glebe

Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield;
Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke;
How jocund did they drive their team afield!
How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!

- T. Gray, 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard'.

So I'm not completely delusional after all. How reassuring.

It most certainly was set in Glebe. They also filmed it there.

Hmm, I wonder where I got that from, then. I've spent less than 12 hours in Sydney, when I was ten; I have no knowledge of its geography.

I just picture inner-city Sydney, not Glebe in particular ... might have been Balmain after all! I've met Melina Marchetta and talked to her about this book and I didn't have Glebe in my head after that conversation either.

This always brings to mind Looking for Alibrandi. That's where she lived isn't it? Anyone care to correct me?

Sydney has an inner-city suburb called Glebe. In Hobart there's an area of the city (not sure if it's strictly a suburb) that's still known as The Glebe. Presumably both were actual parish glebes at some point.

I had always assumed this was just somebody's name. The actual etymology is much more interesting.

glebe - etymologically similar to galilee