Introduction

Abstract

Near the end of the road south, at the southern tip of Tasmania, an island state (itself at the southern tip of Australia), lies a small rural town called Myrtle Vale. Arguably the most beautiful place in the world, this is also a place of considerable pain. It is in one of the areas where the costs of wider social changes are being acutely felt. Like many places on the planet, social changes are most clearly embodied in the challenges that the town’s young people face as they grow up.