HOOKED: Former Skyhooks guitarist Bob ‘Bongo’ Starkie and Million Dollar Riff bandmate Laura Davidson. Picture: Joe Mastroianni GUITARIST Bongo Starkie’s colourful frill-necked lizard collar is one of Australian rock’s more curious 1970s images. But then, his band, Skyhooks, was not known for its shy, retiring ways. White suits and fedoras, mock Tudor vests and wimples, […]
Took a while but I finally figured out who was responsible, thanks to young Gex’z Anei of Ubud. And all in the middle a torrential tropical Indonesian downpour. It wasn’t Warren Buffett, or Milton Friedman, whose names and portraits are emblazoned across the mysterious Boeing 737 deep in the Balinese mountain village of Penestenan. I […]
A sleek floating boardwalk and lookout on a rocky knoll at developer Villawood Properties’ Rathdowne, shortlisted in this year’s Planning Institute of Australia awards, highlights the possibilities of design underscoring Indigenous and heritage elements. With views as far as the Melbourne CBD, and taking in local waterways and surrounding landscapes, the lookout is an exemplar […]
They’ve been handsome sturdy fixtures of the Australian social and geographical landscape since the Gold Rush days but the ravages of time and progress have seriously depleted their numbers. Heritage rescuer Mick Slocum says the historic postal boxes that once numbered in the thousands have been reduced to just 180. And he’s on a mission […]
Tassie tiger sightings, rusty antediluvian tractors, eagles rocking the paddocks, vineyards, shearing sheds, luthiers, Teutonic headstones, redgums and wild apple trees … funny the places you frequent without ever knowing jack about them. Running the Teutonic midget hound on her regular beach forays at Torquay has taken on too many traffic lights between Geelong and […]
It’s tough seeing Australia’s rich legacy of built heritage so often vanish before your eyes. And tough watching important buildings slowly fall into disrepair, succumbing to the old ploy of demolition by neglect. No fun seeing them surreptitiously knocked over in the night by owner-vandals or set alight by arsonists in friction-fire attacks where insurance […]
So the Aussie national dish, our most popular culinary go-to, is pretty much the chicken parmi. Been that way for a while, of course, though I’m not quite sure just how it superseded the old dog’s eye and dead horse, and barbie snags and roast lamb, let alone Vegemite on toast and Chinese fried rice, […]
The Vanishing Place, by Zoe Rankin, Hachette Okay, you emerge from the deep bush of New Zealand as a young girl after fleeing a mad/bad, abusive/loving dad who kept you, your siblings and your mum apart from the world. Mum’s dead, dad’s clean off his rocker, a serious and paranoid boozehound killing blokes with shovels, […]
Odd, the things that can come your way unexpectedly. A late aunt some years ago presented me a large envelope of unusual sketches and prints. A swag of etchings and proofs of rural scenes in New South Wales. All rustic radiance, bucolic beauty and pastoral pulchritude if I can labour the alliterative allusions. Lots of […]
Hard to watch, hear or read anything of politics without thinking of the razor-sharp wisdom peppered through TV’s Yes Minister. “Never believe anything until it’s been officially denied’.” “I don’t think we need to bring the truth in at this stage.” Sir Humphrey, Bernard and Jim Hacker possessed an unerring ability to confuse and manipulate issues, […]
