Needing a break from COVID imposed time at home, I recently spent a few days exploring Maitland and historic Morpeth, a less than two-hour drive north of Sydney. Not having spent time in Maitland, I was interested to discover more…
Two young men walk into a pub. They wear new royal blue work shirts with khaki pants. It’s early autumn evening and the Oriental Hotel in Tumut is filling up with dinner guests. (This story takes place before COVID and…
A small sign propped against a fence in the main street of the little village of Bemboka points to the Australian Pottery Gallery. After following more signs through Bemboka’s back streets, we arrive at the gallery but no one seems…
By exploring Patonga (a Guringai word meaning oyster), I’m breaking two of my self-made rules. Patonga isn’t a suburb of Sydney, but being easily accessible by ferry from Pittwater, it’s a sleepy hollow worth visiting. And, instead of travelling by…
Driving to The Big Red Bash, a huge music festival, set in outback Queensland is also an excuse for a road trip from Sydney to Birdsville. After our first real road trip from Sydney to Broken Hill a year or…
A Self-Guided Walk in Melbourne Download the Walking Map and Notes An exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria brings me back to Melbourne, a city I lived in many years ago, and a city I know reasonably well. After…
With New South Wales in the grip of a severe drought, and time to spare, I am off on a short outback road trip from Sydney to Broken Hill. We will take nine days and eight nights to drive there…
Once we’d bought our tickets for the Byron Bay Bluesfest, I had a crazy thought. Why not see our family in Mackay while we’re there? I had still not met their one-year-old. Looking at the map again, the weekend became…
I’ve always wanted to go to the Byron Bay Bluesfest. It’s been on my bucket list for a very long time, but to be frank I’ve not done much to get myself there. I’m not good with the unknown and…
As we drove out of Roma, Queensland, I noticed an unusual number of parked cars glinting in the early morning sun. Something clicked. It was the Roma Sale Yards. Not something that grabbed my attention when I read about it,…