MEANJIN BACK ISSUE

Wanderlust
Vol 60, no. 3, 2001

We called the place 'Lorelei'; inspired by the sheer walls of rock that border the creek, atop which we could imagine the singing sirens of German legend luring unwary sailors to their deaths.
—Sylvia Martin

Commissioning Editor: Stephanie Holt

Journeys and desire are threads that connect many of the pieces, at moments intertwining. Cassandra Pybus's subarctic tales make compelling reading. Here fools and adventurers tramp through the wilderness seeking spiritual enlightenment, mortal glory and God knows what. Garrie Hutchinson retraces his father's footsteps along the Kokoda Track and meditates on how stories of the patrol in fiction, dream and memory inflect Australia's relationship to Papua New Guinea. In fiction, Cassie Flanagan writes of emotionally charged terrain covered one night by train, while the safety of air travel is used by Catherine Harris as a comic metaphor for the vagaries of relationships. Dispersed among these travellers tales and other stories of lust and jealousy, building and desire is Peter Minter's careful selection of poetry, offering its own accents and nuances.
—Penelope Johnson