Australia’s architecture is determined by the tyranny of its distances. 4,100 km (2,547 m) between coasts create a country of stylistic opposites. From the colonial domes of Melbourne’s Flinders Street Station…
…to the adolescent grey growth of Perth’s Central Business District…
…and all the lonely places in between…
It is a land of unimaginable extremes. Structures are designed for survival, as are the people who inhabit them. Australia is – for all its stereotypes – an undefinable mix.
At least, this is the Australia I remember. The Australia I’m returning to.
Tomorrow morning, we will perch gingerly in a teeny regional plane (I’ll perch; he’ll shake his head at my nerves and fervent ‘Hail Marys’) and watch South Australia expand below us. Adelaide to Ceduna, then by car to Nundroo, our newest home. This roadhouse along the Eyre Highway has two full time residents, a swimming pool, and the world’s largest population of Southern Hairy-Nosed Wombats. My only expectations fall somewhere between absolute freedom (no wifi, no cell service) and complete, sanity-depraving cabin fever (no wifi, no cell service).
Stay tuned for our adventures, as we learn to live in isolation with the coastline, passing backpackers and a host of foreign marsupials!
Kelli Mutchler left a small, Midwest American town to prove that Yanks can, and do, chose alternative lifestyles. On the road for five years now, Kelli has tried news reporting and waitressing, bungy jumping and English teaching. Currently working with Burmese women refugees in Thailand, she hopes to pursue a MA in Global Development. Opportunities and scenes for international travel are encouraged on her blog, www.toomutchforwords.com.
