After winning the Alan Marshall Short Story Award in 2002 I spent three months at an historic and extremely atmospheric mud brick house, ‘Birrarung’, near Eltham.

This was a writers’ residency courtesy of Parks Victoria and Nillumbik Shire. It became a chapter in my first book, The Woman on the Mountain.

So I have a special spot for Eltham and Meera’s terrific Eltham Bookshop, and have spoken down there several times.

If you’re in the region, come and meet me on Sunday afternoon, June 10th, 3:00—4:30pm at Edendale Farm, Gastons Lane, Eltham.

Bookings are essential: Call (03) 9439 8700 or email Eltham Bookshop. Refreshments are included in the $5.00 entry.

Find your way to Edendale Farm by checking Eltham Bookshop on Facebook.

{ 0 comments }

As the last red leaves fell from the Glory Vine, this exquisite little nest, round as tennis ball and about the same size, was revealed. It was knitted with gossamer threads and moss onto three twigs, like grandma making a sock by going round and round on her three needles.

Quite empty, it and its twiggy frame now adorn my verandah collection.

The other verandah drapery is the wisteria, the leaves now mainly butter yellow, edging to amber before they fall. It fills the window behind my desk, and as the afternoon light behind them sets them aglow it helps me bear having to be in here at the computer instead of outdoors on such beautiful still sunny days.

But yellow is also the adamant all-year-round colour of the NO GAS groups in many areas, like Bunnan and Merriwa in the Hunter.  The T-shirts are bold and un-missable, with the simplest of messages worn defiantly centre front.

This photo was taken at the May 1 Rally by friend Sandra Stewart, and sent on to me later. It’s me and my two good friends Alyson Shepherd and Doug Blackwell; although they’ve moved to the north coast from the Merriwa district, they came down to join old mates at the rally.

Yellow definitely predominated on that Autumn day!

{ 0 comments }

With much on my mind re this coal book, the ongoing issues and the ensuing talks and tours, I am up early to start work. 

One recent benefit of this — apart from stopping my kaleidoscope brain from its pointless shuffling — was that I caught the moon on its way to bed, full and bright above the south-western still-dark treeline, which the early dawn light was just starting to colour.

Things change rapidly at that hour, and in the opposite sky, where the sun was about to pop over the mountains, the raggedly combed clouds were suddenly aglow.

Softer pink reflections attended the moon before it slipped from sight into cloud and away — a veiled exit!

{ 0 comments }

Macmillan has produced a short YouTube video of me talking about my book, Rich Land, Wasteland to help get the message out to the wider world, so please share it around. Thanks!

{ 2 comments }

On May Ist, I joined a busload of Hunter farmers and ‘concerned citizens’ like myself and headed down the freeway to Sydney. There we and 4000-5000 others walked from Martin Place to Parliament House in Macquarie Street, chanting all the way, like ‘City and Country — united we stand!’ and bearing colourful signs that spoke of desperation and anger at the threats to their regions.

The ‘Protect our land and water’ rally was organised by NSW Farmers against the Coalition’s draft Strategic Regional Land Use Policy, which breaks pre-election promises and in reality gives no certainty as to protection of either agricultural or environmental values from CSG or COAL or any other resource company’s desires. It was not, as some media portrayed, solely an anti-CSG rally, although there was plenty of angst about that.

The broken promises centre around exclusion of identified areas of value before exploration licences are issued. Exploration also causes harm (e.g, to aquifers) and investment down that track increases the likelihood of lobbying and success in getting by the proposed protective ‘gateway’. The exploration stage can last years and is extremely stressful for the landowners concerned.

And Cabinet can override the gateway process anyway, as the old 3A did, for projects deemed state significant.

Identifying and mapping areas tp be protected is a good start, but not if is incorrect, so that it only legitimises the absence of extremely important and very obvious features and so offers them not even token protection.

A few glaring omissions just in the Hunter are:

  • the quality Upper Hunter wine industry around Denman is not there as a critical industry cluster!
  • the Gloucester Valley with its guaranteed water and fertile soils as future food bowl, let alone environmental values
  • the Merriwa Plateau’s cropping and grazing areas

To me, these feel like sacrifices to the coal and CSG projects already in the pipeline there.

So people are upset, feel betrayed, and fear for the futures not just of their farms but their region. From young to old, they wore their protests, often handmade, on their hearts, in their hands, around their necks, or like me, on their hats! (Denis Wilson snapped the pics of my hat and me with a strange Mad Hatter expression)

[click to continue…]

{ 6 comments }

After all the initial rushing about and media interviews for the new book — ongoing and more to come — I was glad to have a few relatively peaceful days at home with my fellow inhabitants.

As I am still without 240v power until my solar system’s inverter is fixed, I am to-ing and fro-ing between cabin and camper to use the small inverter and two panels there to recharge the laptop.

On the steps, about to dash across once more, I saw the big red-bellied black snake who has been visible somewhere about the yard most days for the last few weeks.

It was under the camper, heading towards one of the wallabies who like to rest there.

They looked at each other for a while (long enough for me to grab the camera) — and then the snake did a U-turn.

Unfortunately it then headed towards the cabin. So I’m on the steps, needing to see where it goes, while saying, ‘Oh please, don’t come this way!’. But it did.

It went under the open steps, so of course I was hoping it didn’t decide to come up through them on to the verandah.

But it came out the other side and into what used to a herb rockery before the coal book lost me my garden altogether.

Immobile, there it stayed for ages — waiting for lunch, I assume. With the days warm but nights cold, I guess it’s fattening up for a winter break.

It’s pretty nerve-wracking having to be so on the alert, with it stretched out and almost invisible in many of the places I’ve seen it, and where I often walk. I wish winter would hurry up!

{ 0 comments }

Click here to listen to my Radio Australia interview about Rich Land, Wasteland with Phil Kafcaloudes.

{ 0 comments }

You can hear my April 23 interview with Phillip Adams on ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live as a podcast or as streaming audio here.

{ 0 comments }

Taking the time to look

April 24, 2012

I have been so involved in my coal book and the ongoing issues it deals with that I have hardly had time to leave the cabin — except to charge the laptop in the camper! And, by the way, my 18-year-old batteries are OK. It’s the inverter that’s given up.  Unfortunately BP don’t make solar [...]

Read the full article →

Media alert

April 21, 2012

My new book, Rich Land, Wasteland, will be in the shops this coming week. Now begins the media — the using of the tool, which is how I see the book. I’ll be on the panel of ABC News 24 TV’s ‘The Drum’ at 6.30 on Monday 23rd — that’s today —and I’ll also be [...]

Read the full article →

Friday 13th: a black and white day

April 16, 2012

Last Friday I collected a special parcel at the post office: my copies of the new book! After two years, it’s reality, quite a hefty reality at 453 pages, but that includes the many references. It’s half as many words again as my first book, and in a larger format. The cover looks great, and despite [...]

Read the full article →

Bimblebox and beyond

April 9, 2012
Thumbnail image for Bimblebox and beyond

Many of you will recall my several posts on Bimblebox, the Nature Refuge in Queensland’s Galilee Basin that Clive Palmer wants to dig up for his China First mine. (See Outback Eden under threat and Speak up for nature) Now there’s a film about its plight — but not only about this one precious place. [...]

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Read the full article →