Author: Visit Wagga Wagga team
First published: 28 Mar 2022.

Zohab Khan is an educator, spoken word poet, motivational speaker, didgeridoo player, musician and hip-hop artist. He is also the 2014 Australian Poetry Slam Champion, is co-founder of The Pakistan Poetry Slam and performs and runs poetry workshops all over the world.

After coming to Wagga to study at Charles Sturt University ten years ago, Zohab finds himself returning to Wagga to ‘complete writing, take a sabbatical, to calm down and get back to my base.’

For someone who travels so much, the reasons why he calls Wagga home are pretty straight forward and uncomplicated, which just about sums Wagga up for Zohab.

“Nature is never too far away,” says Zohab. “But then again, it seems everything you need to do is only five minutes away, so I feel I can get so much more done in a day than I can in Mallorca, Dubai or Sydney.”

Zohab’s top five things to do in Wagga Wagga + Surrounds:

1. Willans Hill: Walking around Willans Hill is where I do a lot of my writing. It’s beautiful and quiet, but still quite connected to the city. The whole of Wagga is spread out in front of you, I pretend all of Wagga is my audience and I write.
2. Paddys River Falls, near Tumbarumba: I have a few motorbikes, but I love taking my Kawasaki 6XR riding on these roads. There are massive trees lining the roads on the way, sometimes I pull over and just sit next to one, feel their sense of place.
3. Museum of the Riverina Historic Council Chambers site: This is a great building to have a wander around in and houses one of my favourite paintings depicting the Tichborne Trial - an epic historic case linked with Wagga. The intricacies of the painting along with the back story of the trial make for a great afternoon and always seem to get my juices flowing when I need a bit of writing inspiration.
4. The great outdoors: When I’m in Wagga I find I’m nearly always outside, you feel so close to nature here. No matter where you are in town, you know in five minutes you can be able to be somewhere surrounded by natural beauty. My favourite place would have to be The Rock - I love riding out there to climb up the top.
5. Café Sonder: My brother owns Café Sonder, so I spend a lot of time there, on the couch next to the fireplace, writing.