On the Road

A recent road trip up north has exposed some some particularly Australian idiosyncrasies. Though it's not the subtlest of nations, we were nevertheless surprised by some of the more unsavoury characters we encountered on our journey. Stop for petrol at midnight in insalubrious Kempsey and you might have any number of "ocker" Aussies ogling porn magazines over the ice-cream freezer. Bare-footed fisherman smoke cigarettes on the garage forecourt before collecting their bait and journeying on. Drunks weave out in to the road before disappearing off in to the mist. It's not somewhere you want to linger. 

The lack of subtlety in Australia is manifested in its hard-hitting and direct road safety billboards. "Don't Die for a Deadline"and "Drinking Kills Driving Skills" hammer home their message, while gentler signs show you the way down "Bald Knob Road" to "Sandy Beach". When they want to describe something, they don't mince their words.

But they look after you too - there are frequent "driver revivers" where you can stop for free cups of coffee, a welcome relief for long distance lorry drivers (and of course somewhere else they can digest their porn magazines).   And it's not just humans who benefit from this milk of government kindness. There are frequent wildlife crossings on the major freeways, from overhead wire climbing structures - potentially lethal should a koala fall in to the path of a heavy duty truck travelling 120km an hour, but otherwise a useful option if the gum trees on the other side look a little tastier - to properly constructed bridges.  Indeed the Coffs Coast Advocate is pleased to report that, "The Roads and Traffic Authority estimates there have been as many as 250 animal crossings over highway structures on the Mid North Coast." Perhaps they could investigate domestic crossings for chickens next - and kill two birds with one stone.

A nation apart?

There is a sense, in Australia, of being disjointed from the rest of the world. Geographically it's miles apart but one also feels socially and culturally isolated. It's as if the rest of the world - all the big players at least - are having a party, and you're just on the landing listening and picking up snatches of conversation. 

The media here doesn't help. On the whole news is parochial. At best, anything global tends to be gleaned from other papers or feels second-hand. It leaves one feeling marginally unable to take the country seriously. Yet when the global financial crisis hit, Australia was laughing, safe in the knowledge it was relatively protected by stringent regulatory measures.

Indeed it is a nanny state on the border of obsession when it comes to bureaucracy and safety. These rules and regulations juxtapose with a country that in many parts is wild and untamed, host to several of the world's most poisonous species and long-time sufferer of flooding, bush fires and extreme temperatures. Maybe Australians need their rules in order to make themselves feel safe. Or perhaps they just have the tiniest - micro if you will - chip on their shoulders and this is their way of tasting a bit of power?