The joy of binge reading podcast
Join me and New Zealand's book podcast supremo, Jenny Wheeler as we discuss everything from landscapes, grazing life & writing at The joys of binge reading. Head to the website here to listen.
‘Robbery under arms’: The romance of the bushrangers
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 [...]
Waltzing Matilda – A shearer’s strike, a suicide & Banjo: How our unofficial national anthem came into being.
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 [...]
‘He collected Rolls Royces, Rembrandts and Picassos, but loved Chinese takeaways and a cup of tea’. – Pro Hart.
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, their communities, and their profound connection to [...]
Foraging for freshwater mussels.
I can't imagine these would be good eating laying on the creek bank in this heat. But freshwater mussels of the inland river and creek variety are pretty tasty if you're lucky enough to find some in a good season. They certainly aren't as prolific as in previous years. Changes to waterways, chemical run-off and [...]
The Bush Bible
Sunrise and sunset. These are my favourite times of the day, when the sun is near the horizon straddling the rim of the earth, as it either embarks on bringing us a new day or dwindles towards nightfall. The best photos are taken at this time when sunlight travels through a greater depth of atmosphere, [...]
How a cow and a calf led mobs of cattle across the Darling River.
“Wilcannia, city of wind and dust, Queen of the western plains; Where man works for his daily crust, And it seldom ever rains.” (The Barrier Miner, Friday, November 3, 1939.) The Burke and Wills expedition is well known. Burke’s impatience on reaching Cooper’s Creek on November 11, 1860 and the unfolding disaster that transpired became [...]
The Victorian grazier who married a Hollywood actress.
When grazier Scobie Mackinnon married 1920s Hollywood silent screen actress, Claire Adams after meeting her in England following the Coronation of 1937 life at Mooramong homestead in Skipton Victoria was bound to change. Mooramong began its life under settler hands in 1838 when the squatting run was taken up by the Scottish immigrant Alexander Anderson [...]
A bushman with his dog
A bushman with his dog and horse outside a humpy. This picture is thought to have been taken in the Hughenden district, QLD, around 1910-1920. By the looks of it it's made from canvas and branches and you can see cooking utensils near the entrance. A humpy (or gunyah) was traditionally used by Aboriginals as [...]
Acacia Downs Woolshed & Central West QLD
Central West Queensland is a vast area. Bordered by the Northern Territory and South Australia to the west the region covers about 400,000 square kilometres but is sparsely populated. Towns such as Longreach, Winton, Birdsville, Blackall, Barcaldine, Boulia and Muttaburra help to tether this strong agricultural district, dogged by drought over the centuries. Partly criss-crossed [...]