Midyim berry is an Australian wild food suitable for garden cultivation. — Common name Midyim berry. Botanic name Austromyrtus dulcis. Family Myrtaceae. Growth form Low perennial shrub to around 80cm in width and around 60cm in height with pointed leaves around one to three centimetres in length. Taller specimens to two metres may be found. New leaf growth can be reddish-pink in colour. …

A lesson about messaging from Tasmania’s 2021 state election stresses the importance of avoiding polarisation in your campaign communications… — CONSIDER THIS. You work for an influential environmental advocacy organisation. An election is coming up. You produce a brochure to convince people to vote for the party you support. You think it offers a stark choice but what it does is position undecided electors as part of the problem. …

THE BIOLITE CAMPSTOVE is a handy doo-dah for car campers who like sitting around an open wood fire when you can’t find enough wood to start one or when the wood is too wet. Fill the device with twigs, light it and there you have your substitute open wood fire…

JUST FOLLOW the road out of town and take the turnoff, she said. Okay, we’ll do that I say, knowing how easily we could get lost following her vague directions. No need for worry. We found her place, no false turns, no ending up on some rural dead end. There…

It is 2019. We are about to become unmoored and leave this place that has been home for years. — IT IS POURING. A steady downpour that is not torrential, just persistent. It dampens all other sounds. A grey sky and landscape suck the colour from the day. It is a day for reflection, for introspection. I look out on this monochromatic landscape and feel a tingle of anticipation. …

CRUISING DOWN the highway tonight. Heading east. Cassandra Wilson soulfully singing Red River Valley. The van’s lights shining off a windswept landscape, what I can see of it anyway. Full moon. A bright Jupiter for company. What more could you want? I’d spent a few days with Yvette, one-time partner…

The Ukrainians have enlisted another weapon in Russia’s war on their nation: humour. Is weaponisation makes it a communications tactic in the ongoing conflict, one which the Russians are not adept at using. THE POST starts like this… New wonder drug to relieve panicky feeling among Russians St Javelin Laboratories have…

I WAS WALKING BACK from the surfing beach at Cloudy Bay when I noticed her sitting on the grass by the shore. Well, there’s nothing unusual in a person sitting on the shore. But it wasn’t her so much—it was more her minivan that attracted me. Why, you ask? Why…

I’ve long had an interest in the Australian tradition of hut building and the people who live in them. Over the years I’ve made more than a few visits to what remains of the once-larger shack settlement at Bonnie Vale in Royal National Park. This brief story originates with those visits. — WHEN DID I first come to Bonnie Vale? I don’t remember. I do remember that it was quite some time ago. I also remember that there were more shacks here then. …