Not Yambassadors to the World

We weren’t really feeling the vibe in “God’s Country” (aka inland Queensland) what with all the anti-foreigner bumper stickers and all, so we decided to head back to the relatively progressive state of New South Wales. We read about this place called Yamba that our guidebook described as a “family holiday resort”. Sounded wholesome enough, and when we got there we learned that the town was actually voted the number one town in Australia in 2009. Throw in a few world class surf breaks and how could we go wrong?

Things looked nice enough at first, but the seedy underbelly of Yamba reared its ugly head during our first night in the campground. We had lost a tent stake in the middle of the night due to some heavy winds so I got up at about 4 am to batten down the hatches just as some riff raff were walking by on a nearby pedestrian path. It was a Monday night so I thought it was a bit weird for some youngsters to be out prowling around so late. They greeted me and asked if I had a cigarette. I said I don’t smoke and when they heard me talk they said in a tone that made clear their feelings towards outsiders: “ohh, yer not from around here are ya?”. Are you serious? I mean c’mon, is there anything more hickish you could say to someone? Of course I’m not from around there! That’s why I have an accent and I’m camping in the tourist park, dumbass!! After the disappointing response about the cigarette they got belligerent and gave me a tongue lashing that consisted of the F word and some pretty strong anti-American sentiment. Real classy. I was thankful for a change that Canada seems to get forgotten about all the time, although I did take offence on behalf of our American readers – alas, I didn’t retort seeing as it was 4 am and I was in my underwear.

The next day it became more apparent that something was amiss in this town. There were three unemployment offices downtown (it’s a town of 6000 people…I read somewhere later that the unemployment rate is 18%) and we saw more cop cars patrolling the streets than we’ve seen throughout the whole rest of the country! On two occasions I saw people driving around with an open beer in hand. I would expect to see that kind of thing in northern Ontario but not in Australia’s number one town circa 2009! What’s more, the doctor’s office had a notice pinned to the window that said ‘no narcotics of addiction kept on premises’. Family holiday resort my ass. Come to think of it, I did notice that a lot of the trailers in the campground had Queensland plates.

-G

Ha ha! Would you bring your family here?

Sorry, not me

                                                                           Not me either