Riding the ‘rails’ to Kuranda
Few travellers visit Cairns without making a trip to the rainforest village of Kuranda, about 34km up a largely winding mountain range from the city. Of…
Digging deeper at Mossman Gorge
Lush rainforest, water dripping from fern fronds, a gushing river over giant granite boulders and one of the world’s most ancient cultures combine to make a…
Never smile at a you-know-what
Crocodiles are part of life in northern Australia. Just hope that the only place you get close to one is in the safe confines of a…
Lessons to be learned
Life’s challenges come often from what some people like to call the “university of life”, the school that teaches us lessons whether we like it or…
Up, up and away in a beautiful balloon
Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon? Would you like to glide in my beautiful balloon? It’s hard to keep that song out of…
Letters from a soldier
My father became a soldier when he was 19, joining up to be part of the big adventure that was called World War II. It was…
Whatever happened to the Von Trapp children?
Dame Julie Andrews is 80 now, but the stardom surrounding her role as Maria in The Sound of Music has never dimmed. Although she was absent…
Fifty years of The Sound of Music
When Maria von Trapp led her Captain and seven children across the mountains – or, more accurately, her nine children out the garden gate to the…
Smiles from the ‘Hapi Isles’
The Solomon Islands is also called the “Hapi Isles”. It doesn’t take much of a guess to work out what the pidgin word “hapi” means in…
The Secret River
When a book is adapted for the stage or screen, the impact of the words is often lost. This is not the case with the Sydney…
A Glass Half Full 