If you're not Australian, to give you a brief overview:
Melbourne is widely considered to be the most European city in Australia. I
have never been to Europe so I cannot tell you if this is true. It's
sophisticated and literary and everyone wears a lot of black. It's in Victoria
and it's cold and gusty and rainy and sunny sometimes all in one day. Vampires
would live there. Or maybe in Tasmania, I don't know.
The Gold Coast could probably be described as a 'regional
centre'. It is just south of Brisbane (the state's capital city), in
Queensland, which is a massive state that gets very hot at the top. People go
to the Gold Coast to surf and celebrate
finishing school and visit theme parks with their families. The weather's mild
and consistent, there are lots of very lovely valleys and rainforests and
beaches, it's clean and safe and there are lots of nice elderly people. It has
much less history than Melbourne, and much less impressive buildings.*
When I tell people that I lived near Melbourne growing up,
and I moved to the Gold Coast in 2011, they usually ask: "Why on earth
would you do that?"**
To be honest, folks, it's a bit offensive to tell people
they've moved to a rubbish place. I love the Gold Coast. Which is not to say
that I didn't love Melbourne, and the town outside of Melbourne where I lived,
but I don't long for it and it's dreamy architecture. People are always telling
me about Melbourne's wonderful culture, and about how Queensland is devoid of
it. Yes, there are bogans in Queensland. There are bogans everywhere. There's a
tiny little bogan in my heart and she knows all the lyrics to Khe Sanh.
But you can't compare a city to a regional area if you're talking about
culture. Brisbane has plenty of it. I don't think Melbourne is inherently
superior to the Gold Coast. There can be no comparison.
Are people imagining that I'm living in a high-rise in
Surfers Paradise and going out clubbing every night? That my life is year-round
Schoolies?*** Living on the Gold Coast and holidaying on the Gold Coast are two
very different things. The majority of the Gold Coast is suburban. You can lead
a nice, quiet life in a holiday destination. There are lots of families who
live here permanently, really.
There is this very weird widespread idea (I hear it from
Brisbanites all the time) that the Gold Coast is very, very dangerous.
People legitimately think that the town is overrun with bikies and armed
robbers and organised crime. If you look at QLD police statistics, you'll find the
crime is actually significantly down in the last ten years. The Gold Coast is not the crime capital of Australia. It's sensationally referred to as such because
the media likes to freak elderly people out and make us all fearful in order to sell
newspapers. (The very irritating thing is that multiple news sites seem to contradict each other on crime rates. So there are news sources that will tell you it's very dangerous here, but they do seem to be sensationalised. I doubt there is an actual 'impending bikie war'.)
I think the fear of crime on the Gold Coast is furthered by
the fact that we have a news program just for the Gold Coast, that seems to
report every single bit of crime that occurs (in Melbourne, I imagine a lot of
it doesn't make the news). Also, mysteriously, they never seem to leave Cavill
Ave, Surfers Paradise, which is of course going to have more crime than other
areas. If Channel Nine news is to be believed, that's the centre of the Gold
Coast universe. I hate to think people are scared to visit or move to the Gold
Coast because of ridiculous headlines. I feel just as safe here as I did in my
semi-regional town outside Melbourne.
As for setting my novel on the (semi-fictional) Gold Coast,
and making it feature an armed robbery - it's a nice contrast, isn't it? Sunny
place, shady people? There are plenty of novels set in Melbourne. It's an easy
place to romanticise, all the pretty buildings and dark weather and cool
people. There are plenty of novels and TV shows and films about baddies in
Melbourne. I think the GC is deserving of some love.
*They run ghost tours on the Gold Coast now, which I find
very funny. You would think the Gold Coast was too young for spooky old ghosts.
No one would set a paranormal romance novel here. (That can be my next novel.
Vampires living on the GC.)
**Sometimes people ask me bizarre questions like 'do you
miss the literary scene in Melbourne?' I do know a lot of lovely people,
including writers, in Melbourne. I am not really big on 'scenes' though. (There
are communities of writers on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane, too, obviously.)
***The whole concept of Schoolies baffles me - like, you've
been well-behaved and worked hard throughout your schooling, so now you get to
be an absolute idiot for a week as a reward? Like, good behaviour somehow earns
you the right to be bad? Am I the only one to whom this seems illogical?
