Busting the Toad Busters
There are shades of guava pink in the clouds at dusk tonight and you can be satisfied just by looking at the Kununurra ridgelines. But it is not all sweetness and light in the Kimberley, not all sunsets and G-and-Ts. There is a tension here in the frontier air, and it seems as if history is repeating itself, that mistakes of other times and places are happening here now. The specifics and people are different but there is unnecessary conflict due to misunderstanding and lack of respect for history. For when the sun goes down, when darkness comes, we will be out looking for cane toads and the satisfaction of this moment will seem a lifetime away. This is work we should never have had to do if others had read their history books and governments did what was asked of them. It is conservation work that no amount of G-and-Ts will soothe.
I am not a misplaced urbanite in search of some romanticised noble savagery. I am just a community member lamenting government mismanagement,…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins