Goodbye Brighton, Hello Townsville

Greeting the Coral Sea

Our last few weeks have been filled to the brim with goodbyes to classrooms, colleagues and friends, travels with Chris's parents and the move to Townsville where Chris will be teaching his Emory study abroad course for 3 weeks. Our sadness at leaving Brighton was tempered by knowing that we were headed north - which meant leaving the cold winter behind us. This is a lovely time of year to be in Townsville, where the days are sunny and warm with temperatures cooling at night.

Reflecting on South Australia and Adelaide, we can't help but think back on several interesting conversations with Adelaidians that left us with the impression that folks don’t generally think of Adelaide as a very happening place.

It’s true, there’s no Harbor Bridge or Opera House here, and the city is really not that big. But on the other hand, a huge proportion of Australia’s wine grows within South Australia, there are gorgeous beaches and a huge number of festivals, and the climate manages to be both reasonably temperate during the summer (without Sydney’s oppressive humidity and the dreadful season known simply as the wet up north) and not too cold in the winter (lack of insulation and central heat in our older home notwithstanding). From our perspective, there’s been a lot to love about living here.

There is a fledgling movement lobbying to change South Australia’s name. The movement seems to be driven by Business SA, the state’s leading group in charge of developing business. I imagine their frustration has grown after perhaps one too many layovers spent in the international business lounge trying to explain what the SA means on their business cards. The argument put forward in the press is that people in other parts of the world just can’t locate SA – they confuse it with South Africa, or are baffled by the fact that the state of South Australia doesn’t come close to containing the southernmost point in Australia (that honor falls to the state of Tasmania, and then to Victoria).

Business SA won’t say, though, what they think the new name should be – and so, names are getting booted around. Centralia. Heartland. Eyre. Light. Elizabeth. Kingsland. This is where I get really baffled, because none of those names helps me place this state on the map. At least with a name like South Australia, you can be fairly certain which country and which end of it you’re in. And maybe it’s just the Aussie public having a laugh at Business SA.