Features
Investigative journalism, interviews, essays
Left Hanging How they’re killing the koalas of Wilton
“We have to work out what the transition is between protected koala habitat and urban areas... Let’s find a balance between conservation and development for housing.”
This Perfect Day Losing Anthony Bourdain
Call someone you haven’t for a long time and tell them that you’re thinking about them. Invite someone over for a meal and cook for them. Let them know they can tell you anything.
Eight Years On The Syrian war and its child refugees
“I’m working and saving up so I can save rent for a tent,” Ibrahim says. “The tent owner comes and demands his money. You don’t even get a chance to rest.”
The Sunshine Club Sleeping rough on the Hawkesbury
It’s sweltering as I walk across the grassy river flats. I can see Dean’s ute, people gathered round another vehicle. Beyond them a jungle of weeds, willows and wattle.
A Machine Has No Friends How soon before an AI robot takes your job?
“If machines are capable of doing almost any work humans can do, what will the humans do?”
Spectral Evidence A testimony in fragments
"How simple we seem, or at least pretend to be in front of others, and how twisted we are deep down. How paltry we are and how spectacularly we contort ourselves before our own eyes, and the eyes of others." - Roberto Bolano
Funeral for a Friend Farewelling Rajani Enderby
Rajani Enderby had a big life; not long but big. The way she lived can tell us much about love and friendship, as her husband, Scott, and her friend Steve Kilbey explained at her funeral. Rick Feneley, her long-time neighbour, reports.
Walking the Flint and Steel Track West Head, Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park
“There’s a big lizard down near the water, with a tin of cat food stuck on its head!”
Cigarettes & Turpentine An Ode to My Artist-Mother
She smoked Marlboro Reds and drove old cars that always broke down… She wore red lipstick religiously. She was never on time to pick me up.
The Best Way to Ruin a Walk The grass is greener for Sydney’s public golf courses, but for how long?
Golf courses – particularly public ones – are caught in the middle of a three-way contest between a population largely unconcerned with golf, developers with eyes for well-located land and the six per cent of us that still play the sport.
Who’ll Stop the Rain? After the horrors of Myanmar, Rohingya refugees now face the monsoon season
Makeshift dwellings of bamboo and sheet plastic sit immediately above one another on slopes of silt. All this is likely to turn to mud as soon as the monsoon season arrives.
Waking Up as Someone Else How Kate Fischer became Tziporah Malkah
Now 43, Tziporah Malkah, once known as Kate Fischer, is returning to the media after six years spent working as a carer in Melbourne… Television executives are beginning to consider her potential as Australia’s new Oprah.
Nick Cave Premonitions of Love
“The impulse was to hide. But it turns out that being forced to grieve openly basically saved us.”
The Resistance An interview with Franklin Foer about Big Tech and the fight for our minds
It’s almost inevitable that we’re going to arrive at the day when government regulates the technology companies. All these horrors will add up and take their toll. It’s the the only reason to be optimistic.
On the Waterfront Sydney’s working harbour is being sold off for city real estate
The entire Fish Market site and all its working wharves are soon to be evicted, displaced by up to 2,760 new apartments.
Marrickville or Mirvacville? A development that could shape where our city is going
“The proponent seems to have confused south Marrickville with downtown Hong Kong” - Inner West Council Mayor, Darcy Byrne