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Amanda Smith

Amanda Smith reviews ‘Raelene: Sometimes beaten, never conquered’ by Raelene Boyle and Garry Linnell and ‘Nova: My story’ by Nova Peris with Ian Heads

June–July 2003, no. 252 01 June 2003
In 1980, a nine-year-old Aboriginal girl in Darwin, Nova Peris, watched the Moscow Olympics on television and told her mum that she was going to be an Olympic athlete. Alone at home in Melbourne, Raelene Boyle was also watching those Games on the telly, bawling her eyes out and desperately trying to get drunk. Raelene was twenty-nine years old, a veteran of three Olympic Games, with three silver m ... (read more)

Amanda Smith reviews 'The Temple Down the Road' by Brian Matthews

December 2003–January 2004, no. 257 01 December 2003
The Melbourne Cricket Ground was established on its present site in 1853. The first cricket match was played there the following year. It was a busy time in the early life of Melbourne: the University of Melbourne, the State Library of Victoria, the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Society and The Age newspaper were all founded at this time. At a recent social gathering in Melbourne, someone asked whi ... (read more)