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 soft white chrysanthemum petals against a dark moody background
Wellbeing

What the week before Mother's Day looks like from where I sit

One in six Australian women face Mother's Day with grief no one is selling cards for: infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth, involuntary childlessness. From a Brisbane GP's chair, what these patients describe is sayable, and shame keeps it quiet.

Dr Mira Joshi
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.
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
Silhouettes of camels and riders against a vivid orange sunset and sailboat at Cable Beach, Broome, Western Australia
Community

The Gold Coast Reinvents Itself — Again

From schoolies trip cliche to lifestyle-migration darling, the Gold Coast has been quietly reinventing what it means to live and visit there. Inside the cultural and economic shift behind Australia's most polarising holiday destination.

Ngaire Brennan
Aerial view of Gold Coast beach meeting the modern skyline
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
Person watching TV at home with a bowl of popcorn
Culture

Best New Shows Streaming in Australia This May

Sam Campbell finally lands a Netflix special, the Stranger Things successor drops, and Nicolas Cage takes his first proper TV role. Your guide to the streaming releases worth your evenings in May 2026.

Jordan Atkinson
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
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
Wooden house with solar panels surrounded by greenery in Australia

Wellbeing

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Woman in apron washing a chopping board at a bright kitchen sink
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
Senior woman exercising with dumbbells in a strength training session
Wellbeing

What my grandmother's jam jars tried to tell us

One in five Australians over 60 have sarcopenia, and women carry the steeper gradient. The screening is rare, the protein gap is real, and the intervention works at any age. A GP-turned-writer on what the medical system isn't catching.

Dr Mira Joshi
Folded paper on a wooden desk in soft afternoon light
Wellbeing

The fertility printout that keeps coming back across the desk

Thirteen years after the first Australian birth from frozen ovarian tissue, the same lifestyle copy is still doing the rounds. The science still works. The framing still doesn't — a GP on the slow conversation that follows the printout.

Dr Mira Joshi
Healthcare professional in a fertility clinic corridor
Wellbeing

The $2,500 Decision: Why More Australian Women Are Freezing Their Eggs

Egg freezing has become Australia's quietest growth industry — a six-week, $2,500 procedure that thousands of women under 35 are now treating as routine. The data, the costs, and what fertility specialists wish more women understood before they commit.

Dr Mira Joshi
Close-up of an LED light therapy face mask with red light illumination on a person
Beauty

A month in a $600 LED mask taught me almost nothing

I spent a month inside an LED face mask to find out whether the science holds up to the marketing. Between the $109 Kahlia Skin and the $690 4D Pro, here is what you are actually paying for.

Tahlia Park
Beauty

Bloom skin, the bottles that worked, and the trends I'm not yet sold on

Glass skin had an eight-year run. Bloom is what came next — hydration that sits in the skin, smaller routine, fewer bottles. The toners that did the work for me, the trends I'm not yet sold on, and what the Refinery29 list won't tell you about K-beauty in 2026.

Tahlia Park
Skincare bottles arranged on a white shelf in soft natural light
Beauty

Inside Australia's Clean Beauty Boom — and the $5.7 Billion Question

Australia's clean beauty market is on track to nearly quadruple by 2034, driven by ingredient-literate Gen Z shoppers and a sharp pivot toward Aussie-owned brands. Where the money is moving — and what it means for what's on your bathroom shelf.

Tahlia Park
Flat lay of natural skincare products on a warm rustic background