They’re our friends – and they’re in trouble
We slaughter Australian trees in their millions. In Tasmania, a horror story is unfolding.
Columnists
This small town high school started a bra-volution
This story of the bra that changed lives made me cry.
Does Mini’s SUV prove bigger is always better?
The latest Countryman is a maxi Mini battling an identity crisis.
Chaperone, anyone? An old-fashioned idea has currency in the modern world
There’s a time in the life-cycle when a particular word spills forth, quite involuntarily, from the parental mouth. That word is chaperone.
‘Like Usain Bolt after a wasabi enema’: an EV that’s Clarkson approved
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N doesn’t just look good, it’s faster than a Ferrari. Finally, here’s an electric car I love.
The Olympics will inspire a new generation to live their best life
We may not top the Paris medal tally but our athletes will inspire a nation of kids to play sport. Just as Mexico City’s Olympics in 1968 inspired me as an 11-year-old.
In the depths of winter, wattle’s tiny pompoms lift my heart
Over 1,000 wattle species festoon our bushland, highways and gardens, and my heart always sings at the sight of that wintery gorgeousness.
‘Bugger Bognor’: the incredible history of famous last words
I’ve long been interested in people’s last words – seeking inspiration for my own. Why was this town on England’s south coast the focus of King George V’s dying breath?
The iconic Australian brands of my 1960s childhood
Before the 1970s, when Australians developed a taste for American consumer goods, locally made products were the norm. Which brands do you remember?
Suicide is unique to the human race. What drives it?
With all the woes and worries of the world, from wars to our attempts to voluntarily euthanise the planet, it’s little wonder we’re so depressed.
Porn is to blame for the rise of this ghastly practice
I’m guessing that at no other time in the span of human sexuality has such a shocking act featured so heavily in the bedroom.
This is a car for cardigan wearers like Gareth Southgate
When I heard that England’s football manager had replaced his trademark waistcoat with a cardigan, I must confess that I wasn’t very interested. But it seems I’m out of step.
This luxe electric SUV has a cool party trick
Personally, I avoid car dealers with the same passion with which I shun Lycra, Brussels sprouts and the ear-harming yowls and y’alls of country music. But I will say this: Audi dealers must be phenomenally good at their jobs.
Is there a certain etiquette for shared newspapers?
I choose my café carefully for its newsprint, of all persuasions and parishes, because I like to know what the other side thinks.
As my career on radio comes to an end, I want to pay tribute
It’s official. ABC managing director David Anderson has unceremoniously dumped me on the footpath at 700 Harris Street, Ultimo, for council collection.
This car is basically Alexa with windscreen wipers
Who’s really in charge in the Mercedes CLE 450 Premier Edition – me, or the car’s tetchy virtual assistant?
Making tea is an expression of love in our house
This weekend, the older boys are back for the second one’s birthday and the creaky old house seems to expand with their presence. ‘Cuppa, mum?’
Jews have given the world so many of its best comedians
Laughter can neither save you from death nor delay it – but it can deny its total victory. You see that in the phenomenon of black humour, and even more in Jewish humour.
Why do we ‘tackle’ climate change?
We fall in love, we are gripped by fear, we are consumed by jealousy, we drown in debt, we are driven by lust. Hidden-meaning word-pairings are everywhere.
This station wagon beats any SUV, hands down
It struck me this week, as I pondered Audi’s riotous RS6 station wagon and the many ways in which I love it, that perhaps the reason I hate all SUVs is that – unlike me – they are simply too tall.
Hang on — is this Volvo SUV the perfect family car?
I spent a long time trying to find anything annoying or substandard about the latest incarnation of Volvo’s seven-seater XC90, but I just couldn’t. Apart from the relentless bonging, obviously.
The powerful connection between nature and our happiness
We all need an awakening now and then to the power greater and more mysterious than us, which is this wondrous planet.
If we live 100-plus years, life will need a rethink
The average Australian born today can expect to live well into the 22nd century. But what does that mean for work – and marriage?
![1958. The Prime Minister, Mr Menzies, beams at the Liberal Women’s Club on Saturday night after progressive counting indicated that the Liberal-Country Party coalition would win the Federal election.[Sun 24/11/1958]1958 Federal Election. Robert Menzies.](https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/e435926c164a7265759aa58944775b32?width=650)
Politics used to be a civil business. But no more
Once upon a time in Australian politics, friendships transcended parties. I remember when a conservative like Sir Robert Menzies could be on very cordial terms with a lefty like Jim Cairns – and grief-stricken by the death of Ben Chifley.
Cash was king, woke wasn’t a thing: looking back to 2010
We made cars in Melbourne and Adelaide. We were debating the merits of a Big Australia. To predict our future, we first need to reflect on the last 14 years.
My life has been colonised by migraines
They crashed into my world in my mid-thirties during a period of intense work stress. The agony can be so intense that I think death would be preferable, think death would be a relief.
The memory I’ve tried to repress for 50 years
I’m driving slowly, as it’s raining. Passing a parked ambulance, I distinctly remember thinking, ‘You won’t get me.’ Then everything changes in an instant.
The tantalising mystery of Picnic at Hanging Rock
My friendship with Lady Joan Lindsay lasted for years, with Joan playfully giving me hints as to the mystery of the missing Miranda at the Rock.
The rise of monster trucks feels like an affront
The owners seem so unthinking about their impact on others. This feels like the supremacy of self-interest, a pointer to civilisation’s end point. The meaning: each to their own.
Fertility rates are plummeting — fortunately, we have migrants
Australia’s fertility rate today is half what it was at the peakof the baby boom, with single-child households and childlessness more socially acceptable options now than a generation ago.
Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/weekend-australian-magazine/columnists/page/7