Just had lunch with some of the Melbourne Uni Philosophy Department people, and have to let you know that Shepparton, which might seem the middle of nowhere, is in fact the secret heart of Victoria. (Or at least it suddenly seemed so - and the internet's the home for baseless rumors, right?) Of three faculty members present, one grew up in Shepparton, and another's wife spent five year of her childhood there. A PhD candidate reported that her great grandparents (who had eighteen children) settled in Mooroopna, a stone's throw from Shepp. More: Brian Scarlett, the retired philosopher whose office I share and whom I finally met just now, has a car which says "Darryl Twitt Shepparton" on its back window. The car, which Brian bought used, originated at Twitt Motors in Shepp, and he's found the decal too amusing to remove. Even those not from Shepparton might seem, to the hungry eye, to hail from there!
"Heart of Victoria" puts me in mind of a desolate little park to which a Japanese friend took me once, dominated by a huge mirrored sphere and other abstract furnishings characteristic of the "bubble" period in the 1980s (when local governments had too much money for their own good). It's called "Haato [Heart] of Okayama," and is in fact in the very geographical center of Okayama Prefecture, though atop one of a series of bumpy mountains miles from any settlement. When we went the chrome sphere reflected other bumpy hills, the sky and Amakusa's car, all alone in the big parking area - and us, looking like twiggy extraterrestrials disappointed but a bit relieved not to have found the makers of this scar in the landscape!
By comparison, Shepparton veritably teems with people. And, somewhat off center (like the human heart), it might in fact be the heart of Victoria after all! I'll keep you posted.
