travel writing
Soul Scrubbing Across The Nullarbor. Nullarbor Desert, Australia
We have crossed the Nullarbor.
Like a dangerous dog it lay curled in my imagination. Now it stirred, shivered. It bared its teeth, licked its long, black tongue, then slept again. My presence didn’t disturb it, yet its bewitched me.
With open hearts and eyes we eased west into long distance. Penong saw the last store for a thousand kilometres; how far is that? How long-sighted is my imagination?
Two hundred on, at Nundroo, settlers abandoned bush-clearing. In the wilderness beyond, Yalata lands, silken shrubs, fanned trees shivering, quivering.&...
Is Gold The Fruit Of Our Dreams? Hill End, New South Wales, Australia.
In the 1870s, Hill End's population was over eight thousand. Now, it's home to just a hundred souls. The reason?
The largest gold nugget and best quarter mile of non-alluvial gold in the world, embedded deep in quartz. Gold Rush and speculation.
When the rush ended and the boom burst, Hill End's people left their cottages and orchards, stores and hospital, pubs and schools and went where they needed to go.
Pre-Gold Rush there was no infrastructure here, it was new land grant, distant from Sydney in high hills. As the gold ...
