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The Age

The Age has the latest local news on Melbourne, Victoria. Read National News from Australia, World News, Business News and Breaking News stories.

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Featured Writers

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Kurt Johnson

Book Critic/Environmental Journo/Travel Tech, Climate & Post-Soviet Sphere The Red Wake (2016: Random House)

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Catherine Chisholm

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Amy Fallon

I am a widely-published and experienced Australian-Canadian journalist, communications and media specialist who has worked all around the world for a plethora of global media outlets and organisations. Please scroll …

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Joanne Hawkins

As an experienced writer, editor, copywriter and lifestyle content specialist, I know how to tell stories that people want to read. From writing for outlets such as Inside Out, Home …

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Sean Mortell

Thanks for taking your time to have a look through.Enjoy a diverse range of published work I have written for multiple websites, as well as some exercises and photos for …

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Hannah Vanderheide

I'm a freelance journalist, copywriter, actor, and mum to a perfect little maniac named Finn. I'm also a disability and rare disease advocate, eating disorder survivor, and wellness industry sceptic …

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Latest Articles

The only life coaches I’d hire are long dead or too busy

I’ve never considered hiring a life coach, but if I did, they wouldn’t be hard to find. It seems you can’t swing a cat without hitting one these days. They’re everywhere, jacked up on positivity and self-love, pimping out their programs. Friends and acquaintances pop out of the woodwork to …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Age

What I learnt from watching the Ashley Madison doco with my husband

I’m watching the new Ashley Madison documentary on Netflix with my husband (who was not on the list). We hadn’t yet met when the infamous list of aspiring adulterers was released in 2015, but I remember feeling the weird guilt you feel when a police car is driving behind you, …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Age

His book was rejected 13 times, now it’s a hit TV show

There’s an irony in the small-screen adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel The Sympathizer being a hit with viewers and critics alike, as Hollywood has long been one of his targets. “The Unofficial Ministry of Propaganda for the United States” as he calls Hollywood in the book is “a part …
By Kurt Johnson
• The Age

The hidden Melbourne beach teeming with rare fossils

Scarcely signposted, tucked behind a yacht squadron car park and accessible via an overgrown grass track lies one of Australia’s most significant urban fossil sites. Beaumaris Bay, a quiet pocket of pebbled beach between Black Rock and Mentone, can easily be missed. But fossil hunters who slip past the red-lettered …
By Petra Stock
• The Age

The hidden Melbourne beach teeming with rare fossils

Scarcely signposted, tucked behind a yacht squadron car park and accessible via an overgrown grass track lies one of Australia’s most significant urban fossil sites. Beaumaris Bay, a quiet pocket of pebbled beach between Black Rock and Mentone, can easily be missed. But fossil hunters who slip past the red-lettered …
By Petra Stock
• The Age

Should I have married my husband? Red flag culture would say no

Anyone who has walked down an aisle or stood under a 50-year-old gum to affirm a legally binding, lifelong pact has probably asked themselves at some point in the intervening years: “Should I have done that?″⁣ It’s normal to question the big stuff. Hell, these days it’s pretty standard to …
By Hannah Vanderheide
• The Age

No ill will but you could be making your sick friends feel worse

“Oh, you’ve just had your thyroid removed? I’m so glad you’re feeling better.” Venturing out just days post-op, I hightailed it to my favourite almond-chai haunt and soon found myself in a pleasant chat with an old acquaintance. She continued: “My sister had her thyroid out. She used to be …
By Hannah Vanderheide
• The Age

Sobriety is your choice. Stop preaching that it should be mine

Most of the time I’m simply cosplaying as a responsible adult. Like many Millennials, I’m increasingly startled by the suggestion that I’m now genuinely a grown-up, though seeing my childhood 90s fashion return to vogue renders it pretty hard to ignore. There are myriad ways in which I fall short. …
By Hannah Vanderheide
• The Age

Non-alcoholic booze is the dumbest invention since the appendix

Of all the pointless things to ever be invented (blankets with sleeves, umbrella shoes, appendixes), the most pointless surely has to be alcohol-free booze. You could be forgiven for thinking you’d stumbled into a bottle-o in the soft drink aisle of your local supermarket, with alcohol brands like Carlton, Wolf …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Age

Whether you’re a pet owner or fur parent, puppy love is real

On Mother’s Day, as I struggled with the cold autumn morning in Melbourne, I walked my dog Spark to the nearby garden. A fellow dog owner smiled at me with her pug in tow, saying, “Happy Mother’s Day, Fur Mum.” I was surprised by the greeting. It was the first …
By Maida Pineda
• The Age

Most of my life my friends were much older than me. Now it has flipped

When I moved to Melbourne, I was thrust into a community of yogis who were all younger than I was, including my teacher. In their 20s and 30s, they lived their lives freely following their passion. One was a contortionist who left yoga training to join the circus to showcase …
By Maida Pineda
• The Age

I’m 36 and on the cusp: cosmetic injectables or age disgracefully?

I am 36 and feel like I’m on the cusp: cosmetic injectables or not? It’s so normal now: my hairdresser casually handed me a business card for the place she gets Botox. Friends openly talk about their fillers. In the cold light of day, I can see age creeping on …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Age

Puffer, thermals, layers, stew: How a girl from the tropics learned to survive Melbourne winter

It’s not yet officially winter. But Mother Nature insists it is. Melbourne began the month with its coldest May weekend in 23 years. There was widespread rain, hail and snow. It seems like we skipped autumn altogether. The single-digit temperatures have arrived. It means waking up to 6- or 7-degree …
By Maida Pineda
• The Age

Time to try the new ‘WFH’: Working from hospo

The increase in hybrid working arrangements post-COVID has given rise to a new meaning for “WFH” – now it’s all about “working from hospo”. Whether it’s cafes, restaurants or hotels, people are increasingly taking their laptops and settling in for a coffee and a meal rather than raiding the snack …
By TRACEY CHEUNG
• The Age

Could an AI hologram really be better than a wife? Some men think so

It sounds ideal – holographic wives can giggle, give you compliments and code a new computer game where necessary. Johansson’s voice provides a sultry backdrop to Theodore’s life in Her, able to chat and make jokes; a constant companion in his ears. Real human relationships are hard. They are constantly …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Age

I’ve gone cold turkey on caffeine, and this is how I’m surviving in Melbourne

When I moved to Melbourne some three and a half years ago, I wasn’t fully aware of the depth of the city’s coffee culture. I had previously lived in Adelaide in 2005-06. At that time Starbucks opened three outlets, which quickly closed in July 2008. Australians take their coffee seriously, …
By Maida Pineda
• The Age

A young man called me ‘auntie’. It was a mark of respect, but I was taken aback

When I lived in Singapore, “auntie” was the respectful term for an older woman. We often fondly called the vegetable vendor in the market or our favourite laksa hawker “auntie.” They are the women pulling their shopping trolleys to the market. While shopping for shoes in Singapore, I tried on …
By Maida Pineda
• The Age

When I’m asked, ‘What do you do?’ I feel I have to prove myself

You’re at a party, scanning the room for canapes, when someone approaches and you realise you’re about to engage in small talk. You chug the rest of your Bollinger (sorry, your Brown Brothers) and prepare yourself. You might begin by asking each other how they know the host. A comment …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Age

I scoffed at everyone’s emotional support water bottle, until I got one

In case you’ve been living under a yoga mat these past few years, hydration is back in vogue, only this time it’s super-sized. If you cast your eyes around at cafe tables, your colleague’s desk or the perimeter of your boutique gym class, you might have noticed a growing trend. …
By Hannah Vanderheide
• The Age

I’ve only been to Chadstone once – I’ve found my bliss away from malls

A few weeks ago, my best friend, Rissa in Manila, asked how my weekend was. “I just got back from a picnic in the gardens with some friends,” I told her. “Wow, how nice you get to do things outdoors,” she replied. Maida Pineda with her dog, Spark, in the …
By Maida Pineda
• The Age

When a man opens a door for me, I have a feminist malfunction

When I travel from the basement carpark to the first floor of my gym, there is a recurring event that happens around the lift. I have a feminist malfunction. It happens when a male, usually older but not always, holds the lift door open for me to enter before him. …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Age

If you go too hard with St Pat’s, you might welcome World Sleep Day

Today is St Patrick’s Day, and don’t we all love wearing green, going to the pub to drink Guinness, and attempting to riverdance? What you probably didn’t know is that it’s also National Corned Beef and Cabbage Day, Doctor-Patient Trust Day, Preschool Teacher Appreciation Day and World Sleep Day. And …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Age

Barbie is the hot pink line between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’

My daughter was given a Barbie doll recently, and I eyed it warily. Something primal rose in me, and I wanted to chop off her hair and see if she could do the splits. I’d never been allowed one; my parents thought she promoted a negative body image. But there …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Age

King Gizzard’s Bluesfest protest is cancel culture gone wrong

Cancel culture is back in the news after Byron Bay’s Bluesfest announced controversial Sydney band Sticky Fingers would feature in the line-up. Sticky Fingers frontman Dylan Frost has made headlines for a number of incidents, including in 2016 when he was accused of being physically intimidating towards singer Thelma Plum …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Age

Joining a ‘Buy Nothing Group’ changed my life. Here’s how it works

It all started a few months ago, with a group suggested to me by Facebook. I joined “The Buy Nothing Group”, a community covering my suburb and the neighbouring suburbs. There I would find people posting: a chair they no longer need, packing cartons, books, plates, a tent, and all …
By Maida Pineda
• The Age

In the game of dating, Tinder is losing the love match

Our relationship with Tinder appears to be on the rocks. After a decade of helping out the lonely and the lusty, the love machine that fits into the palm of your hand is proving less popular. Its parent company Match Group (for those with a thing for redheads?) has reportedly …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Age