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 Been that way for a while, of course, though I’m not quite sure just how it superseded the old dog’s eye and dead horse, and barbie snags and roast lamb, let alone Vegemite on toast and Chinese fried rice, […]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, […]
God awful how so many musicians were chewed up and spat out by Covid and its merciless lockdowns and frightening threats. No quarter for them in that scrap. Curious that some said the pandemic allowed them to collaborate with their muses, to plumb their creativity. Don’t know that many actually did. The yoke of raw […]
Summer’s here and it’s time to get your beach on. Whether it’s the thumping, cranking, millpond smooth, rugged cliff-faced or idyllically picturesque beach that takes your fancy, Surf Coast, Bellarine and Geelong beaches have you covered. Admirably. While they’re in hot demand for sun-lovers, surfers, sandcastles and swimmers, for paddlers and paragliders, indeed for all […]
Couldn’t help being reminded of Maynard G. Krebs, the hapless beatnik from the Dobie Gillis Show years back, when I saw our Albo losing it in a Johannes Leak Qantas upgrade cartoon. If you remember Maynard, he went to water at any mention of employment. “Work!” he’d shriek in a high-pitched panic. In the Qantas […]
Nothing quite like throwing yourself to the not-so-gentle vicissitudes of jungle-bashing. Never any shortage of geography, critters, climes or circumstances waiting to assail you. The Amazon’s a nice place to start, not that I’m any kind of authority on these things. Its bushmasters, jaguars, fire-ants and piranha and non-stop rain thrumming from the dripping condensation […]
