A Scottish massacre and a shearing shed in South Australia. How history weaves itself around the world. A 30-minute drive west of Mount Gambier in South Australia is the small rural town of Glencoe. A community that was built up from a sheep station, the town and the property were named after the rugged highland [...]
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 outback has always evoked themes of struggle and survival, epitomised in tales of bush-rangers, drovers, rural women and lost children. Certainly any debate about National Identity usually gives consideration to rural Australian life, particularly as it is portrayed in painting, music, literature, film and most importantly, foods. To an extent rural Australia still helps [...]
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 [...]
Considering were not averse to chomping down on a nice piece of spring lamb or Bambi, if youre a venison lover, its surprising how many people dont like the idea of eating kangaroo or emu. Meat is meat after all, isnt it? And if it isnt, then what makes skippy and our own version of [...]
I never pictured myself in the security industry. Not that Im not tough. No siree! I can bark at and scruff an opponent as good as the next. In fact in my younger days I could run down a wily cow in five seconds flat and I dont have an issue putting my paw on [...]
It's been a long hot summer and I mean l-o-n-g. Droughts mean boredom for us four-legged kind. Why? Because there's little or no work. I mean, where are the cattle? Walking the long paddock or trucked to greener pastures until things improve on the run. Hardly any beeves or sheep to chase, the ground so hard and dry [...]
Being a dog, I love ferreting about. Most late afternoons you can find me sniffing around the base of freshly watered pot-plants. It must be the dry weather because I'm really beginning to love the scent of wet earth and I've digressed into some of my, dare I say it, puppy habits-digging. Oh yes there is [...]
In my younger days I wanted to drive tractors, not the old jalopy kind with no cabin and a canopy of hessian for a roof, no siree. I've taken on the slip, slop, slap message, and I have excellent skin and hair so I'd hardly go for the old-fashioned trac-tor and risk a skin cancer. [...]
