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Featured Writers

Rhiannon Down

I am an experienced print and digital journalist with five years experience at a major newspaper writing clean, engaging copy, live blogging and covering breaking news. Now based in London, …

Cindy Fan

I'm a travel writer with a passion and skill for both storytelling and crafting carefully researched guides. A Laos and Vietnam expert, I’ve been writing travel guides professionally since 2014. …

Antony Dapiran

Antony Dapiran is a Hong Kong-based writer and lawyer, and the author of two books, including City on Fire: The Fight for Hong Kong which was long-listed for the Walkley …

Cherie Gilmour

Kerry Parnell

I am an award-winning British-based journalist and editor who writes for the UK and Australian markets. A columnist and contributor for The Sunday Telegraph and News Corp Australia, I also …

Polly Simons

Writer, critic and editor with more than 10 years of experience writing for publications including Australian Book Review, The Daily Telegraph, The Australian and Time Out (Sydney and Melbourne).Now a …

Latest Articles

‘If I go back they will kill me’

A Saudi woman attempting to flee from her “abusive” family and seek asylum in Australia has reportedly been forcibly returned to Riyadh after being gagged, tied with duct tape and wrapped in a sheet by two uncles while on a stopover in the Philippines. Dina Ali Lasloom, 24, a Saudi …

By Jacob Atkins
22nd June 2025 • The Australian

The next generation of Liberal talent lost in Labor landslide

Labor’s election wipe-out has stalled the arrival of a new generation of Coalition talent to parliament. Their plans in tatters, they have a lot to say about what needs to happen now.

By Rhiannon Down
9th May 2025 • The Australian

Double murderer ‘contract killer’ freed under new direction

A double murderer convicted over a contract killing has been spared deportation under Labor’s revised ministerial direction, after a tribunal found his ties to Australia and level of rehabilitation outweighed community expectations that he should never be granted a visa.

By Rhiannon Down
20th February 2025 • The Australian

How to channel Jackie Onassis on the Athenian Riviera

By Alexandra Carlton
17th January 2025 • The Australian

Lidia Thorpe a no-show for third of sittings

Lidia Thorpe was absent more than a third of parliamentary sitting days and voted in just 45 per cent of divisions this year, new data has revealed, as Peter Dutton criticises Labor for being unprepared when the independent senator made a profane protest to King Charles.

By Rhiannon Down
25th October 2024 • The Australian

The king of cosy crime expands his empire

I chat to Richard Osman about his new series.

By Kerry Parnell
25th September 2024 • The Australian

Defence Department compensation plan for Afghan killings

Entire villages in Afghanistan could benefit from a scheme to compensate victims of unlawful killings and abuse by Australian special forces while on deployment, with the Chief of Defence granted decision-making power.

By Rhiannon Down
19th July 2024 • The Australian

Federal Court convenes crisis panel to tackle NZYQ case wave

The Federal Court has convened a special panel of judges to tackle a wave of constitutional challenges engulfing the legal system in the wake of the landmark NZYQ decision, as dangerous non-citizens seek to use the ruling to walk free from immigration detention and lift their monitoring requirements.

By Rhiannon Down
7th July 2024 • The Australian

Rapist attacks 25 women, teen … and allowed to retain his visa

A serial rapist who attacked 25 women and a child kept his visa as a result of Andrew Giles's catastrophic push to give more leniency to foreign-born criminals with ties to Australia, as it was revealed the embattled Immigration Minister was warned his policy would lead to a huge rise …

By Rhiannon Down
29th May 2024 • The Australian

Spice of Life

Get a taste for the West Indies on a new ocean yacht Twelve years of studying French at school has prepared me for this moment.

By Cindy Fan
2nd March 2024 • The Australian

Employers left holding the legal bill under sex harassment reforms

Employees who sue companies over sexual harassment and discrimination claims would not have to pay their bosses’ legal fees if they are unsuccessful, under an Albanese government proposal that has sparked a fresh war with business who warn it will turbocharge activist litigation.

By Rhiannon Down
27th December 2023 • The Australian

Richard Osman interview

I chat to the Thursday author for The Australian

By Kerry Parnell
23rd September 2023 • The Australian

Three wildly spontaneous train journeys from Zurich

Coming to the station without a plan feels like a sin. Planning and preparation are tenets of Swiss culture, but the irony is that micromanaging is virtually unnecessary. When I enter a destination into my Swiss railway app, all upcoming departures and routes appear, which may include trains, buses, cable …

By Cindy Fan
16th August 2023 • The Australian

Teens as young as 14 could access voluntary assisted dying in the ACT

Teenagers as young as 14 could access euthanasia in Canberra as the Labor-Greens government considers the most liberal voluntary assisted dying framework in Australia.

By Rhiannon Down
29th June 2023 • The Australian

Single malts, triple the enjoyment

In the world of alcohol, trends come and go but whisky (or in Ireland, whiskey) is a rare exception, holding a timeless appeal that spans palates and generations. Seamus Carroll, buyer at The Whisky Club, knows this first-hand. “I fell in love with whisky the same way so many people …

By Quincy Malesovas
28th September 2022 • The Australian

Top of the Morning

Breakfast is a decadent affair at these international venues ALMU, OAXACA, MEXICO In a rustic, open-air restaurant set within an endemic plant nursery in the desert town of San Martín Tilcajete, 45 minutes from Oaxaca City, an army of sturdy women prepare morning spreads based on what’s fresh from local …

By Cindy Fan
19th September 2022 • The Australian

Charles Waterstreet plotting comeback after his ‘fall from disgrace’

Five years since the firestorm of sexual harassment allegations that killed Charles Waterstreet’s high-flying legal career and left his reputation in tatters, the one-time king of the courtroom is living in a backpacker hostel plotting his comeback.

By Rhiannon Down
17th September 2022 • The Australian

A river for all seasons

It’s summertime in Bern, capital of Switzerland. I’ve joined hundreds of people swimming down the frigid Aare (pronounced Ar-reh) River and we’re all whooping and laughing like children.The scenario is inconceivable in many ways. First, I’ve voluntarily jumped into 19C water. Though this is considered warm by Aare standards, it …

By Cindy Fan
17th July 2022 • The Australian

Friends in High Places: Jasper Canada

By Alexandra Carlton
5th July 2022 • The Australian

Best Small Hotels

Casa Puuc, Merida, Yucutan, Mexico In Merida’s historic García Gineres neighbourhood, furniture dealer Claudia Fernandez has transformed a 1914 house into an ethereal five-bedroom hotel.

By Cindy Fan
30th April 2022 • The Australian

Where Art Thou

A guide to international masterpieces Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt (1907), Neue Galerie New York The dazzling portrait of the wife of a wealthy Jewish industrialist is a masterpiece of Klimt’s “golden phase”. The luminous gold leaf evokes religious iconography, while the motifs on her dress are …

By Cindy Fan
2nd April 2022 • The Australian

My Literary Fairy Godmother

By Cherie Gilmour
4th December 2021 • The Australian

Tiny Houses Bring Comfort and Joy

By Alexandra Carlton
29th August 2021 • The Australian

What To Do In the Huon Valley

By Alexandra Carlton
23rd April 2021 • The Australian

Fab 4: Canberra Wineries

By Alexandra Carlton
27th March 2021 • The Australian

Catty passengers high in the sky

Guest columnist It doesn’t take long for the meowing to draw surprised and grumpy stares from my fellow passengers.I have done everything right to prepare my cat, Chepe, for this flight. I scoured the internet for advice and the vet assured me everything would be fine.

By Cindy Fan
9th November 2019 • The Australian

On a Cape Crusade

Twists and turns on the road in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia I set out from Baddeck at daybreak and it isn’t long before I am greeted with a vista over the sea. Hewn into the hillside, the road winds north along the eastern coast of Cape Breton Island.

By Cindy Fan
20th July 2019 • The Australian

Into the Melting Pot

A feast down memory lane in Taipei Thirty years ago, if you told my moth- er that one day I would be skipping towards Taipei’s Raohe Night Market, she wouldn’t have believed you. Yet here I am, giddy about the feast to come.

By Cindy Fan
13th April 2019 • The Australian

Hot Properties

Our favourite small hotels across Asia MANGO BAY RESORT, PHU QUOC ISLAND, VIETNAM This eco-conscious hideaway offers a rare experience not found elsewhere on Vietnam’s largest island.

By Cindy Fan
16th February 2019 • The Australian

The Bear Necessities

Care and Share: Helping hands for rescued bears in Cambodia and Laos

By Cindy Fan
12th January 2019 • The Australian