FEAST OR FAMINE

“A Place to Call Home?” is a current exhibition at the National Archives of Australia in Canberra. The exhibition, from May 30 to September 14, 2014, is a photographic display of migrant hostels, predominantly in Victoria and New South Wales in the 1950s and 60s. Hostels, especially Nissen huts, were often the first homes when migrants came to Australia in the late 1950s. Nissen huts were corrugated steel structures in the iconic shape of a half-circle. The sheet metals were left unpainted. Inside, the floors were often concrete or wooden planks. Doors and small windows were added. The Nissen huts were generally about 5 metres (16 feet)   or 7.3 metres (24 feet) for housing, and larger ones of 9.2 metres (30 feet) were erected as canteens (food halls) or recreational areas and offices. Nissen huts (developed in 1916 by Canadian engineer Peter Nissen in the British Army) could be erected quickly to house migrants temporarily. They were portable and could be installe...

The gardens of Old Parliament House in Canberra were established in 1927 – and are comprised of two separate gardens, called Senate Garden and House of Representatives Garden. The gardens have a bowling green and tennis court, with seating pavilions, pergolas, and a rose garden. Although originally for politicians, the gardens are now open to the public.  MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Waratah Park, the location for the TV program Skippy, will be returned to the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council and its First Nations owners. The Australian television program, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, was only in production in Sydney for two years, from 1966 to 1968, but it was a global success. In the fictional children’s program, Matt Hammond was the head ranger of Waratah National Park, and lived there with his sons, Mark and Sonny, bringing them up as a single father. The young Sonny befriended a kangaroo and called it Skippy. Skippy was actually played by several kangaroos throughout the series. As a pair, the two had many adventures. The program was famous for lines such as “What’s that Skip?” And the kangaroo would answer with clicking noises. Waratah Park Earth Sanctuary, near Sydney, became a wildlife tourist park after the production of Skippy, from the 1970s. In 2003 the lessee was charged with animal cruelty, and the park eventually closed in 2...