>Bill, that looks really nice. Do we have anything like that here in the USA?
You must have. (Without the poppy fields though.) The thing is that this is a variety of public subsidised housing. Community housing associations and co-operatives are relatively small in Australia, compared to Britain, Canada and many other places. Tasmania is even more backward, with that sort of community managed public housing even more undeveloped.
Just to clarify though, a couple of the images, such as:
are historical ones from the State Library of Tasmania database, That one's a water-colour by Calvert from about 1865. I wouldn't like you to think that sheep were still washed that way before shearing. (In fact sheep aren't usually washed before shearing at all these days.) I just liked the image and until I can get a few more decent photos to put in I had to borrow a few here and there.
Panshanger station is still there though. A huge farm in the northern Midlands. I Used to rent a cottage on the farm next door and often took long walks through Panshanger along the banks of the Macquarie River looking to find my ducks after a flood and chase them home.
>Can you get any more away from it all than rural Tasmania & still be
>in the first world?
From my perspective, you're the ones away from it all. To the extent that you can be away from it all these days. Perhaps you can only think you are away from it all, even here the weather is starting to play up badly. There's no getting away from it.
Yes, Emma's my daughter. That's her wagging school again. :-)
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas