Ode to finishing a novel – March 2024

Here it is ready for the baptismal font a baby in the making for two whole captivating years of undying devotion and mind-numbing frustration. Of chasing crumbs of knowledge through wooded glens and falling down rabbit holes in search of shimmering nuggets to fill empty space and startle the defiant blinking cursor. Now the pages [...]

By | March 21st, 2024|A WRITERS LIFE, Inspiration, Poetry, Writing advice|0 Comments

Conjuring fiction from family legend.

Quite often when I'm writing I'll recall a story my father told me, or dig through our archives and find a forgotten document as in the case of The Last Station, and presto. Rummaging through the past can yield fascinating information and it was while doing just that a few years ago that I recalled [...]

One dodgy French nobleman & the Italian emigrants who settled in rural NSW

The Marquis de Rays. What an exotic name. It conjures wealth, European lands and a noble linage. But names and appearances can be deceptive and the Marquis de Rays, a French Nobleman was a scoundrel and con-artist supreme. The Marquis ripped off poor settlers in the late 1800s offering the ‘promised land’ but eventually after [...]

By | April 6th, 2020|Australian History, Inspiration|0 Comments

The Brushmen of the Bush – Jack Absalom

Brushmen of the Bush. Now here's a painting group that deserved their iconic name. In 1973 five artists met in Broken Hill, New South Wales  and started collaborating. The artists, comprising of Pro Hart, Eric Minchin, Jack Absalom, Hugh Schulz and John Pickup would change forever the perception of outback art both in Australia and abroad, ensuring [...]

Conjuring the bush.

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. [...]

By | April 11th, 2019|A WRITERS LIFE, Inspiration, Writing advice|4 Comments

Talking history & writing at Gleebooks

Recently I was invited to chat briefly about my work at Gleebooks in Sydney. The idea behind this video series is to showcase the Sydney Mechanics School of the Arts (SMSA). It's Australia's oldest lending library having started way back in 1833 when reading was high on the list when it came to entertainment, for [...]

The last mounted infantry charge, Beersheba.

In the late afternoon of October 31, 1917 around 800 men of the 4th Australian Light Horse Brigade looked from a ridge down across six kilometres of sloping ground towards Beersheba. Behind them were thousands of troops desperate for water and a never-ending desert, in front of them, the heavily fortified town of Beersheba. They [...]

By | November 29th, 2017|Inspiration, Patriotism|0 Comments

‘Herd for Hope’: Driving cattle across the Sydney Harbour Bridge

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 [...]

By | March 6th, 2017|COUNTRY LIFE, Inspiration, Rural Affairs|2 Comments

‘Where ladies went, men would follow’ – The Melbourne Cup

In order to attract a bigger crowd to the first Melbourne Cup in 1861, the secretary of the Victorian Racing Club, Robert Bagot decided to issue members with two ladies tickets, calculating that ‘where ladies went, men would follow’. The marketing ploy worked with a crowd of 4,000 men and women watching the race, although [...]

By | October 31st, 2016|Inspiration|0 Comments

Margaret Preston – Inspired by the Australian Bush

Influential artist, Margaret Preston loved stalking around the Australian bush. She left a great impression on the Australian art scene, and was both a talented early modernist artist, and a provocative writer, passionate about giving Australian art its own identity. With both her art and her writing, Margaret Preston pushed the boundaries, and wasn’t someone [...]

Load More Posts