the lowdown
Marie Low's fortnightly column, The Lowdown. Marie has more than 30 years experience as a journalist and communicator.
Think more than twice before you add to your furry family
We adopted a dog during the pandemic. That’s right, we were one of the record numbers of Australians who consoled themselves during lockdown with a new furry friend. We didn’t go into it lightly. We had lost our two very loved dogs to snakes in the space of a year
Could rising fuels costs be just the impetus we need?
A couple of decades ago, I stood for some time looking at a petrol bowser in Bedourie, Queensland, where petrol cost more than $1 a litre. We were amazed at this astronomical price, but the service station owner had motorists in a corner. There was no fuel in this direction
Sunflower strikes a bright note in dark days
It does not take a pandemic to show us that we all live in the same world. Here, in New South Wales where we live, sunflowers grow in paddocks and on roadsides. Some of them are wild, ragged things that turn their faces to the sun heedless of the traffic,
Facing a world without our iconic friends
We have come to a sad place in our evolution when we are having to list one of our best-loved animals as endangered.Who wants to imagine a world with no koalas? They are part of our national psyche, a creature whose features conjure up gum leaves and the serenity of the
Learning to help our kids cope with education
If there is anything that has proven to be an indicator of the changing times of COVID, it is education. We are now two years into this rotten adventure and the ups and downs, the fears and small triumphs, the confusion and the ripple effects – all of them have
Nature and disasters are a natural marriage
As a species, we are legends in our lunchtime. We are pretty sure the world is ours to do what we want with, whether it is throwing Hungry Jack’s wrappers into the Mariana Trench or dropping atomic bombs on each other. We are free to expand into every tiny corner