Heading South – a great Australian rail trip
14 October 2021 | Media
I’m not a dyed in the wool rail travel enthusiast, but I’m not averse to a good train trip and it’s remarkable how, when I do climb aboard I sometimes find Tim Richards – a real Australian railfan – is already there. Back in 2013 I finally got around to doing the Big ...
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Richmond before & after Struggletown
28 June 2021 | Living
Struggletown, Janet McCalman’s award winning classic study of ‘Public & Private Life in Richmond 1900–1965’ has recently come out in a new edition from Melbourne University Press:
• 'The old Struggletowners, if they could see it now, would not believe their...
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Tony’s Coronavirus notes: Fortress Australia – getting in & out & getting locked down during the pandemic
13 June 2021 | Living
Fortress Australia has been much in the news of late, here in Australia and elsewhere in the world. We’ve slammed the doors shut and nobody is allowed in or out, as the BBC reports. Well not quite. While Joe Bloggs – that hypothetical Mr Everyman – and his partner Jan...
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Covid Safe App – A$7.8 million of pandemic amusement
7 June 2021 | Living
The Australian government’s Covid Safe App has been one of the more amusing failures (we need some amusement) from the pandemic. Of course the government has been extremely reluctant to admit how much it cost and how well it has worked, but as of 30 April 2021 it appe...
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Moreton Island – lots of sand & right off Brisbane
27 May 2021 | Places
My recent Australian travels featured the climb up Mt Kosciuszko, visits to three ‘big cities,’ Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane, stops at smaller centres, the Hawkesbury River, Byron Bay & Tweed Heads, Longreach and Winton, the train trip from Brisbane to Longreach ...
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