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The Finest New Writing in Australia

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Key Competencies

Gareth Robinson

Volume 74, Number 1, 2015

The white faced heron, how does it do
that rope trick with the neck?
The gradual retreat along an S-bend
that ends, remarkably, in the profile of a duck,

tucked in plumb with the body’s boat shape,
a horizontal hull dry docked on a gantry
of spindle legs, so the bird’s head becomes
a figure head on the prow of a yawl or sloop.

Embrace Australia’s finest writers

Meanjin is open again for subscriptions! Thank you all for your patience as we’ve undertaken the transfer of the journal to its new home.

The next edition of Meanjin will be available from December 2026. Information on the purchase of single editions – in print or ePub formats – will be available closer to time.

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Tina Huang

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  • In Print
  • Online Only
    • Latest Pieces
    • Reading Trails
    • What I’m Reading
  • Read
    • The Meanjin Papers
    • Poetry
    • Essays
    • Fiction
    • Memoir
    • The Meanjin Interviews
    • Experiments
    • State of the Nation
    • The Year In…
  • Books
    • Reviews
    • Australia in Three Books
    • What I’m Reading
  • Writers
    • Interviews
  • Buy
    • Subscribe
    • Where to buy
  • News
    • Announcements
    • Events
  • About
    • About Meanjin
    • First Peoples First
    • People
    • Editorial Advisory Panel
    • Copyright and Payment
    • Partners
    • Get Involved
    • Contact
    • Privacy
  • Search