Andrew Darby
Andrew Darby is the Hobart correspondent for Fairfax Media. His focus is on Australia's interests south of 40 Degrees South - Tasmania, the Southern Ocean and Antarctica. He is the author of the internationally published Harpoon: Into the Heart of Whaling.
Are seas the new green battlegounds?
Andrew Darby In case it passed you by in the recent, just cleared, political blizzard, there's been a shift in our domestic environmental battlefronts, to the sea.
Nostalgia carries risk for these whale hunters
Andrew Darby Thin, smart and bespectacled, Peter Hammarstedt could easily pass scrutiny in the Faroe Islands last month for what he said he was: a visiting Swedish film student.
Richo's election home truths
Andrew Darby It has to be said. Not for the first time in his life that scary uncle of ours, Graham Richardson, is absolutely right. This time, he foretold what would happen with Tasmania's Labor Party.
Licking Labor wounds
Andrew Darby If voters had just whacked your party round the head and you had to rebuild a future, where would you go? To a vibrant young woman or a tough old unionist?
Oscar and the dolphins: Coming to a Japanese cinema?
Andrew Darby Oscar buzz can generate bums on seats like little else. Which is why the best documentary win by The Cove will knit brows in Tokyo.
Outfoxing the foxes: A pesky question
Andrew Darby Australia's most destructive feral predator, the fox, first stepped aboard the country's marsupial ark, Tasmania, in 1998.
Hoon's rule for Tasmania's economy
Andrew Darby For the past 18 years the road past our house near Hobart shuts for an afternoon so a mainly amateur field of more than 100 can race their hot cars in time trials on what is called "the Longley...
Bridge over troubled indigenous waters
Andrew Darby Somehow it comes as no surprise this Australia Day that a struggle over Aboriginal heritage involves crossing the Jordan River.
China flags its Antarctic intent
Andrew Darby Watch out for the polar panda. China has just stamped a giant footprint on Antarctica. With the same strength it apparently flexed in the Copenhagen climate talks, Beijing has steamrolled the...
Let us now praise famous women...from Tasmania
Andrew Darby A long, long way from her birthplace, a Tasmanian woman, elegant in a chic gown, bows to a Scandinavian monarch before accepting the applause of a glittering reception.
Japanese harpoon whaling talks
Andrew Darby The first harpoon of this year's whaling season has been fired, and it was shot by Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada.
Labor in Tasmania on a road to nowhere
Andrew Darby Until recently the Tarkine didn't even exist. In a Tasmanian terra nullius, governments refused to use a word to remember the local Aboriginal people in a wilderness with Australia's largest...
Who's responsible when you've had too much?
Andrew Darby So just when is it safe to blame someone else for what you do after you drink?
Losing our way in fight to save the albatross
Andrew Darby Among wildlife memories I count myself lucky to have, one of the sharpest is of wandering albatross.
Braving the googlies to bring politics to the people
Andrew Darby Out here in the sticks, it's time to thank big city taxpayers for the travelling show that is the Rudd Government's community cabinet.
Losing the plot as the forests keep falling
Andrew Darby Although only the grey-haired remember, there was a time when no one fought over trees in Tasmania.
Taswegians fail to stem the marauding hordes
Andrew Darby The jig is up. It was good while it worked, but now for Tasmanians it's over. For years the Brer Rabbit principle kept the numbers of mainland refugees down.
Sewage a big stinker in Antarctica
Andrew Darby ANTARCTICA, the most pristine continent on Earth, has a dirty secret. Human waste is being dumped there as governments turn a blind eye to normal standards.
In the name of science
Andrew Darby Scientific whaling will be under renewed attack this week as the 85 member nations of the International Whaling Commission meet.
