Most of us will be familiar with the tell-tale signs of a stagnant economy: jobs being shed across industries, people starting to reduce debt, vacancies dotting shopping strips. Frugality holds few charms. At the time of writing, my home state of Victoria—along with New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania—is said to be on the brink of recession.

It was the start of summer when I decided to fly to Karratha, Western Australia, armed with the proceeds of my tax return—a licence for fiscal imprudence—and a notional interest in what commentators alternately call the ‘patchwork’ or ‘two-speed economy’. My real interest, however, lay beyond the figures and in the mining towns themselves: what would life be like, I wondered, in towns cushioned by the mineral rush?