Here at maison dave there have been many traumas over the last 6 weeks and in terms of kith and kin, one death. These changes are also an opportunity that carries a carpe diem promise.
"Gympie -- stay where you are, we're coming to visit."
Two and a half hours by train north of Brisbane -- it takes longer to travel to the Sydney Western suburbs! -- Gympie ticks a lot of boxes -- such that I have to suspect it is has to be a best kept secret.
The occasional flooding of the Mary River is a drawback as is the penchant for political conservatism (it was a stronghold of One Nation for a time) -- but the campaign to save the Mary River from the Traveston Crossing Dam has shaken up local alliances and the hippies are now accepted valley partners.
Aside from my partner's biological roots (and I don't mean flora) in the district, it's a trade off for not shifting all the way south to Central Victoria. But you need to try before you buy and after a lot of homework we are set to do more field research.
For my part , so long as I have ready rail access to Brisbane and the primary adhesions of urbanity -- a railway station, shops, espresso,a public library, a general hospital, town water and sewage -- within a formated radius of no more than 5 and preferably 3 kilometres (give or take a metre or two) from a chosen abode -- I'm happy to call it 'home'.
And I like Gympie. I spent time there as a community artist and walked its byways.Even marched down its main street with the locals cheering me on. It's a very Anglo-Celt town. The annual Gympie Muster suggests its cultural preferences.
...but hey, I'm not going to start wearing iconic style Akubras just to fit in. If I'm to wear felted rabbit fur I want it in pork pie format..(And Akubra do make a pork pie shaped hat but keep it out of their catalogue).
So imagine me -- pork pie atop my head, humming a country and western tune -- boot scooting the streets of Gympie.
