I’ve been trying my hand at fiction lately and am very excited about winning the YWCA Canberra Frugal Feast Writing Prize. You can read my short story about eating and farming insects at the ACT Writers Centre Blog (here – http://actwritersblog.com/2016/01/11/how-hungry/).* The content… Read More ›
History
Strine (Part 4) – Aussie racism, the economy & picking up wogs
I’ve been feeling quite ashamed of being an Australian lately – especially when I watch documentaries by Simon Reeves and other TV presenters that discuss our country’s past and present treatment of indigenous Australians and refugees. For a country that prides itself on… Read More ›
Wartime austerity – a time when recycling was not optional
I’ve just finished reading about Australia, Singapore and the Malay Peninsula during the Second World War in a novel called ‘To Love a Sunburnt Country’.(1) The story provided a fascinating insight into life at the time and how Australians responded when war… Read More ›
The Great Aussie Dialect – History & humour in action (Part 2)
Note: This is Part 2 of my post about the contemporary Australian dialect (‘Strine’) – one of the world’s most advanced English dialects! Make sure you read Part 1 first – here. The long & short of it To make up for adding extra… Read More ›
The Great Aussie Dialect – humour & history in action (Part 1)
I recently stumbled upon an interesting site (www.convictcreations.com) claiming that the contemporary Australian dialect (‘Strine’) is “one of the world’s most advanced English dialects.” The author went on to explain that speakers of Strine can understand kiwis (New Zealanders), poms (Brits), yanks (Americans – no matter which… Read More ›
New Year reflections on time, life & the universe
I’ve just been reading that the chances of the universe (and the planet that we call home) having been formed by a massive number of very specific random events are so slight that even die-hard atheists are questioning their (lack of) belief…. Read More ›
How did you find people before phone books & social media?
In Victoria (Australia), you probably would have used a Sands & McDougall Directory to find people in the days before telephone directories & the Internet. These impressive publications were compiled annually between 1857 and 1974 and listed the occupants at every business and residence,… Read More ›
The end of the line – Sydney’s mortuary train stations
Just as every life has a start and an end, so too does a railway line. Given that my last post (here) talked about a train station that used to be at Sydney’s Rookwood Cemetery (and is now a church… Read More ›
Train station turned church – A fabulous example of adaptive reuse in Canberra
I love to watch shows like ‘Grand Designs’ – but I often find the people behind these ambitious projects to be far more interesting than the architecture. In general they are either quite naive (‘No. I have never done anything like this before’)… Read More ›
What do pop art signs & a gasworks redevelopment have in common?
When I was in Melbourne recently, I noticed some public art on the footpath that proves that signs do not have to be boring and can even reflect the function (and potentially the character) of the destination they are promoting…. Read More ›
Great walls & fences of Australia
The avenue of poplars (mentioned in this post) in the Tuggeranong Town Park follows the line of a heritage-listed dry stone wall that once marked the boundary between two rural properties in Canberra (one of which was featured in another post – here)…. Read More ›
Thousands of bogans, seven chain mail sheep, six Christmas beetles, five hardwood poles, three old farm sheds & a sheep dog sitting on a rock wall
I had assumed that some sculptures at my local shops were dung beetles (amazing insects featured in an earlier post) – but the artist’s website says they are Christmas beetles. The beetles are accompanied by other sculptures of sheep and a sheep dog, hardwood poles decorated… Read More ›
When nature calls: More people in the world have a mobile phone than a toilet
The world celebrates its first UN-sanctioned World Toilet Day on 19 November. The Day aims to raise global awareness of the serious health, privacy and other challenges faced by the 2.5 billion people living without access to clean safe toilets. Check out this animated promo encouraging people… Read More ›
The social cost of ‘affordable’ clothes
When I heard about the Rana Plaza factory fire in April 2013, I immediately checked the labels on some recent purchases and found, sure enough, ‘Made in Bangladesh’. But what could I do? At the very least, I decided to inform myself… Read More ›
Canberra – Smack bang in the middle (but just a bit closer to Sydney)
A great song was released in honour of the Centenary of Canberra this year. I recommend watching the music video.* The title of the song (and this post) refers to when Australia was selecting a location for its federal capital city… Read More ›