ABSTRACT
I grew up in a small Australian city, one with a small, but diverse ethnic population – Aboriginals, Papua-New Guineans, European refugees from the aftermath of World War II, descendents of Chinese gold miners, British immigrants trying to improve their economic lot, and Greek and Italian coffee shop and restaurant owners. Not that I knew any of these people. I lived in white lower middle class suburbia. But, somehow, I had an affinity for difference. I read travel adventure books voraciously and lived other lives vicariously. I imagined myself as a patrol officer in New Guinea, a medical doctor in India, or an intrepid traveller in Europe; I identified with girls in British boarding schools or young women growing up on the East Coast of the USA or Canada.
