‘Apollo and Thelma’: he was constantly seeking fame as the world’s strongest man and his sister owned a pub in remote Northern Territory. Jon Faine writes about his links to them through his own legal and media background and what it taught him about Australia’s colonial history. In ‘Bad Art Mother’, Edwina Preston profiles the life of a troubled poet and the relationship she has when her art and maternal responsibilities collide.  While the account is fictional, the premise is based on an Australian artist whose son was later adopted by Sunday and John Reed.