Island Life by David Slack

There's a funny anecdote about Sydney cops in John Birmingham's book "Leviathan: The Unauthorised History of Sydney". There was a joint drug sting going on with the New South Wales and Victoria police which resulted in a large quantity of cocaine was seized. Each state filed their own report on the seizure, and it was noted that the NSW cops had reported less coke seized than the Vic cops. It turned out that the NSW cops had taken a little for themselves (as you do, apparently), whereas the honest Victorian cops had reported the entire amount, inadvertently dobbing in the NSW cops.

"Leviathan" is a bloody good book. Birmingham looks at the seedy dark side that has been there as long as Sydney has been Sydney. I think he concludes that the corruption of Sydney is what makes Sydney Sydney, and to clean it up would change the city into something unrecognisable.

And as for the subject of New Zealanders in Australia, what I'd be most interested in knowing is how connected such people remain to New Zealand. There are superficial things like getting mail order Twisties and tracking down favourite beers, but how much of sweet home Aotearoa do you hold on to and how much do you need to let go of to make it in another country?