Embrace your inner nerd
The southern winter has arrived. For people in the northern hemisphere (the majority of humanity) the idea of snow and ice, freezing mist and fog in June, potentially continuing through to August and beyond, encapsulates the topsy-turvidom of our southern continent. However, there have been many other tropes since first contact. During the Gold Rush, for example, the sculptor Thomas Woolner confided to his journal: Nature and Custom are topsy-turvy in this country, the reverse of England; day and springtime here when night and winter [ sic ] there. Here the trees shed their bark instead of leaves, vegetation stops in mid-summer, and cherries grow their stones outside. The man of labor only buys the luxuries of life, and servants rule their masters who bow down and flatter them. Such is the power of Gold. (31 October 1852) Later, on 18 November, Woolner remarked of the fragrance of a lilac-like flower: This I thought extraordinary for such an unpoetic country, a land where the bi...