Choo choo, and welcome aboard the Great Reads express, a five-stop tour of long-form reporting and great writing that ends in a delicious list of recipes today. I’m Alyx Gorman, Guardian Australia’s lifestyle editor, and I’ll be your driver.
If you’re interested in following the news as it breaks, please hop aboard the live blog express; and if you’d like to do some wildlife spotting en route, please detour via this study about what hippos mean when they “wheeze honk”.
Now, on to the reads (yes, the first one is about a train).
1. Where’s Australia’s inland rail?
The idea that it might be handy to have an inland rail stretching across Australia has been floating around since before Australia was even a country. Four years ago, it looked like there was movement at the station, with the announcement of a 1,700km line between Brisbane and Melbourne.
Then what happened? Well, we do know the infrastructure project will be worth worth $14.5bn (at least); we do not know where the line will begin. Or end.
Do we know where it will middle? Kind of! In a beautiful interactive investigative feature, from Gabrielle Chan, Mike Bowers, Andy Ball and Natasha May, we visit the towns along the proposed line; finding mixed feelings about the project, and where it is headed next.
Notable quote: In Euroa, Victoria, a grassroots campaign has been fighting hard to ensure the project does not split the town in two. “With large statutory organisations like ARTC, if you don’t stand up in your local community, you are literally railroaded on this,” says local independent MP Helen Haines.
How long will it take me to read? The full interactive will take about 15 minutes to explore; but the train chat it’ll give you will last all night. For a zoom-out summary (with fewer lovely pictures), Gabrielle Chan’s explainer will take about three minutes to read.
2. China’s demographic time bomb
With China’s government reporting that population growth has fallen to a 61-year low, authorities (and parents) are urging adult Gen Zs into marriage. The youngs are not having it.
Why not? As Vicky Liu, who was born in 1997 puts it: “I am an adult woman. I want a career and a good circle of friends. I just don’t want to be tied into a family life too soon.” Good for you, Vicky Liu.
How long will it take me to read? Two minutes.
3. Meatloaf up close
After 20 years of touring together, Meatloaf’s bass player and back-up vocalist Steve Buslowe is in a contemplative mood as he remembers a singer of towering talent, capable of both tenderness and tour van punch-ups.
Notable quote: “I saw a comment that Stephen Fry had made about Meat being cuddly and frightening at the same time,” Buslowe says. “I laughed because that’s perfect. He was such a big teddy bear. He was sometimes warm, but then he could also get a little manic, a little out of control, maybe a little violent.”
How long will it take me to read? Three minutes.
4. Standing up to stale, pale, males
There are many blood-simmering moments in Alex Blackwell’s behind-closed-doors account of how Cricket Australia awarded some players marketing contracts and left others behind, in a piece that has resonance well beyond the sport.
Notable quote: By awarding only just four contracts to “traditionally attractive, heterosexual women” the message Blackwell received was “that Cricket Australia wanted to continue to take the image of our women’s team in a particular direction … targeted towards cricket’s existing, mostly male, fanbase” while trying “to convince mothers to sign their daughters up to cricket by showcasing the type of women cricket administrators believed mothers would want their daughters to be.”
The final straw: “And yet Cricket Australia continued to put me forward as a kind of spokesperson for diversity and inclusion within the game, quite difficult and important work. The feeling that my efforts in promoting the game were less deserving of the respect of being paid for it was hard to stomach.”
How long will it take me to read? Two minutes.
5. 20 easy dinners
From cheese stuffed jacket potatoes from Yotam Ottolenghi to a fresh and spicy chilli paneer with a Chinese influence, this big list of quick-win dinners will keep you full for weeks.
Bonus read: Fancy stretching your repertoire a little further? It’s all in the seasoning. Here chefs suggest 22 flavour enhancers well beyond salt and pepper.
