Monaro Street - Queanbeyan's main drag

I remember the sinking feeling my husband and I both got when we first started looking for an apartment to buy. When we realised that Canberra is expensive and Queanbeyan is not. We looked at each other in horror. Queanbeyan. The word flashed before our eyes over and over again like the title of a B-Grade horror movie.

Well, this was it. I had always known there would be a moment in my life when I would need to start wearing track pants and drinking vodka straight out of a flask. Like they said, if you can’t beat em’, join em’, right? (okay, so maybe I already do the flask thing. I am a student, after all).

Our first experience in Queanbeyan did nothing to counteract the stereotypes that we had already formed. Our brand new neighbours decided to throw a party the night that we moved in, so the first thing we saw as we lugged our life belongings out of the car was a group of intoxicated adults hanging from the balcony screaming obscenities at us.

Maybe, we told ourselves, this was simply their way of welcoming us to the neighbourhood. Granted, the obscenities were a little bit unusual…but that could be just the way they say hello here?

However, I am now in my second year here and have realised that I was unmitigated snob about the whole thing. While Queanbeyan does have its bad points, such as people constantly throwing abuse out of cars in my direction as I wait at the bus stop, and that one time a guy tried to throw up on me down at the shops; it also has it’s good points as well.

Queanbeyan is friendly. Not in a Canberran shopkeeper ‘hi, how are you *responds before you can answer* that’s great, now what do you want?’ way, but in a genuine, old-fashioned, charming way. The kind where the store owners know your name and compliment you if you change your hair.

Queanbeyan also has some amazing restaurants, my favourite being Punjabi Hut. The food? Amazing. The service? Completely weird (they refused to serve us more than three naan breads between our party of four because “nobody should eat that much”), but they are also always kind and welcoming.

Queanbeyan itself is quite clean, and there are some really beautiful parks…well one beautiful park. The buses, while very expensive, are always on time; which, as someone who used to frequently take Action buses, I once thought impossible.

Yes, the place is a little rough around the edges. And yes, if you go down to the town centre on a Monday afternoon, you will come back smelling like a liquor store. But hey, I LIKE the smell of liquor stores.

And I like Queanbeyan. It may be a bogan town but it’s my bogan town, and I wouldn’t ever leave it…at least, not until I have enough money to live in Canberra again.

[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]http://hercanberra.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/kaylia.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Kaylia is a career-student who is currently doing her MA in Writing and Literature. A student/office assistant by day and a blogger by night, she dreams of one day having a job where she doesn’t need to wear shoes to work. [/author_info] [/author]