NEW! Corangamite Water 2100: the last 100 years
A visionary new story about a sustainable future within the catchment of the Barwon River, by 'Wally the 3rd'. >>
Contributed by Rowan MacKenzie. Posted 1 July 2005.

PLUS In a still moment, a new poem by Geelong poet Ted Reilly. >>
Posted 1 July 2005.

THE HOMELAND PROJECT
On-line space for those who've been displaced, for those who've left one homeland to seek a new one on Australia's plains, and for whom English is a second, third, or even fourth language.

Video interviews from JOURNEY ON THE WIND, a tour by asylum seekers and refugees through the central plains of southeastern Australia. (Posted September 2004.)

Le Van Tai, Born Again
Most people have only one birth and one death: one birth-time in childhood, one time of death in old age when the body returns to the earth and the spirit goes far away on a new journey. Refugees' experiences of living and dying are different. >>

Catalogue essay to Le Van Tai's 2004 Sydney exhibition, Square Earth (pdf 150kb). ABC radio documentary on Le's life and work, with readings from his stories for Redreaming the plains.

Rahmat's story
My name is Rahmat. I am from a small village in Afghanistan, and belong to the Hazara ethnic group. I fled Afghanistan because my life was in danger from the Taliban. >>
Video of Rahmat and other refugees in regional Victoria.

Mammad Aidani, A Few Steps Not Here ... Not There ...
But the trees are blossoming again. This city, as big as it is, its streets as wide as they are, swallows me >>

Richard Meier, 'Green' cities for environmental refugees
The growing unanimity about planning sustainable communities may lead to the conservation of food and fuel for the future, but contributes nothing to finding a suitable place for people to live and work ... >>

HABITUS: SENSE OF PLACE
What are your stories about the plain on which you live?

Graeme Kinross-Smith, The whole plain story
I like staying still every now and then, so that the whole volcanic plain pauses around me. I stop the car and look and listen and smell. >>

Brendan Ryan, Three poems
Catching the train to intimacy >>
Two farmers >>
Paddock behind the house >>

Gabrielle Bridges, Dark eyes smiling
As she stepped down from the train Judy’s eyes searched for Ruth. She felt foolish replaying a moment thirty years old, but the compulsion was irresistible. >>

The Flag
The crowd gathers slowly. New arrivals join others under the shade of the melaleucas, adding their opinions to the major topic of conversation, the drought. >>

Susan Kruss, Reunion
Eight years old, the word sings in my head./ I savour its strange vowels, watch my cousins / hang balloons and streamers from old beams / in the shearing shed, scrubbed boards smelling of / lanolin and sheep overlaid by coffee and cake. >>

More by Susan Kruss >>

Janine Whyte, Altona West
Growing alongside Truganina / - ‘the swamp’ in 1970 – / where frogs croak under dark grey loam / found with brown coal / in backyard diggings >>

Lyn Chatham, In the shadow of the elephant
The beast sits over its dot on the map / and under its good side, / wound hidden, / I giggle through tennis, / eat thick tall sponges, / Ladies Auxiliary sandwiches and fat hot dogs >>

Jenny Hickinbotham, Witch Volcano
Vintage hadn’t yet begun and already the autumn rain was upon us. It came down steadily turning the rich volcanic soil into slippery black sludge. I could hear the phone ringing and tried to run but >>

More by Jenny Hickinbotham >>

Ted Reilly, Crossing the border
In this green land, our borders are marked by fencelines / Changes in roadmarking styles and how the weedy verge is mown >>

John Bartlett, Barre-Warre
From the hills to the sea / from those heaven-hugging You-Yangs to the east / they journeyed to the Karafe wetlands behind Pt Impossible >>

Paul Skec, There & back again...
port fairy driving–afternoon roads & silent scenery–symphonic >>

G. David Schwartz, Incident on the Ferris wheel
When I was young, I was called Round-Head. I am not to this day sure why. >>