Upwardly Mobile

Sally and I just ate in a restaurant in Naroomba on the NSW southern coast. A write up in the local tourist magazine says that their summer business over the years since it was opened has been swelled by the “NSW and Victoria squattocracy.”

Presumably, these are people who made out by settling on agricultural land long enough to be granted ownership as part of the government land distribution policy. The name suggests that this has lead to a class in Australian society based on wealth from the boom in agriculture on this land.

I cannot begrudge their fortune for it is good to see hard workers do well. Just like the husband of the lady who ran the AirBnB where we stayed last night. He came to Australia via England in the late 1950’s and was in the building trade.

He now lives in a lovely house, which he built himself, overlooking the lake near Malacoota. He benefited from the Australian building booms of the last 50 years. I doubt that he would have had the same opportunity to do well in the UK from such humble origins over that time.