AUSTRALIA PERSPECTIVE

ABC News Australia doesn't talk geopolitics -- it talks caravans. The article tells the story of Jay Sinclair, a 40-year-old Australian who left the hospital after septicemia to drive around Australia in a caravan with his wife. They left Rockhampton in February, before the war. Surging fuel prices turned their dream into a logistics nightmare. 'It kind of takes the fun out of it when you're looking at your fuel gauge rather than the beauty in front of you,' Jay says. Facebook travel groups are flooded with people canceling or changing plans. The SMH covers diplomatic negotiations to reopen Hormuz from a more strategic angle. Australia lives the energy crisis differently from the rest of Asia: no rationing, no curfews, but an erosion of lifestyle. The road trip is a pillar of Australian identity, and fuel prices are making it unaffordable. The word 'lockdown' keeps appearing in caravanner comments -- Covid memory as the lens for any mobility restriction.