Strange Times - Part 10: Beyond the Zero
I don’t want to tell you any of this. I feel ashamed of it. You keep asking me about it and it just doesn’t come out right. It’s always...
Strange Times - Part 9: Recollections
Haverbrook was founded in 1844. I remember that from a school project I did, a town founded on logging, farming, even a mine or two. I...
Strange Times - Part 8: Strange Loop
[1980] Eighteen-years-old and desperate to cure my writer’s block, I put an ad on the town notice board: Have something to say? I will...
Strange Times - Part 7: No Vacancies
[1977] A childhood friend called me up today. If those words above do not inspire in you a type of anxious apprehension, perhaps you are...
Strange Times - Part 6: After School
[1989] The primary school had no one around, dark, got the moon coming through the windows like art. Like I needed it to get scary, it...
Strange Times - Part 5: The Disappearance of Phil Collins
[1985] It was a rainy Saturday and I had settled on the back veranda with a book to read – The Trial – when Emma burst into the backyard,...
Strange Times - Part 4: Channel 99
[1983] The opening notes of Blade Runner echoed across the room from the tinny speaker, the roar of the spinners and blasting fire of...
Strange Times - Part 3: Deep Down
[1986] I poured another glass of Victoria Bitter from the tap, tilting it to keep the froth at acceptable levels while I stared at a...
Strange Times - Part 2: Hell Coach
[1979] Peter has asked me to write about something weird for his anthology. I didn’t have to think very far at all, I knew what I’d write...
Strange Times - Prologue
The town where I grew up was a strange place Haverbrook was the name, east of Melbourne in deep, mysterious Gippsland. It wasn’t quite...