Aspirational Australian Family Now Wealthy Enough To Holiday Domestically

CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT

After years of toil and sacrifice, one local working family has finally surpassed a new socio-economic milestone.

This comes as local GP, Dr Wade Hanna, and his accountant wife, Shari, book two weeks at a Noosa resort over the winter school holidays.

"We've finally paid off enough of our mortgage and HECs debts to holiday domestically" says Wade, with a twinkle in his eye.

As a dual-income family with one dependent, and another on the way, the Hanna family never thought they'd see the day when they could afford a one-hour Qantas flight to a tropical Australian beach town.

"It's a luxury that you always aspire to, but never think you'll get there" says Wade.

However, after nearly a decade working in their respective white collar fields, both Wade and Shari have finally realised a level of financial emancipation that now means they can afford to not spend their annual two week holiday in a developing global south economy.

"Given that I'm pregnant again, we thought we might splash a bit of money before things get really busy around here haha" says Shari

"And it will be great to genuinely relax, without the fair of losing three days of our holiday to food poisoning at some point"

Long thought to be a result of Australia's 'cultural cringe' - younger Australians have more increasingly snubbed domestic travel for nearby overseas destinations like Fiji, Bali or Thailand.

However, as the Hanna family points out, this isn't actually because they prefer eating extremely spicy Asian food and riding mopeds.

The concept of domestic Australian travel has only ever been targeted to the same people who started doing it in the 1980s. Namely, the now silver-haired post-war Australian middle class who ended up making millions of dollars simply because they bought a free-standing home when that was possible to do so.

Since then, the only other people that have holidayed in Cairns, Noosa or Hamilton Island, are cashed up Japanese tourists and the occasional FIFO family during the mining boom.

The Hannas say they are excited to now join this elite cohort of Australians that are wealthy enough to see what Australia has to offer tourists.

"I mean, we are still only visiting in the off-season, but we'll still aim to maybe go on a boat ride or have a swim in the Pacific Ocean" says Shari, as the excitement causes her to become genuinely emotional.

Wade is forced to finish her train of thought.

"We hear Australian beaches are beautiful. I just never thought I'd see the day where we could visit one without sleeping in an illegally parked Wicked Van"

"Or a highly exclusive public campsite that has been booked out by the same twelve families for three decades"

"But, to stay in a hotel... for two weeks. With a rental car full of unleaded petrol... and to eat dinner at three or four local restaurants. It's an experience of a lifetime"