Where is Cape York? Are you serious??

What would you expect from people in Mumbai? ??

G'day Christine and Lindsay

The good news is that you have educated nine folks about their own country.

Cheers
John

We had a similar experience last year when readying ourselves for the Cape York trip. Our doctor had to phone the Health Department to get permission for larger quantities of prescriptions for necessary medication. He had to give a reason so he said that we were going to Cape York. "Where is that?" was the response. So we assumed that he had called Canberra.

Cheers,

Kevin

I can identify with this. We have had a discussion with a primary school teacher who had never heard of Burke & Wills. What hope do our kids have!!!!

We're heading up next month, I'm astounded by the number of people I've spoken to who have no idea where it is!!!

Don't tell everyone, think how crowded the Cape will become.????

Just remember that millions of yanks wouldn't know either. So they're with the majority.LOL

The car we were travelling in when we on the Cape last year broke a brake line. We had one bar so called the motoring club to organise a recovery. He knew approx where it was - just north of Cairns !! Told the local agent he wasn't happy with the cost of a loan vehicle and he would get some alternate prices. The recovery chap explained with sufficient adjectives that yes it is just out of Cairns just like Sydney is just out of Melbourne and if he wanted to ring all the car rental coys in Bamaga he was welcome. After 5 mins we had the loan car at the requested price.
They call a spade a shovel up there and delight in assisting others with their geography deficits.

Ken

Typical of many people's insular attitude these days. Not really interested in anything that's not on their own "dung hill".

Talking to a lady on phone last year and it went like this:

"Where's Winton(Qld)?" she asks.

"You know where Longreach is?"

"No"

"Well, do you know where Rockhampton is?"

"No"

"Ahh," says I, "Winton is in western Qld"

And such examples will only become more prevalent, even though EO members are doing their best to educate the masses. :-)

Bob

I am stunned.
I mentioned to a doctor last year that I was off to the Kimberley...he sort of knew where it was and then I forgave him (a little) when I discovered he was a Kiwi and had only been here a few months.
The teacher who didn't know of Burke and Wills was most likely one that has fallen through the educational cracks when they mucked around with the system about 20 years ago. I had a prac student about 10 years ago-she said that her lecturers reckoned they could tell they were the result of that period in education for many reasons!
Be assured that we now have a NSW History syllabus for the Australian Curriculum and it includes "internal exploration", "investigating a particular person and the contributions made to shaping the colony" and "outline the voyages of one early explorer and explain the impact of their voyages" etc.
We just finished a unit of work where we learned about (natural and built) significant features of Australia. My 30 ten-year-olds can identify the Bungle Bungles, 12 Apostles, Wolf Creek Crater and many more Australian sites.
Each week I have a new picture of an Australian place on my desktop and it comes up when I turn on our electronic whiteboard. We discuss it briefly and I point out where it is on the map on the wall.
Last year we spent almost 4 months learning about the convicts and settlement of Australia.
There's hope for the kids coming through the ranks now...they know the 2 verses of the National Anthem, their apostrophes are almost in the right places, they're perfecting their tables, they're learning when to use "they're" or"there" or "their"...

Meanwhile, at least there'll be less people at Cape York when I head there in a few months.

:) Robyn

PS: Many of the "younger generation" (oh crumbs I feel old using that phrase!) holiday overseas because it's such a bargain to them to head for Bali etc. If they've learned where Cape York is back in Primary School (and surely they were!) it's been forgotten and replaced by things more relevant to their lives.

When the ABC Backroads series started, I heard an interview on ABC radio with the presenter Heather Ewart.

She was talking about the upcoming episode on Karumba. The inteviewer asked her where Karumba was.

Half way up the York Peninsula on the west side was her answer.
The the interviewer asked is that north of Weipa?
Yes!!!!!!

Oh well, I though she would know better.

Living in Darwin, you'd be surprised how many people don't know what state/ territory its in when you try to explain it to them, with the most common wrong answer being WA. Let alone trying to explain "Where the hell is Noonamah".

I look at as a positive .Less people out there traveling.On nevayive side very sad people do not know our beautiful country and go out and see it!

I had a young co worker the other day ask me what "the wheatbelt" was.
He is a loudmouth knucklehead, but even so it blew my mind momentarily.

Hey Christine and Lindsay,

I think you guys got us good :) - this is a joke right?

Chris

I probably should own up on this one, my first trip to the Cape was in 1987, then there might have been a couple of hundred visitors a season, well when I got back I told a mate of mine, well apparently he can't keep a secret and from that there is now 60, 000 tourists to the Cape, with 20, 000 plus of them making their
way to the tip

Mention Cameron's Corner, Birdsville etc, most look at you blankly. NFI.