Joanne Hawkins

WE can all understand the appeal of a tree change; giving up our stressful city lives and moving to the country. It seems it’s something Australians are embracing, with recent Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showing an increasing number of interstate and intrastate population movements are to either tree or sea change regions. But plenty of people are happy to do just the opposite. Regional and country Victorians are making tree changes in reverse by buying themselves Melbourne bases...

MOST parents want to give their children the best start in life. And now, this has extended to helping them get on the property ladder. It’s been revealed that an estimated 55 per cent of first-home buyers now receive financial assistance from their parents, according to recent research by Digital Finance Analytics.

Simone Kain has tried city living. After an idyllic childhood on a sheep and cropping farm in Millicent, South Australia, she spent five years at boarding school in Adelaide. But she yearned for the freedom of the farm. “I was pretty homesick,” she says. “My parents put in a 1800-number because I’d ring home about 10 times a day.”

This time last year, things were not looking bright for Maria Sharapova. Unable to defend her Australian Open title due to a shoulder injury that kept her out of the game for months, the former world No 1 could only watch as Serena Williams claimed the championship.

When Kasey Edwards was 32, she woke up one morning and realised that she didn’t want to go to work. “And not just on that day, it was like I didn’t want to go ever again,” she remembers. For Edwards, a high-flying management consultant, who had worked her “butt off” climbing the corporate ladder, the realisation that she hated her job – despite the six figure salary that went with it – was devastating.

If ever there was a hotel synonymous with Hollywood, then the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard is it. Its connections to Tinseltown’s great and good are myriad: it’s where John Belushi fatally overdosed, where Greta Garbo decided she really did want to be alone; and where Sofia Coppola has set her new film, Somewhere. It is also the favourite watering hole of one Lindsay Lohan (admittedly not so great or good). As legendary Columbia Pictures founder Harry Cohn told actors Glenn Ford and William Holden: “If you’re going to get into trouble, do it at Chateau Marmont.”

It was a drunken night in the pub that did it. Exhilarated from a cycling trip around Ireland, cousins Jamie Mackenzie and Ben Wylson ordered another pint of warm beer and started to think about where they could go next. Perhaps they could cycle around Europe? Or even Australia? But why stop there?

It was the day Rob Gambi feared might be his last. Lying in excruciating pain in a cramped tent high in the Himalayas, he knew time was running out, and fast. Rob could hear the faint whirl of the helicopter desperately trying to dodge the bad weather and airlift him off the mountain, but with each failed attempt to land, he knew his situation was becoming increasingly dire.

Not everyone could cope with running a small business with their other half, not least one based in the intense pressure cooker environment of an inner city restaurant. But, until recently, husband and wife chefs Jane and Jeremy Strode didn’t know any other way.

If anyone meets the definition of “waterbaby”, it’s Bronte Barratt. In fact, she can’t remember a time when she wasn’t in the pool. As a toddler, Bronte moved with her parents and two older brothers into a large house in Brisbane’s outer northern suburbs, complete with the ubiquitous backyard pool. Before long, the young Bronte was spending every possible moment in that pool, sparking a love of swimming that would eventually lead to a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.

Bob McTavish can still remember the first time he set foot on a surfboard. It was 1956, and the then 12-year-old took to the waves on a 16-foot ‘toothpick’ style board that his father had picked up for three pounds from the captain of the Currumbin Surf Club. It was awkward and unwieldy, but the young Bob was hooked.

Chefs' minds sizzle with ideas for new recipes. Inspired by things such as the seasons and opportunities to twist classic combinations, they constantly devise and hone new dishes. Despite their talents, it's the produce that goes into these creations that brings them alive. Without outstanding raw ingredients no meal will ever be truly great.

When Michelle Jank decided to become a fashion designer, she says it was like "a calling". "It was one of those funny situations where it was like, 'Oh my God, that is exactly what I have got to do.'" But even she was amazed at how quickly her career took off. There was the debut show at Australian Fashion Week 2000, which was widely described as having "saved" a bland schedule.

Sunday March 23 started much like any other for cameraman David Brill. After tuning to a breakfast news show, he settled down to devour the first of his three newspapers. Most were full of the Iraq War. (This was light reading by Brill's standards. On assignment in London, he would buy all nine Sunday newspapers, "Even the News Of The World".) His peace was shattered when he heard on the radio that Paul Moran, a freelance cameraman working for the ABC, had been killed in Iraq.