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Moonlight reflections
The case against the former premier was famously abandoned in 1991 when a jury split – with one of two dissenters a member of the Young Nationals. The lack of resolution left open one of the biggest questions: was Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen a crook? Queenslanders remained divided on the great divider. Ask and they will tell you. Joh was a villain; Joh was a martyr.
Not just good girls
Women in public life in Queensland experienced criticism and ridicule that was sharper and more personal than that directed to their male counterparts. They were often said to have abandoned their rightful roles as wives and mothers, were accused of being too noisy, too silent, too dumb, too much of a smarty pants. It was suggested that wealthy women had a ‘silver spoon', while the few working-class women who struggled into the ranks above were said to lack grace and class.
Mandate of heaven
WHEN HE KNEW we were moving to Australia, my father wrote to two friends in Brisbane asking where our...
Done and dusted
Please forget the past. The future looks bright ahead.[i] – Otis Blackwell, ‘Don't Be Cruel' FOR MY SINS, I was educated entirely...
After consensus
I TRAVELLED FROM Sydney to Far North Queensland in 1970 to carry out ‘salvage work' on a dying and...
No simple twist of fate
ON THE DAY we left Townsville for Bowen, a photo of soldiers wearing white hoods graced the cover of...
Theft in the name of science
DURING THE NINETEENTH and early twentieth centuries, numerous skulls and skeletons of Queensland Aboriginal people found their way into...
A brief reflection on the Cooktown orchid
This essay inspired us to use the Cooktown orchid in the logo of the Griffith Review Emerging Writers' Prize....
The tail that wagged the dog
IN THE FIRST of 2007, when the prospect of a change of government was beginning to be taken seriously...
The colour of kerosene
IT HAD FELT wrong from the moment he'd picked up the fare outside the hotel on Marine Terrace.‘Turn here,'...
The last taboo
Sex is what you do, sexuality is who you are.– Anna Freud I MET J in a bathroom in the...
The heaviness of keys
‘YOU N ME Miss, 2 gether, 4 eva.' Dylan is just finishing the chalk heart around this message when...
