Welcome to GR Online, a series of short-form articles that take aim at the moving target of contemporary culture as it’s whisked along the guide rails of innovations in digital media, globalisation and late-stage capitalism.
Tamby East
THIS IS THE kind of place people leave. This town, Tamby East, sits a few kilometres off the North-West Highway....
River cities
EASTWOOD HAD NEVER liked storms. Not the Brisbane ones anyway, which didn’t so much pour as drop. He hadn’t liked...
The storm
THE PASTURE IS dry. Dust on her boots, burrs in her socks, sweat under her breasts, neck, pits, crotch....
Bobby Moses
HUNTER DAY PARKED the police car on the side of the road under a 200-year-old ironbark. He left the...
All the things I should’ve given
ONE OF THE nice things about having a baby was how the old Italian lady next door changed. ‘It’s weird,’...
Fantasias for flute
MEG’S BROTHERS WERE lucky. They joined the army when they turned eighteen: first Liam, then Stuart. When reveille sounded,...
Poster boy
As a teenager, during the day, with my mates, we’d talk about their stats – career goals, disposals, who was the most accurate goal kicker, who was the fastest player, who could lay the hardest tackles. And at night, I’d stare up at those posters from my bed, the moonlight making the footy players’ strong arms glisten. Bare, bulging biceps. Broad, powerful pectorals almost bursting through their yellow and blue guernseys. I wanted them, and I wanted to be them, all at the same time.
Paper moon
THE SHRIEK OF the troop train woke Eddie as they pulled abruptly to a stop. ‘Where are we?’ he said,...
Shanghai wedding
Shanghai, 2011 BILLY LOOKED AROUND the carriage and surprised himself with the realisation that despite feeling nothing, he was actually...
Distance
THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN Ingrid Murphy and Katie Brute-Jones were easily measured: five inches, thirty-three pounds and 7,700 miles. Where...
The applicant and the sponsor
QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS AND more questions. Twenty-seven pages of questions for the applicant and seventeen for the sponsor. Is the relationship...
The gherkin jar
OUR FOOTSTEPS ECHO as we climb the stairs. My grandma holds my hand. Shhhhh – be quiet! My grandpa is sleeping. The...
