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Beyond The Pale
Thanks to regular commenter Ebony, I have just finished reading Beyond The Pale by John Hooker (1998 Allen & Unwin). It’s a tough uncompromising look at early colonial life in South West Victoria, just across the border from Mount Gambier. At the beginning I thought it was set near Wannon Falls at the foot of... »
Jessica by Bryce Courtenay
I finished Jessica by Bryce Courtenay in one day of holiday reading. It’s a powerful novel by the master storyteller set mostly in rural New South Wales from the years leading up to the First World War through to the Great Depression. Although gripping, the end left me disenchanted and after some belated sleep I woke... »
Turnbull’s ‘courageous’ politics
Every time a politician does something stupid I’m reminded of the Yes Minister episode in which Sir Humphrey advises Jim Hacker the proposed course of action would be courageous. Translated from bureaucratic language that means political death. It’s very hard to fathom why Malcolm Turnbull wants to delay millions of Australians receiving a timely handout from... »
If I had easy access to a helicopter …
I’d fly to Kangaroo Island this weekend. South Australia is enduring a heat wave. It should be a lot cooler there, and if it's not I'll escape to the beach. This post was automatically published here from Plinky. From their own description: “Plinky makes it... »
Economic crisis hits
I heard a sad story today. It shows the global economic crisis is really beginning to have an impact on Australian life. There has been a lot of bad news lately. BHP Billiton’s decision to close the Ravensthorpe nickel mine, a few months after opening the $2 billion project which employed 1800 people, was one... »
Old Fuss and Feathers
Allan Scott, the owner of The Border Watch, passed away this week, aged 85. I didn’t get to know him well enough to comment much on his extraordinary life, except to say he was a great man by any measure. Visiting Millicent today I met one of his close friends, Rocky Smith, who told me... »
Diamantina Drover
This is a great Australian song. I was looking for the Redgum version on YouTube, but couldn’t find it. Here is John Williamson’s equally excellent rendition: »
Peter Costello’s memoirs
The cartoon by Peter Broelman in today’s Border Watch says it all. »
The tiny town of Turriff
I drove through the tiny town of Turriff on my way to and from Mildura. It’s in the Mallee between Hopetoun and Ouyen. That’s a desolate drive. Like other wheat growing areas of Australia, farms have got bigger, families smaller, populations diminished, shops closed and services gone. These towns once had much more than the silos... »