Conversations

As a girl, Davida Allen was brought up to be a proper young lady. Instead, she covered her naked body in paint and rolled around to make art. She grew up to become one of Australia's most famous painters (R)

British boys as young as nine were transported to Van Diemen's Land for petty crime. 3000 of them were incarcerated at Point Puer, the first prison in the world built exclusively for children

Juliet Rieden traces the story of her Czech father, who was taken as a child refugee to Britain a week before the Nazis arrived in Prague, and thus spared the fate of his extended family

Australian journalist Kumi Taguchi grapples with divided loyalties after the death of her father

Kate Forsyth tells the origin story of a fairy tale staple, the ever-flowering red rose. Her version has its roots in Imperial China, and arrives via the French Revolution

Dr. Melissa Kang explained sex, puberty and periods to teen girls in her role as Dolly magazine's ‘Dolly Doctor’. She spent 23 years answering questions sent by mail, that young people were too embarrassed to ask out loud

The random find of a dinosaur bone on her Queensland property led Robyn Mackenzie to develop an outback museum of international importance, and a deep sense of wonder at prehistoric geology

Author Favel Parrett’s grandmother escaped from Czechoslovakia as a teenager, but her sister stayed behind - suffering the twin nightmares of Nazism and Stalinism

Waiting in line to enrol for a teaching degree in history and English, Eddie was approached by a professor who suggested he should teach maths instead. Despite never really liking maths at school, he signed up. The split-second decision changed his life, and the lives of many of his future students

Helen Pitt on how the luminous shells of Australia's most loved building nearly didn't make it off the drawing board (R)