Mt Ellery
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By Errinundrian standards, Mt Ellery is a singular place. Here, people don’t live in trees like the inhabitants of the vast central plateau. Nor do they live in buildings like the inhabitants of the northern plains or the Snowy River valley. They live underground. But like so many other people in this green nation they chose their mode of living for the best environmental and aesthetic reasons.
At just over 3000m above sea level, Mt Ellery is the highest peak in the nation. The granite tors on its summit loom above the surrounding rainforest clad plateau. On its sides nestle many towns and villages such as the well-known football loving Ellery Camp and Goongerah. Just below the summit is the city of Mount Ellery.
And when I say just below, I mean directly below. In order to preserve the beauty of their mountain home the Mountain Folk, as they call themselves, have mined a city into the granite heart of their home. The red and grey Mount Ellery granite is prized all over Errinundera and indeed the world. The ancient city of Milosis (now McKillops Bridge) is entirely built of the finest Mount Ellery red granite. So the building of the other cities went hand-in-hand with the excavating of the city of Mount Ellery. Granite mining is now strictly regulated ensuring that the price remains high and that it matches the growth of the city. The Mount Ellery Mining Co-operative is fully owned by, and a nice little earner for, the city council or, in other words, the city inhabitants themselves. Note: The square on Mount Ellery's flag is meant to represent a red granite block.
The Mountain Folk are generally viewed by other Errinundrians as being somewhat closed and inscrutable. Some theorists suggest that living in artificial light for 24 hours a day has made them a bit odd. But what is odd to an Errinundrian? Who knows? In practical terms it means that it’s not considered polite to just walk into someone’s house as you can elsewhere in the nation. On the other hand, if you start talking to the Mountain Folk sitting next to you when you’re watching a World Cup qualifying match in The Cavern (the city's 52,000 seat underground stadium) the odds are you’ll be invited home for dinner.
Politically they are as rabidly green and left wing as anybody else in the nation. Due to the constant temperature in Mount Ellery only the warm lowland towns and cities such as, Lilly Pilly Creek, Bemm River and Martin Creek rival its nudity rates. As in the rest of the nation, cars are banned here. There is a heart-in-mouth monorail system that travels at high speed up, down and around the multilevel city. The locals call it the Big Dipper. Visitors invariably get lost as, unless you grow up there, coping with the concept of a three dimensional city is usually beyond the mental capacity of normal people.
The local news media is the Mount Ellery Evening Gazette.
