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Category Archives: culture

Tree telling …

The city of Adelaide is ringed by parklands. Laid out in its original design they were to be ‘a place for everyone’. However, particularly in recent years, they are being whittled away by encroaching developments. One indicator is the destruction of trees and habitat: 585 trees have just been felled for the redevelopment of the North Adelaide golf course, 400 trees will have gone for the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital (built on the parklands!) and about 45 trees will be removed for the MotoGP circuit ….

For much more on this, see the Adelaide Parklands Association website.

FLAME Festival ….

The FLAME Festival – 8-10 May this year – is a biennial community event in Wallaroo, Kadina and Moonta, the three historic Copper Coast towns, Yorke Peninsula, South Australia. here are some cartoon sketches from the weekend.

Friday: as the sun set on Wallaroo Beach the Nharangga Dreaming Story Winda The Owl was told by local students with song, dance, lanterns and large glowing puppets.

Saturday at the Kadina Showgrounds …

Sunday at Queens Square, Moonta …

‘Looking back, looking forward …’

Australia ICOMOS, the cultural heritage professionals, celebrated its 50th anniversary in Burra South Australia , May 1-3 2026. ‘Since 1977 Australia ICOMOS has been committed to improving conservation philosophy and practice for culturally significant places’. The backdrop for the conference was the world heritage listing bid for Burra and Moonta: Australian Cornish mining sites. As the cartoons show, this was but one of a wide range of issues covered by a dynamic group.

And more …

A different Now …

This is an impression of Jack and Ella Thomas’s yard, Lancelot Terrace, Moonta Mines, drawn in the 1980s. Jack (known as Janna) bred and raced champion pigeons. Ella raised goats. She was very cluey. Both were so Cornish.

Jack could just remember the end of the mines 60 years earlier. The mine owners blew up many of the mine buildings, he said, so the now-jobless families wouldn’t be able to use them.

At election times the Moonta Mines polling booth would be the only Labor booth on the Yorke Peninsula. Ella Thomas handed out the Labor ‘How To Vote’ cards and made sure you knew how to make your vote count.

The remains of a structure on the left in the picture once supported a wind generator that charged batteries which powered the lights in the house. When mains electricity reached Moonta Mines residents were not able to connect to the power until they had dismantled their wind generators.

Photographer Peter Richards lived next door and here are two of his beautiful photos of Jack and Ella, taken back then.

Alright! …

Some of the illustrations for Simon Betts/Soul Trader’s new songs. The first song Alright in the end has been released with more to follow. Eventual ly the illustrations will be used on the album cover.

Recoil …

Adelaide’s Writers’ Week has been cancelled after political and lobby group pressure. More than 180 authors have pulled out. Director Louise Adler has resigned accusing government and lobby groups of censorship. The event is a great loss.

Trashing the neighbourhood …

Turning Point USA CEO and co-founder Charlie Kirk once said, “I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new age term that — it does a lot of damage.” He preferred the word ‘sympathy’. That is an insight.

At the moment, globally , empathy doesn’t rate highly.

Empathy isn’t to be trashed. It is a skill. It helps find that small piece of common ground between widely divergent stands, a starting point …

MEGA mania…

Sámi hearders’ LEGAL rights …

Concluding the previous post, it’s the legal obligations to the Sámi people that are being conveniently overlooked. The full report – in Swedish – with all of the illustrations can be seen here.

Sámi hearders’ rights …

Hearders’ rights? The Sámi have been using these migration routes for hundreds of years.

Hydropo’wer development is disrupting the traditional migration routes of the reindeer hearding Sámi people of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula. These are some of the illustrations created for a report by Katarina Inga, the Stockholm Environment Institute. –

The impact of hydropower development
…from the Sámi hearders’ perspective

The impact …

Earlier posts on the Sámi: Sami impact, Sami reindeer hearding, Sami ‘development’