How many Tasmanians know what a Turbo Chook is? I didn’t, yet mainlander friend J sent me a recent ABC News story that implied I wouldn’t be a Tasmanian if I didn’t use this expression. I took umbrage having been born and schooled here, and spent roughly 47 years of my life in Tassie – or am I the only Tasmanian who has missed out on this gem?

So I googled and found that a Turbo Chook is a native hen. This entertaining fun poem explains all.

What else constitutes being Tasmanian? If you read this news story you will learn more but not all the words/ideas ring true to me. For example, the concept of ‘extreme cold’ annoys me. If you want a cold city and nearby mountainous environs, then go west of Sydney to our nation’s capital in Canberra. Many of their winter days reach many minus degrees. There are only one or two spots of remote isolation where only one or two people live in Tasmania that a winter temperature gets so low. I get two frosts a year where I live in Hobart and while it is cold by my standards at 5 degrees, this hardly rates as ‘extreme cold’. Heavens some of my blog followers from Canada and other places heading toward the Arctic circle would laugh and shrug that off as a pleasant day.

But even if lots of Tasmanians haven’t spent most of their time on main roads and not much time down back roads if they travel at all, knowing about the public loos at Campbell Town is a must!