Features Archive

GEOFF OSTLING IS often asked to name his favourite flower. The plants he likes best are big, fleshy flowers such as the hippeastrum, or showy, exuberant plants that pop with colour. As Geoff opens the front door of his Petersham home and …

Natalie* is 20 years old. She used to have blonde hair. Now it is fading to brown and thinning. She was 15 when she first contemplated suicide. The urge became so intense she was hospitalised. What she went through no-one should have to …

The Festival of Dangerous Ideas unites the most brilliant and daring minds across the globe for a weekend of talks at the Sydney Opera House. The likes of Germaine Greer and Jason Silva will debate topics as diverse as atheism, climate change, …

  This is not your typical Facebook status: “Offer: Maria from Vaucluse has litres of frozen breastmilk. PM her if interested.” The proposition: “Lauren in Matiland has 600mls to donate,” is not a post which pops up on most Facebook news feeds …

Andres Mejia still remembers the day when he arrived in Sydney in 2005, with just AUS $1200 and a lot of uncertainly about his future. “Now those days seem like a dream,” he said. Although Andres did not have money to spend …

I’ve never been much of a technophile but there I am standing outside the café, smartphone in hand, waiting to meet a friend for a breakfast arranged by text in response to an email that was confirmed by way of a Facebook …

Sophia Bashford investigates whether we’re getting our money’s worth for free-range eggs. I’m standing in Aisle 4 of the supermarket – the eggs section. Staring at the shelves in front of me, I’m met with a familiar dilemma. Do I pay the extra …

In my world, a teasing text message is a real turn-on. An innuendo-loaded Facebook status floats my boat. A frisky email? Totally hot. As many can relate, this is my twenty-something world of modern dating. Wooing in a technological era. Techno-romance has always been …

A staggering 2.4 million people are being trafficked around the globe at this very second, 80 per cent of them forced into sex slavery, according to the United Nations Crime-Fighting Office. Disturbingly, the heinous crime has infiltrated Australia, prompting a draft amendment …

It was Saturday night. Having just arrived in Australia for the first time, walking down George Street at 2am was a fast and hard lesson in the female social standards of native nightlife writes Jessica Beder. Navigating a forest of staggering stilettos …