Welcome to Notes From Pig City. This is my online archive for as much of my journalism as I can keep up with. Published pieces will be reposted here as soon as they can be. I also write exclusively on my Patreon page; those pieces are not republished here.
I’m the author of two books: Pig City (2004), a book about Brisbane, and Something To Believe In (2019), a music memoir. I'm currently employed by AAP. I continue to freelance occasionally for other publications, mostly Guardian Australia, where it doesn't conflict with my full-time gig.
I have a wide variety of interests, and they’re reflected by the number of tabs in the main menu. You can click through those, or the archive list at the bottom to find what you might be interested in, whether you’re a casual visitor or looking for something specific.
If you want to get in touch send me a message here.
When Kate Ceberano played the Australian Made tour with her band I’m Talking in the summer of 1986-87, she was already a veteran of the Australian music industry at barely 20 years old. The concert series, which saw Ceberano and her band rubbing shoulders with INXS, Jimmy Barnes, Divinyls, Mental as Anything, Models and the […]
Kate Ceberano: still brave, still burning Read More »
Momentum is building for a national ban on a popular yabby trap which drowns any air-breathing animal that can fit inside it, including the vulnerable Platypus. So-called opera house traps are a collapsible net with a funnel-shaped entry on each side. Neil Andison, who works as a Platypus tour guide in Maleny on the Sunshine
Push to ban platypus “death trap” Read More »
In March, as Cyclone Alfred roared towards the south-east Queensland coast, the bayside suburbs of Brisbane were treated to a rare cold-water visitor. A Shy Albatross was spotted offshore, opposite a fishmonger in Sandgate. A couple of days later, what was likely to be the same bird flopped into a front yard of nearby Banyo, exhausted.
Bird of the year 2025: Vote 1 Shy Albatross Read More »
Sir George Telek is not an easy man to get hold of. For a start, the celebrated Papua New Guinean singer lives in a remote village outside Kokopo, on the island of New Britain. It’s on the eastern edge of the Bismarck Archipelago, near Rabaul. Phone lines are often down. I can’t call him; repeated
Not Drowning, Waving: Sing Sing Read More »
It was billed as the biggest game in Queensland ever: reigning AFL premiers Brisbane against their state rivals from down the M1. The long-derided Gold Coast had finally arrived as a force, winning an elimination final in an ecstatic finish over Fremantle, via a last-gasp point to retiring club great David Swallow. For a short time,
Lions eclipse Suns again to move to prelim Read More »
Back in late 2020, in the darkest, pre-vaccine period of the pandemic, Australian singer-songwriter Emma Swift was riding the crest of an unexpected wave from her kitchen table in Nashville, Tennessee. Her self-released debut album of Bob Dylan covers Blonde On The Tracks was an indie hit, breaking into the top 10 in Australia and
Emma Swift: Resurrection and Redemption Read More »