Travel

A purple reign in an Australian spring

10 October 2025 / 2 Comments

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Streets with trees come to hold a cherished place in the hearts and minds of those living with them … recollections of growth from seedling to maturity, of gracious light and shade, brilliant young green of spring-time, dignified shade in the heat of the day.

W. B. Bailey-Tart

Every spring, as October fades and the heat of the coming summer begins to crackle in the air, something magical unfurls across parts of Australia.

A crustacean chronicle

12 September 2025 / 3 Comments

Some say Australia runs on prawns, and during our travels around Australia, I saw a hint of truth to that statement.

The prawn has come a long way from humble beginnings in the shallow waters of Sydney Cove to vast aquaculture farms in Shark Bay and bustling trawler fleets off Karumba.

A crustacean chronicle Read More »

Gregory’s boab: a sentinel of history

8 August 2025 / 6 Comments

While visiting the Victoria River region in northern Australia, it felt like stepping back in time. The land seemed as wild and untamed as when Augustus Charles Gregory and his men arrived 170 years ago. I set off toward their historic base camp, eager to be a part of where history unfolded.

The good oil – from swampland to super remedy

11 July 2025 / 8 Comments

This story explores the transformation of the humble Australian tea tree (Melaleuca spp.), which thrives in swampy areas, into an essential oil and other various health care products sold globally.

The burgeoning tea tree industry began in a remote, swampy area of the Richmond River Valley district in northern New South Wales.

Australia’s Amphibian Apocalypse

13 June 2025 / 5 Comments

Ninety years ago this month, Australia embarked on an ambitious but ultimately ill-fated experiment in biological control.

In 1935, Queensland sugar cane farmers faced a relentless enemy—the cane beetle. These voracious insects burrowed into sugarcane roots, devastating crops and threatening an industry vital to the nation’s economy. Desperate for a solution, scientists at the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations (BSES) looked to overseas biological control methods for inspiration.

The man who walked the Bass Strait

9 May 2025 / 10 Comments

The Bass Strait submarine cables

In 1859, the first underwater telegraph cable in the Southern Hemisphere and the longest in the world was laid across Bass Strait.

Planning began in 1853 when discussions were held to build an overland line from Hobart in the south to Launceston in the north of Tasmania, extending across Bass Strait to Victoria.

Guardians of health and security: Point Nepean’s twin roles in history

18 April 2025 / 4 Comments

Point Nepean, located at the tip of Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, is a site of remarkable historical significance. It houses Australia’s second-oldest surviving barracks-style quarantine buildings and fortifications that once protected the colony’s coastline. As the primary quarantine station in Victoria until 1979, Point Nepean played a pivotal role in safeguarding public health.

A rain bomb hits Gympie and surrounding districts

21 February 2025 / 2 Comments

At 9.00 pm that night, it came bucketing down nonstop. It was so loud that it was hard to hear anything. By 11.00 pm, I thought it was pointless to go to bed and looked outside to check this downpour, with thunder rumbling and lightning flashing around us.

A resident describing conditions in Gympie on Friday night, 25 February 2022.

Australia’s Engineering Marvel

17 January 2025 / 4 Comments

After the Snowy, she was a nation.

Nelson Lemmon

Thank God we had visionary leaders and the world’s best engineers in Australia 75 years ago. Without their efforts, the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric scheme – one of the seven engineering wonders of the world – might never have come to fruition.

This monumental project blended innovative thinking, engineering brilliance, and the dedication of a diverse workforce.

Tragedy on the Derwent: Remembering the 1975 Tasman Bridge Disaster, 50 Years Later

3 January 2025 / 3 Comments

Between 1967-75, Hobart endured a series of catastrophic events. It all started with the Black Tuesday fires in February 1967 that claimed 62 lives. Several other tragedies followed that to Hobartians, seemed like they would never end. August 1969 saw the disappearance of Lucille Butterworth, October 1973 the Blythe Star was wrecked off southern Tasmanian waters with three men drowning and seven survivors spending eight days adrift in a lifeboat, and the Mt St Canice boiler explosion in September 1974 that took eight lives.