This is quite possibly the most incredible non-fiction memoir that I have ever read in my life. I know that sounds big, but this book was a real knock-out. It has won countless awards including the Victorian Prize for Literature. Originally a fantastic long-form essay on Narrative.ly, author Sarah Krasnostein then developed the story of…
Framing delinquent youth as hopeless cases is a common narrative ploy by a ruthless and shallow media. There’s the assumption that youths are going to gather together in gangs, commit crimes and cause havoc. Director Catherine Scott has thrown a fresh bucket of water on an old stereotype. Just as she did in her other…
I don't know about you, but large Australian mammals and marsupials have got a special place in my heart. However of all of the large beasties to have lurched around in Terra Nullus I am most besotted with animals that have long ago passed into the dusts of yesteryear such as the behemoth 200 kilo…
Continue reading ➞ Ancient Australian megafauna: Procoptodon goliah
Litha, also known as midsummer, is the longest day of the year in the southern hemisphere.And it's also a great date for planning and transition, a good day to ponder the year ahead. Litha
Photographer Frank Hurley snaps his whimsical and wise looking Greenland esquimaux dogs named Basilisk and Ginger-bitch during an Antarctic expedition between 1911-1914. Thanks to the State Library of New South Wales. See original.
Beltane is celebrated in the southern hemisphere on this date. All throughout the land everything is rich, green and verdant. The celebration of Beltane involves lighting a bonfire, dancing and performing rituals and is a boisterous and passionate day to celebrate fertility. Beltane
Utopia is veteran and respected journalist John Pilger’s attempt to tell an extraordinary story, one hidden from the eyes of everyday Australians, of Australia’s first people. Pilger uses words like apartheid and hidden genocide to describe it. And the evidence he presents in this documentary is overwhelmingly convincing. It’s difficult to do justice to this…
Continue reading ➞ Film Review – Utopia directed by John Pilger
In the southern hemisphere, today marks the date of the Spring Equinox, also know n as Eostara. This is a time to celebrate new beginnings, regeneration, growth and the conception of new ideas. The venerable Bede mentions the name in reference to Eostre, the Germanic goddess of spring. In the northern hemisphere this rite coincides…
In the southern hemisphere, today in the Pagan calendar is Imbolc. It's a Sabbat to honour the Celtic goddess Brighid. It's a time to purify oneself, dedicate oneself to a task. The word imbolc comes from Irish Gaelic and means 'ewe's milk'. It's in reference to the time when ewe's begin suckling with their young…
Today is winter solistice in the southern hemisphere. This is a time of rebirth and a triumph of life over death. It's a reflection and renewal. Winter solistice Incantations Tonight is the night of the Solstice,the longest night of the year.As the Wheel turns once more, I know thattomorrow, the Sun will begin its journey…
Originally the concept of the milk bar in America was also a spin-off from the ever-popular apotheke-style pharmacists who dispensed medicines and often refreshing milk-infused tinctures to waiting customers. The customers often milled around or sat on bar stools at a long galley-style counter top. Originally, the pharmacists mixed the medicine with their backs turned…
Continue reading ➞ A brief and enchanting history of Australian milk bars
As an occasional driver along the Eastlink in Melbourne, I have had the odd experience of passing a hotel with no trace of human habitation around it. A hotel completely devoid of people and life and yet that lights up in a unique configuration of lights from fake windows each night. Located in Melbourne's south…
In the southern hemisphere, today we celebrate the pagan new year or Samhain. This ancient gaelic word means Summer's End. On this date it's a good time to reflect on and honour those that have come before us. It's also a time to release anything that no longer serves you. Samhain Incantation for ancestors This…
Diprotodon optatum was the largest marsupial to ever roam Australia, weighing over two tonnes. We rarely find its whole skeleton preserved in caves because it's sheer size prevented it from falling through crevices into the oblivion. Although phylogenetically Diprotodon optatum was closely related to the extant wombat and koala, in terms of its physiology in appearance it…
Continue reading ➞ Ancient Australian Megafauna: Diprotodon optatum
Only got a weekend in Melbourne, but want to experience the best of an Aussie summer? The Mornington Peninsula is where to go. This is where the locals flock for the best beaches and laid back holiday vibe. Located in the south east of Melbourne, it's my original stomping ground and so I know it…
Continue reading ➞ Travel: Lazy summer weekend ideas on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula
Lammas, also known by its gaelic name Lughnasadh is a time for remembering gratitude, and how abundance has come into your life. It's a time for giving thanks to the universe for all that has come to fruition and all that is still to come. Lammas
Following on from my previous post about Tyabb Packing Centre, here is another little known wonder from the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne where I return to whenever I get the chance. The Mushroom Reef Sanctuary is home to a gigantic mushroom shaped basalt reef near Flinders in Westernport Bay. Located 86 km from central Melbourne,…
Continue reading ➞ Travel: Mushroom Reef Sanctuary, Flinders, Mornington Peninsula
Around 200 million years ago the world's landmass was contained in one giant supercontinent called Pangea surrounded by a mega ocean. I know that this isn't news but I still find it startling and incredible nonetheless. In the graphic below you can see the composition of Pangea but with the modern countries boundaries superimposed on…
Continue reading ➞ The Jigsaw Puzzle of Pangea: What It Tells Us About Our Fragile Human Lives
William Stanley Moore according to his official police record was an "opium dealer/ Operates with large quantities of faked opium and cocaine./ A wharf labourer; associates with water front thieves and drug traders.'' Mugshot by New South Wales Police Department (1925) Source: Historic Houses Trust
Last night I went to see Jack Charles V The Crown at the Auckland Arts Festival. Jack Charles is an Australian legend. He has traveled from movie sets to state prisons in Australia and run the full gamut of life as child of the stolen generation as well as a gifted Indigenous Australian actor, potter…
Continue reading ➞ Theatre Review: Jack Charles V The Crown at Auckland Arts Fest
The Mornington Peninsula (where I hail from originally) is located in the S.E tip of Port Phillip Bay, about 1 hour's drive outside of Melbourne. It's a sundrenched and beachy part of Melbourne which features serene and quiet, toddler friendly beaches in sheltered Port Phillip Bay, along with colourful bathing boxes. On the other side…
Continue reading ➞ Travel: Mornington Peninsula’s Antiques Roadshow at the Tyabb Packing House
Here are two handsome maps of Melbourne's public transport from the previous century. In equal parts loved and loathed by locals, public transport in Melbourne is slow, expensive and unreliable and yet anyone who has ever lived in Melbourne (and who has moved away for long enough to not deal with it on a daily…
Continue reading ➞ Train and tram-spotting in Melbourne back in the olden days
This documentary from the late 80's/early 90's Australia offers fascinating insights into what the pre-internet world thought the new century i.e. right now would be like. As a child I remember watching this TV show and pondering about what 202o would be like. It felt like a pipedream to me, as inconceivable as driving a moon rocket…
Continue reading ➞ Documentary: Australia in the year 2020 (as envisaged in 1990)
OZ magazine was published in Australia and London between 1963 and 1973 and under the stewardship of Richard Neville and later also Jim Anderson and Felix Dennis. This magazine left the door wide open for everything wild, illegal, outrageous, radical and until then largely unimaginable. OZ magazine is reproduced by permission of Richard Neville in…
Continue reading ➞ The Iconic & Subversive Oz Magazine – In all its Psychadelic Glory
At Robur Tea Room in Sydney in 1939, an elephant made a visit and majestically trumpeted in front of photographer Sam Hood and his friends. Thanks to the State Library of New South Wales. Found here.
Here's the auspicious launching of the HMAS Warrego II a Cockatoo Island Dockyard in Sydney Harbour circa 1925. Trainspotters here will remember that I did a post a few years ago about the creepy and now largely abandoned Cockatoo Island and it's industrial relics. Read it here. Well this photo recalls when Cockatoo Island was in…
Continue reading ➞ Every Picture Tells A Story: Cracking Open a Keg on Cockatoo Island, 1925.
Although I thought that the cockatoo was an Aboriginal word, it's not! Its a relic of the first Europeans visiting the spice isles of Maluku (now Malaysia) in the 15th Century. They had birds there akin to cassowaries and cockatoos. Other well-known Aboriginal-sounding names are in fact from abroad as well. ‘Bandicoot’: an Indian name…
Continue reading ➞ The quirky origins of Australia’s native animal names
Shot by Archibald James Campbell(1853-1929) now a treasure of the National Library of Australia. Beautiful, delicate, a treasure frozen in history that I found here.
Source: Imgur
So basically, the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) in Australia have invented a truckload of good things. Insect repellent was one - out of necessity in Australia no doubt. Polymer banknotes was another, and so was WiFi. But probably their most esoteric and weird invention was a word to describe a smell. Petrichor.…
Continue reading ➞ What’s Your Favourite Smell? Mine Is Petrichor
