TY - JOUR T1 - The wide blue yonder JF - Archives of Disease in Childhood JO - Arch Dis Child SP - 107 LP - 107 DO - 10.1136/adc.86.2.107 VL - 86 IS - 2 AU - I D Wacogne Y1 - 2002/02/01 UR - http://adc.bmj.com/content/86/2/107.abstract N2 - I once met someone in Wolverhampton who had never travelled as far as Birmingham, a journey I made daily—sometimes by bicycle. In addition to amazement and fascination at the different way in which people live their lives, I felt a certain smugness about my own worldliness and modern attitude to distance. This, despite sometimes finding the walk to the shops a bit of a stretch. Then I came to Australia.Australia is a big place. This is obvious to anyone who has looked at a map, especially a Peter's projection, or a globe. However, it is worth restating; Australia is a very big place, and it is frequently unsettling to be reminded of the vast scale of this country. Some examples:Working in Mt Isa, in the remote north west of Queensland, the consultant paediatrician and I … ER -