Off & Away
Offbeat Australia is off the truck and into the bookstore this week. Revamped, updated, the guide is Cassowary Crossing in new plumage, with new websites added, a smatter of new entries and the whole overhaul of ticket price and opening hours revisited.
The re-issue owes much to Ali Watts, my publisher at Penguin, who rightly insisted the book deserved a second bite. While first-run sales of Cassowary Crossing were healthy, many browsers wrongly sussed the original version as a travelogue – not a guide. You’ll notice this incarnation, if the new name doesn’t drop a hint, has been skewed to emphasise the book’s practical side.
The fact is, you can hop on your moped and visit a petrified yabbie, a drive-thru mortuary, or Sydney Town Hall (near the Queensland border) made out of 74,000 seashells….if the whim so moves. And Offbeat is the map you need.
Column 8 readers, in the Sydney Morning Herald, have a chance of scoring one of six freebies for inventing town-acronyms, where TAMWORTH, say, is Town Adores Music Week (Or Tries Really Hard). Check the column for more (and better) examples across the week.
Or hop online at http://www.smh.com.au/ and chance your acronymic arm. Better yet, find the nearest bookstore and grab some Christmas booty. My agent at Aussie Home Loans will appreciate the outing. Just as you’ll enjoy the next one you take, Offbeat under wing.