on international womens dayi stand at the check out chatting to the assistant she’s friendly, young, and beautifulwe talk about how some customers glare at her if they think she’s too slow, or comment on how she should speed upand i say really, are people sometimes mean? rude?and she says, sometimes, customers say, can they […]
Author: Caroline Gardam
Caroline is a writer, reviewer, and editor based in southeast Queensland.
Splendour and the art
COVID stole music festivals, COVID stole the Kurilpa Derby. For me, living in Queensland, COVID has taken much less than it has from most. I am not complaining. But I fervently hope COVID won’t run off with the APT10.
QCC: A 50 year history of Queensland Conservation Council
In 2019, Queensland Conservation Council (QCC) celebrated a milestone — Queensland’s peak environment body turned 50. To commemorate the event, I researched and wrote a (reasonably brief) QCC history. It took a lot of willpower not to let the research take over! Fascinating information is hidden in the hundreds of boxes of documents held at […]
Chrysalis 4101
Local art emerges from Brisbane’s cultural heart Caroline Gardam It’s just passed 9am on a warm Saturday in Brisbane, and already the temperature is nudging 30. At West End’s Hope on Boundary, a popular, earthy social enterprise café, it’s market day. Between a plant stall selling $2 begonias and justice advocates Micah Projects’ sausage sizzle […]
After “Before”
Twenty five years late, I watched the “Before” trilogy (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight), on consecutive nights during lockdown. Now I yearn for their “After”-story. Roughly the same age as its leads, Céline and Jesse, when Before Sunrise was released (1995), I was not at all interested in it. A wave of hype carried […]
Do your own real research
As I watch people whom I care deeply about flirt with conspiratorial cults, I believe I no longer have the luxury of ignoring ridiculous posts, or writing off those who share them as gullible or worse. Back in March, I wrote an essay on the need to understand how to analyse the source of information […]
Our Inside Voices
I was delighted to be invited to co-edit Our Inside Voices: Reflections on COVID-19 recently. It contains essays, fiction, and poetry from a wide range of Queensland writers. My mate Brad Marsellos, whose amazing locked-down playground pic features on the cover, said he felt calm after reading the stories. Getting back behind the red pen […]
Yoga for homeschoolers
Like many overachievers, I am trying to squeeze as much personal development as possible into my current isolated life. So I’ve developed a fabulous method of combining daily yoga practice with the joy of homeschooling three boys. I will share it with you here.
Nostalgia is the only available travel option
Socially distant. Looking backwards. It’s a story about a bowl.
Newish: Bell’s Biennale
There are a lot of lovely pictures to accompany my article about Richard Bell’s EMBASSY2019 in Venice. Like this one.