Laura Gartry

Oct 4, 2024 | abc.net.au | Tynan King |Jack Fisher |Laura Gartry

When Shane Smithers was adding traditional symbols to his mural, commuters passing by asked him, "What are you doing?!"The Aboriginal artist says it's because he wasn't painting dots or concentric circles. Shane is a Dharug and Dharawal man who uses traditional visual language — the same symbols his ancestors used thousands of years ago. "We didn't have dots, we had lines," he explains, gesturing at the 30-metre mural in Parramatta Square.

Sep 27, 2024 | abc.net.au | Annika Blau |Gina McKeon |Teresa Tan |Laura Gartry

When Marnie Robertson stumped up $140,000 for a "house and land package" in the Coolah Caravan Park, she thought she was buying into a grey nomad Utopia. Yet her dream house is literally falling apart around her. The situation came to a head when the gutter feeding her rainwater tank became the latest thing to break. To get water, she was forced to feed a hose with town water into the tank. But as the 83-year-old was climbing on top of the tank, she slipped and fell onto a railway sleeper.