Australian Dream

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The Australian Dream or Great Australian Dream is a belief that in Australia, home ownership can lead to a better life and is an expression of success and security. Although the standard of living aspired to is enjoyed by many in the Australian population, it is fast becoming an unrealised ambition for many. It has however, led to urbanisation, causing the country to become one of the most urbanised in the world and caused extensive urban sprawl in the major capital cities^[1].

1 Historical Background
2 References In Popular Culture
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Historical Background

The origin of the Australian Dream, dates back to the period of reconstruction following World War II. The dream flowered in the 1950s and 1960s due chiefly to the expansion of Australian manufacturing, low unemployment rates, the baby boom and the removal of rent controls^[2] There is some evidence, however, that the vast open spaces of early colonial Australia first instilled the notion in the early generations Australian families. It was certainly aided by the widespread ownership of the automobile. Even as it was growing, the aspirational dream became an occasional object of ridicule in art and literature, some of the strongest criticism appearing in the mid 1950s paintings of John Brack, the celebrated novels of Australian manners They're a Weird Mob (1957) by Nino Culotta (John O'Grady) and My Brother Jack (1964) by George Johnston, and Robin Boyd's fierce critique of Australian architecture The Australian Ugliness (1960).

Typically the Australian Dream focussed upon ownership of a detached (often single storey) house on a Quarter Acre suburban block, surrounded by a garden, which featured in the back a Hills Hoist and a barbeque. Notably, this mirrored the fact that while almost 50% of Australian households owned their homes through the first half of the century, the proportion jumped to more than 70 per cent in the 20 years after World War II. While many Australians saw home ownership as a domestic ideal to aspire to, artists sometimes viewed it as representing a deadening conformism and narrow-mindedness - a critical perspective advanced by Brack's bleak images of uniform box-like houses surrounded by almost identical gardens, as well as Johnston's literary depiction of a rigidly uniform suburbia where neighbours try to police one another's behaviour.

If financial independence and the possession of a house were important, the Australian Dream was chiefly identified with embracing a particular lifestyle. Those who had achieved the dream also followed a set of urban rituals, including taking an annual summer vacation by the sea, living within a nuclear family, as well as - for male bread-winners - weekly lawn-mowing and washing the family car (either a Ford or a Holden) on Saturday mornings. These unspoken yet rigid social customs were actually the focus for the comic novel They're a Weird Mob, a simulated autobiography by a fictitious Italian migrant who struggled to understand the often baffling ways of urban Australians. The novel is resolved when the protagonist adopts the same values by marrying an Australian girl, buying his own quarter acre block, and building his home on it. From the 1970s, the Australian dream expanded to cover possession of a swimming pool in the back-yard, a second family car, and, for the affluent, either ownership of a beach-house or taking an annual overseas holiday.

Despite the decline of the Australian Dream, modern planning policies and the influence of immigration on the demographic, many observers believe that ownership of a dwelling is still important to many Australians even if they cannot achieve ownership of land.