An Australian Christmas Story

This is a family story handed down to me by my Grandmother Vera Hewitson (nee Stevens) and it happened to her when she was a young woman living with her amily at the Lakes Hotel Ngambie. Snowy Jackson was a regular at her dad’s pub and he helped her out one year with presents for local children at the districts bush hospital. Snowy, my grandma, always use to say that Snowy had a striking resemblance to Father Christmas himself.     Read Story here

 

 

 

 

Born of this Land

I am born of this land and it has always been in my blood.From early school holidays to the coast, where the wild seas thrilled me and the wind swept dunes nestled my solitary figure. To the territory for three years where I was privy to some of Australia’s most spectacular landscapes; where I came to understand the  feeling of sacredness of land. A gorge, a waterfall, a sheltered creek bank, sheer cliff faces that reached to the sky demanding as much respect as the mightiest of cathedrals. I am born of this land, it is in my blood.  Full article here

 

 

 

 

Brambuk: Aboriginal Cultural Centre

Brambuk is a living cultural centre named for the Bram Bram brothers who created the features of the Grampian mountain ranges. Known to its traditional owners as the Gariwerds, Brambuk is situated at Halls Gap in the heart of the ranges.       Full article here

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Daylesford to Nhulunbuy and back

The Northern Territory is a foreign country: they do things differently there, with apologies to L P Hartley and The Go Between. But it is like another world, another time.

From the moment you step off the plane things are different. The humidity hits you like a warm face washer, you remember the constant bead of sweat above the lip and the sweet fragrance of frangipani fills the air.       Read article here

 

 

 

Dromkeen

Over hundred years ago Judge Arthur Chomley planted pine trees along the road front of his Riddell’s Creek Property. Today they hide one of Melbourne’s best kept secrets. Up the dusty old track to a magic maze of garden, bronze sculptures and winding paved paths, Dromkeen, the homestead nestles in these magnificent grounds and these days, the stately old home houses the Dromkeen Collection of Australian Children’s Literature.  Read article here

 

 

 

Eureka

A glossy brochure with the gold stars of the Southern Cross, proclaims Ballarat ‘ Birthplace of the Australian Spirit”, a mighty big claim!  Ballarat is 110 kilometres N NW of Melbourne and in 1854, on the fledgling goldfields, it became the site of the famous Eureka Uprising.   Read article here

 

 

 

 

Haunts of the Bards

The haunts of the bards; that’s where storytellers Eirwen Malin and Phil Thomas took us with their stories and songs of Wales at the National Storytelling Festival last year. They immersed the listeners in Welsh landscape and lore, painting pictures of mountains and lakes, valleys and the sea, telling tales of mystery, myth and magic, another time and place and people, that left me entranced and intrigued. Read article here

 

 

 

 

Once Upon A Time: Storytelling for the very young

Mem Fox has a tremendous appreciation and passion for stories, language and literacy. Telling stories, she explained is like the pouring forth of precious jewels, each delicious word to be savoured, to be handed to children with love, respect, passion and reverence. I cut my teeth on pre-school storytimes. Read article here

 

 

 

 

Are You Up To Your Destiny

‘Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The soul that rises with us, our star, Hath elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar?’ Wordsworth Where to from here? An academic treatise? I think not.But where to start? The brief for this article was to tie together all the thoughts, ideals and creeds of a group of passionate and practicing storytellers at a weekend conference in country Victoria. We were to wind our way through to a conclusion about Where to from here. Where are storytellers headed and why? Read article here

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Gathering of the Elders