Guardian Australia’s weekend wrap of essential reads from the past seven days, selected by Jacqueline Housden, includes magical mushrooms, the man who changed the shape of Britain’s modern-day news, and 2,600-year-old spoilers.
Life Among the Garbage Mountains of Jakarta
Karmidi, who started working at Bantar Gebang—Jakarta’s largest landfill—when he was just 10, says, “We can work when we please, the trash does not stop.” Every day, about 8,000 tons of rubbish arrive from Jakarta to the site, where huge rolling peaks of rubbish stretch across more than 100 hectares (247 acres). The video and pictures in this piece are as astounding as the stories of the brave people who live and work there.
The people who rely on the site earn about 100,000 to 200,000 rupiah (about AU$8-16 a day) and face an uncertain future as Indonesia’s government grapples with managing swelling levels of waste. The site is well over capacity, and the government wants to gradually close it from next year, raising questions over where the rubbish will go and what will happen to those who depend on it for their livelihoods. Reading time: Two minutes.
Why the Odyssey Is Everywhere
Why are we still connecting with stories that are thousands of years old? This month, Christopher Nolan’s take on the Greek epic the Odyssey is set to break box office records. Charlotte Higgins examines what resonates so strongly with us now and what that tells us about this moment in time. Something written more than 2,600 years ago can still captivate us, provoking questions like: To what extent does our fate lie in our own hands? What makes a good leader, a good man, a good husband? What are the acceptable limits of revenge? Reading time: Four minutes. Further reading: Sian Cain reveals how fans are embarking on epic journeys to see The Odyssey the way Nolan wants them to, and the archaeologist following Homer’s route on a bicycle.
How the Daily Mail’s Fearsome Former Editor Still Shapes the British Press
Paul Dacre, the long-serving former editor of the Daily Mail, featured prominently in news stories this week after Prince Harry lost his high court case in London against the newspaper’s publishers. The long career of Dacre—and how he influenced those now leading much of the British press—is chronicled with unmissable detail by Andy Beckett. A former Mail columnist says, “He was terrifying. He wouldn’t always shout. Sometimes, his voice would get very low. He would say, ‘You’ve missed a story’.”
Across the press, including at non-rightwing titles such as the Guardian, it was assumed that anyone who had spent significant time at the Mail had acquired skills and a mentality that could not be learned elsewhere. As the internet made journalism more competitive and relentless, editors who had shown they could cope with the Mail’s pressures were attractive to other papers. Reading time: 14 minutes. Further reading: The twists and turns inside Prince Harry’s battle against the Daily Mail.
What a Three-Day Mushroom Tour of the Tarkine Can Tell Us
A three-day fungi workshop in the Tarkine sounds like a magical trip, and this piece from Alexis Buxton-Collins doesn’t disappoint. Joining her group are toxicologists, botanists, and ecologists, but everyone seems united by a sense of wonder when it comes to fungi. The Tarkine has sheltered a vast range of astonishing creatures for 65 million years, including freshwater crayfish almost a metre in length and still rumours that thylacines might prowl the dense Gondwanan rainforest. Reading time: Just under two minutes.
Sam Neill’s Last Interview
There has been an outpouring of grief this week after actor Sam Neill died, aged 78. The international star—claimed by Northern Ireland, New Zealand, and sometimes Australia—recently answered an eclectic range of questions from Guardian readers. On celebrity pets, Neill said, “Helena Bonham Carter is very happy to be a cow. She’s had 16 calves now. She’s up for it, if nothing else.” The entire piece is full of gems like these. Reading time: Three and a half minutes. Further reading: From an obituary to his life in pictures, Neill may have won acclaim as an actor, but his real legacy was that of an unselfish, decent man who was, according to his seemingly endless tributes, a “true gentleman”.
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