The city of Perth, Western Australia, is home to 1.65 million people and growing fast, but that’s a lie – Perth’s not really a city. Perth is a town that got out of hand, a lack of natural predators leading to an unnatural boom, a streetful of warm-hearted, corner-shop-type beach bums that accidentally woke up in the twentieth century and found a city built around them teeming with money, space, people but no real desire to change much since the days it was a sleepy little town.
I guess what I’m trying to say here is that despite my sarcasm to the contrary, I’m not really a small-town guy. If I was even half a one back when I lived in Perth, three years in Melbourne put paid to any lingering doubts.
In 16 days, all that is going to change.
I got the call from the paper on Tuesday the 15th of December.
“I dunno if you’ve heard, you’ve been knocked back from the job you applied for.”
“Right.”
“But would you like one in Geraldton?”
“Lemme think about that.”
Geraldton. G-Banger. Uncle Jerry. The jewel of the mid-west, the gateway to the Abrolhos Islands, the sun-spanked, wind-swept, wide-open mouth that spews rock-laden bulkers into the Indian and gobbles fish and families in exchange.
Apparently Geraldton is the fastest growing city in Western Australia, and the fourth largest. There’s that word again: City.
The name Istanbul comes from a Turkish mis-reading and mis-pronounciation of the Greek signs that littered the paths toward it, simply reading “To the City”. Rome was simply “The City” as was Athens, long before they became the names of metropolitan areas they were empires, and the city at their hearts needed no name.
And, two weeks ago, I knew only two things about the port city of Geraldton:
1) It had a port.
2) It sure as shit wasn’t a city.
Of course now I know a little more.
“I’d love the job, I’m very keen,” I said. And we’ll see.
But for all the worry, the stress, the loss, the change, the adventure and the heartbreak already faced and all that yet to come, I’m moving forwards. Because you’ll never serve the world, and you’ll never make it worth your life’s while, sitting where you’re comfortable.
“I ain’t going to the town/I’m going to the city” – Interpol
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