Once mocked by snooty southerners as a sleepy, backwards, big country town, over the past decade Brisbane has embraced its river and multicultural populace. The transformation couldn’t be more profound. By Tim Baker

Was the mysterious and untimely demise of Barcaldine’s Tree of Knowledge death by natural causes? Or was there a more sinister plot of murder? Bush balladeer Tom McIvor thinks he knows. He’s written a song about it. Words and images by Mike Larder