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The Guardian
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Five Great Reads: ‘skimpies', going undercover with the far right, and the tragic story of Robert Einstein
Happy Saturday! Another long weekend, which means another shorter working week (for some). In keeping with the high vibes, here are some great reads to accompany a cup of morning brew. Sip and enjoy! Thor Pedersen was 12 years into his career; he had met a lovely woman and all his friends were having kids – and then he decided to set himself a challenge. He wanted to be the first human to visit every country in the world without, wait for it … flying. At 34, Pedersen quit his usual routine to spend nearly a decade on the move and wouldn't return until he was 44. Here's what he learned. Connections: 'I have found myself laughing with a complete stranger in spite of our lack of a common language. I have been invited into people's homes based on gestures alone.' How big is the world? 'It is hard to grasp the distance between London and New York when you fly. But when you travel via seven ships and several buses, it helps you to understand.' How long will it take to read: four minutes. Thomas Harding's story on the tragedy of Robert Einstein, cousin to the world-famous scientist Albert Einstein, is like something out of a second world war movie. The Jewish pair had grown up together in Munich under the same roof during the 1880s – 'you could say they were brother-cousins,' Harding writes. But in the 1930s, Hitler had placed a 'price on Einstein's head', according to London's Daily Herald, after the scientist spoke out against the Nazi regime. Escape plan: Albert fled to England and Robert moved his family to Italy, where both thought they had found safety. Tragedy struck: Then, the day before liberation, Nazis smashed down the front door to the villa (outside Florence) hiding Robert's immediate and extended family. How long will it take to read: seven minutes. Further historical reading: exposing 'the illegals': how KGB's fake westerners infiltrated the Prague Spring. There is a world rarely seen outside the bars of the mining towns around Kalgoorlie-Boulder in Western Australia. In those bars, lingerie-wearing barmaids pour pints to lonely, exhausted men working in some of the most geographically isolated communities in the country. These women are better known as 'skimpies'. After visiting Kalgoorlie during lockdown and getting stuck there, photographer M Ellen Burns earned the women's trust to capture what the job is really like. '[We] take great care of all the lonely sad men we come across in the pubs … because of skimpy women, I wonder how many men's lives have literally been saved.' – Cleo Fly-in fly-out: many 'skimpies' are Fifo workers and on a good weekend can make up to $5,000 in tips. As for Burns? She is now friends with many of the women – and never left town. Sign up to Five Great Reads Each week our editors select five of the most interesting, entertaining and thoughtful reads published by Guardian Australia and our international colleagues. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Saturday morning after newsletter promotion How long will it take to read: three minutes. Nearly 40 million people watched the first episode of the post-apocalyptic zombie show The Last of Us. The Guardian called it one of the 'finest TV shows you will see this year' in 2023. For English actor Bella Ramsey, 'life-changing is one way to describe it', Tim Lewis writes. The 21-year-old from Nottingham plays Ellie, 'the sassy and quirky but also complicated and vicious American protagonist' – and while the young actor's life has transformed since (season two is out now), they say 'people are going to want to talk to me a bit more for a couple of months. Then it'll just die down again.' Staying grounded or in denial? The A-lister still catches the tube in what they describe as a 'ripped T-shirt that needs a wash'. It's probably Prada. How long will it take to read: six minutes. Further reading: Jack Seale's season two review– Bella Ramsey is absolutely wonderful. Harry Shukman's long read about the year he spent undercover with the far right is an honest and riveting account and definitely worth your time. Working with the UK advocacy group Hope Not Hate (which campaigns against racism and fascism) Shukman infiltrated an extremist organisation, befriended its members and got to work investigating their political connections. One recurring theme: Shukman met a lot of men in pubs around London, and 'among the rank and file members of far-right organisations' one thing that really struck him was the loneliness he encountered. A sense of community: 'Isn't it great to have someone to talk to?' he heard from people at a conference in Estonia. How long will it take to read: 11 minutes. If you would like to receive these Five Great Reads to your email inbox every weekend, sign up here. And check out out the full list of our local and international newsletters.
The Guardian
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Inside the world of ‘skimpies': the barmaids in bras who pour pints in Australia's mining towns
Not long after M Ellen Burns arrived in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, the state's borders closed to the rest of Australia and the world for the first time in history. The photographer had been on a road trip from the Blue Mountains to visit her partner's parents in WA when Covid-19 first began to spread; now she was well and truly stuck. She found work shooting for the town's tourist board, but a chance meeting with a local barmaid introduced her to the other jewels in Kalgoorlie's crown: skimpy bars. Burns photographed several skimpies at work between 2021 and 2023 with their full consent. A 'skimpy' is a barmaid who pours pints in lingerie in WA's mining towns. Usually it's a fly-in fly-out job, attracting women from all over Australia and beyond. They sign up to agencies, which send them out on a circuit, moving towns every few weeks. The hi-vis of miners, downing schooners at the bars, compete with the electric makeup of the skimpies who dance atop them. Burns was fascinated: 'The rest of the world was in lockdown, but here the party was still going on, so it was kind of surreal.' She started shooting for the socials of Gold Bar and wound up self-publishing a photography book, Skimpies. Known professionally as 'Mellen', Burns is a retiring type. 'I don't really go out much,' she says. But she gamely got in the thick of things, navigating slippery bar-room floors and boisterous games of 'beer pong', played with a middy glass wedged between a skimpy's buttocks. It was a world away from her career in Sydney, where she studied photography at the National Art School and worked for portrait photographer Sally Flegg. Many of the women are Fifo – fly-in fly-out – workers, travelling around some of the most geographically isolated communities in Australia. 'Being here made me think about photography in a new way. These candid photos were gold – they're the essence of what actually happens,' Burns says. The women Burns immortalised are students, travellers, single mums and young professionals on a lucrative version of spring break. Their interviews, some of which Burns uploaded to SoundCloud, reveal them to have a broad range of views about the demands of the job. Introverted Scarlett describes creating a split personality, with 'work Scarlett' graciously accepting roses made out of paper napkins and 'home Scarlett' preferring to be alone. Zoe recalls one punter trying to kiss her, 'but he doesn't know that I'm a trained Muay Thai fighter'. Cleo's interview is sadder, listing awful things that men wearing wedding rings have said to her, 'while I serve them yet another drink and cop further and worse verbal, physical, and sexual abuse while the night continues'. Burns captures the women while they're on duty; a gloriously chaotic and colourful spillage of limbs, liquids and lingerie. But the first half of the book is dedicated to more sombre portraits of the women, who are dressed in whatever they'd wear on a ciggie break: perhaps an oversized hoodie or man's shirt. Their faces are still made up, but Burns asked them to look straight down the barrel of the camera, 'so that when people read their stories they're really looking at them'. Behind the pseudonyms and sequins there's often an entrepreneurial spirit. A skimpy can earn up to $5,000 on tips on a really good weekend, and there's often an overlap with fetish modelling and OnlyFans. Many have an online tip jar or are a 'party starter' for hire. Some work as life models for local art classes; during the pandemic, one former skimpy even founded Boober Eats, a takeaway delivery service where out-of-work skimpies delivered food in lingerie. Burns' individual portraits of (clockwise) Tilly, Scarlett, Poppy and Cleo. Burns gave the women their own voices in the book and is cautious about speaking on their behalf. She defers to another photographer, Georgie Mattingley, who writes a fascinating essay from the perspective of an artist and former skimpy herself. 'This is not just hospitality or customer service; this is an elaborate, emotive and intimate performance,' Mattingley writes. 'A highly skilled art form that interweaves gruelling bar work with fantasy and fiction to create a fleeting social world where everyone belongs.' Has the scene changed much since its genesis in the 1970s? In 2023, feminist activist movement Collective Shout argued 'there is no justification for this industry'. Rather than play critic herself, Burns inserted newspaper articles into the book, from the 70s onwards ('they are not naked, they wear shoes,' one publican protests in 1986). But the debate rages on. In 2018, Perth Now reported that the #MeToo movement seemed to have caught up with skimpying, with big corporations eschewing the skimpy pubs where they would usually hold expo functions. 'So, are skimpies an anachronism, a relic that demeans women, or are the big city-based companies showing once again the huge and multi-level divide between city and bush?' the journalist asked – to which Mattingley answers in the book: 'Only skimpies can make such judgement calls on the industry.' Some skimpies can earn $5,000 on tips on a good weekend. As Cleo sees it, skimpies 'take great care of all the lonely sad men we come across in the pubs'. 'In the Perth Museum, you'll find a section dedicated to the FIFO men who committed suicide due to loneliness,' she adds, 'but because of skimpy women, I wonder how many men's lives have literally been saved.' Burns, who gave each skimpy her own promo shoot as thanks, now counts many as her friends and Kalgoorlie as her home. 'The rhythm is different here, because we've got night shift and day shift, on-swing and off-swing. It feels like it's always grinding away.' Many of the skimpies Burns interviewed say they love the support they feel from other women in the industry, and the financial freedom the work gave them. It's hard to imagine skimpying ever being lost in the mists of time. Each year brings a batch of fresh faces and, for some women, Kalgoorlie is like the Hotel California: you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. 'I've only been here for about six months but the place has definitely won my heart really quickly. I can see why people come here and then never leave,' says Poppy, pictured wearing an emerald green robe over a red lace teddy. 'I also love being in my undies and so that's an extra bonus too.' Skimpies is available to buy from M Ellen Burns' website In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and Childline on 0800 1111. In the US, call or text Mental Health America at 988 or chat
The Guardian
13-02-2025
- Climate
- The Guardian
Schools closed as Tropical Cyclone Zelia expected to reach category five before hitting Western Australia
Schools have been closed as northern Australia braces for a tropical cyclone that is set to develop into a destructive category five system. Tropical Cyclone Zelia has rapidly intensified since developing off the Western Australian coast, sparking authorities into action. About a dozen schools have been shut in the state's north and roads were set to be closed with the cyclone looming about 140km north of Port Hedland. Cyclone Zelia has developed into a severe category four system as it moves slowly south-west toward the Pilbara coast and intensifies on Thursday. It was expected to intensify and become a maximum category five system, and was predicted to cross the coast west of Port Hedland on Friday night. Schools have been closed in the region with authorities expected to shut roads, including the Great Northern Highway, and set up a South Hedland evacuation centre. The system was on Thursday developing winds gusts up to 250m/h. A cyclone watch and act warning has been issued for Eighty Mile Beach to Whim Creek and inland to Marble Bar. 'There is a possible threat to lives and homes as a cyclone is approaching the area,' the warning said. 'You need to take action and get ready to shelter from a cyclone.' Australia's largest iron ore port at Port Hedland was shut down on Wednesday as the region braced for the incoming system. Port Hedland resident Chris Ward said cyclone preparations were well under way on in the iron ore town of about 16,000. 'The rain has well and truly started. People are stocking up at the supermarket on food and water, and tying down stuff around their homes,' Ward said. 'The airport is getting busy too, Fifo workers are flying out. Looks like it's going to be a wet and wild Valentine's Day.' BHP paused non-essential travel to Port Hedland, while iron ore mines continued to operate. Authorities worked with retailers to ensure supplies are available to rural, Indigenous and isolated communities, with the cyclone tracking toward the east Pilbara coast. Additional on-the-ground personnel, flood boats and aircraft have also been pre-deployed.
