The Other Side Of The World

Now doesn't that scene look just gorgeous? Can't you imagine spreading out a picnic blanket, munching on gourmet cheeses (or at least, a cheese sandwich) while the kids play (quietly and together, of course) just out of shot and then Hubs drags out a bottle of champers (for the grown ups) and one of lemonade (for the little people)?

Many of my readers live in the States and Fourth of July celebrations loom. As far as I understand it, its the holiday most responsible for hotdog consumption, right? LOL. It's summer over there, everyone's happy, school's out, and all you can see in your immediate future is day upon day of sun and mucking about with the kids.

Whereas...



This is what it's like in Australia right now. Well, okay, a few qualifications on that statement. Firstly, only a teeny portion of the country manages to get snow, even in winter - mostly the mountains in the eastern states (areas of New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania) and even then, only some of the mountains in key ski areas like Thredbo (NSW). And you know, I don't live in this house. Because if I did I wouldn't mind the snow - its gorgeous, LOL.

I don't live in the eastern states. I'm around-about on the middle of the southern coast:

See that knobbly bit on the South Australia coast? That's where I am. That 'cut out' area of Australia is called, ironically, the Great Australian Bight. Which is appropriate because that part of the Southern Ocean tends to get quite a few sharks.

A seriously large part of Australia's 20.5 million-odd population lives in the east. WorldAtlas.com says that the states roughly breakdown like this (estimates are for 2006 in case anyone wants to get technical!) :

New South Wales ~ 6.7 million
Victoria ~ 4.9 million
Queensland ~ 3.7 million
Western Australia ~ 1.9 million
South Australia ~ 1.5 million
Tasmania ~ 482,000
Australian Capital Territory ~ 377,000
Northern Territory ~ 249,000

(BTW, if you've added that up you'll notice the figure is a tad shy of 20 million. Obviously I've rounded down!)

To compare, New York City has a population of at least 8.2 million. That's like the entire population of both New South Wales and South Australia combined. New York City has an area of 322 square miles (830 square kilometres). My state, South Australia, has an area of 380....thousand square miles (984,000 square kilometres). It also has less than 10% of the country's total population.

South Australia doesn't get the press of the eastern states and that's a shame really. We might not have the Great Barrier Reef, but we've got:

The Big Rocking Horse (at The Toy Factory, Gumeracha)
Underground Churches (at outback Coober Pedy, famous for its opal mining)
The World's Best Chocolate Tour (at Haigh's, Adelaide)
More Wine Than You Can Poke a Stick At (wine regions including the Barossa Valley, the Clare Valley, McLaren Vale, The Coonawarra and The Riverland)
The Only Australian Free-Settled Colony (heard that Australia was a convict settlement? Not in SA baby!)
The First Place in the World to Grant Universal Women's Suffrage (restricted suffrage had been around in the SA colony since 1861 but universal suffrage allowed women to stand for parliament from 1894)
The Grossest Snack in the Known World (common post-pub fare!)
3700 Kilometres (2300 miles) of Coastline (despite being the driest state on the driest continent on earth!)

Other Facts About South Australia

So if you ever manage to drop into Australia for a holiday (getting here, mind you, requires three weeks of recuperation!), spare a thought for the Other Side of the Country on the Other Side of the World, LOL.

Cheers,
Lizzie