Australian Public Intellectual [API] Network

Network Scholars

New South Wales

Elaine Thompson
On the overall statistics, the 1998 two party preferred (2PP) gains made by Labor in NSW in the House of Representatives (the losses by the Liberals) were wiped out in the 2001 election, leaving Labor equal to the devastating 1996 result when they lost Government. Labor's NSW primary vote dropped by 3.67% to 36.45%, which was 2.4% lower than their 1996 result as well. In three elections Labor has gone from holding 33 seats to only 20. That a party out of power, which had been seen up until a few months before the election as having a very serious chance of victory, could end up in NSW with ...
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Network Review of Books

Calendar Boy (2002)

Reviewed by Simmone Howell in the July 2002 issue.
Whoever said there are only five stories in the world was pushing it. In Andy Quan's debut collection Calendar Boy, sixteen short stories fall into each other so completely that ultimately it seems Quan only has one story: it's about a youngish, insecure, Asian-Canadian gay guy and his search for love and acceptance in the modern world. Neal Drinnan's blurb suggests that Quan writes of open wounds and allows the reader a bit of a poke around -- but this reviewer got the feeling that the author was holding something back. Calendar Boy reads more like a memoir than fiction. If it were a film ... read more.

Attuned to Alien Moonlight: the Poetry of Bruce Dawe (2002)

Reviewed by R Wolny in the June 2003 issue.
Bruce Dawe is one of the most acclaimed contemporary Australian poets, his reputation reaching far beyond the Australian shores, and Dennis Haskell, Professor of English at the University of Western Australia, is -- and it clearly shows throughout the book -- also a poet, albeit of a considerably lesser prominence (he has published four volumes of his own poetry so far). And it is indeed a difficult task to write on a contemporary poet, particularly if you are a contemporary poet yourself. The question is, therefore, whether Haskell was up to the task. The book is essentially a collection of ... read more.

My Dear Emma (2002)

Reviewed by Julie Ustinoff in the June 2003 issue.
My Dear Emma is the diary of a journey undertaken by London architect, Robert Emeric Tyler and his nineteen year old son, Bobby on their journey to Western Australia between August 1895 and March 1896. It consists of a substantial number of letters written by Tyler to his wife Emma, who remained at home in London with their other children and family members. Tyler's personal correspondence is supported by a number of sketches made by him on his journey, along with additional margin entries added later when he was back home in England. My Dear Emma also boasts a substantial number of ... read more.

Mariners are Warned! John Lort Stokes and HMS Beagle in Australia 1837-1843 (2002)

Reviewed by Peter Stanley in the August 2004 issue.
Marsden Hordern's complementary works on two British naval surveyors of the Australian coast have been reprinted after gaining a state history prize apiece. They describe the work of Phillip Parker King and John Lort Stokes who, twenty years apart, led a succession of naval missions to explore and chart the coasts of northern Australia. Hordern's books deserve both the accolade and the fresh circulation following the new editions. The prizes suggest that the popular taste inclines more to what might be regarded as old-fashioned narrative history rather than the clever but esoteric expressions ... read more.

Unearthed: The Aboriginal Tasmanians of Kangaroo Island (2002)

Reviewed by Bernard Whimpress in the October 2003 issue.
There couldn't be a better title for this book which is about digging, uncovering, discovering, sifting and weighing evidence of an untold story. Tantalisingly, it has not one but three beginnings. It starts with Kingscote woman Mavis Golder glancing through Walkabout magazine in 1954 to find a photograph of her grandfather, described as the 'last Tasmanian half-caste of Kangaroo Island'; continues four years later with her son Michael finding a reference in the Australian Junior Encylopaedia to a Mrs Seymour (his grandmother's maiden name) who died at Hog Bay, Kangaroo Island as the 'last ... read more.

Digging People up for Coal: A history of Yallourn (2002)

Reviewed by Paul Genoni in the June 2002 issue.
Australians are familiar with the concept of the 'mining town' -- a town which owes its existence to the need to house a workforce in close proximity to a working mine. Should that mine close, the town itself is often threatened with extinction. Some like Ballarat or Bendigo find new life as regional centres proud to share their mining history, while others shrivel or die as the workforce moves on in search of a living elsewhere. A number of such towns, particularly in the north-west, have been created in the full knowledge that the mine has a limited lifespan, and therefore the town too will ... read more.

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