We’re lucky enough to live in one of Melbourne’s top tourism destinations, the Dandenong Ranges. Home to lyrebirds, possums, wallabies, kangaroos, wombats, parrots, towering gum trees and tree ferns, and areas of temperate rainforest. Read the rest of this entry »

“Mind The Gap” – Australia’s proud salute to humanity
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Why should YOU care? Read the rest of this entry »

“In his first Christmas message in the top job, Mr Abbott urged Australians to live up to their good nature and lend a hand to those doing it tough during the holiday season. ‘We are a good and generous people,’ he said in a statement on Tuesday. He also thanked those working for charities looking after the less fortunate on Christmas Day.

So what’s wrong with that? Read the rest of this entry »

Imagine a Christmas in Melbourne where there were virtually no street decorations, where shopkeepers didn’t make Christmas windows, where the houses largely had no Christmas lights, no wreaths or garlands, often not even an indoor Christmas tree. Well, in 2011, it happened. Person after person began spreading news not of Christmas cheer, but of Christmas sneer. Read the rest of this entry »

I just watched on Australian TV how horrendous the unemployment and homelessness is in America right now. Sure, maybe you’re afraid of needy people. They may seem like drowning people and you don’t want to be pulled under just because you reached out a hand. But many people who’ve fallen on hard times are not necessarily opportunists and give them an inch and that is in fact all they’ll take and look forward to being able to give something back. How do I know? I was homeless in my teens and intermittently through my 20s. So I pondered what each of us can do to get to know or constructively help those in these positions. Here’s some ideas : Read the rest of this entry »

Donna and The Aspinauts have an adult version of the Barbie song, but I’ve reworked the lyrics for a kids version.  Enjoy Read the rest of this entry »

  In 1985 I wrote a song called Not Just Anything.  In 2009, I rewrote the lyrics to form the song A Room With A View.  Unlike the award winning Merchant Ivory film of the same name (adapted from the 1908 novel by E.M Forster) my song is not a about an Edwardian romance.   In 2007, I had written a filmscript, Mc Reedy’s Christmas (represented by Bicoastal Talent) about a post apocalyptic society and related to climate change in a world where we did nothing to stop it.  The lyrics to A Room With A View were based on Mc Reedy’s world.  Here’s its lyrics: Read the rest of this entry »

  As governments worldwide put economy before climate let me quote from , New Scientist cover story, from 28th Feb 09 issue from article “Surviving in a Warmer World” by Gaia Vince, who on page 33 quotes Crutzen in conclusion:

“I would like to be optimistic that we’ll survive, but I’ve got no good reason to be.  I order to be safe we would have to reduce our carbon emissions by 70 per cent by 2015.  We are currently putting in 3 percent more each year”.

Want to help change that?  Lets stop over glorifying the replication process we call populating, get over ourselves,  give the planet a rest and speak out to make the changes needed for us to be a planet that can still feed ourselves in 2015.

Donna Williams, Dip Ed, BA Hons

author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter

http://www.donnawilliams.net

At 4.31pm I was sitting at my desk just like I was 2 weeks ago.  Then the whole house rumbled, the foundations, the walls, the very earth.  By the time I realised Melbourne had yet another earthquake, a 4.6 this time (last time was a 4.7), it had stopped.  I strode outside and called to my neighbour.  Did we just have another earthquake?  She wanted to know.  Yep, I said, shocked.  Wild stuff.  Melbourne and earthquakes were always such unlikely dance partners.

Donna Williams

http://www.donnawilliams.net

http://www.myspace.com/donnaandtheaspinauts