WRITING - sample works
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TALKING SIDEWAYS - stories & conversations from Finniss Springs
A book of instructive stories from Finniss Springs, once the site of an Aboriginal mission in the far-north of South Australia. Written and developed with Reg Dodd. Published by University of Queensland Press, 2019 Read excerpt here For info see here and here |
Selected Articles
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Going Bush with Mr Potato Head
As with everything else, the country I've been talking about is frequently regarded as a commodity, be it in relation to yields of primary produce or to spectacles and hypothetical experiences marketed for tourist consumption. Here's the main thing to understand: this commodification is entirely at odds with the appreciation of landscape that I've been trying to tell you about. 
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Places Not Forgotten
This is country that reveals itself only over time, as the stories, names and explanations for particular locations and people become gradually apparent. People carry memories and maps of special places around in their heads...
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Promoting the Long View
Australia, I think, is a nation of champion forgetters. An impact of our ahistorical mind-set is the phenomenon of ‘predictable surprise’, wherein we tend to repeatedly make the same errors and fall victim to the same cruel twists of fortune, decade in and decade out.
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A Lung Full of Fish Hooks
In my experience, the most profound moments in an interview might be when the storyteller says something that is a revelation to themselves as much as it is to me – something that surprises them, something they haven’t articulated before. And I’m always wanting to be surprised in this way....
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Talking Country with Reg Dodd at Finniss Springs Finniss Springs is a place I’ve been visiting regularly for over 30 years. It’s also where I learned to keep my mouth shut and to listen deeply and patiently. This wasn’t an ability I developed quickly or easily, and it required me to unlearn several unhelpful habits; the habit of asking too many questions, of hurrying to a conclusion, of feeling obliged to offer up an opinion...
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Books
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Dam Fine Yarns (Watery Tales from the Victorian Wimmera and Mallee)
Edited in collaboration with John Martin & Juli Cathcart Published by Horsham Regional Arts Association, 2005 |
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The Hottest Gallery in the World
Published by 24Hr Art – Northern Territory Centre for Contemporary Art, Darwin, 2001 |
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No Place like Pekina – a story of survival
Written and edited in collaboration with John Mannion Published by Pekina 125 Committee, 1999 |
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The Great Yarn Event (and other arts stories from regional Australia)
Written in collaboration with Philip Voysey Published by Regional Arts Australia, 1998 |
Selected Publications
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WE PROTEST! Catalogue essay for exhibition at City Gallery (Melbourne Town Hall), 2018
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The Farmer’s Cinematheque
Article for Belonging, Regional Arts Australia, 2014
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Football Stories from Country Victoria
Article for Big Story Country, Regional Arts Australia, 2008
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Walk, Talk & Chalk – parking officers in the City of Melbourne
Exhibition catalogue for City Gallery at Melbourne Town Hall, 2007
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Talking Country
Essay for Palimpsest 5, Mildura Arts Centre, 2003
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Simulated Interceptions
Essay for Interceptions: Sunrise21 Artist-in-Industry project (Mildura Arts Centre) and in Natural Resource Management (Journal of Australian Association of Natural Resource Management), 2000. (Also adapted and reprinted in Artlink Issue 21:1, 2001)
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