There’s something special about this little country town.
Sure, you might not be able to get your lightly-roasted, cold-drip coffee in the morning. And it might be 300 km to the nearest bikini wax. But there’s something about Theodore in Queensland that leads its inhabitants to call it the happiest town in Australia.
This week on The Well, Robin Bailey and Rebecca Sparrow are doing a happiness check-up to see how their strategies for well-being have fared over the past five weeks. In episode three they looked at the lessons they could learn from the people of Denmark, the happiest place in the world.
But listener Fleur Anderson called up to say just how wrong they were and introduce us to Theodore – the happiest little town in Australia, and possibly the world.
The Danes are known for their sense of community and belonging, but Fleur says if you want the Danish experience, don’t get on a plane. Just head to the country.
Mum to seven-year-old Tilly and three-year-old Munro, Fleur has laid down roots in the tiny Queensland town with its population of 500 and it sounds too good to be true.
“I think Theodore is definitely the best place to live in Australia,” says Fleur, “I enjoy a fantastic sense of community in my town.”
“I can text the bus driver that picks up my kids to say I’m running late or if we aren’t going to be there. I can leave my child in the car if he is sleeping – GASP – while I quickly check my mail box at the post office.”
Fleur’s three-year-old son even takes the bus to kindergarten on his own, “something I wouldn’t feel safe to do in the city,” she says.
The help you get in a small town is unparalleled and it’s true what they say, it takes a village to raise a child.
“There’s a lot of ‘I’ll take Cooper to Tennis with my kids while you do your groceries, would you mind dropping Tilly home after swimming on Wednesday?” says Fleur.
“There is that community thing, when something is going wrong for somebody everyone pitches in.”
If it sounds idyllic, it’s because it is. In country towns there’s room to breathe and the hectic hustle and bustle of the city seems worlds away. People move more slowly, simply because there’s no need to hurry. “There’s no traffic,” says Fleur, “It only takes five minutes to get anywhere.’
The only downside to small town living? “Everyone knows your business. It’s very hard to have an affair,” laughs Fleur.
For more happiness hacks, subscribe to The Well in iTunes, or listen to the full episode below.
Top Comments
See this is the true Australian spirit that is being bred out of our children because of our pc brigade schools and multiculturalism... Funny how we spend so much time stressing the importance of everyone else's cultures, but we seem to have no interest in protecting our own! Australia has a great culture and it's one that I'm certainly very proud of. Thank goodness for country Aussies who are still flying the flag for our cultural values!
What's wrong with multiculturalism..Wait, why does everything, even something as positive as this have to be an oppurtunity to bash multiculturalism. Just admit you have a problem with people who look different from you and keep quiet.
I'm a bit cross cuz you could have made a sensible comment about the problems of urban living and how humans haven't evolved to live in large communities, but no, let's vent about multicultaralism even when there's no connection to it. BTW i'm from India and we have some of the friendliest neighbours in our country. I've also lived in western cities where no one speaks to their neighbours so there's your "proud western culture" ha. Truth is, the divide is urban vs rural culture. Small towns in India also tend to have more of a community feeling than big cities.