Travel In A Vast And Diverse Country. Australia With Pamela Cook
What are the truths behind stereotypes of Australia — and what are the things that might surprise you? Pamela Cook talks about rural places, diversity of people and landscape, and the attractions of the city in this interview. Pamela Cook writes rural and contemporary Australian fiction featuring complex women and tangled family relationships and is a podcaster at Writes4Women. Show notes * What might surprise travelers about Australia * Attractions of the rural Australian life * Observing life in smaller towns and being inspired to write about them * Highlights of Sydney and the ease of public transport * Thoughts on post-pandemic travel * Book recommendations set in Australia You can find Pamela Cook at PamelaCook.com.au For more on Australia, check out Sacred Australia and the Northern Territory with Amanda Markham, and Outback Nights and City Days, my personal experience of Australia. Transcript of the interview Joanna: Pamela Cook writes rural and contemporary Australian fiction featuring complex women and tangled family relationships, and is a podcaster at Writes4Women. Welcome, Pamela. Pamela: Hi, Jo. Great to be here on Books and Travel. Joanna: I’m excited to have you here. So let’s get into it. When people hear the word Australia, they have certain stereotypes in their mind. What is true about the stereotypes of Australia and what are some of the ones that you particularly enjoy? Pamela: I guess the traditional stereotype, Jo, is the Aussie ocker. I guess that comes a little bit from the whole Paul Hogan, ‘Throw a shrimp on the barbie,’ type stereotype. Quite a few years ago now, we were traveling in the States. And it was around the time that Steve Irwin…I don’t know if Steve Irwin was popular in the U.K., but he was really big in the States, the Wildlife Warrior. And he used to say ‘crikey’ all the time. I remember standing in an ice cream parlor waiting to order some ice cream, some takeaway or whatever in L.A. and people heard our accent and everybody in the shop wanted us to just say ‘crikey’ so we sounded like Steve Irwin. And I think he was part of that whole stereotype the Outback Aussie, finding the wildlife type thing, a bit Crocodile Dundee-ish. So I guess there’s some truth to that stereotype like there is in all stereotypes. And the other thing, I guess, maybe for the U.K. people, there’s the Neighbors TV show and suburban family life and things like that. And then of course, at the other end, you actually do get asked sometimes when you’re traveling overseas, do you have kangaroos in your backyard? Do you have koalas? Things like that. I actually live on a property and we sometimes do have kangaroos in our backyard. But if you’re in just a normal suburban part of the world, and lots of Australians live in cities, they tend to cling around the edges, you rarely see a koala or a kangaroo or anything like that. And of course, then there’s the whole venomous animal thing as well. People from overseas they’re often very scared about coming to Australia. I’ve met tourists who say, ‘The spiders, and the snakes, and the sharks are everywhere.’ And of course, they’re here, but not to that extent where you can’t walk out your door without fear of being bitten or attacked. Although I will say I did have a funnel-web spider in my kitchen a few weeks ago. So that wasn’t very pleasant. Joanna: You obviously write about women in Australia.