Deep dive
NO ONE IS exactly sure where the phrase ‘tyranny of distance’ came from but that’s what we used to call it: the yawning separation and isolation Australians felt from the rest of the world. It was tinged with an inferiority complex, although really more than that it spoke to a deep and earnest yearning to be part of the rest of the world. To feel connected, contemporary, à la mode .
Australians find themselves again in some version of that. This is a moment where Australia is physically cut off from the rest of the world with an end date still not entirely clear. But what does Covid-19 mean for that part of our identity that always strove beyond our shores? What does it mean for the great Australian traveller? Are we changed forever and now permanently facing inwards? Do not despair, I believe the answer is no – but with some caveats. This terrible pause has
