Damien Cave, our Australia bureau chief, shares insights on Australia, news of the world and reader feedback in this weekly newsletter. Want it by email? Sign up.

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I’m in rural Victoria this week reporting on immigration — part of our effort to explore Australia’s multicultural present and future — and I have to say, now I get why so many of you urged me to get out of the cities and into the country.

This isn’t my first trip to regional Australia, and let’s put aside the “real Australia” argument; in my book, cities and towns are both reflections of national character.

But just as dinner parties are different with six guests rather than 60, towns with a few hundred people do have a lot to teach about human interaction and how a country really works.