On October 15 this year Australians vote on whether to amend the Constitution to allow an indigenous advisory voice to federal Parliament to make recommendations on things affecting Aboriginal people. The campaigns in favour and against have polarised public opinion. — THE WEATHER was warming now that the last month of the southern winter was here. So was the public conversation, the argument in some instances, about the forthcoming referundum over whether to give Australia’s indigenous people a voice in parliament. The voice would advise the government on matters concerning Australian…

YVON CHOUINARD, the blacksmith, climber and surfer who launched the Patagonia adventure equipment company said this: “To do good, you actually have to do something.” I think Yvon’s statement well-fits these women at A Peace of the Garden, the community garden at Launceston’s Northern Suburbs Community Centre. Why? Because they…

TASMANIA is where permaculture made its start, so it is fitting that it is where permaculture’s first ever recipe book also makes its start. The project is the initiative of Launceston permaculture educator, community worker and Tasmanian coordinator of community Gardens Australia, Jo Dean, assisted by others from the Tasmanian permaculture and community garden networks. You can read the story nd download the book here…

There are many tales of the pandemic. This is one of them. — THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC brought us stories of courage and science, confusion and stupidity and downright disinformation. We each have our own stories of those days of lockdown, all of them different and some of them truly unique. Ryan Michael Beck’s story surely fits that unique category. The Appalachian Trail is…

I was curious about whether AI-generated text could be used in writing about permaculture. Mine was no structured experiment, more an informal try out of the technology to satisfy my curiosity. — WHAT EXCITES some people and scares others? Artificial Intelligence — AI — that is what. There is a lot of hoopla around AI at present. That is usually what happens with new technologies as people either enthuse over them or fear them. The history of science and technology in recent…

PUSHED by strong winds, the dark clouds stream across our southern skies and release their load of moisture as dark curtains of cold rain falling on on a landscape of grey hills and mountains. The rain came in the early hours and now, in the morning, the forest has that…

An encounter of the imaginative kind. — THE FADED red, twin-cab Datsun ute lifts a cloud of dust as it moves along the track by the farm dam. It slows, turns and stops close to a heavy wooden picnic table by which someone has erected one of those cheap hiker’s tents, the type you buy in places…

LIKE THE AUTHOR, I too felt the allure of the Bass Strait islands. Unlike the author, changing circumstances prevented me doing anything about it. That allure I speak of I can trace back to the writings of Patsy Adam Smith who wrote about the Bass Strait islands and her life…

The publication of the Flavours of Launceston recipe book and the associated website launch Community Gardens Australia into new edible territory and place the Tasmanian city of Launceston as an innovator in community-based urban agriculture. — WOW! This is the best book and website launch I have ever been to. There must be around 85 people sitting around the tables here in the old school building in Ravenswood. And what other book launch would feature Fijian dancers, a Butanese band and a storyteller? They were my…