Despite being the only continent that is made up of one country, one of the driest places on Earth, and the home of the largest living organism, Australia is rarely heard of, seeming to reside in it’s own little corner of the world. Nevertheless, Bill Bryson’s very informative travel diary of Australia, In a Sunburned Country (304 pages), brings light to this remarkable country. He records his observations and opinions as he brings his readers along through the non-tourist trekked parts of Australia. He also combines humour and curiosity to create an entertaining, fact-filled book about the Down under. Being a person who already adores Australia, Bryson may be a bit of a biased guide. However, he uses his extreme knowledge of the country’s
The 2014 Walkley Award winning documentary, "Cronulla Riots: the day that shocked the nation" reveals to us a whole new side of Aussie culture. No more she’ll be right, no more fair go and sadly no more fair dinkum. The doco proved to all of us (or is it just me?) that the Australian identity isn’t really what we believe it to be. After viewing this documentary
Without the use of stereotypical behaviours or even language is known universally, the naming of certain places in, but not really known to, Australia in ‘Drifters’ and ‘Reverie of a Swimmer’ convoluted with the overall message of the poems. The story of ‘Drifters’ looks at a family that moves around so much, that they feel as though they don’t belong. By utilising metaphors of planting in a ‘“vegetable-patch”, Dawe is referring to the family making roots, or settling down somewhere, which the audience assumes doesn’t occur, as the “green tomatoes are picked by off the vine”. The idea of feeling secure and settling down can be applied to any country and isn’t a stereotypical Australian behaviour - unless it is, in fact, referring to the continental
Today, I will be telling my view on Australian texts. I will be analysing the text “The Exotic Rissole” by Tanveer Ahmed.
In Reading Tim Wintons hopeful saga, Cloudstreet, you are immersed in Australia; it is an important story in showing the change in values that urbanisation brought to Perth in the late 1950’s such as confidence and pride. But it was also a very anxious and fearful time period in terms of the Nedlands Monster and his impact in changing the current comfortable, breezy system Perth lived in. The role of women changed significantly with more women adopting more ambitious ideologies and engaging in the workforce something never seen before. But most of all it was important because it changed Australia’s priorities as a nation, it shaped the identity of individuals that we now see today, and it created a very unique Australian identity.
Both ‘The Drover’s Wife’ and ‘The Loaded Dog’ depict life as an Australian during the Colonial period. ‘The Drover’s Wife’ depicts the everyday life of a bush woman and her
“a verse for the cheated” discusses the effects of colonialism in Australia. The poem suggests the the European invaders or “tourists” arrive and are ignorant in respect to the Indigenous Australians.
...at these several events in our nation’s history have demoralised our reputation to other countries globally. To make us known as a better country to other nations, we’ve completely abolished the White Australia Policy, gave back the aborigines their freedoms and we were also the first country in the world to give women rights. Australia today in present day is now one of the most multicultural societies on Earth, and we definitely follow our values of mateship, acceptance and freedom.
Gard, S. (2000). A history of Australia. The Colony of New South Wales. South Yarra: MacMillan Education Australia Pty Ltd.
Good morning members of the Mt Gravatt show society. Did you know that World War Two is known as the most destructive war in history? It killed over 60 million people and had a lot more far-reaching impacts than any other wars. Published in 1988 in Inside Black Australia, an anthology of Aboriginal poetry, “The Black Rat” by a famous author and researcher, Iris Clayton, was a poem inspired by her father, Cecil, who fought in the war. The poem describes the depressing life of an Aboriginal soldier who helped off the German army at Tobruk at the time. The message in the poem is that the Aboriginal soldiers did not receive the benefits that European soldiers received, like farming lands after the war ended. This tells how unjust the European society was in Australia’s history.
The film Crocodile Dundee, set in both the barren Australian outback and the busy streets of America, contrasts life in the crowded and rushed city of New York and the relaxed and carefree town of Walkabout Creek. The landscape in Australia is shown through a variety of extreme long shots, to show the emptiness of the land, to portray the outback as isolated and ruthless. One location which is important in
Throughout the story, Lawson sufficiently shows responders the visual image of the experiences the “old man” encounters drastically shapes Lawson’s theme of hardships within the Australian bush. The use of vernacular and idiomatic language is the reflection of the harshness of the bush on the characters, as it also has the purpose of propelling the comedic element of the narrative, “come on, Brummy, yer ain’t as bad as yer might be… since yer slipped yer mind.” Lawson demonstrates the distinctively visual elements through the use of figurative language, as the audience feels a sense of pathos for the character’s friend’s death. Through the distinctively visual, Lawson thoroughly shows the readers that spending too much in the outback can cause disoriented and eccentric behaviour. The persona inevitably speaks in a monologic fashion to his dog “as though he understood English”, which further enhances Lawson’s character’s eccentric behaviour. The imagery of the “dried to a mummy by the intense heat of the western summer”, demonstrates to the audience the distinctly visual image of what the corpse would look like. Lawson effectively shown the audience the distinctively visual of what the harshness of the bush in “The Bush
Albert Facey’s novel, A Fortunate Life depicts the life of an extraordinary man living in old Australia. Facey portrays many characteristics that would label him as being a ‘true Aussie battler’, but it is the deeper and more sensitive side of him that allows him to be labeled with the term – a legendary Australian.
So are we selling Australia’s true culinary experience or is this campaign selling a little bit of a white lie? Perhaps we are skimming over the fundamentals of what really sells Australia in our rush to cash in on the potential rewards. Perhaps Tourism Australia does not understand what creating a ‘fair dinkum’ representation really means.
Alec Derwent Hope (1907-2000) was one of Australian’s greatest poets and a critic. He touched lives of many through his works. He is recognized as one of the most influential poets of the twentieth century. He is praised for his biting satire, clarity of his language and sophistication of his poetic vision. He is also viewed as a satirical poet because several of his works criticizes the technology, conformity and the absurdity of modern life. His works ranged from satire to tender lyricism, and his poems are metaphysical, sensual, serious, frivolous, mocking, mystical and rational (Hulibandi, 2012). He was truly influenced by Australia undoubtedly. His poems reveal images of Australia and modern life. “Australia” is one of his poems written in an ABBA rhyme scheme. In this poem, Hope has mentioned about the present condition of Australia and his criticism of general Australian society. He has also written about the lack of culture and intellectual challenges to be found in Australian society. The poem reflects on Australia by how it is both a new and old country, geographically old and politically new, how it is both European colonial and an individual (Watson, n.d.).
In this context, the Aboriginal writer Sally Morgan’s My Place is a landmark in the history of Aboriginal literature and it has been one of the most successful Aboriginal works, both in Australia and on an international level. She (Sally Morgan) presents a story that is relatable to both Indigenous and non Indigenous Australians. She presents a book/history that forces both white and indigenous Australians to assess the past whether or not a correct Aboriginal history has been told in Australia. Morgan also confronts the indigenous reader with the idea of learning their past and accepting indigenous identity, even if it is painful. Consequently, Sally Morgan can be considered the pioneer of Aboriginal life stories of women writers; and over time, after her, many other women writers have used this literary genre as a form of denunciation of the brutalities and consequences of the Stolen Generations, exactly as she