Professor Marcia Langton AO – My Top 5 Places in Australia

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Professor Marcia Langton AO a descendent of the fighting Yiman of Queensland, has been made an Officer of the Order of Australia for her distinguished service to tertiary education and her unwavering commitment to achieve justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Professor Langton is an anthropologist and geographer. She has held the Foundation Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne since 2000.  In 2016 she became Distinguished Professor and in 2017, Associate Provost at Melbourne University.

She is a speaker and writer who has produced a large body of knowledge in the areas of political and legal anthropology, Indigenous agreements with the mining industry, and Indigenous culture and art.

Marcia Langton shapes the public debate on Indigenous affairs by challenging entrenched views. She is a powerful activist who lobbies and works with governments and mining companies to change the economic and legal discrimination governing the lives of Aborigines.

There are approximately 600,000 Indigenous people in Australia and 50% of them are young. In public forums, Professor Langton warns of an “impending tragedy” when those quarter of a million young Indigenous Australians will need jobs. Most are not trained, literate or numerate. The rising number of youth suicides and incarcerations show that “ we have no time for cowardice or compromise.”

Marcia Langton 1982 - National Portrait Gallery -photo Juno Gemes

Marcia Langton 1982 – National Portrait Gallery -photo Juno Gemes

Professor Langton identifies the twin problems of poverty and economic exclusion as being at the heart of all the health and socio-economic disadvantage of the indigenous population.

She created a flurry in the media when she advocated the need for Indigenous Australians to compete in the meritocracy and in the economy in the same way white Australians do. Disadvantage needs to be addressed in a more rigorous way, she argues, with properly targeted programs that meet needs, “ without trapping Indigenous people in the welfare ghetto.”

Professor Langton has been forthright in her support of Indigenous agreements with mining companies as a vital way of creating economic opportunities. She authored a book called ‘The Quiet Revolution: Indigenous People and the Resources Boom’.

She recalls that in a meeting she attended with Rio Tinto in 2001, it was argued that the company could not employ Aboriginal men because they had problems with alcohol and the police. She told them to employ Aboriginal women. They did. In the last decade, mining companies and ancillary services have employed Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders, men and women, in larger numbers than ever before in Australian history.

The Mabo case, the Native Title Act and engagement with the mining industry “ catapulted Aboriginal people engaged in the mining industry into the mainstream economy. I have worked at mine sites and witnessed this extraordinary change.” she says.

Professor Langton is one of the leaders in the campaign for Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous people. In October 1999 she was one of five Indigenous leaders who were granted an audience with the Queen in Buckingham Palace to discuss Recognition.

She also served with Noel Pearson on the  Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians set up by Prime Minister Julia Gillard. The Panel made recommendations for Constitutional Recognition and the abolition of the race provisions.

“The most crucial matter to understand about the Constitution is that when it was drafted in the 19th Century, it specifically excluded the Aboriginal people on grounds of race and it is this exclusion that lies at the heart of the state authorised discrimination that continues to this day.”

She argues that “ the Constitutional tradition of treating Aborigines as a race must be replaced with the idea of First Peoples.”

Professor Langton wrote Marcia Langton’s Welcome to Country a Travel Guide to Indigenous Australia Welcome to Country in 2018.

MARCIA LANGTON’S WELCOME TO COUNTRY A Travel Guide to Indigenous Australia

 

Marcia’s Top 5 Places:

 

MONA, Tasmania

I have been twice, once during construction and once after it opened. This is one of the best art galleries in the world. The architecture is stunning. I don’t want to say much because the Museum of Old and New Art, the private gallery owned by David Walsh, is such a surprise. No spoilers.

 

The Great Barrier Reef, Queensland
Great Barrier Reef, Queensland

Great Barrier Reef, Queensland

The Great Barrier Reef is the most beautiful place in the world. However, the Reef is too big as a place – at over 2,000 kilometres long – to suggest as one place to visit: it is many. Unfortunately for travellers, it can be very expensive to see the most beautiful and biodiversity rich parts of the reef and the least expensive and accessible areas are impacted by too many visitors. That said, I have visited the reef at several places and the coral reef and its many life forms are always stunning and unforgettable. Green Island is easily accessible from Cairns, as are several other areas. I have also toured parts of the reef departing by boat or yacht from Townsville. I would love to visit Lizard Island.

 

The Daintree Rainforest, North Queensland
 
Daintree Rainforest, Queensland

Daintree Rainforest, Queensland

The rainforest covered mountains of north Queensland are heritage listed and there are many places to visit. The Daintree Rainforest is the most famous and because the rainforest meets the sea along this stretch of coastline, this area is magical. I have camped at Thornton’s Beach (many years ago) and, sitting on the beach, watched the ocean traffic in wonder. Pilot whales, dugong, schools of fish, and stingray passed by, while the beach itself is a peaceful and beautiful place to rest. The fire flies come out in the evening here, and the animals that create irridescent clouds float on the waves. A full moon night is the best time to sit on the beach here.

 

 Gariwerd, The Grampians, western Victoria
The Balconies, Grampians National Park, Victoria

The Balconies, Grampians National Park, Victoria

The ancient landforms in the Gariwerd Grampians National Park date from the Gondwana period and it shows. These mountains and valleys feel old. And they are old: hundreds of millions of years old. This is a unique place because of its geological history but it is rich in Aboriginal history and culture. I always go to the Brambuk Cultural Centre before heading off on a walk or a swim in a lake. The waterfalls are beautiful after rain. The forests and vegetation are endlessly fascinating and full of birdlife.

 

 Melbourne
The Ian Potter Centre National Gallery of Victoria

The Ian Potter Centre
National Gallery of Victoria

The NGVA and NGVI on opposite sides of the Yarra River in Melbourne CBD are my favourite home town haunts. These art galleries have great collections and the staff are friendly and accommodating. The restaurant and cafes are delightful. Parking is easy at the Federation Square parking station, but it’s an uphill walk to Collins Street to look in the designer shops. Fortunately, Movida is across the road and I can stop there for a wine and tapas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Kathy Lette – My Top 5 Places In Australia

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Kathy Lette epitomizes smart and sassy. Her razor sharp wit and incisive observations as a writer and commentator delight her many readers and admirers.

As a writer, her talent has been not only to amuse, but also to use humour and her ribald take on life to deal with subjects that seriously affect the lives of women. Kathy is the author of 20 books, the latest of which is best-seller ‘HRT – Husband Replacement Therapy.’  Kathy uses humour as a weapon because “poetic justice is a form of justice that is available to women — you can always impale enemies on the end of your pen.”  For example, her  novel Courting Trouble uses humour to talk about sexual violence, in particular the outrageous treatment the court system metes out to rape victims in Britain (and elsewhere).

Her brilliant career began with co-authoring the cult classic novel Puberty Blues at the age of 17. Puberty Blues was subsequently made into a film and most recently, into a successful TV mini-series. She later worked as a newspaper columnist and television sitcom writer for Columbia Pictures in Los Angeles before writing international bestsellers including Foetal Attraction, Mad Cows, which was made into a film starring Joanna Lumley and Anna Friel, Nip ‘n’ Tuck, and How to Kill Your Husband and Other Handy Household Hints, from which an opera was adapted and premiered by the Victorian Opera, Australia. In The Boy Who Fell To Earth, a novel inspired by her son Julius, Kathy created a funny and moving account of bringing up a child with Asperger syndrome. Her books have been translated into 17 languages.

Kathy writes for the print media and also appears on television in both Britain and Australia.

As a feminist and champion of women’s issues, she is also an ambassador for Women and Children First, Plan International and the White Ribbon Alliance.

To learn more about her and for a full list of Kathy’s books go to her website www.kathylette.com or follow her on Twitter @kathylette.

 

Kathy’s Top 5 Places:

The joy of living in London is its proximity to everywhere else. What with book tours and travel pieces, I’ve been lucky enough to explore everywhere from Moscow to the Maldives. (Place-dropping, a new art form!) But of course, my favourite destination is a cosy little spot which goes by the name of “G”. But obviously I can’t give too many details about who takes me there and how often!

Kathy Lette & her sisters enjoying Gerringong

Kathy Lette & her sisters Jenny, Carolyn and Elizabeth enjoying Gerringong

 

South Coast of NSW

But my happiest holidays took place in my childhood , in my grandma’s beach side shack in Gerringong, a little town south of  Sydney. (Like many Australian place names, Gerringong is Aboriginal for “get lost white ratbags.”) Every school holiday my family would snake our way down the coast in our over-laden Chevy. Oh the joy we’d feel as we rounded the final bend and looked down at that sapphire blue lagoon and golden arc of sand, bookended by grassy headlands. My three sisters and I would explode from the car like champagne from a shaken bottle, squealing with delight as we raced for that beautiful beach.

As toddlers we lolled about in the lagoon, attempting to bridge the yawning chasm between us and buoyancy. Later, Dad taught us to body surf. The first time I followed my father into the swell the waves slapped my face repeatedly. I felt I was being interrogated by the Nazis. As a sheer cliff of green water reared up, (what my sisters and I called a “vomit comet”) I began to realize that “body surfing” is just a euphemism for “organ donor.” But my father simply picked me up and hurled me like a human javelin towards shore.  Before I had time to have a heart attack, I realised I was actually aloft on the crest. I kicked, arched, threw my arms in front, dug into the water and skittered down the face of the wave, whooping. It would have been a total triumph… if only my bikini bottoms hadn’t caught a different wave altogether.

At the end of each sun-drenched day, it was off to the fish and chip shop. We ate so many battered savs and pluto pups it’s a wonder Greenpeace didn’t mistake us for whales and push us back into the briny. With salt-encrusted eyebrows, we’d then play on the swings outside the pub while our parents had a leisurely pint.

Now that my sisters and I have children of our own, Gerringong is still our favourite destination. Every December for  26 years, I’ve uprooted my family and dragged them to the other side of the world, blinking like field mice as we emerge into the searing sunshine at Mascot. We then head straight down the coast. My English friends are only slightly more active than a pot plant. They get winded licking a stamp. But at Gerringong my sisters and I ride boogie boards all day, holding hand as we surf to shore like deranged Gidgets. We go rock-pooling and bush walking with the kids and eat mangos so succulent you have to be hosed down afterwards, then play charades all night. It’s hilarious, chaotic, sunburnt bliss and I wouldn’t miss it for the world

 

Bin along Bay, Tasmania

Binalong Bay, Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an ancient wilderness with unique and exotic wild life. (Errol Flynn was born here, after all.) The “Map of Tassie” is Oz slang for the female pudenda, because of its triangular shape. And if so, it’s totally unwaxed. Over 50% of Tassie is designated national park, meaning that there are  more animals than people.

Tasmania is the world’s best walking destination. There are over 1,200 miles of tracks in 18 national parks , through Jurassic Park-like forests and along pristine white beaches. Giant eucalyptus trees tower over platypuses playing in clear creeks where 10 foot tree ferns burst from a  bush teeming with pygmy possums, parakeets, quolls, wombats and wallabies.

Take the six hour hike around the Bay of Fires, named for the flint-sparked Aboriginal campfires spotted by the first Europeans to brave this isolated coastline. It’s an arduous walk, your kit on your back. As my attitude to exercise is “no pain, no pain”, I was sure I would lose the will to live by the first beach crescent (Come eco touring. Give morticians more employment!) But the Bay of Fires is so breathtakingly beautiful, I hardly noticed the distance. The wooded slopes and craggy cliffs, the lunar landscape of granite boulders, Jackson-Pollocked with orange, red and yellow lichens,  the rolling surf hissing onto your shoes, your only company the nonchalant kangaroos grazing amid the middens of oyster shells, discarded through thousands of years of Aboriginal feasts  – you begin to think Homo sapiens the endangered species.

 

Bowen, Whitsundays Photo courtesy of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority

Bowen, Whitsundays
Photo courtesy of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority

The Great Barrier Reef and Whitsunday Passage

Queensland’s Whitsunday Passage was named by Captain James Cook as he nosed his ship the Endeavour through it’s azure waters and coral reefs on Whit Sunday 1770.

The 74 Whitsunday islands are a national park, teeming with rainbow lorikeets, cockatoos, kookaburras, kingfishers, blue tiger butterflies and rock wallabies. When you first arrive, you find yourself talking in exclamation marks. “Wow! Amazing! This whole empty silica sanded beach is really all mine?!!!!!!!!”

My only rules re sport are – nothing involving water, balls, feet leaving the earth, or sweat. My preferred activity is reading, in which there is not much potential for death. If God had meant us to swim in the ocean, he would have given us shark proof metal cages. I mean, there must be a reason fish never look truly relaxed…. Could it be because something much, much bigger is always trying to devour them? But you simply cannot come to the Great Barrier Reef and not go into the water.

Coral Gardens - photo courtesy of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority

Coral Gardens, Great Barrier Reef – photo courtesy of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority

From the Whitsundays it’s only 15 minutes by boat to the Great Barrier Reef, the eighth wonder of the world. This 2,500 km coral ribbon, with its 600 atolls, islets and coral cays, 25 million years in the making and visible from outer space, is the largest living thing on the planet…besides Donald Trump’s ego. You enter a world that is hallucinogenic, kaleidoscopic, and completely enthralling, teeming as it is, with over 15,000 species of marine life.

And in the winter, it’s the perfect place to go whale watching. The sheltered Whitsunday waters are a favourite place for the humpbacks to give birth. Cruising about in a little boat, I was within patting distance of newly born calves frolicking with their barnacled parents in the briny. Heaven.

 

Kalgoorlie Super-Pit

Kalgoorlie Super-Pit

Kalgoorlie, West Australia

This mining town in WA is so hot the trees are positively whistling for dogs and the chooks lay hard-boiled eggs.  The “super pit” seems as vast and deep as the Grand Canyon. Gargantuan trucks, each wheel the size of a seaside bungalow,  labour, ant like, up and down the red earth slopes day in, day out. The seam of gold they mine is called “The Body” – conjuring up images  of a geological Elle McPherson, crawling with men. And, in a town with one female to every four blokes, it’s surely the women who are “sitting on a goldmine.”

But it’s full of characters and colourful stories. Make sure you visit the town’s most famous brothel,  “Langtrees” which runs family friendly “brothel tours” enabling tourists not to walk, but TIPTOE on the wild side. Although tough and rough, the town is surprisingly beautiful in many ways. The wide, expansive streets, built to accommodate a full bullock dray as it turned; the veranda-ed  pubs, fringed with iron lace….it’s Russell Drysdale, without the angst and poverty (apart from the dismal Aboriginal settlements, situated between two pits, the Super and the sewage.)  With the earth so red and sky so blue – it’s positively Dali-esque. You keep glancing around the landscape for a dripping clock on stilts.

 

Uluru (Ayers Rock) Australia - womangoingplaces.com.au

Uluru (Ayers Rock) Australia – womangoingplaces.com.au

Uluru

AND you must visit Uluru – Australia’s giant geological belly button smack bang in the middle of the continent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(For more about Uluru read the WomanGoingPlaces  feature “Uluru – Overlooked Icon of Australia” womangoingplaces.com.au/uluru-ayers-rock-australia/ )

Travel Tips:

* Never eat anything from a road-side stand.

* When visiting the tropics, take a solar powered vibrator.

* And the best travelling companion? Books. No matter where you are, no matter how uncomfortable, you can always slip between the covers of something scintillating. (I highly recommend my latest novel, Courting Trouble, she says, modestly. Dropping your own name, now there’s an art form!)

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Anna Goldsworthy – My Top 5 Places in Australia

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Anna Goldsworthy  is an acclaimed solo pianist, memoirist, playwright, librettist and author.

Anna has performed widely, particularly at festivals in Australia and throughout the world. As a chamber player, she is a founding member of the celebrated Seraphim Trio, notable for premiering works by Australian composers, and for its innovative programming and community outreach. The Seraphim Trio is now in its twenty-third year.

In 2009, Anna published her first book, a beautiful memoir Piano Lessons, which described her path to becoming a musician. It also depicted the remarkable relationship between a talented pupil and an inspiring, exacting and charismatic teacher, Eleanora Sivan. A best seller, Piano Lessons was shortlisted for numerous awards and won the 2010 Australian Book Industry Newcomer of the Year award. Anna has adapted it for the stage, performing on-stage as both an actor and pianist. Piano Lessons and is currently in development as a film.

Her second memoir, Welcome to Your New Life, a book inspired by becoming a mother, Anna’s warmth, humour and acute observations have won widespread acclaim. Anna has also written numerous selections for Best Australian Essays, and the Quarterly Essay Unfinished Business: Sex, Freedom and Misogyny. 

Her most recent book is a novel ‘ Melting Moments’. It is an elegant and tender portrait of the life of a woman that is recognizable to so many women.

She was Artistic Director of the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival for 6 years.

To read more about Anna go to her website www.annagoldsworthy.com

Anna Goldsworthy rehearsing in Brasil – www.nicholaspurcellstudio.com

Anna’s Top 5 Places:

Flinders Ranges South Australia

Flinders Ranges South Australia – www.nicholaspurcellstudio.com

Flinders Ranges

The Flinders was the site of numerous childhood camping expeditions, and still strikes me as the most Australian place I know: the colour scheme; the silences and surprising soundtracks; the stars that go on forever.

Melbourne, CBD

Melbourne, CBD – www.nicholaspurcellstudio.com

Melbourne

Melbourne was home for seventeen years. It’s where I met my partner, Nicholas, and where our two sons were born. So I have a sentimental attachment to it, but it’s also an objectively wonderful city, ticking all the important boxes: great music, great coffee, great writing, great friends.

Port Fairy Victoria

Port Fairy Victoria- www.nicholaspurcellstudio.com

Port Fairy

I first fell in love with Port Fairy as a performer at the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival. It’s a jewel of a chamber music festival in a jewel of a town, voted the ‘world’s most liveable’ in 2012. Six years ago I became Artistic Director of the festival, a thrilling appointment for all sorts of reasons, not least because it meant Port Fairy could become a second home. I’m handing in the reins at the end of this year, but already cooking up new reasons to visit.

Noosa Queensland

Noosa Queensland- www.nicholaspurcellstudio.com

Noosa

Holidays have changed for us since we’ve had small children. Noosa would never previously have struck me an exciting destination, but we’ve had two great holidays now and are planning another. Last year, our visit coincided with the Noosa Long Weekend Festival, and we enjoyed both cabaret and the beach: a winning combination.

Epsom House Tasmania

Epsom House Tasmania – www.nicholaspurcellstudio.com

Epsom House, Pontville, Tasmania

We’ve been visiting Epsom House for years, enjoying concerts in the immaculately restored ballroom, which also happens to have one of the best acoustics in the country. The house is a time capsule from a more gracious era, and visits are invariably restorative – particularly now that proprietors Jacqui and Geoff Robertson have added two acres of English gardens.

 All photographs by Nicholas Purcell  www.nicholaspurcellstudio.com

Travel Tips:

*Turn off your device.

*Deploy an ‘out of office’ message whenever possible.

*Never get caught without a book.

*****

 

 

 

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Maggie Beer – My Top 5 Places in Australia

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 Maggie Beer  is an outstanding figure on the Australian culinary scene and was recognised on a postage stamp of Australia Post Australian Legends. She is known for her beautiful and accessible cooking using fresh, seasonal produce sourced locally.

Long before seasonality and sustainability had entered the common language, these concepts were the driving force behind the family farm Maggie established with husband Colin in the Barossa Valley in 1973. They began by breeding pheasants and selling homemade paté at the farm gate.

People began flocking to the farm, not only to buy her home grown produce, but also to taste Maggie’s cooking at their much-acclaimed Pheasant Farm Restaurant.

Since then, she and Colin have moved on to achieve great success with their Farm Shop and Café and their production of niche foods for the gourmet market both in Australia and overseas.

Maggie’s warm and vibrant presence has been on our television screens through her hit ABC series, The Cook and The Chef and her popular appearances on Masterchef, as well as her own Christmas television special. She has written 9 cookbooks.

Maggie has received many honours and awards, including a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), for her outstanding contribution to tourism and hospitality and for making the Barossa region a desirable destination for lovers of good food as well as wine.

To read more about Maggie go to: www.maggiebeer.com.au

Maggie’s Top 5 Places:

Southern Ocean Lodge Kangaroo Island

Southern Ocean Lodge
Kangaroo Island

Kangaroo Island

One of my all-time favourite travel experiences was last February, in the height of summer in South Australia, whilst the mainland sweltered, we revelled in about 28°C as the very privileged guests of Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island.

 The thing about Southern Ocean Lodge is that every part of the experience was more than I could have hoped for. The staff so friendly but professional; the food a really great experience and every bit of detail down to the welcoming mini lamingtons in the room in case you were peckish before dinner; the open bar with great South Australian wines and fabulous treatments if it took your fancy. Truly more than the sum of the parts and though definitely a special occasion for most of us I doubt that anyone would feel they had not had truly great value. How lucky we were!

 

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House

Sydney

Sydney will always hold a special place for me, having grown up there, I love returning to some of my sentimental favourite spots like Rose Bay, or just taking time to wander along the beaches. And of course my love of music makes the Sydney Opera House incredibly emotive, I just love seeing it when I approach the harbour. The restaurants are wonderful too, I have to mention that, as you can imagine!

 

 

Desert Park Alice Springs

Desert Park Alice Springs

Alice Springs

A few years ago I was asked to visit Alice Springs during the Desert Festival to judge the Wild Foods Competition, I didn’t hesitate for a moment.  I had never had the chance to visit Alice Springs so it was the perfect opportunity to see more of my own country. The trip to Desert Park where I had the privilege of being shown around by two wonderful Aboriginal women, Veronica, an Elder, and Rayleen, a really good caterer with ‘Kangas can Cook’ who was a driving force in the wildfood competition.

Desert Park is almost too beautiful even to write about except to say I’ll never feel the same way about the Desert again.   Having the privilege of Veronica and Rayleen pointing out all the food and medicinal plants was more than I could have hoped for, but Colin, who simply was there as an independent tourist whilst I was busy, felt just as strongly about how wonderful the park was.  It’s something that every Australian should simply visit to find out for themselves.

 

Glenmore House garden produce

Glenmore House garden produce

Glenmore House,

New South Wales

A truly beautiful property, Glenmore House on the edge of Sydney, is a rambling collection of early colonial farm buildings surrounded by a superb garden, where it seems a determined passion outweighs the problems of regular water shortages, poor soil, high summer temperatures, severe winter frosts and merciless seasonal winds. Seeing such magnificent produce growing under these conditions has inspired me no end in my own garden. Seasonal and monthly courses are planned to include Simple Cookery from The Garden, Making Jams, Preserving Fruit & Vegetables, and Successful Composting and Biodynamic Principles.

 

Barossa Valley

Barossa Valley

Barossa Valley

I know it might sound trite, but the Barossa is still my favourite destination, and I’d love everyone to have a chance to experience the many reasons I love it. Even though I do travel quite a bit but always keep my overnight stays to a minimum so I can be at home as much as possible. It’s still my favourite place to refuel on every level.

 

Travel Tips:

To go with the flow and accept all aspects of relinquishing control.

Always bring music with you, for the plane, to create warmth in a hotel room, to set a soundtrack to all the memories you’ll be making on your trip.

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Anne Summers – My Top 5 Places in Australia

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Anne Summers AO can be described as someone who is always in the vanguard as a feminist, journalist, author, editor and publisher.

Anne has just published her new memoir Unfettered and Alive. Former Governor-General Quentin Bryce described the book as ‘Exhilarating and what storytelling!’ Anne tells her story of travelling around the world working in newspapers and magazines, advising prime ministers, leading feminist debates, writing memorable and influential books. It is the compelling story of Anne Summers’ extraordinary life.

Forty one years ago, Anne Summers led the charge into an abandoned building in Sydney and co-founded Elsie, the first women’s refuge in Australia.

She again led the way in her revelatory and now classic book Damned Whores and God’s Police, which was published in 1975. It showed how the Madonna or Whore polarity in attitudes toward women, derived from Australia’s colonial past, had become entrenched and influenced Australia’s subsequent political and social culture.

Anne was given an official leadership role when she ran the federal Office of the Status of Women (now Office for Women) from 1983 to 1986 when Bob Hawke was Prime Minister, and she was an advisor to Prime Minister Paul Keating.

Anne Summers Australian Legends Stamp

Anne Summers Australian Legends Stamp

For her distinctive role in advancing women’s equality, she was presented with the Australian Legends Award for 2011 and joined the exclusive ranks of great Australians to appear on a special Post Office stamp.

In 1989, Anne was made an Officer in the Order of Australia for her services to women and to journalism.

As a journalist and columnist, her work included being Canberra bureau chief for the Australian Financial Review and the paper’s North American editor. She was editor-in-chief of Ms. magazine in New York in 1987.

Anne was also the publisher and editor of online magazine Anne Summers Reports annesummers.com.au which highlighted issues such as the world-wide practice of female genital mutilation.

Anne is the author of 9 books. Her book The Misogyny Factor looks at the sexism and misogyny that continues to deny women inclusion, equality and respect. For her previous books see: annesummers.com.au/products/books/

 

Anne’s Top 5 Places:

 

Bouddi National Park - Bulimah Spur track - photo John Yurasek

Bouddi National Park – Bulimah Spur track – photo John Yurasek

Wagstaffe and the Bouddi peninsula

On the New South Wales Central Coast. A tiny laid back and undeveloped settlement with just a handful of houses looking out over the bay, with the Bouddi National Park for backdrop and birdlife like you’ve never seen. You want kookaburras to join you on the deck for cocktails? Just pop the cork.

 

 

 

Palm Cove

Palm Cove

Palm Cove

Situated about 30kms north of Cairns in Far North Queensland, Palm Cove is the kind of old-fashioned place that gives resorts a good name. A place where buildings are not allowed to be higher than the ancient Melaleucas which Captain Cook is supposed to have admired when he stopped their briefly to replenish his water supply. And it has city-quality restaurants (unfortunately with city level prices). You can’t swim most of the year because of the stingers but you can’t beat a walk on the beach at any time of the day or night.

 

Sydney - photo Hamilton Lund

Sydney – photo Hamilton Lund

Sydney

I first came to this dazzling city forty years ago and I kept coming back even after stints living in places like New York.  Sydney is a vibrant and physically stunning place with a diverse and (mostly) tolerant population where anything is possible. Bad stuff happens here (as in any big city) but the good far outweighs it. And physically it is unbeatable, with a surprising, and usually stunning, piece of landscape seemingly around every corner and over every horizon.

 

Port Arthur guards 1866 - ALMFA,SLT

Port Arthur guards 1866 – ALMFA,SLT

Port Arthur

The dark heart of our history, the site of an unimaginably cruel penal colony during the convict era and of Australia’s worse modern day mass shooting in 1996.  Much of the prison and its associated buildings, including the chilling prison chapel (designed so convicts could not look at each other during the service) are remarkably intact.

 

 

 

Port Arthur, Tasmania - photo Giovanni Portelli

Port Arthur, Tasmania – photo Giovanni Portelli

Yet Port Arthur is also a remarkably beautiful, green and lush place, nestled beside tranquil water.  Nowhere else in Australia does the phrase ‘her beauty and her terror’ from Dorothea Mackellar’s My Country resonate in quite the way it does here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Australian War Memorial

The Australian War Memorial

Canberra

Our national capital, whose landscape is unlike that of any other Australian city,  and the home of our national monuments, Canberra is a very special place. At least once in their lives everyone should visit the National Gallery of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Library of Australia, the Museum of Australia, the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House and the Australian War Memorial. These are not just a bunch of stodgy institutions. Between them, they contain so much of our history and our culture that they are the very heart of our country.

 

Travel tips:

*  Always have a long and engrossing book in your bag as you never know when – or for how long – you might be delayed. And batteries don’t run out on books.

*  Pack lightly.  You really don’t need many clothes when you travel and dragging heavy bags is a sure fire recipe for a bad back and an even worse temper. I once travelled round the world for three weeks with just a small carry on roller bag.

*  Travel should be fun so don’t stress out. Get to the airport in time for a coffee or a cocktail.  And once you get out of Australia, airports in many cities are wonderful places to spend time in. Schiphol, Amsterdam’s airport, even has treasures from the RijksMuseum on display.

*  Look like a jetsetter not a bogan.  Wear smart but comfortable clothes (no trackie dacks please) and even if you are in cattle class just remember that even a 24 hour flight is a helluva lot better than the months’ long sea voyages our ancestors had to endure to go anywhere.

 

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Polixeni Papapetrou – My Top 5 Places in Australia

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Polixeni Papapetrou passed away in April 2018. We keep this post about her as a tribute to this courageous woman and acclaimed artist.

When photographic artist Polixeni Papapetrou chose her 5 favourite places to visit in Australia, they were not just travel destinations. They were landscapes that captured her imagination and inspired her to transform them into her art. Dramatically beautiful, they are insightful and unsettling works.

Her art provides us with a unique perspective on these landscapes.

Polixeni has said that in her work, landscape is another protagonist in the narrative.

Polixeni’s parents immigrated to Australia from Greece, and she was born and raised in Melbourne. She qualified and practised as a lawyer. But it was her intense and singular vision as a photographic artist that won acclaim and forged for her an Australian and international career replete with grants, exhibitions and awards. Her works have featured in over 50 solo exhibitions, and over 90 group exhibitions in Australia, the United States, Asia and Europe. They are held in private and institutional collections in leading galleries here and abroad, including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.

Polixeni and Lexi by Robert Nelson

Polixeni’s art has evolved through a series of themes.

Earlier works depicted the construction of identities through photographs of drag queens, body builders, clowns, circus performers, and Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley impersonators.

Subsequently and most notably, Polixeni created the series on childhood and its shifting meaning. Featuring her own children, Olympia and Solomon as they grew into adolescence, the series uniquely combined reality and imagination, nature and theatre, the benign emblems of childhood story-telling with an underlying sense of menace.

In later works, Between Worlds, (2009), The Dreamkeepers (2012), and The Ghillies (2013) masks and costumes worn by the children allow them to transgress boundaries – young to old, human to animal – and transform them into disruptive and unsettling figures in picture-perfect landscapes. As Polixeni describes it: “ I have these characters in my mind and like to find the habitat for them and then photograph them. For me it is about reconciling my inner world, possibly the unconscious to the real world.”

It was her son’s interest in the camouflage outfits named after Scottish gamekeepers and used in computer games and by the military, that inspired the stunning images of The Ghillies. Polixeni photographed Solomon wrapped in camouflage in the landscape. But in this series, instead of being hidden in the landscape, he seems to grow out of it.

Despite serious illness, Polixeni continued until her death to create new series of works with the continued enthusiastic participation of her children and her husband, art critic and academic Robert Nelson.

 

 

Polixeni’s Top 5 Places:

Polixeni_Papapetrou_The_Loners_2009

Polixeni Papapetrou The Loners 2009

Flinders, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria 

When friends invited us to their holiday home in the coastal town of Merricks, on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria I was eager to go. I knew about the town as it is the home of the popular 1920s- built Merricks General Store and Stonier’s and Merricks Estate wineries (two of my favourite reds). I was enchanted with a site in Flinders, known as Bush Rangers Bay. The contrast of rural and the wild coastal terrain of Bass Strait makes for breathtaking landscape.

 

Polixeni Papapetrou The Shell Collectors 2009

Polixeni Papapetrou The Shell Collectors 2009

I have made numerous pictures at this location such as The Loners, portraying two elderly rabbits walking along the coast line framed by basalt cliffs, another of two horses enjoying the violin, three industrious pigs gathering straw at the site of the old quarry and a mother and son collecting shells on the coast. When making The Shell Collectors we were caught out by a rapidly changing tide and while the children scurried away in a flash, I had to gather my camera equipment before the encroaching waters carried it away to sea!  Nearby is the formidable Flinders Blowhole where if you dare you can walk on the rocks or even walk to the spectacular Cape Schank.

 

Polixeni_Papapetrou_Study_for_Hattah_Man_and_Hattah Woman_2013

Polixeni Papapetrou Study for Hattah Man and Hattah Woman 2013

The Mallee region 

VIC and NSW 

Mildura is a short plane trip from Melbourne, but I find the six hour long scenic journey by car one of the most relaxing drives in Victoria. As we progress through the drive, I love seeing the earth change colour turn from brown to a rich red. That is the signal that we have arrived in Mallee country, on which the beautiful stunted mallee tree grows. Before we reach our destination in Mildura to spend time with family friends, the         De Pieris who run the acclaimed Stefano’s restaurant and Mildura Brewery, we stop off at various locations to make work.

The semi-arid Murray-Sunset National Park is a must stop for me. The landscape is virtually untouched other than the site of the Raak Plain, an old gypsum mine which looks like an apocalyptic landscape. I made the picture called Study for Hattah Man and Hattah Woman on the Raak plains.

Polixeni Papapetrou Salt Man 2013

Polixeni Papapetrou Salt Man 2013

The landscape has a mysterious and ancient mood that I wanted to capture. I also love the Pink Lakes in the same park which change colour throughout the year. During Spring the lakes turn a deep pink colour and you can walk across them. I made the picture Salt Man on the Pink Lakes. The gorgeous pink coloured salt we have on our table at home is produced by the Murray River Red Salt Farm.

A short distance further from Mildura crossing the Murray River into New South Wales brings you to the town of Wentworth and the spectacular ancient site of the Perry Sand Hills. It was once a camping and hunting ground for Aboriginal people. As a result of the Ice Age, the area turned into sand dunes sculpted by wind erosion over thousands of years. As far as the eye can see, the area feels like a scene from another planet, acres and acres of shifting orange coloured sand dunes. I have visited this site a number of times to make photographs.

 

Polixeni_Papapetrou_Wild_World_2008

Polixeni Papapetrou Wild World 2008

Lake Mungo, NSW  

Another favourite destination is Lake Mungo, a significant ancient Aboriginal site, which was once  an Aboriginal fishing, hunting and camping ground. During the last Ice Age the water levels dropped and the lake dried up. Subsequent erosion of the land revealed human and animal remains as well as tools. The most spectacular discovery were 40,000 year old skeletal remains known as ‘Mungo Man’ and ‘Mungo Woman’. Walking on the dried lake has a moon-like eeriness about it.  The small museum on the site and the old woolshed are added attractions. Many visitors camp on the grounds, but as I can’t wear my heels camping we stay in the Lake Mungo Lodge.

 

Polixeni_Papapetrou_Hanging_Rock_1900_2006

Polixeni Papapetrou Hanging Rock 1900_2006

Hanging Rock, Macedon Ranges, Victoria 

As a teenager in the 1970s I was captivated by Peter Weir’s film, Picnic at Hanging Rock. Set on Valentine’s Day in 1900, a party of schoolgirls ventured out for a school excursion at Hanging Rock. Three of the party set out on a walk on the rock and were not seen again. The story of the three missing schoolgirls has become embedded in Australia’s cultural imagination to the point where people are surprised to learn that the account is a fiction. When I discovered that Hanging Rock was just outside of Melbourne, I hopped to and immersed myself in its mysterious history.

Polixeni_Papapetrou_The_Lantern_ Keeper_2012

Polixeni Papapetrou The Lantern Keeper 2012

The site itself is one of the world’s most extraordinary and significant geological formations. The Rock is a former volcano and is shaped into pinnacles created over 6 million years ago when lava rose through the earth’s crust. The magma that rose to the surface is only found in two or three other places in the world. It is a ghostly place, wild and chaotic and is a perfect backdrop to set the scene for my work portraying the ancient, spiritual wilderness of Australia.

I was moved to make a photograph about the three missing schoolgirls at Hanging Rock as well as making Magma Man and The Lantern Keeper as I could imagine my invented characters living there, hiding in the Rock’s many nooks and crannies.

 

Polixeni Papapetrou The Visitor 2012

Polixeni Papapetrou The Visitor 2012

The Victorian High Country (Mt Buller) 

When you mention Mount Buller, in Victoria’s high county, you immediately conjure up images of snow and skiing. I love to visit the mountain in the warmer months of the year, as working on-location is more comfortable and easier. The stunning snow gums at Mount Buller are also fully expressed in the warmer months and create pockets of natural beauty set against these spectacular mountains.

When we made The Wanderer, we arrived the day before and were surprised by sudden overcast conditions, a thunderstorm and a blackened sky. I despaired and thought that I would not be able to take photographs as planned on the following day. I resigned myself to having a holiday, but plans were once again changed when we woke up to a brilliant blue sky the following morning.

Polixeni_Papapetrou_The_Philosopher_2012

Polixeni Papapetrou The Philosopher 2012

Similarly when I made The Visitor during the Spring, a dampness descended on the mountain, which was atmospheric. I thought that I’d have days of this perfect photographic backdrop, but once again we woke to a clear sunny sky the following day.

 

I also made The Philospher at this location. The image reflects a person alone on the top of a mountain. It symbolizes the solitude of thought where the vastness of the landscape is the counterpoint to the intimacy of an internal world. It is an internal/external that we all struggle with. I love the way that the landscape in the High Country plays tricks on me.  We also love to visit the nearby town of Mirimbah, eat at the café, walk in Mirimbah Park and jump into the lake when it is hot enough.

 

Images in Eden Series

Travel Tips:

* If you are friendly with your neighbours, let them know that you will be away. Otherwise leave home in the dead of night! And don’t forget to put the dogs in kennels.

* Research the history of the areas that you are visiting. And take maps. Intuiting your way across foreign terrain is only great if you enjoy becoming seriously lost.

* Pack as lightly as possible as you always accumulate things along the way. Kidding yourself if you say that you won’t.  But always take plenty of water.

* A book goes a long way to relieving the boredom of travel.  Yes holidays can be a bit boring, but you can always attempt an interesting conversation too.

For more information about Polixeni Papapetrou see:http://www.polixenipapapetrou.net

Exhibitions

• MAMA Art Foundation Photography Prize, Murray Art Museum, NSW, 21 May – 7 August 2016

• Timelapse, Gippsland Art Gallery, Victoria, 24 May – 24 July 2016

•European Month of Photography, Athens, Benaki Museum, Athens, 9 June – 26 July 2016

•Spring 1883, Windsor, Kalli Rolfe Contemporary, 17-21 August 2016

•Eden, Stills Gallery, Sydney, 31 August – 5 October 2016

•European Month of Photography, Berlin, 1-31 October 2016

•Beyond Eden, Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne, 22 October – 2 December  2016

 

Photo of Polixeni Papapetrou by Robert Nelson

 

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Professor Gillian Triggs – My Top 5 Places in Australia

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Gillian Triggs, Chair of Justice Connect, won enormous respect for her courage and fortitude in defence of human rights in her previous position as President of the Australian Human Rights Commission. This despite being subjected to unprecedented attacks and pressure from government ministers and their representatives.

Professor Triggs was catapulted into national headlines when she released a report on children in immigration detention. Tony Abbott, the then Prime Minister, Attorney-General George Brandis, and the then Immigration Minister Scott Morrison declared that the report was biased, that they had lost confidence in her and that she should resign.

Professor Triggs stood firm. She insisted the report adhered to the law and was objective, and if she were to resign, it would suggest otherwise and would undermine the independence of the commission.

These personal and professional attacks on Professor Triggs sparked a social media campaign of huge support for her which affirmed widespread confidence in her integrity. It also had the effect of making people aware of the existence of the AHRC and led to thousands more seeking its services.

"Human rights are for everyone, everywhere, every day." Professor Gillian Triggs

“Human rights are for everyone, everywhere, every day.” Professor Gillian Triggs

Australia has no Bill of Rights, so the AHRC is the “first port of call” for complaints regarding human rights and breaches of anti-discrimination laws, she says. Its responsibility is to monitor Australia’s performance in meeting its international human rights commitments. And its services are free.

Professor Triggs once remarked that it was ironical that in the year in which we celebrated the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, she came under increasing attack because the Commission drew attention to  “the erosion of our human rights and to the diminution of the checks and balances that preserve our democracy.” For her it was the “year of living dangerously”.

Gillian was born in England, and when her parents decided to emigrate to Australia when she was 12, she was was not happy about having to give up her studies as a ballet dancer at the Royal Academy. But once in Australia, she joined the Borovansky Ballet. At university, she was one of the small number of women studying law. She was part of the burgeoning feminist movement on campus, and with characteristic flair, won Miss University at Melbourne University in 1966.

Gillian Triggs is held in the highest esteem by her peers. In her 50-year career as a lawyer, she has held academic positions such as Dean of the Faculty of Law and Challis Professor of International Law at the University of Sydney. She has also had an international commercial legal practice, and worked with governments and international organizations on human rights law. She was Director of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law from 2005-7 where she directed social justice projects in Iran and Africa.

This year Gillian published Speaking Up in which shares the values that have informed her convictions and the causes she has championed.  Her publisher, Melbourne University Press writes: ” She dares women to be a little vulgar and men to move beyond their comfort zones to achieve equity for all. And she will not rest until Australia has a Bill of Rights. ”  She has also written five other books, mostly on international law and human rights.

A portrait of Gillian Triggs in Lego blocks appears in a new work by Ai Wei Wei commissioned by the NGV for the exhibition Andy Warhol/Ai Wei Wei. Incorporating more than two million Lego blocks, the cube features portraits of twenty Australian activists, champions of human rights and freedom of speech. (See image above)

 

Gillian’s Top 5 Places:

 

Wilsons Promontory Marine National Park - photo Great Trails Victoria

Wilsons Promontory Marine National Park – photo Great Trails Victoria

Wilsons Promontory, Victoria

True Australian wilderness that has been protected with fierce determination by locals, government and environmentalists. The area is a treasure trove of Aboriginal middens, wildlife and dramatic scenery. The beaches are pristine and ‘Squeaky Beach’ has tiny white particles of sand that record every step.

 

 

 

 

Sydney Harbour & Opera House

Sydney Harbour & Opera House

Sydney Harbour, New South Wales 

One of the most beautiful natural harbours in the world. Every inlet and beach can be explored by ferry or walking.  There is something of interest for everyone. The zoo, local history, the sculpture walk across the cliffs, fishing and sailing, or eating in the restaurants. I took my family visiting from England on a yacht  trip around the harbour for Christmas eve; an unforgettable night.

 

 

Green turtle - photo courtesy of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority

Green turtle – photo courtesy of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority

Great Barrier Reef, Queensland 

One of the natural wonders of the world. Snorkelling or diving reveals a magical world of colour and life .  The reef is radiant with fish and marine species.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mt.Buller - photo by daz77

Mt.Buller – photo by daz77

Mount Buller, Victoria

Mt.Buller is the beginning of the Great Dividing Range and a stunning change from coastal Australia. The cattle trails through the mountains or the ski runs down the mountain offer spectacular views of an Australia that is unexpected and grandiose. The local wines, cheeses and  fresh produce make it a gourmet’s delight.

 

 

 

 

Great Ocean Road - photo Britannica Kids

Great Ocean Road – photo Britannica Kids

Great Ocean Road, Victoria 

The Great Ocean Road is  spectacular as it winds around the edge of the Australian continent from Geelong in Victoria to the Coorong in South Australia. The coast is rugged and home to vibrant bird and wild life.

 

 

 

 

 

Travel tips:

* Do your homework before you go to avoid the traps and to get the most from your adventure

* Stop to watch and listen rather than trying to do too much; enjoy the moment.

* Pack really wearable comfortable clothes

* If you can, pay extra for good accommodation

* Look up a friend in the area or find a new one; they can introduce you to the best secrets of the area

 

Photo of Professor Triggs by Matthew Syres.

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Fabian Dattner – My Top 5 Places in Australia

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” You have to have a beard to be a leader in Antarctica.” It was this statement that sparked the indignation and the imagination of Fabian Dattner and led to an unprecedented expedition of 75 women scientists to Antarctica in December 2016.

Women and Leadership

Fabian, a partner in consulting firm Dattner Grant has had 30 years experience in leadership training, both internationally and with Australian government, corporate  and not-for-profit organisations. She has authored 3 books on leadership and is one of Australian’s best-known entrepreneurs, speakers and executive instructors.

So she was well placed to notice first-hand the paucity of women in executive positions. This prompted her seven years ago to set up Compass, a training program specifically designed to equip women with leadership skills. And it was during one of these Compass courses in Tasmania, that women scientists, many of them working in polar science, expressed their distress at repeatedly being passed over for leadership in favour of men.

Women in STEM

Indeed, only 9% of leadership roles in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) in the world are held by women. This is remarkable given that women constitute the majority of undergraduates, graduates and Ph.D students in science.

What Fabian heard from the women working in polar science made such an impression on her, she had a vivid dream that same evening in which she was taking a group of them on a ship to Antarctica. The next morning she consulted with Dr. Jess Melbourne Thomas, an Antarctic Marine Ecological Modeler, who agreed that such a project would be feasible. From that point on they both began planning and within 6 weeks the project received the endorsement of the CEO of the Australian Antarctic Division who described it as a “ brilliant idea.”  And Homeward Bound was born.

2016 Homeward Bound expedition of women scientists in Antarctica

Homeward Bound

Support from global figures streamed in, including that of Dr Jane Goodall, primatologist and environmental campaigner; Dr Sylvia Earle, global leading Marine Biologist, explorer, author, and lecturer; and Christiana Figueres, Former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The project went viral with thousands of women in science applying for the 75 places on the first Homeward Bound 19-day expedition to Antarctica in December 2016.

These scientists all strongly identified with the twin goals of Homeward Bound as stated by Fabian. The first: to promote women with a science background into leadership and decision-making positions. The second: to increase the impact of these women on climate change and the sustainability of the planet.

The 10-year objective of Homeward Bound is to build a world-wide collaboration between 1000 women in science. Fabian believes that these women, acting together, can be a more powerful force of global leadership on these vital issues.  “Our individual brilliance is not as powerful as our collective cleverness, “ she says.

The 75 scientists who took part in the first expedition came from countries around the world. They represented a wide range of fields –  marine science, climate change ecology, biodiversity conservation, astronomy, geology, zoology and neuroscience – to name just a few. They represented a wide range of expertise – from Ph.D students to professors. And they represented a wide range of ages – from women in their twenties to women in their seventies.

Homeward Bound journey on Ushuaia – photo Ute Hohn-Bowen

Prior to sailing, the participants took part in 12 months of building connections and teams. Once on board, part of the day was devoted to training led by Fabian, in leadership and strategic skills. There was a major science symposium at sea, with each of the scientists presenting her field of expertise, and there were group discussions of the most up-to-date climate change research and other key issues facing the planet.

Up to five hours each day were spent exploring the extraordinary beauty of Antarctica in 16 different landings and in meeting Antarctic experts. A film crew was present on Homeward Bound and recorded the entire expedition.

Antarctica- photo Fabian Dattner 2016 Homeward Bound

Why Antarctica?

Why was Antarctica chosen as the context for this project?

“ Because Antarctica is the engine of the planet, “ says Fabian. In Antarctica you can see some of the fastest and most breathtaking results of climate change to be seen anywhere on the planet, she said. It provides a dramatically visual early warning system of where we are headed.

The next Homeward Bound expedition, due to leave on February 2018,  has been flooded with applicants.

“ We are looking for women who are worried about what is happening to the planet and who think they can make a difference, “ says Fabian.

Homeward Bound funded the first expedition largely though global crowd-funding projects. Now they are seeking to provide scholarships for women in science who cannot afford to fund their own participation in the expedition.

WomanGoingPlaces supports the objectives of Homeward Bound in strengthening the collaborative participation of women scientists at the highest levels of decision-making. And we encourage our followers to support these scholarships. For further information see the Homeward Bound website.

Fabian’s Top 5 Places

Antarctica

 

Antarctica – photo Fabian Dattner 2016 Homeward Bound

Antarctica is not a place I felt at home, Antarctica was a place I was in awe.

The icebergs are not what anyone imagines an iceberg is about, they’re huge, they’re like a city building. They are behemoths and from then on in you’re in a spellbinding environment

Antarctica has the lowest biodiversity on the planet.

There are two things on the surface, tiny little bits of green – an Antarctic grass and a tiny bit of moss. And this vast ice scape. And you’ll be walking through snow and ice and there is a rock, and it’s not like you see it everywhere by the way, you need a biologist to point it out to you. There’ll be tiny beads of water and in that there is a teensy weensy bit of gloop and in there are the larval stages of this wingless fly. And that’s it.

But in summer, in the water and under the water, is a majesty and a magic that is incomprehensible. The largest biomass in the world is there. Krill, and on the back of the krill come the whales and we saw humpbacks. And there are times where you’ll see the whales working as teams to move the krill into a circle and then they move in and eat. We saw Minke Whales dancing with the boat. We saw Leopard seals. We saw Weddell seals, we saw Chinstraps and Adelie penguins. You see lots of ocean-going birds, birds that have traveled obscene distances to breed because the water is so rich.

[Under the Antarctic Treaty system Australia maintains sovereignty over the Australian Antarctic Territory.]

South Coast Walk, Tasmania

It’s a fly-in-walk-out walk. You fly out of Hobart on a 4 seater for an hour and you land on a little airstrip in the middle of nowhere in some wilderness. The plane flies off and you begin a walk. And you’re walking along the South West coast, for about a 100 kilometres. You’re walking through forest that is largely untouched on such a narrow path and you have a heavy pack on your back.  Light filters through the grand trees onto the green landscape and it is so beautiful you can’t talk. If you’ve loved Lord of the Rings, it’s like Lothlorien where the elves live.

It was one of the hardest walks I’ve done and one of the most beautiful. It is right up there with one of the best things I’ve ever done.

Lord Howe Island, New South Wales

Coral off Lord Howe Island – photo Lord Howe Island Tourism Association www.lordhoweisland.info

Lord Howe Island would definitely be one of my favourite places. With the bleaching of the Barrier Reef it is actually probably one of the most southern ends of diverse coral that you’re going to see. There hasn’t been any bleaching there. And diving there was just stunning. It’s this tiny little isolated island in the Pacific Ocean and you have to go quite a long way to get there. If the weather throws you a kilter, you can’t land. There are only 300 people that live there and there’s quite a restricted tourist population. You can only get around on bicycles. I love the beautiful wilderness and the places that human beings haven’t desecrated. There is pristine water to dive in. Just pristine water.

Kakadu, Northern Territory

Kakadu escarpment Northern Territory – photo auswalk.com.au

There’s this walk, not a complex walk anyone can do it, but you go up past an extensive area of Aboriginal rock banding which is in itself haunting. It’s 50, 60 thousand years old. But the most memorable part is getting to an escarpment where you have a 360 degree panoramic view of the best of Australian outback with not a single building as far as the eye can see in any direction. And I remember the epic part about that was coming to the top and a big Texan came up behind us and he’s standing next to me in his stetson hat and he says “ I don’t know why people rave about the Aboriginals –  I can’t see that they’ve left anything here” (in Texan accent).  And I said, “ No, they’ve left us this beautiful, beautiful space.”

Flinders Ranges, South Australia

Flinders Ranges South Australia – photo australia.com

We went to quite a remote area in the Finders Ranges. It was during the drought. So it was a very desolate dry hard space. But in a way that parts of Australia can be so epically beautiful. We saw rock wallabies and it’s very rare that you see rock wallabies in the wild. They move across the rock scape in the way foxes move at night in your backyards – in a ghostly, almost don’t touch the ground way. And we were in a very remote spot walking and I suddenly looked up at a desiccated dry mountain top of rocks and something moved and there they were. So that was one of the heart stopping moments of wilderness for me.

 

 

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Janette Jeffrey – My Top 5 Places in Australia

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Jan Jeffrey

Jan Jeffrey

Janette Jeffrey has broken 7 World Records as a Masters Swimmer from 2015 -2016.

She also holds 9 National records in freestyle and breaststroke in her age group 65-69 years. That’s just in the swimming pool.

In ocean swims she was the female wInner of the Cousins Travel Open Water ‘Ocean’ swim series 2016/17 in 60-69 age group. She has won her age group of the prestigious Lorne Pier to Pub race nine times.

But her picture made no front pages, and you have probably never heard of her.

If young sportswomen have great difficulty getting any coverage in mainstream media, it is almost impossible for older women competing in Masters events to do so.

Jan competed in the 16th FINA World Masters Swimming Championships 2015 in Kazan, Russia in August. She won 4 gold medals in the Women’s 65-69 years category for 50 metre, 100 metre and 200 metre breaststroke, as well as the 400 metre freestyle competitions.  Not many people get to break their own world records, but that is exactly what Jan did in Russia.

The FINA World Masters Games are the Olympics of Masters Swimming, and this makes Jan the fastest in the world by many seconds. She competes against ex-Olympians who now swim Masters and she is able to beat them. “To have been able to swim the 200m breaststroke better than anyone else in the world at my age, is hard to believe”.

Jan swims with the Malvern Marlins, a very enthusiastic and committed local Masters Swimming Club that trains at the Harold Holt Swim Centre in Glen Iris in Melbourne. She has been President of the Marlins and was made a life member in 2014 for her on-going contribution as a swimming coach.

 

Jan with the gold medals she won at the 16th FINA World Masters Swimming Championships 2015 in Kazan Russia

She joined the Marlins at the age of 43, initially just to manage her kidney disease. But she came to love not only the fitness, but also the fun and friendship she found in the group. Jan developed a drive to keep shaving the time off her laps. Her determination kept her going even when faced with life threatening illness and injuries. Extraordinarily, she achieved her 4 world record swims after undergoing a major operation on her heart.

 

 

She combines her love of swimming with her love of travelling around Australia in a caravan with partner and fellow Marlin, Gerry Tucker, who is also an accomplished Masters swimmer. Jan enjoys painting the natural beauty of the places she travels through. She also finds the local “swimming geeks” and joins them in swims and competitions.

Jan will be going to compete in Budapest at the Fina Masters World Swimming Championships in August this year.

Before she retired, Jan spent many years as a teacher at Caulfield Grammar School’s Malvern Campus in Melbourne.

Jan’s Top 5 Places:

 

Caloundra, Sunshine Coast, Queensland

Caloundra, Sunshine Coast, Queensland

Sunshine Coast, Queensland: For the thrill of Relaxation

We just love heading north to escape the Melbourne winter. (That’s what retirees can do.)

Our favourite destination is the Sunshine Coast.

It’s hard to pick my favourite place but Golden Beach, Caloundra suits us fine, and it is here where we have made a base for ourselves. The Glasshouse Mountains welcome us as we travel along the Bruce highway into town. The spectacular sight of the glassy waters of the Pumicestone Passage reminds us that it is time to relax and enjoy life.

Bribie Island resting in the background shelters us from the surf coast.  It is truly worth getting up early to watch the sunrise in the east, and just as rewarding, the sunset at night over the Glasshouse Mountains. What a view!

Our favourite pastime believe it or not, is to swim in the morning. We have met up with a great group of swim geeks who train at the 50m Pelican Waters Swim Centre. At the weekend, their passion is to swim in the ocean from Moffat beach around the point to Dickey beach, and back. On Sundays, they may choose another beach depending on the weather conditions. (Shark sightings nil so far, wetsuits allowed for us Melbournites, goggles & fins are optional.)

Kayaking over to Bribie Island with friends is a highlight of our time in Caloundra. Long walks along this pristine coastline (we are usually the only ones there), and a surf in the Pacific Ocean is a must, of course.  A picnic of fresh prawns from the local fish shop, mango, avocado and salad with fresh bread of course, topped off with a glass of bubbly under the pandanus trees, usually follows our swim.

Best places to visit:

Emu on Bribie island

Emu on Bribie island

  • Golden Beach for great bike paths that lead to all the sunny beaches. You must try stand-up paddle boarding on the Passage.
  • Mooloolaba for shopping, coffee, and people watching, and the Mooloolaba Spit to tuck into a bucket of fresh prawns for lunch.
  • Monteville, Maleny and Eumundi – take the time to enjoy a drive up into the hinterland for great markets, shops, art galleries and restaurants.
  • Kings beach for a surf and swim in the salt water pool beachside.
  • Cottontree for another pool swim, and the great Boat Shed restaurant for a sunset meal.
  • Sunshine Beach SLSC for a hearty lunch and afternoon drinks.
  • Alexander Headland for lazy walks on the long sandy coast line.
  • Buderim for a great life drawing class – a must each week when I am there.

 

Moree thermal baths, NSW - photo Nicole Steinke

Moree thermal baths, NSW – photo Nicole Steinke

Moree, Northern NSW: For the thrill of Rejuvenation

A tradition for the last four years since we purchased our caravan has been to call into the township of Moree in northern NSW. Why? Because we heard that it has hot thermal pools in which to relax and undergo some serious rejuvenation therapy. It was like a scene out of film director Ron Howard’s science fiction movie “Cocoon”. In this case, this huge pool was filled to the brim with older people wallowing in hot water, with steam rising into the damp night air. Yes, at night! They are in the pools from early morning to late at night, resting their bones and rejuvenating their souls with stories, old and new. My first conversation went like this: “Have you been around the block yet?”  Translated this means “Have you caravanned right around Australia yet? ” In these waters, you don’t need a travel agent or Trip Advisor to tell you where to go, what to do, and when to do it. Everybody here over 60 appears to be computer savvy possessing mobile phones, iPads, Kindles, etc. They Skype with family all the time. No need to go home!

I forgot to mention Moree has a new aquatic centre with a fantastic 50 m pool in which to do a training session. No rest for us poolies. After our workout of 3km or more, our bodies need rejuvenating!

Moree does have lots more to offer

  • Art galleries
  • Boutique shops
  • Heritage museums
  • Walking tours
  • Wineries
  • Market gardens galore – featuring olives, nuts

 

High Country Victoria horse riding

High Country Victoria horse riding

High country Merrijig, Victoria: For the thrill of Adventure

Simply go up to the high country in Merrijig, Victoria and do a mountain trail safari ride with the Man from Snowy River.

My first ride of many, was for one week. What was I thinking as a novice horse rider? As it turned out it probably changed my life around. Within an hour, I was trotting and cantering through the most beautiful countryside I had ever seen. Forget the aching muscles and saddle soreness I developed in those first few days, the whole experience was worth it. The fear of sitting on top of such a large animal had disappeared, and I was in awe of the bush environment. Starting from the Merrijig area we rode through such areas as Sheepyard Flat, where I did my first ever jump over a log (it was a big log!); along the Howqua River; Craig’s hut; Bindaree Falls; The Bluff; Mt Lovick; King Billy Tree; Hells Window; Mt Howitt; the Devils Staircase and many river crossings. Mustering cattle was another experience. Talk about moving back in time! I must tell you that the rides cater for all ages and ability levels. The rides are great for families. As darkness falls, many bush stories are told around the campfire and you can sleep in swag under the stars, if you dare.

You may be lucky enough to book into a ride with the original Man from Snowy River, Tom Burlinson, who makes a regular trip back each year to reunite with the “Lovick” Cattlemen family and renew his friendships.

These rides have been a life experience that I will never forget.

 

Lorne Pier to Pub swim

Lorne Pier to Pub swim

Lorne, Great Ocean Road, Victoria: For the thrill of Excitement

Head to Lorne between Airley’s Inlet and Wye River in summer.

As you drive down the Great Ocean Road in January, you realise that summer is here. Your breath is taken away by the panoramic views and wide expanse of water as you wind around the cliff tops into Lorne.

Tourists pour into this seaside town for a weekend of exciting competition. Thousands of competitors will compete in the Mountain to Surf Run, followed the next day by the iconic Pier to Pub Open Water swim. The atmosphere is electric.  Some of us diehard competitors have actually been here for the week, rehearsing the swim each day.

We spend the summer competing in the Cousins Travel Open Water Swim Series, and this weekend is the most prestigious swim, attracting up to 5000 swimmers.

I have swum this event about twenty-two times now, and won my age group nine times. Each year it gets harder and harder to swim this event. What a challenge!

If swimming in the ocean with a pack of swimmers, feeling like you are in a washing machine, isn’t your cup of tea, then believe it or not, there are other things to do:

  • Great Otway National Park

    Great Otway National Park

    Restaurants and cafes galore.

  • People watching whilst drinking coffee.
  • Walks in the Great Otway National Park.
  • Visit Erskine Falls.
  • Art Galleries.
  • Shopping, shopping, shopping.
  • Lying around on the beach reading.
  • Nippers programs for the kids.
  • Surfing.
  • A local Cinema.
  • Playgrounds for kids.
  • Yoga classes.
  • Massage.
  • Swimming pool.

 

Katherine Gorge National Park

Katherine Gorge National Park

Darwin, Northern Territory: For the thrill of Exploration

Head to the top end and visit Darwin for some unforgettable experiences.

Darwin is the gateway to Kakadu, Litchfield National Parks and Katherine Gorge.

We had the best experiences up here after competing in the Masters Swimming National Championships in Darwin. We swam in a chlorinated pool not a waterway! It was very scary swimming in the waterholes for us southerners, but signs deemed the area to be safe and free of crocs.

I often think I need to return and re-experience the Top End again. There is so much to see.

Places to visit:

Kata Tjuta, The Olgas, Northern Territory

Kata Tjuta, The Olgas, Northern Territory

  • Take a tour to Alice Springs.
  • Hear stories about the art, history, and cultures that will give you an insight into Uluru’s deep significance to the local Indigenous people.
  • Watch the spectacular Uluru (Ayers Rock) sunset with a glass of bubbly.
  • Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) are just as spectacular.
  • Do a Kings Canyon tour and complete the iconic rim walk.
  • Bed down outside and marvel at the outback sky.
  • Travel in style on the Ghan train from Adelaide to the Top End, and in luxury, marvel at the outback.
  • Explore Crocodile Dundee country at Kakadu National Park.
  • Visit Mindil Beach sunset market.
  • The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory is superb with carvings from the Tiwi Islands, bark paintings from Arnhem Land, and dot paintings from the desert. See the fantastic display of the Cyclone Tracy tragedy graphically illustrating life before and after the disaster. You can stand in a darkened room and listen to the whirring sound of Tracy at full throttle − a sound you won’t forget in a hurry.
  • A trip to the Western MacDonnell Ranges is not to be missed and the incredible Ormiston Gorge is a must.
  • Litchfield National Park was awesome and the waterfalls and pools were absolutely beautiful.

Travel tips:

*  Travel insurance is a must. If you can’t afford it then you shouldn’t be travelling.

*  Scan all important documents and send to self and family back home.

*  Travel light. If you are moving around, no-one will notice that you have worn something again and again.

*  Take snacks with you. You never know when you are going to get caught out with food.

*  Looking forward to using citymaps2go (offline Maps and travel APP) next time I travel overseas.

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Renata Singer – My Top 5 Places in Australia

by

“ There are no signposts for women as they get older, “ says Renata Singer, author of the newly published book ‘Older and Bolder Life after 60 ’.

Throughout their lives, women have followed all the usual signposts – going to school, university, entering a profession, having a job, getting married, having children, often going back to work. But when they hit their 60s, this generation of women enters unknown territory. Retirement, isolation, and babysitting the grandchildren, are not attractive signposts for them.

For the first time in history there are millions of women now in their 60s, who are highly educated, have professions and expertise, and have spent years in the workforce. And for the first time in history, these women can expect to live to their 90s.

So the question arises – how do women want to spend the next 30 years?

Renata saw fabulous women in their 90s and 100s, working, performing, competing and taking on new challenges, and having a great time.  It drove her to write her book in which she looks to the ‘elders’  for guidance and inspiration. In it, she interviews 28 women aged 85 to 100. Each woman has her own, very individual way of living her life – but each of them is audacious and courageous. They are all women who won’t allow themselves to be defined by their age, by stereotypes or by society’s expectations.

Renata’s other books include True Stories from the Land of Divorce, Goodbye and Hello, and a novel, The Front of the Family.  With her husband, the philosopher Peter Singer, she co-edited The Moral of the Story: Ethics Through Literature.

Renata is also an educator and community activist. She co-founded Fitted for Work in Australia, a non-profit organisation that in the 10 years since it was founded, has assisted 20,000 women experiencing disadvantage to get work and keep it by providing free business clothing, interview training, mentoring and transition to work programs.

She lives and works both in New York and Melbourne.

‘Older and Bolder Life after 60 ’ is published by Melbourne University Press https://www.mup.com.au/items/159545

 

Renata’s Top 5 Places:

Writing this from New York makes me immediately homesick.  Yes of course I love high-pitched sirens going day and night, sticky people-packed pavements, cheek-to jowl galleries, and more theatre than all Australian capital cities put together.  But my favourite place in the world is:

 

Mt Buffalo_View to the Valley

Mt. Buffalo – View to the Valley

Mt Buffalo National Park, Victoria

I first visited Mt Buffalo National Park on my honeymoon.  My husband’s family had been regulars at Mt Buffalo Chalet since he was a child and I fell for the place immediately.

Every Easter holiday, it was a mad rush to pick up the kids the minute school ended and up the Hume Highway to beat the traffic, so much excitement percolating in that back seat that they were almost well behaved.   And always a cheer as we passed the exit to Glenrowan and saw the mountain for the first time – not looking that much like a Buffalo despite its name.

Mt.Buffalo - Lake Catani

Mt.Buffalo – Lake Catani

Sadly the Chalet is no longer open but you can still camp (from Melbourne Cup Day in November until April each year). The camping ground is right on stunning Lake Catani.  You can easily spend a week exploring what Mt Buffalo has to offer.  But it’s also worth driving up from the bottom of the mountain for the day to hike or stroll, rock climb, picnic, hang glide, and to see the lyrebirds and wallabies, swim or kayak in the lake and – best of all – enjoy the fantastic views.

 

 

Lamington National Park O'Reilly's Husband Peter Singer & daughter Esther

O’Reilly’s at the Lamington National Park- 
Husband Peter Singer & daughter Esther

Lamington National Park, Queensland

The park is a two hour drive from Brisbane and I’ve been there many times staying either at O’Reilly’s or Binna Burra, both perfect places from which to explore the area.

Once in the Park, you’re surrounded by cool damp rain forests, part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area.  Forests like this once covered all of Australia and many of the trees and plants – like the Antartic beech tree – are unique  and date back to prehistoric times.  Imagine, they have outlived the dinosaurs and three-quarters of the other species they once co-existed with.

Lamington Plateau - O'Reilly's

Lamington Plateau – O’Reilly’s

You’re sure to come across a bower bird nest and may even be lucky enough to see the male performing its crazy dance trying to attract a mate.   Our most scary animal experience in the Park was our youngest daughter screaming blue murder when she almost stepped on a blue mountain crayfish.

Don’t miss the Tree Top Walk at O’Reilly’s.  You climb high up and up and from this exhilarating vantage point get the chance to observe life in the rainforest canopy at close range.  Many of the lookout points on the walks have panoramic views over the Gold Coast, south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales.

 

Great Ocean Rd -Eastern Beach Renata with granddaughter Amalia, & daughters Ruth and Esther

Great Ocean Rd – Eastern Beach
Renata with granddaughter Amalia, & daughters Ruth and Esther

Great Ocean Road, Victoria

For ten years we’ve had a holiday house in this area.  Big enough for our extended family of children and grandchildren, it’s a rare weekend that our house is empty.  We love other friends and family to use it when we can’t.  There’s nothing wreckable in the place and it’s only five minutes walk from a very safe – by surf beach standards – beach.

For four weeks in January everything along this coast is packed out, with crowds on the beaches and in the supermarket.  Traffic jams are typical especially when the Fall’s Festival over New Year is on at Lorne.  It’s like that on long weekends and over Easter but otherwise – for most of the year – the beautiful beaches are amazingly empty.

The drive is one of the most scenic in the world and there are not to be missed sights like the Twelve Apostles at Port Campbell and the whale watching at Warnambool.  Or like me, if you’re not in the water at the beach, the best way to see this and any country is to walk.  Take one of the long walks like the Great Ocean Walk from Apollo Bay to Port Campbell, or one of the short to medium strolls in the rainforests behind Lorne.  Maybe I’ll see you there next summer.

 

Cape Leveque - photo kooljaman.com.au

Cape Leveque – photo kooljaman.com.au

Cape Leveque, Western Australia

You’ll definitely need a 4 –wheel drive car for the 200 kilometre drive from Broome – the soft dirt road is really rugged.  Or you can fly.  Either way you’ll arrive in everyone’s idea of paradise, as long as you go in the dry season from June to September.

Cape Leveque lies on the northernmost tip of the Dampier Peninsula, in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.  The resort is 100 per cent indigenous owned by the two neighbouring communities of this area, the Djarindjin and the Ardyaloon communities.  They’ve been running the place for over 20 years.

It’s one of my most recent discoveries.  We stayed in a safari-style tent with its own bathroom and kitchen, overlooking the white sands, red cliffs and sparkling blue sea.  We enjoyed a glass bottom boat tour, and one of the bush tucker guided walks that opened our eyes to all the food around us that was eaten by indigenous people.

Although there are many many things to do, best of all is doing nothing but soaking up the sheer tranquillity and beauty of this magical place.

Be sure to be on the beach for the spectacular sunsets when the rays light up those red cliffs like a magic lantern show.  If you like a drop of alcohol, you’ll need to bring your own as there is none, not even in the excellent restaurant.  BYO is fine.

 

Tidal River Wilson's Promontory

Tidal River Wilson’s Promontory

Wilson’s Promontory National Park, Victoria

The Prom is so beloved by the people of Victoria that in 1996 hundreds of people lined the beaches forming ‘Hands off the Prom’ signs with their bodies and towels and stopped then Premier Jeff Kennett’s plans for a large tourist development.

After a pleasant three hour drive from Melbourne, you’ll find plenty of accommodation options at Tidal River.  You can camp, caravan or stay in huts, cabins, and lodges of various sizes and at different levels of comfort.  Again it’s almost impossible to get the peak holiday times.

At the southernmost tip of mainland Australia, really the Prom has everything – huge granite mountains, open forest, rainforest, and sweeping beaches. The ocean around the Prom is a marine national park and great for snorkeling and diving. It’s at the Prom that I first saw mangroves: those stunted resilient trees with their tangle of roots above water.

You are absolutely assured of seeing kangaroos, emus, echidnas and older wild life at dawn and dusk and that’s the time to watch out for them on the road.  They are not road safety conscious.

If you’ve got small children they’ll love Squeaky Beach and the warm shallows of Tidal River  – yes the white sand does squeak.

Wilson's Prom - Lighthouse

Wilson’s Prom – Lighthouse

Again it’s a paradise for walkers with walks to suit everyone. Most recently we did the hike to the Lighthouse – you can stay there overnight – probably my absolute limit at just over 20km each way.  One never forgotten family moment is when we camped at Refuge Cove and heard strange scratchings outside our tent. There was a possum busily pulling down the zip on one of our back packs to get at the dried fruit.  Now that’s an evolved species for you.

 

Travel Tips:

*  I never  travel without my own sun block – most brands make my eyes puff up and water like crazy.

 *  Always try to smile at airport staff – people working at the airline counters and in security could do with   some cheer.

*  I like an aisle seat as I hate climbing over people to get to the toilet.

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