Peter Moore: The many Torquays of the world

Falmouth is beautiful, with the bright azure sea, lush green mountains and expensive superyachts lying in the bay. This may not be the Falmouth we all recognise but it was the view of Falmouth used in Jack Whitehall’s documentary with his Dad. It seems that Netflix confused pictures of Falmouth in Antigua with Falmouth Cornwall. 
Both had eighteenth-century pirates although there is a difference between the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance. There is also a slight difference between reggae, calypso and the Cornish Floral dance. 
Perhaps it was a deliberate ploy by the Cornish Tourist Board to suggest that Cornwall is all shimmering sands and brightly coloured wooden houses. Admittedly the follow-up to the Caribbean-based “Death in Paradise”, “Beyond Paradise” was filmed in Looe but is supposed to take place in Devon. 
Would it help our tourist trade if we muddled up our resorts with sunnier climes? There are five places around the World called Torquay. Two are in Australia, one in Canada and one in Northern Cape, South Africa. 
Torquay, Queensland is a beachside suburb in Hervey Bay 185 miles north of Brisbane. It looks amazing and so I would not object if it was confused with our Torquay on publicity photos. It might feel like home as in this small suburb there are both Exeter and Tavistock Streets.
I have been to Torquay, Victoria, Australia. Torquay is a mecca for surfing, the birthplace of Quicksilver and Rip Curl, something we could claim if the resorts were confused. When I was there a kangaroo had hopped too far down the beach and was attacked by a shark. Even if a kangaroo escaped from Paignton Zoo, I think they would be safe from sharks on Paignton SeaFront.  It is also the beginning of the Great Ocean Road, from Melbourne to Adelaide. We can claim that Torbay is the start of the A380 to Exeter and onto the M5 but this does not have the same ring to it. 
There is another Torquay in Saskatchewan, Canada. This has a population of only 215 and does have good weather in the summer, up to 38C but in the winter temperatures can drop to -17C. Perhaps if we were confused with this Torquay it would not help the tourist trade.  

Further afield we have Dartmouth, the River Dart and Ashburton. I am sure that South Devon College in Paignton would love to be confused with Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, USA; a top Ivy League University. The American University may be closer to Dartmouth Royal Naval College. 

Ashburton in New Zealand might be confused with Ashburton in Devon. It is warm in the summer, up to 30C and in the winter temperatures drop to 0C, so it is not that different to our Ashburton. There are also three lakes, a river and the Southern Alps which are slightly different from Dartmoor. 

The New Zealand River Dart starts as a glacier in the mountains and then flows through rugged forests. Our dart is also beautiful and has trees, but I have never seen a glacier on Dartmoor even in winter. Their River Dart was used for filming The Lord of the Rings and ours was used in The Onedin Line but since The Onedin Line was last aired in 1980 there may not be many young people who have heard of it. 

It is not only Netflix that gets confused. I once met a doctor from New Zealand who was working at Torbay Hospital. When he arrived he could not understand why so many local places are named after places in New Zealand. 

Our ancestors must have loved Devon to name so many places around the world after our local towns. Perhaps that is why we do not need to show a picture of the wrong Devon town to encourage holidaymakers. Having said that, I am still tempted to go down to Cornwall to watch the azure sea, the superyachts and the amazing green mountains around Falmouth.