Arts About – Painter, printmaker, poet
Nancy Whittaker. Just down the road from me is the fabulously revitalised Methodist Church, which is now Cascade Art Gallery.  At the recent launch of Jeff Gardner’s book of poetry and prints Lucy the Dragon, Dr. Juliet O’Conor made a very insightful speech. She is a specialist in children’s book history, having curated a collection of five centuries of children’s books at the State Library of Victoria.
Truck That
This book introduces the main characters in the Carter De Freitas series by Steve Rogers. The story is set in WA's far north, features road-train driver Carter De Freitas and his cattle dog Carpenter who are inadvertently caught up in a drug smuggling operation. De Freitas, an ageing character, picks up a young Swedish back packer, Elise Alquist, who is stranded after her vehicle breaks down on the way to a job as a cook/deckhand on a charter boat out of Broome ... Key to the story are the characters and scenery of the Pilbara and Kimberley region ... meet Carter in the extract here.
Book – Not for Self But for All: A History of the Art Gallery of Ballarat Association
Commended in the Local History Small Publication Award, 2019 Victorian Community History Award. This award recognises the best small publications or or e-books which feature Victorian local, cultural or social history. The fascinating story of the establishment and development of the Art Gallery of Ballarat has been told in a book by noted Ballarat historian Dr Anne Beggs-Sunter.
Announcing the winner of the 2021 New England Writers’ Centre Fellowship
In partnership with Varuna, The National Writers’ House, the New England Writers’ Centre is delighted to announce Armidale writer, Dr James O’Hanlon as the winner of the 2021 Varuna/New England Writers’ Centre Fellowship. The Fellowship, to be taken up in 2022, will give James a week’s inspirational writing residency in the beautiful surroundings of Varuna, in the Blue Mountains.
Anika Molesworth talks about Our Sunburnt Country
An inspiring breed: climate advocate and farmer.
Tale about NT town has links to the Barkly
When Caroline Graham and Kylie Stevenson set out to write a book about the town of Larrimah, 490km north of Tennant Creek, they had no idea the research would lead them all over the Northern Territory, including the Barkly region. The journalists, who met in a newsroom in Mackay 15 years ago, first told the story of missing man Paddy Moriarty in their 2018 Walkley Award-winning podcast Lost in Larrimah.
From the 1930s novel, “Psalmist of the Dawn” – local activity: rat hunting
Chris Murray. From the mid-1920s until 1941, when the palm seed exports collapsed during World War II, ratting was no recreational pastime, but an obligation for all Islanders who received income from palm seed sales via the Island Board’s shareholding system (and that included all Island men, women and children) ... Mary Marlowe takes up the story of a typical rat hunt in some detail ... The dogs, all three of them, were quivering at the rumps and lifting their forepaws from the ground in anticipation of jumping for the rat the instant it should appear out of the banyan log ...
Experience magic at this year’s Big Sky Readers and Writers Festival, 30 September-3 October
Magic will be in the air at this year’s Big Sky Readers and Writers Festival featuring yet another stellar line-up of local and West Australian authors, illustrators, storytellers, poets and musicians.
