Continent: Oceania

Oceania is the far side of every map I ever owned, the corner the eye reaches last. These are the cities of Australia, New Zealand and the far Pacific I have only ever dreamt my way toward.

  • Charcoal sketch of the lakeside town of Queenstown below the snow-capped Remarkables - never been abroad

    Queenstown

    Queenstown is the town they built for people who cannot sit still, dropped between a long cold lake and a wall of bare snow mountains.

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  • Charcoal sketch of the flat Canterbury plains running away to the snow line of the Southern Alps under a wide pale sky - never been abroad

    Christchurch

    Christchurch reached me as a copy of England sent to the far side of the world — and then I learned the ground had shrugged and broken it.

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  • Charcoal sketch of a wide changeable sky over the low Melbourne city, half bright and half storm, tram wires across the foreground and a thin line of the bay - never been abroad

    Melbourne

    Melbourne is the city I have built almost entirely out of weather and side streets — a place that changes its mind four times before lunch.

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  • Charcoal sketch of a harbour of white sails under a tall slender tower, green volcanic cones behind the low city, islands on the water - never been abroad

    Auckland

    A city built across dozens of dead volcanoes, strung between two oceans at the far edge of everything — as far as Sydney, and then further still.

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  • Charcoal sketch of the sail-roofed opera house and the great arched harbour bridge across a wide harbour, ferries low on the water, headlands beyond - never been abroad

    Sydney

    Sydney sits on the far underside of the planet — the longest flight there is, the seasons and the stars turned upside down. I dream of it for the distance alone.

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