In 2018 the Australian Department of the Environment and Energy, with the participation of New South Wales, Victorian, and Western Australia commissioned the Annual Australian Plastics Recycling Survey. This aimed to provide an overview of the consumption and recycling of plastics in Australia during the 2017–18 financial year. The key findings for the period were: … Continue reading Disposable Plastic Consumption and #COVID19
Beyond Borders: Latest News
A word about borders Both physical and unseen borders have long been with us but for numerous reasons have not always been permanent, their locations and porosity varying over time. When I first left Australia, travelling from Sydney to Perth and on to Singapore in 1972 I crossed as many as twenty-six ancient borders within … Continue reading Beyond Borders: Latest News
Ten key statements about the Parthenon Marbles
Acropolis Museum This post was prepared for the IOCARPM blog mid-year, but the issue of reunification of all the Parthenon Marbles in the Acropolis Museum is arguably the world's most important and long-standing cultural property dispute. https://vimeo.com/342848826 The Acropolis Museum in Athens is the rightful home for all of the remaining sculptures from the Parthenon. … Continue reading Ten key statements about the Parthenon Marbles
Thinking about Crossie on Remembrance Day
Sophia Jasper Crosby is often in my thoughts and prayers. As a close friend of my maternal grandparents, she was very much a part of my earlier life. A woman of rural manners, the daughter of Christian missionaries, and the widow of a soldier from The Great War, Sophia was the most assertively British Australian … Continue reading Thinking about Crossie on Remembrance Day
‘Seen and unseen: a century of stories from Asia and the Pacific’ is now on Spotify
Reflections on Borders: Empire, Cold War and Covid19
For a wide review of these themes lookout for my latest collection of short stories, Beyond Borders.For some, the notion of borders is that of a hard border, one clearly defined and assertively maintained. Certainly, in the Covid19 era borders reflect this standard, yet borders are by no means constant, or definite, whatever the political … Continue reading Reflections on Borders: Empire, Cold War and Covid19
Revisiting Lake George
This week a friend was driving south from Canberra and was surprised to see a dramatic increase in the level of Lake George. This short video is constructed from a collection of single shots.I last wrote about Lake George in 2012, when the shots comprising this video were taken. Since then it has been largely … Continue reading Revisiting Lake George
Beirut Explosion on the Eve of a Hiroshima Anniversary
These days any events like the Beruit explosion trigger memories for the Bali Bombings for me. There were two explosions at Legian on the night of October 12, 2002. I heard them from Ubud yet through all the noise emanating from 26 kilometers away, I could only discern one continuous rumbling. Footage of the Beruit … Continue reading Beirut Explosion on the Eve of a Hiroshima Anniversary
The story behind ‘Geografi Australia’
The Geografi Australia project began during Suharto's New Order regime and the Keating era. Working on this project was both challenging and inspirational. The story of the beginnings of the project is called A Day of departures. It is published as part of Seen and unseen: a century of stories from Asia and the Pacific, … Continue reading The story behind ‘Geografi Australia’
Geografi Australia
In 1995 my old company Asian Field Study Centres Pty Ltd, tendered for a contract with the Australia Indonesia Institute to produce a resource about Australia. Effectively a Geography text, it was to have historical references as well, and was to be written in Bahasa Indonesia. The book was attuned to the curriculum for the … Continue reading Geografi Australia
