The Ill-fated Burke and Wills Expedition

In Sarah Murgatroyd’s book The Dig Tree: The Story of Burke & Wills1, a black-and-white photograph taken around 1911 shows the sprawling trunks of a coolibah tree. A section of the tree̵...

Alice in the Rain

In the darkness before dawn, rain like none Vilis and I had heard since the depths of the Wet pounded down onto the metal roof of our rental house. In first light, I saw flooded raised beds and patios...

Preparing for Alice Springs

Still pimpled with red bites in less than convenient places from our Wet Tropics backpacking trip on Hinchinbrook Island, Vilis and I cast our thoughts ahead to desert country and Alice Springs. Earli...

Shakespeare Under Tropical Stars

To celebrate Vilis’s birthday, we packed a picnic supper and drove to Queens Gardens near downtown Townsville for an outdoor performance of William Shakespeare’s tragic two-act play Richar...