Deliverance country?

Is it just me – or does everyone think it’s completely acceptable in Australia to bag the town you grew up in?

Former Labor leader Mark Latham grabbed a headline this weekend by claiming in a newspaper column that Kevin Rudd used to be "fond of telling people that once you leave Brisbane and cross the Pine River you can hear the sound of banjo music". Hell has no fury like a leader scorned and all that.

I love the place - and if our Kev used to crack gags about Nambour in the old days – I’m not offended in the least. For a start, just because someone says something, doesn’t make it true.

Lots of people like to say that Queenslanders are red necks, that we live in a cultural vacuum. It doesn’t make it true. In fact, it usually makes me laugh.

I've lived in every state of Australia except SA and Tassie....I've spent a bit of time overseas and I've been on the coast exactly ten years.


I've never really thought about the cultural merits of any place I've lived.

What I read, the movies I watch, theatre I see (which is very little), music I enjoy, conversations I have and food I eat is completely up to me.

Where I choose to live has never really had any impact on my cultural life.

In a place as big as the Sunshine Coast, if you can't find like minded people to hang out with (and sit around discussing how culturally superior you are to the rest of us) then I reckon you're just not trying!