Is there a Dome there?
There is no more distinct WA cultural icon than Dome Cafe. If a suburb or regional town in WA doesn’t have a Dome, does it even exist? Urban planning laws would suggest not.
Consistently styled as an international tea house (read: heavy reliance on dark stained wood decor and dark green pleather) this franchise has surprisingly little reach outside of our humble jurisdiction. Against all odds, Dome Cafe ensures I get a consistent Fluffy Koala milkshake from Rottnest to Roebourne, despite the nearly 2,000km between them.
Internationally recognised protector of flora and fauna
We take quarantine seriously. When I say internationally recognised, I’m referring to a sign at an apiary in Havelock North, New Zealand which says “You can take our honey home wherever you live!* * except Western Australia”.
If you’ve ever had to cross the 129th meridian east longitude which marks our mighty border you’ll be familiar with the WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development paperwork (that you are asked to repeatedly fill out despite having done so twice before) which asks “Do you have uncooked shellfish in the vehicle? Y/N? Live bees? Raw Walnuts (without shell)?”.
It is isn’t clear whether the policy advisors at the Department know that driving across the Nullarbor with a trunk chock a block with uncooked cetaceans would be a death wish – but I suppose if you had a good podcast it would be bearable.
Love is patient
“It’s just a four hour flight”
“I got express postage so it should be here next week”
For West Australians, time is a mere fact rather than a barrier. My beautiful boomer mother once coined that ‘WA’ stood for ‘Wait Awhile’ and she was not wrong. We accept and thrive in 6 hour road trips douth or the 4.5 hour flight to Melbourne to see our favourite band (who isn’t coming over). Nor do we complain that estimated postage delivery times always have a WA caveat of an extra 5-7 business days.
We’re boring but we’re predictable
Outsiders say we’re boring. WA is a lot of small things spread out veeeeeery far due to urban sprawl but that also means it is not defined by one or two sub-cultures. We’re not the coffee snobs of Melbourne, or the rogue larrikins of Queensland (a unicameral state government? It’s out of control). There’s nothing to be excluded from or ostracised from here. If you want to crochet, play cricket, cook creole cuisine or go camping then go for it – you’ll probably find a few people to join you.
There’s always cranes about
We are always growing, expanding, evolving. We don’t wait to get back out fair share in GST – we just get on with it.
Sure, things aren’t perfect – a quick look at our health, youth justice and public education confirms this – but also our roads are slowly being expanded, housing is being built, and new train stations are going up (only 10 years late – compared to NSW which promises theirs and then bails). Most importantly, ritzy hotels for the wealthy tourists are being built in Elizabeth Quay so they can be guaranteed the minimum luxuries they deserve in life (swan river views, walking access to the nice ice cream shop there).
Day light slave-ings
Show me another any other state or territory that has memorised the FIVE separate time zones this country utilises between October-March. If West Aussies need to get anything done, we know to get it done before 2pm AWST.
If only our eastern states colleagues could do the same and spare us the 5am meeting invites. They’ll catch up eventually.