Feeling Sorry for Celia -setting

The book Feeling Sorry for Celia is written in letters, so it doesn’t really explain the setting that much, but the entire book takes place in Australia. But being more specific, one of the places that Elizabeth went was Coffs Harbour. She went there with her friend Saxton to rescue Celia from the circus she ran away too. The three stayed in Saxton’s aunt’s house, and Elizabeth writes that the house has a really big window overlooking the beach. The ocean moves around lazily and the sand is a beautiful white. Coffs Harbour is located in the northeast region of New South Wales. I think I would really like to visit Coffs Harbor because it looks like a really beautiful and peaceful city. There is a 90km string of beaches that makes up the Coffs coast!
Another place that Elizabeth goes to is Double Bay. Her dad is living there for a year while he’s in Australia for his job (and her half-brother and her dad’s wife are living there too, but her dad never tells her). Also, her pen- pal Christina’s cousin Maddie lives in Double Bay and goes to Trinity Ladies College, but that is not really important. Double Bay is in Sydney, which is on the South East edge of Australia.
At first, I thought that the book took place in present time. I thought that because the characters in the book kind of have to deal with the same problems and pressures that people in our generation have to go through. The whole book talks about how strong Celia and Elizabeth’ s friendship was and had been since they were babies, but then they started drifting apart because they got different interests. I think that lots of kids have to go through that, but that wouldn’t necessarily mean that it’s present time. Most people have always had to go through something like that. Then I realized that the whole book is written in letters, and never once talks about e-mailing people or texting people or even having cell phones! If it took place in present day, the fifteen year old main characters most likely would have had cell phones, or at least e-mail. I looked at the copyright of the book and it was published in 2000, so I’m guessing that the book took place in the 1990’s. That makes my first guess wrong.