NewsBite

Two of Us

Advertisement
Opera Australia baritone Samuel (left) and brother Toby Dundas, The Temper Trap drummer.

After decades thinking they had little in common, these siblings finally became friends

Opera Australia baritone Samuel Dundas and brother Toby, drummer with The Temper Trap, were “radically different” growing up. In becoming dads, they bonded.

  • Dani Valent

Latest

Drusilla Modjeska (left) and Julie Rrap with Julie’s dog, Cirrus. Drusilla calls the poodle “her gentleman caller”, Julie says.

What is it like to become friends in your 70s? Very different to when you are in your 20s

Author Drusilla Modjeska and artist Julie Rrap shared the picnic rugs of mutual pals for years before finally becoming friends in 2018.

  • Amanda Hooton
Bruno (left) and Otto Bell: As children, Bruno says, “we’d collect bags of leaves and come home and tip them onto the living-room floor; there was so much interesting stuff there.”

Bruno and Otto are identical twins. They’re also among Australia’s top weevil experts

Bruno and Otto Bell grew up in Tasmania obsessed with the natural world. They’re now renowned entomologists, specialising in weevils.

  • Tim Elliott
Brett Duncan and sister Jess Colgan in the GingerSnap kitchen: “When I get moody or rude, he doesn’t get mad: he hugs me,” says Jess. “I often feel I don’t deserve his patience.”

At 14, Brett gave his sister a note and hid in the bathroom. Then she knocked on the door

Brett Duncan and his sister, Jess Colgan, run a vegan cake business in Melbourne. Brett, a qualified pastry chef, is deaf; Jess is a social enterprise CEO.

  • Dani Valent
Tom Mehigan, left, with Jethro Brookes and lorikeet Rosie.

These mates meet up twice a day. There’s one topic they won’t chat about

Former school principal Tom Mehigan and retired roof-tiler “Jethro” Brookes meet daily at a local cafe before heading to the park for a snooze.

  • Stephen Lacey

How a shared passion project (and a lot of fighting) saved this marriage

After a rocky beginning, Kazumasa Yazawa and his wife Thana fell in love. Ten years later, they made a radical call: moving from Jakarta to small-town Tasmania.

  • Katrina Strickland
Advertisement
“It annoys me that people often underrate her,” says Sue Kirby (left) of Blanche. d’Alpuget. “She’s still ‘the other woman’, who ‘stole’ Bob.”

‘She got all the blame’: The public view of Blanche d’Alpuget that makes her schoolfriend ‘so angry’

Dr Sue Kirby and author Blanche d’Alpuget met as eight-year-olds. It was partly because of Sue’s father that Blanche and former PM Bob Hawke got together.

  • Fenella Souter
Mia and Megan Gilmour.

Mia spent 18 months on a cancer ward with her sick brother. She left with survivor’s guilt

A narrowly averted family tragedy nearly broke the bond between Megan Gilmour, the co-founder of a not-for-profit, and her daughter, Mia, a yoga teacher.

  • Nicole Abadee
Jo Nemeth (left) and Sharon Brodie: “[Jo says] that after the coming economic, social and climate collapse, we won’t be able to use money anyway, but I’m not there yet.”

Jo has lived without money for 10 years. Her best friend says it makes perfect sense

The friends live together in a “messy, multi-generational household” with occasional friction – and chickens.

  • Louise Southerden
Adrian Newstead (left) and Russell Cheek: “When you talk to Russell, you have his undivided attention,” Adrian says. “He listens, he gets your story. It’s very endearing.”

They met every day at the pool for years – until the coffee cup ‘incident’

Art dealer Adrian Newstead and performer/quizmaster Russell Cheek have swum every morning at their local pool for 17 years – except when Adrian was banned.

  • Stephen Lacey

Original URL: https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/topic/two-of-us-1qy