ABSTRACT
Joseph Goddard, the scholar of contemporary American life, notes that peri-urban regions look like the country but often think like the city (Goddard, 2009: 413). In Australia, one of the most urbanized countries on earth, not only does the country think like the city, but when most urbanites think of the country they in fact think of the peri-urban. For urban dwellers, farming and ‘the bush’ have become an ‘awkward social issue, akin to the poor and homeless, if considered at all’ (Hamblin, 2009: 1136). Yet peri-urban life and landscapes have instead become the ‘rural experience’ for most Australians – something to engage in for a weekend or at a distinct stage-of-life.
