Serrath posted:

Perth, Australia. All the awfulness of Australia but in the middle of nowhere surrounded by nothing. Every person in Perth was born, raised, and intends to die in Perth which means that, in any mixed company, I'd be the only person in the group without a 30 year history of friendship with everyone else. The city itself was reclaimed from the desert so when it wasn't over 40 degrees, it was under 5 and everything is covered in a film of dust and despair. It was also the epicenter of a mining boom which enriched mine owners and operators and drove up property values in the city selectively so you could either pay $2000 per month for a two bedroom unit within easy distance to the city or $500 to live in a crime-ridden, redneck poo poo hole in the desert and enjoy your 2 hour commute. Oh yeah, the size; Perth larger than Berlin and almost as large as London with a population of just under 2 million people so getting anywhere to anywhere is a full-day commitment. Luckily there's nothing worth doing or seeing, it's flat, empty, and lifeless. Perth has the distinction of being the "most remote city in the world" with the closest nearest city being over 2,000km away.

As the price of coal and iron continues to tank, I can imagine abject poverty will quickly follow. Good thing the reigning conservative government invested so much tax revenue into creating a local sustainable economy during the period of economic prosperity!