The Ledge, a thriller by Australian author Christian White

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The Ledge, a thriller by Australian author Christian White

12 February 2025

A disturbing development in a twenty-five year old missing persons case sees a group of old school friends reluctantly reunite. All have reason to be fearful of the re-opened police investigation, and all are willing to do whatever it takes to ensure they are not incriminated. It’s not easy to be sure who to trust, or exactly who knows what about that tragic day many years earlier in 1999.

The Ledge wouldn’t be a Christian White novel if it didn’t feature a twist that leaves you breathless, and wondering whether you’ve been paying attention. White’s fourth novel will not let you down.

I read The Ledge in three days, a sprint compared to my usual glacial pace, often reading until two or three in the morning. Calling this a page-turner is an understatement.

I also suggest you read White’s earlier novels, The Nowhere Child, his debut, and The Wife and the Widow, his second novel, which in trademark style, are also set across dual timelines. I’m yet to read his third novel, Wild Places, published in 2022. I’ll need to catch up on some sleep before then.

That’s not a knife: iconic Australian film Crocodile Dundee gets recut

3 February 2025

The knife, the editing room knife, has recently been taken to ocker Australian film Crocodile Dundee.

Producers deemed the slapstick comedy — that swept the once Sydney Harbour Bridge rigger, and television personalty Paul Hogan, to big screen fame in 1986 — to be out of touch with the expectations of contemporary movie audiences. This necessitated a number of “considered edits”, says Garry Maddox, writing for The Sydney Morning Herald:

Updating classic films can sometimes upset fans — there was a ruckus when George Lucas had Han Solo defending himself from bounty hunter Greedo rather than firing the first shot in a 1997 special edition of Star Wars — but the long tradition of creating new versions includes Francis Ford Coppola with both Apocalypse Now and The Godfather Part III and Ridley Scott with Blade Runner.

Scenes from the film — set between the Australian outback and New York City — where Mick Dundee, AKA Crocodile Dundee, gropes a cross-dresser in a bar, and later a woman at a party, have been removed, while others have been extended. The re-edited version of the film is to be called Crocodile Dundee: The Encore Cut, and will henceforth become the standard edition of the story.

Summer sports and the heightened risk of skin cancer

3 February 2025

As someone with an extremely fair complexion, any amount of exposure to the sun can be risky, even over the winter months, when ultraviolet (UV) levels are generally lower. Trying though to explain this anyone who does not also have fair skin, is almost an uphill battle.

In fact, I’m alarmed at just how blasé some people are to the dangers of sun exposure, especially prolonged exposure. The sad reality is, that everyone, regardless of skin type, is at risk. Despite this, being out in the sun is an innate part of the Australian psyche. It’s no surprise then that rates of skin cancer in Australia are among the highest in the world.

But the message seems to getting through, albeit at a glacial pace. The Australian Institute of Sport has twigged onto the danger of sports events taking place in the blazing summer sun, and in 2023 said sporting organisations had a duty of care to provide safe environments for participants and spectators. It’s a start, but many sporting groups have been slow to take action.

But there are a number of options for creating sun safe sporting environments. These include providing adequate shade, and scheduling events at times of the day when UV levels are lower, and considering day/night fixtures where possible.

Text publishing bought by Penguin Random House. Exciting, right?

29 January 2025

Independent Melbourne based Australian book publisher Text Publishing was recently acquired by Penguin Random House Australia, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House (PRH), one of the world’s largest publishers. While the move has been hailed as “exciting” by Text and PRH, some literary commentators do not feel the same way.

Both parties say they are committed to retaining Text’s independence as a PRH imprint, but this isn’t always the long term outcome, says Misha Ketchell, writing for The Conversation:

But history shows that mergers often result in the dissolution of the smaller imprint. To take just one example, Penguin no longer publishes books under the McPhee Gribble imprint. It is precisely the question of which readerships the merged version of Text will cater to that will worry Australian readers and supporters of independent publishing.

Text obviously have their reasons for making the deal, and their independence as a PRH imprint appears to be hard wired into the acquisition agreement. Those concerned about the future of independent book publishing in Australia have reason to be fearful though. Text joins other previously standalone local publishing houses, Affirm Press, and Pantera Press, in being bought out by larger book publishers in 2024. Australia is running low on indie publishers.

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Australia, books, publishing

Good Luck, Babe! by Chappell Roan tops 2025 Hottest 100

29 January 2025

American pop singer and songwriter Chappell Roan’s 2024 track Good Luck, Babe! was voted the favourite song of 2024 by Triple J listeners in this year’s Hottest 100 music poll.

In taking out the top spot, Roan collected the most number of votes ever for a number one song:

The number of votes clocked isn’t the only landmark fact about Chappell’s win. ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ was her only eligible track for voting and her only song in the countdown, which makes her the first solo female artist to win a Hottest 100 with her sole entry.

There’s also good news for Swifties in the 2024 countdown, Taylor Swift notched her first ever entry into the Hottest 100.

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Australia, entertainment, music, radio

Colonising Mars the same way Australia was colonised

28 January 2025

Sussan Ley, deputy leader of the Liberal (conservative) opposition party in Australia, has likened Elon Musk’s plans to establish a colony on Mars, to the British colonisation of Australia:

Addressing the St Matthew’s Australia Day mass in Albury, Ms Ley insisted that British settlers did not land at Sydney Cove “to destroy or to pillage”, but in an experiment to establish a new society. “In what could be compared to Elon Musk’s Space X’s efforts to build a new colony on Mars, men in boats arrived on the edge of the known world to embark on that new experiment,” Ms Ley told the church service.

Despite their intentions, over ten thousand Indigenous Australians were killed in clashes with early Australian settlers, between 1788 and 1930.

Ley’s remarks were made on Australia Day, Sunday 26 January 2025. The day is often marked by protests in some quarters, and greeted with ambivalence by others. There are Australians who would like to move the date away from 26 January, being the day in 1788 that the British established a colony at Sydney Cove. Some Australians, particularly Indigenous peoples, feel that the 26 January date celebrates an invasion, rather than national pride.

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Australia, current affairs, history

Demolishing the AC/DC house, and what little rock history Australia has

18 January 2025

I’m not really a fan of the band that was formed in Sydney in 1973, and is still going strong, but it seems odd that the house where founders, brothers Angus and Malcolm Young used to live, and founded AC/DC, was not worthy of preserving. For those not in the know, AC/DC are probably Australia’s version of the Rolling Stones. But last month, the residence, in the inner-west Sydney suburb of Burwood, was bulldozed to make way for a high rise apartment block.

This might sound like over-development on steroids, but many parts of Australia, including Sydney, are experiencing accommodation shortages, and high density housing is one of the solutions. While numerous people, including the local municipal council, were aware of the house’s history, this was not enough to spare the property. Mind you, I’m not sure how the house could have been kept, and somehow integrated in the much needed residential development.

For more about the story of the “AC/DC house”, and its demolition, check out this short YouTube clip by Sydney Morning Herald writer, Tom Compagnoni.

Summer time forming La Nina possibly coming to Australia

8 January 2025

Tom Saunders writing for ABC News:

Your average La Niña forms in winter, peaks in late spring, then gradually weakens through summer. However, the current edition has not played by the rule book — for only the second time in 75 years, its onset has arrived in the middle of summer.

This is something I’ve been wondering about. Over the summer months especially, I keep a close eye on the ten-day weather forecast. I’m looking out for upcoming days where temperatures are expected to exceed thirty-degrees Celsius. This because we do not have air-conditioning in either of the places we stay at. So we plan we be elsewhere, where possible, on super warm days.

But, in scanning the ten day forecast for our part of the world, there is — as of when I write this — not a single day expected to reach thirty-degrees. The nearest is twenty-eight degrees. Weird, considering January is the warmest month of the year where we are. A surprise La Niña event, kind of, explains the generally lower temperatures.

To be clear though, La Niña, and El Niño weather events do not really influence temperature: they are more indicators of rainfall levels in the northern and eastern regions of Australia. Higher in the case of La Niña, lower for El Niño. But, higher rainfall usually means more cloud cover, which will in part moderate temperatures.

I’m all for not-so-warm summers. Temperatures in the high-twenties aren’t too bad. And providing the dewpoint level stays below twenty degrees, humidity levels aren’t too oppressive either. But I’m not so sure about the accompanying rains, which can result in extreme flooding in some areas.

A La Niña weather event is yet to be officially declared, while the Australian Bureau of Meteorology has moved away making such announcements (probably because people like me write blog posts like this), so we’ll have to wait and see. La Niña, and El Niño weather events however are one of sometimes several concurrent phenomena that influence weather across Australia, meaning certain sorts of weather cannot always be attributed to one particular event.

Australia, land of the most expensive passport in the world

2 January 2025

From yesterday, 1 January 2025, the price of a ten-year Australian passport rose to four-hundred-and-twelve Australian dollars. That’s the cost of thirty-five pints of Victoria Bitter at the local pub.

Happy New Year.

As a comparison, the new price converts to a little over two-hundred-and-fifty dollars American, a little under two-hundred-and-fifty Euros, and about two-hundred British pounds. However, the hefty price tag is justified, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, who notes that the Australian passport is “a high-quality travel document”:

“The Australian passport is respected internationally as a high-quality travel document. It has a high level of technological sophistication, backed by rigorous anti-fraud measures, which ensures its integrity,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “This is a key reason why Australian passport holders receive visa-free access to over 180 countries.”

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Australia, economics, travel

I’ll just be asking for you… Telstra’s 2023 Christmas advert

23 December 2024

Let’s flashback a year. Australian telecommunications company Telstra might have hit the right note with its Christmas theme advertising in 2023, by way of this ninety second commercial. The song excerpted in the ad is Oh Christmas, by Brisbane based duo Zefereli. Listen to the full length version here. It may not happen often, but sometimes the big corporates get it right.

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Australia, Australian music, music

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