The word 'Gullible' has been removed from the dictionary, apparently. Or so the good burghers of Port Fairy would probably believe.
If you kept a straight face.
After all, it was they that jailed a hoaxer who let it be known in 1855, that the Russians, already hilt deep in the Crimea, were also planning to launch a pre-emptive strike on Port Fairy (population 9).
You can't help wondering whether this was just an opportunity for the Town Elders to settle a few old scores by coming down hard on a first time offender, in lieu of asking any searching questions of themselves, about the nature of past town expenditure.
In 1811, Port Fairy bought some very large cannon forged in England, when prices were peaking in the preamble to some Napoleonic Peninsula bashing in 1812. In 1835, they invested heavily in a Battery and Powder Magazine upon rumours circulating of further hostilities with some imagined foe.
Either they had a persecution complex or the local Sea Bass population really was massing for an attack.
Nowdays Port Fairy is a pretty, well-heeled seaside town, populated largely by equally well-heeled tourists. The fishing boats are gone, replaced by yachts and the cannon and battery? Well, they do what they always did. Nothing much. But the town is still small. Small enough in fact for yesterday's hotel manager, Brynn, to scour the cafes and restaurants to find us and personally return Clare's mobile phone that she left in the room.
And it turns out the hoaxer was right all along.
The Russians did come; they just didn't bring their tanks.
If you kept a straight face.
After all, it was they that jailed a hoaxer who let it be known in 1855, that the Russians, already hilt deep in the Crimea, were also planning to launch a pre-emptive strike on Port Fairy (population 9).
You can't help wondering whether this was just an opportunity for the Town Elders to settle a few old scores by coming down hard on a first time offender, in lieu of asking any searching questions of themselves, about the nature of past town expenditure.
In 1811, Port Fairy bought some very large cannon forged in England, when prices were peaking in the preamble to some Napoleonic Peninsula bashing in 1812. In 1835, they invested heavily in a Battery and Powder Magazine upon rumours circulating of further hostilities with some imagined foe.
Either they had a persecution complex or the local Sea Bass population really was massing for an attack.
Nowdays Port Fairy is a pretty, well-heeled seaside town, populated largely by equally well-heeled tourists. The fishing boats are gone, replaced by yachts and the cannon and battery? Well, they do what they always did. Nothing much. But the town is still small. Small enough in fact for yesterday's hotel manager, Brynn, to scour the cafes and restaurants to find us and personally return Clare's mobile phone that she left in the room.
And it turns out the hoaxer was right all along.
The Russians did come; they just didn't bring their tanks.
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