““Our creaturely existence is registered, measured, discussed, and represented in increasingly abstract terms. Maybe this helps explain how someone like me, who should know better, can forget he's an islander. Australia the place is constantly overshadowed by Australia the national idea, Australia the economic enterprise. There's no denying the power of these conceits. I've been shaped by them. But they are hardly the only forces at work. I'm increasingly mindful of the degree to which geography, distance, and weather have moulded my sensory palate, my imagination and expectations. The island continent has not been mere background. Landscape has exerted a kind of force upon me that is every bit as geological as family. Like many Australians, I feel this tectonic grind - call it a familial ache - most keenly abroad.””
