Category: Australia
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Memories of Greek Cafés
A recently published book by two researchers into the role of Greek families in the cultural history of Australia, got me thinking back to my childhood in the Clarence Valley of the forties and fifties. Effie Alexakis and Leonard Janiszewski have been researching this topic for decades. They now work at the Macquarie University in…
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Magnetic Island will pull you in…
Magnetic Island Magnetic Island is part of the Great Barrier Reef. Just outside our unit is a marked underwater reef that one can follow, either with a snorkel or by renting a flat board, to view the coral. The island is shaped like an equilateral triangle. Each side of the triangle is 11 kilometres in…
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A Sydney Icon or Two
From the Hall of Fame at the North Sydney Pool: “The North Sydney Pool was, in its heyday, one of the most advanced olympic facilities in the world”. “It was designed by the architectural firm Rudder and Grout in a style of art deco that has been termed “stripped classical”. A great deal of attention…
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A Kit Home Goes Up in Vacy
WHERE IS VACY? Vacy is in the Dungog Shire, not far from Paterson in the Lower Hunter Valley. It’s a 197 km drive north and then north-west from Sydney. Or you can catch the train to Maitland and be picked up by a family member from there. Country living is much cheaper than renting or…
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Moree and Insistent Voices
Moree, with a population of about 8,000, is situated in the north-west of NSW on the Mehi River and at the junction of the Gwydir and Newell Highways. It is famous for its Artesian Spa waters, which were discovered accidentally in 1895 when a bore was sunk in search of irrigation waters. Instead, mineral water…
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5 things about Coogee
We live at the northern end of the beach in Coogee. This was once the “poor cousin” side of Coogee Bay, with dilapidated buildings and a rusting dome on top of the Coogee Palace. It’s now a favorite place to dip and swim for young and old alike. At high tide on these early summer…
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Temperature Records Broken in Australia this Weekend
We live near the beach at Coogee, so we are fortunate enough to get a fairly constant sea breeze. But other areas in Western Sydney and in the Western plains were not so lucky. Residents of Richmond on the north-west fringe of Sydney saw the mercury climb to 47 degrees on Saturday, placing the town…
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Dear WordPress Bloggers
We’re coming into summer here Down Under, while you in the northern hemisphere head towards winter. I have decided, paradoxically, to go into blogging hibernation now, while the outdoors activities in this part of the world, beckon me to join in. At the same time, I wish to concentrate on finishing two novels that I…
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The Passion of Grandparenting … and of Writing
Like for most things, you can only understand the strong emotions grandparents feel towards their grandchildren once you’ve experienced it. Some live only for their children and grandchildren. I cannot imagine this. I feel so lucky and priviliged to have my twin passions, my family AND my writing. I’ve reconnected recently with people from my…
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Flame Trees … Jimmy Barnes
“Flame Trees” was sung by Jimmy Barnes to commemorate Australia Day on 26th January this year (2016). The song depicts for me the two sides of Grafton, its polarities. This town is the setting for my memoir “River Girl” that I intend to publish in the near future. We lived outside the main town at…