How To Get Your Child To Read It can seem an impossible task to get children interested in reading. They have short attention spans and some school age children, particularly boys think that reading is boring. Throw in sport, homework and any number of electronic gadgets and sitting in the corner with a book can [...]
Hans Heysen: When we envisage the Australian bush, a vision of the iconic gum tree instantly comes to mind. Throughout history many artists have painted these quintessentially Australian trees, but I don’t believe anyone has mastered it quite as meticulously as Australian landscape artist Hans Heysen. He brought these soaring pillars to life with watercolour [...]
‘Frankly my dear I don’t give a damn.’ And so Rhett Butler fed up with the chase, said good-bye to Scarlett in Gone With The Wind. Millions of readers of this classic tale of the south were shocked at Scarlett’s foolishness at losing the dashing Rhett, after all this was a love story to end [...]
Looking back through the rich history of Australian art, we come to one of our country’s most famous landscape artists, Arthur Streeton. Bringing something a little different to the Australian art scene, he had a brilliant ability to inject light and space into his work, creating paintings that captured the true essence of the Australian [...]
There's always a story behind a story. When I began thinking about my seventh novel, River Run, I sat down with my parents to chat about the 1950s. I wanted to to write about this era as it's such a rich period in Australian history - Communism, the cold war, the aftermath of two world [...]
Aboriginal scar trees. You may well have driven, rode or hiked past one of these woody plants without even noticing. These trees are different from other tree scars caused by naturally occurring phenomenon such as bush fires and lightning as they’re man-made and invariably many decades old. Once extremely common, Aboriginal scar trees have been [...]
If you’ve read my novel, Wild Lands, you’re familiar with Bronzewing, one of the lead characters. He’s a young white man, raised in an Aboriginal community, schooled by an early settler family. He was a man between two worlds. In Alice Springs in the mid 1900s, Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira experienced this same disjuncture between [...]
Looking back at Australian history, it’s humbling to know that an individual like artist Arthur Boyd existed. He was one of those unique people who fought to expose the social injustices within our society and through his art, built a strong platform to share his views. In the late 20th century he was one of [...]
In state this new world Achilles, he of translucent glow rests, world weary: Oblivious to commanders. Those reticent masters of the bayonet charge, lauded yet by those similarly inclined. Ten miles beyond the sordid scope of battle, only Generals die in bed. Our Achilles, little known disparager of war, of wattle and daub beginnings. [...]
Iconic Australian artists. The phrase makes me think of idyllic portrayals of pastoralism, of golden fleeces suffused with sunlight, frontier settlers framed by eucalypt trees and the blue haze of a never-ending landscape. There are also the confronting depictions rendered by more contemporary artists. Of men and women, communities and their profound connection to the [...]
