Austria vs Australia
“What is the connection between Austria and Australia?” It sounds like a comical question you’d hear from a child. And one you’d most likely answer in the negative or in a light-hearted perhaps patronising way. After all, one is a country of Mozart, Apfelstrudel and skiing. The other of bogans, barbeques and surfing. One is…
Haven’t we heard the Voice before?
Ah referendum time. For Australians, this will be the 45th Referendum since Federation with the last one in 1999 attempting (unsuccessfully) to establish a Republic in place of a constitutional monarchy with a President replacing the Queen as Head of State. For us Brits, we had one in 2016 (which did carry) resulting in Brexit.…
Bungaree – the unsung hero
Who was the first Australian to circumnavigate the continent of Australia? Last year, during NAIDOC 2022 week, I wrote blogs on 2 of the 3 Aboriginal leaders mentioned in my novel The Last Gundir. I talked about the resistance fighter Pemulwuy, highlighting the respect and fear that people in the region had for him. “The…
(Aboriginal) Survivor Series
I’m going to confess something at the risk of public ridicule. When I was a kid, I used to enjoy watching WWE wrestling on TV. When I was 8 years old, my favourite used to be The Ultimate Warrior. Then when I was 13, my favourite became Bret “The Hitman” Hart (who I was very…
Pemulwuy
A true Australian hero who should never be forgotten. In The Last Gundir novel, Akama tells his nephew Bunji about a tale he heard in his younger years about The Man Who Couldn’t Be Killed. A nearby crow lets out a sorrowful cry when Akama mentions the name of the man, Pemulwuy. It is a…
Bennelong
The world’s most famous Aboriginal man Chapter 36 of The Last Gundir novel briefly mentions a character called Bennelong during the (fictional) conversation between the Governor and his private secretary. Despite having less prominence in the novel than Pemulwuy and Bungaree, Bennelong was arguably the most famous Aboriginal man in the world in the 18th…
The First Europeans in Australia were…
Quiz time! Who were the first Europeans to arrive on Australia’s shores?Readers of The Last Gundir novel will know the answer to this question (explained in chapter 9) but for the others, the multiple choice answers are:A) FranceB) HollandC) EnglandD) PortugalE) Spain If you went for England with the arrival of James Cook, you’d be…
#2 Never lonely in Australia
Harry Potter was in Gryffindor. Draco Malfoy was in Slytherin. Cedric Diggory was in Hufflepuff. I was in Failaka (pictured above). My primary school, Kuwait English School comprised 4 houses named after various areas of Kuwait – Burgan (blue), Ahmadi (green), Jahra (yellow) and the one that regularly won everything, Failaka (red). Just as in…
Stay close to me…
Confession time – is there a song you’ve known for many years but never really paid attention to its lyrics? Perhaps the upbeat tempo or the joyful melody lulled you into holding assumptions about the song’s meaning. You click your fingers, tap your foot, dance to its beat and even sing the chorus without really…
#1 – The beginnings of The Last Gundir novel
Hello to you reading my first blog. I am the author of The Last Gundir, a vessel that takes you on a journey of discovery into Australia’s past. This blog is the first of a 10 part series on my personal journey – fraught with heartbreak, joy, disappointment, frustration, gratitude, racial discrimination and happiness -…
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Nayef Din 