Latest Articles
A Sydney-based academic and columnist for the Nine rags sets out to explain the US to Australians. It's not a pretty picture
Sep 20 2024
8 mins
The philospher began with the conviction 'the only human activity that seems to have any importance' is the great cosmic 'why?'
Sep 20 2024
24 mins
In the Senate, a very queer notion of free speech
Sep 20 2024
2 mins
Paperbarks
Such comfortable trees, those old melaleucas.
They look at themselves on the shores of lakes,
or get their feet wet in treacle-brown creeks.
You see them too in suburban avenues.
With their generous wrappings of loose bark
they make me think of ancient relatives
in shabby dressing gowns, shuffling
to bed with hot-water bottles, milky drinks
and a book to put them to sleep.
Paperbarks welcome climbing children
with obligingly low boughs, don’t mind
if they peel off the pastel, papery layers,
so soft in the hand. But it’s summertime
when their kindness knows no bounds
and those creamy clouds of blossom
hum with bees and smell of warm honey.
Barbara Fisher
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
