From the ashes
The destruction of the original Southern Ocean Lodge in January 2020 was indicative of the hellish bushfires that spread across Kangaroo Island at lightning speed, killing two people and wiping out over 40 per cent of the island’s habitat [December 2]. The loss of wildlife was on an apocalyptic scale – more than 41,000 koalas dead, and the destruction of key feeding areas of the critically endangered glossy black cockatoo. The before-and-now photo slide in your online story was very telling – the expansive green canopy behind the Lodge prior to the bushfires, a swathe of brown behind the rebuilt Lodge now. Good on James and Hayley Baillie for rebuilding the Lodge and investing in the island’s tourist future. Hopefully, the tourist dollars that come in as a result will contribute to efforts to restore and look after the island.
Chris Brown
Erskineville, NSW
To boldly go
Jane Wheatley empathises with the ups and downs of actor Patrick Stewart’s life [December 2]. Born in Yorkshire, now 83, he has become a successful Shakespearean actor in England and a Star Trek one in the US. He enjoys acting and still hopes to play Falstaff in Henry IV. He has two children with his first wife, but they are “unforgiving” regarding his later marriages, and this saddens him. I hope very much that this beautiful, frank article helps him feel more optimistic. It is also excellent that Stewart, Wheatley, I, and many others, all long for peace and a permanent solution for Israel and Palestine.
Barbara Fraser
Burwood, VIC
Talking trans
I was angered by the piece on young transgender people, [November 25]. Michael Bachelard even links to an article about the closure of the Tavistock clinic in the United Kingdom without acknowledging that the review’s primary finding was that care was too slow to reach children at risk and that multiple new clinics in the regions would reduce wait times and save lives.
Australia could learn significantly from experiences elsewhere, particularly in the United States, where meticulous journalism has reported on how courts have responded to overwhelming medical evidence and overturned anti-trans legislation. Courts have comprehensively refuted anti-trans claims about social contagion and in other cases, the defence could not find a single witness to support their claim about transition regret. So-called experts who are called on to defend trans bans have been revealed as doctors with no experience or knowledge in endocrinology. Assumptions about gender dysphoria, including so-called rapid-onset gender dysphoria, have been revealed as junk science. A recent Amicus Brief put forward by 21 attorney generals cites 13 pages worth of laws, court decisions, and studies to support the rights of transgender people in bathrooms and reveals no negative incidents from their access. As to thinking about gender stereotypes, I agree that this is challenging. We need to listen and learn, and our nascent debate here needs to be better informed.
Jessica Stewart
Gladesville, NSW
Invasion of the killer pear
I just read the article on the Hudson pear [October 28]. A true beastly invasive species – OMG what a nightmare. I do hope that [Castlereagh Macquarie County Council weeds officer] Mat Savage doesn’t give up, and that the funding, research, cochineal bugs lead to the monster’s reduction – even eradication. But at the same time I was totally engaged, entertained and absorbed by your brilliant descriptions … “arachnoid arms queasy-green … quivering with malignant potential”. Powerful and poetic! Thank you so much for a fabulous (and disturbing) read.
Brenda Mattick
Russell Island, QLD
ONLINE COMMENTS
Couch surfer in his 30s. Oscar winner in his 40s. Why the whole world wants Taika
A man with the right mix of spirits. Fun, talent, oomph, desire and creativity, so why not some success, too.
John D. Wilson
Love the bulk of Taika’s work, but Thor: Love and Thunder was an absurdist disaster. RussellW
He’s a funny bugger, but he missed the target with the last Thor movie, busy trying to put too much love and emotion into it. It’s a fantasy superhero movie that he can bring great humour into, not a romantic, fluffy love movie. Know your audience, Taika. Skeptic
Nice work in The Mandalorian. Emu Bob
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