Towns

Australia's second capital is a place of many contradictions and often outright lies.

The original settlement by an extremely nervous French insurance & trade company in 1832 was indeed on an island - some 150km from the current site of the town.

The reason a second town with the same name was established by the same company two years after the first is still in dispute, although it is widely believed that this was an underhand piece of double-entry accounting that was mistakenly interpreted as a work order by a junior clerk.

From such origins, this harbour city of vibrant con men, cosmopolitan sign painters, wide suburban streetsweepers and cultivated police officers was created.

Visitors come for its shopping, restaurants, nightlife and sporting calendar, and always leave complaining "that there is nothing new here," unknowingly encouraging many Marians who believe that tourists are actually re-incarnated ancestors determined to not only stay in touch with their home-town but continue paying the rates.

17

The Bargain Hunt Club

34

The Chook & Chook

39

Trevor Fountain

49

The Rainbow Connection

60

Libraire de Pitton

61

Alley Baa Baa

65

The Tittybob Monument

69

Condom Million

73

National Dead Letter Cemetery

81

Choptank Valley Lighthouse

94

Crimes of Fiction

97

Hotel Raphael