October 21, 2024

Archive

Middle Park – Life in the Burbs

For his 70th birthday, we took Dad to virtual reality. While my brother shot zombies in a graveyard, Dad and I played Google Earth. Headsets on, side by side, we explored the pyramids of Giza, the Grand Canyon, the Antarctic. Or so I thought. Just as I was enjoying the view from the top of Table Mountain, Dad shouted out: “I can see our back fence!” Presented with the wonders of Earth, he had travelled to the corner of Wright...

A woman in a pink jumper sits in a red mobility scooter. She is smiling and in front of a building with a pink banner that reads "Greeves St Op Shop"

“I never look down on anyone” – a profile of Helen Phillips

“The moment he pointed a rifle at me, our five kids screaming in the corner, was the moment I decided to get outta there,” Helen Phillips tells me. It was 1974, Cootamundra, New South Wales, and her husband was a violent alcoholic. “He said ‘You’re done’. And I said ‘If you’re gonna do it, pull the trigger, cause you will never get another chance. I’ve had ya – you’re done yourself.” The familiar cycle of apologies came – “Oh baby,...