ssay eornpetition Eureka Street, through the generous sponsorship of Southern Cross Capital Exchange Ltd, is offering a pri ze of $1500 for th e Bes t Ethi cs Essa y for 1998. Th e topic is unres tri cted: our expectation is si mply that the essay be grounded in an ethical consideration pertinent to our soc iety and times. Questions to do with th e eth ica l inves tment of funds or the ethica l allocation of scarce resources may be one point of departure, but w e look forward to your inventiveness. The essay shou ld be written in a sty le that w il l engage a genera l audience. Length: not exceeding 8000 words. Th e winner will be announ ced and th e essay published in th e Author's name .... ..... ...... .... ...... ...... ... ... ..... ...... ..... .... ........ ..................... December iss ue of Eureka Street. Address .... .... .... ...... .... .... .. ..... .. .... .. .. .. ............ .... ... ... ...... ............. .. ..... .... Entries shou ld be unpublished, ori gi nal works, on typed, doub le-spaced hard copy. Clos ing date: 1 O ctober 1998. Telephone ........................................... Fa x .............. .............. .. ............. Do not send origi nal manu sc ripts or disks. Em ail add ress ... .... .. .............................. .. ...................... .. .................. .. .. Entries should have this fo rm Title of essay ................ ..... ............... ................... ...... ............................ attached. Send to ' Ethics Essay', Eureka Street, PO Box 553, Ri chmond VIC 3121. Our competition's sponsor, Southern Cro ss Ca pital Exchange Ltd, is an ethical investment company. AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW of th e Resurrecti on provides a beauti ful final in September: resting place at Sydney's Rookwood Cemetery. John Bryson reviews John Pilger's Hidden Agendas - - -' Due for completion in September 1998. th e Mausoleum wi ll include: Philip Morrissey on Roberta Sykes' Snake Dreaming • 1720 crypt spaces • 800 niches (fo r An essay by Edward Colless cremated remain s) • 7 fami ly va ults A review of Bernard Smith's (containing 4 to /0 Modernism 's History T egan Bennett reviews Matthew Condon's The Pillow Fight lvor lndyk reviews Philip Salom's poetry Jenny Lee reviews Tim Flannery's Throwim Way Leg New Subscribers $55 for ten issues plus a free book Ph (03) 9429 6700 or Fax (03) 9429 2288 Volume 8 Number 7 EUREKA SJREEr September 1998 A magazine of public affairs, the arts and theology CONTENTS 25 NEEDED: A NEW WAY OF THINKING Frank Fisher unplugs the blockages in our environmental thinking. 4 COMMENT 27 With Morag Fraser, Lincoln Wright and ARCHIMEDES Francis Sullivan. 28 7 THAT HENRY HANDEL RICHARDSON CAPITAL LETTER FELLA John Sendy tracks one of Oz Lit's greats 8 around Victoria. LETTERS 32 12 SEAMUS HEANEY: CELEBRATION THE MONTH'S TRAFFIC AND ITS ENEMIES With Jon Greenaway, Peter Pierce Peter Steele on the poet who celebrates and Andrew N ette. against the odds. 15 38 SUMMA THEOLOGIAE BOOKS David McCooey reviews Les Murray's Cover: Alan Oldfield, epic Fredy Neptune; Jon Greenaway at the 'The voyage, first day', 16 footy with Justin Madden and Clinton oil and acrylic CLIPPED AT CLUDEN on canvas and board. Peter Pierce hits the Townsville Cup Walker (p40). Collection of the artist. track running. One of a series of eight paintings on the story of Mary Watson, 39 &41 from the exhibition 17 POETRY Escape Artists, Modernists Three poems by Peter Rose. in the Tropics, HEAPS OF DOCUMENTS curated by Gavin Wilson. Andrew Hamilton discusses a bishop's Slide and permission courtesy controversial new book and even more 42 the Cairns Regional Gallery. controversial Vatican documents. CROSS-TASMAN REFLECTIONS Cover design by Siobhan Jackson Geoffrey Milne goes to the shows 19 in New Zealand. Graphics pp6, 11 by Peter Fraser. Graphics pp12, 16, 17, 19, 20-21, THE CORNER OF RUSSELL STREET 23-24, 25,32-37,47 by Siobhan AND MAYHEM 44 Jackson. Story by Barry Dickins. FLASH IN THE PAN Location photographs pp28, 29, 3 1 by Bill Thomas, Reviews of the films Head On; Artemisia; Graphic p38 from Mike 20 The Opposite of Sex; The X-Files: Golding's woodcut for the cover MOLECULAR WAIT Fight the Future; Dead Letter Office; of Fredy Neptune, design by Dark City and The Intaview. Alex Snellgrove. Damien Broderick essays the Graphic p40 by Elise Crotty. nanotechnological future. 46 Eureka Street magazine Jesuit Publications 23 WATCHING BRIEF PO Box 553 THE STATE WE'RE IN Richmond VIC 3121 T el (03)9427 7311 Visit the brave new world of 47 Fax (03)9428 4450 administrative reform with Moira Rayner. SPECIFIC LEVITY VOLUME 8 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 3 C OMMENT EUREKA SJRI:-Er M ORAG FRASER A magazine of public affairs. the arts and theology Publisher Daniel M adigan SJ Editor Art history Morag Fraser Assistant editor Kate Manton lessons Consulting editor Michael McGirr SJ Graphic designer T.,MO NTH'' co'" " ' NT"G toll' ' " in tngumg • nd complex Siobhan Jackson tale about Australia. Some North Queenslanders will be familiar Production and business manager with it. The rest of us, less blessed with coral atolls and myth, Sylvana Scannapiego will have to go in search. The painting, by Sydney artist Alan Oldfield, is part of a Editorial and production assistants series, completed over the decade 1986- 96 and based on the life Juliette Hughes, Paul Fyfe SJ, Geraldine and death of Mary Bea trice Battersby, Chris Jenkins SJ, Scott Howard Watson. As Oldfield's epic Contributing editors rendering suggests, Mrs Adelaide: Greg O'Kelly SJ, Perth: Dean Moore Watson's 19th-century story Sydney: Edmund Campion, Gerard Windsor reaches into myth, but it is Queensland: Peter Pierce also firmly lodged in the United Kingdom correspondent tragic conflicts we are still Denis Minns OP rehearsing 100 years later. Mary Watson, nee Phillips, South East Asia correspondent was born in Cornwall, in Jon Greenaway 1860. She died when sh e was Jesuit Editorial Board still a young woman, of thirst, on a coral atoll near Lizard Island Peter L'Estrange SJ, Andrew Bullen SJ, off the far North Queensland coast. With her died her infant son, Andrew Hamilton SJ Ferrier, and a Chinese manservant, called Ah Sam. T hey had fled Peter Steele SJ, Bill Uren SJ Lizard Island after an attack by Aborigines. The attack seems to Marketing m anager: Rosanne Turner have been provoked by the Watsons' building on land that was Advertising representative: Ken Head a sacred site. Subscription manager: Wendy Marlowe Mary Watson kept a diary of her last days, found w ith her Administration and distribution body and kept now in the Cooktown Library. It is w ritten in the Kate Matherson, Claire Caddy, Lisa C row, unassailable moral shorthand of the desperate. T his is her final Kristen Harrison, N omeneta Schwaiger entry: Patrons October 11 , 1881 Emeka Street gra tefully acknowledges the Still all ali ve. Ferrier very much better this morning. Self feeling support of C. and A. Carter; the very weak. I think it will rain today; clouds very heavy; wind not trustees of the estate of Miss M. Condon; quite so hard. No ra in. Morning fine weather. Ah Sam preparing W.P. & M.W. Gurry to die, have not seen him since 9th. Ferrier more cheerful. Self not Eureka Street ma gazine, ISSN I 036- 1758 , feeling at all well. Have not seen any boat of any description. No Australia Post Pri nt Post approved pp349181 /00314, water. Nearly dead wi th thirst. is published ten times a yea r by Eureka Street Ma gazin e Pty Ltd, Alan Oldfield fo und a version of Mary Watson's tory when 300 Victoria Street, Richmond, Victoria 3121 h e staying in a small sugar town north of Port Douglas in 1985. Tel: 03 9427 73 11 Fax: 03 9428 4450 Over the next ten years he constructed a visual libretto for her, e-mail: cu [email protected] t.org.a u and for those people-Aboriginal, English, Australian and http:/ fwww .openplanet.com.aufeureka Chinese- with whom she cam e into contact during her brief Responsibility for ed itorial co nten t is accepted by life. Eight of the p<lintings are currently on show in the Cairns D<micl Madigan, 300 Victoria Street, Richmond. Printed by Doran Printing, Regional Gallery, in a wonderful exhibition called Escape Artists, 46 Industri al Drive, Bracsidc YlC 3 195. Modernists in the Tropics, curated by Gavin Wilson. I saw it © Jes ui t Publications 1998 during the days when the tax package was being tied up in Unsolicited manuscripts, including poetry and Canberra. That same week Michael Leunig drew a cartoon in the fiction, wi ll be returned only if accompanied by Fairfax press which pondered the universality of 'packaging'. ·1 sta mp ed, self-add ressed envelope. Requests for Another Fairfax journalist, Ross Gittins, a self-confessed rmission to reprint material fro m the magaz in e should be addressed in writing to: economics enthusiast, pondered the predominance of economics. The edi to r, Eureka Street m<Igaz in e, Was there not a bigger picture, he lamented. I wished I could have PO Box 553, Richmond VIC 3121 bough t them both a ticket to Cairns. 4 EUREKA ST REET • SEPTEMBER 1998 Mary Watson's story can't be neatly packaged. quarter mile from the Watson's cottage, according to her In Cooktown she met and married Captain R.F. diary( ... Ah Sam found his hat, which is the only proof). Watson, who made his living fishing for sea slugs (little Oldfield has taken potent emblems and built them wonder their French name, beche de mer, is retained). into a visual narrative that traverses the territory of With their Chinese servants, they moved to Lizard Island paradox w e have to contend with still.