Lifestyle Desires
Aerial view of tropical islands surrounded by turquoise lagoon, Indian Ocean atoll
Travel

Four hours to the lagoon: direct to Cocos, finally

On 1 May, QantasLink cut the Port Hedland stopover from its Friday flight to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. The journey is now four hours, the lagoon is waiting, and the arithmetic of a long weekend has shifted. Cleo Tasman does the maths from a bar stool at the Cocos Club.

Cleo Tasman8 min read
Modern high-rise buildings in Melbourne's skyline viewed from an apartment window
Community

Rental cooperatives: the housing fix hiding in plain sight

A new rental cooperative in Brunswick is offering something the private market can't: income-capped rent, long-term leases, and neighbours who know each other's names. In Norway, 40 per cent of housing stock works this way. In Australia, it's less than one per cent. I went to find out why.

Ngaire Brennan
A hand reaching for a coffee mug next to a laptop streaming content on a dark desk
Culture

Something Has Gone Wrong With Australian Streaming

Jordan Atkinson
Neatly arranged bathroom shelf showcasing various skincare products and accessories
Beauty

What I keep getting wrong about my niece's skincare drawer

Tahlia Park

Community

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Close-up of Peking duck plated with hoisin sauce, cucumber batons and steamed pancakes on a ceramic bowl
Food Drink

Mott 32 picks Crown Melbourne. I keep thinking about Lee Ho Fook.

Hong Kong-founded Mott 32, with its 42-day applewood duck and Michelin recognition, opens at Crown Melbourne in March 2027 as part of a $200m Riverwalk redevelopment. It will be magnificent, and I am still working out what it is for.

Henry Macarthur
Travel

Snow at Mt Baw Baw, a month before the lifts spin

Seven centimetres at Mt Baw Baw and a low-pressure front to 400 metres in Victoria. A soft early-May snowfall isn't a forecast for the season ahead, but it is permission to start thinking like a snow person again.

Cleo Tasman
Snow-capped Mount Buller in the Victorian Alps on a winter morning.
Money Career

Negative gearing reform meets the housing problem it can't solve alone

Treasury is modelling a two-property cap on negative gearing and a CGT discount cut for budget night, and Jim Chalmers has stopped pretending the status quo is acceptable. The reform is real, the housing-affordability problem is bigger than the reform, and that's the part nobody is saying out loud.

Ben Russo
Suburban Australian house facade in Geelong with manicured front garden and tiled roof
Money Career

What Birthright gets right about my parents' house

Zoe Pepper's black comedy lands in cinemas nine days after the federal budget tries to fix the same problem.

Ben Russo
Aerial view of suburban rooftops in Collaroy, NSW, with colourful tiled roofs and pockets of green
Models preparing backstage at a fashion shoot, designer adjusting garments on a rack
Style

Three fingers, six fingers, and a prompt: AI meets Australian Fashion Week

Karla Spetic asked AI to generate images for her latest collection and it gave her hands with six fingers, but it also demanded a clarity she did not know she needed. As Australian Fashion Week opens, the industry AI debate is getting specific.

Imogen Hartley
Christopher Boots Astrolabe lighting installation in his Collingwood studio
Home

Why I keep booking flights to Melbourne in May

Melbourne Design Week opens its tenth edition on 14 May with more than 400 events, and I have been booking flights down for years now. The honest answer to why is that the rest of the country still has not built what Melbourne already has.

Lila Beaumont
Anonymous viewer holding a remote control in a dim living room, switching channels.
Culture

Two Cages, one Brontë and the May streaming pile

Bugonia, Marty Supreme, a Cage doubleheader and a Brontë adaptation I cannot quite defend. What I am watching, and what I am skipping, on the May 2026 Australian streamers.

Jordan Atkinson
A dimly lit lounge with a television glowing across an empty couch, late evening
Culture

Reading the Netflix top 56 from the couch this autumn

TVGuide's annual ranking landed in May. I worked through the upper bracket across the week, and have opinions. Five films, one half-watch, and a quiet suspicion of the form itself.

Jordan Atkinson

Money Career

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Aerial view of Perth's CBD towers and surrounding suburban rooflines under clear sky
Money Career

Perth's stamp duty fix: a $100,000 lift into a $900,000 market

WA's 2026-27 budget lifted the first home buyer stamp duty exemption to $600,000, a $100,000 jump worth up to $25,390 to the right buyer. In a market where Perth's median house already sits at $900,000, the question is who that right buyer actually is.

Ben Russo
Money Career

Mother's Day, $130,000, and the rule no one's fixing

A Melbourne nanny has worked full-time hours for two decades on a quarter of the super she should have. The rule behind that is the same one behind the wider motherhood penalty, and it isn't being fixed in time for next Mother's Day.

Ben Russo
Woman in apron washing a chopping board at a bright kitchen sink
Money Career

Two Hundred Dollars and a Long Press Conference: Reading Budget 2026

Treasury rang Friday and led with the punchline. The body of the briefing was the $200 offset. The thing under the briefing was a quiet acknowledgment it isn't moving the needle. What Albanese is and isn't announcing on Tuesday.

Ben Russo
Australian dollar notes on a wooden surface
Long-exposure rocky coastal waves at Bicheno on Tasmania's east coast
Travel

Bicheno keeps making the welcoming-towns list. I think I know why

Bicheno landed at seven on Booking.com's most-welcoming-towns list. St Helens at ten. Two east-coast Tassie towns in the top ten, and I drove down to find out why.

Cleo Tasman
Silhouettes of camels and riders against a vivid orange sunset and sailboat at Cable Beach, Broome, Western Australia
Travel

Six weeks after Narelle, a fare cheap enough to argue with

Western Australia is dropping Perth-Broome fares to $179, Perth-Exmouth to $199 and Perth-Kununurra to $259, all part of a $1.45m post-cyclone tourism support package. A Hobart-based slow-road columnist tries to work out whether the cheap ticket is the right call.

Cleo Tasman
Elegant hotel lounge with vintage armchairs and warm lighting
Travel

I almost didn't go: Milton Park's $10m makeover and the case for imperfection

A $10 million renovation, a 115-year-old country estate, and the question of whether chipped paint matters when the gardens look like that.

Cleo Tasman
Wooden house with solar panels surrounded by greenery in Australia
Travel

Tiny, Off-Grid, Two Nights Max: How Aussies Are Travelling in 2026

The two-week beach holiday is being quietly retired. Airbnb data and Tourism Australia figures both show short, regional, off-grid stays surging — and South Australian tiny cabins now leading the country's most-wishlisted list.

Cleo Tasman

Food Drink

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Authentic Mexican tacos served with tequila on a rustic table, lime and salsa on the side
Food Drink

The cochinita pibil lands. You're already planning your return.

Papalote in Newcastle West does Mexican cooking that's personal rather than thematic: a brick pit, house-made tortillas, and a king prawn tostada worth a three-hour drive.

Henry Macarthur
Food Drink

Last Course: Quay Closure and the Crisis in Australian Fine Dining

Quay held three Good Food Guide hats for 24 years before closing on Valentine’s Day this year. I spent a week talking to chefs, owners and regulars about whether haute cuisine in Australia has an expiry date.

Henry Macarthur
Elegant dining setup with white tablecloths, cutlery, and wine glasses in a modern restaurant setting
Food Drink

What this year's Time Out awards say about how Australia is eating in 2026

Time Out's Food and Drink Awards landed Tuesday with the largest public vote it has ever run. The list, fifteen years deep, reads less like a leaderboard than a set of field notes from a quiet realignment in how Australian hospitality is operating in 2026.

Henry Macarthur
An intimate restaurant table set with empty wine glasses and warm candlelight
Food Drink

Vivid Sydney 2026 Goes Big on Food — Inside the Barangaroo Fire Kitchen

Vivid's culinary program moves to Barangaroo Reserve this year with the Fire Kitchen as headline act, an Indigenous-led D&D experience and a long-table Pearls and Plates dinner. The full food guide to Vivid 2026.

Henry Macarthur
Sydney Opera House illuminated during Vivid Sydney