The descendants of Australia’s “Afghan” cameleers get together in remote South Australia
Hump day
The Marree roadhouse in outback South Australia is the last service station for 203 kilometres. From across the street, Mathew Zada watches the grey nomads pull in to refuel. “See...
Infamous bushrangers of Braidwood, New South Wales
True history of the Clarke gang
Luke Clarke couldn’t even make the cut for his school’s drama class, but this weekend he and his brother, Tom, will play the leads in a period piece before 3000 people – less...
A farming family and Indigenous elders join forces to recognise a special site on private land
An Aboriginal place
I was splitting firewood late last winter when I received a call from my friend Dave Johnston, a blackfella archaeologist and heritage manager with 30 years of experience.
“...
What does One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts really believe?
Eyes wide open
It’s tempting to think Pauline Hanson chose Malcolm Roberts because he looks like a puppet. Barely five feet tall, One Nation’s second senator for Queensland perches beside me on...
The Greens senator with mass appeal
Scott Ludlam goes viral
DJ S-Ludz would rather you not call him that.
In the stop-start traffic of a Perth Tuesday morning, Senator Scott Ludlam rolls his eyes and smiles when I mention the alias he...
Managing child sex offenders in the community
Names have been changed
On a Saturday morning, I wake in the dark and drive seven hours to a support session for “fellas”. “We don’t use the P-word,” the organiser had explained over the phone when I’d...
Too many kangaroos loose in Canberra
The culling season
The eastern grey kangaroo has a top speed of 60 kilometres per hour. By the end of its life, my ute could do 80. The comparison is not academic: driving home from parties in my...
Rugby star David Pocock says sport and politics are always mixed
David & Goliath
On a Sunday at the start of last summer, David Pocock and eight other activists were arrested at the Maules Creek coalmine in north-east New South Wales. I started following the...
Eyewitness to the whale wars
At Sea with the Whale Pirates
Captain Siddharth Chakravarty, the Indian skipper of Sea Shepherd’s flagship Steve Irwin, hasn’t moved in two hours. “Somebody hand me a bottle to pee in!...
