Despite the swathe of destruction and demolition in recent decades, Sydney has some architectural gems: the State Library of NSW, the State Theatre, Hyde Park’s Anzac Memorial and more.
And adorning these iconic buildings is the exquisite work of three Italian brothers whose ornate and beautiful mosaic, terrazzo, and marble work constitutes up to 90% of Sydney’s early 20th Century marble and terrazzo work.
Yet despite their monumental contributions – including the decade they spent working on the floor of St Mary’s Cathedral crypt – the legacy of the Melocco Brothers—Peter, Antonio, and Galliano—has remained largely unacknowledged.
Until now.
Award-winning author, architectural historian, cultural heritage consultant and human rights advocate Zeny Edwards reveals the artistry behind the inspirational story of these incredible artists, as she talks to Dr Christopher Allen, National Art Critic for The Weekend Australian.
Nick Kaldas is a cop's cop. From investigating war criminals to taking down global drug operations, Kaldas has seen the worst humanity can offer. But he's also seen which human qualities can lead to greatness.
An immigrant boy from Egypt who rose from beat cop to become one of the most senior police officers in Australia.
In this episode of Gleetalks, Kaldas talks to former detective, author and podcaster Gary Jubelin about his memoir Behind the Badge, published by HarperCollins Australia.
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We all love Indian food, but why aren't garam masala or tamarind as common as soy sauce and tomato paste?
It’s a question answered by Masterchef winner Justin Narayan in his cookbook Everything is Indian, published by Murdoch Books, drawing on his Fijian-Indian heritage.
Think: roast potatoes with masala flavours, MasterChef-certified chicken curry tacos, the best pizza ever and a cardamom-hit caramel slice.
In this episode of Gleetalks, Justin takes us on a flavourful journey as he chats to food critic Nicholas Jordan.
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Australian political leaders have bent the knee for decades, placing the ANZUS treaty at the centre of the nation’s security. AUKUS has become the latest symbol of strategic solidarity. For Australia’s governments, of whatever political persuasion, America continues to define the global rules-based order.
Now that the American people have elected Donald Trump as the forty-seventh president, how will his presidency affect Australia's foreign policy, trade, climate action and approach to human rights? More importantly, will Australia be able to act in its own interests, or will it simply defer to Trump’s idea of America?
In this episode of Gleetalks, Director of the Australia Institute’s Security and International Affairs program, Dr Emma Shortis discusses this crazy brave new world order with journalist Richard Cooke and her new essay, After America, part of the Australia Institute’s new ideas series, Vantage Point.
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Australian politics is shifting. The two-party system was broken at the last federal election, and another minority government is a real possibility at this one. Politics-as-usual is not enough for many voters.
In this timely episode of Gleetalks (Gleetalks Link) George Megalogenis traces the how and why of a political realignment in his Quarterly Essay: Minority Rule: The New Shape of Australian Politics with broadcaster and author David Marr.
This is about the teals, the Greens and the Coalition. In a contest between new and old, progressive and conservative, which vision of Australia will win out? But it’s also about Labor in power – is careful centrism the right strategy for the times, or is something else required? With the election only weeks away, this is essential listening to understand the new political landscape.
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One hundred years ago, a New York bookseller Gabriel Wells, committed a crime against history. He broke up the world’s greatest book, the Gutenberg Bible, and sold it off in individual pages, which he marketed as Noble Fragments.
Half a century later, Sydney journalist Michael Visontay stumbled upon a mysterious legal document that linked Wells to his own family and changed its destiny.
In this episode of Gleetalks, Visontay talks to critic and author Caroline Baum about his hunt for those fragments, what he discovered in the arcane world of antique book collectors, and his family’s debt to an act of literary vandalism in his book Noble Fragments: The Maverick Who Broke Up the World’s Greatest Book.
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Since 1933, the Australian Women’s Weekly has been Australia’s highest-selling women’s magazine. And from birthday cakes to barbecues, the Weekly taught generations of Australians what to eat and how to cook it at home.
Drawing on recipes, food editorials and readers’ memories, Lauren Samuelsson’s A Matter of Taste: The Australian Women’s Weekly & Its Influence on Australian Food Culture is a celebration of the Weekly’s essential role in the development of Australian food culture.
On this deliciously nostalgic episode of Gleetalks, Lauren talks to historian Professor Michelle Arrow about how the Weekly encouraged us to be adventurous, to experiment in the kitchen, and to try new ingredients and flavours, stimulating an eclectic, Australian way of eating which is still reflected on our tables today.
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It’s 1986, and ‘beautiful, radical ideas’ are in the air. A young woman arrives in Melbourne. In bohemian St Kilda she meets artists, activists, students—and Kit.
In her seventh novel, Theory and Practice, award-winning writer Michelle de Kretser bends fiction, essay and memoir into exhilarating new shapes making and unmaking fiction as we read and expanding our notion of what a novel can contain.
In this episode of Gleetalks, she chats to Professor Elizabeth McMahon of the University of NSW about this mesmerising account of desire and jealousy, truth and shame, of theory and practice, where art and life intersect.
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In the Nineteenth Century, the Russian and British played what was dubbed the Great Game for strategic influence in Central Asia.
Today, the players have changed. Combine Putin’s Ukraine folly and American isolationism and, China now has the chance to project its power globally, as the US did from the early Twentieth Century. What are the implications and consequences, especially for Australia?
In this episode of Gleetalks, Australia’s former ambassador to China Geoff Raby AO talks to broadcaster Geraldine Doogue about his new book Great Game On: The Contest for Central Asia and Global Supremacy, which explores these geopolitical forces and strategic questions.
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From Palm Beach to Cronulla, Mount Druitt to Bondi, Sydney is a city made for swimming.
Over a calendar year, lifelong swimmer, educator and writer Chris Baker swam at iconic beaches, municipal pools, harbour baths, tidal rock pools, bushland lakes and a backyard pool,
In this episode of Gleetalks, he talks to curator and broadcaster Michaela Kalowksi about his book Swimming Sydney: A Tale of 52 Swims, a valentine to the beautiful obsession of swimming in the world’s most beautiful city, and how storytelling is the best way to navigate life’s emotional currents.
The 1970s. The era of flares, treads, Gough… and the founding of Gleebooks – but that’s another story!
It was also the age of the advent of feminism, rampant police and political corruption, and the rise of drug-fuelled organised crime in Australia, where Nugan Hand, Mr Asia and Robert Trimbole became household names.
In this episode of Gleetalks, investigative journalist Ronni Salt talks to Gleebooks Events Manager Sunil Badami about the intrigues and politics in her new crime thriller, Gunnawah, featuring a colourful cast of characters and gripping escapades in Trimbole’s old Riverina stomping ground.
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Renowned Australian physician and academic Dr Norelle Lickiss AO discusses her collection of essays "On the Kindness of Strangers and Other Essays: Musing on Medicine as a Human Science" (40South, 2024).
Drawing on her long and acclaimed career as a doctor, teacher and scholar, these writings cover a range of topics, from the practice of medicine, to art, philosophy and death.
Many of the pieces have been published elsewhere in professional journals, while others are more personal, and they offer a fascinating glimpse into the life and work of an extraordinary Australian.