THE MOTOR hums. No. The motor chugs with that sound familiar to those who have owned one of these vehicles with their air-cooled engines. Fiona’s Kombi maintains a steady though far from speedy pace as we bypass Newcastle then watch as Buladelah passes to our west. We note the turnoff…

ROADS ARE PATHS to the undiscovered. In earlier years during my annual, month-long holiday from work I would toss a few things in the car and set out north along the Pacific Highway. I had no particular destination, no particular place to be, no particular purpose other than that of…

Friends, the books and the dome — WE LEAVE TOWN and follow the two-lane westwards until we come to the gate we were told to look out for. The vehicle track we follow is rough and takes us into eucalypt forest, across a shallow creek and up a slope before coming to a large clearing on one…

IT WAS 1995, maybe 1996. Some time around then, anyway. I step off the bus after making the overnight coach journey from Sydney to Lismore and catching a local bus to Nimbin. I’m tired and my mind is hazy, a condition I’m familiar with from previous long coach journeys. The…

I’m going up the country, babe, don’t you wanna go? I’m going up the country, babe, don’t you wanna go? I’m going to some place where I’ve never been before. I’m gonna leave this city, got to get away I’m gonna leave this city, got to get away All this fussing and fighting, man, you…

IT WAS an attractive idea. It was also a major project in life. For most of the alternative cohort it was the biggest, most ambitious project they would engaged in. What brought together those who sought a new life in the country was an interest in owner building. They were…

A cottage in the hills A CLOUD OF DUST marks our passage as we follow a winding gravel road through the eucalypt forest. There are three of us in the twin cab ute that summer day. Our destination is Byron Bay, but on reaching Taree we detour from the Pacific Highway to follow the road…

A YELLOW-BROWN dust haze follows the van as we make our way along the narrow gravel road past field and bushland. This is farming country we pass through, cleared, open fields interspersed with patches of eucalyptus forest. …

WINTERS are freezing. We dress in layers of warm clothes and sit close to the electric heater. It is early to bed not because we are tired but to seek warmth as the nighttime temperature falls. Summers were are the opposite. …