Richard Fidler

So this novel, Eden Glassie, it's set, as we've said, between the 1850s and the 2020s.

How are you feeling about this country at the end of 2023?

What about the state of truth-telling and, I guess, truth-listening between First Nations and other Australians?

Are there horses in your life now?

Melissa, I really, really appreciate you being our guest.

Thank you so much for coming on to Conversations.

Melissa Lukashenko was my guest on Conversations today.

This conversation with Melissa was produced by Nicola Harrison.

Our executive producer was Carmel Rooney, and it was recorded on the lands of the Tarabal and Yagura peoples.

I'm Sarah Konoski.

Thanks for listening.

You've been listening to a podcast of conversations.

For more conversations interviews, please go to the website, abc.net.au slash conversations.

Mick Dolman has been married to his wife Joni for more than 50 years now, but there was a moment back in 1973, when they first got together, that Joni thought she'd lost him.

Mick was the youngest member of the crew of a freighter ship called the Blythe Star that had disappeared from the face of the earth.

somewhere off the south coast of Tasmania.

More than a week had passed and Joni had been advised that the crew had been given up for dead and the authorities were calling off the search.

But Mick and six other crew members were still alive.

They'd survived the capsizing of their ship and they'd been afloat for days on the cold and wild waters of the Southern Ocean...

But due to institutional ineptitude and indifference, the search for them was badly mismanaged and the men found it impossible to be rescued.