© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Author: Greg Ray

This author has written 481 articles
Read more about the article Big business’s vision for Australia

Big business’s vision for Australia

I wrote this piece as a tongue-in-cheek column for The Newcastle Herald in 2014. I'm reproducing it here because it seems to me that the plan, as outlined, is coming together nicely. IT’S not all bad news on the economic front. Yes, unemployment is high and rising, especially among the young. And yes, the real estate boom is forcing up living costs and pricing the young out of the housing market. And yes, retail demand is down because even those with spare money are worried about whether they’ll have a job next week. But our big…

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Read more about the article Lonely Beasts, a father’s review

Lonely Beasts, a father’s review

At the outset I have to declare that Lonely Beasts is a book created by my son, Jerry, and therefore readers will have to decide whether anything I say on the topic from this point on can be treated as reliable. Naturally I will declare that if I had a poor opinion of the book then I would say nothing about it at all. Still, you will have to decide whether to read on, and if you read on, you will have to decide whether to depend on my comments. And then of course you will…

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Read more about the article 1894 “blanket list” in a NSW country policeman’s notebook
A rural police residence, possibly Kempsey. Perhaps the home of Alfred James Burrows.

1894 “blanket list” in a NSW country policeman’s notebook

Dick, Caroline, Magpie Billy, Maria, Bullseye Tommy, Jerry, Nancy, Jenny, George, Selina, Kitty, Jim Crow, Emily, Ebony, Topsy, Tiger, Old Billie, Dolly, Mary Anne & child, Emma, Spider Tom, Nellie, Alice & baby . . . Flicking through an antique pocket notebook that once belonged to a police constable in western NSW, I was arrested by the page headed: "Blankets 1894". In a notebook otherwise full of shopping lists, maudlin poetry, betting notes for horse races, lists of belongings at the scenes of lonely rural deaths and descriptions of wanted horse thieves, this unassuming list struck…

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