For well over a century now, the press have been promoting the existence
of Australia. Originally conceived as the setting of a satirical
screenplay involving a penal colony guarded by improbable animals, the
popularity of the stage production led fans to expand on the idea, and
there were copies of the concept in other popular fictional stories like
The Wizard of Oz and Bill Bryson's Down Under. Despite obviously
laughable myths like boomerangs, koala "bears" and everything being
upside down in this make-believe land, the ongoing legend has been
layered with incredible details, such as a fake dialect of English, the
names of imaginary cities, and cooking shrimp at backyard events named
after a popular girl's doll.
So treasured is the myth that schoolchildren across the world, who have
in-class parties devoted to Santa Claus and other fictions, also like
having globes featuring the fabled land, and even get to read a
parenthetical mention of the mystical land in schoolbooks about the world.
There are those, though, that take Australia all too seriously. While
other social misfits play quidditch or Dungeons and Dragons, these
"outbackgeeks" play "Australian rules" football. You may in fact have an
acquaintance who is so fully committed that he will insist that the
place is real, and that he has in fact seen it -- perhaps taken there by
aliens. If one of these people start up with you, it's this author's
suggestion that you quietly tut-tut and change the subject.
--
Odd Bodkin --- maker of fine toys, tools, tables