Blair Trewin, Australian Bureau of Meteorology; David Jones, Australian Bureau of Meteorology; Karl Braganza, Australian Bureau of Meteorology; Neil Plummer, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, and Rob Smalley, Australian Bureau of Meteorology
The Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed 2013 as Australia’s hottest year since records began in 1910. Average temperatures over the continent have been 1.2C above the 1961-1990 average, breaking the previous…
2013 was a big year for cycling with articles on the 100th Tour de France, doping scandals, running reds and the age-old helmet debate.
Ben Cooper
You can cram a lot of knowledge into 12 months. Since this time last year we’ve learnt that bees, like people, have a “too-hard basket”; how dinosaur necks got so long; that, in theory, it’s possible to…
The environment has had a tiring year.
sillypucci/Flickr
For the past three years it’s been an occasional pleasure and a frequent privilege to work with the academics who contribute to The Conversation’s Environment & Energy section. It’s not just the soil…
Memorable music provides a path into other worlds.
Anne Helmond
The oceans of music, much of it free, that most of us have access to continued to expand unabated in 2013. I’ve plucked the following from the seemingly endless tides because they said something to me…
Australian reading experiences weren’t limited to the pages of printed books – as this screenshot from Christy Dena’s AUTHENTIC IN ALL CAPS demonstrates.
Christy Dena/Universe Creation 101
I spent most of 2013 living overseas and from afar Australia’s beauty and its fault lines came into sharp focus. In my reading I found myself searching for insight, and three Australian stories stood out…
Serialised eBook chapters force us to make time to read.
Ken Lee
I’ve nominated these eBooks as notable publications in 2013 based on three criteria. First, I enjoyed reading them enough to finish the whole text on a digital device. Second, they use the digital format…
Ridiculous Fishing, one of many memorable games of 2013.
Vlambeer
I love writing and reading Games Of The Year posts. It’s so nice to just once every year be given the liberty to think back on the games you played, not forward to the games you might play in the future…
Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux, stars of Blue is the Warmest Colour, at the Cannes Film Festival.
EPA/Ian Langsdon
From limited theatrical releases to the queer film festival circuit – and being refused classification – 2013 has seen films with LGBT content distributed to audiences by a variety of means. Box office…
Shows with strong Australian links have done well both home and away.
Lubs Mary
What follows is not a “best-of” list and is by no means conclusive – but these are some of the Australian TV shows that stood out for me in 2013. Top of the Lake Top of the Lake is a seven-part mini-series…
Australian crime fiction hit the regions on 2013 – and international crime held a few surprises too.
jcoterhals
Oddly enough and against trend – all those Scandinavian crime novels bobbing up in translation – I spent most of the year travelling Australia in crime fiction. From East (Peter Cotton’s Canberra in Dead…
The jury of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival had its say on the films of the year in May.
EPA/Guillaume Horcajuelo EPA/Sebastien Nogier
Warning: this is not a list of the best movies of 2013. There were plenty of movies released this year that stirred up debates about cinema and who makes it. They were the ones that made me sit up and…
Read on for some notable children’s books from the year gone by.
San José Library
What makes a children’s book compelling? Is it a driving, action-centred plot that forces us to turn the page? Is it a puzzle that we solve from clues thrown down by the narrator – or is it a story that…