A few weeks ago, I stood on the beach and watched the most perfect scene: my twin sons paddling for a wave, crouching, standing, then catching it towards the shore. The sun was high, the ocean like velvet – except for the rolling breaker and its fraying white fringe. On the horizon, a container ship … Read More
Sydney grandmother Alice Chan is small, petite and softly spoken. A delicate jade pendant hangs around her neck. She’s one of the last people you’d expect to be working up a sweat on a bench press or a lat pulldown in the gym. But two years ago, a regular bone scan showed she had osteoporosis … Read More
My first love, Daniel, is dying. The cancer has returned, and the prognosis is not good. He has about six months to live, two years at the most. I’m in Melbourne on business, and I meet an old friend at a pub. She has heard the news from a mutual friend but she is not … Read More
A REMOTE corner of NSW’s Royal National Park, beach huts lie amid the folds and foothills of lush Black Gin Gully, which rises above Little Garie beach. “Some shacks were built by the ocean so they could get the view. Others, like ours, are close to the creek,” says Billy Burn, 73, whose father-in-law, a … Read More
Qiao Wei hesitates for a moment, then opens the cage. The barking, growling pack bursts forth, charging him in a blur of black, tan and sable. They are mongrel dogs – about 200 cross-breeds – and their unkempt coats sprout in bristly patches, gouged with the scars of street fights and mistreatment. The dogs snarl … Read More
An earthquake in Christchurch comes with a roar or a shudder. It rolls in across the plains from the Greendale Fault. Or it thunders up out of the ground, right below the city. It’s much like the rumble in the belly of a giant, fast asleep and snoring, deep below the earth. It’s been six … Read More
The Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area rises soft and blurry beyond the Sydney metropolis. On a clear day, you can see the city from its ancient sandstone ramparts and hear aeroplanes banking. How wild can it really be? Very wild indeed. Its southern section (an area of 220,000 hectares that has the Great Western … Read More
THE Australian tourist in the hotel lobby skids across the white marble tiles towards me. He has a boxer’s nose and wears a rumpled suit that pulls across his middle. “Quick,” he urges with a giddy grin. “What was that tip we were given at dinner last night?” A svelte French woman in diamonds and … Read More
To some, Islamic veils are expressions of faith. To others, they are symbols of oppression. Either way, they continue to spark debate. The latest controversy has flared in Europe, where first Belgium and, perhaps soon, France, will pass laws to stop Muslim women wearing the face-covering burqa or niqab in public. The author of Belgium’s … Read More