Podcast appearances and mentions of colin thiele

There are episodes of The Adelaide Show, and then there are events. This is one of the latter. Recorded live at the Mercury Cinema as part of South Australia’s History Festival 2026, History Hit Parade brings together broadcaster and journalist Keith Conlon and host Steve Davis for a ninety-minute show that weaves original songwriting with storytelling, historical context, and the kind of warm, unhurried conversation that feels like sitting in a room full of people who actually know where you live. Ten songs. Ten slices of South Australian life. All of them written with pen and paper by Steve, given musical life through his AI-assisted “virtual session band,” and offered here as what he describes as “audition pieces” for real musicians who might one day make them their own. There is no SA Drink of the Week in this episode. The entire show is the Musical Pilgrimage. Rather than a single track appended at the end, this episode is the songs, each one set up by Keith’s historical grounding and Steve’s personal connections before the music rolls. Full notes on each song appear in the segment breakdown below. You can navigate episodes using chapter markers in your podcast app. Not a fan of one segment? You can click next to jump to the next chapter in the show. We’re here to serve! The Adelaide Show Podcast: Awarded Silver for Best Interview Podcast in Australia at the 2021 Australian Podcast Awards and named as Finalist for Best News and Current Affairs Podcast in the 2018 Australian Podcast Awards. And please consider becoming part of our podcast by joining our Inner Circle. It’s an email list. Join it and you might get an email on a Sunday or Monday seeking question ideas, guest ideas and requests for other bits of feedback about YOUR podcast, The Adelaide Show. Email us directly and we’ll add you to the list: podcast@theadelaideshow.com.au If you enjoy the show, please leave us a 5-star review in iTunes or other podcast sites, or buy some great merch from our Red Bubble store – The Adelaide Show Shop. We’d greatly appreciate it. And please talk about us and share our episodes on social media, it really helps build our community. Oh, and here’s our index of all episode in one concisepage. Running Sheet: History Hit Parade 00:00:00 Intro Introduction 00:00:00 SA Drink Of The Week There is no SA Drink Of The Week this week. 00:04:07 History Hit Parade The Mercury Cinema is not a neutral venue for Steve Davis. He was married there on a sweltering 42-degree December day in 2002. He launched Talked About Marketing there. And it is where, on two days in May 2026, he and Keith Conlon performed History Hit Parade to an audience that included Steve’s parents, his former drama teacher, the chair of the History Trust, and the real-life couple immortalised in one of the songs. The name History Hit Parade, Steve reveals, was Keith’s idea, drawn from his memory of the Harold Wright Hit Parade on 5AD, a Thursday-night ritual of about eight or ten songs in an era before the Top 40 existed. Buddy Holly, Elvis, Perry Como, and Pat Boone: that was your week’s music. The name lands perfectly for a show that does something similar, except every track is an original, and every track is South Australian. Song 1: Jack and Lil (Up Please, Going Up)Keith sets the historical scene: John Martins began as Peters and Martin, a drapery store in Rundle Street, until Mr Martin was released from his duties due to what Keith delicately describes as “debauchery.” The Hayward family eventually took the helm, and it was Sir Edward Hayward who, in 1933, looked to Canada for inspiration and brought the Christmas Pageant to Adelaide. He was so nervous before the first one that he hired a biplane, circled the inner suburbs with a megaphone, and personally invited people to come. They did. About 300,000 still do, each year.The personal thread in this song belongs to Steve’s maternal grandparents, Jack and Lil, whose photograph appeared on the screen behind him. Lil worked in the kitchenware department. Jack was the young engineer installing the new lifts in the building during the 1930s. The rest, as Steve says, is history. The song follows their life together as their family grows, moving floor by floor through what John Martins offered, with the lift ladies’ announcement, “Up please, going up,” as its guiding refrain. Steve thanks Paul Flavell, who has written a book on John Martins, and former John Martin’s planner, Robert Tedstone, who provided a complete floor-by-floor inventory to keep the lyrics accurate. Song 2: Oh MarionMarion, the suburb, was surveyed in 1838 by Colonel Light’s private firm after Light had broken with Governor Hindmarsh. The name comes from Marianne, daughter of resident commissioner James Hurtle Fisher, though somewhere along the way Mariannen became Marion. Keith’s own connection is fond: his father learned to drive in the 1950s by heading south into the almond groves and vineyards of Marion, where the long straight roads offered room to practise.Steve’s Marion is the 1970s version: aerial photographs, numbered landmarks, railway tracks where he’d flatten 20-cent pieces, overpass pile drivers thumping for weeks, and a Coles New World at the Park Holme Shopping Centre. He walked to school at age six, “with my little satchel and my shorts.” One afternoon he left school early, got lost, and found his way to a doctor’s surgery he recognised. They rang his mother. She wasn’t home. The neighbour came to collect him and made him a sandwich. “That was life in Marion back then,” he says, with a fondness that carries no nostalgia for the vineyards his own family’s house helped displace. Song 3: My Jolly ValentineThis one starts with the Torrens. Keith explains that before the lake arrived, the river in summer was “a series of rather smelly waterholes” until Mayor Sir Edwin Smith, a beer baron with civic ambitions, created the weir. Within a year of the lake’s arrival in 1882, a rowing craze had taken hold, boat sheds lined the banks, and Jolley’s Boathouse was selling milkshakes and pies to rowers who could rent a boat by the hour.The Palais de Danse gets its moment: a floating ballroom on a barge moored near the Elder Park Rotunda from 1924, with a soda fountain, no grog, and 800 people on opening night. It was gone by 1928, Keith noting, “maybe it was just not well made and sank slowly into the mud.”Steve’s research for this Valentine’s Day song turned up two details that captured his imagination. First, the Rundle Street Parade: on Saturday nights, young men would walk down one side of the street, young women down the other, window-shopping for company rather than goods. Second, the postage stamp code used in the twice-daily mail service to communicate what couldn’t be written openly: upside-down meant “I love you,” tilted right meant yes, left meant no, sideways meant “let’s stay as friends,” which Steve notes is “a soft no.” Song 4: Spring Gully RoadKeith traces the geography first: up Third Creek from the Torrens, past the village of Magill, pointing toward Norton Summit. Market gardens that ran through to Tea Tree Gully. One of Steve’s friends, Dominic, remembers his father loading a ute with cucumbers twice a week and driving them across town to Spring Gully. That was not long ago.The song covers four generations families. Edward McKee began pickling onions after returning from the war. His son-in-law Alan McMillan, stepson Eric Webb, and friend Malcolm Climer formed the second generation. Kevin and Ross Webb steered it through 2013 when a public campaign saved the company. Russell and Tegan Webb were at the helm when cheap imports and cost-of-living pressures finally made it too hard.Steve played the song to Russell Webb before the performance. Russell’s response: “Our whole family thinks this song should be in the state archives for covering the story so well.” Steve says it with quiet pride, and then lets the song make the case. Song 5: Away, Away (The PS Canally Crew Song)Keith tells the founding story of the Murray River trade with the energy of someone who could spend a full hour on it. Governor Sir Henry Fox Young puts up a prize in 1853 for the first boat to take a paddle steamer from Goolwa to Swan Hill and back. Two men are unknowingly racing: Captain William Randell, a flour miller from Gumeracha building the Mary Ann upstream from Mannum, and Captain Francis Cadell, who has a paddle steamer built in New South Wales and sails it through the Murray mouth. They end up racing each other, neither knowing the other was coming. Both get their prize, and instantly the river is transformed: wool that was a month away from market by bullock wagon is now days away by water.Steve wrote this song aboard the PS Marion, on a three-day cruise, watching jet skis cut through the peace of the river and thinking about the crews who worked these boats without rest. He noted he’d been “a bit passionate” about the contrast. One thing he is proud of: annoying the captain by asking about terminology, which is how he discovered that “larboard” was the original term for port side, changed because “larboard” and “starboard” were too easily confused when shouted across a noisy deck. Song 6: Shout Your Mates Another RoundThis song grew from a drive past the West End Brewery site on Port Road, now demolished. The chimney is gone. Steve felt its absence.Keith sketches the arc: South Australia once had around 43 breweries. The West End Brewery operated from 1859 through to about 1980, and somewhere in there a Westies supporter working at the brewery persuaded the boss to paint the chimney in the SANFL grand final colours each year. Port Adelaide’s coach Fos Williams asked to be included. The tradition held, moved to a second chimney after the first came down, and now continues on the old brickworks chimney with the help of some “fancy technology.”The pickaxe long-neck bottle gets its own verse. Those amber glass communal bottles that sat on dinner tables, shared rather than individual. Steve remembers the day his Italian neighbour Nino offered him a sip of Southwark Bitter from one: “It put me off beer for the rest of my life.” He recalls his paternal grandfather worked at the original Hindley Street brewery. A bottle recently turned up on Kangaroo Island. These things accumulate meaning. Song 7: Tunarama Love SongGreg and Nicole, Steve’s brother-in-law and sister-in-law, are in the audience. They wave when introduced. Greg is described as “so bashful.”Keith gives the historical context: Captain Matthew Flinders named Memory Cove after losing eight sailors there when he was 28 years old, 10,000 miles from home. He named Cape Catastrophe, Thistle Island, and Boston Island after those men. Port Lincoln was named, Keith theorises, from homesickness for Lincolnshire. The tuna industry came after the war, when scientists found massive schools in the Bight. Colin Thiele wrote Bluefin there as a high school teacher, which became a film. Tunarama itself began in 1962.The song’s story is Greg’s: he left Adelaide on a bicycle heading west, eventually reached Port Lincoln, and through mutual friends met Nicole. They came back to Adelaide later that year and were at the Mercury Cinema for Steve and Nardia’s wedding. “Their love story didn’t actually happen at Tunarama,” Steve admits, “but my wife loves her rom-com movies, so I did a bit of rom-com where I just put it against the backdrop.” He also notes that Tunarama won Best Seafood Experience this year, and that “it is okay to call someone a tosser, at Tunarama.” Song 8: Good Night DonThis one has weight. Every episode of The Adelaide Show signs off with “Good night, Don,” so a song about Don Dunstan was, as Steve puts it, always going to happen. Keith, who lived through the Dunstan decade, tries to give it its due in a few minutes. Decriminalisation of homosexuality. Women’s rights reforms. Aboriginal land rights. The South Australian Film Corporation in 1972. The State Theatre Company in 1974. The Rundle Mall, celebrating its 50th anniversary later in 2026. The week of the performance happened to be the anniversary of the death of Dr George Duncan, thrown into the Torrens in 1972, a murder that accelerated the push for decriminalisation.Keith acknowledges the controversies too: the Salisbury Affair, the personal challenges, the pajama press conference, and, with particular relish, the day Don stood on the Pier Hotel balcony during the 1976 tidal wave scare and told the crowd that “the only thing that will happen today is that we will all get a bit hotter.”Steve wrote the song in Brechtian cabaret style, a nod to Don’s close friendship with Robyn Archer. The refrain draws on a George Bernard Shaw quote: “Your life was no brief candle, was a mighty torch that shone.” Steele Hall also gets a verse, recognised for his willingness to equalise the electoral boundaries even when it worked against his own party. Song 9: Cellar Door ShuffleKeith went to university with Malcolm Seppelt, “which was pretty helpful,” and takes us back to the first commercial vineyard up Jacob’s Creek, planted by Johann Gramp, one of the early German arrivals. The creek became the name of one of the most recognised wine labels in the world. The doctors follow: Penfold, Hamilton, Angove, Tolley. Keith notes that by the 1960s, 90% of South Australian grapes were going into fortifieds. Barossa Pearl and BenEan Moselle changed that. Keith asks the audience who had a sip of BenEan Moselle as a youngster. Most hands go up.The song is partly in honour of Joseph, who runs Ballycroft at Greenock. Steve describes him as “the sweet spot of wine tasting because it’s not stuffy with him.” The song delivers two reminders: if your cellar door is making you feel uncomfortable, leave; and you are not there to guzzle. Song 10: Ben Venuti (The Rostrevor Pizza Bar Song)The final song is an ode to Gaetano at Rostrevor Pizza Bar, who has stood behind the same counter for 35-plus years.Keith sets up the context with Don Dunstan’s liquor reforms: the end of the six o’clock swill, and the radical notion of drinking a glass of wine at a footpath cafe. Then the postwar wave of Italian migrants, and how pizza arrived in Adelaide. Keith’s first was in 1962 at a corner of Hindley and Morphett Streets, long since demolished. “In another ten years,” he predicts, “there’ll be Australians who reckon we actually made it.”Steve moved to Rostrevor in 2006 and spent his evenings stripping 1970s Italian wallpaper off the walls of his new house before heading around the corner to eat Gaetano’s pizza. Gaetano calls his dough “pastry,” starts making it the night before, and has won awards for it. He welcomes every regular by name. He personally refuses to put pineapple on a pizza, but if you want it, he will make it. “The Italians,” Steve says, “they understand the value of the money.” He goes through about a pallet of pineapple a month.The song is in Italian and close-to-Italian, with the chorus “Benvenuti, come inside” running through it. Steve says you will come along for the ride. ClosingSteve thanks the audience and invites them to stay in touch with Keith via This Day in South Australia on Facebook and LinkedIn, where Keith posts about South Australian history every day, and via the Wednesday morning bike rides from Bicycle Express in the city at 9am. He then plays the old State Bank ad, which Keith greets with “Oh, dear. Well, I wasn’t actually named at the time, but a lot of people said, ‘I reckon that’s Keith in there.'”Steve closes by noting that the album from the show, History Hit Parade, is available on Bandcamp. 00:00:00 Musical Pilgrimage No Musical Pilgrimage this week because the whole show was a Musical Pilgrimage.Support the show: https://theadelaideshow.com.au/listen-or-download-the-podcast/adelaide-in-crowd/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jennie's Address today is called "February Dragon" a reference to Colin Thiele's 1965 novel. Jennie reminds us that the fire season now extends from November to April. Jennie's focus today is on political inertia following the unprecedented fire storms of  2019 to 2021 and the challenges faced by fire fighters. She recalls the political responses made at the peak of these bushfires: by our Prime Minister - "I'm focused on the needs of the people in this room today"  - and by an Eastern State's Minister - that "this is not the time for a conversation by people who want to politicise climate change." As both State and Federal elections draw nigh, Jennie asks - "When is the time?" In Adelaide - we've enjoyed a comparatively cool and comfortable summer. A war is now raging in the Ukraine. Large areas of the eastern states are flooded, inducing a temporary amnesia, washing away memories of Thiele's February Dragon. Floods and fires are both caused by global warming and climate change. Elections are approaching and many pollies are still mute on the subject. Voters, distracted by war - are left with stone-walling, political inertia and inaction by our leaders. Isn't now the time?!

Eudunda is the birthplace of one of South Australia's most famous authors, the late Colin Thiele, and this week we celebrate the Eudunda 150 celebrations with two local authors; historian, Samuel Doering, and former resident from the 1950s, Chris Stegmeyer. On the way to record this episode, we stopped in at St Hallett Wines in the Barossa Valley to taste the SA Drink Of The Week, which happens to be the 2017 St Hallett Old Block Shiraz. And in the Musical Pilgrimage, Eudundan, Michaela Jenke, kicks up a storm with her song, Stop & Stare. You can navigate episodes using chapter markers in your podcast app. Not a fan of wine? You can click next to jump to the next chapter in the show. We're here to serve! And please consider becoming part of our podcast by joining our Inner Circle. It's an email list. Join it and you might get an email on a Sunday or Monday seeking question ideas, guest ideas and requests for other bits of feedback about YOUR podcast, The Adelaide Show. Email us directly and we'll add you to the list: podcast@theadelaideshow.com.au If you enjoy the show, please leave us a 5-star review in iTunes or other podcast sites, or buy some great merch from our Red Bubble store - The Adelaide Show Shop. We'd greatly appreciate it. And please talk about us and share our episodes on social media, it really helps build our community. Oh, and here's our index of all episode in one concise page Running Sheet: Eudunda 150 not out 00:00:00 Intro Introduction to the show. 00:03:52 SA Drink Of The Week The SA Drink Of The Week is the 2017 St Hallett Old Block Shiraz. The tasting was held with National Cellar Door Manager for Accolade Wines, Andrew McDowell, at St Hallett Wines in the Barossa Valley, which is the site for the company's planned, multi-million-dollar Multi-Brand Wine Experience project, set to launch late in 2022. The brands to be featured will be Grant Burge, St Hallett and Rolf Binder. South Australia has long been the jewel in Australia's wine crown, but the D'Arenburg Cube threw a cat among the pigeons a few years ago, revving up interest in SA and McLaren Vale as a wine lovers destination. Andrew, you've been talking to Tourism SA while planning this new Wine Experience Destination in the Barossa. Is that D-word, DESTINATION, what it's all about? Before we get into the details, does the need to pour money into a major project like this signal that the Cellar Door Experience is lacking? You're the National Cellar Door Manager for Accolade Wines - by the way, one of your board members, Sir James Hardy has previously been a guest on The Adelaide Show (ep 298 - Sailing with Sir James Hardy) - what makes a cellar door worth visiting? Now, back to your new project. It's going to be quite big, spanning more than 600 square metres, and will have spaces carved out to create vaults for eating and drinking and different experiences. We'll put some images in the show notes. Andrew, if you could give us a virtual, audio tour of the space, what will we experience inside and, most importantly, can you explain what it means when the media release says the design's been modelled on contemporary Australian vernacular? I mentioned The Cube earlier, which is dashing and garish from the outside, but your project could easily be mistaken as just another hall from the outside - the inside is amazing - but the outside seems very muted. Has that been deliberate? For the gastronomic experience you'd like people to have at your new venue, there's been mention made that you want others to collaborate with you. What does that mean? This is likely to attract people wanting to work in tourism and hospitality. Can we get your 2-3 takeaway points for being good at customer service in a tourism entity? What would make you say, wow, this person is a star and I want to hire them? Finally, tell me honestly, you are at cellar door and you look up and you see two groups approaching. The first group is half a dozen 20-somethings, guys and gals, being loud with plenty of swagger, and then you look up and see a small group of older, very well-to-do people walking towards the cellar door with their heads tilted back as they seem to look down their noses at everything around them. What goes through your mind? 00:22:54 Samuel Doering and Chris Stegmeyer The town of Eudunda, just over 100km northeast of Adelaide, is turning 150 this year. Samuel Doering, chair of the Eudunda 150 sub-committee, invited The Adelaide Show to shine a light on what's happening and you wouldn't read about it but we've come up with two books to explore. The first is The Diary of Emilie Appelt: Eudundan. German. Lutheran. Woman. 1904-1914, which has been edited by Samuel himself. And the other book is Christiaan Stegmeyer - My Story by our other guest, Chris Stegmeyer, who was a resident in town in the 1950s. The Diary of Emilie Appelt While in Eudunda, Steve was also asked to be a judge for the Eudunda Art Prize, and The Adelaide Show Podcast ended up sponsoring a Commendation Prize because there were too many good works! Fellow judges included Peter Goers from ABC Adelaide, and cartoonist, Jed Dunstan, from the Stock Journal. Let's start by getting a sense of your histories with Eudunda. Chris, if we go with age before beauty, let's start with you and your links with Eudunda? Samuel, how long have you lived here? You are a historian, among other things. Has growing up in Eudunda had much to do with that life path? How did Emilie Appelt come into your life? Can you give us a taste of Emilie's experience of Eudunda; arriving when there were only about half a dozen houses? How is this town similar to and different from other SA country towns? Who are some of the legends? And do you know how Peep Hill got it's name? It sounds rather risque. Why should we visit? 01:04:09 Musical Pilgrimage In the musical pilgrimage, we have Eudundan country music legend, Michaela Jenke, with her new song, Stop & Stare. It's been four years between drinks, when it comes to original songs from Jenke. She says writing doesn't come that easily to her but this song was off and running after she'd penned the first lines: ‘Been livin' in a circus. Been livin' on dreams, and I'm the master of the ring'. Michaela has caught the eyes and ears of the country music scene in Australia but still graciously took time to send us her song to play, while she was on her honeymoon. There's got to be a country song in that, somewhere! This track is about self-empowerment and it has plenty of kick, perhaps just like the original Eudundans. Visit MichaelaJenkemusic.com Support the show: https://theadelaideshow.com.au/listen-or-download-the-podcast/adelaide-in-crowd/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week's quick questions' episode is with the following previous guests: - Bev Attfield (#64) - Ariane Virtue (#66) - Amy Henderson (#68)   Bev Attfield (#64) Bev is the Principal at Workplace Science at Jostle and host of the People at Work podcast. #64 episode link: https://emilyspath.ca/64-bev-attfield-the-importance-of-caring-in-the-workplace/   Favorite books: "The Humans" by Matt Haig https://amz.run/4vFd "Can't hurt me"  by David Goggins https://amz.run/4vFe   How to find Bev on social media: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bevattfield/ Email: bev@jostle.me Jostle: https://jostle.me/   Ariane Virtue (#66) Ariane is the CEO and co-founder of Flex We Are. #66 episode link: https://emilyspath.ca/66-ariane-virtue-flexible-work-and-work-life-humanisation/   Favorite book:  "Storm boy" by Colin Thiele https://amz.run/4vFf   How to find Ariane on social media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arianevirtue/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/flex-we-are/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flexweare/ Website: https://www.flexweare.com/     Amy Henderson (#68) Amy is the founding CEO of TendLab and author of "Tending". #68 episode: https://emilyspath.ca/68-amy-henderson-parenting-skills-critical-for-modern-workplace-success/   Favorite books: "Think like a breadwinner" by Jennifer Barrett https://amz.run/4vFh "Fair Play" by Eve Rodsky https://amz.run/4vFj "Graceling" by Kristin Cashore https://amz.run/4vFk   How to find Amy on social media: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyjenniferhenderson/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/tendlab/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/amytendlab https://twitter.com/withtendlab Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amytendlab/   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amyhendersonauthor https://www.facebook.com/tendlab   Website: https://www.tendlab.com/   Book “Tending”: https://www.nationbuilderbooks.com/

Welcome to our first episode for 2019! We hope you've had a fabulous break (with lots of reading and podcast-listening time!). In Episode 24, we're delving into kids' books adapted for the screen. We interview Justin Monjo, the screenwriter behind the brand new Storm Boy movie. Discover the ins and outs of bringing Colin Thiele's beloved children's book to the big screen in this fascinating chat. In Kids' Capers, hear from some insightful kids on which books they believe would be perfect brought to life on screen. Also, your co-hosts review their latest screen-worthy reads, and we announce our first giveaway for the year! Read the show notes: www.onemorepagepodcast.com/episode-24/ Email us at: onemorepagepodcast@gmail.com Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/onemorepageAU Twitter: www.twitter.com/onemorepageau Instagram: www.instagram.com/onemorepageau

To celebrate the release of STORM BOY, Michael and Krissa interview the stars of the film, Jai Courtney and Finn Little. They discuss the latest retelling of Colin Thiele’s beautiful story and reminisce about the 1976 version they watched as children.  

Ellen Jurik from Sydney’s Blowfish Studios joins us in the studio this week. She is the Game Director of Storm Boy: The Game, an interactive adaptation of the classic Australian children's novel by Colin Thiele. We spoke about what it took to adapt this game, and capturing the essence of the story. We also talk about Epic Game's aggressive push into the videogame delivery market. With better deals for developers and the promise of curation for its library it looks like they are out to give Steam a run for its money. Pixel Sift is produced by Scott Quigg, Sarah Ireland, Fiona Bartholomaeus & Mitch Loh. Gianni Di Giovanni is our Executive Producer. SPONSOR: Thank you to Murdoch University School of Arts for their support over every single episode of Pixel Sift. We couldn't have done it without you. If you want to bolster your skills in media, journalism or game development, check out the Murdoch University School of Arts website for more information! You can find us on social media Discord, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, and YouTube . Just search for "pixelsift"

An Interview with Allison Tait For my seventeenth Dream Gardens podcast, I interviewed author Allison Tait about one of her favorite children’s books, the Australian classic Storm Boy by Colin Thiele, illustrated by Robert Ingpen. First published in 1963, the short book tells the story of a young boy who lives with his father on the isolated Southern coast of Australia.  One day, a mother … Continue reading Podcast #17: Storm Boy by Colin Thiele → The post Podcast #17: Storm Boy by Colin Thiele appeared first on Dream Gardens.

For almost three decades the landscape of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia provided inspiration for Hans Heysen. Known for his imagery of Australian gum trees, the artist was forty-nine when he first visited the Flinders Ranges. The scenery of this country had a deep impact on Heysen, and between November 1926 and April 1949 he made many painting trips to the region. In the Flinders–Far North is an example of Heysen combining the two great motifs of his oeuvre in one composition: the Australian gum tree and the view of the Flinders Ranges. The mightiness of the gum dominates this work, set deep in the arid amber and lilac landscape of the Ranges. The work was commissioned by the Commonwealth Government to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Federation and was displayed in the Australian Embassy in Paris for many years.1 In discussing the impact of the Flinders Ranges on his work and the contrast it provided with the landscape of his hometown of Ambleside (also known as Hahndorf), South Australia, Heysen said: … I go to the north, to the Flinders, where I find an entirely new landscape, quite divorced from anything that surrounds me here at Ambleside, and it gives me the fresh impulse to create the bare bones of our landscape in South Australia. It is an old country, very old, and it is that very age you feel in your surroundings, that spaciousness and those rugged peculiar shapes in the hills, that fascinate one, and the dry quality of the colour and the infinity of the vast distances have a fascination which this country surrounded by foliage and trees doesn’t give you. You feel freer.2 1 Colin Thiele, Heysen of Hahndorf, Australia: Rigby Limited, 1968, pp. 264–65. See also Alisa Bunbury, Arid Arcadia: art of the Flinders Ranges, Adelaide: Art Gallery of South Australia, 2002. 2 Hans Heysen, interview by Hazel de Berg, 1960, Canberra: National Library of Australia [deB 27].