The key factor that distinguishes Australia from any of the countries where I have been is the public toilet. Here you find public toilets liberally sprinkled toilets across the land, and they are always free, so much so that such a piece of intimate architecture should be on our new flag. Not elsewhere: either you pay, buy a drink or a meal in order to use one, dehydrate yourself before leaving home, develop immensely capacious bladders and bowels, or find curious instruction manuals as to how they should be used:
The best response: follow Lukács’s principle that if one does the deed quickly, the chances of being caught are minimal. Soon you will find that the brief corner of a building, a low shrub, a tree, or a moment’s pause in an open space is enough, even where shitloads of people swarm.
20 January, 2011 at 9:14 am
A similar situation in NZ. I found the same absence of public toilets when travelling
(And also a lack of rubbish bins actually).
20 January, 2011 at 9:25 am
A ceramic bowl on the NZ flag too?
20 January, 2011 at 3:12 pm
No!!! Our Kiwi loos don’t even look like loos, let alone provide pictorial clues on how to use them. They’re plentiful, liberally scattered and you’ll even come upon a real flushing one in an otherwise humanly untouched native bush. And they’re somehow miraculously clean… (although some are the odd long drop and I prefer to go as a bear, behind a bush – not that anyone’s there to look). But the special thing about Kiwi public loos, is the trend to create them into architectural art pieces and then completely cover them in fantastic brightly painted murals. Prevents graffiti you see…
20 January, 2011 at 3:14 pm
of course I have never had to pay to use them and as I am somewhat of a frequent goer, I OFTEN pop into restaurants and pubs and wander straight down to the loo, then leave without ordering a thing. Just wink and smile – what can they do? NOTHING!!
20 January, 2011 at 5:27 pm
I prefer those massive pit toilets in the bush, allowing the bacteria to process whatever goes down there – although it does feel a little incomplete at first, without the toilet making those luscious swallowing noises.
20 January, 2011 at 6:24 pm
yes we almost got a composting one when we went self sufficient – but I’m so glad we couldn’t afford it. I have a very sensitive nose :-p
20 January, 2011 at 9:08 pm
That sign reminds me of one I saw on a Sydney ferry that warned against fishing in the toilets.
21 January, 2011 at 12:52 pm
warned against fishing, in the toilets, or warned against fishing in the toilets? Poo fillet, Poo and chips.
20 January, 2011 at 11:23 pm
As Adorno once put it: the brightest rooms are the secret domain of faeces.