Culture of Australia

The demographics of Australia show it to be one of the most urbanised populations in the world; the majority of Australians live on the coast. Australia's cities are melting pots of different cultures. The influence of the longer-established southern European communities in particular has been pervasive. The great post-World War II influx of both English and non English-speaking migrants from England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Italy, Greece, Germany, former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Malta, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, East Asia and South-East Asia has had a significant impact. Lesser numbers of immigrants have come from the African and American continents.

To understand its culture, the physical distances between settlements and the very centralised nature of those settlements within each state must be borne in mind.

Contents 1 Language 2 Arts in Australia 2.1 Architecture 2.2 Art: Painting and sculpture 2.3 Cinema 2.4 Cuisine 2.4.1 Beverages 2.5 Music 2.5.1 Indigenous Australian music 2.5.2 Classical music 2.5.3 Pop and rock 2.6 Television and media 3 Sport 3.1 Australian Rules Football 3.2 Cricket 3.3 Rugby League 3.4 Rugby Union 3.5 Other sports 4 Attitudes, beliefs and stereotypes 4.1 Mateship 4.2 The Australian Dream 4.3 "Underdog" Identity 4.4 A "Fair Go" 4.5 Cultural Cringe 4.6 Stories and legends 5 Further reading 6 Notes 7 External links

Language

Further information: Languages of Australia

Further information: Australian slang

Further information: Indigenous Australian languages

Further information: Regional variation in Australian English

Although Australia has no official language, it is largely monolingual with English being the de facto national language. Australian English has its own distinctive accent and vocabulary. According to the 2001 census, English is the only language spoken in the home for around 80% of the population. The next most common languages spoken at home are Chinese (2.1%), Italian (1.9%), and Greek (1.4%). A considerable proportion of first- and second-generation migrants are bilingual. It is believed that there were between 200 and 300 Australian Aboriginal languages at the time of first European contact. Only about 70 of these languages have survived and all but 20 of these are now endangered. An indigenous language remains the main language for about 50,000 (0.25%) people. Australia has a sign language known as Auslan, which is the main language of about 6,500 deaf people.

Arts in Australia

Arts in Australia

Architecture Cinema Comic books Cuisine Dance Literature Music Television Theatre Visual arts

The arts in Australia — film, music, painting, theatre, dance and crafts — have achieved international recognition. However, in practice, it is difficult to discern anything distinctly Australian by looking at its artistic output in music, dance or literature.

Traditional "high culture" gains small attention from much of the population, in contrast to popular culture. High culture thrives with a few excellent galleries (some in small towns); a rich tradition in ballet, enlivened by the legacy of Edouard Borovansky and Sir Robert Helpmann, and continuing with the national ballet company The Australian Ballet, and outstanding choreographer/dancers such as Graeme Murphy and Meryl Tankard; a strong national opera company based in Sydney; and excellent symphony orchestras in all capital cities, particularly the Melbourne and Sydney symphony orchestras. However, this is diluted across a large and essentially empty continent.

Independent culture thrives in all capital cities and exists in most large regional towns. The independent arts of music, film, art and street art, are the most extensive. One example, Melbourne's independent music scene, is one of the largest in the world, whilst another can be found in the multitude of international street artists visiting Melbourne and, to a lesser extent, other major cities, to work for a period of time.

Architecture

Main article: Architecture of Australia

Contemporary Australian architecture includes a number of iconic structures, including the Sydney Opera House (the original design being by the Dane Jorn Utzon), the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne and Parliament House, Canberra. Significant architects include Harry Seidler and Francis Greenway.

In the period before European settlement of Australia in 1788, evidence of permanent structures built by indigenous Australians in Australia is limited. Much of what they built was temporary, and was used for housing and other needs. As a British colony, the first European buildings were derivative of the European fashions of the time. Tents and wattle and daub huts preceded more substantial structures. Georgian architecture is seen in early government buildings of Sydney and Tasmania and the homes of the wealthy. While the major Australian cities enjoyed the boom of the Victorian Era, the Australian gold rushes of the mid-19th century brought major construction works and exuberant Victorian architecture to the major cities, particularly Melbourne, and major provincials such as Ballarat and Bendigo. Other significant architectural movements in Australian architecture include the Federation style of the turn of the 20th century and the modern styles of the late 20th century which also saw many older buildings demolished.

Significant concern was raised during the 1960s, with green bans and heritage concerns responding to the destruction of earlier buildings and the skyscraper boom, particularly in Sydney. Green bans helped to protect historic 18th century buildings in The Rocks from being demolished to make way for office towers, and prevented the Royal Botanic Gardens from being turned into a car park for the Sydney Opera House.

Art: Painting and sculpture

Main article: Art of Australia

See also: Indigenous Australian art

Australia has had a significant school of painting since the early days of European settlement and Australians with international reputations include Sir Sidney Nolan, Sir Russell Drysdale, Arthur Boyd, Brett Whiteley, Pro Hart and Ken Done — not to mention the prized work of many indigenous artists such as Emily Kame Kngwarreye.

Cinema

Main article: Cinema of Australia

Australia has a long history of film production. It is claimed that the world's first feature-length film was the Australian production The Story of the Kelly Gang. However, the purchase of virtually all cinemas by U.S. distribution companies saw an almost total disappearance of Australian films from the screens. A notable exception was Charles Chauvel's classic Jedda (1955). During the late 1960s and 1970s an influx of government funding saw the development of a new generation of directors and actors telling distinctively Australian stories. Films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock and Sunday Too Far Away had an immediate international impact. The 1980s is regarded as perhaps a golden age of Australian cinema, with many very successful films, from the dark science fiction of Mad Max to the comedy of Crocodile Dundee, a film that defined Australia in the eyes of many foreigners despite having remarkably little to do with the lifestyle of most Australians. The 1990s saw a run of successful comedies such as Muriel's Wedding, The Castle and Strictly Ballroom, which helped launch the careers of Toni Collette, P. J. Hogan and Baz Luhrmann. The indigenous film industry continues to produce a reasonable number of films each year; also, many U.S. producers have moved productions to Australia following the decision by Fox head Rupert Murdoch to move the new studios to Melbourne and Sydney where filming could be effectively completed well below U.S. costs. Notable productions include The Matrix and Star Wars episodes II and III..

Cuisine

Main article: Australian cuisine

Beverages

Alcohol - beer and Australian wine in particular - is an important part of Australian culture. In fact, 32 of Australia’s top 50 beverage brands are alcoholic and most of these favour local brands. ^[1]

Music

Main article: Music of Australia

Indigenous Australian music

Main article: Indigenous Australian music

Aboriginal song was an integral part of Aboriginal culture. The most famous feature of their music is the didgeridoo. This wooden instrument, used amongst the Aboriginal tribes of northern Australia, makes a distinctive droning sound and its use has been adopted by a wide variety of non-Aboriginal performers.

Aboriginal musicians have turned their hand to Western popular musical forms, often to considerable commercial success. Some notable examples include Archie Roach, the Warumpi Band, NoKTuRNL and Yothu Yindi.

Classical music

The earliest Western musical influences in Australia can be traced back to two distinct sources: the first free settlers who brought with them the European classical music tradition; and the large body of convicts and sailors, who brought the traditional folk music of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The practicalities of building a colony mean that there is very little music extant from this early period although there are samples of music originating from Hobart and Sydney that date back to the early 1800s.^[2]

The establishment of choral societies (c. 1850) and symphony orchestras (c. 1890) led to increased compositional activity, although many Australian classical composers attempted to work entirely within European models. A lot of works leading up to the first part of the 20th century were heavily influenced by the folk music of other countries (Percy Grainger’s Country Gardens of 1918 being a good example of this) and a very conservative British orchestral tradition.^[2]

In the war and post-war eras, as pressure built to assert a national identity in the face of the looming superpower of the United States and the "motherland" Britain, composers looked to their surroundings for inspiration. Peter Sculthorpe began to incorporate elements of Aboriginal music, and Richard Meale drew influence from south-east Asia (notably using the harmonic properties of the Balinese Gamelan; as had Percy Grainger in an earlier generation).^[2]

By the beginning of the 1960s, Australian classical music erupted with influences, with composers incorporating disparate elements into their work, ranging from Aboriginal and south-east Asian music and instruments, to American jazz and blues, to the belated discovery of European atonality and the avant-garde. Composers like Don Banks, Don Kay, Malcolm Williamson and Colin Brumby epitomise this period^[2]. In recent times composers including Liza Lim, Nigel Westlake, Graeme Koehne, Elena Kats-Chernin, Richard Mills and Constantine Koukias have embodied the pinnacle of established Australian composers.

Well-known Australian classical performers include sopranos: Dame Joan Sutherland, Joan Carden, Yvonne Kenny and Emma Matthews; pianists Roger Woodward, Michael Kieran Harvey, Geoffrey Tozer, Geoffrey Douglas Madge and Leslie Howard; guitarist John Williams; horn player Barry Tuckwell; and conductors Simone Young and Geoffrey Simon.

Pop and rock

Main article: Australian rock

Australia has produced a large variety of popular good music. Some notable examples include the 1960s successes of The Easybeats and the folk-pop group The Seekers, through the heavy rock of AC/DC, Cold Chisel, Men at Work, and the slick pop of INXS, to Kylie Minogue, Natalie Imbruglia, Savage Garden and Silverchair; more recently Jet, Wolfmother, Eskimo Joe, Grinspoon, The Vines, The Living End and others are currently enjoying enormous success internationally.

The arrival of the 1961 underground movement into the mainstream in the early-1970s changed Australian music permanently: Skyhooks were far from the first people to write songs in Australia by Australians about Australia, but they were the first ones to make good money doing it. The two best-selling Australian albums made up to that time put Australian music on the map. Within a few years, the novelty had worn off and it became commonplace to hear distinctively Australian lyrics and sometimes sounds side-by-side with imports.

The national expansion of ABC youth radio station Triple J during the 1990s has greatly increased the visibility and availability of home-grown talent to listeners nationwide. Since the mid 1990s a string of successful alternative Australian acts have emerged - artists to achieve both underground (critical) and mainstream (commercial) success include You Am I, Grinspoon, Powderfinger and Jet.

Television and media

Main article: Television in Australia

While Australia has ubiquitous media coverage, the longest established part of that media is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the Federal Government funded organisation offering national TV and radio coverage. The ABC, like the BBC in Britain, CBC in Canada, and PBS in the United States, is a non-commercial public service broadcaster, showing many BBC or ITV productions from Britain.

Commercial channels include Channel Seven, Channel Nine and Channel Ten, along with the channels on Foxtel Australia's largest pay TV provider. It is owned by News Corporation, Publishing and Broadcasting Limited and Telstra. Also, U.S. channels like CBS, NBC, and FOX are being shown terrestrially.

The publicly funded Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) has a multicultural focus, broadcasting TV and radio programmes in a variety of languages, as well as world news and documentary programming in English. It is seen as less highbrow than the ABC but is willing to air more controversial programs such as South Park, Queer as Folk, and Oz that would not be shown on Australian free-to-air TV otherwise. Less mainstream sports such as football (soccer) and cycling receive coverage. SBS commenced as a commercial-free enterprise, but it has broadcast commercials of recent years, to less than universal approval.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Australia's two publicly-funded national networks, ABC and SBS, received an increasing share of market ratings, although as of 2005 they only accounted for 15.7% and 6.1% of the national ratings, respectively.^[3].

The ABC has made an impressive contribution to television drama with popular series like Brides of Christ and in comedy, with the 1970s hits Aunty Jack and The Norman Gunston Show and more recently Kath & Kim and The Chaser's War On Everything. Debate about the role of the ABC continues; many assign it a marginal role, as commercial TV and radio stations are far more popular choices. Critics claim that Australian children view television programs imported largely from the USA, however, the Australian Content Standard^[4] requires all free-to-air commercial networks to broadcast an annual minimum of 55% Australian content (between 6 a.m. and midnight).

There have been many Australian television shows that have been successful, such as Homicide and Division 4 in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo in the late 1960s, Number 96 and The Box in the 1970s, Prisoner in the 1980s and Neighbours and Home and Away in the 1980s and 1990s, and, the most successful of them all, A Country Practice (1980 - 1993). Many of the shows from the mid 1980s onwards have been exported and have sometimes been even more successful abroad, such as Steve Irwin's The Crocodile Hunter, The Crocodile Hunter Diaries, and New Breed Vets in which Irwin exemplified the fun and passionate, yet masculine and fearless male stereotype with which Australia has been previously associated, and which have been aired regularly since the late 1990s in over 120 countries around the world.

Sport

Main article: Sport in Australia

Australians are passionate about sport and it forms a major part of the country's culture, particularly in terms of spectating, but also in terms of participation. Cricket is extremely popular in the summer and football codes are extremely popular in the winter, with different codes being more popular in different areas (see Barassi Line). Some strong Australian traditions, such as Grand Finals and Footy tipping are shared across all codes. Most of Australia's patriotism is expressed through sport and thus it is taken quite seriously, especially seen during major international events such as the Olympic Games.

Australian Rules Football

Australian rules football (usually called "Aussie Rules" or "AFL") is an extremely popular spectator sport and a participation sport most popular in most Australian states. The national competition (the Australian Football League) evolved from a domestic state competition in Victoria, but there are now 16 teams with clubs in all states but Tasmania. There is strong generational club support for many teams in many of the major leagues, including the AFL, SANFL and WAFL. The AFL Grand Final is traditionally played each year at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Australian rules football culture has a strong set of rituals and traditions, many of which have crossed sporting boundaries in Australia. Traditional variations such as kick-to-kick are important aspects of the sporting culture, as is barracking.

Cricket

Main article: Cricket in Australia

Cricket is the national sport of Australia and has long been so. [1][2] Figures from the game's past like Sir Donald Bradman, Richie Benaud and Dennis Lillee are some of the most popular figures in the nation's history.

Internationally, Australia has for most of the last century sat at or near the top of the cricketing world. The Ashes competition between Australia and England is the most popular international sporting contest in Australia.

Rugby League

Main article: Rugby League in Australia

Rugby league is the most popular winter sport in New South Wales (NSW), and Queensland. The National Rugby League (NRL) grew out of state leagues in NSW and Victoria, however rugby league is most popular in NSW and Queensland. Victoria has historically been an Aussie Rules Football dominated state. Most of the teams in the NRL are based in NSW. Recently there has been an increased number of teams coming from other states, especially Queensland.

Rugby league is played in Australia at club level by teams from cities around the nation, as well as at representative level between Queensland and NSW in the national State of Origin series, one of Australia's major sporting events. In addition, the Australian Kangaroos represent the country in international matches.

Rugby Union

Main article: Rugby union in Australia

The Australian national rugby team, the Wallabies, are the most supported national team in the Australian winter sporting calendar. Having been a professional sport only since 1995, the game's following is slowly growing out of traditional areas. It is most popular in the Australian Capital Territory.

Rugby union is also one of the most popular sports within Australia (especially in Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory), with teams competing in the Super 14, alongside South Africa and New Zealand. In 2003 Australia hosted the 2003 Rugby World Cup, which saw the Wallabies defeated by England in the final at Telstra Stadium.

Other sports

Until recently, the most prominent soccer clubs were based around ethnic loyalties. Now with the new A-League, which started its first season in September 2005, Australia has a national competition with five states having one team each, plus one team in New Zealand and two regionally-based teams (both in NSW).

Australia also has its own unique motor racing organisation, known as the V8 Supercars Touring Series. It has a considerable following in New Zealand, and is steadily growing in popularity across the world, where television coverage allows.

Australians also enjoy many other sports, such as tennis, netball, golf, basketball and motorsport. Gambling is a pastime of many, and horseracing and greyhound racing are popular sports for this reason.

Several non-mainstream sports in Australia still attract a high standard from Australian teams due the sporting culture. For example, in field hockey Australia's teams are considered among the best in the world. Australian cyclists have recently been quite successful in the Tour de France and other international cycling competitions, notably Cadel Evans' second placing in the 2007 race and in the 2008 race and overall win of the 2007 UCI ProTour. From 2008, Australia's only major international cycling race, the Tour Down Under, centred on Adelaide, will become the first UCI ProTour cycling race to be held outside of Europe.

As with most nations, women's sport is given less attention than men's, in both media coverage and funding, although the gap is closing slowly, with the ANZ Championship being advertised on popular sports channels.

Australia has recently seen great success in the sport of surfing. In 2007, both the male (Mick Fanning) and female (Stephanie Gilmore) ASP champions were Australian.

Attitudes, beliefs and stereotypes

Australians have very strong attitudes and beliefs which are reinforced by the tenets of the country's society.

The Australian culture has been forged on the hardship of early settlers and later on the heroism of the Australian soldiers. "Mateship", or loyal fraternity, has been a central tenet. This may also explain why the more aggressive forms of sport (Rugby League and Australian rules football, for example) are particularly popular in Australia. Australians have a propensity for diminutive forms of names (e.g. Hargrave -> Hargie; Wilkinson -> Wilko; John -> Johnno; Hogan -> Hoges; Lombard -> Lombardy; Fox -> Foxy; James -> Jimmy).

The phrase, "the lucky country", coined by Donald Horne, is a sobriquet used to describe Australia in terms of weather, lifestyle and history.^[5] Ironically, Horne was actually using the term to criticise Australian society of the early-1960s.^[5]

It is to be understood that Australians and New Zealanders have a respectful rivalry. On the sporting field there is a large rivalry. There is one exception to this rivalry; during war the Australian Soldiers and the New Zealand Soldiers join forces to become the ANZACS. Otherwise known as the Australian New Zealand Army Corps. The biggest sporting rivalry exists between Australia and England. Australians see New Zealanders as their per capita equal in sport and war but see the English as more boastful but easier to beat than New Zealand. The majority of Australians switch their alliegance to New Zealand teams when Australians are knocked out of international competitions in Rugby Union, Rubby League and Cricket, especially when the opponent is England. This norm does not apply when the opponent is from another part of the UK (Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland).

Mateship

Main article: Mateship

Mateship can be defined as the code of conduct, particularly between men, although more recently also between men and women, stressing egalitarianism, equality and friendship. Mateship is seen as an important element of the qualities that the Australian Defence Force values in its soldiers, sailors, airmen and officers.

The Australian Dream

Main article: Australian Dream

The Australian Dream of home ownership underpins suburban Australia.

"Underdog" Identity

Main article: Underdog (competition)

Australians have traditionally had a very strong "underdog" attitude, that they will support those who appear to be at a disadvantage unless Australia is in direct competition with another nation. This can be seen greatly from occurrences during the 2003 Rugby World Cup, where the Georgian Rugby Team arrived in Perth with a crowd of Perth residents welcoming them with colourful support, and support for Eric the Eel during the 2000 Olympics. A similar occurrence was noted in Townsville, Queensland where the Japanese Rugby Team was preferred to that of the French ^[6].

This underdog attitude is most evident in sport, as sport is also a large part of Australian culture. Should an Australian be asked to choose between two unknown competitors, very often they will choose the one least likely to win. The success of Steven Bradbury in the 2002 Winter Olympics has coined the expression 'doing a Bradbury' which underpins the very spirit of the underdog and a fine example positive thinking and never giving up.

There is however, another side to this underdog attitude in Australians. This is the phenomenon of "cutting down the tall poppy", which reveals itself in many typically Australian attitudes. As a result, Australians see themselves as being extremely critical of their political leaders and successful personalities, and always sympathetic to those who are 'being done wrong by' or in strife. This is evident when viewing Today Tonight and A Current Affair, Australia's two major tabloid television programmes (which, themselves, have also been severely criticised for poor quality), or listening to "talkback" radio.

A "Fair Go"

The belief in a "Fair Go" is a key part of Australian culture and often Australian Society^[7]. Labor governments have often used this saying in advocating their policies and socialist ideals. Unionism in Australia has also greatly benefited from this belief. This can be seen in the existence of strong public health and education systems in Australia. It is an idea which involves everyone having an equal chance to achieve their goals.

Cultural Cringe

Main article: Cultural cringe

The idea of cultural cringe was defined by Australian sociologists Brian Head and James Walter as the belief that one's own country occupies a "subordinate cultural place on the periphery", and that "intellectual standards are set and innovations occur elsewhere". As a consequence, a person who holds this belief is inclined to devalue their own country's cultural, academic and artistic life, and to venerate the "superior" culture of another country.

Stories and legends

Australian stories and legends have a cultural significance quite independent of their empirical truth or falsehood. This can be seen in the national obsession with the almost mythological portrayal of Ned Kelly as a Robin Hood figure of sorts.

Australians, according to popular opinion, are relaxed, tolerant and easy-going and yet cling dearly to the fundamental importance of common-sense justice, or, to use the classic expression, a "fair go".

Australians, according to popular belief, make great sportsmen and superb soldiers. Yet like many legends, truths do stem from it. Australia has shown, in the past and present, that for a country of just over 20 million people, it has achieved many extraordinary things on the sporting field, such as the 49 medals won at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Militarily, Australians have served gallantly in wars, ranging from the Battle of Gallipoli; through to current regional security missions, such as East Timor; and Iraq and Afghanistan.

Australian war culture is somewhat different than most other western cultures. It generally consists of sombre reflection and commemoration of all who have died in wartime and honouring those who lived (two annual national days exist for this purpose). It is generally agreed that the beginning of modern Australian warfare began at Gallipoli in World War I, where Australian forces under British command suffered a catastrophic defeat. The Australian experience at Gallipoli, which is viewed as the first iconic moment in modern Australian war involvement, is viewed by Australians with both pride for the fighting of the soldiers, and bitterness for the negligence on the part of British commanders. The incidences of valour, bravery, and determination displayed during the campaign for Gallipoli, as well as the mutual respect for their Turkish adversaries (led by Atatürk) is seen as part of the ANZAC spirit. This experience of war was repeated and entrenched at battles on the Western Front, such as the Battle of Passchendaele.

The legend of Australians being great soldiers has its roots in the AIF being used during the latter part of the war as the shock troops of the British Empire forces. The Battle of Amiens, known as the "Black Day of the German Army" during the First World War, was a campaign in which Australian soldiers played a crucial role. Australians were considered to be remarkably determined, united and hard-working individuals. The majority of Australians knew how to ride and shoot prior to enlistment, making them good soldiers. However, Australians also had a lax attitude towards discipline. From this the notion of the larrikin Digger emerged, an important part of contemporary Australian identity.

Australian language is contradictory too: it combines a mocking disrespect for established authority, particularly if it is pompous or out of touch with reality, with a distinctive upside-down sense of humour. For instance, Australians take delight in dubbing a tall man "Shorty", a silent one "Rowdy" a bald man "Curly" and a redhead is "Bluey". Politicians, or "pollies", be they at state or federal level, are generally disliked and distrusted. Paradoxically, Australia is one of the few democracies that has compulsory voting at elections (federal, state and local).

Many of Australia's stories and legends originate in the Outback, in the drovers and squatters and people of the barren, dusty plains, yet only a small proportion of Australians live in the Outback, or even in the milder countryside up to an hour or two's drive from the cities. This was true even of the Australia of a century ago - since the gold rush of the 1850s, most Australians have been city-bound, Australia today being one of the most urbanised countries in the world. Nevertheless, after a century or more spent absorbing the bush yarns of Henry Lawson and the poetry of Banjo Paterson from the comfort of armchairs in the suburbs, the legends are real and fairly odd.

Further reading

• Bambrick, Susan ed. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Australia (1994)
• Bennett, Bruce et al. The Oxford Literary History of Australia (1999)
• Bennett, Tony, and David Carter. Culture in Australia: Policies, Publics and Programs (2001) excerpt and text search
• Carey, Hilary. Believing in Australia: A Cultural History of Religions (1996)
• Horton, David. The Encyclopedia of Aboriginal Australia: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History, Society and Culture (2001)
• Huggan Graham. Postcolonialism, Racism, Transnationalism (Oxford Studies in Postcolonial Literatures) (2007) excerpt and text search
• Kleinert, Sylvia. and Margo Neale. The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture (2001)
• Leitner, Gerhard. Australia's Many Voices: Australian English--the National Language (2004) excerpt and text search
• McAllister, Ian, Steve Dowrick, Riaz Hassan; The Cambridge Handbook of the Social Sciences in Australia Cambridge University Press, 2003 online edition
• McCulloch, Alan. Encyclopedia of Australian Art 2 vol (1984)
• McDonald, John. Federation: Australian Art and Society, 1901-2001. Natl. Gallery of Australia, 2002. 264 pp.
• Nile, Richard. The Making of the Australian Literary Imagination. (2002). 315 pp.
• O'Shane, Pat et al. Australia: The Complete Encyclopedia (2001)
• Rickard, John, Australia: A Cultural History (1988)
• Serle. Percival, ed. Dictionary of Australian Biography (1949)online edition
• Webby, Elizabeth. The Cambridge Companion to Australian Literature (2000) excerpt and text search
• Wilde, William H. et al eds. The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (1995) online at OUP excerpt and text search
• Samuels, Selina, ed. Australian Writers, 1915-50. (2002). 510 pp.
• Sayers, Andrew. Australian Art (2001) excerpt and text search
• Webby, Elizabeth, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Australian Literature (2006)
• Wannan, Bill. A Dictionary of Australian Folklore: Lore, Legends, Myths and Traditions (1988)

Notes

External links

• CountryBNS Website
• The big debate Down Under BBC news magazine
• AustralianBeers.com Discussion of aspects of Australian culture
• [3] Celebrating Australian Festival Culture with wwww.AustralianFestivals.com.au

Culture of Oceania Australasia Australia · Christmas Island · Cocos (Keeling) Islands · New Zealand1 · Norfolk Island Melanesia East Timor2 · Fiji · New Caledonia · Papua New Guinea3 · Solomon Islands · Vanuatu Micronesia Federated States of Micronesia · Guam · Kiribati · Marshall Islands · Nauru · Northern Mariana Islands · Palau Polynesia American Samoa · Cook Islands · French Polynesia · Hawaii · Niue · Pitcairn Islands · Samoa · Tokelau · Tonga · Tuvalu · Wallis and Futuna 1 Often included in Polynesia.  2 Often included in Southeast Asia.  3 Often included in Australasia.