The seven-metre-high King Kong being built by CTC at a workshop in West Melbourne. The finished creature will be controlled by 70 motors.

The company employs 32 full- time staff and has had 14 VCA graduates working in its puppet fabrication department. The company expects to employ 60 people on its King Kong project by next year.

But Mr Tilders said the company’s future in Melbourne and Australia was ”potentially capped” by the lack of talented creative staff it could draw on. ”This is one of our biggest issues; we need people with the skills and practical experience, but also the sensitivity to this genre,” Mr Tilders said. Read on…

From “Brumby spurns calls for financial help to VCA“, The Age Newspaper 27-08-09

THE State Government has rejected calls to provide a financial lifeline to the Victorian College of the Arts in the face of growing opposition to its merger with Melbourne University.

With a high-profile delegation of former arts ministers to meet the university’s vice-chancellor Glyn Davis tomorrow to voice their concerns, Jeff Kennett has called for Premier John Brumby to step in. Read on…