It was inevitable that George Lyell and Gustavus Athol Waterhouse would become friends, despite all appearances. Lyell lived in the Victorian town of Gisborne, had never got beyond high school and was a partner in a dairy machinery factory. Waterhouse had haunted the Australian Museum since attending prestigious Sydney Grammar next door and graduated with first-class honours in geology and palaeontology. There were 11 years between them.

Scientists are still unravelling the thefts of Colin Wyatt, an English adventurer, artist and naturalist who charmed the entomological community

Each month Guardian Australia editors and critics pick the upcoming titles they have devoured – or can’t wait to get their hands on * Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email Fiction, Simon & Schuster, $34.99 Continue reading...

A chance discovery rocked the world of natural science: more than 3000 rare butterfly specimens had vanished from Australia’s most prestigious museums.

The real goal of arts policy shouldn’t be to keep organisations solvent – it needs to keep each artform alive for the next generation, writes Belvoir St theatre’s artistic director

By ignoring the rhetoric and actions of the Turning Point USA founder, pundits and politicians are sanitizing his legacy.

MUP says it is ‘no longer viable’ to make the literary magazine – but almost none of them are financially viable. That’s not their purpose or value

After his debut novel was unexpectedly shortlisted for the Miles Franklin, Adelaide-based author Hossein Asgari’s follow-up Desolation explores how memory, grief and acts of violence shape the stories...

A government-backed industry showcase’s failure to accommodate emerging artist Nat Luna has stoked a bigger conversation about accessibility.

Feted by Troye Sivan, Charli xcx, and Bring Me The Horizon, Adelaide-based producer Sione Teumohenga has resurfaced with their long-awaited debut album – and the culmination of over a decade of pop ex...

It’s unusual for a debut release to consist of 18 discs of improvised sax-and-piano jazz inspired by a 105-year-old book. For Derek Pascoe and Chris Martin, Here Comes Everything is a fitting rebuke t...

The Babadook and Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries star plays a corporate scientist pushing the limits of human survival in the new series Alien: Earth Essie Davis didn’t watch much horror growing up in Tasmania; the 55-year-old actor can still bitterly recall the moment when, aged four, she was left at home while her older siblings went to see Jaws at the local cinema in Hobart. “I stood by the back door going, ‘I will remember this day for the rest of my life!’” Davis recalls, speaking from her current family home, also in Tasmania. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Stories of murders passed down by Yamatji elders are confirmed by a cipher hidden in the 1850s journals of prominent pastoralist Major Logue. Now descendants on both sides want to break the...