Book Cover

Destination: Australia

Book: Natasha Lands Down Under (a young adult novel), by Katherine McCaughan

GUEST POST by Jessie Voigts

I’ve recently read an extraordinary book, entitled Natasha Lands Down Under. Written by Katherine McCaughan, this book is an intercultural odyssey, set in China and Australia. Natasha Lands Down Under is a compelling read, exploring one Russian family’s migration from China to Australia in the 1950s, through the eyes of a young girl.

The book explores the cultural implications of migrating – and of being an outsider in not one, but two different countries. The intercultural adjustment of the family – and of Natasha – is one that many of us will recognize. Living in different places, learning a new language and cultural context, and figuring out intercultural differences is a challenge that I love to embrace, as difficult as it can be. Seen though a young girl’s eyes, however, is to see it anew, with a fresh perspective that reminds us that kids often go through very different issues abroad.

I love this book – have read it thrice! – and each time I’ve discovered something new. Natasha Lands Down Under is a enchanting read, with a protaganist that we can’t help but root for as she stumbles through – and thrives in – life in a new country.

Author Katherine McCaughan was born in Shanghai, China to Russian parents who fled to Australia in 1950 after the Communist Revolution. She graduated from the University of Sydney and Sydney Teachers College, and taught English and History at the high school level. In 1977, with her husband and children, she moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she worked in real estate and relocation. It was in Chicago that McCaughan began writing down family stories from the dangerous and tense times the family faced during the Second World War, the Japanese occupation of China and the civil war that followed.

In 1993, she and her husband moved to Hong Kong where they lived for ten years.  Here McCaughan wrote book reviews for B- International Magazine and personal essays for AWARE magazine. Also, for many years she taught creative writing at the Hong Kong YWCA. The nostalgia brought on by the Chinese and British cultures in Hong Kong inspired the interweaving of the family stories into a fictional novel, Natasha Lands Down Under.  Drawing on McCaughan’s experiences, the novel explores issues of migration and adaptation through the eyes of young Natasha.

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To read an interesting chat with the author, go to Wandering Educators. Learn how the author’s life parallels that of her fictional Natasha and how she copes with having lived in four very different cultures (now America).

Now it is your turn. Have you ever had to move somewhere that made you feel like an outsider? What is your story??

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Destination: Australia

Movie: Australia (2008)

Stars: Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackson and AUSTRALIAN LANDSCAPE

Rather than talk about this movie which was released last year, let me instead just suggest that if you have not seen it,   To comment and scurry down to BlockBuster or click over to Netflix and get a DVD.  If this movie does not put Australia on your travel list, you just are not paying attention to that gorgeous scenery. Baz Luhrmann manages to make a beautiful landscape even more alluring.

We can go have a beer and discuss Luhrmann’s techniques later, but for now, let’s concentrate on where the heck all that beautiful stuff is to be found. And if we are lucky travelers, we will get to go on location in Australia.

Western Australia and the Kununurra Visitor Center are ready to welcome you to scenes from the movie Australia. They will tell you about the Mirima National Park, a tiny wonderland of canyons, waterfalls and rock formations practically inside the town of Kununurra.

The Kimberley Range, 422,000 sq. km. of more eye-popping scenery can be seen in this promotional video.

The El Questro Wilderness Park, privately owned, stretches over a mind boggling million acres of land that was once a cattle station. (Take THAT, Texas ranchers!)  If you want to stay in a tented cabin or a bungalow in one of the scenic areas near where the movie was filmed, it will set you back about $220 to $550 dollars for four people. Open between 1 April and 31 October. Learn more at their web site.

Of course your base of operations will not be those Austalian cities you are more or less familiar with like Sydney or Melbourne. Oh, no. We are talking the far north and west, here. Darwin, the Northern Territories, the town that starred in the movie, will serve as an operational base. (If you have journeyed to the iconic Ayers Rock in Australia, you know Darwin).

This travel agency site explains the story of the cattle station, Carlton Hill, that was “borrowed” to become Faraway Downs in the movie, Australia.

Now, all that said, anybody want to talk about the pros and the cons of the script, acting, and directing of the move, Australia?

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Australian Sunset by Reto Fetz

Destination: Australia

Books: In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

Conversations at Curlow Creek and Remembering Babylon by David Malouf

Mike Cadogan, the commenter known as sandandsurf came up with a site for people looking for books about Australia and two specific books.

Cadogan recommended Bill Bryson’s  In a Sunburned Country.  Bryson is a favorite of many, but was dissed in a World Hum conversation as someone who talks about himself rather than the place in question. Travel writer Tom Swick says, “As a glimpse into the modus operandi of a travel writer, In a Sunburned Country is rather revealing. As a travel book, it’s a disappointment.”  As a travel writer, myself, who was once skewered by Tom Swick in a rejection letter, it is nice to know I am in such august company as Bill Bryson.

A website with a comprehensive list of Australian literature, (literature by Australian authors) can provide browsing for weeks, but I would like some more guidance on which of these authors provide a good sense of place and a feeling for the country. Anybody have some specific recommendations?

Mike particularly recommends, The Conversations at Curlow Creek by David Malouf. Malouf is a novelist and poet and was short listed for the Booker prize for Remembering Babylon, like Curlow Creek, set in the 19th century in Australia. Sounds like a very good choice, as he is praised for his sense of place.

Photo by Reto Fetz “SwissCan” from Flickr, Creative Commons License

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