Studio's Clara is Dreaming..., the sound moving with the animation as it played out large against the dark.
When Main Streets Dream was delivered through Arts North West's SustainABLE Communities Program, presented by Big Sky Studio's, Arts North West and Tamworth Regional Gallery. It was one of eight projects selected nationally through the Visa Vibe Grants Program 2026, delivered by Mainstreet Australia, with support from Create NSW
sTATUS
Program
YeAR oF dELIVERY
Project Information
Description
SPIKE THE ECHIDNA WRAPS UP SUCCESSFUL FIVE-VENUE TOUR OF THE NEW ENGLAND NORTH WEST
Little Wing Puppets' Spike the Echidna has completed its run across the New England North West, delivered through the Arts North West On Tour Program. The production visited five venues from 4–8 August 2026, bringing puppetry and storytelling to audiences in Boggabri, Gunnedah, Bingara and Tenterfield.
600 people attended across the region over the five-day tour, with full houses in Gunnedah and Bingara and intimate closed sessions in Boggabri and Denison Street.
Thank you to Little Wing Puppets, all participating venues, and our Local Government Partners for helping bring this production to the region.
LITTLE WING PUPPETS' 'SPIKE THE ECHIDNA' TOUR CAME TO THE REGION
Follow a baby echidna on his journey to find out where he belongs.… Stolen as an egg from his mother’s nest by a sneaky rat, the baby echidna hatches far away from home. A young girl, playing alone in the bush, finds him. She is there on her own because she is being bullied by other children. Because the baby echidna has no spikes yet, she doesn’t know what kind of creature he is. She tries to work out where he comes from, but accidentally puts him in dangerous situations – in the nest of a crocodile, an emu and a turtle. He feels frightened, rejected, alone. As the story unfolds, she helps him to discover where he belongs, and he helps her to find her own “spikes” and stand up to the bullies.
Spike is an interactive experience for a family audience, with lively original music by Mal Webb. It is entertaining and fun, as well as a catalyst for a discussion about difference and belonging. It’s also an exploration into the biology of Australian animals, especially the egg-laying echidna. After the performance there is a demonstration of shadow puppetry techniques, introducing children to a hands-on story-telling medium that is highly accessible to young people.
Spike was written in collaboration with acclaimed author Anne Brooksbank, whose work has been shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Children’s Books 2012. Spike has been created under the mentorship of Richard Bradshaw, an internationally regarded puppeteer who has received an Order of Australia for Service to the Arts and Fabrizio Montecchi, of Italy’s world renowned shadow theatre company Teatro Gioca Vita.
Written by Jenny Ellis & Anne Brooksbank
Directed by Jacob Williams & Clare Batholomew
Music by Mal Webb
Puppetry mentoring by Richard Bradshaw & Fabrizio Montecchi
Puppets and set by Jenny Ellis, Jeremy Lavender, Lauren Redpath, Freya Pitt & Nick Wollan
This project was proudly commissioned by the Australian Children’s Theatre Foundation and supported by Regional Arts Victoria.
NENW TOUR DATES (COMPLETED 2026):
📌 Tuesday 4 August 2026 - Boggabri Public School - Closed session
**📌Wednesday 5 August 2026 - Civic Theatre, Gunnedah **
**📌Thursday 6 August 2026 - The Roxy Theatre, Bingara - The Roxy Theatre - Bingara Visitor Information Centre on 02 6724 0066 or visit the **Roxy Website.
📌Friday 7 August 2026 - Dension Street Early Learning Centre - Closed session
**📌Saturday 8 August 2026 - School of Arts, Tenterfield **Get your tickets here
Supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW
SB51 Golden Way explores the idea of what ghosts do after death. Rather than haunting a single location, why wouldn’t a ghost use its infinite time to explore and enjoy the world around it? Hanging Rock in Nundle was chosen as the main location for this project because of its incredible views, general peace and quiet, and its history as a mining hotspot for both gold and antimony, particularly in the mid to late 1800s, leading to many untimely deaths due to accidents and sickness. While drawing from local history for its subject matter, the film also pulls from Australian animation history for its visual aesthetic, taking strong inspiration from the work of Polish-Australian filmmaker Yoram Gross (Dot and the Kangaroo, Blinky Bill), known for his signature blend of live-action background plates and hand-drawn animation composited over the top. While this process once required expensive equipment and can now largely be achieved with any computer and camera, it still requires extensive planning, with Daniel animating the film first and then using that animation as a reference for each background shot when filming on location, no doubt the reverse of how it was originally done by Yoram. SB51 Golden Way encourages you to make the drive up to Hanging Rock and take some time to relax.
I wanted to capture that feeling of a chilly winter night in the Tamworth and Armidale regions. A dream within a dream... where you can gaze through the looking glass and see a reflection of your childhood wonder. Feeling the excitement of discovering a dazzling light show in the middle of your town and sharing your enjoyment with the community.
A collaborative animation between Daniel Baldacchino Stanley, Ethan Latsinos and Logan Hughes, depicting life in regional NSW through the lens of creativity, symbolism and meaning-making, both personal and communal. Throughout several interconnected dreams, Clara faces her fears, and in so doing, she and her community are transformed in magical and powerful ways. A celebration of the strange and wonderful creative people, particularly those younger, who add so much to the Tamworth community. Direction, Videography, Editing, Sound Design and 3D Animation by Daniel Baldacchino Stanley. Acting and 2D animation by Logan Hughes. Music and lighting assistance by Ethan Latsinos. Live musical accompaniment by Ethan & Eli Latsinos. Title images painted by Panther Hand Painted.
Regional living? That shit’s for the birds. I mean, I personally love it. I’m out documenting my life in the country at 5:30am every morning, but while people who don’t live in regional areas probably imagine golden sunrises and singing birds (and we definitely get those), the quiet calm of the early morning also makes it easy to notice a world that’s slowly in decline. What was once critical transport infrastructure is left to rust, shopping trolleys are strewn kilometres from their homes because there are no supermarkets near the poorer parts of town, and those trolleys almost always end up in the creek courtesy of bored teenagers during the night. Some results of this decline can be quirky and fun, abandoned homes in the middle of town with alpacas wandering around inside them, or mowing your lawn while sheep angrily stomp their feet on the other side of the fence, creating this strange feeling of two different eras colliding. But a lot of it just feels sad. And yet, amongst all of it, there are always the birds. They can fly away, go wherever they want, but they choose to stay here. They seem to love it, and so do I. S#@s for the Birds started out as two photography projects. One was called Morning Chorus, where I documented the local currawong and crow populations I encountered on my morning walks. I’ve always been fascinated by the strange line where nature merges with what mankind has created, and I can’t think of a better symbol of that than the silhouettes of birds perched on TV antennas, power lines, and streetlights against the morning light. The other project was simply titled Trolley Town, documenting shopping trolleys in places they absolutely don’t belong. I often found myself wondering how they ended up where they were. If only trolleys could talk, I’m sure they’d have some stories. They might even enjoy their adventures away from the supermarkets, even if they do become eyesores in the process. I’ve used many of these photos as references for the illustrations in this animation project. I think these two very different ideas work surprisingly well together to tell a larger story about living in a place that sometimes feels forgotten by those in charge, a feeling reinforced even more whenever I return to my hometown of Lismore in the Northern Rivers, a town devastated by floods in 2022 that still hasn’t truly recovered. These issues aren’t unique to Lismore or Armidale, you’ll find them everywhere, but there’s something particularly distinct about the feeling of nature slowly reclaiming the world around you as parts of regional life fall away. It’s a feeling I hope I’ve managed to capture and convey through this piece of work. This shit’s not for the birds because it sucks, but because sometimes it feels like, in a few more decades, all of this will belong to them.
Pinky The Whale was created by Daniel Baldacchino Stanley, with decorative elements added by students of Tamworth Art Academy and Logan Hughes. Pinky's animations were created by students of Tamworth Art Academy at their School Holiday Art Camp.
Creatives
Venues
Public Art
Local Government Partners
.png)
.avif)
All things arts and culture — receive the latest news, events, workshops and other opportunities sent directly to your inbox