I know this is indulgent, but I couldn’t resist sharing this welcome LinkedIn posting from my elder daughter, Julie, Director, Healthy Ageing and End of Life Care, CCQ Country to Coast, QLD:
“Yesterday I watched my dad launch his new book, and I couldn’t stop smiling.
Done Working: Finding Contentment in Retirement draws on the real experiences of 101 retirees and global research to explore what actually makes retirement good — not the finances or logistics, but genuine contentment: connection, purpose, identity.
It struck a chord professionally too. I work in healthy ageing, where so much focus goes on keeping people well physically and clinically, and far less on whether they’re genuinely content. This book is a good reminder that contentment deserves as much deliberate thought as any financial plan.
Mostly though, I just felt proud — of a dad who’s always been curious, generous, and a real listener. Fittingly, he hasn’t quite stopped working either. Congratulations, Dad. This one’s a beauty.“
We had a very successful launch of my latest book, DONE WORKING: Finding Contentment in Retirement at Avid Reader, West End, Brisbane, in a great conversation with my friend Dr Mark Tyler. Lots of good audience questions too. Many thanks to Eleanor from Avid Reader for organising the event and to Fiona Stager, Co-owner, and Sarah Deasy, the store’s bookbuyer, for their support.
I’m looking forward to another launch across town at Riverbend Books, Bulimba on Sunday 30 August 2026 at 4pm, this time in conversation with another good friend, Dr Ann Kelly.
If you’re in town, you’d be very welcome, whether you’re retired or just thinking about it. And if you can’t make it, you can still buy a book via either bookshop’s website. Or ask your local library to order a copy.
And, after reading DONE WORKING, you can share your ‘Afterthoughts’ if you’d like to, in the Comments section below.
Until next time
Darryl Dymock
Wellbeing Workbook: In DONE WORKING, I refer to Dr John Barletta’s stimulating publication, Wellbeing Workbook. You can download a pdf copy of the book right here.
When I was on holiday recently in the fabulous South Island of New Zealand I came across a bookshop that wonderfully almost met the description of my ideal bookshop I wrote about in my previous blog.
I wrote there that ‘I particularly love the quirky ones, with nooks and crannies, comfy chairs, tables, mirrors, the occasional dog.’
I say ‘almost met’ because this one had all of the above features except the dog. However, when I mentioned this to the grey-haired co-owner (who was sitting near the doorway when I came in, quietly reading like an elf under a tree), she said brightly, ‘Oh we used to have a dog, but it died.’
The co-owners of Red Books, Greytown, NZ, with photo of their bookshop dog
She darted over to a table and produced a photo of their former canine companion, which I couldn’t resist including in my photo of the co-owners and their shop, ‘Red Books’.
‘Red Books’, a clever play on words for a second-hand bookshop, is in Greymouth on the north-west coast of South Island. It’s just a long sentence or two from the railway station that’s the starting point for the world-famous TranzAlpine train which traverses 223 kilometres across the Southern Alps to Christchurch.
The shop has that comfortable bookish feel and I could have curled up on a sofa for a long read – but I would’ve missed my train.
TranzAlpine train at Arthur’s Pass, South Island, New Zealand
I did buy a book, however: Which New Zealand bird is that? by Andrew Crowe, which helped me and my wife identify some of the wildlife we saw on our travels. (Regrettably, in our short time there we didn’t spot any kiwis of the feathered kind, which are apparently nocturnal birds. Across the island we found the human variety of Kiwi we encountered friendly and helpful.)
The TranzAlpine journey is worth a story in itself, so I’ll leave it dangling here for the moment like an errant participle, and tell you about another quirky bookshop I found at Christchurch, the train’s destination.
‘the custard square’ Bookshop, Christchurch, New Zealand
I happened across this one in the city’s CBD, appropriately outside the Arts Centre. ‘The Custard Square’ is a small old-fashioned caravan. Painted yellow, of course.
Inside, it was crammed with books around its walls; outside, there were a couple of more-or-less portable bookshelves, and a small blackboard that proclaimed all books were $5.
The affable couple I presumed to be the owners sheltered from the midday sun under a large bleached market umbrella and chatted to book buyers and browsers alike.
I reckoned $5 was a bargain, especially with the Aussie dollar exchange rate, and I snapped up a copy of Miscellany One: Poems, Stories, Broadcasts, by Dylan Thomas.
The book has a wonderful quote from Dylan on its cover: ‘I think that if I touched the earth, it would crumble; it is so sad and beautiful, so tremulously like a dream.’
The quote is accompanied by a black silhouette on a mid-blue background of a sad clown-like character touching the earth, which is cracking under his finger’s touch. A black rooster and a pale full moon gaze down at the scene.
I looked to see who the book’s publisher was, but there was no detail inside the front cover, no year of publication, no ISBN.
The only possible clue was on the plain cardboard back cover: a tiny line drawing in black ink of a caravan. Mysterious provenance.
Whenever someone asks me if I’m working on a book at the moment, I tell them, ‘I’m always writing something.’ And it’s true. It may not be a book (but I do usually have a long-term project on the go), however my laptop and I continue to be close friends.
Highlights for 2022 included the launch of my 7th non-fiction book, A Great and Restless Spirit, and launch of the Oxley Men’s Shed Writers Group second anthology, Offcuts 2: Sketches and Stories from the Shed, which I edited.
In between I was involved in a whole raft of interesting and sometimes challenging writing, publishing and mentoring activities.
Feb – May: Mentoring non-fiction writer through Queensland Writers Centre (QWC)
10 March: Talk to The Gap Uniting Church Men’s Group: ‘Putting a life into words’
25 March: Launch of A Great and Restless Spirit: The incredible true story of Australian Harry Hawker at Avid Reader Bookshop, West End, Brisbane by Assoc Prof Tim Mavin.
29 May: Chalkies video presentation, State Library of Queensland, Anzac Square Memorial Galleries
18 June: Community talk, Anglican Church, Sherwood: ‘Two restless spirits: Bert Hinkler & Harry Hawker’
July: Article published online by Military Heritage & History Victoria: ‘The Chalkies: 1966-73’
August: Publisher Hachette Australia advised me they are doing a new print run of 1500 copies of my 2013 book, Hustling Hinkler.
September: Mentoring non-fiction writer through QWC
September: Invited article, ‘Writing and learning; Learning and writing’, Australian Council for Adult Literacy Newsletter
17 September: QWC workshop: ‘Kickstart Your memoir Writing’
28 October: Talk to Aviation Historical Society of Australia (Qld) ‘Two restless spirits: Bert Hinkler & Harry Hawker’
29 October: Launch of Offcuts 2: Sketches and stories from the Shed @ Oxley Men’s Shed by Councillor Nicole Johnston
Co-authored research publications, Griffith University, 2022
Le, A. H., Billett, S., Choy, S., & Dymock, D. (2022). Supporting worklife learning at work to sustain employability. International Journal of Training and Development, pp. 1– 21.
Billett, S., Dymock, D., Hodge, S., Choy, S., & Le, A. H. (2022).: Shaping Young People’s Decision-Making About Post-School Pathways: Institutional and Personal Factors (book chapter). In The Standing of Vocational Education and the Occupations It Serves (pp. 103-136). Springer, Cham.
Billett, S., Dymock, D., Choy, S., Hodge, S., & Le, A. H. (2022). Informing and Advising the Zones of Influence Shaping Young People’s Decision-Making About Post-School Pathways (Phase 3) (book chapter). In The Standing of Vocational Education and the Occupations It Serves (pp. 373-395). Springer, Cham.
Dymock, D. & Tyler, M. (2022) Issues in developing professional learning for the VET sector in Victoria, Commissioned paper, Vocational Development Centre and Australian Council for Educational Research.
No matter how much I write and for what purpose, Mark Twain’s advice always rings true:
‘The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say.‘
We had a great State Library (SLQ) session on Sunday morning 29 May 2022 at Anzac Square Memorial Galleries, Brisbane. Four other ‘Chalkies‘ and I recalled our experiences as conscripted Army teachers in Papua New Guinea 1966-73.
An amazing selection of images from the time, professionally assembled by Mt Nebo Multimedia. Terrific backup from SLQ’s Alice and Greg.
The author, centre, with other National Service recruits, 3 Training Battalion, Singleton, NSW, early 1969
Trooping the Colour, Taurama Barracks, TPNG, c1968
Thanks to librarian India Dixon, the videos will be added to the State Library of Queensland resource collection as part of their military memories program.
Writers Group Convenor Darryl Dymock introduces writer John Brown, the founding Shed president
We had a great launch of the Oxley Men’s Shed anthology, Offcuts: Stories from the Shed, on Saturday 27 November in Brisbane. Nine men from the Shed contributed to the collection, and the first (modest) print run sold out! 70 to 80 people turned up to hear a brilliant launch by local Councillor Nicole Johnston, listen to music from the band Crossed Fingers, and enjoy a scrumptious morning tea.
Shed President Martin Rankine makes the welcome
This is no ordinary collection of stories. It draws on the varied experiences of nine men who have led very different lives, but whose paths have eventually crossed at Oxley Men’s Shed. In this book these mostly first-time writers have taken the opportunity to share some of their fascinating stories from the past with their families and with the wider community. Many of these are never-before-told tales, entertaining anecdotes that not only illuminate the writers’ earlier lives, but often trigger our own memories too.
In these stories we meet a former fitter and turner who as a boy decided to see what would happen when he packed gunpowder from leftover fireworks into a fruit tin and lit the fuse; a retired meat inspector who had to escape hand over hand down a rope off a high church roof when his ladder collapsed; an ex-plumber who starred in a Bollywood movie and dodged bombs and bullets while driving a tour bus in the Middle East; a former photographer who once had the ultimate hand in a boarding house poker game; and a retired insurance underwriter who relives his late-night dash home to dive under the bedclothes before the resident ghost appeared.
Crossed Fingers Band
Then there’s a Vietnamese veteran driving an Army forklift who literally backed himself into an embarrassing corner with his commanding officer; an ex-teacher who was driving his prized first car through South Brisbane when the back seat caught fire; a former electrician who turned jackaroo to help out his mate on a cattle drive in northern NSW; and a retired agronomist who as a young man led a hiking group down a mountain during a cyclone, with intriguing romantic results.
This is a heady mix of yarns from a group of writers keen to tell their often remarkable stories – sometimes humorous, occasionally hair-raising, but always from the heart.
Offcuts: Stories from the Shed, Armour Books, Brisbane.
(A poem triggered by a comment from my late mother that people who weren’t there didn’t understand what it was like to live through WWII)
They do not know,
those who came after,
how the bugle call sounded
and the men went away;
when ration cards sold
in back streets of the city
and meat cost as much
as a decent week’s pay.
They do not know,
those with buds in their ears,
how we listened to rumours
of invasion to come;
how we lived with anxiety,
with gossip and blackouts,
and ran for the shelters
but refused to succumb.
They do not know,
those folk on high salaries,
how we once had sweet fun
on minimal pay
in the arms of young soldiers
at dances and parties
knowing the foe
was just islands away.
They do not know,
the punters and brokers,
how we bet on the future
with our wounded and dead;
not knowing if lovers
would ever come back,
not knowing if there were
more dark days ahead.
They do not know,
those planning grand houses,
that there was a time
we had hopes and dreams too;
but our visions were clouded
by tears for the dying;
the best we could pray was
we’d all see it through.
They do not know,
those who came after,
of that unreal existence
when nothing was sure,
or why we still yearn
for missed fun and laughter:
those who grew up
when the world was at war.
Copyright Darryl Dymock 2021
*Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders “who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations” and “the contribution and suffering of all those who have served”. It is observed on 25 April each year, the anniversary of the landing of Australian, New Zealand and British troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915.
Do you know that children’s song: The wheels on the bus go round and round? Well so do stories on the bus. Read on …
As Covid-19 seems to be retreating in Queensland, I’ve started to go back on campus a couple of days a week at the university where I’m an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow.
This means travelling by bus – rear door entry, touch card on and off, wave to the driver somewhere down the front. Masks optional.
It also means sharing the bus with an assortment of fellow passengers and watching the world go by. The 40-minute journey also gives me time to catch up on a bit of reading.
So over time I thought I’d share with you some of my experiences and interactions on those journeys. The theme is: The stories on the bus go round and round! This is Story No. 1.
The other day, a man with a walking stick joined the bus. The reason for the stick was that one leg was stiff at the knee.
In particular, the right leg. So in an uncrowded bus he searched for a seat on the left-hand side, so he could rest his unbending right leg in the aisle.
I was thinking he would always need to do that on buses and trains so he could stretch out his right leg. Which led me to jot down this little poem in the notebook in my phone:
A few weeks back I posted an interview with Fiona Stager, co-owner of Avid Reader bookshop in West End, Brisbane, Australia. You might remember how strongly engaged Avid Reader is with its community, both locally and online. So I thought you might like this recent post from Fiona, from the bookshop website:
“This Saturday 3 October we celebrate Love Your Bookshop Day which was created by the Australian Booksellers Association to celebrate bookshops across the country and highlight what makes local bookshops great. There will be facebook events, online events and giveaways galore.
Here at Avid Reader we have decided this year to rename it Love Our Customers Day! This is a chance for us to thank you for your continued support of our bookshops during this very uncertain time.
We have been overwhelmed with the many acts of kindness shown to us since March. An example is customers John and Jo who acted as our free couriers to 4005 and 4006 postcodes. Many people said it was the highlight of their day to receive a parcel and have a friendly chat with them.
We had orders from across Australia from family and old friends and concerned customers. Authors and publishers have also given us so much support. Along with an understanding and supportive landlord we have survived!
We thank you for everything you have done to support us.
Happy Love Our Customers Day,
Fiona.”
I hope that message makes you feel good as we continue to stutter through extraordinary times.
Darryl Dymock's Writesite 