Category Archives: Australia I lived within easy reach of Australia’s Blue Mountains for many years, and while I’d take visitors up there regularly for day-trips and hikes, I guess I rather took them for granted. I knew some of the stories of the hardships the early explorers (Blaxland, Wentworth, Lawson, and their unnamed servants) faced trying to find a […]  The New Year’s period is a time when we can look back over the recent past and start to make plans for the coming 12 months. As regular visitors to these pages know, I usually escape to the mountains during this time, preferring some quiet contemplation over the noisy drunken revelry that is more common in the […]  For a country with a relatively small population, Australia is home to a lot of talent in just about every domain – and popular music is no exception. This always surprises me somewhat, because a small populace means a small support base; unlike the “big names” in the big markets overseas, it must be hard for working […]  One of the many joys of the annual Easter long-weekend Byron Bay Bluesfest in coastal-eastern Australia is having talented performers from around the world brought to our doorstep. Some are musicians we have known and loved much of our lives; others are fresh young faces with edgy new material see:. Sometimes they bring with them music and […]  Australia is home to the world’s oldest living culture. Indigenous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures are complex and diverse, dating back at least 50,000 years. As distinctive as these groups are from each other and from other indigenous populations around the world, they share a number of issues related to maintaining cultural traditions in a modern, changing world. […] |
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