Police swooped on the home of a Victorian woman last week, after she ‘jokingly’ offered her children for sale on eBay. The unnamed woman, who is in her early 30s and lives near Geelong, posted pictures of her son and daughter on the internet auction site alongside a “lengthy sales pitch”. In pictures: Ten things […]

Fences keep out next door’s dog and give us privacy, but they can be beautiful too. Gardening expert Jackie French tells you how to make your fence a feature of your backyard. The flower-covered fence: My dream fence is covered in mandevilla, with is shiny green leaves and white flowers with what is possibly the […]

Florence Broadhurst: Her Secret & Extraordinary Lives by Helen O’Neill, Hardie Grant, $69.95. Helen O’Neill’s sumptuous coffee table book on Australia’s home design queen Florence Broadhurst first came out in 2006 and this new deluxe edition is bigger with much more of a design focus. Aficionados will notice more of Broadhurst’s signature prints and patterns […]

The Weekly’s Market Editor Olivia Fleming on Catherine’s transformation from dull to dashing in just a few weeks. When I was a little girl, dreaming of becoming a princess revolved solely around images of me in sartorial heaven. I didn’t care about the prince, the castle, or even the fairy godmother. For me it was […]

Have you noticed time alone with your husband now consists of discussing nappy changing rosters, or your boyfriend has bought you household appliances for the fifth birthday running? There’s an old adage that if a relationship isn’t growing, at best it’s stagnant and at worse it’s dying. Once you’re comfortable in a relationship it’s easy […]

Kids have been trying to find fame on Youtube since Justin Bieber made it big in 2009, but the latest trend is raising more than a few parental eyebrows — meet the baby beauty bloggers. Tech-savvy toddlers are jumping on the beauty pageant bandwagon, recently popularised by TV show Toddlers & Tiaras, and seeking their […]

One mother recalls the overwhelming joy of successfully adopting a baby girl. It was the call I’d been waiting years to receive. “You have a daughter, she’s 11 months old and her name is Hai Yan,” the adoption caseworker said. I recorded the few available details — weight, height, number of teeth (four) — and […]

Australia has the third-lowest adoption rate in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) – but why? The OECD has 34 member countries, including the UK, US, Canada, France and Germany, as well as developing nations like Chile, Turkey and Mexico. Advocates say there are several reasons for this. 1. The system is haphazard […]

Inter-country adoption is a complicated issue – here are some facts and figures about Australian international adoptions. In 2010, 197 children from overseas were adopted by Australian families, down from 434 in 2004-05. At the end of the year, a total Australian 963 applications were waiting at overseas placement agencies . Of the 197 placements […]

Deborra-Lee Furness raises two adopted children with her husband Hugh Jackman. Here, she talks about why adoption is important. I was asked to write a short piece about why I think adoption is important. I can’t think of anything more important than ensuring that every child in this world has at least one person who […]