Title: Tourism

Author: Bernard Cohen

In: Sport 5: Spring 1990

Publication details: 1990, Wellington

Part of: Sport

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Sport 5: Spring 1990

Mittagong

page 71

Mittagong

This is the largest small town in the Southern Hemisphere. It's visible from Alpha Centauri. It's visible from everywhere. To each naked eye. It's one visible place, Mittagong.


When electricity was brought to this nation around the turn of the century, Mittagong was the first place to be fully illuminated. Everywhere in this place is lit. Fires burn atop chimneys. The smokestacks are so tall that but for the flames we could not see their pinnacles. Searchlights fill the clouds with stillness, freezing each moment into the vast memory bank which is the visible. Beacons guard the coast from marauders.


In this town, there is no plane of consistency. It takes more than grandiose scheming to bounce the ball so it strikes every step. It demands a high level of coordination and a just-so flick of the wrist.