How pest control king scored a dinner with Jim Chalmers

An environmentalist, an economist and a cellist walked into a room.

No, it’s not the build-up for a joke, but that’s what happened when Jack Gough, chief executive of the Invasive Species Council, broke bread on Tuesday night with Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, who before she got into politics did a mean turn on a cello.

Just to catch you up, Gough made a $13,051 winning bid for a private dinner with Chalmers et al during a charity auction at parliament’s Midwinter Ball.

So how did it all go? The man defending Australia from fire ants, feral deer and other environmental pests told CBD it was a blast.

“They stayed until 9.30pm – and the staffers longer! And really surprisingly treated it very seriously – there was no brush-off.”

Before the dinner, apparently Gough and the council were having trouble getting the government’s ear, but now, you might say, they are snug as a bug in a rug.

Frocking in the free world

Those Victorian types don’t just stop at the Melbourne Cup. They’ve turned the first week of November into a gorge of galloping.

And so it was that CBD found ourselves back at the Flemington racetrack on Thursday for Oaks Day.

While most eyes were on the track, we couldn’t help but notice the humans, who sported a cool fashion palette rather than traditional florals for this racing season’s strongest looks. Maybe it was a reflection of the weather.

“My feet are ready for flat shoes all next week,” said racing royalty Kate Waterhouse. Until then, she rocked sky-high Jimmy Choo heels and an oyster mini-dress with a dramatic bustle and train from Sydney designer Mariam Seddiq.

“I was feeling a ’50s and ’60s vibe for this custom design, so we pushed the boundaries, and the team added a fringe to my hair,” Waterhouse says. While the glamour will last until the final race, the false fringe may not.

Other star turns came from reality television star Dorit Kemsley, who wore Victoria Beckham, and model-turned-musician Sarah Ellen in Effie Kats.

The power room

The Victoria Racing Club committee room, a monument to what its chair Neil Wilson calls “Australia’s original major event, the Melbourne Cup carnival”, has giant oil paintings of racehorses on the wall and a tartan carpet, reeks of heritage, history and tradition, for the lucky few invited guests.

The venue is so exclusive that the lift in The Grandstand carried guests up to Floor “C” for an entree of Abrolhos scallop, main or coastal snapper or Bannockburn chicken breast, followed by an afternoon tea of Chairman’s mixed point sandwiches and petite beef pie “after the last”.

The room was thick with Melbourne executives and racing entities: Melbourne Cricket Club chair Fred Oldfield, and chief executive Stuart Fox, Marvel Stadium boss Scott Fitzgerald, Bravo Talent Management boss Chris Giannopoulos, who represents tennis star Mark Philippoussis and is also executive director of SEN.

‘Best job in the country’

Later, Australian Grand Prix Corporation chief executive Trevor Auld and chair Martin Pakula got a bit of inspiration in the Crown marquee.

“He’s got the best job in the country,” Auld said.

It’s unclear exactly which job Auld was referring to as Pakula has so many: he is the chairman of the Grand Prix, and has been an adviser to the Victoria Racing Club and an independent director of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.

Auld placed a few bets for the day at Oaks without success but was staying positive.

Over in the Crown marquee, Sydney’s Gallic chef Guillaume Brahimi was spotted attending solo without chicken heiress wife Tamie Ingham.

“It’s been fantastic,” Brahimi says. “When Melbourne is like this, what a city.”

Nova’s Melbourne radio breakfast announcer Lauren Phillips, having seen off Sydneysider Kyle Sandilands in the breakfast ratings wars, said Oaks Day was shaping up as better than Derby Day or Cup Day because “it’s all Victorian people here”.

Take that, Peter V’landys and Everest fans. Them’s fightin’ words.

If the shoe fits

It was certainly not the first rodeo for Melbourne Fashion Festival chief executive Caroline Ralphsmith, who came to Oaks Day to judge Fashions on the Field well prepared.

Ralphsmith entered the Birdcage attired in towering red Gucci shoes but had given herself options.

“I have three tiers of shoes,” she says. “I have the highs, the mediums and the lows.”

Ralphsmith wore a vintage Giambattista Valli dress and Stephanie Spencer floral headpiece.

Her handbag for the day was not husband Dion Werbeloff, chief executive of the Gandel Group, but a Lulu Guinness red lip shaped purse.

“He thinks today is a workday,” she says. A foreign notion to the Oaks Day crowd.

“I’ll be looking for originality because it is so easy to buy something, but making it special when you’ve got a bit of a dress code, it’s actually quite hard,” she says. “I look for that creativity and courage.”

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