What was behind the wall and the wire? The local people knew. Fine courtyards. An old swimming pool. Dilapidated tennis courts and a remnant garden, now wild and sprawling. The Abbotsford Convent was a haunted place, left to languish for years after the last of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd had gone. In its prime, it had been a school, a refuge, a retreat, a workhouse and a prison - the single largest charitable institution in the southern hemisphere. In the late 1990s, a proposed high-density development threatened the idyllic riverside location, sparking outrage in the local...

Inside Australia's most venerable book publishing house. Australia's oldest university press is also one of our best known and most trusted publishers. Founded in 1921 as a bookshop for students at the University of Melbourne, Melbourne University Press was soon publishing important works that contained the best of national scholarship. Landmark MUP books and series include The Australian Dictionary of Biography, Manning Clark's History of Australia, The Encyclopaedia of New Guinea and the journal Meanjin. These and other MUP publications helped shape how Australians perceived...