The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Now that the Easter holiday is over, here is our latest issue which was written by Isabella Kwai, an Australian reporter with the bureau. Sign up to get it by email.



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Last Tuesday, Australians woke up to a disturbing sight: The Notre-Dame cathedral was burning. Like many others on the way to work, I replayed the footage over and over, watching orange flames racing across the roof, the spire keeling over, the people of Paris standing in the streets in unified horror.

[Here’s a 3-D exploration of how the fire spread so quickly and why it might have been difficult for the firefighters working to put it out.]

For Parisians, losing part of the Notre-Dame cathedral has prompted a soulful reflection on the history of the city and the effect of symbolic landmarks on a nation’s identity.