Infrastructure in our cities – let’s call it the hardware – remains much the same as ever, but the software – the way we use it – is transforming rapidly. One piece of that software, Airbnb, is dramatically reshaping the world’s cities. The digital platform allows citizens to find and rent short-term accommodation from other...

Austrade plays a role in helping secure Australia’s economic prosperity, through our work as the Australian Government’s international trade, education and investment promotion agency, and through working to strengthen Australia’s tourism sector. The past year has been one of achievement, helping Australian business and institutions overcome barriers to successful export into difficult markets, and continuing...

Among the collateral damage of an early election – especially a double dissolution election – is the work of parliamentary committees. At 9am on 9 May, each and every committee of the forty-fourth parliament ceased to exist and many inquiries lapsed, their investigations unfinished. Having had fair warning of Turnbull’s intentions, other committees rushed out...

In 1972 artist Robert Ingpen, writing of Swan Hill’s Pioneer Folk Museum, suggested that “seeing how our forebears lived, we discover how they fitted themselves into the new land and established a balance which we must maintain for the sake of future generations.” For fifty years, the Museum has been a key element of the...

Chinatowns as iconic enclaves exist in several Australian cities. Among them, Melbourne Chinatown is the oldest, which dates back to the gold rush in the 1850s. Early Chinese migrants settled along the Little Bourke Street on the outskirts of the city, which served as a staging post on their journey to goldfields. Lodging houses were...