Individuals

Annabel Pettit speaks with Blackheathen Jeffrey Crompton (above) about the podcast he started during Lockdown: Jeffrey and Mick were raised in a Sydney that had never known any lockout laws, where you could walk into the Riverwood Hotel on any given night and be unsurprised to catch Split Enz or The Church earning their stripes on the city’s vibrant pub …

Hamish Dunlop interviews Deborah Wells in the Blackheath Campbell Rhododendron Gardens. She shares how a group of passionate and dedicated volunteers have created a community space that is a haven for all species, and how they've helped it recover from drought, fire, flood and pandemic.

Phil Hopkins Nineteen years ago we moved to Cleopatra St in Blackheath with our young twin boys. We couldn’t believe our luck when we discovered Santa lived just around the corner on Hat Hill Rd. Every festive season our children joined the throngs to check out his Christmas lights display and to collect a bag of lollies! We’ve since moved, …

Deidre Ikin wearing a home-made mask while out shopping How quickly (and understandably) people’s positions are changing in this volatile world we currently find ourselves in! It’s only been a matter of weeks since the WHO and many global leaders said there was no need for anyone, other than health workers, to wear masks during this pandemic. We now know …

During Lockdown the gift of time has been inspiring many to try their hand at art. They’re finding that colouring books are an excellent entry point for doing that because ‘colouring in’ offers an opportunity to play with colour and pattern and work ‘with’ the book artist to complete an artwork flavoured with their own unique creative input. We all …

Food, mothers and kindness bring people together – even during a pandemic. Tonight I felt nurtured by my mother’s dearest friend in Blackheath, who sent me home with a brown paper bag filled with small jars of medlar and quince jellies to taste test. She was eager for me to compare the two.   Carole Lee My mother used to …

After devastation, the restorative forces of nature begin the process of healing. On the 22nd December 2019, Australia’s biggest forest fire, which had already destroyed an area seven times the size of Singapore, raced up the gully below Clarence St and burnt to within 10m of Eva and Bill Johnstone’s property, just above Pope’s Glen in Blackheath. It burnt all …

Love Makes a Way is the largest faith-based civil disobedience movement in Australia’s history. Its focus is on getting the kids off Nauru.

For a young person, deciding on a career is no easy task. This was how I felt when I left high school, not knowing what different jobs were like, what jobs are out there, or what path to take to reach them. At the Blue Mountains Pluriversity, Youth Cafes offer young people an insight into different careers, giving us the …

On January 8 The Big Fix visited renowned wildlife carer Margaret Gough at Mt Victoria in the Blue Mountains. We were thrilled that some of the wallaroos and birds that had disappeared when the fires came, were alive and healthy and starting to return. Margaret demonstrated what we can do to help provide the food and water they so desperately need …