Tomorrow we're off to the nation's capital - Canberra in the ACT(Australian Capital Territory) for our final Australian adventure. For one or two mad minutes we toyed with the idea of blasting back up to the Gold Coast for a little more glorious beach time, but the decadence metre was off the charts on that one and so we are staying a little closer to home - a mere 8 hour drive - and seeing a place that gets mixed reviews from all we ask. Some say it's as boring as watching paint dry on a cricket pitch, others have said it can be a great town, and surprisingly still others have never been. We are quite happy for the diversion in these final, rather slow days in Oz, and the more I think about it, the more fitting it seems to be ending our Aussie adventure with a trip to the place which might be best able to teach us the most.
I wonder why we don't have a similar capital area in Canada like Washington, D.C. or the ACT. Such an extra state or province, might have gone a long way toward getting rid of the some of the self-serving regionalism that so often plagues our politics. Or maybe not. The folks in Victoria have it in for their neighbours up in New South Wales, much the same way the BC Nation would like to think Ontario deserves everything it does not get. Regional squabbling would seem to be alive and well wherever you go and speaking of going places - with this trip and our fly through Perth on the way home, we will have visited all 8 states in the country. Something few Australians have done and something of which I am bizarrely proud. Also makes me want to knock off Nunavut and the Northwest Territory in order to complete a similar sweep at home.
Anyway, as I said, this trip is coming at a good time. I am officially finished my Masters program with a few marks yet to come in, and we are in full pack up mode around the house. The weather has turned damp and grey, a sort of late October feeling without the frost, and everyone it seems has a sniffle a wheeze or a hack. Swine flu has this country gripped with fear and Victoria seems to be taking the brunt of it. The regional bickering has even managed to find its way into this debate with Sydney-siders avoiding Melbourne in droves thinking we are all living with the plague. Bizarre stuff and all things which are making us increasingly itchy to get out of here for a few days.
Indeed, the swine flu and a recent and very unfortunate spate of violence against Indian students, are two more moments in this city's present day history that are teaching us so much about what it means to live in this distant island nation. As we have already experienced, they are rightly vigilent about virulent strains of anything entering their country and you don't have to have had a beagle sniff your crotch to know that. Though we can't speak for the rest of the world, and maybe we've been conditioned by SARS to have a little bit more of a que sera sera attitude, the Australians (or maybe it's just the media) are freaking out about swine flu, even in the face of local and worldwide statistics that don't support such enthusiasm. Of course the authorities need to do or to be seen doing all the right things, but I am still waiting for someone to report the fact that it's not really killing anyone, any more than any other flu, or the drunken brawls in the CBD on any given Saturday night.
The Indian attacks are for me, as an outsider, a far more troubling reality because they are coming very close to killing people and the symptoms of the disease have been born right here in Melbourne. Every city has its racial tensions and no city is immune to violence between ethnic groups, but for some reason there is a loose lawlessness pervading the dark corners of this city that continues to ruin its reputation. The drunken all hours brawling in the downtown core, the bikers (bikies) with their daylight hits, the underworld and mob influence that simmers behind the political lines, and these recent random muggings all lend an air of intolerance that stands in stark contrast to the artistic and athletic centre-of-the-world that Melbourne certainly is. There has been no explanation for why Indians and why so many attacks lately, but for this amateur sociologist the recent assaults may stem from a combination of worsening economy, isolationist tradition, and a city that is reaching its breaking point in terms of cultural assimilation.
And so we have loaded up our coughs and kleenex, eager to beat a retreat from the troubles that have added some weight to recent grey, May days. It's a long way to go, but we four are excited. Partly because the travel has become a favourite part of the adventure and we feel the need to "stretch our legs", but also because in Canberra we see an opportunity to shed new light on a country that continues to astound and amaze with every passing day.
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