Slow down. Look closer.

Short documentaries about the small Australian towns most of us pass at a hundred kilometres an hour.

Every one of them is there for a reason. A river crossing. A gold road. A stretch of flats that turned out to grow good fruit. One was nearly the capital of Queensland. Another keeps a First World War truck that still runs, in a shed behind the oldest brick house in the district.

I take the turnoff, spend a day or two, and come back with a short film about what makes the place tick — the history, the people, and the things you'd never see at speed.

Queensland to start with. Then wherever the road goes.

What's on every page

• The film, with chapters you can jump to.
• Why the town is where it is, and what it was for.
• What's actually there now — and what's worth the stop.
• Where the facts came from, so you can go further.

Suggest a town

If you know a town people only see from the highway, put it in the comments on any video. That's where the next one comes from.