Greetings from Beyond the Pale: Wolf Creek

Ben Laycock

Having been evicted from Balgo for transgressing a Christian sacred site, l am standing with my thumb out in the blistering heat. A car going the other way pulls up in a cloud of dust and hands … Read More

Greetings from Beyond the Pale – Balgo: the second most dangerous town in Australia

Ben Laycock

After crossing The Great Sandy Desert, we limp into Balgo belching black smoke. The funeral is in full swing. A string of fairy lights dangles from tree to tree. There is much wailing and moaning.

I make … Read More

Greetings From Beyond the Pale: The Tanami Track

Ben Laycock

Time to bid a fond farewell to Nyiripi and continue my lonely quest. The Kimberley beckons with the allure of the exotic and the unknown. The bitumen road from Alice Springs to Kununarra is a giant dog-leg … Read More

Greetings from Beyond the Pale: A Death in the Family

Ben Laycock

I am still at Nyiripi, way out in the Western Desert. Paul and Clair are the ‘gudia’ (whitefellas) that run the place. The Walpiri reckon gudia are like Toyotas. They go really well to start with, but … Read More

Greetings from Beyond the Pale: Hunting & Gathering

Ben Laycock

No sooner have we arrived than l am invited on a genuine, authentic, real, live, traditional hunting expedition with real, live, genuine, traditional blackfellas. I felt like all my Christmases had come at once.

We all pile … Read More

Greetings from Beyond the Pale: Nyiripi

Ben Laycock

  A friend of a friend of mine has a friend living with the blackfellas in a tiny outstation way out west of Yuendemu, the unofficial capital of the Walpiri Nation, 300 kilometres of bone jarring corrugations North-West … Read More

Greetings from Beyond the Pale: Alice Springs

Ben Laycock

Part Two: Alice Springs, where your intrepid wayfarer meets a real, live blackfella

After bidding a fond farewell to the Big Red Rock I head up the Stuart Highway to Alice Springs, in the centre of … Read More

Greetings From Beyond the Pale: Not Climbing Uluru

Ben Laycock

To set the scene for my escape, I am an artist, starving in a garret in St. Kilda, back in the days when stragglers in the rat race could still afford to live there. I am … Read More

Greetings From Beyond the Pale: Beginings

Ben Laycock

My parents were potters. Our family car was a Datsun 1000 Ute. It was blue. They said they needed a ute to carry the clay to make the pots, and carry the wood to fire the … Read More

Greetings from Hindustan

Final Episode: Not a Monsoon Wedding

It’s not unusual for an Indian family to invite a thousand guests to a wedding, and that’s just for the bride. The groom has a separate party with another thousand. Our mob … Read More