The country lost two utterly different, and utterly compelling interpreters of India’s urban world this month. They left a legacy rich with beauty and meaning.
Phillip Toyne, a co-founder of the national landcare program, died on Saturday morning after a long illness with cancer, leaving an indelible legacy of influence and achievement.
Christopher Lee, who died on June 7, was one of the greatest character actors to have ever appeared on screen, even after fleeing Castle Dracula for the hills of Hollywood.
Betty Churcher, the first and only female director of the National Gallery of Australia, has died. Throughout her extraordinary career as an arts administrator, the art always came first.
In 1975, people wore Shame Fraser Shame badges and demonstrated in support of the sacked prime minister, Gough Whitlam. Today, those same protestors feel powerful emotions at the passing of Malcolm Fraser. Why?
It was only appropriate that the news of Terry Pratchett’s death at the age of 66 was announced not only by his publisher, but via his own Twitter account.
Kate Daniels, the director of Vanderbilt’s creative writing program, recalls the life and work of her mentor, a man “devoted…to creating gritty and empathetic portraits of American blue collar workers.”
Mrs Faith Bandler has died. We mourn our loss and honour her life. Her death on Friday marks the end of an era. At the age of 96 years, she outlived all the other black political activists of her generation…
Dr Mike Raupach died earlier this week after a brief illness. He passed away peacefully at home with his family in Canberra, Australia. He was 64. Mike was a brilliant and outstanding scientist. He was…
Carl Djerassi, who died recently aged 91, has been honoured globally for his work. In his remarkable career he also did pioneering work with antihistamines and topical corticosteroids for inflammation…
Colleen McCullough, writer of the highest-selling Australian book, died yesterday aged 77. The novel that consumes her legacy, The Thorn Birds (1977), is one that Germaine Greer described as the “best…
In rehearsal for the 1976 premiere production of Footfalls at the Royal Court in London, Billie Whitelaw recounted Samuel Beckett’s direction: When we rehearsed eyeball to eyeball, he opened up in me whatever…
Jeremy Thorpe, who has died aged 85, was tagged in the BBC radio reports of his death as “the Liberal leader tried for conspiracy to murder at the Old Bailey”. Old friends and current Liberal Democrat…
The news of P D James’s passing has inevitably prompted me to consider the Queen of Crime and what she created. But her death has made me think not of loss, but of what the genre, and me, have gained…
Filmmakers and audiences – indeed Australian arts and screen culture more broadly – owe a deep debt of gratitude to Gough Whitlam and the government he led. Although the foundations had been laid by Whitlam’s…
Gough Whitlam’s legacy in the arts first hit me as a little indie-music nerd in the 1990s. The inner-city Sydney band The Whitlams made a funny little music video about their namesake, a bloke who was…
Deborah Mitford, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, often referred to as the “last Mitford sister”, has passed away. But Debo, as she was known to friends and family, was an institution in her own right. Under…
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne