Hi Maria - welcome, and good luck with your thesis.
Yep, listen to Dave - check out Western Australia!!
It's the real gospel!!
I live on the coast of western australia - a wonderful place called Jurien Bay, with beautiful white beaches!! You would love it here, seeing you love the beach.
I have a couple of poems on the site that reflect what I was hearing and seeing in the silence of the night - Eventide, and After the Rain
I also grew up inland at a place called Three Springs - which is in the middle of a wheat growing area.
I have a poem called Where the Golden Wheatheads Grow - which I wrote one day after returning to the area to visit my parents.
If you go to the section called - Index of members poems - and to the index of my poems, you will find links to them.
If you search out some poems from Terry Piggot, you will find some beautiful poetry about the outback areas of Western Australia.
Looking for info about culture/lifestyle - in West Australia at the moment, we are in the middle of a mining boom. A lot of the mines do what is called 'Fly in, Fly out' -simply, they fly the workers into the mine sites, where they have accomodation camps, and they fly them home for their days off. The rosters range from 8 days on and 6 off, to 4 or 5 weeks on and same off. It is seen to be a very attractive lifestyle due to the big money that is paid, so people are applying in droves to get into those jobs - which subsequently leaves a huge hole in workers available in the city, etc.
What a lot of these people do not see is the stress and problems that afflict the workers and their families by living such a transient lifestyle - mothers raising their kids without support while hubby is away, the sense of disconnection being away from families for so long, increased incidence of relationship breakdowns, extravagant lifestyles that come with big money, and the subsequent problems adjusting to lower incomes when the work is finished, etc etc!! There is an increased rate of suicide and relationship breakdowns amongst that section of the population also.
My son used to work in the field, and my daughter still does, as well as many other friends, and I wrote a poem called 'Fly in, Fly out' in the hopes of encouraging people to look at more than just the chance to earn big money. A link to that poem is also in the index of my poems. The incidences written about in the poem - with the exception of the suicide - come from experiences from family/friends. The suicide came from a couple of incidences that occurred while my son was working up north.
There is heaps of suitable poetry on the site - have fun looking through it all!!
Ask questions in the 'General Poetry discussion' section or the 'General Chit Chat' and you will be sure to get the answers you are looking for.
Catchya
IRene conner