December issue is a bit late, we got interrupted by a holiday in Tassie and although we took our laptops, assuring each other that we would get heaps of writing done while we were away, we spent the whole time arsing about and didn’t pull out the laptops once. Well, maybe Justin did once when I was out of the room for half an hour, but you probably don’t want to hear about that.

Tasmania truly is a beautiful place though, lush green landscape, gorgeous scenery and water EVERYWHERE, which made it kinda weird when all the Tassie newspapers were yapping endlessly about drought and all the farmers going broke. We had the best seafood meal ever at the Drunken Admiral (nice, tasteful décor too) and waved at the hippies who have a permanent camp in the World Heritage Forest and spend their time railing against The Man and shouting ineffectually at the logging trucks as they go by. You’ve got to admire what they are doing, but I’d love it if someone would give them a couple of assault rifles and a crash course in PR and the practical workings of a corrupt government. If Greenpeace could organise for a couple of hundred hippies to buy up all the shares in Gunns and turn it into a tree planting company, instead of frittering their money away on bandanas made of tofu they’d get a lot more done.

Anyhow, enough pointless ranting, on with the December edition, which we have to say is, wow, huge.

It seems a few of you are actually in possession of something resembling a work ethic, so good on EVERYONE who contributed! So much is owed by so many to, well, so many others, and we just don’t have room here to cover them all, and anyway that’s what the Contents is for.

You may not believe this, given our elastic deadlines and seemingly random delivery schedules, but when we started the Tribune a year ago, we had a plan. We plan to get big, and 2009 is the year that we’re going to make it happen.

The Tribune’s always been a local paper, and that isn’t going to change. However, there just aren’t enough people being exposed to our (and our contributors’) brilliance, and this interweb thingy seems to be the way to go.

Currently our website is a bit, well, modest, and the only way to read the articles is to download the whole issue from the Old Issues page. Which is cool if you need something to read in the loo at work, you can just print it off. But for those five minute breaks at your desk when you just need to get away from spreadsheets or medical research or whatever the hell it is you all do, it’s not all that handy.

Early next year we’ll be launching our new website, with more live text, more interaction, and MORE STUFF! We’ll be putting content up on a more regular basis, running subscriber emails, links to and from sites of interest, and, gee, all that “going forward/expanding web presence” kind of stuff. There may even be a name change, in line with organizational values and an up to date mission statement…

We’ll be launching with the February issue, but as soon as it’s working we’ll be letting our friends know by email and perhaps some sky-writing or tattooed pigs.

Email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we’ll add you to our list; you’ll be among the first to access this awesome portal, and you can forward it to everyone you know.

Enjoy the retrospective Tribune, love to all who love us.

Justin and Jane Shaw - Editors

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