As Australian towns go, Broome has more than its fair share of stories and history. The Shinju Matsuri, or the Festival of the Pearl, has been celebrating the community, its history and its stories each September for 46 years. No other town or city except perhaps Darwin has more strong links between Japan, China, Malaysia, the indigenous communities and European … [Read more...]
Wildflower Season
First published 19 Nov 2015. I'm re-publishing this post because I'm back in Western Australia for the wildflower season. It really is something special. So my brother says ‘come to the farm, there is a patch of spider orchids on the new property’. ‘Spider orchids!’, I say. I’m in. Have you ever wanted to sit in a field of flowers, where the ground looks like it … [Read more...]
Aggie B’s Christmas
As a child I remember being unable to sleep because it was only two days until Christmas and how could I bear the wait of another 48 hours before I got to open my presents. This year I will have my first Christmas in France and it will be exciting in a different way. Christmas day in Australia also meant a divide between my father’s family in the city and a long drive … [Read more...]
Shinju Matsuri – Broome’s Festival of the Pearl
Broome is a town in Australia’s far north west. There is no much that it is close to. It is on the bottom of ‘The Peninsular’ that has Broome on its south east side and Derby on the south west. Further east are Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek and north of Halls Creek is Kununurra. It is the Kimberley. Very red soil, very blue oceans and reasonably green trees. Distance from … [Read more...]
Something Old Something New
I started life as a very standard issue middle class girl from Australia. I am seventh generation Australian, my closest non-Australian relative is my Great Grandfather on my father’s side who was Swedish. This is quite unusual in a country of immigrants like Australia. At the end of World War two, Australia had a population of 7 million. Now it is around 22 million, which is … [Read more...]
