Friday 14 June 2013

Last Ride

For those of you in Sydney, there is a good movie on this Saturday night (June 15th) on SBS. "Last Ride" is based on the novel by Denise Young and stars Hugo Weaving. Despite a limited cinema run, the film received high praise from critics.

If you can't see the film, the book The Last Ride is available on Kindle and in other e-book formats. It won a Premier's Award a few years back. It has solid 5 star ratings and is a gritty, realistic Australian story. 

Tuesday 11 June 2013

Rainforest Reflections

About five years ago I started a project which was going to be a coffee table type book. Photographs and nature writing. Never finished it. I still have plans however...

Anyway, here is a piece from it that I quite like.

Toonumbar moves again. Seasonal change has found even this isolated remnant of the Big Scrub. Fruit fall is underway, sprinkling the leaf litter with pinpricks of colour.

And the air above the canopy fills with the rushing beats of a hundred pairs of wings, twisting into the branches until the trees begin to bear smoky grey flowers. The Topknots know when to arrive.

And the old Carpet Snake knows the increased sun means his winter fast is at an end and hunting can begin. While the whipbird’s breeding calls echo between the last surviving trunks of Red Cedar.

And up though the canopy, the blue sky becomes blanketed by a chromatic silver veneer. Soon there will be thunder and lightning and wind and warm forest rain. Toonumbar moves again.