Pallarenda Beach, Townsville

I’m an early riser. My alarm beeps into the darkness at 5 a.m. every morning, rain or shine. Vilis, however, is an evening person, so for him to rise at 5:30 a.m. two days in a row on the weekend wa...

A Day at JCU

In mid-morning, I cycled to James Cook University, with heat radiating off the bitumen path in the Ross River Parkway and the river itself throwing me rich, wet smells. At the uni, I wandered the camp...

Notes on Idalia and Townsville’s Homeless

Two things surprised me this morning while cycling in the parkway. The first was a tree snake that fell out of a tree and flopped onto the grass right beside me in Idalia. The second was a homeless ma...

Australia: One Competitive Country

In the darkness of 5:40 a.m., the air’s damp warmth felt too close, too thick. Haunting, broken calls of bush stone-curlews rang out over the sodden golf course, and in the distance, laughing kookab...