Victory in remembering
One of my strongest childhood memories is of getting lost. I was four years old and it was ANZAC Day, the day on which Australians and…
A very antipodean Christmas
Christmas in the southern hemisphere is almost incomprehensible to those who haven’t experienced it. For those who live on the far side of the planet, where…
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…
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…
Farewell, Transitory Traveller
Last week I lost a friend. Suddenly. Suddenly for me, anyway. And for many of his other friends and colleagues, who had not known of the…
The smiling bishop falls from grace
In a church hall with apricot walls, a man wearing a dark suit over a hot pink t-shirt – with socks to match – waits for…
Lien: A refugee’s story
Journalists meet many people in the course of their working lives. Some of those people – and their stories – stick in our minds. Some more…
Letters from Dundee
Since the age of 10, I’ve had a penpal. Does anyone still use that term? Probably not…but that’s what we’ve been, Caroline and I, for all…
Remembering Gallipoli
The sense of overwhelming loneliness is what I remember most. Just row upon row of flat marble headstones, flanked by cypress trees and watched over by…
The fight against fracking
Her t-shirt read: Don’t frack with me. It might seem an unlikely message for an 83-year-old woman to be carrying, but Liffy Jack left me in no…
A Glass Half Full 