Deep Trouble #6: The Hon. Kelvin Thomson

with Dr Mark Halloran     Or listen on iTunes, Spotify or Stitcher

In conversation with the Hon. Kelvin Thomson, ex-federal politician and Shadow Attorney General for the Rudd Labour government, we discuss immigration, population growth, the Rudd-Gilliard-Rudd years, and … Read More

All We Can’t See

Illustrating the Nauru Files

33 award-winning Australian artists, including four-time Archibald finalist Abdul Abdullah, Rockefeller and Churchill Fellowship recipient Janet Laurence, and acclaimed Australian painter Ben Quilty have joined forces in an Australian-first public exhibition entitled All We Can’t See … Read More

1787

Extract from 1787: THE LOST CHAPTERS OF AUSTRALIA’S BEGINNINGS

by Nick Brodie  

NOT A PROLOGUE

  Australia’s history did not start in January 1788. However habituated we have become to telling it this way, our national story did not … Read More

Greetings From Beyond the Pale: Expulsion from the Garden of Eden

Ben Laycock  

A long days journey into night finds me stranded once more. Far from home, far from civilisation, far from certain of my place amongst this motley crew of cowboys, tomboys (Carol), ferals and hippies.

The camp is … Read More

As They Are: Colonial Life and the Art of S.T. Gill

Sasha Grishin  

Although S.T. Gill died 135 years ago, the current exhibition at the State Library of Victoria, Australian Sketchbook: Colonial Life and the Art of S.T. Gill (until October 25) is the first major retrospective exhibition of his … Read More

Greetings From Beyond the Pale: The Tanami Track

Ben Laycock

Time to bid a fond farewell to Nyiripi and continue my lonely quest. The Kimberley beckons with the allure of the exotic and the unknown. The bitumen road from Alice Springs to Kununarra is a giant dog-leg … Read More

Greetings from Beyond the Pale: A Death in the Family

Ben Laycock

I am still at Nyiripi, way out in the Western Desert. Paul and Clair are the ‘gudia’ (whitefellas) that run the place. The Walpiri reckon gudia are like Toyotas. They go really well to start with, but … Read More

Greetings from Beyond the Pale: Hunting & Gathering

Ben Laycock

No sooner have we arrived than l am invited on a genuine, authentic, real, live, traditional hunting expedition with real, live, genuine, traditional blackfellas. I felt like all my Christmases had come at once.

We all pile … Read More

Stralian Stories May 2014

“As only natives ride”: Lawson’s Adversity, Private Property and Australian Culture

Appearing in a number of Henry Lawson’s (1867-1922) collections The Fire at Ross’s Farm catalogues aspects of a romanticised Australian identity: assumed mateship, hardy toughness, hearts of … Read More