Eternal Tapioca
Sam Sawnoff the Penguin has a pudding that never runs out. He shares his perpetual snack with Bunyip Bluegum the Koala, and a sailor called Bill Barnacle.
Add a parrot, a bandicoot and Henrietta the Hedgehog, and you have the recipe for The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay, a kids book as lasting as the pudding itself.
Lindsay himself lived in his own private fantasia in Faulconbridge, in Sydney’s Blue Mountains. Surrounded by nudes and water features the artist managed to upset most postwar puritans, churning out faun statues, inflammatory novels and The Crucified Venus, among other outrages.
Sirens, the movie, captures a slice of his hedonism, with Sam Neill ogling and doodling the glam-set of Kate Fischer, Portia de Rossi and Elle. And the Norman Lindsay Gallery http://www.normanlindsay.com.au/still lures hordes of admiring voyeurs every year.
A lesser known fact is the road system close to the gallery, which deserves a dedicated wander for any reader who fell under the pudding’s spell. One meander will reveal the who’s who of Lindsay lore: Uncle Wattleberry Place, Watkin Wombat Way, Patrick O’Possum Place and Bill Barnacle Avenue.
Know of any other suburb or town in Australia where a local writer’s characters warrant their own enclave? We’ll tell you another later this week, but maybe you can beat us to the punch. Or you know a better story behind other street names. Let us know – or Sam Sawnoff will get trigger-happy.