The Australia Letter is a weekly publication from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by e mail. This week’s concern is written by Natasha Frost, a reporter in Melbourne.
The Australia Letter lately celebrated its sixth birthday. Over greater than 300 points, we’ve shared the again tales to our reporting journeys, supplied native suggestions and served up slices of life down beneath.
Perhaps one of many nicest issues about writing this text is listening to from you — Australians in Australia; Australians not in Australia; New Zealanders at residence or away; and the numerous Times readers who’re interested by one other lifestyle, or who might have had the pleasure of spending time in Australia or New Zealand.
We attempt to write for you all. (We use American English. Sorry about that.) And you normally tell us what you suppose we’ve gotten proper or the place you disagree, typically with attribute Antipodean candor. We learn each a type of emails.
Today, we’re turning our gaze inward and calling on you — all of you! — as soon as once more, to inform us: What would you prefer to see extra of on this publication? Are there tales from Australia and New Zealand that you just suppose the world should find out about?
For relative newcomers to the Australia Letter, or individuals who’d like a refresher, some introductions.
Damien Cave, our bureau chief since 2017, relies in Sydney. This publication is now primarily written by me — Natasha Frost, in Melbourne — and Yan Zhuang, a reporter in Sydney. Between us, we make up the bureau. Every from time to time, you’ll be able to anticipate visitor spots from different Times contributors from throughout the area.
Damien has been in Sydney for thus lengthy that his kids now clarify cricket to him and sound Australian. Yan is a longtime Sydneysider who lately returned residence from Melbourne. And I grew up in New Zealand and have lived in Melbourne since 2021.
Because Australia and New Zealand are residence for us, it may be good to be reminded of the issues in regards to the area that shock newcomers.
Earlier this 12 months, I met with Matthew Futterman, a sports activities reporter for The Times, whereas he was protecting the Australian Open. He was struck, he advised me, by two issues: that nobody appears to pay for the tram, and locals seem to take as a right the wealth of unpolluted, stunning and cheap public swimming pools.
My brother-in-law, who has been visiting from Britain for the final month, had a special remark: People in Australia simply appear happier than do his mates again residence. (For what it’s price, Australia ranks twelfth on this planet’s most content material nations, whereas Britain is nineteenth.)
These reflections stopped me in my tracks. We hope that the publication can do one thing comparable for Australians and New Zealanders, and function a window on how the world sees you and the place you reside. We intention to do what many readers have requested of us since we opened the bureau: Add perspective.
Australia and New Zealand are comparatively peaceable, steady and rich nations. That doesn’t imply that they’re uncomplicated or unimportant, or that they don’t have their very own share of difficulties. But it does imply that we generally get extra room for good news — tales in regards to the quirks of Australian English; customized showers for Melbourne’s bats; or a quest to avoid wasting a uncommon tortoise, to quote three current examples.
You can anticipate extra of these on this publication. But what else would you prefer to see? And what have you ever favored up to now?
We know, for instance, that you just’d prefer to learn extra tales from outdoors of Melbourne and Sydney. We’re engaged on that, and welcome particular solutions. But would you want to listen to about native books, tv, movies or different content material? Explanations of how we report the tales we do? Q. and A.’s with nice Australian thinkers? Or one thing else altogether?
Ideally, we’d just like the Australia Letter to be one thing you look ahead to receiving — the Friday dessert on the finish of the working-week meal. For that motive, we attempt to maintain it brief and conversational, and save our deep analyses or extra rigorous investigations for the tales that in the end go within the newspaper. (You can subscribe right here, should you don’t already.)
Let us know what we’re lacking and ship your ideas to NYTAustralia@nytimes.com. And thanks to those that have lengthy learn this text, and to those that have only in the near past signed up. It’s nice to have you ever with us.
Now for the week’s tales.
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Source: www.nytimes.com