As a fourth generation grazier and author living 600 km northwest of Sydney my childhood was spent roaming the bush. Along with my brothers and sister we concocted stories and games, our outdoor adventures complimented by home schooling taught around the dining-room table with lessons sent through the mail from The Correspondence School in Sydney. [...]
If you close your eyes you can see them resting during a break in the fighting on one of the Somme battlefields. The trench is cold and clammy, the men, quiet. Some sit on upturned wooden crates, others crouch low, their backs chilled yet sweating against the earthen wall. Filthy fingers hold hand-rolled cigarettes, lungs [...]
There was a wild colonial boy, Jack Duggan was his name He was born and raised in Ireland, in a place called Castlemaine He was his father's only son, his mother's pride and joy And dearly did his parents love the wild colonial boy Loved, admired, loathed. Songs sung about them and poems written. To [...]
By the 1950s Australia ‘rode on the sheep’s back’. It was a phase that came to symbolise what it was to be Australian. For a century, the wool industry had given Australia one of the highest living standards in the world and the economy rode high on wealth from primary exports. With the opening up [...]
The name Lightning Ridge is said to have originated in the 1870's when the body of a grazier, his dog and 600 sheep were found, thought to have been struck by lightning. With such inauspicious beginnings, quirky seems a strange word to describe this north-west New South Wales town; yet this is a place where [...]
Stone Country Tour Dates NSW Mon April 15th: Bingara, NSW – 10.30 am. A morning with Nicole Alexander at Roxy Theatre Address: 74 Mailtand Street, Bingara, NSW. This is a free event. Bookings essential 02 6724 2064 Mon. April 15th: Scone, NSW – 6 pm. An Evening with Nicole Alexander at Hunt-a-Book. Address: Hunt-A-Book, 200 Kelly St, [...]
The Australian bush has its own unique light; a natural glow that pierces through the Eucalypt branches and radiates across the land. An artist who recognised this beauty, and consciously immersed himself in these images of the outback was Tom Roberts. He was a creative who captured the vastness of rural living and the raw [...]
If you're a member of a book club and you enjoy lively discussion it's always great to have a few questions to start with. Here are seven questions relating to Stone Country that are sure to have you dissecting the plot and pondering the duality of human nature. 1. Stone Country is a compelling tale of [...]
I often find myself having discussions about food security. The availability and access to food is something taken for granted by many of us. We go to the supermarket or butcher and purchase our groceries with little thought that one day an item may not be available; that is until we reach for say the [...]
Born west of Geelong in 1867, Arthur Streeton’s only professional training was at the National Gallery of Victoria. He began painting city life in Sydney, then moved further afield to paint the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury river regions. He had a brilliant ability to inject light and space into his work, creating paintings that captured [...]
