Many Australians believe that Queenslanders and Tasmanians are somehow quite strange and peculiar people, and I tend to agree. Yet the peculiarities of the average South Australian are typically overlooked and remain largely unrecognised.
The reason is simple: quite a lot of people visit Queensland and Tasmania. Both states are popular as tourist destinations. Whereas hardly anybody goes to South Australia, and considerably more people leave. The entire state conducts its business as if enclosed in a giant bubble, like some old Twilight Zone episode, while maintaining the fantasy that the rest of the country realises that it even exists.
Yet South Australia is a festering petri dish of weirdness that, every so often, overflows and unleashes its rampant perversity on the rest of the country. Don Dunstan, the greatest South Australian to have ever lived, changed the country immeasurably. He was a pioneer in gay rights and multicultural issues: for those of us currently living in John Howard’s Australia he is a particular inspiration. What little John Howard has left us to feel proud about this country we frequently owe to The Don.
The purpose of this Encyclopædia is to promote South Australia, perhaps not in the way that the SA Tourism board would choose to promote it, but as a few cynical ex-pats who grew up in South Australia remember it—with a combination of fondness and loathing—along with contributions by people who have lived, still live, or currently find themselves living in South Australia.
New entries are welcomed, and can be sent to submissions@saculture.com for inclusion in the Encyclopædia. We hope you enjoy your visit, and feel inspired to contribute.