Australia Culture

No one saw Eliza Vanda arrive in Tidgy Bay that rainy winter afternoon. The sign advertising 'Cabins for Rent’ was almost hidden by a pile of builder’s rubble, but Eliza Vanda didn’t seem at all put out by the mess. ‘This is a nice little pocket,’ she said. ‘It should suit us very well’.

During a semester in the wilderness, 16-year-old Sib expects the tough outdoor education program and the horrors of dorm life, but friendship drama and an unexpected romance with popular Ben Capaldi? That will take some navigating. New girl Lou has zero interest in fitting in, or joining in. Still reeling from a loss that occurred almost a year ago, she just wants to be left alone. But as she witnesses a betrayal unfolding around Sib and her best friend Holly, Lou can't help but be drawn back into the land of the living.

You care what's happening in the world - but you can't help feeling you missed the part where the key stuff got explained. What's a budget deficit? How does voting actually work? What's the deal with the UN? And what does net zero mean again? Thankfully, No Silly Questions is here to lay out the facts and principles behind the day's headlines. Zara Seidler and Sam Koslowski, creators of The Daily Aus - Australia's leading social-first news service - are like your super well-informed mates who you can rely on to quickly bring you up to speed.

Lintang is an island girl who longs for daring and danger. When she meets the feared pirate, Captain Shira, and her all-female crew, Lintang is determined to join them. Secrets within secrets, life-or-death battles with spectacular monsters, and hair's breadth escapes keep listeners from hitting pause on a story populated by women of color who are fighters, adventurers, and leaders.

There were dozens of us on the ship, all ages, boys and girls, and we were all up on deck for the leaving of Liverpool, gulls wheeling and crying over our heads, calling good-bye, I thought they were waving good-bye. None of us spoke. It was a grey day with drizzle in the air, the great sad cranes bowing to the ship from the docks as we steamed past. That is all I remember of England…

Australia is home to some of the most unusual animals in the world. Did you know, millions of years ago, all the continents were clumped into one large landmass? When the continents began to break away, South America, Antarctica, and Australia were still stuck together. Later, South America connected to North America, but Australia separated. It kept evolving in isolation, which is why the animals of Australia can look very different from animals anywhere else in the world.

At the tender age of eight, chimney sweep Tom Appleby is convicted of stealing and sentenced to deportation to Botany Bay. As he sails out with the First Fleet, Tom sadly realises that he will never set foot on English ground again. Luckily, not long after Tom’s arrival in the colony, the fair and kind Sergeant Stanley decides to take on Tom as a servant. Together, Tom, Sergeant Stanley and his son, Rob, build a house, set up an orchard and a vegetable garden for themselves - and thrive, unlike many others in the new colony.

When Lotty, a brave, young orphan, and her cheeky dog, Mr. Jacks, are shipwrecked, they encounter ruthless pirates, hidden treasure, and discover the exciting truth about Lotty’s golden locket. The mystery will change her life forever!

Sixteen-year-old Nipper and his Gallipoli mates Lanky, Spud, Bluey and Wallaby Joe are starving, freezing and ill-equipped. By November 1915 they know that that there is more to winning a war than courage. The Gallipoli campaign has been lost. Nipper has played cricket with the Turks in the opposing dugout, dodged rocket fire and rescued drowning, freezing men when the blizzard snow melted. He is one of the few trusted with the secret kept from even most of the officers: how an entire army will vanish from the Peninsula over three impeccably planned nights.

From a talented emerging writer comes a brave, honest, unforgettable memoir about mental illness, which breaks the silence and shatters the taboos to give hope to all those struggling to find their way through. One day Sophie Hardcastle realised the joy she’d always known had disappeared. She was constantly tired, with no energy, no motivation and no sense of enjoyment for surfing, friends, conversations, movies, parties, family - for anything. Her hours became empty.

In the forest, armed men from the new settlement ventured to investigate strange lights and found three fires burning, a child at their center, tethered to a stake. The boy appeared to be white, perhaps three or four years old, unable to speak. He watched the men with the darting, fearful eyes of a wild animal and at their approach he crouched, snatched a stick from a fire, and snarled. So begins Dirk Wildlight's life in the tiny Victorian settlement of Tilmore.

Have you ever wondered if time travel is actually possible? Or where the Australian accent came from? Or what it feels like to have dementia? If you're an inquisitive person who likes to understand how things came to be the way they are, this collection of thought-provoking explainers from The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald has got you covered. Explain That answers some of the year's - and life's - most baffling questions.

Broadcaster Tracey Spicer had an epiphany when her young son uttered these six words. Suddenly, her life’s work fighting inequality seemed futile. What’s the point in agitating to change the present, if bigotry is being embedded into our futures? And so began a quest to uncover who was responsible and hold them to account. Who is the ultimate villain? Big Tech, whose titans refuse to spend money to fix the problem? The world’s politicians, who lack the will to legislate? Or should we all be walking into a hall of mirrors and taking a good, hard look at ourselves…?

A young cub is snatched from his family and home by a giant eagle, then dropped, injured and alone, in a suburban garden. This is where he meets his first Human and begins his long journey to becoming the most famous dingo in the world. He will never see his mountain home again or his family. But it is his destiny to save alpine dingoes from extinction, and he dreams of a time when all cubs like him can live in the wild in safety, instead of facing poison and bullets and hatred.

This story, based on an Aboriginal folktale, tells of the conflict in Dreamtime between the Injim Quinkins and the Timara Quinkins. The bad Injims steal children and take them to their caves but the Timaras save the children in the end.

When thirteen-year-old Celeste travels to China to visit her grandmother, she uncovers an incredible family secret. And with this secret comes danger and adventure. If Celeste is to save her family and friends, she must learn to harness her rare and powerful gift.

From the small town in regional Australia where she was told that 'girls can't play the drums' to New York City and back again, Brodie has spent her life searching screens, books, music and magazines for bodies like hers, girls who loved each other, and women who didn't follow the silent instructions to shrink or hide that they've received since literal birth. This is the story of life as a young woman through the lenses of feminism and pop culture. Brodie's story will make you reevaluate the power of pop culture in our lives - and maybe you will laugh and cry along the way.

Neuseeland war damals weitaus wilder als heute. Eine grün wuchernde feuchte Pflanzenwelt, in die über Jahrmillionen niemand eingegriffen hatte. Ein menschenleeres riesiges Land mit reicher Tierwelt. Dieses Paradies finden die Mitglieder eines polynesischen Stammes, als sie um 950 n. Chr. mit ihren riesigen Kanus die Fahrt übers Meer, durch wilde Stürme und mörderische Wellen überstehen. Über 2000 km von ihren Heimatinseln entfernt, lassen sie sich nieder und begründen das Volk der Maori.

Sam Kerr is an Aussie Rules fan through and through. When she’s excluded from her team she doesn’t know what to do. Netball? No thanks. Chess? Bleugh. Her best friends Dylan and Indi think she should flip from Aussie Rules to soccer – and it doesn’t seem so bad at first. The coach is okay. The team seems nice enough.... But with Chelsea the school bully on her case and the pressure of learning new rules weighing her down, will it all be too much? Will Sam give up – or will she make the flip?

Nani siempre ha soñado con ser una princesa. Cuando una princesa de la vida real de Hawái visita a su pueblo en Hilo, Nani se viste con sus mejores ropas. Pero, mientras observa a la Princesa Luka, quien ha venido a salvar al pueblo de Mauna Loa de la lava volcánica, Nani aprende que hay algo más que ser una princesa con ropas finas.