Young Tasmanian Voices

Bert Spinks spent his young adulthood in Launceston. Both Bert and Launceston survived the experience. Today, Spinks has one foot in middle age, and the years have given his writing a mellowness. Bert Spinks’ stories about his youth in Launceston will speak to today’s young and transport today’s older generations to their yesterdays. They are a literary feast, and they are the perfect way to launch our Young Tasmanian Voices section. ~ Chris Champion, Editor of Forty South Tasmania

Bubbles

22 Jan 2021

She told me that her dad’s mate would come around fairly often. She had wanted to call him Uncle Dave, but he’d refused the title. He was one of these Tasmanian men who seem gregarious, but whose silence can also be deafening. One of these types...

Young Tasmanian Voices

The party

22 Jan 2021

It was a house that I believe was soon to be condemned. The idea commanded my attention: it was as though the house had been damned. Everything had a religious tinge to it in those days. To be honest, yes, it did feel like it was going to fall...

Young Tasmanian Voices

Strange pilgrims

22 Jan 2021

I didn’t actually get the man’s name. It was September, a Friday, one of those gorgeous spring days that fill you with hopefulness. As though things are just opening up. I’d had an appointment at Newstead College, and walked out onto Cypress Street just before lunch. The street was empty. The way I remember it, the road was supernal in its brightness – my eyes must have been needing to adjust to the sudden appearance of light, after what had been a long and troubled winter.