December 2017 – January 2018
Arts & Letters
The inland food bowl
A gapped circle of colonies
each staring at the ocean
through a plaid of cars and imports.
Inland lies the still uncrowded
heartland once of drawl and steamboats
now half desert, half freshwater province.
There the Murray descends its seven thousand
feet off the Pilot, zigzags over the plains,
forest and furrow toward an outfall wash.
Narrow rivers link to this one, or slant north
where the dragon Ceratodus grunts in ivory mail
and streets are shaded in peppercorn and willow.
Having monstered tribesfolk,
dressed POWs in maroon,
it now flickers dials, or pipes experienced water
onto rice, onto cotton, on to Adelaide.
Western scrub rivers merge down the Darling
above flint blade
and reburied bones of the Warrior
as snow wind chills the saltbush
down from seven thousand feet.
Les Murray is an award-winning Australian poet with more than 30 published collections of work, including Taller When Prone, The Biplane Houses, Waiting for the Past and The Best 100 Poems of Les Murray. His work has been translated into ten foreign languages.
December 2017 – January 2018
From the front page
‘Human Flow’: visual metaphors cut through political apathyAi Weiwei’s new documentary finds new ways of seeing an accepted global trauma
A human pay riseDerryn Hinch could be the deal-breaker on tax cuts for big business 
Moment of TruthAustralia is on the brink of momentous change, but only if we can face up to the past – a Quarterly Essay extract
Masculinity in crisis in ‘Off the Record’Craig Sherborne’s satire could be an ingenious portrait of deluded conceit In this issue
We are all diminishedAustralian politics is full of contradictions, double standards and gaping voids
Unfinished business: A short storyCan a young wartime couple pick up where they left off?
The unflappable FinkelAustralia’s chief scientist talks energy alternatives and trying to elevate the narrative
Straight outta NarranderaVictoria Lee takes on the Victoria’s Secret runwayMore in Arts & Letters
Ceridwen Dovey’s ‘In the Garden of the Fugitives’Reality flexes at the edges of Dovey’s second novel
Armando Iannucci’s ‘The Death of Stalin’This Soviet satire pushes comedy’s tragedy-plus-time formula to the limit
Young Fathers’ ‘Cocoa Sugar’The Scottish group’s third album proves they don’t sound like anyone else
The NGV TriennialA new exhibition series’ first instalment delivers a heady mix of populism and politics
Read on
‘Human Flow’: visual metaphors cut through political apathyAi Weiwei’s new documentary finds new ways of seeing an accepted global trauma
Editor’s Note April 2018Moment of TruthAustralia is on the brink of momentous change, but only if we can face up to the past – a Quarterly Essay extractMasculinity in crisis in ‘Off the Record’Craig Sherborne’s satire could be an ingenious portrait of deluded conceit 
Comments