Cyclone Tracy
I remember Cyclone Tracy well. I was indirectly involved as my first job after graduating was with the Department of National Development in Canberra. In 1969 I was rotated through the Northern Development Division and worked briefly on the Darwin Harbour development project. Much of this work was quickly undone 4 years later by the cyclone; in just one day.
At that time most of the housing in Darwin was raised on stilts for better air circulation in the dry and comfort in the wet season. The materials used were light as the city had expanded quickly and the transport of building materials to such a remote location was costly. The Cyclone tore whole buildings apart and hurled them around in a similar way to the tornado damage we see in the US; except a cyclone (known as a hurricane in the Northern Hemisphere) is a whole lot wider; and comes with a storm surge. Over 80% of the houses were destroyed leaving 41,000 homeless. Miraculously only 71 were killed. In Darwin's main Museum you can relive the cyclone in an 'experience room'; this time darkened. Sensitive people are warned not to.
This time 35,362 were evacuated while the city was rebuilt. Cyclone resistant housing designs were adopted, with a cyclone safe area, and these standards continue to be applied. Darwin has been hit by smaller cyclones on several occasions since; without loss of life. In the meantime the population has grown to over 132,000 people (mid 2013).
Darwin City Centre
Source: Wikimedia Commons - not my photo
No matter where one goes in Australia there is an immediate familiarity. We all share a government and its institutions; laws; political debate; newspapers, television, other entertainment and the currency. The shops are similar, and the various chain stores and supermarkets are almost identical, as is traffic in the street. Somehow housing seems familiar even when construction reflects different climates.
Australians share a universal, and immediately comprehensible, accent; that varies more from the country to the city than from region to region. Australians are familiar with this range and because there is a cultural imperative to fit in, unconsciously modify their accent and word speed to suit their environment. I noticed Wendy's accent became broader in Darwin; just as my mother became suddenly 'very English' when talking to other Englishwomen.
Of course Australia has the world's largest proportion of recent migrants, many of whom do not have English as their first language; but once people have lived here for more than one generation there is more variation in accent across London than there is across Australia.
This has the impact of establishing an immediate connection, and subtlety of understanding, between Australians that does not exist across Europe, where different languages and accents seem to engender, at least an initial, circumspection. I was particularly struck by the way that Emily socialises in Berlin now that she is relatively fluent in German; even though all the Germans I met speak at least some English.
I'm reminded of the Papua New Guinean (PNG) Pidgin word ‘wantok’ (one talk); meaning a person from the same clan. In PNG there are over 850 languages so that wantok implies a special relationship.