Ah, Tasmania. That land of half a million people and seven surnames. That’s the joke “mainlanders" run with regularly in relation to Tasmania isn’t it? Well, I think it has happened. After a couple of years now of living on the mainland I think I’ve officially become a “big Islander”.
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As a born and bred Tasmanian up until moving to the Illawarra in 2015 nothing crapped me off more than mainlanders crapping on Tasmanian weather. Winter aside, Tasmanian weather isn’t all that bad really in the scheme of things. Trust me.
However it seems you can not live in this country without poking fun at Tasmanians for the weather, Queenslanders for cane toads and people from Canberra for um, well ……. living in Canberra. It’s just what we Australians do.
Admittedly it seems the Apple Isle has been going through somewhat of a warm spell recently, but a description on Twitter of Burnie undergoing a “heatwave” at 22 degrees during the week tickled a funny bone.
Speaking to family back in Tassie I raised the subject of temperature, letting out a bit of a chuckle as I did. In a typically Tasmanian response my sister quickly bit back “you know the heat down here mate”. It stopped me in my tracks as I realised I was behaving like an ignorant “mainlander”. I agreed and she’s right. It’s a different kind of heat. At 22 in Tassie people are reaching for the beach towels, here people are still reaching for the beanies.
So it seems I might have officially earned my mainlander status but an encounter my wife had last week shows there are still plenty of people on the “big island” who just don’t understand Tassie at all. While waiting at an appointment an educated older lady inquired of my wife of our now two years in the Illawarra: “Are you still enjoying living in Australia?”. Excuse me, what? Last time we looked Tassie was still a part of Australia.