A fascinating project from ABC Radio National, there's plenty more information over at the official website. Thanks to Gretchen Miller, one of the producers, for the tip.

ABC Radio National: Return to Arnhem Land [mp3]

A great documentary about the unique domestic architecture of Queensland (here are a few of my photos of Queenslanders from a couple of years ago; or the Wikipedia definition if you prefer), but this is really about stories, memory, domestic life, families, Australia, and so on. Somewhat nostalgic, but that's how people feel about these things - rarely is a city, and state, so uniquely entwined with a particular kind of building. Very nice work by Tony McGregor. (Listen out for the crows, and also for Steve Godstone, with whom I have shared several good conversations about David Peace and Liverpool vs Spurs, but here talks beautifullly about building, structure, Australian hardwoods and suchlike.)

ABC Radio National: 360: An almost practical guide to living with Queenslanders [mp3]

Big Sky Stories [mp3]

Hindsight: Along the Pituri Trail [mp3]

It's wonderfully hot over the festive season in Australia, and much of the place shuts down for a couple of months, as the peculiar circumstance of an imported European culture introduced to the local climate means that summer holidays coincides with Christmas. Most civilised. So I'm writing this from Brisbane, where I've decamped for the week from Sydney, and the overwhelming experience 'up here' is sub-tropical heat and humidity. (As I type, its still 28 degrees at 11pm and a rather well-fed cockroach just scuttled past the keyboard.) ABC Radio National broadcast a great documentary about the cultural experience of heat as part of the Australian landscape about a year ago, which I'm reposting here as my belated contribution to the Christmas week at Speechification. Hope you all have a bloody hot New Year.

ABC Radio National: Hindsight: The long hot summer - heat [mp3]

Radio Eye: Thank you for having me (but I think you've been had) [mp3]

Masako Fukui, the producer and narrator, bravely puts herself in the frame too, wondering if she might even be part of the problem, but also "fearful that there won't be much left of me ... if I rid myself of my exotic identity."

It's not necessarily the most academic investigation of a slice of psychology that could either be fathoms deep or impossibly shallow, yet it's a frank, sometimes funny, exploration of a particularly awkward genre in human relationships.

(Oh, and the ABC are syndicating the exemplary and moving Don't Hang Up, as you'll hear on the end. Remember, you heard it first(-ish) at Speechification. Don't touch that dial etc and so forth.)

Radio Eye: The Madame Butterfly Effect (mp3)

'Scope' was a magazine show, running from 1958 to early 1976, "under the guidance of 'frequently-dishevelled, wild-eyed' producer, Donald Ingram-Smith" it says here. Each week tackled a particular theme, and rather delightfully this show from 1967 focused on 'Communication' itself. Stand by for lots of rapid-fire cut-up fragments, talk of Telstar, the bleep-bloop of barely digital computers, and some great, groovy library music. These semi-nostalgic 'reviews' are set up by one of the show's original presenters, Barry Anthony, who has an absolutely corking radio voice (here, simply drenched in reverb for maximum effect). Honestly, it's so dated that you wander whether it is in fact some kind of elaborate hoax. Let's assume it isn't. It both serves as self-parody and is good value either way.

The Night Air: Reviewing Scope: Communication (mp3)

Two stories are told by a student tracing her walk following the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella, and an itinerant street performer from Poland, who wanders around from city to city. (I'm less interested in him, but I know that's largely due to my own deep-seated - but entirely reasonable I think - prejudice against street performers.)

But it's the other two voices that really capture the ear. The softly-spoken casualty of the music industry is fascinating - a great storyteller. Having left behind a life that had become debauched and empty, he ends up trudging alone through the bush for 3 months, the walking helping to strip his life back to its absolute core. He describes it as feeling himself unravelling, only stopping when he begins to find a little too much in common with the old bushmen of the fences out in the border country of Australia, who would be alone for months on end. They used to say that when they started putting two plates down for dinner, it was time to come in.

Then another great character, an inmate talking of life in prison - the notorious Long Bay in Sydney - and the seemingly endless walking around the prison yard. 3km of solitude - "gangster laps" - punctuated with stolen banter, every day. Or of hearing the footsteps of a new cellmate echoing down the corridor. He's great. "I mean, that's all you've got left ... your walk and your word."

Oh and make sure you stick around for the short bonus feature: some bloke convinced ABC Radio National to give him a series on looking for decent pubs in the middle of nowhere, called "Where can I get a drink around here?". So here he is, in the middle of nowhere indeed, but in a town briefly transformed for the race meeting that rolls in once a year. Just listen to the voices.

Radio Eye: Two feet and a heartbeat (mp3)