We love a sunburnt country - as long as it stays on the far side of a picket fence. We partition our wide brown land into lots of little subdivisions. We replace the sprawling menace of the Australian bush with the reassuring symmetry of the Hills Hoist. We mortgage ourselves to the hilt. And we call it the great Australian dream.
In our love/hate relationship with the suburbs, do we take for granted the open space and fresh air that others can only dream of? How much should our cities be planned, and how much should they be allowed to unfold organically? And is there such a thing as “bogans”, or are they merely the projected horror-fantasy of inner-city “elites”?
As part of our So Who the Bloody Hell Are We? series exploring Australia’s national identity, we trawl the nature strips and driveways of The Quarter Acre Block.