Deep within the grazing country of Central Queensland sits the heritage listed Isis Downs Woolshed. It’s located 20km east of the small township of Isisford, bordered by the Barcoo river, a system that flows towards the expansive Lake Eyre in central Australia. The waterway forms a natural dividing line between the outback and the remoter [...]
Sometimes fabulous ideas get stymied. And so it seems that the ‘Herd for Hope’ fundraiser that was set to see a herd of cattle being driven across the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge has hit a major roadblock of the bureaucracy kind. With the event planned to raise much needed recognition for organ donation and set [...]
I often find myself having discussions about food security. The availability and access to food is something taken for granted by many. 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 banana’s or [...]
This year I’ve thoroughly enjoyed remembering some of Australia’s most influential pastoral artists, painters who have left a significant imprint on Australian history through their depictions and reflections of rural life. To wrap up this series of blog posts I’m going to take a look at one final artist, well-known painter Russell Drysdale. Above [...]
As fences go, Australia’s Dingo fence is the longest in the world. The two metre high mesh fence stretches 5 614 km across Australia and has split the continent in two for the past 130 years. Dingoes, Australia’s wild dogs have been a major problem on agricultural land since the beginning of European settlement. Sheep are [...]
There is something about having the sky for a ceiling, of watching the bush come alive in the morning as the sun pulls itself over the rim of the earth. A light breeze caressing the land, rustling the grasses and carrying the cloying scents of animals and herbage. To stand in the middle of a [...]
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 vast perimeters of rural living and the [...]
The writing process is one that initially comes in fits and starts for me. I’m not a big plotter. I don’t have an A to Z guide and I rarely know what the middle and ending is going to be when I first begin a new novel. This keeps the work fresh and exciting for [...]
The 1950s was a time of cocktails at 5. But far from being limited to more urban areas where devoted apron-housewives of the television variety waited at the door for hubby with a throw-it down martini on a tray, the bush had its own particular favourites. Yes, beer was consumed by the litre however when [...]
In 1814, a landscape work, exhibited at the Paris Salon, won John Glover a gold medal from Louis XVIII. In 1821, a leading European art magazine noted that "as a landscape painter he stands in the first rank of British artists". This was certainly the case based on earnings as Glover was second only to [...]
