What If?
It was an ordinary day. A group of them were swimming one kilometre from Teabag Bay north to the Mooloolaba Surf Club. As they always did, several times a week.
She freestyled head down, enjoying the vast pattern of terraced sand below, like a miniature desert. They swam under a blue and yellow sky. Her flippers powered her along past familiar landmarks they all knew, the triangular building, the white measuring poles, the long border of horse casuarinas, a carpark, fanning out now, each alone. She was comfortable, non-thinking, looking for schools of bream, a stingray, a sudden bright tropical fish—always a bonus.
Ahead the fastest swimmers approached the Surf Club. One by one the women emerged and trailed up to the club pulling off their caps and goggles, scraggle-haired.
She turned towards the familiar beach, now so close she yanked off her flippers and held them in one hand. She stretched her feet to touch bottom. It wasn’t there. She expected shallow water! Hanging on…
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