The Australia Letter is a weekly e-newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by electronic mail.
I began working for the Occasions’s Australia bureau in 2020, writing tales from my kitchen desk — my makeshift workplace in a locked-down Melbourne.
The theme that ran by way of lots of the tales I labored on in these early days — days which, by now, have now all fused collectively in my thoughts in a blur of pandemic monotony — was how Australians had determined that they have been prepared to sacrifice particular person freedoms for the collective good, holding the nationwide pandemic loss of life fee far decrease than that of nations like the US.
After all, the latter half of Australia’s pandemic response was marred by points just like the lackluster vaccine rollout, and confusion and concern when the nation transitioned to “living with the virus.”
However once I look again on the three years I’ve spent reporting on Australia for The Occasions, that’s one of many issues that stands out to me: the willingness, all through Melbourne’s cumulative 262 days of lockdown, to observe the foundations to maintain everybody secure.
My time with the Australia bureau is coming to an finish — quickly, I’ll be shifting to Seoul to hitch The Occasions’s breaking information hub there — and I’ve been reflecting on a job that has allowed me to see and write about the perfect and worst of Australia, and all of the bizarre, zany and wonderful tales in between.
Amongst different issues, I’ve realized the worth of a waterfront view in Sydney’s rich northern suburbs and the lengths somebody may go to to realize one; how residents within the Northern Territory think about the remainder of the nation to be something of a nanny state; and the way a dinosaur boom in Australia’s outback is rewriting our previous.
A few of my favourite tales gave me a glimpse into how individuals see and make sense of the world. How do locals perceive a string of disappearances in Victoria’s excessive nation? Why do residents select to remain in a city the place every breath could carry deadly asbestos particles?
Engaged on these tales has made me actually recognize the nation’s huge, wild landscapes; Australians’ endless friendliness, even when it’s generally combined with just a little little bit of reservation when chatting with a journalist; the truth that there’s at the least one (normally extra) wonderful pie store in each nation city; and our means to not take ourselves too critically.
There are additionally topics Australia struggles with, like its unresolved relationship with the tons of of Indigenous tribes that first occupied the continent, and the way that manifests: within the contest between ancient heritage and industry, within the debate over race-based laws on things like alcohol bans and, most lately, within the Voice referendum.
And there are the uncertainties. In overlaying the quite a few floods that hit Australia the previous few years, I witnessed unbelievable resilience in residents whose properties have been broken again and again — and in addition spoke with those that apprehensive about how lengthy such resilience would final because the continent is battered by increasingly climate-driven pushed excessive climate. As we head into what the authorities say will likely be our first horror hearth season since Black Summer season, everybody I’ve interviewed has stated that we’re higher ready — however wondered whether that will be enough.
It’s been an unbelievable privilege to fulfill individuals from all walks of life and to go to the far-flung corners of this huge nation. Having grown up right here, I assumed I’d had Australia roughly discovered. It seems I’d barely scratched the floor.
It’s been a ridiculously enjoyable journey. Thanks pricey readers, for following, nay, waltzing along.
And now, for the tales of the week:
