Remember Tim from Hi-5?
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
He’s moved to Newcastle.
Not only that, there’s talk of a collaboration with his old Hi-5 mate, Nathan.
Tim’s living here with his wife and their four-year-old daughter.
“We spent the last year travelling,” Tim, 38, said.
“My wife and I decided for our own sanity and the benefit of our daughter that we’d take a year off and go travelling.”
Along the way, they spent four weeks in Adamstown.
“We met some lovely people and really liked the area,” he said.
“If there was one thing we decided while we were away, it was that we didn’t want to go back and live in Sydney.”
As for Newie, they “loved the beachie lifestyle”.
“If I’m honest, there’s a pretty happening music scene here,” he said.
“I kind of like that idea.”
Tim Harding spent nine years in Hi-5, until a motorcycle accident in 2007 left him with horrific injuries.
He fractured his back and broke and dislocated seven of his toes. A surgeon spent about six hours operating on his feet.
“He said it was like putting a jigsaw puzzle back together,” Tim said.
“My feet still aren’t right – I still can’t bend my toes particularly well.
“I can still run and surf – that’s the main thing.”
Tim lived on the Central Coast until he was nine, before the family moved to Sydney.
Nowadays he fronts a soul and funk band called Soultraders.
He’s planning to do gigs in the Hunter, as well as weighing up other opportunities.
“There’s a few options available and we’re pretty excited about some of them, but we’ll have to see where everything goes,” he said.
“Nathan is just down the road – he lives on the Central Coast.
“We’ve talked about the possibility of maybe getting together and doing something, but I guess everyone will have to wait and see.”
The pair were “into the same kind of music”.
Tim looked back on his Hi-5 days with “a tremendous amount of affection”.
“That whole period of my life was amazing,” he said.
“We travelled the world and performed on stages in front of thousands of people.”
Sometimes he missed performing for kids.
“You will probably never find a more appreciative and enthusiastic audience,” he said.
Have a Heart
As you know, the Newcastle Herald has been quite heavily involved in the royal commission into child sexual abuse.
We thought it would be unjust to ignore the campaign at theshovel.com.au to “help us raise funds to buy George Pell a heart”.
“Most of us take our heart for granted. For those born without one, like Cardinal George Pell, life can be a daily struggle,” the appeal said, on the satirical news website.
“For George, everyday tasks like showing compassion or looking out for others are harder. Showing empathy can be excruciating. And accepting responsibility is a constant challenge.
“Even simple things like getting on a first class flight to attend a royal commission hearing can seem out of reach. While George bravely refers to his condition as simply ‘heart problems’, the truth is he doesn’t have one at all.
“With your help, we can buy George the heart he’s always needed. Please give what you can by sending money to The George Pell Heart Foundation, c/o Vatican City.”
Novocastrian Crankiness
Ross Greig, of New Lambton, is annoyed by the Newcastle habit of backing one infrastructure project over another.
A recent letter to the editor said the community would receive a greater benefit from $20 million being spent on the extension of Newcastle Art Gallery, rather than a cruise terminal at Dyke Point.
“We shouldn’t be putting one against the other,” Ross said.
Ross reckons local pollies should be hounding the government to get at least six big infrastructure projects for Newcastle, with the proceeds of the port privatisation. He conceded his opinion reflected “a bit of Novocastrian crankiness coming out”.