The Petchary loves Aussie films.  Guy Pearce is delicious, with his lined face, piercing eyes and wonderfully constructed cheekbones.  I like him as an Aussie best though, not as an FBI agent in a Hollywood movie (he’s done a few of those lately).  But Mr. Pearce is not the reason I like Aussie films, and films are not the reason why I fell in love with Australia a couple of years back, when we visited there for the first time.

Too many photos of Gorgeous Guy to choose from, but I finally settled on this one in a scene from an upcoming sci-fi movie, "Prometheus."

While going through an old notebook today, I found a list of names I had scribbled down during a drive from Somewhere to Somewhere Else.  I think it must have been from Sydney to Brisbane.  My wonderful and patient brother and his wife took turns driving.  It was a long and fascinating trip, and as we went higher the temperature steadily dropped (it was July, which was winter down there.  It’s very hard to think of July as winter).  Here are the names I wrote down, and I hope they give you a sense of the journey, and the places we passed.  Use your imagination…

The beautiful and rather remote Great Dividing Range.

• Willow Tree
• Wallabadah
• Goonoo Goonoo
• Moonbi Creek
• Jump Up Creek
• Pikes Gully
• Muscle Creek
• Goanna Downs (a goanna is a monitor lizard – the largest over two meters long – the kind that would freak out any Jamaican worth his/her salt)
• Hollow
• Burning Mountain
• Mururrundi
• The Great Dividing Range (we were up there driving along it)
• Poison Swamp Creek
• Ben Lomond Range
• Beardy Waters
• Balancing Rock

Yes, the Goanna is a serious lizard. This is a Heath Goanna, one of 25 different species living in Australia. He only grows to about a meter long.

There were bowling clubs and bungalows, bottle shops (liquor stores), fire stations and court houses, hotels and motels, and RSLs (for the life of me I can’t remember what that stands for now).  Ah yes, Returned and Services League of Australia.  This is a league for war veterans, which has many branches across the continent with buildings that include very cheap canteens.  On a hungry and chilly night on our travels, we ate in one.  The atmosphere (if you could call it that) was that of a recently abandoned drug den where all the occupants had been arrested and the door had been left open.  We entered with some amount of trepidation, and found therein dozens of empty tables strewn across a terrifying sixties-style carpet with huge geometrical designs.  In one corner a very quiet group of young people in cheap jackets huddled together over a table; they looked as if they were plotting something.  Under the harshly bright lights of the food counter we found strange dishes such as fried ice-cream.

So that was our experience of an RSL.  Some other establishments we passed on our journey included:

• the Golden Guitar Motor Inn
• the Nemingha Superette
• the Forest Farm Horse Motel (an equine motel, one presumes)
• the Little Doughboy bakery
• the Last Sock Launderette
• the Fine and Dandy Boutique
• the Shiralee Motel
• the Super Strawberry
• the Yarraford Rail Road Station

Some curious local customs were also being observed.  There was a Lamb and Potato Festival going on somewhere.  And in several places we came across the extraordinary Christmas in July Sale.  In one pub we visited (the natives were curious, in a friendly kind of way, and no doubt we were a topic of conversation after we left) Christmas in July was in full swing, with a large tree smothered in decorations, corny Christmas songs playing, and shelves laden with Christmas paraphernalia.  Although Christmas is in December of course, some people prefer to celebrate it in midsummer (sorry, midwinter) because December is just too hot.  So stores, hotels etc cash in on it with the commercial concept of Christmas in July.

Somehow, I’m not sold on it.  But I know one thing… I want to go back to jump up in that creek, and to see the beardy waters swirling.

An Australian ad for Christmas in July, focusing on the food. Now, I can understand that. I mean, why not.

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• VB to bring diggers’ families together in honour of Anzac Day (mumbrella.com.au)
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• Watch: New Tease For ‘Prometheus’ Confirms Guy Pearce Plays Peter Weyland In The Film, Explains Who Prometheus Actually Is For Those That Never Went To High School (imdbfilmmedia.wordpress.com)
• Guy Pearce (bizzam.wordpress.com)
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• www.rsl.org.au/