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Sarah Aitken

Sarah Aitken is a freelance journalist based in nipaluna/Hobart

June 2026

  • Julian Charrière and Breathe, 2026.

    I just inhaled 2.4bn year old oxygen in Tasmania. Now I’m part of an exhibition until I die

    In Mona’s new permanent installation, visitors can breathe air so pure it ‘has not been touched by any being before you’

October 2025

  • Author Heather Rose standing on Kingston Beach, Tasmania, 29 September 2025. Photo: Liam White.

    Walk with ...
    Heather Rose: ‘My ancestors escaped the French Revolution – that really got me, even as a child’

  • Bookmark this October composite

    Bookmark this
    Trent Dalton, Bri Lee and Melissa Leong’s ‘raw’ memoir: the best Australian books out in October

May 2025

  • Archival-style sepia-toned black and white image of two men in old-fashioned suits, with their names etched on the image as in prison mugshots

    From ‘convict stain’ to badge of honour: Tasmania’s early criminals inspire celebrated musical

    In Vandemonian Lags, Mick Thomas, Tim Rogers and a cast of musicians bring Lutruwita/Tasmania’s past to life with songs and ‘ripping yarns’

February 2025

  • Artist Théo Mercier wearing a T-shirt and hoodie

    Eighty tonnes of sand and junk: why Mona’s latest exhibition is destined to collapse in front of our eyes

    Mirrorscape, an intricate sand sculpture by French artist Théo Mercier, is a ghostly scene of decay that resembles the aftermath of a disaster – or perhaps ‘a fossil from the future’

August 2024

  • an iceberg in Antarctica

    ‘It shouldn’t be a bucket list place’: these people went to Antarctica. They hope you don’t

    As Antarctic tourism grows, so does the environmental impact. Now scientists and artists who work on the continent hope to encourage us to admire from afar

April 2024

  • Woman and man sit on bar stools in front of chandeliers and red curtains

    Australia's best music venues
    ‘The seats are wonky, it’s falling apart – but people love it’: is Hobart’s Odeon Australia’s best music venue?

    Hobart’s beloved venue has lived many lives – state-of-the-art picture theatre, ABC building, church – and survived many near-deaths, including a recent brush with demolition

April 2023

  • Back stage at the Enviroteens rehearsal in Hobart

    Like Captain Planet with marsupials: First Dog on the Moon steps on stage

    First Dog has to ‘suffer the agonies’ of adapting his book The Carbon Neutral Adventures of the Indefatigable Enviroteens into a play. He and the cast talk about making climate change fun

January 2023

  • Composite for Summer in the City. From left to right: Eryn Jean Norville in the Picture of Dorian Gray for STC, Cathy-Di Zhang as Zerlina and Andrei Kymach as Don Giovanni, Phoebe Bridgers, Hide the Dog and 2021 winner Caleb Thaiday aka Ceruleun

    Summer essentials
    Summer in the City: the best events and things to do in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and beyond – our ultimate what’s on guide

    We’ve handpicked the most unmissable arts, festivals and gigs in every capital city through December, January and February – and we’ll update it regularly

November 2022

  • Shannon and Jesse Williams lift the lid on the crate housing the luwamakuna (rock carvings) being returned to Aboriginal ownership at Queen Victoria Museum in Launceston

    ‘Back where they belong’: sacred Tasmanian rock carvings to finally return home

    Sawed off crudely in the 1960s, the 14,000-year-old petroglyphs have been in museum storage for decades. Now, after years of negotiations, they are on their way back to country'

October 2022

  • TMAG Taypani<br>taypani milaythina-tu: Return to Country exhibition, in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) in 2022

    Stolen Tasmanian Aboriginal artefacts are finally home. But there’s a catch: they’re only on loan

    Cultural objects kept in museums around the world are in nipaluna/Hobart for an exhibition. But Aboriginal communities are calling for them to stay permanently

October 2021

  • Marta Dusseldorp and Essie Davis

    ‘Love, hate and stench’: Marta Dusseldorp and Essie Davis unite for Genet’s The Maids

    In an arts scene upended by the pandemic, two of Australia’s queens of the screen have returned to their theatrical roots

September 2021

  • Breathing Space, a sculpture by Julie Gough, which is the third of four artist’s installations responding to a statue of William Crowther as part of the Hobart City Council’s Crowther Reinterpretation project.

    Australian arts in focus
    A statue of a Tasmanian colonist has been covered up. Should it ever return?

    As colonial statues topple across the globe, one Australian city council is asking: what do we do with ours?