COME SIT UPON Munibung Hill with me. When I was a kid we called it Hawkins Hill after the family who owned it. The Hawkins made their fortune carting shit and the tale of how the local shit carters made it big was a suburban legend that stoked our working-class dreams and kept us warm at night.

Below us lies the closest thing I have to a hometown – Boolaroo – the ‘place of many flies’. That main road down there is called Main Road. That first street is called First Street. That second street is called Second Street. That third street is called Third Street.