Monday, May 21, 2007

Paris, Texas: the postcolonial curse of the Adelaide suburbs

From the Media Briefs section of today's crikey.com.au bulletin:

'Hicks's Scottish stopover. David Hicks's journey back to Australia took a side trip through Scotland, according to Sky News. The only problem is, the Edinburgh David Hicks passed through was in South Australia -- Edinburgh Air Force Base, to be precise. It's where his private jet landed before his transit to Yatala Labour Prison.'

Hicks also passed through, over, or very very close to a number of other well-known landmarks on his world-tour flight to Adelaide: Ascot Park, Brighton, Cheltenham, Dublin, Goodwood, Hyde Park, Kensington, Kilkenny, Pasadena, Piccadilly, Salisbury Plain, Skye, Stirling and Strathalbyn.

Clearly the jet did a bit of bouncing around England and made a couple of whistle-stops in Ireland and the US. But apparently it was quite a comprehensive tour of Scotland.

5 comments:

fifi said...

Oh, thats funny, I always think of what feature must have inspired the naming of a place in honour of the original. Most often homesickness, I guess. New South Wales does bear an uncanny resemblance, in parts, to old South Wales, I must say, but I'm not too sure about Rydalmere, the Cumberland Plain, Penrith, Perth or Ayr.
And don't get me started on KIllarney Heights, with every street named after an Irish town. SOOO like Ireland. Not.

Anonymous said...

Yes, here in Adelaide we can sing "I-I-I've been to Paradise, but I've never been to me" satisfied in the knowledge that we have indeed been to that fabled place.

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

Yes, I considered mentioning Paradise, but given the main subject matter of the item, I decided not to. I mean, one wants to at least minimise the chance of predictable knuckle-dragging drive-by remarks about virgins and so forth.

Word verification is zkwkat, which adds to the general recent impression that it's doing it on purpose.

Beattie's Book Blog said...

Kerryn I have lost your e-mail address following a computer melt down. Bugger!
Just wanted to let you know I am reading your blog regularly and have put a link to "a fugitive phenomenon" on my blog site.
All best,
Graham

Ariel said...

Yes, I quite like telling people that I was born in Paradise. (There's a hospital there.) I don't know what they were on when they named THAT suburb.