The Centre Does Hold

There all the barrel-hoops are knit, There all the serpent-tails are bit, There all the gyres converge in one, There all the planets drop in the Sun. – W. B. Yeats, Supernatural Songs, IV 'There' The Brown Betty teapot’s older than the Hills Hoist and twice as stubborn. Five generations of paddy women, and decades of…

ByAtlanta Gervasoni29 August 2025

Creative

Triptych

Constrict Me Serpent Burns the light above Does on petty eyes of mine. From high up as if to guide light To my fingertips and my knuckles. Such advice deemed little To a boy so confused, he forgot how to write. Melancholy, some shout, Others pensive, More merely stranded youth. Yet they…

BySam Singleton22 August 2025

Feature

When Amateur Hour Met Happy Hour: The Balter Story

Where’s Currumbin? What does it have to do with brightly coloured beer? Angus Taylor’s economic beer theory? A ‘Kerrupt-flip’? Be patient ’til the last. In 2022, on a surf trip to the Pacific, I first came across Bede Durbidge. Bede – a former WSL veteran of a decade and decorated Pipeline Master – told…

ByJasper Derwent15 August 2025

Feature

Are We Witnessing the Decline of Feminism?

Is this still what we fought for? That’s the question that seems to hang quietly behind so much of the cultural discourse right now. From album covers to courtrooms, from social media trends to political movements, feminism feels at once everywhere and somehow nowhere at all. Its language has been adopted, repackaged, and monetised to…

ByChloe Gillis8 August 2025

Creative

Aithrí

In Her Name Mary Magdalene is posited as Christianity’s exemplar of repentance, the apostle of Christ, the faithful woman, freed of seven demons. Worthy of hymnal adoration, and biblical heralding… but the rankle, the blister, the problem was she was robust, energetic. A prostitute. None of which were revered in the picture of the Christian…

ByAlice Wilson6 June 2025

Opinion

So What?: Deconstructing the common rhetoric and shame surrounding casual harassment

I was five years old when a boy took hold of my shoulders behind the water fountain without warning and pressed his lips against mine. The common rhetoric I often encounter as an indirect response is that of “so what?”; essentially, how can such a trivial act lead to tangible detriment to the woman? I…

ByEllie Craven30 May 2025

Opinion

Fascism’s Insidious New Mutation: How gym bro influencers, the alt-right pipeline and Netflix’s viral show ‘Adolescence’ are connected

After watching Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory, the politically astute and the ignorant alike sat up in their seats – it was a final, overwhelming announcement that fascism is back in. The EIU's 2024 Democracy Index resoundingly supported this proposed democratic backsliding, reporting a historical low with 130 of 167 states registering stagnation or decline…

ByAtlanta Gervasoni22 May 2025

Poetry

Into the Jacaranda-Garden

‘And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.’ – T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets Laid out lulled in luscious green, sweet muslin drawing on the breeze Springtime in our courtyard with the jacaranda tree Misty mauve effusive, Her visitation draws…

ByAtlanta Gervasoni7 May 2025

Feature

Fifty Years Since the Fall of Saigon: A legacy of war, resilience, and reflection

On April 30, 1975, the world witnessed the fall of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam. North Vietnamese troops rolled into the city, marking the end of a decades-long conflict and the reunification of Vietnam under a single government. For some, this was a day of liberation and national reunification. For others, it signalled the…

ByKevin Hua30 April 2025

Opinion

The Case for a Fairer University Admissions Process

A popular topic for discussion in Year 11 and 12 is the choice of university and degree. After all, students have just completed 13 years of schooling, and now, they face a new challenge: pursuing education in a new environment and adjusting to a different lifestyle. Gone are the regimented high school timetables; in with…

ByCathy Wang17 April 2025