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Mick Dark in the garden at Varuna 2010

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Mick Dark in the garden at Varuna 2010

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Varuna The National Writers House

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Varuna

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Charity and Philanthropy Gardening Private gardens

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Varuna

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Dark, Mick

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Mifsud, Bette

Varuna The National Writers House

Varuna, the National Writers House is a creative retreat and writers's network for Australian stories and ideas. Varuna supports bringing rigour and commitment to the writing craft; building a respectful and inclusive community; valuing of heritage and place; and making writing and creativity matter.

Varuna

Varuna, in Katoomba, was the home of Eleanor and Eric Dark. In 1989, with one of the most generous individual philanthropic gestures in Australia's literary history, their son Mick Dark gave the house and land to the Eleanor Dark Foundation so it could be used as a place for writers to work, and to discuss ideas around the fireplace, as it had been in his parents' time.

Charity and Philanthropy

Gardening

Private gardens

Varuna

Large Katoomba house built by Eleanor and Eric Dark in the 1930s and donated to the New South Wales government as a writer's retreat in 1989.

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Dark, Mick

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Conservationist and philanthropist who donated his family home to the nation as a writer's retreat.