Finding a florist in Lidcombe

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  • Published 20111031
  • ISBN: 9781921758232
  • Extent: 232 pp
  • Paperback (234 x 153mm), eBook

I AM STANDING on the train platform, twelve years old. Too old for dolls and dress-ups, too young for lipstick and love. I am bewildered, lost; this space overwhelms me, this crowd pushes me down into the February-hot asphalt. In my navies and creams, I have forgotten my hat, and my socks are slouching. I stare around this circle of old chewing gum spots, graffitied phone box beside me, transfixed. A brown sign above says ‘Lidcombe’.

Lidcombe. I roll my tongue over the word, sounding it out like a six-year-old learning the alphabet. I have never seen it on a train map, never heard it on a loudspeaker (Eastwood, Meadowbank, Strathfield). And yet, it exists. Lidcombe exists.

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About the author

Elena Williams

Elena Williams is a writer and researcher currently completing a Masters in Anthropology of Gender and Development at The Australian National University.Between 2008 and...

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