The lead feature, an analysis of the South African Broadcasting Development Project, set up by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in the early 1990s, seems ‘serendipitously’ topical given the recent passing of Nelson Mandela. No parallels are made with the renewed uncertainty surrounding the ABC’s own funding arrangements, but Geoff Heriot’s detailed retrospective is a timely reminder of the contradictory politics at play when running a government-owned, independent broadcaster.

Lamb’s lively exchange with Tim Dunlop, author of The New Front Page (2013), is the biggest eye-opener. Dunlop rejects the view that it was new media that introduced trolls and echo chambers into public debate, and argues compellingly that ‘those pathologies have always existed in the mainstream’. This interview should sway even the biggest Twitter sceptics.

The middle section, ‘The Tasmanian Papers’, feels almost old-fashioned by comparison. Jessica White unearths the gendered history of botany and Helen Hayward celebrates the pleasures of craft, while Penny Cohen pays tribute to Tasmanian writer Christopher Koch, who long captured his home in a pastoral light. Romantic sensibilities fall apart in philosopher Damon Young and Ruth Quibell’s brilliant investigation into the tough working conditions for writers. Their demythologising of the ‘writer’ is a welcome addition to the current Internet chatter about the freelance industry.

Given Island’s growing online presence and what Lamb labels his ‘planned refurbishing’of the journal, it’s fitting this issue looks to both the past and future. Where Lamb takes Island in its thirty-fifthyear will be interesting to observe.