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It was 6.30am and I was sitting with Finau, a Fijian with a heart the size of an island. We’d taken a short drive from the ultra-luxe COMO Laucala resort to a collection of buildings where the real work happens.
There were 20 men in a makeshift shed. Engineers and workers, all dressed in navy-blue. And they were singing. There were no instruments – bird calls were the only soundtrack – and it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever experienced.
Whenever I’m feeling stressed, I take myself straight back there and hear their voices – sometimes booming, always in harmony – and remember exactly how it made me feel.
Grateful. Conscious that I was living in the moment. And also aware that I was witnessing something quite private, even sacred.
When I trawl through the trips I’ve taken, it’s the transformative experiences that stand out and the unexpected moments that linger long after the photos have disappeared into my feed. They range from scoring a seat at the bar in one of New York’s best restaurants to eyeballing a humpback whale off Ningaloo. Touching ancient hieroglyphics on the wall of an Egyptian tomb and feeling the wrinkled leathery skin of Beau, a rescue elephant in Thailand.
If you’re really lucky, you’ll have more than one moment in one trip. When I left COMO Laucala Island and watched my new Fijian friends sing the farewell song, Isa Lei, it seemed more poignant than ever before.
Maybe COVID-19 played a part in that – farewells seem more weighty now – but when I listened to Finau talk about the story of the song and why it matters, it felt genuine and meaningful. I’ve heard that song many times but it will be Finau’s version (and his smile) that I’ll always remember.
It’s one of my great moments in travel.
Kirsten Galliott Editor-in-Chief
kirstengalliott
Our writers are not armchair travellers. Even in a pandemic. Rest assured any assistance we accept from the travel industry in the course of preparing our stories does not compromise the integrity of our coverage.
MELBOURNE , Trewarne Fine Jewellery . MELBOURNE CROWN, Van Bercken . PERTH , Ecali Fine Jewellery . SORRENTO, Siren Fine Jewellery
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FROM THE CEO
There’s been a lot of discussion lately about queues at airports as people make up for years of closed borders and the industry gets back on its feet. We’re doing a lot of work to make your entire journey as smooth as possible. Investing in technology is a big part of that and you’ll start noticing some differences at check-in.
First, a bit of history. About 12 years ago Qantas completely transformed the airport checkin experience by installing what were then cutting-edge check-in kiosks and automatic bag drops. This meant you no longer had to stand in a long line to get your boarding pass or drop off your bags – making the process faster and less stressful – and our airport teams could focus on helping customers who needed assistance.
In the past few years, we’ve seen a growing trend of people checking in online and via our app. The pandemic accelerated this shift. Now, more than 80 per cent of Frequent Flyers check-in before they get to the airport and that figure is climbing every month.
That’s why we’re rolling out next-generation kiosks that are up to four times faster, making the airport experience even smoother for our customers. Some of you would have already used the new kiosks at Sydney Airport, where we first trialled them. If you’ve checked in online, all you need to do is scan your digital boarding pass at the kiosk and it will automatically print your bag tag, without the need to press a single button. If you haven’t had the chance to check-in before you arrive, that’s fine too. Just scan the QR code on the kiosk screen with your phone and in seconds you’ll be ready. By September, we expect to have 140 of the new kiosks installed in major domestic terminals around Australia so you’ll be able to get to the lounge or gate and on your flight sooner.
Of course, our people will still be there to welcome you and help with check-in, baggage and any other travel needs. As we continue to recover from the pandemic, you can expect to see more efforts like this to improve your travel experience.
Thanks again for choosing Qantas and have a great flight.
Alan Joyce CEO, Qantas
The trip of a lifetime
A 35-day expedition that takes in a South African safari, a cruise to the Greek Islands and Croatia, a spin through Rome, Paris and Buenos Aires – all at the click of a button? Okay, it might be a few clicks but thanks to Qantas’ new partnership with TripADeal (tripadeal.com.au), incredible experiences just got easier. Frequent Flyers can now book any of the Australian travel business’s holiday packages using Qantas Points, plus you can earn 3 points for every dollar you spend with TripADeal.
Connect to Qantas
Fast and Free Wi-Fi
Once onboard, connect your own device to Qantas Free Wi-Fi on domestic flights in three simple steps:
Enable Aeroplane Mode and select the “Qantas Free Wi-Fi” network in your Wi-Fi settings.
Follow the prompts on the “Welcome Onboard” screen to connect.
Once you’re connected, you’re ready to access the internet and start exploring.
Having trouble connecting? Make sure you’re connected to the “Qantas Free Wi-Fi” network and go to wifi.qantas.com in your preferred browser to start the connection process. To ensure an enjoyable flight for everyone, keep flight mode activated, switch your device to silent and refrain from voice and video calls.
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work, live and fly. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and are committed to honouring Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ unique cultural and spiritual relationship to the land and water.
Worth the wait
Secret
bars in Singapore, simple pleasures in London and a sensory overload in India – Australians are travelling the world again. Here, three Qantas travellers share highlights from recent trips abroad (hint: food is still king).
TRAVELLED TO Singapore FREQUENT FLYER STATUS Bronze
“
I went to Singapore from Sydney for work but I squeezed in a mini-break as well. It was so exciting to be on a Qantas plane again – it felt so homely. I felt like a kid in a candy shop on this trip; everything seemed so new. A friend there let me know about a bar called Mama Diam (mamadiamsg.com) – it operates as a convenience store during the day but then a door slides open and there’s a really cool bar. These kinds of places were really popular in the 1980s and ’90s so the menu is full of nostalgia for locals. I ordered a Chai ‘Tarik’ Brew cocktail and the stuffed seafood lychee; both were delicious. It’s finding stuff like this that’s so fun when you’re travelling.”
Because of my job as a videographer, I’ve been travelling since international travel resumed – I’ve visited 12 countries in this time. I’d been to India before but it felt like there were far fewer tourists at the usual sightseeing spots. You get such a sensory overload in India; it’s a vibrant mishmash of sights, sounds, smells and colours and it makes you feel so alive. I also fell in love with the food while I was there. My favourite dish was dal makhani [a black lentil dal] and I couldn’t stop eating momos [a type of dumpling] with green chilli sauce. India is one of those destinations that’s unlike anywhere else on the planet and leaves a mark on you in the best possible way.”
TRAVELLED TO London FREQUENT FLYER STATUS Bronze
“
This trip was about making up for lost time. Boarding the plane, I kept thinking, ‘It’s happening!’ I loved the simple things, like walking around London – I was there in February and finally got to see Big Ben without the scaffolding. It’s so easy to stumble on amazing food spots when you’re just wandering around the city. That’s what I love about it. I joined the line outside a Malaysian restaurant called Roti King (rotiking.has.restaurant) – it took a while but was worth it for the roti canai. I’d also recommend visiting Kappacasein Dairy at Borough Markets (boroughmarket.org.uk) for the best cheese toastie.”
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Delivering unparalleled experiences and boundless exploration, Avalon puts you in the captain’s seat to navigate your journey, fuel your passions and steer clear of the unexpected as you cruise down the world’s most memorable and mesmerising waterways.
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information
call 1300 230 234 or see your travel agent
Boonkaj collection by Waringarri Aboriginal Arts, shown at the 2021 Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair
THE WAITLIST
Hotels and fashion are turning foodie and two ex-Noma alumni have just opened their doors in WA. There’s a lot to sink your teeth into this month.
Take a seat
VIC
400 Gradi
They’ve already brought their moreish Napoli-style pizza to Melbourne, Adelaide and the Mornington Peninsula. Now the team at 400 Gradi (400gradi.com.au) has opened a vast 300-seater in Mildura. The fiery diavola is a standout but don’t overlook the starters, including mussels in white wine and garlic.
QLD
The Lodge Bar & Dining
A Michelin star just twinkled its way onto Brisbane’s James Street by way of Matt Lambert, the executive chef of this brandnew opening. His previous gig, The Musket Room, in New York, scored a star. At The Lodge, an extension of premium menswear brand Rodd & Gunn (roddandgunn.com), he’ll direct that pedigree into suave classics like rib eye tomahawks with horseradish and buttered Moreton Bay bug rolls.
NSW
Ace Hotel and The Porter House
Australia, it seems, is entering an energetic new era of luxury hotel restaurants. From Peppina at The Tasman in Hobart to Audrey’s at The Continental Sorrento in Victoria, extravagant food offerings are really giving the rooms and suites a run for their money. Two of the most recent to jump onto the trend in Sydney are the Ace Hotel (acehotel.com; see our review on page 100) in Surry Hills and The Porter House Hotel by MGallery (porterhouse hotel.com.au) in the CBD. The former has the plant-forward Loam (left) and Mitch Orr’s fire-focused Kiln, while the latter, which opens this month, is a 122-room hotel connected to a five-storey hospitality destination that includes all-day Henry’s Bread + Wine, rooftop bar Spice Trader and brasserie Dixson & Sons, with ex-Fish Butchery whiz Emrys Jones leading the culinary direction. It’s all great news for out-of-towners and just as good for locals – dine-and-drop staycation, anyone?
WA
Alberta’s
From head chef and head gardener at Noma in Copenhagen to… Busselton? Don’t adjust your aerials: you read that right. Noma is the backstory of Ben Ing and Kirsty Marchant but their future is just as intriguing. They’ve opened Alberta’s (3/55 Queen Street) a cosy 50-seat eatery in the Western Australian coastal town that’ll start with breakfast treats such as morning buns and lemon bars but eventually move into lunch and dinner.
THE KISS
Meryl and Clint, Miranda and Steve, MJ and Spiderman: many a love affair has played out against the backdrop of a bridge. And when Van Cleef & Arpels was looking to express the love story of the maison, it proved just the symbol. From the house founded on Paris’ 22 Place Vendôme in 1906 following the marriage of Estelle Arpels to Alfred Van Cleef, the popular Pont des Amoureux timepieces that feature in the Poetic Complications collection go some way to proving romance is still alive more than a century on. Two figures inch towards each other. She holds an umbrella and indicates the hours. He conceals a rose and tells the minutes. The Parisian mist swirls under their feet as they come together to kiss on the bridge at noon and midnight. Or for those who like their entertainment on demand, you can simply press a button to see the couple rendezvous.
Call of the wild
In an increasingly unpredictable climate, the Kimberley’s tropical monsoons can still be relied upon to be just that – unpredictable. Heavy rainfall, dramatic lightning shows, vivid sunsets and teeming wildlife define the wet season that breathes life into the Western Australian coastline that’s home to Paspaley pearls. Inspired by this ever-evolving backdrop, the jeweller’s Monsoon collection includes cicada earrings, petal pendants and a one-of-a-kind yellowgold wildflower cuff crafted from Keshi baroque Australian South Sea Pearls with white and rare yellow diamonds in an ode to nature’s powerful presence.
Paspaley Monsoon Wildflower cuff in yellow-gold with Keshi baroque pearls and diamonds / $218,000 / paspaley.com
The face
The Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux watch has been a Van Cleef & Arpels signature since 2010 but has since evolved in new versions, depicting the kiss in daytime, at night and seasonal variations. The dial is created using the traditional grisaille enamel technique (developed in France from the 16th century onwards, this type of enamelling calls for 30 to 40 hours of work) and sculpted white-gold or white- and rose-gold.
The case
Featuring a 38-millimetre-diameter case, the Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux watch is crafted in white-gold, the bezel done in white-gold set with diamonds, while the Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux Jour (day) watch comes in rose-gold, with a bezel in rose-gold set with diamonds. Both have their crown set with diamonds and a scene relating to the face’s features on the case back.
The band
A shiny navy-blue or purple alligator strap is interchangeable with a white or rose-gold bracelet decadently set with diamonds. Or they can be replaced by another strap in five shades ranging from shiny white to black.
The movement
A self-winding mechanical movement features a retrograde and on-demand animation module developed exclusively for Van Cleef & Arpels. The numbered edition has a 36-hour power reserve.
The price
Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux Jour watch in rose-gold and diamonds / $198,000 / vancleefarpels.com
The Collector STORY BY GENEVRA LEEK
BROKEN HILL, NSW
She’s the mastermind behind the Far West town’s rhinestone-studded LGBTQIA+ showcase, the Broken Heel Festival (bhfestival.com), and the managing director of its famed pub, The Palace Hotel (thepalacehotelbrokenhill. com.au). But when Esther La Rovere isn’t busy planning the ultimate outback party, you’ll find her embracing pockets of calm. Here are her picks.
Browne’s Shaft Lookout
“The most tremendous thing about Broken Hill is the everchanging theatre of the wide open sky. It feels so much closer to you out here. My favourite vantage point – particularly in the early evening between April and June, with its low moon rises – is up on Browne’s Shaft Lookout at old Junction Mine off Menindee Road. While many head to Mundi Mundi Lookout at Silverton to observe the chaotic, fire-full sunset blaze across the curved earth, I appreciate Browne’s Shaft for what I call the ‘anti-sunset vista’, with muted hues of purple and pale pink. It’s the most peaceful thing.”
The
Palace Hotel
“I eat a lot of my meals at our restaurant so I can say with some experience that you’d be doing yourself a huge favour sitting in one of the window seats that invite the outdoors in and help ground you in a sense of place. The Chicken Oscar –a marinated chicken breast served with sweet potato mash and asparagus topped with prawns, avocado and hollandaise – is such a hit that it’s been on the menu for a long time. Insider tip? Although our balcony is generally for accommodation guests only, if you come earlier in the day we can usually arrange for you to have a quiet drink up there before 5pm.”
The Sculpture Symposium
“Few non-locals realise that Broken Hill is surrounded by a regeneration area – essentially a ring of vegetation with many walking trails – before it edges into sparse landscape. I really love taking a walk around the Sculpture Symposium in the Living Desert State Park. Many people drive the kilometre up from the Flora & Fauna Sanctuary car park but in the right season the whole area can be covered in cascading wildflowers, interesting geology and wildlife so I recommend that you walk it and keep your eyes open.”
About Town STORY BY DILVIN YASA
(Clockwise from above) The Sculpture Symposium; Esther La Rovere; The Palace Hotel
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DARWIN, NORTHERN TERRITORY
Whether your tastes run to avantgarde theatre and dance, comedy or art with ancient lineage, the tropical capital is where it’s at this winter.
(From above) Chains 2 of 5
(2021) by Paula Savage at the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair; Darwin’s Festival Park; Japanese-Indian dancer Shakti is at this year’s Fringe Festival
Darwin Fringe Festival 8 to 17 July / darwinfringe.org.au
The 2022 line-up isn’t afraid to show some skin: booking sometimes-naked JapaneseIndian dancer Shakti, described by London Time Out as a “camp Asian vamp”, is a coup for festival director Hannah Illingworth, “We’ve been trying to get her here for two years.” Burrowing beneath the skin and featuring a Central Australian cast, Cuttings is a powerful exploration of women’s autonomy by Alice Springs writer-director Jo Dutton. While many events are staged at historic
Brown’s Mart Theatre, Darwin suburbs Nightcliff, Parap and Wulagi will play host to comedy, music and visual arts, including indie-folk singer-songwriter Alice Cotton performing in a backyard under the stars.
Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair 5 to 7 August / daaf.com.au
No need to spend hours driving to far-flung centres – an incredible selection of original Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artworks from remote communities is coming to town. Physical as well as virtual this year, the art fair
gives collectors the opportunity to meet the artists, hear their stories, watch them work – and buy something to treasure forever. Along with Milingimbi Art and Culture, Injalak Arts and more, Utopia Art Centre will participate for the first time.
Darwin Festival 4 to 21 August / darwinfestival.org.au
Tim Minchin may be its best-known act but the real festival star is Darwin itself. CEO James Gough calls the city’s glorious dry-season weather “literally perfect” and the art-filled, lantern-lit Festival Park basks in it, welcoming locals and visitors in their thousands to eat, dance and soak up the vibe (perhaps with a local gin or Darwin Festival Lager in hand). The event opens with Buŋul , a celebration of Gurrumul’s final album, Djarimirri (Child of the Rainbow), featuring Yolŋu dancers and the Darwin Symphony Orchestra. It ends 18 days later after performances by the likes of electro-pop Confidence Man and Grammy-nominated Arlo Parks.
BMW i4
The Tesla rivals are coming fast –now it’s BMW’s turn with this sleek, sporty all-electric four-door sedan.
Is this BMW’s Model 3 competitor? Yes. Arriving in Australia in two variants, the i4 is the newest EV to emerge out of the BMW Munich plant. It looks like a traditional BMW because it’s based on the 4 Series Gran Coupé, a car much loved by Australian families. What about the inside? Unlike some of its rivals that prefer more space-age comfort and screen overwhelm, the i4 is designed to be a driver’s car. Expect snug seats, driver-angled controls to limit distractions and easy-to-use yet advanced driver tech. What’s the range? On the lower end, the BMW i4 eDrive40 boasts a long range of 520 kilometres, while its more performanceorientated sibling, the M50, claims 465 kilometres, mostly due to the power it draws when you put your foot down. What’s the charging time like? Speedy! To earn 100 kilometres of range, you’ll only need to spend about 18 minutes at a moderate (50kW) charging station. At home, that translates to just 1 hour and 23 minutes on a wallbox. How does it compare to the 4 Series? They share the same chassis, space and have similar outputs of power – 285kW for the M440i versus 250kW for the i4 eDrive40. The 400kW i4 M50 can pounce from 0 to 100 in 3.9 seconds, which is fast. So if you’re tossing up between the two, the i4 is a no-brainer, especially in the current fuel market. How much? The BMW i4 starts at $99,900, plus on-road-costs. bmw.com.au
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARAH ENTICKNAP
Christos Tsiolkas The acclaimed author of The Slap has turned his talents to film, cowriting the screenplay Little Tornadoes about a single father coming to terms with change. Here’s the culture that keeps him engaged.
The book I’m reading…
The podcast I’m listening to…
I haven’t really read Fyodor Dostoevsky since my early 20s, when he inspired me to become a writer, and it’s wonderful going back. I started with Notes from Underground then Crime and Punishment and I’ve just started The Devils . I’m loving the harshness, the eloquence. But I’m also understanding the wisdom in Dostoevsky, which I didn’t recognise when I was younger.
The History of English is wonderful because it teaches the functions of language and the history of it as well. You realise how malleable it is, how it keeps shifting and changing. And it has so many influences but it’s still going. The podcast’s hosted by an American lawyer called Kevin Stroud and it’s clear it’s a labour of love.
Right now I’m streaming…
The app I use the most…
I was really impressed by The Assassination of Gianni Versace . It was a dark, compelling piece of television with a terrific cast. It was heartbreaking, too – one of those rare shows that focuses on the victims and gives them their dignity back.
I’m Grampa Simpson when it comes to social media. I think it can be quite emotionally destructive. I have a very rudimentary profile on LinkedIn just because it’s good, occasionally, for someone to get in touch but that’s it. I use my phone for texting and calling!
The last movie I loved…
The article that stayed with me…
An Italian film called The Young Observant , about a teenage boy from a rural background who’s taught how to become a waiter at a luxury hotel. It’s a really beautiful film, the performer is a natural and you don’t know whether it’s fiction or documentary. I just want to do a shout-out for that because I think it deserves more attention.
A couple of years ago I read The Last Children of Down Syndrome in The Atlantic, about prenatal testing offered in Denmark for women who might be carrying a child who has Down syndrome. There’s an interview with a mother of a child with Down syndrome and it wasn’t self-righteous and it wasn’t angry. It’s really taking seriously the possibilities of what we might be losing with this new technology.
INTERVIEW BY NATALIE REILLY
The story behind four g ons of design d e world's rest g s
18 JUNE - 6 NOVEMBER 2022
LEVEL 3, BRISBANE CITY HALL
EXHIBITION PARTNERS EVENT PARTNER
MAKING THE CUT
We’ve scanned the zeitgeist for what to read, watch, wear and drink now.
1 Streaming
It is a truth universally acknowledged that one can never have too many movie versions of Jane Austen novels. Case in point: Persuasion . Published posthumously in 1817, it’s the story of 27-year-old Anne Elliot, who’s persuaded by friends and family to break up with her fiancé, Captain Frederick Wentworth. Seven years after the dissolution of their relationship, will love have a second chance?
A new and thoroughly modern film retelling of the book, starring Dakota Johnson (above; The Lost Daughter), Cosmo Jarvis and Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians), will be on Netflix from 15 July.
2 Tech
For those non-influencers who don’t want to show up to a Zoom meeting looking washed-out comes a new, more subtle version of the ring light, the Litra Glow ($89.95; logitech.com). It promises to deliver flattering full-spectrum LED light with colour accuracy for a natural look – and it clips onto the top of your screen.
3 Drink
Committed to Dry July? Or not? Either way, Brunswick Aces (brunswickaces.com) in innercity Melbourne has you covered. The distiller recently added the Diamonds Sapiir zero-alcohol gin alternative to its line-up of blends. While it could be marketed on the flavour alone (it’s big on citrus with desert and finger limes as well as mandarin), the rectangular bottle features a nifty twist – a measuring jigger built into the lid.
4 Podcast
A celebrity with a new podcast? Not groundbreaking. A celebrity taking on the issue of global warming? We’re interested. Cate Blanchett, who’s said she feels overwhelmed by the tide of bad news, co-hosts an optimistic, solutions-focused pod with her friend and fellow Australian Danny Kennedy (above with Blanchett), CEO of environmental non-profit New Energy Nexus and managing director of the California Clean Energy Fund. Called Climate of Change , guests include director Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up) and Prince William.
Henry Leutwyler, Pauline Langmead
Book
Poppy’s House , a children’s book written by Qantas and Travel Insider’s own digital director Karla Courtney, began life as an article in this magazine in 2017, detailing a festive winter visit to the Canadian province of Newfoundland with Courtney’s grandfather. In the book she spins tales of her childhood holidays spent with Poppy in the remote town of Arnold’s Cove. It’s a sweet tribute to slow living and cross-generational friendships.
6 Movie
If the movie Speed had taken place on a very fast train racing through the Japanese countryside and been directed by Quentin Tarantino, the result might have come close to Bullet Train . An adaptation of the Japanese novel Maria Beetle – about an assassin (Brad Pitt, above, who somehow still looks good in a bucket hat and glasses) reluctantly drawn back in by his handler, Beetle (Sandra Bullock), for one last assignment – it also features Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta), Joey King and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. It’s got enough comedy to match the chaotic, neon-drenched violence. In cinemas 21 July.
7 Style
It’s a name more commonly associated with New York but right now Tiffany & Co. is having a moment in the British capital. Actually, it’s more than 400 moments thanks to the Vision & Virtuosity exhibition, which brings that many pieces from the jewellery house’s archives to London’s Saatchi Gallery (saatchigallery.com). Marking 150 years since Tiffany & Co. set up shop in London, the collection will be on display until 19 August and even offers a glimpse of the famed 128.54carat Tiffany Diamond (above).
8
Beauty
We’ve come a long way from the two-in-one shampoos and conditioners of the 1980s. Luxury haircare brand Oribe has released a cleanser that also does the job of a conditioner, the Run-Through Detangling Shampoo (above, $72; rogue beauty.com.au) and Shu Uemura has its Ultimate Reset Extreme Repair Shampoo, also designed to condition ($48; mecca.com. au). Meanwhile, Sachajuan is taking it all the way back to the follicles with their newest product, the Scalp Treatment Duo ($75; mecca.com.au).
Dennis Yong
Meet the chef making magic with leftover bread and surplus produce at a new Melbourne bar.
“Before I got into cooking, I wanted to be an environmentalist,” says Dennis Yong, chef and mastermind behind Parcs (parcs. com.au), a rescue-food and ferment bar on Melbourne’s Little Collins Street. “This is about both things at the same time.”
In a repurposed pizza joint, Yong’s eatery wears the mission to rethink waste on its green-painted sleeve (hint: say “Parcs” backwards). The menu revolves around offcuts from popular CBD restaurants Aru and Sunda (until last year, Yong was a chef at the latter), remixed with “unpretty” produce from markets. “I just picked up 200 kilograms of surplus plums from a farmer in the Yarra Valley after someone cancelled their order. Amazing fruit was going to be binned. I spend my days thinking, ‘What’s new that I can do with what nobody’s using?’”
So come hungry – and curious. Yong’s Malaysian roots show in avocado kaya and flashes of heat but dishes originate from “everywhere and nowhere”. He flips cacio e pepe with noodles instead of pasta, subbing cheese for miso fermented from leftover bread. Fried rice turns an umami cartwheel with reworked fish belly, before landing on op-shop plates. Almost everything here is living its best second life. Behind the bar, Darren Leaney turns scrap sunflowers into “wine” to spike highballs.
Being super-sustainable gives Parcs an edge right now but Yong hopes his ethos is standard restaurant practice soon. “Chefs can have a huge impact on the waste problem by starting with what’s in front of us, rather than thinking about a dish first and sourcing ingredients. We don’t want to drop the plate and run – we’ll talk you through the dish’s backstory, the idea.”
WORKING TOWARDS NET ZERO IN 2050
Chef Dennis Yong (left) and jewelled rice from Parcs
MONASH BUSINESS SCHOOL
Bar Margaux in Melbourne
FRENCH LESSONS
Steak frites and créme caramel? Très bon. Diners are hooked (again) on bistro classics.
STORY BY ELIZABETH MERYMENT
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SHANNON M c GRATH
When Melbourne chef Scott Pickett was imagining what his new Collingwood restaurant, Smith St Bistrot, would look like, he travelled back in time to 1920s Paris. “It was a romantic period, a bit sexy and very lavish,” says the chef. “Sourcing the antique silverware and décor was such a great experience. We had everyone involved, even my mum.”
It may be a century on from the Montmartre of the Roaring Twenties but Parisian-style bistros, with their chic interiors and classic menus, are back in fashion. Smith St Bistrot joins the likes of Melbourne’s Bar Margaux, Bistro Gitan and Bon Ap’ in the French stakes, while in Sydney, it’s almost impossible to get a last-minute table at Restaurant Hubert or Bistrot 916. Meanwhile, Brisbane classic Montrachet has found new life in Bowen Hills and in Perth, Guillaume Brahimi’s Bistro Guillaume is an ever-popular crowd-pleaser.
At Smith St Bistrot, the gritty streets of Melbourne’s inner city are forgotten as diners enter a space that offers brass countertops, marble tables, leather banquettes and cloudy mirrors. There’s even a wrought-iron balcony shadowing the dining room. And the menu? Escargot vol-au-vents, filet de steak au poivre and, yes, crème caramel. “French food has always been a cuisine I enjoy,” says Pickett, who runs the Scott Pickett Group and oversees seven restaurants including Chancery Lane, Matilda and Audrey’s at the new Continental Sorrento. “It’s romantic food that can either be very simple or painstaking to master. But that’s the beauty of it.”
Smith St Bistrot in Melbourne’s Collingwood
In Sydney’s Paddington, chefs Nicholas Hill and Harry Levy, with Matt Fitzgerald, opened Porcine in 2021, creating a “French restaurant above a bottle shop”, as they put it. Nestled in a first-floor space above natural wine shop P&V Wine + Liquor Merchants, Porcine follows the Gallic tradition of offering excellent dining that’s a flavourful alternative to higher-priced brasseries. Call it French comfort food.
Hill says the Australian bistro trend follows a pattern established in Europe over the past 10 years, as young chefs sought out small or inexpensive locations to launch their own venues. “I noticed a few years ago that the younger generation of chefs were doing bistros again in Paris and London,” he says. “Rents aren’t cheap and big fit-outs are expensive. Doing this is a way for us to have some freedom and also serve the food we love.”
Porcine may be named after the French word for pig but Hill says his menu also explores the lighter aspects of the cuisine to satisfy Australian palettes. “We like looking back to the ’70s and ’80s in France, when dishes became a lot lighter.”
For Pickett, the beauty of the bistro lies in its sense of discovery. “Guests are looking for an all-around experience now, something a bit out of the ordinary,” he says. “It’s got to be about the food and drinks but adding a touch of another place and time certainly elevates the experience. I think we all don’t mind being out of Melbourne for an hour or two after the past few years.”
Try it…
Sydney Bistrot 916
A shining star in Sydney’s burgeoning bistro movement, Bistrot 916 (bistrot916.com) in Potts Point is run by a trio of big names in ex-Hubert head chef Dan Pepperell, sommelier Andy Tyson and chef Michael Clift (who just so happens to be Neil Perry’s son-in-law). Take a seat at a table on the footpath or inside the moody dining room and order like you’re on the Rue de Rivoli from a menu on which all the classics – chicken liver parfait, duck or steak frites, scallop quenelle, oeufs mayonnaise – are represented. A sibling venue, Pellegrino 2000 (pellegrino2000. com), opened in February in nearby Surry Hills, adding an Italian accent to the bistro theme.
Melbourne Smith St Bistrot
Chef Scott Pickett faced a challenge after closing his Collingwood restaurant, Saint Crispin, in 2019. A transformation into an Italian venue, Lupo, didn’t last so Pickett decided to create something exceptional at the site. The result is the magnificently realised Smith St Bistrot (smithstbistrot.com.au), which offers French classics with some wiggle room for mod-Oz flourishes. Choose yellowfin tuna tartare with quail’s egg and gaufrette (lattice-shaped potato chips), King George whiting with crayfish and cucumber or fricassée chicken with tarragon and carrot. Order a bottle of French wine (most wines are natural or organic) and linger over a dreamy crème caramel or strawberry soufflé while you admire the room.
Woodburn
Loulou Bistro in Sydney’s Milsons Point
Perth Le Rebelle
This Mount Lawley favourite (lerebelle.com.au) takes the concept of the stylish Paris/ New York bistro and makes it fresh in three distinct spaces. Co-owner Liam Atkinson presents bistro standards with touches of Australian sangfroid in dishes such as “crab toast” of blue manna crab with lemon, mayo and pickled celery on brioche or Wagin duck confit, frites and sauce béarnaise. If a booking is hard to come by, a new sister venue in Highgate, Bar Rogue (barrogue.com.au), with its attractive snacky menu of oysters, charcuterie and cocktails, is a handy alternative.
Sydney Porcine
You might expect meat-heavy eating at a restaurant named for a pig (porcine.com.au) but rest assured there is much to discover at this Paddington hotspot. The menu starts with oysters and builds through vegetable plates such as endive with plum, capers and mint. Still, pork eaters will find their spiritual home via offerings that may include truffled pork and prune pâté or the pork chop with “choux farci”, a Jurassic-looking dish of meat, bone, crackling and jus. The pricing is tight, with many items under $30, so you can return without breaking the bank.
Adelaide Bistro Français
With green leather banquettes lining whitewashed brick walls, vintage French advertising posters and quaint pendant lights, this new Hyde Park outfit (bistro-francais.business.site) looks every bit a traditional bistro. Paris-born co-owner Fabien Streit trained in Burgundy and brings a bank of culinary techniques to the kitchen. The menu is deeply classic – French onion soup, duck confit, salade niçoise, ratatouille and boeuf bourguignon – but nobody’s complaining when the cooking is as confident and delicious as this.
Sydney Loulou Bistro
This Milsons Point eatery (loulou.sydney) has a wide brief. As well as serving Gallic classics in its stylish dining room, there’s also a boulangerie and a deli, should you need a baguette or some charcuterie to take home. Chef Billy Hannigan recognises that Australians generally prefer their food less butter-rich than the French and has adjusted his technique accordingly. “Many of our dishes will be recognisable to those who enjoy traditional French bistros but my technique is a lot lighter,” he says. Try the stuffed John Dory with champagne sauce, rotisserie chicken with sauce colbert or hand-cut steak tartare.
(From left) Steak tartare with pommes frites at Le Rebelle, Perth; Porcine in Sydney
Down
the hatch Chef Neil Perry shares his favourite meal of the month: dry-aged Muscovy duck breast with witlof and sunrise plum from Gimlet at Cavendish House in Melbourne.
Why I like it
I love duck and in the hands of chef Andrew McConnell, this dish is a masterclass in cooking poultry. Raised in the Macedon Ranges, the Muscovy duck is brushed with smoked maple syrup and dry-aged for a week to help the skin colour and crisp, as well as add flavour. It’s served with locally grown white witlof that is braised, last-season blood plum and a sauce of rich duck jus (with a splash of preserved cherry from Mark Foletta’s farm in Benalla). As the seasons progress, the duck might be accompanied by Tokyo turnips and preserved orange or early summer stone fruit, depending on when you visit. This is a true celebration of local, seasonal food and is one of the best duck dishes I have ever had.
The vibe
Walking into Gimlet at Cavendish House is like walking into a grand 1920s New York-style steak house. Like McConnell’s other restaurants – such as Cutler & Co., Supernormal and Cumulus Inc – it’s dripping with style. Sydney design firm Acme has made the kitchen centrestage – it’s right in the middle of the room, surrounded by banquette seating and a “dress circle” of tables. The place has a sense of theatre about it but it’s also a whole lot of fun.
Goes well with…
I love a quality red Burgundy with duck but an Australian pinot noir or lighter-style cool-climate shiraz will also match it perfectly. The Gimlet wine list has these – and much more – in spades.
What else is on the menu?
Caviar and lobster if you have something to celebrate. In the entrées, the pasta is trottole (a squiggly shape) with prawns, pine nuts and currants and is super-tasty. Of the main courses, three are from the woodfired grill.
The grass-fed T-bone is a whopping 900 grams so best to share it.
Where to get it
Gimlet at Cavendish House is in the Melbourne CBD, on the corner of Russell Street and Flinders Lane (and not far from Supernormal and Cumulus Inc).
You can’t go wrong with an Andrew McConnell experience.
33 Russell Street, Melbourne; (03) 9277 9777; gimlet.melbourne
The Dish STORY BY NEIL PERRY
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JO M c GANN
A timeless classic
The historic homestead of this 100-year-old Hunter Valley icon has had a stunning upgrade and, much like the fine wine it produces, is only getting better with age.
Nestled in the foothills of the Hunter Valley’s Brokenback Ranges lies one of Australia’s oldest wineries. Mount Pleasant Wines – known for its artisanal semillon blends and rich table reds –was established in 1921 by the “father of modern winemaking”, Maurice O’Shea. The young O’Shea recognised the potential in the region’s ancient sandy seabed and scorching summer heat and put the wine region on the world map. Now, a century on, it has undergone an elegant revival, led by award-winning architects and interior designers Luchetti Krelle, to kick off its second hundred years.
The newly refurbished Pokolbin cellar door is positioned to take advantage of the vineyard views. Gather around the gleaming zinc-and-blackbutt counter for a themed tasting flight. Each tasting showcases Mount Pleasant’s four historic vineyard styles and the wine produced from each.
Enjoy an exquisite share-plate menu from newly appointed chef Kyle Whitbourne in collaboration with acclaimed chef Justin North. Sample wild boar and fennel salami between sips of the 2019 Maurice O’Shea vintage –a pure shiraz made from the estate’s best grapes. For something lighter, the yellowfin tuna with sesame, kohlrabi and dashi pairs beautifully with the fragrant, delicate Lovedale semillon.
An impressive selection of artworks are also displayed throughout the homestead. The selection was curated by Jaklyn Babington, previously of the National Gallery of Australia, and includes Rosemary Laing’s cinematic photo series and nostalgic oils of Mount Pleasant by Archibald Prize winner (and O’Shea’s nephew) Garry Shead.
Don’t leave before taking in the wine store, which showcases current releases and rare museum bottles. Take home a souvenir from Mount Pleasant’s highly anticipated 2021 Vintage range, including the Old Paddock 1921 Shiraz and Old Hill Pinot Noir, which comes from the oldest pinot noir vineyard in Australia.
For more information, visit mountpleasantwines.com.au
Enzo Amato, Nikki To
(Clockwise from above) Margaritas and tacos at Carbón Mexican Woodfire; Bondi Tratt; Sean’s at North Bondi
BONDI
Best long lunch
Sean’s
A rite of passage for any self-respecting Sydneysider, the long lunch at Sean’s has gained mythic status. Perhaps it’s that gorgeous room, filled with fresh-cut flowers, walls groaning with art and views of the north end of the beach. Or perhaps it’s the promise of that very good roast chook with all the trimmings, the white chocolate and rosemary nougat and the stellar service. Actually, it’s all of it.
270 Campbell Parade, North Bondi; (02) 9365 4924; seansbondi.com
Best big night out
Lola’s Level 1
Restaurateur Marco Ambrosino may have left Fratelli Paradiso and 10 William St but he brings those Italian wine bar vibes to the beach with this newbie. The wine list, full of natural-leaning Aussie and Italian drops, will see you through a menu that follows similar rules. You could make a meal of small plates (go for the lamb skewers, goat’s curd and pickled cucumber) but that would mean missing out on semolina spaghetti with mussels, prawns and gremolata.
When you’re onto a good thing, stick to it, just as café god Bill Granger does with those famous ricotta hotcakes and corn fritters with crisp bacon. It’s more than a sum of its snacks, though. Bills has always been a winner when it comes to relaxed service in easy surrounds. And no more so than at this Bondi outpost where the Bloody Marys are spiced with Korean chilli paste. There’s lunch and dinner, too, but late breakfast is still the meal to bet on here.
79 Hall Street, Bondi Beach; (02) 8412 0700; bills.com.au
Best Italo-pub fare
Totti’s
Out of all the Italian eateries Bondi boasts, this is the one you can feel most at home drinking a schooner. Take lunch in the courtyard and start with chef Mike Eggert’s signature puffy bread with a smorgasbord of small seasonal things (there could be slices of rockmelon, spicy ’nduja or salted beetroot). Bring a few friends so you can order the wood-roasted whole fish and the crunchy veal rump schnitzel. Oh, don’t skip the Neapolitan ice-cream sandwich.
Fans of pizza and roast pork sandwiches, rejoice. Orazio D’Elia is back where it all started in 2014, down Hall Street near Harris Farm. More romantic locations exist in Bondi, sure, but there’s nowhere you’ll get a pizza as charry, light and moreish. And if his signature porchetta con focaccia has never passed your lips, life won’t be the same after you bite into layers of roast pork between perfectly toasted chunks of bread.
75-79 Hall Street, Bondi Beach; (02) 8090 6969; daorazio.com
Best ramen
Chaco Ramen
Keita Abe’s original Darlinghurst ramen shop proved so popular, he escaped to the beach to open another one. Aside from Japanese soup noodles, there’s excellent yakitori and snacks such as gyoza and two types of karaage. The classic soy ramen with slices of roast pork, black fungus and bamboo is always a smart order but the chilli chicken and coriander is certainly a sinus clearer in the cooler months.
The beach is iconic, the peoplewatching is out of this world and the restaurant scene is hotter than ever. Here’s where to go now.
Best Bondi classic
Bondi Tratt
A beachside mainstay for the past 35 years, Bondi Tratt is popular with the off-duty hospitality crowd. The menu is a grab bag of all the Italian hits (raw tuna, calamari fritti, ricotta gnocchi with bolognese) and plenty of easy-drinking wines. There’s even sticky chai if you’re having a rough morning.
Bondi Beach Public Bar has had a makeover from Shell House’s Brett Robinson. What’s in place of the pub is what the beachside suburb has been missing: an upscale Greek diner where the pita is charred, the saganaki is dressed in warm honey and the crunchy fried whitebait is waiting patiently for a squeeze of lemon. Taramasalata comes adorned with salmon pearls and calamari is grilled over coals. Pass the slow-cooked lemon potatoes and assyrtiko.
Is there anything quite so Bondi as wandering up from the beach and sinking your teeth into a fish taco? Here, beer-battered barramundi fillets are swaddled inside a soft tortilla and spiced up with a little chipotle mayonnaise. The focus is on the woodfired grill so get in on the action with Jack’s Creek flank steak brightened with chimichurri and – a favourite of Mexico City street stalls – barbacoa. At Carbón, it’s translated as woodfired lamb shoulder served with a little lamb bone broth. To drink? One of five types of Margarita.
This celebrated region boasts the wild Indian Ocean, vast national parks and plenty of revered winemakers. But it’s also home to some off-kilter eats.
When it comes to sustainability, there are restaurants that source a bit of free-range chicken or grow a few veggies in a kitchen garden… and then there’s Margaret River’s Arimia (arimia.com.au) in Wilyabrup. Chef Evan Hayter and his team serve real ingredients, taken straight from the earth and sea, with a care that goes far beyond a hobby or a box tick. It’s a fully-fledged belief system that incorporates everything from raising their own pork and trout to the daily coaxing of sourdough. That dedication shows on the plate and it’s what makes this small winery restaurant a destination. While you can stay onsite – there’s a fourbedroom guesthouse on the property – Arimia is only open for lunch. Here’s where Hayter suggests you eat during the rest of your time in the region.
La Scarpetta Trattoria
For the ravioli
“La Scarpetta Trattoria (lascarpetta.com.au) is a traditional Italian restaurant in an old timber building just as you come into Margaret River town. It’s all about the ambience and has a really special feel. It’s one of those places that when you’ve been once, you’ll go every few weeks. The filled pastas – like the spinach and ricotta ravioli or mushroom tortelli – are my picks. They’re all handmade.”
Beerfarm
For the barbecue and beer
“Nathan and Eileen Booth from Burnt Ends Smoking Co in Metricup look after the kitchen at Beerfarm (beerfarm.com.au) and they’re master barbecuers. They do a daily menu plus Smokin’ Saturdays barbecue platters – barbecue is the foundation of their food and this showcases what they do. I also love Beerfarm’s milk stout. I think it’s the best beer in the region.”
Normal Van
For the fried chicken
“Normal Van (normalvan.com) is a food truck that pops up around the region – from the Rotary Park to the District Club car park. It’s run by this Canadian dude who moved here and worked at some of the best restaurants around, including Vasse Felix and Aravina Estate. He does buttermilk fried chicken and burgers until they run out and it’s just good fun.”
The Common For the tacos
“In the past couple of years this bistro (thecommonbistro.com.au) at Gnarabup was taken over by a Californian guy and his Cali/ Mexican-style tacos are amazing. I love the ones with cheese at the bottom and grilled beef on top. The fish tacos are also great.”
Goanna Bush Café For the breakfast fried rice
“I don’t usually go out for breakfast because I feel like it’s not that hard to cook a couple of eggs and a bit of bacon at home but this quaint little café (goannacafe.com.au) does breakfast a bit differently, like a really great Indonesian-style
nasi goreng breakfast with coconut rice. It’s not somewhere you’d find easily; it’s a little house in a bush setting between Dunsborough and Yallingup so you have to know it’s there.”
Miki’s Open Kitchen For the tempura
“Miki’s is a cosy, corner-shopstyle tempura restaurant (mikisopenkitchen.com.au). It’s really small so bookings are essential – ask for a seat at the counter so you can watch the chefs cook in front of you. There are three different dégustations and if you choose ‘Miki’s Trust’ you are in the chef’s hands. The restaurant uses vegetables from Jema McCabe, one of the farmers I do a lot of work with. Anything that showcases her produce is exceptional, even something as simple as a dashi-cooked onion.”
Chef Evan Hayter (opposite) likes to eat at Miki’s Open Kitchen (above) and Normal Van (below)
CABERNET SAUVIGNON
Cab sav is pretty old-school stuff. Why try it now? Yes, it’s a classic grape – some even describe it as aristocratic. But grown in the right site, crafted in a sensitive way and served with good food, it’s a deep, complex and satisfying red. Where does it grow? Its home is Bordeaux, where it’s the backbone of famous wines such as Château Margaux and Château Lafite Rothschild. Cab sav has been grown in Australia for 190 years, with Coonawarra once the hero region, but nowadays Margaret River claims that mantle. It likes a mild climate and thrives in areas like the Yarra Valley, the Pyrenees, Eden Valley, Mudgee and Orange. How does a good cab sav taste? It’s dense and concentrated with a firm tannin profile and smells of blackcurrant, mulberry and cedarwood. Oak helps shape and build the flavours and powers the finish. Cab sav is just made for proteins such as lamb or beef; when aged it goes well with firm cheeses like cheddar, gruyère and parmesan. So it cellars well? Yes. The rich, bold flavours need time in the bottle to soften and harmonise. The Bordelaise blend merlot and cabernet franc to tame bolshie young cabernet and many of our winegrowers follow suit. Modest drops need three to five years but superfine cab sav will happily cellar for 10, 20 and more years. How much does it cost? Between $20 and $50 with icons such as Cape Mentelle, Moss Wood, Cullen and Wynns John Riddoch well over $100. Penfolds Bin 707 tops the bill at $650.
Wynns Coonawarra
Estate Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon
This is the standard-bearer for Coonawarra, with cassis and mulberry aromas and a whiff of cedarwood. Intensely flavoured yet perfectly poised, it will keep for a decade or more.
Coonawarra, SA / 2019 / $45
Dark and distinctive, this complex red reveals its riches to those who wait.
Vasse Felix Premier Cabernet Sauvignon
Paul Holmes à Court (owner) and Virginia Willcock (winemaker) are a talented duo delivering exemplary wines. This buoyant cabernet is full of dark berry fruits and smoked spices. Sinewy tannins extend the finish.
Margaret River, WA / 2018 / $52
Hoosegg Double Happy Cabernet Sauvignon Blend
After 60 years of winemaking, Philip Shaw has a new label. Blackcurrant and boysenberry mingle with star anise and dried herbs in this tight, concentrated wine. Deep, long and satisfying.
Orange, NSW / 2017 / $140
Tahbilk Eric Stevens Purbrick Cabernet Sauvignon
This is old-school cabernet at its best, with dense blackcurrant and mulberry along with hints of clove and sandalwood. Its potent flavours and tight, grainy tannins cry out for rare roast beef.
Nagambie Lakes, Vic / 2016 / $73
Wine List STORY BY PETER BOURNE PHOTOGRAPHY BY CRAIG WALL
THE LODGE BAR & DINING JAMES ST, BRISBANE
A concept transported from Queenstown to Queensland, Rodd & Gunn x The Lodge Bar & Dining James St is an innovative first for the Australian market, offering a blended hospitality and retail experience like no other.
Melding fashion, food and wine, Rodd & Gunn x The Lodge Bar & Dining James St treats customers to a truly memorable experience. Inside the 150 year old heritage building, guests will be given the opportunity to browse the latest fashion collections and indulge in an array of delectable dishes, with a full dining offering available venue wide.
From high-luxe city hotels to tropical paradise resorts, these are the places to check in across the globe.
Acro Suites on Crete, Greece
South Africa
!Xaus Lodge
[STORY BY] Alexis Buxton-Collins
01 Floating in an endless sea of wave-like sandhills the colour of baked clay, close to where the borders of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana meet, !Xaus Lodge (xauslodge.co.za) is a long way from everywhere at Dune 91 off the Auob River Road in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.
From the closest airport at Upington, it’s a three-hour drive to the park entry, followed by another 60 kilometres along a dry watercourse crowded with shaggy wildebeest, stately giraffes and half a dozen types of antelope seeking refuge from the parched landscape. Then a guide from the lodge takes the wheel for the last leg, an undulating 4WD track over 91 dunes – count them –that leads to 12 rammed-earth, thatched-roof chalets arranged democratically along a ridgeline so that each has a deck overlooking a vast salt pan and waterhole.
There’s no phone coverage or daily newspaper here, each night’s drama instead recorded in the maze of tracks scattered through the sand, where scorpions and lions prowl restlessly as their celestial counterparts track across a glittering night sky completely free of light pollution.
!Xaus (the exclamation mark represents one of four distinctive clicks in the Khoisan languages) is owned and majority staffed by the ‡Khomani San and Mier communities so there are plenty of chances to see the landscape through their eyes. Guides read the lines of dunes like a street map and give each animal a personality, from the sacred eland antelope to the “bush doctor” porcupine, while the on-site cultural village echoes with laughter as the resident family shares traditional stories, crafts and games.
Looking out at the endless ranks of dunes crowned with tufts of golden grass, guide Andre Valbooi smiles as he considers his relationship with land that doesn’t just support life but defines a rich culture. “It is like we’re married to the park,” he says. “And when you’re with us, you get to meet the bride.”
London
The Standard
[STORY
BY] Eliza Compton
02 The performer in the bar’s DJ booth is resplendent in a scarlet sequined catsuit while her drag bingo co-host calls the numbers to the tune of Baby One More Time. Next door, the literati launch the next bestseller in The Library Lounge. Meanwhile, in the 10th-floor MexicanSpanish fine-diner, Decimo, helmed by top chef Peter Sanchez-Iglesias, urbanites share woodfired leek and romesco, and Iberico pork. And above them all, The Rooftop terrace hosts tête-à-têtes over stewed chicken tacos with Rum Punch as the city’s landmarks twinkle all around. It’s a Tuesday night and The Standard, London (hotel.qantas.com.au/standard london) is abuzz from top to bottom.
In the heart of King’s Cross, the design-driven hotel group’s first address outside the United States takes inspiration from its surroundings – think punk and politics – as well as its Los Angeles origins. With its exterior lift that looks like a red medicine capsule and its organicfuturist interiors, the property is as vivid as a Kubrick or Fellini film set.
None of it comes at the expense of comfort, though. The 266 rooms add texture, tech and calm to the former Camden Town Hall Annex’s Brutalist curves. Whether you go with a cocoon-like Cosy Core room or splash out on a corner suite with a terrace or outside bathtub, all the rooms have silky linen, down pillows and bespoke Craig Green robes. Thoughtfully stocked mini-bars offer beers from Camden Town Brewery and views include the Gothic Revival façade of the St Pancras International train station over the road, a reminder that London and Europe are at your doorstep.
The staff are helpful, friendly and no question is too obscure – they’ll offer local tips (don’t skip cool shopping destination Coal Drops Yard), explain the phallic sculpture in Sweeties decadent cocktail bar on the 10th floor or try to find out why the cult tequila bottles behind the bar have a bell on top. Like the neighbourhood itself, the Standard, London is a little bit extra in the best possible way.
Jacques Marais
[STORY BY] Jenny Hewett
03 From Bali’s highlands at dusk, the ocean glows ember-red, moving like hot lava towards the shadowy stillness of land. Sure, sunsets on this island are known for being special but when seen from Duma Cabin in Munduk (airbnb. com.au), just under two hours drive north of Canggu, they seem other-worldly. Ominous clouds move overhead as a fire crackles in a spaceship-like sunken firepit overlooking the valley and mountains appear to tumble into that lava-like sea just beyond the hot tub.
In an area famous for its coffee plantations and blue hydrangea farms harvesting flowers for canang saris (daily offerings), this new design-forward hideaway is about as far removed from the Bali of busy, touristy Seminyak as you can find. The architectural mountain retreat is made up of seven timber cabins, which share a communal area with an infinity pool as well as the jacuzzi and firepit. Two-storey, three-bedroom Duma Cabin is the crown jewel, all soft lighting, floor-to-ceiling windows and minimalist pops of jade and aqua that complement the leafy scene outside. The suite was built using reclaimed wood and relies on solarpowered hot water (which you can drink straight from the tap).
“Alexa, can you play Justin Bieber?” says on-site manager Dewa, rounding off his tour of this wilderness stay with a rundown of the tech. WhatsApp is your concierge here, with Dewa on call 24 hours a day and local and Western meals ordered from nearby restaurants via the app. But the fully equipped kitchen means you can bring your own supplies to cook up a feast, too. Chances are you’ll want to do little more than grab a glass of wine from the mini-bar, head out to the swinging sofa on the deck and watch daylight dissolve.
Bali
Duma Cabin
Los Angeles
Downtown L.A. Proper Hotel
[STORY BY] Chlo é Brinklow
04 A pool inside your suite on LA’s busy Broadway corridor? How about a room big enough to play a game of basketball in? They’re not gimmicks at the Downtown L.A. Proper Hotel (hotel.qantas.com.au/ downtownlaproperhotel). They’re a nod to the building’s history, which was key to the vision of American designer and interiors star Kelly Wearstler as she drove the makeover of this circa-1926 California Renaissance Revival structure.
Opened in October 2021, the hotel rivals some of the city’s best galleries with its curation of art and furniture sourced from local creators and vintage markets. At checkin, guests stand beneath a giant mural of flora and fauna by artist Abel Macias, which mirrors the hues of the property’s original pink checkerboard marble floor. Throughout, there’s a keen mix of old and new – carved vintage objet d’art and pieces by late American designer Adrian Pearsall sit alongside new-kid furniture like Lostine bar stools. And that’s how the Pool and Basketball Court suites came to be. Rather than removing all traces of the building’s former life as a YWCA, the indoor swimming pool is now at the centre of an apartment-sized space for two that stretches over 250 square metres, while the old basketball court has been repurposed into a one-bedroom escape that retains the double-height ceilings.
Outside the 147 rooms, the offering is thoroughly modern. Restaurant Caldo Verde (right) by chef Suzanne Goin and restaurateur and sommelier Caroline Styne serves up small plates that fuse Portuguese, Spanish and Southern Californian flavours (order the sea bream with potatoes in citrus and truffle butter). On the rooftop you’ll find Cara Cara, a more casual diner that draws the city’s creative professionals and business leaders from lunch until after dark. Maybe they come for the panoramic views and everchanging sunlight over the city – but most don’t leave without ordering a Passionfruit Caipirinha with mezcal.
[STORY BY] Kirsty Munro
05 Tall black fences line the narrow cobbled alleys of Kagurazaka, the historic geisha district of Tokyo that was once a magnet for artists, writers and samurai and is today filled with cafés, restaurants, cosy wine bars and boutiques. Behind one such fence on the appropriately named Kakurenbo Yokocho – “hide-andseek alley” – is Trunk House (trunk-house. com), the city’s most exclusive hotel.
Formerly a geisha training house, the two-storey space is now a one-room hotel and the sister venue of the bright and buzzy 15-room Trunk Hotel in Shibuya. Trunk House is the moodier offering, all dark wood interiors and with a private
Yohji Yamamoto-wearing butler (who is available 24 hours a day).
A concealed staircase leads up to the guest quarters, a minimalist openplan retreat that features a tatami room with an open hearth for tea ceremonies, a spacious zone for lounging and a bedroom with a low, king-sized bed. (The nightly tariff is for up to two people but the room can accommodate up to four with the option of two single futon beds in the tatami room.) In a wink to the area’s history as a sophisticated adult playground in the Edo period, a large tiled artwork based on traditional erotic woodblock prints dominates the bathroom wall behind a cypress tub.
What could draw you back to the ground floor? The scent of dinner cooking,
rising up from the courtyard garden, should do it. Head down to find your private chef preparing multiple courses (which run the gamut from sashimi to soft-shell turtle, if you’re feeling brave), each one matched with glasses of smallbatch sake. Meals are whenever you want them at Trunk House. Feeling peckish in the middle of the night? Your butler will bring you anything from local ramen to a bowl of the chef’s homemade ice-cream. And if you want to end the night – or greet the day – with a little karaoke, you can do that here in what might be Japan’s smallest disco: a red-lit jewel box of neon, complete with mirror ball, that’s concealed behind a padded door on the ground floor. This is the best of the city wrapped into one hyper-boutique stay.
Tomooki Kengaku
Tokyo
Trunk House
06 Just like the city it’s in, Next Hotel Melbourne (hotel.qantas.com.au/ nextmelbourne) plays it cool. Camouflaged in the glamorous 80 Collins development, its minimal street presence – dominated by hole-in-the-wall café Ingresso – might make you wonder, is this really the place? But as a suited valet emerges from the hidden concierge desk to commandeer luggage and give directions to the secondfloor lobby, the razzle begins.
There’s shimmering golden mesh curtains, mood lighting and arty sculptures in the lobby and the 255 rooms and suites
follow its lead: textured French linen, caramel leather cushions and marbletopped tables offset with neon paintings by Australian artist Jonny Niesche.
Kick off an evening of indulgence at refined lounge The Club – the exclusive domain of guests staying in club rooms and suites – where oysters and prosecco from King Valley spell aperitivo hour. At La Madonna restaurant, co-head chefs Daniel Natoli and Adrian Li find a creative synergy between their Sicilian and Hong Kong cultures. Charry wild boar tsukune (skewered meatballs) with jalapeño and crisp salt-and-vinegar-battered zucchini fritto have made a city-wide splash. “We’re like rivals who also have fun together,”
says Li, laughing, as he serves a congee-like risotto with pine mushrooms and koji.
Drift to the Manhattan-style bar –where classic cocktails and spirits are aged in wood and herbal liqueurs steep in glass jars – for a dark and complex Negroni. And if you manage to resist a second, find one waiting in the minibar of your room.
While the concierge can organise a personalised shopping experience with 80 Collins’ high-end tenants – from Georg Jensen to Mulberry and Golden Goose – perhaps take heed of the sisters at checkout, who say they haven’t set foot on the street since they arrived. “It’s the ultimate staycation,” one says. “You never want to leave.”
Melbourne
Next Hotel
[STORY BY] Larissa Dubecki
Hong Kong
The Upper House
[STORY BY] Sally Robinson
07 It may be small by Hong Kong standards, with only 117 rooms, but like just about everything else in this city, it’s quality not quantity that counts at The Upper House (hotel.qantas.com. au/theupperhousehongkong). And high above the bustling streets, occupying floors 43 to 49 of a repurposed 1980s block, quality translates into tranquil, understated luxury.
“When I need some inspiration I come out here. It’s an oasis of calm,” says general
manager Kristina Snaith-Lense of the lush secret garden, The Lawn (above), just off the 6th-floor atrium. The soothing hideaway hosts alfresco drinks, dinners and yoga classes.
Throughout the property, soft neutral colours blend with natural materials, including bamboo, limestone, shoji glass and timber, the serene vibe thanks to architect and design sensation André Fu. Just as relaxed, staff wear a casual uniform of black trousers and T-shirts, the service discreet and warm.
Sanctuaries in the sky, the guestrooms and suites boast natural light, vertiginous
views and more space than you’d expect in this big city, along with oversized bathtubs positioned to look out over the harbour, the green hillside of the Peak or downtown Wan Chai, cleverly taking the stress out of sightseeing.
On the 49th floor, Salisterra is the only on-site restaurant and its Mediterranean menu and laid-back atmosphere has quickly made it a favourite with locals. Come dusk, nothing beats sipping a dry Martini in the sleek adjoining bar, the expansive windows exploiting the glittering vistas of the city below and Kowloon beyond.
AN EPIC FEW DAYS
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Journey Beyond Rail
There’s a whole lot of adventure packed into a three-day journey on The Ghan. From the moment you step on board, you’ll get the sense that something special is about to unfold. From the spacious lounges, all-inclusive fine dining, immersive Off Train Experiences and great company, it makes for an unforgettable rail holiday between Adelaide and the Top End. Search Journey Beyond Rail or contact your local travel agent today.
Deplar Farm
[STORY BY] Dilvin Yasa
08 It takes one hell of a prize to lure travellers to the ends of the earth – in this case, Deplar Farm (hotel.qantas. com.au/deplarfarm) in the dramatic Fljót Valley in northern Iceland, reputed to be one of Europe’s most remote stays. Indeed, getting there demands some combination of multi-leg plane travel, a helicopter charter or five hours of scenic driving from Reykjavik to the mountainous Troll Peninsula, where emerald pastures yield to icy Atlantic Ocean gales and hardy sheep outnumber humans by two to one.
For the intrepid, it’s no biggie; this is, after all, a luxury lodge that markets itself as the ultimate adventure destination, where conquering some of the world’s best heli-skiing terrain, sea kayaking, snowmobiling and a host of other highenergy pursuits will raise heart rates but not eyebrows.
Out of the elements, the converted 18th-century sheep farm offers thrills for the design-minded, too. The turf-covered roof conceals 13 cosy suites, each one rich with sheepskin throws and Moroccan wool blankets that provide striking contrast to the jagged landscape beyond the windows. (Book the top-floor Floki suite to see the valley from windows on three sides.)
A spa session teeters on the brink of extreme with its outdoor Viking sauna dug into a grassy hillside, plus Isopod flotation tanks and hot and cold plunge tubs. If the brink feels too tame, a spot of axe-throwing is said to improve focus.
The ultimate pay-off for making it so far? Relaxing in an open-air geothermal pool that gives you front-row seats to the ephemeral Northern Lights display, which general manager Anthony Ardisson says transforms guests. “Those who share this event are profoundly impacted and have an unspoken bond that lasts a lifetime.”
New Zealand
Seascape at Annandale
09 Agatha Christie’s ghost may or may not make an evening appearance at the Pera Palace (hotel.qantas.com.au/ perapalace). And you’re right to feel disappointed if she doesn’t, considering Christie reportedly wrote Murder On the Orient Express while a guest at the iconic Istanbul property and there’s since been many reports of paranormal activity.
Maybe she’s in the grand Ottoman-meets-Art-Nouveau salon, sinking into a plush sofa under the spell of a hot chocolate as filling as it is stress-dissolving. The drink’s powers seem magnified by the golden glow of candlelight and the gilded sunset, when the hotel’s views over the Tepebaşi neighbourhood are at their best and the call to prayer drifts across the city.
Perhaps Christie’s spending time with the spirits of other famous guests – Ernest Hemingway, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis or Mata Hari – in the marble hammam or any of the 115 refined guestrooms. Or maybe she’s staring back from one of the portraits of her that hang in Room 411, where she’s said to have penned her most famous work, frustrated that the antique Underwood typewriter is just for decoration.
Even without other-worldly encounters, enchantment hangs in the air. Built for Orient Express passengers in 1895, the hotel’s staff can grant seemingly any wish. A private boat ride? No problem. Romantic dinner at a hard-to-get table underneath the Galata Bridge? The only questions are what time, which restaurant (women-owned Beyaz İnci is an excellent choice) and what you’d like to eat (Beyaz İnci’s stuffed calamari is sublime).
If you’re hoping to take a train that retraces the route of the Orient Express, Pera Palace staff can secure your tickets. They can also arrange transfers to and from Istanbul Airport, 35 kilometres away. But as Agatha Christie’s lingering ghost may attest, departing this hotel can prove challenging.
10 The spray carried by the cool sea breeze meant the bonfire wouldn’t start. Then guilt began to take hold: guest services manager Caroline Hutchinson had gone to the trouble of having wood gathered from the rocky beach after it was mentioned a fire would help embody the “castaway” concept that architect Andrew Patterson envisioned for Seascape at Annandale (hotel.qantas.com. au/annandale). The property’s private chef, Rodrigo Marín Rost, even brought marshmallows – no small feat when getting here involves driving for more than 90 minutes on winding country roads from Christchurch Airport then another 40 minutes along gravel roads hugging rugged coastline. (Most guests arrive via an 11-minute helicopter ride.)
Solace is found in a glass of Louis Roederer champagne, enjoyed in the jacuzzi under the stars next to a gas fire, both of which roar to life at the press of a button. Nearly everything at Seascape can be done by pressing buttons –impressive considering that it took 16 kilometres of underground cable to connect the electricity.
The angular interior has concrete floors and windows stretching to the ceiling, with views of a sheltered bay and the blue Pacific beyond, yet it feels cosy. Maybe it’s the natural stone walls, indoor gas fire or that the space is far larger than it appears but seems to burrow into the hill it juts from. The feeling’s magnified by the ultrasoft bed as wide as it is long, next to which rests a book called The World’s Sexiest Bedrooms (Seascape is featured).
With sinewy grass, wrinkled hills and water all around, you can’t help but feel like a modern-day castaway – it’s a “cove within a cove”, says Hutchinson. Robinson Crusoe could probably be tempted to stay even if he couldn’t get the fire going.
[STORY BY] Ben Mack
[STORY BY] Ben Mack
Istanbul
Pera Palace Hotel
Sri Lanka
[STORY BY] Catherine Marshall
11 “In the jungle there’s a palm tree and we take the toddy from it, we boil it and we get jaggery,” says chef Gunendra Pushpasiri as he adds the sugary substance to a mound of spice and pestles it into a riotously fragrant elixir. “It won’t be spicy –trust me!” Pushpasiri tames the wildest local flavours in cooking classes at Wild Coast Tented Lodge (hotel.qantas.com.au/wild coasttentedlodge), a luxurious oceanside campsite on the fringes of Sri Lanka’s venerated wilderness.
The cuisine is as inventive and revitalising as the property itself, where 28 tented “cocoons” are scattered like insect casings across the dunes on the south-east coast, a 5.5-hour drive or short flight from Colombo. Pushpasiri’s bountiful jungle sits adjacent to the lodge: Yala National Park, replete with sloth bears, elephants and leopards, endemic to Sri Lanka. Daily game drives are included in your stay and nature bristles outside each suite’s canvas walls: wild boars drinking at waterholes filled with desalinated seawater; olive ridley turtles laying their eggs on the beach beyond the free-form swimming pool; porcupines dropping quills in the coastal bushland where you take guided walks. Wild elephants grazing against a backdrop of pounding surf is a truly surreal sight.
The lodge monitors leopard populations in the buffer zone that separates it from the national park and invites guests to add to its database with their own observations. This conservation ethos is distilled in safari-style interiors, a blend of teak floors, chocolate leather folding chairs, mosquito-net-draped beds and freestanding copper bathtubs. After a day tracking wildlife, stroll to the open-air, woven-bamboo restaurant and bar or head to the wave-lashed beach for sundowners and feel the untamed meet the sublime.
Wild Coast Tented Lodge
South Australia
[STORY BY] Christina Rae
12 It’s an intimate dinner of six guests and the wine director at Sequoia (hotel.qantas.com.au/sequoialodge) has invited Clare Valley winemaker Damon Koerner of Koerner Wine. Twin glasses are poured – a 2021 savagnin and 2021 blanc savagnin chardonnay from Koerner’s Leko label – and guests are asked which they prefer between bites of poulet vin jaune (braised chicken with wine and chanterelle mushrooms). As the story goes, a few people ended up drinking wine in the pool
after the last Maker + Somm evening. It’s easy to entertain the possibility. But if you’ve booked an early morning dip in one of the two 38°C artesian-springfed pools to see the sun emerge from the misty Piccadilly Valley, that’s worth skipping a sleep-in for.
Sequoia’s main lodge and 14 Midcentury Modern-style suites are oriented to maximise views from the property’s perch on Mount Lofty – the highest point in the Adelaide Hills – just a 25-minute drive from the Adelaide CBD.
If you don’t pop the bottle of signature estate sparkling as soon as you drop your
bags, save it for later – the guest experience hosts coordinate a bespoke itinerary prior to your arrival and a scenic chopper flight above the valley, ranges and neighbouring Cleland National Park awaits, as does a private tour of the region’s best wineries. Spend a few hours sipping tea (okay, wine) on the balcony or by the fireplace in your suite before wandering next door to three-hatted Hardy’s Verandah for the seven-course dégustation and even more wine (matched to each dish, of course). Then just try to keep your eyes open long enough to count stars through the window above your bed.
Sequoia
[STORY BY] Eliza Compton
13 In a city that feels like a film set it was only a matter of time before a hotel and cinema combined. Conceived by the brothers behind French cinema group MK2, this property in the 12th arrondissement is an ode to the romance of movies, with its 35 rooms and two suites each doubling as private screening rooms.
The décor at Hotel Paradiso (hotel. qantas.com.au/hotelparadisoMK2) is chic and minimal with pops of colour ranging from relaxing slate and stone hues to bold reds and purples. And there’s no escaping
that it’s a hotel by and for film buffs – the stairwell, reminiscent of a cinema with its raw concrete and red steel, is lined with vintage movie posters collected from the MK2 projectionist booths. On summer evenings, head to the tree-lined rooftop for a cocktail and an open-air screening (if you can turn your attention away from the Eiffel Tower, Pompidou Centre and the golden dome of Les Invalides).
In any weather, you can order a movie and popcorn via the tablet in your room then snuggle into bed as the lights go down at the flick of a button and a three-metre screen flickers to life. The Junior Suite offers front-row seats from both the bed
and the bath, while the Grande Paradiso room puts you eye-to-eye with an icon: an oversized mural of Charlie Chaplin, commissioned from French artist JR especially for the hotel, right outside the window. If you’re in for a movie marathon, order dinner from a curated list of local restaurants with a few taps on the tablet.
But this is Paris, the city where the seventh art was born. Wander the nearby Promenade Plantée (where Jesse and Céline stroll in Before Sunset), take the Metro to one of the city’s landmarks or grab coffee and a basket of pastries at the ground-floor café’s terrace and live your own movie moment.
Paris
Hotel Paradiso
New Zealand
Northern Territory
[STORY BY] Ben Mack
14 It’s no dream: the fuzzy white dots really are dozens of sheep, the green fields do roll down to the sapphire-blue sea and this bucolic picture is the view from a castle near the bottom of New Zealand’s South Island, of all places.
In a part of the world where penguins waddle on white-sand beaches, 151-year-old Larnach Castle (larnachcastle.co.nz) –40 kilometres up winding country roads from Dunedin Airport – is even more curious. It could have something to do with the Alice in Wonderland-inspired statues hidden in the extensive gardens (a figure of Alice stands among the roses) or the strangeness of a turrets-and-towers pile so far from the British throne. More for the masses than the monarchy, the family-owned castle is a popular site for weddings, school balls and film shoots and even has celebrity fans, actor Daniel Craig being a fitting example.
There are several accommodation options but the most luxurious is Camp Estate (campestate.co.nz), 500 metres from the Castle. Each of its five guestrooms has a gas fireplace, big cosy beds and neo-Classical details, such as chandeliers. Dinner is served in one of the Castle’s dining rooms, with a “trust the chef” menu part of the experience (it’s New Zealand so expect lamb and fish).
Margaret Barker, who’s owned Larnach Castle since 1967, says the outlook from her eyrie never gets old. “My favourite thing is the light. You’re in the sky and the wonderful light interior reflects it.”
Craig isn’t the only high-profile Brit who’s checked the Castle out: sales and marketing manager Deborah Price says senior members of the royal family have also made private visits. One wonders what they thought of the views.
[STORY
BY] Alexandra Carlton
15 There are clear nights and then there are the clear, starry nights at Bullo River Station (hotel.qantas.com.au/bulloriver station), a 202,000-hectare cattle property three hours drive from Kununurra across the border in Western Australia. Here, the night sky looks like someone upended a bottle of black ink before sprinkling it with handfuls of glitter. Something about this raw stillness lures kids away from their screens and most nights you’ll see guests at the homestead gathered around the campfire roasting marshmallows or playing games of chasey beneath the Milky Way.
But as magical as Bullo River Station is for children, for adults it feels like another dimension altogether. The guest quarters were designed by Sibella Court and brim with country-luxe touches such as wrought-iron king-sized beds in the 12 rooms, plus cabinets of curios, like crocodile skulls and boab seeds, and fridges stocked with drinks and homemade biscuits in the lounge. Tailored, private-dining-style meals are served at the campfire or in a cabana near the pale-green pool and often feature the property’s own beef, as well as a constant flow of wine and cocktails.
Days are spent immersed in the Territory’s rugged beauty: take a helicopter flight to picnic on a rocky outcrop in the outback, appreciate ancient Aboriginal rock art or fish for barra in the Bullo River, keeping an eye out for crocs, who are just as keen on the fish.
And those dark, still nights? It’s all about being pampered beneath shimmering stars. “People get dirty and dusty,” says Janine Carter from The Landsmith Collection, the group behind the homestead. “Then they clean up and relax in comfort as one of the family.”
Bullo River Station
Larnach Castle
Philippines
[STORY BY] Rachel Lees
16 There’s only one way to get to Amanpulo – by private plane.
The remote resort (hotel.qantas.com.au/amanpulo) is the sole property on Pamalican Island in the atoll-studded Sulu Sea, a 70-minute flight south of Manila.
With an enduring design by acclaimed Filipino architect Francisco Mañosa, the property has been the epitome of tropical island paradise for almost 30 years. While its 42 luxury beachfront, treetop and hillside casitas are inspired by traditional Filipino bahay kubo (huts), its 18 secluded private villas are you-only-liveonce lavish. With up to four bedrooms, each comes with a personal butler and chef, plus golf buggies (one per bedroom) to whizz around the 85-hectare island.
“The jungle is home to gentle monitor lizards and endemic birds like the tabon,” says general manager Audeline Witjaksono. “And the soft-sand beaches are nesting sites for the hawksbill, olive ridley and green sea turtles.” A resident marine biologist leads sea turtle conservation and coral rehabilitation programs and guests are encouraged to join in.
You can spot baby sharks in the shallows at high tide on Pamalican’s south side or cruise the island’s turquoise waters in a traditional bangka (dugout canoe). Study the stars with Amanpulo’s powerful refractor telescope or from December to March, when conditions are ideal, kitesurf the almost blindingly turquoise lagoon.
On a hilltop in the isle’s north, the spa fuses Asian and Western therapies – a traditional Hilot massage starts with a herbal steam made from local plants before a hot banana leaf is used to locate energy blockages in your body. But it doesn’t take a treatment (or much effort at all) to slow down at Amanpulo. “In its isolation,” says Witjaksono, “it feels as if the island is suspended in time.”
Italy
Reschio
17 You know that thing where you just want a little green space in which to ride your horse and suddenly you own a 1500-hectare estate with 50 farmhouses, hundreds of olive trees and an ancient castle? This, in a nutshell, is the story of how Hungarian count and artbook publisher Antonio Bolza came to acquire the Reschio estate (reschio.com), a glorious swathe of rural Umbria about three hours drive north of Rome.
Today, more than two decades later, Antonio’s son, Benedikt, and his wife, Donna Nencia, are the guiding lights behind the 11th-century castle at the centre of the property, which recently became a 36-room boutique hotel with the mood of a weekend house party – the sort where the butler takes your bags and you meet for cocktails at six. There’s a spa with a heated plunge pool at the base of a medieval tower and dangerously good home-baked cakes (oh, that sachertorte…) appear in your room at regular intervals.
Yet Reschio’s real charm lies in the fact that it’s not so much a resort as a family passion project. Count Antonio’s stables and dressage arena are far grander than anything a hotel brand would ever offer – and guests can ride the horses, too. An architect and collector of beautiful things, Benedikt has restored and curated every space and sightline with playful verve and a maniacal attention to detail. (One example: unable to find a coffee machine for the guestrooms that met his standards, he designed one himself.) Avid gardener Donna Nencia leads foraging tours during which she may take you behind the scenes of the greenhouses where the estate’s organic produce is grown from seed.
It’s grand, sure. Luxurious, certainly. But refreshingly, the whole place feels as if the owners opened it because they like to meet interesting people.
[STORY BY] Lee Marshall
Amanpulo
Jason Busch
COMO Laucala Island
[STORY BY] Kirsten Galliott
18 For more than a decade, Laucala Island was a very remote, very exclusive idyll. If you wanted to come to the island – in the north-east corner of Fiji – you had to write to its billionaire owner, Red Baron co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz, and send your passport details for vetting. If all went well – and it did for Oprah Winfrey, Arnold Schwarzenegger and George Clooney – you’d be sent a website link. “It was very secret,” says the resort’s general manager, Gary Henden.
Not anymore. Last December, the COMO hotel group took over the luxury resort (hotel.qantas.com.au/laucalaisland) and now mere mortals (with cash to burn) can access this former coconut plantation.
Let’s get cost out of the way. With one night ranging from US$5600 to US$11,800, this is only for the well-heeled. Your “tau” (friend) for your stay will show you to your choice of the 25 residences. The onebedroom “entry-level” villa spans 2000 square metres (yes, you read that right) and has a private pool, cabana, dining pavilion, yoga deck and exclusive beach access.
The challenges of far-flung places –getting to the island requires a 50-minute charter flight from Nadi – often shows up on the plate but the food here is exemplary.
Australian chef Dan Boller (formerly of the Shangri-La in the Maldives) oversees the menus at five bars and restaurants, as well as the farm that provides much of its produce. Lunch could be lobster rolls and fish tacos at the Beach Bar with the sand under your feet. Dinner might be a buggy drive to the island’s western tip for Thai flavours or teppanyaki at Seagrass.
The spectacular 18-hole golf course apparently saw former world number one Adam Scott say it was the “second hardest course” he’d played. The spa features COMO Shambhala’s signature treatments, such as salt body scrubs and papaya wraps.
And all of this comes surrounded by Fiji’s five-star nature. Swaying palms, turquoise waters and a kaleidoscope of fish dancing between pastel corals.
One of the waiters, Tom, laughs when asked what the Fijian word for great is. “Wananavu,” he says. “Wananavu .”
Greek Islands
Acro Suites
[STORY BY] Rachel Lees
19 There’s a sense of calm on the rocky cliffside that looks out on Crete’s Mononaftis Bay. A lone eagle soars over an electric-blue ocean and there’s not a guest in sight at the main pool of Acro Suites (acrosuites.com). It’s an unexpectedly common occurrence at the adults-only boutique hotel, a 30-minute drive north of the capital Heraklion.
“Guests tend to stay in their rooms all day,” says Danae Orfanake, the property’s marketing director. Built into the cliff –Acro originates from the ancient Greek word akros, which means “on the edge” – the luxury retreat offers a level of privacy and tranquillity not often associated with the Greek Islands and even more rarely found there. Each of the 49 suites and villas has its own saltwater pool and uninterrupted views of the Cretan Sea.
“The hotel is almost hidden,” says managing director Konstantina Orfanaki. Some suites were carved into existing caves, while all include custom furniture made by Greek designers and craftsmen, using locally sourced marble, natural stone and unrefined wood. “The choice of materials helps the hotel blend in with its surroundings and makes you feel connected to nature,” says Orfanaki.
There’s plenty to entice you from your suite, like the in-house spa modelled on a Turkish hammam and the purpose-built yoga shala – made from bamboo – where guests often gather to watch vibrant orange-and-pink sunsets. Soon you’ll also be able to learn pottery from the locals and sample tastings of Cretan wine and olive oil made from the property’s own grove, where 1000-year-old trees grow.
The spirit of Crete infuses almost every element of the hotel, including restaurant Cremnos, where organic produce is sourced from small local farms. “Our chef is very creative and likes to take old recipes and put a special twist on them,” says Orfanaki. Don’t leave without trying the skioufikta, a rich Cretan favourite made with tubular pasta and feta, or the chef’s reimagined take on pastitsio, using pork cheek and black truffle. Then beat a lazy retreat back to your hideout in the hillside.
20 Feng shui is no abstract concept in Singapore; it’s a guiding principle of life that’s visible in everything from the fortune-enhancing octagonal dollar coin to concave skyscrapers arranged to direct positive energy inwards. “It’s why feng shui masters are some of the highest paid professionals in Singapore,” says Yusri, a guide who explains how the ancient art harnesses invisible underground energy. And there are few better ways to feel that energy than with the wind streaming past as you zip through traffic in the sidecar of a cherry-red Vespa. The Qi &
the City tour is one of many experiences designed to be a shortcut from Capella’s flagship property on Sentosa Island (hotel. qantas.com.au/capella) into the heart of local culture. The sophisticated bar scene gets a nod with cocktail-making classes and a gin tasting that goes from an aromatic “Singapore dry” spiked with torch ginger flower to a soft coconut and pandan spirit that mimics the local dessert cendol.
If you prefer the ingredients fresh, follow a chef through Tiong Bahru’s bustling wet market where stallholders hawk tropical fruits, orchid branches and seafood caught that morning. Then return with your haul for a feast of chilli crab before trading tactics with a mahjong master.
And if you want to do nothing at all, there’s plenty of space to spread out on the 12-hectare grounds – a rare luxury in this densely populated nation. Thirty-eight spacious villas hidden in the manicured greenery reflect their surroundings with a combination of dark timber furnishings and sage-green walls, while floor-to-ceiling windows open out onto a roomy terrace with reclining daybeds and a plunge pool.
Behind the villas, the two 140-year-old colonial buildings at the centre of the resort are joined by a modern wing that curves around to form a figure 8. “Many numbers have meanings in feng shui,” explains Yusri. “And eight is a very good sign; it’s a chief symbol of prosperity.”
Marc Tan
Singapore
Capella
[STORY BY] Alexis Buxton-Collins
[STORY BY] Maggie Alderson
21 All great cities have elegant pockets that feel serene despite the urban clamour. In London, it’s St James’s. In New York, it’s Gramercy Park. And in Rome, it’s the little piazza at the top of the Spanish Steps, where you’ll also find a revolving door into one of the world’s great hotels.
While Hassler Roma (hotel.qantas.com. au/hasslerroma) was refreshed in 2018, to celebrate its 125th anniversary, it has not been done over recently by a swishy designer – and therein lies its charm. Several generations of the same Swiss
hotelier dynasty have welcomed guests to this five-star hotel so it has the feeling of a warm (but grand) home.
The gracious atmosphere created by the current scion, Roberto E. Wirth, reaches its peak in the ground-floor Salone Eva, a drawing-room bar where the selection of Martinis is so good – and the service so immaculate – that it’s hard to leave the plush comfort of your velvet armchair.
Diana, Princess of Wales, was suitably enamoured of this space – she had a Bellini (the best she had ever tasted, she told Mr Wirth) and the Veruschka, a pomegranate and sparkling wine combination named for Roberto’s daughter.
In daylight, the place to be is the 7th Floor Terrace, which has sweeping views of the Pantheon, St Peter’s Basilica, the Victor Emmanuel II Monument and the Vatican.
This front-row seat to Rome’s architectural icons is only for guests and no doubt one of the attractions for the role call of famous people who have elected to stay here.
The guestbook boasts the signatures of Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy (with Jackie), Pablo Picasso, Princess Grace of Monaco, Frank Sinatra, Martin Scorsese and many more. Perhaps most tellingly, this was the spot Audrey Hepburn chose as her home base while she filmed Roman Holiday. And who doesn’t want a taste of that romance?
Rome
Hassler Roma
22 We’ve all been there. You’ve already dined poolside under the stars at the resort, matching your four-course dégustation with some of the best wines you’ve ever tasted, and the thought of leaving your hilltop eyrie with its views across the Whitsundays to partake of another delicious bowl of bug-tail tagliatelle at the cosy Italian trattoria just seems like altogether too much effort.
Besides, you owe it to the stunning sunset playing out over the bay to stay put. And that bottle of Piper chilling in an ice-bucket next to your own infinity pool is not going to drink itself.
You decide it’s a private-dining sort of a night: an evening to have a seafood grazing menu prepared for you in the comfort of your accommodation by one of Hayman Island’s chefs and served by one of its waitstaff. And it’s about then that you realise staying put is exactly the point of Hayman Residences, a collection of private estates at InterContinental Hayman Island Resort (hotel.qantas.com. au/intercontinentalhayman), which lies just off the coast of central Queensland.
The double-storey, four-bedroom, Kerry Hill architect-designed villas (there are eight in total, two of which can be booked via the resort’s website) sit atop a rocky outcrop overlooking one of Australia’s most exclusive island resorts.
Larger than the average Aussie house and more luxuriously appointed, the residences are built to accommodate travelling groups or extended families. Whether it’s the dedicated concierge, the pair of golf buggies to ferry you down the hill when you want to mix with the hoi polloi (watch for wayward wallabies when commuting at night), the unfussy yet elegant Blainey North interiors or the fully equipped kitchen you’re never likely to use, every possible comfort has been catered for.
But it’s the sense of seclusion that sets this property apart. That and the slant of late afternoon light as you lie back on your daybed and watch cockatoos ride thermals above the waters of the bay below.
Queensland
Hayman Residences
[STORY BY] Bryce Corbett
Up in the heights
Ski fields on your doorstep and rugged alpine countryside all around. Find the pinnacle of luxury living in New Zealand’s South Island.
It’s hard not to be moved by the landscape of New Zealand’s Cardrona Valley. With Mount Cardrona as the towering backdrop, the Central Otago countryside is enchanting, epic and untamed.
“First-time visitors will often stop the car to marvel at the golden light playing on the tussock in the warmer months or the grandeur of the snow-covered mountains in winter,” says Chris Morton, managing partner of Morton Property Group, the team behind new residential village Mt Cardrona Station.
Just 45 minutes from Queenstown, Mt Cardrona Station is set on an elevated plateau overlooking the valley, providing luxury living and an adventurous lifestyle for residents.
“You can walk for five minutes or five hours,” says Morton of the Station’s vast 400
hectares of high country, where 30 kilometres of trails invite hiking and mountain biking in the warmer months. Come winter, the world-class ski field of Cardrona Alpine Resort is just 20 minutes up the hill.
The village is well placed for lower-altitude exploration, too, with the town of Cardrona and 20 wineries within an hour’s drive.
But Mt Cardrona Station has its own entertainment. At the heart of the residential village, you’ll find a restaurant, gym, fitness spaces, members-only club rooms and outdoor hot pools, as well as remote-working facilities. “It will be a place for community members to get together, with different events like movie nights,” says Morton.
Sites range from 280 to 800 square metres. They’re available as land only or house and land
packages, with design guidelines across the development to ensure the architecture has regard for the surrounding landscape.
“A lot of the houses look directly up at snow-covered peaks,” says Morton. “In this crisp alpine air, the mountains feel so big and close –like you could reach out and touch them.”
Visit mtcardronastation.co.nz
Presented by Mt Cardrona Station
[STORY BY] Sarah Reid
23 At the push of a buzzer, a wrought-iron door swings open into a harlequin-tiled passageway that draws the eye towards a white-marble staircase curving around a geometric chandelier. It’s a seductive introduction to Santiago’s first true design hotel.
Inside the former residence of a Chilean society family, Hotel Magnolia (hotel.qantas.com.au/hotelmagnolia) – named for the fragrant flowering tree the current owners discovered growing out the front – may have had an extensive renovation but it has lost none of the mansion’s former grandeur.
Three additional floors were added during its transformation into a 40-room boutique stay, the contemporary cleverly disguised behind a glass façade printed with an inverse image of the original floors below. Classic charms such as stained-glass windows remain in the heritage rooms, while the upper floors have a Scandi-retreat feel, with clean lines and blonde eucalyptus timber panelling.
Beyond the bold bronze reception desk, a cosy library has shelves packed with a rainbow of colour-coded books spanning art, travel and fiction to Pablo Neruda poetry. There’s also an intimate lobby bar and the chic all-day Magnolia Restaurant, where bulbous Tom Dixon pendants dangle above charcoal velvet booth seats. Ride the lift to the sun-drenched rooftop terrace to look out over the El Centro district and historic Cerro Santa Lucía park or keep your attention fixed firmly on the house empanadas and a glass of crisp Chilean sauvignon blanc.
Mark making on kitchen tools has always been a way of imparting cultural knowledge. Explore the earliest tools used by Australian Aboriginal people through to modern day appliances wrapped in Country in this Australian culinary journey.
Explore the collection at the Museum shop or online via shop nma gov au shop.nma.gov.au
Denise Heirman
Hotel Magnolia
The luxe west coast
Swim above the city, spot whales from your private deck and sip local drops under the stars. These Western Australian stays take escapism to new heights.
Outback oasis
The Kimberley
In the far reaches of north Western Australia, you’ll find El Questro Homestead (elquestro. com.au), an exclusive hideaway perched atop a craggy cliff on the Chamberlain River. Some of the 10 double rooms feature a private deck and outdoor bath – the perfect spot to unwind and watch the blazing sun set over the Kimberley. “You’re really being pampered and looked after,” says El Questro’s Matt Lang. “The exclusivity is fantastic.” Whether you choose to laze by the pool, gaze up at the pandanus palms while soaking in Zebedee Springs or cruise along the Chamberlain’s towering escarpment, El Questro tailors itineraries for its guests. Finish your day with a private candlelight dinner under the stars
or join fellow travellers in the “Big Room” to trade stories over local wines.
Coastal paradise
Ningaloo Reef
You’ve never glamped anywhere quite like Sal Salis (hotel.qantas.com.au/salsalis).
Nestled among the sand dunes on the fringe of the World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Reef, the 16 safari-style tents offer the ultimate nature experience. “You can hear the waves crash as you fall asleep,” says camp manager Nick Day. Each tent comes with a king-sized bed, ensuite and a private outdoor shower. “It’s essentially like a hotel room but with a breeze coming through and a deck out front for enjoying the sunset and sunrise.”
El Questro Homestead
From August until the end of October, guests can book a bucket-list experience to swim alongside humpback whales. Or grab a snorkel year-round to explore the turquoise waters. “On a high tide, it’s just coral, coral, coral; you’ll see turtles out front, just an abundance of wildlife.”
City extravagance
Perth CBD
Wake up to uninterrupted views of Perth and Kings Park and Botanic Garden thanks to floor-to-ceiling windows at The Ritz-Carlton Perth (hotel.qantas.com.au/ritzcarltonperth).
Located on the banks of the Swan River, each hotel room features a freestanding tub for total relaxation. Take a dip in the outdoor heated
infinity pool overlooking Elizabeth Quay and visit the award-winning on-site Songbird Bar. The cocktail menu has been crafted with native ingredients, with the drinks named after birds that soar across Western Australia’s skies. Lounge by the open fireplace and sample the bar’s namesake signature cocktail
with Belvedere vodka, infused with Davidson plum and lemon myrtle tea.
Beachfront beauty
Margaret River Region
With more than 100 cellar doors to explore in the Margaret River Region, securing a vineyard-hopping base like Smiths Beach Resort (hotel.qantas.com.au/smiths beachresort) is imperative. Sink into a designer couch at your ocean-view villa for a front-row seat to what locals call “the Humpback Highway”. “It’s the best place to be in winter, watching the storm clouds roll in with a glass of local cabernet in hand,” says the resort’s Lisa Fletcher. Enjoy a private in-room dining experience or visit WA chef Kate Lamont’s on-site restaurant to order the Abrolhos Island scallops with jamon bits and kaffir lime.
To plan your trip to Western Australia, visit wanderoutyonder.com.au
(From left) Sal Salis, Ningaloo Reef; Smiths Beach Resort, Margaret River Region; The Ritz-Carlton Perth
[STORY BY] Rachel Lees
24 Bald eagles soar overhead, boat rides provide a close view of breaching orcas and dolphins have been known to frolic in the water around the fire deck. “We’re in the southern part of the Great Bear Rainforest, near the Broughton Archipelago, and it’s a pretty rugged coast,” says marketing manager Brianna Sloan, who has worked at family-ownedand-operated Nimmo Bay (nimmobay. com) for 15 years. “The wildlife is big so it’s like a Canadian safari.”
On British Columbia’s west coast, the scent of ancient cedar trees pervades the cool air. Most guests make it to the resort via Vancouver, taking a one-hour flight to Port Hardy then a float plane for the 20-minute hop to Nimmo. The plane touches down on the water within sight of nine private chalets – which typically host 18 guests or more – scattered along the edge of the bay, near the waterfall that provides the retreat’s power. “It’s wilder than people expect,” says Sloan.
Nimmo’s pilots know the area like no-one else and are adept at buzzing into otherwise inaccessible locations to see everything from grizzly and black bears to glaciers and ice caves.
But all this barely scratches the surface. There’s hiking and yoga, you can kayak out to the floating sauna or book in for an unforgettable massage in the Cascade Room. “It’s built on the second tier of the waterfall, right next to the cascading water, which you can hear as you have your treatment.”
This year, the all-inclusive resort, which operates from May until October (in 2023, it will open in March), introduced four- and five-night wellness and culinary packages. According to Sloan, the latter involves diving for sea urchin with a member of the Nimmo team and foraging for sea kelp with the chef. “It’s a whole itinerary around the flavours, textures and smells of the Great Bear Rainforest and everything our wild pantry can provide.”
Nimmo Bay
25 If “stopover” is what comes to mind when you think of the Thai capital, Four Seasons Bangkok at Chao Phraya River (hotel.qantas.com.au/fourseasons bangkok) will give you pause for thought. The 299-room urban resort is so luxurypacked it’s like a discrete other world, where there’s little reason to take a second flight to the islands or anywhere else. Everything tempts you to stay onsite, from the sumptuous armfuls of white orchids that fill the lobby to the jade-green infinity pools fringed with tropical palms
that sit directly beside the river. Then there are the inimitable Four Seasons touches: the cheeky Negroni left beside your bed, a complimentary painting session with a local artist. The temperature in your room is always Goldilocks-perfect. The pillows softer than spring rain. It’s so enchanting, Thai residents who live only a few streets away book themselves in for staycations.
A typical day might see you feasting on Roman maritozzi cream buns for breakfast, chatting to graphic designers about their subversive neon art at the hotel’s gallery space, sitting down at the Michelin-starred Yu Ting Yuan restaurant or finding out exactly why the property’s Argentinian-
accented bar, BKK Social Club (above), is ranked number 10 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars for 2022 (the Hand of God cocktail – a blend of tequila, Campari and cacao malbec wine cordial – is chief among the reasons).
This part of the city is described as Bangkok Riverside and has an energy and exuberance all of its own. Unlike the more popular Sukhumvit, the neighbourhoods around here give you the full spectrum of the city – old and new, food and culture, shopping and temples – and it’s accessible via electric ferries that avoid the blaring traffic. Bangkok as a stopover? Forget it. This opulent property has everything you need to stay awhile – full stop.
Four Seasons Bangkok at Chao Phraya River
[STORY BY] Alexandra Carlton
Tasmania
[STORY BY] Andrew Bain
26 The Keep is like something from Arthurian legend. Crowning a remote hilltop and surrounded by dense rainforest, it’s a castle in a country that has no castles. And the 100-hectare kingdom around it? It’s part of the Blue Tier range, about 2.5 hours north-east of Launceston, and features oversized granite boulders and a babbling brook. The view from the sandstone tower extends as far as Flinders Island, more than 100 kilometres to the north, with little in between to disturb the island-like sense of isolation.
Built over 10 years by the previous owners, the off-grid eyrie (airbnb.com.au) was originally intended as a private residence but it was bought in 2019 by Launceston couple Andrew Wallis and Anne-Maree Coombe, who then spent a year transforming it into an exclusive couples’ retreat.
The tower’s three levels create a trio of distinct spaces: a garage and laundry on the ground level; an elegant bedroom on the middle floor; and a living room and full kitchen with floor-to-ceiling windows at the top. The style is minimal but modern – a bit like finding an inner-city apartment inside a restored ruin – with the few
furnishings custom-made from Tasmanian timbers. It’s an easy place in which to settle into the oak-and-leather couch and watch the moody weather hurry past on the persistent winds.
But some of The Keep’s most enticing aspects are outside. A short way down the 4.5-kilometre driveway are three walking trails into the rainforest (and to what’s claimed to be Tasmania’s largest myrtle beech tree). And nestled among the jumble of boulders beside the tower is a 300-kilogram granite bathtub that seems almost to overhang the forest canopy. The truest form of forest bathing? We think Arthur would approve.
The Keep
Western Australia
[STORY BY] Rachel Lees
27 The colours appear more vivid in the Kimberley than most places. Here, turquoise water laps rust-red earth under a cloudless cobalt sky. Yet much of its singular beauty goes largely unseen. Covering just shy of 423,000 square kilometres, this remote and wild region has fewer people per square kilometre than almost anywhere else on earth.
Trying to take it all in would seem to be a fool’s game, yet this is where pioneer adventure cruise operator True North (truenorth.com.au) has excelled for more than 30 years. Its 50-metre expedition ship is purpose-built to go where bigger vessels can’t, including the region’s shallow bays and river systems. And with its king-sized beds, hand-crafted marri timber furniture and alfresco bar, the ship is often likened to a floating boutique hotel – and it’s also a member of the Luxury Lodges of Australia collection.
“Life onboard is comfortable and stylish but it isn’t about the ship,” says True North’s brand director, Peter Trembath. “Guests spend most of their time off the ship and our itineraries are designed for travellers who prefer to immerse themselves in the destination.” The vessel even has its own air-conditioned helicopter, which offers up to 20 different flights, as well as six dedicated adventure boats.
“We’ve deliberately chosen six-metre runabouts rather than the more commonly used rubber boats,” says Trembath. “When they’re not moving, it’s possible to stand up and walk around in them, which is an advantage when it comes to photography, fishing, snorkelling and scuba diving.”
With no more than 36 guests onboard, all of this means plenty of opportunity to do what you want, when you want. A sunrise chopper flight? Done. Feasting on freshly caught Kimberley mud crabs? Too easy. The ship’s resident naturalists and biologists also give context to what you’re seeing, whether it’s a saltwater crocodile in the wild, the epic Horizontal Falls or the world’s oldest rock art.
True North
28 Glimpsing part of Silky Oaks Lodge (hotel.qantas.com.au/silkyoaks lodge) from the refreshing depths of the Mossman River, it appears as if a careful hand placed it just far enough from the bank to hide it from view. Back on land, you can hear the river’s ceaseless flow from almost anywhere on the property; on a seat in the open-air Jungle Perch lounge or at Treehouse Restaurant, you might spy guests floating by, escaping the Tropical North Queensland heat.
Located about a 75-minute drive from Cairns, along a winding stretch of the Great Barrier Reef Drive, the luxury eco-lodge
blurs the lines between architecture and nature. Its 40 bungalows are arranged along a pathway fringed by tropical plants and flowers, hammocks stretch across glass-fronted balconies and outdoor bathtubs are concealed in the forest. The Daintree is all around and all green: the lichen on the rocks pale and dusty, the leaves of the fig trees glossy and intense, the river muted and soft.
Towards the end of that pathway lies an entrance to an elevated walkway, cordoned off with a braided rope and marked “Private”. As you wander across a small ravine, the path ahead gently curves to reveal a secluded rainforest hideaway. The lazy whirl of its ceiling fans does just enough to ease the heat and
humidity, a relief almost as welcome as the sight of the infinity plunge pool.
This is the Daintree Pavilion – the twobedroom home of dreams and the most coveted accommodation at Silky Oaks. Here, you can nap on the daybed after wandering the trails and discovering your favourite billabong, catching flashes of sunlight streaming through gaps in the canopy as you doze off.
As night falls, gaze at the pale trunks of the trees from your private pool, savouring something chilled from the wine cooler as you ponder the dishes you’ll choose for your three courses back at Treehouse. When you wake, all you’ll be able to think about is returning to the cool, clear waters of the Mossman River.
Queensland
Silky Oaks Lodge
[STORY BY] Hana Jo
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From $11,950 per person (Superior Deck 4, twin share, includes house beer, wine and soft drinks with lunch and dinner and all expedition shore excursions)
Darwin Broome Auckland
29 In a nation as rich in palace hotels as India, there are only a select few where guests are still feted like royalty. None more so than Taj Falaknuma Palace in Hyderabad (hotel.qantas.com.au/taj falaknumapalace). From the welcome at the Victorian clock tower entrance, where you’re served sparkling wine in the company of peacocks (there are 87 in total), to the horse-drawn carriage that transports you to the palace proper, and then the pinchme moment: being showered in rose petals
as you climb the staircase to the grand Renaissance-style foyer with its 17-metre ceilings and cherub-adorned fountain.
Once the property of the fabulously wealthy sixth Nizam of Hyderabad, its architecture inspired by Versailles and the White House, Taj Falaknuma Palace is set in 13 hectares of fragrant hilltop gardens on the edge of the southern city.
The bulk of its 60 lodgings are “palace” rooms but even an entry-level guestroom – undeniably comfortable, with terraces onto perfumed courtyard gardens –guarantees entrée to such treasures as the Dining Hall with its 101-seat mahogany-
and-rosewood table and the Jade Room with its priceless collection of stone artworks and a silver mango tree with fruit cast in gold. For the full royal treatment, book one of the more elaborately appointed suites, such as those within the former zenana or women’s quarters of the spectacular citadel.
As the sun sets, hazy and ethereal from the terrace of Gol Bungalow (above), the lights of Hyderabad flicker to life on the plains below and calls to prayer fill the air with sacred chanting. “It’s like you’re in the heavens, looking down,” observes manager Abhijit Masurkar.
Sankalp Malik
India
Taj Falaknuma Palace
[STORY BY] Kendall Hill
[STORY BY] Sarah Reid
30 It’s easy to forget what continent you’re on when you step off the speedboat transfer at Anantara World Islands (anantara.com), a Thai-inspired luxury resort in the South America section of an artificial island archipelago.
Just a 20-minute boat ride from mainland Dubai, the latest Anantara outpost is the first resort in the emirate’s most ambitious island development yet. And with gardens patrolled by peacocks and gin-clear water lapping at goldensand beaches, it’s the most exotic pseudo-
tropical escape you could hope to find so close to the city.
With thatched roofs and minimalistchic interiors, the resort’s 70 rooms, suites and villas (40 with private pools) are quintessential Anantara. But in a nod to the property’s location, its two main restaurants showcase flavours from the Mediterranean (Helios) and India and the Middle East (Qamar). South America makes a cameo at elevated tapas bar Luna, where worlds collide as you sip a pisco sour and watch the setting sun cast a glow on the distant Burj Khalifa skyscraper.
While the resort’s offering is vast, the experience can feel very personal: one
Dining by Design option involves a private dinner served in a temperature-controlled fibreglass bubble on the beach (go for the seafood barbecue menu). And when you can’t be bothered walking back to your room, the resort staff will pick you up in a golf buggy – there are no cars (or roads, for that matter) on the island.
There are water toys, including kayaks and paddleboards, and beach swings to play with, plus the on-site spa, but stays here are perhaps best spent between beach and pool – there’s a communal pool shaded by coconut palms if your room doesn’t have a private one – in this other-worldly oasis.
Gerry O’Leary
Dubai
Anantara World Islands
Mauna Lani
[STORY BY] Faith Campbell
31 “Leave your stuff out here on the water, the ocean can take it,” says Hawaiian elder Uncle George, wearing boardies and dark sunglasses and balanced on the front of a 12-person canoe. As the sun rises between volcanic peaks Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, everyone on board shakes their hands over the sapphire sea, giving their worries to the waves.
At Mauna Lani (hotel.qantas.com.au/ maunalaniauberge), on the island of Hawaii (the Big Island to most), a 45-minute flight from Honolulu, this kind of connection
– “cultural practice that’s been done for generations,” says George – is as essential as Piña Coladas and palm trees.
Uncle Danny Akaka worked on the hotel’s construction in the early 1980s and held various roles before being appointed cultural director. “Hawaii is a healing island and this,” he says, arms open wide, “we call this wahi pana, a celebrated place.”
It shows, too. In the babymooners holed up in a private halau (cabana) facing the sea, grandparents leading little ones around the breakfast buffet or asking questions at the marine biologist-led turtle talk, big kids showing off for new friends and sun-seekers lounging by the adults pool.
The Pacific Ocean breeze cools tiki-chic open-air common areas – including all-day eatery HãLani and the laid-back Hā Bar and Grill pavilion – and drifts into the 334 coastal-vibe rooms and suites from balconies that look out to the horizon, tropical gardens or the mountains.
At golden hour, sandy feet are rinsed and stand-up paddleboards packed away as festoon lights flicker on and tiki torches are lit. Sun-weary grown-ups wander to CanoeHouse for high-end HawaiianJapanese dishes, kids conk out tableside at HãLani while their parents catch up, Mai Tais are poured and the waves take any last worries out to sea.
Hawaii
32 It seems a bit misleading to call the newly opened Ace Hotel Sydney (acehotel.com) a hotel. This isn’t a place where you check-in, find your room and shut the door to the city around you. At Ace, the invitation is clear: drop your bags and join the fun.
Sure, the 264-room property is located on buzzing Wentworth Avenue within a short stroll of the bars, clubs and restaurants of Surry Hills. Yes, it has an all-day eatery, featuring Sydney’s beloved Mecca Coffee, a lobby bar, a casual lobbylevel diner called Loam and Kiln, a Fiona Lynch-designed, Mitch Orr-helmed rooftop restaurant and bar set 18 storeys above
street level. The design wünderkinds from Melbourne’s Flack Studios are behind the interiors inspired by the rich cinematic colour palette of the Australian landscape, all terracotta, sandstone and natural timbers. But what does it mean for you?
A stay at Ace Hotel Sydney means inviting friends back to your room to play records (85 of the rooms have turntables and LPs), having a jam in your bathroom (76 rooms feature a D’Angelico acoustic guitar) and working – if you must – in the lobby as the resident DJ does their thing. It means laneway parties, photo-booth sessions and checking out works by local artists. But what a stay here ultimately means is that you become another thread in the local fabric – just for a little while. What could be less “hotel” than that?
Jeremy Koreski
Sydney
Ace Hotel Sydney
[STORY BY] Dilvin Yasa
33 Pull up a seat at the bar and raise your glass of chablis to the world’s most famous exile, Napoleon, whose stay on this volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean was made bearable by regular shipments of provisions from the Cape of Good Hope. Though isolation didn’t save him (he died here in 1821 after six years of banishment), it’s certainly kept the tiny British Overseas Territory safe during the pandemic. Now flights from Johannesburg via Walvis Bay in Namibia have resumed (check for current quarantine requirements) and the Mantis St Helena (hotel.qantas. com.au/mantissthelena) is preparing to reopen in September.
The hotel’s singular location reveals itself on the drive from the airport, the road skirting vertiginous peaks and descending switchbacks into Jamestown, a historic settlement squeezed into an impossibly narrow valley.
Located just steps from the seafront, the property occupies the East India Company’s Georgian officers’ barracks, built in 1774, their history preserved in eight heritage suites and rooms adjoined by an extension housing 22 modern rooms. The cuisine served at the restaurant, bar and two outdoor terraces reflects centuries of settlement from Africa, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, China and Britain: goat curries, bacon plo (a rice dish), fishcakes, samoosas (as they’re known here) and a St Helenian version of black pudding. “You’ll find that
St Helena’s one is a bit thinner and it’s got more spiciness to it,” says chef Roy Richards. “If we’ve got an afternoon tea, it’ll be coconut fingers and cheese straws, jam tarts and tomato paste sandwiches – all St Helenian style.”
In a respectful nod to Napoleon, the restaurant serves Gallic fare (including dégustation dinners) on French national days, along with Western classics. You’ll find everything else you need not far from the hotel entrance: a public swimming pool, beach, tourist office, transport links to historic sites, such as Napoleon’s house and tomb, and the 699-step Jacob’s Ladder, which soars up the hillside behind the hotel to Ladder Hill Fort. It’s not the climb that’ll leave you gasping for breath but the view from the top of this steep refuge.
St Helena
Mantis St Helena Hotel
[STORY BY] Catherine Marshall
[STORY BY] Pat Nourse
34 Its lines are clean but it’s warm to the touch. It’s restrained and modern, without any hint of privation, yet offers space to breathe, stretch and replenish. Ross Farm (airbnb.com.au) finds that smooth groove between the aesthetic and the ascetic.
The old dairy outside Meeniyan, a onepub town in Gippsland just over two hours drive south-east of Melbourne, was bought by the Moore family in 2000. Daughter
Andrea, an interior designer, set about transforming the disused buildings into boutique self-catered accommodation options. The Cabin sleeps two, the Barn four in two bedrooms and the Dairy six across three bedrooms. Though they share 2 hectares (and a chicken coop and kitchen garden), careful design keeps the three spaces discrete and sight-lines private.
Kitted out with coffee machines and dishwashers, wi-fi and TVs, Ross Farm is by no means monastic but there’s something deeply calming about a place that might lead you to reach for a book rather than
a screen or strike up a conversation instead of picking up your phone.
There’s plenty to do nearby – a walk in the bush, a drive to the beach, a coffee in town – but there’s also plenty of detail to savour and sink into at the farm. The contrast of fine woolly fleeces on leather lounges, the heart-lifting scents of fresh linen and raw timber. And if padding past the fire to the Japanese-style soaking tub feels as if you’re somewhere between an onsen and a sauna, the roar of kookaburras in the gum trees locates you right here, right now, in the Australian countryside.
Lachlan Moore
Victoria Ross Farm
[STORY BY] Dilvin Yasa
35 It’s a pity that Roger Habermacher, general manager of the Josun Palace (hotel.qantas.com.au/josunpalace), has such a hectic job. If he wasn’t so busy, he could spend more time gazing out of the all-glass façade of the 254-room property he calls his office. “Since we have restaurants and rooms from the 24th floor to the 36th floor, I like the different views one can enjoy throughout the day and even through the seasons,” he explains. “Be it a snowy winter’s day enjoying a glass of wine next to our fireplace in the
25th-floor lounge or the sunset at our indoor lap pool overlooking Seoul city.”
And there’s plenty to look at. Located in upscale Gangnam where the skyscraperlined streets hum with energy, the new hotel (opened in 2021) is minutes from the city’s finest fashion precincts, including the Starfield COEX Mall and Apgujeong Rodeo Street.
But don’t feel sorry for Habermacher – things are no less enchanting when he turns around. Designed by renowned Monegasque architectural duo Humbert & Poyet, the Art Deco-inspired interiors pay homage to the property’s heritage (it was originally the Chosun Hotel, one of
South Korea’s first luxury hotels), with bold geometric patterns and traditional Korean motifs the backdrop for more than 400 contemporary artworks, including Daniel Arsham’s Blue Calcite Eroded Moses in the lobby. “It’s designed to feel more like a top residential space, with the decorum of arriving and staying at a palace,” says Habermacher.
The feast isn’t only a visual one. Josun Palace has five elegant drinking and dining options (a stay isn’t complete without a few drinks at the Gatsby-esque 1914 Lounge & Bar, above), plus a wellness club and heated indoor pool with those captivating views of the Gangnam skyline.
Seoul Josun Palace
New York
ModernHaus
[STORY BY] Sally Robinson
36 Not many luxury hotels can list a bomb shelter among their facilities and even fewer could boast that Jane Fonda took shelter there during the Vietnam War. But Sofitel Legend Metropole (hotel.qantas.com.au/sofitelmetropolehanoi) has a story unlike any other: it’s traded for more than 120 years, surviving both the French Indochina and Vietnam wars; it’s where Charlie Chaplin spent his honeymoon and Graham Greene wrote The Quiet American ; and it hosted Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un for diplomatic talks in 2019.
With its distinctive white façade and louvred shutters, the grand hotel opened in 1901 on a corner in the French Quarter and has become part of the fabric of Hanoi. Gently whirring ceiling fans, polished hardwood floors and staff dressed in white silk áo dài make a stay feel like stepping back into Vietnam’s colonial past.
That famous bomb shelter was rediscovered in 2011 during renovations of the Bamboo Bar (try a Graham Greene Martini), next to the swimming pool in the inner courtyard. “Early evening is the best time of day here,” says Anthony Slewka, the hotel’s director of sales and marketing. “The light in the courtyard is beautiful as the sun is setting.”
Split between the historic Metropole wing and the Opera Wing, added in 1996, the 364 rooms offer the charm of high ceilings and 1920s French furniture or family-friendly convenience (quieter, closer to the pool and with interconnecting options). Of the three eateries, the star is the lavish French fine-diner Le Beaulieu – all silver cloches, dessert trolleys and Gallic classics.
Local historians provide a romp through the Metropole’s eventful past on daily tours – finishing with a visit to the bomb shelter (and a cocktail afterwards) – but a seat at La Terrasse, the property’s wraparound sidewalk café, grounds you firmly in the here and now. Order a coffee, sit back and watch the delicious mayhem of Hanoi unfold.
[STORY BY] Lance Richardson
37 The Horizon Suite at ModernHaus (hotel.qantas.com.au/modernhaus soho) has city views so remarkable it’s enough to make you involuntarily sink into a blue velvet couch and sigh beneath an Alexander Calder painting. But the same could be said about many of the 114 rooms in this hip property, which towers over the artists’ lofts and boutiques of SoHo from its vantage point on Grand Street. Even the 17th-floor gym offers the kind of outlook other hotels might reserve for a penthouse.
Away from the oversized windows, the rest of ModernHaus lives up to its name, with clean lines and elegant silhouettes inspired by the Bauhaus art movement. Original works by artists Harland Miller, Hans Hofmann and Kaws, among others, decorate most of the public spaces, all of which you might actually want to spend time in. Jumpin Jacks is a comfortable coffee lounge with leather banquettes and a terrific menu in a city not known for its breakfast fare. Stick around long enough and it’s transformed into a cocktail bar.
In fact, much of the hotel switches at night, like its guests changing outfits to hit the town. Veranda, a restaurant by George Mendes (of Michelin-starred Aldea), has a greenhouse roof that retracts for outdoor dining and then there’s Jimmy, one of the hottest bars in SoHo (complete with its own entrance). Grab a Smoked Peach Margarita and step outside to discover one of the most dazzling rooftop pools in all of New York.
Nikolas Koenig
Hanoi
Sofitel Legend Metropole
38 The magic begins at Marco Polo Airport, where a speedboat awaits to whisk you across the waters to Giudecca Island, an oasis of sophisticated calm in the heart of Venice. It continues in the calamine-pink exterior, the lobby’s red-and-white chequerboard marble floors and Murano chandeliers, the stunning floral displays and the Casanova Gardens with their roses, wisteria-tangled pergolas and grape vines.
There are a handful of hotels that capture the glamour and majesty of the
canal city but none can match the star power of the Cipriani (hotel.qantas.com. au/ciprianivenice). Since its opening in 1958 by Giuseppe Cipriani, founder of Harry’s Bar and inventor of the Bellini cocktail, it’s been the preferred address of film stars (George and Amal Clooney married here in 2014) and Europe’s elite.
Typical of the hotel’s always-indulgent approach, there are more suites (65) than rooms (31), including four with traditional Venetian altanas, rooftop terraces to catch the sun and water views while dining or drinking. In 1976 new owners, the OrientExpress Hotels group (now Belmond), extended into the 15th-century Palazzo
Vendramin, which houses 16 suites, some with views across the lagoon to the Doge’s Palace and St Mark’s Square (both just five minutes away by the hotel’s launch).
The faultless concierge service can arrange unforgettable outings on the lagoon, such as a sunrise boat trip to St Mark’s Square with breakfast served as the sun appears and a guided tour of wine bars along the canals, but for dining it’s advisable to stay in-house. With former Noma sous chef Riccardo Canella now in charge of the hotel kitchens, tables at the Michelin-starred Oro and the jaunty Cip’s Club jetty restaurant are set to be more coveted than ever.
Mattia Aquila
Venice Cipriani
[STORY BY] Kendall Hill
39 A home with a hallway that’s wide enough to ride a horse down is hard to find these days. A home where that’s actually happened? That’s got to be rare. But the heritage-listed Hinterland House (hinterlandhouse.com.au) in Bangalow has seen a lot in the past century. “It was a dairy farm,” says manager Sam James. “And in the 1980s it was a bit of a party house – the guys who lived here were said to ride their horses down the hallway.”
It’s still something of a party house – if less raucous. “This place can be whatever
you want it to be,” says Stephanie Humble, who oversees the homestead. “Whether that’s a romantic getaway for two or multi-generational get-together when you book exclusive use of the property.”
(You can also book by the room.) A popular wedding venue on eight hectares of grounds (it even has a macadamia plantation), there are four bedrooms in the main house, numerous living spaces and two wings, each with two bedrooms and kitchens. The chic interiors draw on Balinese, colonial and Hamptons influences.
While the house is set up for selfcatering, if your idea of a party is not lifting a finger, call chef Anthony McGaughey
from One Green Acre (onegreenacre.com. au), who’ll create a menu for your stay that champions Northern Rivers produce. It might include a breakfast of Byron Bay oyster mushrooms in lemon and butter with a side of Bangalow bacon. Or take the 10-minute drive to Maurice Terzini’s buzzing Belongil Beach Italian Food (bbif. com.au) for dinner.
Come morning, pick your spot for greeting the sun: on the wraparound verandah looking out to macadamia, hibiscus and poinciana trees or a daybed by the pool. “Sunrise is a beautiful time,” says James. “When the sun is shining you can see across the hills.”
Jessie Prince
Hinterland House
[STORY BY] Jessica Irvine
A home loan offer so good you don’t need a celebrity
Maldives
40 Climb into a harness, fasten your helmet, dive into the rainforest and glide through the warm, salty breeze. First time zip-lining to dinner on a remote tropical island? Welcome to Soneva Fushi (hotel.qantas.com.au/sonevafushi).
Continually transforming since it first welcomed guests in 1995, the Maldivian resort’s latest additions don’t end at the thrilling tree-top dining experience. There’s also eight spectacular new water retreats (in addition to the beachfront villas) perched above the aquamarine lagoon around Kunfunadhoo Island in the Baa Atoll Biosphere Reserve. (No judgement for racing your kids – or partner – up the sustainable plantation timber staircase to test-drive your personal water slide.)
Whether you splash out on a water retreat or stay in one of the 63 villas of varying configurations that fringe the sunrise and sunset beaches, at Soneva you’ll find that luxury is subtly revealed. It’s in the craftsmanship of furnishings (most made by locals using reclaimed materials) and thoughtful touches such as matching the scent of your room’s amenities to the favoured fragrances you nominated in your pre-arrival survey. Leave it in the capable hands of your barefoot butler to coordinate activities spanning eco-conscious surf trips (boards are made from recycled waste), snorkelling with manta rays (led by marine biologists) or a night glamping beneath the stars on a private sandbank.
And if you can’t get there until 2023, no worries – you’ll arrive just in time to enjoy the new wellness facilities.
[STORY BY] Sarah Reid
Soneva Fushi
Lab-grown food.
Building design that goes back to the earth.
Travel with a conscience.
Fashion in the slow lane.
Welcome to the future.
Stories by Jane Nicholls
Alison Boleyn
Alexandra Carlton
Illustrations by Johnson Andrew
What will be on your plate?
Science and technology are driving the future of food, writes Jane Nicholls.
By 2050, our planet will have an estimated 2 billion more human mouths on board and, according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, we’ll need 60 per cent more food to feed them. There’s a dwindling amount of land available to grow it on and escalating pressures to improve the sustainability and quality of protein production.
That’s why CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, released its protein road map in March, outlining a $13-billion market opportunity for Australia to diversify its protein products. This includes using technology to verify the provenance and science to improve sustainability, yield and disease- and pest-resistance of old favourites such as beef, lamb, prawns and barramundi.
But there’s also more focus on valueadding to turn our country’s rich grain and legume harvest into plant-based protein products, rather than shipping most of it overseas in bulk.
CSIRO provided the science and part of the investment to launch v2food, a plant-based protein range that first hit our tastebuds in 2019 via the patty in Hungry Jack’s Rebel Whopper. It’s now found everywhere from sausages and mince in supermarkets to dishes in restaurants. The aspiration is to satisfy the world’s appetite for high-end protein and grow a sustainable agricultural supply chain to do it. As v2food founder and CEO Nick Hazell says, “We have to get people who love meat to love us – we can’t just be for rich vegans.”
Lab-grown meat cultivated from animal cell lines is an emerging option for carnivores who aren’t willing to try plantbased taste-alike products. Australian startup Vow is building a “library” of cell lines to produce meat. Extracted animal cells are grown in a micronutrient solution in a lab cultivator, which looks a bit like a distillery. The cells then rapidly divide in the vat until they’re ready to “harvest”.
As well as being at the cutting-edge of future protein production, Vow is asking us to think beyond the four species that make up most of the world’s animal-based diet today. Because they’re raising cells rather than a live herd, Vow says its cultured-meat production has the potential to offer up to two million more animal species for food, including exotic species, and have already cracked kangaroo, pig, lamb, rabbit, goat and alpaca. It will debut its products in Singapore early in 2023, exclusively at high-end restaurants.
“We’ll be launching with an entirely new type of meat,” says Vow co-founder and CEO George Peppou, “unlike anything you’ve ever eaten.” Fries or salad with your cultivated-zebra steak?
Is that building growing?
By changing the materials it uses, the construction industry can cut waste and emissions and reimagine how our buildings interact with nature, writes Alison Boleyn.
COVID-19 may have hitched some temporary tarps over the numbers but the International Energy Agency says buildings and the construction industry contribute nearly 39 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions. Manufacturing cement alone accounts for 7 per cent of them. Add sand and the environmental and geopolitical impacts are even more devastating; sand, despite appearances, is a finite resource. So the construction industry is rethinking the building materials it uses.
One of the most radical trends is a field still in its infancy: living building materials. These are bioengineered construction materials that can grow, self-heal, generate energy and even replicate themselves.
Scientists from the University of Colorado, funded by a branch of the United States Department of Defense, have developed a literally green product in “living concrete” – cubes, arches and shoebox-sized bricks made from photosynthetic bacteria and gelatine that start out a queasy olive before settling into a friendlier shade. There’s still work to do – the bacteria is sensitive to contamination and dies in dry conditions – but cut the “parent” in half and these can double themselves for three generations.
Mogu, an Italian design company that’s become a centre of experimentation in sustainable building materials, has developed exquisite commercial tiles, flooring and acoustic panels by mixing mycelium – the vegetal part of mushrooms – with agro-industrial waste then leaving it to grow. Mogu is also an industrial partner in what’s probably the world’s most ambitious plan for the humble ’shroom. The FUNGAR project, launched
by the European Commission, connects computer scientists, biophysicists, architects and mycologists in the United Kingdom, Denmark and the Netherlands to collaborate on smart buildings with fungi within their framework. Forests are interlaced with natural mycelium networks that process and exchange information between plants and trees. Mushrooms, which can carry electrical signals and data, act as a sensor in the buildings, detecting changes in light, pollutants and temperature before exchanging that data with a computer.
The US company Biomason, which business information platform Crunchbase calculates has raised US$94.8 million in funding, grows biocement bricks using a wild, non-pathogenic strain of a natural bacteria rather than non-renewable materials. While traditional cement-making burns limestone in furnaces, Biomason’s process absorbs instead of emitting CO2 and Biolith blocks take three days to “grow” in contrast to cement’s customary month. Biomason’s founder and CEO, Ginger Krieg Dosier, plans to remove 25 per cent of concrete emissions by 2030. “We have no intention of slowing down.”
What does the new tourism look like?
A new approach to travel aims to leave a place better than you found it, writes Jane Nicholls.
As the world emerges from the pandemic pause, it’s a good moment to reassess how we travel and put into practice the fruits of our reflections. How do we make the travel we missed so much a positive act for all concerned? How do we look after the people and places we’re visiting and the precious planet we’re again crisscrossing?
The UN World Tourism Organisation promotes responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism, urging travellers and operators to take into account the environmental, economic and social-cultural aspects of travel. There are numerous agencies, companies and even countries on board to help guide the way.
New Zealand has completely redefined the value of its tourism industry, giving equal weight to nature, culture, society and economy. “Tourism must create jobs,
restore nature, enhance our heritage, build our national reputation and make us proud,” says the 2021-2025 Statement of Intent for Tourism New Zealand’s Enrich Aotearoa initiative. “It must inspire and enable us to celebrate who we are, our unique people and place.”
It’s a neat summation of how travellers need to check their priorities before they check their bags. How can we make each trip – for business or pleasure – more meaningful? What can we do to minimise impact, maximise connection and elevate the experience? How does our visit support and respect local communities?
Consider it a given that you will eschew modes of transport that don’t offer an accredited carbon-offset program. Accommodation must have sustainability practices that go way beyond asking guests to hang their towels. Transparency of all these initiatives is vital and travellers should be encouraged to research the operators’ credentials.
The Future of Tourism Coalition, a group of NGOs that joined forces during the pandemic, is working to help the sector build back better. Members must sign up to 13 guiding principles, including seeing
the whole picture beyond the primary tourism businesses, closing the loop on resources and redefining economic success (as New Zealand has done). Signatory Ecotourism Australia has certified hundreds of members for its Green Travel Guide.
Regenerative travel aims to make the world a better place in measurable ways. Longtime US tour company The Travel Corporation has launched the TreadRight Foundation and Make Travel Matter, a collection of experiences that support 11 defined goals. A clearly defined legend allows travellers to research how each specific tour will support a goal, from clean water and sanitation to reduced inequality for minority groups.
Travel has sustained us in myriad ways for centuries. Now it’s our turn to find ways to give back, take less and ensure our wanderings benefit all. “Travel can play a critical role in building connections with the people and places who are working to restore the balance with nature many of us have lost,” says filmmaker Céline Cousteau, Planet Ambassador for the TreadRight Foundation. “This pause has given me more time to deepen my own relationship with the planet.”
Can fast fashion go slow?
Recycled, re-used and renewable textiles only go so far in solving the fastfashion crisis, writes Alexandra Carlton. The answer may lie with consumption.
Australia holds the inglorious distinction of being the second-largest consumer of clothing in the world, generating 800,000 tonnes of textile waste per year. Individuals consume about 27 kilograms of new clothing per annum and at the same time dispose of 23 kilograms of textile waste. Globally the numbers are even grimmer, with an estimated 92 million tonnes of clothing waste created every year. A garbage truck full of clothes ends up in landfill every second.
If we want our discarded loungewear and leggings to stop clogging up the planet, you’d think that re-using and
recycling would be the loudest voices in the conversation. But complete garment recycling – breaking the pieces down to their naked fibres and creating new ones – is a difficult proposition.
Clothes are made of different fibres, fastenings and embellishments, which historically have needed to be laboriously separated by hand. But innovation is happening, such as at Swedish large-scale sorting facility Siptex, where fabrics can be graded by colour and material using infrared technologies.
Another sustainability-focused Swede, Renewcell, has worked out how to recycle textiles into a patented biodegradable material called Circulose. The company forecasts that the fashion industry will have an annual baseline demand of six million metric tonnes for similar recycled fibres by 2030.
Slowing down the start of the cycle is also critical. Brands like Adelaide’s Autark emphasise minimising output. “I try to keep my collections really tightly curated and my production numbers really slim,” says designer and director Sophia McMahon. Sometimes that means she doesn’t have the exact garment
someone wants in stock but McMahon’s customers are patient while she makes items to order because they understand the ethos of her business.
Giving garments a second life with startups such as AirRobe is likely to be an increasingly important part of the answer. The clothing resale market is currently worth an estimated $49 billion and is on track to reach $103 billion by 2025. AirRobe allows customers to add new purchases to their digital “AirRobe” so they can be resold later without the need for uploading photographs or writing descriptions.
“What I call the ‘re-economy’ – the whole re-use, recycle section of the market – is going to be a real opportunity for us,” says The Iconic’s CEO, Erica Berchtold, who introduced AirRobe to the online retailer’s 17 million monthly visitors last year.
A widespread consumer change of buying fewer but higher-quality clothes would eclipse any of these innovations, say researchers Samantha Sharpe, Monique Retamal and Taylor Brydges from the University of Technology Sydney. “You might think it’s too hard,” they wrote on The Conversation . “But the status quo of constant growth can’t last.”
An island of innovation
Wild and unforgettable, Flinders Island could be the blueprint for how we live tomorrow.
Life moves at a different pace on Flinders Island. A picture of lush green pastures girdled by craggy cliff faces, this remote rocky outcrop in Bass Strait is home to a proud farming community who live in harmony with nature.
For Miele ambassador Jo Barrett, the opportunity to spend five months living and working in this spectacularly wild landscape was a dream come true.
“The community here on the island is incredible,” she says of the 800-strong
population, with many local families tracing their lineage back multiple generations. “ Nature is at the forefront of everyone’s activities. They spend their days either on the water or exploring the natural beauty of the island. Time zooms past; you’re not sitting on social media, that’s for sure. The community really embraces and respects its surroundings.”
This symbiosis with nature made Flinders Island the perfect choice for Miele’s Stories of Sustainability series. “The island has such
incredible produce,” says Barrett, a long-time champion of minimum-waste-maximumflavour cooking. “Everyone works on the land so their livelihood depends on the state of the water and the soil. There’s a fisherman who line-catches fish and takes it straight to the wharf restaurant. There’s also a young couple who are reopening the abattoir because people have realised how inefficient it is to raise livestock, send it away to be processed only to bring it back for consumption.”
For Barrett, Flinders Island is a great example of how a small, localised food system can work. “It’s all about growers doing things with a sustainable mindset. This island is their home and they know they have to look after it for the generations to come,” she says. “Everyone here cares about their environment so much. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a piece of rubbish on the beach.”
While she had planned to use her island downtime to work on her sustainable cookbook, instead it was taken up by the lure of the wild: foraging for coastal herbs, diving for crayfish and mutton-birding with local Indigenous people. “If the weather’s good, you head on out. It’s a busy life, where everyone is working hard but finding so much satisfaction in it. And the emotional payoff is feeling part of a system – a place where everyone is friendly because they feel their interconnection with each other and the land and sea.”
It’s a little island with a lot of innovation; the recent installation of solar panels and two wind turbines now satisfies 70 per cent of the island’s energy needs. And it’s this sustainable
approach that mirrors Barrett’s own ethos when it comes to cooking and eating.
“Seeing how pristine the ingredients are means I really want to do them justice as a cook,” she says. Barrett’s favourite island practice was to catch a fish and cook it over a fire on the beach, creating steam with saltbush. “When I’m back at home, my Miele steam oven is such a great way to capture the flavour and nutrients of the fish. It’s a gentle way to cook and it lets you have lots of control and precision in your cooking.”
See more Stories of Sustainability
Following the success of Melbourne’s zero-waste Future Food System – a house and restaurant in Federation Square that was fitted out with sustainable, low-energy appliances – Miele is showcasing Australian makers in the Stories of Sustainability video series. Tune in as Jo Barrett meets producers, growers and creators who do things differently, with sustainability and quality top of mind.
Watch Miele’s Stories of Sustainability at mieleexperience.com.au/sustainability
124 Discover the 11 golden rules of great data management
136 How Shane Fitzsimmons learnt to be a better leader
138 The family agtech business that’s creating a buzz on the land
NUMBERS GAME
THE CHIEF DATA OFFICER HAS BECOME ONE OF BUSINESS’S MOST CRITICAL PLAYERS AS LEADERS GRAPPLE WITH HOW TO MASTER DATA.
THREE EXPERTS SHARE THE KEY STRATEGIES EVERY BUSINESS SHOULD EMPLOY.
BY JANE NICHOLLS
Christian Nelissen, chief data and analytics officer at National Australia Bank, says that when he dropped out of uni, “I thought, ‘Well, I’m good at maths and I’d like to have an office one day so banking’s the right thing for me.’” He went back to Curtin University part-time, worked for 12 years at Bankwest and then in consulting in the United Kingdom for more than a decade, by which time he was getting more and more into data. He joined the Royal Bank of Scotland as a data and analytics director in 2010. “The idea that, in my role, I would go and sit at the leadership table and talk about data would have been seen as crazy,” he says. “People would roll their eyes and say, ‘Data is the most boring topic known to man.’”
Maria Milosavljevic became chief data integration officer at the Department of Defence in February. She was planning on becoming a biochemist when she started her Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Tasmania in 1988. “In my second year of uni, I studied artificial intelligence and fell in love with computer science,” she says. “I’ve worked across a range of areas, in academia, industry and government, and my sweet spot is data and analytics applied to security so my current role is a golden opportunity for me. In the 12 years I’ve worked in government, I’ve very much focused on the various elements of data, particularly when I was working in intelligence agencies, where data is the lifeblood of the organisation.”
Kris Matthews is chief product, data and analytics officer at PropTrack Australia , part of the News Corp-owned real estate advertising conglomerate REA Group. “I started a degree in criminal justice but in parallel I was doing an apprenticeship with Ray White real estate,” he says. Matthews got hooked on working in property and as his career progressed, he became interested in the technology side of operations, eventually jumping from real estate to a technology supplier. Ever since, he has worked in data and tech businesses tied to property, including more than 20 years with global data giant CoreLogic. “I have a passion for property and the technology side lit up the opportunity. So that interest morphed into a career.”
MAKE DATA PART OF COMPANY CULTURE
All three of these CDOs stressed the importance of fostering a strong data culture led from the top. “You need to build a culture that locks data into the DNA of the organisation,” says Milosavljevic. “Leaders have to be curious – and data literate – and build that mindset. Data is a strategic asset that goes to the heart of an organisation’s mission. Most innovation around the globe relates to the better use of data; it’s key to making an organisation more efficient and effective. You don’t get there unless everybody goes along with that culture of curiosity, as well as having the data literacy they need to achieve their jobs.”
DITCH THE DATA YOU DON’T NEED
Data storage is cheap today, says Matthews, so businesses have a tendency to amass and hang onto a lot of it. “You can easily sink in data,” he says. “You have to be really clear about the requirements of your data and make sure your data strategy underpins your business strategy.” Then be ruthless if you can. A company like PropTrack, which has to provide timely, accurate data to clients such as banks, needs PII data – Personal Identifiable Information. Holding it requires heightened security measures because a data breach has the potential to expose customers’ personal information. “For businesses that don’t need PII, they shouldn’t capture or store it. It just gives you overheads you don’t need. If you don’t need PII, get it out of the system.”
HIRE EXPERTS WHO VALUE CLEAR COMMUNICATION
Leaders must be curious about how data can make a difference in their business and “understand enough to at least ask the question”, says Nelissen. Equally important is that those working in data and analytics – starting with the CDO – be good communicators. “If they can’t explain it to you, you’ve got the wrong person,” he says. “I tell my people, ‘Of course I want
Can your business survive a cyber attack?
In an increasingly hostile cyber-threat environment, business leaders must prepare for the worst by building resilience in their organisations. This can be achieved through initiatives such as crisis-simulation exercises.
Businesses across the economy are in an “arms race” with increasingly sophisticated cyber-attack groups. These groups aim to create profit from causing disruption and harm. “Their business model is to cause as much pain as possible,” says CyberCX education consultant Marie Knights.
According to Knights, the best defence to an attack starts at the top, with board directors committing to upskilling and crisis simulation exercises to be combat ready. “Once a breach occurs, it’s how people respond and the decisions they make that determine the length of downtime and the effects of an attack, including customer exposure and reputational damage.”
CyberCX, an end-to-end cyber-resilience provider, has grown to become the country’s largest dedicated cyber security services firm,
with a comprehensive strategic presence across Australia, New Zealand, the UK and US. CyberCX works with company executives to assess and understand their current cyber-resilience baseline and where they need to get to. “Every organisation has a different cyber-risk profile depending on their industry and the standards and regulations they need to comply with,” says Knights.
Based on this assessment, CyberCX can make expert recommendations to strengthen people, process and technology in the face of a potential cyber attack. According to Knights, training executives in the experience of a cyber attack is one of the most effective ways to guide staff. CyberCX uses immersive learning, such as participating in realistic exercises, to stress-test incident responses and devises business continuity plans. “Ongoing education of employees is critical to ensuring that your people become the human firewall for your
organisation. Most breaches occur as the result of human actions.”
However, even with the best systems, processes and people in place, Knights emphasises that on the wrong day, in the wrong environment, the right threat actor can breach even your best defences. You just need to be ready.
“Put simply, there is no way to completely remove all cyber risk from your business. The key is to build resilience through regular crisis-simulation exercises, partnering with an operationally informed cyber expert like CyberCX.”
Learn more at cybercx.com.au/resilience
you to be capable at analytics but I also want you to be able to walk into a room and explain it to others.’ You need to understand the business well enough that you can convince people to do something different off the back of the analysis.”
GET GOOD DATA FROM THE BEGINNING
“Data quality must be everyone’s responsibility and it’s something a lot of organisations struggle with,” says Matthews. “When staff members input data from an interaction they have with a customer, be it online or face-to-face, they need to understand the information they’re capturing will be used downstream for a purpose. The quality of the results you get are determined by how accurate the information is at the source.” He says basic training in data collection is a must for all staff. “As to the depth of that training, it depends on the business. It could be incorporated into a course covering the correct use of other platforms,
such as the CRM [customer relationship management]. However, businesses that rely heavily on data need a data boot camp for existing staff and as part of induction. This builds foundational knowledge so all employees understand the importance of data to the business and their role in supporting that.”
STRIVE TO MAKE IT SOMETHING YOU DON’T WORRY ABOUT
“I often say my job is to make data like electricity,” says Nelissen. “You don’t spend any time thinking about whether electricity is going to be there or if it’s going to be the right quality. That’s obviously different to where we are at the moment with data.”
It might be apocryphal, he says, but in the early days of electricity, there was a role for chief electricity officers, which became obsolete as power became more reliable. “How do I create an infrastructure so data is like electricity? So it’s there when you want it and you spend your time
thinking about what you want to do with it.” Ultimately, Nelissen says he’ll be a successful CDO when data is so seamlessly integrated into the operations of a business that he’s no longer needed.
ASK YOURSELF IF YOUR DATA IS TRULY HELPING YOUR CUSTOMERS
PropTrack is constantly measuring customer engagement around the data it recommends. “We need to make sure it’s relevant and delivers on the promise or value that the consumer is looking for from us,” says Matthews. “Businesses will fail if they don’t understand that and businesses with a really clear view, which measure that engagement, will continue to grow and flourish. Without those foundations in place, you won’t understand if you’re doing what your customers actually want. People will switch off and not take any notice of whatever you’re giving them in terms of recommendations and that obviously damages your brand.”
DON’T CREATE HUMAN BOTS
“There’s a risk that people are so deskilled that they can’t think for themselves,” says Milosavljevic, who likes to refer to David Walliams’ TV sitcom, Little Britain “The Carol Beer character just sits there saying, ‘Computer says no’, all the time. This is a risk for all organisations. The more we innovate and automate, we have to continually balance things to make sure our people’s skills stay current and we don’t become too reliant on machines.” So it’s not simply about defaulting to the machine’s recommendations but continually upskilling – and discovering nuances in the data.
WORK TO WIN THE “TALENT WAR”
Nelissen says there aren’t enough people to meet the demand for data roles – and more work needs to be done with schools and universities to build the pipeline – but it’s also time to get creative. When he was at the Royal Bank of Scotland, they had a team of 30 people manually reading
“
A LOT OF PEOPLE COME INTO DATA ROLES THINKING IT’S ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY, THE TOOLS AND THE ROCKET SCIENCE THAT GOES ON WITH MACHINE LEARNING. BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY, IT’S A PEOPLE JOB. WE HAVE TO TAKE THE ORGANISATION ON A JOURNEY TO MAKE MORE USE OF ITS DATA.” ”
CHRISTIAN NELISSEN, NAB
complaints, a process they automated. “We offered all of them the chance to reskill as data analysts. From memory, 22 of them took the opportunity and then the bank had 22 new data analysts.” He says this mixture of reskilling to help retain people, attracting fresh graduate talent and other “great people” will be part of the CDO’s job until we’re past the skills shortage “hump”.
DON’T USE DATA TO DO SOMETHING JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN
Data science can provide critical insights and improve decision-making under pressure. “Human beings are not capable of processing the scale of the data we’re dealing with today,” says Milosavljevic. It’s taking masses of data points and different types of data, joining them together and making sense of it. “How do we bring that to bear when you’re under high pressure, in a complex environment?” Algorithms can take the data and automate and scale human intelligence. “That’s the art of the possible when it comes to analytics and using it to achieve our objectives. The risk is you can go down all sorts of rabbit warrens. Be crystal clear on the problem you’re trying to solve so you can measure whether or not you’re making a difference. In research, ‘interesting’ is great but in a commercial or government environment, it must be useful, purposeful and contribute to the organisation’s mission.” Nelissen echoes this. “Data exists to solve business problems,” he says. “There are plenty of cool things you can do with data – and I’ve seen a lot of them – that don’t do anything useful. If you’re not making a difference in the business, you’re basically just amusing yourself. CDOs need
to get people thinking and motivated and driven in the right way to solve business problems, not just do the cool things.” In a bank, “data helps us to make better business decisions, from where we should put a branch to how many relationship managers we need in a portfolio.”
MAKE IT CLEAR TO THE ENTIRE WORKFORCE WHERE DATA FITS IN
“Data needs to be a pillar of your business strategy,” says Matthews. “When it is, you can see a clear link to where it fits into the company’s overarching strategy and
how data supports the business.” He says it doesn’t matter where the data sits or what the business structure is, it needs to be obvious “what the business wants to achieve and what function data plays to support that strategy”. A clear data strategy means each employee understands why the information is important. “For us, it might be, ‘We’re selling a product to a bank that creates revenue for us’, or ‘We’re helping a consumer make a decision about whether they make an offer on this home or not.’ That gives the data teams context, as well as the wider business. And when the data strategy is successful, it drives the business objectives so they are everyone’s objectives. It seems obvious but people underrate the importance of it.”
RESPECT THAT DATA WILL OUTLIVE US
“Data is our most enduring asset,” says Milosavljevic. “In 80 years, the organisation will still be using some of the data we create today. None of us will be here –even the buildings and the IT system will have changed – but the data will endure. So it’s really important that the CDO is long-term in their thinking.”
Maria Milosavljevic sees the CDO as wearing five equally important hats:
The visionary Gets the organisation to see the importance of data and have a long-term view of its management.
The bridge Most companies operate in silos but data doesn’t – it needs to flow across the organisation. This is about activating data’s latent potential and is often called the democratisation of data, to ensure everybody can use it well.
The regulator This is the one that people jump to as the default. It’s about making sure that data is designed, managed and used well. There need to be specific project KPIs around data standards and quality to make sure the data that comes out is fit for the desired outcomes. It’s the same with cybersecurity.
It all has to be baked in from the word go. The CDO’s regulator role is about setting in place the right controls to ensure that happens – for the lifetime of the data.
The scientist This is about the art of the possible and experimentation but is at odds with the regulator hat, which is about the rules. The scientist is about breaking the rules and pushing beyond the boundaries. The CDO has to balance constraints and controlled experimentation and it’s a constant juggle.
The engineer The focus here is scale and industrialisation. To get enduring value we have to industrialise – that’s about connecting the CDO and CIO roles. What’s proven to have value needs to become normal technology that’s embedded in our systems. It’s about applying engineering principles to create something strong, stable and enduring.
THE ROLES OF THE CDO
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Karen Mundine
The proud Bundjalung woman and CEO of Reconciliation Australia has been tested by the likes of Rio Tinto but says mistakes can lead to valuable lessons.
CURRENT ROLE CEO, Reconciliation Australia
TENURE Five years
AGE 50
PREVIOUS ROLES Deputy CEO, general manager, communications and engagement, and strategic communications adviser, Reconciliation Australia; senior consultant, CPR Communications
How do you define good leadership?
Good leadership is leading by example. You have to be strong for your people and help them navigate things, even when you don’t really know what’s around the corner. It’s also about having trust in them – trust in their abilities and capabilities and that they’re going to do a good job for you.
Putting COVID aside, what’s the biggest challenge you’re facing?
Reconciliation is a really big job. It’s about nation-building – or rebuilding in many ways – and it’s culture change at a national level. We’re a small not-for-profit organisation. We rely on our allies, our partners and the relationships we build to create the kind of change we think is needed to get to a tipping point. The scope of work that’s ahead of us is always going to be a challenge and it can be daunting at times. But as exhausting as it is, it gives me a bit of a buzz when I see positive outcomes that people never thought possible.
I’d imagine your work is both rewarding and frustrating. In equal measures and sometimes both at the same time.
Your organisation helps companies form Reconciliation Action Plans and there are now about 2000 formal RAPs across Australia. There’s clearly momentum but there’s an enormous way to go, isn’t there? There certainly is. If you think about that cohort of 2000-odd organisations, that’s close to four million Australians who either work or study in an organisation that has a RAP. Then when you look at sporting clubs, that reaches about seven
million Australians. They’re fantastic numbers but when you consider the population of the country, there’s still a way to go. A lot of people would say it’s not changing fast enough –and there are many days when I absolutely agree – but I’m a glass-half-full kind of person. I think about the life that my grandparents led, living in tents on the outskirts of town and raising a large family with really oppressive policies and restrictions on their lives. So I definitely see progress.
Your 2021 State of Reconciliation Report stated that First Nations leaders and other stakeholders expressed frustration at the rate of progress. How do you motivate people to keep fighting?
It’s about pointing out where those green shoots are coming through. It’s also seeing the change in non-Indigenous Australians. We know more Australians are starting to understand the history of colonisation and the history of First Peoples and, most importantly, how that past continues to play out today. With that kind of understanding, they’re starting to think, “Well, what do we need to change now?”
What makes a good RAP?
It has to be about integrity. I know businesses like KPIs and targets but it’s the things that sit behind it. One of the really important parts of a RAP is a vision for reconciliation. Why is this business committing to these actions or outcomes? When an organisation truly understands what that is, it guides the way it goes about undertaking action. And for me that’s where the success or failure comes in. These are learning environments and we accept that there’ll be a whole heap of reasons why organisations may not actually hit that KPI or that target. What we’re most interested in is that they understand what went wrong and what they need to change. That’s what we’re here for – to help organisations create those learning opportunities to get better in each iteration.
Do you feel you have enough of a seat at the table to really affect change within those big organisations?
I think we do to a certain degree. The RAP program has created momentum and there’s absolutely good will at the C-suite and executive levels. We have been tested in the past couple of years and obviously Rio Tinto was the most public of those [when the mining company destroyed a 46,000-yearold Aboriginal heritage site]. I was gutted when I heard the news and frustrated by all that had happened but we met several times with their executives and senior leadership to try and understand it and have them think through what it means for them as a company and what it means for Reconciliation more broadly… That’s what led us to exclude them from both Elevate RAP [the highest level a company can achieve] and the program, at least for now.
And can they claw their way back?
Look, everything is possible and we maintain engagement with Rio but we – and they – recognise that there’s a lot more work they need to do. The ball is in their court. We had another issue with Telstra [which was fined $50 million for unconscionable sales to First Nations people]. They took steps to remediate that, not only with First Nations customers but also with their systems and processes, so there was a demonstration that they were trying to fix it and get it right.
We’ve allowed them to remain in the program but they were removed from Elevate and asked to develop a new RAP that better reflects those changes and learnings. It’s really about giving an organisation a time of space, without a much higher expectation on them to get things right.
Beyond these big issues, what do businesses often get wrong?
This idea of set and forget. There’s a big focus and a big push and there might be a win or two that happens and everyone is like, “Great, we’ve got it,” and then they move onto the next thing. Like anything in business, you can’t just set and forget. Environments change, business priorities change and people change so all of these things need to be constantly monitored.
How do you avoid elements of reconciliation becoming token? I’ve seen so many acknowledgments of country that are just rattled off. I think that’s an ongoing challenge. I’ve heard really awful acknowledgments of country and I’ve heard some really heartfelt ones. There are places for these kinds of symbols. Sometimes that comes across in the early days as tokenistic but if people don’t have the chance to do it and don’t have the chance to get more comfortable with the idea of it, it’s never going to grow into something that is more meaningful and has a deeper resonance. We point our RAP partners back to their vision and intent. Why are we doing this? Why would I care about that? Why is that important? Until you can answer those questions in ways that make sense to your business and your people, it will always verge on tokenistic.
Everybody is just so scared of getting it wrong, aren’t they?
If you’ve never done this before, why would you expect to get it perfectly right every single time? The one thing with Telstra was the humility that they showed in accepting – rather than arguing with us – and saying, “Yes, we got it wrong and all we can do is say sorry and look into this and try and fix it.” We wanted to talk to our community first because it’s really important that our community hears directly from us and [Telstra CEO] Andy Penn said, “I’d really like to come if I can. Would you mind if I spoke directly to the community?” A number of organisations reached out to us afterwards, saying it really made an impact on them in thinking about what good leaders do – how you own those mistakes and demonstrate from the very top what change looks like.
You’re an optimist. Do you think that you’ll see parity in your lifetime?
If we’re talking about stats, I think we may well get close. If we’re talking about First Nations people having a real voice and a real say to influence the way we live our lives and the way that we engage in policy and decision-making – whether that’s government or corporates – there are opportunities on the runway for that to become real in the next five to 10 years. It’s not a simplistic answer but I think we’re definitely getting there and if I didn’t, I don’t know that I’d be able to get up in the morning and do the work that I do.
What advice would you give a brand-new CEO?
Being a CEO can be a lonely job but there’s a whole team of people willing to help and support you, whether it’s your board, other CEOs or your own cheer squad. Don’t be afraid to reach out and ask for help.
Leadership in the age of AI
Amid the excitement around technology, businesses need to bring their focus back to people. Enter the new “human” MBA.
Business leaders are navigating a world that’s increasingly digitised, dealing with constant disruption and overseeing the implementation of AI to automate all kinds of operations. It’s exciting… but it’s also a lot. New skills are needed to step out of the maelstrom and remind us that humans are central to innovation, too.
A new MBA program from the Australian College of Applied Professions (ACAP) puts people at its heart. While it covers all the technical skills expected of an MBA, the course overlays ACAP’s expertise in human behaviour, providing graduates with the confidence to influence change in their organisations and turn digital disruption into opportunity.
“Emotional intelligence is a foundational skill that modern leaders should already have down pat,” says course leader and associate professor, Dr Be Pannell. “Our MBA brings in the next level – we are developing in our leaders a new range of so-called ‘soft’ skills, which
McKinsey calls ‘inner agility’. It’s a combination of a curious mindset, mastery over applied techniques and the ability to overcome cognitive bias. These are essential skills to lead in this complex environment, allowing leaders to adapt and bring others along with them.”
Drawing on her own research and more than two decades of experience in leadership development – and combining it with cuttingedge studies from around the world – Pannell and the ACAP faculty have developed a highly practical MBA. “Students practise techniques in their study groups and take them into their workplace and all our assessment tasks are business-related,” says Pannell. “There’s nothing philosophical or abstract.”
How leaders respond in high-pressure situations is crucial. Under stress, our brains revert to being reactive, causing us to narrow our focus and miss out on the full picture, says Pannell. “Our MBA brings in techniques to reduce
stress levels, giving leaders the capabilities to slow down and move forward. It’s a discipline that allows leaders to bring their true cognitive skills online, rather than the fight-or-flight reflex.” Harnessing these “soft” skills can help executives make productive pivots rather than stressed-out stitches. “The future is only going to be more complex. Well-rounded leaders need a sophisticated skillset to not only positively impact their teams but also drive meaningful business outcomes. Our MBA fosters leaders to grow a curious and open mindset through the understanding of a wide range of perspectives.”
NOW (ON)BOARDING
Recruiting is intense and expensive. So how do you ensure a new hire becomes an effective part of your business, enjoying mutual benefits that make them want to stay? “For most businesses, onboarding is an afterthought,” says Natasha Hawker, managing director of human resources consultancy Employee Matters. Despite current skills shortages and the need to engage and retain strong candidates, many managers rely on a warm welcome and newcomer zest for the role or defer to onboarding software.
Companies are missing an opportunity, says Hawker, “to facilitate a more effective
process using technology while building in the need for employees to connect with colleagues, virtually or face to face”.
Hawker says the five Cs (see below), a framework developed in 2010 by American researcher Talya N. Bauer, is a good starting point for any business developing its onboarding process. Of course, a desk, computer and access to company software must be in place when new staff walk through the real or virtual door.
Huon Hoogesteger, managing director of Smart Commercial Solar, a 34-person organisation of sales specialists, engineers and project managers, agrees that the
Finding the right employee is the first step; making sure they hit the ground running is the next. Three seasoned recruiters show you how.
The five Cs of onboarding Compliance Automate processes such as new-hire paperwork, employee records and access to your staff handbook.
Clarification
Help your new employee to understand exactly what’s expected of them, either online or in person.
Connection
Assign a buddy to help them navigate the unspoken cultural codes of your company.
compliance element of onboarding is easily automated. But for a cohesive, productive team, he believes nothing replaces one-on-one engagement.
New starters are flown to the Sydney office for at least a week, even if they’ll ultimately be working remotely in Queensland or Victoria. On their first day, they meet the entire team, they’re introduced to the technology they’ll be using and are given their first meaningful tasks to fuel a sense of new-employee competence.
Sarah Regan, founder of florist Little Flowers, sends successful applicants a welcoming letter of offer, along with requests for compliance information. Actual onboarding, after a walk-through of the workroom, segues straight into “sideby-side working” with a florist who knows the ropes. Printed templates provide guides to the size and composition of bouquets to help new recruits achieve consistent quality.
Side-by-side working is an extension of teaming new recruits with a buddy or mentor. Hawker says research indicates that 87 per cent of organisations that assign an onboarding buddy report that it’s effective in speeding up new-hire proficiency.
Each of Little Flowers’ two daily shifts is followed by a debriefing with employees on WhatsApp, keeping everyone up-todate on any challenges and client feedback.
It’s an example of how onboarding never really ends. Hawker says companies should think of onboarding transforming into “a professional development plan that evolves with the employee on their journey with your business”.
Culture
Immersion in rituals, company values and performance management helps them participate in what matters to your organisation.
Check back Schedule times for them to ask more questions and fine-tune their understanding. You’ll gain intel for future onboarding.
Turning data into smarter homes
Innovative technology is allowing customers to be co-designers in the homes and communities of the future.
Ask anyone who has built a home for the first time what they would’ve done differently in hindsight and their list will likely be extensive – from more power points to better insulation.
For almost 100 years, Frasers Property Australia has been developing residential land, houses and apartments. In recent years, it has invested in a series of integrated systems to create a customer experience like no other, digitising and collating the wishlists of its “customer collaborators” to help shape the homes and communities of the future.
“We don’t just design the dwellings and bring them to the market; we work with our customers to ensure their vision truly comes to fruition,” says Anthony Boyd, CEO at Frasers Property. “This partnership helps us create that feeling of home we all want, of belonging and being embraced by place.”
Using SAP’s experience management platform Qualtrics has allowed Frasers to
aggregate periodic surveys with direct feedback from the company’s clients and community relations managers. Data is then surfaced in real time into easy-to-read dashboards and apps to empower its employees to create more intuitive property designs.
“We can see elements that customers are looking for in a community, like dog parks and community rooms filled with natural light spilling into beautiful gardens,” says Emily Wood, general manager, brand and customer.
Democratising data through SAP’s systems allows architects, designers, builders, project managers, community development officers, marketing experts and sales staff to access the feedback and desires of homeowners and tenants living and working in Frasers’ properties.
“To deliver a great customer experience, you have to invest in your employee experience,” says Sumeer Shoree, general manager of IT and digital at Frasers.
“Having the latest data at their fingertips means teams can track and check in on what customers are saying,” adds Wood. “Qualtrics has provided a greater level of incentive for every team to be constantly trying to improve those metrics.”
And it’s winning new customers. “We’ve seen tremendous growth in our Net Promoter Score,” says Wood. “Repeat and referral customers are a significant contributor to our business and it’s been trending upwards every year – something we couldn’t expect to maintain without SAP and Qualtrics.”
Run your personal best with SAP. Find out more at sap.com
SHANE FITZSIMMONS
The calm face of the Black Summer bushfires is a Macquarie Business School graduate who lives by the creed that authenticity trumps everything.
Learn through lived experiences
2020-present Commissioner, Resilience NSW
“When all the response agencies leave the scene, there’s an emotional roller-coaster that comes with people comprehending and processing the damage and destruction, the loss and tragedy. The generic definition of resilience you’ll find in dictionaries is words to the effect of ‘the ability to bounce back to normal after big disruption or disaster or circumstances.’ I call BS on that because in this modern era, what is normal for anyone anyway? And why would you want to go back to that ‘normal’ state and be just as vulnerable or susceptible to disruption and displacement again? I really believe that resilience is about learning through lived experiences – both personally and those of others – then building on that knowledge and coming out the other side wiser, stronger and able to focus on how we adapt, rebuild and heal so that we’re better able to understand and anticipate the next event. We also have to appreciate that there’s a significant emotional toll. We can’t experience these traumatic events and think that we’re not emotionally affected. I’ve learnt that we must open up and talk to each other. We all have to do our bit to normalise and destigmatise mental health issues.”
Good leaders truly care
2007-2020
Commissioner, NSW Rural Fire Service
“In a simplistic way, leadership is all about building trust and confidence in your team. And authenticity trumps everything. If you don’t know and things are awful, you have to let people know that – but this is what we’re going to do about it. You have to be the real you; don’t pretend and don’t pose because no-one likes a tosser or a pretender. They just want to know and understand that you’ve got their back. Humility and empathy is fundamental. Leaders need to remember it’s not about them – don’t take yourself too seriously but crikey, take your job very seriously. I was emotionally broken a number of times during that fire season [the Black Summer of 2019-2020] and unashamedly so because it hurt; it really hurt. When you genuinely care, you can’t help but be impacted and affected.”
Think a few steps ahead
1988
Captain, Duffy’s Forest Rural Fire Brigade
Sponsored by
“I was 19 years old and I was the youngest elected captain in a volunteer brigade in our district and, as I understand it, in New South Wales at the time. It was challenging when I went to my first captains meeting. Most of them were much older and I had to learn how to engage and suggest ideas. Sometimes I was told to calm down with my ideas and my enthusiasm. The older members of the brigade would always say, ‘You’ve got great ideas but what you don’t have yet is the benefit of wisdom.’ I needed time to understand the bigger picture and to experiment with different things and see how they played out. An idea is one thing but an idea in place, with all its flow-on effects, is another. I was mentored by a lot of the older males that were in the group and their advice and guidance helped me enormously.”
Tailor your approach
1998-2007
Assistant commissioner,
NSW Rural Fire Service
“I remember going to a meeting in one of my first weeks. I had the brief, I had the projects and I just did the normal thing of going, ‘Okay, we’re up to here, I see here we’re doing this. Is everyone comfortable with that?’ I thought the meeting was really productive but people felt intimidated. They felt that it was bang, bang, bang and they didn’t feel they could contribute. It was a profound lesson for me. Growing up in the operational side of the business, I was used to very extroverted, highly opinionated, get-in-your-face people. I learnt if you want to make sure you’re making the best decisions and keeping on top of things as much as you can, you must make sure you hear from your team. And sometimes that requires a deliberate invitation for someone to contribute.”
Understand the customer’s needs
1987-1994
Motor mechanic, Sundell Holden
“My family was very big on the need to have a trade. I wasn’t really the best mechanic – don’t get me wrong, I passed everything and could work on cars – but my managers saw something in me and asked me to help with the training and development of new apprentices. And then they gave me a job on the front counter, interacting with customers. That customer service training gave me a significant insight into the value and the responsibility you have. In a motor dealership, what you’re repairing or maintaining can be the most valuable asset someone holds. That vehicle is critical in terms of how they function. I also learnt that addressing people correctly and using meaningful, respectful language helps enormously in the customer service space.”
It’s not one size fits all
1994-1998
Regional planning officer for the Central East Region and state operations officer,
NSW Rural Fire Service
“I’d been an extremely active volunteer in my district and we had our own way of doing things. In this role, I was exposed to the state picture. There were cultures in cultures in big organisations, with different needs and requirements. You can’t give cookie-cutter solutions to a big mix of people. It was a real eye-opener and reinforced that leadership and management are easy – they’re only a challenge when we add in people because we’re all a bit weird and we all do things a bit differently. We also inherently fear change and this was a big change environment. I had to really broaden those skills of interaction, communication, prosecuting arguments, negotiating different things and listening to what people were saying because head offices don’t always get it right. Policy is of no value if it can’t be applied locally.”
Argue and debate... respectfully 1985
Volunteer, Duffys Forest Rural Fire Brigade
“I came from a broken home and was quite wayward as a teenager. But my dad was a volunteer with the local bushfire brigade and when I was old enough, I joined up. I think some of the most foundational life-learning skills for me were formed in my volunteer time in the brigade around things like the criticality of teamwork, which is a manifestation of mutual respect, value and appreciation, as well as the ability to have debate and to reach compromise. If volunteers don’t feel valued, respected or appreciated then they don’t feel they can contribute and be part of something that matters to them. They also have this wonderful ability to tell you to get stuffed and go somewhere else where they think they can find those elements, that sense of belonging and that sense of purpose.”
JANE NICHOLLS
SWARMFARM ROBOTICS
Need to know
Andrew, 44, and Jocie Bate, 45
Headquarters
The Bate family farm at Gindie, near Emerald, in Queensland, plus an office in Harden, NSW
Investors
Andrew and Jocie Bate,
What is it? Autonomous robots for agriculture that can spray crops or slash and mow. “Our robots are one-tenth the weight and size of a traditional tractor and work together in ‘swarms’ to get the job done,” says co-founder Andrew Bate, who explains that the apps that drive them unlock new practices that aren’t possible from the back of a tractor. “Robots are the key to transitioning agriculture to higher yields, the more sustainable use of pesticides and fertilisers, plus a reduced environmental footprint.” SwarmConnect is the company’s ecosystem for agtech developers. Farmers use its apps and add their own agriculture-specific attachments to customise their robots. “Some are for vineyards and orchards or for wheat and chickpea fields,” says Jocie, who estimates they’ve reduced the need for about 500 tonnes of pesticide a year because the robots allow for more targeted application.
Where did the idea come from? The Bates are farmers “so it came from the challenges in our own operations”, says Andrew. Over the past 50 years, it became “get big or get out – people bought
A robot revolution led by husbandand-wife farmers is challenging the notion that big is best on the land.
Tenacious Ventures, Artesian, Queensland BDF, iSelect Fund and private investors
Market valuation
Not disclosed but planning a funding raise this year
First customer
Started a contracting service for early robots in 2014. First robot sale was in 2018 to Jamie and Susie Grant, cotton growers on the Jimbour Plain, near Dalby, Queensland
more farms and bigger tractors, planters and sprayers”.
The Bates grow a variety of crops on their 6000 hectares. “We’re deeply immersed in agriculture. We have a whole heap of software developers working here on a commercial farm and that’s something very special in terms of building a tech company.”
How did it get off the ground? “We kicked off in 2012 – before the days when you could drop into Harvey Norman and pick up a drone on your way home from work,” says Jocie, laughing. “We’re not software engineers but Andrew loves building things in his shed. We formed a partnership with The University of Sydney and Queensland University of Technology to develop robots for agriculture, learnt how to build engineering teams and began developing our technology stack.” A fleet of SwarmFarm robots can work autonomously around the clock if needed. “Small farmers can afford the latest technology and larger farmers can have multiples of it. Before, you had to be a certain level of scale to have access to that efficiency – now we can bring the same technology to everyone.” SwarmFarm brought its manufacturing in-house in 2020. “That’s transformed our business,” says Andrew.
Biggest challenge? “Starting a deep-tech company in rural Australia meant there were no other tech founders around for us to learn from,” says Jocie. “It took us two connecting flights to get to Sydney to meet other people who were sharing the same challenges so we had to work hard to build those networks.”
What’s next? “You can’t buy a driverless car yet so it’s pretty cool that agriculture is getting this technology before the automotive industry,” says Andrew. SwarmFarm has sold 28 robots, which have been deployed to farm more than 280,000 hectares of commercial crops. “We’re expanding our manufacturing for international growth. This year we’ll build 50 robots and next year we’ll triple that. We’re talking to investors who want to join us on our journey.”
swarmfarm.com
Executive education without limits
A traditional academic background isn’t a requirement to take your education to the next level. New MBA pathways are giving leaders the freedom and confidence to study at any life stage.
“The day we stop learning is the day we stop advancing,” says Macquarie University Business School (MQBS) alumnus Shane Fitzsimmons. “I don’t believe any of us are ever too old to learn or advance our knowledge and our skills through education.”
Fitzsimmons came to national attention during the Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20, when he was commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service. Today, he’s commissioner of Resilience NSW, an agency set up in the wake of those fires.
In the thick of the disaster, when lives were being lost, including those of his own firefighters, Fitzsimmons didn’t hesitate to show his emotion. That vulnerability is one of the qualities that makes him a great leader, says Professor Yvonne Breyer, deputy dean of education and employability at MQBS.
“Leaders need to be curious and vulnerable,” says Breyer. That includes admitting you don’t know everything and “recognising how important it is to continue to learn, develop and grow” – like Fitzsimmons, who didn’t study at
university straight from school but went on to his Master of Management at MQBS in 2018.
“There’s no end point to learning,” says Breyer. “A different skill set is required of leaders who are elevated to executive level – chances are they will need to lead across areas where they’re not experts and may never be experts.”
This moment on a career trajectory can be a big leap. “Showing yourself as vulnerable, needing to learn, asking questions and having a growth mindset is so important.” MQBS is committed to removing barriers – real or perceived – for leaders who didn’t go to university or who are worried that it was too long ago for them to get back to study.
A Graduate Certificate of Management gives students without an undergraduate qualification the entry requirements to transfer into an MBA or Global MBA degree and credit points towards attaining it.
For those considering taking the next step, MQBS offers an MBA Masterclass and a range of online short course webinars, both
available at no cost. “It gives potential students a taste of what it’s like to be in an MBA course – a ‘try before you buy’ opportunity, with no assignments,” says Breyer.
“People who commence an MBA with a lot of work experience bring a wealth of knowledge and insights to the classroom. It creates a really rich and productive learning environment. When leaders wonder, ‘Is postgraduate study for me?’, I hope this gives them confidence that, yes, it is for you! There’s so much more to the learning experience than the formal aspect they might perceive it to be from way in the past.”
Learn more about Macquarie University Business School’s MBA and Global MBA at mq.edu.au
How does a Sydney startup maintain close to 100 per cent staff retention? Against all the trends, Dovetail CEO Benjamin Humphrey makes sure the office is awesome.
07:00
I check Slack before I even get out of bed. Ninety-three per cent of our customers are overseas and there’s activity overnight in our San Francisco office. [Companies including Atlassian and Shopify use Dovetail software to analyse customer and internal data.]
I look at the Net Promoter Score and read individual responses. Then I clear or snooze emails, look at plans for a house I’m building for my mum and check my sleep score on my smart watch.
08:00
Walk to our office in Surry Hills, listening to the Wild Hearts podcast. Its host is a friend, Mason Yates, who’s interviewing another friend, Tim Doyle from [healthcare technology company] Eucalyptus. Tim and I are in a WhatsApp group for Sydney founders that meets for dinner each month. We’re always on chat. The six of us share frustrations and stories you can’t tell your team and all kinds of tactical stuff: “What do you pay for this kind of role?”
09:00
The whole company is in the lounge for the all-hands, with catering from [Sydney eatery] The Grounds of Alexandria. I tailor the founder update to address cultural things; we’re 70 staff in Sydney and people naturally diverge as a team grows. When I gave a talk on how we were becoming waterfall-y – handing things over – I came up with this ironic acronym, HCCF, which stands for Highly Collaborative CrossFunctional. It was a joke but suddenly there was a Slack emoji and now it’s on a mural.
09:45
Usually there’s a guest speaker but today our head of product interviews our new head of operations. Then we have a rapid-fire Q&A with new hires: Netflix or YouTube? Beach or mountains? If you could eat only one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? We end with a founder Q&A. People often ask Brad [Ayers, co-founder and CTO] and me about the next office because we’re always running out of space.
11:00
Every three weeks I have an executive coaching session with Ed Batista, who
INTERVIEW BY ALISON BOLEYN PHOTOGRAPHY BY NIC WALKER
lives on a farm north of San Francisco but used to be a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Today we talk about having a consistent level of assertiveness that’s just enough that people understand critical feedback. The one-hour sessions are superexpensive – [venture capital firm] Felicis Ventures has a program where one per cent of an investment goes towards founder and CEO training –so I try to get the most out of them.
12:00
It’s an eight-minute walk to City Edge, where a bunch of us grab sandwiches. On the way back up the hill, I read research on our pricing and packaging project. Some feedback says the new stuff can be confusing. We’ll change it.
12:30
Pretty much everybody has lunch at the same time at two farmhouse-style tables. We’ve consciously invested in positioning ourselves as an in-person company while companies like Atlassian and Canva go remote. The average age in our team is 28 and a lot of people live close to the office so it’s a very social vibe. I get a game of pool in.
It’s not mandatory to come in. We have people dial into the All Hands but we’re not going to optimise the experience for remote. The way I put it is if you’re not working in the office, you’re going to have mad FOMO. There’s an espresso machine and two beer taps but we also do workshops, whiteboard sessions, brainstorms and lots of catered events, such as an LGBTQ+ panel discussion with live drag bingo afterwards.
13:00
A founder check-in with a product team to discuss Figma designs for a hashtagstyle feature. Between meetings I check Slack, chat with investors on WhatsApp and put things on a to-do list in Notion [note-taking software]. I snooze things to Saturday morning, when I’ll have a power session. I like to maintain Inbox Zero everywhere and keep up with all the Slack channels I sit in but reading everything is something I’m not going to be able to do for much longer.
13:30
Workshop with our creative and content teams and the marketing team,
You have to scale yourself as a founder. The company can only really grow as fast as I can grow personally.
brainstorming improvements to our blog Method in Madness, which we’re trying to make into its own brand. I make coffee – try to get a latte heart – and flip through The New Yorker
14:00
I block out an hour or two on Fridays for anyone in the company to book in and chat about whatever they want. Today a new manager asks, “What’s your take on the engineering team?” I’m as open as possible. We hire people who want to solve problems.
15:00
Walk around Moore Park West. The context-switching between product, marketing and operations is draining.
16:00
Weekly company demos in the lounge. The marketing team discusses an upcoming webinar, “How Lessons Learned from Our Youngest Users Can Help Us Evolve Our Practices”. Our in-house legal counsel demos the Ironclad tool that tracks customer contracts. The support team walks through a particularly challenging customer support ticket.
17:00
Friday drinks. Today there’s Mountain Culture’s Status Quo and Wayward’s Tropical Mango seltzer on tap, organic wines from Notwasted and a fridge full of Heaps Normal. There are lots of perks so another value is “Stay humble”. It used to be “Get over yourself” but no-one used that because it was a little aggressive.
19:00
Head to Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, for craft beers and pizza at Bitter Phew. Ideally, you work with people you can genuinely call friends. We have that, I think, at Dovetail.
21:00
I walk home, put on [rapper] Anderson .Paak, catch up on news on my phone, swipe emails then look at Instagram, LinkedIn and Hacker News.
23:00
Lights out. Put on my noisecancelling headphones and listen to ASMR [autonomous sensory meridian response content] on YouTube for 20 minutes. ASMR is an odd thing but it’s relaxing and meditative and it helps me with stress.
Following the leaders Benjamin Humphrey says he “definitely nicked” social rituals including Friday drinks and all-hands from Atlassian, where he and Bradley Ayers worked before launching Dovetail in 2017. He’s less keen on “intense” internal communication culture. “Flame wars can happen, people can get mean when a company’s big and multi-office and now remote, whereas at Dovetail, everybody knows everybody.” Dovetail uses collaboration tool Notion but avoids its commenting features. “That way, it’s less like Reddit.” Humphrey says that in Dovetail’s five years, only one employee has resigned – a software manager who wanted to travel around Australia in a van.
| Find out more at explore.hexagonppm.com/industrial-facilities
On board
Premiere movies, hit TV shows and absorbing audiobooks.
Movies
There’s something for everyone in this selection of new films.
The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson
Henry Lawson’s famous short story about a woman left alone with her four children while her husband is away is reimagined by award-winning Aboriginal playwright and actor Leah Purcell (above right), who writes, stars in and directs this gripping version that’s infused with themes of feminism, colonialism and First Nations people. Purcell plays the drover’s wife, pregnant and alone with her kids, when an Aboriginal man, Yadaka (Rob Collins), on the run from the law, arrives on her property. Molly is ready with her gun but what happens next is not easily solved by violence. Rated MA15+
The Batman Hot on the dark wings of Ben Affleck’s portrayal of Bruce Wayne in 2017’s Justice League comes a younger – but no less moody – Batman: Robert Pattinson (above, with Jeffrey Wright as Lieutenant Jim Gordon). Yes, the guy who made pale reluctance sexy as a vampiric James Dean type in the Twilight franchise does the same again here, appearing to only come alive at night as he searches for a wriggly serial killer who leaves curly clues. Known as The Riddler (a psychotically calm Paul Dano, complete with Jeffrey Dahmer glasses), he is targeting the city’s most powerful figures and peeling away the layers of corruption as he goes. As if this were not a big enough burden for our caped crusader, Commissioner Cobblepot, aka The Penguin (played
by an unrecognisable Colin Farrell, who has covered up his gorgeous face with prosthetics), is now enemy number two, while Catwoman – a beguiling, depressive Zoë Kravitz – vies for Batman’s attention. Is her flirtation purely motivated by attraction to the billionaire vigilante? Or does she also have a hidden agenda? Well, this is Gotham, where nobody plays it straight. Directed by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield ), who understands that Wayne runs not just on a thirst for justice but also revenge, this 2022 version is grittier and tonally closer to David Fincher’s Seven than any of the Dark Knight films. Rated M
The Humans
Studded with acting heavyweights, this is a Thanksgiving movie that begins with the usual familial bickering and disappointments, only to build over the course of the evening to a shattering crescendo. Starring Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water) and Jayne Houdyshell (Little Women) as parents of Aimee (Amy Schumer), who has lost her job, and Brigid (Beanie Feldstein), who lives in the home where the dinner takes place. The film is based on the award-winning play of the same name by Stephen Karam, who wrote and directed this for the screen. Rated R
Words by Natalie Reilly
The Northman Starring Alexander Skarsgård, this bloodsoaked retelling of the Scandinavian legend of Amleth, who Shakespeare based the tragic character of Hamlet on. And so it follows that Amleth (Skarsgård, looking like Mr Universe, all washboard abs and hulking biceps), seeks to avenge his father (Ethan Hawke), who has been murdered by his uncle, Fjölnir (Danish actor Claes Bang). Old Uncle Fjölnir has since taken Amleth’s mother (Nicole Kidman) as his wife. Between the snow, the horses, the Vikings and the flecks of the supernatural, this feels a little like a Game of Thrones prequel and not just because Northmen showed up in the series. Anya Taylor-Joy (right, with Skarsgård) – who plays Amleth’s love interest, a sorceress named Olga – has that long, white-blonde hair we’ve come to associate with Daenerys, the Mother of Dragons herself. Perhaps that’s deliberate because The Northman manages to spin a magical Nordic legend into a gore-filled battle reminiscent of the hit series. Rated MA15+
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Not since Being John Malkovich has an actor had so much fun sending himself up as Nicolas Cage (left) does here. Cage plays a heightened version of himself who after embarrassing his daughter, Addy (Lily Sheen, real-life daughter of actors Kate Beckinsale and Michael Sheen), and missing out on another film role, decides to meet mega-rich super-fan Javi Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal) in Majorca to be paid $1 million. Then Cage claims he’ll retire from acting. The only hitch? Gutierrez might be a nefarious arms dealer and kidnapper, wanted by the CIA. What unfolds would normally be considered stock-standard action-movie hijinks about the good guys versus the bad guys, with the new guy caught in the middle. But Cage, playing Nicholas Cage, pushes even the most predictable scenarios into hilarious, colourful absurdism. Rated M
Television
Whatever your mood, there’s a show to match.
Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty
Don’t Look Up’s Adam McKay cut his teeth as head writer on Saturday Night Live in the 1990s. He’s executive producer on this 10-part series and it carries the loose humour of some of those SNL sketches. It’s a retro-fuelled retelling of how the late Jerry Buss (played by John C. Reilly) bought the then fledgling Los Angeles Lakers basketball team in 1979 and together with the remarkable talent of Magic Johnson (Quincy Isaiah, above left, with DeVaughn Nixon), managed to turn it into the most glamorous, profitable team in the league. Rated MA15+
Derry Girls Northern Ireland in the 1990s – a time of great conflict. But for 16-year-old Erin Quinn (SaoirseMonica Jackson, far left) and her best friends at Our Lady Immaculate College in Derry, it’s also a place of great mischief and hilarity in this comedy that rivals Father Ted . Rated M
Debris
When debris from an alien spacecraft keeps falling to earth, two intelligence agents (played by Jonathan Tucker and Riann Steele, below) are sent to collect it. But the matter has a sometimes deadly effect on its surroundings. Rated M
DMZ
A second civil war has broken out in the United States in the not-too-distant future and a little boy in Manhattan has become separated from his mum, Alma (Rosario Dawson, below), a medic who just might become the hero they’ve been waiting for. Rated MA15+
Our Flag Means Death
In the 1700s, an aristocrat leaves his privileged life behind to join a crew of pirates aboard their ship, Revenge. This romantic comedy starring Rhys Darby (below) follows them as they encounter fellow miscreants. Rate MA15+
Tune into these compelling stories.
No Friend but the Mountains
In this lyrical memoir, Kurdish refugee and journalist Behrouz Boochani writes of the six years he was incarcerated on Manus Island. His first-hand account of the trauma suffered in offshore processing centres proved to be an act of survival. Winner of the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Literature and for Non-fiction, this book bears witness to the human cost of detention and gives voice to those still in exile.
The Dressmaker’s Secret
In 1950s Melbourne, Tilly Dunnage is toiling away in a down-at-heel dress salon –but she has good reason to hide her talents. Back in her fictitious outback hometown, Dungatar, the locals are keen to find her after she left the main street in flames in an act of vengeance. In Rosalie Ham’s darkly comic sequel to The Dressmaker, which was made into a film starring Kate Winslet, Tilly must face the secrets of her past.
I Give My Marriage a Year
After an especially fraught Christmas, it’s crunch time for Lou and Josh’s 14-year marriage. For the next year, they manoeuvre their way through a series of self-inflicted tests to decide their union’s staying power: is it worth the effort or is it better for both of them to call it a day? Sydneybased writer Holly Wainwright’s novel paints a true-to-life portrait of a contemporary Australian relationship with all its unspoken regrets, everyday frustrations and complicated emotions.
Connect to Qantas Free Wi-Fi and Entertainment App
Once onboard, connect your own device to Qantas Free Wi-Fi on domestic flights in three simple steps to access the internet and Qantas Entertainment App (note: those on aircraft with seatback screens only need to access the internet to find inflight entertainment options):
STEP 1 Enable Aeroplane Mode and select the “Qantas Free Wi-Fi” network in your wi-fi settings.
STEP 2 Follow the prompts on the “Welcome Onboard” screen to connect.
STEP 3 Once you’re connected, you’re now ready to access the internet and the Qantas Entertainment App to watch hours of hit movies and TV shows and listen to audiobooks.
Having trouble connecting? Make sure you are connected to the “Qantas Free Wi-Fi” network and go to wifi.qantas.com in your preferred browser to start exploring. Inflight entertainment varies by route and aircraft. Voice calls are not permitted inflight.
Inflight workout
These exercises are designed to provide a safe way to stretch and enjoy movement in certain muscle groups that can become stiff as a result of long periods of sitting. They may be effective at increasing the body’s blood circulation and massaging the muscles. We recommend you do these exercises for three or four minutes every hour and occasionally leave your seat to walk down the aisles. Each exercise should be done with minimal disturbance to other passengers. None of these exercises should be performed if they cause pain or cannot be done with ease.
01
Start with both heels on the floor and point feet upwards as high as you can.
Ankle circles
Lift feet. Draw a circle with toes, moving one foot clockwise and the other counterclockwise at the same time. Reverse circles. Rotate in each direction for 15 seconds. Repeat if desired.
Knee lifts Lift leg with knee bent while contracting your thigh muscle. Alternate legs. Repeat 20 to 30 times for each leg.
Neck roll
With shoulders relaxed, drop your ear to your shoulder and gently roll your neck forward and back, holding each position for about five seconds. Repeat five times.
Knee to chest Bend forward slightly. Clasp hands around left knee and hug it to your chest. Hold for 15 seconds. Keeping hands around the knee, slowly let it down. Alternate legs. Repeat 10 times.
In the air
Mobile phones and electronic equipment: All transmitting electronic devices, including mobile phones, tablets and laptop computers, must be switched to flight mode* prior to departure. Smaller devices such as mobile phones, e-readers, electronic games, MP3 players, iPads and other small tablets may be held in your hands or stowed in a seat pocket. Unless otherwise directed by the captain, these devices may remain switched on and used in flight mode during take-off, cruise and landing. Larger electronic equipment such as laptop computers may only be used from when the aircraft seatbelt sign is extinguished after take-off until the top of descent. After landing, the cabin crew will advise when flight mode may be switched off.
Headsets: Do not use a personal single-pin audio headset in the Qantas inflight entertainment system unless it is supported by a two-pin airline headset adaptor. Personal headsets that connect via a cable
to a handheld device can be used at any time from boarding until arrival. Headsets and other devices that connect via Bluetooth must be switched off for take-off and landing but can be used during cruise.
*Flight mode enables you to operate basic functions of your mobile phone or personal electronic device while its transmitting function is switched off, meaning you cannot make phone calls or send an SMS.
Fly Well
Your wellbeing is our priority. Our Fly Well program brings together a number of measures to give you peace of mind during your flight.
Cabin air: Our aircraft air conditioning systems are fitted with hospital-grade HEPA filters, which remove 99.9% of all particles including viruses. The air inside the cabin is refreshed every few minutes, ensuring the highest possible air quality.
02
Put both feet flat on the floor. Lift heels high, keeping the balls of the feet on the floor.
03
Repeat these three stages in a continuous motion and at 30-second intervals.
Forward flex
With both feet on the floor and stomach held in, slowly bend forward and walk your hands down the front of your legs towards your ankles. Hold for 15 seconds and slowly sit back up.
Shoulder roll Hunch shoulders forwards then upwards, backwards and downwards in a gentle circular motion.
Fly Well pack: A face mask and sanitising wipes are included in a Qantas Fly Well pack. You are required to wear a face mask on all flights.
Inflight: The aircraft configuration, including the seats and galley, act as a natural barrier, and people are not seated face to face. The direction of inflight airflow is ceiling to floor.
Enhanced cleaning: Our aircraft are cleaned with a disinfectant effective against coronaviruses, with a focus on the high contact areas of seats, seatbelts, overhead lockers, air vents and toilets. Our people are trained in the latest hygiene protocols.
Face masks: Your face mask needs to cover your mouth and nose, fit securely and must be worn, unless you’re under 12 years of age or have a medical exemption. When travelling within Australia, you’ll need to wear your mask as soon as you enter the airport and also inflight. Ensure you’re aware of any government requirements that apply at your destination, including wearing face masks and coverings.
Foot pumps (foot motion is in three stages)
Your inflight health: When flying, passengers can be seated and inactive for long periods of time. The environment can be low in humidity and the cabin pressure equivalent to an altitude of 2440 metres above sea level. The following advice helps you stay healthy during your journey.
The importance of inflight blood circulation and muscle relaxation: When walking, the leg muscle action helps return venous blood to the heart. Sitting in the same position for a long period of time can slow this process and, in some people, leads to swelling in the feet. Some studies have shown that immobility associated with travel of longer than four hours (by air, car or rail) can also lead to an increased risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), or clotting in the legs. Personal factors that increase the risk of DVT include: Age over 40 years
Personal or family history of DVT or pulmonary embolus
Recent surgery or injury, especially to the lower limbs, pelvis or abdomen
Cancer
Inherited or other blood disorders leading to clotting tendency
Pregnancy
Oestrogen therapy (oral contraceptive pill or hormone replacement therapy).
There are a number of ways to help reduce the possibility of DVT, including the following: Avoid leg-crossing while seated
Ensure adequate hydration
Minimise alcohol and caffeine intake before and during your flight
Wear comfortable, loose-fitting clothes
During your flight, move your legs and feet for three to four minutes per hour while seated and move about the cabin occasionally
Do the light exercises we recommend here (see above) and through the inflight entertainment system.
If you have concerns about your health and flying, or you feel that you may be at risk of DVT, Qantas recommends that you talk to your doctor before travelling. Additional measures such as well-fitted compression stockings or anti-clotting medication may be recommended for high-risk individuals.
Jet lag: Unlike other forms of transport, air travel allows for rapid movement across many time zones, which can disrupt the body’s biological clock. This is commonly known as jet lag. This disruption can affect various body rhythms such as the sleepwake cycle and the digestive system, leading to symptoms such as tiredness and lack of energy and appetite. In general, the more time zones crossed, the more disruption of the body clock and the more symptoms experienced after the journey. We recommend the following to minimise the effects of jet lag.
Before your flight:
Get a good night’s rest
During your flight:
Eat light meals
Wear loose, comfortable clothing and sleep when you can
Stay hydrated – drink plenty of water and avoid excess tea, coffee and alcohol
At your destination:
If possible, give yourself a day or two after arrival to adjust to the new time zone
Go out in the daylight and do some light exercise
Try to eat meals and do other social activities at appropriate destination times to adjust to the new time zone
Cabin humidity and hydration: Humidity levels of less than 25 per cent are common in the cabin, as the outside air that supplies the cabin is very dry. The low humidity can cause drying of the surfaces of the nose, throat and eyes and it can irritate contact lenses. If normal fluid intake is maintained during the flight, dehydration will not occur. We recommend:
Drink water and juices frequently during the flight
Drink coffee, tea and alcohol in moderation
Remove contact lenses and wear glasses if your eyes are irritated
Use a skin moisturiser to refresh the skin
Cabin pressurisation: During flight, aircraft cabin pressure is maintained to a sufficient density for your comfort and health. As the aircraft climbs, the cabin may reach the same air pressure as at an elevation of 2440 metres above sea level. Cabin pressure does not pose a problem for most passengers. However, if you suffer from obstructive pulmonary diseases, anaemias or certain cardiovascular conditions, you could experience discomfort at these altitudes. These passengers should seek medical advice before flying, as some may require supplementary oxygen. Qantas can arrange this but requires at least seven days’ notice before travelling. The rate of change in cabin pressure during climb and descent is also carefully maintained and does not usually cause discomfort. However, children and infants, and adults who have sinus or nasal congestion, may experience some discomfort because of pressure changes during climb and particularly descent. Those suffering from nasal or sinus congestion because of a cold or allergies may need to delay travel. The following advice may assist:
To “clear” your ears, try swallowing, yawning or pinching your nose closed and gently blowing against it. These actions help open the Eustachian tubes, equalising pressure between the middle ear chamber and throat. If flying with an infant, feed or give your baby a dummy during descent. Sucking and swallowing help equalise pressure in an infant’s ears. Give children something to drink or chew during descent. Consider using medication such as nasal sprays, decongestants and antihistamines 30 minutes prior to descent to help open up your ear and sinus passages.
Motion sickness: Air travel, especially if turbulence is experienced, can cause motion sickness, as it leads to a conflict between the body’s sense of vision and its sense of equilibrium. Maintaining good visual cues (keeping your eyes fixed on a non-moving object) helps prevent motion sickness. When the weather is clear, you should look out at the ground, sea or horizon. If the horizon can’t be
seen, closing your eyes and keeping your head movements to a minimum will help. While over-thecounter medications are available, we recommend you consult your doctor about the appropriate medications. More information can be found: At qantas.com.au/info/flying/intheair/ yourhealthinflight
Through the onboard entertainment system On our information leaflet available from Qantas or your travel agent
Smoking: Government regulations prohibit smoking on all flights operated by Australian-registered aircraft. The use and charging of all e-cigarettes and other personal vaporisers are not permitted on board an aircraft. There are smoke detectors in all toilets and penalties for regulation breaches.
Travelling with children: Please ask cabin crew for help if required. Baby food and nappies (diapers) are available on most flights, while some washrooms are fitted with baby change tables. Please dispose of nappies etc. in the waste bins.
When you land
Leaving flights: On international flights, the cabin crew will distribute the necessary Customs and Immigration forms. If you are stopping en route, you will need your boarding pass to re-board the aircraft. If you’re travelling as a domestic passenger on an international flight within Australia, retain your boarding card with the large D sticker. This will be required to clear Customs at your destination.
Transferring from Australian domestic flights numbered QF400 and above to international flights: At check-in you will be issued with your international boarding pass. Your international boarding pass and baggage will be tagged through to your final destination. There is no need to claim your baggage or attend check-in at the transfer airport. Follow the signs for international transfers passengers to the complimentary transfer bus (not necessary in Melbourne and Darwin).
Transferring from international to domestic flights numbered QF400 and above: On arrival at your Australian transfer port, go through Immigration and collect your luggage. Proceed through Customs and follow the signs to the domestic transfer area to re-check your luggage. A complimentary transfer bus (not necessary in Melbourne, Adelaide and Darwin) departs at regular intervals for the domestic terminal for your connecting Qantas flight within Australia. If your connecting domestic flight is numbered QF1-QF399, there is no need to clear Customs and Immigration. These flights depart from the international terminals. Customs and Immigration clearance will be completed at your final destination.
Transferring to a Jetstar domestic flight: If your next flight is with Jetstar (JQ) or a Qantas codeshare flight operated by Jetstar (QF5400-QF5999), you will need to collect your baggage and follow the signs to the Jetstar counter to check in for your flight and re-check your baggage.
What you need to know about your onboard security, safety and health
Qantas security policy
The Qantas Group has a strict policy of denying boarding, or offloading any passenger who makes inappropriate comments or behaves inappropriately inflight or on the ground. Qantas will not accept any inappropriate comments as “jokes”. It will also seek to recover all costs incurred, including diversions as a result of security incidents, from those involved.
Group-wide security
Security screening is subject to the laws and regulations of the country of operation. The Qantas Group ensures that its passengers, staff and aircraft are safe and secure through an outcome-focused, risk-based approach to security management. Qantas security standards apply across the business, including QantasLink and Jetstar.
A dedicated operations centre monitors global security events 24 hours a day.
Security advice
Pack your own luggage
Do not carry any items for another person
Carry valuables, approved medication and keys in your carry-on baggage
All knives, sharp objects or cutting implements must be in checked baggage
Security measures can include random frisk search after consent is obtained. Passengers may request privacy and must be searched by a screener of the same gender
Important note: Security screening is subject to the laws and regulations of the country of operation.
Restrictions on powders and liquids, aerosols and gels (LAGs)
On all international flights to and from Australia: Each container of LAGs in your carry-on baggage must be 100ml or less
All 100ml containers must be placed in a single transparent one-litre plastic bag
Plastic bags containing LAGs are to be screened separately from other carry-on baggage
All powders must be screened separately with restrictions on the carriage of inorganic powders over 350ml (350g)
Passengers may still carry prescription medicines or baby products sufficient for the flight
If departing, transiting or transferring on an international flight at an Australian
international gateway airport, duty-free powders and LAGs must be sealed, with receipt, in a security tamper-evident bag issued at the time of purchase
Full-body scanners
The Australian federal government has introduced full-body scanners at international gateway airports: Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Perth, Melbourne and the Gold Coast
The Australian Federal Government has commenced introducing full-body scanners at major domestic airports: Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Canberra, Darwin, Gold Coast, Hobart, Launceston, Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth, Sunshine Coast, Sydney and Townsville
At international gateway airports passengers refusing to pass through the scanner will be banned from entering the sterile area or boarding an aircraft for 24 hours
Exemptions apply for people with serious medical conditions, infants and small children, and people in wheelchairs
As per advice, the energy exposure is comparable to that from a mobile phone several metres away
There are no known safety concerns for people with pacemakers and metal implants or for pregnant women
Dangerous goods
Common items used every day may seem harmless but on an aircraft they may become dangerous. When the aircraft changes altitude, variations in temperature and pressure may cause items to leak, create fumes or catch fire.
Items that are forbidden on aircraft or have carriage restrictions include lithium batteries, other battery types, camping stoves, fuels, oils, compressed gases, aerosols, household cleaners, matches, lighters, paints, explosives (including flares, fireworks, sparklers and bonbons), emergency position-indicating radio beacons, radioactive material, biological and infectious substances and fuel-powered equipment. This list is not exhaustive so please carefully consider what items you pack for your next flight.
If you’re unsure about an item in your baggage, ask a member of our friendly cabin crew.
For further information, go to qantas.com or email dg@qantas.com.au.
Travel advice
Qantas is a partner in the Australian government’s Charter for Safe Travel. Travellers may obtain the latest travel advice for their destination by visiting smartraveller.gov.au.
Automated immigration clearance
Several countries are introducing automated immigration clearance procedures to cope with growing air-travel numbers. The goal is to provide a faster, smoother immigration experience to eligible passengers without compromising border security. Please note that some automated clearance options may not be available due to COVID. Countries providing facilities across our network:
Australia SmartGate: e-passport holders of Australia, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Macau, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and US
China e-Channel: citizens of China
Hong Kong e-Channel Residents: citizens and residents of Hong Kong
Hong Kong e-Channel Visitors: frequent visitors that are visa-exempt, including Australians
Indonesia Autogate passport gates: citizens of Indonesia
Japan Speedy Immigration: citizens and foreign nationals with re-entry and special re-entry permits
New Zealand SmartGate Plus: e-passport holders of Australia, New Zealand, UK and US
Singapore enhanced-Immigration Automated Clearance System (eIACS): citizens, permanent residents, work permit holders and APEC cardholders
UAE eGate: UAE citizens and residents
UK ePassport gates: e-passport holders of UK, Switzerland and European Economic Area (EEA)
USA Global Entry system: US citizens and permanent residents, Dutch citizens, South Korean citizens and Mexican nationals. Canadian citizens and residents with NEXUS membership
USA Automated Passport Control: for US, Canadian and Visa Waiver Program passport holders
10. Instruction to play softly behind magnificent instrument (5,5)
11. For starters casserole offers quality and unexpected variety in Nice (3,2,3)
13 Coin thief reluctant to part with his money? (5-7)
14. Proclamation disguised as part of crude creed (6)
16. Crease in hem stirs up strongest adversaries (11)
18. Attack regularly with battery (7)
20. Triples the number of high voices (7)
22. An amusing host? (11)
23. Ned eager to become outlaw (8)
26. Planned to find fiancée (8)
30. How one’s inheritance or food, controversially, might be modified? (11)
31. Ada drew badly – that’s taken for granted (7)
34. Old salt was US serviceman before war ended (7)
35. Withdrawals made by specialist surgeons (11)
36. Ally allows fiend right in (6)
38. Corrupt sanctions on art set back deals (12)
41. In performance I’ve become lazy (8)
42. Short length of time in centre (10)
Down
1. Poultry product factory also produces vegetable (8)
2. One found in sticky situation on boat? (8)
3. Ill at ease? Perhaps marginally (4)
4. City folk who live in the country? (8)
5. I send crib off to get engraved (9)
6. Feeling depressed and sounding faint (3)
7. Kate turns round to accept (4)
8. Open Grecian vase little Edward capsized (10)
9. Lacking knowledge like those who never get mail? (10)
12. Close concentration can alter destiny (7)
15. Nobleman is apparently infertile (6)
17. Provide insight into green light enquiry (9)
19. Extra bit that wreckers have for sale? (5,4)
21. George covers up caviar (3)
23. Scrap of cloth and a cake for urchin (10)
24. Ronan confused rival with his failure to turn up (10)
25. Decorators’ extreme furnishing styles (6)
27. As part of the flock, you listen (3)
28. Study of letters written by mathematicians? (7)
29. Next to the kiosk queen is just an innocent onlooker (9)
31. Carla ate out choosing from the list with separate prices (1,2,5)
32. They’ve given up university but are still part of rugby game (8)
33. Di’s daisy is a catastrophe (8)
37. Makes a profit from open-weave fabrics (4)
39. Mate becomes domesticated (4)
40. The day before Adam’s match (3)
Tough puzzle, simple rules: each row, column and 3x3 box must contain the numbers 1-9.
Wheel of words
Create as many words of four letters or more as you can using the given letters once only but always including the central letter. Don’t use proper nouns or plurals ending with “s”. See if you can find the nine-letter word using all letters.
T C A I
Match-ups –
Fictional pairs
Complete the names of these characters who appear together and find the missing words hidden in the box of letters. The letters left over will spell out the names of a well-known sleuthing duo. AND KEN AND ROBIN BEAUTY AND BEAVIS AND AND TED BUZZ LIGHTYEAR AND AND HOBBES DAISY AND AND JETSAM FRED AND AND GRETEL AND JILL
LILO AND LOIS AND MICKEY AND AND EDINA POOH AND ROCKY AND AND JULIET AND HUTCH TARZAN AND AND THE HARE TOM AND AND ISOLDE TUMTUM AND TWEETY AND AND GROMIT AND THE ROAD RUNNER E U V T
Quiz
By Hazel Flynn
Spot the difference
Can you spot the seven differences between these two images? Circle what’s changed on the image below.
01. Steve Wozniak co-founded what tech company in 1976?
02. Which human internal organ can regrow even when as little as 10 per cent remains of it?
03. Straight, pike, tuck and free are positions used in what Olympic sport?
04. Who became editor-in-chief of American Vogue in 1988?
05. And in what film does Meryl Streep play a similarly high-powered fashion editor?
06. What world capital was previously known as Christiania?
07. What is the largest existing fish?
08. Sarah Hyland, Ariel Winter and Nolan Gould played siblings on what hit sitcom?
09. What Spanish phrase translates literally as “until the (next) view”?
10. In Indian cooking, what vegetable is aloo?
11 Cornflower, Delft and Oxford are shades of what colour?
12 By population, what is the world’s largest city?
13. What artificial gems are named for sparkly rocks found near a European river?
14 The okapi is the only living relative of what African animal?
15. Excluding underwater chains, what is the world’s longest mountain range?
16 And how many countries does that mountain range pass through?
17 In what year did Australia last win tennis’s Davis Cup?
18 DXB is the airline code for what international airport?
19 What name is given to baby wombats?
20 What Righteous Brothers hit begins: “You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips”?
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Solutions
If you’ve filled in the answers, please take the magazine with you so the cabin crew know to replace it with a new copy.
Barbie and Ken, Batman and Robin, Beauty and the Beast, Beavis and Butthead, Bill and Ted, Buzz Lightyear and Woody, Calvin and Hobbes, Daisy and Donald, Flotsam and Jetsam, Fred and Barney, Hansel and Gretel, Jack and Jill, Lilo and Stitch, Lois and Clark, Mickey and Minnie, Patsy and Edina, Pooh and Piglet, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Romeo and Juliet, Starsky and Hutch, Tarzan and Jane, The Tortoise and the Hare, Tom and Jerry, Tristan and Isolde, Tumtum and Nutmeg, Tweety and Sylvester, Wallace and Gromit, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner Solution: Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson
Quiz
01. Apple 02. The liver 03. Diving 04. Anna Wintour 05. The Devil Wears Prada 06. Oslo 07. Whale shark 08. Modern Family 09. Hasta la vista 10. Potato 11. Blue 12.Tokyo 13. Rhinestones 14. Giraffe 15. The Andes 16. Seven (Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Chile) 17. 2003 18. Dubai 19. Joeys 20. You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’
