Australian Public Intellectual [API] Network

Network Scholars

Blue Tunics and Batons: Women and Politics in the Queensland Police, 1970-1987

Tim Prenzler and Kerry Wimhurst
During the 1970s and 1980s, policewomen in Queensland experienced dramatic changes of fortune under two different commissioners. Under Commissioner Whitrod (1970-76), the percentage of policewomen went from below the Australian national average to twice the national average, and women were integrated into general duties and the seniority list. Women in Queensland began entering policing in large numbers at a time when those in overseas jurisdictions and other Australian states were struggling in small numbers to make inroads. In the period immediately following, under Commissioner Lewis ...
Click here to read more.

Network Review of Books

Henry Handel Richardson: The Getting of Wisdom (2001)

Reviewed by Leonora Ritter in the August 2002 issue.
I must open with a confession. I am an Australian historian with an interest in biography, not a specialist in Australian literature. This complicates the already challenging task of reviewing this edition of the Australian classic, The Getting of Wisdom, a work whose previous incarnations have been reviewed by such notables as Germaine Greer, who described it as Henry Handel Richardson's 'only great book'. This particular previously unpublished version of The Getting of Wisdom is one of a series, the Academy Editions of Australian Literature, produced with the intent of providing 'reliable ... read more.

Flight Animals (2001)

Reviewed by Stephen Lawrence in the November 2002 issue.
The possibilities of human movement sends my mind on a flight into the wordless; my mind's winged motion upward and soaring. (`Ode to a Gymnast')Bronwyn Lea's poems live in motion. Flight is travel, and it is also escape. ('I have no body, only belongings.') Restlessness pervades this first collection, and it gives her the freedom to range far and wide. Equally intelligent but lesser poets might have allowed themselves to soar into ethereal self-obsession, and Lea does look inward but is aware of merely 'celebrating only myself -- my chic / design, my sheen, my sheet metal surface, / my ... read more.

Off the Rails: The Pauline Hanson Trip (2nd Edition) (2001)

Reviewed by Paul Reynolds in the Dec 2001-Jan 2002 issue.
This book was widely and favourably reviewed when the first edition came out in 1999. Margo Kingston was one of only two reporters who was permanently assigned to Pauline Hanson's 1998 federal election campaign. This then is the story behind the story of how Hanson and One Nation fared. Although many other journalists flocked in and out of One Nation coverage as her comments and style inevitably provoked interest, the author was the one with continuity and has given a very perceptive account of her experiences. The perspective the reader needs to bring to bear is that, in 1996 Hanson won ... read more.

Wild Cat Falling (2001)

Reviewed by Greg Hughes in the November 2001 issue.
Wild Cat Falling was a major breakthrough when it was initially published in 1965, hailed as the first Aboriginal novel. Colin Johnson, as Mudrooroo was then known, saw the book republished again in 1992. Despite its age, Wild Cat Falling is still a disturbing story, not least of all because almost forty years after its first appearance, and the improvements in Aboriginal conditions and rights that have occurred, the book still resonates far too strongly with the less than satisfactory current life conditions of a number of indigenous Australians. In the book, an unnamed (this can be read as ... read more.

Mother Lode: Stories of Home Life and Home Death (2001)

Reviewed by Sue Bond in the October 2001 issue.
Susan Addison begins with 'Let me tell you my stories. I'm ready now. I've steadied my voice' (p 1). As the stories surround, and are about, the life and death (by brain tumour) of the author's son at the age of nineteen, this sentence is especially poignant. There are illustrations, linocuts by the author's husband, throughout the book and on the dustcover, making it a small, handsome hardback, gratifying to hold. Mother Lode is a warm and intensely personal set of stories, which, though dealing with death, gave me a feeling of comfort and solace. There is tension between family members, and ... read more.

The Idea of Perfection (2001)

Reviewed by Robyn Sheahan-Bright in the Dec 2001-Jan 2002 issue.
Kate Grenville recently accepted the 2001 Orange Prize for Fiction, and she surely deserved better press in Australia where The Idea of Perfection failed to be nominated for any major awards. This novel is an absolute gem. Communication is at the heart of this wise and wonderful book, which celebrates the unpredictable joys to be found in grasping the connection with those we care for, even if it be just for 'a fraction of a second of simple love'. The Idea of Perfection is about the difficulties involved in communicating with each other and in confronting our imperfections. Quests for ... read more.

Need to Contact Us?