Autumn is the time to plant these climbers
If you haven’t planted seeds of peas, snow peas, sugar snaps and sweet peas yet this year, it’s not too late.
Columnists
Precious recordings reveal tales of my elders
In my 20s, I recorded conversations with my mum and elderly family members onto cassettes. Listening back to them now I realise while some things have changed, a lot hasn’t.
Robbie Williams’ sex after marriage truth bomb
The rock god spoke his explosive truth when talking about sex in his marriage. He was utterly honest from a male perspective, and it felt precious and rare.
The coronation moment that froze my pacemaker’d heart
Weighed down by his cloaks, he looked like an oldie in his dressing gown. But a key moment took me back to the Sydney Olympics, when the cauldron failed to ignite.
Tasmania’s wine region is bursting with potential
When I am asked where I would go if I were to start winemaking again, the answer is Tasmania.
Worst part of my job? Handing back this car
The car-reviewing part of my job sounds amazing, but let me tell you, it is, in large part, pure torture.
A lightbulb moment after photographer saw red
When this flame-haired, sunburnt boy crossed paths with Grace Costa on holiday, she didn’t miss the opportunity.
Chaplin was a master of comedy — and a warrior against fascism
When it came to fighting fascism, Charlie Chaplin was a one-man International Brigade, even at the risk of his fortune and his film career.
It’s a modest weatherboard home, but it was our castle
To my generation social housing was considered a godsend. A place that gave my parents and our family dignity, security and a sense of pride.
What happens when your child refuses to go to school?
This is not wagging. It’s far more serious than that. The number of school children with a phobia of stepping through the school gate is growing.
‘This Lexus has the charisma of a fridge-freezer’
This plug-in hybrid is a Prius on stilts, an Uber taxi with a fancy nose job. Let us count the ways it annoyed me.
‘I wanted to photograph it before it’s gone’
For 49 years and six months, the wreck of the WWII heavy bomber ‘Beautiful Betsy’ lay undiscovered on this remote mountainside. How?
This BMW is eloquently violent … and deranged
Want to know what it feels like to hit 100km/h in 3.6 seconds, with your dogs in the back? This is the station wagon for you.
The places where post-pandemic Australia is surging
Something is stirring in middle Australia. The high street, the shopping centre and the CBD office tower are on the way out.
The most powerful Audi ever made
I’m starting to think I might be a sadist, based entirely on my inability to resist the temptation to use a car like the Audi RS E-Tron GT to scare the wits out of people.
The day I made Barry Humphries vomit
It’s only now I can try to write a few hundred words about a bloke I knew for over 60 years.
Yarra Yering’s effortless wines
Filling the senses with the purity, diamond-cut detail and sublime quality, these wines are hypnotically delicious.
A clever, beautiful and abundant garden transformation
Reaching the front door to this waterfront house, built 8m above street level, is now a beautiful journey.
‘Honest Harry’ has been throne to the wolves
There’s nothing quite like the loneliness felt within a dysfunctional family, of feeling you don’t quite belong. It’s why I’ll be thinking of Prince Harry during the gilded royal extravaganza this weekend.
Housing, mining, renewables leading to our next tragedy
The glorious squawk is the joy of this country. Land clearing is driving out once common species. Imagine a world bereft of birdsong.
Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/weekend-australian-magazine/columnists/page/17