This despatch from Column 8 this week, regarding the Mystery of Tree-Borne Teddies along Old Bungendore Road: “A third and final theory from John McGregor, of Dolls Point [seriously!], whose brother manages a motel in Queanbeyan. After some investigation, possibly in local pubs, his brother says the Bungendore teddy bears indicate the position of a [...]
If you go down to the woods today, near Bungendore anyway, just east of the ACT, you’re sure for a big surprise. For every bear that ever that was, will gather there for certain because, Bungendore is the spot where hundreds of teddy bears, giraffes, gorillas and other fluffy toys have been nailed to trees [...]
There’s a secret garden 12kms north of Kempsey. Little known by travelers who speed along the Pacific Highway, the shrine deserves a visit. The site remains the worst road accident in Australian history. The collision occurred in 1989, between two crowded coaches a few days short of Christmas, making a sound that no Clybucca farmer [...]
West of Cowra, on the Western Highway, Sylvia Brind can turn a dropsheet into the Land of Oz. Her scene-painting talents were seen every season at the Grenfell Dramatic Society, and now in more permanent fashion thanks to the community curtain. In 2000, a craft bee converted a blank cloth into a 5-panel picture of [...]
“I identify with Superman,” admits Bryan Singer, the director of Superman Returns. “I am adopted, I am an only child, and I love the idea that he comes from another world, that he’s the ultimate immigrant.” Singer’s logic is sound. Hollywood is another world. And just as alien as Superman’s home planet of Krypton to [...]
Below the Albion Hotel in Forbes (NSW) is the Bushranger’s Hall of Fame, or Infamy, to be pedantic. Punitive knicknacks adorn the walls, such as a homemade rack, but the real lure lurks in the three separate rooms to the rear of the burrow. In situ, the first room saw Frank Gardiner and his accomplices, [...]
Cold Chisel sang about the Star Hotel riots of 1979. The pub was a music mecca for the younger set of Newcastle (NSW), and when it shut, there was hell to pay. Cars burned and police horses bolted. It was anarchy as sponsored by Mr Molotov. Poke your nose into the shabby shell that goes [...]
Australia has no history of civil war. The closest we came, it could be argued, was the Eureka Rebellion in 1854, and Father’s Day in Milperra, 1989. The day began as a motorbike swap-meet in the car-park attached to the Viking Tavern. All seemed according to Hoyle when suddenly a raised voice became a raised [...]
‘What Byron Bay was’ is the best way to describe Brunswick Heads, a beg-no-pardon rivermouth town with tackle shops, a hamburger joint, a drowsy PO, a bowling club (with mufti Sundays) and caravan park. Resident journo, Mungo McCallum is among the vigilantes seeking to prevent the least ‘Byronification’ of the place. The town’s epitome is [...]
Scotch bonnets will be there. So will pequins and malaguetas. You may even meet a yellow Fatalie Habanero. And unless you hold a degree in chilliology, you won’t have the foggiest what I’m talking about. The chance to meet these devious peppers, and all their flammable cousins, occurs in Sawtell, six kays south of Coffs. [...]