{"id":17529,"date":"2024-01-09T05:05:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T18:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/midlandexpress.com.au\/?p=17529"},"modified":"2024-01-16T14:19:46","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T03:19:46","slug":"youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/latest-news\/2024\/01\/09\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\/","title":{"rendered":"You\u2019ll never guess who lives down the road…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
This month features renowned author Carmel Bird who has written 11 novels, nine collections, seven anthologies, seven non-fiction works and four children\u2019s books. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her books on writing are widely used in universities, three of her novels have been short-listed for the Miles Franklin Award, and in 2021 Carmel won the Patrick White Award for Literature. Carmel talks to the Express<\/em> about her studies, her incredible writing and teaching career, and her travels.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carmel, an avid reader and writer since she was a young child living in Launceston, had her first foray into the limelight via her school and university magazines, but when she moved to Melbourne in the early 60s, she ventured a little further, sending her short story \u2018The Scream at Midnight\u2019 to the Women\u2019s Weekly<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat was when I was about 22 years old. I didn\u2019t know anything about literary magazines or anything like that, all I knew was, you could get a story in the Women\u2019s Weekly<\/em>,\u201d Carmel said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t expect them to say anything and then they came back and said they would buy it, which was sort of stunning.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That moment was a turning point that filled Carmel with the confidence to send her work out and get it published in various publications.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThen a funny thing happened, it was 1982 and a friend of mine, who was teaching French at the Council of Adult Education, was going overseas and asked me to take his class while he was away \u2013 which I did,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen my friend came back the director said to me, \u2018We can\u2019t have you teaching French anymore, do you teach anything else because you\u2019re a good teacher,\u2019 and I suggested teaching how to write short stories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe responded with the quote of the century which was, \u2018Nobody would be interested in that!\u2019 I told him we should maybe give it a go and see what happens and well, the rest is history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis was a time when Elizabeth Jolley was teaching a bit of fiction writing in Western Australia and Gerald Murnane was doing it a little bit in Toorak and I was doing this little bit in Melbourne. Of course, before too long, fiction writing took off in universities all over the place!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carmel, who had completed her arts degree in Hobart, was recently awarded an honorary PhD in literature by the university. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She has worked as a guest lecturer at universities across Australia and world-wide, while also pursuing her writing career. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve lived in Victoria most of my life, but I did live in California for a year in the early 60s. I had married an academic, who later become a professor of law, who went to work at UCLA,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile we were living there, I wrote short stories and worked in a big fancy department store called Bullocks Westward, selling swimming costumes. Some of the customers were movie stars and I met Mia Farrow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThen we caught the Queen Mary and went to England. We got a car and roamed all over England and wound up in Paris. My husband was still studying and I was an au pair for two little boys. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was very keen on French in high school and I studied it at university, so while we were living in France I got a foreigner\u2019s degree at the Sorbonne, while also learning a huge amount of colloquial French while looking after the little boys.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\nA photo of Carmel dressed as \u2018Jack Power\u2019 –\nher pen name for the novel Crisis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Carmel\u2019s first published work was a collection of short stories in 1983, which she privately published on a friend\u2019s printing press in his garage, and after privately publishing a novel in 1986, various large publishing companies commercially printed the body of her work.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne of the books I\u2019m most proud of is called The Stolen Children<\/em>, which was published in 1998 after the government had released a report called Bringing Them Home<\/em>,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019d always been very interested in the position of Indigenous people in this country, so as soon as the report came out, I bought a copy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was very thick and very government reporty (surprise, surprise) and I thought \u2018gee, kids in school need to know about this!\u2019 So, I contacted my publisher at the time, which was Random House, and said \u2018What I\u2019d like to do is extract from the report the oral histories of the Indigenous people and put them in a book with an introduction and some comment by politicians and people\u2019, and so we did. We made something that was inaccessible, accessible.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always found the (what I call) invasion, of the British people to be shocking. It wasn\u2019t only the way they treated the Indigenous people; it was the way they treated the convicts as well; they were slaves. Horrible!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carmel has recently started a publishing company called \u2018Treasure Street Press\u2019 and has just published her fourth children\u2019s book, Arabella. <\/em>She is currently working on her first historical novel about Louis XIV and wakes up every day at six o\u2019clock to start working on her manuscript. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, what\u2019s Carmel\u2019s advice for aspiring writers? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you really want to write, you will write.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\nCarmel is pictured with Dr Stephen Fitzgerald at Hobart University\nStudent Review in 1959. Dr Fitzgerald later became the first ambassador to China in 1976<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
This month features renowned author Carmel Bird who has written 11 novels, nine collections, seven anthologies, seven non-fiction works and four children\u2019s books. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":17531,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[5400],"ppma_author":[5225],"class_list":["post-17529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","tag-carmel-bird"],"yoast_head":"\n
You\u2019ll never guess who lives down the road... | Midland Express<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This month features renowned author Carmel Bird who has written 11 novels, nine collections, seven anthologies, seven non-fiction works and four children\u2019s books.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/latest-news\/2024\/01\/09\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"You\u2019ll never guess who lives down the road... | Midland Express\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This month features renowned author Carmel Bird who has written 11 novels, nine collections, seven anthologies, seven non-fiction works and four children\u2019s books.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/latest-news\/2024\/01\/09\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Midland Express\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/midlandexpress\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-01-08T18:05:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-16T03:19:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Screen-Shot-2024-01-08-at-9.03.41-pm.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"776\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"554\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Midland Express\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@MidlandExpress1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@MidlandExpress1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Midland Express\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/latest-news\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/09\\\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/latest-news\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/09\\\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Midland Express\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f9d5eb80b2aef191c485b8c0811debec\"},\"headline\":\"You\u2019ll never guess who lives down the road…\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-08T18:05:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-16T03:19:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/latest-news\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/09\\\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":929,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/latest-news\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/09\\\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/Screen-Shot-2024-01-08-at-9.03.41-pm.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Carmel Bird\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/latest-news\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/09\\\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/latest-news\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/09\\\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\\\/\",\"name\":\"You\u2019ll never guess who lives down the road... | Midland Express\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/latest-news\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/09\\\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/latest-news\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/09\\\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/Screen-Shot-2024-01-08-at-9.03.41-pm.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-08T18:05:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-16T03:19:46+00:00\",\"description\":\"This month features renowned author Carmel Bird who has written 11 novels, nine collections, seven anthologies, seven non-fiction works and four children\u2019s books.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/latest-news\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/09\\\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/latest-news\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/09\\\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/latest-news\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/09\\\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/Screen-Shot-2024-01-08-at-9.03.41-pm.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/Screen-Shot-2024-01-08-at-9.03.41-pm.png\",\"width\":776,\"height\":554,\"caption\":\"Carmel in her cosy writing nook at her home in Castlemaine.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/latest-news\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/09\\\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"You\u2019ll never guess who lives down the road…\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/\",\"name\":\"Midland Express\",\"description\":\"Home of Midland Express News\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Midland Express\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/logo.jpg\",\"width\":326,\"height\":90,\"caption\":\"Midland Express\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/midlandexpress\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/MidlandExpress1\",\"http:\\\/\\\/instagram.com\\\/midlandexpress\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/centralvic.com\\\/midlandexpress.com.au\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f9d5eb80b2aef191c485b8c0811debec\",\"name\":\"Midland Express\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d568abd1b2ef73516f214d030cbe6c0c3b83f8dcf3fe40d6a76906902bbadd16?s=96&d=mm&r=gc1b1dd9ea9cccad65e309eaab5a2be1c\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d568abd1b2ef73516f214d030cbe6c0c3b83f8dcf3fe40d6a76906902bbadd16?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d568abd1b2ef73516f214d030cbe6c0c3b83f8dcf3fe40d6a76906902bbadd16?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Midland Express\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"You\u2019ll never guess who lives down the road... | Midland Express","description":"This month features renowned author Carmel Bird who has written 11 novels, nine collections, seven anthologies, seven non-fiction works and four children\u2019s books.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/latest-news\/2024\/01\/09\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"You\u2019ll never guess who lives down the road... | Midland Express","og_description":"This month features renowned author Carmel Bird who has written 11 novels, nine collections, seven anthologies, seven non-fiction works and four children\u2019s books.","og_url":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/latest-news\/2024\/01\/09\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\/","og_site_name":"Midland Express","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/midlandexpress\/","article_published_time":"2024-01-08T18:05:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-01-16T03:19:46+00:00","og_image":[{"width":776,"height":554,"url":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Screen-Shot-2024-01-08-at-9.03.41-pm.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Midland Express","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@MidlandExpress1","twitter_site":"@MidlandExpress1","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Midland Express","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/latest-news\/2024\/01\/09\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/latest-news\/2024\/01\/09\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\/"},"author":{"name":"Midland Express","@id":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/#\/schema\/person\/f9d5eb80b2aef191c485b8c0811debec"},"headline":"You\u2019ll never guess who lives down the road…","datePublished":"2024-01-08T18:05:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-01-16T03:19:46+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/latest-news\/2024\/01\/09\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\/"},"wordCount":929,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/latest-news\/2024\/01\/09\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Screen-Shot-2024-01-08-at-9.03.41-pm.png","keywords":["Carmel Bird"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/latest-news\/2024\/01\/09\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\/","url":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/latest-news\/2024\/01\/09\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\/","name":"You\u2019ll never guess who lives down the road... | Midland Express","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/latest-news\/2024\/01\/09\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/latest-news\/2024\/01\/09\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Screen-Shot-2024-01-08-at-9.03.41-pm.png","datePublished":"2024-01-08T18:05:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-01-16T03:19:46+00:00","description":"This month features renowned author Carmel Bird who has written 11 novels, nine collections, seven anthologies, seven non-fiction works and four children\u2019s books.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/latest-news\/2024\/01\/09\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/latest-news\/2024\/01\/09\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/latest-news\/2024\/01\/09\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Screen-Shot-2024-01-08-at-9.03.41-pm.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Screen-Shot-2024-01-08-at-9.03.41-pm.png","width":776,"height":554,"caption":"Carmel in her cosy writing nook at her home in Castlemaine."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/latest-news\/2024\/01\/09\/youll-never-guess-who-lives-down-the-road-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"You\u2019ll never guess who lives down the road…"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/#website","url":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/","name":"Midland Express","description":"Home of Midland Express News","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/#organization","name":"Midland Express","url":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/logo.jpg","width":326,"height":90,"caption":"Midland Express"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/midlandexpress\/","https:\/\/x.com\/MidlandExpress1","http:\/\/instagram.com\/midlandexpress"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/#\/schema\/person\/f9d5eb80b2aef191c485b8c0811debec","name":"Midland Express","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d568abd1b2ef73516f214d030cbe6c0c3b83f8dcf3fe40d6a76906902bbadd16?s=96&d=mm&r=gc1b1dd9ea9cccad65e309eaab5a2be1c","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d568abd1b2ef73516f214d030cbe6c0c3b83f8dcf3fe40d6a76906902bbadd16?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d568abd1b2ef73516f214d030cbe6c0c3b83f8dcf3fe40d6a76906902bbadd16?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Midland Express"}}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":5225,"user_id":23,"is_guest":0,"slug":"midland","display_name":"Midland Express","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d568abd1b2ef73516f214d030cbe6c0c3b83f8dcf3fe40d6a76906902bbadd16?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17529"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17678,"href":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17529\/revisions\/17678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17529"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralvic.com\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=17529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/carmel3.png\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/midlandexpress.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/carmel2.png\")