Rick Furphy and Geoff Rissole are two of Australasia’s leading self-appointed experts on sociology, travel and culture. After cutting their teeth as investigative reporters for regional newspapers such as the Asbestos Times and the Gawler Growler, Furphy and Rissole released their bestselling debut Sh*t Towns of New Zealand, which won the Poolitzer Prize, the Poobody Award and the Nobel Prize for Shiterature. The pair’s work has attracted controversy – including one district mayor suggesting they be shot – but in the spirit of other true Aussie rebels like Ned Kelly, the Eureka diggers and Swino the pig, Rick Furphy and Geoff Rissole refuse to let naysayers deter them from their vital work.
Today, Rick and Geoff are on the blog to talk about their newest book, Sh*t Towns of Australia. Read on!
Australia is shit. Our fair nation is a veritable smorgasbord of crappy towns and shitty cities – from dusty desert shitholes, to free-range bogan breeding grounds, to the bin chicken playgrounds of our state crapitals – the concrete, fibro and methamphetamine wastelands that we like to call home. Sh*t Towns of Australia sets out to inventory these diverse villages, hamlets and settlements – the affluent and the effluent – the rural and the urinal – profiling all the best places not to visit or, heaven forbid, live.
Asking us to name our favourite shit town is a bit like asking a parent which of their children is the most shit; they are all shit in their own special way. From the toothless country music aficionados of Tamworth to the lead-poisoned dolphins of Port Pirie, Australia’s shit towns offer a medley of mediocrity. Our aim is to provide a comprehensive chronicle of all the shades of shit, from Townsville brown to Kalgoorlie crimson.
Shitting on towns is as much a national pastime as binge drinking or homoerotic ball sports. Ever since the English sailed into Botany Bay bringing syphilis and a caustic British wit, then populated the place with their most vulgar undesirables, Australia has revelled in taking the piss.
The sixty towns and cities covered have been carefully selected using an exacting set of scientific criteria developed at the prestigious University of Nimbin, combined with extensive field research and a healthy sense of humour.
The determining factors of a ‘shit town’ are varied and numerous:
- Does your town still have a video store?
- Is the most famous person from your town an animal?
- Do tourists only come because of an error in Google Maps?
- Is the only ‘ethnic’ restaurant in your town a kebab shop?
- Did your town vote for the Nationals?
- Is your town in Queensland?
- Does your town have more missing backpackers than university graduates?
If you answered ‘yes’ to one or more of the above, you probably live in a shit town. You might as well embrace it.
Sh*t Towns of Australia
The hilarious guide to the shittest towns in Australia.
From dusty desert sh*tholes to free-range bogan breeding grounds, to the bin-chicken playgrounds of our megacities, Sh*t Towns of Australia is a guide to the concrete, fibro and methamphetamine wastelands that we like to call home...
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