“Mugs”, “Rehabilitation”, and “Stitched Up”

Smith’s poetry asks questions of crime and punishment from the victims’ and perpetrators’ perspectives. In “Mugs” an easy victim reflects on the burglar of his house. In “Rehabilitation” a former prisoner returns to his prison, converted into gentrified townhouses. In “Stitched” Up the boredom, inanity, banality, and a soft pain of prison life is exposed.

Enigma of the Dark: Reflections while Researching Journalism and the Claremont Serial Killings

After almost 25 years of mass media coverage on the Claremont Serial Killings, Perth audiences were informed in December 2020 that Bradley Robert Edwards would serve two life sentences for murdering two of the young women. This article draws on interviews with journalists to discuss media practices in the case that shocked Perth while shaping audience understandings of women as victims. The article describes how the term ‘serial killer’ came into use to bolster the importance of Western Australian news; how the status and resources of victim’s family influenced media coverage and, consequently, the police investigation; and, how the position of a journalist as an unbiased observer became untenable in the case.

Ghosting in the outback Noir

Who was the ‘jolly swagman’ in Waltzing Matilda, Australia’s unofficial national anthem? In this essay I argue that the ghost of the swagman can be heard in a number of recent de-colonising crime narratives. Outback Noir is a relatively recent genre category that describes a new wave of Australian crime films that highlight Indigenous and white relations and take a revisionist approach to traditional history. These films often feature redemption stories that highlight effective collaborations between Indigenous and white policing practices. Uncovering a rural communities’ dark, repressed secrets in order to solve a current problem is a common trend in Outback Noir cinema. I examine Patrick Hughes’ 2010 film Red Hill as an early provocative example of Outback Noir and as modern reimaging of the Waltzing Matilda narrative with the swagman’s avenging ghost exposing the social fractures and corruption that are destroying rural communities. I argue that the Outback Noir genre with its focus on revenge-redemption narratives shapes the cultural dialogue around putting the ghosts of the colonial past to rest.

Crime, punishment, and death: Reading finitude and the self in David Malouf’s ‘The Conversations at Curlow Creek’

The present paper reads David Malouf’s 1996 novel The Conversations at Curlow Creek as portraying a vivid and realistic picture of events relating to crime and punishment in colonial Australia in the early nineteenth century. The depiction of death penalty accorded to the bushranger Daniel Carney under the supervision of the Irish sheriff Michael Adair in New South Wales thus resonates with numerous historical accounts of incidents that actually happened. The novel, however, does more than only provide accurate historical representation as it also presents Adair as having undergone a rather dramatic transformation in the process of conversing with Carney before the latter’s execution. The paper, drawing on the views of the German philosopher Martin Heidegger, argues that a realization of inevitable mortality, of facing certain death characterizes this change in Adair’s nature and worldview. It concludes by suggesting that Adair’s acceptance of his finitude intimates of a way of being in the world that not only subverts procedures of administering punishment to convicts in colonial Australia but also indicates the limits of polarized identity politics that shapes the country in the present times.

Seeking Asylum—Holding Patterns: The 2020 Ballina Region for Refugees Poetry Prize

Poetry provides valuable and insightful ways to explore and record social and political experiences and engagements. The plight of refugees and people seeking asylum in Australia is well known. Community groups such as the Ballina Region for Refugees provide support to refugees and asylum seekers both in Australia and offshore. To help raise awareness and validate the experience of refugees and asylum seekers, the Ballina Region for Refugees runs an annual Poetry Prize. The 2020 Ballina Region for Refugees Poetry Prize theme was Seeking Asylum—Holding Patterns. This article presents the winning and highly commended poems, along with poems by refugee and asylum seeker poets. Poems from both insider witnesses – refugees and asylum seekers – and outsider witnesses – poets who seek to express an empathy with the plight of refugees and asylum seekers – have contributed to this collection. From haunting statements of human dissolution that should strike fear into anyone’s heart, through glimpses of hope, the poems explore the trails of asylum seeking and the dysfunctionality of the aftermath.

An Introduction to Crime & Punishment

Few scholars of Australian history need reminding that Colonial Australia began as a British prison. The detrimental effect these origins had, and arguably still have, on Indigenous Australia is unambiguous. The extent to which this brutal background shaped the modern nation merits re-evaluation. In this issue of Coolabah, we aim to extrapolate and explore the links stretching from the First Fleet, and assess how much of a role this past plays in the building of the modern Australian nation.

The Pathfinder

An homage to the scholar, traveller and person Geoff Davis by his wife, Ingrid Davis.

It all began with an invitation – from China.

An account of how the author and Geoff travelled together to China several times. Forty years of friendship and common interests are fondly remembered.

Commonwealth Literature: An Uncommon Literary Inheritance

In this piece Professor Nandan writes about his journey through Commonwealth Literature for the past fifty years and his remarkable voyages of literary discoveries.

Geoff's photos

A selection of geoff's photos.